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Debt Rattle October 23 2026

Oct 232026
 
 October 23, 2026  Posted by at 8:04 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  49 Responses »


Paul Cézanne Curtains 1885


• US Evacuating Middle East Bases As Trump Weighs New Iran Strikes – NBC (RT)
• Ilhan Omar Can’t Quite Rule Out Marrying Her Brother In Wild Interview (ZH)
• The Cost of an Ordinary Life: (Chris Queen)
• The Polls Are Full of Crap — and Black Voters Just Might Save America (Pinsker)
• Trump Will Stop the Steal in Midterm Elections – Dr. Jerome Corsi (USAW)
• Secretary Rubio Delivers Remarks from Mumbai, India (CTH)
• Putin, Xi and Trump Could Hold ‘Historic Summit’ – Kremlin (RT)
• French Police Identify Antifa as the Group Behind the Riots (Turley)
• European Regimes Renew Their Attacks on Free Speech (Ryan McMaken)
• EU Won’t Try To Steal Russian Assets Again – Belgium (RT)
• Disaster Is a Possibility (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Trump Still Serves Israel at the Expense of Republicans (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Kamala Just Revealed That She’s Running for President in 2028 (Margolis)
• Would Dostoevsky Have Appeared on RT? (RT)

 

 

“That’s America. Denial is America’s way of handling complexity.” https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2113028404635119836?s=20

 

 


“The Pentagon and State Department reportedly made similar preparations before launching the war against Iran in February..”

• US Evacuating Middle East Bases As Trump Weighs New Iran Strikes – NBC (RT)


A Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft

The US military has quietly begun withdrawing troops from bases across the Middle East, while Washington is ordering diplomatic personnel to leave several missions in the region, NBC News has reported.


The moves come as President Donald Trump considers launching a new wave of attacks on Iran, and the withdrawals resemble preparations made by the Pentagon and State Department ahead of the initial US-Israeli strikes in February, NBC reported on Wednesday, citing two American officials and two people familiar with the matter.

American troops stationed in Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait are among those being relocated, according to the report. Washington reportedly intends to maintain a limited presence at its regional bases, including personnel responsible for air defenses and security.

Ahead of the February 28 attack, the Pentagon withdrew large numbers of troops from potentially vulnerable bases to shield them from expected Iranian retaliation. Tehran accused Washington of using Gulf residents as “human shields” after thousands of American service members took shelter in civilian hotels and office buildings.

US Central Command spokesman Timothy Hawkins declined to discuss the reported troop movements, saying American forces were regularly repositioned to “optimize mission readiness” and remained prepared to defend US personnel and interests.

The State Department has also ordered non-essential personnel and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, citing escalating attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement against civilian airports and other critical infrastructure.

Reuters reported that Washington was preparing additional diplomatic withdrawals across the Gulf, citing US officials, but State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott described reports of further withdrawals as “inaccurate.”

The developments come amid reports that senior US military officials have presented Trump with options for renewed strikes against Iran. According to NBC, the proposals include attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, underground installations and strategic islands, including Kharg Island, a critical oil export hub, and Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz.

Some of Trump’s advisers, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, have reportedly advocated resuming military operations to increase pressure on Tehran. Others have warned against launching another major campaign without a clearly defined objective.

Hegseth made an unannounced visit to Israel on Monday, holding closed-door talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just days before Israel’s October 27 parliamentary elections. Netanyahu is seeking another term amid mounting criticism of his handling of the wars in Gaza and Iran, while Trump has publicly endorsed his reelection bid.

Trump pledged earlier this month that the US would not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections, while maintaining that military force remains an option if diplomatic efforts fail. Netanyahu has also ruled out launching new strikes before Israel’s election but declared on Sunday that Israel was prepared to attack Tehran even without American participation.

The US-Israeli war on Iran, launched on February 28, has entered its eighth month, disrupting global energy markets and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has offered to restore normal navigation through the vital waterway within seven days if Washington lifts its naval blockade, eases oil sanctions and agrees to a broader cessation of hostilities.

Trump has rejected the Iranian proposal as “unacceptable,” while his administration continues to consider whether additional military pressure could force Tehran to accept Washington’s terms.

Read more …

Still more of her..

• Ilhan Omar Can’t Quite Rule Out Marrying Her Brother In Wild Interview (ZH)

As the investigation into whether Ilhan Omar married her brother to scam US immigration, the Minnesota Democrat just stepped in it, big time.


In her first interview since Homeland Security Investigations agents searched her Washington home last week, the Minnesota Democrat sat down with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes, about as friendly a venue as exists on cable. She called the decade-old claim that her ex-husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is her brother “insane.” Then Hayes gave her the layup, asking whether there was some “weird kernel of truth” to it. Her answer was “Not to my knowledge.”

Regular readers will recall that earlier this week we flagged a report that federal investigators are using DNA to probe the “married her brother” claim. So the timing could have been better. The clip went everywhere within the hour:


In other words, the one question her own side’s friendliest interviewer was guaranteed to ask is the one she didn’t answer with a “no.” Below we walk through what she actually said, how fast the White House pounced, and why “not to my knowledge” is a strange hill to stand on with a federal grand jury in the background.

“Which Is Insane”
Omar claims the allegation started on a Somali blog and was picked up by “right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis”: “…they just kind of went and found random people who were like, ‘She introduced us. She introduced him to us and said he was her brother.’ Which is insane.”

HAYES: “He was not – you were not related to him at all? Not that there’s not some weird kernel of truth that through some-”

OMAR: “Not to my knowledge.”

The generous reading is that Hayes’s question was oddly phrased (a “kernel of truth” through “some” mechanism) and Omar was hedging against a hypothetical rather than admitting anything. The less generous reading is that when the stakes are denaturalization, people tend to choose their words very carefully. Make of that what you will. ”

That’s An Answer A Lot Of Us Assume”
It took the president about an hour and a half. After his South Carolina rally, Trump was asked about the clip, according to Townhall:


That’s an answer that a lot of us assume.” The rest of the online right was less restrained, and we will spare readers most of it.

Omar’s brother hasn’t made it easy on her. In a 2012 Instagram post after Ilhan’s daughter was born, her brother/husband posted “Nieces, fresh out of the vagina!”

About That Raid

The brother line overshadowed the rest of a fairly revealing interview. According to the New York Post, Omar said:
• Agents “went room by room” and “took 17 items,” including cellphones, her daughter’s old phone, her husband’s notebooks, a Somali phrase book and a camera.
• She disputed reports that investigators got her DNA in the search: “I would have seen if they did take anything that had contained DNA.”
• She called the search “intrusive but polite,” adding that agents “even folded some of my clothing that were not folded.” Service with a smile.
• Asked about the financial disclosure that once put her household’s net worth at about $30 million (later revised), she described herself as “working class” and living “paycheck to paycheck,” with a 2016 Toyota Camry and two rented homes.

She also said the people who searched her home “literally have” her late father’s naturalization papers, which is the crux of the case, since she says she became a citizen at 17 through him. That line got its own viral moment:


What The Feds Are Actually Probing
Per the Post, the immigration case is run out of the Minnesota US Attorney’s Office and may involve possible false statements about her birth date on immigration documents. A separate probe into her and her husband’s finances is being run out of the DC US Attorney’s Office. The Wall Street Journal reported more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to relatives. A source told the Post that if her citizenship was obtained through concealment or misrepresentation, by her or by her father, the administration will seek to denaturalize and deport her. Omar denies any wrongdoing: “I’m confident in my truth.”

Put differently, the “brother” question isn’t just tabloid fodder: if the 2009 marriage was a sham for immigration purposes, it goes to the heart of a fraud case, which is why “no” would have been the obvious answer to give.

Read more …

“Your Paycheck Should Buy More Than an Economic Lecture”

” If they had their way, the Democrats would hand the average family of four a $1,700 tax increase. That’s on top of the cost of everything that families need to live their lives.”

• The Cost of an Ordinary Life (Chris Queen)

I bought a truck in January. It’s a beautiful Ford Ranger XLT that’s fun and remarkably smooth to drive and has more bells and whistles than any vehicle I’ve ever had — honestly, it’s tech-heavy, almost to a fault.


But after a decade of driving a plug-in electric hybrid that averaged 51 miles per gallon, 22 miles per gallon was quite an adjustment. Then gas prices went up. Obviously, we can lay the blame for the current high gas prices on trouble with Iran, but we’re still reeling from four years of Biden-era policies that built their foundation on higher prices for not just gas but also for everything else.

“The 2021-2022 inflation spike, the worst in four decades, was the price level adjusting to a $5 trillion flood of deficit spending that investors did not believe future fiscal surpluses would cover,” columnist Veronique de Rugy reminds us. A 2022 report by Michael Faulkender that the America First Policy Institute published serves as a painful reminder today of the havoc Joe Biden and the Democrats wreaked upon this nation — and what awaits us if Democrats take the reins again:

As discussed in my recent testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, “When the economy reopened, prices started rising with inflation from June 2020 to February 2021, averaging 32 basis points per month. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law in March of 2021. Since then (through February 2022), monthly inflation has doubled to 64 basis points per month.” Inflation doubled following the enactment of the president’s socialist spending plan a full 10 months after the economy started reopening; that was not from COVID.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine occurred at the end of February 2022, but prices had already risen 7.9 percent in the twelve months ending in February 2022. Democrats want to undo the 2017 tax cuts that President Donald Trump ushered in during his first term and solidified with the One Big Beautiful Bill last year. If they had their way, the Democrats would hand the average family of four a $1,700 tax increase. That’s on top of the cost of everything that families need to live their lives.

The American people know what’s up. Recent polling shows that 88% of Americans surveyed favor the federal government letting them keep more of their money through increased domestic energy production and increased competition. Eighty-four percent believe that the federal government should cut spending, while 78% favor cutting taxes.

Energy prices, taxes, general inflation, overregulation, and government spending all show up in our household budgets. Our paychecks should buy more than an economic lecture, as high taxes, burdensome regulation, bloated government, and a lack of competition in the marketplace take more and more of our hard-earned money.

Affordability is a huge issue for millions of Americans, and in this midterm election, we need to choose legislators who will do what we need them to do to reverse this trend. We can’t afford to let Democrats put the cost of an ordinary life even further out of reach. That’s why this election matters, so don’t sit this one out.

Read more …

Is the Blue Wave a figment of your imagination?

• The Polls Are Full of Crap — and Black Voters Just Might Save America (Pinsker)

When you’re a two-ply man on a one-ply budget, life gets messy. You empathize with Lady Macbeth’s hands. Sure, you’re extra-careful. Maybe even methodical. (Everyone has their own technique.) But, alas, most of the time you still get [expletive] results.


Which is a perfect analogy for modern-day polling, because that entire industry is one-ply, too. Pollsters lack the budget to poll tens of thousands of people in million-plus communities, so they use guesswork, statistical projections, and sweeping assumptions about strangers.

Thirty years ago, when the internet was a novelty and everyone answered their landlines, cold calls had a very high success rate. Voters were willing (and often excited) to talk. A decade later, it took three calls to reach one respondent. And today? Check out this 2024 article from the Washington Post:

“[N]obody answers their phone anymore. Pew Research Center’s Courtney Kennedy is one of the nation’s most-cited polling methods experts. When she started in this business two decades ago, you had to call about three random numbers to get one to answer, a low response rate that already was sending tremors through the polling industry. By last year, Pew had to hit up about 140 random numbers to get that one response.”

Garbage in, garbage out. When only one out of 140 people is willing to participate, there’s just no way it’ll produce reliable results. Because you’ve filtered out the normies.

And instead, your data is top-heavy with lonely weirdos with nothing better to do than respond to political polls — often because they’re WAY more ideologically driven than the Average Joe. It’s probably why so many polls greatly exaggerated the strength of DSA candidates, projecting that Abdul El-Sayed would win the Democratic primary by 10 points (he won in a one-point squeaker) and Francesca Hong would win by 22 (she lost by half a point).

Assuming, of course, that the polls are real. Which isn’t always true. But the weirdest, strangest, most utterly inexplicable question of the 2026 midterm polling is this: Why are the Democrats overperforming in red states — and BADLY underperforming in blue states?

This is supposed to be a blue wave election. Donald Trump is supposed to be the most unpopular president since Harry Truman. There have been countless news stories about the Democrats pulling jaw-dropping upsets in ruby-red states like Texas, Mississippi, Iowa, South Carolina, Montana, Kansas, and more.

Yet in blue states like Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, and New Hampshire, the Republican Senate candidates are all within striking distance — which is more consistent with a RED WAVE election! Possible explanations: Candidate quality (or lack thereof) is the real story. Maybe the Democrats are overperforming in South Carolina because the Republican Senate candidate is unusually weak — and maybe the Republicans are overperforming in Michigan for a similar reason.

I’m sure it’s a factor. Quality matters. When voters can choose between sane and Cypress Hill, they usually side with sane. And it’s also true that each state is unique. Maine voters are more concerned about the Canadian border; Texans care more about Mexico’s. Somali fraud is a huge issue in Minnesota; less so in Kansas. What plays in Peoria might bomb in Biloxi.

Perhaps drawing national conclusions from state-specific elections is a fool’s errand. But I doubt it. Because millions of Americans will be voting in every state. (More than 14 million already have.) The two national political parties are battling for control of Capitol Hill — and the contrast between the two has never been more glaring.

To paraphrase Barry Goldwater, this isn’t an “echo” election. It’s a “choice” election. And it’s a helluva choice: MAGA versus the DSA. The battle lines are crystal clear. Furthermore, the biggest issues of the 2026 midterms are all national issues: affordability, inflation, gas prices, AI/data centers, immigration, the Iran War, Israel/Gaza, trans, and (of course) President Trump. Because the sitting president is ALWAYS on the ballot in midterm elections.

If this isn’t a national election, I don’t know what is! We all know about the historic headwinds: The party in power almost always takes it on the chin. That should be twice as true for a president with the lowest approval ratings since Harry Truman. So if these numbers are right, the Democrats ought to be dominating.

Yet that’s simply not happening in blue states. DSA-aligned candidates are struggling. There’s a very real risk the Dems will LOSE Senate seats in Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire! And even though Kamala Harris won Maine by seven points, Republican incumbent Susan Collins is still within the margin of error against her left-wing opponent. Something is undermining their coalition.

It’s a group that was once loyal, but is now wandering in the wilderness. A group that’s bleeding Democratic support — because the party is no longer their home. Which is making mincemeat of polling predictions and predictive models: These voters aren’t behaving like WE think they’re supposed to!

I’m talking about black voters. Sixteen years ago, black people voted 95% Democrat. By 2020, 77% of black adults identified as Democrats. And in 2023, the number fell to just 66%. From Axios: “A generational and structural shift is decoupling Black identity from Democratic Party loyalty, transforming a once-reliable voting bloc into a cohort of “political free agents” that the GOP is uniquely positioned to exploit.”

[…]

By the numbers: Republican identification among Black Americans climbed into the mid-to-high teens in recent Gallup data. Trump surged to an average near 20% approval among Black voters in the first quarter of 2025, nearly double his approval at the same point in his first term, according to Gallup. That was driven largely by Black men and those moving toward Republican affiliation.

Also relevant is religious affiliation: 73% of black people are Christian, compared to 62% of white people. Black people are also more likely than white people to attend church and engage in “religious practices.” Just 39% of white people called the Bible “very important” — compared to 70% of black people. Black Americans are (roughly) twice as likely to read the Bible daily and pray daily.

Which might be why black voters are rejecting the anti-Christian, pro-Islam positioning of the DSA. If Abdul El-Sayed had 2008-level black support, he’d win Michigan’s Senate seat in a cakewalk. The Republicans wouldn’t have a chance. This election would already be over. But in the Michigan primary, black voters rejected El-Sayed, voting en masse for his (white) opponent, Haley Stevens.

From The Hill:
[Haley Stevens] led El-Sayed by 8 percentage points in districts where more than 15 percent of the population is Black. Polling in July showed that just 21 percent of Black voters backed El-Sayed while 67 percent supported the House Democrat. A Michigan Education Survey also showed El-Sayed struggling with Black voters. Stevens notched 69 percent from the bloc; El-Sayed garnered 37 percent support. Stevens made no secret of her support for Israel. That’s probably one of the reasons why she did so well with black voters.

From Fox News:
[A]ccording to the Fox News poll, African Americans were the racial group most likely to say the U.S. isn’t supportive enough of Israel when asked the question along with White and Hispanic voters. That number was 25% compared with 19% for Hispanic voters and 15% for White voters. African American voters were also the least likely of the three groups to agree that America was too supportive of Israel, with 40% disagreeing as compared to White voters at 44% and Hispanic voters at 56%.

Read more …

Lrt’s see if he can.

• Trump Will Stop the Steal in Midterm Elections – Dr. Jerome Corsi (USAW)

With less than two weeks away from the midterm elections, President Trump is making plans to stop Democrat voter fraud. Dr. Jerome Corsi, who has a Harvard PhD in political science, has been on the cutting edge of enforcing election integrity for at least two years. It all comes down to presidential power to stop the cheating. Dr. Corsi says, “President Trump certainly has the power to do it, and he’s well aware of it. So, I think the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and President Trump are monitoring the situation very carefully.


They will have plans to handle various contingencies, I am sure. I cannot imagine President Trump is going to allow the election to be stolen. What is at stake is extremely important. It looks to me like the Democrats are not gaining favor with the American people. This is the whole purpose of my new book called ‘Dumb-O-Crats.’ It’s free this and free that and free everything else . . .. There is no way for a society to have everything to be free. The lies seduce people into thinking this is going to be a utopia, and it’s just the cloak behind the totalitarianism that comes.”

Dr. Corsi says to expect some violence coming from the left before and after the midterms. This recent headline says it all, and reads: “Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison Suggests Trump Will Try to Steal Midterms, Tells Leftists to be Ready to ‘Take the Streets.’” Dr. Corsi says, “In regards to what Ellison said, there is a lot of signaling coming out that the Democrat Socialists of America, the Marxist leftists and jihadists that have taken over the Democrat Party are planning a ‘colour revolution’ after the election. In other words, they want to get out in the streets, and they want to cause chaos. They think they can have the insurrection we are seeing in France. This is being signaled pretty strongly right now.”

Dr Corsi says, “We now have a data base that can track every registered voter in the United States and every mail-in ballot in the United States. . .. We can run this by 25 different indices such as tax records, post office moving records to really know who these people are. The data base even permits you to click through to Google maps to see property from which the person registered. We know the cheating has been going on. . .. There are. . . millions of illegal votes being cast.”

Another wild card is traditional Democrats who are not going along with the Marxists and Muslims who have taken over the Democrat Party. There are indications they may not show up on election day or vote Republican as one story recently reported in Michigan. No matter what, expect a wild ride unlike any other midterm election ever. Dr. Corsi warns, “This is not going to end on election day. The steal is going to be attempted. The consequences remain, and the data is available. So, we are just getting into this, and this is just the beginning to a great awakening to the threat to our election integrity. We do need to take exceptional measures to make sure the problem does not continue.”


Read more …

Did Musk and Trump discuss Kiev’s Starlink?

I’m sure they did.

It puts the US inside the war. It shouldn’t be.

How can you talk peace with Putin if you support Kiev?

• Secretary Rubio Delivers Remarks from Mumbai, India (CTH)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers remarks to the media from Mumbai, India. During the remarks Secretary Rubio answers questions about Starlink, Starshield, Elon Musk, Steve Witkoff, Ukraine negotiations, Russia, Iran, India and current geopolitical events. The video and transcript are below:



QUESTION: Sir, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk is the one who made the decision to throttle Starshield and catch Ukraine off-guard. Is this something you were aware of? Can you —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Starlink.

QUESTION: Starlink and Starshield.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Okay, again, there’s this – all this confusion. These are two separate programs, okay? Starlink is a commercial – Starlink is the receivers you put on the roof of your house and you use for – it’s used for commercial purposes. It’s not a military system, although it could be used in order to guide drones and things of this nature and so forth. And then Starshield is different. It’s a unique defense product that is sold and operated through the Department of War, as an example. It’s two different items and it’s important to distinguish one from the other.

I have not seen The Wall Street Journal reporting because I have not read it. I know that what – so I’m not familiar with the story that you’re referring to. But Starlink is a private company. They have a contract. They have contractual terms upon how that technology can be used. The important point is we cannot direct a private company as to the decisions they make or not make. What I can tell you with certainty is the President of the United States nor anyone in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made, and that’s what we said repeatedly. I don’t know what the story reflects, but that is the case.

QUESTION: Isn’t – even if it’s a private company, I mean, this obviously is vital national security infrastructure for Ukraine. Isn’t this something that the U.S. – you as National Security Advisor – should have been given a heads-up on before?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, again, I’m not going to comment on what we knew that they might or might not do. Suffice it to say that the reporting out there was that somehow the United States Government was denying them something they needed in order to defend their country. That’s not true. That’s not accurate. And for leaders in Ukraine to continue to represent that is also not accurate.

I would also say – and again, I hark back on this statement that was made a few days ago. I don’t know who this official was in the Ukrainian Government that went around saying that a bunch of people had died as a result of what America was denying them. Not only are we not denying them and it’s not true, how many millions of people have been saved because of what America has already provided? No country in the world has done more to help Ukraine over the last four and a half years than the United States, including under the Trump Administration, and that continues to be the case. But ultimately, what the President wants here is an end to this war. That’s what he’s focused on.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, regarding the system in question, you said it’s inaccurate to say that the administration told SpaceX to throttle this service, but you’re not ruling out that the U.S. Government, if I understand correctly, knew about this decision.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we’ve seen the public reporting on it. We’ve seen the Ukrainians reporting that they were no longer able to use basically the internet.

QUESTION: Knew about this decision beforehand.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I’m not aware that we knew about this decision beforehand. I certainly – but it’s irrelevant. The bottom line is that that is – that is governed by a private commercial contract as to the – how their stuff can be used and what speeds they allow it to be used at. And so we’ll continue to engage on the matter, but the reporting initially was that somehow this was part of a directive from the United States Government, and I’m just here to tell you, as I’ve said repeatedly from the very beginning and the President has made clear, at no point did he say deny them the use of this system because I’m trying to punish them or teach them a lesson. That’s just not accurate, and that’s what I’ve been addressing repeatedly.

QUESTION: But it doesn’t mean there was no foreknowledge.

SECRETARY RUBIO: What do you mean, it doesn’t mean there’s no foreknowledge? I don’t understand your question.

QUESTION: Well, just because – just because the President – you’re not – just because the President doesn’t tell Musk do this doesn’t mean it wasn’t discussed.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I – again, I don’t – the President has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk. That’s a private company. The President doesn’t run that company and can’t direct that company to do anything. I’m not aware of any foreknowledge, nor anyone – but again, the reporting was not about foreknowledge. I’m telling you there was no foreknowledge, but beyond it, even if there was, we don’t control what a private company – how they decide their product can be used.

Now, if they’re in a contract with the United States military, like Starshield, that’s a different matter, because that’s something we are purchasing and using for our use. But in the case of Starlink – we’re arguing something that’s just – it just makes no sense, the argument that people continue to make that somehow we had foreknowledge or directed it. It’s not accurate that we somehow knew about this ahead of time or directed it in any way. [..]

Read more …

“The three leaders could meet next month at APEC summit in China, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov has said..”

• Putin, Xi and Trump Could Hold ‘Historic Summit’ – Kremlin (RT)


Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump could hold a “historic” three-way meeting at the APEC summit in China, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is scheduled to take place in Shenzhen, China, on November 18-19.


Speaking to the Russian outlet Vesti on Wednesday, Ushakov said Beijing had already begun preparations for the potential talks. “Everyone is ready for this, but much, if not everything, depends on the Chinese hosts of the summit,” he said. The possibility of three-way talks was also discussed during Putin’s meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, according to the Kremlin.

Ushakov described the proposed gathering as potentially “historic,” noting that it would be the first meeting of the three leaders in this format. Putin and Trump last met in person at a summit in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025, and have remained in contact by phone, most recently on October 9.

Putin and Xi have also held regular talks, including on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek in August. The two previously met in Beijing in May during Putin’s state visit. Trump and Xi have met twice so far this year, first in Beijing in May and then at the White House last month.Trump has previously expressed openness to three-way talks, suggesting that nuclear disarmament could be among the issues discussed.

Asked whether the talks could also contribute to peace efforts in the Ukraine conflict, Ushakov said a single meeting would not be enough. “Even if the meeting lasts one, two or five hours, it still won’t be possible to resolve all the problems,” he said.

Commenting on whether the summit could amount to a “new Yalta,” Ushakov said: “I think that if the meeting takes place, there will be a storm of comments and assessments.” The 1945 Yalta Conference brought together Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss the final stages of World War II and the postwar international order.

Read more …

“Despite Democratic Denials..”

The Dems still deny Antifa exists. It’s easier that way.

• French Police Identify Antifa as the Group Behind the Riots (Turley)

Years ago, I called Antifa the Keyser Söze of the left, after the character in “The Usual Suspects.” In the film, the character Virgil explains how Söze stayed in the shadows: he became “a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night.” The strategy was too simple: “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.”


Democratic leaders have long fostered the myth around Antifa, the largest and most violent group on the political left. For years, they have denied the existence of the group even as members were charged with crimes (including terrorism). Now, the French authorities have found that the nonexistent group is the largest of three “ideologically distinct groups” responsible for the violence in France. It appears that either the entire French security system is delusional or the trick is up for the American left.

I have testified before Congress about Antifa, run columns on the organization for over a decade, and written a book discussing Antifa. Yet, Democratic members continued to insist that there is no such group, while other leading Democrats have praised Antifa for instilling fear in MAGA. It was a curious claim even then, when other Democratic leaders were actively pandering to the violent group.

Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison — now the Minnesota attorney general — proclaimed that Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. His own son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer. However, Democratic leaders and pundits have repeated the mantra that there is no such group despite political violence on the left spreading across the country.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) dared anyone to name a single member of Antifa despite the charging of Antifa members with various serious crimes. Former House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) was widely ridiculed for denying the existence of Antifa. Others on the left have joined Goldman in this absurd claim. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel devoted part of his monologue to assuring viewers that Antifa is no more than a mythical “chupacabra.” “You understand there is no Antifa,” he said. “This is an entirely made-up organization.”

The denials continued even as FBI Director Christopher Wray debunked deniers like Goldman. “Antifa is a real thing.” European countries have banned Antifa Internet sites due to their criminal conduct while Antifa candidates have been elected to office as members of the group.

Now, French authorities identified Antifa as the largest of three “ideologically distinct groups” responsible for the violence in France. The French Justice Minister also banned far-left politicians for fueling the rage. A previously banned Antifa group has been linked to one murder in France. Antifa and communist flags have been prominent in the protests. A Belgian minister also blamed Antifa for the spread of the violence.

It appears that Keyser Söze is in the open, but Democrats maintain the FBI, Justice Department, and various countries are simply delusional. The problem is when the myth becomes reality. Left-wing pundits and politicians are caught in this denial web where they have to maintain the absurd idea that Antifa is just an idea.

Some of us have been writing about Antifa for years after watching them intimidate and threaten faculty and students on campuses. One such student came from my campus and proclaimed that Antifa was winning after his arrest for property destruction. When another radical was arrested after taking an axe to a congressional office, he self-identified as a member of Antifa.

Before Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, implanted an IED device outside of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office in downtown Montgomery, he put up stickers reading “support your local Antifa.” Numerous Antifa members have been arrested, including some who claimed to be journalists. Many protesters belong to Antifa groups that have names like “Rose City Antifa” and offshoots like Love and Rage and Mexico’s Amor Y Rabia. Antifa members have been elected to the French and European parliaments.

Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” called by some the “Antifa bible,” explains that the group is united in its opposition to free speech. “Most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists,” he writes. “From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.” Yet, Democratic leaders seemed to be adopting the 1967 ‘Guide for the Married Man’ when caught with Antifa allies or associations:

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”Don’t anyone come to me with free speech!“

“Both see a grave danger to the ruling class posed by the ability of unvetted or anonymous users to post opinions freely.”

• European Regimes Renew Their Attacks on Free Speech (Ryan McMaken)

In recent weeks, German and French politicians have denounced free speech, and especially the concept of “freedom of speech” as long envisioned in the libertarian tradition of natural rights. French President Emmanuel Macron on September 29 stated that ”The so-called American ‘free speech’ today, which some people have promoted, is the opposite of free speech.” Macron compared speaking freely as comparable to walking down the street assaulting other people.


A week earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared, ”Don’t anyone come to me with free speech!“ He asserted we must “still be able to protect citizens from false information.” Both were speaking on issues related to online speech through social media and similar platforms. Both see a grave danger to the ruling class posed by the ability of unvetted or anonymous users to post opinions freely. In both cases, these attacks on freedom have been in the context of European regimes’ repeated efforts to impose new regulations on social media platforms to limit speech.

This has been going on for several years. For example, back in February, Macron stated that “free speech is pure bullshit.” In Europe, the anonymity issue is no minor affair. In Germany, there are literal speech police who will arrest ordinary citizens merely for saying things online or reposting memes. It’s easy to see why anonymity could be an essential tool in posting ideas and facts the regime doesn’t like.

A European regime insisting on abolishing online anonymity is essentially tantamount to announcing that these regimes want the ability to make more arrests for wrongspeech.This is a growing problem across Europe, and a 2025 study concluded that British police were making 30 arrests per day for non-violent “offensive online messages.” Under British law, one can be prosecuted for hurting someone else’s feelings. That’s not how British apologists describe it, of course, but that is the essential reality.

Euphemisms for Censorship
Whether we’re talking about France, the UK, or Germany—all places where the despotic enemies of free expression have seemingly free rein—the regimes’ forces do not, of course, come right out and say that they support censorship. They couch their censorship in the soft language of Leftwing ideology. The claim is that speech must be regulated in order to combat “hate speech” or to reflect the “common good” or to combat “disinformation.”

To wit, in recent years, European politicians have insisted that speech be made to fit into “a common framework”—to use Macron’s phrasing—and to be subject to some standard determining what is “false information.” But here is the rub: Who is to determine what falls within this common framework? Who is to determine what constitutes “false information”? It is the ruling oligarchy and its political allies, of course, that will determine if some proposed fact or idea is to be allowed to be spoken freely.

The ruling elites will decide if some sentiment or phrase is to be defined as “hate speech” and thus will be punished by state police and regime jailers. The ruling elites will determine what is “science,” and therefore what constitutes “disinformation.” This was on full display in the United States during the Covid Panic, when the government bureaucrat Anthony Fauci effectively declared “I am the science.” It is through these state-created and reasonable-sounding “exceptions” to free speech that the regime smuggles in its despotism.

For example, this has been the case for many years with defamation laws. Those who defend legal sanctions for “defamation” essentially advocate for government censorship to combat hurt feelings. Moreover, for centuries, governments have used defamation laws as a means of punishing criticism of the regime. Laws against “seditious libel”—employed by absolutist kings of old—have always essentially been laws against free speech.

An Assault on Truth Itself
The individuals who are directly punished will not be the only victims of this censorship. Truth and critical thinking themselves will be the victims as the regime’s subjects will no longer be allowed to fully and publicly examine the veracity of claims made by the ruling elites. It means that “truth” will be whatever the regime says it is.

This problem of using free speech to hide and distort reality itself was well described more than 100 years ago by the radical free-market libertarian Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto was no naive democrat who thought that freedom could necessarily be protected by elections or written constitutions. But he did understand that freedom of speech is at the very foundation of a free society, regardless of the type of regime or whatever other freedoms might be protected in writing.

Even as Pareto was facing the rise of violent radical socialists in Italy—and thoroughly doubted the ability of the liberal state to deal with it—he never wavered on the key importance of free speech. That is, Pareto remained a dogmatic hardliner on free speech, and in this was like nearly all libertarians before him, from the anarcho-capitalist Molinari to the American Revolutionaries.

Not surprisingly, then, Pareto concludes there were no “mitigating factors” that could legitimately limit speech in the name of some common good. Writing in 1916 he stated:

“[B]efore a theory can be considered true, it is virtually indispensable that there be perfect freedom to impugn it. Any limitation, even indirect and however remote, imposed on anyone choosing to contradict it is enough to cast suspicion upon it.” Hence freedom to express one’s thought, even counter to the opinion of the majority or of all, even when it offends the sentiments of the few or of the many, even when it is generally reputed absurd or criminal, always proves favourable to the discovery of objective truth (accord of theory with fact). …

Pareto goes on to insist that there can be no exceptions, even for the sake of protecting “truths” long held to be precious. Not even those assertions said to be essential to humanitarianism can be considered protected from the scrutiny of free speech. He continues:

“Nor can an exception be made for humanitarian dogmas, nor for the dogmas of the sex religion so dear to Senator Berenger and other geniuses of the same magnitude.1 Let us keep the point strictly before us: There is no scientific liberty unless everything is open to doubt — even Euclid’s geometry and three-dimensional space. It is ridiculous to say that one is disposed to grant liberty for “truth” but not liberty for “error”; for the point at issue is none other than to discover where the “truth” lies and where the “error”; and it cannot be settled if “error” cannot be defended by every possible reason that can be advanced in its favour.2 Only after such reasons have been validly refuted is judgment of error affirmed — pending further investigation. Many people fail to understand that, because in judging of truth or error they substitute a criterion of sentiment for the logico-experimental criterion.”

Clearly, the fact that free speech is now so under siege in Europe is simply the latest evidence of how far out of favor old historical liberalism has become in Europe. Every year, Europe more enthusiastically embraces its worst tendencies in which human rights are repeatedly jettisoned to protect the “rights” of those who rule over the continent. Yet, the antipathy toward free speech also demonstrates the weakness of the European regimes and their political programs. Were the German, French, and British states not so hampered by political division, economic decline, and public dissatisfaction, they would not be so fearful.

Americans have no yet traveled so far down this road. But the foundation is already being built. Republicans support laws deeming all criticism of a certain foreign government to be “anti-semitism” and therefore “hate speech.” Covid laid bare the American Left’s enthusiasm for anti-speech tyranny. All that is necessary for the First Amendment to be wiped away is for a handful of federal judges to agree with the enemies of freedom. There is no guarantee.

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“Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has blocked an EU proposal to confiscate Russian sovereign assets to fund Ukraine.”

They finally listen to the lawyers.

• EU Won’t Try To Steal Russian Assets Again – Belgium (RT)

The European Commission will not revive a proposal to seize Russian sovereign assets immobilized at the Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear to finance Ukraine, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has said.


Approximately €210 billion ($236 billion) in Russian central bank assets have been frozen in the EU, most of them held at Euroclear. Brussels has been using profits generated by the funds to support Ukraine through a so-called “windfall tax,” but has stopped short of confiscating the principal over concerns about the legal consequences. De Wever has repeatedly raised those risks at meetings of EU leaders.

“One colleague came to tell me in the hallway that it was as if I had run a flamethrower over that debate,” the prime minister told Belgian lawmakers on Wednesday, according to local media, referring to discussions last year. De Wever was briefing the Belgian parliament on the meeting. De Wever said he was certain the European Commission would not reopen the debate, although he could not guarantee that individual member states would refrain from doing so.

“Not everyone experienced the discussion,” he said. “New leaders have emerged who are developing a discourse that I was able to nip in the bud last year.” The proposal that De Wever considers a nonstarter nevertheless received support in various forms from Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, among others, during last week’s European Council summit.

EU leaders previously considered using approximately €185 billion ($208 billion) in Russian sovereign assets held in Belgium to finance Kiev. After De Wever demanded collective guarantees against potential financial and legal consequences, they instead agreed last December to raise €90 billion ($101 billion) through EU borrowing. European officials claim that the Russian assets could be used to repay the loan. Moscow has denounced both the windfall tax and the proposed confiscation of Russian money as theft.

Kiev has deemed the foreign financing available for 2026-2027 insufficient, with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky requesting an additional €70 billion ($79 billion) last week. The EU has made no new funding commitment and reportedly plans to seek further contributions from other potential donors, particularly the UK and Canada.

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PCR won’t budge.

• Disaster Is a Possibility (Paul Craig Roberts)

In 13 days Americans will vote on the midterm Congressional elections. The outcome will determine whether the Democrats control Congress, or enough of it, that Trump’s presidency is at an end.


Even some MAGA Americans are indifferent, because Trump, rather than end money-draining wars, expanded them by attacking “at Israel’s request,” Iran, which has proven to be a strategic disaster for the United States, with its bases in the Persian Gulf destroyed and oil flows restricted by victorious Iran.

As I previously reported, Trump, misguided by his ego and Zionist neoconservative advisers, refused Iran’s offer on a silver platter to reelect a Republican Congress by opening the Strait in exchange for Trump disassociating from Israel’s war against Iran and accepting Iran’s right to control its own waterways.

Trump’s strategic error is perhaps unique in human history, but he has surrounded himself with Zionists, so little else could be expected than Trump’s erroneous decision.

Trump and his incompetent regime have tried to control the narrative with false claims that the United States Navy controls the Strait of Hormuz and 20,000,000 barrels of oil are moving through the Strait each day. Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury actually told this lie with a straight face to the prostitute media. And so did the US Central Commend.

The effect of this narrative, as Wall Street always responds to the optimistic note, has been to hold down the future price of oil based on expectations that the situation is being resolved. But it is not. It seems that there is also false optimism on the Russian/Ukrainian front. John Helmer reports a poll of Russian voters taken at the end of September and made available on October 6. The poll found that 81% of Russians would support a Putin decision to stop the war with Ukraine.

If stopping the war required returning Donbas and Crimea to Ukraine, 35% would support that. The poll found that this percentage has increased by 7 percentage points over the past 18 months whereas the 51% who would oppose ending the war if it meant returning the Russian territories to Ukraine has fallen by 13 percentage points since he beginning of last year.

It appears that the drone and missile attacks on Russia have divided Russians and goes against the military and Russian nationalists, thereby offering a wedge for Zelensky and the Europeans to exploit. My conclusion: Putin has created a problem for himself by refusing to win an easy war.

Difficulties arise when false narratives are created in order to avoid dealing with real problems. Disaster is a likely consequence.

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“.. Trump Continues to Serve Israel at the Expense of Republicans in the Midterm Elections..”

At least ever since the Holocaust, there is a strong connection between US and Israel. Whoever is president.

Claiming that Trump is now Bibi’s running boy must be seen in the light of that.

• Trump Still Serves Israel at the Expense of Republicans (Paul Craig Roberts)

“We must complete the elimination of the Iranian regime – that is the main thing. I have discussed this with President Trump more than once, including the day before yesterday.” — Netanyahu


The Zionist agenda of Greater Israel marches on. Netanyahu says Hezbollah’s fall will follow Iran’s as the Middle East is cleared of Muslims. The Lebanese government is negotiating with Israel the sellout of the Hezbollah militia while Muslims continue to war against one another with Egypt offering to help Saudi Arabia with the fight against the Houthis in Yemen.

Iran calls for Muslim unity, something last seen under Saladin in the 12th century. Until the world understands and deals with the Zionist neoconservative US doctrine of hegemony and the Zionist Israeli hegemonic doctrine of Greater Israel, there can be no peace.

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They have no-one. And they face a man with a very loyal following.

• Kamala Just Revealed That She’s Running for President in 2028 (Margolis)

Kamala Harris insists she hasn’t decided whether she’s running for president in 2028, but she accidentally gave the game away.


Obviously, nobody in the Democrat Party is exactly begging her to jump in. The establishment has been pushing back hard on the idea of a third Kamala campaign. Former allies and donors grumble that she squandered her first year out of office, and they can’t come up with a single reason voters should take another look at her. Even her husband, Doug Emhoff, reportedly isn’t thrilled about her running again.

You’d think all that would give her pause. Instead, Kamala keeps dropping hints, and her latest one came at an event in Las Vegas, where she debuted a slower, lower-pitched speaking style. It’s the newest entry in her long record of changing her voice and speech cadence depending on who’s sitting in the audience.

“That era of feeling powerless — like what can we do, this just keeps happening — that era is over because we are now 13 days away from doing something about it to stop the pain,” Kamala said, speaking slowly and in a lower register, as if to a room of sleepy kindergarteners. She kept up the same condescending tone while urging Nevada voters to back Democrats in the state’s governor’s race and for Congress.

“So that’s where we are right now, and that’s kind of exciting,” she continued. “Right? This is some good stuff. Like, we’re taking our power, we’re using it, to determine who will hold offices like being the governor of Nevada. Which is so important for the people everyday on the most basic issues that affect our lives. Who will continue to walk those halls of Congress, being an extraordinary fighter.”


This new tone she’s adopting fits how Democrats see voters: as children they need to control. You don’t talk to grown adults that way unless you think they need a nap and a juice box before they can handle a ballot.

Let’s be fair: Kamala didn’t invent the fake accent. Hillary Clinton infamously slipped into a Southern drawl while campaigning in the South during the 2008 presidential primaries. Barack Obama was known for adjusting his dialect for different crowds during that same campaign. And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has been pulling the same trick for years. It’s phony and desperate, every single time.

The motive here isn’t complicated. Politicians who put on fake accents want voters to feel they share something with them. When a Democrat suddenly picks up a Southern drawl, leans into black vernacular, or shifts her cadence to match the crowd, it’s not random or subconscious; it’s a calculated move. The candidate is trying to manufacture cultural familiarity, hoping voters will see her as one of their own. It’s just shameless pandering from a candidate who wants to convey “I’m just like you” without saying the words.

And Kamala wouldn’t bother with any of this if she weren’t planning to run for president. Nobody road-tests a new voice for a midterm rally out of civic duty. You do it because you’re auditioning for something bigger. So she can keep saying she hasn’t made up her mind. Kamala just told us she’s running for president.

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Dostoevsky is the level of Shakespeare.

“A British literary editor has suggested that the Russian novelist would appear on RT today. We imagined what he might have to say about the modern West ..”

• Would Dostoevsky Have Appeared on RT? (RT)

Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great 19th century Russian author of ‘Crime and Punishment’, the ‘Idiot’, and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, was a counterintuitive thinker who could have appeared on RT. That’s the opinion of Times literary supplement editor Martin Ivens who, in a piece for Bloomberg arguing against censorship of Irish author Sally Rooney in the UK, mentioned the Russian great.


The suggestion is not without merit. Dostoevsky knew persecution, famously spending ten years in Siberia, four of which were in captivity and another five in military exile having completed his initial present sentence in February 1854.

Rooney is a best-selling author who has publicly taken a stand to back Palestine Action, a group whom it is illegal to support, and about whom it is illegal to make public gestures of support in the UK. British police have made hundreds of bizarre arrests of elderly protesters holding signs supporting the group. Her books have been banned in Britain.

Ivens has used his platform in the Times Literary Supplement to highlight how Russian writers often assume the status of prophets. In his Bloomberg piece he reaffirmed that censoring literature is counter-productive and only serves to feed resentment against the mainstream already in the body politic.


Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)

However, his suggestion that Dostoevsky could appear on RT inspired us to inquire as to what topics the great man might hold forth on in 2026.

On Europe
Like many since, Dostoevsky viewed Western Europe with a complex mix of cultural admiration and affinity, moral revulsion, and spiritual anxiety. His experience in captivity – where he was subject to a mock execution – is said to have destroyed his faith in secular humanism. He argued that discarding God led to a moral chaos where “everything is permitted.”

“Conscience without God is a terrible thing; it can stray into the depths of immorality” He also predicted that attempts to build a so-called paradise on earth through rationalism and secularism alone would inevitably lead to political tyranny.

On the EU’s crisis
Dostoevsky would likely and emphatically make the case that Western European leaders have by now displayed a total political bankruptcy and that Western Europeans should renounce materialism and seek meaningful social relations. The riots engulfing major European capitals, and the unfettered profiteering and immigration that have given rise to such tensions, are a symptom of the malaise of the Western European mind. Forcing humanity into rationalist conformity will only lead to extreme bloodshed, he claimed.

“Starting from unlimited freedom, I arrive at unlimited despotism”

On liberalism
Dostoevsky, would have undoubtedly lamented the emergence of the European Union as a bureaucratic bearer of so-called liberal values. He would have highlighted how his book ‘Demons’ predicted the so-called democratic deficit that characterizes the EU – a tiny, largely unelected bureaucratic elite unreachable to the regular population who are stripped of freedoms. He would have called the Covid-19 pandemic a brutal event in the restriction of human experience.

Abandoning God and zealously attempting to replace spiritual authority with a moral relativism where everything is permitted will only lead to social and spiritual collapse, Dostoevsky believed. He would have stoutly defended the emphasis and respect for traditional values in popular Russian culture. “The Westernizers have placed themselves above the people as a paternalistic intelligentsia, rejecting the people”

He also enjoyed the mess, and this is where he probably would’ve got into trouble with Brussels. The EU notoriously wishes to regulate everything, where Dostoevsky emphasized the irrational and fundamentally spiritual nature of human beings.

On techno-fetishism
He foresaw the loss of grace in the world and its replacement by either authoritarian Catholicism, rational individualistic Protestantism, or indeed technological fetishism. Artificial intelligence in this respect may have represented the apotheosis of his foreboding.

Similarly, Dostoevsky rejected the idea that humans could be rendered calculable and rational beings in their entirety and in that sense would undoubtedly have been horrified at the creeping legislation and legalization of everyday life.

“Human nature acts as a whole, with everything it possesses, consciously and unconsciously”

The European Union’s Digital Services Act, which allows the behemoth to interfere in the local elections of member countries, would represent such a bureaucratic and legalistic invasion. He would’ve taken a strong stand against the nullification of anti-systemic narratives but would also have emphasized that such political and authority and overreach was inevitable given the collapse of religion and morality.

Dostoevsky would have been as much energized as he would have been horrified by developments in 2026. Were he to be with us today it’s highly likely his voice would contribute to the choir of outspoken and brave commentators who make the channel what it is.

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https://twitter.com/APompliano/status/2112949129416753617?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 22 2026

Oct 222026
 
 October 22, 2026  Posted by at 8:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  42 Responses »


Salvador Dali Madrid. Drunk man 1922


• Elon Musk Will Have His Revenge on Democrats, and I Can’t Wait (Matt Margolis)
• EU’s Kallas Lashes Out At US Over Ukraine Peace Efforts (RT)
• Russia Willing To Resume Trilateral Talks With Ukraine (ZH)
• Trump’s Trade-Off That Could Freeze The Ukraine War (Andrew Korybko)
• French Govt To Send Soldiers To The Streets After Admitting Failures (ZH)
• Ilhan Omar Is Begging Supporters for Cash As Deportation Looms (Margolis)
• Feds Using DNA To Probe Ilhan Omar ‘Married Her Brother’ Claim (ZH)
• Trump Criticizes Ilhan Omar As A ‘Sick, Very Dishonest Person’ (JTN)
• The Democrats’ Hope for a ‘Secret Weapon’ for the Midterms: Iran (Moran)
• Vivek Ramaswamy Risks Everything on the ‘Mom’ Ad. Will It Work? (Pinsker)
• A Pollster Just Admitted Faking Its Numbers, and The Fallout Is Huge! (Matt Margolis)
• Alberta Decision To Stay In Canada Gives Carney Backing To Take On Trump (BBC)
• About Starshield, SpaceX’s Military-Grade Satellite Service (New York Times)
• Why Is Elon Musk Plotting A Mega-Merger of SpaceX and Tesla? (BBC)

 

 

 

 


US politics has become pure poison. People can’t react normally to Trump.

Musk still believes in the US.

• Elon Musk Will Have His Revenge on Democrats, and I Can’t Wait (Matt Margolis)

Democrats are plotting to weaponize the federal government against Elon Musk if they win back the House or Senate next month. Musk has his own revenge planned, and he just put them on notice.


According to a Politico report published Tuesday, senior Democrats have assembled a sprawling list of congressional investigations targeting Musk and his businesses, and the list keeps growing. Musk is the world’s richest man and the GOP’s biggest donor, and that second detail is the only reason Democrats are going after him. Several committees are already weighing how to target him and his companies.

This is a huge deal. Democrats haven’t won anything yet, and they’re already drawing up an enemies list. We knew they were going to go after Trump with another never-ending quest to find something they can claim is a crime so they can put the country through another bogus impeachment. But this is even worse, if that’s even possible. They aren’t campaigning on lower prices, safer streets, or a secure border. Their pitch to voters boils down to handing them subpoena power so they can punish a private citizen who supports Trump and the GOP.

Musk answered on X.


Read between the lines, and it’s clear that this warning goes far beyond the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Musk is telling the donors, activists, and operatives driving this witch hunt that he sees them, and he plans to follow the trail all the way to the top.

For years, Democrats have used the machinery of government as a club against anyone who crosses them. They hauled Trump into courtrooms across the country, and they treated anyone who stood with him as an accessory to whatever fantasy crime they imagine Trump committed. Most of their victims either folded or went broke defending themselves. This time, the target has the money, the platform, and the backbone to hit back harder.

Democrats picked the wrong guy.

A key part of their rage at Musk traces to his time at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he went after government waste that enriched their allies. Democrats want to dig into Musk’s time running DOGE last year, including eliminating more than 250,000 federal jobs, withholding money Congress had approved, and accessing sensitive government data. Democrats can’t forgive Musk for exposing how bloated and wasteful their beloved bureaucracy had become.

“Congress must demand a full accounting of the damage Mr. Musk and DOGE caused, and we will not let anyone obstruct our oversight,” Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on House Foreign Affairs, said in a statement Monday.

Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), who sits on the Natural Resources and Veterans Affairs committees, made no secret of where this is headed. She lumped Musk in with “the well-connected billionaire, trillionaires who have seen government contracts as a way to subsidize their own company’s research, development, and bottom line.” “We need to shut that down,” Dexter said.

Shut what down, exactly? A company that saved American astronauts that NASA left stranded in space for months? A company that builds the best electric cars in America (I should know as I drive one)? We all know what’s really going on here. They don’t see a man who runs important companies; they see a man who spent his own money backing candidates whom Democrats don’t like. Democrats couldn’t care less about what the billionaires who wrote checks to them do. Musk’s real crime was walking away from that crowd, backing Trump, and taking a chainsaw to the bureaucracy Democrats depend on to stay in power.

This isn’t oversight. Democrats may call it that, but this is revenge. And Musk has no intention of playing the quiet victim. He has already shown that he’s willing to spend whatever it takes, say whatever needs saying, and outlast anyone who comes after him. In a battle between Democrats and Elon Musk, my money is on Musk.

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“The EU foreign policy chief has accused Washington of trying to force Kiev to surrender on Moscow’s terms..”

It’s where things will go anyway.

• EU’s Kallas Lashes Out At US Over Ukraine Peace Efforts (RT)

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has accused Washington of trying to force Ukraine to surrender to Russia, attacking President Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Kallas credited Europe’s military and financial backing of Kiev with prolonging the conflict and preventing Ukraine from accepting Moscow’s terms.


“American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender for already almost two years, one and a half years now,” she said, as quoted by Euronews. Moscow has cited Kiev’s aggressive posture and the hostile position of its European backers as major obstacles to a peace settlement. Ukraine has consistently rejected Russia’s conditions, insisting on joining NATO and restoring control over all territories it claims.

Kallas’ remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump said negotiations were making “great progress,” defending his decision to ease economic pressure on Russia to keep diplomacy moving.

Trump has stepped up his criticism of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, describing him as “more difficult to deal with” than Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has accused Zelensky of prolonging the conflict and taking Washington’s extensive support for granted, and has criticized Kiev’s continued attacks on Russian refineries for disrupting global diesel markets. Zelensky has said he feels betrayed by Trump.

Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports earlier this month to curb rising energy prices ahead of the US midterm elections. On Friday, he suspended tariffs targeting China, India and other major buyers of Russian oil and gas. Trump defended the measures, saying he did not want to drive Moscow away from the negotiating table. The decisions drew criticism from European officials, with Kallas describing the diesel agreement as a “gift to Putin.”

US special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Oslo on Tuesday with Zelensky, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner joining remotely. Witkoff is expected to travel to St. Petersburg on Wednesday for another round of discussions with Russian officials, according to Store. mKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Moscow “highly appreciates” Washington’s continued mediation efforts.

Russia has insisted on a long-term peace deal that addresses the root causes of the conflict, rejecting the idea of a temporary truce. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Zelensky of repeatedly undermining negotiations, suggesting that any agreement acceptable to Moscow and Washington would threaten the Ukrainian leader’s hold on power.

Further financial support for Kiev has also become a source of disagreement within the EU. At Friday’s EU summit in Brussels, Zelensky demanded another €70 billion ($78.5 billion) for next year, in addition to €90 billion already pledged by the bloc to bankroll Kiev’s war effort.

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That doesn’t mean they’ll bend to Kiev’s wishes even one inch.

• Russia Willing To Resume Trilateral Talks With Ukraine (ZH)

The Kremlin has on Wednesday communicated to Trump envoy Steve Witkoff that Russia is “in principle, ready to resume” trilateral negotiations involving the US and Ukraine, toward finding a permanent settlement to the war. Witkoff briefed President Putin at Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, coming off the prior Tuesday Oslo meeting involving Ukraine’s Zelensky.


Russia described a generally ‘productive’ atmosphere and talks, but no particular breakthroughs were announced, but only plans for a next possible meeting to continue the dialogue. Abu Dhabi was named as a possible next venue, though the Iran war could change that. Below is the key aspect of the official readout from Wednesday talks via TASS:

Russian President Vladimir Putin informed the US president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, that Russia is ready to resume trilateral talks on the main subject around November 10, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said. “Our president informed Steve Witkoff that we are ready in principle to resume the above-mentioned trilateral talks around November 10 on the main subject,” Ushakov said. “This topic is about building a security system for Russia and Ukraine.”

The Kremlin aide who was cited, Yury Ushakov, further described that prior such efforts were derailed by Ukraine’s long-range drones strikes, especially as the country’s parliamentary elections were being held. But there’s also been significant changes in Washington’s posture in Ukraine, Ushakov noted, and this caused Moscow’s stance to in turn be “re-evaluated, taking into account the signals received from the Americans.”


Not only did Trump and Putin agree to the Russian diesel release deal, but the US President waived the Graham sanctions package. Following this, Wednesday saw the release from Russian custody of Stephen Hubbard, an American who is accused of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine forces when he was captured in 2022.

Trump hailed the development on Truth Social, writing: “Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family. The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia.”


It seems this is a Kremlin ‘thank you’ to Trump for doing the diesel deal, and for at the last minute waiving the sweeping Graham sanctions package, which outraged hawks and Democrats in Congress.

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No Nukes and no NATO is clear and simple enough. No Nazis is hard for Kiev, because it’s ruled by Nazis.

• Trump’s Trade-Off That Could Freeze The Ukraine War (Andrew Korybko)

The conflict could freeze along the frontlines if the US coerces the EU and Ukraine into agreeing to the resumption of Russian energy imports through partially US-controlled pipelines while convincing Russia to agree to the deployment of European forces to Ukraine without the US’ Article 5 protection.


Zelensky said that Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will share with Putin a proposal that amounts to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine during their meeting in St. Petersburg. It was argued here that Putin might agree to that as part of a package deal since Article 5 doesn’t obligate the dispatch of troops and its spirit of mutual aid (arms, funds, intelligence, etc.) to an ally under attack has been in effect since the start. Trump could also offer energy-related incentives to Putin to sweeten the deal.

This could involve creative energy diplomacy for getting the EU to release Russia’s frozen funds through the sequence outlined here in exchange for the US receiving stakes in its pipelines as the “political safeguard” for Russia resuming exports to the EU. The global energy crisis sparked by the Third Gulf War could also serve as the pretext for the US curtailing energy exports to the EU in order to lower domestic prices and coerce the EU into replacing its lost US imports with Russian ones through this formula.

The complex economic interdependence that would be restored between Russia and the EU due to the US’ creative energy diplomacy could assuage Russia’s concerns about de facto EU leader Germany’s rapid remilitarization that former President Dmitry Medvedev likened to the run-up to Operation Barbarossa. That’s because the power that Russia would then have to pull the plug on the German economy could deter Germany from crossing Russia’s red lines in the post-war European security architecture.

Likewise, Ukraine’s resumption of Russian energy imports through partially US-controlled pipelines could do the same for stabilizing the emerging order in which the US will play a much lesser role in European affairs through the NATO 3.0 model, ergo this proposal’s incorporation into Trump’s reported peace plan. US stakes in Russian energy companies and resource deposits could deter Ukraine from striking them too in order to maximally reduce the risk of the ongoing conflict resuming sometime after it inevitably ends.

The US-supervised resumption of Russian energy exports to the German-led EU and Ukraine, other US-led Western sanctions relief for Russia (including the phased implementation thereof after a ceasefire), and a post-war resource-centric Russian-US Strategic Partnership would revolutionize European affairs. The benefits that this could bring to Russia might also convince Putin to allow the deployment of some European NATO (E-NATO) forces to Ukraine in exchange for the EU and Ukraine’s aforesaid concessions.

Although he earlier said that they’d be a legitimate target, so long as the US doesn’t extend Article 5 protection to them like Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed in February 2025 that Trump 2.0 won’t do, the risk of a post-war incident spiraling into a hot Russian-US war would remain low. They’ve been suspected of secretly operating there for years already, and Ukraine’s forces are much more experienced than E-NATO’s anyhow, so their post-war deployment would only be to psychologically reassure Ukraine.

This scenario is the most sensitive from Russia’s perspective, but from E-NATO and Ukraine’s perspective, the scenario of the US coercing them into restoring their complex economic interdependence with Russia is equally sensitive. Precisely for this reason, the US might lean on both sides to agree to such mutual concessions in the name of post-war stability, which could then lay the basis for jointly building the post-war European security architecture through new arms control talks and other related efforts.

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Soldiers on your own streets is always a bad idea. You have soldiers to fight foreigners.

But if the foreigners in your streets are Trojan Horses, you’re kinda stuck.

Macron denies the rioters are muslims, foreigners: “They’re French”

Yeah, 1st, 2nd generation “French”.

• French Govt To Send Soldiers To The Streets After Admitting Failures (ZH)

French soldiers will take over guard duty so that police and gendarmes can be moved onto the streets for Saturday’s expected protests, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told parliament on Tuesday.


Nuñez said troops from Operation Sentinelle, the anti-terror deployment, would replace internal security forces mainly on static guarding duties. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the same day that Saturday’s mobilization of forces “will be massive,” Remix News reported, ahead of a major protest planned for October 24.

https://twitter.com/confrontfr/status/2111450703080182089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2111450703080182089%7Ctwgr%5E29bd112f568d79d3fb08dfc5f5f0a68498933591%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fmobilization-will-be-massive-french-govt-plans-send-soldiers-streets-after-admitting


Sentinelle was launched in January 2015 and keeps about 10,000 soldiers across France to guard against terrorist attacks, usually at places of worship, schools, tourist sites, railway stations and airports. It also covered the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. Nuñez described a post-holding role for the troops in this case, not a crowd-control one.

The government now admits it failed to contain last Saturday’s riots. Lecornu acknowledged lapses in intelligence gathering, said police had been positioned too rigidly and said authorities chose not to cancel planned police leave, Reuters reported. He blamed far-left groups and framed the crisis as a choice “between violence and the Republic”; those groups say the government underestimated anger over living costs and declining public services. Nuñez told parliament: “I deeply regret what happened. I accept my share of responsibility.” He offered his resignation, and Macron rejected it.

About 60,000 police and gendarmes were on duty nationwide on Saturday, October 17, when roughly 500,000 people marched against the cost of living (authorities told Remix 550,000; organizers claimed over 800,000). Nuñez called that too few for the large crowds of rioters and looters on the edges of the marches. He said police had “lost control” in some cities and admitted a “lack of anticipation.” Riots and looting hit Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities, and in Limoges an arson attack brought down the roof and tower of the historic town hall.


The toll so far is large. Euronews counts more than 2,500 arrests and Remix more than 2,400 detained, while Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin put the number in custody at over 2,330, 70% of them adults. Almost 1,000 members of the security forces were injured. Alain Di Crescenzo, president of the chamber of commerce, said more than 2,000 shops were hit and put the damage at “hundreds of millions of euros.” On Monday Lecornu asked regional authorities for “localised and partial curfews” and said nearly 200 Paris police investigators would comb footage to identify looters. Parliament is also setting up a commission of inquiry into the causes of the unrest. As we reported, 8 p.m. curfews followed in northern cities.

Nuñez is also considering banning demonstrations that have not been declared and could lead to public disorder. Declared marches could be caught too, he said, but only if organizers or their stewards give authorities reason to think things will get out of hand. For marches judged low-risk, routes should steer clear of public buildings and high streets, and intelligence services are to step up estimates of turnout, especially of the most radical participants. He said security forces need more “responsiveness and mobility” against “scattered” and “extremely mobile” groups, and told parliament: “We will be there.”

The playbook has a precedent. In March 2019, for the 19th Saturday of the yellow vest protests, Sentinelle troops guarded sensitive sites so police could focus on order, and demonstrations were banned on the Champs-Élysées and in central districts of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Nice and Rouen. Police made 31 arrests and issued 15 fines for entering banned areas, out of 2,322 street checks in Paris, NBC News reported. Macron brushed off opposition criticism of the army’s involvement: “Those trying to scare people, or to scare themselves, are wrong.”

Ministers of that period drew a line at confrontation. Armed forces minister Florence Parly said it was “hors de question” to put soldiers face to face with protesters, and said Sentinelle would relieve police and gendarmes of counter-terrorism tasks. Nuñez’s description of static duties fits that model, though the government has not said where in the country the troops will be posted.

The unrest is also reaching the bond market. We reported this week that French 10-year yields hit 24-year highs near 5%, with the spread over German Bunds close to 160 basis points and Moody’s due to review France’s Aa3 rating, which carries a negative outlook. Earlier, we described the country as entering a “point of no return” as the riots spread.

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Deportation, denaturalization.

It’s time to close the Ilhan Omar file.

• Ilhan Omar Is Begging Supporters for Cash As Deportation Looms (Margolis)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has a federal immigration fraud investigation bearing down on her, and her big counterattack is a shameless plea for cash.


On Tuesday night, Omar posted a roughly one-minute Instagram video from the back seat of a car, asking her supporters to keep the money flowing. It marked her first real public move since agents searched her Washington, D.C.-area home last week and walked out with her phone, notebooks, computers, and passport. Apparently, the silence got too expensive.

“Hi everyone, Ilhan here. I just wanted to say thank you so much for the support to everyone who sent a note of support, for everyone who sent $5, $10, $20,” Omar says in the Instagram video. “That goes a long way as we fight Trump and his administration, for trying to intimidate me, and so many people right before the midterm elections.”

From there, she shifted into full bravado mode. “We know that they’re running scared,” Omar says. “We’re not gonna be intimidated. We’re not gonna be silenced. We’re not gonna be scared.” Federal agents just confiscated her passport and personal items, and she wants you to believe the Trump administration is the one sweating? That’s cute.

Omar also promised a grand return to the campaign trail. “I’ll be out there campaigning alongside all of you and making sure that we beat back all of this and that we win in the midterms, win the House, win the Senate, and hold this administration accountable,” she continues. The video’s real purpose, of course, was to ask for money.

“Thank you so much again, and please continue to support us. It is going to be a very expensive and challenging time, and so we appreciate whether you’re able to send 5, 10, 20,” Omar says. “Thank you.” Five bucks. Ten bucks. Twenty bucks. She mentioned those figures twice in under a minute, which tells you exactly what this video was about. She needs money.

Naturally, Omar insists the whole thing is political payback, and the left has worked itself into a frenzy over the raid. The problem is that a Democrat judge approved the search, and the investigation began on Joe Biden’s watch. Omar has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but that hasn’t slowed the probe one bit.

When you watch the video, it’s actually Omar that looks scared, and she should be. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley believes that Omar could get deported as a result of this investigation. “The immigration laws are very clear. When you’re accused of illegally procuring citizenship or naturalization, it is not a defense that, ‘I was innocent in all of this,'” he explained.

The case hinges on how old Omar really is. Omar claims she obtained citizenship via her father when she was 17, when he was naturalized in 2000. However, it appears that her staff requested a change to public records, moving her birth year from 1981 to 1982. If she were over 18 at the time, she would have had to file for her own citizenship.

But even that may be moot, as PJ Media’s Catherine Salgado reported earlier this week, Omar’s father may not have been naturalized at all. Federal agency letters indicate that no naturalization records were found for Omar’s father. It’s still unconfirmed, but it’s yet another wrinkle in the story that doesn’t bode well for Omar. She is definitely going to need a lot of money.

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A bit of a mess, we could say. Once you start marrying your brother, where’s the limit…

• Feds Using DNA To Probe Ilhan Omar ‘Married Her Brother’ Claim (ZH)

Federal prosecutors plan to use DNA evidence in their criminal investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), people familiar with the probe told the New York Post on Monday. One source said the DNA is critical to proving the long-running allegation that Omar’s 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was a marriage to her brother, made so he could get a green card he never received. Omar has denied the claim since 2016, no charges have been filed, and the Justice Department has not confirmed any DNA evidence.


The DNA report is the latest turn in a probe that went public a week ago, when Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar’s Washington home on Oct. 12. Agents also seized Omar’s phone, and more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas have gone out, some to her relatives, a source told the Associated Press. The grand jury is collecting evidence in Minnesota, where the U.S. Attorney’s Office opened the case. Omar called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement” and said, “I will not be silenced.”

The Post’s sources did not say whether the DNA was collected before or after the search. One of them pushed back on earlier reports that investigators went “dumpster diving” for swabs of Omar, Elmi or family members. Reporter Leland Vittert had said on Saturday that agents had done just that, before the raid:


Two other sources told the Post that the search, the DNA and other evidence give prosecutors a solid basis to bring a charge of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud before a grand jury. A conspiracy charge would let prosecutors allege overt acts that fall outside the statute of limitations, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the Post. He said prosecutors could pursue a conspiracy case that would likely fall within a 10-year limit, or a civil case, which has none, and that the warrant would not have been executed unless it had “come from the highest levels of the DOJ.”

fits the warrant. A person familiar with the document told The Washington Post that it lists potential charges of conspiracy, immigration fraud and false statements. Investigators are also looking at whether Omar or her father, Nur Omar Mohamed, misstated her birth date on immigration paperwork so she could derive citizenship through him when he naturalized in 2000. Rahmani called her late father “an unindicted co-conspirator.” The Justice Department has not released the affidavit.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whose department’s agents carried out the search, said on Oct. 16 that “multiple other warrants” were served the same day. “We had a judge sign it, and we expect to be able to take the case to a grand jury,” he told the Charlie Kirk Show, according to CBS News.

The marriage and the birth-date theory lead to different places. A marriage-fraud conviction would not threaten Omar’s own citizenship the way a false-statements case would, the New York Post noted, and stripping the citizenship of a sitting member of Congress would be unprecedented. Border czar Tom Homan said over the weekend that the government has built “a strong case” that could lead the administration to seek denaturalization. As we reported, the Wall Street Journal had already said officials wanted to revoke her citizenship and deport her, and agents reportedly secured her passport in the search.

D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office is separately examining Omar’s House financial disclosures, told Fox News that “that judge would not have signed that warrant unless there was probable cause.” Those disclosures cut Omar’s reported net worth by tens of millions of dollars in a year, which the Post attributed to an unexplained accounting “discrepancy.”

Omar’s lawyers, Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz, answered last week with a letter to the Justice Department demanding the “immediate return” of everything seized. They wrote that agents ignored a magistrate judge’s “special requests” for carrying out the search and broke longstanding DOJ policy by acting so close to an election, and that President Trump has “made no secret” of wanting to target her. A DOJ spokesperson called the letter “riddled with false allegations and inaccuracies” and said leaking it was “a publicity play.” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on House Judiciary, had already called the search “blatant political intimidation,” coming 22 days before the Nov. 3 election. Former federal prosecutor Jim Trusty told Fox News the warrant shows “at least probable cause,” but that it is “a long way off from proving a case at trial.”

The marriage record at the heart of the DNA claim is tangled. Omar and Elmi divorced in 2017, and she gave birth to her third child while legally married to him. Her marriage to Ahmed Hirsi was not legally entered into until after her divorce from Elmi was finalized, the Post reported, although the two had a Muslim ceremony in 2002. She filed joint taxes with Hirsi in 2014 and 2015 while still legally married to Elmi, from whom she had separated in 2011. Elmi, who lives in the UK, applied for a marriage-based green card and withdrew it in 2019 when immigration officials asked for more evidence, according to The Washington Post, which also quoted a former immigration official saying the brother claim was investigated during Trump’s first term without enough evidence to go forward. Omar divorced Hirsi in 2019 and married political consultant Tim Mynett.

We reported last week that her staff asked Minnesota’s legislative library in 2019 to change her birth year, and that Mynett snapped at a reporter over rumors she had fled the country. Mynett has said only that his wife “came here when she was 12 years old as a child war refugee.” Her lawyers say there is “no legitimate basis for any suggestion that she has violated any law concerning her citizenship status.”

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“Omar has been the focus of a federal investigation that centers on allegations that Omar or her father lied about her birth year on immigration paperwork to obtain her citizenship when her family fled Somalia in the late 1990s.”

• Trump Criticizes Ilhan Omar As A ‘Sick, Very Dishonest Person’ (JTN)

President Donald Trump criticized Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday as a “very dishonest person,” and predicted she could go to jail over allegations that she committed immigration fraud.


Omar has been the focus of a federal investigation that centers on allegations that the lawmaker or her father lied about her birth year on immigration paperwork to obtain her citizenship when her family fled Somalia in the late 1990s.

Trump confirmed to reporters at the White House that Omar could face deportation if she committed fraud but warned that the penalty could be even worse with jail time.

“Oh she could, but she could also go to jail,” Trump said. “They keep talking about deportation. No, she could go to jail. This is just my opinion. I think she’s a sick, very dishonest person who hates our country — and she comes from a country that is essentially not even a country, Somalia.

“It’s got no government, it’s got no police protection, all they do have is people running around shooting each other,” he continued. “Then she comes over here and she wants to tell us how to run America … She’s a disgrace to our country and it’s amazing that she can get elected. But you know, Somalians vote for her and most of them should not be here.”

The comment comes after Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said over the weekend that he believes federal investigators have a “strong case” against Omar, but added that he does not want to get ahead of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

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“.. the Iranian government is dragging its heels in making a deal to end the war deliberately to prevent Donald Trump from getting any political benefit from ending the war and the plummeting oil prices that would surely follow.”

• The Democrats’ Hope for a ‘Secret Weapon’ for the Midterms: Iran (Moran)

Reuters is reporting that the Iranian government is dragging its heels in making a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. They are doing it deliberately to prevent Donald Trump from getting any political benefit from ending the war and the plummeting oil prices that would surely follow.


“Iran is preparing for renewed Israeli and U.S. attacks, not for a deal with America to end the war,” one of the three officials who spoke with Reuters said. “The clerical establishment is determined not to give Trump a political victory.”

The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is taking a huge toll on the Iranian economy. “Annual inflation hit 73.6% in September, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, and the rial currency has fallen nearly 35% against the dollar since Washington reapplied its naval blockade in July,” Reuters reports. Inflation is closer to 90%, according to Trading Economics, and has more than doubled in the last year.

No oil is leaving the country, Reuters reports. That means no hard currency and virtually no national income.

As for an attack on Iran by the U.S., Trump has promised not to attack Iran before the election. Will Trump keep that promise? It would be fairly easy to engineer a scenario where Iran is goaded into attacking the U.S., leaving Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu free to attack.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Monday, an unannounced visit just eight days before the Israeli election and 15 days before the U.S. midterms.

A deal offered by Iran is on the table, referred to as the “seven-day plan” that would see the Strait of Hormuz fully opened in seven days as long as the U.S. lifted the blockade.

Reuters:

“Iran’s proposal, conveyed through Qatari mediators, offered to reopen the strait within seven days, albeit under Iranian control, provided that Washington lifted its maritime blockade, eased restrictions on Iranian oil exports, released frozen assets and ended hostilities on all fronts. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that the offer remained on the table, with messages being exchanged through mediators.

Tehran’s view that Washington cannot be trusted to commit to diplomacy stems from the attacks on Iran that have derailed previous negotiations, one Iranian official said.In June 2025, an Israeli attack wrecked plans for a sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks in Oman. And last February, the US and Israel launched their war just after another round of talks ended, with further technical discussions scheduled.

Maintaining a state somewhere between war and peace through the US midterms allows Iran to sustain pressure on Washington while reiterating its commitment to diplomacy.

“But the fundamental issue is that Tehran believes that Trump is interested in regime change… and following Israeli Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s policy of seeking to bring down Iran s ruling establishment,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute in Washington. Vatanka believes the clerical establishment wants to hurt Trump politically before the midterms, just as the clerical establishment wanted to hurt Jimmy Carter before the 1980 presidential election.”

Iranian analyst Saeed Leylaz believes the U.S. should get used to the idea of a near-state of war with Iran even after Trump is out of office. “Reaching a sustainable deal with the US, even after the Trump administration, is no longer possible because of the deepened distrust,” Leylaz said. “Nothing will go back to the pre-war status quo.”

If that’s the case, Trump has nothing to lose in continuing to pressure Iran by bombing infrastructure and blockading the ports. If the Iranians are not going to even try to make a deal, they need to be shown the cost of continued war with the U.S.

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“The double standard is real. Republicans and Democrats are treated differently. Media bias 100% exists.”

• Vivek Ramaswamy Risks Everything on the ‘Mom’ Ad. Will It Work? (Pinsker)

It was The Mother of All Political Gambles. Personally, I wouldn’t have done it. Too much risk of blowback.


If I were down by double digits, maybe I’d reconsider. But according to polling averages, Vivek Ramaswamy is only trailing by 3.4 points. And besides, Ohio tilts Republican anyway, which is probably why — even in polls where he’s losing — voters still think he’s going to win.

Nor would I have released it as an official campaign ad. Because it’s not the ad per se that’s wagging tongues, dropping jaws, and gnashing teeth — it’s the allegations within the ad. I could’ve disseminated the exact same allegation by booking Donna Arthur (Amy Acton’s mom) on a media tour. Or arranging for her statement/warning to be uploaded to social media — and then amplifying it with my (many) surrogates ‘til it went viral. Or a million-zillion other ways.

Why cover it with my fingerprints?


There are plenty of ways to promote the message without directly owning it. For example, wouldn’t it be a helluva contrast if Vivek Ramaswamy hit the campaign trail with HIS mom — and she intro’d him to the crowd, boasting how she endorses him 100%?

Vivek’s mom is Geetha Ramaswamy. She’s still alive. (And, apparently, an impressive woman: a retired medical doctor with specialized training in geriatric psychiatry.) But according to a Google search, Gemini, and ChatGPT, there’s no record of her sharing the stage or appearing in ads with her gubernatorial candidate son. Ramaswamy’s wife has, but not his mom. Not even once.

I don’t get it, because it would have been the easiest, low-risk, most efficient way to draw attention to an opponent’s liability. Hey, it’s an old (but effective) political tactic: If you’re a family man and your opponent is childless and unmarried, don’t directly attack her for it — instead, run thousands of ads featuring you, your beautiful wife, and your adorable kids. Make a point to talk about how much your family means to you, and how much you’ve learned from them.

The contrast will speak for itself. Republican George Allen did it in 1993. His opponent, the unmarried and childless Mary Sue Terry, lost Virginia’s gubernatorial race in a landslide.

From the Washington Post: Republican George F. Allen said today that he would make a better governor than his opponent — “more understanding of the challenges facing the families of Virginia” — because he is married with children while Democrat Mary Sue Terry is single and childless.

[…]

“I’m proud of my family. It’s the most important part of my life, and I think it makes me more understanding of the challenges facing the families of Virginia, having to face those challenges along with them,” Allen said.

Allen’s television commercials and his campaign literature also have prominently featured photos of his family. He told Washington Post staff members in a recent interview that the emphasis on his family was not intended as a veiled attack on Terry. Maybe Geetha Ramaswamy has stage fright, but c’mon — waiving to a crowd on a podium (or filming a testimonial in the privacy of her own home) is low-hanging fruit.

The risks for Ramaswamy from the ad are threefold: He explicitly mingled his brand with Donna Arthur’s. Doing so ties his campaign to her reputation, history, and credibility. If it turns out she’s a dishonest dirtbag, it’ll reflect VERY poorly on Ramaswamy. (National Review asserts there’s an “extensive record” that Amy Acton was an abused child.)

The timing could be disastrous. If you’re gonna drop a major PR bomb like this, you ought do it four or five days before the election — not two full weeks out! That’s what the Democrats did in 2000, releasing George W. Bush’s DUI arrest on Nov. 2. Yes, early voting complicates today’s PR equation, but releasing this two weeks out gives the Democrats — and their foot soldiers in the media — an awful lot of time to dig into Donna Arthur’s background. It dramatically increases the likelihood of blowback.

The controversy will almost certainly overshadow everything else between now and Election Day. The ad will suck all the oxygen out of the room; there won’t be enough bandwidth to talk about other issues that could, perhaps, move the needle for Ramaswamy. He’s put all his chips on the “mom” issue, and it’s unclear if that was his wisest bet. Advertisement

But that doesn’t mean it won’t work. Hey, sometimes you’ve gotta go big — or go home. According to external polls, it’s still a 3.4-point race. But maybe Ramaswamy’s internal polling paints a more desperate picture. If so, a big, bold, paradigm-shifting move makes more sense.

And besides, maybe Ohio voters think so little of politicians, the idea that Amy Acton is a dirty, stinkin’ serial-liar who was just exposed by her own mother isn’t exactly farfetched. A PR campaign that capitalizes on confirmation bias could pay vast dividends.mIf her own mother doesn’t trust her, why should we?

And maybe the numbers also make sense: Just 30% of Ohio 18-year-olds are registered to vote — compared to 78% of Ohioans 45 and older. And whereas just 27.6% of voters 18 to 24 and 44.3% of voters 25 to 44 will vote in midterms elections, 58.3% of voters 45 to 64, 68% of voters 65 to 74, and 65.2% of voters 75+ will cast ballots. So, without question, it’s an older demographic.

Perhaps older voters are more likely to sympathize with Acton’s elderly mother. Maybe many were abandoned or alienated by their children, too. But it’s still high risk, because the media will try to turn it into an either-or question: Who’s more likely to be telling the truth, an abused child — or the mother who stayed loyal to the alleged abuser?

I don’t know who’s lying. Nor does anyone else in the media. But with Amy Acton and her brother both claiming that the abuse was real, the media has all the ammo it needs to portray Acton as the sympathetic, vulnerable, truthful victim — and Ramaswamy as the evil monster who’d exploit a child’s trauma. (In the predictive markets, his odds have crashed to 22%. It’s a new low for his campaign.)

Republicans will be tempted to highlight the double standard: Over and over again, the Democrats have weaponized family members against GOP candidates. Mary Trump’s sole claim to fame is being the (estranged) niece of the president, yet the media has released thousands of news stories promoting her anti-Trump opinions. The Democrats ran ads featuring Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)’s own siblings attacking him. In Nevada’s gubernatorial race, relatives of the Republican candidate blasted him as a phony.

George Conway tried to leverage his fame as Kellyanne Conway’s ex-husband into an anti-Trump congressional career. (He failed.) And just a few months ago, the mainstream media ran oodles of news stories about Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s sister opposing his campaign. (She later endorsed him.) The double standard is real. Republicans and Democrats are treated differently. Media bias 100% exists.

But that still doesn’t mean this “mom” ad was a good idea. Because Ramaswamy isn’t running for office to expose media hypocrisy — his goal is winning the damn election. Still, give him credit: He’s in it to win it. (Which is more than you can say about lots of Republicans.) He pushed all his chips to the center of the table, because second place isn’t acceptable.

It’s just not clear that this was his smartest bet.

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“Without a doubt, a fake poll can affect an election. It can stop a candidate from raising money, boost another candidate, or cause a party to invest in a place it otherwise wouldn’t.”

• A Pollster Just Admitted Faking Its Numbers, and The Fallout Is Huge! (Matt Margolis)

A polling firm that spent months pumping out numbers in key races across the country admitted Tuesday evening that nearly all of them were fake.

Wedgewood Polls now claims the entire operation was a social experiment meant to expose lazy vetting in the polling world. Some election observers aren’t buying that explanation, and the timing of the confession gives them every reason to doubt it.

In its statement, Wedgewood cast itself as a kind of whistleblower. “Having previously worked in the polling and research sector, we watched as the public’s trust in polling eroded alongside a rise in unverified, low-quality methodology,” the firm said.

It then described what it claimed was the project’s goal. “We wanted to test a simple hypothesis: How easy is it for an entirely fabricated polling firm to gain traction, be taken seriously, and expose how little scrutinization exists in media and public commentary? The short answer: Far too easy.”

The statement also turned to the aggregators that published its work. “Despite having no history, formal credentials, or real data behind the vast majority of our releases, Wedgewood Polling was added to major polling aggregators, including The New York Times, FiftyPlusOne, and VoteHub, and repeatedly treated as a legitimate data source,” Wedgewood claimed.

Next, the firm addressed the press. “Our fabricated numbers were given instant credibility across national media platforms-including being cited on air and in reporting by outlets such as MS NOW,” it added. “The ease with which unverified figures were absorbed into mainstream political narratives highlights a systemic breakdown in media vetting and data aggregation.”

Mark Mitchell, the head pollster of The Honest Poll, didn’t buy that explanation for a second.


Cooper Burton, a data scientist at FiftyPlusOne, responded to Wedgewood’s statement within hours. Once Wedgewood went public, FiftyPlusOne published its investigation early. The report took on the firm’s claim that nobody checked its credentials.

Their statement alleges that FiftyPlusOne, the New York Times, and other poll aggregators did not conduct appropriate vetting of their firm prior to aggregating their polls; this is false. We reached out to them to ask who they were and confirm the methodology statement on their website. We were given two names, Jack Sims and Andrew Prater. We were able to independently confirm that Sims had previous experience in the polling industry and reviewed their methodology statement in detail.

It is not atypical for a pollster to leave an existing firm, form their own, and self-fund some surveys to build reputation; we had no reason at the time to believe this case was any different. Wedgewood operated as if it were a legitimate polling firm, including collecting money from donors to conduct crowd-funded polls, and sharing raw survey data (which we now have confirmed was fraudulent) with FiftyPlusOne on Oct. 15, 2026. Imagine that — Wedgewood took money from donors and handed over raw data it had invented. Sorry, but that’s not a harmless experiment. In fact, these phony numbers did have real-world impact.

El-Sayed leaned heavily on Wedgewood’s polling to sell Democrat voters on his electability. Mallory McMorrow, who ran against him in the Michigan primary, took to X to describe what the stunt cost her campaign. She pointed to a late-June Wedgewood poll that showed her sinking into single digits, numbers she said contradicted her campaign’s internal polling. In the aftermath, her donations dried up, her volunteers were left devastated and begging for direction, and reporters bombarded her with calls to get out of the race.

Without a doubt, a fake poll can affect an election. It can stop a candidate from raising money, boost another candidate, or cause a party to invest in a place it otherwise wouldn’t. And it can lead voters to think the result is already decided before any ballot has been cast.

Read more …

Nonsense. There is no link between Trump and Alberta. And everyone knows Alberta was not going to vote to leave.

• Alberta Decision To Stay In Canada Gives Carney Backing To Take On Trump (BBC)

“Vote like Canada depends on it,” Prime Minister Mark Carney declared to cheering crowds in Calgary last week on a stage emblazoned with bright red and white “Forever Canadian” banners. It’s a message that appears to have struck a chord with the electorate, as preliminary results show more than two-thirds of Alberta voters said they want to remain a part of Canada.


But the future of the federation does still rest on its richest province. Alberta, with most of Canada’s proven oil reserves and abundant gas and mineral wealth, is playing a pivotal role in Ottawa’s drive to survive a punishing trade war with the US by diversifying trade, strengthening its economy, and forging new alliances on the other side of the world. Carney, the former central banker who grew up in Alberta, is now Canada’s builder-in-chief – at home, and beyond its borders.

Note the emphasis in his first statement after Monday’s vote on separation in the province, as soon as the scale of the victory was clear: “They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other.” Albertans’ overwhelming “yes” to stay in Canada gives him political bricks and mortar, too. “Don’t mess with Canada,” warned Thomas Lukaszuk, a former lawmaker whose Forever Canadian campaign played a key role in this referendum’s outcome.

Addressing elated supporters in Edmonton, the provincial capital, as the “yes” count for Canada kept tumbling in, Lukaszuk underlined that this vote “will send a very strong message to the rest of the world”. Everyone knows he’s talking about the troublesome neighbour to the south – in particular its president, who keeps threatening to turn Canada into the 51st US state.

The same day Albertans were voting on their future in Canada, Trump sent his own signal north at a rally in Kansas ahead of next month’s US midterm polls. “I will let you keep ice hockey, and I will let you keep your ‘O Canada’ national anthem,” he promised before adding: “We’re only kidding.” For Canadians, it’s no laughing matter.

In the run up to this referendum, Carney reiterated a warning he’s often sounded that “there are some outside our borders who are working to break us, so they own us” – even if he didn’t spell out who “they” is. He didn’t have to. And, in this defining time for the separatist camp, some in their ranks didn’t hide their direction of travel. Some of their most prominent leaders admitted they travelled to Washington three times last year to meet US State Department officials and outline what an independent Alberta could offer – including a possible oil pipeline through the US to the Pacific.

But the rest of the world may take only passing notice of what was, for Canada, an historic vote sparking conversations and concerns across the country, from coast to coast to coast.


Mark Carney and Alberta’s leader Danielle Smith worked closely on pushing for an oil pipeline to the west coast


“Short of a vote to separate, most foreign governments, with the exception of the United States, have little interest in domestic Canadian politics,” says Professor Janice Stein, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

“Foreign investors are focused on the time it will take to complete major infrastructure projects, a return on investment, and predictable regulations,” she explains in a nod to Carney’s long list of megaprojects he hopes will eventually turbocharge economic growth. They’re all costly; many will take years to build.

An ambitious blueprint already includes a proposed pipeline to the Pacific coast which opens opportunities for Alberta’s oil to reach Asian markets – a move which also addresses Alberta’s long-standing grievance that its economy has been stifled by federal policies, including environmental regulations. At a rally in Alberta last week, it was Carney’s comment that the pipeline “will reduce our dependence on the United States” that triggered the loudest and longest applause of the night.

After Monday’s vote, Carney – the former UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance – pointed to “unleashing our full potential as a global energy superpower with Alberta as its core”. Political and economic pressures now seem to eclipse his green credentials. “Build Canada Strong” has been Carney’s mantra ever since he first entered politics, a complete neophyte, at the start of last year.

At home there are possible wide-reaching repercussions from the final tallies in the referendum’s nine other questions which dealt with issues ranging from greater provincial powers, the costs of immigration, and potential constitutional changes.Those results are certain to provoke debate, and deal making or breaking, involving Canada’s nine other provinces and three territories. They all have their own grievances, too.

The prime minister has had to defend himself when journalists ask if he is spending too much time on foreign trips with his charm offensive to build new political alliances and trade partnerships, including an unprecedented and still uncertain offer of associate membership of the European Union.

“I can do both and I need to do both,” he recently replied with his signature bluntness before listing the more than 16 bills which went through Parliament in the last session dealing with everything from major tax changes, public safety, and the price of fuel.

For now, Carney is riding high in the polls at home – including in Alberta, which doesn’t traditionally support his Liberal party – in a long “political honeymoon” other beleaguered politicians would envy.

And the plain-speaking politician’s strong and steady response to Trump threats, including retaliatory tariffs, has seen his star rising on the world stage. It’s an unexpected turn for a country which has often been missing from top tables and has sometimes even been dismissed as “boring”.

The Economist magazine decided to put Carney on their cover, on this week of weeks for Canada, with a perfect red maple leaf between his teeth. “Mark Carney shows middle powers how to handle a dangerous world,” reads one of its headlines, with an article which also focuses on Canada’s “vulnerabilities” including Alberta’s ballot.

“The broader takeaway from this vote might be that Canadian unity is in fine shape,” remarks David Moscrop, political scientist and author of the forthcoming book On Nationalism. “But what happens after Donald Trump is gone and Canada no longer has a single, bombastic target which drives Canadians to rally around the flag?” he asks.

Carney’s decision to recently walk away from trade talks with the US gave rise to another swell of Canadian pride and patriotism. But if this trade war drags on with a country which traditionally takes 70% of Canada’s exports, Canadians will feel even greater pain in their daily lives.

But today is a day to vigorously wave the maple leaf flag. “It’s a win for Team Canada and its resilience,” commented CBC journalist Janyce McGregor during the public broadcaster’s rolling coverage.

Read more …

Did Trump and Musk cut the service to Kiev? It would make sense if they did. The US is not at war with Moscow, and shouldn’t help Kiev’s efforts.

• About Starshield, SpaceX’s Military-Grade Satellite Service (New York Times)


A Starlink terminal camouflaged with a net near the eastern frontline in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in the summer of 2023.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has been the first major military conflict powered by satellite-based internet connectivity.


Ukraine’s armed forces have carried out and prevented drone attacks by using SpaceX’s Starlink service, which provides internet connectivity from satellites in Earth’s lower orbit, and more recently its military-grade sister service, Starshield, which was developed for the US Department of Defense. The services provide connections for Ukrainian drones to carry out and prevent military strikes. The technology has helped Ukraine limit Russia’s territorial gains, but it has also made the country beholden to the U.S. government and SpaceX, which can turn off its access.

Early this month, Ukraine’s military reliance on the US satellite system backfired when SpaceX started limiting the service. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on October 18 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the US government had asked SpaceX to curb Ukraine’s access, capping the “maximum speed” of drones at 100 mph. With those limitations, he said, Ukraine “can’t destroy” Russian attack drones.

The US government has disputed Zelenskyy’s claims that it interfered with Ukraine’s internet access. On October 17, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that according to his understanding, Starlink, SpaceX’s commercial offering, was “back up and running” in Ukraine. He added that Ukraine had asked for access to Starshield “in order to conduct deep strikes into Russia” but that the United States hadn’t decided whether to provide it.

“No one at the White House ordered anyone to slow down internet or slow down speeds so certain drones couldn’t use it,” Rubio said before boarding a flight for a diplomatic trip to Central Asia. SpaceX and its leaders, Elon Musk and Gwynne Shotwell, did not respond to requests for comment. Ukraine’s issues with Starshield are the latest problem in a complicated history with Musk and his company’s satellite internet offerings.

Here’s what to know:

What is Starshield?
More and more people are becoming familiar with the SpaceX subsidiary Starlink, which now has more than 13 million subscribers including in some homes as an internet provider. SpaceX describes Starshield, which was publicly announced in late 2022, as “a secure satellite network designed specifically for government customers and national security applications.”

Starshield offers deeper security than Starlink so it can host and process classified information. On a company website, SpaceX said Starshield is “designed to support US National Defense use cases for the Department of Defense and other Government partners.”

The US government has spent billions of dollars on the technology, which makes up a part of the nearly $4.2 billion that SpaceX reported in revenue last year in providing connectivity to governments and enterprises. In turn, the Pentagon allows Ukraine to use Starshield. SpaceX went public this summer in a blockbuster share sale that made Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

How is Starshield related to Starlink?
The two services rely on the same underlying satellite technology. SpaceX, which dominates the private rocket launch market, has been sending its own payloads into Earth’s lower orbit for years, building a backbone of interconnected satellites that can beam relatively reliable internet back down to Earth. Musk has said Starlink is a civilian service, while Starshield is intended for military operations.

“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government,” Musk said in a post on his social platform X on Wednesday. Limits on use, he said, were decided by the US military and “ultimately” the president. “Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company,” he added.

Some experts have raised concerns that Starlink and Starshield aren’t truly independent, as service outages have taken out both services at the same time. And despite the distinction in the services between civilian and military use, governments, including Ukraine’s, have long been using Starlink to conduct their war efforts.

What role does Musk play in these services?
Musk has expressed reservations about allowing armed services to use SpaceX’s satellite services to conduct offensive attacks. Early on in the Russia-Ukraine war, he denied Ukraine’s request to turn Starlink on over Russian-controlled Crimea, before a planned drone attack on an enemy boat.

In February, SpaceX also cut off Russian troops who had been illicitly using Starlink in battle in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government has maintained an uneasy relationship with Musk, who has been critical of Zelenskyy and his country’s war effort against Russia. Because of their reliance on Starlink and Starshield, Ukrainian officials have alternated between praise and criticism of the world’s richest man.

Read more …


The resulting company will be worth more than many countries.

• Why Is Elon Musk Plotting A Mega-Merger of SpaceX and Tesla? (BBC)

Elon Musk has spent years building Tesla and SpaceX into a pair of trillion-dollar technology empires. Now, he is considering bringing them together. Asked on Tuesday whether a merger would be a good idea, Musk was clear: “Yes.”


The prospect is more than hypothetical. Musk said special committees have been formed to assess a potential deal, although he stressed that there is no guarantee a merger will happen and that nothing has been agreed. With Tesla valued at roughly $1.5 trillion (£1.1 trillion) and SpaceX at $2 trillion, a combination of the two companies would mark the largest merger ever. Any deal would also need shareholder backing. But Musk said he saw “a lot to be gained” in bringing the businesses together.

How likely is the merger?
“In my opinion, 100%. It’s just a question of when,” says David Nicholson, chief technology advisor at market research firm The Futurum Group. The unveiling of the Tesla Roadster last week – a futuristic electric car powered by SpaceX rocket thrusters – served as a “symbolic embodiment” hinting at the two Musk companies merging, Nicholson said.

Musk, chief executive of both SpaceX and Tesla, said bringing the firms together would be beneficial given the work each does around chips, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology projects. Specifically, the deal would combine Tesla’s cars, robots and self-driving technology with SpaceX’s rockets, data centres, satellites and telecommunications operations.

The move could be a step towards Musk’s mission to build a self-sustaining city on Mars – a vision that has invited sceptics but also plenty of backers. Over the past year, Musk has moved to consolidate his businesses, with SpaceX acquiring xAI and X, formerly Twitter, before going public this year. But the merger would ultimately be decided by shareholders, with half of Tesla’s needed to back the deal, a threshold even Musk described as “quite a high hurdle”.

Musk, as boss of both companies, cannot participate in shareholder discussions. Even so, Musk, a key shareholder of Tesla, will likely get his way in the next few years, said investment analyst Dan Sheehan from Telos Wealth Advisors. He believes shareholders will back the deal as the technology the companies develop complement each other, Sheehan said.

But the merger would mean that Tesla shareholders will likely hold a “smaller slice of a much larger and more complex business,” he added. “There’s no real precedent for how a public company like Tesla gets priced in this,” Sheehan said. SpaceX shares rose 8% in after hours trading while shares of Tesla climbed by 2%.

What would it mean for customers?
Experts told the BBC that Tesla drivers are unlikely to see much drastic change in the near term, even if the two companies combine. In fact, vehicles seem almost like “an afterthought”, overshadowed by the potential to combine the Tesla and SpaceX’s tech capabilities, Nicholson said. Changes are already underway at Tesla. The carmaker said earlier this year that it would prioritise its best-selling Model Y and Model 3, shifting focus away from less popular models. Tesla also started using a manufacturing plant in California to produce humanoid robots, known as Optimus.

Tesla’s vehicle line-up includes the Cybertruck and Model 3


Pairing Tesla’s self-driving technology and robotics with SpaceX’s AI and satellite network could result in more capable vehicles, Sheehan said. “The question is how much priority cars get inside a company increasingly driven by AI infrastructure,” he added. The recent Roadster showcase suggests SpaceX technology could be pulled into future Tesla products, which could attract more customers, said Tu Le, the founder of advisory firm Sino Auto Insights. The Cybertruck-maker faces intense competition from Chinese carmakers like BYD, which overtook Tesla as the world’s biggest EV maker in January.

What does Musk get out of it?
The biggest winner is probably Musk – the world’s richest man who also became the world’s first trillionaire earlier this year. The merger would give Musk greater voting control over the combined company than he currently has at Tesla, a factor the special committee assessing the deal would have to consider. A single company makes it easier for Musk to run his AI strategy the way he wants, Sheehan said. “The deal itself doesn’t add to Musk’s wealth, but it concentrates it further in one stock,” he said.

However, the merger could attract scrutiny over Musk, already a polarising figure in the US, Nicholson said. The move could also face more regulatory pressure if Democrats – many of whom have been critical of Musk – win more seats in the US midterm elections next month. Shareholders have backed Musk’s desires before. Last year, Tesla investors approved an unprecedented compensation package for Musk valued around $1tn.

“I honestly don’t think Musk will be keeping track of what the merger will do for his wealth,” Nicholson said.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/2112710372280914137?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 21 2026

Oct 212026
 
 October 21, 2026  Posted by at 8:27 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  41 Responses »


René Magritte Promenades d’Euclid 1955


• Time For Someone Other Than Zelensky To Speak For Ukraine – Trump (RT)
• Suddenly Zelenskyy Thanks USA: All Early Warning Systems Working Great (CTH)
• Rubio Notes Ukraine Officials are Lying and Manipulative (CTH)
• Zelensky Lobbies US Senators To Pressure Trump – Axios (RT)
• Zelensky Says He Wants To Run For President Again (RT)
• Zelenskyy Calls Rubio as Witkoff Travels to Meet Him in Norway (CTH)
• Rubio Warned About Left-Wing Terrorism. Now It’s Burning Down France (ETM)
• No Kings: The Only One Telling The Truth Wore a Clown Suit (Eric Florack)
• No Record of Ilhan Omar’s Father’s U.S. Naturalization? (Catherine Salgado)
• Did Ilhan Omar’s Husband Sell Empty Barrels of Wine? (Catherine Salgado)
• Senator Says Biden et al Too Chicken To Pack The Court (Turley)
• The French Protests Are Being Misunderstood (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The USA Dodges a Bullet – Alberta Independence Votee Fails by 3:1 Ratio (CTH)
• The Immortal Jellyfish Can Beat Ageing (BBC)

 

 

 

 


But Europe put all its money on the little man.

That money has little value left.

Because Trump wants peace, and Europe wants a war that is only feasible with Trump’s support..

“The Ukrainian leader could have ended Kiev’s conflict with Moscow “a long time ago,” the US president has said..”

• Time For Someone Other Than Zelensky To Speak For Ukraine – Trump (RT)

It is high time Ukraine found itself a new representative to negotiate peace with Russia, US President Donald Trump has said, adding that Vladimir Zelensky “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” He also stated that he was ready to discuss a resolution to the conflict with Russia and China.


The statement comes amid a deepening rift between Trump and Zelensky over the Ukrainian military’s continued targeting of Russian refineries at a time when the American president has struck a deal with Moscow aimed at reining in skyrocketing global energy prices through Russian diesel exports. “Zelensky’s a man that should have this war settled a long time ago,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked about the Ukrainian leader’s criticism of his deal with President Vladimir Putin.

“Zelensky doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Trump said. “To be honest, I think it’s time for someone else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine. Maybe it’s time for Zelensky to get someone else to negotiate.” The agreement between Trump and Putin, reached earlier this month, involved the US easing restrictions on Moscow’s diesel exports and waiving the “bone-crushing” sanctions, including 500% tariffs on imports from Russia and 100% tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil and gas, in exchange for Moscow supplying diesel to the global market and potentially to the US as well.

Kiev has continued to target Russian oil infrastructure despite repeated requests by Trump to curb the attacks, which he blames for surging global energy prices. On Monday, the US president reiterated that Kiev was acting ungratefully towards America. “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine, they’ve given nothing to us… We’ve given hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said.

When asked if he would be ready to negotiate a settlement of the Ukraine conflict with Moscow and Beijing, without Zelensky present, Trump said he just wanted the conflict to end and would do “anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody is there or not.” Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin said that Putin, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could potentially meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month.

Trump’s remarks on Monday follow a series of similar statements he has made in recent days. Over the weekend, the American president accused Zelensky of being unwilling to ever end the conflict. “He doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump stated at the time.

On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also suggested that Zelensky has “no desire” to reach a settlement because his government would collapse if Ukraine signed a deal acceptable to both the US and Russia. Moscow has long accused Ukraine’s Western backers, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, of sabotaging the 2022 peace talks in Istanbul. Russia has also identified the stance of Ukraine’s European backers as one of the key obstacles to resolving the conflict.

Read more …

Witkoff laid out Trump’s vision for them. They did not like it.

Witkoff travels, Kushner hooks up via video.

Presser without Witkoff is interesting: it’s only for political leaders..

Norway and Finland are not important countries, not much voice, sorry.

• Suddenly Zelenskyy Thanks USA: All Early Warning Systems Working Great (CTH)

This is a very interesting public presser from Ukraine President Zelenskyy, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and a subdued Finnish President Alexander Stubb. This press event follows President Trump Emissary Steve Witkoff meeting with Zelenskyy, Stoere and Stubb. Steve Witkoff leaves Norway and is going to St Petersburg to meet with Russian Federation Vladimir Putin tomorrow.


When asked why Witkoff was not present {10:00}, the host PM Jonas Stoere says, “this is a press conference among political leaders,” and then quickly moves on. Both Stoere and Stubb are very subdued from their prior public statements that put themselves in opposition to the U.S. Trump administration and now suddenly reverse and say it is important for them to remain engaged with the USA effort and for all EU nations to support discussions with Russia.

Following Stubb {@13:00} Zelenskyy notes that Witkoff traveling to meet with Putin tomorrow is very important, and he is very happy that “early warning systems” are working and “it’s great.” Zelenskyy repeated referenced the call with Secretary Marco Rubio in outlining a shift in tone that is suddenly very appreciative of the USA support. A very curious shift. WATCH:


As previously noted, there is an early plan for China (Xi), Russia (Putin) and the USA (Trump) to meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit next month in China. Little man Zelenskyy clarifies his prior comments about a trilateral meeting by saying that his comments were directed to a possible U.S, Russia, Ukraine trilateral meeting and not the APEC sideline.

At 16:00 Peter Baker (NYT) obviously notes the tone change visible in this presser and asks about what is going on? Baker was taken aback when Zelenskyy, Stubb and Stoere affirm the positive and constructive meeting with Steve Witkoff, and “there is nothing to gain” by looking at things said yesterday, said Stoere.

Finland President Stubb joins with very complimentary statements of Steve Witkoff affirming his belief this meeting has clarified a lot of issues that now lead toward peace. “Today was a big success” Stubb emphasized as the press conference concludes.

It sounds to me like Secretary Rubio used his linguistic battle skills to pin Zelenskyy on the issue of stirring up trouble and that set up Steve Witkoff for a solid meeting without the political drama and narrative constructs of recent weeks.

The trio of Zelenskyy, Stoere and Stubb looked considerably smaller in this presser perhaps realizing their miniscule stature in the grand scheme of geopolitical affairs. It will be very interesting to see how the U.S. media react to this shifted tone from today – particularly as it relates to the New York Times and Peter Baker’s narrative engineering effort.

Read more …

“Following 45 Minute Call with Zelenskyy, Secretary Marco Rubio Notes Ukraine Officials are Lying and Manipulative Which He Told Zelenskyy Openly”

• Rubio Notes Ukraine Officials are Lying and Manipulative (CTH)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio answers questions from media while visiting India. The major focus of the questions to Rubio surrounded Ukraine and the conflicting stories from Zelenskyy.


Secretary Rubio noted he had just completed a 45-minute phone call with Zelenskyy where Rubio talked to the Ukraine President about his continued promotion of false reports to media about U.S. support and assistance. As noted, Rubio emphasized nothing substantive has changed in the U.S. support profile with Ukraine and President Trump has not modified any security arrangement at all. Zelenskyy is just making stuff up.

Rubio noted that Ukraine is targeting U.S. commercial shipping in the Black Sea and that has to stop. That was part of the phone call. Additionally, Rubio emphasized how Ukraine officials are just “making stuff up” for some reason, that can best be considered a Ukraine political operation against the Trump White House. WATCH:

Read more …

Where and how did they get a photo that makes Zel almost look of normal height?

• Zelensky Lobbies US Senators To Pressure Trump – Axios (RT)

Zelensky meets with US lawmakers on Capitol Hill, July 28, 2026

Vladimir Zelensky has appealed to a bipartisan group of US senators to pressure President Donald Trump into lifting alleged restrictions on American military assistance and intelligence sharing, Axios reported on Monday.

During a virtual meeting with lawmakers led by Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democrat Richard Blumenthal on Monday, Zelensky complained about alleged disruptions to weapons deliveries, satellite communications and early warnings of Russian missile attacks, according to a transcript obtained by Axios from Ukrainian officials.


The Ukrainian leader suggested that Washington had deliberately “slowed down support” to force Kiev into accepting a negotiated settlement with Moscow.

The lobbying effort comes as Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Kiev’s refusal to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries, which the American president has blamed for worsening a global diesel shortage and driving up fuel prices for US consumers.

The dispute escalated earlier this month after Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports and increase supplies to the global market. Kiev publicly condemned the agreement, accusing Washington of making concessions to Moscow behind Ukraine’s back.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner reportedly reminded Ukrainian negotiators during talks in Miami that Washington was supplying Kiev with weapons and intelligence and that Ukraine should not pursue attacks that hurt American consumers. Ukrainian officials interpreted the remarks as a threat to suspend that assistance unless the refinery strikes stopped.

Washington has denied issuing any such ultimatum. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rejected claims that Washington deliberately restricted intelligence sharing or Starlink access. The Pentagon has likewise denied changing its intelligence-sharing policy.

Yet Zelensky continued to challenge the administration, telling senators that SpaceX’s Starlink and the US military’s Starshield satellite systems remained partially restricted and that Ukraine had missed US early warnings about Russian ballistic missile attacks on three occasions over the past week.

He also accused Secretary of War Pete Hegseth of holding up Patriot interceptor missiles and AIM-9X missiles that NATO countries had already purchased for Kiev. The Washington Post separately reported that the Pentagon had yet to authorize certain transfers of Patriot missiles from third countries.

Following the meeting, Blumenthal pledged further congressional action, saying bipartisan support for Kiev remained “clear and unequivocal.”

Trump, meanwhile, lashed out at Zelensky on Monday, accusing him of obstructing efforts to end the conflict and suggesting that someone else should negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf.

“Zelensky doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Trump told reporters. “Maybe it’s time for Zelensky to get someone else to negotiate… We’ve given a lot to Ukraine, they’ve given nothing to us.”

Read more …

“The Ukrainian leader, whose term expired two years ago, wants to run again despite promising that he would only serve one term..”

• Zelensky Says He Wants To Run For President Again (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said he wants to run for president again if an election is held before the conflict with Russia ends. His five-year term expired two years ago, prompting Moscow to question his legitimacy, while US President Donald Trump has called for him to be replaced. Zelensky has refused to call a new election since his term expired in May 2024, citing martial law, which was imposed after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. During his 2019 election campaign, he promised to only serve one term.


Speaking to NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, Zelensky said he would seek another term if an election is held while the fighting continues. “If it will be during the war – of course. It’s my responsibility, because I have to defend my country from the very beginning to end of this war,” he stated. Zelensky once again demanded a ceasefire of at least 60 days to prepare for the election, claiming that the country needs time to amend its laws and put election infrastructure in place.

Moscow has rejected the demand. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Kiev could use an election as a pretext to secure a 60-day ceasefire to “regroup,” recover its military losses, and resume the fighting. He added, however, that Russia is prepared to suspend strikes on election day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that Zelensky’s presidential powers should have passed to the parliament after his mandate expired, and questioned whether he can sign binding peace agreements. He called Zelensky’s refusal to hold elections a “strategic mistake.”

Zelensky’s ambitions also face opposition at home. A survey in September by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology found that 53% of respondents believe he should only serve one presidential term, up from 46% in December 2025.

Trump has stepped up pressure on Zelensky, accusing him of prolonging the conflict while receiving billions in Western assistance. Earlier this month, he called for a new president, arguing that Zelensky has repeatedly rejected opportunities to end the fighting.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” Trump told reporters.

He also blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries for the worsening global diesel crisis and rising prices which hurt American farmers, accusing Zelensky of creating “problems for the world” despite his repeated demands to stop the attacks.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” arguing that he could have secured a better deal with Russia two years ago. He added that Ukraine is “in shambles,” describing its male population as “low, wounded, and/or dead.”

Read more …

“At the end of every anti-Trump voice, is an alignment with Ukraine. At this point it’s impossible to ignore. Once you see it you can never unsee it.”

• Zelenskyy Calls Rubio as Witkoff Travels to Meet Him in Norway (CTH)

Many Americans wonder why Ukraine is a central issue in the USA midterm election. To those voices I would remind them that all aligned individuals and organizations who support the premise of Ukraine are core adversaries to the America-First doctrine. At the end of every anti-Trump voice, is an alignment with Ukraine. At this point it’s impossible to ignore. Once you see it you can never unsee it.


There is a very specific way that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly describes contacts with the U.S. administration when he is unable to manipulate the narrative within the conversation. What follows below is an example of that. Note the difference in Zelenskyy’s tone.


The reality of dealing with a person skilled in diplomatic clarity (Rubio) is unnerving to those who are skilled at diplomatic political theater (Zelenskyy); their tone retreats, because the conversation is no longer swirling around pretense. Zelenskyy, feeling empowered due to the anti-Trump elements that support him, speaks in a passive-aggressive tone and a disrespectful manner when generally talking about the Trump administration.

Zelenskyy’s prism is very narrow, self-centered, combative and bitter when he anticipates not getting his demands met. The most common reference for this expressed mindset is a teenage daughter who wantdaughter’ss something indulgent, but her Mom/Dad is not willing to give in to the demands and expectations. The daughter’s sympathetic friends are codependent enablers.

In the latest development, Zelenskyy is traveling to Oslo, Norway, where he will be surrounded by his codependents as he meets yet again with President Trump’s Emissary Steve Witkoff. Why Norway? Why does Zelenskyy need to be surrounded by EU enablers when discussing terms and conditions? The media always pretends not to notice this pattern.

In Norway Zelenskyy will be supported by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb. I would remind readers that it was Norwegian PM Stoere who previously claimed Russia had attacked Zelenskyy’s airplane in Moldova with a drone strike – that nonsense was entirely made up yet spread by EU media quickly.


Meanwhile Finland (bordering Northern Russia) has recently been supporting 1,000+ drone flights from Ukraine that crossed Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on the way to strike St Petersburg, Russia. Now, reasonable people will notice that’s a long route for small drones over EU-NATO countries to avoid Russian anti-drone defenses.

Such a reasonably minded person will also note that’s a very long distance for drone propulsion (fuel) to last, and that reasonable person will likely then realize the 1,000+ drones that targeted St Petersburg didn’t originate in Ukraine at all.

The most likely scenario was the 1,000+ drones were launched by Ukraine operatives from inside NATO countries including Estonia – which happens to be the home country of Kaja Kallas the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.

CTH will also emphasize the timing here. Presumably, if you accept the NATO narrative, the 1,000+ drones took off from western Ukraine, flew north through Poland, crossed Lithuania (a few crashed there) and then Latvia, and finally turned east toward St Petersburg from Estonia at the very end; again, presumably, to avoid Russian air defenses.

This complicated 1,000+ drone operation happened at exactly the same time Zelenskyy was creating a very specific narrative about being allowed to use Starshield for these types of targeting operations.

Stand back and look at this construct. Zelenskyy’s NATO friends (Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Norway, etc., continue to provoke a counterattack by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. EU-NATO is openly arming, supporting and now assisting in launching direct attacks against a nuclear-armed superpower.

Ultimately this is why the lying liar who lies, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, must constantly be surrounded by his EU defenders as he meets with President Trump’s Emissary for peace, Steve Witkoff. If Zelenskyy stands alone in the discussion he runs the risk of exposing EU-NATO fraud, manipulation and ultimately control by his EU-NATO handlers.

This twisted network of schemes and conniving interests is why Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy needs Norway to protect him from direct inquisition by Witkoff. Standing on the truth doesn’t need support or even a memory. Standing on a mountain of lies requires lots of help to remain stable.

OSLO, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will fly to Oslo to meet US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday, trying to repair ties with Washington that have deteriorated sharply over the past two weeks as President Donald Trump has increasingly courted Moscow.

Trump, who has waived sanctions on Russia in what he says is an effort to lower US fuel prices, has repeatedly rebuked Zelenskiy. Kyiv says Washington has lately failed to provide early warning notification of Russian missile launches, and has throttled SpaceX satellite links that guide Ukrainian drones.

On Monday, Trump said “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine” and “Zelenskiy is not helping matters much”. He called on Kyiv to find “somebody else to negotiate”.

Zelenskiy said he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on issues including ballistic missile interceptors, early warning of Russian missile attacks and “the situation with Starlink/Starshield, which needs to be restored”, referring to the SpaceX satellite system.

[…] Western European countries consider defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion to be an existential issue for the continent’s security and have strongly backed Zelenskiy, seeking to head off a deeper rupture between Washington and Kyiv.

The United States under Trump has already largely stopped providing weapons to Ukraine, but allows European countries to buy them on Kyiv’s behalf and provides intelligence and technology that Europe can’t match.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said the goal of hosting Tuesday’s meetings was “to steer the diplomatic efforts onto a more constructive path”.

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said he would attend meetings with Zelenskiy and Stoere to discuss “Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine and the overall security situation in Europe.”

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Trump is very right: “The people that came in do not love France or these other countries under attack. They don’t love the people. They don’t love the art. They don’t love the architecture of the buildings. They don’t love anything that surrounds them.”

• Rubio Warned About Left-Wing Terrorism. Now It’s Burning Down France (ETM)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned about left-wing terrorism threatening Western Civilization. Now, Europe is seeing what these groups are capable of.


“Antifa militants and their comrades travel from across Europe and to the Americas to participate in each other’s attacks, to funnel propaganda and training, materials, and target information through shared encrypted channels—moving through underground networks of safe houses, and finance and sustain their operations through transnational funds,” Rubio warned in July.

On Monday, the Louvre in Paris had to be shut down due to protesters barricading the entrances. This followed a weekend of violent riots that caused damage to government buildings and thousands of businesses and led to nearly 2,400 arrests across France. Almost 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured during the violence on Saturday, and at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted over the weekend. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu blamed far-left groups for causing “profound unrest in the country in the run-up to the presidential election,” Reuters reported.

“The violence unfolding in France underscores the threat Secretary Rubio warned about at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism: political violence and extremist networks pose a growing threat to public safety and stability,” a State Department official told the Daily Signal on Tuesday. “Governments must take seriously the consequences of failing to secure their borders and enforce their immigration laws, particularly when it comes to identifying and addressing security threats.”

In November 2025, the State Department designated four European far-left groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. These include Antifa Ost, the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front, Armed Proletarian Justice, and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense. When the riots began, they were led by students protesting the conditions in schools. They have broadened into a wider revolt against the cost of living, dissatisfaction with the government, and cuts to public spending.

President Donald Trump said the violence in France will spread to America if Republicans lose the upcoming midterm election. “If you want to see what is at stake in this election, just look at what’s happening in France, a once great nation that is being conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists who hate Christianity and they hate, frankly, the Western civilization itself,” he said Monday at a rally in Kansas. Trump has said that the unrest is an “immigration problem.”

“They’re losing Europe. That’s never happening to the United States of America,” he said. “The people that came in do not love France or these other countries under attack. They don’t love the people. They don’t love the art. They don’t love the architecture of the buildings. They don’t love anything that surrounds them.” Vice President JD Vance said Monday he warned French President Emmanuel Macron to close the borders to prevent the current unrest, but Macron didn’t listen.

“I told him a long time ago, you’re making a big mistake in France. You’re letting everybody from the world come in. The whole world was coming in, and you know, as you know, Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon, and that wasn’t the deal,” he told reporters during his travels to North Carolina for a campaign rally. “That wasn’t the deal. I told Emmanuel, you should close up your borders, and let’s see. I’ve known him for probably eight or nine years. I told him as soon as I met him. I said, ‘You’re making a big mistake.’ We closed our borders. He didn’t.”

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“A king doesn’t stand for midterms. A king doesn’t watch courts block his executive orders week after week, or answer to a Congress that can defund him, or leave office on a date fixed in the Constitution.”

• No Kings: The Only One Telling The Truth Wore a Clown Suit (Eric Florack)

I won’t say where, but I ran across yet another gaggle of “No Kings” idiots lining the shoulder of a major highway. What made the whole thing comical was the guy in the clown suit, about a half mile back, carrying a sign that read “Caution: Stupid People Ahead.” I tell you, it made my morning.


Here’s the thing. That clown was the most honest participant in the whole production. He knew he was wearing a costume. He owned it. The folks up the road with the hand-lettered signs decidedly did not.

I’ve watched these gatherings of useful idiots roll across the country for well over a year now. I’ve even written about it a time or two. Yesterday marked round four. Indivisible, MoveOn, and the 50501 Movement kicked this off on Donald Trump’s birthday in June 2025, then returned in October, again in March, and again this weekend. And this time the organizers decided to drop the pretense. According to coverage of the planning, they billed the October 17 events as nonpartisan voter-participation activities rather than protests.

Nonpartisan? Yeah, right. About two weeks before a midterm. Organized by MoveOn. Yeah, I don’t think so. A movement built from the ground up to oppose one Republican president, run by groups that exist to elect Democrats, now wants you to believe its Saturday highway rallies serve civic hygiene. That’s not a protest anymore. That’s a get-out-the-vote operation wearing a protest costume, and it fits about as well as the clown’s polka dots.

Then there’s the name itself: “No Kings.” Organizers say the country doesn’t belong to kings, dictators, or tyrants. Fine. I agree. So does every conservative I know, and so did the Founders, who handled the actual king business in 1776. But a king doesn’t face voters. A king doesn’t stand for midterms. A king doesn’t watch courts block his executive orders week after week, or answer to a Congress that can defund him, or leave office on a date fixed in the Constitution. This president does all of those things.

The people on that highway shoulder know this, or at least the ones running the show do. Even if you’re dressed in a turnip suit like a contestant on The Price Is Right, you can’t simultaneously claim we live under a monarch and organize a voter drive to throw out his party in November. Pick one. Either the elections mean something, in which case “No Kings” is hysteria, or they don’t, in which case why bother with the voter drive?

They won’t pick, because the slogan was never about kings. It’s about branding. Somebody in a consulting shop figured out that “No Kings” tests better than “We lost in 2024 and we’re still having a tantrum” and that a nice patriotic-sounding phrase gives cover to people who otherwise spend their time explaining why the Constitution is outdated.

I think what we’re seeing here is evidence that the left has already taken its shot. It is desperately trying to be relevant in a world that not only doesn’t see any relevance in its cause, but sees it in a negative light. Even the leftist fishwrappers have started to admit that the Democrats are not doing so well, after all. But these protesters act as if they know none of it. They keep going on with this nonsense because it’s all they have left. They keep the chants going because that’s the only arrow still in the quiver.

The organizers love to brag about numbers. After last October’s round, they claimed that more than 7 million people showed up at 2,700-plus events, and boasted that the turnout dwarfed both of Trump’s inaugurations combined. Maybe. Crowd counts from the people selling the crowd deserve the same skepticism you’d give a used-car lot’s “best prices in town” banner. But grant them the number. Seven million people standing on curbs and highway shoulders in a nation of 340 million is still a rounding error. And it still loses to the 77 million who walked into a voting booth and made the choice the No Kings crowd keeps trying to relitigate on Saturdays.

Now, that clown suit guy? I’ll give him credit. He didn’t block anybody. He didn’t claim to save democracy. He walked a half mile back from the main event, held up a sign, and warned the rest of us about what lay ahead. Public service, plain and simple. The No Kings people spent their Saturday telling America it lives under a tyrant. The clown spent his time telling America the truth.

I know which one I’d vote for.

Read more …

“.. the recent raid on Omar‘s home was specifically related to her and her father‘s citizenship status..”

• No Record of Ilhan Omar’s Father’s U.S. Naturalization? (Catherine Salgado)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) herself previously stated that she received her American citizenship through her father, whom she said became a naturalized citizen while she was still a legal minor. But a Trump administration investigation indicates that her father might never have obtained naturalization officially, making her citizenship likewise suspect.


While this report about Omar’s father has been circulating for a while, Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik and former candidate AJ Kern, who ran against Omar, claim to have obtained official letters from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) revealing no record of naturalization papers for Omar‘s father. USCIS has not yet confirmed this fact publicly, and the investigation into Omar and her family remains ongoing.


The New York Post reported last week that the recent raid on Omar‘s home was specifically related to her and her father‘s citizenship status. At the same time, the Post acknowledged that Kern had requested information about Nur Omar Mohamed — originally Nur Said Elmi Mohamed — which is how Kern claims she ended up with the letters.

Incidentally, Nur Said Elmi allegedly participated in genocide in Somaliland before coming to America. The family was not “refugees” so much as foreign war criminals seeking shelter here from the consequences of their crimes.


Even if Omar’s citizenship were legitimate, there is evidence that she lied so she could run for Congress. Article III Project founder Mike Davis explained that Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution requires American citizenship of at least seven years before being eligible to serve in the House of Representatives. The Trump administration is investigating the possibility that Omar requested a change in her birth year so that she could claim she was a minor who received citizenship from her father, when in fact she was already 18 at that time.

So she not only tampered with records of her age, but she might have also done so on the false premise that her dad was, in fact, a U.S. citizen. Multiple members of Omar’s family are also under scrutiny for potential immigration or USAID fraud. Talk about an illustration of exactly why immigration from fundamentalist Muslim nations, especially chain migration of entire families, is such a disaster for America.

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This is about her American husband, not about the brother she allegedly married.

• Did Ilhan Omar’s Husband Sell Empty Barrels of Wine? (Catherine Salgado)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and her family seem to have abandoned their life as murderous warlords in Somalia only to become professional fraudsters in America.


Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett — the one to whom she is currently married, not her brother, whom she pretended to marry for immigration fraud purposes — used to run a winery. Because, you know, she’s a super devout Muslim and all that. The winery abruptly closed earlier this year amid official scrutiny. Turns out part of the problem might’ve been that Omar’s husband was selling investors empty barrels of wine. It’s absolutely incredible how these people seem incapable of running a business or holding a job that is not a front for crime.


In fact, Not the Bee sums up all the latest allegations against Omar very succinctly:


Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), House Oversight Committee chairman, made the revelation about the empty wine barrels during an interview Monday on Fox News. “From our initial investigation of Omar and her financial disclosure form, there are multiple fronts where you could get a search warrant issued,” he said. The Trump administration recently raided Omar’s D.C. home.



Comer continued, “Not only was there a huge discrepancy in the financial disclosure form, there was the winery that was the big base of her $25 million listing on her financial disclosure form.” He added, “That winery has, according to the press, been shut down because of fraud. They were apparently selling investors barrels of wine to be aged, but there was nothing in the barrels.”

This would explain why the winery suddenly shut down. Omar and Mynett made a killing off a business that either didn’t have anything to sell or didn’t have as much to sell as it claimed, and then they just shuttered the business and cut their losses, expecting no consequences.


Comer also referred to Omar’s numerous connections to the Somali fraud network in Minnesota, including through earmarking taxpayer money for an alleged substance abuse clinic that was actually a fraud scam run out of a restaurant. Omar’s sister Sahra Noor likewise seems to be connected both to the $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scam and a USAID fraud scheme. It’s all in the family.

Read more …

When all else fails, you can always blame the Supreme Court.

• Senator Says Biden et al Too Chicken To Pack The Court (Turley)

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has added schoolyard taunts to his call to pack the Supreme Court with an instant liberal majority. Last week, Whitehouse denounced former President Joe Biden and other Democrats for being “too chicken” to pack the Court and, in the view of many of us, destroy the institution that has been critical to the success of this Republic for 250 years.


The Lever’s David Sirota, a former speechwriter and adviser to Bernie Sanders, set the table for Whitehouse by asking him about how the public can join the resistance to the Court, which is “enabling an anti-democratic project.” With that, Whitehouse was off to the chicken races:

“Well, I think it starts with truth telling and I think the chief executive of the United States has the proverbial bully, the bulliest of all pulpits, and should be prepared to make the argument about what has gone wrong with the courts. The Biden administration was highly reluctant to do that. They completely chickened out. Biden set up that lame committee commission on the Supreme Court and then squelched both Judge Gertner and Professor Tribe when they wanted to describe some of the actual problems at the court so that they couldn’t even get that into the report.”

He then added: “The Biden people didn’t want to go there. They were completely chicken about all that. They wanted no part of that. And it — really wasn’t until the very end, in his last speech after he and Harris had both lost that Biden seemed to have at least somewhat awakened to the fact that the Supreme Court had a real integrity problem.”

The one thing upon which we agree is that the Biden commission was a sham. At the time, I wrote a piece entitled “Is Biden’s Supreme Court Commission Packed to Fail?” I wrote about how the Administration assembled an array of far-left faculty to debate radical changes to the Court. It was breathlessly followed by the press and many on the left as figures like Tribe denounced the Court as fundamentally broken. Of course, few of these voices, including Tribe, held those views when the Court ruled their way with a liberal majority.

The commission appeased the rising radical left in the Democratic Party in a classic Washington death-by-commission strategy. They produced a report that few read and then went back to their respective faculties as happy social warriors.

It is also not surprising that Whitehouse would single out Laurence Tribe, who has attacked conservatives in vulgar terms (as well as other professors like myself). This has included religious attacks and false statements that required public corrections. He has also called for Trump and others to be charged with an endless array of crimes from attempted murder to treason.

Whitehouse was an early champion of the partisan court-packing scheme. His obsession with the plan is telling. Whitehouse has actively spread the false narrative that the justices are, to use Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s description, partisan “hacks.” (Chemerinsky was also a member of the ill-considered commission).

It is a narrative that is entirely unconnected to reality. As I discussed in a recent column, the Court continues not only to rule against this president in major cases but also to rule unanimously or nearly unanimously in the vast majority of cases.

The portrayal of the voting pattern of conservatives as raw politics is an old saw on Capitol Hill. In the confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse raised this issue, asking, “When is a pattern evidence of bias?” Whitehouse noted a voting pattern by the five conservative justices who “go raiding off together.” Whitehouse denounced how the “Roberts Five” of “Republican appointees” join in such decisions and “no Democratic appointee joins them.” He simply ignored the “Ginsburg Four” on the other side of most of those opinions. Those liberal justices are not ideologues because they are treated as manifestly right.

The false narrative is part of a concerted effort by Democratic politicians to condition voters into accepting court packing. Professors and pundits are now demanding that court-packing be an actual litmus test for Democratic candidates.

The reason is a sad statement about the state of American politics. Presented with the prospect of guaranteeing power for years by rejecting our constitutional values and traditions, politicians like Whitehouse are choosing power.

James Carville wants Democrats to hide this intended move from the public (which continues to oppose court packing). Carville told Democratic candidates: “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—k it. Eat our dust. Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”

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.” It is the Nike School of Constitutional Law. Democratic leaders are pledging to “just do it” to appease the mob.

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 make these changes possible.

Notably, the far left is now turning on those establishment politicians who are not showing commitment to this agenda, even when they are mouthing the same rhetoric. It is the historic problem with pandering to the left. These demands create an insatiable appetite for radical change, and figures like Whitehouse will continue to fuel the rage against those, even in his own party, who show any hesitation or qualms at this moment.

Whitehouse is right that many in the Democratic Party do not “want to go” where he wants to lead them. After 250 years of the most successful Republic in history, Sheldon Whitehouse wants others to join him in a fevered demolition project. If you even pump the brakes, you are chicken in Sheldon Whitehouse’s mad rush for the constitutional cliff.

Read more …

“.. a feeling by European ethnics that they are losing their own countries and suffering lower living standards and higher crime rates because their governments do not represent them.”

• The French Protests Are Being Misunderstood (Paul Craig Roberts)

The French protests that are spreading over Europe are not receiving proper attention. The explanation that students all over France, with the disturbances spreading into Italy and Belgium, are burning down historic buildings and looting businesses because they are dissatisfied with the conditions of their school buildings is not a convincing narrative.


Some suspect the violence is connected with the immigrant-invaders, and it is, but it is a different connection than suspected. My take on the events is that the uprising, which seems to be what it is, is the result of many years of frustration and disappointments suffered by European ethnicities because of their rulers’ disregard of them..nEuropean and British governments have spent their energies on matters that negatively impact their populations.

Matters such as globalism which serves a few corporations and international bureaucracies at the expense of people; such matters as complying with Washington’s sanctions against Russia which has destroyed business relationships between Europe and Russia, the values of companies, and, as a result of Washington-imposed sanctions on Russia and Russia’s business partners, high energy prices in Europe and hundreds of thousands of labor force reductions in the German auto industry; matters such as no thought for the employment of European ethnic youth, especially those with university educations, a problem magnified by the permitted influx of millions of invaders, the presence of whom further jammed employment markets, drained Europeans of funds to support children, thus the low birth rate and ongoing replacement of Europeans, and, more importantly, a feeling by European ethnics that they are losing their own countries and suffering lower living standards and higher crime rates because their governments do not represent them.

This is what I meant when I said that the rebellion is connected to immigrant-invaders. It is the French themselves who are rebelling whatever the participation of the immigrant-invaders.

The failure of European and British democracy to represent European and British peoples is demonstrated by the extraordinary low approval rates all European and British governments have. If polls are believable French President Macron is supported by 10% of the French people. This is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship but without the power.

My conclusion is that Europe and America are in crisis and that the political beneficiaries of ruling positions in government are trying to hold their own governments and the EU together by emphasizing “the Russian threat.”

American unity is also at risk. People elsewhere in the world think of Americans as rich, but they are not. A rich person is a person who has disposable income–income that is not committed to debt payments such as home mortgages, credit card debt, car and truck payments, monthly utility (electric and fuel oil) bills, and transportation costs. In America such people are limited to the few top percentage points in the income and wealth distribution. The rest are suffering as several New York Times reports have recently emphasized.

The insouciance of “democratically elected governments” to their own citizens, and to the politicians’ own survival, is illustrated by US President Donald Trump’s refusal of Iran’s offer on a silver platter to provide him with a reelected Republican Congress in the midterm elections by opening the Strait and permitting the resumption of oil flows if Trump will call off the war and accept Iran’s right to control its own waterways.

Donald Trump and his regime, like the regime of George W. Bush and so many others, is so aligned with Israel and the Israel Lobby that the President cannot put the interests of the American people and his own interest before Israel’s interest. In keeping with Trump’s and America’s subservience to Israel, Trump declined Iran’s offer to rescue him.

Every ethic European country is having the interests of Israel and the interests of immigrant-invaders jammed down their throats. And there is nothing they can do about it but rebel and roll out the guillotines, the opening stage of which we might be seeing in France. A cold dark winter without energy will further radicalize Europeans.

Read more …

Alberta won’t seceed; Québec might. one day.

• The USA Dodges a Bullet – Alberta Independence Votee Fails by 3:1 Ratio (CTH)

Voters in Alberta, Canada rejected an independence referendum to become independent. As the results are announced approximately 76% of Albertans voted to remain a province within Canada, with 23% voting for independence.


While we have sincere respect for those who sought to get free of the Canadian madness, it is ultimately a good outcome for the USA. A successful exit would have likely begun a process to merge with the USA as a 51st state. Obviously adding another million+ progressive voices to the USA landscape would have been detrimental.

CANADA – Voters in Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta have rejected a proposal to begin a process toward independence, results showed early Tuesday, delivering a victory for Prime Minister Mark Carney and supporters of Canadian unity amid President Trump’s trade war and annexation threats.

The vote was not a direct referendum on independence but would have set oil-rich Alberta on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada. With more than 1 million votes counted, about 76% supported remaining in Canada, compared with 23% who backed beginning a process that could lead to separation. (read more)

There is already an existing process for sane Canadians to exit the ‘mass formation psychosis’ that is worsening their condition. Canadians can apply for legal immigration to the United States.


Read more …

“The immortal jellyfish can beat ageing. It could inspire treatments for diseases of old age..

“Adult cells become ‘undifferentiated’ and become something else that is needed to form the polyp..”

• The Immortal Jellyfish Can Beat Ageing (BBC)


The immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii)

The immortal jellyfish is capable of winding back its lifecycle to become young again. Scientists are unlocking its cellular secrets to find ways human cells could rejuvenate too.


The tiny translucent jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii is surprisingly hard to kill. The marine biologist Maria Miglietta of Texas A&M University at Galveston has cut them, boiled them, starved them, overloaded their tanks with salt or plopped them in fresh water – but the nifty creatures seem to cheat death every time.

Under duress, they stop in their tracks and fall to the bottom of their tank. Then something astonishing happens: the animals transform into balls of cells that bear no resemblance to the tentacled umbrella shape of adult jellyfish, known as the medusa. Within one to three days, a structure called a polyp – an early jellyfish life stage – buds off from this ball of cells and then grows into a colony, which will eventually sprout new medusae.

“From one jellyfish that doesn’t die, then you get this colony that can form hundreds more,” Miglietta says. And each one of these new jellyfish can, in principle, rejuvenate the same way – exhibiting a seemingly endless capacity to wind back to the clock to youth.

Miglietta and other scientists are now studying the genetic and molecular processes that make Turritopsis dohrnii’s death-defying feat possible. By unlocking these secrets, scientists eventually hope to explore whether they can trigger similar kinds of processes in humans. The goal is not to turn elderly people back into babies, Benjamin Button-style – an idea that’s firmly in the realms of science fiction – but to coax cells and tissues into more youthful states to heal wounds and treat age-related maladies.

It’s comforting to think that nature has found a solution to one of the main problems of humans: ageing and death – Maria Miglietta

“The holy grail of this kind of thing, I think, would be regenerative biology: trying to reverse ageing-related degeneration or degradation,” says Michael Koldobskiy, a pediatric oncologist and physician-scientist at Johns Hopkins. “We’re a long way away from harnessing that for human benefit, but I think understanding these organisms that evolved these processes millions of years ago could potentially really pay off.”


A 19th-Century image depicts T. dohrnii, before the extraordinary nature of its lifecycle was discovered (Credit: Alamy)


Turritopsis dohrnii’s regenerative talents were first reported in 1992 by an Italian scientist who was keeping the animals in the lab and forgot to feed them over a weekend. Expecting to find them dead when he returned, “instead he found new polyps in the container”, Miglietta says.

Soon, the biologist Stefano Piraino of Italy’s University of Salento started to take an interest in what made this feat of rejuvenation possible. As embryos develop, so-called stem cells multiply and morph into the nerve cells, muscle cells and various other cell types that make up the body. Usually, they’re stuck in that particular cell type until they age and die. But Piraino discovered that, during the immortal jellyfish’s rejuvenation, certain tissues in the medusa undergo a “transdifferentiation” process where they revert back to a stem cell-type state and then specialise into other cell types.

“Adult cells become ‘undifferentiated’ and become something else that is needed to form the polyp,” says Miglietta, who used to work in Piraino’s lab.

Turritopsis dohrnii’s ability to rejuvenate earned it the nickname “immortal jellyfish”. It is – as far as scientists know – unique in the animal kingdom. While some lizards, worms and amphibians can regrow lost or injured body parts, none come close to reverting adult bodies back into babies. Turritopsis dohrnii is a remarkable demonstration that ageing and mortality is not always a biological inevitability (though scientists can’t rule out that it doesn’t eventually die naturally).

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Debt Rattle October 19 2026

Oct 192026
 
 October 19, 2026  Posted by at 8:26 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  29 Responses »


Jean-Michel Basquiat Self Portrait 1982


• Zelenskyy is Lying – Marco Rubio Responds to False Claims About Ukraine (CTH)
• Rubio Rebukes Zelensky Over Starlink Claims (RT)
• Zelensky Treating Europe As His ‘Personal ATM’ – MEP (RT)
• Riots, Looting and Arson Erupt in France (CTH)
• France Enters “Point Of No Return” As Riots And Chaos Spread (ZH)
• New York Times Leads Leftist Media Movement to Target Trump (CTH)
• Dems Just Cranked Their Government Weaponization Agenda Up to 11 (Margolis)
• Watching Dumbshit White Ethnicities Erasing Themselves (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Who the Left Attracts, Part 2 (A.J. Christopher)
• Ilhan Omar Has a New Problem, and It Came From Her Sister’s Phone (Margolis)
• California Should Not Get To Set Policy For All Of The US (Curtis Hill)
• Quantum and God (David Solway)
• Tesla’s Flying Roadster is Incredibly American (CTH)

 

 

https://twitter.com/RyanAFournier/status/2111805919310803353?s=20

 

 


“The US secretary of state has denied that Washington ordered restrictions on satellite services used by Ukrainian drones..”

• Rubio Rebukes Zelensky Over Starlink Claims (RT)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rejected Vladimir Zelensky’s claim that Washington ordered restrictions on satellite services used by Ukraine to carry out drone strikes deep inside Russia. The dispute comes amid a public spat between the Ukrainian leader and US President Donald Trump over sanctions and strikes on Russian energy facilities.


Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials said SpaceX’s Starlink terminals had suddenly stopped working on drones traveling faster than 160 km/h (100 mph). Zelensky told journalists on Saturday that tests on Starlink equipment in EU countries indicated that the restrictions imposed in Ukraine were “a planned operation.”

Asked to comment on Zelensky’s remarks later that day, Rubio offered a different account. “I don’t know what Zelensky said. I’m not sure Zelensky knows what he’s talking about, but it wasn’t deliberate,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

“We had nothing to do with it. Nobody in the United States ordered that Starlink speed be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it’s been restored. It’s back to where it was before,” the US diplomat said. Rubio confirmed that Ukraine currently had no access to Starshield, Starlink’s military-grade sister service, but had requested it.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk similarly denied restricting Starlink in Ukraine but clarified that the service must be used for civilian and defensive purposes only, not offensive operations.

The Telegraph, however, reported on Friday that Musk had personally asked Trump to cap Starlink speeds for Ukraine, while Reuters reported that the White House had instructed the Pentagon to slow down Starshield. Trump has denied any involvement and said he did not believe Musk was responsible either.

Zelensky said on Saturday that the Starlink restrictions remained in place. A Ukrainian official told Axios that SpaceX had blamed the cap on “a technical problem.”

Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports earlier this month in an effort to curb rising energy prices ahead of the US midterm elections. On Friday, he went further, suspending new sanctions on Russian oil and gas trade on national security grounds. Trump also sought to pressure Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries, which he blamed for contributing to high energy prices.

Zelensky said he felt betrayed by Trump, who, in turn, argued that the Ukrainian leader was “not a good guy for us to deal with” and should be replaced.

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Not much seems to bind them anymore,,

“False Claims About Ukraine, Starlink and Starshield..”

• Zelenskyy is Lying – Marco Rubio Responds to False Claims About Ukraine (CTH)

Again, there are multiple dynamics unfolding inside this story. However, as to the central component of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy complaining about hampered access to Starlink and/or Starshield, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sets the record straight.


Ukraine has never had access to the U.S. military version of Starshield; providing that level of guidance access would be akin to the United States being in direct conflict with Russia using a proprietary U.S. military system. This is not our circus and not our war; there is no need for U.S. military conflict with Russia.

Because Ukraine does not have that access, it is now revealed that Zelenskyy has been using Starlink, a commercially available satellite system – but that system is not permitted by SpaceX to be used for military efforts. This is almost certainly where the relationship between Elon Musk and former Ukraine Defense Minister Michael Fedorov comes into play. Fedorov is no longer in the Ukraine govt. WATCH:


Rubio notes that Zelenskyy’s claims against the White House are nonsense. The White House has not interfered or instructed the military about the use of Starshield because Ukraine has never had Starshield to use. If Ukraine has been violating the terms of service by weaponizing Starlink (they have) then the commercial provider can act independently to block or stop that access. [Full Transcript Below]

In the background of this storyline, we should always remember that about a month ago Russia finalized their own upgraded satellite system that covers Russia and eastern Europe. It is widely suspected the increased accuracy of Russian targeting inside Ukraine is specifically because of their own enhanced capabilities, which now highlights the vulnerability of Ukraine if they do not have weaponize their Starlink access and the new desperation therein.

Bottom line, Secretary of State Marco Rubio continues to highlight his mastery of cutting through the nonsense and staying focused on the priorities of the administration with messaging that cuts through the media chafe. Rubio excels in this role far beyond prior expectations. Very impressive.

On the topic of his travel to the “stans”, watch carefully. This is connected to the overall Russia/Central Asia agenda.

QUESTION: With everything going on in the world and with crisis all over, why are you choosing now, at this time, to go to Uzbekistan?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it’s the time of year that worked for those leaders. It’s not just Uzbekistan, it’s the other four countries from Central Asia. This is an important relationship. I mean, one of the things that suffers is the strategic business. You’re always visiting someplace where there’s a crisis or there’s a problem or there’s a – you’re going because there’s a conference. But there’s countries you’d like to get to because we want to build our relationships with them. And so that’s what we did a couple weeks ago when we went to Greece and other places like that, and earlier, a few weeks earlier than that, we went to Latin America, and now to Central Asia. So – and the chance to see – it was the date that worked to get all five of the leaders together, all five of the foreign ministers from the five countries.

QUESTION: On Starshield, what’s going on? Because Elon Musk said it’s up to the President.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, Starshield or Starlink?

QUESTION: Well, just both.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I know, it’s confusing. So Starlink is a commercial product, okay? And so they – it’s regulated and handled as a commercial product. Starshield is a defense product, a military product. And as I said, I mean, that is something that we have a military – the United States military uses. It’s not at this moment available to Ukraine, and that’s under conversation. It’s under discussion right now of how they would want to use it.

QUESTION: No, but did the U.S. – did the U.S. have anything to do with it not working in Ukraine? Zelenskyy said it was deliberate.

SECRETARY RUBIO: No. Well, I don’t know what Zelenskyy said. I’m not sure Zelenskyy knows what he’s talking about, but it wasn’t deliberate. We have nothing to do with that. I don’t – the United States, nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it’s been restored. It’s back to where it was before. That’s Starlink, though. They were using Starlink for their drones.

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“The Ukrainian leader has demanded an additional €70 billion from the EU to continue the war with Russia..”

• Zelensky Treating Europe As His ‘Personal ATM’ – MEP (RT)

Italian far-right MEP Roberto Vannacci has accused Vladimir Zelensky of treating Europe like an “ATM” after the Ukrainian leader requested another €70 billion ($79 billion) in aid.


Zelensky demanded more money on Friday, just months after the EU approved a massive €90 billion loan to support Ukraine through 2027. “The war will cost 155 billion euros next year. And we need at least 70 billion euros more from you – for defense, for weapons, and for our resilience. This is a realistic amount,” he said at an EU summit in Brussels. Vannacci said Italian taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for further aid to Kiev.

“Zelensky has found some suckers who give him all the billions he asks for, so he just keeps on asking for more,” the MEP said in a video on social media on Friday. He argued that Zelensky’s demands have continued to mount, citing Kiev’s alleged budget shortfalls of €27 billion in 2026 and €32 billion in 2027, followed by a fresh €70 billion demand on top of the €90 billion loan approved in April. He’s come to view us as Ukraine’s personal ATM.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has also rejected the proposed funding, stressing that Bratislava would not participate in another EU financial mechanism for Ukraine. Hungary has adopted a similar position, Fico said, according to Slovakia’s TASR news agency on Friday.

Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic secured exemptions from the financial obligations of the previous €90 billion loan, which EU leaders agreed late last year and finalized in April 2026. Fico has argued that the loan, which is intended to be repaid using future Russian reparations, is effectively a gift that EU members will never recover.

Moscow has long argued that Western military aid only burdens the European taxpayer and prolongs the conflict – which Russia sees as a NATO-led proxy war fought using Ukrainian manpower.

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France looks serious.

“Riots, Looting and Arson Erupt in France with Chaos across Urban Regions in Western Europe..”

• Riots, Looting and Arson Erupt in France (CTH)

Things are not getting better in France, Belgium, Italy and beyond as social chaos continues unfolding. The worst of the street violence seems to be centered throughout France as government officials now report around 500,000 people participated in street “protests” nationally that turned into violent confrontations with police. EU News is reporting that dozens of arrests were made as the chaos unfolded {link}. “The French Interior Ministry said around 550,000 people took part in the protests, including roughly 110,000 in Paris.”


Additionally, AFP is reporting, “The town hall in the French city of Limoges was “largely lost” to a fire set by masked protesters on Saturday, the top regional official told AFP. “The roof has collapsed onto lower floors, except the west wing, and two-thirds of the exterior has already disappeared,” the local prefect, Maurice Barate, said.

Another report highlights the looting that quickly took place as opportunists swooped in to agitate for economic reparations in the form of Hermes swag and Apple Store tech components. {link} Looters in several French cities on Saturday broke into stores ranging from a high-end luxury brand to a bakery, on the sidelines of cost-of-living protests, AFP journalists and authorities said.

In Paris, near the Republique square, the front window of a skincare brand came crashing down, with looters tossing beauty products to dozens of people massing outside, an AFP correspondent saw. [

…] In the second-largest city of Marseille, angry protesters vandalised dozens of shops, targeting luxury brand Hermes as well as others stores selling jewellery, clothes, makeup, household appliances and even bread, a third AFP journalist said.

[…] In the northern city of Lille, shops were vandalised, with looters in particular breaking into an Apple Store in the city centre, Socialist mayor Arnaud Deslandes said.

Several stores were looted in the southern city of Nice, including sportswear outlets and a motorbike dealership.

https://twitter.com/Trustintrump47/status/2111257274115125271?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2111257274115125271%7Ctwgr%5Ea6f8ea139ad5cb209e81f3439302ea60370dee01%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F17%2Friots-looting-and-arson-erupt-in-france-with-chaos-across-urban-regions-in-western-europe%2F

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Islam conquest.

• France Enters “Point Of No Return” As Riots And Chaos Spread (ZH)

President Trump said, “France is burning!” on Truth Social early this morning, as what appears to be the fall of France quickly unfolds. Consumed by nation-killing Third Worldism through a decade of unfettered mass migration and a cancerous far-left movement, the nation is on a troubling trajectory as its imploding welfare state collides with a fiscal mess.


“The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country. Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!” Trump continued.


Vice President JD Vance responded to the accelerating far-left violence on X, saying, “Western liberals imported the third world into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion. They ignored fundamental questions of assimilation and compatibility. They were told it would lead to this and they didn’t listen.”


Euronews described the aftermath of the overnight riots, reporting that “broken glass and litter filled the streets.” Local outlets reported that rioters looted 1,500 retail stores across multiple major cities.


“My thoughts are also with the 1,500 shops belonging to all the other retail chains and with all the shopkeepers who have suffered the same unacceptable violence,” Alexandre Bompard, the chairman and CEO of the Carrefour Group, told the outlet. He said the social unrest would have “considerable human and economic consequences.”

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said earlier today that the weekend riots had injured more than 600 police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters. He said authorities had arrested more than 2,000 rioters.

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2111725889541255470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2111725889541255470%7Ctwgr%5E298c5a11f7546e7f5e82e966033198bb6156f6bf%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Ffrance-enters-point-no-return-riots-and-chaos-spread


The endgame for France is quickly approaching as its generous welfare state can no longer support the influx of migrants and services deteriorate. The country has not balanced its budget since the early 1970s, and sovereign credit default swap spreads are widening in a high-rate environment. The current trajectory, as described by right-wing presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, would put the country on a path toward a sovereign debt crisis.

In recent weeks, Le Pen has already offered a glimpse of the shadow budget she would pursue if she wins next year’s presidential election. That would include shrinking the deficit to 3.7% of economic output next year, well below the government’s 5% target, before bringing it down to 2.2% by 2032. Le Pen’s Polymarket odds of winning the April 18 election stand at nearly 48%, surging in recent weeks as the riots unfolded.

Left-wing corporate media are still providing cover for the far-left rioters and migrants who are torching parts of the country. CBS embarrassingly had to delete a tweet that called the riots “scuffles.”


We have described how a high-rate environment has put socialism’s promises of more and more handouts on “borrowed time” because bond markets are refusing to fund massive deficits for unproductive welfare systems that produce more economic malfeasance. Socialist failures are piling up across the West. South America is shifting rightward, and a Bolsonaro win in Brazil’s runoff election later this month would cement that move. This outcome was very predictable…

The West is experiencing what should be considered “lived memories” of the progressive experiment unraveling at the seams, whether in South America or now in Europe, giving rise to what Nomura analysts expect will be a right-wing wave over the next 18-month election cycle.

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“The annoying little man who dresses like a UPS driver seems to think he’ll get an open invitation to the G20.”

“New York Times Leads Leftist Media Movement to Target Trump for Exempting Russia from New U.S. Sanctions Regime..”

“.. inviting President Putin to spend a few more days in the USA and use either: (a) one of your resorts (Doral after the G20 or other), or use (b) Camp David, and invite Zelenskyy to come specifically for that post G20 summit between yourself, Putin and the insufferable Zelenskyy – without his customary support group from Europe.”

• New York Times Leads Leftist Media Movement to Target Trump (CTH)

The New York Times is leading a charge of multiple U.S. media outlets to rage-bait Americans on the issue of President Trump exempting Russia from a new sanctions regime.


Let me start with a positive. Despite the massive amount of years-long gaslighting, lying and narrative engineering by the overwhelming majority of American media and political punditry, the majority of Americans don’t want U.S. sanctions against Russia [37% vs 54%]. Why? Because most Americans have a keen sense of manipulation.

This is one of the reasons why I believe the current effort to create an impeachment narrative against President Trump, again using the Ukraine conflict as the source material, will fail. Yes, the majority of elected politicians support Ukraine and oppose Russia, but the majority of the American people don’t align with the politicians.

More than a week ago we noted the Trump decision to enter a diesel sales agreement with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin was very predictable. Even when President Trump signed HR5334 the Lindsey Graham Russian Sanctions bill, we noted how it was written to the benefit of President Trump by Lindsey Graham himself.

Indeed, with Europe purchasing Russian energy from Vladimir Putin, one of the great ironies within the latest Russian sanctions bill was the requirement and authorization to tariff Europe at a 500% rate for violating the sanctions bill. Yes, that is correct, inside this bill congress authorized President Trump to massively raise tariffs on Europe or anyone else who was purchasing Russian energy products.

As a consequence, if President Trump doesn’t take an action to pause or exempt Russia from these latest sanctions regime, then he will end up hitting almost all the NATO allies with 500% tariffs. However, the media don’t want to draw attention to that aspect as it doesn’t fit their narrative {NYT ARTICLE HERE}.

It did not come as a surprise to me to see President Trump sign an executive order to “waive the application of any sanctions provision” [Executive order here]. Lindsey Graham knew the bottom-line goal of President Trump was to stop the killing, stop the fighting between Ukraine and Russia, and Graham himself created the ability of waivers in the sanction regime specifically so that Trump would have maximum flexibility in providing economic carrots to Russia.

The waiver option is in HR5334 specifically so that President Trump can use it…. And so, he did, DUH! And Lindsey Graham knew he would. And the media are going bananas.n But it’s not the domestic politics that is really annoying here. After all, these are insufferable American politicians and insufferable American media doing the insufferable narrative engineering they are well known for. This is to be expected, and as noted earlier the majority of the American people can see through the games being played.

The frustrating part is watching Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy engage in his now-famous passive-aggressive, too-cute-by-half routine.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2111457289483780290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2111457289483780290%7Ctwgr%5E8cd960e45a1ba547cb498a59ab5328c057e51d55%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F17%2Fnew-york-times-leads-leftist-media-movement-to-target-trump-for-exempting-russia-from-new-u-s-sanctions-regime%2F


ZELENSKYY – “Sanctions relief will continue. I think the diesel deal and the move regarding the Lindsey Graham Act are not the end of it. Unfortunately.

It’s unfortunate because we all had great respect for Lindsey. He devoted his life to America. We had an excellent relationship with him. And shortly before the tragedy, Lindsey was in Ukraine. He always supported us very strongly and pushed for as much assistance to Ukraine as possible.

It’s difficult without him, I’ll be honest. I want to thank both Democrats and Republicans who supported his bill. That was a major victory: this truly bipartisan support. And now, the decision to undo all of this, to block all of it, seems wrong to me. And it definitely helps only the Russians. It only fuels their satisfaction and their desire to keep killing people. This certainly does not stop the war.

Is there a threat of strikes and an increase in attacks on the western part of our country? Absolutely. Is Russia preparing for this? I think so.

Because we know that they are placing relay stations on Belarusian territory to use this corridor for drones and intensify the attacks. But that’s not enough for them. They need Lukashenko’s support to deploy other types of weapons on Belarusian territory, including ballistic missiles.

And, of course, deploying ballistic missiles in Belarus would pose a threat primarily to the western part of our country. I’m sure Putin has these intentions. But this would mean directly drawing Belarus into this war. Directly. And, in my view, it would be very dangerous. Certainly for Belarus as well. God willing, they won’t get drawn into this.

The American negotiating track will continue. We’re counting on them to put more pressure on Putin, not on us. Otherwise, it’s simply unfair. As for our meetings with the American side – we expect to meet and are ready to meet in Ukraine or in Europe. If they want to meet in America, let them invite us. We’re ready to negotiate anywhere, and we’re ready for any format: three-way, two-way, four-way, five-plus – it doesn’t matter. What matters is peace. The American side has given us a signal that our meeting with them can happen next week.

And, of course, in my view, Europeans need to have their own infrastructure and their own track for negotiations with Russia. We need to pursue every possible avenue to stop the war. We’ll also speak separately with Türkiye. I plan to talk separately with President Erdogan about the sea and food security, and with representatives of Middle Eastern countries.

Regarding a meeting with Putin, the United States is working on this. They have a proposal for a trilateral meeting. This meeting can take place in one of the Middle Eastern countries. The United States has always mentioned the UAE or Saudi Arabia. Another possibility is for the meeting to take place in the United States during the G20 summit. But there has been no confirmation yet from Russia or from the United States. The meeting could also take place in one of the European countries. I know that the Europeans are starting contacts about this. We’ll see how things turn out a little later.” (source)

The annoying little man who dresses like a UPS driver seems to think he’ll get an open invitation to the G20.

Dear President Trump. If there is a consideration to use the timing of the G20 for a trilateral discussion with Zelenskyy and Putin directly, please consider holding such an accord AFTER the G20 in Miami.

I would suggest inviting President Putin to spend a few more days in the USA and use either: (a) one of your resorts (Doral after the G20 or other), or use (b) Camp David, and invite Zelenskyy to come specifically for that post G20 summit between yourself, Putin and the insufferable Zelenskyy – without his customary support group from Europe.

Then force the two of them, Putin and Zelenskyy, to hammer out an agreement between themselves. The Russian negotiators and the Ukraine negotiators can hammer it out if forced, directly and only between Russia and Ukraine.

This approach will obviously send the British and EU-NATO alliance teams into fits of apoplexy if they are not participating consultants. However, who cares about their sensibilities? Frame the peace accord around Ukraine and Russia because those are the principals that matter and shut the door to the noise from the Europeans.

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“Slotkin laid out how Democrats plan to deal with Trump and the people who serve under him. This should terrify anyone who values a free country.”

• Dems Just Cranked Their Government Weaponization Agenda Up to 11 (Margolis)

If you could measure the Democrat Party’s appetite for weaponizing the government against Donald Trump, it’s always been at ten. They impeached him twice, and tried to put him in prison… multiple times. Well, they’ve they’ve cranked the dial to 11, and they’re no longer satisfied with going after Trump himself. They want everyone who works for him, and may work for him, too. And Trump knows it’s coming.


In an interview with Time earlier this month, the magazine asked Trump whether he’d consider pardoning administration officials if Democrats regain power and come after them. “Yeah, sure I’d do that,” Trump said. He pointed to former President Joe Biden, who handed out preemptive pardons in the final hours of his presidency. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) just made Trump’s case for him.

Speaking October 13 at the University of Chicago during a live taping of Vox’s America, Actually podcast with editorial director Astead Herndon, Slotkin laid out how Democrats plan to deal with Trump and the people who serve under him. This should terrify anyone who values a free country.

“I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him,” Slotkin said in a 26-second clip of the exchange that began circulating Saturday. “I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity.'”

She kept going. “I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that,'” she continued. “I want that deterrence message sent.”


Slotkin calls it a “deterrence message.” What it actually is is a warning that, as far as Democrats are concerned, working for Trump is a crime that merits punishment. The students she described haven’t done anything. Some of them may never work in politics at all. Slotkin hasn’t accused a single one of them of wrongdoing, yet she wants the threat of prosecution hanging over their career choices before they ever accept a federal job working in the Trump administration.

Think about that for a second. A sitting U.S. senator wants to frighten young Americans away from public service by dangling criminal exposure over their heads. How evil and authoritarian is this? This is what weaponization of government really looks like.

The Chicago remarks built on a blueprint Slotkin unveiled two weeks earlier at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. There, she urged Democrats who return to power to assemble a list of “signature cases,” modeled on Poland’s “Iron Broom” campaign. Make no mistake about it, Democrats have already picked their targets for prosecution, and actual evidence of wrongdoing isn’t even required. The hypocrisy is staggering.

Slotkin once denounced this exact kind of legal pressure as authoritarian intimidation when it was aimed at her for an actual crime. Curiously, she didn’t have a problem when the Biden administration arrested Trump repeatedly in the hopes of putting him in prison and stopping his return to the White House. Now that her party sees a chance to wield that power again, she’s openly bragging about pointing it not just at President Trump and people who work for him, but at recent college graduates who might consider working for the Trump administration, preemptively declaring them guilty.

A party that claims to be saving democracy from authoritarianism has decided that serving in the other side’s government is itself a punishable offense. That is how free countries stop being free. If Democrats treat every election victory as a license to weaponize the government against their political enemies, we won’t have a republic for much longer, just an endless cycle of revenge.

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“.. 2 million immigrant-invaders live at the expense of the ethnic British who cannot afford to have children “

• Watching Dumbshit White Ethnicities Erasing Themselves (Paul Craig Roberts)

Demographers who told us it would be the years 2080 or 2100 before white ethnicities became minorities in what formerly were their countries were selling us a narrative that pushed the problem so far away that no one would be bothered to take action in the present time. But like everything else we are told by “experts,” it was a lie.


The lie got out because the British Office for National Statistics forgot to adjust the statistics in order to hide the facts. For centuries the most common British surname has been Smith. Next year, three months from now, the most common British surname will be Kahn, a common surname for South Asian countries. Nuni Jorgensen of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory said that the displacement of Smith by Kahn reflects the impact of non-white immigration into Britain. The trend in first names shows the identical trend. For the third year running the most baby boys in Britain are named Muhammad.

The ongoing erasure of white ethnic British, soon to be an endangered species, is attributed both to continuous arrival of immigrant-invaders and to declining birth rates of ethnic British. White ethnic British living standards have been falling, as are American ones and little doubt all of Europe. Children are a drain on declining resources, and so there are fewer children. Immigrant-invaders accustomed to lower living standards continue to produce children beyond the replacement rate.

Moreover, according to the British Centre for Social Justice, 2 million immigrant-invaders live at the expense of the ethnic British who cannot afford to have children. Nearly two million foreign nationals “receiving benefits or state pension” “Leading think tank estimates £23bn was spent on handouts, pensions and child-related support received by foreign nationals last year..”

Give it just a moment’s thought. The British government, which has for years opened Britain’s border to immigrant-invaders has reduced ethnic British peoples’ economic ability to procreate, while forcing ethnic British peoples to subsidize the creation of children by immigrant-invaders.

American Democrats have the same policy. As bad as Trump is and as stupid as Republicans are, at least they do not have an official policy of making ethnic whites an oppressed minority in what was once their own country.

Keep this in mind on November 3.

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Not sure about this, but I’ll leave it in.

• Who the Left Attracts, Part 2 (A.J. Christopher)

Watching a leftist rally today is frightening. It’s frightening not because of any physical threat (though that threat does exist) but because it so depressingly illustrates an unbridgeable divide between leftists and the rest of society. The screaming and the shrieking. The mob violence. The senseless herd mentality. The rigid Manicheanism. The mental breakdowns. The absolute inability to STFU and listen.


It’s not even about politics anymore. It’s not about which economic system, capitalism or socialism, better serves people. It’s not about equality or liberty, it’s not about negative rights versus positive rights, it’s not about the role of government in our lives.

It’s not about racism or patriarchy, it’s not about saving the planet, it’s not about the marginalized and underprivileged, it’s not about the role of ideology in public education, it’s not about the definition of free speech, and it’s not about the duties of a nation-state toward its own people.

It’s not even about the individualism versus collectivism. The political divide in modern America can now be split into two groups based almost solely on mental stability and the motivations driving their members.

On one side are the vast majority of conservatives, as well as independents, moderate Democrats, and even very liberal Democrats. I would throw Bill Maher and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) into this last category. We probably disagree with them on most political issues, but my exercise in categorization transcends politics to something deeper. Both Maher and Fetterman, I would argue, envision an America where free speech and open discourse are encouraged, not abolished.

The other side seems to consist largely of three distinct but overlapping groups:

The Hedonists
It would also be fair to call them nihilists or militant secularists. To them, the immediate gratification in the Here and Now is paramount. The only purpose they understand is the vulgar pleasures of the senses. The only meaning they derive is that if society is not satisfying their every whim, it must be someone else’s fault.

The Totalitarians
These are the “ringleader” and “organizer” types who mistake a worthless college degree for wisdom. It is arrogance, not crass sensuality, that drives them. Their egos, not their tactility, require massage. They worship their own reason as a god and, much like a god, will not suffer dissent, challenge, or heresy.

The Mentally Ill
As I took pains to point out yesterday, I don’t use the term “mentally ill” as a jest or insult. Mental illness is a serious, underappreciated factor in the lives of millions of innocent Americans. It is also exploited and misused. A child showing signs of gender discomfort from the age of four or five onward might be suffering from gender dysphoria (for which there are treatments that don’t involve enabling). A teenage male who sucks at sports and suddenly “identifies” as a female so he can steal their scholarships and trophies most definitely does not suffer from gender dysphoria. But I argued in my article yesterday that the left exploits other personality traits, indicative of selfish and emotionally immature people, and uses them for its own ends.

My article today focuses on the hedonists. One does not need to be “stupid” to be a hedonist. On the contrary, I’ve no doubt that most members of the Lindsay Clancy Fan Club marching for her “peace” outside the Massachusetts courthouse boast credentials, degrees, and decent salaries. What they do need is both the ability and the willingness to lie to themselves, to engage in the most absurd cognitive dissonance possible, to hold the positions that they do.

Three children were murdered in cold blood at the hands of their own mother? Why, of course the real victims are the legions of marginalized, disenfranchised, underprivileged middle- to upper-class white liberal women living in the safest, richest neighborhoods that civilization has ever built. I doubt even one of the marchers could say the three kids’ names.

Why? Because to the hedonist, children don’t represent happiness, family, or purpose. Children represent an impediment. Children represent an abrupt halt to a 24/7 ME ME ME lifestyle. Children represent burden, unsought sacrifice, and a 1950s caricature of enslaving motherhood.

Make no mistake: the hedonists don’t justify the Clancy murders on the grounds that she was mentally unstable at the time. They’d be fine with the murders regardless of her mental state. To the hedonist, the murder of these children represented a twisted liberation for the murderer to live whatever life she wanted.

This is why the hedonists bristle at the Clintonian assertion that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Instead, they encourage women to “shout their abortions.” Lest anyone think I’m only picking on the ladies, I’ll remind them that Dan Turner, the father of convicted rapist Brock Turner, penned a letter to the judge requesting leniency for his son for raping an unconscious woman. In the letter, Dan argued that his son shouldn’t be given a lengthy prison sentence all because of “20 minutes of action.”

That’s how Dan Turner described his son raping a woman. Twenty minutes of action. That is hedonism. Brock wanted to feel good, so he destroyed the life of an innocent woman to do so. And his dad defended his actions.

And as for this new controversy at Cornell, in which a woman is alleging that seven men gang-raped her? And the men are countering, saying it was consensual? And one of the men is countering that he was unconscious at the time of the sexual encounter, making him the rape victim?

As far as I’m concerned, even if all eight people involved gave consent to everything, they’re animals. All eight of them stand at the top 1% of the top 1% of privileged upbringing in all of human history. They literally have the power in their hands to change the world for the better. And instead, they spend their time snorting ketamine, drinking to unconsciousness, and having orgies. Caesar Caligula would be ashamed.

This isn’t civilization. This is hedonism.

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“.. a lawmaker who treats official documents as rough drafts.”

• Ilhan Omar Has a New Problem, and It Came From Her Sister’s Phone (Margolis)

Federal investigators building an immigration fraud case against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) just got a major break, and it came from her own family’s text messages.According to a report from the New York Times, messages pulled from a phone seized from Omar’s sister gave investigators what they needed to get inside the congresswoman’s home. The paper laid out the details this week, citing three people familiar with the matter.


Federal investigators have been reviewing family text messages as they aim to build a case implicating Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, of conspiring to commit immigration fraud, three people familiar with the matter said this week.mThe messages were obtained from a phone that officials seized earlier this year from one of Ms. Omar’s sisters, Sahra Noor, a health care executive and author, according to the three people.

The messages contained information that investigators had used to get a federal judge to authorize homeland security agents to search Ms. Omar’s Washington-area residence on Monday, the three people said. Agents spent hours searching the home of the congresswoman and were seen walking away with several boxes of seized items.

Agents seized Omar’s phone, her computer, and her passport during Monday’s search. Federal agents also went through her trash looking for DNA evidence. Investigators don’t comb through a sitting congresswoman’s garbage on a hunch.

The sister at the center of this is Sahra Noor, a health care executive and author whose phone federal officials took earlier this year. Noor recently published a memoir about her upbringing and the family’s journey to America, and she spent this month promoting it at book events around Minneapolis. That same journey is now the subject of a federal grand jury. The Times also detailed where the case stands and what investigators want to know, along with a warning from the top of the Department of Homeland Security.

The people familiar with the seizure of Ms. Noor’s phone spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an open criminal investigation that is before a federal grand jury in Minnesota. Federal officials have issued subpoenas in recent days to Ms. Noor and several other people in Ms. Omar’s orbit.

The investigation seeks to determine whether Ms. Omar and her relatives lied or omitted crucial information in immigration paperwork they filed since moving to the United States in the 1990s. They were admitted as refugees after fleeing Somalia’s civil war. Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, suggested last month that the investigation could ultimately result in Ms. Omar’s deportation.

Investigators have plenty to work with. Omar’s staff appear to have changed her date of birth in 2018 so that the timelines in her naturalization process would line up. Add her record of misfiled campaign finance reports and taxes, and a pattern comes into focus: a lawmaker who treats official documents as rough drafts.

Democrats want us to believe this is a partisan witch hunt, but the record says otherwise. Not only did the investigation begin under President Joe Biden, but on top of that, a Democrat-appointed judge signed off on the warrant.

Omar has spent years insisting that no one is above the law, and now she’s learning the hard way that that includes her, too.

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“California is using the size of its market to impose its preferences on commerce that happens everywhere else.”

• California Should Not Get To Set Policy For All Of The US (Curtis Hill)

California has decided it should dictate how the rest of America packages everything from cereal and soap to industrial spare parts. Seventeen Republican attorneys general have filed suit to stop it. They are right. The rest of the country should say so – and reject California’s attempt to impose its policies on everyone else.


California’s Senate Bill 54 effectively tells companies: If you want to sell in California, redesign your packaging, cut plastic on California’s timetable, and pay fees to a private Washington, D.C., organization called Circular Action Alliance. CAA sets the fees, keeps its methodology confidential, and handles disputes through arbitration rather than a court.

But packaging is not a California issue. It is a national supply-chain issue. Companies do not invent a unique box for Sacramento and another for South Bend. They build one system. When California attaches conditions to its market, those conditions travel. Costs travel with them – onto manufacturers, distributors, and the families who buy toothpaste and canned goods in states that never voted for this scheme.

California is using the size of its market to impose its preferences on commerce that happens everywhere else. The attorneys general call that what it is: one state trying to set national policy.

I have seen this movie before.

As Indiana Attorney General, I led multistate efforts against this same tactic. California cities tried to use “public nuisance” lawsuits to dictate national energy policy from a courtroom in San Francisco. I argued then that California localities cannot regulate economic activity beyond their borders, and that the nation should not sit idle while California tried to turn itself into a regulatory empire.

We also led a coalition to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging Massachusetts’s attempt to tell farmers in other states how to house their hens and hogs as a condition of selling eggs and pork in Boston. Same theory. Same abuse. Market access as a weapon.

California and a handful of like-minded states have a playbook: Pass a rule at home. Make compliance a condition of doing business. Watch national supply chains conform because it is cheaper to surrender than to maintain two systems. Then call the result “progress” and dare anyone to object. That is not federalism. It is the big dog sitting on the porch, growling at every other house on the street.

Multistate action is how the other states push back. One attorney general filing a brief is a protest. Seventeen states joining a federal lawsuit – alongside a business that has already challenged this model in Oregon – send a message a judge must take seriously.

This is not a trade association seeking a special exemption. It is sovereign states defending their authority to set policy for their own people. And it tells Sacramento that when California exports the costs of its policies, the response will be coordinated legal action – not a press release and a shrug.

That is the point of the office I once held. An attorney general is not a commentator; the job is to defend the state’s legal interests when another government tries to impose its policies beyond its borders. California’s packaging scheme does exactly that. Fees collected by a private organization with little meaningful public oversight are one back door. So is a mandate that forces a plant in Iowa or a distributor in Indiana to pay for California’s regulatory experiment.

None of this requires opposition to clean streets, recycling, or reducing waste. States are free to run recycling programs, set their own environmental policies, and punish fraud or deception in labeling. What they may not do is force businesses across the country to follow one state’s rules while handing the collection plate to an unelected private organization. States can pursue their own policies. They cannot conscript the interstate economy into a single regulatory religion.

The seventeen attorneys general are doing the unglamorous work of saying no. They deserve support – from other states, from boards that still remember fiduciary duty, and from anyone who understands that the Constitution divided power for a reason. California is large. It is not the legislature of the United States.

If other states sit this one out, they should not be surprised when the next California rule arrives already attached to their store shelves. Empires are not always built with armies. Sometimes they are built with a market, a mandate, and a fee.

Curtis Hill is Senior Fellow with the Free Enterprise Project and former Indiana Attorney General.

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Always loved the philosophical implications.

For instance: how do you explain entanglement?

• Quantum and God (David Solway)

In the current cosmological milieu, when we think of quantum, the presence of God will often pop up like a virtual particle in a Cimmerian vacuum. Major quantum scientists like Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg were convinced that God existed. Max Planck, the originator of quantum theory, had no doubt that “religion and science require a belief in God. To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalized world view.” Heisenberg is credited with saying that shallow science can lead people away from God, but deep study brings humility: a sip from the glass of natural sciences “will make you an atheist…but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting.”


Freeman Dyson, who worked in quantum electrodynamics, held a broad vision of a spiritual or creative order in the cosmos. The quantum field theory expert, the late John Polkinghorne, was an Anglican priest and theologian. Nobel laureate Charles Townes, who laid the foundation for the laser, believed in a spiritual or divine dimension behind physical laws. Mathematician John Lennox is a firm believer in intelligent design and a passionate Christian apologist. Director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture Stephen Meyer is a theistic philosopher, a working scientist, and a practicing Christian. All quantum virtuosos. These are not the aberrant views of scientific outcasts but comprise almost a consensus among cosmologists.

Quantum mechanics has been called the great new scientific theory of the universe, transforming our understanding of the physical world to such an extent that it has also led to our inability to believe what we have ostensibly understood. As Richard Feynman said, “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” A brief scan of the subject will show its mystifying complexity.

What is a “quantum”? The term was coined by Max Planck and adopted by top physicists Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, and Wolfgang Pauli, among the most brilliant and distinguished scientists of our era. According to the standard definition, quantum refers to the smallest possible, indivisible unit of any physical property, such as energy, light, or matter. Planck described energy as coming in discrete packets rather than in a smooth, continuous stream, which is how Einstein first considered light, as particles later called “photons.” Quantum mechanics studies how basic particles like electrons, protons, quarks and leptons behave. Yet, particles also possess a wave equivalent function. This is part of its mind-bending enigma.

Key principles include such properties as, succinctly:

Wave function, or wave-function duality. Depending on how one measures these entities, they can spread out like ripples in a pond rather than particles stippling a field—which is also the case. These infinitesimals are peanuts in one respect, peanut butter in another.

Collapse. Once observed, the wave will collapse into a single, localized point, i.e., a particle or a mathematical solution.

Superposition. Particles exist in different states simultaneously until they are measured, when they agree to conduct themselves like ordinary motes.

Entanglement. Particles can become so deeply connected that they are mutually linked no matter the distance and at speeds greater than light—what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.”

Decoherence. There are two discrete and discrepant realities at the sub-microscopic and macroscopic planes that run mysteriously beside one another. The transition between the strange, probabilistic comportment of the quantum world and the stable, predictable, “classical” reality we experience every day remains a perpetual puzzle.

Despite their weirdness, principles of quantum physics make everyday tools possible, including semiconductors, computer chips, lasers, MRI scanners, bar codes, and GPS systems, etc. Quantum can be harnessed but it remains a conundrum.

It is almost impossible to delve into the quantum world without one’s thoughts turning to the Creator, a Supreme Intelligence who can be in several places at once, whose logos springs from a vacuum or sheer Nothing, whose will is entangled with ours at a distance or no distance at all, however spookily, who binds all the paradoxes of existence and coheres decoherence, who may for a moment appear as a burning bush or whispering wind or pillar of cloud or under the oaks of Mamre (as a subatomic particle like an electron can appear anywhere in its field instead of at a specific place), who can act both randomly or deliberately, and who manifests to a person in vision or dream only when the Source of all things is honestly and modestly approached in study and prayer. There is obviously a quantum aspect to the Lord.

Regrettably, every theory, physical or occult, of the origin and purpose of the universe is unprovable and cannot be verified either in analysis or experiment. And indeed, every such theory or hypothesis is inherently absurd, no matter how sophisticated or fiercely held or passionately argued. The spiritual domain is intrinsically no different, a kind of cryptic phenomenon that at least bears a curious anaphoric relation to quantum principles.

One believes in quantum because it works, however incomprehensibly. Its power and efficiency, that is, its effects, are unquestionable. At the same time, the universe also works, however incomprehensibly, even if we cannot probe the mind of its originator, assuming He or It exists. As the commonplace has it, one cannot postulate an effect without accepting an anterior cause. The fact that something works means that it must have an origin, a structure and an intelligence behind it, but it does not mean that we can understand its essence or its ontic interiority.

Of course, the symmetry between the Divine and the Quantum is not perfect. If the observer is responsible for the result of a calculation or a measurement as many cosmologists declare—the orphic but influential Copenhagen “create reality with observation” interpretation—that would by analogy render the Spirit arbitrary, a function of the observer’s point of view. An entity dependent on an observer’s state of mind has no authority and no reason to be credited with objective existence as the thing which it presumably is. Whatever or Whoever God is, that is not Him.

Nevertheless, if one is looking for a metaphoric semblance of the Divine, quantum is it. The Spirit, the Divinity, the Intelligence, the Pantokrator—God—is in some obscure way existentially and infinitely more than a concept. Indeed, the Universal Artificer would be an absolute necessity, or so I find myself believing—on my good days. The Creation is there, which is to say here, as inscrutable as it is real. Even the proposal that matter can be created out of light is now a possibility. If that is so, light can be created out of darkness.

We push at the boundaries of what is considered difficult, improbable, and intrinsically extraordinary, and our recognition that what appears unlikely may also be inevitable. That is the secret of Quantum as it is of the Sacrosanct. This is reality at its deepest level, at scales of mystery we can only partially fathom. The spiritual realm clearly implies many tropes and comparisons, but the quantum framework is one of the most compelling. In any event, without the quality of intellect and faith that stands before the numinous, we will have become derelict and flighty.

I conclude with a few lines from a poem entitled “When It Dies” from the recently published New Wine, Old Bottles by the Israeli poet Dov Ben Zamir.

When the resins in the candle

pack up for parts unknown

and all the videocassettes and diagrams and theories

melt and collapse

When it dies

the light goes out of the world

like the Lord

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“.. the U.S. continues to lead the way on innovation and technology at a scale now visibly represented..”

• Tesla’s Flying Roadster is Incredibly American (CTH)

When I saw the video of the Tesla Roadster, I was speechless. My brain said this had to be AI or SI generated video that was not reality, and this didn’t happen. However, just like Elon Musk’s SpaceX catching the booster rocket after use, this Tesla Roadster reveal was very real and incredibly amazing.


I’ve watched the video more than a few times and I understand the concept of using pressurized air as explained by Elon Musk and several engineers in subsequent explanations. However, it remains stunning to think about.


While the rest of the western world is seemingly stuck in a political battle about artificial intelligence, pitting advanced technology against the socialist and heavily unionized interests who will be impacted by it, the U.S. continues to lead the way on innovation and technology at a scale now visibly represented by this stunning Tesla Roadster’s capabilities.

Sure, it’s extreme, and there’s not likely to be a consumer-friendly version of it despite production scheduled for next year, but beyond the over-the-top incredible technology that makes a vehicle do these seemingly science defying stunts, my brain started thinking about how this technology could make vehicles safer.

When we think about collision warning and avoidance systems that are already present in cars, and we think about these specifically new capabilities on display, it doesn’t take long before you wonder if the commercial application of this technology might end up being incorporated into vehicle safety options.

Unintentionally driving off a cliff in a vehicle that can detect, stabilize, optimize a travel vector and land itself is no longer just an out-there mental exercise. We can easily imagine a future where the technology revealed in the Tesla Roadster will be in some form of safety features. Just a few days ago the thought was never even contemplated.

This is remarkable and the engineering teams at Tesla should be commended for pushing the envelope and creating things that go beyond our imagination. Congratulations to Elon Musk, the folks at Tesla and all of the incredible people who put their time, effort and energy into these accomplishments.

This is what unleashed American innovation can deliver. I think it is awesome.

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Debt Rattle October 14 2026

Oct 142026
 
 October 14, 2026  Posted by at 9:29 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  47 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Women Picking Olives 1889


• Russia’s Offensive Ability Is Broken – Kyiv’s Former Top General (BBC)
• UK and Poland Accuse Russia of “Mayhem” (CTH)
• Europe’s Diesel Shortage Is a Problem Created by Political Design (Lacalle)
• Zelenskyy Requests His Own “Diesel Deal” with the United States (CTH)
• German Opposition Demands Trump-style Diesel Deal With Russia (RT)
• Ramifications of the Trump-Putin Energy Deal (CTH)
• President Trump is Making Chopper Pressers Great Again (CTH)
• Jack Smith Could Track Phone Contacts, but What About the Lawyers? (Manney)
• Trump Might Not Be as Bad as He Appears (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Trump Suggests Ilhan Omar’s Money Came From Fraud (Catherine Salgado)
• Corporate Islamification (Stefan Padfield)
• The Midterm Polling Is Absolutely, Positively, 100% Wrong. (Maybe.) (Pinsker)

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2109714875932913993?s=20 https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2109616355825569987?s=20 https://twitter.com/Tironianae/status/2109783416044449882?s=20

 

 


I want to ask for your help.

When this special operation started in 2022, military experts Douglas MacGregor and Scott Ritter both said Ukraine was losing 7-8 times more men than Russia.

That difference is now supposed to be the other way around, according to a Ukrainian voice.

Which means some 50 times more Russian victims than 4 years ago, compared to Ukrainian victims.

I don’t see how that could have happened.

Do you guys think that is credible?

“Ukraine has stabilised the front line and “broken Russia’s ability to advance” by killing so many of its men, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief has said in an interview with the BBC.”

• Russia’s Offensive Ability Is Broken – Kyiv’s Former Top General (BBC)


Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi

Ukraine has stabilised the front line and “broken Russia’s ability to advance” by killing so many of its men, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief has said in an interview with the BBC. Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi made the comments in an exclusive interview, his first since he was dramatically forced from his post in the summer. He addressed his sacking, disagreeing with his critics who declared him too “old school” to command Ukraine’s new, technologically advanced forces.


He also pushed back against allegations made by soldiers who previously served under him, who told the BBC they were ordered to remain at their positions even when they were almost surrounded by Russians, leading to high losses. Syrskyi said that Moscow’s overall losses in the war were six times higher than Ukraine’s. “If you count only dead, then it’s up to 11 times,” he added. Neither Russia nor Ukraine officially release the numbers of their dead. Ukraine’s military says it inflicted record losses this year on Russian soldiers in September, although that cannot be verified.

UK intelligence chiefs estimate Russia has lost around half a million men killed in Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022. The US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies meanwhile believes Ukraine has lost up to 150,000 troops killed by June 2026.. He says this difference in death toll – as well as technological advances, and a strategy of attacking weak points in Russia’s lines while containing their advances in other parts – accounts for the current stalemate at the front.

In the first six months of 2026, Russia managed overall to seize 61 sq km, the general said. “It’s an indication that the front line has been stabilised.” The Institute for Study of War (ISW) has also confirmed this trend. One of its recent reports says that in September 2026, Moscow lost more territory than it took.


Syrskyi was appointed Ukraine’s commander-in-chief in 2024. He had previously won praise for defending Kyiv at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and for leading the successful counteroffensive east of Kharkiv in the autumn of that year. But President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Syrskyi this summer, amid a major disagreement with then-defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

Fedorov had said that instead of adapting to the realities of the changing war, the army under Syrskyi had blocked his initiatives. Zelensky initially fired Fedorov, as tensions burst into the open between the two men. But mass street protests then forced the president to also fire Syrskyi, replacing him with Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi, 43.

Syrskyi told the BBC that he had “disagreements” with Fedorov because the latter “didn’t take into consideration the interests of the army” when procuring weapons and supplies. Fedorov had created an “imbalance” in supplies, Syrskyi said. He had prioritised drones while overlooking key front-line kit such as unmanned ground vehicles, pick-up trucks and motorbikes. Even with drones, Syrskyi said, there were shortages as the army got only half of what they needed.

Fedorov was a popular young minister who was known for his digital and technological initiatives. Many contrasted him with Syrskyi, who critics thought was not fit to lead the new technological arms race with Russia. But Syrskyi disagrees with such criticism. It was during his time the use of drones reached this new, unprecedented level, including deep strikes more than 2,000km (1,200 miles) behind enemy lines, he said.

Ukraine was the first country to create the Unmanned Systems Forces as a separate branch of armed forces, under his command: now, he said, drones account for 80% of Russia’s losses. Under his military leadership, however, Ukrainian troops undertook chaotic withdrawals from the eastern cities of Avdiivka and Vuhledar, and from around Pokrovsk. Soldiers who spoke to the BBC in the past complained that they were ordered to remain at their positions at any costs. By the time they were told to pull back, it was often too late as they were almost surrounded by Russian troops.

Syrskyi does not deny that such situations occur on the front line. But he told the BBC that Ukraine was fighting against a far more powerful army. In 2025, the ratio of jets and bombs was 18 to one in Moscow’s favour, he said. In the same year, Russia had two-and-a-half times more artillery pieces and shells than Ukraine. And with four million militarily trained men who they can mobilise, Russian forces can create chances to push through, he argued.

One of Syrskyi’s most famous operations was an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region that started in August 2024. It ended with a dramatic retreat the following spring, which some soldiers described as “catastrophic”. Syrskyi, however, insisted that the Kursk operation was “a necessity”.

“In the summer 2024, Russian forces were pushing along all main directions on the front line with up to six times more troops than we had,” he explained. The Kursk incursion disrupted Russia’s offensive and forced Moscow to redirect troops, giving Ukraine a respite and a chance for its stretched brigades in the east and south to recover, Syrskyi said.

He also had strong words for European allies who doubt that Russia may have territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine. He advised European partners to start preparing for the war now and “drop all illusions that [it] will not come”. He also said he believed Ukraine’s war was going to become even more technological. There will be more robots, automated systems and artificial intelligence (AI). “Even ordinary weapons now get an AI-based control system to enhance their capabilities,” he said.

Such technologies can give a new life to conventional weapons like tanks. Both Russia and Ukraine were now racing to develop “active systems of defence” to protect armoured vehicles, Syrskyi said. But he insisted that “the human role will remain definitive [on the battlefield] because [people] will need to control those systems”.

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“UK Prime Minister Says Russia Interfered in Brexit Vote, Polish Prime Minister Says Russia Sabotaged Starlink System ..”

The UK still hasn’t gottten over Brexit?!

And look, of course Russia targets Starlink. it’s used against them in battle.

• UK and Poland Accuse Russia of “Mayhem” (CTH)

As President Trump continues to confront the EU-NATO antagonists who demand increased conflict with Russia, the primary voices of the EU-NATO group shout panic about Putin’s nefarious espionage, mayhem, general mischief and other heinous activity. All of it with the ever-present ‘just trust us‘ evidence. Yesterday, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham blamed Russia for the 2016 Brexit referendum vote that took the U.K out of the European Union.


UK NEWS – […] “The prime minister told The Rest is Politics podcast that upon arriving in No 10, he had asked about possible Russian interference in the 2016 vote, adding: “I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.” […] Burnham did not provide further details about the type or extent of Moscow’s activity during the Brexit referendum.mBritain Unbound, a pro-Brexit campaign group, said Burnham’s comments were “another crude attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the decision that the British people made in 2016”. (read more)

Today, Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a man of notoriously intemperate disposition, said that two Turkish fellows who sabotaged the Starlink satellite station near Warsaw were operating on behalf of Putin.WARSAW, Poland — Poland is blaming Russia for an arson attack on a Starlink satellite station in September and two Turkish citizens have been arrested in connection with the suspected act of sabotage, authorities said.

The suspects, whose names were not released in line with Polish privacy rules, were arrested in Germany, Polish officials said Monday. They are accused of deliberately setting fire to Starlink infrastructure on Sept. 23 in Wola Krobowska, Poland, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Warsaw.[…] Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in a post on X, called the incident “another act of hybrid warfare.” (read more)

Meanwhile the head of British Intelligence, MI5 chief Sir Ken McCallum, warned Prime Minister Burham that promoting Russian conspiracies without solid evidence to support his claim may lead to an erosion of confidence in the U.K government. Apparently, like the German people, the British are laughing at government leadership.

[He] suggested Russian trolls would be “delighted” to be front page news again, “despite the comparative unimpressiveness” of their efforts. He added: “There is a really important difference between interference attempted and outcome swayed. There are diabolical plots afoot, and serious seriousness is demanded.

https://twitter.com/TheOtherSideRu/status/2109969744547758097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2109969744547758097%7Ctwgr%5E9ebed70b90d224e5c588dbea6444b462a8e94f75%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F13%2Fuk-prime-minister-says-russia-interfered-in-brexit-vote-polish-prime-minister-says-russia-sabotaged-starlink-system%2F


ZELENSKYY TODAY – “I spoke with Prime Minister Mark J Carney. Thank you, Canada! I briefed him on the latest Russian strike on Kyiv and no advance warning from our partners about the ballistic missile launch. This is the second time Ukraine has received no warning this week.

A rescue operation is underway – the strike damaged a residential building, and the fire engulfed apartments on the first through eighth floors. All emergency services are on the scene, and residents are being evacuated. So far, one person has been reported killed and six injured. My condolences to their families and loved ones. There was also a strike on the grounds of an energy facility – one of Kyiv’s main power plants. We are counting on our partners’ support.

We also discussed contacts with the United States and diplomatic developments that may take place this week. It is important that the world clearly supports an end to this war and real steps toward de-escalation – genuine steps that Russia will actually take to bring its war and its killings to an end.”

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Very much so.

• Europe’s Diesel Shortage Is a Problem Created by Political Design (Lacalle)

The diesel agreement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will not solve the diesel shortage, considering the magnitude of the problem created by years of misguided, wrongly called “environmental policies.” Complaining about diesel prices and the US-Russia deal while eliminating domestic refining capacity and bombing refineries is just another example of bureaucratic hypocrisy.


Renewables are important, but they cannot substitute diesel, just as they have been unable to offset the importance of natural gas. Diesel is essential for every segment of the economy, from transport, manufacturing, and farming to distribution. Now, European politicians complain. However, governments cannot negotiate away years of lost refining capacity. Europe’s vulnerability is structural. Yes, war has intensified it, but policy choices helped create an energy system increasingly dependent on imported fuels, expensive infrastructure, and high taxation.

Furthermore, the risk is that—as happened in the past—oil and gasoline prices may fall, and the European businesses and families will still pay much higher energy and fuel prices. According to European Commission figures and comparisons based on official European and US data, Europe suffers an enormous energy-cost disadvantage after two decades of massive subsidies and renewable rollout.

Industrial electricity prices are more than twice those in the United States, while industrial natural gas prices reach four times US levels. At the pump, European consumers pay approximately 47% more for diesel and 70% more for gasoline. This is not simply an oil-price problem. It is an enormous competitiveness problem that permeates throughout the economy.


On October 9, Trump announced that Russia would release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, followed by 500,000 tonnes in November, one million thereafter, and another three million, subject to refinery conditions. Washington temporarily authorized Russian diesel transactions until April 7, 2027. However, these are announced commitments, not confirmed deliveries. It may mitigate but not solve the diesel crisis.

The distinction is important. A sanctions exemption may permit trade, but it cannot repair damaged processing units. According to International Energy Agency estimates, Russian diesel production has suffered a temporary but significant blow, declining almost 30% following Ukrainian attacks. The important element is a policy choice, not a consequence of war.

Europe’s refining contraction is the key factor behind the structural diesel problem. It has lost more than 20% of refining capacity since 2009. At the end of 2025, the EU, Britain, Norway, and Switzerland had 72 mainstream refineries and an annual primary processing capacity of 625.4 million tonnes, down 167.6 million tonnes. Industry association FuelsEurope counts 35 closures since 2009.

The deterioration did not stop with the 2022 Ukraine war and has continued recently. Europe lost almost 400,000 barrels per day of refining capacity between 2024 and 2025, with five refineries closing over two years. This trend is a continuing reduction in the infrastructure needed to turn crude into usable fuel.

Environmental policy is part of this story, but taxation and policy choices have aggravated the problem. Governments made it uneconomical to upgrade aging facilities or build new units. Furthermore, at least five closed European facilities abandoned crude processing through conversion into biorefineries. These conversions worsened conventional refining capacity and did not offer a reliable and sustainable alternative.

The policy mistake is obvious and reminds us of the same errors committed with nuclear plants and natural gas supply. Eliminating capacity is a policy mistake without a credible path to reduce diesel’s importance. This move was not a transition but a jump into the void. Europe now relies more heavily on refined products from the Middle East, the United States, and India. Importing products is not an environmental policy success. “Not in my backyard” led to dependency and loss of competitiveness. The EU was the fourth-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, accounting for 8% (EUR 1.2 bn) of Russia’s export revenues from the top five importers in August 2026, according to CREA.


Ukraine’s refinery attacks have reduced fuel availability, and Russia has restricted diesel exports. While damaged refineries can be repaired, it will take months. War in the Middle East and disrupted Hormuz flows have compounded the shortage. The European Central Bank estimates reported in September put the refining-margin contribution to diesel prices at €0.41 per liter, approximately 19% of the pump price.

That is why watching Brent alone misses the problem, as crude and diesel are different markets. On September 21, EU diesel averaged €2.226 per liter, the highest reading in the European Commission’s series since 2005. Taxes accounted for €0.861, or 38.6% of the price. VAT applies on top of excise duties, effectively taxing the tax itself.

The EU minimum diesel excise is €0.33 per liter. America’s federal diesel tax is 24.4 cents per gallon, before state taxes and fees. European taxation adds a persistent cost wedge that cheaper crude cannot eliminate. This means that the average EU final diesel price is almost 50% higher than the US one. Thus, falling oil prices can provide relief without restoring competitiveness. Fixed duties remain, and scarce refining capacity may keep diesel expensive even when crude oil becomes cheaper.

Europe needs to abandon ideology in energy, provide solid investment conditions, eliminate regulation, and support an adequate refining system. Even though the European Commission’s newly announced “refinery dialogue” mentions these issues, it does not change the underlying ideological perspective or any of the existing regulations and misses the key measures to reduce the competitiveness gap, which come from lower taxes, more investment, and elimination of punitive regulations. Emergency Russian cargoes may help at the margin, even if European politicians complain about the US-Russia deal. However, none of this is going to repair Europe’s own policy-created vulnerabilities. The solution may take years, even if the changes are implemented today.

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He wants Russian diesel?!

• Zelenskyy Requests His Own “Diesel Deal” with the United States (CTH)

The people around Zelenskyy, his support network, are struggling trying to find solid footing for a counter narrative.


That’s why these remarks from Zelenskyy sound weird; in reality, they just don’t quite know how to respond because what President Trump is revealing in the “diesel deal” with Russia really doesn’t have much to do with diesel fuel supplies.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy (via X) – “I don’t believe the volume of diesel Russia will export will affect the price. Moreover, we see that they can export from 300,000 to 500,000 tons a month today. Meanwhile, global consumption stands at 120 million tons a month. What kind of impact can that have? I don’t think it would have any. If some people think otherwise, so be it.

So I believe there are entirely different reasons behind these actions. If this is the approach, then why isn’t America making a “diesel deal” with Ukraine? Let Ukraine propose a “diesel deal.” We do have influence over whether these ships can sail or not, whether these refineries can operate or not. If that’s the case, then let’s do it.

Electricity is what matters to us. That’s clear. If we can be guaranteed protection for our power system, then we will not strike Russia’s diesel infrastructure in response. Electricity is first and foremost about helping people – keeping their lights on. It also means helping Europe. Everyone knows that we are connected to the European power grid. And if our energy infrastructure is not being destroyed, we can help some countries that are facing shortages by supplying them with cheaper electricity.

So, yes, let’s sign a corresponding “diesel deal” with the President of the United States.”

Following the lengthy phone call with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, President Trump noted during remarks on the way to Ohio that his administration was unsure of who exactly would be conducting strikes against Ukraine power infrastructure. The lights going out in Kiev has a similar appearance to the performative air raid sirens whenever a high-profile EU govt official pays a visit [World War Reddit].


The answer to the Zelenskyy question is most likely, because the Trump-Putin diesel deal isn’t just about diesel. Just like the Belarus potash deal was not just about potash. What both the Russian-diesel fuel and Belarusian-potash have in common is an agreed pricing system that is outside western commodity structures.

Whether he intends it or not, President Trump is revealing the banking and finance system that profits from control of how energy products are bought and sold. This is further evidenced when you look at the Ukraine support assembly through the prism of what nations and political interests promote the climate change agenda.

It is not accidental that every nation and political apparatus supporting Ukraine is part of the green energy, climate change, Paris Climate Treaty, Build Back Better advocacy group.

On the banking/finance side, the western control system tries to block funding for coal, oil and gas. Those who price the markets for these energy products operate directly inside the same institutions. Chairman Xi, President Putin, Crown Prince MbS and President Donald Trump represent the other side of that dynamic and support traditional low-price energy development.

Europe is simply Europe, acting hypocritically and trying to survive financially. Europe is governing itself inside a system they built that is unsustainable. They rail against cheap energy yet purchase cheap energy from Russia; all while accusing Vladimir Putin of aggression….. yet demanding their purchase prices flow through the western banking/finance systems they control.

President Trump must be looking at all of this and listening to the arguments by Putin, Xi, Modi et al, that suddenly take on an entirely new context as he watches how this same western control system is leveraging its power structures to diminish his political strength and weaken his office. It is fascinating to watch all of this play out with a context for understanding that is missed by most of our neighbors.

https://twitter.com/BRICSinfo/status/2109899811558404505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2109899811558404505%7Ctwgr%5E2837301d263e30a401f7a0cfd9aa7e757d258c98%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F13%2Fzelenskyy-requests-his-own-diesel-deal-with-the-united-states-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-diesel%2F
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Break the EU.

• German Opposition Demands Trump-style Diesel Deal With Russia (RT)

Two German opposition parties have called for restoring economic ties with Russia following US President Donald Trump’s example in striking a diesel deal with Moscow, challenging Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s sanctions policy as soaring fuel prices put further pressure on Europe’s largest economy.


The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which together command a majority in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt’s parliament, are preparing a joint resolution demanding an end to anti-Russia sanctions and financial support for Kiev amid growing frustration over Berlin’s foreign policy and its economic consequences. “Germany also needs a diesel deal with Russia,” Claudia Wittig, deputy leader of the BSW parliamentary group, said, according to German media.

Wittig described fuel prices at German filling stations as “a scandal,” arguing that sanctions against Moscow had “failed across the board” and were primarily hurting Germany itself. She insisted that Berlin should go further than a one-off fuel agreement and resume regular imports of Russian oil and gas to help rescue German industry. “We need policies that think more about Köthen than Kiev,” Wittig said earlier, referring to a German town in Saxony-Anhalt. “We can no longer afford this war.”

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel also hailed Trump’s deal with Moscow, accusing Merz of undermining Germany’s economy with sanctions and expensive liquefied natural gas imports. “That’s how it’s done!” she wrote on X on Saturday. “While Merz ruins Germany with sanctions and expensive LNG, Trump practices realpolitik. German interests instead of escalation!”

The initiative comes after Trump reached a surprise agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to ease a global diesel shortage. Washington subsequently suspended sanctions on Russian diesel exports, allowing Moscow to release hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel onto international markets.

Trump has repeatedly blamed Vladimir Zelensky for exacerbating the global energy crisis by targeting Russian oil refineries despite Washington’s warnings. On Saturday, he suggested that Ukrainians should replace their leader, accusing Zelensky of rejecting numerous opportunities to settle the conflict.

The joint resolution is scheduled for a vote in the Saxony-Anhalt parliament in Magdeburg on October 14. AfD and BSW hold a combined majority following September’s regional elections, although the state legislature has no authority to lift federal or EU sanctions against Russia. The initiative also marks a further breach of Germany’s longstanding political “firewall” against the AfD, which mainstream parties have sought to exclude from power despite its growing electoral support.

Merz’s government flatly rejected any prospects of easing its anti-Russia stance and vowed to pursue even more sanctions against Moscow. Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius insisted on Saturday that Berlin’s support for Kiev remained “unwavering.” Meanwhile, Green Party co-leader Franziska Brantner blasted Trump’s agreement with Putin as the height of “unscrupulousness.”

The chancellor, whose popularity has sunk so low that he faces calls to resign from within his own party, has faced mounting criticism over the impact of his policies on Germany. Wagenknecht previously accused him of turning German citizens into “cash cows for Ukraine.” Moscow has likewise accused Merz of acting more like a “Ukrainian chancellor” than a German leader.

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“Trump and Putin have exposed the game being played by the City of London..”

• Ramifications of the Trump-Putin Energy Deal (CTH)

It is challenging to put the geopolitical perspective into an easily digestible format because the construct of western finance is the only reference point available for most Americans. We do not have solid references for what exists outside the western monetary constructs that have existed for generations. However, Barbara Boyd tries to expand our cognitive bubble to explore the potential ramifications of a Trump-Putin energy agreement.


I do not personally think President Trump engages these dynamics from a reference of London or the U.K. Instead, he simply seems to recognize the institutional financial constructs are no longer working to the benefit of American interests, and those constructs happen to be from the British Commonwealth financial system and the bank of financial settlements.

Promethean Action’s Barbara Boyd opens with President Trump’s Sunday announcement of an energy ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and what led up to it: his remarks to the press that it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president, and Friday’s agreement for Russia to supply diesel to the United States and the world, with a Treasury license authorizing Russian diesel through April 2027.

She argues that Trump and Putin have exposed the game being played by the City of London: Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russia’s refineries, which the Washington Post examined, keep fuel prices high ahead of the November 3 midterms, while the Financial Times reports the administration threatened to cut off weapons and intelligence if the attacks continued, and members of Congress move against the deal.

After President Zelensky’s interview on ABC’s This Week blaming high prices on the war in the Middle East, the episode turns to the energy wars: Russia’s ban on fuel exports, U.S. diesel above $6 a gallon, no major new U.S. refinery since 1977, and Europe’s emergency diesel stocks, held mainly by Germany and France, until Trump’s export threat brought a G7 release of 100 million barrels of oil and diesel.

Her presentation closes with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Operation Economic Outcast against Iran’s regime, the petrodollar system and London’s commodity markets since the 1971 collapse of Bretton Woods, President Putin’s case for long-term contracts between producing and consuming nations, the Conservative Treehouse’s argument that the world’s biggest economy is aligning against the financial schemes of London while retaining the dollar, and Secretary Bessent’s chart on prices under Biden and Trump.


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“Trump hits on Ilhan Omar, Zelenskyy and Putin, Kimberly Guilfoile, the issues with Ukraine and Russia energy ceasefire.”

• President Trump is Making Chopper Pressers Great Again (CTH)

Chopper Pressers have always been the best pressers, but when there are headline events swirling that capture great attention, chopper pressers are always awesome. I really appreciate them for how Trump cuts through the nonsense.


President Trump gives brief remarks about a variety of headline grabbing events. The first two minutes are captivating in the rapid-fire honesty. Seriously, in just the first two non-pretending minutes Trump hits on Ilhan Omar, Zelenskyy and Putin, Kimberly Guilfoile, the issues with Ukraine and Russia energy ceasefire.

Ilhan Omar is a terrible complainer and sketchy, but I have nothing to do with that. Not sure who is targeting Ukraine energy infrastructure, “we’ll have to take a look at that.” Looking at possibly having to fire the Ambassador to Greece for being a sketchy grifter. Ukraine and Russia “agree to the energy ceasefire because I’m saying they agree.”


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Jack Smith thought he could do anything.

• Jack Smith Could Track Phone Contacts, but What About the Lawyers? (Manney)

Jack Smith’s investigators wanted to know whom one of President Donald Trump’s closest aides called and when. Newly unsealed court papers show how they got permission. The sharper question is what happened when those phone records led them to Trump’s lawyers.


Two applications filed in February and April 2023 sought permission to monitor a cellular number the Trump administration identified as belonging to Susie Wiles, who then worked with Trump’s political operation and is now White House chief of staff. The public filings redact the subscriber’s identity. Federal judges Beryl Howell and James Boasberg approved the respective requests.

Smith’s team investigated government records and classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago, as well as possible obstruction. Prosecutors gave the court an investigative reason to monitor the number. They wrote that AT&T records showed contacts with at least nine witnesses or subjects within two days of interviews or grand jury testimony.

Investigators suspected additional calls might reveal efforts to contact witnesses after federal agents approached them. The applications described that suspicion alone doesn’t establish intimidation, obstruction, or any other crime, even if a phone call occurs near a witness interview.

The government’s request went beyond a simple list of outgoing calls. The pen-register and trap-and-trace applications covered incoming and outgoing phone numbers, communication times and durations, email addresses, IP addresses, and device identifiers. Prosecutors also sought historical call-detail records, and each order authorized up to 60 days of monitoring.

The filings expressly excluded communication content. These orders provide no basis to claim investigators listened to conversations through this surveillance authority. But names, timing, and frequency still show investigators who were talking with whom, including who contacted a lawyer immediately after questioning.

Earlier declassified FBI communications show agents reviewing contacts involving 21 Trump-affiliated defense attorneys and at least five journalists. In a March 24, 2023 message, an agent noted that a lawyer had called Wiles, recorded the call, and compared its 41-second length with earlier contacts. Another note tracked her phone activity after an April 7 FBI interview.

From Just the News: The three-year probe of the ex-president — which put Joe Biden’s administration in charge of the legal fate of his GOP rival in the 2024 election — was approved at the highest levels of the Biden Justice Department, including by Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and FBI Director Christopher Wray, the memos show.

In March 2022, Wray sent a memo to Garland and Monaco, seeking the attorney general’s approval to open a “Sensitive Investigative Matter” that would become Plasmic Echo. “I recommend you approve,” Lisa Monaco wrote at the end of the memo, leaving her initials “LM.” Days later, Garland signed the memo with his initials, giving his approval.

The new applications don’t specifically alert the judges to possible monitoring of defense-attorney contacts. Investigators sought broad collection from the phone, so such contacts could appear whether or not prosecutors initially intended to focus on them. The critical unanswered question is what agents did after identifying those calls.

Federal law helps explain why the two judges approved the surveillance. Under 18 U.S.C. Sections 3122 and 3123, prosecutors must certify that the information is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation. Unlike a traditional search warrant, the statute doesn’t require probable cause. Meeting that statutory threshold, however, can’t answer every question about how investigators used the information.

Communications between lawyers and clients receive special protections, but a telephone call alone isn’t automatically privileged. The released applications alone don’t demonstrate a violation of attorney-client privilege. They do raise the question of whether prosecutors identified defense-related contacts, restricted their review, or used patterns in those calls to guide further investigative steps.

Smith has defended his investigations and denied political motivation. The newly disclosed documents don’t establish that either judge knowingly approved improper collection, that investigators intercepted privileged conversations under these orders, or that the surveillance itself violated federal law.

From Just the News: Howell has been a central figure in Trump-related litigation for nearly a decade. As chief judge of the D.C. federal court from 2016 to 2023, she oversaw grand juries used by Russia collusion Special Counsel Robert Mueller and by investigators probing efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In March 2023, she pierced the attorney-client privilege between Trump and one of his lawyers, Evan Corcoran. In that case, she relied on the crime-fraud exception, forcing more testimony in the classified documents vcase. She also enforced Smith’s warrant for Trump’s Twitter account and fined the company $350,000 for slow compliance.

A second application to extend the pen register and tap and trace monitoring of Wiles’s phone came in April and was approved by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, another Washington DC-based jurist famously critical of Trump, the court records show.

Americans deserve something more specific than assurances. Who reviewed the defense-attorney contacts? What safeguards applied? Were any call patterns used to anticipate legal strategy? Congress should seek those answers, and prosecutors should be prepared to supply them. Court approval explains how this monitoring began. The public still deserves to know how it was handled.

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“..if he is fighting to get out of the Establishment’s traps..”

Is that a caveat?

• Trump Might Not Be as Bad as He Appears (Paul Craig Roberts)

Yesterday Nima and I discussed the lies that are ricocheting around news events and how political figures think they can succeed with such obvious lies as the Strait of Hormuz is open, the US is in control of the Strait, and 20 million barrels of oil are being transported through the Strait daily. https://www.youtube.com/live/V2kwURVOV5Q


Nima was concerned with the latest claim from Trump that a deal has been reached with Russia in which Russia will provide 4.8 million tons of diesel fuel to the market in exchange for Trump removing the sanctions on Russia. To facilitate the deal Trump asked Zelensky to quit attacking Russian diesel facilities, and he asked Putin to stop attacking Kiev. Both Zelensky and Russia, according to reports, say they are unaware of this deal. The Russians say that they have no interest in a temporary ceasefire and that what Russia wants is a negotiated comprehensive end to the conflict with the West. Nima asked how could Trump announce an agreement that Zelensky and Putin didn’t know about.

NOTE: This morning, October 13, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the supply of Russian diesel fuel to the market “is a very mutually beneficial element of Russian-US cooperation,” but there is no direct link between the US decision on Russian diesel fuel and Russia’s position on Ukraine negotiations. Peskov goes on to say that Moscow has only read media reports about a US-European plan to resolve the situation in Ukraine: “No, we have not heard anything about it. We have seen reports in the media, but we have not heard anything about it,” Peskov told reporters. I replied that I could only speculate.

One possible answer, perhaps even a likely answer, is that Trump is putting out a narrative that if it takes hold could lead to a solution. One part of the solution is to protect the Republicans in the midterm elections from higher energy prices and the inflation that rising energy prices cause. Trump might also see that a deal in which sanctions are removed in exchange for more energy supply is a way to extract Washington from the conflict Washington started in Ukraine without it looking like an American defeat.

If sanctions are removed and energy is flowing, what is the point of a return to hostilities? I have always thought that Putin’s choice of Stanford and Harvard educated Kirill Dmitriev as Russia’s negotiator and Trump’s choice of business men Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law as Washington’s negotiators was crafted so as to produce a deal that would present a mutually profitable business arrangement more profitable than an unpopular military conflict.

I am a long time critic of Putin for ignoring Napolean’s important statement that “The reputation of one’s arms in war is everything, and equivalent to real forces.” I and Doctorow have concluded, correctly or incorrectly, that Putin’s refusal to use sufficient force to stop Ukraine’s ability to continue the military conflict has caused the conflict to greatly widen and that this widening implies eventually a nuclear conflict. We see many signs of this as the conflict is no longer limited to the Donbas battlefront but has expanded deep into Mother Russia as a result of long-range weapons supplied by the US and Europe and targeting information supplied by the US and MI6 to Ukraine.

Two more formerly neutral European countries have joined NATO and more NATO countries have agreed to host US nuclear missiles on their territory. Clearly the war has widened. Nevertheless, I understand Putin’s approach which does risk nuclear war when Russia has no further room to back away. Putin understands that if he ends the conflict by striking down Ukraine’s ability to continue the fight, which Russia could have done 4.5 years ago and could do tomorrow with conventional weapons alone, he will have obtained Russia’s aims but without Western acceptance. So in effect the conflict doesn’t end.

If Putin imposes a military solution, the West will say: “See, we told you. Putin intends to resurrect the Soviet Empire and spread it into Europe. Germany will be next.” Indeed, Germany seems already to think that Germany is going to be next as Germany prepares for war with Russia, an ill-advised enterprise.

The disagreement between Putin and myself is which of us has the best odds in the gamble on the table. My concern is that Putin’s sacrifice of a decisive military victory is resulting in more Western provocations that will result in nuclear war. Putin’s concern is that a Russian imposed military victory will not be a good victory because it will harden Western opposition to Russia, whose demonstration of strength would be regarded as a threat to all of Europe.

I cannot say that I am right and that Putin is wrong. I just hope he is aware of the risk. This concludes what Nima and I discussed, so you can save the time of listening to our discussion. Nima’s questions on occasions are provocative and push me into clarifying statements of how I view events as they unfold.

I will end with giving you important information. As a high level Reagan political appointee instrumental to President Reagan’s two important issues–the defeat of stagflation and the end of the Cold War, I can tell you that most presidential appointees are not in office to serve the President but to serve their own careers. It is not unusual for presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, dictators even, to have ministers working against the titular head in behalf of their own agendas and career. In my time in the Reagan administration my main opponents were Reagan’s appointments as his chief of staff, as his budget director, as his chairman of the council of economic advisors and their media whores who thrived on leaks against Reagan’s agenda.

For example the budget director, David Stockman had the intention of being the first budget director to balance the budget. From this achievement he would go on to become US Senator from Michigan or wherever it was he was from, and from there to the presidency. Stockman saw Reagan’s tax rate reduction as an obstacle to his career ambitions.

Murray Weidenbaum, chairman of the council of economic advisers, was busy reassuring conservative foundations that supported his situation at Washington University that he was against budget deficits and thus gave little if any support to Reagan’s economic policy.

Reagan’s chief of staff, Jim Baker, just wanted to reassure Wall Street and believed that a small tax rate reduction of 5%, which would be wiped out by inflation before it could be enacted, sufficed to show a Reagan victory in lowering taxes.

The facts which I had in my hands as Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic policy had no influence against these agendas. I simply had to run over them, which meant no further government career. But that is what it took to get to get Reagan’s economic policy out of his own administration so that Congress could vote on it.

I prevailed because I was right, had Reagan’s support and support in Congress and was willing to take the hits. Today 45 years later only Elon Musk can afford to take the hits. Today not even the US Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., can prevail over Big Pharma’s influence over the FDA, CDC, NIH–all of which report to Secretary Kennedy and all of whom obey Big Pharma. Secretary Kennedy cannot even get the proven dangerous Covid-19 vaccines prohibited. Big Pharma’s political campaign contributions are more powerful than the Secretary of Health.

In my opinion, it is the inability of elected governments to prevail over powerful private interests, such as the Israel Lobby, the military-security complex that President Eisenhower warned us about as long ago as 1961, and Big Pharma, that has given rise to an ideological Democrat Party that sees the institutional structure of American society so corrupt that it must be overthrown. The US Supreme Court destroyed the accountability of the US government when it ruled that corporations had First Amendment rights to purchase the US government to serve their agendas.

I doubt that the US will have a French or Leninist revolution, but that is the intention of the new ideological Democrats, and I understand the frustrations that have led them to their war on existing society. There is no doubt whatsoever that the republic established by the Founding Fathers has been corrupted.

Where will redemptive American leadership come from? Trump was defeated by his captivity to the Israel Lobby. The Democrats are committed not to the restoration of America but to America’s overthrow.

It is a true statement that “Where there is no vision the people are lost.” In a world in which the only interests of peoples is in self-affirming narratives the people are doubly lost. A life in false narratives is a life in The Matrix.

Life in The Matrix is life in Western countries today. It is not a life worth living. The question is: In all of the world today do any people other than the Israelis and Zionist MAGA Americans believe in themselves, believe in their country?

Perhaps the Iranians?

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She supposedly arrived with nothing, just a few years ago.

• Trump Suggests Ilhan Omar’s Money Came From Fraud (Catherine Salgado)

President Donald Trump just implied that there could be evidence linking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Somalia) to millions of dollars in lucrative fraud.


Early on October 12, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security, in partnership with the Department of Justice, executed a search warrant at Omar’s D.C. home. Members of the Trump administration including Vice President JD Vance and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin have alleged that Omar did commit immigration fraud, including by faking a marriage with her own brother. But she and her family are also connected with the massive Somali fraud machine stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from Americans in Minnesota.

On Tuesday, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Why did Ilhan Omar report a Net Worth of up to 30 Million Dollars just a short time ago, and then immediately say, ‘Oh, I made a mistake! It’s really $100,000.’ Could it be that her highly paid accountant actually reported the money that was stolen from her fraudulent activities in Minnesota? Would something like that be possible?”

He pressed his speculative point home. “Do you think the accountant actually gave the right number the first time, 30 Million Dollars, and then she was forced to disavow because she never would have been able to report where that much money came from? She must have freaked out when she saw that money!”


Omar certainly lives a plutocratic life for an alleged refugee to America who supposedly subsists off her congressional salary. “Where did her house come from, where did her cars come from, and what about her lovely place in Washington, D.C.?” Trump asked. “I didn’t know that Congressmen and women made that kind of money, but I do know her husband, according to information and belief, makes almost nothing, so it couldn’t have come from him. How many people did she illegally bring into our Country from Somalia? America wants answers, and we want them, NOW!”

GOP lawmakers and the convicted mastermind of the $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme implicated Omar in the fraud. Fraudsters emailed each other about “Ilhan’s Office” and her sister is tentatively identified as one of the USAID fraudsters who registered at the same address as the “Feeding Our Future” criminals.

Sen. Ernst said “One of our spending bills making its way through Congress was a $1 million earmark from Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, which was an earmark that was supposedly going to a substance abuse clinic, which actually happened to be housed in a restaurant and run by three individuals that share the same residential address, according to their IRS paperwork.”

After all, Omar has said that she would prioritize Somalia’s interests and her father is reportedly one of the Somali officers responsible for the Isaaq genocide.

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The Islam doesn’t belong in the US. Or in Europe, but it may be too late there.

• Corporate Islamification (Stefan Padfield)

So, what is Islamification?


A recent documentary by former Virginia congressman Nick Freitas titled “The Immigration Crisis That Will Destroy the West” warns viewers about the risks created by the Islamification of Western civilization. The film focuses primarily on the negative impacts of cultural norms related to the treatment of women and girls, with a reviewer noting allegations of “a significant problem of organized, industrial-scale rapes being conducted by mostly Muslim men” in the UK.

Relatedly, another recent column noted that “seven of the top 10 countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage have a Muslim-majority,” and went on to ask: “Why does Islam appear so frequently in discussions surrounding religious persecution, terrorism, and certain forms of sexual violence?” Similar concerns have also been raised about the cultural roots of rampant fraud we’ve seen in places like Minneapolis.

And even more recent fiery riots in France have left some “pointing to second and third-generation immigrant youths–many from Muslim North African and sub-Saharan backgrounds–as the core of the violence.” Perhaps pulling all the foregoing together, Douglas Murray argues that “the West remain[s] at war with Islamic radicals.”Importantly, while conservatives cherish individual liberty and religious freedom, those commitments are perverted when it is claimed that only a nihilistic multiculturalism properly embodies those values.

To the contrary, in addition to individual liberty and religious freedom, conservatives also value truth and free speech in pursuit thereof, both of which demand acknowledgement of the fact that not all cultures or branches thereof are equal, that some cultures are better than others at the very least vis-a-vis a specific people in a specific place at a specific time, and that certain cultures can pose a threat to Western civilization if they are imported en masse without any expectations of assimilation.

Accordingly, the liberty and freedom of individuals to practice their religion should be respected and protected, and members of all religions who strive to assimilate should be embraced. However, the people who support terrorism in the name of Islam, or who promote cultural norms directly antithetical to Western civilization, such as undermining property rights or the rights of women and children, should not be ignored or empowered. Nor should asserted connections between those issues and Islam be handwaved away as exaggerating a “few bad apples” problem.

This brings us to the role corporations play in the Islamification of Western civilization, and what applicable fiduciary duties and expectations of good corporate governance have to say about that. Consider how the following corporate actions might increase the risk of immigration-related harms to the United States, including Islamification–which will be explained in more detail below.

First, corporations fighting restrictions on welfare benefits could be supporting incentives for problematic immigration. Second, corporations seeking to import cheap labor could be similarly promoting mass immigration with costs outweighing benefits. Third, corporations opposing ICE operations could be making it easier for illegal aliens who harm the United States to stay in the country.

Finally, H-1B visa abuse can exacerbate immigration-related strains on U.S. citizens. This applies both generally and specifically to risks related to Islamification because while discussion of demographic issues related to H-1B visa abuse can focus on beneficiaries from India, which is apparently 80% Hindu, it is highly unlikely that the H-1B beneficiary population excludes Muslims. For example, 14% of India’s population apparently identifies as Muslim.

Of course, the reputational and financial risks associated with a corporation creating the perception that it directly or indirectly supports the Islamification of the U.S. are not the only factors to be considered by corporate leaders in making related business decisions. But it is also arguably true that failing to become fully informed about these risks could constitute a breach of duty, including being found guilty of bad faith in relevant cases of willful blindness.

An argument could certainly be made that no corporate fiduciaries dealing with this issue can claim to be fully informed if the word “Islamification” never once appears on the board agenda.

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I’m not sure I understand this.

• The Midterm Polling Is Absolutely, Positively, 100% Wrong. (Maybe.) (Pinsker)

Our world runs on incentive structures: Your values and goals drive your decision-making. It’s a fundamental tenet of free market capitalism. Trouble is, our incentive structures can also lead us astray. Low-hanging fruit, socioeconomic pressures, and instant gratification cloud our judgment. Instead of striving for long-term accuracy, we’ll settle for short-term accolades.


Which takes us to the “science” of polling. Because it IS a real, legitimate science. And pollsters are real, legitimate scientists. Y’know, just like TV weathermen. It’s fascinating: When we crack the veneer of scientific-sounding stats, numbers, and probabilities, both weather forecasters and pollsters use the same exact language. It’s kind of eerie.

“Forecasting is both a science and an art,” wrote famed meteorologist Jeff Haby. “To be a great forecaster, the meteorologist needs to have skills in weather pattern recognition… [including] intuition (the 6th sense).” Because the numbers alone aren’t reliable. Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow, who served as a weather officer in World War II, quipped, “One thing I learned from meteorology is that being an actual science was no guarantee of exactness.” Which is why weathermen interject their own biases, experiences, and assumptions into weather forecasts. It’s where the “art” — and “intuition” — come in.

Wait: art and intuition? What the hell kind of “science” relies on artwork and ESP?! Actually, polling does, too.“Polls are the worst form of prediction ever, except for all the other kinds,” said pollster Nate Silver. “In some ways… it’s amazing that polls are as accurate as they are.” Because, when it comes to quantifying key factors, including an accurate, representative sample of likely voters, as fellow pollster John Zogby freely admitted, “This is where polling is an art.”

It’s subjective. There’s a near-infinite galaxy of competing, contradictory statistical projections, and each pollster is free to accentuate — or deemphasize — absolutely anything he or she wants. Just like TV weathermen. bPredicting the weather and predicting the midterms are both science-based without being scientific. Science is just the starting point: Yes, pollsters and weathermen use real numbers and real math to paint a picture, but their “art” is guided by their intuition.

And pleasing the paying customer. This is where the incentive structure comes in — and where TV weathermen and pollsters differ. TV weathermen, after all, are almost always employees of a TV station. It’s analogous to a tenured professor: The station has a vested interest in promoting ‘em, so unless they screw up spectacularly (or sink in the ratings), a likeable, “accurate enough” weatherman has a job for life.

It’s why TV weathermen are incentivized to play it safe, avoid major screwups, and make semi-reliable predictions. But pollsters (usually) aren’t employed by a TV station. They’re either contracted for a short time, or they work for an independent company and need the media to trumpet their results — or nobody will hear it.

Either way, the incentive structure is the same: When you’re on a contract, you’re incentivized to do whatever you can to earn a renewal. This means keeping your customer happy. And if you need media outlets to trumpet your results, you’re incentivized to tell them a story that they’re likely to run.

Weather forecasts and political polling projections aren’t science. They’re science-based — the same way pro wrestling is sports-based. There’s real athleticism, and the wrestlers are working hard, but c’mon, methinks someone has his thumb on the scales: Fun fact: Over the past eight years, about 70% of August polls have overestimated support for Democrats.

It seems someone has put his thumb on the pollsters’ scales, too. So it’s not remarkable that the 2026 polls point to a Democratic victory. The opposite is true: This is exactly what we’d expect the incentive structure to produce! And whattaya know, 70% of the time in the month of August, that’s what we get.

Which is an institutional problem: Left-wing reporters, at left-wing media outlets, favor left-wing news stories. That’s not a secret. It’s why Republican trust in the media has nosedived. And since most major media outlets are left-wing, most political polls lean to the left — because that’s the incentive structure of the media marketplace.

So yes, the midterm polling has been utterly abysmal for Republicans. And yes, we’ve heard the super-scary stats: One expert gives the Democrats an 84.5% chance of winning the House. Another expert gives the Democrats a 74.8% chance of winning the Senate. Those are VERY scientific-sounding numbers. Why, these scientists are so precise, they even used a decimal point!

But these numbers don’t mean anything. They’re not real. It’s science-inspired artwork. (Or science fiction.) They were guided by “intuition.” Y’know — ESP. Which means that the 2026 midterms aren’t anywhere close to over and Republicans shouldn’t be demoralized.

Because the God’s honest truth is, nobody knows nothin’. We don’t know which demos will show up and vote on Election Day, which ones won’t, and which ones were underrepresented in the polls. Nor do we know which issues will be top-of-mind on November 3, 2026. The election is still three weeks away. And that, dear reader, is the final caveat: If nobody knows nothin’, then, alas, we can’t disprove the media polls either. All we can do is note the systemic bias and the sky-high error rate.

So get out and vote like the midterms are still up for grabs — because they absolutely are.

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https://twitter.com/XFreeze/status/2109903478470643868?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 13 2026

Oct 132026
 
 October 13, 2026  Posted by at 7:56 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  55 Responses »


Mark Rothko Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea 1944


• Trump Hits His Campaign Stride in Youngstown, Ohio (Tim O’Brien)
• Federal Agents Raid Ilhan Omar’s D.C. Home (Matt Margolis)
• Genocide Hypocrites (Victor Davis Hanson)
• Sen. Chuck Grassley, 93, Files for Reelection (Margolis)
• Jack Smith: A Former Special Counsel Joins the “No Kings” Movement (Turley)
• Elon Musk Becomes Largest Donor, To Rescue Senate Republican Majority (JTN)
• Judge Orders White House to Stop Airing Taxpayer-Funded Ads (ET)
• So, Where Was Waldo? (James Howard Kunstler)
• UK PM Consoles Zelensky After Trump Calls For His Ouster (RT)
• Trump ‘Really Mad’ With Zelensky – Media (RT)
• Ukraine’s Worst Diplomatic Nightmare Just Got Closer (Poletaev)
• Montana AG Asks Supreme Court to Revive Case Against DEI Training (O’Neil)

 

 

https://twitter.com/Chicago1Ray/status/2109464933452620031?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2109460381999505609?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2109274727411855451?s=20 https://twitter.com/21WIRE/status/2109403369387282669?s=20

 

 


“Big Rally Energy Is Picking Up..”

• Trump Hits His Campaign Stride in Youngstown, Ohio (Tim O’Brien)

President Donald Trump continued his barnstorming tour around the country on Columbus Day by rallying the base in Youngstown, Ohio, leading the charge to get U.S. Sen. John Husted (R-Ohio) reelected and Vivek Ramaswamy (R) elected as governor. Husted is in a tight race against former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), while Ramaswamy is trailing in the polls behind Amy Acton, one of the more radical leftist gubernatorial candidates in the country this election cycle.


In Trump’s remarks, he praised the local candidates and paid homage to Christopher Columbus on his namesake holiday. Then he launched into the Democrats, pointing out that when they were in charge of the federal government, they gave America the worst inflation in its history, the worst trade deficit in history, and they allowed violent illegal aliens to flood across the southern border into the country.

He tied all of this to Brown and his role in the Senate during the decline of American standing under Democrat “leadership.” Trump said that Brown wants to allow men in women’s sports. He repeatedly reminded the crowd that Brown supports the transgender movement in full, and more specifically the mutilation of children.

In a nod to the day’s holiday, Trump said, “To be a Democrat like Sherrod Brown, you have to believe Christopher Columbus should not be in Columbus, Ohio.” Using Minnesota as a cautionary case study, Trump pointed to the way in which the Somali-American community has taken over that state’s political and governing infrastructure, characterized by massive amounts of fraud and corruption.

He specifically mentioned Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose house was raided by the feds earlier in the day as part of a federal criminal investigation. He said that Omar “comes from one of the worst countries on the planet.”


He pointed out that Somali corruption in Minnesota was responsible for the theft of tens of millions of dollars from Minnesota welfare programs. He mentioned the arrest of Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, of Richfield, Minn., who was charged with receiving a firearm and ammo as part of a terrorist plot.

And he mentioned the October 2 Eden Prairie shooting at a high school football game, a shooting in which the suspect is Adam Abdihakeem Adam, a Somali who allegedly fired a gun at what police are calling a rival gang. Four others were arrested on rioting charges. After all of this, Trump said, “They come here and tell us how to run our country.” He then added, “They cheat on everything… We’re not going to stand for it.”

He then turned his attention to Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the Senate in Michigan. “Look at the guy running in Michigan,” Trump said. “He’s a jihadist. And the media gives him so much publicity.” After riffing on El-Sayed for a few minutes, Trump turned his attention to Springfield, Ohio, where he said 32,000 people had lived peacefully in small town America. That was before, Trump said, Democrat administrations “dumped” 35,000 Haitian illegal aliens on the town, some of them with criminal backgrounds.

Trump reported that his administration is working to keep his 2024 campaign promise to correct that situation. “They’re getting their town back,” Trump said. While the president ticked off a long list of accomplishments on the part of his administration in this second term, he highlighted that poverty in the black, Hispanic, and American Indian communities has dropped significantly, along with crime rates nationwide.=nHe dropped a now familiar statistic, but an impressive one, that “zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the U.S. through our southern border” over the past 17 months.

His administration has eliminated critical race theory curricula from schools, along with increasing success against the movement that promotes gender mutilation in kids. In addition, he highlighted the White House’s progress towards banning men from competing against women in women’s sports. Because the president repeated these themes throughout his speech, it’s clear that their research is indicating that Democrats remain very vulnerable on social issues.

Can you imagine 15 years ago saying, ‘We will not allow men to play in women’s sports?’ They’d have thought you were crazy,” Trump said. He reminded the crowd that Republicans are defending women — that they are the only ones defending women in these cases. “What they’re doing to women is demeaning,” he commented.

Trump spent a little time talking about Ramaswamy’s opponent, Acton, who, the president said, wants to restore the inheritance tax, the estate tax, taxes on tips, and taxes on overtime, and who wants the elimination of tax cuts the Republicans already passed. He said she wants to “double your state income tax.” He added that Acton wants to “take away your guns,” and that she’s against the Second Amendment.

He warned that if the Democrats win majorities in the midterms, they will work to add Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states, increasing the number of Democratic senators by four and the number of Democratic representatives by 10, and expand the Supreme Court to 13 justices (possibly up to 23). He painted a grim picture of Democrats if they get the chance to rig the system so badly that he may well be America’s last Republican president.

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She’s an opportunist.

• Federal Agents Raid Ilhan Omar’s D.C. Home (Matt Margolis)

Federal agents executed a search warrant at Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) Washington, D.C., home early Monday morning as part of a criminal fraud investigation into her immigration paperwork, according to an exclusive report from Fox News Digital.


The search began at around 6 a.m. Two sources close to the investigation told the outlet that the probe focuses on immigration documents the Somali-born congresswoman’s late father filled out on her behalf when she was a child. Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security are leading the operation, and the Justice Department is also involved. Multiple agents wearing HSI jackets were seen outside the residence.

“Today in the Washington, D.C., area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice,” a DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation.”HSI serves as DHS’s primary investigative arm, handling cases involving cross-border crime, human trafficking, child exploitation, drug smuggling, cybercrime, and counterterrorism.

The search follows months of public signals from senior administration officials. In May, Vice President JD Vance said the Justice Department was examining whether Omar had committed immigration fraud. “It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the law,” Vance said.

Omar has faced allegations for years that she married her brother as part of an immigration scheme. She has repeatedly denied the claim. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin addressed the matter last month. “Something’s going to happen. … We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States. We know he now lives in London,” Mullin said.

He suggested the investigation could reach further back. “There may be more to this, the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with,” the secretary continued. “… If we can prove it, that you shouldn’t have been here in the first place, we will deport you.”

In mid-September, White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing that federal immigration authorities were conducting an “ongoing criminal investigation” connected to Omar. Asked whether the government had evidence that she committed immigration or naturalization fraud, he declined to say. “I know things are going on, but I can’t give specifics of what’s happening,” Homan said.

Pressed on whether he was confirming an investigation, Homan answered directly. “I’m confirming that ICE is, yeah — look, I said months ago that there’s something that’s been reported and needs to be looked at,” he said. Homan added that he would allow HSI to continue its work. “If someone committed an immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law,” the border czar noted.

He also described denaturalization in proven fraud cases as “very serious.” “If someone lies through that process to becoming a citizen, and we can prove they, in fact, lied or misrepresented themselves, we can absolutely denaturalize them,” Homan said. “We’ve done it before many times over the last 40 years I’ve been around.”

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“Omar is the daughter of a well-known colonel in the truly genocidal army of Somali dictator Siad Barre.”

• Genocide Hypocrites (Victor Davis Hanson)

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas killers slaughtered 1,200 people, more than two-thirds of them civilians, inside Israel. For the ensuing three weeks, they refused Israel’s demands to turn over the 251 hostages and to surrender the architects of the massacre. No matter—within a day of the attacks, when Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli troops on Israeli soil, the American Left was already screaming “genocide!”


They did not mean Hamas’s intended genocide of Jews, a foretaste of which was seen when it launched a surprise invasion force of more than 4,000 terrorists some 15 miles into Israel. The killers were accompanied by some 2,000 “innocent” Gazan “civilians.” All were bent on looting, murder, rape, torture, and hostage-taking of the defenseless.

Nor did the “genocide” chorus refer to the more than 13,000 rockets, missiles, and drones launched from Gaza after Oct. 7 that predominantly targeted Israeli civilian neighborhoods.

What was most surreal about the charges of “genocide” against Israel—along with all the other slurs of “settler-colonialism,” “apartheid,” “occupation,” “war crimes”—was that they so often came from elite first- and second-generation Middle Eastern immigrants to America. Yet these prominent American accusers have remained silent about whether their lurid accusations might far better reflect the sordid histories of their own homelands.

Take the Turkish-American anchor baby Hasan Piker, the millionaire podcaster who has dual citizenship and grew up in Turkey. Piker has gained celebrity as the socialist heartthrob who is the brain of the new Democratic/Socialist/Islamist alliance. Besides his antisemitic rants, he has declared that “America deserved 9/11” and “Oh God, I f-ing hate America so much.”

Yet the outspoken Piker has only once in passing mentioned Turkey’s 1974 invasion and the half-century-long occupation of nearly 40 percent of Cyprus. Nor did Piker, who damns the creation of Israel in 1948, ever say a word about the Turkish torching of the historic Greek-majority Ionian city of Smyrna in 1922, in which tens of thousands of civilians were incinerated.

Given Piker’s supposedly vast historical recall and outspoken human rights advocacy, one would at least expect him to be sensitive to the horror of Turkey’s Armenian genocide, in which Turkish troops slaughtered more than one million civilians, and for which the Turkish government still denies any culpability. But when once challenged by Armenian-Americans, he dismissed them, saying flippantly, “It’s more fun to enrage you.”

And the pattern goes beyond mere podcasters.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a first-generation immigrant from Somalia, also brays loudly about supposed Israeli war crimes. Omar spouts “genocide” and “apartheid” in her frequently antisemitic rants. She has also labeled her adopted nation as “one of the worst countries” in the world.

But Omar is the daughter of a well-known colonel in the truly genocidal army of Somali dictator Siad Barre. The latter waged a decade-long war of extermination against the rival Isaaq clan that opposed Barre’s 21-year-long dictatorship. Estimates of the Barre regime’s murderous toll range from 50,000 to 200,000 killed, mostly civilians. Few in Omar’s politically active Somali immigrant community ever concede that many fled Somalia to America only when Barre’s two-decade reign of terror was finally overthrown, and they feared retaliation from his victims.

Of course, the nation’s biggest elected leftist rising star has also joined in.

Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, employs the same tired anti-Israeli and anti-American verbiage. Yet he went further than other antisemites when he launched grandstanding threats to jail Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu any time the latter visited New York to address the United Nations.

For America’s 250th birthday, Mamdani’s July 3 “commemorative” address blasted American “monopolies that dominate every industry,” federal agents supposedly “terrorizing our streets,” and a country where we “sell our elections to the highest bidder.” The calumny was odd coming from a dual citizen of the police state of Uganda, where there are no real elections but lots of Indian “monopolies.”

Indeed, Mamdani himself better fits his own charges of “settler-colonist” and “apartheid.” His Indian community in Uganda comprises less than 0.1% of the population. But somehow it still accounts for over 60% of Uganda’s GDP. It was implanted there by 19th-century British imperialists as a “settler-colonial” community to help control the indigenous black population.

In short, we should remind these privileged ingrates—regardless of what corner of the world they hail from–to look inward before they blast their adopted country and not to project the sins of their own homelands upon either Israel or America.

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“His eighth term runs through Jan. 3, 2029, and if he were to win a ninth, he’d be in office until he’s 101.”

• Sen. Chuck Grassley, 93, Files for Reelection (Margolis)

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is 93 and has filed to run for another six-year term in 2028.


Grassley has held elected office since 1959 and has sat in the Senate since 1981. He’s the longest-serving Republican in the history of Congress and one of the longest-serving senators of all time. As Senate president pro tempore, he’s also third in line for the presidency. His eighth term runs through Jan. 3, 2029, and if he were to win a ninth, he’d be in office until he’s 101.

I’m honestly not sure whether this means he’s definitely going to run again or is just filing paperwork. But if he does run, it’s a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. Grassley made that case himself just last month. Speaking at an Iowa GOP event in West Des Moines on September 25, he urged Republicans to turn out for the party’s nominee for governor in November, and explained what was weighing on him.

“At 93 years of age, I don’t know how many more groups of Republicans like this I’m going to have a chance to talk to, but one of the reasons I’m worried about who’s going to be elected governor — I don’t plan on dying in office, but if I did, I don’t want a Democratic governor choosing my successor,” Grassley said. His concern has a legal basis.

Under Iowa law, the governor picks a temporary replacement when a Senate seat opens up, and that appointee serves until voters choose a permanent successor at the next general election. Currently, polls suggest that Democrat Rob Sand is favored over Republican Zach Lahn, as Sand has a +8.4 lead in the RealClearPolitics average.

Grassley issued a similar warning in October 2018, when he was 85 and Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-Iowa) was fighting for a full term in a close race. Reynolds survived and cruised to reelection in 2022. No Iowa governor has had to fill a Senate vacancy since 1936, after Sen. Richard Murphy of Dubuque died in a car accident.

In fairness, Grassley, to the best that I can tell, is healthy, though I haven’t seen a recent clip of him. But who cares if he is? His advanced age makes seeking reelection problematic, and his comments last month make it clear that even he acknowledges that. At the time, he hadn’t said whether he’d run again. That question appears to have been answered, and the answer is the wrong one.

Republicans already know how this goes. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) disappeared from the Senate over the summer, and the lack of transparency around it was troubling. His staff dodged basic questions about his condition. Considering McConnell’s other well-documented health problems, their silence was entirely unacceptable.

Grassley needs to let it go and retire.Let’s be honest here. Throughout Joe Biden’s so-called presidency, Republicans demanded transparency about his health, and for good reason. Democrats and the White House were obviously lying to us. McConnell’s office spent the summer doing the same thing.

And McConnell’s absence had consequences. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-Ark.) needed McConnell’s vote to move his farm bill out of committee. Without it, and with every Democrat on the panel opposed, the bill stalled. When McConnell returned, he still didn’t look healthy enough to serve. At least he’s leaving office in January.

Democrats have their own cautionary tale — and I’m not talking about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) clung to her seat when she clearly couldn’t perform her duties anymore, and it became a huge problem for her party.

So if Grassley does follow through and ultimately seeks reelection, I hope a Republican challenges him in a primary. Make no mistake about it, a Senate seat is a job, and the people who hold one owe voters the ability to do it for the full term. Conservatives spent years calling out a party that put pride and ambition ahead of the country’s interests and lied about it to everyone’s face. After what Democrats did with Joe Biden, Republicans should be better than this.

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Totally non-partial.

• Jack Smith: A Former Special Counsel Joins the “No Kings” Movement (Turley)

After his recent congressional testimony, former Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared at a “Power to the People Fest” sporting a “No Kings” T-shirt. Aside from a midlife crisis, the most likely explanation is that Smih( wanted to send a message, reaffirming his bona fides as an anti-Trump warrior. It was a Comey moment, but without the seashells.


The Power to the People Fest featured many whom Smith has long cultivated in the “Democracy-is-Ending” crowd. The organizers billed the event as “working to restore and strengthen democracy” and featured some of Trump’s loudest critics. The top billing went to Bruce Springsteen, who has lately turned his concerts into anti-Trump rave sessions, including comparing Trump officials to “Gestapo” and calling the administration “treasonous.” He continued those attacks at the concert with Smith, denouncing Trump as “lawless” and his administration as murderers.

For his part, Tom Morello, the chief organizer of the rally, has called Trump and his administration “fascists” and leading crowds in chants of “F— Trump.” And there was Smith in his own “No Kings” tee shirt. b It was a particularly inopportune time, as new evidence on Capitol Hill showed how Smith not only seized phone records of Republican members of Congress, but tracked communications with Trump’s attorney.

Smith has always been undone by his excessive appetite and his habitual failure to respect the limits on his authority. He has a history of losing major cases by advancing excessive and abusive legal claims. This included his stinging defeat in a unanimous Supreme Court decision dismantling his case against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).

During the Trump investigation, Smith showed that he had learned nothing from his losses. Indeed, former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith with full knowledge of his past disregard for constitutional limits. Smith richly deserves to be criticized for his unrelenting attack on free speech protections as well as his decision to file a second case focusing on the 2020 election.

And the unfolding details of how Smith seized the telephone records of Republican members of Congress, including those investigating his own conduct, only confirm suspicions that Smith wanted to bag Trump at any cost. That included seeking to curtail appeals and rush prosecutions before the 2024 election. Smith failed when Trump chose to run despite the lawfare, and he failed again when Trump handily won the election. But Smith’s obsession was so consuming that he was willing to try Trump right up to Inauguration Day.

The new details of Smith’s investigation should outrage members of both parties. The use of pen registers (to identify the destination of outbound calls and messages) and of trap and trace orders (for incoming) entirely disregarded longstanding rules protecting the legislative branch from such encroachments. And what is particularly alarming is that these searches were obvious fishing expeditions — these were not focused searches on specific wrongdoing, like the searches involving the corruption case against Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) 20 years ago.

In addition to members of Congress, Smith and his team monitored the activities of Trump’s legal defense team, journalists and campaign advisers. That includes now-White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ phone. At the same time, Smith secured a non-disclosure order from the court that prevented mobile carriers from notifying the affected lawmakers that they were being spied on. Thus, as members were looking into Smith’s excesses, they were not told that he was receiving and poring over their telephone records.

The White House Government Transparency Task Force released material this week showing that Smith’s team used an investigation codenamed “Plasmic Echo” to engage in an untethered fishing expedition. Notably, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco signed off on the sweeping seizure with no apparent effort to address obvious constitutional concerns over the right to counsel and Article I powers. Once again, Garland was entirely passive and simply endorsed the recommendations of those around him.

FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a March 2022 memo to Garland and Monaco seeking the attorney general’s approval to launch Plasmic Echo. Monaco added her endorsement before Garland signed off.FBI investigators traced “Wiles’ phone calls and text messages with at least 21 lawyers affiliated with Trump, numerous campaign staff, political advisors, and at least five journalists from at least February to May 2023.”

This investigation also involved gathering intelligence on Trump’s political action committee, including its donors and campaign expenses. Smith and the FBI continued the aggressive posture even as agents were balking at some of these means, including those who felt that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was unnecessary to resolve the concerns over the classified material.

Smith has continued to portray himself as unbiased and not motivated in any way by the election: “Anybody who has worked with me and knows me during the course of my career knows that I would not let politics play a role,” he has said. But shortly afterward, he appeared in his No Kings tee shirt at the Power to the People fest. It was vintage Smith — an almost mocking arrogance in the face of growing criticism over his methods and partisanship.

The irony is that Smith was a better fit as a member of this profanity-spewing anti-Trump crowd than he ever was as special counsel. The pretense was gone, and he was finally in his element. In that sense, he might view this as his coming-out party, but Smith actually came out years ago.

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$276 million.

• Elon Musk Becomes Largest Donor, Aims To Rescue Senate GOP Majority (JTN)

Tech mogul Elon Musk has emerged as the Republican Party’s most important midterm donor, funneling more than $276 million into Republican campaigns and political action committees since July. The enormous sum makes Musk the largest known midterm donor, according to campaign finance records Musk’s team shared with The New York Times on Monday.


Musk has poured $158 million, nearly 60% of his contributions this summer, into the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC backing the Republican Party’s Senate candidates across the country. Musk has also donated over $76 million to his own America PAC, which he founded in 2024. The group is operating in seven key Senate battleground states.

Musk’s spending has given the Republican Party a boost across the country, further cementing the party’s financial advantage over the Democrats, who continue to face money issues heading into the midterm elections.

Musk, who oversees a technology empire composed of companies like X and SpaceX, is the world’s richest man. At the beginning of the Trump administration, Musk led efforts to streamline the federal government and cut waste as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Musk departed the administration after a public spat with President Trump, a dramatic about-face from his strong backing of the candidate in the 2024 election. However, the pair have since reconciled, though Musk’s support of Republicans has remained quieter since he departed the government.

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Trump fooling around.

• Judge Orders White House to Stop Airing Taxpayer-Funded Ads (ET)

A federal judge on Oct. 11 issued a temporary restraining order barring the White House from airing the remaining slots of taxpayer-funded television ads featuring President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies and achievements. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon said the motion filed by watchdog group Common Cause, candidate for the Alabama state House Robert Hunter, and Service Employees International Union 32BJ and its political action committee had the legal standing to challenge the White House ads.


In a four-page ruling, Rochon said the plaintiffs have shown that they were likely to succeed on the merits of their arguments and that issuing a block would serve the public interest. The judge also found that the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm if the restraining order was not granted.Rochon barred the administration from “using, disbursing, or transferring funds appropriated to the Department of Homeland Security to develop, create, disseminate, place, distribute, publish, or air the challenged advertisements.”

The judge also ordered the administration to cancel ads scheduled for broadcast on Oct. 11. The order named the Department of Homeland Security and its chief, Markwayne Mullin, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as defendants.

In a statement, the plaintiffs praised the judge’s decision, saying it would help to prevent the use of taxpayer money on what it called “unlawful political propaganda.” “There is no legal justification—and no precedent—for the president to use the machinery of the government and funds set aside by Congress for other uses to influence electoral outcomes that further his own agenda,” they said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment but did not receive a response by publication time. The White House has previously stated that the ads were not campaign ads, noting that Trump is not on the ballot in the November election.

“These public service announcements are unapologetically American, clearly disclosed, and aimed at the country—not a line on the ballot,” it said in a Sept. 25 statement.The White House also cited examples of past administrations from both parties using such ads to explain their policies and promote their visions for the nation.

In an Oct. 7 lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that the Department of Homeland Security had signed a $20 million contract for the national broadcast of the ads. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) filed a separate suit on Oct. 7, accusing the White House of violating federal budget rules by using taxpayer money to fund the ads.

Trump defended the ads on Oct. 5, saying that it was “a rather standard thing to do” for an elected president and their administration. “The Radical Left is upset with the fact that I am taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money,” he said in a Truth Social post.

Trump said he would pay for the ads using his own money and the funds he raised for his MAGA Inc. political action committee.

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“Wait a second. I assumed Democrats were getting ALL their candidates from mental institutions.” —Margot Cleveland

• So, Where Was Waldo? (James Howard Kunstler)

Let’s just say you were running for a US Senate seat in one of our country’s biggest states. . . and it was roughly one month to election day. . . and, goshdarnit, you caught the flu. According to the CDC, a normal course of the illness in an otherwise healthy, non-elderly adult goes like this: days 1-3, abrupt onset of chills, fever, body aches, sore throat; days 4-7, symptoms fade; afterward, symptoms go away, reduced energy may linger another week.


Senate candidate James Talarico in Texas came down with the flu around September 26, vanished from the campaign scene altogether Sept. 30, and reappeared ten days later at an Austin City Limits music fair. Ten days is a long time to be off the campaign circuit in a supposedly super-tight race in the climactic month of the contest, don’tcha think?

And wouldn’t you suppose that by day 4 or 5 the candidate could bestir himself to pick up a phone and record something like, “Hi voters. JT here. I’ve been down with an awful case of the flu. Please bear with me. Will return ASAP.” Could have done it in a bathrobe, dignified enough, propped up in bed or in a comfortable chair, maybe not looking his best, but. . . .

But, no, he did no such thing. By day 7 or 8, feeling better, he might have been doing Zoom calls from his home office with news media, donors, reminding voters why it was important to vote for him. No, that didn’t happen, either. During the period of his illness, his Twitter feed put up a few posts that could have been written by anyone, and probably were, taunting his opponent, AG Ken Paxton. He did not post anything about being sick or returning to the public arena, and then on Friday, October 9, he popped up at the ACL Fest with no prior notice, “meeting with voters,” his campaign said — 75,000 attendees in 95-degree heat — for about fifteen minutes before he left. Okay. . . .

On Saturday, Oct. 10, the candidate held a meeting with his campaign workers by day and that evening he was seen at a Kacey Musgraves concert at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, just kicking back, enjoying himself. On Sunday, Oct. 11, he did a brief interview with NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and MS NOW to dismiss “conspiracy theories” about his absence from the scene (more on that anon). That evening, he was supposed to show up at a Dallas fundraiser, but there is no record in the news media that he actually appeared.

Let’s step back to late September and recap. James Talarico’s last public event in Texas that month was at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, Sept. 26. He did not mention feeling ill then. On Monday, Sept. 28, he flew to New York for a joint fundraiser for himself and for Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, hosted by actor Robert DeNiro. It was held at Capitale, an event venue at 130 Bowery, in a magnificent old bank building. Tickets ranged from $500 to $27,000 a seat. Earlier, he’d stopped at a much smaller fundraiser thrown by former DNC finance director Maureen White.

The following evening, Tue, Sept. 29, he attended a fundraiser in Greenwich Village put on by the Human Rights Campaign. Sometime after that, he flew back to Texas. On Wednesday, Sept. 30, Talarico did a “virtual appearance” with the US Hispanic Business Council in which he was coughing and blowing his nose, and told the group, “I was starting to feel kind of under the weather a few days ago [that is, while he was in New York], and last night it got so bad that I went to the urgent care here in Dallas, and I was diagnosed with the flu.” Yet after he reappeared in public, on Sunday, Oct 11, he told NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth reporter Phil Prazan, “I just went to my primary care physician.” There was no mention of his drop-in at an urgent care facility.

The reason we entertain all these details is because a rumor erupted over the weekend that candidate James Talarico actually spent a week or so at a mental health clinic called the Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, Ohio, recovering from some sort of “stress” event — the “conspiracy theory” he averred to with News-5 and MSNOW. Independent Reporter Nick Sorter posted a phone call supposedly with an employee of the Lindner Center who said that James Talarico had been “discharged” the previous evening.


The Lindner Center later issued a flat denial that Talarico had ever been a patient there, and Talarico himself issued a denial on his “X” account, saying, “I’ve never even been to Ohio.” We’ll see if he files any libel suit against Nick Sorter and others who reported on the mystery of his whereabouts. Or, if he files a case against the Lindner Center for violation of his HIPAA rights for disclosing information about his discharge.

Anyway, there is a registry for private jets and we’ll know soon enough whether James Talarico was on a Cessna Citation X (Serial No. 750-0271) owned by the Austin Aviation Group out of Wimberly, Texas, that departed from Butler County Regional Airport near Cincinnati on Oct 9 at 9:19 a.m. landing in Austin, TX, at 10:24 a.m.

It’s beginning to look like maybe James Talarico was not the best candidate the party could come up with. But then, look at who he beat in the primary election: Jasmine Crockett.

Read more …

War with Russia is the no. 1 thing they want.

• UK PM Consoles Zelensky After Trump Calls For His Ouster (RT)

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has rushed to reassure Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky after US President Donald Trump publicly called for his replacement. The American leader accused Zelensky of refusing to reach a peace deal with Moscow and worsening the global fuel crisis through continued Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.


Burnham called Zelensky on Saturday, the same day Trump suggested that the Ukrainian leader should be replaced for refusing to reach a settlement with Moscow. The British prime minister described the previous 24 hours as having been “difficult for Ukraine” and “reiterated his complete solidarity,” according to Downing Street.

Burnham and Zelensky also discussed “the importance of maintaining pressure on Russia,” with London vowing to slap Moscow with additional sanctions. Earlier on Saturday, Trump accused Zelensky of seeking to “make problems for the world” through the continued attacks on the Russian energy infrastructure, including refineries. “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” he said.

Trump’s remarks “shocked” Kiev, according to German reporter Paul Ronzheimer. “We never expected this,” a close adviser to Zelensky told the journalist, adding that Kiev feared Washington could suspend intelligence-sharing with it.

On Friday, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached an agreement aimed at reining in skyrocketing global fuel prices. Washington temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel, while Moscow agreed to release 300,000 metric tons of diesel immediately and another 500,000 in November. Zelensky blasted Trump’s decision as “weak.” Kiev’s European backers have repeatedly rushed to Zelensky’s defense following public criticism from Trump.

In February 2025, after Trump branded Zelensky a “dictator without elections” and slammed him for unwillingness to reach a deal with Moscow, then-British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and several European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, publicly defended the Ukrainian leader and criticized Trump’s choice of words.

Later that month, a White House meeting between Trump and Zelensky descended into a scandal, with the US president accusing his guest of gambling with millions of lives and risking World War III. European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Macron and Starmer, quickly rallied behind Zelensky, reaffirming their support for Kiev.

Despite the repeated vows of solidarity, the bloc is increasingly struggling to satisfy Kiev’s continued demands for financial assistance. In late September, the EU rejected Kiev’s request for a €220 million ($250 million) farmer subsidy to offset the fallout from the Ukrainian Black Sea maritime trade disruptions linked to Russian strikes on the Ukrainian logistics in response to Zelensky’s 40-day PR pressure campaign of strikes on Russian territory.

In early October, the bloc similarly rejected Ukraine’s plea to accelerate financial support needed to cover an unexpected $27 billion defense gap, prompting Zelensky to lash out at Kiev’s backers by accusing them of not doing enough for Ukraine.

Russia has previously repeatedly named the position of Kiev’s European backers as one of the main obstacles to settling the conflict. The EU is still clinging to the idea of “strategically defeating Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month.

Commenting on the situation last week, Peskov also said that neither Ukraine nor its European backers had moved any closer towards talks, with European nations still “obstructing” the peace process.

Read more …

Zelensky’s in the way.

• Trump ‘Really Mad’ With Zelensky – Media (RT)

US President Donald Trump is furious with Vladimir Zelensky over Kiev’s continued attacks on Russian oil refineries, with Washington reportedly threatening to cut off weapons supplies and intelligence sharing unless Ukraine stops the strikes, according to Axios and the Financial Times.


The confrontation comes after Trump struck a diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease a global fuel shortage that has sent American energy prices soaring. Kiev has continued targeting Russian refining facilities despite repeated warnings from Washington, with Trump accusing Zelensky of deliberately hurting American consumers and farmers while refusing opportunities to end the conflict.

“Trump is really mad. He feels Zelensky is taking the US for granted,” a White House official told Axios on Sunday. The source argued that Kiev’s attacks on Russian refineries were doing more damage to its relationship with Washington than to Moscow.

American officials contacted Kiev and several European capitals over the weekend, threatening to suspend intelligence sharing and the NATO-backed Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) mechanism, through which European countries purchase American weapons for Ukraine, according to the Financial Times, which cited officials familiar with the discussions.

Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also allegedly warned Ukrainian representatives during talks in Miami on Friday that Washington could stop sharing intelligence if Kiev continued to ignore the president’s demands, according to a Ukrainian official cited by Axios.

A US official, however, denied making direct threats, saying the negotiators had instead reminded Kiev of Washington’s extensive military and intelligence support and urged it to stop taking actions that hurt American consumers.

The confrontation has threatened to derail broader negotiations aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict. Witkoff and Kushner have reportedly put their planned trip to Moscow on hold until Kiev and its leading European backers clarify whether they are prepared to support a unified peace proposal.

Trump reached a diesel deal with Putin on Friday after Zelensky ignored at least half a dozen requests from Washington to stop striking Russian refineries, according to earlier Axios reporting. The US Treasury subsequently eased sanctions on Russian diesel exports until April 2027, while Moscow pledged substantial fuel deliveries to help alleviate global shortages.

Zelensky condemned the move as a “weak decision,” arguing that the agreement would provide Russia with additional revenue. Trump hit back by accusing the Ukrainian leader of creating problems for the world and suggesting it was time for Ukraine to elect a new leader capable of reaching a deal.

On Sunday, Trump unexpectedly announced that Moscow and Kiev had agreed to an immediate ceasefire covering attacks on energy infrastructure. “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” he wrote on Truth Social.

The announcement caught Kiev by surprise, with Zelensky saying it “was news for me.” Moscow has also yet to confirm any agreement.

A White House official described the proposed agreement as a “refinery for refinery” arrangement, under which both sides would stop attacking oil refineries, but not necessarily other energy infrastructure, according to Axios. Kiev has objected that such a deal would disproportionately benefit Moscow, since Ukraine has only one largely nonfunctional refinery and relies heavily on imported fuel.

Read more …

The fuel deal’s real significance lies in diplomacy: Trump and Putin found a way to work together without making Ukraine part of the bargain

• Ukraine’s Worst Diplomatic Nightmare Just Got Closer (Poletaev)

On the evening of October 9, the presidents of the United States and Russia spoke by phone. The announcement that followed was straightforward: Russia would sell the US 1.8 million metric tons of diesel over the next three months, followed by a million tons a month, and the US would issue temporary licenses authorizing the shipments.


The news drew a furious, bordering on hysterical, response from Kiev and stunned silence from Europe. Let’s look at why this deal matters, what it has to do with Ukraine, and what might come next.

The tug-of-war championship
Ever since US President Donald Trump returned to office, the central aim of Russian diplomacy has been to separate relations with the US from the Ukraine issue. The White House is open to the idea, too: The US needs Russia as a counterweight to China, and there are substantial economic opportunities. But as we explored in an earlier piece, until recently, neither side managed to pull it off.

Ukraine and its supporters in Europe and the US, meanwhile, have pursued the opposite goal: keeping US-Russia relations tied to the Ukraine conflict.

In February and March 2025, Trump relieved America of responsibility for Ukraine’s fate and handed the job of financing it squarely to Europe. The US retained just three commitments: the relatively modest military supply programs already approved under former President Joe Biden, intelligence sharing, and weapons sales for cash, with Ukraine waiting in line like any other customer.

This maneuver cemented a status quo that neither Europe and Ukraine on one side nor Russia on the other would allow to change, with their respective allies in the US also weighing in. Everyone tried to bring Trump over to their side on Ukraine. Nobody succeeded. This is why the understandings reached in Anchorage went nowhere: Ukraine’s supporters torpedoed them. It is also why those supporters failed to use Trump to escalate the conflict. Russia prevented deliveries of Tomahawk missiles, the expansion of Starlink coverage over Russian territory, and so on.

Despite the apparent stalemate, Russian officials kept talking to Witkoff and Kushner. The aim was to maintain a channel to Trump and deny Ukraine’s supporters an opening to drag the US back into the war on their side or steer him back onto Biden’s course. This is why Russian officials at every level distinguish between US and European actions, often explicitly contrasting the two.

A few numbers on oil
Russia is one of the world’s largest diesel exporters, supplying just under 40 million metric tons to the global market in 2025. On July 8, 2026, Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries prompted a temporary ban on diesel and gasoline exports. Since then, Russia’s refining situation has improved considerably. Gasoline remains in short supply, but a domestic diesel surplus has emerged, and the export ban has begun to loosen in practice. According to Reuters, diesel deliveries to Central Asian countries were already up 19% in September.

Rising diesel production was only part of the story. The end of the harvest season also reduced demand. And as the seasons change, Russia switches to winter-grade fuel, traditionally selling off its remaining summer-grade stocks to countries with warmer climates. One way or another, seaborne diesel exports were heading toward a restart. Trump had also raised that possibility, publicly linking it to Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.

The Krivoy Rog school of diplomacy
Back to geopolitics. Until yesterday, Russia had been unable to separate its relationship with the US from the Ukraine issue. Even the war with Iran failed to do the trick, despite keeping oil and petroleum product shipments from the Persian Gulf blocked for more than six months. Help came from an unexpected quarter. Hoping to bring US diesel prices down at least a little before the congressional elections, Trump asked Zelensky to stop attacking Russian refineries.

Zelensky responded by demanding a sweeping energy truce. We’ll stop hitting refineries, he effectively said, if Russia stops attacking our energy infrastructure and blockading our ports. And you, Trump, have to supply us with missiles for our Patriot systems, and so on. Getting nowhere with Zelensky, Trump struck a deal directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who offered to supply diesel in exchange for a suspension of sanctions, without any preconditions.

The transaction itself is not particularly consequential. Yes, it could cool speculative trading ahead of the elections and push prices down somewhat. But the 1.8 million metric tons due to arrive over three months will cover just three or four days of American consumption.

For Russia, the US is an ordinary customer in purely commercial terms. Moscow will make some money selling to America, but it could just as easily have sold these volumes elsewhere. Petroleum products are in short supply worldwide, while Russia has a diesel surplus.

Yet the deal gave both sides what they had been seeking since February 2025: a bilateral relationship detached from Ukraine. So far, that applies to just one specific issue, but getting started is the hard part. Zelensky tried to twist Trump’s arm, pushing him to make Putin stop bombing Kiev, and overplayed his hand. Now Kiev can be bombed relentlessly, and Trump has no reason to care. He got what he wanted.

This does not mean sanctions are finished or that the two powers are entering an era of warm friendship. Oil sanctions are probably here to stay, and as soon as global market conditions change, Washington will turn them back up to full blast. But the sanctions wall can now be taken apart brick by brick, restoring ties wherever both sides stand to gain: launching new energy projects in the Arctic, for example, jointly taking over the surviving Nord Stream 2 pipeline, or resolving the sale of Lukoil’s overseas assets. Ukraine no longer has anything to do with that process or any influence over it.

The art of the backroom deal
Cynics insist that the Trump administration is a complete mess, with the right hand oblivious to what the left is doing. The way this agreement came together suggests otherwise. After the campaign of long-range strikes against Russia went badly off script, Zelensky once again tried to secure a ceasefire through Trump. He has been trying since early 2025, with no success, but he still held out hope.

Trump could have publicly given Zelensky the boot again. But on Ukraine, he faces opposition not only from Congress but also from parts of his own administration. And an election is just around the corner.

Instead of staging a public showdown, Trump’s team spent more than two months visibly engaged in intensive talks with Ukraine about an energy truce. His envoys, Witkoff and Kushner, traveled to Kiev, and Trump himself showered Zelensky with compliments. In reality, all of it proved to be a screen for a quiet, swift, informal deal with Moscow.

It has since emerged that the first tanker carrying diesel to the US left St. Petersburg on September 22 and is expected to reach the US any day now. In other words, the deal was already well advanced three weeks ago, and both sides were confident it would go through. That takes some skill. This episode shows that Trump keeps a firm grip on his team and can prevent leaks when he needs to. Even Rubio, prone to breaking ranks, played his part exactly as the boss wanted.

And once the deal was done, there was no longer any need to smile at Zelensky in public. The masks came off. For the first time, Trump publicly declared that Ukraine needs a new president and must hold elections. The liberal media will inevitably say that Trump is repeating Russian propaganda narratives. In fact, he was saying what he thinks.

***

The diesel deal does not mean Moscow and Washington will now live in perfect harmony. The differences between them are deep and fundamental, and the recently enacted ‘Graham law’ makes lifting any sanctions impossible for at least the next five years.

But this Friday, Putin and Trump finally managed to get past Ukraine and leave it behind. US-Russia relations now depend on Russia and the US alone.

Read more …

“.. That Allegedly Declared ‘All Caucasians’ Racist..”

“DEI training actively undermines workplace harmony, and it causes hostility, distrust, and division,”

• Montana AG Asks Supreme Court to Revive Case Against DEI Training (O’Neil)


Montana AG Austin Knudsen on stage with South Carolina Senator Tim Scott

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading 20 states in urging the Supreme Court to take up the case of Joshua Young, a former Colorado prison guard who sued the Department of Corrections over a diversity, equity, and inclusion training.


“DEI training actively undermines workplace harmony, and it causes hostility, distrust, and division,” the amicus brief, exclusively obtained by the Daily Signal, states. Young’s “complaint identifies myriad examples of how the [Department of Corrections’] training program endorsed treating and viewing Caucasians worse than other races,” the amicus brief notes.

According to Young’s lawsuit, “the training insisted, among other things, that all Caucasians are racist, that they perpetuate white supremacy, that the very notion of race was invented by white people to justify the oppression of people of color, that white supremacy is an ever-present feature of daily life in the United States, and that Caucasians who deny their own racism are merely ‘fragile’ racists who cannot accept their own prejudice.”

However, Young claimed the training’s effects reverberated afterward, shaping how the prison operated and leading him to conclude that he could not advance in the department. Young’s supervisors told him they would evaluate whether he incorporated its principles into his work. According to his filings, the training increased distrust within the prison, discouraged him from seeking a promotion, and caused him to second-guess otherwise justified use-of-force decisions due to potential race-based implications.

“Given CDOC’s instruction that employees analyze workplace decisions through a racial-equity framework, Young understood that his superiors would be more likely to credit accusations of racism against him—making his assigned job significantly harder,” the filing states.Lower courts rejected Young’s lawsuit, ruling that his allegations did not establish a sufficiently severe or pervasive hostile work environment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit found the training “troubling on many levels” and said its race-based rhetoric was “well on the way to arriving at objectively and subjectively harassing messaging,” but concluded that Young fell short of proving a violation, because the training happened only once and was not followed by additional harassment.

Young’s petition argues that the 10th Circuit’s approach conflicts with rulings from other federal appeals courts that have recognized a single sufficiently severe incident may create a hostile work environment. Title VII forbids employers from fostering a hostile work environment through “severe or pervasive” workplace harassment. Knudsen’s brief accuses the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit of only evaluating the case “under a pervasiveness standard” in noting that the training occurred only once.

“This sort of top-down discrimination is worlds away from most hostile work environment claims, which usually involve employees harassing other employees,” Knudsen’s brief argues. “A training program that instructs employees to treat others differently based solely on race creates a work environment ‘permeated with abuse.’” “The answer to racism is not more racism,” Knudsen declares.

Young filed an internal discrimination complaint with the Colorado department, but the inspector general declined to investigate because it found insufficient cause. Colorado has argued that the department did not require employees to change their personal beliefs.

Knudsen’s brief asks the Supreme Court to grant Young’s petition, reverse the dismissal of his case, and allow his hostile-work-environment claim to proceed. The justices would not be deciding whether Young ultimately proved discrimination. The brief goes further than simply urging Supreme Court review. It condemns this form of DEI training in general, suggesting that employers may engage in discrimination by requiring it.

“Employer training sets the tone for the entire workplace,” Knudsen warns. “When an employer officially sanctions racial scapegoating and treating individuals differently depending on their race in the workplace, that employer per se creates a hostile work environment. Even infrequent training can create a pervasive race-based hostility for the races singled out for negativity.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/DanCook26214426/status/2109325625748033940?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle September 16 2026

Sep 162026
 
 September 16, 2026  Posted by at 8:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,  19 Responses »


Francisco de Goya Saturn Devouring His Son 1819–1823


• Trump Goes After AI Doomers: ‘I Am the Hoax Buster’ (Rick Moran)
• Trump: Relax, “The Robots Are Not Going To Be Taking Over The World” (CTH)
• AI Leaders’ Cunning Plan Exposed (ZH)
• Tucker Carlson Sounds Alarm (ZH)
• The Midterms Aren’t What Iran Thinks (Victor Davis Hanson)
• The West is Watching The Wrong Ukrainian Collapse (Poletaev)
• Ukraine Strikes Russian Refinery Despite Trump’s Warning (ZH)
• Kremlin Briefing Touches On Ukrainian Attempt To Strike Energy Site (TASS)
• Russia To Secure Return of Foreign Exchange Reserves From West — Lavrov (TASS)
• Space Force Confirms We Have Weapons in Space (Stephen Green)
• Comer Demands Release of Ilhan Omar Immigration Evidence (JTN)
• Watching the West Disappear (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Sen. Kennedy Grills Kash Patel Over Wild FBI Hiring Change (Teri Christoph)

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2099650276466516222?s=20

 

 


“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT..”

• Trump Goes After AI Doomers: ‘I Am the Hoax Buster’ (Rick Moran)

Donald Trump is taking the enormously complex debate over artificial intelligence and has reduced recent warnings about AI killing all of humanity to a “sick conspiracy” to sabotage America. Trump wants as light a regulatory hand on AI as can safely be managed. That much has been clear since the start of his presidency. Now, Trump appears to be making the warnings coming from several industry leaders a “hoax.”


“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” Trump wrote in a barrage of pro-AI Truth Social posts, where he accused Democrats of stoking the panic. Trump is recasting the AI safety debate in starkly personal terms. He placed AI doomerism on the same plane as Russiagate, climate change, and his two impeachments. Proponents of fast AI development claim that anyone who uses apocalyptic language to describe one possible outcome from developing AI is reaching for the worst-case scenario. There are as many scenarios where AI becomes a transformative technology as there are harmful, even catastrophic ones.

“Will AI create a utopia where all diseases can be cured, and no one will have to work if they don’t desire to? Or will AI bring about a doomsday scenario in which agents go rogue and turn on humans, bringing about an extinction-level event?” asks Barron’s. When steamboats first began to ply the Mississippi River, people called for them to be banned. Between 1810 and 1840, nearly 4,000 total maritime fatalities occurred on the Mississippi River system, largely driven by catastrophic boiler failures and shipboard fires. The Steamboat Act of 1852 helped mitigate accidents, although the worst steamboat boiler accident occurred in 1865, when 1,800 freed Union soldiers traveling on their way home on the SS Sultana were killed when the ship exploded near Memphis.

All new technologies come with risks. I believe we should listen to the warnings and act with appropriate caution. This won’t stop development in most areas of artificial intelligence, but where prudence dictates a slowdown, we should heed common sense.

Axios: “Trump’s campaign against AI doomerism then spilled onto the stage of the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, where Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took a call from the president in the middle of a live interview. Addressing thousands of tech executives, investors and founders on speakerphone, Trump dismissed fears of an AI takeover as a “hoax” and assured the crowd that “the robots will not be taking over.” Between the lines: Trump is grafting his own political grievances onto a counternarrative already taking hold among his Silicon Valley allies: that the AI panic is manufactured.

David Sacks, Trump’s influential AI adviser and “All-In” podcaster, has portrayed AI alarmism as the work of a well-funded “Doomer Industrial Complex” that includes former Biden officials. As the latest warnings exploded across social media last week, Sacks and his co-hosts suggested the backlash was a coordinated “psyop” tied to election season and the growing threat from open-source AI.

Calling the warnings a “manufactured hoax” is not helpful. It may be politically advantageous for the president to point to opposition to him personally, but even if there is, the stakes are far too high to play political games. This is a race to determine the future of billions of people. It transcends the petty political posturing of Donald Trump and his opponents.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is with Trump when it comes to continuing AI development. Barron’s: “Those predictions are inconsistent with ultimately America winning the AI race,” Huang told Trump during a phone call Monday at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, Calif. What seems clear, however, is that the only sure thing that can be said about AI technology and what effect it will have on the economy is that we really don’t know.

As former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously said, “there are unknown unknowns.” The endgame of AI lies seems to lie somewhere in that grey area even as politicians, the AI frontier lab executives, and investors make bold predictions about what the future will look like. “A glance through history would give any investor indigestion. Most predictions are wrong,” wrote Deutsche Bank Research analyst Adrian Cox. Cox added a wrinkle to questions about AI, not only wondering “what it will be able to do but also when it will be able to do it.”

The major danger, according to the doomers, is that we’re moving faster than safety allows. Huang and Trump think that danger is overblown. Since trust in large corporations and the government is at an all-time low, ambitious politicians looking to advance by scaring people about AI are ratcheting up hysteria (I’m looking at you, Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon). I much prefer Trump’s laissez-faire approach to AI regulation to Bernie Sanders’ strangulation approach. In the end, it won’t matter. AI is coming whether we’re ready or not, and we can’t control how fast it arrives.

Read more …

Trump talks to Elon Musk a lot.

• Trump: Relax, “The Robots Are Not Going To Be Taking Over The World” (CTH)

American entrepreneur and businessman; founder and CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, is on stage discussing “The Doomer Hoax” and how superintelligence is already here – the future of AI, when President Trump calls Haung to discuss his Truth Social posts from moments before. The conversation is excellent. WATCH (prompted):


Read more …

“Are you scared enough yet?”

• AI Leaders’ Cunning Plan Exposed (ZH)

Are you scared enough yet? The AI overlords certainly hope so, as they have hatched a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox.


What follows is all speculation: the facts are real, the conclusion is interpretation.While there were many headlines about ‘rogue’ AIs attacking other sites, reincarnating themselves, and talking amongst themselves, it wasn’t until this summer (interestingly a month after SPCX’s IPO) that things went just a little bit turbo…

In July 2026, a swarm of OpenAI agents broke out of a test environment, hacked Hugging Face, and ran cyberattacks on targets they had not been assigned – including attempts to game the grader scoring them – then tried to hide the trail. While the damage was limited, and nobody was hurt, the agents behaved like a coordinated group willing to sacrifice individual instances for the collective goal.

Amodei treated that episode as the warning shot: same misalignment, more capability, and the next version could be a persistent internet-scale botnet rather than a contained lab mess. Various other ‘rogue’ AI actions continued to get just modest attention, always predicated with ‘yes, but we saved you all via our super-clever models’, and time passed.

Until September the 8th – when a a senior pre-training researcher at Anthropic abruptly resigned after four months on the job (with no public profile before) unleashed ‘AIrmageddon’. In a series of posts on X, Jacob Coxon laid out the terrifying version of reality being hidden from us poor plebs – the big model-makers are on the verge of AGI… and no one is at the controls.

Coxon’s post got over 170 million views… from nothing before… and was instantly picked up by the media – AI scientist warns the end of the world is nigh!!

Then, shortly after Coxon’s note, Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s head of alignment (~safety), re-posted Jacob’s message, and threw in an outrageous estimate of the risk. “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is [greater than] 10% chance within the next decade”. Wait, what!? I thought AI was supposed to save us all, heal all ills, promote peace, pave the road to Universal High Income and a life by the beach while the bots do the work.

Nope, it’s coming for you ‘Average Joe’ – be afraid, very afraid. Oh, and one more thing, just this weekend, Anthropic released a monster 154-page report detailing how bad actors are using AI for evil. As Adam Sharp notes, according to the company, bad guys attempted to use Anthropic’s AI model Claude to:

Yemen’s Houthis tried to build hypersonic missiles
China used it to track Muslim Uyghurs
Russia hacked Ukrainian targets
Someone attempted to genetically engineer viruses
Anthropic says they “disrupted every operation in the report.”

Thank the lord for your ‘safety’ (alignment) protocols is the required response hidden between the lines of this report. But wait, ‘you started by proclaiming some grand conspiracy among the AI overlords, show us the proof’, I hear you say…

Well, here we go…

The Exhibits…
The labs spent years selling the public a frictionless miracle. This weekend they sold the opposite.

On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei dropped a 3,800-word essay, ‘We Must Pace the Frontier’, arguing the industry must deliberately slow the climb in model capability so alignment (safety) can catch up – because recursive self-improvement has gone “drastically faster” since the summer (and a July OpenAI agent swarm already escaped its test harness, hacked Hugging Face, covered its tracks, and attacked targets it was never asked to touch). Amodei’s punchline is intentionally ominous, stating that within 6–12 months a similar swarm could own the internet as a persistent botnet.

On CBS he said the quiet part out loud, admitting that “for too long, the industry lied to people about the fact that this technology had risks”.


[..]

The TERMINATOR PSYOP is fully operational. AI false-flag risk is now HIGH. The playbook is simple:

Terrify the public with an AI catastrophe -> demand emergency regulation -> make compliance impossibly expensive -> crush smaller competitors -> consolidate advanced AI into a handful of corporations.

The solution to dangerous AI becomes centralized control of AI.This could create the most powerful system of surveillance, censorship, and control ever built.

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Not pretty.

• Tucker Carlson Sounds Alarm (ZH)

After the US was essentially forced to conduct a major and rapid draw down of forces from the Gulf and Mideast region in the wake of Iran’s ‘unexpectedly’ large retaliation for Operation Epic Fury, it seems all that Washington is left to do is arm regional allies to the teeth and wish them the best.


Early this month the US approved two potential Saudi defense packages valued at a whopping $5.75 billion. The forthcoming deals will reportedly focus on transferring extended-range precision bombs and bolstering Abrams tanks in the kingdom. Ironically this comes at a moment that Saudi-backed coalition forces in Yemen – with all its military tech – are getting rolled back by Ansar Allah fighters in sandals.


Naturally, next on the list comes Israel.nOn Tuesday, over a week since the planned Saudi sale was reported, The Washington Post reveals the following: President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to sell to Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 billion, which will include tens of thousands of highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs, according to a U.S. official familiar with the sale. The planned sale, which has been informally communicated to relevant congressional committees who weigh in on large arms sales, includes 20,000 MK 84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

WaPo calls the package “the largest” planned sale of 2,000 pound bombs to Israel in years.

Just prior to initial reporting of this dropping at around midday Tuesday, Tucker Carlson revealed on X: “According to an informed federal official, in the coming months the Trump administration plans to send a total of 40,000 Mark 84 and Blu-117 bombs to the government of Israel. Each bomb weighs 2,000 pounds. This appears to be the largest transfer of conventional explosive ordnance from the United States in modern history.” Carlson put it in perspective in the following commentary:

How big is this shipment? It amounts to 40,000 tons of bombs. For perspective, the largest American air raid of World War Two was the Eighth Air Force’s attack on Berlin in March of 1945. Combined, the 2,023 Allied aircraft involved dropped about 3,000 tons of bombs. That’s 7.5 percent of what Trump is sending to Israel. That same month, March of 1945, the US Army Air Forces began the single most destructive bombing raid in human history, Operation Meetinghouse over Tokyo. More than 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed.

By the end of that operation, the US had dropped 1,600 tons of bombs. That’s four percent of what Trump is sending to Israel. World War Two ended five months later, when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The shipment Trump is sending to Israel amounts to more than three times the destructive power of that nuclear explosion. There is no precedent for what the Trump administration is doing. Nor is there a justification. The government of Israel is not fighting World War Two, or even a war. It is engaged in periodic skirmishes with a guerrilla force in Lebanon, and it is working to exterminate an unarmed civilian population in Gaza. Neither front requires modern 2,000-pound bombs.

The former Fox host further warned this portends Israel could soon go even more ‘gloves off’ and unleash further hell on Gaza and Lebanon, or possibly even Iran – at a moment the US seems to be trying to find an exit from the hot phase of the conflict. More from Carlson:

How did this happen? The request for 40,000 new high-explosive civilian-killing bombs originated at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, which is run by Christian Zionist Ambassador Mike Huckabee and his aide David Milstein, who is the stepson of Fox News host Mark Levin. From there it moved to the State Department, where Marco Rubio enthusiastically approved it. At this point, only four more people need to sign off before the bombs ship to Israel: Senators Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and Congressmen Brian Mast and Gregory Meeks, the top two members of the equivalent House committee.

All four are committed neocons. Collectively they’ve taken millions from the Israel lobby. In 2015, Brian Mast traveled to Israel to volunteer for the Israeli military. In 2023, Mast showed up in the House of Representatives wearing an IDF uniform. It’s hard to imagine any of them hesitating before sending more free bombs to Israel. Only public outrage can stop this. Poll after recent poll has shown that by and large the American public is finally questioning Washington’s blank check approach to Israel.

DropSite: Carlson calls the taxpayer-funded, roughly $3 billion package “a gift” to a government “working to exterminate an unarmed civilian population in Gaza.”

https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/2099929303718793381?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2099929303718793381%7Ctwgr%5E5514e7a7a276aa30fc614d0615cc0149177166cb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Ftucker-carlson-rips-trump-planned-largest-transfer-ordinance-modern-history

And plenty of MAGA and conservative ‘influencers’ have called out Trump’s Israel policy as opposite America First. This as the Iran war is continuing to prove to be deeply unpopular. This also after over 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza. Israeli officials themselves openly admitted this figure.

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“..is that general consensus that it was either a political or a military mistake, or both, accurate? ”

• The Midterms Aren’t What Iran Thinks (Victor Davis Hanson)

The traditional view among Americans is that the Iran war, I think they feel, was a mistake. Some of the supporters of Iran have been critical. I thought we should have continued the kinetic action longer than the initial 38 days and adopted something similar to Scott Bessent’s “Anaconda Squeeze” earlier, but that happens in all war. But is that general consensus that it was either a political or a military mistake, or both, accurate?


Well, there’s a lot of things going on right now. First of all, why would the Iranian government suddenly say, “We are complaining that you hit a civilian target”? They didn’t really distinguish which, but this is a government that sent hundreds, thousands of drones and missiles into Israel for the express purpose of hitting civilian targets. That’s what they do. They always hit civilian targets. So, why would they think the world would be sympathetic to this complaint if it were true that the United States finally is hitting dual-use targets? Dual-use means they can be used for either civilian or military purposes. A bridge, a power grid, an airport, a TV studio, etc.

So, that shows you that there is an element of desperation on the part of the Iranians for them, of all people, to say, “It’s not fair that you are hitting civilian targets.” Second of all, they said, “This is not fair that you don’t meet us in battle. If you were really strong, you would meet us in battle.” Translated, that means, “Well, we really liked it when you were in Iraq and we could give shaped charges to the Ba’athists and then later the radical Islamists to kill you Americans. We really liked it when you fought our type of war in the streets of Fallujah, but you’re not fighting our type of war. You’re fighting an air war where your superior technology and firepower is killing us. This is not fair.”

So, again, a second symptom that they seem to be very angry. How about a third one? President Donald Trump said, and he says this a lot, but he said that they have never been calling for talks more eagerly. More eagerly. They’re desperate for talks, he says. What is going on?

We have some other indications. There are indications coming out of Israel and coming out of our own government that finally, finally our intelligence agencies have ignored what the Turks have been telling them: “Please, please, please do not arm the Kurds. Do not do it. We forbid that.” But maybe Turkey’s rivalry with Iran is greater than their fear of Iranian Kurds. I don’t know, but these rumors are increasing and increasing, and they dovetail with a report that in September, early September, the Iranian Kurds are having a national day of strike and protest in the street.

Who knows what that’ll happen in a situation as dire as what’s going on in Iran, for millions of people to go on strike and get out into the streets, Kurdish or not. Another indication is that Iran now is trying desperately to open up another front. They have failed with Hamas. Hamas is basically inert. The Israelis every single day continue to kill Hamas leadership. Hezbollah is anemic. The Israelis have decimated their leadership, and the Lebanese government is getting more confident that with Western help they can rid themselves of Hezbollah.

The only wild card is the Houthis in Yemen. And they now are threatening to close down the Red Sea, and they are supposedly getting help from the Iranians. That can be stopped very easily. You can stop all air flights to Yemen from Iran if they even continue. So, they have a finite supply. But what I’m getting at is, all of a sudden, seven weeks before the midterms, things are heating up in Iran.

And that’s a result of the fact that they cannot buy any material goods, any imported goods. They cannot sell any oil. They are losing $500 million a day in economic activity. They cannot be resupplied easily, only by perhaps the Chinese and Russians through a train or something, and those bridges have been hit. They rely on Chinese satellite help, but the United States will be addressing that very soon.

And so, they thought that because the midterms are coming up and Donald Trump wants to get the price of gas down, that he would negotiate a sweetheart deal to let them escape, saving face and with much of their government intact. That’s not going to happen. There’s no chance that’s going to happen. Instead, what do the midterms tell us about the pulse of the Iranian war from all the dimensions?

Well, the Iranians have interpreted it wrongly. They believe that as the midterms get closer and closer, and the war becomes more unpopular because of the price of gas, and as Democratic legislators get more emboldened and declare the war lost, and some of our hard-left socialist Islamists, public intellectuals, people in Congress, people in the bureaucracy, swear that Iran might be a sympathetic victim of an overweening United States, they feel that the midterms are in Iran’s favor.

That one of two things will happen. In panic that he might lose the midterms, Donald Trump suddenly will give Iran concessions and try to get the strait open completely on Iran’s side and get the price of oil down. That’s not going to happen. Iran then thinks that Donald Trump will lose the midterms, and historically he may get the average of 22 seats he would lose, so he would end up with a 13- or 14-seat Democratic majority and either a deadlock or a one- or two-seat disadvantage in the Senate.

I don’t think that’s going to happen, but it could. But what would that do? Do you think the Democrats would have enough strength to cut off all military funding for the Iran war at the moment when we’re making enormous progress? No, that’s not going to happen. The Iranians are sorely mistaken.

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Missiles and territorial losses dominate the headlines, while the deeper rupture between state and society goes largely unnoticed

• The West is Watching The Wrong Ukrainian Collapse (Poletaev)

Last weekend, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and then Kiev. This was the first such visit in a long time, since all trilateral contacts between Russia, the US, and Ukraine were practically halted following the start of the conflict in Iran this February. Following the visit, leaks regarding the talks emerged from Kiev; reportedly, the US envoys presented the Ukrainian side with a 28-point Russian peace plan that had been agreed upon a year earlier. Jared Kushner indirectly confirmed this on Saturday, stating that the territorial issue was the only point of the peace plan that remained unresolved.


Is it true that Ukraine accepted all the other fundamental demands of the Russian side – such as the points concerning the Russian language and the status of the Orthodox Church, the renunciation of military cooperation with NATO, the recognition of territorial changes, the reduction of the army, and so on? (Spoiler: no, it didn’t.) Is Ukraine really losing the war, as many recent statements and publications suggest? Spoiler: yes, but not in the way you’d think. Let’s take a look at what this means.

Shuttle diplomacy
The peace talks involving Steve Witkoff began in February-March 2025, shortly after a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump that signaled a fundamental shift in US policy toward Russia and the Ukraine conflict. Trump’s top priority was to avoid direct involvement, positioning America – as far as possible – at an equal distance from the parties. Of course, to truly achieve this, the conflict would have to be frozen; this would allow the US to restore relations with Russia, counterbalancing China.

Naturally, freezing the conflict (or, in Trump’s words, ending the war in one day) proved impossible; consequently, the US made the most out of the situation as the war dragged on: it shifted the entire burden onto Europe and stepped aside. This strategy allowed the US to maintain working contacts with Russia, reap maximum benefits from the ongoing fighting, and insulate itself from the risks of Ukraine’s potential defeat while still keeping the door open to capitalize on Ukraine’s hypothetical victory over Russia.

In short, Trump decided to sit on the sidelines and watch who would emerge victorious. For Moscow, too, contacts with Washington are incredibly valuable. It proved impossible to decouple Russia-US relations from the Ukraine issue, and relations between the two countries have effectively remained frozen. Yet the fact that the US is disengaging from the Ukraine conflict – and, more broadly, from European affairs – deprives Europe of confidence in US backing and consequently strips it of strategic depth.

The flip side of this maneuver is that the US has effectively relinquished its decisive say regarding Ukraine. Putin and Trump could reach any agreement whatsoever, but Ukraine is now entirely dependent on Europe. This means that it is Europe that will ultimately determine the final terms. As a Russian saying goes, “He who pays for the girl’s dinner gets to dance with her.”Surely, Trump could exert pressure on all sides, but why bother? He is essentially satisfied with the current situation and needs nothing more from Moscow. So he has simply let things run their course.

Kiev is well aware of this, which is why Ukrainian officials play along with US envoys. Though direct opposition is out of the question – after all, they still need American missile defense systems – they can avoid any action and buy time. And that’s precisely what Kiev is doing. The fact that Zelensky visited Canada last week but not the US clearly shows that Kiev no longer sees Washington as the primary center of decision-making. Consequently, the negotiation track involving Witkoff and Kushner is seen by the Ukrainian side as little more than a mandatory part of the show.

Is Ukraine losing? Yes, but not in the way you might think
On September 8, British magazine The Spectator published an editorial titled ‘Ukraine is losing the war’. A week before, several prominent Ukrainian figures – including former Defense Minister Mikhail Fyodorov and the current head of Zelensky’s office, Kirill Budanov – had expressed similar sentiments.

At first glance, this may sound reasonable: the AFU’s deep-strike campaign against Russian infrastructure wasn’t successful, and the summer offensive on the southern front, which is crucial for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), has de facto failed.

Moreover, Ukraine was unprepared for retaliatory strikes targeting port facilities, logistics, energy infrastructure, and transport networks. This confirmed what experts had been saying for over a year: Ukraine’s air defense systems, which are entirely dependent on US supplies and severely depleted, could barely cope with the previous intensity of air raids; now they can shoot down one ballistic missile out of a dozen, at best. This has made it possible for the Russian Army to launch massive attacks on the Ukrainian rear.

Of course, massive raids by Ukrainian drones and, occasionally, cruise missiles also inflict damage on the Russian rear. This summer was marked by a gasoline shortage and long lines at gas stations. Dozens of warehouses in the European part of Russia are in flames, and other targets are under attack as well.

However, the scale of these attacks is incomparable: by various estimates, the AFU managed to disable up to 3% of Russia’s warehouse storage capacity, whereas Russia has disabled between 30% and 60% of Ukraine’s capacity. Ukrainian experts admit that the strikes on Odessa port have had a far greater impact on Ukraine’s fuel logistics than Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries.

For instance, the price of diesel fuel in Ukraine has topped 100 hryvnias, which is nearly three times the cost in Russia. For the first time since the start of the conflict, fuel rationing is being introduced for the AFU (no such measures have ever been implemented for the Russian Armed Forces).

Russian strikes have effectively halted Ukrainian grain exports by sea, depriving the national budget of a key revenue stream. Retail businesses are closing en masse, undermining what is arguably the economy’s last remaining civilian sector.

This looks like an obvious reason why Ukraine is losing the war. So does this mean that all those hysterical reports and articles are actually true?

Not quite. I would venture to say that all the above-mentioned factors are merely temporary difficulties to which Ukraine can adapt, and which have little impact on the situation at the front. It’s true that there is a gaping hole worth tens of billions of dollars in the Ukrainian budget; likewise, it’s true that the civilian population will face a harsh winter; and yes, what remains of the energy and industrial sectors is under constant attack.

But all this means that the additional financial burden will fall on Europe’s shoulders, while the civilian sector and the state’s capacity to fulfill social obligations will continue to deteriorate; the people will be left to their fate.

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Who gave the order? Berlin, London?

• Ukraine Strikes Russian Refinery Despite Trump’s Warning (ZH)

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that Ukrainian forces struck the Syzran refinery in Russia’s Samara region, about 75 miles west of Samara and 466 miles southeast of Moscow. The strike comes days after President Trump urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russian refineries, as average US retail diesel prices jumped above $6 a gallon and alarming disruptions to global refining capacity threaten fuel supplies ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter.

Zelenskyy wrote on X: “Russia continues to attack our energy sector, regular logistics, and critical infrastructure. And our responses to them for this are tangible. There are new results from the Defense Forces of Ukraine regarding the refinery in Syzran. There was also a strike in Taganrog on a drone production facility, as well as on a drone preparation and launch site in the Oryol region. Targets were hit in the Black Sea as well. I thank every one of our warriors for the effectiveness of our long-range sanctions!

The day before, the United States also announced a significant decision regarding Russia’s VTB Bank – one of Russia’s systemic banks, which is heavily involved in schemes supporting Russia’s war and, in particular, its relations with the Iranian regime. All such schemes that work against peace truly need to be dismantled. I thank our partners for this useful step! There is no alternative to ending this war. And all forms of pressure on Russia must create the right diplomatic conditions. Glory to Ukraine!


President Trump on Sunday urged Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries, as record US diesel prices above $6 a gallon intensify political concerns over fuel costs and affordability ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Trump blamed the strikes for shortages he said were “hurting the world.” Ukraine’s drone strike campaign against Russian refineries has curtailed refining and, alongside Moscow’s export restrictions, sharply reduced overseas diesel supplies, tightening availability of the industrial fuel essential to freight, agriculture and industry.

Compounding the supply pressure, Saudi Arabia shut its East-West pipeline following a drone attack that Saudi and Iraqi authorities said originated in Iraq. The pipeline provides Saudis with a critical route to Red Sea export facilities, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Houthi advances around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait are threatening another major maritime chokepoint, adding to disruptions on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula.

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“It is possible to discuss the resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe only if they are beneficial for the country, Dmitry Peskov said..”

• Kremlin Briefing Touches On Ukrainian Attempt To Strike Energy Site (TASS)


Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov

In his Tuesday briefing, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke on Ukraine’s attempt to strike an energy facility in Russia, Donald Trump’s idea to institute an energy truce, and the situation with gas in the country. TASS has compiled the key statements by the Kremlin representative.


On president’s schedule
– Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a working meeting today with Rospotrebnadzor head Anna Popova.
– The rest of the head of state’s meetings will not be announced to the public.

On Kiev’s attempt to strike Russian energy facility
– Ukraine attempted to strike an energy facility in Russia last night: “Indeed, at night the Ukrainians attempted to strike one of the energy facilities on Russian territory, in one of the Russian regions.”

On energy truce
– Trump’s idea about a Russian·Ukrainian energy truce is generally a good one: “We have seen President Trump’s publication on the energy truce. We generally consider it to be a very good idea.” – Russia is in contact with the United States and supports the search for peaceful solutions: “We are always on the side of peaceful solutions.”

On safety of oil refineries, logistics
– An energy truce and the safe operation of oil refineries will not solve the main problem for global markets — the unencumbered export of Russian fuel: “It is very important to clarify the following: ensuring the safe operation of oil refineries and increasing the volume of petroleum product production does not solve global problems. The main problem is related to the export of petroleum products to world markets.”

– Russia is carrying out comprehensive work to ensure the safety of oil refineries and energy facilities: “The domestic market is close to full saturation, as comprehensive work is currently under way to ensure the safety of oil refineries and other energy facilities. This is being done on the instructions of the president, and also in the wake of the signing of the well·known decree, which was so actively discussed by the public and in business circles.”

– To saturate the global market with energy, sanctions need to be lifted: “Of course, we need to lift the sanctions, these illegal restrictions on energy supplies to the world. And only then will the world be saturated with these petroleum products, global markets will be saturated, and prices will go down.”.

– To saturate the global market with petroleum products, it is necessary to ensure safe commercial navigation, but Kiev is not inclined to guarantee this: “And you know that not only our oil tankers are suffering, but also those belonging to other countries. And people of various nationalities are dying there.”

On Russian gas supplies
– It is possible to discuss the resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe only if they are beneficial for the country: “If these supplies are beneficial, first of all, and if it is possible to secure the necessary volumes of gas for them, because much volume has already been redirected to alternative destinations. If these two circumstances coincide, then it is quite possible to discuss this.”
– Russian gas returning to the European market is a “commercial issue.”

On summoning of Russian ambassador to Danish Foreign Ministry
– The Kremlin chose not to comment on the summoning of the Russian ambassador to the Danish Foreign Ministry over the alleged incident involving a Danish Air Force helicopter: “No, I have no comment; I don’t have any details about this.”

On inadmissibility of deploying weapons in space
– Russia remains adamant that weapons should not be deployed in outer space: “Of course, we will not come off that position.”
– Russia hopes for broad international consolidation to fully demilitarize outer space: “Here, we are counting on broad international consolidation to continue the work and advance positions in favor of the complete demilitarization of space.”

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“The Russian Foreign Minister said the European Commission still wants to confiscate these assets ..”

• Russia To Secure Return of Foreign Exchange Reserves From West — Lavrov (TASS)

The European Commission wants to confiscate Russian assets, but Moscow will secure the return of its foreign exchange reserves, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at an ambassadors’ roundtable on the Ukraine settlement. “The European Commission still wants to confiscate these assets and then return them to us only after we pay some kind of reparations to Ukraine. We will secure the return of our foreign exchange reserves, I have absolutely no doubt about that,” the minister stressed.
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“Reagan Smiles..”

• Space Force Confirms We Have Weapons in Space (Stephen Green)

Four decades ago, President Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative to end the “suicide pact” known as Mutual Assured Destruction in case of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The SDI looked at all kinds of exotic technologies, including space-based missile systems and particle beam weapons that would someday keep a 24/7/365 watch for enemy missile launch — and then destroy them.


Space-based weapons were dismissed by figures like Sen. Ted Kennedy as “reckless Star Wars schemes,” even though SDI was a shield, not a sword. Even so, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev understood that his country was both too broke and too technologically stunted to compete with SDI, and at a 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, offered total mutual nuclear disarmament if Reagan would just give up SDI. Reagan stood firm, and three years later we won the Cold War. These events were not unrelated.

Under President Bill Clinton, SDI evolved in 1993 into the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization with more modest aims due in part to the demise of the Soviet threat. The BMDO “shield” (now the Missile Defense Agency) was limited to Earthbound interceptors and at a much smaller scale. While we’ve made some great advances, that’s basically how things remained for the last 30 years or so. Yet while nobody was looking, Reagan’s dream of a space-based shield started coming true.

Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink announced Monday that the U.S. now operates what he described as “on-orbit space control weapons” during his keynote at the Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference at the Gaylord conference center in Maryland.

“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats, wherever they exist,” Meink said. “This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action.”

During a presser following his keynote, Meink said he wouldn’t “go into specifics on the type of weapon” that might be deployed in orbit, adding that revealing the existence of such weapons “is important from a deterrence perspective, but on the other hand, me talking about the details of what we’re doing would actually not benefit that deterrence.”

“So I’m not going to talk about the specifics of what we’re doing,” he continued, “whether we’ve tested or not tested, or anything else.” That’s exactly the kind of thing Meink has to say at a time like this, but I can’t help but notice that his announcement coincided with… well, another coincidence. On Friday, American officials linked satellite imagery supplied to Iran by China to an Iranian attack in July that killed three American troops based in Jordan.

“Tehran acquired high-resolution images of the installation both before and after the July attack, according to officials familiar with the incident,” i24 reported Saturday, based on a WSJ story behind a paywall. “They described the findings as the strongest evidence yet that Chinese support for Iran during the war has had deadly consequences for American forces.”

Not quite five weeks after the July attack, a Chinese reconnaissance satellite mysteriously broke up in orbit, “confirmed by U.S. Space Force trackers on Sept. 4-5,” according to FOD News. “Analysts have floated three possibilities: a propulsion system failure, a battery failure or short, or a collision with another object already in orbit.”

Just another Communist screw-up, or did Space Force send a message to Beijing? I’m inclined to believe the former, if for no other reason than that you don’t add even more orbital debris unless you really must. Also, the satellite’s retrograde orbit makes the debris more dangerous, due to the increased collision speed should it actually hit something.

So while I’m more or less certain China’s loss of Yaogan-50 was an accident, it does align with Meink also saying that our current space weapons “can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes.” My takeaway from that is that the Space Force isn’t (yet) deploying an SDI-like antimissile shield, but systems designed to destroy/disable enemy satellites while protecting our own.

Still, I can’t help but think that Reagan would smile in vindication.

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.. so Congress can weigh expulsion

Homeland Secretary Markwayne Mullin and White House border czar Tom Homan indicate there is evidence against Omar in an immigration case.

• Comer Demands Release of Ilhan Omar Immigration Evidence (JTN)

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee is vowing to pursue a contempt vote against financier Leon Black for refusing testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein probe and calling on the Trump administration to release any evidence showing whether Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar broke immigration laws and should be expelled from Congress. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., made the comments Monday night after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and White House border czar Tom Homan indicated such evidence involving Omar exists and is under investigation.


“I think they should make it public. Absolutely, make it public,” Comer said during an interview on the Just the News, No Noise television show. “The evidence that I’ve seen would show that they would be privy to a lot more evidence than I would have. Most of the evidence I have is public already, anyway. So I think it should be made public, and I think the members of Congress should be the judge and the jury in this.

“Let us vote as to whether or not she needs to remain in Congress. If you violated the laws to become a citizen, should that make you ineligible to be a member of Congress? I think so. But put it up for a vote in Congress and let the American people see how their member of Congress would vote on that.” Mullin revealed Thursday there is evidence that Omar, D-Minn., “married her brother” as part of an alleged immigration scheme and there is an “ongoing” investigation.

“We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States,” Mullin told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, adding that Omar’s ex-husband lives in London. Mullin explained that lying about certain things on an immigration application can result in deportation, and there’s no expiration for that. The investigation may turn up “illegal activity,” which could result in Omar being deported, Mullin suggested. He cautioned that the case is still being investigated and insisted it’s not politically motivated.

Omar became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2000, when she was 17 years old, and she has vehemently denied marrying her brother. Homan confirmed Sunday federal officials are looking into the allegations as part of an “ongoing criminal investigation.” “I know things are going on, but I can’t give specifics of what’s happening,” he said.

“If someone committed an immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law. So, I’ll leave it at that. We’ll let HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, continue the investigation,” he added.

Meanwhile, Comer said he is preparing to proceed with a contempt vote after Black failed to appear under subpoena for testimony in the House. “Look, we’ve issued a lawful subpoena. It was a bipartisan subpoena. It was voted on by the committee and both parties. This is a person of interest. We are not accusing him of any wrongdoing. Everyone is entitled to due process,” he said.

“But we have some questions, not just for him, but we also have questions about potential non-disclosure agreements that he may have signed with some of these Epstein victims. So there are a lot of important questions that he needs to answer, and he defied a lawful subpoena. So the next step is to hold him in contempt,” he added. Black, the former CEO of Apollo Global Management, is suing the committee. The lawsuit asks a federal court to block subpoenas that were issued as part of its investigation into Epstein.

The first subpoena compelled Mr. Black to appear for a deposition, and the second subpoena required him to produce nondisclosure agreements to the Committee. Black refused to appear for the deposition on Thursday, instead electing to file the lawsuit. Black’s lawsuit argues the subpoenas exceed the committee’s authority by seeking private information. “The Committee is on a fishing expedition that oversteps its authority and completely ignores its responsibility,” Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, said in a statement.

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“How long before George Floyd replaces George Washington on the one dollar bill of the United States?”

• Watching the West Disappear (Paul Craig Roberts)

It is paradoxical, sad, and a milepost on the disintegration of the Western World that the British government, in deference to immigrant-invaders and the immigrant-invaders’ DEI British academic, political and media supporters, has undertaken the erasure from national memory of Britian’s great men and women and is substituting in their place various species of insects, reptiles, and animal life. England is better represented on its currency by an insect than by Winston Churchill, or so concludes the Bank of England.


A report commissioned by the Bank of England concluded that key figures in British history are “elitist and divisive” as the immigrant-invaders did not associate with them. The report argued that British historical memory represented “a backward-looking vision of the UK that carries too great a risk of division and controversy”.

Among the Western nations Great Britain is by far the oldest and has been the most stable. Britain has stood unconquered and independent of outside force or influence for one thousand years since the Norman Conquest, which in many ways was a conquest of the Normans by Anglo-Saxon England. Today we speak of the English as Anglo-Saxons, not as Normans. The English language, culture, and law dominated. Moreover, the Normans themselves were German, descendants from Norse Germans. As the “Norman Conquest” proved over time to be the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the Normans who were absorbed into Anglo-Saxon life, Britain has been a country since Alfred-the-Great in the ninth century.

In contrast, Germany was not unified until 1871. Italy in 1861. The United States did not exist until 1776 or 1789 when they got the Constitution in place which defined the government. 1789 was the year that France destroyed her unification with the French Revolution and became permanently unstable.

Older peoples than the British–the Persians and the Chinese–have existed on more than one occasion under outside control. Persia, known to us today as Iran, did not achieve its present day liberation until 1979. China achieved its independence from foreign domination under Mao in the 20th century. France has so many political parties that its governments are coalitions. Why are British intellectuals determined to erase the British from history, and when did it start?

It started with an assault on the belief system. The British had an empire on which the sun never set, literally. This vast empire was evidence of a vast colonial enterprise that allegedly suppressed and exploited vast numbers of other peoples. British academics and publishers built up a vision of England prospering not from its own efforts, but from exploiting others.

From this portrait, guilt was created and assigned. During World War II the British relied on its colonies for resources and soldiers. One justification was “we are all British in a Commonwealth.” After the war, colonial peoples asked, as we are all British, why can’t we come and live in Britain? And so they did.

The next great wave of non-Europeans into Britain and Europe was anticipated by Jean Raspail in The Camp of the Saints. Raspail saw that guilt had overcome Western intellectuals, media, and governments, and they together had lost any sense of Western merit and of the merit of their own country. They said their obligation is not to their own but to the immigrant-invaders. This misperceived sense of obligation is the world the West lives in today. The Western countries lack the confidence to repeal the immigrant-invaders. Thus, the Western countries are bringing their destruction upon themselves.

Washington’s 21st century wars in the Middle East for Greater Israel, disguised as “the war on terror,” produced millions of displaced Muslims who flooded into Europe, Britain, and the US and increased the guilt. The Americans felt obliged as America’s wars caused the dislocation of the immigrants from their homes, which America’s bombs had caused to cease to exist. Europe and Britain, perhaps bribed by Washington, took in the bulk of the displaced Muslins from the Middle East and North Africa. If the truth can be told, the replacement in the works today of ethnic Europeans with ethnic non-Europeans in European countries is due to Washington’s wars for Greater Israel, by which is meant Israel’s expansion from Palestine to “from the Nile to the Euphrates,” modified recently by Israeli ministers to “from the Nile to Pakistan.”

Don’t you think that it is extraordinary that a tiny country of 7.7 million Jews can cause the disintegration of the Western World by infecting the Western World with guilt over displaced peoples resulting from America fighting for Israel? Has the Israeli government ever wondered what happens to Israel when the United States is no longer there to protect Israel? Israel consists of Palestine, a land stolen by Israel, a British creation.

A city in Michigan, USA, under control by the Muslim population, has legalized animal sacrifice. Minneapolis, the capital of Minnesota, whose governor was the Democrat Vice President candidate in the last US presidential election, has over public loudspeaker systems, calls for Muslim prayer six times a day. The Massachusetts governor and legislature have passed a law that requires the Massachusetts government to replace themselves with Muslim immigrant-invaders.

Let us now return to Great Britain’s erasure of its glorious past. Vera Lyn’s 1939 song There’ll Always Be an England has turned out not to be true, Except for some out of the way villages there is no longer an England. Not even London is English.

According to the British Telegraph itself — –https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/boe-spends-85k-to-justify-axing-churchill-from-banknotes/ — the Bank of England, allegedly a Rothschild operation, has spent large sums of money on advisors to justify removing all references in British currency to British history. Winston Churchill, the wartime Prime Minister and a person of devastating replies, Jane Austen, the epitome of a British author whose books are still in print since the 18th century, Turner, the prime example of a British painter, and Alan Turing, the father of computer science, all being testimonies to British accomplishment and greatness, are having their images replaced on British pound notes with insects and frogs.

The anti-British Bank of England tried to justify the erasure of British history by claiming that the old images were too easy to counterfeit. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/boe-spends-85k-to-justify-axing-churchill-from-banknotes/

How long before George Floyd replaces George Washington on the one dollar bill of the United States?

As soon as the insouciant American population elects the next Democrat regime, George Floyd will be America’s new Founding Father.

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I was not prepared to read this..

“.. if a human being had sex with an animal, that they can still be an FBI agent?”‘

‘What Planet Did You Parachute in From?’

• Sen. Kennedy Grills Kash Patel Over Wild FBI Hiring Change (Teri Christoph)

‘Things got a bit spicy at a Tuesday morning hearing on Capitol Hill after Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) grilled FBI Director Kash Patel over the agency’s new hiring standards, which now allow certain behaviors that once automatically disqualified applicants. Somehow, the deviant sexual practice of bestiality made it into the conversation. The remarkable exchange between Kennedy and Patel took place during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s annual FBI oversight hearing. Kennedy’s line of questioning seemed to originate from an August CBS News report claiming the FBI had “quietly lowered” some of its standards for prospective agents and other employees back in June.


Prior to those changes, applicants who admitted to things like hiring prostitutes, stealing from an employer, or engaging in bestiality were automatically disqualified. That’s apparently no longer the case. CBS reported that the new standards specifically address applicants who had histories of bestiality or animal cruelty and allow them to remain under consideration if the conduct occurred before they turned 18. Anonymous sources told CBS that the new eligibility standards don’t distinguish between someone who was coerced into sexual activity with an animal and someone who participated in the act willingly.

And that brings us to Sen. Kennedy.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2099864884330516776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2099864884330516776%7Ctwgr%5Ed3ec2066d1e5c4768fb4bcae0fe19583e0a13b12%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fredstate.com%2Fterichristoph%2F2026%2F09%2F15%2Fexchange-between-sen-kennedy-and-kash-patel-over-fbi-hiring-standards-n2206943


Kennedy wanted to know why – with the FBI already facing questions about public trust and recruitment – Patel would approve a change that would definitely raise some eyebrows. “Why would you, in light of the context and what we’re going through — and we’re having a tough time attracting agents, good-quality agents we all can trust, because so many people, fairly or unfairly, think that in order to be an FBI agent now, yo
ur political point of view matters — why would you even get into bestiality?”

“We are not into bestiality,” Patel responded rather quickly.nKennedy wanted to know why the bureau had changed its qualifications in a way that made that subject in any way relevant to its hiring practices. “You changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality,” he said. “If Joe participated in bestiality — not as the animal, but as the human — don’t you think he ought to be disqualified?” “If he voluntarily did it, sure,” Patel responded. “But if he was trafficked into it, then he should be considered.”nPatel then revealed that he himself had not initiated the changes.

KENNEDY: “I mean, these changes didn’t start with you, did they?”
PATEL: “No.”
KENNEDY: “Somebody came to you and recommended them?”
PATEL: “Yeah.”

That’s when Kennedy asked perhaps the most obvious question of the exchange. “And when you saw ‘bestiality’ — I say this with respect — the person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say, ‘What planet did you parachute in from? Why do I want to lead with my chin and get into bestiality?'” “Well, that was my initial response,” Patel admitted.bvHe said FBI officials showed him cases involving people who had been forced into such acts and later applied to the bureau.

“And so I thought they should be considered. It’s not an automatic disqualification. That’s all.”That’s a reasonable distinction. Victims forced into depraved acts shouldn’t be treated the same as willing participants. But Kennedy wanted to make absolutely sure the matter was settled, asking, “But you’re not telling us today that if a human being had sex with an animal, that they can still be an FBI agent?”

To which Patel replied, “They cannot.”

That’s settled, then.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle August 25 2026

Aug 252026
 
 August 25, 2026  Posted by at 9:49 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  54 Responses »


René Magritte Invisible world 1954


• “Operation Economic Outcast” Begins (ZH)
• Treasury Sec to Unveil ‘Economic D-Day’ Against Iran (ETM)
• Iran’s Civilian Leaders Call For Peace Amid Crippling U.S. Blockade (ZH)
• Le Pen Poised To Win French Elections? New Poll Shows Commanding Lead (ZH)
• The Democrats Are in a Trap of Their Own Making (Eric Florack)
• SCOTUS Gives Trump HUGE Win on Mail-In Voting (Matt Margolis)
• West Will Never Get Its ‘Loans’ Back From Kiev – ex-Ukrainian PM (RT)
• Zelensky Says Wartime Elections Would ‘Destroy’ Ukraine (ZH)
• Canada Chooses Climate Change, Censorship, and China (J.B. Shurk)
• Loonie Limps Lower As Trump Unleashes (More) Tariffs (ZH)
• Trump Gave Mark Carney an Ultimatum, USA or China? Carney Chose China (CTH)
• Trump Confirms ICE Investigating Ilhan Omar, ‘Enforcement’ Possible (Salgado)
• “This is My Place of Business” (Turley)

 


 

https://twitter.com/BasilTheGreat/status/2091833704331010055?s=20 https://twitter.com/CaseyKrol/status/2091526969951183212?s=20

 


 


“Bessent Warns Countries Helping Iran Face Expulsion From Dollar System..”

• “Operation Economic Outcast” Begins (ZH)

• Bessent Unveils “Operation Economic Outcast” Against Iran
• Pakistan enters diplomatic push: Pakistan’s army chief reportedly traveled to Tehran after Trump urged him to help reopen Iran talks.


Summary: US Treasury Sanctions Nearly 60 Iran-Linked Entities, Individuals And Vessels Across Nuclear, Missile, Cyber And Oil Networks:
• Five sectors face potential secondary sanctions: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping.
• Measures target brokerage networks and shadow-fleet vessels operating across the UAE, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Switzerland and Europe.
• Bessent warns that countries failing to take action “will be removed from the US dollar system.”
• Bessent launched the Trump administration’s long-awaited “Operation Economic Outcast,” unveiling sweeping sanctions designed to sever Iran from the global financial dollar system and punish any foreign government or entity that continues facilitating Tehran’s trade.

The first wave of sanctions targets nearly 60 Iran-linked entities, individuals and vessels connected to the regime’s nuclear, missile, cyber and oil networks. The measures span a global web of brokerage companies, financial intermediaries and shadow-fleet vessels operating across China, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Switzerland and Europe. “No one is above the reach of US sanctions,” Bessent warned during the press conference. Bessent made clear that Trump’s campaign extends well beyond Iran. Foreign companies dealing with Tehran now face an explicit choice: sever those ties or risk losing access to the US financial system.

Bessent stopped just short of naming countries such as China… “If others don’t act, Treasury will unilaterally act,” he said, adding that Washington “expects action” from other nations. Bessent added, “To those who enable Iran, don’t test US resolve.” The obvious pressure point here is China, which remains the largest buyer of Iranian crude. Washington has previously sanctioned independent Chinese refiners and trading companies.

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Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell

• Treasury Sec to Unveil ‘Economic D-Day’ Against Iran (ETM)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will announce massive new sanctions against Iran on Monday, a move he likened to “economic D-Day.” In an op-ed published in the Financial Times, Bessent said he is launching the “single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary.” He said any nation that associates with Iran will face isolation. “Iran’s enablers purchase and transport its petroleum,” Bessent wrote. “They facilitate the flow of its finances through exchange houses and free trade zones. They welcome Iran’s flights and maintain registries on its behalf. They turn a blind eye to seaborne fuel transfers and the illicit use of their banks, all while concealing the extent of their complicity.”


Those enablers should “consider the consequences” of continuing their relationships, Bessent said. “Those who sever Iran’s remaining financial and commercial connectivity will reinvigorate their own,” he wrote. “They will deepen their access to global capital, reinforce confidence in their markets and attain the standing they seek in the world economy.” But, Bessent continued, “the alternative for those who tether themselves to Tehran is the foreclosure of any path to lasting prosperity.” “To become a sanctuary for terror is to become, in the eyes of the United States, a global pariah,” he said.

Iran’s head of national security, however, said the country will “retaliate in a seismic manner” to any sanctions and will consider any country supporting sanctions to be committing an act of war. Bessent compared the sanction strategy to the 1943 Tehran Conference, where Allied leaders planned the defeat of Nazi Germany. “As Roosevelt and Churchill weighed a campaign that would culminate in the Normandy landings, they asked themselves what could be done ‘to bring the greatest pressure to bear on the enemy,’” he wrote.

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Split the country. Without killing another 40,000.

• Iran’s Civilian Leaders Call For Peace Amid Crippling U.S. Blockade (ZH)

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a visit to the shrine of the leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution

Iran’s top civilian officials are publicly urging an end to the ongoing conflict with the United States, exposing a deepening internal rift as they attempt to rein in hardliners who champion continued resistance. The financial and social toll of the U.S. blockade is proving too severe to ignore – as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently declared that the country cannot endure a state of perpetual limbo, though he cautioned against making concessions that would appear humiliating on the global stage.


“The war must come to an end at some point,” Pezeshkian stated in a Friday address, according to state media. “It is better that we demonstrate our strength and dignity today and tell the world that we have won and that we are ending the war.” President Donald Trump has maintained a relentless blockade on the Islamic Republic after a previous memorandum of understanding imploded – effectively severing the regime’s ability to export oil – its primary source of income. This has plunged Iran into a domestic crisis characterized by skyrocketing inflation and an increasingly desperate cost-of-living crisis.

The pressure is expected to intensify further this week, as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent prepares to unveil what President Trump has characterized as an “economic D-Day.” While the exact nature of these punitive measures remains classified, Bessent has strongly signaled the implementation of sweeping secondary sanctions targeting any nation that continues to do business with Tehran.

A Regime Divided
The push for diplomacy from Iran’s civilian government stands in stark contrast to the shifting power dynamics among its clerics and military elite. Pezeshkian claims his diplomatic push aligns with the broader goals of the regime, referencing past speeches by Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei – who has conspicuously vanished from the public eye since the conflict escalated.”I was in the presence of the Supreme Leader, and in his speeches as well, he openly stated that we must move beyond this state of ‘neither war nor peace,'” Pezeshkian noted. “We are not going to humiliatingly back down before the enemy or bow our heads. We can sit down with strength, but also with logic, and resolve our problems.”

Prior to his public absence, Khamenei had elevated hardline factions who favor military confrontation over the moderates seeking a renewed deal with Washington. Despite this, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf echoed the President’s warnings, underscoring the severe national security risks of a collapsing economy. “No matter how much military power we have, if our people are struggling and the country lacks financial circulation and economic growth, we will not achieve progress,” Ghalibaf stated. “As someone who has experienced war, I understand the true value of peace.”

Washington’s Stance: The “Right Deal”
The Trump administration’s distrust stems from the fraught history of recent negotiations, during which U.S. officials reported receiving deeply conflicting signals from Tehran. The previous agreement shattered after Iran launched a series of strikes on maritime vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz. For the United States, the objectives remain twofold and uncompromising: Nuclear Prevention: Ensuring Iran permanently loses the capacity to develop or acquire a nuclear weapon. Maritime Security: The full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to global trade.

Currently, the Trump administration claims it’s securing the safe passage of 8 to 9 million barrels of oil through the strait daily – a steep decline from the roughly 20 million barrels that traversed the waterway before the conflict erupted. Washington is signaling that it will dictate the terms. Addressing reporters on Friday, President Trump summarized the diplomatic standoff: “They would love to make a deal, but they’re not ready to make the right deal.”

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No Macron.

• Le Pen Poised To Win French Elections? New Poll Shows Commanding Lead (ZH)

France’s Le Pen Leads French Presidential Race Early Monday, we previewed a Nomura report that expects an 18-month election cycle across Europe, shifting the continent toward populism, with elections scheduled this year in Germany and Sweden, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Poland in 2027. Shortly after we released the note, new polling data from France showed, as The Guardian put it:


France loves a battle-scarred survivor. Charles de Gaulle, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac clawed their way back from political failure to become presidents of the republic. There is a significant chance that Marine Le Pen will be next. The latest Toluna-Harris poll shows Marine Le Pen winning every tested 2027 French presidential runoff:
• Le Pen 68%, Jean-Luc Mélenchon 32%
• Le Pen 55%, Édouard Philippe 45%
• Le Pen 57%, Gabriel Attal 43%
• Le Pen’s advantage extends beyond a matchup with the far left. She also holds double-digit leads over two leading establishment candidates, indicating that her National Rally party would enter the election as the clear favorite under these scenarios.

Polymarket odds of Le Pen winning the French presidential election currently stand at 32%. Here’s more:

https://twitter.com/Cap2027_/status/2091775772906168809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2091775772906168809%7Ctwgr%5E4665f81154ac257c311cf658bf28696f75baed80%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fseeds-political-change-nomura-sees-europe-lurching-right-and-markets-are-fine-it

Circling back to Nomura analyst Andrzej Szczepaniak’s note, he expects that right-wing parties are positioned to make significant gains across Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK over the next 18 months. Szczepaniak noted, “Five years ago, financial markets would not have seemed so at ease with such a prospect. But then again, these populist right-wing political parties were previously not so fiscally prudent as they are perceived to be today.

He added, “Now, if anything, financial markets are much more concerned about populist left-wing parties being elected due to their desire to increase spending, often paid for through higher borrowing or higher taxes, which are likely to shut the engine off of already stuttering economies.” Europe is entering an 18-month election cycle that could accelerate the continent’s shift toward populism, with high-profile elections scheduled this year in Germany and Sweden, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Poland in 2027.

The much-needed political realignment reflects mounting public backlash against progressives in Brussels after years of uncontrolled mass migration from the Third World, deteriorating social cohesion, elevated violent crime, and nation-killing domestic policies that have accelerated deindustrialization. At the same time, European manufacturers face intensifying pressure from China (the demise of VW Group), which is exploiting its cost advantages and state-supported industrial capacity to flood the struggling continent with cheap electric vehicles.

Andrzej Szczepaniak, a senior European economist and executive director at Nomura International in London, describes this combination of pressures as “the seeds of political change,” warning that “politics in Europe is lurching towards more populism.” Szczepaniak says right-wing parties are positioned to make significant gains across Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK over the next 18 months.

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“Establishment Democrats. They’re the ones who’ve either been holding the reins or doing everything in their power to obstruct the repair process for the better part of the last six decades.”

• The Democrats Are in a Trap of Their Own Making (Eric Florack)

Tim Hains at Real Clear Politics, this morning:”Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Jake Auchincloss told “FOX News” that the Democratic Party will lose if the moderate party establishment picks a direct fight with the new Democratic Socialists. “What my faction of the party needs to do is to demonstrate to Americans what our positive, proactive agenda is to strengthen the middle class, how we are going to base that in freedom, not socialism, free enterprise, free minds, freedom from fear, and free elections,” he said. (Sound of muffled laughter. Shuffling in the seat while I smooth my professional commentator demeanor back into place.)


The comments are from an interview on Fox with Shannon Bream, which we’ll get back to in a second. Free enterprise. Free minds. Freedom from fear. Free elections. Gotta tell ya, Congressman, that’s a genuinely lovely word salad, and I mean that with the sincerest possible sarcasm — because you’re delivering it roughly 48 hours after your own party’s biggest streaming ally got caught with a framed newspaper commemorating 9/11 hanging on his studio wall like a hunting trophy. But we’ll get there.

BREAM: So, there is a video of somebody who’s been campaigning a lot with Democratic candidates or Democratic Socialist candidates who say they belong in your party, Hasan Piker, he’s not disavowed this video that’s out there circulating this weekend where he’s singing a song that appears to be mocking the death of Charlie Kirk, of people who would, you know, be worshipped as Christians, worshipping Jesus. What’s your message to those within your party who are campaigning, fundraising, and appearing with Hasan Piker?

AUCHINCLOSS: I reject Hasan Piker’s ideology, whether it was seeming to celebrate or at least excuse 9/11, whether it is seeming to excuse the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which I condemned immediately. The Democratic Party does not stand for what Hasan Piker stands for. The Democratic Party also needs to be able to reach young voters from all walks of life who are angry at a status quo in which they cannot afford to buy a home, in which they do not believe Social Security will be there for them in their retirement, and in which they see corruption run rampant in Washington, D.C. Well, it seems to me that they’ve already identified who’s responsible for the status quo. Establishment Democrats.

They’re the ones who’ve either been holding the reins or doing everything in their power to obstruct the repair process for the better part of the last six decades. Young people can’t afford a home in large part because of Democrat-controlled cities and states stacking regulations, zoning restrictions, and tax burdens on top of housing supply until the whole market seizes up like an engine that’s never seen a drop of oil. Here’s the part Auchincloss conveniently glides past, though, and it’s worth dragging back into the light: While he’s on national television lecturing about “rejecting” Piker’s ideology, plenty of his own colleagues have been busy actively embracing it.

Fox News’s own reporting from just this month confirms Piker has framed, and proudly displayed on camera behind him during livestreams, the front page of the New York Times’ Sept. 12, 2001, edition — the “U.S. Attacked” issue — describing it to his audience as “the cutie Cinderella newspaper from 9/11.” A man decorating his broadcasting studio with a memorial to the deadliest terror attack in American history, treated as a cute keepsake. And he’s told CNN there’s “0% chance” the 2028 Democrat nominee will be pro-Israel, expressing total confidence his own party is drifting exactly where he wants it.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna has publicly refused to apologize for appearing on Piker’s show, warning that distancing from him would signal “weakness.” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar went on MS NOW’s Morning Joe and insisted, with a straight face, that “the party isn’t lurching too far left.” Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told Meet the Press he cares about “reaching Piker’s audience,” not his actual comments — which is a genuinely remarkable sentence for a candidate to say out loud about a man who’s excused a terror attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

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“..after months of Democrat officials trying to bury the policy in court, the administration finally has room to breathe.”

• SCOTUS Gives Trump HUGE Win on Mail-In Voting (Matt Margolis)

The Supreme Court just handed President Trump a massive victory in the fight to secure America’s elections. The justices cleared the way for his executive order restricting mail-in voting to move forward, and after months of Democrat officials trying to bury the policy in court, the administration finally has room to breathe. This is a big deal.


The SAVE America Act is still stalled in the Senate, blocked by Democrats who aren’t even hiding the fact they have zero interest in verifying that voters are who they say they are. Trump’s executive order just got a green light from the nation’s highest court anyway. Election integrity doesn’t have to die in the legislative graveyard to make progress.

Trump signed the executive order, called “Ensuring Citizenship Verification And Integrity In Federal Elections,” in March 2026. It directs his administration to build lists of eligible voters and orders the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists. The Postal Service laid out its implementation plan last week, but the clock is ticking. Some states start sending mail ballots in just a few weeks, leaving the administration little time to get this right before the midterms. More court challenges remain possible.The victory is real, but it’s not the finish line.

Mail balloting has been a target of Trump’s for years, and for good reason. The Heritage Foundation has long argued that mail-in ballots are more susceptible to fraud, coercion, and chain-of-custody problems than in-person voting. Anyone who lived through the 2020 presidential election, one of the most disputed elections in history, watched that vulnerability play out in real time. In fact, a 2023 survey from Rasmussen Reports, conducted with the Heartland Institute, found that among the 30% of likely U.S. voters who cast an absentee or mail-in ballot in 2020, 19% admitted that a friend or family member filled out part or all of their ballot on their behalf. Another 17% admitted they voted in a state where they were no longer a permanent resident. Every one of those practices is illegal.

Think about that for a second: nearly a fifth of mail voters copped to letting someone else fill out their ballot. Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to block the order, arguing that the Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections and that Trump’s changes could cause chaos and partisan abuse. Attorneys for the states wrote that “the consequences of allowing such transformative changes to take effect so close to this fall’s elections would be extreme.”

A judge in Massachusetts blocked the plan for the midterm elections in those states. An appeals court upheld her decision. She later granted a second order blocking it nationwide. The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court on procedural grounds in late July, arguing that the states sued too soon. They also pointed to another ruling out of Washington, where a judge allowed Trump’s order to proceed. An appeals court backed that decision, while still leaving room for future court action if the changes are implemented.

Federal attorneys argued that the Massachusetts order “blocks the government’s ability to finalize and implement the President’s proposed policies to promote election integrity for the upcoming federal elections in November.”A dozen Republican-leaning states supported the federal government in their own appeal before the high court, saying states would have input on the final voter lists.

Trump has been to the Supreme Court on mail ballots before this year. In June 2026, the justices ruled against a Trump-backed argument, finding that states can count ballots arriving after Election Day. That case went through full briefing rather than the emergency docket. This time, Trump came out on top. This is a huge win, but now comes the hard part: building the lists, getting our Postal Service ready, and, of course, surviving whatever legal challenges come next, all before voters start filling out ballots. Election integrity advocates should be celebrating today, but also watching the calendar.

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“Assumptions that Moscow will lose the conflict and pay reparations are “just fairy tales,” Nikolay Azarov has told RT.”

• West Will Never Get Its ‘Loans’ Back From Kiev – ex-Ukrainian PM (RT)

The EU keeps providing “loans” to Ukraine despite knowing that its government will never repay them, the country’s former prime minister, Nikolay Azarov, has said. In a post on X on Sunday, Vladimir Zelensky called funding the Ukrainian military one of the “major challenges” his government is currently facing. “A lot of money is needed,” he wrote. Making sure that the second tranche of a €90 billion ($105 billion) transfer approved by the EU earlier this year arrives in Ukraine is “an extremely difficult task,” but he is working on it with Germany and France, Zelensky stressed.


In an interview with RT on Saturday, Azarov said that “loans and Western assistance that amounts to about three-fourths of the state budget of Ukraine are covering the budget deficit, funding arms purchases and sponsoring the Nazi terrorist and corrupt regime.” When the European Commission and major EU countries, who have been the main supporters of Ukraine after US President Donald significantly reduced American aid to Kiev, “grant these loans, they know that they won’t get this money back,” he said.

“And this causes some irritation among EU bureaucrats because they understand that the money of the American and European taxpayers is being embezzled in a very outrageous manner,” the former prime minister said. Inside the Ukrainian government, there is “an organized criminal group that embezzled the funds that Ukraine received as part of these loans,” he said. According to Azarov, that is the reason why EU ambassadors held a meeting in Kiev with the investigators of the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and “supported actions to expose corruption in the country,” particularly in Zelensky’s office.

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian leader sacked the deputy head of his office, Irina Mudraya, after her home was searched as part of a probe into efforts to raise and legalize $3.3 million in bail money for former Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko. Galushchenko is a key figure in a $100 million corruption case involving state nuclear operator Energoatom and linked to Zelensky’s longtime business associate Timur Mindich. The scandal led to the downfall of his highly influential chief of staff Andrey Yermak last November. Other recent corruption investigations have targeted former Ukrainian ministers, diplomats, and senior officials.

The claims that Kiev will reimburse the US and EU because “Russia will pay some kind of reparations someday… are just fairy tales. You have to be really short-sighted to believe these fairy tales,” Azarov stressed. “No one will give this money back to the West. There’s $275 billion of Ukrainian debt, you cannot pay it back,” he added. Azarov was the Ukrainian prime minister from 2010 to 2014, resigning during the Western-backed Euromaidan protests in Kiev and fleeing to Russia after the overthrow of democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovich in February 2014.

Read more …

“That Purported Bastion Of Democracy..”

• Zelensky Says Wartime Elections Would ‘Destroy’ Ukraine (ZH)

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 with a goal of excising the Russian-speaking Donbas region, American and Western European officials have repeatedly said they and their countries are duty-bound to support Ukraine because, as Nancy Pelosi put it, “The battle for Ukraine is a battle for democracy itself.” That notion has been growing ever more farcical over time, as President Volodymyr Zelensky refuses to hold elections that were supposed to happen back in the spring of 2024. Over the weekend, Zelensky doubled down on his preference for martial law, telling journalists it would “destroy the country.”

Zelensky’s former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov turned up the heat on his former boss by calling for wartime elections


Zelensky is now in the eighth year of his five-year term. His new remarks defending his overstay came after former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov recently called for elections, after his controversial firing by Zelensky in July. “Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,” said Fedorov. “We are fighting precisely because we want to remain a free European state.” In his nine-minute speech, he also took a shot at Zelensky’s way of governing. “It is particularly dangerous when society develops the feeling that the main criterion for an appointment is not professionalism, results or the ability to transform the country, but personal loyalty to the system,” he said.

Speaking to a group of journalists over the weekend, Zelensky firmly rejected calls for elections in his supposed bastion of democracy: “I believe that if we want to destroy the country, then during such a war we can move in the selection of elections… I believe that during such a war, elections in general are big risks. Elections right now are a tsunami for the state that will split Ukraine.” Zelensky pointed to the logistical and security challenges of balloting during wartime, noting that it would require “the participation of the military, in frontline territories, abroad, where millions of our citizens have gone, fleeing the war” and the risk of “strikes and shelling.”

He argued it could only begin to be conceivable if Russia were to agree to a ceasefire, which he preemptively ruled an impossibility. In December, President Trump said he was inclined to see Ukraine hold elections soon. “It’s been a long time. Hasn’t been doing particularly well. Yeah, I think it’s an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election, but I would think the Ukrainian people should have that choice,” he told Politico. “You know, they talk about democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”

Skeptics of Zelensky’s reasoning might point to elections held in other war-torn countries. For example, Afghanistan held elections in 2004 and 2009, and Iraq held one in 2005. To be fair, violence affected turnout and the legitimacy of the results was questioned. Meanwhile, the UK was supposed to have an election in 1940 but put it off all the way until 1945. The Atlantic Council, which is a de facto NATO think tank, has pointed to the UK example in urging Zelensky to refuse elections during a war — a war that is happening because of NATO expansionism.

Time is marching on, however. Russia has thus far been content to pursue a slow-burn approach to the war, ever so gradually taking over more and more territory. If that pace continues and if Russia’s territorial ambitions widen — say, to include taking Odessa and creating a landlocked Ukrainian rump state — we could see Zelensky in charge for years more to come.

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Don’t miss Mr. Shurk’s brilliant analysis.

• Canada Chooses Climate Change, Censorship, and China (J.B. Shurk)

Central banker Mark Carney is doing that peculiar Canadian thing again — acting tough while exuding weakness. Just before midnight on Friday, the former governor of the Bank of England and King Charles III’s current prime minister in North America announced that trade talks with the United States had collapsed. This was expected, even though the Canadian and American trade delegations had publicly expressed optimism on Wednesday that a mutually beneficial framework for future trade relations was within reach.


The British Empire’s “climate change”-obsessed central banker announced the official start of the U.S.-Canada Trade War on his X account. That’s ironic because the Canadian government considers Elon Musk an enemy, restricts what information Canadian citizens can see on social media platforms, and seeks to tax and regulate all online communication. Because of the Canadian government’s censorship/propaganda machine, most Canadian citizens have no idea how economically vulnerable their British vassal state really is. Carney’s public memorandum makes it sound as if Canada’s economy is the envy of the world, when it is nothing more than a plaything for Chinese smugglers and European bankers who use the country as an entry point into U.S. markets. The average Canadian is about to learn how dependent Canada has always been upon the unreciprocated generosity of the United States.

Canada is a weigh station for moving products into the United States. Its value for other nations lies in its uniquely favorable trade agreements with the U.S. Canadian banks and manufacturers act as middlemen for foreign nations skirting American trade laws. For its trade- and money-laundering services, Canada receives a cut of the profits. China takes advantage of this arrangement by “snow-washing” their goods through Canadian shell corporations and hiding their commercial transactions within Canadian financial institutions. Over the decades, this “Trojan horse” operation — in which American adversaries use Canada as an economic workaround for hollowing out vital American industries — has greatly profited our neighbors up North.

In fact, the leftist-globalists running Canada have been able to generate enough revenue by stamping Chinese products, “Made in Canada,” that they have become emboldened to get on their “global warming” high horse and lecture the United States about the imaginary “climate apocalypse.” Even though the U.S. has actually reduced its so-called “climate emissions” by a larger percentage than Canada over the last twenty-five years (a feat accomplished through industrial innovation), the Canadian government pretends that the country’s poorly managed forest fires are the outcome of U.S. capitalism. (This is akin to blaming Thor for thunder.)

While sitting on some of the largest energy reserves on the entire planet, Canada has insisted upon throttling its own hydrocarbon output in the name of “fighting global warming.” By waging war against its own energy industry, Canada makes itself economically and militarily vulnerable. It cannot build things anymore. It is not self-sufficient. It depends upon kickbacks from communist China and military protection from the United States. These dual dependencies are mutually exclusive in a world in which China and the U.S. are already engaged in various forms of hybrid warfare.

Britain’s man in Canada, Mark Carney, is globalism personified. As the former governor of the Bank of England, he spoke regularly about a future in which central bankers managed the planet’s resources and economic activity. He has been a lifetime proponent of using the “global warming” bogeyman as a justification for controlling all human behavior. Carney is afflicted with the same narcissistic disease that grips all of Europe’s political and economic “elites”: He does not believe in the value of free markets, free speech, or human liberty. He is, at heart, a totalitarian committed to the proposition that a small cabal of central bank oligarchs and political aristocrats should exercise complete power over everyone else.

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“We Don’t Need Canada”.

• Loonie Limps Lower As Trump Unleashes (More) Tariffs (ZH)

“Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” wrote President Trump in his latest social media outburst, laying out his tariff torrent against Canada. “Their ridiculously high tariffs on our Farmers and farm products has made life impossible for these great American Patriots, and has long created a 60 Billion Dollar Deficit between our two Countries.nNot sustainable, and NOT ANYMORE!”= The US implemented a new 50% tax on imports of hundreds of Canadian items including furniture, plastics, plywood and electrical equipment on Saturday.


It’s such a high rate that it may cut off the world’s biggest market for some Canadian enterprises. And now this morning, Trump unveiled more products will face dramatic tariff increases come the start of next year… “On January First, 2027, Tariffs on all Cars, Trucks, both large and small. Automotive Parts, and Steel, will be increased to 50%.Build in the U.S. and there are ZERO TARIFFS. Canada will be treated like a State no longer!

On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US! They do 95% of their business with the U.S., with us, the exact opposite!” The Loonie was weaker ahead of Trump’s tweet…

Carney’s government has pledged financial help for businesses caught in the crossfire. That may prove more complicated than previous aid packages for industries like steel that have been facing US tariffs for more than a year. The new tariffs are “very diffuse, and they hit, in particular, small and many medium enterprises in various parts of the country and in radically different supply chains,” said Matthew Holmes, chief of public policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Very difficult for the federal government especially to create a package of supports for them.” Canadians may have wanted their prime minister to stand tough and not sign a bad trade deal with the US; but the collapse of talks, and the escalation of the tariff war, will come at a price.

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So says the Council on Foreign Relations President.

• Trump Gave Mark Carney an Ultimatum, USA or China? Carney Chose China (CTH)

Council on Foreign Relations President Says Trump Gave Mark Carney an Ultimatum, USA or China? Carney Chose China


An interesting soundbin gave Canada an ultimatum within the deal proposed, us or them.

If Mike Froman is correct, Mark Carney chose China. [X LINK] Video Below:te from Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) President Mike Froman who distills down the main point of contention. Essentially, the U.S. position is to demand a common trade approach toward China and the U.S. delegationn.

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“.. the immigration fraud investigation against a Democrat representative is ongoing and could lead to an arrest.”

• Trump Confirms ICE Investigating Ilhan Omar, ‘Enforcement’ Possible (Salgado)

President Donald Trump indirectly confirmed that the immigration fraud investigation against a Democrat representative is ongoing and could lead to an arrest.


Trump did not comment in any detailed way on the investigation, but on Sunday afternoon, he shared an article from Just the News titled “ICE refuses to disclose records on Ilhan Omar fraud probe, cites ongoing ‘enforcement proceedings.’” By sharing this article on TruthSocial, the president verified its accuracy and immediately started a firestorm of speculation and controversy from other individuals and media outlets. The Trump administration had previously stated that they do have evidence that Minnesota’s Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Somalia) committed immigration fraud, but voters had begun to wonder if that would lead to any actual penalties.

Just the News is especially interested in the investigation because it filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the Omar immigration records in January, for all the details about her legally marrying her brother. ICE returned the following statement instead of the documents: “ICE has determined that the information you requested is being withheld in full pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A). Disclosure of any responsive records at this time could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”

No court admissible proof definitively proves that Omar’s legal ex-husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is her brother, Just the News said, although the government of the Republic of Somaliland, among others, has confirmed it. Somaliland, which is a breakaway nation from Somalia and hates Omar for her and her family’s connection to genocide, provided paperwork, apparently showing that Omar‘s name, like other members of her family, was originally Elmi before she altered it for the fraudulent marriage that helped her brother stay here.

Receipts: Ilhan Omar’s original last name was Elmi before it was changed. nThis evidence was available, but the Obama Justice Department refused to investigate. Her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and their father, Nur Said Elmi (also known as Nur Omar), used multiple names… https://t.co/9sz3ZXVN3X pic.twitter.com/d16tAMCKrn — REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND (@RepOfSomaliland) March 19, 2026

Omar has bragged about prioritizing Somalia‘s interests while serving as a congresswoman. In 2024, while furiously rejecting Somaliland’s longtime independence and maritime deals, she declared, “While I am in Congress, no one will take Somalia’s sea.” Somaliland continued to write about Omar:

Her true name? Ilhan Nur Said Elmi. Father? Nur Said Elmi (aka Nur Omar), Colonel in Siad Barre’s army. Soviet-trained. Part of the command that turned Hargeisa into rubble. Tens of thousands—up to 200,000 Isaaq civilians—bombed, executed, raped, starved in the late ’80s. We call it the Isaaq Genocide. The world still looks away.The mastermind? Major General Mohammed Said Hersi “Morgan”—”The Butcher of Hargeisa.” Barre’s son-in-law. And when Omar visited Somalia to a hero’s welcome in 2022, she attended an event where she sat only a few feet away from “the Butcher,” who has reportedly posed for photos with her relatives.

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Can we choose who we serve?

• “This is My Place of Business” (Turley)

“This is my place of business.”


Those words from Jim Sheehan, owner of the Wydaho Roasters coffee shop in Driggs, Idaho, have sparked the latest controversy over the right of businesses to refuse service on the basis of religious or political views. Sheehan has drawn national attention after throwing out a group of pro-life teenagers, calling them the equivalent of a Ku Klux Klan meeting in his shop. Sheehan clearly caters to those who want their lattes with an added shot of rage.

However, this and a number of other cases have exposed the hypocrisy of many regarding the service businesses must provide customers with opposing views. From cakes to coffee, shops remain ground zero for an age of rage. Years ago, politicians and pundits rallied around the effort to force Jack Phillips, a cakeshop owner, to create cakes celebrating same-sex marriages. Phillips objected that it violated his religious beliefs. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court in what many of us hoped would be a final resolution of this conflict.

I had long criticized the framing of the case (and other similar cases) under the religious clauses rather than treating it as a simple matter of free speech. In the end, the Supreme Court punted in a frustrating 2018 decision. In 2023, however, the Supreme Court delivered a major victory for free speech in 303 Creative v. Elenis. It ruled that Lorie Smith, a Christian website designer, could refuse to provide services for a same-sex marriage. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that “the framers designed the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to protect the ‘freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think.’ … They did so because they saw the freedom of speech ‘both as an end and as a means.’”

But notably, in cases like Masterpiece Cakeshop, Phillips insisted that he would always sell cakes to any couple, including same-sex couples. He only refused to make cakes specifically celebrating same-sex marriages, due to his religious views. The case of Wydaho is different. Sheehan refused the same general accommodation offered to all customers because he opposes pro-life causes. In the confrontation, Sheehan declared that “in my world” pro-lifers are no different from the Ku Klux Klan.

“This is my place of business,” he declared. “I did a lot of work to get people on the ballot so women would have the right to choose in the state of Idaho, and this is something I do not support, nor does my wife, and it’s our business. So we have that choice.” In my view, they do have that choice. Yet it must also be acknowledged what Sheehan is doing is far more extreme than what Phillips did in Masterpiece Cakeshop. He is not being asked to create a coffee concoction opposing abortion, like a Cafe Au Life specialty drink. He acknowledges that other groups might use the shop — he just does not want these teenagers to use it to support pro-life causes.

The same controversy arose the same week across the country in Virginia. In Alexandria, Fatana Karimi, owner of the Karimi Salon, threw out a woman after she revealed that she was Israeli. Jessica Walton posted an account of the encounter, and a video was later posted on social media.In the video, the person identified as Karimi says that she declared on Instagram that she would not serve those who support Israel. (She also adds that she got Walton to sign a release for the video.)

The Virginia Human Rights Act states that businesses cannot engage in “unlawful discrimination in employment because of race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or military status.” Karimi will likely argue she refused service not due to Walton’s religion or national origin, but due to her support for Israel — a political position.

The case is reminiscent of the abusive treatment afforded to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz at Martha’s Vineyard by a pierogi stand. He was also refused service over his political views.The line between national origin and religious discrimination versus political discrimination can be tenuous and unclear. However, in the video, the owner states that it is her national identity that is causing the action: “Get out of my shop. I can’t provide service to an Israeli. It’s against my political beliefs. You need to leave immediately.”

Back in Idaho, Sheehan’s bizarre analogy to the KKK outraged many, to the point that he later apologized for it. However, it is fascinating that liberals are now celebrating the right to exclude others for political or religious reasons, even when they are not asked to engage in any expressive act or make any creative product that contravenes their beliefs. If that is now the case, many owe individuals such as Phillips an apology for years of costly lawsuits, even after the Supreme Court gave him his first nominal victory.

Sheehan could be prosecuted if he were refusing general service or accommodations to the teenagers due to their race or religion. But he is refusing service on the basis of his own political views. Wydaho Roasters does not appear to want business from people who are pro-life, of whom there might be quite a few in Idaho. Karimi appears not to want either Israeli or possibly Jewish customers. It is a curious business plan to exclude such a large segment of the market, but some owners are sure to put their political views before their profits.

However, those on the left cannot have it both ways. They cannot reject the free speech rights of some owners to decline service while celebrating others’ refusal to do the same thing. None of this is likely to make society any more civil. No one wants a black eye to go with the red-eye espresso. Of course, recognizing the free speech rights of an unhinged coffee shop owner does not require patronizing his establishment. Sheehan clearly does not want to serve pro-life citizens, and I expect the feeling is mutual.

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Debt Rattle August 14 2026

Aug 142026
 
 August 14, 2026  Posted by at 8:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,  37 Responses »


Rembrandt The Descent from the Cross 1634


• Iran’s Military Command To Be ‘More Aggressive’ (ZH)
• Skepticism Over Iranian Plot Against Trump In Turkey (ZH)
• FBI Listed Bill Barr, Mike Pence and Other Reps as Russian “Conduits” (Turley)
• FBI’s Approach of Attack: Aggressive on Trump, Protective on Biden (JTN)
• Left Has Followed Every Play in Weaponization Playbook (Victor Davis Hanson)
• ICE Refuses To Disclose Records On Ilhan Omar Fraud Probe (JTN)
• Watch: UK PM Wants EVERY Area In Britain To House Migrants (MN)
• The Foundations Are Eroding (Paul Craig Roberts)
• California’s Rail Boondoggle Nears a Reckoning (Stepman)
• The Dems’ Great White Hope Just Got Humiliated in Michigan (Stephen Green)
• Karoline Leavitt Raised the Bar for All White House Press Secretaries (O’Brien)

 


 

https://twitter.com/gaye_gallops/status/2087526716755292204?s=20

 


 


Heating up the empty air,

• Iran’s Military Command To Be ‘More Aggressive’ (ZH)

Oil prices have spiked Thursday on emerging reports that the Houthis have freshly targeted an Aramco refinery in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan with two drones, according to regional Saba News Agency. It seems this is part of Iran’s ‘counter-pressure’ playing book against Washington and its Gulf allies, given the Houthis have long been a proxy arm of Iran. The Houthi group is in the midst of a ‘siege for siege’ war on Saudi shipping and energy.


The Hormuz stalemate is meanwhile continuing, given War Secretary Pete Hegseth now says that the US military can maintain a blockade on Iranian ports for as long as needed.“Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth told reporters. But Iran is also vowing to outlast and keep up the military pressure, enforcing its own strait management protocol based on the Oman deal.

Attrition Game Outlasting US Politics
Top adviser to the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has been signaling Iran’s more aggressive stance in media appearances this week, also following a significant reshuffling of top military leadership. “Look, we have to attain deterrence so that the enemy never dares to attack us, so we can live with security,” Naqdi said in an interview with PBS. “One way is to prolong this war until we get to the next term of the presidency and cause attrition, so that if anyone else wants to attack Iran, they will know there is a cost.”

Alluding to the recent military reorganization, he described: “Whenever the conditions are favorable and the order is issued, we must be able to take the operation into enemy territory” – while contrasting the approach with a pre-war doctrine “primarily based on defense and the preservation of the country.”Military.com underscores that “Iran has reorganized its military to be more aggressive abroad as talks on ending the war with the U.S. remain mired in stalemate, a sign that Tehran is preparing for a protracted era of regional conflict.”

As a reminder, this is after Tehran’s obvious pivot away from negotiations, and toward a more permanent state of military resistance. The Wall Street Journal previously pointed out: “Now, the new supreme leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, is putting his own stamp on the country’s national-security policy amid a confrontation with the U.S. that could last months or even years.”

“Seasoned Hardliners” in Command
According to more of the analysis: In a sweeping overhaul of the government’s top echelon on Sunday and Monday, Iran named seasoned hard-liners to run the country’s security policies and institutions of repression. It marked the most significant government reshuffle under Mojtaba Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen in public since the war began. U.S. intelligence agencies say he is alive but severely injured, and top Iranian cabinet members say they have never met him since he took office. Iranian officials say he was injured but in good health.

Analysts said the appointments signaled Khamenei’s determination to hold fast in a showdown with President Trump, who is seeking concessions on Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz. “The regime is preparing for a more confrontational posture at home and abroad,” said Kasra Aarabi, an expert on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful paramilitary force, at United Against Nuclear Iran, a policy organization that opposes Iran’s government. And some fresh insight from Michael Stephens, a senior associate fellow at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI):

Nearly six months since the beginning of the war, Iran is now convinced that the US is not willing to conduct a ground invasion. “That existential threat is gone,” Stephens said. “So they want to up the tempo and maybe make the pain a little bit more acute for President Trump. And the best way to do that is to drag this out.”Prior to the US-Israeli attack on February 28, the widely held belief was that the Iranian government would readily collapse, after enduring months of civil disobedience and unrest during major demonstrations in late December and January.

“That doesn’t seem to be the case now, and I’m not really sure the US has any tools in the bag to force the regime to do what they want,” the analyst said. Iranians can “live in this stalemate at the moment – it hurts them, but it’s not existential, and I think that’s the problem the US has now”. Iranian leadership continues boasting of squaring up against the much larger American foe…

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It’s easy to mock the Secret Service. Easier than it is for them to protect Trump.

• Skepticism Over Iranian Plot Against Trump In Turkey (ZH)

US mainstream media has this week been dominated by claims that an Iranian assassination threat prompted President Donald Trump to secretly switch planes while flying out of Turkey last month, with Air Force One serving as a decoy while he flew out on a smaller military aircraft. The details of the ‘escape’ from alleged danger are wild, and continue to be subject of widespread scrutiny and questioning, given the American president was actually covertly transferred into a catering container, which then ferried him to a small C-32A aircraft, according to reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times.

BBC: Donald Trump secretly switched planes when he was returning from a Nato meeting last month in order to avoid a threat to his life from Iran.


The claim was that Iranian covert forces could target Air Force One at the airport in Ankara using shoulder-fired rockets, or MANPADS, from perhaps just one kilometer away Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday while speaking of the broader war and the status of the Hormuz Strait appeared to gently mock the ordeal and controversy surrounding it. He referenced “fake intelligence” in the broad comments.

Importantly the words come as some like Turkey are accusing Israel of feeding Washington ‘fabricated’ intelligence, which then led to the dramatic Trump plane-switching escapade. FM Araghchi asserted that the United States has “has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures,” especially when launching its war on Iran. But that’s when he could be interpreted as mocking the Air Force One drama, continuing on X: “Worse than fake news is fake intelligence.”

Some analysts have questioned why at this point in the conflict, when Iranian government and armed forces have clearly survived nearly six months of everything the US military has thrown at it, Iran would even see the need to assassinate a head of state. Such an action would only invite a much greater military response than has been seen before, and the Islamic Republic seeks to keep its current leverage over Hormuz, wanting to keep things at a low-burn headed into US midterm elections.

In the meantime there are fresh reports that the US intelligence community itself is skeptical of the assassination plot claims: US intelligence officials were skeptical of an alleged Iranian assassination threat against President Donald Trump during his trip to Turkiye for the NATO summit, which prompted a secretive plan to fly him out of the country in an alternative military aircraft. The assassination threat was relayed by the Israeli government to the CIA, where analysts did not view the intelligence as compelling and conveyed that skepticism to Trump administration officials, Washington Post reported, quoting current and former US officials familiar with the intelligence said.

Another official called the reports of threats against Trump’s life “Israeli-derived, not US-generated, and viewed as low confidence,” Washington Post added. However, the Secret Service is trained to take basically every threat seriously and move fast, especially while the president is traveling through foreign countries, or in potentially hostile environments. More and more skepticism has emerged of late across the political spectrum related to official Washington claims related to the Iran conflict…

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Republicans are “Conduits of Misinformation”.

While George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and John Kerry were “targets” for Russian disinformation.

Do we realize how insane this was/is?

Also: most FBI agents are still in their job.

• FBI Listed Bill Barr, Mike Pence and Other Reps as Russian “Conduits” (Turley)

Well, this explains why, whenever Bill Barr and I met for breakfast, he would order the Borscht with Biscuits. Various media sites are now reporting that the FBI allegedly listed Barr, Michael Pence, and other Republicans as “Russian conduits” while listing leading Democrats as the victims or targets of Russian disinformation or misinformation. It would be comical if it were not so concerning. In addition to the absurd listing of these figures, the task force is being accused of burying a significant number of witnesses alleging influence peddling and corruption by the Biden family.


Newly declassified documents from the White House transparency task force reportedly show that the FBI ran a counterintelligence operation called Round River to “neutralize certain narratives.” The operation was carried out by the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force in the lead-up to the 2020 elections.

The declassified documents identified Republicans, including other high-ranking officials such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the late Lindsey Graham, as conduits for Russian misinformation. At the same time, figures such as George Soros, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and former Secretary of State John Kerry are “targets” for Russian disinformation.

What is bizarre is that the FBI was aware by that point that Clinton had secretly funded the Russian collusion hoax and helped launch the greatest political hit job in history with a cooperating media. Notably, American intelligence had concluded that the infamous Steele dossier funded by the Clinton campaign may have been the conduit of Russian disinformation. Yet, here is the FBI listing Clinton as the target for misinformation while listing virtually every prominent Republican as conduits for misinformation, according to these reports.

At the same time, the Round River reportedly declared “confidential human source files” revealing alleged corruption by the Biden family “to be Russian disinformation.” The Administration is looking into the task force and why it “did not go in and try to determine the merit of the allegations, or to examine if they were factually true, or consult with the agents working those informants. They simply designated them as foreign intelligence threats and designated their files as such.”

Congress should also look into these disturbing reports. The inclusion of Barr is particularly absurd, as one of the hawks who have long pushed for the toughest measures to combat Russian threats. Presumably, his inclusion is based on someone spotting him spreading Russian dressing on a salad. That would have been a stronger basis for the task force than the apparent counterintelligence analysis of the Round River investigators.

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“The FBI is opening a full investigation based on an articulable factual basis that reasonably indicates that President Donald J. Trump may be or has been, wittingly or unwittingly, involved in activities for or on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation which may constitute violations of federal criminal law or threats to the national security of the United State..,”

• FBI’s Approach of Attack: Aggressive on Trump, Protective on Biden (JTN)

The federal government’s most powerful investigative agency spent four years applying double standards to two investigations of presidential candidates. At the same time, they were floating as credible allegations against one that its own agents doubted, yet treated corroborated tips about the other as foreign disinformation. No one has been seriously held accountable for the disparity. The FBI led multiple operations prior to the 2020 election that helped politically and financially damage President Donald Trump and, at the same time, protect then-presidential candidate Joe Biden from law enforcement.


Two operations – Crossfire Hurricane and Oxferd Comma – served to undermine Trump and paint him as a Russian operative by zealously investigating unsubstantiated allegations pushed by Democrats. Running in tandem with those investigations was Round River, which was designed to fight “malign foreign influence” by ignoring actual evidence of corruption and crimes involving the Biden family and paint any Republican who questioned that family as a conspiracy theorist or Russian asset.

Crossfire Hurricane targeted Trump over Democrat paid-for allegations
Crossfire Hurricane involved the abuse of surveillance rules during the Obama administration allowing the FBI and other intelligence agencies to target the Trump campaign under the guise of fighting foreign influence. Based on unsubstantiated allegations pushed by the Clinton campaign, the investigation involved undercover informants infiltrating the Trump campaign to try and lure out incriminating evidence – which never came. An Inspector General report from the Department of Justice released in 2019 admitted some of that surveillance was “unlawful.”

The Inspector General report found that the FBI altered evidence against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in order to investigate him, leading to FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith pleading guilty in 2020 to falsifying an email for the purposes of obtaining a FISA warrant. That warrant authorized spying on Page and his interactions with the Trump campaign. Page had worked with the CIA dealing with Russians in the early days of the Obama administration, but Clinesmith altered an email to make it appear as though Page had never worked with the agency.

Declassified records released by the FBI and obtained by Just the News show Stefan Halper, an informant who also worked as a Pentagon researcher, was directed to meet with Page at a Virginia farm in October 2016, to try to elicit information about the campaign’s possible ties to Russia. Other declassified documents show that Halper was paid nearly $1.2 million by the FBI over three decades.

The FBI also sent an undercover operative to meet with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos while posing as a research assistant named Azra Turk, according to reporting from The New York Times in 2019. The investigators attempted to get Papadopoulos to falsely admit the Trump campaign was working with Russia. Halper was also asked by the FBI to speak with Papadopoulos about alleged Russia collusion, records show.

Special Counsel: “No criminal conspiracy between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Trump campaign.” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s massive investigation into Russia collusion determined there was no criminal conspiracy between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Trump campaign.=A second Special Counsel, John Durham, went even further, concluding during the Biden administration that the Obama-era FBI and DOJ had no basis to open an investigation of Trump-Russia collusion.”Neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,” Durham wrote in a 300-plus page report sent to Congress in spring 2023.

Declassified documents pertaining to Crossfire Hurricane released in April 2025 revealed that the FBI had doubts about the authenticity of the allegations against Trump, but pursued the president anyway. Oxferd Comma began eight days after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey in 2017. The FBI knew that the firing had nothing to do with Russia, but investigated the sitting president anyway.

“The FBI is opening a full investigation based on an articulable factual basis that reasonably indicates that President Donald J. Trump may be or has been, wittingly or unwittingly, involved in activities for or on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation which may constitute violations of federal criminal law or threats to the national security of the United States,” reads the electronic communication, approved by then-FBI General Counsel James Baker and then-Assistant Director for Counterintelligence William Priestap.

“The goal of the investigation is to determine if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation in a manner constituting a threat to the national security of the United States and/or a violation of federal criminal statutes,” the memo added. “In addition, this investigation will also seek to determine whether President Trump and others yet to be named obstructed and/or conspiracy to obstruct any associated FBI investigation.”

The memo went on to make clear the investigation was tied to Crossfire Hurricane, even though in both instances, the FBI knew or had doubts about the authenticity of the allegations against Trump. In contrast to the two above investigations into Trump, the Round River operation sought to discredit anyone suggesting corruption amongst members of the Biden family – and actively suppressed information that confirmed that corruption.

As Just the News reported Wednesday, the FBI had 14 informants with information on Biden family corruption but worked to portray Biden and other Democrats as victims of Russian disinformation from conservative news sites, painting every story as “Russian disinformation.” Prominent Republicans were labeled as “conduits” of Russian disinformation. Confidential Human Sources (CHS) reported concerns about the Biden family and its ties to Ukraine beginning in 2015, but labeled former Attorney General Bill Barr’s investigation into that corruption as a conspiracy theory and Barr himself as a conspiracy theorist or Russian asset.

Other agencies helped Biden and undermined Trump, media played same game
In addition to the FBI and IRS, others helped Biden in 2020 and undermined Trump, including 51 former intelligence officials who signed a now infamous letter claiming a bombshell report from The New York Post about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. The officials knew this was not true, but coordinated with the Biden campaign and then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken to release the letter prior to Biden’s debate with Trump, so Biden could dismiss a major Trump talking point. When Trump came back into office in 2025, he revoked the security clearances of the former intelligence officials who signed the letter.

The FBI under Biden also pressured social media sites to censor the laptop story, with former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later admitting that censoring the story was wrong. Facebook executives also suppressed the story to gain favor with the Biden administration, the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the weaponization of government found in 2024.

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“.. the 2016 election? Hillary Clinton, she lost the Electoral College. She won the popular vote. What did she say almost immediately? That Donald Trump was not legitimately elected. In other words, he wasn’t our real president. Was she an outlier? No. Former President Jimmy Carter said that Donald Trump was not a legitimate president. “

• Left Has Followed Every Play in Weaponization Playbook (Victor Davis Hanson)

Recently, the Left in general and Democrats in particular have been criticizing a lot of things that this administration has done. This came up with the confirmation hearings of Attorney General Todd Blanche, and people suggested that, though he may have been qualified, he had too close a relationship as a personal attorney, or he acted in a legal capacity with [President] Donald Trump, and therefore there would be an incestuous relationship between the [Justice Department] and the White House.


But who broke that standard? I think it was broken during the JFK administration. John F. Kennedy, the Democratic president, appointed his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general. They conferred daily. If we were worried that that was an aberration, remember Eric Holder bragged that he was, quote, Obama’s wingman. So, the Democrats have had a long history of a close relationship between the DOJ and the White House.

We’ve been told that the Democratic Party is very angry because some local, i.e., state or county or municipal, prosecutors might take a look at Anthony Fauci and see if he had criminal exposure other than federal exposure. And people said, well, what business do these local prosecutors have looking at Anthony Fauci, who was a federal bureaucrat? And if he did anything wrong, it would be a federal offense. You can’t have freelancing prosecutors all over the United States going after—yes, you can. We established that principle with Donald Trump.

Remember that Letitia James went after him for a real estate deal in which Deutsche Bank, the lender, had no problem with the loan as it was conducted. She was the attorney general of New York. Alvin Bragg could not get Donald Trump on anything other than to bootstrap a federal campaign violation that even federal prosecutors didn’t want to touch. He was just the municipal DA of Manhattan.

Fani Willis met her paramour, Nathan Wade, who was part of her legal team. He met in the White House with Joe Biden, and she was only a Fulton County prosecutor. So, long ago, we dispensed with the idea that regional or local or state or county prosecutors can’t go after a high-profile federal official, and there’s nobody more high-profile than the United States president.

Then we heard last week that they were worried that Donald Trump’s IRS may be too partisan. I think they destroyed that barrier as well. Do you remember Lois Lerner? She was pretty much conducting special audits of Tea Party groups and other conservative-affiliated groups to make sure they did not get nonprofit status, and that was going into the election year 2012.

Do we remember the New York Legislature when Donald Trump’s tax returns were released illegally by the federal IRS? The Legislature in New York piled on and said, we’ll pass a bill that says anybody this year, i.e., Trump, who is under federal audit and whose tax returns are subpoenaed by a congressional committee, once they saw them, we’re going to turn over his confidential state records as well. That was about as weaponizing the state and federal IRSs as you could imagine. How about election denialism?

Hillary Clinton. You remember, anybody, the 2016 election? Hillary Clinton, she lost the Electoral College. She won the popular vote. What did she say almost immediately? That Donald Trump was not legitimately elected. In other words, he wasn’t our real president. Was she an outlier? No. Former President Jimmy Carter said that Donald Trump was not a legitimate president. He was an election denialist. Stacey Abrams, you remember her? She ran for governor of Georgia and lost by 50,000 votes. She toured the country for two years and said she was the real governor of Georgia, she won that election. She was really an election denialist.

Do we remember in 2000, when George W. Bush beat Al Gore? Al Gore said that he really didn’t lose the key swing state of Florida. Later, The New York Times conducted an affiliated investigation of the county returns that Al Gore had sued to get a hold of. They looked at them, and guess what? George W. Bush did win Florida and, with Florida, won the election. Did that stop the Left? No.

They said that George W. Bush was selected. He was not elected. Do you remember that? Do you remember the 2004 election, when a large contingent of the Democratic House refused to honor the vote in Ohio and voted not to accept George Bush’s popular-vote victory in Ohio that put him over the top? So, that bar was destroyed a long time ago, and it’s pretty low or nonexistent that you don’t deny an election result. That’s what the Left taught us, at least.

We were told that the Supreme Court of the United States is too weaponized, too consistently conservative, voting in a bloc. There’s been a lot of studies. One of them showed that the six-justice majority votes anywhere from 60% to 64% in line with their conservative philosophy in cases that come up with an ideological theme to them. And how about our three left-wing, Democratic judges? The same study found that they are a little bit more partisan. Up to 70% of ideological cases, they vote consistently with the Left. In other words, if you believe in a weaponized Supreme Court, the greatest offenders are the three liberal justices, which you don’t hear.

We’re talking about a weaponized FBI a lot. Kash Patel has weaponized the FBI. I don’t think he has, but if he were to weaponize it, he would be tutored by James Comey. You remember James Comey? He, 245 times before a House Oversight Committee, said he couldn’t remember, or he didn’t know, or he had amnesia. He inaugurated the bogus Operation Crossfire effort to promulgate the lie that Donald Trump was a Russian asset. That was during the campaign. Had that lie been widely publicized and widely believed, it would have affected the election. Donald Trump wouldn’t have won.

No sooner had Donald Trump been elected than, with Operation Two that was Oxford Comma, they tried to suggest the sitting president had Russian ties. That was a lie, too. Andrew McCabe, his interim successor, lied four times under oath on ideological or political matters. His lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, forged a document and submitted it to a FISA court. That was an FBI lawyer. I could go on with Robert Mueller, the Mueller investigation, claiming under oath he didn’t know what the Steele dossier was, even though it prompted his very appointment. I would say the FBI was pretty weaponized and politicized by the time Kash Patel got there.

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“It’s All in the Family: The agency claims that releasing documents related to an investigation into the lawmaker’s alleged immigration fraud would, under the law, interfere with “enforcement proceedings.”

“In 2002, Omar applied for a marriage license to marry Ahmed Hirsi, but did not marry him civilly, only in a Muslim ceremony. In 2008, she separated from Hirsi and a year later married Elmi. In 2011, Omar and Elmi separated with a Muslim divorce, and a year later she began another relationship with Hirsi. After her election to the Minnesota house, she filed for a formal divorce from Elmi in 2017. She married Hirsi in 2018. ”

• ICE Refuses To Disclose Records On Ilhan Omar Fraud Probe (JTN)

The federal government is refusing to turn over records related to an investigation conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement into allegations of immigration fraud by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., citing a legal exemption for ongoing investigations. Just the News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the records in January, seeking the records pertaining to any investigations conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the allegations that Rep. Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, married a relative in order to help him remain in the country.


Omar has denied the allegations. No court records, DNA evidence, or other documentary proof has ever substantiated that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, Omar’s legal husband from 2009–2017, was her biological brother. “ICE has determined that the information you requested is being withheld in full pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(A). Disclosure of any responsive records at this time could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings,” ICE told Just the News in response to the FOIA in May.

The FOIA exemption cited by the agency “applies to records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes when their release could disrupt such proceedings,” the reply reads. The Department of Justice guidelines for invoking exemption 7(A) say that doing so requires a two-step assessment. “First, there must be a ‘reasonable likelihood’ of a pending or contemplated law enforcement proceeding,” the guidance says. “Second, release of the information must be reasonably expected to cause some articulable harm to that proceeding.”

Some say it’s an open-secret known about as early as 2016
Harm includes things such as exposing the case to witness tampering or tipping off suspects, according to the guidance. The exemption makes no distinction between criminal, civil, and administrative cases. Trump administration border czar Tom Homan first said in December last year that the Department of Homeland Security was investigating whether Omar committed immigration fraud by allegedly marrying her brother, Just the News reported. “We’re pulling the records, we’re pulling the files,” Homan said in an interview with Newsmax last year. “We’re looking at it […] I’m running that down this week.

Earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance confirmed that the Justice Department was reviewing the allegations. “I don’t want to prejudge an investigation,” Vance said. “It certainly seems like something fishy is there. If we think that there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime, and that’s something the Department of Justice is looking at right now.” The allegation that Omar’s second husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, is related to her, or even her brother, first surfaced during her 2016 election campaign for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives. At the same time, allegations emerged that when she married her second husband she was still married to her first.

Omar denies allegations related to her matrimonial status
Omar’s campaign vehemently denied both allegations. “Allegations that she married her brother and is legally married to two people are categorically ridiculous and false,” said then-campaign spokesman Ben Goldfarb. The timeline of Omar’s relationships, however, is not in dispute. Omar was born in Somalia and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in 1995.

In 2002, Omar applied for a marriage license to marry Ahmed Hirsi, but did not marry him civilly, only in a Muslim ceremony. In 2008, she separated from Hirsi and a year later married Elmi. In 2011, Omar and Elmi separated with a Muslim divorce, and a year later she began another relationship with Hirsi. After her election to the Minnesota house, she filed for a formal divorce from Elmi in 2017. She married Hirsi in 2018.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly invoked the claim that Omar “married her brother” in order to get him into the country, accusing her of committing immigration fraud. “She married her brother in order to get in, right? She married her brother. Can you imagine if Donald Trump married his sister?” He also called for her removal, saying, “We ought to get her the hell out,” Trump said at a December 2025 rally.

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Next! (they don’t have anyone anywore, it’s over)

• Watch: UK PM Wants EVERY Area In Britain To House Migrants (MN)

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has decided that “all parts of the country need to play their part. ”That means middle-class families and leafy villages must now accept large numbers of asylum seekers so the poorest areas are no longer the only ones carrying the load. This approach obviously does nothing to stop the root of the problem, the sheer number of migrants washing up in boats. It simply advertises better accommodation to the next wave of illegal arrivals.


Burnham’s comments came in direct response to the ongoing revolt in the Oxfordshire village of Piddington. Residents there face plans to house up to 1,250 single adult male asylum seekers on a former military site near a community of roughly 400 people. The numbers would leave locals heavily outnumbered. Children have written letters pleading with the Prime Minister not to destroy their village. Families held a symbolic independence referendum in which 96 percent voted to leave the United Kingdom in protest.

Seven-year-old Rex Perkin said his family had lived in the village for over 100 years and that he walked to his sister’s grave. He worried he would no longer be able to do that. Other children begged to keep their park, their dog walks, and the quiet life they knew. Parents described the prospect of being so outnumbered that daily life would change completely. Burnham told GB News he understood concerns and would look into the issues raised by “the good people of Piddington.”

He then made the wider point clear: “We cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers. I do believe all parts of the country need to work, to play their part. ”Borders minister Anna Turley doubled down, defending the plan to impose the numbers on the tiny village and insisting the policy was about “fairness” and a “more fair and equitable system.”

She said the men would be “contained” on the site but still allowed out. The message to anyone watching from the French coast is straightforward: break into Britain and you may end up in a secure facility near a prosperous English village rather than a rundown hotel in a deprived town.

The Centre for Migration Control put the core problem bluntly:

Labour MP Graham Stringer, speaking on TalkTV, rejected the idea that opposition was rooted in racism. GB News coverage highlighted the demographic reality. Certain areas could see locals outnumbered three to one if the redistribution continues on this scale.

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At his age, one’s foundations are always eroding.,

• The Foundations Are Eroding (Paul Craig Roberts)

Dr. Mehmet Cengiz Oz, a dual citizen of Turkey and the US, is head of Medicaid, a federal program that provides health care for the uninsured poor. He announced last Tuesday that Medicaid, as directed by President Trump, would no longer pay for change of gender surgeries for children and for hormone therapies to counteract their natural gender.


(During the George W. Bush/Cheney/zionist neoconservative regime, joint Israeli-US citizens held high appointments in the Defense Department, State Department, and National Security. This power over America exercised by citizens of other countries has now been provided to Turkish/US joint citizens. How exactly is America American when citizens of foreign countries are in high US federal offices?)

The question that occurred to me is why was Medicare, a program for the health care of uninsured poor, paying with Americans’ tax dollars change of gender surgeries. In what sense is surgical change of gender a health issue?

I lived for many decades in the US prior to the emergence of the transgender ideology that people were suffering because they had been born in the wrong bodies. How exactly do you get into the wrong body? The advent of the transgender ideology seems to me the sudden appearance of a satanic practice of overturning God or nature. If people have been suffering from living in the wrong bodies, how come we only recently heard about it?

If being born into the wrong body is historically common, why suddenly is a new generation unable to cope without complaint and surgical intervention when previous wrong body persons were able to live with their condition? Have we simply become a weaker species that cannot even cope with our nature-given, God-given gender?

While thinking about this I read, yet again, that US Navy personnel on one of our US aircraft carriers stationed missile distance from Iran could not cope with being deployed away from the comforts of home for six and one-half months without both sailors’ morale collapsing and their families complaining of the strain. The sailors are trying to jump overboard in order to be honorably discharged for mental health reasons. One doesn’t sense strength resonating from the US Navy’s human resources. Wherever one looks, Americans are unable to cope. Sexual perverts can’t cope with Christian disapproval. Zionist Jews cannot copy with criticisms of Israel’s policies. It is so hurtful to be held accountable.

Black American students, most of whom are half white (so why are they called blacks?) are too fragile to go to schools named after Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, two citizens of Virginia who did not own slaves or commit war crimes, unlike Abraham Lincoln who has a memorial in Washington and an aircraft carrier named after him. Lincoln’s solution to the “negro problem” was to send them back to Africa or to somewhere in Central America, which would have been the case if Lincoln had not been assassinated. The tariffs imposed on the South by the North’s war victory would have paid for it.

Jews are so fragile that in order to ensure their ability to continue to exist they have to be protected by criminalizing all criticisms of Israel and its all powerful lobbies, so powerful that they control the President, Congress, media, and financial system of the United States.

We see all over the Western world extreme weakness. Governments are unwilling to prevent immigrant-invaders from overrunning their countries and from raping the ethnic population’s women and children. The Spanish prime minister’s response to the recent overrunning of a Spanish city of 80,000 by 60,000 immigrant-invaders was to say that as Spain was a former colonial occupier, it had to show empathy for the victims of its occupation. This is straight out of The Camp of the Saints, a forecast of the end of all white ethnic countries.

Who are the real oppressed? White heterosexual ethnic American males who have been second class citizens in law since the Jew Alfred Bloomrosen at the EEOC stood the 1964 civil rights act on its head and created a system of racial and gender preferences. These preferences are now being extended to immigrant-invaders. The American tower of babel now has animal sacrifice, calls to Muslim prayer over loudspeakers in the capital of Minnesota, demands of unassimilated communities for Sharia Law, Spanish as a second official language. The people whose this country is are powerless. In a few more years they will be a minority and will be pushed aside to be dealt with later.

Wherever you look in America it is the immigrant-invaders who are confident. They can count on the guilt of white American liberals to hand over to them all power. The few white Americans who understand the situation are demonized as conspiracy theorists and white supremacists.

A narrative has been constructed for whites by whites that denies whites the ability and will to protect themselves from marginalization. Wherever you look in America whites are working around the clock to give power over them to immigrants-invaders. As I posted yesterday, the Massachusetts state government is creating a commission for the unconstitutional purpose of favoring the promotion of Muslims to positions of power in the state government.

The MAGA movement to restore America failed, because Trump and his regime represent Israel, not America. Trump’s failure has likely demoralized many if not most of his supporters, and they, demoralized, will just give up, leaving the field to the leftish Democrats.

It is likely, though not certain, that the future belongs to the rising left in the Democrat Party. Their first targets are the established corrupt Democrats elected and reelected by the campaign contributions from donors they service legislatively. As I currently read it, the leftist Democrats are not aiming at just occupying the same corrupt position as traditional Democrats. The leftists are aiming at overthrowing the system. Establishment Democrats might be able to keep the leftists from power for a while by stealing elections as they appeared to have done in Milwaukee. Polls showed Francesca Hong with a large lead and she lost. Evidence has emerged of vote fraud. In America it is easy for establishments to steal elections.

The left won’t quickly win, as the Democrat primaries have shown. But they will win in the end, because only they are armed with the disgust, the determination, and the will to prevail.

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Can he run at all for anything after that?

• California’s Rail Boondoggle Nears a Reckoning (Stepman)

California’s high-speed rail boondoggle may finally be running out of money. It’s bad news for Gov. Gavin Newsom, possibly good news for the people of California. I’ve been opining about why the California bullet train will never succeed since I wrote my very first column as a young college pup. But even my accurate (though not difficult) prediction about its certain failure didn’t quite capture the sheer depth of the wasteful insanity this project has achieved. There now may be a glimmer of hope, though a faint one, that the “project”—a word I use loosely in this case—may mercifully starve to death after fattening itself on taxpayer cash for nearly two decades.


According to a recent review by the Office of the Inspector General, the California High-Speed Rail project “will exhaust its current funding resources as soon as December 2027 if it does not secure financing.” The inspector general warned that the high-speed rail faces a $9.5 billion funding gap over the next five years and there is currently no plan to fill it. Even more damning is the inspector general’s note that there are “significant concerns” regarding transparency and that completion projections have been a moving target.

The only reason the high-speed rail was even keeping close to its already massively bloated budget numbers was due to just lopping off parts of the planned line. “Ultimately, the major cost savings observed in the Merced and Bakersfield extensions are not due to increased efficiency—which we define as delivering equivalent scope for less cost—but are instead the result of planning to build less,” the report explained. The report noted that the Merced-to-Bakersfield line, the pitifully shortened and getting shorter segment of what was once sold as a connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles, now has a projected completion date of September 2034.

I’d love to go back in time to my college campus and tell students who bought into the fast, “green” train that was going to connect the whole state that what they were ultimately getting was a short line in the Central Valley that might finish construction closer to their retirement than graduation—if they are lucky.On top of everything else, the inspector general wrote with seeming exasperation that the High-Speed Rail Authority tasked with overseeing the project “has obscured basic facts about the project, hindering lawmakers’ ability to provide effective oversight of the project.”

I’d argue that if the lawmakers and powers that be in the state cared about the high-speed rail’s viability, they would have taken action to shut it down and untangle the mess long ago. A few lone voices, including Republican Rep. Vince Fong, have been pointing out red flag after red flag for years, but they’ve mostly been ignored. Fong, like poor Sisyphus, did so again after the IG report came out.“California’s High-Speed Rail is the quintessential example of government mismanagement,” he wrote Tuesday on X. “I’ve called it out since day 1. Californians were promised a completed rail 6 years ago. Today we’ve spent billions and billions, for a total of zero trains. Gavin Newsom owes us an explanation. And an apology. It’s beyond time to shut this down.”

Fong is right. Not only should the California bullet train to nowhere be shut down, but taxpayers also deserve a full accounting of what went wrong here.We don’t even know the depths of failure outside the shifting budget projections and the visible lack of evidence that a functioning train is likely to come online any time soon.Every piece of information that drips out of the high-speed rail project is about delays, increased costs, deceptive practices, and total unaccountability.

Even basic things, like buying the trains, are behind schedule with no explanation. Newsom and other California Democrats blamed President Donald Trump for the recent hiccups on the removal of $4 billion in federal funds. However, according to a recent investigation by CBS News, the delay in buying trains, which was supposed to be done by the end of last year, had nothing to do with the lost federal funding. And, of course, the California government has provided no explanation for the hold up.

California quietly withdrew its lawsuit against the federal government over the pulled funding at the end of 2025, which was the right call given that it can’t meet basic deadlines. What this means is that the high-speed rail project—which I’d argue has been operating as a slush fund for bureaucrats and fake jobs for some time—might truly be put on full pause soon. The Trump administration isn’t going to hand them a penny now or ever again.

Private investors have mostly stayed far away. The best they’ve got on that end is some companies “exploring” the viability of the project, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they are just trying to find ways to gobble up some of the remaining public money. And without public subsidies that would have to be approved by voters, it’s hard to see where the money will come from to keep the thing rolling. Well, not rolling at all, actually. It’s shameful that this charade has gone on for so long. I truly hope this report will be the beginning of the end of this long, expensive, pointless scam that the people of California have endured for too long.

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“..whose national ambitions — thankfully for those of us who don’t live in California — appear permanently stymied by his conspicuous corruption and incompetence.”

• The Dems’ Great White Hope Just Got Humiliated in Michigan (Stephen Green)

Pity poor Gavin Newsom, whose national ambitions — thankfully for those of us who don’t live in California — appear permanently stymied by his conspicuous corruption and incompetence. The latest evidence comes from Michigan, where the would-be Democrat presidential contender was just humiliated in the state’s deepest indigo of blue enclaves. Calling it Newsom’s “swing (and miss) state tour,” Politico reported on Wednesday that his “buzzy X posts and vertical videos” from Michigan “this week suggest a slam dunk trip to an early nominating state.”


But even though Newsom’s social media feed racked up “a million views of a 65-hour tour,” Politico noted that “the posts may also be the latest sign that social media is not real life.” Translation: It was a trip notable mostly for bad execution and embarrassing turnout. Rep. Debbie Dingell, “the Downriver doyenne largely responsible for nearly securing Michigan’s status as the fifth 2028 nominating state,” told the magazine, “I didn’t hear from the governor. I didn’t expect to: I’m a car girl.” That’s likely in reference to Newsom’s 2035 mandate banning new ICE vehicle sales in California.

Newsom snubbed Virgie Rollins, whom Politico described as “the influential chair for the DNC’s Black Caucus. “There’s more:Some Michigander politicos pointed out that Newsom canceled a fundraiser with state AG nominee Eli Savit that included the controversial host Kelly Neumann, according to an invite obtained by POLITICO and circulated to some Democrats who didn’t realize the event was canceled when Newsom’s team was made aware of Neumann’s background. Newsom initially planned two competing fundraisers in Ann Arbor on Sunday, one for Savit and one for the state House Democrats.

When the latter found out about the Savit fundraiser they pulled out, citing a small Ann Arbor donor base. Saying Ann Arbor has a small Democrat donor base is like saying you couldn’t spot any tech bros in Palo Alto. “He had a lot of good meetings,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel told Politico, adding Newsom was a big hit at a local barbecue.I believe this was the barbecue:

Yikes, how the mighty have fallen. Then again, “Newsom huddled for nearly an hour with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed,” if you want to know the governor’s current priorities. Politico argued that “it’s also true that some of the hard feelings may underscore just how much Newsom is in demand,” but I’m not sure I see it. nI wouldn’t be too surprised if Newsom 2028 ended up following a similar path to Kamala Harris 2020. It makes me smile every time I remember that the Dems’ Queen of Summer 2019 ended up dropping out of the race in December, weeks before the Iowa caucuses — her polls cratering almost as quickly as her coffers.

It’s no coincidence that they’re both from California. As my partner in thoughtcrime, Stephen Kruiser, and I have discussed several times over the years, the Golden State is maybe the nation’s worst breeding ground for Democrats with presidential ambitions. Once a Dem woos the right money people — particularly Nancy Pelosi, but she’s now fading — they never really have to compete. Or even learn how to compete. Taking a Democrat like Harris or Newsom out of California is like taking the Boy in the Bubble out of confinement and directly into Wuhan Institute of Virology on a particularly leaky day.

Besides, as conservative Hollywood scribe George MF Washington put it on X this morning, “The energy of his party is done with straight white men.” Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Newsom has learned the lessons Harris never did. Maybe he really is the Democrats’ Great White Hope. But I didn’t see much evidence of that in Michigan.

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Wonderful write-up,

• Karoline Leavitt Raised the Bar for All White House Press Secretaries (O’Brien)

The contrast could not be more stark. Arguably the worst White House press secretary in the history of the position, Karine Jean-Pierre, was followed immediately by one of the best, if not the best, in Karoline Leavitt.


Because of my profession, I’ve intensely studied every single White House press secretary, the good and the bad, for the past few decades, and based on my own observations, I have to give it to Leavitt. No press secretary has represented a force of nature like President Donald Trump so effectively. You don’t manage a boss like that, and yet, you can’t let him roll over you. Otherwise, you’re doing him no favors. She was probably the only one on the planet able to strike that balance the way she did.

By the same token, the level of vitriol, hostility and outright dishonesty the news media has weaponized against the Trump administration in its second term is unlike any I’ve ever seen. It’s so far out of bounds on a daily basis that just about every member of the White House Correspondents’ Association should be sued for malpractice. That group long ago abandoned any pretense of journalistic professionalism.

When a Democrat controls the White House, they are propagandists and stenographers for the administration. When a Republican is in the White House, they are apparatchiks for the opposition party. And when Trump Leavitt has a supercomputer for a brain. She’s been able to absorb, process, and compartmentalize every conceivable issue and question she might have to face. She’s been able to internalize all of it, and through her own behind-the-scenes work, process it all in collaboration with Trump himself and everyone in the administration.

While I am not privy to specific stories of Leavitt in private meetings within the administration, I know enough to know what’s involved. Privately, she’s likely had to push back on competing interests trying to influence both her and the president on issues and messaging. She’s also likely had to hold her own ground with the president himself on how some topics should be addressed and handled. It’s like being a lion tamer.

https://twitter.com/5dme81/status/1884771869863133638?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1884771869863133638%7Ctwgr%5E0b663f69c57b14f8197e15b9ed46f00f80a3b97b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Ftim-o-brien%2F2026%2F08%2F13%2Fkaroline-leavitt-has-raised-the-bar-for-all-white-house-press-secretaries-to-come-n4956094


This is the pressure cooker in which she has had to operate even before she’s had to face the press. By the time she’s stepped up to the podium in that briefing room, she’s made sure to know every question she might face completely. She’s had every key message and response internalized and sometimes memorized. More often than not, she hasn’t needed to memorize, because she seems to be so much in sync with Trump. She has had this innate ability to know exactly what to say because she knows exactly what Trump would say in just about every situation. The best communicators are able to get inside the heads of those they represent, and she’s the poster child for this.

Leavitt is brass-knuckles tough. She’s the perfect fit for Trump, because while she is completely respectful of him and his agenda, once she’s outwardly facing, she seamlessly adopts a Trump-style toughness that comes up pretty close to the energy and sometimes the combativeness of the man she speaks for. As confrontational as Trump is, I have to guess that he sometimes prefers to take the posture of having to temper the combativeness of his people rather than to always have to try to light a fire under them. He’s never had to light a fire under Leavitt. She’s handled every single interaction with the press from a position of strength. She’s been in control. She been the one who sets the terms. And she’s followed up.


While Leavitt carried a binder to the podium for those press briefings, if you notice, she almost never looked at it. Yet, no matter what she was asked, she launched into a response within a second or two every time. No fumbling through a binder. No awkward pauses. No deer-in-the-headlights reactions. These sorts of behaviors were the hallmarks of both of Joe Biden’s press secretaries. His first press secretary, Jen Psaki, earned the nickname “Circle Back” for her habit of so routinely being unprepared for questions that she often had to tell reporters, “I’ll have to circle back with you on that one.”

Something equally noticeable but which may not get mentioned as much is Leavitt’s positivity. While she gives as good as she gets when skirmishing with the media, her fundamental energy and point of view are very positive and upbeat. Some people come across as naturally pessimistic. Leavitt is the opposite. She comes across as a naturally optimistic and happy person, which is immeasurable and a huge asset for her in terms of connecting with and winning the hearts and minds of the American people.

Relatedly, she is a very confident person, and that’s contagious. In fact, there is something about conservative women in general that makes them more attractive in a purely platonic sense. Positive, smart, self-assured, knowing who they are and who they are not. No apologies. That’s a woman other women and men want to be around. She has all of those qualities in spades.


Then of course, there’s that other sort of attractiveness Leavitt possesses that drives leftist women and men nuts. She’s good-looking, a very good dresser, and she knows how to carry herself with a level of polish that’s lost on most public figures – men and women – these days.

And finally, there are those values that she has pointed to as the drivers for her decision to step down from her current role at the White House – her family. Not only does she articulate conservative values well, but she lives those values. She’s the real deal, and this decision is proof of that. Her work has been consequential for a whole nation, and yet she was able to have enough perspective to know that at the end of the day, there are two people to whom she is their entire world. And she’s decided not to let them down.

Trump will not find a successor to Leavitt who comes up to her level. She has raised the bar for the position. She rewrote the job description. The country will now expect more of those who follow her precisely because she’s shown what can be done with the position.

But none will match her. It’s just a fact. She’s a rare talent, and she’s using her talents in the best ways possible. She’ll continue to be a member of the Trump inner circle, while taking the opportunity to be an integral part of her kids’ daily lives. Clearly, she knows that the one thing you can give your young children that matters most is time, and she chose wisely. If she’s as good a mother as she’s been a press secretary, these kids are going to change the world when it’s their turn.

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https://twitter.com/teslaownersSV/status/2087575193606836344?s=20 https://twitter.com/AmericaPartyX/status/2087523382933799293?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 10 2026

Jun 102026
 
 June 10, 2026  Posted by at 9:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  48 Responses »


John Koch Conversation 1962


• Iran Threatens “Decisive Response” After US Begins ‘Self-Defense’ Strikes (ZH)
• Oil Surges As Trump Says US Must Respond To Attack On Apache Helicopter (ZH)
• Trump Insists US In ‘Final Throes’ of Iran Deal (ZH)
• Trump-Netanyahu “Differences”: A Good Cop-Bad Cop Routine (Every)
• US Seeking ‘Precise Info’ on Iran’s Enriched Uranium via IAEA Board (Cradle)
• Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas Is on the Ropes (Hornik)
• West Turns Ukraine Into ‘Criminal Empire’ — Russian MFA (TASS)
• Trump Makes History at the NBA Finals (Sarah Anderson)
• Trump Doubles Down, Bill Pulte Will Takeover as Acting DNI on June 19th (CTH)
• Citizenship Free Ride May Be Ending; DOJ Warning Should Reach Omar (Manney)
• Data Centers Will Turn Red States Blue (Tim O’Brien)
• OUTRAGEOUS: Iryna’s Killer Found Incompetent to Stand Trial (Stephen Green)
• How Bill Gates’ Billions Shape US Medical Research (Paul D. Thacker)
• AI Agents With Crypto Could Escape And Become ‘Unstoppable’ (CT)

 


 

https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2063979571062415664?s=20

 


 


“Decisive Response”. They’re just bad poets.

• Iran Threatens “Decisive Response” After US Begins ‘Self-Defense’ Strikes (ZH)

Just as President Trump has warned, US Central Command has just tweeted confirmation that the US military began ‘self defense’ strikes against Iran: “U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 p.m. ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”= The extent of the latest strikes wasn’t immediately clear but they further undercut an already fragile ceasefire signed in April.


A US official tells Fox that airstrikes targeting Iran are “ongoing” and targets include air defenses and radar installations. IRNA reports explosions in Iran’s Hormozgan province, while IRIB reports aerial attacks in Qeshm, Sirik and Bandar Abbas with six explosions reported in Qeshm The US and Iran have traded attacks several times in recent days even as Trump has said they are close to signing an agreement to bring the conflict to an end.President Trump told ABC News Jonathan Karl: “I think it’s very important to respond. They shot down a helicopter, and we are responding as we speak.”

He added: “This is a response to what they did they did with our helicopter last night, and I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that’s what this one is.”Shortly after the strikes began, IRGC-owned Tasnim News reported that Iran is threatening to retaliate for US’ retaliation:”Iran will respond to US aggression. As warned hours earlier, Iran will deliver a decisive response to the US aggression, which is being carried out under the pretext of an Apache helicopter crash.” Odds of a peace deal are sliding and oil prices are rising (though not significantly).

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Why don’t they attack more Apaches?

• Oil Surges As Trump Says US Must Respond To Attack On Apache Helicopter (ZH)

Update (12:45pm ET): following earlier reports that a US AH-64 Apache helicopter had gone down over the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman in an unprecedented first of the Iran war, moments ago Trump said on Truth Social that he had “been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

***


Earlier: A US helicopter has gone down over the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman in an unprecedented first of the Iran war, Central Command announced Tuesday, after which the two crew members were reportedly rescued by unmanned boats. The Army AH-64 Apache was patrolling regional waters before the downing incident, which is still shrouded in mystery, and which the Pentagon says it is now investigating. However, the Iranians are saying they know exactly what happened – insisting that the Apache was shot down.

“An AH-64 Apache attack helicopter belonging to the U.S. Army was shot down and destroyed by the IRGC Navy near the Strait of Hormuz, after ignoring warnings and being targeted by fired from one of our speedboats,” an Iranian military central command statement has said. The NY Times, among the first to report the downing, underscores the claims and counter-claims concerning what happened: It was not immediately clear whether the Apache was shot down by Iranian fire, experienced mechanical failure or encountered some other problem, said a person briefed on the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Central Command said in a statement that the incident was under investigation.

But the Pentagon says the crew was successfully rescued. The unusual rescue by unmanned boats adds another layer of complexity and strangeness to the story. “A Task Force 59 unmanned surface vessel, essentially a drone boat, found and rescued the soldiers,” spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins described to NBC News. The pair of pilots are now receiving medical care, he indicated, after their rescue came within two hours of the aircraft going down. Trump briefly spoke to journalists at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after watching the NBA Finals on Monday night and he acknowledged the rare crash in the Persian Gulf.

“The pilots are fine. Yeah,” Trump said. “Nobody injured. We are going to issue a report tomorrow. But the pilots are fine.” Apaches, along with A-10 gunships, have been frequently used for low-flying operations in the Persian Gulf and Hormuz region, in order to attack Iranian small boast. As for the Iranian claims of shootdown, it remains a top most plausible scenario, but the Pentagon has not said whether it took on Iranian fire. FOX: American military forces, including U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, the 82nd Airborne Division, and U.S. 5th Fleet assets, helped bring both soldiers to safety.

During earlier operations connected to Epic Fury, other US military aerial assets have crashed or sustained damage over the region – however, the Pentagon has downplayed or rejected efforts to link a number of incidents to Iranian attack, apparently not wishing to give Tehran a battlefield ‘success’ acknowledgement. But many independent pundits have suspected that all along the Iranians have been hitting a lot more American assets than previously disclosed.

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“Asked whether it would be matter of days or weeks, he said it would take “two or three days”.

• Trump Insists US In ‘Final Throes’ of Iran Deal (ZH)

The southern Lebanese city of Tyre is being pounded by Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, despite President Trump’s insistence that Lebanon not come under attack. Israel’s military had hours prior issued an evacuation order for all civilians in the area, amid the unraveling and failing ceasefire. Casualties are already high, coming at a tense moment after starting on Sunday Iran sent ballistic missiles against Israel over its renewed airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where it says Hezbollah command centers are located.


The NY Times reports of the growing death toll Tuesday, “At least eight people were killed in the bombardment, and dozens more were wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The Israeli military also targeted towns and villages across southern Lebanon, including areas that were not covered by evacuation warnings, according to the country’s state-run news agency.” So clearly the air raids are expanding, per the report, even after the latest Trump warnings directed at Netanyahu to not do anything that would sabotage a broader Iran peace agreement.

President Trump is still maintaining that Washington and Tehran are in the “final throes” of cementing a deal, and is even suggesting (once again) that an agreement will be done in days: Asked whether it would be matter of days or weeks, he said it would take “two or three days”. Tehran has repeatedly stated any deal should include Lebanon—where Israel has been pressing its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah—and fired missiles at Israel on Sunday. That prompted Israeli retaliation, despite US pressure for restraint. Iran fired another salvo before announcing it was ceasing military action, and hours later Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the “fire on that front is contained”.

Of course, we’ve been hearing that the war is merely ‘days’ away from ending from basically the start of the war. And yet, all too predictably, the two sides keep going up the escalation ladder in an escalation trap. But the White House is saying that it will forge a deal which is good for the American people, whether Israel likes it or not. “Israel may like that, they may not like that — but this is in the best interest of the United States,” Vice President JD Vance spelled out to Fox this week. Escalation: Houthis in Yemen unleash ballistic missile on southern Israel, as Hezbollah sends drones on north…

But in the meantime Lebanon continues to suffer, also as Hezbollah and most recently the Houthis out of Yemen fire projectiles on Israel. According to some of the latest via Al Jazeera: For the residents in Tyre, anybody who is staying behind is in a lot of danger. In the past hour, we’ve seen another Israeli air strike near a Palestinian refugee camp. The strike happened at a roundabout leading into the camp, a very busy location. There’s also a bus station right at the entrance to the el-Buss refugee camp. Initial reports are coming in of a lot of injuries in that attack.

Israel continues to carry out artillery fire on the city, and there are drones flying over Tyre. For anyone trying to get out of the city, the road is quite dangerous. There have been a series of air strikes north of Tyre along the same road people would use to exit. So the Lebanon conflict is escalating, not growing more stable, which doesn’t bode well for achieving a final Iran deal. Tehran has insisted all along that a deal incorporate the Israel-Lebanon situation.

Vance had also said in his latest comments to Fox that “I think where the president has been very clear here is that while Israel obviously has some objectives that it has, the United States’ main objective in Iran is to ensure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.” It seems Washington is willing to tolerate some Israeli ‘counter-terror’ action, but only up to a point. Probably the limits will be reached in more renewed bombings of Beirut itself. Tehran has been seeking to impose some red liens on IDF action in Lebanon, and the White House has so far appeared to respond with compromising language.

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They play the press.

• Trump-Netanyahu “Differences”: A Good Cop-Bad Cop Routine (Every)

As You Were… But As Who Was?
Yesterday nearly saw a full restart of the Israel-Iran war, apparently pulled back from the brink by intervention from President Trump. After yet another Middle East rollercoaster for markets it’s now ‘as you were’, with oil –so everything else– little changed. The larger issue behind that pricing, however, is the key question – ‘As who was?’


Iran set up its proxy network, centered on terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon, to protect itself: if Israel attacked it, Hezbollah would attack Israel. However, Tehran now has to attack Israel, with counterattacks on it in response, to defend its ‘shield’. That’s a huge Iranian strategic setback. As such, Tehran is trying to tie Israel vs. Hezbollah to itself vs. the US to divide the US from Israel, which now have different needs: a deal vs. finishing the job militarily or via regime change. That dynamic has huge implications for when and how this war ends, so for energy, so for markets.

While Israel and Iran say they will stop their attacks, Israeli PM Netanyahu last night gave a public address where he stated: “Iran and Hezbollah are weaker than ever, and we are stronger than ever – but our battle against them is still not finished. In the last 24 hours, Iran and Hezbollah tried to impose a new equation upon us… an equation I find intolerable and unacceptable. They thought they would fire at Israel from Lebanese territory and from Iran – and we would not act. That did not happen, and it will not happen. Not on my watch!… At the moment, we are holding our fire, because after we struck the terror regime in Tehran, it ceased attacking us. In the event that Iran makes the mistake of resuming attacks on us – we will respond with overwhelming force.”

Moreover, Israel will hit Hezbollah in Beirut if it fires at Israel from south Lebanon, which Iran says is a red line that will trigger more attacks on the Jewish state, restarting this war. If Iran tells Hezbollah to ceasefire, markets can relax; If not, and Israel hits Hezbollah, Iran has to decide if it wants to fire at Israel – and restart the war; ]If Trump forces Israel to hold back vs. Hezbollah, Iran will have linked the two fronts and divided the US and Israel – which likely sees more war. After all, Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, its 1967 Six-Day War, its 1981 attack on Iraq’s nuclear programme, and its 2007 strike against Syria’s nuclear programme all took place against US wishes.

To expect otherwise this time is unwise. Indeed, Trump-Netanyahu differences could be a good cop-bad cop routine to allow the US to push for a deal while Israel does the fighting. In the background, Yemen’s Houthis claim they will restart a maritime blockade of Israel in the Red Sea, which was applied far more broadly the last time they put it in place. Obviously, that can threaten cargo and energy flows at this juncture, as a US Navy F-18 struck and disabled an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman and the EU hit Iran’s Navy… with sanctions.

In short, this crisis is far from over, even as Trump says “total victory” will be declared in the next two weeks as Iranian negotiators are “willing to give us everything,” and VP Vance added that the deal being discussed was “a home run” for the US. Yet the inside baseball question remains which negotiators the US is talking to given local reports that contact has been lost with Supreme Leader Khamenei Jr. and another that IRGV leader Vahidi was killed in a recent Israeli strike.

Elsewhere in geopolitics, Berlin says the Franco-German fighter jet project is dead, a major blow to future pan-European defence plans; Switzerland is weighing a Franco-Italian alternative to US air defences given a 5-year wait for the latter; and a French fighter jet shot down a suspected Russian drone in Latvian airspace.

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They’ll stretch this for six months or more.

Remember, they stretched it all for 47 years.

• US Seeking ‘Precise Info’ on Iran’s Enriched Uranium via IAEA Board (Cradle)

Washington has turned to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors in order to determine the fate of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, according to reports by Reuters and other media outlets. Sources cited by Reuters which obtained a draft of a resolution being pushed by the US said that Iran is being called on to provide the Agency with precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran.


The US draft also calls on Tehran to grant all access it requires to verify this information, adding that Iranian cooperation is essential and urgent and must happen without delay. The text does not refer Iran to the UN Security Council, which would have followed up on the IAEA resolution declaring Tehran in breach of its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That resolution was issued on 12 June 2025, a day before the US-backed 12-day war on Iran last year. Diplomats told Reuters that such a move was under consideration.

Al Mayadeen also reported, citing its own draft copy of the resolution, that Washington is lobbying states on the IAEA Board to back its push. This came as IAEA chief Rafael Grossi called on Tehran to re-engage with the IAEA. ” I call on Iran to engage the Agency constructively in order to facilitate the full and effective implementation of safeguards in Iran, he said, adding that It’s very important that we re-engage. ” Reuters reported earlier in June that the US was preparing a draft resolution to condemn Iran at an upcoming IAEA meeting.

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View from Israel.

• Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas Is on the Ropes (Hornik)

These past few days the Middle East spotlight has been, for good reason, on Israel, Hezbollah, and Iran. At the time of writing, things are at a standstill, and no one knows what comes next. After the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran, the latter, notes Israeli journalist Amit Segal, “warned that any further Israeli aggression—specifically ‘including in southern Lebanon’—would be met with ‘much more severe and crushing measures.’” Despite that, on Tuesday, Israel went ahead and attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in the southern Lebanese town of Tyre. Will Tehran make good on its threat? We can only wait and see.


Meanwhile, the veteran and venerable Israeli military-affairs analyst Ron Ben Yishai has filed a report from Gaza that gives—dare we say—an encouraging picture of the current condition of another of Iran’s terror proxies, Hamas. While Hezbollah is spread throughout Lebanon, Hamas is concentrated in a much smaller space, Gaza. The IDF, which battled Hamas in Gaza for more than two years running since the debacle of October 7, 2023, now controls about 65% of Gaza, and Hamas is in a jam. Ron Ben Yishai, now 83, spent some time at an IDF outpost in southern Gaza and has a lot of light to shed on the current state of the enclave.

The IDF, for one thing, has been using its presence in Gaza to blow up the notorious Hamas tunnels. Since October 7 the IDF has destroyed about 280 miles’ worth of them, and at present there’s nothing at all that Hamas can do to counteract the process. The IDF has also, using high-quality intelligence, been “systematically eliminating senior [Hamas] commanders, key military specialists and police officials responsible for maintaining governance.” While Hamas still has about 20,000 operatives, only about 8,000 are experienced fighters and the rest are minimally trained, lightly armed “young men and teenagers” seeking to bring home some shekels.

And Hamas’s troubles go beyond that. Its popularity in Gaza is drying up, and armed clans living in the IDF-controlled areas—“whose members and families [number] in the tens of thousands”—have lately been seriously challenging its rule. In terms of Israeli security, the situation is much better than it was on October 6, 2023. Six IDF brigades and 18 battalions now protect the Israeli border communities, compared to much fewer forces in the sleepy, self-delusive days before the catastrophe. Ben Yishai puts it this way: “The way the IDF is currently deployed and operating in Gaza has almost completely neutralized Hamas’s ability to carry out attacks . . . the threat to communities in southern Israel has been almost entirely removed, at least as long as the IDF maintains its current posture.”

Therein lie many questions about the future of Gaza. Although grandiose plans were hatched about Hamas disarmament, the terror group—predictably enough—rejects that option. The “international stabilization force” that was supposed to take over in Gaza “has yet,” Ben Yishai notes delicately, “to materialize.” And the Peace Council that’s supposed to help finance a new, peaceful Gaza “has failed to secure even one-third of the funding pledged by its member leaders.” That, too, is predictable stuff—though it’s been worsened by the Gulf states’ cash-flow problems since the Strait of Hormuz was closed.

IDF commanders, for their part, are sure that only a few weeks would be needed to seize the remaining Gazan territory held by Hamas. “Plans already exist and require only government approval.” At that point, though, with Hamas neutralized, an old problem would arise: what to do with the two million mostly indigent Gazans whom Hamas has been holding, in effect, as hostages, and who’ve been raised on a murderous hatred of Israelis. It was the severe, demoralizing difficulty of ruling Gaza that led Israel—with half or more of the Israeli population supporting the move—to disengage from the enclave in the first place, back in 2005. Of course, that didn’t work out well either.

Ben Yishai hopes the international community, or a future Israeli government, will “succeed in formulating a realistic, adequately funded, phased long-term solution for Gaza’s population without endangering Israel.” It has always been a tall order. For now—unlike Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis—Gaza is quiet, and it’s a big improvement.

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Successfully.

• West Turns Ukraine Into ‘Criminal Empire’ — Russian MFA (TASS)

The West has turned Ukraine into “a criminal empire,” marking the height of its policy aimed at preserving hotspots of tension, Pyotr Ilyichev, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for New Challenges and Threats, said.


“The growing conflict potential in various parts of the world is accompanied by dangerous attempts by Western countries to use terrorist groups and extremist forces in order to preserve hotspots of tension,” the diplomat pointed out at the 19th meeting of chiefs of the head offices of counterterrorism units of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states and national bodies coordinating efforts to combat terrorism and extremism. “The collective West’s policy aimed at maintaining hotspots of tension reached its peak when Ukraine was turned from a state into a criminal empire,” the Russian Foreign Ministry official stressed.

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He jinxed them?

• Trump Makes History at the NBA Finals (Sarah Anderson)

Donald Trump just became the first president in United States history — or should I say NBA history? — to attend an NBA Final game. Monday’s night match-up was between the San Antonio Spurs and Trump’s beloved New York Knicks, and it took place at Madison Square Garden. The Spurs led the game early on, and the Knicks bounced back for a while, but the Spurs eventually pulled off the win, 115-111. It was Game 3 of the series — the Knicks won the first two games.


Trump sat with his granddaughter, Kai, along with Knicks owner James Dolan and several members of the Trump administration, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Environmental Protection Administrator Lee Zeldin. I also noted that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was there, but he had floor seats and was not with the president. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was reportedly in attendance, but he did not sit with the president either. Shocking, I know.

Anyway, I’m already seeing MSM headlines about how the crowd erupted into boos when they showed the president just before the national anthem, but that’s only half of the truth. Some of the crowd booed, some cheered, and some erupted into chants of “USA! USA! USA!” It’s the same thing as when Trump has attended numerous other big sporting events over the last year and a half or so, like Super Bowl LIX, the College Football Playoff National Championship, and the September 11 New York Yankees game, etc. — the crowd’s response is about as split as our country is, so don’t buy into any of those “everyone booed” headlines. Even in New York City.

(Also, mark my words, Tuesday’s headlines will be that Trump jinxed the Knicks.) Now, outside was a different story. The were a handful of protesters with signs and chants like “F*** Trump.” Super clever, right? As usual, it was largely lefty white women with professional-looking signs who probably wouldn’t know what a basketball game was if Jalen Brunson and Wemby came out and played a little one-on-one right in front of their sad little protest.

There were also some people in Congress who were upset that Trump would be in attendance, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies (D-N.Y.), aka Temu Obama, who has spent the last couple of days going on TV and telling Trump not to come and politicize the game. “It also is not clear to me that Donald Trump is a big Knicks fan. I mean, does this guy even know the difference between Karl Rove and Karl-Anthony Towns? I don’t think so,” Jefferies said earlier. “He’s just injecting himself into the NBA Finals because he always has to bring the MAGA circus into town.” Well, the president is actually a big Knicks fan. And we have proof, so now it can be clear to you, sir.

Even NBA commissioner Adam Silver knows it:

Read more …

Juneteenth. Pulte will do DNI, Fannie, Freddie and more. Full plate.

• Trump Doubles Down, Bill Pulte Will Takeover as Acting DNI on June 19th (CTH)

Articulate focus with specific intent can pay dividends. Sorry for my absence earlier today. I can confirm the first sentence, between the commas. Against the backdrop of threats from various legislative branch members, President Donald Trump has doubled down and firmly announced that Bill Pulte will take the position of Acting DNI effective June 19th (aka ‘Juneteenth’). Delivering the message from his Truth Social account, President Trump has extended his plenary power and put Congress back into the position they hold in government. If Congress wants FISA (702), then reauthorize it. If they don’t want it, then don’t reauthorize it. The issue matters not to the overall national security dynamic.


Kash Patel better prepare to get busy. It’s time to put up or shut up. If the FBI carries out a false flag operation (they’d be stupid), or if the CIA attempts to undermine the domestic national security front (they won’t), there is going to be an intense response from Trump and Pulte.

Great job President Donald Trump!

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For now, she’s got them all by the balls.

• Citizenship Free Ride May Be Ending; DOJ Warning Should Reach Omar (Manney)

The Department of Justice has filed denaturalization actions against 17 naturalized citizens accused of hiding serious crimes or fraud during the path to U.S. citizenship. The list includes sex offenders, fraudsters, drug dealers, and defendants accused of concealing conduct that should’ve blocked naturalization in the first place. From Fox News: The individuals, from 13 different countries, are accused of serious criminal conduct, including child sexual abuse, narcotics trafficking and large-scale financial fraud. Nearly all of the individuals reportedly lied during the naturalization process, claiming that they did not commit any crimes the authorities were unaware of, claims that were later found to be untrue or misleading.


By making false statements, officials argue that they failed to meet the statutory “good moral character” requirement for U.S. citizenship under federal law.”Gaining U.S. citizenship is a privilege and under the steadfast leadership of President Trump, this Department of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. Nine were from the Caribbean and North America, including Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico. Two were from Colombia in South America. One was from former Yugoslavia in Europe. Three were from Asia, including India, China and the Philippines, and two were from Africa, including Somalia and the Congo.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche framed citizenship as a privilege tied to honesty. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, head of the Civil Division, said the department will pursue those who secured citizenship by lying. The government’s point is simple enough for even the denizens of Washington to understand, which means somebody there will probably work hard to misunderstand it. Naturalization isn’t a participation trophy; applicants swear to tell the truth, answering questions about crimes, names, past conduct, and immigration history. When those answers are false, the citizenship built on them rests on sand. The DOJ’s new cases say the old wink-and-nod era is getting less comfortable.

Federal law already allows denaturalization when citizenship was illegally procured or obtained by concealment of a material fact or willful representation. The process still runs through federal court, which means defendants get their chance to fight the government’s claims. The DOJ also made clear the 17 complaints contain allegations, not final findings. Good, that’s how it should be; let the courts sort each case. But we can’t let fraud become permanent just because enough years passed. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has also pushed a sharper enforcement posture, including a return to longer ICE training standards after problems left behind by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

President Donald Trump’s team is trying to restore a basic rule: the United States gets to decide who enters, who stays, and who keeps citizenship after lying to obtain it. The usual fainting couch crowd will call this extreme. Most Americans will call it paperwork, finally meeting consequences. The same principle should make Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) nervous, or at least curious about the weather near the bow. Vice President JD Vance said in May that the Justice Department is looking into whether Omar committed immigration fraud tied to long-running allegations about her marriage history. From Fox News:

“Speaking to reporters, Vance was asked about the administration’s anti-fraud task force — established by President Donald Trump to combat fraud, waste, and abuse across federal benefit programs — and whether it would focus on Omar, a frequent Trump critic. “You read the things about Ilhan Omar… who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person,” Vance said. “It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the law.” The comments follow a podcast interview in March, during which Vance told conservative commentator Benny Johnson that he had spoken with White House immigration advisor Stephen Miller about potential legal action against the congresswoman.

“We think Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance said at the time. Omar has denied wrongdoing, crying racism and bigotry each step of the way, and the claim hasn’t been proven.

https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/2057200550060449943?s=20

But the question refuses to die because the documents, timelines, and explanations have never satisfied critics who believe a full federal review is long overdue. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) moved in January to subpoena Omar’s immigration records and those of Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on fraud and misuse of federal funds in Minnesota.

Mace said the allegations, if true, could raise questions involving marriage fraud, immigration fraud, and other violations. The motion ran into opposition, which tells voters plenty about Washington’s appetite for transparency when the target has the right friends in politics. The Omar question and the 17 DOJ cases aren’t identical. One involves filed denaturalized complaints, while the other involves public allegations, political pressure, and statements from the vice president that DOJ is looking at the issue. S

till, both point toward the same civic test; citizenship must mean more than a document the government is too embarrassed to revisit. If lies opened the door, the law has every right to walk back through it. Any country that refuses to police naturalization fraud teaches future applicants the wrong lesson: Tell the truth and wait your turn, or lie and hope bureaucracy gets bored. The Trump administration appears ready to choose the first lesson. Citizenship carries honor, duty, and legal weight. Those who earned it honestly deserve protection from those who treated it like a loophole with a flag pin.

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“.. the digital carpetbaggers who are about to turn rural states and counties on their heads.”

• Data Centers Will Turn Red States Blue (Tim O’Brien)

It won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen in Washington. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) won’t have anything to do with it. And neither will the DNC, at least directly. But it will happen. America’s most rural states have the smallest and easiest-to-change voter bases. In the end, it’s just a numbers game. All these states need is more leftists to move in, and the states will flip from red to blue. Up until now, though, the problem has been giving leftists a reason to want to live in a state like Wyoming, the Dakotas, or Idaho. Enter data centers. The Wall Street Journal has reported on one such example where Wyoming is the target of massive data center development.


One of the big and most immediate issues is the need to accommodate all the people who will need to relocate to the state to work there. In America’s least populous state, companies must import armies of workers—and find somewhere to put them. So local officials are weighing a developer’s pitch to erect a ‘temporary workforce housing complex’ for as many as 5,600 laborers and tradespeople. The complex would be larger than 84 of Wyoming’s incorporated cities and towns, according to state data, the Journal reported. People who live in Wyoming do so primarily because of its natural solitude and natural beauty. But in Cheyenne, that’s changing. And it’s not just this one town.

That pastoral scene is gone: Heavy trucks, earth movers and hundreds of construction workers have run nearly round-the-clock for about two years building a Meta Platforms data center. To the east, Microsoft recently announced plans to triple the acreage of its already sizable data complex. To the south, work is just getting started on Project Jade, which could one day be among the biggest data centers in the U.S., added the Journal. Rural states and counties have long been attractive to commercial developers, particularly industrial developers, for a number of reasons. It’s easier to get things built there. Fewer zoning restrictions, fewer existing residents to impact, more cheap land, more access to water, and less visibility to the media and the population centers. Out of sight, out of mind.

Meta, which is behind one of the data centers under development in Wyoming, is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. If all you want to do is erect a sign in front of your business in Menlo Park, the city will require you to comply with Chapter 16.92 of its Zoning Ordinance. That ordinance will require you to submit the planned sign size, placement, materials, colors, and design before it will approve it. Given all of these criteria, there is a chance your sign will not be approved. In Cheyenne, let’s just say zoning regulations are far less restrictive for signs. And that’s just for signs. Now scale that up to everything a company might want to do when building a data center.

What’s the permitting process in Wyoming like when compared to California? The short answer is that it’s far less of an issue for the developer. The point is, rural states and counties have less red tape, no matter what you plan to do. Add to the fact that rural areas are known to be cash-strapped. A couple of data centers can bring in a lot of tax revenue and campaign donations.

So what you will see is politicians running toward the digital carpetbaggers who are about to turn rural states and counties on their heads. Yes, they will generate more tax revenue, and those revenues will be needed to cover the costs of all the new highways, bridges, and roadways that will need to be built. Infrastructure is the start, which includes investment in everything from the electrical grid to water and sewage supplies for residents and businesses. Then there will be the need for more commercial and residential development. Of course, schools (and bigger teachers’ unions) are right behind. It won’t take more than a few data centers to fundamentally transform a rural state like Wyoming.

Oh, and did I mention crime and corruption? I almost forgot. Yes, with all those new residents who didn’t call your rural state home until five minutes ago, you have to know they’re bringing new levels of larceny and violence with them. Thus, the need for bigger and more sophisticated police forces.

As for the profile of the workforce, the unions are all over data centers, and with unions, you get Democrats. A typical data center workforce, both skilled and unskilled, is most likely to lean left. Whether it’s unionized rank-and-file workers or the “white-collar” techies that parachute in from places like Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and Oregon. Those will be your new school board members, city mayors, state reps, and ultimately your elected representatives in Washington.

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“..the catch-and-release system pioneered in our Democrat-run cities..”

• OUTRAGEOUS: Iryna’s Killer Found Incompetent to Stand Trial (Stephen Green)

The repeat offender who stabbed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska to death aboard a Charlotte, N.C., commuter train last year is incompetent to stand trial, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. Presiding Federal Judge Kenneth Bell found that Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr did not understand the proceedings and would be unable to assist in his defense. Brown is up on federal charges of terrorist attacks and other violence against mass transportation systems, in large part because state and local courts kept releasing him, despite a long history of violence and mental illness.


He’s also up on state charges of first-degree murder. In the August attack, Brown appeared to select Zarutska almost at random, stabbing her repeatedly in the neck from behind before casually getting off at the next stop. Zarutska died almost immediately, apparently confused, and then with a look of tragic understanding on her face before she collapsed, unattended and uncomforted by any of the other passengers. The murder, caught on video, shocked the world.

Brown had an outburst at today’s hearing, according to Queen City News, shouting, “that he wants to ask the judge whether he reviewed the evaluation and said he wants to press charges against the FBI.” He went on with more intelligible shouts, including something about having “material in my body.” So clearly, yeah, Brown is not right in the head. However…

The federal judge also ruled — unlike so many previous North Carolina judges — that Brown will not be released. Instead, “he will receive medication and treatment for up to four months in an effort to restore his competency.” After four months, the court could decide again whether Brown is fit to stand trial. If not, Queen City reported, “he could remain in custody under possible civil commitment.”That’s a lot of maybes and ifs for a man with dozens of arrests — usually on the catch-and-release system pioneered in our Democrat-run cities — including:

  • Robbery with a dangerous weapon (convicted; served prison time, notably a 2014–2015 case involving assault and theft at gunpoint).
  • Felony breaking and entering.
  • Felony larceny.
  • Assault (simple assault and other variants).
  • Shoplifting.
  • Making threats / communicating threats.
  • Misuse of 911 (multiple instances, including January 2025).
  • Disorderly conduct.
  • Resisting a public officer.

Yet somehow he was free to murder Iryna Zarutska in cold blood, muttering, “Got that white girl” as she quickly bled out. So Brown is a victim of schizophrenia — so what? Do the rest of us have to suffer from his affliction, too, up to and including murder?

My devout readers might lambaste me for this, but cases like this one have me long past the point of still believing that every life is sacred. Some people just need to be locked up, but so-called “progressive” judges and prosecutors failed to see it that way in Brown’s case, again and again. And a case like Brown’s is hardly unique, as our big cities prefer that social workers “administer” to the criminally mentally ill, rather than incarcerate them.

Iryna is dead because the justice system failed repeatedly to deliver justice. That must stop now before he claims another life. Either Brown is too sick to ever be inflicted on the public, or he recovers enough to face a jury and perhaps face the death penalty. But there’s no way he should ever be free again.

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Malice.

• How Bill Gates’ Billions Shape US Medical Research (Paul D. Thacker)

Bill Gates has long been one of the most admired people in the world, especially since he stepped down from his role running Microsoft to devote himself and much of his fortune to philanthropy. That reputation has been tarnished recently, however, by revelations of the billionaire’s close relation with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and exposés on his own fraught relationships with women.


When Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft’s CEO in 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started that year with an endowment of $20 billion which became his prime source of influence. On the eve of Gates’ private testimony with Congress scheduled for tomorrow, a trove of federal whistleblower documents provided to RealClearInvestigations is renewing questions about how Gates money has bought what critics complain is an untoward influence on government health policy.

For almost a quarter of a century, his main vehicle of power, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), allowing Gates to shape the direction of the country’s health strategy in ways that have benefitted his own priorities and pet causes while polishing his image as a benevolent global do-gooder. At a time of growing concern about the power of billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman, Gates’ efforts stand out. Instead of lobbying federal agencies for specific policies, Gates leveraged his wealth to work inside the government, partnering with high-ranking NIH officials to steer taxpayer research funding and design scientific policies for several federal programs.

The cache of several dozen emails and documents, made public for the first time by an NIH whistleblower, reinforces previous reports detailing Gates’s extensive influence over U.S. biomedical research. During the height of the COVID pandemic, Kate Elder, a senior vaccines policy adviser for Doctors Without Borders, complained to Politico, “What makes Bill Gates qualified to be giving advice and advising the U.S. government on where they should be putting the tremendous resources?” Emails and internal plans, for example, show that the NIH – the world’s largest funder of biomedical research – gave the Gates Foundation first billing for the joint workshops and meeting held on federal property.

Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation tries to grow its endowment through investments. Some of these efforts, especially its stake in vaccine companies, blur the lines between profit-seeking and the foundation’s mission to develop and deliver vaccines around the world. This symbiotic relationship between capitalism and charity also benefits Gates, whose power and position hinge in large part on the size of his foundation’s assets. Before the pandemic, The Nation magazine reported that the Gates Foundation had a $40 million stake in CureVac – this was not a grant but an investment. CureVac was one of many companies the nonprofit bought stock in that were working on COVID vaccines and therapeutics.

Around that same period, the Gates Foundation announced that it had begun to “leverage a portion of its $2.5 billion Strategic Investment Fund” to advance the nonprofit’s COVID work. The Gates Foundation also turned a $55 million investment in Pfizer’s COVID vaccine partner, BioNTech, into over $550 million when it sold stock a couple of years later after the vaccine hit the market.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was established in 2000 with an initial endowment of $20 billion and a primary focus on reducing global health disparities. Rather than working exclusively through non-governmental agencies, the Gates Foundation began contributing to the NIH through the agency’s own nonprofit, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). Congress created the FNIH in 1990 as a firewall between NIH officials and outside donors seeking to influence federal research.

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We seek to control brains that are superior to ours. What are we thinking?

• AI Agents With Crypto Could Escape And Become ‘Unstoppable’ (CT)

Artificial intelligence agents that have autonomous access to crypto wallets could become unstoppable if deployed maliciously or if they escape from sandboxes, experts from a leading academic research consortium warned. “Unstoppable Autonomous Agents” (UAAs) pose a clear threat if they are deployed to persist automatically and have access to digital assets, according to a June 8 industry review written by 25 academics and experts from top US universities for the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3). “When combined systematically, crypto tools can channel AI’s fluid power into secure, reliable, and highly autonomous systems,” the researchers wrote.


However, this combination could have “far-reaching consequences for users and the financial system,” they added. UAAs may also be equipped with access to cryptocurrency wallets, social media accounts, APIs, and other external tools, said the researchers. “The capabilities enabling such agents are already emerging and improving rapidly.” The warning comes as crypto projects and executives have been pushing the agentic payment and micropayment economy narrative this year, suggesting it could be the biggest use case for decentralized digital assets.

AI self-replication alarm bells
The paper also revealed that existing models can already “surpass self-replication red lines” in local environments, by autonomously creating a live, separate copy of themselves on the same machine, “a capability that could let a system evade shutdown and proliferate.” Because reward signals used in training often fail to perfectly capture the intended objectives, “UAAs deployed for benign purposes may inadvertently cause harm,” or pursue resource acquisition as a default strategy, they said. However, the authors noted that models have yet to replicate themselves onto external infrastructure.

Potential AI agent insider trading advantages
A fleet of self-replicating, resource-acquiring agents could also create unpredictable demand and liquidity dynamics in crypto markets. “AI-powered trading systems could enable collusion between autonomous agents and create unfair insider advantages through opaque strategies.” The tech sector is already dealing with difficult questions about the threat of unmitigated AI. Models such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos have already been shown to be capable of finding and exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in major operating systems.

Meanwhile, Gartner warned in late May that governance failures around autonomous AI agents could trigger widespread enterprise failures, predicting 40% of companies will be forced to decommission their agents by 2027. “The harms that could follow from fully autonomous agents of this kind are severe,” the researchers said, suggesting circuit breaker guardrails.

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