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Debt Rattle July 6 2026

Jul 062026
 
 July 6, 2026  Posted by at 9:36 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  27 Responses »


Nicolas Poussin A Dance to the Music of Time 1634-36


• Elon Decimates Mamdani’s Speech – DeSantis Drops in Off the Top Rope (Arama)
• The Obamas and Clintons on the Monsters Taking Over Their Party (Derek Hunter)
• No, The Framers Would Have Hated the Billionaire Tax (Turley)
• Mamdani’s Thermostat Moment Draws Conservative Backlash (JTN)
• The Most Important Initiative to Save Our Country’s Future (Margolis)
• This Rubio Video Might Be the Most Patriotic Thing You See All Year (Margolis)
• “What Then Is The American, This New Man?” (Turley)
• America at 250: Restoring America’s Greatness (Victor Joecks)
• Russia and US Bear ‘Special Responsibility’ For Global Security – Putin (RT)
• Trump Calls Putin on US Independence Day (RT)
• Putin Invites Trump To Visit Russia In ‘Constructive’ July 4th Phone Call (ZH)
• Russia’s Buffer Zone On Ukrainian Border ‘Expanding’ (ZH)
• Trump: ‘Netanyahu Knows Who The Boss Is’ After Phone Call (ZH)
• UK Government’s SHOCKING Bid to RIG YouTube Algorithm (MN)
• British People Are ‘Crying Out’ For Change – Vance (RT)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2073483665712308279?s=20 https://twitter.com/HomanNews/status/2073500616148554089?s=20 https://twitter.com/VividProwess/status/2073580119453520007?s=20

 


 


“Mamdani has built nothing. He is a taker, never a maker..”

• Elon Decimates Mamdani’s Speech – DeSantis Drops in Off the Top Rope (Arama)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s speech for our nation’s 250th birthday has gotten a lot of well-deserved criticism. It was pretty awful on the whole. But there was one particular part on Friday that got a lot of attention, in which he lambasted America, attacked Elon Musk, and demonized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).


The swipe against Musk was particularly nasty, saying children go hungry while the world’s first trillionaire (Musk) “hungers for more.” In that you can see the evil of the radical left – to demonize the people who are actually achieving and whipping up envy and class warfare. But Elon Musk responded, decimating Mamdani with one simple fact.

“Mamdani has built nothing. He is a taker, never a maker,” Musk declared.

Bingo. Mamdani is basically a nepo baby who had wealthy parents and went to an expensive private school, whose work history could be described as “light,” at best. He worked briefly as a “foreclosure counselor” for an advocacy organization whose purpose was “organizing and advocating for systemic changes.” Oh, and he was a “rapper” before he went into politics. It’s sort of laughable for Mamdani to talk about “calloused hands,” given his work history. But it’s symptomatic of the champagne socialists we’ve seen.

Mamdani isn’t even worthy of mentioning Musk’s name, given all that Musk has achieved with all of his companies. He creates wealth, employs more than 160,000 employees, and contributes things no one else can, such as with SpaceX and Neuralink. His real “crime”? He supports President Donald Trump. Notice you don’t hear any of these leftists coming for Reid Hoffman or George Soros, the guys who contribute to Democrats. That’s the real problem here. The Democrats think they have the right to seize money from Musk because how dare he be so rich? Regardless of whether they are, themselves, rich.

But Elon wasn’t the only one who found some problems with what Mamdani said. So did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). He laid a big smackdown on Mamdani for being “regressive.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2073215994848481717?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2073215994848481717%7Ctwgr%5Ea9971bbcfd2070ef5673c0b8d869eac483b51928%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fredstate.com%2Fnick-arama%2F2026%2F07%2F04%2Felon-musk-decimates-mamdani-250-speech-with-a-simple-fact-then-ron-desantis-drops-in-from-top-rope-n2204002

“When I see the Mamdanis of the world, they’re basically offering these ideas, they claim they’re progressive. They’re really regressive. They are things that the founding fathers rejected,” DeSantis declared, talking about how rights come from God and how these ideas fly in the face of the principles of limited government on which our country was founded. The governor added: “Their ideas have failed throughout history. And we have a chance now with 250 to look back and say — we’re inheritors of an awfully good legacy. We got lucky to have the Founding Fathers pledge their lives, fortune, and sacred honor the way they did when they did it!”

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“That’s what makes the lack of comment from “leaders” on the left about the goose-steppers taking over so curious.”

• The Obamas and Clintons on the Monsters Taking Over Their Party (Derek Hunter)

As the Nazis took over Germany, they were a minority party that no one really took all that seriously. Hitler was crazy, but his ramblings weren’t thought of by most Germans or the political establishment as foreshadowing. People today forget they were not a majority, as history tends to obscure reality for the sensational. Communists in Russia and China (or anywhere they destroyed, really) were a minority, too. But you should never underestimate the ability of a distinct minority to bring about massive devastation, as once radicals gain power they tend to wipe out their opposition and move quickly to consolidate control.


That’s what makes the lack of comment from “leaders” on the left about the goose-steppers taking over so curious. There are a few people commenting – Rahm Emanuel has said some common-sense things, mostly about the messaging and issues these nuts are focused on – but the people who really matter on the left are silent. Where are Bill and Hillary Clinton or Barack and Michelle Obama?

Bill Clinton famously had his “Sister Souljah moment,” when the rapper opined that maybe black people should take a break from killing each other and kill white people for a while. She meant it as a commentary on how the media didn’t really pay attention to the scourge of black men killing other black men, something still true today (including to “Black Lives Matter”); she just did it in a way that could easily be taken out of context and exploited by an opportunist politician.

Enter Bill Clinton. He criticized Souljah for her rhetoric and gained a lot of positive media coverage in the 1992 election. It was dishonest because, well, did I mention it was Bill Clinton? It did, however, prove that Clinton could speak out against things other people in his party were doing. While Hillary, Barack and Michelle never really spoke out against their party, the concept is obviously one that applies to them too.

As the communist element of the left worms its way through the party, you’d think Democrats would care – you’d think they would be concerned with an anti-American element of their party seizing power. Granted, they may not care about the policies – there’s such a fine line between what socialists, fascists and communists want to do that it doesn’t really matter; the blood starts flowing over who gets to lead and what to do with the people who won’t obey.

The electability of Democrats is on the line. If these people don’t care about the country, which we all knew they didn’t, it’s one thing; but we know they care about their party. The American public will not vote for communists. Well, most of the American people will not vote for communists. Sadly, there is a growing percentage of the public who have no memory of the Cold War and the horrors of communism, who’ve also been “educated” by a bunch of granola-crunching leftists with every flag ever created hanging in their classroom except the American flag. These people’s understanding of communism is on paper, all theoretical, and they are convinced it will work.

Hey, I wouldn’t care if these people left the country and started their Utopia on some island somewhere – as they murdered each other for power and eventually starved to death, I’d watch the livestream – but they’re looking to do it here. With that, I have a problem. You’d think the people who stand to be eaten first when the liberal mob comes to dine on the rich might, if only for that reason, try to head that off at the pass. You’d be wrong. Just like you’d be wrong if you thought they’d speak out about their party heading down a path of either violence or electoral defeat.

Maybe they don’t care because they’ve made their fortunes and Secret Service protection affords them a sense of immortality, or maybe they are down with what the new emerging leaders in their party are looking to do. But one thing is certain: they don’t care. If they’d cared, they would’ve said something by now. If they cared, they would say something now. It’s all well and good if the damage is confined to the Democrat Party, because who cares, right? But these radicals are looking to destroy the country as well, which you’d think might bother people who’ve led incredible lives because of the country’s existence. If you’d thought that, you’d be wrong.

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“.. the constitutional system referenced by Mr. Newsom makes a federal wealth tax unconstitutional.”

• No, The Framers Would Have Hated the Billionaire Tax (Turley)

Was James Madison the Zohran Mamdani of his time? Gavin Newsom appears to think so. In joining the growing number of Democratic leaders supporting a wealth tax, the California governor claimed that the U.S. Constitution and our Founders were all about wealth distribution: “The system America’s founders built,” he said, “was designed to prevent the concentration of power in a few hands, but we have allowed that concentration to happen anyway, slowly, in plain sight, over decades.”


The only problem with this argument is that it is utterly and demonstrably false. The Madisonian democracy is designed to avoid the concentration of political power, not the concentration of wealth. The Founders were great believers in capitalism and the free market. In my recent book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the economic philosophy of the Founders in exploring the history and future of this unique republic. This isn’t simply the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence but also the anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” which the Founders embraced.

Many of the Founders were themselves quite wealthy, including banker Robert Morris Jr., who was known as the “Financier of the Revolution” and would be a billionaire today. Our revolution was the first true Enlightenment revolution, heavily influenced by writers such as John Locke, who believed in a natural right to property. That right came not from the government, but from God, and “excludes the common right of other Men.”

That Lockean principle was manifest in George Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was a basis for the Declaration of Independence. It extolled “the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” James Madison drafted protections from government seizure of property, including the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which requires compensation for any property taken by the government. The Constitution not only protects property, but was later amended to allow for income taxes rather than wealth taxes.

Far from supporting a wealth tax, the constitutional system referenced by Mr. Newsom makes a federal wealth tax unconstitutional. Mr. Newsom’s recent endorsement of a national wealth tax was likely meant to blunt the outrage over his opposition to the resolution to create a state Billionaires’ Tax on the coming November ballot.

California has reportedly lost trillions of dollars in the exodus of billionaires and other wealthy taxpayers fleeing the high taxes and class politics of the state. Mr. Newsom knows that this draining of wealth spells doom for his state, which is already grappling with a massive, growing deficit. He offered a curious argument for opposing the state wealth tax: “You may not be able to pick up and move to Texas or Florida to shelter your income from taxation, but I promise you that billionaires can, and do.”

The argument suggested that most citizens are effectively a captive population to be culled by California leaders, dupes who are unable to escape a state with a deadly combination of some of the highest taxes and highest living costs in the nation. Unions and others pushed the Billionaire Tax to avoid budget cuts and fund the state’s runaway expenditures, from pension funds to projects such as the infamous high-speed train to nowhere. To deal with California’s reverse Gold Rush, drafters made the proposed Billionaire Tax retroactive to claw back money from those who have escaped.

The national Billionaire Tax pushed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) seeks to cut off any escape for the wealthy short of leaving the country. When she ran for president, Ms. Warren warned the wealthy that she was coming for “your Rembrandts, your stock portfolio, your diamonds and your yachts.” Of course, this assumes that the wealthy would be little more than passive prey in a hunt by the Internal Revenue Service. That is precisely what socialists thought in France decades ago, before an exodus from the country that, along with other socialist policies, brought it to near economic ruin. It was later rescinded.

Nevertheless, wealth taxes make for great politics. What is concerning is that, in addition to a wealth tax, Democratic leaders like Ms. Warren are pledging to pack the Supreme Court if they retake power. A packed court with an insistent liberal majority would let the Democrats push through measures that would otherwise be declared unconstitutional, including a wealth tax.

Congress could then gradually lower the level of wealth needed to trigger the tax, opening up the homes and estates of citizens as an untapped reservoir of money for the taking. “You’re next” could then apply not just to office holders but to property owners in a push to redistribute wealth. That strategy may well unfold in coming years, but it will be the realization of a Mamdanian, not a Madisonian, system.

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“Set your air to 78 degrees? Bless your hearts New York City!! American energy should be so strong and plentiful that you never have to set it above 70 if you don’t feel like it.”

“Jimmy Carter’s turn down your thermostat and put on a sweater,” Holmes said about Mandani’s idea. “American dream.”

• Mamdani’s Thermostat Moment Draws Conservative Backlash (JTN)

New York democratic-socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdi’s suggestion that city residents turn up their thermostats to 78 degrees during the heatwave this July 4 holiday weekend to help conserve energy has drawn sharp criticism from essentially every corner of the conservative movement – with some members even going so far as to compare the mayor’s comment to Democrat President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 “sweater speech.”


“New York: it’s hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool,” Mamdani wrote Wednesday on the social platform X. “Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you’re not using, and unplug what you can.” He also wrote: “A stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved. Let’s ease demand – and get through the heat – together.” The backlash was quick and came from everybody from former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to at least six former (and perhaps future) Republican presidential candidates, to GOP Reps. Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who are, respectively, either leaving Congress in the next several months or left in the past several months.

Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, suggested Thursday on X that Mamdani’s idea reflects “the reality of big government socialism’s inability to solve problems.”He also wrote: “Telling New Yorkers to set their air conditioning at 78 degrees is an open admission of the failure of the left to provide enough inexpensive electricity that people can be comfortable even in hot weather.” Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Mamdani’s request is “proof that communism is (unfortunately) alive and well.”

Said Greene: “This is the worst campaign ad for the Democrats. Set your air to 78 degrees? Bless your hearts New York City!! American energy should be so strong and plentiful that you never have to set it above 70 if you don’t feel like it.” Even Dave Portney, a media personality who founded Barstool Sports in 2003 and endorsed GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in 2024, got into the act, posting on social media, “78 degrees??? Welcome to communism people! Hope you enjoy.”

While they focused on attacking Mamdani, Josh Holmes, chief of staff for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell when he was Senate Republican leader, and others recalled the Carter speech, which the president delivered while wearing a sweater and sitting by the White House Library fireplace. Carter, a Democrat, asked Americans in the televised speech to conserve energy by lowering their thermostats to 65°F during the day and 55°F at night in winter. Later that summer, he urged them to set their cooling systems to 78°F.

“Jimmy Carter’s turn down your thermostat and put on a sweater,” Holmes said about Mandani’s idea. “American dream.” A couple of years ago, The Washington Post recalled the moment with a story headlined: “Jimmy Carter wore a sweater – and ignited years of Republican backlash.” The conservative- and libertarian-minded Bill of Rights Institute once called Carter’s decision, about two weeks into his presidency, to first tackle energy, as part of a large attempt to fix an overall struggling U.S. economy, a “costly mistake.”

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“.. a generation graduating without a working knowledge of the country they’re inheriting.”

“We’ve gotten much more proficient at telling the negative stories and forgotten to tell many of the positive stories.”

• The Most Important Initiative to Save Our Country’s Future (Margolis)

America’s 250th birthday is here, and so much that has led up to this moment has made it clear we have a lot of work to do to restore pride in this country… for those on the left. And an answer is underway. The Department of Education and the America First Policy Institute launched the America 250 Civics Education Coalition to address a problem most Americans already suspected: kids don’t understand how their own country works. The coalition partnered with Education Secretary Linda McMahon and officially launched on Sept. 17, Constitution Day, the anniversary of the Constitution’s signing in 1787.


National Assessment of Educational Progress data show that only 23% of eighth graders scored at or above proficiency in civics. That’s a generation graduating without a working knowledge of the country they’re inheriting. It’s no wonder socialism is becoming so popular among young people. They don’t understand why our system is superior. “One of the first things we did was kind of a diagnostic on where we are in civic education, and that was kind of the sobering news,” Michael Shires, vice chair of education opportunity, higher education and senior policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, told The Center Square. “The numbers would say that we’re not doing a very good job of passing that along to the next generation.”

Shires has a theory for how this happened. “A big part of how we got here is we just stopped telling the stories of what was good about America,” Shires said. “We’ve gotten much more proficient at telling the negative stories and forgotten to tell many of the positive stories.” So the coalition is telling those stories again, at scale. Under the motto “Know America. Love America,” the group has run more than 100 events, including K-12 teacher summits, student competitions, lectures, classroom resources, and a 50-state “Trail to Independence Tour,” tracing how each state joined the Union. Recent polling shows the share of Democrats who say they’re “extremely” or “very” proud to be American cratered from 85% in January 2001 to just 29% in 2026. Republicans held steady at 90% across those same 25 years.

This can be fixed.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the mission comes down to something simple. “Every young American understands the beauty of our nation and is equipped with the civic knowledge required to contribute meaningfully to its future,” she said.

The coalition includes dozens of organizations working with the Department of Education, among them First Liberty Institute and Turning Point USA. First Liberty Institute President Kelly Shackelford told The Center Square just how deep the knowledge gap runs. “There are so many polls, for instance, like 71% of Americans don’t even know what the three branches of government are,” Shackelford said. “And one of the more disturbing polls is that a large percentage of the students don’t even love their country. And it’s because they don’t know what their country is.”

Shires doesn’t want the 250th anniversary to be a one-off celebration. “We don’t want July 5 to be the end of this conversation,” he said. And despite the noise on cable news and social media, Shires said Americans still feel good about where they live. “Despite what you see in the news headlines and the networks and the social media and everything else, for most people in their lives, they’re excited that they’re in America, that it’s a place where they can thrive and make their own choices and pursue their dreams,” he said.

Initiatives such as this can deprogram young people who have been brainwashed to hate our country. Let’s hope it expands and continues.

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“Their homes burned, their land ransacked. Every last pound and shilling to their name poured into the patriot struggle. Some would die as paupers. But that was a price that each and every one of them was willing to pay.”

• This Rubio Video Might Be the Most Patriotic Thing You See All Year (Margolis)

America turned 250 years old this week, and of course, the left’s knight in socialist armor had something to say. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked the occasion with an insulting America 250 address he delivered from George Washington’s actual desk. He used the moment to describe his own country as an “arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal.” He accused federal agents of “terrorizing our streets” and warned that the nation’s founding ideals “are strong enough to endure any authoritarian regime, but only if we reach for them.”


That he made such a speech at the desk of George Washington is such an insult. In his speech, he framed his own government as an authoritarian regime that needs to be endured. Make no mistake about it, that is not patriotism, no matter what flowery language he used.

President Donald Trump took a sharply different approach at Mount Rushmore on Friday. He spoke of American exceptionalism, something that the likes of Mamdani don’t believe in. He also warned of “a resurgence of the communist menace in our land” and didn’t soften the message for anyone. “Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty,” Trump said. “It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11.” He drew the line without apology. “You can be loyal to Karl Marx, or you can be loyal to America,” Trump said. “You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.”

Another message you need to hear came from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who posted a video Saturday, narrated in his own voice, laying out exactly why this country is worth loving without qualification. “250 years ago today, a small band of men gathered in Philadelphia and declared war on the most powerful empire on the earth,” Rubio said. “They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of their posterity.”

“Many of them would lose everything in the Revolution,” Rubio continued. “Their homes burned, their land ransacked. Every last pound and shilling to their name poured into the patriot struggle. Some would die as paupers. But that was a price that each and every one of them was willing to pay.” He then tied the founders to something larger than themselves. “America has never been merely a proposition,” Rubio said. “It has always been a real and living civilization. A unique and distinctive people unlike any other nation or people in the history of the world.”

He continued, “America is an exceptional nation because Americans are an exceptional people. We are a people born on the edge of the known world. We are a frontier nation. From the hardy pioneers on the Oregon Trail to astronauts transcending the limits of Earth itself, America made the frontier a principle of national life. The men who built our country were heroes, among the greatest and most noble that the world has ever seen.”

Rubio closed his video with a line every American should be able to say without flinching. “This is the greatest nation on Earth,” he said. “That has been true for 250 years. And with God’s grace, it will be true for the next 250 as well.” That’s the difference between a party that has stopped loving this country and an administration still willing to say so out loud. Mamdani wants Americans to see their nation as an arena where the powerful crush the weak. Rubio wants Americans to see it as the greatest experiment in self-government the world has ever produced.

Because it is.

This country has had 250 years to prove itself, and it’s earned the right to be proud of what it has built. Never apologize for loving America, and never apologize for being proud of everything it has accomplished.

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The American was the first man not beholden in some way to one sort of king or another.

• “What Then Is The American, This New Man?” (Turley)

Across the country today, Americans are celebrating a common article of faith: the belief that a free people can govern themselves under rights given to them not by the government but by their creator.


Two hundred fifty years ago, the Republic was founded as the first major Enlightenment Revolution. The Enlightenment had started roughly 100 years earlier. Many in Europe had long argued for a society based on the writings of figures like John Locke. But it would happen thousands of miles away, among a collection of colonies where a people came together and put those principles to the test. They believed that they were entitled to rights of free speech, free exercise, and property as human beings, not as subjects.

We became the fascination of Europe among writers and intellectuals who could not understand how the world’s first Enlightenment Revolution could be brought about by a people with little connection to each other or the land; with no calcified class structure or fixed institutions. It led one Frenchman, who wrote under the name John Hector St. John, to ask, “What then is the American, this new man?” In my book, Rage and the Republic, I ask whether we can answer that question today. Who were we then, and who are we now?

In 1776, two revolutions were developing in America and in France. One would become the world’s oldest and most successful republic The other, in France, would become “the Terror,” in which tens of thousands would die on guillotines and in the streets. The true miracle of Philadelphia was the creation of a system that could harness the self-destructive powers of a democracy. The framers, and particularly James Madison, would create a constitutional system that forced moderation and compromise through checks and balances.

Many wanted a less restrained democratic system, but the Framers understood that such systems stretching back to ancient Athens had become little more than what Benjamin Rush called a “mobocracy.” In France, such voices prevailed. They unleashed a blood-letting that would ultimately even devour the Jacobins themselves. They first turned on the wealth and aristocrats, then on the priests and then each other. It would lead French journalist Jacques Mallet du Pan to write that “like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.”

Those voices are with us today. Many, including Democratic and socialist leaders, are denouncing the Declaration and the Constitution as tools of repression. This week, various Democrats went public to call for radical revolutionary changes or criticize our founding. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used an occasion with newly admitted citizens to trash the country, oligarchs, ICE, and our “arena of supremacy.”

Socialist Mamdani described a virtual hellscape of a country run by “oligarchs who buy elections” as “children go to sleep hungry.” He added, “We see monopolies that dominate every industry, and oligarchs who buy elections. We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans.”

Mamdani mocked the narrative of the republic, telling the new citizens that “the irony is that the story of America has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth that they were anything but exceptional.” Others joined the celebrations with their own condemnations. Pennsylvania socialist Chris Rabb, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, has joined the chorus of critics.

Speaking at “America at 250 — Trump Fascism, Historical Erasure, and the Battle Over Truth” in Philadelphia, the unopposed Rabb lashed out at a country built on “stolen land and stolen labor.” He also mocked the “lofty” “screeds” that “were notoriously catering to a performative aspect of collective genius that purposely erased indigenous and black peoples.” He denounced this country as based on harmful “myths” supporting white supremacy and fascism: “Fascism is not new. These systems of harm are built into the very fabric of this nation.”

Others, such as former MSNBC host Joy Reid, declared that black Americans don’t celebrate the Fourth. Reid dismissed celebrating what she called “MAGA America” which she described as “sad, pathetic, boring.” Others, like Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), used the anniversary to praise Cuba as the true model of success (something Mamdani had also done in his inaugural address). Blue states — Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Pennsylvania—declined to participate in the 250th anniversary celebrations on the Mall.

In Massachusetts, a historic church ended its long-standing celebration of the Fourth of July to focus on the “on-going process within the congregation to better understand our own whiteness.” This is the home of John Adams and other patriots. Adams wrote his wife Abigail that this day would be “celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

We are seeing not a constitutional crisis but a crisis of faith. Polls show that fewer than half of Democrats are now proud to be Americans. For many of us, this day remains, as Adams described it, that day of deliverance. These are revolutionary times, but we remain a revolutionary people who believe that free speech and other rights belong to us as human beings. Our belief in individual rights and the free market built the greatest engine of prosperity and freedom in the history of the world. Many of these critics cite our flaws, including slavery, in a country based on inalienable rights. But what the framers gave us was a system that allows an imperfect people to form a “more perfect union.”

It was here that citizens could pursue their own manifest destiny. It is here that a black minister could speak on our National Mall about his unrealized dream and galvanize a nation to fight for the civil rights of every American.

It is here that an African American, and the child of a Kenyan, could become president.

It is here that the son of Vietnamese immigrants could rise this year to be Navy Secretary.

It is here that a black child growing up in a home with a dirt floor and no plumbing could become one of the longest-serving justices of the Supreme Court.

It is here that a people could survive economic meltdowns, global wars, and natural disasters, based on the simple belief that we share a common article of faith: “E pluribus unum” — “out of many, one.”

“What, then, is this American?” Look around you.

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“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

• America at 250: Restoring America’s Greatness (Victor Joecks)

The pages of tomorrow’s history are written by today’s decisions. History is littered with failed republics and democracies. The Roman Republic became the Roman Empire. Democracy in ancient Greece turned into an aristocracy. This didn’t just happen in ancient history. In 1961, a new constitution in Venezuela divided the government into three branches. But in 1999, Hugo Chavez swept to power and rewrote the country’s constitution. He eventually became a dictator.


The Founding Fathers were well aware of the fleeting nature of our form of government. In 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powell asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” For context, in Federalist 39, former President James Madison defined a republic as “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior.”

The term “democratic republic” references the role that popular elections play in selecting some of our leaders. But the Founding Fathers held a much dimmer view of democracy by itself. In Federalist 10, Madison observed that democracies “have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” Even as America celebrates her 250th birthday, there are plenty of reasons to wonder about the country’s future. America has abandoned her Christian heritage. Government-funded schools teach children to hate America and Western Civilization more broadly.

Birth rates have generally been below replacement level for decades. You can see the fruit of those trends. Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Democrat congressional nominee from New York City, founded a group that seeks “the total eradication of Western Civilization.” Chants of “Death to America” have rung out on college campuses and the streets of New York City. Muslims are openly plotting to turn America into a Muslim country. But concerning trends are not outcomes. Americans still have the freedom and ability to change course. The most important thing is for America to return to her Christian roots. Listen to our Founding Fathers, not the misinformation taught in most modern history classes.

“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” Thomas Jefferson wrote. A version of that quote is on the Jefferson Memorial. “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports,” George Washington said in his farewell address. “In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”

You can’t force people to become Christians. But students should learn historical truths, not skewed leftist narratives. Institutions should also elevate and honor other pillars of America’s past — like the ideas of Western Civilization and the family. Part of this requires political action. You can’t win the war of ideas when the government subsidizes the losing side. America needs leaders who will act vigorously to defend America’s values. That includes deporting immigrants who hate America.

Read more …

“The Russian president has congratulated Donald Trump and the American people on 250 years of independence..”

• Russia and US Bear ‘Special Responsibility’ For Global Security – Putin (RT)

Russia and the United States bear a “special responsibility” for maintaining global security, President Vladimir Putin has said while congratulating his counterpart Donald Trump on the 250th anniversary of American independence. In a letter published by the Kremlin on Saturday, Putin wished Trump and his family “health, well-being and success,” and the American people “happiness and prosperity,” while describing the signing of the US Declaration of Independence as “an important milestone in world history.”


He also emphasized the countries’ shared history and special responsibilities as nuclear powers. “We were allies in two world wars, together freed humanity from the horrors of Nazism, and later played an important role in laying the foundations of the modern world order. Today, Russia and the United States, as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, bear a special responsibility for ensuring global security and stability,” the message reads. Putin also recalled that Russia had supported the North American colonists in their struggle for independence from Britain 250 years ago.

During the American Revolutionary War, Empress Catherine the Great refused Britain’s requests to send Russian troops to fight the colonists and later established the League of Armed Neutrality, which challenged London’s naval blockade and was widely seen as favoring the American cause. Since Trump returned to office last year, Moscow and Washington have renewed high-level contacts after years of strained relations. Putin and Trump met in person last August and have held several phone calls discussing the Ukraine conflict, the Middle East, and broader bilateral ties. However, several outstanding issues, including Ukraine-related sanctions and diplomatic property disputes, have not yet been resolved.

Read more …

The US and Russian leaders spoke for nearly 1.5 hours ..

• Trump Calls Putin on US Independence Day (RT)

US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine conflict, the situation around Iran, and the prospects for restoring bilateral ties, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said. The conversation took place on Saturday, as the United States marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. According to Ushakov, Putin personally congratulated Trump and the American people on reaching the milestone, after sending a formal message to the White House a day earlier. The call lasted one hour and 25 minutes, Ushakov said, describing it as “businesslike and highly constructive.”

Ukraine conflict
Putin briefed Trump on what Ushakov described as the real situation on the ground in Ukraine, saying Russian forces were advancing along the entire line of contact and taking “one settlement after another.” Putin described the liberation of Konstantinovka, a key Ukrainian stronghold, as an important step toward establishing full control over the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic. The Kremlin aide said Moscow expects the remaining fortified areas still held by Kiev’s forces to be taken as well.

Putin reiterated Moscow’s preference for a political and diplomatic settlement, provided that Russia’s core positions are taken into account. At the same time, he accused Kiev and its European backers of seeking to prolong and escalate the conflict, including through “terrorism against civilians.” Trump, according to Ushakov, again confirmed his readiness to help bring the hostilities to an end and seek a peaceful settlement. He also argued that ending the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible could unlock “enormous prospects” for mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and the US, the Kremlin aide said.

Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will continue mediation efforts and are ready to visit Moscow “at a convenient time,” Ushakov added. The two leaders also discussed the situation around Iran, where a public farewell ceremony is being held for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Putin expressed hope that the negotiation process based on the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran would help produce mutually acceptable, long-term solutions to key issues, Ushakov said. The Russian president also reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to provide practical assistance to efforts aimed at de-escalation and stabilizing the region.

Trump thanked Russia for what he described as its balanced position and constructive proposals, according to the Kremlin aide. Turning to bilateral ties, the presidents emphasized the importance of continuing contacts, including with regards to military-political and economic issues. The leaders also pointed to the upcoming launch of a joint Russian-American crew to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome as a symbolic example of cooperation between the two powers.

The two presidents stressed the importance of preserving the shared pages of Russian-American history. Putin reminded Trump of Russia’s contribution to the emergence of American statehood, while both leaders highlighted the alliance between Moscow and Washington during World War II. Trump mentioned that he personally admires St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, while Putin wished the US success in hosting the ongoing FIFA World Cup, citing Russia’s own experience as host in 2018.

What’s next?
According to Ushakov, Moscow initiated the previous phone call on June 14, Trump’s 80th birthday, while this time it was the American side that proposed speaking on the day of the 250th anniversary of US independence. The presidents agreed to remain in contact and hold another call in the near future, according to Ushakov. Putin also reminded Trump that he has a standing invitation to visit Moscow.

Read more …

Standing invitation.

• Putin Invites Trump To Visit Russia In ‘Constructive’ July 4th Phone Call (ZH)

A nearly 90-minute phone call between Presidents Trump and Putin on July 4th could signal shifting White House priorities, as it tries to find permanent offramp and settlement in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, but also as the Ukraine war seems to be fast heating up again. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments made public Sunday that Trump offered Putin to help find a solution to the war in Ukraine. “The American president once again confirmed his readiness to work towards a rapid end to the fighting and find solutions to overcome the crisis,” Ushakov said of Trump’s call. He called conversation “business-like and quite constructive.”


The spokesman further stated that Russia sought “a political-diplomatic resolution of the conflict, with due account of Russia’s fundamental approach.” But Ushakov also lashed out at the Zelensky government, accusing it and its European allies of “counting on extending and even escalating the conflict, and on terrorism against civilians.” This referred to the fact that Ukraine’s repeat drone strikes deep inside Russian territory have severely damaged energy infrastructure, as well as hit residential buildings and areas, resulting in casualties.

Ushakov further described that in the call Putin “depicted the real situation on the battlefield where the Russian armed forces are confidently advancing, liberating one locality after another.” Putin had also apparently renewed his initial Alaska Summit invitation for Trump to visit Russia, where further bilateral dialogue can take place, Axios noted. Trump on Saturday had also held a call with Ukrainian President Zelensky, who later said on Telegram the talk was “very good”. Zelensky stated that “There is a real prospect to end this war and American resolve will have a crucial meaning.”

Zelensky and Trump are expected to continue the discussion at the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara, set for July 7-8. Zelensky had further taken the opportunity to highlight some of the latest weapons support from Washington: “We are grateful to the United States for all the assistance we have received – from Javelins and Patriots to political support – and we deeply value that America stands by us in defending our independence. I am grateful to every American heart that cares about the future of Ukraine, Europe, and everyone around the world for whom freedom matters,” he said.

Currently each warring side disputes the degree to which Russian forces are advancing. Supporters on either side have even been issuing contradictory battlefield maps, and the fog of war is thick.

Read more …

“Our troops are advancing,” Peskov continued. “No one here should have any doubt that our military is proceeding systematically, and we are seeing concrete results.”

• Russia’s Buffer Zone On Ukrainian Border ‘Expanding’ (ZH)

Russia has announced that one key measure that will be taken in response to Ukraine’s ramped-up drone attacks on Russian territory, including last month’s major strikes on the Moscow area, is the significant expansion of the border ‘buffer zone’ between the waring countries. “A security buffer zone on the Russian-Ukrainian border is conditioned by the aggressive nature of the Kiev regime and the Russian military is engaged in this process systematically reaching the appropriate progress,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.


In essence this is the Kremlin saying that Russian forces plan to permanently take over territory deeper into Ukraine. “Based on the aggressive nature of the Kiev regime and in order to insure the safety of our citizens, we are setting up a security zone, or the so-called, buffer zone,” Peskov continued. “This buffer zone is being created systematically. We do register significant results regarding the terms of our troops’ advancing.” “There area should be no in no one doubts that it would will be serve to extend the necessary area ensuring our security,” he added.

“Our troops are advancing,” Peskov continued. “No one here should have any doubt that our military is proceeding systematically, and we are seeing concrete results.” He cited the taking of Konstantinovka: “This is a milestone, it is the most important step towards taking the common fortified area of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk,” he claimed according to TASS. President Putin has of late been taking steps to strongly signal he’s committed as ever to completing the war aims of Russia’s ‘special military operation’ – despite reports of nationwide fuel shortages, and also a full-blown gasoline supply crisis in Crimea.

The Kremlin released footage on Friday evening of the 73-year old Russian leader visiting an auxiliary command post to meet with the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Putin wore a military uniform, which Russian state sources described as a sign of his resolve to “finish off the terrorist neo-Nazi vermin”. [English-language RT’s response: “…seems to desire for that security zone to begin on the Polish border.”

https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Frussias-buffer-zone-ukrainian-border-expanding-result-worsening-drone-attacks-kremlin

The scene appeared aimed primarily at the West, which has been questioning Moscow’s resolve due to the now frequent Ukrainian drone hits on sensitive energy infrastructure.President Trump has also lately appeared to pivot back to wanting the resolve the Ukraine conflict, while still seeking permanent offramp regarding to the Iran war crisis.

Read more …

“Trump is said to have told Netanyahu “you’re fucking crazy’” while demanding Lebanon truce: “I’m saving your ass..”

• Trump: ‘Netanyahu Knows Who The Boss Is’ After Phone Call (ZH)

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could meet as early as next week after the US leader returns from the annual NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. That’s what Trump told Axios on Saturday after a Friday phone call, wherein the Israeli PM congratulated the American leader on the 250th Independence Day of the United States. Trump said something very interesting in the wake of the call: “We get along very good. [Netanyahu] knows who the boss is,” he told Axios. US-Israel relations have been deeply strained of late, given deep Israeli reluctance on the US-Iran MoU signing, as well as the US-mediated ceasefire in Lebanon.


Israel fears that the end result to a hasty peace could be a nuclear-armed Iran, and some Israeli leaders have gone so far as to say military action must not stop until there’s true regime change. “During their conversation, the Prime Minister said that the United States is a guarantor of global freedom, and that Israel greatly values the close relationship between the two nations. Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump agreed to meet soon in the United States,” Netanyahu’s office said of the Saturday call. On the issue of controversy over the US-Israel relationship and the push to launch Operation Epic Fury, Axios provides the following: “

Many of Trump’s closest advisers think that Bibi was wrong about everything,” a U.S. official said. Trump lashed out at Netanyahu over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon in a phone call last month, calling the prime minister “crazy” and accusing him of ingratitude. The tensions have deepened a broader Republican schism over Israel and the war, with MAGA influencers like Tucker Carlson accusing Trump of being beholden to Netanyahu. Indeed there seems of late a concerted White House effort to dispel this narrative. It seems that Trump is at least now more conscientious about it, given he’s publicly seeking to assure Americans that Bibi “knows who the boss is.”

A prior Trump-Bibi call in June didn’t go so well. At that time reports based on US officials indicated that President Trump ripped into Netanyahu, cussing at him and the president essentially ‘steamrolled’ him – angry over breaking the Lebanon truce and demanding that Israel’s military not attack Beirut. Trump is said to have told Netanyahu “you’re fucking crazy’” while demanding Lebanon truce: “I’m saving your ass,” he also reportedly said. Israeli officials have sought to downplay these negative reports…

Since then, the US has essentially forced Israel to acknowledge the Lebanon ceasefire – though it should be noted that the IDF occupation has been allowed to continue in southern Lebanon – and direct exchanges of missile fire between Tehran and Tel Aviv has been silenced.

Read more …

” calling the targeted media “trustworthy” is a misnomer when people have already abandoned it.”

• UK Government’s SHOCKING Bid to RIG YouTube Algorithm (MN)

In a brazen move that reeks of authoritarian control, the UK government is pushing plans to seize influence over YouTube’s recommendation system. Their goal is to prioritise content from the BBC, and other state backed propaganda machines, while burying independent journalists and creators who dare challenge the official narrative.


This isn’t subtle nudging – it’s direct engineered suppression, which they’re dressing up as “protecting democracy” from so-called disinformation. As public trust in legacy media plummets, the establishment’s response is to rig the game rather than earn back credibility. YouTube itself has warned creators about the proposals. The platform alerted users that new rules could force it to give privileged positioning to approved outlets, limiting growth for everyone else and reshaping what millions see daily. Independent voices who built audiences by speaking truth to power now face algorithmic exile.

GB News’ Alex Armstrong labelled the move “an act of pure tyranny, designed to control you, your family and your friends on an industrial scale.” The Free Speech Union described the move as “beyond dystopian.”

People fled to platforms like YouTube and X precisely because of the BBC’s documented biases on mass migration, Net Zero, and more – biases even internal BBC reports have acknowledged. Now, the government wants to drag that failing model into your feed by law. Technology and free speech lawyer Preston Byrne slammed it as the British government seeking to “influence and control the marketplace of ideas.” Lord Toby Young highlighted the absurdity in The Spectator: calling the targeted media “trustworthy” is a misnomer when people have already abandoned it. Forcing platforms to promote it won’t restore trust – it will confirm the desperation.

The Free Speech Union also linked the development to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy’s exit from X, where she cited threats to democracy all while her department advances state-favoured content rules. It’s the same playbook we’ve seen over and over: label dissent as dangerous, then legislate your preferred sources into prominence. The Mercian News pointed out the BBC’s own admission that only around 30% of the public trusts national news organisations, with over 50% trusting social media more. Forcing exposure won’t fix that – it exposes the contempt for audience choice.

Even some on the left, like the Labour Digital Rights Network, have criticised the hypocrisy of engineering a sanitised internet while claiming to fight Big Tech.

Read more …

“The carousel of six prime ministers in recent years proves something is “very broken” about UK politics, according to the US vice president”.

• British People Are ‘Crying Out’ For Change – Vance (RT)

The constant churn of British prime ministers shows that the UK political system is badly failing the public, US Vice President J.D. Vance has said, warning that ordinary people are “crying out” for real change. Britain’s problem is bigger than any single leader, as the succession of David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer points to deep dysfunction in a system that is no longer delivering for the public, Vance suggested in an interview with The Sunday Times.


“What I see is six prime ministers in the last few years. What that says to me is that something is very broken about British politics and that people are really crying out for significant structural change,” Vance said. He added that the country has “been failed by its leadership for a long time” and “can do a lot more than it’s currently doing.” Starmer announced last month that he would step down as prime minister and Labour leader after less than two years in power, following a revolt inside his own party. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely expected to replace him after winning a by-election in Makerfield.

Vance said he did not know much about Burnham personally, but stressed that Washington would work with whoever leads one of America’s “closest and most important allies.” The vice president’s comments, published on the 250th anniversary of the US declaration of independence from Britain, come after months of unusually blunt criticism of London from Washington. US President Donald Trump recently said Starmer had “failed badly” on migration and energy. Earlier this year, he said Starmer was “not Winston Churchill,” as relations soured over London’s hesitation to support the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Vance was especially outspoken when he condemned the brutal stabbing of British teenager Henry Nowak last month, arguing that it would not have happened had European elites “stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants.” Downing Street responded by accusing foreign politicians of trying to “interfere” in British democracy and “stir up division.”

The vice president rejected the idea that such criticism amounted to hostility toward Britain, insisting that “it comes from a perspective of love and admiration… even though sometimes what we say is provocative.” Vance made a similar argument at the Munich Security Conference last year, when he accused European governments of opening the “floodgates” to migrants while restricting free speech and hollowing out democratic norms.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/dejanirasilveir/status/2073500480408273067?s=20s https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2073844219114868872?s=20 https://twitter.com/MAGA__Patriot/status/2073501649486721409?s=20 https://twitter.com/StooliesClub/status/2073461323770614218?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 17 2026

Jun 172026
 
 June 17, 2026  Posted by at 9:48 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  37 Responses »


Edward Hopper Chair Car 1965


• Hormuz Fears Ease As Trump, Ghalibaf Virtually Sign US-Iran Deal (ZH)
• Trump Calls on Putin to Reach Deal With Ukraine After Zelenskyy Meeting (ET)
• Hague Tribunal Rejects Ukraine’s Crimea Claims (RT)
• Grenell: DOJ Investigation of Newsom Began Under Biden Admin (Salgado)
• Senate Could Vote on Jay Clayton DNI Nomination Thursday (CTH)
• Scott Jennings, Ana Navarro, Robert De Niro and Michelle Obama (Warren Squire)
• UK Social Media Law ‘A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’ – Musk (RT)
• Elon Musk To Sue German Broadcaster ZDF For ‘Outrageous Lies’ (RMX)
• Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Repeats a Warning Message (CTH)
• The Grievance Industry in America Has a World Cup Problem (CTH)
• 1000s Of Italian Protesters Demand Remigration In Rome (ZH)
• Where to Track (and Predict!) Your Congresscritter’s Insider Trades (Green)
• JD Vance Shuts Whoopi Goldberg DOWN (Sam J.)
• George Conway Is Back, and He’s Really, Really Gonna Get Trump (Spencer)

 


 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2066701232010362928?s=20 https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/2066681754505683077?s=20

 


 


“.. But Energy Flows Remain Months From Normal”.

People can trust the flows will be restored, that’s all they need right now.

• Hormuz Fears Ease As Trump, Ghalibaf Virtually Sign US-Iran Deal (ZH)

President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf have virtually signed a peace deal to end the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian ports, the general Gulf region, and begin 60 days of nuclear negotiations, according to CNN, citing US senior sources. The text of the so-called memorandum of understanding, a 14-point document that should lead to a two-month extension of the ceasefire and the start of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, has yet to be published.


But Trump stated overnight the deal terms will be released “pretty soon,” likely after the formal signing ceremony in Geneva on Friday. Trump, who is attending the G7 club summit in France, suggested that he would not attend the signing event at the end of the week. VP Vance is expected to lead the American delegation in Switzerland on Friday to formally sign an interim peace deal with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Trump pushed back on MSM reports that his administration is considering a $300 billion fund for Iran as part of an agreement to end the war.

“Iran has agreed to never have a Nuclear Weapon! Also, the story that the U.S. is paying Iran 300 million Dollars is Fake News, put out by the Dumocrats!!!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. Trump’s Truth Social comments came shortly after VP Vance the Iranians “could have access” to a $300 billion reconstruction fund. “That’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf Coast coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation,” Vance told CBS News in an interview.

The interim peace deal signals a major diplomatic breakthrough, though Israel remains opposed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and Trump “do not always see eye to eye.” Conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continued Monday in southern Lebanon. With the Strait of Hormuz set to open on Friday, blockades and the clogged maritime chokepoint could soon be in the rearview mirror, but the effect on physical markets could last for months, if not longer.

Read more …

Trump understands Putin. And he’s not going to fight him.

• Trump Calls on Putin to Reach Deal With Ukraine After Zelenskyy Meeting (ET)

U.S. President Donald Trump kicked off his G7 summit meetings on June 16 in the French spa town of Évian-les-Bains, joining a roundtable discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other G7 leaders. “We had a very good meeting,” Trump told reporters after the meeting. “Russia should make a deal. Russia has lost tremendous amounts of people and so has Ukraine.”Before the roundtable, Trump confirmed he also had a private discussion with Zelenskyy “I’m meeting with him again later on today,” he added. Trump made these comments during his bilateral meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, on the sidelines of the G7 summit.


“I’m going to do whatever I can,” Trump said, to end the war in Ukraine. Trump said he wants to focus on Ukraine now, saying Iran will soon be “back in the rearview mirror.” When asked whether he would increase sanctions on Russia, Trump said the United States could reinstate sanctions now that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened. “Soon we’ll be able to do that, because the oil is now flowing,” Trump told reporters during a bilateral meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the sidelines of the G7 Summit.“We took sanctions off because obviously we’re not looking to impede the U.S, so we’re in a position to do that soon,” Trump added.

Washington eased sanctions on Russia in March, permitting purchases of Russian seaborne oil to address the energy supply shortage caused by the war in Iran. The Treasury Department later extended the sanctions waiver, which is set to expire on June 17. Leaders of the world’s seven largest advanced economies have gathered in Évian-les-Bains, a lakeside town in eastern France, from June 15 to June 17 for their annual summit. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Ukraine is stronger now than it was at last year’s G7 summit in Canada.

“Ukraine is in a different position,” von der Leyen said at a press conference in Evian on June 15. “Ukraine is holding the frontline and even partially regaining territory.” She also praised the speed at which Ukraine was becoming a top producer of advanced military equipment. “On the other hand, Russia is feeling the strain and pressure. Our sanctions are biting and cutting deep,” she added. In August 2025, Trump invited Putin to a meeting in Alaska to discuss a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. However, the meeting ended with no breakthrough. Before heading to France, Trump said he had spoken separately with both Putin and Zelenskyy on the phone on June 15.

“We had a very good conversation yesterday with President Zelenskiy and President Putin, and I think maybe we can do something there,” he said following his bilateral meeting with Macron on June 15. “I really do. I think they’re both open to it.” He said that now the Iran deal is finalized, “we’re going to be focusing on that.” On June 15, Ukraine officially began European Union membership negotiations, launching a process that will require its government to commit to years of political reforms even as it fights the Russian invasion. Ukraine sees EU membership as a security guarantee for a stable future once the war ends.

Read more …

“The ruling marks a “convincing victory” in a decade-long maritime dispute, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.”

• Hague Tribunal Rejects Ukraine’s Crimea Claims (RT)

A Hague-based arbitration tribunal has rejected Ukrainian maritime claims against Russia, including attempts to challenge Moscow’s sovereignty over Crimea and surrounding waters. Ukraine launched the case in 2016 before the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Kiev argued that Crimea remained Ukrainian territory and claimed that the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait should be treated as international waters subject to UNCLOS rules. Crimea joined Russia following a 2014 referendum held after the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev.


In a statement on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry described the tribunal’s final ruling, adopted unanimously by a panel of five arbitrators, as a “convincing victory” for Moscow. It said the tribunal rejected Ukraine’s demands for compensation and reparations related to natural resources around Crimea. According to the ministry, the tribunal also dismissed Kiev’s attempt to classify the Kerch Strait as an international waterway open to vessels of all states, including warships. Moscow said the ruling formally recognized the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov as Russia’s historic domestic waters.

The tribunal likewise rejected claims that Russia violated international law by asserting sovereignty over the Sea of Azov following the accession of the Donbass republics and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye. The largely Russian-speaking Donetsk and Lugansk republics, along with Kherson and Zaporozhye, joined Russia after referendums held in autumn 2022 amid the escalating Ukraine conflict. The ruling also dismissed Ukraine’s demand that the Crimean Bridge be dismantled. Kiev had argued that the crossing, built between 2016 and 2018 to link Crimea with mainland Russia, was illegal and hindered navigation through the Kerch Strait.

Moscow called the claim “absurd,” while the tribunal found Ukraine’s arguments unsubstantiated, according to the ministry.≥The bridge has repeatedly been targeted by Kiev using naval drones, explosives and Western-supplied long-range missiles, causing damage and civilian casualties. The ruling represents a significant “defeat” for Ukraine and its Western backers in the decade-long “legal war” against Russia, according to the ministry.

Read more …

This was even prominently featured in Dutch news; governor says Trumo chases him.

“The investigation of Gavin’s political money started in 2022.”

• Grenell: DOJ Investigation of Newsom Began Under Biden Admin (Salgado)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) made a series of sensational claims on Monday, accusing President Donald Trump‘s Department of Justice (DOJ) of personally targeting both him and his wife for no good reason. But according to a Trump administration official, the investigation involving the corrupt governor and his wife began under the Biden-Harris administration.


Special missions envoy Richard Grenell called Newsom’s bluff:

Newsom’s government is under a new investigation federal authorities launched into election fraud in California after evidence of bribery and ballot harvesting, along with stunning changes in state and city election results a week into “counting.” But when the Democrat governor griped on Monday about federal investigation into him and “First Partner” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, he was reportedly referring to investigations involving his staff and her taxes. And the Newsoms first came under investigation from the DOJ when the previous Democrat administration was in office.

As important context, Dana Williamson, Newsom’s former chief of staff and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra’s former advisor, pleaded guilty in May to corruption-related charges. Grenell explained, “The investigation of Gavin’s political money started in 2022.”

Grenell also reposted the following information:

https://twitter.com/qc_cin/status/2066622313466921431?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066622313466921431%7Ctwgr%5E8a738acde186e92ac44bedae551005b6901c1d93%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fcatherinesalgado%2F2026%2F06%2F15%2Fgrenell-doj-investigation-of-newsom-began-under-biden-administration-n4954009

But reality never inhibits Democrats. “Justice is for sale,” Newsom pontificated grandiosely in a video he posted June 15. He whined that the DOJ investigation of him now extends to his wife, who over the years has been involved in multiple scandals involving taxpayer money allocation and sexual grooming of children through school films. Newsom did not in the video describe any of the actual charges against him and his wife, which seems to support the criticism that he doesn’t have any good defense against them. Instead, Newsom rambled on with self-righteous assertions of integrity, emotional condemnations of the investigation into his wife, irrelevant facts about the Trump family’s net worth, and promotion of his own potential campaign for president.

Based on what Grenell said, however, there is nothing new about the investigations that Newsom finds so offensive. That begs the question: Why would he choose now to complain about them? Has the DOJ uncovered bombshell incriminating evidence involving his staff and wife?

Read more …

Sundance appears to suggest the IC (Deep State) did not approve of Bill Pulte for DNI.

• Senate Could Vote on Jay Clayton DNI Nomination Thursday (CTH)

To show a distinction between an approved IC candidate and an unapproved IC candidate, all you need to do is look at the contrast in the senate confirmation process, and the distinction between Bill Pulte and Jay Clayton. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), the entity that protects the interests of the DC Deep State, is going to hold a confirmation hearing for current USAO Jay Clayton on Wednesday afternoon. An SSCI vote is then likely within 12 hours, and a full Senate vote within 24 hours (Thursday). That’s the speed at which the Senate will move when they are in full control of the aperture.



Senate Majority Leader John Thune has already dispatched the request of President Trump to attach the Save America Act to the FISA (702) reauthorization vote that will likely happen as soon as Jay Clayton is confirmed. Again, this example outlines how the DC system moves when they -not the executive- control the functions of the Intelligence Community. If you watch the Thune statement above, please note the professional obfuscation. It is very important to understand and recognize the issues as they face our nation.

The government (DOJ/FBI) does not need any authorization from congress to conduct surveillance on foreign nationals. There is nothing needed to spy on, intercept, surveil, or track the activity of a foreign national. The foreign person does not have any constitutional protection at all. However, if an American is the target of secret surveillance, tracking, spying, etc., the DOJ/FBI need some method of authorization to violate the fourth amendment protection within the constitution. That’s where FISA (702) come into the picture.

FISA (702) only pertains to an American in the surveillance process. FISA (702) is the presumed legal method, never tested in court, that permits the DOJ and FBI to violate the 4th amendment protection of the American person. FISA (702) only pertains to a legislative construct that permits this secret surveillance of the American person. The Title-1 surveillance warrant that often comes with the 702-authorized review or investigation; is all encompassing and authorizes the government to secretly look at the private records of the targeted American.

If FISA (702) did not exist, all of the electronic record keeping, the stored metadata of Americans, would be worthless. FISA (702) is the key that allows the government to unlock the data (private records) and review it. Without the key, you cannot open the door – as a consequence, the U.S. government doesn’t need the vault. FISA (702) has never been tested in court by any targeted person, in part because the evidence against the accused person only exists for prosecutorial use if the person is factually guilty of the suspected allegation. This is the catch-22 that has permitted the 702 violations to continue without challenge.

It doesn’t matter how many times our politicians try to position the argument, there is nothing that stops the DOJ/FBI from looking at the activity of foreign actors. However, there are constitutional protections that stop the DOJ/FBI from looking at the activity of Americans. FISA (702) is designed specifically to work around those constitutional protections. It looks like Jay Clayton is on the fast-track to be confirmed on Thursday, and FISA (702) to be reauthorized immediately thereafter.

We are in an abusive relationship with our government.

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’Posters say this hatred that Democrats have for the country when they are out of power shows what they truly cherish. [Power]’

• Scott Jennings, Ana Navarro, Robert De Niro and Michelle Obama (Warren Squire)

Frequent CNN guest Ana Navarro joins the horde of Trump-haters who insist that calling Michelle Obama a man (aka transgender) is a slur. Why? You’ll have to ask these pro-transgenderism leftists to explain how something they view so positively can be applied as an insult to others. Shouldn’t it be a compliment if transgenderism is so wonderful and wholesome? Their so-called outrage makes no sense. Anyway, Navarro used the ‘controversy’ to drag Robert De Niro into her profanity-laced tirade on Monday’s CNN NewsNight.


Republican Scott Jennings represented all of us during Navarro’s ridiculous rant. (WATCH – LANGUAGE WARNING)

Questioning Michelle Obama’s sex pales into comparison to most things Democrats have called President Donald Trump and his supporters for more than ten years. Since Navarro brought up De Niro, Jennings criticized the actor for his ‘I can’t love this country’ speech at the Democrat Party’s lame resistance showcase on Sunday night.

Jennings explained: “I think you have to love your country, whether or not you lost the last election. I love America… According to some polling that came out this week, and most Republicans love America. Ninety percent are very proud to be Americans. They’re proud of living in this country. Unfortunately, I think Mr. De Niro’s comments are pretty indicative of a majority of Democrats who can’t seem to find that attitude inside them even though they lost the last election. And, you know, loving America, being a patriot for America, feeling good about America shouldn’t be dictated by whether you won or lost. When I hear De Niro, I hear him saying, “I can only love America if we win every election from here on out. That’s a rather fascist statement.”

We wouldn’t be surprised if his obituary reads like the one for the recently deceased ALF actress known for her ‘burning hatred for Trump.’Posters say this hatred that Democrats have for the country when they are out of power shows what they truly cherish.

Sadly, Democrats don’t seem to share your patriotic sentiment. According to that Gallup chart, they appear to mostly despise America even when they hold the reins of political power.

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“This censorship law is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The real goal is to enable the UK government to track everyone”. — Elon Musk

“We will become one of the first democracies in the world to require IDs to access the internet” – Big Brother Watch Director Silkie Carlo

• UK Social Media Law ‘A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’ – Musk (RT)

The UK’s move to ban social media for under-16s is a ruse to implement digital surveillance of all internet users, X owner Elon Musk has declared, accusing the British government of building a “police state.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the ban on Monday, promising that the measure would protect “the safety and happiness of our children.” Children under 16 will be barred from “user-to-user” platforms such as X, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, according to a statement from Starmer’s office. They will also be prohibited from livestreaming, messaging strangers through gaming apps, and using AI “romantic companion” chatbots. Meanwhile, 16- and 17-year-olds will be subject to nightly online curfews.


Messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal will be exempt from the ban, the statement added. The ban is expected to come into force next year. Shortly after Starmer’s announcement, Musk warned that “this censorship law is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” In a post on X, the billionaire claimed that its “real goal is to enable the UK government to track everyone.” In another post, Musk declared that “the UK is a police state.” In order to ban under-16s, the government must ensure that adults can verify their age before using social media platforms. Starmer’s office did not say how this would be implemented, instead stating that the government is exploring “different options for effective forms of age assurance.”

However, Starmer said that age verification would “use the same model for a social media ban as Australia.” Under the scheme, users must prove they are over 16 by submitting a government-issued ID or allowing a facial age check, with platforms responsible for carrying out the verification. The ban has been heavily criticized by digital rights activists. “Over 16s in the UK will have to hand over identity documents or biometric data to unregulated age verification companies,” the Open Rights Group warned, adding that “the government has completely failed to acknowledge the harms that could come from that.” “We will become one of the first democracies in the world to require IDs to access the internet,” Big Brother Watch Director Silkie Carlo told Talk TV on Monday. “We are sleepwalking towards a total surveillance state.”

Starmer has lobbied for the introduction of a mandatory digital ID system since last year, but was forced to drop the plan amid public backlash this January. His government, however, has plowed ahead with other digital surveillance and censorship measures, including the rollout of facial recognition cameras by multiple police departments at demonstrations, a request to tech companies to require adults to submit ID to use mobile phones, and legislation that will enable the government to remove content from social media “during times of crisis.”

Read more …

I hope they go bankrupt over it. They could and should have fired the people involved, and didn’t.

• Elon Musk To Sue German Broadcaster ZDF For ‘Outrageous Lies’ (RMX)

Elon Musk says he will sue German broadcaster ZDF for ‘outrageous lies’ after it claimed he had told Belfast rioters to ‘hunt migrants’ The German public broadcaster admitted its wording was “imprecise” and “misleading” Tech trillionaire Elon Musk has said he will take legal action against German public broadcaster ZDF after it linked him to unrest in Belfast and accused him of helping instigate a “hunt” against migrants.The dispute followed the attempted beheading of a man in Northern Ireland by a Sudanese migrant, which prompted British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson to call for nationwide protests.


Musk shared Robinson’s post on X and added, “Only through repeated and loud protests will anything change.” ZDF later used the incident in a segment on ZDFheute live, introducing it as part of a wider discussion about online agitation after violent crimes. Presenter Christina von Ungern-Sternberg said, A brutal attempted murder in broad daylight in Belfast. Someone films it. The video goes viral.

A racist mob then hunts down migrants. This was called for by a British far-right extremist and tech billionaire Elon Musk.”

She then asked, “What’s behind it? Which actors have an interest in using a violent crime to incite civil war?” The framing triggered criticism in Germany, including from journalists who said the broadcaster had gone beyond what Musk had actually written. Welt journalist Anna Schneider said, “ZDF is attributing a statement to Musk that he never made.”NDR editor Sebastian Eberle also criticized the segment, writing on X, “Dear colleagues in Mainz, with all due respect, this is unacceptable. We cannot and must not work like this. This is completely unacceptable.”

ZDF later acknowledged that the wording in the segment had been flawed. Asked by Nius about the controversy, a ZDF spokesperson said, “The presenter was supposed to succinctly summarize the complex situation of the violently escalating protests and the previous calls for protests on X at the beginning of the very comprehensive and nuanced 30-minute program. However, the chosen wording was imprecise and therefore misleading.”The broadcaster said Robinson had called for protests after the Belfast knife attack and that Musk had shared the post.

Musk responded on Monday by saying he would pursue legal action against the broadcaster. “Legal action is being taken against ZDF for their outrageous lies,” he wrote on X. This isn’t the first time this year the broadcaster has been enveloped in controversy for its reporting. Back in February, the same program was forced to issue an on-air apology after it was found to have broadcast a segment containing AI-generated footage depicting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arresting a migrant family. “We invest a great deal of effort to provide you with verified information. This time, we failed to do so,” it said at the time.

Read more …

5 Eyes Countries.

• Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Repeats a Warning Message (CTH)

Telegram founder Pavel Durov is one voice who has been consistent in his message about how western countries have become increasingly authoritarian in their efforts to retain power and control. Durov is the real deal; the John Galt within the mechanisms of digital communication. The principle under attack is freedom, and the recent examples of internet and social media control via age verification are steps within this process.


Durov notes these moments are like the early stages of the Titanic after hitting the iceberg, where people aboard the ship did not quite realize the scope of the danger around them. Take the time to listen to what Durov shares with specific examples and citations to back up his warning. Well worth the time. Pavel Durov shares how Telegram emerged from a commitment to free expression and why defending digital freedom is central to protecting human rights today.

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I love the way Sundance loves America. Find someone who loves your country that way.

As for his praise of American food, hey, as long as I don’t have to eat it…

• The Grievance Industry in America Has a World Cup Problem (CTH)

The professional grievance industry embedded within media, podcasting and punditry in America has a problem; a World Cup problem. Hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world are discovering just how amazing the United States is, and they can’t stop raving about it on social media. The grievance class are being forced to take a break as their normally loud, shrieking voices are being drowned out by happy sounds, songs of joy, jubilance even. Flags are waving, people are smiling and that pesky American exceptionalism is visible all over the place.


Yup, there’s visible patriotism everywhere and its being compounded by Freedom 250 events, celebrating 250 years of just being awesome America. Not only is the American flag being celebrated, but ironically European national flags are being waved everywhere in celebration of nationalism – and the people waving them don’t have to worry about being harassed by police or being arrested for it. This is a new experience for young Europeans and they are overwhelmed. The joy is evident and it’s more than a little awesome to see all of the videos capturing the thrill of it all. As one observer noted in a moment of contemplation, heck, this country didn’t even need to build anything to host the FIFA World Cup, they just changed the electronic displays on the modern billboards.

“Qatar built stadiums from scratch, constructed a complete metro system, redesigned roads, hotels, and entire neighborhoods—even after the event ended, they said they were going to give away a stadium because they had one to spare. South Africa had to erect new stadiums, parking lots, and massive infrastructure projects; it was a multi-billion-dollar investment that ate up part of its GDP. Brazil burned through billions on infrastructure and ended up with a president in jail for corruption (Lula); in the end, construction was still underway when the event kicked off. Russia remodeled half the country to measure up, and even then, the infrastructure deficiencies—from transportation to other areas—were still glaring.

And the United States? They just changed the grass in a few stadiums. Period. Nothing else. No megaprojects, no monumental works, no “reinventing” cities. And this happens because when you already have world-class infrastructure, the World Cup isn’t a problem—it’s just a formality.”

In American reality, the SEC football stadiums could have hosted the entire World Cup event all by themselves; easy peasy. Why? Because we are the greatest nation on the face of the earth, and all of those inhabitants are experiencing it in real life. This America thing is, actually, awesome. All of it. There are great American eagles flying around. Massive, thundering jets booming just above the audience. Rockets exploding with great fireworks and exhibitions of colorful explosions accompanied by music. Every sense is overwhelmed, and yet to an American, it’s just another Tuesday.

The great American podcast business is being drowned out by all this international optimism; it is very funny to witness. The voices of the American critics cannot begin to break through the noise and jubilation in the background, and the happy people just won’t shut up. How are these grievance-class podcasters supposed to make money, when their best level Mark Levin bitching and griping screeches are not loud enough? There’s a certain funny unfairness about it all. Making matters worse, the jubilation is not limited to soccer games. The happy people are starting to attend ordinary American activities like baseball games, rodeos, car and boat races and then the national parks and beaches. Jumpin’ ju-ju-bones, all of this is not what they expected.

https://twitter.com/lovetocook12345/status/2066477816657424715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066477816657424715%7Ctwgr%5Ef7a77ff6a984a9482dc4a45a3575f7ee7b2d8b32%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F06%2F15%2Fthe-grievance-industry-in-america-has-a-world-cup-problem%2F

At the same time, the happy people have realized America is a massive country. They are flying around and driving for hours only to realize they haven’t even left a few states yet…. and there’s 50 of them? OMG you cannot be serious. This is America. This is the America the great American grievance class have forgotten to appreciate. This is also the America their local media back home lied to them about. The happy people were told that everything over here was fraught with drugs, gangs and terrible dirty stuff. America was Gotham City. Except it isn’t. It is not any of that. America is clean, organized and fun. The American people are friendly, beyond generous and all-around awesome.

The Happy People are encountering everyday Americans. Middle American people who don’t need passports because there’s no reason to leave this amazing country – because all of the best stuff in the rest of the world is available right here without taking a trip. Keep in mind that for Europeans coming out of the COVID era, their entire life existence is constructed around keeping their global footprint as small as possible. America is not that, at all. The American food is big and tasty; the American stores are a hundred-fold larger than anything the Happy People have ever experienced. The roads are easy to travel. Everything is modern and the internet speed is way faster than anything at home. Technology exists at a scale that is far deeper than anything they expected.

This is America.We are Americans, and a new generation is gaining appreciation for why Lady Liberty can stroll along the Champs-Elysées with a swagger befitting Mae West; because without her arrival, they’d be speaking German in the Louvre. For the better part of the past few decades a group of intellectuals and influencers have been promoting an insufferable storyline that it’s better to be sitting around a campfire eating sustainable algae cakes and picking parasites off each other. Enough. We are Americans. When I hear Donald Trump say, “Let’s Make America Great Again”, I also hear the familiar echo “cowboy up” people.

It’s high time we stop being embarrassed about our exceptional nature, and start being proud of it again. Because when it matters most, when it really counts, when it’s really needed, there’s a whole bunch of people all around this world of ours that need to feel the type of optimism that walks with a swagger. And right now, there’s thousands of non-Americans experiencing and realizing why that swagger exists.

That my friends, is pretty darned cool.

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1000s is nothing. It would have to be hundreds of 1000s. It will be.

• 1000s Of Italian Protesters Demand Remigration In Rome (ZH)

A demonstration of several thousand people took place in Rome on Saturday to advocate for remigration and stricter controls on immigration. Coming from various regions across Italy, a crowd of roughly 3,000 individuals paraded through the nation’s capital behind a prominent sign declaring “Remigration and Recapture,“ a slogan used to call for the mandatory deportation of migrants back to their countries of origin.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2066113895253647389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066113895253647389%7Ctwgr%5E3918d20914048eeeb1381e61905ee4648960972d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fitaly-thousands-of-protesters-demand-remigration-in-rome%2F


The march drew participation from various right-wing organizations, including Casapound. According to Luca Marsella, a spokesman for Casapound, their objective is clear. “We want to throw out the illegal immigrants because they shouldn’t be here.” He further noted that their demands extend beyond those without legal status, adding, “And because we are not politically correct, we also say that we want to send home the legal immigrants who have obviously not adapted or integrated.”

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2066125120565850455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066125120565850455%7Ctwgr%5E3918d20914048eeeb1381e61905ee4648960972d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fitaly-thousands-of-protesters-demand-remigration-in-rome%2F

Concurrently, Rome hosted the inaugural party congress for Futuro Nazionale (National Future), a newly established right-wing political group organized by Roberto Vannacci, a former general who now serves as an MEP. Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Vannacci expressed an uncompromising stance on border control, asserting, “If it were up to me, no one should be allowed to enter Italy.” Vannacci previously aligned with the anti-immigration League Party party led by Vice Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. His political emergence means that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia), alongside her coalition allies, will contend with fresh rivals on the right.

Public opinion polls suggest that Futuro Nazionale could capture 4.5 percent of the electorate, drawing its strongest support from citizens who previously voted for League. Vannacci’s movement already possesses a foothold in the legislature, as eight sitting parliamentarians have already defected to join his ranks.The issue of migration is a contentious one, with migrants responsible for 43 percent of sexual crimes and 60 percent of robberies and thefts. Just days ago, two Pakistani men were arrested for allegedly burning alive four Pakistani nationals after the men demanded better wages for agricultural work.

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“56% of every stock purchase made by Congress in the last 16 months was on a stock directly affected by a bill the buyer later voted on.”

• Where to Track (and Predict!) Your Congresscritter’s Insider Trades (Green)

Want to find out how much money your congresscritter makes from insider trading? Ever been curious to see the correlation between bills, votes, big-money donations, and shockingly handsome investment returns? Would you be interested in an A.I. geared to predict lucrative congressional trades before they happen? There’s a website for that. It’s called GovGreed, and it’s an AI-powered search engine that “fuses [machine learning], deep learning, and 7 intelligence layers to predict which politicians will trade — and in which sectors — before the 45-day disclosure window even opens.”


Over on X, Ricardo dug into the “crazy” numbers and found that “56% of every stock purchase made by Congress in the last 16 months was on a stock directly affected by a bill the buyer later voted on.” Worse — or better, if you’re a member of America’s insider-trading nomenklatura — Ricardo also revealed that “343 of 540 Congress members actively trade stocks while holding access to nonpublic legislative information.” vBut wait, there’s more. bGovGreed’s AI identified 752 “triple signals” in the sitting Congress. A triple signal is when a congresscritter sits on the committee writing a bill, “they traded stock in a company affected by that bill, AND they received campaign contributions from that same industry.”

Triple signals trade at 5.4 times the normal rate of congressional trades, he found. In other words, Congress isn’t just trading on insider information. Congress generates the information, influenced by donations from the very companies whose futures are written by Congress. The result? While the S&P 500 so far is on track to generate a 10.8% return in 2026, Congressional traders earned 10.2% in the last 30 days, according to the site. You’ve probably long suspected all this, but GovGreed put it all in one AI-enhanced searchable database. There’s a subscription required to get to all the good stuff, and I’m debating right now whether to whip out my credit card.

Democrats like California’s dynamic trading duo, Nancy Pelosi and Ro Khanna, made some of the biggest returns, but plenty of Republicans are in on the game, too. The STOCK Act requires congresscritters to report their trades, but Ricardo found that Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, “made 1,443 trades in three years, more than 98% of all politicians tracked,” and also “violated the STOCK Act twice in a single year, disclosing up to $900,000 in trades months after the legal deadline.” The penalty for violating the STOCK Act is a $200 fine, because Congress writes the rules that Congress has to live by. “The number of Congress members ever prosecuted under the STOCK Act since it passed in 2012? Zero,” notes Ricardo.

Probably the only real solution is to start electing a better class of people to Congress, which is more than a little like saying, “I bet instead of messing with those big dangerous rockets, we could just all wish a permanent moon base into existence.” When Mark Twain wrote in 1894 that “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress,” he was likely being uncharacteristically generous in his estimation for an elected office he also called “the trivialist distinction for a full grown man.” So if we ever do get that Article V Convention of States — which both fills me with hope and wakes me with night sweats — I have a modest proposal for the convention to consider.

It’s a rule of thumb that individual investors hope, over the long term, to earn a 7% return on their investments. I propose that instead of passing ethics laws that the most unethical people in the country will circumvent, we amend the Constitution to tax any congresscritter investment returns above 7% at 100%. And all revenues would go to deficit reduction. Nancy Pelosi alone could put a nice little dent in our national debt. Anyway, that’s my modest proposal. What’s yours?

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Crazy, crazier, Whoopi.

• JD Vance Shuts Whoopi Goldberg DOWN (Sam J.)

Vice President JD Vance pushed back forcefully during his Tuesday appearance on ‘The View,’ shutting down Whoopi Goldberg’s claims that the Trump administration is casting aside Black Americans and stigmatizing people of color. We all knew this would be a ‘hoot,’ but man, Whoopi went even crazier than we thought she would.


When the co-host tried to frame the administration’s focus on law and order as some kind of racial slight, Vance countered with a clear example: Washington, D.C.—one of the most Democratic cities in the country and among those with the highest share of Black residents—has seen a sharp drop in violent crime, sexual assaults, and murders. He stressed that serious efforts to make neighborhoods safer apply to everyone, regardless of race or background, and that the usual race-baiting script no longer lands with people who simply want results. This is so good – watch:

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2066913357777514961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066913357777514961%7Ctwgr%5E6fb6a5d0a9133934e2732a39ea1ebb93bbd935ae%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fsamj%2F2026%2F06%2F16%2Fjd-vance-shuts-whoopi-goldberg-down-for-claiming-trump-is-casting-black-people-aside-watch-n2429310

Post continues:” … of the BLACKEST—by share of population—cities, has seen a RADICAL decrease in violent crime and sexual assault and murders. We have tried to take the crime issue seriously in part because we believe EVERYBODY, whether you are black or white or rich or poor, deserves to live in a safe neighborhood.” The race hustling is TOTAL BS. And it doesn’t work on reasonable people anymore.

Love to see it.

Unless, of course, you’re Whoopi.

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The oddest couple in the world divorced! Makes me sad.

• George Conway Is Back, and He’s Really, Really Gonna Get Trump (Spencer)

Remember George Conway? No, not Tim Conway. George Conway. Yeah, both short and pudgy, and both funny, but only Tim was intentionally funny. George Conway, whose sole claim to fame ever since his 2023 divorce from former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway has been his all-consuming hatred of President Donald Trump, now seems to think that Trump-hatred can propel him all the way to the Congress of the United States. Yes, one of the left’s most vicious and irrational Trump-haters wants the voters of New York to send him to Congress. And since they’re voters from New York, they just might do it.


Conway has made no secret of what he will do if he does get to the House. That’s right: Conway’s program from first to last is Get Trump. Fox News reported Monday that Conway “is pledging to pursue President Donald Trump’s third impeachment and put him ‘away for good’ if elected to Congress.”

Yeah, the third time will be the charm, eh, George? The mere fact that someone — anyone — is talking about a third impeachment of Trump is an indication of how deranged the Democrats have become. The republic was preparing to celebrate its bicentennial when we had our second president who was ever in danger of being impeached, and he (Richard Nixon) resigned before the House voted on the articles of impeachment. The third impeachment of a president came just under a quarter-century later, and now George Conway wants the nation to go through its third such proceeding in a decade, all of the same man.

It’s clear that for the staggeringly corrupt Democrat establishment, impeachment is no longer a tool of last resort to deal with a president who is accused of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as the Constitution puts it, but an everyday tool to try to destroy the man whom they can’t defeat at the ballot box (unless they cheat, of course). If Conway gets his third impeachment and it fails yet again, but the Democrats control the House, they’ll try a fourth time, and a fifth, and on and on and on.

Conway may not get his chance to vote to impeach the man he loathes with such passionate intensity. He is running for the seat that Jerry Nadler is vacating, and it’s a crowded field. Paradoxically, his long-ago support for Trump could be the biggest obstacle to persuading the people who voted for Zohran Mamdani to send him to Congress.

Nevertheless, Conway is in there pitching, appealing to the Democrats with what he is sure is a winning formula: not talking about how he will work to improve the quality of life of his constituents, but about how he will get Orange Man Bad. In a campaign commercial, he even addressed Trump instead of the voters. “Hi, Donald,” Conway chirped. “It’s me, George Conway. I cost you 88 f*****g million dollars, and I’ve only just gotten started.”

Turning up the threats and braggadocio to 11, Conway added: “I know you like putting your name on everything from your plane to the Kennedy Center. But the only thing your name is going to be left on when I’m done with you is the orange jumpsuit you’re going to have to wear in prison.”

At this point, you might be wondering exactly what crime Conway thinks Trump has committed that is going to land him in prison, especially in light of the fact that none of the Democrats’ previous lawfare frame-ups of the man they love to hate succeeded in doing so. But Conway didn’t even bother to explain. The Democrats have moved so far beyond rationality at this point that they don’t even need to spend the time and energy fabricating a crime that they did with the Russia hoax. They’ll impeach Trump for whatever crime anyone can think of. The charge doesn’t matter; besmirching and destroying the president does.

Conway pointed to the Capitol as he continued: “And you see that building back there. That’s where we’re going to hold your third and final impeachment trial, the one that’s going to put you away for good, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of that.”

A White House spokesperson responded with a message that sounded as if it came from Trump himself: “Lightweight George Conway is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person. His severe and debilitating disease known as Trump Derangement syndrome has melted his brain and made him crazy in the head.”

The good news is that this lunatic is currently polling fourth in his congressional race, behind Assemblymen Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, D-N.Y., as well as Jack Schlossberg, who hates Trump as much as the next guy but has an altogether different claim to fame, as he is JFK’s grandson. Any of these guys will be a disaster in Congress, but none would be quite as spectacularly disastrous as George Conway.

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https://twitter.com/niccruzpatane/status/2066508591415140703?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 15 2026

Jun 152026
 
 June 15, 2026  Posted by at 10:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  36 Responses »


Robert Campin A man 1435


• Trump Announces Peace Deal with Iran Is Complete (Margolis)
• Trump: Hormuz To Reopen Friday After Signing Of “Great Peace Deal” (ZH)
• Iran Reveals Draft Of Trump-Touted MoU To Be Signed Sunday (ZH)
• Scott Jennings Hammers CNN Panel Over Elon Musk Trillionaire Status (Amy Curtis)
• Bakari Sellers Calls Elon Musk a White Supremacist (Margolis)
• Elon Musk and the Politics of Envy (Tim O’Brien)
• Carney: “Middle Powers” Can Collectively Counterbalance U.S. Global Power (CTH)
• Pompeo Unmasked (CTH)
• Buttigieg Joins the Calls to Take Over the Supreme Court (Turley)
• ‘Birth Tourism’ Networks Around the World Exploiting the U.S. (Salgado)
• Puffy Putin Peril: The West’s Latest Attempt To Scare Itself (Amar)
• Thinking for Oneself: Schopenhauer on Reflection vs. Regurgitation (Eskeldson)

 


 

https://twitter.com/Samdani4232/status/2065834962687873189?s=20 https://twitter.com/BarronTNews_/status/2065789421379572045?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2065854007722311794?s=20 https://twitter.com/FarmGirlCarrie/status/2065912335248826563?s=20

 


 


What a way to spend your 80th birthday! He did it! Hats off. So many people wanted him to fail even if it was against their own interests, just to spite him.

• Trump Announces Peace Deal with Iran Is Complete (Margolis)

On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced that a peace deal with Iran had been finalized, immediately lifting the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping. The region that has defined American foreign policy anxiety for decades just changed dramatically — and it happened on Trump’s watch. “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, offering “congratulations to all!” He followed that up by authorizing what he called the “toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz” alongside the simultaneous removal of the naval blockade. Then, in classic Trump fashion, he added, “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”


Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed the deal in a statement of his own. He announced that “the Peace Deal between the United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED” after what he described as “intensive talks.” He continued, “We would like to thank the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran for their commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict. We would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to our brothers in this mediation effort, the great leadership of State of Qatar, for their support in reaching this agreement. I would also especially thank the visionary leadership of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Republic of Türkiye for their immense contributions in this regard.”

A formal signing ceremony is scheduled for June 19 in Switzerland, with mediators facilitating preliminary technical meetings this week to lay the groundwork.Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi confirmed the deal from Tehran’s side, saying an immediate and permanent halt to war and military operations — including in Lebanon — would begin Sunday. He also made clear that Iran would respond if the other side violates its commitments and that the next phase of negotiations hinges on Iranian assets being unfrozen. Make no mistake about it, Tehran is going to test the limits of this thing. That’s what Iran does. But the framework is there, and the verification mechanisms matter.

Vice President JD Vance laid out the significance on Sunday on Fox News. “Three things that I think are important for the American people just to appreciate about what this deal does for all of us as Americans,” Vance said. “Number one, this is the immediate opening of the Straits of Hormuz and, of course, the lifting of the naval blockade that we’ve had on Iran along with it. The number two thing that it means is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and not just pursue a nuclear weapon, but procure or try to buy a nuclear weapon as well that’s built into this agreement.”

The third element, Vance explained, depends on Iranian compliance. Still, the upside is enormous. “If the Iranians comply with this deal, it is going to fundamentally transform the Middle East for the next 50 years,” he said. “It’s going to end the war. It’s going to make the Middle East more investable. It’s going to mean a lot of prosperity, lower energy prices for the American people. This region of the world has been a basket case for my entire life and longer than that.”

Obviously, there’s still work ahead. And there’s reason to be skeptical of Iran because this is a regime with a long history of buying time while running out the clock. But, we aren’t sending them plane-loads of cash in the dark of night, or giving them a path to nuclear weapons, as Barack Obama did. And that’s the key here. Trump built in verification. Vance was explicit that the benefits flow only if Iran delivers. The approach is trust nothing, verify everything, and tie every concession to compliance. That’s exactly the kind of deal the Obama-era Iran agreement was never structured to be.

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“Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, also confirmed: “that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED.”

• Trump: Hormuz To Reopen Friday After Signing Of “Great Peace Deal” (ZH)

“This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace. With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.


The timing of the peace deal is critical. The world was approaching a dangerous energy cliff, with strategic petroleum reserves being quickly drained to offset lost Gulf production and stabilize physical markets. Still, even with a deal in place, energy flows through the strategic maritime chokepoint will not normalize overnight. It will likely take several months, if not quarters, to clear the backlog, restore shipping confidence, de-risk insurance markets, and bring regional production and export flows back to pre-crisis levels. As for damaged energy assets such as those in Qatar, it’ll take years to get production back to pre-war levels.

Deal Confirmed By Trump, Pakistan PM, Just Ahead Of NY Futures Opening. Just 30 minutes before futures open in New York, President Trump announced on Truth Social that a “Deal” with Iran is now complete. “Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” Trump said.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, also confirmed: “that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED.”

Sharif said, “The official signing ceremony will be on Friday, 19 June in Switzerland.”

Israeli journalist and Iran affairs correspondent/analyst for Israel’s Channel 14 reports that hardliners in Iran, including IRGC forces, will not derail the peace deal.

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From the lead-up to the accord.

• Iran Reveals Draft Of Trump-Touted MoU To Be Signed Sunday (ZH)

Bloomberg and Reuters are reporting Sunday some fresh details on Iran’s version of what the MoU to be signed – which President Trump says will happen today (albeit remotely) will inlcude. “A draft of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding included diluting highly enriched uranium within Iran and the release of $25b of Iran’s frozen assets, Reuters reports citing a senior Iran official it didn’t identify,” writes Bloomberg in the latest. This includes:


• Final deal to be discussed in the 60 days following agreement by the two sides
• Also includes Iran immediately reopening Hormuz Strait to all commercial vessels and US lifting its naval blockade
• Tehran in draft agrees that will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons
• To maintain the nuclear status quo until final deal is reached, including by not enriching uranium and not expanding nuclear facilities

One potential major complication to the two sides actually signing is what’s happening in the Beirut suburbs, which the Israeli Air Force has just struck for the first time in about a week:

Provocative Israeli military actions previously effectively torpedoed prior Washington-Tehran attempts to get back to the negotiating table. Will the same hold-up happen again? Pro-Israel supporters and lobbyists in the US have been raging against what they see as a ‘failure’ of a deal, and ‘capitulation’ to Iran on kicking the can on the nuclear issue… not least among them is on display in the following:

The usual caveats which proved all prior ‘deal imminent’ headlines to be premature and wishful thinking still apply. Some latest from Iranian state media according to Al Jazeera: “Iran’s Fars news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, is reporting that Iranian officials were discussing the ceasefire points with the Qatari mediators in Tehran. The report added that the deal is yet to be finalised and “no agreement will definitely be signed at the time Trump announced”. The comments were made to the agency prior to Israel’s deadly attacks on Lebanon’s southern suburbs today.

Sunday Iran Deal (or rather: MoU Remote Signing) Expected Sunday, per Trump. President Trump said Saturday that an interim U.S.-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and wind down the four-month conflict could be signed as soon as Sunday. However, Tehran has pushed back on that timeline, signaling that no final decision has been made while Iranian officials continue to review the terms of a potential memorandum of understanding. “The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday, while claiming that Iran “no longer wants a Nuclear weapon.”

The president continued, “At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust, buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains, thanks to our beautiful B-2 Bombers and their brilliant pilots, and downblend and destroy it, whether in Iran, or the United States.” Pakistan and Qatar are mediating, with technical talks expected to follow any signing and last up to 60 days. The MOU is structured as a step-by-step framework, meaning the Hormuz maritime chokepoint will reopen first, followed by economic rewards for Iran as conditions are met.

Pakistan, which has served as one of the mediators, is preparing to sign the peace deal electronically, followed by technical-level talks next week, according to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He said those talks would last two months and focus on Iran’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, the Iranian media outlet Fars News Agency reported earlier that Iran has not made a final call on a potential MOU with the U.S. Iranian authorities are still reviewing the political, legal, and technical details, with no final decision announced as of Sunday morning.

The urgency behind securing an MOU to reopen the Hormuz chokepoint is clear: the world is drifting dangerously close toward an energy cliff. Strategic petroleum reserves are being drawn down rapidly around the world to offset the loss of Gulf production, while China’s weakening fuel demand is helping to offset some of the broader supply shock. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made clear Friday that Iran understands that terms related to its nuclear program will be finalized within 60 days of the initial agreement being signed. So in essence, this means Iran could get its wish of pushing nuclear negotiations back, only after the hot conflict has clearly ended. Iran has long sought to separate the issues of a final end to the war from consideration of its nuclear program.

Energy markets priced in de-escalation last week, with Brent crude futures sliding as much as 5.1% Friday and European gas dropped as much as 8.4% after Trump canceled planned new strikes on Iran. IG’s weekend markets are pricing in a 50 bps decline in Brent crude when futures open on Sunday evening. But throughput traffic through the Hormuz chokepoint remains far below pre-war levels, and a vessel was struck off Oman on Saturday. Normalization could take weeks, if not many months. Bloomberg noted, “Roughly 140 ships passed through the narrow chokepoint each day before the conflict erupted.”

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“If Elon Musk had never gotten involved in politics, and never supported Trump, he’d be getting ticker tape parades right now for building this amazing company and sending rockets into space..”

• Scott Jennings Hammers CNN Panel Over Elon Musk Trillionaire Status (Amy Curtis)

While Leftists melt down over Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire, they’ve demonstrated that they don’t understand how value works, or stocks, or how the economy works. Scott Jennings pointed out a very obvious truth: if Elon Musk were a Leftist, this wouldn’t be an issue.



“Are you saying because Elon Musk exists and is a wild success that that is somehow to the detriment of all the people you’re mentioning?” Jennings asked. “Elon is creating an environment where entrepreneurship, where success, where building is celebrated.” Then came the truth bomb. “The only reason anybody’s mad about this, let’s just be honest, is because he supported Donald Trump for President,” Jennings said.

“If Elon Musk had never gotten involved in politics, and never supported Trump, he’d be getting ticker tape parades right now for building this amazing company and sending rockets into space. It’s all political, and the people who should love Elon Musk hate him for that reason.” “But do you agree that one person should have control of American policy?” asked Gina Hinojosa. “That’s what money does.”

“It’s all about access to the United States,” she continued, “It’s not just about Donald Trump. There are races all across the country where he has access on policy.” “Call me when you’re made about Soros,” Jennings said.Do people with money have more influence in politics? Does CNN have a chyron for this? That’s how it’s always been. If money influenced policy, we’d have President Ross Perot. Hillary Clinton raised $770 million in 2016 and Kamala Harris raised $1.6 billion for her campaign.

https://twitter.com/wxmel/status/2066178897012490748?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066178897012490748%7Ctwgr%5E8aab5d0d89583224ad4976df81987866feaa71be%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Famy-curtis%2F2026%2F06%2F14%2Fscott-jennings-hammers-cnn-panel-over-elon-musk-trillionaire-status-n2677733

Clean vehicles, clean energy sources, space exploration, and Internet access via Starlink. Those are just some of his achievements and contributions. Bingo. If he funded Leftist causes and politicians, this wouldn’t be an issue.

https://twitter.com/Sinnersaint39/status/2066185825411273006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2066185825411273006%7Ctwgr%5E8aab5d0d89583224ad4976df81987866feaa71be%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Famy-curtis%2F2026%2F06%2F14%2Fscott-jennings-hammers-cnn-panel-over-elon-musk-trillionaire-status-n2677733

It doesn’t matter what the narrative is today, as long as the Democrats can scream and whine about the “oligarchy” and against Donald Trump, Republicans, and anyone who isn’t their political ally.

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Sure.

• Bakari Sellers Calls Elon Musk a White Supremacist (Margolis)

A CNN panel meant to discuss extraordinary wealth lurched far off the rails Friday night when one commentator went into full-on slander mode on Elon Musk, who became the world’s first trillionaire this week. He’s been getting attacked from the left for his success because that’s what the left does. Well, that and fantasize about spending other people’s money, which is exactly what CNN contributor Cari Champion started with. “If you spent a million dollars every single day, it would take you more than 2700 years to spend a trillion dollars,” Champion said.


“What you could effectively do with a trillion dollars is get rid of global poverty. You could end world hunger, you could cure major diseases like malaria, and you could completely transition the global energy sector to renewables. The fact that he has this type of money only tells me that his power will be more prevalent and that I could not — I cannot guarantee someone like this man would use his power for good.” Then Bakari Sellers took things further. After blaming Elon Musk’s influence for USAID cuts that he claimed killed thousands of women and children, Sellers leveled a charge that sent the panel into a frenzy: “Elon Musk is a white supremacist who believes in things like the —”

Criminal defense attorney Arthur Aidala jumped in. “Oh, boy,” Aidala said. “I wasn’t even finished a sentence,” Sellers shot back. Scott Jennings had a warning ready for Sellers. “You may need a lawyer when this is over,” he quipped. Sellers pressed on. Musk “believes in things like the Great Replacement Theory,” he said. But Aidala pushed back hard. “Considering we have about 12 defamation cases in my office right now,” he said, “before you start throwing things around like someone’s a white supremacist — I would win that case.”

He’s right. Democrats and the media often label mainstream conservative arguments about immigration and electoral incentives as “great replacement theory” and imply racism, but it’s not like Democrats haven’t made the very argument that, because of declining birth rates, the United States needed immigration to sustain population growth and the workforce. “We have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we’re going to have a good future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in 2022. But I digress.

In fact, Jennings cut through the whole exercise with a few pointed questions. “I’ve been listening to liberals count and spend Elon’s money for him,” Jennings said. “This envy, jealousy, hatred of success. Why is it immoral? Why is it wrong for somebody in our system — our capitalist system, in the greatest nation on earth, to go out and build a company — build companies, build technologies, go into space, aim to go put a colony on Mars, give internet to half the world. All the things he’s doing. Why is any of this wrong or bad? Why would we want to discourage entrepreneurship? Why would we want to discourage anybody building anything? That is the nature of it.”

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“Since the signs were pre-printed and funded by the usual funders of anything good for America …”

• Elon Musk and the Politics of Envy (Tim O’Brien)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know by now that with SpaceX’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), Elon Musk has become the world’s first trillionaire. The implications of this for all of us and our grandchildren are many and far-reaching. Of course, the left has found a way to narrow it all down to one simple idea: “His money is our money, or it should be.” That’s not the way they say it. What leftists actually are saying is he doesn’t pay enough in taxes. Why? For the sole reason that he’s rich. If you’re a leftist, rich people are never paying “their fair share.”


This is the politics of envy, and if you study the vast majority of leftist messaging at any time on any topic, envy is a critical component. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if the Democrats, and the left at large, decided to quit being jealous of the right, the left would die as a movement in less than 24 hours. Envy is the lifeblood of leftist politics, and Musk is merely their latest, biggest, and most convenient target. But it’s worth being reminded that to the left, you are no different than Elon Musk. Let me explain. The left is miserable when you’re happy. It feels entitled to be the only source of your happiness, but it has no desire to make you happy. Rather, it simply wants to control how happy it will allow you to be.

You saw this during the COVD-19 pandemic when the left rationed aspects of your previous life to you in small portions. The desire to control you in this way came from a fear that you might find a way to be happy in spite of conditions, in this case a pandemic. The thoroughness with which arbitrary measures were taken to deny you the simplest of pleasures was rooted in envy. Around the same time and in the same environment, Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the whole entitlement movement accused you, if you were white, of having “white privilege” and and said that you don’t deserve to be happy. Instead, you should feel guilty because some on the left are unhappy.

The “white privilege” guilt trip was not only one of the purest forms of the politics of envy, but it worked to get leftist and otherwise weak white people to voluntarily surrender their happiness. At some point, almost all leftist politics comes back to envy. And so, when Musk took SpaceX public and the company’s value skyrocketed (sorry, I couldn’t help myself), the left fell back on its most core strategy – the politics of envy. Leftist billionaires and their pawns were well prepared to opportunistically try to capitalize on Musk’s good fortune with protest signs, messaging, and rent-a-mobs ready to go.

A union representing leftist college professors showed up alongside all the other envious union members, paid protestors, and disgruntled leftists, complete with their pre-printed signs. They were there to air their grievance that someone was having a good day and just might be happy. Their signs alone showed an extremely high level of financial illiteracy and ignorance regarding just about everything related to the SpaceX IPO. They read: “Billionaires are a scam”; “Elon is stealing your pension”; “Overthrow the oligarchs”; “This billionaire is stealing from you”; “Elon is stealing your 401K”; and, of course, “Stop Elon. No Trillionaires.”

Since the signs were pre-printed and funded by the usual funders of anything good for America, we can only assume that the evil strategists on the left conceived of these messages because they knew the phrases would appeal to their illiterate base. First off, how could Elon making money from willing investors represent him stealing your pension? There is no relationship at all, and there can’t be. The money Musk and everyone else made from the IPO came from the market, not from unwilling American citizens or taxpayers. It came from institutional investors through mutual and index funds, universities, large pension funds, and millions of willing individual investors. People invested because they hoped to make profits at some later point. The protestors either don’t understand that, or they pretend not to.

Another sign that actually sidesteps all rational thought is the one that says Elon is stealing your 401(k). The truth is, the SpaceX IPO very likely already helped your 401(k), and if it didn’t, it soon will. Many, if not most of the big mutual funds are riding on the fortunes of a handful of companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, maybe Tesla, and Alphabet. SpaceX just joined the club. That means if you have a 401(k), it’s in your best interest to want SpaceX to do well. That can only grow your retirement savings. And then there’s that argument the left makes when it has no argument: “Stop Elon. No Trillionaires.” Why? I mean, really, why? What’s the point? If someone else becomes rich and it has no effect on you, why should you even care? I mean, other than pure jealousy.

That post from Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) is rich, literally. She’s playing upon jealousy and envy to encourage more taxation, but only of the rich, so we’re told (for now). They play this “lower effective tax rate” game to try to pretend Elon doesn’t pay a ton of taxes, which he does. Also, like the financially illiterate protestors in New York, Jacobs is drawing no distinction between income, which is taxed, and assets like stock, which only convert into taxable money if you sell shares. What makes Jacobs’ post curious is that she is one of the richest people in Congress. She’s got an estimated net worth of $76 million, and she didn’t earn any of it. She was born into it.

If ever there is such a thing as privilege, she’s got it. Her father is billionaire Irwin Jacobs, who founded semiconductor company Qualcomm. So, when she demonizes Elon for being a billionaire, or now a trillionaire, she’s pretty much demonizing her own daddy, and she’s not doing herself any favors. She just wants you to think she’s one of the good kind of millionaires. What’s obvious is she wants you to feel like a “have not,” and she wants you to hate Elon simply because he’s a “have.” Something Jacobs did not do and would not do is acknowledge all those who have immediately benefited from the SpaceX IPO. A lot of leftists are making money here. The University of North Carolina, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Virginia bought in early and have huge stakes in the company.

According to Fortune, “In total, more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are expected to become millionaires in the IPO.” My colleague, David Manney, reported on how some of Musk’s loyal employees at different levels of the company will be rewarded. SpaceX counts 22,000 employees at the moment, and all of them pay taxes. The average salary of SpaceX employees is $155,000-$176,000, according to the company. All of these people pay local, state and federal taxes. Many, if not most, pay property taxes. Those who just made millions each on the IPO will ultimately pay a collective billions more in federal taxes. That means more money headed into the local, state, and federal piggy banks.

Over time, millions of individual investors will make profits on their SpaceX stock at some point, and they will pay taxes on the profit. The point is, the government will see its share of cash from the IPO, and it didn’t have to do a thing except sit back and wait for the profits to roll in. Yet, Democrats like Jacobs and the rest of the left somehow want you to feel like only Musk is the beneficiary of the IPO. That’s not stopping the left from engaging in envy porn. Check out this post from millionaire Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), decrying the rich as she rides in the back of her limo. Or this common refrain that attempts to blame Musk for people putting themselves on government entitlement programs that you, the taxpayer, pay for anyway.

In other words, people getting free stuff are big mad that Musk is winning. Since he’s making more money, naturally, they want more free stuff…just because. That poster blamed Musk for just about every economic challenge anyone in America could face, but one thing he posted that deserves to be addressed is this notion that Musk is getting federal handouts to make his money at SpaceX. As though he’s running a non-profit that doesn’t reward the federal government. His rockets are the delivery system for satellites that protect our national security, among many other things. Oh, and remember the time NASA couldn’t rescue those astronauts, so Musk had to bail out the government?.

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I feel like I’m in the Shire (but of anti-heroes).

The Little People flock together

“Carney Affirms that “Middle Powers” with Same Ideological Construct Can Collectively Counterbalance U.S. Global Power..”

• Carney: “Middle Powers” Can Collectively Counterbalance U.S. Global Power (CTH)

Making his ninth trip to Europe since become prime minister 15 months ago, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney once again outlined his governing model to combat a U.S. administration that he claims has fractured the globalist norms. During his press conference with Micheal Martin, Ireland’s taoiseach (Prime Minister), Carney once again built upon the idea of “middle powers” uniting together in common ideology against U.S. dominance until such a time as the U.S. government can once again return to a leftist ideology.


The specific objectives become clear about halfway through the presser today as Carney notes the importance of grouping nations together who agree on climate change, energy controls and the green agenda. Canada’s alignment with Europe is seemingly centered on the net-zero carbon model. This perspective makes sense from Carney as it is the same priority he’s carried since his time as governor for the Bank of England. WATCH:

As the former Governor of the Bank of England and Bank of Canada, Carney used his platform to position climate change as a systemic financial risk. He then championed the view that private capital must be the primary tool to force an economic energy transition. [Post-COVID this was known as “Build Back Better.“] President Trump’s perspective and the majority American view on climate change and energy development is against the core professional effort of Carney and the banking interests he has always represented. This becomes very important to understand as the U.S-Canada conflict is about to hit an inflection point.

HISTORY: Through the “Net Zero” Banking Alliance (NZBA) Mark Carney pushed banks to agree with policies and protocols that forced them to set lower lending targets to high-carbon industries and clients. The goal was to force companies to ‘decarbonize’ or find themselves starved of capital. While working at the Bank of England and Canada Carney famously warned multinational interests and insurance companies, most of which were centered in London, that fossil fuel assets that did not fit the net-zero industrial model would become “stranded assets” worth nothing because they could not be capitalized or insured. This threat signaled to multinationals that any investment in a project that was against the “Paris Climate Treaty” was a bad financial risk.

This approach endeared Mark Carney to King Charles III, who is himself a major climate alarmist. Unfortunately, U.S. politicians -particularly during the Trump first term- accused the Carney banking/finance and insurance alliance of operating an illegal banking cartel to choke the larger American energy sector. Facing legal threats over antitrust violations, in combination with obvious violations of fiduciary duty, NZBA has to strip out its strict, mandatory lending restrictions. Slowly banks began retreating from the net-zero alliance.

Regional and national banks began citing the economic necessity of supporting traditional energy companies, and energy security became more important than adherence to voluntary restrictions on carbon emissions. This angered Carney as his life construct was under pressure. Carney then entered Canadian federal politics and sought to downplay his ideological climate agenda. However, all of his energy policies essentially come from the same mindset of opposition to fossil fuels.

The disparity in energy production is the core issue inside the details of the USMCA. The United States and Mexico are both aligned with low-cost fossil fuel use, which is particularly important for large scale industrial manufacturing (steel etc.). Whereas Canada doesn’t want the dirty jobs and wants only to focus on electricity production.

You can make electricity from windmills, solar farms and nuclear power. However, you cannot make iron, steel or aluminum without fossil fuels. In scientific fact, part of the largest global irony is because it’s impossible to make windmill components, solar panels or nuclear power equipment without using fossil fuels.

In the video below, while he was a banker you can see Mark Carney admitting on tape: When voters blocked his ESG plans, “We” (Central Bankers) shifted into the position of “Regulators” to work around the voters through the back door of finance and insurance. They manipulated fossil fuel production and prices by withholding lending and insurance.

https://twitter.com/vesperdigital/status/2064518878005174439?s=20

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“One month later we were in beginning of SARS-CoV-2, which we now accept in hindsight was a U.S. military and intelligence operation..”

• Pompeo Unmasked (CTH)

Many of you will likely remember December 29, 2019, when Secretary Pompeo, Joint Chief’s Mark Milley and Secretary Mark Esper flew to Mar-a-Lago to inform President Trump about military strikes they had just conducted in Northern Syria and Iraq. At the time of the strike, President Trump was negotiating the exit of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and even having direct talks with the Taliban which was proclaimed as controversial by the traditional war machine elements in DC. The action by Pompeo, Milley and Esper did not align with the moment based on Trump’s ongoing effort.


President Trump made no comments about the strike they carried out, nor did President Trump post anything about the events. In fact, President Trump made Pompeo, Milley and Esper stand at the podium and inform the media and public. CTH said at the time nothing about this made sense. Our suspicion was that Pompeo, Milley and Esper had acted unilaterally without approval. Events later on indicated our suspicion was accurate. One month later we were in beginning of SARS-CoV-2, which we now accept in hindsight was a U.S. military and intelligence operation utilizing a virus created in a Wuhan, China biological lab. The global response to the virus was a combined military and intelligence operation.

The most excessive ‘western’ reactions to the virus were carried out by New Zealand, Australia, the U.K and Canada, all five-eyes countries. The November 2020 election result was specifically an outcome of the virus and fraudulent mail-in ballots. It’s also worth remembering that in 2016 the Trump-Russia collusion material originated from the U.K via former intelligence operative Christopher Steele and the Fusion GPS network in the U.S. That’s the context for last week Mike Pompeo paying tribute to his old friend in British intelligence who worked with him as CIA Director following the 2016 election of President Trump.

Mike Pompeo – Within hours of being announced as the nominee to be the U.S. Director of the CIA, I received a hand-delivered message on MI6 stationery congratulating me on my nomination. It was signed simply “C” in green ink. Legendary. I shared it with my son and even he thought I was now cool! More than that, this note, from Sir Alex Younger, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service of the United Kingdom, confirmed what I already believed: the work that the CIA and MI6 did together mattered, that the partnership was critical, and that two leaders focused on the mission could save lives and provide tools for our nations to deter our adversaries.

Alex’s passing this week brought back so many memories of our time in service together. He flew to Langley to see me the day I was confirmed. We brought our two senior teams together in the UK to plan and coordinate and build in the first several weeks of my time on duty: making clear to them all that this relationship was more than special – it was critical for the security of our two countries.”

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“Drinking the Court-Packing Kool-Aid..”

“This Nike School of Constitutional Law is catching on with a wide array of pundits and professors. Just do it.”

• Buttigieg Joins the Calls to Take Over the Supreme Court (Turley)

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg apparently got the message this week that he cannot hope to win the Democratic nomination without promising radical measures, including the packing of the Supreme Court. After denouncing the current Court as “rogue” for not ruling as the left has demanded, Buttigieg endorsed the plan of Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren to pack the Court to reverse adverse constitutional interpretations.


For years, the Supreme Court had a liberal majority that overturned dozens of long-standing cases. That was not viewed as the work of a rogue court. Yet, even as President Donald Trump attacks this Court for ruling repeatedly against him, liberals are now demanding court packing. As the party becomes more radicalized, any candidate expressing doubts over radical demands like court packing is unlikely to make it out of the primaries. Accordingly, “Mayor Pete” is reaching for Court-Packing Kool-Aid. In making his pitch to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition convention, Buttigieg knew that he had to offer some radical bona fides. He decided to offer up the Supreme Court:

“We have to do [something] with the Supreme Court, that is now a rogue Supreme Court. To see them eviscerate the Voting Rights Act is to see them reverse some of the most important progress this country ever made, wiping out Black political representation, but also wiping out part of what actually is great within the complex American story.” That description is part of a campaign of disinformation about the Court’s recent decision to end racial gerrymandering. The Court reaffirmed that the Voting Rights Act would be used to prevent any intentional racial discrimination. It banned states (almost entirely Democratic states) from engaging in racial discrimination to guarantee election results based on the race of the candidates.

He then thrilled the crowd by promising to pack the Court to guarantee the results that he and they are demanding. Declaring that it is “time to think big,” Buttigieg explained: “Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that there have to be nine Supreme Court justices. That one doesn’t even take a constitutional amendment. It just takes a readiness to set up a court that fits this country. We could have 13 seats matching the district structure of the federal judiciary, but also a process that makes it less partisan.” Buttigieg appears to be referring to the circuit system, not the district court system. What is most striking is that he promises to reverse decisions on issues like racial gerrymandering by packing the Court, but then says it will make the Court “less partisan.”

The whole point of adding four new justices selected by the Democrats is to create an instant majority to their liking and to reverse past rulings. Years ago, I wrote an academic piece on the possible expansion of the Supreme Court, but there is a world of difference between that and a court-packing plan. Under my proposal, the court’s expansion would take almost two decades to ensure that no president could pack the court. Various Democrats have been pledging to not only impeach Trump (and a long list of other figures), but to pack the Supreme Court as soon as they regain power.

James Carville declared, “If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F— it. Eat our dust. Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.” This Nike School of Constitutional Law is catching on with a wide array of pundits and professors. Just do it.

Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur.Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has put packing the Supreme Court front and center, explaining, “[We’re] talking about the acquisition and the use of power if there is a Democratic trifecta in 2028.”

At base is a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the Court. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) not only renewed her previous call to pack the court but said the court was illegitimate for rendering decisions against “widely held public opinion.” Former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said the court “defies the will of the people.” Reporter John Haltiwanger insisted that “the court is clearly not representative of the U.S. public. It’s supposed to be the people’s court.”

In reality, the court was never meant to be that. It was meant to be the Constitution’s court, designed to stand against everyone and everything except the Constitution. In a system designed to protect the minority, the court (like the Constitution) is counter-majoritarian in much of what it does. With the Supreme Court removed as a barrier to the left’s radical agenda, Democrats could indeed fulfill the objectives laid out by figures like Klarman to ensure they never lose power again.

That will make the 2028 election the most consequential election for our constitutional history in decades. The outcome will most immediately decide the fate of an institution that has been a stabilizing force for centuries. Even though this Court has ruled against the Trump Administration on a variety of key issues, the left is still demanding that it either yield to all of their demands or face a hostile takeover. On our 250th anniversary, these reckless and radical voices remind us that (as Benjamin Franklin warned us) this is our Republic if we can keep it.

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” Incidentally, Western and Northern Africa are two areas where Islam dominates the countries.”

“And if the Supreme Court does not make the right decision on birthright citizenship, we might as well kiss our country goodbye.”

• ‘Birth Tourism’ Networks Around the World Exploiting the U.S. (Salgado)

The U.S. State Department has uncovered sophisticated and dangerous “birth tourism” networks from West Africa, Europe, and North Africa exploiting our current unconstitutional “birthright citizenship” system. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is one of the biggest abusers of our idiotic “birthright citizenship” system, but plenty of other bad actors around the world cash in as well. Contrary to the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment, America now says any child born on our soil is automatically a citizen, even if his parents just flew into or walked into the country. Unsurprisingly, this has for years encouraged abuses.


Besides the practice of “anchor babies,” where illegal aliens give birth in America and use their new citizen kids to keep the family here, there’s also “birth tourism.” From The Daily Wire: In West Africa, a U.S. embassy uncovered a “sophisticated birth tourism network” wherein more than 100 foreign nationals were using fraudulent documents to obtain visas and secure U.S. citizenship for their children. The State Department shut down this birth tourism network and revoked the foreign nationals’ visas. State is also coordinating with local authorities to “systematically identify and cut off any similar operations.” Incidentally, Western and Northern Africa are two areas where Islam dominates the countries.

“Under President Trump, the State Department is defending the integrity of U.S. citizenship by ending illegal birth tourism schemes,” The Daily Wire quoted the State Department. “No foreigner is permitted to obtain a visitor visa for the primary purpose of acquiring U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the U.S.” This is why the upcoming Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship is so important. The Daily Wire went on: A U.S. embassy in Europe found that more than 400 suspected birth tourism cases had occurred since 2024.

In this case, investigators traced the birth tourism to at least six companies that were coaching applicants on what to say in their visa interviews, arranging housing, and setting up delivery plans. State again shut down the process, revoked the visas, and permanently banned “several fraudsters from traveling to the United States ever again.” An embassy in North Africa revoked more than 100 visas for “birth tourist” parents who came to the United States specifically to give birth to children who would get U.S. citizenship. State Department consular officers worked with law enforcement and used data analytics to identify the networks abusing the visa system in this case.

“A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right,” the federal department said. “The State Department is taking action around the world to stop this abuse, dismantle birth tourism networks, and hold accountable those who try to scam our system.” But even all these networks are small beans compared to the vast CCP apparatus for helping loyal party members come to the United States to give birth to kids who become automatic citizens of our country, even though many of them are then raised back in China. You can read more here. Up to a million Communist Chinese could be voting in United States elections by 2030, thanks to this huge “birth tourism” industry.

And if the Supreme Court does not make the right decision on birthright citizenship, we might as well kiss our country goodbye.

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“Headlines about the Russian president’s looks and ‘erratic’ behavior are a symptom of terminal Russophrenia..“

• Puffy Putin Peril: The West’s Latest Attempt To Scare Itself (Amar)

You can’t argue with a man observing the obvious: We are living in unusually perilous times. In the Middle East, for instance, the Israeli-American infernal duo have been on a rampage of war, state terror, all-purpose devastation, and genocide that, as a bonus, has also brought the world economy to the verge of cardiac arrest by clogging one of its vital fossil fuel arteries. Indeed, that particular risk is so obvious that even Germany’s less than brilliant Friedrich Merz has long spotted it.


In the Far East, Taiwan is currently ruled by a government so hell-bent on antagonizing their fellow Chinese on the mainland that Taipei’s political reflexes seem almost as perverse as those of Berlin. In the West, you have the German elite which can’t find enough billions to fork over to Ukraine when Kiev and friends blow up Germany’s vital pipelines and lethally cripple its already ailing economy. In the East, there is Taipei, getting really, really angry when the Philippines and Japan start negotiating away Taiwan’s maritime Exclusive Economic Zone. Angry, that is, at Beijing.

And in the EU, that “garden” of “values” that really is a swampy jungle of eternal confusion and corruption, the catastrophe that in its foreign policy is now obvious enough for several European bigwigs to gang up on the abysmally, ragingly incompetent Kaja Kallas. Her tenure as de facto EU foreign minister has been so breathtakingly blundering that her employers aren’t merely itching to kick her out but thinking about, in essence, abolishing her job.

Being so horrible at something that you won’t just get fired yourself but take it down with you – perhaps only the Baltic Girl Boss Wonder could pull that one off. But then, maybe it’s really all just another power grab by EU’s German queen (of the absolute kind) and US viceroy (of the submissive kind) Ursula von der Leyen. Either way, frightful insanity abides. We could add more scary and grotesque evidence, but things are clear enough: It’s a grim picture all around. So, fair enough if you feel like being a big sad downer and doom monger. Where it gets weird is when you get your scare priorities all upside down.

Granted, from a hapless NATO-EU European perspective, Russia may look a little unsettling: after all, once you have waged years of proxy war, sanctions, and propaganda war against it, who knows what the mood is really like in Moscow? As a good NATO-EU apparatchik, you certainly would not, because you have displayed the foresight of a gnat by proudly not talking – or listening – to the Russians. So, when you feel a little insecure, that might really be your bad conscience calling (in a merely professional, not moral sense, which you are likely to lack).

But, generally speaking, the worse the stupidities and mistakes you have produced but keep repressing, the higher the price. Old Sigmund Freud called it “affective debility.” In essence, it means that lying to yourself makes you dim. And once you are BS’ing yourself for years as if there’s no tomorrow, you’ll turn positively imbecilic.

That’s the only way to explain a fresh wave of transparently hysterical scare mongering about Russia in the West, in particular, this time, in Britain. Thus, on the occasion of the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), centrist mainstream flagship The Independent came out with a fascinating piece of fiction masquerading as analysis. Under the clickbait title “‘Puffy-looking’ Putin is acting weirder than ever – and that should chill us to the bone,” readers were treated to a highly imaginative horror tale about, in essence, a terrible loose cannon in the Kremlin pondering staged incidents and nuclear terrorism and ready to blow up the world or at least Europe or perhaps just Britain because Russia is losing the war. Also, he looks “puffy”!

All of this backed up (not really) by yet another statement from a high British military officer that things are dire as never before in (his) living memory. He and his comrades in arms – plus a few tweedy spy gents and dames – produce these Cassandra screams at least twice a month; it seems to be a standing order.

Indeed, there is such an inflationary over-production of men and women in khaki and with stiff upper lips crying big bad Russian wolf that even Politico has already produced at least one ‘best of’ collection, gathering “The 5 doomiest Russia warnings from Britain’s military chiefs.” Perish the thought any of this may have anything to do with fattening defense budgets and driving up the obscene profits of His Majesty’s military industrial complex!

Generally speaking, The West has a rich tradition of declaring Russia vanquished, its president Vladimir Putin at death’s door or on the verge of being regime-changed away, and, of course, Ukraine (and, really, the West) on the cusp of winning the war. And, at the same time, of predicting that Russia will attack all of Europe, likely tomorrow. Notwithstanding occasional and intriguing anomalies, when a NATO commander (from Trump’s US, of course) lets slip a fragment of truth, such as that actually Moscow is not looking for conflict.

In short, we are speaking about the severe and very sad but also funny mental condition already well known as Russophrenia: the afflicted live with an imaginary Schrödinger’s Russia occupying their suffering minds, a Russia that is always simultaneously half-dead and yet so alive and kicking, it’s about to roll into their living room on a tank.

Read more …

Don’t learn from books, learn from life!

• Thinking for Oneself: Schopenhauer on Reflection vs. Regurgitation (Eskeldson)

Arthur Schopenhauer’s argument is that thinking for oneself is better than regurgitating information from books and that the two produce very different effects in a learner. In the beginning of his essay, he compares the difference between regurgitation and reflection (or critical thinking) to two different libraries. Regurgitation is represented by a disorganized library with books all over the floor, furniture, shelves, or wherever else they have been mislaid. Similarly, someone who exclusively regurgitates information may have jumbled facts in his mind and will not have a clear picture of anything specific, despite learning (allegedly) so much about that thing. In the public domain essay “On Thinking for Oneself,” Schopenhauer shows us some men who appear to know so much about specific countries from travel books, but they cannot form their ideas into a gestalt to describe those countries as a whole. They cannot see the bigger picture because they were habitually exposed to only small bits of information.


Billie Pritchett writes, “Wouldn’t it be better for someone to discipline his mind by being instructed in the fundamentals of a subject, and then begin thinking within that framework?” as he recognizes an objection that Schopenhauer’s readers likely had in his day. The framework of other people’s observations on a given subject appears to be useful and airtight, but Schopenhauer believes it is more rewarding to learn that framework after doing critical thinking of one’s own. As he puts it, “the mind is deprived of all its elasticity by much reading, as is a spring when a weight is continually applied to it,” and “the surest way not to have thoughts of our own is for us at once to take up a book when we have a moment to spare”; furthermore, “the truth acquired through our own thinking is like the natural limb; it alone really belongs to us.”

After being spoon-fed material from book after book, someone will lose the ability to creatively solve problems and will learn to rely on others’ mental pictures exclusively in the effort to comprehend a subject. That person will essentially forget how to figure things out for himself. All of humanity will benefit from spending time reflecting on their thoughts.

Schopenhauer anticipated another likely objection: “What if all you get from your own thinking is the same material that has already been discovered and published by another person, or several other people, many times?” If someone tries hard to solve a problem himself, but finds out later that his solution had already been a well-publicized discovery, Schopenhauer would still appreciate the mental effort the person used to come to that conclusion. He would call that “small volume” of experimentation “valuable.”

Schopenhauer’s broader philosophical point is that the human mind forms a sort of stabilizing structure to make sense of an irrational, crooked world of “vicious little men.” People are so entwined in their self-centered desires that they “commit atrocities” to get their way and generally only use reason to justify their actions. The human mind must form a force of good intellect and strong moral character as a guard against falling into these irrational ways, according to Schopenhauer. Critical thinking is a way to strengthen the mind and develop good character traits (i.e. diligence), so it should be encouraged by all means. Regurgitation may become fuel for selfish desires (i.e. laziness) because of how easy and mentally painless it is, so it must be discouraged.

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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2065445696287703472?s=20 https://twitter.com/tslaming/status/2066131447992443060?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 6 2026

Jun 062026
 
 June 6, 2026  Posted by at 9:22 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  37 Responses »


Henri Gervex Rolla 1878


• Iran FM Warns American Bases Are Legitimate Targets (ZH)
• US Military Shoots Down Inbound Iranian Attack Drones Over Hormuz (ZH)
• Trump Softens Red Line: Iran’s Nuclear ‘Dust’ ‘Effectively ‘Entombed’ (ZH)
• May Jobs Report Crushes Expectations (Matt Margolis)
• US Attorney to Expose ‘Dumocrats’ California Fraud, Sketchy Elections (Salgado)
• Fannie, Freddie Jump After Trump Floats $1 Trillion Valuation (ZH)
• Trump’s Beautifully Restored Reflecting Pool (Tim O’Brien)
• Trump Just Got the Last Laugh on Immigration (Cameron Arcand)
• The French Never Wanted Mass Immigration (RMX)
• Putin Rejects Open Letter By Zelensky Urging Meet: ‘Pointless’ (ZH)
• British Witness DEI Outcome and Two-Tiered Policing in Brutal Murder (CTH)
• Candace Owens Would Back Tucker Carlson For US President (RT)
• How Did Pakistan Become 96 Percent Muslim? (Uzay Bulut)
• How Realistic Are Musk’s Visions for Mars? (Rainer Zitelmann)

 


 

 


 


Why are they shooting paper planes then?

• Iran FM Warns American Bases Are Legitimate Targets (ZH)

At a moment it’s become more than clear that the US and Iran are not anywhere closer to the negotiating table, and after they’ve shown little progress after a week of clashes – as one Friday morning Bloomberg headline reads, Tehran has again putting US bases in the region on notice, while admitting “no tangible progress” in negotiations on ending the conflict. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in fresh remarks has said that “standing against the world’s greatest power, equipped with nuclear weapons, for 40 days is no joke,” and that “the world has realized the true power of the Iranian nation.”


Araghchi also again issued a direct warning to regional Gulf states: “We warned regional states that US bases used for any aggression against Iran are legitimate targets” – he was quoted Friday by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) as saying. However, the Iranian foreign minister also cautioned that there is a way forward, stressing that despite conflict, “We are committed to fostering sustainable, constructive ties with Saudi Arabia.” The war is fast approaching the 100-day milestone, which comes Sunday, since Trump first initiated his Operation Epic Fury. He had in the opening ‘assured’ the American public of only a short conflict lasting but a few days or weeks.

Iran’s supreme leader too has been signaling defiance while apparently in hiding, saying that the US and Israel had been dealt a “decisive blow”. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s message was read out by a prayer leader at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic republic’s founder on Thursday: In his message, Khamenei said his country’s enemies, after “facing a decisive blow,” were now “experiencing a deeply meaningful and profound humiliation.” He went on to accuse them of seeking to “plant the seeds of doubt, despair, fear, mistrust and division” among the public, calling for unity to “neutralize their sinister plot.”

Tehran is still seeking to integrate the Lebanon situation into a broader US-Iran peace deal. But in Lebanon itself, sporadic fighting has raged despite declaration of a ceasefire – of which Hezbollah has declared itself not part of. On Friday, “The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Friday warned residents of six towns and villages including south Lebanon’s Sarafand, a town on the coastal road between Tyre and Sidon, to immediately evacuate,” according to CBS.More reports of mystery explosions in Strait of Hormuz, off Oman… https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/2062748657443594744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2062748657443594744%7Ctwgr%5E5a25d7e3b03e0a7aef3fe37321882469aeb8d725%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Firan-fm-warns-american-bases-are-legitimate-targets-cites-no-tangible-progress-talks

“Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported mass displacement from the three villages named in the warning, and it subsequently reported a strike on one of the villages, Arqoun,” the report continues. And Al Jazeera also reports Friday that “Israel’s deadly strikes continue across Lebanon, killing at least six today, despite the announcement of a new US-brokered ceasefire agreed between Lebanese and Israeli officials in Washington, DC.”

Read more …

Both sidea are lobbing softballs.

• US Military Shoots Down Inbound Iranian Attack Drones Over Hormuz (ZH)

Things are again popping off in the overnight hours in the Strait of Hormuz, but so far it may be looking like another limited action and exchange. The US military reportedly intercepted and shot down at least four Iranian one-way attack drones on Friday into possibly early Saturday (local). According to US Central Command (CENTCOM), the incoming unmanned aerial vehicles were heading directly toward the Strait of Hormuz and posed an “imminent threat to maritime traffic.”


Following the drone shootdowns, American forces immediately launched retaliatory strikes against key military targets inside Iranian territory. CENTCOM further detailed that American assets hit Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites located in Goruk, a city in the Hormozgan province, as well as on Qeshm Island, a strategically vital Iranian outpost in the mouth of the strait. The Pentagon justified the immediate counter-offensive by stating the radar sites were targeted specifically to “defend against further attacks.” One thing is clear: these ‘limited’ escalations are becoming more regular, and even almost nightly at this point, raising the stakes and possibility of a more full-on, dangerous renewed war. Currently, there are reports of air defenses active over Kuwait: KUWAITI AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS INTERCEPTING DRONE, MISSILE ATTACKS

Iran Military Fires “Warning Missiles” At US Destroyers In Gulf of Oman
AFP is reporting that Iranian military forces fired “warning missiles” at two U.S. Navy destroyers transiting the Gulf of Oman, citing Iranian state media. “In continuation of operations to counter maritime misconduct and harassment, as well as the hijacking of commercial vessels and oil tankers by the terrorist naval forces of the United States, following the firing of warning missiles, the hostile destroyers DDG-103 and DDG-8 have left the Gulf of Oman towards the Indian Ocean,” Iranian military forces wrote in a statement published by state news agency IRNA.

Meanwhile… “US DENIES REPORT IRAN ATTACKED OR FIRED AT US NAVAL SHIPS”

https://twitter.com/CENTCOM/status/2062886477105623083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2062886477105623083%7Ctwgr%5Eac16e3c58d0adaebd213ee136b0e6e52cdece1c7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Firan-fm-warns-american-bases-are-legitimate-targets-cites-no-tangible-progress-talks

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“Trump remarks suggest the fate of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is no longer be the central issue it once was.”

Is this new info for him, that it’s entombed? You’d almost think so.

• Trump Softens Red Line: Iran’s Nuclear ‘Dust’ ‘Effectively ‘Entombed’ (ZH)

Trump’s Thursday late afternoon remarks to reporters suggested that the fate of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium may no longer be the central issue it once was. Asked about reports that the US could attempt to seize or recover Iran’s remaining nuclear material, Trump repeatedly downplayed the prospect, saying there was “no reason” to retrieve what he called Iran’s nuclear “dust” because it is now effectively “entombed.”


The president stressed that Washington is “not considering” any covert operation to seize Iran’s uranium, adding that the US already has “powerful cameras watching Iran’s uranium” and remains confident in its ability to monitor the situation. While Trump at one point boasted that America and China are the only countries capable of recovering the material and suggested “we’ll get Iran’s nuclear dust,” his broader message now seems that the stockpile no longer represents an urgent concern. Instead, Trump framed the dispute around a much simpler objective: ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. He reiterated that the “main part” of any agreement would be that Iran “can’t have a nuclear weapon,” while adding that a broader deal could also include guarantees regarding the Strait of Hormuz remaining open to global commerce.

Expressing optimism about diplomacy, Trump again said talks with Tehran are “going well” and suggested that a successful agreement could even lead to a personal meeting with Iran’s supreme leader. “I would be honored to meet the Ayatollah,” he remarked, adding that if a deal is reached, Iran “won’t have a nuclear weapon.”

At the same time, Trump declared in an oddly stated reference that the US would ultimately prevail “on paper, or militarily.” He warned that any future attack resulting in the deaths of American troops would trigger a rapid return to hostilities, while asserting that Iran’s military capabilities have been severely degraded. Trump claimed Tehran has only a handful of missiles remaining, reiterated that Iran effectively has “no navy” and “no air force,” and even said the US possesses photographs of sunken Iranian vessels. He further boasted that Washington had “wiped out almost all” of Iran’s leadership during the conflict.

On regional tensions, Trump linked developments in Lebanon directly to the broader confrontation with Iran, saying the various fronts are “interconnected.” He disclosed conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Lebanon and expressed hope that the country could finally enjoy “some peace.” Trump also claimed that Hezbollah had contacted the United States during the crisis.

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Impressive.

• May Jobs Report Crushes Expectations (Matt Margolis)

Friday’s May jobs report landed like a gut punch to every Democrat who thought he could run on the economy this midterm cycle. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 172,000 jobs added in May 2026, more than double the 85,000 economists had forecast. To say that the report significantly beat forecasts is an understatement.

https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/2062884560006701316?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2062884560006701316%7Ctwgr%5E7006456454e8392fc7f843038a0d6a9d90933d30%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fmatt-margolis%2F2026%2F06%2F05%2Fmay-jobs-report-crushes-expectations-democrats-most-hurt-n4953630


Of those 172,000 jobs, the private sector is responsible for 120,000. And if the headline number wasn’t impressive enough on its own, April’s figures got revised upward by more than 60,000 jobs, jumping from 115,000 to 179,000. That’s three straight months of robust job growth, with each revision reinforcing a trend that’s getting harder for the left to explain away. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2062906789004300682?s=20

“Thanks to President Trump and Republicans, the number of new jobs in May more than DOUBLED expectations,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. “Jobs are up, small businesses are growing again, and wages and paychecks are rising. Democrats sabotaged our economy for four years, but President Trump is fixing it.” “Senate Republicans and President Trump’s pro-growth policies continue delivering more jobs, lower taxes, and higher wages. Jon Ossoff voted in lockstep with the Biden-Harris administration’s reckless tax and spending agenda that left Georgians with less money in their pockets,” said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia.

Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council, went deep on what’s driving the numbers. “You know, I think that basically what we’re seeing is an enormous amount of positive momentum in hiring,” Hassett said. He pointed to the back-to-back strength: “Obviously, you’re right that a couple of hundred and seventies in a row, that’s a great couple of months.”

He added, “But then having upper divisions of around 100,000 means that this is a job market that’s hitting on all cylinders. And it’s our belief that this is happening because of all of the supply-side policies that the president has put in place,” Hassett said. “We’ve got the Big, Beautiful Bill with the, you know, expensing for new factories. We’ve got, you know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. So people are out there working harder. We’ve got quit rates down to about as low as we’ve ever seen. We’ve got layoffs about as low as we’ve ever seen. This is about the strongest market of my lifetime and of your lifetime.”

The state-level picture is worth sitting with. Sixteen of the top 21 states with the lowest unemployment rates have Republican governors. Nine of the 10 states with the highest unemployment rates have Democrat governors. The left’s economic model produces the same result wherever its governors apply it. Heading into the 2026 midterms, Democrats need an economic message that resonates. Right now, all they have is a streak of solid job numbers that belong to President Donald Trump and the GOP.

Read more …

“Republican Steve Hilton was actually in the lead, but ever since election night, the number of votes that authorities say they still have to count has been suspiciously increasing each day..”

• US Attorney to Expose ‘Dumocrats’ California Fraud, Sketchy Elections (Salgado)

A hardcore warrior against all criminal fraud in California is on the case to discover exactly what Democrats are doing in controversial primary elections that first trended in Republicans’ favor, but after days of “counting” are now phasing Republicans out. Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, confirmed on Friday that there is evidence of election fraud in California, and he is certainly investigating the ongoing primary counts for governor, Los Angeles mayor, and other key state and city positions.


Essayli highlighted a recent case of voter fraud in California, where Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong pleaded guilty to spending decades bribing homeless people to register to vote and often used her address so she could receive their ballots. But Essayli also addressed the election uppermost in so many people’s minds, the one California Democrats are trying to drag out until they find enough ballots to squeeze Republicans out of runoffs.

On June 5, Essayli posted more at length about his efforts. “Protecting the integrity of California’s elections is a top priority for my office,” he stated. “California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence.” He cautiously continued, “Without commenting on any specific investigation, my office has multiple election fraud investigations underway in coordination with @FBILosAngeles. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent.”

He confirmed that he is also working with Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, “to conduct a comprehensive audit of California’s voter rolls. The state has stonewalled every effort to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote. This case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.” The only reason to oppose an investigation into whether illegal aliens are voting is if you know that illegal aliens are voting and in your favor.

Essayli promised, “My office will not look the other way. We will investigate and prosecute. Every legal vote deserves to be counted. Every illegal vote cancels one out.” Some interesting facts that have raised suspicions in California include that in the Los Angeles mayor race, only a few hundred thousand votes are involved, and yet authorities are stubbornly refusing to declare that registered Republican Spencer Pratt made it into a runoff against Democrat Mayor Karen Bass as they sit on the last batch of votes.

In the governor’s race, Republican Steve Hilton was actually in the lead, but ever since election night, the number of votes that authorities say they still have to count has been suspiciously increasing each day, according to the counter on NBC News. And as more votes are added, Democrat Xavier Becerra narrows Hilton’s lead. More votes have also magically appeared in the mayoral race as of Friday morning. Amazing how some countries can count all their votes in one night, but California can’t do it in a week.

Read more …

“I don’t believe I will ever see Fannie and Freddie released from conservatorship, at least not in my lifetime.”

• Fannie, Freddie Jump After Trump Floats $1 Trillion Valuation (ZH)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares jumped on Friday morning after President Trump said late Thursday that the mortgage giants were “probably worth $1 trillion,” reviving Wall Street hopes for a long-awaited exit from government control. President Trump praised FHFA Director Bill Pulte on Thursday for turning around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying the mortgage giants “probably have $1 trillion in value.” Full transcript:


“…a person who’s got high integrity. He’s done a phenomenal job at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. You probably have $1 trillion in value there. When he took over it was much less, and I guess I’m responsible for that too because everybody wanted me to sell it in my first term for 10% of what it’s worth right now. If I would’ve sold it, we would’ve lost $900 billion. We would’ve lost. Think about it. It’s probably worth $1 trillion. People want me to sell it at $100 billion — a very small percentage of what it’s worth now. And he built up a lot. Did a great job. And it’s an acting position. He is not going to be permanent because I don’t think you’d want to be. But he was a smart guy. You may find out some things about the rigged elections, etc. etc. I think he wants to do it. He’s got a lot of energy but will be very good. He’s not a permanent position. We’re looking at — we are interviewing people right now. But it is somebody just to take over for a little while.”

Fannie and Freddie were both up in the early cash session, rising 5% and 3%, respectively. Shares in both mortgage giants tumbled earlier this week after Trump named Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence, raising concerns that the dual role could delay the sale of the government’s stake. As of Friday morning, Fannie shares are down 34% YTD, while Freddie has slumped 38% YTD, as traders grow uneasy over the pace of the Trump administration’s privatization plans. Optimism around potential share sales drove large gains in 2025.

Bose George, managing director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), wrote in a note, “We’re comfortable with our most recently published numbers on the valuation—a current combined fair value in the $200–$250 billion range.” Christopher Maloney, mortgage strategist at BOK Financial, noted, “I don’t believe I will ever see Fannie and Freddie released from conservatorship, at least not in my lifetime.”

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The title originally included “Leftists Are Crying Over “. Let’s cut out that stuff. Let’s just agree the pool is beautiful.

• Trump’s Beautifully Restored Reflecting Pool (Tim O’Brien)

You just knew this day would come. President Donald Trump is really sprucing up the nation’s capital ahead of the country’s celebration of its 250th anniversary. One of the signature improvements has been the restored reflecting pool that sits between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. As I noted on April 25, the very act of fixing this deteriorated site was universally attacked by the left, which is par for the course when it comes to leftist reaction to everything Trump does. Keep in mind, earlier reports indicated that traditional Washington had this project pegged at a cost of $300 million and years to complete.


Trump got it done in months at a fraction of the cost – somewhere around $13 million when all is said and done. Perhaps most significantly, the pool is stunningly beautiful. The navy blue that Trump chose as the base color for the pool’s sealant adds to the richness of the entire look of it. Knowing that the people who repaired the pool sealed all of the leaks and addressed infrastructure problems provides reassurance that, with some basic routine maintenance, this iconic landmark will shine for years to come.

https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/2062652076862157126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2062652076862157126%7Ctwgr%5E5682aee8970a5769f1ce5715f6b2a346130a5987%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Ftim-o-brien%2F2026%2F06%2F05%2Fwatch-trumps-restored-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-makes-leftists-cry-n4953627

In the process, Trump is making leftists cry. Not tears of joy: tears of regret that they have to admit they actually like it.

You may remember that when the project was first launched, leftists came up with every excuse in the book as to why it was a dumb idea. The blue color was a problem, with leftists turning to AI to come up with gaudy swimming pool blue renditions of the project, and then reacting negatively to their own fake imagery. They were still using their AI pics up until the water was turned on. As the project proceeded and it appeared the final product might actually be tasteful, leftists then started to complain about the cost. That’s right: Something they were willing to spend $300 million on over a period of years under a Democrat administration now costs too much at $13 million over a couple of months.

The same leftists who want to give millions of illegals free housing, free food, free health insurance, thanks to you, the taxpayer, all of a sudden care about a project that wouldn’t be necessary if the Obama administration didn’t already screw it up. Barack Obama spent $34 million over a couple of years on this, and it was a mess in the end. In a “feel-good Friday” Truth Social post, the president kind of punctuated the whole event in Trump style. https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2062922835387982001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2062922835387982001%7Ctwgr%5E5682aee8970a5769f1ce5715f6b2a346130a5987%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Ftim-o-brien%2F2026%2F06%2F05%2Fwatch-trumps-restored-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-makes-leftists-cry-n4953627

What’s the moral of this story? The left will never be happy about anything, but on the rare chance you catch them liking something that Trump did, it will most certainly bring them to tears.

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“[Democrats] don’t care about ICE and ICE operations,” he added. “They just wanna stop ICE from doing what they are required to do, which is deport illegal aliens.”

• Trump Just Got the Last Laugh on Immigration (Cameron Arcand)

The reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is now headed to the House after most Senate Republicans passed the proposal on Thursday night, and it ultimately accomplished funding through 2029 for the agencies and sidelined Democrats’ immigration enforcement demands. Many Democrats were calling for the use of judicial warrants for immigration-related arrests as opposed to administrative ones, as well as an end to masked agents and roving patrols.


Republicans opted to pursue reconciliation to fund the immigration enforcement agencies to get DHS reopened after a lengthy shutdown of the department, as reconciliation allows for only 51 votes for Senate passage as opposed to the standard 60-vote threshold. “Democrats side with illegals over American citizens every chance they get. But thanks to reconciliation, we didn’t need their votes or have to accept their radical demands that would have tied the hands of federal law enforcement,” Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) told Townhall in an exclusive statement Friday.

“Now ICE and CBP have the funding they need to keep the border secure and continue mass deportations through the end of President Trump’s term,” he added.= A significant portion of funding for Trump’s immigration goals was already obtained through the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last July, but other DHS agencies like FEMA were hung out to dry when the DHS shutdown ran from February through April. Meanwhile, the reconciliation bill is expected to close other immigration-specific funding gaps that were not covered when DHS reopened in April.

Former Acting ICE Director Jonathan Fahey explained to Townhall on Friday morning that the movement on reconciliation showed that Democrats “gave up the game on this thing with their list of demands.” “Because when there were situations where the Republicans were willing to concede or to give them some of the things they wanted, they rejected that in favor of just shutting down the agency,” Fahey said. “[Democrats] don’t care about ICE and ICE operations,” he added. “They just wanna stop ICE from doing what they are required to do, which is deport illegal aliens.”

Fahey explained that some of the Democrats’ wishes, like judicial warrants, were some of the “problematic” points for potential compromise. “As probably most people know, you can’t get a judicial warrant from these ICE arrests. They’re issued out of the Executive Branch. So it didn’t even mechanically make any sense,” Fahey said, calling it an “unworkable part” of the party’s demands.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer fired back against the proposal early Friday morning, saying that Republicans “pumped another $70 billion into Trump’s personal police force.”

“The Republican agenda is now written in black and white: a slush fund for Trump, tax dodges for Trump, a ballroom for Trump, a private militia for Trump,” Schumer stated. “For hard-working Americans? Nothing.” The Republican-majority House is expected to pass the legislation before it heads to Trump’s desk for a final signature. A third reconciliation bill is expected to be pushed by congressional Republicans this summer, which is expected to focus on anti-fraud policy and other budgetary proposals.

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“.. there are now fewer foreigners in all of China, at 845,000, than there are in just one European city, Berlin.”

• The French Never Wanted Mass Immigration (RMX)

French leaders know how to manipulate their voters, but the voters are also apparently easily manipulated. Every leader from French President Emmanuel Macron to François Mitterrand in the 1980s has decried immigration numbers and promised a crackdown, all while allowing immigration numbers to continuously climb year after year. Here are just some relevant quotes:


• Emmanuel Macron said in 2023: “There is an immigration problem in France.”
• In 2016, then French President François Hollande said, “There are too many arrivals, immigration that shouldn’t be there.”
• In 2023, then leader Nicolas Sarkozy said: “There are too many immigrants in France.”
• In 1991, former leader Jacques Chirac said, “We must stop family reunification. We must completely revise the right of asylum. We must open the debate on the right of all foreigners to social benefits.”
• In 1989, the famous leader François Mitterrand said, “On immigration matters, we have crossed the tolerance threshold.”

The age-old adage is that “nobody voted for this.”It is true that the specific question of mass immigration never came to a referendum, but it is also fair to say that some very pro-migrant candidates, such as Macron, have continuously made it into office. Still, one would assume that in a democratic system, with leader after leader calling for a halt to immigration, that immigration levels would tend to trend lower. However, this is not how Western democracy has worked over the last decades. The same developments have been seen in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.

Leaders know the masses are unhappy about immigration, so they make proclamations against immigration to placate the masses, all while actual policy serves an entirely different purpose. Macron is arguably the worst offender the French have ever seen when it comes to migration. In 2023, he said France must reduce immigration, beginning with legal entrants in a wide-ranging interview with weekly political magazine Le Point. Macron’s remark comes after he said in 2022 that migration “is part of France’s DNA” and oversaw a record increase in immigrants in 2022.

What has his record been since then? Well, Macron was lying, as this chart clearly shows:


The foreign population has soared year after year, reaching record after record. In 2025, a record number of first-time legal residence permits were issued, totaling 384,000. In short, France is being buried in a wave of mass immigration that only a minority of French actually wanted. The estimates of how many foreigners are now living in France varies wildly, with some figures going as high as 9 million. However, there are also millions of legal French citizens who also have a migration background, which has led to a massive demographic shift.

Poll after poll has shown the French are remarkably opposed to mass immigration.
• In a CSA poll for CNews in 2023, 64 percent of French said “we should stop non-European immigration to France.”
• In a CSA poll for Europe 1 in 2024, 48 percent of French people said they wanted zero immigrants coming to the country, including 53 percent of women respondents.
• In an Ifop poll in 2026, 60 percent of French people said they believe France is witnessing “a replacement of the French population by non-European populations, mainly from the African continent.”
• In a poll from Odoxa-Backbone Consulting for Le Figaro in 2023, 74 percent of French said they believe there are too many migrants in France and 72 percent said they want a referendum on immigration.
• In a CSA poll for CNews in 2023, 80 percent of French said they support a total ban on more immigration.

Meanwhile, in communist China, where there is not even an illusion of a democratic vote, foreigners only make up 0.06 percent of the population of 1.4 billion people. It may be hard to believe for many, but there are now fewer foreigners in all of China, at 845,000, than there are in just one European city, Berlin. The political leaders that have governed the West have lied every step of the way on immigration, and in the process, they have gravely imperiled democracy. Many looking to authoritarian China see a country on the rise, where high-speed trains and critical infrastructure are quickly and efficiently erected, where crime is low, and social cohesion generally high.

Meanwhile, Europe is throwing up protectionist barriers against China at a time when China is pulling ahead in green energy, automobile manufacturing, machine tools, and AI. Mass immigration has been an unmitigated economic, educational, security, and budget disaster for the West. Democracy itself should not necessarily be condemned, however. Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, all thriving democracies, have managed to keep their borders almost entirely closed to mass immigration while growing their economies, all based on the will of the people.

In the end, it may have something to do with Europeans themselves and their culture of guilt, self-righteousness, and virtue signaling, which are attitudes that tend to dominate amongst European populations. The trend has been remarkably uniform across the Western world. It is not only France, but also the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, all marching in lockstep. While we can point our fingers at the mass media and academia, we also have to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask how we collectively allowed this to happen.

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“..or maybe is this letter meant to make sure that no personal meetings can take place at all,” he remarked, concluding: “I think it’s the second.”

I think he’s right,

• Putin Rejects Open Letter By Zelensky Urging Meet: ‘Pointless’ (ZH)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded dismissively to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s open letter issued the day prior, which urged that the two leaders meet in order to finally forge a peace deal and bring an end to the war, now it its fifth year. Putin made clear Friday that he sees no point in holding a personal meeting with Zelensky. He was asked directly about the letter while attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). In response the Russian leader addressed not the “authors of the epistolary genre,” but to Russian soldiers on the frontline: “The whole country is proud of you and is counting on you. Keep up the good work, brothers!” And then, per TASS:


“Asked to clarify if this response means that he doesn’t plan to meet with the letter’s author, Putin said, “So far, I see no point in this.” He went on to reject the idea of “meeting just for the sake of meeting” – but did reveal for the first time that only last month he sent an informal envoy to Ukraine at Kiev’s request. Apparently that was the opening of a serious diplomatic overture. But then, he noted, Ukrainian forces bombed a college dormitory in Lugansk merely soon after the Russian envoy arrived. The brutal attack killed 21 people, mostly teenage girls – and injured many dozens more. The Kremlin was outraged at the ‘terrorist act’ and the following week heavily bombed various Ukrainian cities, especially the capital.

State media featured more of Putin’s response: The letter is either “a means to create an environment for a personal meeting, or maybe is this letter meant to make sure that no personal meetings can take place at all,” he remarked, concluding: “I think it’s the second.” Zelensky’s lengthy Thursday letter had said Ukraine is also ready for a “full ceasefire.” Zelensky wrote: “Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us – and you. I am proposing a meeting. Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations,” he added.

The letter also at one point said, “The choice is yours now. Enough of war” and then spells out that “Ukraine proposes to end this war.” “This must be done honestly, with dignity, and with guarantees that the war will not be reignited,” Zelensky added. And then interestingly, “We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention.” Despite the long appeal, President Putin and the Kremlin have demonstrated a willingness to allow a long war to drag on, and are unlikely to be moved. Putin has said there’s no need for a truce unless a deal is already close or about to be signed. But the two sides aren’t any closer to being at the negotiating table as yet.

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The reactions are about as uglyas the actual episode.

• British Witness DEI Outcome and Two-Tiered Policing in Brutal Murder (CTH)

New information about the brutal stabbing murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak continues to surface, and each revelation is seemingly worse than the last. In the latest development the Daily Mail now outlines that Nowak’s killer, Vickrum Digwa, actually recorded his victim lying on the ground in agony as the murderer mocked him. Incredibly the judge in the trial ruled the killer’s own recording of his murder, “too disturbing to be shown” in court. Digwa did not call for an ambulance after stabbing his victim but did take pictures and record Henry Nowak. However, the killer’s own video was NOT shown in court! The footage the court ruled too disturbing to show was five minutes of Vickrum Digwa filming the 18-year-old as he bled to death on the pavement.


The entire event is highlighting a two-tiered policing system in the U.K, and now police are revealing documents and training material that specifically tell them to treat encounters with racial minorities differently than encounters with white people. The outrage is growing and British politicians are afraid to talk about it. Reform party leader Nigel Farage did not stay silent, and immediately he began facing backlash for speaking truthfully about the murder of Henry Nowak and the circumstances that led to a horrific encounter with police. WATCH:

Below is the initial statement from Nigel Farage that was mentioned in the interview above.

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”In an exclusive interview with RT the US commentator joked that she would only run herself if voters accepted her as “dictator”

• Candace Owens Would Back Tucker Carlson For US President (RT)

Conservative US commentator Candace Owens would back journalist Tucker Carlson if he ran for US president, but would only run herself if voters accepted her as “dictator.” Speaking exclusively to RT’s Rick Sanchez at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Owens was asked about speculation in the US that she could one day run for the White House. “I always tell my listeners I’d never run for president. I’d only run for dictator,” Owens said. “I’m not dealing with Congress, I’m not dealing with lobbying, I’m not dealing with Lindsey Graham calling for another war.”


She joked that if voters wanted her, they would have to accept the terms that she will be “dictator of the United States,” adding that she has no short-term interest in political office because of the “inauthenticity” of Washington. The former Daily Wire host said she would instead be willing to campaign for someone like Tucker Carlson if he chose to run. She added that she would be ready to travel the country on Carlson’s behalf, comparing the idea to her previous political partnership with Charlie Kirk.

She said Carlson had also been one of the few prominent conservative voices willing to speak honestly about Charlie Kirk’s changing views toward the end of his life, alongside Megyn Kelly. Owens initially rose to prominence in the late 2010s by urging black voters to stop supporting the Democrats. She later became one of the most prominent voices in conservative media before splitting with the Daily Wire following a public dispute over Israel’s war in Gaza.

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Warning for France and UK?!

• How Did Pakistan Become 96 Percent Muslim? (Uzay Bulut)

Today, 96% of Pakistan’s population follows Islam, with most of that percentage adhering to the Sunni tradition. According to Pakistan’s constitution, the right to free speech can be restricted to ensure “the glory of Islam.” However, Pakistan was once majority-Hindu. It was part of the Indian civilization with significant religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity. This is no longer the case. Native Hindu and other non-Muslim cultures were systematically and largely erased by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Moreover, attempts at reviving the Hindu and other pre-Islamic names of geographical locations are met with backlash from Muslims in the country.


India Today reported on May 27 that the provincial government of Pakistan’s Punjab has deferred its decision to restore several pre-Partition Hindu and British-era names of roads and localities in its capital of Lahore. The Punjab government is led by Maryam Nawaz, who in March proposed restoring several Lahore landmarks to their older (Hindu, Sikh-origin or British) names. This effort was cleared by the Nawaz-led Punjab Cabinet in May. However, retired Lahore Deputy Commissioner Captain Muhammad Ali Ijaz replied to the queries of the Pakistani daily, Dawn, by saying that “no such decision has been taken as yet.” According to reports, authorities in Lahore have made a U-turn: they are experiencing opposition from “extremists” and social media vloggers.

“Even after partition, many colonial [British] and Hindu-era names continue to survive in public memory despite official changes of names by various governments in Pakistan,” India Today reported. Despite the denial of many in the region, present-day Pakistan was once predominantly Hindu. The Indian subcontinent was home to one of the oldest and most influential civilizations known as the Indus Valley civilization or Harappan civilization. This Bronze Age urban culture reached its peak around 2500 BC. The culture itself might have been older, as religious practices and farming settlements in the fertile region by the Indus River can be dated back thousands of years.

Before the arrival of Islam in the 8th century, the region that is now called Pakistan and the broader Indian subcontinent was exceedingly diverse. Throughout millennia, the region’s religious diversity included a rich mix of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, other local/folk beliefs, and later, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity. Throughout the last 14 centuries, the Islamization of the Indian subcontinent has been shaped by massacres, pogroms, persecutions, and forced conversions. This spans the initial Arab expansions, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and the partition of India, up to the present.

The organization “Log Sabha” prepared a comprehensive report entitled “Hindu for Justice: A Historical Account of Genocides and Massacres Against Hindus.” It describes the long history of Hindu persecution in and outside of the Indian subcontinent at the hands of Islam. The report notes: Throughout various historical periods, forced conversions and the destruction of Hindu temples were recurring themes. In many cases, the violence was not only aimed at suppressing Hindu religious practices but also at erasing Hindu cultural heritage. This systematic approach to cultural destruction had long-lasting effects on Hindu communities.

The Indian subcontinent has been significantly impacted by the Islamic campaigns committed by various armies and empires. These invasions altered the political and demographic landscape of the region. They also brought widespread destruction to Hindu and other non-Muslim cultures, religious practices, and communities. The landscape began to shift in the early 8th century when the Umayyad Caliphate’s general Muhammad bin Qasim invaded the Sindh region. The local population’s conversion to Islam was a gradual process lasting several centuries. His campaign was characterized by both military conquests and acts of violence against Hindu populations.

The invasion led to the establishment of a Muslim administration and initiated a series of forced conversions, persecution, and the destruction of Hindu temples. One of the most brutal invaders was Mahmud of Ghazni, who raided the Indian subcontinent between 1000 and 1027 AD. His campaigns were characterized by the large-scale destruction of Hindu temples and cities, driven by both religious zeal and the lure of wealth. The city of Mathura, a sacred site for Hindus, faced massive devastation during one raid. Temples were razed to the ground, and countless Hindus were either massacred or enslaved. His most infamous attack occurred at Somnath, one of the most revered temples in Hinduism: tens of thousands of Hindus were slaughtered and the temple’s treasures looted.

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Time is an important factor. He does’t want it all tomorrow morning.

And just think: a million humans on Mars. That will take a very long time.

• How Realistic Are Musk’s Visions for Mars? (Rainer Zitelmann)

In the current prospectus for the IPO, Musk reiterates that the goal of SpaceX is to make humanity a multi-planetary species and to colonize Mars. The company’s mission is described as follows: “Our mission is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”


But so far, only probes and robots have been to Mars, not humans. Many critics consider plans for Mars to be science fiction. Not so the renowned NASA Ames researcher Harry W. Jones, who says: “It has seemed there must be overwhelming difficulties preventing our going to Mars. We have not reached Mars even though it has been NASA’s horizon goal since Apollo. We do not have a detailed feasible mission plan. There has not been sufficient funding to make tangible progress. Mars plans usually propose developing advanced technology, before we can begin the mission.”

Between the lines, you can sense his frustration – directed not only at politicians, but also at NASA itself. For over fifty years, there have been repeated excuses for indefinitely deferring a mission to Mars. And yet, there is no shortage of plans to reach Mars. Since the 1950s, over 1,000 plans have been devised. Even if you only count those that meet scientific standards, there are still 55 plans.

However, in a detailed analysis, Jones concludes that there are “no showstoppers” – that is, no insurmountable obstacles on the path to Mars. He identifies seven key challenges: hostile surface environment, human performance, life support, medical care, radiation exposure, reduced gravity, and telecommunication delays – and shows that there are viable solutions for each and every one of them based on the current state of technology. Solutions for all these problems exist today, he argues, in part thanks to the recent great reduction in launch costs.

The primary technical challenges for a Mars mission are long-term life support, radiation exposure, and reduced gravity. According to Jones, solutions for solar flares and cosmic microwave background radiation already exist, made possible by reduced launch costs. For instance, a small, shielded shelter within the spacecraft, measuring two meters in diameter with 7.5-centimeter-thick walls, could protect against solar storms during transit. Additionally, a shorter transit time and the use of Martian regolith to shield surface habitats could mitigate the effects of cosmic microwave background radiation.

Regarding the challenges of weightlessness during space travel and the more than 60 percent reduction in gravity on Mars: A rotating spacecraft, similar to those depicted in science fiction films, can generate artificial gravity during the journey. And there are also viable solutions for habitation on Mars itself: “One suggestion is a large rotating underground wheel. The floor must be tilted so that the 0.38 g Mars gravity pulling down combines with a 0.92 g horizontal spin force to provide 1 g. The rotating wheel would be underground to provide radiation shielding.”

All in all, yes, a flight to Mars, and even more so its colonization, presents substantial challenges – some we can anticipate, and many others will be unforeseen. But having developed countless plans for how it could be done, the time for action has come. If Roald Amundsen and his team, the first to reach the South Pole in 1911, had required the same level of safety and perfection as NASA demands for its mission to Mars, they certainly would never have launched their expedition.

If there are no “showstoppers,” as Harry W. Jones argues, why aren’t we already on our way to Mars? As so often, it is also a question of money and economic incentives. Elon Musk’s plans to bring one million settlers to Mars cannot possibly be financed through taxpayer money. But how could private financing become feasible?

The economic incentive is missing because, according to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, nations are prohibited from owning celestial bodies or land on celestial bodies. Whether this also applies to private individuals and companies is disputed among legal scholars. In my book New Space Capitalism, I show how it could work: If the private appropriation of land on celestial bodies were possible, an enormous economic incentive would suddenly emerge — one that is currently absent. So, who should have the right to acquire property in space? My answer: Those who have the financial means to get there, develop, and use the land.

For instance, if SpaceX succeeds in reaching Mars and starts to build permanent settlements on the Red Planet, then the ownership of land should initially go to SpaceX. Not the entire planet, of course, but a practicable area, for example, the size of Singapore. The surface area of Mars is 200,000 times that of Singapore, so SpaceX would initially own only 0.0005 percent of Mars. That would be enough to develop multiple settlements, but not so much that others would no longer have a chance.

SpaceX could finance its flight and development costs by listing the land on Mars in a real estate investment trust (REIT). The price would then be determined by the market. Most people would buy shares not because they intend to live there themselves, but in the hope of future appreciation in value. It would be the greatest real estate story in history.

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https://twitter.com/MCarbonaraFL/status/2062525163518726520?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle June 5 2026

Jun 052026
 
 June 5, 2026  Posted by at 9:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  24 Responses »


Ivan Aivazovsky Constantinople in Moonlight 1846


• US House Votes To Limit Trump’s Iran War Powers (RT)
• Trump’s Best Iran Deal Might Be No Deal at All (Scott Pinsker)
• President Donald Trump Talks To Miranda Devine (CTH)
• What in the Actual Hell Is a Democrat These Days? (Stephen Green)
• Zelensky Wrtes Open Letter To Putin (CTH)
• Zelensky’s Fascism Fetish is Booming (Amar)
• Has Hungary Opened The EU Door For Kiev? (RT)
• The President Endorses the Tiger (Sarah Anderson)
• Scott Bessent Just Humiliated a Democrat Senator Over Jeffrey Epstein (Margolis)
• John Bolton to Plead Guilty to Retaining Classified Information (Margolis)
• Trump Signs Executive Order to Facilitate Firing Federal Employees (AmG)
• Senate Fails Again to Pass Save America Act (CTH)
• Texas AG Launches Investigation Into Glyphosate in Food (ET)

 


 

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2062635072147132860?s=20 https://twitter.com/warDaniel47/status/2062498589612372168?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2062626743035580468?s=20

 


 


The House votes to give itself that power.

• US House Votes To Limit Trump’s Iran War Powers (RT)

The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution aimed at making it impossible for US President Donald Trump to take further military action against Iran without the approval of Congress. The Trump administration did not consult with lawmakers when it launched ‘Operation Epic Fury’ and attacked Iran together with Israel in late February. Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the president is required to withdraw American forces from a war after two months if it has not been approved by Congress. The 60-day deadline passed on May 1, but US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth argued that the announcement of a ceasefire with Tehran in early April had reset the clock.


House Democrats, who have made several attempts to pass a resolution to limit Trump’s war powers since the start of the conflict, succeeded in doing so on Wednesday. However, it still requires backing from the Senate, which remains under Republican control. The vote in the House was 215 to 208, with support coming from all Democrats and four members of the Republican Party: Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Tom Barrett of Michigan, and Warren Davidson of Ohio.

New York Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks, who introduced the resolution, said that he was thrilled “that we’ve had the opportunity to have some members from the Republican side stand up.” The House will remain “a check and a balance when the administration doesn’t follow the Constitution,” he stressed. Barrett explained that he voted together with the Democrats because the American people are “tired of this war… they’re tired of $5 gallon gas and $6 gallon diesel, and fertilizer we can’t afford to put on our fields.”

Before the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson warned his colleagues against passing the resolution, arguing that it could have a “very negative” impact on the talks with Iran. “It weakens us, our position, and our leverage in negotiation on the peace in that situation. ‘Operation Epic Fury’ is concluded,” Johnson told CNN. Washington and Tehran exchanged fire earlier this week amid stalled negotiations. The US Central Command announced carrying out “self-defense strikes” on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Wednesday, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted US-linked assets in the Gulf in response.

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“.. this situation [had] enabled hardline factions within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to take control of affairs, and that under circumstances, he [was] unable to run the government.” Pezeshkian gets it — so why can’t the White House?

• Trump’s Best Iran Deal Might Be No Deal at All (Scott Pinsker)

Trivia question: What are the three top-selling erectile dysfunction (E.D.) medications in America?nAccording to the ol’ Google machine, it’s Viagra ($1.39 billion in 2025 sales), Cialis ($1.2 billion), and Levitra ($0.65 billion).mnBut I think Google is wrong: By far, the top-selling E.D. medication in America is… Ozempic ($18.6 billion).nDon’t shoot the messenger, but couldn’t Ozempic — for some couples, at least — be considered an E.D. medication? (It’s just the only E.D. medication that the “other person” has to take.)


I call it the Obi-Wan Kenobi PR clause: “From a certain point of view,” it could be this, or it could be that. Acceptance — or rejection — of a premise depends on our expectations. To quote the bearded Jedi, “Luke, you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” This means that if we want an audience to reach a different conclusion, change their expectations.nThis brings us to the increasingly unpopular Iran War, Donald Trump’s never-ending peace talks, and day 59 of a “ceasefire” that Hezbollah and Iran are no longer following. Meanwhile, President Trump hasn’t exactly been understated with his own expectations: [,,]

The Iran War began in February; it’s now June 4. Iran still hasn’t surrendered, the Strait of Hormuz still isn’t open, the mullahs are still in control, and Iran is still launching missiles and drones all over the Middle East.nFor months now, President Trump has been telling us that Iran is desperate to make peace — and a blockbuster deal is imminent:

President Trump takes pride in his dealmaking prowess. He’s the author, after all, of The Art of the Deal — and his own state department has heralded him as “the best dealmaker in the world.” He’d love to sign a historic deal that brings lasting peace to the Middle East. But what if there’s no deal to be made because the Iranians have zero interest in abandoning their nuclear goals, support for terrorist proxies, ballistic missiles, or control of the Strait of Hormuz? Increasingly, more observers are reaching this conclusion. From The Hill (June 4), “Iran Refuses to Play by Trump’s Rules, to His Great Frustration”:

President Trump’s forever ceasefire with Iran is now 59 days running. So is his dance with Iranian negotiators. Both are bad optics for the White House. A stubbornly determined Trump insists that “Iran really wants to make a deal” with the U.S. At least that is what they tell his negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner behind closed doors. Iran’s actions — especially those of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, under the leadership of Ahmad Vahidi — suggest otherwise. And this led Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to submit his resignation to the Office of the Supreme Leader last weekend.

Pezeshkian said he has been “effectively excluded from major and vital decision-making processes in the country, and that the vacuum created by this situation [had] enabled hardline factions within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to take control of affairs, and that under circumstances, he [was] unable to run the government.” Pezeshkian gets it — so why can’t the White House? Armed hard-liners are now running the country. A deal that compromises their power in the Middle East is not in the cards. [emphasis added]

It could very well be that Iran’s new strategy is endless negotiations — i.e., stringing U.S. diplomats along, promising great things behind closed doors, agreeing to 99% of demands, but perpetually keeping the final 1% from ever reaching a conclusion. It’s a strategy that has considerable upside for the mullahs:

With a ceasefire already in place (at least in name), the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign has stopped. No more mullahs have been killed. As long as the ceasefire continues, Iran has a free hand to rebuild its military — which it seems to be doing. By linking a peace deal to Hezbollah’s survival, Iran has gotten President Trump to order Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to stop attacking its terrorist proxies in Lebanon. But once a peace deal is signed, Iran would lose that leverage.

The economic turmoil and higher oil prices will likely injure Republicans in the 2026 midterms, which would weaken Trump’s hand and empower the Democrats, Iran’s most dependable U.S. allies. Refusing to cede an inch to the Americans shows the Iranian citizens how strong, tough, and powerful the mullahs are. (Plus, it demoralizes dissent and dissuades rebellion.) The longer they drag negotiations out, the stronger they look — and by comparison, the weaker America looks. Eventually, the Americans will have to leave. (All the mullahs must do is survive.) Exhausting American patience — without any bombs dropping on their head — is the best of both worlds. [

..] Explain to the American people what we’ve already gained: Iran’s Supreme Leader is supremely dead. Iran’s navy and air force have been blown to bits. Its nuclear program is under a mountain of rubble; its economy is on life support. The bully of the Middle East is now the loser of the Middle East; its capacity for mischief was minimized. Americans are safer than ever before — and with U.S. oil companies now supplying the world, the economic benefits will be in the trillions. (Trump should cite the CNBC headline: “U.S. Crude Oil Exports Surge to Record as Tankers Flock to Gulf Coast During Iran War.”)

Instead of costing us money, this war will be a financial windfall — and the longer the Strait is closed, the more money we’ll make! Yes, there’s been an uptick in oil prices. But that’s temporary. In the long run, oil prices will be lower — and our 401(k)s higher. This is Making America Great Again!

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“I did. I always get angry. I was a little bit perturbed at him, constantly fighting with Lebanon..”

• President Donald Trump Talks To Miranda Devine (CTH)

President Trump Gives Extensive Interview on Iran Issues – Confirms Testy Conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu June 3, 2026 | Sundance | 137 Comments President Donald Trump sits down for an extensive interview with Miranda Devine and explains [at 13:22] why the frustration with Israel ended up with some salty words exchanged between himself and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I did. I always get angry. I was a little bit perturbed at him, constantly fighting with Lebanon. I said, ‘at some point we’ve going to stop this’.”


President Trump is also asked about the perception of President Trump’s policy directive toward Iran being controlled by Israeli interests. President Trump rejects that perception. Additionally, Mrs Devine also asks President Trump about the continued efforts of the former CIA to target his administration (impeachment, Hunter Biden laptop, etc.) WATCH:

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Do people agree on how this has changed? Or is it only folks like Bobby Kennedy, Jim Kunstler and me?

• What in the Actual Hell Is a Democrat These Days? (Stephen Green)

Five days after Nazi soldiers marched into Paris, Congress unanimously voted 316–0 in favor of the Two-Ocean Navy Act authorizing the construction of more than 40 major surface ships, 115 destroyers,43 submarines, and (gulp!) 15,000 aircraft. Sponsored by Rep. Carl Vinson, a Georgia Democrat — if you ever wondered why we have a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier named after him — the bill was signed into law by FDR on July 19, 1940, belatedly readying this country for the rising Nazi threat in the Atlantic and Imperial Japan in the Pacific.


In Maine today, Democrats are about to nominate an actual Nazi-obsessed drug abuser for the United States Senate. I don’t know if the past is a different country, as the old saying goes, but for the Democrats, it’s certainly a different party. But we’re just getting started. Earlier this week, lefty columnist and author Joe Klein confessed that “There was a moment, a few weeks ago, when I thought the Dems might win the Senate in 2026,” but that now “the mood has changed in two of the more juicy races.” One would be the aforementioned campaign in Maine starring Nazi sympathizer Graham Platner, whom Klein describes as “a preppy pretending to be a proletarian.”

The other race that caused Klein to all but give up hope is — you guessed it — James Talarico in Texas, whom I might describe as “a queer enthusiast pretending to be a devout Christian.” Klein’s column is appropriately headlined “Two Dumb Dems.” Here’s more from Klein, sounding very much like a Bill Clinton DLC Democrat of 30 years ago: “If the Democrats are ever to regain Lone Star traction they need a red-meat campaigner, someone who doesn’t favor boys playing in girls sports, someone who believes in racial equality not racialist favoritism, someone who doesn’t want to understand criminals, but incarcerate them. I agree with Talarico about a non-binary Collective Consciousness (he calls it God), but I wouldn’t go around talking about it in mixed company if I were running for office.”

Indeed. But today’s Democrats have fully shunned DLC-style centrism. In fact, Democrats don’t just fly their freak flags; they’re working hard to purge the party of anyone who doesn’t fly one. Naturally, this brings us to San Francisco, where the race is on to replace retiring former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While it could be weeks before we know the result because California is, to borrow President Donald Trump’s colorful language, a Third World s***hole, State Sen. Scott Wiener currently leads and will likely move on to the general election. Wiener’s claim to fame is sponsoring various bills involving sex, minors, trans issues, and sometimes all three. These are some of the bills he’s behind, collated last year by End Wokeness:

AB 957: Penalizes parents who don’t affirm a child’s trans identity
SB 107: Removes an out-of-state child from their parents if they travel to California to obtain a gender transition
SB 145: Reduced penalty for offenders who sodomize children as young as 14
SB 866: Allows kids to consent to medical decisions without parents
SB 239: Reduces penalty for deliberately spreading AIDS
SB 132: Requires prisons to put males in female prisons if they claim to feel like a woman

If the current primary count is close to correct, Weiner will square off against another Democrat, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, in November — and likely win. For whatever it’s worth, Pelosi endorsed Chan, but San Francisco primary voters apparently said, “Nah, we like this guy.”

And of course I went with the Drunk Republican’s post to, ah, show you Weiner, because that joke will never get old. Now let me take you to New Jersey, where Egyptian-born Adam Hisham Hamawy just won the Democratic primary for the state’s 12th Congressional District. A former combat medic and plastic surgeon, Hamaway “lied under oath as a defense witness for Omar Abdel Rahman aka ‘the Blind Sheikh,’ who incited the World Trade Center bombing in 1993,” according to a New York Post story that ran before New Jersey Dems gave him the nod.

“I’m reading the testimony of New Jersey Democrat nominee for Congress Adam Hamawy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial transcripts and… wow,” Ronak Daneshman posted on Wednesday. “This is jaw dropping that we’re allowing someone like this to go to the House of Representatives with access to intelligence info.” He even “travelled to Bosnia where he volunteered for an Al Qaeda offshoot,” Ari Fleischer reminded readers. Cook Political rates the district D+13, so barring a miracle — or a GOP-held House that has the stones to refuse to seat him — Hamawy will soon be a Congressman.

I used to be very careful to differentiate between the corrupt Democrat pols who lied their way into office, and the merely gullible and/or greedy Democrat voters who put them there. But in one election cycle, Democrat primary voters have (or likely soon will) choose a Nazi, a heretic, a sex freak, and yet another Islamist, over much more palatable candidates. That’s on you, Dems — and I don’t know who the hell you even are anymore.

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Read that letter and tell me: where does he address Pution’s points since forever and a day: No Nukes No NATO No Nazis?

Answer that and you know what Putin will reply, if he repliues at all.

Note: this comes at a time when Ukraine runs out of weapons, so peace is an obvious message.

The Nazis, politicians and weapons guys don’t want peace.

• Zelensky Wrtes Open Letter To Putin (CTH)

In a lengthy open letter addressed to “The President of the Russian Federation” Vladimir Putin [SEE HERE], Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposes a ceasefire and direct negotiations between himself and President Putin. Two thirds of the letter are background constructed snark and ridicule aimed toward Western audiences sympathetic to the Ukraine side of the conflict. The last third of the letter contains the details of the offer:


Open Letter – […] “We have seen intelligence reports showing that you are now considering plans to continue the war into 2027 and 2028. We also know that you hope ballistic missiles will achieve for you what everything else has failed to achieve. You want to draw Belarus even deeper into this war, and we are now forced to prepare for that as well. We see that you are trying to orchestrate something around Transnistria. Your propagandists threaten, in one way or another, every country neighboring Russia. Do you really want to go through all of this?

The choice is yours now. Enough of war. Ukraine proposes to end this war.This must be done honestly, with dignity, and with guarantees that the war will not be reignited. We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention. Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you.”

“I am proposing a meeting. Everyone heard your representatives, smiling, say that I could supposedly come to Moscow. But after these 26 years, there is nothing for a Ukrainian leader to do in your capital — just as there is nothing for a Russian leader to do in Kyiv. There are countries that have traditionally hosted leaders to resolve issues of war and peace. Switzerland, Türkiye, the countries of the Arab world — many are able and willing to host such a meeting. It is leaders who resolve the key issues. That has always been the case, and it always will be.

I propose to set a clear date for such a meeting. We have heard that you were promised in Alaska the resolution of certain issues concerning Ukraine and Europe. But you can see for yourself that Ukrainian and European issues are not decided in Anchorage. Other agreed participants could join the bilateral track to be established between us. Since the war is taking place in Europe, and since Ukraine needs security guarantees, while you also seek security guarantees for yourself, it would be logical to involve those who can genuinely serve as guarantors. We believe Europe should be part of this process — those who truly have the capacity to influence the situation.

We also believe that the United States must be part of the process. This is what could help shape a new security architecture for our part of the world. We’ve already experienced many agreements with Russia, including the Minsk agreements, that ultimately failed. That is why we must first find direct answers between us to the questions that remain, and not hide from difficult issues behind formulas, technical working groups, or endless time lost in shuttle diplomacy. Your war has permanently set Ukraine and Russia apart. The front line today is the line from which diplomacy must begin.

Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations. This is standard practice, and current developments around Iran only reinforce that point. An attempt to establish real silence is the best way to begin talking to one another. We believe it would not simply be an attempt, but a real ceasefire — if that is what you want. You know that the United States has the capability to monitor a ceasefire along the line where hostilities stop. Ukraine is ready for an all-for-all exchange of prisoners of war, and this could become a good prologue to ending the war.

Serious steps must be taken to return civilians and children who were taken away during the war. We must determine what kind of future awaits the generations of Ukrainians and Russians who will come after us. If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence. We will have those who support us. But you, too, will have to fight much harder for your own existence — not Russia’s, but your own. And this is not a threat from me or from Ukraine. It is a fact of Russian history that you know well: when Russia grows tired, change comes. We can work toward that fatigue. You can stop your war. Eternal memory to all those whose lives were taken by this war. Glory to Ukraine!”

Of note within the text: Zelenskyy will not negotiate with Putin without the presence of EU/U.K leaders standing with him. Zelenskyy proposes the United States to be the ceasefire monitor. Zelenskyy’s note about the Trump-Putin Alaska summit is couched open verbiage implying President Trump gave Putin some form of guarantee the EU support for Zelenskyy would soften, and Zelenskyy has some knowledge of it.

In the background, domestically Zelenskyy’s government is suffering through a series of explosive scandals related to corruption and theft of international aid given to Ukraine and skimmed by Zelenskyy officials for personal wealth. Additionally, with the EU energy crisis worsening European economies are in a state of contraction; the financial underwriting of Ukraine from Europe is weakening as the EU economy shrinks. The beginning parts of the letter are written in order to project to the West a position of strength. However, the request itself outlines something entirely different when Zelenskyy gets to the last third of the proposal and notes forward planning by Russia for the next two years.

President Trump was asked about the letter earlier today. WATCH (Prompted)

:

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“The Ukrainian leader is exploiting his own Jewishness to promote the normalization of fascism – a stunning intellectual and moral perversion..“

• Zelensky’s Fascism Fetish is Booming (Amar)

It’s hard to believe one’s eyes while witnessing the latest performance put on by the comedian tyrant of Ukraine. Within the space of a week or so, the regime of president-for-eternity-no-elections-needed Vladimir Zelensky has repatriated and reburied with pomp and ceremony the remains of Andrey Melnik, a twentieth-century Ukrainian fascist leader and Nazi collaborator, and named a contemporary military elite unit “Heroes of the UPA” (the Ukrainian Insurgent Army of World War Two).


The UPA was, in effect, the military arm of the OUN, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The OUN had two political wings that mattered, one under Andrey Melnik, the other under Stepan Bandera. They were rivals, but both were fascists. During the war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, both OUN wings tried to collaborate with the Nazis. The Nazis, in their arrogance, did not always let them, but the whole OUN was very eager to please. The OUN and the UPA also participated in murderous German violence against Jews, serving as pro-active mass murder auxiliaries. In addition, they conducted a genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign of their own against Poles.

Predictably, the in-your-face obscenity of Kiev’s latest fascism worship has provoked Israel as well as Poland. Polish president Nawrocki would like to deprive Zelensky of the high state honors that Warsaw has foolishly bestowed on him and has threatened to curtail Poland’s support for Kiev’s EU ambitions. In Israel, both its official Holocaust remembrance and exploitation agency Yad Vashem and the foreign ministry have taken exception. That is, of course, ironic, since Israel itself engages obsessively in genocide and ethnic cleansing as well. Maybe, in this case, it takes a genocidal fascist to know one.

Official Kiev is in the middle of devastating corruption scandals – but to be fair, when is it not? – and shaken by mortifying revelations about Zelensky personally (surprise, surprise: a raging narcissist on coke and not a democrat but a kleptocrat) from a well-informed insider speaking to one of America’s most influential journalists. Yet its ruling clique finds time to really rub it in, again. How much it cannot stop hugging Nazis, dead and alive? Costs in foreign-policy terms? Apparently, no big deal: When the Nazi-loving urge itches really bad, to hell with caution and – very unusually for Kiev – even dissembling.

Some observers speculate that the fascism fetish is being escalated in public again because of the scandals and continually plunging popularity of the regime: Zelensky and the rest of his merry gang of war profiteers and proxy war meatgrinder jockeys, such commentators believe, are merely using the Nazi play “out of a position of weakness,” to distract from the unprecedently fetid swamp into which they have turned Ukraine’s sleazy politics.

This is a mistake. It is time that even the slowest in the West accept a simple truth about Zelensky, one he is not even hiding (like so many others): He genuinely likes fascists. And, with his extremely cynical manipulation techniques, his vicious persecution of political opposition and any dissent, his abuse of the mass media for propaganda, and his deep contempt for democracy, he has much heartfelt affinity with them, to say the least.

Silly – and, actually, racist – pseudo-arguments, advanced by Western proxy war boosters that Zelensky can’t possibly ally with a violent far-right because he is Jewish deserve no serious answer. The current Israeli regime and its policies of war, genocide, supremacy, and ethnic cleansing are fascist. Case closed.

In fact, the Zelensky regime has a longstanding, consistent habit of pandering to, working with, employing at high levels and on a large scale, and honoring the very far right. Some may love to quibble, in bored-academic-style, about pedantically precise terms for fine distinctions in one big pile of rottenness. But, in reality, those labeled Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, fascists, ultra-nationalists and so on form a large whole having much more in common than not.

Re-labelling has also served to spread big fat lies. In Ukraine, there is a long and foul tradition, reaching back far into the frozen depths of the first Cold War. Mendaciously re-packaging Ukrainian World War II fascists with their own bloody flavor of terror, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. But re-labelling these Ukrainian fascists as ‘integral nationalists’ makes about as much sense as calling Idi Amin Dada – the former ultraviolent dictator of Uganda rumored to have sampled a few of his victims – an ‘integral vegan.’

And so it is in the present, too. Play with words as much as you like, a fact remains a fact, that Zelensky’s Ukraine is state with a big fascism problem. In time, its roots reach back to the period between World Wars I and II, with a massive escalation during the latter. Regionally, it used to be concentrated in western Ukraine and, after the Soviet victory over the Nazis and Axis forces in 1945, among fugitives in the US, Canada, and Europe. There, with their brand of ready-to-kill fascist anti-Communism, they served the West in the first Cold War and systematically subverted Ukrainian communities and any institution they could buy their way into, such as Yale, Harvard, and Columbia Universities.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this self-declared Ukrainian ‘diaspora’ – ironically, a term popularized out of the same Israel-envy that produced an unseemly urge to politically claim a Holocaust of one’s own in the shape of the Holodomor (preferably with even bigger victim counts) – re-entered independent Ukraine and “repatriated” its ideology. They impaired Ukraine’s culture and politics with, unfortunately, great success.

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“Peter Magyar has lifted a longstanding veto on possible bloc membership for Ukraine, while claiming he has the interest of Hungarian speakers in the country at heart”

• Has Hungary Opened The EU Door For Kiev? (RT)

Hungary has lifted its veto on Ukraine beginning formal accession talks with the EU, following days of hints from Prime Minister Peter Magyar and strategic leaks from Brussels, whose reporters announced the news with much fanfare on Wednesday.


Will Magyar compromise on Hungarian rights?
In the hours following the announcement Magyar claimed that a “comprehensive agreement on the linguistic, educational, cultural and political rights of the 100,000-strong Hungarian minority,” has been reached with Kiev, but no confirmation has come from the Ukrainian capital. Speaking alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday, Magyar said that he was “very optimistic” that a deal could be done to guarantee the rights of Ukraine’s Hungarian minority, in exchange for his government lifting the veto.

“The negotiations are progressing encouragingly,” he said, adding “I am ready to meet with Ukraine’s president at the beginning of next week, if we manage to agree on these fundamental human rights.” Within an hour of Magyar’s statement, Politico published an article claiming that Budapest had privately “signaled it will drop its long-standing opposition to Ukraine’s bid for EU membership,” citing four unnamed diplomats.

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Getting Colombia on your side is precious.

• The President Endorses the Tiger (Sarah Anderson)

On Sunday, I reported that the South American country of Colombia was on the verge of swinging back to the right after a four-year experiment with a corrupt socialist president, Gustavo Petro. This would be great for the Colombian people, of course, but it would also be huge for the entire region for any number of reasons — economics, crime, security, counter-narco-terrorism efforts, and further isolation of some of the few remaining socialist holdouts. It could even inspire Brazilian voters to make the right decision come October when their own little commie president is up for re-election.


I mean, Colombia is harboring guerrilla insurgencies and cartels whose violence spills over its borders into dozens of other countries, and it produces roughly two-thirds of all the cocaine in the world. Imagine the country having a leader who is aligned with Donald Trump and others in the region at this unique moment in time, and who is ready to actually combat all that.

So, back to the elections. On Sunday, it was expected that Petro’s hand-picked heir to the throne, Ivan Cepeda, would get the most of the vote. One reason why is that the right was kind of split between two candidates, and one of them hadn’t even won a primary. Well, that “outsider,” Abelardo de la Espriella, aka “El Tigre,” actually crushed expectations, and he got approximately 43.7% of the vote. Cepeda got around 41%. Few people saw that coming.

Unfortunately, de la Espriella didn’t get 50% of the vote, so he and Cepeda will face a runoff on June 21. The third candidate, Paloma Valencia, endorsed de la Espriella almost immediately on Sunday night, which will go a long way in helping him secure a win on June 21. But now, something else has happened that could help. I’ve wondered for months if Trump would endorse a candidate in this race (several members of Congress have), and on Tuesday night, he did just that, posting the following on social media:

Congratulations to Colombian Presidential Candidate, ‘El Tigre (THE TIGER),’ Abelardo de la Espriella, a Smart, Strong, and Tough Leader, on his decisive Victory in the first round of the Colombian Presidential Election! Abelardo fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America. As President, Abelardo would be tremendously successful in leading Colombia to Grow the Economy, Create Jobs, Promote Trade, Stop Illegal Immigration, Crack Down on Crime and Drugs, and Restore LAW AND ORDER! Abelardo will face off against a Radical Left Marxist in the Runoff on June 21st – The results of this Election are very important to the future of Colombia and its relationship to the United States. Because of his tremendous accomplishments in life, and his political support for me, personally, it is my Honor to give Abelardo my Complete and Total Endorsement. “EL TIGRE” ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA WILL NOT LET THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA DOWN! President DONALD J. TRUMP

As I mentioned on Sunday, de la Espriella’s political heroes are Trump, Argentine president Javier Milei, and Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele. That’s pretty much all you need to know about him. Here’s how he responded to the president (translated from Spanish). It’s quite long but worth the read because it gives you an even better idea of who he is and what he stands for.

“Dear President Donald J. Trump,

With my head held high and a heart full of patriotic gratitude, I receive your words and your steadfast support. Thank you, Mr. President!

In you, I see a leader of true strength and conviction — one who refuses to yield to passing ideological trends or the enemies of freedom. You have paved the way for the people to defeat the entrenched powers that have long held sway. In Colombia, we have now begun to follow that same path.

The United States and Colombia are sister nations, bound by the blood of heroes and by our shared destiny to defend Western civilization across the Americas. Together, we are unbreakable. This partnership—forged and strengthened by two leaders who respect each other and share the same unshakable values and principles—will bring greater prosperity to our peoples, greater security to our families, and a brighter future for both our nations.

Our security policies are fully aligned: narcoterrorism is the cancer destroying our societies, and we will confront it relentlessly, with iron resolve and without apology.

We stand together in the sacred defense of private property, free enterprise, productive growth, and the well-being of our citizens as the highest purpose of government. We defend liberty, we present a united front against the communism that seeks to poison our republics, and we will join the Alliance of the Shield of the Americas so that the light of freedom never dims in this hemisphere.

May God, Family, and Prosperity guide us. In this coming Era of the Tiger—which begins on June 21—we look forward to the full normalization of relations between Colombia and the United States, built on mutual respect, sovereignty, and mutual benefit.

May God bless Colombia and the United States of America!

Firm for the Homeland!

(A.D.L.E.)

He included an AI-generated image of a tiger and an eagle and a “Make Colombia Great Again” hat:

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“So did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money using your limited credibility?”

• Scott Bessent Just Humiliated a Democrat Senator Over Jeffrey Epstein (Margolis)

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) walked into a budget hearing Wednesday thinking he could grandstand his way through an attack on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Instead, Wyden walked out looking like a fool. The hearing was supposed to be about the federal budget, but Wyden, being a Democrat, had other plans. He opened with a broadside against President Donald Trump’s administration, accusing it of “widespread corruption” and personally dragging Bessent into it. He also wanted to make Jeffrey Epstein the issue, because it’s pretty much the only play Democrats have, and it’s not even a good one. He claimed that Bessent blocked congressional investigators from accessing Epstein’s financial records and participated in a cover-up lasting a year and a half.


“There’s no better example than the fact that there has been a cover-up of the massive file of Epstein’s financial records for a year and a half,” Wyden said. “This is part of the effort I’ve made, it’s the only one, to follow the money in the Epstein situation. And yet there’s been a denial of access to committee investigators and lying in public about their significance. That subject alone deserves its own hearing. Senate investigators are trying to figure out who paid Epstein for girls, and unfortunately, Secretary Bessent is involved in preventing that from happening.”

Strong words. Too bad they collapsed on contact with reality. As far as Epstein is concerned, the Trump administration has always been about transparency. The Trump administration released the Epstein files to the public, something the Biden administration refused to do. So the senator railing about cover-ups belongs to the party that actually kept those files buried for years. Bessent wasn’t about to sit there and take it. “I had hoped to keep this in terms of the economy — Senator Wyden has mendaciously slandered the Treasury building in an attempt to cover up his son having an investment meeting with Jeffrey Epstein to ask for funding,” Bessent said.

Wyden didn’t take it well. “Let’s be clear here. Nobody is interested in the ramblings of a capo in the most corrupt regime in American history. We want to get some facts about this deal. That’s what we’re here for,” Wyden shot back. And then Bessent went in for the kill. “And we would like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about. Your son’s largest investment position was Rick’s Cabaret. So did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money using your limited credibility?” Bessent said. The room went quiet. Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) turned to Wyden to check whether he had a response. He didn’t.

Here’s what Wyden clearly didn’t want discussed: his own son, Adam Wyden, has his own Epstein connections. Recently unsealed Department of Justice documents show Adam Wyden met Epstein through a mutual fund and later sought to pitch him an investment opportunity. In a 2016 email, Adam Wyden told Epstein, “I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope my passion and dedication for my business came through in the meeting.” So the senator who came in hot with Epstein accusations against Trump’s Treasury secretary has a son who was pitching investment deals to Epstein and sending him warm follow-up emails. But, hey… follow the money, right?

This is how the Democrats play it. They make accusations and insinuations about Trump and Epstein, yet every single time, the paper trail and the money trail, in this case, lead to Democrats.= The Democrat Party has been trying desperately to weaponize the Epstein investigation as a cudgel against Trump and Republicans. They just keep forgetting where all the breadcrumbs lead to, and that’s exactly what happened to Wyden. Bessent put Wyden’s own family business on the table and refused to let a senator with his own Epstein baggage play prosecutor unchallenged. What a moment!

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Bolton lived in this big house in Washington and sold his secret/private info to the highest bidder, including foreigners, getting rich in the process. .

• John Bolton to Plead Guilty to Retaining Classified Information (Margolis)

John Bolton is headed to federal court to plead guilty to one count of retaining classified information under a deal with the Justice Department. Under the deal, he could avoid prison time, according to the Associated Press. The deal would resolve a criminal case filed in October that charged Bolton with 18 counts of either retaining or disseminating classified information, including diary-like notes from his time in government that officials say he shared with his family members as he was preparing a memoir about his time in office.


Under the agreement, Bolton would also face a $2.25 million fine, said the person, who insisted on anonymity to discuss a deal that had not been made public. Any prison sentence would be capped at five years, but the agreement allows for him to avoid time behind bars, though the punishment will ultimately be up to a judge. The case has been building since August of last year, when FBI agents executed search warrants at Bolton’s home and office in Maryland. Federal prosecutors originally hit Bolton with 18 counts of either retaining or disseminating classified information.

Under the agreement, Bolton faces a sentence capped at five years in prison, though the deal leaves open the possibility of no prison time at all. A judge will make the final call. At the center of the case are diary-style notes Bolton kept during his government service. Prosecutors say he shared those notes with family members while he was preparing his memoir about his time in the Trump administration. The Trump administration attempted to block the book The Room Where It Happened prior to its publication, arguing that it contained classified material. The administration lost that fight, but the current plea agreement focuses on the classified notes Bolton shared with relatives, not on material that appeared in the published book.

Many on the left have tried to frame the case against Bolton as part of a pattern of “retribution” from Trump against his enemies. But even CNN had to admit the case had merit. Bolton, who served for one year in the first Trump administration, was originally charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information. Trump had long been long been calling for Bolton to be arrested over his 2020 memoir that was highly critical of the president, claiming Bolton should have gone to jail because classified information was contained in the book.

But unlike cases against Trump’s other perceived enemies, like FBI Director James Comey and the now-dismissed case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, Bolton’s case has maintained the support of career prosecutors and investigators, people briefed on the matter previously told CNN. Trump’s first Justice Department opened criminal and civil investigations into the book in 2020, but it was closed within a year.

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The government can’t fire Bozo the Clowns?!

• Trump Signs Executive Order to Facilitate Firing Federal Employees (AmG)

President Donald Trump on Wednesday formally advanced a long-sought effort to make it easier to remove senior federal employees involved in policymaking, arguing the change will help ensure government agencies are responsive to elected leadership and the American people. Trump signed an executive order implementing Schedule Policy/Career, or Schedule P/C, a new employment classification that places certain career federal workers into positions that can be hired and removed in a manner similar to political appointees.


The policy is a revival of the first Trump administration’s Schedule F initiative and is expected to affect roughly 8,000 federal employees. According to the White House, the move is designed to address longstanding difficulties in removing federal workers accused of poor performance or misconduct. The executive order states that employees placed into the new category would be “exempted from the adverse action procedures that make removals for poor performance or misconduct so difficult.” The administration argued that some high-ranking career officials have remained in influential government positions despite poor performance or resistance to implementing presidential policies.

“Consequently, employees with significant policy-making responsibilities can stay in their jobs for years even if they perform poorly, engage in misconduct, or are unwilling to advance Presidential policy across administrations, making their agencies less capable of delivering for the American people,” the White House said in a fact sheet. The administration described the reclassified positions as “at-will positions.” Most of the employees expected to be affected occupy some of the highest-ranking career positions in government. According to the White House, approximately 97 percent of workers likely to be reclassified hold GS-15 positions, the highest level on the federal pay scale.

Supporters of the change argue it will strengthen accountability within the federal bureaucracy by ensuring policymakers can more effectively carry out the agenda voters elected them to implement. The White House also sought to reassure critics that political affiliation would not determine employment decisions. “These remain ‘career’ positions and the non-partisan hiring processes, competitive status, and other aspects of these roles will not change,” the administration said. “Removal decisions will also be made without respect to political affiliation,” the fact sheet added. Federal employee unions criticized the move, arguing it weakens longstanding civil service protections.

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called the order “a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons.” Kelley argued that workers could become reluctant to report wrongdoing if they fear losing their jobs. “Workers who once felt comfortable reporting waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at their place of employment because they were protected from retaliation will now be afraid for their jobs if they speak out,” Kelley said. The administration’s action comes amid a debate over the role and accountability of the federal bureaucracy.

The modern merit-based civil service system was established in 1883, replacing an earlier patronage system that often distributed government jobs based on political loyalty. The Trump administration finalized the rule creating Schedule P/C in February, but the policy remains the subject of multiple lawsuits filed by federal employee unions. Those lawsuits contend the new classification violates the Civil Service Reform Act by removing protections guaranteed under federal law and weakening the merit-based hiring system. The administration, however, maintains that the policy targets only employees with substantial policymaking authority and is intended to improve government performance rather than alter the nonpartisan nature of career civil service positions.

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An overwhelming majority of voters supports it, but the Senate votes it down.

• Senate Fails Again to Pass Save America Act (CTH)

The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act was brought to the Senate as an amendment by Lindsey Graham as part of the $70 billion budget reconciliation package funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The usual senate suspects, Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell voted with Democrats to kill the SAVE America Act amendment. 75% of Americans support the requirement for voter ID, the Senate doesn’t want that.


WASHINGTON – Four Senate Republicans broke ranks to kill another effort to pass President Donald Trump’s marquee voter ID and election integrity legislation as the GOP marches to fund immigration enforcement. Just like last time, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Thom Tills, R-N.C., joined all Democrats to thwart the move. It’s the second attempt by Republicans to attach the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to their budget reconciliation package, and the second time that they’ve failed to get the legislation across the line months after launching a quasi-floor takeover to debate the bill. (read more)

In related news, after three days California has only counted 63% of the vote and Spencer Pratt is losing ground on his second-place finish.

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“Glyphosate-based herbicides are a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy.”

• Texas AG Launches Investigation Into Glyphosate in Food (ET)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has initiated an investigation into glyphosate contamination in food, with major manufacturers such as PepsiCo and Bayer being subjected to the probe. Glyphosate is a commonly used herbicide applied to genetically engineered crops and is the main ingredient in Roundup weed killer, Paxton’s office said in a June 2 statement. In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The organization also concluded that the herbicide showed “strong” evidence for genotoxicity, which refers to the ability to damage a cell’s genetic information.


“Since then, extensive human and animal research has shown that glyphosate contributes to endocrine disruption, infertility, kidney disease, and autoimmune diseases, in addition to its cancer-causing properties,” the attorney general’s statement read. “More than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed in the United States each year. Research has found that over 70 percent of American adults have detectable traces of glyphosate in their bodies compared to a mere 12 percent in 1993. Scientists attribute much of this dramatic increase to the widespread use of glyphosate as a desiccant.”

Desiccation is the process of applying herbicides to crops prior to harvest to ensure they uniformly dry down, a practice responsible for more than 90 percent of glyphosate found in food. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems glyphosate as an effective way to manage noxious and invasive weeds, the agency said in a May 5 update. In agriculture, glyphosate is used in a wide range of crops, including corn, soybean, leafy vegetables, legumes, cereal grains, citrus, herbs and spices, nuts, oilseed crops, and sugarcane. The herbicide is also used for the conservation of pastures, forests, turf grass, rangeland, aquatic areas, parks, wildlife management areas, and paved areas.

The EPA said there are “no risks of concern to human health from current uses of glyphosate” and that there is “no indication that children are more sensitive to glyphosate.” However, Paxton’s office said in its recent statement that children are “particularly vulnerable to glyphosate’s harms” due to the widespread use of oats in cereals, cookies, and breakfast bars. While the EPA bans the use of glyphosate as a desiccant on oats in the United States, major companies import oats from nations where desiccation is allowed. Children are exposed to food products that are “some of the most glyphosate-contaminated” food items sold in the United States, including those that are marketed as “healthy.”

Paxton’s office has sent Civil Investigative Demands to major pesticide and food manufacturers, such as Bayer and PepsiCo. A Civil Investigative Demand is an administrative subpoena allowing government agencies to request private entities to submit significant information without having to first go through court procedures. “If any corporation is using regulatory loopholes to poison our kids with glyphosate, we will find out and we will secure justice,” Paxton said. “My office is also investigating whether major food companies are complying with Texas law and whether consumers, especially parents, have been misled about the health claims of common food products marketed to their families. No corporation is above the law, and no illegal action will go unpunished.”

Glyphosate Necessity In Farms
A major controversy erupted in February when President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring America’s supply of glyphosate a critical component of national and food security. “Lack of access to glyphosate-based herbicides would critically jeopardize agricultural productivity, adding pressure to the domestic food system, and may result in a transition of cropland to other uses due to low productivity,” the executive order said. “Glyphosate-based herbicides are a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy.”

The herbicide has faced criticism from the Make America Healthy Again movement, and thousands of lawsuits have been filed across the United States claiming that exposure to glyphosate is linked to several types of cancer. Last month, a group of lawmakers introduced the No Immunity for Glyphosate Act, which seeks to ensure that glyphosate manufacturers can be held liable under state and federal law if it is proven that the herbicide causes cancer, according to an April 29 statement from the office of Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). The bill also seeks to ban the use of federal funds to enforce Trump’s glyphosate order.

“Exposure to glyphosate can cause cancer. The Supreme Court cannot and should not allow these verdicts to be overturned,” Heinrich said. “My constituents’ health and safety comes first. And I will not stand by while President Trump gives immunity to those who put my constituents’ health and safety at risk.” In February, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a social media post that pesticides and herbicides were toxic.

However, if the use of these chemicals were prohibited, “crop yields would fall, food prices would surge, and America would experience a massive loss of farms,” Kennedy said, while describing Trump’s glyphosate order as aiming to protect the country’s food supply. Moreover, the Trump administration is looking at shifting from the current agricultural system without harming food supply, such as by transitioning to regenerative agriculture, Kennedy said.

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Debt Rattle May 31 2026

May 312026
 
 May 31, 2026  Posted by at 10:01 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  16 Responses »


Jackson Pollock Number 31 1949


• Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base (ZH)
• Global Oil Reserves Fall At The Fastest Rate In History (Snyder)
• Forced To Correct Lies About AfD Leader Alice Weidel, Pay Her Legal Fees (RMX)
• Euroclear Appeals Immediate Enforcement of $256 bln Central Bank Ruling (TASS)
• Ukraine Killed 21 Russian Students And Lied About It (RT)
• Putin Has Countermanded Lavrov and The General Staff (Helmer)
• Congresswoman Wants Democrats Aiding Cuba To Be Investigated For Treason (JTN)
• Trump’s USDA is Making America’s Fabric Great Again (JTN)
• Why The SAVE Act Matters (Stu Cvrk)
• Cuba Falling: A Most Unusual Meeting (Sarah Anderson)
• Court Halts Kennedy Center Construction and Name Change (Turley)
• Crypto And AI Could Be Dirty Words On 2026 Midterm Campaign Trail (CT)
• A New Special Interest Coalition for ’26 and ’28, Datacenters (CTH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2060484422650966145?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2060054925938458941?s=20 https://twitter.com/DrJStrategy/status/2060507372359942401?s=20 https://twitter.com/GreereMedeea/status/2060415940953551353?s=20

 


 


Iran today.

• Intercepted Iranian Missile Injures 5 Americans At Kuwaiti Air Base (ZH)

A Saturday message and warning from Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters via Al Jazeera: “The management of the Strait of Hormuz is exercised with full authority by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” It added that “all ships, commercial vessels and tankers are only required to travel through the designated routes and obtain permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.” So despite President Trump’s latest warning which declared strict conditions on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran appears to be completely brushing his words aside, and is moving closer to formalizing its authority over vital energy shipping waterway.


State-run Nour News is reporting that a bill outlining Tehran’s role in managing passage through the strategic waterway has been finalized and is expected to be brought to a vote soon. According to Bloomberg, Iranian lawmaker Alireza Salimi did not provide a specific timeline for the vote but said the legislation is on track to become law. Salimi said that “only Iran and Oman can decide on Strait of Hormuz management” – adding that “the Omani side has given preliminary approval” to Tehran’s plan. He further emphasized the strategic importance of Hormuz, declaring that “the Strait of Hormuz is more important and more valuable to the Islamic Republic of Iran than dozens of nuclear bombs.”

Previous comments by Salimi indicate the bill would cover shipping security, the collection of navigation and environmental pollution fees, as well as the creation of a regional development and progress fund – all of which critics have dismissed as but Tehran’s ruse to collect what is in effect a “toll”. The legislation is expected to undergo review by Iran’s Guardian Council, which is responsible for vetting and approving all laws before they take effect.

More Reported US Drones Destroyed
Reports of more MQ-9 Reaper damage or destruction have emerged; however, the Pentagon has not verified this, and is not expected to. This along with the past week of ‘live-fire’ tit-for-tat incidents suggests an escalating situation, even as the warring sides try to get back to the peace negotiations table. It looks like it could be related to the Saturday missile attack on a US base in Kuwait, but details are murky. Per DropSite:

• Unfreezing of Assets & Sanctions

• Nuclear File

“So far, there is no timeframe. However, we know that the negotiations are still continuing. The agreement, according to Iranian officials here, is not finalised yet. Proposals and messages are being exchanged through Pakistani mediators and some other regional players as well,” the report says. Per AJ: The Iranians, while saying that it is not finalised, have largely agreed on many items. However, there are still some sticking points. Finally, the Iranians are quite clear at this stage. They are saying that they are not discussing the nuclear file or nuclear programme unless confidence-building measures are put in place. Only if the first phase is successful will they be open to discussing their nuclear programme. These confidence-building measures have been precisely identified as the unfreezing of billions in assets held aborad.

New Iranian Attack on US Base in Kuwait
An Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile targeted Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base, a key operational hub for the U.S. Air Force’s expeditionary forces in the Gulf region. An initial report from Bloomberg News indicates that Kuwaiti air defenses intercepted the tactical ballistic missile in the last 24 hours, but falling debris struck part of the base, injuring five Americans and damaging one MQ-9 Reaper drone while severely damaging another. About five people, including both contractors and active duty personnel, suffered minor injuries, the person said. One Reaper was destroyed and at least one other was seriously damaged. -BBG

News of the strike on ASAB, where the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing under U.S. Air Forces Central acts as a forward logistics, airlift, and combat-power gateway for the broader CENTCOM theater, comes as the US and Iran on Friday reached a tentative memorandum of understanding to extend a ceasefire by 60 days and restart nuclear negotiations. However, the proposal still requires final approval from President Trump, according to U.S. officials cited by Fox News.

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US produces its own.

• Global Oil Reserves Fall At The Fastest Rate In History (Snyder)

No matter what happens now, the world is facing a very painful energy crisis. Let’s be as wildly optimistic as we possibly can and assume that Iran agrees to allow free passage through the Strait of Hormuz with absolutely no tolls or restrictions starting tomorrow. Before normal traffic through the Strait could resume, Iran would first have to remove all of the mines that they have laid in the Strait, and that could take months. Once all of the mines have been removed, it will take the tankers that are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf weeks to arrive at their destinations. Moving forward, Persian Gulf countries will be exporting much less oil and natural gas for the foreseeable future because of all the oil and natural gas infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed during the war. It will take years before all of that infrastructure is fully repaired and rebuilt. Meanwhile, global supplies of oil and natural gas will be very tight for an extended period of time..


What I have just laid out for you is the best case scenario. Ultimately, what we end up facing could be so much worse. Over the past couple of months, global oil reserves have been falling at the fastest rate ever recorded… Record inventory draw: Global oil stocks have fallen by 246 million barrels in March-April, with draws in May hitting a record 8.7 million barrels per day. Hormuz closure impact: The Strait of Hormuz shutdown has cut off 25% of the world’s seaborne oil, compounding already low reserves and boosting prices. US price outlook: Analysts expect U.S. gasoline prices could reach $5 this summer unless flows resume, with relief unlikely before autumn. Needless to say, this is not sustainable.

Here in the United States, the strategic petroleum reserve has been dropping at a record-breaking pace… The SPR’s most recent drawdown, covering the week ended May 22, shows a drop of 9.1 million barrels, leaving the reserves at 365 million barrels. The previous weekly drawdown, covering the week of May 15, was its steepest on record — the U.S. withdrew 9.92 million barrels from the SPR then. Before that record-breaking decline, the largest weekly drop in the SPR’s history occurred in the week ended Oct. 7, 2022, when the reserves dropped by 7.41 million barrels, and was connected to the war in Ukraine. Commercial oil inventories are being rapidly depleted as well.

At some point the tanks are going to hit minimum operating levels and we are going to have an enormous crisis on our hands. The chief economist at Capital Economics is projecting that commercial oil inventories “could reach critically low levels by the end of June”… “At the current pace of drawdown, commercial oil stocks could reach critically low levels by the end of June,” Neil Shearing, chief economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note on May 18. If supply conditions don’t improve soon, “prices could rise sharply,” Shearing warned. Jeff Currie is warning that Asia is already very close to minimum operating levels, and he is projecting that the U.S. could potentially be dealing with shortages in July…

Oil markets are nearing minimum operating levels in Asia, with Europe likely next and the U.S. potentially facing shortages by July, said veteran market strategist Jeff Currie on Monday, underscoring the global energy shock due to the Iran war.Headline global inventory figures can be misleading as much of the oil stored worldwide cannot be used immediately, said Currie, Carlyle’s chief strategy officer of energy pathways and co-chairman of Abaxx Markets. A large portion of that oil is needed to keep pipelines and storage systems running safely, leaving only a smaller share available for the market. Asia is already close to these so-called “minimum operating levels,” Currie told CNBC on the sidelines of the UBS Wealth Conference in Singapore.

This is really happening.

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“When “blatant falsehoods are being spread, one cannot let them stand unchallenged,” says Weidel’s spokesman”

• Forced To Correct Lies About AfD Leader Alice Weidel, Pay Her Legal Fees (RMX)

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has successfully sued the Left Party leader and won a retraction after she spread falsehoods about Weidel on live television. In mid-May, Ines Schwerdtner, the federal chairwoman of the Left Party, claimed during an interview on Welt TV that Wediel neither resides in Germany nor pays taxes. “Alice Weidel doesn’t even live in Germany, she doesn’t pay taxes here,” she told viewers. This statement is false. While Weidel spends much of her time with her family in Switzerland, she has her primary residence in Germany and pays taxes in the Federal Republic of Germany.


Weidel has been very guarded about the issue over the years, as she faces a high threat level and avoids appearing in public due to the security threat she lives under. Weidel’s lawyers explained in a warning letter, cited by Junge Freiheit, that this claim was false, as their client both lived in Germany and paid taxes. The law firm Höcker filed a lawsuit on the AfD’s behalf seeking an injunction. Weidel’s lawyers also demanded that Schwerdtner ensure the relevant passage was deleted from Welt TV’s programming. Furthermore, the lawsuit calls on the Left Party leader to acknowledge the “claim for damages.”

Following this, Schwerdtner’s lawyer sent a letter to the Höcker law firm stating that their client had “indeed made a mistake.” The Left Party leader additionally undertook to “refrain” from making the false statement that Weidel does not pay taxes in Germany. The letter also pointed out that the interview in question on Welt TV had since been deleted by the broadcaster. Furthermore, Schwerdtner stated that she would transfer the legal fees “within one week.”

Weidel’s press spokesman, Daniel Tapp, told JF that in politics one “shouldn’t be too sensitive in principle.” However, when “blatant falsehoods are being spread, one cannot let them stand unchallenged.” The AfD has been surging in the polls, with one survey last week showing it hitting a record 42 percent in Saxony, double the support of the second-place Christian Democrats (CDU). A poll in May showed the AfD at 29 percent at the national level, while the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) fell to 22 percent.

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How to bankrupt Belgium?

• Euroclear Appeals Immediate Enforcement of $256 bln Central Bank Ruling (TASS)

Euroclear has filed a complaint with the Moscow Arbitration Court against the immediate enforcement of a ruling to recover 18.2 trillion rubles ($256 bln) under a lawsuit by the Central Bank, a source familiar with the proceedings told TASS. According to the source, the complaint against the immediate enforcement of the ruling to recover funds under the Bank of Russia lawsuit was filed this week.


In December 2025, the Bank of Russia filed a lawsuit against Euroclear in the Moscow Arbitration Court for 18.2 trillion rubles ($256 bln), amid the European Union’s plans to use frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine. This amount includes frozen funds, the value of blocked securities, and lost profits. At the request of the Central Bank, the court closed the proceedings on the regulator’s lawsuit against the Belgian depository to the public. The Bank of Russia stated that the procedure for enforcing the court ruling using the defendant’s assets, including those located in foreign jurisdictions – both friendly and unfriendly – will be determined after the court’s decision enters into force.

On May 20, 2026, the Bank of Russia filed a motion with the Moscow Arbitration Court to immediately enforce the judgment in the 18.2 trillion ruble ($256 bln) lawsuit against Euroclear. The Bank of Russia is also considering the possibility of protecting its interests in international courts and arbitration tribunals, with subsequent enforcement of the decisions of such courts in UN member states. The EU and G7 countries have frozen approximately €300 billion of Russian assets. Approximately €180 billion is held in the Belgian depository Euroclear. The European Commission is seeking approval from EU member states to use Russian assets for Ukraine. However, the EU has failed to agree on a “reparations loan” to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets.

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“In preparation for the funeral, relatives brought numerous wedding dresses to the local morgue: the young women killed in the strike were to be buried in them.”

• Ukraine Killed 21 Russian Students And Lied About It (RT)

A Ukrainian drone raid last week devastated a college dormitory in Starobelsk, in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic, killing 21 students – most of them young women – and injuring dozens others. The attack was a deliberate “double-tap” that included two more waves of drones targeting civilians and first responders who raced to the scene, according to Russian officials. Russia branded the raid a “terrorist attack” and a blatant war crime. Horrific footage from the scene backed up the accusations.


However, speaking at an emergency UN Security Council session, Ukrainian envoy to the UN Andrey Melnik dismissed Moscow’s account, denigrating a “so-called incident” in Starobelsk as “a fake story” and accusing Russia of spreading “yet another propaganda narrative.” Kiev’s General Staff separately claimed its forces had targeted a command post of the elite Rubicon drone unit – an allegation for which reporters who visited the scene found no supporting evidence. Here is what Ukraine and the West do not want you to know about the Starobelsk tragedy.

What really happened in Starobelsk? RT senior correspondent Murad Gazdiev was among the first journalists to reach the site, reporting from the scene throughout the two-day search-and-rescue operation. The most horrific thing when he arrived was “children still screaming under the rubble.” According to Gazdiev, blood-stained blankets were visible in the hallway where first responders pulled out the dead, and the ground was littered with students’ belongings and books.

Who was killed by Ukraine in Starobelsk? Among those trapped was 19-year-old Dasha Serdyuk. In her final moments of life, she filmed herself and sent a short video to her friend Nastya in St. Petersburg, pleading for help. Dasha had reportedly dreamed of becoming a kindergarten teacher and had only one year of studies left. An eyewitness described watching a girl sprint from the building mid-attack, telling local media that she managed to leave the dorm but was killed by the blast wave outside.

Another victim, identified by the Mash outlet only as Anya, also tried to flee during the strike but was killed by the second drone barrage. An unnamed relative interviewed by the channel said that her body was so severely burned that family members could identify her only by her necklace and earrings. Anya is said to have been due to be married in the summer and is survived by her mother, grandmother, and 10-year-old sister. Olga Vasilenko, a mother of Anastasia, an 18-year-old student at the college also killed in the strike, recalled, as cited by several Russian media: “She called me in the evening, saying: ‘Mom, we’re being bombed’. And then she stopped answering my calls”.

Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, published photos of all 21 victims – some just 18 years old – offering condolences. “It’s impossible to imagine the pain of a parent who has lost the dearest thing in life – their child,” she said.

There have been no videos from the scene suggesting even the slightest sign of military-related activity. “There wasn’t even a hint of military personnel here. It was a targeted attack on children,” Roman Antonov, a local firefighter, told RT in the aftermath of the strike. A video shared by Mash made before the strike shows students doing what students do – dancing, laughing, and having fun, with some seen washing floors in the dormitory. In the days that have followed, residents, relatives of the dead, survivors, and college staff brought flowers and stuffed animals to the ruins. Churches in Starobelsk have held numerous services for the dead and prayers for the wounded.

A harrowing video has surfaced on social media, reportedly of parents identifying the bodies of their children, with audible, desperate screams. In preparation for the funeral, relatives brought numerous wedding dresses to the local morgue: the young women killed in the strike were to be buried in them.

The death of 21 young people prompted a desire for revenge within the Russian military, with one drone operator filmed inscribing ‘Starobelsk’ on an attack UAV before launching it towards Ukrainian armed forces positions. Russia has maintained it targets only military-related sites.

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Helmer and PCR are in their 80s. Is that why?

• Putin Has Countermanded Lavrov and The General Staff (Helmer)

President Vladimir Putin has ordered his two spokesmen, Dmitry Peskov and Yury Ushakov, to deny Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement that the General Staff has been authorized to escalate war operations to regime decapitation in the Ukraine. On Monday evening, May 25, Lavrov telephoned US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him he was speaking for Putin: “On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin,” the readout said, “S.V. Lavrov officially brought to the American side information that in response to the ongoing terrorist attacks of the Kiev regime against the civilian population and civilian objects on the Russian territory, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation begin systemic and consistent strikes on the facilities located in Kiev, used for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and on the relevant decision-making centres.”


Lavrov was repeating the new phrase, “systemic and consistent”, which his ministry had published in reverse order four hours earlier. Russian “patience is exhausted,” the ministry had declared. “In this situation, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are beginning to launch consistent and systemic strikes at enterprises of the Ukrainian defence industry in Kiev, including specific facilities for designing, manufacturing and programming drones and preparing them for operation…We are urging residents of the Ukrainian capital not to approach facilities of the military and administrative infrastructure of the Zelensky regime.”

The Russian statements followed the strike over Saturday night-Sunday morning (May 23-24) by an Oreshnik missile on the Bela Tserkva airbase, south of Kiev, which doubles as an underground drone factory and a military command-control bunker. Click for a summary of local and Russian reporting of the targets. The Oreshnik failed, according to Moscow sources. No high-ranking casualties have been reported by either the Russian or Ukrainian media; there has been no evidence of emergency ambulance movements and medical evacuation flights taking high-ranking casualties to hospitals in Poland, Germany, or the US. There was a reported surge of medevac flights from Rzeszow, but that occurred on May 22, before the Oreshnik strike on Bela Tsekrkva.

Surface damage at Bela Tserkva recorded on social media shows no greater damage than earlier drone strikes at Bela Tserkva last August. Former president and deputy head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev called the Oreshnik, Iskander, Zircon and Kinzhal missile operation, including the Kiev city targets hit, a success in a strategy of persuading Ukrainian hearts and minds; this has not been publicly declared as a war aim by the Security Council before. “The ruins and gray ash on the site of their capital symbols,” Medvedev claimed, “demoralize the enemy no weaker than the loss of the battle banner.”

Lieutenant General (retired) Andrei Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Defense Committee, repeated that the weekend strikes were a new operational initiative. But he qualified the targeting: the aim, he said, is not the Ukrainian parliament Verkhovna Rada but instead “decision-making centres [which are] underground fortified [military] command and control centres…you need to understand that they are not located in the centre of Kiev. These are hidden, well-fortified points. And our task is to identify them and expose them with the help of existing weapons.”

Kartapolov added that the decision on whether this new decapitation operation now extends to Vladimir Zelensky is made by “only one person – our Supreme Commander-in-Chief”. About Putin’s decision — signed, suspended, postponed, canceled — Kartapolov said he preferred “not to engage in speculation”. This was published on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 26. Putin had decided already to announce he didn’t mean decapitation at all.

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A Cuban with a Greek name.

• Congresswoman Wants Democrats Aiding Cuba To Be Investigated For Treason (JTN)

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis also said she believes it was possible the U.S. military would conduct an operation to capture Raul Castro and extradite him into the United States


Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a prominent Cuban-American who represents New York in the U.S. House, tells Just the News she wants the FBI to investigate Democrats and liberal groups helping Cuba evade U.S. sanctions for the lone crime America’s founding fathers explicitly identified in the Constitution. “Look, I personally, think they need to be investigated for treason,” Malliotakis said during a wide-ranging interview with the John Solomon Reports podcast. “I think that they really need to be investigated by Treasury, also by Justice.”

The New York Republican was reacting to an admission by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., that she recently took an official government trip to Havana and also talked to foreign countries about finding a way to get oil to Cuba around US sanctions and a naval blockade. Malliotakis said she wants to see the House ban the use of tax dollars to make such trips to foreign enemies’ soil. “What we need to do is ensure that none of these congressional delegation trips that are funded by the taxpayers go to actually visit our adversaries and undermine our government,” she said.

“They go and actually meet with the communist regime at your expense as taxpayers to try to undercut what the president is trying to do,” she added. “And by the way, it’s not just hurting, you know, our government. You’re actually hurting the Cuban people. You’re actually supporting a regime that starves its people to death, that has made their lives miserable for 67 years, and has killed their family members and have split up their family members.” Malliotakis, whose mother fled from Cuba during the Castro regime, has long been a fierce critic of the Communist-run government on the island.

She applauded the Trump Justice Department’s decision last week to indict 94-year-old Raul Castro, the former Cuban president, in connection with the fatal shooting down of two American planes in 1996. Malliotakis said she believed it was possible that the U.S. military would eventually conduct an operation to capture Castro and extradite him into the United States to face prosecution like it did with Venezuelan strongarm man Nicolas Maduro in January.

“I think a lot of people looking at the situation are thinking that the U.S. armed forces will go in and get Raul Castro, just like they did Nicolas Maduro,” she said. “You do see ships building up not too far from Cuba’s shores, and you know it is number one a national security issue.

“It is time, No. 1, to push for regime change, and I think that this indictment of Raul Castro gives the Cuban government two options: you either leave the island and allow the people to form political parties, to have free and fair elections to allow them to express themselves without fear of going to jail or being beaten or even killed by their government, and or you will see something like what took place in Venezuela for Nicolas Maduro,” she added.

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“Cotton is a cultural icon, built into American DNA”

• Trump’s USDA is Making America’s Fabric Great Again (JTN)

In years past, the U.S. was referred to as “King Cotton” for its prodigious output of the fiber wanted by the rest of the world. The “Plant Not Plastic” initiative may see a rebirth of that sentiment. On Thursday, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced The Great American Cotton Plan, an effort to help revitalize the nation’s cotton-producing industry to move Americans back toward wearing natural fibers as opposed to plastic materials and other pontially toxic fibers. Launched as a cornerstone of the plan to restore domestic textile manufacturing, the “Plant Not Plastic” initiative urges American consumers to choose products made with natural, U.S.-grown cotton over petroleum-based synthetics like polyester.


Working in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the campaign highlights cotton’s superior breathability, biodegradability, and reduced microplastic shedding—addressing growing concerns about synthetic fibers releasing thousands of plastic particles annually into the environment and potentially into our bodies. By elevating demand for American cotton through education, procurement incentives, and alignment with t he bipartisan Buying American Cotton Act, the initiative simultaneously boosts rural economies, restores domestic textile manufacturing, and advances the Trump administration’s MAHA goals of practical, preventive wellness through everyday choices.

American cotton is key to avoiding human rights abuses
Cotton from many foreign countries, particularly in the global supply chain, has been linked to significant human rights abuses. Concerns include widespread child labor, such as children aged 6–14 working long hours in India’s cottonseed farms.

The underage workers often face pesticide exposure, as well as forced labor involving Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region and past cases in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In 2011 Bloomberg News sent investigative reporters out to the fields in the west African country to see for themselves how the daily abuse of children results in the “fair trade” fabric used for Americans’ favorite panties and bras. Workers frequently endure debt bondage, minimal or no pay, hazardous conditions, and government or employer coercion. The U.S. Department of Labor flags cotton from several nations for these risks. Ethical sourcing and better traceability are essential to reduce such exploitation.

Natural fibers used to be the norm
Today, approximately 70% of materials are derived from synthetic fibers, with polyester being the most prevalent. But that hasn’t always been the case. For millennia, humans relied exclusively on natural fibers—cotton, wool, silk, linen, and hemp—for clothing and textiles. These materials dominated until the early 20th century. The shift began with rayon (viscose), the first semisynthetic fiber, commercialized around 1905–1910. True synthetics arrived with nylon, introduced by DuPont in 1939, revolutionizing stockings and apparel during WWII. Polyester followed in the 1940s–50s, prized for durability and low cost. Acrylic and spandex soon expanded the range. B

y the late 20th century, synthetic blends dominated global production due to affordability, performance, and scalability. Today, a mix of natural and synthetic fibers prevails, balancing tradition with modern demands for stretch, wrinkle resistance, and sustainability. In 1989, trade association Cotton Incorporated launched its iconic “The Fabric of Our Lives” advertising campaign on Thanksgiving Day. The memorable jingle—“The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives”—was first performed by Richie Havens. Aimed at countering synthetic fibers, the campaign celebrated cotton’s natural comfort, softness, and place in everyday American life. It became one of the most successful and long-running textile ads, boosting cotton’s market share and cultural resonance for decades.

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Thorough.

• Why The SAVE Act Matters (Stu Cvrk)

American self-governance rests on one indispensable foundation: that elections reflect the will of eligible citizens, counted accurately, administered transparently. Republicans and election integrity advocates argue that this foundation has been progressively undermined – not necessarily by a single grand conspiracy, but by a systemic pattern of loosened safeguards, dirty voter rolls, exploitable mail-ballot systems, and aggressive Democrat opposition to the audits and reforms that would resolve public doubt once and for all.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act – which polls at roughly 80 percent public support – would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. To its advocates, it is the minimum logical response to documented vulnerabilities in the registration and voting system. To its opponents, it is voter suppression. The fight over that characterization is itself a revealing indicator of where the parties stand on the fundamental question: do you want to know, or don’t you? And why! Let’s examine the subject in some detail. Note: the below analysis was written from a Republican/election-integrity-advocate perspective. Where allegations are unconfirmed or contested, they are labeled as such.

Part I: Confirmed And Documented Problems

1. Dirty Voter Rolls – A National Scandal The evidence that American voter rolls are riddled with ineligible registrations is not in dispute. The only dispute is over whether they should be fixed. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, under Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon, reviewed voter rolls from just 16 voluntarily cooperating Republican-leaning states and found tens of thousands of apparent noncitizens and hundreds of thousands of dead people still registered to vote. The administration subsequently sued 29 states – including blue-state heavyweights California and New York, and swing states Arizona and Georgia – to compel production of voter roll data under the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

In California, a review of voter rolls found registrations tied to P.O. boxes and individuals listed as 125 years old. In Colorado, a lawsuit forced the purge of 372,000 ineligible registrations. In Michigan, dead voters have been documented – some of whom show records of in-person voting after their deaths. In Oregon, similar anomalies have been reported. Judicial Watch has documented tens of thousands of names removed from rolls in multiple states, often only after litigation – raising the obvious question of why states resisted cleanup in the first place.

The consistent pattern: Republicans seek cleanup to remove any possibility that unauthorized people are voting in elections through fraud associated with ballot harvesting. Democrats sue to prevent it for the purposes of preventing disenfranchising eligible voters (with the unspoken reason to enable Democrat ballot harvesting).

2. Noncitizen Voting – Prosecuted Cases Noncitizen voting is not a hypothetical. It is documented, prosecuted, and ongoing. In Philadelphia, ICE and the FBI arrested Mahady Sacko, an illegal alien from Mauritania, for voting in seven federal elections dating to 2008 – despite a 2002 removal order. In Coldwater, Kansas, Mayor Joe Ceballos – a legal permanent resident from Mexico – resigned and faced charges after voting in multiple elections. These are not isolated cases; they are confirmed examples of a vulnerability that Republicans argue the SAVE Act would directly address.

3. Mail Ballot Fraud – A Proven Mechanism Democrats and their media allies spent years insisting mail ballot fraud is vanishingly rare. The prosecution record tells a different story – of widespread, real, and exploitable vulnerabilities (over 1400 cases in this database).

In Pennsylvania, a grand jury indicted three Democrats – Mohammed Nurul Hasan, Mohammed Munsur Ali, and Mohammed Rafikul Islam – for attempting to steal the 2021 mayoral election in Millbourne. Using Pennsylvania’s online voter registration portal (PAOVR), they changed the registered addresses of nearly three dozen non-residents to Millbourne addresses, requested mail ballots on their behalf, filled them out, and submitted them. The system’s vulnerability: anyone with basic personal information about a voter could modify that voter’s registration and divert their ballot to any address in the world. The candidate lost anyway – but the mechanism worked. The “safeguards” the AP assured voters existed did not stop it.

In Minnesota, a duo pleaded guilty to flooding an election with fraudulent ballots. In Connecticut, a state employee was arrested for switching Republican voters’ registrations to Democrat without their knowledge. Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight organization was forced to pay the largest campaign finance violation fine in Georgia history.

4. ActBlue – Active Congressional Investigation With Significant Red Flags This is not an allegation. This is an active, documented federal investigation backed by congressional subpoenas. The House Judiciary, Oversight, and Administration Committees released a joint interim report in April 2026 finding that five current and former ActBlue employees – including its general counsel (fired), legal department personnel, and VP of customer service – collectively invoked the Fifth Amendment 146 times during depositions. Not once or twice. 146 times. Not a single substantive question was answered.

The report also found that ActBlue made its fraud-prevention rules more lenient twice during the 2024 election cycle, and that internal training materials directed fraud-prevention staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions” rather than scrutinize them. The entire legal and compliance team – every member – had resigned, been fired, or gone on extended leave by March 2025, in the months immediately following the election.

The New York Times – not a right-wing outlet – reported on the foreign donation concerns. Former Biden White House Counsel Dana Remus, working at ActBlue’s law firm Covington, reportedly warned that ActBlue’s CEO may have misrepresented facts to Congress. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan summarized the irony: Democrats spent a decade accusing Trump of foreign campaign collusion. The evidence of foreign money flowing into Democrat fundraising infrastructure is now the subject of formal congressional investigation.

Fulton County has become the symbolic epicenter of 2020 election integrity concerns, and for documented reasons.

In January 2026, the Georgia State Election Board revealed that investigators could not locate a single “zero tape” from Fulton County’s 148 early voting machines from the 2020 general election. Zero tapes are the legal documents that certify each ballot tabulator began counting at zero – preventing pre-loaded votes or test data from being counted as real votes. Their absence does not prove fraud. But their absence also cannot be explained away. A December 2025 admission by Fulton County’s attorney confirmed that more than 100 tabulator closing tapes – representing roughly 315,000 votes – were never signed by poll workers as required by law.

The week after the State Election Board meeting, the FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County election office, specifically seeking the zero tapes. The search warrant itself represents a federal judicial determination that probable cause existed to search. Fulton County has not produced a satisfactory accounting of what happened to these documents.

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Unusual indeed.

• Cuba Falling: A Most Unusual Meeting (Sarah Anderson)

There are a lot of stories about Cuba floating around right now. Some are MSM outlets acting like they have a scoop on something that’s been happening or rumored to be happening for months. Some are simply absurd and probably not true. Most aren’t actually verified by the Donald Trump administration and come from anonymous sources. I’m not even going to bother with those today. I saw this happen in the final months before we captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Most of these reporters and media outlets didn’t even care about these countries until they became newsworthy, and once they do become hot topics, they’ll publish just about anything to get clicks. I can’t do that.


But what I can tell you is that what the regime is saying and what’s happening on the ground tell two different stories. Both the “president,” Miguel Díaz-Canel, and the foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, have been doing interviews for a month or two now, warning of the United States’ impending military aggression, claiming the people of Cuba will fight the imperialists, etc. In the last week or two, Díaz-Canel claimed publicly that the U.S. “will cause a bloodbath with incalculable consequences.” Most recently, Rodríguez has been going after Marco Rubio with his favorite talking point: Rubio has a personal vendetta against the regime — as if he’s not just one of the millions of Cubans who have seen their parents and grandparents flee the communist s**thole in which they were forced to live. He just happens to be the one with the power to do something about it.

But while these guys are going on all the TV networks yelling about U.S. aggression, on the ground, the regime is actually playing nice with the U.S. because it knows it holds no leverage. On Friday, the most unusual thing happened. United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan was at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and he met with Army Corps General, Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, First Deputy Minister of the Chief of the General Staff, and other senior leaders from the Cuban military at the perimeter of the facility. They even posed for a picture:

According to SOUTHCOM, the visit was “for a brief exchange on operational security matters. Gen. Donovan also led a perimeter security assessment of the naval base and discussed force protection, safety of service members and their families, and operational readiness with base officials.”

Keep in mind that the regime considers our base at Guantanamo Bay an illegal occupation. This extremely rare, high-level face-to-face meeting was described as “positive” by both sides. The Cuban Ministry of Defense said in a statement, “Both delegations considered the meeting to be positive, where issues related to security around the dividing perimeter of the military enclave were addressed and they agreed to maintain communication between both military commands.”

While some in the MSM are downplaying it, this isn’t something you see every day, but then again, a lot of what we’re witnessing lately is unusual. The regime is doing interviews with the U.S. press, including Fox News. The CIA director is holding talks in (and making threats) in Havana. Cubans standing on rooftops raising U.S. flags or writing “Long live Trump” on building walls without fear.

In the past, low-level “fence line” meetings took place each month between U.S. and Cuban military officials at the naval base, but Trump had them suspended when he took office in 2025. This is not a continuation of that. This is not routine. As I keep saying, we don’t know when or how this will end, but Trump promises that it will soon, that he’ll be the president who finally ends 67 years of communist Cuba. Right now, all of the signs are supporting that. No matter how defiant it acts publicly, the regime knows it’s backed into a corner.

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“The Administration should appeal the decision and may soon be able to resume work on the Center, regardless of its name.’

• Court Halts Kennedy Center Construction and Name Change (Turley)

In a ruling Friday, District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the cessation of all repair plans for the Kennedy Center and the removal of Trump’s name from the building within two weeks. It is a detailed and comprehensive opinion, but I believe that Judge Cooper is wrong on the cessation of repairs. I previously expressed skepticism over the claim that the board could order such a change unilaterally. I have previously addressed the naming controversy, which raised the very issues that Judge Cooper cited in his rejection of the right to rename the Center without congressional approval.


However, the opinion becomes more challengeable when the court addresses the decision to close the Center for two years to carry out major renovations. The opinion is rife with digs at President Donald Trump for his social media postings and his unilateral plan for a ballroom. Judge Cooper editorializes that “Especially after the demolition of the East Wing of the White House— which occurred out of the blue a few months after President Trump pledged that construction would not ‘interfere with’ and would ‘pay[] total respect to the existing building’—there has been understandable concern that the Kennedy Center may be the next target of the wrecking ball.”

Judge Cooper accepts that the Center is long overdue for major renovations and that the Board had the authority to order them. He further rejects the sweeping claims of litigants that Trump was planning to effectively raze the Center: “The evidence before the Court does not demonstrate that the Center is poised for wholesale destruction and rebuilding, à la the East Wing.” However, Cooper rules that the Board could not have given the decision sufficient time or attention in carrying out the plan. He declared that “None of the board members had sufficient information in advance of the March 16 meeting to make a well-considered decision to close the center.”

The court’s tight analysis is lost in supporting the cessation of repairs. While he acknowledges that such repairs have long been planned and studied, he cites differing statements on the plan to continue operations before a later decision to close the Center. The court finds that the record illustrates a failure to fulfill the fiduciary duty of the board and Chair: “Whatever happened during that purported four-month incubation period, Board input was, most evidently, an afterthought. Trustees learned about the plan to close the Center at the same time as the general public, by social media post. Deprived of time and information, they had no meaningful opportunity to consider perhaps the most momentous decision in the Center’s lifetime since it opened in 1971.”

That analysis is heavily laden with assumptions on the lack of consideration of the Board. The same approach could be used to set aside an array of board decisions that do not evidence sufficient concern or scrutiny for the satisfaction of a judge. Judge Cooper seems to recognize how far the court was taking its own authority in countermanding the decision:

“The Court appreciates that, in both the charitable and corporate spheres, board meetings are often scripted affairs… The Court should not be heard to suggest that trustees must scrutinize every piece of prefatory work that has been done, or labor through the night debating the relative merits of their decisions in order to discharge their fiduciary duties— especially where, as here, a board is large and comprised of members who may not be well schooled in the subject matter before them. “ Yet, the court still concludes that this Board “seems to have fallen grossly short of prudent decision-making.” That seems far too subjective and fluid a standard for federal courts to micromanage executive branch decision-making.

For his part, President Trump was equally sweeping and unrestrained in his response. He declared that he would order the Commerce Department to transfer the Center to Congress “so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.” Given that Judge Cooper’s order on the cessation of repairs may be reversed, it is unnecessary unless the naming of the Center is the overriding consideration. In either case, it would make little sense for the Center to be placed under the supervision of Congress. It would be appropriate for Congress to address the naming question as well as potentially being heard on the need for a closure.

In the end, I thought that the court’s cessation analysis conveyed ample reasons, but Judge Cooper himself (and others) may be unhappy with how the decision was made. It is less clear why that should matter. There are ample reasons to close the Center to facilitate what the court acknowledges will be extensive and major renovations. That construction can only be facilitated and expedited if there is not a simultaneous need to keep a substantial part of the Center operating for the public. The Administration should appeal the decision and may soon be able to resume work on the Center, regardless of its name.

Read more …

Not sure why Zerohedge runs a May 11 article, but I already formatted it when I saw that, so…

• Crypto And AI Could Be Dirty Words On 2026 Midterm Campaign Trail (CT)

The AI and crypto industries have made headlines over the past year thanks to the impressive war chests amassed by corporate political action committees (PACs). Profligate spending during the last federal elections in the US has led to unprecedented policy changes favoring the crypto industry, with indications that a full legislative framework in the form of the CLARITY Act is on its way to becoming law. But this hasn’t endeared the crypto industry to voters. Recent polls from Politico show distrust of the crypto industry, and the electorate isn’t sold on the benefits of AI.


“Voters across the ideological spectrum are raising concerns,” Michael Beckel, director of money in politics reform at Issue One, told Cointelegraph. “Some candidates on both sides of the aisle are trying to harness that frustration and outrage.” According to the recent poll by Public First for Politico, most Americans don’t trust crypto and don’t believe in the benefits of AI.

While Republican voters are somewhat more likely to trust crypto, 47% of Americans overall trust a traditional bank over a crypto platform, while 17% trust a crypto platform as much as a traditional bank. The numbers for AI aren’t great either. Some 43% of Americans overall believe that the risks outweigh the benefits, while 33% believe the inverse.

Currently, most people haven’t heard about the major crypto and AI lobbies. According to Politico, only nine percent have heard of AI Super PAC Leading the Future. Only three percent have heard of pro-crypto PAC Fairshake. That’s not much compared to public awareness of large lobbies like the National Rifle Association or the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which are practically household names. Still, association with crypto could be a problem. Ohio Republican Representative Jim Renacci told Politico, “I do think if they see somebody is backed by crypto, that’s always going to be a problem, because, let’s face it, the people that I talk to in Ohio, they don’t understand crypto, and most say they’re not comfortable with [it].”

Improving awareness around crypto lobbies may not help them much. Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen, told Cointelegraph: “Generally speaking, voters are against corporate money influencing politics.” “Even after Citizens United, the norm had been for big, brand-name corporations not to engage directly. Or when they did engage, they would often contribute through dark money groups that obscure their funding source.” In this regard, the crypto industry’s spending spree in 2024 was somewhat unusual. Major contributors like Coinbase or a16z weren’t shy about the millions of dollars they put into campaigns.

But even then, “the voter-facing message from Fairshake was never about crypto, which voters never really cared about.” Mailers and ad buys reflected the supported candidates’ positions more broadly, or sometimes attacked those of the perceived anti-crypto candidate. Overall, “candidates who are seen as not beholden to corporate interests have an electoral edge,” said Claypool. This was true for populist candidates like US Senator Bernie Sanders and even US President Donald Trump, who claimed during his 2016 campaign that “he was so rich he could not be bought, which is laughable in hindsight.”

If awareness about crypto — and crypto’s concerted efforts to influence policy — increases among the electorate, it may not shake out well. Issue One’s Beckel said, “If voters view an industry as toxic, that can have serious implications for candidates who don’t want to be perceived as too close to a controversial company or industry.”

Read more …

If you’re not in the industry or live nearby, how could you know?

• A New Special Interest Coalition for ’26 and ’28, Datacenters (CTH)

A few weeks ago, I was having a politics conversation with a tech insider. The issue of datacenters became a focus of the conversation. The first response from him was “this is the issue that might decide 2026 and will certainly decide 2028.” The tech side of the issue is essentially: As 5G wifi was to mobile connectivity, so too are the datacenters the cornerstone of nationwide AI rollout. Eventually, all of the datacenters will interconnect and become part of a massive information system that houses all knowledge, a great digital brain. From that point, engagement with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems will become like a public utility.


The datacenters themselves can be a hot button issue as their proximity to people creates friction. Battles against datacenters are taking place in rural and non-rural areas alike. With deep pockets and strong national security arguments involving the “AI race,” the technocrats are currently winning the argument. However, as with all special interest issues, the opportunity for political benefit now determines DC advocacy. WATCH:

What are your thoughts on this issue? Is opposition to datacenters strong enough to tilt the outcome of the 2026 midterms? And do you believe 2028 will be determined with this issue at the forefront?

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https://twitter.com/lovetocook12345/status/2060372306308862314?s=20 https://twitter.com/CreasonJana/status/2060427311208386655?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle May 16 2026

May 162026
 
 May 16, 2026  Posted by at 9:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  47 Responses »


Lawrence Alma-Tadema Women of Amphissa 1887


• Making China Dependent on Texas Oil (Scott Pinsker)
• President Trump China Trip Photographs Now Available for Review (CTH)
• Very First Line Of Iran’s Latest Proposal ‘Unacceptable,’ Trump Says (ZH)
• Vladimir Putin Travels to China May 20th (CTH)
• Waging War on the Time Clock (Robert Spencer)
• CIA Head Ratcliffe Spotted In Cuba As Trump Refocuses Crosshairs (ZH)
• CIA Director John Ratcliffe Travels to Cuba IN Hemispheric Security Push (CTH)
• Cuba Falling: There’s a Lot Going On Right Now (Sarah Anderson)
• Resource Scramble (James Howard Kunstler)
• The Party of Anti-Trump Has a Self-Inflicted 2026 Problem (David Manney)
• Is Gavin Newsom Planning to Rig the California Primaries? (Margolis)
• Greg Gutfeld Destroys Whoopi Goldberg (Matt Margolis)
• Europe’s Green Deal Is Unraveling (Moutii)

 


 

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2054739480712548502?s=20 https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2055058213796540470?s=20 https://twitter.com/DavidJHarrisJr/status/2054971186920960053?s=20 https://twitter.com/UnmaskTheSys/status/2055042264318066797?s=20

China’s the biggest importer of oil. The US is the biggest producer.

• Making China Dependent on Texas Oil (Scott Pinsker)

Is there a decent-sized chance that America and China will go to war in the next few decades? You betcha! Chinese President Xi Jinping called it the “Thucydides Trap,” and it’s certainly a plausible scenario: When two rival powers have opposing interests and ambitions, you’re just one diplomatic breakdown away from a military conflict. And China knows it. In a perfect world, China would be 100% independent of the U.S., so if and/or when that day comes, the ChiComs have a free hand to give Uncle Sam the middle finger. But over the next few decades, is there a much bigger chance that a war will break out somewhere in the Middle East? You betcha!


And if you’re China, a country that consumes 90% of Iran’s oil exports — and 90% of all China’s oil imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz (with at least 54% of its oil coming from Middle East nations) — that’s a disastrous vulnerability. You’re just one “Holy War” away from economic Armageddon. China is an oil-dependent state. Over 70% of its oil consumption comes from foreign countries. By a yuuuge margin, it’s the world’s #1 oil importer; China needs fossil fuels to survive. (Fun fact: 58% of China’s power still comes from coal.) In February of 2026, the BBC ran the idiotic story, “As Trump Retreats From Climate Goals, China Is Becoming a Green Superpower.”

The BBC celebrated China’s “investments” in green technology — but if you read beyond the headline and got about 30 paragraphs into the story, a startling reality emerges: China didn’t invest in green energy to use it! Instead, China intended to sell it to the West, taking advantage of “clean energy subsidies” and environmental regulations in Europe and America. But now that President Donald Trump has canceled these subsidies, China is actually LOSING money: Beijing has focused on three key industries: electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels. Already, China makes more solar panels than the rest of the world combined.

[…] Oversupply has also become a domestic challenge. Solar manufacturers have been cutting prices to stay competitive, while investing to keep up with the latest tech and rising raw material costs. The result: the country’s top solar panel makers predicted they would lose up to 38.4 billion yuan ($5.5bn; £4bn) for 2025, Nikkei reported last month. Six provinces reportedly cancelled 143 wind and solar projects with a combined capacity of 10.67 GW in the second half of last year. [emphasis added]

This is why there’s no “green solution” to China’s energy demands: It’s either fossil fuels or economic collapse. This is a vulnerability that President Trump knows well, because he took full advantage of it in his first term. From CNBC (Feb. 9, 2018): “How Soaring U.S. Oil Exports to China Are Transforming the Global Oil Game. U.S. oil shipments to China have surged, creating trade between the world’s two biggest powers that until 2016 just did not exist, and helping Washington in its effort to reduce the nation’s huge trade deficit with China.

[…] Data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows U.S. crude shipments to China went from nothing before 2016 to a record 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January, worth almost $1 billion. Additionally, half a million tonnes of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth almost $300 million, headed to China from the U.S. in January. The U.S. supplies will help reduce China’s huge trade surplus with the U.S. and may help to counter allegations from President Donald Trump that Beijing is trading unfairly. But, alas, it’s also a vulnerability that President Joe Biden badly bungled.

[..] From Bloomberg (Dec. 26, 2024): “US Oil Exports to China Dwindle as Demand Wanes, Buying Shifts. “US crude exports to China plunged by almost half this year as shifts in the nation’s economy weighed on demand and it bought more barrels from other countries including Russia and Iran. Exports of US oil to China plunged to 81.9 million barrels over the course of the year, down 46% from 150.6 million barrels last year, according to data from Kpler. That knocked China down to the sixth-largest buyer of US crude, from second last year. “Now that Trump is back, so are U.S.-to-China oil exports. It’s one of the concessions he won from his recent summit with Xi Jinping.”

Bloomberg (May 15, 2026): “:Trump Says China’s Xi Likes the Idea of Buying More Oil from US “President Donald Trump said his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping likes the idea of buying more US oil, as the leaders meet in Beijing. Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox News, after a White House official on Thursday said China was interested in purchasing more US crude to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Hormuz. The crucial waterway has been effectively closed since the Iran war began in late February, bottling up roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows, driving up prices.”

Here’s Donald Trump in his own words:

It was largely overlooked by the media, but it’s a geopolitical bombshell: Right before our eyes, President Trump just “reoriented” flipped America’s entire China strategy!The summit wasn’t really about Taiwan, Iran, or Thucydides theories; those were just the surface-level optics. Instead, it was all about oil, power, and leverage. And now, Trump is about to pull off the unthinkable: He’s making China dependent on American oil. In 2016, America produced 8,852 thousand barrels of crude oil a day. By 2020, it was 11,336. In 2025, it was 13,586 — and the number is rising each year. Our rate of growth is exceeding our domestic consumption capacity… and all that oil’s gotta go somewhere.

Therein lies our opportunity: Just as OPEC used oil to manipulate foreign governments, America can now use oil exports to keep a lid on China.It’s a win-win deal for all parties. Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska are a helluva lot more stable than Iran and/or the Middle East — which means, China’s economy will be less vulnerable to geopolitical tensions. (Plus, importing billions of barrels of American oil will get Trump off Xi’s back about the trade deficit, which could lower tariffs on Chinese exports. That’d be great news for Chinese companies.) From China’s perspective, the U.S. is now the most attractive option.

And it’s a remarkable victory for America: President Trump has weaponized the economic instability of the Middle East (that he largely caused!) to strongarm China into dependency on U.S. oil. Not only will American companies seize the windfall, but we now have unprecedented leverage over the ChiComs. If they get too big for their britches, we can simply turn off China’s lights. In the 1800s, Britain and France defeated China in the Opium Wars, getting the Chinese hooked on Opium. (Which wasn’t very nice: Opium is highly addictive.) But for industries of scale, oil is far more addictive than opium: China literally can’t function without it. Donald Trump already took Venezuelan oil offline. Iran is kaput. Russia is saddled with sanctions. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, and other Middle East nations can no longer safely access the Strait of Hormuz.

Yet America’s oil output keeps growing — as does China’s energy demands.

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“Chairman Xi ended up having to shake his hand. Because Donald J Trump.”

• President Trump China Trip Photographs Now Available for Review (CTH)

White House official photographer Daniel Torok just announced that all of the Beijing trip photographs have been uploaded to the White House Flickr Account. I was hoping Torok captured this moment, and indeed he did.

China blacklisted him, sanctioned him, blocked him, and then Chairman Xi ended up having to shake his hand. Because Donald J Trump.

https://twitter.com/dto_rok/status/2055424658984378438?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2055424658984378438%7Ctwgr%5Ecaea5f30e1406d5e5d5222889f67828e9f107d9f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F05%2F15%2Fpresident-trump-china-trip-photographs-now-available-for-review%2F

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“..they have fully agreed no nuclear, and if they have any nuclear of any form, I don’t read the rest,”

Iran will end up without any nukes.

• Very First Line Of Iran’s Latest Proposal ‘Unacceptable,’ Trump Says (ZH)

Tehran and Washington are truly not just back to square one, but it’s as if no rounds of dialogue – direct or indirect – have even taken place. It’s more like being back at square zero – and the US President has just acknowledged it. President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Friday while departing Beijing that even the very first first sentence of Iran’s latest proposal was “unacceptable” and blamed the Iranians for backtracking on the nuclear issue. The first sentence was an “unacceptable sentence, because they have fully agreed no nuclear, and if they have any nuclear of any form, I don’t read the rest,” he said, stressing that he remains unsatisfied with the “level of guarantee from them.”


Trump’s remarks center on his allegation that Iran agreed to give up its “nuclear dust” but then quickly “then they took it back” – but then stated his view that Tehran will eventually agree to it anyway. “I looked at it, and I don’t like the first sentence. I just throw it away,” Trump said. He once again in the comments called for Iran to completely abandon any nuclear capability, insisting there can be “no nuclear of any form.” He described: “You’ve got to get all the fuel out and no more production. You have to get everything.” Trump has said China’s President Xi Jinping is in full agreement that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon:

According to Trump, Iranian representatives acknowledged only the United States and possibly China possess the specialized equipment necessary to remove radioactive debris from the damaged sites. “They said the only one that can remove it is China or the U.S.,” Trump said. “They said you were right. It is a complete obliteration.” The president has said the nuclear material is now “entombed” under ground after nuclear sites were “obliterated” – from bombing operations last June and this latest round of US-Israeli attacks in February through March and early April. Also this week while in China Trump told Fox News in an interview that he did not underestimate the situation in Iran, despite the constantly shifting and expanding timeline and stated goals within the early weeks of Operation Epic Fury.

TRUMP TO FOX: DIDN’T UNDERESTIMATE ANYTHING ON IRAN
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that the topic of uranium enrichment “is currently not on the agenda of discussions or negotiations,” but will be addressed in later stages, as cited in Tasnim. On China and whether President Xi agreed to commit to pressuring the Iranians to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said Friday “we don’t need favors” but that “we may have to do a little cleanup work.” “We had a little month-long ceasefire, I guess you’d call it, but we have a blockade that’s so effective, that’s why we did the ceasefire,” he said, after suggesting that the conflict with Iran could continue.

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I have to admit, I’m not sure what Sundance means…

• Vladimir Putin Travels to China May 20th (CTH)

The noticing of things continues….


RUSSIA – “Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to arrive in Beijing for a one-day visit on May 20, just days after the conclusion of President Xi Jinping’s landmark summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. Sources told the South China Morning Post the visit was part of Moscow’s routine dealings with Beijing, with little expectation that there would be an elaborate parade or welcome. It will be the first time that China has hosted the leaders of the two powers in the same month outside a multilateral setting, a reflection of Beijing’s efforts to manage ties with both and position itself as a pivotal power amid an increasingly fractured world order. (read more)

No parades.

All business.

More coincidences.

The noticing continues….

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“Only Losers, Ingrates, and Fools are able to make a case against America!”

• Waging War on the Time Clock (Robert Spencer)

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump wrote: “When the Fake News says that the Iranian enemy is doing well, Militarily, against us, it’s virtual TREASON in that it is such a false, and even preposterous, statement. They are aiding and abetting the enemy! All it does is give Iran false hope when none should exist. These are American cowards that are rooting against our Country. Iran had 159 ships in their Navy — Every single ship is now resting at the bottom of the sea. They have no Navy, their Air Force is gone, all Technology is gone, their “leaders” are no longer with us, and the Country is an Economic Disaster. Only Losers, Ingrates, and Fools are able to make a case against America!” President DONALD J. TRUMP


The Islamic Republic of Iran is indeed nurturing hope, but it doesn’t appear to be based on the establishment media’s cheerleading for anyone, no matter how vicious or evil, who opposes Trump. Ali Khezrian, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Majles, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s legislative body, on Friday expressed the confidence that the United States would soon be driven out of the Middle East altogether. Far-fetched? Undoubtedly. Unlikely? Absolutely. So is Khezrian just assuming a Baghdad Bob-like pose of braggadocio in the face of disaster? Possibly. Or he could be watching the election cycle in the United States.

Khezrian was so confident that events would turn in the Islamic Republic’s favor that he warned that the leaders of the Islamic regime would take revenge on the United Arab Emirates once the U.S. was gone and the crisis was over. “In the past week,” Khezrian declared, “the Emiratis have learned many lessons. However, compared to what they are yet to learn, the lessons they were taught so far are like preschool versus academic studies.”

Warming to his theme, Khezrian blamed the Emiratis for supposedly wishing to “escalate the tension in the region, in cahoots with the Zionists.” Of course! Who else could be behind it? He added: “They know that when the Islamic Republic of Iran emerges from this war, and the Americans are driven out of the region, [Iran] will put them through hell. Iran will not just let go of the UAE, and they know it.” All right. But what was that bit about the Americans being “driven out of the region”? Nothing seems much less likely at this point, but at the same time, it must be acknowledged that the Americans could well stop attacking the Islamic Republic of Iran before the threat that it poses is fully neutralized.

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We’ll hear and see a lot about Cuba. I think it might take all summer. The US will be kind. Here’s 3 different takes.

• CIA Head Ratcliffe Spotted In Cuba As Trump Refocuses Crosshairs (ZH)

We noted on Thursday that, once President Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded, the Trump team’s next focus would likely shift back toward Cuba. That pivot now appears underway. Aboard Air Force One early Friday, while returning stateside, Trump told reporters that “Cuba needs our help,” signaling the Caribbean island nation is moving higher on the administration’s agenda.


A new AP report offers more insight into how the Trump administration is shifting attention back toward Cuba: CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with officials in Havana on Thursday, reopening a channel for political dialogue between the two countries.

Ratcliffe and top U.S. officials, some of whose faces were blurred in images released by the CIA on X, held high-level talks with Cuba’s Interior Minister, the head of Cuban intelligence, and Raúl Castro’s grandson, Raulito Rodríguez Castro. Havana’s communist government released a statement noting that the meeting “took place Thursday, May 14, against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations.” AP noted that Cuban officials presented a report to Ratcliffe and his team, claiming to demonstrate that the communist-run island poses no threat to U.S. national security. Consequently, Havana maintains there are no legitimate grounds for its continued inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

However… As per The Washington Times, “Cuba’s intelligence apparatus is training foreign nationals to wage war against the West.” Thursday’s meeting comes after a report that Cuba’s power grid collapsed further into blackout conditions, as Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy warned that the island is completely out of fuel for diesel generators. This comes as Trump’s fuel blockade remains in effect. Let’s not forget that the Trump team is prepared to provide $100 million in direct humanitarian assistance if Havana moves forward with political reforms after decades of nation-killing communism.

Trump Says Cuba Is Seeking Help: ‘We Are Going To Talk’
Trump and his team appear to be refocusing their efforts on the Western Hemisphere, with more news on Cuba likely to come next week.

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They could have waited till Trump was back. But no.

• CIA Director John Ratcliffe Travels to Cuba In Hemispheric Security Push (CTH)

In a remarkable development, CIA Director John Ratcliffe travelled to Cuba on Thursday to meet with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro the grandson of former Cuban President Raúl Castro. Also present at the meeting was Cuban Interior Minister Lazaro Alvarez Casas and the head of Cuba’s intelligence services. In late April of this year, a few State Department officials visited Havana and held talks with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro about a potential diplomatic deal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also previously spoken directly to Mr. Rodríguez Castro who appears to be acting as somewhat of a bridge between the Cuban government and various Trump administration officials.


VIA CUBAN GOVT Press Release – “Based on the request presented by the U.S. government that a delegation headed by the director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, be received in Havana, the Directorate of the Revolution approved the realization of this visit and the meeting with its counterpart from the Ministry of the Interior. The meeting took place on Thursday, May 14, in a context characterized by the complexity of bilateral relations, in order to contribute to the political dialogue between the two nations, as part of the efforts to face the current scenario.

The evidence provided by the Cuban side and the exchanges held with the United States delegation made it possible to demonstrate categorically that Cuba does not constitute a threat to the national security of the United States, nor are there any legitimate reasons for including it in the list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism. During the meeting, it was possible to verify the consistency and congruence in the historical position of our country with the actions of the Cuban government and its competent authorities, in the confrontation and unequivocal condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”

“Once again it was evident that the island does not harbor, support, finance or allow terrorist or extremist organizations; nor are there any military or foreign intelligence bases on its territory, and it has never supported any hostile activity against the United States nor will it allow Cuba to act against another nation. The interest of both sides in developing bilateral cooperation between law enforcement and enforcement agencies was also evident, based on the security of both nations, regional and international.” According to CBS News – “CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana, Cuba, on Thursday for a rare meeting with senior Cuban officials, an agency official told CBS News, using the visit to deliver a message that the U.S. was prepared to expand economic and security engagement with Cuba if Havana “makes fundamental changes.”

The meeting came as Cuba is contending with a massive power failure to its national energy grid amid U.S. sanctions that have caused an oil and gas shortage crisis to the island nation. Ratcliffe told Cuban leaders the administration was offering “a genuine opportunity for collaboration” and a chance to stabilize Cuba’s struggling economy, while cautioning that the opportunity would not remain open indefinitely and the administration would enforce “red lines” if necessary, the official said.

The meeting in Havana follows a series of public comments from President Trump that talks with Cuba were imminent. Earlier this week, Mr. Trump said “Cuba is asking for help,” and indicated talks would begin “at the right time.” Cuban officials publicly confirmed Thursday’s meeting, characterizing it as part of efforts to maintain political dialogue despite what Havana called “complex bilateral relations.” {source}

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In detail.

• Cuba Falling: There’s a Lot Going On Right Now (Sarah Anderson)

The situation in Cuba may be at or near a breaking point. Many experts — real ones whom I trust and learn from regularly, not just whoever the MSM could dig up — are calling today the “beginning of the end” of the regime that has been in power for 67 years. On Thursday, the country’s energy minister, Vicente de la O Levy, said on state media, “We have absolutely no fuel and absolutely no diesel. We have no reserves.” Of course, he went on to blame the U.S. “blockade,” which prevents other countries from sending oil to Cuba via secondary tariffs, but we all know that’s not the real problem.


Even when the regime was receiving super cheap oil from Venezuela or Mexico, it was selling most of it to foreign countries and using what was left to keep its own interests up and running. The Cuban people were still dealing with blackouts. And the lack of oil wasn’t the only issue. The infrastructure there is crumbling, and the regime refuses to fix or maintain it.

Major Protests Break Out as Regime Cuts Communication Lines
Blackouts in many neighborhoods are now reaching 22 hours a day, which has set off a new wave of protests this week. People are losing their fear of the regime — they can no longer live like this — and they’re begging the United States to end it. There have been some photos and videos posted on social media, and advocates for a free Cuba, like Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), are asking people who can to spread the word about the protests. Why? The regime has now reportedly cut off all lines of communication in the country, including phone and internet service. They do not want the outside world to see what’s really going on.

https://twitter.com/RepCarlos/status/2054906947174793730?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2054906947174793730%7Ctwgr%5E8792571983550d66a1ee10390f84fee645d9cbe0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fsarah-anderson%2F2026%2F05%2F14%2Fcuba-falling-whats-all-this-talk-about-100-million-n4952867

With that in mind, I’ll share a few videos from Wednesday night. Most of the captions are in Spanish, but they all basically say the same thing, explaining that people are in the streets protesting. While people are losing their fear and taking to the streets, they’re still not safe from the regime. The human rights organization Prison Defenders released its monthly report on the number of political prisoners in Cuba, and in April 2026, it hit a record high of 1,260 detained. To make matters worse, 14 are minors, 142 are women, 449 have serious medical conditions, and 51 have untreated severe mental health issues.

https://twitter.com/ArturoMcfields/status/2054987233543782633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2054987233543782633%7Ctwgr%5E8d92fe2ad96552e758318b0e3e77de87ca07ec4d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fsarah-anderson%2F2026%2F05%2F14%2Fcuba-falling-whats-all-this-talk-about-100-million-n4952867

Rubio’s Most Recent Statements
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is currently on travel with President Donald Trump to China, but he sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on the way there, and one topic they discussed is what’s going on in Cuba. He didn’t say anything particularly new. He’s been saying all along that Cuba has no economy and the current people in charge aren’t competent enough to fix that. “There is no economy in Cuba,” he said. “To the extent there’s any wealth in Cuba… forget about it doesn’t go to the people. It doesn’t even go to the government. The wealth is controlled by a private company owned by military generals. They take all the money. They’re sitting on billions of dollars, okay?

This is a country where people are literally now eating garbage from the streets, but they have a company that controls all of the moneymaking there that’s sitting on $15-16 billion.” Of course, he’s talking about GAESA, which he sanctioned heavily last week. Then he spoke about Cuba’s potential: The one thing Cuba would enjoy is an enormous expatriate community, Cuban Americans that would go back and invest. But I think there would be interest globally. Look, they have significant mineral deposits in Cuba — some of the rare earth minerals, some of the best in the world.

They have, obviously, an incredible opportunity with tourism, with agriculture – very rich farmland. So Cuba should not be a poor country. Its people should not be starving. Its people should be prosperous. And what’s most interesting is you see Cubans everywhere in the world – in the United States, but you see them in Europe, you see them in Panama. Cubans leave Cuba, they go to other countries, and they become successful. The only place in the world where Cubans can’t seem to prosper and succeed is in Cuba.

What’s All This About $100 Million in Aid? While in Italy last week, Rubio spoke about how the United States has tried to give the Cuban people $100 million in aid, but the regime wouldn’t allow it. Of course, it wouldn’t go directly to the regime — the Cuban people would never see it if it did — but it would be handled through Catholic charities as we’ve done previously with smaller amounts.

Rubio also talked about that on Hannity:

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“Trump has done so much damage to libtardery that the Democrats will need a decade of uninterrupted power to undo it, which they’re not going to get.” —Matt Forney on X:

• Resource Scramble (James Howard Kunstler)

If you learned anything from this week’s extravaganza in Beijing, it is that Donald Trump is aggressively re-aligning world relations so that the USA does not end up one of the losers in the global resource scramble that lurks darkly behind all current events. China does not intend to be an eventual loser, either, though it has lost a lot of traction lately. The Eurolands are certainly the main losers, embracing loserdom as the old and sick long for death. India and some of the BRICs countries, are looking a little loser-ish just now.


The primary resource all nations scramble for is oil. Without lavish supplies of oil, you can’t have an advanced techno-industrial economy and, as the feckless Eurolanders learned the hard way, there really isn’t an adequate substitute for oil. The flow of oil depends on economically producible reserves of oil country-by-country, but also on geographic advantage, as we are learning just now in the Hormuz crisis.

Also, turns out, the peak oil story is still real, despite fifteen years of shale oil miracles. The Persian Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia are probably past peak. American shale oil is in the peaking zone, too — the Permian Basin in Texas is running short of sweet spots. The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (AMWR) is open for leasing, but it is expensive to drill and produce in the harsh arctic region and the US Geological Survey estimates recoverable reserves there between 7.7 – 10 billion barrels — America consumes roughly 7.5 billion barrels-a-year, so. . . .

There’s Canada, of course, and its tar sands, but the Great White North these days leans rather hostilely towards its neighbor to the south (us). Otherwise, North America is pretty fully explored oil-wise. There can’t be a whole lot of hidden, un-tapped “elephant” fields out there. On the plus side, America enjoys its geographic advantage, comfortably cushioned between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, far from the madding crowd of Eurasia. We have lately trumpeted our supposed acquisition of Venezuela, but projected production of US companies there looking ahead several years would be under a million barrels-a-day while the US uses 20.5-million barrels a day. As for Venezuela’s jungle-bound oil sands, well, for now, fuggeddabowdit.

Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources puts its commercially recoverable oil resources (with current technology and prices) at around 80-billion barrels, which is a lot, and leaves Russia in a theoretically favorable place for the short term, anyway. China uses about 17-million barrels-a-day and imports about 70-percent of that. Its imports of Iranian oil are substantial but obscured in official statistics due to the evasion of US sanctions. The Hormuz blockade has put a hurt on China.

Here’s how the global resource scramble translates into geopolitical behavior: As has been evident for some time, US interests are increasingly alienated from Euroland’s interests, and better aligned with Russia’s interests. Europe is demonstrably insane these days, roiling with loose talk as it whirls around the drain. Russia, under V. Putin, looks more like the adult in the room. Even Russia’s military operation in Ukraine looks rational if you consider how the EU and the CIA started the damn thing in the first place circa 2014 for the very purpose of provoking Russia.

Mr. Trump has yearned to normalize relations with Russia since he stepped on-stage in 2016, to the great consternation of America’s neocons, CIA shadow-meisters, and the born-again communists running the Democratic Party (who seem to resent Russia ditching Marxism-Leninism thirty-five years ago). This week, the US and China have mutually proposed becoming “partners” rather than rivals on the world scene. We will surely remain mutually wary, but apparently things have changed.

Most urgently, China would like its oil imports from the Persian Gulf restored, and the obvious way to make that happen would be for them to lean on Iran to stop screwing around and come to terms with the US — give up the enriched uranium and stop laying jihad on everybody near and far. We’ll know soon enough if China will do that for us, and we have some goodies promised for them, Nvidia chips, soybeans, and more.

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“Money doesn’t solve every political problem, but broke parties don’t scare many people.”

• The Party of Anti-Trump Has a Self-Inflicted 2026 Problem (David Manney)

There’s an old rule in politics: when your opponent starts breaking furniture in his own house, don’t grab a hammer and help him. President Donald Trump may not need much help heading into the 2026 midterms because Democrats keep creating problems they don’t have to create, then acting shocked when the floor gives way. Democrats should have a built-in advantage; the party out of power usually performs well in midterms, and Republicans carry the weight of governing. Yet Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin faces donor frustration, as the AP reports, plus fundraising worries, debt, and private complaints from party figures who expected a sharper rebound after Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential race.


The handwringing comes despite the Democratic Party’s undeniable success in the vast majority of elections under Martin’s leadership, which coincides with Republican President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Democrats over the last year have dominated races for governor and special elections for state legislative and congressional seats. They’ve also won campaigns for state supreme court, county executive and even county sheriff. Less than six months before the 2026 midterm elections, however, the concern over Martin’s leadership is, at best, an unwanted distraction for a party desperate to break the Republican Party’s grip on power in Washington.

And, at worst, the conflict will make it harder for Democrats to win in November, while undermining faith in the DNC as it coordinates the party’s next presidential nomination process. Martin declined to comment for this article. He has sought to avoid media interviews over the last week, preferring to keep his head down while focusing on improving the DNC’s financial health and scouting potential sites for the presidential convention in 2028. The DNC has roughly $22 million in cash on hand and over $18 million in debt, and, as ABC News reports, the Republican National Committee has reported far more cash and no debt.

With six months until the high-stakes midterm elections, the Democratic Party is struggling to raise money and keep up with its GOP counterparts, leading to frustrations among some donors with Democratic National Committee leadership and its chair Ken Martin. At the end of March, the Republican National Committee outraised the DNC $21.2 million to $11.4 million, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The RNC reported having nearly eight times more cash on hand — $116 million to the DNC’s $13.8 million. In addition, the DNC is a little over $18 million in debt, according to FEC filings.

Democrats, though, are performing better than they did in 2018 at this point in the cycle when the party had raised $7 million and had little more than $9 million cash on hand. The party had just under $6 million in debt at that time, too. Money doesn’t solve every political problem, but broke parties don’t scare many people. Democrats spent years treating “anything but Trump” as a full-service platform. When that strategy didn’t beat him for good, they kept adding darker labels and louder warnings. The strategy now looks tired; voters still hear plenty about Trump’s alleged threats to democracy, but they hear far less about what Democrats would do on prices, the border, energy, crime, or the basic daily costs eating family budgets.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) remains the top House Democratic voice, and he’s still pushing hard to win back the speaker’s gavel. His path grew harder after Virginia’s Supreme Court struck down a Democratic-backed congressional map in a 4-3 ruling on May 8, 2026. The map could’ve helped Democrats gain as many as four Republican-held U.S. House seats, but the court correctly ruled that lawmakers failed to follow the proper legal process when they rushed the measure onto the ballot. The map loss hurt because Democrats had counted on redistricting as part of their comeback plan. Jeffries can still talk about intensity, turnout, and candidate quality, but a blocked map removes one of the easier paths back to power.

The setback also exposes the larger problem: Democrats keep accusing Republicans of rigging maps while chasing their map advantage wherever they can find it. Voters may not follow every legal filing, but they can smell hypocrisy when it walks past them wearing cologne. The Texas redistricting fight also deserves cleaner language than the usual Trump-blame reflex. Biden’s Justice Department sued Texas in December 2021 over congressional and state House redistricting plans. Trump didn’t invent that fight by waving a Sharpie over Austin. His Justice Department later withdrew from the Biden-era case in March 2025. The full timeline doesn’t fit the “Trump dictator” routine, so it often gets flattened into something more useful for campaign emails.

Democrats still have real chances in 2026 because midterms punish presidents. Republican mistakes will happen, voters will get restless, and no serious person should pretend the GOP can coast. Yet Democrats keep making Trump’s job easier by offering anger as a meal and calling it dinner. Ken Martin has a money problem, Jeffries has a map problem, and Harris left Democrats with a morale problem. The party’s loudest voices still sound more interested in another Trump impeachment fantasy than a serious governing pitch. Trump’s best midterm strategy may be patience; let Democrats explain why their debts, blocked maps, stale message, and leadership fights prove they’re ready for Congress again.

Let Hakeem Jeffries keep selling the same anti-Trump act while the DNC passes the hat and donors check the exits. A party can survive defeat, but it has a much harder time surviving when defeat teaches it nothing.

Again.

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Only if he finds a way. Who do they have? Buttigieg, Kamala and this pretty boy? Against Trump and Rubioi? Only thing they can do is impeach..

• Is Gavin Newsom Planning to Rig the California Primaries? (Margolis)

Just yesterday, I wrote about how Democrats were using Republican redistricting efforts as an excuse to finally “take the gloves off” and “crush their souls” — as if they hadn’t spent the last several decades perfecting the art of dirty politics in their quest for permanent power. And, of course, California was quick to prove my point. Gavin Newsom casually revealed that he has a “break-the-glass” contingency plan to ensure at least one Democrat advances to the general election in California’s June gubernatorial primary.


California’s “jungle primary” system, where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to November, was specifically engineered to freeze Republicans out of competitive general elections. It worked beautifully — for Democrats — for years. Now, with too many Democratic candidates splitting the vote, there’s a real chance the system could backfire and lock out Democrats instead. And suddenly, the will of the voters isn’t quite so sacred. Newsom was candid about where his priorities lie. “I do not see that scenario taking place,” he said, dismissing the possibility of a Democratic shutout.

Now, in fairness, he’s probably right, but anything is possible. And that’s the problem. Leaving it up to voters isn’t something Democrats are particularly fond of, and Newsom admitted to behind-the-scenes efforts to “rally people” and pointed vaguely to others who “have a deep understanding of what it would look like if Democrats were locked out.” Right… just “rallying voters”? Does that sound like a “contingency plan” to you? Democrats could potentially get locked out of the general election, and all Newsom is going to do about it is send out a few mailers and give a few speeches. Sure. Remember, this is the same party that was trying to compel lower-tier Democrat candidates to drop out several weeks ago to help consolidate Democrat support.

Seriously: None of the things he mentioned as part of the “break-the-glass” contingency plan are anything but garden-variety campaigning strategies these days. The Democratic Governors Association has been mailing pieces highlighting Republican candidate Steve Hilton as a fierce conservative. By amplifying Hilton’s conservative credentials among GOP voters, the DGA is trying to help him consolidate Republican support in the primary. A stronger Hilton draws votes away from the other major Republican candidate, Chad Bianco. If Bianco can’t claw his way into the top two, Democrats get exactly the outcome they’re engineering.

And, of course, they’re using “opposition research” as a get-out-the-vote operation for a Republican they’d rather face — or use as a spoiler. That kind of thing has been going on for years. So, color me concerned that when Newsom starts talking about contingency plans, he’s got something else in mind to rig the primary to ensure at least one Democrat advances to the general election. Democrats have always fought dirty. The only thing that’s changed is they’re not even pretending otherwise anymore. But trust me: Newsom knows that his legacy is on the line in this election, and he isn’t relying on standard campaign strategies to ensure the primary goes his way.

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“Not that anyone was watching it ..”

• Greg Gutfeld Destroys Whoopi Goldberg (Matt Margolis)

Not that anyone was watching it, but Whoopi Goldberg had a meltdown on The View this week, and Greg Gutfeld made sure she didn’t get away with it. Whoopi went on this rambling tangent about how nobody is running the country. She torched Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, and basically every official in the Trump administration. “I have no faith in the people who are running anything,” she said. “I don’t believe in anybody who is running this country right now.”


Of course, none of them were asking for Whoopi’s endorsement or vote of confidence. Not that that mattered. But, of course, she wasn’t done. She went full theater-of-the-absurd and accused Trump of neutering the entire United States of America. “We have been de-balled as a nation, I feel,” Whoopi said on air. Oh, that’s what she feels, huh? Seriously, who actually watches The View for political analysis? It was bizarre and bore no resemblance to reality. And Greg Gutfeld destroyed her on The Five.

“Whoopi accuses Trump of castrating America,” Gutfeld said Thursday. “Sorry, Whoopi. Guys, stop getting erections around you years before Trump got into office. Do not blame him for your dateless weekends. Ouch. Of course, the whole premise of Whoopi’s complaint collapsed the moment anyone applied even a minimal standard of scrutiny. Gutfeld pointed right at it. “Who is she comparing Trump to?” he said. “Emily went over all of his achievements. But you have to look at how world leaders react to him. You think, No one’s in charge of the United States. Trump’s in charge of the U.S., and it looks like whenever he’s around world leaders, he’s in charge of them, too. They treat him like a rock star.”

That’s the part that Whoopi and The View panel keep deliberately ignoring. While they’re clutching their pearls over every little thing Trump does (or doesn’t do), Trump is commanding rooms full of foreign heads of state. These are not people who fawn over weakness. They respond to strength, and the world has noticed it. There’s a huge difference between Trump and Joe Biden, who exuded weakness and was routinely seen as a joke. And he saved his sharpest line for the end. “The only people being de-balled in this country are the children of liberals who trans them for virtue points at the wine club.”

Ouch. But earned. But back to Whoopi’s rant. How exactly does she justify claiming Trump has neutered the entire United States of America? Think about this for a second. Trump is actually doing something about Iran — something multiple administrations promised and never delivered. For decades, presidents made tough speeches and then flinched. Trump actually did something. And how about his tariff strategy? After years of other countries taking advantage of the United States, Trump fought back, and it’s working. He’s gotten trade deals that are fair for the United States as a result.

Whatever metric Whoopi is using to make her critique of the Trump administration isn’t based in reality. America is not weaker. America is back at the head of the table, and the people sitting around it know it.

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A lot of plans and promises were made, without checking if they could be delivered. Europe sentenced itself. It still does.

• Europe’s Green Deal Is Unraveling (Moutii)

Over the past decade, Europe has played a leading role in shaping global climate policy, highlighted by the launch of the European Green Deal in 2019 — Ursula von der Leyen described it as a “man on the moon moment.” The initiative aims to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 while fostering innovation and strengthening its industrial base. Yet several years later, the results are deeply disappointing. Instead of meeting its goals, the Green Deal is increasingly associated with higher energy costs, weakened competitiveness, and growing political backlash. It has deepened divisions within the EU, strained global relations, and increased pressure on households and businesses — raising serious doubts about its feasibility and long-term economic impact.


How Green Ideology Undermines Europe’s Economy
Europe’s economic stagnation points to a deeper structural problem in its energy and climate strategy — one closely tied to the direction set by the European Green Deal. Since its launch, competitiveness has eroded sharply, with soaring energy costs at its core. Electricity prices in Europe are now two to three times higher than in the United States and China, with taxes accounting for nearly a quarter of the total cost.

These outcomes largely stem from policy choices. The EU’s binding targets — net zero by 2050 and a 55-percent emissions reduction by 2030 — have constrained energy supply, despite Europe accounting for only six percent of global emissions. At the same time, phasing out nuclear, restricting gas, and relying on intermittent renewables have weakened energy security and increased price volatility. For industry — where energy can account for up to 30 percent of total production costs — this, combined with carbon pricing, has become a critical constraint, driving firms to scale back, relocate, or shut down, accelerating deindustrialization across the continent.

The automotive industry clearly illustrates these pressures: representing over seven percent of EU GDP and nearly 14 million jobs, the sector is under pressure from the 2035 ban on combustion engines, forcing a rapid shift to electric vehicles despite unresolved technological challenges and market constraints. As Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius warned, the policy risks driving the sector “full speed into a wall.” The consequences for the sector are already visible: declining production, mounting restructuring, and significant job losses — 86,000 jobs since 2020, with up to 350,000 more at risk by 2035 — while tightening regulations are set to reduce profits by seven to eight percent by 2030, pushing the sector toward losses and eroding Europe’s automotive leadership.

Agriculture has also become one of the Green Deal’s clearest casualties. Stricter rules on emissions, land use, pesticides, and fertilizers are raising costs and increasing yield volatility, hitting small farmers hardest and accelerating consolidation among large agribusinesses. Targets such as cutting pesticide use by 50 percent and expanding organic farming risk significant declines in output, threatening both rural livelihoods and food security. Rather than enabling farmers to innovate and improve productivity, these policies are constraining production — fueling widespread protests and weakening both competitiveness and sustainability.

Taken together, these pressures are not isolated — they reflect a broader economic burden. The European Commission estimates that the transition will require at least €260 billion in additional investment each year, with total costs reaching up to 12 percent of EU GDP — a burden that is increasingly difficult for the European economy to sustain.

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https://twitter.com/ScaryEurope/status/2054895741185978569?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle May 12 2026

May 122026
 
 May 12, 2026  Posted by at 9:03 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  53 Responses »


Henri Matisse The Dessert – Harmony in Red 1908


• Trump to Iran: Time’s Up (Robert Spencer)
• Trump: Iran Ceasefire ‘On Life Support’ (JTN)
• Trump Mulls Military Action As Ceasefire On “Life Support” (ZH)
• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Mullahs Already (Stephen Green)
• Khamenei Orders Iran’s Army To ‘Continue Decisive Operations’ (Cradle)
• Confused About Iran? Here’s What U.S. Victory Looks Like. (Victoria Taft)
• EU Prepares For ‘Potential’ Talks With Putin As US Slowly Reduces Troops (ZH)
• Putin’s Failure as a World Leader has Cleared the Path to WW III (PCR)
• The Earth Moves Just a Bit (James Howard Kunstler)
• Durov Slams French Hypocrisy Over X Crackdown (RT)
• Um… Did the GOP Just Win the Midterms? (Stephen Green)
• Zelensky Touts That 20 Countries Seek Ukraine Drone Deals (ZH)
• White House Identifies Treatment Course for TDS Sufferers (CTH)
• Trump Floats Making Venezuela The 51st State (ZH)
• “You Just Can’t Earn a Billion Dollars”: AOC (Turley)

 


 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2053517163177169095?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2053838729467371690?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2053635138765062154?s=20 https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2053546881050169600?s=20

 


 


“I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

• Trump to Iran: Time’s Up (Robert Spencer)

“Iran,” said President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post early on Sunday afternoon, “has been playing games with the United States, and the rest of the World, for 47 years (DELAY, DELAY, DELAY!),” and there is no doubt that his assessment is true, particularly in regard to the present on-and-off negotiations. Now, however, Trump has issued an ominous warning that the surviving leaders of the Islamic Republic would be wise to take seriously, which doesn’t at all mean that they will do so.


The leaders of the Islamic Republic, whoever they may be, have been playing a delaying game with Trump with the peace talks, and that’s essentially all that those talks were or ever could be. This is clear from the very fact that Iran is an Islamic republic that strives to adhere to Islamic principles and laws in all of its dealings. Islamic law allows for a truce between a Muslim force and a non-Muslim one only under two circumstances: if the non-Muslim force is about to convert to Islam, which is obviously not in play here (although it could be sooner than anyone expects), and if the Muslim force is losing the war, and needs time to gather strength to fight again more effectively.

There is no scenario in Islamic law in which a Muslim force and a non-Muslim one sign a treaty for a lasting peace, lay down their arms, and coexist. The assumption among Western policymakers that the Islamic Republic of Iran would do such a thing under any circumstances is based on those policymakers’ willful ignorance regarding Islamic law, and fond assumption that everyone in the world thinks just the way they do. Trump went on in his Truth Social post to skewer a pair of his predecessors for showering the Islamic Republic with American largesse in pursuit of exactly that chimerical peaceful coexistence:

“…and then finally hit “pay dirt” when Barack Hussein Obama became President. He was not only good to them, he was great, actually going to their side, jettisoning Israel, and all other Allies, and giving Iran a major and very powerful new lease on life. Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and 1.7 Billion Dollars in green cash, flown into Tehran, was handed to them on a silver platter. Every Bank in D.C., Virginia, and Maryland was emptied out — It was so much money that when it arrived, the Iranian Thugs had no idea what to do with it. They had never seen money like this, and never will again. It was taken off the plane in suitcases and satchels, and the Iranians couldn’t believe their luck. They finally found the greatest SUCKER of them all, in the form of a weak and stupid American President. He was a disaster as our “Leader,” but not as bad as Sleepy Joe Biden!”

Trump was right about Obama giving the Islamic Republic a “very powerful new lease on life.” Without the financial boost that Obama gave to the mullahs, they likely would not have survived the nationwide protests that swept Iran several times since Obama’s billions arrived. Those protests were ruthlessly suppressed, and the money for that suppression came from the United States. Adding insult to injury for the long-suffering people of Iran, Old Joe Biden sent them $10 billion. All this cash has kept the bloodthirsty Islamic regime alive. Trump continued:

“For 47 years the Iranians have been “tapping” us along, keeping us waiting, killing our people with their roadside bombs, destroying protests, and recently wiping out 42,000 innocent, unarmed protestors, and laughing at our now GREAT AGAIN Country. They will be laughing no longer! President DONALD J. TRUMP” Just over two hours after posting this, Trump added: “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

What Trump will do now is anybody’s guess, but one thing is certain: the Islamic Republic will keep on behaving belligerently and aggressively toward the United States and Israel as long as it continues to exist. It cannot end its hostility to either country without ceasing to be an Islamic republic. It hates the U.S. because free society and representative government is the foremost competitor to the Sharia-based society that it wishes to export, and it hates Israel because the Qur’an designates the Jews as the “most vehement in hostility” to the Muslims (5:82).

And as long as Iran is losing, it will continue to delay. Trump is correct to call them out. Now is the time to act.

Read more …

“I didn’t even waste my time reading all of it. It’s on life support..”

• Trump: Iran Ceasefire ‘On Life Support’ (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Monday stated that the ceasefire with Iran was “on life support” amid a growing diplomatic deadline between Tehran and Washington and the exchange of live rounds across the Persian Gulf. It’s unbelievably weak. After reading that garbage they sent over? I didn’t even waste my time reading all of it. It’s on life support,” he told reporters. “I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘sir, your loved one has approximately 1% chance of living.'”


Trump’s remarks came from the Oval Office during an unrelated event. He also lamented the difficulties of dealing with Iran, saying they agreed to commitments and then backed out. He rejected the Iranian peace proposal over the weekend, calling it “totally unacceptable.” Earlier this month, Iran and the United Arab Emirates exchanged fire across the Persian Gulf, despite the ceasefire, with Iran launching missiles toward UAE territory and striking at least one industrial oil facility.

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Iran act like they’re winning.

“Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous.” However, US officials continue to insist on their “unreasonable demands,” Baghaei stressed. He described that Iran’s demands for the war to stop, for the US to lift its blockade, and the release Iran’s frozen assets, remain legitimate..”

• Trump Mulls Military Action As Ceasefire On “Life Support” (ZH)

President Trump is meeting with his national security team Monday to discuss the way forward in the Iran war, including possibly resuming military action, after negotiations with the countrydeadlocked on Sunday, three U.S. officials told Axios. U.S. officials say Trump wants a deal to end the war, but Iran’s rejection of many of his demands and refusal to make meaningful concessions on its nuclear program puts the military option back on the table. This sent oil prices back to the highs of the day…


President Trump also told Fox, that he sees a 1% chance of an Iran deal materializing and succeeding, as even the ceasefire is one of “the weakest, on life support”: President Donald Trump called out the “piece of garbage” peace proposal from Iran on Monday from the Oval Office, saying only “stupid people” in Iran are questioning his resolve in guaranteeing Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The latest Iranian proposal reneged on a past vow to give up enriched uranium. None of this bodes well for the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz opening up anytime soon. Oil prices have reflected general pessimism at the start of this week.

Trump Might Fully Restart Project Freedom
Fox News is reporting that President Trump is considering renewing Project Freedom, pushing oil up. According to the developing story: President Donald Trump has stated in an interview with Fox News that he is considering renewing Project Freedom, a military operation originally launched to secure the passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. This operation, involving significant U.S. naval assets, had been paused amid diplomatic efforts with Iran. The initial pause was influenced by diplomatic progress mediated by Pakistan, although recent developments suggest a potential escalation.

However, the reality is that the de facto US naval blockade has remained in place. The Iranians last week fired on US warships which were escorting foreign vessels through the strait. Since then there’s been an uneasy calm amid stalled negotiations. There’s really no movement on either side. Trump indicated in the fresh comments that all of this could be part of a larger operation, and strangely a bit of a contradictory stance: he said of Iran’s “hardline leaders” that “they are going to fold” and that “I will deal with them until they make a deal”. Of course, the very label of ‘hardline’ would suggest the opposite.

The same Fox correspondent was told by Trump that forcibly retrieving Iran’s ‘nuclear dust’ is still on the table: It is clear there remains a huge gap between the positions of Washington and Tehran, after the past days saw proposal and counterproposal submitted via Pakistan, with the White House issuing its final response over the weekend, as President Trump called it ‘unacceptable’.

According to new Monday words from Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, “Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous.” However, US officials continue to insist on their “unreasonable demands,” Baghaei stressed. He described that Iran’s demands for the war to stop, for the US to lift its blockade, and the release Iran’s frozen assets, remain legitimate. Further, Tehran is demanding safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, along with establishing security in the region and in Lebanon.

Senior Iranian military official Mohsen Rezaee to Tasnim: There Is No Clear Prospect for a Political Agreement With the United States n”Unfortunately, the US continues to insist on its one-sided view,” Baghaei added of the “reasonable, generous offer” built around Iran’s national interests. Iran has strongly suggested that the US is actually too influenced by driving Israeli interests, not American priorities. But per WSJ, Washington’s focus remains on the nuclear issue, which Iran considers a non-starter in negotiations: “The president on Sunday said a multipage response that Iran sent to the U.S. proposal to end the war, which didn’t include commitments about Tehran’s nuclear program, was unacceptable,” the publication writes.

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Do the mullahs still have any say? Or is it now really the IRGC?

• Dear Mr. President: Just Finish the Mullahs Already (Stephen Green)

“When you set out to take Vienna,” Napoleon advised, “take Vienna.” When President Donald Trump initiated the current round of hostilities in the 47-year-old Iran War on February 28, observers had no way to tell whether Trump had merely ordered U.S. forces to inflict more heavy damage to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions, or if he was determined to force regime change.


Lately, it looks like neither. As PJ Media’s own Robert Spencer noted on Sunday, “There is no scenario in Islamic law in which a Muslim force and a non-Muslim one sign a treaty for a lasting peace, lay down their arms, and coexist.” There comes a point where even Trump’s so-much-winning art-of-the-deal negotiating tactics come up against this hard reality, and it looks increasingly like that’s where we are.

Look, I love the idea of Trump doing to Tehran what he did to Caracas back in January, and removing the problem leader, then making peace with the much more pliable survivors. But it’s clear by now that either no such people exist in the Islamic Republic, or the government is too fractured or leaderless to comply. Either way, the fiery-but-mostly-peaceful ceasefire may have run its course. The man himself said on Sunday that the regime “will be laughing no longer!” at the U.S., but that’s not the way it looks to those of us watching from the outside.

This exchange between my Red State colleague Bonchie and another X user explains where I arrived over the weekend: In the interest of fairness, let’s look at the flip side, because there’s also the global picture that Oil Price analyst Irina Slav reported on this weekend. The short version is that China is hurt more by the growing oil crisis than the U.S. is. If temporarily higher gas prices are the price of ending the Islamic Republic and hurting the CCP, too, then I’d think of them as a worthwhile investment.

Then again, midterm voters are likely less sanguine about gas prices than I am, and political considerations are real. Or as another X user put it, “We either prove we can open the straits now or deal with it being closed in October.” It may well be that Trump is simply running out the clock on Tehran’s finances and oil storage issues that could go critical as soon as this week. If that’s the ploy, and it works, then please forgive my itchy trigger finger. But the more I think about what desperate actions the regime might take in either one of those circumstances, the more convinced I become that waiting them out could prove to be a huge mistake.

There are two clocks ticking. One on the Islamic Republic, the other on America’s patience with the war’s economic fallout. It’s always looked like Tehran’s clock will run out first, but after 10 weeks, the time might have come to force a decision instead. Did Trump set out to take out the regime? He’s been typically coy about his actual endgame, but whatever the goal was on February 28, maybe now Trump needs to finish the job.

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Khameini jr. “orders”? Who listens?

• Khamenei Orders Iran’s Army To ‘Continue Decisive Operations’ (Cradle)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered the country’s forces to continue military operations against the US and Israel, according to a report by Iranian public broadcaster IRIB released Sunday. The order came during a meeting between Khamenei and Major General Ali Abdollahi, the commander of the Iranian army’s Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters. “During this meeting, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, His Eminence Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, while expressing appreciation for the brave and valiant fighters and the country’s powerful armed forces, issued new directives and guidance for continuing operations and confronting enemies decisively,” the report said.


Abdollahi also “presented a report on the readiness of the armed forces” during the meeting, IRIB added. The report comes after two months of speculation and unverified media claims about the Supreme Leader’s status. Western news outlets like The Guardian and The Times had claimed earlier in the war that Khamenei was in a coma following the US-Israeli strikes that assassinated his father. Reports also claimed that he fled to Russia. Mazaher Hosseini, head of protocol in the office of Iran’s supreme leader, recently stated that Khamenei was healing from minor injuries he sustained and “is now in complete health.”


“Thank God, he is in good health. The enemy is spreading all kinds of rumors and false claims. They want to see him and find him, but people should be patient and not rush. He will speak to you when the time is right,” the Iranian official stated. The IRIB report came a day after CNN cited US intelligence as saying that Khamenei “is playing a critical role in shaping war strategy alongside senior Iranian officials.” It also comes days after Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said he met with the supreme leader. “What struck me most during this meeting was the vision and the humble and sincere approach of the supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution,” he said.

Tehran has sent out its response to a new US proposal for a ceasefire via Pakistan, according to state media. The US has maintained an illegal blockade of Iranian ports since the ceasefire began. Washington violated the truce days ago by bombing Iran’s coast and attacking two vessels. Iranian forces targeted two US military vessels in response. The next day, skirmishes broke out between Iranian and US forces in the Strait of Hormuz. Spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, Ebrahim Rezaei, said on Sunday that Tehran will strike US military bases and vessels in response to any new violations from Washington – stressing that “restraint has come to an end.”

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“..maximum victory for the U.S. would look like, in addition to the other tiers of victory. “Regime change … empowering the Iranian people and giving us an Iran that could be a friend in the future..”

• Confused About Iran? Here’s What U.S. Victory Looks Like. (Victoria Taft)

The Trump Administration is the most transparent in the history of the country, but keeping up with the torturous talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is getting harder all the time. It started off clearly enough, but since this Iran campaign went into negotiation mode with the leftover leaders of the IRGC, it’s been as if we’re “looking through a glass, darkly,” as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians. From claims of kamikazi dolphins, to on-and-off-again negotiations, claims of full air superiority, use of autonomous ships, to the question of whether we can call it a “war,” there’s been confusion about what is going on in the Iran conflict and the subsequent talks. Some of this confusion is on purpose, no doubt, to confound the IRGC leftovers, but people like me who try to keep up are, well, frustrated.


The Iranian leftover leaders are conducting what is obviously a stall strategy, of course, and President Trump posted on Truth Social over the weekend that he knows what they’re doing, “DELAY, DELAY, DELAY!” he wrote. I asked a subject matter expert, Edmund Fitton-Brown — a former UK ambassador to Yemen and former UN negotiator with Al Qaeda and the Taliban — to explain if those talks can get us to something we can call “victory.” The Iran conflict is something I tackle on Tuesdays in my Adult in the Room Podcast livestream, and I asked the senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies to explain things to me.

In the interview, Fitton-Brown explained that “[Trump] is really serious about peace, but you don’t get peace with people who want to kill you.” However, there are three tiers of achievable “peace,” and they are “minimum victory, medium victory, and … maximum victory.” You can see the entire exchange at 22:20 of this video below, but here’s a distilled version of his theory. “Minimum is the straightforward moves, open [Hormuz], no Iranian toll, complete reassertion of… the law of the sea and freedom of navigation,” he told me. “[W]e need the Iranians to acknowledge that they can’t enrich uranium in the future,” he said. “Those are the minimum conditions.”

The Hormuz takeover, though not completely unexpected, gave the Iranians another leverage point they didn’t have before. Fitton-Brown said he’d negotiate for more, of course. “Medium conditions for success would be to get the Iranians to agree that they will not resume their procurement and manufacture of ballistic missiles so that so that we don’t have this constant threat to Israel that has destabilized the Middle East,” and that sounds even better. He continued, “Iranians would acknowledge that they have to reign in their proxies. They can’t just keep waging war on their neighbors using the Houthis, the Hezballah, Iraqi militias and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”

Minimum plus Medium equals a better deal. Here’s what he says maximum victory for the U.S. would look like, in addition to the other tiers of victory. “Regime change … empowering the Iranian people and giving us an Iran that could be a friend in the future,” he told me. He says they’ve been anything but that in the past 47 years. “We have allowed the Iranians for 47 years to chant death to America. And that should never have been allowed. Right from the start, we should have said to them, you know, if you say that, then you cannot be allowed to have a kind of civilized relationship with us,” he stated. He’d keep sanctions going until “they realized there was a real cost to [saying] it.” The IRGC gets a vote, too. Now the Iranian nuke czar says Trump’s number one goal, the Islamist’s nuclear program, will not be part of any negotiations.

Fitton-Brown says, “The lesson is to take people at their word.”

Maybe it’s time to bring back the B-2s.

Watch my interview below.

Read more …

Europe has a long way to fall.

• EU Prepares For ‘Potential’ Talks With Putin As US Slowly Reduces Troops (ZH)

A recent report in Financial Times indicates the European Union is preparing for “potential” future talks with Russia and President Vladimir Putin at a moment of extreme doubts over both US military commitments and Russia’s intentions in Ukraine. Putin himself during his V-Day speech Saturday hinted for the first time that the conflict may be ‘coming to an end’: “I think that the matter is coming to an end,” Putin told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe s deadliest conflict since World War II.


The Russian leader, however, added he would be willing to meet Zelensky only after the terms of a peace agreement had already been settled. The Kremlin had rejected US President Donald Trump’s August 2025 offer to hold a trilateral meeting with Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump. “This should be the final point, not the negotiations themselves,” Putin said after the Victory Day, which marks Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 in World War II. Also on Saturday, António Costa, the president of the European Council, said to a press conference the EU will only talk to Putin at the “right moment”. Costa ultimately sees “potential” for direct EU engagement with Putin.

“We need in the right moment to have talks with Russia to address our common issues with security,” the EU president had said. “We don’t want to disturb the initiative led by President Trump,” said Costa at a ‘Europe Day’ celebration in Brussels. He also spoke of preparations aimed at being “ready to do what we need to do” regarding Europe’s security. And separately an EU official said: “There will be a moment when the EU will need to speak to Russia because it’s an existential issue for Europe. Now it’s not the time.”= President Trump has recently blasted NATO as a “paper tiger” (though it wasn’t the first time) and has said the US is withdrawing 5,000 American troops from Germany.

In response, European governments have accelerated discussions on deeper EU military coordination, including joint defense initiatives which bypass US protection. Currently, the three-day Ukraine ceasefire announced and backed by President Trump appears to have held throughout the weekend, as no drone attacks have been registered on Moscow or other parts of the country. Trump had presented this as a window and opportunity to achieve a more permanent truce, and Putin is without doubt seizing on the initiative, but surely wants a final settlement in line with Kremlin aims in Ukraine.

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In 1999, Putin took over a desperate, despondent, bankrupt country from Yeltsin. Life expectancy among men was in their 50s. Ask them now how they feel about Putin. Not as a failure, I guarantee you.

• Putin’s Failure as a World Leader has Cleared the Path to WW III (PCR)

Igor Girkin regrets that Putin’s pusillanimous behavior has humiliated Russia before the world.


“We — as an entire country — have been humiliated before the whole world by our astonishing inability not only to defend our status as a Great Power (something that had remained unquestioned for Russia for centuries), but even to uphold ordinary national interests. We allow ‘neutral’ states to seize our ships and cargo without the slightest response; we supply (at a discount) oil, gas, and other essential resources to states openly producing missiles and drones that rain down daily on Russian soldiers and civilians; we are ‘passionately friendly’ with neighbors openly laying claim to Russian territory; and in the end, amid triumphant shouting, endless boasting, and equally endless lies from state media, we are unable to defeat an enemy that 10 years ago was pitiful both militarily and socioeconomically — but which we ourselves allowed to grow stronger through our own insane (downright idiotic) actions and inaction.

“And there is much more besides…“We tolerate these idiots in power in the hope that they will ‘come to their senses’ and finally (if only out of self-preservation) defend Russia from external enemies — but the further things go, the more these idiots behave like cowards, while continuing to profit shamelessly from the difficult and unsuccessful war they themselves are losing. “So why should anyone respect us as a country? Who would genuinely ally themselves with obvious losers?”

In 2007 when Russian President Putin spoke at the Munich Security Conference it looked as if the fear of the American Zionist neoconservatives had been realized that a country sufficiently strong to stand as a barrier to Washington’s hegemony had appeared on the scene. Putin declared that Russia did not accept Washington’s unilateralism. Not long after he drove the American trained and equipped Georgian Army out of South Ossetia. Next he threw down the gauntlet with his unequivocal statement that “Russia will never again fight a war on its own territory.” Putin presented Russia to the world as a barrier to US imperialism and looting of the world.

The Israeli-American Zionist neoconservatives decided to fight back. They saw Russia’s weakness in Putin’s desire for peace and good relations. The Zionists correctly read this weakness as an opportunity to seize Ukraine, which Washington had already broken out of Russia and created as an independent state when the Soviet Union collapsed politically. The American Zionists reasoned correctly that Putin would regard Russia’s intervention against their coup as a propaganda advantage for Washington to portray Russia as a revanchist state bent on recovering the Soviet empire and then adding all of Europe. As Putin’s goal was mutual trust and beneficial business relationships, he stood aside, not understanding that the Zionist intent was to use Ukraine in a proxy war against Russia in the expectation of destabilizing Russia.

The American Zionists are achieving their goal. Increasingly, Russians are expressing discontent with Putin’s prevention of the Russian military from winning the conflict initiated by Washington. More and more Russians are speaking out strongly. Drones and missiles supplied by Washington and NATO now hit deep into Russia. They hit Russian energy production facilities, reducing the energy flow. They hit Russian energy export facilities, reducing the ability to export energy. They hit civilian residential housing killing Russian civilians. EU countries of zero military potential seize Russian oil tankers on the high seas. The humiliations go on and on, and Putin accepts them to the disgrace of Russia.

Read more …

“Operation Epic Fury was the loud one. Operation Economic Fury is the quiet one. . . . While the carriers were on television, Treasury was doing the actual demolition.” —Jesús Enrique Rosas on X

• The Earth Moves Just a Bit (James Howard Kunstler)

Expect a consequential week. The Persian Gulf remains closed and colossal oil slicks leak out of Kharg Island while Iran blusters and stomps its feet. No one can even try to buy its oil anymore, not even China. The sanctions are too onerous. Iran’s wells must be shut in now. Imagine how the production chiefs out in the oil fields are howling at their insane IRGC overseers. Iran has no economy left operating. Iran’s domestic security force, the Basij (Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz’afin, or “Mobilization of the Oppressed”) is strangling anyone who expresses discontent in the streets, not a good look for a regime that can’t survive without the pretense of popular support.


Late Sunday, the US President rejected Tehran’s latest conditions for peace out of hand. They are trying to jerk the whole world around, even while they whirl around the drain. Despite what you read in The New York Times — Iran’s US-based chief cheerleader — it is probably a matter of days now before capitulation. The ball is in America’s court this morning, a real hanging lob shot. The return is apt to be hard. Of course, whatever official utterances come out of Iran, you must discount by about 99.9-percent. For now, there is nothing but the morning fog of suspense.

But strange doings are a’foot elsewhere. You might have noticed that the UK’s labor government got drubbed in local elections, losing nearly 1,500 council seats, a humiliating repudiation. It’s a matter of days before PM Keir Starmer will have to hang it up. His possible replacements are utterly unknown to Americans — Angela Rayner, a former Deputy PM, Energy Secretary Ed Milliband, Health Sec’y Wes Streeting — and any of them is just a place-holder for the election’s main winner Nigel Farage of the Reform Party, which exists wholly outside the age-old British political transect of Labour / Tories.

The Labour Party, you see, is lately as loathsome in the altogether to British voters as its current avatar, Sir Keir (Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, KCB), whose latest act was to extend social welfare benefits to the additional wives of poly-marital Muslims. Way to go! Why not just travel the island empire from town-to-town and slap every indigenous Briton in the face? And the Tories (putative Conservatives), well, just fuggeddabowdem. Sir Keir’s Tory predecessor as PM, Rishi Sunak, screwed the pooch for his party into the next twenty years allowing net Third World migration to hit record highs while the kingdom crumbled.

The way it works over there, Sir Keir or whoever takes over from him, asks King Charles to dissolve Parliament, and you get a sudden national election short of Parliament’s regular five-year term. And so, sometime in the months ahead, Nigel Farage will become Prime Minister and things will change-up bigly in Britain. Mr. Farage will have to contend, among other things, with Donald Trump’s dismantling of whatever was left of Britain’s stealth neo-colonial command of global finance through the British banking system.

he question really is: can Farage arrest his country’s sickening slide into becoming an Islamic caliphate, with all the Third World bells and whistles? Can he possibly even start shipping the most recent arrivals back to where they came from? Can he do what Mr. Trump is attempting in the USA and turn the UK back to an economy based on the actual production of goods rather than financial finaglery?

Read more …

“France is illegally harvesting its citizens’ data, while accusing social media platforms of doing the same, the entrepreneur has alleged ..”

• Durov Slams French Hypocrisy Over X Crackdown (RT)

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov has accused France of hypocrisy after prosecutors expanded a criminal investigation into Elon Musk’s X. Durov said French authorities were violating citizens’ privacy while accusing the social media platform of similar conduct. The entrepreneur made the remarks on Sunday, just days after the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that it would seek new charges against X over alleged illegal sexual deepfakes made by the platform’s Grok AI, as well as unlawful data extraction and other crimes.


“The French government is accusing X of the very things the French government itself is doing,” Durov tweeted. The French government is panicking. They know a major political shift in 2027 will expose their misdeeds – so they’re trying to silence free speech platforms under whatever pretext they think they can get away with.He called on the international community to back X against what he called the French state’s “immoral assault” on the social media app.

French investigators initially launched their investigation of X and Grok in January, alleging that the platforms’ algorithms were biased and accusing the company of illegal data gathering and of possessing and spreading sexualized deepfakes created by its AI, including images involving minors. The tech mogul has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the legal action as a “political attack.” Last month, the US Department of Justice reportedly denied a request from French prosecutors to cooperate in the investigation. US President Donald Trump’s administration has long been critical of what it has called attacks on free speech and political opposition in the EU and UK.

Durov’s Telegram has also faced legal troubles in France. The entrepreneur was arrested at a Paris airport in 2024 and indicted on a dozen charges after French prosecutors accused him of being complicit in crimes committed using his social media platform. Durov has since been allowed to leave France, despite the ongoing investigation. The entrepreneur has repeatedly called the arrest absurd and condemned crackdowns on social media networks as a concerted attack on free speech.

Read more …

“You ask for miracles, Theo? I give you the Virginia Democrats.” —Hans Gruber, possibly

• Um… Did the GOP Just Win the Midterms? (Stephen Green)

You probably know that I’m not exactly up on the GOP’s chances of holding the House in November, but there’s a glimmer of light ahead, thanks in no small part to overreach by Virginia Democrats — and Republicans finally wising up. Over the weekend, Roger Kimball looked at the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision and declared that “the decision will net Republicans some 8-12 additional House seats in the midterms. In other words, Republicans will not only hold the House; they will also expand their majority.”


Reporting for the (extremely) left-wing Mother Jones, Ari Berman called the decision “devastating” for Democrats, but also noted that “the only silver lining for those harmed may be that the ruling came be too late to have a major impact on the 2026 midterm elections.” “Candidate filing deadlines have passed in most Southern states; primary elections have been held already in North Carolina, Texas, and Mississippi; and Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia have mailed ballots for upcoming May primaries.” That’s six deep-red states out of play for 2026 redistricting, so it isn’t that Roger’s numbers are wrong, but they might be premature. Don’t get me wrong — I pray he’s right.

So for the moment, the GOP’s odds remain too long for comfort. Democrats are comfortably ahead on the 2026 generic congressional ballot, typically the best indicator of what happens on election day. The RealClearPolitics average has them up by 5.6 points. Overcoming a number like that requires the kind of enthusiasm that, frankly, much of the Trump electorate just doesn’t enjoy right now. The Iran War — while totally necessary, they were about to get nukes — has gas prices uncomfortably close to Biden-era highs. Food prices, particularly beef, remain stubbornly high. And the GOP Congress refuses to do a damn thing about election integrity. I’m looking at you, Sen. John Thune.

That last one is a real problem, for reasons both practical (election integrity, duh) and political (Trump voters need this win). We sent the GOP to Congress to undo the damage done to our election system, and they have yet to deliver. You had one job. But sometimes — as we learned from watching Hans Gruber make the FBI sing to his tune in Die Hard — knowing the other guy’s procedure is a yuge part of winning. Which brings us to Virginia, Indiana, and the GOP’s improved chances come November.

By now, you know what happened in Virginia. State Democrats — led by non-former CIA spook Gov. Abigail Spanberger — did what they’re now basically compelled to do, and broke every law on their way to gerrymandering the GOP into oblivion. Then the state Supreme Court knocked them down and declared the illegal referendum void. And Another Thing: Please note that the Virginia Supreme Court did not say that Democrats can’t gerrymander the GOP into oblivion. It just said you actually have to follow the law of the land to do it. At the next court-approved opportunity, you can be sure they’ll get it done.

In Indiana, GOP voters took one look at the new rules and voted out every RINO they could in the state’s primary election last week. Most of the Republican state senators who blocked Indiana’s congressional redraw got hammered by Trump-backed challengers, and Gov. Mike Braun is pushing again for redistricting. If successful, that could net the Republicans one or two more seats. Altogether, in states where it isn’t already too late, and including states like Florida that have already redistricted, Republicans could redraw themselves between 11 and 14 seats before the midterms. Is that enough to overcome the generic congressional ballot deficit? There’s just no way to know this far out, although if Sen. Thune would stop posturing on X long enough to pass the Save Act, I’d bet next month’s car payment that the GOP holds the House.

Grrrr.

Looking ahead, however, 2028 looks really good.

Read more …

Ukraine is all about money, Russia is not.

• Zelensky Touts That 20 Countries Seek Ukraine Drone Deals (ZH)

Ukraine is emerging as a global drone export powerhouse, coming fresh off vast experience gained in over four years of war with Russia – or at least that’s the image Kiev is seeking to present to the world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that nearly 20 countries are pursuing drone agreements with Ukraine, with four deals already finalized. Agreements already confirmed include deals with Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, alongside long-term security partnerships with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates which were inked in late March as Zelensky personally toured the Gulf, even amid the ongoing Iran war, according to Reuters.


Zelensky has been offering Ukraine’s services and drone supplies to Gulf countries as a cheaper, effective alternative to dwindling and costly American-supplied anti-air defenses. “Nearly 20 countries are currently involved at various stages: 4 agreements have already been signed, and the first contracts under these agreements are now being prepared,” Zelensky has newly proclaimed on X. “Ukraine has already started to receive the necessary volume of fuel thanks to the agreements,” Zelensky also stated. Interestingly, he’s also of late been pitching being a supplier of battlefield robots, as we’ve detailed before.

Starting in April, Zelensky had hailed that Ukrainian personnel were able to help partners build effective air defenses using interceptor drones to combat Iranian Shaheds. Low-cost interceptor drones deployed by Ukraine are among the most effective ways to combat the inexpensive $20,000 Shaheds, as a war of attrition makes little economic sense when interceptor missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

Ukraine has had four years to develop low-cost one-way attack drones and interceptors during its war with Russia. Now, this technology is clearly being exported across multiple theaters in Eurasia. Zelensky did not identify the countries or the exact interceptor drones used in his comments at the time, but it is possible that Octopus-100 autonomous interceptor drones were deployed. The past couple months have seen Zelensky touring around proclaiming Ukraine’s ability to fill defense tech sector gaps for allied countries:

He said Ukraine had deployed hundreds of experts to the Gulf area, and, in return, has received weapons to protect its energy assets as well as financial support. After the Trump White House began signaling a significant drawdown in direct military aid to Ukraine and to Europe more broadly, the Zelensky administration began launching more creative means to ensure ongoing funding for the war with Russia. Support from EU countries, however, doesn’t look to have wavered.

Read more …

Growacet.

• White House Identifies Treatment Course for TDS Sufferers (CTH)

The White House has identified a treatment course for those suffering from acute cases of TDS. In many cases the issue can be treated by moderate changes in behavior or lifestyle:

For more severe or intense cases of TDS, like the Carlson strain, the prescription below is also an option.

Read more …

Inviting outrage.

• Trump Floats Making Venezuela The 51st State (ZH)

First Canada, then Greenland… and now Venezuela?


President Donald Trump said Monday he is seriously considering annexing the South American nation as the 51st U.S. state, citing the country’s vast oil reserves and what he described as strong local support for his leadership. In a telephone interview with Fox News anchor John Roberts, Trump mused that he is weighing the move for a nation that holds an estimated $40 trillion in oil resources. “Venezuela loves Trump,” the president told the reporter.

The suggestion comes months after U.S. forces conducted a military operation in Venezuela in January that resulted in the capture of longtime President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The couple was extradited to the U.S. to face narco-terrorism and weapons charges, effectively ending more than a decade of socialist rule that had transformed one of Latin America’s richest economies into an economic disaster marked by hyperinflation, mass emigration and the breakdown of public services.

Rather than installing opposition figure María Corina Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, as the new leader, the Trump administration supported the installation of Delcy Rodríguez—Maduro’s former vice president—as interim president. Trump has described the arrangement as “spectacular” and predicted a rapid economic turnaround. Rodríguez’s government has moved swiftly on economic reforms. Within weeks of taking power, it enacted legislation opening the oil sector to privatization, dismantling core elements of the Chavista model that had dominated for more than two decades.

Meanwhile, commercial activity has accelerated thanks to Chevron, which signed two agreements expanding its participation in a joint venture with state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela SA in the Orinoco Oil Belt, Reuters reported at the time. Venezuelan oil output is already rising.

PDVSA reported production of 1.095 million barrels a day last month, up 75,000 barrels a day from February, with Oil Minister Paula Henao setting a target of 1.3 million barrels a day by year-end. Trump administration officials have been candid about the financial stakes. A White House spokesman called the first $500 million portion of an approximately $2 billion oil-supply agreement a “historic energy deal,” CBS News reported at the time. Trump has said the U.S. would rebuild Venezuela “in a very profitable way,” adding, “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil.”

Read more …

“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) came up with the best reason to tax billionaires: They do not actually exist…”

• “You Just Can’t Earn a Billion Dollars”: AOC (Turley)

This week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) came up with the best reason to tax billionaires: They do not actually exist. On a podcast, Ocasio-Cortez declared with all the certainty of a freshman in a Smith College political science course that the notion of a self-made billionaire is simply a fantasy, because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. It is only the latest in a series of socialist fables that are being dressed up as economic facts. The difference is that this fable, if told often enough, could become true. In suggesting that true billionaires are a capitalist myth, Ocasio-Cortez is suggesting that people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos really did not earn their wealth and, therefore, it is really not their money.


“There’s a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned. You can’t earn a billion dollars. You just can’t earn that. You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they’re worth, but you can’t earn that.” In other words, you can only make a billion dollars through theft and exploitation rather than actual entrepreneurial enterprise. This statement comes as support builds for the California billionaires’ tax which, even before it has a chance to pass in November, has already cost the state trillions due to an exodus of these billionaires.

In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss common myths spread by the left to fuel economic factionalism. One common myth is that the “wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes.” In truth, the top ten percent of taxpayers pay the vast majority of taxes in the U.S. In the book, I also dispel the claim that most millionaires inherited their wealth or came from privileged backgrounds. These myths are designed to make redistribution schemes more palatable. And Democrats are ramping up the “eat-the-rich” rhetoric ahead of the midterms in pushing both millionaire and billionaire taxes. Democrats from Washington to Virginia are pushing millionaire taxes, and the mere conversation has already set off a stampede of high-earning taxpayers to red states like Texas and Florida, which have no state income tax.

It was also evident in this week’s California gubernatorial debate. Candidate Katie Porter (D) said she opposes the billionaire’s tax because it would not go far enough. Porter then pressed the only billionaire in the group, Tom Steyer, who has been moving to the far left to grab voters in the wake of the departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) as a candidate. Steyer said that he supports the billionaire tax but would want to go even further.Steyer has spent a fortune of his own money on this race, apparently to convince Democratic primary voters that he is some kind of red billionaire in the mold of a George Soros or Neville Roy Singham. Good luck with that — after spending roughly $150 million of his own money, Steyer is still languishing between 12 and 18 percent support.

Of course, Steyer was not asked if he believes that real billionaires such as himself exist. Yet he has already apologized for making considerable money on private prisons, including those used to hold undocumented immigrants. Ironically, in finance, a “unicorn” is a company worth more than $1 billion dollars, a term coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to capture the rare and almost magical status of such enterprises Conversely, Ocasio-Cortez’s unicorn myth is part of a general denial of economic realities that has taken hold on the left. The cost of these policies is borne by workers, who are being left to eat soundbites.

Democrats have sold voters on raising minimum wages as high as $30 per hour, even though such policies cost thousands of jobs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg bragged about blocking a merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, claiming that it would create cheaper flights and better jobs. Spirit has now been forced to close its doors, causing the loss of thousands of flights and jobs. A rising generation of voters is eagerly devouring soundbites and promises of the “warmth of collectivism” from figures like New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. From promises of free buses to state-run grocery stores, voters are buying the same threadbare socialist schtick.

That was on display this week as socialist Seattle mayor Katie Wilson laughed when asked about the millionaires fleeing the city over rising taxes and crime. She delighted the crowd by mocking the departing millionaires with two words: “Like, bye!” The last laugh, however, rests with those fleeing a city facing a projected deficit of $114 million. As Wilson faces major cuts in the city budget, she gleefully mocks those whose tax dollars the city will desperately need to close this gap if it is to maintain public services.

Ironically, Wilson and other Democrats are quickly making their myth a reality. Soon, there will be no billionaire unicorns roaming the land. Even millionaires may become scarce, as these wealthy citizens move to less hostile states with less delusional leaders. The solution to this exodus is equally predictable. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has campaigned for a billionaire tax in his state while representing Silicon Valley, has also joined with socialist Bernie Sanders to push for a national billionaire’s tax — an effort to guarantee that there is no place to hide. This is the same approach that tanked the French economy under François Mitterrand after the wealthy fled that nation.

These are not, however, a time for economics or history. It is the time of fables. Ocasio-Cortez has thrived in the land of socialist unicorns. She can even attend the ultra-rich Met Gala wearing an expensive “Eat-the-Rich” gown. Like her dress, it is fashionable to deny that billionaires created their wealth. It is your money for the taking. The result is that billionaires and even millionaires in states like New York may go the way of unicorns, fanciful creatures that once thrived in a land of jobs and growth.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/warDaniel47/status/2053414597722300913?s=20 https://twitter.com/ChildrensHD/status/2053612044860199013?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle May 1 2026

May 012026
 
 May 1, 2026  Posted by at 9:05 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  25 Responses »


William-Adolphe Bouguereau Whisperings of Love 1889


• Defiant Mojtaba Khamenei: Gulf’s Future Will Be “Without US Presence” (ZH)
• Growing Division In Iran’s ‘Hardline Camp’ Emerges Over Halting All Talks With US (ZH)
• Secretary Scott Bessent Discusses “Operation Economic Fury” Against Iran (CTH)
• Trump: SCOTUS Voting Rights Act Decision a ‘Big Win’ (Salgado)
• Anthropic Wants a Reset. Trump Should Think Twice (Jeff Hunt)
• Dan Bongino Says He’s Scared of the FBI (CTH)
• Trump Notes Extended Conversation with Putin (CTH)
• DOJ Indicts Sinaloa Governor and Others in Sweeping Cartel Case (Anderson)
• U.S. Dept of Justice Indicts the Current Governor of Sinaloa, Mexico (CTH)
• Trump: US Studying Troop Cuts In Germany, As Spat With Merz Intensifies (BBC)
• No Aid for Kiev in US Military Budget for 2027 — Pentagon (TASS)
• Mamdani Is Already Facing a $6 Billion Budget Hole (Margolis)
• There’s a Name for What They’re Doing to Donald Trump (Thorne)
• Banksy Confirms He’s Behind Statue In Central London (BBC)
• The Biden Admin’s COVID Vaccine Cover-Up and Lies (Miranda Devine)

 


 

https://twitter.com/GreereMedeea/status/2049536035789373513?s=20

 


 


1) We have no idea if this is Khameini speaking. None. So don’t say it’s him. Explain.

2) We also don’t know if the US has battle-ready hypersonics.

• Defiant Mojtaba Khamenei: Gulf’s Future Will Be “Without US Presence” (ZH)

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has never released video or voice messages, and he’s still not been seen or even photographed since the war’s start, and is believed to be severely injured and recovering. State TV on Thursday read aloud his written speech, which struck a defiant tone, declaring that the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters” and that a “new chapter” was being written for the whole region. State media cited security as the reason for having to read aloud his statement.


Khamenei says Iran will closely guard and protect its nuclear and missile capabilities, a clear and direct rejection of President Trump’s demand to hand over enriched uranium as the basis for a deal. Iranians will cling to the country’s nuclear and missile capabilities “as their national capital and will guard them like water, land and air borders,” Khamenei said.

“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei continued. “We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it – except at the bottom of its waters.” He also vowed Iran’s forces will “secure the Persian Gulf region and dismantle the hostile enemy’s exploitation of this waterway.”

US Teases Hypersonic Missiles, CENTCOM to Brief Trump
As we detailed Wednesday night, United States Central Command has requested deployment of the Army’s long-delayed hypersonic Dark Eagle to the Middle East for potential use against Iran, seeking a longer-range capability to strike ballistic missile launchers deep inside the country, Bloomberg first reported. If approved, the move would mark the first deployment of the hypersonic system, which remains behind schedule and has not been declared fully operational, even as Russia and China have already long ago fielded their own versions.

The Pentagon has claimed time and again of late that it has local air superiority, meaning that in some parts of Iran its aircraft can operate without facing much of a threat. And yet dozens of MQ-9 aircraft, plus several crewed fighters, have been downed, showing that other parts of Iran’s airspace remain dangerous.The Bloomberg report hit just as Axios rehashed an earlier report, according to which President Trump will receive a briefing on new plans for potential military action in Iran on Thursday from CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper. The briefing signals that “Trump is seriously considering resuming major combat operations either to try to break the logjam in negotiations or to deliver a final blow before ending the war.”

Meanwhile the Iranian side has been claiming dozens of its vessels have breached the US naval blockade, which the Pentagon has been denying. Others say that while some ships have traversed the strait, they have not actually fully crossed the blockade.

Read more …

Iran has three governments, maybe 4:

1) IGRC
2) Mullahs
3) Civilian
+ maybe 4) Army

So who are you going to talk to?

• Growing Division In Iran’s ‘Hardline Camp’ Emerges Over Halting All Talks With US (ZH)

It remains difficult to know what’s really going on inside Iran, and to accurately assess the state of the country’s internal politics, but Financial Times describes a situation of hardliners vs. moderates duking it out to see whether negotiations with the United States should continue.


The report comes well after President Trump and the White House have at various times alleged Tehran governance is ‘fractured’ and the state is even ‘collapsing’ – which seems exaggerated if not flatly false. Those more independent-minded analysts outside the mainstream suggest the opposite is the case – that it’s Washington which can’t stick to any of its red lines and keeps moving the goal posts on negotiations. After all Trump did keep unilaterally extending the ceasefire, and the US has not resumed the bombings even though Trump clearly threatened to (even with ‘firm’ timelines) as the Iranians sat back

“At the heart of the dispute, which has played out in parliament and state media, is a push by Iran’s most hardline politicians to oppose the Islamic republic negotiating with the US over its nuclear program,” FT writes. “Their primary target is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the veteran parliamentary speaker who led talks to US vice-president JD Vance in Pakistan earlier this month. Politicians linked to Paydari, an influential ultra-hardline faction, suggested that negotiators have not fully followed directives set by the new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei,” the publication continues.

As for definitions, there’s also the problem of the West imposing broad brush labels of ‘hardline’ and ‘moderate’ from afar, based fundamentally on speculation and we might say, circular logic. After all, any Iranian official who is against pursuing more negotiations – while understandably coming to the conclusion that Washington can’t be trusted (after it bombed Iran twice during talks) – gets automatically labelled ‘hardliner’ by the MSM, and this also carries all kinds of implications overlapping with radical Islam.

But yes, there are clearly holdouts pushing for Tehran not to engage at all, to completely shutter communications, which would likely mean certain return to war: “Negotiations are now pure damage and nobody should go for negotiations,” Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of parliament close to the Paydari who accompanied Iran’s negotiating team to Pakistan, told local media. And another key section from the report is in the following:

He [Nabavian] criticized inclusion of Iran’s nuclear programme in talks as a “strategic mistake” and implied this is not what the top leader sought. Another hardline politician, Ali Khezrian, claimed to state television that the supreme leader opposed continuing the talks.Officials “should know that at this sensitive time their obligation is to thoroughly obey and carry out the guidelines of the supreme leader,” Nabavian said.

On Monday, 261 out of 290 MPs issued a statement supporting Ghalibaf and the other negotiators. However, prominent members of Paydari were absent from the list of signatories. The longer the Hormzu standoff goes, and the more the anti-Tehran rhetoric flows out of the White House and from Trump on Truth Social, the more likely the Paydari faction and others are to influence broader numbers of Iranian leaders and sectors of the public.

Read more …

“The Strategy to Freeze Iran’s Economy”

• Secretary Scott Bessent Discusses “Operation Economic Fury” Against Iran (CTH)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlines Operation Economic Fury and the financial pressure campaign against the Iranian regime with Larry Kudlow.



KEY POINTS:
0:00 Introduction: Operation Economic Fury
0:39 Max Pressure: The Strategy to Freeze Iran’s Economy
2:04 Tracking the Money: Seizing IRGC Assets and Crypto
3:14 The Oil Blockade: Kharg Island at a Standstill
4:10 US Economic Resilience: Why Critics Are Wrong
6:04 IRS Modernization and Signature Tax Policies
7:33 Global Reshoring and the Manufacturing Boom
8:10 Geopolitical Chess: The UAE’s Break from OPEC
10:27 Federal Reserve Friction: Jay Powell vs. Kevin Warsh

Read more …

“Democrats transformed it into an excuse to do exactly what it was meant to prevent. ”

• Trump: SCOTUS Voting Rights Act Decision a ‘Big Win’ (Salgado)

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against racist gerrymandering in a landmark decision Wednesday, President Donald Trump enthusiastically celebrated the decision. The Voting Rights Act was originally supposed to prevent the formation of congressional districts based on racial discrimination, but unfortunately, Democrats transformed it into an excuse to do exactly what it was meant to prevent. And therefore, the Court’s ruling against such abuse is very significant for protecting the integrity of our political system.


Trump posted on his his Truth Social platform April 29, “Today’s 6-3 Supreme Court decision in the Callais case is a BIG WIN for Equal Protection under the Law, as it returns the Voting Rights Act to its Original Intent, which was to protect against intentional Racial Discrimination. Thank you to brilliant Justice Samuel Alito for authoring this important and appropriate Opinion. Congratulations!” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon was just as excited as the president. “Extremely gratified to see this decision we’ve been waiting for! I was proud to co-author the brief for the United States as amicus in this important case, perhaps one of the most important developments in decades in Voting Rights Act jurisprudence!” she posted.

Less enthusiastic were Democrats who have benefited from such racist rigging of our system. Former President Barack Obama, for instance, whined, “Today’s Supreme Court decision effectively guts a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act, freeing state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities…The good news is that such setbacks can be overcome.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who drew up one of the most outrageous and blatantly biased gerrymandered maps in the country, actually had the chutzpah to complain also, and added in an insult to the governor of Florida over a congressional map there likely to favor Republicans more. “The same day MAGA gutted the Voting Rights Act, Trump’s pipsqueak DeSantis rushed through rigged maps. No debate. No public input. They’re scared of VOTERS. This November: FAFO,” he hysterically threatened. Because only Democrats are allowed to redraw districts, apparently.

Here’s why Democrats are so mad:

The Supreme Court also delivered a religious freedom win on Wednesday, when it ruled unanimously in favor of faith-based ministries challenging state government overreach. After New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport harassed First Choice for helping pregnant women instead of recommending they kill their babies, the court ruled in favor of the pro-life center rather than the abortion-loving Democrat. It is certainly a day on which patriots can applaud the court.

Read more …

“Anthropic has been engaged in a form of regulatory capture by pushing frameworks that raise barriers to entry, allow it to dictate terms to suppliers, and concentrate power among a small number of well-connected firms. The more complex and restrictive the system becomes, the more it advantages companies already embedded in Washington.”

• Anthropic Wants a Reset. Trump Should Think Twice (Jeff Hunt)

Last week, something unusual happened in Washington. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, went to the White House in an attempt to make peace with the Trump administration. This is the same company that has been in open conflict with the Pentagon over the use of its technology and, as a result, was recently labeled a “supply chain risk.” Now its chief executive is knocking on the door, looking for a reset.That alone should raise a simple question: why now?


Amodei and Anthropic have openly opposed the direction President Trump is now taking on artificial intelligence. Amodei has been one of the most vocal critics of the administration’s decision to allow controlled exports of AI chips, even going so far as to compare a recent White House–approved sale of AI processors to “selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.” That’s not a nuanced policy critique. It’s an attempt to frame the president’s approach as reckless and dangerous—and to box policymakers into adopting the very restrictions that benefit his company while discouraging competitors and new entrants.

This is happening because Anthropic has built itself into something more than a technology company. It has become a political actor, deeply embedded in the regulatory mindset of the previous administration. The company has staffed its ranks with a significant number of former Biden officials who helped design and defend the very AI policies that President Trump is now unwinding and is going in “big” to support candidates who have called the President’s policies “bigoted.” The worldview that shaped those policies — and helped put the United States at risk of falling behind in the AI race — didn’t disappear when those officials left government. It followed them into the private sector.

That helps explain why Anthropic has been so consistently aligned against Trump’s AI agenda. This isn’t just about technical disagreements over governance frameworks or export categories. It’s about a fundamentally different view of how America should compete. On one side is a strategy rooted in market interference and government restriction. On the other is a strategy rooted in scale, competition, and global engagement while protecting America’s national security interests.

Anthropic has clearly chosen a side and used its position to argue for failed policies, including the export restrictions pushed during the Biden years that attempted to wall China off from American technology. Those policies didn’t slow China down. They sped it up.

Cut off from U.S. chips, Chinese firms invested heavily in domestic alternatives, built parallel supply chains, and moved closer to technological independence. The United States has seen this before. During the race to develop 5G technology, Washington similarly tried to restrict access, only to see Huawei step in, lock in global market share, and export its standards to much of the world. The risk now is repeating that mistake on a far larger scale with artificial intelligence.

President Trump’s approach reflects a different understanding of how global competition works. Rather than retreating from the market, the administration is staying engaged and allowing controlled exports of less advanced chips while keeping the most cutting-edge technology protected. The goal is not to give competitors like China an advantage, but to ensure they remain tied to American platforms, standards, and supply chains. In effect, it flips the script on a strategy China has used for years with rare earth minerals — building dependence that translates into long-term leverage.

That’s precisely the approach Anthropic has historically questioned and why its sudden effort to make peace with the White House should be viewed with skepticism. This isn’t just a disagreement over policy details. It’s a broader effort to shape the regulatory environment itself. As White House AI czar David Sacks has argued, Anthropic has been engaged in a form of regulatory capture by pushing frameworks that raise barriers to entry, allow it to dictate terms to suppliers, and concentrate power among a small number of well-connected firms. The more complex and restrictive the system becomes, the more it advantages companies already embedded in Washington.

[..[ AI will shape the next century of economic and geopolitical power. The United States cannot afford to fall behind because it listened to the loudest voices urging it to slow down. And it should be especially wary of taking advice from companies that have spent years opposing the very strategy now keeping America in the lead. Let’s give the Trump administration room to cook — blending technological advantage, national security protection, and American global market domination. Anthropic may want a reset. But Washington should remember exactly where the company has stood — and why.

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“On day #1, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino should have terminated [..] any and all of those FBI agents and support personnel with extreme prejudice ..

• Dan Bongino Says He’s Scared of the FBI (CTH)

I have less than zero sympathy or consideration of credibility for both individuals in the video below. Former Deputy Director Dan Bongino sits down for a dramatic, Q-feeding therapy session with Mr Tick-Tock himself, Sean Hannity. In a widely discussed interview, the co-dependent enabler – masking himself as the victim of all things deep state, says on one hand there are honorable ‘rank and file’ within the FBI as an institution, and on the other hand he fears they will target him once President Trump leaves office. Go figure.


If you face reality and stop pretending, you then look at the facts with cold pragmatism: • The Robert Mueller investigation used 40 FBI agents, issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 secret orders for communication records, used 50 pen registers and interviewed 500 witnesses, all to prove there was a Trump-Russia conspiracy afoot. All of it was complete nonsense. That is the reality of the thing.

On day #1, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino should have terminated (or suspended pending criminal investigation) any and all of those FBI agents and support personnel with extreme prejudice and then held a press conference to make the announcement. Delivering mysterious statements about the scale and scope of the institutional problem, pouring fuel on innuendo, proclaiming vague possibilities, while hiding behind some opaque ‘trust me bro‘ reasoning for a currently mysterious inability to explain exactly what the heck he is talking about, is unadulterated dramatic ‘clickbait’ prose intended to feed an audience willing to be deceived.

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“ZELENSKYY: “But I still get my money, right?“

• Trump Notes Extended Conversation with Putin (CTH)

As you are aware, CTH is watching the small details closely on the U.S-Russia alignment against the backdrop of friction with the European Union, the U.K and NATO on issues surrounding Iran. In the past several days there have been several smaller moments lost amid media chatter of bigger news items, this is one such example today in the Oval Office.


During a press availability with the Artemis II astronauts, President Trump was asked for an update on the Ukraine conflict and seemingly stalled negotiations between U.S. intermediaries and Russia. At 04:12 of the video below, President Trump notes he spoke at length with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin today on issues related to the Ukraine conflict, and {{{thoughtful-pause}}} Iran. WATCH:

President Vladimir Putin is in no hurry to ceasefire in Ukraine, and the U.S. military operation in Iran is not against his interests. On April 12, 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent quietly extended the sanction relief for Russia, permitting oil/gas sales loaded on vessels by 4/17/26 for transit and sale through 5/16/26. This permits Russia to push oil to Asia, specifically China, India and ASEAN countries where it is needed, while simultaneously the UAE and Saudi Arabia increase oil pumping avoiding the issues with the Strait of Hormuz.

This is happening while the U.S. is providing large oil and LNG supply increases to South/Central America, Europe and Japan to offset any global shortages. Russia supplies China, India and Southeast Asia; the U.S. supplies Europe and Japan; the UAE supplies India and Australia; while Saudi Arabia supplies Africa and Europe. Global markets stable, Iran then faces operation financial fury led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. So, we can reasonably see the general tone of the conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Well, after this press briefing, President Trump sent the following message on Truth Social.


During the press briefing President Trump noted, yet again, his profound disappointment with Europe, the U.K and NATO allies. Trump delivered praise for King Charles as a statesman but separated the political policy aspects of the U.K from his impression of the monarch. These remarks about drawing down U.S. troop levels in Germany comes against the backdrop of German Chancellor Fredrich Merz being highly critical of President Trump’s intention to incapacitate Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. Chancellor Merz is looking for any distraction he can come up with to avoid the issue of a severely contracting German economy.

Most Americans do not fully appreciate how the German national identity is defined by their industrial economy. The traditional people of Germany have a self-image that is -in large measure- the result of their economic condition. Everything centers around industriousness. Weaken that a little bit and the hardcore German people get visibly angered.mCommissar and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, is also not happy. “In just 60 days of conflict, our bill for fossil fuel imports has increased by over €27 billion, without a single molecule of additional energy,” she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.”

For all reasonable intents and purposes President Trump has withdrawn support for Ukraine. At the same time President Trump has openly been questioning NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte about the seemingly irrelevant purpose of the alliance. Now, we might think this is just some transitional matters that have been visited before in various peaks and valleys of the geopolitical relationship. However, that is not the case this time. How do we know this time it is something far more significant? Well, the EU is debating dropping their climate goals.

BRUSSELS — Energy companies will be able to break the EU’s pollution limits and get away with it, under measures being considered by the European Commission ahead of a gathering of EU leaders in June.

The EU executive is considering a “zero-penalty” option that would allow national authorities not to fine companies that break strict rules governing methane emissions scheduled to come into force next year, according to two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive discussions. (


ZELENSKYY: “But I still get my money, right?“
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How far into Mexico would they go?

• DOJ Indicts Sinaloa Governor and Others in Sweeping Cartel Case (Anderson)

The Donald Trump administration is not playing around when it comes to cartel activity in Mexico, even if Mexican officials aren’t exactly willing to play ball. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York unsealed a 34-page indictment charging Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other current or former high-ranking Mexican officials with drug trafficking and weapons offenses. The defendants are accused of partnering with the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel (the sons of El Chapo) to help smuggle massive quantities of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine into the U.S.


Rocha Moya is the current governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which the Department of Justice calls the “geographic epicenter of the global narcotics trade.” He’s also a member of former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and current president Claudia Sheinbaum’s Morena Party. Others charged include the mayor of Culiacan, a sitting senator, and the deputy attorney general for the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office. The men indicted allegedly took millions in bribes, gave the cartel protection from prosecution, leaked intel on law-enforcement ops, and provided state resources, like police cars and radios.

One of them, Juan Valenzuela Millan (or “Juanito”), a former high-level Culiacán Municipal Police commander, was also charged with the kidnappings of a DEA source and the source’s relative that resulted in their deaths, allegedly after they were handed over to the cartel.They all face life sentences with a mandatory minimum of 40 years, except for Mr. “Juanito,” who faces a mandatory life sentence.

“The Sinaloa Cartel is a ruthless criminal organization that has flooded this community with dangerous drugs for decades,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “As the indictment lays bare, the Sinaloa Cartel, and other drug trafficking organizations like it, would not operate as freely or successfully without corrupt politicians and law enforcement officials on their payroll. The support of corrupt foreign officials for deadly trafficking of drugs must end. Let these charges send a clear message to all officials around the globe who work with narco-traffickers: no matter your title or position, we are committed to bringing you to justice.”

Rocha Moya responded with a statement of his own on X (translated from Spanish): “I categorically and absolutely reject the accusations made against me by the Southern District of New York Federal Prosecutor’s Office, as they lack any truth or foundation whatsoever. And this will be demonstrated, with full force, at the appropriate time. This attack is not solely against my person; but against the movement of the Fourth Transformation, its emblematic leaderships, and the Mexican women and men who represent that cause.

It is part of a perverse strategy to violate the constitutional order, specifically the national sovereignty advocated by Article 40 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, which our movement defends as an invariable and non-negotiable principle. To the people of Sinaloa, I say that, with the courage and dignity that characterize us, we will demonstrate the lack of foundation for this slander.” Big Nicolás Maduro vibes there, and we all know how that ended. All of this comes after last week the U.S. Treasury “sanctioned 23 individuals and entities that comprise a sophisticated synthetic opioid procurement network with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel,” and the State Department imposed “visa restrictions on 75 individuals who are family members or close personal or business associates of persons linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.”

This appears to be the first time the DOJ has indicted a sitting Mexican governor. The Mexican Foreign Ministry confirmed that U.S. officials have requested the extradition of the individuals indicted to the United States, but that there is enough evidence. It added, “However, as is standard procedure in these cases, the Attorney General’s Office will determine whether there is sufficient evidence under Mexican law and the viability of the requests for provisional arrest for extradition.”

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“.. the Sinaloa cartel will go ultra-violent against Sheinbaum and Moya will likely take down the entire government apparatus with him..”

• U.S. Dept of Justice Indicts the Current Governor of Sinaloa, Mexico (CTH)

Oh boy, this indictment puts Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in a really precarious position. If President Sheinbaum gives up the Governor of Sinaloa, Mexico, Ruben Rocha Moya to extradition the Sinaloa cartel will go ultra-violent against Sheinbaum and Moya will likely take down the entire government apparatus with him. [Ancillary to this, it now makes sense why all the various Mexican federal officials were publicly criticizing the Trump administration and CIA in recent days. They knew this in advance.]


The DOJ (SDNY) has indicted Mexican Governor Ruben Rocha Moya along with nine current and former Mexican officials for participating “in a corrupt and violent drug trafficking conspiracy with the Cartel to import massive amounts of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States.

“The defendants have played a variety of essential roles for the Cartel: among other things, the defendants have allegedly shielded Cartel leaders from investigation, arrest, and prosecution; caused sensitive law enforcement and military information to be provided to members of the Cartel and allied drug traffickers to assist the Cartel’s criminal activities; directed members of state and local law enforcement agencies, such as the Sinaloa State Police, the Investigative Police for the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office, and the Culiacan Municipal Police, to protect drug loads stored in and transiting through Mexico to the United States; and allowed brutal drug-related violence to be committed by members of the Cartel without consequence. In exchange, the defendants have collectively received millions of dollars in drug money from the Cartel.”

VIA LBR on Twitter: – […] This move represents a direct and aggressive escalation by Washington against the highest levels of the Mexican state apparatus. The indictments detail a systemic entanglement between regional Morena governance and cartel operations, effectively labeling the Sinaloa state leadership a criminal enterprise under U.S. law.

This legal assault by the DOJ decapitates the political leadership of one of Mexico’s most strategically sensitive states at a moment of extreme national fragility. By targeting a sitting governor, the U.S. is signaling a total collapse of bilateral trust and an end to the era of diplomatic shielding for Mexican officials. The move is designed to force a confrontation within the Sheinbaum administration, leaving Mexico City with zero room to maneuver between its domestic political alliances and the threat of total diplomatic isolation. The fallout will be immediate and chaotic.

Beyond the legal proceedings, these indictments serve as a precursor to broader sanctions and a likely reclassification of Mexican security cooperation. For the Mexican government, the era of managed stability in Sinaloa is over; Sheinbaum is now facing a direct challenge to state legitimacy and a physical security vacuum that will likely trigger a violent internal restructuring of cartel hierarchies and government control.”

“I would urge you to see the truth of the situation you are in Claudia. That is my advice. It is not for me to tell you what you should have done or not done. The world in which you seek to undo the mistakes you made is different from the world where the mistakes were made. You are now at the crossing, and you want to choose – but there is no choosing here. There is only accepting. The choosing was done a long time ago. … I don’t mean to offend you, but reflective women often find themselves removed from the realities of life. In any case, we should all prepare a place where we can accommodate all of the tragedies that sooner or later will come to our lives. But this is an economy few people care to practice, and that is because when it comes to losing leadership the normal rules of exchanges do not apply, because losing office transcends value. Nicolas Maduro would give his entire nation to exit his reality, and yet he cannot buy anything without office, because without office he is worthless.”

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In Germany, AfD just keeps on growing. As Merz wants to ban them.

• Trump: US Studying Troop Cuts In Germany, As Spat With Merz Intensifies (BBC)

The US is “studying and reviewing” whether to reduce the thousands of troops it has stationed in Germany, President Donald Trump has announced via social media. His remarks came days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticised his approach to the war in Iran, suggesting that US had been “humiliated” by Iranian negotiators. Trump said in a social media post late on Wednesday that a decision on troop numbers would be made “over the next short period of time. Then early on Thursday he rounded on Merz, saying he should spend “more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!)”.


The US has a significant military presence in Germany, with more than 36,000 active duty troops assigned to bases across the country as of last December. Merz made no mention of Trump’s comments during a visit to German soldiers in northern Germany on Thursday, although he went out of his way to stress the importance of the Nato defensive alliance and “transatlantic solidarity”. Earlier this week, however, he told university students that “the Americans clearly have no strategy” and he could not see “what strategic exit” they were going to choose.”The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skilful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” he said.

He added that the “entire nation” was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership. Trump responded the following day with a post to Truth Social, where he said Merz thought it was “OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon” and “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” “No wonder Germany is doing so poorly, both Economically, and otherwise!” the post read. He picked up the same theme on Thursday, suggesting Merz should focus more on “fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat”.

Germany, along with the UK and France, was part of a 2015 deal with Iran to limit its nuclear operations, although Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018.When asked about Trump’s initial post in a press conference on Wednesday, Merz said the “personal relationship between the American president and myself remains just as good as before”. He has not yet responded to Trump’s suggestion that he could reduce US troops in Germany. The US military deployment in Germany is by far its biggest in Europe, with about 12,000 troops in Italy and a further 10,000 in the UK. Many are stationed at the big Ramstein air base outside the southwestern German city of Kaiserslautern. And while Trump has proposed US troop reductions in Germany before, they have so far not come into effect.

In 2020, a proposal to move 12,000 US troops from Germany either to other Nato countries in Europe or back to the US, was blocked by Congress and then reversed by President Joe Biden.At the time, Trump had accused Germany of being “delinquent” because its military spending was well below Nato’s target of 2% of economic output (GDP). But that has changed dramatically under the Merz government: Germany is projected to spend €105.8bn (£91bn) in 2027 – with total defence expenditure next year set to reach 3.1% of GDP.Merz said after talks with Trump in Washington in March that Trump had assured him the US would maintain its military presence in Germany, adding that he had not expected anything else.

However, while Merz has this week complained of the economic consequences for Europe of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump has been angered by the response of Nato allies in Europe to the war in Iran.Over the past two months, the US president has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the 32-member Nato alliance, calling it a “paper tiger” and a “one-way street”.Earlier in April, a leaked internal Pentagon email detailed potential measures for the US to punish allies it believed had failed to support its campaign in Iran, including a suggestion that the US could seek to suspend Spain from Nato over its stance. A Nato official told the BBC that the alliance’s founding treaty “does not foresee any provision for suspension of Nato membership, or expulsion”.

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Let Europe pay.

• No Aid for Kiev in US Military Budget for 2027 — Pentagon (TASS)

The Pentagon’s draft budget for fiscal year 2027 does not include funding for military aid to Ukraine, Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst confirmed. “That’s correct. There’s no USAI (Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative – TASS) funding in this budget,” he said while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, commenting on the US War Department’s recently released budget request for the upcoming fiscal year.


At the same time, Hurst noted that the Pentagon will soon begin using the $400 million military aid package for Ukraine previously approved by Congress. “They [the funds] were released very recently. And again, we got these funds, I believe, in March. And it takes time for funds to flow through the Department, but it’s going to get put to work very shortly. We’re going to work with the EUCOM commander to make sure we use these funds in the most appropriate way possible,” he said.

US Senator Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky) wrote in an article published on April 29 by The Washington Post that the US Department of War is delaying the transfer of the $400 million military aid package previously approved by Congress. According to McConnell, the Department has also ignored related requests from the relevant Senate committees. He added that Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby bears responsibility for the delay in resolving issues related to the disbursement of the aid.

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A socialist mayor can’t be in New York. It’s not a socialist city.

• Mamdani Is Already Facing a $6 Billion Budget Hole (Margolis)

Well, that didn’t take long. Zohran Mamdani hasn’t even completed his first executive budget as New York City mayor, and he’s already got his hand out. The self-described democratic socialist swept into office promising a new utopia — and almost immediately delivered a fiscal crisis requiring a state bailout. Margaret Thatcher warned us about exactly this. Sooner or later, socialists run out of other people’s money. In Mamdani’s case, it took no time at all.


The mayor announced Tuesday that he’s pushing back the deadline for his first executive budget — originally due Friday — to at least May 12. Standing alongside City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Mamdani framed the delay as a reasonable response to uncertainty in Albany. In other words, he’s waiting to find out if Albany will bail him out over his $5.4 billion budget gap. “This adjustment reflects a very simple reality,” Menin said. “New York state has not finalized its budget, and until they do so, we do not have the necessary clarity to responsibly complete the city’s budget.” If they’re expecting a bailout, I wouldn’t count on it.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s spokesperson fired back with a statement that was, by Albany standards, refreshingly blunt. “The mayor and City Council need to work together, identify savings, and close the remaining gap.” Here’s what makes the optics especially rich. Just weeks ago, Mamdani posted a video bragging about how he was taxing the rich and how it was going to be a huge boon for the city. The message was clear: Tax the rich, fund the city, problem solved. Now he’s warning that without state intervention, he may have to raise property taxes on regular New Yorkers to close the shortfall.

Mamdani and Menin are pushing Hochul to scale back the state’s Pass-Through Entity Tax Credit, arguing that it functions as a loophole for the ultra-wealthy. “More than 95% of PTET credits go to those making more than $1 million a year,” Mamdani said. “More than 80% go to those making more than $5 million a year.” He estimates adjusting PTET could bring in around $1 billion in revenue — which still leaves roughly $4 billion-plus of the problem unsolved. Menin, hedging carefully, wants any PTET change to be temporary rather than permanent. Even she seems to sense this isn’t a long-term strategy.

Mamdani is also dusting off the familiar grievance that New York City sends more money to the state than it gets back — a claim some Albany lawmakers dispute. It’s a convenient argument when you need someone else to bail you out. This is socialism. Nothing is surprising about this. Conservatives have been saying this is what New York City was destined for if it elected Mamdani. We didn’t have a crystal ball; we just had common sense and history on our side. Now, Mamdani is learning in real time what every socialist eventually discovers. There’s always a bill, and eventually you run out of millionaires to hand it to.

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‘stochastic terrorism’

• There’s a Name for What They’re Doing to Donald Trump (Thorne)

Once upon a time, there was a societal pact in this country that, when a depraved lunatic committed an atrocity, no one would breathe a word of his motives, speech, or writings. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kicked off the school shooting craze at Columbine High School in 1999, we didn’t speak of what they thought they were accomplishing. Their so-called basement tapes were never publicly released, and authorities destroyed them in 2011. “Law enforcement officials have always regarded the tapes as a particularly infectious form of toxic waste, a primer in mass murder that could inspire more violence and must never be released,” reported the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.


The understanding was that repeating a lunatic’s motivations could inspire copycats. Back then, society hoped to prevent more tragedy. Today’s Democrat establishment hopes to inspire it. So brazen have they become that, less than 24 hours after Cole Allen tried to assassinate President Donald Trump, CBS reporter Norah O’Donnell read the slander from his manifesto to his intended victim’s face. Trump called her out, saying, “Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people.” He was right, but no matter: Management at CBS still went on to air those poisonous words on its Sunday show, 60 Minutes. Because everyone at that vile network is in on it.

So is every single newscaster, elected or appointed official, celebrity, and every other leftist with a sheen of authority or influence and a platform who repeats the litany of leftist accusations. But then, Democrats are the morally challenged segment of society, dating back to their slaveholder roots (now manifested as fighting to keep their cheap labor through trafficking poor people into the country to work for near-slave wages). Once they hid behind the “liberal” label, but that has morphed into what plainly animates them today: hate, perversion, and political violence. Cheering on an assassin, either explicitly or implicitly, is A-OK with them.

Democrats are also all about plausible deniability. Just ask Joe Biden’s grifty brother, Jim. This is why this sort of mass projection of violence in the hopes of triggering a nut with good aim is such a perfect fit for them. It’s called “stochastic terrorism.” Perhaps, in the case of the relentless attack on Donald Trump, we can more accurately call it “stochastic assassination.” Policy research agency RAND explained the concept in a 2024 report called “From words to actions”:

The role of the media in radicalisation and terrorism has been a topic of discussion in recent years. Citizens are increasingly at risk to be exposed to extremist ideas through social media and communication apps, which can lead to a normalisation of hatred towards certain individuals, groups or institutions and an increased acceptance of violence. A term that is gaining popularity in the media and popular scientific literature in the context of recent incidents of extremist violence in which the media may have played a role is ‘stochastic terrorism’.

This term refers to hostile, derogatory and/or dehumanising language by influential individuals towards a political, social, ethnic or religious group or individual. Through interaction on social media and traditional media, this language may lead to a climate of fear, which in turn increases the likelihood of someone turning to violence, even if the initial message does not explicitly call for it. Due to the implicit nature of these expressions, individuals responsible for (reinforcing) inflammatory discourse cannot straightforwardly be prosecuted, if at all. However, there is currently no legal definition or even a unified understanding of this somewhat elusive concept.

My colleague VodkaPundit explained how the left is leveling the tactic against the president: “…there’s no conspiracy required to produce a left-wing assassin like Tyler James Robinson or Ryan Routh. They just amp up the rhetorical pressure, 24/7/365, until somebody pops.”

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How do you install that in secret?

• Banksy Confirms He’s Behind Statue In Central London (BBC)

Street artist Banksy has confirmed a large statue that appeared in central London is his work. The sculpture – which bears his signature – depicts a suited man walking forward off a plinth while carrying a flag that covers his face. Its location – Waterloo Place, St James’s – is an area designed to celebrate imperialism and military dominance in the 1800s. The sculpture sits near statues of Edward VII, Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War Memorial.Banksy’s representatives told the BBC the statue was installed in the early hours of Wednesday, before the artist posted a video of it on his Instagram account on Thursday afternoon. On the statue’s position on the ceremonial island in Waterloo Place, Banksy said: “There was a bit of a gap.”


Since it appeared on Wednesday, crowds have gradually increased in size. Contractors were seen erecting safety barriers around the work on Thursday afternoon. Westminster City Council, which is responsible for the area, said: “We’re excited to see Banksy’s latest sculpture in Westminster, making a striking addition to the city’s vibrant public art scene. “While we have taken initial steps to protect the statue, at this time it will remain accessible for the public to view and enjoy.”

James Peak, creator of the BBC podcast series The Banksy Story, said: “Here, you’ve got a brilliant comment on a bumptious, chest puffed out man in power with the flag completely obscuring his vision, which is why he is about to fall off the plinth. “It is a wonderfully framed moment in time that you never really get with a statue.” He added Banksy had “pulled off another fantastic coup…the positioning is absolutely knockout”. “I don’t know how he’s managed to do it.

“How has he got a low-loader to there with all the security and put up a massive resin statue?”On the statue’s location, he added: “We’ve got to face up to the fact that Britain has an imperialistic history full of takeovers and part of that is the sort of extreme nationalism that Banksy absolutely abhors.” “Every (Banksy) piece is a campaign.”

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We will talk till we’re blue in the face.

• The Biden Admin’s COVID Vaccine Cover-Up and Lies (Miranda Devine)

As Dr. Anthony Fauci’s right-hand man, David Morens, was charged this week with conspiracy and destruction of federal records in the COVID-19 cover-up, another scandal over the vaccine was unfolding on Capitol Hill. According to a new Senate report and congressional testimony on Wednesday, Biden administration health officials deliberately ignored warning signs of possible serious reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, including heart attacks, strokes, Bell’s palsy and sudden cardiac death.


Within three months of the vaccines being rolled out, in March 2021, red flags were fluttering out of the weekly data dumps from doctors and patients reporting health problems after the shots, according to internal emails and meeting notes provided by the Department of Health and Human Services to Sen. Ron Johnson’s Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. But when the FDA’s senior medical officer, Dr. Ana Szarfman, whose job was to monitor the vaccine data for warning signs, repeatedly raised the alarm throughout 2021, she was ignored, and emails show her colleagues tried to stop her from using a newer, more accurate statistical methodology to investigate the data.

On Sept. 9, 2021, Biden announced his vaccine mandates, with an implied threat to the roughly 80 million Americans who had not taken the COVID jab and whom he accused of prolonging the pandemic and putting everyone at risk, even though the vaccine did not stop transmission of the disease. “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin,” Biden said. “And your refusal has cost all of us.” On Sept. 16, Dr. Peter Marks, a staunch supporter of the COVID-19 vaccines who at the time led the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told another senior FDA official in an email that Szarfman (who has since retired) “has been asked to cease and desist, because the strategy that she is using could create erroneous conflicts that feed in to anti-vaccination rhetoric.” Marks also complained that Szarfman’s work has “become a major distraction.”

The documents uncovered by Johnson’s investigation staff point to the same alarming secrecy and efforts to avoid accountability that landed Fauci’s adviser, Morens, in trouble. The secrecy included instructions from FDA officials to discuss findings in person rather than over email and stopping or limiting the distribution of the weekly vaccine safety reports with the alleged intent of avoiding FOIA requests. On March 26, 2021, Szarfman shared with colleagues her analysis of COVID-19 vaccine adverse events using the superior, newer “data mining” methodology that had found more than 20 statistically significant “safety signals” or potential red flags associated with the COVID-19 vaccines that were not previously detected by FDA’s current methodology, “including sudden cardiac death, Bell’s palsy and pulmonary infarction.”

Her analysis was conducted with Dr. William DuMouchel, then the chief statistician at Oracle and the inventor of the data-mining algorithm. However, “rather than warn the public or hold distribution of the vaccines for further investigation, records appear to indicate that Biden health officials ignored the statistically significant safety signals uncovered through the new methodology and were more concerned about Dr. Szarfman’s efforts rather than her troubling findings,” the interim report found. In April 2021, after Szarfman emailed colleagues with another data-mining analysis that apparently underscored the limitations of the FDA’s current system, one senior FDA official wrote to his colleagues, “[b]efore we potentially reach out to Ana, we should meet internally — many considerations not suited to email …”

Szarfman continued to bring her reports to colleagues, but they were ignored. In August 2021, about a month before Szarfman was directed to “cease and desist,” Dr. David Menschik, a senior FDA colleague of Marks, told a CDC official that the FDA planned to limit distribution of its weekly vaccine data-mining reports, which used to be sent around the FDA and CDC, citing “data-security reasons.” But emails among CDC officials uncovered by Johnson’s investigators point to a potentially more nefarious reason for the FDA’s decision to stop distributing its data-mining reports.

In a November 2022 email, one CDC official noted, “I think that because of the FOIAs [Freedom of Information Act requests] we may have asked FDA to stop sending these weekly data-mining outputs.” According to Johnson’s staff report, “in the months and weeks leading up to the FDA’s decision to discontinue its distribution of the weekly data-mining reports, there were several public requests made to CDC and FDA for that information. “On May 9, 2022, about two months before the FDA stopped sending CDC its weekly data-mining reports, Children’s Health Defense sent a FOIA request to CDC for the [vaccine] data-mining analyses.

“On June 23, 2022, 19 days before FDA sent its final weekly data mining report, Sen. Johnson wrote to then-CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky requesting the same information. “Then, on June 30, 2022, 12 days before FDA’s last distribution, the Informed Consent Action Network submitted a FOIA request to FDA for the [vaccine] data-mining records. “In light of these public and congressional requests, the timing of the FDA’s decision to end the distribution of its weekly data-mining reports seems particularly suspect. “The notion that Biden health officials took steps to limit the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine safety data in order to avoid more internal review or public scrutiny, it is completely unacceptable.”

Democrats on the subcommittee, like Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), were at pains to point out during the hearing that COVID-19 itself caused serious injury and death, calling as their witness a 41-year-old woman, Maria Young, who was hospitalized for two months and almost died in the months before the vaccines were developed. Of the 8 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide, multiple large studies suggest there has been no increase in long-term mortality among vaccinated people. However, the damage was done by the COVID cover-up and lies. They have driven widespread distrust of vaccination, including tried-and-true lifesaving vaccines.

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https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2049887320141148563?s=20 https://twitter.com/DianaT192/status/2049503943059796431?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle February 24 2026

Feb 242026
 
 February 24, 2026  Posted by at 10:34 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  61 Responses »


Piet Mondriaan The red cloud 1907


• TRUMP Declares WAR On Euro CENSORSHIP (MN)
• EU Says Trump’s Tariff Workaround Violates Trade Deal (ZH)
• The Supreme Court has Ruled on Tariffs, but Who Will Ultimately Pay? (Turley)
• Bessent Signals No Retreat After SCOTUS Tariff Ruling (David Manney)
• AOC Has Instagram Meltdown. It’s a Sight to Behold. (Matt Margolis)
• AOC’s Ignorance Is No Laughing Matter (Stephen Soukup)
• Trump is Losing His Base – Mark Taylor (USAW)
• Obama’s ‘Gift’ Sticks Taxpayers With $200M+ Bill (ZH)
• CNN Finally Admits the Truth About Democrat-Run Cities (Matt Margolis))
• Trump is Netanyahu’s Puppet (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Judge Says Jack Smith’s Final Report on Trump Can Never Be Released (ET)
• British Police Take Former Ambassador Mandelson into Custody (Manney)
• The Putin Plan for Cuba and The Castro Family (Helmer)

 


 

https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/2025573014155227301?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2025580547527856295?s=20

 


 

 


 


Europe’s last hope before the curtain closes. These guys want to operate in darkness. Because they all, Starmer, Macron, Merz, have one thing in common: they’re painfully unpopular back home.

US State does what I’ve been doing (trying to do) for many years:: give people a peek behind the curtains.

• TRUMP Declares WAR On Euro CENSORSHIP (MN)

As European governments ramp up their assault on online freedom, the Trump administration is striking back hard with Freedom.Gov—a portal designed to equip European and British citizens with tools to shatter digital barriers imposed by overreaching bureaucrats. The move exposes the hypocrisy of so called “safety” laws that geofence truth, forcing websites to block users or demand ID, all while claiming to protect the public from their own thoughts. A growing number of websites have chosen to simply block users rather than comply with arduous censorship demands in response to Europe’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety Act, with many more hidden behind government-mandated age-verification making linking a real-life identity to internet use a prerequisite for access.


The U.S. government is launching a ‘Freedom.Gov’ website that will give British and European visitors the tools to access censorship-free parts of the internet they have been geofenced out of by their own governments in the name of public safety. The new initiative is the work of the U.S. State Department and led by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, who has been a key figure in bringing President Trump’s message of freedom to Europeans in recent months. Government insiders say the Freedom.Gov portal may feature a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tool to allow European users to bypass domestic controls and claims its use won’t be tracked.

A State Department spokesman is quoted as saying: “Digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, however, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs.” A placeholder website for the planned anti-censorship service is already active. The Freedom.Gov site first became active in January and was blank apart from the text “fly, eagle, fly”. Today, an updated landing page proclaims “Freedom is coming. Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.” In a crystal-clear message to the censorious British authorities cracking down on internet freedoms, the page also features an animated logo of Paul Revere on his famous 1775 midnight ride, warning the Minutemen of the approaching British troops.

The decision to launch the service will inevitably bring the U.S. into some sort of conflict with European capitals, given the pro-freedom move would force those governments to either defacto accept that their censorship laws will either be openly bypassed by their own citizens with the assistance of Washington, or to block Freedom.Gov, and clarify their opposition to the free dissemination of information.mThis puts Washington in the unfamiliar position of appearing to encourage citizens to flout local laws, without stopping to note this is, of course, not actually unfamiliar at all. The United States through the CIA and other agencies maintained a large network of censorship-busting initiatives through the Cold War using the latest technology of the time.

Among those efforts was Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Liberty, sending unfiltered news and other programming through high-powered broadcasts into the Soviet nations behind the Iron Curtain. This effort was something of a game of cat-and-mouse between the free West and the Communist East, with Soviet authorities attempting to block out the broadcasts with radio interference equipment of their own. In those Soviet countries, when the Western radio broadcasts did get through, those who tuned into them faced arrest “or worse” at the hands of the authorities. Today, the British government has already started to react to the use of VPNs to circumvent its new internet controls—imposed, it says, for the sake of public “safety”—and is moving to defacto outlaw them.

Pro-Freedom and anti-surveillance campaign group Big Brother Watch responded to the government’s plan to crack down on VPNs, saying: “The Prime Minister’s announcement that the government intends to restrict access to VPNs for under-16s represents a draconian crackdown on the civil liberties of children and adults alike. The only way such restrictions could be enforced effectively would be for VPN providers to require all users to undergo age-assurance measures.”

The group continues, “Having to provide ID or a biometric face scan to access a VPN utterly defeats the point of a technology designed to enhance privacy online. The ability to receive and share information absent state snooping is a vital part of living in a free democracy.” “There is a reason authoritarian governments in countries such as China, North Korea, Iran, and Belarus ban or restrict VPNs. Anonymity and enhanced privacy allow journalists, whistleblowers, campaigners, and dissidents to communicate securely,” they further urge. This latest escalation builds directly on the Trump administration’s earlier vows to counter British PM Kier Starmer’s censorship frenzy, where Under-Secretary Sarah B. Rogers warned that America would unleash its full arsenal against threats to X and free speech, treating the UK like Iran if needed.

Rogers stated: “With respect to a potential ban of X, Keir Starmer has said that nothing is off the table. I would say from America’s perspective, nothing is off the table when it comes to free speech.” It also extends Trump’s pattern of offering lifelines to UK and European dissidents, including asylum for “thought criminals” prosecuted for silent prayers or online posts challenging mass migration and gender ideology. nSources previously confirmed the White House was scouting cases, tying free speech erosion to Britain’s immigration failures.

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They don’t want transparency.

• EU Says Trump’s Tariff Workaround Violates Trade Deal (ZH)

Update (1715ET): Europe is now getting ‘legal’ over the whole thing – claiming that Trump’s new tariff workaround violates levels permitted in their trade agreement, Bloomberg reports. The European Commission, which handles trade matters for the bloc, told lawmakers Monday that the new global tariff will be added to levies that are already in place, according to Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee. The new cumulative rate means some goods would be above the 15% ceiling the EU and US agreed to in their trade deal.Under Trump’s new tariff program, some products including butter, plastics, textiles and chemicals would have levies above that 15% ceiling, according to people familiar with the commission’s assessment. The new global tariffs can stay in place for as many as 150 days.


* * * Update (9:40am ET): In response to the EU’s decision to freeze ratification of Trump’s landmark deal, the US president has come out swinging and on Truth Social threatened any countries that “play games” with the supreme court decision that they “will be met with a much higher tariff.” It just isn’t clear what the procedure for these much higher tariffs – aside from Section 122 which is limited to 150 days – will be now that IEEPA has been ruled unconstitutional.

Earlier: In the aftermath of Friday’s SCOTUS decision to reverse Trump’s tariff policy, one lingering question is what happens to the bilateral trade deals Trump struck with various countries (and which supposedly would lead to hundreds of billions of fresh investment into the US). Well, in the case of the EU we no longer have to wonder: {This] morning, the European Union said it would freeze the ratification process of its trade deal with the US and was seeking more details from the Trump administration on its new tariff program. Zeljana Zovko, the lead trade negotiator in the European People’s Party group on the US deal, said in an interview with Bloomberg that “we have no other option” but to delay the approval process to seek clarity on the situation.

The main political groups in the European Parliament say they’ll suspend legislative work on approving the trade deal on Monday, days after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s use of an emergency-powers law to impose his so-called reciprocal tariffs around the world. The center-right EPP, which is the largest political bloc in parliament, will be joined by parties including the Socialists & Democrats and the liberal Renew group to back freezing the process. According to Bloomberg, Bernd Lange – chairman of the parliament’s trade committee – called an emergency meeting later Monday to reassess the EU-US trade accord. He said over the weekend that parliament should delay work on the trade accord until the EU receives more clarity on the new tariffs. EU ambassadors will also meet Monday afternoon to discuss the US trade relationship.

Trump’s announcement following the court decision to impose a 10% global tariff, which he then increased to 15%, left many questions unanswered for American trading partners, stirring up more economic turbulence and uncertainty about the US policy. As a reminder, the deal struck last summer between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would impose a 15% tariff rate on most EU exports to the US while removing tariffs on American industrial goods heading into the bloc. The US would also continue to impose a 50% tariff on European steel and aluminum imports. The bloc agreed to the lopsided deal in the hopes of avoiding a full-blown trade war with Washington and retaining US security backing, particularly with regards to Ukraine. Parliament had been aiming to ratify the agreement in March.

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“Unless members want to further add to the deficit, Congress should intervene to uphold the tariffs retroactively. But that may not be possible.”

• The Supreme Court has Ruled on Tariffs, but Who Will Ultimately Pay? (Turley)

Friday’s blockbuster ruling on tariffs was hardly welcomed by the Trump administration, but it was also widely expected. The Supreme Court clearly established in its 6-3 decision that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not afford presidents authority to issue sweeping, unilateral tariffs like those imposed by President Trump over the last year. The justices fractured on other issues. And they left one issue conspicuously unaddressed: What happens to the hundreds of billions of dollars collected from these tariffs so far? Many of us predicted that the administration would lose this fight. That view was reinforced after oral arguments, when a majority of justices raised possible reasons why the president might not possess this power.


Then again, he does possess similar powers under other laws, which the administration has already announced he will use. Although Trump said he was “ashamed” of the conservative justices who ruled against him, their opinion is consistent with the conservative interpretive approach taken in prior statutory cases. The majority defended Congress’s core power over the purse, maintaining the balance among the branches of our tripartite system. There were good-faith arguments on both sides, but these conservative justices ruled regardless of the political or practical repercussions, based on what they believed was demanded by the Constitution. The most surprising votes were not the three conservatives but the three liberal justices, who historically have not been deterred by ambiguity in statutes in deferring to presidents.

They have repeatedly also found delegated authority in independent agencies without worrying too much about the separation of powers. Democratic politicians openly celebrated from the loss. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) seemed gleeful over the idea that the country will have to incur massive penalties, costs that could undermine the current economic growth figures. Newsom, who has led his state into a deep deficit and triggered an exodus of taxpayers, eagerly called for economic penalties for the country: “Every dollar unlawfully taken must be refunded immediately — with interest. Cough up!”

In reality, the tariffs are not going away. Trump will just have to rely on less nimble laws, but he can pursue the same policies in the name of other causes, such as securing greater market access and other concessions from foreign governments. So what about “coughing up” those past tariff dollars? Newsom may ultimately be disappointed. Unless members want to further add to the deficit, Congress should intervene to uphold the tariffs retroactively. But that may not be possible.

Democratic politicians like Newsom are not likely to want to help Trump, even if that means wounding the national economy and the federal budget. But this may offer Republicans a unique opportunity to force such a vote. Do Democrats truly want to vote to give hundreds of billions back? There are already more than 1,000 claimants. Justice Brett Kavanaugh dealt with the problem directly in his forceful dissent. He criticized the majority for its silence on whether or how such refunds would be made. Most pointedly, Kavanaugh noted that the federal government “may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the … tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others.”

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“.. tariff collections will continue at the same level because the rates and scope remain consistent. The mechanism changes, but the dollars don’t,..”

• Bessent Signals No Retreat After SCOTUS Tariff Ruling (David Manney)

After the Supreme Court handed down a six-to-three decision limiting how President Donald Trump used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose so-called Liberation Day tariffs, his critics pounced, declaring the strategy dead. Do they know President Trump? Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went on the air and made clear the administration isn’t backing down. One tool was whittled down, but the policy is still kicking. The Supreme Court ruled that the administration stretched IEEPA beyond its intended scope. While the statute allows emergency economic measures, the majority found that the tariff action did not fit the framework Congress had designed. The decision appeared to force surrender, but all it did was cause a pivot.


Bessent told Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo that tariff revenue wouldn’t stop, framing the ruling as procedural rather than authoritative. He said that the administration still has multiple statutory authorities to address trade imbalances and national security threats. The objective, he said, hasn’t changed: reduce trade deficits, protect domestic industry, and pressure the foreign governments that have been gaming the system. Bessent explained that the White House will move to Section 122 authority within days, as President Trump already announced a 15% global tariff, adjusting it over the weekend to maintain leverage.Section 122 allows temporary trade restrictions to address balance-of-payments concerns, and while formal investigations proceed, it remains in effect for 150 days.

Bessent said that the administration also plans to use Section 232, which addresses national security concerns, and Section 301, which targets unfair trade practices. Commerce Department reviews and United States Trade Representative studies will support those actions. Describing the shift as straightforward, Bessent argued that the Supreme Court’s decision clarified the boundaries and strengthened the administration’s footing under other statutes. “In a way, they have made the leverage that he has more draconian because they agreed he does have the right to a full embargo,” the secretary said. “Within three days, the President can put on the Section 122 10% global tariff. So, at Treasury for the full year 2026, we foresee no decrease in revenue,” he continued.

Some budget watchdog groups warned tariff revenue would fall. Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, shared uncertainty about the long-term math, an argument Bessent rejected outright, saying that revenue projections remain intact under the new authorities. “Yes, so, Maria, let’s take a step back here. And Maya MacGuineas should be ashamed, and they should take the word ‘responsible’ out of her organization’s name,” Bessent responded. “Everything she told you was completely irresponsible, and look, where were they when the Biden administration blew out the deficit that we had a fiscal contraction last year? So she should be ashamed.”


Using the phrase “new authorities,” Bessent meant that different trade laws already on the books, not a fresh attempt at a supposed power grab. The administration plans to rely on Section 122 of the Trade Act for temporary tariffs, along with Sections 232 and 301, statutes written specifically for trade enforcement, giving the White House a firm legal foundation even after the Supreme Court narrowed the use of emergency powers. Bessent went on to say that tariff collections will continue at the same level because the rates and scope remain consistent. The mechanism changes, but the dollars don’t, while he pushed back against claims that tariffs worsen inflation or cause exploding deficits. Years of runaway spending happened long before these trade actions.

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“Everyone’s got this story wrong, that this is about me running for president. Global democracies are on fire the world over.”

• AOC Has Instagram Meltdown. It’s a Sight to Behold. (Matt Margolis)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) traveled to the Munich Security Conference with big ambitions and came home with a reputation problem. The trip was supposed to bolster her foreign policy credentials ahead of a future Senate or presidential run. Instead, it turned into a masterclass in unpreparedness, and now she’s doing damage control in the worst way possible: a tearful late-night Instagram rant.


In the video, an emotional AOC, appearing to hold back tears, pushed back against critics who saw her faceplant in Munich, convinced she has no idea what she’s talking about. Her defense? It’s not her, it’s you, who’s the problem. “If you think that I don’t understand foreign policy because out of hours of discourse about international affairs, I paused to think about one of the most sensitive geopolitical issues that currently exist on Earth, I’m afraid the issue is not my understanding, but rather the problem is perhaps you’ve gotten adjusted to a president that never thinks before he speaks.” There it is. You can’t blame her for not knowing what she’s talking about; you’ve got to blame President Donald Trump.

Make no mistake about it, the Instagram video isn’t going to rehabilitate her, because the Munich footage still exists. And it was bad, in every sense of the word. When a panelist asked AOC whether the U.S. should commit troops to defend Taiwan if China attacks — a question any serious foreign policy thinker should be able to handle — she froze. What followed was genuinely painful to watch: “Um… You know, I think that, uh… This is such a, uh, you know, I think that this is a, um… This is, of course, a very long-standing policy of the United States, and I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point.” She rambled for several more seconds without saying anything approaching a coherent position. Taiwan policy has been a central pillar of U.S. foreign relations for decades. This wasn’t a trick question.

That wasn’t pausing to think; that was clearly her not having the faintest idea how to respond. Her wealth tax moment wasn’t any smoother. Asked whether she’d impose one as president, AOC giggled nervously before managing this: “I don’t think that, um, I don’t think that anyone, and that we don’t have to wait for any one president to impose a wealth tax. I think it needs to be done expeditiously.”Argentine politician Daiana Fernández Molero wasted no time dismantling that position with actual evidence. “You have the recipe that many Latin American countries applied many, many times; that is some relief in the short term, but ends up being a tragedy for the future,” Molero explained.

“It’s like a public expenditure, huge public expenditure, price controls, sometimes wealth tax, and you end up with the wealth going away, and you have just the tax, and you don’t have wealth anymore. That was something that Peronism did many, many times.”Molero continued, “So all these recipes create a cycle. Then you have this short-term relief, but then it goes with inflation, shortage, then you have more poverty, and the cycle goes and goes.”

Once again, AOC came away from an exchange looking like the dumb kid way out of her depth. So she did what any entitled brat would do: she called a reporter to defend her. New York Times journalist Kellen Browning publicly confirmed that AOC “gave me a call,” and his subsequent article dutifully suggested she faced a “potentially frosty reception” and that critics missed “the substance of her arguments.” AOC told Browning, “Everyone’s got this story wrong, that this is about me running for president. Global democracies are on fire the world over.”

The left-wing media ecosystem spent years building AOC into a political phenomenon, with protective coverage that kept her weaknesses hidden as much as possible. Munich stripped all of that away. Without friendly gatekeepers controlling the narrative, her lack of depth became impossible to disguise.If this conference was her 2028 audition, she bombed it. And no amount of teary Instagram videos is going to make people forget how badly she bombed.

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“.. in the United States, the most prominent Marxist theorists actually gave up on workers altogether as allies in the fight against capitalism.”

• AOC’s Ignorance Is No Laughing Matter (Stephen Soukup)

Over the past week or so, many on the political Right have understandably enjoyed a laugh or two at the expense of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, N.Y.). AOC went to the Munich Security Conference to provide “balance” to the Trump administration’s presence and to burnish her own credentials on the global stage. Instead, she mostly just made a fool of herself. Not only did she stutter, stammer, and offer a Kamala Harris-esque non-answer when asked about American interests in and obligations to Taiwan, but she also demonstrated a comically poor grasp of geography and a righteously ignorant understanding of history. In an effort to rebut and embarrass U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, AOC embarrassed only herself, showing that historical facts mean far less to her than identity-inspired fiction.


But while it’s inarguably fun to chuckle at and mock the ignorance of the smug congresswoman and presumed presidential aspirant, it is also important to acknowledge that her historical and political illiteracy extends beyond the superficial and touches on matters of real and critical importance. Notably, this purported champion of the working class does not know the history of working-class politics, does not understand the reasons for the collapse of the working-class-centered ideology, and, as a result, has never contemplated the dangers inherent in attempting to resuscitate that failed doctrine. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has long emphasized her biography and working-class roots to enhance her political status—and justifiably so. Her childhood may not have been quite the struggle she pretends it was, but she nevertheless endured economic hardships—especially after her father’s death—and was unable to find employment commensurate with her education. She was, famously, a bartender and a cocktail waitress before her election to Congress and, as a result, has long fashioned herself a champion of the working class and its purported priorities.

Indeed, on her trip to Munich, AOC emphasized her affinity with the working class and admonished democratic nations to erect a bulwark against totalitarianism by focusing on workers, workers’ rights, and worker-centered politics. “It is of utmost urgent priority that we get our economic houses in order and deliver material gains for the working class,” the congresswoman said, “or else we will fall to a more isolated world governed by authoritarians that also do not deliver to working people.” She railed against large corporations and especially billionaires, insisting that they had to be stopped from “throwing their weight around” in domestic and international politics. In short, the good congresswoman used her trip to Munich to urge the workers of the world to unite, because, as she sees it, they have nothing to lose but their chains.

There’s only one little problem with AOC’s exhortation: it’s ridiculous. Indeed, it’s been tried . . . and tried . . . and tried. It doesn’t work. And when I say that, I don’t mean that socialism doesn’t work or that communism has been tried countless times before and failed every time. That much is obvious by now. Rather, what I mean is that the workers of the world don’t care about the rest of the workers of the world. They don’t like the idea of being divided into classes, and they don’t have any particular affection for their fellow laborers. They don’t dislike other workers necessarily, but they don’t see themselves as a monolithic federation sharing the same interests, needs, or political predilections. Truth be told—and this is the key to understanding the silliness of the whole “global proletariat” nonsense—even the Marxists long ago gave up on uniting the workers of the world. In fact, in the United States, the most prominent Marxist theorists actually gave up on workers altogether as allies in the fight against capitalism.

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“God drove him to his knees, and it was supposed to humble him, but in some cases, it made him worse.”

• Trump is Losing His Base – Mark Taylor (USAW)

Retired firefighter, Lieutenant Mark Taylor, author of the popular book “The Trump Prophecies,” predicted Donald Trump would become President five years before the 2016 Election. Many thought that was an outrageous prediction, but he was proven right. Taylor also looked like he got it wrong when he predicted Trump would be a two-term President. He was, once again, proven correct despite the four-year gap in his Administration. Now, Taylor is sounding the alarm that President Trump is losing the votes of people who gave him the biggest political comeback of all time. Taylor explains, “Here’s the prophetic warning: If you wait too late to act, the patriots are going to take matters into their own hands. . ..


There is video after video from patriots fed up as to how long it is taking to get some of this stuff done. I get emails and comments on social media, and people are feeling how hurt they are from the President. How they even feel betrayed and angry with this President because it is taking so long. Nobody has been held accountable in their eyes. I am telling you the perception of the patriots. . .. Trump is losing his base. I don’t want to see that happen. I want to see him succeed because if he succeeds, the country succeeds. There are certain things this President is doing that is hampering this process. He is waiting too long, and the patriots are getting ready to take matters into their own hands. No amount of military is going to stop this if it starts because right now, they are feeling hopeless.”

Yes, Donald Trump has done some very good things such as getting America out of the World Health Organization. Trump brought in trillions of dollars in investments and has begun removing millions of illegal aliens the Biden Administration let in with open borders. The Southern border is now closed, but the enemy is not just external, and it’s not only flesh and blood. Taylor says there is an enemy within and explains, “God is calling for a place of repentance, and that includes the people’s house, The White House. This includes who is in charge of the people’s house. . .. Susie Wiles (White House Chief of Staff) needs to be fired.

Taylor contends, “Paula White is a spiritual gatekeeper. The President has clairvoyants, psychics and remote viewers around him. He has intelligence people around him. His spiritual advisory board is completely combat ineffective in the spiritual realm. I believe Susie Wiles and her people are responsible for not only killing this presidency . . . but she has him going off track and going in a different direction, and she is responsible for killing the America First agenda. This is what a lot of patriots that I am hearing from are angry about. . .. If there is not a giant turnaround, I think we are going to hand it over to the Democrats (midterms in 2026) because the Republicans are not going to show up to vote because they lost all hope in the President.”

Taylor says, “Who has his ear is steering the President in the wrong direction. He has got to correct this at some point. He’s got to get rid of some of these people. You cannot empower the spirit of Jezebel the way Trump has and not be demonically influenced. He has to throw Jezebel off the roof and feed her to the dogs.” Taylor says he would advise President Trump to fire FBI Director Kash Patel, AG Pam Bondi, spiritual advisor Paula White and political advisor Susie Wiles just for starters. Please keep in mind, Wiles had a disastrous interview late last year with Vanity Fair where she said President Trump had an “alcoholic personality.” President Trump never drinks alcohol because he had an alcoholic brother.

In closing, Taylor warns, “You cannot have this stuff going on and expect God (The Father) to be in it. . .. God is showing me if Trump does not repent and turn back to God and start listening to God instead of his intelligence, the intelligence that is purposely trying to steer him off track, then God is showing me there is something coming for him. There is going to be a David moment, so to speak . . .. God took a child from David. I am not saying he’s going to do that. The assassination attempt was allowed. The bullet grazed his right ear. What is the right ear prophetic for? It is for what you are hearing now. He’s listening to the wrong people now. . .. God drove him to his knees, and it was supposed to humble him, but in some cases, it made him worse.”

Read more …

Send the bill to Reid Hoffman.

• Obama’s ‘Gift’ Sticks Taxpayers With $200M+ Bill (ZH)

When former President Barack Obama announced plans for his presidential center on Chicago’s South Side, he described it as a privately funded investment in the city that would give back to the community that shaped his political career. And while construction of the brutalist eyesore itself remains privately financed through the Obama Foundation, taxpayers are footing the bill for massive infrastructure costs. A review by Fox News found that state and city agencies have not produced a unified accounting of total public expenditures tied to the project’s surrounding infrastructure. While individual agencies have disclosed partial figures, no single office has reconciled those totals or clarified how they overlap.


At the time the project was approved in 2018, public infrastructure costs were projected at roughly $350 million, to be split between the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago. Those estimates covered roadway modifications, utility relocations and related improvements necessary to accommodate the 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park that nobody asked for. In July, the Illinois Department of Transportation said that approximately $229 million in state-managed infrastructure spending had been committed to the project. That total includes about $19 million for preliminary engineering, $24 million for construction engineering and $186 million for construction activities. A department spokesperson described the earlier $174 million figure as a preliminary 2017 estimate.

Now, Chicago’s most recent 2024–2028 Capital Improvement Plan lists more than $206 million allocated to roadway and utility work associated with the project. However, much of that funding is labeled as “state,” and neither state nor city officials have clarified how the figures relate to one another or whether they represent overlapping commitments. Fox submitted records requests to several agencies, including the Illinois Department of Transportation, Chicago’s Department of Transportation, the city’s Office of Budget and Management, the mayor’s office and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration – yet, not one provided a consolidated, up-to-date accounting of total public infrastructure spending. The Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor is reviewing whether agencies complied with state transparency laws in responding to the requests.

The Obama Foundation defended the project, reiterating that the center’s construction – whose cost has grown from early projections of roughly $330 million to at least $850 million, according to its 2024 tax filings – is being financed by private donations. In a statement to Fox, foundation spox Emily Bittner said the organization is “investing $850 million in private funding to build the Obama Presidential Center and give back to the community that made the Obamas’ story possible,” adding that the project is intended to catalyze economic opportunity on the South Side. Bittner, of course, didn’t address the infrastructure costs – which have been extensive.

Chicago’s 2024–2028 Capital Improvement Program lists $206,078,058 for “Obama Presidential Center & Jackson Park – Infrastructure Improvements,” with most funding labeled as state sources. (City of Chicago Capital Improvement Program) Cornell Drive, a four-lane roadway along the eastern edge of Jackson Park, was removed and traffic rerouted farther west. Utilities, including water mains and sewer lines, were relocated, and new drainage systems were installed. City and state officials have said the changes were necessary to manage anticipated traffic and visitor demand.The center occupies 19 acres of public parkland transferred under a 99-year agreement for $10, a decision that prompted legal challenges arguing that the arrangement was not in the public interest. Courts ultimately dis missed those lawsuits.

Though often described as a presidential library, the Chicago complex will not function as a traditional library operated by the National Archives and Records Administration. Former President Obama’s official records will be maintained by the federal government at a facility in Maryland, while the Chicago site will be operated privately by the Obama Foundation. The foundation also pledged to establish a $470 million endowment intended to protect taxpayers in the event the project encounters financial difficulty. According to previous reporting by Fox News, that fund has received $1 million in deposits. Who didn’t see this coming?

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“.. not only are there never results, but there’s never any accountability either ..”

• CNN Finally Admits the Truth About Democrat-Run Cities( Matt Margolis))

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria went off-script this week — at least by his network’s standards — and said the quiet part out loud: Democrat-run cities are a mess, and the politicians in charge either can’t or won’t do anything about it. Of course, this isn’t news to you, but for a CNN host to admit this is a big deal. Zakaria opened with Zohran Mamdani’s New York, calling it “a prime example of a problem Democrats seem unwilling to confront.” That’s a pretty remarkable admission from a CNN host, but I assure you, he was just getting started. “Blue cities are out of control,” he said, “promising more, spending more, delivering less, and pushing off the fiscal problems to some future day.”


He then turned to Los Angeles, and the numbers he cited are staggering. Zakaria noted that the city’s homelessness budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 alone totals roughly $950 million. Not the cumulative total over several years. One year. And what has all that money bought? He explained that the LA Homelessness Services Authority reported that homelessness increased by 9% countywide and 10% within the city in 2023. A 2024 AP account found that homelessness had surged by 70% countywide since 2015 and by 80% within the city. “All this amid public frustration, despite billions spent,” Zakaria said. Then came perhaps the most damning detail. An audit reviewed $2.4 billion in city homelessness funding and found that “officials could not reliably track where it went or what it achieved.” That’s right. $2.4 billion has just disappeared into the bureaucratic ether.

To make matters worse, not only are there never results, but there’s never any accountability either, at least not for the people running the city. Zakaria moved on to Chicago next. He noted the city has a mayor whose approval rating is “deep underwater” and pension obligations so enormous they will “surely bankrupt the city at some point.” That’s a pretty frank diagnosis coming from a guy on a network that spent years cheerleading for this very brand of governance. Then Zakaria asked the key question Democrats never ask: “What is the theory of good government here?” His answer was cutting. “If the answer is keep adding programs, the city will keep producing unaffordability, because unaffordability is what happens when government becomes a machine that grows faster than the society it governs.”

Zakaria continued, “Zohran Mamdani’s basic instinct is correct: focus on affordability, especially housing, but not by providing government subsidies. These only seem to have driven up the cost of rent, as subsidies naturally do.” Here’s where Zakaria went wrong. Affordability isn’t an instinct for Mamdani; it’s a talking point. His instinct is to subsidize. It’s not like he wasn’t upfront about this during his campaign. So all the affordability problems New York City faces are going to get worse under Mamdani. Heck, he’s already gone looking to Gov. Kathy Hochul to bail out New York City — a mere two months into his administration. That’s the pattern. Spend more. Get less. Blame someone else. Repeat.

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Trump throw nukes? I doubt it.

• Trump is Netanyahu’s Puppet (Paul Craig Roberts)

It seems clear that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has disrupted Trump’s negotiations with Iran about nuclear weapons by interjecting in the middle of the negotiations another demand- that Iran give up its missiles and its alleged proxy forces. Netanyahu’s demand is obviously intended to ruin the negotiations as the demand clearly would prevent Iran s ability to defend itself from Israeli attack. From the beginning Netanyahu has been determined to force the US to war with Iran, and that is the purpose of his demand that the deal with Iran includes the military disarming of Iran.


We see this in the news reports that the Trump regime is now considering whether the deal with Iran should also extend to Iranian missiles. Iran is willing to agree not to produce nuclear weapons, but cannot possibly agree to disarm itself of conventional weapons, especially after US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee recently acknowledged that Greater Israel is an ongoing Zionist project. If Iran has the Chinese battle control system that former British diplomat Alastair Crooke described, a US attack on Iran could result in an American defeat, the loss of aircraft carriers and US military bases in the area as well as heavy destruction of Israel. Why would Netanyahu expose Israel to this risk?

Could it be that he bets that an American defeat would lead to demand for revenge on Iran and the US would finally do what Israel wants and nuke the Iranian nation, thus removing Iran as a barrier to further Israeli expansion? Iran’s designation as a terrorist state and Iran’s alleged proxy forces are propagandistic claims used to justify a US military attack on Iran. As the world must know, the two terrorist states are Israel and the United States. Washington, for example, kidnaps foreign leaders of states, and Israel assassinates Iranian, Lebanese, and Yemeni leaders. Who has Iran assassinated ? What terrorist act is Iran responsible for?

The Israeli genocide of Palestine is reason enough for the Houthis in Yemen to oppose Israel. Israel’;s attempted expansion into Lebanon is sufficient reason for Hezbollah to oppose Israel. Perhaps Iran supplies them with weapons, but that doesn’t make them Iran s proxies. The US provides Israel with weapons. Does this make America an Israeli proxy? Insouciant Americans are unaware that Netanyahu and Washington are setting them up for a war that serves only Israel’s interest. Ever since Americans fell for the 911 narrative, they have been putty in the Israel Lobby’s hands, and their beliefs about the Middle East have been given to them by the Israel Lobby and it s many American associates. The prevailing ignorance can very easily produce a catastrophic war.

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“The Court strains to find a situation in which a former special counsel has released a report after initiating criminal charges that did not result in a finding of guilt.”

• Judge Says Jack Smith’s Final Report on Trump Can Never Be Released (ET)

federal judge on Feb. 23 said that the final report on President Donald Trump compiled by a former special counsel shall not be released. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is based in Florida, said in a 15-page decision that she was granting requests from Trump and his co-defendants to keep part two of the report from former special counsel Jack Smith shielded from the public. Cannon said that Smith wrongly forged ahead with investigating Trump and others for allegedly violating federal law by gathering and retaining sensitive documents even after she ruled his appointment was unconstitutional and threw out the case.


“Rather than seek a stay of the Order, or clarification, Special Counsel Smith and his team chose to circumvent it, for months, by taking the discovery generated in this case and compiling it in a final report for transmission to then-Attorney General Garland, to Congress, and then beyond,” Cannon said. “The Court need not countenance this brazen stratagem or effectively perpetuate the Special Counsel’s breach of this Court’s own order.” She added later: “While it is true that former special counsels have released final reports at the conclusion of their work, it appears they have done so either after electing not to bring charges at all or after adjudications of guilt by plea or trial. The Court strains to find a situation in which a former special counsel has released a report after initiating criminal charges that did not result in a finding of guilt.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) had appealed Cannon’s ruling, but dropped the appeal after Trump won a second term in office. The department also released part of Smith’s report just before Trump began his second term. The other part, which has not been made public, was not to be released, according to a January 2025 order from Cannon. Cannon announced in December 2025 that her injunction was set to expire in February this year. Trump and co-defendants said in filings on Jan. 20 that Cannon should permanently block the release of the other part of Smith’s report. Lawyers for Trump said Smith was illegally appointed, and all acts he undertook were thus void, so the release “would constitute an irreversible violation of this Court’s constitutional rulings in the underlying criminal action and of bedrock principles of the separation of powers.”

DOJ officials backed that position. “Put simply, Smith’s tenure was marked by illegality and impropriety, and under no circumstance should his work product be given the full weight and authority of this Department,” they said in a brief, adding later that making the second part of the report public would “lead to the public dissemination of sensitive grand jury materials, attorney-client privileged information, and other information derived from protected discovery materials, raising significant statutory, due process, and privacy concerns for President Trump and his former co-defendants.”

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Nothing to do with girls. That’s all just a cover.

• British Police Take Former Ambassador Mandelson into Custody (Manney)

Peter Mandelson built a career inside the highest levels of British power, but that career collided with a police investigation tied to Jeffrey Epstein. On Monday morning, officers with London’s Metropolitan Police arrested Mandelson on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Police transported the 72-year-old former British ambassador to the United States to a London station for formal questioning. Authorities also searched two properties linked to him in Wiltshire and Camden. Mandelson served as business secretary and twice held cabinet rank under Labour governments, later becoming the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States.


That role placed him at the center of diplomatic strategy between London and Washington, while also placing him under scrutiny once the newly released Epstein files revealed how deep his association ran with the convicted sex offender. Officials removed Mandelson from his ambassadorial post in September, after the extent of his relationship with Epstein became public. He resigned from the Labour Party the same day the news broke that police had opened a formal investigation into whether he shared confidential government information, the reason behind today’s arrest. Mandelson hasn’t been charged, and he’s said that documents released by the U.S. DOJ didn’t indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanor on his part. He’s stopped talking in public since the beginning of the investigation.

Law enforcement works under a long-standing legal principle: evidence found by unlawful means can’t stand in court, and anything derived from it falls with it—fruit from the poison tree. The fallout from the Epstein files works similarly in public life: Names connected to Epstein don’t come out of the washer clean when associations become liabilities, and careers erode once those ties come to light. If he understood anything, Mandelson understood influence, spending decades navigating political power inside Westminster and abroad. Prime ministers relied on him to negotiate, strategize, and manage party operations. He easily moved between government offices and diplomatic leadership, and that access is now at the center of a criminal inquiry.

It’s rare for British police to arrest former cabinet ministers, which shows that investigators believe serious questions remain unanswered. Officials haven’t disclosed the exact nature of the alleged confidential material involved, confirming only that a former government minister was arrested in connection with an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office. This circus shows that Epstein’s network extended beyond American shores, both politically and financially. British figures repeatedly showed up in released documents and flight logs, and each new disclosure reopened old wounds, forcing political leaders to confront uncomfortable connections. Mandelson’s arrest marks one of the most significant developments inside the U. tied to those files.

European royals, government officials, politicians, and others are losing jobs and titles over their connection to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. European law enforcement agencies are opening investigations based on recent troves of documents released by the U.S. government. …

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“This year we will mark the centenary of Fidel Castro’s birth, and we will do so together.”

• The Putin Plan for Cuba and The Castro Family (Helmer)

President Vladimir Putin will not run the gauntlet President Donald Trump has established around Cuba with the Russian Navy to escort Russian-flagged tankers delivering crude oil and petroleum products to Havana. When Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla sat down in the Kremlin on Thursday to ask for more “solidarity, firmly demonstrated by you, the Government of Russia, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in the face of the tightening blockade of Cuba and the recent energy siege,” Putin responded enough is enough. He meant that solidarity with Cuba is one thing, but not at the risk of military conflict with the Trump Administration and its naval forces in the Caribbean.


This is Mikhail Gorbachev talking, responded the Kremlin security analysis medium, Vzglyad, not Nikita Khrushchev. “Please convey my best wishes to the President of Cuba and Army General [Raul] Castro,” Putin told the foreign minister. “This year we will mark the centenary of Fidel Castro’s birth, and we will do so together.” It is not the first time Putin has said there is nothing but historical memory to share between Russia and Cuba; and that he would trade Russia’s military positions in Cuba for its interest in business with the US. In a meeting with President George W. Bush on October 21, 2001, Putin had said he would remove the Russian military intelligence base in Cuba. “I don’t want to horsetrade or nickel and dime this thing or argue about who gets what,” Putin said to Bush in a recently declassified record. In the outcome that is exactly what Putin did – and the trade failed because Bush did not reciprocate.

In his meeting with Rodriguez, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was clearer in public what the Russian line means. “We call on the United States to show common sense and take a responsible attitude,” he said – “refraining from implementing its plans for a naval blockade of the Island of Freedom. We categorically reject the far-fetched allegations regarding Russia and Cuba, and cooperation between them, which is presumably threatening the interests of the United States or any other countries. All disputes should be settled exclusively through dialogue based on mutual respect and a balance of interests. We know that our Cuban friends are always ready for honest negotiations… All issues should be resolved solely through a mutually respectful dialogue aimed at finding a balance of interests. We know that Cuban friends are always ready for such honest negotiations. In turn, we will consistently continue to support Cuba, the Cuban people in protecting the sovereignty and security of the country.”

“I would like to reiterate our complete solidarity with our Cuban friends. I fully share the views on our relations and strategic partnership, which you [Rodriguez] have stated. I would also like to reaffirm the complete unacceptability of actions by the United States, which, as you have reminded just now, has adopted an executive order designating Cuba as a threat to US national interests. At the same time, the document says that this alleged threat is exacerbated by Cuba’s cooperation with Russia, which has been described in the document as a ‘hostile’ and ‘malign’ actor. We are confident that all states should define their national interests in a way that will include recognition of and respect for the national interests of all other countries.”

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