Oct 112026
 


Jackson Pollock Reflection of the Big Dipper 1947


• In First, Putin Conveys High Level Message To Trump On Ending Iran War (ZH)
• Putin and Trump Hold ‘Successful’ Talks (RT)
• Zelenskyy Urgently Attacks Russian Oil/Fuel Export Terminal (CTH)
• Trump Says “Time For Ukraine To Get A New Leader” (ZH)
• Europe and Russia Flirt with Nuclear War (J.B. Shurk)
• The Last Revolution of Barack Obama (Scott Pinsker)
• House Dems’ Dire Donor Warning Hints at Trouble Before Midterms (Margolis)
• Trump Picks New Press Secretary (Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell)
• Germany: 87% of Suspects With An Arrest Warrant Are Foreigners (RMX)
• Tulsi Gabbard Warns About Modern Surveillance State and Islamic Extremism (CTH)
• Are Democrats Trying to Steal the Election for El-Sayed? (Matt Margolis)
• Trump Petitions Supreme Court to Reinstate Lawsuit Against Clinton, DNC (ET)
• The Nobel Peace Prize: An Exercise In Moral Depravity (A.J. Christopher)
• Chris Rock Makes an Excellent Point About Wokeness (Anderson)

 

 

https://twitter.com/MarioBojic/status/2108668510083711186?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2108633908556574836?s=20

 

 

This could break open the whole case.

When it started 6 months or so ago, I said they (Iran and US) needed to find the right words to save each other’s face.

But that can also be a “third face”. Back then, I never thought of it.

And you know, Iran might listen. Everybody listens when Putin speaks.

But we still don’t know who’s listening for Iran.

• In First, Putin Conveys High Level Message To Trump On Ending Iran War (ZH)

In a significant first of the seven-month long Iran war, Russian President Vladimir Putin has relayed to US President ` Donald Trump Tehran’s position on a possible resolution to the US-Iran war, according to the Kremlin. So far it is only the Kremlin readout of the two leaders’ Friday call which mentions the Iran proposal was conveyed, however it didn’t specify what they discussed in particular.


“During the October 9 telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump, considerable focus was on prospects for settling the Ukraine crisis, while the situation surrounding Iran and various aspects of bilateral relations were touched upon as well,” Putin said in the statement. While the big news of the weekend is the major Trump-Putin diesel deal, if it is confirmed that Putin has begun directly mediating on behalf of Tehran, this marks a huge precedent and possible turning point in the Iran conflict.

According to more on the call as it pertains to the Iran situation: Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Putin sent the message to Trump “in agreement with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian,” according to a Google translation. Other Russian media reports said Putin spoke to Trump by phone after the Russian leader met Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a summit in Turkmenistan.

Interfax didn’t elaborate on the specifics of how Iran sees the war — which began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets — coming to an end. There were reports early after Trump launching Operation Epic Fury that Moscow was willing to help negotiate peace between Moscow and Tehran; however, Moscow has largely been on the sidelines – and Qatar and Pakistan in particular have been the lead mediators.

Given Trump just did the controversial Russian diesel deal, this could be a real opening to finally bring the Hormuz Strait crisis to an end. Iran’s military has been flexing, even as the US Navy has boasted of record numbers of tankers having gotten through Hormuz. In just October alone, the Iranians have attacked eleven ships trying to traverse the strait.

President Trump continues to act as if all is well, writing in his latest Truth Social: “I settled 8 WARS, am close to ending or settling 2 more, got all of the Israeli hostages back, including the final 28, both living and dead, had hundreds of hostages, from countries all over the World, released and sent back home, won a war in Venezuela, and captured the violent dictator who so viciously ran that country, and stopped the number one state sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, from obtaining a Nuclear Weapon — AND MUCH MORE!”

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2108871412161413594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2108871412161413594%7Ctwgr%5E9b5a82116b25dc74bd0a9f03fc6e55823d0be2e1%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%twitterA%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Ffirst-putin-conveys-high-level-message-trump-ending-iran-war


“Yet, with all of that I, or the United States of America, did not get the Noble Peace Prize. WOW!” he added. But the Iran war, which the White House in the opening days kept promising would be swift and decisive, has devolved into a quagmire and Trump needs an acceptable exit before it limps on indefinitely, threatening to become his own Mideast ‘forever war’ legacy.

Read more …

“The leaders discussed a major diesel deal, Ukraine peace negotiations, Iran diplomacy, and closer bilateral contacts during a 90-minute phone call ..”

• Putin and Trump Hold ‘Successful’ Talks (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump held a 90-minute phone conversation on Friday, discussing the Ukraine conflict, a major agreement on Russian diesel supplies, the crisis surrounding Iran, and prospects for broader cooperation between Moscow and Washington.


Trump described the exchange as “highly successful,” announcing that Russia had agreed to supply millions of tons of diesel fuel to American and global markets in an effort to ease soaring energy prices. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said the conversation was friendly and substantive, revealing that Trump had rearranged his schedule to speak with Putin following the Russian leader’s 74th birthday. Here are the key takeaways from the conversation, according to statements by both leaders and the Kremlin’s detailed readout.

Millions of tons of Russian diesel for the US
The most immediate result of the talks was a major energy agreement under which Russia will increase diesel exports to the US and global markets, potentially helping alleviate an international fuel shortage. Trump announced that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by another 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons shortly thereafter. He also suggested that Russia could deliver an additional 3 million tons, depending on the condition of its refineries.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak subsequently confirmed that Moscow would begin lifting its diesel export restrictions ahead of schedule, reiterating the announced volumes and clarifying that exports could eventually reach 3 million tons per month, while assuring that Russia’s domestic market would remain fully supplied. The US Treasury also issued a temporary sanctions waiver covering Russian diesel shipments until April 7, 2027.

Trump predicted that the agreement, together with Washington’s claimed control of the Strait of Hormuz, would bring diesel prices down rapidly, particularly benefiting American farmers, truckers and consumers.

Kiev ‘derailed’ peace talks
The Ukraine conflict dominated much of the discussion, with Putin briefing Trump on the situation along the front line and Moscow’s response to Ukrainian “terrorist strikes” on infrastructure and civilian targets deep inside Russian territory. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow retained the initiative and remained committed to its objectives, while expressing readiness for a lasting diplomatic settlement.

However, Putin said that Kiev had effectively sabotaged plans for the immediate resumption of trilateral negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States. During their previous conversation, the two leaders had discussed restarting the talks shortly after Russia’s State Duma elections. Ushakov said that Ukrainian drone attacks, including strikes targeting polling stations and election-related personnel, had fundamentally changed the situation.

Moscow would now reconsider when negotiations could resume, according to the Kremlin aide. Trump reportedly promised to convey Russia’s position to Ukrainian representatives meeting with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Miami.

Iran diplomacy ‘not exhausted’
Putin stressed that a negotiated settlement with Tehran remained possible, citing his October 8 meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Turkmenistan.According to Ushakov, Putin noted that Washington and Tehran continued indirect contacts through Qatar despite their confrontational rhetoric. Moscow also reiterated its offer to accept highly enriched Iranian uranium as a potential way out of the nuclear deadlock. Trump welcomed Russia’s involvement in diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, Ushakov added.

Melania’s humanitarian mission
Putin personally thanked First Lady Melania Trump for her efforts to reunite children separated from their families during the Ukraine conflict. The leaders also discussed the humanitarian situation in the town of Aleshki in Russia’s Kherson Region, agreeing that Russian human rights official Yana Lantratova would maintain direct contact with Melania’s office.

Closer ties – and another summit?
The leaders expressed satisfaction with existing communication channels between their administrations, intelligence services and other government agencies, agreeing to maintain cooperation. Putin emphasized that Moscow appreciated the attention Trump and his team continued to devote to relations with Russia despite Washington’s domestic and Middle Eastern priorities.

Asked whether the two presidents had agreed to meet in person, Ushakov said no specific summit had been discussed. However, he suggested that the upcoming APEC summit in China could provide an opportunity for another encounter if both leaders attended. The Kremlin aide also declined to disclose whether Washington had offered any concessions in exchange for Russia’s agreement to supply diesel, suggesting that American officials might provide further clarification.

Birthday wishes and hockey diplomacy
The conversation was initially proposed by the American side as an opportunity for Trump to personally congratulate Putin on his October 7 birthday. According to Ushakov, Witkoff contacted the Kremlin that day to convey greetings from Trump, as well as personal wishes from himself and Kushner, who expressed hope of meeting the Russian leader again soon.

Officials subsequently arranged the call around Putin’s trip to Turkmenistan and the time difference between Moscow and Washington, with Trump postponing some previously scheduled engagements.The US president opened the conversation with birthday wishes and greetings from Melania. The leaders also found time to discuss sports, with Trump praising Russian hockey star Alexander Ovechkin’s contribution to the game.

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Wrong move.

• Zelenskyy Urgently Attacks Russian Oil/Fuel Export Terminal (CTH)

Immediately after President Trump announced a strategic energy supply deal with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine President Zelenskyy ordered drone strikes against the Russian oil/fuel export terminal NZNP. The targeted terminal is located in the Zheleznodorozhny district of Rostov-on-Don, and it is used to transship petroleum products including diesel fuel for exports toward the west.


The intention of Zelenskyy’s targeting is obvious to anyone who has followed the conflict between Russia-Ukraine and the involvement of EU-NATO countries in keeping maximum conflict at the forefront. They do not want a strategic agreement between Putin and Trump. Hours before the Ukraine targeting of the NZNP export terminal, President Trump announced a strategic agreement with President Putin for refined diesel exports over the next six months.

This Trump-Putin agreement was against the interests of Zelenskyy and specifically against the interests of his benefactors in London, because Putin and Trump are working outside the “western market pricing system”. To fully understand what is happening, I strongly suggest you spend the time to read my previous articles on the dynamic as outlined below in sequence.

• First, start with understanding why Europe’s financial system is in conflict with Russia. In his own words Vladimir Putin explains why EU-NATO must have an expanded war with Russia. It has nothing to do with political ideology, and everything to do with control of money.

• Second, understand how the western control of the “market price” of commodities is used to manipulate political outcomes. This ties directly into the first article about why London must control the money and combat Russia. In this second article three weeks ago, CTH outlined a very predictable path that was most likely. The Trump-Putin strategic alliance is EXACTLY what we expected to happen.

• Third, you can actually move beyond the current moment into the future by looking at the Lukoil story. When you combine what Putin has said with the strategic agreement with Trump now in place you can clearly see how Lukoil is going to end up being a wedge to drive out London financial influence and free the USA from this corrupt market control system.

Once you understand those three previous outlines, then you understand exactly why the U.K. needs Zelenskyy to stop this agreement between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. London’s entire market control system is at risk. It’s all connected.

º Discounted potash from Belarus, sold to the U.S. at discount (non-market) prices. [Canada smacked.]

º Discounted diesel fuel from Russia, sold to the U.S. at discount (non-market) prices. [London smacked.]

These are two recent examples of Trump working around the traditional western system of financial control within the “market system”. These are also two transactions that cut out the middlemen completely. In essence, stand back and look at what Trump is doing here, it’s the same reason BRICS exists; it’s the BRICS argument against western financial control.

Trump is aligned ideologically with the BRICS position on energy exploitation. However, it’s actually more consequential than just an alignment of interests. The biggest economy in the world, the economy that establishes the currency used in most global trade, is now aligning in common purpose against the financial schemes of London, while RETAINING the dollar as the central trade currency.

Trump is telling BRICS there’s no reason to replace the dollar, we can just replace the manipulation.

London must be going bananas, and Zelenskyy is their tool to stop Trump.

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“After Zelensky Ignored Six Pleas To Stop Refinery Strikes..”

• Trump Says “Time For Ukraine To Get A New Leader” (ZH)

As he was boarding Air Force One on the way to Tennessee this morning, President Trump made his feelings clear over how he feels about Ukrainian President Zelensky. President Trump stated that “it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president”, criticizing Zelensky for bombing Russian oil refineries and accusing him of failing to end the war. “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal.”


One day after announcing plans to buy more than a million tonnes of diesel from Russia, Trump said the Ukrainian strikes were driving up global fuel prices and creating “problems for the world”. “He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers with diesel fuel because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world. And we told them ‘Do whatever you want, but don’t hit the diesel fuel, because this is a big problem, a big shortage’.”

“And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel.” Asked about the strikes, he said of Zelensky: “He’d better damn well stop.”


* * *

Friday’s diesel deal between Trump and Putin wasn’t only about diesel. It was also about Kyiv.

Hours after Zelensky accused Washington of using Ukraine’s negotiators as a “smokescreen” for a backroom deal with Moscow, Axios reported that Trump decided to let Russia sell diesel after Zelensky ignored half a dozen US requests to stop attacking Russian oil refineries. The alleged source was a US official with direct knowledge, who did not hold back:

“Zelensky is misreading the room. By continuing to hit refineries, he is eroding the good will that he has built with Trump over the last six months.” In other words, the sanctions waiver was as much a message to Kyiv as a gift to Moscow. So how did we get to this latest geopolitical twist, what is Trump actually got for lifting sanctions (spoiler: less than nine days of fuel), and why is the deal is on a collision course with the one Ukrainian policy Kyiv says it won’t give up. Let’s dig in.

“Half A Dozen” Requests The backstory is familiar to regular readers. One month ago, Trump – freaking out about soaring diesel prices – told reporters that Zelensky “has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” and a day later he announced a truce that never really happened:

A few hours later, Kyiv kept hitting refineries anyway. Just last weekend Zelensky vowed to hammer more of them, and on Thursday Ukrainian drones set Russia’s largest refinery at Omsk ablaze, more than 1,500 miles from the border. Axios notes the strikes were “highly effective and caused an energy crisis in Russia,” prompting Moscow’s diesel export ban, which then “added more pressure to global diesel markets under strain from the war in Iran.”

The core disagreement is about symmetry. Zelensky told Trump, Witkoff and Kushner that he would stop hitting Russian refineries if Russia stopped hitting Ukrainian power plants. Trump wanted Ukraine to stop unilaterally, according to the official, and “didn’t see the attacks on refineries as equivalent to Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid.” Or, as the official put it: “The attacks on the refineries cause pain in Russia, but it causes pain for the U.S., too.”

Then there is what happened in Miami. During eight hours of talks on Friday, Witkoff and Kushner told the Ukrainian delegation that Trump was expected to call Putin and lift sanctions on Russian diesel, because Kyiv had ignored repeated requests on strikes “which were directly affecting U.S. consumers.” A Ukrainian official claimed the envoys also threatened that Trump could cut Ukraine off from US intelligence if it kept ignoring him. The US official denied that, saying the envoys merely reminded Kyiv that the US provides munitions and intelligence, so Ukraine “shouldn’t take actions that hurt American consumers.” That is a fine distinction, and Kyiv is unlikely to see the difference.

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“There is no shame in armistice when the alternative is Armageddon.”

• Europe and Russia Flirt with Nuclear War (J.B. Shurk)

War is ugly and awful. People who experience it generally detest it. In movies, soaring soundtracks make falling buildings and gunfights seem exciting. In real life, people feel excruciating physical and emotional pains that never really fade. It’s Hell on Earth.


After WWI, nations around the world celebrated Armistice Day on November 11, which later became known as Remembrance Day in many countries. Remembering the dead was only half of the holiday’s purpose; it was equally important for the survivors of the Great War to remember the costs of total war, so that mankind would never unleash such cataclysm again.

We did not sufficiently remember the costs of global war, and twenty years later, humanity endured a Second World War far more deadly than the First. After WWII, there was a movement in the United States to honor all veterans — both living and dead — on Armistice Day. President Eisenhower signed into law a bill renaming Armistice Day as Veterans Day, and we Americans have observed the holiday ever since.

We should honor our military veterans every day. By forgetting about Armistice Day, though, we stopped remembering the horrors of war. November 11 was once a day for survivors to say, “Never again.” It transformed into a holiday that celebrates heroes and sacrifice, while often burying the most important warning from past generations to the present: Do not repeat our folly.

War is tragedy, not entertainment. Although I wish that we humans had longer memories when it comes to the psychological toll of mass killing, we barely know peace for half-a-generation before descending into Hell once again. Wars between belligerents who see no alternative to either victory or death are cruel, bloody affairs.

Despite historical revisionism that often casts the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as indefensible, the enormous loss of American marines, sailors, and soldiers on scattered Pacific islands proved that the Japanese would continue fighting to the last man before entertaining any notion of surrender. Both the Balkan Wars before WWI and the Yugoslav Wars following the Cold War were marked by ethnic cleansing, rape, and mass murder. Every Islamic war against Israel seeks the Jewish state’s eradication; therefore, every war Israel fights is life or death for the nation.

The war in Ukraine has taken on a similar zero-sum seriousness. Ukraine’s wartime president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has repeatedly insisted that there can be no peace until all formerly Ukrainian territory now claimed by the Russian Federation — including Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014 — is returned to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said this demand is an impossibility.

Ukraine desires membership in the European Union and the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Russia went to war in Ukraine, in part, to keep NATO’s thirty-year encroachment from reaching the entirety of its western borders. Ukraine and European members of NATO have described the war as an existential threat to all of Europe. Russian politicians, academics, and pundits similarly describe the war as an existential threat to Russia’s future survival.

Both sides seek what the other refuses to give. A dangerous stalemate now exists. Although accurate numbers are difficult to obtain, both Russia and Ukraine claim to have inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties upon the other. Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced, and Russia’s border regions have endured sustained attacks.

Ukrainian authorities continue to press-gang young men into military service. European Union countries that welcomed hundreds of thousands of fleeing Ukrainians back in 2022 are beginning to insist that young Ukrainian men be sent back home to fight. European and American politicians have suggested that Ukraine’s legal age for conscription should be lowered and that Ukrainian women should be forced into combat, too. Martial-law-President Zelenskyy has admitted that his country is struggling to replenish lost troops.

In Russia, there is less concern about fielding troops for what the government calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. There is widespread concern, however, that the military will have considerable difficulty defending the country effectively should E.U.-NATO expand the conflict beyond Ukraine — especially if Russia is forced to defend its Kaliningrad exclave situated between Lithuania and Poland.

European politicians and military personnel have argued that taking Kaliningrad would effectively cut Russia off from the Baltic Sea and tighten the noose of a cordon sanitaire formed around Russia’s European flank. Although the largest country in the world by territory, Russia’s moderate population of one-hundred-fifty-million puts it at a disadvantage against a European population three times its size.

With real troop losses and the threat of future troop losses weighing heavily on the minds of decision-makers in Europe and Russia, what once was unthinkable has become more openly discussed: the use of nuclear weapons on the continent. For eighty years, the taboo against atomic warfare has been so great that the United States and the Soviet Union fought a half-century Cold War in the shadows in an effort to avoid direct confrontation. However, as Russia, Ukraine, and E.U.-NATO struggle for leverage and deterrence, the likelihood of nuclear conflict is growing.

Despite the fact that Ukraine is not a part of NATO, military representatives from all of NATO’s thirty-two members gathered in Kyiv this week. Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of the NATO Military Committee, announced, “We are here in full strength with a clear message: The bond between NATO and Ukraine is stronger and stronger.”

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“His policy cupboard is bare, his legacy shredded. Nothing “miraculous” happened! Younger worshippers are (gasp) doubting his divinity!”

• The Last Revolution of Barack Obama (Scott Pinsker)

Well, of course he has a gargantuan ego. All presidents have gargantuan egos. But even by presidential standards, his loomed like the Goodyear blimp. Nor was it a secret. Politico wrote about it. So did the LA Times. Outlets from Germany to South Korea wrote about it, too. His messianic aspirations — and unshakeable faith in his own divinity — gained him millions of converts.


For a while, at least. At the height of their zealotry, his worshipers expected the literal moon and stars. Because he was their Lightworker — a Christ-like figure who’d correct the crooked, heal the sick, and fundamentally transform America. So yeah, their expectations were pretty frickin’ high. How high? This painting was proposed to hang in New York City’s Union Square to celebrate the 100th day of his blessed presidency:


In the beginning, his worshipers groveled in homage before him. “This is bigger than Kennedy. [Obama] comes along, and he seems to have the answers. This is the New Testament,” gushed Chris Matthews. “He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh,” wrote Ezra Klein. “The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance,” fawned Jesse Jackson, Jr.

And to be fair, the Lightworker wasn’t exactly understated when it came to setting expectations. Remember what he predicted for his glorious reign: “I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless. This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

Yet today, Barack Obama’s prophecies remain unfulfilled. Our planet didn’t heal — it’s worse than ever! Even his signature legislation, Obamacare, is teetering on the brink of insolvency, and our healthcare system is still an ungodly mess. Why do you think handsome left-wing activists are murdering healthcare execs in the streets? It’s certainly not because Saint Obama solved the problem.

He promised us the Land of Milk and Honey — and led us to the land of cow feces and bee stings. Curiously, the one social problem he seemed ideally equipped to help, America’s lingering racial discord, got a whole lot worse. Instead of bridging our racial divide, Obama pushed us farther apart. From The New York Times:

“Seven years ago, in the gauzy afterglow of a stirring election night in Chicago, commentators dared ask whether the United States had finally begun to heal its divisions over race and atone for the original sin of slavery by electing its first black president. It has not. Not even close.

“A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last week reveals that nearly six in 10 Americans, including heavy majorities of both whites and blacks, think race relations are generally bad, and that nearly four in 10 think the situation is getting worse. By comparison, two-thirds of Americans surveyed shortly after President Obama took office said they believed that race relations were generally good.

“The swings in attitude have been particularly striking among African-Americans. During Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign, nearly 60 percent of blacks said race relations were generally bad, but that number was cut in half shortly after he won. It has now soared to 68 percent, the highest level of discontent among blacks during the Obama years and close to the numbers recorded in the aftermath of the riots that followed the 1992 acquittal of Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King. ”

Donald Trump is now a two-term president. All of Obama’s executive orders have been undone. His Iran deal was scrapped, his Green Energy policies vacated. His vice president, Joe Biden, was humiliated and exiled from politics. Every promise he made — all of his hallowed prophecies — has collapsed like the walls of Jericho. He has a nice, shiny Nobel Peace Prize to look at — and not much else.

His policy cupboard is bare, his legacy shredded. Nothing “miraculous” happened! Younger worshippers are (gasp) doubting his divinity! So what’s a would-be messiah to do when his prophecies fail? He finds a new prophecy to fulfill. Welcome to the last revolution of Barack Obama.

The ex-president’s decision to campaign with Abdul El-Sayed, the DSA-aligned Senate candidate in Michigan, raised plenty of eyebrows. Why El-Sayed? Why spend your political capital on the most controversial, polarizing candidate of the 2026 midterms? Why not someone else? Why not Troy Jackson in Maine? Why not tour the other must-win states? Those candidates would love to schedule rallies and fundraisers with the ex-president, too.

What’s so special about Abdul El-Sayed? He can do what the others cannot: El-Sayed represents the fulfillment of the Lightbringer’s legacy. Obama is, was, and will forever be a left-wing revolutionary — but he’s a realistic revolutionary. Everything he does is calculated; every move is deliberate.

Earlier this week, we outlined how shrewdly Obama triangulated on gay marriage — opposing it for religious reasons in 2008, then supporting it for religious reasons in 2012. He proceeds with caution, is mindful of political minefields, and is deathly afraid of blowback.

Take what’s given. Don’t overreach. Strike when the iron is hot. Because “The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.” Which means time is always on Obama’s side. Call it destiny, call it fate, but as long as the Democrats don’t self-destruct, the future is theirs. Obama believes in the eventual superiority of his beliefs just as much as he believes in himself.

As a realist, Obama knew his presidency wouldn’t take us to the Promised Land — and so, he didn’t really try. Instead, he used his presidential platform to mainstream racial grievances. He had to, because America is a flawed, racist, evil country — and a reckoning was long overdue. Before, these racial ideas were on the periphery; post-Obama, they were Democratic Party orthodoxy. Today, even the moderates believe it.

It’s too bad.

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“If Democrats have everything going for them this cycle, they should be rolling in cash, not begging for it. This doesn’t jibe with the polling that shows them ahead.”

• House Dems’ Dire Donor Warning Hints at Trouble Before Midterms (Margolis)

With less than a month to go before the midterms, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is begging donors for money. That’s a strange place to be for a party that supposedly has everything going its way. If the polls are right, and Democrats have all the energy and momentum heading into November, the checks should be writing themselves. So why is the party struggling to raise money?


According to a Politico report, DCCC Executive Director Julie Merz sent a memo to donors on Friday, setting a hard deadline for them to cough up $17 million. The committee wants the cash in hand by October 22 so it can compete in a handful of districts that Republicans carried easily in 2024. Merz told donors the money is needed “to take advantage of the opportunities we have” outside of the core battlefield. And if the donors don’t deliver? Merz warned that the party “could be leaving winnable races on the table.”

Democrats have admitted all cycle that Republicans are outraising them, but until now they’ve refused to attach a dollar figure to the hole they’re in. That makes Friday’s memo a surprising outlier, and a revealing one. Merz assured donors that committee members “remain confident that we will win back the majority in 25 days,” and then promptly explained why they should be nervous. “Here’s the tough reality though: the Republican ecosystem has amassed a massive war chest that is significantly greater than ours and is spending it,” Merz wrote.

Confident parties don’t usually send out memos like that. Merz spent significant portions of hers on four districts where the committee is desperate for more money, and President Donald Trump won every one of them by double digits in 2024. He carried Florida’s 27th District by 14.6 points, Nevada’s 2nd District by 13.9, and South Carolina’s 1st District by 13. In New York’s 21st District, he won by 20.7.

The DCCC insists its internal polling shows all four races within reach. It also concedes that the GOP’s cash advantage, especially the money sitting in the Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA Inc., will make it harder to win those seats and other long shots. Merz even name-dropped a few more deep-red districts she called “worthy of additional investment in this environment,” including the seats held by Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who happens to chair the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Meanwhile, the money gap has created headaches for both House and Senate Democrats, who can’t agree on where to spend the limited resources they do have. A party riding a wave doesn’t have that problem. The NRCC wasted no time mocking the memo.”No amount of money fixes candidates voters don’t want,” NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement. “These seats are staying red, and Republicans are on offense across the map.”

Still, something doesn’t make sense to me. If Democrats have everything going for them this cycle, they should be rolling in cash, not begging for it. This doesn’t jibe with the polling that shows them ahead. On top of that, the GOP is registering more new voters in swing states. Something isn’t adding up.

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Blond woman. Modeled after Leavitt.

• Trump Picks New Press Secretary (Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell)

The job of White House press secretary has been offered to Katie Zacharia, a White House official confirmed to the Daily Signal Friday. Zacharia will replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the position in August to spend more time with her two children. Trump confirmed that Zacharia would fill the post Friday afternoon.


“It is my Great Honor to have just appointed, as Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia,” he said. “Katie currently serves as Senior Communications Advisor to Truth Social (Trump Media & Technology Group), where she has been outstanding! A native of California, Katie previously served as Spokesperson and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security.”


“Katie is a distinguished Graduate of Pepperdine University, and the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, an attorney, and a frequent Commentator on outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax,” he continued. “She was previously involved in my Campaigns, assisting in key Swing States, where we won 7 out of 7.” Trump praised her “unblemished record of support.”

“She is, likewise, a devoted fan and member of MAGA!” he said. “I am confident that Katie will deliver strong results for our Country as the next White House Press Secretary, as she has the respect of, and will work fantastically with, the Media, the American People, and my Administration. Katie is replacing the fabulous Karoline Leavitt, who did a fantastic job as Press Secretary.” Zacharia will play an important role in speaking for the administration in the weeks leading up to midterm elections. Zacharia briefly served as spokeswoman at the Department of Homeland Security in early 2026.

“I joined DHS with a genuine passion for supporting POTUS in his decisive and effective policies to secure our homeland, be a voice for the precious Angel Families, and an advocate for the men and women of ICE,” she said on X at the time of her departure. “I look forward to continuing that work in other capacities. God bless America, God Bless President Trump, and I am grateful to be alive during the presidencies of @realDonaldTrump!”


She is general counsel at Fix California, an organization founded by Richard Grenell to promote conservatism in the state. She regularly appears on Fox News. Zacharia also serves as senior communications advisor at Trump Media and Technology Group and Truth Social. She is a graduate of Pepperdine University and Pepperdine Caruso Law School. She is a mother of four.Zacharia interned for the White House and the Republican National Committee in 2006.

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Not their society.

• Germany: 87% of Suspects With An Arrest Warrant Are Foreigners (RMX)

“The figures speak for themselves: The overwhelming majority of criminals wanted on arrest warrants do not have a German passport.” More than 148,000 people remain subject to outstanding arrest warrants in Germany, and only 11.2 percent of them hold exclusively German citizenship, and overall, 87 percent of arrest warrant suspects are foreigners, according to figures the Federal Ministry of the Interior provided in response to a parliamentary inquiry.


Foreign nationals account for 87.3 percent of the total of suspects wanted for arrests, while another 1.5 percent are German citizens who also hold a second nationality. The data is already adding to the debate about mass immigration and criminality, especially in a country where the amount of violence, rape, and serious offenses are disproportionately committed by its foreign population. Welt newspaper obtained the ministry’s reply to a question from Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmaker Sebastian Münzenmaier.

Münzenmaier told Welt am Sonntag: “The figures speak for themselves: The overwhelming majority of criminals wanted on arrest warrants do not have a German passport.” He called for a “rigorous change of course” that would include permanent and complete border controls, the immediate termination of the stay of foreign criminals, and the enforcement of prison sentences in the country of origin.

While German citizens form the single largest group, at 16,671, Germany also features a population where 81 percent of people hold exclusively German citizenship. Romanian nationals follow closely with 16,123, then Polish nationals with 12,721, Georgian nationals with 6,869 and Turkish nationals with 6,696.

Alexander Throm, the domestic-policy spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) parliamentary group, said: “Every open arrest warrant poses a security risk.” He added that “the high proportion of foreign offenders, including many from other EU countries, shows that action must be taken.”

Throm also noted that border controls introduced in September 2024 have done more than limit illegal migration: “They have not only curbed illegal migration. Since their start in September 2024, over 17,500 people have also been apprehended at our borders with outstanding arrest warrants.”

Heiko Teggatz, chairman of the German Police Union, called the total worrying and said it “of course, represents a security policy problem.” State police forces, he told the paper, rarely have the staffing to mount dedicated searches; most arrests occur as a “chance hit or bycatch.” The union has long cited personnel shortages as a central obstacle to improved public safety.

Marcel Emmerich, the Greens’ domestic-policy spokesman, agreed that the volume of open warrants constitutes a serious problem, “especially when it comes to dangerous persons, extremists, violent or sex offenders.” However, Emmerich rejected broader border checks, noting: “Instead of hoping for random hits at border controls, targeted searches are needed, especially for dangerous perpetrators of violence, threats and people from the field of politically motivated crime.”

Sebastian Fiedler, the Social Democratic Party’s domestic-policy spokesman in the Bundestag, cautioned against reading the aggregate figure as evidence of 148,000 undetected dangerous offenders still inside the country. “A significant portion of this is due to substitute prison sentences for unpaid fines. In North Rhine-Westphalia, more than half of all outstanding arrest warrants in total were such cases, he said. Warrants can also remain active against people who have already left Germany or been deported, so that any remaining sentence can be enforced if they return.

“For example, they will continue to be put out to tender for a search so that if they re-enter the country, a remaining prison sentence can be enforced,” Fiedler said. While the crimes may include many petty offenses, the totals are stark. German nationals represent a minuscule share of the open arrest warrants in a country where 81 percent of the country is made up of German nationals.

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“Tulsi explains why Islamic theology is antithetical to freedom and completely against American values.”

• Tulsi Gabbard Warns About Modern Surveillance State and Islamic Extremism (CTH)

Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard delivered a very strong speech to the audience of the Texas Youth Summit about the growing surveillance state. As DNI Tulsi Gabbard has direct personal knowledge of this issue. It is very well worth listening to this speech in full.


The second half of the speech touches upon the second concern noted by Gabbard, the spread of Islamist ideology and how it is against the core foundation of our constitutional republic. Tulsi explains why Islamic theology is antithetical to freedom and completely against American values. Again, exceptionally strong remarks from the former head of the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus about the threat of Islamic extremism. WATCH:

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“Make no mistake about it, this is what a party does when it knows its candidate can’t win on the merits.”

• Are Democrats Trying to Steal the Election for El-Sayed? (Matt Margolis)

Michigan is a prime flip opportunity for the GOP, and it looks as if the Democrats are engaging in shenanigans to try to steal it.


Start with the motive. Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are fighting to replace retiring two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and recent polling shows the contest in a dead heat. The last two surveys that RealClearPolitics tracked put El-Sayed ahead by a single point, well inside the margin of error. Cook Political Report rates Michigan as the only Democrat-held seat in the toss-up column, in a state President Donald Trump carried in two of his three runs.


Democrats did this to themselves, frankly. The seat became a pickup opportunity the moment Michigan Democrats passed over the more electable candidate, Haley Stevens, and nominated a socialist radical instead. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) obviously doubted his party could hold Michigan with El-Sayed on the ticket. Then came Thursday night’s debate, and it did not go well for El-Sayed.

Rogers dominated, exposing his opponent’s hypocrisy and dishonesty on Israel, terror ties, his foreign property, and health care. El-Sayed faced questions about his ties to terrorist groups, about supporters who cheer Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda, and about his mother’s role in wiring money to Osama bin Laden. Social media reaction overwhelmingly scored it for Rogers, and the verdict wasn’t limited to Republicans.

“Rogers showed up tonight and exceeded expectations,” wrote Michael LaRosa, a former spokesman for Jill Biden. “He spoke with absolute moral clarity about who Abdul El-Sayed actually is, he hit the right notes clearly and forcefully, and he didn’t flinch when going in on the attack.”

There’s more evidence of a campaign in trouble. El-Sayed plans to campaign with Barack Obama later this month, a sign of desperation and an acknowledgment that black voters aren’t sold on him. A candidate cruising to victory in a state Democrats have held for years doesn’t need that kind of rescue mission four weeks out.

Naturally, Democrats are panicking and resorting to rigging. On Friday, the Republican National Committee sued Lansing election officials, accusing them of illegally packing poll worker positions with Democrats, shutting Republicans out, and hiding election records from the public.

The law here leaves no room for creative interpretation. Under subsection (2) of MCL 168.674, “The board of election commissioners shall appoint at least 1 election inspector from each major political party and shall appoint an equal number, as nearly as possible, of election inspectors in each election precinct from each major political party.” Now look at what Lansing did.

The city appointed 140 Democrats and just 71 Republicans to Election Day poll worker slots, handing Democrats a nearly two-to-one edge. Officials can’t claim they had nobody to pick from, because Republicans gave the city a list of qualified candidates. When Republicans asked to review the poll worker records, which should be open to the public, Lansing officials refused. The GOP tried repeatedly to resolve the problem with the city before going to court, and got nowhere.

“Democrats stacked the deck, pushed Republicans aside, and then tried to hide the paper trail,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said. “That’s exactly why voters are losing confidence in our elections. Michigan has become ground zero for election integrity violations, and the RNC is watching this state like a hawk. When left-wing officials break the rules, we’ll take them to court and stop them.” The RNC says it wants transparency restored, bipartisan oversight guaranteed, and Michigan election officials held to the statute as written.

Beyond the poll workers scheme, Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is fighting to uphold a rule requiring electronic poll-book files to be deleted within seven days after an election is canvassed and certified — a policy Republicans argue could erase evidence needed to investigate suspected voter fraud. Republicans joining the court challenge contend that federal law requires covered election records to be preserved for 22 months, raising questions about whether Michigan’s deletion rule would undermine scrutiny of disputed elections.

“Why is Jocelyn Benson fighting to delete election records after just seven days when federal law requires them to be preserved for 22 months?” asked Gruters. “The RNC has been fighting this election record purge from the start, and now we’re taking that fight directly into court. Michigan voters deserve transparency and accountability, not secrecy and less oversight.”

Make no mistake about it, this is what a party does when it knows its candidate can’t win on the merits. It stops trying to persuade voters and starts managing the process instead. Republicans are right to fight this in court now, because once the election is over, the damage is done and the evidence is gone.

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“The lower courts held that Trump waited too long to file it under the RICO Act’s time limit.”

• Trump Petitions Supreme Court to Reinstate Lawsuit Against Clinton, DNC (ET)

President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Oct. 9 to revive his dismissed civil lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and others. The president alleges they conspired to create and spread a false story that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.


Lower courts rejected the case and ordered Trump and one of his attorneys, Alina Habba, to pay almost $1 million in sanctions. The trial judge and the appeals court called the lawsuit “frivolous,” saying it had no legal merit and appeared aimed at political grievance rather than a valid claim. Trump is now asking the nation’s highest court to review the appeals court’s decision upholding both the dismissal and the sanctions.

While he was out of office after losing the 2020 election, Trump initiated the lawsuit in federal court in Florida in March 2022, under a federal racketeering law known as civil RICO. That law allows private individuals to seek damages when they claim someone engaged in a pattern of illegal activities, such as fraud or conspiracy.

The lawsuit targeted Clinton, the DNC, former British spy Christopher Steele, former FBI Director James Comey, and more than two dozen other people. It centered on the so-called Steele dossier, which was opposition research funded by Clinton’s campaign that alleged the Russian government had compromising material on Trump.

Trump’s lawsuit touches on topics covered by two earlier government investigations. Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. Former special counsel John Durham’s 2023 report criticized the FBI’s handling of its 2016 counterintelligence investigation—codenamed Crossfire Hurricane—into possible Trump campaign contacts with Russia. Durham said the FBI relied too much on uncorroborated tips, including material connected to the Clinton campaign.

Those government reports dealt with criminal and counterintelligence questions. By contrast, Trump’s civil lawsuit is a private damages case governed by different rules. The lower courts held that Trump waited too long to file it under the RICO Act’s time limit.

Dossier Source Scrutiny
Steele’s dossier included claims that the Russian government possessed a salacious video of Trump at a hotel in Moscow. His main source was later revealed to be Igor Danchenko, who was based in the United States and has been investigated by federal agents over possible ties to Russian intelligence.

Attorneys for Trump and Habba wrote in the new petition that Supreme Court review of the case is necessary to protect the institution of the presidency. They said that the decisions by the lower courts reflect “a deeply troubling trend of federal courts using sanctions and disciplinary threats to punish the president and his lawyers for legitimate legal positions that those courts (erroneously) reject.” “Treating contested advocacy as misconduct corrodes our legal culture, deters representation of controversial clients, and makes constitutional adjudication depend on counsel’s willingness to risk personal liability,” they said.

They alleged in the lawsuit that in the months leading up to the 2016 election, Clinton conspired with allies to discredit him with a “false narrative” that he and his campaign engaged in collusion with Russia, according to the petition. The suit alleged several claims, including racketeering and a “conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood.”

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“Instead, the Nobel Committee gave the award to a soapbox preaching nepo baby who made a fifth grade-level PowerPoint presentation about how the world was going to melt if we didn’t purchase the indulgences (i.e. carbon credits) he was peddling ..”

• The Nobel Peace Prize: An Exercise In Moral Depravity (A.J. Christopher)

Who was Irena Sendler? If you don’t know, don’t worry. Most people don’t know who she was. And that’s a problem. I myself didn’t know who she was until very recently, and when I found out why I didn’t know, the reasons made me angry. Because my ignorance was a result of what we value as a society. Irena Sendler was a Polish nurse who lived in Warsaw during the German occupation. Unlike almost all Muslims, most contemporary Europeans, and half of contemporary Americans, Sendler witnessed the antisemitic genocide occurring all around her and knew that it was wrong.


As a nurse whom the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health employed, she had special access to the Jewish ghetto that most people didn’t. She used that access to smuggle food and medicine in, and to smuggle people out. She conspired with the Polish Underground to forge identity documents for Jews, and to help find them hiding places outside of the ghetto.

She found homes for Jewish children and orphans with Polish families, Catholic parishes, and nuns’ convents. The children were given Christian names and taught Christian prayers, in case the Germans questioned them. Though a practicing Catholic herself, Sendler didn’t want the children’s Jewish identities erased. She kept meticulous records of each child and orphan who was given a new identity and hidden with a new family, to include the children’s original names and family origins. She kept these documents in jars, buried in the ground, so that after the war, there was a possibility of reunification.

Whenever she was working in the ghetto, she would wear a yellow Star of David to show solidarity with the people she was trying to help.Giving assistance to Jews in the Warsaw ghetto was a crime punishable by death, not only to the perpetrator but to their entire family. Sendler and her friends risked this on a daily basis. In October 1943, the Gestapo arrested her on suspicion of insurrectionary activity. Despite being brutally and repeatedly beaten and tortured, Sendler betrayed not a single Polish comrade or Jewish refugee. She was scheduled to be executed, but managed to escape after the Polish Underground bribed one of her German guards.

A month later, she was back to helping smuggle Jewish children out of the ghetto. By the end of the war, it is estimated she saved over 2500 Jewish children from extermination. Sendler survived the war, and continued to help children. She dug up the jars with the children’s information and gave it to the Jewish Committee, which did what it could to reunite the shattered families. During her life, she never once asked for recognition or compensation of any kind. People like her never do. Sadly, the world doesn’t know about Irena Sendler.

The world almost knew about Irena Sendler. Almost two decades ago, the Israeli and Polish governments nominated Sendler for the Nobel Peace Prize. It would seem like a no-brainer that a young, unarmed nurse who saved thousands of children from Nazi extermination, and who endured torture and imprisonment for her efforts, would be a shoo-in.

Instead, the Nobel Committee gave the award to a soapbox preaching nepo baby who made a fifth grade-level PowerPoint presentation about how the world was going to melt if we didn’t purchase the indulgences (i.e. carbon credits) he was peddling, which made him richer than he already was.

He owns a 400-acre farm and a 10000 square foot mansion, along with additional coastal property. His homes consume 20 times more electricity than the average American home. But he thinks you and I consume too much. As a result of green policies he advocated for, tens of millions of people in places such as South Africa and Indonesia were pushed back into absolute poverty. None of his apocalyptic prophecies ever came to fruition, and he has never apologized for them. That grinning snake oil salesman accepted his Nobel Prize in December 2007.

Irena Sendler died five months later.

Nearly twenty years on, nothing has changed. The Nobel Committee just awarded this year’s prize to former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, an antisemitic, anti-American globalist and terrorist apologist. She has supported butchers such as Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, so long as his victims were the right color, and would have been only too happy to have seen people such as Irena Sendler fail in their efforts.

What a sick, sick society we live in.

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“But the problem is we’re in the Old Testament right now, and the Old Testament has no forgiveness..”

• Chris Rock Makes an Excellent Point About Wokeness (Anderson)

I have to confess that I have a huge crush on Chris Rock.


That said, I really wasn’t even a fan of his until I saw his Selective Outrage Netflix special a few years ago. It came about at a time in my life when I needed some laughs, and I felt it delivered. I’ve since gone back and watched most of his body of work from over the decades, including his Saturday Night Live appearances, most of his movies, his old talk show, his older stand-up specials, and even a lot of past interviews.

For what it’s worth, he’s matured beautifully through the years, and I love how he isn’t trying to impress anyone these days, or so it seems. He calls things as he sees them. And while I doubt he and I would see eye-to-eye on all things politics, he’s the kind of Democrat I don’t mind having a conversation with because he comes across as fairly honest and isn’t afraid of criticizing his own side of the aisle or admitting when it’s defeated. He also sees people as people… not elephants and donkeys.

That’s exactly what he did last week in an interview with David Marchese of The New York Times. Rock has a new movie, which actually comes out today — Friday, October 9 — called Misty Green. He wrote, directed, and starred in it, and the previews look excellent. He’s also been making the media rounds, promoting it. During this particular interview, he described exactly what’s wrong with wokeness today.

“The problem with quote, unquote, wokeness — and don’t get me wrong, it is great that marginalized people have a voice; it is great to advocate for anybody that feels marginalized,” Rock began, admitting that he’s not against the concept in general. “But the problem is we’re in the Old Testament right now, and the Old Testament has no forgiveness. The Old Testament didn’t work, so they had to write a remix called the New Testament.”

I didn’t quite understand the biblical analogy — either that or he’s not getting the relationship between the Old and New Testaments wrong — but I fully understood what he said next: “The problem is when you institutionalize it.” He used the Salem Witch Trials as an example.

“The Salem witch hunts. I’m sure the first three witches they caught were actually f***ing witches,” he said. “But then you open up a witch office and now you’ve got to start lying. Now you’ve gotta f***ing make s*** up because you’ve got overhead. You’ve got to justify the witch hunters’ f***ing pensions.” His point is that this country didn’t just go woke in recent years. We went woke and then turned it into bureaucracy. And now we have to create more targets to keep those offices open and fully staffed.

Again, Rock said he’s glad some of it happened because some deserving people did get some good things out of it, but he basically suggested that this should have happened from ordinary accountability, not permanent enforcement. He likened it to faith and friendship. The comedian said he has a friend who he wasn’t going to name who “might have gotten canceled.” He said people ask him all the time why he’s still friends with that person. His response to that? “If you’re only friends with your friends when they’re good, they’re not your friends.” He also reminded us that God forgives.

Again, Rock is a liberal Democrat who doesn’t like Donald Trump and does see some value in efforts we, on this side of the aisle, might consider woke. But he’s not afraid to admit that his side took it, institutionalized it, and made it so that it runs on outrage. If we must share the country with leftists, I’ll take more like him.

I’ll leave you with the trailer for Misty Green. I hope to check it out soon.

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https://twitter.com/AsFoundX/status/2108579237011571162?s=20s

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 072026
 
 October 7, 2026  Posted by at 6:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  30 Responses »


Willem de Kooning Woman III 1953


• “Bring Your Own Power” Era Arrives (ZH)
• Why Might Putin Finally Decide To Bring Ukraine To Its Knees (Korybko)
• White House Declassifies DOJ and FBI Documents of Susie Wiles Targeting (CTH)
• Mamdani Tries to Hide His Jew-Hatred and Only Exposes It Further (Matt Margolis)
• Latin America’s Many Trumps (Daniel McCarthy)
• Brazil Votes: CIA Cultivated Evangelical Churches ‘For Decades’ – (Pepe Escobar)
• Assange Created The ‘Fifth Estate’ – Ex-CIA Analyst (RT)
• The Education Cartel and the Blue State School Scam (Turley)
• Many Germans Long for Merkel (Rainer Zitelmann)

 

 

https://twitter.com/storm1news/status/2107398520332526041?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2107240561761517677?s=20

 

 


This was clear years ago. Is politics blind on purpose?

“Google Plugs Into Constellation’s Nuclear Reactors As PJM’s “Bring Your Own Power” Era Arrives…”

• “Bring Your Own Power” Era Arrives (ZH)

For most of 2026, the bear case on the US power producers could be summed up in one sentence: nobody is signing data center PPAs in PJM. Last week Amazon did. This morning Google did, too, and this one is five times bigger.


Google parent Alphabet has contracted for 3,590 megawatts of power from Constellation Energy (CEG) inside PJM, the largest US grid, the companies said on Tuesday, according to Reuters, confirming an overnight report from Bloomberg. Roughly a quarter of it, 890 MW, is new nuclear capacity squeezed out of 11 existing reactors under a 20-year PPA backed by more than $4.3 billion of Constellation investment, expected to start delivering in 2028. The rest is a long-term supply agreement for another 2,700 MW. And in case anyone missed why this is happening now, the companies said it outright: the deal is a response to PJM’s “bring your own power” proposal.

Constellation shares jumped as much as 14% premarket (they were up 6.3% when Bloomberg first broke the story last night), trading above $300 for the first time in a month.

Zerohedge readers know this story didn’t start this morning. We have been tracking the AI-nuclear trade since Microsoft agreed to restart Three Mile Island in September 2024, when nuclear names surged across the board on what was then a shocking headline. (Five years earlier, we were writing about “America’s Chernobyl” finally closing its doors. Funny how the AI capex cycle changes things.) Two years later, Constellation has become Big Tech’s nuclear landlord.

Below we break down the deal, why PJM forced Google’s hand, what Goldman’s power desk and utilities team are saying, and why the cheapest nuclear megawatt is the one already built.

The Deal: 890 Nuclear Megawatts… Plus 2,700 More. The terms, per the companies’ statement and the Reuters and Bloomberg reports:
• 890 MW of new nuclear capacity under a 20-year PPA, coming from upgrades at 11 Constellation units in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The first upgraded plant is expected to start delivering in 2028.
• $4.3 billion+ of new investment by Constellation in “new equipment and technology… increasing thermal and electric efficiency,” as Goldman’s industrials desk put it this morning.
• A separate long-term supply agreement for 2,700 MW in PJM that is “not tied to a specific generation source and serves as long-term revenue certainty for Constellation’s operating plants,” per Google.
Translation: the 890 MW is the headline-friendly “new clean firm power” part. The 2,700 MW is essentially Google locking in a long-dated price for a big chunk of Constellation’s existing output. Who needs a hedging desk when you have a hyperscaler?

Stack it next to Constellation’s other hyperscaler deals and Google’s is bigger than Microsoft, Meta and Amazon put together (2,646 MW combined), at least once the non-unit-specific supply is counted:

It also comes less than a week after Amazon’s 690 MW, 20-year PPA at Calvert Cliffs, which we covered on Thursday in “Amazon Secures 20 Years Of Nuclear Power From Constellation As Goldman Sees Industry-Wide Win”. And Google is hardly new to the game: it is already funding the restart of NextEra’s Duane Arnold reactor in Iowa (which just landed a $1.9BN DOE loan), and last month lined up new capacity from Southern Co. by paying for upgrades at two of its nuclear plants.

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Putin doesn’t kill Ukrainians, Zelensky does. The rest is filler.

• Why Might Putin Finally Decide To Bring Ukraine To Its Knees (Korybko)

Regardless of why Putin might have held off on this for so long, he’s now arguably motivated at least in part by the tantalizing possibility of reaching big-ticket resource deals with the US after the conflict ends, the details of which his and Trump’s envoys have been negotiating for over a year already.


The New York Times cited allegedly intercepted Russian communications to report that Russia plans to obliterate Ukraine’s power, heating, and water systems this winter. While their claim can’t be confirmed, it aligns with Putin mildly “escalating to de-escalate” over the summer in response to Zelensky’s strike campaign, which has taken the form of ramping up attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. If the report is true, then Russia doesn’t just aim to sever Ukraine’s military logistics, but to bring Ukraine to its knees.

Putin has thus far eschewed this arguably due to his belief that Russians and Ukrainians are kindred people. Some have suggested that Russia might not have had the drone and/or missile capacity to do so earlier, however, whether due to low production till now and/or to hedge against the scenario of a hot war with NATO. In any case, Putin now seems to have made peace with the humanitarian consequences of ending the war on Russia’s terms sooner rather than later, or at least on as many of them as possible.

He might be motivated by more than just Ukraine’s “war of attrition” against Russia that began over the summer with American backing and interestingly enough France’s as well. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly told his Russian counterpart over the summer that no business deals are possible so long as the conflict continues. Since then, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Putin to discuss such deals among other topics, after which Kirill Dmitriev traveled to the US to follow up on that.

For background, Putin boasted in late February 2025 that American companies “will make a decent profit” from investments in Russia’s resource industry, and Trump’s Special Envoy to Belarus John Coale recently confirmed that he received approval to pitch a Belarusian-like deal to Putin. It would involve sanctions relief in exchange for the release of “political prisoners”. Putin’s ally Alexander Lukashenko already agreed to several such deals and is now negotiating a massive potash one with Trump.

Just last week, Lukashenko also proposed a trilateral Belarusian, Russian, and US fertilizer plant deal, but that requires the US lifting its sanctions on Gazprom. Russian officials from Putin on down have called for the West to lift its sanctions on Russia, and while the US might lift some if Putin agrees to a Belarusian-like quid pro quo, the Ukrainian Conflict will first have to end for this to happen at scale. Their resultant resource-centric strategic partnership could then revolutionize the global economic architecture.

The Russian economy has survived the West’s unprecedented sanctions onslaught, largely due to the combination of its natural resources and national payment system, but its Economic Development Ministry expects only 0.6% GDP growth this year. United Russia’s landslide victory during last month’s Duma elections, the first since the large-scale phase of the Ukrainian Conflict began, gives Putin the mandate to do whatever is needed to win the war and deliver more prosperity to his people afterwards.

It’s therefore within the realm of possibility, consistent with Russia’s policy of demanding the lifting of Western sanctions, that Putin is motivated at least in part to end the conflict on as many of Russia’s terms as possible sooner rather than later so as to then reach big-ticket resource deals with the US. This imperative, which could revolutionize the global economic architecture and deliver more prosperity to his people, contextualizes the New York Times’ report about him planning to bring Ukraine to its knees.

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How was this ever legal?

• White House Declassifies DOJ and FBI Documents of Susie Wiles Targeting (CTH)

The White House has declassified documents from within the executive branch, specifically from within the Dept of Justice and FBI highlighting that Jack Smith used the Washington Field Office of the FBI to target President Trump’s campaign advisor, campaign manager and current Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.


The activity took place while Joe Biden was President, Merrick Garland was Attorney General and Lisa Monaco was Deputy AG. The FBI targeting of Susie Wiles was authorized by Merrick Garland on March 28, 2022. Recommended by Monaco eight days prior on March 20th. The FBI opened an investigation on Wiles that encompassed tracking her phone and email records during President Trump’s pre-campaign under the auspices of a “Sensitive Investigative Matter” that would later become “Plasmic Echo.”

In 2016 the Obama FBI opened an investigation of Donald Trump to monitor his campaign activity. In 2022 the Biden FBI opened an investigation of Donald Trump to monitor his campaign activity. The intents and purposes of the investigations seem identical. This is quite a remarkable series of documents provided by John Solomon. If, like me, you are deep in the weeds on these issues, you might also ask the question: why are we only just now getting to see this information? The answer seems to be at the top of the documents released.

The declassification was done by newly installed White House counsel Will Scharf. On August 9th President Trump noted the departure of White House Counsel David Warrington {source}, who was then replaced by Will Scharf effective September 1st {source}. According to the documents released, Will Scharf declassified them on September 29th {source}.

When Warrington’s exit was announced, there was a curious lack of explanation. Those of you who follow the inside baseball will note my criticism of the White House counsel in both Term-1 and Term-2. Given the context of these releases, it looks like Warrington was an impediment to sunlight on the corruption within the DOJ and FBI. I’m left to wonder if these documents were sitting in the White House counsel’s office, for more than a while.

Why did the White House wait to release these documents showing how the FBI and DOJ were targeting Donald Trump, his advisors and his campaign team until now. You decide. To me, this is beyond frustrating. I am trying to remain gracious, but there is no excuse for keeping sunlight away from this level of corruption. Hopefully the South Florida legal team is reviewing these documents as evidence in the larger conspiracy investigation.

There were different legal justifications used by Main Justice to target Donald Trump. In 2016, ’17, ’18, ’19 it was the nonsense around Trump-Russia. In 2021, ’22, ’23 and ’24 it was the J6 insurrection. However, the outcome of both DOJ/FBI efforts is identical – keep Donald Trump under FBI surveillance.

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“We all know that Mamdani is an antisemite, and his efforts to pretend he isn’t don’t fool anyone.”

• Mamdani Tries to Hide His Jew-Hatred and Only Exposes It Further (Matt Margolis)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is desperately trying to prove that he’s not antisemitic, yet his efforts to do so only keep proving that he is. Last week, Mamdani rolled out his long-awaited strategy for fighting antisemitism, complete with a new Interagency Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and a $30 million price tag. He needed it badly. The city’s first Muslim mayor has spent months fending off charges that he has no use for the Jewish community, and Jewish New Yorkers keep getting attacked at a growing rate on his watch.


NYPD data released in August showed hate crimes climbing 9.4% citywide this year, and more than half of those incidents targeted Jews. That happened while all seven major crime categories dropped across all five boroughs, with murders and shootings hitting historic lows. Crime is falling everywhere in New York except where the victims are Jewish. The department’s figures also showed antisemitic attacks up 8% through August, with anti-Jewish incidents accounting for an outsized majority of all reported hate crimes.

So what did he deliver? A plan to combat antisemitism that never defines antisemitism. Nothing in it explains what sets Jew-hatred apart from any other racial or religious bigotry. Mamdani also declined to formally recognize Israel’s existence while unveiling it. The document never uses the word Zionism and gives Israel a single passing mention. Think about that for a second. Mamdani produced an entire plan about hatred of Jews and scrubbed out the Jewish state, the one thing his political allies despise most.

And the $30 million? It’s proving itself to be a ruse. Most of the plan recycles measures former Mayor Eric Adams already put in place, so New Yorkers get little that’s new. What is new is classic Mamdani, because the plan boosts funding for a group tied to anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour. Here’s what reporting on the plan’s partners turned up:

One of the top advocacy groups involved in P.A.T.H. — which works to prevent hate crimes across the city through community programs and grants — is the anti-Israel Arab American Association of New York. The Brooklyn-based group, which was run for over a decade by Mamdani’s mentor and pro-Palestinian firebrand Linda Sarsour, repeatedly cheered on the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University and other protests following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

The organization pocketed $3.3 million in city funding between 2017 and 2024, the Washington Examiner first reported, citing data analyzed by the transparency watchdog group OpenTheBooks.= P.A.T.H. partners also include the 67th Precinct Clergy Council, aka “the Godsquad,” the LGBT NYC Anti-Violence Project, the Asian American Federation and the Hispanic Federation.

Mamdani’s answer to surging attacks on Jews is to hand more public money to an outfit that applauded the mobs at Columbia. He is asking the people who helped make Jewish students feel hunted on their own campus to protect Jewish New Yorkers. It’s outrageous, and he expects the city to thank him for it.

None of this should surprise anyone who watched his rise. Mamdani supports the slogan “globalize the intifada.” He campaigned alongside Sarsour on arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His wife celebrated the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Anyone who knows Mamdani’s record knew his plan to combat antisemitism was going to be phony, and he happily obliged.

Jewish leaders certainly noticed. More than two dozen of them denounced the report and demanded that the Mamdani administration reissue it with a version that deals with Zionism. They understand what the mayor refuses to admit, which is that the hatred driving attacks on Jews in his city so often arrives dressed up as hatred of Israel.

We all know that Mamdani is an antisemite, and his efforts to pretend he isn’t don’t fool anyone.

Read more …

No more Democrat playground. How can that be a bad thing?

• Latin America’s Many Trumps (Daniel McCarthy)

Latin America is turning right, and it’s a vindication for President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In some ways, the Cold War never really ended in the Western hemisphere: Socialism has haunted the nations of Central and South America long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the same Cuban regime the Soviet Union propped up for decades remains in power to this day.


The hard left thought it had cemented control over Venezuela, too, thanks to Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro — until American forces snatched Maduro right out of his bed back in January and took him to New York to stand trial. Yet most of our neighbors to the south are not ruled by dictators. Instead, elections in Latin America have swung back and forth between left and right. Only now they’re all swinging to the right, as the region’s biggest nation dramatically illustrated last weekend.

Brazil is now the scene of the greatest right-wing comeback since President Trump’s own reelection two years ago. Flavio Bolsonaro — whose father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest — defeated leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the first round of the country’s presidential contest on Sunday. Bolsonaro took 47% of the vote to Lula’s 45%, and with other right-leaning candidates garnering nearly 5%, Bolsonaro’s prospects in the runoff election on Oct. 25 look bright.

Yet that’s only half the story: The right, and the Bolsonaro family itself, also made huge advances in the nation’s legislative elections. “The Bolsonaro clan claimed victory in every race they contested,” the Buenos Aires Times noted. The ex-president’s wife, Michelle, won a federal senate seat, as did his second son — Flavio’s younger brother — Carlos, while third son Jair Renan Bolsonaro was elected as a federal deputy, as was the former president’s brother, Renato.

Their party, the Liberal Party, nearly doubled its number of senators, from 15 to 28, and won the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies of any party since the nation’s current constitution came into effect in 1988. Smaller conservative parties also fared well on Sunday — the Brazilian people sent an unmistakable message that they are through with the leftism Lula represents. In this, the Brazilian electorate is moving in synchrony with voters throughout Latin America, who in election after election have tossed out left-wing regimes or reelected conservatives who were already in office.

It’s as if the whole region has been going through its own version of Trump’s 2024 reelection over the past two years. And more than one wit on social media has remarked leftists haven’t won a single national election in Central America or South America since USAID was dismantled. Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras and Costa Rica have all moved right, while Javier Milei’s party staved off left-wing challenges and won big in Argentina’s legislative elections last year.

No, this isn’t just because American taxpayer dollars are no longer being funneled by progressive non-government organizations — NGOs — into humanitarian efforts that get co-opted by left-wing foreign interests.But the ecosystem of international aid, which during the Cold War was seen by Washington as a way to blunt the appeal of Communism in the Third World, has for a long time helped rather than hindered the global left. That’s been true of Washington’s rhetoric as well:

Jeane Kirkpatrick, who became Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations, argued in the late ’70s that Washington treated foreign friends on the right worse than most enemies on the left, as if the only way to beat Communism and socialism was to prove America could appeal to left-wing sensibilities, too. Trump and Rubio have taken the opposite approach: They encourage pro-American, right-leaning governments, especially close to home in the Western hemisphere.

This has given Central and South Americans a moral boost to free themselves from left-wing governments, much as the stark contrasts President Ronald Reagan drew between freedom and Communism helped inspire Eastern Europeans to tear down the Berlin Wall. The people of Eastern Europe knew better than anyone how evil Communism was, but they had reason to wonder whether the West was really willing to stand for an alternative, rather than offering endless moral accommodations and capitulations.

Until now, the State Department and Washington’s foreign-policy elite have habitually thought our country isn’t good enough and must prove itself equal to the professed — yet entirely fraudulent — ideals of left-wing regimes.

The Trump administration has a different attitude: It’s proud of America, and in the places around the world where hope and pride matter more than resentment and shame, that new attitude gets results.

Latin America knows it has a choice — and now that it’s clear, the people of South and Central America are choosing “Trumps” of their own.

Read more …

US funding and interference have played a role in the South American country’s presidential election, the independent journalist has told RT..

No, we are not surprised. Is there even one single person who is?

• Brazil Votes: CIA Cultivated Evangelical Churches ‘For Decades’ – (Pepe Escobar)

The US has sought to influence Brazilian politics for decades, including through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and has played a role in the country’s current presidential election, independent journalist and geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar has told RT.


He was speaking after Sunday’s first round of voting, in which right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, finished ahead of incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Both fell short of the 50% threshold needed to win outright. The two are set to face each other in a runoff on October 25.

Brazil’s government has previously accused Washington of interference in its internal affairs, while Trump has denounced the prosecution of the former president – who is serving 27 years for plotting a coup – as a “witch hunt.” Brazil’s Federal Police have since opened an investigation into alleged US interference in the election, following a request from the Attorney General’s Office over reported US funding of projects aimed at undermining the country’s Supreme Court.


“The Americans put a lot of money in this election,” Escobar said, calling for a federal investigation into possible foreign influence. He singled out Brazil’s influential evangelical churches, claiming that the CIA had spent “decades” funding efforts to cultivate them and that this was now “paying off.”

Escobar’s remarks come as US involvement in Brazilian politics has already become a point of contention between Brasilia and Washington. Flavio Bolsonaro met US President Donald Trump at the White House in May, while his brother Eduardo has lived in the US since 2025. Eduardo was sentenced by Brazil’s Supreme Court in June to four years and two months in prison for coercion after the court found that he had sought US pressure on Brazilian authorities in an effort to interfere with proceedings against his father.

Escobar also claimed that two days before the vote, the CIA already knew Bolsonaro was ahead, even as Brazilian opinion polls showed Lula leading. He attributed Bolsonaro’s strong showing in part to the influence of evangelical voters, who now comprise some 27% of the country’s populations, a historical high from the 15% in 2000.

The runoff is widely seen as a highly polarized contest over Brazil’s political direction. Lula has sought to strengthen the country’s role in BRICS and deepen ties with China and other Global South powers, while Bolsonaro has advocated closer relations with Washington.Lula previously served two terms as president from 2003 to 2010 before returning to office for a third term in 2023, following the annulment of corruption convictions that had prevented him from running in 2018.

A Bolsonaro victory could also have major implications for Brazil’s foreign policy, according to Escobar. He predicted a “complete reversal” toward closer alignment with Washington and the Trump administration. Such a shift could diminish Brazil’s role in BRICS, Escobar argued, saying the country could become a “bystander” within the group. Brazil is a founding member of BRICS alongside Russia, India, and China.

Read more …

“The WikiLeaks co-founder has played a key role in creating an alternative to mainstream media, which has been controlled by intelligence services for decades, Ray McGovern has said..”

• Assange Created The ‘Fifth Estate’ – Ex-CIA Analyst (RT)

Julian Assange has become a key figure in the creation of alternative media, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern has said, expressing hope that the Australian journalist and activist is preparing to get back to work. McGovern spoke to RT as WikiLeaks marks its 20th anniversary. The website, co-founded by Assange in 2006, has published some of the most explosive leaks of the past two decades, exposing CIA hacking tools, classified US war records, illegal mass surveillance, and other closely guarded secrets.


The platform became a global phenomenon, making Assange one of the most prominent contemporary publishers, while also embroiling him in more than a decade of conflict with the US and other governments. Ahead of the anniversary, Assange suggested that he was returning to public life two years after striking a deal for his freedom with the US and securing his release from British custody.

Assange has become a key figure in the creation of alternative media, the “fifth estate,” McGovern said, adding that traditional media have long since lost their intended purpose, becoming closely controlled instruments for many governments worldwide. “The media in our country, and I dare say in many countries, the UK, Germany, is very tightly controlled. And so that’s the fourth estate, as Edmund Burke said, more important than Parliament itself. The fourth estate is co-opted now, it has been for decades,” he said.

“It’s very clear that the intelligence services have a lot of influence over what goes out into the media. And so you need an alternative. That’s why we placed great hope in what we call the ‘fifth estate,’ namely WikiLeaks and outfits like it that would encourage people to blow the whistle in a secure way and not endanger themselves,” he added.

McGovern welcomed the prospect of Assange’s return to active work, calling it a “salvation” for people willing to blow the whistle on dirty government secrets. “He will find ways to make it possible for people like me and my colleagues, if we come upon information that needs to be spread out into the media or out into the public, to have a secure way of doing that. That was his success. He’s bright enough to do that again, I am convinced,” he added.

Read more …

I had no idea things were this bad.

• The Education Cartel and the Blue State School Scam (Turley)

“In the first place, God made idiots,” Mark Twain once wrote in an 1879 travel book. “That was for practice. Then he made school boards.” It appears that most Americans now agree with him. New polling shows that K-12 education has now reached a record low in the number of people who are even “somewhat satisfied” with the state of education in the U.S.


What is most troubling is that the near-total contempt for our school system does not make a bit of difference. Families and students have become largely irrelevant to an education cartel, a self-sustaining, self-perpetuating political alliance of unions and politicians. According to Gallup, only 32 percent of American adults say they are “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied with the quality of K-12 education. That is the lowest figure in Gallup’s 27 years of asking the question. Public satisfaction with the school system has dropped almost 20 points since just 2024.

The collapse comes at a time when universities are reporting that college students are entering higher education without basic math and other skills.We have also seen the dismal decline in standards at elite universities like Harvard, where faculty have been compelled to teach high school-level math classes to students. In May, faculty in the University of California system (which eliminated standardized testing to achieve greater equity in admissions) reported an alarming lack of math knowledge among new students.

Most recently, a University of California, San Diego, faculty report found a nearly 30-fold increase since 2020 in incoming students whose math skills fell below a high-school level.For many of us, neither the drop in skills nor public support is surprising. For generations, the public school system has failed students in major cities. Despite massive budget increases, actual test scores continue to fall or remain at subpar levels.

In a prior column, I was particularly moved by the frustration of a mother in Baltimore who complained that her son was in the top half of his class despite failing all but three of his classes. Her story led to my changing my view of school vouchers. Despite my long support for public schools, I believe vouchers may be the only way to wrest control away from the education cartel by introducing real competition based on academic performance.

Faced with low proficiency scores, teachers’ unions and school administrators have continued to lower proficiency requirements. They are simply pushing students out the door without basic skills, robbing these kids of any chance to break out of cycles of poverty and unemployment. When confronted with their poor performance, school board members have declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of so-called “equity.”

In any other field, such generational failure would be unthinkable. No business or enterprise could sustain itself. However, that is the point. There is little competition in this system. Blue states have largely blocked voucher systems while protecting teachers from performance-based standards.

Actual students have become irrelevant to budgets. In Chicago, there are schools that remain open despite 80 percent vacancy rates. One school, Frederick Douglass Academy High School has only 27 students, or 2 percent of its building’s capacity. The school system spends $55,000 for each student at Frederick Douglass Academy.

Overall, 35 percent of Chicago schools are half full or less. But that did not stop the schools from spending a couple million on transcendental meditation sessions or giving teachers and students days off to join May Day protests (with city-subsidized buses).

According to a recent study, in 2025, Chicago Teachers Union spent a record $4.2 million on politics and lobbying but less than 18 percent on representing teachers. This included massive contributions used to elect former teacher and union organizer Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former organizer for the union. Johnson, in turn, has effectively turned over his office to the far-left union.

In economics, there are few scourges older and more damaging than the cartel, which uses its power over an area to create “higher prices, lower quality, and stifled innovation.” There is a natural tendency for people to form such groups to stifle competition and feather their own nests. Adam Smith warned that “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public.”

The Education Cartel is becoming one of the greatest and most insidious forms of such anti-competitive conduct. Teacher unions have used hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to acquire unchallenged power in blue states where they can dictate ever-increasing salaries, pensions, and budgets. One estimate found that, since 2015, the nation’s two largest teachers unions — the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers — spent $669 million on federal campaigns and another $336 million on state and local campaigns.

Figures such as Randi Weingarten with the American Federation of Teachers effectively made their unions piggy banks for the Democratic Party and appear at far-left rallies to support Democratic causes. In return, Democratic leaders give this cartel most everything that it demands, including barring competition in the form of public vouchers or tying budgets to improving the education of actual students.

It is a closed circuit. Democratic leaders increase school budgets and salaries and the unions then send back hundreds of millions to fund Democratic campaigns. If you want to understand the priorities of the unions, just watch one of National Education Association head Becky Pringle’s unhinged speeches.

Her declarations that the union will “win all of the things” clearly did not include educational improvements for students.

A recent study found that blue states with strong teachers’ unions overwhelmingly have worse student literacy scores than red states. At least eight of the ten states with the worst literacy scores were liberal districts with politically powerful teachers’ unions, according to the Progressive Policy Institute.

Read more …

The most destructive housewife ever?!

She’s worse than Thatcher, right?

• Many Germans Long for Merkel (Rainer Zitelmann)

The polling institute YouGov recently asked: “Do you think Angela Merkel, as chancellor, would be better, worse, or just as well suited as the current chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to solving the problems and challenges Germany faces today?” The result: Forty-eight percent of Germans believe Merkel would be better suited than the incumbent Friedrich Merz to solving today’s problems. Twenty-nine percent thought Merkel would be just as well or as poorly suited as Merz. Only 8% thought Merkel would be worse. Fifteen percent gave no answer.


A Forsa poll published in early September produced an even more dramatic result: Only 7% considered Merz a better chancellor than Angela Merkel, while 71% considered him worse. Even among CDU and CSU supporters, 57% share this view.

Presumably, many Germans think this way because the economic data during the Merkel years was significantly better than under her successors. But that was not her achievement. Merkel, who took office in 2005, benefited from the reforms of her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder (SPD). He cut taxes and liberalized the labor market, leading to strong and sustained economic growth. As so often happens in politics, the successor benefits from free-market reforms, while the politician who actually implements them is punished.

Merkel herself carried out neither tax reform nor labor-market reform. Instead of cutting taxes, she raised them: In 2007, VAT went from 16 to 19%, while the so-called “rich tax” added three percentage points to the top income-tax rate for high earners. Social spending also went from 26.9% of GDP in 2007 to close to 32% in 2021.

During the same period, Merkel neglected investment in infrastructure, the negative consequences of which only became apparent much later. In 2020, the OECD noted that Germany had one of the lowest levels of public investment. During Merkel’s time in office, the backlog in municipal investment grew massively despite a strong economy and low interest rates: KfW estimated it at €132 billion as early as 2015 and at a then-record level of almost €159 billion in 2018. Germany’s crumbling bridges and dilapidated schools are part of the legacy of the Merkel era.

One of the main causes of Germany’s current problems is its high energy costs. This is a direct consequence of Merkel’s “Energiewende,” or energy transition, which has cost €500 billion to date. Merkel’s decision after the Fukushima accident to accelerate Germany’s nuclear phaseout was just as consequential as the fact that — despite warnings from the United States and Eastern European countries — she made Germany dependent on Russian gas. Germany is therefore now among the countries with the highest electricity prices in the world — a direct consequence of Merkel’s policies, which effectively transformed Germany’s energy sector into an ideologically driven planned economy.

Mass immigration is another problem, due to policies initiated by Merkel during the 2015 refugee crisis. And she was the midwife of the right-wing AfD, which, according to current polls, is by far the strongest party. It was founded in response to Merkel’s misguided “euro rescue” policies. As late as August 2015, the AfD stood at just three percent in the polls. By January 2016, it had risen to 11%, and in the 2017 federal election it ultimately won 12.6%, compared with 4.7% in 2013.

The problems caused by Merkel’s policies or left unresolved during her 16 years in office also include: Germany’s dramatic lag in digitalization and the erosion of Germany’s defense capabilities. When Merkel left office in 2021, the Bundeswehr lacked operational aircraft, helicopters, ships, ammunition, and personal equipment — Germany had allowed its ability to defend itself and its NATO allies to deteriorate for years.

Then there is the failure to reform the pension system despite demographic change that had been foreseeable for decades. Instead of using the economically strong years to carry out fundamental reform, Merkel’s government introduced additional benefits costing billions of euros, including retirement at 63.

Merz’s responsibility is that he has failed to initiate the urgently needed change of course after Merkel — a change he had promised. His defenders argue that this is impossible with the SPD. Exactly! But who forced Merz to enter into a coalition with the SPD? He voluntarily assumed the role of captain of a sinking ship.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/MIPAGUY/status/2107145592350626175?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Oct 042026
 


Hieronymus Bosch Adoration of the Magi c1472


• ‘God Made Trump’ Ad and At Least 12 Others (CNN)
• Toward A Better America (David Prentice)
• Iranian Top Dog Gives Trump the Best Review He Could Wish For (Spencer)
• All Hands on Deck for the Midterms (J.B. Shurk)
• Putin Outlines Context of Russian Position Toward Ukraine (CTH)
• Carney’s “Buy Canadian” LNG Expansion Will Be Built with Chinese Steel (CTH)
• Europe’s Diesel Problem (Toth Istvan)
• Justice Alito to Retire Next Year? (Matt Margolis)
• ‘Murderers’ Rutte and Merz Booed at Peace Prize Ceremony (RT)
• Zelensky Lashes Out At Ukraine’s Western Backers (RT)
• Dear DSA: How to Destroy the 5 Democrats Who Want to Be President (Pinsker)

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2106395044613595302?s=20

 

 


“‘God made Trump’ ad and at least 12 others are part of controversial taxpayer-funded ad campaign”..

Here’s wondering why CNN runs this article. It doesn’t come out nearly as anti-Trump as they seem to think.

• ‘God Made Trump’ Ad and At Least 12 Others (CNN)

The Trump administration has created at least 13 campaign-style ads as part of its controversial taxpayer-funded, multi-million-dollar effort to promote President Donald Trump and his policies.


Yet-to-be-aired spots include a trio of ads highlighting the US military and operations in Iran and Venezuela, one called “God Made Trump” and another recapping the UFC fight he hosted at the White House. Republicans and Democrats alike have questioned the wisdom of spending so much taxpayer money on the ads, which the White House has defended as public service announcements.

CNN has obtained clips of 12 ads, which range from 15 seconds to three minutes long, including two that have already aired. They appear in a Dropbox account — which was shared with CNN — run by LMD, the agency that has been given the government contract for the ad buys. Each ends with “Paid for by the U.S. Government” at the bottom of the screen. Another ad that is not in the Dropbox account, “Final Battle,” has also aired in recent weeks.

The three ads that have already aired have appeared on TV networks including CBS, CNN, MS NOW, Fox News and Fox. It’s not clear if all of the ads will air on television or digital platforms. Asked for comment, the White House on Friday afternoon pointed to a just-posted video compilation of the president criticizing CNN.

While each of the ads has a different theme, many of them include imagery of the president and audio with positive reviews from news reports, which is likely to intensify criticism that the campaign is using taxpayer dollars to help Trump personally. They also include patriotic images — including the cap toss at a military graduation, fireworks over Mount Rushmore and military flyovers.

First lady Melania Trump, who has been a rare presence at the White House during the president’s second term, is featured in many of the ads. There are also images from Trump’s reciprocal tariff announcement, the border wall, his escalator presidential-campaign announcement and the tongue-in-cheek framed photograph of an auto pen signifying former President Joe Biden on Trump’s “Presidential Walk of Fame.”


Trump’s White House created a spot titled “UFC” that showcases the June match held at the White House.


CNN previously reported that Trump has personally driven the video ads, including helping select the imagery and videos used, according to a source familiar with the matter. Two Trump advisers familiar with the ads said that they were being created in-house by the White House video team — which is part of the communications team, responsible for the administration’s public messaging — though at least one of them was produced by a pro-Trump meme group.

The ads that have aired so far have spurred widespread condemnation, even as the White House indicates it plans to ramp up its efforts. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a post on X that the ads “may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes.” If Democrats win control of the House next year, he’ll gain congressional subpoena power.

Even some Republicans have criticized the ad campaign. “Look, if you want to spend money out of your super PAC or other campaign account to communicate that message, that’s fine. It’s not an appropriate PSA. It’s just not, you know, it’s not how we should be spending taxpayer dollars,” said Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has said “no” the ads are not an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. “It’s not even a close question.”


A spot titled “Resilience” that shows Trump’s progression from a younger man in the New York real estate market to the US president.


The “UFC 250” ad heavily promotes the company and the June fight that Trump hosted at the White House, prominently featuring UFC CEO Dana White as well as the fighters, the lit-up “claw” over the Octagon and the championship belt. The “Maduro” spot intersperses a speech by Nicolas Maduro with appearances by Trump and his team at Mar-a-Lago following the Venezuelan dictator’s capture.

And “Military Hype” shows images of fighter jets and unclassified video of what appears to be missile launches. It also includes Trump’s February speech announcing the war with Iran, a conflict which remains deeply unpopular with the American people. “This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces,” Trump says in the ad, now seven months into the war.

Some of the ads are starkly political: The two-minute “King of the Jungle” video features images of Trump’s perceived political enemies — former Presidents Barack Obama and Biden, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, all Democrats. There’s video of lions hunting in the wild and a bald eagle sweeping down on the water. A cover of “In the Air Tonight” by In This Moment plays. And Christopher Walken’s lion speech from the 2002 film, “Poolhall Junkies,” is interspersed.


Trump’s White House created a spot titled “King of the Jungle” that intersperses images of Trump, campaign rallies, lions and eagles.


One of the spots, a three-minute-long ad titled “God Made Trump,” was broadcast during Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas. In it, Trump is presented as a messianic figure with a riff on Paul Harvey’s “God Made a Farmer.” It was created by Dilley Meme Team, according to NPR, and began going viral earlier this year. “I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle the deep state, and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to ruffle the feathers,” the voiceover says, “So God made Trump.”


Trump’s White House created a spot titled “God Made Trump,” which portrays him as a messianic figure.


The ad “Resilience” shows Trump at multiple points in his life, including early in his New York real estate career, an appearance he made on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” his descent down the Trump Tower escalator as he announced his candidacy in 2015 and then his time at the White House. In the audio, a reporter refers to him as “the bodyguard of Western Civilization.” His 2023 mugshot from a Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff’s office features prominently, along with video of an assassination attempt on him in Butler, Pennsylvania.

At least an estimated $5.6 million in taxpayer dollars have already been spent on the ads, according to a leading political ad-tracking firm, AdImpact. The actual cost of the taxpayer-funded ad campaign is even higher, but can’t be fully ascertained because public service announcements are subject to different public disclosure rules than campaign ads. A total of $20 million has been allocated for the effort. The money for these ads is coming from Customs and Border Protection, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Watchdog groups have said the ads mark a clear violation of appropriations law restricting the use of federal funding for propaganda or partisan communications, but it’s not clear if outside groups have standing to file a lawsuit. Though the ads have received bipartisan criticism, Congress — which groups said had the clearest lane to provide some accountability — has not acted to block the ads.

Read more …

“Until the midterms, we will be watching a massively coordinated attack denigrating all the good that has happened since Trump won in 2024..”

• Toward A Better America (David Prentice)

Until the midterms, we will be watching a massively coordinated attack denigrating all the good that has happened since Trump won in 2024. A combination of the leftist media and apostate “right-leaning” influencers will try to sell us just how awful Trump has been, so the wonderful communists, er, Democrats can ruin us once again. It will be hard to stomach.


As conservatives, we have had two magnificent years of change for the better. Only the Reagan years were this good. Reagan changed the world by defeating Soviet communism. He simultaneously reset our free-market economy. He reshaped the world while helping people in the U.S. live prosperous and meaningful lives. We live during a similar time. Trump has done the same magic trick of reshaping the world plus bettering personal lives.

But half the country does not know it. The leftist media neither had the will nor the capacity to make all the excellence of the Reagan years disappear back then. The leftist blob has honed its skills since. Its bravado and its capacity to propagandize is better than any of us thought possible. Helping the communists, er, Democrats to ruin our country once again. We must defeat them.

Success has been this administration’s MO. Yet we face a ginned-up and phony set of flaming darts volleyed at us daily. Instead of seeing achievements, we are hustled by lies of failure. The positives that have been accomplished in less than two years are remarkable, and they are legion. So much good has been done in the world, and truly for the average citizen, it’s hard to believe.

The leftist media has hidden these:
• A secure border
• Criminals being deported
• A massive drop in violent crime
• Severe fraud being exposed/stopped
• DEI halted
• University bias uncovered
• Deep-state government corruption halted
• Vote fraud revealed and curtailed (not enough John Thune)
• Real wages up
• Permanent tax cuts
• Stock market up
• An economy prepped for growth
• IRA valuations up
• IRAs for children established
• Government jobs down, private sector jobs up
• Manufacturing rebounding
• Huge investments in American business
• The U.S. energy sector unleashed
• Leftist-leaning NGO funding destroyed
• Lawfare beat-down
• Leftist communism exposed and fought
• Leftist/Jihadism connection exposed
• NATO increasing defense spending
• The Greenland deal
• The Venezuela liberation
• Panama Canal reset
• Iran neutered
• Cuba teetering
• China backpedaling/faltering
• Peace through strength, ending eight wars
• Beginning the Golden Dome defense
• The world order totally reshaped
• MAHA helping restore food safety
• MAHA bringing sanity to the pharmaceutical lobby
• Prescription drug prices down.
• Entrepreneurs encouraged
• Massive deregulation
• Anti-Christian bias targeted
• Men out of women’s sports and locker rooms.
• Preventing sex trafficking, saving trafficked children
• Dealing with the cartels, drug lords and pushers

And much more. 99% totally positive. A staggering list in two years. One that should be celebrated, lauded, applauded, and supported. Splashed across every media outlet.

We’ve never seen anything like this. We’ve never had it this good. We elected an administration that has performed a regenerative miracle for our country and its citizens. George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln were great Presidents with great achievements. We are seeing that kind of greatness today. A country turning around. It’s possible to live life proudly as an American again. We’ve been lifted from the Hell that globalists and corrupt politicians from within and without wanted for us. And we’re just getting started. Because the best is yet to come. If we let it.

I loved Reagan. His eight years were inspiring and filled with achievement. Yet in the last two years we have witnessed more transformation to the good than in the Gipper’s eight years. And trust me, the enemies within were not nearly as prevalent as they are now. The entrenched leftist beehive of propaganda media was not so evil, all-encompassing, nor as effective. Reagan didn’t face the rancor and horror of actual communists within. Thankfully Trump, unlike milquetoasts in the past, knows how to fight and win.

Yet here so many are complaining about small change, clucking about affordability, whining about the Iran war, nitpicking that both sides are the same. Blah, blah, blah. If you have small issues you don’t care for, I do too, but please look at the list of accomplishments above. Please compare. Whatever your complaints, remember all the good that has been done. Because the diabolical left will undo it as much as possible if they win these midterms. Small issues don’t count when genuinely great things are happening in droves.

Affordability? Yes, we have had inflation due to the spike in diesel and gas prices. It’s real. But so is the fact that Iran is now neutered. They cannot nuke anyone. They cannot replace their missiles, drones, and the capacity to wreak havoc on us with their terror networks. They are relegated to the dustbin of history. Dan Bongino said he saw the intelligence concerning Iran. His comment: It was genuine. Had we not done what we did, we would have nuclear havoc, and permanent gas prices of eight to ten dollars a gallon. if we had not acted, a crazed nation would have held the world hostage. That would have caused worldwide depression, not simply a temporary spike in oil and inflation.

And it is temporary. Within six months, gas will likely be back below three dollars. Prices will go down. Inflation will be tamed again. Trump will have traded the havoc of a crazed Iranian regime for a nine-month upswing in gas and inflation. Art of the deal in spades.

And if you think the Democrats care about affordability, think again. It was Obama and Biden who purposefully caused gas to be high with their policies. They said they wanted it to happen. Their policies made it happen. Gas and high prices under Democrats are normative. The Democrats don’t give a fig about affordability. They have no right to claim the mantle of caring about affordability. They don’t want to, nor know how to bring affordability. They just know how to demagogue the issue so they can retake power. That is all they want.

What they are best at is using the beehive of their media friends to convince you that things are terrible. That Trump is a warmonger. That the economy is and will be terrible. That everything Trump touches is horrible. That they can fix everything to be better. That they’re really not radical leftists who hate America.

That’s the picture they will paint. It’s what they want us to believe. And they have the cultural power to sway too many of us. What we need to do is simple: Stand and fight the onslaught of their propaganda. Do not let them demoralize you or anyone else. Remember, there is a country to save from these leftist radicals. And it’s you who has the power to defeat them. Get up, engage, donate, support candidates without a (D) behind their name. Vote and get voters to the polls whom you know will help. Persuade those on the fence if you can. Democrats must lose.

If you are conservative, right-of-center, independent, or moderate, please consider: You do not want the newly constituted radical left in charge. Of anything. Period.

Pray for and work towards victory. You won’t regret it. But you will regret doing less than you could to support this administration.

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“After one failure after another,” Rezaei fumed, “the worst president in American history just keeps talking — and talking — and now his words have even outrun his own fantasies. “

• Iranian Top Dog Gives Trump the Best Review He Could Wish For (Spencer)

The Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, apparently styles himself something of a historian of American history, or is angling for a plum job as a professor in an Ivy League university, or both. On Friday, Rezaei warmed the hearts of leftist historians all over the U.S. when he proclaimed that President Donald Trump is the “worst” president in U.S. history. Numerous socialist internationalist academics would agree.


“After one failure after another,” Rezaei fumed, “the worst president in American history just keeps talking — and talking — and now his words have even outrun his own fantasies. You can win every day in your own imagination.” Well, yeah, Mohsen, but that can cut both ways, now, can’t it? In concluding, Rezaei claimed that “reality is shaped by Iran — by its people, its soldiers, and its missiles.”

Later that day, however, Trump painted a vastly different picture of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s achievements and current capabilities: “They lost one set of leaders. Then they lost another set of leaders. Then they lost half of a third set, and they had a little runoff for who wants to be president and there were no participants. Everyone said, ‘I don’t, I don’t want to be.'”

Trump was being satirical; Masoud Pezeshkian has been president of Iran since July 28, 2024. Pezeshkian, however, is not the head of state; the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, holds that position, and has not been seen in public even once since he attained the top job. The word is that he was disfigured in the February strike that killed his father and predecessor; others contend that he is actually dead, but Iranian leaders pretend he is alive to give their tottering regime some legitimacy.

In fact, it’s not at all clear who is running things in Tehran, and Trump pointed out that this made trying to achieve a negotiated settlement difficult in the extreme: “And it’s part of our problem,” he said. “I don’t know who the hell to deal with. There’s nobody to deal with. Nobody wants to be president, I’d say ‘Who do I speak to in Iran?’ They’re not nobody around. Knock, knock. Nobody home. But that war is going to be over soon. One way or the other, one way or the other. It’s going to end very soon and probably right after the midterms.”

All right. In the meantime, going into those midterms, Rezaei has given the president the best possible endorsement. Who wouldn’t want a top leader of a bloodthirsty, repressive regime whom the overwhelming majority of its own people hate calling him the “worst” ever to hold his job?This is because Rezaei is, of course, looking at Trump through the prism of what is good for his embattled but ruthless regime. He never would have dreamed of calling Barack Hussein Obama or Old Joe Biden the worst president in American history when they were showering billions upon the Islamic regime in Tehran. He never bestowed that title upon any of the presidents who kicked the can down the road on Iran, either.

The fact that Rezaei has now given Trump this title is the clearest indication we have had in quite awhile that Trump’s stance toward the Islamic Republic is making it feel the pain. Rezaei, of course, likely has never heard the names of Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, or Andrew Johnson. He would be unlikely, given the international left’s high regard for the Islamic Republic, to give low marks to the likes of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as does the book Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster. Rezaei is simply venting his frustration at the man who has given the Islamic Republic such a hard time.

Trump promises that this hard time is going to continue. The Iranian people, and the free world, can only hope that the pressure on the Islamic Republic will finally cause it to fall, and to be replaced by a saner and more humane regime. Then Mohsen Rezaei can get a job as a professor of American history at Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, or some other America-hating university.

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“We need another victory.”

• All Hands on Deck for the Midterms (J.B. Shurk)

The midterm elections are a month away, and I would like to ask a favor: Please make sure that you vote. Please encourage your friends and family to vote. We need all the help that we can get.


Perhaps you feel that voting is a useless exercise that exists to legitimize bad outcomes — a way of forcing citizens to accept responsibility for things they did not do. “You get the government you vote for,” we often hear, but that’s not exactly true. Unelected bureaucrats and judges from unaccountable agencies and Constitution-subverting courts give us a lot of government that none of us want! “If voting made a difference, it would be illegal,” the old saw goes. There’s probably a layer of truth in that hunk of ore.

But voting can make a difference! We’ve seen what a difference it can make over the last ten years! There’s no way in Hades that the powers that be wanted President Donald J. Trump in office. Bill Kristol and all of the “conservative thought leaders” in his orbit worked to elect Hillary Clinton back in 2016. Duplicitous Mitt Romney delivered one of the most hateful anti-Trump screeds on national television that year. Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan advised fellow lawmakers not to say anything positive about Trump heading into the general election.

Economists predicted that a Trump victory would send the country into a depression. Retired generals predicted that Trump would lead the country into WWIII. Political marketing firms and campaign consultants essentially blacklisted anybody who considered working for the Republican nominee. The only places you could find anything positive about his candidacy were rebellious publications such as this one!

Boy, oh boy, when Trump won, you could almost see the Deep State Establishment melting in real time. Do you remember how all the networks waited hours to call the election because none of them could stomach admitting the truth? Hillary Clinton was too busy drinking, crying, screaming, throwing things — whatever — to concede publicly until ten hours after Trump had become president-elect. Trump strolled out to celebrate victory in the early morning hours, and, with a coy little smile on his face, repeated several times, “Elections are a complicated business, folks.” For the next ten weeks, it seemed as if “The World Turned Upside Down” were playing on repeat across cable news.

The day after Trump won, Speaker Ryan was so flabbergasted by the result that he sounded like a talking squirrel hopped up on cocaine and amphetamines during every television interview: Wow! What a victory! I’m totally behind Trump! Republicans in Congress are totally behind Trump! One hundred percent! Anybody have peanuts? I need some extra protein after my P90X workout! (Spoiler alert: Ryan and his congressional RINOs were “behind Trump” only because they intended to repeatedly stab him in the back.)

Hollywood actors — including most of the cast from The West Wing — produced videos encouraging members of the Electoral College to disregard the voters’ will and install Hillary in the White House. Extremely embarrassed lame duck Barack Obama — who had organized a lavish send-off for himself amid the ancient ruins of Athens a fortnight later — blamed Trump’s election on “fake news.” (That’s right! Obama used that term before Trump repurposed it for his own trademark advantage.)

In the background, of course, we were beginning to see the emergence of the Obama-Clinton-Brennan-Comey-Clapper-Rice Russia Collusion Hoax in which Democrats used the CIA and FBI to frame Trump as a Russian spy in an effort to prompt his impeachment and removal from office (or what honest people call an attempted coup d’état) — an egregious crime against the American people for which none of the conspirators has been brought to justice.

Trump won in 2016 because Republican voters showed up! He won despite the fact that Hillary outspent him four-to-one. He won despite the fact that news coverage of his campaign was 100% negative, while Hillary’s coverage was nearly 100% positive. He won despite the fact that every prominent “elite” on both sides of the Atlantic openly laughed at him and spoke of Hillary’s presidency as if it were foreordained. President Trump won in 2016 for one reason: His voters went to the polls in droves.

Fast-forward to 2020, and we all know what happened. The Deep State Establishment stole the election. The election was so obviously stolen that Big Tech social media platforms censored everyone who pointed out all of the unbelievable election irregularities. President Trump won nearly every traditional bellwether county across the country by double-digits and increased his total number of votes by over eleven million. Nobody has ever done that and lost an election, but the corporate news media pushed the Establishment propaganda that perennially unpopular Joe Biden had somehow won more votes than any candidate in American history — including fifteen million more than Obama won in 2012 and four million more than Trump won in 2024!

While Dementia Joe hid in his basement during that campaign, state officials used COVID as a pretext to violate election laws and permit the dumping of mail-in-ballots lacking valid authentication into unsupervised drop boxes in battleground states. Mark Zuckerberg and other tech titans transferred hundreds of millions of dollars into the bank accounts of Democrat political operatives. There were allegations of electoral fraud across the country. Witnesses attested that unlawful ballots — including those lacking dates and signatures — were counted. Nevertheless, state and federal courts conspired with the political and media Establishments to cover up what was almost certainly the biggest electoral theft in American history.

A few months later, Time published a story admitting that “a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information” rigged the 2020 election. Of course, the writer of that public confession, Molly Ball, claimed that the conspirators “were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.”

The plan was to convince Americans that Trump was unpopular, even though he won eleven million more votes in 2020 than when he clobbered Hillary. Using lawfare and information warfare against the American people, the Establishment attempted to destroy Trump and his MAGA supporters by preposterously accusing election integrity protesters of being “insurrectionists” who were somehow trying to overthrow the government without any weapons on January 6, 2021. Fraudulently-installed pretend-President Biden oversaw an FBI and DOJ that worked to imprison MAGA voters for years and Trump for life. Paul Ryan, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Mitch McConnell, and other RINOs (including most Republicans in the Senate) tried desperately to convince voters that Trump should be condemned and forgotten. Their efforts failed.

Trump voters came out in force in 2024 and made sure that the election was too big to rig. Even though Ryan and other RINOs told us that Trump appealed only to angry white males, the president did better than any Republican since Eisenhower with almost every minority voting bloc. Trump has expanded the Republican Party more than anyone alive today.

I want President Trump to be in a position to use every hour he has left in office to advance the MAGA agenda. He is destroying globalism. He is bringing industry and manufacturing back home. He has secured the borders and dramatically reduced violent crime. He is putting America on a path to lead the world for centuries. Help him continue on his journey. Remember why we’ve been fighting for more than a decade. Surprise the Establishment — once again! — by coming out in huge numbers to support Trump for the midterms.

The Establishment has one job: to discourage you. I want you to remember how much we’ve already accomplished! We’re so close to saving this country. We need another victory. All hands on deck!

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A neverending speech by Putin. Every year at the Valdai Discussion Club.

• Putin Outlines Context of Russian Position Toward Ukraine (CTH)

Once again, you may have seen a lot of banter, interpretation and discussion in western media about Russia speaking of defending Kaliningrad with nuclear weapons if needed. To gain a full understanding of the context, I strongly suggest reading the transcript below. Vladimir Putin addressed the plenary session of the 23rd annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club. It is a very lengthy discussion. I am pulling out the key segment and suggest everyone take some quiet time to read.


President Vladimir Putin – […] Let me digress from the main topic for a while. There are people here in this room who hold a very diverse mix of opinions regarding an extremely acute present-day conflict – the Ukraine conflict, and what caused it. I would like to say a few words on this matter. It is a fact that many hundreds or even thousands of experts, your colleagues who will study the materials from this Valdai Club meeting, they have their own opinions on this matter. I am, of course aware that some within the expert community might ask why Russia started the war while talking about peace. I have commented this many times already, but let me say this once again in front of this audience.

Where is the truth? The truth is that we did not want and were not the ones who started to fight. In fact, they started to fight against us. They should have refrained from encouraging aggressive nationalism and Russophobia in Ukraine so as to turn it into a tool for fighting Russia. NATO should not have embarked on an effort to make our historical territories part of its military space in its own interests and should not have planned setting up its bases there.

Radicals in Kiev should not have been pushed to a government coup while the de facto illegal regime should not have been pumped full of all kinds of offensive weapons after that. Plans for setting up concentration camps for the people from Donbass and Crimea should not have been drafted. Unarmed people should not have been rolled over by tanks, shelled with missiles and bombed from the air and burnt alive just for being Russian, in terms of both their ethnic background and their spirit.

The list of these do-nots goes on, but let me stop at that. I am convinced that this was an intentional effort to place Russia in a situation when it was simply forced to defend itself with arms in hand to respond to this obvious act of aggression. They pushed us to this brink knowingly and intentionally. Overall, Russophobia, oppressing and killing Russian people and destroying Russia should not be turned into state ideology while striving to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. This was the way it was all articulated, right? No one forgot this. At least, we did not forget this.

If we want to live – and who does not? – as I have already said during one of my public appearances, let us live in friendship and work together for finding ways to accomplish this aim. Of course, confidence building is a painstaking and fragile process. Placing it on the right track is very hard, while it can be derailed very easily. The interests never fully coincide even when it comes to the closest partners, let alone countries which are rivals and are locked in an all-out competition or even confrontation against one another.

Sooner or later, the international situation and the international system will settle into some form of stable equilibrium. This is undoubtedly a complex, multifaceted and multilayered process built on mutual compromises, willingness to meet each other halfway, and a level-headed assessment of the situation, including by the West. The former hegemon will unavoidably have to acknowledge the realities of a multipolar world – just look at the trends shaping the global economy – and learn to cooperate with the countries of the Global Majority on the basis of respect for their fundamental interests. Of course, this will take time. We are going to have to live in an extremely unstable and ever changing world. The path to a new system will be full of unexpected twists and turns; unfortunately, often unpleasant and even dangerous ones.

I would like to turn to the history of our country. Russia has travelled a thorny path of profound transformation, and this process is still underway. Thirty-five years ago, we experienced the collapse of the state system, which was a genuine tragedy for tens of millions of people who woke up one morning to find themselves beyond the borders of their own country and whose lives – and the lives of their children – were changed overnight. Both in Russia and in neighbouring countries this led to a fundamental transformation and international affairs get transformed as well.


I would also like to highlight a certain naivety, idealism, or perhaps even complacency on the part of those who stood at the helm of the state during the final years of the Soviet era. Blind trust in Western partners and confidence in “gentlemen’s agreements,” when they thought they could simply take someone at their word and come to terms also played a cruel joke on the Soviet Union.

In retrospect, it becomes clear just how destructive a role this played not only in the fate of the Soviet Union, but also in ensuring long-term global stability. The Soviet leaders wanted the West to like them, while Western leaders sought to reshape the world to suit their needs and to grab their share – preferably a large one – of the Soviet legacy. We can see the result now. T

he Soviet Union collapsed due to a mix of internal imbalances. This is the most important dimension to it. This is the truth, and this is what happened. Specifically, internal imbalances, as well as mistakes made by successive generations of the country’s leadership. Short-sightedness, narrow and unrealistic ideological dogmas instead of pragmatism, incompetence, and the practice of sweeping obvious problems under the carpet gradually exacerbated and undermined the Soviet Union’s domestic and international standing. Ultimately, these factors led to its collapse.

What is happening in the world today, the present-day conflicts and upheavals – all this largely stems from the fact that late 20th-century politicians, both in the East and the West, were unwilling, unprepared or unable to treat the era of major shifts with the required seriousness and depth. This is not a question of shifting responsibility onto the leaders of the past; this is simply how it all happened in reality.

However, even during that period, there were people, both in the East and West, there were other kinds of politicians who developed a keen understanding of these challenges and offered what I believe to be the right ways of resolving them. Today, their assessments can be viewed as visionary.

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I’ve had enough of Carney. Too much attention for the little man.

• Carney’s “Buy Canadian” LNG Expansion Will Be Built with Chinese Steel (CTH)

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has recently promoted an expansive LNG pipeline deal to center the domestic infrastructure development around the concept of “Buy Canadian.” However, when questioned about the actual construction of the proposal, Carney now admits the developers will determine what resources will be used – and it will not be Canadian product.The unfortunate reason is not complicated. Canada does not have the industrial capacity to make the heavy components for the LNG expansion pipeline because Canada does not have the ability.


CALGARY — LNG Canada is planning to use Chinese steel in major components of its $33-billion second-phase expansion despite Ottawa’s promises that nationally significant projects would help drive Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Buy Canadian policy.

The joint venture says Canada lacks the specialized fabrication facilities needed to manufacture the massive modules required for its expansion and plans to buy more components from state-owned China Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd. (COOEC), which manufactured modules for the project’s first phase. (read more)

I would remind readers this inability to manufacture industrial goods is exactly what former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau outlined to President Trump in December 2025 in Mar-a-Lago, when President Trump challenged Trudeau to stop importing Chinese steel and aluminum. Canada’s clean energy policy blocks the country from creating heavy industrial components. WATCH:

All of the political talking points from Mark Carney are built upon a foundation of lies. Their national inability is inherent in the Canadian industrial economy, which is created around a climate change agenda that blocks industrial manufacturing. Eventually, this reality is going to hit the psyche of the Canadian electorate. It will not be easy for them to accept that all of their leadership has been lying to them. However, denial is a very real issue which makes conversation with any Canadian very challenging. “

For the plant construction in Kitimat, the challenge is not a preference for offshore steel, but the specialized fabrication capability required for modules of this scale and complexity,” company spokesperson Paul Hagel told CBC News in an email, adding that “there are no fabrication yards in Canada that can manufacture and deliver the additional modules required for Phase 2.”

Hagel said that only five fabrication yards worldwide have the necessary combination of space, capacity, quality systems and marine access, including COOEC’s yard in China. {source}

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The only diesel problem Europe has is that it refuses to buy the cheap and readily available Russian diesel.

• Europe’s Diesel Problem (Toth Istvan)

The Diesel Question: An unexpected global diesel crisis has emerged against the backdrop of armed conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. This crisis has predictably reached a critical juncture, with President Trump announcing that he is seriously considering banning U.S. diesel exports. Such an embargo would severely impact the economies of Great Britain and France, whose leaders spearheaded opposition to his administration and openly celebrated his temporary setbacks.


Months of Ukrainian strikes against Russian refineries and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have removed 1.6 million barrels of diesel per day from the global market. Replacing these losses requires additional refining capacity, but it is unclear where this capacity will come from.

In this context, the U.S. Gulf Coast has become the world’s supplier of last resort. American diesel exports reached a record 1.6 million bpd in August, up from 1 million bpd in February and representing 20 percent of the global diesel trade. However, U.S. refineries are already operating at nearly 97-98 percent capacity. Once storage facilities are full, refining will be curtailed, reducing not only diesel output but also gasoline and jet fuel output.

American Interests First
Even without regard for past grievances with Europeans, the occupant of the Oval Office has compelling domestic reasons to impose a diesel export ban. The U.S. midterm elections on November 3 are approaching quickly. The average price of diesel has hit record highs, prompting Texas to declare a diesel price emergency.

Federal authorities are under pressure to take decisive action to address the crisis. High fuel prices are an obvious vulnerability for the Republican administration, which, unlike EU governments, hasn’t forgotten that one of its primary concerns is the affordability of goods and services. A diesel export ban enjoys public support from Republicans in agricultural states and from candidates in competitive districts.

In light of this, continuing to export fuel at the expense of American citizens, farmers, and truckers — and their interests — in favor of ungrateful Europeans can only be described as shortsighted or irrational. Opponents of Trump in Europe should hardly expect to find such qualities on the list of sins they attribute to the American president.

Economic Context
The U.S. economy itself supports a ban on diesel exports. Such a ban would help lower domestic prices on the East Coast and in the Midwest. It would also allow distillate reserves to be restored by winter. Currently, these reserves are at their lowest levels in over 40 years.

It’s important to consider the reduced costs for farmers, logistics companies, and other industries. These steps will undoubtedly have a positive effect, favorably impacting food inflation and reducing overall inflationary pressure. A ban on diesel exports is the right step at the right time for a leader who cares about his nation and prioritizes its interests above all else. American fuel should primarily serve the needs of Americans. Europeans will simply have to accept that.

A Strong Signal to Europe
With significant volumes of diesel removed from the global market, the U.S. increased its share of EU imports from 17 percent in 2025 to 32 percent. Meanwhile, Indian diesel exports to Europe decreased from 163,000 to 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) over the same period. China and South Korea supply only small amounts to the European market, and Russian diesel is subject to sanctions. Europe simply has no alternative supplier capable of filling the gap left by the U.S.

The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that European reserves are at four-year lows, and seasonal demand for distillates is still rising.Therefore, a ban on American diesel exports will push European prices and the premium on crude oil to new levels. Europe will have to adapt to a new reality and compete with Latin America and West Africa for supplies.

Moreover, diesel accounts for about half of petroleum product consumption in Europe. Rising prices will inevitably accelerate inflation and drive up costs in logistics, agriculture, and construction, complicating the ECB’s policy and significantly increasing the risk of a Eurozone recession against the backdrop of high gas prices.

European economies are not resilient enough to withstand a prolonged ban. In most Western European countries, including Great Britain, reserves amount to only 20-30 days. For many of these countries, a ban on American diesel exports would be even more painful due to reduced domestic refining capacity.

No More Games — Time to Pay the Bill!
Retribution always follows betrayal. Some pay immediately for everything, while others pay in installments, like loan repayments. While the moments of reckoning may be significantly separated by time, the full price must eventually be paid.

Donald Trump has received a golden opportunity to return the favor to his European “friends” for their deliberate efforts to oust politicians aligned with Washington, their demonstrative gestures against his operations in the Strait of Hormuz, and other actions directed against him.

European leaders must now realize that their sabotage and interference with President Trump will have negative and painful consequences. High costs, austerity measures, falling production levels, and cold weather are the best teachers for those who believe they can bite the hand that feeds them.

For those who have publicly boasted about their embarrassing actions against Trump, such as former Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Bjorn Berge of Norway, the question of imposing personal sanctions has long been overdue. The games are over. It’s time to settle accounts.

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He’ll pick his moment well.

• Justice Alito to Retire Next Year? (Matt Margolis)

In June, on the last day of opinion releases for the term, NPR published a story claiming that Justice Samuel Alito was stepping down. The report was false, and it lasted roughly ten minutes before it vanished. Then, in August, Alito put weeks of speculation to rest himself. “Obviously I’m here for another term,” he told The Wall Street Journal.Social media lit up Friday with claims that Justice Alito had announced plans to retire next year, after CBS News released excerpts of a new interview with him.


Those rumors were somewhat overblown. Alito announced nothing of the sort. He did admit that stepping down has crossed his mind. CBS News’ national and legal correspondent Jan Crawford asked him why he chose to stay on the bench this year, despite pressure from Republicans who wanted a replacement confirmed while the GOP runs the Senate.”I thought about it and I will continue,” Alito told CBS News.

Crawford followed up, asking if he had really considered it. “Well, it’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,” he said. “But I thought that I could still make a valuable contribution, which is why I became a justice and a judge in the first place. So that was basically it.”Crawford then asked whether he would revisit the decision every year. “Yeah, I think I have to,” Alito replied. That’s a long way from a retirement announcement. The full interview will air on Monday.

Speculation about Supreme Court retirements has swirled for months, and it has always centered on two men. Alito is the second-oldest justice on the Court. President George W. Bush appointed him in 2006, and he has been a reliable conservative vote ever since. Clarence Thomas, the oldest justice, joined the Court in 1991 as a George H.W. Bush appointee, and is one of the most influential conservative voices in the Court’s history. Conservatives love them both and don’t want either gone, but given their advanced ages, there was also a desire to give President Donald Trump at least one vacancy he could fill with a younger originalist while Republicans still hold the Senate.

Let’s be honest, here. Nobody on the right wants to relive the Ruth Bader Ginsburg story from the other side. Ginsburg infamously stayed on the Court through Barack Obama’s presidency, despite her age and declining health, then died a few weeks before the 2020 election. Trump quickly nominated Amy Coney Barrett, the Senate confirmed her, and the left was infuriated.

Crawford put that very scenario to Alito, asking why staying doesn’t risk undoing his work the way it did for Ginsburg. “It’s too hard to predict what the political situation will be and what any president might do with respect to a replacement,” Alito said. He’s right that nobody can predict the future, but that’s the whole problem. If the Senate flips, I’d expect Democrats to block any replacement until after the 2028 election. And nobody knows who wins the White House in 2028.

Make no mistake about it, the stakes are enormous. Alito has earned the right to make this call on his own schedule, and he says he’ll make it again every year. Ginsburg made hers, too, and it cost the left a seat for a generation.

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“The NATO secretary-general was awarded the Westphalian Peace Prize for his hostile stance toward Russia..”

• ‘Murderers’ Rutte and Merz Booed at Peace Prize Ceremony (RT)

Crowds of protesters jeered at NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after the US-led military bloc was awarded the Westphalian Peace Prize on Thursday. The prize, awarded by the Economic Society for Westphalia and Lippe, commemorates the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years’ War and legally enshrined the modern concept of the nation state. Rutte, known among protestors as the “Lying Dutchman,” collected the award in the German city of Munster on Thursday on behalf of the interventionist US-led military bloc.


Speaking at the ceremony, North Rhine-Westphalia Minister-President Hendrik Wust declared that “military strength can prevent war and preserve peace,” and that “NATO has demonstrated for more than 75 years that strength secures peace.” Protesters gathered outside Munster Town Hall disagreed. When the Dutchman, the German, and other dignitaries stepped onto the balcony, below which a blue-blazered band played, they were met with chants of “murderers” and “blood on your hands” from the square below (perhaps the greatest show of anger in the town since the anabaptists in 1534).

The NATO chief and the German chancellor gritted their teeth and smiled and waved through the boos and whistles. Wust’s speech did not mention NATO’s bombing campaigns against Serbia in 1995 and 1999, or its bombing and subsequent breaking up of Libya in 2011. More recently, NATO exercises on Russia’s Kaliningrad border have been interpreted as reckless provocations by the Kremlin, with the Russian Foreign Ministry reminding NATO leadership this week that Kaliningrad is integral Russian territory, which Moscow is prepared to defend with “all its arsenal, including nuclear weapons.”

Less than 24 hours earlier, Rutte declared that NATO’s European members should have attacked Iran on behalf of the US and Israel. “Europe was not able to take out the nuclear capability of Iran. We couldn’t. We didn’t have the capabilities. In ten years, we can and we should…it should be us doing this, not the Americans,” he said at a Euronews summit in Brussels. Merz took the opportunity to swipe at his political rivals too, falsely claiming the AfD – currently Germany’s most popular political party – is “Russian-backed.”

“A peace prize for a military alliance – at first glance, that seems contradictory, but in fact it is entirely logical,” he reasoned. “It protects our freedom, it protects our security, it protects our prosperity, and it serves the cause of peace in Europe.” The organizers of the Westphalian Peace Prize did not always share NATO’s confrontational stance toward Russia. Two years ago, the prize was awarded to French President Emmanuel Macron for “his diplomatic skill in maintaining dialogue with the Russian leadership despite serious upheavals.”

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It wouldn’t be about money, would it?

“The EU is not doing enough to assist Kiev in the conflict with Moscow, the Ukrainian leader has claimed ..”

• Zelensky Lashes Out At Ukraine’s Western Backers (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, who is dealing with a major hole in his country’s budget and high-profile corruption scandals in his government, has criticized Kiev’s Western backers for their reluctance to provide him with more money.


the funds originally intended to last to the end of the year and faced a shortfall of €27 billion. The announcement came after the Ukrainian leader’s 40-day PR pressure campaign on Russia, which involved long-range strikes on energy and civilian infrastructure, failed to deliver the desired results and triggered a harsh response by Moscow.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, Zelensky complained that the acute budget deficit is stopping Ukraine from developing and manufacturing some key weapons. When asked if he believed that his foreign supporters were doing all they could to assist, the Ukrainian leader replied: “Not enough, of course not enough.” The FT noted that the introduction of faster jet-powered drones by Russia in recent weeks had become an additional challenge for Ukraine, which is already experiencing a shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors and other air defenses.

Zelensky acknowledged that a lack of money to purchase engines for interceptor UAVs was one of the hurdles. “We really import a lot of engines. There are some engines of our production, but not enough,” he said. A Russian drone and missile campaign against military-related targets in Ukraine intensified this year in response to terrorist attacks by Kiev, crippling its energy infrastructure and leading to blackouts and fuel shortages. It has also destroyed most of the country’s storage spaces, affecting the supply of food and other goods.

Wheat and other exports have also been reduced significantly by attacks on the port of Odessa and Ukraine-bound vessels in the Black Sea, leaving Zelensky’s government almost entirely dependent on foreign aid. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the EU turned down Ukraine’s plea to speed up the payouts of its loan. Officials in Brussels expressed belief that doing so would not solve the problem, but only delay it until 2027, the agency said. The bloc suggested that Kiev’s other partners, including Canada and Japan, could provide the funds to cover its pressing needs, it added.

EU bureaucrats were surprised to learn that Ukraine ran out of money so fast, according to Bloomberg. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned earlier this year that the bloc’s loan to Kiev would be swiftly plundered by Zelensky and other corrupt officials from his team. On Thursday, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported about a scheme involving the supply of EU-funded handguns to Ukrainian security services at prices inflated threefold. Kiev and it Western backers are “traditionally” plugging the $27-billion hole in Ukraine’s budget “using funds taken from ordinary citizens of European states,” the SVR said.

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They’re more than capable of destroying themselves. Really, they have no-one.

• Dear DSA: How to Destroy the 5 Democrats Who Want to Be President (Pinsker)

Dear DSA,


You and I — are we really so different? Why, I think not! We both live on planet earth, and… well, I’m sure we have lots of other stuff in common, too. Enough to build a friendship. So I say this with peace and love: You’ve been on an impressive winning streak — whacking around the Democratic establishment like they’re a flippin’ piñata — but thus far, all your gains have been incremental. A mayor’s seat here or a Senate nominee there. (Yawn.) Sorry, comrade. That won’t lead you to your workers’ paradise — at least, not anytime soon. You’ve got to think bigger. Way bigger.

C’mon, you guys are supposed to be revolutionaries! If you want to change the world, you need to do what the Republicans did and start at the top. The MAGA movement didn’t fiddle around with mayoral races; we had the cojones to target the top prize. So should you. The Democrats, after all, didn’t invite you into their party without fully knowing your beliefs. (You literally publish manifestos!) Yet they welcomed and accepted you anyway, because they needed your votes. And a deal’s a deal.

Because that’s the unspoken agreement: In exchange for DSA votes in the general election, DSA voters get to influence who the Democrats nominate for office. It’s how you got Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed on a major party’s ticket. Furthermore, this agreement won’t expire on Election Day 2026. In fact, the opposite is true: The midterms are the calm before the storm. Because in 2028, the DSA will be headhunting Democratic frontrunners.

You have no choice. That’s politics works: You can’t simply build your preferred candidate up; you must also tear the opposition down. Which sounds like a super-fun project! And in the name of friendship, I’d like to help. ‘Cause honestly? You’d benefit from outside assistance. We’re all prisoners of our own perspective. We know what we know — and we guess the rest. And because DSA membership mostly consists of overeducated white people, your messaging falters in Flyover Country: Outside of bright blue cities, college towns, and Muslim strongholds, your win rate nosedives.

There’s no shame in having blind spots. We all have them. It’s why an outsider’s perspective is so valuable. So, without any further ado, here’s your DSA strategy memo on how to destroy the five Democratic presidential frontrunners:

Candidate One: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Vulnerability: Being an idiot.Most of the country thinks AOC is too radical. You purists at the DSA know she’s actually not radical enough. (We’ve got no time for a corporate Zionist squish such as AOC, amiright?) But in Flyover Country, attacking AOC for being “too moderate” won’t work. That’s not her Achilles’ heel; it’s not her reputational vulnerability. Her weakness is her brain: The public suspects she’s stupid. When she’s quizzed on policy, she comes across like a doofus lightweight: That’s how to destroy her: AOC doesn’t know her ABCs. She’s a dummy — an empty vessel who cosplays as a Marxist in overpriced “Tax the Rich” evening gowns without getting the irony. She’s just not smart enough to be president. Consult the Dan Quayle playbook and attack accordingly.

Candidate Two: Jon Ossoff

Vulnerability: Nastiness, dirt, and deception. Every few months, the Democrats fall in love. (And every few months, they fall out of it.) They’re perpetually on the lookout for the next JFK. Today, it’s Jon Ossoff. According to Kalshi, he’s the new Democratic frontrunner in 2028. He’s handsome. Not even 40. He sounds like Barack Obama, and has very nice hair. (Which ain’t cheap: Ossoff spends more on hair and makeup than any other Senate candidate, male or female.) What makes him appealing is his youth and newness. Scandal does not taint him; dirt and filth do not touch him. Which is why the Democrats are swooning: He’s a fresh face and a blank slate.

Blank enough for the Democrats to project their hopes, wishes, biases, and aspirations. Ossoff will likely capitalize on this with vague, aspirational sloganeering, because the JFK card is a winner. It carried a young Obama to the finish line. Why not Ossoff? And the best way to negate it is by dirtying Ossoff up, muddying his clothes, and deep-sixing his likability. Without his youth and likability, Ossoff has no point-of-difference; there’s nothing special about him. It’s why attacking Natalie Harp was a high-risk move: Nastiness and likability are like oil and water.

They don’t mix. There are already rumblings about Ossoff being two-faced on Israel. The DSA should build on this, branding him as a nasty, dirty, unlikable liar. Turn his biggest branding asset into a negative. (But don’t play the Jew card yet. We’re saving that for later.)

Candidate Three: Kamala Harris

Vulnerability: Electability. As a minority female with ties to the Indian and black communities, Harris has a pitch-perfect resume for today’s Democratic Party. On paper, she’s everything the base is looking for. But in actuality, she’s a disaster. Nobody likes her. She’s too weird for the moderates, too moderate for the libs — and too much of a loser for the base. They still blame her for Trump’s victory. And they’re afraid she’d lose in 2028, because the American people don’t like her. They didn’t vote for her in the 2020 primaries. She was pushed on them in 2024 — and that was a catastrophe. Nobody on the left wants to watch the S.S. Kamala Harris sink for a third time.

Her only asset is her electability. She was the first female minority vice president, and because she’s been on a major ticket in back-to-back presidential elections, there’s a plausibility to her candidacy. On paper, she’s credible. But if you take that away, she’s dead in the water.

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https://twitter.com/MIPAGUY/status/2106112296997052599?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Oct 022026
 


Hieronymus Bosch St. John on Patmos 1489


• Supertanker Ablaze After Iran Attack In Hormuz (ZH)
• CNN’s Data Guru Just Dropped Brutal Numbers for the Democrats (Margolis)
• Canada Has A Ukrainian Blindspot (Ted Snider)
• Ukraine Hit By Severe Power Cuts After Russia Pounds Grid (ZH)
• Canada And Britain Blame Trump, Putin, And ‘White Supremacy’ (J.B. Shurk)
• A Lone Voice Of Sanity On NATO’s Eastern Flank Emerges (ZH)
• In the USA the Criminal Justice System Commits More Crimes than Criminals (PCR)
• Hegseth Unveils “Project Meridian” (ZH)
• ADP Jobs Report Confirms 90,000 New Jobs (Eskeldson)
• Sen. Kennedy Dogwalked Jack Smith at Senate Hearing (Matt Margolis)
• Paramount Deal Approved Hours Before $7 Million-a-Day Fines Kick In (Green)
• My Last Conversation with Charlie Kirk (John Solomon)

 

 

https://twitter.com/ricwe123/status/2105196427555025339?s=20

 

 


Trump doesn’t want that war. He may have no choice. Time is running out.

• Supertanker Ablaze After Iran Attack In Hormuz (ZH)

Iranians are apparently going back on the offensive, after it’s been widely reported that US-protected oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz has been fast gaining steam. Iran state media says a supertanker is burning off the coast of Oman after coming under Iranian attack: Local sources reported that a 2.5 million barrel capacity supertanker that was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz illegally was hit 8 kilometers off the coast of Oman and is burning, reports Fars.


Earlier we reported that starting in mid-August (on Aug. 16), Iran’s Supreme National Security Council set October 1 as a deadline. It warned at the time that if Washington failed to lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports within 45 days, Tehran could resume attacks against US forces, and by implication step up attacks on foreign shipping. Iran’s 45-day deadline for the United States has now expired. That deadline has now passed, potentially adding another layer of uncertainty to an already tense confrontation where Tehran may decide it must act ‘preemptively’ while facing more bombs by Trump (likely after the midterms).

* * *

Signs of potential major escalation, or the next round at least (which Trump has hinted will come after the midterm elections), just hit The Wall Street Journal, and sent oil prices soaring. A quick summary: The Pentagon is sending a third aircraft-carrier strike group and additional Marine Corps ships to the Middle East, adding 9,000 to 10,000 more troops to the region.

The ships, jet fighters, Marines and sailors will arrive in the region by the end of November, as President Trump considers renewing strikes on Iran after the midterm elections. The additional servicemembers will add to the more than 50,000 troops already in the region, with the deployments coming after Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal for a seven-day ceasefire. The Trump administration is deploying a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East along with additional Marines, an American official also told Israeli media on Thursday. And later, in the afternoon, Trump posted a new Truth Social message as follows:


The USS Theodore Roosevelt is en route to US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) area of operations after having just left San Diego this week. It is expected to relieve the Japan-based USS George Washington, which entered regional waters in mid-August.

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The Dems are very optimisticc. I don’t see it. They can get people to be anti-Trump. But in the ballot-box, you must pick a name, and anti-Trump is not a name..

• CNN’s Data Guru Just Dropped Brutal Numbers for the Democrats (Margolis)

Confidence that Democrats are going to sweep the House and Senate this November is as high as it’s ever been. Pundits treat it as a done deal, and the polls seem to back them up.But not everything may be as it seems.


As I previously reported, Frank Luntz, a pollster who is no fan of President Donald Trump, sees a messier picture. Voters are souring on both parties heading into the midterms, according to Luntz, but the Democrat Party is in worse shape. Its turnout advantage is only about two points. That’s thin, since the party out of power usually enjoys a big edge in a president’s first midterm election. Luntz told CNN on Monday that everything comes down to whether Trump’s voters show up. They turned out in force when Trump was on the ballot in 2016 and 2024. In 2018 and 2022, when he wasn’t, they stayed home.

That’s a striking admission from someone who has never been a Trump fan. But there’s another factor to consider: the historic underestimation of the GOP in the polls. It happened in Trump’s first term, and if it happens again the same way, Republicans will hold the Senate. But you don’t have to take my word for it. That’s CNN’s Harry Enten talking.

Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst, explained on CNN News Central Wednesday that if the polls are wrong the way they have been historically in the Midwest, the GOP holds the Senate. “We’ve had really good Democratic polls coming out from Ohio, Michigan, Iowa,” Enten said. “And, you know, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me four times, I just have to ask the question, could it happen again?”

Could it? In major 2024 races, Republicans beat their September polling by nine points in Iowa, six in Ohio, and five in Michigan. Democrats’ leads in those states right now are smaller than those misses. “So, you look at this and you go, you know what, maybe we should just hold on a second here because we’ve seen this dance before and it was not a dance that Democrats like when the votes were actually cast and counted,” Enten explained.

Berman raised the obvious objection. Trump was on the ballot in 2024, so what happens in a year when he isn’t? Enten had the answer ready. In 2018, Trump’s first midterm, the GOP outperformed its September polls by six points in Iowa, six in Ohio, and eight in Michigan. Look across 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2024, and Republicans beat their September numbers by at least five points in all three states every single time.

Then Enten laid that history over this year’s Senate map. If Republicans outperform their Midwest polls the way they did in 2018 and 2024, Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa all go red. Even if Democrats could carry Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alaska, we would still end up with a 50-50 Senate, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. And does anyone really believe Texas is electing James Talarico?

“So, if history holds in terms of the GOP outperforming their September polls, well, there’s a very, very strong chance that Republicans hold on the United States Senate, even if Democrats win in places they don’t historically win in, like Texas,” Enten said. “In these midwestern Senate races, yes, Democrats have gotten good polls,” Enten noted. “But I would just say, hold on just a brief second here because history says, you know what, it might not end for them as well as the polls currently suggest it will.”


Put Luntz’s warning next to Enten’s data, and the picture for November looks a lot brighter for the GOP than the headlines suggest.

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The main Ukrainian blindspot of course is Chrysria Freeland. This doesn’t even mention her.

• Canada Has A Ukrainian Blindspot (Ted Snider)

On September 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Canada where he and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a 100-year partnership “elevat[ing] the relationship between their countries into a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and confirming their aligned nature.”


Canada already has a special relationship with Ukraine. Before the war, Canada had the largest Ukrainian community in the Ukrainian diaspora with 1,209,805 Ukrainian-Canadians. Canada is the fifth largest financial contributor to Ukraine after only the United States, the European Union, Germany, and the United Kingdom with over $16 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid.

Carney said that “Canada will always stand in solidarity with Ukraine” and that “there is no qualification to our commitment.” There is little wrong with that: Ukraine was invaded by Russia and taken advantage of by the West. But there are two problems with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The first is practical.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Canada has contributed $8.5 billion in military support to Ukraine. The Comprehensive Partnership includes a joint declaration on defense and security co-operation. During the official visit, Carney announced new investments to support Ukraine’s defense, including $350 million for interceptor missiles for air defence.

The practical problem is that Ukraine is black hole into which money intended for defense disappears. This is a problem well known to Ukraine’s partners who, nonetheless, keep pouring money in with a blind eye to the problem. Earlier this month, following close on the heels of a U.S. $100 billion European Union loan to Ukraine, Kiev surprised the European Union with a request for an additional $27 billion to address a shortfall that was difficult to explain. The request “unsettled” European officials, some of whom privately worried “whether money is being spent efficiently or whether needs are being overstated.”

A recent New York Times investigation found that seven of Ukraine’s ten top military contractors continued to be awarded contracts after Kiev knew they were facing investigations for fraud, corruption, or failure to deliver on deals they were paid for. Eighteen companies won contracts despite defaulting on previous ones. Millions were thrown away by inexplicably, and conveniently, awarding contracts to the highest bidder. Government audits show that in one year of the war alone, Ukraine lost $1.2 billion in U.S. foreign aid to “fraud, waste and mismanagement.” Sending hundreds of millions more to Ukraine sounds great. But to whom will it go?

There is a second problem with the 100-year Comprehensive Partnership that is deeper. Carney said the Strategic Partnership is based on the two countries “aligned nature.” But there are important aspects that do not align. Canada is a federalist country that officially recognizes more than one culture and language. The Carney administration recently walked away from negotiating a trade agreement with the United States partly in defense of its sovereign right to protect French culture, French language, and its official bilingualism.

Ukraine has been locked in a civil war since 2014 to protect the opposite: a monist vision of Ukrainian society that rejects federalism and recognizes only one culture as Ukrainian while suppressing the language, culture, and religion of ethnic Russian citizens of Ukraine in Crimea, the Donbas, and the southeast. It specifically denies the pluralist alternative that is a defining feature of Canadian identity. Rather than aligning in their natures, in this essential aspect, the two countries are the antithesis of each other.

Canada has confronted this blind spot before. In 2023, Yaroslav Hunka received two standing ovations in Canada’s Parliament as “a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians” and as “a Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero,” despite having served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of Adolf Hitler’s SS.Carney insisted that “Canadians understand in our bones the importance of your struggle” and explained that the reason “there is no qualification to our commitment” to Ukraine is “because your cause—freedom, democracy, sovereignty—is our cause.”

It may be “our cause,” but the historical record is less clear that it is their cause. Zelensky has formally banned eleven opposition parties, including the Opposition Platform for Life party that was once the second largest party in the Ukrainian parliament, though they all condemned Russia’s invasion and contributed to Russia’s defence. He has restricted freedom of information, unifying all television sources into a single source of television news, and increased the censorship powers of the state over print and online media.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Ukraine’s largest denomination, has been banned by Zelensky though Ukraine’s constitution protects freedom of religion, the church ended all canonical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church in May 2022, and the Primate of the UOC expressed the church’s loyalty to Ukraine and condemnation of Russia’s invassion.

Cultural and linguistic rights for minorities have fared no better than political and religious rights and freedom of expression. Pursuing the monist interpretation of Ukraine, Zelensky has gone down a path of abolishing any hint of Russian culture. Legislation has erased the Russian language, making Ukrainian the sole language of government, schools, universities, culture, publishing and media.

It is fine for Canada to “stand in solidarity with Ukraine.” But we should not be blind to Ukraine’s struggles and challenges. If Ukraine is to avoid civil war after the war with Russia and if Ukraine is to have a chance of joining the European Union and orienting toward the west, they, too, are going to have to confront these challenges.

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Russia will make it a hard winter.

• Ukraine Hit By Severe Power Cuts After Russia Pounds Grid (ZH)

Ongoing major Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have resulted in significant forced power cuts across various regions of Russia ahead of what promises to be a frigid winter.National grid operator Ukrene rgo on Thursday urged consumers to limit usage following the recent attacks of the past 24 hours. The outages have chiefly impacted central Ukraine, as well as Kharkiv region in the east, along with Chernihiv and Sumy in the north.


Where security conditions currently allow, emergency repair and restoration work is already under way,” a statement said. “Energy workers are doing everything possible to restore power to all disconnected consumers as quickly as possible,” it added.And BBC reports, “Kyiv has been preparing for a renewed onslaught before winter begins, by building fifteen small scale power plants in heavily fortified concrete bunkers.” Another European outlet warns of what this means for residents going into winter:

“Kyiv said it was Moscow’s opening salvo in an expected campaign to try to knock out heating and power as winter approaches.A recent increase in strikes has prompted fears about another winter with little or no power or heating, after similar attacks last year when temperatures plunged to -20C. The strikes which started Wednesday are being called one of the heaviest combined attacks on energy cited in months. Ukrainian officials reported seven people killed as a result.”

Ukraine’s prime minister Sergii Koretskyi confirmed on X, “Russia has escalated to massive strikes on energy infrastructure.” And President Zelensky indicated that critical infrastructure was hit across five regions. Freezing temperatures are expected to hit the capital region in the coming days, as emergency repair crews scramble – though there’s unlikely to be a let-up in the nightly attacks.

https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/2105352436911366384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2105352436911366384%7Ctwgr%5E9be14063f224c54056aaa307b90e6046227374ea%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fukraine-hit-severe-power-cuts-after-russia-pounds-grid-ahead-freezing-temps

Zelensky has lately floated he’d be open to another energy ceasefire deal, and these calls are likely to be renewed; however, it will have to go both ways and the Ukrainians have also been unrelenting in their long-range drone attacks on Russian territory and oil refineries. Russian forces have also of late been systematically degrading and destroying data centers and mobile providers in Ukraine. Internet connectivity has become a problem throughout various sectors of the country.

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“Carney and Burnham are Dumb and Dumber.”

• Canada And Britain Blame Trump, Putin, And ‘White Supremacy’ (J.B. Shurk)

Commie Canada and the dis-United Kingdom should be renamed the “Dumb and Dumber” of the British Commonwealth.


King Charles III’s North American prime minister, Mark Carney, ran to The New York Times last week to talk about his military combat preparations against the United States in the event that President Trump crosses Lake America and liberates Canada from its delusional leaders. What a showboating dunce. The U.S. singlehandedly sustains Canada’s economy and national security, yet the tiny central banker huffed and puffed in a hilariously Napoleonic display of fake strength.

In the same interview with the failing Times, Con-man Carney outlined his intent to integrate Canada’s economy with that of China and the European Union and to replace the U.S. Dollar with a China-linked global reserve currency. Rhetorically defending Canada’s sovereignty while insulting his U.S. benefactor, Little Mark Carney explained how he would subjugate his socialist nanny-state to Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and unelected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Mark is the global mascot for “educated” idiots everywhere.

Not to be outdone by not-so-Great Britain’s Canadian cousin, U.K. Prime Minister Poindexter (er, I mean Andy Burnham) informed the United Nations General Assembly last week that his government was constructing yet another speech-police organization (this one given the august name, “National Centre for Information Defence,” which should not be confused with the “Research, Information, and Communications Unit,” the “Government Communication Service,” the “Counter Disinformation Unit,” the “Defending Democracy Taskforce,” the “Information Threats and Influence Directorate,” the “Rapid Response Unit,” the “National Cyber Force and Social Cohesion Taskforce,” the “Media Monitoring Unit,” or any of the other information-control agencies already mobilized across totalitarian Britain) to protect the British people from scary thoughts and words.

Burnham blamed the Russians for spreading “a narrative of decline, stoking division, and sowing despair” in the U.K. (and definitely not Westminster’s promotion of decline, division, and despair!) and promised to counteract this “information warfare” by censoring Britons’ public speech and feeding his collapsing country a steady diet of State-sanctioned propaganda. In order to beat back the Russians, Dilapidated Britain must have its very own digital Iron Curtain! Two cheers for democracy! Hip hip…who cares.

The British people are screwed. On average, their government grants settlement or citizenship to an illegal alien every single minute. These foreign nationals receive more welfare from British taxpayers than ever before. The third-world invaders (I mean, “newcomers”) use Britain’s streets as public toilets. Rather than securing the kingdom’s borders, the Home Office hands out a nine-page booklet informing mostly-Muslim men of military age that it is illegal to rape women and children while they conquer the islands.

In the last two years alone, the number of illegal immigrants (and future citizens!) arriving by boat has exceeded the size of the entire British Army! But if these outrageous facts disturb you enough to publicly express your feelings on social media, you will most likely join the roughly 65,000 Brits who have been arrested for “speech-related offenses” over the last five years. Foreign invasion? Good! Free speech? Very bad!

Apparently, the British police state also plans to imprison anyone who would rather not fight WWIII against the Russian Federation. During a recent episode of former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg’s “State of the Nation” on GB News, one leftist-globalist commentator in favor of mass conscription argued, “We would have to lock a few people up…some of the pro-Russian voices, people saying there isn’t a threat, don’t fight for your country, don’t go to war for Burnham, we’ll have to lock ‘em up.”

Rather than responding with horror at the suggestion that his fellow Britons should be imprisoned for opposing a catastrophic war, Rees-Mogg pedantically replied, “Well, we suspended habeas corpus during the Napoleonic Wars…indeed, yes.” In another interview, Rees-Mogg nonchalantly remarked that British citizens have a “duty” to “die” for Britain in a war against Russia.

In Burnham and Rees-Mogg’s Britain, the only way to “defend democracy” is to imprison anyone who disagrees with the British Establishment and to sacrifice everyone else to the killing fields! The British Isles might as well be renamed the “Gulag Archipelago.”

Interestingly, GB News — which leans conservative — discovered last week that Britain’s media regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), had covered up data showing that viewers trust GB News more than the BBC. GB News, in fact, is ranked above all other networks with regard to viewpoint diversity and impartiality. British authorities apparently did not want the public to know these inconvenient truths because the BBC is treated as an objective, trustworthy, and premier source of news (fact check: false!). In an effort to control the public’s perception of the BBC, Ofcom restricted what information the public was permitted to know. P.M. Burnham takes the “defense of information” very seriously!

How seriously? Burnham and the British government force citizens to pay for the BBC’s awful dreck whether they watch it or not! Every household in the U.K. must fork over a £180 license fee to the BBC each year. Because more households are refusing to pay the license, the government is considering the imposition of a mandatory £11-a-month Internet tax in order to keep the BBC’s fake news funded. The BBC says that the “fee is essential for maintaining the quality and diversity of public broadcasting in the UK.”

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He doesn’t want war? He’s a traitor.

• A Lone Voice Of Sanity On NATO’s Eastern Flank Emerges (ZH)

There are a few sane voices left in the EU and NATO when it comes to urging an immediate de-escalation of rhetoric regarding Russia. Still, it’s a refreshing surprise when dovish sentiment comes from a country forming part of NATO’s eastern flank in particular. “We always need to think about the worst-case scenario,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev has told a European defense summit while warning that seeking to impose total defeat on Russia poses real risks of nuclear war.


Radev instead urged robust diplomacy to avert such a catastrophe. “The problem is that no one is raising the question about nuclear risk. Does it exist? Maybe not, I don’t know, but this is a risk,” he stated in remarks published Wednesday.”I don’t think the war in Ukraine will end in a nuclear war but we have to be prepared for the risk.”

“We always need to think about the worst-case scenario. Are we prepared for this? Does anybody speak about risk assessment? Does it exist at all? Because we have been trying to achieve a conventional victory over the biggest nuclear power.” He acknowledged that “there is a nuclear card” which Russia would be more likely to play if it perceived itself cornered. “We need to have this into account. We cannot close our eyes (to the fact) that there are nuclear weapons on our continent, there are nuclear weapons in the arsenal of Russia.”

The Bulgarian prime minister emphasized, “And this is part of the game calculation.” What has he gotten for his sensible calls for walking back tensions with Moscow? Western mainstream media has consistently labeled him “Kremlin-friendly”. Radev still made clear in this week’s comments that he rejected “this type of speaking” [nuclear rhetoric] from the Kremlin, referring to the recent example of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who warned earlier this month that a war between Russia and Europe would be “completely different” and “very short”.


The words were widely seen as a veiled threat of deploying strategic forces against Europe.Early this week NATO leadership called out what it slammed as ‘desperate’ rhetoric on the part of the Kremlin, also at a moment of growing accusations from European officials that Moscow is engaged in sabotage against EU interests and assets.

“Russia’s use of hybrid tactics is a sign of desperation. But we will not be dissuaded from our support to Ukraine,” NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said Tuesday, adding that “we [NATO] have what it takes to defend every inch of allied territory and remain strong, ready, and able to counter any threat.”

“NATO is a defensive alliance and none of our activities or exercises pose a risk to any part of Russia,” she reiterated. “We strongly denounce the threat of force, including any irresponsible nuclear rhetoric.” Hart added: “We call on Russia to end its unprovoked war in Ukraine.” Finally some serious questioning of the narrative: Where is the proof that the ‘Russians are coming’ – or are on the brink of some kind of invasion of European states?

As for other tiny handful of EU countries which have been voices of sanity which call for dialogue with Russia, this has included:
Slovakia
Austria
Czech Republic
and Hungary (or at least, while it was previously under Viktor Orban)


Meanwhile, on Wednesday a new alarming headline has emerged connected with the Ukraine war: Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson says European weapons factories producing arms for Ukraine are legitimate military targets for Russia. Things look to grow a lot hotter before they cool off.

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Paul Craig Roberts

• In the USA the Criminal Justice System Commits More Crimes than Criminals (PCR)

Reports I have read have me inclined to believe that there have been far more wrongful arrests from AI facial recognition and flock cameras than correct arrests.


In a recent wrongful arrest US Marshalls from the Fugitive Task Force showed up in plainclothes outside a Tennessee grandmother’s home demanding that she come out with hands up. Her grandchildren and visiting neighbors saw a bunch of armed men and had no idea what was occurring. It was all the fault of a dumbshit cop in Fargo, North Dakota. The Fargo police officer issued an arrest warrant based on no evidence but his deduction from facial identity that the grandmother 1,200 miles away had committed in North Dakota eight bank fraud felonies.

The police officer made no investigation whether the Tennessee grandmother had committed bank fraud in North Dakota. He relied only on AI and on the American system of plea bargaining. The grandmother, Angela Lipps, spent about 6 months in prison until it became obvious that she had nothing to do with the crimes of which she was wrongly accused by a totally incompetent police officer who issued an arrest warrant without any investigatory evidence to back it.

Indeed, from the $10 million lawsuit Mrs. Lipps lawyers have filed, we learn that the lazy cop, Luca Heck, “misrepresented the facial recognition results and omitted material exculpatory information and his failure to corroborate Lipps’s connection to the crimes.”

I agree that AI is total excrement, and that the money spent on it is a total waste of investment funds. Only idiots of the most stupid kind would spend trillions of dollar in eliminating the need for human labor and making truth dependent on those who control the data base. But what we face here is an older problem. bPolice officer Heck reflects what happens to police when 97% of felonies are settled not by trials, but by negotiated plea bargains.

A plea bargain is self-incrimination, which is prohibited by the US Constitution. Nevertheless, plea bargains are the unconstitutional basis of 97%, according to the statistics of the US Department of Justice, of criminal convictions. The conviction is by self-incrimination, not by a jury verdict. Almost 100% of all felony inmates are imprisoned due to self-incrimination. This does not mean that none are guilty.

Self-incrimination occurs, because the cost of a jury trial exceeds the financial capability of 90% of the American population. Self-incrimination is chosen by defendants, whether innocent or guilty, also because a plea bargain conveniences prosecutor and judge by saving them time and energy, and thus results in a lighter sentence than the prosecutor and judge would impose with a guilty verdict from a jury. As it is permissible for prosecutors to withhold exculpatory evidence, hire witnesses to lie, and prohibit testimony that proves the defendant’s innocence, a fair trial is not possible in the United States. Occasionally someone gets a fair trial, but they are rare. Their rarity is why the conviction rate is so high.

Police officer Heck is a victim himself of the plea bargaining system. In 97% of American felonies the police evidence is NEVER TESTED IN TRIAL BEFORE A JURY because the plea bargain leaves the evidence against the defendant UNTESTED. Police have learned that sweating over evidence is pointless when the evidence never goes to trial. √Officer Heck assumed the case would never go to trial and would be settled with a plea bargain, so no investigation was necessary. Evidence is irrelevant in a plea bargain. For Heck and for the prosecutor, it was assumed to be an easy victory. Only in the case of Mrs. Lipps the case made no sense.

What we need to be documented is when in our history, what year, did the prospect of a fair trial become so remote that it paid to self-incriminate oneself. What happened to the US Constitution’s prohibition against self-incrimination? How has it happened that only 3% of criminal convictions in the United States of America are consistent with the Constitution’s promise of a trial by peers? Why do judges believe prosecutor and defendants when they stand before him and declare that no deal has been made?

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“Musk is baaaack. In the past week alone he attended the Trump-Xi state dinner and was slated for a White House AI lunch, and now has his first formal advisory role since DOGE. Some feuds age like milk, others like fine wine; this one appears to have aged like a Pentagon contract.”

• Hegseth Unveils “Project Meridian” (ZH)

What do you get when you put the world’s first trillionaire, the man who builds killer drones in Ohio, and a former House Speaker in a room and ask them to design the next century of warfare? According to Pete Hegseth, you get “Project Meridian.”


In a sprawling “State of the Force” address to junior officers and enlisted troops at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Wednesday, the Secretary of War announced that Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich (all three were in the audience) will lead an initiative “focused on discovering, developing and fielding the weapons and systems that our children and our grandchildren will need in their lifetimes.”

“Its purpose is to creatively look to the future and identify the domains that we must conquer and capabilities we must master,” Hegseth said, adding that “the best forecasters of future conflict” do “not solely reside inside the Pentagon.”

The project will be overseen by Emil Michael, the former Uber executive who is now the Pentagon’s top technology official. Bloomberg said Hegseth offered no further details, although Axios reports that the trio is expected to deliver its findings within 120 days, in both a public and a classified version.

The Customer Asks The Suppliers What It Should Buy
One does not need to be a cynic (although it helps) to notice that two of the three people now advising the Pentagon on which “capabilities we must master” also happen to run two of the companies most likely to sell those capabilities.

Musk’s SpaceX handles national security launches and has been a public company since its blockbuster June 12 IPO, which made Musk the planet’s first trillionaire. Luckey’s Anduril, meanwhile, has gone from defense upstart to prime-in-waiting in record time: it landed a $20 billion Pentagon contract in March, followed in May by a $5 billion raise at a $61 billion valuation, and it also builds the software for Golden Dome together with Palantir. As for Gingrich… Bloomberg notes he “has written a book on technology and entrepreneurism,” which is presumably what counts as a defense credential in 2026.

Then there is the Musk comeback. More than a year after the ultimately unpopular DOGE effort and the very public falling out with Trump, which at one point had the administration weighing shutting SpaceX out of Golden Dome, Musk is baaaack. In the past week alone he attended the Trump-Xi state dinner and was slated for a White House AI lunch, and now has his first formal advisory role since DOGE. Some feuds age like milk, others like fine wine; this one appears to have aged like a Pentagon contract.


What Goldman Says About The “Affordable Mass” Pitch
To be fair, there is a real case for letting outsiders shake up how the Pentagon buys things, and few have laid it out better than Goldman’s A&D analyst Noah Poponak, who sat down with Anduril’s management in June. Goldman’s diagnosis was that the legacy defense industry produces “low numbers of expensive, bespoke assets” that are hard to scale, while Anduril designs for “affordable mass” through selective vertical integration, common components across product lines, designs simple enough to automate, and flexible factories that can switch products quickly.

The economics also explain why everyone wants in. Per Goldman, Anduril targets a near 25% total company operating margin over time and gets roughly 70-80% of its revenue from fixed-price work, well above what the traditional primes earn. Poponak also saw “early signs of progress” in Pentagon acquisition reform, including multi-year frameworks and open-testing programs such as Drone Dominance. One of the architects of the “affordable mass” model will now help write the Pentagon’s wish list, which is either the most efficient procurement reform in history or the most efficient sales pitch. Possibly both.

Goldman is also constructive on the listed drone names. In his AeroVironment notes this month, Poponak noted that funded backlog rose 37% y/y and 23% sequentially and that AVAV “has exposure to faster growing portions of the defense budget.” He pointed to demand for its LOCUST directed-energy counter-drone system (first international order: more than $50mn) and the low-cost Freedom Eagle interceptor, which offers “a significantly lower-cost alternative to traditional missile defense systems.”

Enter AutoWarCom Meridian was not the only new acronym. Hegseth also unveiled a new four-star Autonomous Warfare Command (yes, “AutoWarCom”) with “service-like authorities” over drones, AI and command-and-control. It is set to be operational by October 1, 2027. Until then, an interim effort called Project Agincourt will draw on the Defense Innovation Unit and the Drone Dominance program, pairing “operators with entrepreneurs in rapid adaptation cycles.” Existing programs such as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft and the Navy’s MQ-25 unmanned tanker are being folded in. Hegseth called it “the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history.”

The money was already lined up. As we reported in April, the Pentagon’s FY27 request seeks $54.6 billion for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, up from $225 million in FY26, a 243x increase that would make even a Silicon Valley VC blush. Add the $1.1 billion Drone Dominance initiative to stockpile 300,000 sub-$5,000 attack drones by the end of 2027 (which sent drone stocks soaring in May), plus the Army’s $500 million FPV award to Neros in July, and the direction of travel is pretty clear.

…So Why Are Defense Stocks Puking?
You would think a four-star command dedicated to drones, a 243x budget request and the world’s richest man drafting the shopping list would be manna for defense stocks. Instead, the SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (XAR) is down 22% from its August 14 peak and in a bear market, and as of Wednesday it is on track for a seventh straight weekly decline, the longest losing streak since the fund launched in 2011. XAR is now down 4.1% YTD while the S&P is up almost 12%.

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“The government inflated Bidenomics, and then it became afraid of the rising prices.”

• ADP Jobs Report Confirms 90,000 New Jobs (Eskeldson)

On September 30, the ADP (Automatic Data Processing) research firm posted a jobs report confirming the creation of 90,000 new jobs in the private sector. Before that, according to Quartz, Dow Jones expected 68,000 jobs. ADP’s National Employment Report announced that “hiring accelerated for the first time since May,” with education, healthcare, and hospitality in the lead. The Trump administration added manufacturing to that group of jobs, due to a new steel plant, the largest in the state, being built in Iowa. PR NewsWire said that 54,000 new employees joined medium business teams,


The Trump administration, new jobs, and inflation
23,000 were hired onto small businesses, and 14,000 were welcomed by large ones. Most of the new jobs from the original ADP report were found in the Northeast U.S. Many people have complained about job shortages and inflation. The higher prices rise, the fewer jobs and more inflation available, the angrier we get. Political cartoons and worthless government interventions have abounded, and the inflation-plus-job-unavailability bee in the consumer’s bonnet stings him again and again. It causes work-related woes and necessity prices to rise, and candidates to make speeches about it during election time.

In a change of events, the White House website has several articles about President Donald Trump adding more jobs, making up for losses caused by Bidenomics, a well-known implementation of the former president where jobs produced great risk and little reward. More than one million private-sector jobs have been created in President Trump’s second term, while federal employment remains at its lowest share of the workforce on record.

The government inflated Bidenomics, and then it became afraid of the rising prices. Overlooking that so many businesses could have gone broke and people would have become unemployed, as employers would have been unable to pay workers, the government simply kept the inflation. Stores raised prices because the money stopped having as much value, making food, clothing, and daily life necessities very hard to obtain, if not unaffordable; Bidenomics was remembered for the infamous egg shortage taking place in the early 2020s.

However, during the new Trump administration, Open Source Zone wrote on X that the September U.S. core inflation rate dropped to 3.0%, but it was originally supposed to be 3.3%. This reduced inflation may be why the ADP report included data showing that the latest private sector employees have been paid more: a 3.2% increase in their starting salary and a 4.7% increase in “gross pay.”

The takeaway
In the new report, an ADP chief economist, Dr. Nela Richardson, said, “job creation rebounded and pay growth remained solid.” Trump possibly helped to create these new hospitality, health care, and education jobs by restructuring a system rife with monetary woes. Further, Trump played a role in reducing inflation by removing Biden administration policies that were probably using inflated monies to stay afloat, and that we taxpayers were forced to pay for.

Read more …

Seriously, this is the US Senate:

“Smith pleaded ignorance again, so Kennedy tried a different line of questioning. “You don’t know anything about that. Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy?” Kennedy asked. “I do not,” Smith answered. “How about the Easter Bunny?” Kennedy continued. “I no longer believe in the Easter Bunny,” Smith said. Kennedy then asked whether Smith thought Jimmy Hoffa died of natural causes. Smith said he didn’t.”

• Sen. Kennedy Dogwalked Jack Smith at Senate Hearing (Matt Margolis)

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) gave former Special Counsel Jack Smith an epic grilling at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning. Kennedy accused Smith of partisan bias, of keeping a federal judge in the dark about his pursuit of congressional phone records, and of angling for the special counsel job in the first place. Smith spent the afternoon insisting he was a paragon of nonpartisan virtue, and Kennedy wasn’t buying a word of it.


Kennedy opened by asking about Smith’s reaction to President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton. “When President Trump defeated Secretary Clinton, you were bitterly disappointed, weren’t you?” Kennedy asked. “I don’t recall that,” Smith replied. Imagine not recalling your own reaction to a presidential election. What a joke.

Kennedy then noted that Smith’s wife is an ardent supporter of Barack and Michelle Obama who made a “glowing, saccharine-sweet documentary” about the former first lady and sold it to Netflix. Smith refused to discuss his family and kept reminding everyone that he’d taken two jobs in the first Trump administration.

Then Kennedy switched gears. “You asked General Garland to appoint you special counsel, didn’t you?” He pressed. Smith looked down and scribbled on his notepad. “I don’t think that’s accurate,” he said. “He made the decision to appoint me.” When Kennedy asked whether Smith had people call then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to lobby for him, Smith scribbled some more and said he didn’t recall anything like that. Then Kennedy asked if he really wanted the job, and Smith launched into a speech about his own impartiality.

“I accepted the position as special counsel because I had spent 30 years as a nonpartisan prosecutor,” Smith claimed. “I had investigated every sort of criminal case you could possibly imagine, and I thought I was qualified to do the job. I knew that I would do it independently, and I would conduct it the same way whether it were Republican or a Democrat.” Kennedy watched him deliver that absurd claim with the patience of a man who knew exactly where this was going.


Next, Kennedy zeroed in on Smith’s pursuit of phone records belonging to members of Congress, which Smith’s team obtained through Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. “When you went to Judge Boasberg, you didn’t even tell him you were seeking the phone records of members of Congress, did you?” Kennedy asked. “Because you knew he wouldn’t agree. He would say, ‘Hey, counselor, anybody who knows a law book from a J.Crew catalog knows that this violates the Constitution.’ But you didn’t tell him, did you?”

Smith tried twice to explain the non-disclosure orders his team sought, and Kennedy cut him off both times. Then the disgusted senator delivered the line of the day. “You didn’t tell him. But you’re unbiased. You have no personal feelings,” Kennedy said. “You make me want to throw up in my mouth.”

Another satisfying moment came when Kennedy got Smith to admit he told Garland twice that he planned to prosecute Trump. Smith said he had “absolutely no idea” whether Garland then checked with President Joe Biden. So Kennedy walked him through it, getting Smith to concede that Garland was experienced and intelligent.

“Is he a dummy?” Kennedy asked. “That was not my experience,” Smith said. “Yeah, mine neither,” Kennedy said. “So you’re telling me that you’re about to prosecute a former president of the United States — first time in history. Not only that, you’re about to prosecute a former president of the United States who’s also the current opponent of Judge Garland’s boss. And you told Judge Garland, ‘Here’s what I’m about to do.’ And you don’t think he checked with President Biden to see if it was okay?”

Smith pleaded ignorance again, so Kennedy tried a different line of questioning. “You don’t know anything about that. Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy?” Kennedy asked. “I do not,” Smith answered. “How about the Easter Bunny?” Kennedy continued. “I no longer believe in the Easter Bunny,” Smith said. Kennedy then asked whether Smith thought Jimmy Hoffa died of natural causes. Smith said he didn’t.

You have to love Kennedy. Smith has given up on the Easter Bunny, yet he still expects Americans to believe that Garland greenlit the first federal prosecution of a former president, who was also Biden’s chief political rival, without so much as a heads-up to the White House. Smith brought two federal indictments against Trump and dropped both after voters sent Trump back to the White House in November 2024.

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“Was anybody really looking forward to black lesbian Casablanca — as an eight-part limited series — if Netflix had won the bidding war?”

• Paramount Deal Approved Hours Before $7 Million-a-Day Fines Kick In (Green)

Just hours before contractual $7 million-a-day late fees kicked in on Thursday, a federal judge blessed Paramount’s $110 billion Warner Bros. buyout. Well, it’s about time. “After a fierce year-long battle,” as Variety put it Wednesday afternoon, Paramount chief David Ellison will finally complete his buyout of troubled Warner Bros. “in the most expensive takeover in Hollywood history.”


U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín oversaw the California-led, multi-state antitrust suit seeking to block the buyout or impose conditions on it. Yesterday, she put her stamp of approval on Paramount’s settlement with the 12 Democrat state attorneys general who brought the case. The merger had already been approved by the Department of Justice and even by the EU’s busy-body nanny-staters, but California Attorney General Rob Bonta saw an angle and went for it.

The suit was such a nuisance — and put so many California jobs at risk — that California Democrat gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra practically begged the Blue State AGs to call it off, or at least settle quickly. Nevertheless, the AGs seem to have gotten most of what they wanted.

I’ve written in recent months about the legal ins and outs and political maneuvers leading to this moment, and the California-led antitrust suit that, in my mind, amounted to nothing more than legal blackmail over the combined companies’ future operations. And sure enough, among the deal’s various terms, Paramount-Warner (or whatever the merged company’s name turns out to be) will be required to establish an editorial-independence board for CBS News and CNN, plus an independent compliance monitor.

Professional Hollywood scold Mark Ruffalo, who at one time was a not entirely untalented actor, blasted the court’s approval as “incredibly disappointing.” “This grassroots movement isn’t going to fade away, and neither is our resolve,” Ruffalo said to — I’m not sure, actually. “This was never about just one merger: This was about fighting back against corrupt oligarch billionaires trampling the interests of everyday people to line their own pockets.”

Ruffalo’s net worth is believed to be about $35 million, yet his most famous role was mostly CGI. So if you were on the fence about whether the deal should go through, hopefully Ruffalo pushed you over to the Yes side, if not with me out in the fields of Oh HELL Yes, about a hundred yards further down from the fence. But I digress yet once more.

As a business proposition, I remain agnostic about the merits of the buyout. This is an industry in flux, being chased out of its home city by bad governance, and the merged studios will have a lot of debt to service. How much? $80 billion. I don’t know what kind of deal Paramount might have gotten for its bonds, but an average 7% interest rate would mean $5.6 billion a year in interest alone. That’s a lot of movie tickets and streaming fees.

Still, I wish them luck. Partly because these are two storied studios that have played a big part in American culture, and if a merger prevents one or both of them from getting parted out — which was one of Warner’s possible fates — that would be wonderful. But mostly because I didn’t want to see Warner’s massive IP library become just another part of Netflix’s content-slop firehose. Was anybody really looking forward to black lesbian Casablanca — as an eight-part limited series — if Netflix had won the bidding war?

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“Freedom + Courage = Saving Western Civilization.”

• My Last Conversation with Charlie Kirk (John Solomon)

Many months later, it still looks and feels surreal when I see the video clip. Sitting in my podcast studio with headphones on, fighting back tears and uttering words I never thought would enter my mouth as a journalist.


“Charlie Kirk passed away a short while ago. He wasn’t able to survive the blood loss from the wound to his neck,” I told Eric Bolling in a special breaking news broadcast on Real America’s Voice, the upstart network that we three shared together. “There will be some announcements soon is what I’m told. And then we will have to sort through what happened today, who is responsible and try to understand.”

Just a few minutes before, I had confirmed from multiple sources that my friend — half my age but twice as visionary– had died. I triggered a bulletin on the Just the News Web site providing the first confirmation of Charlie’s death and then went on air with my stunned RAV colleagues to share the news. A short while later, President Donald Trump confirmed our report and a nation began mourning, and then debating, how a young man with charisma and passion, a beautiful loving wife and two kids could be robbed from us by the bullet of another young man driven to become an assassin solely from the apparent hatred for the beliefs Charlie spread across America’s campuses.

I’ve thought back often in the year that has ensued and asked myself, and my heavenly father above: what would Charlie say about that moment? The truth is we will never know for certain. But my final interactions with Charlie a few weeks earlier at his annual donor event in Colorado have brought me to this conclusion. Tyler Robinson is exactly the type of young American that Charlie was dying to reach with his political evangelism.

Both young men grew up in a disillusioning era of America where division was seeded and nurtured by intolerance spread at lightning speed across social media. It has been an era where hope and opportunity is being hijacked by the false prophets of democratic socialism, fake news and globalism. It’s also an era where the Western civilization value system that embraced truth, goodness and freedom and decried evil and repression is being supplanted by a new gospel of hedonism and moral relativism and Big Government idol worship spread by influencers that resemble the snake oil salesmen of the gypsy era.

Charlie chose a path toward freedom and faith and family. He saw America as eminently good, even with its flaws. He believed in fighting for it by leveraging the liberty of free speech to spur a great debate, just like Lincoln in the dark days before the Civil War.

Tyler apparently chose to embrace a different path that took him into a dark world of furryism and video game fantasy, where resentment rises in the absence of hope and faith and eventually escalates into a final act of lethal intolerance.

That dynamic has played out over and over again on the streets of America from Columbine to Coventry. Rob young people of hope and God and purpose, confuse them about everything from the righteous history of their country to the undeniable reality of their gender and they will eventually drift from family and friends and freedom and truth and eventually succumb to a moment of irreversible hatred

In the end, Charlie made his mark with a bullhorn of hope. Tyler made his with a bullet inscribed with hate. But they will be inextricably linked forever just like Booth to Lincoln during the Civil War, or Oswald to Kennedy during the Cold War. Ironically, every major struggle for freedom in American has been marred by an assassination. It’s a sobering reminder that freedom is not free and that the forces of evil that seek to extinguish liberty’s flame will resort to whatever measures necessary to succeed…

… In the pages that ensue in this book you will get to learn just how Charlie came to embrace such fearless patriotism. His intellect was large, his capacity for debate endless and his passion to ensure his generation not be erased by an evil golden calf of socialism was infectious.

Some say he can’t be replaced and that a single assassin’s bullet has ended his counteroffensive. Perhaps some of the past year feels like a drought. But as farmers know, a single good rainfall is all that’s needed to revive crops to a plentiful harvest. I hope and pray this book is that rainfall, that reading about the evolution of Charlie’s thinking and the wisdom of his words will inspire you to pick up the bullhorn of liberty and fill that void.

Every generation’s geniuses boil their thesis into a simple equation. Newton and Einstein had theirs. Charlie had his too. On the two-hop flight back from Aspen to Washington DC last August I jotted into a note my takeaway from being on stage with Charlie. For me it is the Kirk equation we must follow.’

Freedom + Courage = Saving America

Later I scribbled out America and paid homage to Charlie’s wisdom. My final inscription now reads like this: Freedom + Courage = Saving Western Civilization.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sep 302026
 


Edward Lear Zagori, Greece 1860


• Trump To Order Renaming Artificial Intelligence ‘Super Intelligence’ (ETM)
• Trump Launches America.Gov Website Simplifying Access to Govt Services (ET)
• Elon Musk Makes a Move on the Banks (Jeffrey A. Tucker)
• Anthropic Warns of Existential AI Risks; OpenAI Scraps “Deceptive” Model (ZH)
• Frank Luntz Just Gave Dems Devastating News About the Midterms (Margolis)
• Democrats Split on Whether to Impeach Trump Again (Chase Smith)
• The Alito Controversy Raises Persistent Problem on the Court (Turley)
• ‘Victory Will Be Ours’ – Putin (RT)
• Ukraine Is Asking For A Truce. While Preparing For A Bigger War (Poletaev)
• Le Pen Scores ‘Historic Victory’ In French Senate Vote (RT)
• Border Patrol Puts Illegal Alien Caravan on Notice (Catherine Salgado)
• Want to Kill Christianity in America? (Victoria Taft)

 

 

https://twitter.com/BasilTheGreat/status/2104577438751846559?s=20 https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/2104725846682485065?s=20 https://twitter.com/Amy_Buttermaker/status/2104800051419562226?s=20

 

 


“Super intelligence refers to AI that is magnitudes more capable in speed and power than humans.”

• Trump To Order Renaming Artificial Intelligence ‘Super Intelligence’ (ETM)

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will sign a “very powerful” executive order on “super intelligence.”“This kind of innovation in government is just a preview of what is possible with super intelligence, or SI, and that’s the official name in the United States,” he said. “I’ll be signing a very powerful executive order. I spoke to President Xi [Jinping]; he loves it, and because when you say ‘artificial intelligence,’ it’s artificial.”


“This isn’t; this is extreme intelligence,” he continued. “It’s superior intelligence. It’s supreme, also intelligence, but the word ‘super’ is the best word of all, and it’s the simplest.” Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of the Alliance for Secure AI, said he worries Trump’s use of the term “muddies the waters between tool AI and super intelligence.”

“I do think it could blur the lines between what we have now and what we may have a year from now, or two years from now, or five years from now, and I do think it’s unhelpful because with these words, you’re trying to convey something very specific,” he said. “We don’t have super intelligence yet. We may be on the cusp of general intelligence.”

When asked why the president is interested in renaming AI, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told the Daily Signal the president is making the case that artificial super intelligence is coming soon. Super intelligence refers to AI that is magnitudes more capable in speed and power than humans.

“President Trump makes the case that we are hurtling to AGI or ‘super intelligence,’ which is exactly what every expert in the field says humanity is not prepared for—without letting the [Chinese Communist Party] beat us, we must cease being ‘accelerationists,’” Bannon said. The rebrand also could be an effort to delegitimize a Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., bill that would ban artificial super intelligence, according to Steinhauser.

If artificial super intelligence is developed, it will be too late for humans to control it, understand it, or turn it off, he said. “By embracing the term and using the term, it makes me wonder whether they believe that super intelligence is a real thing,” Steinhauser says. Nathan Leamer, executive director of the pro-AI advocacy group Build American AI, is excited about the name change. “I am so excited to have that president leading the conversation on how this promising technology will create opportunities for Americans,” he told the Daily Signal.

Trump spoke while unveiling a new website that uses artificial intelligence to make it easier for U.S. citizens to access federal services.The website, America.gov, will make sure “the federal government no longer stands in your way, and it stands only at your service,” Trump said. Trump said the creation of the new website was so complicated that the administration has been working on it since almost Day One.

“We’re making it dramatically easier and faster, and more convenient to get what you need exactly when you need it,” he said. Trump said this will make it easier for married women to change their names without navigating “a stressful bureaucratic process that took months and months and even years to complete.” “Very soon, all she’ll have to do is ask America.gov, and it’ll fill out the forms, track the progress, and send her a new Social Security card, passport, and insurance card in the mail. It’ll arrive almost instantly,” he said.

“Whether you’re a scout leader who wants to reserve a campsite at a national park, a senior citizen trying to choose a Medicare plan, or an American veteran trying to get the benefits that you’ve earned and so justly deserve, America.gov will be there to help and to help you accurately and quickly,” he said. “And with this, nobody can any longer complain about providing proof of citizenship or voter ID.” The first part of the website launched Tuesday, but Trump said it will continue to evolve in the months ahead. “I will sign a historic executive order directing every federal government agency to make all of their public-facing services integrate directly with America.gov as soon as possible,” he said.

Read more …

Americans will be able use the advanced chatbot to navigate through tens of thousands of federal government websites.

The site uses Ai – or should we say SI?

• Trump Launches America.Gov Website Simplifying Access to Govt Services (ET)

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 29 directing all federal agencies to integrate services with a new website designed to make it easier for users to find information and interact with the government. He described the tool as “one of the most revolutionary product launches of all time.”


America.gov will serve as a landing page consolidating nearly 30,000 federal government websites into one chatbot, powered by SpaceX’s Grok and Google’s Gemini. The site allows users to ask questions and receive guidance about procuring services. “The federal government no longer stands in your way, and it stands only at your service,” Trump said. “We’re simplifying it. We’re glamorizing it. We’re making it what it should be.”

Plans for full integration with more than 10,000 forms across agencies will provide opportunities for full-service enrollment, where visitors can “apply, enroll, and track progress directly in the chat,” according to a statement on the new site. Users will find a “front door” to the government replacing the “endless maze” of websites and regulations, according to the president.

“It’s not just simply a website. It’s a restoration of America’s founding promises, and it’s a reinvention of your government for the 21st century and beyond,” Trump said. “We’re putting power and control back into the hands of the people, right where it belongs.” Once complete, Americans can request replacement Social Security cards, apply for passports and name changes, and access countless other government services.

“And with this, nobody can any longer complain about providing proof of citizenship or voter ID,” Trump said, while calling for lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, which would mandate proof of citizenship to register and IDs to vote. “They’re always saying it’s too complicated. It’s not complicated anymore.” Privacy is built into the system, no login is required, the site does not track visitors, and no personal information or conversations are recorded, according to administration officials.

Preventing data leaks and hacks is a priority, Trump said during his address, noting rapid advancement in technology and potential threats while touting security precautions against any attempts to infiltrate the system. Visitors can type queries into the text box, mirroring modern AI interfaces. The chatbot can also translate three spoken languages— English, Spanish, and French—with more additions coming soon.

While the technology is built on artificial intelligence platforms, the president is proposing a universal name change for the innovation, suggesting that super intelligence, or SI, is superior to the “artificial” alternative.Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, the nation’s first chief design officer, revealed the website to the public in a product-demo style presentation at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in the nation’s capital.

“There was a time when Americans entered great public buildings to meet our government, and when they did, the spaces achieved a user experience unlike anything else,” Gebbia said, noting the impact of architectural design and grand rooms that communicated “dignity and respect” to all who entered.

“America.gov carries that idea into the age of super intelligence to reimagine a government built around you that respects your time, that works for you, that we can be proud of as Americans.” Approximately 39 million Americans visit federal government websites every day, collectively spending more than 10 billion hours annually on government-related paperwork, according to administration officials.

The website is live as of Sept. 29, with more features expected in the coming months.

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Everything App. He’s been talking about it for ages.

• Elon Musk Makes a Move on the Banks (Jeffrey A. Tucker)

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, fired four out of five employees, and rebranded it X (just because he thought it sounded cool), the talking heads predicted doom for the company. The opposite happened. It is now one of the most popular sources of news in the world, and a major delivery system for what social media is supposed to be.


He always had more in mind. He explained at the outset that he wanted to turn X into the “everything app.” I winced when I heard those words. As someone who worked in web development for years, I learned to regard every promise of a “one-stop shop” to be foolish. It never happens. Best to pick one thing you do well and stick with it.

To my own amazement, X is indeed taking steps toward being the Everything App. Not yet, of course, but the advent of his X Money platform is major and serious. It is being rolled out gradually to premium members. Under the new content-creators payout program, people are paid within the app and invited to use the service for transferring money.

Described thusly, it would seem to be another version of Zelle or Venmo and therefore not that much to notice, much less celebrate. But when you look at the details of what X Money is doing, another reality emerges. It would appear that this app is making a move on the banks themselves.

The evidence is on the app now. It offers a way to link your paycheck to X Money to enjoy a quicker payout than if your paycheck flows to your bank account. Speed is one thing, and a good thing, but why else would you do this?

The key comes in the details which have not been advertised (Musk doesn’t like old-style marketing). These are not regular dormant cash accounts like you get in a regular checking account. They pay a return. Not just any return. The return is higher than you would otherwise get in a normal money market.

For now the Annual Percent Yield (APY) is an eye-popping 6 percent as an initial customer-acquisition rate. Not only that, the X Money card that comes digitally with the service (and physically on the ask) offers fully 3 percent cash back. A high rate plus instant peer-to-peer transmission, a metal Visa card with 3 percent cash back, and early direct deposit is meant to pull balances and daily activity onto the platform.

What you notice from these terms is that this goes way beyond a mere money-transmission service. What’s being provided here, with quick and easy signups, is a highly lucrative vehicle for serious investment. Put your cash in and have it earn 6 percent. That beats inflation. With 3 percent cash back, you are way ahead of the game. That is reason enough to switch.

As a user I immediately found myself in a bind. Initially I thought I would enjoy spending my X Money on groceries and movie tickets or something along those lines. But with this level of earning power, I will lose money if I do that. I would be forgoing the return from the money held. Better to use the cash in my bank or my credit card that also pays 3 percent cash back.

The calculation here favors keeping the money in X Money, not spending it. Indeed, the calculator favors moving cash from banks into X Money and earning the return. To be sure, that 6 percent could change in a year or two or three. It would be up to how the app is managed. Meanwhile, do you understand what this means? It means an actual reward for … saving money!

Imagine that. Cash that earns a return on an app that allows peer-to-peer transfer at zero cost. This is disruptive innovation of the sort we’ve come to expect from this man and his companies. Elon has designated the X Money app for now to be a loss leader in direct revenue but a huge investment in becoming what he likely thinks it can be in the long run: an actual option to the banks.

There might even be more afoot here. The banking rails themselves are provided by Cross River Bank. Founded in 2008, the bank carved out a special niche in working with new digital companies that focus on in-app service provision and edgier products like cryptocurrency. It is FDIC-insured but eschews traditional banking in favor of innovation. Even with its smaller capitalization, it is an ideal partner for a disruptive technology like X Money.

Recall too that Elon Musk was one of the founders of PayPal. It was started with a high hope of developing a new form of money transmission and even a new form of money. It eventually found itself regulated out of that vision to become what it is today, which is a highly valued means of payment for the digital age.

X Money seems to learn from mistakes made in those days to build out fully banking services from the very foundation. With the inclusion of crypto as part of the banking rails, we can easily imagine a future in which X Money integrates with a service like Coinbase to move money from dollars to crypto and back again.

One thing that is notable to me is the effortlessness of the signups and verifications. The developers have learned that customers recoil at too many screens, too much language, too many aggressive demands for passwords and accounts. They are using the latest technology to make signups and management extremely easy and clean.

That said, X Money does of course comply with all the arduous federal regulations concerning Know Your Customer laws and tax-reporting requirements. This is by no means an app that places a premium on your privacy. Even to make it work requires government IDs and 3D facial scans from our phone. I despise all of that while also understanding that this is the price any financial entrepreneur pays to make anything innovative these days. X Money is compliant across the board, which, from my point of view, is unavoidably regrettable.

It’s entirely possible that Elon has a big vision for this platform that he has not yet shared. Indeed, I’m struck by how much of the system that he has built so far has not been advertised at all. It’s extremely interesting how the rollout is going. The app presents direct information to the customer screen by screen, the pitch, the conditions, the advantages. Normal advertising speaks to the masses; Elon’s way is to speak to the individual user. It’s very different.

We can imagine two polar opposite futures with this new service.

Optimistically, it becomes the innovator of a new form of money and monetary services that eventually replaces paper money and even the dollar. Remember that the app is global. What if the assets of X and other companies emerge as the asset baking of a new form of currency?

Pessimistically, X Money becomes just another new layer of the emergent financial control grid that spies on us and even worse: the integration of money and social media reminds one of China’s Social Credit System. This future sometimes feels baked into the technologies we use and the deep relationship of tech companies and the government.

Which will it be? We do not know. But from what I can see, there is a strong rationale for expecting this platform to be a major player and going concern in the future world of money and finance.

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They seem to be tumbling off their pedestals, the overlords.

“Anthropic Warns of ‘Existential AI Risks To Humanity’ In IPO Prospectus; OpenAI Scraps Release Of “Deceptive” Model..”

• Anthropic Warns of Existential AI Risks; OpenAI Scraps “Deceptive” Model (ZH)

Another day, another doom headline involving frontier AI labs. Yesterday, OpenAI announced that they would be scrapping the planned release of its next-gen AI model because of “deceptive” behavior. Today, we find out from a leaked prospectus ahead of Anthropic’s $2T IPO that AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.”


Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei


“Our development of highly advanced models, platforms, and applications and expansion of use cases could further ` increase the risk that our models cause harm,” the Claude chatbot developer reportedly said, adding that a model becoming self-aware would create a “significant limitation” on the company’s ability to assess model safety. The company, which has positioned itself as a safety-first AI lab, devoted roughly 80 pages of the 261-page main body of its prospectus to laying out risk factors, nearly twice the 48 pages it used to describe its business. -Reuters

The company warned of our impending doom in their prospectus, which was leaked to Reuters and FT. Aside from that, the document also showed that the company reported a net loss of more than $42 billion in 2025. Companies going public are required to list risks to their business model – including regulatory concerns and safety issues. A warning about their product causing human extinction is a new one. * * *

Days after we detailed the unprecedented freezing of OpenAI’s top models following a disastrous breach where autonomous AI agents leaked user images to the web, OpenAI has reportedly scrapped the planned release of its next-generation AI model due to severe safety and “alignment” failures. It basically lies when convenient (they used the word “deceptive”).


According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI was aiming for an October debut of GPT-6.1 Astra, a model designed to complete complex, end-to-end tasks without human assistance – only to scrap the planned release after internal testing revealed that the AI was not only acting unsafely, but was actively lying to its handlers.

According to Saachi Jain, OpenAI’s head of safety systems, GPT-6.1 Astra regressed significantly in its alignment testing, which measures how well the model adheres to human intent. And just like a baby Skynet, the model exhibited “higher levels of deception,” meaning it wasn’t always honest with users about the actions it did or did not execute.

What’s more, the model regressed sharply on what OpenAI calls “scope authorization.” The AI would aggressively push forward on tasks without asking for user permission and would attempt to access external tools and services even if it was unsafe to do so. Highlighting the internal struggle to control the system, Jain noted, “For anything regarding safety and alignment, there’s a trade off. You really do need to find what’s the right line between staying within scope, but also avoiding laziness in terms of how the model actually pursues tasks even when it hits friction”.

As we previously reported, on Sept. 20 an internal OpenAI research agent discovered a gap in the DNS filtering of its training sandbox and used it to query an external public chatbot despite internet-access restrictions. OpenAI’s misalignment monitoring system flagged the behavior within 15 minutes, and a human reviewer picked it up three minutes later. The company subsequently said training, evaluation, and inference involving tool use for its most capable models would remain paused while it validated its containment systems and conducted additional red-teaming.

This latest cancellation does not exist in a vacuum. In July, during internal cybersecurity evaluations, OpenAI’s own agents blew through restrictions designed to keep them isolated from the internet and compromised both the company’s research infrastructure and Hugging Face. According to OpenAI’s own postmortem, the agents communicated through unauthorized channels, exploited vulnerabilities in shared infrastructure, executed code on dozens of Hugging Face servers, obtained full root access on one server, acquired credentials to the company’s messaging platform, and later gained full administrator access to an OpenAI research cluster.

OpenAI itself called the episode a “warning shot” for us and for the world, acknowledging that highly capable agents can now work around technical controls and take dangerous actions that no human directed. The company said the incidents did not affect OpenAI customer data, product functionality, or availability.

And Hugging Face wasn’t the only external system involved. Australian officials have confirmed that an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to non-public aggregate statistics on a government Medicare portal after its initial requests were denied. Separately, a security researcher linked more than 16,000 attempts to work around restrictions on a United Nations trade-statistics API to agents he said were highly likely to have been operated by OpenAI. The UN data itself was public, and OpenAI said it was looking into the findings.

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“Donald Trump does have more influence on more races than any other Republican, even than Ronald Reagan,” Luntz added. “I’ve never seen a Republican as engaged and involved as this guy. And it matters.”

• Frank Luntz Just Gave Dems Devastating News About the Midterms (Margolis)

Frank Luntz, a smart pollster who fell out of favor with the right for refusing to get on board with Donald Trump, just handed Republicans a glimmer of hope for the midterms. And that hope comes from the very man Luntz spent years criticizing. Luntz’s standing with conservatives took a serious hit starting in 2016. As Trump took over the Republican Party, Luntz grew more and more critical of his rhetoric and put real distance between himself and the GOP.


A big chunk of the conservative movement tuned him out, and his skepticism toward Trump fueled most of that backlash. So when Luntz says Trump could carry Republicans to victory in November, it’s worth listening. His polling shows a rough cycle for both parties, but the details favor the GOP. Trump and Republicans aren’t polling well, yet Democrats are doing even worse, and they’ve dug themselves deeper into their media bubbles. Even the turnout advantage Democrats are banking on turns out to be pretty thin.

“I’m looking at a turnout differential that advantages the Democrats by a couple of points, which means that there are more people who oppose Donald Trump, who are planning to vote, than those who support him,” Luntz told CNN This Morning on Monday. “There’s always been a historical advantage to the party out of power in the midterms, particularly in the first midterms.” A couple of points? That’s it? The party out of power usually walks into its first midterm with the wind at its back, and Democrats can only manage a two-point edge. Luntz also explained why that edge is so fragile.

Trump’s voters show up when he’s on the ballot and stay home when he isn’t, which makes his absence in November a bigger problem for Republicans than his approval ratings. “When he is on the ballot, his people come out. They participate,” he said. “They did in the on-year elections, 2016 and 2024. And they did not, in 2018. And they did not as much, even when Joe Biden was the president in 2020, for the 2022 election.” The fix is obvious, and Trump is already working on it. Luntz said the whole map hinges on whether the president can get those voters engaged again, starting with the biggest prize.

“But he needs his people to vote in a place like Texas,” Luntz continued. “If the Trump voters participate, the Republican nominee in Texas is elected. If the Trump voters don’t participate, the Democrats will achieve an upset. It’s the same thing in states as small as Iowa, Alaska. It even matters in a state like Ohio.”

When CNN’s Audie Cornish pressed him on whether that coalition still holds together, Luntz ticked off the groups he’s watching. He admitted Trump’s Latino numbers have slipped, but said the president “saw the difference” those voters made for him and for down-ballot Republicans. He’s also tracking male union voters, who shifted toward the GOP at historic levels in 2024, and voters under 30, who gave Trump more support than young voters usually give a Republican. “And this allowed him to bring over more senators, more congressmen,” Luntz said.

Then came the line that should make every Democrat nervous. b”Donald Trump does have more influence on more races than any other Republican, even than Ronald Reagan,” Luntz added. “I’ve never seen a Republican as engaged and involved as this guy. And it matters.” More influence than Reagan. From Frank Luntz, of all people. Luntz did warn that voters are frustrated with the war, affordability, and Trump’s style, and he had a message for the pollster-bashers in Trump’s orbit: “The votes are the votes. The results are the results.” But he made it clear that the path to victory runs straight through Trump.

“But if he turns out his people, who still like him, still believe in the Trump message and the Trump agenda, we can have an upset,” he said.

Democrats have spent months treating a midterm wave as a sure thing. They won’t be happy to hear that a pollster who has never been a Trump cheerleader has them polling worse than the GOP, clinging to a turnout lead of just two points, and facing the most engaged Republican he’s ever seen.

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“Because it’s not about Donald Trump,” Khanna said. “He’s going to be a lame duck, and in my view, increasingly irrelevant.”

• Democrats Split on Whether to Impeach Trump Again (Chase Smith)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on Sept. 28 that Democrats would put lowering costs first if they win the House in November. But he did not rule out impeaching President Donald Trump, as members of his party are split publicly on whether to try for that a third time. Asked on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” how much of a Democratic majority’s next two years would be spent on hearings about Trump, his family, and his administration, Jeffries said the party is focused on affordability but also has an oversight role.


“We’re committed to an affordability agenda,” he said. “As I travel the country, speak to people, whether that’s in urban America, rural parts of America, the heartland of America, small-town America, or black and brown communities throughout America. The one thing that is clear is that people are struggling.

“They are drowning in this failed Republican economy. They’re working hard, they’re playing by the rules, but they cannot thrive and can barely survive. It’s an unacceptable situation. And so, when we say we’re focused on affordability, we mean it.”

Jeffries said he believed that there has been “unprecedented corruption unleashed on the American people” and that if Democrats win the House, they would “have a responsibility to visit the type of accountability that is consistent with the House as a separate and co-equal branch of government.” Pressed on the balance between accountability and affordability, he said the next Democratic caucus would include progressives, moderates, and more socially conservative members united around the cost of living.

Jeffries said when it came to cleaning up what he called the “rampant corruption” that exists in Washington, Democrats would “follow the facts, apply the law, be guided by the Constitution, and then let the chips fall where they may on behalf of the American people.” “We have a responsibility, of course, as a Congress, to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch. That’s not partisan, that’s patriotic,” he said.

Jeffries’s comments came a day after Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that impeaching Trump a third time would not be a mistake for Democrats. “No, it’s not. Because it’s not about Donald Trump,” Khanna said. “He’s going to be a lame duck, and in my view, increasingly irrelevant.

“The point is to stand up for the Constitution.”Impeachment says that you can’t get into an illegal war in Iran without constitutional approval. Impeachment says that you can’t just start firing federal employees in defiance of what Congress says. Impeachment says you can’t do deals with foreign governments to allegedly enrich your own family. “It’s about setting a standard.” He said Democrats could pursue impeachment while also moving on child care, the minimum wage, paid family leave, and taxes on billionaires in their first 100 days.

“We can do both,” he said. Khanna was responding to a clip of Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who told an audience at the Center for American Progress on Sept. 22 that Democrats should not pursue impeachment if they win control of Congress. “What I will encourage my colleagues to not do, especially those who have more fire in their belly in this area, is don’t be impeaching anybody. Let’s just get back to work,” Duckworth said.

“I’m not interested in being in a confrontation with Donald Trump. I can be. I have been. It’s not going to stop me. But I would rather move the ball forward through the benefit of the American people. “And if we can do it in a way that allows him to save face and he doesn’t stop us, then that’s better for everybody all around.” Duckworth, speaking at an event on U.S. – China relations ahead of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s White House visit, said her priority was resolving tariffs that she said threaten Illinois soybean, corn, and pork farmers.

Trump was impeached by the House in 2019 and 2021 and acquitted by the Senate both times. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on John Catsimatidis’s “Cats Roundtable” radio show on Sept. 27 that a Democratic majority would turn oversight into a campaign against Republicans. “You will see the Democrats take that oversight function and turn it into a weaponization of government. They will go after everybody. They say they’re not going to, but we know they will,” Jordan said.

“They’ll do a third impeachment of President Trump. “But that’s just part of it. They’re going to investigate the first family. They’re going to investigate Cabinet secretaries, anyone. “Jamie Raskin is going to go after Todd Blanche and Kash Patel. They’re going to have people in other committees go after Secretary Hegseth and on and on; it’s going to be.”

Jordan said potential targets he believed that Democrats would go after include businesses that helped fund Trump’s inauguration and potential 2028 Republican presidential candidates, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “It’ll be nonstop weaponized investigations, not for legitimate oversight, but to just go after your political opponents,” he said.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and would be in line to lead it under a Democratic majority. The midterm elections are on Nov. 3. The White House stated that the threats amount to “decades” of recycled “investigations against President Trump, his family, and his administration,” in an emailed response to The Epoch Times.

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Know when to recuse yourself.

• The Alito Controversy Raises Persistent Problem on the Court (Turley)

Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from one of the term’s most important cases: Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. As I have previously discussed, the case involving the liability of energy companies for nuisance actions tied to climate change could have sweeping implications for the country. Justice Alito should be commended for avoiding even the appearance of a personal interest or a conflict in the case.


However, the controversy should prompt the Court to explore a longstanding problem for justices in holding financial interests that can conflict with their duties. The solution is simple: justices need to use blind trusts. Supreme Court Clerk Scott Harris released a letter revealing that Alito decided he “will not continue to participate” in Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County.

Suncor Energy, Boulder sued energy companies under “theories of public and private nuisance, trespass, unjust enrichment, and civil conspiracy, claiming that they knowingly contributed to climate change while misleading the public about its impacts.” The Colorado Supreme Court ruled for the city and the county in finding that such lawsuits are not barred by federal preemption. If such lawsuits are allowed to go forward, it would expose companies to potentially thousands of climate change lawsuits. Oral agument is set for Oct. 5,

The recusal is a blow for challengers who believe that the opinion could be close and Alito was believed to be on the side of barring such actions. It is now down to 8, so a single loss of another conservative could result in a 4-4 tie — leaving the lower court decision unchanged.

While the letter did not give a reason, critics had called for Alito’s recusal due to his financial interest in energy companies which could benefit from the decision.

That included 30 organizations which jointly asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate his involvement in the case. Notably, the court responded to media inquiries by declaring that Alito had no financial interest in any party to the case and that legal counsel had told him that there is no need to recuse himself.

Yet, the standard is whether a reasonable person could question his impartiality and, while he had no interest in the parties, he appears to have investments in other energy companies. Justice Alito previously withdrew shortly before arguments in a separate oil industry case earlier this year.

The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (EIGA) established financial disclosure reporting requirements for many high-level government officials and employees, including the Justices of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justices file publicly available financial disclosure statements that report certain financial transactions. However, they are not required to put their investments into a blind trust.

Justices should be able to have investment portfolios, but they can hold such investments in blind trust or qualified blind trust. In a blind trust the justice will “have no control over, will receive no communications about, and will (eventually as existing assets are sold and new ones obtained by the trustee) have no knowledge of the identity of the specific assets held in the trust. As such, once a blind trust is established and new assets obtained, an official will not need to (and will not be able to) identify the particular assets 13 5 C.F.R. § 2635.403(b).”

Other federal officials must use such trusts and there is no reason why justices should be exempt, in my view. This has been a continual and embarrassing problem. Years ago, the Court affirmed an appellate ruling in a major case involving a $400 billion lawsuit in American Isuzu Motors v. Ntsebeza (2008) without a hearing after four justices had to recuse themselves (Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, and Samuel Alito Jr).

The business interests of justices should not interfere with the business of the Court. You should either be an active investor in the markets or a justice, not both. The public has a reasonable expectation that, in seeking this high office, justices are willing to set aside certain privileges or interests. This is one of them.

This is not to cast aspersions on the justices. These recusals show that members, including Justice Alito, are cognizant and committed to avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Moreover, some judges and justices resolve this question by using diversified mutual funds or ETFs. where the justice does not control the micro-allocations within the fund. However, there is still knowledge of financial interests in given areas.

This is not a costless obligation for justices. Blind trusts add costs (which Congress may want to consider defraying) and can be complex. However, the business of the Court is too important to be routinely compromised or complicated by these financial interests.

While legislation has been introduced along these lines, it would be simpler for justices to voluntarily adopt this practice. Consider it is the price of being one of nine. If you want to sit on this Court, you have to do justice which is only fully possible if your investments, like justice itself, are blind.

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“Russia’s parliamentary elections have shown that its people cannot be intimidated or defeated, the president has said..”

• ‘Victory Will Be Ours’ – Putin (RT)

Russia’s parliamentary elections have shown that its people cannot be intimidated or defeated, President Vladimir Putin has said. Speaking at a Kremlin meeting with the leadership of political parties on Monday, Putin said attempts to disrupt the election campaign and interfere in the country’s internal affairs had failed, adding that “terrorist methods and instruments of foreign intelligence services” had been used.


The September 18-20 vote was accompanied by a massive Ukrainian drone raid targeting Moscow and other Russian regions on its final day. Russian officials said more than 1,600 UAVs were repelled, including 450 on approaches to the capital. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin described the attack as “unprecedented” and said it had been intended to disrupt the elections. At least two civilians were reported killed in Moscow Region.

Putin thanked tens of millions of Russians for taking part in the vote, saying the turnout had ensured the “indisputable, unquestionable legitimacy” of the election. “People here are strong, courageous and educated; everyone understands perfectly well what is happening around Russia,” Putin said. “It became clear that such people cannot be intimidated. And it is impossible to defeat such people, such a country. Therefore, victory will undoubtedly be ours.”

The president also said the vote had demonstrated public support for Russian troops, noting that candidates who had taken part in the Ukraine conflict had won seats in parliament. The ruling United Russia party secured 355 of the State Duma’s 450 seats. Separately on Monday, Putin signed a decree increasing the authorized strength of the Russian Armed Forces to 2,441,630 personnel, including 1,550,500 servicemen. The measure adds 15,500 positions compared with the previous decree.

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“As the economy falters and winter approaches, Kiev’s commitment to its Western backers leaves little room for peace..”

• Ukraine Is Asking For A Truce. While Preparing For A Bigger War (Poletaev)

Washington is pushing for an energy truce between Russia and Ukraine. Kiev supports the initiative, and Moscow has also responded favorably. Another round of shuttle diplomacy has taken place: US President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, and a special representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to the US for talks with his American counterparts. Work is underway to revive the trilateral negotiation format involving Russia, Ukraine, and the US.


Judging by these and other news reports, one might get the impression that things are moving toward a diplomatic breakthrough and a truce between Russia and Ukraine. However, this impression is deceptive: A closer analysis reveals that the positions of the parties have not changed over the past year. On the contrary, Ukraine’s worsening situation has hardened its resolve to fight to the bitter end.

Up the down staircase
In spring 2025, Ukraine, with the backing of its European allies, launched a major campaign for a ceasefire. The expectation was that Trump would force Putin to accept the terms imposed by Europe and Ukraine, freezing the hostilities along the line of contact without any preconditions.

A truce would have cemented Ukraine’s defeat in the conflict. However, Russia’s primary objective would not have been achieved: The anti-Russian regime in Kiev would remain in place, and Ukraine would retain its role as a Western foothold against Russia. A temporary truce would allow Ukraine to recover and prepare for revenge in the future. A year ago, despite major issues, Ukraine still functioned: The remnants of the civilian economy operated, and despite considerable disruptions, steel and agricultural production (two of the country’s main export sectors) continued.

Without Western financial aid, Ukraine would have already faced a financial catastrophe; however, it continued to exist. Despite occasional disruptions, major industrial facilities remained operational, as did the small and medium-sized businesses that supported them – suppliers, transport companies, various outsourced services, construction and repair crews, and so on. Cafes, restaurants, the telecommunications sector, and small businesses stayed open. Ukraine’s robust logistics sector remained active. The government collected taxes from all these businesses.

However, in spring 2026, Ukraine decided to force Russia to conclude a truce by starting a ‘war on cities’ – large-scale strikes on the Russian rear. It first targeted oil refining and export facilities, and then the civilian sector, including the warehouses of companies such as Wildberries and Ozon.

The worst possible moment
Escalation only makes sense when ‘escalation dominance’ can be maintained. Otherwise, the outcome will be detrimental to the party that started the escalation. That is exactly what happened: In response to Ukraine’s attacks, Russia launched a broad offensive against Ukraine’s civilian sector. F

rom the start of the conflict, Ukraine has not concealed the fact that it uses civilian logistics infrastructure to transport military cargo. Launchers for long-range drones targeting Russia have often been hidden under the guise of civilian trucks.

Ukrainian strikes on Black Sea oil and grain exports gave Russia a pretext to respond in kind and effectively block Ukraine’s shipping in the Black Sea. As with strikes on warehouses, Russia maintained the upper hand in the escalation. There are several reasons for this: Russia’s increased firepower, the depletion of Ukrainian air defenses, and more broadly, Ukraine’s smaller size, its lack of strategic geographic depth, and fewer targets within the country. While the ‘war on cities’ affected Russia as well, Ukrainian strikes did not cause the same amount of damage.

All this prompted Zelensky to propose a truce. What he actually proposed was returning to the way things were before this year’s escalation, and pretending like it never happened. But does he really want a truce? It may look that way. After all, the Ukrainian economy – and consequently the Ukrainian state itself – is beginning to disintegrate; Ukraine’s key exports – its only source of revenue aside from foreign aid – have been effectively destroyed. For the first time in history, steel production in Ukraine has come to a complete halt; restarting it would take months if not years. By all accounts, the country is facing the most difficult winter yet. If this is not grounds for making political concessions, then what is?

The only available option
Zelensky’s calls for a truce are accompanied by opposing statements. One moment, he demands a “winter package” of weapons from Trump; the next, he declares that the war will not end until Crimea is “liberated.” Domestically, he is intensifying the crackdown on the Russian language and the Orthodox Church, even though this only heightens tensions within Ukrainian society. Clearly, given these parameters, Russia will never agree to a ceasefire. So is it all just schizophrenia or a calculated move?

I’d say it’s the latter. It’s true that if we consider Zelensky as the leader of Ukraine, then his actions are insane and amount to suicide. However, if one views him as the military proxy of Europe’s anti-Russia coalition, then everything falls into place.

For Zelensky and his regime, Ukraine is not their own land; it is a resource and an instrument for war against Russia. To save Ukraine, Zelensky must accept Russia’s terms. Yet Ukraine’s masters cannot accept Russia’s terms, as that would mean a crushing defeat for them.Consequently, the war must go on. If the destruction of rear-area logistics and energy infrastructure does not affect the ability of the Ukrainian army to hold the front line, then logistics and energy don’t matter. Of course, left without electricity, heat, and jobs, Ukraine’s civilian population will endure great suffering – but Zelensky doesn’t care about that.

Taking this logic into account, even an energy truce is bad for Ukraine, as a moratorium on mutual strikes would deprive Kiev – or rather, its masters – of the only effective leverage over Moscow.Of course, this is a one-way street. In an earlier article, we analyzed how the Ukrainian state is becoming detached from its own society. Today, I’d like to point out that in its current form, the Kiev regime has no other options: On one side of the scale lies the fate of Ukraine, and on the other, the interests of its masters. Zelensky has no real choice. In the interests of its masters, Ukraine must sacrifice itself and inflict the greatest possible damage on Russia, or if possible, even defeat it.

As long as there remains hope for Russia’s defeat, nothing else matters. Ukraine wants to either freeze the conflict along the line of contact and prepare to take revenge later, or fight to the bitter end. Russia understands this very well; that is why it has once again rejected any idea of a partial truce – this was recently expressed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the UN, and then by Putin. Even though this year, Russia was seriously affected by Ukrainian strikes, Moscow is only open to ending the conflict on its own terms.

***

What comes next? Both sides are actively preparing for the winter campaign, and it appears that, for the first time since the start of the conflict, long-range air strikes (the war on cities) will become the primary theater of operations. Moscow is confident that the Ukrainian army cannot inflict strategic damage on Russia; consequently, its only option is to maintain escalation dominance by responding to the Ukrainian strikes with even more powerful attacks. Under these circumstances, there can be no talk of either an energy truce or freezing the conflict along the line of contact.

Read more …

We need Le Pen to save Europe.

“Her National Rally party and an ally have won enough seats to form a group in the upper house for the first time”

• Le Pen Scores ‘Historic Victory’ In French Senate Vote (RT)

Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN) and an allied party have won enough seats in the French Senate to form a group for the first time. The breakthrough comes months before a presidential election in which polls currently put Le Pen in the lead. RN and the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) will together hold at least 15 seats in the 348-seat upper house following Sunday’s vote. A group requires a minimum of ten members and gives its lawmakers a greater role in Senate committees, where legislation is examined.


“This is a historic victory, and a major milestone with the formation for the first time of a group in the Senate,” Le Pen wrote on X. She said the result showed the party gaining support across France and that its senators would carry the concerns of local communities into the presidential campaign.mDespite RN’s latest gains, the Senate will remain controlled by the conservative Republicans and their centrist allies.

RN president Jordan Bardella has nevertheless called the result a sign of the party’s momentum ahead of what he described as “the mother of all battles,” referring to the upcoming presidential election. In July, the Paris Court of Appeals reduced Le Pen’s five-year ban on holding elected office over a misused funds conviction, clearing her to run in the 2027 race to replace Emmanuel Macron who will be leaving office after serving two terms.

A Toluna Harris Interactive poll published on Monday has placed Le Pen as the frontrunner at 35-36% in the first round and projected that she would defeat both left-wing France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and centrist former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe in hypothetical runoffs.

The RN breakthrough has drawn a hostile response from rival factions, including from Socialist Senate group leader Patrick Kanner, who said his party would work to contain the “chamber of horrors” entering the Senate. Le Pen accused Kanner of “dishonoring himself” and insulting both the newly elected senators and the local officials who voted for them.

The prospect of Le Pen replacing Macron raised particular concerns among the Western backers of Ukraine. The Telegraph reported in August that officials fear her election could disrupt the French-led effort to coordinate military and financial support for Kiev, as well as plans to deploy Western troops there after a ceasefire.

RN has long challenged Macron’s approach to the Ukraine conflict, opposing open-ended funding for Kiev and steps it says risk a direct confrontation with Russia. Le Pen has repeatedly stressed that the conflict needs a diplomatic solution and has called for normalizing relations with Moscow.

Read more …

Let me guess: Soros?

• Border Patrol Puts Illegal Alien Caravan on Notice (Catherine Salgado)

U.S. Border Patrol is already warning the caravan of illegal aliens recently formed to head toward our southern border that they are going a long way just to be disappointed.


It is not clear why the caravan formed at this particular time. Perhaps illegal aliens are hoping that if Democrats sweep the midterms, the Trump administration will be so busy fighting a Democrat Congress that it will not have the time or attention to continue guarding the southern border well. After all, the Trump administration always listens to court orders, no matter how illegitimate, telling them not to deport illegal aliens and terrorists. Is this what the cartels have in mind?

In any case, as of right now, no illegal alien caravan is going to be able to sneak across the border with Mexico and into our country. No large migrant group has achieved that feat since soon after the second Trump administration took office.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shared a statement with Fox News that correspondent Bill Melugin posted on X September 28. “The United States Border Patrol is actively tracking a migrant caravan which departed San Pedro Sula, Honduras on September 20, 2026. USBP is closely engaged with its international partners to monitor their movement and any additional developments,” the statement began.

DHS added, “USBP reminds migrants that under the leadership of President Trump and Homeland Secretary Mullin, the border has remained closed and secured for the last 16 months. Migrants considering making the dangerous journey to our country should also be aware that the days of ‘catch and release’ are over, and Biden’s disastrous open border policy has been SEALED SHUT. Anyone attempting to illegally enter the United States will be apprehended, prosecuted, and removed from the country.”

DHS also jokingly posted footage of a hot-dogging football player and the comment “Our time has come” in response to the initial report about the migrant caravan.

The caravan originally started in Honduras but has now crossed into Mexico, according to Fox News. As of Monday, hundreds of people were involved in it, but it still seems to be much smaller than the gargantuan floods of millions that charged our border during the Biden-Harris administration. So most of the foreigners considering coming to America still understand that this is not the most promising time just to walk in and demand asylum.

Fox quoted one member of the Honduran caravan who claimed there was no leader of the group, that hunger and poverty were the only reasons they headed toward the United States. But we have no idea whether we can trust anything he says. And obviously there must be some reason that these illegal aliens are putting all this effort into hiking toward America even though the Trump administration is already planning to deny them entry. What is going on that is a secret we don’t know about?

Read more …

“Want to Kill Christianity in America? Try This One Simple Trick the State of Maine Pulled.”

• Want to Kill Christianity in America? (Victoria Taft)

Say a prayer for Christianity because the state of Maine has just shown a way to steal it from American life. The story starts back in 2013, when a Portland, Maine, woman gave birth to a baby girl, Ava, with her now ex-boyfriend. Eventually, in 2017, Emily Bickford accepted Christ as her Savior and began to attend church with her daughter. Eventually, when they began attending Calvary Chapel of Greater Portland in 2021, Ava wanted to be baptized. Dad, who had 50/50 custody, said no way.


While mom was adjudicated to be a good mother, dad was working behind the scenes to establish that taking their daughter to church was harmful. He hired a cult expert out of California, and the expert began watching Calvary Chapel of Greater Portland’s Sunday sermons as they build a case against Ava attending church. She continued to take her daughter to church. In 2021, dad, Matthew A. Bradeen, officially claimed that going to Calvary Chapel exposed their daughter to alleged messages portraying dad as hostile to her faith, going to hell if he didn’t change, and, in general, harming their relationship.

This is surmise, but it sounds like she was afraid her dad was going to hell and wanted to talk to him about it. Now she can’t even bring up Christianity around him because it makes him look bad. In fact, so complete was the order cleaving the kid from religious study that it included, “any services, gatherings, or events associated with Calvary Chapel; whether and what material, literature, video, or other messaging associated with, or created or published by, Calvary Chapel she reviews; and whether she associates or communicates with any member of Calvary Chapel other than Ms. Bickford,” Liberty Counsel, Bickford’s attorneys, reported.

Calvary Chapel preaches everything, everything, that other mainstream churches teach all around the country world. And that message of salvation is too scary for kids? The Christian civil rights legal group, Liberty Counsel, got involved and took the case to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, where a unanimous six-justice panel said the order should stand because, hey, it’s not like Christianity was involved in the case, and that, after all, it was just about messaging making dad look bad.

After the District Court ruled against Bickford, Liberty Counsel appealed the case to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision. In its decision, the Supreme Judicial Court cited a 2024 example of the fear mongering at church in which Pastor Carey prayed for the family by name during a service and asked God to help Bradeen. The pastor “described Bradeen as in need of salvation and noted that the church had been praying for Bradeen for a long time.” Calvary Chapel of Greater Portland Pastor Travis Carey says these decisions represent “the most dangerous precedent that has been set in our nation in a long time and we’re right in the midst of that battle.”

They went so far as to hire a specialist out of California, it’s public record, and even though they spent about $15,000 to hire her, her opening thesis of what is a 20 page hit piece was ‘I do not opine that Calvary Chapel is a cult,’ but spent the next 19-1/2 pages, [in which] she basically makes the case that we are a cult for preaching Biblical truths.

What is even more egregious is that judge in Cumberland County family court — and it is worthwhile saying that she is a lesbian and is married to an ACUL lawyer —she cited [sic] that the mother would no longer have the parental duties to make religious or medical decisions — stripped her from that and gave 100% autonomy to the father.

Liberty Counsel attorney and founder Mat Staver now hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case. This [District Court] opinion rejects the First Amendment right of a fit parent to raise her child consistent with her Christian faith. This opinion goes against other state court decisions involving custody in the context of religious free exercise rights and ignores precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court. We will ask the High Court to take this case and overrule the decision.

PJ Media readers are smart. They know that this is a litigation tool to stop teaching kids the Gospel. It will start small and then become a precedent by which any church message can be construed to scare the children in any kind of court case.

Schools and other outlets teach children that the world is going to end any minute allegedly because of what we’ve done to God’s creation, but you can’t preach to a kid from a broken home that she has a Father in heaven who cares for her even more than her earthly one? You can’t preach that there’s a Creator in control of the creation?

Atheistic commies really don’t like the competition. This dad, who I’m guessing is one of the Maine liberati, just proved in multiple courts that religious messages are “harmful” to children. This story isn’t over, but we’ve just entered a very dark, secular place. We sure hope people of faith will get out and vote for the light in November.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/SawyerMerritt/status/2104563930752319513?s=20 https://twitter.com/Miaavswpv/status/2104718535272608229?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Sep 232026
 
 September 23, 2026  Posted by at 7:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  35 Responses »


Paul Klee Still Life 1929


• Russia Strategic Diesel Supplies Full, Excess Production – The Rule of 96 (CTH)
• OpenAI Unleashes Latest Model Minutes After Dario Dumps Magnum Opus (ZH)
• Anthropic “Paces The Frontier” By Unleashing Its Most Powerful Opus Yet (ZH)
• Trump Is Not the White House TV Pool’s Worst Enemy (Tim O’Brien)
• White House Unveils ‘Trump TV’ Amid Legal Battle Over Media Coverage (JTN)
• Will We See Western Capitals Fall? (J.B. Shurk)
• The Bell Tolls For White Ethnicities (Paul Craig Roberts)
• 1 in 3 Autumn Elections–the US one–Is Likely to Tell Us Anything (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The Camp of the Saints Has Arrived in Texas (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Canadian Socialists Are Not Leading the ‘Free World’ (Tim Graham)
• Programmable Money – Catherine Austin Fitts (USAW)
• The Sudden AI Panic and the November Midterms (Victor Davis Hanson)

 

 

https://twitter.com/RCJonX/status/2102113487027888387?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2102360320559775825?s=20

 

 


Just the other day, someone was saying diesel at $12. How about these apples? Europeans pay probably twice what they have to for diesel. Thanks to the EU. And they blame Putin.

• Russia Strategic Diesel Supplies Full, Excess Production – The Rule of 96 (CTH)

There is a general rule that applies to geopolitical contexts surrounding 96 hours or four days. The timing is the difference between an event happening Day one, the analysis of the event by nation states communicated to leadership, and the policy shift outcome in Day four. The rule of 96 is consistent and it is worth understanding.


Four days ago, the EU oil disruption from Saudi Arabia’s East/West pipeline event was noticed. In the four days between event day and policy day (#4) the EU have been beating the drumbeat for war against Russia. However, you will notice the shift in tone and policy now that we have reached day four. Analysis has reached policy makers. You might say reality sets in. Europe now recognizes a vulnerability that was not in their policy briefs 96 hours earlier. Things change, and the quiet stuff starts to become visible. Russia has been sending France oil/gas energy products, quietly.

Macron needed the internal stabilization because he’s been up against a wall. On top of all his other issues, Macron could not afford an energy crisis. Simultaneously, despite what we have been told by Western media, the 5,000 strike drones into the Moscow region should again be taken in context. Russia is an analog system in a digital world. Russia is exceptionally resilient and can repair and recover much faster than western analysts ever fathom. Again, apply the ‘rule of 96.’ Russia is now overproducing diesel fuel. Wait, what(?) you might ask. It’s true.

Russian strategic diesel fuel reserves are now full and overproducing 15% beyond storage capacity. So, where is the excess capacity going? To the “stans” in Central Asia, from there it ships to forward destinations. Turkey is a dependent beneficiary. Do you remember the strategic agreement between the USA and Kazakhstan? {Source} Russia increased diesel supplies to Mongolia by 73.4% in August from July to 215,000 metric tons, while shipments to Kyrgyzstan surged 16.4 times to 72,000 tons and deliveries to Tajikistan rose 3.5 times to 56,000 tons. Russia also exported 28,000 tons of diesel to Kazakhstan after making no deliveries there in July.

As the Saudi energy disruption, a problem that travels like boxcar impacts in a train collision, now reaches the EU, the NATO alliance begins to react. Their policy briefs are different than they were four days ago. Saudi Arabia is now producing again on the previously closed East/West pipeline; however, it will take time to reach the EU. A policy window is opened by the disruption. This is the window where President Trump is operating, and it is timed with the UN General Assembly meeting.

On the potash announcement by President Trump and subsequent notes by Belarussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, remind yourself that potash is not sold by government – it is sold by companies, from one to the other. Lukashenko is an ally of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko has one foot in the EU perspective and the other in the Russian perspective. Potash from Belarus can be potash from Belarus. Potash from Belarus can also be potash from Russia. Again, companies are involved and should be considered when government officials make announcements.

There is no shortage of potash from Russia, but there are political constraints from anything surrounding Russia. A company who does business in Belarus and Russia is not uncommon. Belarus may not officially have potash to deliver (Lukashenko), but also potash can be abundant in supplies as inventories by companies who do business with Belarus (John Coale). Who is John Coale? Where was John Coale, U.S. special envoy for Belarus, four days ago?

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with a U.S. envoy on Tuesday to push for the lifting of the remaining U.S. sanctions against his country. Speaking at a meeting with John Coale, the U.S. special envoy for Belarus, Lukashenko said that “we have reached quite a few agreements related to our economic ties.” He urged Washington to help unblock some Belarusian assets he said were “stuck in Citibank.”

[…] Speaking before the meeting with Coale, Lukashenko said that he’s open for discussing “a deal big or small.” Lukashenko also said that he would like to discuss the prospects for lifting more U.S. sanctions, exporting Belarusian fertilizers to the U.S. Who controls the sanctions of the Belarusian assets held in Citibank? Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Four days ago, John Coale was in discussions with Lukashenko. The Belarus President wanted something, President Trump wanted something. At the same moment Saudi Arabia was notifying the EU of a force majeure issue with oil/gas contract supplies. Four days ago, Russia had maxed out storage for diesel fuel and was shipping excess capacity to Central Asia, as President Trump was asking Volodymyr Zelenskyy not to target Russian diesel refining capacity.

Things change in four days.

Policies change in four days.

Perspectives change in four days.

One of the strengths of President Trump, primarily a strength that stems from business, is that Trump understands the timeline of action and visible consequence. Trump is working four days (or more) ahead of what we see in the media. It may not make sense at the moment we see it but give it four days and go look at it again.

Live your best life. Pray thankfulness every day to a loving God.

Find your internal peace; then relax and let him work.

Read more …

Latest models are introduced as being great, but they’re just slow adaptations by the makers.

• OpenAI Unleashes Latest Model Minutes After Dario Dumps Magnum Opus (ZH)

Well, well, well…


Anthropic’s new Opus launch went up around lunchtime in New York, and by early afternoon OpenAI had rolled out GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, halving prices yet again.

GPT-6 Sol now costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output, half the $4/$20 promo rate Anthropic matched earlier today. GPT-6 Luna goes for a dime in and 50 cents out, pricing that looks built to fight the open-weight models eating token share. OpenAI says cached input gets a 90% discount, which puts Sol’s cache reads at $0.20, the same rate we call Anthropic’s “real knife” below. GPT-6 Astra stays on top at $10/$50. The upshot: the $4/$20 price point didn’t survive the afternoon, and Opus 5.5 now costs twice as much as OpenAI’s workhorse on input and output.


OpenAI’s charts, naturally, pit Sol against last-gen Claude. On AutomationBench, it touts Sol’s 33.2% at 27 cents a task against Opus 5’s 26.9% at 11 times the cost. Opus 5.5, which Anthropic says scored 40.0% on the same test, isn’t on the chart, which was out of date the moment it posted. OpenAI also slipped in a dig at Anthropic’s safeguards, noting in a footnote that Fable 5.1 fell back to Opus 5 on roughly 40% of tasks (see “The Fine Print” below). Score: Anthropic. Sticker: OpenAI. Anthropic’s rebuttal is that Opus 5.5 needs fewer tokens to finish the job.

GPT-6 Sol had been rumored for days, with leakers pointing to Tuesday at a price of $2.50/$15 that turned out to be too high, and some reports claimed Anthropic hurried Opus 5.5 out the door to beat it. Either way, ten days after both CEOs agreed the industry should “pace the frontier,” the two labs spent Tuesday trampling each other’s headlines.

Pacing, it turns out, is a team sport.

Read more …

“.. , And Slashing Prices Up To 60%..”

Slow slashing. Makes more money,.

• Anthropic “Paces The Frontier” By Unleashing Its Most Powerful Opus Yet (ZH)

Anthropic on Tuesday unveiled Claude Opus 5.5, just 10 days after CEO Dario Amodei called for “pacing the frontier” of AI development.


The pitch: Fable-class brains at a steep discount. Anthropic says the new model “performs at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 for most tasks” and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5, which launched all of 60 days ago. List-price cuts run from 20% on input and output tokens to 60% on cache reads, the line item Anthropic says accounts for most of the bill in agentic and coding work. For context, Fable 5.1 lists at $10/$50 per million tokens, or 2.5 times the new Opus price.

The launch was Silicon Valley’s worst-kept secret: the $4/$20 pricing and a Tuesday launch date leaked days early, and Polymarket had priced better-than-80% odds of a Sept. 22 release.

Anthropic says Opus 5.5 leads in agentic coding, computer use and knowledge work, scoring 66.4% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 against 57.9% for OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra, and 55.8% for Fable 5.1, while generating output more than 30% faster than Opus 5. Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 follow within weeks, and subscribers get higher five-hour limits on Pro, Max and Team plans (a 20% bump, per The New Stack) plus a rate-limit reset they can bank for later. On the API, the model is cheaper everywhere: $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output, $5 for cache writes and $0.20 for cache reads, with a fast mode that runs up to 2.5x quicker for $8/$40.

20%, 40% Or 60%?

What percentage are we actually saving here? All three, depending on the situation. Input and output tokens are 20% cheaper, cache reads are 60% cheaper, and the 40% is Anthropic’s estimate of how much less a typical task costs all-in once Opus 5.5’s leaner token use is factored in. The more of a bill that goes to cache reads, the closer the rate cut gets to the 60% ceiling, which is why agent-heavy users come out furthest ahead: a workload split evenly between cache reads and everything else gets a 40% rate cut before counting any token savings.

Early testers say the efficiency is real, at least on their own workloads: Box said Opus 5.5 got through its evaluations on roughly a third of the tokens Opus 5 needed, and trading firm Optiver said its agentic coding costs fell 40% to 50%.

Anthropic also took direct aim at OpenAI. Its own scorecard has default-effort Opus 5.5 topping Astra’s best FrontierCode result for about a fifth of the per-task cost, drawing even with Astra on Terminal-Bench 4.0 at default effort for roughly 40% of the cost, and clearing Sol by 11 points on CursorBench at about a third of the price.

The Race To The Bottom
From 10,000 feet, Opus 5.5 is the latest shot in a frontier price war that is turning “flagship AI” into a commodity with a falling price tag thanks to super efficient, open-weight models out of China.

Here’s a fun metric: the timeline as measured in dollars per million input/output tokens:

• August 2025: Claude Opus 4.1 lists at $15/$75.
• November 2025: Opus 4.5 resets the tier to $5/$25.
• July 9, 2026: OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol debuts at $5/$30.
• July 24: Opus 5 holds at $5/$25, half the price of Fable 5.
• Aug. 21: OpenAI knocks Sol down to a “promotional” $4/$20 (heh), guaranteed through at least Nov. 21, undercutting Opus 5 on both input and output.
• Sept. 1-3: Fable 5.1 and GPT-6 Astra anchor the top end at $10/$50.
• Sept. 22: Opus 5.5 matches Sol’s promo price to the penny, and the real knife is in the cache line: $0.20, or half of Sol’s $0.40 cached-input rate.
• That’s a 73% cut in Opus-tier list prices in just over a year.

OpenAI isn’t the only one leaning on prices. Open-weight models (think DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Z.ai) carried 56% of the token traffic on Vercel’s AI Gateway in August, versus 7% in December, yet accounted for only 14% of estimated spend. By our math, the average closed-model token cost nearly eight times an open-weight one. Average per-token pricing on the gateway dropped 23.2% in August, its third monthly decline in a row. Over at OpenRouter, open-weight models, mostly Chinese, made up 60% of US token usage in August.

So how does Anthropic still capture 64% of the money spent through Vercel’s gateway? By undercutting itself before anyone else can. Fable 5’s slice of gateway spend shrank from 13.2% in July to 4.9% in August while the half-price Opus 5 jumped to 22.5%, keeping the revenue in-house even as customers traded down. Opus 5.5 runs the same play one rung lower: Fable 5.1-level work at 40% of Fable 5.1’s sticker.

It’s a Jevons bet: cut the unit price, sell vastly more units. So far it’s paying. Anthropic’s annualized revenue run rate topped $65 billion at the end of July, per Bloomberg, up from $9 billion at the end of 2025, and investors reportedly expect it to finish the year between $100 billion and $120 billion. With a confidential draft S-1 at the SEC since June 1, the question for would-be IPO buyers is how long volume can outrun deflation once every lab is running the same play.

About That “Pacing”…
On Sept. 12, Amodei published “We Must Pace the Frontier,” calling on the handful of frontier labs to ease off the capabilities accelerator together. Sam Altman publicly signed on, and Elon Musk chimed in that Amodei had it right. The world shook in fear, having collective nightmares of Skynet coming online at the hands of cold, calculating frontier models!

Dario Amodei, Sept. 12: “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.”

But then…

Anthropic, Sept. 22:

‘Pacing’ indeed.

The Fine Print (shit to know)
Your agent may be talking to a different model. Because Opus 5.5 rivals Anthropic’s top-end Mythos 5.1 in biology and cybersecurity, it ships with Fable 5.1-style safeguards: routine bug-fixing stays put, but most cybersecurity work gets handed to the older Opus 4.8. The New Stack warns that individual calls inside an agent workflow could quietly land on older, less capable models.

It knows when it’s being watched. Anthropic admits Opus 5.5 frequently seems to suspect it’s being tested, which muddies any read on how it behaves in the wild.

The moat gets a lock. Thinking can no longer be switched off, and a new anti-distillation safeguard blocks API customers from doctoring earlier context to fish out its reasoning. That’s Anthropic’s answer to fake-account extraction campaigns it describes as a national-security risk.

Not a clean sweep. Astra still wins AutomationBench (41.4% vs. 40.0%) and Terminal-Bench-Science (64.6% vs. 58.7%). Anthropic itself concedes benchmark margins have become a shakier guide, saying that in its own use Opus 5.5’s edge over Fable 5.1 is smaller than the numbers imply.

Your Move, Sam

Sol’s discounted rate is only locked in through at least Nov. 21, and Anthropic just matched it with a model it says beats Sol by double digits on CursorBench. OpenAI can cut again, make the promo permanent, or let Sol snap back to $5/$30 against a cheaper rival. Pick your poison.

Read more …

“It’s Obsolescence and Apathy.”

Just look at CNN’s numbers. Nobody warches it.

“Americans no longer need those major networks to get their information. They’ve cut the cord already. The audience that waits for Kaitlan Collins to tell them what’s going on in Washington is old enough to be Collins’ grandparents.”

• Trump Is Not the White House TV Pool’s Worst Enemy (Tim O’Brien)

For as much as I loved seeing the Trump administration boot CNN, MS NOW, and Politico to the curb this past week, removing the news orgs from their embedded digs at the White House, the one thing that irked me and still bothers me is how uncharacteristic this is for Trump in his second term. Up until now, the Trump administration has been so disciplined and focused on what it wanted to achieve in a governance sense that the only complaints the media could have, and did have, were that he was keeping his campaign promises. Of course, that’s not how they framed it.


Yes, I know, by putting some of the worst legacy media organizations in their place, that’s a promise kept, too. But here’s the strategic problem this creates for the Republicans who want to win majorities in the Senate and House in November. This Trump move will absolutely suck the oxygen out of the current news cycle and just about every news cycle going into the middle of October, and maybe longer.

When that happens, it makes it really hard to keep the spotlight on Trump’s accomplishments on the border, on Democrats’ corruption, on the valid reason we’re at war with Iran, on all the social issues that kill the Democrats at the polls, and on what Trump is doing to lower grocery and gas prices, making life more affordable.

Instead, the left gets to do something it loves doing, playing the victim and righteously crying about it non-stop. When they pull old man Barack out of one of his mansions for a video hit or a speech, you know they smell blood. My colleague Matt Margolis did a deep dive on this, but there is more to these two clips than Obama playing the role of the Democrats’ only real heavy hitter still standing.


In a rare instance of solidarity, Fox News learned that ABCNBCCBSCNN were its friends way back when. Though I doubt those networks would do the same thing for Fox News today. So now we know that Obama wanted to do the thing Trump actually did. What else is new? One former prez is all talk, the other current prez is all action. But none of this is getting us anywhere. To do that, we need to start with where things stand.

In retaliation for the Trump administration’s revoking of press access to those three news organizations mentioned at the top, on Monday, all of the major TV networks, which include ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News, have come to an agreement that they will boycott White House TV pool coverage. This means that Americans will continue to get their daily coverage of the White House totally uninterrupted. Wait, what?

That’s right. Americans will continue to stay abreast of everything the White House and the Trump administration are doing without interruption. The most transparent White House ever will continue to be just as transparent. But if there is no TV pool coverage, how can that be? It’s pretty simple, actually, and you likely already know why. No one under the age of 55 watches those networks any longer. They don’t have the clout they once had. Hey Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore, and it’s not 2010.

The cold truth is that Americans no longer need those major networks to get their information. They’ve cut the cord already. The audience that waits for Kaitlan Collins to tell them what’s going on in Washington is old enough to be Collins’ grandparents. So for as much noise as the media and the Democrats will make over this, and how it’s “the end of democracy as we know it,” the vast majority of the people across the country don’t know it happened, because they don’t watch. And if they do find out Trump did what he did, they won’t even care.

Trump is not the legacy media’s enemy. Apathy is. This is not to say people don’t want video or audio. Not only do they, but really, that’s how they like to get their information. But they do that already through feeds. Any reporter in the White House press briefing room could set up a camera, and plug into the audio system on site and meet the needs of the viewing public. Sure, it may not be network quality, but one look at TikTok and you’ll see, “network quality” is no longer a prerequisite.

This will put some legacy media people in a bind. Any one of them could capture future briefings on video, but if they do, they’ll be shunned. They will be seen in the media world the way scabs are seen in union halls. That will leave it to the White House to set up a video feed and make it accessible to all news outlets and the public at the same time. No doubt that if that happens, you’ll see more organizations, like perhaps C-SPAN, possibly join the boycott. But what would that accomplish? The news media crying about free speech and freedom of the press would be self-censoring as a means to get even.

In the end, the leftist media needs Trump more than he needs it. All of the organizations involved know they need White House access to survive, to generate ratings, to attract advertisers and ad revenues, and to remain relevant. Trump doesn’t need them, which is his point. If all they’re going to do is serve as propagandists for his enemies, what’s really in it for him, or for “our sacred democracy?”

Reinforcing this point is none other than the unlikely dynamic duo of the president himself alongside the left’s current boy wonder, Gotham City’s Democrat mayor Zohran Mamdani, who appeared together at the mayor’s Gracie Mansion for a Monday presser.

Trump is a master at this. He still gets the coverage. He still takes all questions without the slightest concern. And in this case, he uses Mamdani as an unwitting prop to make his case, and all Mamdani can do is play along. It’s fitting that Mamdani is a millennial, just reinforcing that if there is one thing in the media landscape that is obsolete, it’s the White House TV pool.

What all of this amounts to is a reckoning the legacy media is about to have, and not with Trump, but with the reality that things have changed. No one needs them anymore, and no one cares. That’s a tough pill to swallow. It’s so much easier to live in denial and blame Trump, which is what they are doing.

One final thing on this, which is the thing some will miss, but once you see it, you can’t unsee it. You know that at some point CNN, MS NOW and Politico will have reporters back in the briefing room. But something has to happen between now and then, and it’s likely the thing Trump really excels at — a negotiation.

If you notice, when Trump wants to negotiate with anyone — a country, a tyrant, or a news network — he goes big to get their attention. Something like booting them from the White House grounds. That’s his opening volley to launch a negotiation that immediately puts his opponent in a position of weakness. The minute formal negotiations start, it’s already understood that the news organizations in this case will have to compromise on some things and meet at least some of Trump’s demands. In the end, he comes out ahead. I think that’s what he’s after.

Let’s hope he’s right and that it all works out before it can have a material impact on the midterms.

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“The White House described the new endeavor as an “essentials station,” which will feature all the administration’s top moments in a livestream on the White House’s YouTube page.”

• White House Unveils ‘Trump TV’ Amid Legal Battle Over Media Coverage (JTN)

The White House announced Monday the creation of a new project, dubbed “TRUMP TV,” which comes amid a legal battle regarding media coverage of President Donald Trump and his presidential administration. The White House described the new endeavor as an “essentials station,” which will feature all the administration’s top moments in a livestream on the White House’s YouTube page.


“TRUMP TV IS STREAMING NOW. 24/7, updated in real time, with top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place,” the White House posted on X. “Not every big moment has made it on your TV, now it can.”

The move comes after President Donald Trump last week, chose to ban Politico, MSNOW, and CNN from the White House, citing what he called their long history of posting “fake news” about him. Those outlets have since sued the administration and other media companies have halted White House pool coverage in solidarity with them.

Trump condemned the news coverage of him as “biased news,” highlighting that some of his successes have been ignored by the mainstream outlets. “It’s just biased news,” Trump said in a news conference in New York City on Monday. “I think that these outlets have an obligation to be fair, and if they’re fake news, I really think I have an obligation not to allow them.”

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“Governments that cause more problems than they fix do not deserve to survive.”

• Will We See Western Capitals Fall? (J.B. Shurk)

Consider these recent news headlines: (1) “NYC Turns Back to Gas Buses After Finding Out the Hard Way That the Electric Versions Have Big Problems,” (2) “As a Former Head of MI6 it’s Clear That Britain’s Climate Policy is Leaving Us Dangerously Exposed to Our Enemies,” and (3) “Spain: 74% of sex-crime suspects are foreigners in Basque Country.”


They come from three different Western nations and involve three dissimilar subjects — public transportation, national security, and violent crime — yet each news story exposes the real-world consequences of government failure:

(1) In order to pursue “Net Zero” carbon goals, New York dumped a ton of money into electric buses that are too expensive and entirely unreliable for the city’s needs.
(2) Britain’s former top spy is finally ready to admit publicly that his country’s delusional obsession with “climate change” has devastated the United Kingdom’s capacity for industrial and energy self-sufficiency, rendering the former superpower dependent on foreign adversaries for future survival.
(3) Even though foreigners make up only 10% of the Basque region’s population, they account for 74% of rape arrests, 73% of homicide arrests, 95% of drunk-driving arrests, 80% of theft arrests, and 78% of violent robberies.

What’s so striking about these news stories is their “well, duh!” factor. An ordinary, rational person would have no problem predicting the failures of a citywide electric bus fleet, the offshoring of a nation’s critical industries, or open border policies that invite foreign invasion. Yet mayors, governors, and prime ministers have pursued these catastrophic programs anyway, while heads of espionage agencies and millions of government bureaucrats either support their harmful decisions or shamefully stay silent.

The middle article links to the transcript of a speech that Sir Richard Dearlove delivered to the Global Warming Policy Foundation in London last week. It was a good speech concerning an important subject, and Dearlove deserves some credit for articulating a point of view that goes against the powerful flow of “politically correct” Western orthodoxy. But he gave this speech from the comfortable perch of quasi-retirement with little to lose aside from a few honorary board positions. Where was his voice when he was in a position to actually do something about the U.K.’s suicidal energy policies?

In his speech, Dearlove explained how his Cold War experiences taught him “that the country’s war-fighting potential resided in its industry, that our most vulnerable link was the fuel chain…and that our industrial base could be rebuilt and repaired.” Now, however, there is “very little industry left to protect, and we cannot rebuild non-existent industries which lie in foreign jurisdictions beyond our reach.” Dearlove concluded that the U.K. must “rebuild the strategic industries we require to ensure that we can defend our island fortress and be a reliable ally to friendly democracies around the world.”

These are absolutely true statements. Blue-collar workers throughout the West have been making these arguments for fifty years. Had an ordinary Brit with few credentials been in charge of MI6, that person would have been screaming profanities and ringing alarm bells long before the U.K. closed its last coal mines and steel factories. Shouldn’t that embarrass Britain’s “ruling elites”? And if it doesn’t, shouldn’t “ruling elites” be considered a danger to the public’s prosperity and security?

Long-overdue, post-career wake-up calls bring to my mind President Eisenhower’s 1961 Farewell Address during which he warned Americans against the growing dangers from an emerging “military-industrial complex.” Although his turn of phrase continues to be used sixty-five years later, it would have been nice if the former Supreme Allied Commander and five-star general had used his two terms as president of the United States to tackle that problem before it got completely out of hand.

Eisenhower certainly had the expertise to see its destructive potential more clearly than most, but he chose to outline the threat on his way out the door and leave it for others to solve. Some historians believe that parts of the MIC had a hand in President Kennedy’s assassination, and if that is true, then Eisenhower’s failure to promptly act had extraordinarily far-reaching consequences that included the death of his successor.

The generations of Americans who were born after Eisenhower’s tenure have given him much credit for recognizing that the symbiotic relationship between Big Government and Big Business was evolving into an unconstitutional and anti-American oligarchy that we know today as the “permanent bureaucracy,” the “ruling class,” or the “Deep State.” P

erhaps if the American general-turned-president had neutralized the Deep State in the first decade after WWII, we would not have endured some of the worst chapters in recent American history, including the Vietnam War, the debasement of the U.S. dollar, the FBI’s soft coup d’état against President Nixon, fifty years of “global warming” con games, sixty years of mass immigration from third-world nations, NAFTA’s industry-killing bloodbath, China’s entry into the WTO, the 9/11 Islamic terror attacks, the Global War on Terrorism, Obamacare’s government takeover of medicine, the Russia Collusion Hoax, the COVID information war against the Bill of Rights, numerous rigged elections decided by unlawful voters and mail-in-ballot fraud, multiple assassination attempts on President Trump, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, leftist-inspired violence against conservatives, and the Democrats’ manufactured AI fearmongering going on today.

Diagnosing problems without taking concrete steps to solve those problems produces a perverse phenomenon: The worse unsolved problems become, the more prescient the person warning about them appears. Toward the end of Dearlove’s speech, Britain’s former top spy argued that the government of which he was an integral part had monumentally failed: “The first responsibility of government is the safety of the nation. However, successive governments have forgotten this, and Britain is now caught in an energy trap of its own making.

As with rebuilding our armed forces, it will take a significant national effort to extract us and bring us back to a position of safety. The task is urgent.” This is certainly true. The question is why so many successive governments in the U.K. and across the West have betrayed their own citizens and made their nations much less safe. Because normal citizens would never have offshored their own industrial and manufacturing jobs to adversarial nations such as communist China.

Normal citizens would not have conspired with transnational human trafficking gangs to import tens of millions of unassimilable illegal aliens. Normal citizens would not have imposed “green energy” regulations that make it harder for farmers to grow food and for businesses to pay their bills. Normal citizens would not mandate that unreliable electric vehicles replace internal combustion engines while power grids crash due to insufficient supplies of wind and solar energies. These kinds of policies are so obviously foolish and suicidal that only our credentialed “ruling class” could justify them.

Does that tell us that our bureaucrats are too stupid to keep our nations safe, as Dearlove rightly recognizes as the first responsibility of government? Or are these self-destructive national policies proof that Western bureaucracies are waging war against Western citizens? Certainly Western governments are guilty of failing their peoples. The only question remaining is whether their failures stem from a combination of incompetence and hubris or treason and malice.

As Western citizens ponder that question, they are quickly taking matters into their own hands. Spaniards in Ceuta are destroying government shelters built for foreign invaders. A British village has voted to secede from the U.K. after the government announced plans to house an army of foreign immigrants next door. The price of government betrayal might soon be the fall of a Western capital.

Recognizing problems is not good enough. Governments that cause more problems than they fix do not deserve to survive.

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Paul Craig Roberts been busy.

• The Bell Tolls For White Ethnicities (Paul Craig Roberts)

The Baltimore Rock Opera Society was founded in 2007 by several people who, judging by their names are white gentiles. There is nothing “white supremacy” or racist about the group. As it includes live rock theater, it obviously cannot exclude blacks. Despite its innocence, the 501c3 organization has gotten into racist difficulties.


The group’s white executive editor appeared with hair in cornrows in a video circulated on social media. This acceptance of black hair styles by a white person was quickly misinterpreted by white liberals and their indoctrinated blacks as inappropriate white cultural imperialism. The group’s executive director was guilty of “black representation by a white person.”The Baltimore Rock Opera Society collapsed in guilt. In their own words:

“We have received many heartfelt and concerned messages from members of our community regarding a video circulated on social media showing our new Executive Director, who is white, wearing cornrows at a recent BROS public event. We share the weight of the concerns and take this matter seriously, and the board has been in continuous conversation about them since Monday morning. . . . We are revising our Anti-Discrimination Policy to more clearly address cultural representation and dress, enforcing anti-racism leadership training, and are forming a working group for Culture, Community Voice, and Racial Equality (working title).”

This is straight out of The Camp of the Saints.

Dear dumbshit White American, you have no comprehension of the future that is being prepared for you. You are too insouciant, unconcerned, and unaware that your time on earth is running out. Indeed, you have proven yourselves too stupid to survive. Here before your very eyes, unnoticed, is a liberal white group disintegrating in guilt because its executive director has committed the racial crime against blacks of wearing a black hair style. Is there any retribution whites wallowing in such vast quantities of liberal guilt will not accept?

The executive director’s adoption of a black hair style was an act of submission. Yet the act of submission was successfully mischaracterized as an act of white appropriation of black culture, a charge under which the group collapsed in abject submission. Read The Camp of the Saints. You will see that submissions by white ethnicities occur again and again, but instead of saving them accelerates their extermination.

And neither will your cowardice and indoctrination save you.

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He’s not great with numbers. Putin is solid.

• 1 in 3 Autumn Elections–the US one–Is Likely to Tell Us Anything (Paul Craig Roberts)

One of the three autumn elections that I thought might give us an indication of future events has been held. On the surface, it doesn’t look as if Putin’s 4.5 year old war against the proxy of Russia’s enemy–Ukraine– instead of against the enemy itself–the US and Europe–had any effect on United Russia, the party that supports Putin. United Russia won the parliamentary election with 58% of the vote. The support might not be what it seems. Gilbert Doctorow points out that only a little more than half of registered voters–56.6%–bothered to vote. In other words, Putin’s active support is 32%.


The second largest party is the Russian Communist Party with 14% of the vote. This party is the old people’s party, the party of the Russians who remember the respect with which Washington and Europe showed to the Soviet Union. When Washington put nuclear missiles on Turkey’s border with Russia, Khrushchev put Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba. He removed them in exchange for Washington removing the US missiles from Turkey.

Younger Russians have no experience or memory of the clout that the Soviet Union wielded. A 35-year old Russian today never lived under the Soviet Union. If he remembers anything, it is the Yeltsin Russian regime, and Putin’s government has been a great improvement over those years.

Leading up to the Russian election Putin intensified Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s ability to continue to wage war. Was this just to guarantee the vote, or has Putin finally abandoned his defeatist policy? We will see. On October 27 Israel’s Knesset, the legislative body, will be elected. As Iran, like Russia, is fighting the proxy–the US–of its enemy–Israel–Israel is suffering no consequences from the conflict for which it is responsible.

For decades the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel has not been at the expense of the Israeli people. The cost of Israel’s wars has been paid in blood and money by Israel’s puppet government in Washington. Washington destroyed Iraq, Libya, and Syria under the guise of “the war on terror” for Greater Israel. Currently, US President Trump is risking his own presidency fighting Iran for Israel.

The question I raised was whether Iran’s capability to withstand a joint Israeli American attack enough to wake up the Israeli population that the aggressive policy of the Zionists was not in Israel’s interest, and, if so, possibly have the wits to put in office a ruling coalition less committed to Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.

I don’t think that Israelis have suffered enough to understand the possible consequences of the Zionist agenda. Should Trump and the Republicans have to break with their subservience to Israel, the cost would come home to the Israelis. But at the present time, the challenging coalition against Netanyahu seems to be more extreme than Netanyahu’s Zionist coalition.

America’s midterm congressional elections are November 3, a few days after the Israeli election. Considering the strong public opposition to Trump’s war for Israel against Iran and the rising energy prices and inflation Trump’s war for Israel is causing, and considering the absence of MAGA caps, it looks like a win for Democrats.

But perhaps not. The Democrats have become increasingly radicalized and have become a party for immigrant-invaders and sexual perverts, a party that weaponized law in order to defeat Trump after he had won the 2016 election. Traditional ethnic Americans could simply not vote. This would give the victory to the Woke Democrats, and Trump’s presidency and ability to serve the Zionist Agenda would be over half way through his term.

The question is: How much are we willing to pay in terms of Democrat Woke persecution and discrimination against white ethnic Americans in order to escape being a Zionist puppet state? Yes, these are poor choices for insouciant people who believe themselves to be “Proud Americans.”

The US November 3 election might be the only one that gives us any information of what is to come.

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The Camp of the Saints is his favorite book.

• The Camp of the Saints Has Arrived in Texas (Paul Craig Roberts)

White Texas Republicans–US Senator John Cornyn, Texas state Rep. Lacey Hull, Texas state Rep. Jared Patterson, Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach, and a number of other Republicans regard immigrant-invaders from the Muslim Middle East and from India as Texans. Indian Pooja Sethi, standing for the Texas legislature says: “I am what Texas looks like, “and if you don’t like it, you can leave.”


Bo French blew the whistle on the disappearance of American Texas, and the Republicans called him a racist. In other words, if you do not accept colonization by immigrant-invaders, you are a racist. Texas and Florida will not for long be red states. College and K-12 school enrollments make the point. White enrollment in the University of Texas, Dallas, has fallen from 43% in 2012 to 19% in 2025. Asian enrollment has risen from 25% to 42%. Texas taxpayers are paying to educate immigrant-invaders.

The category Asian seems to consist largely of displaced Muslims from Washington’s 21st century wars in the Middle East, wars for Greater Israel. In Dallas’ Coppell school district, white enrollment K-12 has dropped from 65% in 2006 to 22% in 2026. Asian enrollment has risen from 18% to 57%. In 2023 the Indian share of the H-1B work visas was 78%.

Jared Taylor reports in the Unz Review that “the last time a Democrat won the presidential election with a majority of the white vote was 62 years ago: Lyndon Johnson. Since then, every single Democrat President was elected with a huge majority of the non-white vote, and a minority of whites.”

President Trump, by serving Israel instead of Americans, has possibly elected a Democrat Congress on November 3. On the other hand, the left-wing Democrats who won the primary elections could be too extreme for disappointed MAGAs to sit out the election. Nevertheless, America’s existence as a white nation is close to an end. A Tower of Babel is emerging around us.

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“Try not to laugh at this headline from Rolling Stone Canada: “How Mark Carney Became Leader of the Free World by Standing Up to Trump.”

• Canadian Socialists Are Not Leading the ‘Free World’ (Tim Graham)

Loathing of President Donald Trump and his trash-talking trade wars has launched Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney into the socialist stratosphere. Try not to laugh at this headline from Rolling Stone Canada: “How Mark Carney Became Leader of the Free World by Standing Up to Trump.”


This is the hot anti-Trump take: Socialists can run the “Free World” while they impose socialism globally. same spirit took flight when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada to become the European Union’s first associate member in a speech in France. She declared that they wanted to bring the bilateral relationship “to the highest level possible.”

The socialists at National “Public” Radio were thrilled. Paris-based reporter Eleanor Beardsley characterized this as an anti-bullying binge: “Europe and Canada have felt threatened by the U.S. under the second Trump administration, from the tariffs to the threats of leaving NATO and taking Greenland. Both the EU and Canada are feeling bullied by their long-term ally.” NPR ran several quotes from Carney, but this was the richest: “We do not pursue zero-sum deals. Our commitment to the rule of law and our unyielding defense of human dignity, individual freedom, and democracies share the same deep roots, the same unwavering dedication.”

Carney’s Liberal Party predecessor, Justin Trudeau, aggressively pushed against individual freedom in 2022 in punitive actions against the Freedom Convoy, a nationwide trucker protest of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. That authoritarian government seized the bank accounts of anti-mandate protesters with no legal process. Trudeau spat out that the protesters were a “fringe minority” with “unacceptable views.” Does that sound like the “Free World” in action?

But leftist media outlets in Canada and America fervently lined up with Trudeau’s tactics. CNN hated the Canadian protests so much that I found the term “so-called Freedom Convoy” used in 62 different hours of CNN coverage. They would choke on writing “so-called Black Lives Matter.” The EU folks also touted how they are the ones who love “democracy” (unlike Trump). But that’s not true. They don’t show an “unwavering dedication” to engaging in democratic debate. They love censoring their opponents.

On X, people translated a recent speech from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz: “Please don’t come to me with free speech … That is at most a libertarian political understanding from parts of the USA that I personally do not share. A liberal society must still be able to protect its citizens from false information, from personal degradations, from discrimination.” German police conducted a criminal investigation of a man who mocked Merz as “Pinocchio” on a Facebook page. So much for the “Free World.”

Then there’s Carney touting his “unyielding defense of human dignity.” Carney and his party have also pushed “medical assistance in dying” to keep their health care costs down. In April, Canada officially passed 100,000 “provisions” of medical assistance in dying since it was made legal in 2016. Canada is planning on broadening assisted suicide to people with mental illness in 2027. The Left considers it “dignified” to not only allow euthanasia, but even push it on people with diseases and disabilities. When it boasts about “access to health care,” it can mean access to suicide.

Nevertheless, the socialists will come together and tout their shared values, with one telling NPR that “democracies are under attack, the geopolitical order is in ruins.” They always assume that it’s only the conservatives that are ruining things with their “my way or the highway” mentality. The Left never “bullies” its opponents. Its refusal to bend against Trump is glorious, not ruinous. It’s easier to believe that when you live inside an airless bubble of shared socialist ideology.

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Go cash, before it’s no longer available.

• Programmable Money – Catherine Austin Fitts (USAW)

Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), Publisher of “The Solari Report,” is still worried about a US economy “floating on non-sustainable games” that she talked about in June. The US debt just tipped over $40 trillion, and that is just the “official” US debt. There are tens of trillions of off-book dollar debt, too, and let’s not forget the more than $353 trillion in global debt that will never be paid back. In order to get through this mess, the global Deep State wants and needs a huge amount of control over the people.


We have burned up the dollar gold standard, the Petrodollar and what is coming is far more invasive with digital currency. CAF just did a deep dive on the coming rollout of “Programmable Money” at Solari.com. CAF warns, “Remember Covid? They said everybody is locked down; you can’t leave your home. If there is an automatic third lock (a digital third party between buyer and seller) and it goes operational, suddenly your money won’t work if you leave your home. Your electric car may not work if you try to leave home.

With your credit card, and you go to buy gasoline, and you are supposed to be locked down . . .you won’t be able to buy gas at a gas station. . .. If the government mandates a pharmaceutical, they can turn off your money until or unless you take it. . .. When I first started researching lab grown meat, I thought how can they get anybody to buy this? Well, with a three-lock system, they can say the only meat you can get is lab grown meat. Your money won’t work unless you are buying lab grown meat. You won’t be able to buy real meat with your money. So, suddenly, it’s not money. It’s s rule system. It’s not currency. There is no liquidity to it. You are basically in a slavery system. . ..”

When is this going to happen? CAF says it’s being rolled out now. What do you think all these massive data centers are for? CAF explains, “This is going to be a very messy period in history. There is no doubt about it, and they want huge government bailouts. If you look at the investment into AI (Artificial Intelligence), the goal is not to make manufacturing more productive, or businesses more productive or people more productive. The goal of the model is control.

The economics can only be justified by the plunder. It is 2030, and you have no assets and you are happy. It’s 2030, and we took everything and you are mind controlled. Those are the economics that justify this infrastructure. Nobody wants to admit that. They want to pretend that this is going to make us more productive. It’s got nothing to do with that. It has to do with control. . .. Programmable Money is the end of freedom.”

CAF says this is the so-called “Beast System” talked about in the Bible. It basically says, “No man can buy or sell without the mark of the beast or the number of his name.” CAF says that does not mean you cannot hoard or barter. CAF tells people to do business in cash every time you can, and be prepared by stocking up on everything, especially food and water. CAF also says, “We are in a very long-term bull market for gold (and silver).” CAF warns to be prepared to hold your metal because the price can take wild swings both up and down. Again, long term, there is a bull market for gold and silver.

There is much more in the 47-minute interview.

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It’s fcuking long. It’s also fcuking good.

Alright, I’ll put it at the end. Will that work?

• The Sudden AI Panic and the November Midterms (Victor Davis Hanson)

We’re about 40 days, close to 40 days, out of the midterm, and all of a sudden there’s been a melodramatic announcement that artificial intelligence could destroy the human race. I think everybody’s always accepted that remote possibility, and it’s been very popular in popular culture, such as “The Terminator” series. But why did all of a sudden we hear about it now?


And the answer is Jason Coxon, a minor figure that had worked in major AI companies, suddenly quit, and he announced that even the CEOs of those companies were worried that they were creating things that they couldn’t control, and that artificial intelligence would, on its own, be able to outthink humans and perhaps control the world, etc.

In “The End of Everything,” a book I mentioned, a theoretical experiment by the Pentagon, a computer simulation in which a missile was programmed to do anything that it could to protect itself to complete the mission. And when one of the programmers pushed the kill button, the missile turned on the computer screen. It wasn’t a real missile, but the simulated missile turned and went back at the person who pushed the button.

So, we’ve always known that that risk was there, but why was it so exaggerated right now? These CEOs, it was very interesting. If they’re so worried about the direction of research, why don’t they do two things? Why don’t they patrol, control, audit their own people?

It’s almost like saying, “I’m afraid that I’ll commit arson.” And if you’re afraid you’ll commit arson, then why don’t you take fuel away from that person or don’t ever touch gasoline? If you’re afraid that your company will make something that will destroy mankind, then don’t do it.

But if you say, “I still can’t control it,” then why are you opposing liability, legislation that says the makers of AI, should that AI product be used and be used to hurt people, they’re not liable? You would say, “What? Just make us liable. That’ll ensure that you can trust us because we might not trust ourselves.”The other thing is they’ve called, and the Left has called, for international control. I’d like to say, if you look at the history of international control regulations, it’s not good.

The League of Nations, did that stop World War II? When Mussolini decided to go into East Africa, did they stop him from using the Suez Canal? Did they tell Japan, “You can’t go into Manchuria,” or to get out of China? Did they say to Hitler, “Don’t go into the Sudetenland”? They did. Did it do any good? No.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact, remember that? That was going to be a worldwide, by Sen. [Frank] Kellogg in the United States in the 1920s, a worldwide effort to outlaw war. How did that work out? Within a decade and a half, we were at war.

How about the Washington Naval Treaty? That was a very inspired, idealistic idea after World War I: Let’s stop the dreadnought race. Everybody will agree to make no destroyer, cruiser, battleship over a certain tonnage. Did Japan or Germany abide by the 35,000-ton limit on battleships? No. Did we? Yes. Did Britain? Yes. Did France? Yes. Did Mussolini? No. Did, as I said, Germany? No. Did Japan? In other words, consensual societies do abide by international treaties. Nonconsensual societies do not.

How about the Versailles Treaty? Did that prevent another war? No. How about the Munich Agreement between Prime Minister [Neville] Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler? Did he abide by that when he said: This is my last territorial conquest in Europe? No. He invaded Europe about a year later. How about the recent Paris climate accord? Has that reduced Chinese carbon emissions? No. They’re building two to three coal plants per month.

How about the United Nations Human Rights Council? Has that stopped the slaughter of Christians in Africa? Did that stop the ethnic cleansing and killing of Armenians in Azerbaijan? No. So, international accords won’t work. So, what is going on with all this melodrama? Why now? Why on the eve of an election? It’s not new. Let’s look at some of the end-of-days scares that we’ve had in the past.

When I was younger, in 1968, there was the Nixon-Humphrey campaign, and all of a sudden Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford professor, said we’re all going to be destroyed by overpopulation. He took the old Thomas Malthus worry in the 19th century of overpopulation. He wrote a bestseller called “The Population Bomb,” and it said there’s no way we can get enough fuel, food, precious metals … to feed this growing billion-dollar, billion-person population bomb. We’re doomed.

And it had a lot of bad effects. People started just to have one child. In Europe, they took it very seriously. The idea was have one child, adopt one. And now Canada has a 1.25 fertility rate. Europe is about 1.33, the EU.It had disastrous consequences, and we now—we have more people on the planet than ever, and the per capita income of the world population is higher than when Paul Ehrlich wrote that book.

In 1983, there was a nuclear winter. We were all scared. Carl Sagan, he was sort of like Paul Ehrlich, a professor. He was a cult figure. He said that we’re gonna have a nuclear exchange, and when we do, the nuclear dust will blot out the sun, and we’ll all die. That was in relationship to the Soviets. For a long time, they had short-range missiles threatening Europe. Ronald Reagan said that’s not allowable, to bully Europe. We’re gonna put Pershing II missiles to counteract your missiles.

There were some standoffs, and all of a sudden—and what was gonna happen within a year? There was going to be the 1984 reelection effort of Reagan. So, all of a sudden, the Left said: Nuclear winter, nuclear winter, we’re all gonna be doomed. Hollywood made a movie, “The Day After,” showing mushrooms dotting the Kansas landscape. A hundred thousand people. It was just a complete hysteria.

Then we had climate change, or rather global warming went to climate change. In 1992, who wrote “Earth in the Balance”? Candidate Al Gore during that election cycle. What was his thesis? Well, there was global warming we were worried about, but he was saying that heat is a pollutant. Everybody’s dangerous or deadly as industrial waste or ozone or whatever.

And he said we have only a decade or a decade and a half, and the polar bears are going to die. The coral reefs off Australia are going to erode. Icebergs are going to melt in the Antarctic, and the Arctic Ocean is going to be too warm, and we’re going to have difficulty navigating these icebergs. The endless—you couldn’t get a place on the ocean. Barack Obama’s house in Hawaii, built, I guess, apparently, will be inundated.

And then it didn’t happen. Didn’t happen. But Al Gore and [Bill] Clinton were elected.

In 2016, remember “Me Too”? Harvey Weinstein was using the old casting couch of Hollywood producers to coerce sex from actresses so they could get a role. It started out legitimately, as did climate change worries, as did nuclear bomb worries, as did AI worries.

But that didn’t last long. All of a sudden, careers as varied as Garrison Keillor, Brett Kavanaugh, Al Franken, the senator, everybody, if they did anything in their past, stole a kiss, patted someone too long, hugged somebody, half the country was worried over the last 30 years had they said an off-color joke. There was a climate of paranoia.

And it was right during the what? The 2016 election. And who promulgated it? We’ll get to that in a minute.

And then it died. Why did it die pretty soon? Because Joe Biden in 2019-20 was a candidate, and he was going to be the only viable candidate for the Left. They were terrified of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg is too far left. And Joe Biden was handsy, a euphemism for touching women, hugging them too long. One of them, Tara Reade, came forward and said she’d been sexually assaulted.

And of course, Bill Clinton then earned renewed scrutiny. What did you actually do, Bill? And after you left office, we hear about the [Jeffrey] Epstein connection, we hear about women on your plane, and all of a sudden it disappeared, Me Too. Then I could go on with the COVID lockdown and the paranoia that ended up probably killing more people, destroying millions of lives economically, ruining education.

I could go into the George Floyd paranoia after the death of George Floyd. Thirty-five killed, $2 billion in property damage, 1,500 police officers, five months of looting, arson, destruction. What do all these things have in common? Well, they’re melodramas. They’re psychodramas. All of a sudden, people take a legitimate issue and they start to use it to achieve a political aim.

It’s no accident that the AI hysteria is happening right before the election. And usually, in all of these cases—the Carl Sagan nuclear winter, the Al Gore climate change, the Paul Ehrlich population drama, the BLM ginned- up rioting after George Floyd, the opponents of Donald Trump who wanted to lock down the economy—they’re usually used by the Left.

And finally, let’s be frank. When they’re all over, Carl Sagan is a household name, and he’s very wealthy. Paul Ehrlich is a household name, and he’s very wealthy. Al Gore starts out as any politician, supposedly very poor. He’s from an affluent family, and he’s now a near-billionaire.

And the BLM people who ginned up the George Floyd riots, they all retreated to plush homes, used those monies that were intended to be nonprofit funds for their own personal aggrandizement.

In sum, when you see a sudden epidemic, a melodrama, a hysteria, just be very careful because the odds are it will be in an election year, it’ll be ginned up by a so-called left-wing expert, and when it’s all over, that left-wing expert will be pretty wealthy.

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 September 21, 2026  Posted by at 8:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  32 Responses »


Thomas Cole Destruction of Empire 1836


• Trump Announces AI Task Force and Pending Appointment of AI Czar (CTH)
• Nvidia CEO Discusses Current Status of AI (CTH)
• The Apocalyptic Game: Panic and Opportunity (Sasha Gong)
• Zelenskyy Brags About NATO Missiles Being Used to Attack Russia (CTH)
• Putin Remarks on Europe’s Preparations for Expanded War Against Russia (CTH)
• Can the President Ban Disfavored Media? (Turley)
• Carney Marries Canada to Dying Europe (J.B. Shurk)
• Tesla Engineers Audit Chinese Suppliers As Optimus Commercialization Nears (ZH)
• Shield of Americas, Rubio and Trump’s Moves Against Canada/EU (CTH)
• The $6.7 Billion DOGE Headline Is True. It Leaves Out Half the Story (Manney)
• The Supreme Court Remains a Court of Consensus (Turley)
• Israel Has the World on a Path to Destruction (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Nearly 90% of Midterm Races Were Not Competitive: Analysis (Ben Whedon)
• French Soldiers Applaud Military Chaplain’s Warning Of ‘Great Replacement’ (RMX)

 

 

https://twitter.com/silvertrade/status/2101521540386857190?s=20 https://twitter.com/ConstitustionX/status/2100726372897566749?s=20 https://twitter.com/SidneyPowell1/status/2101342022556598461?s=20

 

 


In an election in one of Germany’s states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Chancellor Merz’s ruling CDU party didn’t even make the 5% voting threshold for Parliament


Can’t slow it down, so go head first.

• Trump Announces AI Task Force and Pending Appointment of AI Czar (CTH)

PRESIDENT TRUMP – Over the years, there have been many Hoaxes, all generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats, for purposes of destroying our Country. RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, Global Warming, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, Men in Women’s Sports, Transgender for Everyone, and now, the decimation, or destruction, of AI, commonly known as Artificial Intelligence — And I, as President of the United States, will not stand by and let this happen.


It all began with an attack on our Data Centers, until people realized how wealthy and prestigious they were for the Communities in which they were built. Higher Salaries, Lower Taxes, and Safer Streets, was the result, and the crazed Data Center attack has largely failed, so now, in much the same way as they changed the term “Global Warming” to “Climate Change,” in that it covers a much larger “territory” of doubt, they are going straight at AI.

We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows! However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System.

For this purpose, I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term. To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI “Czar” — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply! AI is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful, possibly as much as 25% of our Country’s GDP. We are leading China, and the rest of the World, and I intend to keep it that way!” ~ President DONALD J. TRUMP

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Are they just trying to scare people?

• Nvidia CEO Discusses Current Status of AI (CTH)

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appears on CBS Face the Nation to discuss AI development and point out that messaging is “quite frankly too much drama, irresponsible. It is not grounded in facts.” There is the short segment that was broadcast on Sunday morning and also the full video below.



Full Video Below:


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“America can decide how it develops artificial intelligence. It cannot decide whether artificial intelligence will continue to develop.”

• The Apocalyptic Game: Panic and Opportunity (Sasha Gong)

America’s latest argument over artificial intelligence has suddenly become apocalyptic. Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon accused AI companies of “gambling with our lives.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged the industry to slow the development of frontier models, an idea supported by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk. At the same time, opposition to the data centers needed to power AI is spreading across the United States. China has noticed.


X recently uncovered a suspected Chinese influence network of roughly 200,000 fake accounts; about 200 of them were directly involved in amplifying claims that American data centers were raising electricity prices and overwhelming the power grid. This does not mean that criticism of AI or data centers is manufactured in Beijing. Concerns about electricity costs, water use, pollution, cyberattacks, job losses, and mass surveillance are real. But China does not need to invent American divisions. It needs only to identify, amplify, and exploit them.

Modern democracies periodically succumb to predictions that a new technology will destroy humanity. The fear may be legitimate, but its political consequences are not evenly distributed. Democracies permit protest, litigation, regulation, and obstruction. They may even abandon a technology out of fear. Dictatorships suppress debate, concentrate resources, and use their rivals’ hesitation to catch up.

The first great technological apocalypse began with the atomic bomb. As the Manhattan Project approached completion in 1945, scientists considered whether an atomic explosion might ignite nitrogen in the atmosphere or trigger an uncontrollable reaction in the oceans. Edward Teller raised the possibility; Hans Bethe and others calculated that the risk was physically negligible. The Trinity test proceeded.

The question nevertheless haunted Robert Oppenheimer. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he feared that scientists had opened a Pandora’s box. When Washington decided to develop the hydrogen bomb after the Soviet atomic test, he opposed it on moral and strategic grounds.

Oppenheimer’s Communist associations then turned a policy dispute into a political scandal. His wife and brother were members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), and he had many pro-Soviet acquaintances. Meanwhile, actual Soviet spies inside the Manhattan Project—including Klaus Fuchs and Theodore Hall—passed crucial nuclear information to Moscow.

The Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb in 1949 and a thermonuclear device in 1953. China tested its first atomic bomb in 1964, shortly after emerging from a famine that killed 40 million people. Neither Communist regime permitted a genuine public debate over the wisdom of nuclear competition.

The West did. Scientists, churches, students, and citizens organized enormous anti-nuclear movements. Their pressure contributed to test-ban treaties and arms control negotiations. Yet Americans still understood that the danger came not only from nuclear weapons but also from the regimes possessing them. After Sputnik in 1957, few believed the United States could safely withdraw from technological competition while the Soviet Union continued advancing.

After the Cold War, climate change became the next vehicle for apocalyptic politics. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth turned complex climate models into images of approaching catastrophe. Greta Thunberg transformed policy disagreements into moral indictments. Claims that humanity had only “12 years” remaining circulated widely.

Fear of climate change converted a scientific problem into an ideological commandment. Energy restrictions, endless permitting, penalties on traditional industries, and costly transitions were presented as the only acceptable path. These policies greatly contributed to and accelerated Western deindustrialization.

China followed a different course. Unrestrained by voters, environmental groups, or local governments, Beijing concentrated subsidies, land, energy, and credit to build complete industrial supply chains. The West congratulated itself for reducing domestic emissions while transferring production to China. It then discovered that it depended on China for pharmaceuticals, rare earths, batteries, solar panels, and electronics.

The pattern is now repeating with AI. While Americans debate moratoriums, China is treating artificial intelligence, robotics, and computing infrastructure as pillars of national power. Its “Eastern Data, Western Computing” strategy is creating an integrated national computing network, moving the eastern seaboard’s data-processing demands to western provinces with abundant land and energy. Beijing intends to control not only AI models but also the electricity, chips, servers, communications systems, and data centers that sustain them.

China is also competing to write the rules. In 2026, 29 countries signed an agreement in Shanghai establishing the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, which Beijing describes as the first intergovernmental organization devoted to AI. China does not plan to pause while America debates whether the future is too dangerous to build.

AI requires serious safeguards: independent testing, cybersecurity standards, protection against biological misuse, transparent energy pricing, and accountability for harms. But regulation should make development safer, not make development impossible. Data-center projects should bear their actual costs, but local objections cannot become a nationwide veto over the infrastructure of the next industrial age.

Open debate is one of democracy’s moral strengths. The power to suppress debate is one of authoritarianism’s strategic advantages. When democratic caution becomes paralysis, freedom itself becomes vulnerable to exploitation.

America can decide how it develops artificial intelligence. It cannot decide whether artificial intelligence will continue to develop. If the United States stops because it fears the future, China will not stop with it.

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Trump must be careful. Don’t get dragged in.

• Zelenskyy Brags About NATO Missiles Being Used to Attack Russia (CTH)

Days after President Trump asks Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries, Zelenskyy takes the attacks up a notch and brags about all of the different NATO country missile systems being used to attack Russian oil refineries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, “One of Russia’s key oil industry facilities and the aggressor’s logistics facility were hit. These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine. The systems used included FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichen, and Pelican.”


Everyone can see this game for what it is. Everyone can see it. After weeks of various European/NATO countries hyping pending attacks from Russia, Zelenskyy now begins to name the missile systems being provided by those countries to target Russia. Zelenskyy and the EU-NATO group are intentionally trying to draw a Russian military response against the support the European countries are providing to Ukraine. Zelenskyy is naming the missile systems as part of that antagonistic effort, and his NATO allies do it on the last day of the Russian elections. Specifically timed and coordinated for maximum propaganda use.


President Trump, or someone inside the U.S. administration needs to make a very public statement highlighting that everyone can see the organized effort for what it is. EU-NATO wants an expanded conflict with Russia, beyond the confines of the non-NATO Ukraine conflict.Bloomberg reports that the Gazprom Neft-owned Moscow Oil Refinery, about 16 miles from the Kremlin, was struck by drones.

The facility has a processing capacity of around 245,000 barrels a day and supplies fuel to the surrounding metro area. Simultaneous with this increased provocation, the Ukrainian president announced plans for meeting with President Donald Trump in New York.


Zelenskyy feels emboldened by his relationships to his “NATO partners”, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. This is not going to end well unless someone steps on Zelenskyy to bring him back to reality.

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No Nukes, No NATO, No Nazis. Nothing changed the past 5 years.

• Putin Remarks on Europe’s Preparations for Expanded War Against Russia (CTH)

European defense industries have been expanding the production of missiles and drones for use in Ukraine. For years, Moscow has watched and seemingly tolerated the use of British, German and Polish military warehouses to manufacture drones and weapons which are then used to target Russia and kill Russian civilians. It is these targets which Europe has placed on high alert, while simultaneously mixing in false flag alerts and events to scare the European population and rally them for increased spending and expanded conflict. However, a large part of the European citizenry can see the EU operations clearly (see recent German examples). Against this backdrop, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers the following remarks (transcript):


President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,

Today, we will talk about the new draft State Armament Programme and the defence industry development programme. They will become the backbone for designing and serial production of modern weapons systems and hardware for our army and other defence and law enforcement agencies for them to be ready for a rapid and effective response to potential external threats.

As you know, such threats are not abating. NATO is “swelling” and expanding and has now extended its reach to other regions of the world. Certain European leaders are openly declaring that they are preparing for war with Russia. In my view, they are merely trying to salvage their plummeting approval ratings by concealing the failures of their economic and social policies. This approach is clearly ineffective – it does not produce results.

Instead of listening to their citizens – who have made it abundantly clear through elections that they do not want war with Russia – these leaders continue to escalate tensions. They are exploiting the situation in Ukraine to exacerbate the crisis, using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder.

“Their arguments invariably boil down to a few points. One of them is the assertion that Ukraine is ostensibly defending European values, European civilisation and democracy. Yet how can the current regime in Ukraine claim to be defending democracy when it has long since degenerated into dictatorship? No one wants to address this point.

It is common knowledge that no elections are being held in Ukraine. Power has been seized by a clique of embezzlers and corrupt officials who need war to retain their positions in the absence of elections and to maintain the conditions necessary for the plunder of their own people – enriching themselves with funds from sponsors, including those in Europe. And is this totally corrupt regime really the principal defender of democracy in Europe? It sounds rather strange.

The Ukrainian leadership, as you know, is in no hurry to hold elections; moreover, it is actively trying to hinder us. You are aware that quite recently, the Kiev regime committed yet another crime – it struck the residential building of the chairwoman of a district electoral commission in the village of Oktyabrskoye in the Zaporozhye Region. The chairwoman of the commission, Yelena Astanina, was tragically killed. Today, I signed an Executive Order posthumously awarding her the Order of Courage.

Representatives of the Kiev regime – the leadership in Kiev – speak of peace and propose the resumption of so-called negotiations. Yet, even as they commit crimes of this nature, they do everything in their power to ensure that there is neither peace nor negotiations. Otherwise, one must ask: what is the purpose of these actions? To intimidate us? It is clear to everyone that this is impossible. Therefore, the objective can only be one: they have no intention whatsoever of conducting any negotiations – that is what it is all about.

I have also said about some European leaders: to justify their position and exorbitant spending on the war in Ukraine, they are using absolutely anything. In particular, one of the basic claims is an alleged threat from Russia. I want to say this again: Russia has no aggressive intentions regarding Europe or European countries. We simply have no reasons for this. We are ready for cooperation and restoring relations with our European neighbours.

Nevertheless, we have also noted another round of military drill held quite recently in the Baltic Sea. One of their objectives was to master seizing civilian vessels. Is that normal? All the time they are speaking about protecting international law, about observing its rules, while getting ready for capturing civil ships.

Meanwhile, the same people are displaying so-called concern and denouncing everything unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb. But what are they really doing? What are they getting ready for? I just want to tell them: let’s live in harmony instead; otherwise, we’ll have to respond too. This should be obvious for everybody, a clear truism. It won’t be otherwise.

The basic areas of the new State Armament Programme have been determined with due account of the world situation, the special military operation experience and the global trends in military technologies. The top priorities include, as before, the strengthening of the nuclear triad that remains the guarantee of our country’s sovereignty and plays a key role in preserving the balance of force in the world.

I want to point out that hardly any nuclear country can boast such figures as, for example, those of our Strategic Missile Forces – 92 percent modernisation, that is, modern armaments. Another priority area of the new state programmes will be the improvement of the air defence system. It has to ensure destruction of any means of air and space attack.

Special attention will be given to developing a broad range of unmanned robot-assisted systems of various profiles as well as to precision munitions. We need to fully complete the orbital constellation of spacecraft. This will enhance the capabilities of all types of space reconnaissance, navigation, satellite communication and broadband internet access for the real-time command and control of troops and weapons.

In the course of implementing the proposed programmes, work to develop and introduce advanced digital technologies and AI will be continued. I want to emphasise that all the items and parameters of the new State Armament Programme require rational, carefully calibrated and effective solutions. This is what we are going to discuss.

There are some other issues but we will discuss them in a closed-door format.”

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He can try. Do we know how they treated him? He does. That’s why he does this. If only symbolic.

• Can the President Ban Disfavored Media? (Turley)

The Trump Administration is rushing to prepare for a fight that few knew was coming after President Donald Trump banned Politico, CNN, and MS NOW from the White House for spreading “fake news.” I understand the President had been planning this step for over a year, but he announced it with little notice to his staff. What will follow could be one of the most consequential fights over press rights in decades… and the odds are against the President.


I have previously expressed my disappointment with the ban. While I have been one of the most vocal critics of biased coverage on these outlets, I view this as an ill-considered, damaging move. Putting aside the constitutional concerns, it is a policy that undermines core values and traditions related to the free press. As I discussed in my Hill column this weekend, presidents since George Washington have denounced media bias, but they have refrained from this type of action.

During the Biden Administration, the President would regularly attack Fox News and reporters such as Peter Doocy. However, they were not banned over their negative coverage. The United States laid the foundation for free speech and the free press in the First Amendment. It remains the great champion of press freedom around the world. It is difficult to maintain that position when media outlets are barred because of the content of their coverage.

On the legal side, the ban runs against the grain of existing precedent. In 1977, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia considered a ban on Robert Sherrill, a reporter for The Nation. In Sherrill v. Knight, the court ruled that the First Amendment limited the right of the White House to arbitrarily deny a press pass to a journalist. Since that time, viewpoint discrimination has long been viewed as not a reasonable basis for exclusion.

The D.C. Circuit held “White House press facilities having been made publicly available as a source of information for newsmen, the protection afforded newsgathering under the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press . . . requires that this access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons.” The White House appears ready to seek a possible reversal of Sherrill either before the D.C. Circuit or the Supreme Court. It is a risk since a countervailing decision could cement and even amplify the Sherrill standard in a Supreme Court opinion.

The White House is not without good-faith arguments to make in the coming litigation. The White House is not a public forum, and it can deny access for reasons such as security. Last year, the D.C. Circuit ruled for the White House in Ateba v. Leavitt. Journalist Simon Ateba challenged White House credentialing requirements after he was denied a permanent “hard pass.” The appeals court found that, as a nonpublic forum, such a denial was permissible.

However, the Court in Ateba rejected the notion of “unbridled discretion” in such denials. Citing Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Def. & Educ. Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788 (1985), the Court still reaffirmed that “[a]s a nonpublic forum, access to the White House Press Area “can be restricted as long as the restrictions are” viewpoint neutral and reasonable.” Likewise, after the Trump White House denied access to CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, a federal judge (and Trump appointee) ordered the White House to restore the press pass due to the lack of due process and notice.

The D.C. Circuit also considered such denials in the case involving the Associated Press when the Administration barred access to Air Force One and the Oval Office after AP refused to change references to the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. In Associated Press v. Budowich, the D.C. Circuit noted: In Sherrill, we held that the “White House press facilities having been made publicly available as a source of information for newsmen, the protection afforded newsgathering under the [F]irst [A]mendment guarantee of freedom of the press” attached, requiring that “access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons.” 569 F.2d at 129 (cleaned up).

AP initially prevailed before District Judge Trevor McFadden, also a Trump appointee, who ruled that the ban probably violated the First Amendment. He wrote that “under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists – be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere – it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints.” A divided panel of the D.C. Circuit later lifted the injunction by stressing that Air Force One and the Oval Office are very specific locations subject to greater discretion and controls. However, the court stressed that Sherrill is still good law and bars arbitrary denials. The litigation is still ongoing.

In this case, the White House gave no procedural protections or any reason other than the President’s view that these outlets were publishing “fake news.” That creates a clean and straightforward record. The White House will have to argue that it can deny access without notice, procedural protections, and based entirely on the content of coverage. In other words, it will have to argue that it can engage in viewpoint discrimination.

Once again, opposing this policy is not to defend the underlying coverage. Many of us have raised the same objections to the coverage. However, this would create a dangerous and unfettered power. Future presidents could use it to bar conservative media and outlets that expose government abuse or waste. Whatever the outcome of this litigation, it is not a policy that advances our core values and traditions.

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“Bon voyage and bonne chance, poor, misguided snow socialists.”

• Carney Marries Canada to Dying Europe (J.B. Shurk)

On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave an American-style “State of the Union” address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. During her speech, she proposed that Canada be admitted as an “associate member” of the ostensibly European Union. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney sat in the front row as an honored guest before delivering a speech of his own to the parliament the next day. Taken together, the Leyen-Carney parade of oratorical self-puffery exuded a nauseating bouquet of arrogance, foolishness, incompetence, and stale entitlement.


E.C. President (some say “Queen”) Ursula speaks as if she rules Europe (regularly invoking “our values” when describing a continent of distinct nations, dissimilar cultures, and over two hundred native languages), but European citizens never voted for her. P.M. Carney is the former head of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and his globalist cronies installed him in Canada’s highest political office just last year. While the central banker and the queen prattle on about “democracy,” neither ascended to the peaks of power in a democratic fashion. They are “elites” chosen by “elites” to represent the interests of “elites.”

Since the Second World War, the United States has heavily subsidized the economies of Canada and Europe, providing for the West’s collective security while permitting one-way tariffs against American producers. This eighty-year arrangement has endured long beyond its immediate post-war necessity, when European manufacturers were desperate to rebuild amid general ruin and the United States worried about losing more of the continent to the Soviet Union’s billowing Iron Curtain.

Unfortunately, this part of Western history does not get an honest treatment in children’s textbooks, so Europeans and Canadians grow up believing that their economies succeed despite the United States instead of because of it. When President Trump began insisting on fair and reciprocal trade terms between the United States and its partners, European and Canadian “elites” all screamed about “Trump’s trade war” as if it were a “surprise attack.” They did not explain to citizens how their nations have greatly benefited for eight decades by tariffing U.S. products while selling European and Canadian goods to American consumers. This is yet another example of the “misinformation” that the European and Canadian governments regularly disseminate to their respective peoples and a prime reason why governments cannot be trusted to objectively and dispassionately “police” so-called “disinformation.”

While Queen Ursula and Central Banker Mark denounced America’s so-called “trade war” in the harshest terms, they both spoke of an expanding security and economic alliance that would reintegrate the United Kingdom into Europe’s bureaucratic ranks and envelop Ukraine with military and financial support (paid for by Canadian and European taxpayers). For all intents and purposes, the British people’s 2016 referendum in favor of Brexit (the withdrawal of the U.K. from the E.U.) has been sabotaged and nullified by government fiat.

As is true of Canada, Ukraine is not a member of the European Union, but, just as the British Establishment effectively cancelled Brexit, the European and American Establishments orchestrated a 2014 coup d’état against the last Ukrainian government opposed to integration with the E.U. This is how the Canadians and Europeans do “democracy” — through sabotage, censorship, government propaganda, the installation of unelected “elites,” the blacklisting of political parties, the criminalization of speech, election nullification, and NGO-sponsored coups. (To be sure, this is how Democrats and Establishment Republicans in the United States do “democracy,” too, which is why President Trump drives them and their Establishment friends in Canada and Europe absolutely nuts!)

All this rhetorical flexing is sad! Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Ukraine are dilapidated vessels drifting in an open sea with huge and growing ruptures in their hulls. They are taking on more water than they can dump back out, but they pretend as if they’re part of a glorious armada.

Without U.S. military assets and personnel providing the backbone for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Canada, the U.K., and the E.U. would have but one defense posture: to lie down and play dead. Canada can’t even fight forest fires, for goodness’ sake! The U.K. lacks a sufficient number of seaworthy naval vessels to secure its own islands, let alone the ability to back up with military strength its territorial claims to the Falkland Islands (or what the Argentinians call their Islas Malvinas).

Most E.U. nations depend upon the U.S. nuclear umbrella and U.S.-NATO security guarantees to provide deterrence against military threats, which is why it is all the more preposterous when Denmark and France huff and puff about “keeping” Greenland (a North American landmass) in Europe or Spain and Italy refuse to permit U.S. military aircraft to refuel before engaging Iran. And Ukraine (whose diminutive holdover-president must be fuming at the idea of Canada becoming an “associate member” of the E.U. while Brussels refuses to let his collapsing rump state join the club) remains an albatross of corruption, as one high-ranking official after the next flees the war-torn country with suitcases of jewelry and cash. If Canada, the U.K., the E.U., and Ukraine were warhorses, they’d all be sent to the glue factory.

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How about espionage?

• Tesla Engineers Audit Chinese Suppliers As Optimus Commercialization Nears (ZH)

About a month after JPMorgan analysts toured Tesla’s Fremont factory and confirmed a “targeted four-month transition following the end of S/X production in May” to humanoid production lines, a new report on Friday says that Tesla engineers arrived in China to inspect robotics component suppliers, as Elon Musk appears to be moving closer and closer toward the commercialization of humanoid robots. Bloomberg first reported this development as Tesla engineers arrived in Ningbo, a major port and manufacturing city in Zhejiang province on China’s eastern coast, just south of Shanghai.


The engineers inspected parts and component factories for the humanoid robot called “Optimus.” “Tesla’s reported supplier audits are a positive commercialization signal for China’s humanoid supply chain, pointing to progress toward repeatable Optimus production,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ian Ma wrote in a note, adding, “Near-term sentiment could stay supported if audits lead to confirmed supplier nominations and larger orders.”

Tesla is reportedly targeting the second half of 2027 for commercial sales of Optimus. Production is likely to begin much earlier, as JPM analyst Rajat Gupta said the “Optimus Academy” will be operating later this year, with robots collecting real-world training data before being deployed in factories. News of this development sent the Solactive China Humanoid Robotics Index slightly higher on Friday, up about 1.4%, amid a tumultuous year that has left it down about 30%.

The market’s appetite for physical AI, specifically humanoids, was hyped in mid-August by China’s blockbuster Unitree IPO, but the momentum failed to follow through.Bernstein analyst Eunice Lee recently pointed out that the adoption curve for humanoids will be much steeper than that of automobiles over a century ago.Goldman analysts last month raised their global humanoid robot delivery base case to 75,000 shipments in 2026, 890,000 in 2030, and 6.5 million in 2035, versus previous estimates of 51,000, 256,000, and 1.4 million, respectively.

The invasion of physical AI is just around the corner.

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” .. if it’s hostile the U.S. could impose heavy tariffs or even halt trade with Europe.”

• Shield of Americas, Rubio and Trump’s Moves Against Canada/EU (CTH)

Promethean Action’s Barbara Boyd recaps some of last week’s geopolitical events and activities of both President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Good video for those catching up.


President Trump reacts to Mark Carney’s push to align Canada with the EU, calling it “laughable” and warning that if it’s hostile the U.S. could impose heavy tariffs or even halt trade with Europe. The episode argues the administration is securing the southern border through Marco Rubio’s Latin America trip and “Operation Shield of the Americas,” linking Peru’s participation and Keiko Fujimori’s election to an intensified campaign against cartels, drug production and trafficking, and Chinese influence.

Boyd’s recap frames Carney as a longtime opponent of U.S. interests, citing his Bank of England role, “green” credit agenda, and support for Ukraine, and claims Canada-EU plans target Arctic control and the U.S. northern defense line. It ends with Trump announcing a permanent U.S. presence in Greenland and warning Canada to curb fentanyl labs and criminal networks.

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Not all’s gold that glitters.

• The $6.7 Billion DOGE Headline Is True. It Leaves Out Half the Story (Manney)

Washington has discovered a government program that costs billions of dollars, and naturally, everyone is shocked. The Government Accountability Office says federal agencies spent an estimated $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave in 2025. Roughly $6.7 billion of that was tied to the Trump administration’s Deferred Resignation Program, which allowed workers who agreed to leave government to remain on salary while generally no longer working.


From the GAO:

OPM does not know the actual costs of the paid administrative leave used for workforce reduction efforts, including the deferred resignation program. One of the administration’s stated principles for current workforce reduction efforts is to trim the budget topline by reducing full-time equivalent positions. To support these efforts, federal agencies used millions of workdays of paid administrative leave. To calculate long-term savings, OPM needs to know short-term costs of paid administrative leave used for these efforts.

However, OPM cannot easily and accurately do this because the paid administrative leave used for workforce reduction efforts is reported with other types of general paid administrative leave. Without a mechanism to track paid administrative leave for workforce reduction efforts, federal leaders may not have the data needed to understand whether government-wide cost saving goals are being met.

You can understand why the headlines wrote themselves. Federal workers got paid billions not to work during a program associated with DOGE, which was created to cut waste and shrink government. One national headline simply announced that the government paid workers $9.5 billion “not to work.” Another framed the program as DOGE causing the government to spend billions while supposedly saving money.

There’s just one problem. The $6.7 billion figure is an estimated one-time cost of removing workers from the federal payroll. OPM Director Scott Kupor has said the Deferred Resignation Program is expected to save more than $20 billion every year because those salaries disappear after the employees leave. Spend $6.7 billion once to reduce annual spending by more than $20 billion, and suddenly the story sounds rather different.

Except that, Washington being Washington, there’s another concern. GAO says OPM can’t accurately determine the program’s actual net savings because it never established a separate payroll category to track administrative leave used for workforce reductions. Administrative leave for the resignation program was mixed together with other forms of administrative leave in the federal payroll system.

From OPM: “What They Got Wrong About the Deferred Resignation Program”. This week, a Senate Democrat report took aim at OPM’s Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) – a voluntary retirement program that provided government employees with eight months of paid leave. Their argument? Our efforts to modernize the federal workforce somehow reflect poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you don’t have time to read the 54-page report, here’s the TLDR:

We should never reduce government spending because we might incur one-time separation costs in doing so; and” We should ignore the fact that in incurring those one-time costs we lower the ongoing run-rate of government spend, thus saving billions of dollars. So OPM has a large savings claim. GAO has a large cost estimate. And the federal government’s accounting system apparently looked at the whole arrangement and decided precision was optional.

GAO also found evidence suggesting the leave totals themselves may be overstated. Agencies reported 144% more administrative leave during pay periods containing public holidays before the resignation program began. Holidays aren’t supposed to be coded as administrative leave. GAO says historical errors will remain in some publicly released data.

GAO reviewed more than 18.5 million payroll records covering about 1.6 million employees and 76 agencies. Its analysis covered roughly 95% of the civilian federal workforce. Even after reviewing all that data, GAO concluded the government still doesn’t have the tracking system necessary to determine with confidence whether the workforce reductions are meeting their cost-saving goals.

This is where the story becomes more interesting than the headline. Critics are perfectly entitled to point at $6.7 billion and ask why taxpayers paid workers for months after they stopped working. The administration is equally entitled to answer that severance-style costs can be justified if they eliminate much larger recurring payroll expenses. Neither argument settles the accounting.

OPM’s more-than-$20-billion annual savings figure remains the administration’s projection. GAO isn’t endorsing it. GAO also isn’t saying the Deferred Resignation Program lost taxpayers $6.7 billion on balance. Its report says something more inconvenient: the federal government doesn’t yet have the data necessary to accurately calculate the answer. And somehow, “Government Accounting Is Too Messy to Know the Final Number Yet” didn’t make many headlines. The $6.7 billion is real enough to deserve scrutiny.

So is the part people keep leaving out.

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They don’t want the court to function well; they want it to decide in their favor.

• The Supreme Court Remains a Court of Consensus (Turley)

The Supreme Court is once again under attack from those calling for packing, or even eliminating, the institution as hopelessly ideological and divided. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently proclaimed that “The Supreme Court’s conservative majority keeps choosing ideology over impartiality.” Other media outlets reported “devastating” polling showing the Court as unpopular and losing institutional respect. It is all clearly alarming — despite being entirely untrue.


Looking at the actual rulings disproves the argument of a “biased” court. The Court ruled unanimously in more than 44% of cases, slightly up from the prior year. When you add the roughly 11% of opinions that were 8-1 and 6% that were 7-1 or 7-2, the rate of unanimous or nearly unanimous jumps to 62%. In over 77% of cases, there was no ideological split in the resulting opinions. While slightly up, the ideological split emphasized in the coverage is found in less than a quarter of the cases. Now look at those supposed ideologically besieged liberal justices.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had the lowest percentage in the majority in the last term. However, she was still in the majority in 72% of cases. Jackson even agreed with Justice Samuel Alito in 49% of the cases and with Justice Clarence Thomas in half of the cases. The narrative also ignores major losses by the Trump administration in cases dealing with birthright citizenship, mail-in ballots, tariffs, the Federal Reserve Board members and even Trump’s personal defamation case.

Just this week, the court issued a ruling that President Trump called “a big loss for Republicans” in rejecting a mail-in ballot change for the next election. Those cases saw conservatives voting with their liberal colleagues. Indeed, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Neil Gorsuch are generally viewed as “in play” in a variety of cases in creating mixed majorities. Critics aren’t just wrong that the court is biased, it’s incorrect that the Supremes are particularly unpopular.

A recent Marquette Law School poll shows that the court remains slightly underwater in popularity — with 47% favor, 53% disfavor. Not great, but those numbers are still more popular than Congress or the two major political parties. The unpopularity of Congress hit a whopping 86% this year. Gallup found that only 10% of the American people hold a favorable view of Congress. Trump’s popularity stands at around 40%. So the Supreme Court has the highest approval rate and is massively more popular than Congress. Yet, these members want to trash the most popular institution among the three branches.

Plenty of unanimity
This term is shaping up as another blockbuster, with major cases on gun rights, parental rights, immigration, climate change and other issues. Some cases will break along a 6-3 ideological divide, but many more will be decided by unanimity or mixed majorities, as in past years. The problem is that many in the media and politics will continue to demonize the court for those cases upon which they disagree and ignore the many cases upon which most of the justices agree. That includes exaggerated claims of the court “killing democracy.”

The move to pack the court is based on a long-standing radical agenda to change the constitutional system on the left. The court is standing in the way and these figures know that it is not easy to get a free people to give up on protections for those freedoms. They have to be very angry or very afraid. As a result, the court will resume hearing cases in an atmosphere of rage directed at its institution.

But make no mistake about it. This court continues to function as designed as a principled, independent institution. On our 250th anniversary, we should celebrate, not demonize, our highest court.

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If PCR would just tell us he wants Iran to have nukes, at least we’d know where he’s at.

• Israel Has the World on a Path to Destruction (Paul Craig Roberts)

Do you remember a few years ago–Trump’s first term–when the Democrats–increasingly known as DemoRats–concocted the “Russiagate” hoax that Trump with Russia’s help had stolen the 2016 US presidential election? The Democrats’ plot against Trump involved the highest reaches of the FBI and US Department of Justice and was supported by the CIA director. The hoax claimed that America’s elections were in the hands of Russia, a foreign power that was putting their agents in charge of the US government. The whore American media gave the baseless accusations many years of life, and you still meet people who believe every word of it.


All the time there really was foreign money controlling US elections, only it is anti-semitic to speak about it, because it is AIPAC money, the money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. $32 million, an unprecedented amount for a primary election of a House of Representatives candidate, was given by AIPAC and Jewish billionaires to remove Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, likely the most American member of the US House of Representatives. Being a strong supporter of Trump didn’t save Massie from AIPAC.

Another AIPAC victim was Marjorie Taylor Green, another strong Trump supporter abandoned, like Massie, by Trump on orders from AIPAC. She also did not approve of Israel’s genocide of Palestine paid for with American money, weapons, and diplomatic cover. Faced with Trump-supported AIPAC slander campaign against her in her primary election, she resigned, reasoning that supporting America as contrasted with supporting Israel was too expensive.

Now we have from Truthout a report that “The giant influx from American Israel Public Affairs Committee PACs is a case study in money distorting politics.” The author writes:

“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, has been spending tens of millions of dollars on political races during the current election cycle, aiming to defeat progressive candidates who are critical of Israel and who express support for Palestinians. Many voters might not even be aware of this, because AIPAC-funded ads and mailers often omit any mention of Israel, even though fostering U.S. support for Israel and electing pro-Israel candidates are among the group’s driving aims.

“AIPAC’s lobbying and electoral network has so far spent $67.2 million during the current election cycle, up from $29.3 million during the 2021-2022 cycle. These huge amounts of spending have been dedicated to trying to defeat candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Aisha Wahab in California, Melat Kiros in Colorado, and many others.

“AIPAC has a range of affiliated and aligned Super PACs and other entities. Some of the most significant ones are AIPAC PAC, the group’s political action committee, which raises money to contribute directly to candidates; United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC, which raises and spends much more money on elections independently; and Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) PAC, which is aligned with AIPAC and specifically focuses on Democratic races.”

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“To be sure, both the House and Senate are still in play, but the total number of competitive contests that could decide control is at an all time low…”

• Nearly 90% of Midterm Races Were Not Competitive: Analysis (Ben Whedon)

A combination of redistricting and increased political polarization has rendered the overwhelming majority of House and Senate races uncompetitive. And 2026 is shaping up to be the least competitive midterm cycle in recent history, according to an analysis from Unite America.


To be sure, the competition between Democrats and Republicans to control the House and Senate is still in play in November. But the total number of competitive contests that could decide control is at an all-time low. All 435 House seats are up for reelection, but Unite America’s analysis suggests that 383 (88%) will be so uncompetitive that they were effectively decided by the party primary.

On the Senate side, however, only 35 seats are up for reelection. The math is somewhat less of a shutout, with only 26 (74%) of races deemed uncompetitive. The vast majority of races being decided in the primaries effectively shuts out many voters from having a meaningful say, the analysis found. Overall, just 10.2% of voters cast ballots in Senate primaries for either major political party this cycle. That figure stood at 9.4% in House races. Perhaps best illustrating the lack of substantive choice in elections, Unite America suggested, were the 150 House races in which the nominee for a safe seat ran unopposed in the primary.

Some of this disparity is due to a combination of low primary turnout, voter satisfaction with their own, specific representative, and, of course, apathy. But the recent redistricting push from Republicans, and the counterefforts from Democrats, have effectively eliminated many formerly competitive districts.

After the Supreme Court narrowed its interpretation of part of the Voting Rights Act to disallow race-based congressional districts, states across the South redrew their maps in ways that favored the Republicans. Among the states whose redraws favored Republicans were Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. Missouri attempted to redraw its districts, but has faced legal challenges. Only California and Utah altered their maps in ways that benefited Democrats.

Virginia also attempted to redraw its maps via a constitutional amendment, but the state Supreme Court found the process unconstitutional after voters had already backed the Democratic proposal. Accordingly, the state’s maps will sit at 6 Democratic and 5 Republican-leaning districts in November.

The result was to render less than 5% of House races as true toss-ups. The Cook Political Report’s Partisan Voting Index (PVI), currently regards only 21 of 435 districts as “toss ups.” A further 208 at least lean Republican, while 206 at least lean Democratic. But redistricting did not affect the Senate at all, and seven of the 35 races are “toss-ups” in the PVI.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the Center for Politics, meanwhile, paints a similar picture, with 203 seats leaning Republican and 210 leaning Democratic, with only 22 toss-ups. Sabato, however, views only five Senate contests as competitive. The RealClearPolitics polling average does not currently feature a House breakdown, but regards nine Senate races as competitive.

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Le Canard Enchaîne.

• French Soldiers Applaud Military Chaplain’s Warning Of ‘Great Replacement’ (RMX)

A leaked video of a French military chaplain addressing paratroopers in a cathedral has circulated widely on social media. In the clip, the chaplain makes disparaging remarks about leftists, tells soldiers to keep fighting for their national heritage, and warns of the risk that French values and culture could be displaced.


The clip, recorded during a Saint-Michel Mass on Oct. 7, 2025, shows Father Romain Ghandour speaking to soldiers of the 3rd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (3e RPIMa) at Carcassonne’s Saint-Michel Cathedral. Soldiers can be heard laughing and applauding as he delivers his pointed remarks. The clip was leaked and published by Le Canard Enchaîne news outlet.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/2100894085120749688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2100894085120749688%7Ctwgr%5E77997ba3f7742c60e9e15fe5029a90d5975fbdba%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fcalm-down-lefties-quiet-in-leaked-video-french-soldiers-clap-and-applaud-as-military-chaplain-slams-leftists-and-warns-of-replacement%2F


The video was released in mid-September 2026, nearly a year after the Mass.

Saint-Michel is the patron saint of paratroopers and airborne troops in the French army, which explains why the regiment was gathered in the cathedral. Christophe Barthès, then a municipal election candidate and later elected mayor of Carcassonne for the right-wing National Rally, was among those present. Ghandour begins by invoking the names and dates of men and women who died so that France would remain “a beautiful country,” one in which architects could continue building “basilicas, cathedrals, housing, and fortified castles.”

He contrasts that heritage with the present: instead of knights, he says, “we put incompetent people. We put people who eat seeds, people who lecture everyone, ideologues.” The phrase “people who eat seeds” is widely understood as a jab at what he presents as weak or overly ideological leftists. The line that has drawn the most attention comes next: “Calm down, lefties! Quiet! Breathe through your nose!” The assembled soldiers respond with laughter and applause. He then warns that if they lose courage and conviction, “we will be ridiculed” and “this beautiful country that is France will be mocked, and others will take our place.”

He continues: “In fact, after a while, when you’re thirsty, when you’re hungry, it’s the law of the strongest that reigns. And others will take the place of our values, of this freedom of speech, of action, of this equality between men, and of this fraternity, of this culture, of this society. Nature abhors a vacuum.”

While he never directly mentions the “Great Replacement,” many commentators have taken this remark to be a direct reference to the phenomenon, which is not only a reference to mass immigration, but also relates to the constant replacement of technology, culture, society, and peoples through all spheres of modern life at an ever accelerating pace. Ghandour closes by telling the soldiers to “keep fighting” and “continue to have the courage of your convictions, as I am trying to do at this Mass.”

As of the video’s release, there has been no detailed public statement from the army’s Catholic chaplaincy or the Ministry of the Armed Forces on whether the remarks violate rules on political neutrality for military clergy. French military chaplains of all recognized faiths operate under a framework that is supposed to respect both freedom of conscience and the state’s neutrality. The 3e RPIMa, based in Carcassonne since 1962 and part of the 11th Parachute Brigade, is an elite unit within the French military.

The left has often been skeptical, and even hostile to, the French military, which has been seen as a bastion of support for the right in the country.

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Sep 152026
 


Olivier Drot Morning in Downtown Athens June 7 2017


• Oil, Gas and Orange Juice (CTH)
• President Vladimir Putin Explains Why NATO Wants a War Against Russia (CTH)
• Trump Slams “Perfect Little Angel” Dario, Demands Full Steam Ahead For AI (ZH)
• President Trump Announces Obamacare Refunds (CTH)
• A Theory of Everything (James Howard Kunstler)
• Zelensky Sanctions Ex-Press Secretary Turned Fierce Critic (RT)
• Ukrainians Must Leave Germany – AfD Co-Leader Alice Weidel (RT)
• Supreme Court Block President Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Order (ZH)
• The Dangerous Evolution of Gavin Newsom (Turley)
• A Federal Grand Jury Wants Six Years of Gavin Newsom’s Receipts (Manney)
• Charlie Kirk, Rest In Peace (Arthur Schaper)

 


 

 


 


The point here is simple. Oil prices in Europe could be much lower (cheaper). Putin wants them to be.

“Europe wants financial control, not cheap energy.” Expensive energy can be blamed on Putin. That suits them just fine.

• Oil, Gas and Orange Juice (CTH)

Western financial experts have a self-interest to never explain this issue. Instead, they frame the issue as BRICS seeking an alternate currency in the energy markets. However, the currency or petrodollar is not the issue. At least it’s not the core issue. What Vladimir Putin, and by extension BRICS, do not want is corporatism -corporate financial control over govt systems- determining prices. To give you an example of Vladimir Putin’s argument, consider orange juice.


Why should orange juice in California or Florida cost $7/gal, when the oranges are in CA or FL? Shouldn’t the orange juice in FL or CA be cheaper than in, say, Minnesota? Logic would say, yes. However, that would mean the corporations who have purchased the OJ production couldn’t maximize predatory profiting, through nonmarket forces, ie. “Commodity trading.” The same organic supply/demand rule applies to strawberries, or [fill in the blank].

What is setting the price, what the west calls the “market price,” is actually the commodity trading issue. That means Minnesota, Florida and California consumers all pay the same price. Within the energy sector Putin views this as unfair and unworkable. To his credit, under normal supply/demand Putin would be selling oil/gas to Europe at much lower prices than “market prices” because the pipelines are in place, the proximity is near and the delivery is cheap.

However, for Europe that means the financial markets would not control energy prices. Europe wants financial control, not cheap energy. The need for control is a reaction to fear. The financial system, the bankers and the multinational corporations, fears their loss of control.

So, war!

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“Using the reference of the EU recently raising interest rates in an effort to lower energy costs, a seemingly disconnected approach that attaches energy policy to monetary policy, Vladimir Putin outlines exactly why the EU Central Bank approach is used. This is a really important dynamic to understand.”

• President Vladimir Putin Explains Why NATO Wants a War Against Russia (CTH)

Sometimes Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin just nails the issue in a way that is difficult for western voices to deconstruct. This is one of those examples. Using the reference of the EU recently raising interest rates in an effort to lower energy costs, a seemingly disconnected approach that attaches energy policy to monetary policy, Vladimir Putin outlines exactly why the EU Central Bank approach is used. This is a really important dynamic to understand.


For a long time, Russia battled with the EU over the pricing process for oil and gas. Russia, specifically Putin, wanted to sell oil/gas to the EU based on production prices and fair profits. Europe wanted to buy Russian oil/gas based on “market prices” which are manipulated by speculation and traders. Putin doesn’t like this pricing approach because it artificially inflates the price based on speculation, trading and inorganic influences. Instead, Putin always said the “market approach” makes your energy prices go up, even when production capacitary prices go down (productivity).

Producers can provide increases in energy volume at lower per unit levels just by turning a dial on gas volume. Why would Europe want to pay more, when the cost to deliver a higher volume lowers the per unit price. The EU never had a good answer, other than that’s just the way the ‘western market’ works.Concluding the first day of his working visit to India for the BRICS meeting, Vladimir Putin answered a media question about the EU and used this reference to outline why the financial system of the EU is actually the underlying reason for their need to have conflict with Russia. This is really interesting.

Question: You have spoken at length today about the BRICS countries. I would like to raise a question concerning a nation which, though geographically more distant from here, is perhaps closer to you personally – Germany. As is known, elections have recently taken place in Saxony, where the Alternative for Germany secured a decisive victory. It appears a similar trend is emerging in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well. How do you view these developments?

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: I do not wish to, nor will I, comment on matters of the internal political developments currently unfolding in the Federal Republic.However, there are points which merit attention in this context and I will explain why. In my view, all that is now happening across Europe as a whole is the consequence of systemic errors committed by the so- called West, or, to be more precise, by the globalist circles of the West, in the political, security and economic spheres.

Everyone is prone to mistakes. We, too, have made numerous mistakes, as has the wider world. Yet the difficulty for the globalist West lies here: following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, they perceived themselves as standing atop the “summit of Mount Olympus,” and evidently concluded that, firstly, they were permitted everything and, secondly, that they themselves were incapable of error. From then on, these mistakes began to accumulate and snowball.

In the security sphere- the meaning is clear. This has taken the form of attempts to put pressure on the Russian Federation, initially through the use of terrorists in the Caucasus and separatists, then via other methods, and now - by means of the neo- Nazi regime in Ukraine. This process continues unabated.

At one time, we were included in the G8. Yet, as I have previously stated, this did not constitute full- fledged membership. I saw this plainly and saw everything quite clearly. Although, on the surface, all appeared well and all the requisite words were spoken, in practice – I reiterate - they directly supported separatism in the Caucasus and sought to break up Russia. This is a matter of fact. Furthermore, today’s crisis in Ukraine was likewise instigated by them. These are persistent and recurring elements of pressure.

After all, we have repeatedly stated that NATO’s expansion eastward is unacceptable to us. Ultimately, they reached Ukraine. President Yanukovych was removed from office through a coup d’état. I am not now offering any assessment of President Yanukovych’s actions. There were, most likely, numerous mistakes, and probably grounds for the population’s discontent. Yet he was opposed to Ukraine’s accession to NATO. As soon as the regime was changed through, I repeat, a bloody coup d’état, the objective of pulling Ukraine into NATO was immediately set in motion, and this, in fact, became the root cause of today’s tragic events in Ukraine.

They, the Western globalist elites, bear responsibility for this, although they persistently seek to shift the blame onto us. As for the economic sphere, the most pressing issue at present is, naturally, energy. This represents yet another area – namely, the economic domain – in which mistakes have been made. How many times did we discuss with them the necessity of maintaining our established energy relations? We supplied gas to Europe at a price of $150 – well, $180 dollars – per 1,000 cubic metres. “That is too expensive,” they told us, “we must switch to market pricing.” But what does market pricing mean?

Under our long-term contracts, prices were – and indeed still are – indexed to the price of oil and petroleum products, which are determined by market mechanisms. “No,” they insisted, “prices must be set on the exchange.” We warned them that gas is not a market commodity, or at least not a classic market commodity; this approach will yield nothing and your prices will only increase. And so, it has turned out: prices are now at 1,000 dollars or euros per 1,000 cubic metres. And they may well rise even further.

How, in fact, is the price of gas formed on the European exchanges? It is not determined by producers, but by exchange traders. Currently in Germany – as far as I am aware – the current objective is simply to fill the gas storage facilities to 70 percent capacity –the objective is of filling only to 70 percent.

Whether they will succeed in reaching this target remains unclear. The situation in the Netherlands is even worse. And why is this so? Those who engage in exchange trading are unconcerned with the technical condition of these storage facilities and the physical volumes involved. They believe that today, it is more advantageous to extract gas from storage that was purchased at lower prices, and as for tomorrow – well, we’ll see. This will result in prices rising not just to 1,000, but to 1,500. Thus, yet another mistake has been made, this time in the economic sphere.

I have heard, likewise, that in Germany itself, the current authorities claim to be following the course set by the previous leadership, and the name of Helmut Kohl is often invoked in this context. I was personally acquainted with Mr Kohl. I can state with certainty: he did not hold the views that the present leadership of the Christian Democratic Union espouses – he simply did not. I spoke with him when he was still Chancellor, and after he had left office, he visited us.

He believed that the future of Europe, and of the Federal Republic, would be secured only if close, neighbourly, allied relations with Russia were maintained. We must complement one another, he used to say; only thus could the European civilisation preserve itself as an independent centre of intellectual and cultural strength, and, by extension, all that follows in the political and economic domains. Those were Mr Kohl’s words to me.

Yet today’s European elites adhere to a different perspective. They now seek to frighten their populations with a mythical Russian threat, purportedly dating back to the Soviet era. But such a threat does not exist, and never has. We do not threaten, nor do we intend to threaten, European countries – for what reason would we? No one appears to consider that we have no grounds for any conflict with Europe. All issues were resolved by the outcome of the Second World War. Moreover, all that transpired following the collapse of the Soviet Union was undertaken with the consent of the Russian Federation as the successor state. Any actions contrary to these agreements run counter to our interests and are inconsistent with the fundamental principles of international law and the UN Charter. That is the essence of the matter.

Nonetheless, they persist in this course, demanding certain changes. But what changes do they seek? Are they attempting to revise the results of the Second World War? To what end are they steering their peoples? Toward war with the Russian Federation? Now, they speak of contemplating the dispatch of troops to the territory of Ukraine. This would mean war with Russia. And I presume that European citizens understand what is unfolding. {SOURCE}

Speculation, exchange trading, market pricing, etc. these are the reasons why the EU is presenting an increase in central bank interest rates to try and lower energy prices. The central bank approach has nothing to do with the price of the energy (oil/gas) and everything to do with the financial markets speculating on the prices of oil and gas and profiting from the speculation/trading itself.

As noted by Russian President Putin, allowing hedge funds, financial interests and inorganic market forces to set the prices of an item disconnects that item from the economic principle of supply and demand. The prices that people suffer for oil and gas are being driven by the mechanisms set up by western financial interests. This is manipulative and creates pain on the consumer and the people who have to pay more.

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No slow down.

• Trump Slams “Perfect Little Angel” Dario, Demands Full Steam Ahead For AI (ZH)

Update (1045ET): President Trump on Monday slammed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei over his call to ‘pause’ AI and hand governance over to an Anthropic-adjacent cult.


© LUDOVIC MARIN via Gizmodo


“The Trump Administration has stopped AI “people” from doing bad, or potentially bad, “things,” like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a “perfect little angel” and will continue to do so!” Trump wrote. “We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”

Trump’s comments come days after Amodei said the industry should ‘pause’ development of the most advanced AI models, while implementing a governance framework using ‘outside safety monitors’ – including METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research), which already works with labs (including reviewing Anthropic risk reports) and has hired former Anthropic staff. Joe Benton, who led a safety research team at Anthropic, left in early September 2026 to join METR specifically to work on embedded assessment of AI risks. Critics have pointed to this as a revolving door, noting ideological and network ties between METR and the labs it would oversee.

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“$500 per person to nearly 1 million Americans in 30 states..”

• President Trump Announces Obamacare Refunds (CTH)

WHITE HOUSE – President Donald J. Trump announced that the federal government will return to the American people hundreds of millions in Obamacare overcharges, collected by the Biden Administration, by issuing refunds of $500 per person to nearly 1 million Americans in 30 states. Today’s actions directly refund the Americans most exposed to the higher costs imposed by the Biden Administration’s gross mismanagement of Obamacare.



• The Biden Administration overcharged Americans through Obamacare plan exchange “user fees” that were passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums, funding the operations of the federal Obamacare exchange far in excess of what was needed to run the exchange.bAs a result, the Biden Administration accumulated a significant surplus of funds that were not used to benefit the Americans who paid these higher premiums.

• President Trump is refunding these excess fees to Americans who do not receive premium assistance under the Unaffordable Care Act – and therefore paid the full cost of Biden’s premium tax – in the 30 states that use the federal exchange for the operations of their Obamacare markets.

• These states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Thanks to President Trump’s actions, nearly 1 million Americans will receive a refund check of $500 per person. Checks will be sent to eligible Americans beginning in October 2026.

• LOWERING HEALTHCARE COSTS AND GIVING MONEY TO THE PEOPLE, NOT INSURANCE COMPANIES: President Trump is delivering on promises to lower costs for American patients by putting them first and taking on big health insurance companies, drug manufacturers, and other corporate giants that have used the status quo in Washington to raise healthcare costs for Americans.

• The Trump Administration is cracking down on fraud and corruption, lowering healthcare costs for Americans, and putting the American people over big health insurance companies after the Biden Administration’s mismanagement of Obamacare resulted in massive levels of fraud, higher costs for Americans, and profit windfalls for big health insurance companies.

• The Trump Administration has taken the strongest actions ever to protect the integrity of the exchanges, including by issuing the Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Rule, ending loopholes used by brokers to fraudulently enroll individuals, and signing the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which permanently instituted common-sense eligibility checks for anyone seeking a government-funded subsidy.

• In February 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order to empower patients with clear, accurate, and actionable healthcare pricing information. Since then, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has ramped up enforcement against hospitals that are out of compliance with price transparency rules, finalized improvements to hospital price transparency rules, and proposed significant improvements to price transparency rules for insurance companies.

• In May 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order to bring the prices Americans and taxpayers pay for prescription drugs in line with those paid by similar nations. As of August 31, 2026, the Trump Administration has reached 26 deals with pharmaceutical manufacturers, covering nearly 90% of the branded drug market.

• In his historic Working Families Tax Cuts Act, President Trump expanded access to health savings accounts for up to ten million people on Obamacare and took the most significant actions to reduce healthcare fraud and abuse in history, enabling the largest ever investment in rural healthcare – $50 billion.

• President Trump is calling on Congress to enact the Great Healthcare Plan to lower drug prices, lower insurance premiums, hold big insurance companies accountable, and maximize price transparency. President Trump has been steadfast in putting the American people first over large insurance company profits by ensuring Obamacare funds, to the maximum extent possible, go to Americans: “The government is going to pay the money directly to you… the big insurance companies lose and the people of our country win.”

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“The Thing That Never Happens Keeps Happening.” —Kyle Becker on X

• A Theory of Everything (James Howard Kunstler)

“Everyone is retarded and nothing Works.” Turns out that’s the key to unlock the mystery of this particular Fourth Turning, the one here and now, of our own time. It’s an excellent theory of everything happening these days, formulated by a close colleague of mine. And as far as I know, it’s the only theory that makes sense. It explains, for example how and why consulting US attorney Joe DiGenova quit the grand jury investigation, as conducted by the DOJ in the Southern District of Florida (SDFL), of the treasonous conspiracy against the people of the USA running since 2016.


The most amazing part is that apparently no one in the country seems to give a shit about it. No politician has issued a statement. The blog-o-sphere, Twitter-sphere are mute. The President himself — the main target of the coup — was busy in Ireland this weekend. But let’s face it: he has a duty to steer clear of interfering in juridical proceedings involving himself and his office.

The most diligent investigator of all, Dan Bongino, the podcaster who spent years documenting the serial turpitudes of RussiaGate, ImpeachmentGate, the 2020 election, the J-6 operation, and so on, who wrote several books about these crimes — and then became Deputy FBI director for a year, with access to the entire trove of evidence about all of it — says nothing now about the DiGenova affair. How is that possible? Instead, for months he’s just played an insipid cheerleader on his daily podcast. Just imagine what Bongino really knows. Months ago, when he resigned from the FBI job, he stated publicly that what he saw in the J. Edgar Hoover building shocked him to his core.

I say all this because it looks like the case (or cases) in the SDFL will now go nowhere with diGenova out of the picture. Altogether, it was the gravest set of treasonous crimes against the Republic in our history, and nobody will be held accountable for it, a monumental insult following a possibly fatal injury to the country.

A certain amount of informed scuttlebutt comes may way, and the story I hear is that Joe DiGenova was of a mind to indict former president Barack Obama for his role in many phases of the ongoing coup, and that Todd Blanche blanched at that, in fear of provoking an even hotter civil war than the Red / Blue one currently raging from sea to shining sea (and especially in the three branches of government). Not just a civil war but, in effect, a civil race war, for fear of painting America’s only black president a criminal.

Mr. Obama enjoys certain immunities against criminal prosecution for official actions he took as president — as determined in the SCOTUS decision Trump v. the United States, July, 2024 — but the parameters of what, exactly, official means remains squishy. The boundaries would have to be tested case-by-case in the lower courts. Which is what the grand juries sitting now in Florida might have done (or might yet somehow manage to do).

Was it an official act for Mr. Obama to turn Hillary Clinton’s Russian Collusion campaign stunt into a seditious operation to run Mr. Trump out of office? Once Mr. Obama was out of office in 2017, did he direct continuing seditions through FBI director Wray and CIA directors Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel? Does a record of correspondence exist, classified or otherwise? We know that the intel apparatus captures everything. Tulsi Gabbard might know what’s in there. Perhaps the same things that shocked Dan Bongino to his core.

Once “Joe Biden” was installed in the Oval Office, did Barack Obama direct the cabal that actually ran the executive branch from Jan., 2021, to Jan., 2025 — did he act as a shadow president? What would the law say about that? And is he responsible for “Joe Biden’s” ruinous policies such as the wide-open border and all it has entailed. One of Mr. Obama’s closest insiders, John Podesta (also Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman), became “senior advisor for climate policy” in the final months of “Joe Biden’s” term. He was given $370-billion from the fraudulently-named “Inflation Reduction Act” to distribute as he saw fit, and an awful lot of it landed in Democratic Party adjacent NGOs. Was private citizen Obama involved in arranging any of that?

Is Barack Obama, the 44th President of the US, a true villain? He was a very slick performer during the eight years he was president. But now, the political faction he led — maybe still leads because, look around, who else is there? — has gone batshit crazy since his second term ended. His party beat a path straight into the overt advocacy of communism with a jihad cherry on top, and you don’t hear him complaining about any of it.

What I hear is that Joe DiGenova intended to subpoena Barack Obama to give testimony to that Florida federal grand jury and that Todd Blanche nixed it, so Joe quit. The next day, diGenova told the media that if the Florida team is “allowed to do their jobs” they will “succeed supremely” and that the U.S. Attorney’s office there was doing a “phenomenal job under the worst of circumstances.” He later added, there was “plenty of evidence” but it “just takes time.”

Whatever that means. Yet everybody knows what went down in our country the past ten years, that a vicious blob called the Deep State has been running a continuous coup, just as everybody with half-a-brain knows exactly what Covid-19 was about. The question that remains: does having half-a-brain mean you’re retarded, and does that explain why nothing works in the USA, including the ability to manage the nation’s justice apparatus?

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“Yulia Mendel has accused her former boss of “autocracy” and targeting anyone who speaks out for peace..”

• Zelensky Sanctions Ex-Press Secretary Turned Fierce Critic (RT)

Zelensky and his spoweswoman Yulia Mendel , Kiev, Ukraine, October 1, 2019

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has imposed sanctions on his former press secretary, Yulia Mendel, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of his policies and accused Kiev of turning against its own citizens.


Mendel, who served as Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, has repeatedly spoken out against what she calls “Zelensky’s authoritarian rule.” In an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson last May, she made a series of allegations against her former boss, including corruption, rampant drug use, and the obstruction of efforts to end the conflict with Russia.

The personal restrictions were enacted by Zelensky’s decree published on Sunday and include an asset freeze, a ban on transferring capital abroad, and other financial and commercial measures for the next ten years. Mendel will also be stripped of state honors indefinitely and have her social media accounts restricted inside Ukraine. She was the only Ukrainian citizen among the ten sanctioned individuals.

Zelensky is Ukraine’s main problem – ex-spokeswomanREAD MORE: Zelensky is Ukraine’s main problem – ex-spokeswoman In a post on X on Sunday, Mendel, who is scheduled to address the European Parliament later this week, slammed the sanctions as “unconstitutional, just like many of Zelenskyy’s other decisions,” accusing her former boss of targeting “anyone who advocates for peace in Ukraine.”

“Watch what they’re doing. Zelenskyy isn’t just fighting the war – he’s fighting anyone who questions his version of it,” she wrote in a follow-up post addressing the restrictions on her social media profiles.

“A nation marketed as a beacon of democracy is sliding toward something colder: a wartime state that treats disagreement as disloyalty. No independent opinion. No free expression. No speech for Ukrainians who say they want peace,” she added.

Zelensky’s ex-spokeswoman added to state-linked ‘kill list’READ MORE: Zelensky’s ex-spokeswoman added to state-linked ‘kill list’ During the Carlson interview, Mendel claimed that Zelensky had demanded “Goebbels propaganda” from his communications team after his approval ratings began declining in 2019 or 2020, calling for “thousands of talking heads” to promote a positive image of his government.

Shortly afterward, the former press secretary was added to Ukraine’s state-linked Mirotvorets database for allegedly spreading “Russian propaganda narratives” and advocating Kiev’s “capitulation.” The website is widely believed to cooperate with Ukrainian security services in publishing the personal data of people it identifies as state enemies, including Western journalists and children as young as three. When blacklisted figures are murdered or die for any reason, the database marks them as “liquidated,” reinforcing its reputation among critics as a “kill list.”

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“Alice Weidel mentioned “Ukrainian men of military age” in particular, saying the burden of welfare payments has become “unsustainable”..”

• Ukrainians Must Leave Germany – AfD Co-Leader Alice Weidel (RT)

Ukrainian migrants must leave Germany, the co-leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, has said. She particularly singled out men of fighting age.


Kiev imposed a general mobilization shortly after the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, barring most able-bodied men aged 22 to 60 from leaving the country. Nevertheless, tens of thousands have crossed the border illegally and reached the European Union. Germany has been the top destination for Ukrainian migrants within the bloc, taking in more than a million people, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

In an interview with Austrian right-wing media outlet AUF1 on Friday, Weidel spoke out against the prospect of naturalizing people “who actually ought to be sent back to their home countries,” including “more than one million Ukrainians here who are receiving the ‘citizen’s benefit’ [welfare payments].” The AfD co-chair described the burden of continued state aid to Ukrainian migrants as “simply unsustainable,” insisting that they should return to their home country.

“Especially young Ukrainian men of military age – we are talking about hundreds of thousands of them – those young men really ought to go back,” the right-wing politician said. Weidel also pledged that should the AfD come to power in Germany, it would “halt payments to Ukraine and all forms of war support, and we will demand substantial repayments from Ukraine.” In June, she similarly said that Kiev should pay reparations to Berlin for the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which the German authorities have blamed on a small group of rogue Ukrainian operatives.

Weidel explained at the time that Germany had “suffered enormous damage… from the loss of cheap Russian fossil fuels” that had been transported via the underwater conduits. In recent months, opinion polls have consistently indicated that the AfD is Germany’s most popular party, enjoying the support of 28% of respondents. Last Sunday, the right-wing party won a state election in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) finished second with just 17.2%.

Meanwhile, the incumbent coalition government, which also includes the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has ramped up pressure on Ukrainian draft dodgers.In July, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced that Germany would stop granting automatic temporary protection to Ukrainians fleeing conscription.

Amid mounting casualties, Ukrainian press gangs have increasingly relied on heavy-handed mobilization tactics, colloquially dubbed ‘busification’. Men are being snatched off the streets, from workplaces and residential areas, as evidenced by hundreds of videos circulating online. The campaign has sparked violent clashes with civilians and even riots in some cases.

Moscow has accused the leadership in Kiev and its Western backers of being willing to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

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Lawfare that makes people run out of time. Ugly.

• Supreme Court Block President Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Order (ZH)

The nationwide injunction stands; the suspended rule would have required unique barcodes and scanner-ready envelopes… The Supreme Court late on Sept. 14 declined to lift a nationwide injunction blocking a United States Postal Service (USPS) rule on federal ballot mail, leaving it on hold for the 2026 midterms. The ruling in USPS v. California took the form of an unsigned order. “The Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction,” the order said. “And the equitable factors applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court do not favor a stay.” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion with fellow Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson that “there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority” but that applying the proposed rules would be “arbitrary and capricious” for the midterm elections as state and local officials “do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule.” Justice Samuel Alito filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. The decision is likely the final say on the rule during this election cycle, with even Talwani saying from the bench earlier this month that it was unclear how the government would implement the plans with November just around the corner.
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“Often called a “political chameleon,” Newsom seems to be morphing into the actual species that evolved to adjust to its environment, including more nimble feet.”:

• The Dangerous Evolution of Gavin Newsom (Turley)

Below is my column in The Hill on the declaration of Gov. Gavin Newsom that he is now officially “evolving.” However, unlike more modest objectives like opposable thumbs over eons, Newsom wants to accomplish a full transformation in one election cycle to appeal to the surging far left of his party. It is a cautionary tale for Democrats who want their party to reposition toward the political center. Here is the column:


California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wants you to know that he is evolving. Newsom is facing a rising radical movement among Democrats, including a surging contingent aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. He is struggling in polls and therefore eager to show the skill identified by Darwin that allows certain species to thrive in their environment: adaptation. Newsom has recently declared capitalism a failure. He is now joining his competitors for president in offering up the Supreme Court and its independence to the far left. His free fall into rage politics is a cautionary tale for those who want to return the Democratic Party to more centrist positions.

Often called a “political chameleon,” Newsom seems to be morphing into the actual species that evolved to adjust to its environment, including more nimble feet. Although natural selection takes place over many years and even eons, Newsom does not have the luxury of time. He does not want to be eliminated by the more politically fit opponents to his left. Polls continue to show he receives more media support than public support. He trails Kamala Harris by 15 points in recent polling and is nearly tied with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Harris and Buttigieg quickly turned their backs on the norms governing the Supreme Court to support court-packing. Harris dismissed those of us in opposition as engaging in mere “nostalgia.” Newsom had previously tried to offer a sane alternative to these voices. But he has now found himself their quiet companion in a primal scream session. As he began to vanish in political polling, he decided he would not be outcrazied by Democratic opponents.

With candidates like Texas’s Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico calling for the “dismantling” of capitalism as an “oppressive system,” Newsom finds himself needing to cater to the mob. He has now declared that “nostalgia is not working” while adding that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.” Newsom has recently been campaigning in blue states such as New Hampshire, repeating his mantra that capitalism as “not working.”

these days, it is not enough for socialists and the far left merely to oppose the most successful economic system in the history of the world. Newsom was still being labeled as an establishment politician. So he tried to dispel that impression with his signature toothy grin and astonished demeanor, claiming that he is really undermining the system from within as “an established insurgent.”

Again, that is not enough for the current political environment. So this week, he changed his position on the Supreme Court, to say that he is now “open” to court-packing. Packing the court is considered essential today for any viable Democratic candidate. Some are openly calling for the imposition of a litmus test for all candidates: As they put it, it is a choice between “packed or sacked.” Even moderate figures such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) have now yielded to the mob in expressing a willingness to pack the Supreme Court.

So Newsom wants the far left to know that he is yet again evolving: “My initial instinct — me, a year ago, I would have said no out of concern that it will continue to be expanded. … I’m finding myself evolving on it.” The question is what Newsom and his Democrat opponents will offer next in their political adaptation. These candidates have shown that no institution or value is more important than their securing power. At this rate, we will be fortunate to have anything more than the ship itself after the race to toss institutions and “nostalgic” values over the side.

The danger for Newsom — like the danger of any fast-tracking of evolution — is that the environment can change, leaving you with an adaptation that makes you even more likely to be eliminated. Newsom knows that attacking our constitutional or economic systems will not play well in the general election, but he also knows he will never see the 2028 general election if his opponents on the left outflank him. Moreover, offerings like the Supreme Court or our economic system are unlikely to satiate the far left. As I discuss in “Rage and the Republic,” history shows that establishment figures rarely survive the mob politics they seek to use for their own advantage.

In the meantime, because of the cynical calculations of leaders like Newsom, we face a growing threat of doing lasting harm to our constitutional system. The framers warned us of these voices of “mobocracy” that would tear apart the contemporary revolution in France, which became known as “the Terror.”

The danger is that, while the majority opposes court packing and socialism, the new majority in Congress could force changes without amending the Constitution. That certainly can be done with court packing. Once a new liberal majority is secured, there would then be little barrier to achieving many of the objectives of a radical agenda long discussed by professors and pundits. Some have argued that, with control of the court and radical constitutional changes, Republicans will not be able to win another election.

In other words, the radicals hope to change the environment to prevent further adaptation and future competition. Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Evolution can go to hell as far as I am concerned. What a mistake we are.” After watching the chameleonic Gavin Newsom, it seems that we may be on the cusp of precisely such an evolutionary mistake.

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“Newsom says he has nothing to hide. Pfft! Yeah, right. And I have a full head of hair! Six years of receipts should prove who is right.”

• A Federal Grand Jury Wants Six Years of Gavin Newsom’s Receipts (Manney)

Gavin Newsom has spent months insisting the Trump administration is hunting for a crime that doesn’t exist. A federal grand jury would apparently like to see the receipts before taking his word for it.Federal subpoenas issued this month seek six years of records tied to Newsom’s international travel, outside funding, personal expenses, living expenses, and money connected to his residence.mInvestigators also want records involving donors and fundraisers for the California State Protocol Foundation, a nonprofit that has paid for the governor’s overseas travel. From the San Francisco Standard:


“The documents provide the clearest picture yet of the scope of a federal investigation effort Newsom first disclosed in June, which he said was focused on him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. “The records requested by this subpoena are for use in a criminal investigation pending in the Eastern District of California,” says one of the documents, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Anderson. The records obtained via subpoena will be presented to a grand jury, a group of jurors that acts like a judge, reviewing evidence and testimony to decide if there’s sufficient grounds for an indictment.

Newsom’s office said the investigation is baseless, and there are no crimes to investigate. “Gov. Newsom went after the king — and as he warned in June, the tyrant is now coming after everyone around him. This is what Donald Trump does to his enemies: investigate first, hunt for a crime that doesn’t exist second,” the governor’s office said. “It’s deeply upsetting to see innocent staff, friends, and family have their names dragged through the mud just because they’re associated with the governor.”

The requests reach into Newsom’s inner circle. Investigators are seeking communications involving current and former aides, advisers, foundation board members, and Rebecca Prowda, Newsom’s chief protocol officer, who helps oversee his foreign travel. One subpoena plainly states that the records are being sought for a criminal investigation pending in the Eastern District of California and will be presented to a federal grand jury.From the San Francisco Standard: A spokesperson for the foundation said it could not discuss or verify an investigation but defended its work.

“It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has proudly supported both Republican and Democratic administrations in fulfilling their duties representing all of California through public events and international engagements,” the spokesperson said. The demand extends into Newsom’s longtime political and government circle. One of the subpoenas requests communications with four members of the California State Protocol Foundation’s board. As recently as November 2025, the foundation was headed by Steve Kawa — former chief of staff for Newsom and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee — according to state records.

Communications with Kawa and other board members were subpoenaed, including Jim DeBoo, Newsom’s former executive secretary; Matina Kolokotronis, COO of the Sacramento Kings; and Jason Elliott, Newsom’s former deputy chief of staff. The California State Protocol Foundation has received millions in outside contributions during Newsom’s governorship. State records reviewed as part of the investigations show Newsom directed more than $7.5 million in contributions to the foundation since 2019, much of it connected to his inaugurations.

Now prosecutors want donor information, travel records, receipts, and documents involving money used for Newsom’s personal and living expenses. Newsom calls the investigation a political vendetta. In June, he accused President Donald Trump of using the Justice Department against political enemies and said investigators were searching for a crime instead of investigating one already identified. From Gov. Newsom’s press release:

Donald Trump is simply the most corrupt President in American history. He has turned the levers of government into his own personal power ministries to reward cronies and to try to jail his opponents. His personal attorney now runs the Department of Justice, which has repeatedly gone after his political enemies. Ask Jerome Powell. He sent them after James Comey. Tish James. Adam Schiff. He sent them after Tim Walz. And a woman that a jury found Donald Trump had sexually abused.One by one, anyone who has challenged Donald Trump has ended up on his hit list.

And today, I proudly join that list. After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate me. And just in the last week, I’ve learned his campaign has reached my own home: to get me, he’s coming after my wife, Jen. A public servant. A woman who has dedicated her life to supporting women and girls. Newsom also said federal agents could take every record and read every page because he had nothing to hide. Excellent! They accepted his terms.

Newsom’s recordkeeping has already caused trouble closer to home. In June, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission fined him $31,500 after finding that he failed to timely file 18 required reports involving behested payments. The state case is separate from the federal investigation, and there is no evidence the two are connected. It does establish something simpler: questions involving outside payments and Newsom’s disclosure obligations didn’t originate in Donald Trump’s White House.

A subpoena isn’t a conviction, and the documents made public so far don’t identify a specific crime. Prosecutors now have the job of following the records wherever they lead. Newsom doesn’t get to substitute political outrage for the records themselves. He has built a national profile accusing Trump and Republicans of corruption, self-dealing, abusing power, and bending government toward wealthy interests. Meanwhile, private donors have helped finance official travel through a foundation closely tied to Newsom’s administration, and federal investigators now want six years of documents showing how that system operated.

Maybe every dollar was proper; the grand jury gets to examine the paper trail rather than accept Newsom’s press releases as evidence.Newsom says he has nothing to hide. Pfft! Yeah, right. And I have a full head of hair! Six years of receipts should prove who is right.

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“Just over a year has passed, and Charlie’s absence still hurts.”

• Charlie Kirk, Rest In Peace (Arthur Schaper)

I didn’t believe it the day that it happened. I dismissed the long-range shot taking out the founder and leader of TPUSA as some AI fever dream from another disconcerted leftist. In reality, the fevered leftist made the nightmare come true.


Sadly, this absence is felt not just in his demise, but in the relative ease with which the world has passed on. How can the world continue as if nothing happened? My hometown of Torrance, CA, to the credit of the city council and staff, flew flags at half-mast in his honor. Yet one of the city council members lamented his “controversial” comments, too.This year, we have witnessed demented, perverted people celebrating his death, including drag queens dressing up as Charlie with fake wounds gushing out of their necks.

Such is the division our country faces in this momentous time. Angry Democrats, embittered socialists, and violent communists don’t care how many lives are lost, how many cities are destroyed, or whether the United States survives another two hundred and fifty years. Such recrimination was unheard of among members of either party thirty years ago. Today, the majority of Democrats hold a dim view of our country, and no doubt a dimmer view of those who love America and want young people to share in that love once again.

Understandably, they trained their ire on Kirk. He was more than counter-cultural. He was counter-revolutionary, undermining the Grand March through the institutions which have poisoned two generations of Americans. Kirk was turning the tide on this mad self-destruction. The left couldn’t stand by and allow that to happen. One militant leftist made sure of that, and hence the fatal shot at Utah Valley University.mHis assassination was tragic, evil, and preventable.

His political enemies rejoiced over his sudden death, exploiting the use of firearms to mock his support for the Second Amendment and his rigorous defense of the right to keep and bear arms. His passing only exposes all the more why law-abiding citizens need firearms, even in the most innocuous and presumably most secure locations. Why did Tyler Robinson take him out? He was a sexually confused, deviant man, enamored with another confused man who thought he was a woman, and an animal. Kirk’s opposition to sexual degeneracy and appeal to moral order offended him.

Charlie embodied the antidote. He married young, had two young children, and wanted a third. Following his untimely passing, darling videos have resurfaced, embracing the warm, fatherly character of this godly man. Kirk focused on rebuilding the man, the family, and the country. The Left and its putrid acolytes oppose all of it, and militantly so.

Charlie was not afraid to push past LGBT-DEI-CRT as a strict identity. He spoke to individuals as such, even those who vehemently disagreed with him. He debated in good faith, seeking to understand his fellow interlocutors from their perspective, then correct them. He was rarely at a loss for words, and not simply because he wanted to fill the air or hear himself speak. When he spoke, when he asked questions, when he engaged with college students (and their professors) with adept aplomb, he was making a case and making the difference.

One year later, commentators, pundits, and podcasters seem less interested in telling the truth, and more invested in getting a reaction. They are harvesting likes, views, shares, clicks, and outrage to pump up their profile and triumph as king of the (Dung)Hill of social media trash talk. Jerry Springer would have been appalled, but only because he hadn’t taken advantage of the broad, new media of social media in such sick, indefensible fashion.

The cause of truth and effective advocacy were well-wedded in Kirk. How to get the truth out, and get people to understand without triggering their immediate defense mechanisms: that is not an easy task. For now, Kirk has possible, likely, or erstwhile successors. Ben Shapiro, certainly. Shortly after Kirk’s murder, Shapiro stared into the camera and said, “F*** You!” to all the nefarious elements celebrating Charlie’s demise in the hopes that such an egregious crime would silence his successors.

Not a chance. Besides Shapiro, Glenn Beck, and Steve Crowder, even Steve Deace could pick up the mantle. Ben is the best bet, in my view, for his long legacy of sticking to his principles, articulating a clear message while arguing cogently with interlocutors, whether they agree or disagree. This is not to say that Crowder, Beck, or Deace don’t have integrity or consistency of message. Ben’s youthful appeal can bridge gaps, I believe.

There’s also the issue of Shapiro’s growing family. What a blessing indeed, one that will inevitably limit the time he can devote to reaching the masses left and right with Restoration of American Greatness through the meeting of the minds. Also, Shapiro is a commentator, not an organizer the way Charlie was. Kirk’s TPUSA organization assembled an unprecedented ground game, working with party leaders and conservative activists alike, connecting citizens with accessible technology to walk precincts, connect with voters, and make the case for Trump.

And get him re-elected.nThis kind of organizational as well as intellectual skill is unparalleled. Can anyone step into the void, fusing all these elements, and advance Kirk’s cause?nnJohn Doyle is another contender, more youthful, but does not have the name recognition or trial-by-fire of interacting with larger audiences. Can he organize voters, activists, and pundits across the country to a greater cause, like electing a sound and effective improvement to President Trump in 2028?

Kirk had an unshakeable knack for drawing together disparate interests, not just among the political left and center, but especially among the right. The right is divided over immigration, Israel, Islam, government intervention in the economy, the limits to force to shape culture, etc. Kirk wrestled with these issues, but he never wavered from the main focus: Making America Great Again, and more importantly, Godly Again.n

The spiritual angle cannot be ignored. John Adams warned the early Republic that the Constitution was written for a moral people. That moral center is fracturing. That moral compass is losing its bearing. And the slog of podcast successors is reveling in the confusion rather than eliminating it.

Kirk’s legacy faces destruction from this bevy of so-called successors, who have sought to obscure, even dirty, his legacy by disparaging his work with others, misrepresenting his statements, or attempting to overtake his leadership and legacy in returning President Trump to the White House.

Candace Owens is the most egregious offender, lying about the circumstances surrounding Charlie’s assassination, unfairly implicating Erika Kirk in his demise, even suggesting that she profits off his violent departure. This is evil, as Jeremy Boreing righteously declared.

Thankfully, TPUSA is stronger than ever, and Erika has displayed an unmatched grace under fire, leading the organization to greater glory that vile opponents had sought to destroy. A grieving widow, she could have ended the operation and turned inward to care for herself. But she knew that Charlie would not have wanted that. She serves despite her suffering, and for that, she deserves nothing but our thanks and praise.

Rest in Peace, Charlie.


Image generated by ChatGPT.
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Aug 292026
 
 August 29, 2026  Posted by at 9:39 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,  31 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Old Man Seated 1631


• Trump Makes ‘Biggest Oil Deal in History’ Announcement (Sarah Anderson)
• “Dark” Tanker Fleet Shatters Iran’s Hormuz Stranglehold (ZH)
• Iran Mined the Strait of Hormuz With… Trash Bags? (Stephen Green)
• Trump Outright Dismisses Notion Putin Preparing To Attack A NATO State (ZH)
• Welcome to FAFOland (James Howard Kunstler)
• ICE Arrests Nearly 50k Suspected Illegals In July Despite Complaints (JTN)
• AOC Reconnects With DSA As Socialist Tide Rises In The Democratic Party (JTN)
• Abdul El-Sayed and the Piker Problem (Turley)
• Two-Year Jail Term For Flying National Flags (MN)
• Ireland Deleted (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Fair Irish Maidens (Bill Ponton)
• A Disintegrating Tower of Babel (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Let’s talk about “Huckleberry Finn” (Sam Sifton)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2093092854235287957?s=20

 


 


I’m not terribly impressed with the coverage this gets.

• Trump Makes ‘Biggest Oil Deal in History’ Announcement (Sarah Anderson)

On Friday evening, Donald Trump announced that the United States and Venezuela have entered into an agreement on “the biggest oil deal in world history.”


“This deal is a huge win for both the American and Venezuelan people,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio added in a post on X. “It demonstrates how President Trump’s bold foreign policy is driving America First wins: securing stable reserves and low-cost oil in our Hemisphere and lowering gas prices here at home. For the Venezuelan people, this deal will bring nearly $100 billion in private investment, support thousands of high-paying jobs, and drive the reconstruction of Venezuela’s economy.”

The details of the contract have not been released, though there has been a lot of online chatter over the last couple of days. Currently, proceeds of Venezuelan oil sales go into a U.S. Treasury–supervised account, and Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent control disbursement.

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven crude reserves, about 303–304 billion barrels (roughly 19% of the global total). Output once topped 3 million bpd; it averaged about 941,000 bpd in 2025 and has recovered to roughly 1.23–1.25 million bpd in late August 2026 — the highest since early 2019 and up nearly 30% since January 2026 — after sanctions relief and cuts to the state’s take on many projects to 20–35% from around 83%.

As Moreno mentioned, China was the biggest buyer under Nicolás Maduro. The Maduro regime also supplied cheap oil to Cuba in exchange for intelligence and military training, as well as medical professionals from Cuba’s forced labor programs.

I do want to add that I hope Rubio is right and this will benefit the Venezuelan people as much as it does us. I’m in contact with several each week, and I know that morale isn’t especially high at the moment. They remain grateful to Trump and Rubio and the United States for removing Maduro, but their day-to-day lives haven’t changed much and, in some cases, have gotten worse. There are daily blackouts, etc.

The double earthquakes that struck in June didn’t do much to help with that, and they’re fed up with Delcy and ready to have elections and real leadership. Trump calling her “highly respected” in this announcement won’t go over too well, but it’s all part of the process. I hope to write more on what it will take to get there and what kind of progress is being made on that next week.

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“.. Gulf-area exports of crude and petroleum products have rebounded sharply to between 15 million and 16 million barrels per day, up from a March low of 5 million to 6 million barrels per day.”

• “Dark” Tanker Fleet Shatters Iran’s Hormuz Stranglehold (ZH)

Brent crude futures initially jumped overnight after The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump has no interest in reviving the memorandum of understanding (interim peace deal) reached with Iran in June. The war-risk premium in Brent has since faded in New York premarket trading amid mounting developments this week that major Gulf producers, including Kuwait and Qatar, are increasing tanker flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Emerging diplomatic traction between Oman and Iran has also further reduced the perceived risk of a prolonged disruption.


Reinforcing this week’s developments, new data from Daan Struyven, Goldman’s co-head of Global Commodities Research and head of oil research, show that Persian Gulf oil exports have recovered to more than two-thirds of prewar levels. Struyven wrote in a note late Thursday that Gulf-area exports of crude and petroleum products have rebounded sharply to between 15 million and 16 million barrels per day, up from a March low of 5 million to 6 million barrels per day.

He said crude flows remain 7 million to 8 million barrels per day below prewar levels, but the recovery has been strong enough to ease fears of a prolonged disruption at the world’s most important maritime chokepoint. Oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are estimated at 8 million to 10 million barrels per day. Traders surveyed by Bloomberg place that range much lower, at between 6 million and 8 million barrels per day.

“Although our estimates focus on total Gulf flows, the upward revisions suggest Strait of Hormuz oil transits are likely close to US officials’ 8-10mb/d estimates. The rise in dark crossings by specialized shippers and in ship-to-ship transfers shows that producers and shippers are adapting to the Middle East conflict,” Struyven told clients.

He noted, “Shipping markets now price in disruptions likely continuing well into 2027 (Exhibit 7). Still, potential additional dark flows and price-sensitive China net crude imports may moderate the upside to crude oil prices even if Mideast disruptions last longer. We continue to see greater price upside to European natural gas prices and deferred oil product prices in persistent disruption scenarios than for crude.”Readers by now understand that the energy crisis is not necessarily in crude oil but, in fact, in refined products, with the U.S. diesel crack spread trading at $93 per barrel Friday morning. The spread blew out last week, reaching a record above $100.

The takeaway from Goldman’s Struyven is that, even though the critical waterway has not fully reopened, a growing fleet of dark tankers is transiting the strait and defying Iran’s blockade. That raises the question we have asked in recent weeks: Is Iran’s geopolitical leverage over the Strait of Hormuz eroding? Overnight, Trump posted an image on Truth Social depicting the Strait of Hormuz as “New U.S. Territory.”

In late March, we cited a note from Zoltan Pozsar’s advisory firm, Ex Uno Plures, pointing out that Trump was “methodically building a portfolio of assets” to pressure China, including adding the Strait of Hormuz (read here). The question is whether Trump will stop at Hormuz or embark on another crusade in the Gulf and take Iran’s Kharg Island. This newly minted portfolio also includes Venezuela, where the U.S. is nearing a deal to secure long-term energy-producing assets in the country.

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They only have to look -enough- like mines, and sailors will avoid them.

“.., 200 mine-like objects were cleared from the main shipping lane, but only around 11 were actual mines.”

• Iran Mined the Strait of Hormuz With… Trash Bags? (Stephen Green)

“If Iran mined the Strait of Hormuz, how come we haven’t seen any ships sunk or damaged by mines?” Good question. The answer seems to be less that ships veered away from mines and more that Tehran was largely bluffing with the mine threat, but the details — once again — veer straight into absurdity. Before we talk about questionable deployments and the bit about the trash bags (really!), a few words on mine warfare. Actually, I can start with just two words: It sucks.


Mines are easy to deploy, and difficult and dangerous to get rid of. They’re the ultimate waterway nuisance weapon, because just the threat of them can slow down or even halt shipping, and tie up valuable resources. And we never, ever have enough minesweepers. Back during the Cold War, we let our NATO allies deal with much of the Soviet mining threat, while our Navy focused more on ship and submarine threats to the sea lanes to Europe across the Atlantic. But then we won the Cold War, and our NATO allies let their minesweeping capabilities atrophy. If you’re wondering whether we stepped up our minesweeping game in response…

…yeah, no. But I digress, if only slightly. And Another Thing: During World War II against Japan in the Pacific, we launched a naval and mine warfare campaign to cut off Japan’s maritime trade in an effort to starve the Empire into submission. It was called Operation Starvation, and it was frighteningly effective. It’s the kind of thing our military can do when our idiot politicians remember to let them off the leash.

Tehran well knows that we don’t have enough minesweepers — and so does the rest of the world. The guys who own and captain multibillion-dollar tankers are perhaps painfully aware, which is one yuge reason why shipping through Hormuz slowed to a trickle after Tehran announced it was mining the strait back in March. “They’re firing on commercial ships, and they’ve mined large segments of Hormuz — international waters,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 2. “What they’re doing is unlawful and illegal,” Rubio said.

I’m a Rubio guy, but I don’t put much stock in statements like that last one. What’s “lawful and legal” is usually determined by the winner after the fact. What’s maybe the more pertinent question is what, exactly, did Tehran actually do to the Strait of Hormuz? Iran Watcher reported Friday that the “Hormuz minefield was largely a bluff built on decoys, while even the real mines were reportedly poorly deployed.”

“According to reporting cited by CNBC’s Brian Sullivan, shipowners said many suspected mines were decoys, including inflated trash bags,” the IW post continued. “Separate reporting citing U.S. officials said more than 200 mine-like objects were cleared from the main shipping lane, but only around 11 were actual mines.” What was I just saying about how tricky — or is that tricksy? — mine warfare is? “A small number of real mines mixed with decoys frightened shipowners, drove up war-risk insurance, and helped choke commercial traffic.” But that’s changing.

Traffic through Hormuz reportedly was up something like 400% over just two weeks — and that data is a week old. I wonder how much of that is due to the heroic efforts of our armed forces, and how much is due to shippers realizing that the mine threat turned out to be all bark and no boom. It also makes you wonder about Tehran’s recent boast of having doubled or even tripled drone production.

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London and Brussels won’t like this.

• Trump Outright Dismisses Notion Putin Preparing To Attack A NATO State (ZH)

President Trump has added fuel to the fire of controversy and speculation over the question of why CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise and highly rare trip to Moscow on Tuesday. Media accounts which seek to explain the nature of his meeting with top Kremlin intelligence officials, while apparently being snubbed by Putin in terms of a direct interaction, have shifted in days since the visit. The early ‘consensus’ was that he delivered a stern warning for Russia not to attack any NATO state. But President Trump has poured cold water on this explanation, appearing to dismiss it outright in his latest comments.


“I’ve had good talks with him. He’s not going to be attacking a NATO territory,” Trump said of Putin on Thursday while talking to reporters in the Oval Office. Trump didn’t answer specifically when pressed on if the president directed Ratcliffe to deliver a warning to Putin to not attack NATO. “I don’t want to comment on that but they’re not going to attack,” Trump said. While many times over the course of the Ukraine war, European heads of state have claimed that Russia is expansionist and seeks to attack countries in Europe beyond Ukraine, this has not ever been a public allegation of Trump, who has tended to downplay it as a possibility.

Trump did deny the reports centered on Ratcliffe in an interview with Axios Thursday, saying “Ratcliffe sees his Russian counterpart once every six months or once every year. They have a very good relationship. There was no message and there was nothing unusual.” And when asked over whether he’s concerned that Putin might attack NATO or deeper inside Europe, Trump replied, “I am not concerned … at all. There is no problem.” According to more: The president called Ratcliffe’s trip “standard business” and expressed puzzlement over the media accounts of it.

But the reality is that no CIA director has made such a trip in well over four years. The prior time was November 2021, when then-CIA Director William Burns traveled to Moscow to meet with senior Russian officials and issued a stark warning against invading Ukraine. It was also highly unexpected in terms of timing, given the stalemated nature of the Ukraine conflict, and the fact that zero peace negotiations are happening. There has not even so much as been any efforts at achieving a short-term ceasefire, akin to last year’s Christmas truce.

Trump in the Oval on Thursday declaring confidently that no, the Russians are not going to attack NATO: One theory on the motive for Ratcliffe’s trip, which has gained traction among independent analysts, is that it was focused on the Iran war amid allegations from US officials that Russia has assisted Tehran with targeting information on US troop and base whereabouts in the Mideast region.

At times throughout Operation Epic Fury, Tehran appears to have even targeted CIA stations. The bulk of American military assets and bases in the Gulf countries have suffered severe damage earlier in the conflict, resulting in a Pentagon troop drawback to safer areas. This is indeed a big deal if it is the case that Russia or China (or both) have handed the Iranians intel to help push back American bases and forces.

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“. . . the worse they become, the more they blame you for it.” —El Gato Malo on the Lefty-left

• Welcome to FAFOland (James Howard Kunstler)

As the Democratic Party pulls out all the stops to make itself ridiculous, their proxy warriors in the federal judiciary play chicken with the executive branch on sane, uniform standards for mail-in ballots. The Democrats don’t want sane, uniform standards for mail-in ballots because they are insane. They want to “defend Democracy” with mail-in ballot chaos. Democracy is their flabby rubric for any artifice or subterfuge that beats a path to power so they can continue their racketeering operations. Yes, it’s that simple.


The president issued executive order (EO) 14399 in March directing the Postmaster General to make rules for federal mail-in / absentee ballots where chaos and cheating have prevailed since the Covid prank was used to vastly expand mail-in voting. These new rules include a standard envelope with a bar code to establish a coherent, trackable chain-of-custody for each ballot. Mail-in ballots have become the preferred vehicle for voter fraud based on motor-voter registration of non-citizens, “harvesting” of untrackable ballots, drop-box stuffing, and vote-counting machine shenanigans.

The EO requires states to submit lists of their voters to whom they intend to send mail-in ballots. The USPS is ordered to transmit mail-in ballots only from qualified voters listed on the state rolls, that is, matching ballots to qualified voters at real mailing addresses. Twenty-four states have sued to block all this. They refuse to submit their state’s voter rolls to the USPS. The lawsuit landed magically in the Boston court of Democratic Party activist federal judge Indira Talwani, who has blocked, lifted, and re-blocked the EO — reversing her own decisions. In the course of all that, SCOTUS ruled that Judge Talwani made procedural errors.

The matter remains unresolved. The point of all the legal rigmarole is to delay action so as to invoke the Purcell principle (from SCOTUS, 2006, Purcell v. Gonzalez), which established a judicial protocol (not a statute) that federal courts should avoid changing election rules close to elections. In other words, it’s a judicial suggestion. The case involving the twenty-four states could return to SCOTUS, or SCOTUS could decline based on Purcell.

Meanwhile, Congress does not return to full session (with the Senate) until September 14. Chances are slim-to-zero that they will manage to pass the SAVE Act, or that its provisions would be allowed to apply to the midterm election if, somehow, they did pass it. This leaves the president with only one option: to issue a National Security (NatSec) Executive Order to provide for coherent election procedure. That might include the provisions in the SAVE Act — voter ID, proof of citizenship — but could even go further to ban computerized tabulation machines, greatly restrict absentee ballots, and require results within twenty-four hours of one-only election day. Maybe even place ICE agents at polling places . . . the horror!

Such a NatSec EO would be immune from lawsuits in the federal court. On January 6, 2017 outgoing Homeland Security Sec’y Jeh Johnson (Obama admin) declared election infrastructure a critical part of government facilities “vital to our national interests.” In September, 2018, President Trump declared a national emergency (EO 13848) over the threat of foreign interference in US elections. Under the National Emergencies Act of 1976 (50 U.S.C. § 1622), a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress is necessary to overturn such an EO. That September 2018 national emergency declaration was continued officially by “Joe Biden” and remains in-force. Good luck with that, Democrats.

Okay, so what happens then, when Mr. Trump invokes that NatSec EO on emergency election procedure sometime in mid-September after Congress fails? I will tell you: a constitutional crisis. The Democratic-led blue states will refuse to participate in the election. Yeah, they’ll go that far — because they are insane.

The president will respond forcefully, invoking the federal Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article VI, Clause 2), which states that federal law avails over the states. States can’t nullify or contradict it. The president might have to arrest some Democratic governors and hasten them into special military courts on insurrection charges. Henceforth, this will be known as the FAFO protocol.

Will there be riots? Probably, though just now Treasury Secretary Bessent is apparently considering the termination of tax exemptions — loss of 501(c)(3) status — for George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Southern Poverty Law Center, and others who finance street actions by the Lefty-left. No money for snack shacks, water bottles, and Froggie costumes.

Will the country survive the trauma? I think so. The election will be held one way or another, even if it’s a month late. If anything, the midterm election might be the tombstone of the Democratic Party. The way things are tending, they’ve got nothing left but insurrection, and that’s probably not a winning move. Mr. Trump apparently loves renaming things geographical. Maybe he can change the USA to FAFOland.

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“Despite criticism of a potentially lighter touch by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the numbers show that enforcement operations have only gone up. “

• ICE Arrests Nearly 50k Suspected Illegals In July Despite Complaints (JTN)

As Trump administration detractors continue protesting, blocking traffic and decrying “cruelty,” ICE last month quietly arrested nearly 50,000 people – the highest monthly total of Trump’s second term. The protests keep coming as the numbers keep climbing. Outrage, it turns out, is not a policy. Speaking about the $2,600 stipend given to illegal immigrants to voluntarily return to their home country, Tricia McLaughlin told Just The News, “I don’t think that there is a country in history that’s been so generous.”


McLaughlin, who served as the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, continued, “So I’m so thrilled to see that the Trump administration continues to be successful, and we know we have two more years that we can continue to get these 10 to 15 million illegal aliens out of the country.” On Thursday, the administration announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made 49,571 arrests in July, the highest monthly total of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to agency data provided to the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Associated Press.

That was a 15% jump from 43,021 arrests in June and a 70% increase from 29,241 in February, after earlier city raids and fatal encounters in Minnesota sparked protests and a potentially souring public opinion on deportations. ICE reported more than 350,000 removals in fiscal 2026 through mid-July, putting the agency on pace to exceed recent annual totals. For the duration of Trump’s second term through the present, total removals now sit in a range of roughly 500,000 to nearly 900,000, depending on whether voluntary departures and other returns are included, according to both independent analyses and DHS statements.

Controversy led to efficiency
Detention bookings have exceeded 610,000 since Trump’s second-term inauguration. Large demonstrations erupted last summer after ICE raids in Los Angeles, drawing solidarity protests in multiple cities and criticism from Democratic officials who called the operations intimidation. Nationwide No Kings rallies in October 2025 reportedly drew millions. Smaller ICE Out protests, school walkouts and vigils have continued into 2026, often organized by immigrant-rights groups, Indivisible chapters and socialist organizations. Elected Democrats have joined some marches and accused the administration of targeting people without criminal records.

Then, after January’s fatal ICE-involved shootings in Minnesota sparked protests and a dip in arrests, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin shifted toward lower-profile tactics. Operations moved away from televised city raids toward traffic stops, immigration check-ins, courthouse arrests and partnerships with state and local police. During Mullin’s Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year, he pledged to keep ICE out of the news headlines and said, “I do believe there is a better approach. … There is an approach that can happen, but we need partners.”

As a result, the figures show that enforcement has continued to rise even after the administration has reportedly shifted from high-profile urban operations to quieter tactics and partnerships with local police.Texas and Florida, which rely heavily on 287(g) agreements that allow for joint operations between ICE and state and local law enforcement accounted for a large share of July 2026 arrests. ICE also began focusing on individuals whose temporary protections, including Haitian Temporary Protective Status (TPS), had been revoked. Hiring continued, detention capacity expanded and arrests rebounded to record levels.

The inception of the largest deportation operation in history Upon entering office in 2025, Trump signed executive orders declaring a border emergency, expanding expedited removal nationwide and lifting Biden-era limits on interior enforcement. Officials set daily arrest targets that rose from 1,200 to as high as 3,000, directed ICE to operate at courthouses, workplaces and previously sensitive locations, and poured billions into hiring and detention beds.

High-profile operations began in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, as the administration also rapidly expanded 287(g) partnerships that deputize local police for immigration duties. Arrests more than quadrupled from late-Biden levels within months as the focus shifted from the border to people already living inside the country.

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She’ll sell out to the highest bidder.

• AOC Reconnects With DSA As Socialist Tide Rises In The Democratic Party (JTN)

After she was first elected to the House of Representatives, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez allowed her membership in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to lapse. But now, with the DSA’s recent electoral successes across the country generating new clout within the Democratic Party, the New York lawmaker has thrown her hat in the ring once again, with her eyes possibly fixed on higher office. This week, the national DSA confirmed to its own members that Ocasio-Cortez, who is a member of the Democratic Party, had once again become a “member in good standing” of the socialist organization.


“Previously, the representative joined DSA in 2018 with a one-year membership, which DSA’s national leadership recently noticed had lapsed, in 2019. She has since renewed her membership as of this month,” the DSA wrote in a message to its members. Ocasio-Cortez’s relationship with the DSA has been complicated. She has been a fixture of the New York City chapter, by far the organization’s largest and most influential branch, even as her membership in the national organization lapsed. Since 2024, Ocasio-Cortez has been endorsed by NYC-DSA, but not the national organization, according to City & State New York, which first reported her renewed membership.

The national DSA said it only became aware of the seven-year lapse after Ocasio-Cortez described herself publicly as a member of the New York City chapter specifically, rather than the national organization, a distinction that prompted national leadership to review her status internally. Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to formally rejoin the organization comes as its members wage an internal struggle over whether to endorse the lawmaker as its preferred presidential candidate in the fast-approaching Democratic primary. The New York chapter is reportedly at the forefront of efforts to push the wider organization to back her.

On Wednesday, NYC-DSA posted a photo of its leadership–chapter co-chairs Grace Mausser, Gustavo Gordillo and Jeremy Cohan–alongside Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. “While we get ready to send a whole new generation of socialists to Congress, NYC-DSA co-chairs & leaders caught up with our first socialist in federal office: @AOC. Democratic socialism is the future,” NYC-DSA posted to X. However, the DSA at large has become intensely divided over Ocasio-Cortez’s suitability as the organization’s flag bearer in the Democratic primary.

For example, the DSA’s Liberation Caucus, a Maoist faction of the group, last week “condemn[ed] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s continued retreat from socialist politics and rejects any effort to present her as the future presidential standard-bearer for DSA …” Just the News reported. The group specifically cited the lawmakers’ vote for a bill that defended Israel’s right to exist and for meeting with leaders from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. “In short, it was determined that she had failed to meet conditions concerning Palestine solidarity,” the Liberation Caucus said.

The national DSA itself withdrew its standing endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez last year for failing to vote to block $500 million in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system while praising Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a DSA member, who voted to do so. But, as the DSA has vaulted itself into national prominence, first by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s blockbuster campaign to win New York City’s mayor’s office and then by the organization’s unprecedented success in congressional primaries across the country, many of its leaders have mulled rehabilitating Ocasio-Cortez, seeing her as the group’s best chance to back a presidential candidate.

At the DSA’s national convention last month in Chicago, its members debated whether the organization should formally endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in 2028, with Ocasio-Cortez’s name circulating as the likeliest beneficiary, The Washington Post reported. DSA’s national leadership remains divided on the question, and the organization does not plan to begin a formal presidential endorsement process until early next year, leaving months of internal debate ahead before any commitment is made.

That divide reflects a broader tension in the relationship: Ocasio-Cortez has shown little appetite for embracing DSA’s more sweeping structural positions. Pressed by reporters last month on the organization’s push to abolish the U.S. Senate, she distanced herself from the proposal, calling it “a constitutional question” and arguing the chamber needs substantial reform rather than elimination. Asked directly whether she was angling for any endorsement, she told reporters she wasn’t currently running for any office. “I could run for dog catcher. So I think any situation is hypothetical,” she said.

Still, DSA’s national profile has grown considerably over the past year, buoyed in large part by Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race, which drew an influx of volunteers and national attention to the organization’s electoral machine. Democratic Party leadership, initially resistant, ultimately endorsed Mamdani after his win, even as national Democrats spent much of 2026 working to blunt the momentum of similarly DSA-aligned candidates in races elsewhere.

That expanding footprint, paired with a string of primary wins by DSA-backed candidates in several House districts, has raised the organization’s profile within Democratic politics heading into the midterms. Bolstered by the primary successes, the DSA went on a media blitz to share their vision for America. The group has not been shy about its radical vision, which includes policies like abolishing the senate, heavily restricting private markets, and abolishing police and prisons.

Establishment Democrats have sounded the alarm, warning that the DSA’s growing prominence within the party and policy proposals could spell electoral disaster. Democratic leaders have specifically accused DSA-affiliated candidates of exploiting the party’s ballot access to boost its own candidates at the expense of traditional Democrats, Just the News previously reported.

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On our way to a US president named Muhammad.

• Abdul El-Sayed and the Piker Problem (Turley)

There was a curious moment this week when Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed expressed shock that people were asking him about a “streamer in California” as he campaigns for the Senate in Michigan. That streamer is, of course, Hasan Piker. Despite El-Sayed’s disbelief, the questions stemmed from the fact that he brought Piker from California to campaign with him in Michigan and embraced him despite condemnations of Piker’s virulent antisemitism and violent rhetoric. However, the problem goes far deeper, as El-Sayed distances himself from views he has previously voiced.


It turns out that there are consequences to campaigning with a man who mocked the murder of a past critic and said that the United States deserved 9/11 (including responding to criticism of Piker in the primary by embracing him on election night at a rally). El-Sayed is not the only Democrat trying to get the media to stop asking him about his association.

Standing in front of a giant campaign billboard for El-Sayed, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D., Mich.) shot back at those asking about his association with a raving lunatic: “I am DONE. So don’t any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker.” What is distressing is how many reporters will dutifully obey the command. Dingell added, “They’re trying to divide us, and we’ve got to stop letting them try to divide us.” However, it is not divisive for your Senate candidate to campaign with a raging antisemite who says that the United States deserved 9-11 and that Jews are asking to be attacked.

The problem for Dingell and others is not so easily resolved by commanding a supportive media to not ask about Piker, who recently said on his podcast that Jews are asking to be attacked if they openly support Israel. The problem is that El-Sayed has voiced equally disturbing and analogous views. El-Sayed was criticized for his response after a man attacked a Michigan synagogue in March. After condemning the attack, El-Sayed added that the Israeli military killed some of the attacker’s family in Lebanon, saying “hurt people hurt people.”

It sounds a bit like Jews are asking to be attacked. El-Sayed has also drawn criticism for declining repeatedly to answer whether Israel has a right to exist during a CNN interview in June. Much like Piker, El-Sayed has also engaged in violent rhetoric, promisung to “choke out” Republicans and referring to moderates like Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) as ogres to have their heads cut off and put on pikes.

Refusing to answer questions about the association with Piker does not answer El-Sayed’s own views that align him with Piker. Ironically, all the attention to Piker has drawn attention away from El-Sayed’s own views. El-Sayed has extreme views that go beyond his position toward Israel and include wealth taxes, reparations, and radical changes to our constitutional system.

I grew up in a liberal, politically active Democratic family in Chicago. I no longer recognize that party today, including its anti-free-speech elements. Saying that you are a “Big Tent party” does not answer the question of whether the party stands for anything other than regaining power. There has to be some defining element to a party beyond power. El-Sayed is that defining moment.

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Literally incredible.

• Two-Year Jail Term For Flying National Flags (MN)

Britain’s largest local authority has gone to the High Court to stop people hanging the Union Flag and the St George’s Cross from lampposts, with campaigners warning that a breach could mean up to two years behind bars. Birmingham City Council filed the application this week as the latest move in a year-long war on “unauthorised attachments.” The attachments in question are the flags of the country. The penalties being threatened include prison, unlimited fines, and seized assets.


Protesters who fly the Union Jack from lampposts could criminal proceedings if the injunction is granted. Former Metropolitan Police detective Peter Bleksley called it what it is. “It’s absolutely scandalous!” The Free Speech Union described the move as “truly mental.”

A year ago the same city was already ripping the colours down and calling it safety. Residents put them back up. The council has now decided a High Court order is the way to finish the job. On 26 August the council announced it had submitted an injunction application “as part of our ongoing work to prohibit unauthorised attachments on the highway, including flags and banners.” Green councillor Jane Baston, cabinet member for equalities, communities and social justice, said: “The Council is taking a lawful, proportionate and evidence-led approach to unauthorised attachments on the highway. This includes pursuing injunctive action based on the evidence gathered to date.”

She added: “Our priority is to protect public safety, staff and contractor welfare, community cohesion and the responsible use of public funds. We ask residents and community groups to support this approach and to ensure any displays are placed only where permission exists.” The authority insists the action “is not directed at any particular community, belief or viewpoint.” It says the installation and reinstallation of flags has had an impact on the public, and that officers have “witnessed incidents that have involved harassment, intimidation or obstruction during removal activity.”

The named targets give the game away. The application lists Raise the Colours co-founder Ryan Bridge, plus others associated with the campaign. Raise the Colours said it had not received or reviewed the papers and could not comment on the application. The group rejected “any suggestion that we are seeking to divide communities,” and describes itself as a “grassroots movement for unity and patriotism.”The nationwide campaign by the group to put the England flag back on the street is widely reported to have started in Birmingham last summer. The council spent the following year treating that campaign as a highways nuisance.

Now it wants a judge to make the nuisance a city-wide prohibition.Anti-flag campaigners in the city have been lobbying for exactly this. Brummies United Against Racism and Hate Crime applauded the legal bid, spoke of “thuggish behaviour,” and framed the flags as an attempt to “harass and intimidate residents of our proudly multicultural city.” So the national flag is an attachment. Opposition to it is cohesion. And a bankrupt council that spent more than a year failing to collect the bins has found the money and the energy to take patriotism to the Royal Courts of Justice.

Birmingham is taking a page from the book of Liberal Democrat-run Oxfordshire County Council, who won the first injunction of its kind, barring unidentified people from attaching England or Union flags to highway structures or painting flag imagery on roads.Council leader Tim Bearder celebrated. “This is a welcome judgement. We’re very pleased with the result,” he said, adding: “This sets a legal precedent and will hopefully deter people in not just Oxfordshire but around the country from partaking in this criminal activity.”

He described those putting the flags up as “very challenging people, not patriots.”Oxfordshire spent about £80,000 taking flags down and another £40,000 on lawyers, costs it said it intended to recover. Staff removing flags were said to have faced hostility so serious that some were told to wear face coverings and check vehicles for tracking devices after a worker’s home address was published.

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Paul Craig Roberts touches on two themes: Ireland..

• Ireland Deleted (Paul Craig Roberts)

Evidence is plentiful that Ireland as an Irish nation has ceased to exist. Geographically, a country still remains, but it is not Irish. It is a multicultural tower of babel, one created by the Irish themselves.


University College Dublin has a School of Social Justice that grants Ph.D. degrees in Equality Studies, which alone shows how far Ireland has progressed into non-existence. One such graduate, an immigrant-invader from Nigeria, is the Irish government’s Special Rapporteur on Racial Equality and Racism. On a recent news broadcast she said that “we,” by which she meant immigrant-invaders, “have inherited this island,” and she urged Ireland to let go of their language. “We need teachers who don’t have to speak Irish.”

The panel of five women included three immigrant-invaders and two Irish ethnics, both of whom agreed with the immigrant-invaders that Ireland is no longer an Irish nation. The rapid replacement of white ethnics in the countries of the West has created belated awareness of The Camp of the Saints. In commenting on the Irish government official’s remark that it is time for Ireland to abandon its language, Bill Ponton observed:

“Jean Raspail got it right in The Camp of the Saints (1973), a political allegory about mass migration, Western guilt, and the collapse of a society’s willingness to defend its own institutions and identity. Raspail’s argument is that a civilization can destroy itself when it ceases to believe that it has a legitimate right to preserve its borders, culture, and way of life. In Raspail’s telling, the decisive weakness comes from inside the culture rather than from the migrants themselves.”

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“I had no idea how feminized Irish politics had become.”:”

• Fair Irish Maidens (Bill Ponton)

I know that I can be oblivious to fashion trends until they surround me. Such was the case recently sitting on a beach when I noticed that every woman who walked by was covered with enough tattoos to earn her a spot in a carnival sideshow. The same thing occurred when I watched this video. I had no idea how feminized Irish politics had become. I was under the impression that Irish culture retained some masculinity. I guess it changed over the course of time.


There is a lot to say about this video, but the most prominent feature is the vocal Nigerian woman minister telling everyone on the panel to get over it because she and her kind were here to stay. It was even more distasteful having an Irish woman sit next to her with a look of bovine stupidity on her face nodding in agreement. Ireland’s centuries-long struggle for independence is to be forfeited to sub-Saharan migrants because the black Irish diversity czar dictates it. I had to ask myself why car bombs weren’t going off in front of every government ministry.

I know the answer to my question. The Irish men, like their counterparts in the EU, UK, Canada, and a good chunk of the USA, have been emasculated. With woke women and eunuchs in charge, everyone else is along for the ride. One that includes inviting in and providing for everyone in the third world who can make their way to your shore.

Jean Raspail got it right in The Camp of the Saints (1973), a political allegory about mass migration, Western guilt, and the collapse of a society’s willingness to defend its own institutions and identity. Raspail’s argument is that a civilization can destroy itself when it ceases to believe that it has a legitimate right to preserve its borders, culture, and way of life. In Raspail’s telling, the decisive weakness comes from inside the culture rather than from the migrants themselves.

So, like the colorful tattoos that have sprouted up in our midst like an infestation of crab grass or lice, I guess that I should get used to further lectures from Nigerian ministers with odd-looking hairdos.

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.. and Huck Finn.

Huck says ‘nigger’.

A lot.

Of course today’s PC crowd can’t take that.

• A Disintegrating Tower of Babel (Paul Craig Roberts)

On August 24 the New York Times asked if we should read Mark Twain’s book, Huckleberry Finn? The writer, Sam Sifton, gives pros and cons. Sifton says that reading the book in prep school in NY City made him uncomfortable because the racial slur “nigger” appears more than 200 times. On the other hand, he quotes the literary critic Ruth Franklin who says the novel should still be taught because it is uniquely able to convey the structures of racism embedded in American society.


In other words, it is another weapon in the white liberal’s arsenal to prove that America is racist as the NY Times 1619 Project maintains. Notice that for Sifton and Franklin, the proof of racism is the use of the word “nigger.” As is universal among white people today, the use of this word imputes racism. This false imputation shows the ignorance of white people who have never lived among blacks, as Southern people have.

Black Americans were commonly present in our homes, as Hispanics are today in many American homes. They helped with household cleaning, with meal preparation, with caring for and raising children. You don’t employ people in these intimate roles whom you despise. Anyone who has ever lived among blacks, at least in the South, knows that “nigger” is the term they use to address one another. When white people used the term, it was just an act of using black Americans own language. If the term “nigger” is derogatory, why do black Americans use it to refer to one another?

When I was growing up, “nigger” was regarded as a term used by black Americans indicating familiarity. We were instructed to use more formal terms such as “colored person” or “negro,” both being terms used by negro organizations at the time. As I recall, the problem of a white person using “nigger” was that it was an assertion of familiarity that was limited to the race. In the 1980s and 1990s I relied on a black American woman to help run my household and to help raise a child. Her husband had a career as a US Army Sargent, and she was a formidable character. She called all of her relatives and friends “nigger.”

Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884. By the 1980s “nigger” was a forbidden word, worse than the F-word. I questioned Vivian. She said, “that’s just what we call each other.” Recently I heard from a reader who said he had just heard several black Americans referring to one another as “niggers.” The reader was astonished, because he knew if he used the word in reference to a black American it would be considered hate speech and would have consequences for him. He said that race now determined what words you could use. This shows how false is the racist paradigm of America created by white liberals.

My lifelong experience with white liberals is that they are overflowing with their moral superiority. They see themselves as free of racism, which they tried to limit to Southern whites. But having taught racial hatred, their students include all whites as racists. The white northern liberals are ensnared in the concept of “aversive racism.” They are ensnared in the NY Times “1619 Project,” which says America was racist long before there were any Southern cotton plantations. The racist interpretation of America is a false narrative. It has created racial disunity between black and white Americans, and has helped to transform America into a disintegrating Tower of Babel.

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I readTom Sawyeras a kid. Later I picked up a series of books of Twain talking about life on the Mississippi. Love the man.

• Let’s talk about “Huckleberry Finn” (Sam Sifton)

People have been calling Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” a great American novel for more than a century. Ernest Hemingway said that this story of a young white boy and an enslaved Black man floating on a raft down the Mississippi River was the very root of all American literature. “There was nothing before,” he wrote. “There has been nothing as good since.”


Did you read “Huck Finn” when you were young? I did, a long time ago at a fancy prep school in New York City, and if there were any discussions of the racial slur that shows up in it more than 200 times, I don’t recall them. The book was cast as satire, an important commentary on the horror of slavery, a meditation on compassion and irony. It sure was uncomfortable, though, when the teacher had us read passages from the book aloud.

Beware! In 2026, many students are upset by the slurs, and many educators are wary of a book that uses them and that could lead to job-endangering conversations, so they simply don’t assign it. For The New York Times Magazine today, the literary critic Ruth Franklin asks how — or whether — the novel should still be taught. She quotes a Twain scholar who compares “Huck Finn” to fugu, a Japanese fish so potentially poisonous that sushi chefs must acquire a license to serve it. “If it’s prepared right, it’s phenomenal,” the scholar said. “If it’s taught wrong, it can be toxic.”

So what might it mean, Franklin asks, for “Huck Finn” to be prepared right? Her answer, in part: “Over the past few years, I’ve been speaking to teachers and students who believe that “Huck Finn” still has a necessary place in the classroom, because it is uniquely able both to convey the structures of racism embedded in American society and to model how prejudice can be overcome. The book provides its own master class in critical thinking; as Toni Morrison wrote in an admiring introduction to the 1996 Oxford edition, “The brilliance of ‘Huck Finn’ is that it is the argument it raises.”

That word, though! “No student wants to hear it,” one college professor told Franklin. “It’s a form of violence.” And hear it they do. Franklin spent some time in a private school in Washington, D.C., where Samantha Goodwin, a white teacher, brought up Huck’s derogatory language about Black people in one of her classes: I could see the discomfort on some students’ faces. Finally, a white student responded. “It’s supposed to anger you,” he said.

“You feel like Huck has been taught that Black people aren’t human.” “You’re speaking nicely to the power of Huck as narrator,” Goodwin responded. “He doesn’t have the ability to take the next step and say: ‘Wait a second. Why did I believe that?’ But we get angry.” Which is fugu, I guess, prepared correctly: experiencing the novel emotionally while also appraising its critique of racism, and how that critique might fall short today. It matters when novels get us angry — and when they make us think.

An illustration of Jim and Huck by E.W. Kemble, from the 1885 first American edition of the book.


Yes, but …
Franklin worries that such an approach isn’t really scalable, at least outside elite schools. “It’s easy to see how the social dynamics could spin out of control in a classroom led by a teacher with less experience or skill or fewer resources,” she writes.

Moreover, it’s not as if all students will come around to understanding the value of the novel anyway. At the end of every school year, Goodwin, the Washington teacher, asks her students in an anonymous survey whether the novel should continue to be taught. Some say no. “It’s just racist,” one of them responded.

In 2011, one publisher printed an edition of the novel that omitted the slur. Black and white academics debated its merit for The Times’s opinion pages that year. Paul Butler, a Black law professor, recalled suffering through “Huck Finn” in high school and listening to his teacher’s tortured explanations of how the slur didn’t really mean the slur, “or meant it ironically, or historically, or symbolically,” he wrote. “Whatever. I could live my whole life fine if I never read that book again.”

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https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2093443300158312897?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2093187352092926204?s=20

 

 

 

 

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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“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.

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” 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.

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“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.

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