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Debt Rattle June 19 2026

Jun 192026
 
 June 19, 2026  Posted by at 9:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  17 Responses »


M.C. Escher Fish and Boat 1948


• Trump Ties His Name and Credibility to Vance’s Dubious Iran Diplomacy (Hammer)
• The Iran War Was Easy. The Peace Is the Problem. (Stephen Green)
• Victor Davis Hanson: The Biggest Test of the Iran Deal: Enforcement (Bolt)
• Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Just Tore Into NATO (Bolt)
• Britain Bought The Keys To Ukraine’s Nuclear Future – What’s Next? (Ostashko)
• G7 Considering Licensed Arms Production In Ukraine: Why Now? (RT)
• EU Pushes Trump On Russia Policy As Moscow Warns On Greenland Militarization (TASS)
• Denazification of Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, Canada (Helmer)
• Speculation About A SpaceX–Tesla Merger Is Already Growing (ZH)
• Stupid, Stupid, Stupid”: DOJ Memo Tarnishes Record of Merrick Garland (Turley)
• Two Top Senators Urge Trump DOJ To Prosecute Fauci Despite Biden Pardon (JTN)
• Dems Could Have Beaten Trump If Biden Had Stepped Aside: Hillary Clinton (JTN)
• What Joy Behar Told JD Vance Shocked Him (Margolis)
• White Ethnicities Have Been Demonized Beyond Recovery (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Apple To Raise Prices As AI Boom Pushes Up Chip Costs (BBC)

 


 

 


 


Not many illustrations today or other things that break the text monotony, and I even double-checked. Sorry for that. “First, can Americans somehow believe that Iran will uphold its commitments, given its history of deceiving and lying at every turn? Second, what does this mean for Trump’s legacy and successor plans ..”

• Trump Ties His Name and Credibility to Vance’s Dubious Iran Diplomacy (Hammer)

Donald Trump has been the greatest, most clear-eyed and most transformative foreign policy president of my lifetime. But Trump is also the famed businessman who wrote The Art of the Deal four decades ago. There has therefore always been the risk that the president’s novel and often unorthodox approach to foreign policy could be subsumed by a greater dealmaking imperative.


Prudent statesmanship on the world stage requires setting clear ends and then working backward to calibrate the appropriate means — diplomatic, economic, military or otherwise — to achieve those ends. Because of his dealmaking background, Trump — despite all his foreign policy successes — was always uniquely vulnerable to confusion of means and ends, prioritizing a deal itself above any end that a deal might be meant to secure.

That is how we got to this troubling week in U.S. foreign policy — namely, the deeply flawed new “memorandum of understanding” between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which represents the single greatest subsumption of noble ends into politically convenient means in at least a decade of American diplomacy.

The Iran appeasement, primarily negotiated and championed by Vice President JD Vance but ultimately bearing Trump’s signature, raises at least two crucial questions. First, can Americans somehow believe that Iran will uphold its commitments, given its history of deceiving and lying at every turn? Second, what does this mean for Trump’s legacy and successor plans, as it pertains to the Middle East and 2028 presidential hopefuls?

We shouldn’t mince words on the first issue. To place trust in Iran’s fanatical Islamist leadership is not merely naive — it’s delusional. For decades, Iran’s apocalyptic Shiite theocracy has demonstrated a consistent pattern of deception and hostility, undermining any notion that it can be a reliable partner in Western diplomacy. The history of Iranian negotiations is littered with broken promises, yet the administration — with Vance as its most prominent salesman — somehow argues this time will be different. There is zero reason for thinking that will be the case. The mullahs are still in charge, after all. As Roger Daltrey of the Who famously said in the hit 1971 song “Won’t Get Fooled Again”: “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.”

This current MOU looks shockingly similar to former President Barack Obama’s catastrophic 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — a deal that Trump, shortly before withdrawing the United States from the pact in 2018, correctly excoriated as the “worst deal ever negotiated.” Under the guise of diplomacy, the plan said nary a word about Tehran’s formidable ballistic missile arsenal, allowed Iran to continue its nuclear ambitions, and provided the regime with a windfall — or, more accurately, literal pallets — of cash to fund its regional terror proxies.

What exactly is different with the current deal? The mind reels. The new MOU, with its quixotic presuppositions, risks repeating all those same grave mistakes. At its outset earlier this year, Operation Epic Fury had four reasonably clear goals: a truly free Strait of Hormuz, an end to Iran’s funding of its sprawling terror proxy network, an end to Iran’s ballistic missile threat, and a final resolution of the nuclear issue. The current agreement fails to achieve a single one of those American goals.

The Iranian regime, long guided by the sharia doctrine of taqiyya, has always viewed negotiations with Western powers as a strategic tool to buy time while advancing its nuclear capabilities, exporting jihad and sowing discord across the region. To imagine that Iran will suddenly embrace a spirit of good-faith cooperation is simply preposterous. No one actually believes that — including Trump’s own CIA director, John Ratcliffe.

We should also consider how this appeasement affects Trump’s Middle East legacy and, looking toward 2028, possible successor plans. Up until the April 8 ceasefire, Trump evinced a life’s work of consistent toughness toward the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism — a regime whose revolutionaries’ very first action, in 1979, was to storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran and commence a 444-day hostage crisis. To cap off the fiery and effective Epic Fury on such a limp note, without a single American goal having been achieved, is to jeopardize that legacy.

What is the point, after all, of winning the war but losing the peace? On Wednesday, Trump celebrated the signing of the MOU at a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at Versailles. The profound symbolism of having that particular dinner at that particular location, intimately associated as it is with tragically flawed peace accords, cannot be ignored.

It seems, then, that Trump is placing a high-stakes wager on his Middle East legacy on his credulous vice president. As Trump said at the G7 summit earlier this week in France: “If (the Iran deal) works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD.” Perhaps Trump meant that comment in jest — but perhaps he didn’t. The buck stops with the commander in chief, but maybe this has also been a trial run for Vance as he gears up for a likely 2028 run. If so, it has not been a particularly impressive one. No intellectually honest person can deny that Iran comes out the big winner from yet another futile exercise in kicking the nuclear (and missile) can down the road.

Throughout this ordeal, many Iran hawks have asked, “Where is Marco Rubio?” Rubio, like Ratcliffe and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, allegedly lobbied Trump against the deal. Perhaps the answer, in a possibility raised by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, is that Rubio is deliberately missing in action: He is letting Vance “take the fall” if (when) the deal inevitably implodes. If Trump cares about preserving his legacy on the world stage, then, ironically, his best remaining hope may well be for Rubio to clean up this mess.

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“Once we were at war, the proper solution was to force Hormuz back open. We even learned last week that Trump ordered elements of the 82nd Airborne Division to Israel for just such an eventuality.”

• The Iran War Was Easy. The Peace Is the Problem. (Stephen Green)

When President Donald Trump ordered the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, like many people I assumed a brief air campaign to further degrade Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The instigator was Iran’s own negotiators, who boasted to Trump advisor Steve Witkoff that they had produced enough nuclear material for nearly a dozen weapons. All Tehran needed to do was make the final uranium enrichment step from 60% to 90%, then assemble the warheads. Neither Trump nor Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu — whose nation former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called a “two-bomb country” — had a choice in the matter. It was either war then or nuclear blackmail later. Or worse.We went to war. I cheered it on.


Milblogger and retired Navy officer CDR Salamander put it better than I did at the time, writing that “I support the strikes on Iran because it firmly fits into a view I have held on the use of national military power for decades.” Sal was writing in support of the age-old Great Power custom of punitive expeditions — brief and often impressively violent campaigns to bloody a smaller enemy without all that “Pottery Barn Rule” nonsense that Colin Powell saddled our strategic thinking with a quarter century ago. “Nation building OPLANS again? No. Not any more. Breaking their things and killing their worst leadership that endangered the USA and her allies? I’m in.” Me too.

Now the Memorandum of Understanding is public, and I must ask: How in the hell did we get to this from where we started on Feb. 28? • Ceasefire: Immediate/permanent end to military ops (incl. Lebanon); no future attacks/threats; respect sovereignty/Lebanon integrity. • Non-interference: Respect sovereignty/territorial integrity; no internal meddling. • Timeline: Negotiate final deal in max 60 days (extendable). • U.S. Actions: Lift naval blockade (start immediately, full in 30 days); withdraw forces post-deal; $300B+ reconstruction plan; end all sanctions (UN/US) per schedule; oil export waivers; release frozen funds/assets. • Iran Actions: Safe commercial shipping (Hormuz/Gulf, 60 days free); no nuclear weapons; maintain nuclear status quo; down-blend stockpile under IAEA. • Interim: Status quo maintained; monitoring mechanism; final deal via binding UNSC resolution.

There’s so much to pick apart here, but there are really only three things that matter: “Status quo,” “End all sanctions,” and “$300 billion.” As for the efficacy of a denuclearization plan involving the UN… I just throw my hands up in the air. I spent weeks coming up with or sharing other people’s attempts to explain what Trump was thinking, from the “rug-merchant” delay strategy to the “there’s no one left there with the authority to negotiate” conundrum. But reading these bullet points, you have to wonder if they weren’t having the exact same discussion inside the White House, right up until the very end.

Here’s a big tell about what the MOU is worth. The two strongest foreign policy hands on Team Trump — Secretary of State Marco Rubio and War Secretary Pete Hegseth — seem to be doing their best to maintain radio silence while JD Vance does the P.R. blitz. Axios reported on Monday that “[CIA Director John] Ratcliffe isn’t the only skeptic in Trump’s top team. In internal discussions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth both expressed concerns and raised questions about the memorandum of understanding.”

“As Vance emerges as the spokesman for the deal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has raised eyebrows across the political world with his near-total absence. Rubio, who has taken on multiple roles in the administration,” Mediaite reported Thursday, and “was central to the Iran negotiations up until the last week or so, in which Vance, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff stepped in to rush to finalize an end to hostilities.”mI’ve said here before that Witkoff is one of the very few weak parts of Trump 47, and if those are his fingerprints all over this MOU, then I’ll say it again.

Netanyahu is also nowhere to be seen, following months of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the administration. The biggest mistake was a ceasefire that effectively locked in Tehran’s control of Hormuz. The clock started ticking on the Islamic Republic the moment the bombs started falling almost four months ago. The clock started ticking on the global economy the moment Tehran more or less closed the Strait.

As Trump himself put it in France on Thursday, “I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe. If you kept this [war] going, that could have happened.” He added, “It could have caused an international depression.” Once we were at war, the proper solution was to force Hormuz back open. We even learned last week that Trump ordered elements of the 82nd Airborne Division to Israel for just such an eventuality.

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“.. we have to react disproportionately any time they break the agreement..”

• Victor Davis Hanson: The Biggest Test of the Iran Deal: Enforcement (Bolt)

Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, said the biggest test of the Iran deal will be how the United States enforces it, as the full text of the memorandum of understanding was finally released Wednesday. Hanson said he’s not entirely worried about the core issues, like issues surrounding the enriched uranium or opening the Strait of Hormuz. He explained that Iran needs the Strait open nearly as much as the rest of the world due to the economic pressures currently on the country, and U.S. intelligence can track enriched uranium so precisely that if Iran moves toward building a nuclear weapon, the U.S. can immediately resume a bombing campaign.


However, the very real threat of those attacks, or other serious U.S. action against Iran, will determine how closely Iran complies with the rest of the agreement and broader American interests.

“So the two chief issues I’m not so worried about,” Hanson said. “I think we know where the enriched uranium is, it’s sealed, we have great intelligence, we can bomb it, bomb it, bomb it, we can hit more of their industrial complexes if they cheat, and they will open the Strait of Hormuz because they’re just about broke.”

“The other things are known unknowns. It’s going to be more difficult to ensure they’re not giving money to Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas. That’s more murky, and we don’t know what they’re going to do in Lebanon. And then, of course, we don’t know what’s going on in Iran, because this is the first real air war,” he continued. “We don’t have boots on the ground, we don’t have embeds, but we will learn very shortly, and we’re going to get an idea of just how much damage was done. I think it might have been half a trillion dollars or more in the nuclear military-industrial complex.”

We don’t know the mood of the people. Are they going to come out and say to their own government, you mean we lost everything we had, and now you could have done this peacefully? Instead, you acted so tough, you were humiliated, and now we’re broke and destitute, and all you had to do was agree in the first place. And then we don’t know how the government will react to that. There could be a widespread uprising. We don’t know what we’re going to do if they try to kill another 40,000 people. “So the main denominator, though, that has to be ironclad is we have to react disproportionately any time they break the agreement,” Hanson added.

This comes as concerns have been raised about the memorandum, which essentially serves as an extended 60-day ceasefire to allow negotiating parties to work out the technical details of a more lasting peace deal. The concerns primarily center on the fact that those technical details remain unworked, including how the United States will ensure Iran abandons its nuclear weapons pursuit, how it will prevent Iran from funding its terror proxies in the region, and how the agreement will serve as more than empty commitments by the Iranians.

The Trump administration has maintained that enforcement will hinge on financial incentives: a $300 billion reconstruction fund, an upfront arrangement allowing Iran to immediately begin selling its oil, and U.S. vows to free up sanctioned money and assets upon Iran’s compliance. President Trump also said Wednesday he has no problem resuming military strikes if Iran begins to play games.

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“As Dwight Eisenhower himself said as early as 1951, if in ten years all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole process will have failed.”

• Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Just Tore Into NATO (Bolt)

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth tore into NATO on Thursday, branding the military alliance a paper tiger and demanding Europeans finally take responsibility for their own defense. Hegseth went on to call for a return to “NATO 1.0,” the era when Europeans understood that NATO’s power came not from “small flags on fancy tables” but from “warriors.” It’s a feature of the military alliance that Europeans have been happy to ignore, vastly preferring the negotiating table, meetings, and international governing bodies over legitimate, hard defense.


“For too long, NATO has been a paper tiger and a one-way street. No more,” the Secretary of War said. “And that’s what the Hague Summit is all about. That’s what defense spending commitments are all about. Transforming NATO back into a real military alliance that’s focused on hard power and real deterrence.”

A NATO 3.0 modeled on the NATO 1.0 that won the Cold War, with our allies actually taking the lead in Europe’s conventional defense. And that’s what NATO was always supposed to be and what its framers like President Eisenhower always expected. Europe was not supposed to be a dependency of the United States. That’s not what Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, or Conrad Adenauer wanted or expected. No, Europe was supposed to be a military power allied with a strong America. This is the essence of NATO 1.0. As Dwight Eisenhower himself said as early as 1951, if in ten years all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole process will have failed.

“Eisenhower was Supreme Allied Commander then, not yet our nation’s 34th president. But he and his allied counterparts, all of them still living in the shadow of World War II, understood that NATO’s power did not come from committees or from meetings or from small flags on fancy tables. It came from warriors,” Hegseth said. “And for Europe’s defense, it had come from NATO allies.”

This comes as President Trump has voiced massive displeasure with European allies, especially amid the war in Iran. The U.S. launched military strikes without consulting NATO partners, and Europe flatly refused to directly assist, a move Trump called “shameful” and uncharacteristic of allies. He went on to say that the Europeans “haven’t been friends when we needed them” and threatened to punish the military alliance by potentially reviewing whether to withdraw American troops from Europe altogether.

European powers, for their part, have agreed to a new distribution of senior leadership across NATO’s Command Structure, giving Europe more control of the alliance’s military operations. They now control all three Joint Force Commands, UK leads Norfolk, Italy leads Naples, and Germany and Poland share Brunssum. The U.S. still maintains key theater commands, but the move is clearly a step toward a more Euro-centric NATO that sidelines Washington from the alliance’s top decision-making positions.

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It’s Britain all the way.

• Britain Bought The Keys To Ukraine’s Nuclear Future – What’s Next? (Ostashko)

The UK has once again stormed into Ukraine with the grace of an old imperial administrator that goes about rearranging the furniture. But in reality, things are quite serious. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to finance the supply of enriched uranium for Ukrainian nuclear power plants over the next two years has nothing to do with commerce. Through this deal, London de facto gains access to the most sensitive sector of the Ukrainian state.


In a country where nuclear energy accounts for more than half of all power generation, control over nuclear reactors means direct control over industry, logistics, communications, and the viability of cities, especially in winter. On the surface, the plan is flawless: the UK is acting out of concern for energy security, offering support to its partner, and strengthening Kiev’s resilience. But behind the glossy facade lies a classic debt trap and a new level of external control.

The British have arranged things very well. Ukraine gets the physical resources, the allocated funds immediately return to the UK, and London becomes entrenched in Ukraine’s strategic sector for decades. Following the pain of Brexit, the UK is desperately trying to make a comeback into European politics, and now is an excellent opportunity to do so by means of Ukrainian nuclear energy. We may already see a long and complex technological chain behind the current supplies of uranium: Urenco is responsible for enrichment, Westinghouse provides nuclear fuel assemblies, and the construction of new AP1000 reactors looms on the horizon.

The Soviet nuclear legacy is being systematically replaced by Western companies. This transition will inevitably entail changes in standards, licensing, long-term maintenance, personnel training, and most importantly, the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Whoever embarks on this path today guarantees themselves the right to dictate the terms of the Ukrainian energy sector for decades to come. This expansion poses direct risks for Russia and Belarus. The Rovno Nuclear Power Plant is located close to the Belarusian border, and operating the old Soviet reactors requires great engineering precision and strict discipline.

In the context of a protracted military conflict, any managerial lapse, technical failure, or political mishap could instantly escalate into a regional catastrophe. The West is steadily consolidating the military, financial, and nuclear components into a cohesive anti-Russia front. While the UK capitalizes on this process, converting it into status, defense contracts, and influence, Ukraine is once again allocated the historical role of a battleground for foreign geopolitical interests.

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“The latest Western idea to prop up the Zelensky regime and compensate for weapons shortages could flop right at the start..”

• G7 Considering Licensed Arms Production In Ukraine: Why Now? (RT)

The G7 group is considering providing Ukraine with licenses to allow domestic production of Western weaponry, including anti-aircraft and long-range missiles. RT looks into why the West is doing this so late in the conflict and Ukraine’s ability to deliver on mass arms production.


The scheme
The G7 made the announcement in a joint statement following its summit in Geneva, stating it had agreed to “increase the delivery of air defense capacities, additional systems and interceptors, and long-range capabilities.” “We are also ready to consider extending to Ukraine the benefit of licenses to allow for an increase in Ukraine’s military production,” the group said in a statement. The plan also involves US manufacturers granting licenses to EU military-industrial companies in order to compensate for shortages in production of high-demand weapons, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “We are all currently producing too little, and this can be offset by granting licenses to companies that have these production capabilities, including European and Ukrainian firms,” Merz told reporters.

How is the scheme supposed to work?
The US rarely grants weaponry production licenses to its partners, pressing them into buying ready-made products instead, or in some instances, creating overseas manufacturing plants without transferring technologies to the third parties. The enduring need to supply Ukraine, as well as the extensive use of assorted munitions during the US-Israeli attack on Iran, however, could have softened Washington’s stance on the outsourcing of arms manufacturing. US President Donald Trump has confirmed the licensed production of anti-aircraft missiles for Patriot systems in Ukraine is under consideration, specifying that no decision has been made yet. “They would like to be able to do that, we’ll take a look at it. They have asked about it,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

Over the past few years, Kiev has repeatedly urged Washington to grant it licenses to manufacture such munitions. The US, however, has consistently rejected the idea, while the American arms giants have reportedly been very wary of making any investments in Ukraine due to the obvious risks connected to the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Does Ukraine have actual industrial capacities?
Setting up a full-cycle production of sophisticated weapons in Ukraine seems to be highly improbable, given the country’s shrinking industrial capacities, as well as questionable record of local arms manufacturers. While Kiev inherited a well-developed industry after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has been in decline ever since, with the process further accelerated by the civil conflict in formerly Ukrainian Donbass and the subsequent war against Russia, given that a bulk of plants were located in the east of the country.

One of the flagship Ukrainian ‘domestically built’ weapons, the Bogdana self-propelled howitzer, appears to have little to nothing Ukrainian in it. The howitzers are chambered for 155mm NATO rounds manufactured in the West, while assorted heavy-duty trucks made by European manufacturers have been used as the chassis for the systems. The origins of the barrel itself are also debatable, given Ukraine’s poor record in making even the most basic artillery pieces. For instance, the infamous mortar M120-15 Molot, a copy of a Soviet-era design manufactured by Ukraine since 2016, has repeatedly made the headlines over deadly detonations of shells in its barrel and other malfunctions.

The supposedly domestically built Ukrainian weapons, mainly assorted drones, are at best assembled locally from components supplied from abroad. The hyped FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile also gives a glimpse of Ukraine’s real industrial capacities. The missile has emerged as a parts-bin project, with design features varying from one piece to another, a US-made free-fall bomb used as its warhead, and antique Soviet-era AI-25TL engines, believed to be recovered from scrapped trainer aircraft, used for propulsion.

Why is the West doing this now?
In mid-April, the Russian Defense Ministry published a list of Ukraine-linked military production facilities scattered across Europe and beyond. The military said it had identified such sites in the UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Poland, as well as in Türkiye and Israel.

The list came with a dire warning. “The implementation of terrorist attack scenarios against Russia… using supposedly ‘Ukrainian’ UAVs manufactured in Europe is leading to unpredictable consequences,” the ministry stated. “Instead of strengthening the security of European states, the actions of European rulers are rapidly drawing these countries into a war with Russia,” it added. The licensing scheme could be a part of the effort to further decentralize arms production to avoid potential retaliatory strikes from Russia, as well as to disguise the supplied weaponry as a Ukrainian homegrown product.

One drone assembly site destroyed in a Russian strike was accidentally exposed this week by the Ukrainian media. A warehouse at the Dovzhenko Film Studios in Kiev, which was allegedly used to store some “unique costumes,” had multiple aircraft wings visible in its rubble, with the parts appearing to be consistent with FP-1/2 drones produced by Vladimir Zelensky’s favorite and corruption-scandal-plagued company Fire Point.

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From TASS Press Review. Origin is either Izvestia, Vedomosti or Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

• EU Pushes Trump On Russia Policy As Moscow Warns On Greenland Militarization (TASS)

The Europeans appear set to bend US President Donald Trump to toughen his stance on Russia, as Moscow and Tehran move to coordinate their actions at the UN to lift sanctions. Meanwhile, Russia has cautioned against continued militarization of Greenland. These stories topped Thursday’s headlines in Russia.


US President Donald Trump is trying to resolve the Ukraine conflict and is reluctant to assess actions by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, even as he is ready to consider putting more sanctions on Moscow and supplying missiles, including manufacturing air defense missiles for the Patriot system under license in Ukraine, the US leader himself said at a news conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit on June 17.

He specified that partial reintroduction of restrictions on Russian energy will depend on market price dynamics. It’s worth noting that, on Wednesday, the US Treasury did not extend its waiver of sanctions on Russian oil. Shortly prior to that, on the night of June 16, G7 leaders released a joint statement on geopolitical issues in which they reaffirmed their “unwavering support for Ukraine” and agreed to increase “the delivery of air defense capacities,” and “long-range capabilities’ as well as to strengthen their sanctions on Russia, including on its oil and gas sector. On June 16, Trump held talks with Vladimir Zelensky.

The Europeans are seeking to make Trump reverse the understandings reached at his meeting with Putin in Anchorage in August 2025, Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, told Vedomosti. According to him, Brussels would like to introduce a new format of talks with their participation. “They advocate for a format without withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the rest of Donbass but with deployment of troops from the coalition of the willing in Ukraine,” the expert explained. The Europeans understand that if Trump adopts such a stance, this will actually disrupt talks, but they are not ready for a full cessation of negotiations either as they realize that Ukraine is losing, he argued.

“He is currently facing a much weaker internal and external political situation than at the Anchorage meeting,” Suslov continued. For example, he can no longer threaten Kiev with reduced aid as the bulk of it now comes from the EU. In addition, Trump is looking for European support in the gradual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The Europeans are pursuing the goal of buying Trump on Ukraine and putting pressure on Putin through him, while also strengthening Zelensky’s negotiating position, but they are unwilling to disrupt talks, Pavel Koshkin, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies, maintained.

As regards the prospect of the Europeans eventually sitting down to the negotiating table, this seems possible as the US cannot ignore its key allies in the region, despite the accumulated differences. “Trump will continue to maneuver further down the road. His goals are still the same: he is still seeking a meeting between Putin and Zelensky. And if this requires involving the Europeans, he could perhaps propose these ideas to Putin. For if Russia actually views the EU as an indirect party to the conflict, a durable peace is unlikely to be agreed without the EU,” Koshkin concluded.

Moscow and Tehran are coordinating their actions at the United Nations to lift all sanctions on Iran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov told Izvestia. They actually secured the support of 16 additional states here. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Iran and the United States last night includes a provision on lifting restrictions. A 60-day period of talks will begin next, at which Tehran will concentrate on the nuclear problem and sanctions, the Islamic Republic’s MFA said. However, given the number of sanctions, this may turn into a very complicated legal process. For the time being, only pinpoint energy waivers that will greatly facilitate oil sales for Iran seem more likely.

On Wednesday night, two days ahead of the scheduled date, the United States and Iran separately signed a pre-agreed MoU. Without taking account of waivers post the 2015 nuclear deal, it can be said that the Islamic Republic has been under strict restrictions since its foundation, or for almost half a century already. Meanwhile, Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, recently hosted a meeting of the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter. Apart from Russia and Iran, it was attended by 16 other countries, including China. Among other topics, the Group has constantly focused on countering unlawful sanctions, including on Iran.

In general, lifting restrictions still seems to be the most challenging process, in light of their number. More than 6,000 sanctions have been imposed on Iran – Russia alone is under even more sanctions. The bulk of those was imposed by the United States. And cancelling relevant UN Security Council resolutions will obviously cause the most difficulties. A new resolution will be needed for this. And given the dozens of failed attempts at the UN to adopt at least some resolutions, not to mention the split in the Security Council, this will constitute the biggest challenge in purely technical terms.

Only the lifting of energy sanctions can be realistic in the near future, experts say. “Restrictions on ship freight, tanker insurance, logistics operations, and financial transactions in the oil industry and with hydrocarbons may be lifted,” Yekaterina Arapova, head of a research program at the Institute of International Research at MGIMO University, told Izvestia.

Despite the fact that Iran cannot currently sell all the oil it can produce amid the sanctions, the country is among the top 10 major exporters, therefore if operations with crude oil are greenlighted, this may seriously change not only the republic’s economy but also the situation on global markets. “If sanctions are lifted on Tehran, then it will not make much sense for China to buy exclusively Iranian oil. And there will remain only one supplier who could offer a discount due to the sanctions pressure, and that is Russia. The Americans have already `torn Venezuela away’ from China. Moreover, the increased demand from China will intensify competition for Russian oil with India, and this will enable Russia to slash the discount,” Igor Yushkov, leading expert at the Financial University under the Russian Government, told Izvestia.

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Is the west simply going to deny it’s needed?

• Denazification of Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, Canada (Helmer)

Russian officials are insisting in private that tomorrow’s (June 19) signing of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with its fourteen points, is the signal for finalizing a similar multi-point term sheet for agreement with the US to halt the war on the Ukrainian battlefield.


They also insist — add sources in a position to know — that the Trump Administration is promising the lifting of US sanctions on the Russian oil trade and on the alternative fleet which has been carrying these oil cargoes to buyers in India, China, Turkey, and elsewhere. The sources claim that the Russian military plan for the peace pause assumes a ceasefire, including a halt to Ukrainian drone attacks, for at least the remaining two years of President Donald Trump’s term – longer if he is succeeded by Vice President JD Vance or by one of Trump’s sons. The Russian intelligence forecast is for a Republican victory in the 2028 presidential election.

If the future is this rosy, or if it only looks that way through rose-coloured glasses, what is to become of the UKRAINIZATION of drone warfighting operations now extending across the NATO bases, NATO drone manufacturing plants, and NATO exercises, deployment, and operational plans to prepare to fire them at Russian targets?

What is to become, also, of the AMERICANIZATION of security for Russia in Europe which President Vladimir Putin insists he discussed – one on one and in fluent English – and agreed with Trump at their Anchorage, Alaska, summit meeting last August 15? This is what Russian officials call the Anchorage Formula – it means trust in Trump to deliver a security guarantee protecting Russia from the drone, missile, and other attacks currently under way on the Russian hinterland, on Crimea and the Donbass, and on Russian oil and gas cargoes moving to market on the high seas.

The Russian General Staff and its chief intelligence officer, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, believe that Americanization will put a pause on Ukrainization for at least the year ahead. These officers don’t give any credit for negotiating this pause to Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special negotiator with Trump’s bagmen, Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner; nor to the individual bribe schemes and slush funds they have been discussing together.

And so the sources in a position to know are asking each other — if Ukrainization and Americanization are about to be implemented by an MoU-type paper for at least a year or two, what about the DENAZIFICATION of the regime currently ruling the Ukraine? That has been a Russian war objective from the beginning of the Special Military Operation. It has been operationalized on term sheets in the Istanbul and Abu Dhabi talks as regime change in Kiev by an election to replace Vladimir Zelensky and his associates. The alternative is regime decapitation by military means or by covert methods.

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Very obvious. Will someone try and prevent it?

• Speculation About A SpaceX–Tesla Merger Is Already Growing (ZH)

SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO has fueled speculation that Elon Musk could take an even bigger step: merging SpaceX with Tesla to create a roughly $4 trillion technology conglomerate spanning rockets, AI, satellites, electric vehicles, robotics, energy, and social media, according to a new report from the New York Times. The idea has gained traction among investors, analysts, and even SpaceX executives. Tesla and SpaceX already share personnel, collaborate on major projects, and have business ties through AI development, data centers, batteries, and vehicle sales.


Because Musk controls SpaceX and is Tesla’s largest shareholder, any merger would effectively be a deal with himself, raising concerns about conflicts of interest and shareholder lawsuits. However, legal experts say Texas corporate law—where both companies are now incorporated—makes such challenges difficult. Shareholders generally need to own at least 3% of a company’s stock to sue, a threshold that would require roughly $45 billion in Tesla shares. The Times notes that approval would still require support from two-thirds of Tesla shareholders. Musk controls about 20% of Tesla’s voting power, and many investors have historically backed his initiatives. Tesla’s board has also frequently aligned with Musk, while SpaceX recently added longtime Musk associate Roelof Botha to its board.

Supporters argue a merger could unlock significant synergies. Tesla’s expertise in chips, AI, and data-center construction could complement SpaceX’s ambitions in orbital infrastructure, satellite communications, and space-based computing. Ark Invest, which owns shares in both companies, has said the combination makes strategic sense, though it would prefer Tesla’s self-driving taxi business to mature first. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has acknowledged potential benefits, saying a merger could simplify Musk’s responsibilities and noting clear overlaps between the companies’ futures: “There’s no question that there are synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures.”

Opponents could challenge the deal through securities-fraud claims, antitrust scrutiny, or national-security concerns, particularly given the companies’ combined presence in AI, robotics, communications, and space technology. Still, experts believe regulators would face significant hurdles, especially if the combined company continued to perform well. “As long as he keeps running the business well and the stock price keeps going up, that is a pretty good bar to bringing a securities fraud suit,” said James Spindler, a professor of corporate law at the University of Texas School of Law.

Ultimately, the greatest obstacle may be financial rather than legal. As one corporate-governance expert noted, investors tend to support ambitious deals when markets are rising and shareholders are making money. Charles Elson, the founding director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware told The New York Times that Musk “has got this cheering section who will follow him to the gates of Hades or gates of heaven, wherever he leads them.” “Basically he’s gotten to the point where he can do almost anything he wishes…”

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Every now and then, a glimpse at how bad the previous 4 years were.

• Stupid, Stupid, Stupid”: DOJ Memo Tarnishes Record of Merrick Garland (Turley)

“Internal emails were uncovered recently that cast a new, negative light on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s record in targeting parents over school board controversies. The communications show that various Justice officials raised alarms over the effort pushed by Democratic allies and the National Association for School Boards. Career officials condemned the Biden Administration proposal by objecting that “If they do this, they might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force.”


As parents organized against COVID and woke policies being implemented by school boards, Democratic allies and the National Association for School Boards called upon the Biden Administration to crack down. Garland agreed and implemented a plan detailed in an October 2021 memo to treat these parents as engaged in potential “domestic terrorism.” There was public outrage, but Garland defended the action, declaring “The obligation of the Justice Department is to protect the American people against violence and threats of violence and that particularly includes public officials.” As the outcry grew, the Biden Administration was forced into a retreat and an apology:

“On behalf of NSBA, we regret and apologize for the letter. There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter. We should have had a better process in place to allow for consultation on a communication of this significance. We apologize also for the strain and stress this situation has caused you and your organizations.” We now know that rank-and-file officials opposed the effort, but decided to go forward anyway. The Justice Department in October 2021 issued a memo to coordinate a response to what it described as an “increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools” by parents.

Newly released emails raised all the objections later made by critics after the policy’s release. One deputy assistant attorney general wrote that: “I don’t think it’s possible to state how strongly I object to this. It will completely and totally nuke our election threats efforts, and will damage the reputation of the Public Integrity Section into the bargain. It’s like they’ve affirmatively trying to make this thing not work and look political.” When officials said that the Biden Administration was about to create an “Anti-MAGA Task Force,” officials responded, “Exactly! Stupid, stupid, stupid.” Another principal deputy assistant attorney general wrote,

“We will not do this. There is no conceivable connection to [public integrity] (indeed, I’m not seeing a federal interest of any kind.). And if they’re going to make the AG’s memo to the field about this and election threats, I’m going to strongly recommend that they not send it.” The Public Integrity section chief agreed, saying the memo could turn the Justice Department and the FBI into the “threat police” and that it contained “no limiting principle at all.”The question is how such an ill-considered, excessive memo could be issued in light of such internal opposition. The answer focuses new attention on the record of Garland, who seemed at times to be a virtual pedestrian in decisions at his own department.

In 2022, I wrote a column titled “The Incredible Shrinking Merrick Garland” to express my disappointment in his developing record as someone who supported his nomination. Citing the school memo and other decisions, I wrote that Garland appeared increasingly “immaterial” to the running of the department: “Garland sometimes looks more like a pedestrian than a driver on decisions in his own department. Top positions were given to figures denounced as far-left advocates on issues from defunding the police to racial justice. For the moderate Garland, these did not seem like natural choices.”

As Special Counsel Jack Smith took a hatchet to preexisting DOJ policies and the First Amendment in his crusade against Donald Trump, Garland seemed little more than a figurehead in refusing to exercise any moderating or supervisory influence. Likewise, as his department pursued a “shock and awe campaign” against citizens who joined the January 6th protests, Garland remained passive. By 2023, I was writing columns that Garland had become an “utter failure” as Attorney General. He had become the kind face of a department weaponizing charges and targeting opponents.

While the same charges have been leveled at the current Administration, that does not alter the troubling legacy of Merrick Garland. The school board memo reflects how political rather than legal or institutional priorities prevailed under Garland. The merits of these controversies can be left to history. However, what is most striking is the absence of any discernible control or direction from Garland.

Unlike his predecessor, Bill Barr, who was famously “hands-on” in his leadership style, Garland delegated authority to powerful subordinates, who carried out these measures with little apparent restraint. As discussed in my 2022 column, Garland seemed to morph with the character Scott Stuart in the cult classic, “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” in which Stuart delivers a strikingly profound line: “The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet — like the closing of a gigantic circle.” That may be the final epitaph of Merrick Garland’s record as United States Attorney General.

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“I think we should challenge the pardon, because it’s an extraordinary pardon. It’s a pardon not for a specific crime, and it’s a pardon over a 10 year period. It’s the same that he got the same thing Hunter Biden got…”

• Two Top Senators Urge Trump DOJ To Prosecute Fauci Despite Biden Pardon (JTN)

Two top U.S. senators are urging the Trump Justice Department to challenge the legality of President Joe Biden’s pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci and to pursue criminal charges against the nation’s former top doc during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think we should challenge the pardon, because it’s an extraordinary pardon. It’s a pardon not for a specific crime, and it’s a pardon over a 10 year period. It’s the same that he got the same thing Hunter Biden got,” Sen. Rand Paul told the Just the News, No Noise television show on Tuesday. “I think that could be challenged in court, because it’s not specific, it’s vague, and it doesn’t specify the crime, and it’s such a large period of time.


So, I think it could be challenged, and should be challenged,” he said. Paul, a longtime Fauci critic who accused the doctor of misleading Congress, added that the recent indictment of two Fauci deputies could give the DOJ leverage to secure their cooperation and testimony against their former boss. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., echoed Paul’s concerns on Wednesday, telling Just the News that he’s “pretty certain” what Fauci funded in terms of research caused the COVID pandemic. “Anthony Fauci is a bad person, and he ought to be prosecuted, because I believe he did commit crimes,” Johnson said.

How she has long denied wrongdoing and dismissed such criticisms in the past. But Biden nonetheless infamously pardoned Fauci in 2024 by autopen before leaving office. Paul compared the pardon to Hunter Biden’s. Referencing the autopen action, Paul added, “Was President Biden of sound mind? Did he understand who he was pardoning? Did he participate in it? Did he approve of each of the ones that were signed by autopen?” Paul described some of the most alarming elements of a detailed timeline his committee released last week, and accused Fauci of launching a public relations campaign to deflect scrutiny from his agency’s funding of risky virus research in China as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020.

Paul detailed a timeline of Fauci’s actions speaking exclusively to Just The News, citing emails and documents his office obtained. Paul highlighted from the timeline that Fauci was awake at 3 a.m. in late January 2020, emailing Dr. Robert Kadlec, who oversaw dangerous research, falsely asserting the virus originated in animals with “nothing to do with the lab.” Fauci also called on old friends within the intelligence community, according to Paul, to mislead them about what was really going on at the Wuhan, China laboratory.

“He (Fauci) already knows he’s going to have to defend this because he outsourced this dangerous research to China. There weren’t adequate safety controls, and now he’s got to start the spin,” Paul said. Paul noted that Fauci’s spin operation was not only necessary for political purposes, but for survival, because in Fauci’s capacity as a health official, he funded research to humanize the virus and re-adapted it to make it more contagious to humans. Within a week, according to Paul, on Feb. 1, 2020, a group of top virologists privately told Fauci the virus appeared engineered, citing its furin cleavage site. The furin cleavage site is a short, specific amino acid sequence that acts as a recognition signal for the host enzyme furin to cut and activate the protein.

Days later, several of those same scientists published a prominent paper declaring it was “not a laboratory construct,” language Paul called “adamant language you rarely see in a scientific article, political type of language, PR type of language.” One author later received an $8 million grant approved by Fauci, Paul said. Fauci then cited the paper in White House briefings as independent evidence against a lab leak, despite having helped commission and edit it. “It’s a big circle, but it’s all around Anthony Fauci,” Paul said. aEncouraging developments, Paul said, include federal indictments of two Fauci lieutenants: David Morens, accused of destroying records and acting as Fauci’s intermediary, and Vincent Munster, a virologist, charged in connection with importing dangerous pathogens into the country without a permit, claiming they were “diagnostic equipment”.

Both were involved in research grants that proposed creating viruses with features similar to SARS-CoV-2. Paul added that Morens and Munster might be willing to flip on the government’s former top pandemic doctor and testify if offered leniency on their terms. “My goodness, it would be worth it to see one or two of his lieutenants give up testimony that they would not have given up otherwise, but now that they’ve been indicted, might be inclined to tell the truth,” Paul said.

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Hillary is talking about (who else) … Hillary.

“Biden was in MY way”.

• Dems Could Have Beaten Trump If Biden Had Stepped Aside: Hillary Clinton (JTN)

Hillary Clinton said that former President Joe Biden made a “terrible mistake” when he decided to run for reelection. The remarks were made at an event in Manhattan on Monday, the New York Times reported. Biden’s decision, Clinton said, was a “terrible miscalculation” that resulted in the Democratic Party’s loss in 2024. If instead of running for reelection, Biden had decided to “pass the torch,” Democrats could have held a competitive presidential primary. “Whoever emerged from that contest — whether it was the vice president, or a governor, or a senator or anybody else — would have beaten Donald Trump,” Clinton said.
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They think they can make JD a Democrat. Trump no.2 has them thinking he’s one of theirs. Likability.

• What Joy Behar Told JD Vance Shocked Him (Margolis)

JD Vance walked into enemy territory on Tuesday, and while everyone is talking about how he crushed it, with an endorsement nobody saw coming, least of all him. The vice president appeared on ABC’s The View to promote his new book, and he spent the better part of an hour fielding hostile questions from a panel that was never gonna give him a fair chance. But surprisingly, he impressed at least one of his harshest potential critics, who told him so directly during a commercial break. That critic was Joy Behar, the show’s longtime co-host and a woman who has openly admitted that she’s “never voted for a Republican in my life.” According to a report by the New York Post, Behar told him off-air that he should run for president.


The compliment came with a major caveat, though, which Behar made sure everyone heard the next day. She revealed the exchange on The View’s companion podcast, Behind the Table, after executive producer Brian Teta put her on the spot. “I’m getting a note here. You told him during the break that he should run for president because he had a good vibe,” Teta said. Behar’s response: “For a Republican.” That qualifier became the theme of her entire defense of the moment. Behar insisted she doesn’t think Vance is “a bad guy,” calling him “very genial” and crediting him for coming on the show “in good faith.”

The comedian and television personality, who stressed that she is not a Republican, said she has no intention of backing Vance politically, arguing that Democrats are more compassionate than Republicans on national issues. “I don’t mind a Republican on the city level because it needs a little discipline, but on the national level, I want somebody with a good heart,” Behar said, adding that she voted for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg ran for mayor as a Republican but later registered an independent. He then switched to the Democrats in order to mount what would be an unsuccessful bid for the party’s presidential nomination.

Behar insisted that her personal impression of Vance differed from her view of the administration he serves. “Truthfully, as I said to you at the beginning of this conversation, I don’t think that he’s a bad guy,” she said. Vance also let slip just how much the appearance rattled him beforehand, telling Behar backstage more than once that he was more nervous walking onto that set than he was heading into last year’s vice presidential debate. Well, I guess I can understand that. I mean, Tim Walz, am I right? We all knew how that was going to go. But the women on The View aren’t much smarter than Walz; there are just more of them.

He recounted the compliment again later that night on Gutfeld!, still amused by it. “Joy Behar even said during the break, not joking, she said, ‘You know what? You’re, like, pretty good for a Republican.’ And I was like, ‘Whoa.’ That is a way better compliment than I expected from Joy Behar.” If you missed his appearance on The View, here it is:

In fairness, I don’t think he needs validation from Joy Behar.

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PCR NOT talking about Trump. Or Putin.

• White Ethnicities Have Been Demonized Beyond Recovery (Paul Craig Roberts)

In 1968 Britain’s only leader, Enoch Powell, explained that the mass influx into Great Britain by immigrant-invaders from the third world would turn ethnic British into “strangers in their own country.” Powell, of course, was lambasted by the liberals and the left, by presstitutes, and by fellow politicians anxious to move forward at Powell’s expense. Powell’s prediction turned out to be correct and his detractors wrong. In 1973 Jean Raspail said the same thing about France in his book, The Camp of the Saints. In more recent years Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s largest political party, which is carefully kept out of power by the French establishment, has warned that France was ceasing to be French. Her warning has been rewarded by the French elite’s ongoing attempts to imprison her.


In 1972 Wilmot Robertson warned Americans about their future in his book The Dispossessed Majority. In more recent times the immigration website Vdare fostered debate about the consequences of mass immigration for American society. Vdare‘s reward was to be shutdown by anti-white New York attorney general Leticia James, a black woman who was educated by white liberals to hate white people as racists. As almost all immigrant-invaders are people of color, AG James concluded that Vdare was racist and white supremacist and decided to abuse the powers of her office to destroy the immigration website. She did this by endless demands for documents without ever filing charges until Vdare‘s funds were used up by lawyers and the site closed.

Now that Vdare is destroyed by AG James and its former owners left without funds, Leticia James will probably file some unsupported charge against the former owners knowing that they lack the financial means for their defense. Thus she can continue her ruin of the “white racists” and perhaps imprison them. This is what multiculturalism and diversity has brought to insouciant white people everywhere. White ethnicities have everywhere allowed their own brainwashed anti-white governments to put immigrant-invaders in charge of their lives. This result is precisely what Enoch Powell, Jean Raspail, Marine Le Pen, and Wilmot Robertson predicted.

In what little remains of Great Britain today, Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, and newcomer Rupert Lowe are making objections to the anti-white policies institutionalized in the British government.. That there are three Britishers protesting the demise of British ethnicity indicates that there is some spark of self-defense among ethnic British. But so much has been lost that the ethnic British are now the underdog in their own country, just as Enoch Powell said they would be. Instead of listening, the dumbshit British read the liberal newspapers and scolded Powell for being a racist.

Essentially, the British government, both parties, have abandoned white British ethnics in favor of immigrant-invaders. Nigel Farage has correctly accused the British government of “deep anti-white racism.” There is no doubt that his accusation is correct. He proves it with the government’s own statistics. There is no doubt that the 2010 Equality Act institutionalized anti-white attitudes into every aspect of legal and public life in Britain.

There have been so many scandals in Britain of the anti-white British government covering up mass crimes committed against British ethnics by immigrant-invaders. There is the now admitted 30-year coverup of mass gang rapes by immigrant-invaders of British women and children. Different reports give different numbers. Some are 180,000 ethnic British female children gang raped and nothing done about it. Other figures are 300,000. A former British prime minister stated publicly that the rapes were ignored by the authorities as it would question the immigration policy.

In the past few days we had the murder of Nowak by an immigrant-invader. Nowak, a white British citizen, bled to death handcuffed by the police .while the white British police chatted amicably with his black murderer. We have had the attempted beheading of an ethnic Britisher by a black immigrant-invader. We have had the stabbing in the neck of a young ethnic British girl by an immigrant-invader who dances at his success. I could go on forever and write volume after volume, and the weak-minded white ethnics sit there thinking as they are told by the white liberals it is their fault for being racist.

The collapse of Western civilization, like the collapse of the Roman Empire, is not a sudden event. It happens slowly over time. The time is upon us, and the collapse is now. The cause is not Russia, Iran, China, or white racism. The cause is the systematic brainwashing of ethnic nationalities in the white world that they uniquely are racists who have oppressed people of color and must now pay the consequences. White ethnicities have been so drained of confidence that they are incapable of fighting for their lives, for their culture, for their civilization. Everywhere white ethnicities are being replaced and they do not resist.

It is that simple. There is nothing left to be said.

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20% and more. Serious.

• Apple To Raise Prices As AI Boom Pushes Up Chip Costs (BBC)

Apple plans to raise the prices of its products as the cost of the memory chips it uses has surged, the technology giant’s boss has said. Tim Cook, Apple’s outgoing chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that price increases were “unavoidable” as the situation around memory chips had become “unsustainable”. He did not say when prices would rise or which products would be affected. It is also unclear whether the price hikes will affect the iPhone 18, which is expected to be launched in September. Memory chips are essential components in smart devices like mobile phones, but the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) has driven up their prices in recent months.


Later, US President Donald Trump said that Apple had agreed to work with chipmaker Intel to make its chips in the US. “I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America,” he wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. The BBC has contacted Apple and Intel for comment. In August last year, the Trump administration announced that the federal government would take a 10% stake in Intel. Intel’s shares rose more than 10% when US stock markets opened on Thursday.

‘Less supply’
Speaking to the WSJ, Apple boss Cook said: “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable. “There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases,” said Cook, who is due to be replaced by John Ternus as Apple’s CEO in September after 15 years in the role. “We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line.”

The price of Ram – typically one of the cheapest computer components – has more than doubled since October 2025. In addition to rising AI demand, the war in Iran has also disrupted the global supply of helium, a gas crucial in making semiconductors, adding to the cost of computer chips. The average selling price of smartphones globally is expected to rise by around 20% in 2026 to an all-time high, according to research firm Omdia. Apple’s new phones are likely to cost up to $150 more than the iPhone 17s, as the firm is expected to upgrade their specifications to support new AI features, Omdia’s smartphone market analyst Chiew Le Xuan told the BBC.

Most smartphone brands have already raised prices, pulled back on promotions or cut specifications to protect their profit margins in response to rising costs, he added. “This is the new pricing reality, not a temporary spike.” Other technology giants have also highlighted pressure in the chipmaking industry. In an exclusive interview with the BBC this month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) would not rule out price increases as inflation pushed up its costs. TSMC makes the most advanced chips designed by companies such as Apple, Nvidia and AMD. Earlier this year, Samsung said that it expects memory chip supply shortages to make electronic devices more expensive.

In April, Sony raised the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles by £90 in the UK and $100 in the US as a result of “continued pressures in the global economic landscape”. Nintendo later said it would increase the price of its Switch 2 from September due to “changes in market conditions”. The iPhone 17 has been popular since the lineup was launched last September. Sales of Apple devices grew by 17% in the first three months of 2026 compared with the same period a year ago, helped by strong demand in China. Apple removed the entry-level option of its Mac Mini compact computers, raising its starting price by about $200 (£150) earlier this year.

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Debt Rattle June 18 2026

Jun 182026
 
 June 18, 2026  Posted by at 9:17 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  15 Responses »


Priest and scribe Ka-aper ca. 2465-2323 BC


• Trump And Iran Sign MOU Deal Ahead Of Schedule (ZH)
• Read The 14-Point US-Iran Draft Deal Set For Friday Signing (ZH)
• Trump Shifting Focus Back To Ukraine: Where Do Peace Talks Stand? (RT)
• Trump Calls Out ‘Dumocrat’ Double-Cross,” Keeps Pulte As Acting DNI (ZH)
• 5 Arrested in Plot to Attack UFC Event at White House (ET)
• How Deep Are the Newsoms In It? THIS Deep. (Stephen Green)
• Kamala’s Anti-Trump Meltdown in Austria a Masterclass in Projection (Margolis)
• Ease In Our Time (Every)
• Nigel Farage’s ‘White Britain’: A Long-Overdue Step (von Hoffmeister)
• Nigel Farage’s ‘White Britain’ is a Fantasy (Graham Hryce)
• A Social Media Ban for Minors Requires Data From Everyone (ET)
• Canada is Next Up (CTH)
• The World Is Re-Discovering America In the World Cup — and Loving It (Moran)
• Russia’s New Warning Shot From Space (Martin Armstrong)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2067182879038406656?s=20

 


 


“If [the Iran deal] works out, I’m going to take the credit; if it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming [Vance].”

• Trump And Iran Sign MOU Deal Ahead Of Schedule (ZH)

Trump Signs Iran Deal Remotely Ahead Of Schedule. Confirming earlier speculation, Axios reports that the U.S. and Iran have remotely signed their memorandum of understanding to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, and the agreement is now in effect. The signing – which took place electronically between Trump, Vance and Ghalibaf – reportedly took place at dinner in France alongside President Emmanuel Macron. The signing was supposed to happen in Switzerland on Friday, but a diplomat from a mediating country and a second source familiar told Axios earlier on Wednesday that there had been discussions about signing and implementing it earlier


The diplomatic source said the discussions around accelerating the timetable were intended to open the strait sooner than Friday, as both parties were in agreement on that issue. Another factor may have been the political pressure on the White House to release the text of the MOU, which it sitll hasn’t done officially. The source familiar with the discussions claimed it was Iran that demanded the text not be published until the formal signing, and denied the White House was responding to political pressure. The only “public release” so far consisted of a senior administration official reading the agreement to reporters in a briefing call on Wednesday, after days of confusion about what was in it.

Ahead of the signing, Iran’s foreign ministry said the sides had agreed that the MOU should be signed electronically by both presidents. For Iran, the signing represents a major victory as it now stands to receive billions in unfrozen (and other) funds from the US and Gulf sources. While it’s now just a formality, the meeting between the U.S. and Iranian delegations headed by Vice President Vance and Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf is still expected to take place as planned on Friday in Switzerland. They are expected to discuss the launching of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.

The signing took place after this remarkable press conference earlier in the day in which Trump tried to justify conceding to Iran’s terms: As BBC’s Siavash Ardalan writes, Trump’s responses to the reporters’ questions to justify the agreement with Iran were bizarre and unprecedented in their own way: They asked him how he could allow $300 billion in investment in Iran. He said, “We’ve already inflicted $2 trillion in damage on Iran; $300 billion is nothing in comparison.” They asked why he’s giving Iran tens of billions of dollars. He said, “If we don’t return their own money to them, other countries will be afraid to put their money in our banks, and then the dollar’s position will weaken.”

They asked why the missile issue isn’t in the agreement. He said, “We’ve already destroyed 85% of their missiles anyway; the rest are buried underground, and besides, we sell air defense systems to the countries in the region so they won’t worry about Iran’s missiles.” They asked if he’s not worried that Iran will say, “We’re only producing nuclear energy for civilian purposes.” He said, “You can’t tell everyone else to produce electricity with nuclear power while only Iran can’t.” Finally, he said, “If we continue sanctioning Iran, 91 million Iranians will die of hunger—what’s the point of that, really?” Oh, and he joked that “If [the Iran deal] works out, I’m going to take the credit; if it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming [Vance].”

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They should talk until about August 20. As the date approaches, Iran will say they need more time.

• Read The 14-Point US-Iran Draft Deal Set For Friday Signing (ZH)

With US and Iranian officials preparing to formally sign a memorandum of understanding in Switzerland on Friday, the conflict is entering the much-needed diplomatic phase to avert a potentially disastrous energy cliff. The MoU would open a 60-day negotiating window aimed at ending the war, restoring maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and hammering out the future of Iran’s nuclear program.


Bloomberg published the text of the 14-point draft MoU, offering the clearest look yet at the proposed trade: de-escalation and sanctions relief for Iran, in exchange for a ceasefire across all fronts, commitments on shipping access, and a broader nuclear deal to be finalized by the end of summer. But Iran’s Tasnim news agency cited an unnamed official earlier today, saying some of the MoU published by Bloomberg is inaccurate. The report did not specify the discrepancies. Bloomberg noted that some of the wording could be different between the English and Persian versions. Below is the text of the 14-point draft MoU:

  1. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, together with their allies in the current war, declare upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and undertake that from now on they will not launch any hostile action against each other, and will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other. The final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article and the remaining Articles
  2. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to refrain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs
  3. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to negotiate and reach a final agreement within a maximum period of 60 days, extendable by mutual consent
  4. Immediately upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, the United States Lift the naval blockade and prevent any interference or obstruction against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and restore traffic within a maximum of 30 days to its full capacity; the traffic of ships shall be proportional to the pre-war volume of traffic on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The United States also undertakes to withdraw its forces from the surrounding areas within 30 days after the final agreement
  5. Upon signing this Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take steps to ensure that the movement of merchant ships from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa is resumed within 30 days to the pre-war volume, taking into account the need for the removal of technical obstacles and the neutralization of mines by Iran.
  6. The United States undertakes, together with its regional partners, to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran, While ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan, as part of the final agreement, will be formulated within 60 days.
  7. The United States commits to ending, on a schedule to be agreed upon as part of the final agreement, all types of sanctions currently facing the Islamic Republic of Iran, including resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and all unilateral U.S. sanctions, both primary and secondary.
  8. The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have agreed that the fate of enriched material and the fate of all other mutually agreed nuclear-related issues, including Iran’s nuclear needs, will be adequately addressed in a final agreement; the final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article.
  9. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that, pending a final agreement, they will maintain the status quo: Iran will maintain the status quo on its nuclear program, and the United States will not impose new sanctions on Iran or strengthen its forces in the region.
  10. The United States undertakes that immediately after the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and until the date of the lifting of sanctions, the United States Treasury Department will issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, and all related services, including banking, insurance, transportation, and the like.
  11. The United States undertakes that, in light of the progress of negotiations towards a final agreement, frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be released and made fully available. These funds, whether held in the master account or transferred, will be used for any final beneficiary payment determined by the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and will be fully available for use. The United States undertakes to issue all necessary permits and licenses on this basis.
  12. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that an implementation mechanism will be established to oversee the successful implementation of and future commitment to the Final Agreement.
  13. Following the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and upon receipt of assurances regarding the commencement of implementation of Articles 4, 5, 10, and 11 of this Memorandum of Understanding, and the continued implementation of these steps, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States will enter into negotiations for a Final Agreement solely with respect to the remaining Articles.
  14. The final agreement will be approved through a binding resolution of the UN Security Council

Based on the text above, the first take of the MoU appears to be front-loaded economic relief for Tehran in exchange for a ceasefire, a nuclear freeze, and commitments to negotiate hard topics, such as the nuclear program, at a later date.

Who Stands To Benefit:
Tehran benefits most directly because it gets economic oxygen, oil waivers, frozen funds, sanctions relief language, and reduced US military pressure in the region. Hezbollah and Iran-aligned actors also benefit if “all fronts, including Lebanon” locks in a ceasefire that constrains Israeli operations. And, of course, the global economy because global shippers benefit if Hormuz reopens and war risk premiums in crude oil collapse. The Gulf states benefit if the conflict ends because energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz will resume. A report on Tuesday said that QatarEnergy was planning to ramp up LNG production in the coming months.

Where is Leverage Lost:
The US loses some coercive leverage once the Hormuz blockade ends, oil waivers are granted, and asset-release mechanisms begin. Israel loses freedom of action if the agreement binds the Lebanon front and limits further strikes. Sanctions and hawks lose leverage because the draft moves quickly toward broad sanctions dismantlement. The urgency behind the MoU and locking in peace talks for 60 days, with a formal signing event at the Bürgenstock resort in Switzerland on Friday, stems mainly from the world being headed for an energy cliff, as SPRs globally were being drained to offset the loss of Gulf production with the Hormuz chokepoint shuttered. Brent crude futures edged down overnight, trading around $79 a barrel on Wednesday morning.

One of the biggest uncertainties remains the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump stated that the critical waterway will reopen permanently and be toll-free, but the MoU suggests the toll-free arrangement may only last through the 60-day negotiation period. Another major uncertainty is Tehran’s compliance.

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Zelensky represents a bunch of deeply corrupt neo-nazis. Trump knows this. For Europeans and US Democrats, Ukraine is a money whitewash vehicle. What is it for Trump?

• Trump Shifting Focus Back To Ukraine: Where Do Peace Talks Stand? (RT)

Where do the talks stand?
After Washington resumed direct contacts with Moscow following years of diplomatic freeze under Joe Biden, Russia, Ukraine and the US held three rounds of talks aimed at reaching a settlement. The negotiations yielded several tangible results, including major prisoner exchanges, the repatriation of fallen soldiers, and the exchange of peace memorandums. However, they failed to secure a peace deal, with key disagreements persisting, particularly over Moscow’s demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donbass.A fourth round of talks, expected in March, was postponed after Washington shifted its focus to the Iran war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has since described the process as being in a “situational pause” pending renewed US engagement.

What settlements have been proposed?
Following the Alaska summit, where Moscow and Washington stressed the need for a lasting settlement rather than the ceasefire sought by Kiev and its European backers, Trump unveiled a 28-point peace roadmap. According to leaked drafts, it called for Ukraine to abandon its NATO ambitions, drop territorial claims, and cap its military at 600,000 personnel. Moscow welcomed the proposal as a potential basis for peace. However, under pressure from the EU and UK, several key provisions were later removed or revised.

The updated 20-point plan reportedly included demilitarized zones, Western security guarantees for Kiev, an 800,000-strong peacetime Ukrainian military, a reconstruction fund for Ukraine, and a path toward EU membership. Russia confirmed receiving the revised proposal but declined to discuss its contents, accusing the Europeans of reshaping the framework and undermining peace efforts.

What are the next steps?
On Tuesday, Trump discussed Ukraine with Zelensky and other leaders during a closed-door G7 session and later held a separate meeting with the Ukrainian leader. While details were not disclosed, Zelensky said afterward that it was important to “coordinate positions.” Meanwhile, Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to resume contacts with Moscow after shifting their focus to the Iran war. Putin aide Yury Ushakov said preparations are under way following Sunday’s call between the Russian and US presidents. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said no dates have been set and that the issue will likely be revisited after Washington signs its memorandum with Tehran.

Europeans split
European countries remain divided between those favoring engagement with Moscow and those seeking to maintain pressure on Russia. Hungary and Slovakia have urged direct dialogue with Moscow and criticized policies they say prolong the conflict. Those seeking to maintain pressure, which includes Poland, the Baltic states and much of the EU leadership, argues that political, economic and military pressure must continue. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated that stance on Monday, calling support for Ukraine a top G7 priority.

France and Germany occupy a middle ground, backing continued aid to Kiev while acknowledging that any lasting settlement will require negotiations with Russia. That approach was tested last week when French, British, and German envoys met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin in Moscow. According to Russia, however, they merely repeated calls for a ceasefire and security guarantees for Ukraine, prompting Moscow to argue that the countries arming Kiev cannot act as neutral mediators.

Trump’s position
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed he could end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours through direct diplomacy, though he later acknowledged that a settlement would be harder to achieve. Since returning to office, he has criticized both Moscow and Kiev at various times, accusing each side of hindering peace efforts, while consistently arguing that the conflict should be resolved through negotiations rather than prolonged fighting.

After speaking with Putin and Zelensky on Sunday, Trump described both conversations as “very good” and said both leaders were “very open” to peace. According to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, he also told Putin he was prepared to “influence” Kiev and its European backers toward a settlement. Speaking at the G7, Trump said he would “look” at what could be done regarding Ukraine, while suggesting the conflict was of limited importance to the US, adding that “it has no impact on us other than we sell weapons.”

Zelensky’s demands
Amid mounting battlefield pressure, Zelensky has insisted on securing a temporary ceasefire and continued Western support, while maintaining that Ukraine will not formally recognize Moscow’s sovereignty over territories that joined Russia through referendums. He has also opposed any settlement negotiated directly between Moscow and Washington without Kiev’s participation, insisting that Ukraine’s European backers be included in the process.

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“No FISA Without SAVE Act:”

• Trump Calls Out ‘Dumocrat’ Double-Cross,” Keeps Pulte As Acting DNI (ZH)

Just two years after Donald Trump urged Congress to kill Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while on the campaign trail, he’s now livid that Democrats won’t help Republicans pass it. Trump took to Truth Social early Wednesday morning with a lengthy post accusing ‘Dumocrats’ of breaking a bipartisan deal on FISA reauthorization – and announced a series of moves that throw a wrench into Senate plans for both intelligence leadership and surveillance powers.


According to Trump, Republicans played themselves – after agreeing with Democrats to accelerate the removal of Acting DNI William Pulte (by fast-tracking Jay Clayton’s confirmation) in exchange for Democratic support on renewing FISA Section 702 surveillance powers. Now, however Democrats are threatening to vote against FISA anyway.

“The Republicans wound up having fulfilled their commitment, but Dumocrats broke the Deal.” As a result, Trump said he is canceling today’s Senate hearing for Jay Clayton as permanent DNI. He will not move Clayton out of his current role as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York until Jamie McDonald (a Sullivan & Cromwell partner and Trump’s former personal lawyer, recently nominated to replace him at SDNY) is confirmed – including clearing the “blue slip” process.

In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as Acting Director of National Intelligence – who Trump picked to replace Tulsi Gabbard after she said in May she was leaving the administration in June to spend time with her husband following his cancer diagnosis. Pulte has been a controversial pick over his lack of intelligence experience – which led to Trump nominating U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton to be the next DNI. nTrump explicitly linked his approval of FISA renewal to passage of the SAVE America Act – his priority legislation requiring photo ID, proof of citizenship for voter registration, and strict limits on mail-in ballots.


“Therefore, to add a slight bit of intrigue but, for the Good of the Nation, and the People of our Country, I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it. Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap.” The SAVE America Act – which requires Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote and a valid ID to cast a ballot, has stalled in the Senate after the House passed the legislation in February.

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What amazed me was the scale.

“.. the aim of the attack [..] was to create chaos and overthrow the U.S. government.

• 5 Arrested in Plot to Attack UFC Event at White House (ET)

Five men have been arrested for allegedly plotting to attack the mixed martial arts event that was held at the White House on June 14. The charges include conspiracy to murder. The men were planning to set off explosives at the event and force people there to flee a certain way, according to court documents. Snipers would be positioned to take out high-level targets, including President Donald Trump, according to the charging papers. One of the men, Tycen Proper, 19, told law enforcement that the attack would “jumpstart” a revolution in the United States, according to the FBI. Proper’s mother called the police on June 10. Officers arrived and learned that Proper had met people online and had been planning “recons” and “missions” with them, according to prosecutors.


He had also spent $3,000 on guns, ammunition, ballistic plates, and other items, and planned to leave during the upcoming weekend to meet with the people, his father said. Proper was admitted to a local hospital because of “homicidal ideations,” the FBI said. Proper later spoke to investigators and shared with them images and messages from accounts he was using, including accounts on TikTok and Signal. Proper said that the group with which he was involved believed the United States was headed in the wrong direction, and needed to be “torn down so that it could be rebuilt,” according to the FBI. He said the plan was for people to leave their homes on June 12 or 13 and meet in Fredericksburg, Virginia. They would stage a demonstration near the White House.

During the demonstration, the group would fly drones laden with explosive devices and set them off in a specific area, forcing the crowd to evacuate in view of waiting snipers, who would shoot people as they fled. Targets included Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va). Through the information Proper provided, law enforcement identified four other men involved with the attack plan, according to officials. One of the men, Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, discussed the targets during the attack. “As many and as deadly as we can get,” he allegedly wrote. Another man, Daniel Eskridge, 32, wrote that the plan required five teams of three people each, and that the teams would each consist of a sniper, a drone operator, and a look-out.

The other two men allegedly involved in the plot are Bryan Omar Roa, 24, and Michael Alan Thomas, 32. Roa told the FBI during an interview that he had planned to protest at the UFC event but “his vehicle malfunctioned and he had to return home.” His relatives told law enforcement that he had planned to go to Washington and appeared ready to carry out an act of violence, and he discussed how a person could hypothetically use drones armed with explosives to bomb buildings near the White House, according to charging documents. Thomas told the FBI that he was a planner and adviser for the group, the FBI said. Thomas allegedly said the aim of the attack, and subsequent planned attacks, was to create chaos and overthrow the U.S. government.

“This is still an active, ongoing investigation,” U.S. Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. “There are still suspects at large, and we’re going to work it until everyone’s been identified.” Quinn also said that the event on Sunday was “never at risk. Period.” A public defender appointed to represent Alvarez declined to comment. Lawyers representing Proper and Eskridge did not respond to requests for comment by time of publication. It was not clear whether Roa and Thomas had retained legal counsel.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that “thanks to the rapid action of this FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold.” He added, “I want to thank our great agents and partners, this work remains ongoing and we will continue to update the public as permitted.”

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It is sad to look at the potential Democrat candidates.

• How Deep Are the Newsoms In It? THIS Deep. (Stephen Green)

It seems impossible — or just too revolting — to keep up with the financial hanky-panky of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner (gag) Jennifer Siebel Newsom. But thanks to a couple of investigative reporters with stronger stomachs than I have, let’s see if I can’t put everything you need to know into one easily digestible column. I love it when other people do my dirty work for me, so let’s get started. “Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list,” Newsom practically boasted on Monday. “He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They have not found a crime — they are simply trying to find one.”


Well, let’s see what Fox Business anchor Liz MacDonald and my old friend and Red State colleague Jen Van Laar have to say about that. MacDonald said Tuesday that the DOJ probe “is about California Democrats’ modern-day machine politics,” which she described as a “feedback loop of Sacramento-corporate lobbyists-governor/wife nonprofit-behested nonprofit donations-lucrative state contracts-Sacramento.” Don’t bother writing all this down — there won’t be a quiz at the end of today’s column. You’re welcome.

“The modern Sacramento machine trades corporate compliance and nonprofit funding/donations for policy access and state business,” MacDonald added, and then explained how that grift (allegedly!) worked for the Newsoms: According to IRS Form 990 disclosures, her nonprofit frequently buys from Siebel Newsom’s for-profit film company—Girls Club Entertainment LLC—writer, producer and director services and the licensing and production rights for her documentaries. Then it sells the docs to the state and public schools.

IRS records show that her nonprofit has paid her Girls Club Entertainment LLC roughly $1.64 million for these production and licensing rights since 2012, which includes a steady annual contracting fee of $150,000 since 2018. TL;DR: Siebel Newsom produced unwatchable propaganda videos for children, for which Democrat-dominated schools then paid her handsomely. Or as MacDonald summed it up, “Over the past decade, Siebel Newsom has collected over $3.7 million in combined personal salary and LLC payouts funded by the nonprofit.”

Then there are behested payments, which MacDonald explained are “a unique mechanism in California politics where an elected official asks a corporation, labor union, or wealthy individual to donate money to a specific charity, nonprofit, or government program.” Unlike campaign donations, there are no caps. As governor, Newsom requested a record $226 million in behested payments in one year. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars went to the California Partners Project,” MacDonald wrote, “a nonprofit founded by his wife.” “Many of the biggest donors were corporate giants (like health insurers and utility companies) actively bidding for lucrative state contracts or fighting state regulations.”

One hand washes the other with filthy lucre, if you’ll allow me to mix metaphors. Which brings us to Jen Van Laar, and her hip-deep-in-the-muck wade through the Newsoms’ finances, going back years. Way back in 2021, Jen asked, “Somebody Paid $3.7 Million Cash for CA Gov Newsom’s Estate – But Who?” But couldn’t come up with any satisfactory answers. That’s because the Newsoms alternately claimed that “the Newsoms’ cash was used to purchase the home but was done through an LLC managed by his first cousin,” or that “Newsoms obtained a loan… to purchase the home because the sale happened so quickly that they didn’t have time to obtain a mortgage.”

Then, California’s First Couple played similar LLC games, buying a second home for $9.1 million in ritzy Marin County. “Based on my examination of 15+ yrs of Newsom’s financial disclosures, tax returns, and real estate transactions,” Jenn explained in March, “they absolutely did not have $9.1M in cash.” Clearly, somebody did. The shenanigans were so egregious that — no matter what TDS nonsense Newsom’s social media team posts on X — the DOJ investigation began under the Biden administration. As I quipped on Instapundit this week, maybe Newsom needs to take a break from social media and lawyer up.

Then there are the real-world effects, the fallout from personal corruption and statewide, one-party rule. On Tuesday, Victor Davis Hanson wondered if California is “reaching critical mass,” thanks to one-party rule creating a “neo-feudal society” that is “hardly democratic.” The most egregious example was the fate of 2014’s Proposition 1, a $7.12 billion water bond “designed to solve the state’s chronic water storage deficit.” Even though Prop 1 is an actual constitutional amendment, including “$2.7 billion specifically designated for new reservoirs,” an alliance of bureaucracies, elected officials, and green activists still managed to block any new reservoir construction.

“Adding insult to injury,” Hanson continued, “Governor Gavin Newsom instead used $250 million from the Proposition 1 fund to blow up four dams on the Klamath River.” Californians voted for more water infrastructure. Newsom’s party blocked them, and Newsom himself had four dams destroyed that had “once provided storage, electrical generation, recreation, and flood control.” Tell me again about Muh Democracy™. All of which is my long-winded way of concluding that, as corrupt as the Newsoms appear to be, they are merely a symptom of the progressive disease killing our once-greatest state.

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As long as she’s around, how can you take that party even a little bit serious?

• Kamala’s Anti-Trump Meltdown in Austria a Masterclass in Projection (Margolis)

Kamala Harris took the stage at the Austrian World Summit on Tuesday and delivered the most shameless masterclass in projection I have ever seen. The moderator, Elex Michaelson, asked Harris about the news that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) is now under investigation by the Department of Justice.


It was a loaded question, of course, and, as you might expect, she responded with a classic Kamala word salad. “So I am not surprised that he may be using the Department of Justice to go after a political enemy in the current governor of California,” she said, “and this is why I do believe this, upon many other examples of what is, essentially — you’re gonna ask me questions about the current president, I’m gonna be candid — what is essentially the most callous, corrupt, and incompetent presidential administration America’s ever experienced, and for that reason, I have no question or doubt that we will win the midterms, and it will be a result of people of every background and political association who will contribute to that outcome.”

She claimed that President Donald Trump told everyone he’d weaponize the DOJ against his enemies, and now he’s doing it. It’s an absolute joke that anyone connected with the Biden-Harris administration would even attempt to play that card, because they didn’t just talk about using government power against political opponents. They did it, repeatedly, and boy, did they do it with gusto.

They jailed nonviolent January 6th protesters and denied them due process. They prosecuted pro-life demonstrators for praying outside abortion clinics. The Biden-Harris DOJ targeted Catholic churches. The FBI labeled parents who showed up at school board meetings as domestic terrorists for the crime of caring about their kids’ education. And, of course, the Biden-Harris administration literally sent the FBI to raid the home of President Trump in a blatant scheme to put him in prison so he couldn’t return to the White House.

Sorry, but Kamala Harris has no business accusing the Trump administration of weaponizing the Department of Justice, especially while citing the Newsom case, which, as PJ Media previously reported, actually began under the Biden-Harris administration.

While I’m here, we might as well address Kamala’s accusations of incompetence, too. This is the vice president who watched Afghanistan collapse into the hands of the Taliban, abandoned American allies to their fate, and presided over a withdrawal that got 13 U.S. troops killed. That’s before we even get to the border crisis her administration refused to control, the unchecked inflation that gutted American paychecks the administration claimed would be transitory, the bungled response to the East Palestine train derailment, the confused handling of the Chinese spy balloon, the disastrous and ultimately abandoned Gaza pier project, the sluggish response to the Maui wildfires, and the failure to deter Russia from invading Ukraine in the first place. And that’s just a few examples off the top of my head.

And don’t get me started on corruption. Between the Biden Crime Family and the whole cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, the last thing Kamala should want is for anyone to go there — not that Michaelson would call her out on any of those things.

So when Kamala stands on a stage in Austria and calls the Trump administration the most callous, corrupt, and incompetent in American history, conservatives can be forgiven for laughing. She’s not describing Trump. She’s describing the administration she was a part of for four years.

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“.. maqluba (a deal, flipping the rice) or muqlaba (no deal, flipping the peace)..”

• Ease In Our Time (Every)

Yesterday saw the BOJ hike rates to 1%, the highest level since 1995, and the RBA hold at 4.35%, with some chatter of the next move being down, not up, despite inflation running way above 2%. Today it’s the turn of new Fed Chair Warsh who, like the other central banks, has to deal with a geopolitical backdrop which may or may not allow for any monetary policy easing.


There, the text of the 14-point US-Iran MoU has been leaked ahead of its Swiss signing ceremony on Friday: ironically, it says “Ease in our time.” It allows Iran to immediately sell oil again, including the waiver of all banking and transport sanctions (though US legislation may prove an obstacle re: IRGC terror designation). It also includes the private sector $300bn investment fund for Iran, which Reuters claims has already been half committed.

What does this imply? It’s either a giant TACO that markets look past the full implications of to embrace; or a can-kick until the midterms (after which what?); or the Middle Eastern dish maqluba –not muqlaba (‘confrontation’)– layers of rice, veggies, and meat prepared one way up, then flipped when served. In other words, a behind-the-scenes-and-rhetoric normalisation from Iran. Ultimately, the proof of that dish is in the eating, and there are still many points to choke on.

NBC reports Iran has continued to fire multiple drones toward ships in Hormuz since the MoU was agreed, with the US shooting them down. The US Navy underlines the Strait still holds “substantial” risk. Insurers therefore remain wary, and as noted yesterday, maritime traffic is more likely to flood out than back in ahead.

Iran is demanding an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, which Israel states it will not and just struck Hezbollah again, with Iran now threatening to respond if Israel continues. Trump yesterday suggested Syria, with a history of looking at Lebanon as its own, should take care of Hezbollah (which the Lebanese government wants to disarm, but is unable to), not Israel. Given Syrian president Al-Sharaa’s Al Qaeda background and links to Turkey, with its history of looking at Syria as part of the Ottoman Empire, this does not seem the panacea some might hope for.

The MoU text is vague on uranium: it “will be adequately addressed in a final agreement.” Again, is it maqluba (a deal, flipping the rice) or muqlaba (no deal, flipping the peace)? China is warning the next phase of US-Iran talks will be “more difficult,” which is very clear.

The US is also weighing boosting ties with the Palestinian Authority as it seeks to advance its Gaza Board of Peace and an expanded Abraham Accords, while Israeli PM Netanyahu is said to be dropping election campaign posters showing him alongside Trump, as his opponents are all as hawkish as him re: Hezbollah and Iran, if not on the Palestinian issue.

In short, there are so many layers of rice, veggies, and meat here that’s not clear if anyone can flip the dish without spilling the food: and that’s just the Middle East, which is a current pivot point within a larger global negotiation.

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RT has a pro- as well as a counter article.

• Nigel Farage’s ‘White Britain’: A Long-Overdue Step (von Hoffmeister)

Nigel Farage’s recent Substack post lays bare the reality of Britain’s “two-tier” system, where native white Britons face systemic disadvantages in policing, housing, employment, and justice while ethnic minorities receive preferential treatment under the guise of “equality.”


This is not an aberration or a policy glitch. It is the predictable outcome of attempting to impose liberal democracy on a multiracial society. Different ethnic groups possess distinct collective interests rooted in both biology and culture. Where those interests diverge, genuine democracy, meaning rule by the people for the common good, becomes impossible. Only one outcome prevails: the slow disenfranchisement of the historical white majority.

Human beings are not blank slates. Evolution and genetic similarity theory demonstrate that people favor their own ethnic group. This is not “racism”; it is kin selection, an adaptive strategy honed over millennia. Studies of in-group preference, crime statistics, voting patterns, and nepotistic networks across the globe confirm it: most non-white groups operate tribally as a matter of course. Middle Eastern clans, African kinship networks, South Asian extended families, East Asian ethnic solidarity, and Latin American mestizo patronage systems all prioritize “our people” first. This is normal human behavior.

Whites are the glaring exception. Through Christianity’s universalism, Enlightenment individualism, and post-World War II indoctrination via education, media, and elite institutions, Europeans have been brainwashed into viewing themselves solely as atomized individuals. “Race doesn’t matter,” “we’re all the same,” and “diversity is our strength” are articles of faith, not empirical observations. Whites extended this universalism outward – abolishing slavery, spreading human rights, and building institutions based on merit and fair play – only to then have it weaponized against them. Other groups never adopted it; they simply exploited white openness. The result is asymmetric competition: cohesive ethnic blocs practice nepotism, bloc voting, and resource extraction, while whites compete as isolated individuals, handicapped by their own self-imposed scruples.

In a heterogeneous society, this cannot produce a fair democracy. Democracy assumes a shared conception of the public interest. When ethnic groups have irreconcilable preferences – on crime and policing, welfare redistribution, immigration, family structure, time horizons, and cultural dominance – majoritarianism becomes ethnic spoils. Non-White groups act for their tribe’s advantage. Whites, crippled by individualism, appeal to abstract principles that no one else honors. Nepotism always defeats naive individualism in the long run. Look at any Western city with significant demographic change: ethnic enclaves, parallel societies, demands for Sharia accommodations, affirmative action, and reparations. The social whole dissolves.

The West invented the highest expressions of universalism: rule of law applied equally, individual rights, and merit-based advancement. These are noble achievements responsible for unparalleled prosperity and innovation. Yet in a world of group differences, they function as unilateral disarmament. Non-whites import their tribal strategies into open societies while whites cling to universal rules that prevent collective self-defense. Elites, often insulated by wealth, celebrate this as ‘moral progress.’ The autochthonous population pays the price: suppressed wages, strained welfare systems, skyrocketing crime in ‘diverse’ areas, cultural displacement, and two-tier justice.

[..] Whites must rediscover their own ethnic consciousness, not out of supremacy but survival and reciprocity. Rejecting universalist suicide does not require hating others; it requires realism. Other groups pursue their interests unapologetically. Only when whites do the same can stable, high-trust arrangements emerge. Farage’s critique of a two-tier Britain is a starting point. The deeper truth is that without halting demographic replacement and rethinking governance along lines of peoplehood, democracy itself becomes a fiction masking tribal conquest.

This is the hard reality many conservative thinkers have warned about for decades. Pretending otherwise accelerates decline.

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“The Reform UK leader’s manifesto attacks DEI and immigration, but beneath the outrage lies a thin program built on grievance and biology..”

• Nigel Farage’s ‘White Britain’ is a Fantasy (Graham Hryce)

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, has published a lengthy personal manifesto on his Substack this week. Farage is not noted for making detailed policy pronouncements, and his long-winded writeup provides an interesting insight into Reform’s policy agenda – revealing, as it does, both its intellectual and political shortcomings. Farage’s manifesto is titled “Britain is a two-tier state – against white people” and it was clearly triggered by the recent Henry Nowak and Stephen Ogilvie cases, in which white British citizens were brutally attacked (and in Nowak’s case, killed) by a Sikh and a Sudanese respectively, neither of whom were illegal immigrants. Farage sets out in detail the circumstances surrounding the Nowak case, and his strident criticisms of the police are entirely valid.


Farage’s central contention is that white people in Britain are treated much less fairly than other ethnic groups, and that the mainstream political parties – he calls them “the establishment parties” – are unwilling to acknowledge the fact that “anti-White racism is embedded into the heart of the state” – because they created this state of affairs and are ideologically committed to maintaining it. Farage sees the “ideology of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)” and the Equality Act, passed by Labour in 2010 and subsequently strengthened by the Conservatives, as being the main culprits here, and argues that “every section of the state… has been ideologically compromised” by these “toxic ideologies.” According to Farage, this has created a less harmonious and less fair Britain.

Farage claims that this “two-tier state” has created a “two-tier market” in employment, social housing, education, the military, policing, and healthcare – which discriminates against white people, especially the young. Ominously, according to Farage, the situation can only get worse in the future – because while “White Brits” are a sizable majority at present, they “will become a minority in this country before the end of the century.” Notwithstanding this bleak state of affairs, Farage nevertheless maintains that “there is reason for hope” because Reform “has the will and the ability to ensure that no young White person ever has to grow up feeling ashamed of who they are again.”

How precisely does Reform propose to bring about this miraculous social transformation? Farage sets out a number of specific policy proposals that Reform proposes to implement if the party wins government, including the following:
• abolish the Equality Act and prohibit national and local government bodies from implementing DEI policies;
• prevent foreign nationals from having access to welfare benefits;
• ensure that students receive a “balanced and patriotic education” and compel every school to “fly the Union flag” and prominently display a picture of the King;
• restore pride to Britain’s armed forces.

The flimsiness of these policies is obvious, and even if they were implemented, they would do little or nothing to alleviate the serious and longstanding problems that bedevil contemporary Britain – including a declining economy, the cost-of-living crisis, a ballooning public debt, and rising crime rates. Liberal commentators have long been critical of the Equality Act and illiberal ideologies like DEI – and Farage is correct to condemn them and point out how destructive they are of social cohesion. But, even here, Farage underestimates how difficult it will be to abolish them. Britain is still bound by the EU Human Rights Act and a raft of other EU laws, and the UK Supreme Court will fight tooth and nail to retain the status quo.

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And the people pushing these laws know that very well.

They push “safety for kids” only to get -legal- access to -grown-up- you.

• A Social Media Ban for Minors Requires Data From Everyone (ET)

In debating a social media ban for minors, it appears we face a choice between two perceived harms. One is the reported damage that social media is doing to the mental health of children and adolescents. The other is the normalization of mass age verification systems—most likely involving biometrics—that would apply to everyone, not just minors. This carries real risks of privacy invasion, data breaches, and future mission creep.


There is little dispute that many Western countries have experienced a rise in youth mental health problems beginning around 2010–2012 (when Smartphones and social media exploded). Anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide rates among adolescents, particularly girls, have increased dramatically since this period. There is disagreement, however, not over whether these spikes exist, but whether they can be attributed specifically to social media. The lingering effects of the pandemic and lockdowns, and family breakdown are just some of the other factors that could be in play.

Data debates aside, most Canadians with common sense and personal experience using social media for prolonged periods of time would admit that doing so is harmful for their mental health, no matter their age. So, what should we do? Whatever steps we take, resorting to broad government-mandated bans and mass surveillance should not be one of them.

Australia offers the clearest real-world test of such a policy. Since its under-16 social media ban took effect on Dec. 10, 2025, platforms operating in the country, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick, have been required to take “reasonable steps” to prevent users under 16 from creating or maintaining accounts. Platforms guilty of breaching this new law can reach up to AU$49.5 million.

Australia’s legislation “specifically prohibits platforms from compelling Australians to provide a government-issued ID or use an Australian Government accredited digital ID service to prove their age.” To comply with the law, platforms have implemented widespread use of behavioural analysis, device signals, and facial age estimation scans. By mid-December 2025, platforms had already removed access to approximately 4.7 million suspected under-16 accounts.

But large numbers of teenagers quickly found workarounds. Surveys conducted in early 2026 show that more than 60 percent of under-16s who had accounts before the ban continue to access at least one restricted platform. Common methods include using borrowed phones or parents’ ID, fake age declarations, VPNs, and printed mesh masks to fool facial recognition. Without robust age verification systems, therefore, a meaningful ban doesn’t exist. It might initially remove under 16s, but millions of ineligible minors will find a way to return to these platforms, as has taken place in Australia.

This begs an important question: What is the point of an age verification system that is only half effective? This would create a new set of problems including the loss of privacy rights for everyone, without actually solving the underlying problem the legalization is reportedly designed to fix.= Canada is aware of this conundrum. What would Canada do, then, to both kick minors off the platforms and keep them off the platforms? There is no reason to think that parental oversight or enforcement will be any different here than across the Pacific.

One possibility is social media users must submit verification of identity every time they log in to the platform. The most obvious way to do this would be a government-mediated login system. This would essentially grant government an immense amount of metadata about who logs in to what, how often, etc.

Another possibility would be for social media platforms themselves to monitors users’ data, either by periodically scanning faces and matching it to submitted photo ID, or by evaluating user behaviour (i.e., what content is being accessed and predicting the age of users). This would give an immense amount of data to social media companies that, if retained, could lead to significant privacy violations. Imagine a camera monitoring you every time you use Instagram or Facebook. Think about the fact that biometric technology can already be used to predict age based on wrinkles, skin texture and elasticity, facial proportions, eye shape, hairline, and bone structure. Researchers have even found statistical correlations between typing speed, error patterns, touch pressure, and age.

In this latter possibility, Canadians would be handing highly sensitive biometric data (faces, fingerprints, typing style, etc.) to foreign corporations that are subject to foreign laws (U.S. CLOUD Act, Chinese national intelligence law, etc.). These companies can be compelled by their own governments to hand over your personal and identifiable data. This type of data is also permanent. If it gets hacked, leaked, or demanded by a foreign government, you cannot change it like a password.

Finally, a mandatory social media ban for minors under 16 would significantly restrict their ability to access information about the world. Freedom of expression under the Charter section 2(b) includes not only the right to speak, but also the right to receive information. Canadian courts have recognized this in several cases. Social media platforms have become one of the primary ways many young people receive news, public debates, educational content, and diverse viewpoints.

One doesn’t have to be an absolutist to value freedom and privacy, but the fact of the matter is we have not tried alternative strategies that would minimally impair this fundamental freedom of privacy for everyone, and freedom of speech for minors. Yes, facial recognition is already used voluntarily on some platforms (such as dating apps). And a driver’s licence is often required from gambling sites to ensure compliance with the law. But there is a profound difference between choosing to use one of these sites and being required by law to submit biometric data to participate in modern public discourse. The scale is also vastly different.

We should pursue less invasive strategies instead of choosing between an ineffective ban or a robust and draconian one. Aggressive cultural campaigns against early smartphone use, phone-free schools until at least Grade 9 or 10, and better parental control tools have all shown meaningful results for youth mental health in multiple studies. Stronger platform liability for addictive design specifically aimed at children could also be pursued. At the end of the day, parents are responsible for their children’s social media use with or without a law that requires everyone share their digital data. In other words, even if a robust law existed, parents would still be responsible to ensure their children avoid workarounds.

The instinct to protect children is good, but we cannot protect them by quietly dismantling the privacy and freedom of the entire society. The cure must not be worse than the disease.

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5 eyes.

• Canada is Next Up (CTH)

It is not coincidental that we have seen Australia, New Zealand, the U.K, and now Canada trigger online ‘age verification’ laws; simultaneous with a political push inside the USA to maintain FISA (702) legislation. Separating the USA for a moment. The intelligence services of Australia, New Zealand, U.K and Canada make up four of the intelligence services 5-eyes. In essence, the British Commonwealth is the IC commonality. [Yes, there is some validity to the Lyndon LaRouche perspective (Promethean Action PAC)] Additionally, I would also posit a reminder of the international assembly who structured the originating financial sanctions against Russia; again, a commonality.


Focusing on the most recent political creation in Canada, there are three bills currently being rushed through the Canadian House of Parliament, C-34: keep kids safe on social media; C-36: stronger privacy rules, and C-22: modern tools for police. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to find non-govt-approved information about this legislative construct online. Canadian media must remain compliant with approved government narratives in order to maintain their business model. However, putting together some various information found on non-controlled information sources, it is possible to begin discussion of the situation. The two issues that merge with the greatest impact are Bill C-22: The Surveillance Bill, and Bill C-34: The Children’s Safety Bill.

Bill C-22 requires that all information transmission providers, every telecom and internet company, retain metadata on all Canadian users for up to one year. This is electronic metadata which we all know encompasses a lot more than just content. Signal app, NordVPN, Windscribe, DuckDuckGo, Apple, and Meta have all formally opposed it. Signal app has threatened to leave Canada entirely rather than comply. This is a government mandated metadata storage library on all electronic communication and activity by Canadian users. Then there’s Bill C-34: The Children’s Safety Bill, as noted by Lucy Hargreaves, a bill that ‘Applies to Everyone’, not just kids.

“The government’s social media ban for under-16s is genuinely popular, with 75% of Canadians supporting it in polling. The problem is what it requires in practice. To stop anyone under 16 from creating an account, platforms need to know how old everyone is. There is no way to identify who is under 16 without identifying everyone who isn’t. This means every Canadian adult would need to submit government ID or a face scan to a third-party verification company before posting a photo, using cloud storage, or playing an online game. The bill also creates a new Digital Safety Commission with sweeping powers to set the rules, decide which platforms must comply, and approve or deny exemptions — with almost no criteria written into the law itself.”

“Australia introduced the same social media ban in December 2025. Six months later, the eSafety Commissioner told Parliament she was “not really keen” on it from the start and called it a “blunt force approach” drafted too quickly. 70% of young Australians reported the ban had little effect on their social media use. It didn’t reduce cyberbullying. What it did produce was a surge in VPN use… pushing young people to darker, less-monitored platforms.

The UK implemented age verification under its Online Safety Act in mid-2025. Within one month, VPN downloads hit over two million — the highest ever recorded — and monthly downloads stayed above one million for a year as users raced to bypass the requirement. The EU considered its own version of mandatory message scanning (dubbed “Chat Control”) and its own Parliament voted it down in March 2026, with the EU’s legal service concluding that indiscriminate scanning of private communications is incompatible with fundamental rights.

The government’s core justification for C-22 is that Canada is the “only Five Eyes country” without a lawful access framework. But the United States has no federal mandatory metadata retention law. The EU’s highest court has struck down blanket retention twice as incompatible with human rights. When the Public Safety Minister claimed Canada’s provisions would be “in line with U.S. counterparts,” he was forced to walk back the statement within hours.”

Think about what all the critics (correctly) point out as the bigger issue behind the “age id” social media stuff. What is the unspoken goal of Australia, New Zealand, the U.K and Canada? Ultimately control. Govt online surveillance, correct? Some form of legal, legislated, govt authorized data surveillance that permits law enforcement to have actionable mechanisms, right? If that is indeed the goal, then in the USA we overlay FISA (702). NZ, AU, UK and CA get digital IDs. The USA gets 702. It’s the same basic premise; the same govt motive; the same underpinning reasoning. Just different and nuanced approaches.

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One more admirer. Part of this story is that the US economy erupted since 2008, while Europe just about stood still. Today, the US looks like paradise to Europeans (no, not the food).

• The World Is Re-Discovering America In the World Cup — and Loving It (Moran)

About 250 years ago, America cast a spell on Europe and the rest of the world. That magic compelled 15-18 million people to uproot themselves and escape war, poverty, crop failures, and political instability to start all over again in the new nation between 1800 and 1900. More than 15 million immigrants arrived in the first 15 years of the 20th century, mostly from Eastern Europe and Russia. Funny how America’s critics gloss over that astonishing fact. Whenever they bother to mention it, they point to the industrial revolution, which created an insatiable demand for labor, as capitalism “enslaved” these unsuspecting workers.


Still, people kept coming. As bad as the left believes America is, people of all races, all religions, and from every nation ignored the portrayal of the United States as a racist, sexist country of white supremacists and came anyway. This is something America’s most vicious critics can’t get around. The people of the world voted with their feet, and while many of us may not like it, the promise America holds for a better life is irresistible. For the next month, more than 1.7 million foreigners will come to America to watch a soccer tournament. It hardly matters why they’re coming. They come with their preconceived notions about the U.S being a horrible place. Their own governments tell them so. American leftists amplify that message.

But once these soccer fans get here, an amazing transformation happens to many of them. They fall in love with the U.S. Perhaps they have relatives who left the old country to come here and have heard about America all their lives. Whatever their preconceptions about the U.S., nothing prepared them for how completely different it is from what they’ve been told or what they imagined. PJ Media editor Chris Queen wrote about this phenomenon last week, chronicling a German tourist’s travels through the South. Many other visitors in the U.S. for soccer find themselves delighted with what they’ve found.

New York Post: “Bright red fire trucks. Walmart’s cathedral of abundance. The miracle of free refills.” These are just a few of the American wonders World Cup tourists are encountering during their travels through the heartland — and they can’t seem to get enough of them. Visitors from all over the world are documenting their journeys across the United States on social media, much to the delight of every American who doesn’t think patriotism is a dirty word.“A place like this could ONLY exist in America and I LOVE it,” posted Sean from Scotland as he toured a Texas Buc-ees in abject astonishment.

“The vibes are insane!” exclaimed Freddy from Germany while road-tripping through Louisiana to New Orleans. Elsa from Sweden is demanding of X, “Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack?” It seems that Gen X and Y had no idea of the “real” America. “One thing I love about the European World Cup tourists right now is that they’re not just being dropped off in the middle of Los Angeles or New York City or some overhyped metropolitan hub that most Americans like myself don’t even like,” X user @realmikolson observed. “They’re being dropped right in the middle of the heart of middle America.”

Fox News: “Olson said international tourists driving nine hours across Texas and experiencing Auburn University fraternity houses are witnessing “overwhelming American kindness.” “A lot of the locals in these areas have no idea who these people are or why they’re even there,” he said, adding that there’s been very little World Cup news or marketing, particularly in small towns.

Nevertheless, he’s heard of instances of restaurant owners driving World Cup fans to games because they can’t find an Uber. A deli owner gave British tourists free lunch “just because they came all this way,” he said. Some Alabama firefighters reportedly gave foreign visitors a tour of their fire department and free merchandise. Of course, there are many Americans who wish the foreigners would just go home and leave us alone. But there are enough Americans still imbued with small-town values and principles that make coming to America an incredibly rich and rewarding experience.

Read more …

Blocking GPS would have a paralyzing effect.

• Russia’s New Warning Shot From Space (Martin Armstrong)

For years, politicians have been obsessed with tanks, artillery, missiles, and troop counts while the real battlefield has quietly moved into space. The latest reports suggesting that Russian satellites may be capable of disrupting GPS signals on a continental scale should be sending shockwaves through military circles. If these findings prove accurate, then we are looking at a capability that extends far beyond simply making a driver’s navigation system malfunction. GPS is embedded in aviation, shipping, banking, telecommunications, emergency services, power grids, financial transactions, military operations, and virtually every aspect of modern infrastructure.


According to researchers, dozens of GPS interference events detected across Europe since 2019 may have originated from Russia’s EKS satellite constellation. These satellites were originally designed as part of Russia’s missile early-warning system, but testing suggests they may also possess the ability to transmit powerful signals capable of disrupting GPS reception across vast regions. The significance is not whether a disruption lasts a few seconds or a few minutes. The significance is proving the concept works. Once a nation demonstrates it can interfere with navigation systems from orbit, the entire strategic equation changes.

What many fail to appreciate is how dependent modern warfare has become on satellite navigation. Precision-guided weapons rely on GPS. Drones rely on GPS. Aircraft, ships, logistics networks, battlefield communications, and intelligence systems all depend on accurate positioning data. Remove that capability and armies suddenly find themselves operating under conditions that resemble an entirely different century. During the Ukraine conflict, both sides have aggressively pursued electronic warfare, jamming systems, and signal disruption technologies. What appears to be emerging now is the possibility of extending those capabilities far beyond localized battlefields and into continental-scale operations.

Financial markets depend on precise timing synchronization. Cellular networks require timing signals to coordinate traffic. Shipping companies use satellite navigation to move trillions of dollars worth of goods annually. Airlines depend on navigation systems to safely manage thousands of flights every day. Even modern agriculture relies heavily on GPS-guided equipment. The public views GPS as a convenience. Governments and corporations know it has become a critical piece of economic infrastructure.

This development also highlights something I have warned about repeatedly. The next major conflict will not resemble the wars of the twentieth century. Future wars will target infrastructure before populations even realize an attack has occurred. A cyberattack can disable communications. A satellite disruption can interfere with transportation networks. Financial systems can be disrupted electronically. Power grids can be targeted remotely. The battlefield increasingly consists of networks, satellites, data centers, and communications systems rather than simply soldiers crossing borders.

The timing is noteworthy. We are entering the most dangerous phase of the geopolitical cycle. The 2026 Panic Cycle year has already begun exposing vulnerabilities across the global system. Relations between Russia and NATO remain strained. The United States and China are engaged in a rapidly escalating technological competition. Military spending is rising globally. Governments everywhere are preparing for contingencies that most citizens never consider. Space is no longer a peaceful frontier. It has become a strategic domain where the major powers are competing for dominance.

What should concern policymakers is not merely that Russia may possess this capability. The real question is how many nations are developing similar systems. The United States, China, Russia, and other powers have invested heavily in electronic warfare, anti-satellite technology, cyberwarfare, and space-based military assets. Every major power understands that controlling information, communications, and navigation systems may prove more decisive than controlling territory itself.

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Debt Rattle June 13 2026

Jun 132026
 
 June 13, 2026  Posted by at 10:16 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  28 Responses »


David Hockney Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) 1972
Hockney died yesterday. RIP


• Trump Officials; Iran Deal Delivers Peace, Inspections & Hormuz Reopening (ZH)
• Iranian Minister Framed Diplomacy As Mere Tactic to Defeat America (Salgado)
• Trump Says Iranians Aren’t Dealing ‘in Good Faith’ (Salgado)
• SpaceX Blasts Past $2T, Musk’s Wealth Tops Trillion (ZH)
• SpaceX Just Made Cafeteria Workers Millionaires (David Manney)
• Globe And Mail: “How To Properly Hate” Elon Musk Ahead Of SpaceX IPO (ZH)
• Feds Identify 15,500 Sponsors of Multiple Unaccompanied Kids (Salgado)
• McConnell and Murkowski Remind Trump What He’s Up Against (David Manney)
• The Mullahs and the Lefty-Left (James Howard Kunstler)
• Ukraine Conflict Is ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of Russian Speakers – Candace Owens (RT)
• DNI Tulsi Gabbard Releases New Info on 120 US Govt Funded Biolabs (CTH)
• US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra Deserves a Combat Medal (CTH)
• England Is a B**ch (Robert Spencer)
• Starmer Heads to NATO Weaker Than Ever (David Manney)

 


 

https://twitter.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/2065391663258718574?s=20

 


 


The war can restart any minute.

• Trump Officials; Iran Deal Delivers Peace, Inspections & Hormuz Reopening (ZH)

Bloomberg is out with some specifics, via an unnamed Trump admin official, providing some further texture to what seems the most ‘hopeful’ (emphasis on the tick marks) development concerning a finalized Memorandum of Understanding to end the war and hash out a final deal… It remains that there are a healthy dose of ifs in here… BBG: US Senior admin officials says Iran deal accomplishes core US objectives and deal reopens Strait of Hormuz [Iran has a very different interpretation of this point]; Iran deal guarantees long-term peace in region and includes inspection regime.
  • If Iran complies, will be rewarded economically.
  • Benefits for Iran accrue if they actually deliver.
  • US expects to sign agreement overt next few days.
  • US to get enriched material under Iran deal.
  • Draft agreement also lifts US blockade and leads to dismantlement of Iran nuclear programme.
  • Iranians don’t get anything upon signing agreement.
  • Not quite at finish line yet, but very close.
  • 80-85% confident a deal gets signed.
  • Iran deal is specific about opening Strait and lifting of blockade and moving of enriched material.
  • Will be significant sanctions relief based on how Iran performs.
  • US seen substantial progress in text of agreement.
  • Regional peace agreement is broad.
  • Agreement on specificity over destruction and removal of enriched material.
  • Confident Israelis will get on board.
  • Some Iranians don’t love this deal, but think dissent is quite minimal.
  • Vice President JD Vance has sought to clarify the US position:

Iran is “not receiving any cash” just for signing a deal, Vice President JD Vance said Friday. Vance said in a post on X that he was “seeing a lot of fake information about a potential deal.” “The Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting,” he said, adding that the agreement on the table had been structured, “to ensure that the U.S. and its allies’ concerns are prioritized.”

Only if Iran “meets its obligations, then economic benefits will flow to them and to the entire region.” “This deal has the potential to remake the region and lead to lasting peace,” he said. “The president is going to get us a good outcome, one way or the other.” As a reminder, here are the 14-points issued by the Iranian side on Friday:

  1. An immediate and permanent ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon.
  2. A commitment by Washington not to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs and to respect its sovereignty.
  3. A complete lifting of the maritime blockade within 30 days.
  4. A commitment by the United States to withdraw its forces from the vicinity of Iran.
  5. The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days, according to Iranian arrangements.
  6. The suspension of sanctions imposed on the sale of oil, petrochemical products, and their derivatives, while enabling Iran full access to the financial resources generated from them.
  7. The necessity of presenting reconstruction plans for Iran valued at no less than $300 billion by the United States and its allies.
  8. Conducting negotiations within a 60-day period to reach a final agreement that includes nuclear issues, the full lifting of primary and secondary U.S. sanctions, as well as the cancellation of resolutions by the UN Security Council and the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
  9. Iran reaffirms its commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) not to produce nuclear weapons.
  10. A U.S. commitment, during the negotiation period, not to increase its forces in the region and not to impose new sanctions on Iran.
  11. The release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian funds within 60 days, with half of this amount made available to Iran before the start of negotiations and after signing the memorandum of understanding.
  12. The establishment of a monitoring mechanism to implement the agreement.
  13. The approval of the final agreement through a resolution issued by the UN Security Council.
  14. Final negotiations will not begin before the release of half of the frozen Iranian funds, the suspension of oil sanctions on Iran, and the lifting of the maritime blockade.

The final agreement shall be limited to the fate of enriched materials, uranium enrichment activities, the lifting of sanctions, and the reconstruction program of the Iranian economy, while excluding any discussion of Iran’s missile program and support for resistance movements from the agenda entirely. There’s clearly still some seriously daylight between the warring sides, however, so by close of the weekend – or possibly just within the next hours – the reality of the situation is likely to be made known. Via newswires:

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Says Iran’s decision-making bodies are meeting about the memorandum – State TV.
IRAN CIVILIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS ACCEPTABLE: US OFFICIAL

Pakistan PM: Final MoU Text Has Been Reached Pakistan Chimes In with PM Sharif declaring that “we can confirm that a final, agreed upon text of the peace deal has been reached and Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps.” Oil drops lower.

SHARIF: FINAL, AGREED UPON TEXT OF PEACE DEAL HAS BEEN REACHED
PRESIDENT TRUMP TOLD ME IN A SHORT CALL THAT HE CONSIDERED IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ARAGHCHI’S POST “VERY POSITIVE” – AXIOS REPORTER

Read more …

Any means to fight the infidel…

• Iranian Minister Framed Diplomacy As Mere Tactic to Defeat America (Salgado)

Two days ago, the foreign minister of Iran once again issued a series of threats against the United States, framing diplomacy as merely a tool for forcing the United States out of the area and proudly declaring that America would not be safe so long as its troops were within reach of the Iranian regime.


Below is one of Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi’s posts from June 9. The language of victory is important not because the Iranian regime hasn’t been using it throughout this operation (it has) but because Araghchi clearly has absolutely no sense of humility or chastened suit for peace. He is not talking like someone who believes he has to beg for peace on the victor’s terms. He is talking like someone guaranteed “peace” on his own terms.

The language is incredibly ironic when you reflect that Araghchi’s regime came to power by overthrowing the ancient Persian monarchy, massacred 40,000+ of its own Persian people in January, and still has tens of thousands of Persian dissidents in jail. The terrorist Islamic regime is Muslim first, not Persian first. But since we all know that, I will move on to Araghchi’s other threats. Here, Araghchi is lying about the status of the Strait of Hormuz, but the important point is how he frames diplomacy simply as another tool for forcing the U.S. out of the strait and the waters and airspace around Iran. For him, diplomacy is the flip side of terrorism; he will use first one, then the other, always for the same goal.

Araghchi also expressed solidarity again with “Lebanon,” which actually means with Iran’s terror proxy Hezbollah, which continues to fire on Israeli civilians every day. The Iranian foreign minister recently demanded that Israel stop defending itself from despicable Hezbollah terrorism if there were to be any deal. His fellow Iranian leaders have all had similar comments.

It is a major concern that any deal to which Iranian leaders agree will backstab Israel, just as the Gaza deal did — after all, Hamas-sponsoring Qatar and Iran would never agree to a deal if it didn’t put Israel (and America) at a disadvantage. Then again, the Iranian regime has also violated every single deal it ever made with America or international entities, so perhaps they’re just planning to sign something to buy time while they prepare for their next global jihad push.

Araghchi, like all the regime leaders, believes Allah has commanded unending jihad on non-Muslims. That will never change so long as they are in power, and America will still be fighting Iranian terrorists 50 years from now if we don’t obliterate the regime now.

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They’re not.

• Trump Says Iranians Aren’t Dealing ‘in Good Faith’ (Salgado)

No one is surprised to find out that the Iranian regime is dishonest, manipulative, and underhanded. Well, President Donald Trump is frustrated that the Iranian regime still is not ready for peace, but of course, he isn’t part of a religion that teaches Jihad is the noblest calling and a shortcut to Paradise, as the ayatollahs are.


As usual, just after Trump announced the final phases of a peace deal, the terrorist Iranian regime leaked fake terms to explode the process and force a redo. Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday, “The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing. What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth. Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith. AMAZING! Also, their totally rebuffed Drone attack last night against Indian Ships leaving the Hormuz Strait is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. They better get their act together, and FAST!”

The entire ideology of the terrorist Islamic regime of Iran is built around destroying every non-Muslim country, but especially America and Israel. We cannot reasonably expect them to change their entire reason for existence because we eliminated a few of their leaders, whom they believe went straight to eternal reward in paradise. Of course Trump wants peace. So do we all. So have we for 47 years. But peace only happens when both sides want it.

As I reported yesterday, one of the supposed peace negotiators, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi just issued another series of threats this week in which he framed diplomacy as a tool to alternate with terrorism for victory, and wherein he arrogantly challenged Americans to withdraw altogether if they wanted peace. A subsequent report was that Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohamed “Death to America” Ghalibaf approved this deal without consulting Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who rejected it. That would explain the change from yesterday to today.

Trump even excluded our best and only true Middle Eastern ally, Israel, from the deal to entice Tehran, even though this operation against Iran was always a joint one between Israel and the United States. How can there be a deal ending it without Israel? And why would we include countries that never fired on our behalf, like Hamas-sponsoring Qatar and Israel-hating Jordan, or even sharia-devoted Saudi Arabia and Egypt? True, there is no doubt that Iranian leaders would never sign a deal with Israel, but isn’t that part of the whole reason we attacked the regime to begin with — its virulent religious hatred and terrorism? Trump had at one point said that every country signing onto a deal to end the conflict ought to agree to the Abraham Accords with Israel, and it was an excellent idea. Because countries that will not make peace with Israel ultimately will not live up to peace with America.

Americans and Western Europeans learned before World War II that dictatorial governments do not live up to their agreements. And deals made with the fundamentalist Muslim world have never lasted. If Mojtaba and company want to fight to the last leader and die committing terrorism, I say we gratify their wish and protect our interests at the same time by bombing them straight to Hell. Otherwise, the murderous mullahs will be killing Americans for another generation or more.

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I didn’t see any greatly written articles on the IPO.

• SpaceX Blasts Past $2T, Musk’s Wealth Tops Trillion (ZH)

Late in the cash session, hours after SpaceX shares began trading around $150, the stock surged to $176.52, up 31% from the $135 IPO price.


Musk earlier…

Valor Equity Partners founder Antonio Gracias spoke to CNBC about SpaceX: “And what we’re building is the entire stack from, energy to compute, to launch to orbital compute.”

The key threshold was $140; above that level, Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on paper. This caused a meltdown among Democrats and their left-wing comrades…

Meanwhile, China-linked Neville Roy Singham’s NGO network appears to be firing up its anti-capitalist propaganda machine, and the timing is no accident. These leftists view Musk as a major threat because he just gained a whole lot of political firepower, with fresh capital that can be deployed into pro-America candidates, causes, and institutions that directly challenge the left’s progressive empire.

Latest from Bloomberg:
• The record-setting IPO attracted more than $350 billion in demand from institutions and retail investors after its debut on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas under the symbol SPCX
• Everyday investors jumped on the stock, but those using Robinhood Markets Inc. encountered glitches in the first minutes of trading that appeared to recede by about 12:30 p.m. in New York
• Shares climbed as much as 31% in their debut, propelling Musk’s wealth even further
• Options contracts on SpaceX will start trading on Tuesday. Demand is expected to be high for the derivatives, which allow investors to bet on future stock moves or insure against a drop

[..] Elon Musk has been minted, well, on paper, the world’s first trillionaire. https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2065428108887359750?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2065428108887359750%7Ctwgr%5Ecfb87bd60e7999c0c296404418757d9c567b49b9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fmarkets%2Fliftoff-spacex-gray-market-trading-signals-35-ipo-pop

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Feel good.

• SpaceX Just Made Cafeteria Workers Millionaires (David Manney)

A cafeteria worker at SpaceX may soon have a brokerage account worth more than most politicians who do not have a (D) after their names will earn in a lifetime. Think about that. A company built to reach orbit just pulled thousands of ordinary workers into wealth, not by passing a bill or making a promise, but by building something people wanted to own. SpaceX’s public debut turned into the largest IPO in history. Shares opened at $150 after pricing at $135 and then closed at $160.95. The offering raised $75 billion, pushed the company’s value above $2 trillion, and turned founder and CEO Elon Musk into the world’s first trillionaire. From Breitbart:


Real estate professionals are already experiencing increased interest from SpaceX employees seeking high-end properties. Gerard Bisignano, a partner at Vista Sotheby s, reports receiving recent inquiries from several longtime SpaceX employees, primarily in their mid-30s to early 40s, searching for homes in California s South Bay area. The region includes affluent coastal communities such as Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Palos Verdes Estates, all within close proximity to SpaceX s California headquarters. They seem to be in a state of disbelief themselves that they re suddenly going to be able to, in some examples, buy a home for their parents. They re going to have all this discretionary income that they can really do what they want, Bisignano said.

Bisignano anticipates a buying surge similar to the one that followed Facebook s 2012 initial public offering, when home values in neighborhoods near the company s headquarters increased by 21 percent. He also expects strong interest in second homes in desirable California locations, including Mammoth Lakes, Palm Springs, and Tahoe. It’s incredible what a trillion dollars can do when it comes from invention instead of redistribution. Cue Bernie, AOC, and Fauxcahontas waxing on about Musk’s trillion, but totally ignoring the windfall by so many people. From Reuters:

“For many investors, SpaceX is the closest thing to investing in the railroads during the Industrial Revolution and they are willing to pay the Elon Musk ` premium for that opportunity,” said Seth Hickle, chief investment officer at Mindset Wealth Management in Indianapolis. Analysts and portfolio managers said investors should brace for volatility, particularly early in SpaceX’s life as a public company, due to its small relative float and high valuation. SpaceX’s $18.7 billion in revenue gives the company a price-to-revenue ratio of roughly 112, far above other megacap stocks.

“The question remains is, what happens in a couple of weeks from now. Right now, people want to bid the stock higher because it’s a winner at this point. Whether it stays that way, that remains to be seen,” said Todd Schoenberger, chief investment officer at Crosscheck Management in Washington, D.C. Retail investors received about 20% of the allocation, far more than the typical IPO, with some even celebrating an allocation of one share. SpaceX executives, including President Gwynne Shotwell and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen, celebrated at the Nasdaq market site in New York’s Times Square after ringing the opening bell on Friday. Musk held a separate event for employees in Texas.

The richer story isn’t Musk, though he’ll always draw the cameras. The better story is the people our little commies will ignore: the worker who served lunch, the welder who joined before the applause, the engineer who missed birthdays, and the technicians who trusted stock options when cash might have felt safer. Over 4,000 current and former SpaceX employees are expected to become millionaires. The company’s stock-option culture reached beyond executives and engineers to skilled tradesmen and cafeteria workers. Elon Musk’s executive team built the structure, but the wealth didn’t stop in the boardroom; SpaceX gave employees a stake in the climb, and when the market finally rang the bell, many of them were standing on the pad, too.

America hears many lectures about fairness from people who have never launched anything larger than a press release. SpaceX offered a cleaner lesson: ownership changes lives; equity turns workers into partners. Risk, patience, and competence can still beat the tired politics of resentment. A cafeteria worker with shares is a better answer to class warfare than another committee hearing. SpaceX isn’t a perfect company, and the IPO isn’t a bedtime story. The company posted $18.67 billion in 2025 sales, with Starlink making around 60% of revenue, but it also recorded a $4.94 billion net loss after absorbing heavy AI costs. Investors are paying a steep price for future growth, reusable rockets, satellite internet, Starship, and Musk’s larger bet on space-based AI.

Still, risk is the price of motion. SpaceX has changed the launch business with reusable Falcon 9 rockets, built the world’s largest satellite internet network, and kept pushing toward Starship while older institutions moved at the speed of paperwork. The company now launches more than twice a week and serves NASA, the Pentagon, businesses, and homes around the world. The first lesson of the IPO isn’t that every company should be valued like SpaceX. Most shouldn’t, but the lesson is that wealth creation still works when vision meets discipline and workers get a seat at the table.

Washington can spend trillions and leave families poorer, angrier, and more dependent. SpaceX created a trillion-dollar event and sent thousands of workers home with life-changing stakes. A country that still rewards builders hasn’t lost its way. A company that makes cafeteria workers millionaires has done more than reach Wall Street. It has reminded America that dignity isn’t handed down by bureaucrats.= Sometimes, just sometimes, it comes in the form of a stock grant, earned one shift, one launch, and one risk at a time.

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The Globe and Mail is’t even an American paper…

• Globe And Mail: “How To Properly Hate” Elon Musk Ahead Of SpaceX IPO (ZH)

Whether it is Elizabeth Warren, left-leaning unions, or Democrat-aligned NGOs funded by dark money, the common pattern here has been an information campaign aimed at Elon Musk to derail the SpaceX IPO. Their motives are very simple: if the game is about power and money, then Musk potentially becoming the world’s first trillionaire on Friday morning represents a direct threat to the progressive empire they have built.


Just as with President Trump, the left has mounted a permanent pressure campaign of ‘useful idiots’ against Elon Musk because he has poured tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns for pro-America candidates – something Democrats, socialists, and Marxists despise. Then, Musk headed up DOGE in early 2025, which resulted in the defunding of USAID – another move by Musk that caused unhinged left-wing NGOs and Democrats to lose their minds.

The anti-Musk crowd was at it again on Thursday, one day before the SpaceX IPO was set to kick off, when a former Wall Street Journal reporter published an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail titled, “SpaceX is set to make Elon Musk the first trillionaire. Here’s how to properly hate him.” Chris Gay, who appears to have a lot of pent-up hatred for Musk, began the op-ed: “Now that the SpaceX initial public offering is making Elon Musk all but officially the world’s first trillionaire, is it okay to despise him just for being one? To broaden the question: are the billionaires associated with widening inequality a bad look for capitalism?”

The op-ed is less about wealth itself and more of a political framing exercise that uses the SpaceX IPO as the catalyst to recast Musk’s soaring fortune as a governance risk. Gay attempts to launder what appears to be hatred toward Musk, centering his argument on democracy, inequality, and political capture. In other words, the target is not simply Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire, but the perceived threat that his capital, influence, and political alignment pose to the progressive establishment’s grip on institutional power.

Gay wrote, “By donating at least US$250-million to the Trump campaign in 2024, this private citizen positioned himself to kill a congressional budget deal more or less single-handedly, and then to create a bogus federal agency: the “Department” of Government Efficiency. He staffed it with college-age technobrats who among other things effectively dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which millions of people depended upon for life-critical assistance.”

https://twitter.com/mattvanswol/status/2065235081564766275?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2065235081564766275%7Ctwgr%5Ea2c3b0940e655a961d87b8a0006ed510c32ebd13%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Freckless-propaganda-and-mail-op-ed-tells-readers-how-properly-hate-elon-musk-ahead

It’s not just Globe And Mail, the globalist Financial Times pushes the information operation to paint Musk as ‘evil’ …

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Don’t tolerate these freaks.

• Feds Identify 15,500 Sponsors of Multiple Unaccompanied Kids (Salgado)

Federal authorities have identified over 15,000 individuals who sponsored three or more unaccompanied and unrelated minors in what could be a major child trafficking exposé. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche emphasized the prevalence of child trafficking during the Biden administration. Notably, Townhall has previously exposed how federal officials and partner NGOs knowingly trafficked minors. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin added that some of the children went through unimaginably horrific abuse, sometimes enduring rape hundreds of times.


Blanche said, “Today, we are announcing the indictments of three individuals, Maritza Azucena Cahuec Coc, her brother Carlos Agustin Cahuec Coc, and Gladys Marina Caal Chen. This was out of the Northern District of Ohio. All three are illegal aliens from Guatemala, who allegedly took part in a wide-raging conspiracy to smuggle more than a dozen children into the United States by scamming the system and exploiting the loopholes created by the last administration.”

Interestingly, a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release clarified that Caal Chen once obtained fraudulent sponsorship herself as an Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC). The DOJ also mentioned the new conviction of Guatemalan Juan Tiul Xi, who fraudulently obtained sponsorship of and sexually abused a child. Blanche went on, “This is one example, one indictment, but it is not unique. There are over 15,500 super-sponsor cases that we have identified along with DHS. And again, these super-sponsor cases are when somebody sponsors more than three children, unrelated, and they’re unaccompanied minors that come in the United States.”

Mullin also emphasized how heinous it is that the Biden administration lost track of 450,000 UACs as part of the border crisis, and that Democrats continue aggressively to try to defund the border officers who are rescuing the abused and trafficked kids. Mullin didn’t mention it, but countless Democrat politicians and activists are also actively shielding pedophiles and child abusers simply because they’re illegal aliens.

The DHS secretary said, “We found 146,000 kids so far. 146,000 kids. We still have nearly 300,000 missing. We’re investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped 6[00] to 700 times. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you have kids, if you don’t have kids, I don’t care if you’re a liberal, you’re independent, you’re a Democrat, you’re Republican. If you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you?”

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“..the swamp doesn’t always wear a Democratic label ..”

• McConnell and Murkowski Remind Trump What He’s Up Against (David Manney)

President Donald Trump didn’t need a long speech to identify the problem. Sitting in the Oval Office, he named Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) as two Republicans who still find ways to make Democratic priorities easier and Trump’s agenda harder. For voters who watched Trump’s first term get slowed by Republicans with cold feet, the names sounded familiar. McConnell is no longer Senate Republican leader; Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) holds that job as majority leader. Yet McConnell still carries weight on defense spending as chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, and his instincts remain clear.


When Trump needs Republicans to move as one, McConnell too often sounds like a man searching for the exit ramp. Murkowski has made her brand on being the Republican who wanders off at the worst possible moment. The Senate passed a $70 billion immigration enforcement package by a 52-47 vote, funding ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s term. Murkowski was the only Republican to join Democrats against it. When the country needed border enforcement funding, she chose the same side as the people who fought Trump’s immigration agenda from the start.

The Senate’s trouble didn’t stop with Murkowski. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) spent time during the same vote-a-rama trying to reshape or redirect a disputed $1.776 billion fund connected to claims of government targeting. From the New York Post: The Senate approved $70 billion to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of President Trump’s term early Friday, following weeks of delays amid intra-GOP sniping over a $1.776 billion settlement fund meant to help victims of government weaponization.

The 52-47 final vote approving the legislation came just before 5 a.m., after Republicans defeated more than two dozen amendments in a so-called “vote-a-rama,” including one offered by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would have redirected payments from the settlement to members of law enforcement who were injured in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Thune urged Republicans to keep the bill narrow so it could survive the House. Even when the bill passed, the spectacle showed how quickly a few Republicans can turn a governing moment into an intramural fight.

Cassidy has already paid a political price for crossing Trump. He lost his primary after years of anger over his 2021 vote to convict Trump during the second impeachment trial. Tillis has also become one of the names conservatives watch when the question isn’t whether Democrats will resist Trump, but which Republicans will help them do it. The memory of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) still hangs over these fights. In 2017, McCain cast the late-night thumbs-down vote that helped sink the Republican healthcare repeal effort, defeating the bill 51-49. Conservatives remember the moment not merely because one bill failed; they remember it because a Republican senator waited until the critical hour to break the promise voters had heard for years.

Trump’s second term depends on speed, discipline, and Republican votes that stay put. Democrats will, of course, oppose him, bureaucrats will stall him, and courts will test him. None of that surprises anyone. The deeper frustration comes when Republican senators campaign as conservatives and then become procedural artists when Trump’s agenda reaches the floor. McConnell and Murkowski aren’t random names in Trump’s complaint; they’re symbols of an old Washington habit: promise the voters one thing, then explain why it can’t be done once power is available. Tillis and Cassidy fit the same warning in different ways; short-termers and lame ducks can become dangerous because they stop fearing the people who sent them there.

Trump’s Oval Office criticism landed because it carried a familiar truth: the swamp doesn’t always wear a Democratic label. Every so often it wears an R, quotes procedure, talks about institutional norms, and waits for the worst possible moment to reappear. Conservatives remember the moment not merely because one bill failed; they remember it because a Republican senator waited until the critical hour to break the promise voters had heard for years. Trump’s second term depends on speed, discipline, and Republican votes that stay put. Democrats will, of course, oppose him, bureaucrats will stall him, and courts will test him. None of that surprises anyone.

The deeper frustration comes when Republican senators campaign as conservatives and then become procedural artists when Trump’s agenda reaches the floor. McConnell and Murkowski aren’t random names in Trump’s complaint; they’re symbols of an old Washington habit: promise the voters one thing, then explain why it can’t be done once power is available. Tillis and Cassidy fit the same warning in different ways; short-termers and lame ducks can become dangerous because they stop fearing the people who sent them there.

Trump’s Oval Office criticism landed because it carried a familiar truth: the swamp doesn’t always wear a Democratic label. Every so often it wears an R, quotes procedure, talks about institutional norms, and waits for the worst possible moment to reappear.

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“Until you are willing to harm the left more than they are willing to harm you, they will win. It’s really that simple.” —Aimee Terese on X

• The Mullahs and the Lefty-Left (James Howard Kunstler)

You’ll just have to stand by on whether this war with Iran is over or not, since the Shia true believers’ practice of Taqiyya is a permission structure for lying to infidels (us) when necessary — like, to advance global chaos that will bring the return of the Hidden Imam (Mahdi) to fill the world with justice, and establish Islamic rule. (Got that?) One might wonder, of course, whether the majority of Iran’s people have had enough of the true believers in charge and their true belief in apocalypse.


President Trump’s promise to bring exactly that down on them seems to have had a clarifying effect. The option remains open to “bomb the shit out of them,” as he put it, while keeping their economy in a Macumba Death grip choke-hold. In preliminary strikes Thursday, the US Military might have demonstrated an ability to go after whatever they have left of missile and drone launch sites. In any case, skeptics abound. . . but, admit it, an actual peace agreement would be quite a coup.

It would distasteful most of all to the mass formation lunatics of America’s Lefty-left “Resistance.” Anything that advances our country’s actual interests is hateful to them. In fact, when you think of it, the Lefty-left is in thrall to the same sort of world-ending chaos as the mullahs and their IRGC henchmen. The mullahs have their vision of the post-apocalyptic Islamic utopia and the Lefty-left has its dream of a post-revolutionary socialist nirvana where everyone is equal (except those who are more equal — and get to boss around the rest of us.)

Yeah, it’s an old story here in Western Civ, this recurring drive to level the existing social hierarchy so as to abolish the tendency of some people to do better in life than others. It never works out. It always leads to mass slaughter of some kind. It always ends in rueful disappointment and a return to the free-for-all that is the human project. The outstanding question might be: why do so many in the West continue to believe it?

The current uprising comes out of the strange conversion of Liberalism to Lefty-left Democratic-Socialist Progressivism. Remember, liberalism was pure live-and-let-live, with an emphasis on minimal government intrusion in our affairs, especially economic affairs. The Liberals of Boomerdom — the campus nirvanas of the 1960s — were contemptuous of government generally, but especially the FBI and the CIA. And, of course, the hippie vanguard was socially and culturally all about the freedom to do your own thing. Freedom of speech was a leading concern.

The Lefty-left, as it evolved under Barack Obama and “Joe Biden,” was about rigid intolerance for opposing ideas and maximal government involvement in your life, especially economic and sexual — making a pass at a girl became subject to litigation. The FBI was loosed on dissenters from Lefty-left policies. Juridical sadism became systematized as Lawfare. The Lefty-left constructed a huge censorship apparatus; no more freedom of speech. They used law and regulation to attempt social leveling; no more discipline in school for black kids because . . . racism! Discriminate against Whitey for jobs. . . anti-racism! Election fraud = “our democracy.” You see how all that went?

Turns out, they wanted to use the government to overthrow the government! And the social order it rode in on! Hence, the ten-year-long crusade to destroy one Donald Trump, the peculiar “Gray Champion” of our Fourth Turning, who turned out to be a staunch counter-revolutionary, that is, an opponent of this new Democratic-Socialist Progressive (wannabe-communist) corps of chaos agents.

One schematic way of understanding this dynamic is Peter Turchin’s theory of Elite Overproduction. By the early 2000s, with anybody and everybody going to college, there were not enough job positions in the real productive economy for this spewage of college degree-holding entrees to the Professional / Managerial Class. By this time, coincidentally, the colleges they were graduating from were infested by three generations of Marxist professors — i.e., adults enjoying cozy institutional security, with no experience in the real world, free to indulge in Marxian revenge fantasies and make them the basis of their teaching.

It was the perfect setup for the emergence of a matrix of NGOs and political activist orgs that could employ all these college graduates which the real economy had no place for. And the new hires were pre-programmed in the ideology of grievance, tinged with racial and sexual animus in addition to economic complaint.

So, voila! — America (and Western Civ generally) became infested with these pernicious Lefty-left operations, which became symbionts of the government themselves, many of the orgs dependent on government (USAID) to fund their activities and pay the management. They got scads of additional money from wealthy freelance chaos maestros like George Soros, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, Reid Hoffman, Neville Roy Singham and others.

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That’s exactly what it is. Carried out by nazis.

• Ukraine Conflict Is ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of Russian Speakers – Candace Owens (RT)

The Ukraine conflict appears to be an “ethnic cleansing” project aimed at removing the Russian-speaking population from the country’s eastern border regions, US conservative commentator Candace Owens has said. Owens made the remarks in an interview with Russian filmmaker and TV host Nikita Mikhalkov during a discussion about the roots of the conflict and the West’s attitude toward Russia. “I think what’s happening in Ukraine is an ethnic cleansing,” Owens said, arguing that it was “obvious” that large numbers of fighting-age men were being killed, and suggested that “the ultimate goal” of those behind the conflict was to move in “other people” to Ukraine’s border regions.


Moscow has long maintained that the conflict stems from the Western-backed 2014 coup in Kiev, which overthrew then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and the subsequent military campaign launched by the new authorities against Donbass, where much of the population is Russian-speaking and historically close to Russia. Mikhalkov stressed that Russia was not fighting Ukrainians but “Satan,” arguing that Kiev had turned against Russia, the Orthodox faith and the shared history of the two peoples. Since 2014, Ukraine has effectively banned the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and barred the use of the Russian language in virtually all aspects of life.

Owens agreed with the broader religious framing of the conflict, suggesting that “satanic” forces have established a foothold in the West. She pointed to modern France and the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, which included a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper with drag performers and LGBT imagery, as an example of Satanism and a mockery of Christianity. She also noted that “satanic” forces in the West fear Russia because its emphasis on history gives people a different understanding of the world.

Owens linked that idea to several major revolutions, including the French Revolution of 1789 and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, which she described as “satanic.” After taking power, the Bolsheviks launched a violent anti-religious campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church, seizing church property, persecuting clergy and promoting state atheism. Owens stated that the West’s continued hostility toward Russia appears to be driven by the descendants of Russian Jewish families associated with the assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and the Bolshevik Revolution.

She argued that in the early 20th century, many of these families emigrated to the West, where they gained influence and power, including in the media, and have continued to promote anti-Russian narratives. Russia has repeatedly argued that the Ukraine conflict was triggered by Kiev’s persecution of Russian speakers in Donbass and by Western efforts to turn Ukraine into an anti-Russian project. Kiev and its Western backers have rejected Moscow’s justification for the military operation, describing it as an unprovoked invasion.

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40 labs in Ukraine alone?! The mind boggles…

• DNI Tulsi Gabbard Releases New Info on 120 US Govt Funded Biolabs (CTH)

Moments ago, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released the first batch in a series of declassified documents highlighting 120 U.S. government biolabs that are operating throughout the world. Many of these biolabs are working on weaponized viruses’ and present a significant threat to public safety.


TULSI GABBARD – “Today, I’m releasing never before seen intelligence revealing new evidence of past US government funding for more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries, including Ukraine. In support of President Trump‘s Executive Order to end federal funding of dangerous gain of function research around the world, and increase transparency and accountability, ODNI will continue working with partners across the Administration to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain, and what “research” is being conducted.” WATCH:

DNI Press Release: WASHINGTON D.C. — After months of searching through Intelligence Community holdings and files, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard is revealing new evidence of longstanding United States government funding for more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries. These biolabs include labs in Ukraine, which may be at risk of compromise due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. For example, the Intelligence Community previously warned that a US-funded biolab in Ukraine likely housed dangerous pathogens and remained vulnerable to longstanding threats of Russian attack, seizure, or damage.

Until now, evidence regarding the full existence and funding of these laboratories had been knowingly withheld from the American people. The information surrounding the existence, history, locations and funding of these US funded biolabs has been intentionally covered up by powerful people falsely, claiming that they do not exist and accusing anyone who says otherwise to be foreign assets and traitors to America. Many of these U.S. government-funded biolabs are currently or have previously engaged in research using hazardous and highly contagious pathogens, in some cases to include dangerous Gain-of-Function research, with very little visibility or oversight.

President Trump understands the serious threat dangerous Gain-of-Function research poses to the American people, which is why he took decisive action on May 25, 2025, signing EO 14292 to end federal funding of Gain-of-Function research around the world.

“Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth. ODNI will continue to work closely with partners across the government to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain to end dangerous Gain-of-Function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and people around the world,” said DNI Gabbard.

DNI Gabbard issued new guidance to the Intelligence Community directing increased collection on these laboratories and facilities overseas. This directive is already providing new details on clinical trials that are underway at these facilities, raising significant ethical, financial, and security concerns regarding these supposed public health initiatives and U.S. national security.

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Will Canada ever be free again?

• US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra Deserves a Combat Medal (CTH)

Watching U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra discussing current U.S-Canada trade dynamics is to be witnessing one man behind enemy lines trying to explain a situation the audience cannot fathom. It really is remarkable. The longer he is assigned to this almost hopeless task, the more he develops an ‘I don’t give a damn‘ attitude, regardless of the audience size. It’s completely understandable.


The Canadian government controls the information available to the entire country. The Canadian media push that skewed information to the entire country. Then there’s Ambassador Hoekstra; the guy with completely different information, trying against all odds to present a viewpoint that is so fundamentally different the audience cannot grasp it. In this video segment all of the dynamics come into play, but that’s not the real value in this capture. WATCH:

What I would recommend to all those who have followed this genuinely bizarre disassociation topic, is to go to YouTube and read the comments underneath this CTV video. I love and respect our Canadian Treepers who are here with us in the CTH branches of discussion. I cannot fathom what it must be like to live in Canada amid this level of social, cognitive dissonance. You have my utmost respect and sympathy.

Within all of the Canadian free trade agreements (FTAs), regardless of nation, there is something called a baseline memorandum of understanding (MOU). That MOU outlines how the trade agreement for goods sold into Canada are contingent upon Canada retaining access to the U.S. market. When the USMCA is dissolved, almost every single FTA organized by the Canadian government that matters, collapses. Canadians have no concept of what is coming.

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“… there’s no mistaking it..”

• England Is a B**ch (Robert Spencer)

The news is as appalling, infuriating, sick-making, inexcusable, and earth-shaking, but one thing it isn’t is surprising. The revelation that one of the chief financiers of the principal forces arrayed against Britain, and the West in general, is the British government, is all too much in keeping with the suicidal leftism we have seen from that government (whether the Tories or Labour are in power) for years now. So of course they’re funding ISIS. What else would they do? And the rot is even deeper than that.


The Daily Mail reported Monday that the British government “gave more than £28 billion in taxpayer cash to its enemies over six years, a leaked government dossier revealed last night.” And not just any enemies, either. If the British government had really given 28 billion pounds to its enemies, it would have forked over the dough to Tommy Robinson. But instead, the learned solons in London gave the money to their friends. You know, like ISIS.

The Mail states that “terrorists such as the Islamic State in Syria group, hostile states including Russia and criminal gangs received the vast sum from foreign aid, Covid relief loans and the benefits system, which an expert said was an ‘ATM for terrorists.’” And as these things always do, it gets worse. The report “revealed that Britain helped companies linked to the Chinese military pursue their own research between 2015 and 2021.” The Islamic State, Russia, China, and criminal gangs: all on the British taxpayer dole.

How could this have happened? Pondering that question called to mind a phrase I have not heard in decades, since the days when I was a young Marxist enjoying the benefits of an expensive university education: “Inglan is a b**ch.” (“Inglan” is, of course, Jamaican patois for “England.”) This pungent phrase is actually the title of a catchy little song, the handiwork of a Jamaican “dub poet” named Linton Kwesi Johnson, who has lived in the land for which he has such contempt since 1963 (he is now 73 years old).

Linton Kwesi Johnson penned this classic tune about the miseries of living in his adopted homeland in 1980, and one of my fellow employees at Revolution Books, the Revolutionary Communist Party’s bookstore, introduced me to it not long after that. It never occurred either to her or to me that it was ironic in the extreme for Johnson to be complaining about Britain from Britain; after all, if he hated it there so much, why didn’t he just move back to Jamaica?

For whatever reason, he didn’t, and his choice to remain in the country he calls a “b**ch” has been rewarding indeed. He said in 2018 that he became a “dub poet” as a “way of expressing the anger, the passion of the youth of my generation in terms of our struggle against racial oppression. Poetry was a cultural weapon in the black liberation struggle, so that’s how it began.” He claimed in the same interview that “it was a myth that immigrants didn’t want to fit into British society. We weren’t allowed.”

Without a trace of irony, that same interview notes that Johnson “became only the second living poet to have his work published by Penguin Modern Classics, and was the 2012 winner of the Golden PEN award for his ‘distinguished service to literature.” Another laudatory profile details some of the numerous honors Johnson has received in the UK: “LKJ was awarded the C Day Lewis Fellowship in 1977. He became the writer-in-residence for the London Borough of Lambeth for that year. He went on to work as the Library Resources and Education Officer at the Keskidee Centre, the first home of Black theatre and art. He has been made an Associate Fellow of Warwick University (1985), an Honorary Fellow of Wolverhampton Polytechnic (1987),” and on and on.

Yeah, wow, “Inglan” is really a “b**ch,” eh? Britain didn’t persecute Linton Kwesi Johnson. It didn’t consign him to menial work, or deny him work altogether. Instead, it made him a celebrity, a wealthy, cosseted giant of literature and music. What a b**ch!Laden with honors, treated with unstinting respect and deference in his dotage from the British intelligentsia, Linton Kwesi Johnson is just one of many cultural heroes in the West who hate and denigrate the very cultures that celebrate them. The UK, the U.S., Canada and continental Europe have made revered figures out of numerous people who heap contempt on the native people and their culture and civilization. The situation has advanced to the point that one can hardly expect to have a voice in the culture at all unless one despises that culture.

In light of that, is it really all that shocking that the British government would be handing over taxpayer money to ISIS? This wasn’t just appeasement on the order of “We’ll pay you not to hurt us.” It was an act of self-abnegation of an inferior toward a superior. The British government is filled top to bottom today with people who have raised on the idea that the native culture is rotten. Why shouldn’t they hand over the money British citizens have earned to people who are not tainted with Britishness? The Jamaican transplant Linton Kwesi Johnson, hater of the land that welcomed him, his head bowed down with the weight of his medals and honors, is the symbol of contemporary Britain. And it looks as if he was right all along: “Inglan,” financier of the Islamic State, really is a b**ch.

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Starmer’s roleis to waste away the last bits of respect Englan’ has.

• Starmer Heads to NATO Weaker Than Ever (David Manney)

Keir Starmer lost two defense officials in one day, and both men left over the same basic charge: Britain’s defense plans don’t match the danger in front of it. John Healey, the UK defense secretary, resigned today. Al Carns, the minister for the armed forces, followed him out the door hours later. For a prime minister already limping through 2026, the timing could hardly be worse. Healey told Starmer that the government’s financial settlement for defense fell well short of what’s required, writing that Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves had not committed enough money to keep Britain safe while threats from Russia, Iran, and other hostile powers grew sharper.


The Guardian reviews portions of Healey’s letter and applies their interpretation of the message behind the words. “You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.” A mere 250 words in, and we get to the crux. Starmer, Healey notes, recognised both the scale of the threat and the need for more funding, based around the defence investment plan (Dip), which had been due this week but is now delayed. Healey then spells out what many in Westminster assumed – that the delay was owing to wrangling with the Treasury, and that Rachel Reeves’s department was blocking the sorts of sums Healey wanted.

Notably more wounding is the notion that Starmer was “unable” to stop this. Healey, it should be remembered, was among four cabinet ministers who spoke to the prime minister shortly after May’s local elections, asking him to consider his future given the heavy Labour losses. Here, Healey does not sound convinced that Starmer has since got a grip on things. Fox News reports that the resignations reached a “seismic” crisis for Starmer. Healey’s departure stemmed from a dispute over the delayed Defense Investment Plan (DIP) — the government’s long-promised roadmap for military investment and readiness — and as NATO allies face renewed pressure from Trump to boost defense spending.

“John Healey’s resignation is a seismic moment for the government and the Ministry of Defense,” Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Senior Associate Fellow Ed Arnold told Fox News Digital. “For the government, it creates a sequence of political headaches in terms of a replacement, and trying to get the Defense Investment Plan published.” Carns, a decorated former Royal Marines officer who served multiple tours in Afghanistan, said he couldn’t defend the spending level in good conscience from the government’s front bench. Starmer quickly named Dan Jarvis, a former British Army officer and Labour MP, as secretary of state for defense. Jarvis brings military experience, which helps.

Still, a hurried appointment can’t erase the sight of two senior defense figures walking away at the same moment Britain needs a steady voice. Governments survive resignations, but they have a more difficult time surviving resignations that confirm what critics already suspected. Starmer won a landslide in 2024 and looked, for a brief season, like a man who had pulled Labour out of exile and into command. Two years later, the room feels colder. Labour took heavy losses in the May 2026 local elections, including defeats in areas the party once treated like family ground. Starmer accepted responsibility and vowed to keep going, but the result fed open pressure inside Labour and gave Nigel Farage’s Reform UK a national opening. From Reuters:

“The main beneficiary was the populist Reform UK party of Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, which gained more than 1,000 council seats in England, and will likely form the main opposition in Scotland and Wales to the pro-independence Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.” Early results underscored the fracturing of Britain’s traditional two-party system, with the once-dominant Labour and Conservative parties losing votes not only to Reform, but to the left-wing Green Party at the other end of the political spectrum, and to nationalists in Scotland and Wales.

The defense resignations deepen a problem Starmer had already made for himself. Earlier this year, he restricted the United States from using British bases for offensive strikes against Iran, allowing only limited defensive missions against Iranian missile targets. President Donald Trump was dealing with a dangerous Middle East moment, and Starmer chose a narrow lane. He may have thought he was showing caution, but he also reminded Washington that Britain’s help now comes wrapped in hesitation.

Now comes NATO. The alliance meets in Ankara, Turkey, on July 7 and 8, with Secretary General Mark Rutte chairing the summit. President Trump is expected to press allies hard on defense spending, and Britain will arrive with fresh churn at the top of its defense team.

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Debt Rattle May 22 2026

May 222026
 
 May 22, 2026  Posted by at 9:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  22 Responses »


Evelyn De Morgan Night and Sleep 1878


• Iranian President: Won’t Back Down (ZH)
• Ayatollah Orders Highly-Enriched Uranium To Remain In Iran (ZH)
• Trump Posts Article Laying Out How To Crush Tehran In Three Moves (ZH)
• Elon Musk Wants a Trillion-Dollar Payday, but There’s One Little Catch (Green)
• SpaceX Files For Nasdaq IPO Under Symbol SPCX (ZH)
• Is This the Beginning of the End for John Fetterman? (Matt Margolis)
• The DNC 2024 Autopsy Is Here, and It’s a Disaster (Amy Curtis)
• What Really Happened in Virginia’s Redistricting Case (Von Spakovsky)
• Vance Urges UK Patriots To Defend Their Culture Against Starmer (MN)
• ‘Russians Ready For Conversation’ With Europe — Kremlin (TASS)
• Europe Seeks To Block Any Talks On Ukraine Settlement — Russian Diplomat (TASS)
• Russia Holds Massive Nuclear Drills On Land, Sea And Air (ZH)
• Irrelevant Europe (J.B. Shurk)

 


 

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/2057129253444202498?s=20 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2057337929589039126?s=20

 


 


Are they imitating themselves, or Trump?

• Iranian President: Won’t Back Down (ZH)

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has stated, “We will not bow our heads, our ministers and experts are working day and night, without a single day off.” He added, per state sources: “We are willing to sacrifice as much as possible for the honor and pride of Iran, and we are not afraid of martyrdom.” And just like that… Markets reversed earlier gains as Iran’s President said on state TV that they won’t back down in talks. The momentum then picked up when a “high-level source” told Al-Arabiya that the Pakistani Army Chief will not head to Tehran tonight.


The Pakistani were supposed to head to Iran only when the reach of an agreement was in sight, so this kind of denies the earlier reports of a US and Iran draft agreement. US stock indices erased more than half of earlier gains. We’ve seen the same reaction in oil, FX and bond markets but now they are consolidating. Still, Al Jazeera is reporting that “negotiators are very close to reaching a deal, and are currently working on a draft text. At the same time, another source told Al Jazeera that it is too early to judge whether a serious, final agreement is within reach.”

IRNA has cited a Pakistani official who says the talks are “moving in the right direct” – though it’s anyone’s guess at this point. The prior reported draft did not take up the nuclear issue. Trump continues to press the nuclear issue. US President Donald Trump has again pledged to seize Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium as part of any agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“Look, we’re going to make sure they don’t have a nuclear weapon or we’re going to have to do something very drastic. I believe when it’s put to the people of our country, they will all agree we cannot let Iran get a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Asked whether Iran could retain its enriched uranium, Trump replied: “No, we will get it. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, we’ll probably destroy it after we get it. But we’re not going to let them have it.”

Read more …

Russia’s the best we can do for him. If Trump agrees.

• Ayatollah Orders Highly-Enriched Uranium To Remain In Iran (ZH)

,The illusion of a grand diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East is once again colliding with reality. The White House has been busy trying to paint a picture of a total capitulation by Tehran, which hasn’t been demonstrated given its consistent position defying Washington’s demands on the nuclear issue. According to two senior Iranian officials speaking to Reuters, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has drawn a hard line in the sand, ordering that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% remain strictly inside Iranian territory.


Reuters underscores that “Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s order could further frustrate U.S. President Donald Trump and complicate talks on ending the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.” “Israeli officials have told Reuters that Trump has assured Israel that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, needed to make an atomic weapon, will be sent out of Iran and that any peace deal must include a clause on this,” the report continues.The officials noted that within Tehran, there is deep suspicion that the ceasefire is in fact “a tactical deception by the US,” designed to lull Iran into a “false sense of security… before the fighting resumes.”

The fresh directive from from the supreme leader flies directly in the face of the narrative being spun by Washington and Tel Aviv, given Israeli officials maintain that President Trump explicitly promised Israel that Iran’s highly enriched stockpile would be completely removed from the country as part of any negotiated settlement. Trump has also recently proclaimed this publicly, for example in a phone interview with CBS News last month, wherein he confidently proclaimed that Iran “agreed to everything” and would cooperate fully to ship its enriched uranium out of the country.

Extraction of nuclear material would of course rely heavily on the assumption of total Iranian compliance, given Trump has also lately appeared to rule out out a hostile invasion force, stating, “No. No troops.” There seems to be widespread agreement among national security officials at this point that some kind of special forces op to covertly go in and take it would be tantamount to a ‘suicide mission’. According to more of what Trump (prematurely) proclaimed in the prior CBS interview: “Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we’ll take it to the United States.” The reality is all along the two sides’ positions have been very far apart, and largely unbending:

And on a potential deal: “We’ll be getting it together because by that time, we’ll have an agreement and there’s no need for fighting when there’s an agreement. Nice right? That’s better. We would have done it the other way if we had to” – he sought to explain. At the moment, Iranian officials are reportedly reviewing the latest updated US proposals for peace, having reportedly asked Pakistan for time to assess and study the American points for negotiations.”

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I don’t quite get it. The date on that is May 1. What gives?

• Trump Posts Article Laying Out How To Crush Tehran In Three Moves (ZH)

President Trump on Thursday posted to Truth Social a New York Post article which was first published over two weeks ago, on May 1st, with the headline “Here’s how to crush Tehran in three moves.” Trump’s new social media post, issued without additional comment, comes just after news of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei having drawn a hard line in the sand, ordering that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% remain strictly inside Iranian territory. So now the world awaits what’s next at a moment the White House has renewed threats of massive military strikes if Iran doesn’t quickly come to the table and conform.

The NY Post article had straight-faced and without a hint of intended irony proclaimed: “President Trump has the upper hand.” That statement was issued on day 63 of Trump’s Iran war. Today is day 83. What did the interim look like as the world’s most powerful military force has been unable to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, amid constant threats to take new, bigger military action – but which never actually materializes (at least not yet) no matter how many times the Iranians reject Washington’s terms?

The below timeline and outline, stretching from last week into this one, basically illustrates the weekly Trump pattern that’s been on display going back many weeks at this point:

Wed: Iran wants a deal. They called us
Thu: We are looking at proposals
Fri: We might be close. Very close
Sat: Iran knows what to do
Sun: OBLITERATION. TOTAL. COMPLETE. They have 24 hrs.
Mon: The storm is coming
Tue: I’m giving it more time

This is what ‘winning’ looks like according to the NY Post, apparently. The publication also feels itself in a position to give ‘advice’ and guidance to the White House on executing a war. “His best path forward is to pursue three lines of effort in parallel,” author Richard Goldberg (of Foundation for Defense of Democracies) wrote. It must be remembered that very recently a former senior official from FDD Action, the think tank’s lobbying arm, joined Trump’s Iran negotiating team – his name is Nick Stewart.

Here are the three:
• Sustain the blockade and accompanying economic warfare to destabilize the regime’s hold on the state;
• Remake the world in America’s energy dominance image to mitigate long-term price impacts while undermining China’s global ambition to defeat the United States;
• Order the US military to forge a path through the Strait of Hormuz to restore freedom of navigation on our terms not Tehran’s.
…if only simply ordering a military “path through” was that easy!

“You might call the latter Operation Epic Passage — a combined naval and air mission of self-defense that offers escort to tankers and restores freedom of navigation, all while making clear to Tehran the devastating consequences of breaking cease-fire,” Goldberg, who openly boasts of his close ties to the Israeli government, also wrote. He further offered the mission name of “Blockade Plus”. After the opening days and weeks of Operation Epic Fury, when it became clear that the large-scale US and Israeli bombardment would not produced regime change in Iran, pundits widely questioned whether the Trump White House actually had a plan, or long-term strategic vision for the military mission.

And now, after more than 80 days in, the public gets Trump posting a NY Post article by a hawkish FDD writer, which seems more focused merely on ways to mitigate the blowback and ‘make the best’ of a failed regime change operation, in the wake of the administration’s constantly evolving stated goals.

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“..more than one billion Class B shares when and if the company establishes “a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants,”

How long do you think it will take to get one million people living on Mars? Will Musk live to see it?

• Elon Musk Wants a Trillion-Dollar Payday, but There’s One Little Catch (Green)

The world finally got a peek at SpaceX’s closely held financials, after Elon Musk’s closely held space launch company filed for its initial public offering on Wednesday — and the details made a bigger splash than one of the company’s Starships making an uncontrolled water landing. The first shocker is that Musk’s salary last year was just $54,000. That’s about the same as a new human resources assistant or an apprentice electrician. That’s the only small figure you’ll see in the rest of this column because after this, the zeros get added on in a hurry. You know what? Forget the tease, and let’s go straight to the biggest figure.


In SpaceX’s nearly 400-page S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company projects a Total Addressable Market (TAM) of $28.5 trillion. That’s a two and an eight and a five followed by 11 zeros. TAM is business jargon for “What’s the size of our market if everybody who needed our product or service actually bought our product or service?” SpaceX’s TAM includes launch customers, Starlink users, and xAI (that’s the company’s AI division) compute services. It’s the company’s compute ambitions that account for the lion’s share of the TAM.

Of the $28.5 trillion, “only about $2 trillion is directly related to space or the company’s Starlink network,” Ars Technica reported. “The remaining $26.5 trillion is believed to come from AI, largely from enterprise applications.” I had no idea how big xAI had already gotten until the Wall Street Journal revealed Wednesday night that “SpaceX is renting out compute capacity across its two large data centers to Anthropic, for some $1.25 billion a month.” And Anthropic is a rival. It’s no small feat when your competitor pays you nine figures, 12 times a year, for the privilege of using the same data centers you use for your LLM to run theirs. Nice work if you can get it, right?

“We believe we have identified the largest TAM in human history,” the company boasted in its S-1 report. “We believe our next trillion-dollar market is AI compute, which we contemplate will leverage our rockets and satellites for massive orbital deployment.” Putting computer centers in orbit solves the power problem with unlimited solar, and also clears a lot of regulatory hurdles. By hundreds of miles. The problem, of course, is getting all those birds flying. In January, SpaceX applied to the FAA for permission to launch one million satellites into Earth’s orbit to power xAI. One million satellites might be nothing more than a dream, but Starship — aka The Most Powerful Rocket in the World and Getting More Powerful All the Time — is key to realizing just a fraction of it.

The launch window for Starship Flight Test 12 opens at 6:30 p.m. Eastern today. So what’s this about Musk’s trillion-dollar payday? Musk’s salary might not be any bigger than a typical base-level IT support specialist’s, but he also has two yuge equity packages based on stellar performance. In March, SpaceX awarded Musk more than 300 million shares. But those shares only vest when and if the company completes construction of its “non-Earth-based data centers,” including 12 market cap goals that add $6.6 trillion in shareholder value. That’s more than triple the best current estimate of SpaceX’s worth. That’s not the big payout, however.

Musk will also earn more than one billion Class B shares when and if the company establishes “a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants,” and another series of market cap goals that increase the company’s worth by $7.5 trillion. With this IPO, Musk will almost certainly become the world’s first trillionaire. If he completes just one of the company’s two (admittedly ambitious) payouts, he’ll instantly become the first multitrillionaire.But let’s bring all this back down to Earth for a moment. Asa Fitch noted for the WSJ that “SpaceX made $18.7 billion of revenue last year. Getting to trillions will take quite a while, if it happens at all.”

That is an awfully big if. But if investors had to bet on anybody being able to do it — and they’ll finally get their chance with this IPO — it has to be the company’s $54,000 man.

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Impressive wherever you look.

• SpaceX Files For Nasdaq IPO Under Symbol SPCX (ZH)

As expected, SpaceX filed its S1. The stock is expected to list on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas under the ticker “SPCX.” No specific share count, price range, or total offering size is finalized yet (placeholders are used). But, with expectations of a $1.5 trillion market cap, that means SPCX will trade at a 77x LTM Revenue multiple!


Mission and Overview SpaceX’s mission is to make life multiplanetary, advance scientific understanding of the universe, and extend consciousness to the stars. It positions itself as a vertically integrated builder across Space, Connectivity (Starlink), and AI (via xAI acquisition). The company has revolutionized space access with reusable rockets (Falcon family, Starship development), built the world’s largest LEO satellite constellation for broadband, and is scaling AI compute and frontier models (Grok) with real-time data from X.

Key Corporate Details
Dual-class structure: Class A (1 vote/share) and Class B (10 votes/share). Elon Musk (founder, CEO, CTO, Chairman) will retain dominant voting control post-IPO (majority of the board via Class B and overall voting power), making SpaceX a “controlled company” under Nasdaq rules. Basis of presentation: Financials include retrospective recasts for the xAI acquisition (Feb 2026) and X Holdings (via xAI, 2025), plus a 5-for-1 stock split (May 2026). Underwriters: Led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, and others.

Consolidated Financial Highlights (preliminary/selected):
Q1 2026: Revenue $4.69B, operating loss $1.94B, Adjusted EBITDA $1.13B. FY 2025: Revenue $18.67B, operating loss $2.59B, Adjusted EBITDA $6.58B. Heavy capex (especially AI) and Starship R&D; Starlink (Connectivity) is the current profit engine.

Business Segments (as of/through Q1 2026 and FY 2025)
Space (launches, Dragon, Starship development): Dominant global launch provider (>80% of mass-to-orbit in recent years, >99% Falcon success rate). Key vehicles: Falcon 9 (reusable, ~23t to LEO), Falcon Heavy (~64t), Dragon (cargo/crew to ISS), Starship (in testing, targeting full reusability and massive scale).Revenue: $619M (Q1 2026), $4.1B (2025). Still investing heavily in R&D/Starship.

Connectivity (Starlink):
~9,600 broadband/mobile satellites in LEO (~10.3M subscribers across 164 countries/territories as of Mar 31, 2026). High-speed, low-latency broadband (median ~225 Mbps peak for residential); expanding enterprise, government, maritime/aviation, and satellite-to-mobile (direct-to-phone, ~650 dedicated satellites, ~7.4M devices in ~30 countries). Strong growth: Revenue $3.26B (Q1 2026), $11.4B (2025, +~50% YoY); highly profitable at segment level.

AI (xAI/Grok/X integration):
Gigawatt-scale terrestrial AI training clusters (e.g., COLOSSUS); plans for orbital AI compute satellites (using solar power, starting ~2028).
Grok frontier models (truth-seeking, strong scientific reasoning benchmarks); integrated with X (~1.3B supported accounts, 550M MAUs, hundreds of millions of daily posts).
Revenue $818M (Q1 2026), $3.2B (2025), but heavy losses due to compute/infrastructure investments.

Here’s the financials visualized (xAI is represented by the green slabs)…

Free cash flow struggling under the weight of that giant green slabs…

So, xAI is the giant money suck while Starlink keeps the engine running (but despite breaking out in 2025, Starlink user growth seems to be slowing a little):

Finally, one thing that stood out was that Anthropic is paying xAI $1.25BN per month (through May 2029) to utilize ‘Colossus’ for AI compute.

Musk took to X to explain further his vision for this segment:

“As the recently expanded partnership with Anthropic demonstrates, SpaceX is offering AI compute as a service at significant scale.
We are in discussions with other companies to do the same.
Over time, especially with orbital data centers, we expect to serve AI at extremely high scale.

If you build it (in space), they will come?

Read more …

As a Democrat, perhaps, yes.

• Is This the Beginning of the End for John Fetterman? (Matt Margolis)

John Fetterman’s chief of staff, Cabelle St. John, resigned on Wednesday, according to a source who spoke to Axios. She had been with the Pennsylvania Democrat since he first arrived in Washington roughly three-and-a-half years ago and was elevated to chief of staff in 2025. Her official last day is still weeks away, but the writing was on the wall long before this week. This isn’t a one-off. Fetterman experienced a staff exodus in 2025, and the pattern of turnover is a sign that his rare independent streak is just too much for his party to tolerate. Former aides have cited frustration with his unwavering support for Israel, his noticeably warmer relationship with President Donald Trump, and what they describe as a difficult working environment on a personal level.


“This is a guy who came in talking about being a champion for labor and he’s gone pretty quiet on it,” the former aide said last year. “This is a guy who, since Trump won, is, for lack of a better word, basically a useful idiot for Republicans. He’s supporting stuff, and it gives them cover to say, ‘Look it’s bipartisan, we got Fetterman.'” None of this seems to bother Fetterman. After Axios published the story, he fired off a text to the outlet dismissing the whole thing. “So much for the turnover issue. Clicks!” he wrote, attaching an image claiming other Senate offices have higher turnover rates.It sounds like he’s not exactly losing sleep over it.

In a recent appearance on Jesse Watters’ show, Fetterman cut to the heart of what separates him from the rest of his party. “Why can’t we just, you know, root for our military?” he said. “Why can’t we just say I don’t have to agree with everything the president has done or the kind of things that he says. But, you know, we should be on the side of America, and we should be on the side of civilization and the free world. And I’m on that side. And I don’t know why I’m the only Democrat that says those kinds of things at this point.”

And that’s the whole problem for his party, anyway. He’s asking a question that should have an obvious answer, and it doesn’t, because the modern Democratic Party instinctively opposes Trump on everything, including things that are just plain old stupid to oppose. They’re even whining about repairing the reflecting pool, for crying out loud.

The message from the left to Fetterman is: You’re not staying in your lane, and you have to be punished. Support the war in Iran? Support strong borders? Support Israel? Well, sorry, you’re way out of touch with the Democratic Party today. This isn’t a good sign for him. Sure, congressional staff experience turnover all the time, but how many Democratic staffers are going to want to join his staff to replace those who left? Working for Fetterman is likely to become a career-ender for those who want to work in Washington, and I can totally see Democrats using this as a means to pressure Fetterman into compliance.

The resignation of Fetterman’s chief of staff may be just the latest domino to fall, but the real question looming over Fetterman’s political future is whether this staff exodus marks the beginning of the end for a senator who refuses to play by his party’s rules. Democrats demand ideological conformity, and Fetterman’s rare independent streak will become a liability, making his office radioactive to potential staffers — staffers he needs to function.

Read more …

We’ll see more about this. Funny it’s just a report, but everyone seems to call it an autopsy.

• The DNC 2024 Autopsy Is Here, and It’s a Disaster (Amy Curtis)

The DNC 2024 Autopsy Is Here, and It’s a Disaster. Last week, Kamala Harris was telling donors she wanted the DNC’s 2024 election report, probably better referred to as an autopsy, released. Now the report is coming out, and it’s bound to be a doozy. DNC Chair Ken Martin released a statement on the report, admitting it’s not up to his standards. And you’ll soon see why.


Here’s what the statement says: “When I was elected DNC chair, I commissioned an after-action review of the 2024 election that I wanted to be honest and transparent, and with actionable and specific takeaways for the future of the Democratic Party. When I received the report late last year, it wasn’t ready for primetime — not even close — and because no source material was provided, it would have meant starting over. I could not in good faith put the DNC’s stamp of approval on the report that was produced.

After last November’s massive Democratic wins, I didn’t want to create a distraction, but by not putting the report out, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. For that, I sincerely apologize. For full transparency, I am releasing the report as we received it, in its entirety, unedited and unabridged. It does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards, but I am doing this because people need to be able to trust the Democratic Party and trust our word.

There’s a lot to parse in this statement. The first takeaway is that the DNC is such a mess that they looked at this report and had no way of actually fixing it. This tells us their party is just as big a disaster as this report. Second, the ‘massive Democratic wins’ Martin touts have largely been a disaster. Spanberger got smacked down by both the Virginia state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, Democrats are losing House seats across the country, and approval of Congressional Democrats is at a new all-time low.

Ouch.

Parts of the report are being summarized and shared online. The biggest takeaways are not surprises to those who paid attention. It turns out President Trump’s ‘they/them’ messaging was highly effective, Democrats neglected rural voters and local parties, and the Democrats failed to define themselves but relied on ‘not Trump’ messaging instead. We’re all aware that there was significant tension and backroom fighting between Kamala Harris’ campaign staff and the Biden administration. The autopsy shows the Biden team was criticized for not adequately preparing Kamala Harris.

There are also no mentions of Israel, Gaza, or Palestine.

This is sure to tick off both sides of the aisle. The Left’s anti-Israel, antisemitic base will say the Democrats’ position on Gaza was problematic, while other voters will see their increasingly antisemitic candidates and office holders as alarming.

Read more …

Law-bending.

• What Really Happened in Virginia’s Redistricting Case (Von Spakovsky)

“Shocking.” “Deflating.” “Sickening.” “It’s not good news.”


If someone heard the reactions of House Democratic lawmakers to the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision on the Commonwealth’s recent partisan gerrymandering scheme, they might be forgiven for assuming the ruling posed some kind of existential threat to the rule of law in the Commonwealth. In a letter to his party, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries referred to the decision as “egregious” and “dripping with far-right partisanship,” the result of “MAGA extremists desperate to rig the midterm elections.”

Chalk these wildly hyperbolic statements up as yet another reason to disbelieve left-wing partisan hype. In fact, Jeffries must have been looking in the mirror when he made those claims, since it was Virginia Democrats’ “egregious” misbehavior “dripping with far-left partisanship” that was the culmination of “Democratic extremists trying to rig the midterm elections” in the state.The Virginia Supreme Court’s decision in Scott v. McDougle was, in fact, a full-throated defense of the state’s constitution, the rule of law, and the people of Virginia’s right to make informed decisions on possible alterations to the Commonwealth’s constitution.

What was lost in the frenzied hysteria of Democrats and their allies in the media in the immediate aftermath of the decision was that the majority opinion, written by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, simply upheld the process outlined in the Constitution that was required to adopt the proposed redistricting amendment. The Democrats’ hasty process violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution. There was no partisanship in the opinion at all, with the exception perhaps of the dissent by three justices who refused to enforce the constitutional requirements.

Article XII requires the General Assembly to vote on any proposed amendment to the Constitution twice, with a general election of members to the House of Delegates occurring between the two votes. The court’s ruling centers on that (supposedly) intervening House election, held in 2025, not the recent vote on the amendment itself. The Virginia Supreme Court found that the 2025 House election did not actually occur after the first time and before the second time the General Assembly voted on the amendment.

Early voting (Virginia law allows voting to start 45 days before Election Day) for the House of Delegates elections began on September 19, but the General Assembly didn’t vote on the proposed amendment until October 31 in a “special” session that was itself open to challenge. Accordingly, 1.3 million votes, 40% of the election total, had already been cast when the legislature approved the referendum. That was 1.3 million people who had already voted who had no way of knowing their future representative’s position on an amendment to their Constitution.

The violation of Article XII, Section 1 here is obvious—to everyone but the Virginia government, now entirely controlled by Democrats, which argued that when the state constitution said the Assembly’s vote needed to occur before the election, it meant Election Day. Justice Kelsey’s opinion masterfully dissects this argument as lacking any meaningful support from law or history.

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“So we believe in making America great again. You can’t do that unless you protect your borders. I’d encourage our friends in the UK to follow the same path.”

• Vance Urges UK Patriots To Defend Their Culture Against Starmer (MN)

US Vice President JD Vance has sent a direct message of support to Britons standing up for their culture, telling attendees of the Unite the Kingdom rally to push forward despite Keir Starmer’s attempts to silence opposition to mass migration. The rally, held this past weekend in London and organised by Tommy Robinson, saw thousands of patriots turn out waving British flags. Starmer’s government had tried to sabotage the event by blocking visas for 11 foreign speakers it labelled “far-right agitators.”


The Prime Minister openly boasted about the bans on X, writing “I’ll always champion peaceful protest. But the Unite the Kingdom march organisers are peddling hatred and division. We’ve already blocked visas for far-right agitators who want to come here to spew their extremist views. They don’t speak for the decent, fair, respectful Britain I know.” He followed up: “Today the voices of division will be loud. They don’t speak for the country I know, one that belongs to all of us.” A video from the event captured a striking contrast, showing a left-wing woman in tears hugging her masked companion in fright at the sight of the national flag.

https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/2056257812469018990?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2056257812469018990%7Ctwgr%5E5764f5a7abbc04d69e0037cffdd0fe954dcbc4e6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmodernity.news%2F2026%2F05%2F20%2Fwatch-vance-urges-uk-patriots-to-defend-their-culture-against-starmer-mass-migration-betrayal%2F

Vance rejected the establishment narrative that wanting secure borders equals extremism. “To everybody in the UK who rejects 3rd world migration, I’d encourage them to just KEEP ON GOING! It’s OK to want to defend your culture!” Vance stated. He added, “All over the West is this idea that the way to generate prosperity is to bring in MILLIONS and millions of unvetted people and DROP them into your neighborhoods — and we simply reject that idea!” “It’s OK to want to live in a safe neighborhood. It’s okay to want your job to go to yourself and your neighbors and not to a stranger who you don’t even know. It is reasonable for the people in Western societies to want to control who comes into their country and who doesn’t,” Vance stressed.

He added: “A lot of people, frankly, a lot of people in the media have tried to persuade all of those people that it’s somehow racist to want to protect your borders… even though very often the very people who are most affected by low wage immigration are lower income black and Hispanic Americans right here in the United States of America, and I guarantee that’s true in the UK.” Vance concluded by drawing a direct link to America First: “So we believe in making America great again. You can’t do that unless you protect your borders. I’d encourage our friends in the UK to follow the same path.”

This latest intervention builds on Vance’s repeated clashes with Starmer and European leaders. He previously called out the British Prime Minister to his face over the UK’s free speech crackdown. The US later vowed to use its “full arsenal of tools” against Starmer’s policies. Vance has also long warned about the dangers of Europe’s migration experiment, describing it as “civilisational suicide” He has cautioned that Islamist extremists could seize control of European nukes within 15 years. Vance has also triggered globalist outrage with his blunt speeches on replacement-level migration.

While Starmer brands patriotic pushback as “hatred and division,” ordinary Britons at the rally made clear they simply want what Vance described as basic common sense: safe streets, jobs for locals, and control over their borders. Vance’s words arrive as frustration with open borders boils over across the West. Working-class communities on both sides of the Atlantic are paying the price through suppressed wages, overburdened services, and rising insecurity — effects the political class routinely dismisses. By standing with those who reject cultural erasure, Vance is highlighting a fundamental truth: people of free nations have the sovereign right to preserve their identity and security.

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“..If this modality in the behavior of Europeans changes in favor of dialogue, we will only welcome it..”

• ‘Russians Ready For Conversation’ With Europe — Kremlin (TASS)

Russia is hearing statements from European capitals that they will have to talk to Moscow, and it confirms its readiness for such a conversation, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked by TASS about Europe’s discussions of candidates for the role of negotiator with Russia. “Indeed, in the last 3-4 weeks we have heard statements from Mr. [Finnish President Alexander] Stubb, and we have also heard statements from Berlin that sooner or later it will be necessary to talk to the Russians directly,” he said.

“Russians are ready to engage,” Peskov noted. “We believe that talking is always better than leading to complete confrontation, which is exactly what the Europeans are doing now. If this modality in the behavior of Europeans changes in favor of dialogue, we will only welcome it,” he said. The very fact that expert discussions are underway in the EU around this topic is a good thing, Peskov said, adding that “just a few months ago, even such discussions weren’t taking place in Europe.”

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According to Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large for the crimes of the Kiev regime Rodion Miroshnik, the European Union’s actions show a complete lack of willingness to follow a peaceful path

• Europe Seeks To Block Any Talks On Ukraine Settlement — Russian Diplomat (TASS)

European countries seek to sabotage any negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large for the crimes of the Kiev regime, told TASS in an interview during a working visit to Bangkok.


“Judging by official statements from EU leaders and the so-called E3 group (the United Kingdom, Germany, and France – TASS), one can see an irreconcilable desire to derail any form of negotiations and reject a political and diplomatic path to resolving the conflict. They declare that they want talks, but at the same time they decide to issue yet another package of sanctions, allocate multi-billion-euro loans to Ukraine, and launch new programs to train Ukrainian troops and supply weapons. There is an old rule: look at what politicians do, not what they say. The European Union’s actions show a complete lack of willingness to follow a peaceful path,” he said.

“I believe it is not enough to simply say it would be good to talk to Russia, this must be backed by actions that would prove that the EU is ready to stop financing the bloodshed in Ukraine. It is no secret that if Western funding stops, the war will end. This is acknowledged both in the West and by all external observers. But for now, Western countries continue to supply weapons and finance Ukraine,” Miroshnik added.

Foreign ministers of EU countries are set to discuss candidates for a possible mediator role in talks with Russia, the Financial Times newspaper previously reported. According to sources cited by the paper, the issue will be raised at an informal meeting on May 27-28 in Cyprus. Potential candidates reportedly include former Italian and German prime ministers Mario Draghi and Angela Merkel, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and his predecessor Sauli Niinisto.

On May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering journalists’ questions, said that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is the preferred candidate for possible negotiations between the EU and Russia. Moscow has never been closed to negotiations, he added.

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“Drills Are Intended To Send A Signal”:

• Russia Holds Massive Nuclear Drills On Land, Sea And Air (ZH)

Trucks carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles rumbled over forest roads, atomic-powered submarines set sail from Arctic and Pacific ports, and crews scrambled into warplanes as Russia and neighboring Belarus held the final stage of their joint nuclear drills Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the maneuvers in a video call with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. “The use of nuclear weapons is an extreme, exceptional measure for ensuring the national security of our states,” Putin said, according to AP. Lukashenko earlier inspected Russian short-range nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles at a military unit involved in the drills and declared: “I dreamed about this machine a long time ago.”


The three-day drills that began Tuesday come amid a surge in Ukrainian drone strikes. including on Moscow’s suburbs that killed three people and damaged several buildings and industrial facilities. The strikes made it harder for officials in the Kremlin to cast the conflict in Ukraine — now in its fifth year — as something so distant that it doesn’t affect the daily routines of Russian civilians.

Drills involve wide array of nuclear weapons
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the exercise involved 64,000 troops, over 200 missile launchers, more than 140 aircraft, 73 surface warships and 13 submarines, including eight armed with nuclear-tipped ICBMs. The drills focused on the “preparation and use of nuclear forces under the threat of aggression,” it said. The maneuvers also practice cooperation with Belarus, an ally that hosts Russian nuclear weapons. Russian arsenals in Belarus include its latest intermediate range nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system.

Along with nuclear-tipped ground- and submarine-launched ICBMs, the maneuvers featured a broad assortment of short- and medium-range weapons. Unlike the intercontinental missiles that can destroy entire cities, tactical nuclear weapons intended for use against troops on the battlefield are less powerful. They include aerial bombs and warheads for short- and medium-range missiles and artillery munitions. The Defense Ministry said the Russian armed forces test-fired Yars and Sineva ICBMs, as well as medium-range sea-launched Zircon and air-launched Kinzhal missiles, noting that all missiles hit their designated practice targets. Belarusian troops test-fired a short-range Iskander ballistic missile inside Russia.

Putin has repeatedly reminded the world about Moscow’s nuclear arsenals since the war in Ukraine started in February 2022 to deter the West from ramping up support for Kyiv. In 2024, the Kremlin adopted a revised nuclear doctrine, noting that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. That threat was clearly aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal.

The revised doctrine also placed Belarus under the Russian nuclear umbrella. Putin has said that Moscow will retain control of its nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus, which borders Ukraine and NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, but would allow its ally to select the targets in case of conflict. The maneuvers are held amid an increase in drone activity in the Baltic nations. On Tuesday, a NATO jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Ukraine apologized for that “unintended incident,” without specifying what had happened.

On Wednesday, an emergency announcement about a drone flying over Belarus prompted residents of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, including top officials and lawmakers, to take shelter and led to a brief closure of its airport. Ukrainian drones targeting Russia’s Baltic ports and energy facilities have recently crossed or come down in NATO territory on several occasions. Amusingly, instead of blaming the source, Ukraine, Western officials blamed Russian electronic jamming of the drones.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said Tuesday that Ukraine is preparing drone attacks against Russia from the territory of the Baltic countries and warned of retaliation It alleged Ukrainian military personnel had been deployed to Latvia and warned that the country’s membership in NATO wouldn’t protect it from “just retribution.” Latvian authorities said the allegation was not true. Last month, the Russian Defense Ministry published a list of factories in Europe that it said were involved in producing drones and their components for Ukraine. It warned that attacks on Russia involving drones manufactured in Europe are fraught with “unpredictable consequences.”

Some commentators interpreted the bellicose statements from Moscow and this week’s exercise featuring short- and medium-range nuclear weapons capable of reaching targets in Europe as part of Kremlin efforts to discourage Western allies from bolstering support for Ukraine. Asked what message the nuclear exercise was intended to send, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that “any drills are intended to send a signal,” but wouldn’t elaborate.

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“Europe is the ‘jungle’ now. No garden left to speak of.”

• Irrelevant Europe (J.B. Shurk)

Josep Borrell is a Spanish socialist who held several high-ranking positions in the European Union. Until 2024, he was a vice-president of the European Commission and the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy. In that capacity, he ran Europe’s External Action Service, which is the diplomatic body that executes Europe’s foreign policy decisions around the world. He remains a man with a great deal of influence over European perspectives.


In 2022, Borrell created a bit of an international incident when he described Europe as a “garden” and the rest of the world as a “jungle.” “We have built a garden,” he told aspiring European diplomats in Bruges, Belgium. “Most of the rest of the world is a jungle. The jungle could invade the garden. The gardeners should take care of it.” As the head of the European Defense Agency, Borrell’s comments made strategic sense. As he said in that same speech, “The jungle has a strong growth capacity…Walls will never be high enough to protect the garden. The gardeners have to go to the jungle, Europeans have to be much more engaged with the rest of the world. Otherwise, the rest of the world will invade us, by different ways and means.”

Borrell’s speech came seven years after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open her country’s borders to millions of Islamic immigrants. Originally touted as a humanitarian policy designed to temporarily shelter refugees from war-torn Syria, Germany’s generous welfare programs quickly became a magnet for young men across the Middle East and North Africa. When Merkel declared on August 31, 2015, “We can do this,” she initiated an all-of-society “welcome culture” that quickly produced a full-blown migrant crisis for the whole continent. Over ten years later, the influx of millions of Muslims into Europe has transformed school demographics and local politics, unleashed an explosion in sex crimes and anti-European violence, strained Europe’s hospital services and social safety nets, and exacerbated government debt.

Speaking after the “jungle” had already successfully invaded Europe’s “garden,” Borrell knew there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle. Merkel’s fateful decision to “welcome” Middle Easterners to Europe transformed cities and towns across Europe into the Middle East. Borrell also knew that the European Union’s patchwork defense agency did not have the requisite military and espionage assets to effectively protect the continent. So he tried to fashion his corps of young diplomats into a network of information and persuasion agents who could do Europe’s bidding around the world.

Borrell’s message got lost in the ensuing international kerfuffle over his “garden” / “jungle” division of the world. From Russia to Canada, Africa to Southeast Asia, every self-described “foreign policy expert” took umbrage at Borrell’s bluntness. Perpetually offended virtue-signalers hadn’t gotten so worked-up since President Trump had called Haiti a “shithole country” four years earlier. Just as Conan O’Brien felt compelled to white-knight for Haiti’s dystopian, cannibal gangland by visiting a heavily guarded resort in the Caribbean country and recklessly encouraging vacationers to join him, legions of politically correct snobs from around the planet recorded social media videos from their country estates in which they turned tsk-tsk-ing into a veritable lingua franca for the vicariously aggrieved.

All the “very best people” denounced Borrell for promoting a scarcely disguised restoration of European imperialism, colonialism, fascism, and genocide. Young international students enjoying university scholarships and living in Europe for free made sure to remind Borrell that “diversity is our strength.” Borrell’s socialist comrades beat him over the head with Europe’s prime directive: multiculturalism über alles. Mohammadbagher Forough, a random research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, publicly reprimanded Europe’s foreign minister thusly: “This kind of comment puts a serious dent in the enterprise of European strategic autonomy. It upsets, at the most profound level, countries in the rest of the world, because of the history of colonialism.”

In other words, Europe’s “ruling class” and auxiliary straphangers condemned Borrell for daring to defend the beneficiaries of Western civilization. He was encouraged by threat of high-culture social banishment to follow Chancellor Merkel’s example in supplicating before the migrant hordes. The message was clear: Europe’s minister of defense cannot properly “defend” Europe unless he allows non-Europeans to take over the continent. It was further proof that Europe is irreparably lost.

Since his departure from the European Union’s foreign policy perch at the end of 2024, Borrell has spent most of his time in public lambasting President Trump’s global leadership. A staunch supporter of Ukraine who once threatened to “annihilate” the Russian army, Borrell has frequently defended the honor of Volodymyr Zelenskyy by claiming that Ukraine’s holdover president is leading “the resistance” and “deserves respect.” After President Trump described Zelenskyy as a “dictator without elections,” Borrell called the “accusation” the “height of dishonesty.” When President Trump and Vice President Vance took offense to Zelenskyy’s sense of entitlement and disregard for American taxpayers who have paid the salaries and pensions of Ukraine’s government workforce, Borrell screamed on X, “Trump and Vance have put on a disgraceful show. I am ashamed of that behavior.”

In response to Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference last year during which the vice president excoriated Europe’s crackdown on free speech and political dissent, Borrell lectured his erstwhile colleagues: “This is a declaration of political war against the European Union.” Going further, Europe’s former defense minister declared, “Europe must stop pretending that Trump is not an adversary and assert its technological, security, and political sovereignty with clarity and strength.”

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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2057261488256303134?s=20 https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2057605618085548082?s=20 https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/2057327151964131432?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle May 21 2026

May 212026
 
 May 21, 2026  Posted by at 9:03 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  30 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Femme nue couchée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) 1932


• Tense Trump-Netanyahu Call As US Presses Iran To ‘Sign The Document’ (ZH)
• Iran Warns Will Take War ‘Beyond The Region’ If Trump Restarts Attacks (ZH)
• Xi Warns US Against New Iran Strikes, Denounces ‘Law Of The Jungle’ (ZH)
• Acting AG Todd Blanche Takes a More Oppositional Approach to Democrats (CTH)
• Mexico Freezes Sinaloa Cartel Bank Accounts, Collaborates with US Intel (CTH)
• Ukraine Preparing Strikes On Russia From Nato Country Latvia – Moscow (RT)
• Zelensky Aide’s Jailing Was a Warning From Washington – Former Diplomat (RT)
• Michael Caputo First To Apply For $1.8 Billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ (JTN)
• Gutfeld Torches Colbert’s Legacy on the Way Out the Door (Matt Margolis)
• I’m Sorry, but California Is HOW Deep in the Hole? (Stephen Green)
• Nearly Half of French Voters May Support National Rally (RMX)
• EU Faces Backlash For Awarding Merkel With Order of Merit (RMX)
• UK COVID Inquiry’s Endorsement Of Censorship Sets Chilling Precedent (DS)

 


 

Never once in 30 years seen him sleep on a plane. Always working.

 


 


Bibi will not start bombing if Trump doesn’t want him to. Control has shifted.That is an achievement.

• Tense Trump-Netanyahu Call As US Presses Iran To ‘Sign The Document’ (ZH)

Iran Issues its Strait Passage Protocol
The following was issued from the Official Account of the Persian Gulf Strait Authority: The Islamic Republic of Iran has defined the boundaries of the Strait of Hormuz management supervision area as follows: “The line connecting Kuh Mobarak in Iran and the south of Fujairah in the UAE in the east of the strait to the line connecting the end of Qeshm Island in Iran and Umm al-Qaiwain in the UAE in the west of the strait.” The statement adds: “Frequencies in this range for passing through the Strait of Hormuz require coordination with the Persian Gulf Waterway Management and a permit from this entity.”


Trump: ‘Sign the Document’ or Face War’s Resumption
Trump and Netanyahu had a reported tense phone call related to ongoing Iran talks, and a proposed peace deal on the table. Netanyahu is said to be seeking a greenlight for renewed military action against Tehran, at a moment the Iranians have not compromised on the nuclear issue. Per fresh reporting in Axios: “Trump continues to say he thinks a deal can be reached, but that he’s ready to resume the war if it isn’t”: “The only question is do we go and finish it up or are they gonna be signing a document. Let’s see what happens,” he said on Wednesday at the Coast Guard Academy.

Trump also said Netanyahu “will do whatever I want him to do” on Iran, though he also said they had a good relationship. The two leaders have had temporary disagreements on Iran before but have remained closely coordinated throughout the war. Iran has confirmed it’s reviewing an updated proposal, but has not yet shown any signs of flexibility. The same report says of Israel’s position that “Netanyahu is highly skeptical about the negotiations and wants to resume the war to further degrade Iran’s military capabilities and weaken the regime by destroying its critical infrastructure.”

US Marines Board Iran-Flagged Tanker
The Pentagon has announced that US Marines have boarded another Iranian-flagged tanker, this time in the Gulf of Oman. It had been accused of attempting to violate the US naval blockade, after which it was boarded.But, as CENTCOM says, “American forces released the vessel after searching and directing the ship’s crew to alter course.” This as Iran’s IRGC Navy says 26 vessels, including oil tankers, container ships and other commercial vessels, transited in the prior 24 hours “in coordination” with Iranian authorities (per state news).

Iran Confirms Ongoing Exchange of Messages with US
Some latest from Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson: “Exchange of messages between Iranian and American sides continues based on the text of Iran’s 14-point resolution.” And more:
• Iran’s focus is on ending the war and fulfilling Iran’s clear demands
• The presence of the Pakistani Interior Minister is to facilitate the exchange of messages.
• Baqaei: We are exchanging messages with suspicion and good intentions
• Talking about ultimatums and deadlines regarding Iran is ridiculous.
• Iran also says US has to prove its goodwill and stop “piracy” against Iranian ships

Ghalibaf: US Seeking To ‘Start A New War’
Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says that Tehran sees signs that the United States is seeking to restart the war and still hopes the Islamic Republic will surrender: “The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” Ghalibaf said in an audio message carried by Iranian media.”Close monitoring of the situation in the United States reinforces the possibility that they still hope for the surrender of the Iranian nation,” he adds. Trump has given Iran ‘days’ – or also till the start of next week to come back to the table; however, on Wednesday he’s actually touting a ‘final’ deal draft is near, despite Iran still not budging on the nuclear issue.

Oil Plunges Further on Trump Comment
Again, possibly just more jawboning, but oil’s Wednesday morning plunge deepened upon Trump touting ‘final stages’ of talks with Iran… all of this as usually looking very premature… TRUMP SAYS US IN ‘FINAL STAGES’ OF TALKS WITH IRAN: POOL REPORT TRUMP SAYS ‘WE’LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS’ W/ IRAN: POOL REPORT TRUMP: DO WE FINISH IRAN UP OR WILL THEY SIGN, LET’S SEE TRUMP: SEEING IN IRAN THAT US IS RESPECTED

Another Likely Premature ‘Final’ Peace Draft Headline, Oil Tumbles
Crude prices tumbled on a regional Al Hadath headline suggesting the “achievement of a final draft” of what will be Iran’s latest peace proposal, though the recent pattern of this has shown little will likely come of it with Washington, amid ongoing apparent zero sum demands from each warring side. Pakistani Army Chief may visit Iran tomorrow to announce achievement of final draft of agreement text. Next round of negotiations will be held in Islamabad after Hajj season: Al Hadath Event Sources: If the Pakistani Army Chief does not head to Iran, the achievement of the final agreement formula may be announced within hours

More per Newsquawk…
MARKET UPDATE] Brent falls in excess of USD 3/bbl, WTI slips below USD 100/bbl, Equities bid and USD hit on reports the Pakistani Army Chief may visit Iran tomorrow to announce achievement of final draft of agreement text Pakistani Army Chief may visit Iran tomorrow to announce achievement of final draft of agreement text; The next round of negotiations will be held in Islamabad after the Hajj season (25th to 30th May), Al Hadath reports Sources say if Pakistani Army Chief does not head to Iran, the achievement of the final agreement formula may be announced within hours. Work is underway in earnest to put the finishing touches on the text of an agreement between Washington and Tehran..
BUT…

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Weak.

• Iran Warns Will Take War ‘Beyond The Region’ If Trump Restarts Attacks (ZH)

Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, has summed up where things stand: “Since the ceasefire came into effect, both Washington and Tehran appear to be operating under the illusion that time is on their side,” he said. “Each seems to believe that the blockade and counter-blockade in the Strait of Hormuz impose greater costs on the other, while offering a breathing space to regroup for a possible resumption of hostilities,” Vaez told Al Jazeera. On Wednesday Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a fresh warning amid this ongoing standoff, warning that the Middle East war will extend beyond the region if the United States and Israel resume their attacks.


“If the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time spread far beyond the region, and our devastating blows will crush you,” the IRGC say in the statement published to their website Sepah News. The warring sides are no closer to getting back to the negotiating table, after President Trump has given just a few ‘days’ to comply on the nuclear issue, which so far Tehran has not budged on. But in the meantime Iran still sees American guarantees as “insufficient” regarding a renewed war, Al Arabiya reports Wednesday. The Supreme Leader, who is still in hiding and believed to be recovering from serious injuries that resulted from prior airstrikes, has issued a fresh written message to the public:

Mojtaba Khamenei has commemorated the second anniversary of the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, saying the country is putting up a “unique historical resistance against two global terrorist armies in Israel and the US, the Fars News Agency reports. In another written statement, Khamenei said the war was making the burden on officials heavier than before , adding that he was grateful for the unity of the nation . In the Strait of Hormuz, there’s been a continued trickle of tankers making it through, reportedly after Beijing asked:

Two Chinese tankers laden with oil exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, shipping data showed, brightening hopes that the US-Israeli conflict with Iran may soon be resolved after positive comments from the US president and his deputy. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the war would be over “very quickly” while Vice President JD Vance talked up progress in talks with Tehran about an agreement to end hostilities.

https://twitter.com/anasalhajji/status/2056959126287110459?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2056959126287110459%7Ctwgr%5Ef50426984434b36495b1b7af8c6e30dc6ee770b3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Firan-warns-will-take-war-beyond-region-if-trump-restarts-attacks

And reports of a South Korean tanker safely traversing at this point: A South Korean oil tanker is currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s top diplomat said on Wednesday, in a report from AFP. “At this very moment, our oil tanker is passing through the Strait of Hormuz,” Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told lawmakers at the National Assembly in Seoul. Ship-tracking site MarineTraffic showed the South Korea-flagged tanker Universal Winner on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz near the entrance to the Gulf of Oman, bound for the southeastern South Korean city of Ulsan after departing Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi port.

As a reminder of prior Trump threats this week, and the typically vague timetable, the president on Tuesday renewed warnings that he could imminently resume bombing Iran, declaring the country will face a “big hit” if it refuses to accept US demands for a deal within days.

“Well, I mean, I’m saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can’t let them have a new nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters. Trump had the day prior said he was “holding off” on striking Iran on after requests from Gulf Arab states. Then he followed by claiming the attack was moments away from being launched. “We were all set to go… It would have been happening right now.”

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Xi going through the obvious motions.

• Xi Warns US Against New Iran Strikes, Denounces ‘Law Of The Jungle’

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for a high-stakes summit on Wednesday, just days after wrapping up closely watched talks with Trump, which by all accounts failed to produce any Washington-Beijing breakthroughs. The optics were carefully engineered, and many international outlets observed Putin’s state welcome was no less lavish and opulent than Trump’s own, with the Russian leader entering Great Hall of the People with full military pomp, children waving flags, and the standard marching band – again, strikingly similar to the red-carpet treatment rolled out for Trump last week.


For example, Al Jazeera writes that “We were expecting a more low-key ceremony, but he actually received an identical welcome treatment as Trump last week.” And more: He had the red carpet rolled out for him; he received a 21-gun salute, as well as children waving Russian and Chinese flags, saying, ‘We warmly welcome you.’mThe only difference is who greeted Putin at the airport. With Trump, it was Han Zheng, the vice president, and for Putin, it was Wang Yi, the foreign minister.

President Xi in his opening remarks delivered a sharp critique of the current geopolitical landscape, warning that the world is at risk of regressing into the “law of the jungle” – but hailed the Beijing-Moscow alliance as a crucial stabilizing force against what he later termed “all unilateral bullying” in the international arena, which appeared a passing jab at the United States. The very timing of the Putin summit has widely been viewed as a display of leverage.

Among key moments is that Xi called for “a comprehensive ceasefire” in the Middle East and the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. He characterized the standoff situation in the Persian Gulf as a “critical juncture between war and peace.” Xi called for the “unimpeded flow” of crude transit through the strait, as it is in “the common interest of the international community.” “My four-point proposal for maintaining and promoting peace and stability in the Middle East aims to further build international consensus and contribute to easing tensions, deescalating conflict, and promoting peace,” Xi said on the Iran crisis according to state news outlet Xinhua. Noticeably absent, however, was mention of finding peace in Ukraine. They agreed that it was “necessary to address the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis.”

As for Iran, Xi also explicitly noted that further hostilities in the Middle East were “inadvisable” and that a “comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency.” Putin during the summit sought to assure Beijing that Moscow remains a “reliable energy supplier” amid global oil supply shocks, noting their bilateral relationship sits at an”unprecedentedly high level.” He even at one point invoked a classical Chinese proverb to describe his relationship with Xi: “Even if we haven’t seen each other for a day, it feels like three autumns have passed.”

Below are some quick highlights based on some emerging reporting Wednesday:

Treaty Extension: The signing of a wave of bilateral agreements across technology, trade, and intellectual property, anchored by the extension of the 25-year-old “China-Russia treaty of good neighborliness and friendly cooperation.”

The Energy Lifeline: Putin countered by assuring Beijing that Moscow remains a “reliable energy supplier” amid global oil supply shocks, noting their bilateral relationship sits at an “unprecedentedly high level.”

The Crude Lifeline: China remains critical in terms of an outside Russian economic lifeline, purchasing nearly 50% of Moscow’s total oil exports as Western sanctions continue to squeeze Russia’s domestic capital.

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“.. a fearless cabinet nominee who confronts the corruption and fails is worth buckets more than a weak cabinet member who acquiesces and succeeds.”

• Acting AG Todd Blanche Takes a More Oppositional Approach to Democrats (CTH)

From the outset of Trump term-2, I have been saying the missing element, the fundamental flaw, was the administration not going full wolverine in opposition to the leftists in congress. When dealing with a comprehensively corrupt branch of government, a fearless cabinet nominee who confronts the corruption and fails is worth buckets more than a weak cabinet member who acquiesces and succeeds. We need more direct oppositional confrontation, done from a place of righteous -AND AUTHENTIC- indignation.


That said, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche carries a stronger disposition toward that confrontation than his predecessor. In this exchange Senator Chris Van Hollen, a man of notoriously corrupt disposition, and AAG Blanche battle over the establishment of a $1.776 billion victim’s compensation fund created to compensate people who have been targeted by a weaponized government.

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Sheinbaum knows she needs the help.

• Mexico Freezes Sinaloa Cartel Bank Accounts, Collaborates with US Intel (CTH)

It is always a good idea to make note of things, put them into referenceable context, and then later tell the full story from background details that will surprise everyone else. Two significant events have taken place within the last few days against the backdrop of Sinaloa government officials beginning to turn themselves in to U.S. federal authorities. The first event is the Mexican government freezing the bank accounts and financial assets of those who have been named in the U.S. federal indictment. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says the seizures are out of her control, merely a process that takes place, yet the motives for her defensive protestations are more than a little transparent.


MEXICO – On May 18, President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit froze the accounts of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, his children, and senior aides. The action followed U.S. federal charges alleging they aided the Sinaloa Cartel through drug trafficking, weapons possession, and accepting multimillion-dollar bribes. Sheinbaum stressed the freeze was a technical, preventive step triggered by U.S. arrest warrants, not a domestic criminal finding.

The freezes come amid heightened U.S.-Mexico tensions over cartel corruption claims that have already strained security cooperation and political trust. Washington has broadened its anti-cartel strategy to target politicians accused of enabling organized crime, while Mexico remains sensitive to perceived foreign interference. Analysts warn the case could further erode institutional trust and complicate cross-border collaboration on security, trade, and migration. (more) The second event happened very quietly.

Mexico – Mexico’s federal government quietly approved a new intelligence-sharing arrangement that will allow multiple U.S. agencies to operate inside a major surveillance complex in Ciudad Juárez, according to a report by Drop Site News, even as President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has publicly pushed back against unauthorized CIA-linked activity in the country following the deaths of two U.S. officials in April. The report states that representatives from the FBI, DEA, ATF, Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection are expected to work from the 18th floor of Chihuahua’s new Centinela Tower in Juárez, a sprawling surveillance and intelligence hub operated by the state’s Secretariat of Public Security.

According to four senior Chihuahua security officials cited by Drop Site, the agencies will focus on intelligence-sharing tied to drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, organized crime and migration enforcement. (more) Last weekend, following the Tucson, Arizona, capture of Gerardo Mérida, a retired Mexican army general who served as public-security secretary in northwestern Sinaloa state, Sinaloa Senator Enrique Inzunza Cazárez, who is also facing drug trafficking and weapon charges, was taken into custody in San Diego by the DEA.

Both Merida and Cazarez were named in the lengthy indictment that included current Sinaloa Governor Rocha Moya, who, if ground reports are accurate, appears to be hiding while protected by the Mexican national guard. According to the New York Post reporting, businessman Enrique Diaz Vega – another name from the indictment – also turned himself into U.S. authorities in Arizona last Friday. That means four of the ten men named are currently in custody, with Governor Rocha Moya hiding out in Mexico.

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“Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.”

• Ukraine Preparing Strikes On Russia From Nato Country Latvia – Moscow (RT)

NATO member Latvia has given Ukraine permission to use its territory for potential drone attacks against Russia, Moscow’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said. Ukrainian UAVs have targeted northwestern Russia on numerous occasions in recent weeks, particularly energy facilities in Leningrad Region, although some of the drones eventually crashed in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland. The SVR said in a statement on Tuesday that Ukraine “does not intend to limit itself to using the air corridors provided to the Ukrainians armed by the Baltic states.”


“The plan is to also launch the UAVs from the territory of these countries” against Russia in order “to significantly reduce the time it takes to reach the targets and increase the effectiveness of the terrorist attacks,” the statement read. Ukrainian drone operators have already been deployed to Latvia at the Adazi, Selija, Lielvarde, Daugavpils, and Jekabpils military bases, the agency said. Kiev persuaded Riga to agree to the operation by falsely claiming that it would be impossible to identify the exact launch site of the drones, the SVR said.

The agency expressed bewilderment about the “naivety” of the Latvian authorities, pointing out that modern reconnaissance methods and study of debris means the location from which a UAV was launched can be pinpointed with high accuracy. The SVR warned that “the coordinates of decision-making centers on Latvian territory are well known, and the country’s NATO membership will not protect the accomplices of terrorists from just retribution.” “Ultimately, the ‘caveman-like Russophobia’ of current Latvian leaders proved to be stronger than their capability for critical thinking and their sense of self-preservation,” it added.

The SVR said Ukraine is planning more drone attacks against Russia to demonstrate to its “ideological and financial supporters in Europe” that it is still capable of fighting and inflicting damage on the Russian economy. On Sunday, Moscow and its suburbs came under what appeared to be the largest Ukrainian drone attack in more than a year, in which three people, including an Indian national, were killed and over a dozen wounded. Kiev launched around 600 UAVs towards Russia in a single day, including around 130 at the Russian capital, according to Moscow.

During the raid, NATO jets were scrambled in Latvia after an unidentified drone entered the country’s airspace. Russia retaliated against Ukraine on Monday, carrying out a large-scale missile and UAV strike against military-related targets in the country. Earlier this month, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds was fired after Ukrainian drones hit oil storage facilities in the country. Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said that under his leadership the Defense Ministry “failed to deliver on its promise of a safe sky over our country.”

Unlike top officials in Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland, Spruds previously declined to criticize Kiev for the drone incursions, saying they will continue as long as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine remains unresolved, and insisting that Moscow is to blame. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu warned in April that if the Baltic States and Finland “deliberately provide their airspace” to Ukrainian UAVs, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

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“The guy is filthy rich. He has billions of dollars, the same as Zelenskyy, stacked up in his pocket around the globe,” he alleged. “So this was just a show for the public.”

• Zelensky Aide’s Jailing Was a Warning From Washington – Former Diplomat (RT)

The brief detention of a former chief of staff for Vladimir Zelensy last week was a sign of mounting pressure from Kiev’s Western backers, former diplomat and ex-Prosecutor General’s adviser Andrey Telizhenko has told RT. According to him, the development reflects a possible redistribution of political influence inside Ukraine Andrey Yermak, a longtime confidant of Zelensky, was placed in pre-trial detention in connection with a money laundering investigation conducted by Western-backed anti-corruption agencies. He was released on Monday after posting bail set at $3.2 million.


Telizhenko said he never expected Yermak to remain in custody for long, arguing that the case was primarily political in nature. “The guy is filthy rich. He has billions of dollars, the same as Zelenskyy, stacked up in his pocket around the globe,” he alleged. “So this was just a show for the public.” According to the former diplomat, the prosecution reflects efforts by Washington to eliminate Yermak’s political influence and shift and clear the way for other figures, particularly former military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, whom he described as having close ties to US intelligence agencies.

Although Yermak formally resigned from his post last November amid corruption allegations, Telizhenko argued that his real influence stemmed from his close relationship with Zelensky rather than his official title. On paper the head of the presidential administration is “a pencil pusher job” focused on bureaucratic duties, Telizhenko explained. He also claimed that Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions lack genuine independence and are influenced by competing foreign interests. “The problem is Ukraine is divided between the British, Brussels, Washington, DC – it’s different groups,” Telizhenko told RT, arguing that Western cliques are competing for control over Ukraine’s future.

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If it’s awarded, the floodgates may be opened. Try everybody arrested in connection with Jan 6. $1.8 billion is nothing.

• Michael Caputo First To Apply For $1.8 Billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ (JTN)

Michael Caputo, a former official of the first Trump administration, filed the first known claim under the Justice Department’s new $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Caputo seeks $2.7 million in restitution, according to a letter to the Justice Department that Caputo posted on X. He says he was targeted during “Crossfire Hurricane,” an FBI investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. “The machinery of government was clearly politically weaponized against my family,” Caputo states in the letter. Caputo was spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services during Donald Trump’s first term.
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‘When I grow up, I want to be a Democrat.’ Sorry, kid, you can’t be both.”

• Gutfeld Torches Colbert’s Legacy on the Way Out the Door (Matt Margolis)

Stephen Colbert’s final episode airs Thursday night, and Greg Gutfeld had some thoughts. A lot of thoughts. And if you know Gutfeld, you know they were good. Taking over Colbert’s late-night time slot is Byron Allen, whose long-running syndicated show Comics Unleashed features Allen alongside four comedians pulling from their stand-up sets. Gutfeld played a clip from CNN, in which Allen told Michael Smerconish exactly what he’s going for.


“What I’m doing with Comics Unleashed, we don’t talk about politics. We don’t talk about anything that’s topical. We don’t talk about anything. We don’t do anything that’s racist or sexist or anti-Semitic or homophobic. Just be funny and don’t offend. I don’t care who you vote for. I don’t care. I’m here to make people laugh. You’re going to vote who you’re going to vote for no matter what I say. It doesn’t matter. It’s not my business. Do what you do. So I’m here to make you laugh.” Gutfeld appreciated the spirit of it, but wasn’t entirely buying the pitch. “That sounds like someone saying take up boxing, but don’t try to hit anyone,” he said. “Or a hooker saying she just wants to hold hands.”

On the surface, the setup makes sense from a business perspective. Colbert inherited a genuine late-night institution and proceeded to torch it with partisan politics, and that drove away viewers. So, steering clear of politics just makes logistical sense. But Gutfeld pushed back on the “don’t offend” part of Allen’s philosophy. Every joke offends someone, he argued — that’s kind of the point. “It’s not like a child telling her father, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a Democrat.’ Sorry, kid, you can’t be both.”

“See, every joke is going to offend someone. If there’s no risk, why bother?” Gutfeld asked. He even took a shot at roasts, calling them too comfortable because the offensive premise is already baked in. “It’s more fun to roast someone in a non-roast setting,” he said. “It’s why I always share my best zingers during my charity work at St. Jude’s Hospital.”

The deeper critique, though, was aimed squarely at what Colbert represented. Smart audiences know when a comic is playing it safe, and Colbert played it safe for years — just against the right targets. He spent four years ignoring what Gutfeld described as an almost bottomless well of material: “Mr. Magoo’s stumbling around the Oval Office, backed by a wine-soaked babbler,” with a son “filming himself with crack whores, loose bags of cocaine, and dogs biting Secret Service agents.” As Gutfeld noted, “the Bidens were an embarrassment of riches,” and yet, to Colbert and the rest of the left-wing late-night hosts, they were untouchable. “

He did nothing but safe comedy, ridiculing the approved targets his team hated, and then stuck his tongue firmly up the asses of politicians he supported,” Gutfeld said. Which brings it all back to the central irony. Colbert is being celebrated in some corners as a brave, truth-telling comedian willing to take risks. Gutfeld rejected that. “How was he able to last this long and lose millions every year?” he asked. “Because he did what he was told, which makes the idea that he’s leaving the job as some sort of risk-taking comic the biggest joke of all.”

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How deep is China?

• I’m Sorry, but California Is HOW Deep in the Hole? (Stephen Green)

What do you call a state absolutely flush with cash, with tax revenues booming more than 30% in just three years? If it’s California, you call it “Broke.” Wait, wut?“I once heard that the job of a budget analyst is to find the gray cloud in every silver lining, so unfortunately, along with the silver linings of revenues, we see quite a bit of gray clouds on the horizon,” Rachel Ehlers, deputy legislative analyst for the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), told California lawmakers on Tuesday. The silver lining is the revenue boom. The gray clouds are the state’s structural deficit, “both for the coming budget year, ’26-27, as well as forecast for ’27-28, even under the governor’s proposals,” Ehlers added.


“Really, the only way the budget proposal before you is balanced is by relying on reserves,” Ehlers added during an Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearing. “Under the governor’s proposal, both withdrawals from reserves, as well as suspended requirements to put money into reserves, totals $20 billion.” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “plan” to close the deficit — and allow me to reiterate, during a stunning increase in tax revenue — is to raid the state’s rainy day fund. The LAO says the raid includes $1.5 billion worth of suspended deposits, a $5 billion withdrawal, a $7 billion suspended deposit, followed by another $7 billion withdrawal. Even so, that still leaves a $16.9 billion hole in the budget.

If you’re thinking that boom times are when you’re supposed to plug money into the rainy day fund instead of taking it out, you’d never make it in California politics. That’s a compliment, by the way. Imagine you got a $30,000 pay raise but spent so much money that you had to dip deep into your savings, postpone deposits into your IRA, and still had to put $15,000 worth of typical expenses like groceries on the MasterCard. Crazy, right? But in California, it’s the law. Follow me closely here, or you might not believe just how baked-in the madness is.

See, it doesn’t matter how much new revenue the AI boom brings in; Prop 98 — backed by the all-powerful California Teachers Association and passed by gullible voters — forces more money into schools and community colleges when General Fund revenues rise, but doesn’t really allow for lower spending when revenues fall. What if the AI boom proves to be a bubble that goes POP? What if the wealth tax passes in November and more billionaires flee the state? What if the stock market corrects and capital gains taxes crater? In other words, what if the revenue boom turns into a bust? Don’t you worry, gentle reader, because those Prop 98 “education” spending increases are more or less set in stone. Yet while California ranks around 12th place or so for spending-per-pupil, student proficiency is mired in the bottom half of states, and declining.

Medi-Cal — California’s version of Medicaid — also features structural impediments to achieving fiscal sanity. Medi-Cal is what happens when Sacramento builds a permanently expanding entitlement on top of a tax base that fluctuates wildly, depending on Wall Street and Silicon Valley. If California’s education spending is the very definition of Margaret Thatcher’s ratchet effect, Medi-Cal is the never-ending entitlement that blossoms in bad times, and grows only somewhat slower during the booms. California taxpayers put themselves on a treadmill where no matter how hard they run, it turns even faster.

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Revolution all over Europe. The old guard is fast on its way out.

• Nearly Half of French Voters May Support National Rally (RMX)

Last Friday, an Ipsos poll conducted for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, Le Monde, and Cevipof indicated that 45 percent of French voters are now considering voting for the National Rally (RN) in the 2027 elections, meaning the anti-migration party’s candidate is favored to win the presidency. According to Antoine Bristielle, director of the Foundation’s Opinion Observatory, the poll shows that RN “has managed to unite very different electorates around a common foundation, but that its cohesion remains fragile as soon as one moves away from this foundation.”


The Jean-Jaurès Foundation identifies four main profiles of RN voters, which can be grouped into two categories. The “identity-based liberals” include older, politically engaged voters firmly rooted in the right, as well as the “forgotten France,” which represents “a working-class bloc, more economically vulnerable, marked by a strong sense of abandonment and combining demands for social protection with identity radicalism.” However, the other two groups are more recent profiles, demonstrating the RN’s expansion to new voters. The “shifting France,” representing those “less politically engaged and still uncertain,” and the “opportunistic radical right.”

This latter group of voters, seen as “more affluent, more educated, and highly politically engaged,” is, according to the report, “already largely aligned with the RN’s positions” but may have voted for other right-wing parties in the past. Immigration, as expected, is a paramount topic for at least three of the four groups. “There are too many immigrants in France” is confirmed by 97 percent of “forgotten France,” 99 percent of “identity-based liberals,” 43 percent of “shifting France,” and 96 percent of “opportunistic radical right.” As to the statement, “Now, I no longer feel as at home as before,” the percentages of support were 96, 98, 72, and 94, respectively.

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Nobody says Old Guard like Merkel does.

• EU Faces Backlash For Awarding Merkel With Order of Merit (RMX)

Yesterday, the European Parliament awarded former German Chancellor Angela Merkel the highest ranking of its new European Order of Merit. Alongside Merkel, Poland’s former president Lech Walesa received the same recognition, as well as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Former European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso praised Merkel’s “tireless commitment to European integration and shared values, to bridging the East-West divide, and to strengthening the stability and cohesion of Europe.”


The EU, Merkel told those gathered, has been a “pioneer” when it comes to the regulation of social media and AI. However, she warned that more needs to be done, claiming that democracy itself is threatened by “lies” spread by the rise of social media. She even claimed that “the basic foundations of the European Enlightenment are in danger” because of it. Others were quick to counter her. Already, before she received the award, conservative and nationalist MEPs had reportedly left the chamber in protest. Merkel is seen as not only the architect of the EU’s open border policy back in 2015, which ultimately allowed in millions of migrants, with far-reaching and violent consequences for France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Austria, to list just a few stories.

She also laid the groundwork for Germany’s exit from nuclear power, which has fueled the country’s economic deterioration in the face of higher energy prices and the challenges of green technologies. However, at stake yesterday was Merkel’s attack on free speech and what many deem normal democratic principles.

Investigative journalist Zara Riffler called out Merkel for her idea of democracy: “Merkel is no longer making any secret of her understanding of ‘democracy.’ She wants tough regulation for social media & AI – she wants to punish ‘lies’ (!) – in other words, a digital world in which there is only the one truth that is approved from above. That is her true face.” Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany’s anti-migration AfD party, referenced the continuous efforts to ban the AfD in the face of its surging popularity among German voters as the real threat to democracy. “The only real danger to democracy comes from those who, with anti-democratic firewalls, seek to thwart a change of power through the voters. So that they can cling to their posts for a little while longer,” she wrote on X.

Other X accounts were more brutal. “David Gegen Goliath” wrote: “Angela Merkel has been awarded the European Order of Merit by the EU! Merkel was responsible for the refugee crisis – 5 million Muslims immigrated to Germany: 3 million Arab men. 60% without a job. I can’t believe it. They’re rewarding a criminal!” Finnish MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen claimed the European Parliament brought in random people to applaud Merkel, the woman “who destroyed Europe.”

He told press that it is a “disgrace” that the person behind the migrant crisis was being given a prize. Referencing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and the girls being raped by migrants across the continent, the families ruined, Tynkkynen said Merkel should be in court for her “crimes against Europe” not being lauded.
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“Dissent is the very essence of science.”

• UK COVID Inquiry’s Endorsement Of Censorship Sets Chilling Precedent (DS)

According to the UK’s Covid Inquiry, whose fourth report was published in April, there was “in principle, nothing unlawful or inappropriate in the government monitoring publicly available social media to identify potential trends in disinformation or misinformation” during the pandemic period. The same report, in declining to criticise the censorious activities of the UK Government during the pandemic, noted that the UK government’s Counter Disinformation Unit was required to ensure that its actions were “lawful, necessary and proportionate”.


On a careful reading of this language, the inquiry stops (just) short of expressly endorsing the full scope and extent of the government’s censorship operation. However, the relevant sections of the inquiry’s report create the distinct, and we can assume deliberate, impression that the CDU’s censorship operation was conducted in accordance with constitutional and democratic principles, and was not only justified but was necessary and proportionate. As someone who was on the receiving end of that censorship operation, with the receipts to evidence the very broad scope of commentary that was judged by the CDU to be wrongful or dangerous, this came as a serious disappointment, albeit not a great surprise.

Some would argue that in a national emergency scenario, some degree of information monitoring and intervention might be justified. The trouble with that argument is that one very quickly then has to grapple with the fact that – as we saw during the pandemic period – it’s precisely in moments of national crisis – moments where critical decisions must be made in complex situations – that contrasting views are most valuable and essential. As Jay Bhattacharya, Acting Director of the US Centres for Disease Control, has put it: “Dissent is the very essence of science.”

In my own case, the offending posts and articles caught by the CDU were typically either opinion pieces or comments quoted in mainstream news articles. They included such outlandish and outrageous statements as, “It would be unforgivable to close schools”, “Let children use playgrounds” and “It is indefensible that children’s lives are still not back to normal when the rest of society is”. Clearly, many would now agree with these viewpoints. However, even if some, or indeed many might not have agreed with those points of view at the time, the fact that they were valid, lawfully-expressed opinions cannot be disputed.

Perhaps the CDU’s hypersensitivity would not have mattered so much if, as according to the Covid Inquiry’s account, all that was happening during that period was “monitoring” of public sentiment by the government. The inquiry’s report notes that the CDU had ‘trusted flagger’ status with all of the major social media platforms, the effect of which was that CDU flags received special attention; but the same report is at pains to record that decisions about removing or suppressing content “remained exclusively a decision for each social media platform”.

Yet a subsequent investigation by the Telegraph revealed that 90% of the posts referred to social media companies by the CDU were taken down. Indeed, evidence given to the inquiry by the former head of the CDU confirmed that when information was flagged by the CDU it “immediately goes to the top of the pile. Whoever it is in whatever company then acts on it. It is the same system they have across government for things like terrorist content.”

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Debt Rattle May 13 2026

May 132026
 
 May 13, 2026  Posted by at 9:46 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  34 Responses »


Caravaggio The raising of Lazarus 1609


• Trump Ready To Raise “Core of China’s Core Interests” In Xi Summit (ZH)
• Iran Specifies 5 Demands To Restart Peace Talks With US (ZH)
• Trump Considering Resuming Airstrikes As Talks With Iran Stall – Axios (RT)
• Zelensky Chief of Staff Yermak Charged with Corruption, Money Laundering (CTH)
• Tulsi Gabbard Probes 120 Foreign Biolabs Funded by US – 40 in Ukraine (CTH)
• Nearly $22 Billion Secretly Shipped To Ukraine – Austrian Politician (RT)
• John Brennan: Still “Legions” of His Allies at DOJ, FBI and CIA (CTH)
• Here Are The People Accompanying Trump On His China Excursion This Week (JTN)
• Minnesota Democrats Block Ilhan Omar Subpoena (JTN)
• Scott Jennings Nukes the Democrats’ Gerrymander Hail Mary (Margolis)
• Acting AG Blanche Warns Reporters To Expect Subpoenas In Leaks Probe (JTN)
• Virginia Democrats Ask US Supreme Court to Reinstate Congressional Map (Hyde)
• The Language Got a Little Salty on CNN Monday Night (Matt Margolis)
• Socialist Storytime: AOC Spins Anti-Capitalist Fable About the Founders (Turley)
• Media Spreads Hantavirus Hysteria In Attempt To Save Disgraced WHO (ZH)
• Over 500,000 Waiting To Cross Into Europe From Libya – Greek Minister (RT)

 


 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2053909037545357652?s=20 https://twitter.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/2054023281208918512?s=20 https://twitter.com/AlecLace/status/2054011075914342417?s=20

 


 


Big party for Trump?

• Trump Ready To Raise “Core of China’s Core Interests” In Xi Summit (ZH)

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to raise the issue of increasingly costly US arms transfers to Taiwan during their bilateral summit at the end of this week, spanning Thursday through Friday. Taiwan of course remains the “core of China’s core interests” – as Beijing has in the recent past characterized the issue. While Trump officials have previewed that it will be focused on trade and investment, the White House too is reportedly placing Taiwan and regional geopolitical hot button issues on the agenda.


“I’m going to have that discussion with President Xi,” Trump told reporters at the White House, specifically on the question of weapons sales. “President Xi would like us not to, and I’ll have that discussion. That’s one of the many things I’ll be talking about.”

Also there’s the looming question of the future of the Iran war and blockaded Strait of Hormuz. Currently there’s a stalemated situation and supposed ceasefire which is barely holding. By many accounts, Trump was hopeful that the Iran ‘excursion’ would be wrapped up by now, but it now seems to be sliding into protracted quagmire – critics point out. The WSJ says that Beijing is feeling confident as it prepares to receive Trump and what’s looking to be a rather large entourage: But behind the scenes, Beijing feels more emboldened, and more insistent on defending areas it regards as vital to its long-term strategic interests.

These include resisting U.S. pressure to relax its grip over global supply chains and fundamentally rebalance trade between the two countries. They also include urging Washington to look the other way as it pressures Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own, and as it projects military power across Asia. “They feel very well about how last year played out,” said Jonathan Czin, a fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution and a former U.S. intelligence officer focused on China. “They showed they could weather the storm and the administration had to climb down from the tariffs and spend most of the past year trying to mollify China.”

As for more implications of the Iran war dragging on as Trump goes to Beijing, CNBC writes: Iran’s ambassador to China Reza Rahmani Fazli in a Tuesday post on X pressed Tehran’s case with Beijing, saying that the relationship between the two is too strong for the U.S. to overcome. The bottom line is that higher energy prices are baked in for the foreseeable future. The price of crude oil makes up about half of the cost of a gallon of gas, according to the Energy Information Administration.

And U.S. elections are less than six months away. The 2026 midterm elections will be a crucial referendum on Trump and the Republican Party as they seek to retain a lock on both chambers in Congress. Trump early Tuesday put out the following message on Truth Social, teasing that the next regime change operations could be unleashed on China’s small island-nation ally in America’s immediate backyard…

For some further big picture analysis on how the Iran gambit has raised the stakes, and made the Beijing summit more unpredictable, the below is some fresh Rabobank commentary outlining related developments to watch:

In a case of curious timing, the US just imposed fresh sanctions on individuals and firms involved in facilitating Iranian oil sales to China, and Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao yesterday released a new 30-year shipbuilding plan. That plan anticipates the acquisition of 11 nuclear-powered Trump class battleships, new underwater drones, and an ongoing review to the Ford class aircraft carrier design to increase lethality and reliability while reducing unit costs and production lead times. The planned expansion of the US fleet and shipbuilding industrial base is undoubtedly a reaction to China’s growing naval strength and substantial advantage in production capacity. The message to Xi is an unsubtle one.

The FT’s Gideon Rachman characterises Trump as arriving at Xi’s court in a state of supplication, having effectively lost the trade war vs China and the shooting war vs Iran. This perhaps overstates the weakness of Trump’s position by ignoring the fact that the US has tightened its grip on global energy supply chains and has shown that is has the power to put its foot on the hosepipe of Chinese energy imports whenever it likes. In the flurry of commentary over China’s bumper trade surplus in April, it seems to have been missed that import volumes for crude oil were down sharply, but values were higher. Yesterday’s April PPI figures for China also underscored the uncomfortable effects that the Iran war is having on the Chinese industrial economy.

Xi will be acutely aware of this, and he will also be aware that the US holds similar power to disrupt Chinese food imports if it was of a mind to do so. Seapower IS power, as the shipbuilding plan should remind us all. In this respect, Trump holds better cards than the FT is giving him credit for. Perhaps it is no coincidence that China bought more soybeans in April than it had done for months.

Some more of Trump’s latest commentary amid his hope for a ‘good’ Xi meeting:

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Iran “demands”? They don’t even want to talk about nukes. Perfectly unrealistic.

Even Saudi Arabia was bombing Iran.

• Iran Specifies 5 Demands To Restart Peace Talks With US (ZH)

Iran on Tuesday revealed its demands in a counteroffer to the United States that President Trump shot down on Sunday, which has put the whole conflict and Pakistan-mediated talks in a holding pattern and stalemate, as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively blocked. The demands hinge on war reparations, Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and an end to US sanctions – things which the White House balked at, with war reparations especially being focus of rejection by the US side, and the lack of taking up the nuclear issue, which Iran has insisted is a non-starter and would only be dealt with after the war is settled.


Trump had previously made clear on Truth Social that “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem has listed the following five conditions that it sees as the basis for reentering talks:

1) Ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon

2) Lifting all sanctions

3) Releasing frozen Iranian assets

4) Compensation for war damages and losses

5) Recognition of Iran’s sovereign rights over the Strait of Hormuz

Again, all this according to Tehran must be agreed to while at the same time Iran is pushing back against nuclear negotiations. In a Monday press briefing Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei had publicly alluded to several of these, including in his words, “Demanding an end to the war, lifting the blockade and piracy, and releasing Iranian assets that have been unjustly frozen in banks due to U.S. pressure.” Also, there was mention of “Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and establishing security in the region and Lebanon were other demands of Iran, which are considered a generous and responsible offer for regional security” – before talks could begin in good faith.

Tehran apparently feels it can weather the tightening economic noose its under, given Tanker Trackers on Tuesday said Iran has not successfully exported any crude oil by sea over the past 28 days. To our best knowledge, Iran hasn’t successfully exported* any crude oil by sea over the past 28 days. Some refined products managed to escape because US OFAC did not slap sanctions on those tankers.

In addition, Kharg Island hasn’t loaded any tankers since 2026-05-06 as a result…
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) May 12, 2026

Trump, just before his departure to China, remarked to Axios: “Iran will either do the right thing or we will finish the job… we are either gonna make a deal or they will be decimated.”

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If/when they go in again, it’ll be for a long haul.

• Trump Considering Resuming Airstrikes As Talks With Iran Stall – Axios (RT)

US President Donald Trump is considering resuming the bombing campaign against Iran as peace talks remain stalled, Axios reported on Monday, citing three US officials familiar with the matter. On Sunday, Trump rejected Iran’s latest terms as “totally unacceptable” and said the ceasefire reached around a month ago was “on massive life support.” According to Axios, Trump was set to meet with his national security team on Monday to discuss next steps, including potentially resuming Project Freedom – an operation aimed at guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz – as well as restarting airstrikes and hitting the remaining 25% of targets identified by the Pentagon but not yet struck.


The Washington Post, citing a CIA assessment, reported last week that Iran retained about 75% of its pre-war mobile launchers and roughly 70% of its missiles, and could withstand a US naval blockade for at least three to four months. Trump suspended Project Freedom within 24 hours of announcing it last week, following a request from Pakistan, which has acted as a mediator in the conflict. NBC later reported that the president shelved the initiative after Saudi Arabia refused to allow the US to use its bases and airspace to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Sunday that the US had “no alternative” but to accept Tehran’s terms. “The longer they drag their feet, the more American taxpayers will pay for it,” he wrote on X. Iranian state media described Trump’s demand to shut down the country’s nuclear sites as “a non-starter that Iran has rejected for decades.” According to Press TV, Iran’s conditions include the lifting of sanctions, reparations, and a new framework governing the Strait of Hormuz that would recognize “Iran’s sovereign control over this vital waterway.”

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You can accuse everyone in Kiev of corruption. Can’t go wrong.

• Zelensky Chief of Staff Yermak Charged with Corruption, Money Laundering (CTH)

Andrey Yermak is not just some random high-level government official in Ukraine. Andrey Yermak was President Zelenskyy’s right hand, chief of staff, organizer of the functions of Ukrainian government and the guy who controlled the systems that keep all other government officials working on the agenda of the President. If you took Susie Wiles and Marco Rubio’s responsibilities and combined them into one job function, that would be the scale of importance and influence that Andrey Yermak controlled inside the Ukrainian government and the office of President Zelenskyy.

Today, following an explosive criminal corruption charge that surfaced less than 36 hours ago, Andrey Yermak appears in court to face charges of corruption, theft and money laundering. Yermak was under investigation for his role in theft through the energy sector and now stands accused of using construction projects near Kiev as a tool to launder money to himself and other high-level government officials.

There are three facets to this I find very interesting. First, is the timing. Second, is the often-overlooked admission by National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) about them working closely with FBI investigators in Europe and American intelligence units. Third, is the way they caught him: “The anti-corruption bureau shared part of a wiretapped conversation as part of its case and said six more people had been identified as suspects.”

(Via BBC) – “[…] For years he was a close friend of Zelensky, and led Ukraine’s talks with the US until an anti-corruption raid on his flat last November prompted his resignation. Ukraine’s Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo) said it was asking the Kyiv court to either place him in preventive detention or give him bail of about $4m (£3m). The head of the National anti-corruption bureau (Nabu) stressed that Zelensky himself was not part of the pre-trial investigation.

Yermak had been the president’s closest adviser throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, until he became caught up in a broader inquiry by Sapo and Nabu into an alleged $100m (£74m) embezzlement scheme in Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector. As part of Operation Midas, ex-Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov was charged with abuse of office, while businessman Timur Mindich reportedly fled the country after he was flagged as a suspect and ex-Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko was detained while trying to leave. Like Yermak, Mindich was once part of Zelensky’s inner circle and co-owned the president’s former TV studio Kvartal95, before sanctions were imposed on him. Mindich denies wrongdoing.

The latest claims center on an elite housing project called “Dynasty” in a village outside Kyiv where millions in construction funds were allegedly laundered. The anti-corruption bureau shared part of a wiretapped conversation as part of its case and said six more people had been identified as suspects. On November 17, 2025, reports surfaced indicating that Yermak, then head of Zelensky’s office, might have been recorded by NABU. Subsequently, Yermak’s residence was searched on November 28, and by evening, Zelensky had dismissed him from his position.

Since late April, Ukrainian media outlets and parliament members have continued to publish new excerpts from the recordings. These reveal Mindich discussing with Rustem Umerov, the current Secretary of the Security Council and former Defense Minister, details of embezzlement from multimillion-dollar contracts, funding for drone manufacturing through a company affiliated with Mindich, and potential candidates for the Ukrainian ambassadorship to the United States. Keep in mind, Rustem Umerov is the current lead negotiator and point of contact for U.S. peace efforts.

Russia Federation President Vladimir Putin suggested last weekend that the war in Ukraine was “coming to an end.”

Interesting timing.

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What do you use 40 biolabs for? Do we need to pay more attention?

• Tulsi Gabbard Probes 120 Foreign Biolabs Funded by US – 40 in Ukraine (CTH)

According to a report within the New York Post, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is now investigating 120 foreign biolabs that are funded by the U.S. government – potentially involved in ‘gain of function’ or weaponized virus research. More than 40 of the labs are identified operating in Ukraine. Keep in mind, DNI Gabbard recently took control of the CIA development of Artificial Intelligence systems pulling In-Q-Tel, the CIA-backed venture firm, under management of ODNI. Through a series of what seems like well-coordinated moves by Secretary Rubio, CIA Director Ratcliffe and DNI Gabbard, a significant amount of the CIA’s operations is no longer in the dark network. https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2053944250870489500?s=20


USAID has been dissolved (Rubio/Ratcliffe); the Directorate of Analysis taken out of CIA and into ODNI (Ratcliffe/Gabbard); the President’s Daily Brief now assembled by the ODNI (Ratcliffe/Gabbard); Artificial Intelligence systems, In-Q-Tel under ODNI management (Ratcliffe/Gabbard), and now Intelligence Community (CIA) biolabs being identified, investigated and potentially removed from operation. The biolab issue is a current concern given the discoveries of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director, Anthony Fauci, lying to congress and the American people about funding gain of function research in Wuhan, China. However, given recent events we might even file this under proactive election integrity measures.

WASHINGTON — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is investigating more than 120 biological laboratories abroad that were funded by US taxpayer dollars for decades, as part of an effort to end potentially risky experiments with viruses pursuant to President Trump’s executive order on so-called “gain-of-function” research.Gabbard told The Post Monday in a statement that her team is going “to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain and what ‘research’ is being conducted to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and the world.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have,” the spy chief also said. “Yet despite these obvious dangers, politicians, so-called health professionals, like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of these US-funded and supported biolabs and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth.” Under new guidance from Gabbard, the US Intelligence Community will review research at all US-funded biolabs, which would include facilities engaged in gain-of-function experiments that could increase the transmissibility of viruses, as well as work for defensive purposes against dangerous pathogens.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence officials noted that the foreign labs extend into more than 30 countries, and several had received funding in the past through a Department of Defense program that sought to dispose of weapons of mass destruction after the end of the Cold War. More than 40 of the biolabs under review are located in Ukraine — and could “be at risk of compromise” due to Russia’s war, ODNI officials noted. (read more)

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“Euroskeptic FPO leader Christian Hafenecker has called on Vienna’s money laundering watchdog to investigate..”

• Nearly $22 Billion Secretly Shipped To Ukraine – Austrian Politician (RT)

A right-wing Austrian politician has demanded that the country’s Finance Ministry explain how nearly $22 billion in cash and gold was shipped to Ukraine from Austria since 2022 without triggering concerns about money laundering or regulatory oversight. In a statement published on Sunday, Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) Secretary General Christian Hafenecker called out what he described as Vienna’s “two-class justice system” for overlooking massive payments to Kiev, while keeping a tight hold on taxpayers’ purse strings.


“We’re not talking about play money here: 1,030 registered cash and gold shipments, around €12 billion ($14 billion) plus $7.75 billion, physically transported over 1,300 kilometers into the war zone,” Hafenecker said. “And the responsible finance minister simply tells me… ‘We know nothing, we’re not investigating anything, we haven’t collected any information.’ That’s not an answer, that’s dereliction of duty,” he added. By comparison, Austrian money laundering rules require a private citizen withdrawing as little as €12,000 from an inherited account to prove the origin of the funds, and any person crossing the EU’s external border with more than €10,000 in cash must declare it, Hafenecker said. “This is a two-class justice system in finance.”

The politician demanded full disclosure on all cash shipments from Austria to Ukraine since the escalation of the conflict, a full audit by the country’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority, and a report by the Austrian Money Laundering Reporting Office in parliament. Earlier this year, the Euroskeptic FPO party demanded that Vienna cut all financial aid to Ukraine, denouncing the country as a corrupt “bottomless pit,” following a wave of high-level embezzlement scandals in Kiev.

Major probes by Ukraine’s Western-backed anti-graft agencies have implicated senior officials in Vladimir Zelensky’s government since last year. Two ministers and the Ukrainian leader’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, stepped down following the massive scandal. Russian President Vladimir Putin has slammed the current leadership in Kiev, calling it a “criminal gang” sitting on “golden potties,” and interested far more in personal enrichment than in the fate of ordinary Ukrainians.

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Obama, Clinton, Brennan, Clapper. You can fill a phonebook. “FBI Director Kash Patel has removed about ten percent of the problem in his agency.”

• John Brennan: Still “Legions” of His Allies at DOJ, FBI and CIA (CTH)

Appearing on MSNBC to talk to Lawfare ally Nicole Wallace, wife of New York Times narrative engineer Michael Schmidt – the guy who received leaks from FBI Director James Comey via Daniel Richman, former CIA Director John Brennan notes there are “legions” of operatives still embedded within the DOJ, FBI and CIA who are working against President Donald Trump. This is not a surprise as we have noted the Trump administration continues to take apart the tentacles of Lawfare and Intelligence operatives in Main Justice, various U.S. Attorney offices, FBI Headquarters, FBI field offices and various Intelligence Community silos.


Marco Rubio has been working to clean up the National Security Council as well as the State Department operations, including USAID. Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe have been working on the NSA and CIA collaboratively, and Todd Blanche has been working through the Dept of Justice. FBI Director Kash Patel has removed about ten percent of the problem in his agency.

The core problem goes back to what we outlined on these pages {GO DEEP} and is not limited to those operatives who remain from the Obama/Biden era. Some of the problems surface as a result of ‘republican’ voices recommending “sleeper cell” staff and sketchy personnel for positions in the administration. [I’ll put an example below] One way to tell if the agency head or leader understands the challenge is by paying attention to how they talk about the agency’s mission objective. Leaders like Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard have openly acknowledged the problem and are actively tackling corruption within their ranks. Even John Ratcliffe has admitted his agency was politically weaponized and has taken steps to address it. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but their actions show visible progress.

People like Pam Bondi and Kash Patel have praised the institutional embeds without drawing attention to the corruption beneath them. Thankfully, Acting AG Todd Blanche seems to be taking a more confrontational approach internally, so maybe Kash Patel will follow suit. This isn’t about style—it’s about results, and there’s an urgent need for action. To give an example of “sketchy” recommendations and predictable outcomes, I would draw attention to the lesser visible appointment of Morgan Ortagus. Do you remember this very weirdly worded announcement, two weeks prior to the inauguration?

I have no idea who “them” is referencing in the announcement.

[…] “I’m not doing this for me, I doing it for them”

There were always three options for “them”: (1) the strong republican support people; or (2) people in the Middle East who would be dealing with her; or (3) Stephen Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Regardless, of who “them” was, it was obvious President Trump was not thrilled by “their” request. Mrs. Morgan Ortagus is a long time Deep State operative with roots in the U.S. intelligence community and USAID {citation}. It was very predictable that she would undermine the goals of President Trump and she only lasted six months in the job. Ortagus was quietly dispatched from her position in June 2025.

CTH predicted Mrs. Ortagus would be a big mistake because she was, quite frankly, one of the “legion” insiders referenced by former CIA Director John Brennan. Ortagus’s entire career profile was/is textbook intelligence operative, likely legacy CIA. Not coincidentally, former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was removed from his position only a month before Ortagus lost hers. On the day he was announced CTH said National Security Advisor Mike Waltz would be the first administration member to get the boot, because in the non-pretending world Waltz was a horrible choice just like Ortagus. Mike Waltz was removed as National Security Advisor in May 2025, Ortagus was removed as Middle East envoy in June.

If the goal was to eliminate the Deep State, President Trump couldn’t take on a deeply corrupt Intelligence Community while also appointing its allies. Their close ties to the Intelligence Community made the failures of both Waltz and Ortagus predictable. That said, behind the veneer of John Brennan’s statement on MSNBC is a guy who realizes the Trump administration has changed the dynamic and the agency systems Brennan is talking about no longer exist; at least they no longer have the same capabilities. The need for control is a reaction to fear, and Brennan’s fear is both visible and very well founded.

The DOJ and FBI operate under the influence of the Intelligence Community, which ultimately holds the reins. The key figures leading the IC have made changes to the institutions that have significantly reduced the impact of bad actors within the DOJ and FBI. The key positions are the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe are the people to watch, and we can tell by the counsel(s) they have put into place that each of them has clear eyes and a steady hand on those critical institutions. Since mid-year 2025, around the same time Waltz and Ortagus were dispatched, you will note significant changes began surfacing in the National Security Council, the State Dept, the DNI and importantly the CIA. Some of the changes make headlines, many do not; however, each is important and builds on a larger goal of dismantling a highly weaponized and political intelligence apparatus.

Internationally, what we see in the reaction of allied -or oppositional- governments and their intelligence agencies, is in large part a geopolitical reaction to the consequential changes being made by Rubio, Gabbard and Ratcliffe. Each building upon a system that fundamentally changes U.S. policy to be in alignment with President Trump. Each of them should be commended. Domestically, the accountability developments involving James Comey, John Brennan, John Bolton, Michael Atkinson, Eric Ciaramella and others yet to emerge, stem from the transparency brought by the same trio working upstream from Main Justice and the FBI. The combined intelligence apparatus of the U.S. can cut through the chaff and countermeasures of Lawfare operatives, and I feel optimistic watching them in action.

Again, it’s not just the silo heads that are making a positive impact, it is the personnel decisions they are surrounding themselves with. The amount of sunlight now coming over the horizon is toxic to the interests of those who organized shadow operations. As long as Rubio, Ratcliffe and especially Gabbard, keep pushing the truth to the surface; as long as they keep exposing all the corruption that was used to manipulate and weaponize our government; as long as they keep strategizing on ways to declassify evidence former officials buried under false pretenses; then the DOJ, FBI and more importantly We The People, will have information we can use to make decisions.

Ultimately, it is the truth which makes evil enterprise retreat.

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Excursion??

His name is not on every list ,but Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is very much part of the group. As Trump himself confirmed.

• Here Are The People Accompanying Trump On His China Excursion This Week (JTN)

President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China this week and is taking a notable cohort with him to the Asian powerhouse. Trump arrives in Beijing on Wednesday for a two-day summit, which will include talks about sanctions on Iranian oil and the conflict in the Middle East at large. The group of powerful American CEOs and billionaires include Trump ally Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook, according to CBS News. Here is the rest of the notable American executives expected to go on the two-day excursion:


BlackRock’s Larry Fink

Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman

Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg

Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon

Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick

Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra

Qualcomm’s Christiano Amon

Illumina’s Jacob Thaysen

Mastercard’s Michael Miebach

Visa’s Ryan McInerney

Cargill’s Brian Sikes

Citi’s Jane Fraser

Cisco’s Chuck Robbins

Coherent’s Jim Anderson

GE Aerospace’s H. Lawrence Culp.

The trip comes after the president postponed the original trip because of the conflict in the Middle East. The summit will take place May 14-15, with the president arriving May 13.

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“We have been absolutely ignored by a sitting member of Congress.”

• Minnesota Democrats Block Ilhan Omar Subpoena (JTN)

Minnesota House Republicans want help from U.S. congressional oversight leaders after Democrats on a state committee blocked an effort to subpoena U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar over communications tied to the Feeding Our Future fraud investigation. Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove and chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Oversight Committee, announced Friday she has asked congressional leaders to assist in securing the records.


Robbins sent letters to U.S. Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights. The move comes days after Democrats on the state committee voted against authorizing a subpoena for Omar’s communications connected to the Feeding Our Future investigation. All five Republican committee members supported the motion, while three DFL members opposed it, leaving Republicans just short of the six votes required.

“Minnesota House Democrats chose to protect Rep. Omar rather than support our effort to get the truth,” Robbins said in a statement Friday. “Without at least one Democrat vote in support of the motion to subpoena these communications, we cannot get the two-thirds majority required to compel Rep. Omar produce the documents.” Republicans on the committee have repeatedly sought testimony and records from Omar related to trial exhibits introduced in the federal criminal case U.S. v. Bock. Robbins said Omar’s office has not responded to multiple requests, including an April 22 letter requesting records by May 5. “We have been ghosted,” Robbins said during Tuesday’s hearing. “We have been absolutely ignored by a sitting member of Congress.”

The committee’s Republican members have focused heavily on Omar’s sponsorship of the federal MEALS Act in 2020, legislation they argue loosened oversight requirements in federal child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Rep. Omar had some role, whether inadvertent or not,” Robbins said Tuesday. “She passed the MEALS Act in March of 2020, and that took the guardrails off the federal school nutrition program, which created the conditions for Feeding Our Future.”

Federal prosecutors have described the Feeding Our Future case as one of the largest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the country, alleging more than $250 million intended for child nutrition programs was fraudulently claimed through fake meal reimbursements. Robbins said the committee became interested in Omar’s involvement after learning of communications between her office and individuals later convicted in the scheme. She also pointed to a 2020 video in which Omar promoted meal distribution efforts at Safari Restaurant, a Minneapolis site prosecutors later identified as a major participant in the fraud.

Democrats on the committee pushed back against the effort. Rep. Dave Pinto, DFL-St. Paul, questioned the timing of the subpoena. “We know the president and federal administration have got no hesitation going after political enemies and investigating them in all sorts of ways,” Pinto said. “If there’s any sort of wrongdoing by Congresswoman Omar—and if there’s no wrongdoing by Congresswoman Omar – I have no doubt the Trump Administration will do all it can with all the resources it has.” Rep. Isaac Schultz, R-Elmdale Township, argued the subpoena effort was part of a broader push to understand fraud in Minnesota government programs.

“Feeding Our Future is one part of the picture as it relates to what we know is to come in the fraud we’ve seen in Medicaid,” Schultz said. “Now, we have this opportunity to use our tools here in the House of Representatives to issue this subpoena to gain a greater understanding.” Robbins said Friday she hopes action from the congressional oversight committees will help Republicans obtain the records. “I hope the federal oversight committees will be able to help us get the facts about Representative Omar’s involvement in the case,” Robbins said. “If she has nothing to hide, she should testify before our committee and produce the trial exhibits.”

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“There is every reason to think the justices will leave this one where it belongs: in Virginia, under Virginia law, after Virginia Democrats tried to rig the map and got caught.”

• Scott Jennings Nukes the Democrats’ Gerrymander Hail Mary (Margolis)

Virginia Democrats lost big time in the redistricting wars and have considered all kinds of ways to respond — including trying to force the retirement of all of the justices on the Virginia Supreme Court. That scheme isn’t likely to happen, but they are hoping to drag the U.S. Supreme Court into this. The whole saga is a perfect example of how a party can overplay its hand and then act stunned when the cards fall flat. The Virginia Supreme Court struck down the Democrats’ map, saying the process violated the state constitution and nullified the referendum vote. That map would have shifted Virginia from a 6-5 split to a 10-1 advantage for Democrats, which is exactly why they wanted it so badly.


And they’re trying to drag the Supreme Court into this? It’s a Hail Mary for sure and not a very good one. Does anyone actually believe that this will succeed, that the Supreme Court will even take the case? It makes no sense. There’s really no jurisdiction for the U.S. Supreme Court to get involved. The only thing this emergency appeal does is make them look more desperate.And Scott Jennings called them out on it. CNN’s The Arena, he mocked the idea that the U.S. Supreme Court would wade into this fight. “There’s a better chance of me sprouting wings and flying out of that window over there than the United States Supreme Court dealing with this in any way, because this is a state Supreme Court ruling on a state constitution.”

He added, “The U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t deal with these kinds of things, number one. Number two, the freakout in Virginia has been so extreme. You even have Democrats over there who are saying they want to effectively, politically decapitate the entire Virginia Supreme Court by putting an age limit of 54 so they can get rid of every existing justice and install people who will promise to rule a certain way on a certain case. “ “You know, they went from, ‘Oh, this is just a temporary map thing’ to ‘Let’s burn down the entire Virginia Supreme Court’ in about two seconds over there in Virginia, which tells you all you need to know about just how power hungry and corrupt the Democrats are in Virginia.”

That is the real story here. This was sold as a temporary map fix and morphed into a power grab so aggressive that even the state’s own courts slammed the brakes. “This is not going to work at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Jennings declared. “And this whole project of maximum warfare by Hakeem Jeffries is completely blown up in their face.”

The Supreme Court is set to decide on May 14 whether it will take the emergency appeal. There is every reason to think the justices will leave this one where it belongs: in Virginia, under Virginia law, after Virginia Democrats tried to rig the map and got caught.

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“Virginia’s General Assembly adopted a new map in February that would have favored Democrats in 10 of the state’s 11 seats in the US House ..”

• Virginia Democrats Ask US Supreme Court to Reinstate Congressional Map (Hyde)

Virginia Democrats, along with their state Attorney General, have asked the US Supreme Court to override the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision last week that struck down a partisan redistricting plan. ABC News reports Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones wrote in the emergency application filed on Monday that the Virginia Supreme Court was “deeply mistaken” when it invalidated a ballot measure to amend the state constitution that would have netted Democrats as many as four new congressional seats.


The state Supreme Court had ruled last Friday, in a 4–3 decision, that Democrats had violated the state Constitution, by failing to follow proper procedures, while racing to get the measure on the ballot before the midterm elections. According to SCOTUSblog, Virginia’s General Assembly adopted a new map in February that would have favored Democrats in 10 of the state’s 11 seats in the US House—a potential increase of four seats from the current balance between Democrats and Republicans in Virginia.

The new map hinged on obtaining approval for an amendment to the Virginia constitution that would give the state legislature the power to draw a new congressional map outside of the normal cycle following the decennial census. In a referendum held in April, Virginia voters approved that amendment by a margin of three percentage points. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the referendum was not valid because the General Assembly had not followed proper procedures when it put the new amendment on the ballot.

In Monday’s 24-page filing, Jones argued: “The irreparable harm resulting from the Supreme Court of Virginia’s decision is profound and immediate. By forcing the Commonwealth to conduct its congressional elections using districts different from those adopted by the General Assembly pursuant to a constitutional amendment the people just ratified, the Supreme Court of Virginia has deprived voters, candidates, and the Commonwealth of their right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts.” Legal experts told ABC News last week that they believe Democrats have little chance of a successful appeal at the US Supreme Court because the state Supreme Court would be the highest authority dealing with state constitutional issues and no federal issues are at stake.

According to former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, “The Virginia Supreme Court is the final authority on Virginia constitutional questions. This is the end, folks. You will have the same map in 2026 that existed in 2024. That is now unchangeable and immutable.” Politico reports that Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency appeals arising from Virginia, instructed the Republicans who challenged the Virginia referendum to respond to Jones’ appeal by Thursday at 5 p.m.

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“Blanche, on Tuesday, indicated that the DOJ probe would use compulsory authority to bring in witnesses, including from the press.”

• Acting AG Blanche Warns Reporters To Expect Subpoenas In Leaks Probe (JTN)

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday indicated that the Department of Justice would subpoena reporters as part of its probe into leaks of classified materials. The FBI, this month, opened a probe into Senate Democrats over the possible leak of classified materials related to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearings. At issue was the leak of an intercept from the National Security Agency (NSA) concerning Gabbard. More recently, Trump has reportedly complained of rampant leaks related to the ongoing Iran war, The Hill reported.


Blanche, on Tuesday, indicated that the DOJ probe would use compulsory authority to bring in witnesses, including from the press. “Prosecuting leakers who share our nation’s secrets with reporters, in turn risking our national security and the lives of our soldiers, is a priority for this administration,” he said. “Any witness, whether a reporter or otherwise, who has information about these criminals should not be surprised if they receive a subpoena about the illegal leaking of classified material.”

The Trump administration has long maintained a strained relationship with the press, dating back to his first term, which saw pervasive leaks to the media, especially from the Department of Homeland Security over immigration enforcement efforts.

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“..the Supreme Court basically supported one vote, one person guaranteed in perpetuity, and the rest is just map wars..”

• The Language Got a Little Salty on CNN Monday Night (Matt Margolis)

If Bakari Sellers thought he could trot out an emotional guilt trip and quietly justify racist gerrymandering on live TV, Kevin O’Leary wasn’t about to let that slide. He didn’t just push back—he pulled the curtain back on the whole performance, forcing a raw, uncomfortable showdown between the U.S. Constitution and Sellers’ political theater. And Sellers let loose with some salty language in the process. The exchange began with host Abby Phillip laying out the stakes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional. She noted that states may soon try to redraw maps in ways that could leave the minority party with no meaningful representation, which isn’t true, of course.


I could get into all the states that have had conservative representation gerrymandered into oblivion, but I’ll do that another time. O’Leary jumped in with a blunt take, saying the Supreme Court had effectively settled the matter. “I think everybody should take confidence in the fact the Supreme Court basically supported one vote, one person guaranteed in perpetuity, and the rest is just map wars,” he said. “And I think we should get used to it. And I think it’s, as you said, a state-based situation. Add this to the mix. At the end of the day, the state decides at the state level. It’s in the Constitution. Get over it.” That, apparently, set Sellers off.

“The problem with that sentiment is that you were born in 1954,” Sellers shot back, immediately turning the argument into a generational and moral rebuke. O’Leary, never one to miss a chance to needle someone, replied, “Yes,” when Sellers noted his age, then joked, “By the way, I’m a vampire.” Sellers clearly wasn’t in the mood and just pressed on with patronizing O’Leary. According to Sellers, O’Leary had lived through the entire post-Brown era and should understand what that history means. “During your lifetime, we’ve actually had Brown v. Board of Education,” Sellers said. O’Leary interjected, “I remember.” “Yes, Brown v. Board of Education, I don’t know how you remember it. I think you were like two months old.”

The temperature kept rising as Sellers tried to ground his point in personal history. “My mother was born in 1951. She desegregated schools. My father was shot in the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. “Those people—” Before he could finish, Phillip stepped in to let him continue. Sellers accused O’Leary of being “utterly disrespectful.” Then came the line that guaranteed the clip would travel fast. “So, I’m going to finish this comment. So, what I’m telling you is that there are people in this country who fought, died, and bled for the right to vote. Don’t be a d**k, just understand. Just understand.”

O’Leary didn’t care for that and pushed back immediately, insisting he was simply defending the Constitution. “I’m not a d**k. I’m pointing something out to you. The Constitution’s being upheld. You have a problem with that? You have a problem with the Constitution of the United States of America?” he asked.

Phillip tried to restore order, scolding Sellers, “I just want everybody to reset with a modicum of respect at this table.” But Sellers didn’t care, “I want you to understand that there’s a price that was paid for this right. There is a price that we uphold. And whether or not you value that—” O’Leary cut in again, clearly not caring about Seller’s belittling tone. “Where are you going with this?” Sellers answered by making the point even more directly. “Whether or not you value that or not, there are people who bled, sweat, and died, and were in prison for access to the ballot box.”

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No kings, no billionaires!

• Socialist Storytime: AOC Spins Anti-Capitalist Fable About the Founders (Turley)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is fast becoming the greatest fabulist since Aesop. Recently, Ocasio-Cortez insisted that true billionaires are a capitalist myth since “you can’t earn a billion dollars.” However, her greatest work of fiction may be her insistence that the Framers fought against billionaires and would have joined her and other socialists in seeking to eradicate them today. Bertrand Russell once noted that “there is something feeble and a little contemptible” about those “who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.”


The American left has long peddled such “comfortable myths” as the wealthy “not paying their fair share” of taxes. (The top one percent of income earners pay over 40% of federal taxes, and that percentage goes up to 70% for the top ten percent). However, Ocasio-Cortez has become a liberal Homer for her reputation for spinning collectivist tales. What is impressive is her myth-within-a-myth signature style: “You can’t earn that, right? And so you have to create a myth… you have to create a myth of earning it.” In a discussion at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Ocasio-Cortez gave her revisionist account of the Founders as, surprise, budding anti-capitalists:

“I want to talk about how this is in the heritage of our country, because America was founded… you look at Thomas Jefferson writing to Madison in revolt of British aristocracy. The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time. And we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and power and the state that the voices of everyday people did not exist.”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.

While Ocasio-Cortez references our 250th anniversary, she ignores that it is also the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Smith’s free-market theory was an instant hit with the founding generation. These men had just created the first major Enlightenment Revolution based on a belief in natural rights that came from God, not governments. Yet, they knew that true individual liberty could not be achieved without economic freedom. Smith’s economic theory was the perfect companion for their political theory.

The combination of American democratic theories and free market theories produced the world’s most successful and oldest democracy in history. In Rage and the Republic, I discuss the threats to this Republic, including from figures like Ocasio-Cortez, in spreading socialist myths. The book calls for a recommitment to what I call a “liberty-enhancing economy.” That is why this particular myth told by Ocasio-Cortez was so jarring. The Founders were great believers in capitalism and the free market. They were not fighting “the billionaires of their time” over their wealth. Many of the Founders were themselves quite wealthy, including banker Robert Morris Jr., who was known as the “Financier of the Revolution.”Adjusting for inflation and current rates, Morris would be a billionaire today.

The Founders believed in unleashing everyone’s ability to become a Morris. They fought against the taking or occupation of property by the government. Aat the very top of their stated purpose for the American Revolution was “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The phrase was virtually ripped from the page of John Locke’s “life, liberty, and property.” Locke believed that there was a natural right to property created by what God left “in common” for humanity. Preceding any government, it was a right that belonged to human beings by divine grant. Hardly a roaring endorsement of socialist ideals or, as Zohran Mamdani put it, the “warmth of collectivism.”

George Mason relied on Locke for his draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Jefferson relied on heavily. Mason wrote of “the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” bOf course, the property reference was changed to happiness in the Declaration, which reflected the more transcendent values of these Enlightenment devotees. While reduced to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” the original language appeared in the Fifth Amendment and, later in the Fourteenth Amendment, protecting citizens from being “deprived of life, liberty, or property.”

In his 1792 essay “Property,” Madison echoed Lockean values in declaring that good government “secures to every man whatever is his own.” Other early figures, like Chief Justice John Marshall, wrote, “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” The new myth-making on the left is meant to revive what I previously described as “economic factionalism,” seeking political power with this type of “eat-the-rich” rhetoric. It is working (as it has in history). In California, many are pushing a “billionaire’s tax,” while far-left figures like Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are pushing for a federal variation. In states from Washington state to Virginia, Democrats are virtually chasing wealthy taxpayers out of blue states with planned millionaire taxes.

To achieve such radical change, you must first destroy the values upon which this Republic was born, convincing people that their fundamental ties to capitalism are as ephemeral as true billionaires. The greatest irony is that Ocasio-Cortez personifies what the Founders truly wanted to combat. They feared mobocracy and the tyranny of the majority, the arbitrary power that can come from majoritarian abuse. Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, and others are truly not new or particularly interesting additions to the political dialogue. They are the same voices of democratic despotism that Madison and others sought to quell.

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A trial balloon?

• Media Spreads Hantavirus Hysteria In Attempt To Save Disgraced WHO (ZH)

The establishment media has been drumming up fear after a recent outbreak of Hantavirus on a cruise liner traveling from Argentina to West Africa. The Guardian has used the opportunity to assert that the US is currently ill equipped to deal with future pandemic threats, largely because of Donald Trump (of course) and the dramatic US exit from the now disgraced World Health Organization. Is Hantavirus a serious danger to the world, or, is it another hyped up virus like Covid being used to trigger public hysteria? And if it is being hyped, who (or WHO) stands to benefit?


For decades the WHO constructed its image as a global angel of benevolence; the primary line of defense against what they said was the inevitable invasion of a population rending plague. However, when the time finally came in the form of a mutated Coronavirus (Covid), they dropped the ball, and evidence suggests they may have done it deliberately.During the initial outbreak in China, the WHO echoed CCP propaganda suggesting that human-to-human contact was unlikely and, knowingly or unknowingly, aided China in hiding details behind the outbreak.

Details surrounding the involvement of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the largest dangerous disease lab in Asia, were actively dismissed (or suppressed). Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus even praised China’s “transparency”. The WHO then set up a joint task force to determine the origins of Covid, only to let the Chinese dominate the investigation and lead it away from the activities at the Level 4 lab in Wuhan. The Chinese wanted to push the theory of animal-to-animal mutation instead of the gain of function research that was ongoing at the lab (partially funded by US interests in the Obama Administration).

Today, evidence overwhelmingly suggests that Covid originated in the Wuhan Lab. In January 2025, the CIA assessed that a lab-related origin is more likely than natural spillover. This determination matched with similar FBI assessments. In 2025, German Intelligence also reported their findings, indicating a 90% likelihood that Covid was engineered and originated at the Wuhan Lab in China. Of course, anyone who made this claim online during the pandemic response was called a dangerous “conspiracy theorist” and was deplatformed (much like Zero Hedge).

The WHO would go on to exaggerate the death rate of the virus, claiming an initial Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 3.4%. This data was based on studies which ignored mild cases as well as asymptomatic cases, thus artificially pumping up the death rate. Dozens of studies as early as May 2020 showed that the median Infection Fatality Rate (a more accurate number) was only 0.27% (later adjusted to 0.23%). The WHO continued to spread disinformation and hysteria surrounding covid while ignoring the true IFR data. That is to say, all the lockdowns, the mandates, the social media censorship, the arrests, the push for vaccine passports, etc. – all of it was over a virus that 99.8% of the population would easily survive.

The WHO has been exposed as a perpetrator of pandemic disinformation and is no longer trusted by the public. The US under the Trump Administration has exited the organization on these grounds, and as a result the WHO has lost at least 20% of its total funding. It is now facing dire financial conditions. In response, the UN and the establishment media have been running a spin campaign to present the WHO as indispensable. It is therefore not surprising that the WHO and the media are suddenly jumping on the cruise line Hantavirus story as if it is significant, while at the same time arguing that Trump is putting the public at risk by not participating in the WHO’s antics. They need the money badly, and so they’ve decided to remind the public why we should be afraid.

For those who are unaware, Hantavirus is a common virus around the world and in the US. Estimates show around 100,000 cases of the disease occur annually. In 2023, there were 40 cases in the US. The virus is most often contracted when humans are exposed to dried rodent feces and urine, floating as particulates in the air which are then inhaled into the lungs. The spread from human to human is rare and only occurs with the South American strain. Contraction is difficult, with the virus passing from one person to another through “prolonged contact with bodily fluids”. It makes you wonder what kind of pleasure cruise these people were on when the most recent outbreak started? The point is, the story is being inflated from a normal event into a crisis event.

This is probably why the Spanish Government set up an elaborate bus transfer of supposedly highly infectious cruise passengers, only to drop off a psychiatrist with the Ministry of Health down the road without protective gear like he’s going home after school. The bottom line? Hantavirus is all over the world and it’s not a threat to the vast majority of people. The artificial media panic and the opportunism of the WHO may be an effort to test the waters for another fraudulent pandemic scare, but the majority of the propaganda seems to be aimed at restoring the WHO’s reputation and saving it from financial ruin.

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The North African nation poses the biggest problem for the bloc in terms of arrivals, Thanos Plevris has said

• Over 500,000 Waiting To Cross Into Europe From Libya – Greek Minister (RT)

The EU might be on the verge of a new migrant crisis, with more than half a million people waiting in Libya alone to cross into Europe, Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris has said. The bloc was first inundated by asylum seekers from the Middle East and Northern Africa during the 2015 refugee crisis, when a million migrants entered Europe, straining welfare systems and prompting tens of millions of European voters to turn to far-right political parties. Greece remains one of the bloc’s main entry points, registering 48,771 arrivals in 2025, according to UNHCR data. According to the UN refugee agency, 7,589 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in the Mediterranean country this year as of May 3, including 5,615 by sea.


Athens has introduced a number of tough policy measures in a bid to stem the flow over the past years, including detention for those denied asylum. Commenting on the situation on Sunday, Plevris said that Greece was “the first country to criminalize illegal residence” and would not allow those denied protection to just roam free. “Those who are not entitled to asylum will be detained,” the minister told a local broadcaster, adding that Athens would “operate within the law but will go to its limits to protect the borders.” He also described the situation in Libya as the biggest problem faced by his country and the EU. According to Plevris, around 550,000 people have gathered there and are now seeking to enter Europe.

In February, Plevris also announced that it was working together with Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Denmark to create “return hubs” for rejected asylum seekers outside of the EU’s borders, with Africa being the preferred destination. Libya became a key transit point for human trafficking and migration to Europe via the Mediterranean following a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 that led to the overthrow and assassination of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The EU has struggled to manage the migration crisis since 2015, with Greece, Italy, and Spain receiving the highest number of arrivals across the Mediterranean.

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https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/2053784729493602624?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle May 9 2026

May 092026
 
 May 9, 2026  Posted by at 9:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  17 Responses »


Albert Bierstadt Storm in the Mountains c1870


• ‘Sporadic Clashes’ In Strait Of Hormuz As US Disables Two Iran Vessels (ZH)
• CIA Believes Iran Can Withstand US Blockade For At Least 3-4 Months (TASS)
• Trump Mediates 3-Day Ceasefire Between Ukraine and Russia On Victory Day (CTH)
• Did Zelensky’s Cronies Scam The Europeans? (RT)
• How Zelensky’s Inner Circle Sought Influence In The US (RT)
• After Every Weapon the Left Used Against Trump, He’s Still Here (Florack)
• There’s Something About Mary… (CTH)
• Marco Rubio Issues a Major Blow to Cuba’s Military Empire (Anderson)
• After Phone Call with Von der Leyen, Trump Delays EU Tariffs (CTH)
• California Death Trip (James Howard Kunstler)
• Virginia Supreme Court Overturns Redistricting Referendum (JTN)
• Former NATO Chief Warns Bloc on Verge of ‘Disintegration’ (JTN)
• The NY Times Interviews Tucker Carlson, and It Gets Worse From There (Spencer)
• Trump Touts Release of UFO files: ‘Have Fun and Enjoy’ (JTN)
• Fetterman: Dems Can’t ‘Simply Be The Opposite’ of ‘Whatever Trump Says’ (JTN)

 


 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2052395510774788365?s=20 https://twitter.com/warDaniel47/status/2052687070187962714?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2052439232673882171?s=20 https://twitter.com/GOP_is_Gutless/status/2052510392279036256?s=20 https://twitter.com/BoLoudon/status/2052580352045044210?s=20

 


 


The ceasefire survives to live another day.

• ‘Sporadic Clashes’ In Strait Of Hormuz As US Disables Two Iran Vessels (ZH)

Iran’s Fars reports late morning (US time): Sporadic clashes between Iranian Armed Forces and US vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Amid the fog of war, nothing in the way of details initially emerged. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has condemned US “aggression and adventurism” but has also confirmed that Tehran is still reviewing the US proposal and is still going to respond soon. Al Jazeera cites state media on emerging deaths from the Iranian side: Mohammad Radmehr, governor of Minab County in southern Iran, says he has received word that rescuers have found the body of one of five sailors reported missing after a US attack on an Iranian vessel overnight in and around the Strait of Hormuz.


Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Radmehr as saying that search teams are continuing efforts to find the four remaining missing sailors. Earlier, as we reported, Radmehr said 10 sailors were also injured during the naval confrontation. The Wall Street Journal has details (based on CENTCOM press release) after two Iranian-flagged tankers came under US attack for attempting to breach the US blockade: U.S. military forces carried out airstrikes on Friday, hitting and disabling two empty Iranian-flagged oil tankers attempting to circumvent the American naval blockade against Iranian ports, according to U.S. Central Command

The vessels struck were very large crude carriers attempting to return to an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman, the M/T Sea Star III and M/T Sevda, according to a statement from Centcom. A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighter from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush fired precision munitions into their smokestacks, disabling the tankers, Centcom said. It marks third time the US has attacked commercial vessels for trying to break through to Iranian ports, following a Wednesday incident which saw a US Navy jet destroy rudder of an Iranian tanker under similar circumstances.

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Well, well, WaPo.

“According to the Washington Post, these findings have already been communicated to the US administration..”

• CIA Believes Iran Can Withstand US Blockade For At Least 3-4 Months (TASS)

Analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) believe that Iran will be able to withstand the US naval blockade for at least three to four months before it begins to suffer any serious economic difficulties, The Washington Post reported, citing sources. According to the newspaper, these findings have already been communicated to the US administration. “A confidential CIA analysis delivered to administration policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the US naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship, four people familiar with the document said,” the article states. The newspaper points out that this finding “appears to raise new questions about President Donald Trump’s optimism on ending the war.”
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“If fighting stops, the money supply shrinks. For Zelenskyy this is a big problem.”

• Trump Mediates 3-Day Ceasefire Between Ukraine and Russia On Victory Day (CTH)

May 9, celebrated as Victory Day, is one of the most significant and heartfelt holidays in Russia, symbolizing resilience, unity, and remembrance. This day honors the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. It is a time when the nation collectively reflects on its history, pays tribute to those who sacrificed their lives, and celebrates the enduring spirit of its people. Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have noticed the same EU/Ukraine chatter that we drew attention to a few days ago, and Moscow has stopped public attendance from tomorrow’s Victory Day celebration in Red Square. The Russian govt told people to stay away from Moscow central and watch the event on livestream. Other precautions have been similarly announced.


Emboldened by European allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy began yesterday by ridiculing a ceasefire offer by Russian intermediaries. As Ukraine was a former part of the United Soviet Socialist Republic (until 1991), Putin views both Ukraine and Russia as celebrating the same Victory Day remembrance; a united victory over Nazism. Zelenskyy, born in 1978, rejects that commonality. However, after President Trump stepped into the discussion, a 3-day ceasefire was brokered.

[Via Truth Social] – “I am pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE (May 9th, 10th, and 11th) in the War between Russia and Ukraine. The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day but, likewise, in Ukraine, because they were also a big part and factor of World War II. This Ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prison swap of 1,000 prisoners from each Country. This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War. Talks are continuing on ending this Major Conflict, the biggest since World War II, and we are getting closer and closer every day. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” ~ President DONALD J. TRUMP

Due to the psychology of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in combination with his co-dependent enablers in Europe and the U.K., I would caution everyone to review Ukraine’s participation in the ceasefire tenuously. Zelenskyy, leading a non-NATO member state, gains NATO’s protection because France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. see Russia as a major threat to Europe. If the conflict stops, Zelenskyy has to start paying for his own nation’s government operations again. Currently all of his state and municipal govt expenses are subsidized by Europe and the USA. If fighting stops there will be a movement to stop giving Ukraine subsidies.

Zelenskyy’s government officials have become very wealthy from the money they are able to skim from U.S, U.K and EU support. The taxpayer laundry operation is very lucrative, and Ukraine is well known for its institutional corruption systems. If fighting stops, the money supply shrinks. For Zelenskyy this is a big problem.

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Zelensky et al pump part of the dough back to where it came from. Where it funds campaigns for Democrats and various European parties.

“The EU is pumping money into a company that’s secretly run by one of the most corrupt members of Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle..”

• Did Zelensky’s Cronies Scam The Europeans? (RT)

With €90 billion in EU funding set to flow into Ukraine, the case of ‘game changer’ weapons manufacturer Fire Point offers a glimpse into the black hole that swallows Western money and enriches Vladimir Zelensky’s cronies. nDanish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen was elated when he announced last September that Fire Point – a Ukrainian film casting agency that pivoted to making drones and missiles post-2022 – would set up a rocket fuel plant on Danish soil. b “This is helping Ukraine in its fight for security, its own independence and, no less importantly, its ability to live in peace,” he declared, adding that Fire Point would receive a share of a €1.4 billion ($1.64 billion) Danish fund earmarked for the Ukrainian weapons industry.


Fire Point’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. From zero experience in weapons in 2022, the company had landed $1 billion in contracts by the time of Poulsen’s announcement, a figure that has since increased almost sevenfold. Fire Point’s FP-1 and FP-2 kamikaze drones are Ukraine’s most widely-used attack UAVs, the company received more than half of the Ukrainian Defense Procurement Agency’s annual spend this year, and its flagship product, the FP-5 ‘Flamingo’ cruise missile, has been hailed by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky as “by far the most successful missile in Ukraine’s arsenal.”

Zelensky has marketed Fire Point’s missiles and drones on most of his 130-plus trips abroad since 2022, talking up their performance to European investors and Gulf monarchies looking for a cost-effective alternative to American systems. As it turns out, there’s a reason for his enthusiasm: Zelensky has a personal stake in Fire Point’s success.

Timur Mindich’s get-rich schemes According to surveillance tapes published by Ukrainskaya Pravda in late April, Fire Point is secretly owned by Timur Mindich, a business magnate and associate of Zelensky known as ‘Zelensky’s wallet’. Mindich fled to Israel last November, moments before he was due to be raided by anti-corruption investigators for his alleged role in a $100 million embezzlement scheme at Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator.In the recordings, Mindich confirms that he is running Fire Point and tasks Defense Minister Rustem Umerov (who resigned last year over corruption allegations) with handing contracts to the company and lobbying for its interests abroad. Mindich and Umerov also discuss a potential deal with Arab inventors, which would see each Fire Point shareholder cash out around $300 million.

Allegations of corruption at Fire Point are nothing new. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has been probing the company for links to Mindich since last August, and has examined whether the company inflated the cost of its products and lied about the number of drones supplied to the Defense Ministry. After a government audit found that Fire Point overcharged the ministry by almost €15 million in a no-bid contract for FP-1 drones, and with the tapes confirming collusion between Umerov and Mindich, the ministry’s internal anti-corruption watchdog called on Wednesday for the company’s nationalization and warned that Fire Point may lose its military contracts once Mindich’s involvement is proven in court.

How badly did the Europeans get scammed? Back in September, Poulsen brushed off mounting allegations of graft against Fire Point. “We have no reason to believe that there is a problem,” he said, adding that any business “established in Denmark must comply with Danish rules.” But Denmark is not the only European country pumping money into Mindich’s operation. While the specific figures are classified, Ukrainskaya Pravda reported that Western countries have contributed “significant” sums of money to the company.

Last May, Germany signed a €5 billion deal to pay for “long-range weapons” produced within Ukraine. Signed after a visit by Zelensky to Berlin, the weapons in question are likely Flamingo cruise missiles. In October, the Netherlands’ then-defense minister, Ruben Brekelmans, announced a €90 million aid package for the production of attack drones within Ukraine, on top of an earlier €200 million round of funding for Ukrainian-made missiles and interceptors. Given that the majority of these domestically built weapons are manufactured by Fire Point, the bulk of this funding likely went to Mindich’s company. Norway and Ukraine signed a €1.3 billion deal for Ukrainian-made missiles in April, while Italy is reportedly exploring a similar arrangement. In the private sector, Fire Point has signed cooperation agreements with Spanish defense giant Sener and Germany’s Diehl Defense – both deals signed after meetings between Zelensky and executives from Sener and Diehl.

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“Leaked transcripts have exposed how top Ukrainian officials are trading influence for billions and plotting to escape to the US”

• How Zelensky’s Inner Circle Sought Influence In The US (RT)

Ukraine’s most popular format for political content recently seems to be reading aloud invective-laden transcripts of Vladimir Zelensky’s closest political allies scheming about stealing in Russian. The ‘Mindich tapes’ could have serious ramifications for the government, as they purport to implicate Zelensky in unabashed corruption. The root of the escalating graft scandal lies in an investigation that Western-backed Ukrainian law enforcement agencies conducted into Timur Mindich – a business associate of Zelensky, known as his ‘bagman’ or ‘wallet’ in Kiev – who is now a fugitive and is fighting an extradition request from his hideout in Israel.


Investigators from the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) wiretapped Mindich’s luxury apartment in Kiev – reportedly between April and July 2025, when Zelensky tried to take control of the agency and triggered a wave of mass protest and rebukes from his Western backers. Some of the Mindich tapes served as evidence in their case exposing a $100 million extortion scheme, allegedly masterminded by Zelensky’s bagman, at Ukrainian state-owned atomic energy company Energoatom, and which led to Mindich running to Israel. Since mid-April, the Ukrainian public has been showered with what are purportedly parts of the records, though none have been officially released by the authorities.

Are the Mindich tapes authentic and who released them?
Ukrainian political commentators broadly assume that they are. Zelensky’s office has not claimed that they are fabricated, and there are notable intersections between releases by different sources. The ongoing wave of publications was launched on April 23 by former SAPO prosecutor Stanislav Bronevitsky. Ukrainskaya Pravda journalist Mikhail Tkach was behind a major disclosure on April 28 – which RT reviewed in detail previously – with another installment coming on May 1. Opposition lawmakers Yaroslav Zheleznyak and Aleksey Goncharenko have produced multiple Mindich tape videos – the latter reading them to an empty parliament chamber.

Why are the Mindich tapes being leaked?
The motives behind the disclosures remain unclear. Did the investigators leak them to overcome pressure that Zelensky reportedly subjects them to behind closed doors? Did Mindich and other suspects shoot a proverbial cannon across the bow as a warning to Zelensky that they won’t sink alone? There are some caveats, however. People in the transcript talk informally and omit context. For instance, they refer to acquaintances by their personal names or nicknames. ‘Vova’, often mentioned in the tapes, is believed to be Zelensky himself. Consequently, identification of mentioned individuals falls on the media.

What’s the bottom line?
The transcripts suggest that Zelensky’s inner circle sees indefinite war as a corporate opportunity and exerts improper influence over the government to maximize their profits, counting on their patron to protect them.

What are the most scandalous claims?
Arguably the most salacious of the latest leaks involves Mindich and Zelensky’s then-defense minister – presently the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council – Rustem Umerov discussing what they believe to be US President Donald Trump’s relations with glamorous women, while debating potential candidates to be Ukrainian ambassador in the US.“You know who would be great? Svetka. Trump would go crazy about her,” Umerov said. He and Mindich agreed that the “curly” bombshell would make “everyone there chase her.”

This is apparently a reference to former Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk, appointed by her disgraced predecessor and alleged romantic partner, German Galushchenko, who like him, was forced to resign after Mindich was charged with siphoning off $100 million from state energy producer Energoatom. Grinchuk was also deputy energy minister under Galushchenko.Mindich and Umerov debated the pros and cons of several officials who could represent Kiev’s interests in Washington, DC but agreed that Grinchuk had the best chances to get regular face time with “the old man.”

What were Mindich and Umerov plotting?
Mindich and his group were apparently seeking political and financial leverage. For instance, they wanted their man overseeing the nationalized Sense Bank, a potential source of business credit. Umerov, who was facing resignation at the time of the recording, was highly interested in receiving a special diplomatic appointment that would allow him free travel abroad. He was eyeing privileges similar to those enjoyed by ‘Vitya’ – apparently Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Freedom to fly to the US and back would help Umerov – whose family lives in Miami – protect Mindich’s interests, he told the businessman. A conversation between Mindich and Sergey Shefir, a business partner of Zelensky who served as presidential adviser from 2019-2024, offers a glimpse of the cutthroat nature of Ukrainian politics. Apparently, Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, sabotaged a planned appointment of Evgeny Korniychuk as ambassador to Germany over suspicions that the career diplomat served as an anonymous source for a Politico article in which he was criticized. Is Mindich a power broker or a businessman?
Both. Many of the conversations were about the arms industry and Zelensky’s often-touted ‘miracle arms maker’ Fire Point, which the leaked records prove Mindich ran, with Umerov steering defense contacts his way. One person called by his full name in the tapes is a major figure in the US – Google executive Eric Schmidt, known to be tight with the Pentagon and an influential voice on national security policy, including the arming of Ukraine.

Umerov pitched the US billionaire to Mindich as a possible business partner to whom a majority stake in Fire Point could be offered. Schmidt, according to Umerov, has the connections that Fire Point would require to access the lucrative American weapons market and “enter [Silicon] Valley.” Mindich doubted whether US competitors could become partners: “For Americans, we are the f**king worst firm that can break [their plans]. They need to either buy us out or f**k us up. F**king us up is cheaper.”

Do the tapes prove criminality?
Not obviously, but something shady was implied in the discussion of what Mindich and Umerov called Project 23. It may be a weapons manufacturing offshoot. Umerov reminded Mindich that somebody had given instructions not to get German arms giant Rheinmetall involved. The two then discussed discrete funding options for “23” and how the same unnamed person may not agree to the proposal because he is skittish with his significant sums in cash. “He gets money from everywhere. Three from here and five from there. And he has no expenses,” Mindich explained. “He pays what to his driver – $300?”

Umerov gleefully continued: “From the state budget.” MP Zheleznyak, who highlighted this exchange, has argued that Project 23 is what the Mindich group called their ‘obshchak’. The criminal slang term refers to a money pot that all members of a gang are obliged to donate to and which is tapped for their common interests or in case of an emergency. Safekeeping the funds is obviously a role of high responsibility and high risk for any criminal organization. Some media outlets nicknamed Mindich ‘Zelensky’s wallet’ for allegedly playing that role.

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“.. Labour will be unable to get a dog catcher elected. I predict the same thing will be happening to the Democrats here in the ‘States, in this year’s midterm.”

• After Every Weapon the Left Used Against Trump, He’s Still Here (Florack)

Brennan handpicked the CIA analysts to compile the ICA and involved only the ODNI, CIA, FBI and NSA, excluding 13 of the then-17 intelligence agencies. He sidelined the National Intelligence Council and forced the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier despite objections of the authors and senior CIA Russia experts, so as to push a false narrative that Russia secured Trump’s 2016 victory. “This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding ‘We’re going to screw Trump,’” said Ratcliffe in an exclusive interview. Yeah, I know — big shock. But that was just the beginning.


What followed was the most sustained, coordinated legal and political assault ever launched against a sitting — and former — president in American history. It fits the pattern of the last decade. In short: They threw everything they had at the man. Every weapon within reach. Every arrow in the quiver. And every time, they eventually came up empty-handed and revealing all their desperation and their corruption. Trust me when I tell you, the people have noticed all of this. A Manhattan DA dusted off a years-old bookkeeping dispute that federal prosecutors had previously declined to pursue, repackaged it as a felony, and put a former president on trial. Built on the testimony of a convicted liar, the case ended in a conviction on 34 counts.

Critics called it lawfare. Many legal scholars called it a stretch. The people noticed. Then came the classified documents case in Florida, where a special counsel charged Trump with mishandling materials at Mar-a-Lago — a case ultimately dismissed after the judge found serious prosecutorial overreach. The people noticed. Then came the Georgia case, a sprawling RICO indictment that collapsed under the weight of its own scandal when the DA’s romantic relationship with her hand-picked lead prosecutor came to light. It stalled, stumbled, and became a symbol of the very overreach it embodied — and has since been contradicted by federal investigations.

And then came the federal election obstruction case in D.C., where yet another special counsel attempted to criminalize Trump’s challenges to the 2020 results. After his 2024 victory, it was dropped. The people had noticed and spoke louder than any blue-city grand jury. They also noticed when an investigation into Georgia’s election system revealed that Trump probably had, in fact, won the 2020 election. No small point, though the legacy press has been avoiding it. The people noticed that, too. In New York, the attorney general secured a staggering $450 million civil fraud judgment over property valuations. No victim came forward, no bank claimed a loss. It was later reduced, then overturned on appeal. The people noticed.

A separate civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll produced an $83 million defamation verdict. The pattern was unmistakable: Trump’s enemies wielded the legal system in blue jurisdictions as a political battering ram, and everyone watching knew it. Including the judge overseeing the appeal, who tossed the whole thing out. The people noticed. And when all of that failed, they tried to kill him. Several times. The people saw that, too. And so, we see his voters still support him, and his attackers still can’t fathom why. Or at least, they won’t admit to that understanding. They tried the courts. They tried the ballot. They tried the bullet. He’s still here — and still commanding the loyalty of the voters who put him back in office.

As an aside, the people also watched as the Democrats blew through some $64 million on their illegal Virginia gerrymandering attempt. I suggest that all of that, as it has accumulated, will play large in mid-terms come November. How do I know? Look what happened in the UK this week.The British people have been watching the actions of the Starmer government and have in turn handed Labour a historic loss of some 650 seats. Starmer himself is headed for a No Confidence vote, and Labour will be unable to get a dog catcher elected. I predict the same thing will be happening to the Democrats here in the ‘States, in this year’s midterm.

Thought of the day: If the president could have stopped 9/11 from happening, do you believe he should have done so? Of course you do. So do I. So, can you explain why you have such a problem with the president stopping Iran from obtaining nukes?

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A one woman wrecking crew.

• There’s Something About Mary… (CTH)

I have been asked to recap some of my research into cited formats of what I believe to be criminal conduct, with specific statutes against them. This is a recap of one key player who mysteriously seems to avoid scrutiny. If there is one corrupt DC player who has escaped scrutiny for her corrupt endeavors, it would be Mary McCord. More than any other Lawfare operative within Main Justice, Mary McCord sits at the center of every table in the manufacturing of cases against Donald Trump. {GO DEEP} Mary McCord’s husband is Sheldon Snook. At a critical moment he was also the right hand to the legal counsel of Chief Justice John Roberts.


When the Carter Page FISA application was originally assembled by the FBI and DOJ, there was initial hesitancy from within the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) about submitting the application, because it did not have enough citations in evidence (the infamous ‘Woods File’). That’s why the Steele Dossier ultimately became important. It was the Steele Dossier that provided the push, the legal cover needed for the DOJ-NSD to submit the application for a Title-1 surveillance warrant against the campaign of Donald J. Trump. When the application was finally assembled for submission to the FISA court, the head of the DOJ-NSD was John Carlin. Carlin quit working for the DOJ-NSD in late September 2016 just before the final application was submitted (October 21,2016). John Carlin was replaced by Deputy Asst. Attorney General, Mary McCord.

When the FISA application was finally submitted (approved by Sally Yates and James Comey), it was Mary McCord who did the actual process of filing the application and gaining the Title-1 surveillance warrant. A few months later, February 2017, with Donald Trump now in office as President, it was Mary McCord who went with Deputy AG Sally Yates to the White House to confront White House legal counsel Don McGahn over the Michael Flynn interview with FBI agents. The surveillance of Flynn’s calls was presumably done under the auspices and legal authority of the FISA application Mary McCord previously was in charge of submitting.

At the time the Carter Page application was filed (October 21, 2016), Mary McCord’s chief legal counsel inside the office was a DOJ-NSD lawyer named Michael Atkinson. In his role as the legal counsel for the DOJ-NSD, it was Atkinson’s job to review and audit all FISA applications submitted from inside the DOJ. Essentially, Atkinson was the DOJ internal compliance officer in charge of making sure all FISA applications were correctly assembled and documented.

When the anonymous CIA whistleblower complaint was filed against President Trump for the issues of the Ukraine call with President Zelensky, the Intelligence Community Inspector General had to change the rules for the complaint to allow an anonymous submission. Prior to this change, all intelligence whistleblowers had to put their name on the complaint. It was this 2019 IGIC who changed the rules. Who was the Intelligence Community Inspector General? Michael Atkinson.

When ICIG Michael Atkinson turned over the newly authorized anonymous whistleblower complaint to the joint House Intelligence and Judiciary Committee (Schiff and Nadler chairs), who did Michael Atkinson give the complaint to? Mary McCord. Yes, after she left main justice, Mary McCord took the job of working for Chairman Jerry Nadler and Chairman Adam Schiff as the chief legal advisor inside the investigation that led to the construction of articles of impeachment. As a consequence, Mary McCord received the newly permitted anonymous whistleblower complaint from her old office colleague Michael Atkinson.

During his investigation of the Carter Page application, Inspector General Michael Horowitz discovered an intentional lie inside the Carter Page FISA application (directly related to the ‘Woods File’), which his team eventually tracked to FBI counterintelligence division lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith. Eventually Clinesmith was criminally charged with fabricating evidence (changed wording on an email) in order to intentionally falsify the underlying evidence in the FISA submission. When John Durham took the Clinesmith indictment to court, the judge in the case was James Boasberg.

In addition to being a DC criminal judge, James Boasberg is also a FISA court judge who signed-off on one of the renewals for the FISA application that was submitted using fraudulent evidence fabricated by Kevin Clinesmith. In essence, now the presiding judge over the FISA court, Boasberg was the FISC judge who was tricked by Clinesmith, and now the criminal court judge in charge of determining Clinesmith’s legal outcome. Judge Boasberg eventually sentenced Clinesmith to 6 months probation.

As an outcome of continued FISA application fraud and wrongdoing by the FBI, in their exploitation of searches of the NSA database, Presiding FISC Judge James Boasberg appointed an amici curiae advisor to the court who would monitor the DOJ-NSD submissions and ongoing FBI activities.Who did James Boasberg select as a FISA court amicus? Mary McCord.

Mary McCord submitted the original false FISA application to the court using the demonstrably false Dossier. Mary McCord participated in the framing of Michael Flynn. Mary McCord worked with ICIG Michael Atkinson to create a fraudulent whistleblower complaint against President Trump; and Mary McCord used that manipulated complaint to assemble articles of impeachment on behalf of the joint House Intel and Judiciary Committee. Mary McCord then took up a defensive position inside the FISA court to protect the DOJ and FBI from sunlight upon all the aforementioned corrupt activity.

You can clearly see how Mary McCord would be a person of interest if anyone was going to start digging into corruption internally within the FBI, DOJ or DOJ-NSD.

What happened next….

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Marco’s playground. He’ll respect it, it’s where his family is from.

• Marco Rubio Issues a Major Blow to Cuba’s Military Empire (Anderson)

Donald Trump and Marco Rubio aren’t playing around with Cuba anymore, and things are escalating by the day.


Last week, I reported that “signed a new executive order that builds on his January national emergency declaration that Cuba is an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ to the United States due its ties to adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran and terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. This EO allows the United States to expand current sanctions and add new restrictions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.” As I said on Friday, it basically allows Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent plenty of leeway to maximize pressure on the crumbling regime and the Castro family.

Well, Rubio isn’t wasting time. On Thursday, May 7, he announced via the State Department that he’s cutting right to the gut of the regime with sanctions on Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), GAESA’s director Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and Moa Nickel SA (MNSA), a state-owned mining company.

“These sanctions are part of the Trump Administration’s comprehensive campaign to address the pressing national security threats posed by Cuba’s communist regime and hold accountable the regime and those who provide it material or financial support,” Rubio said. “Just 90 miles from the American homeland, the Cuban regime has brought the island to ruin and auctioned off the island as a platform for foreign intelligence, military and terror operations. Additional designations can be expected in the following days and weeks.”

So what exactly do these sanctions do? They freeze any of these entities’ assets in the United States and prohibit any people or companies in the U.S. from doing business with them. However — and this is big — they also threaten foreign people, companies, and financial institutions that do business with GAESA by promising to cut them off from the U.S. banking system and freezing their U.S.-based assets. In case you’re unfamiliar, GAESA functions as a sort of state within a state. Rubio calls it the “Cuban military-controlled umbrella enterprise” that “is the heart of Cuba’s kleptocratic communist system.”

Raúl Castro created it back in the 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba stopped receiving handouts. The goal was to give the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) a hard-currency revenue stream through tourism, imports, retail, and other dollar-generating businesses. Castro’s late son-in-law, Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, ran it for decades, expanding it into what it is today. Lastres is the current executive director, and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro aka “El Cangrejo” or “The Crab” (and Raúl’s grandson) is informally involved, essentially guarding his family’s interests. He’s the one with whom Rubio has supposedly been talking behind the scenes, but whether that’s true or not has never been confirmed.

Here’s more on GAESA from Rubio’s announcement:
Controlling an estimated 40% or more of the island’s economy, GAESA is involved in various sectors of the Cuban economy and is designed to generate income not for the Cuban people, but only for the benefit of its corrupt elites. While the Cuban people suffer from hunger, disease and chronic under-investment in critical infrastructure such as its power grid, much of the proceeds of GAESA’s activities are funneled away to hidden overseas bank accounts. According to recent public estimates, GAESA’s revenues are likely more than three times the state’s budget, and GAESA likely controls up to $20 billion in illicit assets.

The Trump administration is squeezing the regime harder than any U.S. president ever has, and it looks like it’s only going to go harder in the weeks to come. Make no mistake, the Cuban regime will fall soon. Trump and Rubio are seeing to it.

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“Until Independence Day..”

• After Phone Call with Von der Leyen, Trump Delays EU Tariffs (CTH)

There is a certain irony in the timing all things considered. President Trump has given the EU until July 4, 2026, to fulfill the trade agreement previously negotiated (ie. the Turnberry Agreement) or 25% tariffs on EU automobiles will be triggered.


(Via Truth Social) – “I had a great call with The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. We discussed many topics, including that we are completely united that Iran can never have a Nuclear Weapon. We agreed that a regime that kills its own people cannot control a bomb that can kill millions. I’ve been waiting patiently for the EU to fulfill their side of the Historic Trade Deal we agreed in Turnberry, Scotland, the largest Trade Deal, ever! A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO! I agreed to give her until our Country’s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels. Thank you for your attention to this matter.” ~ President DONALD J. TRUMP

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer recently spoke directly about what was creating this problem. His interview and explanation in detail is below (MUST WATCH):

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“History records no pity for parties that choose purity over competence, vengeance over vision, pathology over pragmatism. The long night is not coming. It is here. . . . ” —LHGrey on X

• California Death Trip (James Howard Kunstler)

The Pacific Palisades fire ignited on January 7, 2025, in the very last days of the “Joe Biden” fake presidency. 6,837 total buildings destroyed plus about 1,000 damaged. The Altadena fire across town in Eaton Canyon was arguably worse: 9,418 buildings destroyed. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana at the time to attend the inauguration of president John Dramani Mahama, part of a small U.S. presidential delegation sent by the “Biden” administration.


Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Brian Williams, overseer of the Police and Fire Departments, was on administrative leave at the time due to an alleged bomb threat against City Hall that he reportedly made in September / October 2024. The FBI raided his house that December, and in 2025 he copped a plea deal (guilty) to making threats involving fire and explosives. So, he was out of action during the fires.

There you have the rectified essence of how the Democratic Party operates in America’s biggest state. Is it not astonishing that Karen Bass is running for reelection? How could she possibly be forgiven? A large number of people employed in the movie business got burned out of their homes in the fires, and then city and state regulatory nonsense prevented them from rebuilding — on top of insurance company hocus-pocus that left families financially wrecked. Is it a surprise that the city’s flagship industry is dying now (film production down 32-percent on a five-year average)? What is LA without Hollywood?

And yet the show-biz celebs are still coming out to pimp for Democratic Party politicians. This is the kind of thing that forces you to conclude that an epic madness burns as hotly through the minds of Californians as the fires that ripped through the canyons in 2025. I know from personal experience as a college theater major that actors can be exceptionally stupid, but that can’t wholly account for what we’re seeing.

Wednesday’s primary debates had these villains on florid display. Because LA’s ranked-choice mayoral primary race styles itself “non-partisan,” candidate Spencer Pratt (a registered Republican) was on-hand for the debate. When the subject of LA’s cataclysmic homelessness came up, drug addicts living (if you can call it that) in wretched, filthy encampments all over the public space of the city, Mayor Bass bragged that she’d significantly reduced the problem, which is obviously and mendaciously untrue. LA City Council member Nithya Raman, who labels herself “progressive,” bragged on putting the homeless into shelters (i.e., motel rooms at $100-K per person per year.)

Spencer Pratt attempted to inject a little reality into the discussion about putting the homeless into homes: “No matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth, they are on fentanyl. The DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] statistic says 93-percent of this is a drug addiction problem. These people do not want a bed — they want fentanyl or super meth.” Pratt is currently running third in the polls. In ranked-choice voting, the top two winners in the primary will face off in the November election. Currently Bass is polling in the lead and Nithya Raman is running second. If the numbers stay that way, the winner in November could finish Los Angeles off. Blade Runner, here we come.

But there’s still a chance that Spencer Pratt might place well in the June 2 primary just as Golden Tempo shot from dead last to win the Kentucky Derby last week. The seductions of the Marxist race hustle have worn a little thin, even for Angelenos. Karen Bass looks increasingly ridiculous grinning about her abject failures, which Mr. Pratt lays out relentlessly in plain talk. His reality-testing seems to be getting some minds right, gaining real traction. Nithya Raman has the charisma of a mung bean.

The gubernatorial debate was equally edifying, especially the spectacle of Democratic Candidates Katie Porter’s and billionaire Tom Steyer’s rousing lack of self-awareness. Ms. Porter, renowned for dumping a pot of steaming mashed potatoes over her ex-husband’s head, and for her crotchety way with the (friendly) news media and her own staff, made the astounding statement that “the public servants we have are focused on doing their job, which is not cooperating with the federal immigration authorities.” That’s their job? Hmmmm. Mr. Steyer went further and said he would arrest ICE agents going about their business. You think . . .? (I would think that a Governor Steyer would find himself arrested by the feds for attempting such a stunt.)

The governor’s race is also a rank-choice contest. So, Republican Steve Hilton was on-hand to break the reality-optional spell that shrouded the stage like a poisonous miasma. After several Democrats made a show of deploring the grotesque homeless druggie encampments from Nob Hill to MacArthur Park, Mr. Hilton said “[They] talk as if we’re in some parallel universe where Democrats haven’t been running the state for the last sixteen years.” He shares the lead in the polls in the large field at 18-percent with Xavier Becerra, who was “Joe Biden’s” Secretary of Health and Human Services, meaning, he presided over the vaxx mandates and lockdowns of the Covid operation.

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“Dealing Stinging Blow To Democrats”

Redistricting, gerrymandering. Everybody’s favorite new hobby…

• Virginia Supreme Court Overturns Redistricting Referendum (JTN)

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the state’s redistricting referendum was unconstitutional and struck down the redraw of the state’s House maps. “We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia,” they wrote. “This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy.” The decision is a considerable blow to House Democrats, who had hoped to balance out the redistricting efforts of several Republican-leaning states to improve their odds in the November midterms.


The referendum saw voters narrowly back a plan to temporarily redraw the congressional maps in a manner that would have heavily favored Democrats. While the state currently has six Democrats and five Republicans in the House, the proposed redraw would have likely sent ten Democrats and one Republican to Washington.

With Virginia’s redraw struck down, Republicans appear poised to secure a net gain in partisan-leaning seats through redistricting. Texas, Florida, and Tennessee have already redrawn the maps, while Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina are either expected to do so or exploring their own redraws. The wave of redistricting pushes follows the Supreme Court striking down race-based congressional districts and narrowing its interpretation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

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“..we must stand on our own feet and be able to defend our continent ourselves.”

• Former NATO Chief Warns Bloc on Verge of ‘Disintegration’ (JTN)

Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen this week warned that the alliance was on the verge of collapse and urged European members to form an internal security bloc to prepare for the eventual collapse of the transatlantic military bloc. His remarks come amid increasingly prominent comments from Trump administration officials expressing their disappointment with NATO amid frustrations over European allies declining to assist with the Iran war.


“What we are witnessing right now is the disintegration of NATO, and that is dangerous,” Rasmussen told WELT. “President Trump has raised so many doubts about his commitment to Article 5 and to the defense of Europe that there can be only one conclusion for Europeans: we must stand on our own feet and be able to defend our continent ourselves.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly clashed with NATO members, not merely over Iran, but over Ukraine and Washington’s generally more reserved approach to the eastern European conflict than that of its predecessor. The Ukraine war is in its fifth year and shows no signs of an imminent end. The conflict has raised concerns in Europe over their future security situation should Russia triumph.

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“Every person has a soul. That’s the Christian view, and not just the Christian view, it’s the Islamic view, too. And it’s my view.”

• The NY Times Interviews Tucker Carlson, and It Gets Worse From There (Spencer)

The fact that the New York Times would interview Tucker Carlson in the first place is an indication of how much the former Fox host has gone off the rails. The Times only interviews people who support its far-left worldview, including its endless vilification of Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza, and Carlson was ready with the goods. In his interview, which was published Saturday, Carlson adopts the pose of a moral philosopher to attack the Jewish state, and Judaism as well, from a new angle:


I think what we’re seeing is evil. Are you allowed to kill people who’ve committed no crime? No. Super simple. You’re not allowed to do that. Under no moral standard is that allowable. All of a sudden it’s allowable in Gaza, and our leaders are like, Yeah, it’s totally fine. It’s not fine. It’s repugnant to the Christian understanding of the world and the human soul. Every person has a soul. That’s the Christian view, and not just the Christian view, it’s the Islamic view, too. And it’s my view.

So you see, his implication here is that while Christians and Muslims believe that everyone has a soul, those wicked Jews do not, and so they don’t hesitate to kill people who have committed no crime in Gaza. Virtually every aspect of this statement is false, and since Carlson still wields massive influence, all the falsehoods must be exposed.

Carlson includes a kernel of truth in his lies and deflections, and that makes them all the more insidious. Like Christianity, Islam does indeed teach that “every person has a soul.” But the Qur’an also teaches that non-Muslims are “like cattle, no, they are worse.” (7:179) It says that non-Muslims are “the most vile of created beings” (98:6), and calls them “the worst of animals” (8:55).

These aren’t mere words, either. The Qur’an also states: “Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are ruthless to unbelievers, merciful to one another.” (48:29) Ruthless in what way? The Qur’an tells Muslims to “kill them wherever you find them” (2:191, 4:89, 4:91) and, just in case that wasn’t clear enough, adds “kill the idolators wherever you find them” (9:5). This includes pretty much everyone, for in the Qur’anic view, virtually every non-Muslim is an idolater.

Tucker Carlson is speaking as if Christians and Muslims share a moral high ground over Judaism. Yet it is the Qur’an, and not Judaism, that teaches what Carlson is claiming. There is an idea within Jewish tradition that Jews and non-Jews have different souls, based on the special responsibilities Jews have before God, but this does not involve or lead to the idea that, because of this difference, non-Jews can be killed without scruple or hesitation.

A genuine authority on Judaism, Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin, says that “Jewish law and tradition are thoroughly opposed to the murder of innocent non-Jews,” and provides several references from Jewish sources to establish the principle that “the Murder of Non-Jews is Murder”: “Entziklopedia Talmudit, Vol. 5, cols. 355-358, s.v. Goy; Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur, Torat Hamelekh, Samaria, 2000, pp. 17-27; Rabbi M. M. Kasher, Torah Sheleimah, Vol. 17, pp. 77-78, paragraphs 263-264; Rabbi J. D. Eisenstien, Otzar Yisrael, Vol. 10, New York, 1913, pp. 12-14, s.v.Retzihah.”

Tucker Carlson, however, is far better known than Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin, and knows that millions of people will believe him, thinking that he is giving them the real truth as opposed to what the sinister and shadowy elites want them to believe. Yet what he is actually doing is demonizing Israel, Judaism, and Jews as a whole on false pretenses, while ignoring the reality of Islamic jihad, and presenting a portrait of Islam that is as rosy and unrealistic as his portrayal of Judaism is hateful and inaccurate.

Carlson also takes for granted the idea that Israeli and American authorities are aware that innocent people are being killed in Gaza, and have no problem with that. In reality, Israel took immense care to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza and was successful in doing so, but it has been the victim of a massive and highly effective propaganda campaign.

In his statements about human souls, Tucker Carlson appears to be basing his statements on antisemitic blood libels that claim that Jews secretly teach that non-Jews are subhuman and can and should be killed. There is a religion that teaches such a thing, but it is not Judaism. It is the religion that Tucker claims teaches, along with Christianity and opposed (in his view) to Judaism, that “every person has a soul.”

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He takes it all very seriously.

• Trump Touts Release of UFO files: ‘Have Fun and Enjoy’ (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Friday touted his administration’s release of the first batch of files related to unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and urged readers to draw their own conclusions from the data. The existence of aliens and the government’s knowledge of extraterrestrial life have been the subject of speculation for decades, with many conspiracy theories asserting that the government has hidden the evidence permeating popular culture.


“As for my promise to you, the Department of War has released the first tranche of the UFO/UAP files to the Public for their review and study,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “In an effort for Complete and Maximum Transparency, it was my Honor to direct my Administration to identify and provide Government files related to Alien and Extraterrestrial Life, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and Unidentified Flying Objects.’ “Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!” he added.

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“After a series of votes and statements putting him at odds with his fellow Democrats over the past year, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., says that he has “no plans to leave” the party.”

• Fetterman: Dems Can’t ‘Simply Be The Opposite’ of ‘Whatever Trump Says’ (JTN)

After a series of votes and statements putting him at odds with his fellow Democrats over the past year, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., says that he has “no plans to leave” the party. “Being an independent voice that works with the other side to deliver for Pennsylvanians might put me at odds with the party that I have stayed committed to and have no plans to leave — but I will continue to put the commonwealth and the country first,” Fetterman wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published on Thursday. “Plus, I’d be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.” The op-ed written by Fetterman titled, “I haven’t changed. Here’s what has,” details his career in elected office and voting record regarding a number of issues over the past year that have garnered pushback from fellow Democrats.


Fetterman wrote that his focus in office remains on “working together to find wins and deliver for my constituents” and says, although he was elected as a Democrat, he’s “proud to serve all Pennsylvanians. “It has become increasingly lonely to serve in that way, but I firmly believe it’s what is needed,” Fetterman wrote. “My party cannot simply be the opposite of whatever President Donald Trump says. The president could come out for ice cream and lazy Sundays, and my party would suddenly hate them. Such pointless pile-ons and attacks are unproductive. The American people want us to work together to find solutions on issues they and our country face.”

Throughout recent appearances, Fetterman has claimed that his party has “TDS,” a shortened reference to “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Democrat from Philadelphia who also serves as a vice chair for the Democratic National Committee, called Fetterman “a mess” in a social media post in late April after Fetterman suggested his party had TDS for opposing the Trump administration’s renovation plans for a White House ballroom.

Kenyatta isn’t the only party official to take issue with Fetterman over some stances. In March 2025, Cumberland County Democratic Party Chairman Matt Roan called for Fetterman to resign from office after he supported some of Trump’s cabinet nominees. Earlier this week, the Monroe County Democratic Party called Fetterman a “traitor” and for him to be voted out of office after he didn’t rule out voting for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for a cabinet position. The areas Fetterman specifically highlighted in the op-ed that have garnered the most headlines included immigration policy, government shutdowns, and supporting Israel.

While defending his record on immigration, he highlighted his support for the Laken Riley Act as the lead Democrat, his vote for a bipartisan immigration reform bill in 2024, and his co-sponsorship of legislation to stop the flow of fentanyl. Fetterman said that he “took no pleasure” in voting against his party amid government shutdowns, but believes that “the demand to keep the lights on weighed more heavily than partisan games.” With regard to Israel and the war in Gaza, Fetterman said that he “appreciates” that the Trump administration “acted on the threat Iran and its proxies pose.”

“These once-common views have become increasingly toxic in the Democratic Party, a result of catering to the fringe and agitated parts of our base,” Fetterman wrote. “My values have not changed, and I have always turned to those kinds of ideals that defined being a Democrat,” he continued. “I remain strongly pro-choice, pro-weed, pro-LGBT, pro-SNAP, pro-labor and even pro-rib-eye over bio slop.”Fetterman also underscored his work to deliver federal funding for transportation projects in the state, and a series of bipartisan bills, including one that would allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients to use their benefits to buy hot rotisserie chicken, another that intends to protect the mental health of kids, and lastly legislation that helps keep Americans in their homes.

Chatter over the past few months about Fetterman’s commitment to the Democratic Party has increased amid declining poll numbers within the party and a recent Politico article highlighting a Republican effort to get him to switch parties. Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Greg Rothman told the Center Square in April that he wouldn’t rule out the party supporting Fetterman’s bid in 2028 if he switched parties. Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick have also addressed the chatter in interviews this week.

“I don’t know what Senator Fetterman’s going to do. I know that Pennsylvanians voted for a Democrat to represent them in the U.S. Senate,” Shapiro said to CNN this week. “So, I think he needs to honor that and continue with his service with Pennsylvania and get back to what he was elected to do and reflect the will of the people.” McCormick told NBC10 Philadelphia this week that he has not talked to Fetterman about switching parties, but that he “would welcome him.” “I’ve never talked to him about changing parties, honestly,” McCormick told NBC10’s Lauren Mayk. “I feel blessed to have him as my colleague, we’ve developed a real relationship of trust.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle May 5 2026

May 052026
 
 May 5, 2026  Posted by at 9:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  22 Responses »


Ivan Aivazovsky Creation of the World 1864


• Trump’s Strait of Hormuz Move Blends Power and Mercy (David Manney)
• Obama’s Iran Tale Trips Over Its Own Halo (David Manney)
• Trump Disapproval Rate Hits Career-High – War And Rising Costs Take Toll (ZH)
• Trump Sends Rubio to Calm Tensions with Italy and the Pope (Anderson)
• All’s Not So Quiet on Any Front (James Howard Kunstler)
• NATO Holds Secret Meetings With Movie, TV Makers – Guardian (RT)
• EU to Begin Censoring Emojis on Social Media — For ‘Safety’ (Bartee)
• Erika Kirk Brilliantly Dismantles White House Correspondents’ Hypocrisy (Salgado)
• Extensive Interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (CTH)
• Interesting Reversal in Position by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CTH)
• Acting AG Todd Blanche On Legal Aspects of Iran, James Comey and More (CTH)
• Greece Rejects Ukraine’s Terms For Naval Drone Deal – Media (RT)
• Epstein Inheritor Kills Himself (RT)
• Volkswagen to Let Chinese Automaker Build in Shuttered Volkswagen Plants (CTH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/BoLoudon/status/2051012329362317518?s=20 https://twitter.com/Tironianae/status/2050939495596347494?s=20 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/2050822211947356494?s=20 https://twitter.com/ToscaAusten/status/2051013132970017132?s=20

 


 


“Trump threatened that any interference with the U.S. operation would “have to be dealt with forcefully.”

Two things are not up for negotiation:

1) No nukes for Iran.

2) Free passage in Street of Hormuz.

So far, Iran refuses to acknowledge this.

The guys who play the leadership now may not be the leaders.

• Trump’s Strait of Hormuz Move Blends Power and Mercy (David Manney)

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States will begin helping ships from “neutral and innocent” countries leave the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday morning. He called the effort Project Freedom and framed it as a humanitarian move for ships trapped by the Iran war. Plenty of politicians mention compassion when cameras are rolling, but Trump continues to demonstrate how removed he is from “regular” politicians, tying the decision to action, sea power, and safe passage through one of the most dangerous waterways on Earth.


The Strait of Hormuz carries enormous weight in global commerce, and energy markets still watch it like a man watches smoke near a dry field. Hundreds of ships and roughly 20,000 seafarers have been stranded as the conflict involving Iran disrupts traffic through the region. Iran has been blocking nearly all shipping from the Gulf apart from its own for more than two months. Last month, the U.S. imposed its own blockade of ships from Iranian ports. It was not immediately clear which countries the U.S. operation would aid or how the operation would work. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter and the Pentagon declined to comment.

Trump threatened that any interference with the U.S. operation would “have to be dealt with forcefully.” Iran said on Sunday it had received a U.S. response to its latest offer for peace talks a day after Trump said he would probably reject the Iranian proposal because “they have not paid a big enough price.” Many crew members come from South and Southeast Asia; they had nothing to do with the war. They didn’t start it, write Iran’s threats, or choose to become bargaining chips in a dangerous waterway. Ships and seafarers, many on oil and gas tankers and cargo ships, have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the war began.

Crew members have described to The Associated Press watching intercepted drones and missiles explode over the waters, and running low on drinking water, food and other supplies. Many sailors come from India and other countries in south and southeast Asia. Those people were doing ordinary work when an extraordinary crisis fell on them like an ex-Iranian cleric cannonballing in a pool. Trump’s statement cut through the usual fog, saying the United States had told those countries that America would guide their ships safely out of restricted waterways so they could “freely and ably get on with their business.”

The wording set the mission’s tone: America isn’t rescuing hostile actors; it’s notifying neutral nations that lawful commerce and helpless crews won’t be abandoned because Iran turned a vital shipping corridor into a danger zone. The market noticed. Oil prices fell after Trump’s announcement. Brent crude dropped $1.83 to $106.34 per barrel — it’s not much, but better than a stick in the eye — while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell $1.72 to $100.22. Markets don’t reward speeches because the words sound cool; they move when a president signals that chaos won’t be allowed to spread.

Nobody should pretend Project Freedom will be simple; public details remain limited, and follow-up from the White House and Pentagon hadn’t filled in every operational blank by Sunday afternoon. I’m not a CNN reporter; I’m smart enough to avoid asking the president his military plans. Trump’s posture is clear; he’s telling Iran, shipowners, seafarers, and energy markets that the United States sees what’s going on and intends to move. In a region where hesitation often gets read as weakness—or, as in the case of U.S. mainstream media, thinking Trump is overmatched—the announcement gives America’s allies and neutral partners something firmer than diplomatic shrugging.

The compassion angle deserves notice because strength doesn’t only count when it punishes. American power protects supply lines, calms markets, and helps stranded crews get home or get moving again. The same Navy that deters enemies also clears a path for working sailors who just want to leave a dangerous place alive. People on the left will find reasons to complain because some people find a scandal when the rest of us call it Monday. They’ll argue over timing, tone, risk, wording, tie color, head angle, and whatever else can be fed into the outrage machine before breakfast. Mike seems to get hangry before breakfast.

Meanwhile, the ships still need passage, crews still need safety, and oil prices still affect American families filling their tanks and paying their bills. Trump is acting in the space where leadership has to live, between danger and delay. Or between the space of $4.25 gas and the Biden-era genius of calling paralysis a policy. Project Freedom gives the country a clean view of Trump’s governing style in a crisis; he didn’t offer sympathy cards to the gay, comatose Iranian leader; he’s offering safe passage to neutral nations trapped near Iran. Trump’s not treating energy markets as abstract numbers on a screen: he understands that every barrel eventually touches a household budget somewhere. Strength and mercy don’t have to be enemies; sometimes they work best when they sail together.

Read more …

Was Obama right about laughing off Bibi’s threats? We’ll never know. Trump thinks even if it is an empty threat, Iran still has terrorized the Middle East for 50 years.

• Obama’s Iran Tale Trips Over Its Own Halo (David Manney)

And now for something completely different. Picture an old Shakespearean theater (or, as the snobs would say, thee-aa-taaa-hh), right when the fidgety crowd grows silent because the holy curtain, resplendent with images of the miraculous Obama, slowly rises. Barack Obama, former president of these here United States, appears on the stage of world events wearing the invisible crown of moral superiority. Entering stage right is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who carries ill tidings about Iran, nuclear danger, and the small matter of a regime that’s spent decades threatening Israel and chanting “DEATH TO AMERICA!”


Obama looks up, with a face appearing to be pulled out at the chin, leaving a pair of substantial ears to anchor him in place. He raises one hand, pausing for applause only he can hear (it’s the ears, you know), and announces that he alone resisted the madness. “Drag me into war? Never,” he seems to say from his very tall stool of virtue. Out of nowhere, a fake medieval trumpet wheezes, dust blowing out the bell, a giant foot drops from the sky, covering the stage, and the sketch abruptly ends. Okay, it’s not the best Monty Python parody to use for satire, but hopefully some symbolism pulled through.

In a recently published interview, Obama claimed that Netanyahu used the same arguments with him that the Israeli leader later used with President Donald Trump. Obama cast himself as the steady man who refused military action and, instead, opted for diplomacy. He also said he still believes his approach was right. In Barack Obama’s final days in office, he found himself in the painful position of trying to console his staff, the Democratic Party, and millions of supporters. He attempted to convince them—even if he could not entirely convince himself—that the looming Presidency of Donald Trump was not a national calamity. In the past, he would say, the country had endured slavery, the Civil War, the Great Depression, Jim Crow, assassinations.

And, though Trump was alarming in many ways, America was blessed by the strength of its institutions and the resilience of its people. The word “guardrails” was uttered constantly. In Obama’s estimation, Trump would not erase all his achievements. As he put it, “Maybe fifteen per cent of that gets rolled back.” This kind of calm was pure Obama. His appeal had as much to do with character and temperament as it did with his center-left ideology. Although Obama believed that Trump’s ugliest slurs against him, particularly his deployment of the birther theory, were a racist outrage that heightened the threats against him and his family, he now took pains to set aside his contempt. Insuring that there was another orderly transition of power—that, too, was part of his rhetoric of consolation.

Such poise was not easy to sustain. When Obama met Trump for a ritual pre-Inauguration visit to the Oval Office, he was struck by how unschooled and incurious the President-elect was. Trump, Obama told people, seemed indifferent to hearing about potential national-security perils—North Korea, Russia—preferring to brag about the size of the crowds at his campaign rallies. Obama pitched Trump on preserving several of his signature achievements, including the Affordable Care Act and the Iran nuclear deal. Trump responded that he would consider the request, and Obama thought it was not impossible that he meant it. Naturally, the tale arrives with Obama placed at the center of wisdom, restraint, and good lighting—lighting tips learned at the knees of Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

The timing isn’t subtle: Trump authorized Operation Epic Fury against Iran after months of pressure, intelligence sharing, and escalating danger involving Israel and Iran. Obama’s story lets him suggest that Netanyahu used the same pitch for years and that Trump finally went where Obama refused to go. In an interview with The New Yorker, Obama said Netanyahu had tried to convince him to pursue war with Iran, adding that the Israeli leader “got what he wanted” in more recent developments. However, Obama questioned whether such an outcome ultimately benefits either Israel or the United States.

Beyond the immediate issue of Iran, Obama warned that current geopolitical shifts could have long-term consequences for global stability. He pointed to strains in traditional alliances and cautioned that the international system built after World War II, anchored by institutions like NATO, is under pressure. Obama also discussed the broader challenges facing US global leadership, arguing that rebuilding trust with allies may be more difficult than addressing domestic issues. If you think about it, it’s really a neat little performance: Netanyahu becomes the pushy salesman, Trump becomes the buyer, and Obama becomes the only adult in the room who read the fine print.

Netanyahu has long warned that Iran’s nuclear program poses an existential danger to Israel. Obama knows that history, and he also knows many Americans remember his Iran posture as weak, naive, and too eager to treat Tehran like a difficult negotiating partner instead of a hostile regime with innocent blood on its hands. Instead of pursuing joint strikes with Israel, Obama said he prioritized diplomacy with Iran. Those efforts led to the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which imposed limits on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Netanyahu strongly opposed the agreement, warning it would fail to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and would strengthen the country economically and militarily.

Trump later withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018, reimposing sanctions on Iran and aligning more closely with Netanyahu’s position. Barry’s new version tries sanding down all of that to leave one shiny statue standing: Obama, the restrained, austere scholar, nobly blinking while everybody else reaches for a sword. The real purpose looks obvious: Obama wants to reopen an old argument and drive a wedge between Trump supporters who disagree over foreign policy. Barry is implying that Trump got handled by Netanyahu while Obama stayed too wise to be moved. It’s less foreign policy analysis than reputation repair with better upholstery.

There’s something missing that I just can’t place my finger on. Please help me remember something about a plane, pallets, tons of cash … ah! Yes, even after paying a several billion dollar bribe to the mullahs, Obama removes the part where Iran didn’t become less dangerous because of his preference for green diplomacy. Tehran, with help from brand-new U.S. dollars, kept funding terror, threatening Israel, and expanding its reach while Western leaders congratulated themselves for managing the problem. Obama’s defenders call his approach patient, while plenty of Americans would call it wishful thinking — at best — in a tailored suit.

Let’s return to our stage. Obama takes his final bow, still certain of his intestinal fortitude to resist the warmongering fever. Netanyahu remains Israel’s prime minister, dealing with Iran as a legitimate threat, not a TED Talk topic. President Trump remains president of the United States, making decisions in a world Obama (and, with Susan Rice’s work, Biden) helped create. The curtain falls. The giant foot lands again, but in a way that a set of ears sits on either side of the heel, looking like a giant Temu version of Mercury’s foot, about to send a message from the Roman gods.

The audience is asked to admire the former president’s restraint, but the joke lingers because Obama is speaking without a script, so the man keeps talking and talking and talking. Barry never sees what happened; he didn’t stop the danger out of Iran. He just wrote himself inside a narrative where he never belonged, where he never succeeded, and into a reset of a history that never happened. In short, Obama has long since become a president losing hold of his carefully crafted narrative, one polished for years until reality started showing through the shine.

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WaPo-ABC poll.

At the same time, CNN came with a poll that said 100% of 2024 MAGA voters still would vote MAGA.

• Trump Disapproval Rate Hits Career-High – War And Rising Costs Take Toll (ZH)

Though tempered by the prospect of additional GOP gerrymandering of House districts in the wake of a pivotal Supreme Court decision, Democrats’ hopes for a rout of Republicans in the approaching midterm elections are rising after a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that President Trump’s disapproval rating is now the highest of either of his two terms in office. Trump’s decision to launch a war on Iran is taking a toll — voters are not only dismayed by his handling of Iran, but also dissatisfied with his work on the economy, which is itself being harmed by the war.


In a survey of US adults taken in the last week of April, 62% said they disapprove of his general performance in the Oval Office. A whopping 76% disapprove of his handling of the cost of living and 66% disapprove of what he’s done with Iran. A majority of Americans surveyed expressed disapproval of his handling of every issue covered by the survey.


While 85% of Republicans approve of his performance, the share who strongly approve fell to 45% — that’s down 8% since September and is a new Trump low. Perhaps more importantly, his approval among Republican-leaning independents is also at a new low of 56%. Overall, just 25% of independents approve of his performance. Trump also scored terribly on some personal attributes. For example, 71% said the descriptors “honest and trustworthy” are not applicable to Trump, while 67% said Trump does not “carefully consider important decisions.” Meanwhile, 59% said he lacks the “mental sharpness” required of his position.

The poll provides a little insight into the upcoming midterm races. Today, Republicans have a slim, 3-seat margin of control of the House of Representatives. Asked if they would vote for a Democrat or Republican candidate if the House election were held today, 49% said they would for a Democrat, compared to 44% who would choose a Republican. At the same point in the 2022 midterms, that question yielded a 42-42 tie, with the GOP proceeding to win the House when votes were cast six months later, securing a 222 – 213 margin in seats (a 9-seat pickup for the Republicans). As for intended turnout, 79% of registered Democrats say they are “absolutely certain” they’ll vote, compared to 72% of Republicans — a 7-point improvement on the GOP turnout expectation recorded in a February survey.

Vance had higher approval and disapproval ratings than Rubio — as more survey participants shrugged at the Rubio performance question. Looking at the big picture, 67% of Americans said the country is moving in the wrong direction. Here, there’s a vast difference among parties: 94% of Democrats felt that way, compared to 25% of Republicans. As a general caveat, we’ll note that — since more and more Americans identify as independent — party results are growing less meaningful. A hefty 78% of independents say the country is heading south.

Finally, the poll had some incidental insights for those looking ahead to the 2028 presidential race. While participants weren’t asked about that contest, they were asked to rate the job performance of various Trump administration officials, including two potential GOP contenders: Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They came out with similar approval ratings — 35% for Vance and 33% for Rubio — but Vance had a 48% disapproval rating, compared to 40% for Rubio. The remainder of respondents had no opinion.

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No longer “little” Marco.

• Trump Sends Rubio to Calm Tensions with Italy and the Pope (Anderson)

Relations between the United States and Italy and between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV have been delicate lately to say the least. So, the Trump administration is sending in the one man to the Vatican who can possibly help them recalibrate them this week: Marco Rubio. The State Department announced on Monday that the secretary of State will travel to Rome on Wednesday “to advance bilateral relations with Italy and the Vatican.” “Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere,” the statement continued. “Meetings with Italian counterparts will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment.”


Several MSM outlets are saying that he will meet with the pope and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s foreign minister, on Thursday. He’ll most likely also meet with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, and possibly even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni herself, but the State Department didn’t specify that information. We all know the background. The pope has repeatedly criticized the United States and Israel’s conflict in Iran, calling for more dialogue and peace talks — you know, the sort of thing that hasn’t worked for decades. “Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions,” he said in March, shortly after the conflict began. “I address to the parties involved a heartfelt appeal to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss!”

While this is standard Vatican peace talk, he’s also criticized Trump’s rhetoric regarding Iran, particularly calling the infamous “a whole civilization will die tonight” line “truly unacceptable.” Trump didn’t take too kindly to that and has responded via social media and interviews with various outlets, calling the pope “weak on crime,” “very liberal,” and “terrible for foreign policy.” On Truth Social on April 12, the president wrote: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon…I don’t want a Pope who thinks U.S. action against Venezuela was wrong.” (I can’t speak for the Iranians, but I can tell you that the Venezuelans are firmly in favor of the U.S. action against Venezuela.)

The president added, “And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do…” He concluded that the pontiff needed to “get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!” When talking to reporters later, the president said, “I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime. He’s a man that doesn’t think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world. I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”

Eventually, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — someone who is typically a pretty staunch Trump ally — got into the spat and criticized Trump’s words against the pope, calling them “unacceptable.” She said it was normal for the head of the Catholic Church to condemn “every form for war.” Trump didn’t take too kindly to this either and said that “she’s the one who’s unacceptable” and claims she’s “no longer the same person.” The two have been distancing themselves from each other ever since.

Meloni has also been critical of military action in Iran herself, and “sided with France, Spain, the U.K., and Germany in declining to participate in mine sweeping and other military operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz during Iran’s initial blockade of the strategic waterway.”So, can DJ Rubio Secretary Rubio save the day? He is our country’s top diplomat after all, but more importantly, Trump knows that Rubio’s got the personality to handle these types of situations when the president himself… well, let’s just say he’s a bit more blunt. And he admits it too. Earlier this year, he confessed that Rubio, who has become one of this most trusted advisors, was teaching him.

“I became a diplomat for the first time. Well, you know, taught me that? Marco Rubio. He said, ‘Let me teach you about diplomacy,’” the president said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. The president has also admitted on several occasions that Rubio is “a bit more diplomatic” than Vice President JD Vance, who has Trump’s knack for telling it like it is. But that doesn’t mean Rubio is soft. We all saw the speech he gave at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, telling European leaders that “we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline.” Let’s just hope he carries that energy into his trip this week. And maybe a little of this energy too. I mean, who can resist it?:

Read more …

“CENTCOM confirms Iran has NOT successfully struck ANY Navy ships this morning, despite claiming they’ve done so.” —Eric Daugherty on X

• All’s Not So Quiet on Any Front (James Howard Kunstler)

Project Freedom. Cute move! Notice that it’s not Operation Freedom. That would frame it as a military move. The President is tactically framing this as a humanitarian action. Mr. Trump has advised Congress as of May 1 that hostilities with Iran (Operation Epic Fury) are terminated, at the 60-day limit of the War Powers Resolution. Commercial ships from countries not involved in the Iran / US dispute will now get escorted safely through the Strait of Hormuz by US naval vessels.


Any attack on these ships by Iran would prompt a forceful response and trigger a re-wind of the clock on the War Powers Resolution (WPR), meaning, another sixty days to conduct military operations, such as the destruction of key bridges and electric power plants promised earlier. Iran’s leadership — whoever that is — thought it could juke Mr. Trump on the 60-day deadline by stalling negotiations while it reorganized its remaining missile launchers. Tactical fail. Incidentally, the Supreme Court has never directly ruled on the WPR’s constitutionality or enforced the 60-day limit.

Also, by the way, the “neutral and innocent bystanders” designation means that oil tankers from Kuwait, the Emirate states, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia will be given safe escorts out of the Persian Gulf. That will have two effects: 1) avert the “shutting-in” of their productive oil wells (and the prospective geological damage to the oil fields); and 2) alleviate the price pressure on oil generally with new supply reentering the global oil market.

You can conclude that this “project” will bring new pressure on the “whoevers” running Iran to stop shucking and jiving about how this thing ends — which is them surrendering the 1000-pounds of 60-percent enriched uranium stashed somewhere on their premises. Of course, coming to terms on the nuclear bomb-making issue would allow Iran the possibility of becoming, once more, a normal advanced industrial modern nation, should it also decide to eschew the rule of the mullahs and their psychotic minions in the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC). But that remains to be seen.

The other major project underway is on the domestic US scene: the much-needed severe beat-down of the so-called Democratic Party that has become captive to seditionists, overt communists, racketeers, and jihadis. DOJ prosecutions of color revolutionaries accelerate under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. James Comey finally has to account for his “86 / 47” seashell prank in a Carolina federal court while a long-dormant case was revived in the Eastern District of Virginia of Comey having used Columbia prof Daniel Richman as a cut-out to leak classified information to the press at the inception of RussiaGate, 2017.

Nobody knows exactly what’s going down in the Southern District of Florida these days (no leaks) where a grand Jury was convened in January to hear evidence in the RussiaGate matter including the years’ long train of organized seditions aimed at bum-rushing Mr. Trump out of the Oval Office in his first term, plus the mounting of various other operations (2020 election-rigging, the J-6 “Fedsurrection,” and maliciously fake serial prosecutions) aimed at stuffing him in prison at the end of that term.

All this is being treated as a “grand conspiracy” involving scores of agency officials and lawfare ninjas operating in the penumbra at the edge of government. Do not be surprised when rafts of indictments come out of the Fort Pierce, Florida, grand jury, probably in bunches, each bunch dedicated to a particular phase or operation.

Characters such as former President Barack Obama, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Senator Adam Schiff (D-CS), CIA-agent Eric Ciaramella, legal tacticians Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, and Mary McCord, Andrew Weissmann, crooked member of the Senate Intel Committee Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), and former CIA Directors Brennan with former DNI James Clapper, were involved in multiple seditions and possible treasons. Supporting actors such as the tag-team of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, former AG Merrick Garland, former Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, former Sec’y of State Hillary Clinton, “Joe Biden” autopen operators Jake Sullivan, Mike Donlon, Steve Richetti, Anita Dunn, Neera Tanden, former Sec’y of State Antony Blinken, and Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, are probably in the mix somewhere, too.

Read more …

“The greatest threat the bloc currently faces emanates not from “external enemies,” but rather its “ongoing disintegration..”

• NATO Holds Secret Meetings With Movie, TV Makers – Guardian (RT)

Creatives reportedly fear that the US-led military bloc is moving to influence TV and film industry professionals. NATO is holding closed-door consultations with TV and film industry professionals across Europe and the US, The Guardian reported on Sunday. The move has prompted accusations that the bloc is working to leverage the arts for “fear mongering” and “propaganda,” it added. The military bloc has held three private meetings with directors, producers and screenwriters in Los Angeles, Brussels and Paris, and is planning to convene with members of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) in London next month, the newspaper wrote.


The upcoming meeting will be overseen by the British think tank Chatham House and will discuss the “evolving security situation in Europe and beyond,” according to the report. NATO cyber and innovation technology deputy head James Appathurai is expected to attend, among other officials, the newspaper added. So far, the conversations have partly “inspired” at least “three separate projects,” The Guardian wrote, citing an internal WGGB e-mail.

The military bloc’s move has reportedly sparked concern in the film and TV industry. The planned meeting is “clearly propaganda,” Irish film writer Alan O’Gorman said, as cited by The Guardian. “I think there’s fearmongering throughout Europe at the moment that our defenses are down,” he reportedly said, adding that he has seen a media and government push in Ireland “to present NATO in a positive light and align ourselves with them.” Other screenwriters were “pretty offended that art would be used in a way that was supporting war” and believed they were being asked to “contribute towards propaganda for NATO,” he said, according to the newspaper.

The Washington-led military bloc has been undergoing a growing internal rift, with US President Donald Trump again describing NATO as a “paper tiger” after multiple member states refused to join his war on Iran in recent months. Tensions between European NATO countries and the US had already been heightened by Trump’s threats in preceding months to annex Denmark’s autonomous territory of Greenland. The greatest threat the bloc currently faces emanates not from “external enemies,” but rather its “ongoing disintegration,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday.

Read more …

It’s not the people who had a happy childhood who do these things, decide for you what you can see.

• EU to Begin Censoring Emojis on Social Media — For ‘Safety’ (Bartee)

The European Commission apparently finds itself no longer satiated with controlling what combinations of letters it permits the serfs on its techno-planation to spell out on social media and has now expanded the scope of its Orwellian censorship regime to emojis.


Via European Commission: \”European regulators, the European Commission and the Board of the Digital Services Coordinators, enforcing the Digital Service Act published a world-wide first report on the landscape of prominent and recurrent risks on very large online platforms and search engines in the European Union. The report (pdf) identifies systemic risks such as, among others, the spread of illegal content or threats to fundamental rights, occurring on very large online platforms. It also gives a first overview of the mitigation measures taken by platforms, based on the transparency requirements under the DSA.

Key findings cover risks to mental health and to the protection of minors online*; the impact of emerging technologies, such as generative AI, on online platforms; and challenges to intellectual property protection on online marketplaces. Among the notable mitigation measures highlighted are, for example, the use of automated systems to detect emojis used as code for illegal activities online, such as the sale of illegal drugs.

*Always “for the children” — the eternal excuse of the nanny state gynocrats to trample on fundamental civil liberties.

https://twitter.com/DigitalEU/status/2046872384649478568

Who is going to decide which emojis have to go?Probably some unelected bureaucrat behind a screen in some Brussels lair — or else AI; I’m not sure which is more dystopian. Via Hungarian Conservative: “Beyond mockery, critics have also raised concerns about the implications for free speech and digital governance. A frequently cited argument is that identifying ‘coded language’ requires platforms to interpret context and intent—moving beyond clearly illegal content into more subjective territory.

This concern ties into broader scepticism surrounding the DSA, which obliges large platforms to assess and mitigate so-called ‘systemic risks’, including illegal content and threats to public security. Critics argue that this framework increasingly incentivizes proactive and interpretive moderation, rather than responses limited to clearly unlawful material, and in doing so risks encroaching on online free speech. The debate also highlights the technical challenges involved. Emojis are inherently ambiguous and context-dependent, making accurate detection difficult and increasing the likelihood of false positives. Experts have long noted that content moderation already operates in ‘grey areas’,** where meaning is fluid and difficult to define, particularly as platforms rely more heavily on automated systems.”

“Of course, in such cases of “grey areas,” the censor will always and reflexively err on the side of maximum censorship, which is what’s surely going to happen here. Was any of this what the European states signed up for with the 1950 establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the promise being a limited economic cooperative agreement between a handful of Western European states that has now somehow ballooned into a sprawling bureaucracy dictating what emojis some Pole is permitted to use on Facebook?

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“The problem is, Cole Allen did believe the rhetoric to the point of allegedly attempting to murder Trump administration officials at the dinner on April 25.”

• Erika Kirk Brilliantly Dismantles White House Correspondents’ Hypocrisy (Salgado)

Erika Kirk slammed attendees at the White House correspondents’ dinner who inspired the shooter’s hate but had intended to enjoy a luxury dinner with Donald Trump undisturbed, calling it the “ultimate hypocrisy” to “manufacture the hate and then profit off the results.” The crazies were “willing to have dinner with ‘Hitler’” if it meant free champagne.


Leftists believe in hurling the most inflammatory and vile rhetoric at their opponents, ginning up as much violence and chaos as possible, but never personally experiencing the negative results of any of their own lies. The same journalists and media anchors who spent years calling Donald Trump the greatest threat to democracy were cheerfully attending a dinner with him as the featured speaker, illustrating they didn’t really believe their own extreme rhetoric, as Erika highlighted. The problem is, Cole Allen did believe the rhetoric to the point of allegedly attempting to murder Trump administration officials at the dinner on April 25.

“We may have big problems with illegal immigration in this country,” Erika said. “I have to tell you, we have an even bigger problem when it comes to the systemic indoctrination and radicalization of our own citizens. This is what got my husband killed.” It’s what inspired Cole Allen.

Charlie Kirk wanted his wife Erika to take over as head of his organization, Turning Point USA, if anything ever happened to him. Since her husband’s tragic assassination, she has managed to deal simultaneously with her own grief and that of her young children while also zealously carrying on Charlie’s legacy — all while sickos vilify her. She was understandably very traumatized by the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but that did not stop her from continuing to tell the truth afterward with courage.

She emphasized, “Many of the left-wing journalists that attended the WHCD have spent years consistently calling President Trump a ‘Nazi’, a ‘threat to democracy’, and ‘Hitler’,yet they still joyfully attended the evening’s event.” But if “they truly believed their own rhetoric, they’re either joyfully willing to have dinner with ‘Hitler’ or they’re lying to radicalize American citizens with narratives they know are grossly exaggerated.”

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Sunday -weekend- interviews.

• Extensive Interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (CTH)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss current geopolitical events and the ramifications for the U.S. economy. It is a rather lengthy interview and discussion that touches on numerous key points. Bessent notes the upcoming meeting between President Trump and Chairman Xi of China is still on schedule and U.S. Operation Financial Fury against Iran is yielding good results. I had no idea the U.S. government has made $30 to $40 billion from the Intel backstop.


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“..when people argue that it’s not about the economics of the thing – remind them, it’s always about the economics of the thing.”

• Interesting Reversal in Position by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CTH)

Six days ago, in Marsberg, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the U.S. approach to Iran, saying Washington was being “humiliated by the Iranian leadership” and demanding the conflict end “as quickly as possible.” Three days ago, President Trump responded with an announcement that U.S. troops in Germany would be drawn down, and there would be a 25% tariff on all imported European autos. {GO DEEP} Suddenly, Friedrich Merz reverses his position:


Imagine that.

But seriously folks, when people argue that it’s not about the economics of the thing – remind them, it’s always about the economics of the thing. Germany is facing a perfect storm of economic consequences following their decision to chase the climate change agenda (Build Back Better) and eliminate their coal and nuclear power plants. Combine the German/EU policy to stop purchasing cheap LNG and oil from Russia, in addition to skyrocketing energy costs from oil/gas flows from the Middle East, and the outcome is rising manufacturing costs leading to massive layoffs.

The German industrial economy is the heart of the EU economy, and President Trump is now hitting them both right where it hurts.Chancellor Friedrich Merz is already facing serious political issues within Germany as the economy continues to contract. The political opposition parties are on the rise and Merz is in a very precarious position. President Trump is exploiting this vulnerability by apply further economic pressure on Germany.

Just yesterday….

Via Bloomberg – “Germany’s automotive industry pleaded for an urgent de-escalation in the tariff dispute between the US and the European Union and called for immediate talks between the two sides after President Donald Trump said he would increase auto tariffs on the bloc next week.”

Let him cook.

Read more …

“..there has been nothing going on, no hostilities, no exchange of fire since – in almost a month, in almost a month. And how do you end a conflict? How do you end this? You have a ceasefire. ”

• Acting AG Todd Blanche On Legal Aspects of Iran, James Comey and More (CTH)

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears on NBC News to discuss the legal framework for the Iran conflict and push back against the media’s defense of James Comey.


[Transcript] – KRISTEN WELKER: And joining me now is acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Mr. Blanche, welcome back to Meet the Press.

ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: Good morning.

KRISTEN WELKER: Good morning. Thank you for being here in person.

ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: Of course.

KRISTEN WELKER: We really appreciate it. Let’s start right there with the war. As you know, the War Powers Act requires Congress to authorize military action beyond 60 days, which the U.S. passed on Friday. The president did send a letter to Congress, just to recap, saying that hostilities have been terminated, given the ceasefire that was put in place on April 7th. And yet, the U.S. is actively engaged in a naval blockade of Iranian ports as part of this conflict. Is the United States at war with Iran?

ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE: No. I mean, what President Trump said this weekend is absolutely true. My job as the acting attorney general is to make sure that the president, that we all are doing the right thing legally. And we absolutely are. As we said to Congress last week, there has been nothing going on, no hostilities, no exchange of fire since – in almost a month, in almost a month. And how do you end a conflict? How do you end this? You have a ceasefire. And that’s exactly what we have, and Congress knows that and the leadership knows that. And there’s a lot of drama. I’m sure that Senator Schiff will come on here and say something different. This has been done repeatedly for many, many years, with many, many presidents. And there’s nothing inconsistent about what we’re doing and what’s been done in the past.

Read more …

-Orthodox- Greece was occupied by the -muslim- Ottoman empire for a very long time. That’s the background.

• Greece Rejects Ukraine’s Terms For Naval Drone Deal – Media (RT)

Negotiations between Ukraine and Greece over the joint production of naval drones have stalled because Kiev wants to retain control over how Athens can use the technology, local media have reported. According to Greek Reporter, the countries agreed last November that Ukraine would supply components for drones to be built at shipyards in Greece, while Greek companies would manufacture electronic and optical systems. The end result would have been an improved version of the Magura-type attack drones which Kiev uses against Russia.


The newspaper Kathimerini reported on Thursday, however, that Ukrainian officials had demanded that Kiev retain a say over how the Greek military would use the drones, a condition Athens rejected. Greece believes Ukraine set these terms to “maintain a balance” with its longtime rival Türkiye, the newspaper said.

Greece and Türkiye have long accused each other of fueling tensions, with Athens reportedly opposing Ankara’s bid to join the EU’s Drone Wall program aimed at improving the bloc’s ability to detect and intercept hostile UAVs. Türkiye hosted Russian-Ukrainian peace talks in 2022 and 2025, presenting itself as a neutral mediator in the conflict. Ankara also condemned Ukrainian attacks on Russian-linked tankers near the Turkish coast last year.

Read more …

“Edward Juul Rod-Larsen, 25, was found dead in Oslo days after French and Norwegian police reportedly launched a joint investigation into his parents,”

• Epstein Inheritor Kills Himself (RT)

The son of two senior Norwegian diplomats under investigation over ties to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has taken his own life, Norwegian newspaper VG reported earlier this week, citing lawyers for the family. Edward Juul Rod-Larsen, 25, was found dead in Oslo days after French and Norwegian police reportedly launched a joint investigation into his parents, Mona Juul and Terje Rod-Larsen. The probe is centered around allegations that the disgraced US financier had helped the couple purchase an apartment, and left $5 million to each of their two children in his will.


The probe is part of widening international fallout from the latest release of millions of Epstein documents, which have triggered criminal investigations, arrests, and resignations across politics, business, and even royalty. Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting sex from a minor and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence, was arrested again in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. He died by suicide in his jail cell ahead of his trial. The US Department of Justice has gradually released materials related to the case under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by US President Donald Trump.

The released documents mention numerous high-profile figures, linking some to Epstein’s network or questionable financial dealings. The disclosures have triggered resignations, probes, and reviews worldwide, with many acknowledging contact but denying wrongdoing, with some charges brought in a limited number of cases. Last month, Former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland was hospitalized after a reported suicide attempt, days after being charged with gross corruption over accepting Epstein’s hospitality. World Economic Forum CEO Borge Brende stepped down over dinners and communications with the disgraced financier.

In the US, the release has placed renewed scrutiny on former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Both have been deposed about their associations with Epstein, but have denied knowledge of his trafficking operation.

Commenting on the disclosures, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the scandal as exposing the “pure Satanism” at the heart of the collective West, accusing Western elites of inventing threats from Russia to distract from their own “monstrous crimes.”

Read more …

“Now, replace [Germany] with [Canada]

• Volkswagen to Let Chinese Automaker Build in Shuttered Volkswagen Plants (CTH)

How do you sum up the economic forecast for Europe? This story highlights one of the craziest stories in a long time. This is so blindingly suicidal, it cannot be stupidity. This is intentional. BACKGROUND – You might remember last year due to climate/carbon emission regulations inside Europe EU automakers had to pay fines to the EU Commission if they did not meet electric vehicle targets. In order to avoid the penalties many EU automakers began purchasing ‘carbon credit’ offsets from Chinese EV automakers.


European car makers were paying China for carbon credits, and Chinese car companies began using the payments to lower prices. Europe was, essentially, paying China to undercut their own auto market. The result was European car makers, specifically those in Germany, losing market share to lower price EVs from China. German industry began shrinking. If that wasn’t crazy enough, what comes next is beyond laughable. As a result of lost sales and diminished volumes, Volkswagen had shut down auto plants. Now, Volkswagen is announcing that Chinese automakers, their China “partners,” will take over the underutilized facilities and start building Chinese cars in Germany.

GERMANY – Volkswagen Group is facing increased pressure from its board to further cut costs despite already announcing radical measures, such as axing around 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030 and reducing production capacity by up to 3 million units per year to 9 million, which would make it very difficult to avoid plant closures or sales. Overall, Europe’s largest automaker aims to reduce costs by 20% by the end of 2028. bIn an attempt to mitigate the effect of these measures, the automaker appears ready to do what not too long ago would have seemed unthinkable, namely selling China-developed cars in Europe and even sharing its underutilized plants in the region with its Chinese partners.

That’s what CEO Oliver Blume told investors and analysts on April 30 after presenting the company’s first-quarter 2026 results, which saw the automaker’s profit drop 14% to $2.92 billion amid higher U.S. tariffs and intense competition from Chinese carmakers. In order to deal with excess capacity in Europe and rising competition from Chinese brands in Europe in the coming years, Blume said VW Group is considering selling China-built cars in Europe. It’s the first time that Volkswagen has acknowledged it is contemplating such a move. (read more)

SUMMARY: Volkswagen went to China to sell cars. Volkswagen opened EV auto plants in China bringing in German industrial technology and equipment. China learned from Volkswagen and started their own EV auto companies to compete. Volkswagen EV sales in China started dropping dramatically, and the Chinese EV brands took over. Due to internal climate regulations in Europe, Volkswagen in the EU then begins giving money to China that subsidizes their competition. China exports their EVs to Europe. Volkswagen EV auto plants start closing. China now takes control of the Volkswagen EV auto plants to build Chinese EVs in Germany.

With operations now inside the house, the Chinese government extract European wealth and pump subsidies into their EV operations in Germany, flooding the European market with cheap EVs that will undercut the German auto manufacturing sector. You cannot make steel with windmills and solar panel energy. Germany has destroyed much of their coal and nuclear power plants. German energy prices have skyrocketed. German steel is expensive. German cars are expensive as a result. Where do you think the inexpensive steel for the ultra-cheap Chinese EVs will come from?

Now, replace [Germany] with [Canada].

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/MikeBales/status/2050884796725788721?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle April 16 2026

Apr 162026
 
 April 16, 2026  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  78 Responses »


Thomas Cole The Course of Empire – Desolation 1836


• Why Is Trump Making The Global Energy Crisis Worse? (RT)
• US Says Iranian Trade Through Strait Of Hormuz Fully Halted (RT)
• Trump’s Blockade Is Breaking Iran And European Elites Are Angry (Alt-M)
• 10,000 Troops: CENTCOM Update on US Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz (Salgado)
• Vance Says President Trump Wants To Make ‘Grand Bargain’ With Iran (JTN)
• Bessent Delivers Another Powerful Blow to Iran (Nick Arama)
• Why Netanyahu Won’t Let The Middle East Have Peace Any Time Soon (Sadygzade)
• The Chinese Try Pussyfooting at the Hormuz Strait (Helmer)
• Europe Drafts Plan To Free Up Hormuz Without ‘Belligerent’ Parties (ZH)
• Dershowitz: Trump Should Move to Expunge 2019 Impeachment (Salgado)
• The Two People DNI Gabbard Issued Criminal Referrals For (Matt Vespa)
• Gabbard Sends Criminal Referrals For 2019 Trump Impeachment Whistleblower (ZH)
• New Intel Watchdog Launches Review Of Past Whistleblower Complaints (JTN)
• Merz Wants Ukrainian Men In Germany Sent To The Front (RT)
• US Prosecutors Make Surprise Visit To Fed HQ Renovation Project (ZH)
• April 15 Reminds Us of How Unfree We Are (Paul Craig Roberts)

 


 

https://twitter.com/toxiccowboy1/status/2044207743020462437?s=20 https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/2044114932002967665?s=20

 


 

“Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith… were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

-Winston Churchill, 1899

 


 


The US hardly has a energy crisis.

• Why Is Trump Making The Global Energy Crisis Worse? (RT)

The US has tightened its grip on energy exports from the Persian Gulf with a new naval blockade on Iranian supplies, risking fresh shocks to already fragile global markets. The move appears intended to increase pressure on Tehran following unsuccessful efforts to secure a diplomatic off-ramp after the US-Israeli bombing campaign stalled. However, it has left American allies uncertain and drawn a pointed response from China, which has issued veiled warnings regarding US naval activity.


Why is the US blocking shipping from the Middle East?
US Central Command announced a blockade targeting vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports in both the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, effective Monday. The restrictions, it said, “will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations,” though further operational details remain unclear. President Donald Trump described the measure as an effort to stop “any and all ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz” — the vital corridor linking the two bodies of water and a cornerstone of global energy trade.


Iran had retaliated to the US-Israeli strikes in late February by effectively restricting transit through the strait, blocking shipments tied to what it considers “unfriendly” nations, imposing tolls on vessels from “neutral” countries, and allowing free passage for “friendly” ones. While US officials accused Tehran of violating freedom of navigation, Trump suggested Washington could impose its own tolling system. Earlier in the conflict, US sanctions on Iranian oil had been relaxed to cushion global markets. The new blockade reverses that approach, reinforcing economic warfare on Iran while further undercutting supply for import-dependent economies.

What does Iran seek by blocking the Strait of Hormuz?
Tehran’s broader war strategy combines resilience under bombing with escalating economic costs for the US and its allies. In addition to restricting maritime traffic, Iranian forces have targeted American military bases in Arab states and key energy infrastructure, including refineries, gas liquification facilities, and a Saudi pipeline enabling crude exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s payment system is designed to weaken US financial leverage, demanding settlement in yuan or cryptocurrencies. Iran, Russia, and other sanctioned states have been building infrastructure to circumvent Western-controlled financial channels for many years. Tehran views continued control of Hormuz as a way to compensate for damages inflicted on Iran.

The approach has had some impact. Last week, Trump announced a ceasefire and a willingness to pursue negotiations aligned with elements of Tehran’s proposed framework for ending the conflict. However, indirect talks hosted by Pakistan on the weekend did not produce a breakthrough. As US Vice President J.D. Vance put it: “What we have given here is a ceasefire. We stopped bombing the country. What we expect the Iranians to give up is a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”

Read more …

“A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented..”

• US Says Iranian Trade Through Strait Of Hormuz Fully Halted (RT)

American warships have effectively blocked Iranian trade through the Strait of Hormuz, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said. “A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented as US forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East,” CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, US forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea,” Cooper added.


The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing two unnamed US officials, reported earlier that more than 20 commercial vessels, including tankers, had passed through the strait over the past 24 hours. According to AFP, at least two vessels sanctioned by the US sailed through Hormuz on Monday: the Iranian-flagged container carrier Kashan and the Comoros-flagged tanker Elpis. The WSJ also reported that the US has intercepted eight tankers since the start of the blockade on Monday morning.

US President Donald Trump announced the blockade of the vital waterway on Sunday after Pakistani-mediated talks failed to produce a peace deal with Iran. Trump had previously failed to rally European NATO members to help secure Hormuz, which Iran had closed to “enemy ships” in response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28. Iran has since demanded recognition of its “sovereignty” over the waterway and the right to impose tolls. On April 8, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, raising cautious optimism for an end to the conflict, which has disrupted global trade and driven up energy prices. However, both sides have since accused each other of putting forward unacceptable terms.

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(I think every action the Trump Administration has taken so far from Venezuela to Iran has largely been designed to contain China)

• Trump’s Blockade Is Breaking Iran And European Elites Are Angry (Alt-M)

In March I published an article titled “Global Energy Crisis Or Iranian Surrender In Five Weeks?” in which I outlined the “worst case” and “best case” scenarios for the war in Iran. In my best case scenario I argued in favor of a specific plan to end the conflict quickly: A US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, flipping the tables on Iran by blocking or seizing any oil tankers or gas tankers which exit Iranian ports. Two weeks later, the Trump Administration has implemented this exact strategy.


The effectiveness of the blockade is already apparent; the propaganda bots on social media are scrambling to find a narrative to counter it, but they are failing. Why? Because Iran already tried to lock down the strait (which is an international waterway), and any government cheering (or secretly cheering) for Iran’s actions is now unable to make a rational argument against the US doing the same thing to Iran. As I noted in March: “We constantly hear about international exposure to the Hormuz shutdown, but the media rarely mentions that Iran is the MOST exposed economy of all. For now, Iranian oil ships continue to pass through the strait and these vessels are Iran’s economic lifeline. Strategic estimates suggest that without the steady passage of these oil tankers, the Iranian economy would completely collapse within five weeks…”

I then summarized what I believed was the simplest solution to end the war: “Iranian cargo ships can be targeted for seizure by a US blockade of the Persian Gulf well away from the narrow waters of the Hormuz. The ships could be destroyed, but I suspect the Department of Defense will try to avoid oil spills and ecological disasters. Instead, the best option is to capture Iran’s tankers and then redirect the oil to countries in danger of shortages. Iran has the option of shutting off GPS tracking for their vessels (shadow fleet), but this would not help them maneuver past a comprehensive US blockade. In other words, I argue that the US could turn the tables on Iran and use their reliance on the Hormuz against them.

With Iran’s economy in shambles, they will no longer be able to purchase missiles or drones for resupply from Russia and China. They won’t be able to pay for logistic resources for their military and they won’t be able to contain public unrest. The Iranians would be forced to negotiate and the war would be over quickly with minimal risk to US troops.” For now, the US is not seizing Iran’s tankers and is merely sending them back to where they came from. However, it would seem that the Trump Administration and their military advisers have come to the same basic conclusions I did.

For years I have expressed my concerns about a potential conflict in Iran, largely because of the precarious global economic risks associated with mass energy shortages caused by a closure of the Hormuz, which transits around 25% of the world’s energy exports. That said, I do not care about “picking sides” when it comes to Israel or Iran. This debate is irrelevant and designed, I think, to divide US conservatives over ancient tribal vendettas that do not involve us. I don’t care about the Israeli government or “Zionism” and I certainly don’t care what happens to the theocratic and tyrannical Muslim regime in Iran. We have much more important things to think about.

What matters to me is how the US and the American people are affected by geopolitical events. There has been endless debate on what the war is really about, whether it be Iranian nukes, Israeli schemes, Saudi schemes, control of global oil markets, etc. (I think every action the Trump Administration has taken so far from Venezuela to Iran has largely been designed to contain China). In any case, a long term closure of the Hormuz will eventually result in market cascades and a stagflationary crisis. What matters now is ending the war as quickly and decisively as possible without leaving the Homuz and 25% of global energy exports under Iran’s control. After that, people can wrestle over the “moral and constitutional” quandary to their heart’s content.

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Iran says it’s not “blockadable”.

• 10,000 Troops: CENTCOM Update on US Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz (Salgado)

Over 10,000 American troops are involved in the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as repeated Iranian ceasefire violations and the regime’s refusal to make a peace deal have brought the conflict to a hostile standoff. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) provided an update Tuesday morning that confirmed no vessels made it past the American blockade within the first 24 hours of its existence. During the failed ceasefire negotiations with the genocidal Iranian regime, the regime announced to the U.S. delegation that it had scattered so many mines in the strait that it didn’t know where they all were.


Furthermore, it wouldn’t or couldn’t disable them even if it could find them, and in conclusion, it would require tolls from any country that tried to send ships through. Donald Trump declared that unacceptable and immediately ordered a blockade of the strait, as Americans search for and disable the mines, and to prevent the Iranians from forcibly collecting any tolls or receiving imports.

CENTCOM’s update stated, “More than 10,000 U.S. Sailors, Marines, and Airmen along with over a dozen warships and dozens of aircraft are executing the mission to blockade ships entering and departing Iranian ports.” It proudly affirmed, “During the first 24 hours, no ships made it past the U.S. blockade and 6 merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around to re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.”

Nor is the United States providing special treatment to the ships of one country over another, CENTCOM clarified. “The blockade is being enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. U.S. forces are supporting freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports,” the statement ended.

Any Iranian ships that attempt to attack the blockade will find themselves facing deadly consequences. Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning, “Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated – 158 ships. What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, ‘fast attack ships,’ because we did not consider them much of a threat.”

Unfortunately, it appears that the attack ships could be more of a consideration than the Americans originally believed. “Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea,” Trump threatened. The types of American ships and aircraft involved in the blockade include an aircraft carrier, an amphibious assault ship, both land- and sea-based aircraft, unmanned aircraft, guided missile destroyers, and reconnaissance aircraft, according to the update from CENTCOM. Please pray for all Americans involved.

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“..if you guys commit to not having a nuclear weapon, we are going to make Iran thrive..”

• Vance Says President Trump Wants To Make ‘Grand Bargain’ With Iran (JTN)

Vice President JD Vance told Americans in Georgia Tuesday night that President Donald Trump wants to make a “grand bargain” with Iran that promises economic success to the Middle Eastern country. The vice president said a deal the United States offered Iran during peace negotiations in Pakistan over the weekend could normalize economic ties between the two countries if they commit to not having a nuclear weapon. “He doesn’t want to make, like, a small deal. He wants to make the grand bargain,” Vance said at a Turning Point USA event.


“The reason why the deal is not yet done is because the president wants a deal where Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, Iran is not state-sponsoring terrorism, but also, the people of Iran can thrive, prosper and join the world economy.” “He’s saying if you guys commit to not having a nuclear weapon, we are going to make Iran thrive, we’re going to make it economically prosperous, and we’re going to invite the Iranian people into the world economy,” Vance continued. “That’s the kind of Trumpian grand bargain that the president has put on the table.”

Vance also urged young voters at the University of Georgia not to be disillusioned over American foreign policy because the administration has other successes under its belt, including securing the southern border. “I’m not saying you have to agree with me on every issue,” Vance said. “What I’m saying is, don’t get disengaged because you disagree with the ad ministration on one topic, get more involved, make your voice heard even more.”

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Freeze their funds.

• Bessent Delivers Another Powerful Blow to Iran (Nick Arama)

President Donald Trump is beginning to turn the screws on the Iranian regime. He’s blockaded any shipments coming in or out of their ports while letting other ships through. That’s going to put their economy, which was already heading into the dumper, on potential life support. It’s going to hit the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) right where they live. If they don’t find their way out of that situation, it’s not sustainable. It will either force them back to the table for a deal, or it’s going to put even more pressure on the regime.


Additionally, after Iran tried to create chaos and control the Strait of Hormuz, tankers coming to the U.S. Gulf coast oil then increased, making us more of an alternative. But if that wasn’t enough, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had another shoe to drop on them. Bessent announced that, in addition to what they had already done with their “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran since last year, the Trump administration was also launching “Operation Economic Fury,” and making use of what might prove to be a “fatal mistake” by the regime to bomb their Gulf neighbors.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2044472932106141852

Bessent explained that the neighbors were now being “much more transparent in terms of the funds” or willing to “do a deeper dive in investigating the funds that are held within their banking systems” from the Iranian regime. “So, we have pushed out to them the request that we want to freeze more funds of the leadership of the IRGC, and any members of Iranian leadership.” If Iran is expecting any money back from the oil sales they’ve made, they may be out of luck there as well. “The other thing that we have done is we have told companies, we have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions, which is a very stern measure.”

“The Iranians should know that this is going to be the financial equivalent of what we saw in the kinetic activities.” Bessent said they would also be going after the funding of the terror proxies. Under @POTUS’ leadership, Treasury will continue to cut off Iran’s illicit smuggling and terror proxy networks. Financial institutions should be on notice that Treasury will leverage all tools and authorities, including secondary sanctions, against those that continue to support Tehran’s terrorist activities. Folks in Saudi Arabia, which is not keen on being bombed, appreciated what Bessent had to say.

https://twitter.com/majeed66224499/status/2044491186069504378

You have to think the Iranian leaders are tearing their hair out at this point, trying to figure out what to do.

Read more …

Territory.

• Why Netanyahu Won’t Let The Middle East Have Peace Any Time Soon (Sadygzade)

Israel’s war in Lebanon has entered a stage in which claims of supposedly precise strikes on military infrastructure can no longer be taken seriously. The scale of the operations, the depth of the advance in the south, the destruction of bridges and residential neighborhoods, the massive strikes on Beirut, and the steady expansion of the so-called buffer zone all show that this is not merely a tactical effort to contain Hezbollah. It is an attempt to reshape the military and political reality of southern Lebanon for years to come. Israel describes this as the creation of a security belt up to the Litani River. In the language of the region, however, it reads differently. It is a course toward long term control of territory, the depopulation of the border strip, and the creation of facts on the ground that will be extremely difficult to reverse.


Formally, the new phase of the war began on March 2, when Hezbollah opened fire on Israel after American and Israeli strikes on Iran and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel responded with a broad air campaign against Lebanon and then expanded its ground operations in the south. At that point, the government of Nawaf Salam tried to distance itself from Hezbollah’s decision and took the unprecedented step of banning the movement’s military activity outside state institutions, demanding that its weapons be handed over to the state. This was an important sign of a shifting balance within Lebanon itself. Hezbollah can no longer act as though its armed autonomy is automatically accepted by the entire state. Yet the move also revealed the other side of the crisis. Beirut is exerting political pressure on Hezbollah, but it has neither the resources nor the internal consensus to disarm it quickly without risking a deeper internal fracture.

A land grab by any other name
From a military point of view, Israel rapidly moved far beyond the boundaries of retaliatory strikes. By late March, Defense Minister Israel Katz had openly declared the intention to hold southern Lebanon up to the Litani as a security zone, which means nearly a tenth of Lebanese territory. This was followed by strikes on bridges, the destruction of homes in border villages, and evacuation orders for residents south of the river. Soon afterward, Israel was already constructing new fortifications and destroying increasingly empty villages, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was openly speaking of expanding the security strip. The Israeli military machine was no longer concealing the long-term nature of the operation. This was no raid. It was a project of territorial transformation under the military pretext of combating Hezbollah.

This is where the central political question emerges. For the Israeli right, southern Lebanon is increasingly becoming an ideologically charged space. The bluntest statement came from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said in late March that Israel’s new border should run along the Litani – the clearest call yet by a senior Israeli official for the seizure of Lebanese territory. True, at the current moment there is no officially approved government program for the construction of Jewish settlements in southern Lebanon in a formal cabinet document. Yet when a senior minister speaks of changing the border, while the army simultaneously burns out the border zone, destroys homes, and prepares for prolonged control of the territory, the analytical conclusion is already clear. This is occupation, from which the idea of future settlement expansion follows almost naturally. For the far right in Israel, that appears to be a desired outcome. The stated pretext is the struggle against Hezbollah. The real content is the consolidation of a new coercive order on the ground.

Read more …

“‘So they’re not going to be able to get their oil. They can get oil. Not Iranian oil,’ Bessent said, adding that China had been buying more than 90% of Iranian oil and it constituted about 8% of their annual purchases.”

• The Chinese Try Pussyfooting at the Hormuz Strait (Helmer)

Between saying something if you are a Chinese admiral and Defense Minister and meaning something if you are a Politburo member and Foreign Minister, there is a pussyfooting difference. If you are the US Treasury Secretary and you tell the Chinese what you mean, that’s different. And then if you are the President of China, these differences of meaning might be interpreted as “the law of the jungle”. Might be is a conditional verb. Sometimes in grammar it connects the subject of sentences with the object. Sometimes in politics it doesn’t.


And so, on or about Monday, April 13, Dong Jun (lead image, 2nd left), China’s Minister of Defense, said: “We are committed for peace & stability in the world. We are monitoring the situation in the Middle East. Our ships are moving in and out of the waters of Strait of Hormuz. We have trade and energy agreements with Iran. We will respect and honour them and expect others not to meddle in our affairs. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz and it is open for us.”

Where Dong said this, when, and in front of whom, were unclear in the press reports which, unusually, were not official state Chinese media or commercial media like the South China Morning Post. China experts noticed that the style of the remarks in Chinese was “very different from the official Chinese language style.” This isn’t necessarily a disqualifier. In Russian practice, sensitive official thinking can often be leaked through unofficial, even obscure sources, in part to test what happens in response.

Dong’s first two sentences were official boilerplate and obvious. The third sentence refers to the fact that in the first month of the US-Israeli war against Iran, an estimated 18 Chinese vessels transited the Strait – with Iranian permission and following a territorial route dictated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). On Monday, if and when Dong was speaking, a Chinese-owned tanker moved through the Strait. This was the Rich Starry which had loaded 250,000 barrels of methanol at the Emirati port of Hamriyah. The tanker is owned by Shanghai Xuanrun Shipping Co Ltd. but sanctioned by the US because it has been used to transport Iranian crude.

Dong’s fourth sentence is also boilerplate. There are many trade and energy agreements between China and Iran; the most important of them is the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2021–2046), signed in March 2021. It is the Defense Minister’s fifth and sixth sentences which have drawn immediate and serious attention, especially in Teheran and Moscow, where they are interpreted as the first explicit Chinese declaration of support for Iran’s military control of the Strait and the first explicit Chinese warning to reject President Donald Trump’s naval blockade of the Strait which had begun on Monday.

Combined with the exit of the Rich Starry and another tanker, the US-sanctioned Elpis, which had loaded a cargo of Iranian methanol at Bushehr, Dong’s sentences appeared to signal that Beijing had decided to run Trump’s gauntlet and challenge the US Navy blockade. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent replied that “the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would ensure that no Chinese ships or others would be allowed to pass. ‘So they’re not going to be able to get their oil. They can get oil. Not Iranian oil,’ Bessent said, adding that China had been buying more than 90% of Iranian oil and it constituted about 8% of their annual purchases.”

As Bessent spoke, several hours after Dong’s speech and the tanker movements, both the speech and the ship courses were reversed. The Chinese Defense Ministry tweeted an official claim that the reports were “fake news” and “entirely fabricated.” The maritime tracking media reported the Rich Starry had stopped in the Gulf of Oman and then made a U-turn towards the Strait. The Elpis was reported to have stopped off the Iranian oil terminal port of Kooh Mobarak, which is located outside and east of the Strait, in the Gulf of Oman.

So now, all things said, what have the Chinese done?

Read more …

Isn’t Iran one of the belligerent parties?

• Europe Drafts Plan To Free Up Hormuz Without ‘Belligerent’ Parties (ZH)

This is quite the ambitious headline revealing the latest ‘plan’ for Hormuz to come out of Europe, as it sits on the sidelines watching the US get potentially bogged down in the region following a month of heavy airstrikes on Iran: Europe drafts postwar plan to free up Strait of Hormuz without US, WSJ reports. This is apparently a plan for after the main crisis is over, amid the strait still being blockaded (with the each warring side insisting it is they in control of the strategic chokepoint waterway). It seems the main idea is to eventually take the United States out of the equation, allowing only for the ‘neutral’ countries to free up and clean the Hormuz Strait.


But the whole thing is very strange – on the one hand, it purports to keep one of the key belligerents, namely the United States, at bay – while on the other envisioning European/NATO military ships engaged in freedom navigation operations, including some mine-clearing. For example, there is this line from the Journal report: “French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday the plan is for an international defensive mission that doesn’t include the ‘belligerent’ parties, meaning the US, Israel and Iran. European diplomats familiar with the plan say European ships wouldn’t be under American command.”

to a Newsquawk summary of the WSJ main highlights:
—European countries are putting together a plan for a broad coalition of countries to help free up shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, including sending mine-clearing and other military vessels. But the plan would only come after the war and may exclude the US.
—Some differences must still be worked: French diplomats think that any US involvement in the operation would make it less palatable to Tehran, while British officials worry that not including the Americans will anger Trump and limit the operation’s scope.
—The plan has three broad aims:

1) put logistics in place to ensure the hundreds of ships currently stuck in the strait can leave.
2) Employ a major demining operation to clear the way for a far larger number of ships to use a broader part of the strait.
3) Removing Iranian mines in Hormuz is crucial to getting ships going again.

The reality is that this supposed plan brings things back full circle to problem #1… as it’s not as if either Iran, or the United States, will simply shrug and cede control so that a European military coalition can step in and take over. Which side will ever actually agree to this? The obvious answer, at least for the time being and foreseeable future is… nobody.= And then there’s the question of what leverage or force will Europe employ to assert its military presence in the strait in order to keep all parties in line… some mere harsh language and strong words?

Read more …

Never tried before.

• Dershowitz: Trump Should Move to Expunge 2019 Impeachment (Salgado)

After newly declassified documents showed that an inspector general wrongly pushed an unvetted accusation from a Democrat operative who lied to launch the first impeachment of Donald Trump, legal expert Alan Dershowitz said that the president has a strong case for moving to expunge that first impeachment from his record.


While Dershowitz was a Democrat himself, he defended Trump during the impeachment trial. Dershowitz went on the Just the News, No Noise TV show to suggest that Trump go straight to the U.S. Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts to request a reversal of the impeachment. The defense team never got to confront the accuser with evidence that was exculpatory for the president, and now we have these new revelations to confirm how bogus the whole impeachment was.

Referring to an impeachment reversal, Dershowitz admitted, “It’s never been done. I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be done. Impeachment is a quasi-judicial procedure, whether you have to go back to Congress and ask them to expunge it or go to the courts.”

Referring to the new exposure of the key source for the accusations, who met with top Democrat Adam Schiff before filing his complaint, Dershowitz added, “But I have to tell you one thing, history will expunge it already based on your work, because what you’ve done is you’ve created so much doubt about the credibility of the main accuser that it’s hard for anybody to sit back now and say that was a just, a just impeachment, but I don’t know that there’s going to be any remedy. Maybe we should try to create one.”

RealClearInvestigations named the “whistleblower” in question as intel analyst Eric Ciaramella. He was a registered Democrat, he met with Schiff before submitting his complaint, and he would not reveal any credible contacts, yet Inspector General Michael Atkinson didn’t even question, let alone rigorously assess, either the honesty or motivations of this “whistleblower.”

In fact, Atkinson did not even follow standard inspector general procedures, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revealed. Atkinson conducted interviews with four individuals only: “the Whistleblower, the Whistleblower’s friend who was a co-author of the January 2017 Russia Hoax Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) and close colleague of disgraced former FBI Agent Peter Strzok, and two character references who had zero firsthand knowledge of the July 2019 phone call.” Yet Atkinson exceeded his statutory jurisdiction based just on all that blatantly biased hearsay.

Ciaramella later admitted that all of his accusations were based on second- and third-hand accounts rather than anything he himself knew, making the impeachment basis even more preposterous, Just the News reported. “I do not have direct knowledge of private comments or communications by the President,” the whistleblower confessed. Gabbard accused, “Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States.”

Read more …

Tulsi has turned out to be a force of nature.

• The Two People DNI Gabbard Issued Criminal Referrals For (Matt Vespa)

It was a major document release this week: the files that were not given to President Trump’s lawyers during the 2019 impeachment effort were revealed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. One could argue that the documents, which were hidden until now, were textbook exculpatory evidence. The Ukraine whistleblower, who sparked the quid pro quo controversy, had no evidence to back his claims, admitted to working closely with then-Vice President Joe Biden, was a registered Democrat, and his allegations were based on poor spycraft.


Even his colleagues acknowledged this was a weak complaint, and one of them contributed to the similarly flawed, Obama-ordered 2017 Intelligence Community Estimate, which endorsed the collusion hoax. Gabbard sent criminal referrals for the whistleblower, Eric Ciaramella, and former intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson (via Fox News):

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/2044539944333426893

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department for the whistleblower whose complaint helped trigger President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment and for the former intelligence community inspector general who notified Congress of the allegations, Fox News Digital has learned. “I want to refer information that may constitute possible criminal activity in violation of federal criminal law committed by one or more former employees of the intelligence community,” ODNI’s general counsel wrote in the referral to the Justice Department.Fox News Digital on Wednesday reviewed the referrals ODNI sent to the Justice Department. v”The possible criminal activity concerns the circumstances described in the following congressional briefings: Discussion with Intelligence Community Inspector General, House Permanent Select Comm. on Intel., 116th Cong. (2019); Briefing by the Intelligence Community Inspector General, House Permanent Select Comm. on Intel., 116th Cong. (2019),” it continued. The referrals come after DNI Tulsi Gabbard released documents earlier this week exposing what was described as a “coordinated effort” by elements within the intelligence community—including then-Inspector General Michael Atkinson, to “manufacture a conspiracy” that was used as the basis to impeach Trump in 2019.

Lock ‘em up. Someone must go to jail over this. This wasn’t some lost paperwork; it was a deliberate attempt to unseat a duly elected president. It was a coup. For all their smarts and resources, the Deep State has continuously failed to usurp Trump.

Read more …

When she took the job, I don’t think Tulsi was a Trump ally. Perhaps she is now.

• Gabbard Sends Criminal Referrals For 2019 Trump Impeachment Whistleblower (ZH)

On Monday, DNI Tulsi Gabbard and the House Intelligence Committee released declassified transcripts revealing that the whistleblower whose complaint about Trump and Zelensky’s ‘perfect call’ as an extreme parisan who had a “prior professional relationship with one of the Democratic Presidential candidates,” and despite those facts, former-Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson claimed “I did not find the complainant (whistleblower) was biased.”


Well, tonight they’re the recipients of two criminal referrals. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesady referred who is believed to be former CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella – along with the former intelligence community inspector general who fast-tracked it – for potential criminal investigation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced Tuesday.

The referrals to the Justice Department, first reported by Fox News and confirmed by multiple officials familiar with the matter, come days after Gabbard’s office declassified more than seven-year-old transcripts and supporting documents that Democrats and the intelligence community had kept under wraps since the fall of 2019. The newly public records raise fresh questions about the origins and handling of the complaint that accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Ciaramella was a CIA analyst detailed to the National Security Council at the time. According to the declassified materials, he had no firsthand knowledge of Trump’s July 25, 2019, phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and instead relied on secondhand accounts from NSC colleagues. He was a registered Democrat who had previously worked on Ukraine policy under then-Vice President Biden – including traveling with him – and had pre-complaint contacts with Democratic staff on the House Intelligence Committee, including aides to then-Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the records show.

Former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who received the complaint in August 2019, is accused in the declassified files of deviating from standard procedures. He allegedly changed the whistleblower complaint form to accommodate hearsay information, ignored Justice Department guidance that the complaint did not qualify as an “urgent concern,” did not review the actual call transcript, and relied on a narrow set of interviews – including one with a witness who had co-authored the controversial 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference and had ties to former FBI official Peter Strzok.

Gabbard, a Trump ally installed as DNI earlier this year, framed the declassification and referrals as long-overdue accountability. “Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States,” Gabbard said in a statement accompanying the release. “Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth.”

The ODNI general counsel’s referral letter, obtained by outlets covering the story, cited possible violations of federal criminal law by “one or more former employees of the intelligence community,” specifically referencing Atkinson’s 2019 congressional briefings. The declassified package – released by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the request of Chairman Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) following a March 24 committee vote – includes closed-door transcripts of Atkinson’s 2019 testimony before the panel. Those transcripts had been withheld from Trump’s defense team during the impeachment proceedings and from the broader public for more than seven years.

The move revives one of the most contentious chapters of Trump’s first term and comes as his second administration aggressively pursues investigations into perceived abuses by the intelligence community during the Russia investigation, the 2020 election challenges and both impeachments. Schiff, now a senator from California, and other Democrats involved in the original impeachment have not yet commented publicly on the latest developments. A spokesman for the House Intelligence Committee under Democratic control in 2019 called the declassification “a partisan stunt designed to rewrite history.”

Read more …

“..the former watchdog had “weaponized the whistle-blower process” and used his office to “manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the basis to impeach President Trump.”

• New Intel Watchdog Launches Review Of Past Whistleblower Complaints (JTN)

The new chief watchdog for U.S. spy agencies has opened a review of several “urgent concern” whistle-blower complaints fielded by his predecessor after bombshell documents revealed that intelligence officials kept exculpatory evidence from President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment proceedings and may have suppressed concerns about Chinese meddling in the 2020 election. Officials told Just the News that Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Christopher Fox, who took over the job in October, ordered the review as part of a larger effort to reform and better resource his office to handle whistle-blower complaints that can range from abuse of civil liberties and fraud to unmitigated national security threats related to terrorism and espionage.


“It also relied more on the opinions of attorneys than the objective findings of investigators” ICIG says..””The past treatment of urgent concerns as more of a legal/document review than an investigative activity left important evidence on the table,” the ICIG office said in a statement. “It also relied more on the opinions of attorneys than the objective findings of investigators. Ultimately, this process did not serve the Intelligence Community or the American people well.”

Fox’s review comes after Just the News reported Sunday that documents recently declassified by the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) showed that the ICIG office under Fox’s predecessor, Michael Atkinson, flagged concerns about the CIA analyst who launched the 2019 impeachment proceedings against Trump with Ukraine policy-related allegations but those concerns were kept classified and never made public during the congressional proceedings.

The concerns included that the accuser had the “potential for bias,” had provided false information in his initial complaint and had animus toward conservatives inside Trump’s circles, according to documents declassified by DNI Tulsi Gabbard this week. Gabbard blasted Atkinson’s work on Monday, suggesting the former watchdog had “weaponized the whistle-blower process” and used his office to “manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the basis to impeach President Trump.”

Others, including former Trump defense lawyers, the FBI and members of Congress, also sharply criticized the withholding of such evidence for six years, with famed law professor Alan Dershowitz going so far as to suggest Trump might have grounds to expunge his 2019 impeachment in the House of Representatives.

China’s hacking of voter data kept hidden by Intelligence Community
Separately, Just the News reported that the National Intelligence Council had concluded in 2020 that China had hacked or gained access to several states’ voter registration databases, but that information was suppressed from the American public, state election officials and Congress despite a whistle-blower named Christopher Porter’s complaints trying to bring attention to it.

The intelligence community ombudsman even raised concerns that U.S. spy agencies may have exhibited bias in trying to suppress word of China’s election activities. Officials told Just the News that intelligence agencies were informed recently that Fox’s office will be reviewing anew the handling of Porter’s whistle-blower complaint. Fox’s office said it can “neither confirm nor deny whistle-blower identities or details that might reveal them, or whether any specific matter is under investigation.”But it did confirm to Just the News that Fox has launched a systemic review of “urgent concern” whistle-blower complaints handled during Atkinson’s tenure.

“IC IG Fox has also directed a comprehensive review of all past urgent concern complaints to identify lessons learned, improve internal policies, and determine whether previous matters warrant additional oversight activity,” the office said. Officials said under the old regime, “urgent concern” complaints from intelligence community whistle-blowers inside 18 separate agencies were handled by the Center for Protected Disclosures, operating separately from the Investigations Division and its trained investigators.

That meant most complaints just got a cursory review during a limited 14-day period that usually included:
• An intake interview;
• Limited witness interviews;
• An initial document examination.

“After the statutorily required 14-day review period, IC OIG did not historically continue any investigative activity. Instead, a memorandum reflecting the IC IG’s determination would be transmitted to the DNI and to Congress, and the case would be administratively closed (frozen in time), regardless of the national security implications,” Fox’s office said.

Congress received “only a preliminary assessment based on an incomplete evidentiary record” ICIG says
Fox’s office said the 2019 impeachment case revealed in the newly declassified documents that “Congress received only a preliminary assessment based on an incomplete evidentiary record.”In January, Fox launched what he called internally an “IC OIG 2.0” reorganization that consolidated six divisions into four offices, allowing a more robust and thorough “cross-disciplinary” to apply “consistent investigative rigor and objectivity to every complaint” that came in, officials said.

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Berlin will coordinate the repatriation of military-age males with Kiev, the German chancellor has said ..”

They fled there to escape that… More Merkel mayhem.

• Merz Wants Ukrainian Men In Germany Sent To The Front (RT)

Berlin and Kiev will coordinate efforts to return military-age Ukrainian men residing in Germany to their home country, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has announced following a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky. As Ukrainian forces suffer mounting losses in the conflict with Russia and the pool of willing recruits continues to shrink, draft enforcement squads have increasingly turned to violent methods to fill the ranks in recent months. Men are being snatched off the streets, from workplaces and residential areas, as evidenced by hundreds of videos circulating online.


The heavy-handed tactics employed by Ukrainian press gangs have led to a rise in violent confrontations with unwilling recruits, their families, and passersby, with multiple recruits and draft enforcement officers being injured or even killed. Speaking at a joint press conference with Zelensky in Berlin on Tuesday, Merz reiterated the German government’s “support for Ukraine’s efforts to reduce the number of Ukrainian men of military age leaving [their home] country.” According to the German chancellor, “this is essential to ensuring Ukraine’s defense capabilities, social cohesion, and reconstruction.”

“We need rapid, tangible progress here, also in the interest of both sides,” he stressed. Zelensky concurred that the issue “must be addressed,” adding that “of course, our armed forces would want these people to return to Ukraine.” In January, Merz similarly called on Ukraine to create conditions that would encourage its young men to remain in the country rather than flee to Western Europe. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Germany became the top destination for Ukrainian migrants in the EU, taking in more than a million people, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

Some Ukrainian officials have acknowledged escalating public discontent with the forced mobilization campaign. According to Vadim Ivchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s national security committee, only around 8-10% of new personnel entering the armed forces are willing recruits. Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev’s Western backers of waging a proxy war against Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

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“More recently, he said the lead contractor “is probably one of the richest men in the country right now.”

• US Prosecutors Make Surprise Visit To Fed HQ Renovation Project (ZH)

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday made a surprise visit to the Federal Reserve headquarters building that’s undergoing a $2.5 billion renovation, as they continue to investigate whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell lied to Congress about the cost and scope of the project. Construction workers told the prosecutors they couldn’t come on the site without prior authorization, the Wall Street Journal reported. Instead, they were referred to the Fed’s lawyers to coordinate a return visit.


The provocative move is the latest chapter in a months-long legal drama over the enormously expensive renovation of two Fed office buildings built in the 1930s, and whether Powell made false statements about the project in a congressional hearing last June. Specifically, Powell disputed media reports and accusations from administration officials and congressional Republicans that the project had extravagant design features, such as a VIP dining room, premium marble, water features and a rooftop terrace garden.

Last year, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought reported that the $2.5 billion cost was $700 million over budget. President Trump, who has repeatedly criticized Powell for not pushing interest even lower than they are, was quick to condemn the Fed director for the steep price of the project. “When you spend $2.5 billion on, really, a renovation, I think it’s really disgraceful,” he said last year. More recently, he said the lead contractor “is probably one of the richest men in the country right now.”

The ongoing drama had a moment of comic relief in July, when Trump joined Powell in touring the construction site with reporters tagging along: Last month, US District Judge James Boasberg threw out two subpoenas that federal prosecutors had issued to the Fed. “There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will,” wrote Boasberg, an Obama appointee. Tuesday’s surprise visit to the construction zone signals the DOJ’s dedication to chasing the case.

“Any construction project that has cost overruns of almost 80 percent over the original construction budget deserves some serious review,” US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told the Journal on Tuesday. “And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?” Pirro, a long-time Trump ally, gave a green light to the investigation in November.

Powell’s term as chair will expire on May 15, though his underlying seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors doesn’t end until 2028. In January, Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to replace him, but his Senate confirmation is being held up by Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who said he won’t vote to advance Warsh’s nomination until the DOJ investigation of Powell and the Fed is complete. Powell has said he’ll stay on as chair until his successor is confirmed. Fed chairs usually give up their Board of Governors seat after leaving the top job, but Powell has said he will make a decision on that “based on what I think is best for our institution and the people we serve.”

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“Serfs received protection for their taxes. Slaves received housing, food, and medical care. Post 1913 Americans receive wars.”:

• April 15 Reminds Us of How Unfree We Are (Paul Craig Roberts)

Citizens of democracies think of themselves as free. This belief reflects their indoctrination, not the facts. Historically, the definition of a free person is a person who owns his own labor. A serf and a slave did not own their own labor, and neither does a citizen of a Western democracy today. Today, April 15, is a good reminder of that fact.


Once upon a time April 15 was the deadline for paying one’s taxes for the prior year. This imposed a burden on taxpayers not to spend all of the prior’s year income, but to set aside the share of their earnings that belonged to government, just as serfs had to set aside the proportion of their labor that belonged to feudal lords, the government of that time. Initially, only the federal government owned part of an American citizens income, but then states followed as did the city of New York. Americans who pay federal, state, and city income taxes are actually taxed higher than Medieval serfs and 19th century slaves on Southern cotton plantations, which means that Americans are less free than serfs and slaves.

Today April 15 is the deadline for filing your tax return, but for most Americans the taxes have already been paid by the withholding tax on wages and salaries and by quarterly estimated tax payments by those with income from investments that are unpredictable such as stocks and bonds. The withholding tax is paid by that part of your wage or salary that you never see. The quarterly estimate is paid by the person writing a check based an an accountant’s estimate. Many Americans might be unaware that the government claims the monetary value of 30-40% of their labor. They never see the money as employers pay it directly to the government. Many Americans are overwithheld. Instead of having to pay the IRS, they receive a check from the government.

As I remember from my study as a graduate student of the medieval economy in Europe under the direction of University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Economics Henry Rosovsky, later Dean of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, the highest tax rate that could be extracted from a serf was 30%. Generally, it was lower, but 30% was the maximum, the reason being that agricultural technology in those days was so low that if serfs lost more than 30% of their labor, they could not reproduce. On 19th century plantations, such as those in the Caribbean and southern United States, agricultural technology permitted 50% of a slave’s labor to be a return to the slave’s owner on the slave’s purchase price of $63,500 in 2025 dollars.

A plantation owner with 30 slaves as field hands, blacksmiths, and carpenters had $2,000,000 in today’s money invested in his labor force. How likely is he to demoralize and alienate his labor force and give them incentives to run away by beating them with whips, raping their wives, and working them to death in harsh conditions, thus destroying his investment? The slave owner was vastly outnumbered by his slaves, many of whom were warriors captured by the black King of Dahomey in slave wars. Good relations were in the slave owner’s interest.

Yet the propaganda “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” constitutes the education of generations of Americans and the content of university Black Studies programs. Perhaps we need another Harriet Beecher Stowe to chronicle the treatment of Americans today as human property, not the property of an individual but property of the state, just as was 30% (maximum) of the serf’s labor a property of the state of that time. Unlike taxation today, which serves little, if any, of the interests of those taxed, serfs gained protection in exchange for their labor. In Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire free men farming for their existence were subject to raids from Vikings, Saracens, Magyars. The raiders came by boat, by horse. The isolated free farmers were helpless.

A would-be strongman appeared with a deal: Supply me with your labor and I will construct a fortress and employ men-at-arms to protect you against raids. You can come to our defended walls and be safe. These protectors became the aristocrats, and the free men became the serfs. But the feudal lords kept their promises as it was in their interest to defend the people. I remember reading historical accounts of how what became the aristocracy bred large war horses that could carry armored knights and were capable of overriding the smaller horses of the Magyars who attacked Europe for a century.

A serf was tied to the land and could not be bought and sold. Medieval serfs paid their taxes in kind–in their labor–initially for protection and then as an inherited obligation. Over time, some of the serfs’ labor obligation could be converted into delivery of products of the serfs’ labor. The 19th century slave paid his tax to his owner in his labor time as a return on his owner’s investment. The difference today is that a “free” American pays his slavery in the form of a monetary payment equivalent to government’s share of the monetary earnings of his labor–not in kind in direct labor service.

As Americans pay in money and not directly in labor, the illusion of a free people is created. A “free” American is like a serf. He cannot be bought and sold, but his failure to deliver the monetary value of government’s claim to his labor is harshly punished. Most would prefer whippings to imprisonment. Until the Reagan marginal tax rate reductions, high earner incomes were taxed at 50% on wages and salaries and 70% on investment income. This put them in the slave class. The rest of Americans are in the tax position of medieval serfs. The difference is that Americans today get nothing for it except wars they do not want and masses of immigrant-invaders to support. The United States government today stands in extremely poor comparison with the feudal lords of the Medieval Era. And so do the governments of every European democracy.

Today there are no Americans alive who were not born under the income tax. All Americans alive today were born into slavery. But when I was young, there were millions of Americans who had lived most of their lives as free people. These were the last free Americans. The US income tax came into being in 1913–a deception of the citizens like everything else the US government has done, such as the wars on Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Vietnam. The first income tax rate–1%–only applied to very high incomes. The top tax rate of 7% was only for tycoons. As hardly any Americans were subject to the income tax, the Constitutional amendment allowing an income tax easily passed.

The income tax became law on the eve of World War I, a war America had no business being involved in, and the income thresholds were quickly lowered and the tax rates quickly raised. The United States dating from the Declaration of Independence is 250 years old. The US income tax is 113 years old. The US has existed for more than twice as long as the income tax.

The US never needed an income tax and does not need one now. The liberals wanted an income tax so that they could redistribute income. An income tax is not needed for the normal functions of government such as roads, bridges, social infrastructure. Modern Monetary Theory has demonstrated that government can finance these operations by creating money as the productive investments raise GDP and pay for themselves in rising output.

Welfare was the province of churches and private charities like the Salvation Army.In place of a good society, the income tax has brought us endless wars and generations of a welfare class that exists on redistributed income confiscated from working people. Serfs received protection for their taxes. Slaves received housing, food, and medical care. Post 1913 Americans receive wars.

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https://twitter.com/UnearthedHQ/status/2044093959698559308?s=20 Lynch

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle March 28 2026

Mar 282026
 
 March 28, 2026  Posted by at 10:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  65 Responses »


Giorgio de Chirico The Archaeologists 1927


• Pentagon Readies ‘Final Blow’ Against Iran (Moran)
• Escalation On All Fronts (ZH)
• Trump Shares Article On Ukrainian Plot To Fund Biden Reelection (RT)
• Ukraine Running Out of Money To Fund Its War Machine — Bloomberg (TASS)
• Marco Rubio Gives Impromptu Press Conference Departing G7 in Paris (CTH)
• Zelenskyy Says No US Security Guarantees Unless Ukraine Concedes Donbas (CTH)
• EU Accuses Hungary of ‘Pro-Russian Espionage’ (IB)
• Eurasia Energy War? (ZH)
• Cult Classics (James Howard Kunstler)
• Putin Himself Is Helping The West To Destabilize Russia (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Cartels Are Going Broke, US Fentanyl Supply Drops Almost 60%: Homan (ET)
• Institutional Fear and the Excavation of the Rabbit Hole (CTH)
• International Olympic Committee Imposes Biological Test on Athletes (Turley)
• How the U.K Navy Will Defend the West (CTH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/HungaryBased/status/2037537628510368051?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2037574722364326009?s=20 https://twitter.com/Notmyfault99/status/2037579197019762976?s=20 https://twitter.com/benonwine/status/2037268817743646744?s=20

 


 


” It’s not at all clear if a large, powerful military strike will achieve anything substantial.”

• Pentagon Readies ‘Final Blow’ Against Iran (Moran)

Donald Trump has been warning Iran for the past 10 days that they have to make a deal to America’s liking or the U.S. would “unleash hell,” as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday. This “final blow” against Iran would include U.S. ground, air, and sea forces. Trump will have at least four options, according to Axios.
• Invading or blockading Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub.
• Invading Larak, an island that helps Iran solidify its control of the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic outpost hosts Iranian bunkers, attack craft that can blow up cargo ships, and radars that monitor movements in the strait.
• Seizing the strategic island of Abu Musa and two smaller islands, which lie near the western entrance to the strait and are controlled by Iran but also claimed by the UAE.
• Blocking or seizing ships that are exporting Iranian oil on the eastern side of the Hormuz Strait.
• The Shah occupied Abu Musa and the other islands that the UAE claimed in 1971, just before the UAE’s formation as a sovereign nation. Whether they would be returned to the Emiratis is unknown, but the UAE would have a very difficult time defending them against a hostile Iran.


Another option Trump might choose involving ground troops would be to send a small force to the Ishafan Tunnel Complex in central Iran. The majority of Iran’s 60% enriched uranium (estimated at over 200 KG) is believed to be stored within a deep underground tunnel complex at the Isfahan nuclear site. Although the surface facilities at Isfahan were bombed in June 2025, the tunnels appear largely intact. Recent satellite imagery from early March 2026 showed a “very narrow access point” through which the material could potentially be retrieved, despite the entrances being buried under soil.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has indicated that another large portion of the stockpile remains at the Natanz enrichment plant. This may be uranium enriched to less than 20%. It is still a threat, but it would take several weeks to spin up to nuclear bomb-grade material if Iran were to rebuild its centrifuges. Then again, the highly enriched uranium could be buried under hundreds of tons of rubble at Fordow’s nuclear facility. Fordow was built into the mountain and was totally destroyed in the June bombing.

Axios: “Trump hasn’t made a decision yet on pursuing any of these scenarios, and White House officials describe any potential ground operations as “hypothetical.” But sources say he’s ready to escalate if talks with Iran don’t yield tangible results soon. Trump could first implement his threat to bomb power plants and energy facilities in Iran, for which Tehran has threatened massive retaliation across the Gulf. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Iran on Wednesday that Trump is ready to strike “harder than ever before” if no deal can be reached. “The President doesn’t bluff and he is ready to unleash hell. Iran shouldn’t miscalculate again… any violence beyond this point will be because the Iranian regime… refuses to come to a deal,” Leavitt said. More reinforcements, including several fighter jet squadrons and thousands of troops, are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days and weeks.”

Iran is both stalling for time and trying to bait Trump into using ground troops. Iran has once again closed the Strait of Hormuz and attacked ships, setting three vessels afire. They have also established a “toll station” in the Strait and are only allowing certain vessels to transit. It’s not at all clear if a large, powerful military strike will achieve anything substantial. Trump may reluctantly be satisfied with destroying most of Iran’s missiles, drones, Navy, and stockpile of nuclear material. Defanging Iran as a regional power, making it nearly impossible to support its weakening proxies, and setting the stage for an internal revolt may be the best the U.S. can achieve in this war.

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“Israel Escalates Too”

• Escalation On All Fronts (ZH)

Iran has not requested a 10-day pause on strikes on its energy plants, peace talk mediators have been cited in WSJ as saying, and has still not issued formal response to the 15-point US plan delivered via Pakistan. This as the Pentagon is moving thousands of Marines and Army Airborne soldiers into the region. The Wall Street Journal points out that “The U.S. and Israel are pounding Iran’s missile-launching sites, hitting some over and over across almost a month of war. But Tehran’s missiles keep flying.”


One pundit questions, are we ‘winning’ yet?… writing the following brief assessment of where things stand: IRGC Joint Staff headquarters under US-Israeli strikes. Iran naming UAE targets as Abu Dhabi enters the war. IDF Chief of Staff warning publicly the Israeli military could “collapse” from manpower shortages. Iran claiming over one million fighters mobilised with IRGC lowering the age for support roles to 12. Pentagon considering 10,000 additional ground troops within striking distance of Kharg. Trump pausing energy-plant destruction for 10 days until April 6. Iran denying it requested the pause. Houthis warning they will enter the war. Lavrov saying the quiet part: “Iran did not violate any of its international obligations.” Russia’s oil revenue doubling to $24 billion this month. Oil prices continued to spike this morning, with international Brent crude oil once again surpassing $110 per barrel. For the day so far that’s up another 3%.

Aftermath of strikes earlier this week on central Israel
“After several glimmers of hope, fueled by comments from President Trump, which were quickly dashed, the market is becoming more demanding in terms of rhetoric,” said Amélie Derambure, senior multi-asset portfolio manager at Amundi. “The TACO trade is more difficult to do because a return to square one is not possible from here.”

Gulf Flashpoint Widens: Iran Signals No Let Up
Multiple GCC countries issued incoming-attack alerts as drones and missiles light up the region Friday, with Kuwait taking at least two new hits: Shuwaikh Port was struck by “hostile drones” – per the Kuwait Ports Authority, with a second target, Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port, reportedly hit by drones and cruise missiles. Infrastructure damage has been reported in both cases, but no reported casualties.

Saudi Arabia maintains its air defense footing, with the Ministry of Defense saying drones were intercepted and destroyed over Riyadh and the Eastern Province, following a warning for Al-Kharj – home to Prince Sultan Air Base. Six ballistic missiles were detected: two intercepted, with four splashing into the Persian Gulf and empty areas. Absolute chaos in Tel Aviv…

New explosions have been reported in Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Friday. It’s as if Iran and the IRGC are sending a clear “f-you” message to Trump in the wake of the series of ultimatums and deadlines Tehran never asked for. Trump earlier went from 48 hours to 5 days to now a 10-day window amid the threats to attack power and energy infrastructure.

Israel Escalates Too: Will ‘Intensify & Expand’ Strikes on Iran
The White House has been busy talking about its backchannel diplomacy and getting the beginnings of a peace deal off the ground via Pakistan, and at one point within the past week there was talk of Vice President J.D. Vance actually traveling to Islamabad – but the situation on the ground suggests the opposite, given also Israel has on Friday announced escalation of its posture. Israel has continued coming under consistent missile strikes.

Now, Defense Minister Israel Katz is vowing Israel’s attacks will “intensify and expand” – citing that Islamic Republic had not heeded warnings “to stop firing missiles at Israel’s civilian population.” Katz said: “The fire has continued – and therefore, IDF strikes in Iran will intensify and expand to additional targets and domains that assist the regime in developing and deploying weapons against Israeli civilians.” There remains a huge risk for Israel amid the expectation that Iran has been saving its biggest and most advanced, longer range missiles – rationing its arsenal as it settles in for a long war.

Strait of Hormuz Status & Overnight News
Tehran could still be playing a double game of public rejection coupled with private behind-the-scenes signaling. According to Axios’ latest, Iranian officials are quietly showing interest in talks even as they reject Washington’s proposal, with mediators leaning hard to force or ‘will into existence’ a meeting in the coming days. “Things are progressing very slowly” in terms of negotiations between the US and Iran, and as of now, no meeting between senior officials is even on the calendar, per Isreal’s i24NEWS.

The IRGC Navy is still declaring the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut: traffic “to and from” ports tied to enemy allies is banned outright, with warnings any movement will be “severely dealt with.” In a rare twist, The Wall Street Journal reports Iran has even blocked two Chinese vessels from transiting Hormuz – signaling enforcement isn’t just for Western targets. Washington seems to be trying to adapt in real time, as Reuters reports the US has deployed uncrewed drone boats into the theater, opening yet another front in an already widening conflict.

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Not a Ukrainian plot, but “..A (DNC) Plot To Fund Biden Reelection though Ukraine.”

“The scheme was to be disguised as a USAID project, a news outlet claimed, citing a recently declassified intelligence report ..”

• Trump Shares Article On Ukrainian Plot To Fund Biden Reelection (RT)

US President Donald Trump has posted a link to a news story claiming that the Ukrainian government was involved in a plot aimed at financing Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. The scheme would have relied on diverting US taxpayer money allocated for a USAID project in Ukraine, the media outlet Just the News reported on Thursday, citing a recently declassified intelligence report it obtained. The plot dating back to late 2022 could have involved “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to the report. US intelligence reportedly discovered the plot by intercepting Ukrainian government communications, the outlet said.


Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard reportedly learned about the intercepts only recently and ordered a summary of all the information on the case, which was partially obtained by Just the News. “The Ukrainian Government and unspecified US Government personnel, through USAID in Kiev, reportedly developed a plan that would provide hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars to fund an infrastructure project for Ukraine that would be used as a cover to send approximately 90% of funds allocated to the DNC to fund Joe Biden’s re-election campaign,” the document received by the news outlet states. The plotters expected the project to eventually be “disapproved as unnecessary,” but not before they would collect the necessary sum that would be “would be difficult to track” and “impossible to return,” the report reportedly says.

According to Just the News, it is unclear whether Kiev moved forward with the plan. Neither the DNI office nor Gabbard herself made any comments on the issue. Trump also did not comment on the link he posted. Earlier in March, a US government auditor sharply criticized the lack of oversight in the USAID-managed Ukraine aid program worth $26 billion. A March report by the auditor found that Washington sometimes reimbursed duplicate payments to Ukrainian citizens living in other nations who were ineligible. Trump dismantled USAID in 2025 after accusing it of wasteful spending. The State Department took over its responsibilities.

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Trump closed USAID.

• Ukraine Running Out of Money To Fund Its War Machine — Bloomberg (TASS)

Ukraine may run out of money in its defense budget unless it is given more international aid to buy US weapons, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. Kiev, which will need 45 billion euro in foreign financial assistance this year to keep its war machine afloat, currently has enough money to cover military spending until June. In December, the EU agreed to extend a 90 billion euro military loan to the country, and the bloc was due to give Ukraine fresh funding in April, but that timetable was disrupted after the release of loans was blocked by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban amid a squabble with Kiev over the Druzhba pipeline.


This aid package will likely remain in limbo until Hungary’s parliamentary election scheduled for April 12, Bloomberg wrote. Orban’s veto on more European funding for Kiev may complicate talks with other potential creditors, including the G7 countries at IMF meetings next month. According to Bloomberg, Ukraine expects them to contribute 30 billion euro. In addition, a political standoff between Vladimir Zelensky and Ukraine’s parliament has hampered Kiev’s fulfillment of commitments under the International Monetary Fund’s 7 billion euro loan program. While some of the funds have already been disbursed, the Verkhovna Rada has yet to pass amendments to tax legislation required by the IMF, and lawmakers have until the next scheduled review in June to do so.

Ukraine is also asking European countries for help in securing more financing under the PURL program to purchase US weapons. While Kiev needs to buy 13 billion euro worth of in-demand weapons from the United States in 2026, only a handful of countries are paying for the bulk of this equipment, Bloomberg concluded.

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“.. it’s unfortunate he would say that, because he knows that’s not true.”

• Marco Rubio Gives Impromptu Press Conference Departing G7 in Paris (CTH)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes reporters’ questions in Paris, France as he departs the G7 minister meeting for a return trip to Washington DC. There is a lot of good information in this presser. Within the remarks and questions, [06:55] Secretary Rubio is asked about recent comments from Ukraine President Zelenskyy who said the U.S. would only give security guarantees if Ukraine gave the Donbas region to Russia. Secretary Rubio responded, “that’s a lie, and I saw him say that and it’s unfortunate he would say that, because he knows that’s not true.” … “I don’t know why he says these things.”


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Rubio says this is a lie.

• Zelenskyy Says No US Security Guarantees Unless Ukraine Concedes Donbas (CTH)

The more NATO/EU hypocrisy creates friction with President Trump; the less U.S. support exists for Ukraine. That’s the dynamic Zelenskyy is trying desperately to navigate with his EU allies. During a lengthy interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy says he has been directly told the only way for Ukraine to get security guarantees from USA participation is if he concedes the contested Donbas region to Russia and ends the conflict.


Assuming what Zelenskyy says is accurate, at this point in the ongoing stalemate, this seems like the pragmatic optimal solution. Concede Donbas to Russia, and the U.S. will mediate terms that emphasize an American willingness to protect Ukraine from further encroachment. That said, when Zelenskyy once again starts asking who is going to pay for the needs of his country, the U.S. taxpayer eyeroll commences.

KYIV, March 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. is making its offer of security guarantees for a peace deal in Ukraine conditional on Kyiv ceding all of the country s eastern region of Donbas to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters in an interview. [.. ] Two vital questions remained unresolved regarding security guarantees, Zelenskiy said: Who would help to fund Ukraine s weapons purchases to sustain its military deterrent, and how exactly would its allies respond in the face of any future Russian aggression?

The Americans are prepared to finalise these guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas, said the 48-year-old leader, who added that he understood the subtleties of the American position although he had not participated directly himself in the trilateral talks. Russian President Vladimir Putin insists that control of the whole of Donbas is an essential element of his war aims, which Moscow would achieve on the battlefield if it could not do so at the negotiating table.

But the pace of Russia s advance has been slow over the past two years. Military analysts say it could take a long time and a significant amount of manpower to conquer all of Donbas, which includes a so-called Fortress Belt of cities heavily fortified by the Ukrainian military. [..] Speaking in a gilded meeting room at the presidential offices in central Kyiv, Zelenskiy said Russia was betting Washington would lose interest if the peace talks stalled and would walk away. He acknowledged that there was some risk of this.

A fourth round of trilateral talks due this month was postponed due to the Iran conflict. The Ukrainian leader shrugged off past tensions between himself and Trump. I am not a box of chocolates or a car, to be liked or disliked ` by one person or another, he said. In my opinion, the President of the United States looks at this more pragmatically, and he probably wants the war to end quickly. We also want to do so quickly.

[.. ] Following heavy Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities on Wednesday, Zelenskiy thanked the Trump administration for maintaining the supplies of Patriot missile defence systems, despite increased demand for these weapons because of the conflict in the Gulf.[.. ] Deliveries to us were not stopped. I m very grateful to President Trump, and to his team, Zelenskiy said. But this supply of Patriot missiles is not as large as we need. “[..]

It’s never enough for this guy. Ukraine is a bottomless pit of money and corruption. As the EU proclaims that Iran is not a NATO member and the middle east conflict is not their issue, President Trump rightly points out that Ukraine is not a NATO member, and the Ukraine conflict is not our issue. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to a G7 foreign minister summit in France, and paused to answer questions on both Iran and Ukraine from the traveling press pool.

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“.. Tusk’s words are an attempt to provoke dissent in Hungary and mobilize the opposition against the government..”

• EU Accuses Hungary of ‘Pro-Russian Espionage’ (IB)

The rhetorical escalation between Budapest and Brussels continues to grow. Now, the EU accuses Hungary of actively sabotaging Europe by passing strategic information about the bloc to the Russian side. This type of serious accusation could never be made without proof, yet it has become common practice for the Western liberal regimes to accuse its rival countries of “collaborating with Russia” even without any evidence. In a recent statement, the Hungarian Foreign Minister responded to recent European accusations of pro-Russian “espionage” by Hungarian authorities. According to the Hungarian minister, the EU is spreading lies and fake news about Hungary to try to influence the anti-Orban opposition, hoping to obtain a pro-EU result in the upcoming Hungarian elections.


Szijjarto’s words were especially directed at Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who had previously repeated rumors that Hungarian officials had informed Russia about sensitive details of the European bloc’s meetings. Tusk acted extremely irresponsibly by spreading unconfirmed rumors on his social media – and even calling on the EU to take action against Hungary. “The news that Orbán’s people inform Moscow about EU Council meetings in every detail shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time. That’s one reason why I take the floor only when strictly necessary and say just as much as necessary,” Tusk said.

Szijjarto made it clear that Tusk’s words are an attempt to provoke dissent in Hungary and mobilize the opposition against the government during the election period. However, he expressed optimism about the Hungarian government’s ability to overcome these challenges, recalling that recent attempts by Brussels to defeat the pro-Orban coalition had failed due to strong popular support for the government. “Instead of spreading lies and fake news, come to Budapest to support the opposition! Last time it worked… for us (…) You [Tusk] should come to Budapest before April 12 as well! Four years ago, you were the star speaker at the opposition rally, after which we won the elections by 20 percent. Think about it, Budapest is a great place to be,” he said.

Not only did Tusk spread such rumors about Hungary, but even major Western newspapers decided to spread these allegations, despite lacking any concrete evidence to support them. Politico, for example, published an article on the subject, citing various sources among European parliamentarians and officials, mentioning that the EU will take appropriate measures to prevent the leak of its data – including limiting the presence of Hungarian officials in secret meetings.

The sources told Politico that the case is not surprising, as Hungary and Russia have supposedly been “working together” for a long time to harm the EU. Szijjarto was described by the sources as a personal friend of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and as a “traitor” to his homeland.n“The fact that the Hungarian foreign minister, a close friend of [Russian Foreign Minister] Sergey Lavrov, has been reporting to the Russians practically minute by minute from every EU meeting is outright treason (…) This man has not only betrayed his own country, but Europe as well,” one of the sources told Politico.

It is absolutely reprehensible that this type of content is shared by the mainstream media. Respected newspapers should only share fact-based and verified content, not politically motivated and provocative rumors. Similarly, comments from sources whose sole purpose is to attack other European officials, without providing concrete evidence, should be removed by editors. However, the mainstream Western media has a clear objective in the Hungarian elections: to help the opposition and create a political atmosphere hostile to Orban’s team. Brussels and its allies, like Tusk, want to reverse the sovereign foreign policy established by the Orban government and induce Hungary to shift towards pro-Ukraine and anti-Russian tendencies. To this end, methods such as spreading lies to provoke the Hungarian electorate are being used.

It would be no surprise if Hungary suffered even harsher measures, such as a total ban from EU meetings or even sanctions. Despite the lack of evidence, Brussels has already made it clear that it opposes Orban and will do everything possible to overthrow him. There have already been direct threats of sanctions against Hungary on previous occasions, and it is possible that this will be repeated. However, what will happen is the opposite of what European bureaucrats expect: the more threatened Hungary is, the more Eurosceptic and critical of Brussels’ agendas it will become.

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“At what point do both of these conflicts start to look less regional and more like the early stages of a world already at war?”

• Eurasia Energy War? (ZH)

As analysts and traders continue to assess the Gulf energy shock and its implications for the global economy, another alarming development has emerged across the energy sector: Ukrainian kamikaze drone strikes have reportedly disrupted a significant portion of Russia’s oil export capacity, according to Reuters. Reuters calculates that recent Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s oil and fuel export infrastructure, including attacks on all three of Russia’s major western oil export ports, Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and Primorsk and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, have eliminated 40% of Russia’s oil export capacity, or around 2 million barrels per day, in just a matter of weeks.


Taken together, the twin disruptions of Gulf and Russian energy flows (in Eurasia) materially tighten the global energy supply outlook in the coming weeks and months. The convergence of these shocks suggests crude prices are likely to remain elevated as traders price in a sustained geopolitical risk premium and reduced global spare capacity. Kiev has also targeted pumping stations and refineries as part of its effort to squeeze Moscow’s oil revenue, which funds a quarter of Russia’s state budget and its war machine.

This month’s attacks on Russia’s oil and fuel export infrastructure have forced Moscow to divert more flows to eastern export supply channels. Flows to China via the Skovorodino-Mohe and Atasu-Alashankou pipelines, plus ESPO Blend shipments from Kozmino, remain solid at 1.9 million barrels per day.Russia is also still exporting around 250,000 barrels per day from Sakhalin and sending roughly 300,000 barrels per day to Belarusian refineries. When two separate conflicts involving major powers begin to degrade energy infrastructure across Eurasia, we are left with one very big and unsettling question: At what point do both of these conflicts start to look less regional and more like the early stages of a world already at war?

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“The people we care about most, the undocumented migrants. . . . ” — Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)

• Cult Classics (James Howard Kunstler)

Tensions rise as the green fuse drives the flowers of springtime (and thank you, Dylan Thomas, for the loan.) Too many things are out of whack. Some are actually breaking. A physics of events is at work that will bring our affairs back to true, but expect it to be painful. Okay, you’ve been warned. Asia, especially, suffers bigly with the Persian Gulf shut-down. For decades these countries took the oil flows for granted without having to do anything. No thoughts of maritime security. No cares for the chaos Iran sowed across the region (and beyond). Leave the tanker insurance to London. Now, they are rationing the diesel, gasoline, natgas, and aviation fuel. For the moment they are just stunned. Soon, they’ll be hollering, stomping, jumping up and down crying woo-woo-woo.


Europe, for years, has garishly, and in plain sight, planned its own journey to a de-industrialized neo-medieval Palookaville. The poster-child, Germany, destroyed its energy prospects with lunatic glee, in thrall to retarded climate change politics, while the European Union turned into a devouring mother, stole her children’s sovereign agency, and herded them into a Klaus Schwab death camp. No more atomic energy for you! No more cheap gas from Russia. No more heat in wintertime. Jihad for entertainment. The lights are going out and it might be too late to make other arrangements.

Don’t think for a moment that Iran was not a threat to the world, and especially to The Great Satan, as they styled us. The Persians have been hostage to a cult for half a century, and all cults are crazy. This one, the reign of the Shia ayatollahs, was apocalyptic in the pure sense of the word. They prayed and labored avidly for the destruction of others and relished their own martyrdom. The craziest part was thinking that the USA under Donald Trump might possibly roll over for them.

Quit swallowing those black pills, everybody. Iran is not some super-monster out of the Marvel Comics movies. Iran doesn’t have the mojo to shut down the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely. It will run out of missiles, drones, torpedoes, mines, launch sites, and a command structure for deploying any of that. It has converted the other neutral Gulf states into raging enemies eager to help the US — and by extension, most ironically, Israel, too. This rearrangement of interests in the Middle East would have been unthinkable a mere month ago.

We have way more to worry about here in America with our own apocalyptic coteries and claques. And our broken institutions. Is it not obvious that the Democratic Party exists now solely to punish half of the country that would prefer to not wreck our republic? The Democratic Party has no other program. It’s just another death cult. That’s why you were made to wait four and half hours in some far-off precinct of the airport for a flight that you were guaranteed to miss. Well, at least that’s over for now, since the Senate passed a spending bill at two o’clock in the morning today and DHS will be up-and-running again — while Congress takes two weeks off for Easter.

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“.. brought the problem to Putin in this autumn’s Duma election.”

• Putin Himself Is Helping The West To Destabilize Russia (Paul Craig Roberts)

Gilbert Doctorow watches the main Russian television programs that assess world events. He reports the news (see below) that the tiny Baltic States are permitting Ukraine to use their territory to launch drone attacks on St. Petersburg, and that the UK prime minister, Starmer, has urged Britain’s navy to seize Russian “grey fleet” tankers in open seas. Clearly Putin has taught even small and militarily insignificant states to have no fear of Russia.


John Helmer reports that it is not only Trump who has election problems this autumn. Putin’s never-ending war and his central bank’s strangling of the Russian economy has brought the problem to Putin in this autumn’s Duma election. It is Putin’s central bank director, not US sanctions, that is harming the Russian economy. https://johnhelmer.net/juggling-votes-money-and-bullets-president-putin-weighs-the-risk-of-losing-the-state-duma-election-in-september-to-the-opposition/

Putin’s inability to take decisive action is leading the world into World War III. Putin has created the image of Russia as a paper tiger unable after four years of war to drive Ukraine out of Russian Donbas. After four years of gratuitous Russian casualties, St. Petersburg is now faced with Ukrainian drone attacks. Instead of focusing on quickly ending the conflict, the Putin government continues to encourage “negotiations.” Putin seems to regard military victory as a sin. It is extraordinary that Iran has the confidence to attack and destroy US military bases, but Putin shies away from winning a minor conflict and refuses to acknowledge acts of war against Russia.

Time for Putin to bomb the hell out of Estonia – Gilbert Doctorow

In the midst of all the awful news coming out of the Middle East, where Trump, Hegseth and Company are running amok, unchecked, unchallenged by the Great Power defenders of the Global South, who even deny that they are providing Iran with targeting intelligence let alone military materiel as some residual sense of decency and instinct for self-preservation would dictate, there is a tiny bit of bad news that probably has not come your way yet: that the Baltic States are now allowing Ukrainians to use their territory to send aloft attack drones aimed at St. Petersburg. This shocker from yesterday comes on top of Keir Starmer’s statements in the same time frame urging his fleet to board and take over Russian ‘grey fleet’ tankers in the open seas. Both developments are intended to draw the world’s attention to the only conflict that matters for the EU leadership – the one going on in Ukraine, where they still hope to humiliate Moscow, precipitate regime change and a break-up of the Russian Federation.

This internet platform is not a podcast, and I can speak more freely. Accordingly, I say here that if Putin still has a backbone, which many of you in the Community and further afield are rightly beginning to doubt, as I judge from the Comments section of my interview with Glenn Diesen on Tuesday, then he will react without hesitation and without delay: bomb the hell out of Estonia right now, level Tallinn to the ground after giving the civilian population a few hours advance warning to pack their cars and leave. There is no need to open the Pandora’s box of tactical nuclear weapons. There is no need for showy Oreshniks that strike without doing collateral damage. It is precisely collateral damage that Europe needs to see on its own territory. Artillery, missiles, glide-bombs carrying a ton or more of conventional explosives, and similar will turn Tallinn into a Gaza look-alike in a day or two.

What will NATO do about this? Nothing, absolutely nothing. They are not prepared for war and should be reminded of that fact in the most dramatic way possible if we are not to slip further into a civilization destroying all-out nuclear war by further baby step escalation. The bad boy of Russian political scientists, Sergei Karaganov was saying this to Putin’s face during the November 2024 Valdai Discussion Club gathering. He was very right.

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It works.

• Cartels Are Going Broke, US Fentanyl Supply Drops Almost 60%: Homan (ET)

‘The Trump administration’s border crackdown is slowing the flow of deadly drugs into the country to the point that cartel profits have plummeted. Border czar Tom Homan said during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s operation to go after the Mexican cartels has been successful, and that they are now focusing their drug operations on Europe and Asia. Cartels are going broke, Homan said. They know it ‘s hard here.


Sara Carter, director of the National Drug Control Policy and a CPAC speaker, said that securing the U.S. border has meant fewer illegal immigrants and drugs, especially fentanyl. “We ve seen a decrease in fentanyl coming into our country of around 56 percent to 57 percent, which is phenomenal, she said. You re holding China accountable and telling them we are watching the supply chain, and you will be responsible if we see more deaths in our country.” The cartels securing fentanyl precursor chemicals from China and India know what they are doing, she said, adding that cartels and America s adversaries want to break us and to create this massive casualty event.

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Illicit Drug Threats Discussing the impact of policy changes, Carter said that under the Biden administration, the cartels made hundreds of billions of dollars from human trafficking and the sale of narcotics. She said adversarial countries pushing drugs onto American streets, such as China, amount to a proxy war against the United States. Homan and Carter applauded Operation Southern Spear, in which narcoterrorists carrying drugs on boats in the Caribbean were destroyed with U.S. military air strikes.

Carter said stopping drug runners in the Western Hemisphere was part of the president s America First strategy. Carter s comments are supported by a recent study that also points to a sharp decrease in fentanyl deaths. The January study suggested that the decrease in deaths, which started in mid-2023, was due to a disruption in the supply chain of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China, creating a shortage of fentanyl on the streets.

With less fentanyl, dealers and cartels stretched their supply, according to the study. Fentanyl and other street drugs are often cut with substances such as baby powder or sugar. Opioid deaths that started to drop under the previous administration are continuing their downward trend. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) under the Trump administration intensified enforcement operations, putting pressure on the global fentanyl supply chain, forcing narco-terrorists such as the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG Cartel to alter their business model. DEA lab testing showed 29 percent of fentanyl pills analyzed during fiscal year 2025 had a potentially lethal dose, a significant drop from just two years earlier, when 76 percent of pills had enough fentanyl to kill.

The purity of fentanyl powder has decreased to 10.3 percent in fiscal year 2025 from 19.5 percent in 2024, the DEA said.

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“Keep it simple, don’t reconcile bad behavior.”

• Institutional Fear and the Excavation of the Rabbit Hole (CTH)

I shared with readers last year that if CTH felt confident DC engagement would lead to positive results, I would take you on the journey. Having spent so many years inside the rabbit holes of the DC intel matrix, We The People deserve to fully understand just how this corrupt system operates. Well, as promised…. When you mention sensitive intelligence and the whereabouts of corrupt evidence that could expose the state of our weakened Republic, one of the first things you notice is that almost everyone in DC is afraid—both personally and institutionally—to acknowledge it. The Deep State relies on this fear. You can find this fear promoted in the words of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer when he said in January 2017, “when you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at ya.”


Schumer said this two weeks before Donald Trump first took office, aiming to drive home a key point – the DC intelligence system is built to go after anyone who threatens the interests of those overseeing it. Basically, if you try to take on DC corruption, there are guards in place ready to take you down. President Trump, you, me and all Americans spent the next several years watching that dynamic play out in real time. After a long stretch of exhausting research, endless digging, and getting lost in the rabbit holes created by the IC, you eventually figure out how to face the fear they stir up. The real issue isn’t the fear held by those providing the information—it’s the fear carried by those who receive it and are tasked with acting on it.

Taking on the intelligence community requires two key things. First, a fearless person in a position of authority who can stand strong against the intense manipulation they may unleash. Second, a strategy that makes telling the truth a personal mission. The IC have a pattern in their targeting; they repeat previously successful tactics. An effective strategy -to get beyond the fear and gain support from the Executive- is to predict how the IC will eventually target them if they take no action. In the example of retrieving and making public the Inspector General Michael Atkinson transcript as a datapoint to expose the IC corruption, the strategy was to reinforce how intelligence community would use the same approach to target IC leadership, if no sunlight is provided.

In essence, if you don’t go see what they did, review the past event, put it into the context of what it means, well, they will repeat that attack against you. This might not get the person in power to take immediate action; after all, the information provider is basically predicting something that would be remarkable for them to encounter if it happened. The only thing the information provider can do is to tell the location of the evidence, emphasize why it is important and then predict what will happen if the underlying corrupt activity is not exposed. Thankfully, the “Seven Ways from Sunday” group are predictable. Corrupt officials control us by manipulating our love of country; so, we must expose them by using their predictable hatred of it against them.

What followed a few months later was an IC targeting operation that was essentially a duplication of what took place before. Suddenly, the previous reference point takes on an entirely new perspective. Yes, it becomes personal:

That’s the backstory.

• Additionally, last year you might remember that DNI Tulsi Gabbard moved the National Intelligence Council (NIC) out of the CIA. This was done specifically because the covert nature of the CIA was used by the NIC members to manufacture political intelligence. Any resulting NIC analysis, much of which was fraudulently shaped by politics, could not be easily challenged because the covert nature of the CIA protected the authors (analysts) and their constructs. Both Eric Ciaramella and Julia Gurganus worked inside the CIA on the NIC analysis that framed John Brennan’s Russian Interference narrative in January 2017, known as the fraudulent Intelligence Community Assessment. Eric Ciaramella was also the anonymous CIA whistleblower in 2019 for the impeachment effort.

The opaque nature of the CIA was used by NIC analysts as a fabrication tool, one of the “ways” Chuck Schumer described. When DNI Gabbard and CIA Director Ratcliffe worked together to remove the NIC from the CIA, the bad actors within the IC game lost a strategic and political narrative tool. The Intelligence Community embeds were angry and started leaking stuff to allies in media (WSJ, WaPo, Politico and NYT). The goal was to undermine Tulsi Gabbard at every step, using every resource and doing whatever it took. However, DNI Gabbard stayed on mission despite the IC trying to also penetrate the concentric circles around the Office of The President with their bulls**t narratives.

• Last point, the current “Trump supporters” who try to undermine ODNI Tulsi Gabbard are either: (1) brutally naïve, (2) easily manipulated, or (3) working intentionally to retain the Intelligence Community control system that DNI Gabbard is dutifully deconstructing. A shockingly large number of popular voices are part of group three. Think about it in very commonsense terms. DNI Gabbard is digging, declassifying and releasing information that exposes what very bad people have done against President Trump and our nation. The outcomes of her patriotic activity flow steadily from her office. Everyone can see them. So, what exactly are the motives of those who want to undermine Tulsi Gabbard?

Keep it simple, don’t reconcile bad behavior.

Read more …

[JK] Rowling is still treated as persona non grata for arguing that transgender athletes are undermining the great advances in women’s sports”

• International Olympic Committee Imposes Biological Test on Athletes (Turley)

In the Paris Olympics, media and pundits piled on any commentators expressing opposition to transgender athletes playing in women’s sports. From the opening ceremony to the coverage, these athletes were presented as demonstrably women who could not be barred from competition. Now, the International Olympic Committee has announced on Thursday that it would restrict women’s sports to biological females and establish a genetic test for eligibility. The only question is who is going to apologize to JK Rowling and countless others called bigots for their calling for a biological rule to protect women’s sports. The IOC adopted the standard test based on the Y protein, also known as SRY, which is responsible for the initiation of male sex determination.


IOC President Kirsty Coventry declared: “Based on scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development… The scientific evidence is very clear: Male chromosomes give performance advantages in sports that rely on strength, power, or endurance.”That directly contradicts arguments presented in the Supreme Court just this last year and the position of many Democrats who continue to support transgender athletes playing in girls’ sports in states like California. This is not a new finding. A 2019 study in The Journal of Medical Ethics found that the IOC’s previous rules allowing transgender men to compete in women’s sports created “intolerable unfairness.”

Yet, the Democrats still attack those who adopt the same position as the IOC and other organizations. Recently, Arizona state senator Catherine Miranda mocked a young female athlete for not wanting to compete against boys and suggested that she was not competitive enough. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) similarly mocked conservative activist Riley Gaines for simply being too slow to compete against transgender girls. The Nation called the recent discussion of state bans on transgender athletes a “hatefest” and “bigotry.” Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.) was attacked when he said publicly that he would not want his girls playing against biological males. A Democratic flash mob immediately formed to denounce him as a bigot.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey denounced Moulton for “playing politics” with the lives of transgender citizens. Former staffers and interns demanded the usual public confession and apology from a dissenter. One of his top aides actually resigned rather than work with Moulton. Steve Kerrigan, Chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, expressed outrage over his discussing his concerns. As various international organizations come to the same conclusion, it is doubtful that the recriminations will end. Advocates continue to insist that the concern of any advantage is a “myth.” In the meantime, Rowling is still treated as persona non grata for arguing that transgender athletes are undermining the great advances in women’s sports.

Read more …

Original title: “British Defense Minister Outlines How the U.K Navy Will Defend the West, as Soon as They Locate Their Ships“..

• How the U.K Navy Will Defend the West (CTH)

This is a rather remarkable and insightful short segment interview with the British Defense Secretary, who outlines how the great British Navy will defend their interests. Once you realize what is said in this segment, you start to realize just how dependent NATO is on the protection provided by the United States.


…”Britain was forced to ‘borrow’ a German vessel for a NATO operation next month, led by the United Kingdom, after HMS Dragon was deployed to Middle East.”…

Read more …

 

 

 

 

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