The Automatic Earth

Leonardo da Vinci Head of a Woman 1470s

This compilation of Fauci lies brilliantly assembled by Matt @0rf Orfalea should be watched by all. Thank God he has secret service protection. It would be awful if they were pulled. https://t.co/cv6Jl7uUIW

— Dave Collum (@DavidBCollum) July 30, 2026

The Fauci pardon is null and void. https://t.co/hoiU3MQ177

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) July 29, 2026

NVIDIA CEO, Jensen Huang: I want to be involved in nearly everything Elon Musk does.

"For xAI, we're an investor already. The only regret I have is I didn't give him more money. Almost everything that @elonmusk is part of you really want to be part of as well, and and he gave us… pic.twitter.com/AvNQCIhqTH

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) July 30, 2026

“Our region is no place for the infanticidal army that cruelly slaughters innocent families in the middle of the night while they sleep.”

• IRGC Strikes Jordan Again After 2-Hour US Bombardment (ZH)

In the wake of the overnight fresh round of US airstrikes on Iran, which resulted in destruction and casualties especially along coastal areas, Iran’s military has retaliated once again especially on Jordan. US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it completed a “heavy” wave of strikes on the Islamic Republic, in response to “attempted missile attacks” on American bases in the region earlier this week. This US wave lasted two hours, the Pentagon said, striking “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities”.

It accused Iran of a “surprise attack” the prior night, Tuesday, but said that “all Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted.” As a result of the US bombing, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRTC) said three of its troops were killed in a missile attack, according to semi-official Tasnim. The three IRGC members died while “defending Iran’s borders and people” in what it described as a “brutal attack by the criminal terrorist regime of the United States.”

Iranian officials are also saying that US bombardment of Qeshm island has killed a family. In Qeshm island, the Director General of Crisis Management of the Hormozgan Governorate said search and rescue efforts are underway amid mounting casualties there. “So far, two children have been pulled out from under the rubble and transferred to medical centers, and efforts are ongoing to rescue three other members of this family,” Mehrdad Hassanzadeh said.

Iran launched ballistic missiles at Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in response to US strikes, but Jordan says it intercepted all five missiles. pic.twitter.com/25MxHgn1LR

— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 30, 2026

In response Iran says it has again targeted a US airbase in Jordan, and claims to have taken out three F-35 stealth fighters, though there’s been no indication of this from the Pentagon side. According to details via Al Jazeera:In a statement directed to Jordan, the IRGC says in response to a US attack on Qeshm island that killed two parents and their child, aerospace fighters targeted a ramp and maintenance shed at the al-Azraq airbase, which hosts US F-35 fighter jets, with several ballistic missiles, state news agency Fars reports.

The IRGC said that it had completely destroyed three F-35 aircraft and caused “heavy damage” to three others. The IRGC stated that “A number of enemy officers and technical and maintenance personnel were also killed in this attack. Our region is no place for the infanticidal army that cruelly slaughters innocent families in the middle of the night while they sleep.” They added that the war will continue until “the last American occupier is expelled from the Islamic lands” and that Muslims in Jordan and the region want this too. Aftermath of US attack on a residential area of Iran’s Qeshm Island:

Footage shows aftermath of a US missile strike on civilian residences in Qeshm.

As a result of the US attack on homes in Qeshm's Chah-Tangu, three members of the family were killed, while two of their children sustained injuries and were taken to a hospital for ongoing care. pic.twitter.com/43vjC6qjw5

— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) July 30, 2026

“… we have evidence of Anthony Fauci proving that Anthony Fauci is a liar.”

“Anthony Fauci most definitely had an Anthony Fauci fetish.”

• Roasting Fauci Is Fun, But There’s No Do-over For The Biden Years (Kruiser)

As I wrote in Tuesday’s Morning Briefing, conservative Americans are once again finding out that we were right about everything they called us crazy for during the Wuhan Chinese Bat Flu pandemic. Never in recorded history have “conspiracy theorists” been on a roll like the one we’re experiencing right now. I’m beginning to think that the planet might change its shape if we decide to go the Flat-Earther route. We’re that good these days.

Our current “You shoulda listened to us,” moment is courtesy of Satan’s Garden Gnome, alleged Doctor Anthony Fauci. We’ve been finding out how wrong he was for years but, thanks to his personal diary entries that we’re seeing for the first time, we have evidence of Anthony Fauci proving that Anthony Fauci is a liar. We also now have evidence that Fauci was far more concerned with his own perverse pandemic-fueled celebrity than with anyone’s health. His diary entries about his growing fame (infamy for those of us on this side of the aisle) read as if he were working himself into a sexual frenzy after every television appearance. Anthony Fauci most definitely had an Anthony Fauci fetish.

Being proven right is always a good feeling, and watching Fauci being berated by Republican senators while pleading the Fifth (which Matt covered here) was entertaining for a minute or two, but it’s not sufficient payback for what we endured during the interminable slog of the pandemic. The cold, harsh reality is that it never will be. Yes, the public exposure of the unhinged nature of Fauci’s ego is newsworthy. And, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, there is some entertainment value in watching him squirm a little. However, unless you get extraordinary satisfaction from pointing at the television and saying, “I told you so,” there’s not a lot of satisfying “there” there.

I am not an attorney, so I will not be indulging in any legal speculation about what might happen to Fauci. From a layman’s perspective, it seems that a presidential pardon that’s backdated to the Mesozoic Era probably covers a lot. If there is some workaround that can be used to nail this vile human being, I hope it’s found soon. I don’t want to just see Fauci in an orange jumpsuit, I want to bring back town squares and pillories and put him on display for his crimes.

That sentiment may not be brimming with Christian charity, but I think we all know that I’m rather imperfect in that regard. There’s also the fact that I only attack people with words, and I’m honest about it. I’ve never fear-mongered with lies that got elderly people sent to assisted living death beds. Once a person has a body count, he or she is deserving of some ill will. (I believe that’s Confucius.)

My reaction to these Fauci revelations is the same as last year when the lefties started admitting that Joe Biden had pudding for brains during his presidency. The validation wasn’t much of a balm for the steaming piles of misery those four years heaped upon us. OK, it wasn’t any kind of balm at all, especially given the fact that Joe Biden has never been held accountable for any of his awfulness in the half century-plus that he poisoned American politics.

The Biden years were a catastrophic abomination that did damage to this great country that we will probably still be uncovering for years to come. President Trump is doing a brilliant job of cleaning up Sir Sniffsalot’s messes, but it all can be undone if another Dem gets into the White House soon.

There is no satisfaction to be derived from any of this. Anthony Fauci will almost certainly live out his days having his lying rear end kissed by the same low-IQ lefties who made him famous. Their alternative universe-dwelling powers of denial can’t be shaken. This was shared by my Twitchy colleague Doug P. in a post on Wednesday:

Dr. Fauci is a deeply caring physician, a brilliant scientist, an extraordinary public servant, a humanitarian, & a patriot—whose work has helped save tens of millions of lives.

It is a shame to watch him be dragged in front of Congress in the name of bogus conspiracy theories.

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) July 29, 2026

Nobody can fix that kind of stupid.

Look for the Dem water-carriers in the mainstream media to give Fauci some storytelling camera time in the coming weeks. The hag coven on The View probably already has the vapors just thinking about it. They can fawn over Dr. Mengele-Light and then he can scribble in his Trapper Keeper that he’s still the most popular boy in the lunchroom.

Can he take the fifth? Or can’t he? It’s not so clear. Here’s the law professor’s take.

“The impact of a pardon on invocations is a bit murky but, as I stated yesterday, the odds favor Fauci in a court finding that he can still invoke the privilege.”

• Fauci Takes the Fifth and the Heat Over his Diary Disclosures (Turley)

Below is my column on Fox.com on yesterday’s “testimony” from Dr. Anthony Fauci. Americans deserve answers to the questions raised by his diary and other remarks. The most likely course to gain such answers would be through an immunity grant. The impact of a pardon on invocations is a bit murky but, as I stated yesterday, the odds favor Fauci in a court finding that he can still invoke the privilege. In any challenge, a court would likely find that there remains a risk of self-incrimination. What is clear is that many in Washington would prefer Fauci to remain silent on the questions raised by his diary.

Here is the column:

“Stick with the science and never veer from that, even when the science turns out to be an inconvenient truth for somebody.” Dr. Anthony Fauci delivered those words to Georgetown students in 2017 as the touchstone of medical ethics. Today, before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, that line was replaced by Fauci in repeating “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

The optics could not have been worse, but what you saw depended largely on how you viewed the hearing. For critics, Fauci sounded like Crazy Joe Gallo without the sunglasses. For supporters, Fauci is still a hero who refused to fall into a trap laid out before him. Democratic senators such as Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) actually praised Fauci for refusing to answer questions before Congress.

There is no question that it is Fauci’s right to refuse to invoke his privilege against self-incrimination and many advised him to do so. It could be taken for strategic reasons separate from any criminal culpability. After all, he was given a last-minute pardon by President Joe Biden, and any false statements he made before the Committee could be used to bring criminal charges against him. However, Fauci is unlike many who have invoked the privilege. Unlike many past witnesses who have invoked the privilege, Fauci has testified for days in countless prior hearings. He also has appeared in countless interviews on these issues. He had reason to fear this hearing after his diary revealed startling contradictions with what he was stating publicly.

The question many will ask is why Fauci could not just “stick with the science” and resolve these contradictions. The fact is that he would have had difficulty in dealing with his own “inconvenient truths.”Fauci’s opening statement expressed obvious anger over the release of his “unredacted diary.” The new evidence shows that Fauci connected the Wuhan lab to the emerging crisis before most people had ever heard of the lab. It also shows him repeatedly referencing the lab’s gain-of-function work and discounted the “wet market” as the true origin of the virus as opposed to an “amplifier.”

Some of the most embarrassing areas for Fauci concerned his entries acknowledging that he pushed to close schools, despite public denials that he ever recommended such closures. His entries take credit for convincing figures such as then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the staff of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and others to close the schools. In an Oct. 16, 2022, ABC interview, Fauci repeated that denial: “They always come back and say, ‘Fauci was responsible for shutting schools down.’ I had nothing to do [with it]!”

The media has also taken the Fifth on these subjects, declining to publish many of these contradictions. They have the same reason as Fauci: there are no spins that would reconcile their own prior coverage and gushing reviews of Fauci. The diary entries also show disturbing references to private meetings with media figures.

Fauci’s diary refers to CNN anchor Jake Tapper 41 times. In some entries, Fauci suggested that the host was concerned about crafting an interview to better serve Fauci: “Jake wanted to make sure the interview did not cause me any problems.” Fauci also related how he met socially with Tapper in July 2020: “Had dinner over Jake Tapper and Jen Tapper’s home in DC. Terrific couple. Friendship building.” (Notably, on October 14, 2020, CNN published a report repeating the condemnation of the dangers of “small household gatherings.”).

The diary revealed an obsession with his publicity and access to celebrities. The diary is replete with his gushing accounts of himself, such as “It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson [sic] in the world.”

The fact is that diaries tend to be self-obsessed, and no one would want their unvarnished private thoughts made public. Rather, my gripe with these passages is something I have previously written in criticism of Fauci. During this period, dissenting scientists were barred from social media, removed from positions, and vilified for expressing views, despite now being vindicated on subjects ranging from the lab origin of the virus, the efficacy of masks, the six-foot rule, natural immunities, and school closures.

As these courageous scientists were being abused (by academic and media figures who still hold their positions), Fauci said not a word in their defense despite privately acknowledging that they could be right. Yet, Fauci remained silent as his allies in the media savaged those who voiced the view that the virus was man-made and escaped from the lab. In 2021, New York Times science and health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli was still calling on reporters not to mention the “racist” lab theory. (Federal agencies found the lab theory to be the most credible despite Fauci claiming publicly that a natural origin was the most likely explanation).

Fauci stayed silent while relishing his celebrity status. Indeed, his diary shows no concerns for these scientists as he breathlessly recounted his bobbleheads and cover shoots. Once again, Fauci has every right to invoke his constitutional rights, but the public has every right to demand answers to these questions related to the deaths of 1,238,563 Americans. That may result in a grant of immunity to compel him to answer these questions. If it is any solace for Fauci, he will clearly be able to maintain that he is “the most famous and talked about person in the country.”

“In no courtroom in America can you have your witness plead the Fifth Amendment and then your attorney gets to testify..”

• GOP Senators See Path For Fauci Prosecution (JTN)

Lois Lerner gave opening statement, then clammed up in 2013 hearing on IRS discrimination against conservative applications for tax-exempt status, and it didn’t work, Sen. Lankford notes at Fauci’s inquisition. The San Francisco 49ers trounced the Denver Broncos 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV, the biggest blowout in the game’s history. The Seattle Seahawks snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Super Bowl XLIX through the most notorious goal-line decision in history, delaying the Emerald City’s second Vince Lombardi Trophy for 11 years.

Wednesday’s Senate Homeland Security Committee inquisition of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, about his suspected role in the origin of COVID-19 and allegations that he tried to cover his tracks, similarly displayed elements of both tedious romp and last-minute shocker. The alternate celebrity and villain of the COVID-19 policy response repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to refuse answering even mundane questions, such as the color of the hearing room’s carpet, following publication of over 1,100 pages of diary-like notes that have raised even more questions about the veracity of his COVID-era public statements.

Committee Republicans repeatedly argued Fauci could not opt out of answering questions due to President Biden’s sweeping preemptive pardon, the validity of which has been questioned because it was signed by autopen amid Biden’s cognitive decline. Legal analysts explained Wednesday how Fauci could still be prosecuted.Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford, who pointedly disagreed with colleagues on the Fifth Amendment issue, waited until the hearing’s end to recall that Congress went through a near-identical exercise in President Obama’s second term.

It held former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt for giving an opening statement at a House hearing in 2013 on her alleged discrimination against conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, then invoking her rights under the Fifth Amendment to decline giving testimony or answering questions that may expose one to criminal prosecution. Fauci did the same Wednesday. Lankford asked committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., whether the Lerner vote determined the Fauci outcome. Paul, who has called for Fauci’s prosecution for years, said lawmakers have a week to study the issue before voting on a contempt resolution.

The question that courts may have to answer is whether Biden’s pardon preempts Fauci’s right against self-incrimination, since he can’t be prosecuted “as long as he answers truthfully” and the statute of limitations forecloses some claims anyway, Paul said. George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf floated two other ways Fauci could testify without risk to himself: a two-thirds committee vote or a simple House majority to immunize him, or doing media interviews in which he’s not under oath, since “it is not a crime to lie to the public.”

Fauci is Roosevelt’s ‘Man in the Arena’ Republicans and Democrats largely repeated their dynamics from COVID-related hearings since the GOP took back the House in 2022 and full Congress in 2024. The committee majority repeatedly confronted a visibly weary Fauci with the costs of his decisions going back to 2011, when NIAID funded an American lab mutating avian flu to easily transmit through the air among mammals and published the research over the initial objections of government biosecurity experts.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, credited his decision to enter politics to the tasing and arrest of an Ohio woman in 2020 for not wearing a COVID mask at a middle-school football game, a policy he blamed on Fauci’s masking recommendations. “Who the f— do you think you were?” Moreno bellowed, already speculating Fauci knew he was “in deep sh–” because he hired criminal defense lawyer David Schertler, who represented ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., now serving 11 years for convictions including bribery. Paul ejected Schertler from the hearing for repeatedly trying to speak on behalf of his client.

“In no courtroom in America can you have your witness plead the Fifth Amendment and then your attorney gets to testify,” Paul responded when Connecticut Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he had “gagged” Schertler. Democrats deflected from the evidence of Fauci’s alleged duplicity in his diary, given to Paul and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called Fauci’s notes “government records created on a government computer by a federal employee.”

They repeatedly blamed President Trump, Kennedy and other MAGA bogeymen for gutting public health, increasing vaccine hesitancy, failing to control cyclospora and enabling a spike in measles cases, though Fauci’s diary complicated the latter by predicting children’s measles deaths caused by COVID lockdowns would vastly outnumber their COVID deaths.”This hearing is designed to entrap you,” Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., told Fauci, like other Democrats praising his five decades of public service. She called Kennedy the most unqualified HHS secretary ever, who “pursues conspiracy theories, degrades people with disabilities, and continues to promote disproved science.”

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., went so far as to dub Fauci the “Man in the Arena” from President Teddy Roosevelt’s “Citizenship in a Republic” speech, which elevates the man who “strives valiantly” and “comes short again and again” over “cold and timid souls” who don’t try. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., mocked Kim specifically and other Democrats for fawning over Fauci.

“..he suggested Biden likely never signed Fauci’s pardon himself, which raises real doubts about whether it meets legal requirements.”

• How Trump Responded to Fauci’s ‘Testimony’ (Margolis)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the architect of America’s COVID response, who lectured the rest of us about “the science” for years, appeared before Congress on Wednesday and invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself over 100 times. He refused to answer questions about what day of the week it was. He wouldn’t even say what color his tie was. Naturally, President Donald Trump was asked about it, and his response did not disappoint. When a reporter asked whether the Department of Justice should reopen the autopen investigation as it relates to Fauci, Trump zeroed in on the one question that matters.

“Well, the only thing you can really think about is the auto pen,” Trump said. “Because the most powerful thing the president has, they say, is the power of pardon. So, he was pardoned by Biden, and I respect that. I know how powerful it is. It’s a very powerful, they say. It’s literally the most powerful thing a president has.”

Then came the twist of the knife. Trump said the only pardon he was certain Joe Biden personally signed was the one for Hunter Biden, and he suggested Biden likely never signed Fauci’s pardon himself, which raises real doubts about whether it meets legal requirements. Whoever operated the autopen, Trump argued, would need proof, letters, and full knowledge of what was being authorized, and he suggested that person had no idea what the pardon covered.

.@POTUS: "The most powerful thing a president has they say is the power of pardon. [Fauci] was pardoned by Biden… the only thing I know that he signed was Hunter Biden's pardon. He probably didn't sign this one." pic.twitter.com/MpsgJ2OnfS

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 29, 2026

When a reporter asked Trump whether Fauci should face repercussions, the president reminded everyone that he knows Fauci better than just about anyone.

“Well, I watched the whole thing today, but more importantly, I was a part of the whole Fauci — I inherited Fauci. He was here from the 1980s, so I had him for a period of time, and I disagreed with him on a lot. I would have had to close down the whole country if I listened to him,” Trump said. “I went the federalist way, which is basically to let the governors decide. And generally speaking, the Republican governors did very well; the Democrat governors did not do very well. But Fauci wanted to have nobody wearing masks, if you remember, and then everybody had to wear five masks, as many masks as you could get.”

Trump kept going, and it got better. “Operation Warp Speed was talked about as being one of the great success stories anywhere in the world, actually, and we did a good job. But many more people died under Biden than died in the Trump administration from COVID. COVID was a disaster, but Fauci did not help.”

President Trump on Dr. Anthony Fauci and Covid-19: "Fauci wanted to have nobody wearing masks, if you remember, and then everybody had to wear five masks, as many masks as you could get… I mean, he made a lot of mistakes." pic.twitter.com/jlVEJjCSnV

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 29, 2026

But here’s the problem for Fauci, and it’s a big one. The Fifth Amendment protects you from incriminating yourself in testimony. Fauci was pardoned. A pardoned man has no self-incrimination to fear on anything the pardon covers, which means he has no Fifth Amendment right to hide behind.”As you very well know, as the Supreme Court has been clear for a century and more, Brown v. Walker, 1896. When he has been pardoned, he may not stand upon his privilege,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told Fauci during the hearing.

So the walls are closing in on Fauci from every direction. The Senate is expected to vote on contempt charges next week, the legitimacy of his autopen pardon is in serious doubt, and the president of the United States just calmly explained on camera why none of it ought to protect him. Fauci spent years telling Americans to trust him. This week, he wouldn’t even trust himself to answer a question about his tie. Trump’s response was epic, and Fauci’s reckoning may just be getting started.

“The West has been using Kiev as a “battering ram” against Moscow, the former president has said .. “

• Russia Cannot Survive Without Victory In Ukraine – Medvedev (RT)

Russia can only preserve itself by achieving victory in the Ukraine conflict because the West is seeking to destroy the country through Kiev, former President Dmitry Medvedev has said.Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the remarks on Wednesday while addressing young politicians and representatives of parliamentary parties at the ‘Territory of Meanings’ youth forum. He said Russia was facing an unprecedented challenge, citing Western sanctions and political pressure.

“Our common task is to preserve our country,” Medvedev said. “The only way to preserve our country is victory in the special military operation,” he added.Medvedev stated that Russia has long endured Western efforts to undermine its sovereignty, asserting that its adversaries harbor disdain for “our country – large, strong, proud and self-sufficient, one that cannot be commanded.” He claimed that Western nations are now employing Ukraine as a “battering ram” to bring about Russia’s downfall.

While political parties may disagree on economic and social issues ahead of the upcoming State Duma election, Medvedev said they must remain united on issues affecting the country’s survival, expressing confidence that Russia will ultimately prevail. Moscow has repeatedly said that it considers NATO expansion towards its borders to be a major national security threat, and cited Kiev’s ambitions to join the US-led bloc among the key reasons that led to the Ukraine conflict. Russian officials have long accused Western governments of waging a proxy war against Russia through military and financial support for Kiev.

On Monday, President Vladimir Putin told State Duma lawmakers that no one would ever succeed in breaking the Russian people, saying “This has not happened and will not happen in the future.” He added that the country’s political system and state institutions are prepared to repel any hostile actions. Putin also said that Russia’s opponents have failed on the battlefield and are now resorting to terrorist attacks. He argued that the Western sanctions have failed to damage Russia as intended and have instead inflicted the greatest harm on the European and other states that introduced them.

Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and later FreedomWatchUSA.org.

• America Is Over if Dems Take Control in November – Larry Klayman (USAW)

Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com. Renowned Attorney Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and later FreedomWatchUSA.org, is worried that massive Democrat voter fraud might do America in. Klayman warns, “There will be an inquisition by using a seized power of government by socialists, communists, jihadists and leftists. It will be a bloodletting in the courts and also a bloodletting in the streets. This is why we act now and not wait for November. . .. It could be the end of America if the Democrats take control. It almost was with Biden, and you can see what’s going to happen next. When people call them crazy, that is too charitable. They are not crazy. They know what they are doing. They are evil. They are the disciples of the devil. The Democrat Party is infested, and it is the devil incarnate.”

The Dems are fighting to hold on to their voter fraud. Just this week, the Governor of New Jersey “Mikie Sherrill refuses to provide DOJ with info about the 6,600 non-citizens erroneously registered to vote . . .” New Jersey also picks jury pools from the voter rolls, and every year “75,000 noncitizens are called for jury duty in New Jersey.” This is news from just one state in the past week. Multiply that by 50. Maybe this is why Department of Homeland Security Secretary “Markwayne Mullin Says State Officials Who Refuse to Cooperate to Secure Elections Could Face ‘Prison Time.’”

We have never heard these kinds of threats to secure elections in the past. Dr. Jerome Corsi says President Trump will not allow the voter fraud for the midterm elections and will use the President’s Article II powers to secure the elections from foreign and domestic intervention. Klayman says, “Dr. Corsi is exactly right . . . The President has those powers. The President has those emergency powers where he can step in. . .. If they have the guts to do it, they can. It’s a whole lot better than declaring martial law after an election. Let’s be proactive. Let’s do it before an election and clean the rat’s nest out now. . .. The Democrats are corrupt to the core.”

Klayman contends as the Trump Administration voter fraud crackdown heats up, so will the violence. Klayman predicts, “They are already violent. Look at Bernie Sanders, who is a supporter of Hamas. Look at Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and the Mayor of New York Mamdani, who cavorts with terrorists. Their mindset is of a terrorist. So, yes, they will resort to violence. . .. For you and my supporters, it is time for you to arm up, use it defensively and not offensively to protect you and your family. I would recommend that because we are going into a civil war. We are going to be in one very shortly.”

“What was it all about? What was achieved other than the destruction of tradition?”

• Whatever Happened To Boys’ Clubs and Men’s Colleges? (Paul Craig Roberts)

The last American population that is American grew up in the 1940s, graduated from high school in the mid to late 1950s and from college in the early 1960s. After that support systems for boys and young men were dismantled. There are no male spaces anymore. I attended 4 superlative universities–Georgia Tech, University of Virginia, UC Berkeley, and Oxford University. Only UC Berkeley, a large state university, was gender integrated. Georgia Tech says that it was gender integrated in 1952. In my years there I never saw a female student. Rumors were that there were a few taking masters degrees in engineering. The football cheerleaders were all male acrobats.

At UVa where I received a Ph.D. in economics, I never saw a female. Rumors, as at Ga Tech, were that there were a few women enrolled in masters degrees not available at the women’s colleges. The women attended excellent women’s colleges such as Sweet Briar. USA was gender integrated in 1970. At Oxford University there were ancient men’s colleges. Mine, Merton College, dated from 1264. There were four women’s colleges. Each collage had its own tradition.

For nonsensical reasons, men’s colleges at Oxford were gender integrated between 1974 and 1986, and lost their traditions. Women’s colleges followed during 1979 and 2008, and lost their traditions. What was it all about? What was achieved other than the destruction of tradition? Women were already at Oxford. Why did they have to be in men’s colleges? Men were already at Oxford. Why did they need to be in women’s colleges? The Boys’ Club of America was gender integrated in 1990, thus destroying the purpose of the Boys’ Club. Why? What was achieved?

Little League fell to gender integration 16 years earlier in 1974. Perhaps this was the death toll for the American male. Teams had to accept girls whose performance was inferior to that of the boys in order to comply with imposed gender regulations. As boys were expected to perform well, parents cheered the girls who managed to get to first base or catch a left field fly. The boy who got a double or threw a double play was cheered but not with the applause given to the most minor of female accomplishments. This subordination of male performance to female performance set the stage for the dispossession of the American male of his confidence.

Today corporate boardrooms are confronted with female members demanding advertisements against men, such as the Gillettes and Budweiser Light anti-male advertisements and Starbuck’s statement that it is not employing any white males until it has more women and people of color. Today American heterosexual men have been moved aside. What the dumbshit feminists have achieved is unprotected women. We have the evidence in England, Sweden, Norway, Europe, and America. Recently the state of Minnesota refused to prosecute an immigrant-invader child rapist “in the interest of justice.” In other words, it was just for the black guy to rape the white girl.

In Sweden and Norway white women are subject to public rapes. White men do not intervene out of fear that they will be arrested for the hate crime of abusing a black person.Throughout the Western world racial privileges have been institutionalized in law and practice. Is is racist for whites to protect themselves. With the confidence of white men destroyed, the field is open for immigrant-invaders. This is feminism’s achievement.

1950s?

• Race-Based Hiring Changed Higher Education (Victor Davis Hanson)

Jack Fowler: I mentioned a couple of episodes ago our friend Bill Jacobson with Legal Insurrection. He has some efforts aimed at ferreting out that stuff. Yeah, it’s not only, let’s just say, racism in schools, which could be in hiring. This could be in scholarships. Here’s a scholarship: blacks only need apply. Or teachers, you’re going to get this bonus, but only if you’re a minority. So he has a legal arm there that goes after that. There are efforts to …

Victor Davis Hanson: You know, I had a student tell me, “You don’t know what it’s like to be Latino.” And I said, “I do,” because I came of age when this started. In those days, 4.0 was the top, and I had a 3.99. I had two Bs. I did pretty well for a country boy on the SAT, so I applied to UC Santa Cruz. It was a new campus. It was harder to get in than Stanford. I was on the waiting list at Stanford and UC, so I might not have gone away to college. They let me into both, I think, much later at Stanford, but I got into Santa Cruz from the waiting list.

So I went there, and there were two students from my high school who were C students, and they were there already. They had been there all summer long. They were Latino. I never said anything, but they could not believe that I had you know… There were three students who had the top grades. It’s a long story, but there was a valedictorian. I wasn’t that, but we were all one-tenth of a point apart. I was, I think, the third highest. But the point I’m making is that when I went to graduate school, this was in 1975, Mark Edwards was a great guy. He called us in, and there were four white males. He said, “I want to tell you right now, we’re hearing of lawsuits.”

This was kind of like the [Allan] Bakke era. “None of you are going to get a job. I’ve been to the American Philological Association, and everybody’s told me they’re going to hire women and minorities no matter what. We have to at Stanford.” We said, “Well, you have three or four women here, and you have an African American.” I said, “How about all you guys? Why don’t you all resign and then give up your places? You’re all in your sixties.” When you’re that age, 21 years old, you don’t believe it. So you think, “Well, I’ll be fine.” I told my advisor. He said, “Well, if you’re good, you’ll make it. I did.”

I said, “Yeah, but you were in a different generation.” So I finished all my exams in two and a half years. That’s all I did. I studied twenty hours a day and slept about five hours. I wrote my thesis in my third year. I went to the American School of Classical Studies for a whole year. I did all of that. When I applied to seventeen jobs at age twenty-five, I got one interview at the Naval Academy. They said, “That was a great interview.” They interviewed me on everything. “Can you tell us who Jomini was?” and things outside classics. Then they said, “But you’re not going to get the job. We have to hire a woman.”

I said, “Well, you guys are kind of old. Why don’t you resign and hire her?” Because they have a civilian system at the Naval Academy, not like West Point. So I came back, and I’d farmed for five years. I was unemployable. When I went to Fresno, Cal State Fresno, they said, “We’re not going to hire you. We’ll have you part-time.” I said, “I published a book.” They said, “Well, let me see. You have a Ph.D. from Stanford and you’ve published a book, but we’re going to hire a woman and a minority.” These were all white guys telling me this.

Finally, I gave a lecture, and a person from the McClatchy Foundation heard me speak. She said, “That was a great talk. Why aren’t you teaching?” I said, “I only have one class.” So she gave a gift for me to teach for one year. I did pretty well, and I doubled the enrollment. But my point is that there’s a whole generation of people born in the 1950s who came of age during this whole racial preference system, and that’s all they’ve known. So, when people say discrimination, there has been discrimination, but when I saw it institutionally, I’m not talking about what people thought. Institutionally, it was all one way, and people are tired of it.

So when I got a job and I got tenure, I had a guy from the philosophy department come to me and say, “They’re not going to hire me. I’m a white male. I’ve been a part-time teacher for eleven years, and I make one-third of what a professor does. I drive all over to community colleges. Can you help me?” So I went to the chairman, and I did that for about five people. I got all five hired. But it was very strange how amoral it was. It was just blatant. You know what I mean? Blatant racism. It would have been much better if, when people thought there was inequality, and there was, they had started at K through 12.

You could have gone down to the kindergarten level and said, “These are the types of schools in minority districts in the forties, fifties, and sixties that educated people well, and we’re going to restore them. We’re going to make them academies. Anybody can go, but they’ll be located in poorer areas to make sure that when you come out of there…”

Cultures should not emigrate to invade other cultures..

• John Cleese: “Some Cultures Are Better Than Others” (MN)

Legendary Monty Python star John Cleese has drawn a clear line in the sand, declaring himself a “culturalist” who believes some cultures are superior to others. Cleese has also openly backed Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe amid the accelerating collapse of British norms under mass migration and parallel societies. The legendary comedian responded this week to ritual insults hurled at him for supporting Lowe by rejecting the tired “racist” smear from the usual uneducated quarters.

I see I am being ritually insulted for my support of this man

The uneducated call me a racist

I am not a racist

I am a culturalist

I believe that some cultures are better than others

I prefer cultures to do not advocate stoning, pederasty,
wife beating, female genital… https://t.co/dpzlIRrAoV

— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) July 28, 2026

“I am not a racist. I am a culturalist,” he stated in a post that now has over ten million views, adding “I believe that some cultures are better than others. I prefer cultures that do not advocate stoning, pederasty, wife beating, female genital mutilation, and beheading opponents. Call me old-fashioned…” Cleese had earlier made plain his preference for Lowe over the rest of the political class, stating he trusts the Great Yarmouth MP “more than any of the other leaders.” The Metro reported the comments as Cleese pushed back against the predictable pile-on.

John Cleese has insisted that he is ‘not a racist’ after voicing support for Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe. Responding to a post featuring the former Reform UK MP, Cleese recently said on X: ‘I trust this man more than any of the other leaders’: https://t.co/gObd5yE1Bw pic.twitter.com/saKZ0RlmXo

— Metro (@MetroUK) July 29, 2026

Lowe, for his part, simply called Cleese a patriot. The exchange has crystallised a growing recognition that Britain’s cultural foundations are under sustained assault from imported practices fundamentally at odds with the country’s historic values of individual liberty, equal protection under the law, and basic human decency. Cleese has for some time now been documenting the same pattern with characteristic clarity. In April he tore into the BBC over claims that the British education system was designed for “whiteness,” pointing out the obvious: it was built for British children in Britain, most of whom happened to be white at the time.

To treat that historical fact as a “racist conspiracy,” he said, is insane. The broadcaster, he charged, operates with a hidden agenda opposed to the beliefs of the majority of British people. He has also zeroed in on the political reality driving the double standard. With churches across Britain suffering more than ten recorded crimes every single day – theft, arson, vandalism, violence – Cleese observed that Labour politicians have become so dependent on Muslim votes that they no longer even pretend to be even-handed. “We need a new election,” the Python star demanded.

Cleese has noted that the focus on religion in Britain falls almost exclusively on Islam, while more peaceful and spiritual traditions are sidelined. He has asked why schoolchildren are not being introduced to Buddhism – a far more civilised belief system – rather than being steered toward Islam.

He has highlighted the one-way demand for respect: Islam insists its traditions be honoured while showing no reciprocal intention of respecting British ones, the polar opposite of genuine multiculturalism. And he has pointed out that other religions do not threaten to take over the country, whereas multiple Muslim clerics and scholars openly do. These are not abstract observations. They map directly onto the lived experience of communities watching churches burn, girls trafficked, and native citizens pushed down waiting lists.

That is precisely the ground Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain have chosen to fight on. The party, which surged past the Conservatives in membership within weeks of its launch, does not traffic in polite fictions. It has vowed to deport millions of illegal and burdensome migrants – “if that means millions go, so be it” – to outlaw incompatible cultural and religious practices, and to give the British people a binding referendum on the death penalty for pedophiles and rapists when guilt is undeniable. “Prison or deportation is too kind,” Lowe has said.

Lowe’s own record shows why the establishment treats him as a threat. As an MP he has submitted more than a thousand Freedom of Information requests that forced light onto grooming gang data, the true costs of mass migration, and foreign offender absconding rates. When the results proved too damaging, the WhatDoTheyKnow platform restricted his access. Lowe’s response was characteristically dry: the restriction was “not in the spirit of transparency.”

He has also refused to soft-pedal the immigration crisis itself. Lowe has called openly for a hostile environment toward illegal entrants, many of them criminals, stating he wants them all deported and does not care how it happens. Far-left politicians and media figures predictably denounced the stance as “cruel” and “repulsive.” Lowe’s reply was equally direct: he could not care less about defending the “humanity” of third-world conmen who break into the country and leave British families living in fear.

The practical consequences of the current open-door approach continue to surface. Lowe recently told Joe Rogan that arriving migrants are placed at the top of NHS waiting lists for dental treatment that British citizens cannot access. Rogan’s reaction was pure disbelief.The incentive structure is obvious: free housing, welfare, and priority healthcare create a magnet that draws people across multiple safe countries. Nowhere has the cultural incompatibility been more horrific than in the industrial-scale rape gang scandals.

Lowe’s Restore Britain-backed inquiry documented a nationwide pattern of abuse involving up to 250,000 young British girls, overwhelmingly by men from Pakistani Muslim and other Muslim backgrounds, with police and politicians suppressing the truth for decades under the banner of community cohesion. Elon Musk responded by endorsing Nuremberg-style trials for those who enabled the cover-up. “The politicians who turned a blind eye to the Rape of Britain must go to prison,” he wrote.

Cleese’s latest stand simply names what millions of Britons already see. Preferring a culture that does not stone people, mutilate girls, or treat women as disposable is not racism. It is the minimum requirement of civilisation. [..] Cleese, Lowe, and a growing public are no longer playing along. Some cultures produce free speech, scientific inquiry, and equal rights. Others produce the opposite. Pretending otherwise has already cost Britain dearly.

Cue the attacks.

• Musk’s America PAC Reportedly Plans $120 Million Midterm Blitz (ZH)

The New York Times reports that Elon Musk’s America PAC plans to spend as much as $120 million to help Republicans in November’s midterm elections, signaling that the world’s richest man is preparing to reenter the political game with fewer than 100 days until voters head to the polls. America PAC’s spending surge will likely spark a coordinated opposition campaign from Democratic groups and left-wing NGOs, ranging from protests and activist pressure to sustained negative press coverage of Musk, as well as attempts to damage his brands, including Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI.

The Democrats’ playbook could resemble their coordinated pressure campaign against Musk when he was involved with DOGE and the dismantling of most of USAID. This sparked street demonstrations by left-wing and far-left activist networks supported by left-wing NGOs, along with an aggressive left-leaning media campaign that sought to make him the public face of the administration’s agenda. The NYT report is based on “two people briefed on the plans,” and like many stories run by left-leaning corporate media. Musk usually denies the reports on X, but if this report is correct, it says Musk authorized America PAC to build a field operation across at least eight states, targeting Senate races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio, while considering contests in North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas.

America PAC is also gearing up to support House candidates in California, Wisconsin, and Washington, according to those people. Musk’s nearly $300 million bet on the 2024 campaign proved politically successful. Still, it came at a steep cost to his brands, which became targets of information warfare operations with coordinated pressure from left-wing journalists and NGO-backed activist groups. Remember when MSM outlets ramped up stories portraying Musk as a Nazi while he was at DOGE, dismantling the left’s USAID slush fund?

This is how the information operations game is played, and the ones being played were the American people. Remember, the far-left even launched a firebomb campaign against Tesla service centers, as the left fringe rules through intimidation, violence, and terrorism. Judging by Musk’s X posts and the broader Republican Party’s increasingly new messaging, the GOP appears to be converging on a single marketing platform ahead of the midterms: Democrats serve as the political vehicle for a socialist and Marxist takeover. It’s that simple.

That narrative is not being manufactured from nothing. The Democratic Socialists of America’s own rhetoric about dismantling the American “empire” from within gives Republican strategists a political gift in the market while establishment Democrats fret over their party fracturing in a far-left revolutionary takeover. The emerging theme for America PAC and Republican candidates will likely focus on anti-communism, framing the election as a choice between capitalism vs. socialism, national sovereignty vs. border abolition, and law and order vs. violent crime and revolution.

DSA has effectively handed Republicans the advertising material to connect illegal alien invasion, violent crime, attacks on law enforcement, street unrest, and all other failed globalist policies under a single ideological threat narrative. That is precisely the political branding that establishment Democrats fear and are melting down over.

“.. the author who created the most successful publishing franchise of our lifetime had somehow become too radioactive for many people even to write about”

• The New ‘They Who Must Not Be Named’ (A.J. Rice)

Every week on my podcast Dangerous Laughter, I sit down with people whose ideas deserve a hearing, whether the cultural gatekeepers approve or not. Sometimes it’s a politician. Sometimes it’s a journalist. Sometimes it’s a historian. This week, it was Solomon Schmidt, a gifted historian whose new biography, A Pen to Change the World: The Life of J.K. Rowling, should have been one of the easiest books in the world to promote. Instead, it became a case study in modern publishing.Schmidt told me that organizations serving independent bookstores declined to carry advertising for the book.

Harry Potter fan communities that once celebrated every new Rowling project have shown little interest in discussing a biography of the woman who created Hogwarts. Media outlets that ordinarily jump at the chance to cover major literary releases have largely looked the other way. Think about how absurd that is.=J.K. Rowling isn’t an obscure novelist looking for her first break. She’s the bestselling author of the bestselling book series in modern publishing history. Her stories have sold hundreds of millions of copies, been translated around the globe, inspired blockbuster films, and introduced an entire generation to the joy of reading.

If that resume isn’t enough to justify a serious biography, what exactly is? The answer has nothing to do with literature. It has everything to do with politics. Somewhere along the way, Rowling stopped being judged primarily as one of the world’s most successful authors and became a political litmus test. For some people, her views on sex and gender now outweigh everything else she has ever written, accomplished, donated, or inspired. You don’t have to agree with Rowling to recognize what’s happening here. You only have to ask a simple question. When did we stop being curious?

One of the things that struck me during my conversation with Solomon was how straightforward his motivation really was. He wasn’t looking to pick a fight. He looked around and realized something that should have been obvious. How could the woman behind Harry Potter, arguably the defining literary phenomenon of the last thirty years, not already have a definitive modern biography? Charles Dickens has biographies. William Shakespeare has biographies. J.R.R. Tolkien has biographies. C.S. Lewis has biographies. But the author who created the most successful publishing franchise of our lifetime had somehow become too radioactive for many people even to write about. That should bother anyone who claims to love books.

As Solomon explained, understanding Rowling’s life helps readers understand Harry Potter itself. Her struggles with poverty, depression, rejection, and single motherhood weren’t footnotes. They shaped the stories. They gave us Harry’s loneliness, the Dementors that captured depression so vividly, and the recurring lesson that courage usually comes at a personal cost. Biography isn’t an endorsement. It’s an exploration. Somewhere, we’ve forgotten the difference. The funny thing is, Harry Potter warned us about this long before social media existed.

Throughout the series, the Ministry of Magic spends as much time managing information as it does protecting people. The Daily Prophet becomes less interested in reporting facts than preserving approved narratives. Dolores Umbridge doesn’t need to burn books. She simply decides which voices deserve to be heard and which ones deserve to disappear. Sound familiar? Millions of readers recognized those lessons while turning the pages of Rowling’s novels. Some seem to have forgotten them the moment they closed the cover.

That brings me to my own new book, The Curse of the Bearded Lady. On the surface, it has little in common with a biography of J.K. Rowling. One is political satire. The other is literary history. But both books ask the same question. What happens when powerful cultural institutions stop encouraging debate and start discouraging curiosity? Unfortunately, that’s the road we’re traveling. I don’t expect everyone to agree with Rowling. I don’t expect everyone to buy Solomon’s biography. I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with me. That’s never been the point.

The point is that readers should be free to encounter ideas, arguments, and people without first receiving permission from self-appointed cultural referees. Publishing used to trust readers enough to let them make those decisions for themselves. Now too many gatekeepers seem determined to make those choices in advance.History has never been written exclusively about saints, and thank goodness for that. The people who change the world are usually complicated. They succeed brilliantly. They fail publicly. They contradict themselves. They evolve. That’s what makes them worth studying.

J.K. Rowling is one of those figures, whether her critics like it or not. The greatest irony of all is that Rowling spent years teaching millions of young readers to question authority, resist propaganda, and think for themselves. Harry, Hermione, and Luna never accepted an official narrative simply because someone powerful told them to. Maybe that’s the real reason her books still endure. Because they encourage independent thought.That may be the most dangerous kind of magic left. Because somewhere along the way, “He Who Must Not Be Named” stopped being a fictional villain. For too many people, it became the woman who imagined him.

“Ankara now finds itself simultaneously managing several long running disputes while its domestic bandwidth is consumed by an economic downturn and a reshaped opposition.”

• Türkiye Is Headed For A Perfect Storm (Mishel Bychkova)

Turkish politics rarely stands still, but even by local standards, the past week has moved fast. Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the Republican People’s Party, told his parliamentary group that a new party will be formed within days.

On the surface, this looked like a routine reshuffling of parliamentary seats – the kind of maneuver that happens periodically in Ankara without lasting consequence. Underneath, it is nothing of the sort. The announcement was framed as a defensive move, yet its implications reach far beyond the corridors of the CHP. Against the backdrop of Türkiye’s stalling economy, the tense regional environment, and the unresolved Kurdish question, the birth of this new formation looks like the opening move in a broader contest over who controls the timing of the country’s next election. Taken together, the pieces suggest that Ankara is entering a period in which political survival, not policy, will dictate the pace of events.

A party born out of necessity
Ozel did not describe his move as a rupture. He insisted that the CHP’s role as the parliament’s main opposition voice would not be abandoned, only carried forward under a new banner. The language was careful, almost defensive, and for good reason. Splitting a party while claiming continuity is a delicate balancing act, one that requires convincing both loyal voters and international observers that nothing essential has been lost in the transition. In practice, the plan is to bring roughly 85 deputies with him, instantly turning the new party into the second largest bloc in parliament and pushing the CHP itself down to 4th or 5th place. A party that has anchored Turkish opposition politics for a century is being hollowed out from within, not by an external rival but its own recent leader.

The logic behind the move becomes clear once the legal pressure on the CHP is taken into account. Courts have been steadily encroaching on the party’s internal affairs, including the reinstatement of Kemal Kilicdaroglu as the formal leader of the CHP. For Ozel, remaining inside a party whose leadership could be legally reassigned at any moment is a losing bet. Commentator Murat Yetkin described the new project as a reserve platform, built precisely so Ozel can wait out the legal storm without being dragged into seven months of an internal power struggle before elections arrive. This is an insurance policy, drafted by a politician who understands that Turkish courts have repeatedly proven capable of reshaping party leadership through rulings where ballots fail.

CHP falls back into Kilicdaroglu’s hands, Ozel keeps a functioning vehicle of his own, complete with parliamentary representation and a base of loyal deputies. If it does not work, he has lost remarkably little, since the new party can, in theory, be folded back into a friendly CHP once the legal dust settles. It is a move built for optionality rather than conviction, and that pragmatism is precisely what makes it significant. Ozel is betting that having control over a smaller, loyal formation beats having a contested claim over a larger, legally vulnerable one.

The reaction in the press captures the split perfectly, and it is worth dwelling on because it previews how the story will be fought over in the months ahead. Cumhuriyet ran the story as a march toward power, presenting Ozel’s decision as painful but historic – a step taken for the good of the wider democratic camp. The framing was almost heroic, portraying a leader forced by circumstance into a bold act of political self-preservation on behalf of an entire opposition movement.

Sabah took the opposite line, framing the new party as inheriting a corruption problem, naming several founding figures already tied to bribery investigations and describing Ozel’s supporters as having plundered the old CHP headquarters on their way out. The tone there was mocking and accusatory, designed to strip the move of any moral standing before it could gain traction with undecided voters. Two newspapers, two entirely different versions of Türkiye, and neither side is likely to soften its framing in the weeks to come.

An economy running out of room
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Türkiye’s banking sector is heading into a difficult second quarter, with net profits expected to fall by more than 20 percent as inflation expectations stay elevated and tight monetary policy pushes up the cost of financing. For a country that has leaned heavily on its banks to sustain consumer spending and keep growth numbers presentable, that is a signal that the buffer policymakers have relied on for the past several years is thinning when they can least afford it.

More troubling is the currency exposure building up in the real economy. Foreign currency liabilities among Turkish companies hit $392.4 billion in May, the highest level recorded since 2013, while the net foreign currency deficit reached $204.4 billion. Numbers on this scale are not abstract statistics for policymakers to just shrug off. They represent a private sector increasingly vulnerable to any depreciation of the lira, and a government with steadily shrinking room to maneuver on interest rates without triggering the kind of corporate distress these figures already hint at. Companies holding that much foreign currency debt need a stable or strengthening lira simply to service their obligations, which locks the central bank into a defensive posture regardless of what domestic conditions actually call for.

This is the trap facing Turkish economic policy right now. Tightening further to defend the currency risks strangling growth and deepening the sense of stagnation that voters already feel in their daily expenses. Loosening policy to stimulate the economy risks reigniting inflation and putting even more pressure on companies already struggling under record foreign currency exposure. There is no comfortable middle path left – only a series of trade offs that grow less forgiving with each passing quarter. And because Turkish monetary policy rarely operates independently of political considerations, every one of these trade offs eventually becomes a political decision as well, made with an eye on elections rather than purely on economic fundamentals.

Türkiye’s foreign policy is not offering any relief either. Tensions with Israel remain unresolved, friction with Greece over Aegean and maritime issues continues to simmer, and the Cyprus question sits as stubbornly unsettled as it has for decades. Each of these fronts demands attention and resources from Ankara at a moment when the government would prefer to focus inward. None of them are new disputes, which in some ways makes the current moment more dangerous rather than less. Familiar tensions have a way of being taken for granted as innocuous right up until the moment they’re not. Meanwhile, Ankara now finds itself simultaneously managing several long running disputes while its domestic bandwidth is consumed by an economic downturn and a reshaped opposition.

Europe has no Trump to close the borders.

• More than 50,000 Migrants Swarm Spain’s Enclave of Ceuta (CTH)

Western media are downplaying the numbers, continually saying a “few thousand.” However, local officials and eyewitnesses are describing the migrant invasion as something substantially more; over 50,000 more. As night fell, the horde of migrants continue to overwhelm the region of Cueta, a region of Spain in North Africa. The invasion force shows no signs of slowing down and the region is entirely overwhelmed. There are 80,000 Spanish residents trying to retain their safety against the arrival of 50,000 invading north-Africans.

(REUTERS) – […] A Guardia Civil spokesperson said earlier migrants were “massively entering from the sea” around the Tarajal breakwater, a border seawall that migrants can swim around and enter Ceuta. The spokesperson could not estimate the number of migrants but said police were overwhelmed. Many local shops were shuttered. Enrique Serrano, who runs a women’s clothing store in central Ceuta, told Reuters business owners were organising self-defence because they believed police resources would be insufficient.

“I’m not opening this afternoon because the situation is extremely tense … The first thing I have to do is protect my business and my family,” he said, adding that when the fence was breached after midnight, hundreds of migrants rushed through in a matter of minutes. Ceuta and Melilla — another Spanish autonomous city located in North Africa — have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe.

[…] Spain’s Socialist government stands out in Europe for its pro-migrant stance, and it has recently launched a programme to provide legal status for some 500,000 undocumented migrants, triggering an influx of applications double that number. Right-wing parties criticised the drive, arguing it would attract more migrants to Spain, and were quick to blame Sanchez for allowing the situation in Ceuta to reach crisis proportions

Conservative opposition People’s Party leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo said in a post on X: “The situation in Ceuta is desperate. The government cannot look the other way… because we are facing a national security crisis.”

Earlier on Thursday, Ceuta Mayor Juan Jesus Vivas had urged the national government to declare an emergency over the mass arrivals. (read more) President Trump tried to warn the Spanish people that socialist President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón would open the borders and destroy their country. Trump was right! “Fernando Rodríguez Contreras, an official in the government, said the working estimate for the number of people who had crossed was in the tens of thousands, though that figure could not be confirmed.” ~NYT

January, 2026. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez responds to criticism from Elon Musk and others about his immigration policies. Sanchez's government had just decided to grant illegals amnesty.

"Spain is a welcoming country and this is the path we choose."

What a fool. pic.twitter.com/uIq48XnUcq

— MAZE (@mazemoore) July 30, 2026

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2082944530127654963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2082944530127654963%7Ctwgr%5Eef566a2223b1eaa02ae61159ab036a43ab2cd716%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F07%2F30%2Fmore-than-50000-migrants-from-morocco-and-sub-saharan-africa-swarm-spains-enclave-of-ceuta%2F

Elon Musk’s real claim about Optimus isn’t that it’s the biggest product ever made. It’s that the biggest product ever made is a tenth of it.

Musk: “I think it will be 10 times bigger than the next biggest product ever made.”

That isn’t a claim about robots. It’s a claim about… pic.twitter.com/pBT6aw2fRt

— Dustin (@r0ck3t23) July 29, 2026

Elon was right about everything

For years he kept saying it:
To Prosecute Fauci

Today Fauci took the Fifth

He refused to answer questions under oath in front of the Senate

That only means one thing….and you know the answer

And the Biden administration knew exactly what… pic.twitter.com/RpFGqeXX2z

— X Freeze (@XFreeze) July 29, 2026

Holy. Shit.

Spain's far-left PM Pedro Sanchez gave amnesty to 1,000,000+ illegal immigrants, and now hordes of unvetted men are storming across the border from Africa.

It’s the same playbook across the West.
These people will destroy our civilization. pic.twitter.com/NcERXfTbPv

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) July 30, 2026