Jun 032026
 


Samuel Melton Fisher Asleep 1902


• Iran Ends Negotiations With US, Doubling Down on Terrorism (Salgado)
• Iran Denies Progress Despite Hasty Lebanon Truce (ZH)
• Trump: It’s ‘Fake News’ That Iran & US Stopped Speaking Days Ago (ZH)
• Trump Pulls Back Before the Fund Becomes the Story (David Manney)
• This Crisis Could Make or Break Türkiye (Sadygzade)
• This Is The Dangerous Myth Holding America Hostage (Bordachev)
• Europe Has “Serious, Really Serious Problems” If US Cuts Oil Exports (ZH)
• Interventionism Undermined Growth In The UK & Canada (Lacalle)
• Iran Decides to Take Matters in Hand (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The Israelization of the United States Military Is Proceeding (Philip Giraldi)
• Letitia James Sues Trump Admin Over $1 Billion Deal To Stop Offshore Wind (JTN)
• A “View from the East Wing”: Jill Biden’s Fantasy Book Tour (Turley)
• So, That’s Why Jill Biden’s Book Is Coming Out Now (Matt Vespa)
• Mamdani Announces Possible Transfer of Housing to Tenants (Turley)

 


 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2061872222638105083?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2061841598649180172?s=20 https://twitter.com/DRPOOLQ17/status/2061800780248600683?s=20

 


 


Iran can be in 2 different quantum states at once.

• Iran Ends Negotiations With US, Doubling Down on Terrorism (Salgado)

The genocidal Islamic regime of Iran has finally cut off negotiations with the United States, in a move that President Donald Trump indicated he did not anticipate, but which he says he is prepared to address as necessary.


The reported sudden end of the farce that the Iranian regime was willing to make peace came just after the regime fired on American troops in Kuwait on Sunday evening. On Monday morning, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi brazenly accused the United States and Israel of ceasefire violations, primarily because Israel is reacting in self-defense to Hezbollah strikes. But the reality is that the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah have not stopped violating the ceasefire ever since it was announced. Araghchi’s statement appears to have been a little more than a justification for cutting off negotiations, and he evidently assumes that leftist Western politicians and media will repeat his lies without fact-checking.

The president had seemed, as usual, optimistic about the progress of negotiations on Sunday evening. “Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” Trump insisted on TruthSocial, blaming both Democrats and members of his own party for giving him too much advice. “Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end – It always does!” Trump added. It is not completely clear what he meant by that, as the Iranian regime and all fundamentalist Islamic jihad dictatorships with which America has dealt have always violated every deal or simply refused deals altogether. In any case, Trump told NBC News on Monday that Iranian officials had not informed him about the cutoff of negotiations, but he wasn’t too worried either way.

I think we’ve been talking too much if you want to know the truth. I think going silent would be very good, and that could be for a long time, Trump said during an NBC News interview. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there. We’ll just go silent. We’ll keep the blockade”. He added, “I think I can wait as long as they want. They’re losing a fortune.”

It is not clear how long such a stalemate can continue, driving up gas prices, before it is too problematic for Republicans going into the midterms. Swiftly destroying the rest of Iran’s top leadership might not be the choice the American government wants to take, but it is likely the only effective one. The Iranian mullahs will never make peace with the “great Satan,” America, much as we want peace.

The Iranian regime fired on U.S. targets again on Sunday. On June 1, U.S. Central Command posted, Last night at 11 p.m. ET, U.S. forces successfully intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait. These missiles were immediately defeated and no American personnel were harmed. U.S. Central Command remains vigilant and will continue to protect our forces from Iranian aggression while supporting the ongoing ceasefire.

Read more …

Wasting away time. That way you can’t lose.

• Iran Denies Progress Despite Hasty Lebanon Truce (ZH)

State media has belatedly responded to Trump’s Monday claim that talks between the US and Iran are back on. Trump has even said Tuesday that he expects an agreement for an extended ceasefire to take place “over the next week” – along with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.


“An informed source says that the exchange of messages between Iran and the US has been stopped for at least a few days for what is called the initial memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington,” Fars reports. So this is Iran in effect saying ‘not so fast’ – as it seeks to ‘hold the cards’ and maintain some leverage. Trump has not indicated a willingness to resume bombing the Islamic Republic, but his patience has seemed to be wearing thin over the last several days, as the White House is boxed in to only choosing among several ‘bad options’ in the wake of launching a war of choice 95 days ago.

Oil spikes on the negative news from Tehran, extends: And more confirmation via newswires: “An Iranian source says there is currently no message exchange with the U.S., contradicting claims of ongoing progress. The source reports talks on an initial understanding have stalled for several days. It also noted Iran’s last communication with Washington concerned Lebanon and drew international attention, despite President Trump stating negotiations are advancing rapidly.

Latest on the Lebanon front: “American sources for AI Hadath: Proposal for a 60-day plan during which Israel withdraws gradually from southern Lebanon”: AI Hadath reports.n”Negotiations propose the deployment of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL in southern Lebanon after Israel’s withdrawal.” “Lebanon seeks to resolve Hezbollah’s weapons file politically, but after Israel’s complete withdrawal.”

Lebanon Fighting Persists Amid Nominal Ceasefire
Various regional and international reports have documented serious ongoing fighting in Lebanon, despite President Trump the day prior having declared that the shooting will cease and that Hezbollah and Israel were forging a limited ceasefire. Trump had said of both sides that “they agreed that all shooting will stop” – after Iran announcing it had suspended peace talks with the US over Israeli military action in Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did affirm he would adhere to the agreement, and reports say that planned new airstrikes on Beirut were called off, but he also warned the attacks on the capital would go ahead “if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians” – and that forces in the south would continue operating.

BBC has freshly written that “While the ceasefire appears to be largely holding, there was further violence overnight.” The same report details: Hezbollah said its fighters had targeted Israeli tanks in the southern Lebanese towns of Haddatha and Bayada with missiles and shells. The Israeli military said it had intercepted two projectiles that had been fired from Lebanon in the early hours of Tuesday. No injuries have been reported.Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on several southern areas and said a “very violent” explosion from a large-scale demolition rocked the town of Debbine.

Tuesday has witnessed some ongoing attacks on south Lebanon, as well as Hezbollah drone attacks on Israeli troop positions, wounding some. According to some of the latest from Al Jazeera: Israeli forces have carried out multiple air raids on the city of Nabatieh, one of the largest in southern Lebanon, our colleagues on the ground report. The city, a strategic hub for Hezbollah, has been encircled by Israeli forces in recent days as troops continue pushing north.

Israeli attacks were also reported across the wider Nabatieh district as Israel deepens its occupation of surrounding areas. Drones hit the towns of Kafr Sir and Aabba, while a strike targeted the road leading to Houmine al-Fawqa. The outskirts of Yahmour al-Shaqif were also hit.

There’s also been a lot of explosions in the southern city of Tyre, with Israeli jets active in the airspace above on Tuesday. And rescuers have recovered six bodies from another town, with Lebanese civil defense agency having said in a statement: “Since yesterday evening and continuing until this morning … personnel have been carrying out search and rescue operations in a residential building that was targeted in the town of Marwaniyah – Sidon district.”

Read more …

Iran talks about one inch at a time with many miles to go.

• Trump: It’s ‘Fake News’ That Iran & US Stopped Speaking Days Ago (ZH)

President Trump in a fresh Truth Social post has again insisted that Washington and Tehran are talking again. “The conversations between us have been going on continuously… where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal.'”


Throughout the morning Secretary of State Marco Rubio was fielding questions on Capitol Hill. He too insisted that talks are ongoing, despite a Tuesday Iranian denial. He claimed the regime is ‘fragmented’ and because of this, back-and-forth messaging is extremely slow-going. “Iranian people would make a deal tomorrow if it were up to them,” Rubio said. “The Supreme Leader and the IRGC are a bit more immune to pressures.”

He also generally acknowledged that Iran has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, and then said this justified the US naval blockade of Iranian ports in turn. There was also this interesting exchange when he echoed Trump’s line that the war is actually ‘over’ at this point…Hawks like Ted Cruz want to know of any other regime change tactics going on…

A potential new nuclear framework regarding Iran was also a central topic to Tuesday’s Congressional testimony:

Big if true, there is still too much smoke and noise:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Iran has agreed to discuss previously off-limits aspects of its nuclear program, raising hopes that ongoing negotiations could pave the way for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a broader diplomatic breakthrough. Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the State Department’s budget request, Rubio said: “We are in talks… There is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, that for the first time, certainly in my memory, they have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program.”

He said the U.S. hopes such negotiations could lead to a broader understanding that would include the reopening of the strategic waterway. “We’re hopeful that something like that could happen, in which the straits would reopen, we would enter into a period of negotiations on very specific topics, delineated negotiations, in the hope of reaching an outcome that’s acceptable to us and something they would be able to do as well,” he said. The above was spoken with a few too many caveats… “which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week…”

Rubio in the hot seat over Iran war:

Read more …

“Pulling back from a politically vulnerable fund doesn’t mean retreating from the fight. It keeps the focus where it belongs.”

• Trump Pulls Back Before the Fund Becomes the Story (David Manney)

Axios is reporting that President Donald Trump’s administration appears ready to drop the proposed $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, and the move may prove smart. The concern behind the fund remains real: Federal power did get used as a political weapon, and Americans deserve answers, names, records, hearings, firings, and prosecutions where evidence supports them. From Just the News. The Trump administration is reportedly planning to cancel plans to create a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” amid bipartisan backlash, Axios reported, citing “two senior administration officials.”


The Department of Justice announced the fund as part of a settlement to President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns by contractor Charles Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty. Originally intended as a fund to allow the victims of alleged political weaponization by the Biden DOJ, the fund drew backlash from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike over concerns it could be used to enrich Trump allies. Yet even a well-intended remedy can become a political trap when critics get to define it before victims ever get heard.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the fund on May 19 and described it as a process for people harmed by lawfare and government weaponization. The Department of Justice said the settlement would create a path for claims tied to political targeting. The purpose makes sense. People crushed by selective prosecution, federal pressure, or political intimidation shouldn’t have to absorb the damage quietly while the officials who caused it retire with pensions and book deals. The trouble came from the structure, not the principle.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema temporarily blocked the fund on May 29 after a challenger argued the program lacked legal authority and could allow poorly supervised payouts. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams also reopened Trump’s IRS case to examine the settlement behind it. bThose moves didn’t prove the fund was wrong; they did prove the plan had become vulnerable, and vulnerability in Washington has a way of swallowing the original purpose.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and other Republicans questioned the fund’s broad reach. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) asked Blanche for more transparency. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) attacked the fund as corrupt and promised a fight. Schumer’s outrage was predictable, but Republican caution deserved attention because it showed how easily the fund could shift the debate away from weaponized government and toward the mechanics of compensation. From the Associated Press.

Senate Republicans who are returning to Washington on Monday say they won’t have the votes to pass the Homeland Security spending bill until the White House works with them to place parameters on a new $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate Trump’s allies. But Trump has shown little interest in doing so, even after a judge temporarily halted any payouts.It’s unclear how they will settle the dispute.

The Trump administration is “going to have to come up with some suggestions and ideas,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said before the Senate left town on May 21. Thune, of South Dakota, said that the settlement money — some of which could potentially go to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — “just makes everything way harder than it should be.”

The impasse over the “anti-weaponization” fund could be an inflection point as Republicans try to keep their majority in this year’s elections and advance their agenda. Trump’s campaign year push to defeat GOP lawmakers who he sees as disloyal, including some of Thune’s most reliable Republican votes in the narrow 53-47 Senate, has only added to the tension. Trump has a stronger lane available: investigate the abuses, release the records, put officials under oath, let inspectors general dig, let prosecutors bring cases where the facts meet the law, and fire federal employees who misused power.

FBI Director Kash Patel can keep weaponizing concerns near the center of bureau reform, and Blanche can pursue accountability without giving opponents a clean opening to call the whole effort a payout scheme. Trump’s opponents want the argument to move away from FBI abuse, IRS misconduct, selective prosecution, and federal retaliation. A $1.776 billion fund makes that easier for them; when every hearing could become a fight over “payouts,” every victim could get buried under questions about eligibility, favored allies, and who approved the checks. Trump doesn’t need to carry extra weight into a fight he can win with documents, witnesses, sworn testimony, and the record left behind from the Biden years.

Victims of weaponized government deserve justice, and a future compensation process may still deserve consideration if Congress builds it with clear limits, public oversight, and narrow rules. For now, the better path runs through exposure and accountability; Congress can hold hearings, agencies can release files, prosecutors can pursue charges, and judges can review misconduct. The Trump administration has many lawful ways to prove that federal power punished enemies and protected friends. Pulling back from a politically vulnerable fund doesn’t mean retreating from the fight. It keeps the focus where it belongs.

Read more …

Erdogan simply arrests his opponents.

• This Crisis Could Make or Break Türkiye (Sadygzade)

Türkiye’s domestic political landscape has entered a phase in which judicial decisions, intra-party struggles and strategic calculations by the authorities are becoming increasingly intertwined.


The arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul from the center-left opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), in 2025 and the subsequent court decision to remove Ozgur Ozel from the leadership of the CHP and transfer control of the party back to its previous leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu represent two connected episodes within a broader political process. They suggest that the Turkish political system is preparing for a period of heightened uncertainty, in which future elections will be seen not merely as a routine electoral procedure, but as a contest over whether the system which has been shaped over the past two decades will be preserved or revised.

A rival in Istanbul
Imamoglu was detained on March 19, 2025 on charges of corruption and abuse of office, and was later arrested. The timing was especially significant, since the CHP was preparing to name its candidate for a future presidential race, and Imamoglu was widely viewed as the most likely figure to be nominated. By that moment, his political weight had already moved far beyond municipal politics. After his victory in Istanbul, he had become one of the most recognizable figures in the opposition and a potential national rival to Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Istanbul has always been exceptionally important in Turkish politics, being the country’s economic center, a symbol of political legitimacy and the place where Erdogan’s own national career first took shape. The rise of Imamoglu therefore meant the emergence of an opposition figure capable of weaponizing urban discontent, the demand for economic normalization and expectations of institutional renewal. His arrest moved political competition from the sphere of electoral rivalry into the sphere of legal and administrative control.

Destabilizing the opposition
The current court decision regarding Ozgur Ozel should be seen as a continuation of the same strategy. The judicial removal of Ozel from the leadership of the CHP (over alleged issues regarding the legitimacy of the party congress and procedural violations) and the transfer of control to Kemal Kilicdaroglu effectively sets the country’s main opposition force back to its previous configuration.

Ozel took over the CHP after Kilicdaroglu’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election and became a symbol of the party’s attempt at renewal. Under his leadership, the party achieved major gains in the 2024 municipal elections, demonstrating that the opposition could not only criticize the government, but also expand its electoral base. The return of Kilicdaroglu objectively alters the balance inside the opposition, damaging its ability to preserve mobilization before the next electoral cycle.

Preserving decades of work
A restrained analysis of this situation requires attention not only to the interests of the authorities, but also to the bigger picture of a state operating in a complex external and internal environment. Judging by its recent steps, the Turkish leadership is seeking to preserve control over a political direction it considers strategically important. Over the past two decades, Türkiye has significantly transformed its position in the international system. It has become a more autonomous regional actor, strengthened its defense industry, expanded its military presence in neighboring regions and used foreign policy more actively as an instrument of national positioning.

For the current leadership, a change of power would mean the risk of revising the entire trajectory built under Erdogan. This includes the presidential system, foreign policy autonomy, the defense industry, policy in the Eastern Mediterranean, and relations with Russia, the West, the Middle East and the Caucasus. The authorities therefore seek to minimize the possibility of a sharp political turn at a time when the regional environment is becoming increasingly unstable.

Read more …

“Washington’s global supremacy has become its own tar pit”.

• This Is The Dangerous Myth Holding America Hostage (Bordachev)

The United States is caught in a trap of its own making. It wants to preserve its unique position in world politics, while at the same time freeing itself from the growing burden that this position imposes. Yet Washington hasn’t found any way to do so except by insisting, ever more loudly, on its own superiority so the result is that America clings more tightly to the very role it should have consciously begun to abandon long ago.


There’s an old story from ‘Uncle Remus’s Tales’, the famous collection by the American writer Joel Chandler Harris, in which Br’er Fox sets a black doll made of tar and turpentine by the roadside to trap Br’er Rabbit. The rabbit greets the doll, mistakes its silence for rudeness, grows angry and strikes it. His paw sticks so he strikes again, and the other paw sticks and the more furiously he fights, the more completely he is trapped. This is increasingly what American policy looks like in its struggle to preserve hegemony. The US has become stuck to its own global role. It wants to escape the costs of maintaining that role, but every attempt to do so only entangles it further. In trying to defend the “tar baby” of global primacy, Washington is forced into ventures that are costly militarily and for its reputation.

The latest example is the unprovoked attack by the US and Israel on Iran. Washington would clearly prefer not to be dragged into a wider Middle Eastern crisis, yet it has once again acted in a way that makes such entanglement more likely. It wants the privileges of hegemony without the liabilities, but the two cannot be separated. In its struggle with this tar-covered scarecrow, the US damages not only its obvious rivals, Russia and China, but the wider international order. At the center of that order stands the UN system and the institutions built after the Second World War. These structures have long served Western interests, but they also provided a degree of predictability. Now they are being undermined by the very power that once claimed to defend them.

Russia, China and many other states view this process with mixed feelings. None has an interest in a sudden collapse of American power, still less in the collapse of the American state itself because for a century, the United States has been a central factor in global development and the great diplomatic game. Its abrupt disappearance would create not freedom, but rather chaos. At the same time, it’s obvious that America’s struggle to preserve hegemony is weakening it but this process can’t simply be reversed. The United States is trying to reformat its global presence because it no longer has the resources to sustain the model of engagement that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century.

Its economic model shows little sign of being capable of the transformation needed to restore the “golden years” of global leadership. Appeals to modern technology, however loudly advertised, look more like temporary devices to avoid deeper change than a serious renewal of American power. Russia, China and many others therefore watch America’s internal difficulties with a certain satisfaction. They expect that the gradual weakening of the US position will eventually make it possible to speak with Washington on more equal terms and to formalize a fairer world order.

Read more …

“When you’re out of something, it’s it. That’s it. It’s over… it’s instantaneous.”

• Europe Has “Serious, Really Serious Problems” If US Cuts Oil Exports (ZH)

Last night, the Abaxx Markets’ Jeff Currie and Veriten’s Arjun Murti joined Real Vision’s Ash Bennington for a ZeroHedge Debate on what the oil market is getting wrong. Surprise surprise… the EU is not looking good. But the U.S. may be in trouble too. Currie doubled down on his reserves-to-run-dry-by-July call. They each gave their outlook on structural supply constraints that existed before the Hormuz debacle, whether the latest ‘ceasefire’ can be trusted, and where the price is headed and how quickly it’s headed there. Despite signs of relief in the Mid-East, many signs still read bullish oil (and thus bearish cost of living).


Currie’s July 4th Doomer Call
Currie on his recent warning that global oil inventories could run into serious shortages as early as July: “There’s a misnomer that the eight billion barrels of oil that you see in storage around the world is all usable,” he said, noting that fuel is not homogenous (jet, diesel, gasoline, etc.) and that 8 billion is not actually that much… “Every single energy analyst says sometime in that July, August is when you get into pretty serious problems.”

The current calm in prices, Currie said, reflects seasonal demand weakness rather than a genuine easing of supply constraints. “Why you haven’t seen this? We’re in the seasonal low of demand,” he explained. “April and May it goes down like this, and then June it just goes straight up five million barrels a day.” Murti agreed that shortages are likely to emerge region by region and product by product… where one country runs out of jet fuel, another gasoline. He added that developing Asia appears particularly vulnerable while Europe remains heavily exposed after years of energy underinvestment.

Asked how long it takes for shortages to be felt once inventories are exhausted: “When you’re out of something, it’s it. That’s it. It’s over… it’s instantaneous.”

Turns out Exxon agrees with Jeff…

Which Countries Will Feel The Most Pain?
According to Murti: China looks good, rest of Asia… not so much. EU not great. America too complacent but likely OK. “Europe might be able to avoid shortage by the fact that they’re still rich enough to outbid those less fortunate Asian countries for the cargoes that you have… blase attitude on the part of Americans, American investors, even American politicians, about how serious of an issue this is… we’re not going to face shortages like the 70s, but go tell that to the people of you know Malaysia and Pakistan.”

According to Currie: Asia will be fine thanks to China “taking care of its neighbors” but Europe is screwed. “Europe is the one that’s the most exposed, and the only reason they don’t have problems is that the United States is exporting everything they have to Europe right now…” And while China has been building up inventory, “Europe, on the other hand, didn’t invest in any brown. They got serious problems, really serious, problems when the Americans don’t export to them.”

Read more …

”Bureaucrats always believe that interventionism did not work because there was not enough of it.”

• Interventionism Undermined Growth In The UK & Canada (Lacalle)

Governments are terrible at picking winners and even worse at choosing losers. Net zero and interventionist “Keynesian” policies in Canada and the UK have proven that government intervention has created a worse outcome than anyone would have expected. The result is higher costs, distorted incentives, and weakened productivity growth, with increased dependency on fossil fuels to attend to peak demand, exactly what Austrian economists predicted. What has been sold as a recipe for prosperity and “green growth” has in practice eroded affordability while failing to deliver stronger, sustainable expansion.


It is not surprising to see that the world’s examples of green interventionism, the UK and Canada, have become economic failures. Years ago, some argued that these policies needed time to prove their success. Now, it is not even debatable that the stagnation and recession in the UK and Canada are self-inflicted. Net zero in Canada and the UK is not a single policy but an entire regime of targets, regulations, limits, subsidies, and new bureaucratic requirements. The Canadian federal plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 combines rising carbon taxes, prescriptive regulations, technology mandates, and public investment schemes intended to steer capital away from fossil fuels and into politically selected “green” projects.

In the UK, the government’s “Net Zero Growth Plan” is also built on regulatory limits, spending commitments, and industrial policy designed to phase out conventional energy and reshape entire sectors through top-down planning. This is a classic example of interventionism. The state attempts to override market price signals and entrepreneurial judgment to engineer a politically preferred energy and industrial structure and achieves the opposite of what it wants to deliver.

Rather than relying on decentralized knowledge, competition, technology, and creative destruction, dispersed among millions of consumers and firms, net zero regimes assume that politicians and regulators know exactly which technologies should win, what the “right” energy mix ought to be, and how fast the transition should occur. In an open market, prices and profits coordinate production across time, and entrepreneurs interpret prices as signals about real scarcities and consumer preferences. However, net-zero policies deliberately tamper with these signals.

Carbon taxes, subsidies, and regulatory mandates change relative prices not because underlying preferences or scarcities changed but because policymakers decided that certain activities should be penalized and others subsidized. All this is justified by a completely ideological and unreliable assumption of externality costs, where governments present themselves as the ones that know precisely what those alleged externality costs are and try to push a pricing signal imposed through ideology, creating enormous distortions that, ultimately, end benefiting the “old” and “loser” industries.

Governments are not worried about the failure of these policies. Bureaucrats always believe that interventionism did not work because there was not enough of it. Therefore, they impose additional burdens and regulations while portraying themselves as the solution to the inflation and stagnation problems they have caused.

In both Canada and the UK, this has pushed vast amounts of capital into projects that are unprofitable and can only subsist due to policy support rather than genuine market demand. “Green industrial strategies” crowd out investment in other sectors, especially in traditional energy and manufacturing, even when those sectors still deliver higher value at lower cost to consumers. Austrian theory predicts that politicized credit and subsidies will generate malinvestment: projects that look viable under distorted interest rates and prices but which fail to cover their costs once the policy support is withdrawn or the fiscal burden becomes unsustainable.

Canadian long-run productivity growth has fallen from annual rates above 3% in the postwar decades to less than 1% since 2000, despite repeated waves of policy activism and “pro-productivity” rhetoric. Chronic underinvestment in business capital and weak technological progress as key drivers of this decline, suggesting that the policy mix has not created an environment for genuine, bottom-up innovation. The more that investment decisions depend on regulatory favor and subsidy access, the less they depend on entrepreneurial assessment of consumer wants and long-term profitability.

Net zero has also harmed affordability in exactly the way Austrian economists would expect when governments interfere with relative prices. Carbon pricing, renewable mandates, and restrictions on fossil-fuel projects increase energy costs directly by making reliable sources of power more expensive or scarce. These higher input costs then cascade through the economy to transport, food, housing, and manufactured goods, eroding real wages and living standards. [..] .

Read more …

There’s no shortagee of Americans who see iran winning.

• Iran Decides to Take Matters in Hand (Paul Craig Roberts)

As I finished writing the article below, Iran decided to take matters out of the hands of Trump and Netanyahu. The decision was a consequence of Netanyahu’s order to the American-provided Israeli Air Force to commence the bombing of civilian residential areas of Beirut, Lebanon, and warning the residents to flee their soon to be ruined homes. The Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon has again been halted by the Hezbollah militia, the third time the Israeli Army has been stopped by a mere militia.


Frustrated at Israel’s impotence on the ground, Netanyahu decided to take it out on citizens in Lebanon’s capital further north distant from the battlefield where the Hezbollah militia stopped the Israeli attack. Thanks to Washington, Israel makes up for its inability to perform on the ground with its American Air Force, which its opponents of choice do not have.When defeated on the ground, Israel bombs civilians. The only thing the IDF is good for is murdering women and children.

The Iranians told Netanyahu that Iran’s Armed Forces will not tolerate any more Israeli barbarism in Lebanon and Israel had best evacuate its own cities. Netanyahu quickly backed down on his planned bombing of civilian housing in Beirut suburbs. Trump, who emerges each day as ever more a pathological liar tried to cover up the Iranian defeat of Washington and Israel by claiming to have convinced Hezbollah to stop embarrassing Israel by stopping their advance in southern Lebanon. There is zero chance that Hezbollah will cede southern Lebanon to Israel.

Now that the stupid Israelis assassinated all of the Western influenced Iranians, and they are out of the picture, Persia is re-emerging. Iran, not Israel or the US, is the regional power in the Middle East. Iran withstood a joint US-Israeli attack and forced the two defeated enemies to ask for a cease fire. It was a mistake for Iran to grant one. But the Iranians have recognized their mistake and have recovered from it.

Destruction awaits Israel if the Satanic Zionists pursue the war, and destruction will be the fate of the corrupt Persian Gulf States that sold out Islam to Israel. American prestige in the Middle East is at its end. Iran prevailed alone, without any help from the pusillanimous leaders of Russia and China, “leaders” afraid of their own shadow.

Despite the earth-shaking development of Iran’s ultimatum to Israel and by implication to Trump, I am leaving the article as I wrote it, because it shows the extent to which the two-bit-punk United States is dishonored by the total subservience to Israel of the Tump regime, the US Congress, Israeli-owned presstitutes, Christian Zionists, and cowards afraid of the Israel Lobby.

 

 

Israel Has Blocked Trump’s Exit from the War with Iran – Paul Craig Roberts

Israeli Security Minister Ben-Gvir declared that Israel ‘Will Not Allow’ Trump to Make a Peace Deal With Iran, because the Zionist agenda “is an endless and wide regional war” to achieve Greater Israel. Ben-Gvir was good to his word. He escalated Israel’s violation of the US-Iranian ceasefire by bombing Lebanese civilians and, thereby, forced Iran to pull out of the talks. Iran’s state media reported:

“Given the continuation of the Zionist regime’s crimes in Lebanon, and considering that Lebanon was among the preconditions of the ceasefire, which has now been violated on all fronts … the Iranian negotiating team is suspending talks.” Trump, being the Israeli puppet that he is, actually provided the weapons Israel used to violate the agreement, thereby forcing Iran out of the ceasefire. Instead of being angry with Netanyahu, Trump said he is happy the peace talks are over. Washington, Trump says, will wait out the Iranians. Trump overlooks the possibility that the Iranians will finish off US presence in the Middle East.

Clearly, Israel is running America’s policy in the Middle East while they are integrating the US military into Israel’s and eliminating Israeli critics in the US Congress. There are no Israeli critics in the Trump regime. Only total subservience to Israel.

Read more …

And PCR has found a kindred spirit:

“We now know why Israel had Trump remove Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie from Congress.”

• The Israelization of the United States Military Is Proceeding (Philip Giraldi)

Congress is considering passing a bill that will give Americans serving in the Israeli army US government provided full benefits like education, jobs and medical care just as if they had been serving in the United States military. Indeed, the legislation currently working its way through Congress would, for the first time in American history, treat service in a foreign army both legally and in practice as equivalent to service in the US armed forces — but only where that foreign army is Israeli. House Resolution 8445, sponsored by Republican Congressmen Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania and Max Miller of Ohio, would amend existing legislation so that Americans who enlist in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) are treated “in the same manner as service in the uniformed services” of the US.

Not surprisingly, many of the “Americans” involved are also dual national Israeli citizens. If the changes come into effect the result will be to considerably and uniquely narrow the gap between Israel and the US in terms of rights and benefits but with benefits going only in one direction, i.e. to serve Israeli interests and with the US taxpayer paying the bill!“In addition to that, the most recent US government gift to Israel sponsored by the United States House of Representatives, a misnomer as the House is actually the Knesset West, is the national Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2027 released on May 13th. Section 224 of the House version of the Act entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” integrates “US-Israeli military research and development, co-production of weapons systems, licensing agreements, AI, directed energy, data integration, and missile defense.”

It creates the framework for “bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of US-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation.” The result is to completely connect the functionality of the US military with that of the Israeli military. The implementation of the agreement would arguably do more to irreversibly link the US military to the Israeli military than the $200 billion in military assistance Israel has received from the United States since its founding in 1948. “Critics note how Section 224 would combine the US and Israeli defense sectors in many areas particularly vital to the battlefields of the future, including autonomous systems and cyberwarfare.

It would also greatly increase Israeli influence over the US beyond what it already has through the Israel Lobby and its dominance of the mainstream media. It would enable Israel to expand or start new co-production facilities like it already has in a number of states, giving the Israeli government additional leverage through providing jobs in the US, thereby securing friends in Congress whose districts are affected. The result could well be a White House backed by Congress that is even more prone to go to war based on the Eretz “Greater” Israel fantasies of people like Netanyahu and his insane Security Chief Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“A persistently pro-Zionist Congress has accomplished this shift in the relationship quietly, almost secretly. Though it has been done clearly channeling through the White House and Netanyahu’s leadership, it has been obtained without the knowledge and consent of the American people to whom the US government is allegedly responsible. And, of course, all the integration expenses will be borne by the US taxpayer. Interestingly, of course, it should also be noted that the integration of the US military with that of Israel comes at a time when the American public is expressing unprecedented levels of distrust in and dislike of the Israeli government. That is perhaps no coincidence as Netanyahu seeks to create unbreakable legal and administrative ties between the two countries though with little in the way of obligations on the part of Israel.”

We now know why Israel had Trump remove Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie from Congress. Their opposition would have made the American public aware of the takeover of America by Israel.

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“Climate goals”.

• Letitia James Sues Trump Admin Over $1 Billion Deal To Stop Offshore Wind (JTN)

New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading a coalition of blue states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its $1 billion deal to end an offshore wind project. The Interior Department announced in March that it would pay nearly $1 billion to the French energy-and-petroleum company TotalEnergies to shift its investments in offshore wind to oil and gas infrastructure. Additionally, the company will invest in the development of offshore oil and shale gas production.


In exchange for the investments, the federal government agreed to terminate offshore wind leases off the coasts of North Carolina and New York and reimburse the company for the loss of those leases, which are worth approximately $928.3 million. James’ lawsuit argues that the deal will harm the plaintiff states’ economies, their energy grids and the states’ climate goals, the Associated Press reported. The complaint was filed in District Court for the District of Columbia and names Trump administration officials, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

The lawsuit asks the federal judge to vacate the lease cancellation and settlement agreement with TotalEnergies’ subsidiary, Attentive Energy. State attorneys general from Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

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“..Biden famously declared at the time that her husband was brilliant in the debate, and denied he was showing signs of mental decline.”

• A “View from the East Wing”: Jill Biden’s Fantasy Book Tour (Turley)

Jill Biden’s book is not even out yet — and she’s already trying to get it displayed on both the fiction and the non-fiction shelves. From her husband’s mental decline to the pardoning of her son, the former first lady has moved from the historical to the fanciful. Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom” — but if her promotional interviews are any measure, that chapter appears to be entirely missing from “View from the East Wing: A Memoir.” Last week Biden faced a torrent of criticism, including from Democrats like her former spokesperson, over her claim to CBS News that she thought her husband’s debate meltdown meant he might have been suffering a stroke.


The interviewer didn’t mention the fact that Biden famously declared at the time that her husband was brilliant in the debate, and denied he was showing signs of mental decline. Now, Jill Biden is rewriting the history of one of the most infamous lies Joe Biden ever spun. While running for office, Biden and his staff repeatedly insisted that he would never pardon son Hunter Biden under any circumstances. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre became indignant and mocked reporters who continued to ask about a pardon after the then-president had repeatedly promised not to do so. Now Jill is saying the pardon was the obvious and right thing to do.

After all, she insisted, “Then the Justice Department changed. And I think that the process was not fair to Hunter.” “When Trump was elected,” she added, “we knew that he would target Hunter.” Just one problem: It was her husband’s Justice Department, and two different panels of jurors, who convicted Hunter. Indeed, even juries in the Bidens’ home state of Delaware and the heavily Democratic state of California declared him guilty. The only pending matter was his sentencing before the same judges that President Biden assured us would be allowed to resolve the cases. Indeed, even after those convictions, the Biden administration declared that the president would not break his promise and pardon his son.

Presidents have long waited until the final days of their terms to grant controversial or self-serving pardons — like Bill Clinton’s pardon of his own brother. However, none but Joe Biden had made the denial of such a pardon an issue in his presidential campaign, and none had repeatedly denied any possibility of it. Yet Jill Biden’s new claim shows the Bidens view the public as chumps and dupes who will blindly accept anything that the establishment gives them. “I truly supported it,” she now insists, because “we just could not let our son go to jail on a charge that no one would go, I mean, no one has ever gone to jail for.”That is also demonstrably untrue.

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The family wants/needs money.

• So, That’s Why Jill Biden’s Book Is Coming Out Now (Matt Vespa)

Former First Lady Jill Biden is creating issues for Democrats with her book about her time in the White House. No one wants to hear it, as the couple has yet to accept responsibility for their part in their party’s crushing defeat by Donald Trump in 2024. The most loyal Biden allies at the White House aren’t happy with this work; some even call it a web of lies.


Like the Biden White House, this book tour hasn’t shed much light on the inner workings of this failed presidency. It’s still a guarded effort, with Jill avoiding tough issues like her husband’s declining health, which was obvious toward the end of his disastrous run at 1600. She isn’t open about what happened on debate night or her husband’s mental decline, though there’s an interesting detail about how Kamala Harris influenced Joe’s decision on an endorsement when he dropped out. So, why did she write this book?

First, it’s tradition—a book of some sort was going to happen. But former MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin noted the most obvious reason: they need money. Hunter Biden isn’t doing his government access stuff anymore after that got exposed, so this family, which has numerous members and hordes of grandchildren, needs to keep raking in the dough: And when it comes time to plug the book, Jill really wasn’t enthusiastic about it, so they know this thing is a grenade.

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Feels like East Germany 1955.

• Mamdani Announces Possible Transfer of Housing to Tenants (Turley)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised in his inaugural address to introduce New Yorkers to “the warmth of collectivism.” It now appears landlords will likely to be the first to feel the heat. This week, Mamdani revealed an effort to transfer properties to tenants and non-profit groups. Mamdani announced that “through our new citywide campaign, Fix the City, we will focus on the worst landlords in New York City.” For landlords, it has been clear that the fix was in for some time. Mamdani faced criticism for his appointment of Cea Weaver as the new director of the Office to Protect Tenants.


She previously called for efforts to “impoverish the white middle-class” and called homeownership “racist” while demanding the seizure of private property. Videos of Weaver echoed thread-worn socialist mantras that are the signature of the Mamdani Administration. “I think the reality is, that for centuries we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good,” she said. “And transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently and it will mean that families — especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well — are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”

Weaver famously tweeted out her beliefs about private property, which are apparently widely shared in the Mamdani administration: “Private property, including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of White supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.” Other socialists on the national level have pursued the same policies to target landlords. In pushing national legislation, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) joined fellow Democrats in calling for the passage of the HELP Act to “crack down” on some evictions and bar the use of evictions on credit reports. Pressley has declared that “evictions are an act of policy violence.” Mamdani insists that he will be targeting “the worst landlords in New York City.”

Yet, who constitutes the “worst landlords” could prove a relative notion to the ardent socialist. Mamdani proposes to transfer their properties to “responsible stewards,” including tenants and nonprofits. In his 112-page report, Mamdani is again pushing to unleash his “Block by Block agenda for expanded rent controls, promising not to exempt landlords from Rent Guidelines Board limits. He and his allies have previously heralded Cuba and South Africa as models for policy changes. Mamdani faces a considerable challenge in fulfilling his pledge to build 200,000 new affordable homes, with an additional 200,000 stabilized units over the next decade. There is reportedly only a 1.4 percent rental vacancy rate, with 100,000 New Yorkers sleeping in shelters each night.

Rent controls have generally been a disaster, reducing landlords’ ability to make improvements to their properties. They cannot recoup those investments due to rental limits as costs, particularly insurance, skyrocket. The result is a type of planned failure. As landlords postpone improvements, they are often cited by the city in housing hearings. When those findings and fines increase, the landlords risk being declared “negligent” and subject to a transfer due to unpaid citations. There is no argument that the worst landlords warrant the loss of their properties. But transferring such properties to tenants or non-profit groups is a new and costly form of subsidy.

Ordinarily, delinquent properties can be sold on the free market to pay off outstanding debts. That allows neglected properties to be put to the most profitable use, which in turn generates more taxes and jobs for the city. If these properties go to non-profits or tenants, that can further reduce the city’s tax revenues. More importantly, neither tenants nor nonprofit organizations have a proven track record of maintaining properties without substantial city subsidies. It is a mirage created by activists, hiding the true cost to taxpayers. Mamdani continues to pursue policies that will suppress, not surge, new construction. His administration is requiring construction companies to pay a minimum of $40 per hour for city-funded affordable housing, which will further discourage investors.

He announced a $22 billion subsidy for housing costs, with 25 percent going to the New York City Housing Authority. These increased costs will likely grow as fixed budgetary items for the city. Although it is economically dubious, it is politically dynamite. Much of Mamdani’s support comes from young people who have no memory of or experience with the failures of socialist policies in the twentieth century. He simply promises things like free buses or city-run grocery stores as if they can be supported by free money without addressing their true costs.

His grocery stores show the same economic sleight of hand. The city is planning to spend $30 million to create the first store — four times what such stores normally cost. On top of that cost, it was discovered that the city had already appropriated $25 million for the improvement of the site. That is $55 million for a site that will not go on the market for the highest bidders, but rather be operated by the city at a loss.

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https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2061862911568421263?s=20 https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/2061815682786808185?s=20

 

 

 

 

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May 272026
 


Andy Warhol Mick Jagger 1975


• Iranian Enriched Uranium Stockpile To Be ‘Destroyed’ – Trump (RT)
• It’s a Time for Choosing II: Do You Trust Trump With Iran — or Not (Pinsker)
• Ted Cruz Is Right to Demand Guardrails on DOJ’s Weaponization Fund (Manney)
• Dan Goldman Fights to Keep the Rage — and His Career — Alive (Turley)
• Here’s Why Many Western Leaders’ Approval Ratings Are Tanking (Amar)
• Mamdani Plans to Begin Seizing and Redistributing Private Property (Bolt)
• Mamdani Did the Right Thing on Crime (Stephen Green)
• Paxton Crushes Cornyn In Stunning Texas Senate Upset (ZH)
• Key Biden DOJ Official Raised Red Flags About FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Raid (JTN)
• Joe Biden Sues DOJ To Stop Release Of Audio Recordings (JTN)
• Pam Bondi Battlies Thyroid Cancer, Trump Gives Her Advisory Role on AI (CTH)
• Heads Exploded When Vox Published This Global Warming Report (Stephen Green)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2059443660631216143?s=20 https://twitter.com/GOP_is_Gutless/status/2058987122518905259?s=20 https://twitter.com/ivan_8848/status/2059295314507350291?s=20 https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2059344808716509554?s=20

 


 


For the first time in what seems to be a long time, the focus on Iran wanes a bit among news- and opinion makers. They will be back.

• Iranian Enriched Uranium Stockpile To Be ‘Destroyed’ – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has outlined his preferred options for disposing of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile as negotiators meet for high-stakes talks in Qatar. The US has demanded that Iran completely dismantle its nuclear program, while Tehran insists that uranium enrichment is its sovereign right. Iranian officials have denied seeking to develop nuclear weapons. “The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, witnessing this process and event,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday evening.


On Sunday, CBS News, citing a senior US official, reported that Iran had agreed “in principle” to dispose of its enriched uranium. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, however, said on Monday that the negotiations were focused on ending the armed conflict with the US. “At this stage, we are not discussing nuclear issues,” he said. The sides are expected to discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz and potentially unfreezing Iranian assets. According to media reports, the two sides are close to extending the truce announced on April 8 by another 60 days.

Axios and Al Arabiya reported that the draft agreement to be discussed in Doha includes a commitment to negotiate the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile over a 60-day period. Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Friday that Iran would “not compromise on its rights” as a sovereign nation. Iranian officials said ahead of the talks that the US needed to rebuild trust after launching airstrikes on Iran in late February, shortly after a round of Omani-mediated negotiations.

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We’re losing patience with war. That does not appear to be the smartest move.

• It’s a Time for Choosing II: Do You Trust Trump With Iran — or Not (Pinsker)

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) proudly supports term limits for Supreme Court justices. “The public’s trust in the Supreme Court has plummeted,” he announced in a press release. “Extreme conservatives on the Court have stripped away Americans’ fundamental rights. Term limits and a binding code of ethics will rebalance the Court and rebuild confidence in our institutions.” Not just Supreme Court justices: In 2017, Khanna also introduced legislation to limit congressional terms to 12 years. “Enacting term limits will give more voices the opportunity to serve in Congress and bring fresh ideas and new energy to Capitol Hill,” he said. “Being a member of Congress needn’t be a lifetime gig, but instead more people should have the chance to work in public service.”


Oh, by the way, in 2026, Khanna will be running for reelection in Congress yet again — the ninth time(!) he’s run since 2004. (His reelection campaign will be exceptionally well funded, too: Out of all the congressmen in D.C., so far he’s raised the fourth most money.) And on his official website, the very first priority that Khanna listed is: “Banning PAC and lobbyist money.” So yeah, clearly not all politicians deserve to be trusted! In fact, a cynic might argue that no politician should be trusted — that the nature of this profession is incompatible with trust. And maybe that’s fair: Eventually, every politician will break your heart. (At least, it sure seems that way.)

But I’m not a cynic. I’m a stone cold, unrepentant, dyed-in-the-wool realist. Instead of arguing with reality, I prefer to work within it. And the reality is, if you adopt the philosophy of “Don’t trust anyone,” the cost is too high: You throw out the baby with the bath water. Yes, you avoid being stabbed in the back, but you lose a lot of good stuff, too. So trust your spouse. Trust your kids. Trust your friends and family. Trust your faith. Trust your country. Life is lonely and miserable if you can’t trust anyone! Just don’t trust blindly — and reserve your trust for the people who’ve proven they deserve it.

Which brings us to President Donald Trump and this on-again, off-again, still-being-negotiated conclusion to the war in Iran. We’ve gone from demanding unconditional surrender to shuffling U.S. diplomats in and out of Pakistan, patiently waiting for the Iranians to capitulate. Is Trump’s strategy wise? Or would it be smarter to amp up the attacks? Only time will tell. But in the short term, it’s created a colossal PR headache for the White House, because the status quo is a political loser: Nobody’s happy with it!

The hawks hate the optics of the Iranian mullahs sitting in the perceptual driver’s seat — thumbing their nose at Uncle Sam, spurning peace deals, and mocking American might. (There’s also a growing fear that the president will cut bait and bail, deciding the juice ain’t worth the squeeze.) But President Trump is unconcerned with the hawks, because they’re in the minority. They might whine and moan, but at least they’re invested in an American victory. That, at a minimum, puts them on Trump’s side.

Not so with the doves. Statistically, they’re the much bigger group. They don’t want America to succeed, because victory validates the decision to attack: It’ll mean Trump was right and they were wrong. So, until victory is 100% undeniable, they’re going to wage a PR war to position it as a horrible, terrible, expensive catastrophe. (With the help of the mainstream media, of course.) Unfortunately, the current status quo is the perfect environment for such a PR campaign to prosper.

For some doves, their motives are purely partisan: Politics is a zero-sum game, and when Trump wins, they lose. (And besides, if Trump is “literally Hitler,” then by definition, everything he does is evil anyway. No point being on Hitler’s side.) Sadly, that’s most of today’s Democrats. Even if we discovered an entire arsenal of nuclear bombs being actively constructed in Tehran — alongside ballistic missiles capable of reaching American soil — the Dems still wouldn’t have supported the Iran War, because their constituents hate Donald Trump more than they hate anything else on this planet. Including nuclear annihilation and the “Death to America” mullahs.

There’s a slightly different calculus at work within the anti-war segments of the GOP. One splinter group hates those war-obsessed “neocons” (especially the ones with Jewish-sounding names) and wants them discredited ASAP. Others hate Israel more than any other country on the planet — including Iran — and simply won’t support a U.S. war when Israel is an ally. nFortunately, the Groyper-aligned right — with self-appointed spokesmen like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Thomas Massie, Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes — represent a teeny-tiny sliver of the overall GOP. They’re the modern version of trans kids: We hear about ‘em all the time, but their actual numbers are minuscule.

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There’s never been anything like it. But it’s needed. Ask Liz Cheney. Who should be in jail for it.

• Ted Cruz Is Right to Demand Guardrails on DOJ’s Weaponization Fund (Manney)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has the right instinct on the Department of Justice’s new $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund. The idea behind the fund deserves a fair hearing; Americans who were targeted by abusive federal power should have some path toward relief, especially after years of lectures from the same political class pretending government weaponization only exists when Democrats campaign on it. Still, a good idea turns rotten fast once Washington gets control of the checkbook.


President Donald Trump’s administration created the fund as part of a settlement connected to Trump’s lawsuit over the leak of his tax records. The agreement gives Trump and his family a formal apology but no monetary payout. The fund would compensate Americans claiming abuse, with a five-member commission expected to handle claims. On paper, relief for real victims sounds defensible. In practice, however, loose language and weak oversight make almost any large federal fund look like an invitation to mischief.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund before senators and argued the process would help people hurt by politicized investigations or prosecutions. Blanche also didn’t rule out potential claims from people tied to Jan. 6 cases, including applicants who may argue the government unfairly treated them. Cruz and other Republicans had reason to press him hard: a program built to correct abuse can’t become a fog bank where eligibility rules appear after the money starts moving.

Cruz described the closed-door Republican meeting with Blanche as close to a revolt, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) acknowledged members had real questions about how the fund would work. From CBS News. “Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said a two-hour meeting Thursday with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about the Justice Department’s new “anti-weaponization fund” was “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.” “There were fireworks at an epic level,” Cruz said Friday on his podcast. “Fiery does not begin to cut it.”

Blanche was dispatched to the Capitol to try and convince skeptical Republican lawmakers to drop their opposition to the nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people who claim they were politically persecuted. The announcement of the fund — part of a settlement to resolve President Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS — came as senators prepared to vote on a reconciliation package to fund border security and immigration enforcement through the end of Mr. Trump’s term. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also questioned the need for the fund, while Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) separately demanded answers from DOJ about the money, eligibility, oversight, and taxpayer protection.

None of those concerns undermine the fight against weaponized government; they strengthen it by forcing the administration to build a process the public and Congress understand. The White House and DOJ should welcome strict guardrails instead of treating them like betrayal. Setting a strong and legal foundation now becomes critical.

Define who qualifies
Require sworn documentation
Bar payouts for violent conduct
Publish regular reports without exposing private victims
Create an appeals process
Keep commissioners independent from campaign politics
Protect whistleblowers
Build audit trails before the first dollar leaves Treasury.

A fund created to remedy political abuse should never rely on political discretion as its operating system. As if on cue, Democrats already call the fund corrupt, and their outrage has a familiar theatrical quality. From the Independent. Democrats have also sharply condemned the proposal. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote in a letter to Blanche on Wednesday that “the notion of the federal government doling out compensation to rioters” is “absurd and offensive.”

On Thursday, Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit federal funds from being used for the program. Many of them showed far less curiosity when federal power ran against conservatives, pro-life activists, parents at school board meetings, Trump associates, and others who believed the system hand-picked sides. Their hypocrisy doesn’t erase the need for discipline. A Republican administration shouldn’t answer double standards by creating a new system critics can attack fairly as sloppy, secretive, or self-serving.

[..] Cruz’s warning gives the administration a chance to fix the weak spots before enemies define the entire effort. Trump ran against government weaponization for good reason: millions of Americans believe federal agencies lost neutrality and punished disfavored targets. A fund for victims serves justice only if it avoids favoritism, vague standards, and backroom handling. Cruz isn’t trying to kill the mission; he’s trying to keep it from turning swampy before the ink dries.

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“He has made himself known to the establishment as someone willing to enthusiastically do those things that repel others..”

• Dan Goldman Fights to Keep the Rage — and His Career — Alive (Turley)

Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) is fast becoming the Marie Antoinette of New York politics. As Democratic socialists rage against the privileged elite and promise sweeping welfare programs, Goldman is doubling down on promises of more impeachments and investigations. The ultimate establishment candidate is floundering. He is reportedly over 20 points behind his Mamdini-endorsed opponent, housing advocate and former Comptroller Brad Lander. It appears that the “let-them-eat impeachments” is not resonating with his constituents.


While Goldman is trying to fight off the challenge from the left with some pocket-book pitches, he is sticking to the narrative that got him elected a few years ago. In an “age of rage,” Goldman has excelled, pushing unstepped on, unadulterated rage. Since his entry into politics, he has run on what was viewed as the sure winner in New York politics: obsessive, unending attacks on Trump. Goldman made sure that no one was more enraged at all things Trump, all the time. In this campaign, Goldman has returned to the same theme of promising new investigations and impeachments.

Goldman claimed recently on MSNOW that he will lead any impeachment of Trump. (“Jamie Raskin and I will be leading investigations into Trump’s corruption and all cabinet officials”). Even as his polls showed him trailing Lander, he was promising this week that he had yet another basis to impeach Trump over his $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a settlement fund that is expected to go to people investigated and prosecuted over the Jan. 6th riot. Some of us have criticized the creation of the fund as irregular and lacking congressional consultation. That is not to say that Trump is not right about the violation over the leaking of his taxes or the abuses that occurred after January 6th.

In an interview with CBS News, Justice Department official Michael Sherwin declared that they wanted to send a message with the harsh treatment of defendants “to ensure that there was shock and awe.” The result was excessive measures against some who were simply present at the protest or did not engage in any violence. Despite my objections to how the fund was created, it is neither illegal nor impeachable in my view. These settlement funds have long been left to the discretion of the Justice Department and past Administrations have made generous settlements with politically aligned groups. However, the race in the 10th District may answer a more important question than another impeachment frenzy in Congress.

The question is whether Goldman and other candidates can secure another term on rage alone. We will soon know whether Goldman’s “let them eat impeachments” pitch can override the bread-and-butter policies of Lander or Mamdani. It is not that anger has lost its cache, but the subject has changed as socialism sweeps over the Democratic Party, particularly in New York. In this “eat-the-rich” environment, Goldman is hardly a natural fit in modern Democratic politics. He is no “one percenter,” mind you. He is the guy the one percenter looks on as privileged and entitled. As emphasized by Lander in his campaign, Goldman inherited his vast wealth as heir to the Levi Strauss family and is worth more than $200 million.

He reportedly has at least three luxury homes in Atlantic Beach on Long Island, Manhattan, and Water Mill in the Hamptons. He seems to be the perfect example of the super-wealthy denounced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she insisted that “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. In Goldman’s case, he was born into such wealth. Goldman is not the antagonist, but the embodiment, of the socialist scourge. To be fair to Goldman, he hasn’t focused on being an average Joe with shared life experiences. He has made himself known to the establishment as someone willing to enthusiastically do those things that repel others.

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“The difference between ideology and citizens’ lived experience is becoming explosive ..”

By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory

• Here’s Why Many Western Leaders’ Approval Ratings Are Tanking (Amar)

Every political and social order comes in two flavors: What its small elite and the minority exploiting it to the full want everyone to believe, and the reality that most of its members actually live in. The two never match, but this mismatch need not be a big problem. However, if the difference becomes too great and too obvious for too long, no order can continue unchanged.None of the above is news. Keen observers have long understood that things get shaky when a majority loses their belief in – or at least passive acceptance of – the prevalent ideology (in the original meaning of the term, namely, as the elite’s imaginative story about reality, keeping the non-elites compliant).


In such a situation, things will change, but it is hard to predict how, exactly. An acute ideology-reality mismatch can lead to rebellion and, if the latter succeeds, revolution. Yet it can also make the elites ramp up their indoctrination or become more punitive, adding more direct compulsion to keep those below in line. There is always also the option of going to war with enemies abroad – real or, much more likely, invented – to distract from disunity at home. Finally, all of the above can happen in a messy sequence, or even at the same time.

Despite differences and tensions, the West does constitute some form of political and social order. In its elites’ ideology, as spread by their compliant mainstream media, it is a fairy-tale realm of political and economic freedom, combining representative democracy with free markets, the rule of law, individualism, and superior “values” to make the best of all possible worlds. In reality, obviously, it’s a dark zone of capitalist oligarchy with increasingly authoritarian tendencies. Not the Hobbits’ cozy Shire; rather Sauron’s domain under construction.

Markets, for one thing, are not “free,” but routinely and crassly gamed by insiders. Currently for instance, both the beginning of the criminal Israeli-US war against Iran and deliberately timed, repeated rumors about peace have facilitated manipulative trades worth billions of dollars. The September 11, 2001 attacks can be considered the evil Big Bang of our current iteration of mass manipulation, authoritarian power grabs in the name of “emergency” response, permanent warfare, and lying so intense it is sometimes hard to remember there is a truth. As the rebellious US ex-MAGA conservative Tucker Carlson has just reminded us, 9/11 was also accompanied – and preceded – by trading, for which the description “highly suspicious” is an understatement.

Democratic political representation and freedom of thought and speech are, at best, if not outright deceptions, then myths. That is, a messy hodgepodge of scraps of reality and large doses of invention. The rare scraps of reality are now diminishing ever further. Concerning freedom, Britain under the widely hated Starmer regime, for instance, is a Zionist police state. It goes further than smearing and suppressing any action on behalf of the victims of Israel’s crimes, including genocide, as ”antisemitism”; it also condemns any statements of public solidarity with the victims. There is no rule of law worthy of the name: perfectly legitimate speech is prohibited as “terrorist,” the police harass political dissidents as well as the courts and their procedures.

These themselves are unreliable (ask Julian Assange), and are brazenly bent out of shape to produce unfair trials and punitive sentences. Regarding representation, take Germany, for instance: It now has a breathtakingly, historically unpopular government that is only even in place because the last election saw widespread and statistically bizarre miscounts which together acted – very un-randomly – to conveniently eliminate a whole new-left party (the BSW), and thus its voters, from parliament.

The German new right (AfD) and its voters, meanwhile, are openly threatened with unconstitutional punishment if they dare succeed too much: vote too much AfD and your kid’s high school diploma will be treated like dirt. Yes, that crude; that really is the current level of shamelessness among Germany’s self-radicalizing Centrists.

Even the most conformist inhabitants of the West, moreover, cannot close their eyes anymore to the empirical fact that conspiracies are all too real and exert great, heinous influence by vicious means. You cannot have both your masses soundly believing in the myth of fair popular representation and an Epstein scandal; it is proof of the massive over-representation of a very particular set of interests, and even foreign states, through networks of subversion and blackmail. The system may survive at first, but its base will be undermined by mass frustration and cynicism.

Today, the states of the West, in short, has much in common, and most of it is terrible. That is why we are observing one big trend across it now: In the words of the Wall Street Journal – not usually known for subversive dissidence – “Europeans are fed up and taking it out on their leaders.” Polls show massive discontent across NATO-EU Europe. And not only polls but real elections, too: Britain’s Starmer regime has just received a horrific drubbing in local elections that may well mark the impending end of the UK’s dysfunctional and unfair two-party system.

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All your base are belong to us.

• Mamdani Plans to Begin Seizing and Redistributing Private Property (Bolt)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani kicked off his plan to “fix” the city’s affordability crisis with his official housing policy agenda, titled “Block by Block,” under which one of the first priorities is to allow the government to seize property from owners deemed “negligent” and redistribute it to so-called “responsible stewards,” a category that includes anyone from land trusts, nonprofits, or even tenants themselves.


“Through our new citywide campaign, Fix the City, we will focus on the worst landlords in New York City,” Mamdani announced. “When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers. And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards that include community land trusts, non-profits, or even the tenants themselves.”

In other words, despite Mamdani’s claims that this time his own version of socialism will be different, it appears to be heading down the same familiar path, one that students of history expected upon Mamdani’s victory. Government redistribution of private property, however, is not the only pillar of Mamdani’s “Block by Block” agenda. He has also vowed to fast-track the construction of low-income and government-subsidized housing, while promising to impose price controls on those units that would limit rent to just a quarter of a tenant’s income.

Mamdani ended his “Block by Block” agenda announcement with a unifying, though ironic, speech, praising the city for what it is known for: its iconic skyscrapers, bridges, and museums. Yet those achievements were made possible not because of politicians like Mamdani, but in spite of them, driven largely by private industry and capitalists. Today, Mamdani’s own agenda still depends on the very economic forces he blasts daily, relying on private wealth to help fund his socialist policy vision.

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“.. and the Left’s Reaction Is Priceless ..”

• Mamdani Did the Right Thing on Crime (Stephen Green)

What do you call it when a mayor does the right thing concerning policing, resulting in tangible results for his city’s most vulnerable? Well, this is New York City, and the mayor is an avowed socialist, so you have to call it “mounting frustration” from so-called reform advocates and the people who voted for him. And you people wonder why I drink. Anyway, there’s a fascinating — and perhaps unintentionally hilarious — report by Elizabeth Kim in today’s Gothamist describing a “surge of police officers into neighborhoods of color with high crime,” and the resulting hissy fit thrown by the city’s professional lefties.


There’s even been a “spike in subway arrests and summonses,” among other dreaded “broken windows”-style policing leading to “Courts so backlogged that officials had to temporarily reopen an emergency overnight shift.” Harry Anderson, call your office. Kim also mentioned that “at least three people… died in NYPD custody after being arrested for low-level offenses,” but since she didn’t go into any details, I’m forced to assume that these were George Floyd-type incidents where drug abusers expired due to drug abuse, not police action.

After the huge St.-George-Floyd/BLM/COVID crime spike, New Yorkers enjoyed an almost unparalleled reduction in crime — particularly murder, shootings, robberies, and so-called “lifestyle” offenses like turnstile jumping. And the last thing Mamdani supporters can tolerate is more of the Giuliani-era broken-windows policing that helped create it. That Gothamist report lamented the “mounting frustration among some criminal justice reform advocates and people who voted for Mamdani could come to a head this summer as NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch plans to ‘flood the zone’ this summer with up to 3,800 officers in high-crime areas, including public housing complexes and subway stations.”

“Tisch has repeatedly said the city is not using broken windows policing,” according to Kim, but those “flood the zone” tactics say otherwise. Likewise, Mamdani spokesman Sam Raskin “disputed the notion that Mamdani campaigned on a promise to reduce policing of low-level offenses,” according to the paper. And all I can say is: Good for him then. I suspect that New Yorkers will suffer enough under the Mamdani administration without having to deal with a return to Bill de Blasio-era policing methods. Or it could be, as the Gothamist hinted, that Mamdani is flooding the zone due to “the global spotlight for the World Cup,” coming in June.

In the meantime, however, enjoy not getting shot at. This might be my favorite line from the entire Gothamist report: “Criminal justice advocates like [Justice Committee deputy director Yul-san] Liem argue that crackdowns on low-level offenses lead to a revolving door of arrests by failing to address the root causes like mental illness, homelessness and substance abuse.” Don’t you worry, gentle reader, the Justice Committee has a plan to address those root causes that involves paying themselves lots of other people’s money to help the mentally ill and/or drug addicted to continue pooping in the streets.

Seriously, take a look at the group’s Staff page and tell me which one of these preferred-pronouns social champions has ever actually gotten anything done in the real world. Liem, for their part, is listed as a “she/her they/them” who is “making art as part of New York City’s social and racial justice movements.” So with apologies to Stanley Kubrick, “You can’t produce results here, gentlemen — this is the public sector!”

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All you need to do is take a picture with Trump.

• Paxton Crushes Cornyn In Stunning Texas Senate Upset (ZH)

In a brutal repudiation of the GOP old guard, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton crushed four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican Senate runoff Tuesday night, winning by a commanding margin of roughly 63% to 37%. The victory marks one of the biggest primary upsets in modern Texas political history. Cornyn, a powerful Senate insider and former Majority Whip, was unceremoniously dumped by his own party’s voters after more than two decades in Washington. Paxton, the hard-charging conservative known for his fierce battles with the Biden administration and loyalty to Donald Trump, declared victory and wasted no time thanking the base.


“Texas has spoken loud and clear,” Paxton said in his victory speech. “We’re done with business as usual.” The race turned decisively after Trump endorsed Paxton just days before early voting ended. That seal of approval from the former president mobilized the MAGA base and proved once again that Trump remains the undisputed kingmaker in Republican primaries. Cornyn led the initial March 3 primary with about 42% of the vote, but failed to clear 50%, forcing a runoff against Paxton, who took 41%. The contest quickly turned into a bloodbath, with both sides dumping tens of millions into attack ads.

Paxton hammered Cornyn as out-of-touch with Texas values and too cozy with the Washington establishment. Cornyn fired back, portraying Paxton as ethically compromised and a liability heading into the general election. But in the end, Texas Republicans chose the fighter over the dealmaker. The Paxton-Cornyn showdown wasn’t the only fireworks in Texas Tuesday night. In the race to replace Paxton as Attorney General, conservative state Sen. Mayes Middleton defeated U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, setting up a strong favorite to hold the powerful post in November.

Democrats also saw some action, with state Rep. James Talarico emerging as their Senate nominee. He’ll now face the daunting task of trying to flip deep-red Texas in November against the polarizing Paxton. Paxton’s win is the latest sign that the Republican Party continues its sharp rightward shift. Traditional, institutional conservatives like Cornyn are increasingly being shown the door in favor of Trump-aligned warriors willing to fight the culture wars and challenge the status quo.

For national Republicans, the result is a double-edged sword. While the seat remains heavily favored to stay red in November, Paxton’s baggage and combative style could force the party to spend serious cash defending what should have been a safe hold. Democrats are already licking their chops, viewing Paxton as far more beatable than the polished Cornyn. But in a state that hasn’t elected a statewide Democrat in nearly 30 years, their path to victory remains steep.

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Who will Blanche nail for this?

• Key Biden DOJ Official Raised Red Flags About FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Raid (JTN)

A recently disclosed email shows that top Garland associates raised the issue of declassification before the morning raid. Although the memo requested that lawyers check whether Trump had the authority to declassify documents, Garland personally approved the August 2022 raid, which included searching Melania Trump’s underwear drawers. top Biden Justice Department official and key ally of then-Attorney General Merrick Garland raised legal “concerns” about the FBI’s raid on Mar-Lago, warning that then-former President Donald Trump may have actually declassified the records seized by agents, a newly-unearthed email obtained by Just the News shows.


Patty Stemler, a decades-long DOJ veteran who was reportedly picked by Garland in 2022 to help consult on Trump-related cases, sent an email just two days after the bureau’s Aug. 8, 2022 raid of Trump’s Florida resort home, where Stemler said she had “a few concerns.” Stemler sent the email to Sophia Brill, a future Biden White House lawyer and then an attorney inside DOJ’s National Security Division, which played a central role in this anti-Trump inquiry.The memo was recently discovered by the Justice Department as part of its investigation into the weaponization of federal law enforcement.

“I didn’t know about this search in advance, but I have been worrying about it ever since and worrying more now,” Stemler wrote to Brill on Aug. 10, 2022. “Doesn’t Trump maintain that he had the authority to declassify documents while he was still President? “Has anyone in NSD or OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] looked at that? I know we have procedures for declassifying, but is the President as Commander in Chief bound by those procedures? We also have procedures for granting pardons, but the President doesn’t have to follow them,” she added. Garland has said he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant” for the FBI’s unprecedented raid of Mar-a-Lago back in early August 2022.

Her warnings are now the second showing federal law enforcement’s unease with the unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago. Previously, FBI Director Kash Patel provided Congress evidence that agents did not believe they had not met the legal standard of probable cause required for the raid but proceeded anyway. Trump’s office told Just the News in mid-August 2022 that the materials with classified markings which the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate had actually been declassified under a “standing order” while he was president that allowed him to take sensitive materials to the White House residence at night to continue his work.

“The very fact that these documents were present at Mar-a-Lago means they couldn’t have been classified,” the former president’s office stated at the time. “As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time. American presidents are no different. President Trump, in order to prepare for work the next day, often took documents, including classified documents from the Oval Office to the residence.

Trump’s office added back in August 2022: “He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified. The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States. The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.” Stemler appeared to be concerned with exactly that scenario, her email states. “I don’t know if we intend to charge anyone with respect to the classified documents seized yesterday, but if we disclose that we found X classified documents before we seek an indictment, will that trench on any fair trial rights or violate the ethical obligations of a prosecutor?” she wrote.

“I seem to recall that a prosecutor has some leeway to inform the public that we have arrested the serial killer and seized from his home evidence that ties him to the murders for the purpose of reassuring the public that they are now safe. But aren’t there ethical limits on what a prosecutor can say otherwise? I think this came up when Ashcroft was AG — post 9/11. Liza Collery drafted something to get him out of trouble. Let me see if I can find that.”

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No idea how Joe is doing, but I doubt it’s him who’s suing anyone.

• Joe Biden Sues DOJ To Stop Release Of Audio Recordings (JTN)

Former President Joe Biden sued the Justice Department Tuesday to block the release of recordings and transcripts from interviews he gave to a ghostwriter for his 2017 memoir, which were included in a special counsel probe regarding his handling of classified materials after he served as vice president. The lawsuit comes ahead of the department’s planned June 15 release of the materials to the House Judiciary Committee and the conservative Heritage Foundation, which requested the information under the Freedom of Information Act, per Reuters.


The Heritage Foundation requested the material after they were used in then-Special Counsel Robert Hur’s 2023 investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents, for which Hur ultimately declined to bring charges Hur determined Biden’s memory lapses would make it hard to prove he acted willfully.

The lawsuit, which is related to private conversations the former president had with his biographer in 2016 and 2017, asks the Washington, D.C., court to declare the committee’s request pretextual and invalid, and permanently bar the release of the records. The recordings were part of Biden’s 2017 memoir in which he detailed his decision to pursue the presidency while his eldest son Beau fought brain cancer.

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Prayers for a full recovery.

• Pam Bondi Battlies Thyroid Cancer, Trump Gives Her Advisory Role on AI (CTH)

Apparently, former Attorney General Pam Bondi has been battling thyroid cancer since her departure from Main Justice. Axios is reporting today that President Trump has appointed Bondi to an advisory committee role on artificial intelligence. [Axios via MSM] – “President Trump has appointed former Attorney General Pam Bondi to an advisory committee focused on AI policy, Axios has learned. Driving the news: Bondi, whom Trump ousted as AG last month, will be on the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).


The panel is chaired by former White House AI adviser David Sacks and White House science adviser Michael Kratsios. It also includes more than a dozen tech executives, including Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. What we’re hearing: Bondi will be charged with facilitating coordination between the government and the tech titans on the panel.What they’re saying: “Pam has been an enormously valuable asset to the president’s team, and I’m thrilled for her and for all of us that she’s going to remain involved in confronting some of the most important issues the administration faces,” Vice President JD Vance said in a statement.

Bondi will also serve in a newly established advisory role on national infrastructure. Between the lines: Bondi was diagnosed with thyroid cancer shortly after departing the Justice Department, according to a source. She underwent treatment and is recovering.That is terrible news. Prayers for a full recovery.

Heavenly Father, we come before You with prayer. We pray for the power of Your Holy Spirit to bring healing and restoration to the body of Pam Bondi. We beg Your divine touch to remain upon her, bringing her comfort, strength and healing to both her physical and spiritual life. Lord of mercy, we pray that You will grant Mrs. Bondi a peace in recovery that surpasses understanding. May Your loving presence surround her and those she loves, removing fear, anxiety or doubt.

We ask that You extend a powerful embrace upon her, as we accept that You are with her in every step of this healing process. Father who guides all that is known, it is You alone who controls very cell, tissue, and organ in our body. Through You miraculous healing and wholeness is possible. May Your power flow through her, restoring her health and vitality. In Jesus name we pray. ~ Amen

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And we throw in the graph once more as well. You been had! It’s not terribly warm at all.

Now stop it!

• Heads Exploded When Vox Published This Global Warming Report (Stephen Green)

“Climate change’s worst-case scenario is officially canceled,” young adult infotainment site Vox finally admitted this weekend, causing progressive heads to explode, from the writing staff to its readership. “You’ve probably never heard of the term ‘RCP 8.5’ — the highest-emission scenario used by climate scientists to project the planet’s future,” Vox’s Bryan Walsh reported. “But if you’ve read about climate change, you’ve seen the numbers and nightmarish outcomes it produced: 4°C of warming by 2100, sometimes 5°C, sea level rising multiple feet, parts of the planet too hot for humans.” Scary stuff, right? Wrong.


Even though “those numbers shaped a decade and a half of climate journalism,” Walsh continued, he “didn’t always know — and didn’t always communicate — that the scenario behind the most apocalyptic, attention-getting findings was largely an attempt to imagine how bad things could get, not a true forecast.” Let’s pause here a moment to contemplate what Walsh just admitted.Walsh: Now says he was ignorant about climate change numbers, despite being an expert for Time magazine. Ignorant, except when he “didn’t always communicate” what he did know. Which was that climate change “findings” were imaginary. Scare tactics, if you will. Now Walsh says, “The world that RCP 8.5 assumed will never arrive.” Mea culpa, much?

No, not nearly enough. “RCP 8.5 was as much a climate journalism story as it was a climate science one,” Walsh now says, in the exact same paragraph that ends with “In 2017, the writer David Wallace-Wells published ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’ in New York magazine. It was probably the most widely read piece of climate journalism of the last decade, and it was built almost entirely on RCP 8.5 projections.” Translation: The Climate Scare was a narrative first, science second. If that. Of course, it’s been weeks since Longtime Sharp VodkaPundit readers learned what Vox finally admitted, thanks to this item from May 5: It’s Official: The Climate Scam Was a Scam All Along.

From that column: “The new IPCC framework [that ditches 8.5] actually dates back to 2021, but is only now becoming “news” because a bunch of slow-moving pieces have finally lined up. That’s just how science works. But Pielke’s analysis is a week old, and the only way I learned about it was thanks to a Toby Young post on X — he’s editor-in-chief of the UK’s Daily Sceptic — that PJ Media’s own Charlie Martin found. Why, it’s almost as though the mainstream media doesn’t want to cover stories like this one. So kudos, I guess, to Vox for finally coming clean, even if it took a full three weeks after VodkaPundit readers got the news, and a month after Roger Pielke’s excellent analysis went live.

But Vox still has to Vox. So instead of asking how or why basically the entire news industry peddled a narrative instead of science — while vacillating as Walsh did between ignorance or “not always communicating” the truth, Vox readers got more political twaddle about President Donald Trump in the penultimate paragraph. “The entire point of climate scenarios like RCP 8.5 was that there was no one certain future for climate change,” Walsh concluded, “only multiple possible futures.” Then why did writers like Walsh and publications like Vox assure readers that the end of the world was nigh, right up until they couldn’t get away with it any longer?

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https://twitter.com/pete_rizzo_/status/2059366780804481312?s=20

 

 

 

 

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May 142026
 
 May 14, 2026  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  47 Responses »


Nicolai Dubovskov Hushing (Calm Before the Storm) 1890


• Bessent’s “Suffocating” Iranian Regime Strategy Materializes (ZH)
• Trump, Xi, and the Taiwan Test (David Manney)
• Trump Must Look Over His Shoulder for the Rest of His Life (Athena Thorne)
• Zelensky’s Alleged Cocaine Use ‘An Open Secret’ – Former Spokeswoman (RT)
• Zelensky’s ex-Spokeswoman Added To State-linked ‘Kill List’ (RT)
• ‘Zelensky Thrives On War, Why Would He End It?’: Former Press Secretary (RT)
• Biden FBI Secretly Set Up Trump To Be Indicted After He Leaves Office (JTN)
• EU Targets France’s Jordan Bardella As His Anti-Migration Party Surges (RMX)
• Von der Leyen’s Power Grab Angers EU Officials – Bloomberg (RT)
• Kathy Hochul Caves to Mamdani, Will Bail Out Socialist NYC (Margolis)
• CIA Went Rogue, Raided Tulsi’s Office to Seize Papers (Catherine Salgado)
• No, The CIA Did Not Raid DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s Office (CTH)
• Datacenters, The AI Race and American Politics (CTH)
• Marc Elias Raises Power to Eliminate the Virginia Government (Turley)

 


 

https://twitter.com/Chicago1Ray/status/2054231808368160941?s=20 https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2054247524660019593?s=20 https://twitter.com/warDaniel47/status/2054473146967769291?s=20

 


 


Not much mews this morning, from either Iran or China. Not for public consumption.

• Bessent’s “Suffocating” Iranian Regime Strategy Materializes (ZH)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s description of “suffocating” the Iranian regime through economic and financial pressure, whether via sanctions or the US military blockade of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoint, now appears to be showing up in the data. New geospatial intelligence indicates that Iran’s main crude export terminal has gone quiet, while a separate report suggests seaborne oil exports have effectively been halted for the past month.


The first report comes from Bloomberg, which cited European satellite imagery showing a massive bottleneck developing at Iran’s energy complex: no ocean-going tankers at Kharg Island, the country’s main export terminal, on May 8, 9, and 11. This marks the longest stretch in no crude tanker loadings since the US-Iran conflict began nearly three months ago.

Iran continued loading crude throughout the early weeks of the war, using tankers as floating storage after the US Navy effectively blocked ships from exiting the Hormuz chokepoint in mid-April, creating a massive energy bottleneck for Tehran. bAt the end of last week, we reported that a massive oil leak spanning dozens of square miles of water was spotted off Kharg Island. This was based on open-source satellite imagery.”The slick appears visually consistent with oil,” said Leon Moreland, a researcher at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, to Reuters. He believes it covers an area of approximately 45 square km (nearly 18 sq miles).

While it’s unclear what may have caused it, or the extent of possible damage to Kharg Island’s infrastructure or possibly docked tankers, the island has been attacked by US aerial forces in the recent past.If Kharg Island remains idle and storage capacity reaches its limit, Iran could be forced into deeper oil production cuts.”To our best knowledge, Iran hasn’t successfully exported any crude oil by sea over the past 28 days. Some refined products managed to escape because US OFAC did not slap sanctions on those tankers,” research firm Tanker Trackers wrote on X.

This very development would support Bessent’s claims: “We are running a marathon over the past 12 months, and now we are sprinting toward the finish. They are not able to pay their soldiers. This is a real economic blockade.”Ten days ago, Bessent forecasted that Iran’s oil industry may need to start shutting in wells “in the next week” as the country’s crude storage is “rapidly filling up.””Their oil infrastructure is starting to creak,” he said. “It hasn’t been maintained again because of our decades-long sanctions against them.”

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“..which claims Taiwan as its territory despite never having ruled it for even a day.”

• Trump, Xi, and the Taiwan Test (David Manney)

President Donald Trump’s trip to China places Taiwan back where Beijing always wants it: under pressure, under scrutiny, and under threat. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te isn’t watching this meeting like a man checking diplomatic weather; he’s watching it like the leader of a free island that China keeps trying to isolate, intimidate, and eventually absorb. China’s leaders understand ceremony, leverage, and timing. They also smell weakness when there’s blood in the water, which is why I vividly remember the 2021 Alaska meeting and how it hangs around this story like smoke in a conference room.


You remember that Anchorage meeting, right? When Antony Blinken, then secretary of state, and Jake Sullivan, then national security advisor, sat across from Yang Jiechi, then China’s top foreign policy official, and Wang Yi, then China’s foreign minister and state councilor. China’s opening remarks turned into a public scolding, and the Biden team looked stunned as Beijing delivered a lecture in front of the cameras. Reading the archives is downright infuriating.

DIRECTOR YANG: On the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden had a phone conversation. The two presidents agreed to step up communication, manage differences, and expand cooperation between our two countries. We are having this dialogue today to follow up on the common understanding of the two presidents reached during their phone conversation. And having this dialogue is, in fact, a decision made by the two presidents. So for the people of the two countries and the world, they’re hoping to see practical outcomes coming out of our dialogue.

And with Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan, they are an inalienable part of China’s territory. China is firmly opposed to U.S. interference in China’s internal affairs. We have expressed our staunch opposition to such interference and we will take firm actions in response.

On human rights, we hope that the United States will do better on human rights. China has made steady progress in human rights and the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the U.S. itself as well. The United States has also said that countries can’t rely on force in today’s world to resolve the challenges we face. And it is a failure to use various means to topple the so-called “authoritarian” states. And the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter. It did not come up only recently. So we do hope that for our two countries, it’s important that we manage our respective affairs well instead of deflecting the blame on somebody else in this world.

Nobody should pretend one meeting defines an entire foreign policy, but bad first impressions travel far in adversarial capitals. Beijing learned something from that day, or at least thought it did. Trump isn’t walking into that room as a president trying to prove he belongs on the world stage. Xi Jinping, China’s president and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, knows that. Beijing may still test him, because testing American presidents ranks somewhere between doctrine and habit in Chinese statecraft.

The question is whether Xi believes Trump wants a public deal so badly that Taiwan becomes a bargaining chip. Taiwan has reason to care because every vague sentence, every pause, and every carefully softened word echoes across the Taiwan Strait. Calling Taiwan “Taiwan” doesn’t insult China by itself; American officials use its name constantly because the United States maintains unofficial relations with Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act while recognizing Beijing as China’s government. As Fox News reports, there’s a great deal of speculation involved in this meeting.

The de facto independent nation of 23 million people has spent decades living under threat from the Chinese Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as its territory despite never having ruled it for even a day. Observers here warn that Xi may try to offer Trump a deal: cooperation on tariffs, fentanyl, U.S. business access, or global flashpoints like Iran and Ukraine in exchange for Trump accepting a larger Chinese role in Taiwan’s future. Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu recently told Bloomberg News, “What we are the most afraid is to put Taiwan on the menu of the talk between Xi Jinping and President Trump.”

Huang Kwei-bo, a professor in National Chengchi University’s Department of Diplomacy, told Fox News Digital that Taiwan shouldn’t assume nothing will change. “Taiwan shouldn’t rule out the possibility that the United States and mainland China could reach an understanding behind the scenes, agreeing to reduce arms sales to Taiwan, or become less active in helping us meaningfully participate in international space,” he said. Beijing objects when language treats Taiwan as a separate sovereign state or moves toward formal recognition. China’s government insists Taiwan belongs to China, while the U.S. has long maintained a deliberately careful policy built around the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances.

Taiwan lives inside that careful wording every day.

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Trump indicated he knows this, by saying (paraphrased)” “I know life.”

• Trump Must Look Over His Shoulder for the Rest of His Life (Athena Thorne)

History is rife with examples of tyrannical movements that never end their hunt for their ideological enemies.b In 1989, Iran’s then-Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa against The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie. Rushdie was forced to remain under police protection or in hiding after that. Thirty-three years later, when he thought he could safely give an academic lecture in the United States, a 24-year-old fanatic nearly killed him in a knife attack, costing him the use of an eye and a hand. It’s noteworthy that the assailant was born almost a decade after the fatwa was declared.


In 1917, it wasn’t enough that the Bolsheviks had killed the Czar and his entire family and most of the Whites and had all of Russia under their control. The Soviet secret police sent hit squads after those who had fled abroad, disrupting their communities and killing their leaders. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to this day actively tracks and targets its citizens abroad, who have fled its authoritarian government, as part of its extensive policy of transnational repression. You get the idea: There is not enough time or distance to dissuade hateful ideologues from devoting themselves to the destruction of their perceived enemies.

Thus, the blinding pathological hatred the left has cultivated against Donald Trump will not simply dissipate once the man retires from office. So long as he lives, they will try to jail, bankrupt, destroy, and/or literally murder him. In some of the historical cases I cited above, it is true that just because someone is out of a leadership position, that doesn’t mean he is no longer a threat to the opposition. Barack Obama comes readily to mind as an example of someone who continues to work behind the scenes against our duly elected present-day leadership. But in Trump’s situation, it wouldn’t matter if he fully retired to Mar-a-Lago and spent his remaining years painting stones and seashells and displaying them on Lucite stands or something equally as innocuous. The leftists’ burning, seething, pathological hatred of the man himself will never abate.

They 100% will prosecute him again. Right now, every minute of every day, operatives within and around the federal and blue states’ governments are building cases and preserving — maybe even manufacturing — “evidence” for the zealous lawfare to come. In just one example, Just the News obtained documentation of Democrat operatives putting “special counsel” Jack Smith’s weaponized attack into storage so they could bring it out again the next time they have a Dem in the White House:

“In the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency, FBI agents tied to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation memorialized anew their belief that President Donald Trump broke the law in contesting the 2020 election and secretly arranged to preserve their evidence until 2030 in memos that raise alarm they could revive their prosecution after Trump leaves office.

The FBI memos and emails closing out the controversial Arctic Frost investigation – obtained by Just the News – show the bureau chose not to relinquish the evidence it gathered after Smith went to court to dismiss charges against Trump, even though that is the normal practice for agents. Instead, they created a preservation order keeping the evidence in FBI custody for two years after Trump’s second term ends, claiming it was necessary to do so because of ongoing litigation, the memos show.

FBI emails and memos obtained by Just the News dating back to early 2025 show how the FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who had been working on the criminal prosecutions aimed at Trump and his allies worked to close the 2020 election-related case against the incoming president, while also seemingly leaving open the door for the criminal case to be revived once Trump leaves office and a Democrat again holds the reins at the Justice Department.

Now multiply that by every partisan leftist with a hint of authority, from Deep Staters to governors and attorneys general to local district attorneys and dogcatchers, even now building their “cases” against the sitting president, smug in the knowledge that their fellow travelers on the bench will wave it through, their state will pay for it, and their hate-addled juries will seal the deal. I wish for Trump’s own sake that he would use this time to liquidate all of his assets in commie-run locales and feather his nest in Free Florida, where he can spend his remaining years in relative peace and safety. But he’s Trump, and the last thing he’ll ever do is run from a fight.

And even if he did — even if he pulled up stakes and circumscribed his life to within the Florida state line — he would still never be safe from the lunatic would-be assassin army the left has ginned up. I redirect your attention to the example cited above: Hadi Matar, the Islamist assailant who wasn’t even alive when Rushdie was first targeted by Iran’s fatwa. The left’s maniacal Trump hatred is far more widespread and intense, and leftists will doubtless spend the coming decades inculcating their children in it.

Thank God, past presidents are entitled to Secret Service protection for life. And thank God, Trump is wealthy enough to pay for his own security and that of his family members (because the leftist evil knows no bounds). Democrats have also revealed they will go after anyone who did business with Trump in the private or public sector, so all-consuming is their enmity, and I don’t even know what to say to that. This is reason #3,856 why we must do everything in our power to prevent these monsters from ever being in a position to harm their perceived enemies again. It’s also why every one of us has a responsibility to watch over President Trump the rest of his days, in gratitude for the historical service he has rendered our beloved country.

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“Yulia Mendel claims that her former boss wanted Goebbels-style propaganda in Ukraine..”

• Zelensky’s Alleged Cocaine Use ‘An Open Secret’ – Former Spokeswoman (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s alleged drug use is “an open secret,” former spokeswoman Yulia Mendel has claimed on the Tucker Carlson Show. Allegations of drug use first surfaced during the 2019 presidential election campaign, in which Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko. Zelensky, a former actor, dismissed the claims as slander at the time, and both candidates underwent tests for alcohol and drugs. Mendel worked for Zelensky from 2019 to 2021 and has since become highly critical of her former boss. In an interview released on Monday, Carlson asked whether Zelensky used drugs, to which Mendel replied: “This is an open secret.”


“The thing is that I’ve never seen him taking drugs. However, [while] writing my book, I met a lot of people who confirmed that they saw him taking drugs in different clubs. Only one saw him taking drugs in 2021,” she claimed. Mendel added that she learned about an alleged “supplier” from a person working at Kvartal 95 Studio, the entertainment company Zelensky co-founded in the 2000s. “Zelensky’s former press secretary alleges he urged subordinates to carry out ‘propaganda like Goebbels’ Yulia Mendel claims that after a drop in ratings in 2019, the Narcofuhrer ordered his PR team to improve his image, pointing to the effectiveness of Nazi Germany’s propaganda… pic.twitter.com/k6s7xpuE8V— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) May 12, 2026[..]

All these people are talking about cocaine, yes,” Mendel said, adding that before interviews, Zelensky had a habit of spending 15 minutes in the bathroom and emerging as a “different person.” Mendel described her former boss as being obsessed with his public image at home and abroad. She claimed that at one point, Zelensky told her: “I need Goebbels propaganda, I need thousands of talking heads,” referring to Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. Mendel also accused Zelensky of sending critics, including journalists, to the front line as punishment. Political opponents, including Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, have frequently accused Zelensky of abuse of power. Last year, US President Donald Trump called Zelensky – whose presidential term expired in 2024 – a dictator for refusing to call a new presidential election. Zelensky has argued that elections are prohibited under martial law and that a permanent ceasefire with Russia would be required before a new election can be held.

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Yermak was arrested overnight. Not long ago, he was either Zelensky’s right-hand man or his most likely successor.

• Zelensky’s ex-Spokeswoman Added To State-linked ‘Kill List’ (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky’s former spokesperson, Yulia Mendel, has been added to a Ukrainian state-linked ‘kill list’ for telling American journalist Tucker Carlson of rampant cocaine abuse in the corridors of power in Kiev and the desire of a corrupt elite to prolong the conflict with Russia. Mendel worked with Zelensky for two years during which time she says she witnessed him change from peacemaker to propagator of war. The list is run by the Mirotvorets website, which has been linked to Ukrainian security services and is notorious for publishing the addresses and personal details of anyone remotely deemed an enemy of the Ukrainian state, including Russian journalists, some of whom were subsequently assassinated.


The website has accused Mendel of “humanitarian aggression against Ukraine, spreading “narratives of Russian propaganda, calling for Ukraine‘s “capitulation“, and indirectly taking part in information-psychological special operations allegedly run by Russia. Mirotvorets cited Mendel telling Carlson that the Ukrainian delegation at talks in Istanbul in 2022 was ready to agree to “all of Russia’s demands” in order to stop the fighting, but that Kiev was pressured by the US and UK to continue the conflict and that Zelensky is now “one of the main obstacles to peace.” It also cited Mendel’s comments that Ukraine is “on the verge of disappearing,” and showing signs of “unhealthy nationalism.”

Mendel, who served as Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, has in recent months become an outspoken critic of her former boss. In the interview she leveled a series of allegations of corruption and drug use, calling Zelensky a “dictator” who has grown “detached from reality.” She also described Zelensky and his former chief of staff Andrey Yermak as “malicious and extremely paranoid narcissists,” saying their relationship had turned into a “symbiosis.”

Launched in 2014 as a nominally independent project, Mirotvorets has targeted a wide range of international figures, including Tucker Carlson, Hollywood director Woody Allen, Russian hockey star Alexander Ovechkin, and US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Russian officials have condemned the site as extremist. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has described it as a hit list targeting individuals Kiev allegedly wants to “eliminate.”

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“Mendel described her former boss as a “dictator” who has grown “detached from reality” and employed “thousands of talking heads”..

• ‘Zelensky Thrives On War, Why Would He End It?’: Former Press Secretary (RT)

Yulia Mendel has accused her former boss of seeking to prolong the conflict with Russia to “get more money” Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is prolonging his country’s conflict with Russia in order to enrich himself and his associates in his cabinet, former spokeswoman Yulia Mendel has claimed in an interview with Tucker Carlson. Mendel, Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, launched a series of stinging allegations of corruption and drug use as Andrey Yermak, Zelensky’s former influential chief of staff, was named a suspect in a money laundering case.


Zelensky’s longtime former business partner, Timur Mindich, fled the country last year to avoid arrest in connection with another major corruption scandal involving energy-sector kickbacks that has seen several other close associates of the Ukrainian leader placed under suspicion. In an episode of the Tucker Carlson Show released on Monday, Mendel described her former boss as a “dictator” who has grown “detached from reality” and employed “thousands of talking heads” to craft a favorable image both at home and abroad.

“He is one of the biggest obstacles to peace today,” Mendel said, accusing Zelensky of being “behind many schemes of money laundering” that have rocked Ukraine in recent years. “There are a lot of people in his government who want peace. [Zelensky] is going to come up with any condition, he is going to change his positions all the time just to prolong this war and to get more money,” Mendel said, arguing that ending the conflict would be “political suicide” for Zelensky. When Carlson suggested that Ukraine cannot defeat Russia in a war of attrition, Mendel replied: “I think it’s obvious to Zelensky, too. But he thrives on this war. Why would he end it?”

Mendel claimed that Ukraine came close to reaching a deal with Russia twice in 2022, but was pressured by the US and UK to continue the conflict. The Kremlin accused the West of helping derail peace talks in Istanbul four years ago, which Zelensky denied. Zelensky, whose presidential term expired in 2024, has refused to hold new elections, citing martial law. The move has been criticized by both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mendel, citing an unnamed insider, claimed that secret polls commissioned by the Ukrainian government show Zelensky is “unelectable” if he runs again.

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“Arctic Frost memos suggest: Jack Smith’s team primed their criminal case against Donald Trump to resume once his presidency ends.”

• Biden FBI Secretly Set Up Trump To Be Indicted After He Leaves Office (JTN)

In the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency, FBI agents tied to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation memorialized anew their belief that President Donald Trump broke the law in contesting the 2020 election and secretly arranged to preserve their evidence until 2030 in memos that raise alarm they could revive their prosecution after Trump leaves office.


The FBI memos and emails closing out the controversial Arctic Frost investigation – obtained by Just the News – show the bureau chose not to relinquish the evidence it gathered after Smith went to court to dismiss charges against Trump, even though that is the normal practice for agents. Instead, they created a preservation order keeping the evidence in FBI custody for two years after Trump’s second term ends, claiming it was necessary to do so because of ongoing litigation, the memos show.

FBI emails and memos obtained by Just the News dating back to early 2025 show how the FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who had been working on the criminal prosecutions aimed at Trump and his allies worked to close the 2020 election-related case against the incoming president, while also seemingly leaving open the door for the criminal case to be revived once Trump leaves office and a Democrat again holds the reins at the Justice Department.

“The American people deserve to know how this egregious weaponization of power to target political opponents and President Trump happened inside an institution meant to protect them,” FBI Director Kash Patel told Just the News. “We shut down the weaponized CR-15 squad, and we are going to keep following the facts until there is full accountability. The FBI exists to protect the country, not to preserve political prosecutions for a future administration.”

Following Trump’s victory in November 2024 over Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Smith sought to dismiss his case against Trump “without prejudice” – leaving open the possibility that the charges could be refiled in the future. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, pointed to the Office of Legal Counsel’s position that a sitting president could not be prosecuted by his own DOJ and granted Smith’s request to dismiss the case without prejudice.

One of the key “Case Closing” documents obtained by Just the News – originating from the FBI’s Washington Field Office’s CR-15 team – was dated a couple of weeks into Trump’s second term, on February 5, 2025, when many holdover FBI agents and leaders were still in place. The newly-released closing document from early 2025 repeated the extensive claims of criminality against Trump, which had been pursued by Smith and the bureau, and it sought to retain all of the evidence for a half decade until at least February 2030, when Trump would be a former president once more and thus when the DOJ guidance prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president would no longer be in force.

The document was titled “Arctic Frost – Election Law Matters – Sensitive Investigative Matter” and its synopsis was “To Document the Closing of Captioned Investigation.” The listed enclosures buttressing the document were a “Deputy Special Counsel Concurrence” and the “Retention of Evidence Approval.” The FBI record states, “This Electronic Communication seeks approval to close the captioned full Sensitive Investigative Matter investigation” and argued that “because this was a SIM opened by a Field Office and involved a presidential candidate, the same level of approval required to open the investigation is also required to close the investigation.”

Evidence released last year showed that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray signed off on the launch of the Arctic Frost inquiry into Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Garland also quickly said he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant” for the FBI’s unprecedented raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022. The Biden White House was also directly linked to the classified documents investigation into Trump, despite its denials, previously-released records show.

“The approval roles on this closing EC match those of the opening EC and, as such, Washington Field Office is seeking approval up to and including the Director of the FBI to close this investigation,” the newly released FBI document said. The document included a “Summary of the Results of the Investigation” into Trump, which had been pursued by Smith and the FBI, arguing that “the captioned FBI investigation was opened based on specific and articulable facts and circumstances that individuals affiliated with Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. (the ‘Trump Campaign’) engaged in activity that violated federal law.”

The FBI memo alleged that “the investigation revealed that when Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office. With various co-conspirators, Trump launched a series of plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.”

The bureau record also alleged that “Trump and his co-conspirators used knowingly false claims of election fraud in furtherance of three conspiracies: 1) a conspiracy to interfere with the federal government function by which the nation collects and counts election results, which is set forth in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act; 2) a conspiracy to obstruct the official proceeding in which Congress certifies the legitimate results of the presidential election; and 3) a conspiracy against the rights of millions of Americans to vote and have their votes counted.”

The section on the “Disposition of Evidence” related to Smith’s anti-Trump investigation argued that “this investigation is subject to a litigation hold and is on the freeze list; as a result, no evidence can be returned or destroyed and must be retained.”

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It’s Marine Le Pen’s party. Democracy was born in france, and it died there too.

• EU Targets France’s Jordan Bardella As His Anti-Migration Party Surges (RMX)

Last week, reports that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is investigating France’s right-wing, anti-migration party National Rally (RN) for misallocation of EU funds made the rounds. At its core, the case involves a complaint filed last December by the association AC!! Anti-Corruption with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) in Paris. These allegations have already been contested by RN, but the party must also now face scrutiny from Brussels, as the funds involved include EU money. The charge is that the National Rally misused the funds by allocating money received for media training for its leader, Jordan Bardella, not for his work as an MEP, but with the aim of helping him to prepare for France’s 2027 presidential election. Other members of the party have also been named in connection with the same charge.


Bardella posted on X that the investigation is not news and certainly nothing new for the party, labeling the charges as politically motivated slander. “We have absolutely nothing to reproach ourselves for. The association behind the complaint is a self-proclaimed far-left organization, whose aggressive statements leave little doubt as to their intentions. I filed a complaint several weeks ago for slanderous denunciation,” he wrote, while assuring that he and his party would fully cooperate with the EPPO. National Rally has been in the top spot in recent polling, despite its former leader, Marine Le Pen, having been sidelined by a similar case last year.

She is appealing that decision, but for now has made it clear that Bardella will run on the RN ticket for president.The party’s popularity, with or without Le Pen, cannot be a surprise to its rivals, given the sle w of issues France has been suffering from due to its policy of mass immigration and lax deportation: Elderly rape, minor prostitution, failing education, robberies, violent rape, concerns over sharia law, and murder. As the mother of 18-year-old Théo, who was stabbed to death by a Senegalese migrant who ended up avoiding prison, said: “You can kill in France with impunity.”

Meanwhile, the media and the left prefer not to draw attention to the link between increased migration and violence. And yet, a new website and real estate browser extension for Chrome is offering data on immigration levels, insecurity, and Islamization rates of neighborhoods for prospective buyers in the latest sign that the French public is highly concerned about record-breaking numbers of immigrants. According to a recent ifop poll, 60 percent of French believe there is “a replacement of the French population by non-European populations, mainly from the African continent.” The same poll found that 66 percent see it as a bad development. Only 9 percent noted it as good.

This is a major factor why the National Rally has been surging in the polls, and why left-wing parties and activist organizations will do anything to bring them down — first targeting Le Pen and now Bardella. Other party politicians and staff members have been implicated in both cases. Such efforts are not unique to France, with efforts ongoing for years over in Germany to bring down the anti-migration AfD party, which has also seen a massive rise in popularity. With reports indicating France is spending over €2 billion a year on housing and healthcare for asylum seekers and illegal migrants, RN’s rivals will need more than accusations of misappropriated funds to stop voters from exercising their desire for change.

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The European Commission chief is “obsessed” with proving she’s in charge, diplomats and officials have complained ..

• Von der Leyen’s Power Grab Angers EU Officials – Bloomberg (RT)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has tightened her control over the EU’s executive branch to the point where the bloc’s leaders and diplomats now view her as too powerful, according to a Bloomberg report.In power since 2019, von der Leyen has rebuilt the European Commission in her image and become “the face of Europe,” Bloomberg wrote on Tuesday. She has spearheaded the EU’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, authored its hyper-belligerent policies toward Russia, and negotiated its trade deals with US President Donald Trump.


However, EU officials told the US news outlet that she’s “obsessed with demonstrating that she’s in charge,” and “is constantly jumping into the middle of the latest crisis, even when it’s outside her remit,” all while neglecting her core mission of strengthening the economy. A draft internal market strategy compiled by Commission Vice President Stephane Sejourne, for example, has sat neglected on her desk since November, Bloomberg claimed. Von der Leyen only showed the document to member states and the European Parliament days before its publication last month, making deliberation effectively impossible.

A similar scenario played out last year when von der Leyen shared the EU’s long-term budget with her fellow commissioners at the last minute, angering member states who were being asked to cough up a record €2 trillion ($2.4 trillion) with no consultation. Germany immediately rejected the budget, and lawmakers from von der Leyen’s CDU party met to demand additional checks on her power. Business leaders, meanwhile, have demanded that she act to improve the bloc’s competitiveness, but Bloomberg’s sources say their concerns rarely filter through to her “tight-knit” and “micromanaged” group of advisers.

Von der Leyen was handed a second stint at the helm of the commission in 2024, and has spent this second term in office dramatically centralizing power in Brussels. She began her term by appointing her team of 26 commissioners without running the list past the European Parliament first, proposed the establishment of an intelligence agency under her control last year – snatching this responsibility away from Kaja Kallas’ diplomatic arm of the EU – and has pushed for the creation of a “two-speed” EU, in which smaller blocs of countries could make policy decisions without the unanimous support of all 27 member states.

Von der Leyen has also moved to end the EU’s unanimity requirement on matters of foreign policy, arguing that the commission’s proposals should be passed with a simple majority vote. With regard to the bloc’s Ukraine policies, removing unanimity would eliminate the veto powers exercised by former Hungarian Prime Minister and war critic Viktor Orban, and undermine the neutrality of countries such as Austria and Ireland.

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It will require Trump.

• Kathy Hochul Caves to Mamdani, Will Bail Out Socialist NYC (Margolis)

Not long ago, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to handle his own mess. Now she’s writing him a $4 billion check to bail him out. Mamdani had barely settled into Gracie Mansion before he discovered what socialists always find out: Eventually, you run out of other people’s money. His grand campaign promises — you know: free this, universal that — ran headlong into the reality that New York City couldn’t afford all the things Mamdani had campaigned on. So, Mamdani went looking to Albany for a bailout. And, originally, Hochul said no.


“The mayor and City Council need to work together, identify savings, and close the remaining gap,” a Hochul spokesperson said last month. As a resident of New York State (I’ll accept your condolences), I was thrilled. But apparently, a lot can change in a few weeks, especially when polls show the race for governor is tightening. On Tuesday, Gov. Hochul and Mayor Mamdani announced a sweeping new state funding package. The press release made it sound like a wonderful thing: Governor Hochul, in partnership with the state legislature, has secured an additional $4 billion in gap-closing support, bringing the total new state assistance to nearly $8 billion over two years.

With this latest agreement, the Mamdani Administration will officially close the more than $12 billion deficit it inherited from the previous administration, stabilizing the City’s finances while advancing investments that make New York more affordable for working people. These new investments build on the $1.5 billion in assistance announced in the Governor’s 30-day amendments in February and funding for universal childcare.”The announcement was dressed up in the usual Albany language about affordability and working families, with Hochul declaring it “a results-driven, responsible partnership.” That’s one way to describe it.

Something changed between Hochul’s stern message last month and Tuesday’s joint press conference — and nobody’s saying what it was. One can only imagine what kind of secret deal was reached to convince Hochul to reverse course so completely. My best guess? Mamdani promised to support her reelection campaign and hit the trail with her. A $4 billion commitment is an awfully expensive favor to do for free, and you better believe Hochul is getting something for it.

Both sides were eager to perform for the cameras. “Governor Hochul and I share a belief that government works best when we work together on behalf of the people we serve,” Mamdani said. He added that he and Hochul had “partnered through every step of this process to protect the fiscal health of our city” and called her commitment to securing New York City’s future something “working people can afford.” Because working people must live within their means, not the government.

Hochul, meanwhile, insisted she’d been committed “from day one” to New York City’s success, arguing a strong city strengthens the state as a whole. She framed the deal as delivering “free universal child care,” investments in education, public safety, and infrastructure, and the resources needed to keep critical services running. Touching stuff. It would be more convincing if she hadn’t spent weeks telling Mamdani to figure it out himself.

Not everyone in New York is buying the Kumbaya routine. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman went right for the jugular. “Kathy Hochul just committed the largest daylight robbery in New York history, looting $4 billion from your family’s grocery and rent budget to bankroll Zohran Mamdani’s socialist experiment,” Blakeman said in a statement. He’s not wrong. I pay taxes in New York, and now I’m going to be covering for Mamdani’s socialist campaign promises. Hochul may think this will strengthen her position as she seeks another term in office, but how many people in New York State really want to be bailing out New York City?

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Did they?

• CIA Went Rogue, Raided Tulsi’s Office to Seize Papers (Catherine Salgado)

A breaking news alert from Fox News, apparently confirmed by a Republican congresswoman, states that the Central Intelligence Agency went rogue, raiding the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to seize files. It seems from the Fox News report that the CIA seized the files just now, though a whistleblower from the agency who testified to Congress today referred to the wrongful seizure of files in his testimony. It is therefore not clear if the raid occurred today or before the testimony, or if there was more than one seizure. In either case, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is giving the CIA 24 hours to return the files in question or face consequences.


The CIA was allegedly after the files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the MK-Ultra human experimentation scandal. The story on the raid is developing but seems to be legitimate, and illustrates the need for drastic cuts in our Deep State. Donald Trump cannot hope to prevent such egregious acts by merely replacing top leadership. The majority of employees at the CIA and FBI worked there during the Biden-era weaponization of justice and believe they are not accountable to Trump or We the People.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard was reportedly in the process of declassifying the JFK and MK-ULTRA files, and it seems the CIA gave us indirect confirmation that there is something in those files that they desperately do not want anyone to know. The problem is that we don’t know if they will be able to destroy the files or not before the Trump administration can get them back. If the raid just occurred and did not happen previously in the last couple of days, it is interesting to note that President Trump was out of the country in China, and therefore unable to be present personally to deal with the situation. Hopefully, Vice President Vance is on the job.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) promptly issued a warning to the CIA, as you can see below, evidently providing confirmation of the raid: “The CIA has 24 hours to return the documents to Tulsi Gabbard’s office or else I will make a motion to issue a subpoena. These documents have been requested by Congress. @DNIGabbard @CIADirector https://t.co/Y5lMw8AYK5 — Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) May 13, 2026”. CIA Director John Ratcliffe has not yet commented on the allegations, so he has not been able to clarify any timeline for when the raid happened. Gabbard has also not commented publicly.

The Hindustan Times referred to the allegations made by alleged whistleblower James Erdman: At Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Erdman alleged that the CIA seized files related to the controversial human experimentation program, MKUltra, as well as the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr, from the office of Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Erdman said that the files were about to be processed for declassification – a long-standing public demand – when the CIA swooped in and seized the files.

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Or not. “Good grief. I cannot believe people actually believed this story as presented ..”

• No, The CIA Did Not Raid DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s Office (CTH)

Good grief. I cannot believe people actually believed this story as presented. Yes, the CIA is sketchy; however, no, the CIA did not raid the office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, taking boxes of JFK and MK Ultra files. Oliva Coleman is Tulsi Gabbard’s spokesperson. The story is fake news.


Was there friction and opposition within the CIA to DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s office, yes. However, John Ratcliffe and Tulsi Gabbard have been working together for almost a year to address the Machiavellian network that operates in the shadows, and they have had remarkable success.

It’s highly likely former CIA embeds were doing some unauthorized surveillance of DNI Gabbard as she came into office. Obviously, she was a threat to their position and influence. However, through a methodical approach at addressing the politically motivated embeds within the entire Intelligence Community, including the CIA, DNI Gabbard has been successful in eliminating most of the corrupt actors. CIA Director John Ratcliffe would never authorize or allow anything like what was being framed in that outlandish story. It simply did not happen.

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Everyone seems to agree datacenters will soon be in space (orbital).

• Datacenters, The AI Race and American Politics (CTH)

There is an increased public discussion about the race to build datacenters in the USA that are part of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) race for superiority. There are multiple facets within the discussion and some things to consider that might not be at the forefront, yet. Overall, there is a global race to build the best AI system that is not dissimilar to the nuclear arms race. Arguably the use of AI as a weapon is one possibility; while the second aspect surrounds strategic economic power.


The USA is poised very favorably in this AI race due to the advanced tech industry in America and recent national security moves made by President Trump in the tech sector surrounding strategic critical minerals and domestic chip production. However, no one is quite sure where China is in their AI development and last year’s explosive revelation around China’s “Deepseek” model shocked the U.S. tech industry due to its advanced intelligence prowess. With China and the USA both in this AI race, and the need for massive investment in datacenters to do the processing needed for an artificial intelligence brain of such significant capacity, there is a sense of urgency in the tech industry that is surfacing around the country.

Simultaneously, with datacenters becoming more controversial, suddenly the geopolitical intelligence operations enter the picture. Currently, it is well accepted inside the tech industry that part of China’s strategy against the USA in this AI race is to slow down American system development. As a consequence, it is beginning to surface that Beijing may be funding voices inside the USA to rally against the building of datacenters. Essentially, China funding voices, real or artificially boosted influence operations, to amplify domestic opposition to the datacenters.

Anytime the intelligence operations become part of a domestic issue that has national security implications, things get opaque, cloudy and muddy pretty quick. Is datacenter opposition organic – actual citizens and communities pushing back against the development in their towns and/or cities or is the opposition to the datacenters a form of foreign influence operation? These questions become challenging to answer, and discernment becomes very critical. The truth might even be a combination depending on the localized opposition and/or regional importance. One thing is very clear, building the world’s leading AI system is being rushed with an urgency similar to atomic bomb development.

Here’s a great example of that type of question. Today Gallup released a poll showing 72 percent of Americans are opposed to building AI datacenters in their area. [POLLING HERE]

[Note the date]

The topline sounds pretty straightforward right? 7 in 10 Americans oppose “the construction of a data center in their area to support artificial intelligence technology.” That’s the polled result. Indeed, this poll is being cited in numerous media articles now emphasizing opposition to the datacenters.However, put on your discernment cap and look at it closely. Notice the date of the poll, “March 2-18, 2026.” Why did Gallup wait two months to release the results of a poll on May 13, 2026?

Did the date of release today have something to do with the timing of President Trump taking a list of key U.S. tech and finance leaders to Beijing to confront China on exactly this AI issue? …. Or was it coincidental? This is where you have to make up your own mind as to whether this Gallup poll is an organic outcome, an organically timed release, on an issue that just happens to be at the heart of the geopolitical negotiations currently underway in Beijing between the USA and China. Or was there some kind of influence operation around it?

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“.. as Benjamin Franklin warned us and now Elias has reminded us, we must fight to keep this Republic.”

• Marc Elias Raises Power to Eliminate the Virginia Government (Turley)

Democratic lawyer Marc Elias appears to believe that Democrats do not need to stop at simply sacking and packing the Virginia Supreme Court in response to the adverse ruling on the radical gerrymandering plan. Elias reminded Democrats that they could eliminate the entire Virginia government under the state constitution. The demand for radical action was prompted by the Virginia justices, including one appointed by then-Democratic governor Mark Warner, who found the Democratic effort unconstitutional. It does not matter that leading Democrats, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger, also believed that the Democrats could be found in violation of the state constitution in pushing forward with the controversial effort to virtually extinguished Republican representation in the purple state.


The adverse decision has resulted in the same demands for radical institutional changes from some of the same voices pledging to pack the United States Supreme Court once they retake power, to guarantee they never lose it again. Elias responded to the loss by invoking language from Article I of the Virginia Constitution itself: “whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.” That is his response to a well-reasoned decision of unconstitutionality of a redistricting plan. We can scrap the entire Virginia government.

It is another example of the “by any means necessary” culture of the left today. There is no institution or value that is sacred. This is why I recently wrote about the rise of “the new Jacobins” in my book Rage and the Republic, lawyers and law professors rationalizing the trashing of the Constitution and our institutions to achieve their political goals. Elias has long been controversial for his tactics. It was Elias who was the general counsel to the Clinton presidential campaign when it secretly funded the infamous Steele dossier and pushed the false Alfa Bank conspiracy. (His fellow Perkins Coie partner, Michael Sussmann, was later indicted but acquitted).

Clinton campaign officials denied any involvement in the Steele Dossier. When journalists discovered after the election that the Clinton campaign hid payments for the Steele dossier as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie, they were reportedly stonewalled. The campaign was ultimately sanctioned by the Federal Election Commission for the subterfuge. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said at the time that Elias denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman later wrote that “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

Elias’s group later unsuccessfully led efforts to challenge Democratic electoral losses. In Maryland, Elias’s team supported another abusive gerrymandering scheme that a court found not only violated Maryland law but the state constitution’s equal protection, free speech and free elections clauses. The court found that the map “subverts the will of those governed.” One media site accused Elias and his group of “making millions off gerrymandering efforts” while publicly denouncing Republican gerrymandering. In 2024, Elias’s legal team was also accused of pushing “to bar third-party presidential candidates — including Cornel West — from swing state ballots where they might siphon votes from the Democratic nominee [Kamala Harris].”

Likewise, the New York Times reported that Elias’s firm’s work “on behalf of a Soros-funded PAC in Texas…was opposed by a left-leaning election watchdog as undermining laws intended to limit the influence of major donors.” His group’s work for New York redistricting was ridiculed as not only ignoring the express will of the voters and also effectively negating the votes of Republican voters.

In 2024, the Chief Judge of the Western District of Wisconsin criticized the Elias Law Group for one of its challenges. Judge James Peterson (an Obama appointee) said that the argument “simply does not make any sense.” Now, Elias is reminding Virginians that they can respond to an opposing court decision by eliminating some or all of the Virginia state government.

It is the logic of the Jacobin. As discussed in my book, the Framers sought to prevent democracy from becoming mobocracy by rejecting more direct democratic powers. They tried to temper the passions of democracy in moments like this. There is nothing new about these voices, like that of Elias, in fueling radical impulses. They are the same voices and arguments that has long been heard in this country. We have long rejected them and this year will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our Independence. However, as Benjamin Franklin warned us and now Elias has reminded us, we must fight to keep this Republic.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2054162172456960145?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Apr 272026
 


Jusepe de Ribera A philosopher holding a mirror 1630


• Unhinged Conspiracy Theory About WHCA Dinner Trump Murder Attempt (Margolis)
• Trump Dodges Another Gunman, Unbowed But Grounded: Not Going To Deter Me (JTN)
• Assassin Identified as Cole Tomas Allen (31), from Torrance, California (CTH)
• President Trump Holds a Press Conference Following Another Murder Attempt (CTH)
• We Now Know Who the WHCA Dinner Shooter Was Targeting (Margolis)
• ‘You’re Horrible People’: President Trump Torches Norah O’Donnell (Margolis)
• After 2027 There Will Be No Going Back – Elon Musk (X)
• Macron Laments That US Is Not A Reliable Partner (RT)
• How The US Engineered Its Own Failure In Cuba (RT)
• US Failed To Extract Iran’s Enriched Uranium – Analyst To RT (RT)
• Zelensky Likely ‘Directly Involved In Corruption’ – EU-Funded Anti-Graft NGO (RT)
• NYC Mayor Mamdani Attempts To Defuse Info War Against Ken Griffin (ZH)
• RFK Jr. Blasts “Abhorrent” Assisted Suicide (MN)

 


 

https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2048121842402013298?s=20 https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2048128724512473142?s=20 https://twitter.com/WellsJorda89710/status/2048188693278576717?s=20 https://twitter.com/_Qstormrider/status/2048026069282746699?s=20

 


 


Yeah, we know people want him dead, and/or don’t believe a word he says.

Then you got all these people who simply deny that it was real. And that, I don’t get.

Who say that the Trump people just made it all up. That they did that in 2024 just like now.

Their idea is Trump is so unpopular today that me must make up fake assassination attempts just so people will like him.

And that, I don’t get.

• Unhinged Conspiracy Theory About WHCA Dinner Trump Murder Attempt (Margolis)

On Saturday night, a gunman opened fire in the Washington Hilton just as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was underway. A Secret Service agent was struck but protected by body armor. Thankfully, no attendees were reported injured. Secret Service agents quickly evacuated President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and House Speaker Mike Johnson to safety. The shooter was neutralized and detained. Before the smoke even cleared, the left was trying to push a politically convenient narrative.

https://twitter.com/SarahIronside6/status/2048204632288084107

The shooter has been identified as Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, Calif., and he has confessed to authorities that his intended target was Trump administration officials.

Yup. This is what they’re running with. By their estimation, the Trump administration recruited some California leftist with a paper trail to stage a fake assassination attempt to boost his approval ratings and to use it as a pretext to justify the White House ballroom that is already being built. None of this is new, of course. The same strategy was used after the 2024 Butler, Pa., assassination attempt. Many on the left believe it was staged to help Trump win reelection.

Calling it staged is the easiest escape hatch. It lets them skip the uncomfortable conversation about what years of dehumanizing rhetoric against Trump and his allies actually produce. That’s what this conspiracy theory is really about. The left would rather invent an elaborate White House psyop than ask themselves a simple, honest question about the world they’ve helped create.

Read more …

Very long article. Get your background!

• Trump Dodges Another Gunman, Unbowed But Grounded: Not Going To Deter Me (JTN)

President Donald Trump survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 election, and Saturday night he was whisked away again from another lethal threat when a heavily armed gunman briefly breached a security checkpoint at one of Washington’s most famous black-tie galas and exchanged gunfire before being subdued by the Secret Service. bBut Trump would not recoil. First he wanted to return to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner before it was canceled, hoping to send a signal to a nation gripped by political vitriol and shaken by recent assassinations — from Charlie Kirk to Minnesota legislators – that “sick people” cannot “change the fabric” of the United States.


Then he quickly posted on social media a photo of the gunman – a 31-year-old from California armed with a shotgun, a handgun and knives. The image showed him handcuffed and stripped to his waist after his attack was foiled. There was no accident in the message: a failed shooter laid prostate, face-down and now harmless on the ground. “This thug that attacked our Constitution, they seem to think he was a lone wolf, and I feel that too” Trump said. “My impression is he was a lone wolf, whack job. … These are crazy people, and they have to be dealt with.”

Prosecutors within hours had already charged the man with multiple federal felonies as they tore through every aspect of his life, trying to figure how he got from Torrance, Calif., to the nation’s capital and booked a room at the glitzy hotel and what motivated him. Being president “is a very dangerous profession. … I can’t imagine that there is any profession that is more dangerous,” a matter-of-fact Trump told reporters at an extraordinary White House news conference where he and reporters were still clad in their tuxedos and gowns from the interrupted gala. Having cheated death more than once, Trump wants America to know he is unbowed and that the best way to react to harrowing political violence is to repudiate it, punish it and then stay the course.

“I want to live because I want to make this country great,” the president said at one point, brushing away a question about personal safety. At another point, he added: “It’s not going to deter me from winning the war in Iran.” bThe incident left a Secret Service officer injured, shot at point-blank range with a bullet that remarkably embedded in his protective vest. And it left journalists normally antagonistic to the president thankful that everyone left the abbreviated gala alive.=President Donald Trump survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 election, and Saturday night he was whisked away again from another lethal threat when a heavily armed gunman briefly breached a security checkpoint at one of Washington’s most famous black-tie galas and exchanged gunfire before being subdued by the Secret Service.

But Trump would not recoil. First he wanted to return to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner before it was canceled, hoping to send a signal to a nation gripped by political vitriol and shaken by recent assassinations — from Charlie Kirk to Minnesota legislators – that “sick people” cannot “change the fabric” of the United States.= Then he quickly posted on social media a photo of the gunman – a 31-year-old from California armed with a shotgun, a handgun and knives. The image showed him handcuffed and stripped to his waist after his attack was foiled. There was no accident in the message: a failed shooter laid prostate, face-down and now harmless on the ground.

“This thug that attacked our Constitution, they seem to think he was a lone wolf, and I feel that too” Trump said. “My impression is he was a lone wolf, whack job. … These are crazy people, and they have to be dealt with.” Prosecutors within hours had already charged the man with multiple federal felonies as they tore through every aspect of his life, trying to figure how he got from Torrance, Calif., to the nation’s capital and booked a room at the glitzy hotel and what motivated him.

Being president “is a very dangerous profession. … I can’t imagine that there is any profession that is more dangerous,” a matter-of-fact Trump told reporters at an extraordinary White House news conference where he and reporters were still clad in their tuxedos and gowns from the interrupted gala. bHaving cheated death more than once, Trump wants America to know he is unbowed and that the best way to react to harrowing political violence is to repudiate it, punish it and then stay the course. “I want to live because I want to make this country great,” the president said at one point, brushing away a question about personal safety. At another point, he added: “It’s not going to deter me from winning the war in Iran.”

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Assassin? But nobody died!

• Assassin Identified as Cole Tomas Allen (31), from Torrance, California (CTH)

The gunman who attempted to gain entry to the White House Correspondents Association dinner has been identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, a schoolteacher from Torrance, California. A registered Democrat who donated to Kamala Harris campaign.Cole Tomas Allen Engineering at Cal Tech 2013 – 2017, a master’s degree in computer science 2025.


Early reports suggest the shooter was a guest of the Washington hotel and assembled a long rifle prior to making entry to the venue. According to local police, the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and several knives. The suspect was not struck by gunfire. One of the Secret Service Agents was shot during the gunfire.

Avriana F. Allen, 27, of Washington, D.C., is the sister of Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old Torrance, California teacher identified by authorities as the suspect in the April 25, 2026, shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Public records confirm the sibling relationship through shared mother Kathleen A. Allen and prior family address in Torrance. {source} Full press briefing from law enforcement is below.


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Pick one.

• President Trump Holds a Press Conference Following Another Murder Attempt (CTH)

President Trump will be holding a press briefing from the Brady Room following another failed assassination attempt in Washington DC. The shooter is in custody.

Read more …


Not from this article we don’t, but we do know.

The suspect has a Master’s in computer something, so he’s no fool.

Ergo1, if he says he wanted someone anyone from the entourage, he wouldn’t have tried it at the Dinner.

Because it’s so much harder to do anytinng that Trump is at, Secret Service numbers are crazy.

Ergo2: he was after Trump.

• We Now Know Who the WHCA Dinner Shooter Was Targeting (Margolis)

Almost immediately after the shooting during Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton, the left was trying to spin a narrative. The implication spread quickly: Trump’s rhetoric against the media had poisoned the atmosphere, and one of his supporters must have shown up to target journalists. It was an absurd theory, but they went with it.


The shooter has now been identified as 31-year-old schoolteacher Cole Allen of Torrance, Calif., who sprinted past security checkpoints inside the hotel armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and two knives. He never made it into the ballroom. Gunfire was exchanged during the incident, but Allen was not hit, and police arrested him. A Secret Service agent was struck but was wearing protective gear. No other injuries were confirmed among the attendees. The media, on the other hand, seemed almost reluctant to state the obvious: that this was another assassination attempt.

That kind of studied ambiguity has a purpose — it keeps a preferred storyline alive just long enough to spread on social media to undermine the facts. Anyone with common sense could see where the evidence was pointing. The president and his entire cabinet were at that dinner. The shooter rushed the entrance armed to the teeth. Sure enough, subsequent law enforcement leaks and reporting confirmed what common sense already suggested. Cole Allen told law enforcement he intended to target Trump administration officials at the event.

Cole Allen, the suspect in the shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, told law enforcement following his arrest that he wanted to shoot Trump administration officials, two sources told CBS News. The suspect didn’t specifically say he was targeting President Trump, just “administration officials,” a law enforcement source said.Others reported the same thing. The liberal media’s reluctance to accept this was telling. Every hedge, every “we shouldn’t assume,” every pivot to Trump’s media rhetoric served the same function — to delay the truth long enough for the desired narrative to calcify in the public mind.

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The attention is on the perp, not the president.

• ‘You’re Horrible People’: President Trump Torches Norah O’Donnell (Margolis)

President Donald Trump sat down with Norah O’Donnell for a 60 Minutes interview… and let’s just say that things got really uncomfortable for O’Donnell when the subject of the manifesto written by the man who attempted to assassinate Trump and other administration officials at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Saturday night came up. O’Donnell read aloud from the document, citing the shooter’s apparent motive: “Administration officials, they are targets.” Then she kept going, reading the gunman’s claim that he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” She asked Trump for his reaction.


He had one. “Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re — you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump said. Trump didn’t flinch. He looked straight at her and said what a lot of people watching were probably thinking — that a major news anchor choosing to amplify a would-be assassin’s smears against the sitting president on national television is, at minimum, a choice worth examining. O’Donnell pressed forward anyway, asking whether Trump believed the manifesto’s insults were directed at him personally. “I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.” She tried to interject. He kept going, saying: “I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with old stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”

Then Trump turned the tables in a way that O’Donnell wasn’t prepared for. He noted that the people most associated with Jeffrey Epstein aren’t exactly on his side of the aisle. “Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, ‘You know, I’ll do this interview, and they’ll probably…’ I read the manifesto. You know, he’s a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I’m not any of those things.” O’Donnell tried to justify it, arguing these were simply “the gunman’s words.” Trump cut through that framing without missing a beat. “You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes,” he said. “You’re a disgrace, but go ahead. Let’s finish the interview.”

She pushed on anyway, starting to reference something else from the manifesto. Trump stopped her again: “You’re disgraceful.” A man just tried to kill the president — and several other administration officials — at what’s supposed to be a lighthearted Washington tradition. And 60 Minutes’ idea of journalism in the aftermath is to have its anchor read the shooter’s unhinged accusations against Trump on air, word for word, and ask him to respond to them. It doesn’t shock me at all that Trump knew O’Donnell would go there because the mainstream media and the Democratic Party are the source of all the lies and bogus allegations that radicalized the shooter to do what he did in the first place. Whether CBS considers that good television or good journalism is, at this point, a distinction without much of a difference.

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“.. the generation born after 2000 has an attention span of just eight seconds. Musk called this cultural Alzheimer’s.“

• After 2027 There Will Be No Going Back – Elon Musk (X)

In an interview with Lex Friedman, Musk said that after 2027 there would be no going back. When the reporter clarified what he meant, Musk paused for almost a minute, then added: “It’s not a catastrophe, it’s a transition.” Analysts have identified three themes that he has been particularly vocal about: autonomous intelligence, loss of meaning, and energy dependency. Everything he predicted is already happening.


The first sign is the collapse of attention. Musk said that people will stop thinking long-term. The planning horizon has shrunk from 30 years to three; people don’t build, they just innovate. MIT research shows that the generation born after 2000 has an attention span of just eight seconds. Musk called this cultural Alzheimer’s. The second sign is artificial intelligence, which will no longer be subordinate. Musk said: “When the system starts correcting the person, and not the other way around, linear logic will end.” Algorithms already control our attention, choice of partners, food and thoughts. This will not be a revolt of machines, but a silent loss of freedom of choice.

The third sign is the energy dependence of civilization. People are increasingly unable to survive without electricity for even a single day. When energy becomes currency, its control will become power. Musk believes that by 2027, the relationship between people and energy will surpass everything, and everything that is not autonomous will disappear. There is only one way out: a return to meaning. “Technology is stronger than us, but not smarter. As long as we have goals, we are not algorithms,” Musk repeated. He added: “We must learn to be human before systems start doing everything for us and controlling us.

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“The international order is “jeopardized” by the larger global powers, the French president has said..” He lost to Le Pen, he’s a goner. But he’s a Rothschild goner.

• Macron Laments That US Is Not A Reliable Partner (RT)

US allies are no longer sure that Washington is a “reliable” partner, French President Emmanuel Macron has said. Speaking during an informal summit in Athens on Friday alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Macron was asked whether Europe was “becoming a bit irrelevant” given the various conflicts around the globe, including the war against Iran. “Everybody sees that the number one power, the US, could be an ally for certain countries, but this ally is not so much certain… and nobody is totally sure if this alliance is reliable,” the French president said, arguing that this makes the EU appear as a more stable alternative.


“We used to live in an international order, and this international order is jeopardized by the two big powers,” he added. The growing divide between European NATO nations and Washington has worsened since the US and Israeli attacked Iran in late February, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticizing bloc members over their reluctance to join the war. Tensions were already elevated due to Trump’s continued threats to annex Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark. Differing visions for the future of the Ukraine conflict have further widened the transatlantic rift.

Since returning to the White House in 2025, Trump has launched a broad diplomatic initiative to end the hostilities and has insisted that European nations take on the full financial and military burden of supporting Kiev. However, the UK and the EU have consistently attempted to torpedo the peace talks by injecting proposals which Moscow has condemned as deliberately unacceptable. Washington is trying to shift the burden of “containing Russia” onto its allies in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week. The broader Western goal is to “preserve and renew their hegemony,” but as their relative power on the international stage declines, internal frictions in the West are intensifying, he added.

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60-odd years ago.

• How The US Engineered Its Own Failure In Cuba (RT)

Special operations can fail for many reasons – from a tragic accident to a lack of information or a hasty decision. And the costs of such mistakes range from the sullen faces of officials and predatory reporters at the door, to the worst outcome – hundreds of victims. There is an old proverb that all intelligence agents should be taught: “For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost.”


The moral is that the smallest omissions can lead to fatal consequences. But the most common reason why military operations fail – the phrase that should be etched above the gates of hell – might well be the motto, “That’s good enough.” Plans based on the assumption that the enemy is deaf, blind, and stupid fail time and time again, yet intelligence agencies continue to build their strategies upon this shaky foundation.

One of the textbook examples of such a failure was the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. This CIA-initiated attempt to swiftly eliminate the communist regime in Cuba turned into a bloody disaster on the battlefield and a complete political failure.

The end of a client state
On January 1, 1959, socialist rebels led by Fidel Castro overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. The subsequent reality of life in Cuba proved difficult, and opinions on Castro’s rule were decidedly mixed. However, in 1959, the revolution signified liberation from a hated, deeply corrupt, brutal dictatorship that treated its citizens with disdain. Few mourned the departure of Batista, who fled the country with $300 million.

Initially, Castro didn’t intend to engage in a hostile confrontation with the West. However, his reforms took on a distinctly socialist character. He casually confiscated assets belonging to American and other Western citizens and nationalized land, industries, and enterprises. The Cuban Electric Company owned by an American holding company was seized, as was property belonging to the United Fruit Company, an American agricultural giant.

Under Batista, the United States had dominated the Cuban economy and owned nearly all industries. Politically, the American ambassador wielded as much, if not more, power than the official leader of Cuba. The island effectively functioned as a colony; the companies owned everything but bore no responsibility for anything. Batista, ruling the country with their blessing and support, cared only for his own comfort and wealth, and even collaborated directly with the mafia and engaged in gambling enterprises.

By the time relations between the US and Cuba soured completely, Castro had nationalized over 500 American private companies. Astute US politicians recognized the underlying issues; in a speech addressing the Cuban crisis, John F. Kennedy bluntly acknowledged that the puppet regime had driven Cubans to the brink. The primary cause of the Cuban revolution, he argued, was the dictator and his cohorts, whose actions ricocheted back against the US as the nation that had armed and politically supported Batista.

Castro frequently reminded the public of Washington’s dark role in the affair, but the United States could not restore relations with Cuba after the widespread confiscation of American assets. Castro’s attempts to establish relations with the US failed. Then US President Dwight Eisenhower refused to meet with him, while then Vice President Richard Nixon seemed more interested in testing the waters than seriously negotiating with Castro.

Meanwhile, the US had a track record of orchestrating coups in countries it deemed unfriendly. For example, in 1954, with help from United Fruit, a coup was carried out in Guatemala; following it, a dictatorship was established there. A similar strategy was being considered for Cuba.

The shadow war begins
Initially, the Americans sought to weaken Cuba through a trade embargo that began with oil and later expanded to sugar. In response, Castro initiated yet another wave of expropriations of American-owned businesses. The Eisenhower administration retaliated by banning all exports to Cuba. In turn, Castro nationalized everything he could, offering compensation in the form of Cuban bonds.

At the same time, a secret struggle between intelligence services unfolded, which quickly turned brutal. In March 1960, the cargo ship La Coubre, carrying weapons and ammunition purchased from Belgium, exploded in Havana’s port, causing massive casualties. The explosion occurred inside the ship and is believed to have been an act of sabotage. Unsurprisingly, Castro blamed the US for this incident, and the CIA’s involvement remains plausible. In effect, these actions pushed Cuba to align with the USSR, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev eagerly offered support to Cuba.

As tensions mounted, it became clear that backing from Moscow would be essential. Cuba was already subjected to bombings from light aircraft piloted by Cuban exiles. They flew out of Florida and targeted Cuban plantations and businesses. However, the US didn’t intend to stop at that.

CIA Director Allen Dulles began planning for Castro’s physical elimination and the overthrow of the Cuban government. His deputy, CIA officer Richard Bissell, took on the direct management of the operation aimed at replacing Castro with a “more acceptable” regime. The details were being developed by the same team that had orchestrated the Guatemalan coup. One key condition set by Eisenhower was “plausible deniability” – concealing America’s role in the operation.

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Good story. Is there proof?

• US Failed To Extract Iran’s Enriched Uranium – Analyst To RT (RT)

The US rescue operation inside Iran earlier this month was actually a botched attempt by Washington to seize Tehran’s enriched uranium, geostrategic analyst Christopher Helali has said. He gave an exclusive interview to RT on Saturday from a site outside the city of Isfahan where the Iranian authorities displayed the wreckage of American aircraft destroyed in the area on April 3-5. Washington confirmed the loss of two MC-130J Hercules transport planes, four MH-6 Little Bird helicopters, an A-10 Thunderbolt and an MQ-9 Reaper drone during what US President Donald Trump called “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History” to recover the pilot of an F-15E Strike Eagle, which had been downed by Iran.


Helali insisted that the rescue mission was just a cover up for “an enrichment uranium extraction operation by the US special forces.”“ The scale of destruction of all of the equipment left behind showed that this was a major operation – probably weeks and months in planning – and clearly it absolutely failed,” he said.Another proof that the Americans were after the enriched uranium is that “a passport of a mechanical engineer specializing in nuclear technology… capable of dealing with radioactive material” was found within the wreckage, the analyst added.

He filmed himself with the debris of the US aircraft, which he said included “multiple parts of different MC-130s… and the Little Birds – those small helicopters that are used in special operations.” Judging by the footage, the display attracted thousands of visitors, who carried Iranian national flags and chanted anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans. “The people have gathered here to celebrate the defeat of the US in this operation and overall Iran’s victory so far in this ongoing war of aggression,” Helali said. Among those who gathered, “the feeling is one of energy, one of resilience, one of dignity, and clearly the people are coming out in full force to show their support for their country,” he stressed.

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I tells ya, they want to give him a Nobel prize.

And they will. It’s about the only power Europe has left.

• Zelensky Likely ‘Directly Involved In Corruption’ – EU-Funded Anti-Graft NGO (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has likely participated in embezzlement involving the country’s top officials, Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), has claimed. Kiev has been rocked by several corruption scandals in the last few years, with the most notable occurring in November 2025 when anti-graft agencies uncovered a $100 million kickback scheme at the state nuclear operator Energoatom.


The investigation implicated Timur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky, as the mastermind of the criminal operation. The scandal led to the resignations of several high-ranking officials, including the Ukrainian leader’s influential chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, and Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who was later arrested. In her interview with Ukrainska Pravda last week, Kaleniuk said that there is “a high probability” that Zelensky was “directly involved” in corruption, despite him repeatedly denying any knowledge of any schemes by members of his government.

“All of his closest friends and most likely he himself built homes for themselves” since he came to power, the head of the Ukrainian NGO, which has been around since 2012 and receives funding from the EU and US, stressed. She also warned that Zelensky could be planning another attack on the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) in an attempt to shield himself from a possible investigation.

“The anti-corruption bodies that are doing their job can stop doing their job at any moment,” Kaleniuk warned. The Ukrainian leader already tried putting NABU and SAPO under his control last summer, but was forced to reverse course after backlash from Kiev’s foreign backers and protests in the streets. Despite the ongoing corruption scandals, the EU approved another €90 billion ($106 billion) for Ukraine on Thursday, with the European Council saying that it would begin disbursements “as soon as possible” in the second quarter of 2026.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharov insisted previously that the US and EU, which “coddled” Zelensky, should share the responsibility for the corruption in Ukraine. She suggested separately that the Ukrainian leader uses the “corrupt deal” that he has with Western politicians to “blackmail” them into continuing support for Kiev in the conflict with Moscow.

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“.. pulling back or even halting a $6 billion redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, which would create “6,000 highly paid construction jobs and support the creation of more than 15,000 permanent jobs in Midtown New York.”

• NYC Mayor Mamdani Attempts To Defuse Info War Against Ken Griffin (ZH)

Citadel’s Ken Griffin should have absolutely zero tolerance for far-left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. In a recent promotional video, Mamdani attempted to turn the billionaire’s Manhattan penthouse into political ammunition for his tax-the-wealthy, anti-capitalist crusade to fund socialist experiments through a proposed pied-à-terre tax. For Griffin and Citadel, alarm bells should be ringing because these unhinged Marxists in City Hall will attempt to ruin the Citadel brand through an information war and create years of political headaches.


An internal message from Citadel’s COO to employees, likely leaked to The Wall Street Journal earlier last week, appears to have been a warning shot to Mamdani and his Marxist pals that Griffin has had enough of their political games. In a true ‘FAFO’ moment, CCO Gerald Beeson bashed Mamdani for the political stunt: “It is shameful that he used Ken’s name as the example of those who supposedly aren’t carrying their fair share of the burdens associated with New York City’s often costly and wasteful spending.” Beeson warned that further political games risk Citadel pulling back or even halting a $6 billion redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, which would create “6,000 highly paid construction jobs and support the creation of more than 15,000 permanent jobs in Midtown New York.”

Why Mamdani’s team of socialists decided to launch an info war operation against Griffin and Citadel is a very good question, and it appears not to have been well thought out. Griffin holds some unique cards. He can easily cancel the 350 Park Avenue redevelopment plan and stage a Chicago-style exodus, much like he did several years ago when Citadel moved to Florida. This move would certaintly rattle Wall Street. This reality is likely dawning on Mamdani’s team, as the mayor on Friday insisted his push for a new tax on pricey second homes isn’t “motivated by any one individual.”

Bloomberg described Mamdani’s action on Friday as “trying to defuse” the “Griffin blowback” that went viral earlier in the week. Another outlet, Crain’s New York Business, also pointed out, “The mayor is now softening his tone and says he is open to meeting with the Florida billionaire.” Griffin should have zero tolerance for NYC’s Marxist mayor. The risk has already materialized that these unhinged politicians would wage an information war to ruin the Citadel brand, which could easily escalate into paid protests and fuel broader public hostility. So why take the abuse, Ken? Remember how easy it was to leave Chicago for Florida?

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“.. turning a once-free nation into a cautionary tale ..”

• RFK Jr. Blasts “Abhorrent” Assisted Suicide (MN)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a blunt warning to lawmakers this week: Canada’s rush to expand assisted suicide is turning a once-free nation into a cautionary tale the United States must reject outright. Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee and Senate HELP Committee, Kennedy forcefully condemned the program known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). “I think those laws are abhorrent,” he said. Pointing directly to the results north of the border, he added, “And we just see in Canada today, I think the number one cause of death is assisted suicide.”


Kennedy made clear the policy doesn’t stop at personal choice. “And as you say, it targets people with disabilities and people who are struggling in their lives,” he stated. He tied the issue to America’s broader standing in the world: “I don’t think we can be a moral society; we can’t be a moral authority around the globe if that becomes institutionalized throughout our society.”

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2047024285139534134

The comments come as Canada’s experiment spirals. The country is on track to surpass 100,000 assisted deaths before MAID’s 10th anniversary this summer, as noted in a recent New York Post report. As of 2024, the total already stood at 76,475 — more Canadians killed through the program than died in World War II. Government-assisted suicide is also spreading like wildfire across the West, often sold as compassion but delivering cost-cutting convenience for cash-strapped socialist healthcare systems. In the Netherlands, euthanasia now accounts for 6 percent of all deaths and the share is rising every year. I

n 2025 alone, 10,341 people died by euthanasia. While most were over 70 with physical illnesses like cancer or heart disease, the cases included 499 dementia patients and 278 listed under vague “other reasons.” One case involved a patient aged between 12-18. Dutch experts are now urging caution for anyone under 25, warning that young brains are still developing and highly susceptible to external pressure and online influence. Canada’s program began in 2016 limited to terminal cases. Within a year, officials were openly discussing how it could save over $130 million annually in medical costs. Expansions followed: mental illness is scheduled to qualify starting in 2027, and discussions continue about “mature minors” as young as 12.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2036921678337384776

Belgium and the Netherlands already allow child euthanasia. England, Wales, and Scotland are now pushing similar legislation modeled on Canada’s original law. The results speak for themselves. In Canada, one in every 20 deaths is now government-assisted suicide. Proponents promised rare, tightly controlled cases. Reality delivered a bureaucratic death machine that quietly expanded to the disabled, the depressed, and the financially burdensome. Kennedy offered lawmakers a clear path forward. “I am happy to work with you in whatever way we can,” he said, signaling openness to bipartisan efforts to protect vulnerable Americans from the same slope.

Another recent case captured the human cost in Spain, where a 25-year-old woman paralyzed after a horrific gang rape was euthanized despite her parents’ desperate legal fight: Spanish bishops called it what it is: “Euthanasia and assisted suicide are not medical acts, but deliberate interruptions of the bond of care, and represent a social defeat when presented as a response to human suffering.”They stressed that “the dignity of the human person does not depend on their state of health… but rather is an intrinsic value that must be recognized, protected and helped in all circumstances.”The message is simple: when life hurts, the answer is not state-sponsored death but real care, real treatment, and real hope. Canada and Europe are showing the West what happens when governments treat citizens as budget line items rather than sacred individuals.

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Apr 152026
 
 April 15, 2026  Posted by at 9:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  74 Responses »


Thomas Cole The Course of Empire – Destruction 1836


• Over 20 US-Approved Ships Pass Through Hormuz (ZH)
• U.S. Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to More Peace Talks (New York Times)
• The Money in the Background of the Iran Conflict (CTH)
• Blood, Money, and The Trump Dynasty – Iran Shows How To Fight (Helmer)
• All in All, It’s Just Another Brick in the Wall Around China (Stephen Green)
• Appeals Court Terminates Criminal Contempt Proceedings Against Trump Admin (ET)
• FBI “Is Reviewing Closely New Allegations On Ukraine Impeachment Accuser” (JTN)
• Johnny Didn’t Bark – But Tulsi Did (CTH)
• Irish Patriots are Fighting Back (J.B. Shurk)
• Eric Swalwell and the Fall of a Made Man (Turley)
• Mamdani Pledges to Open First City-Run Store (Tuirley)
• American Pope Leo Has a Massive Case of TDS (Rick Moran)
• ‘Unwavering Commitment’ to Fight Hatred (Salgado)
• Remembering the Faith of Lincoln on the Anniversary of His Death (Tom Griffin)

 


 

https://twitter.com/_Postive_Vibes/status/2043732003951129020?s=20 https://twitter.com/ColorApril/status/2043807069581537616?s=20

 


 


I was looking for coverage of why the US insists on a 20-year moratorium, and sees 5 years as too little.

When Trump said he wanted 100% (Jeffrey Sachs didn’t get it), this is what he meant.

“..such a timeframe is necessary to permanently limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”

• Over 20 US-Approved Ships Pass Through Hormuz (ZH)

5-Years vs. 20-Year Nuclear Moratorium


More info and color has been added in the wake of failed talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan, per The New York Times citing officials from both countries. Iran signaled Monday it would halt uranium enrichment for up to five years. The Trump administration rejected the offer, according to two senior Iranian officials and one US official who spoke to the Times. The US position, shaped in part by Vice President JD Vance, calls for a roughly 20-year suspension. Vance has argued such a timeframe is necessary to permanently limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“The Iranians, in a formal response sent on Monday, said they would agree to up to five years, according to two senior Iranian officials and one U.S. official. Trump has rejected that offer, the U.S. official said,” writes NY Times. “The official said the U.S. has also asked Iran to remove highly enriched uranium from the country, and the Iranians have insisted the fuel stays inside Iran. But they have offered to dilute it significantly, so that it could not be used to produce a nuclear weapon,” the report adds.

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Bits and pieces.

• U.S. Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to More Peace Talks (New York Times)

President Trump reiterated that Iran wanted to negotiate a deal, telling Maria Bartiromo of Fox News that the war was near its end. “I think it’s close to over, yeah, I mean I view it as very close to over,” he said when asked if the war had ended, speaking in a clip from the interview posted on Tuesday night. The president has previously indicated that the war was ending. In his address to the nation on April 1, he estimated that it should wind down within three weeks. His interview with Bartiromo is scheduled to air on the Fox Business channel on Wednesday morning.


[..] The U.S. military has completely stopped commercial traffic to and from Iranian ports, Adm. Brad Cooper, the Central Command leader, said late Tuesday. The blockade began on Monday but trackers showed several Iranian-linked vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz after that. It was unclear if those ships departed within a grace period. Intelligence experts have also observed ships using tactics to avoid detection in waters in and around the strait.

… uptick in ‘spoofing’ by ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
[..] Maritime intelligence experts are starting to see a new pattern of “shadow” activity in waters in and around the Strait of Hormuz since the United States naval blockade on vessels coming in and out of Iranian ports went into effect on Monday, suggesting that more ships seem to be adopting tactics to avoid detection than during the previous weeks of war.“Now, we are starting to see vessels going dark or using ‘zombie’ or random identification,” said Ami Daniel, the chief executive of Windward, a maritime intelligence data provider, in an interview on Tuesday.

In the weeks after the American-Israeli attack on Iran in late February, Iranian exports went “uninterrupted” and had “almost no need to go off radar,” Mr. Daniel said. But in the past 24 hours, more ships appear to be manipulating the global system intended to keep tabs on vessel activity and traffic, suggesting that some vessels linked to Iran are being “a bit more cautious,” he said. Under international maritime law, most large commercial vessels must travel with a transponder that automatically transmits the ship’s name, location, route and other identifying information. That includes a 9-digit number with a country code, which serves as a digital fingerprint for a ship.

Vessels in Middle Eastern waters that are now trying to hide their location or are otherwise falsifying information are employing methods that have been perfected by Russian “shadow fleet” vessels evading sanctions related to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, some experts say. “Shadow fleet tankers have been experimenting with stateless ID numbers,” said John C.K. Daly, a nonresident fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute in Washington who has been tracking Russian shadow ships. “What the Russians have been doing is altering the numbers.”

When a ship is engaged in “spoofing,” as the practice is known, its captain can type in a false origin or destination or can pretend to be piloting another ship altogether. Vessels can also temporarily turn off their transponders, seeming to disappear in one place and reappear in another, sometimes with altered data. This approach has enabled Russia to keep up its energy exports and finance its war, generating up to $100 billion a year. It appears that vessels linked to Iran are using similar methods now, experts say. Some ships have gone dark, while sanctioned and falsely flagged vessels seem to still be active, a Windward report on Tuesday noted.

“Under previous enforcement frameworks, including the December blockade of Venezuela, sanctioned and stateless tankers were primary targets for interdiction,” the report said. “The continued movement of similar vessel profiles indicates that operators are testing the practical limits of enforcement in real time.” By manipulating the global system meant to illuminate ship movements, so-called ghost or shadow vessels may compound confusion about the state of the Strait of Hormuz, even if in the end they cannot breach the American blockade.

“Right now, the strait is a contested information environment,” said Erik Bethel, a partner at Mare Liberum, a maritime technology venture capital fund. Detection-avoidance tricksmay make it harder for the Navy to identify boats for interdiction. “A blockade is only as strong as the intelligence behind the interdictions,” Mr. Bethel said.The maritime system is complex. A vessel may be owned by one country, leased to another and travel under a third country’s flag of convenience, Mr. Bethel said. That makes determining who is truly behind any given journey a “really hard thing to do.”

Maritime intelligence companies and militaries use an array of sources to stitch together information about vessels, including optical satellites, radar satellites and radio frequencies. They also collect information being transmitted by sailors, sometimes unwittingly, through their own personal technology, like Fitbits and cellphones. Still, whatever ruses they employ, vessels off Iran might only get so far. It is difficult to get out to the open ocean via a waterway as narrow as the Strait of Hormuz without being detected.

A U.S. official said that more than 12 American military vessels were stationed in international waters in the Gulf of Oman. And on Tuesday, United States Central Command said that six merchant vessels had complied with directions by radio from U.S. forces to turn around and re-enter Iranian ports. “My expectation is that the U.S. Navy can sit out in the Gulf of Oman,” Mr. Daniel of Windward said. “I don’t think there’s a way to breach the blockade.”

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“.. Trump has forced a hidden imperial system into the open “

• The Money in the Background of the Iran Conflict (CTH)

Promethean Action Follows the Money in the Background of the Iran Conflict. A generally good summary into some of the financial issues happening in the background of the dire Straits of Hormuz. Susan Kokinda highlights UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer declining to join an American blockade and claims Britain has lost control of the choke point. She details financial actions targeting Iranian money flows, including UAE arrests of IRGC-linked money changers, Treasury Secretary Bessent using Patriot Act Section 311 against a Zurich bank, and scrutiny of London-based crypto exchanges and Santander UK. She cites a UK military chief admitting Britain’s war planning has lapsed since the Cold War and links fuel disruptions and protests to the conflict, concluding Trump has forced a hidden imperial system into the open.


Trump Names the Hidden War — Britain Has No Cards Left

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Helmer lost track too. Iran has nothing left to fight with.

• Blood, Money, and The Trump Dynasty – Iran Shows How To Fight (Helmer)

In the world in which President Donald Trump plans his future and the presidential dynasty of his sons to succeed him, the gunman believes he can take away both lives and bribes. Unless the victim catches him by surprise, outgunning him and those of his allies who have paid the price of his protection. It’s blood for money. This is the new stage of Iran’s war. It is the stage which the Iranian and pro-Iranian post-mortem analyses of the Islamabad negotiations have not disclosed; the stage which the US and Israeli propaganda organs cannot comprehend; the stage which the Trump dynasty’s rivals are afraid of, Vice President JD Vance in front.


This stage of Iran’s war is also an example to President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping of the futility of paying bribes, as their advisors tell them; and the vulnerability of Trump and his sons to political defeat at home. [..] In the Iranian account of the Islamabad negotiations, there was initial progress in the expert-level negotiations on release of Iranian assets and relief of trade and financial transfer sanctions. No detail has leaked or been disclosed officially by either side. The Iranian negotiator was Central Bank Governor, Naser Hemati. The Iranian pre-conditions – an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon and release of Iranian assets blocked in Qatar – were partly fulfilled, partly glossed over.

A US attempt to send two destroyers into the Hormuz Strait boomeranged as a test of the IRGC’s readiness to open fire, and the vessels reversed course. However, when the talks reached the level of the principals – Vice President JD Vance, Steven Witkoff, Jared Kushner for the US; Mohammad Bakr (Bagher) Ghalibaf, Abbas Araghchi, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, and Ali Bagheri Kani – the US side added new deal-breaking conditons, according to the account of Mohammed Marandi, one of the Iranian delegation’s official spokesmen. The first of these was Iran’s agreement to give up its entire civilian nuclear programme, not only its nuclear material enrichment capacities and stockpiles; the second was a US half-share in the Hormuz Strait regime tolls. Neither of these proposals was included in the 15-point plan sent by the US to Iran through Pakistan in the run-up to the ceasefire announcement of April 8.

According to the Israeli-American outlet Axios, “the U.S. proposed that Iran accept a 20-year moratorium on uranium enrichment during negotiations in Islamabad over the weekend, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge.” The second source was Israeli. There has been no Iranian confirmation.

Several US moves were also unexpected, according to Marandi. Vance had interrupted the negotiations to make repeated telephone calls to Washington, including one — the Iranian delegation claims — to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Vance has acknowledged in his brief press appearance at the conclusion that he had made calls “half a dozen times, a dozen times”. In the Iranian interpretation, Vance did not have a clear negotiating mandate for the negotiations, and lacked personal authority.

Read more …

MDCP= Major Defense Cooperation Partnership

• All in All, It’s Just Another Brick in the Wall Around China (Stephen Green)

Last year, Chinese Communist Party boss Xi Jinping played the rare earths card, forcing President Donald Trump to slow his roll on decoupling from the Middle Kingdom. This year, Trump played the oil card against China — first in Venezuela, then in Iran — and he just slapped it on the table again in Indonesia. Their summit in Beijing next month already promised to be interesting, with the U.S. enjoying significant leverage over Venezuela, Iran in tatters, and the U.S. Navy taking charge of the Strait of Hormuz. Until very recently, both countries served as Beijing’s reliable sources of discounted oil. Today, Xi might ask, “Et tu, Indonesia?” If he spoke Latin, that is.


It might have seemed like one of those dry, bureaucratic, almost meaningless announcements on Monday, when War Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the U.S. and Indonesia “are elevating our relationship to a Major Defense Cooperation Partnership.” According to a joint statement, the partnership covers “military modernization and capacity building,” “training and professional military education,” “exercises and operational cooperation,” and I can hear you snoring already.But a Major Defense Cooperation Partnership is kind of a big deal — and it’s aimed directly at China’s oil imports. China’s difficulties begin in the Strait of Hormuz, but they peak at Malacca.

Nearly two-thirds of China’s imports — largely the raw materials that keep its export machine humming — and a whopping 80% of its energy imports pass through Indonesia’s Strait of Malacca. But that hardly means Beijing minds its manners around its southern neighbor. While the two countries maintain a close strategic partnership, there are also persistent strains, particularly around Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, Chinese fishing boat fleets intruding on Indonesian waters, resulting in naval tensions, and ongoing trade disputes. And here comes Washington — with no territorial ambitions and no invading fishing fleets — with an MDCP.

And Another Thing: Honestly, China is now so powerful and aggressive that its neighbors ought to be attracted to Washington like iron filings to a magnet. It took significant displays of American weakness and dithering — thanks, Obama and Biden! — for countries like Indonesia to have fallen even partly into China’s orbit in the first place.

An MDCP usually means regular joint military exercises, interoperability training, and streamlined access to U.S. weapons systems. In other words, even though an MDCP is less than a formal military alliance, it allows the U.S. and its partners to effectively act as allies, should the need arise. The MDCP with Indonesia, just announced by Hegseth, even includes military overflight access.= Unlike NATO, there’s no Article Five-type guarantee requiring us to come to Indonesia’s defense, but should the need arise to act against China, our two militaries ought to have enough familiarity with one another to make it work.

In response to Trump’s tariffs last year, Beijing used its control over the majority of rare earth processing to get a better deal. But rare earths aren’t actually all that rare, and the U.S. sits on major deposits. Our problem is that we outsourced the processing to China. We’re working to correct that mistake. When Trump and Xi meet in May, the balance between our two countries will have shifted significantly in our favor since 2025. Seen that way, our new defense partnership with Indonesia is just another brick in Trump’s Great Wall Around China.

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BIG ruling against Boasberg et al.

• Appeals Court Terminates Criminal Contempt Proceedings Against Trump Admin (ET)

An appeals court has put a stop to criminal contempt proceedings initiated by a district judge against the Trump administration. In a brief, unsigned order on April 14, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated a previous order by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, and ordered him to terminate the contempt investigation he launched in December. The contempt proceedings stemmed from the deportation of illegal immigrants—suspected gang members—to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, last year. Boasberg had ordered planes carrying those detainees halted and turned around, but the men were sent to El Salvador anyway.


The Trump administration had appealed Boasberg’s order all the way to the Supreme Court, which overturned his ruling. Despite that, Boasberg tried to hold members of the administration in contempt of his order unless they returned the suspected gang members to the United States. The appeals court blocked that move by vacating Boasberg’s first contempt order, but he decided to move ahead with a contempt investigation in November. “Undeterred, the district court is proceeding with criminal contempt for the government’s decision to transfer the plaintiffs to the custody of El Salvador,” the Appeals Court’s opinion reads.

Read more …

“.. the so-called whistleblower behind the 2019 impeachment singled out Director Patel by name, relied on hearsay, submitted false claims, and had documented political bias — all of which was hidden from the American people..”

• FBI “Is Reviewing Closely New Allegations On Ukraine Impeachment Accuser” (JTN)

The FBI said Monday night that it is “closely” reviewing newly declassified memos showing the intelligence community kept secret for years evidence raising questions about the credibility and bias of the main accuser in President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment case. “The declassified impeachment memos show the so-called whistleblower behind the 2019 impeachment singled out Director Patel by name, relied on hearsay, submitted false claims, and had documented political bias — all of which was hidden from the American people,” FBI spokesman Ben Williamson wrote on his X account.


“This is the same playbook used during the Russia collusion hoax — which Director Patel exposed. The FBI has previously been reviewing these revelations closely and will continue to do so,” he added. The FBI was one of several agencies to react to a story Sunday night by Just the News that revealed the CIA analyst who alleged wrongdoing by Trump involving Ukraine policy was flagged for the “potential for bias,” had lied to investigators about a key fact and only had hearsay evidence to back his claims.

That evidence was kept from Trump’s impeachment proceedings by ex-Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Monday. Gabbard accused the former watchdog of “weaponizing” the whistle-blower process to hurt Trump. The alleged whistleblower’s name was redacted from the newly declassified memos but has been identified in some media reports as retired CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella, who now works at a D.C. think tank and is a regular on a podcast critical of Trump policies.

Officials declined to publicly confirm whether Ciaramella was, in fact, the whistleblower when questioned by Just the News. Ciaramella has appeared on numerous podcast episodes put out by the anti-Trump Lawfare outlet. Benjamin Wittes, the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, appeared on multiple episodes with Ciaramella. Wittes was described by Politico in 2017 as “The Bard of the Deep State” and is a longtime Trump critic and a self-described friend of fired FBI Director James Comey and Strzok.

Read more …

“The Lawfare impeachment crew, led by Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Mary McCord, Dan Goldman, Barry Berke, Stephen Castor and Norm Eisen also weaponized the “ongoing investigation” classification to keep the CIA/ICIG report hidden during the impeachment effort.”

• Johnny Didn’t Bark – But Tulsi Did (CTH)

I’m going to try and keep this short. You can tell from the transcripts of the testimony from ICIG Michael Atkinson that at the time of his testimony, September 19, 2019 and October 4, 2019, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) was not in a classified session; simply closed-door. In fact, during the October 2019 deposition, Ranking Member Devin Nunes went out of his way to clarify the status of the hearing itself. Chairman Schiff reemphasized this was not part of the impeachment inquiry, simply a hearing to clarify questions from Republicans to ICIG Atkinson about the nature of the complaint created by CIA whistleblower Eric Ciaramella.


This is interesting, because that means at the time of the hearing itself in 2019 any one of the members could have immediately gone to the microphones and discussed all of the information gained from within the questioning. They didn’t. Later on, Chairman Adam Schiff classified the Atkinson testimony in order to bury it. The Lawfare impeachment crew, led by Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Mary McCord, Dan Goldman, Barry Berke, Stephen Castor and Norm Eisen also weaponized the “ongoing investigation” classification to keep the CIA/ICIG report hidden during the impeachment effort.

President Trump was not even allowed to see/review the classified IC IG information that was being used to impeach him. Now, as you can see from the attendance above, John Ratcliffe was present for both Atkinson depositions. Despite his immediate silence, we know John Ratcliffe was concerned about the content within ICIG Atkinson’s statements as he relayed in a series of questions during a public hearing December 9, 2019. Ratcliffe questioned both Dan Goldman and Stephen Castor who were part of Adam Schiff’s staff and present during the October 2019, testimony of ICIG Atkinson.

John Ratcliffe knew all of the details from ICIG Atkinson’s testimony because he was present and part of the questioning during both sessions. Here’s where it gets interesting Following the failed impeachment effort (Senate acquittal), President Trump fired IC IG Michael Atkinson April 3, 2020, and then nominated John Ratcliffe to the position of DNI to replace Acting DNI Ric Grenell. The ICIG investigation of the alleged claims by CIA whistleblower Eric Ciaramella ended during the impeachment inquiry. Following the impeachment acquittal, and following the subsequent firing of Atkinson, all of the ICIG work product returned to the custodial review of the ODNI.

DNI nominee John Ratcliffe was confirmed by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on May 21 and sworn in on May 26, 2020. John Ratcliffe was now a constitutionally confirmed DNI with access to the full record and work product that led to the previous impeachment effort. Why didn’t DNI John Ratcliffe release the ICIG investigative material and CIA whistleblower report? Why did it take another six years and DNI Tulsi Gabbard to discover, dig out, declassify and release the material that was in the custodial review of DNI John Ratcliffe back in 2020?

Congressman Ratcliffe was in both Atkinson depositions during Sept/Oct 2019, and he knew the impeachment allegations were false. He essentially called out the HPSCI Democrat staff in December of 2019. Congressman Ratcliffe became DNI in May 2020 and knew the entire background of the IC IG material that was now at his fingertips. Ratcliffe knew President Trump was set up. Why didn’t John Ratcliffe release the evidence of it in 2020?

I might also note that following the 2022 midterm election, Republicans took back control of the House in January 2023.Why didn’t HPSCI Chairman Mike Turner (2023/2024) release the Atkinson transcripts to the public? Why didn’t HPSCI Chairman Rick Crawford (2025-present) release the Atkinson transcript in 2025, without the request of DNI Tulsi Gabbard. To be fair, former HPSCI Chairman Mike Turner might say that back in 2023 without the underlying CIA/ICIG report, the explosive Atkinson testimony didn’t have context…..

…. But that brings us back to the question of why DNI John Ratcliffe didn’t release the CIA/ICIG report as soon as he took office in 2020. Has the statute of limitations tolled? Johnny didn’t bark – Tulsi did!

Read more …

“The spirit of revolution hangs in the air.”

• Irish Patriots are Fighting Back (J.B. Shurk)

So you say you want a revolution? Well, take a look at what’s happening in Ireland right now. Tens of thousands of farmers, truckers, and other fed-up “normies” are taking to the streets of Dublin to protest fuel taxes, mass immigration, and poverty-inducing “climate change” policies. For the most part, corporate news propagandists in both Europe and North America are intentionally ignoring the combustible situation. Just when I had begun to think that all the “fighting Irish” had moved to America, the Old Country has started to show signs of life. Perhaps there are still a few irascible pugilists willing to bash heads and take on the globalist empire after all.


Speaking of irascible pugilists, Irish slugger Conor McGregor issued a bit of an ultimatum to the ruling class after the government mobilized the military and sent tanks to intimidate the protesters: “One wrong move by government here, and you will see, at the very least, 250k Irish people descend on the capital in a blink. They must step down, there is no other way.” Declaring war against ordinary Irishmen isn’t a good look for an Irish Deep State that can’t be bothered to guard its borders from hordes of invading foreigners. While McGregor and his compatriots are out feeding protesters in the streets, the Irish government is hiking taxes on those who can least afford to pay them. “One wrong move” could spark a revolution.

Perhaps that’s why — after an initial show of force — Ireland’s globalist government appears to be trying to settle things down. Reports on the ground say that police officers have remained friendly with protesters. Some have suggested that Irish authorities are wary of following in the footsteps of Canada’s former prime minister, Justin Trudeau, when he exercised martial law powers to seize the bank accounts of and jail “Freedom Convoy” truckers protesting coercive COVID “vaccination” mandates. On the other hand, a lot of the Irish protesters have also described a sense that many of the law enforcement officers patrolling the streets appear to be on their side. If that’s the case, then Ireland’s political class may be worried about the effectiveness of siccing the military on a broadly-backed citizen uprising.

Although few people saw the present brouhaha coming, Ireland makes a natural “ground zero” in the war between Big Government globalists (aka, the “international rules-based order” club of World Economic Forum totalitarians) and ordinary citizens willing to defend their nation’s sovereignty and their own personal freedoms. For two decades, the globalists have been taking over Ireland and stripping it for parts. As a country that once took pride in its meaningful traditions, customs, family loyalties, and Catholic heritage, Ireland has been one of the globalists’ favorite targets for conquest.

If the “multicultural” atheists could convert Ireland into another globalist outpost devoid of religious or civilizational allegiances, they knew that they would collect a valuable scalp in their war against the West. Sadly, the globalists have been largely successful. By transforming a conservative, staunchly pro-life, Catholic nation into a “woke” re-education zone embracing abortion, “trans” surgeries for children, open borders, Islamic supremacy, and the fetishization of “diversity,” the World Economic Forum’s “Borg” hive mind gutted one of the most culturally rich nations on the planet and mounted Ireland’s head on globalism’s wall of slaughtered states.

Two months ago, free speech defenders Lorcán Price and Graham Linehan testified before the House Judiciary Committee concerning the mass censorship operation being run through the expanding Big Tech enclave in Dublin. There are over 32,000 NGOs in Ireland receiving billions of dollars in U.S. and E.U. grants meant to help shape public opinion. These organizations — one for every 155 Irishmen — represent the “information warfare” army that supports Europe’s globalist policies. Over 70% of Irish legislation is copy-and-pasted from bureaucratic edicts originating in the European Union. These laws include special incentives for illegal immigrants who arrive on Ireland’s shores. They also include “hate speech” laws that have been used to criminally prosecute Irish citizens who object to foreigners raping and murdering their children. The NGO-E.U. takeover of the Irish political system this century has drastically reshaped the country.

Once Christian Ireland now has constitutional protections for gay “marriage” and abortion up to a baby’s birth. Two years ago, Ireland’s globalist cabal nearly succeeded in removing all mentions of “women” from the national constitution, as well as nearly redefining “family” as a “durable relationship.” The Irish government continues to attack Ireland’s Catholic history, going so far as to depict Catholic saints as pagan goddesses in shameless acts of historical revisionism. Globalists continue to rename historic institutions due to ludicrous accusations that Irish clergymen and scholars had ties to slavery and “white supremacy.” As Irish writer Roger Berkeley sorrowfully observes, “Ireland shows what happens when elites, bureaucracies, and ideology override national identity.”

[..] What is clear is that ordinary people in nations across the West are becoming aware of the information war that has long been waged against them. For decades, they have been conditioned to believe false things: “Diversity is our strength.” “Islam is a religion of peace.” “Trans-women are real women.” “Sex is a social construct.” “Man-made climate change is killing the planet.” “New taxes will save the planet.” “Christianity is hate speech.” “Hate speech is a violent crime.” “Free speech requires government-moderated censorship.” “National sovereignty is fascist.” “Families promote white supremacy.” “Merit is white supremacy.” “Math, home ownership, mowed lawns, and punctuality are all forms of white supremacy.” “Equal rights require ‘Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity.’” “Unelected bureaucrats protect democracy.” “NATO must protect non-NATO Ukraine.” Et cetera ad infinitum.

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That he was.

• Eric Swalwell and the Fall of a Made Man (Turley)

The resignation of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Cal.) came with one of the most spectacular falls in political history. Just days ago, Swalwell was the leading Democratic candidate for governor of California and positioned to be one of two final candidates (the other a Republican). He expected that, regardless of his unpopularity, California Democrats would never vote for a Republican. Now Swalwell has pulled out of the race, pulled out of Congress, and was even tossed out of the home of a billionaire who had been letting him crash there during the scandal. Swalwell continues to deny the allegations and pledges to fight them.


For the record, I have been one of Swalwell’s most vocal critics for the last ten years. Yet, while I am not surprised by the allegations, I am surprised by how quickly Swalwell was abandoned by his political patrons in Congress and the unions. In Washington, Harry Truman advised politicians that if you want a friend in this city, get a dog. However, even Swalwell’s dog Penny has yet to appear in public with him. Presumably, she is consulting with her own canine crisis team. Swalwell has spent his entire career protected by an enabling establishment and media. He was a made man in Washington, and those who made him protected him despite years of rumors and allegations of misconduct.

He was never much of a legislator. One 2025 study showed that he was outvoted in Congress by a colleague who had died months earlier. His value was his vicious signature. He was always first to a mob. When Sen. Susan Collins received death threats, it was Swalwell who mocked her. In running for governor, he not only pledged to arrest ICE agents but to deny them driver’s licenses and jobs. He trafficked in unadulterated rage to a nation of rage addicts. His greatest patron was Nancy Pelosi, who single-handedly saved Swalwell’s career when he was found to have had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy. She told the media, “I don’t have any concern about Mr. Swalwell.”

For most of the media, that was enough and they slinked away. When critics sought to remove him from the classified House Intelligence Committee, Pelosi shocked many by insisting that he remain in the sensitive position, lashing out at those “trying to make an issue of this.” Now, Pelosi and the media allies are gone. Even Swalwell’s friend, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.), has morphed into Claude Rains and proclaimed that he is “shocked” by the allegations. His former campaign chair, Gallego was shown in a picture bare-chested and riding camels with Swalwell on a luxury junket paid for by Qatar business interests. The photo has not aged well for Gallego any more than his earlier lament that the Democratic party “used to be the party of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.”

The abandonment of Swalwell is a familiar move of political triage. By letting Swalwell succumb to the scandal, Pelosi and others hope to protect the establishment from any blowback after years of enabling his career. The media, as usual, is complying. The media will cover a scandal involving a leading Democrat if there is no real alternative. What is interesting is how the Democratic establishment is now signaling that they want Swalwell destroyed — quickly and surgically. The media is content calling Swalwell a monster without delving into who created and released that monster. Swalwell is no self-made man. He is a made man of the Democratic establishment.

The alleged victims have lashed out not only at Swalwell but also at many in the establishment. They allege that they were rebuffed when they tried to bring their allegations to reporters. One independent reporter said that he had been raising similar allegations about Swalwell with California Democrats from before Swalwell was elected to Congress. He was also turned away. Swalwell had a use and that made his “appetites” irrelevant. If even half of these allegations are true, it shows the sense of license that Swalwell developed for years in Washington. He lost that political immunity this week and now faces real legal liability. That does not mean that Democrats will not try to control the damage. They want Swalwell to take a deal to avoid any investigations that will pull other Democrats into the vortex of the scandal.

They are counting on New York and California district attorneys to produce the type of controlled explosion seen in construction where a hotel is brought down without damaging the adjacent structures. The problem is Republicans may not just accept his resignation as the final act. They could call the women to testify and even call some of his congressional friends who took trips and partied with him. They could cite Swalwell himself for demanding such total transparency.

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“La Marxista: Mamdani Pledges to Open First City-Run Store with Projected $30 Million Initial Cost “

Turley is not his biggest fan.

• Mamdani Pledges to Open First City-Run Store (Tuirley)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani used his “First 100 Days” speech this week to announce that he has kept his promise to create a chain of city-run stores . . . by pledging to open one store sometime “next year.” According to the New York Post, the city is planning to make an East Harlem location the first store at a cost of $30 million. It will be located in La Marqueta near Park Avenue. Hopefully, La Marqueta will be renamed La Marxista for clarity. It will follow a long line of failed state-operated and city-operated stores. Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, also pledged such city-run stores.


It is notable that the stores received such emphasis by Mamdani. It is not difficult to set up a grocery store, particularly when you run the city that approves permits and compliance conditions. It is not even difficult to set up a money-losing store as long as you have a city budget to pay for it. It is far more difficult to set up an independently sustainable store. In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the rise of support for socialism and communism among young citizens who have no experience or memory with the failures of such systems in the 20th Century. I specifically discuss Mamdani and his policies. These are calls that are likely to increase with the emerging new economy:

With the rise of American socialism, there are new calls for state subsidies and even the establishment of state-run grocery stores in places like Chicago. Past efforts have been colossal failures, including the still-ongoing effort in Kansas City. Over seven years, KC Sun Fresh is gushing money with losses in 2024 at $885,000. The millions lost on this store are on top of the $17 million that the city paid to buy the entire strip mall. By 2025, many of the shelves were entirely bare, while private grocery stores were successfully operating in the area. Despite these failures, there are new calls in other states to create their own state-owned stores.

In New York City, socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was heralded for his campaign to open up “government-owned, government-operated grocery stores” in 2025. There are also calls to subsidize key industries that are becoming less competitive in the global market—an effort that is unlikely to succeed as jobs are lost to cheap labor markets or automation. Since the city already owns La Marqueta, it can avoid paying rent. However, it will lose any rent that could be earned by renting the property to a business.

Mamdani pledged that these will be “stores where prices are fair, where workers are treated with dignity, and where New Yorkers can actually afford to shop at our stores…Eggs will be cheaper, bread will be cheaper, grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation.” Of course, that has not worked out that way in other cities. Governments are not known to be either efficient or competitive. The start-up costs of this first store will consume almost half of the budget for the original cost estimate for all five stores.

Soon, New Yorkers will be subsidizing grocery stores to artificially support the myth of socialism. In the Soviet Union, state-run grocery stores were the subject of gallows humor. The “reimagining” of grocery stores left shelves bare with only imagined essential products. The most widely told joke spread just before the fall of the Soviet Union:

A man walks into a shop. He asks the clerk, “You don’t have any meat?” The clerk says, “No, here we don’t have any fish. The shop that doesn’t have any meat is across the street.” As Mamdani demands a 10% property tax to fund his promises of free buses and other socialist programs, he is returning to the same socialist script. Of course, as the University of Chicago’s Milton Friedman noted, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

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“.. was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

• American Pope Leo Has a Massive Case of TDS (Rick Moran)

The papacy is one of the most unique institutions in the world. The pope is not “elected” in any meaningful sense. A bunch of older males who played the same kind of political games that Republicans, Democrats, Communists, and Socialists play to get ahead, to become “cardinal,” meet to fill a vacancy following the death of a pope. How a new pope is chosen is steeped in tradition and ritual. It’s all baloney. The pomp and circumstance were created to hide the simple fact that choosing a pope is no different than choosing a CEO or president of a large company. The assembled cardinals decide who should lead the church, the same way a board of directors chooses a new leader: someone who can best advance the goals and interests of the Catholic church.


There’s nothing holy about it. There’s nothing sacred in the process. It’s politics, plain and simple. Pope Leo XIV played the game exceptionally well in order to get elected last year. He had a huge obstacle to overcome; he is an American (and Peruvian), and there is a large faction in the Vatican that hates America. Leo was seen as a compromise candidate who, although close to the radical Pope Francis, who died in 2025, was not considered as confrontational as the former pope. That belief turned out to be very wrong.

In April 2025, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica stated that Leo was seen as a “cosmopolitan and shy figure” who was “appreciated by conservatives and progressives” within the church. The pope destroyed that illusion by going after Donald Trump in a very un-papal way. On Sunday, Trump let loose on Leo for his constant sermonizing. Of course, that’s what popes do, but Trump saw an opening to attack Leo on very secular grounds.

Truth Social:”I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country. And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History. “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote.

“Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise,” Trump said. “He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

I don’t think there’s any doubt that the church considered an American for pope because Donald Trump was president. Trump’s roundup of illegal aliens was bound to cause friction with the Vatican. Leo tried to sound diplomatic in his response, which was, in itself, a shocking departure from tradition. Popes aren’t supposed to play the tit-for-tat political game.”I don’t want to get into a debate with him [Trump],” the U.S.-born pope said. “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.” The pope is referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking “the American people to pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ.” “

We are not politicians, we don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, Leo told reporters. The pope said that “to put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think, is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is.” Leo has entered the political fray with his words and has lost the moral authority to comment as the leader of one billion Roman Catholics. Commenting as a famous religious celebrity is perfectly fine, but getting in the mud and rolling around with a politician should be beneath Leo and the papacy. “I do not look at my role as being political, a politician,” Leo said. “Too many people are suffering in the world today, too many innocent people are being killed, and someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.

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Holocaust Remembrance Day was Jan 27. Then why this? “Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day this year starting on the evening of April 13 into today, April 14.”

• ‘Unwavering Commitment’ to Fight Hatred (Salgado)

President Donald Trump issued a powerful message against antisemitism and a commitment to honoring the memory of Holocaust victims through a freer future in his message for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day this year starting on the evening of April 13 into today, April 14. While the Nazis killed political dissidents, Catholics, other Christians, and ethnic minorities, their death camps were most strongly focused on wiping out the Jewish people. In fact, the global Jewish population has never fully recovered since the Holocaust.


The Trump White House issued a message on April 13. “During the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust, our Nation remembers the more than 6 million innocent Jewish lives taken in one of the most horrific atrocities and worst acts of anti-Semitism in human history; we commemorate the Roma and Sinti, Slavic and Polish people, persons with disabilities, Soviet prisoners of war, Jehovah’s Witnesses, people targeted for their sexual orientation, and countless others who were victims of the Holocaust; and we renew our unwavering commitment to ensuring that such evil is vanquished forever,” President Trump wrote.

Unfortunately, the fundamentalist Muslims who were allies of Hitler during World War II, because of their shared goal of destroying Jews, are more powerful than ever, somehow gaining the sympathy of the West every time they attack Israel and commit heinous atrocities. To give just one number for context, Hezbollah alone launched over 6,500 missiles, UAVs, and rockets at Israeli civilians during the first five weeks of Operation Epic Fury/Roaring Lion.

Trump continued, “On Yom HaShoah, we recall the horrors Nazi Germany inflicted across Europe during the harrowing years of the Second World War, where men, women, and children of many backgrounds were subjected to vicious acts of persecution, degradation, and death by methods beyond comprehension. Yet, in the midst of this unfathomable darkness, the resilience of the human spirit endured.” “From the outset of my Administration, I have taken decisive action to defend the God-given worth of every human being,” Trump affirmed. “By establishing the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, my Administration is bolstering coordination across federal agencies in an effort to prevent acts of hatred and violence in our streets and on our college campuses that were allowed to spread under my predecessor.”

He concluded: “I am directing the Department of Justice to relentlessly pursue those who threaten or harm Jewish Americans, and we will not stop until every case of terrorism perpetrated against the Jewish people is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

As our Nation marks these Days of Remembrance, we honor the memory of all who were murdered and vow to never forget the victims of the Holocaust—the most heinous violation of human dignity in the history of the world. Together, we reaffirm our solemn obligation to stand guard against antisemitism in every form and carry forward the enduring legacy of the more than 6 million innocent souls of the Holocaust with vigilance and unwavering resolve. May the memories of all who perished forever be a blessing. Global antisemitism has been on the rise ever since Hamas committed the Oct. 7 massacre. Each one of us is responsible for seeing that “never again” is more than a slogan.

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Forever ago, I read a biography of Abe. Which was John Hay’s POV.

• Remembering the Faith of Lincoln on the Anniversary of His Death (Tom Griffin)


On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head and killed by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre during the showing of “Our American Cousin.” It was Good Friday. It is eerily fitting that the murder occurred on the most somber day of the Christian year. Lincoln mentioned God frequently in his presidency, and his journey with God was deeply connected to the gravity of his work during the Civil War.

Between his election in November 1860 and his inauguration in March 1861, several southern states seceded from the Union. In Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1861, he spoke about how the nation must be firm in faith: “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.” Here Lincoln showcased his distinctively American spirit. He believed that our nation was built on faith as well as love for both neighbor and country. Those qualities, in his view, can sustain the American people during tumultuous times.

In September 1862, during one of the most personally challenging parts of the Civil War, Lincoln wrote a private “Meditation on the Divine Will.” The Union had recently lost the Second Battle of Bull Run, and there were immense challenges ahead for the president. The country was tiring of the war. The growing death toll weighed heavily on the president. Had the time come to end the war? According to one of his White House secretaries John Hay, the letter was the president’s way of working through his confusion and stress about the most important decision of his life. Hay also noted that this letter was not meant to be seen by men, which is why we have only one section. Lincoln writes:

“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party — and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true — that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”

The words above are filled with religious significance and depth. They relate the broken heart of a man—and a president—for his fellow countrymen. Faith demands that we be utterly honest with both ourselves and God. Lincoln’s meditation was more than a mere method to inform the president’s decision making; it was itself a prayer.

First, Lincoln writes that God’s will is victorious. To understand what that means for him, Lincoln then references a philosophical idea called “the principle of noncontradiction.” Most famously explained by Aristotle, the principle holds that two opposing claims cannot both be true in the same way at the same time. Therefore, either the south was right that human beings are not equal, and some can thus be owned by others. Or the north was right that the expansion of slavery—even its existence—is immoral because all human beings have dignity.

Second, Lincoln writes that the outcome of the war might be different from what either side hopes for. God often works in unexpected ways. God’s logic often makes itself known through challenging and confusing times. Though painful, this can ultimately teach us to rely on God and trust that providence will lead us through. Finally, the president’s meditation on God’s will does not seem to have resolved all Lincoln’s confusion. The war must continue, for now. This brings him much grief, but he knows that it is right.

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You driving? Not on a public road any more. Go to a private circuit. https://twitter.com/HungaryBased/status/2043743519664185462?s=20 https://twitter.com/NiohBerg/status/2043783291178782888?s=20

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Mar 142026
 


Paul Cézanne Village derrière des arbres, Île-de-France 1879


• Iran’s New Supreme Leader Wounded, Likely Disfigured, Hegseth (Reuters)
• Mojtaba Khamenei Is Nowhere to Be Seen (Rick Moran)
• There Are Many Who Complain About ICE (Michael A. Letts)
• Sec 301 Trade Investigations Into 16 Economies Including The EU (CTH)
• Witkoff and Kushner Meet Russian Delegation in Florida (CTH)
• Bessent Greenlights Sale Of Russian Oil At Sea To “Promote Stability” (ZH)
• Bessent: “Narrowly Tailored, Short Term Sanction Relief” for Russia (CTH)
• Merz Slams Trump Admin For Temporarily Lifting Russian Oil Sanctions (JTN)
• Nearly 1 Out Of Every 2 Muslims Under 40 Has ‘Islamist’ Attitudes (RMX)
• Order of Battle (James Howard Kunstler)
• Zelensky Plotting Suspending Elections For Years – Media (RT)
• Mamdani’s Wife Worked With Author Who Called Jews ‘Rabid Demons’ (Salgado)
• Ex-Columbia Professor Calls for Violence, Glorifies Murder of Jews (Turley)
• Musk Whips Out ‘Macrohard’ In Disruptive Tesla-xAI Bid (ZH)
• Honda Just Lost Billions on EVs It Can’t Sell (Stephen Green)
• Gavin Newsom Has a ‘Hillary Clinton Problem’ (Robert Spencer)

 


 

https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/2032639700196786606?s=20 https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2032597866611408953?s=20

 


 


He has some info on that which he holds behind.

• Iran’s New Supreme Leader Wounded, Likely Disfigured, Hegseth (Reuters)

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and likely disfigured, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday, questioning Khamenei’s ability to govern after nearly two weeks of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. No images have been released of Khamenei since an Israeli strike at the start of the war that killed much of his family, including his father and wife. The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. His first comments came in a statement read out by a television presenter on Thursday. In the statement, he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut and called on neighboring countries to close U.S. bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them. ntinue


“We know the new so-called not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday. A weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement,” Hegseth told a briefing. “Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father – dead. He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run and he lacks legitimacy.” An Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that the newly appointed supreme leader was lightly injured but was continuing to operate, after state television described him as war-wounded.

Hegseth was joined by General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a briefing in which they emphasized U.S. military strikes to knock out Iran’s missile and drone capabilities and its navy. ‘NO QUARTER’ During the briefing, Hegseth said that the United States would show no mercy in the war. “We will keep pressing, keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemy,” Hegseth said. “No quarter” is the refusal to spare the life of someone who has expressed their intention to surrender – something prohibited by law. “International humanitarian law prohibits the use of this procedure, that is, ordering that there shall be no survivors, threatening the adversary therewith, or conducting hostilities on this basis,” according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

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“The February 28 airstrike that took out Ali Khamenei also killed his wife, his daughter, Mojtada’s wife, Ali Khamenei’s son-in-law, and at least three grandchildren.”

• Mojtaba Khamenei Is Nowhere to Be Seen (Rick Moran)

Mojtaba Khamenei, the new Supreme Leader of Iran, was “elected” Supreme Leader of Iran on March 8. In fact, the Assembly of Experts, the body charged with electing the Supreme Leader, met virtually only once and then only to confirm Mojtaba’s choice as leader. Reports from sources like Iran International indicate that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) applied significant “psychological and political pressure” on the clerics to ensure a quick victory for Mojtaba, aiming for regime continuity during the war. Khamenei the Younger is a cutout, a stand-in for the IRGC. On March 9, the regime held “Allegiance rallies” to “celebrate” Khamenei the Younger’s elevation (installation?) to the Islamic version of the Peacock Throne.


At the rally in Tehran’s Revolutionary Square, a life-sized cardboard cutout of Mojtaba was hauled on stage to be properly venerated. “State media broadcast regime loyalists hailing and swearing allegiance to a cardboard Khamenei,” writes Amit Segal of The Free Press. If that’s not bizarre enough, consider this: the only word we’ve heard from Mojtaba Khamenei was third-hand. The first Official Statement was written only and read by an anchor.mIs Mojtaba Khamenei still alive? The February 28 airstrike that took out Ali Khamenei also killed his wife, his daughter, Mojtada’s wife, Ali Khamenei’s son-in-law, and at least three grandchildren. Mojtaba was injured, according to the official reports, on his legs, hands, and arms.

“At the most critical juncture in the history of the Islamic Republic, its new Supreme Leader is a ghost,” reports WOIN. The fact that Khamenei did not use his own voice in the statement poses a significant problem for intelligence agencies.Even if Tehran eventually releases an audio tape claiming to be Mojtaba, there is almost zero baseline to verify it. He has spent his entire adult life operating in the shadows of the security establishment. In fact, the only publicly known recording of his voice in existence is a brief, years-old, one-minute clip of him telling seminary students that his theology classes were canceled.In today’s AI world, anyone can use an AI software like Elevenlabs and create an entire speech in Khamenei’s voice just for $11 a month.

Audio is the easiest medium to manipulate in the world of AI and a country obsessed with camera and public appearances using audio tapes, is raising suspicions among the experts. And down the rabbit hole we go. “Iranian opposition groups in the diaspora are openly claiming that Mojtaba is actually in a deep coma, being treated in absolute secrecy,” according to the WOIN report. “The theory suggests the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forced the Assembly of Experts to name Mojtaba as leader to maintain a facade of dynastic stability.”If Khamenei is dead or in a coma, who is in charge? The same people who have been in effective control of Iran for the last 30 years: the Revolutionary Guard Corps senior commanders.

Amit Segal writing in The Free Press: “The truth is that even if the conspiracy is false and Khamenei is only suffering from minor leg injuries, that may still be the case. It is far from unheard of for the successor to a powerful dictator to serve primarily as a military figurehead. The regime needs Khamenei to have a pulse, but not much more. In a Freudian slip early in the war, Iran’s foreign minister claimed that the attacks on neighboring states were “not our choice,” indicating that IRGC elements may have acted independently of the government.

The regime’s official narrative is that Khamenei is being kept away from the public for security reasons. Israel has already announced its intention to reunite the son with the deceased father. But if this is truly about security, it is still a dangerous game. There are times when absence increases a leader’s mystique—a regime in crisis is not one of them. Since Khamenei’s election in 1989, the Revolutionary Guard Corps has been aggrandizing power unto itself. They’ve appropriated most of the largest and most profitable businesses, giving pieces of the corporations to favored clerics and military commanders.

Following the death of the Supreme Leader, the Guards really turned the screws on the Assembly of Experts.“The pressure from the Revolutionary Guard to announce Mojtaba Khamenei as his father’s successor as quickly as possible was so intense that the IRGC Intelligence Organization forced several dissenting members of the Assembly of Experts into this choice by threatening them and their family members. Their silence following the selection is likely a result of those same threats,” according to Iran Wire.

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“ICE continuously reports progress made across the United States with new arrests every single day – and no, not in a “Gestapo” manner. More like “we know which criminals to track down and arrest” manner. Just look at their track record.”

• There Are Many Who Complain About ICE (Michael A. Letts)

Negative talk about ICE agents these days is very commonplace. Just take a good look at social media and across various news outlets. You’ll see it everywhere. “They’re causing chaos in Minneapolis!” But you know what you don’t see with all this negative talk? What they’re actually doing when it comes to their job.President Donald Trump didn’t put this group together just to spite the American public. He put them together to make a difference and clean up the mess left behind by Joe Biden – that mess being the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants that seeped their way into the United States thanks to his lazy border policies.


And while they all aren’t criminals, a good portion of them all – including a number of child sex offenders. The worst of the worst, if you ask me. After all, these are full-grown men who are going after kids. And abusing them in the most awful way you can imagine. Well, good news, folks. Based on this report, ICE has really cracked down on this particular group of criminals. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston recently arrested 414 criminal illegal aliens charged with child sex offenses of some kind during Trump’s first year in office. That’s nearly twice the amount of similar predators arrested during the final year of the Biden administration, when he was scrambling to make up for his previous years of screw-ups. (Only 211 were arrested at that time.)

“While elected officials and media pundits across the country were zealously trying to manipulate the American public with fake news stories about ICE’s public safety mission, the brave men and women of ICE were quietly going about their business to arrest and remove more than 400 dangerous child predators from our local communities,” ICE ERO Houston acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez noted in a statement. “Thanks to their tireless efforts, parents across southeast Texas can sleep a little better tonight knowing that these pedophiles and child rapists are no longer a threat to their children.”

And keep in mind that this is only one specific city. ICE continuously reports progress made across the United States with new arrests every single day – and no, not in a “Gestapo” manner. More like “we know which criminals to track down and arrest” manner. Just look at their track record. But this is nothing new. Law enforcement officials have always buckled down in the face of criticism and continued doing the job to the best of their ability – even when the tide was turned against them.

This reminds me of several years ago when the “defund the police” campaign kicked off following the death of George Floyd. Because of the act of a certain few, thousands of police officers went through a wave of hatred and unfair restraint at the hands of foolish Democratic officials who felt the need to drain their funds in favor of other programs. And why? Online hatred. But while some of these officers retired or simply didn’t want to deal with such restraints anymore, many persevered. In the face of this newfound hatred, they continued doing their job – and effectively, as such. And because of that, many of these officers remain in the field, continuing to fight for what’s right – despite what’s being said about them.

That’s kind of the point overall here. ICE is facing all sorts of criticism, a majority of it undeserved. But they’re still persistent in getting the job done. As a result of this, over 400 criminals are headed back to their home countries – and, again, this is just from one region of the United States. Imagine the overall effectiveness of the program, which goes into thousands or higher. Say whatever you want about law enforcement officials. It’s your right to have an opinion. Just keep in mind it’s an opinion. The facts are right there. ICE is getting the job done. Police are getting the job done. Anyone can say whatever they want. But remember, actions speak louder than words. Here’s to the actions of our law enforcement officials. Keep going!

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Tariffs still.

• Sec 301 Trade Investigations Into 16 Economies Including The EU (CTH)

When the Supreme Court made their ridiculous decision to nullify the import tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) use, the high court noted several alternate approaches would not be legally problematic. One of those approaches would be the use of Section 301 trade tariffs. Yesterday USTR Jamieson Greer quietly announced that a Section 301 review would be taking place for the following countries: China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan, and India.” Section 301 tariffs are a trade enforcement mechanism established under the Trade Act of 1974. They allow the U.S. government to impose tariffs on imports from countries that are found to be engaging in unfair


USTR PRESS RELEASE – WASHINGTON — Today, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the initiation of investigations regarding the acts, policies, and practices of various economies under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974 relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors.The investigations will determine whether those acts, policies, and practices are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce. The economies subject to these investigations are: China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan, and India.

“The United States will no longer sacrifice its industrial base to other countries that may be exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us. Today’s investigations underscore President Trump’s commitment to reshore critical supply chains and create good-paying jobs for American workers across our manufacturing sectors,” said Ambassador Greer.

“The Trump Administration’s reindustrialization efforts continue to face significant challenges due to foreign economies’ structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors. Across numerous sectors, many U.S. trading partners are producing more goods than they can consume domestically. This overproduction displaces existing U.S. domestic production or prevents investment and expansion in U.S. manufacturing production that otherwise would have been brought online. In many sectors, the United States has lost substantial domestic production capacity or has fallen worryingly behind foreign competitors.”

Additionally, Section 232 [Steel and Aluminum examples] of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. §1862, as amended) authorizes the President to impose trade restrictions—such as a tariff or quota—if the Secretary of Commerce determines, following an investigation, that imports of a good “threaten to impair” U.S. national security. Section 232 is currently covering all the steel and aluminum import tariffs. Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the U.S. president to impose tariffs of up to 15% to address “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits. This authority can be exercised without prior congressional approval for a limited duration of 150 days. After this period, any tariffs must be extended by Congress.

Section 122 has already been deployed to retain the “baseline reciprocity tariffs.” USTR Greer is now walking through the process of deploying Section 301 and will eventually become the legal underpinning to replace Section 122 and retain all tariff status without congressional extension needed. Most of this is technical and legal compliance as several of the aforementioned nations have already finalized free trade agreements.

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A very practical meeting. In the same way that sanctions are unpractical.

• Witkoff and Kushner Meet Russian Delegation in Florida (CTH)

The fact that Team Russia and Team USA would be discussing a strategic economic alliance on the issue of energy is not a surprise to those who watched both President Putin and President Trump outline that same content discussion in Alaska last August. However, given the current conflict with Iran and the escalating oil price issue, Russia and the USA discussing Russian oil capacity and U.S. sanctions therein takes on a new angle.


It has been obvious that domestic U.S. politics, in combination with the Russia-Ukraine war, has impeded President Trump from organizing a strategic reset with Russia pulling away from historic conflicts. However, CTH is also clear-eyed on the longer-term ramifications for Eastern Europe when contrast with Putin’s ambitions to fix what he perceives as prior Russian Federation mistakes regarding the West (more on that at the end). As noted in social media exchanges from Witkoff and Dmitriev, the discussion was productive.


All indications of this meeting give the appearance of less focus on progress in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and a higher focus on current economic conditions -created by the Iran conflict- that could be enhanced with cooperation between the U.S. and Russia. According to Kirill Dmitriev, Russian special presidential envoy for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries and director general of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), relayed through the Russian News Agency (TASS), “he visited the US upon orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin, taking part in a meeting of the heads of a working group on economic cooperation between the two countries.”

According to the envoy, the meeting addressed both promising projects that can help restore Russia-US relations and the current crisis on global energy markets. The US is becoming increasingly aware of the role of Russian oil and gas in ensuing the stability of the world economy, as well as of the [in]effectiveness of sanctions against Russia, Dmitriev said after the meeting. “We discussed promising projects that could contribute to the restoration of Russian-American relations and the current crisis on global energy markets,” Dmitriev also wrote in a Telegram post. “Today, many countries, primarily the United States, are beginning to better understand the key, systemic role of Russian oil and gas in ensuring the stability of the global economy, as well as the ineffectiveness and destructive nature of sanctions against Russia.”

With the strong likelihood that Russia’s restart of their flagship LNG terminal Arctic-2 was directly related to the August summit in Alaska {SEE HERE}, there is already a baseline established for strategic cooperation President Trump would have no problem with Russia introducing millions of barrels of oil into the global market given the issues created by conflict in/around the Strait of Hormuz. However, obviously the issues for streamlined Russia oil exports surround (1) preexisting sanctions, (2) domestic U.S. anti-Russia politics and (3) the political and economic position of the anti-Russia European Commission leadership.

As we previously outlined with the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) benefit, Russia previously extracted, liquified and pumped massive amounts of LNG into floating storage platforms from Arctic-2. Those LNG supplies doubled and tripled in value in a few days once Qatar shut down their production facilities and are now being sold to various Asian countries.

Europe has a massive energy problem with severely low LNG storage rates and now a shortage of oil, with EU gasoline prices rising much higher & faster than the rest of the world. Europe is facing a severe energy crisis overall and now their preexisting economic troubles are being amplified. More than ever Europe needs the Russian oil/gas, but ridged ideologues will never compromise on their anti-Russia position. They have even steeper sanctions against Russian oil/gas scheduled to trigger at the end of this month. It will be interesting to see how President Trump navigates the potential benefit from Russian energy products into the global market against the backdrop of all the geopolitical angst and political opposition against Russia.

[..] Here’s where/why Trump is being careful and pragmatic. President Trump doesn’t want to see an outcome where Russia is eventually stronger than Europe. There’s not enough frictionless history between the USA and Russia to trust Putin when he says the Federation has no plan to expand into Europe. The USA can/should be strategic allies with Russia. However, it would be much better if a strong Europe existed at the same time. Hence, Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio continuing to emphasize that Europe needs to stop cowering in politically correct wokeness. The EU is destroying itself at the same time Russia is getting stronger.

.


Last point, the Lyndon LaRouche team, Promethean Action PAC, are very happy with the ongoing fracture of the USA away from the UK/EU group. However, be cautious around Political Action Committees who say, “President Trump needs people to understand what he is doing” and we are here as his official policy interpreters.

Remember, President Trump doesn’t need policy interpreters.

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In the global market.

• Bessent Greenlights Sale Of Russian Oil At Sea To “Promote Stability” (ZH)

In a statement late Thursday on X, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. will allow countries to purchase Russian crude oil already at sea. The move aims to temporarily boost global supply availability, as the IEA warned earlier that the Middle East conflict has sparked one of the worst energy shocks on record. “To increase the global reach of existing supply, @USTreasury is providing a temporary authorization to permit countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea,” Bessent said.He continued, “This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction.”


UBS analyst Nana Antiedu told clients earlier this morning that about 124 million barrels of Russian-origin oil were at sea across 30 locations worldwide. More specifically, Bloomberg analysts said about 30 Russian tankers are in Asian waters and may be available for purchase. These tankers carry about 19 million barrels of Russian crude and 310,000 tons of refined products. Bloomberg data show these Russian tankers are signaling “for orders” or, in other words, have no clear destination yet. They could be unloaded in Singapore or Malaysia.

Robert Rennie, head of commodity research at Westpac Banking, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, “Of course, any supply helps, but this is a smaller help than it looks.”Rennie estimated that of the 125 million to 150 million barrels of Russian crude on the water, about a third is off China and is likely to end up in storage, while 30 million to 40 million barrels are in India and are likely to be consumed there. Rennie said the rest is in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. “We are only really talking about replacing maybe four or five days of lost Gulf exports. Sure, it helps, but it is no panacea,” he added. Bessent’s office also issued India a 30-day waiver at the beginning of the month so that New Delhi could buy Russian oil at sea to build reserves and cushion against an oil shock.

Brent crude futures are largely unchanged from when Bessent posted on X overnight. President Trump said the U.S. has “plenty of time” in the Iran war. Brent hovers around $100/bbl as of 0630 ET. The Trump administration has taken several steps to combat triple-digit Brent and WTI prices, including the planned release of 172 million barrels from the U.S. SPR. The release is part of a much larger 400-million-barrel SPR dump worldwide, agreed upon by the 32-nation IEA. This comes as the IEA warned about the worst-ever energy shock to hit the world. Also, the Trump administration is waiving a century-old law that requires U.S. ships to transport goods between American ports, so that domestic supplies can be shifted around more quickly.

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Relief at the pump.

• Bessent: “Narrowly Tailored, Short Term Sanction Relief” for Russia (CTH)

President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are facing mounting criticism for creating a window for Russia to sell oil and gas to the global market via “narrowly tailored, short-term” sanction relief. However, few people are putting the issue into context, and the background here is exceptionally interesting. According to the terms announced by Secretary Bessent, the license to sell applies solely to Russian crude or petroleum products loaded onto vessels as of March 12 and is valid through midnight Washington time on April 11.


The sanction relief license to sell will be done in globally recognized petrodollars and applies only to preexisting oil and petroleum products that are already in transit at sea. However, here’s where it gets very interesting and the ramifications are significant. Immediately following the Alaska summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump, Russia restarted Arctic-2 LNG terminals and began increasing oil production for storage on ‘floating platforms.’ President Trump met with Putin on August 15, 2025, and the curious increase in Russian production began on August 18, 2025. In the past six months Russia has been pumping sanctioned oil and gas and storing it on ships and mobile sea platforms, seemingly (at the time) with no customers.

Suddenly, against the background of the Iran conflict, all of that previously stored ‘on the water‘ production, now worth double, is authorized for global sale (in petrodollars). Either Russian President Putin is the luckiest guy in the world, or Russia knew something. In 2025 what Russia did following the Alaska summit did not make sense; now it does and the ramifications are stunning.President Trump was looking for a way to organize a strategic partnership with Russia on the issue of energy production but was hampered by the preexisting sanction regime and strong opposition from domestic and international politics. The ‘coincidental’ timing’ of Trump meeting with Putin and then subsequently Russia producing massive amounts of oil and gas for storage on the water suddenly starts to take on an entirely new light.

Did Putin know something was coming, something that would eventually make the Russian over production and ‘on the sea’ storage worth billions. The implications here are quite remarkable; however, they simultaneously explain most of the behaviors since the Iran confrontation began. Media reports highlight that Vladimir Putin was asked about a previous joint agreement for military support between Iran and Russia and why Russia did not respond when Iran was attacked. Foreknowledge would explain that reaction. Additionally, the Russian Federation president never responded to the Trump operation to take down Venezuelan dictator Maduro and seize control over Venezuela’s oil production.

If there was some discussion inferring that a ‘limited sanction relief’ protocol might be possible, that would explain why Russia began storing oil and gas at sea. This fact pattern would also indicate that President Trump’s decision toward Iran was made at least six months ago, with a set of geopolitical events planned between the Alaska summit and the eventual confrontation with Iran. TIMELINE: Trump and Putin meet. Three days later Russia begins pumping oil/gas and storing it at sea. President Trump then triggers the Venezuela western hemisphere security operation; Russia stays silent. President Trump then triggers the confrontation with Iran; Russia rejects involvement. And then two weeks after the Iran confrontation begins, Trump removes sanctions on Russian oil/gas “in transit” at sea.

Suddenly all of the Russian produced and stored product ‘on the water’ has greater value and new customers. Just a coincidence? No way. The United States needs the oil/gas market stability that Russia can provide. Venezuela was/is to Trump as Ukraine was/is to Putin. We’ll keep watching. Enjoy the rest of your day.

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Merz doesn’t mind if gas is $3,00. Beating Russia is what counts.

• Merz Slams Trump Admin For Temporarily Lifting Russian Oil Sanctions (JTN)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday fumed over the White House’s decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil amid the ongoing Iran war, warning that it would bolster the Russian war effort against Ukraine. “We think that’s wrong,” he said, according to Politico. “There is currently a price problem, but not a supply problem. And in that regard, I would like to know what other factors led the U.S. government to make this decision.” “We want to ensure that Russia does not exploit the war in Iran to weaken Ukraine,” Merz said. “Nor will we allow Moscow to test NATO on its eastern flank and up here in the north.”


Merz made the remarks during a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minster Jonas Gahr Støre. The German chancellor was joined by French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, both of whom shared his sentiments. The administration lifted sanctions on Russian oil this month on a temporary basis. As of press time, Brent crude oil stood just shy of $100.00 per barrel.

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“This study should set off all the alarm bells. It is a societal time bomb. We must not only talk about migration, but also about integration and religion”

• Nearly 1 Out Of Every 2 Muslims Under 40 Has ‘Islamist’ Attitudes (RMX)

A newly released study by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), nearly 50 percent of Muslims under the age of 40 in Germany hold “Islamist” views, with these Muslims expressing an attraction to Islamism, a preference for Sharia law over the German Basic Law, and harboring anti-Semitic prejudices. The findings, described as “explosive in nature,” were featured in the latest edition of the “Motra Monitor.” The study reports that as of 2025, Muslims in Germany under the age of 40 (45.1 percent) hold “latent or manifestly Islamist attitudes.“ Some German politicians have already voiced their views on the study’s release. Wolfgang Kubicki, a prominent politician in the Free Democrats (FDP) and former MP, stated on X:


“This study should set off all the alarm bells. It is a societal time bomb. We must not only talk about migration, but also about integration and religion. The policy of naively looking away has favored this development. The naivety must stop.” He further stated that “anyone who demands a caliphate is an enemy of democracy. Enemies of democracy without German citizenship must leave the country. Neighborhoods where ghettoization provides fertile ground for radicalization must be restructured. Islamic associations without a clear demarcation from extremists must not be interlocutors for politics. Germany must act secular and self-confident.” He further called for an end to headscarves in schools and other state institutions “not to harass or suspect the wearers, but to make it clear that the only binding source of our values is the Basic Law.”

Beyond rising crime rates, terrorism offenses, and demographic change, the soaring numbers of Muslims in Europe also raise fundamental questions about worldview and society.mThe “Motra monitor,” a monitoring system tracking radicalization, spans 598 pages. It is published by the BKA and receives funding from several entities, including the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Family Affairs. While the report addresses various forms of extremism, including right-wing movements, it places a significant focus on Islamist extremism.

Evidence of these tensions surfaced in the summer of 2025 when “young Muslims and radical left-wing Germans occupied the Gutenberg Memorial in Frankfurt to demonstrate against Israel, some of them willing to use violence.“ The study’s researchers highlight a concerning core demographic, noting that “manifest Islamist attitudes are most prevalent among Muslims under 40, at 11.5 percent.“

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“History doesn’t move in straight lines. What looks like stagnation can be prelude. Let’s not lose hope.” —RVassil on X

• Order of Battle (James Howard Kunstler)

Don’t lose your shit over mines in the Strait of Hormuz and the oil price shooting up. Iran has many thousands of mines. But something has to lay them out in the water. Iran has no more naval ships. They have small boats. The US can see everything moving on the surface, or sitting at docks. We are blowing them up methodically. The news outlets who want the US to fail in this operation (because: Trump) want you to think that we had no plan for dealing with this problem. That’s not so.


There are very few mines actually laid so far. Tankers are not going through the Strait of Hormuz because their captains are nervous. Their ships and their cargos are worth millions and the insurance costs millions. So, they’re waiting in place, hanging back. The US still has work to do destroying Iran’s shoreline defenses of missile and drone launch sites. Iran is firing all they’ve got left. Whenever they launch something, we see the geo-location on our satellites and radars. The mobile launchers are a little trickier because, obviously, they shoot and move. But they don’t always move fast enough, and there isn’t an endless supply of them.

The US Navy decommissioned its four Avenger-class minesweeper ships in the Persian Gulf in September, 2025, but replaced them with more agile Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) capable of countering submarines and clearing mines. Two LCS ships — USS Santa Barbara and USS Canberra — quietly deployed in March 2025. An LCS uses an Airborne Laser Mine Detection System and an Airborne Mine Neutralization System via helicopter. In the water, it uses mine-hunting sonar and the Unmanned Influence Sweep System — all operated from unmanned surface vessels. The unmanned sweep vehicle triggers magnetic, acoustic, or combination mines, with the LCS at a safe distance.

The LCS vessels are armed with an 11-cell SeaRAM launcher for point defense that fires Rolling Airframe Missiles — fast, radar-guided missiles designed to knock down incoming anti-ship missiles and drones at short range. They also carry Longbow Hellfire missiles with updated software and hardware specifically to counter drones. The Longbow Hellfire uses radar-guided technology enabling it to engage targets through battlefield clutter, with a range of up to eight kilometers — giving the LCS the ability to engage drones before they get close. The LCS ships will be accompanied by Arleigh Burke-class destroyers equipped with Aegis and full missile defense suites for protection against the full spectrum of Iranian threats.

The oil markets are extremely sensitive to any changes in the oil environment, and war induces the most extreme changes. Even outside of war, weird things happen. April 20, 2020, was the apex of Covid-19 paranoia when everyday life was shutting down all over Western Civ. The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures — specifically the May 2020 contract, which was expiring the very next day — crashed to an historic low of negative $37.63 per barrel. That is, sellers were literally paying buyers to take oil off their hands. By the following day, April 21, prices had rebounded back into positive territory, though still at very depressed levels around $10–$15 per barrel.

The current situation with oil in the $100 range is not going to be a one-day event, but it won’t last forever, either, so do your deep-breathing exercises and calm down. Of course, in America right now, a seditious news media will take every opportunity to induce exquisite anxiety in the public-at-large to deflect from the order-of-battle that President DJT is carrying out to 1) improve America’s geopolitical position and relations, and 2) to defeat the forces both external and domestic that seek to wreck the country.

Which is why you might see that the next move in the order of battle will be against the wrecking crew in our own country, including the political figures behind the decade-long conspiracy to undermine the president, the administrative rogues running the “resistance” in government agencies, the Lawfare ninjas queering the justice system, and the big money that funds the hundreds of NGOs attempting to instigate a color revolution here. I have visions of perp walks and indictments coming in on the zephyrs of spring.

It looks just now like Majority Leader John Thune and his RINO herd will trample the SAVE Act (election reform) into failure. But consider that Mr. Trump’s FBI has had more than a month to analyze the Fulton County, Georgia, ballot evidence from the 2020 election (while only last week it seized the Maricopa County, AZ, records, and for all we know the agency also has 2020 ballot evidence from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada, too). So, prepare for the public to be shocked and amazed at what has been discovered, and expect to see a sharp attitude change among embarrassed US Senators who will be compelled to come on-board for election reform.

Somewhere in all that, you might expect Cuba to fall — a momentous event, actually, considering the cumulative mischief Cuba’s government has provoked all over the western hemisphere since 1958. We don’t even have to do anything to make it happen, just respond in the aftermath with emergency food and fuel relief, and perhaps some help averting the vengeful slaughter of the old Castro governing network. We don’t want a bloodbath there.

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“Ukraine is facing a “financial catastrophe” that could halt its war effort and collapse the economy..”:

Got to feed the ever growing hunger for money.

• Zelensky Plotting Suspending Elections For Years – Media (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky has ordered his advisers to plot out a scenario where elections in Ukraine are suspended and the country commits to years of war, Ukrainskaya Pravda has reported, citing government sources. The tenure of Zelensky and of the Ukrainian parliament has long expired, but the Ukrainian leader has refused to hold elections since early 2024, citing martial law imposed amid the conflict with Russia. The situation has prompted international concerns over the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, particularly from Moscow, which has repeatedly questioned Zelensky’s authority and suggested he may not be in a position to sign any peace agreement should a deal ultimately be reached.


Ukraine’s European backers want Kiev to continue fighting for up to two more years, though the country is facing a “financial catastrophe” that will consume not only its war budget but also its economy as a whole, the newspaper reported on Thursday. “The Europeans said: ‘Fight for another year and a half or two. We will give you money.’ Under their influence, [Vladimir] Zelensky gave the task to the political leadership to develop a plan to hold off elections in Ukraine for several more years and how the parliament will work in such circumstances,” an anonymous source from Zelensky’s administration told the outlet.

The risk of Kiev running out of cash has been growing rapidly. With a proposed €90 billion ($105 billion) EU emergency loan remaining blocked by Hungary, growing dissent within the Ukrainian parliament has slowed down the adoption of measures needed to receive funding from the International Monetary Fund, the newspaper warned on Thursday. The EU emergency funding scheme ended up derailed amid the oil standoff between Ukraine and Hungary and Slovakia. In late January, Kiev halted the Druzhba pipeline, which used to carry Russian crude to the two EU nations, citing alleged damage to the artery. While Moscow has denied attacking the pipeline, Budapest and Bratislava have accused Kiev of deliberately disrupting supplies for political reasons. Hungary has vetoed the €90 billion loan in retaliation, while Slovakia warned it could opt to block the proposed package as well.

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Muslims vs jews in Christian territory.

• Mamdani’s Wife Worked With Author Who Called Jews ‘Rabid Demons’ (Salgado)

New York socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife is already in the midst of a scandal about her jihad-aligned views after she was caught liking and promoting posts about Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre online, but it turns out she also translates that virulent antisemitism into her “art.” Rama Duwaji Mamdani is an artist, but in the socialist trend that all art is politics. One of the works she provided a leading graphic for was an essay by Susan Abulhawa called “A Trail of Soap.” Abulhawa has repeatedly issued the most outrageous accusations against and labels of Jews, including an unhinged rant about “Jewish supremacist vampires.” Abulhawa also claimed she wanted to vomit every time she hears the Hebrew language, and insanely argued, “Most of the people killed on October 7 were actually killed by Israel.”


Abulhawa further referred to Oct. 7, when Palestinian terrorists filmed themselves massacring families, raping women to death, and laughing as they gunned down civilians, as a “preemptive strike” after “seven decades of provocation.” Last year, again referring to the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, she raved: To any reporter who thinks to ask me about October 7, go to hell and don’t bother to contact me or my agent. I do not worship at the alter of October 7. I do not worship at the altar of the WWII holocaust. I do not worship at the alter of Jewishness, antisemitism, or any other penance imposed by zionists on the world. Zionism is a disease of jewish supremacy that rots your brain and dulls even minimal critical thinking skills.

It is people like Abulhawa who fuel real-world violence and the massive rise in antisemitic attacks ever since Oct. 7, 2023. As important context, God granted Israel as a “perpetual possession” (Genesis 17:8) to the Jewish people more than a millennium before Islam was even invented or the Arabs first conquered Jerusalem. The reestablishment of Israel in the modern era was exceptionally legal, and yet Muslims have been waging almost incessant war against Israel ever since then. Despite the constant Jihad, Israel has generously given land grants to the Muslim Arabs, including Gaza and Bethlehem, land which the Muslims have immediately turned into hotspots of terrorist activity. There has never been a state of Palestine in history, and Muslims in the modern day have been refusing offers of a state for decades, because they don’t want their own state (they already have 50 nations), they want to destroy Israel. Abulhawa is as dishonest as she is vicious.

There are numerous posts on Abulhawa’s X feed referring to Jews as “parasites,” which seems to be her favorite go-to insult. For example, she re-shared a video asserting that groups of Israelis were moving into Gaza to capitalize on genocide (there was no genocide in Gaza; the only attempted genocide was on October 7). “F*****g parasites on this planet. I want to puke every time I hear that fake language pretending to be Hebrew, without a trace of Semitic sounds, rejoicing in carnage, trying to get their greedy grubby hands on more of what does not belong to them. There’s something horribly wrong with these people,” Abulhawa spat. In another post, she called Israelis “soulless parasites.”

In February, she reposted a clip of Congress welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a claim that almost every member of the United States government is either Jewish or married to a Jew. Abulhawa screeched, “the whole world is zionist occupied, except Palestine. They’ve stolen our land and home and heritage, but we’ve at least kept our dignity, refusing to submit to these parasites on earth.” Apparently, burning Jewish babies to death is maintaining dignity — who knew?

In January, Abulhawa shared a completely unconfirmed report that Israeli soldiers had murdered a mother and daughter. Abulhawa gibbered, “they are demons on this earth. virulent parasites who suck the lifeblood from others, not even for their own survival, but for their sadistic amusement.”I could provide dozens more examples from Abulhawa’s X feed of the most vile antisemitic rhetoric (see more above, found by Jon Levine), but I think the point is clear, which is that Abulhawa is a pro-genocide Jew-hater, and Mamdani’s wife created artwork for one of her essays. If you can know a person by the friends he or she keeps, then Rama Duwaji Mamdani has some serious explaining to do.

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Go home.

• Ex-Columbia Professor Calls for Violence, Glorifies Murder of Jews (Turley)

Professor Muhammad Abdou, who until recently taught students at Columbia University, appeared online this week to spread calls for religious-based violence and glorify the murder of Jews. He did so as part of an event at the Union Theological Seminary, an institution associated with Columbia. While the university recently ended Abdou’s teaching, it is important to remember that this unhinged fanatic was previously chosen by Columbia faculty and administrators to teach their students. Those individuals remain at Columbia, and Abdou is just the latest example of the radical chic of higher education.


The Islamic studies scholar called on students to “be a threat” as part of the event titled “Death to the Akademy: How to be a thorn in their throat amidst snakes in the grass.” Teachers in higher education are often called “the academy.” According to a video on X from Manhattan Institute investigative analyst Stu Smith, the talk involved deeply disturbing and hateful comments.

Abdou told the students: “Let us engage in jihad, and there are rules for jihad, and Muslims know that Allah has commanded rules. We don’t engage in wanton violence, but we don’t accept the negative peace either.” One of the most chilling moments came when he praised Elias Rodriguez, the man facing multiple charges for the murder of a young Jewish couple. In what Abdou called the “assassination of two Zionists,” Rodriguez is accused of murdering Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, the two Israeli employees in 2025 in Washington.

Abdou does not discuss how this young couple dreamed of a life together or sought to bridge religious divides. They are just a couple of “Zionists” in his eyes. He then reportedly praised their accused killer: “God bless him. He took action. … Take action. Not only that kind of action, just to be very clear, because there’s also building. We need to destroy. We need to create alternatives.” The seminary stopped his in-person appearance, which led to condemnations from student groups. In an Instagram post, Queer Muslims NYC accused the seminary of “flagrant Islamophobia and utter disregard for Muslim students.” However, they claimed that the union continued to support the event with a virtual component.

This video is reminiscent of the speech of other radical faculty like Cornell Professor Russell Rickford, who celebrated the massacre in Israel on Oct. 7th. Their extremism was not a barrier to being hired. It was likely an enhancement. They are examples of why faculty members are unlikely to change the overwhelmingly liberal appointments. Conservatives and libertarians have been largely purged from most departments. While even a moderately conservative faculty candidate will often face organized opposition, radicals like Abdou and Rickford find an eager audience on faculties.

I encourage you to watch this video. This is the man who was interviewed and selected by faculty and administrators, not just at Columbia but at Cornell University and the University of Toronto. He was appointed as the Arcapita Visiting Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Middle-Eastern, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS) Program at the Middle-East Institute. He was also a Postdoctoral Fellow/Visiting Scholar at Cornell.

According to his bio, “he is a self-identifying Muslim anarchist and diasporic settler of color.” His credentials include “his organizing towards BIPOC and Palestinian liberation and involvement with post-anti-Globalization Seattle 1999 movements.”That appears to be the perfect resume for someone who wants to teach at leading universities. Those faculty and administrators are still at these institutions, and so is the radical culture that has taken hold of higher education in the United States. What is most striking about this video is how Abdou offers just pure hate. There is no discernible intellectual content or insight. Just rage masquerading as scholarship.

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Keeping busy.

• Musk Whips Out ‘Macrohard’ In Disruptive Tesla-xAI Bid (ZH)

Elon Musk on Wednesday announced a joint project between Tesla and his AI startup xAI, which he dubbed “Macrohard” or “Digital Optimus” that can ‘basically automate entire companies’ by observing and intelligently simulating their functions. The way it works, per a Wednesday post on X: “Grok is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past 5 secs of real-time computer screen video and keyboard/mouse actions. Grok is like a much more advanced and sophisticated version of turn-by-turn navigation software.”


So Digital Optimus is the ‘instinct’ while Grok is the ‘thinking part of the mind’ according to Musk. The setup will run “very competitively on the super low cost Tesla AI4 ($650) paired with relatively frugal use of the much more expensive xAI Nvidia hardware,” and “will be the only real-time smart AI system. “In principle, it is capable of emulating the function of entire companies. That is why the program is called MACROHARD, a funny reference to Microsoft.” -Elon Musk.It gets even more wild; Musk says it works “in all AI4-equipped cars, so your car can do office work for you when not driving,” and he will deploy millions of dedicated Digital Optimus units at Supercharger stations.

Grok itself suggested 10 use cases;
1. Auto data entry from invoices/docs.
2. Real-time code fix from error messages.
3. Deal hunting while shopping online.
4. Contextual email response generation.
5. Seamless enterprise software ops.
6. Auto video edits from timeline.
7. Live stock trade execution.
8. Tutorial step automation.
9. Instant security threat spotting.
10. Entire company workflow emulation.

According to Musk, Digital Optimus will be ready to rock in 6 months. xAI was acquired by SpaceX last month in an all-stock deal that valued the rocket maker at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, which comes ahead of a potential SpaceX IPO later this year.

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All carmakers obeyed politics and lose. Except for Toyota, which didn’t jump in head first. And Tesla.

• Honda Just Lost Billions on EVs It Can’t Sell (Stephen Green)

Japanese automaker Honda just cancelled the production of three planned made-in-the-U.S.A. electric cars, including the 0-Series SUV, the 0-Series Saloon, and the Acura RSX — and the company says it will write off massive losses as a result. Still, better than building EVs nobody wants to buy. The company said the EVs had to go to avoid future losses, complaining about the “current business environment where the demand for EVs is declining significantly.” I follow these things, and I’d somehow never even heard of Honda’s 0-Series vehicles — assuredly for “zero emissions” — introduced at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and were supposed to go on sale in the U.S. later this year.


The company’s 0-Series English-language and Japanese brag sheets are still up on the Honda website, for whatever that’s worth. Honda blamed U.S. tariffs (I’ll come back to those in a moment), the “volatile policy environment surrounding EV incentives,” (as Car and Driver put it), fossil fuel regulations, and changing consumer priorities in China. Honda says total write-downs could total $15.8 billion. While the epic losses won’t all come at once, Honda says it expects to lose between $2 billion and $3.5 billion in the current fiscal year, ending this month. According to Financial Times, that’s Honda’s first-ever annual recorded loss since going public 50 years ago.

What’s maybe most impressive about losing nearly [dr_evil_voice] SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLARS [/dr_evil_voice] on EVs is that Honda didn’t even try that hard, at least not compared to certain other automakers I could name — and am about to. GM said in January that it would suffer $7.6 billion worth of write-downs on its overblown EV plans, and in December, Ford announced a $19.5 billion write-down on its EV investments. That’s one of the largest in history. Europe-based Stellantis took one look at Ford’s losses and said, “Hold my beer.” Headquartered in the Netherlands, the Euro-giant also owns the old Chrysler Group brands, including Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, and Jeep.

Despite Europe offering even bigger subsidies and stricter mandates for EVs than this country does, Stellantis last month announced a whopping $26.6 billion in EV losses. Then there’s fussy old Toyota, which remained largely focused on hybrids and fuel-efficient ICE vehicles. That company seems to be doing just fine. American tariffs might have complicated Honda’s poor planning, but as you can see, they weren’t primarily to blame. Those same tariffs were supposed to help GM and Ford sell their cars — including EVs — but American EV makers took their lumps, too.

The real culprit here, of course, is Big Government. Washington, Brussels, and Beijing went all-in on subsidizing and even mandating a market into existence — a market that there simply wasn’t enough demand to serve. Not even with all the subsidies and mandates. So automakers retooled manufacturing facilities, built massive battery factories, and designed EVs (and pricy software to run them) from the ground up. Now they have to throw out some of the designs, scale back the battery production, and re-retool the plants.

Thanks, Big Government!

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Newsom is a good sign the Dems don’t have anyone.

• Gavin Newsom Has a ‘Hillary Clinton Problem’ (Robert Spencer)

The destroyer of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, wants very, very much to be president of the United States, and if he ever attains his goal, he will do to the entire country what he has done to California. That’s why all reasonable Americans who value the nation as a relatively economically stable and free society should be deeply alarmed at the prospect of a Newsom presidency. Newsom is such a bad candidate that even some leftists are alarmed, albeit not for the same reasons that patriots are. On the left, the concern is that Gavin has a “Hillary Clinton problem.”


The term “Hillary Clinton problem” could refer to so very many difficulties and categories of difficulties that it veritably boggles the mind. Did Newsom use a private email server to conceal government business from watchdogs? Did he abandon our people to jihadis at Benghazi and then lie about it? Does Newsom intend, after losing (as all patriots hope) the 2028 presidential election, to frame his victorious opponent for collusion with Russia? Does Newsom have reputation for lamp-throwing temper tantrums? Do Newsom’s enemies have strange suicidal tendencies?

In this case, the “Hillary Clinton problem” phrase comes from MS NOW host Chris Hayes, who said: “I think Newsom has the Hillary Clinton problem, which is that Hillary Clinton was perceived outside of the Democratic Party and Democratic coalition as the ultimate lib, the libiest lib who ever lived, and was never actually like that much of a lib. It was like — and also had a record that was fairly centrist, particularly as a U.S. senator.”

Oh, good grief. Hayes is trying to sell Newsom – and Hillary Clinton — as centrists? They may be centrists if Chairman Mao is at one end of the spectrum and Uncle Joe Stalin at the other end, but that’s about it. Newsom has presided over California’s first-ever population decline. Luminaries including Elon Musk and Steven Spielberg have fled the state to avoid Newsom’s ever-growing tower of taxes and regulations. All Newsom promises for the nation if he moves into the White House on Jan. 20, 2029 is an open border, spiraling crime, and a federal government that bleeds the taxpayer even more than his California state government does now. What is centrist about all that?

Hayes added: “And that’s like the worst uncanny valley for a Democratic politician to be in, where the base doesn’t trust you because you don’t have a kind of organic relationship with the left parts of the party. And then the swing voter just thinks like, that’s a lib.” Right. Because the swing voter is still marginally sane, while the “left parts of the party” think that men can become women, that Old Joe Biden was a competent president, and that ever-expanding government control over every aspect of Americans’ daily lives is a positive development.

Whether the Democrats run Newsom in 2028 or some other nutbar, it is virtually certain that no one will be able to secure the nomination without appealing to the party’s socialist, anti-American, pro-Islamic Republic of Iran, pro-Hamas base. Hayes says that the “Democrats needed someone who had an authentic relationship with the party’s left-wing base, but also ‘communicates broadly’ and is viewed as nonpartisan.” This is like saying that V. I. Lenin has a chance to be elected if he “communicates broadly” with anti-Communists and is viewed as nonpartisan: it isn’t going to happen.

Hayes, however, thinks Newsom can do it: “I just think right now — and this could change — Newsom has the opposite set of factors. He has made very clear attempts to show that he’s bipartisan, centrist, independent.” How on earth has Gavin Newsom ever attempted to be “bipartisan”? This is the man who has sponsored a gerrymandering scheme that will totally disenfranchise the millions of Californians who are still Republicans.

Despite the facts, Hayes insisted that “substantive things he’s done” showed that Newsom had moved toward the center, and lamented: “But I haven’t seen evidence that that comes through. I just think there’s a reputational thing that’s very problematic. Also, the governor of California is a tough place to get the next Democratic nominee from.”

That may be. Newsom’s problem is indeed California, albeit for different reasons from the ones Hayes imagines. Newsom’s problem is that he has been governor of the nation’s most populous state since Jan. 7, 2019. He has a lengthy track record. Contrary to Chris Hayes’ imaginings, there is nothing centrist about it. So will America choose for president a socialist whose policies have wrecked his state? We shall see, but Gavin’s “Hillary Clinton problem” is not so much that he is wrongly not perceived as a centrist, but that like Hillary, he has always left a catastrophe in his wake. Ask Christopher Stevens about that.

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https://twitter.com/OluwaGbasten/status/2032110885594955948?s=20 https://twitter.com/MichaelARothman/status/2031972970621501937?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Mar 112026
 


Vincent van Gogh Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) 1888


• Gulf Oil Production Could Stop In Weeks – Putin (RT)
• Iran Reportedly Starts Mining The Strait Of Hormuz (ZH)
• Introducing Schrödinger’s Ayatollah (Stephen Green)
• Oil Prices Fall, Democrats Most Hurt (Matt Margolis)
• Admin Mulls Special Forces Into Iran to Retrieve Enriched Uranium (Moran)
• Anthropic Sues Pentagon Over Supply-Chain Risk Designation (ET)
• Trump Talks ‘Takeover’ Again as Cuban Protests Hit Day 4 (Sarah Anderson)
• Polls: Trump More Popular Than Kamala, Newsom, AOC, Stephen Colbert (Cantrell)
• Trump Targeted By Four FBI Code-Named Counterintel Probes (JTN)
• UK Govt Plots ANOTHER X Shutdown Over Grok’s ‘Offensive’ Roasts (MN)
• Happy Anniversary, Adam Smith (Jonathan Turley)
• Republicans Prefer War To The US Constitution And Truth (Paul Craig Roberts)
• New York Mayor Won’t Tell The Truth About Islamic Terror Attacks (Pinsker)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2031121599101853805?s=20 https://twitter.com/realJohnJohnJr/status/2031105905450709299?s=20 https://twitter.com/lovetocook12345/status/2031077465070702973?s=20 https://twitter.com/robertdunlap947/status/2031327454116086130?s=20 https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/2031317974481527170?s=20

 


 

 


 


Squeeze Europe.

• Gulf Oil Production Could Stop In Weeks – Putin (RT)

Oil production dependent on the Strait of Hormuz could come to a complete halt within a month, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He warned about the serious risks that the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran could pose to the global energy market. Last year, around a third of the global sea-borne oil exports went through the straight, Putin said at a government meeting on the global energy markets on Monday. “That is around 14 million barrel per day and 80% of that went to the Asian and Pacific nations,” he stated, adding that “now, this route is de-facto closed.”


Traffic through the straight has reportedly dropped by 80% over the past week after the US and Israel launched their bombing campaign against Iran, prompting retaliatory strikes from Tehran. Several tankers were hit in the exchanges. The developments pushed crude above $100 and prompted expectations of emergency energy measures from the EU and other major economies. “Oil production dependent on the strait risks fully stopping in the coming month. It is already dropping,” the president said. Restoring production could take weeks or even months, he added.

The global oil prices are already rising, Putin stated, adding that the increase amounted to over 30% in the past week alone. Disruptions in energy supplies also boost inflation and lead to industrial output decline, according to the president. The world is about to find itself in a “new… price reality,” Putin warned, calling it “inevitable.” Russia remains a “reliable energy supplier,” the president said, adding that it will continue to provide oil and gas for the nations that it also considers reliable partners. According to Putin, the list includes Asian nations and EU members Slovakia and Hungary.

On Monday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto urged Brussels to lift its ban on Russian oil and gas amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Earlier, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the easing of sanctions on some Russian oil to stabilize the markets.

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I’m itchy.

• Iran Reportedly Starts Mining The Strait Of Hormuz (ZH)

Update(1555ET): A fresh Tuesday CNN report says that Iran has already begun laying mines in the vital oil transit Strait of Hormuz waterway: Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most i mportant energy chokepoint that carries about one-fifth of all crude oil, according to two people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue.The mining is not extensive yet, with a few dozen having been laid in recent days, the sources said. But Iran still retains upward of 80% to 90% of its small boats and mine layers, one of the sources said, so its forces could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.


The report further says that after IRGC threats have already de facto closed the strait to nearly all international traffic (apparently unless they signal they are Chinese vessels) amid the ongoing drone and missile threat, it maintains the capability to deploy a “gauntlet” of dispersed mine-laying craft, continues CNN, including explosive-laden boats and shore-based missile batteries. TRUMP RESPONDS to the reports, warns the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before.


Trump revised his tweet quickly, adding the following: “Additionally, we are using the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait. They will be dealt with quickly and violently. BEWARE!” He also followed with saying that the US already destroyed ten inactive mine laying boats.CENTCOM meanwhile quickly counter-signals that it stands ready to fight back:

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“Mojtaba has yet to be seen in public since his promotion. Strange way to reassure the public about the succession, yes?”

• Introducing Schrödinger’s Ayatollah (Stephen Green)

The point of Erwin Schrödinger’s Gedankenexperiment (thought experiment) was to highlight the absurdity of quantum superposition, where subatomic particles can exist in multiple states at once until measured by conscious human beings. The radioactive element might (or might not) decay at any given moment, activating the Geiger counter that’s rigged to a hammer that smashes the vial filled with cyanide gas. Schrödinger’s contraption, according to hip theories, should remain in superposition — that is, with the cat both alive and dead — until observed by opening the box. Anyway, in Iran this week we have what might be a real-world case of Schrödinger’s Cat, or to put a finer point on it, Schrödinger’s ayatollah.


As near as anyone can tell, nepo baby Mojtaba Khamenei exists in an actual state of superposition. Two, really. Khamenei the Younger exists in not one but two states of superposition: both (or neither?) alive and dead, and simultaneously the Supreme Leader… and not. Don’t bother taking notes on this one — even I’m too confused to put together a quiz for the end of this column.But fancy theories aside, let’s look at what we know/don’t know about the man who would be/won’t be king. As I’m sure you know by now, Mojtaba’s dad, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed by Israeli warplanes one lovely Saturday morning during the opening minutes of Israel’s half of the current operation, which they call Roaring Lion.

More than a week went by before Iran’s 88-member Assembly of Experts managed to name Mojtaba as Ali’s successor as “the third Leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” But even that might not be all it seems. While the Assembly of Experts announced the formal decision, in reality, it was likely militants in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps making the call. Mojtaba is considered a hardliner rather than an “austere religious scholar,” and on Monday, the Times of Israel reported that his appointment “locks hardliners firmly in control in Tehran — a gamble that could reshape Iran’s war with the US and Israel and reverberate far beyond the Middle East.”

The paper also concluded that Mojtaba means “expanded authority for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), harsher domestic controls and sweeping repression to crush dissent.” But he also owes his position to the IRGC, unofficially making the ayatollah subordinate to the military for the first time in the Islamic state’s 47-year history. And yet… Mojtaba’s figurehead status might be even less than it appears because there’s also the question of whether Mojtaba remains upright and breathing. Also on Monday, Iran state television confirmed that Mojtaba was wounded, presumably during an airstrike. AP reported: “The anchors read reports describing him as ‘janbaz’ or wounded by the enemy,” even as they parade him around — virtually only! — as the new boss.

Mojtaba has yet to be seen in public since his promotion. Strange way to reassure the public about the succession, yes? In addition to Ali Khamenei, also believed dead in the compound airstrike is the elder Khamenei’s wife, a daughter, a grandchild, a son-in-law, and Mojtaba’s wife. Maybe it’s a bit of a stretch to believe that coalition airpower took out so much of the Khamenei family, except for the one guy the IRGC needed as a well-known figurehead to consolidate its power during a chaotic time when one military and theocratic leader after another gets chalked up as KIA. But the point is, we don’t know. He’s Schrödinger’s ayatollah.

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“They want economic pain, they’re hoping for a terrorist attack, and they pretty much want things to fall apart so the voters will blame Trump.”

• Oil Prices Fall, Democrats Most Hurt (Matt Margolis)

Democrats thought they had found another golden ticket. When Trump ordered military strikes on Iran last month, oil prices spiked more than 10% overnight. The liberal media pounced with reports of historic price hikes, acting like things were terrible, conveniently forgetting that while prices did go up, they were still significantly lower than the peak of the Biden years. Still, Democrats clearly saw a political opportunity.“Democrats are seizing on President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran as a new front in their energy affordability campaign,” Politico reported after the bombings began. “Oil prices jumped more than 10 percent Sunday night following military action in Iran, a major producer that also sits at the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for fossil fuel shipments.”


Fresh off a House retreat to nail down midterm messaging, Democrats saw the Iran strike as “a fresh line of attack.” The narrative wrote itself — or so they thought.It didn’t last long. Crude oil briefly surged to nearly $120 per barrel on Monday as markets panicked over the Strait of Hormuz. But then, prices started to plunge. Apparently, Trump told reporters at a Florida news conference, “We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil. Then, I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion.” He added that he thought “the war is very complete, pretty much.”Markets responded immediately.

Trump then fired off a warning to Iran on Truth Social, making clear what happens if Tehran tries to weaponize the strait: “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”

This matters politically because the Democrats are banking on economic pain. They need voters to feel squeezed at the pump and to blame the Trump White House. They barely had a case when prices were up, because they were still lower than under Biden. But they completely lost their talking point because of Trump’s confident tone; his explicit threat to hit Iran “twenty times harder” and his framing of the conflict as a short, necessary operation shifted the calculus entirely. The panic premium has largely disappeared, stocks are rebounding globally, and the doomsday energy crisis narrative Democrats were banking on hasn’t materialized.

Democrats spent their retreat crafting a message around affordability, betting that Trump’s foreign policy moves would hand them the economic ammunition they desperately need heading into 2026. Instead, they got a brief spike, followed by a sharp reversal. Despite the Democrats’ hopes, what we have here is a president who looks more in command of the situation than they will admit or want voters to see. Without a doubt, Democrats are rooting against America right now. They want economic pain, they’re hoping for a terrorist attack, and they pretty much want things to fall apart so the voters will blame Trump.

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“If we ever did that, [the Iranians] would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight on the ground level,” Trump said.”

• Admin Mulls Special Forces Into Iran to Retrieve Enriched Uranium (Moran)

Iran has about 450 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% that is buried under tons of rock near the Isfahan and Natanz nuclear facilities. Iran is capable of digging that stockpile out and enriching it to 90%, a process that would take a matter of days if the country had any advanced centrifuges to spin the uranium up.mThe Iranian nuclear program was all but destroyed in the attacks last June. While it would take years to reconstitute the entire program, building a few hundred advanced centrifuges would take a matter of months.


Getting at that stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU) may be a little easier than first thought. U.S. intelligence recently identified a “very narrow access point” at the bombed Isfahan site, suggesting Iran might still be able to retrieve and move this material. At a House hearing on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked whether Iran’s enriched uranium would be secured. “People are going to have to go and get it,” he said, without specifying who.The Israelis say Trump is seriously considering not only sending a small contingent of special operators to either retrieve the HEU or “dilute it” by bringing scientists along to render it less potent. Plans to capture Kharg Island, the major chokepoint for Iran’s oil export industry, have also been discussed.

Axios: NBC News reported on Friday that Trump has discussed the idea of deploying a small contingent of U.S. troops in Iran for specific strategic purposes. Semafor reported Trump’s Iran options include Special Operations raids on nuclear sites. The U.S. official laid out the operational challenge of securing Iran’s uranium: “The first question is, where is it? The second question is, how do we get to it and how do we get physical control?” “And then, it would be a decision of the president and the Department of War, CIA, as to whether we wanted to physically transport it or dilute it on premises.” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday that ground troops were possible — but only “for a very good reason.” “If we ever did that, [the Iranians] would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight on the ground level,” Trump said.

This sounds very much like a trial balloon the administration is floating to see how much opposition to a few ground troops it will generate. CNN did its best to throw cold water on any operation to retrieve the HEU. The news site claims that retrieving the HEU “would require a significant number of US ground troops beyond a small special operations footprint, seven current and former officials familiar with the military planning told CNN.” Lucky number 7. “Highly enriched uranium is a dual-use material, and Iran has said it produces it only for peaceful energy purposes,” offers CNN. That helpful news is total baloney.

There is no known commercial or scientific use for enriching 450 kilograms of HEU to 60%. Commercial reactors only need uranium enriched to about 3%. Some experimental reactors use uranium enriched to 20%. The only reason to enrich uranium to 60% is to create a way station on the trip to 90% enrichment to create a nuclear bomb. Regardless, CNN tries to make the point that it’s darn near impossible to accomplish a mission like that. Sounds tailor-made for our special operators. Capturing Kharg Island is a different matter. Shutting the facility down for even a short while would be a catastrophic blow to Iran’s economy. The facility handles nearly all of Iran’s 1.6 million barrels per day in exports, most of which go to China. Losing this terminal would effectively “paralyze” the Iranian economy by cutting off its primary source of hard currency.

Because Iran has limited storage capacity, a shutdown at the export terminal would quickly back up the entire supply chain. Within days of a terminal closure, Iranian oil fields would be forced to halve their production or shut down entirely because there would be nowhere to put the oil. Shutting down active oil wells can cause long-term geological damage, making it difficult and expensive to bring them back to full capacity later. Unfortunately, shutting down Kharg Island for any length of time would also be detrimental to the West. The resulting oil shock could result in a recession for most Western countries, including the United States. The war shows no signs of winding down, so Trump’s options on how to proceed are still wide open.

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You want to force the Pentagon to adopt your morals and worldview?

• Anthropic Sues Pentagon Over Supply-Chain Risk Designation (ET)

Artificial intelligence (AI) developer Anthropic sued the Department of War on March 9, following the federal government’s designation of the company as a supply chain risk. That designation hinders government agencies and their contractors from working with Anthropic. The suit comes after the company refused to change the user policy for its AI tool Claude to allow the government to use it for what Anthropic described as “mass surveillance” and “fully autonomous weapons.” The Pentagon has denied that it planned to use Claude for such purposes.


The refusal caused President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth to direct federal agencies to sever ties with Anthropic and state that “effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.” On social media, both Trump and Hegseth accused Anthropic of trying to “strong-arm” the federal government by dictating its military policy.“WE will decide the fate of our Country—NOT some out-of-control, Radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about,” Trump said in a Feb. 27 Truth Social post.

“Their true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military,” Hegseth said on X the same day. “That is unacceptable.” Anthropic alleges that the federal government is punishing the company for its First Amendment-protected speech and viewpoint. The company also alleges that the Department of War reached out to some of its business partners following the rift and that those companies “delayed or paused several national security contracts or business engagements already in active development with Anthropic.” That puts “millions, possibly billions, of dollars at risk,” Anthropic stated. “These actions are unprecedented and unlawful,” Anthropic’s lawsuit reads.

“The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. “Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation.” In its filing, Anthropic said it isn’t confident that Claude “would function safely or reliably” if used for those purposes. Anthropic’s suit asks the court to set aside Trump and Hegseth’s designation as unconstitutional. The Pentagon declined to comment on the suit. The Pentagon previously said the company must accept “any lawful use” of its tools and technology to support the U.S. military.

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“They have no energy, they have no money,” Trump said. “They’re in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis. And we don’t want to see that.”

• Trump Talks ‘Takeover’ Again as Cuban Protests Hit Day 4 (Sarah Anderson)

On Monday, a USA Today reporter asked Donald Trump about the fact that he recently said Cuba wants to make a deal. She said, “What would the United States get in return for that, and why should Americans trust Marco Rubio to negotiate it?” (Why should we trust Marco Rubio? Girl, please. Where have you been the last year… Oops, sorry, my inner monologue escaped and got the best of me. Back to the president.) Trump laid it out like this: Well, Marco Rubio is doing a great job. I think he’s going to go down as the greatest secretary of State in history. Look at what we’ve done as a presidency. Look at what we’ve done as an administration. They trust Marco, and so do the American people… He’s been successful no matter where he’s been. He also speaks the language, which is always nice and always helpful.


Trump went on to say that Marco is dealing with Cuba and what may end up being a friendly takeover, but he says it may also end up being a not-so-friendly takeover. Either way, it wouldn’t matter because the country is in crisis and down to “fumes.” “They have no energy, they have no money,” Trump said. “They’re in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis. And we don’t want to see that.” The president went on to talk about how important the Cuban people are to him, and how the regime was largely living off Venezuela. Without its lifeline there, it has nothing.

But they were very, very bad to a lot of people, as you know, and a lot of people living are — the Cuban American vote, which I got at record levels, very important. Those people are very important to me. I know what they went through. They went through hell. Some of them have gone on to be some of the most successful people in the country. Cuban American business people, some of them are like the most successful in the country. And a lot of them are friends of mine because I’ve been fighting this battle with them for a long time. The Castro regime was brutal, but they lived off Venezuela. Now, they don’t live off Venezuela — sends them no energy, no fuel, no oil, no money, no nothing. They lived without Venezuela. They couldn’t have made it. And we cut them off from everything else.”

https://twitter.com/TheBritLad/status/2030814910469333046

Ultimately, he said, “So yeah, they’re going to make either a deal, or we’ll do it just as easy anyway.” It’s still not clear what the end of the Cuban regime will look like. Trump and Rubio have been purposely vague, and it’s possible that even they don’t know for sure yet. Rubio has said that they didn’t know if or how the Nicolás Maduro operation would go down until sort of the last minute, though it’s highly unlikely Cuba will look like that.

There are rumors circulating that the U.S. will make a “major economic deal” with the Cuban “government” that includes easing sanctions and cooperation on various sectors within Cuba, as well as providing an exit strategy for “President” Miguel Díaz-Canel and allowing the Castro family to remain on the island under some protection. Personally, I don’t necessarily buy this, nor do Cuban opposition leaders. Allowing the Castros to hang around indefinitely would be a slap in the face of every person in that country. It comes from anonymous sources, and it seems like it would defeat the purpose of the whole plan, but we’ll see.

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“Pope Leo XIV ranks as the most popular, with a rating of 42%. He barely beat out Trump for the top spot.”

• Polls: Trump More Popular Than Kamala, Newsom, AOC, Stephen Colbert (Cantrell)

A brand new poll NBC conducted between February 27 and March 3 that surveyed 1,000 registered voters will likely have Democrats blowing steam out of their ears, as it concluded that President Donald Trump is more popular than many of his most virulent critics. The list includes late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Given that Trump has done a stellar job sticking to his America First agenda and has kept most of his campaign promises, this probably will not shock average voters. Only those whom major media outlets have brainwashed—outlets that dropped any pretense of actual, objective journalism and instead produce propaganda—could possibly find this information shocking.


The thing is, most media outlets avoid talking to regular people. Instead, they opt to take the word of so-called political and cultural “elites,” who, by the way, are the same folks waist-deep in the Epstein files. And this situation does not result from accidental oversight or incompetence. They do it on purpose. If nightly news programs presented the truth, the president—along with MAGA politicians and supporters—would be even more popular than he is now. According to the poll’s data, respondents gave Trump a total positive rating of 41%, compared to Colbert, who pulled in only 35% support. That, to me, is still astronomically high. Colbert is an outspoken liberal who does his absolute best to prevent those on the right from having an opportunity to present their side on his program. Add to that the fact that Colbert is not talented or funny, and it is amazing people like him even that much.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has spent many months attempting to warm the pool for his entrance into presidential politics, has only a 27% positive rating. Again, that is still far too high. We are talking about a man who signed almost 500 bills into law and then goes on late-night television to complain that California is overregulated. Who are these people saying they like Newsom? They are likely consumers of news products from outlets like CNN and MSNBC. Harris, who failed miserably against President Trump in the 2024 presidential race and is likely preparing for yet another bid for the White House, had a 34% positive rating. The only vibe I get from that figure is that a lot of intellectually challenged individuals vote in our elections. And that is scary.

Moving on to AOC, her positive rating stands at 31%. Out of the 14 figures listed in the data, Pope Leo XIV ranks as the most popular, with a rating of 42%. He barely beat out Trump for the top spot. Vice President JD Vance holds the second-highest rating at 38%. He was tied with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Vance will most definitely throw his hat in the ring for president, and to be perfectly honest, he is likely the most qualified individual for the job. He has stood by Trump’s side throughout his second term without hesitation. He has earned the respect of the MAGA movement, which is essential for any Republican candidate to win an election. If he gets into office, you can almost guarantee that the America First agenda will continue to move forward.

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“… a dozen members of Congress and their staffers, his future chief of staff Susie Wiles, journalists, campaign advisers, defense lawyers, and even Patel himself had their privacy pierced by warrants, wiretaps, FISA surveillance, phone record analysis, FBI assessments, or grand juries..”

• Trump Targeted By Four FBI Code-Named Counterintel Probes (JTN)

President Donald Trump and his supporters were targeted by four consecutive FBI code-named counterintelligence investigations over the last decade that secretly subjected hundreds of innocent Americans to privacy-invading tactics and essentially treated the man twice elected president as a national security threat for most of the first nine years of his political career, according to interviews and documents reviewed by Just the News. FBI Director Kash Patel has personally led the effort to review the operations code-named Crossfire Hurricane, Round River, Plasmic Echo and Arctic Frost that stretched from summer 2016 to January 2025, uncovering evidence of a far-reaching dragnet that in some cases may have been predicated on false, misleading or uncorroborated justifications, officials said.


Many of the investigative files were hidden from view, even from most FBI agents, because they were marked “prohibited access” and controlled carefully by FBI leadership. Patel’s search has been aided by whistleblowers inside his agency, a handful of senior bureau executives close to the director and some members of Congress, particularly Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Those who have seen the records told Just the News they chronicle how how the FBI’s expanded counterterrorism and counterintelligence missions after the Sept, 11, 2001, terrorist attacks eventually became hijacked by politics and led agents to deploy tools meant for terrorists and spies against everyday Americans in a bid to find a way to bring criminal cases against Trump.

One whistleblower this month told the FBI that surveillance and monitoring of Trump figures continued right up to the president’s January 2025 inauguration, according to multiple interviews. Few inside Trump’s orbit were spared from targeting by their stature: a dozen members of Congress and their staffers, his future chief of staff Susie Wiles, journalists, campaign advisers, defense lawyers, and even Patel himself had their privacy pierced by warrants, wiretaps, FISA surveillance, phone record analysis, FBI assessments, or grand juries.

Many targets and subjects fell under the bureau’s definition of special circumstances targets because they have recognized constitutionally protected privileges – like lawyers, members of Congress, journalists, and political figures. Even a political consultant turned documentary filmmaker who investigated Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings before joining Trump’s 2024 campaign was recently notified he was targeted in a criminal investigation that only recently was shut down, according to letters between Congress and the FBI reviewed by Just the News.

Michael Caputo had his emails and communications seized in 2023 by a “classified subpoena” issued about two weeks after he joined the Trump campaign and the email account the bureau penetrated “contained correspondence on The Trump Campaign’s private strategies and deliberations,” the correspondence stated. Patel’s FBI has informed Congress that probe has been shut down. But the question of how so many Americans were targeted remains open. At least 1,200 people that fall into the categories of special circumstances targets or subject were investigated under assessments by the FBI between 2018 and 2024 during Wray’s tenure, an explosive recent audit report to Congress revealed.

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Someone posted AI Starmer in a bra, and he’s gonna close down X for that?!

• UK Govt Plots ANOTHER X Shutdown Over Grok’s ‘Offensive’ Roasts (MN)

The UK government under Keir Starmer is once again eyeing a total ban on X, this time claiming Grok’s ability to spit out “insults” and “offensive language” poses a dire threat. But as users on the platform point out, this is just another excuse to silence dissent against the regime. Fresh reports reveal Starmer’s administration is probing ways to penalize X for “spreading offence online,” including a potential shutdown. Sky News reported on Grok being prompted to generate vulgar responses targeting Hinduism, Islam, and even historic football disasters.

https://twitter.com/BasilTheGreat/status/2030680998078206029


The correspondent notes that Grok has been used to generate “highly offensive content” directed toward groups of football fans, such as blaming Liverpool supporters for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, where 97 fans died in a crush, and for which authorities were found to be culpably responsible. Similar insults targeted Rangers fans, referencing the 1971 Ibrox disaster that claimed 66 lives.The government says it is investigating the issue. This comes after Ofcom, as the regulator, stated at the start of the year that it was considering potential actions. Under the Online Safety Act, penalties could include fines up to 10% of a company’s worldwide revenue or £18 million if non-compliance is determined.

Sky News states that X is “urgently investigating” the chatbot responses. This isn’t Starmer’s first rodeo in targeting X. As we detailed in our earlier coverage, the UK government threatened a total ban on X over the so-called “Grok bikini flap,” where the AI was prompted to create ‘sexualized’ images. As we further noted, the push for a total ban likely has nothing to do with protecting children, but everything to do with stifling free speech and criticism of the Labour government’s policies. X users aren’t buying the latest pretext. One post blasts “Starmer Bin Lying gets fact checked by Grok every time he speaks He can’t even post on this app without being exposed as a liar.”


A reply warns of tyranny, quoting Robert A. Heinlein: “When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.” This pattern reeks of authoritarian overreach. Starmer’s regime, facing backlash over open borders and surveillance creep, can’t stand a platform where truths about their failures go viral. X remains a bastion for uncensored discourse, exposing leftist hypocrisy and globalist agendas. Shuttering it just because a minority of people made Grok make up some insults would constitute a total victory for tyrants.

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1776 was a productive and decisive year.

March 9: The Wealth of Nations

July 4: Declaration of Independennce.

• Happy Anniversary, Adam Smith (Jonathan Turley)

Today is the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. In my book “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” I explore the importance of The Wealth of Nations to the founders and why it will be even more important in this century. The Wealth of Nations was released around the same time as the Declaration of Independence, but was not a particular success in Great Britain. Many panned his free-market theories. In addition to its foundational support for capitalism, it challenged the mercantilist policies of the British Empire and supported the claims of the colonies in seeking greater economic freedoms.


Smith, however, was immediately embraced by the founders, who saw his work as the perfect economic theory to advance their political theory. Ours was the first Enlightenment Revolution based on a belief in natural rights that came from God, not governments. Yet, the founders knew that true individual liberty could not be achieved without economic freedom. Smith’s idea of the “invisible hand” offered an idea of individual economic freedom where the individual tastes and choices of citizens drove whole economies. As I write in Rage and the Republic:

“While he never visited the United States, his theories seemed quintessentially American to many of his generation. For a revolution that was triggered by tariffs and fueled by events like the Boston Tea Party, Smith’s general principles read like an economic version of Common Sense. It was a type of declaration of independence not just from the British policy of mercantilism (emphasizing British exports over imports) but from economic controls over individual productivity and self-determination….

In summary, Smith was first and foremost viewed as a political theorist, and his economic theories were closely tied to his views on the natural liberties of humanity. He saw capitalism as a liberating system for individuals to allow them the wealth and resources to pursue their own chosen paths. Conversely, he saw government controls and subsidies as forms of control and potentially forms of suppression of the human will. If people are to be truly free, they must have the resources to pursue that freedom. The government dole can become a type of servitude or at least a subterfuge for citizens. If they are dependent on the government, they are never truly free.”

I believe that the key to our surviving and thriving in the 21st Century will be the preservation of what I call a “liberty-enhancing economy.” I will be discussing both anniversaries tomorrow at the Reagan Presidential Library.

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The President has to ask Congress for permission to initiate a war.

That meant something different in, say, 1776, than it does today. 250 years ago, you could have an assembly and then a vote, and the enemy would only know you officially declared it, an hour later. Or the next morning. Today, it takes seconds. The President CAN no longer ask Congreess for permission.

• Republicans Prefer War To The US Constitution And Truth (Paul Craig Roberts)

The Republican-controlled House and Senate rejected a war powers vote that would have granted Congress the ability to decide whether Trump could continue serving Israel’s conflict with Iran. Apparently 77% of Republicans have fallen for the propaganda that Iran is a terrorist state developing nuclear weapons. The same Republicans fell for 9/11, Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” Assad’s “use chemical weapons,” Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Gulf of Tonkin, the endless lies about Gaddafi. And now the Republicans are falling for Trump’s unsupported claim that the “War is very complete, far ahead of schedule.” If the war is nearly over ahead of schedule, how come on March 8 the US State Department ordered non-emergency US government employees and family to leave Saudi Arabia due to safety risks?

How is a war that has expanded to Saudi Arabia nearly over? This was an upgrade of the previous order. It seems that the State Department’s concern about its personnel is inconsistent with Trump’s optimism. Has Trump now joined the whore media lie machine? Is Trump creating a non-existent reality for his remaining supporters? Democracy does not function when the only information citizens have comes from a lie machine that serves the official narrative of the day and from a president who confuses his hopes with reality. Alexander Dugin, apparently Russia’s smartest person, says it is not Iranian war capability that is collapsing, but American credibility. “The fact that Iran is not surrendering, not agreeing to a truce or a ceasefire, is already changing the balance of power.”

It is worth listening to Dugin, because if he is correct, Trump has allowed Netanyahu to lead America into difficult times. “Missile and drone strikes have been carried out against all U.S. bases surrounding Iran. According to neutral estimates, more than 1,000 American service members have been killed (Iran reports much higher numbers, while Trump speaks of only a handful, which seems laughable given the scale of the Iranian strikes). “Iran has chosen a very effective tactic: striking not only military targets in Israel, which is gradually turning into something resembling Gaza, but above all the hubs and energy centers of the Arab Gulf states on which the global economy depends. Combined with the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, this has already led to enormous losses for the global market. Moreover, the situation will worsen with each day of Iranian resistance.

“It is significant that the Gulf countries—whose plans to transform themselves into neutral and safe centers of the world economy have now come to an end—blame not so much Iran as Israel and the United States. They have always disliked Israel, but in their eyes Trump has become a direct traitor. If American military bases do not protect them but instead create danger, what are they needed for? Arab leaders ask this question quite logically. “Meanwhile, the plankton of global capitalism and the armies of escort girls are hastily leaving Dubai. On the roof of an abandoned hotel, only the somewhat unhinged influencer Andrew Tate dances alone, stubbornly insisting that all of this is merely a computer simulation and that we are living in a matrix where new scenery has simply been loaded in.

“The next step will be the withdrawal of Arab bonds from the United States. Incidentally, BlackRock has halted the process of withdrawals from its funds, lowering the ceiling by more than half. It looks like the beginning of a collapse. Oil prices are soaring, and the indices are falling rapidly. It is entirely possible that the global economy may collapse altogether in the foreseeable future.” If Dugin is right, at what level of intelligence does the US government operate when an expected 3-day war ends not in the expected victory but in economic and military catastrophe? Are not the American people somehow derelict in their responsibility to be informed and to do their duty to make certain that the US government actually serves Americans’ interest, not the interest of Israel?

Is the conservative Republican chant: “you cannot be an American if you don’t love Israel” a method of creating blind American subservience to Israel’s agenda of Greater Israel regardless of the huge cost to Americans? Obviously, the answer is yes. To see and to understand how far off course America is in the ability of its population and elected representatives to preserve accountable government by protecting the separation of powers, reread the first sentence of this article.

Why did the elected US representatives in the House and Senate need a vote to determine whether Congress could vote on whether Trump could start and continue a war for Israel? The US Constitution, not Israel or Trump, is the governing power of the United States. The US Constitution makes no concessions to Israel or any other country to determine US policies. The US Constitution says that it is the power of Congress alone to take America to war.

How long has it been since Congress exercised its Constitutional power? 1941. All wars costing American blood and money have been fought since by executive authority alone. On occasion the president obtains after the hostilities begin Congress’ “authorization.” But the authorization to continue a war already started is not the same as authorization to initiate a war. The war power of Congress delegated by the people has been for decades the prerogative of the Executive Branch, a power explicitly denied to the Executive Branch by the US Constitution. So for decades the so-called “American Democracy” is a country ruled not by the people and their elected repesenaives but by the executive branch. When it comes to war, the American executive branch is a dictatorship.

The destruction of the balance of powers and the Constitution’s limits on the executive branch has been accepted by an insouciant population step by step. Today America no longer resembles the country created by the Founding Fathers. Indeed, I cannot recognize today the country I was born into in 1939. My generation understood that freedom depended on truth, and that truth depended on the media and the universities. We knew that if people were inculcated with lies, the nation would be lost.What has happened to America is that it is under attack by both of its political parties. The Republicans tell Americans about Israel’s enemies. The Democrats tell Americans lies about Americans–that they are racists, homophobic, misogynist, anti-semitic. Trump tells us that we are good, but leads us to evil ends to serve Israel. The Democrats want to replace us with immigrant-invaders.

In the world in which we live powerful weapons exist, weapons that can destroy life on planet Earth. Russian hypersonic missiles cannot be intercepted. Their destructive payload is enormous and is delivered in multiple warheads. A year or so ago a Russian official said that only one Russian missile with its multiple warheads was sufficient to wipe Great Britain off of the face of the earth, Another official said it only takes three to do the same to the United States. The American missiles are less efficient but none the less dangerous if they get through.

Both Russia and the US have thousands of these missiles. How many would Russia have to launch before 3 got through? Why is the world playing at war when Armageddon is hanging over our heads? Israel needs to immediately renounce its doctrine of Greater Israel and the United States needs to immediately renounce its doctrine of American Hegemony. The idiots in charge of governments today are capable of destroying a planet. We must not believe one word of what they say.

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Britain, Italy, New York.

• New York Mayor Won’t Tell The Truth About Islamic Terror Attacks (Pinsker)

March 8, 2026, isn’t a “date which will live in infamy.” It was more like the Ides of March in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar — the date when a violent conspiracy finally came to light, unmasking the conspirators and revealing their true agenda. March 8, 2026, is the date that New Yorkers learned the truth about their young mayor, Zohran Mamdani: He’s dishonest about Islamic terror attacks. Which means, the next time New York City is targeted by Islamic extremists — and, sadly, the Big Apple’s bloody history strongly suggests there will be a next time — Mayor Mamdani won’t tell New Yorkers what the hell just happened. The way he sees it, that’s not his job. He’ll minimize, obscure, misdirect, and post lies of omission.


That’s because Mayor Mamdani cares more about shielding the Muslim community from “inconvenient PR” than honesty, integrity, or telling the truth about Islamic terror attacks. That’s not his north star. His north star is the crescent moon. Even when the facts are overwhelming. As the AP reported: Two men who brought explosives to a far-right protest outside New York City’s mayoral mansion said they were inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, according to a court complaint. Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, were being held without bail after a court appearance Monday on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction. Their lawyers didn’t argue for bail but could do so later.

The homemade devices, which did not explode, were hurled Saturday during raucous counterprotests against an anti-Islam demonstration led by Jake Lang, a far-right activist and critic of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat and the first Muslim to hold the office. The more we learn about the two ISIS-inspired perpetrators, Balat and Kayumi, the harder it is to deny the awful truth: Two Islamic extremists intended to murder American citizens with homemade bombs — directly outside New York’s mayoral mansion. The defendants said nothing in court, but Kayumi smirked and looked over at Balat as the judge read part of the complaint alleging they acted in support of the Islamic State group. Balat stared ahead at the defense table.

According to the complaint, Kayumi blurted out, as he was being arrested Saturday, that “ISIS” was the reason for his conduct. Balat later told authorities that he had pledged allegiance to the extremists, and Kayumi asserted that he was affiliated with the group, the complaint said. Officers asked Balat whether he was aiming to accomplish something akin to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded hundreds more. “No, even bigger,” Balat replied, according to the complaint. Yet, according to Mamdani’s X post, you’d get the impression that the victim of the terror attack — Jake Lang — was the one responsible for the violence. Note how Mamdani artfully connected the dots:

Yesterday, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism. Such hate has no place in New York City. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are. What followed was even more disturbing. Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are. Of course, the mainstream media did its best to cover up Mamdani’s dishonesty. As the New York Times put it, “Mamdani Chooses His Words Carefully After Alleged Terror Attack.” So did Politico: “A Bomb Thrown Outside Gracie Mansion Unearths Grim Reality for NYC Mayor.”

Politico, quite naturally, focused extensively on — what else? — the terrible, horrible scourge of Islamophobia. Just five paragraphs down: “The Muslim community in New York has seen a significant increase in Islamaphobic rhetoric and actions since Mayor Mamdami won his primary,” said Murad Awawdeh, a close adviser to Mamdani and the head of the New York Immigration Coalition. “As elected officials and right-wing media pile on by peddling hate speech and false narratives, Islamophobic attacks have become more persistent and aggressive.”

There were seven anti-Muslim hate crimes in the city in January, an increase compared to January 2025, when none were reported, NYPD statistics show. Awawdeh said NYPD statistics alone don’t capture the full picture, noting that Islamophobic rhetoric and actions do not always amount to crimes. Reread that last paragraph and marvel at Politico’s logic: If “Islamophobic rhetoric and actions” don’t amount to crimes, then by definition, they CANNOT be “hate crimes.”

Instead, it sounds a helluva lot more like free speech! So the mainstream media conflated lawful free speech with unlawful hate crimes. Then it used these fake crimes to excuse real, actual, ISIS-inspired terror attacks in the heart of New York City. Politico noted the seven(!) anti-Muslim hate crimes in January 2026. (Which is awful: Every American has the Constitutional right to worship as he or she sees fit.) But how come Politico didn’t mention the 31 antisemitic New York City hate crimes during the exact same time period? Wouldn’t that have been useful contextual info for readers? There were 58 hate crimes in January, and over half targeted Jews! Just 12% targeted Muslims.

Most probable answer: The fact that New York’s Jews are MORE THAN FIVE TIMES LIKELY to be victims of hate crimes in Mayor Mamdani’s city wasn’t helpful in blaming everything, including ISIS-inspired violence, on “Islamophobia.”It beckons the obvious question: How can New Yorkers expect Mamdani to tell them the truth when the Islamic terrorists strike again? Most probable answer: They can’t. Remember the mainstream media’s uproar when New York City radio host Sid Rosenberg suggested Mamdani would cheer another 9/11-style attack? Turns out Rosenberg was wrong: Instead of cheering, Mamdani would pretend it never even happened — and then blame all the chaos on “Islamophobia” instead. (And Mamdani’s wife would like the X posts that insist it’s a “hoax.”)

In hindsight, perhaps we should hire Lang to stage protests in every major city in America. Might be the only way to keep us safe. Hunters call it rough shooting: It’s when you flush the prey from its hiding places, forcing it out into the open.Lang just exposed two murderous, psychotic Islamic terrorists who were lurking among us, patiently awaiting the most opportune time to strike. At least now, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi won’t have a chance to hurt anyone else. Say whatever you want about Lang, but our citizens are safer with Balat and Kayumi off the streets. So don’t just “Beware the Ides of March.” Beware Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He’s not being honest with you.

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Sagan

 

 

 

 

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Feb 272026
 


Banksy Honey Money pot 1999


• Trump Report Card (John Stossel)
• Triggered and Traumatized by Scenes of Patriotism (Turley)
• Biden FBI Investigated Susie Wiles and Kash Patel Phone Records (CTH)
• White House Withholds Medicaid Funding to Minnesota Amid Fraud Probe (Jung)
• USTR Greer Talks Baseline Tariff Reset Shifts and Reciprocity Tariffs (CTH)
• I’m Ukrainian – Russia’s UN Ambassador (RT)
• Arming Ukraine With Nukes: Western Elites Have ‘Lost Touch With Reality’ (RT)
• US Demands Iran Dismantle Its 3 Main Nuclear Sites In Hours-Long Talks (ZH)
• Epstein Rushed Evidence Into Secret Storage Unit Before Raid (ZH)
• Hillary Clinton to Testify in Epstein Probe on Thursday, Bill Clinton on Friday (JTN)
• Mamdani’s NYC Flirts With Chaos (Ben Shapiro)
• So Hackers Just Stole Mexico’s Tax and Voter Rolls (Stephen Green)
• Spain’s Government: Spinning Out of Control (Drieu Godefridi)
• Even the Best AI Scenario Is the End of Everything We’ve Ever Been (Ring)

 


 

https://twitter.com/ThePatriotOasis/status/2026849762180255904?s=20 https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/2026862384816550257?s=20 https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2026557297598804049?s=20 https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2027093840289513854?s=20

 


 

It’s my Bday today.

 


 


Mostly positive. And you got to see that against the Orange Man Bad background, where nothing at all is positive..

• Trump Report Card (John Stossel)

During his State of the Union, President Donald Trump declared himself wonderful. My new video takes a closer look, scoring his fifth year as president. He deserves an “A” for his willingness to take questions. It’s a relief after President Joe Biden, who hid from reporters. But Trump deserves an “F” for childish bragging. Ignorant, too. He proudly announced he cut drug prices by “400%, 500%, even 600%!” Didn’t he learn math? If he cut prices 100%, drugs would be free. Trump deserves an “A” for ending Biden’s self-destructive, anti-energy policies. On the other hand, Trump has blocked solar and wind projects, even those not government-subsidized. Can’t either party just let the market work?


I’m relieved that the president hasn’t fulfilled my worst fear: He has not acted like a total dictator. He does respond to public opinion. After ICE brutality in Minnesota, he pulled troops out, saying, “We can use a little bit of a softer touch.” And when courts rule against him, he obeys, ending National Guard deployment in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, and now searching for court-approved ways to preserve his tariffs. Hysterical media still scream about Trump being “a dictator!” and “authoritarian!” Mises Institute Editor-in-Chief Ryan McMaken points out that America has had many authoritarian presidents. “Nixon and LBJ, in terms of new bombing campaigns, ignoring Congress … both of those presidents were significantly worse. FDR, through executive order, destroyed the gold standard.

“Just by the stroke of a pen, he impoverished many Americans, stole Americans’ gold. This was one of the worst economic crimes in American history. I don’t think (Trump) could get away with it.” Trump deserves an “A” grade for easing some regulation. TSA no longer requires people to take their shoes off. The EPA stopped mandating things like “stop/start” features that were supposed to save gas but barely did. Trump ended “disparate impact” analysis, the toxic legal theory that led to parasitic lawsuits if workforces did not exactly match U.S. racial proportions.

Ken Griffin, CEO of the investment firm Citadel, says that Trump’s merely criticizing regulation, telling bureaucrats back off, lifted the economy. It “gives you so much energy as an entrepreneur!” “That’s probably the best part of his administration right now.” says McMaken, giving Trump a “B-” on regulation. Not an “A” because his attempts to cut red tape have mostly failed. And Trump hasn’t cut spending. “Spending has only increased!” McMaken points out.

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Can we a cheer a medal?

• Triggered and Traumatized by Scenes of Patriotism (Turley)

This week, most Americans found a moment of rare unity in our pride over the performance of our athletes in the Winter Olympics. After years of rage politics, there was a brief respite as we joined in cheering our team in representing the United States in Milan and Cortina. Well, most of us. Some in the media found the entire demonstration of patriotism to be intolerable and triggering. What is striking is how this aversion to our flag and country was so openly expressed in major media. Yesterday, the nightmare continued for some on the left who were traumatized by seeing the American flag and open displays of patriotism. Jack Hughes, one of the heroes of the gold medal hockey game, returned to New Jersey to play and was met with cheers of “USA, USA” and a sea of American flags.


Hughes immediately called his Olympic teammate Tage Thompson of the visiting Buffalo Sabres to the ice to join him. The two skated arm in arm as the crowd celebrated them and our country. It was another unifying moment for the country. The fans joined arm in arm to relish this moment for the nation. These scenes are clearly having a different impact on some on the left. The HuffPost even published an article with therapeutic advice for liberals triggered by seeing so many American flags. The liberal publication ran an article titled “There’s a Name for the Discomfort You’re Feeling Watching the Olympics Right Now.” It then published it a second time before the gold-medal hockey game with Canada — presumably to prepare its readers for the nightmare of the United States actually winning.

The subheading read, “If waving the American flag or chanting ‘USA!’ turns you off right now, you’re not alone.” Senior writer Monica Torres began the article with this line: “While President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda separates families, and federal agents detain 5-year-olds and kill unarmed civilians, American athletes are winning medals on behalf of the nation at the Olympics right now.” Torres goes on to interview three therapists for this “story” about how the celebration of the United States team has forced many liberals into therapy over their trauma and “the cognitive dissonance of rooting for U.S. sports.”

Los Angeles-based licensed clinical social worker Aimee Monterrosa explained that the “atrocities” of the United States can trigger feelings of guilt, despair, shame, anger” in seeing the country celebrate these sports victories. Expert Lauren Appio echoed how “waving the American flag or chanting, ‘USA!’ [can make] us feel grossed out or ashamed.” Over at Vox, Senior correspondent (and former Atlantic writer) Alex Abad-Santos wrote an article on the winners and losers of the Olympics. The column perfectly summed up the pathological opposition of some to this country’s symbols and celebrations.

Abad-Santos declared the men’s hockey team one of the biggest “losers” of the games. He blamed that team for alienating citizens by their patriotic statements: “The conversation surrounding the win quickly shifted into how the team celebrated and who it celebrated with.” He expressed outrage over the team accepting the celebratory call from the President of the United States.In the meantime, the “winner,” according to Abad-Santos, was . . . wait for it . . . Eileen Gu, the American who reportedly took millions from the repressive Chinese regime to ski for China. Gu used the games to criticize the United States while saying nothing of how China arrests anyone who speaks out against that country.

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“.. when both were private citizens…”

“FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly fired 10 FBI agents who were involved in the process of reviewing and intercepting communications as part of their work on the Jack Smith case. Internal FBI offices are not happy with Patel’s action against those officials ..”

• Biden FBI Investigated Susie Wiles and Kash Patel Phone Records (CTH)

According to media reports and statements from FBI Director Kash Patel, both Patel and Susie Wiles had their telephone records subpoenaed by the FBI in 2022 and 2023 when both were private citizens. This is during the time when Donald Trump was being investigated by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Within the reporting by Reuters, at least one phone call between Susie Wiles and her attorney was recorded by the FBI without her knowledge. As the story is outlined Wiles’ attorney was working with the FBI and knew the conversation was being captured, Wiles did not. FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly fired 10 FBI agents who were involved in the process of reviewing and intercepting communications as part of their work on the Jack Smith case. Internal FBI offices are not happy with Patel’s action against those officials.


“(REUTERS) – The FBI subpoenaed records of phone calls made by Kash Patel and Susie Wiles, now the FBI director and White House Chief of Staff, when they were both private citizens in 2022 and 2023 during the federal probe of Donald Trump, Patel told Reuters on Wednesday. Reuters is the first to report on the FBI’s actions that took place during the Biden administration, largely when Special Counsel Jack Smith was investigating whether Trump had interfered with the 2020 election and had hidden classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, according to Patel. Smith was appointed to take over that probe in November 2022.

[…] “It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records – along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles – using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight,” Patel said in a statement to Reuters.

[…] At least 10 current FBI employees have been dismissed as a result of the revelations about the targeting of Patel, Wiles and others connected to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, according to three FBI officials. […] In 2023, the FBI recorded a phone call between Wiles and her attorney, according to two FBI officials. Wiles’ attorney was aware that the call was being recorded, and consented to it, but Susie Wiles was not. […] The FBI discovered the phone records in files categorized as “Prohibited,” which makes them difficult to discover on the bureau’s computer systems. Patel said he recently ended the FBI’s ability to categorize files as “Prohibited.” (read more)

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2026802738097459213?s=20

I have mixed emotions about this. On one hand it is infuriating to yet again see the audacity and clear weaponization of the DOJ and FBI under the prior administration. On the other hand, duh! Non-pretending people knew all along this malicious network of DOJ and FBI lawfare operations included surveillance of everyone around President Donald Trump. Remember, Donald Trump was accused of criminal wrongdoing by the twisted lawfare logic of Smith and his crew. Accepting the reality of a criminal investigation, fraudulent though it was, it was entirely predictable that the DOJ and FBI would leverage all available tools to conduct continued surveillance and monitoring.

The secondary frustrating aspect to this story is how Director Patel has only just now fired those 10 FBI agents involved. This is a big part of the criticism that many of us have with Patel and his soft glove approach upon taking the position as FBI Director. Any FBI official who was involved in the originating Crossfire Hurricane and/or Robert Mueller investigations should have been fired for cause on Day One! 40 FBI agents worked for more than two years on the Mueller probe investigating a fictitious claim about President Trump colluding with Russia in the 2016 election. Those FBI agents should have been identified and terminated immediately, with prejudice; thereby sending a loud message that weaponized FBI activity was the immediate focus of the new leadership and would not be tolerated.

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“.. pointed to Vance as the one leading the efforts of his administration’s “war on fraud”..

• White House Withholds Medicaid Funding to Minnesota Amid Fraud Probe (Jung)

JD Vance and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced that the Trump administration is temporarily halting certain Medicaid funding to Minnesota amid an ongoing fraud investigation. This comes after President Donald Trump condemned the rampant fraud in Democrat-run Minnesota and pointed to Vance as the one leading the efforts of his administration’s “war on fraud” in his Feb. 24 State of the Union address. “When it comes to the corruption that is plundering — it really, it’s plundering America — there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer,” Trump said at the SOTU, adding, “Oh, we have all the information.”


“And, in actuality, the number is much higher than that, and California, Massachusetts, Maine and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn’t believe,” Trump continued. The pause affects $259 million in federal payments to the Gopher State, which will be withheld until the state government demonstrates corrective actions against widespread social and welfare fraud. The vice president has given Democrat Tim Walz of Minnesota 60 days to clean up the state’s Medicaid rolls after it was exposed that taxpayer dollars exceeding $9 billion were misallocated for illegal purposes, according to investigators.

“We have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money,” Vance said. “A lot of people were getting rich off the generosity of the American taxpayer!” JD Vance said in regard to criminals fraudulently taking money from needy assistance programs like “Feeding Our Future” and other government-funded initiatives meant to help autistic children.

“There are kids that need these autism services, and the money is not going to those kids. They’re going to fraudsters in Minneapolis. That is unacceptable. And that’s the sort of thing that we’re cutting off with this action today,” he added. The U.S. Department of Justice and Republican Party members in Congress have been highlighting the massive scandal since December 2025, when years of unaccounted-for fraud, mostly perpetrated by members of Minnesota’s Somali immigrant community, came under the national spotlight. The fraud concerns center on 14 state programs, including those for autism services and medical transports, where funds allegedly went to fraudsters instead of beneficiaries.

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“Greer notes Mexico and Canada being used as import hubs to avoid tariffs is a big issue.”

• USTR Greer Talks Baseline Tariff Reset Shifts and Reciprocity Tariffs (CTH)

The Supreme Court tariff ruling has created the need for U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to modify the baseline tariff approach with the approvals of President Trump. The baseline tariffs are being reset to 10% with upward adjustment to 15% as planned. The reciprocal tariffs will not require any substantive modifications as most of the Free Trade Agreements have been cemented with reciprocity tariffs as part of the negotiated deals. USTR Greer appears on Bloomberg to clarify the current situation and provide some information as to the transitional baseline tariffs as now modified. Additionally, and importantly, Greer begins discussing the USMCA review and his acceptance that President Trump is openly questioning the value for us. Greer notes Mexico and Canada being used as import hubs to avoid tariffs is a big issue. WATCH:


Section 232 [Steel and Aluminum examples] of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. §1862, as amended) authorizes the President to impose trade restrictions—such as a tariff or quota—if the Secretary of Commerce determines, following an investigation, that imports of a good “threaten to impair” U.S. national security. {SOURCE}

Section 301 tariffs are a trade enforcement mechanism established under the Trade Act of 1974. They allow the U.S. government to impose tariffs on imports from countries that are found to be engaging in unfair trade practices. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) conducts investigations to determine if a country is violating trade agreements, and if so, it can impose tariffs as a corrective measure {SOURCE}

Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the U.S. president to impose tariffs of up to 15% to address “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits. This authority can be exercised without prior congressional approval for a limited duration of 150 days. After this period, any tariffs must be extended by Congress. {SOURCE}

*FYI, there is a lot of distracting noise in the various social media platforms about internecine MAGA battles and ego-driven points of specific interest. CTH chooses to focus energy and attention on the substantive policy issues that will generate substantive policy outcomes for America.

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“Vassily Nebenzia has said his parents were of Zaporozhian Cossack heritage and were more Ukrainian than the current leadership in Kiev..”

“To us, there is no difference – we are all one – millions of Ukrainians in Russia, millions of Russians in Ukraine..”

• I’m Ukrainian – Russia’s UN Ambassador (RT)

Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has said he is Ukrainian, citing his parents’ roots. Speaking at the UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, the Russian diplomat stated that “formally speaking, I am Ukrainian.”n“I have such a strange last name – the Slavs know it’s hard to find even in Ukraine. It originates from The Zaporozhian Cossacks,” he clarified. The ethno-social group, known for its military exploits as early as the 16th century, played an important role in the history of what is today Ukraine.


“My father was a true Ukrainian, and my mother was of Cossack heritage, too,” Nebenzia said, claiming that they were more Ukrainian than Kiev’s current Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa and ambassador to the UN Andrey Melnik. The Russian envoy recounted how his father volunteered to join the Soviet army during World War II to fight the Nazis.mThe diplomat accused the current leadership in Kiev of “zombifying” the Ukrainian population into becoming modern-day Nazis. Russia’s ongoing military campaign is aimed at reversing these trends, according to Nebenzia, who added that it would continue for as long as necessary to achieve this goal. “To us, there is no difference – we are all one – millions of Ukrainians in Russia, millions of Russians in Ukraine, and in Belarus as well,” the diplomat concluded.

Moscow has repeatedly warned of a Nazi revival in Ukraine, describing “denazification” as one of the central goals of its military campaign against Kiev. Commemorations of World War II-era nationalist figures with ties to Nazi Germany have become increasingly common in Ukraine in recent years, particularly following the 2014 Maidan coup. Last April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine had “betrayed” its history by allowing the West to bring a Nazi regime to power in Kiev, which went on to declare “war against its own people.”

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“.. we should be prepared for Western leverage attempts ranging from the ridiculous to the flagrantly irresponsible.”

• Arming Ukraine With Nukes: Western Elites Have ‘Lost Touch With Reality’ (RT)

Ukraine could become a partial nuclear power as its Western backers desperately seek to avoid NATO’s defeat in a proxy war against Russia – at least according to Moscow’s intelligence services. On Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) warned that elements in the British and French governments who have “lost touch with reality” are considering a gross breach of their commitments under the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons. Officials in London and Paris are allegedly weighing options to support Kiev as it refuses concessions to Russia and reportedly prepares for up to three more years of hostilities funded by Western Europe. According to the SVR, the options include arming Ukraine with a nuclear capability through the “covert transfer of relevant European-made components, equipment, and technologies” that Kiev could claim as domestically developed, or through the direct supply of a French submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead.


Another option, the SVR said, is pushing Kiev to build a ‘dirty bomb’ – a non-nuclear device designed to contaminate territory with radioactive material, long considered a nightmare scenario for terrorist attacks. Russian officials have for years identified a Ukrainian dirty bomb as a major threat, citing Kiev’s ready access to necessary components. Ukrainian officials often claim their nation once possessed the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal and gave it up for false security promises. Vladimir Zelensky suggested at the 2022 Munich Security Conference that the decision could be reversed. The conflict with Russia escalated soon after the provocative remarks. In reality, nuclear weapons were present on Ukrainian soil after the Soviet collapse but were never “Ukraine’s arsenal” – Kiev could not launch them.

The US pressured Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to transfer the missiles to Russia, with three memorandums signed in Budapest in 1994. In 2012, Minsk said the US and UK breached their commitment “to refrain from economic coercion” of Belarus made in Budapest, after they imposed unilateral sanctions. The rebuke was brushed off by the West. Kiev is under increasing pressure as Russia maintains advantages in frontline attrition and long-range strikes. Zelensky’s rhetoric mixes declarations of resolve, gratitude for foreign support, and complaints that it is insufficient. Still, he insists Ukraine is not losing. Manpower shortages caused by mass desertion and public resistance to mobilization remain Ukraine’s biggest challenge. Zelensky’s solution: more money from the EU and UK.

“When it comes to people, Europeans can help us, if we switch our army – when we switch our army – from mobilization to contracts,” he told the BBC last week. Russia can recruit enough volunteers because it pays troops better, so Europeans should put Ukrainian soldiers on a payroll, he argued. Ukraine’s government is bankrolled by foreign donors and is facing bankruptcy by April unless the EU borrows €90 billion ($105 billion) to continue aid. The EU’s loan plan, however, has been stalled due to Kiev’s ongoing spat with Hungary and Slovakia over their purchase of Russian crude.

Desperation can drive invention, and going nuclear is achievable even for a small, relatively poor nation – as North Korea proves. Soviet Ukraine was a technological powerhouse with its own nuclear reactors and a world-class rocket industry, suggesting an advantage. But generational loss of expertise, wartime damage, and other factors lead Ukrainian officials to privately admit that claims of going nuclear are bluster. Even conventional military technology development has faltered. The Flamingo cruise missile, resembling a UK-UAE weapon, was supposed to be the backbone of Ukraine’s deep-strike capability, with hundreds produced monthly. In reality, launches are so few they are celebrated as major achievements.

Zelensky’s explanation at this year’s Munich Security Conference: Russians destroyed production lines. Alternative speculation: domestic producer Fire Point is suspicious. The firm is allegedly linked to Zelensky’s longtime associate Timur Mindich, who fled Ukraine last November hours before being charged with running a major graft scheme. So is the nuclear warning real? France and the UK smuggling a nuke to Ukraine sounds like a B-movie plot. So does a US president threatening to invade Greenland to protect it from Russia and China. These are strange times. Given the EU has publicly demanded that Russia cap its army or face Brussels’ rejection of a Ukraine peace deal, we should be prepared for Western leverage attempts ranging from the ridiculous to the flagrantly irresponsible.

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Bibi. Whether it’s Ukraine or the Middle East, Trump so far refuses to involve his military directly. Here’s thinking that’s a good thing.

• US Demands Iran Dismantle Its 3 Main Nuclear Sites In Hours-Long Talks (ZH)

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held more than three hours of negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Thursday in a push to secure a breakthrough on a nuclear deal, with the Omani foreign minister saying the talks will resume later after a pause. It’s being reported that the message Kushner and Witkoff deliver to Trump after the meeting will shape the president’s decision on whether the launch a military attack on Tehran or refrain for implementation of a permanent deal. While Trump declared in Tuesday’s State of the Union that he prefers diplomacy, he also presented a direct case for war – something which remains deeply unpopular among the American people. In these and other indirect talks, Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi relayed messages between the sides, and then another format has involved direct discussions between US and Iranian negotiators.


Iran presented its long-awaited draft proposal for a nuclear agreement, though not much in the way of details have been revealed. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Raphael Grossi was among those who participated in the negotiations. Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, the main mediator, said of the Thursday talks that “we’ve been exchanging creative and positive ideas” and “hope to make more progress.” Meanwhile, a former head of the IAEA has warned that all wars, “including ‘wars of choice’ have horrific costs” as fears of major conflict between the US and Iran escalate. Reports that Thursday talks stalled after US side demanded zero enrichment…

https://twitter.com/AhmadSamadi1974/status/2027025765007577268

“The US is intensifying the drumbeat of war against Iran, with zero explanation of the non-existent legal authority to use force and zero evidence of an ‘imminent threat’ other than hypothetical scenarios based on possible future intentions,” Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on X. “That is the reason for the restraints and limitations established by international norms… This is Iraq redux … it seems we never learn,” he emphasized. Fresh reporting in The Wall Street Journal has laid out the main US sticking points: In the talks, now under way in Geneva, the U.S. negotiators were expected to make clear Iran must dismantle its three main nuclear sites—at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan—and deliver all of its remaining enriched uranium to the U.S., officials said.

They were also expected to insist that any nuclear deal must last forever and not sunset—the way restrictions rolled off over time under a nuclear pact negotiated under the Obama administration that Republicans have long said was too weak. Trump pulled out of that deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in his first term, reimposing tough sanctions on Iran.

These are the very nuclear sites that the US said time and again it “obliterated” during the June war. This comes off Vice President J.D. Vance just the day prior stating that the White House “has seen evidence” that Iran is attempting to build a nuclear weapon. So Washington is going from proclaiming Iran’s nuclear sites were obliterated to now saying there’s evidence of the Iranians trying to clandestinely build a nuclear warhead. Of course, no evidence or so much as a reference to some kind of intelligence report has been presented to the world.

There are indeed mounting concerns that history is about to repeat itself, but this time there’s possibly many more American troops in harm’s way, given the significant reach and capabilities of Iran’s ballistic missiles and long-range drones.

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“We are aware of the theories circulated in the media and online that Epstein video recorded the abuse of his victims, including by other men, but we have found no evidence to support that theory,”

• Epstein Rushed Evidence Into Secret Storage Unit Before Raid (ZH)

Jeffrey Epstein paid private detectives to remove items from his Palm Beach property and store them in a secret storage locker shortly before he was raided by police in 2005. The storage unit contained three computers, 29 address books, a three-page list of Florida masseuses. The stash also included nude photographs believed to be of Epstein’s victims, VHS tapes, DVDs ‘eroticising teenagers’ and porno mags, The Telegraph reports. “An 8mm video cassette tape was also locked away in the storage unit, apparently containing footage of someone in the shower and a woman in lingerie, as well as a 2005 calendar, greeting cards, letters and laboratory results.”


The investigators also hid sex toys, body massagers, lingerie, cash, a concealed weapon permit, and a Harvard ID card. The inventory was emailed to Epstein and his lawyers in August 2009, a month after he was released from jail for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Also interesting, some of the computer material ‘appeared to be missing,’ including ‘equipment that would have linked to surveillance cameras. ‘That fuelled speculation that Epstein might have been recording explicit covert material without people’s knowledge, either for his own sexual gratification or for blackmail purposes.” And what do we have here? A guy who was installing recording equipment on Epstein’s island in 2014, and was named as a $1 million beneficiary in Epstein’s trust.

According to the report, the FBI did have copies of the two computer drives. The Palm Beach storage unit was just one of at least six such lockers across the United States that Epstein used to store files, computers and other items from his multiple properties – but search warrants reviewed by The Telegraph “suggest that US authorities never raided these lockers, raising the possibility that they contained unseen evidence relating to Epstein and his associates.” US authorities have long suspected that Epstein was tipped off before the October 2005 raid at his Palm Beach mansion, with former Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter commenting that “the place had been cleaned up.”

Meanwhile, French Police have released previously unseen pictures from Epstein’s Paris apartment, including one featuring a massage table and pictures of naked women hanging on the wall. Many victims have long alleged that Epstein secretly recorded encounters inside his homes, possibly for blackmail. Yet an internal FBI memo released in a later document tranche stated that investigators found no evidence supporting the theory that Epstein maintained video recordings of abuse involving other powerful figures. “We are aware of the theories circulated in the media and online that Epstein video recorded the abuse of his victims, including by other men, but we have found no evidence to support that theory,” the memo said. The agency added that if such material had existed, it would have been used in criminal prosecutions. Copies of two hard drives from the Palm Beach locker were eventually recovered at Epstein’s New York residence following his 2019 arrest, but the original computers are believed to have never been found. An FBI forensic analyst later testified that the drives contained photos of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and a job advertisement written by “GMax” seeking a massage therapist – but no explicit recordings of abuse.

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I hear Hillary is making the deposition political “on her socials..”

• Hillary Clinton to Testify in Epstein Probe on Thursday, Bill Clinton on Friday (JTN)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled Thursday to give her highly anticipated deposition in the House Oversight Committee’s probe into Jeffrey Epstein, followed by former President Bill Clinton on Friday. The depositions, which will take place in New York, come after a contentious negotiation between the Clintons’ attorneys and House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chair James Comer who pushed for in-person, recorded depositions rather than written testimony or declarations. The Clintons have not been accused of any wrongdoing and the depositions will be given behind closed doors in the couple’s hometown of Chappaqua.


The depositions are unusual in two ways. The first is that Bill Clinton will be the first former president compelled to testify under subpoena in such an inquiry, and the second is that lawmakers from both parties appear ready to grill the couple.“The major thing is that we’re looking for truth, for the survivors, and justice and accountability, and that’s something that cuts across party lines,” Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told The Hill. “At least on the Democratic side, we have said that anybody who was involved in criminal activity should pay the price for it.” Comer said Tuesday that he will release the video and transcript of the depositions as soon as the couple approves it.
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“Attack a cop, go to jail” is not a radical slogan. It is the bare minimum required to maintain a functioning city.”

• Mamdani’s NYC Flirts With Chaos (Ben Shapiro)

A brutal cold snap has gripped New York City and much of the East Coast, freezing streets, sidewalks — and, it seems, any remaining sense of civic restraint.In Washington Square Park, a group of adults began hurling snowballs and other objects at responding officers from the New York City Police Department. This was not playful roughhousing in a winter storm. Video shows grown men and women — some masked, some standing brazenly in the open, all apparently confident that consequences would be minimal — pelting officers as they arrived on scene. That confidence is the problem.


Assaulting police officers is not a prank. It is not political theater. It is a crime. Every individual captured on video throwing objects at officers should be identified, arrested and charged accordingly. “Attack a cop, go to jail” is not a radical slogan. It is the bare minimum required to maintain a functioning city. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch responded swiftly, calling the conduct “disgraceful” and “criminal” and confirming that detectives are investigating. The city’s largest police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, issued a sharper warning: Officers were treated for injuries, but the matter cannot end there. Those responsible must be identified and charged, and city leaders must condemn the attack unequivocally. That last point is key.

Public attitudes toward law enforcement do not form in a vacuum. They are shaped, in no small part, by the rhetoric of elected officials. When political figures spend years portraying police as inherently suspect or malign, it should surprise no one when segments of the public begin treating officers as legitimate targets. Consider New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Long before taking office, he built a reputation as a sharp critic of policing practices. Words matter. Tone matters. The cumulative effect of constant denunciation is cultural erosion — an environment in which hostility toward police feels permissible, even fashionable.

We have seen versions of this before. After the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, national rhetoric around policing shifted dramatically. The 2020 wave of anti-police protests accelerated that shift. In many major cities, calls to “reimagine” or defund police departments moved from activist slogans into policy debates — and, in some cases, into actual governance. The result in too many places has been confusion about first principles. Law is only as effective as its enforcement. Order is not automatic; it is maintained. When elected leaders send mixed signals about whether officers deserve institutional backing, the public receives the message. And disorder follows.

The current cold emergency adds another layer to the debate. As temperatures plunged, the administration touted the deployment of more than 500 outreach workers across the five boroughs to connect homeless residents with services. The mayor suggested that several recent deaths appear to be related to overdoses rather than the direct result of exposure. But the distinction raises its own question: Why are so many people still sleeping on the streets at all? In extreme weather, cities have both the authority and, many would argue, the obligation to compel vulnerable individuals into shelter. Allowing people to remain outdoors — whether they ultimately succumb to cold or drugs — reflects policy choices.

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Just one hacker, actually…

• So Hackers Just Stole Mexico’s Tax and Voter Rolls (Stephen Green)

This story doesn’t quite feature the gut-punch immediacy of Mexico’s drug war escalating into a virtual civil war last week in and around Puerto Vallarta, but as a glimpse into the future, maybe it ought to send a chill or three down your spine. According to a new Bloomberg story (paywalled, sorry), a weeks-long hacker campaign against the Mexican government culminated in January with a massive data theft of some of the federal government’s most sensitive information. “By the time it was over,” Let’s Data Science reported on Wednesday, “the attacker had stolen 150 gigabytes of sensitive data — including 195 million taxpayer records, voter registration files, government employee credentials, and civil registry data.”


If you’re thinking such a massive theft involved a team of hackers, years of planning involving a Stuxnet-like virus, or even physical access to Mexican government computer systems — think again. The almost unprecedented hack was done by just one guy. Using Anthropic’s Claude AI, despite all of Anthropic’s safeguards against something exactly like this.Summing up a report published Wednesday by Israeli cybersecurity startup Gambit Security, Bloomberg wrote that some “unknown Claude user” simply made up “Spanish-language prompts for the chatbot to act as an elite hacker, finding vulnerabilities in government networks, writing computer scripts to exploit them and determining ways to automate data theft.”

It seems like just two days ago [It was just two days ago, Steve —Editor] I wrote about Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei getting called onto the carpet by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth because the company refused to let the Pentagon remove Claude’s guardrails for military use. “Anthropic knows this is not a get-to-know-you meeting,” an anonymous War Department official told Axios on Monday. “This is not a friendly meeting,” they said. “This is a s**t-or-get-off-the-pot meeting.” So how did some internet rando get Claude to ignore similar built-in safeties against hacking? He asked: https://twitter.com/ns123abc/status/2026679645379141953

“It looks like the hacker was able to essentially jailbreak Claude with prompts, finally bypassing the chatbot’s guardrails. Claude originally refused the nefarious demands until eventually relenting,” Engadget reported on Wednesday. Nobody had to hack Claude to turn the AI into a malicious hacker. They just had to get the phrasing right until Claude did the job itself. Gambit claimed that “In total, [Claude] produced thousands of detailed reports that included ready-to-execute plans, telling the human operator exactly which internal targets to attack next and what credentials to use.”

Going back to that Bloomberg story, an Anthropic spokesperson told the outlet that “the company feeds examples of malicious activity back into Claude to learn from it, and one of its latest AI models, Claude Opus 4.6, includes probes that can disrupt misuse.” But Anthropic made similar claims about the current version, too.

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Legalizing 500,000 aliens in one fell swoop is more then Spain can handle.

• Spain’s Government: Spinning Out of Control (Drieu Godefridi)

Between corruption and radicalization, Spain’s government seems to be spinning out of control.
In 1936, Spain plunged into civil war. A proud nation collapsed into violence, fire, and devastation. The Spanish Civil War, which set a communist-dominated Republican left against an authoritarian nationalist right, claimed roughly half a million lives. Priests were dragged through the streets, beaten, and mutilated — ears, noses, even genitals cut off — before being shot or having their throats slit. Nuns were raped prior to execution, in cases documented across several regions. Churches were set ablaze with priests still inside. In many towns, militiamen forced clergy to drink motor oil or gasoline before burning them alive. Spain’s right wing, not to be outdone, killed just as many.

Almost a century later, when one might have hoped that these wounds had finally healed, political and cultural fault lines are reopening. Polarization has reached levels rarely seen since Spain’s transition to democracy.

1. The original trauma of the Spanish left
The Spanish Civil War, in Spain’s collective memory, remains an open wound. For a significant portion of the Spanish “left” — standing for workers’ rights, a shorter work week, women’s and transgender rights, reducing carbon emissions — the dominant narrative remains that of a revolution betrayed, confiscated by fascism, and still pending, never repaired. This historical resentment has been transmitted from generation to generation like an act of faith. Today, under the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his coalition, which governs with the support of the extreme-left, this resentment is resurfacing in the form of historical revisionism.

By constantly summoning the specters of the past — going so far as to exhume Francisco Franco’s remains, in a direct evocation of civil-war-era practices, when communists gleefully desecrated the graves of their so-called “class enemies” — is the left not in danger of reviving the hatreds and violence of the past?

2. A left without a compass: ideological orphanhood
Spain’s left is becoming more radical precisely because it has run out of ideas. Marxism, long the doctrinal backbone of the global left, lost all credibility with the implosion of the USSR, amid the stench of cabbage and corpses. Spain is no exception. Stripped of this ideological foundation, the Spanish left now finds itself without a compass.Before the July 2023 elections, Sánchez promised a bold progressive agenda: mass public housing construction, reducing the working week to 37.5 hours, large minimum wage hikes, slashing healthcare waiting lists with binding maximum times, free public transport for youth, and expanded public education. Critically, delivery on these massive flagship promises has been dismal to date: virtually no new public housing built, prices soaring, the work-week reduction defeated in parliament, real wages eroded by inflation, and chronic healthcare waiting lists unchanged.

Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), once anchored in moderate, reformist social democracy, has gradually shifted toward a strategy of sheer political survival. To remain in power, it allied itself first with Podemos and then with Sumar—two extreme left-wing parties obsessed with supporting Palestinians, against NATO, and soft on Russia — as well as with separatist movements. In doing so, the PSOE diluted its original moderate reformist vision through blatant opportunism, sacrificing doctrinal coherence in favor of questionable alliances.

3. A patchwork of incoherent dogmas
Deprived of Marxism, the Spanish left has sought refuge in a disparate ideological mosaic: radical environmentalism, complicit indulgence toward political Islam, the dismantling of borders, unconditional support for the Palestinians against Israel – all stacked together into an improbable and incoherent magma. Added to this are recurring undertones of anti-Semitism in left-wing discourse — one thinks in particular of Yolanda Díaz, seemingly a figure of clinical hysteria, whose face visibly contorts the moment she pronounces the word “Israeli.” By radicalizing itself across every issue, the left fuels the anger of the right, the middle classes, and a growing segment of the population that feels marginalized, despised, and alienated within its own country.

4. A regime corrupt to the core?
The Sánchez government has another reason for aligning with jihadists: the corruption scandals that have engulfed even the prime minister’s immediate family. First comes the Koldo-Ábalos scandal involving irregular public contracts, illegal commissions, and bribes linked to public-works contracts, totaling several hundred million euros. Several figures are particularly implicated. Former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos, a close ally of Sánchez, is in pre-trial detention for criminal organization, corruption, embezzlement, and influence peddling.

Koldo García, Ábalos’s former adviser, is a central figure in the scheme. He too is in pre-trial detention and under prosecution. Santos Cerdán, former secretary of organization of the PSOE and Ábalos’s successor, is under investigation and was detained for corruption in public-works contracts. The Civil Guard is examining 22 contracts, worth €355 million, that were allegedly manipulated by favoritism. Added to this are the cases involving Sánchez’s own family. Begoña Gómez, his wife, was formally charged with influence peddling, corruption in business, embezzlement of public funds, misappropriation, and illegally practicing a regulated profession, in a case that was opened in April 2024. In August 2025, the probe was extended to include her advisor Cristina Álvarez.

The investigation into Gómez has been extended until at least April 2026 and continues with active measures, including February 2026 requests to the Interior Ministry for travel records of Gómez and Álvarez since 2018 (covering destinations such as the Dominican Republic, Congo, Guinea, and Russia), access to emails, and Civil Guard reports.David Sánchez, the prime minister’s brother, is also being prosecuted, for influence peddling and malfeasance in connection with his employment at the Badajoz Provincial Council. “The prime minister faces multiple legal challenges this year that could lead to the downfall of his family, his party, and his government,” summarizes Spanish daily El Mundo.[..]

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For now, it seems AI is whatever you want it to be …

• Even the Best AI Scenario Is the End of Everything We’ve Ever Been (Ring)

In 1999, I had the privilege of working for one of the first companies to develop a product that would transmit video on the fledgling internet. Broadband access was still a few years away, and the company floundered when the first so-called internet bubble burst in early 2000. But I’ll never forget the reaction an investor had when he viewed our demo at a tradeshow. “This is a revolution,” he exclaimed. “This is going to change everything.” He was right, of course. I remember attending a tech investor conference only a few years earlier and having a chuckle while listening to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison somberly proclaim that the dawning internet was the most profound scientific development in human history “since the invention of fire.”


And Ellison was also correct. But the invention of AI is to the internet what the internet was to bringing fire into the prehistoric cave. What’s coming with AI makes the internet look like a baby step by comparison. Nothing will ever be the same. A must-read essay by AI entrepreneur and founder of the company “OthersideAI,” Matt Shumer, makes clear just how much and how quickly AI is changing our lives. Posted on his personal website on February 9 and then on X on February 10, the essay has gone viral. Within just two days, it generated 76 million views on X.One of Shumer’s most memorable paragraphs from this essay, which he says AI tools helped him write, is where he quotes Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic:

“Imagine it’s 2027. A new country appears overnight. 50 million citizens, every one smarter than any Nobel Prize winner who has ever lived. They think 10 to 100 times faster than any human. They never sleep. They can use the internet, control robots, direct experiments, and operate anything with a digital interface.” That’s not far off. With ample evidence, Shumer explains how not only is Amodei correct in his details regarding just how pervasive and powerful AI entities will become, but also regarding the timeline. This will happen within one year. Shumer’s essay covers a lot of ground. He explains that AI programs are now capable of generating improved versions of themselves with minimal human intervention and that they are within months of being able to produce more powerful versions with no human involvement whatsoever.

In the programming world, AI can now build, test, and refine apps independently. Entry-level programming jobs are going to go away. That’s hardly the end of it. Shumer reminds readers that the free versions of AI are a year behind the premium versions that require subscriptions and that these premium versions are so capable that they can already, for example, not merely replace a law associate but do the work of the managing partners. He claims there is no intellectual field where AI isn’t poised to outperform humans and that robots to displace physical work are only a few years behind. If you’ve been following developments in AI, Shumer’s essay isn’t incredibly surprising.

But something else grabbed me a few days ago that highlighted the human implications of the AI revolution. One of the categories of content I enjoy on YouTube is videos of musicians performing new or classic songs. It is exhilarating to find something new that reveals great songwriting and great performative talent. So a recommended video caught my eye. The title was inviting: “Simon Cowell in Tears As Michael Bennett Sings ‘After I Pass Away.’” This seemed worth clicking on. I’ll never forget the 2007 video, featured on YouTube at the time, of a humble mobile phone salesman, Paul Potts, who stunned the judges and audience on Britain’s Got Talent by singing a powerful and nearly perfect rendition of Nessun Dorma. He went on to win the competition. So if this new talent was good enough to make Simon Cowell cry, I wanted to hear him.

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Feb 232026
 
 February 23, 2026  Posted by at 10:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  60 Responses »


Edgar Degas Danseuse au Tutu Vert 1887


• JPMorgan De-Banked Trump Shortly After Jan 6th Capitol Chaos (ZH)
• Susan Rice Joins Call for a Revenge Purge If Democrats Re-Take Power (Turley)
• Trump Calls on Netflix to Fire Susan Rice (Matt Margolis)
• Europe To Recruit Migrants For “National Defense” (ZH)
• Sen. Kennedy Tells Us What He Thinks of AOC (Spencer)
• Scott Bessent Outlines “Multiple Tools” Now Deployed in Tariff Policy (CTH)
• Scott Jennings Drops Massive Truth Bomb About Supreme Court on CNN (Margolis)
• Mamdani Is Collapsing Faster Than We Thought (Margolis)
• CNN SLAMS Keir Starmer’s ATROCIOUS Ratings (MN)
• Starmer Appoints ‘Queen Of Woke’ As UK’s Top Civil Servant – Reform UK (RT)
• German Court Rules X Must Turn Over Data on Hungarian Govt Support (CTH)
• Hungary and Slovakia Push Back on Ukraine’s Oil Dispute (Manney)
• NASA Chief Blasts Boeing Over Botched Starliner Mission (RT)
• Investigation Exposes Cover-Up of Obama Center Taxpayer Scam (Matt Margolis)
• Is Tucker Carlson’s Career Toast Now? (Matt Margolis)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2025224492558016784?s=20 Bessent gay https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2024998754667966960?s=20

 


 

 


 

 


 


On January 22 2026, the Epoch Times wrote: Trump Sues JPMorgan Chase Over Alleged Debanking . A month later, on February 22, new docs confirmed it all and they said: Documents Confirm JPMorgan Closed Trump’s Bank Accounts After Jan. 6 Capitol Breach . Also on February 22, Zero Hedge then cited the Epoch Times. see below.

We now know for double sure that one month after Jan.6, 2021, which is also right after his first presidential term, JPMorgan closed over 50 bank accounts tied to Donald Trump. Fankly, that raises more questions than I can answer. (Where do the contents go?) Trump filed a $5 billion lawsuit. And he should win. Banks should not feel free to act on political whims.

• JPMorgan De-Banked Trump Shortly After Jan 6th Capitol Chaos (ZH)

New court documents released Friday show JPMorgan Chase told President Donald Trump a month after the January 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol that the bank was closing his accounts. The disclosure was made amid a $5 billion lawsuit Trump filed against JPMorgan and its CEO Jamie Dimon. JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, said for the first time late Friday that it cut off more than 50 Trump accounts in February 2021, shortly after Mr. Trump’s first term ended. The accounts included those for Trump hotels, housing developments and retail shops in Illinois, Florida and New York, as well as Mr. Trump’s personal private banking relationship that handled his inheritance from his father, according to letters filed to the court.


JPMorgan did not specify in those letters a specific reason for the mass account closings. In one unsigned note to Mr. Trump, dated Feb. 19, 2021, the bank wrote that he would need to “find a more suitable institution with which to conduct business.” The letter closed with, “Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter” – a phrase that President Trump often uses. As NYTimes reports, the President has maintained for years that his bank account closures were politically motivated, and a spokesperson for his legal team said the newest court documents are “a devastating concession that proves President Trump’ entire claim. [JPMorgan] admitted to unlawfully and intentionally de-banking President Trump, his family, and his businesses, causing overwhelming financial harm, the spokesperson said.

President Trump is standing up for all those wrongly debanked by JPMorgan Chase and its cohorts, and will see this case to a just and proper conclusion. the attorneys added. Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, which named Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, as a defendant, contended that the bank put Mr. Trump on a blacklist because it “needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views.” That echoed earlier complaints from Mr. Trump that Capital One similarly closed his accounts and that Bank of America refused to accept billions of dollars in deposits after the Jan. 6 riots. The bank told The Epoch Times over email it will seek to dismiss the claims. “Plaintiffs’ threadbare allegations do not allege sufficient facts to plead a claim,” the institution said.

JPMorgan told The Epoch Times last month that the case “has no merit.” “[JPMorgan Chase] does not close accounts for political or religious reasons,” JPMorgan previously said. “We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company.” “We regret having to do so, but often rules and regulatory expectations lead us to do so.” These comments were made last month, days after Trump announced on social media his intention to sue the bank.

Since then, Trump’s lawyers have alleged in court documents that JPMorgan closed the president’s accounts because of its “‘woke’ beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views.” “In essence, [JPMorgan Chase] debanked Plaintiffs’ Accounts because it believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so,” the lawsuit states. JPMorgan added it supports the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent the weaponization of the banking sector. There is still much legal wrangling to come. JPMorgan this past week asked that the case be moved from Florida state court, where Mr. Trump has had some success in litigation, to a federal court in New York.

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One scary lady.

• Susan Rice Joins Call for a Revenge Purge If Democrats Re-Take Power (Turley)

As Democrats plan for the possible takeover in the midterms and 2028 election, they are already openly discussing their push for radical changes in our political system, including packing the Supreme Court to guarantee that those changes are allowed. Many are also pledging trials, impeachments, and investigations of anyone who supported President Donald Trump in a purging of politics and government. The latest to join the revenge purge pledge is Susan Rice, Democratic powerbroker and top policy adviser to both President Barack Obama and Joe Biden.In an interview this week, Rice declared that supporters of Trump can expect the proverbial knocks on their doors:


“A very prominent public figure, who has served at nearly the very highest levels, once told me … ‘Revenge is best served cold,’ and the older I get, the more I see the wisdom of that.”She added: When it comes to the elites, you know, the corporate interests, the law firms, the universities, the media … it’s not going to end well for them, for those that decided that they would act in their perceived very narrow self-interest, which I would underscore, is very short-term self-interest, and, you know, take a knee to Trump. The promise to crackdown political opponents is hardly unexpected in this age of rage. Indeed, Democrats can point to the purging of the federal ranks, particularly at the Justice Department, as further justification for a tit-for-tat response.

Democratic politicians and pundits have been fueling the anger of their base with ludicrous claims that democracy is about to die since the 2020 election. They have now used anti-ICE protests to stoke the anger in the hope that it will return them to power in the midterm elections. Bravo star and liberal podcast host Jennifer Welch praised footage of a “No Kings” protester celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk. After playing the clip, Welch laughed with joy and declared, “So listen up, Democratic establishment. You can either jump on board with this s—, or we’re coming after you in the same way that we come after MAGA. Period.”

The pledge for revenge purges is an obvious way to further motivate a mob. In my book, Rage and the Republic, I discuss how elected officials often try to enlist mobs to advance their political agendas — only to be consumed by the unrest they helped fuel. This yielding to a “mobocracy” was one of the critical dangers that the Framers sought to deter through protections against majoritarian tyranny. It is a history that figures like Rice are ignoring in the hope of riding this rage wave back into power. The fact is that history has shown that “it’s not going to end well” for establishment figures like Rice who believe that they can control a mob.

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“How much is she being paid, and for what??? Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

• Trump Calls on Netflix to Fire Susan Rice (Matt Margolis)

On Preet Bharara’s podcast, Obama’s scandal-scarred former U.N. ambassador promised that any corporation, law firm, university, or media outlet that “took a knee to Trump” will be targeted when the left is back in charge. “It’s not gonna end well for them,” she warned, casting basic engagement with the Trump administration as a kind of original sin that must be punished. And now President Donald Trump wants accountability. On Saturday, Trump called on Netflix to fire Rice. “Netflix should fire racist, Trump Deranged Susan Rice, IMMEDIATELY, or pay the consequences,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.


“She’s got no talent or skills – Purely a political hack! HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK. How much is she being paid, and for what??? Thank you for your attention to this matter.” In her interview with Bharara, Rice argued that major institutions are sensing a political shift and regretting their support for Trump. But that won’t stop the Democrats from settling scores aggressively. “If these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are gonna, you know, play by the old rules, and say, ‘Oh, never mind, we’ll forgive you for all the people you’ve fired, all the policies and principles you’ve violated, all, you know, the laws you’ve skirted,’ I think they’ve got another thing coming,” Rice said.

She pointed to redistricting as proof that Democrats are done playing nice. “Just like when Trump thought, ‘Okay, I’ll redistrict, and the Democrats won’t have the guts to play hardball,’ they’re gonna be surprised. Democrats have had a belly full, and we’re not gonna play by, you know, the old set of rules, when these guys are playing by a very different set of rules.” Rice made clear that companies that accommodated the Trump administration will face consequences — big tech, media, universities, and law firms. “There will be an accountability agenda,” she warned. She even urged businesses to brace for investigations. “They better preserve their documents. They better be ready for subpoenas. If they’ve done something wrong, they’ll be held accountable.”

The only companies that would avoid the wrath of vengeful Democrats would be the ones that were on the “right” side of history. “If they haven’t broken the law, good for them,” she said. “If they’ve done the right things, good for them. That also will be noted and remembered.” We all know what that really means: If they were loyal to the Democratic Party, they’re in the clear. Her message was blunt. “This is not going to be an instance of, you know, forgive and forget… the damage that these people are doing is too severe to the American people and to our national interest,” Rice said.

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Muslims will defend the Christian heartland. Yeah yeah. Europe will no longer be Christian. And that’s a big deal, because then it will automatically become Muslim. Yes it will. And only then will the original population start defending itself. Much too late. Now there will be blood.

• Europe To Recruit Migrants For “National Defense” (ZH)

Europe’s lack of military readiness has become painfully obvious in recent years, due largely to the war in Ukraine as well as the Trump Administration’s efforts to force NATO members to fulfill their basic obligations. Specifically, Russia’s successful use of attrition tactics against NATO supported forces in Ukraine has exposed a significant weakness in western military doctrine.New and cheap technologies (including drone technologies) are making large scale maneuver warfare obsolete. The era of super-weapons dominating the battlefield with minimal manpower is over. As was the case in WWI and WWII, troop strength and boots on the ground are once again the key to victory.


A Washington DC-based defense think-tank, Center For A New American Century (CNAS), has come to the same realization and suggests a novel (as well as predictable) solution: Exploit mass immigration from Ukraine and third world countries to the west as a resource to fill the persistent void in military recruitment numbers. Writing for Foreign Policy, the CNAS notes: “Closing manpower gaps may prove harder than writing bigger checks. The continent’s demographic crisis compounds the problem: Births in the European Union fell below 4 million in 2022 for the first time since 1960, shrinking the pool of potential recruits as geopolitical threats—chief among them, Russian aggression—demand larger, more capable forces…

The argument, of course, presupposes that Russia has any intention of invading greater Europe. There is no evidence that this is Vladimir Putin’s goal. However, the Russian bogeyman does make for a useful excuse to justify the development of a unified EU military force. The threat of war can also be exploited by European officials as a way to justify open borders and mass immigration from the third world. Immigration from Ukraine makes some sense – It is a legitimate war torn country and Ukrainians are close to the rest of Europeans in terms of cultural attitude. But, EU elites need a rationale for flooding the region with third worlders and war with Russia seems to be their ticket. The CNAS uses the “demographic collapse” claim as a catalyst.

“Ukraine’s grinding war of attrition has laid bare an uncomfortable truth: Emerging capabilities in the form of high-tech weaponry cannot substitute for boots on the ground. Soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guardsmen, and airmen are the backbone of national defense. Yet the European Commission estimates a 43 million reduction in the bloc’s working-age population by 2070…” “…Meanwhile, Europe continues to grapple with significant migration flows from Africa, the Middle East, and other regions. These arrivals, often young, male, and seeking better opportunities, represent exactly the demographic cohort European militaries desperately need. Many migrants arrive with valuable skills: language abilities, cultural knowledge of strategic regions, technical expertise, and, most importantly, motivation to prove themselves and build new lives.”

It should be noted that these kind of articles from think-tanks are not so much “suggestions” for future policy initiatives. Rather, they are propaganda pieces designed to promote policies that governments already intend to implement in the near future. A number of European countries have already begun the groundwork for recruiting migrants for national defense. Ireland just recently announced that their are reviewing a possible program to give fast-track citizenship to immigrants who volunteer to join the military. Irish leaders assert that this is necessary to boost defense capabilities, but they also argue that it is need to increase Ireland’s “diversity.” Several other European governments are looking at similar programs, including Germany, France and Spain.

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“But our plan for dealing with her, as I have said before, has always been ‘Operation Let Her Speak.’”

• Sen. Kennedy Tells Us What He Thinks of AOC (Spencer)

Sen. John N. Kennedy (R-La.) is easily the funniest guy in the United States Senate, and would be the most hilarious politician in all of Washington were it not for the wit who currently occupies the Oval Office. Of course, most of his competition in this regard is no competition at all, as politicians are historically likely to be people who take themselves altogether too seriously. Today’s Democrats in particular are some of the sourest, unpleasant, and humorless people on the entire planet, so weighed down are they with the noble and never-ending struggle against Orange Man Bad, borders, gender, sanity, and common sense. And nobody, and I mean nobody, takes himself or herself or ximself more seriously than the average leftist who thinks that he (or she or xe) is nobly defending — well, not exactly the nation, which they want to leave borderless and defenseless, but at very least all the people who think the right thoughts and check all the proper boxes for the correct candidates — from the spread of “fascism.”


It’s doubtful that even a tiny percentage of these po-faced, self-righteous, self-important clowns even know what fascism is, but whatever, dude. They’re still busy saving us from it, and one of our principal saviors is none other than Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-The Queensboro), who recently went down in flames at the Munich Security Conference. After AOC sputtered and stuttered and hemmed and hawed and faked her way through an answer to a question about whether the U.S. should defend Taiwan militarily in the event of an attack from Communist China, President Donald Trump commented acidly: “Her performance was horrible. I was surprised, actually. I didn’t know she was stupid.”

One who did know that, however, was Sen. Kennedy, and on Friday, he didn’t hold back. “The Congresswoman,” Kennedy said as Charles Hurt of Fox News chuckled in the background, “is kind of like Vice President Kamala Harris, but with more bartending experience.” If you’d like a word salad with your beer, you’ll be happy to know that Kennedy was just getting warmed up.“She has never been accused,” Kennedy continued, “of being a policy maven. You put her in a presidential primary with Elizabeth Warren or Rahm Emanuel, they will devour her like a light snack.” The senator then added semi-apologetically: “I probably shouldn’t say this, but she can get me back.” No doubt about that, but can AOC be as funny as John Neely Kennedy? Not a chance? Will she even try, or just huff and puff about how evil Republicans are lowering the civil tone of our august legislative bodies? The smart money is on the self-righteous posturing.

Kennedy’s most uproarious jab came next: “Someone told me a joke today. They said Congresswoman Cortez announced today categorically that she is not a moron. And she went on to say she hasn’t even been to Utah, much less embraced their religion.” Buh-dum tiss! Kennedy then reiterated: “Now she can get me back, I don’t dislike the congresswoman.” And then he concluded with another zinger: “But our plan for dealing with her, as I have said before, has always been ‘Operation Let Her Speak.’ And so far, it’s working, and my message to my friend the congresswoman, is ‘You go girl! You just keep it up.’” Can we clone Sen. Kennedy? Can we get 52 more of him to fill out the ranks of Senate Republicans? Imagine the hilarity if we had 53 Kennedys instead of the likes of Thune, McConnell, Murkowski, Collins, and so many others. Not only would the legislation be better, but so would the laughs, and there’s a lot to be said for that.

Sen. Kennedy https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2025199354311520451?s=20 https://twitter.com/Jules31415/status/2025262073802858614?s=20 Read more …

There are so many options. Why did he pick the wrong one?

• Scott Bessent Outlines “Multiple Tools” Now Deployed in Tariff Policy (CTH)

Speaking to the Economic Club of Dallas, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlines what technical procedures the Trump administration will trigger now to retain tariff authority. As anticipated Bessent outlines section 232 tariffs, section 301 tariffs, and Section 122 tariffs. WATCH (prompted):


Section 232 [Steel and Aluminum examples] of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. §1862, as amended) authorizes the President to impose trade restrictions—such as a tariff or quota—if the Secretary of Commerce determines, following an investigation, that imports of a good “threaten to impair” U.S. national security. {SOURCE}

Section 301 tariffs are a trade enforcement mechanism established under the Trade Act of 1974. They allow the U.S. government to impose tariffs on imports from countries that are found to be engaging in unfair trade practices. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) conducts investigations to determine if a country is violating trade agreements, and if so, it can impose tariffs as a corrective measure {SOURCE}

Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the U.S. president to impose tariffs of up to 15% to address “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits. This authority can be exercised without prior congressional approval for a limited duration of 150 days. After this period, any tariffs must be extended by Congress. {SOURCE}

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“This is a properly functioning government today.

• Scott Jennings Drops Massive Truth Bomb About Supreme Court on CNN (Margolis)

Whatever you think about the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday on tariffs, the ruling was a blunt reality check for the Democrats, whose rhetoric about the high court has been vicious in recent years. On CNN’s NewsNight, host Abby Phillip was walking through the financial fallout from a court ruling, citing a CBO report that found U.S. businesses absorb about 30% of import price increases, while consumers bear the remaining 70% — with the net effect pushing consumer prices up by roughly 95 percent of the domestically borne tariff costs. Inflation has remained low and stable under President Donald Trump, but whatever. The left loves to push their narrative regardless of the facts. Scott Jennings promptly called out her inconsistency.


“Well, which is it?” he said. “You said all of it was passed through to the consumers. You said that most of it was absorbed by some of the companies. It sounds like maybe it might be a little bit of both.” While Phillip suggested refunds should mirror how the tariffs were collected, Jennings predicted a bureaucratic nightmare, warning of massive sums of money at stake and years of litigation likely to follow. Then Jennings shifted gears entirely, and this is where things got interesting.

“I’ll just say, you know, politically, today, you know, it was a big breaking news day, but I just think we ought to acknowledge something,” he said. “This is a properly functioning government today. The president of the United States, the head of the executive branch, made a policy decision. The Supreme Court, it renders legal opinions about these kinds of decisions, made a decision, they said, you can’t do that. The president of the United States said, ‘Okay, I agree, and I will acknowledge your decision. I’m going to use a different statute to try to do what I want to do.’ This is properly functioning government.”

He wasn’t done. Jennings went straight at the media narrative that has dominated coverage of this Supreme Court for the past two years — the one that cast the court as essentially a rubber stamp for whatever Trump wanted.”For every Democrat and every media person that has gone on for the last year or two about how this Supreme Court is a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald Trump, that it’s not independent, that it does whatever he says to do, obviously, that narrative was obliterated today.”

He drove it home: “So, to me, I thought this was actually — I thought the ruling was sound. I think the president is sound to try other statutes. And I think the narratives about the court not being independent and the president not obeying the court were totally blown up today.” How can you argue with that logic? You can’t. Democrats have become so obsessed with the narrative that the court has been a rubber stamp for Trump; they’ve literally considered packing the court because of this narrative. Frankly, the conservatives on the Supreme Court have shown far more independence than any of the leftists on the court.

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Wait till he starts raising taxes.

• Mamdani Is Collapsing Faster Than We Thought (Margolis)

You can’t say we didn’t warn New York what was going to happen if it elected Zohran Mamdani, but I gotta say, I don’t think anyone predicted it would start collapsing so quickly. But, alas, it has. That socialist utopia that Mamdani was supposed to deliver has instead turned into a slow-motion fiscal catastrophe a mere two months in — and even the liberal media is starting to notice. Mamdani unveiled a $127 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 this week — a staggering $5 billion increase over the prior year. But what’s $5 billion between socialists, right?


To put that into perspective, Mamdani’s proposed budget is actually larger than the budgets of 47 U.S. states, including Florida, which has nearly twice the population. And somehow, it still isn’t enough. The city is staring down a $5.4 billion deficit, with the real gap potentially closer to $12 billion when you do the actual math. So what was his plan? Tax someone else. Mamdani went straight to Albany looking for a handout, demanding that Gov. Kathy Hochul raise taxes on the “ultra-wealthy” and the most profitable corporations. When Hochul told him to pound sand and cut spending instead, he obviously couldn’t do that, and now he is looking at saddling homeowners with a 9.5% property tax hike.

“Faced with no other choice, the city would have to exercise the only revenue lever fully within our own control,” he said. “We would have to raise property taxes. We would also be forced to raid our reserves. To balance the budget as required by law, our preliminary budget takes the only path within our control: the second path. The options of the second path are the options of last resort. Options that we will only employ if there is no other means of arriving at a balanced budget.” As a New York resident, I can say there’s finally something I can agree with Hochul on. Why should the rest of the state subsidize Mamdani’s socialist experiment in New York City?

Let it foot the bill for the mistake of electing Mamdani. Remember, this is the guy who campaigned on affordability and making the rich “pay their fair share,” and now he’s already in a position where he has to tax regular people to cover the costs of his promises. This budget crisis he’s facing two months into his term comes on top of him taking heat for poor trash cleanup and snow removal on his watch. Two months into the job, and the basics aren’t getting done. Conservatives warned about exactly this before last year’s election. We said a self-described democratic socialist running one of the world’s most financially complex cities was a recipe for disaster. Voters in New York went ahead anyway. Now the city faces the reckoning that was entirely predictable.

“No one in New York is ambitious enough to dramatically reshape city government, and residents either vote for class warfare or vote with their feet,” the Washington Post editorial board observed. “A reckoning will have to come eventually. The question is how bad it gets before reality sets in.” That question may answer itself sooner than anyone expected. “No one in New York is ambitious enough to dramatically reshape city government, and residents either vote for class warfare or vote with their feet,” the Washington Post editorial board observed. “A reckoning will have to come eventually. The question is how bad it gets before reality sets in.” That question may answer itself sooner than anyone expected.

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The “leaders” of the large Eropean nations all poll in the sewers..

• CNN SLAMS Keir Starmer’s ATROCIOUS Ratings (MN)

Keir Starmer’s approval ratings have plunged to historic lows, with even CNN calling them “absolutely ATROCIOUS” and noting that President Trump appears “downright like Abraham Lincoln” by comparison. This brutal takedown highlights how Starmer’s globalist policies are alienating Brits across the board. As the Labour leader clings to power, his war on free speech and commitment to protecting illegal immigration is fueling a backlash that could spell the end for his regime. With polls showing just 20% approval, Starmer’s grip on Number 10 looks increasingly tenuous. The Overton News clip, which has gone viral on X, captures CNN’s scathing assessment of Starmer’s popularity nosedive.


In the segment, analyst Harry Enten declares, “The se numbers are absolutely ATROCIOUS! I mean, you never see numbers like this in the United States of America.” Focusing on the dire stats, Enten points out, “Britons who like Keir Starmer, look at this — overall it’s just 1 in 5! It’s just 1 in 5, 20%!” Even within his own ranks, support is crumbling: “His OWN party, Labour, he’s just at 52% there.” The commentary escalates, revealing, “I’ve even seen numbers with satisfaction in the TEENS — and this is actually HIGHER than the lowest.” The most striking line compares Starmer unfavorably to Trump: “You know, we always talk about Donald Trump being unpopular in this country — but Donald Trump looks downright like Abraham Lincoln compared to Keir Starmer’s numbers at this point!”

The latest YouGov survey from February 2026 shows Starmer’s net favourability at -47, with only 22% viewing him positively against 69% unfavorably. That’s an improvement from January’s -57, but still abysmal for a sitting PM.Other trackers paint an even grimmer picture. Ipsos reported satisfaction in the teens late last year, aligning with CNN’s observations. Opinium’s February poll pegs his net approval at -44, with over half the public calling for his resignation. Starmer’s woes stem from policies that prioritize globalist agendas over British interests. Mass immigration continues unchecked, straining public services while borders remain porous. Economic missteps, like burdensome regulations on businesses, echo the failures of socialist experiments.

Recall our earlier coverage where a former aide to Starmer revealed how a “stakeholder state” – an unelected network of insiders, NGOs, and civil servants – effectively controls the UK government. Paul Ovenden described this “political perma-class” as diverting power from voters to elite priorities, wasting resources on fringe issues while ignoring secure borders and sovereignty. This shadowy influence explains Starmer’s disconnect from the public, leading to approval ratings that rival the worst in postwar history. Historical comparisons show that every UK PM with similar low ratings either lost big or resigned before the next election. Adding fuel to the fire is Starmer’s aggressive stance against free expression. Threats to ban platforms like X over AI-generated content have drawn international condemnation.

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“Romeo set out plans for civil servants to spend around 20% of their working hours on diversity objectives such as encouraging workers to display their preferred pronouns and “recruiting non-binary staff,”

• Starmer Appoints ‘Queen Of Woke’ As UK’s Top Civil Servant – Reform UK (RT)

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appointed the “Queen of Woke” as his new cabinet secretary, Reform UK party spokesperson Zia Yusuf wrote on X on Friday. Antonia Romeo’s elevation to the UK’s most senior civil servant position is the “embodiment of all that’s wrong” with the current establishment, Yusuf argued. While heading the Department for International Trade (DIT), “she bombarded staff with weekly emails pushing Transgender Awareness Week, Bi Visibility Day, and even recommended watching films about trans parenthood,” he claimed. During her time working in the Home Office, “65,000 illegal migrants have crossed on her watch,” he said.


During her stint at the DIT, Romeo set out plans for civil servants to spend around 20% of their working hours on diversity objectives such as encouraging workers to display their preferred pronouns and “recruiting non-binary staff,” the Telegraph reported on Friday, citing internal documents. She also reportedly instructed staff to join a “gender non-conforming book club” as part of their corporate performance review. Starmer has argued that Romeo is the “right person” for government to deliver a “period of national renewal.”

Only 15% of Britons approve of the prime minister’s job performance, according to an Ipsos poll from last month. His approval ratings have been battered by dissatisfaction with his handling of the ongoing migrant crisis, a surge in arrests related to comments made online, the cost-of-living crisis, and the resurgence of the Pakistani rape gang scandal. Most recently, revelations emerged that Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US despite knowing of his ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer has maintained that he “was lied to” during the vetting procedure.

The waning popularity of the prime minister’s Labour Party is expected to culminate in major losses to Reform at the upcoming local elections, according to projections from the pollster ElectoralCalculus. On Monday, Starmer’s government reversed its plans to postpone the elections until next year after a legal challenge from Reform.

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“This effort against PM Orban by the European Union is part of the reason why Secretary of State Marco Rubio was so strong in his words of appreciation and support for Orban during his recent visit to Budapest…”

• German Court Rules X Must Turn Over Data on Hungarian Govt Support (CTH)

The European Union has a major targeting effort against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of President Trump who does not support giving additional funding to the Ukraine war effort. Hungary is having national elections in April. Previously, USAID Administrator Samantha Power spent considerable time in Hungary organizing activist groups to conduct operations against the government {2023 – Go Deep}. Last week a German based NGO called Democracy Reporting International, won a ruling from a Berlin judge to force the X platform to turn over data related to support for Viktor Orban and the government of Hungary.


All of this opposition to Prime Minister Orban seems to be coordinated by quasi government agencies on behalf of Brussels and their interventionist intentions. We may remember it was also information from German intelligence, that was behind the nullification of the Romanian first-round election. However, Viktor Orban is fighting back and refusing to approve the funding of the Ukraine war despite the massive pressure campaign from inside the European Union.

As noted by Hungarian Minister Zoltan Kovacs, “Many have asked how Hungary can block the €90 billion Ukrainian war loan if we are not participating in it. clarified that the loan does not affect Hungary and does not entail any financial commitment for us. As Hungary is not part of the cooperation, in most of the decision-making procedures we do not even vote. However, he pointed out that for the scheme to function, the EU’s seven-year budget guarantee rules must be amended – and this requires the approval of all 27 member states, not only the financing member states. We are now blocking this decision, without which the war loan cannot be disbursed.”

https://twitter.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/2025284661853782466?s=20

(Via Politico) – A court in Germany on Tuesday ordered Elon Musk’s social media site X to hand over data related to the upcoming election in Hungary to researchers for scrutiny. The court in Berlin ruled in favor of rights group Democracy Reporting International in its bid to access data to research influence campaigns and disinformation in the election. The group took its case to court after X in November refused its data access requests. The European Union’s rules for social media platforms, the Digital Services Act, obliges big online platforms like X to grant external researchers access to data to scrutinize how platforms handle risks, including election interference. The European Commission in December fined X €40 million for breaching that obligation, as part of a €120 million levy.

This effort against PM Orban by the European Union is part of the reason why Secretary of State Marco Rubio was so strong in his words of appreciation and support for Orban during his recent visit to Budapest.

RUBIO: “The President has an extraordinarily close relationship to the prime minister. He does. And it has had tangible benefits in our relationship. I’m not going to speculate about the future. What happens in this country is up to the voters of this country to determine and decide, and we love the people of Hungary. But I’m not – but there’s no reason to sugarcoat it. I’m going to be very blunt with you. The prime minister and the President have a very, very close personal relationship and working relationship, and I think it has been incredibly beneficial to the relationship between our two countries.” {Source – Transcript}

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When will the EU implode?

• Hungary and Slovakia Push Back on Ukraine’s Oil Dispute (Manney)

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico delivered a blunt warning, saying Slovakia would halt emergency electricity exports to Ukraine unless Kyiv restored Russian oil transit through Ukrainian territory, setting a firm deadline of Feb. 23. The dispute centers on the Druzhba pipeline, which still supplies Russian crude to parts of Central Europe. Russian forces struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure in late January, an attack that damaged equipment tied to the Druzhba system in western Ukraine. The flow of oil to Slovakia and Hungary stopped that same day. mUkrainian officials blamed Moscow and offered alternative routes, including the Odesa-Brody pipeline and maritime shipments.


Fico responded by declaring a state of emergency in Slovakia’s oil sector, saying he would instruct SEPS, Slovakia’s state grid operator, to suspend electricity deliveries to Ukraine if oil transit didn’t resume. Slovakia supplied roughly 18% of Ukraine’s record electricity imports in January, and doubled its support compared with the previous year. Oil transit to Slovakia and Hungary has been disrupted since late January after a Russian strike hit the Druzhba pipeline, a key route carrying Russian crude to Central Europe. Ukraine’s pipeline operator said this week that the Jan. 27 attack damaged critical infrastructure and that repair works are ongoing.

In a letter to the European Commission, Ukraine’s embassy to the EU proposed using the Odesa–Brody pipeline or maritime routes as temporary alternatives to supply Hungary and Slovakia while repairs are completed. Fico accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of treating Slovakia as a “hostile country,” saying Kyiv first halted gas flows, costing Slovakia €500 million annually, and has now stopped oil supplies, causing further losses. He also defended his decision to refuse Slovakia’s participation in the EU’s planned €90 billion military loan for

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó escalated the pressure at the European level by blocking a major EU financial package for Ukraine that required unanimous approval. Budapest tied its position directly to the restoration of oil transit through Druzhba. It’s through that route that most of Hungary’s oil supply from Russia is delivered.When the EU adopted its 2022 oil embargo against Russia, Hungary and Slovakia both secured exemptions. Since then, Orbán has delayed or opposed several sanction packages and has resisted long-term funding commitments, while Fico shifted Bratislava away from the prior government’s strong military backing of Ukraine.

Disputes over gas transit agreements in late 2024 also strained relations. Kyiv ended certain transit agreements when contracts expired, increasing pressure on downstream countries that still rely on Russian supply routes. Each confrontation reinforces the same pattern: energy needs still drive national policy, even during wartime. Ukrainian officials labeled the moves as political blackmail, arguing that the infrastructure damage resulted from Russian attacks and that repairs and legal transit options were still under discussion. Officials in Kyiv also noted that only a handful of EU member states still import significant volumes of Russian oil.

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Boeing is gone. But it’s a big bloated corpse.

• NASA Chief Blasts Boeing Over Botched Starliner Mission (RT)

NASA chief Jared Isaacman has slammed Boeing for failures that plagued the botched debut mission of its first crewed spaceship, Starliner, which left two astronauts stranded for nine months last year. A billionaire private astronaut and close associate of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Isaacman, who was appointed NASA administrator two months ago, also offered a blistering critique of the agency’s previous leadership, claiming that its decision-making risked creating “a culture incompatible with human spaceflight.” The remarks were made at a press conference on Thursday during the release of a sweeping report on the Starliner mission, which saw two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, stuck in space for nine months instead of the planned one week.


The capsule returned empty in September 2024 while the crew came home on a different vehicle in March 2025.The report states the loss of control during the capsule’s rendezvous with the ISS constitutes a Type A mishap – the most serious category of anomaly. It identifies critical design flaws in Boeing’s spacecraft, presenting 61 recommendations to address the issues before any future crewed Starliner mission. It also exposed management failures, stating that the mission “was marked by chaotic meeting schedules, unclear roles, and communication breakdowns.” “Mistrust between NASA and Boeing was intensified by selective data sharing, perceived favoritism, and inconsistent transparency,” the report added.

Boeing is facing public scrutiny over numerous safety issues and incidents involving its commercial aircraft and repeated delays in delivering key government contracts. Despite its troubles, the US government continues to contract with the company because NASA has a strategic goal to maintain two independent American systems for transporting astronauts to the ISS. SpaceX, the agency’s other partner, has also experienced technical issues affecting ISS operations, including delayed astronaut returns and aborted missions.

With both US contractors facing challenges, Russia remains the only other country capable of independently transporting people and cargo to the ISS. While Western sanctions over Ukraine targeted Russia’s aerospace industry, space cooperation was deliberately exempted to keep the station operational. Last week, Isaacman publicly stated his desire to meet with Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov and expressed interest in attending the launch of the Soyuz MS-29 mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, scheduled for the summer of 2026.

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“.. leaving taxpayers high and dry and putting them on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars to support the ugliest building in Chicago,”

• Investigation Exposes Cover-Up of Obama Center Taxpayer Scam (Matt Margolis)

Barack Obama promised Chicago a “gift” with his Obama Presidential Center. Instead, he delivered yet another boondoggle, buried in secrecy, with missing money, and stonewalling straight out of a Chicago corruption playbook. When Obama got approval to build his presidential center in Jackson Park, he vowed the project would be privately funded. Every penny, he said, would come from donations to his foundation. Taxpayers, he insisted, wouldn’t be on the hook. That was the sales pitch — and like so many Obama promises, it’s proven to be fiction.


The Obama Foundation may be paying for the building itself, but taxpayers have been secretly shouldering hundreds of millions of dollars in hidden infrastructure costs. Roads were torn up, utilities relocated, and parkland reshaped — all to serve Obama’s monument to himself. Cornell Drive, a major four-lane roadway that once ran along the park’s lagoon, has been erased so Obama’s massive campus could dominate the landscape. This wasn’t just a minor tweak to city planning. It was a taxpayer-funded overhaul of a historic public park — one that Obama’s team couldn’t have pulled off without Chicago and Illinois residents footing the bill.

Back in 2018, officials estimated public infrastructure costs at $350 million. Fast forward to today, and that number is almost meaningless. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) now admits to roughly $229 million in “state-managed spending.” Chicago’s records show another $206 million linked to the same project. No one in city or state government will say how those figures line up — or whether the total cost is far higher. And if you don’t think there’s something scandalous going on, then why are all the agencies involved being tight-lipped about it?

Fox News Digital filed Freedom of Information Act requests with IDOT, Chicago’s Department of Transportation, the Office of Budget and Management, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office, and Governor J.B. Pritzker’s administration. Not one produced a complete accounting of public spending. IDOT offered vague numbers. The city stalled and refused to release records. Pritzker’s office contradicted itself, then stopped responding entirely. OBM even admitted it had “no responsive records” — an absurd claim for the agency that manages the city’s capital budget.

This is a coordinated cover-up, plain and simple. The Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor is now investigating whether multiple agencies violated the state’s open records laws. But you don’t need a court order to see what’s going on. Obama’s so-called “gift” turned into a taxpayer-financed vanity project — protected by the same political machine that made Chicago famous for corruption.

To make matters worse, Obama’s promised $470 million “endowment” to shield taxpayers in case the foundation ran out of cash has barely materialized. The fund has just $1 million in deposits — one-fifth of one percent of what was pledged. “Illinois Republicans saw this coming a mile away. Now, right on cue, Illinois Democrats are leaving taxpayers high and dry and putting them on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars to support the ugliest building in Chicago,” Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi told Fox News Digital. “Illinois’ culture of corruption is humming along with pay-to-play deals to their allies and friends while lying to Illinois voters.”

Read more …

Strange stories.

• Is Tucker Carlson’s Career Toast Now? (Matt Margolis)

Tucker Carlson just had one of the most embarrassing weeks in recent media memory. In the span of a few days, he fabricated a detention story, spread a debunked antisemitic smear about Israel’s sitting president, and then had to crawl back with an apology, as the public watched the wreckage of his career unfold in real time. Last week, Carlson flew into Ben-Gurion Airport on a private jet to record an interview with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee. He never left the airport. Critics noted the obvious irony: a man who lectures his audience about Israel couldn’t bring himself actually to set foot in the country. After the interview, Carlson claimed that airport security had “hauled” his executive producer into a side room, seized his team’s passports, and demanded to know what was discussed with Huckabee.


That story fell apart almost immediately. The Israel Airports Authority stated that Carlson was “politely asked a few routine questions, in accordance with standard procedures applied to many travelers,” and that the conversation took place in a VIP lounge specifically to protect his privacy. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem confirmed his group “received the same passport control questions that countless visitors to Israel” receive. Then, leaked security footage surfaced showing Carlson smiling, hugging, and posing for photos with airport staff. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Carlson a fraud and said he “fabricated a tale about being supposedly harassed by our security forces.”

The detention story was bad. What came on Friday was worse. Carlson released the Huckabee interview and used it to launch a series of outlandish claims and accusations. He called Israel “probably the most violent country on earth,” questioned its right to exist, accused it of controlling American foreign policy, and declared it a police state. He claimed Netanyahu believes in “blood guilt” — that he punishes not just wrongdoers but their entire bloodlines — even though Netanyahu has never said anything of the sort. His claim that “Prime Minister Netanyahu has way more influence over American foreign policy than Americans do” echoed antisemitic tropes that have circulated for decades.

Then came the Epstein bomb. Carlson repeatedly pressed Huckabee about Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s supposed connection to Jeffrey Epstein’s island. “The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island,'” Carlson said on air. Huckabee said he was unaware of any such connection. And for good reason — there isn’t one. Herzog appears in the Epstein files only through news articles that ended up in Epstein’s emails. Carlson was basing his allegation on a fake, AI-generated image that circulated online after the Epstein files were released.

After Huckabee learned the claims were false, he wrote on X that Carlson’s allegations “could be the stuff of libel lawsuits” and that “it was hard to follow Tucker’s line of questioning.” On Saturday, Carlson released a video apologizing, acknowledging he had no evidence and saying, “I’m sorry to imply that I knew something I didn’t know.”] That apology changes nothing. More than a million people watched the original interview without a warning that its core claims were false. Carlson threw out a serious accusation against a sitting head of state without doing five minutes of verification, and the only explanation is confirmation bias.I don’t know what happened to Tucker Carlson, but it looks like we’re watching his career blow up in front of our faces in slow motion.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/Jules31415/status/2025406665386766644?s=20 Tulsi https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2025310000286236865?s=20 Mar-a-Lago CAFitts

 

 

 

 

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Feb 222026
 


Pierre-Auguste Renoir Dance at Bougival 1883


• Trump Responds to Supreme Court’s Decision on Tariffs (Sarah Anderson)
• Trump Winds Down IEEPA tariffs, Imposes 10% Global Tariff To Last 150 Days (JTN)
• Supreme Court Rule 6-3 Against President Trump’s IEEPA Tariff Authority (CTH)
• Clarence Thomas Unloads on the Supreme Court Over Tariff Ruling
• Will We See a Supreme Court Vacancy (or Two) This Summer? (Josh Hammer)
• Virtually All Countries Support Voter Photo ID – So Why the Filibuster? (RCW)
• Washington Post Editorial Board Brutally Mocks Mamdani (ZH)
• President Donald Trump Stands Victim of His Own Success (David Manney)
• Biased Spies: John Ratcliffe Cleans House at the CIA (Manney)
• The Shattered Dreams of Steve Bannon (Scott Pinsker)
• When Does Accountability For The Deep State Begin? (Dornik)
• Susan Rice Warns Of ‘Accountability Agenda’ When Democrats Return To Power (JTN)
• Deporting Censorship: US Targets UK Government Ally Over Free Speech (Thaccker)

 


 

Gulf Tariffs https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2025002058999288215?s=20 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2024927551760859293?s=20

 


 

 


 

“..”Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic. They’re so happy,” he said. “And they’re dancing in the streets, but they won’t be dancing for long — that I can assure you.”

• Trump Responds to Supreme Court’s Decision on Tariffs (Sarah Anderson)

President Donald Trump came out to speak to the press from the White House on Friday to express his feelings on the Supreme Court’s Decision to rule against his broad tariffs, which he imposed through a series of executive orders last year, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). He began by saying the ruling was “deeply disappointing,” and that he was “ashamed of certain members of the court — absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.” The president also thanked Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito for “their strength and wisdom and love of our country.”


Trump claims that when you read their dissenting opinions, there’s no way anyone can argue against them. “Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic. They’re so happy,” he said. “And they’re dancing in the streets, but they won’t be dancing for long — that I can assure you. Trump said that he knew the Democrats on the court were an automatic “no,” just like the Democrat members of Congress, no matter how great the case. “They’re against anything that makes America strong, healthy, and great again,” he said. He also called them a “disgrace to our nation.”

He said the others, presumably Justices John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, are being “politically correct,” which happens far too often, and he called them “fools and lap dogs for the RINOs and the radical left Democrats.” “They’re very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution. It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests, and a political movement that is far smaller people would ever thing,” he said, adding, “I won by millions of votes — we won in a landslide, with all the cheating that went on, and there was a lot of it.” He claimed that “certain justices” are “afraid” of the loud, obnoxious, and ignorant minority.

“This was an important case to me, more as a symbol of economic national security and also, I would say just for our country itself — so important because we’re doing so well as a country,” he said. “The good news is that there are methods, practices, statutes, and authorities, as recognized by the entire court in this terrible decision, and also as recognized by Congress, which they refer to, that are even stronger than the IEEPA tariffs available to me as president of the United States.”

Trump claimed he was actually modest in what he asked of other countries because he was trying to be “well-behaved,” and wanted to be a “good boy” because he knows how the Supreme Court works and knows they’re easily swayed. He also touted some economic wins, like recent stock market records and the decline of fentanyl coming into our country, and how tariffs helped him settle eight wars. The president said it’s ridiculous that the law allows him to “destroy” foreign countries, tell them they can’t do business in the United States, or even embargo them, but he can’t charge them a cent.

“It’s okay because we have other ways — numerous other way,” he added. “Therefore, effective immediately, all national security tariffs, under Section 232 and existing Section 301 tariffs… remain fully in place and in full force and effect. Today, I will sign an order to impose a 10% global tariff, under Section 122, over and above our normal tariffs already being charged.” He said he’s also initiating other investigations to “protect our country from unfair trading practices of other countries and companies.”

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Bumped it up to 15%.

• Trump Winds Down IEEPA Tariffs, Imposes 10% Global Tariff To Last 150 Days (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that formally ends a range of tariffs that the Supreme Court shot down earlier in the day, and imposed a new 10% global tariff that will be in effect for 150 days. The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 split that Trump could not impose massive tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, however the majority opinion did not weigh in on other means to impose the tariffs. Trump said the new 10% global tariff is being enacted under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which comes as tariffs imposed under Section 232 and Section 301 remain in place

.
“It is my Great Honor to have just signed, from the Oval Office, a Global 10% Tariff on all Countries, which will be effective almost immediately,” Trump said in a series of posts on Truth Social. “Those members of the Supreme Court who voted against our very acceptable and proper method of tariffs should be ashamed of themselves. “Their decision was ridiculous, but now the adjustment process begins, and we will do everything possible to take in even more money than we were taking in before,” he added. The new tariff will take effect just after midnight on Tuesday, Feb. 24.

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You can’t do it under IEEPA, but we have plenty other laws…

“,,the Court’s decision is not likely to greatly restrict Presidential tariff authority going forward. (pg, 63 dissent).

• Supreme Court Rule 6-3 Against President Trump’s IEEPA Tariff Authority (CTH)

Economic security is national security, and the hollowing out of our ability to independently sustain our national economic system posed a real and substantive threat to our nation. The court never evaluated the ‘urgency’ behind the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as used by President Donald Trump.Instead, the court began their legal analysis by seeking to define the word “regulate” as it applies to IEEPA. Part II–B, concluding: (a) IEEPA authorizes the President to “investigate, block during the pendency of an investigation, regulate, direct and compel, nullify, void, prevent or prohibit . . . importation or exportation.” §1702(a)(1)(B) under the Act.


The majority of the court decided presidential ability to levy countervailing duties is not part of the ability to “regulate” importation. In the opinion of the court, the President can block imports, nullify imports and prohibit imports, but the president cannot “regulate” imports through the use of tariffs. This is the representative logic of a John Roberts court, the voice of Bush Inc.

It is what it is – and many of us saw this nonsense as a likely outcome, but it is still frustrating to see such a detached parseltongue approach to legal opinions when the national security of our nation is at stake. These are the judicial minds who will watch the nation burn to the ground, just so they can remain in power ruling over the ashes. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch joined the court’s three liberals in the majority. Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

(Via Politico) – […] “The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it,” Roberts wrote, declaring that the 1977 law Trump cited to justify the import duties “falls short” of the Congressional approval that would be needed. The ruling wipes out the 10 percent tariff Trump imposed on nearly every country in the world, as well as specific, higher tariffs on some of the top U.S. trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, China, the European Union, Japan and South Korea.

Several of those countries have entered trade agreements with the U.S. — and before the ruling indicated that they would continue to honor those agreements. That is because the victory for the 12 Democratic-run states and small businesses that challenged Trump’s tariffs is expected to be short lived. The White House has signaled it will attempt to use other authorities to keep similar duties in place. “We’ve been thinking about this plan for five years or longer,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told POLITICO in December. “You can be sure that when we came to the president the beginning of the term, we had a lot of different options” “My message is tariffs are going to be a part of the policy landscape going forward,” Greer said. (read more)”

Justice Thomas agrees with CTH prior position on the issue. IEEPA grants the president the authority to regulate imports, and tariffs are a tool for regulation.


Despite this decision the tariffs will remain in place, perhaps using various authorities which have not been challenged as noted in the Kavanaugh dissent:

“That said, with respect to tariffs in particular, the Court’s decision might not prevent Presidents from imposing most if not all of these same sorts of tariffs under other statutory authorities. For example, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 permits the President to impose a “temporary import surcharge” to “deal with large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits.” 19 U. S. C. §2132(a). Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 provides that, if the International Trade Commission determines an article is being imported in such quantities that it is “a substantial cause of serious injury, or the threat thereof, to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article,” the President may take “appropriate and feasible action,” including imposing a “duty.”

§§2251(a), 2253(a)(3)(A). Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the President through a subordinate officer to “impose duties” if he determines that “an act, policy, or practice of a foreign country” is “unjustifiable and burdens or restricts United States commerce.” §§2411(a)(c). Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 permits the President to impose tariffs when he finds that “any foreign country places any burden or disadvantage upon the commerce of the United States.” §1338(d). And Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 authorizes the President to, after receiving a report from the Secretary of Commerce, “adjust the imports of [an] article and its derivatives so that such imports will not threaten to impair the national security.” §1862(c)(1)(a).

So the Court’s decision is not likely to greatly restrict Presidential tariff authority going forward. (pg, 63 dissent).

Read more …

“If foreign trade regulation isn’t a core legislative function, then delegating it to the executive doesn’t violate separation of powers at all.”

• Clarence Thomas Unloads on the Supreme Court Over Tariff Ruling

The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a significant defeat on tariffs Friday morning, and the sharpest voice in the room wasn’t in the majority. It was Clarence Thomas, writing in dissent, methodically dismantling the majority’s reasoning for stripping the president of broad tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The ruling blocks Trump from using IEEPA as the legal foundation for his reciprocal tariff policy. For what it’s worth, the court didn’t wipe out his tariffs entirely — other statutes still provide Trump with opportunities to impose tariffs — but the majority made clear that sweeping executive tariff power requires explicit congressional guardrails.


What made the decision especially striking was the coalition that produced it. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, alongside the court’s three liberal justices. Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. His dissent goes straight to the constitutional text and history. “I write separately to explain why the statute at issue here is consistent with the separation of powers as an original matter,” he wrote. His argument is grounded in the Founding era’s actual understanding of foreign commerce — not a modern reinterpretation of it.

Thomas draws a hard line between domestic legislative power and foreign trade authority. Congress holds the taxing power and the power to set domestic rules governing life, liberty, and property. Foreign commerce is a different animal entirely. “Power over foreign commerce was not within the core legislative power, and engaging in foreign commerce was regarded as a privilege rather than a right,” he explained. If foreign trade regulation isn’t a core legislative function, then delegating it to the executive doesn’t violate separation of powers at all. In fact, that would mean it’s actually consistent with how the Founders understood the relationship between the branches.

Thomas backed this up with history. From the Founding forward, Congress routinely handed trade regulation, including the power to impose import duties, to the executive branch. Courts upheld that arrangement every time it was challenged. “The power to impose duties on imports can be delegated,” Thomas wrote. He concluded, “Congress’s delegation here was constitutional.” That framing treats unlimited tariff authority the same way the Court treats other major questions — skeptically, demanding Congress speak clearly before the executive acts broadly.Thomas thinks that’s the wrong test applied to the wrong power. His reading of the original Constitution puts the executive branch in charge of foreign commerce. He argues the majority conflated two distinct constitutional functions and punished the president for Congress’s longstanding practice of handing him the wheel on trade.

In his own dissent, Justice Kavanaugh argued that the majority’s decision would lead to chaos. “The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others,” he wrote. Kavanaugh also noted that Trump used tariffs as leverage while making trading deals worth trillions of dollars, and that the court’s ruling “could generate uncertainty regarding those trade arrangements,” he wrote.

Read more …

“.. Thomas, who is the perhaps the single greatest living American ..”

• Will We See a Supreme Court Vacancy (or Two) This Summer? (Josh Hammer)

Few things in Washington, D.C., generate as much as excitement and intrigue as a Supreme Court confirmation showdown. For decades, since the eponymous “borking” of then-Supreme Court nominee Bob Bork in 1987, political battles surrounding the membership of the nation’s high court have been among the most contentious and raucous of Beltway affairs. Which is why it’s rather curious that very few outside the most fervid of court-watchers seem to be discussing the distinct possibility that there could be one or two Supreme Court vacancies after the current term ends this summer.


Justice Samuel Alito is 75 years old — and will be 76 by the end of this term. Justice Clarence Thomas is 77 years old — and will be 78 by term’s end. Alito just celebrated 20 years of service on the high court, and Thomas would mark 35 years of service this October — nice round numbers. Alito has a forthcoming book set for release this October, around the start of the next Supreme Court term. That isn’t anywhere near dispositive — Justice Amy Coney Barrett published a book last September, and Justice Neil Gorsuch has released two books since he was confirmed to the court in 2017 — but it has certainly fed speculation.

Thomas and Alito are, by some order of magnitude, the two most principled conservative justices currently sitting on the high court. It stands to reason that they would like to be replaced by ideological fellow travelers — something that likely requires a likeminded president and a likeminded U.S. Senate majority. As the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was very much an ideological fellow traveler, told Chris Wallace in a 2012 interview, “I would not like to be replaced by someone who immediately sets about undoing what I’ve tried to do for 25-26 years. I mean, I shouldn’t have to tell you that, unless you think I’m a fool.”

If there is one thing we can say with certainty about Thomas, who is the perhaps the single greatest living American, and Alito, who is perhaps the most authentic Burkean conservative on the high court, it is that they are decidedly not fools.

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. What’s more, they face a remarkably favorable map this November: The GOP is defending very few (if any) swing-state Senate seats, and it will have enticing Senate pickup opportunities in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire. But to paraphrase the old quip from former Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, Republicans oftentimes never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Accordingly, the increasingly voluble scuttlebutt out of Washington is that there is a chance Democrats retake not merely the nearly evenly divided House, but the Senate as well. Those odds are below 50% — the online exchange Polymarket, for instance, currently places the GOP’s odds of retaining the Senate around 60% — but there is certainly a chance it happens.

That wouldn’t just spell doom for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s second term. It would be potentially calamitous for the future of the Supreme Court as well. Does anyone think that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his Democratic caucus are not prepared to stall and refuse to confirm any prospective Trump nominee to the high court? (SET ITAL)Of course(END ITAL) they are prepared to do that. If Republicans lose the Senate this November and Thomas and Alito stick around through the 2028 presidential election, they will in essence be wagering on Republicans maintaining the White House and winning back the Senate.

Is that a risk worth taking? In fairness, it might be. Republicans have historically botched few things more than they have Supreme Court nominations — from Justices William Brennan (brought to us by President Dwight Eisenhower), Harry Blackmun (President Richard Nixon), and David Souter (President George H.W. Bush), to some of the more milquetoast Trump selections such as Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. The track record is not exactly inspiring. And because Thomas and Alito are the two finest conservative jurists on the high court, there is little to no room for improvement, from a constitutionalist perspective — there can only be regression.

Nonetheless, in spite of the GOP’s woeful judicial nominations track record, there are plenty of outstanding potential justices-in-waiting. My former boss Judge James C. Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, a former Thomas clerk, is likely the single most principled originalist of all current lower-court federal judges. His 5th Circuit colleague Andrew Oldham, a fellow stalwart, happens to have the corresponding symbolism of being a former Alito clerk. D. John Sauer, the outstanding current U.S. solicitor general, is a former Scalia clerk and a rapidly emerging dark horse contender. There are other possible rock-solid nominees as well.

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“..Democrats argue that requiring free voter photo IDs – even when the ID itself costs nothing – harms eligible voters by creating practical barriers to casting a ballot.

• Virtually All Countries Support Voter Photo ID – So Why the Filibuster? (RCW)

“The bottom line is this: voter ID is not controversial in this country,” Harry Enten, the chief data analyst for CNN, recently reported. Nor is it controversial in virtually any other country in the world. Yet despite massive support among both Democrats (71%) and Republicans (95%), only one Democratic member of the House and one in the Senate are supporting the SAVE Act. Unless seven more of the 47 Senate Democrats step forward, their filibuster will kill the bill. Democrats argue that requiring free voter photo IDs – even when the ID itself costs nothing – harms eligible voters by creating practical barriers to casting a ballot. They contend that blacks would be especially hard hit. Interestingly, every country in Africa requires government-issued identification to vote.


They also argue that such requirements would disenfranchise Hispanic voters. Yet Mexico, all twelve South American countries, and Spain require government-issued photo IDs to vote. All of these countries have lower per-capita incomes than the United States. If citizens in those nations can obtain the necessary identification to vote, why would American Hispanics and blacks be unable to do the same? While 83% of American adults support requiring government-issued photo identification to vote, support is also strong among the very groups Democrats claim would be harmed: 82% of Hispanics and 76% of black Americans favor the requirement. Those figures suggest that most black and Hispanic Americans do not view obtaining a photo ID as the obstacle Democrats describe. Ten U.S. states have similarly strong photo ID requirements.

Democrats claim that women are disproportionately disenfranchised by voter IDs, but women are also strongly supportive of IDs and have exactly the same level of support as men.Democrats argue that voter ID requirements disproportionately disenfranchise people with the least education and lowest incomes. Yet, ironically, survey results show that voters who did not graduate from high school were 27 percentage points more likely to support photo voter ID laws than those who attended graduate school. Similarly, individuals earning less than $30,000 per year were seven percentage points more likely to support photo ID requirements than those earning over $200,000 annually.

The well-educated and higher-income individuals thus express more concern about the impact of ID laws on the less educated and lower-income groups than those groups express themselves.But it isn’t just South American countries and all of Africa that require voter IDs to vote. Both of our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, require them, with Mexico also requiring a thumbprint. All 47 European countries, except parts of the United Kingdom, require a government-issued photo ID .

After widespread vote fraud, Mexico enacted major voting reforms in 1991. The government mandated voter photo IDs with biometric information, banned absentee ballots, and required in-person voter registration. Even though these changes made registration more difficult and eliminated absentee voting, turnout increased after the reforms took effect. In the three presidential elections following the 1991 changes, an average of 68% of eligible citizens voted, compared with 59% in the three elections before the reforms. As confidence in the electoral process grew, more citizens chose to participate. Many countries in Europe and beyond have learned the hard way that fraud can result from looser voting regimes – and they have instituted stricter voting measures in direct response to it. In Northern Ireland, where a bitter sectarian conflict fuels hardball electoral tactics, parties on all sides have engaged in what observers describe as “widespread and systemic“ voter fraud. Both Conservative and Labour governments enacted reforms to curb it. In 1985, under the conservative Margaret Thatcher, the U.K. began requiring voters to show identification before receiving a ballot, but that measure did not solve the problem.

In 1998, a Select Committee on Northern Ireland reported that people could “easily forge” medical cards – accepted as ID under the 1985 law – or obtain them fraudulently, enabling non-existent individuals to cast votes. By 2002, the Labour government strengthened voter identification cards to make them far harder to forge and used the more secure IDs, along with additional rules, to stop people from registering multiple times. These anti-fraud measures immediately reduced total registrations by 11%, suggesting to Labour how extensive earlier fraud had been.

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“.. Even the state government of Florida (population 23 million) spends less than New York City’…,”

• Washington Post Editorial Board Brutally Mocks Mamdani (ZH)

Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money,” and New York City’s new socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is learning just how right she was, and New Yorkers are going to pay a hefty price for it. On Tuesday, a mere two months after declaring he would “replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” Mamdani announced a $127 billion preliminary budget for fiscal year 2027, a $5 billion increase from the prior year, while simultaneously warning residents of “painful” tax hikes if state officials refused to bail him out to cover his socialist policies.


“That’s a city budget bigger than the state budgets of 47 states. Even the state government of Florida (population 23 million) spends less than New York City’s,” explains The Washington Post editorial board. “And the state still managed to attract hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in recent years.” “The reality is that Americans may like the idea of ‘free’ stuff — it’s how socialists win elections — but they are less excited about having to pay for it” they continued. “They’re even less excited when they live in a state that ranks at the very bottom of the Tax Foundation’s State Tax Competitiveness Index.”

During a press conference earlier this week, Mamdani called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to raise income taxes on the “ultra-wealthy” help fund his budget for New York City. “The onus for resolving this crisis should not be placed on the backs of working and middle-class New Yorkers,” Mamdani said. “If we do not fix this structural imbalance and do not heed the calls of New Yorkers to raise taxes on the wealthy, this crisis will not disappear. It will simply return, year after year, forcing harder and harsher choices each time. And if we do not go down the first path, the city will be forced down a second, more harmful path. Faced with no other choice, the city would have to exercise the only revenue lever fully within our own control. We would have to raise property taxes.”


Hochul rejected the tax hike demand without hesitation, telling Mamdani to expand his “ridiculously low” proposed spending cuts instead. Mamdani has claimed his administration identified $1.7 billion in cuts. The Post’s editorial board was not impressed, calling it a “laughable number.” “The reality is that Mamdani is trying to expand a city government that already does way too much,” they argued. “ The city should provide basic services, such as law and order, but instead it pours billions into social spending like housing and health care.” They even cited California as a cautionary tale, warning that in the Golden State, “a slew of billionaires are fleeing at the mere possibility of a wealth tax. They’ll avoid the wealth tax — and California will miss out on the billions that these individuals otherwise would have contributed before a wealth tax was even imposed.”

More experienced Democrats in New York understand this. Gov. Kathy Hochul, no one’s idea of a fiscal hawk, nevertheless instigated Mamdani’s tantrum by refusing to go along with more tax hikes. The city council speaker and comptroller also have sway and are skeptical of new taxes. This week, it was revealed that acclaimed director and filmmaker Steven Spielberg officially became a New York resident on January 1, effectively avoiding the billionaire tax—though a representative for Spielberg and his wife Cate Capshaw claimed the move was to be closer to family.

Mamdani’s pre-election promises — free buses, expanded child care, cash assistance, rental aid, and smaller class sizes for teachers’ unions — were crowd-pleasers that earned him “tax the rich” chants at campaign rallies. The problem is that governing a city with a structural deficit requires something more than slogans. His preliminary budget now acknowledges a $5.4 billion shortfall for the current fiscal year, with projections that worsen over time. “No one in New York is ambitious enough to dramatically reshape city government, and residents either vote for class warfare or vote with their feet. A reckoning will have to come eventually. The question is how bad it gets before reality sets in,” the board concluded.

Ouch.

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“.. Trump fixed the border, lowered crime, and now demands the same common-sense security at the ballot box..”

• President Donald Trump Stands Victim of His Own Success (David Manney)

In the early days of the NBA, George Mikan was so dominant in the paint that the league had to redraw the court. Defenders couldn’t stop him, and coaches couldn’t scheme around him, so the league widened the lane to push him further from the basket. They changed the rules because one man kept winning under the old ones. That’s where we find President Donald Trump today. He clamped down on the southern border, ending the chaos so fast that the crisis faded from daily debate. He renewed the economy and strengthened national security. He slashed narcotics imports while driving the murder rates across the country.


Instead of arguing policy, opponents now look for ways to redraw the political court around him. They protest enforcement agencies, stage walkouts, and shift attention to anything except measurable results. When outcomes favor one side so decisively, critics often stop debating the scoreboard and start questioning the game itself. Migrant encounters fell to the lowest level in more than 50 years; Customs and Border Protection recorded just 237,538 encounters for all of fiscal year 2025. January 2026 brought only 6,070 southwest border apprehensions and marked the ninth straight month with zero releases into the interior. Nationwide encounters dropped 84% in January 2025, while seizures of fentanyl dropped sharply, too.

Violent crime falls to record lows
Nationwide, murder rates fell through the floor, as major cities saw homicides drop 19% to 21% in 2025 alone. The murder rate hit its lowest point since at least 1900, marking the largest one-year decline ever recorded. Robberies fell about 20%, aggravated assaults fell nearly 10%, and overdose deaths shrank as narcotics imports dried up.

National Guard restores order in the capital
In Washington, D.C., Trump declared a crime emergency in August 2025, launching the Make DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force and bringing in federal agents, local police, and National Guard troops. Since then, authorities made more than 10,000 arrests and taken more than 1,000 illegal guns off the streets. Once real help arrived, homicides dropped extremely fast. In 2017, Forlesia Cook lost her grandson to gun violence in Washington. She stood up at the White House Black History Month reception on Feb. 18 and looked critics straight in the eye. The room erupted in applause, and Trump urged her to run for office.

Save America Act highlights the deeper divide
The SAVE America Act requires documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and a photo ID to cast a ballot: Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced the bill. President Trump pushes hard for its passage because nothing matters more than clean elections. The House passed it on Feb. 11. Polling shows roughly 75% to 84% of registered voters favor voter ID and proof of citizenship. Support cuts across Democrats, independents, black, and Hispanic Americans. Yet far-left politicians fight it tooth and nail; Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), vow to block it in the Senate, warning about voter suppression and arguing it harms women who changed their names (I-9 Forms for their jobs, anyone?) or low-income voters who lack

The deeper fear shines through: Secure elections could cut off loose votes some candidates rely on to stay in power. The loudest defenders of democracy often resist clear rules that strengthen it. It’s a familiar enough-looking pattern. Open-border policies under the previous administration flooded the country with millions of people and left voter rolls vulnerable. Record border crossings from 2022 through 2024 raised real questions about who votes. Officials looked the other way while colleges, courts, and much of the legacy media repeated the same, tired story. Trump fixed the border, lowered crime, and now demands the same common-sense security at the ballot box, reaching Americans directly through streaming platforms and rallies because old gatekeepers refuse to carry the message.

Democrats protest the very agents who deliver results
Democrats and the left (pardon the redundancy) limit every argument to that old chestnut: Calling Trump evil, while demanding that he suffer defeat and humiliation. They protest ICE agents who carry out the exact policies voters chose, ignoring the sealed border, safer streets, and stronger economy. Their big idea? Stage-side rallies or boycotts for the upcoming State of the Union Address set for Tuesday, Feb. 24. How convenient. ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith, definitely not a Republican, spoke plainly, saying Democrats show zero sense of decorum. He said they put raw politics ahead of their own constituents by planning to skip or disrupt the president’s upcoming speech.

Trump’s ready to talk with anybody; he spends the time, shows the patience, and treats people with respect. The other side offers only venom because that’s all they have left, their old arguments collapsed years ago.

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“There is absolutely no room for bias in any kind of the CIA’s work..”

• Biased Spies: John Ratcliffe Cleans House at the CIA (Manney)

A rare correction at Langley
CIA Director John Ratcliffe rescinded or revised 19 intelligence reports after determining they contained political bias and violated basic tradecraft standards. The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board reviewed around 300 reports from the past decade and flagged serious problems: 17 were permanently deleted, two were pulled, revised, and reissued. A senior CIA official told Just The News that the reports were initially flagged during a review by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, then reviewed by career agency officials before being retracted, recalled, or revised. “There is absolutely no room for bias in any kind of the CIA’s work,” the official said. “So when we find instances where our tradecraft did not reach that high bar of impartiality, we must correct the record. And that’s why we’re taking steps to reinforce analytic integrity by ordering the public release, substantive revision, or retraction of these products that do not meet CIA’s tradecraft standards.” The action stands out because a sweeping internal correction like this rarely occurs; intelligence agencies revise their analyses over time, but mass rescissions tied to political bias seldom occur in public.


Reports that read like activism
One report warned that women embracing traditional motherhood could drift toward violent extremism, with analysts describing motherhood as a white supremacist objective, suggesting that women sharing cooking videos or family values content could aid recruitment networks. The product relied heavily on open-source material rather than on classified intelligence collection. One was an Oct. 6, 2021, assessment titled “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist Radicalization and Recruitment” that waded into “foreign political debates about gender roles rather discussing any actual threats of political violence,” the senior CIA official said.

It had labeled the far-right Canadian YouTuber Lauren Southern as a white racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist and spoke of the dangers such figures pose to societies — in addition to women pursuing traditional roles as mothers. A July 8, 2020 a CIA report also centered on family planning and the disruptions of condom supply chains worldwide using “unobjective sources of information such as Planned Parenthood,” the official noted. Another assessment from 2020 warned that birth control shortages during the pandemic would damage economic growth in Egypt, Nigeria, and Pakistan, using sources such as Planned Parenthood, the Guttmacher Institute, and Marie Stopes International. Another report from 2015 promoted LGBT academic programs in North Africa and the Middle East while criticizing conservative governments.Intelligence Community Directive 203 requires objectivity, independence, and avoidance of any political slant. Ratcliffe said the flawed reports fell short of the high standards the agency must uphold, stressing there’s no room for bias in intelligence analysis.

Directors and oversight
The January 2015 report was issued during the tenure of CIA Director John Brennan; the July 2020 report landed on the desk of CIA Director Gina Haspel; and the October 2021 motherhood report circulated while William Burns served as CIA Director. Each director presided over an agency required to enforce Directive 203’s standards of impartiality. None of the prior directors rescinded large batches of reports over bias concerns. Past intelligence controversies drew scrutiny; the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, produced under George Tenet, later proved deeply flawed.

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“There’s a reason why Trump nicknamed him “Sloppy Steve.”

• The Shattered Dreams of Steve Bannon (Scott Pinsker)

Until the impossible became possible — and Donald Trump engineered the political upset of his generation, toppling Hillary Clinton in 2016 — most Americans had no idea who Steve Bannon was. Visually, he wasn’t much to look at. Bannon wasn’t a workout wonder like RFK Jr., with six-pack abs, nor was he blessed with movie star good looks. Some guys were born with oodles of charisma — the kind of raw, undeniable magnetism that leaps off the screen. Bannon, alas, wasn’t one of those people. There’s a reason why Trump nicknamed him “Sloppy Steve.”


But after Trump was elected, the media hunted for an explanation. Surely a bumble-headed dunce like Trump couldn’t get elected president on his own! That’s impossible! So they searched high and low for the behind-the-scenes maestro who pulled all the strings — the shrewd strategist who orchestrated the single greatest political upset since Dewey Defeats Truman Truman Defeats Dewey. At which point, Steve Bannon leapt out of the shadows: Yup, I’m the genius. It was me all along! The media, quite naturally, ate it up:

And not without reason. As far as personal bios go, Bannon was an odd duck with a helluva story. He had military experience as a Navy officer. He was financially savvy enough to work at Goldman Sachs. He was clever enough to acquire a financial stake in Seinfeld (Bannon still receives residuals for Seinfeld reruns). He knew enough about conservative media to run Breitbart — a platform that had long championed Trump’s candidacy. And then he assumed command of Trump’s campaign in August of 2016, just in time to claim credit for the victory?Maybe he really was the maestro of it all!

Bannon, for very obvious reasons, worked feverishly to advance the narrative of “Steve Bannon, Political Genius.” Within the Trump White House, his media leaks became increasingly self-serving. Instead of leveraging media relations to elevate his boss or the MAGA mission, he sought to mythologize himself. It all culminated with Bannon losing his job in the White House and getting fired from Breitbart after he leaked negative information about Trump’s children to the fierce Trump critic, journalist Michael Wolff. Among the delightful headlines Bannon helped produce was Business Insider’s Jan. 3, 2018, story, “Steve Bannon Says Ivanka Trump Is ‘Dumb as a Brick’.” Trump responded in typically Trumpian fashion:

“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency,” Trump said. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.” […] “Steve doesn’t represent my base — he’s only in it for himself,” Trump said. “Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.”

Today, of course, we know the truth: Steve Bannon didn’t control Trump — because NOBODY controls Trump. The very premise is preposterous. For better or worse, Donald J. Trump is his own man. He’s like a wild stallion — uncontrollable. Then in 2024, with Steve Bannon sidelined, Trump proved his point by winning the presidency once again — this time by an even greater margin. Turns out that Bannon was less the leader and more the luggage, because Trump did more to carry him than the other way around. That’s not to say Bannon is a dim bulb. Clearly, he’s an exceptionally bright man. Some of his political calculations are off-the-charts prescient, i.e. his April 2025 prediction that Cardinal Prevost would become the first American-born pope:

https://twitter.com/PiersUncensored/status/1917308154427367583

He’s also a man brimming with ambition. Just 40 days ago, Axios reported that Bannon was planning to run for president in 2028: “Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon is laying the groundwork for a 2028 run for president, two people familiar with his thinking tell Axios.” […] Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who has appeared on Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, said: “The Bannon campaign will merge the foreign policy of Rand Paul with the tax policy of Elizabeth Warren.” (Not sure if the MAGA base is clamoring for a Warren-Paul themed agenda, but whatever. Not my monkey, not my circus.) Either way, it’s a deeply damaging PR look. Setting up your own presidential bid barely a year into Trump’s term seems awfully arrogant and self-indulgent. That’s a poor plan for winning GOP hearts and minds.

[..] He’s a conspiracy peddler who denies conspiracies — while participating in conspiracies! No matter. The Epstein revelations were a deathblow to Bannon’s presidential ambitions. There’s ZERO demand in Republican circles for a 75-year-old Epstein-whisperer to replace Vance, Rubio, or anyone else as MAGA’s heir apparent. Because, the more we learned about Epstein, the more we realized that Steve Bannon isn’t a political savant, a super-genius, or a 4-D chess mastermind. He’s a lying, duplicitous, self-serving hypocrite who can’t be trusted. And that’s not a “coincidence” either. It’s causation.

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It looks easier from the outside.

• When Does Accountability For The Deep State Begin? (Dornik)

We were told this time would be different. We were told that a second Trump administration would not repeat the mistakes of the first, that hard lessons had been learned, and that the Deep State would finally be confronted rather than tolerated. One year into President Trump’s second term, it is both fair and necessary to ask whether those assurances are being honored—not from hostility but from a sincere desire to see the America First agenda succeed, endure, and become irreversible.


President Trump’s first term, Congress squandered its moment. The first two years were consumed by infighting, hesitation, and internal paralysis, even with Republican control. Then came the midterms, control was lost, and meaningful legislative progress effectively ended. What followed were impeachment spectacles and relentless political warfare, while entrenched corruption inside the federal government remained untouched. Now, just past the first year of President Trump’s second term, the pattern feels disturbingly familiar. The urgency voters demanded is not being matched by the actions of those entrusted to deliver it.

The question that must be asked plainly is this: when is the Trump administration actually going to root out the Deep State?

Executive Orders are being signed at a rapid pace, but Executive Orders are not reform. They are temporary directives that can be erased with a single signature the moment someone like Gavin Newsom takes office. Without legislation, without prosecutions, and without accountability, nothing is secured. Power is being exercised, but it is not being anchored, and lasting change is never achieved that way.

Kash Patel built his credibility by telling the truth about corruption in Washington. His book and documentary, Government Gangsters, documented in detail how entrenched bureaucrats and intelligence officials worked against President Trump from within the federal government. He even came on my show and spoke openly about this corruption, and he stated repeatedly across multiple platforms that the FBI, particularly at its highest levels, was deeply compromised and required fundamental reform. He did not argue that the Bureau should be abandoned, but that it could not be trusted without aggressive leadership, restructuring, and accountability for the Deep State operatives within the bureau. He warned that the Deep State would never reform itself and would have to be confronted directly. He also told Glenn Beck that the head of the FBI possessed Jeffrey Epstein’s client list. These were not casual remarks. They were core assertions made publicly and repeatedly.

Now Kash Patel is the head of the FBI, and the public posture has shifted dramatically. The same institution he once described as captured is now treated as credible and restrained. The Epstein client list, once discussed as a known reality, is now dismissed as conspiracy, even as new Epstein-related documents continue to be released to the public over the protest of the Trump administration. Each document release raises more questions, not fewer, and every delay from federal law enforcement deepens public distrust rather than restoring confidence. A reversal this significant demands explanation. Trust is not rebuilt through silence, and credibility is not preserved by pretending prior statements were never made.

These questions extend far beyond the FBI and land squarely on the Department of Justice, where accountability appears to collapse the moment it threatens entrenched power. The removal of Ed Martin from his role inside the DOJ is not just a minor personnel decision; it appears to be a clear signal that real investigations into weaponization and lawfare are not being tolerated. Ed Martin was positioned to expose how the Biden Department of Justice targeted Americans, abused prosecutorial authority, and used federal power as a political weapon. According to Emerald Robinson, whose reporting has repeatedly exposed corruption others refuse to confront, Martin was removed from his position by the same people who refer to parents as terrorists: “Vance Day, senior counsel for Todd Blanche, refers to parents targeted by Biden DOJ as ‘terrorists’ in recent meeting with one parent asking for accountability. Blanche’s office also removed Ed Martin from his role at the DOJ.” That disclosure alone should alarm every American paying attention.

Parents who were targeted and persecuted by the Biden Department of Justice are now being labeled terrorists by senior DOJ leadership, while the man tasked with investigating that persecution is sidelined. Whether this is described as a firing or a demotion is irrelevant, because the outcome is the same. Another one of the good guys has been removed from doing the work voters were promised would finally drain the swamp. This is not an isolated incident or a misunderstanding but a pattern that repeats with disturbing consistency. Every time someone begins making real progress against the Deep State, authority is stripped, investigations are stalled, and momentum is deliberately crushed before accountability can be delivered.

So the questions must be asked: Where are the arrests? Where are the prosecutions? Why has Attorney General Pam Bondi not brought cases against members of the January 6 Committee despite documented misconduct and destroyed records? Why has the Department of Justice taken no action against Anthony Fauci even after Sen. Rand Paul issued criminal referrals? Why is the DOJ actively fighting to shut down Brook Jackson’s case against Pfizer instead of allowing it to proceed and standing with a whistleblower who exposed documented fraud? Why do Epstein-related documents continue to surface while no meaningful accountability follows? What happened to transparency, and what happened to equal justice under the law?

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Serious threats.

• Susan Rice Warns Of ‘Accountability Agenda’ When Democrats Return To Power (JTN)

Former Democratic Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice warned corporations Thursday who have “taken a knee” to President Donald Trump and his administration that there would be repercussions when her party returns to power. The comment comes after The Late Show host Stephen Colbert accused CBS News this week of bowing to Trump by allegedly blocking the host from airing an interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat who is running for the U.S. Senate. CBS has denied blocking the interview, which was posted to YouTube instead.


Rice insisted an “accountability agenda” was coming for the people and corporations who worked with the Trump administration if Democrats win back the majority in the House or Senate this November. “If these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to play by the old rules, and, you know, say, ‘Oh, never mind. We’ll forgive you for all the people you fired, all the policies and principles you’ve violated, all, you know, the laws you’ve skirted.’ I think they’ve got another think coming,” she told former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

Rice, who worked in the Obama and Biden administrations, claimed the corporations and other entities like universities acted in a “very short-term self-interest” when deciding to work with the administration in certain capacities. “Companies are already starting to hear they better preserve their documents,” she said. “They better be ready for subpoenas. If they’ve done something wrong, they’ll be held accountable, and if they haven’t broken the law, good for them. “This is not going to be an instance of, you know, forgive and forget,” she continued. “The damage that these people are doing is too severe to the American people and to our national interest.”

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”.. Rubio noted that documents leaked from inside the group outline ambitious plans to “kill Musk’s Twitter” and “trigger EU and UK regulatory action.”

• Deporting Censorship: US Targets UK Government Ally Over Free Speech (Thaccker)

As ICE sweeps in Minneapolis have drawn wide attention, a little-noticed immigration case playing out in a New York federal court has significant implications for America’s relationship with Britain and the ongoing debate over global censorship.


In late December, the State Department announced its intention to revoke the visas of five foreign individuals who have allegedly censored Americans. The most consequential member of this group is Imran Ahmed, a British Labour Party political operative now living in the U.S., who is the CEO of an influential nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

In documents released Feb. 6 in federal court, the State Department claims Ahmed and the Center have been key players in efforts to censor Americans. A memo written by State Department Undersecretary Sarah Rogers asserts that “Ahmed was a key collaborator with the Biden administration on weaponizing the national security bureaucracy to censor U.S. citizens and pressure U.S. companies into censoring, and his group advocates for foreign regulatory action that extraterritorially impacts American citizens and companies.”

In a follow-up memo, Secretary Marco Rubio wrote that Ahmed had led efforts to censor Americans and harm U.S. media outlets, including ZeroHedge and The Federalist. “I have determined that Ahmed’s activities and presence in the United States have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and comprise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.” Rubio asserted. While the Center casts itself as a disinterested nonprofit trying to stop online hate, Rubio noted that documents leaked from inside the group outline ambitious plans to “kill Musk’s Twitter” and “trigger EU and UK regulatory action.”

Ahmed has a small army of lawyers working to halt his deportation proceedings, which are now being litigated. Ahmed’s lead attorney is Roberta Kaplan – a former advisor to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo – who sued President Trump on behalf of his niece, Mary Trump. Ahmed is also represented by Norm Eisen, a Democratic Party fundraiser and former advisor to Obama. Last Thursday, they filed an updated court complaint against the U.S. government to keep Ahmed in the United States.

International Implications
. The effort to deport Ahmed has broader political implications because of the close ties he and his associates have to the highest reaches of the British government. Morgan McSweeney, who co-founded the Center with Ahmed, is widely seen as the architect of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party victory in 2024. McSweeney served as Starmer’s chief of staff until earlier this month, when he resigned because of a separate scandal connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

U.K. government documents reviewed by RCI show that the organization’s influence extends throughout Starmer’s government. The Trump administration’s pushback on Ahmed’s weaponization of speech against U.S. citizens and companies suggests a deep concern about foreign intervention and censorship stemming from one of America’s closest allies.In a recent interview with Undersecretary Rogers, RCI noted that the State Department appeared to be “knocking on the door of the Prime Minister’s office.” Rogers demurred, declining to detail her discussion with Starmer officials. “We have a very special relationship with the British government,” she responded. “The issue has been communicated.”

Senior Labour Minister Chi Onwurah accused the Trump administration of attacking free speech after Rubio announced shortly before Christmas that the administration was seeking Ahmed’s deportation. “Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek,” Onwurah said, adding that Ahmed was an articulate advocate for greater regulation of online speech. However, internal British government documents show that Onwurah is one of Starmer’s many advisors who have been working with Ahmed on activities many consider censorship..

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https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2024934679493677217?s=20

https://twitter.com/BryceMLipscomb/status/2024838259751186906?s=20

 

 

 

 

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