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Debt Rattle May 26 2026

May 262026
 
 May 26, 2026  Posted by at 9:58 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  14 Responses »


Andy Warhol Reigning Queens 1985


• President Trump Updates on Current Status of Negotiations With Iran (CTH)
• Trump Tells Arab States Joining Abraham Accords Should Be ‘Mandatory’ (ZH)
• Hamas’s Sponsors in Qatar and Iran Won’t Sign the Abraham Accords (Salgado)
• Report Details Painfully Slow Communication Within Iran’s Leadership (ZH)
• Tulsi Gabbard and Others Go Above and Beyond for a Gold Star Widow (Anderson)
• This is a ‘Jackie Robinson moment’ (Turleey)
• For the Honored Dead (James Howard Kunstler)
• Five NATO Countries Block Plan For Mandatory Ukraine Funding – Telegraph (RT)
• The US Admin Lost A Patriot and Truth-teller In Tulsi Gabbard (Scott Ritter)
• White House Rips Pompeo For Prematurely Criticizing Iran Deal (JTN)
• Cruz Warns of Senate ‘Revolt’ Over $1.8 Billion Weaponization Fund (JTN)
• It Was Never About The Climate (Silvio Canto Jr)
• Musk: SpaceX-xAI Is Actively Seeking More AI Compute Customers (DCD)

 


 

 


 


“This will be the most important Deal that any of these Great, but always in Conflict Countries, will ever sign. “

• President Trump Updates on Current Status of Negotiations With Iran (CTH)

Both President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have provided updates on the current status of negotiations with the Iranian regime. President Trump delivered an update from his Truth Social Account:


PRESIDENT TRUMP – “Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!

During my discussions on Saturday with President Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of The United Arab Emirates, Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, and Minister Ali al-Thawadi, of Qatar, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, of Pakistan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of Türkiye, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, of Egypt, King Abdullah II, of Jordan, and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, of Bahrain, I stated that, after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords.

Those Countries discussed are Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates (already a Member!), Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain (already a Member!). It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be. The Abraham Accords have proven to be, for the Countries involved (The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and Kazakhstan), a Financial, Economic, and Social BOOM, even during this time of Conflict and War, with the current Members never even suggesting leaving, or taking so much as even a pause.

The reason for this is that the Abraham Accords have been great for them, and will be even better for everybody, and bring true Power, Strength, and Peace to the Middle East for the first time in 5,000 years. It will be a Document respected like no other that has ever been signed, anywhere in the World. Its level of Importance and Prestige will be unparalleled! It should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and everybody else should follow suit. If they don’t, they should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention.”

“In speaking to numerous of the Great Leaders mentioned above, they would be honored, as soon as our Document is signed, to have the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords. Wow, now that would be something special! This will be the most important Deal that any of these Great, but always in Conflict Countries, will ever sign. Nothing in the past, or in the future, will surpass it.

Therefore, I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition. The Middle East would be United, Powerful, and Economically Strong, like perhaps no other area, anywhere in the World!

By copy of this TRUTH, I am asking my Representatives to begin, and successfully complete, the process of signing these Countries into the already Historic Abraham Accords. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke of the current status during his trip to India, shortly before his visit to the Taj Mahal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed reporters in New Delhi before departing for Agra, discussing Iran nuclear negotiations, Hezbollah tensions, India-U.S. relations, Pakistan concerns, and President Donald Trump’s stance on diplomacy. Rubio stressed that Washington will “give diplomacy every chance to succeed” while warning against a nuclear Iran and reaffirming strong ties with India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Read more …

But Abraham includes Israel?!

• Trump Tells Arab States Joining Abraham Accords Should Be ‘Mandatory’ (ZH)

President Trump is still trying to play the role of the globe’s ultimate deal-maker via Truth Social, using a mix of mandatory diplomacy and ultimate economic carrots, issuing a lengthy missive on Iran talks and the Abraham Accords on Monday morning. He introduced the post by stating that negotiations with Tehran are “proceeding nicely” before dropping a provocative diplomatic bombshell: a demand that a big list of major Middle Eastern nations immediately sign onto the Abraham Accords as a prerequisite for any broader peace framework.


The most unexpected aspect to the post laid out that if Tehran plays ball with Washington, Trump is dangling the prospect of the Islamic Republic itself joining the regional coalition, which it must be remembered hinges on ‘normalization’ with Israel.

“I stated that, after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote Monday, referencing a Saturday phone call with Arab leaders. Trump detailed further:

“Those Countries discussed are Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates (already a Member!), Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain (already a Member!). It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be. The Abraham Accords have proven to be, for the Countries involved (The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and Kazakhstan), a Financial, Economic, and Social BOOM, even during this time of Conflict and War, with the current Members never even suggesting leaving, or taking so much as even a pause.”

The above was coupled with the following ultimatum: “It should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and everybody else should follow suit. If they don’t, they should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention.” And then he dropped the significant twist related to Tehran, in claiming that several of the regional leaders he spoke with “would be honored, as soon as our Document is signed, to have the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords. Wow, now that would be something special!”

Inviting Iran to join the Abraham Accords as a part of a broader final deal framework has resulted in a lot of head-scratching, given that just weeks ago Trump repeatedly threatened to bomb the country ‘back to the stone age’ and effectively end ‘civilization’ there. US rhetoric has been filled with scorn for Iran, and yet it is now being asked to join a grand US-backed alliance. Trump is his very long message issued a final directive in the following:

“Therefore, I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition. The Middle East would be United, Powerful, and Economically Strong, like perhaps no other area, anywhere in the World! By copy of this TRUTH, I am asking my Representatives to begin, and successfully complete, the process of signing these Countries into the already Historic Abraham Accords.”

Meanwhile, look who’s fully on board and has returned to singing Trump’s praises (after expressing concern over a ‘bad’ Iran deal in the works)…

Whether Trump can single-handedly force countries as far apart in their foreign policies as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey… or especially Iran, into a binding alignment with Tel Aviv remains a massive question mark (to put it mildly), or rather would be incredible and highly unrealistic. But with the threat of “shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before” serving as the baseline, the White House has put regional powers officially on notice – in Trump’s logic at least.

Read more …

That’s why Trump wants to make it mandatory

• Hamas’s Sponsors in Qatar and Iran Won’t Sign the Abraham Accords (Salgado)

President Donald Trump has a dream of the entire Middle East signing onto the Abraham Accords to make peace with Israel. However, two of the countries he specifically mentioned as candidates for signing the accords have made wiping Israel off the map a prime focus for both themselves and their terrorist proxies. Or perhaps this is his last peace offer before he resumes war on Iran’s regime.


Trump wants peace in the Middle East, and so do we all, as have Christians and Jews for the last two or three centuries. The problem is that we are fighting 1400 years of Islam with its sacred texts and laws mandating the killing of non-Muslims and especially Jews. This is not merely a regional dispute or quibbling over specific land patches, but an existential spiritual war. For more in-depth analysis, you can watch Dinesh D’Souza’s “The Dragon’s Prophecy.” So as laudable as Trump’s goal is, it is also improbable. Hopefully he understands that enough to use the Abraham Accords as a litmus test to find his true allies.

Trump called on the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iran to sign the Abraham Accords. All three are sharia dictatorships that enforce strict Muslim law and persecute Christians within their own countries. They also all have a history of hostility to Israel. Even Saudi Arabia has become more anti-Israel in the last year, and the Qatari regime is the most devoted sponsor of Hamas, while the Iranian regime backs Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups that attack not only Israel, but other countries across the region and even around the entire world.

Yes, Qatar pours vast amounts of money into the United States, including our universities, but that is not because they’re our friends or Israel’s. It’s because the regime wants to transform our country into an anti-Israel, pro-Islamist sharia cesspool like its own. It explains why so many U.S. universities have a violent antisemitism problem. It explains why so many politicians both on the right and the left now fixate on hating Israel. I truly wish that America would move its base from Qatar, Hamas’s haven, to the Republic of Somaliland. Why should we endanger our men?

The Iranian regime does not even pretend to be anything but America’s worst enemy. After half a century of terrorism, the Iranian regime has repeatedly violated ceasefires, rejected every peace offer from Trump, and most recently put out a €50 million, or approximately $58 million, price on Trump’s head, just after an Iran-tied assassin made an attempt on Ivanka Trump.

Again, perhaps this offer is Trump’s way of testing which Arab nations actually want peace with Israel and the U.S. and which are merely lying whenever necessary to hide their true goals. If so, I think he will discover quickly that Qatar and Iran, and possibly also Saudi Arabia, are more interested in destroying Israel than in stopping the missile fire.

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It’s by design. Trump will have to break through it. Or the 21st century will arrive first before any deal.

• Report Details Painfully Slow Communication Within Iran’s Leadership (ZH)

According to a Sunday CBS News report citing US officials, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is still in hiding in a secret location with extremely limited communication to the outside world. Driven underground by a pervasive fear within Tehran’s remaining leadership structure following relentless US and Israeli military strikes, the Supreme Leader is effectively isolated. This information is nothing ‘new’ – but even as talks with the US are now little by little reportedly proceeding – and as a ceasefire has been extended by weeks – the Ayatollah is clearly not taking any chances.


The CIA and Mossad have openly acknowledged that are actively looking for his hideout. But the report seeks to provide an explanation as to why Tehran’s response to any specific updated draft peace deal often takes several days. CBS detailed how the isolation is to keep Western intelligence from mapping his coordinates, which involves only being reached via a slow, archaic network of physical couriers designed to conceal his location.The report further alleges that these heightened security measures have significantly disrupted communication lines within Iran’s government, complicating active negotiations with the Trump administration and at times dragging responses to US peace proposals to a grinding halt.

But this is also to a large degree by design, to allow the different military units autonomy of command in the instance for more ‘decapitation strikes’ targeting governing centers in Tehran.The end result, says CBS, is that “When the U.S. sends proposed details, the difficulty in reaching the supreme leader means there can be a long delay before the U.S. receives a response, two of the officials said.” Yet, it wasn’t long ago that White House officials and mainstream pundits were insisting that the Ayatollah is not actually in charge of the country. But now assumptions have shifted back, apparently. The report claims further: At this point, most Iranian leaders don’t see daylight, spending weeks inside highly fortified bunkers and avoiding speaking to each other unless absolutely necessary, the sources said.

“Watching them try to figure out how to talk to each other is almost like watching a sitcom. They are completely exasperated,” one official said. The most cautious measures are being taken by the supreme leader. By design, even officials at the highest levels of the Iranian government don’t know where he is and have no way to contact him directly.

One official followed with: “This is why you see people saying things like, ‘The supreme leader has agreed to the framework,’ or ‘We’re waiting to hear back on the final deal points.’ Every piece of information he receives is dated and there’s a lot of latency to his responses,” one official said. It has become obvious that the negotiations process has become painfully slow and confused, and so this narrative by anonymous US officials seems an effort to lay blame squarely on the Iranians, instead of Washington’s own often shifting goals and conditions.

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“Here’s your feel-good story of the day.”

• Tulsi Gabbard and Others Go Above and Beyond for a Gold Star Widow (Anderson)

Here’s your feel-good story of the day. On the night before Memorial Day, Sharrell Shaw posted a special request on social media. “This is probably a long shot, but if anybody happens to be in D.C. this weekend and plans on visiting Arlington, I would love to see a fresh photo of my husband’s grave in Section 60,” she said. “There’s just something about knowing people still stop by, still say his name, still remember.” The Gold Star widow’s husband was Staff Sergeant Alan W. Shaw. He was killed in action in Iraq on February 9, 2007. Alan was only 31, and while he’s from Little Rock, Ark., he’s buried Arlington in Section 60, Grave 8451 at Arlington.


Sharrell, who goes by @SharrellAnne2 on X, didn’t have high expectations, so I imagine she was mighty surprised on Monday when dozens of patriotic Americans visited her husband’s grave to pay their respects and take a photo for her, including members of the Donald Trump administration.

One of the first was outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. A veteran herself, Gabbard posted a response to Sharrell, which included a picture of her placing a challenge coin on Alana’s headstone. “It was an honor to visit your husband’s grave today on your behalf, and to pay my respects,” she said. “It was wonderful to see the beautiful flowers representing many others who did the same. Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and to the loved ones they left behind. Thank you for your service and sacrifice.”

Later, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and his wife and children also stopped by to pay their respects.

Journalist Nick Sortor stopped by and laid fresh roses on Alan’s grave. He also got the challenge coin and plans to mail it to Sharrell and her children.

And soon, numerous others were stopping by Alan’s grave to pay their respects for someone who gave his life for our freedom, including this beautiful five-year-old girl. Her parents are definitely raising her right: By Monday evening, Sharrell’s X feed was filled with posts like these:

And Alan’s grave was filled with flags, flowers, and love from so many people who’d never met him before. Sharrell responded with the following message: ”Last night, I made a simple request on X. I asked if anybody visiting Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day would stop by Alan’s grave and leave a photo for our family. What happened next honestly caught me off guard. By this afternoon, dozens of Americans from all walks of life had made the walk to Section 60 to visit SSG Alan W. Shaw. Veterans. Families. Complete strangers. People who had never met Alan, but chose to honor him anyway.

For one day on social media, people put aside the constant noise and negativity and came together for something bigger than themselves. My notifications filled with photos, kind messages, prayers, and stories from people honoring not just Alan, but so many of our fallen heroes. I don’t think people fully understand what moments like this mean to Gold Star families. The fear is never just losing them. It’s losing them slowly over time as the world moves on and fewer people remember their name. But today showed me that Alan will never be forgotten.

After years of watching social media reward some of the worst parts of humanity, today gave me a reminder that the good is still out there too. Thank you to every single person who stopped by to visit Alan today, said his name, shared his story, or took a moment to honor the fallen. This right here is the America Alan knew and loved enough to fight and die for. And today, y’all showed us all that it’s still here and it’s still worth fighting for. “

Sharrell also shared a photo of her family, including her husband and three children, as well as some memories and thoughts on what Memorial Day means to her family.

All I can say is thank God for people like Alan and Sharrell Shaw who are willing to give so much for our country. And thank God for the patriots who went to Alan’s grave today to pay their respects — people from all walks of life, as Sharrell said, coming together to say thank you. This is what makes the United States great.

Read more …

Or is it the opposite?

• This is a ‘Jackie Robinson Moment’ (Turleey)

“It’s a Jackie Robinson moment.” That declaration by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries struck a curious chord because Jeffries was calling for Black athletes to boycott SEC conference teams to protest not the existence but the elimination of racial discrimination. Jeffries was upset that the court had ended racial gerrymandering designed to guarantee the election of non-white (and largely Democratic) House members. It was as if Jackie Robinson were to join a protest calling for the return of race-based discrimination in baseball.

Robinson played his first year in the Negro League with the Kansas City Monarchs before becoming the first African-American player in the Major Leagues when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. He ushered in a new era in baseball, in which race had no role in competitive sports. There would be no racial division of leagues, no race quotas and no segregation — just an equal playing field. Almost 50 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court found that racial quotas in university admissions violated the 14th Amendment. The court later declared all racial preferences to be unconstitutional. Yet, for decades, a form of political affirmative action has persisted under the Voting Rights Act, where federal courts required racial gerrymandering to guarantee the election of minority members to Congress.

That ended with the Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which found that was also unlawful racial discrimination.The Callais decision brought something long missing from our constitutional jurisprudence: consistency. In 2007, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that “the way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Yet for decades, certain forms of racial discrimination were tolerated in the name of diversity or equity. The Callais decision put an end to this pretense and declared all such racial gerrymandering is illegal and discriminatory.

In response, the NAACP called for both players and fans to boycott SEC teams. MS NOW host Chris Hayes asked whether Jeffries would support the effort. Jeffries declared that black athletes should turn down potential career-making offers from SEC powerhouse teams to preserve political affirmative action. He said that existing students should “abandon SEC schools,” even though such moves might effectively end their careers. “There should be no athletic or sports participation. … You know, this is a Muhammad Ali moment. This is a Bill Russell moment. It’s a Jackie Robinson moment.”

Jeffries acknowledged that such moves will “require a level of courage and character and conviction,” but he added that it would be worth it. Politicians often ask others to make sacrifices that would benefit them, but this was truly the Super Bowl of self-serving political pitches. Some of these young athletes would give up their hopes for an NFL career, just to fight for racial gerrymandering so that Black voters can be either cracked or packed into districts. It is a system that has yielded Democratic districts for decades. But are these athletes’ careers really worth sacrificing to Jeffries’s all-consuming desire to be the next Speaker of the House?

Self-serving demands are nothing new for politicians. They often ask for sacrifices from others to further their own ambitions. This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called on Californians to boycott Chevron after the company launched a campaign reminding them that they are paying the highest gas prices in the nation. For years, Democrats have added gas taxes to both pay for bloated budgets and to encourage the expansion of public transportation. Environmental policies have devastated the state’s oil and gas industry and increased its reliance on foreign oil.

Newsom’s response was to call for Californians to potentially pay more at other stations, in order to punish Chevron for telling the truth about his policies. “Californians,” he tweeted, “if you’re hitting the road this holiday weekend, be sure to AVOID Chevron.” In fairness to Newsom, though, asking residents to potentially pay a little more at the pump to punish Chevron for embarrassing him is trivial in comparison to the ask of athletes to derail or discontinue their football careers.

What is particularly dishonest is how the Callais decision has been portrayed by many pundits, professors, and politicians. What neither the NAACP nor Jeffries will mention is that the Supreme Court preserved the original intent of the VRA to ban intentional racial discrimination in the design of electoral districts. Far from being “gutted,” the law will still be used to bar efforts to deny minority voters their equal voting rights. It will also now bar racial discrimination in any form in the design of these districts.

To invoke Jackie Robinson to support racial discrimination in politics is to denigrate his legacy. Ironically, Robinson was a Republican who spoke out against what he saw as the rise in racial politics in the 1960s in the Republican Party. He warned that there is “a new breed which is seeking to sell to Americans a doctrine which is as old as mankind — the doctrine of racial division.”

He added what could be the perfect retort to Jeffries today in the use of his name to support racial gerrymandering: “It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.”

So, maybe Jeffries is right. This is “a Jackie Robinson moment” after all.

Read more …

“I told my staff today that we need an ICD code for Trump Derangement Syndrome, because it is a real thing … It should be studied.” Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

• For the Honored Dead (James Howard Kunstler)

As of this holiday morning, America is informed that the negotiations between the US and Iran may take several more days to resolve. You better believe that Iran is going to make a deal. One way or another, they will give up their stash of sixty-percent enriched uranium. Nobody believes they would not attempt to make bombs with it, especially Mr. Trump. So, Iran will not be going back to whatever is considered normal life until they agree to give it up, and then make it happen. Iran is like a demon-possessed teenager with a firearm getting its head banged into the sidewalk. What part of give-it-up don’t you understand?


The news media apparently forgot what it broadcast a couple of weeks ago: Iran’s oil storage capacity was nearing the red-line. If the wells have to be shut-in, such is the geology that it would wreck the oil fields themselves. Perhaps this is happening now. Nobody is reporting on it. But the news media doesn’t really report on anything. It opines. It spins. It constructs story-lines for advantage, it gaslights, it perverts the consensus about reality out of existence, it just plain lies.

If Iran is jerking the US around again, this will be the last time. They will prove to be negotiation-incapable, as the Russian phrase goes. They will punch their own express ticket back to the 12th century, lights out, bridges down across the rugged terrain, back to donkey carts, magic lamps, and vizeers instead of mullahs.

Why does America’s lefty-left beat its drum for an Iranian victory when 1) it’s not happening, and 2) it’s hardly in the interest of Western Civ for anything like that to happen? You can conclude that they hate and despise Western Civ, especially anything that resembles America’s traditional sense-of-self: a republic based on civic and economic liberty. Liberty means individuals making their own decisions within an armature of laws written in good faith, to mean what they say.

The Lefty-left is mainly about acquiring power through bad faith in order to push everyone around, tell them what they’re allowed to want out of life, and severely punish anyone who objects to that treatment. What’s often overlooked is the role that sadism plays in the psychology of the Lefty-left. They seem to love it when illegal aliens rape and strangle 19-year-old American girls. (You don’t hear them deplore it, do you? Their house-organ, The New York Times, won’t even report it.) More than anything they want to subject you to the most savage humiliations.

We are at a dangerous pass this Memorial Day. Mr. Trump and his people are methodically rearranging the works to expel these grifting demons. Their resistance to being expelled will manifest in ever more dirty fighting as spring blossoms into a summer of violent “activism.” They will try as hard as possible to wreck the country’s 250th birthday celebrations. It might look like civil war. They will not stop trying kill Donald Trump and possibly other figures around him. Even if they manage that, it will not stop what it is coming for them.

This time around nobody believes their sob stories, their whining about “oppression,” their bullshit about “equity” and “justice.” This time, they will not be allowed to get away with sheer lawlessness. They will not be able to pass off fake martyrs such as George Floyd. The elections this time — if they can happen — will be clean and fair. That can be the only way they will be allowed to happen.

This will be the most emphatic counter-revolution in modern history, a complete rejection of childish unreality — the cavalcade of absurdities you have been told to swallow for a mad decade: that you can change your sex “assigned at birth.” (Assigned by whom? By some cosmic committee of gender komisars?) That merit has no merit (don’t be good at anything). That men and maleness represent some inferior way of being human? That people from outside American society, from faraway lands, deserve to live here under a special gift economy of vast subsidies, at your expense, to set up antagonistic counter-cultures? That words don’t mean what they mean?

Expect the pace to quicken now, even with Tulsi Gabbard gone. Her operational deputy DNI, Aaron Lukas, is a proven, capable warrior. Most of the critical information has already been recovered from the Deep State’s vaults, hidden rooms, burn bags, and SCIFs. The adjudication of crimes against our country will be spooling out the next hundred days as a vivid and orderly counterpoint to whatever nose-ringed chaos the Democrats send out into the streets. The republic will celebrate its 250th birthday by carrying-on as it was designed to do, while the demons skulk to back into the shadows until the next great turning.

Read more …

“The UK, France, Spain, Italy, and Canada “aren’t very enthusiastic about the idea,” a source within the bloc has told the paper”

• Five NATO Countries Block Plan For Mandatory Ukraine Funding – Telegraph (RT)

The UK, France, Spain, Italy, and Canda have rejected a proposal for NATO member states to spend 0.25% of their GDP on military assistance to Ukraine, The Telegraph has reported. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was hoping that mandatory funding for Kiev would be approved at the bloc’s summit in Ankara, Türkiye on July 7-8, The Telegraph said in an article on Sunday. A NATO insider told the paper that Britain, France, Spain, Italy, and Canada “aren’t very enthusiastic about the idea.” Out of the 32 member-states, the proposal was only supported by seven nations, all of which already spend 0.25% or more of their GDP on assisting Ukraine, The Telegraph said.


According to data from the Kiel Institute, the Netherlands, Poland, and the Nordic and Baltic countries currently spend 0.25% of their GDP or more on arming Kiev. Last week, Rutte conceded that the plan did not have the unanimous backing within NATO required for it to be accepted. “I don’t think this one will be proposed” in the Turkish capital, he told journalists. Mandatory funding had been intended to serve as a show of continued commitment to Ukraine by the bloc’s European members after American assistance to the government of Vladimir Zelensky ebbed significantly under US President Donald Trump, it added. A British foreign office spokesperson told the paper that “the UK continues to engage with NATO allies on all proposals to ensure the alliance can best support Ukraine.”

Moscow has repeatedly decried Western aid to Kiev, saying that it will not prevent it from achieving its goals in the Ukraine conflict and only prolongs the fighting, increasing the risk of a direct clash between Russia and NATO. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that NATO has been using Ukraine “with the blatant goal of creating problems for the existence of our country and setting up a springboard for threats to our security right on our borders.” The idea of “decolonizing” Russia has not yet been given up by the bloc, he warned.

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Hawaii is far away, but it’s still US. And she can’t stay in Washington.

• The US Admin Lost A Patriot and Truth-teller In Tulsi Gabbard (Scott Ritter)

Once the darling of the Democratic Party, Tulsi Gabbard had a hard-earned reputation as a no-nonsense proponent of fact-based truth, which she assiduously incorporated into her eloquent defense of Constitutional due process and moral integrity when it came to the national security of the United States.


With a resume that boasts years of honorable military service, including a tour of duty in war-torn Iraq, Gabbard was a staunch advocate of looking out for the welfare of the men and women in the US military – whom she regularly referred to as her “brothers and sisters in arms.” She, as much as anyone, understood the age-old mantra, “if you lie, they die” when it came to the relationship between intelligence and troops in the field. She held herself to a high standard and applied that same standard to those she worked with.

Her appointment as the Director of National Intelligence was seen by many as a bright shining light of hope when it came to injecting fact-based truths into a Trump administration known to be loose with the facts. Her resignation this past week, ostensibly for personal reasons, is a great disappointment to those Americans who were looking to her for clarity and truth in a world that has degenerated into lie-fueled chaos.

Tulsi Gabbard was always somewhat politically inclined. In 2002 she followed in her father’s footsteps, running for and winning a seat in the Hawaii State Legislature, becoming the youngest woman ever to hold a seat there. Gabbard joined the Hawaiian Army National Guard shortly after winning office, and deployed to Iraq shortly thereafter, where she earned the Combat Action Badge in the performance of her duties. Gabbard’s tenure as a state legislature was cut short by her military service (she was not allowed to vote on issues while on active service), but in 2011, following a second tour of duty in the Middle East, Gabbard ran for and won a seat on the Honolulu City Council. Shortly thereafter, the Congressional seat for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District became vacant, and Gabbard threw her hat in the ring, winning handily. She was quickly seen as a rising star in Democratic national politics and was invited to speak at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

As a US congresswoman, Gabbard served on several prominent committees related to national security, including Homeland Security, Armed Services, and Foreign Affairs. Her political profile was rising, and in 2013 she was appointed as the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Gabbard resigned from this position in 2016, during a contentious presidential primary campaign where she accused the DNC Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of favoring the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton over that of Bernie Sanders. Gabbard went on to endorse Sanders in the primary (he lost). While many viewed her resignation as the political kiss of death, Gabbard’s reputation for integrity and courage was burnished, paving the way for her to enter the 2020 US presidential race.

The 2020 presidential campaign saw Gabbard’s willingness to challenge the conventional narrative regarding US national security priorities, especially when it came to America’s involvement in the seemingly endless wars in the Middle East, transforming her into a target for the mainstream American media, which had a record of supporting establishment candidates and promoting establishment narratives. Her visit to Syria in 2017 as a member of Congress became fodder for her political opponents and their mainstream media allies who sought to paint Gabbard – who had served in combat – as being sympathetic to Islamic terrorists and Middle Eastern dictators.

Gabbard’s pragmatic approach to US-Russian relations likewise opened her up to being labeled as an agent of Russian disinformation and as someone under the control of Russian President Vladimir Putin (Hillary Clinton led the charge in this regard, infamously calling Gabbard a “Russian asset”). She was never able to gain traction amongst a Democratic constituency that had long been under the sway of the Democratic Party’s elite, and she ended her presidential bid in March 2020.

Gabbard became active on social media, starting her own podcast and frequently interacting with popular conservative media personalities such as Tucker Carlson. During this time, her resentment toward the Democratic Party came to a head, and in 2022 she announced she was going independent. As an independent, she began gravitating toward the policies and positions espoused by Donald Trump, between presidencies at the time, and came out in support of several pro-Trump candidates during the 2022 midterm elections. Gabbard’s star was rising among the ranks of pro-Trump Republicans and following a speaking appearance at the 2024 CPAC conference, Gabbard’s name was often mentioned as a possible Vice President selection for Donald Trump, who had thrown his hat into the ring for the 2024 Presidential race.

While Gabbard wasn’t asked to be Trump’s Vice President (that honor went to J.D. Vance), she and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. were brought into the campaign and played a huge role in bringing out a very substantive independent voting constituency for Trump, helping push him comfortably ahead of the Democratic Party nominee, Kamala Harris. In October 2024 Gabbard joined the Republican Party and, following Trump’s victory in November, was nominated by the president-elect for the position of Director of National Intelligence, America’s senior-most intelligence official.

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‘Should shut his stupid mouth’

“Mike Pompeo has no idea what the f— he’s talking about,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. wrote on X.

• White House Rips Pompeo For Prematurely Criticizing Iran Deal (JTN)

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ripped the reported contents of a potential Iran agreement that’s still being negotiated by President Donald Trump and his team, warning that the emerging framework resembles the Iran deal from the Obama administration. Some reports said that Iran and the U.S. might agree to a 60-day ceasefire while negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program continue. “The deal being floated with Iran seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook,” Pompeo wrote on X, describing the reported framework as “not remotely America First.”


He said the U.S. should “deny Iran access to money” and “take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region.” Pompeo’s criticism drew a fiery response from White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. “Mike Pompeo has no idea what the f— he’s talking about,” Cheung wrote on X. “He should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals. He’s not read into anything that’s happening, so how would he know.”

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“Cruz warns of Senate ‘revolt’ if White House, DOJ refuse to revise $1.8 billion weaponization fund “

• Cruz Warns of Senate ‘Revolt’ Over $1.8 Billion Weaponization Fund (JTN)

Cruz described a meeting between the Senate GOP and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate”Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is warning the White House that it could face a “full-on revolt in the Senate” unless the Trump administration revises a controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that has triggered growing backlash among Republican lawmakers.


The dispute erupted after Senate Republicans held a tense closed-door meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to discuss the fund, which was created as part of a settlement tied to President Donald Trump dropping lawsuits against the IRS and other federal entities. Speaking afterward on his podcast, Cruz described the meeting as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate,” saying Republican senators were “screaming” at Blanche over concerns the fund could become politically toxic ahead of the midterm elections.

“If the administration doesn’t fix this, they’ve got a full-on revolt in the Senate,” Cruz said.The proposed fund is intended to compensate individuals the administration says were victims of government “weaponization” or politically motivated prosecutions. “The legal basis is quite sound,” Cruz said.Several GOP senators have objected to the lack of congressional oversight and the possibility that people convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot could receive payouts, reports have said.

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The graph is painfully clear. But everybody believes the climate religion.

• It Was Never About The Climate (Silvio Canto Jr)

Here is a question for your long weekend: Why haven’t you ever seen a climate change protest before the Chinese embassy anywhere? Why is it always the US or capitalism messing up the environment? Why don’t they show up at all when China is a bigger threat to clean air than any US city?The answer is obvious, but I’ll say it.


It was never about the climate but rather capitalism or the US. Check this out: In 2024, climate activists in New York City protested alongside anti-Israel protesters at a rally headlined “Climate Justice Means Free Palestine.”nLast year, climate change celebrity icon Greta Thunberg tried to storm Israel by sea on a flotilla protesting the country’s war in Gaza, yelling “Free! Free! Palestine!” when she was refused entry. And, last week, activists from CodePink, a far-left feminist activist group that has received funds from an American expatriate, Neville Roy Singham, living in Shanghai, took a break from their rallies supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Cuba Communist Party to circulate a video on Instagram, attacking a Utah data center project backed by investor Kevin O’Leary.

That’s a busy bunch protesting against the West. Maybe someone should tell them that the clean air in Cuba is due to a collapse of industrial activity. Or we can always remind them of how they treat gays in Palestine or women in general. As the article points out, these marches were always about hating the West and what we stand for. So don’t be fooled by the slogans or some well-meaning people showing up to protest. The root of all of this is hatred of the West and our individual freedoms.

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A billion a month.

• Musk: SpaceX-xAI Is Actively Seeking More AI Compute Customers (DCD)

SpaceX’s xAI subsidiary is looking to score more data center compute lease deals, after it sold all of the capacity of Colossus I to Anthropic. That deal will see Grok’s competitor pay $1.25 billion a month over the next three years for the 300MW facility. The deal can be terminated by either party, with 90 days’ notice. “As the recently expanded partnership with Anthropic demonstrates, SpaceX is offering AI compute as a service at significant scale,” CEO Elon Musk said. “We are in discussions with other companies to do the same. “Over time, especially with orbital data centers, we expect to serve AI at extremely high scale.”


In April, AI code editing startup Cursor announced that it would also be using space at xAI data centers – although SpaceX is set to acquire the business within 30 days of its IPO. SpaceX is expected to go public on June 12, with the company looking to raise upwards of $75 billion. IPO documents reveal that xAI spent $12.7bn on AI infrastructure in 2025, and has already invested $7.7bn in the first quarter of 2026.Alongside the first Colossus data center, xAI is developing Colossus 2. It acquired the land last March, and the data center came online in January. Despite Musk claiming it offered 1GW of capacity at launch, satellite imagery taken in January reportedly showed it had cooling equipment installed capable of managing 350MW.

The IPO document makes multiple mentions of the 1GW of data center capacity at SpaceX’s disposal, but describes it as “nameplate compute draw.” It explains this is calculated by taking “the number of GPUs installed in our data centers at the end of the period multiplied by their respective all-in power draw. According to a chart in the IPO filing, the company’s nameplate compute draw was 1GW in March 2026, up from 300MW a year before. However, it also notes that this figure “reflects installed capacity and does not represent actual power consumption or utilization.” So while the GPUs are installed, they may not yet be powered up, suggesting the company’s actual useful compute power could be significantly less than 1GW.

How much capacity at the xAI data centers is actually reserved for Grok, the company’s own generative AI effort, is unclear. The platform has seen dwindling usage, while increasing numbers of staff have left the company – including all non-Musk co-founders. SpaceX, meanwhile, plans to launch up to one million space data center satellites in the years to come.

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