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Debt Rattle May 16 2026

May 162026
 
 May 16, 2026  Posted by at 9:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  46 Responses »


Lawrence Alma-Tadema Women of Amphissa 1887


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

 


 


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

• Making China Dependent on Texas Oil (Scott Pinsker)

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s Donald Trump in his own words:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Iran will end up without any nukes.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

The noticing of things continues….


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

No parades.

All business.

More coincidences.

The noticing continues….

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

• Waging War on the Time Clock (Robert Spencer)

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Read more …

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Read more …

In detail.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rubio also talked about that on Hannity:

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

• Resource Scramble (James Howard Kunstler)

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Again.

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

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

Just yesterday, I wrote about how Democrats were using Republican redistricting efforts as an excuse to finally “take the gloves off” and “crush their souls” — as if they hadn’t spent the last several decades perfecting the art of dirty politics in their quest for permanent power. And, of course, California was quick to prove my point. Gavin Newsom casually revealed that he has a “break-the-glass” contingency plan to ensure at least one Democrat advances to the general election in California’s June gubernatorial primary.


California’s “jungle primary” system, where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to November, was specifically engineered to freeze Republicans out of competitive general elections. It worked beautifully — for Democrats — for years. Now, with too many Democratic candidates splitting the vote, there’s a real chance the system could backfire and lock out Democrats instead. And suddenly, the will of the voters isn’t quite so sacred. Newsom was candid about where his priorities lie. “I do not see that scenario taking place,” he said, dismissing the possibility of a Democratic shutout.

Now, in fairness, he’s probably right, but anything is possible. And that’s the problem. Leaving it up to voters isn’t something Democrats are particularly fond of, and Newsom admitted to behind-the-scenes efforts to “rally people” and pointed vaguely to others who “have a deep understanding of what it would look like if Democrats were locked out.” Right… just “rallying voters”? Does that sound like a “contingency plan” to you? Democrats could potentially get locked out of the general election, and all Newsom is going to do about it is send out a few mailers and give a few speeches. Sure. Remember, this is the same party that was trying to compel lower-tier Democrat candidates to drop out several weeks ago to help consolidate Democrat support.

Seriously: None of the things he mentioned as part of the “break-the-glass” contingency plan are anything but garden-variety campaigning strategies these days. The Democratic Governors Association has been mailing pieces highlighting Republican candidate Steve Hilton as a fierce conservative. By amplifying Hilton’s conservative credentials among GOP voters, the DGA is trying to help him consolidate Republican support in the primary. A stronger Hilton draws votes away from the other major Republican candidate, Chad Bianco. If Bianco can’t claw his way into the top two, Democrats get exactly the outcome they’re engineering.

And, of course, they’re using “opposition research” as a get-out-the-vote operation for a Republican they’d rather face — or use as a spoiler. That kind of thing has been going on for years. So, color me concerned that when Newsom starts talking about contingency plans, he’s got something else in mind to rig the primary to ensure at least one Democrat advances to the general election. Democrats have always fought dirty. The only thing that’s changed is they’re not even pretending otherwise anymore. But trust me: Newsom knows that his legacy is on the line in this election, and he isn’t relying on standard campaign strategies to ensure the primary goes his way.

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“Not that anyone was watching it ..”

• Greg Gutfeld Destroys Whoopi Goldberg (Matt Margolis)

Not that anyone was watching it, but Whoopi Goldberg had a meltdown on The View this week, and Greg Gutfeld made sure she didn’t get away with it. Whoopi went on this rambling tangent about how nobody is running the country. She torched Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, and basically every official in the Trump administration. “I have no faith in the people who are running anything,” she said. “I don’t believe in anybody who is running this country right now.”


Of course, none of them were asking for Whoopi’s endorsement or vote of confidence. Not that that mattered. But, of course, she wasn’t done. She went full theater-of-the-absurd and accused Trump of neutering the entire United States of America. “We have been de-balled as a nation, I feel,” Whoopi said on air. Oh, that’s what she feels, huh? Seriously, who actually watches The View for political analysis? It was bizarre and bore no resemblance to reality. And Greg Gutfeld destroyed her on The Five.

“Whoopi accuses Trump of castrating America,” Gutfeld said Thursday. “Sorry, Whoopi. Guys, stop getting erections around you years before Trump got into office. Do not blame him for your dateless weekends. Ouch. Of course, the whole premise of Whoopi’s complaint collapsed the moment anyone applied even a minimal standard of scrutiny. Gutfeld pointed right at it. “Who is she comparing Trump to?” he said. “Emily went over all of his achievements. But you have to look at how world leaders react to him. You think, No one’s in charge of the United States. Trump’s in charge of the U.S., and it looks like whenever he’s around world leaders, he’s in charge of them, too. They treat him like a rock star.”

That’s the part that Whoopi and The View panel keep deliberately ignoring. While they’re clutching their pearls over every little thing Trump does (or doesn’t do), Trump is commanding rooms full of foreign heads of state. These are not people who fawn over weakness. They respond to strength, and the world has noticed it. There’s a huge difference between Trump and Joe Biden, who exuded weakness and was routinely seen as a joke. And he saved his sharpest line for the end. “The only people being de-balled in this country are the children of liberals who trans them for virtue points at the wine club.”

Ouch. But earned. But back to Whoopi’s rant. How exactly does she justify claiming Trump has neutered the entire United States of America? Think about this for a second. Trump is actually doing something about Iran — something multiple administrations promised and never delivered. For decades, presidents made tough speeches and then flinched. Trump actually did something. And how about his tariff strategy? After years of other countries taking advantage of the United States, Trump fought back, and it’s working. He’s gotten trade deals that are fair for the United States as a result.

Whatever metric Whoopi is using to make her critique of the Trump administration isn’t based in reality. America is not weaker. America is back at the head of the table, and the people sitting around it know it.

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A lot of plans and promises were made, without checking if they could be delivered. Europe sentenced itself. It still does.

• Europe’s Green Deal Is Unraveling (Moutii)

Over the past decade, Europe has played a leading role in shaping global climate policy, highlighted by the launch of the European Green Deal in 2019 — Ursula von der Leyen described it as a “man on the moon moment.” The initiative aims to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 while fostering innovation and strengthening its industrial base. Yet several years later, the results are deeply disappointing. Instead of meeting its goals, the Green Deal is increasingly associated with higher energy costs, weakened competitiveness, and growing political backlash. It has deepened divisions within the EU, strained global relations, and increased pressure on households and businesses — raising serious doubts about its feasibility and long-term economic impact.


How Green Ideology Undermines Europe’s Economy
Europe’s economic stagnation points to a deeper structural problem in its energy and climate strategy — one closely tied to the direction set by the European Green Deal. Since its launch, competitiveness has eroded sharply, with soaring energy costs at its core. Electricity prices in Europe are now two to three times higher than in the United States and China, with taxes accounting for nearly a quarter of the total cost.

These outcomes largely stem from policy choices. The EU’s binding targets — net zero by 2050 and a 55-percent emissions reduction by 2030 — have constrained energy supply, despite Europe accounting for only six percent of global emissions. At the same time, phasing out nuclear, restricting gas, and relying on intermittent renewables have weakened energy security and increased price volatility. For industry — where energy can account for up to 30 percent of total production costs — this, combined with carbon pricing, has become a critical constraint, driving firms to scale back, relocate, or shut down, accelerating deindustrialization across the continent.

The automotive industry clearly illustrates these pressures: representing over seven percent of EU GDP and nearly 14 million jobs, the sector is under pressure from the 2035 ban on combustion engines, forcing a rapid shift to electric vehicles despite unresolved technological challenges and market constraints. As Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius warned, the policy risks driving the sector “full speed into a wall.” The consequences for the sector are already visible: declining production, mounting restructuring, and significant job losses — 86,000 jobs since 2020, with up to 350,000 more at risk by 2035 — while tightening regulations are set to reduce profits by seven to eight percent by 2030, pushing the sector toward losses and eroding Europe’s automotive leadership.

Agriculture has also become one of the Green Deal’s clearest casualties. Stricter rules on emissions, land use, pesticides, and fertilizers are raising costs and increasing yield volatility, hitting small farmers hardest and accelerating consolidation among large agribusinesses. Targets such as cutting pesticide use by 50 percent and expanding organic farming risk significant declines in output, threatening both rural livelihoods and food security. Rather than enabling farmers to innovate and improve productivity, these policies are constraining production — fueling widespread protests and weakening both competitiveness and sustainability.

Taken together, these pressures are not isolated — they reflect a broader economic burden. The European Commission estimates that the transition will require at least €260 billion in additional investment each year, with total costs reaching up to 12 percent of EU GDP — a burden that is increasingly difficult for the European economy to sustain.

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