Kneissl Archives - The Automatic Earth

Première mondiale, Tesla accélère ! La ligne de production de la Model S, la voiture qui a créé Tesla, est arrêtée pour fabriquer des robots humanoïdes à la place.

Le futur avec lequel on a tous grandi dans les films de SF arrive, Musk a posté un message qui donne le coup… https://t.co/QlTWTTDWeg pic.twitter.com/YCZ6b5LvNZ
— VISION IA (@vision_ia) July 5, 2026

Every week, these strange white crates leave a high-security Tesla compound in Lathrop, California.

They’re showing up near the Hoover Dam. At an Air Force base in Georgia. In the heart of New York City…

An estimated 4,000 of them are now spread across 48 locations in 14… pic.twitter.com/eDJO5vcWHr
— Tony Seruga (@TonySeruga) July 5, 2026

Apart from a few tiny blips, America has been below replacement rate for ~55 years https://t.co/rQTzFjqQa6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2026

https://twitter.com/XFreeze/status/2073846691183333652?s=20

HISTORIC: For the first time ever, NYSE and Nasdaq are ringing the opening bell TOGETHER from the Oval Office, all to commemorate the launch of the Trump Accounts.

Every American child born from 2025-2028 gets $1,000 to start investing, a real stake in the American economy from… pic.twitter.com/M4NK5LkLEJ
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 6, 2026

FWIW.

• Vance: AOC Will Be Leading Democratic Candidate For President In 2028 (JTN)

Vice president JD Vance said that he believes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., will lead the field of Democratic presidential candidates in 2028. “I think it’s got to be AOC. I know that’s probably conventional wisdom,” Vance said in a wide-ranging interview on the “The Michael Knowles Show” released on Tuesday. Knowles countered that the conventional wisdom is that California Gov. Gavin Newsom would be the leading Democrat, but Vance said he doesn’t “buy that.”

“I think he hurt himself with his comment to an audience full of black Americans that I’m low IQ, just like you,” Vance said. Vance was referring to comments Newsom made at an event in Atlanta in February in an attempt to say he related to the audience. “I’m just trying to impress upon you: I’m like you. I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy,” Newsom said. Initial reports claimed Newsom was speaking to a predominantly Black crowd, but subsequent photos and videos from the event revealed a diverse crowd with many whites in the audience.

“Yesterday’s armchair revolutionaries like Shapiro will soon be treated as today’s reactionaries by the very mob that they are trying to enlist.”

• Shapiro Could’ve Been A Contender, But He Caved To The Loons (Turley)

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has finally reached his Terry Malloy moment. In the classic movie “On the Waterfront,” the character tells his brother of losing it all; his shot to be a champion and a person of respect: “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.”

Shapiro decided to deliver his defining moment on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” when he abandoned all principle and decided to join other Democratic establishment leaders in offering up the Supreme Court to the radical left. Shapiro used the common coded reference to court packing, calling for “radical reform of the court.” The only “radical” reform being seriously discussed is packing the institution with an immediate liberal majority to reverse a series of recent decisions and to greenlight an equally radical agenda for changes to our political system.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro greets the crowd at a presidential campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, on Aug. 6, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)What is so disappointing is that Shapiro truly could have been a contender, an alternative to the cringing, accommodating politicians who are yielding to the demands of the mob. Figures from Kamala Harris to Pete Buttigieg have recently embraced the scheme to show their bona fides to a rising socialist and radical movement in the Democratic Party.
Shapiro could have been different. He could have offered the country moderation and pushed back on the radical elements of his party. Shapiro was reportedly rejected as a vice presidential candidate due to being Jewish and is a member of a party that is careening toward open antisemitism. He could have been that mature voice within his party cautioning restraint before destroying one of our core institutions.Instead, he chose to just be another bum in American politics. “I think we need radical reform that’s actually going to ensure that the voices of the people are heard from, that the voices of the people are represented in the three branches of government,” Shapiro told MS NOW. “We don’t have that right now.”
The comment echoes the remarks of other court-packers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who insisted the court was illegitimate for rendering decisions against “widely held public opinion.” The Supreme Court was never designed to be the “voice of the people.” On the contrary, it was meant to be a counter-majoritarian check on the people’s impulse. It is that body that is designed to stand against the majority to protect minority interests and to maintain a constitutional system meant to blunt popular impulse.
In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss how the Framers sought to avoid a direct democratic system, which had failed repeatedly in history. These systems (based on channeling public demands) became what Benjamin Rush called a “mobocracy.” The Supreme Court is a vital part of preventing our Republic from destroying itself. For years, professors and pundits have quietly urged a hostile takeover of the court to remove the barrier to fundamentally changing our system. Now, on the 250th anniversary of our Republic, they are close to getting their way.
Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur. Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has put packing the Supreme Court front and center, explaining, “[We’re] talking about the acquisition and the use of power if there is a Democratic trifecta in 2028.”
James Carville declared, “If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F— it. Eat our dust. Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.” Now Shapiro has joined these ignoble ranks. Shapiro and others are demanding the radical reforms despite the current court repeatedly ruling against the Trump administration, including most recently on birthright citizenship. Without acknowledging that the decision again showed the court’s independence, Shapiro griped, “this case should have taken a nanosecond to decide and it should have been 9-0.”
What does that mean? Should the courts not have heard arguments, or should the Supreme Court have issued an immediate ruling from the bench during oral arguments? Nevertheless, that is enough for Shapiro to toss the court to the mob. It is transparent and frankly pathetic. Shapiro added that too much power was being given to the executive branch. This is a court that just ruled against the president on issues from citizenship to tariffs. It has drawn sharp rebukes from President Donald Trump for curtailing his powers.
Now Shapiro appears ready to repeat his controversial move against his neighbor and exercise a type of adverse possession against the court. However, he lacks the courage (as do figures like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.) to come out and call it court packing. They simply refer to “radical” changes. It is part of conditioning voters to the type of structural changes contemplated by the Left to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” Most voters still oppose court packing. You have to wait until voters are angry enough to take a hammer to a system that remains the oldest, most stable democracy in history.
Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has put packing the Supreme Court front and center. The court could well fall in the coming years to this mad frenzy, but it will be preceded by the fall of figures like Shapiro. He and his establishment colleagues are deluding themselves into believing that they will be spared in this mobocracy that they are making. Refusing to have his state participate in the 250th celebration on the Mall and offering up the Supreme Court will not appease an increasingly violent and antisemitic far-left movement.
Despite his own pandering to the mob, the socialists recently chanted “you’re next” when they saw Jeffries’ image on a screen at a New York victory party. Yesterday’s armchair revolutionaries like Shapiro will soon be treated as today’s reactionaries by the very mob that they are trying to enlist. What will be left is a lament of what Shapiro could have been at this moment in our history. As Terry Malloy said, he “coulda had class. [He] coulda been a contender. [He] could’ve been somebody.”

“Ahead Of NATO Summit ..”

She used to be Elon’s girl…

• ‘Restraining Order Needed’: Trump Again Taunts Italy’s Meloni (ZH0

There’s no time like the eve of the major annual NATO summit for Trump to reignite his longstanding feud with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, apparently. The American President blasted out the below Truth Social just before heading to Ankara, Turkey for the gathering of NATO heads…

With just a few days to go before the next NATO summit, POTUS Donald Trump has once again attacked the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.

He portrays her as worshipful and calls for a “restraining order” to be imposed on her.

A few weeks ago, Trump had said that Meloni… pic.twitter.com/hHJTn8yCra
— Crazy Ass Moments in Italian Politics (@CrazyItalianPol) July 5, 2026

The doctored image featuring the caption “Restraining order needed” marks but the latest escalation between to the two leaders. Meloni has not responded or commented directly regarding the Truth Social Post, and is unlikely to given that Italy likely wants to avoid escalation. “People come and go but relations must endure,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto remarked on the prime minister still being in Trump’s crosshairs to news channel Sky TG24. And Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani tried to brush it off while presenting an optimistic picture of future relations, saying he was “sure that transatlantic relations go well beyond individual comments.”
This new post follows on another Truth Social post from June, in which Trump accused the Italian PM of asking for a picture with him “over and over” at the G7 Summit in France. At heart of the feud is Italy’s breaking with Trump over his Iran operation. This has included denying shared base usage for American military flights connected with Operation Epic Fury. Trump had claimed earlier in the summer of Meloni, “She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon.”
He then suggested that Meloni wanted to be “friends again” to get her “numbers up” – but has appeared to stipulate that she must fully open up Italian bases for US aircraft usage once again. Meloni in response to the prior June post slammed the US president for his “senseless” and “constant, unprovoked attacks”. “As for my popularity, being your friend has certainly not helped it, nor does it depend on my relationship with you,” she shot back. “My popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours.”All of this could serve to make any close-quarter contact at the NATO summit in Ankara very awkward – also as the two will certainly be in the same general vicinity for events like the group photo.

Curious.

Walsh shared a message similar to that of the Democratic Socialists: “Death to America”

• Former Sen. Warren Staffer Attends Ayatollah’s Funeral (ZH)

A former Democratic Party operative who worked on campaigns linked to prominent unhinged left-wing politicians such as Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, and others has become a case study in how far-left radicalization can influence those on the left, spiraling dangerously and leading to the open championing of leaders of foreign adversaries. Calla Walsh began organizing for Democratic Senator Ed Markey while she was still a teenager. She had the perfect profile: earnest, idealistic, and a model Gen Z Democrat.

Former Elizabeth Warren staffer who called for the United States to be abolished as justice for Khamenei, attended his funeral and called him one of the greatest leaders of her lifetime pic.twitter.com/WSzpzcpd1R
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 5, 2026

But, like many of her peers on the left, that idealism mutated into something darker – something Democrats are now concerned about as socialists and Islamists gain power in their party. The latest Walsh episode shows the Gen Z Democrat on Iranian TV from Tehran during funeral ceremonies for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, praising the late Iranian cleric as the “greatest anti-imperialist leader” of her lifetime. “Ayatollah Khamenei was the greatest anti-imperialist leader to have lived during my lifetime,” Walsh said.

Palestine Action US founder Calla Walsh attends Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral and calls him the “greatest anti-Imperialist leader” in her lifetime.

This is the brainwashing going on in the far-left, making them to unite with Islamists and terrorists. pic.twitter.com/N5o0Z3Wrv4
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 4, 2026

Walsh shared a message similar to that of the Democratic Socialists: “Death to America”…

She's American . She got paid to trave to Iran to say "death to America" in Kamenei's funeral in a terrible Persian accent!

This is the IR that @JDVance convinced America to negotiate with, ignoring the bloodshed in #IranMassacre‌. pic.twitter.com/QvP7OPGq0h
— Nazanin 🇮🇷 (@naz8nin) July 5, 2026

Walsh’s message was also shared with attendees at the funeral.

“.. it’s clear why the Canadian people will be stunned when it all collapses around them. They have no reference points.”

• How Canadian Govt Controls Canadian Media (CTH)

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra appears for an interview on CBC News to share perspectives on U.S-Canada relations. However, what happens within the interview is a case study on how Canadian media represent an extension of the Canadian government. This example is exactly why the Canadian people have no reference point for information counter to the official propaganda policy from their government offices.

Rebecca Zandbergen, host of CBC’s Ottawa Morning represents the voice of government in combative tone, condescending attitude and refusal to accept counter arguments. The level of passive-aggressive condescension highlights why Canada has continued to lose position in a world where pretending has become devalued. However, it’s clear why the Canadian people will be stunned when it all collapses around them. They have no reference points. Ambassador Hoekstra should get hazard pay. WATCH (prompted):

I like how Hoekstra reminds Rebecca Zandbergen that the 51st state issue surfaced as an outcome of a discussion between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Trump in Mar-a-Lago that centered around NATO spending and reciprocity in trade via non-tariff barriers. The points Ambassador Hoekstra makes at the end of this interview are exactly on point, and yet Zandbergen pretends not to understand them.
The American govt is not running anti-Carney advertising in Canada. Americans are not banning Canadian products. The American Government is not telling Americans not to travel to Canada. The American govt has not banned Canadian companies from bidding on contracts. These are all actions taken by the Canadian government.

“To use language to obscure reality is to show ‘indifference regarding the truth’— to lie to the public and cease to treat our fellow citizens as equals.” —Justice Clarence Thomas

“.. the slippery closet-Marxist Barack Obama and, behind him, the American Deep State nomenklatura desperate to stay out of prison, along with the unelected EU Commission led by the grandmotherly sadist Ursula von der Leyen ..”

• Werewolves of London (James Howard Kunstler)

Now that the grand 250th USA birthday party is over — the speeches, the shrieking warplanes, the dazzling fireworks, the speeches and strawberry shortcake — there is only one way this thing can go. What thing? The war for the soul of the nation. Some mysterious somebody is behind the surging “Democratic-Socialist” craze. Somebody is paying for it. It’s a last-ditch drive to marshal the disaffected, under-employed young voters, choking on their college loans, deranged by anomie, and get them marching in solidarity with X-million illegal aliens to act-out an election jihad so as to squeeze out House and Senate majorities and, ultimately, wreck the nation.

That mysterious background “somebody” is not so mysterious. It just doesn’t self-identify under a banner, but you can easily tell who they are: the, the slippery closet-Marxist Barack Obama and, behind him, the American Deep State nomenklatura desperate to stay out of prison, along with the unelected EU Commission led by the grandmotherly sadist Ursula von der Leyen (plus the banksters behind her). Some call them “globalists.” They are a loose coalition of convenience against the populist threat of Mr. Trump in America and similar populist movements in Europe: AfD in Germany, the two parties of Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe in the UK, and LePen’s Nationalist Rally in France.
The EU, with its front-men Macron, Merz, and whoever will replace Starmer this month, is currently preoccupied with its stupid effort to provoke Russia into a wider war, using their proxy, Ukraine. Mr. Putin, still advancing through the Donbas, refuses to get drawn-in deeper with the EU despite the drone and missile sorties lately banging-up his oil depots. Mr. Putin is actually a defender of Western Civ — yes, ironic, isn’t it, considering what his country escaped out of in 1991 — but it’s so. Russia has become our natural ally in this struggle as the EU goes all werewolf on both Russia and us. File under strange-but-true.
Contrary to Deep State propaganda, and the IRGC’s bullshit, Mr. Trump has the Iran situation in-hand. We have bigly reduced Iran’s capacity to make trouble in the world and our satellites watch everything they do now, so there will be no Iranian military re-build, no matter how the MOU talks go. They still do have the option of dropping their jihad fixation and acting like a normal nation, but we’ll just have to stand by on that.
What has to happen now in the USA is a summer of accountability. Perp walks. Indictments. Preparation for trials. Many of you are discouraged about this, I know, but please put those black pills back in the medicine chest. Accountability is coming. The mills of the law grind slowly, and its especially difficult since the Deep State has corrupted select precincts of the law, such as the US District Court for the District of Columbia, where rogue judges Boasberg, Chutkan, Sullivan, Howell, Meta, Reyes, Cooper, et al., have made an industry of paralyzing Mr. Trump’s executive branch.
Nevertheless, accountability might also be coming for Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the dodgy majority opinion on the SCOTUS’s June 30 “Birth Citizenship” decision (Trump v. Barbara), an epic fail for Justice Roberts (joined by Amy Coney Barrett and the three DEI gals). The 14th Amendment was written to mitigate the disruptions of the Civil War. Section One is clearly aimed at defining the full citizenship of former slaves, and that’s all, not the offspring of casual visitors and border-jumpers. There was considerable clarifying debate on the record about all that in June, 1866, with skeletons still being cleared off the battlefields. The 2026 decision looks like a debacle for reasons also obvious.
What motivated Mr. Roberts to do such a harm? Perhaps he’s just an idiot, but there’s more lurking there. It’s widely known that the Chief Justice made at least one week-long visit to Norm Eisen, after Eisen had been appointed Ambassador to Prague (2011) by his law school classmate, President Barack Obama. In these final years of Obama-in-office, Norm Eisen was busy plotting so-called Color Revolution in Europe, which climaxed in the 2014 Maidan operation in Ukraine. The purpose was to make Ukraine as a proxy to weaken Russia, and would come to entail massive money-laundering and the setting up of bio-weapons labs there. This was also the period when then-Veep Joe Biden was given the “Urkaine Portfolio” and was busiest with his own grifting enterprise, through son Hunter.

Granite helipad.

• Trump Keeps Building What His Critics Will Later Take for Granted (Manney)

President Donald Trump saw torn-up grass on the South Lawn and treated it like a problem worth fixing. The newer Marine One helicopters are more powerful, and their heat and exhaust have damaged the White House lawn. His answer is a granite helipad built for the aircraft that carries the president of the United States. For most people, that sounds practical. In Washington, because Trump is doing it, practical work gets treated like scandal.

The helipad is expected to cost $5 million to $6 million. Sikorsky, the Lockheed Martin subsidiary that makes the VH-92A presidential helicopters, is funding it through the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit partner of the National Park Service. Reuters reported Trump asked Sikorsky for a little extra work: The president said that after learning Sikorsky was paying, he asked for the helipad to have a carved seal of the White House. In a statement, Lockheed said it could confirm the contribution range shared by Trump. The company did not provide a specific cost.

“This specific contribution was made to the Trust for the National Mall, the National Park Service s non-profit organization,” a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said in a statement. “Our engagement with the federal government is guided by rigorous ethics and compliance standards and conducted in full accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.” In 2024, a fleet of new Marine One helicopters was completed, meant to increase performance and payload, according to the U.S. Navy. “When you land on the grass, it’s not that the grass gets discolored, it gets ripped out,” Trump said.
From US News and World Report: “Confirmation of the project came as construction crews had already begun working on the helipad on the South Lawn, where the president had UFC build a temporary arena for a cage fight celebrating his 80th birthday. He said the project would be privately funded and estimated its cost at up to $6 million. “It’s got the seal of the White House on it in granite, in carved granite,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s really a beautiful thing.” The president did not offer details on how long the work would take. It is the latest major construction project he has overseen in an effort to increasingly mold the White House in his own image. The helipad can handle new choppers, Trump says..”
The pad will sit on the South Lawn, carry a carved White House seal, and give Marine One a durable landing surface instead of more scorched grass. The pattern is familiar.
If Trump adds flagpoles, critics sneer.
If he changes the Rose Garden patio, they sneer.
If he pushes a ballroom for larger state events, they sneer.
If he restores or improves landmarks around Washington, polish and permanence get framed as vanity.
The White House says the new State Ballroom will add roughly 90,000 square feet and seat 650 guests, far beyond the East Room’s 200-person limit. Construction began in September 2025 and is projected to finish before the end of Trump’s term. The same official page notes that presidents and White House staff have sought larger event space for over 150 years. Future presidents, foreign leaders, military heroes, Medal of Honor families, and ordinary Americans honored at the White House will use that space. Many people mocking it now will one day praise an event held there without mentioning who made it happen.
The same story surrounds the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. President Trump pushed to make it clearer and cleaner ahead of America’s 250th birthday. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defended the repair work and the use of nanobubbler technology to fight algae. Critics argued over cost, color, process, and liner damage, but the goal was simple: one of America’s most photographed places should look like America cares about it. A country tells on itself by what it maintains. Broken fountains, damaged lawns, dirty pools, and temporary fixes send one message. Clean stone, working infrastructure, restored landmarks, and spaces built for national ceremony send another.
Trump understands image because image is part of leadership. Every president leaves marks on the White House. Theodore Roosevelt built the West Wing; Franklin Roosevelt added the East Wing; Harry Truman rebuilt the interior when the building became unsafe; and Jacqueline Kennedy restored history and taste to rooms that had drifted from their purpose. Trump’s changes will likely follow the same path. The outrage will fade, while the work remains.
The South Lawn helipad isn’t a constitutional crisis; it’s a practical answer to a practical problem. The ballroom isn’t an offense against history; it’s an expansion for a house that belongs to the American people. The Reflecting Pool is a national landmark worthy of care. Trump keeps building; his critics continue sneering, and time will sort the two.

Needs Trump to stay in power. But why would the US keep the Castro’s in power?

• Cuba’s Power Grid Collapses As Castro’s Grandson Seeks Talks With Trump (ZH)

Hours after USA Today published an interview between one of its journalists and Cuban President Castro’s grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the communist-run island experienced an island-wide power grid collapse. The electrical workers’ union said the entire power grid went offline and that officials were investigating the cause. Cuba’s energy ministry confirmed the blackout and said crews were working to restore service. “A total disconnection of the National Electric Power System is occurring. The causes are being investigated,” the electrical workers’ union wrote on X.
https://twitter.com/OSDE_UNE/status/2074165873120567548?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2074165873120567548%7Ctwgr%5Ebcd730013695b5245cc101ec63913f1d90be5b89%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fi-can-negotiate-castros-grandson-says-hes-ready-discuss-cubas-future-president-trump

Time is ticking for the communists in Havana to make a deal with Trump or face further economic collapse, as Havana is a case study in the failure of communism and how that economic system has never succeeded. Yet the Democratic Party is trying to convince people otherwise as it embraces the far left. Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, former Cuban president Castro’s grandson and one of the more important shadow figures inside Cuba’s communist ruling circle, told USA Today in an exclusive interview that he is prepared to speak directly with President Trump, signaling publicly a potential back-channel opening as the Trump administration intensifies economic pressure on Havana.
“I’ve never been interested in politics. It’s never been a calling of mine,” Rodríguez Castro told the outlet over the course of several days in June in Havana. “But if at some point the revolution needs me to step up, I will do it.” He said that he would never abandon the principles of Cuba’s 1959 revolution or the nation’s sovereignty. Rodríguez Castro is a lesser-known figure outside Havana’s communist circles. He holds no formal government position, rarely appears on state television and has never spoken to a US news outlet before. But the Castro family name gives him unique status inside Havana’s opaque power structure and the ability to act as a back-channel liaison with access to the island’s communist elite.
Now, the younger Castro is signaling he is ready to negotiate Cuba’s future, saying he wants to deal directly with President Trump. “I can negotiate with anyone designated by the U.S.,” Rodríguez Castro said. “If given the opportunity, claro que con Trump.” Of course, with Trump. Why would Rodríguez Castro want to negotiate now and not earlier this year? Well, that’s because Trump’s gunboat diplomacy has unleashed an economic stranglehold on the communist-run island, and it continues to work, with pressure now crushing the already poorly managed economy and collapsing its tourism sector.
The island drew just 360,000 tourists in the first five months of 2026, down 58% from a year earlier, according to Cuban government data. The neighboring Dominican Republic attracted more than 10 times that number over the same period. The Trump administration says the pressure campaign is aimed at forcing the communist government to open its political system after generations of economic misery under failed communism. Havana can’t turn to help from the socialists in Venezuela because the Maduro regime was taken out by US Delta Force operators. The Chinese and Russians won’t dare send their militaries to the island en masse because of the US naval presence in the region.
For Havana, the regime’s external lifelines have been disappearing one by one over the last six months. Recall that CIA Director John Ratcliffe was recently in Havana meeting with communist officials. Now, Rodríguez Castro speaking with a US media outlet is another promising signal, suggesting that back-channel talks are likely already underway as pressure builds on the island’s ruling elite.

“Fed Reserve working paper suggests..”

30% seems a lot.

• Biden Illegal Immigrant Wave Caused 30% of Home Price Increases (JTN)

A new Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas working paper estimates the record surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration boosted employment while causing 30% of home price increases and 20% of rent increases. The paper combined immigration court records with government administrative data to create the first ever calculation of how a wave of 7 million illegal immigrants from 2021 through 2024 affected local labor and housing markets.

“From early 2021 to early 2024, the U.S. experienced an unprecedented boom in unauthorized immigration, followed by a rapid slowdown beginning in mid-2024. We provide the first systematic empirical assessment of the labor- and housing-market effects of this episode,” the working paper said. “The total weighted-mean increases in house prices and rents over this period were 22.4% and 22.6%, respectively. Putting these together, for the average MSA, UIWF can explain approximately 30% of the total increase in house prices and 20% of the total increase in rents,” it added.
The researchers said they found little evidence that homebuilding expanded enough to meet the added demand, essentially creating a demand shock in markets where supply was already constrained. The authors cautioned that the study is a preliminary draft circulated for professional comment and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.

“To avoid making $2 billion a year in pension contributions over his two possible terms, Mamdani is forcing his successor to absorb about $7 billion in unnecessary interest costs..”

• Mamdani Fancies Himself A Financial Whiz (NYPost)

On Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin reached a record $125.8 billion budget deal for fiscal 2027 that began the following day. The mayor boasted: “Socialists not only understand economics just as well as the capitalists who came before, but . . . we can solve their years of mismanagement through an embrace of our principles.” Spare us the propaganda, Mr. Mayor. The city budget isn’t in great shape. Lest anyone be fooled, Mamdani’s supposedly balanced budget rests on a series of one-time tricks that got him through this year — and won’t be available in the next.

Remember back in January when he claimed he’d inherited a $12 billion deficit? A prudent budgeter would have identified the lowest-value uses of money and trimmed accordingly. Not Mamdani. Despite robust tax receipts, he labeled his inability to grow government even more of a “fiscal emergency.” He started demanding higher taxes on corporations and high earners from the state — which, thanks to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s caution, he didn’t get. Now he claims he balanced the budget with the help of pension-contribution “savings,” but in truth, as Manhattan Institute’s Ken Girardin explained, he merely dodged today’s bill by dumping a bigger one on tomorrow’s taxpayers.
To avoid making $2 billion a year in pension contributions over his two possible terms, Mamdani is forcing his successor to absorb about $7 billion in unnecessary interest costs between 2033 and 2037. What kind of financial whiz makes smaller credit-card payments today just to get killed on interest later? Mamdani also re-estimated expenses lower and agreed to Albany’s delaying its school class-size mandate. In the end, he and the council wound up spending 8.5% more than last year’s $116 billion budget. Just between the mayor’s proposal in May and the final deal, fiscal 2027 spending grew by $1.4 billion on various agency programs.
Some “emergency.” Meanwhile, City Comptroller Mark Levine’s latest report reveals the city’s mounting cash-flow issues. During the first nine months of fiscal 2026, average cash balances declined by over $2.4 billion from the year-ago period. Expenditure growth of 8% far outpaced receipt growth of 2.8%. By failing to address this unsustainable structural imbalance, Mamdani will be back where he started come January. By the mayor’s own estimate, he’ll face a $6.4 billion hole in the next fiscal year. Levine puts the figure at $8.8 billion.

“Brussels’ geopolitical agenda and the creation of a defense portfolio reflect a broader policy shift, Karin Kneissl has told RT”

• EU Shifts From Trade To War – Ex-Austrian Foreign Minister (RT)

The European Union has abandoned its historic focus on trade and begun to increasingly define itself in terms of its military and geopolitical priorities, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told RT in an interview on Saturday.She made the remark days after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kiev and the “so-called European pseudo-peacekeepers” of seeking to prolong the conflict. He said their goal was “not peace, but the continuation of the war with Russia to the last Ukrainian.”

Speaking on Friday after visiting an auxiliary command post alongside top military commanders, Putin said Ukraine’s European backers were openly encouraging attacks on civilian targets, including infrastructure, transport, and student dormitories. Last week, Brussels transferred €3.9 billion ($4.44 billion) to Ukraine under a €90 billion loan package that allocates €30 billion for budget support and €60 billion for defense in 2026-2027. The latest tranche is expected to finance drone procurement, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Earlier this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the Baltic states have provided air corridors for Ukrainian drones that have attacked civilian infrastructure in northwestern Russia. “European integration has been moving from let’s trade with each other to let’s go to war,” the former diplomat said, stressing that the bloc had increasingly embraced a geopolitical and defense agenda instead of its usual focus on trade.
Kneissl pointed to the creation of an EU defense commissioner, whom she described as “a commissioner for war.” “Europe was always about trade,” she said, reiterating that von der Leyen had established a geopolitical commission in 2019. “We Europeans do not have the power to project force and have never really been able to define some sort of values with which some of us don’t agree,” the former diplomat continued, having expressed doubts that “this geopolitical commission will work.”

“The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.

• Zelenskyy Demands Western Support After Russian Strikes Kill 11 In Kyiv (Pol.eu)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his calls for more Patriot missiles Monday as Russia’s latest missile attacks killed at least 11 people and injured 46 in Kyiv on Sunday night. “It is critically important that the world — first and foremost the United States and our European partners — come out of the NATO summit in Turkey with strong decisions in support of our air defense,” Zelenskyy wrote on X on Monday. Zelenskyy had warned late Sunday that intelligence suggested Russia was preparing another massive strike on Ukraine ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Ankara.

“As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies’ stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep ‘vanquishing’ residential buildings,” the Ukrainian leader said. Only Western support for Kyiv’s air defense can guarantee “the protection of ordinary people’s lives,” he added. “The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror,” Zelenskyy said.Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Moscow’s overnight strikes destroyed four districts, with Podilskyi reporting the most damage as several high-rise residential buildings were struck.
Among the 46 injured were three children, Klitschko wrote on Telegram and declared Tuesday a day of mourning for the victims. The number of casualties might rise as emergency crews continued searching the rubble for survivors on Monday morning. The latest attack comes just days after another wave of Russian missile and drone strikes killed 13 people and injured more than 80 last week and two days after Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin held a call with U.S. President Donald Trump.

More Defense Spending, More Climate Redistribution

• The EU Spins A $2.2 Trillion Wealth Transfer Machine (Thomas Kolbe)

Negotiations over the European Commission’s next seven-year budget are entering their decisive phase. Should Ursula von der Leyen and her allies succeed with their plans, Germany will once again shoulder a substantial financial burden. By now, however, Germans have become accustomed to that reality.

Across the world, public debt levels are approaching dangerous flood marks. The global economy is effectively drowning in debt, with total public liabilities now exceeding 95% of global GDP. It is therefore only a matter of time before bond markets bring the debt party to an end, pushing interest rates—and with them debt-servicing costs—to levels governments can no longer afford. Such a reckoning would merely represent the logical consequence of political irresponsibility, contempt for taxpayers, and the megalomania of a political culture that continues expanding government on an ever-growing mountain of debt.
A four-decade bull market in sovereign bonds, characterized by steadily declining yields, came to an end roughly four years ago. Since then, interest rates have been rising as investors gradually lose confidence in both the political direction of Western governments and the relentless expansion of the administrative state. A turning point is approaching. Fiscal austerity is standing at the gates of an era defined by political extravagance.
For politicians like Ursula von der Leyen, however, austerity would amount to admitting that decades of debt-financed government expansion have led into a dead end. Few things are more alien to modern political elites than acknowledging failure. This is particularly true within Brussels, where the bureaucratic establishment and the ideological foundations of the European project remain firmly convinced that they are building a supranational European state on the right side of history.
Unsurprisingly, austerity is nowhere to be found in Brussels. Instead, negotiations over the next seven-year EU budget are underway. The European Commission has floated a financial framework worth approximately €2 trillion. Funding for Ukraine-related military expenditures, broader European rearmament, and the enormous subsidy complex underpinning the Green Deal are all expected to come from higher member-state contributions and newly issued common debt. In doing so, Brussels continues to strengthen both its political authority and its influence over national governments.
Germany currently finances roughly one-quarter of the EU budget. Under the proposed framework, German taxpayers would ultimately contribute around €500 billion over the entire budget period. Last year alone Germany paid approximately €30 billion into the EU budget while receiving roughly €13 billion back, primarily in the form of agricultural subsidies and the ever-expanding subsidy machinery supporting Europe’s green industrial policies and interventionist economic model.
Yet even a €2 trillion budget – already representing a leap into fiscal fantasy given the severe economic damage inflicted by years of excessive European regulation – is apparently no longer sufficient for Brussels. Discussions are now underway to increase the budget by another €200 billion. Leading the charge, unsurprisingly, is the European Commission itself: an insatiable bureaucracy working relentlessly to establish independent sources of taxation. Customs revenues, proceeds from emissions trading, plastic taxes—the imagination of Brussels appears limitless. At the same time, direct financial demands on member states continue expanding almost automatically, with ever-higher budget contributions treated as political routine despite growing conservative resistance across Europe.
Should the von der Leyen Commission succeed in making this fiscal leap, Germany’s annual contribution to financing the European project would rise from roughly €30 billion today to approximately €78.6 billion. For taxpayers, the implications are profound. An entirely new layer of government—complete with its own bureaucracy and increasingly its own taxation powers—has gradually positioned itself above existing national institutions. Since the joint borrowing undertaken during the pandemic and the issuance of the massive NextGenerationEU bonds, Brussels has steadily transformed itself into an independent borrower on international capital markets.
Officially, the German government still opposes granting the European Commission broader taxation powers and objects to dramatically expanding the EU budget. Yet all indications suggest that Berlin will ultimately shift the fiscal burden to Brussels itself, paving the way for larger common bond issuance—or some comparable mechanism—to finance the growing central apparatus.
Beginning in 2028, repayment of the €750 billion NextGenerationEU debt will commence. Those obligations, spread over subsequent years, must eventually be repaid to investors. Since these resources simply do not exist, Europe’s capitals will almost certainly reach the same conclusion: refinance the liabilities through continuous new bond issuance, effectively burying what remains of the European Union’s original prohibition against common sovereign debt. In many respects, the transformation of Europe’s financing structure resembles a financial evolution toward a European superstate.
Ultimately, common liability for Brussels’ debts appears virtually inevitable. The political and institutional path back has largely disappeared. For German taxpayers, this strategy amounts to little more than witnessing another familiar fiscal shell game. Brussels will almost certainly continue creating new revenue streams through customs duties, emissions trading, plastic taxes, and whatever additional levies policymakers may devise. The remaining financing gap will inevitably be covered through Eurobonds issued on capital markets.
Such policies carry significant inflationary risks, as additional sovereign borrowing expands the money supply and places upward pressure on prices. At the same time, government borrowing increasingly crowds private investment out of credit markets, raising financing costs for productive businesses while strengthening the role of the public sector. The consequences are already becoming visible. Europe’s downward spiral of declining prosperity is accelerating. It is a tragic process of economic deterioration—one that is increasingly likely to culminate in a major sovereign debt crisis.

“While Britain considers a potential confrontation with Russia, it reportedly operates the smallest fleet in its history”

• Royal Navy In Worst State In Centuries – Retired Admiral (RT)

The Royal Navy has been reduced to the worst state in British history, retired chief of the Naval Staff, Lord Alan West, has told the Sun. London now operates the smallest fleet ever, according to the outlet. A total of nine ships have been scrapped over the past two years under Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the UK is now operating a fleet that includes five operational frigates and no amphibious assault ships, the Sun reported on Friday. The government dropped plans for new Type 83 destroyers and Type 32 frigates, calling them “unaffordable,” it added.

According to West, Starmer’s naval policy has been catastrophic. “The number of ships we have is pathetic, to do the things we need to do,” the former first sea lord and Labour security minister said. “The last time the Navy took this sort of hammering was in Samuel Pepys time [in 1667] and the Dutch sailed up to Chatham, burnt the fleet and stole the flagship,” he said, referring to the Second Anglo-Dutch War in the 17th century, where the British suffered heavy losses in a raid on Medway and were forced to sign a peace treaty favorable to Amsterdam.
Starmer has axed four frigates, two assault ships, two tankers and a nuclear-powered submarine since taking office, the Sun estimated, adding that it was more than the seven ships lost to Argentina during the 1982 Falklands War. Last month, The Telegraph and Daily Mail also reported that the UK’s entire available fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines is stuck in port awaiting maintenance. The report comes as London continues to raise defense spending under the slogans of “transforming” the military in a “more dangerous and volatile” word, all while citing the alleged “Russian threat.”
Moscow has consistently dismissed claims that it is preparing to attack European NATO members, calling them “nonsense.” It also accuses the West of jeopardizing global security through “reckless militarization.” Earlier this week, the British government announced an additional £15 billion ($20 billion) for the armed forces and vowed to bring total military funding to nearly £300 billion over the next four years in what Starmer himself called “record investment.”
The list of spending targets includes the Dreadnought and SSN-AUKUS submarine projects, as well as “multi-billion-pound upgrades at Faslane, Portsmouth and Devonport” naval bases but provides no timeline for the projects’ completion. The spending increase comes in the face of a growing budget deficit and higher inflation. Reuters reported in May that British government borrowing had jumped by 30% year-on-year to £23.3 billion, with debt servicing costs 54% higher than the 2025 level.

“New MKULTRA hearings have reopened questions about victims, destroyed files, and experiments America never answered for..”

• ‘Crimes Against Humanity’: The CIA’s Sickest Secret May Finally Be Exposed (RT)

A decorated US Air Force serviceman with no history of violence suddenly abducted, raped and murdered a three-year-old girl. When a search party found Jimmy Shaver wandering near San Antonio, Texas, he appeared to be in a trance, unable to explain where he was or how he had gotten there. After his arrest, he reportedly failed to recognize his own wife when she visited him in jail. Until the moment he was executed four years later, Shaver insisted he had no memory of committing the crime for which he had been sentenced to death. More than seventy years later, some researchers believe his case may have been linked to one of the CIA’s darkest Cold War programs: MKULTRA, the covert project that sought to manipulate, erase and ultimately control the human mind through drugs, hypnosis and psychological experimentation.

That possibility returned to the spotlight on June 30, when the US Congressional Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets reopened one of the intelligence agency’s most notorious chapters. Lawmakers pledged to uncover the truth behind MKULTRA, the illegal human experimentation program through which the CIA developed and tested psychotropic drugs and interrogation techniques designed to alter behavior, memories and perception. Whether the hearing lived up to those promises is another question. But the testimony presented before Congress suggested that, more than sixty years after MKULTRA officially ended, many of the program’s darkest secrets may still remain hidden.
Congress promises – again
Task force chair Anna Paulina Luna left little doubt about the gravity of the allegations. “Administering drugs to people without their consent. Subjecting humans to psychological torture. Using prisoners and hospital patients as non-consenting research subjects. These are crimes against humanity. Some of the worst, most notorious crimes of the 20th century,” she declared in her opening remarks. “The American people deserve the complete record. The victims and their families deserve acknowledgement, accountability, and justice. No one went to prison. No one was ever compensated by the government for the harm they caused.”
The language was uncompromising. Yet it was also strikingly familiar. Nearly half a century ago, Congress opened another investigation into MKULTRA, promising victims that the full truth would finally emerge and that those responsible would be held accountable. Those commitments quietly faded away. The victims were never fully identified, compensation never came, and many of the program’s records were presumed lost forever. Tom O’Neill, author of CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, reminded lawmakers that they were retracing a path Congress had already walked once before.
“During those same hearings, committee members like yourselves promised the victims of MKULTRA would be identified, compensated and provided lifetime medical care,” he told the panel. “None of that ever happened.”According to O’Neill, lawmakers in the 1970s accepted one of the CIA’s most consequential claims with remarkably little scrutiny: that after more than two decades of secret experimentation, the agency had simply failed to master mind control. CIA officials repeatedly insisted that “their twenty-five-year effort to learn how to control the human mind had been a colossal failure.”
O’Neill believes that conclusion deserves to be revisited. For years, he has argued that the historical record tells a very different story – one that Congress never fully examined and that may have been deliberately obscured by the destruction of key evidence. To make that case, he turned not to speculation, but to documents exchanged between two of the central figures behind the CIA’s most secretive experiments. To support his argument that Congress never uncovered the full scope of MKULTRA, O’Neill pointed to a cache of correspondence that, in his view, fundamentally changes our understanding of the program.
The letters were exchanged between psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West, who “sought to control the minds of people without their knowledge, with the ultimate goal of creating programmed killers” and “Sherman Grifford” – the pseudonym used by Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA’s chief poisoner who designed and oversaw MKULTRA from its earliest days. Far from describing a failed scientific curiosity, O’Neill argued, the documents laid out an extraordinarily ambitious blueprint for manipulating the human mind.

The US loves to boast about how wealthy it is, but its wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few oligarchs.

US oligarchs are so insanely rich that they make average wealth seem very high.

But *median* wealth in the US is lower than in Slovenia & Portugal, and half of Italy's https://t.co/3BxNRxH8QC pic.twitter.com/zKZF3wLdnX
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 6, 2026

https://twitter.com/iam_smx/status/2073856998462959868?s=20

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell and her husband have announced that they are donating ~$325 million of SpaceX stock to Trump Accounts for more than two million children across the U.S.

Every one of those kids will now have a direct stake in a company whose mission is… https://t.co/pNn7KjXsEf pic.twitter.com/nc1AnAsSWG
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 6, 2026

Ford is done.
GM is done.
Honda is done.
Toyota is dying.

Now FOUR of my employees have bought Tesla Model Y vehicles. They let me drive one. I was blown away… again. Full-Self Driving (FSD) is highly evolved. Human-like in its decisions. Feels safer than any human driver.

I… https://t.co/r5xbm4GQT7
— HealthRanger (@HealthRanger) July 4, 2026

Ngl… this is absolutely incredible.

Hundreds of people suspended in the air, each one depending on the next, moving together until somehow they become one massive living work of art.

Just think about the trust that takes.

One person alone could never create this. But… pic.twitter.com/Wydm4Rcoby
— fOx (@fOx1257067) July 5, 2026

https://twitter.com/ConstitustionX/status/2074036815066214832?s=20

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Debt Rattle April 9 2026

Apr 092026

April 9, 2026 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:53 am Finance Tagged with: ceasefire, Gilbert Doctorow, Hormuz, Hungary, Kneissl, petrodollar, proxy war, Satan, strategic defeat, superpower, Xi Jinping 65 Responses »

Rufino Tamayo Perro aullando (Howling Dog) 1960

• Tanker Passage Through Hormuz Halted As Iran Accuses Israel (ZH)

• The Petrodollar Breakdown is Real (GoldFix)

• Nobody Knows What Will Happen Next (Rabo)

• China Facilitated US-Iranian Ceasefire – AP (TASS)

• US Suffered Major Strategic Defeat In Failed Isfahan Operation (Press TV)

• The Persian Backstabber Strikes Again (John Helmer)

• Senate Democrats Might Not Have November In The Bag (ZH)

• Recognizing The Intervention of Satan In Our Times (Gilbert Doctorow)

• FBI Finds Americans Lose Billions To Cryptocurrency Scams (JTN)

• Hungary Election A US-EU ‘Proxy War’ – Ex-Austrian Foreign Minister (RT)

• Unconstitutional Effort to Bar Trump from Ballot in Maine (Turley)

• Xi Jinping Carries Out Record-Breaking Punishments Inside CCP (JTN)

• This Is What a World Superpower Looks Like (Ben Shapiro)

• Melania vs. the Mean Girls (Sarah Anderson)

https://twitter.com/MichaelARothman/status/2041721663679819901?s=20 https://twitter.com/MichaelARothman/status/2041722116316524603?s=20

JD Vance:

I wasn’t even aware that Zelensky had said that he was going to send private soldiers to Orbán’s residence until yesterday.

Viktor actually told me that, and then I went and looked it up.

I almost couldn’t believe it’s true, but it’s true. It’s completely… pic.twitter.com/nNsFw3vHzE
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 8, 2026

https://twitter.com/JoshHall2024/status/2041871511913459923?s=20 From 10 years ago I would LOVE to dee this contradicted. https://twitter.com/MrWhiplash_/status/2041865575354245423?s=20

They’re meeting on Friday afternoon in Islamabad. Before then, anything can and will happen. Testing the waters.

• Tanker Passage Through Hormuz Halted As Iran Accuses Israel (ZH)

Summary:
• The Hegseth/Caine presser as expected declared ‘victory’ in Iran while Gen. Caine emphasized the ceasefire is a “pause” but US forces remain “ready to resume combat.” Pentagon is trying to put a bow on Operation Epic Fury. NYT: 10-point plan might differ between Tehran & Washington.
• US, Iran agree to meet for first direct talks in Islamabad Friday, Pakistan PM Sharif announces. Situation fragile given that Iran is threatening to hit Israel again over IDF’s massive Lebanon airstrikes.
• Iran meanwhile demands stiff fees for ships passing through Hormuz during the ceasefire, and says it holds the final authority on which vessels get to pass. Tehran leaders have asserted ‘victory’ for Iran, amid positive international reaction to the ceasefire.
• The first two ships since the ceasefire was announced have crossed the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said it will demand that shipping companies pay tolls in cryptocurrency. Hours later, Fars announces a halt to ships’ passage. This as IDF pummels Lebanon.
• Saudi Arabia’s vital East-West oil pipeline carrying crude from the Gulf to the Red Sea for export has been attacked at a pumping station, oil rises on the news. There’s been sporadic attacks on other Gulf states too. Kuwait sees key energy, water sites hit.
* * *
Differing Versions of the 10-point Plan?
This is alarming and surreal, and doesn’t bode well for what’s already a very shaky ceasefire holding, via the NY Times:
A White House official says that the 10-point peace plan that Iran publicly released on Wednesday differs from the plan that Trump said was a workable basis on which to negotiate. The official declined to elaborate on the differences but said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, was expected to clarify at a 1 p.m. briefing.
There’s talk of Kushner, Witkoff, and maybe Vance going to Pakistan for planned Friday meeting with Iranian side. Key Energy Sites Hit in Kuwait, Despite Ceasefire Kuwait’s ` Interior Ministry is condemning fresh Iran attacks, reporting “severe material damage” at ` several vital facilities of the ` Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Also water desalination plants have been hit. “The ministry said fire broke out at some of the attacked sites, which include oil facilities, three power stations and water desalination plants,” Al Jazeera reports.
Oil Transit through Hormuz Halted Again: FARS Iran’s Fars News agency reports that oil tankers passing through Hormuz have been stopped after Israel’s “ceasefire breach.” This as Iranian officials are warning of resumed missile launches on Israel for what’s happening in Lebanon (see below). There’s currently contradiction and confusion over whether the Pakistan-mediated Iran ceasefire deal extends to Lebanon. Pakistan says yes, Iran says yes, while the US and Israel say no. Tehran appears willing to apply its leverage. Oil jumps on initial ‘breach’ rumblings...

Ii there an alternative for the petrodollar?

• The Petrodollar Breakdown is Real (GoldFix)

After reading a Bloomberg opinion piece deconstructing the Petrodollar stresses currently manifesting from the war with Iran the following became apparent. The longstanding financial arrangement in which the United States underwrote stability in the Middle East in exchange for Gulf states recycling dollar revenues into US Treasuries has fractured. What functioned for decades as a reinforcing loop between energy flows, dollar demand, and sovereign financing is now under strain. The framework traces back to the 1974 agreement engineered under Henry Kissinger, in which Saudi Arabia priced oil in dollars and reinvested surpluses into US assets, primarily Treasuries. Other Gulf states followed, while the United States provided security guarantees and maintained the broader geopolitical order.

A Circular System of Energy and Capital
The system operated with internal consistency. Oil-importing nations paid in dollars; those dollars accumulated in Gulf economies; and surpluses were recycled into US government debt. This loop supported US borrowing conditions and reinforced the dollar’s reserve status. That structure depended on two continuous processes: surplus generation through energy exports, and reinvestment into US assets. Both are now disrupted.

Fracture Point One: Importers Liquidate Treasuries
Following the escalation of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, foreign central banks have shifted into sustained Treasury selling. Holdings at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York declined by roughly $82 billion over five consecutive weeks to $2.7 trillion, the lowest level since 2012. At the same time, yields diverged from historical crisis behavior. The 10-year Treasury yield rose from 3.9% to above 4.4% instead of falling under safe-haven demand.
“Foreign official sectors are selling US Treasury bonds.”
The mechanism reflects currency defense. Oil-importing economies such as Turkey, India, and Thailand face rising dollar-priced energy costs alongside weakening domestic currencies. Stabilization requires dollar liquidity, sourced through Treasury sales.
Dollar Demand Turns Defensive
Dollar demand remains present, yet its form has shifted. Central banks are accessing liquidity through liquidation rather than accumulation. Treasuries function as a funding tool under stress rather than a passive reserve asset. A system built on steady accumulation behaves differently when forced into periodic selling.
Fracture Point Two: Exporters Unable to Generate Surplus
Historically, higher oil prices increased Gulf revenues, reinforcing demand for dollar assets. This relationship has broken down. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has constrained exports across Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, with production cuts of roughly 10 million barrels per day. Qatar’s declaration of force majeure on LNG exports following strikes on Ras Laffan further highlights the disruption. Without export flows, surplus petrodollars do not form. The loop requires both income generation and reinvestment capacity. Both are impaired.

“This could be the Golden Age of the Middle East.”

• Nobody Knows What Will Happen Next (Rabo)

Yesterday, the US and Iran threatened to, respectively, “destroy Iranian civilisation” with “new tools” and other countries in the Gulf with old ones. Ahead of the 8PM deadline that Trump had set for “Bridge and Power Plant Day,” US and Israeli forces reportedly already destroyed some bridges and other infrastructure. Washington and Tehran struck a last-minute, two-week ceasefire – provided that the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened. Notably, this was after China leaned on Iran to listen to interlocutor Pakistan, according to the New York Times. That key intervention underlines the global nature of this war beyond energy and related exports, and how it is resolved.

Markets are trading this as a TACO Tuesday. Brent futures are down 14% at the time of writing, Asian equity markets rallied, and futures pricing suggests the same will happen when European and American markets open. And bets of near-term rate hikes evaporated as the truce ends days before major central banks next reconvene to recalibrate their policy stance. 10-year German Bund yields fell 18bp (!)on the open. Yet, this short-term truce is not a peace deal, and is anyone willing to sail through the Strait as long as the conflict isn’t fully resolved? So, today’s reprieve will be followed by at least two weeks of extended uncertainty – and possibly longer, if both sides agree to extend the negotiations.
Moreover, there is a world of difference between Iran having blinked under US military threats, which would be a huge win for Trump and the US, and the US having blinked in the face of Iranian resistance and oil prices, which would be a massive 1956-style geostrategic defeat for Trump. In the immediate aftermath of the ceasefire, both headlines and missiles kept flying. Iran hit Israel and a GCC energy site. The US said “an” Iranian 10-point plan is a “workable basis on which to negotiate” (might we have an intractable public version and a more pliable private one to save face?), while Iran’s foreign minister is “considering” the directly opposed 15-point US plan.
And, returning to shipping, Iran claimed it will still take tolls from Hormuz with Oman, adding that only 10-15 ships per day can pass, a tiny fraction of normal flows. Is that the “full reopening” of Hormuz that the US set as a precondition?
Subsequently, an unsubstantiated report claimed that Iran has agreed to most US conditions, including: a permanent commitment not to possess nuclear weapons; handing over enriched uranium to the IAEA; allowing the IAEA to monitor all nuclear infrastructure; a complete halt to uranium enrichment within Iran; reducing the range and number of missiles; immediately ceasing support for militias and proxies in the region; ceasing attacks on regional Gulf energy facilities; reopening the Strait of Hormuz immediately and unconditionally; the lifting of all sanctions imposed on Iran; eliminating the mechanism for reimposing UN sanctions; and US support for the Bushehr nuclear power plant, provided it is under direct American supervision.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has stated, “The current negotiations are a national negotiation and a continuation of the field, and it is necessary for all people, elites, and political groups to trust and support this process, which is under the supervision of the Leader of the Revolution and the highest levels of the system, and to strictly avoid any divisive comments.” Trump claimed “total and complete victory”, and posted that it’s a “big day for World Peace”, the US will be “helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz,” while Iran can “start reconstruction,” and the US will be “loading up with supplies of all kinds, and “just “hangin’ around” in order to make sure everything goes well,” where “This could be the Golden Age of the Middle East.”
So, the fog of war is still in place even if the fighting might have stopped for now. Nobody knows what will happen next, but the possible spectrum is clear:

Everything involves China.

• China Facilitated US-Iranian Ceasefire – AP (TASS)

According to the news agency, Beijing initially tried to act through intermediaries, including Islamabad, Ankara, and Cairo. After that, Chinese officials directly contacted Iran. China directly contacted Iran to persuade Tehran to agree to a temporary ceasefire with the US, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reported. According to the report, Chinese officials were in contact with the Iranian government to facilitate the ceasefire. Beijing initially tried to act through intermediaries, including Islamabad, Ankara, and Cairo.

US President Donald Trump said a bilateral ceasefire between the United States and Iran will be in force for two weeks. The decision is “subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif invited US and Iranian delegations to Islamabad on April 10 for further negotiations. US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, businessman Jared Kushner, are expected to take part in the planned peace talks with Iran in Pakistan’s Islamabad, CNN reported.

Press TV is Iranian.

• US Suffered Major Strategic Defeat In Failed Isfahan Operation (Press TV)

Information obtained by Press TV regarding the recent operation by the US-Israeli coalition in the central Isfahan province reveals a major strategic defeat for the enemy. US President Donald Trump’s frantic threats in the past few days to target Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including power plants and bridges, are a direct consequence of the heavy defeat suffered by the US forces in the Isfahan operation. The failed raid was carried out after the enemy conducted extensive aerial reconnaissance operations in the days leading up to the attack, according to the exclusive information. During those initial infiltration and reconnaissance missions, the US and possibly the Zionist regime lost a significant number of aircraft, including at least one A-10 Thunderbolt II and two Black Hawk helicopters.

The information obtained by Press TV reveals that “zero hour” for the failed Isfahan operation was set during a secret meeting at the White House under the direct supervision of the US president himself. It has now become clear that this operation had no connection to the claimed rescue of a downed F-15 fighter pilot, a narrative initially pushed by American officials. Instead, evidence examined and confirmed by Press TV indicates that the real objective was to infiltrate and attack one of Iran’s nuclear facilities in Isfahan. The landing site for C-130 transport aircraft, chosen based on previous reconnaissance, was an abandoned airstrip located dangerously close to one of these nuclear sites.
The Americans miscalculated, believing that Iran’s air defense would be unable to confront the aircraft involved in the operation. However, Press TV learned that the deployment of numerous US aircraft occurred while the Iranian Armed Forces were in full alert, waiting for them. In fact, American special forces fell directly into a trap set by Iranian forces. The Iranian Armed Forces, including the Army, Law Enforcement (Faraja), the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and local popular forces, initially did not show a serious reaction to the landing of the first C-130, which was carrying dozens of special forces commandos. Evidence shows this aircraft veered somewhat off the runway while landing at the abandoned dirt airstrip.
Minutes later, a second C-130 aircraft approached, carrying specialized vehicles, several MH-6 Little Bird helicopters, and other support equipment. At that moment, Iranian forces on the scene targeted the second aircraft before it could land, turning its normal landing into an emergency one. Two Black Hawk helicopters also arrived shortly after. It was at this moment that the aircraft, helicopters, and commandos who had disembarked from the first plane became perfect targets for the Iranian Armed Forces. After the special forces realized they had fallen into the trap, the White House situation room made a critical decision: the main operation to infiltrate the nuclear site was changed into a desperate rescue operation for the dozens of US commandos trapped under Iranian fire.
The Americans immediately sent several smaller aircraft to extract their forces, barely managing to gather the individuals and withdraw them from the deadly situation. The rescue operation was conducted so hastily that some soldiers and officers abandoned their equipment, including, according to the evidence possessed by Press TV, the identification document of an American officer left behind in the area, to save their lives. After the commandos were evacuated, American fighter jets established a line of fire with a 5-kilometer radius to prevent Iranian forces from approaching the abandoned C-130s at the airstrip. The jets also carried out heavy bombing of their own equipment to prevent it from falling into Iranian hands. I
n this failed operation, US special forces did not even have the chance to fly the special Little Bird helicopters; some were destroyed on the ground, while others were destroyed inside the second C-130 aircraft. Following this disgraceful and heavy defeat, Trump hastily and chaotically held multiple press conferences to cover up the failure and falsely portray it as a pilot rescue operation. The information obtained by Press TV describes these propaganda shows, led by Trump and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, as reminiscent of Hollywood films – lies that have not even been accepted by many American audiences.The information available notes that Trump will continue to fabricate other “Hollywood-style” operations to falsely claim achievements and appease public opinion in the US.
However, his and Hegseth’s repeated storytelling and lying, which have reduced public confidence in him both in the US and across the world to the lowest possible level, have made his “Goebbels-style lies” very difficult to believe.People in the US and across the world are asking a pointed question: “How is it that a country which supposedly has neither air defense left nor an army or armed forces has managed to shoot down and destroy so many fighter jets and various aircraft, and continues to add to its album of different types of destroyed fighter jets, planes, helicopters, and drones,” a highly-placed source in Tehran told Press TV.
The heavy defeat of the Isfahan operation, he noted, could be recorded in history as the worst and most disgraceful failure of the US military, even worse than the failed Tabas operation of 1980, which saw a botched rescue attempt end in disaster for Washington. The information obtained by Press TV notes that the heavy aftershocks of this “great debacle” for Trump will affect not only the fate of the ongoing war against the Islamic Republic of Iran but also the political future of “America’s gambling and ignorant president,” his Republican party, and the American political scene for years to come.

” In Moscow, Zarif is known as a Russia-hating, backstabbing liar who negotiates with deceit and whose word is worthless.”

• The Persian Backstabber Strikes Again (John Helmer)

Mohammed Javad Zarif has grown fatter and more swollen-headed since he was replaced as Iran’s Foreign Minister in 2021, then removed as Vice President in 2025. In Moscow, Zarif is known as a Russia-hating, backstabbing liar who negotiates with deceit and whose word is worthless.

For Zarif to publish last week an essay titled “How Iran Should End the War – A Deal Tehran Could Take”, from the tribune of the money establishment in New York, the Council on Foreign Relations, is understandable in Moscow. This is because, comments a Moscow source in position to know, he is “registering his address in Teheran at the very least to tell the Americans to target their bombs and missiles elsewhere. He hates Russians and someone is promoting him. The US has shown what they do with discussions, plans, ideas through the negotiations,” the source said. “They have demonstrated there is zero or less regard for any idea. Trump is fixated on ‘stone age’ destruction and ‘capitulation.’ If and when he does a ceasefire, it will be so he can break it. That’s a lesson the North Koreans alone seem to have learned and not anyone else. “
This is a guarded reference to the Russian look and sound-alikes in Moscow telling President Vladimir Putin to trust President Donald Trump’s “Anchorage understandings” and to end the war on the Ukraine battlefield with schemes for US investments in exchange for Russian assets.
Just so, Zarif’s end-of-war plan includes the proposal “to further consolidate peace, Iran and the United States should initiate mutually beneficial trade, economic, and technological cooperation. Iran, for example, could invite oil companies, including interested American ones, to immediately facilitate exports to buyers. Iran, the United States, and Persian Gulf countries might all partner on projects involving energy and advanced technologies. .. Finally, Iran and the United States should announce and sign a permanent nonaggression pact. By doing so, they would commit to not use or threaten to use force against each other.”
The Russian promoting the same combination of trust in Trump, trust in money that talks through Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner – not yet in the pages of Foreign Affairs – is Kirill Dmitriev. He too is described by his Russian critics as too pro-American to be trusted.
The Iranian Prosecutor is reported to have issued a reprimand for Zarif. “According to follow-up and information from informed sources, following the publication of an article in the American journal Foreign Affairs that has been determined to be contrary to national security, Mohammad Javad Zarif has been issued a reprimand. In this regard, the Prosecutor’s Office, issuing a warning addressed to political figures and those with a public platform, emphasized: ‘During this imposed war, figures and those with a platform must not express opinions or publish material contrary to national interests, national integrity, and social cohesion, nor outside the bounds of their authority.’” The Russian Security Council is highly critical of Dmitriev but he is in no danger from the state prosecutor.
Iran International, the Shah Pahlavi opposition publication financed by Saudi Arabia in London, has quoted the reaction to Zarif by a well-known Iranian government supporter: “Even someone who is blind, deaf, and mute can understand that you [Zarif] are a traitor. In the middle of this proposal you call for improved relations between Iran and the US, an enemy that killed my leader and has shown such disrespect to Iran. I give Zarif three days. If he does not say he screwed up, on the fourth night we will gather and go to (storm) his house.”
The same publication claims that Zarif’s publication accompanies a recent speech by Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president between 2013-21 and Zarif’s political patron, behind the closed doors of the Supreme National Security Council. Rouhani reportedly said: “Alongside heroic resistance, we must be prepared to bring the war to an honourable end in the interest of the country and the people. Preserving the country and the system requires immediate fundamental reforms in policymaking; the people have made their position clear to the authorities…it was necessary to coordinate national resources to prevent attacks on the Persian Gulf islands and maintain control of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Zarif lived in New York when he was Iran’s ambassador to the UN. His children were born in the city and hold dual US citizenship. He has published several articles in Foreign Affairs going back to 2014 when he wrote an appeal to the Obama Administration on Rouhani’s behalf entitled “What Iran Really Wants — Iranian Foreign Policy in the Rouhani Era”.
In the Russian file, Zarif claimed that Foreign Minister Lavrov and President Putin had conspired with General Qassem Soleimani in 2015 – before Trump assassinated him in 2020 – to block the terms endorsed by the US and Zarif of the nuclear-limiting Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The claim was false. The interpretation in Moscow was that Zarif was lying to benefit either his political allies in Teheran or in Washington, or both.

”The math is brutal. Even in a blue wave scenario where Democrats flip every competitive seat, Republicans would still hold the Senate 51-49“

• Senate Democrats Might Not Have November In The Bag (ZH)

Based on various polls, Democrats are leading Republicans by roughly five to six points on the generic congressional ballot. While this certainly means they have an advantage, the numbers actually show real trouble for the Democrats for this year’s midterm elections. And even CNN isn’t trying to sugarcoat it for the Democratic Party. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten took a hard look at the numbers, and the picture for Democrats is not what most might expect. They should have a much bigger lead, and the fact that they don’t is a huge red flag.

“This lead is historically low for Democrats at this point with a Republican president,” Enten pointed out. “On average, their lead is actually slightly less. It’s five points. That’s less than it was back in 2018 when it was eight points and way less than it was during the 2006 cycle when it was 11 points.” According to Enten, there’s a huge disparity between how Democrats are performing in generic congressional ballot polling and President Donald Trump’s approval ratings. Trump’s net approval rating is somewhere between -20 and -30 points. This is not a strong position for the party in power. Combined with the historical precedent that midterm elections usually favor the minority party, the numbers should spell disaster for the Republican Party, but it’s not.
“You’d make the argument Democrats should be way ahead, and they’re just only sort of slightly ahead.” A small shift might be enough for Democrats to take the House, but the Senate is a completely different animal, and according to Enten, the numbers suggest Democrats’ hopes of winning the Senate are not good. The math is brutal. Even in a blue wave scenario where Democrats flip every competitive seat, Republicans would still hold the Senate 51-49 because Trump carried states like Ohio, Texas, and Alaska by more than ten points. In this scenario, Democrats would pick up North Carolina and Maine, which would be a huge let down for the GOP, but that’s not enough to flip the upper chamber.
For years, Democrats have fantasized about flipping Texas, and they think that James Talarico is the perfect candidate to make it happen. But as Enten noted, Democrats have never been able to flip Senate seats that Trump won by 10 points or more. So, what’s holding the Democrats back? Favorability, or the lack thereof. In 2018, Democrats held a 12-point net favorability advantage over Republicans at this stage of the cycle. In 2006, that gap was 18 points. Today? Republicans are actually ahead on net favorability by five points.n”Democrats are just, simply put, running behind their previous benchmarks,” Enten said, “and they need to be running well ahead of them if they want to take back the United States Senate.”
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2041161341608603688
Democrats have spent months positioning themselves as the resistance to Trump’s second term, betting that public anger at the administration would carry them into the majority and give them the power actually to block his agenda. But if voters dislike Democrats even more than they dislike Republicans, that entire strategy blows up. A six-point generic ballot lead just won’t cut it if Democrats want to win back the Senate. This, of course, is a huge problem for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose future in party leadership is in doubt. Senate Democrats are growing increasingly restless with him – and more importantly, with the strategy he’s banking on for the midterms.
Schumer has been supporting more centrist picks he believes have a better shot at winning their elections, while more progressive candidates are being sidelined. According to reports, some lawmakers have already begun informally counting votes to see whether there’s enough support to make a move. He may have the votes to survive a challenge now, but if Democrats fail to win back the Senate, the blame is going to land squarely on him.
Even without control of the Senate, Donald Trump still holds a powerful advantage where it matters most: the courts. Democrats no longer have the judicial filibuster at their disposal, which means they’ve lost one of their last tools for stalling or blocking nominees. So even if they manage to flip the House, it won’t stop Trump from reshaping the judiciary. Judicial confirmations—and even potential Supreme Court appointments – can still move forward, ensuring his influence on the courts endures well beyond his time in office.

If and when you compare the president of the United Stateds with satan, you count for nothing anymore.

Because over half the American population votes for, and supports, the person.

Go to the supermarket, go to Main Street, today, watch everyday life, and tell me what you saw. Over 50% of Americans are satanists?

Bye Doctorow. You’re done, you’re over.

PS Hitler wasn’t bad enough?

• Recognizing The Intervention Of Satan In Our Times (Gilbert Doctorow)

The personality defects of Donald J. Trump have been the subject of amateur psychology in mass media since his first presidential electoral campaign in 2016. The trait that has been most discussed was and is narcissism. Google’s AI Search has the following to say about this issue: “Numerous mental health professionals and critics have publicly suggested that Donald Trump exhibits traits consistent with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), and paranoid personality disorder, often grouping them under the term “malignant narcissism“. These claims, primarily argued by psychologists and psychiatrists, cite patterns of grandiosity, lack of empathy, need for admiration, and impulsivity.”

This portrait of Trump is the product of specialists operating in our secular culture. However, this is Easter Sunday and I think it entirely appropriate to approach the issue from a Christian binary analytical framework of Good and Evil, God and Satan. This is all the more relevant because Trump professes to take religion seriously. Key members of his administration, like Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth, are zealous Believers and speak publicly of their religion.
In this context and considering the Easter Sunday dateline of this message to the Community, I say that Trump and the senior members of his Administration have stepped right out of Dostoevsky’s novel The Possessed. They are Evil Incarnate, they are possessed by Satan in their support of Israeli genocide in Gaza and now in the vicious, inhuman violence they are directing against the Iranian people. Listening to Trump’s daily diatribes, his bloody threats against Tehran, it strains belief that these words are coming from our top elected official.
And so I conclude: Shame on the United States if this man is not impeached and removed from office, sent to face the International Court of Justice for war crimes.
Amen.

“..more than $11B in 2025 alone..”

• FBI Finds Americans Lose Billions To Cryptocurrency Scams (JTN)

Americans lost more than $20 billion to cryptocurrency and other online scams in 2025, a 26% increase over the year before, according to the latest figures from the FBI. Online fraud is rising fast. Scams that use cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence are getting smarter. This makes it hard for people, especially seniors, to tell what is real and what is a scam. The new FBI data shows these scams are becoming a bigger problem, and police are trying to fight back. According to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report, nearly $11.4 billion of last year’s $20 billion in online scam losses came from cryptocurrency scams. Of that, $7.2 billion resulted from cryptocurrency investment scams.

The report also says that seniors are the most likely to lose money to scams. People ages 60 and older lost about $7.7 billion, which is 37% more than in 2024.In 2025, the FBI received 81,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints, a 21% increase from 2024. These reports accounted for $11.4 billion in losses, with an average individual loss of $62,604. Over 18,500 complaints involved losses exceeding $100,000. “Cryptocurrency investment scams are sophisticated long-term scams using psychological manipulation, the appearance of legitimacy, and exploitation of cryptocurrencies to deceive victims into investing large sums of money,” according to the report.
“These scams are largely perpetrated by organized criminal enterprises based in Southeast Asia using victims of human trafficking as forced labor to run the scam operations.”In a high-stakes scheme, scammers aggressively lure victims, urging them to transfer cryptocurrency to fraudulent investment platforms or apps. They quickly show victims fabricated profits and dangle the promise of loans, pressing them to invest even more. The moment victims attempt to withdraw funds, they are slammed with bogus taxes and fees, amplifying the devastation. Then, in a final bid to get more money, some offer recovery scams to these victims. “Victims are also targeted in recovery scams, claiming to help recover lost funds,” according to the report. ”
These scams are often devastating because they can leave victims with significant financial loss and emotional distress.” The FBI wants everyone to use the “Take a Beat” method to spot scam warning signs. “Resist pressure to act quickly and assess the situation before turning over money or personal information,” the agency warned. People who are victims or may know victims of a fraud or scam should call their local FBI office or submit a complaint at ic3.gov as soon as possible. Victims should document the name of the scammer, the company, the methods of contact, the dates of contact, the methods of payment, where funds have been sent, and a thorough description of the interactions.

“Brussels would rather “paralyze” the member state or stage a coup than allow Viktor Orban to stay in power, Karin Kneissl has told RT..” Vance in Budapest in just theater. Kneissl is not.

• Hungary Election A US-EU ‘Proxy War’ – Ex-Austrian Foreign Minister (RT)

The US and EU are engaged in a political “proxy war” in Hungary, with Washington and Brussels backing rival sides ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections, according to former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl. Kneissl made the remarks in an interview with RT as US Vice President J.D. Vance visited Budapest on Tuesday in a show of support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. During the trip, Vance criticized “bureaucrats in Brussels, who have done everything that they can to hold down the people of Hungary,” ahead of Sunday’s vote.

According to Kneissl, Vance’s decision to visit Europe while the US was simultaneously involved in a contentious war with Iran “says a lot” about the importance Washington places on the elections. She noted that the move aligns with the US National Security Strategy released last December, which identifies “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” as a priority. She said the language is “very telling” about how the Americans “feel about Brussels,” noting that Washington is known for being persistent in pursuing its geopolitical objectives. “Yes, you can call it interference – what the Americans are doing. The same thing they did in Yugoslavia, Serbia in 2001,” the former diplomat said.
Brussels has been openly critical of Orban – described by Kneissl as a life-long “Hungarian nationalist” and “sovereignist” critical of many agendas pushed by EU leaders – labeling him as ‘pro-Russian.’She also pointed to Brussels apparently backing Ukrainian efforts to bar Hungary’s access to Russian oil – for which Budapest retaliated by blocking a joint EU loan for Kiev – as well as discussions in the bloc about potentially suspending Budapest’s voting rights if Orban remains in power.
”They will just put a member state… paralyze it. And some people even speak of – they use the word ‘Maidan,’ they use the words ‘color revolution.’ Not in a third country, but inside an EU member country,” Kneissl said.

“:This is akin to Pete Rose sending out copies of the MLB betting policy.”

• Unconstitutional Effort to Bar Trump from Ballot in Maine (Turley)

Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is actually running for governor on her willingness to take flagrantly unconstitutional action. Bellows is touting her removal of Trump from the ballot, an effort that led to a unanimous Supreme Court swatting down Colorado and Maine. Bellows is virtually giddy recounting her efforts to stymie democracy and prevent voters from casting their ballots for the man who ultimately won the election.

Democrats have been running this year on the pledges to launch a virtual roundup of Trump officials and supporters for investigations and impeachments. New York congressional candidate George Conway is pledging to change impeachment rules to secure the removal of President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. However, Bellows, the former ACLU executive director in Maine, is parading her willingness to do things barred by the Constitution. Campaigning on an unconstitutional act rejected 9-0 by the Supreme Court (including three liberal justices) truly captures this age of rage. It is the equivalent to how mobsters “make their bones” by whacking someone. Bellows is effectively saying that she was willing to do what other Democrats were unwilling to do: violate the Constitution.
Shenna Bellows has long embraced extreme political and historical viewpoints, including denouncing the electoral college as a “relic of white supremacy.” Bellows also declared that voter ID laws are “rooted in white supremacy.” Bellows previously declared that “the Jan. 6 insurrection was an unlawful attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election…The insurrectionists failed, and democracy prevailed.” A year after the riot, Bellows was still denouncing the “violent insurrection.” In her campaign speeches, she is still calling the riot an “insurrection” and heralding her own bravery in seeking to block a democratic vote.
Notably, polls show the public rejecting the claim of an insurrection and neither Trump nor his associates were ever charged with insurrection. Yet, it is certifiably established that Bellows attempted to violate the Constitution and subvert the democratic process. In its unanimous rejection of the move, the Court declared “Nothing in the Constitution requires that we endure such chaos.” Bellows was one of those agents of chaos. As Bellows relished the national attention for her consideration of cleansing the ballot, some of us argued that the act would be outrageously unconstitutional.
Ironically, Bellows never got very far in her effort. A superior judge enjoined her, and she repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to get the matter before a higher court. In other words, it did nothing but generate publicity for Bellows and was an utter failure that ended in the 9-0 loss in the Colorado case. Bellows did not even get to join Colorado in defending the effort. Even Maine’s Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden denounced Bellows decision.The irony is crushing. Bellows is posting videos declaring that she has attempted to instruct Trump on the Constitution, but “The President clearly didn’t get the copy of the Constitution I sent him.”
This is akin to Pete Rose sending out copies of the MLB betting policy. bThere is no sense of self-awareness as Bellows proclaims, “there are no kings in America…we have a democracy.” She sought to prevent democracy by blocking the candidate who went on to win the election handily.
In my recent book “Rage and The Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution”, I discuss the rise of the “new Jacobins,” radicals who are calling for the scrapping of the Constitution or utilizing unconstitutional means to achieve political power. “By any means necessary” has become a mantra on the left.
The true tragedy is that this is likely to work in garnering support. Bellows and other Democrats are in a race to the bottom in proving that they are willing to do things that might make others hesitate. While she may be viewed as bonkers by the courts, Bellows is bona fide for the perpetually enraged.

Almost a million party members were punished.

• Xi Jinping Carries Out Record-Breaking Punishments Inside CCP (JTN)

More evidence comes in pointing to Xi Jinping having purged the ranks of the PLA and CCP. Reports say the Chinese Communist Party disciplined 983,000 party and government officials last year . China’s strongman leader Xi Jinping carried out a record number of disciplinary actions against Chinese Communist Party members and government officials, a Taiwanese intelligence agency assessed, as Xi conducted a massive purge of People’s Liberation Army leaders ahead of a 2027 deadline to be ready to invade Taiwan.

The Taiwan government’s National Security Bureau reportedly assessed that the CCP had punished nearly one million CCP members and People’s Republic of China officials during 2025, a new report found, which seems to dovetail with Xi’s removal of a host of high-ranking Chinese military brass as he prepares the PLA for war and increases his already iron-like grip on power in the country.
44 generals and admirals, as well as 57 lieutenant generals and vice admirals removed
“The Chinese Communist Party last year disciplined 983,000 party and government officials, a record high during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s tenure, according to a report by the National Security Bureau,” the Taipei Times reported on Tuesday, with the assessment reportedly being sent to Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan — the democratic island nation’s equivalent of the U.S. Congress — ahead of the scheduled committee testimony of Tsai Ming-yen, the director-general of the important Taiwanese intelligence agency. The Department of War’s annual report on China from December assessed that “China expects to be able to fight and win a war on Taiwan by the end of 2027.”
Xi has carried out a multi-year spree of removing top Chinese military commanders from the highest echelons of the PLA, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies finding that the Chinese leader has removed 44 generals and admirals as well as 57 lieutenant generals and vice admirals since 2022. CSIS added that, of the nearly four dozen PLA leaders who were generals in 2022 or were promoted to three-star roles post-2022, 87 percent of them “were purged or potentially purged” as of February of this year.
“Among those whose titles the CCP revoked last year were eight top researchers, including Liu Cangli, former director of the China Academy of Engineering Physics, the country’s main institution for research, development and testing of nuclear weapons and related technologies,” the Taipei Times said the new intel report also found. The outlet wrote on Tuesday: “Since the beginning of this year, the CCP has investigated many senior officials, including two high-level CCP officials — Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, chief of the commission’s Joint Staff Department — as well as politburo member Ma Xingrui, Chongqing Mayor Hu Henghua, and 17 centrally managed cadres, the NSB said.”
CCP purges might be driven by U.S. military successes
Some assessments have contended that changes within the Chinese military leadership have occurred due to fears about U.S. military superiority demonstrated on the battlefield. The Taiwanese intel assessment from this month reportedly found that “the removals” of top Chinese generals and admirals “might have been linked to the CCP’s sale of military equipment to countries such as Venezuela that have performed poorly in conflict scenarios in the past few years.” Miles Yu, the director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute, also wrote in late March that the waves of Xi-led purges inside the PLA might be being driven by recent impressive performances by the U.S. military.
“The modern trajectory of China’s weapons development cannot be understood without recognizing a recurring pattern: Every major leap in the People’s Liberation Army has been triggered by decisive demonstrations of U.S. military superiority,” Yu wrote in the Washington Times. “From the Persian Gulf War to more recent confrontations involving Iran and Venezuela, American battlefield dominance has repeatedly exposed systemic weaknesses in China’s military-industrial complex, forcing cycles of hurried modernization, internal crisis, and political purges.”

The Artemis story I don’t quite get. They’re doing stuff that NASA should have done 50 years ago, and pretending it’s party-worthy?1

• This Is What a World Superpower Looks Like (Ben Shapiro)

America is living through a moment difficult to describe without sounding a little unhinged. But here goes: We are watching the United States do things that only the United States can do. In the span of a few days, Americans have watched astronauts push farther into space than any human beings in history, while U.S. forces execute military operations so precise and technologically overwhelming that they look like something written for a Hollywood script. Pilots are being rescued in missions that resemble “Mission: Impossible.” Terrorists are being eliminated with the kind of targeted strikes that only a modern superpower can carry out.

And somehow, this has become so normal that we barely stop to appreciate it. On Monday, Artemis II made history. According to The Wall Street Journal, the astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft traveled more than 248,655 miles from Earth — farther than any human beings have ever gone. It is worth repeating: farther than any human beings have ever gone. Not in science fiction. Not in a theoretical model. In real life. In real time. With Americans at the controls. President Donald Trump called the crew to congratulate them, and what followed was a reminder of how far beyond our daily politics the American project really reaches.
“Tell me, what is the most unforgettable part of this really historic day?” the president asked. “The whole world is watching and listening. Please tell me.” Commander Reid Wiseman responded with the kind of awe you would expect from someone looking at the universe from a vantage point no human being has ever had before. He spoke of seeing the moon from a new perspective, of witnessing sights “no human has ever seen before,” even during Apollo. He described an eclipse — the sun, the moon, darkness outside the window, the corona visible — and even the “planet train” lining up in the distance.
Then he said something that sounded less like an astronaut’s report and more like a statement of national destiny: America, he said, was becoming part of the story of a “two-planet species.” That is what the United States is doing right now. And it is not happening in isolation. It is happening alongside a broader national posture that is unmistakably American: an insistence that the country is not merely capable of greatness but obligated to pursue it. For years, Americans have been trained to speak about their own country in tones of apology. The national mood has been one long exercise in self-criticism, as if confidence itself were a moral failing.
But there is a reason the rest of the world still looks at the United States as the place where things happen. People don’t just come here because we have jobs. They come because America still offers something rare: the opportunity to build, to create, to rise. The system is imperfect, but it remains the most powerful engine for human advancement ever constructed.And that same system, the same country capable of sending astronauts a quarter-million miles into space, is also the guarantor of global security — whether people want to admit it or not. That brings us to Iran.
For decades, the Iranian regime has played the same game: fund terrorism, destabilize the Middle East, pursue nuclear weapons, develop long-range ballistic missiles, brutalize its own population, and then demand to be treated as a legitimate member of the international community. The Trump administration’s position is simple: That game is over. What critics conveniently ignore is that Iran has been offered an off-ramp repeatedly. The United States has not demanded cultural surrender or humiliation. The requirements are basic: Stop pursuing nuclear weapons, stop developing long-range missiles, and stop funding terrorism. That is it.
Iran could have chosen that path at any time — not just in recent years but over nearly half a century. They could have been reintegrated into the world economy. They could have normalized relations. They could have chosen prosperity over fanaticism. Instead, they chose escalation. They chose theocracy. They chose regional domination. They chose to bankroll terror groups and accelerate toward nuclear capability. They chose to become a permanent source of instability. And now, they are facing the consequences.
The United States has unleashed military power with a level of dominance that has few parallels in history. The Iranian navy has been devastated. Its air force has been neutralized. Missile-launching capacity has been pushed toward collapse. Key industrial targets have been hit. Nuclear facilities have been bombed. Checkpoints and regime infrastructure have been struck with precision. This is not a stalemate. This is not a quagmire. By any reasonable historical standard, it is a superpower dismantling a hostile regime’s military capacity in real time.

Isn’t this how this all started? All the Dems saying in 2015 he had no chance in hell to win the election, were also claiming there was no way she loved him. Today, you can only WISH for your lady to love you how she does.

• Melania vs. the Mean Girls (Sarah Anderson)

We can also all agree that women can be catty when it comes to other women’s looks. No one wants to be the ugliest girl in the room, and I can imagine it may feel that way when you’re frumpy and dumpy and standing next to Melania Trump. The first lady is a good bit older than me, and I’ll be the first to admit that I will never look like she does. Even if I work out for hours a day, go on a special diet, have all the surgery and procedures, buy all the products, and wear outfits worth tens of thousands of dollars.

But I’m okay with that. I accept it. The older I get, the more I realize that someone’s physical appearance isn’t nearly as important as who they are, as cliché as that sounds. While I do enjoy seeing what Melania is wearing at various events, I’m far more interested in watching her interact with sick children in a hospital, talk to people who just lost their homes to national disasters, or interact with former hostages. She truly shines in these situations. Unfortunately, other women are not able to put that aside. Initially, I thought it was all politics — they hate Trump, so they’re going to bash his wife. But now I’m beginning to think that they are just catty and jealous.
They’re the frumpy and dumpy — and incredibly shallow — who can’t stand to be outshined by Mrs. Trump’s beauty. Some of the latest examples of this are actress Meryl Streep and former Vogue editor Anna Wintour. I guess they’re promoting a new movie, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and they had “a conversation” as part of this month’s Vogue cover story. I’ll admit that I partially read that article so I could write this one, and by the time I was done, I wanted to go take a shower or bleach my brain or something. It was the most pretentious, hoity-toity crap I’d ever read. These women need to get out of their limos and touch grass. Or maybe Artemis II can grab them and bring them back down to earth with it on Friday. But I digress.
Anyway, the Melania-bashing began when filmmaker Greta Gerwig, who was conducting the interview, posed the question: “Do you think about how women are meant to dress to communicate power?” Because of all the things going on in the world right now, this is important. Wintour responded by propping up the “women one admires:” Michelle Obama and Rama Duwaji, wife of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani — you know, the one who cheered on Hamas on October 7 and uses racial and homophobic slurs on social media. No, Anna, one does not admire these women. At least not one with a brain.
“Think about the women that one admires: Mrs. [Michelle] Obama comes to mind,” Wintour said. “Whether she’s wearing J.Crew or Duro Olowu or Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel, she always looks like herself. I’m full of admiration for New York City’s new first lady because she looks so cool and wears a lot of vintage—young and modern and also entirely herself.” Then she added this: “To be fair, Melania Trump also always looks like herself when she dresses.” There was no explanation, no breakdown of what she wears, just a blunt statement that came across as an insult and was presumably meant that way.
Streep claimed she had “so many thoughts about this” and brought up one particular outfit that Mrs. Trump wore in June 2018. “I think the most powerful message that our current first lady sent was in the coat that said ‘I Really Don’t Care, Do U?’ when she was going to see migrant children who were incarcerated.”
Nice try, Meryl, but let’s add some context. The “coat” she’s referring to is this one:

On June 21, 2018, Melania went to a migrant detention center wearing a Zara design jacket with the phrase "I Really Don't Care. Do U?" on the back. pic.twitter.com/gVYefFafF3
— MythoMAGA (@MythoMAGA) January 19, 2026

Marc Andreessen thinks Elon Musk hasn't just built successful companies, he might have actually cracked the code on how to manage for the next hundred years.

The fundamental problem with any traditional organization that has multiple layers of management is what Andreessen… pic.twitter.com/xJL3HaCVyD
— Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) April 7, 2026

Looking forward to working with Intel on the Terafab! https://t.co/i8Eie90ru0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2026

https://twitter.com/XFreeze/status/2041595253640310906?s=20

May 29, 1453. The Ottoman Empire under Sultan Mehmed II besieged Constantinople after 55 days of relentless assault.

80,000 Ottoman soldiers stood against 7,000 Christian defenders. Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Roman Emperor, had spent years sending letters across Europe… pic.twitter.com/1wFl8ms4XH
— sacredchad (@sacredchad_ig) April 7, 2026

Η Μινωική Θαλασσοκρατία#Ιστορία https://t.co/zHjE1lfXSA pic.twitter.com/yWgr4ts97J
— Dr Spyros Plakoudas (@PlakoudasSpyros) April 7, 2026

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Debt Rattle June 6 2024

Jun 062024

June 6, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:38 am Finance Tagged with: abused people, deserters, J6, jury nullification, Kneissl, presidential nomination, Putin, Scott Ritter, slipping brain, Trump 77 Responses »

Paul Gauguin We hail thee Mary 1891

• RNC Backup Plans for Presidential Nomination If Trump Is In Prison (ET)

• X Urges Supreme Court for Review After Jack Smith Obtained Trump Files (ET)

• J6 Committee Delayed Secret Service Driver From Refuting Limo Story (Turley)

• Poll: Plurality of Americans Believe Trump Trial was Politically Motivated (AmG)

• “Biden Allies Freak After WSJ Blasts “Slipping” Brain (ZH)

• Is Hunter Biden Pursuing a Jury Nullification Strategy? (Turley)

• Scott Ritter on Reason Behind Move to Stop Him From Traveling to Russia (Sp.)

• NATO Would Stand No Chance’ Against Russia-China Military Alliance (Sp.)

• The West Is Already At War With Russia But Its Leaders Can’t Wake Up (Jay)

• Ukraine To Recruit Deserters – Media (RT)

• Ukraine No Longer Allowing Dual Citizens To Leave (RT)

• Nobody in US Has Ukraine’s Interests At Heart – Putin (RT)

• Austria’s Ex-FM Kneissl Says Europe ‘Lost Its Soul,’ Entered War Path (Sp.)

• Americans Are an Abused People (Paul Craig Roberts)

Huckabee
https://twitter.com/i/status/1798530465214693854

Trump ad

Trump just posted this brutal reality check: pic.twitter.com/rJIwG7qQmQ

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 5, 2024

https://twitter.com/i/status/1798402097773428890

HANNITY: You were asked about the possibility that Judge Merchan might send you to jail—you don't have to be doing this?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I said very strongly that I'm proud to fight for our constitution and if that's what it takes… We are dealing with this system that is so… pic.twitter.com/SZ5VeOFsct

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 6, 2024

Ron Paul
https://twitter.com/i/status/1798183178823197100

John Roberts
https://twitter.com/i/status/1798137403019768042

The greatest temptation is to settle for too little. – Thomas Merton

Trump Black Panthers

BREAKING: Following the New York conviction, David Hilliard, one of the founders of the Black Panther party has given a SHOCKING endorsement to Trump and revealed that Trump financially supported the party

"Trump's a friend of African Americans, and I knew Trump from the 1960s… pic.twitter.com/44eOmWsutr

— George (@BehizyTweets) June 5, 2024

Putin on Trump case

Eyes on!

Putin speaks in regard to the Biden regime’s political weaponization of the justice system, and how they are destroying democracy!

Putin also points out how Trump’s support has risen after the conviction.

This is a must watch!pic.twitter.com/HRCwOotm4b

— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) June 5, 2024

Laptop

The FBI just admitted in court that Hunter Biden's laptop is real.

Here are 20 minutes of Joe Biden, U.S. intelligence officials, and the American media claiming that Hunter Biden's laptop was "Russian disinformation."

The FBI has had possession of Hunter's laptop since… pic.twitter.com/5lzQaXitwq

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) June 5, 2024

Laptop
https://twitter.com/i/status/1798383585683968496

The last paragraph is golden.

• RNC Backup Plans for Presidential Nomination If Trump Is In Prison (ET)

With former President Donald Trump facing the possibility of being sentenced to prison just days before the Republican National Convention, GOP officials are formulating backup plans in case the former president isn’t able to receive the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in person. “We’ll be thinking about it, and we’re working on that right now,” Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley told Newsmax in an interview on June 4, when asked whether the Republican Party is preparing for the possibility that the former president can’t attend the convention because he’s behind bars. The convention, which will take place in Milwaukee from July 15 to July 18, is expected to draw thousands, but President Trump might not be one of them, given his recent felony conviction and the possibility that, on July 11, Justice Juan Merchan will sentence him to prison.

President Trump was recently found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide nondisclosure payments, supposedly to prevent bad press and sway the 2016 election in his favor. He maintains his innocence and says he’s the victim of a vindictive political prosecution meant to derail his 2024 comeback bid. Justice Merchan could sentence President Trump to up to four years on each business records falsification count, with a maximum of 20 years. The former president said in a June 2 interview on Fox News that he could handle being jailed or imprisoned, while calling the people involved in his conviction “sick” and “evil.” The former president and his attorneys have vowed to appeal the conviction, with President Trump even calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to step in before the sentencing date and overturn the guilty verdict.

Although a former Manhattan district attorney predicted that President Trump would receive no prison time regardless of any appeals process, GOP officials say they’ll be ready to handle whatever scenario presents itself at the convention. “We expect that Donald Trump is going to be in Milwaukee and he’s going to be able to accept that nomination,” Mr. Whatley said. “And if not, we will make whatever contingency planning we need to make for it.” Although Mr. Whatley didn’t provide specifics about the contingency plans, he said the RNC will “certainly” have a plan in place to make sure President Trump receives the nomination no matter what. “We want to have a show that is going to roll out Donald Trump and his vision for America, which is going to set up this election cycle,” Mr. Whatley said while expressing confidence that President Trump will become the 47th president when the Election Day dust settles in November.

In response to Mr. Whatley’s preparing for the possibility of President Trump virtually addressing the Republican National Convention, Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: “Even before Donald Trump became a convicted felon, his inner circle was already staffed by a roster of convicts and fraudsters brought on board for their loyalty to Trump and his MAGA agenda over the rule of law. Now Trump’s hand-picked RNC chair is openly floating Trump calling into the convention from a jail cell because the Republican Party has become completely beholden to a criminal who is willing to undermine our justice system and our democracy to pursue his agenda of revenge and retribution.”

“..disclosing the warrant would result in “destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and serious jeopardy to the investigation,” and let President Trump “flee from prosecution.”

• X Urges Supreme Court for Review After Jack Smith Obtained Trump Files (ET)

Elon Musk’s X Corp. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider stepping in against a process that lets officials obtain information from social media companies and bars the companies from informing people whose information is handed over. The process wrongly enables officials to “access and review potentially privileged materials without any opportunity for the user to assert privileges—including constitutional privileges,” lawyers for X said in a filing to the nation’s top court. Unsealed documents in 2023 showed that X provided data and records from former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account to special counsel Jack Smith after Mr. Smith obtained a search warrant. X was blocked from informing President Trump by a nondisclosure order that Mr. Smith also obtained. The order said disclosing the warrant would result in “destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and serious jeopardy to the investigation,” and let President Trump “flee from prosecution.”

X challenged the order, arguing it violated its First Amendment rights and noting that President Trump might have reason to claim executive privilege, or presidential privilege. The company wanted to alert the former president so he could assert the privilege, but U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled against it, claiming during a hearing that the only reason X was issuing the challenge was “because the CEO wants to cozy up with the former president.” A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the ruling from Judge Howell, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. “The government proffered two compelling interests that supported nondisclosure of the search warrant: preserving the integrity and maintaining the secrecy of its ongoing criminal investigation of the events surrounding January 6, 2021,” U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pan wrote. She was joined by Circuit Judges Cornelia Pillard and Michelle Childs. Judge Pillard was appointed by President Obama; Judges Pan and Childs were appointed by President Joe Biden.

The full court denied a rehearing en banc, although four judges said “we should not have endorsed this gambit,” referring to the combination of a warrant and nondisclosure order. “Rather than follow established precedent, for the first time in American history, a court allowed access to presidential communications before any scrutiny of executive privilege,” Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote in a dissent. The appointee of President Trump was joined by Circuit Judges Gregory Katsas and Justin Walker, other President Trump appointees; and Judge Karen Henderson, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush. The Supreme Court should take up the case because the majority’s opinion conflicts with Supreme Court precedent and rulings from other circuits, lawyers for X said in the new petition. “This court has long held that holders of executive privilege must have notice and an opportunity to assert privilege before confidentiality of the potentially privileged documents is breached. The decision below departs from that precedent.

Because former President Trump was not informed of the warrant before his records were produced, he could not timely assert executive privilege,” they wrote. Several circuit courts have issued contrasting decisions, which creates a split that needs resolved, X lawyers said. That included a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that cleared a protocol for a warrant that involved giving people with attorney-client privilege “the first opportunity to identify potentially privileged materials” and did not let investigators access the materials until the parties or the court approved. Another circuit split exists in regard to the nondisclosure order, the lawyers said. In Freedman v. Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled that “any restraint prior to judicial review can be imposed only briefly in order to preserve the status quo.” While two circuit courts have found the ruling does not apply to nondisclosure orders, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has found that some nondisclosure orders must adhere to the ruling. The conflict “warrants this court’s review,” X lawyers said.

What a disgrace that committee is/was.

• J6 Committee Delayed Secret Service Driver From Refuting Limo Story (Turley)

Just the News is reporting that the January 6th Committee rebuffed repeated efforts from a Secret Service agent to refute the false story related by Cassidy Hutchinson alleging a violent episode with Trump in the presidential limousine during the Capitol riots. The J6 Committee staff repeatedly delayed the testimony of the agent to disprove the widely reported allegation. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the chairman of the House subcommittee that is investigating the Jan. 6 riot, has obtained a transcript of the driver’s interview that was conducted months after he first offered to testify. However, it turns out that committee staff were asked repeatedly by counsel for the agent to let him present evidence debunking the claim. Despite being reported by virtually every news outlet, the Committee slow walked his appearance as the story went viral.

The transcript of the driver’s testimony contains express objections by the lawyer that his client had offered to testify in July, August and September of 2022, but was “rebuffed” by the committee. The account reaffirms a major criticism of the committee. After Democrats refused to allow the GOP to pick its members (as a long-accepted practice in the House), the Democrats selected two anti-Trump Republicans who did little to push for a full and fair display of witnesses and facts. The Committee was chaired by Rep. Benny Thompson, a Democrat, with Rep. Liz Cheney, as Vice Chairwoman. Cheney and the committee members clearly knew that Hutchinson’s account was debunked by the very driver who allegedly struggled with Trump. Yet, they allowed the media to report the incident for months while rebuffing the requests of the driver. Loudermilk is quoted as saying “We’re talking about the driver of the limousine, and the head of the entire protective detail. They were brought in by the select committee to testify, but they weren’t brought in until November.

The false account was given by Hutchinson in June of that year. The Secret Service driver testified Trump never tried to reach for or grab the wheel of the SUV. Notably, the transcript shows Cheney trying to explain the delay as due to the need for the Secret Service to produce all documents in the January 6 investigation. Yet, she had no problem with making the false story public through Hutchinson before such supporting material was supplied. She also did not suggest any countervailing testimony or witnesses on the issue as the media ran with the account. Instead, Cheney publicly teased the claim that they had much more evidence of crimes against Trump, which never materialized. Cheney ended one hearing by calling for more officials to come forward and noting that Trump family members and former officials have now come forward with their own public “confessions.” Many of us support the effort to bring greater transparency to what occurred on Jan. 6th and these hearings have offered a great deal of important new information.

Indeed, it has proven gut-wrenching in the accounts of lawyers and staff trying to combat baseless theories and to protect the constitutional process. Yet, the heavy-handed approach to framing the evidence by the Committee was both unnecessary and at times counterproductive. The strength of some of this evidence would not have been diminished by a more balanced committee or investigation. We previously discussed the highly scripted and entirely one-sided presentation of evidence in the Committee. Indeed, witnesses were primarily used to present what Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to as “the narrative” where their prior videotaped testimony was shown and they were given narrow follow-up questions. They at times seemed more like props than witnesses — called effectively to recite prior statements between well-crafted, impactful video clips. It had the feel of a news package, which may be the result of the decision to bring in a former ABC executive to produce the hearings.

A mixed set of numbers.

• Poll: Plurality of Americans Believe Trump Trial was Politically Motivated (AmG)

A new poll shows that a sizable plurality of the American people believe that the New York trial of former President Donald Trump was a politically-motivated show trial. As the Daily Caller reports, the ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that 47% of Americans believe the trial was indeed a political hit job, while 38% say that the trial was legitimate and fair. On the question of the “guilty” verdict, 50% of respondents believe the verdict was correct; by contrast, just 27% believe the verdict was wrong, while the remaining 23% said they “don’t know” what to believe with regards to the verdict. Among those who claimed to have followed the case closely, 55% say the verdict was correct while 35% say it was incorrect; another 8% said they “don’t know.”

After the verdict was announced, 49% of respondents said that Trump should end his campaign for re-election. Among partisan lines, just 16% of Republicans said Trump should drop out while 75% want him to continue his candidacy. Among Democrats, 79% want Trump to drop out now, while 52% of independents say the same thing. The same poll also showed that the trial and its outcome have had virtually no effect on Trump’s approval ratings, and may have even led to a slight increase. While the former president had a 29% favorability in March, his favorability currently sits at 31%. Biden’s favorability is at 32%, a slight decrease from 33% in March. The poll featured a sample size of 781 American adults, and was conducted from May 31st to June 1st. The margin of error is 3.7%.

“I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy said in an interview. “He’s not the same person.”

• “Biden Allies Freak After WSJ Blasts “Slipping” Brain (ZH)

The Biden administration is scrambling for damage control over the president’s mental condition. Over the past month, the White House claimed executive privilege over an audio tape of Biden’s classified documents interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, the transcripts of which were altered to make Biden seem more competent Next, TIME Magazine’s Massimo Calabresi couldn’t give a straight answer over Biden’s serious cognitive decline exhibited during an interview. Now, the White House and Biden allies are slamming a Tuesday report from the Wall Street Journal in which 45 people from both sides of the aisle told the outlet that Biden is, to put it mildly, two sandwiches short of a picnic. The Journal cites a January meeting behind closed doors during a critical discussion about Ukraine funding, Biden’s soft-spoken nursing home demeanor led some participants to question his engagement, as he occasionally read from notes and paused.

“You couldn’t be there and not feel uncomfortable,” one attendee noted about the meeting’s dynamics, adding “I’ll just say that.” In another example, Biden completely forgot the details of ‘his’ own policy on big energy projects during a one-on-one meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson. Others who attended said Biden’s demeanor and level of engagement fluctuated and he seemed lively and engaged at some points. When the topic moved to an immigration overhaul, Johnson, the House speaker, offered Biden a list of dozens of executive actions he could undo to improve border security. Biden, rather than responding to Johnson’s suggestions, chided him, according to people at the meeting, “I’ve forgotten more about immigration than you’ll ever know.” -WSJ

Then, during debt ceiling negotiations with House Republicans, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and others noted that Biden’s demeanor and command of the details varied significantly from day to day. On some days, Biden was described as relying heavily on notes and mumbling, which could suggest inconsistency in cognitive performance. “I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy said in an interview. “He’s not the same person.” -WSJ. The article also lays out public speaking errors, such as mixing up names of his Hispanic cabinet secretaries, mistakenly speaking about conversations with long-deceased leaders, and other factual errors. These instances contribute to the narrative of cognitive decline. In another section, the Journal reports that “The president moved so slowly around the Cabinet Room to greet the nearly two dozen congressional leaders that it took about 10 minutes for the meeting to begin, some people who attended recalled.”

What are the odds of him being convicted in Delaware?

• Is Hunter Biden Pursuing a Jury Nullification Strategy? (Turley)

There was an interesting development this week in the Hunter Biden gun trial: the fact that there will indeed be a Hunter Biden gun trial. That development is surprising only because there do not appear to be any facts in dispute in this case. And the primary witness against Hunter Biden will be Hunter Biden himself. The sole issue in this case is whether Biden filed a false gun form (ATF Form 4473) in which, as a condition for his purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver from the StarQuest Shooters and Survival Supply in Wilmington, Del., he stated that he was not a user of drugs. Biden’s counsel, Abbe Lowell, previously suggested that his client may have had a window of sobriety when he signed the form, but then returned to his addiction afterward. But then Hunter himself blew that theory away with his public comments and books. Lowell then suggested in court that someone else may have checked the box on the form.

In the interim, Lowell has brought a litany of challenges. At one point, he claimed that the government must fulfill a prior dead plea agreement. At another, he adopted an argument of the National Rifle Association challenging the underlying statute. The defense also failed this week to call a last-minute witness who would testify that Hunter may not have known that he was an addict. The defense was accused of essentially hiding the ball with the expert’s expected testimony so Judge Maryellen Noreika barred the appearance of the Columbia professor. Yet, again, Hunter Biden himself would have destroyed the defense. The form asks if Hunter was a user of drugs, not just an addict: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” Hunter wrote how he was a user of a wide array of drugs for years. It is hard to imagine he thought himself as clean as a clergyman in Wilmington in 2018.

So why wouldn’t Hunter just plead guilty? Even without his earlier plea deal, a guilty plea could significantly reinforce a request to avoid jail time in the case. It would also avoid an embarrassing trial for himself and his father during a presidential election. While Hunter could always throw in the towel before the start of testimony, there is currently no discernible strategy beyond hoping that a pending case in the Supreme Court might undermine the indictment. There may also be another possible strategy in play: jury nullification. Unlike Donald Trump in Manhattan, Delaware is Biden country. The chance that he will get strong supporters of his father on the jury is an almost statistical certainty. In 2020, Joe Biden received roughly 60 percent of the vote over Donald Trump in the state. Having first lady Jill Biden, who is extremely popular, at the trial will only reinforce the connection. In addition to a favorable jury pool, Biden may be hoping that testimony on his travails with drugs will prompt one or more jurors to ignore the law and vote to acquit.

Notably, virtually all of the selected jurors have said that they know of someone who has struggled with drugs. Indeed, Judge Noreika already appears to suspect such a strategy. Noreika rejected the effort of the defense to introduce an altered version of the federal firearms form created by the gun store employees. They argue that the alternation showed a political bias on the part of the prosecutors. The court found the document “irrelevant” and chastised the defense team for pursuing “conspiratorial” theories and an effort to confuse or mislead the jury. She noted that the use of the altered form would be “unduly prejudicial and invites (jury) nullification.” Jury nullification arguments have long been banned or discouraged in many courtrooms. Nevertheless, jury nullification has its advocates. For example, Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler has called for Black jurors to refuse to convict Black defendants of drug crimes. Butler has said that “my goal is the subversion of the present criminal justice system.”

Hunter Biden is obviously not the primary concern of Professor Butler in the impact of drug prosecutions on the Black community. However, he has also argued that “jury nullification is just part of an arsenal of tools to end the failed “war on drugs.” Biden’s case has all of the characteristics of a nullification defense. Even if he cannot secure acquittal, the combination of political and social elements at play in Delaware could produce a hung jury. Trying a Biden in Delaware is a challenge for any prosecutor, even without the potential sympathies for a reformed drug addict. With the first lady sitting behind him, the family ties will be on full display. There is an understandable parental desire to show emotional support for Hunter, but prosecutors cannot be thrilled by the potential effect on jurors in the pro-Biden state.

“They provided no explanation of what they were doing. They just did it..”

• Scott Ritter on Reason Behind Move to Stop Him From Traveling to Russia (Sp.)

On June 3, the former Marine Corps intelligence officer and Sputnik contributor was removed by US Customs and Border Protection officers from a plane bound for Russia, where he was to attend the 2024 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) does not have the authority to seize passports without probable cause, former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter told Sputnik, commenting on Monday’s incident. Ritter recalled that as he prepared to board the plane, he was pulled out of line by three armed CBP officers who took control of his passport. He said that when he asked them “on what authority,” they cited orders from the US Department of State. “They provided no warrant, no documentation, nor did they provide a receipt for my passport. They provided no explanation of what they were doing. They just did it,” the Sputnik contributor pointed out.

Ritter stressed that his constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment were violated because the document requires CBP officers to provide a warrant or some other form of authority upon which to conduct the seizure of his passport. “Under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution and others, I’m free to travel. The US government cannot restrict my travel without specific justification, none of which was articulated to me and none of which I believe exists. So it’s a violation of my Fifth Amendment,” the former Marine Corps intelligence officer added.] He suggested that “the real reason” behind all this “appears to be to prevent” him from participating in the SPIEF 2024 and to prevent the work he planned to do as a journalist with his documentary film crew. According to him, he was planning to make a documentary about “the reality of Russia”. “This is my First Amendment right under freedom of speech and a free press. And this right was likewise violated by the US government, by the Biden administration,” Ritter noted.

The Sputnik contributor recounted that he had traveled to Russia “two times in the last year using this same passport,” and that on each time, the US government was notified in advance of his intent to travel and of his itinerary.
In an apparent reference to his planned trip to Russia to attend SPIEF 2024, Ritter said he was “not off on a secret mission” and that the US government “knew full well” what he was up to. “And this is why I believe they acted in the way they did. This has a chilling effect, not just on me and the work I was doing, but on all Americans who choose to speak out against the policies of the United States that they disagree with and to travel abroad at the same time that they are criticizing the US government. And what the US government is saying is that we can control your movement. We can control your life. We can punish you for what you’ve been saying that we disagree with,” the former Marine Corps intelligence officer emphasized.

Nap Scott Ritter : On My Way to Russia I Met Big Brother.

“The strategic alliance between Russia and China ain’t going to be about taking over countries, ain’t going to be about missile-producing or whatever. It’s going to be about ensuring justice and fairness on the global stage…”

• NATO Would Stand No Chance’ Against Russia-China Military Alliance (Sp.)

The United States has historically worked to prevent an alliance between Russia and China, but the two global powers have joined together in an effort to guard themselves against Western aggression.One year before his death Henry Kissinger, a consequential – and highly controversial – former US Secretary of State, saw the writing on the wall. “The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation,” said the top diplomat, urging an end to Ukraine’s Western-backed war against Russia. Kissinger made the comments in an article entitled “How to Avoid Another World War” in the British magazine The Spectator, noting that Russia’s “thousands of nuclear weapons” make it “one of the world’s two largest nuclear powers.”

With characteristic braggadocio, the veteran strategist’s remarks were slammed by the Ukrainian government and criticized by a fair number of Western liberals, by then fully convinced of the United States’ duty to once again safeguard freedom and democracy. The West’s apparent indifference towards the prospect of nuclear war and strategic incompetence in allowing Russia and China to join forces was criticized by former security analyst Dr. David Oualaalou, who discussed the latest developments in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Tuesday. “Putin will not bluff on this, because this is what’s going to be expected of the Russians, the Russian people, from their leader to defend the country by any means, as we are pushing more and more,” said Oualaalou, noting that Moscow views the conflict as a matter of existential importance.

“The idea to me, the way I look at it, is [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban does not want to have his country caught in the middle of this, being a member of NATO or not at this point,” he added, characterizing the European leader as a voice of sanity on the issue. “He’s talking to his lawyers, the officers – they are looking for ways on how to opt out of this kind of involvement with NATO. Frankly, if I may use the term here, it’s about time for Hungary to make a decision whether to leave NATO altogether.” Oualaalou noted that the increasing unpopularity of Western involvement in the ongoing proxy war is leading to a surge in popularity for the right-wing across Europe, with French politician Marine Le Pen rising in popularity while suggesting the country should leave NATO.

Kissinger, credited with setting the United States on a path towards global dominance in the 1970s, worked to ensure China and Russia remained divided during his time as US Secretary of State, pursuing an opening of relations with China to pull them closer to the US. But Western bellicosity has now functioned to create a strong partnership between the two countries, Oualaalou argued – forming an alliance that Western powers would not be able to overcome through military means. “The strategic alliance between Russia and China ain’t going to be about taking over countries, ain’t going to be about missile-producing or whatever. It’s going to be about ensuring justice and fairness on the global stage… [With] these two countries – Russia and China – joined by others, NATO would stand no chance. The US would stand no chance,” he claimed.

“..the West cannot entertain any of these requests and has taken so much control of the media that its leaders are starting to believe their own BS..”

• The West Is Already At War With Russia But Its Leaders Can’t Wake Up (Jay)

Is NATO planning something big in Ukraine? Are we on the cusp now of WWIII really breaking out since the U.S. has now backed the idea that Ukraine can fire missiles beyond its borders into Russia? The news that President Joe Biden has given the go-ahead for long-range missiles to be fired into Russia should be worrying for a number of reasons. The dangerous game of escalation that the West is playing will have a breaking point in the not too distant future. The question is whether the West really understands how Putin thinks as it is presently betting on no retaliation from Russia, which is not only erroneous but very, very dangerous. Recent missile strikes into Russian territory destroyed two radar installations which western press refuse to report.

The significance of this strike is important as the more Ukraine loses on the battlefield, the more desperate its tactics, egged on by western leaders who still think that their stake in the war is minimal. Although just recently Germany’s leader Scholz did a U-turn at a conference in Berlin with French President Macron — in backing the missile strikes into Russia plan — the truth is that officially NATO does not support the plan, which is why the UK is doing it independently using Storm Shadows operated by SAS soldiers. This has been going on for months and so in many respects the news that the U.S. has authorised the practice could be taken lightly. What’s new? Or, more to the point, is Ukraine going to use longer-range U.S. missiles to keep up with such strikes like the radar stations? Does it have enough missiles in stock is also an important question.

With this strategy in play, we are looking in all scenarios at the slow demise of NATO as the more that such strikes occur, the more it is evident that NATO is a defunct organisation and only really a talk shop at best. NATO members are divided on an overall strategy with Ukraine and so member states do their own thing. If we see more of these strikes, the pressure on Putin to react will be overwhelming but when that time comes, he will practice and eye-for-an-eye strategy and strike the equivalent military installations within Europe or at least Ukraine’s drones operating in the Black Sea. This will be a shock for the West. It will take some days for such a strike to be seen for what it is: a warning. The message will be the escalation game has its limits and you’ve gone over a line.

But are the recent reports of a new offensive in the planning from NATO genuine? Probably not. Just like the reports of Putin wanting to negotiate a peace deal now. Both fake news are part of a strategy of panic from the Biden administration which really needs some sort of victory in Ukraine to present to the American people. Yet all of the aces are with Putin and he doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of falling into these traps. Putin has been pretty consistent in how he sees any kind of peace deal. Denazification, demilitarisation and no deal on NATO membership. The reasons why peace talks are a mere figment of the imagination of western journalists who sink to new lows is that the West cannot entertain any of these requests and has taken so much control of the media that its leaders are starting to believe their own BS. The fourth requirement also of Putin’s is that he can’t negotiate peace with a leader in the Ukraine who no longer has legitimacy as a president. One wonders how long the West can continue to kick up a fuss about that one.

Anyone who can fog a mirror…

• Ukraine To Recruit Deserters – Media (RT)

Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has allowed the country’s Armed Forces to recruit deserters as the military continues to experience personnel shortages after suffering heavy casualties, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday. The agency cited a letter sent by SBI Director Alexey Sukhachov to Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Aleksandr Syrsky. According to the document, up until now, how to deal with cases where servicemen who abandoned their units without permission or outright deserted have decided to voluntarily return to service had not been clearly defined to Ukrainian commanders. In his letter, Sukhachov reportedly asked Syrsky to “orient commanders of military units on the need to ensure the acceptance of the above-mentioned military personnel, who voluntarily returned to military units and expressed a desire to undergo further military service, to appoint them to positions and continue military service.”

Furthermore, RIA writes, the SBI chief asked that the service members who decide to return also be provided the right to monetary compensation. Sukhachov’s request comes as Kiev suffers from a shortage of military personnel having incurred heavy casualties on the battlefield. According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, Ukraine’s Armed Forces are estimated to have lost more than 35,000 troops in May alone, amid Moscow’s offensive in Kharkov Region. Despite the Ukrainian military’s efforts to ramp up mobilization, many people don’t want to serve in the army, prompting Kiev to further tighten mobilization rules and even reduce the conscription age limit from 27 to 25. Last month, Ukraine’s General Staff also announced that it intends to “optimize” its operations by releasing as many as 60% of its personnel and using them “to replenish the command and control bodies at the operational and tactical levels, as well as combat units.”

Ukraine’s mobilization campaign, which was announced shortly after the start of the conflict with Russia, has also been marred by widespread draft dodging. Many have tried to escape the country to avoid service, sometimes losing their lives in the process. According to the Ukrainian State Border Service, at least 45 Ukrainian men have already died while trying to illegally cross into the EU. In May alone, ten people were confirmed to have drowned while trying to cross the Tisza River, which flows from Ukraine’s southwestern border through Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia.

Arestovich
https://twitter.com/i/status/1798148258360889790

And that includes Americans…

• Ukraine No Longer Allowing Dual Citizens To Leave (RT)

Ukrainian nationals with dual citizenship have been barred from leaving the country, a border guard official said on Tuesday. They are also no longer exempt from the military draft under a new mobilization law. The authorities are struggling to replenish the army ranks as a result of heavy casualties suffered on the battlefield. Russia’s Defense Ministry estimates that Ukraine’s armed forces lost more than 35,000 troops in May alone. Ukrainians with dual citizenship were previously allowed to leave the country, border service spokesman Andrey Demchenko told state TV on Tuesday. “We are not letting this category of citizens through now,” he added.He cited a recent government decree that obliged such people to register for the draft within 30 days. Previously, dual citizens and Ukrainians who were living abroad under a residence permit had been exempted from military service.

Earlier, Defense Ministry spokesman Dmitry Lazutkin also demanded the return of Ukrainians who were residing abroad, saying they should visit their territorial draft offices in person even if they have updated their data remotely. The US embassy in Kiev immediately warned Americans who hold Ukrainian citizenship against traveling to Ukraine. “Effective June 1, Ukraine has eliminated a ‘residence abroad’ exception that previously allowed certain Ukrainian males aged 18 to 60 to depart the country,” it said in a statement, adding that “US-Ukrainian dual citizens… may no longer be able to depart the country” in light of the changes. The diplomatic mission then advised those who are already in Ukraine to “shelter in place and obey all local orders,” while cautioning those “not currently in Ukraine” against traveling there. “There is an extremely high risk you will not be allowed to depart, even with a US passport,” the statement said.

Kiev has been ramping up its mobilization efforts in recent months. In April, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky signed a controversial mobilization law that lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25, greatly expanded the powers of enlistment officers, and introduced additional penalties for draft dodgers. In May, he approved further legislation that provided a way for some prisoners to be paroled if they enlist. Later the same month, the country’s justice minister, Denis Maliuska, announced the first release of convicts to fill the military ranks.

“..Americans are “not fighting for Ukraine or the Ukrainian people, they are fighting for their own grandeur and global leadership.”

• Nobody in US Has Ukraine’s Interests At Heart – Putin (RT)

The US only cares about its own grandeur and is involved in the Ukraine crisis in order to fulfil its global ambitions, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the leaders of global media agencies ahead of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Wednesday. Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Kiev since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.When asked about a potential shift in US policy towards Russia, Putin said that it is largely dependent on Washington itself and its perception of reality. America is currently obsessed with globalist ambitions that are “destroying the US from within,” the president said. US involvement in the Ukraine conflict is just one manifestation of that globalist policy, he told journalists.“Nobody in the US cares about Ukraine’s interests,” Putin said. Americans are “not fighting for Ukraine or the Ukrainian people, they are fighting for their own grandeur and global leadership.”

According to Putin, the current administration is not so much interested in helping Kiev prevail in the ongoing standoff but is rather “determined to prevent any Russian success precisely because they believe it would damage US leadership [positions].” Those globalist ambitions are harmful to America itself, Putin maintained, naming “high inflation and a huge debt” among the biggest challenges the US is currently facing. A future administration could reverse this destructive trend by focusing on “strengthening the US from within, strengthening its economy and finances, and building up normal relations with the world,” he said, adding that such policies could then bring some “real change” in relations between Moscow and Washington as well. The president’s words came just a day after the Kremlin called the US an “enemy” for the first time. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred to Washington as such while speaking to journalists on Tuesday.

“We are now an enemy country for them – much like they are for us,” Peskov said at that time, describing the two nations’ attitudes toward each other. The Kremlin has previously referred to the US as an “unfriendly state” or “opponent.” Peskov was commenting on Washington’s decision not to allow former US marine, UN weapons inspector and RT contributor Scott Ritter to travel to St. Petersburg to take part in several SPIEF panel discussions. Earlier, the US also let Kiev use American-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia, beyond what the US considers Ukrainian territory. Moscow has repeatedly warned that such actions, alongside continued weapons shipments to Kiev, only lead to further escalation and increase the risk of an all-out war between Russia and NATO, which can easily spiral into World War III.

Putin US
https://twitter.com/i/status/1798107091661680863

She fled her home country. A Foreign Minister.

• Austria’s Ex-FM Kneissl Says Europe ‘Lost Its Soul,’ Entered War Path (Sp.)

Europe has “lost its soul” by stepping onto the path of war, ex-Austrian Foreign Minister and currently Director of the St. Petersburg State University G.O.R.K.I. (Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues) Center, Karin Kneissl, said on Wednesday. Speaking at a meeting of the Russian Historical Society in the presidential library, Kneissl recalled German philosopher Oswald Spengler’s book “The Decline of the West,” to argue that Europe has been degrading for 20 years.

“Unfortunately, Europe today is a Europe of war. This is the current European agenda… I cannot conceal my sadness… I have always dreamed about a Europe of pluralism, a Europe of freedom, constitution, art,” she told the meeting, adding that Europe has “lost its soul, it is dead.” Kneissl served as the Austrian Foreign Minister from December 2017 to June 2019. Her scapegoating at home was largely associated with the alleged “Russian ties”. The former diplomat moved to Lebanon in June 2022 after leaving Austria in September 2020 and residing in France because of persistent death threats and a de facto ban on working in her home country. In August 2023, it became known that Kneissl had moved to Russia.

“But if they write to a representative or senator about the misallocation of resources they will get back a letter explaining that “we have to stop them over there before they get over here.”

• Americans Are an Abused People (Paul Craig Roberts)

Americans are screwed over people and are too insouciant to notice. And not just on big things, such as being forced to be injected with an untested new kind of “vaccine” with unknown safety and effectiveness. Millions of Americans were faced with the choice of being injected or losing their job and ability to pay rent or mortgage, car payments, utilities, and buy food. The “vaccine” has caused many deaths and millions of injuries from new diseases and profusions of what previously were rare diseases among age groups not previously affected. American babies now die from strokes and heart attacks. And the grieving parents are denied any recourse. No one is being held responsible. And apparently Americans don’t care. How is this any different from the Zionist story of Jews being herded into gas chambers?

Americans can’t do anything about the hundreds of billions of dollars Washington sends to Ukraine to conduct Washington’s proxy war against Russia, or about the billions sent to Israel for the slaughter of Palestinians and physical destruction of Gaza, or the billions sent to Taiwan for Washington’s proxy war against China. Meanwhile homeless American veterans sleep on the streets while the Biden regime gives immigrant-invaders pre-paid debit cards and houses them in hotels. A few Americans might wonder if the billions of dollars could be better used getting the homeless out of their public parks and tent encampments off their sidewalks. But if they write to a representative or senator about the misallocation of resources they will get back a letter explaining that “we have to stop them over there before they get over here.”

The message is: “we are here to serve the military/security complex and Israel Lobby, the funders of our election campaigns, and to replace white Americans with the third world in the interest of diversity. It is not the big things that Americans notice. They are not personally at risk of being sent to war, and there is no specific tax taken from them to finance Israel’s and Ukraine’s wars. But you would think that Americans living on credit card debt would at least notice that which dramatically affects them. Do Americans living on credit card debt comprehend that under the guise of interest charged the credit card companies are taxing their balances at rates ranging from 19.49% to 29.99% based on the credit card company’s estimate of the debtor’s credit worthiness.

In addition to the federal and state income taxes on their income and the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax on income, the credit card companies are imposing a 20-30% tax on debt that is paying for housing, transportation, food, and utilities, as incomes alone in the age of jobs offshoring are insufficient to support living standards for about 40% of the population. I learned about modern day usury in May when my credit card bill did not show up. Perhaps it went into the spam or junk folders or fell victim to a glitch, all possibilities being joys of the digital revolution. Consequently the amount due on May 18 did not get paid until 4 days later on May 22 when an unpaid bill notice appeared in the email. The notice told me that I am charged a late payment fee of $29 plus an interest charge of $61.54. So a 4 day late payment cost me $90.54.

The late payment notice told me that my interest rate of 19.49% is charged from the “first day of the billing period until we receive your payment in full.” In other words, the interest was not charged for the 4 late days, but for the 4 days plus the month’s billing period. The notice also told me that if I missed a second payment, even for one day, during a 12 month period, my interest rate on my unpaid balance would jump from 19.49 to 29.99. There you have it. This is a system for the enserfment of the American consumer. If you are able to focus your attention, try to imagine the rapid rise of impossible indebtedness of Americans who can only make the minimum payment. The minimum payment is a tiny percentage of the balance due. For example, a balance of $4,173.66 has a minimum payment of $131.37. The minimum payment leaves a balance of $4,042.29 accumulating interest at double-digit rates.

Assuming he does not miss two payments in 12 months, his interest rate based on creditworthiness (he only makes minimal payments) is 27.49%. So, the interest on the unpaid balance adds $1,100 to his debt. And the growth in debt increases with the interest charged on the rising unpaid balance. I remember when credit card companies made their money by the 2.5% charge to the businesses that accepted payment via credit card. Those days have vanished. Now credit card companies live extravagantly on interest on consumer credit card debt, while businesses accepting credit card payment charge their customers a fee for paying with a credit card. As an economist I am really amazed that Keynesian economists, whose policy is based on the American consumer’s ability to spend, stood aside while such extraordinary restrictions on aggregate demand were allowed to be put in place. After paying debt service, people have nothing left to spend.

Covid patents

Dr. Brian Hooker and Kim Iversen discuss the main reason on why mRNA technology was used in Covid-19 "vaccines": "The real issue was the patent portfolio. When you use a technology that's off patent then you cant make as much as money than if you use this very new technology… pic.twitter.com/4crC0qI5Wk

— Camus (@newstart_2024) June 5, 2024

Jack

Yeah, @Jack is right
pic.twitter.com/sIhNIE3QXV

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2024

Square?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1798347399896998384

Bird feeding
https://twitter.com/i/status/1798356457039319235

Beers for breeders

Idaho bar owner celebrating June as “Heterosexual Awesomeness Month” with discounts for Heterosexuals speaks to @worldnetdaily about his motivations.

“This country is ready to stand up and say hey, enough is enough!” @oldstatesaloon pic.twitter.com/VbaQc3AiS0 https://t.co/O9TPCIRrra

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 3, 2024

Tucker Bukele

President Nayib Bukele saved El Salvador. He may have the blueprint for saving the world. pic.twitter.com/92etFh7sSI

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2024

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