Oman Archives - The Automatic Earth

President Trump delivers one of the most heartfelt moments ever to take place in the White House Cabinet Room when he thanked outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard for her service.

The entire room ERUPTED into applause as Trump took nearly two minutes to praise her work.

TRUMP: “Before… pic.twitter.com/yQwvGRn8Sj
— Overton (@overton_news) May 27, 2026

🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Trump SBA chief Kelly Loeffler exposes in the Cabinet room she found $200 BILLION in FRAUDULENT PPP loans distributed by the Biden admin…

…and they tried COVERING IT UP. People are now going to jail 🔥

"Think about at the SBA, we found $200 billion in… pic.twitter.com/ZmiavmvcA0
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 27, 2026

Trump is asked about the uranium, and he brings up Barack HUSSEIN Obama and the Iran Deal, again.

Trump is spoon-feeding it to us. He is hammering home the point that Obama knowingly paved the way for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Trump is preparing the public for TREASON! https://t.co/mXz7Nf4ltN
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) May 27, 2026

Trump may have just pulled off the most important geopolitical move of the 21st century.

Most people still haven’t realized what’s happening in the Middle East.

This changes everything. pic.twitter.com/e3piXpaAoh
— Mike Steger (@stegerMG) May 27, 2026

At some point Trump will get tired of dancing the Persian Polka.

• Oil Tumbles On Deal ‘Breakthrough’ As US-Iran Reportedly Reach MOU (ZH)

Oil Tumbles on Reported MOU Breakthrough Per Barak Ravid: “U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire and launch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, but President Trump has yet to give it his final approval,” two US officials have told Axios. This could be the hugest diplomatic breakthrough yet, after weeks of stalled talks, but it awaits President Trump’s. “U.S. officials said the deal terms were mostly agreed as of Tuesday, but both sides still needed to get approval from senior leadership,” Axios notes by way of caveat. According to some emerging details from the report:

The U.S. officials claimed the Iranians later came back and said they had the necessary approvals and were prepared to sign. Iran has not confirmed that. The U.S. negotiators briefed Trump on the details of the final deal and he asked to take a few days to think about it. “The president relayed to the mediators that he wants a couple of days to think about it,” a U.S. official said. Key question: is Iran’s high enriched nuclear material part of the MOU? This could put it in jeopardy. Oil tumbles on the headline…
Uranium Transfer to China?
According to Saudi state-funded Al Hadath, Pakistan will present to the US the “transfer of Iranian uranium to Beijing under international supervision.” The report seems unlikely, given it is also worded in such a way as to suggest the scheme originates with Pakistan, as a desperate attempt to keep stalled talks alive. Tehran has never indicated it would contemplate sending its enriched uranium stockpile abroad, even to a ‘friendly’ nation.
Iranian Launch on Kuwait
The government of Kuwait on Thursday has made clear it retains all rights to take measures to preserve its security, following a overnight Iranian missile strike. Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry further condemned the fresh missile and drone attacks on its territory as a serious escalation and “blatant violation of sovereignty and security.” The Iranian launch, which Tehran says targeted a US base in Kuwait, came in response to US bombardment of an Iranian drone base near the southern city of Bandar Abbas which occurred just prior.
In a new statement, US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirms that “At 10:17 p.m. ET on May 27, Iran launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait that was successfully intercepted by Kuwaiti forces.” “This egregious ceasefire violation by the Iranian regime occurred hours after Iranian forces launched five one-way attack drones that posed a clear threat in and near the Strait of Hormuz,” the US military statement continued. “All drones were successfully intercepted by U.S. forces which also prevented a sixth drone launch from an Iranian ground control site in Bandar Abbas,” it added. “U.S. Central Command and regional partners remain vigilant and measured as we continue to defend our forces and interests from unjustified Iranian aggression.”
Additionally, the Gulf statement strongly condemned the fresh Iranian attack, with the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, denouncing it as follows: “The secretary-general pointed out that the continuation of these treacherous attacks is a flagrant violation of the principles of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and the principles of good neighborliness.” The GCC statement added: “His excellency affirmed the GCC countries’ full support for the state of Kuwait in all measures it takes to preserve its security and stability, and the safety of its citizens and residents,”
A separate statement from Saudi-led Gulf allies further condemned the act of ‘terrorism’ – per Al Aljazeera: The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned a missile attack on a US airbase in Kuwait with only the UAE expressly naming Iran as responsible for the ‘terrorist’ attacks . In statements shared on social media, the foreign ministries of the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia said they consider the attack a flagrant violation of Kuwait‘s sovereignty, and expressed their countries’ full solidarity with Kuwait and support for all measures it takes to preserve its sovereignty, security and stability.
Two US-Iran Clashes Incidents This Week
This marks the second live-fire attack flare-up this week, after earlier Wednesday Iran fired drones on American and other foreign commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. “American F/A-18, F-16 and F-35 jet fighters shot down the drones, then the F/A-18s hit the ground-control unit before it could launch a fifth drone, one of the officials said,” The Wall Street Journal summarizes of that first incident. State TV released video of the ballistic missile launch targeting a US base in Kuwait:
https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/2059917542458576993
It seems that Iran is asserting some red lines through single, sporadic attacks, when it perceives a US military violation of its sovereignty. WSJ cites the following: The spokesman for the National Security Commission in Iran’s parliament said Trump’s unwillingness to acknowledge that the U.S. and Tehran were still at war was a sign of his weak negotiating position. “Diplomats should not let go of the enemy’s weak point and should impose maximum demands on them,” the spokesman said.
Currently, negotiations are still primarily stuck on the nuclear issue. President Trump has vowed not to let off sanctions pressure until Tehran agrees to dismantle its nuclear program by handing over highly enriched uranium to be transferred off its territory. Iranian officials say this simply will not happen, and that it would be tantamount to handing over the country’s sovereignty. Tehran has insisted the nuclear file must be dealt with after the war is over, and later on down the line.

Reports Mojtaba Khamenei Did Not Approve Deal – i24 @AmichaiStein1 https://t.co/cUVMLI3YDy pic.twitter.com/K1PiYumQLU
— LiveSquawk (@LiveSquawk) May 28, 2026

“No, the strait’s got to be opened to everybody, it’s international waters. Nobody’s going to control it. We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation..”

• Bessent Warns Oman On Hormuz Toll Scheme (ZH)

On an official level at least, Oman remains a close strategic partner and key ally of the United States in the Middle East; however, that relationship has been severely strained this month amid apparent Iranian-Omani cooperation regarding a potential toll system for the Strait of Hormuz. This of course flies in the face of the US posture in the region. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the latest top Trump admin official to chastize Oman: “The United States Government will not tolerate any effort to impose a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said on X Thursday.

“Oman, in particular, should know that the U.S. Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved – directly or indirectly – in facilitating tolls for the Strait and any willing partners will be penalized,” Bessent continued. “All nations should reject outright any efforts by Iran to disrupt the free flow of commerce. Tehran’s days of terrorizing the region and the world are over. Starting a week ago, official ‘discussions’ between Oman and Iran were widely reported: Iran and Oman have discussed setting up a toll system to charge vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, despite President Trump’s condemnation of charging fees to pass through the waterway.
“Iran and Oman must mobilize all their resources both to provide security services and to manage navigation in the most appropriate manner,” Iranian Ambassador to France Mohammad Amin-Nejad on Wednesday told Bloomberg News, which first reported the talks. Given the country’s geography, in the southeastern Arabian Peninsula, it is likely to play a key role in any final agreement or outcome, in terms of opening Hormuz back up to international maritime transit. Bessent is continuing the pressure campaign soon on the heels of President Trump in somewhat shocking and surprise remarks saying that Oman could come under American military attack if it doesn’t cooperate.
Trump said in the Oval and in front of cameras that the US would “blow up” Oman if it doesn’t “behave”. The serious threat was issued in response to a reporter’s question on whether the US would accept a short-term deal that involved Iran and Oman jointly controlling the Strait of Hormuz. “No, the strait’s got to be opened to everybody, it’s international waters. Nobody’s going to control it. We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation,” Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting. “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that they’ll be fine,” the president then emphasized.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei sought to explain earlier this week: “There is no toll. We need to pay attention to the words we use. We’re not after money. Iran and Oman need to create protocols for the safe passage of ships, and this will be based on international laws.” But then came the catch: “It’s only natural that the services we provide, like navigation and the preservation of the ecosystem of the Strait, the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will have costs. These should not be considered tolls. Iran and Oman are being responsible in our efforts and I hope we will reach a conclusion soon,” the spokesman said.

I was gathering all these stories, it looked good, everybody jumped on the story, and then Sundance says: none of it is true because “Media Source Changes Story “ You be the judge.

• DOJ is Not Investigating Trump Accuser, E. Jean Carroll (CTH)

CBS has rewritten their storyline as they now claim their “source” has reversed position. Originally, CBS claimed the U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois was investigating the mentally unstable E. Jean Carroll, the woman who falsely accused President Trump of rape sometime approximately 30 or 40-years ago, she’s not sure. Now CBS is reporting their source changed the story and the DOJ investigation is actually into the American Future Republic PAC, which is a non-profit run by Reid Hoffman, the man who funded the fraudulent political lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll. A substantive difference in narrative.

[..] Via CBS: On Wednesday evening, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News that the investigation was focused on whether Carroll had committed perjury during a deposition in connection with her civil lawsuits against Mr. Trump in which she alleged he had sexually abused and defamed her. On Thursday, however, that source followed up and said Carroll is not the target of the investigation, which is focused on funding that Hoffman’s nonprofit, American Future Republic, provided to help cover some of her legal team’s expenses.
[.. ] Carroll accused Mr. Trump of sexually abusing her in a New York City department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and she published an account of the encounter in New York Magazine in 2019. Mr. Trump subsequently denied assaulting her and said Carroll wasn’ t his type. In 2019, Carroll sued Mr. Trump for defamation, but the case stalled in court. She then filed a second defamation lawsuit in 2022, adding a claim of rape under New York‘s Adult Survivors Act.
Carroll sued Mr. Trump in two civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse and defamation. In 2023, a jury found Mr. Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation for comments he made in 2022. Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages. The New York Adult Survivors Act was written by NY legislature specifically to create a legal mechanism for E Jean Carroll to file the lawsuit.
The Adult Survivors Act (ASA) is a New York State law that created a one-year window, from November 24, 2022, to November 24, 2023, allowing adult survivors of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits even if the statute of limitations had expired. {source} The entire purpose of the ASA was to give Ms. Carroll a window to file the lawsuit against President Trump. Her lawsuit was the only one filed during the one-year window. That’s Lawfare in action.

For the same reason Mamdani can only be eleccted in New York, this is the only case vs Trump that he lost.

A script straight out of Law and Order.

• DOJ Digs Into E. Jean Carroll’s Possible Perjury (Athena Thorne)

After Donald Trump’s first term as president, during the egregious collective regime of “President” Joe Biden, the left’s legal brigades launched an unprecedented lawfare attack on their political target. In New York City, the prevailing tactic was to attack on the civil side. The reason for this was that the standard of proof is so much lower in a civil trial that victory was assured in a town with judges and juries as leftist as NYC’s.

The tactic was effective. In 2024, N.Y. Attorney General Letitia “Big Tish” James and Judge Arthur Engoron hit pay dirt with a nearly half-a-billion-dollar judgment against Trump for allegedly committing some sort of real estate fraud. A year later, an appeals court tossed the absurd monetary penalty but upheld the fraud finding, including a three-year ban on Trump family members from leading businesses in the state and other major inconveniences to the business powerhouse clan. Trump has turned to New York State’s highest court to overturn the remainder of the flimsy case.
Then there was the E. Jean Carroll rape fantasy (in my opinion — don’t sue me!) involving Trump. In 2019, Carroll released a memoir for some reason, even though I can’t say I’d ever heard of her before then. In it, she accused Trump of unleashing his unbridled lust on her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in either 1995 or 1996. Recall that at that time, Trump was a hugely popular celebrity tycoon in NYC, so it’s conceivable that a grasping nobody might fixate on him — especially an admitted rape fantasist like Carroll.
To publicize her otherwise completely unnoteworthy book, Carroll repeated her Trump fantasy claim in an excerpt in New York magazine. Trump said it never happened and that Carroll was a liar. She sued him for defamation, a suit that got a huge boost a couple years later when the state and a major donor stepped in to push validation of her underlying rape and assault claims. Recall that New York State deliberately suspended the statute of limitations for one year via New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which was conveniently active from Nov. 24, 2022, to Nov. 24, 2023. Carroll filed her suit within minutes of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D, natch) signing the Act into law. Why, it’s almost as if the whole thing was choreographed!
Recall also that LinkedIn co-founder and Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman pumped $7 million into the legal venture via his American Future Republic nonprofit, which gave the payola to Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, for fees and expenses. When the weaponized prosecution dust had settled, Trump had been found liable for unwanted kissing and digital violation but not rape, and for defamation, for calling Carroll a liar. Judgments against him totaled $83.3 million, because that’s a totally realistic assessment of how much money Carroll would have made, had Trump not defamed her.
Trump is now forced to appeal an otherwise mundane harassment case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to get a fair hearing. But meanwhile, there is a spicy new development. CNN is reporting (much to its chagrin, no doubt) that the DOJ is investigating whether Carroll lied under oath — perjured herself — during her quest to take down Orange Man Bad:The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president – one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type and claimed she made it up to boost sales of a book. Prosecutors’ theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll, 82, that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, though it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses. The crux of the case looks like this:
Senior leaders at the Justice Department referred the investigation to federal prosecutors in Chicago, according to two sources familiar with the matter. While Carroll’s deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll’s legal fees, Hoffman, has a nonprofit based in Chicago. Hoffman’s support of the case caught Trump’s attorneys off guard when it came to light on the eve of trial. In a 2022 videotaped deposition, Carroll told then-Trump attorney Alina Habba that no one else was paying for her legal fees. But two weeks before the trial Carroll’s attorneys informed the judge and Trump’s lawyers that they secured funding from Hoffman’s nonprofit.
[..] Anyone with eyes can see that the entire sorry episode should be flushed down the toilet, into the fetid sewer with the husks of other discredited lawfare attacks against Trump, where it belongs.If the Justice Department can prove that Carroll lied under oath — in addition to her lying that Trump raped her, when a New York jury found that he did not — then she is not a credible witness, and her false testimony against a historically great figure collapses.
Not to mention, Carroll herself could be in some trouble. Although there is no minimum required sentence, federal perjury conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1621 carries up to five years in federal prison and/or a fine — typically up to $250,000 for individuals, but that could also be twice the gain/loss involved. Wouldn’t it be great if the DOJ could try the case somewhere as rigged to the right as NYC is to the left? How funny would it be if Carroll were stuck in the federal slammer for five years and owed $166.6 million?
I know, I know. That’s an absurd fantasy — even more absurd than imagining a billionaire playboy who could have any woman he wanted forced himself upon a flaky columnist in a department store dressing room.

Paid-for lawfare. Reid Hoffman.

• US DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation Into Trump Accuser E Jean Carroll (BBC)

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into writer E Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, has reported. The investigation is looking into whether Carroll committed perjury in connection with civil cases she brought against Trump, the news outlet quotes sources as saying. Carroll, a former magazine columnist, accused Trump of sexual assault and defamation, and successfully sued him in two cases. Both judgements were upheld on appeal, but Trump has since asked the Supreme Court to overturn the first of them. He has denied the accusations. The BBC has contacted the DOJ and Carroll’s lawyer for comment.

In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault. He was also found liable for defamation for comments he made the previous year in a post on Truth Social. In that post, he denied Carroll’s claim that she had been attacked by him in the mid-1990s in a New York department store dressing room. A second lawsuit in 2024 found Trump again liable for defamation in connection with comments he made about Carroll in 2019, in which he accused her of making up the claims against him to sell a book. bTrump has appealed to the US Supreme Court to overturn the first judgement, for which he was ordered to pay $5m (£3.7m) to Carroll. He has also vowed to do the same with the other case, in which Carroll was awarded $83m.
The new criminal case is looking into whether Carroll lied when she said in a 2022 deposition that she received no outside funding for her civil lawsuit against Trump, a source told CBS. It was revealed in legal papers first filed by Trump’s lawyers in 2023 that the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, had helped to pay for some of Carroll’s legal fees and expenses. The issue was brought up during the case’s appeal, and the court found that Carroll had “plausibly represented” in her deposition “that she had forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained”.
The “additional discovery… showed that Ms Carroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs,” the US Court of Appeals for the Second District continued in a 2024 ruling. The new investigation is being led by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, one source told CBS. CNN, which first reported the story, reported that while Carroll’s deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll’s legal fees, Hoffman, has a non-profit organisation based in Chicago.Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who personally represented Trump in the appeal cases against Carroll, is recused from the case, a source told CBS.

This may take the Supreme Court. New York as a whole is ferociously anti-Trump.

• Why E. Jean Carroll Is Now the Subject of a DOJ Investigation (Matt Vespa)

E. Jean Carroll is reportedly waiting for her money: President Trump owes her tens of millions in a civil suit he lost years ago, but he has appealed the verdict. He’s asking the Supreme Court to weigh in, his last stand, so to speak. However, Ms. Carroll, who’s never played with a full deck, has some trouble of her own on the horizon: a Justice Department investigation regarding a 2022 deposition. Apparently, she might have perjured herself (via CNN):
E Jean Carroll being investigated for crimes, as likely are entities or charities tied to Reid Hoffmann given that the investigation is being run out of Chicago.

Hoffmann funded Carroll’s Lawfare suit against President Trump.

So I’ll say something similar to what I just said… pic.twitter.com/dK88wjG1HL
— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) May 28, 2026

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president – one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type and claimed she made it up to boost sales of a book.
Prosecutors’ theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll, 82, that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, though it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses. Carroll’s team declined to comment for this story. Attempts to reach Hoffman on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Well, that’s quite a shocking development. This woman is one who said “rape was sexy,” which she mentioned during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. She also said that she couldn’t wait to go on a shopping spree with her civil suit money back in 2024. She’s obsessed with the president and probably the person who most clearly exemplifies what it means to be Trump-deranged.

Rachel Maddow asks E. Jean Carroll what she's going to do with "Trump's money" to help "women's rights."

Carroll says she and Maddow will "go shopping, get completely new wardrobes, new shoes…Rachel, what do you want, penthouse?"

Her lawyer nervously says "that's a joke": pic.twitter.com/5LAx5xU5Uy
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) January 30, 2024

“Carroll, by then a certified celebrity of the anti-Trump resistance, attended a party at writer Molly Jong-Fast’s Manhattan home, a gathering the New York Times described as “Resistance Twitter come to life.”

• Who Was Really Behind E. Jean Carroll’s Bogus Allegations vs Trump (Margolis)

E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegations against President Donald Trump were never credible, and now she’s under investigation by the Department of Justice for perjury. Now, Byron York is digging into the case and has uncovered what could be the most elaborate political setup in history.

Trust me, the picture coming into focus is damning. Carroll has claimed, without any evidence, that Trump raped her sometime in 1995 or 1996. She can’t remember which year. Nothing about her allegations makes any sense. Are we supposed to believe that she simply stayed quiet about it through Trump’s rise to fame and politics, through his 2016 presidential run, and through the wave of #MeToo accusations that dominated the news cycle? Carroll said nothing about it for decades, and her stated reasons range from concern over her elderly Republican mother’s health to worries that speaking out might actually help Trump win key states.
Right. Sure. It wasn’t until 2019 that she came forward with her bizarre allegations. But she didn’t tell the police, she didn’t go to an elected official, or even to a journalist. She chose to disclose it in a book. Why? Because no other option would generate royalties. And Carroll had a history of grifting, too. Before the book even dropped, she was charging admission for her “Most Hideous Men in NYC Walking Tour,” a 90-minute #MeToo landmark stroll through Manhattan. The tour started at the Bergdorf Goodman entrance on 58th Street, which just so happens to be exactly where she claims she first encountered Trump the day of the alleged assault. She had been leading paying groups past that spot before she’d told the world what had supposedly happened there.
Now here’s where the origins of these allegations get genuinely interesting. Carroll, by then a certified celebrity of the anti-Trump resistance, attended a party at writer Molly Jong-Fast’s Manhattan home, a gathering the New York Times described as “Resistance Twitter come to life.” The guest list included George Conway, who apparently advised Carroll to sue Trump for defamation. The case got a critical boost when the New York legislature passed the Adult Survivors Act in 2022, which allowed sexual assault claims to be filed regardless of expired statutes of limitations. Carroll had helped advocate for the bill. The Act went into effect on November 24, 2022, and within hours, Carroll filed a second suit, this time adding a rape allegation in addition to defamation.
As PJ Media previously reported, tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, a virulently anti-Trump donor, bankrolled the whole operation. Yet Carroll testified under oath in October 2022 that no one was paying her legal fees, calling it “a contingency case.” It wasn’t until shortly before the trial that her own attorney wrote to Trump’s legal team admitting that Carroll had “recollected additional information” while preparing for testimony. Trump’s lawyers noted that the “belated disclosure” raised “significant concerns” about Carroll’s “bias and motive.”
Hoffman has some skeletons in his closet, too. In 2018, he had to apologize for funding a group that secretly mimicked Russian disinformation tactics to help a Democrat win an Alabama Senate seat.York’s reporting suggests that a criminal probe is now zeroing in on exactly these origins: the anti-Trump resistance party, the politically motivated lawyers, the billionaire backer, the conveniently timed legislation. What conservatives have been saying for years is now getting the scrutiny it deserves.

Fetterman.

• The Imminent Democrat Party Civil War (Eric Florack)

As I said yesterday about all of this: The Democrat party didn’t embrace Platner — it surrendered to him. He’s the last man standing in an organization that has spent years torching its own bench. And Sanders and Warren? Their loyalty isn’t principled — it’s a cold actuarial calculation. They know exactly what Platner is. They’ve run the numbers. Back him and watch the party bleed. Pull him and watch it hemorrhage. These people know that Platner is a suicide pill. They’re just haggling over the dosage. In the end, he’ll go down in flames. The question is, will sanity affect the Democrats after November? I doubt it.

Now, let’s be completely fair about this. Platner has apologized. He’d like you to know he’s evolved. He was going through a hard time. He was young. He was a different person — presumably briefly possessed by a demon who hated women, loved Hamas, and held strong opinions about gratuities, but that demon has since departed, leaving behind the real Graham Platner: the oyster-farming, Bernie-endorsed, $1.5-million-raising Graham Platner, who continues running on many of the same ideas as the demon he’s now trying to distance himself from. Growth! Mmmmph. Well, at least he’s fine-tuned his dance routine.
John Fetterman, meanwhile — a man who served as mayor of Braddock, Pa., nearly died of a stroke, came back to finish his Senate race, and votes with Democrats the overwhelming majority of the time — his own party has treated him like someone who showed up to Thanksgiving in a MAGA hat. His sin? Supporting Israel. Taking border security seriously. Refusing to perform the politically correct emotions on cue. The contrast I’m showing you here doesn’t need spin. It doesn’t need interpretation. It just needs a clear eye. It also needs someone to admit what they see. The Democratic Party leadership of 2026, meanwhile, will make enthusiastic, well-funded, celebrity-endorsed room for a candidate who blamed rape victims, praised terrorists, wore Nazi imagery, and aired his theories about Black people and tipping on Reddit.
But it has spent years signaling — loudly, consistently, personally — that a senator who occasionally wanders off the ideological reservation represents a source of genuine institutional shame. That his stroke is affecting his judgement. Must be because he doesn’t agree with the leadership. Let’s be real, here. This isn’t a party that temporarily lost its way. This is a party that examined its options and chose. Sanders and Warren didn’t miss the Platner stories. They read them, weighed them, and concluded: still our guy. That conclusion tells you more about the modern Democratic left than a thousand position papers ever could.
Maureen Galindo wanted to put Zionists in a castration camp. Voters rejected her Tuesday. The party leadership said nothing. Graham Platner praised Hamas, blamed rape victims, and tattooed a Nazi symbol on his body. He’s the Democratic Senate nominee — with the full-throated backing of progressive royalty and establishment leadership alike. After decades of the left calling anyone to the right of Fidel Castro a Nazi, isn’t it a bit more than passing strange that the Democrat leadership is fully embracing people whose only apparent problem with the guy wearing the funny mustache is that he didn’t finish the job? John Fetterman, meanwhile, bought a hoodie and changed his mind on a couple of issues. Guess which one they are embarrassed by and can’t forgive.
I have little doubt that, once the rank-and-file Democrat voters get hold of all of this, they will take to the voting booths on June 9 and dispatch this Platner creature, just as Texas voters dispatched Gallindo to the category of also-rans. But does the gap between the rank-and-file Democrat voters and the Democrat party leadership — the Democrat establishment, in other words — say anything about the party’s future, at least in the short term? Does it mark a gap between what the Democrat leadership and the voters want? Does it suggest, as I did in the headline of this piece, an upcoming civil war in the Democrat party?
Granted, some might consider calling Sanders and Warren “party leaders” a bit of a stretch. That’s understandable. But then, where are the Democrat leaders denouncing this nonsense? Where is Chuck Schumer? Where is Hakeem Jeffries? Clearly, neither one is offended enough to speak publicly on the subject. Will enough Democrat voters be annoyed enough to stand up against all this? Just as importantly, where does that leave the independent voters, watching all of this from the sidelines? You know — the people who went long for Trump and his coattails in ’24?
Thought of the Day: The people who fought and died in WWII were fighting real Nazis to give you the freedom to call everyone who isn’t a Democrat a Nazi. Meanwhile, the Democrats are warmly supporting people who spout Nazi rhetoric. Make sense to you?

“He also pointed out that Rubio wasn’t born in Cuba, which is rich coming from a guy who was born in Mexico. “

• Cuba Falling: Desperate Times Call for Desperately Attacking Rubio (Anderson)

You know they’re in desperate times when the Cuban regime starts sending its mouthy representatives to do interviews on Fox News of all places, hoping to reshape the narrative. The country’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez — and arguably the regime’s slickest mouthpiece — did just that earlier this week, and he went straight after his favorite punching bag: our dear Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Fun fact: Crooked and communist Latin American leaders love to hate on Rubio because he knows what they’re up to and he’s built a career on not being afraid to call them out. For example, last fall, Nicolás Maduro kept making public pleas to Donald Trump to ignore the secretary and listen to reason — that Rubio would put blood on his hands. Old Bruno’s been saying the same types of things for years, and he used this interview to pile on his previous rhetoric. He especially loves to point out that Rubio going after Cuba is some sort of “personal vendetta,” and I suppose, in a way, it is. But he doesn’t do it just because his parents and grandparents came from there. He does it on behalf the millions of Cubans who were driven away by or falsely imprisoned by or died at the hands of the regime.
Anyway, the Fox News interview was more of the same. Rodríguez accused Rubio of telling lie after lie, saying, “He continuously intends to deceive the public opinion in the U.S., the U.S. Congress, and the international community.” He also pointed out that Rubio wasn’t born in Cuba, which is rich coming from a guy who was born in Mexico.

Ironic, coming from regime stooge, Bruno Rodriguez, who was born in Mexico — not Cuba.
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) May 26, 2026

Rodríguez also complained about the recent charges brought against Raúl Castro (for his role in the murders of three Americans and one United States permanent resident in the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown of 1996), doing his best Claudia Sheinbaum impression, and asking: why do it after 30 years? Of course, Rubio is undeterred by any of this propagandistic chatter. During Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, the president asked the secretary to say a few words on Cuba. He didn’t say anything particularly new, just that we want what’s best for the Cuban people and that having a failed state so close to our shores is a threat to our national security. Agreed.

.@SecRubio: "We want something good for the Cuban people…Having a failed state 90 miles from our shores is a threat to the national security of the United States." pic.twitter.com/hUz8crMN3g
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 27, 2026

Rubio mentioned that “we’ll be talking to them. We’re working on it.” But Politico tells a different story. In an article published on Wednesday, it claims the “Pentagon puts building blocks in place for Cuba invasion.” The Pentagon has spent months positioning the troops and weapons needed for the U.S. to launch a military attack on Cuba — all it needs is a final go-ahead from Donald Trump The president has floated an invasion of the island after economic and political pressure failed to topple the Communist government. But the Navy’s built-up presence in the region — the largest in the world outside the Middle East — would allow the U.S. to act immediately.
These strategically placed assets set the table for military action, from a capture of Havana’s leadership much like the seizure of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, to a series of precision strikes. And they open the possibility that the U.S. throws itself into the third international conflict of the Trump administration. While some of Politico’s information comes from anonymous sources, some of it is verifiable, such as the fact that the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Caribbean and advanced American drones and surveillance aircraft have been circling the island nation for months.
Trump has been purposely vague about what will happen, when it will happen, how it will happen, and whether there will be military involvement or not. All we know is that he plans to make it happen — the fall of 67 years of “incompetent communism” as Rubio calls it — and he’s floated the idea of it happening after we’ve finished up in Iran. Whenever that might be… So, Politico doesn’t really know much more than anyone else right now. All I know is that the Cuban people can’t wait much longer. Their living situation has become increasingly critical in recent days. Infrastructure is crumbling, making power outages worse. And many of the people want the U.S. to intervene. This brave man stood on the rooftop of a building this week and waved a United States flag without a care about any trouble it could stir up with his commie overlords.

What punishment does he want for Liz Cheney?

• Newsom Vows 100% Tax on Trump ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ Payouts (AmG)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that his administration will seek to impose a 100 percent tax on any California residents who receive money from President Donald Trump’s newly created $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Speaking to reporters, Newsom denounced the fund as a “slush fund” and pledged to block Californians from financially benefiting from it. “Anyone from California that receives any of those funds, we want to tax 100 percent of those proceeds,” Newsom said during a press conference. “He pardoned all of those folks that were beating up cops and absolved them, providing them 1.776 billion dollars,” Newsom said. “So not only do you get a pardon, you get rewarded. That’s why this is needed.”

The fund was established as part of Trump’s settlement with the Department of Justice stemming from his lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Trump has described the program as restitution for Americans harmed by what he called politically motivated government actions during the Biden administration. Last week, Trump defended the fund as compensation for people “badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration.” Democrats in several blue states are now attempting to block recipients from keeping any payouts tied to the program.
In New York, Democratic Assemblyman Alex Bores introduced legislation that would similarly impose a 100 percent tax on recipients of the fund. State Sen. Mike Gianaris said Democrats in Albany are pushing to advance the measure before the legislative session ends next week. “There’s widespread, bipartisan agreement that this is baldfaced corruption at its worst and if we have the ability in New York to combat it by ensuring that none of this money benefits anyone in our state’s borders, I’d expect there’d be widespread support for that idea,” Gianaris said. Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are also drafting similar legislation. State Sen. Andrew Zwicker called the proposal “a brilliant counter move to Trump’s corruption.”

IOW: back to normal.

• Judge Clears Trump Voter Citizenship Checks And Mail-in Voting Crackdown (JTN)

A federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to implement his executive order tightening mail-in voting, slapping down Democrats’ arguments for now that federal efforts to police voter rolls with citizenship checks was illegal. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointed jurist, ruled that Democrats failed to show they have standing at present to challenge the order or have suffered any harm that would warrant a preliminary injunction.

“Given that the Executive Order does not command Plaintiffs to do anything, and that no agency has yet acted pursuant to the Order in a way that could harm Plaintiffs, they have not suffered any harm at present,” the judge wrote.Nichols rejected several of the Democrats’ arguments that Trump’s executive order could disenfranchise millions of voters, including that creating state-by-state citizenship lists to check voter rolls would somehow be harmful, even if they were inaccurate.
“It remains speculative whether the State Citizenship Lists, if and when they are initially compiled, will contain inaccuracies,” he wrote. “Even if they contain initial inaccuracies, the Executive Order requires the adoption of procedures that will allow individuals to access and, if necessary, update or correct their information in the Lists.” The judge also rejected the notion that the federal government sending information to the states about voters would somehow violate voters’ privacy.
“Plaintiffs fail to demonstrate that such action—that is, the sharing of name, age, and residence information between and among government agencies, if already known to the federal government—would cause a harm sufficient to establish Article III standing,” he ruled.

AI requires ALL energy, and ALL money.

• Larry Fink Demands Access to Americans’ Savings, Pension Funds to Bankroll AI (ZH)

Current Sith overlord and aspirational emperor of the galaxy, just a few false flags and manufactured crises away from assuming the throne, Larry Fink, recently appeared at something billed as “National Skilled Trades Day,” hosted by Texas State Technical College in Waco to recruit the electricians he needs to complete the destruction of his AI Death Star. Via Houston Chronicle:

“With data centers booming across Texas and population growth continuing steadily, BlackRock is committing $30 million to train more than 12,000 Texas workers for electrical careers.…Formally announced Wednesday [May 6], National Skilled Trades Day, at an event hosted by Texas State Technical College in Waco. It comes as the state has assumed a central role in the nationwide race to construct data centers to support the growth of artificial intelligence and other data-heavy industries. “The scale of growth underway in Texas demands a workforce ready to build it,” said Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, in a news release announcing the grants.
The state “sits at the center of America’s infrastructure and energy buildout,” noted BlackRock. Texas’ data center load could more than double by 2028, according to a January report from Bloom Energy, which would give the state about 30% of the United States data center market. The state could become the world’s largest data center market by 2030, according to a February report from JLL, which cited “plentiful land and energy” as a factor fueling Texas’s growth potential. Even before the surge in data center construction began, however, the state was facing a shortage of electricians and electrical workers driven by population growth and rising power demands.
The $30 million in funding for workforce training in Texas is part of the broader $100 million Future Builders initiative BlackRock announced in March, which aims to prepare 50,000 Americans for careers in various skilled trades. The nationwide initiative points to a growing demand for HVAC technicians, plumbers, and ironworkers as well as electricians, across the U.S.” In a portion of his comments, Fink, in need of “trillions” of dollars in capital for AI infrastructure by his own estimation, casually demanded that American workers, per a scheme he pitched as “growing with the United States,” have their pension and 401(k) funds redirected into AI investments.
If you don’t give him all of your retirement money to build his Panoptican Death Machine, Fink explains, Chinese communist robots will rape your daughter… or something. And wouldn’t you rather have your daughter raped, metaphorically, by Larry Fink?nThat’s the patriotic thing. “If we could get more and more Americans to think about growing with the United States, we will have far than enough money to invest in this [AI] infrastructure….The need for electrons is growing every day… If we’re going to be the leader in technology, which we are, if we’re going to be the leader in AI, which we presently are, it’s just going to require trillions of dollars of investments. And if we don’t invest in it, China will be the global leader in this….
To me this is not ‘whether,’ this is a must…. It translates into a more dynamic economy. We need the United States economy to grow at over 2%, we need the U.S. economy to grow at 3%, especially with the growing deficits the federal government has. And so, this money… is going to be coming from the private sector, from savings accounts, from pension accounts, from insurance companies and on and on and on. The whole world is in need of improving infrastructure.”

Blackrock CEO Larry Fink to American workers: Give us your pensions to invest in AI or else the Chinese will win pic.twitter.com/MchXFpRwjE
— Ben Bartee (@BenBartee) May 28, 2026

(Whatever PR firm trained Bill Gates to perform the same effeminate gesticulations and vocal intonations as Bill Gates in order to convey non-threateningness to retarded liberals who view any portrayal of masculinity as inherently toxic apparently also trained Larry Fink.)

Larry Fink: Helpful, altruistic, non-sociopathic nerd

"You wouldn't hit a man with glasses" pic.twitter.com/SCfbsyqQYG
— Armageddon Prose (@ArmageddonProse) May 28, 2026

Smarter than a man.

• The Medieval Secrets Being Revealed By AI (BBC)

Historic messages and documents obscured by incomprehensible ciphers can be found in libraries and archives all over the world. Artificial intelligence is helping historians crack open these mysterious texts. Deep in the archives of the Vatican library, a mysterious hand-written book, scrawled with strange symbols, had lain unread for more than 400 years. Its cryptic pages apparently concealed secret remedies “for affections of the human body”, according to some text scratched inside the cover. Such healing practices were kept under wraps at the time since they could attract suspicion or even accusations of witchcraft.

Known as the Borg cipher, the 408-page-long manuscript is mostly incomprehensible – coded using 34 obscure symbols with a few Roman letters and a front page written in Arabic. There was no known key to reveal what was encrypted. Some of the pages are also damaged due to their age, making the code even more challenging to read. But with the help of machine learning – a form of artificial intelligence – researchers were able to unravel the code. They discovered the text was filled with thousands of bizarre treatments such as drinking several glasses of high-quality red wine or fermenting a nutmeg in some dough to combat dysentery.
“It is like detective work where every symbol, pattern, and partial solution may bring us closer to someone’s secrets and to a lost historical world,” says Beáta Megyesi, a professor in computational linguistics at Stockholm University in Sweden, who was part of the team who decoded the text. Even with the help of AI, the process of unlocking the cipher key was painstaking. Now Megyesi and her colleagues are leading efforts to harness the power of AI to crack historic ciphers, potentially unlocking a wealth of coded information from the past that has previously been uncrackable. According to some estimates, around 1% of the material in archives and libraries around the world is fully or partially encrypted. Some of the earliest known ciphers date back to Ancient Greece and Rome.

The Borg cipher is thought to be around 400 years old and contains a mixture of strange cipher symbols and some Latin script on its 408 pages
(Credit: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana)

Together, coded historic documents conceal diplomatic intelligence, the rituals of secret societies, medical knowledge, love affairs or everyday details that people wanted to keep secret. This is information currently missing from historical narratives. In some cases, decoding these documents has the potential to rewrite what we know about a famous individual or an entire period of history. (One recent cipher to do this were a collection of coded letters that were found to have been written by Mary Queen of Scots during her long imprisonment in England. They revealed her involvement in plots to regain her throne and her tense relationship with her son, James VI of Scotland and future King James I of England.)
Historic ciphers can be relatively simple: the Borg cipher, for example, uses a substitution cipher, meaning that each symbol was swapped with a single Roman letter to hide what was written. Others, however, can be difficult to unravel. In some cases, nothing is known about the original language the uncoded text was written in. Extra, meaningless symbols can also be inserted as a decoy to throw off anyone hoping to snoop on the text. In other cases, several signs can be used to represent the same letter.
This can mean a huge amount of work – often involving trial and error – to decode even a small amount of text. It took Cecile Pierrot, a cryptologist at the French National Institute for Computer Science Research (INRIA) in Nancy, France, and her colleagues six months to gradually unravel the key to a 500-year-old letter from Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, that had been written using 120 different cipher symbols across three pages. (The decrypted letter revealed Charles V – one of the most powerful men of his time – undone by fear of a plot to kill him. The king was terrified that an Italian mercenary warlord serving the French king, Francis I, was about to assassinate him.)

JOHN CLAUSER, 2022 PHYSICS NOBEL PRIZE WINNER:

"I can very confidently assert, there is no climate emergency.
As much as it may upset many people, my message is the planet is NOT in peril.

Atmospheric CO2 and methane have negligible effect on the climate.
The policies… pic.twitter.com/WsNaoeCByg
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) May 27, 2026

Joe Rogan tells billionaire Marc Andreessen why Socialism is the ultimate scam that only benefits poor lazy people:

ROGAN: “It’s never worked ever.”

ANDREESSEN: “If I work twice as hard as you why should we both get an equal slice?”

ROGAN: “The beautiful thing about America is… pic.twitter.com/DzVENuXkPh
— Joe Rogan Recaps (@JoeRoganRecaps) May 27, 2026

Wow https://t.co/T6FlivYIiQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2026

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

Debt Rattle July 21 2019

Jul 212019

July 21, 2019 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:28 am Finance Tagged with: Bolton, Boris, Brexit, Gibraltar, Iran, Mueller, Oman, profiteers, tanker, Trump, Twitter 6 Responses »

Buzz Aldrin photographed by Neil Armstrong, who’s reflected in his visor

• The Ham of Fate (Fintan O’Toole)

• Brexit, or Project Fear (Lis)

• The Story Began With UK’s Seizure Of Iranian-Flagged Ship In Gibraltar (O.)

• Bolton Lured Britain Into A Dangerous Trap To Punish Iran (G.)

• British Letter to UN Says Iran Approached Tanker In Omani Waters (R.)

• Britain Mulls Sanctions In Response To Iran Tanker Seizure (R.)

• UK Too Weak To Address Strategic Threats, Warns MP Committee (O.)

• Twitter Blocks Accounts Of Iranian State Media Outlets (AFP)

• Mueller Should Be Arrested For Conspiracy To Overthrow Trump (PCR)

• Are Libertarians the New Neocons? (Daniel McAdams)

• War Profiteers and the Demise of the US Military-Industrial Complex (Orlov)

• Final Voyage (Kunstler)

A lot about Britain today, with a new PM being announced on Tuesday and taking over from Theresa May on Wednesday. And that at a point in time when the country has committed its biggest international blunder in years (though competition’s stiff) with the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker two weeks ago.

• The Ham of Fate (Fintan O’Toole)

The Leave campaign that Johnson led to a stunning victory in the Brexit referendum of June 2016 owed much of its success to its carefully calibrated slogan “Take Back Control.” Akrasia, which is discussed in depth by Socrates, Plato, and especially Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, is the contrary of control. It means literally “not being in command of oneself” and is translated variously as “weakness of will,” “incontinence,” and “loss of self-control.” To Aristotle, an akratic is a person who knows the right thing to do but can’t help doing the opposite. This is not just, as he himself seems to have intuited, Boris Johnson to a tee. It is also the reason why he embodies more than anyone else a Brexit project in which the very people who promised to take back control are utterly incapable of exercising it, even over themselves.

To grasp how Johnson’s akratic character has brought his country to a state approaching anarchy, it is necessary to return to the days immediately before February 21, 2016, when he announced to an expectant throng of journalists that he would support the Leave campaign. This was a crucial moment—polls have since shown that, in what turned out to be a very close-run referendum, Boris, as the mayor of London had branded himself, had a greater influence on voters than anyone else. “Character is destiny, said the Greeks, and I agree,” writes Johnson in The Churchill Factor, his 2014 book about Winston Churchill, which carries the telling subtitle “How One Man Made History.”

While the book shows Johnson to be a true believer in the Great Man theory of history, his own moment of destiny plays it out as farce, the fate of a nation turning not on Churchillian resolution but on Johnsonian indecision. For Johnson was, in his own words, “veering all over the place like a shopping trolley.” On Saturday, February 20, he texted Prime Minister David Cameron to say he was going to advocate for Brexit. A few hours later, he texted again to say that he might change his mind and back Remain. Sometime between then and the following day, he wrote at least two different columns for the Daily Telegraph—his deadline was looming, so he wrote one passionately arguing for Leave and one arguing that the cost of Brexit would be too high. (Asked once if he had any convictions, Johnson replied, “Only one—for speeding…”)

Nothing wrong with leaving the EU, but everything wrong with how it’s been executed.

• Brexit, or Project Fear (Lis)

If, during the 2016 referendum campaign, you had told voters that MPs would be scrambling to stop the prime minister shutting down the legislature in order to force through food shortages, mass job losses and a crash in the pound, someone might have needed to change the slogan on the side of that bus. What is happening right now in Britain goes beyond any previously conceivable limits of responsible or accountable governance. Viewed against the country which seemed to exist just a few years ago, it is quite literally unbelievable. It’s not just that Brexit is a case of “I told you so”: the harm to our national political fabric has been more catastrophic than even the most pessimistic Remainer could have contemplated.

Britain is now heading into immediate, unabated crisis, but the consequences could last for years or even decades. Even the most conservative estimates suggest damage to our economy in all circumstances if we leave, contrary to everything campaigners promised. The neutral Office for Budget Responsibility this week forecast a significant recession in the event of no-deal. But the economic damage will almost certainly take less time to repair than the damage to our politics and society. What was billed as a way for people to take back control of democracy has become a systematic attack on every institution which underpins it.

First the Brexiters came for political opponents. Any prominent Remainer who dared question the legitimacy of the referendum or, heaven forbid, suggested a new one in the light of changed circumstances, was branded a traitor, an enemy of democracy, an elitist, a Remoaner, someone who wanted to subvert the will of the people, someone who knew best, someone who hated Britain. It was devastatingly effective. Brexit’s leaders rapidly and comprehensively refigured democratic opposition as opposition to democracy. All potential opponents, particularly in parliament itself, were cowed into affirming “respect for the result.” It became a standard vow of allegiance to a movement they knew to be disastrous, and they had little choice but to make it.

“The legality of the UK seizure of a tanker heading for Syria with oil from Iran intrigues me. One refers to EU sanctions against Syria, but Iran is not a member of the EU. And the EU as a principle doesn’t impose its sanctions on others. That’s what the US does.”

• The Story Began With UK’s Seizure Of Iranian-Flagged Ship In Gibraltar (O.)

The morning after a group of 30 Royal Marines helped seize the Iranian-flagged Grace 1 in Gibraltar, tired Foreign Office officials did not look exactly jubilant. There was not exactly a sense of foreboding, but diplomats were aware of the wider bilateral consequences for British-Iranian relations. Now, with the capture of a British-owned oil tanker in the Gulf, some of their worst fears have been realised. The Stena Impero and its crew of more than 20 are now in the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards – and the UK has been shown to be unable to protect British shipping going through the waterways of the strait of Hormuz.

The British insist that they only impounded Grace 1 due its suspected destination – a port in Syria – not due to the fact that the ship was carrying Iranian oil. European Union sanctions against the regime of Bashir al Assad regime were there to be enforced and international law upheld, the British argued. There seemed little doubt, given its circuitous route, that the ship was bound for Syria. Yet there were some oddities to the British decision. Few previous shipments of oil to Syria have been impounded. The Spanish claim that the British acted under the instruction of the Americans. The Trump administration is trying to freeze all Iranian oil exports as part of its policy of maximum economic sanctions designed to force the Iranians to reopen talks on the nuclear deal signed in 2015.

But Britain opposes that US policy, arguing that it is counterproductive and only likely to strengthen the hands of hardliners in Tehran. Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister and co-chair of the European council on foreign relations, pinpointed the ambiguities of the British action in Gibraltar: “The legality of the UK seizure of a tanker heading for Syria with oil from Iran intrigues me. One refers to EU sanctions against Syria, but Iran is not a member of the EU. And the EU as a principle doesn’t impose its sanctions on others. That’s what the US does.”

He didn’t lure Britain, but a handful of intellectually challenged posh kids. And anyway it’s far too easy to blame this on Bolton. They did it themselves, May and Hunt et al.

• Bolton Lured Britain Into A Dangerous Trap To Punish Iran (G.)

John Bolton, White House national security adviser and notorious Iraq-era hawk, is a man on a mission. Given broad latitude over policy by Donald Trump, he is widely held to be driving the US confrontation with Iran. And in his passionate bid to tame Tehran, Bolton cares little who gets hurt – even if collateral damage includes a close ally such as Britain. So when Bolton heard British Royal Marines had seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar on America’s Independence Day, his joy was unconfined. “Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace I laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions,” he exulted on Twitter. Bolton’s delighted reaction suggested the seizure was a surprise.

But accumulating evidence suggests the opposite is true, and that Bolton’s national security team was directly involved in manufacturing the Gibraltar incident. The suspicion is that Conservative politicians, distracted by picking a new prime minister, jockeying for power, and preoccupied with Brexit, stumbled into an American trap. In short, it seems, Britain was set up. The consequences of the Gibraltar affair are only now becoming clear. The seizure of Grace I led directly to Friday’s capture by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of a British tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz. Although it has not made an explicit link, Iran had previously vowed to retaliate for Britain’s Gibraltar “piracy”. Now it has its revenge.

I’m pretty sure that’s not true, but it doesn’t matter. Moreover, Spain says Gibraltar is not British either.

• British Letter to UN Says Iran Approached Tanker In Omani Waters (R.)

Britain told the United Nations Security Council on Saturday that a British-flagged tanker seized by Iran was approached by Iranian forces when it was in Omani territorial waters and the action “constitutes illegal interference.” “The ship was exercising the lawful right of transit passage in an international strait as provided for under international law,” Britain’s U.N. mission wrote to the Security Council. “International law requires that the right of transit passage shall not be impeded, and therefore the Iranian action constitutes illegal interference.” The letter, seen by Reuters, was also sent to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Friday’s action in the global oil trade’s most important waterway has been viewed in the West as a major escalation after three months of confrontation that has already taken Iran and the United States to the brink of war. It follows threats from Tehran to retaliate for Britain’s seizure on July 4 of the Iranian tanker Grace 1, accused of violating sanctions on Syria. “Current tensions are extremely concerning, and our priority is to de-escalate. We do not seek confrontation with Iran,” the letter read. “But it is unacceptable and highly escalatory to threaten shipping going about its legitimate business through internationally recognized transit corridors.” Britain called on Iran to release the Stena Impero tanker and told the Security Council it was working to resolve the issue through diplomatic means.

Ha ha. You mean there are sanctions that haven’t been applied yet?

• Britain Mulls Sanctions In Response To Iran Tanker Seizure (R.)

British ministers are making plans aimed at targeting Iran with sanctions in the aftermath of the Iranian seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to announce on Sunday diplomatic and economic measures, including potential asset freezes, as a response to the incident, according to the report. Britain could push for United Nations and European Union sanctions to be reimposed on Iran after they had been lifted in 2016 following a deal on Iran’s nuclear program, the Telegraph reported.

This is about weaponry, but I’d suggest the UK is mentally too weak.

• UK Too Weak To Address Strategic Threats, Warns MP Committee (O.)

The government has repeatedly failed to invest in defence and security, leaving the UK struggling to cope with emerging threats, an influential parliamentary committee was due to warn on Sunday in a report thrown into sharp relief by the developing crisis in the Persian Gulf. The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy says the next prime minister will have to tackle major challenges – from growing strains on the UK’s relationship with the US and the EU, to the rise of China – if the UK is to meet its defence ambitions.

“If the Government wants to turn the ‘Global Britain’ concept into a meaningful strategy for a positive and self-assured role for the UK after its departure from the EU, then it needs to be more honest about how it proposes to address these challenges,” said the committee chair, Margaret Beckett MP. “It must also back this up with the necessary funding and resources, especially for defence and diplomacy.”

The report’s publication comes after the former chief of defence staff, Lord Richards, warned that the Royal Navy was “just too small to have a significant effect without being with allies”. Speaking in response to the seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker by Iranian authorities, Richards told BBC radio’s Today programme: “The fact is, for whatever reason, our government has invested relatively little against the threat and the risks that we face, particularly more and more in the longer term.” The former first sea lord, Lord West of Spithead, told Sky News that the navy had “too few ships” to escort merchant vessels in dangerous waters.

@Jack has gone into politics. Bad move.

• Twitter Blocks Accounts Of Iranian State Media Outlets (AFP)

A day after Twitter suspended the accounts of several Iranian state media outlets, the social networking service said Saturday it acted after harassment of people linked to the Baha’i faith. Amid soaring tensions in the region, heightened by Iran’s seizure on Friday of a British-flagged tanker, some of the affected media outlets had speculated that the suspensions were related to their coverage of the seizure. But Twitter cited what it said was the coordinated and targeted harassment of people linked to the Baha’i faith, a religious minority that has long faced persecution in Iran. It did not name the suspended accounts, and said it was continuing to investigate the matter.

“Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules,” read English-language messages on each of the Iranian media outlets’ accounts. Mehr news agency, which is close to moderate conservatives in Iran, said its Farsi-language account appeared to have been blocked late Friday following its reports on the seizure of the tanker Stena Impero in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it seized the Swedish-owned tanker for breaking “international maritime rules” in the strait, a chokepoint for around a third of the world’s sea-borne oil. Mehr’s Farsi-language Twitter page was inaccessible on Saturday, along with those of the official IRNA news agency and the agency of the Young Journalists’ Club.

Wednesday July 24, big day: Boris becomes British PM and Bob Mueller’s circus comes to town.

• Mueller Should Be Arrested For Conspiracy To Overthrow Trump (PCR)

The Mueller report, which had no choice as there was no evidence, but to clear Donald Trump of conspiring with Russian President Putin to steal the last US presidential election from Hillary Clinton, nevertheless managed to keep an aspect of the manufactured hoax known as “Russiagate” alive by indicting some Russian intelligence officers and a Russian Internet clickbait operation for attempting to discredit Hillary with Internet postings. At the time I noticed that Muller’s indictments were based only on his assertion and not on any evidence. As there was no prospect whatsoever of the fake indictments coming to trial, I did not comment on them. I focused instead on Mueller’s statement that Trump might have obstructed justice although he lacked evidence to support the charge.

I noted how corrupt American law has become when it is possible to obstruct justice in the absence of a crime. Democrats and presstitutes were determined to get Trump by any means and remain uninterested in how justice is obstructed when there is no crime. In retrospect, not picking up on Mueller’s indictment-by-hearsay of Russians was a mistake. Not only have the Democrats continued their Russiagate campaign on the basis of the unsubstantiated indictments, but, more importantly, the indictments-by-assertion-alone show Mueller’s total lack of moral character. A prosecutor, indeed a former Director of the FBI, who confuses his unsubstantiated allegation with evidence, is not only a person devoid of any respect for law, but also an extremely dangerous person to have been vetted for the high government positions that he has held.

Or is that the Liberals?

• Are Libertarians the New Neocons? (Daniel McAdams)

There is a disturbing trend in some libertarian circles and among some libertarian organizations to be increasingly enamored with foreign interventionism and US government backed regime change overseas. For those focused on foreign affairs, this is particularly troubling as it is abandoning a key tenet of libertarianism: non-interventionism. Not “your government 6,000 miles away must be changed… but I don’t support the US military doing it.” That is not non-interventionism. Non-interventionism is accepting that others may wish to live in a way you may not approve of. Non-interventionism in your neighbor’s affairs – whether he enjoys reading the Bible or lighting up a marijuana cigarette (or maybe both) – is really the sine qua non of the libertarian mindset: “aint nobody’s business if you do.”

You do not aggress against your neighbor just because you disagree with his life choices that do not infringe on your person or property and you extrapolate that dynamic to where you demand that to the highest extent possible your local, state, and federal governments treat you as you would treat your neighbor. The idea that this critical impulse somehow becomes null and void when it comes to international affairs is truly bizarre. In fact many self-described libertarians full-throatedly cheer when people are in the streets thousands of miles away trying to overthrow their governments. Somehow from this far distant vantage point they are just convinced that the mythical “free state” is about to break out somewhere.

And when someone points out that the semi-hidden hand behind these uprisings is the US government, which seeks to create overseas governments of subservient elites to prop up the (anti-libertarian) US empire, they accuse that person of being an extremist or a conspiracy theorist…or they get really lazy and stupid and just claim you are a “supporter” of the dictator of the day. So, many US libertarians (who knew next to nothing about Venezuela) demanded our support for that great “libertarian” liberator of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, who turned out to be just another crook with zero support from Venezuelans (but a lot of support from the CIA!).

Dmitry, from a Russian perspective, shining his light on what I’ve repeatedly said: the US makes weapons for profit, Russia makes them to defend itself (from US weapons).

• War Profiteers and the Demise of the US Military-Industrial Complex (Orlov)

Within the vast bureaucratic sprawl of the Pentagon there is a group in charge of monitoring the general state of the military-industrial complex and its continued ability to fulfill the requirements of the national defense strategy. Office for acquisition and sustainment and office for industrial policy spends some $100,000 a year producing an Annual Report to Congress. It is available to the general public. It is even available to the general public in Russia, and Russian experts had a really good time poring over it. In fact, it filled them with optimism. You see, Russia wants peace but the US seems to want war and keeps making threatening gestures against a longish list of countries that refuse to do its bidding or simply don’t share its “universal values.”

But now it turns out that threats (and the increasingly toothless economic sanctions) are pretty much all that the US is still capable of dishing out—this in spite of absolutely astronomical levels of defense spending. Let’s see what the US military-industrial complex looks like through a Russian lens. It is important to note that the report’s authors were not aiming to force legislators to finance some specific project. This makes it more valuable than numerous other sources, whose authors’ main objective was to belly up to the federal feeding trough, and which therefore tend to be light on facts and heavy on hype. No doubt, politics still played a part in how various details are portrayed, but there seems to be a limit to the number of problems its authors can airbrush out of the picture and still do a reasonable job in analyzing the situation and in formulating their recommendations.

What knocked Russian analysis over with a feather is the fact that these INDPOL experts (who, like the rest of the US DOD, love acronyms) evaluate the US military-industrial complex from a… market-based perspective! You see, the Russian military-industrial complex is fully owned by the Russian government and works exclusively in its interests; anything else would be considered treason. But the US military-industrial complex is evaluated based on its… profitability! According to INDPOL, it must not only produce products for the military but also acquire market share in the global weapons trade and, perhaps most importantly, maximize profitability for private investors. By this standard, it is doing well: for 2017 the gross margin (EBITDA) for US defense contractors ranged from 15 to 17%, and some subcontractors—Transdigm, for example—managed to deliver no less than 42-45%. “Ah!” cry the Russian experts, “We’ve found the problem! The Americans have legalized war profiteering!”

“I doubt the former Special Counsel will ever sit in that hot-seat.”

• Final Voyage (Kunstler)

[..] the party’s pathetic attempt to revive the walking dead narrative of RussiaGate is not working too well down on Jerold Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee. The chairman apparently discovered that his star witness, Robert Mueller, might have to answer some embarrassing questions about the conduct of his investigation — like, why did it go on for two years when his chief deputy, Mr. Weissmann, was informed from the get-go that the main predicate document was a fraud? So, Mr. Mueller’s turn in the witness chair keeps getting postponed clear into the August recess. I doubt the former Special Counsel will ever sit in that hot-seat. If I was him, I sure wouldn’t do it voluntarily. Oh, did anyone notice the House staged an impeachment vote on Wednesday? It flopped too.

Finally, there is the walking time-bomb known as Jeffrey Epstein, Democratic Party poohbah and impresario of an underage sex racket featuring the “Lolita Express” airplane service to his private “Orgy Island” in the Caribbean, with auxiliary party shacks in New York City and the New Mexico Desert. Rogue reports have been styling Epstein’s doings as an international blackmailing operation associated with the CIA and other Intel outfits, including the UK’s MI6 and Israel’s Mossad, for the purpose of keeping international bigshots on a short leash. Who knows? At the center of it all is former President Bill Clinton, listed twenty-six times on the Lolita Express’s flight manifest — though the ex-Prez said last week in a statement that it was only four times. (Consider the source.) A raft of unsealed documents in the matter has been court-ordered to drop any day, and power-players all over the world — especially in our nation’s capital and on Wall Street — are rumored to be chewing their fingernails down to the nubbins as they wait for it.

Debt Rattle June 14 2019

Jun 142019

June 14, 2019 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:39 am Finance Tagged with: Assange, Canada, Corbyn, cruise, Fed, Help To Buy, indoctrination, Iran, Japan, Oman, Pompeo, retirement, tankers 13 Responses »

Henri Matisse Woman with a hat 1905

• US Consults Allies On How To Protect Shipping In Wake Of Tanker Attacks (R.)

• Julian Assange Is Not On Trial, British Justice Is (Wight)

• The Hitlerization of Jeremy Corbyn – Among Others (Hopkins)

• US Retirement Savings Gap Grows By $3 Trillion Each Year (MW)

• The Fed Is Pushing On A String

• The State of the Canadian Debt Slaves (WS)

• Canada Rejects Idea Of Halting Extradition Of Top Huawei Executive To US (R.)

• Elizabeth Warren To Propose Cancelling Up To $50,000 In Student Debt (MW)

• UK Government Blew Billions on “Help to Buy” Scheme (DQ)

• Varoufakis, Kotzias And The Dwindling ‘Progressive Army’ (K.)

• School’s Purpose is Indoctrination (Carbone)

• Carnival Cruise Ships Pollute 10 Times More Than All Cars in Europe (D.)

There are Japanese ships in the Persian Gulf literally every moment of every day. But Iran only decides to attack them when the first Japanese PM ever(?!) visits the country. Bolton is dementing.

• US Consults Allies On How To Protect Shipping In Wake Of Tanker Attacks (R.)

The United States is discussing with its allies a variety of options on how to protect international shipping in the Gulf of Oman in the wake of tanker attacks that Washington has blamed on Iran, senior Trump administration officials said on Thursday. Two officials, speaking to a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said the United States wants to ensure the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and make sure international commerce is not disrupted. Two oil tankers were attacked on Thursday and left adrift in the Gulf of Oman. “We don’t think this is over,” one official said of the possibility of more such attacks. The official said options are being reviewed.

“We’re discussing and will be discussing with our partners and allies suggestions on how we collectively can take steps to ensure, one, that we maintain freedom of navigation and international commerce is not disrupted and, second, that we protect our forces’ interests and our commercial assets and those of our partners and allies,” the official said. The official said the attacks appeared “designed to have a political outcome” and suggested it could have been an attempt to disrupt a visit to Tehran by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “We are going to obviously evaluate our presence in the region and the growing threat and make subsequent decisions,” the official said. “We have to look at the threat, as we always do, to our personnel and our forces but the threat to a strategic chokepoint. There’s a significant amount of trade that transits the Strait of Hormuz every day.”

Another hearing today.

• Julian Assange Is Not On Trial, British Justice Is (Wight)

The most honest man in Britain today is Julian Assange, while the most dishonest are those who are engaged in his ongoing persecution. The latest instalment in that persecution is a court hearing in London on June 14, where details of the request for his extradition to the US, it is expected, will be revealed for the first time. The formal request for the extradition of the founder of WikiLeaks was made to the UK by US authorities earlier in the week – and with British Home Secretary Sajid Javid signing the relevant papers sanctioning it, the final decision on whether Julian Assange’s extradition to the US goes ahead now rests with the courts.

[..] In revealing to the world the beast of US hegemony that resides behind the velvet curtains of democracy and human rights, Julian Assange exposed the lie upon which this American Empire (and make no mistake, it is an empire) depends. It depends on it in order to persuade its supposed beneficiaries – i.e. people living in the West – to continue to suspend disbelief as to the reality of a system they’ve been conditioned to believe is rooted in values that emanate from the human heart rather than from the heart of the machine. The end result is that in exposing this lie, Assange and WikiLeaks became a bigger threat to the ability of US hegemony to function normally than a million bayonets. As such, it became imperative that he, as the founder and face of WikiLeaks, be destroyed.

Britain’s role in this process couldn’t be any more sordid or shameful. Its legal system and judiciary has effectively been turned into a subsidiary of its US counterpart; its function not to dispense justice but to deliver a man into the arms of injustice. The fate to befall Assange proves that there’s a world of difference between believing that you live in a free society and behaving as if you do. He is the canary down the coalmine of Western democracy, signalling the warning that its foundations are rotten to the core.

“..American Hitler (i.e., Donald Trump) will “push back” (i.e., intervene) against British Hitler (i.e., Jeremy Corbyn)..”

• The Hitlerization of Jeremy Corbyn – Among Others (Hopkins)

Apparently, American Hitler and his cronies are conspiring with some secret group of “Jewish leaders” to stop British Hitler from becoming prime minister and wiping out all the Jews in Great Britain. Weird, right? But that’s not the weird part, because maybe American Hitler wants to wipe out all the Jews in Great Britain himself, rather than leaving it to British Hitler … Hitlers being notoriously jealous regarding their genocidal accomplishments. No, the weird part is that everyone knows that American Hitler does not make a move without the approval of Russian Hitler, who is also obsessed with wiping out the Jews, and with destroying the fabric of Western democracy. So why would Russian Hitler want to let American Hitler and his goons thwart the ascendancy of British Hitler, who, in addition to wanting to wipe out all the Jews, also wants to destroy democracy by fascistically refunding the NHS, renationalizing the rail system, and so on?

It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it? In any event, here’s the official story. In “a recording leaked to The Washington Post,” and then flogged by the rest of the corporate media, Reichsminister des Auswärtigen, Mike Pompeo, told a group of unnamed “Jewish leaders” that American Hitler (i.e., Donald Trump) will “push back” (i.e., intervene) against British Hitler (i.e., Jeremy Corbyn) to protect the lives of Jews in Great Britain if British Hitler becomes prime minister (and is possibly already doing so now). The identities of these “Jewish leaders” have not been disclosed by the corporate media, presumably in order to protect them from being murdered by Corbyn’s Nazi hit squad.

Whoever they were, they wanted to know whether American Hitler and his fascist cabinet were “willing to work with [them] to take on actions if life becomes very difficult for Jews” after Jeremy Corbyn seizes power, declares himself Führer of Communist Britannia, and orders the immediate invasion of France. To anyone who has been closely following the corporate media’s relentless coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s Nazi Death Cult (i.e., the UK Labour Party) and the global Anti-Semitism Pandemic, it comes as no real surprise that this group of “Jewish leaders” (whoever they are) would want to stop him from becoming prime minister. I doubt that their motives have much to do with fighting anti-Semitism, or anything else specifically “Jewish,” but … well, I’m kind of old-fashioned that way. I still believe there’s a fundamental difference between “the Jews” and the global capitalist ruling classes.

Thanks to the Fed.

• US Retirement Savings Gap Grows By $3 Trillion Each Year (MW)

Many Americans haven’t saved as much money as they need for retirement — and the gap is expected to widen dramatically in the next 30 years. The retirement savings gap — between what people have and should have — was $28 trillion in the U.S. in 2015, but by 2050, it’s expected to swell to $137 trillion, according to the World Economic Forum, a Cologny-Geneva, Switzerland-based nonprofit that researched international financial affairs. The disparity grows $3 trillion every year in the U.S.

The organization calculated this gap assuming most individuals’ retirement income sources would include a combination of government-provided pensions (such as Social Security), employer pensions in the public or private workforce and individual savings. They also analyzed the level of savings across expectations of income needs and life expectancies, assuming individuals would retire between 60 and 70 years old, for countries including China, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. The gap is most pronounced in the U.S., followed by China and Japan tied for $11 trillion in 2015. China is also expected to see a significantly wider discrepancy in 2050, at $119 trillion, followed by India, with an $85 trillion gap. Overall, the eight countries the WEF analyzed will see a $400 trillion disparity.

Velocity of money and inflation.

• The Fed Is Pushing On A String (Roberts)

Historically, the reason the Fed cuts rates, and interest are falling, is because the Fed has acted in response to a crisis, recession, or both. [..] Secondly, after a decade of QE and zero interest rates inflation, outside of asset prices, (as measured by CPI), remains muted at best. The reason that QE does not cause “inflationary” pressures is that it is an “asset swap” and doesn’t affect the money supply or the velocity of money. QE remains confined to the financial markets which lifts asset prices, but it does not impact the broader economy.

Unfortunately, the Fed is still misdiagnosing what ails the economy, and monetary policy is unlikely to change the outcome in the U.S., just as it failed in Japan. The reason is simple. You can’t cure a debt problem with more debt. Therefore, monetary interventions, and government spending, don’t create organic, sustainable, economic growth. Simply pulling forward future consumption through monetary policy continues to leave an ever growing void in the future that must be filled. Eventually, the void will be too great to fill.

Time to start defaulting?

• The State of the Canadian Debt Slaves (WS)

Canadian households are known around the world for their uncanny ability to pile on debt. And American debt slaves, who’d gotten trampled during the Great Recession, turn out to be lackadaisical these days in comparison. The share of disposable income (total incomes from all sources minus taxes) that Canadian households spent on making principal and interest payments on their ballooning mortgage debts and non-mortgage debts reached a new record of 14.9% in the first quarter, despite still ultra-low interest rates and despite the highest disposable income ever, according to data released today by Statistics Canada:

[..] So how do Canadian debt slaves stack up against American debt slaves? Statistics Canada released a report on just this topic at the end of March perhaps because authorities in Canada should get a tad nervous. [..] The annualized data it provided included the household debt-to-disposable income ratios for Canada and for the US through 2018. The ratio shows how large debt is relative to disposable income. For Canada, this ratio was 175% annualized in 2018, one of the highest in the world, and rising. For the US, it was 103%, and declining:

Canada’s household debts have continued to surge since the year 2000 except for a brief dip during the Financial Crisis. But US household debts plunged during years of deleveraging after the Financial Crisis, in part by consumers defaulting on their mortgages and credit cards. Household debts didn’t start growing again until 2013. And it took until 2017 before they surpassed the pre-Financial Crisis peak. But over the decade since the Financial Crisis, the US population has grown, and the number of working people has grown, and the national disposable income has increased, and so the ratio of household debt to disposable income has continued to drop.

“..could make Canadians around the world less safe..”

• Canada Rejects Idea Of Halting Extradition Of Top Huawei Executive To US (R.)

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Thursday dismissed a suggestion that Ottawa block the extradition of a top executive from China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to the United States, saying it would set a dangerous precedent. Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested on U.S. fraud charges in Vancouver last December, will challenge Washington’s extradition request at hearings that are set to begin next January. China angrily demanded Canada release Meng and detained two Canadians on spying charges. It has also blocked imports of Canadian canola seed and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he fears further retaliation.

The Globe and Mail newspaper on Thursday said former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien had floated the idea of the government intervening to stop the extradition case and thereby improve ties with Beijing. “When it comes to Ms Meng there has been no political interference … and that is the right way for extradition requests to proceed,” Freeland told a televised news conference in Washington. “It would be a very dangerous precedent indeed for Canada to alter its behavior when it comes to honoring an extradition treaty in response to external pressure,” she added, saying to do so could make Canadians around the world less safe.

And what about all the others?

• Elizabeth Warren To Propose Cancelling Up To $50,000 In Student Debt (MW)

Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to cancel student debt will soon be one step closer to reality — even if she doesn’t become president. The Democratic Senator of Massachusetts plans to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that mirrors her presidential campaign proposal to cancel at least a portion of the student debt held by many of the nation’s 44 million borrowers, her Senate office announced Thursday. Rep. James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina and the house majority whip, will introduce companion legislation in the House of Representatives. Warren’s office hasn’t yet released a draft of the legislative text, but the bill is slated to propose cancelling up to $50,000 in student debt for the bulk of student loan borrowers, her office said.

Under the proposal Warren released as part of her presidential campaign in April, borrowers with a household income of less than $100,000 would have $50,000 of their student debt cancelled and borrowers with an income between $100,000 and $250,000 would be eligible for some student debt cancellation — though not the full $50,000. Borrowers earning $250,000 or more would receive no debt cancellation. Her campaign estimated the plan would cost $640 billion, which would be paid through a tax on the ultra-wealthy. The idea of student debt cancellation has been popular in some circles for years, but Warren’s campaign proposal nudged it into the mainstream. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent seeking the Democratic nomination, has vowed to cancel “massive amounts of student debt,” though hasn’t offered specifics.

All governments blow housing bubbles.

• UK Government Blew Billions on “Help to Buy” Scheme (DQ)

Here’s how the scheme works: First-time property buyers get to put down a deposit of as little as 5% on a new-build home worth as much as £600,000 ($761,000) and receive an “equity loan” from the government. The size of the loan varies depending on where borrowers live. In London, where the price of property is an order of magnitude higher than in most other places, buyers can receive as much as 40% of the property price. Across the rest of the country the upper limit is 20%. The rest of the financing is covered by a traditional mortgage. While Help to Buy may have had a limited effect in terms of making housing affordable for first time buyers who are genuinely priced out of the market, it has proven to be effective at sustaining the UK’s all-important housing bubble by jacking up the prices of new-build houses, resulting in even less affordable housing.

Since Help to Buy was first launched in 2013, average UK house prices have increased by 35%, from £167,000 to £226,000, according to the Office for National Statistics. Through the scheme, the government has so far issued around 211,000 loans worth £11.7 billion ($14.8 billion) to home buyers. According to the NAO, this has helped increase sales of new-build properties from 61,357 a year in 2013-14 to 104,245 a year in 2017-18. That, in turn, has helped fuel a spike in profits for the UK’s biggest home builders. The nine largest builders dished out £2.3 billion in dividends in their most recent financial year, 39 times greater than the £53 million they paid out in 2012, a year before the scheme was introduced.

Greeks have had enough of ‘left’; look what it brought them.

• Varoufakis, Kotzias And The Dwindling ‘Progressive Army’ (K.)

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been blindsided and thrown completely off his game plan. His narrative of a “progressive army” and a fresh rally of forces for elections “that will determine the future” is coming under constant attack. The Progressive Alliance was intended to move SYRIZA closer to the center so that it could resonate more strongly with the broader “progressive” section of voters – though what constitutes progressive and conservative in today’s world is a matter of debate – and to more fully acquire the characteristics of one of the two pillars of the two-party system, pushing center-left Movement for Change to the sidelines.

Tsipras’ plan, however, has been scuppered by two developments in the broader area of the Left, which are of significant symbolic importance and may affect the balance of power. What he hopes to achieve in the next few weeks is to convince many of the voters who chose not to vote in the European elections and who are mainly former supporters of SYRIZA to return to the fold and put their weight behind the big battle against the “socially insensitive, neoliberal” Kyriakos Mitsotakis of the opposition New Democracy party. His path in this ambitious plan, however, is littered with obstacles. The first was the surprisingly strong performance of Yanis Varoufakis’ DiEM25 party in the European elections, which shook things up.

There is now a party to the left of SYRIZA that is pro-European and has a leader with what a leftist voter might see as a convincing position. Moreover, he is neither Zoe Constantopoulou nor Panagiotis Lafazanis. He is a TV star who is in a position to boost his popularity thanks to his strong social media presence. It is also quite likely, if not certain, that he will make it into Parliament next month, and not just by scraping by with 3 percent. You can say a lot about Varoufakis, but what is certain is that he represents the thinking of a significant portion of the people who voted for SYRIZA in January 2015. He exercises charm over this portion of voters, and this is something that will be evident at the polls.

Has been true for a very long time. Still poorly written though.

• School’s Purpose is Indoctrination (Carbone)

The near sole purpose of present-day academia is indoctrination. This is a fairly bold thesis, but the evidence is in its favor. The increasingly progressive leftist agenda is sweeping through academia and conservatives are passively watching it happen. The main indoctrination stories you hear are those of radical professors on college campuses, outlandish majors created to forward social justice movements, and, on occasion, a political outburst by a high school teacher. Although these issues need addressing, by far the biggest – and the one that should scare everyone the most – is the silent indoctrination.

Indoctrination is no longer dependent upon the political beliefs of teachers. We are now past that. Course material is blatant political propaganda. Not just the course material for gender studies and similar. The core curricula of grade school through college. Sciences, economics, literature – any core course you can think of is politically influenced. The only course that may still be an exception is mathematics. Unless you account for the left-wing system of common core – which is a complete disaster. If you don’t believe this, sit through a grade school math class or open up your child’s text book. Disaster.

But who ever measures sulfur oxides?

• Carnival Cruise Ships Pollute 10 Times More Than All Cars in Europe (D.)

Commercial cruise lines are some of the world’s worst polluters, and Carnival is near the top of that list according to a study of European cruise line operators. Research found that Carnival alone is responsible for almost 10 times as much sulfur dioxide release as all 260 million of Europe’s cars combined. The study from Transport & Environment says that the 203 cruise ships that operated in European waters in 2017 emitted a combined total of 62 kilotons of sulfur oxides (SOx), which form airborne gases known to cause lung cancer and acid rain. During the same period, Europe’s 260 million known registered vehicles let out just 3.2 kilotons, the study found.

Of these 62 kilotons of SOx, more than half allegedly were the product of the 47 ships operated by Carnival Cruise Lines or its subsidiaries. Of the 20 worst offenders, seven are Carnival properties, which together made up half of the industry’s SOx emissions in Europe. Carnival denied any wrongdoing when asked for comment by Fast Company, pointed the finger at the rest of the maritime transportation industry, and insinuated that the study’s methodology was unscientific. [..] This statement arrived days after Carnival agreed to a $20 million fine and undergo increased scrutiny of its plastic and sewage disposal practices, which included dumping both directly into the ocean in large quantities. Carnival allegedly tried to hide these activities from regulators by falsifying records or pressuring the United States Coast Guard to relax the terms of its environmental compliance agreement.