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Debt Rattle April 2 2026

Apr 022026
 
 April 2, 2026  Posted by at 9:49 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  63 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh A Lane near Arles (Side of a Country Lane) 1888


• Trump Reassures Americans: Iran Operation Won’t Be a Forever War (Chris Queen)
• US, Iran Discussing Ceasefire In Exchange For Reopening Strait (ZH)
• Rubio Delivers a Reality Check on Iran, NATO, Cuba, and Venezuela (Anderson)
• Marco Rubio, the Question Must be Asked: “Why are we in NATO”? (CTH)
• NATO Without America? A Slow Shift Is Already Underway (Zevelev)
• Keir Starmer Gives a National Address – Things Will Never be the Same Again (CTH)
• Chuck Schumer Is Losing Control of His Party; They Turn On Him (Margolis)
• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Warns Against Unbridled Free Speech (Turley)
• How Many Times has the EU Screwed Itself Over in the Past Year? (Marsden)
• Europe Needs to Hear This Harsh Truth (Stephen Green)
• A Civilization Whose Defense is Abandoned, is Lost (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Charlie Kirk Bullet Doesn’t Match Suspect’s Rifle – Lawyers (RT)
• More Than Half of Americans Believe AI Will Do More Harm Than Good: Poll ET)

 


 

https://twitter.com/andweknow/status/2039304266775740853?s=20 https://twitter.com/WallStreetMav/status/2039126040686248240?s=20 https://twitter.com/ScaryEurope/status/2039236276709376095?s=20 https://twitter.com/BasilTheGreat/status/2039088940129391074?s=20

 


 

 


 


He has to wrap it up quickly, nobody wants a long war, or heavy casualties, and it’s midterms soon.

• Trump Reassures Americans: Iran Operation Won’t Be a Forever War (Chris Queen)

President Donald Trump delivered a speech on Wednesday night with the intention of informing Americans about what’s going on with our joint military operations with Israel against Iran. It was remarkably restrained for a Trump speech and relatively brief. Side note: My favorite phrase from the speech was when Trump referred to the “green, green cash” that Barack Obama threw at the Islamic regime during his presidency. The president remarked that Wednesday was the one-month mark for Operation Epic Fury:


As we speak this evening, it has been just one month since the United States military began Operation Epic Fury targeting the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Iran. In these past four weeks, our Armed Forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield — victories like few people have ever seen before. Tonight, Iran’s navy is GONE. Their air force is in ruins. Their leaders, most of them — the terrorist regime they led — are now dead. Their command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Core is being decimated as we speak. Their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed and their weapons, factories, and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces — very few of them left. Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks.

He reminded viewers that disabling Iran was one of his earliest campaign promises: “From the very first day I announced my campaign for President in 2015, I have vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This fanatical regime has been chanting ‘Death to America, ‘Death to Israel,’ for 47 years. Their proxies were behind the murder of 241 Americans in the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut, the slaughter of hundreds of our servicemembers with roadside bombs, they were involved in the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, and they’ve carried out countless other heinous acts… For these terrorists to have nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat. The most violent and thuggish regime on earth would be free to carry out their campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest, and mass murder from behind a nuclear shield. I will never let that happen.”

The president expressed that his goal was to resolve Iran’s issues diplomatically, but Iran wouldn’t allow that to happen: “My first preference was always the path of diplomacy — yet, the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement. For this reason, in June, I ordered a strike on Iran’s key nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer… The regime then sought to rebuild their nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons… For years, everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons — but in the end, those are just words if you’re not willing to take action when the time comes.”

Trump acknowledged the pain Americans are feeling at the gas pump. (As somebody who recently bought a new vehicle that gets much lower gas mileage than my prior car, I can testify.) “Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home… This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict. This is yet more proof that Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. They will use them and they will use them quickly. It would lead to decades of extortion, economic pain, and instability worse than we can ever imagine. The United States has never been better prepared economically to confront this threat.”

He called out nations that are dealing with the effects of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz: “To those countries that can’t get fuel — many of which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, we had to do it ourselves — I have a suggestion. Number one, buy oil from the United States of America; we have plenty. We have so much. And Number two, build up some delayed courage… Go to the Strait and just take it. Protect it. Use it for yourselves. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done.”

After assuring the public that operations in Iran should be done in “two to three weeks,” Trump reassured his viewers that Iran’s days as a threatening power are almost over. “Tonight, every American can look forward to a day when we are finally free from the wickedness of Iranian aggression and the specter of nuclear blackmail,” he declared. “Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world.”

Tonight, the president gave a speech that was characteristically Trumpian. But it achieved the objectives that he wanted of informing the American people that Operation Epic Fury is nearly over and won’t be a “forever war.”

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A ceasefire or “back to the stone age”, everything’s on the menu.

• US, Iran Discussing Ceasefire In Exchange For Reopening Strait (ZH)

Ahead of Trump’s address tonight at 9pm ET, Axios reports citing three sources that the US and Iran are discussing a potential deal that would involve a ceasefire in exchange for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz “The officials did not say whether those discussions had taken place directly or only through mediators, and they cautioned that it was unclear whether a deal could be reached. But the officials said President Trump was discussing the possibility with officials inside and outside the administration.” As a reminder, earlier in the day Trump claimed on Wednesday that Iran had asked the U.S. for a ceasefire, but stressed he would only consider it if the strait was reopened. In response, Iran countered that it had not requested a ceasefire. https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/2039352788468003220
* * *

Iranian Supreme Leader Vows To “Continue Supporting The Resistance Against The Zionist-US Enemy”
Amid speculation that he is dead or badly wounded, moments ago Iran’s new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on X that he “emphatically declare that the consistent policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, following on the path of Imam Khomeini and the martyred Leader, is to continue supporting the Resistance against the Zionist-US enemy.”
* * *

Iran: Not True that Iran Requested a Ceasefire
Iran has again rejected Trump’s narrative, after he hours ago claimed that “Iran’s New Regime President” has just “asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!” Iran’s Foreign Ministry has responded by saying “there is no truth” to “Trump’s statements that Iran requested a ceasefire.” The Iran FM spox statement continues: “No decision has been made yet. We have many considerations. Our conditions for ending the war are very clear. We do not accept a ceasefire; We seek a complete end.” As a reminder, President Masoud Pezeshkian has been Iran’s president since July 2024 – and he’s made public appearances in Tehran, even over the last days. There is not a “new regime president”.= Additionally, Trump is now threatening to bomb Iran “back to the stone age” if Hormuz is not reopened, but just yesterday suggested he’s fine with it staying closed and that ultimately others should open it.

Preparing American Public for an Exit?
President Trump has issued new words to Reuters on his highly anticipated speech tonight (9pm ET): The United States will be “out of Iran pretty quickly” and could return for “spot hits” if needed, President Donald Trump tells Reuters, hours before he was scheduled to make a primetime address to the nation. Trump also says he would state in the speech that he is considering withdrawing the US from the NATO alliance. There’s expected to be heavy focus on chastising NATO. If this is indeed the Bush-style ‘mission accomplished’ moment, it may be that he’s ready to blame Western allies for the closure of the Hormuz Strait – a problem which didn’t exist before Operation Epic Fury.

Trump: Iran President has Asked for Ceasefire
President Trump on Truth Social has claimed the US has been directly asked for ceasefire; however, he coupled this with the typical threat of bombing Iran “back to the Stone Ages!!!” Here’s what he said (note: Iran does not have a new president): Iran’s New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE! We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!! President DJT

And yet the Hormuz question lingers, after just yesterday Trump strangely said the vital energy shipping waterway would “automatically open”. Oil prices initially dumped on the Trump message, and quickly rebounded – perhaps based on the latter part of Trump’s statement. A lot would have to happen – for one Washington is likely to require that Tehran giving up charging a some $2 million fee for tankers to make safe passage. Oil unimpressed…

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“Cuba has no economy, and no one there can fix the economy because they’re incompetent. ..”

• Rubio Delivers a Reality Check on Iran, NATO, Cuba, and Venezuela (Anderson)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been doing a lot of MSM interviews lately, and I kind of get the feeling he’s… fed up. He’s tired of having to correct false narratives on Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela. As I reported on Monday, he got to a point where he told George Stephanopoulos that maybe he needed to “write down” Donald Trump’s objectives for Iran because no matter how many times Rubio told him what they were, he implied that he didn’t understand them. While it was entertaining, it does get old, I imagine.


The three main points about these topics that he’s asked about in every interview — and there have been a lot; perhaps Trump is prepping him to cover for Karoline Leavitt when she goes on maternity leave (kidding) — are as follows: 1) We’re very close to meeting our objectives in Iran. Not months, not days but weeks away. 2) Cuba has no economy, and no one there can fix the economy because they’re incompetent. 3) Venezuela is in phase two of the three-phase plan he and Trump have for its recovery, and things are going very well there. But no matter how many times he says these things, to hear the MSM tell it, the administration has no idea what’s going on in Iran, the people in Cuba are suffering because of Trump, and Venezuela isn’t improving at all.

Well, on Tuesday night, Rubio appeared on Hannity on Fox News, where he was actually allowed to talk without being asked asinine questions. He hit on all three countries (and NATO), and while he didn’t necessarily say anything new, he was able to lay it all out clearly and without dealing with stupidity, so it was nice to watch. Plus, as I said, he’s fed up with these MSM narratives, and it’s always fun to watch him get a little worked up. I’m going to kick back here and let him do most of the talking. I feel like i’m taking the lazy way out, but sometimes, it’s best just to let him talk. On how efficiently our military has achieved its objection and how it will “go down in history”:

On the threat to the United States and the rest of the world:

On why it’s the regime’s fault that we’ve gotten to this point:

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“The NATO membership is now a one-way street where they demand our military protection..”

• Marco Rubio, the Question Must be Asked: “Why are we in NATO”? (CTH)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears on Fox News to discuss the various goals and objectives of the U.S. military operation against Iran. As part of the interview Secretary Rubio was asked about the strategic conflicts and hypocrisies now flowing from NATO member states. The U.S. supports our NATO posture in Europe in part because it provides us with strategic military bases and operations that are considered vital to our national interests. However, as outlined in the Iran conflict, when we need to use those strategic bases the NATO member states withdraw previous permissions. France has blocked us from flying over their airspace, Spain and Italy have said the U.S. cannot use our military bases on their soil for operations. The U.K has refused to protect and/or escort their own energy assets.


The NATO membership is now a one-way street where they demand our military protection, but Europe blocks us from using our own military assets for our independent operations. Europe, while hiding behind the NATO protection skirt of the U.S, is simultaneously telling the U.S. what we can and cannot do with our own military. Secretary Rubio and President Trump are now confronting this very visible one-way benefit head on.

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80 years ago.

• NATO Without America? A Slow Shift Is Already Underway (Zevelev)

US President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy is often dismissed as chaotic or erratic. In reality, it reflects a deeper shift that is unlikely to disappear when he leaves office. Beneath the surface lies a consistent worldview, one shaped by populism and nationalism, that’s steadily gaining ground, both within the United States and globally. This shift is already reshaping long-standing institutions. Nowhere is this more visible than in Washington’s relationship with its European allies. For decades, US foreign policy rested on a simple premise: alliances, above all NATO, were the foundation of American power and influence. That consensus held across party lines for nearly 80 years. Today, it’s breaking down.


Trump is not merely skeptical of alliances, he openly questions their value. His reaction to the refusal of European allies to support US and Israeli military action against Iran was telling. Writing on Truth Social, he described NATO as a “paper tiger” and accused American allies of cowardice. “Everyone agrees with us, but they don’t want to help. And we, as the United States, must remember this,” he said. The message is blunt: if allies don’t act when Washington calls, then their status as allies is called into question. This doesn’t mean the United States is about to withdraw from NATO. What is unfolding is more gradual, and arguably more significant – a quiet dismantling of the alliance’s traditional structure.

There are growing signs of this shift: sharper rhetoric, fewer high-level engagements, and plans to reduce the American role within NATO’s command system. This is no longer just political theater.Even when constrained by Congress, as in the decision to block a rapid reduction of US troops in Europe, the administration has adjusted tactics rather than abandoning its objective. The restriction on cutting troop levels below 76,000 slows the process, but doesn’t change its direction. The broader aim remains clear: shifting responsibility onto Europe.A key element of this strategy is the gradual transfer of operational control. Reforms to NATO’s integrated command structure are already underway.

Soon, all three of the alliance’s operational commands will be led by Europeans. This marks a significant step towards transforming NATO into a European-led organization. If the United States relinquishes its central role in force planning and command, the consequences will be profound. NATO may remain intact in form, but its substance will change. Washington will no longer lead the alliance in the way it once did. This isn’t simply a matter of one president’s preferences. Trump reflects a broader shift in American public opinion.

There’s growing fatigue in the United States with the idea of underwriting the security of others. Years of costly conflicts in the Middle East, rising national debt, and pressing domestic concerns have made the traditional role of global guarantor increasingly unpopular. Don’t mistake it for isolationism. The recent strikes on Iran demonstrate that Washington remains willing to use force when it chooses. The change is more subtle, and more consequential. The United States no longer wants to be bound by obligations. Alliances and institutions that once defined American leadership are now seen as constraints. The emerging model is one of leadership without commitments: the ability to act freely, without being tied to the interests or expectations of partners.

That is a fundamentally different approach to international relations. It leaves NATO in an uncertain position, still formally intact, but increasingly hollowed out. In time, the alliance may survive. But it will no longer be the same organization that defined the transatlantic relationship for generations. And it’s far from clear that Europe is ready for what comes next.

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“.. if it remains alone, without key support and protection from the USA, the British empire is at risk of collapse.”

• Keir Starmer Gives a National Address – Things Will Never be the Same Again (CTH)

Against the backdrop of the Iran conflict, crisis in the middle east and the disruption of energy supplies due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, U.K Prime Minister Keir Starmer held an urgent meeting with British business leaders, finance and bankers as well as U.K insurance leaders. At the conclusion of that meeting he informed media of a national address. During the national address to the people of Great Britain, Prime Minister Starmer emphasized that events in the middle east have forever changed the landscape of U.K. economic and geopolitical policy. Signaling an inflection point crossed, the British prime minister announced that urgent actions were being taken to mitigate a national crisis.


Additionally, accepting the U.S. position toward NATO and the U.K appears to be permanently shifted, Starmer said the British relationship with Europe now becomes critical to their vital national security interests. Against the backdrop of an end to the “special relationship” with America, the Brexit independence from the European Union is now a threat. The United Kingdom must find a way to reunite with the European Union, because if it remains alone, without key support and protection from the USA, the British empire is at risk of collapse.


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“..while he may be the most recognizable congressional leader, that familiarity isn’t doing him any favors ..”

• Chuck Schumer Is Losing Control of His Party; They Turn On Him (Margolis)

A quiet rebellion is brewing inside the Democratic Party, and Chuck Schumer is sitting right in the crosshairs. Even as the Senate Minority Leader works to claw back the majority he lost in 2024, several Senate candidates are making it a point of pride to say they won’t support him as leader — before they’ve even won their races. The clearest shot came from Illinois. Lieutenant Gov. Juliana Stratton, who won her Democratic Senate primary earlier this month, made her position crystal clear during a January debate. “I’ve already said that I will not support Chuck Schumer as leader in the Senate, and I’m the only person on this stage that has said so,” Stratton declared. She’s not alone.


Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow has also called for Schumer to step aside. Texas Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico is keeping his options open, saying he wants to hear from leadership candidates before making any commitment. And when Sen. Chris Murphy was offered the opportunity on NBC’s Meet the Press to back Schumer directly, he ducked it with a classic non-answer: “Well, no, we are united as a caucus right now.” United, sure. Just not necessarily behind Schumer.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, was careful to keep his support firmly in the past tense. “I’ve been supportive of our leadership right now,” Kim said, which is a far cry from saying he’d vote to keep Schumer in charge after November, and it’s quite the insult to the sitting leader. “And I think that that’s really what the American people are seeing is what we get when the Democrats are united, and the Republicans are constantly fighting themselves,” Kim concluded.

The Hill reports: “Schumer, 75, has led the Senate Democratic Conference since 2016, when he replaced longtime party leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who died in 2021. But in recent years, the New York Democrat has faced calls to give up power from various corners of the party, including from progressive groups, House Democrats, and even Democrats running for Senate. Criticism of Schumer particularly ramped up after eight Democrats, a group he was not part of, joined Republicans in voting to end the record-long government shutdown in November.

Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, the Democratic nominee in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), told liberal YouTuber Jack Cocchiarella earlier this month that she does not support Schumer serving as Senate Democratic leader for another Congress. We all know that Schumer’s problems with the base go back to this vote to keep the government open last March. That one vote cost him dearly with the base, and he’s never recovered from it. Schumer told The Hill he is just focused on winning the majority in November.

“The way to counter Trump more effectively is to win the majority in 2026 and put gavels in the hands of Democrats. That’s my North Star, and that’s what I’m focused on doing every single day,” Schumer said. A recent Morning Consult poll found that while he may be the most recognizable congressional leader, that familiarity isn’t doing him any favors. Compared to John Thune, Mike Johnson, and Hakeem Jeffries, Schumer is viewed the most negatively.

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“No One Knows What Will Happen Now”:

• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Warns Against Unbridled Free Speech (Turley)

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is again warning of a growing threat to the nation. In her lone dissent in Chiles v. Salazar, Jackson observed that “to be completely frank, no one knows what will happen now.” The ominous tone stemmed from the fact that free speech had prevailed over state-imposed orthodoxy in a Colorado case. Eight justices, including her two liberal colleagues, ruled that Colorado could not prevent licensed counselors from “any practice or treatment” that “attempts or purports to change” a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The win for free speech was catastrophic for Jackson and many on the left. Allowing counselors to discuss the causes and basis for sexual orientation changes, Jackson maintained, would “open a can of worms.” It would be far better for the majority to simply silence such dissenting voices in the name of science.


The dissent in Chiles is only the latest example of the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Jackson, including a pronounced dismissal of free speech values. Consider the holding of her colleagues that Jackson finds so horrific. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the First Amendment “reflects … a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely, and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for discovering truth … any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an ‘egregious’ assault on both of those commitments.” What a nightmare.

Instead, Jackson would have declared the ban on anything deemed “conversion therapy” to be “conduct,” not speech. It is that easy. You simply impose an orthodoxy and then treat any dissenters as being regulated for their conduct, not their viewpoints. Justice Elena Kagan could not withhold her frustration with her colleague, noting that “[b]ecause the State has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward.” She added that Jackson’s view “rests on reimagining—and in that way collapsing—the well-settled distinction between viewpoint-based and other content-based speech restrictions.”

Other countries have embraced Jackson’s permissive approach to speech curtailment. Recently, Malta failed to convict a man who was facing five months in prison for merely discussing his own abandonment of homosexuality due to a religious conversion. Of course, we just went through a pandemic when censorship and orthodoxy were dressed up as science. Leading scientific figures were canceled and harassed. That was the case with Jay Bhattacharya, who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration and was a vocal critic of COVID-19 policies. Bhattacharya was target due to his dissenting views on health policy, including opposing wholesale shutdowns of schools and businesses.

He and other scientists were later vindicated. European allies that did not shut down their schools fared far better than we did, including avoiding a national mental health and learning crisis. We simply never had that debate. He was recently honored with the prestigious “Intellectual Freedom” award from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters. He is also now the 18th director of the National Institutes of Health. Yet, years ago, the courts, the media, and politicians joined in treating dissenting views as “conspiracy theories.”

Some argued that the virus’s origin was likely the Chinese research lab in Wuhan. That position was denounced by the Washington Post as a “debunked” coronavirus “conspiracy theory.” The New York Times Science and Health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli called any mention of the lab theory “racist.” Federal agencies now support the lab theory as the most likely based on the scientific evidence.Likewise, many questioned the efficacy of those blue surgical masks and supported natural immunity to the virus — the government later recognized both positions.

Others questioned the six-foot rule, which shut down many businesses, as unsupported by science. In congressional testimony, Dr. Anthony Fauci later admitted that the rule “sort of just appeared” and “wasn’t based on data.” Yet not only did it result in heavily enforced rules (and meltdowns) in public areas, but the media further ostracized dissenting critics. For years, pundits portrayed those who questioned gender reassignment surgeries and treatments as bigots. Now, leading medical associations and European nations have decided that such procedures should not be generally allowed. All of it was orthodoxy masquerading as science.

Yet, Jackson sees the protection of dissenting scientific and professional views as a “can of worms” that the courts should avoid in favor of state and assocational imposed truths. She wrote that allowing such opposing views “ultimately risks grave harm to Americans’ health and wellbeing.”

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“Ursula von der Leyen recently announced the need to yank another €200 million from taxpayers to “support investment in innovative nuclear technologies.”

• How Many Times has the EU Screwed Itself Over in the Past Year? (Marsden)

Hey, good news! The EU has found a new source of desperately needed gas amid the current energy crunch. The bad news? It’s in the US. So it will serve America, first. With Europe getting any sloppy seconds that Daddy Trump feels like overcharging it for when he isn’t threatening to invade. It’ll be the French energy multinational, TotalEnergies, serving it up to the US like a waiter at a Montmartre bistro, forced to smile and bow while the guest pockets the silverware.


Even better? The company wasn’t even supposed to be over there doing that. They had planned to be building offshore windfarms. But instead, Trump’s Department of the Interior now says that they made a deal with the French company to spend roughly a billion dollars investing in American gas operations in exchange for getting about the same amount of cash back for agreeing to say goodbye to its green wind dreams in the US. Team Trump calls it an “innovative agreement driven by President Donald J. Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda.” But the CEO of the European company is making the cucking sound like a big win.

“TotalEnergies is pleased to sign this settlement agreements with the DOI and to support the Administration’s Energy Policy. Considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest, we have decided to renounce offshore wind development in the United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees,” said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne, while adjusting his knee pads, before continuing to service Trump via official US government press release.

“Furthermore, these agreements, under which we will reinvest the refunded lease fees to finance the construction of the 29 Mt Rio Grande LNG plant and the development of our oil and gas activities, allows us to support the development of US gas production and export.” Hold up. So this company gave the US about a billion dollars in exchange for access to green energy. Then the US gave them back their money. And now they’re reinvesting it to serve Trump’s agenda? And publicly “pleased” about it?

Well, good riddance to – er, I mean, so much for Europe’s green dreams, I guess. But at least it means they’ll get easier access to more desperately needed LNG, right? Since they’re the ones doing the heavy lifting. Not without securing a trade agreement on America’s terms, they won’t. Which is why they’re aiming to ratify a trade agreement with their tormentor.

Brussels had been concerned about the agreement that was struck with Trump back in 2025, named the Turnberry Agreement after the US president’s Scottish golf resort where it all went down. The deal was about tariffs. Specifically, it gave a huge break to the US with ZERO tariffs on some of its exports to the EU, while slapping a 15-percent tariff on EU imports to the US. Another master stroke of cuckoldry. And yet Trump still won’t stop talking about how the EU is constantly stiffing America on trade. Which explains why the EU has been dragging its feet on ratifying it, worried that maybe it was putting too many eggs in a very unstable basket. Something that the US warned it against doing with Russia, being only too happy to step up to offer a costlier overdependency on itself instead.

The EU is doing the exact same with green energy, turning its back on nuclear power before its beloved green renewables were even ready for prime time. Which also went about as well as you might expect from these central planning geniuses. Calling it a screwup, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced the need to yank another €200 million from taxpayers to “support investment in innovative nuclear technologies.” The same ones they’d been busy vilifying until recently.

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“Europe believes that their needs must be our priority, and that, furthermore, we’re required to do their job for them.”

• Europe Needs to Hear This Harsh Truth (Stephen Green)

Shipping and military expert John Konrad spent all day in D.C. on Tuesday talking to his military sources and concluded that “the Navy appears to be in no rush to reopen the strait,” even while Iran dictates whose oil tankers are allowed to pass. “What is this administration trying to leverage?” Konrad wondered, and that nobody he talked to was willing to discuss the fate of Hormuz “until European politicians and media stop calling Americans war criminals and monsters.”


While Konrad admitted he has “no idea” when Hormuz will reopen, “but if the price is a modicum of cooperation and respect for everything America has done for decades to keep Europe safe, the strait could stay closed for months, or turned into a toll booth for years, because the majority of Americans…. and the vast majority of Trump administration officials I’ve talked with… seem fed up with their arrogance.” The self-styled sophisticates in Brussels and Europe’s capitals remain remarkably provincial in their outlook, and that’s why today we will speak some harsh truths to our friends in Europe — not because the truth is harsh, but because they believe that we naïve Americans don’t recognize it.

So here comes the truth bomb, laser-guided right into the atrium of the EU’s Berlaymont building. The harsh truth is that Hormuz is their priority, not ours, and yet they refuse to make any serious contribution to the war effort. The U.S. is a net exporter of oil and liquified natural gas (LNG), and we buy hardly anything from the Gulf. Closing the Strait of Hormuz is an inconvenience for us (in the price of gas and diesel) and hardly a strategic necessity. In both military and economic terms, Hormuz is way down our target list. Complicating the decision matrix even further, re-opening Hormuz at this stage likely requires ground troops — so it’s simply smarter for us to continue the bombing campaign and see if we can’t wait out an increasingly split and brittle regime that might still collapse under pressure.

Europe, of course, doesn’t see things the way we do. Europe believes that their needs must be our priority, and that, furthermore, we’re required to do their job for them. [And Another Thing: We could do more to stabilize energy prices, but in 2024, the Biden Cabal declared a moratorium on the construction of new LNG export terminals. So while the rest of the world suffers an LNG supply shock, our producers are forced to, at times, pay people to take LNG off their hands, and even burn off excess. Crazy, right?]

Before Epic Fury, something like 20% of the world’s LNG and 25% of seaborne oil trade passed through the strait each year and accounted for something like 10-15% of Europe’s energy supplies. Losing that hurts, and Politico reported on Tuesday that one “top Brussels official urges Europeans to work from home and drive less.”nEU energy chief Dan Jørgensen says Europe faces a “very serious situation,” and that “even if… peace is here tomorrow, still we will not go back to normal in the foreseeable future.”nSucks to be EU, chief. Meanwhile, Europe’s contribution to the actual military effort is barely minuscule, and a handful of nations, including France (duh), Spain (fricken commies), and even Giorgia Meloni’s Italy, have closed their airbases to our military traffic headed to the Gulf. Apparently, “lead, follow, or get out of the way” isn’t a part of Europe’s lexicon.

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The UK today.

• A Civilization Whose Defense is Abandoned, is Lost (Paul Craig Roberts)

For many years I have expressed concern that Western Civilization was being destroyed intentionally from within by failing to convey the civilization’s achievements to succeeding generations via education. Instead, education was used to alienate generations from their own civilization by stressing evils such as wars, slavery, oppression of blacks and women, oppression of other peoples as the result of colonial rule, abuse of children by parents, religious prejudices, class prejudices, and so on. The history of Western Civilization as a series of great reforms was kept from generation after generation so successfully that today hardly anyone under sixty years of age knows about them.


Western civilization has many achievements in science, technology, architecture, music, art, but perhaps the greatest achievement of Western Civilization began in the ninth century during the reign of Alfred the Greet in what became England. Alfred established law based on the people’s beliefs and behavior–the English Common Law–not on the edicts of a king. This was the beginning of developments over the centuries that culminated in the Glorious Revolution of 1680 that established that the king was subject to the law and the law was established by the commoners and the aristocrats in Parliament, thus making the king accountable to the people. The accountability of government rested on free speech. Without free speech truth cannot be ascertained.

The Americans who inherited the notion of government accountable to the people inscribed in the US Constitution the right to free speech.In recent years this right on which accountable government rests has been eroded in the US and essentially destroyed in the UK. In America today citizens who use the Constitutionally protected right of free speech can lose their jobs, can be prohibited from contracting with or having jobs with many state governments. If they are students who protest Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians, they are expelled from the university, and if they are foreign students they are deported. The universities do nothing to protect the free speech that the US Constitution guarantees. Neither do the bar associations nor the law schools.

Free speech is in the way of anti-Western civilization ideologies. We must believe that white racism, not the black King of Dahomey’s slave wars, is the cause of black slavery. We are denied the fact that blacks held blacks in slavery and the fact that the blacks sent to the New World were enslaved by blacks, and that colonists in the New World purchased already enslaved blacks for a labor force. White people did not enslave black people. Black people sold as slaves were enslaved by the black King of Dahomey. You will not be able to find this fact in any Black Studies program in any university. The generations of indoctrination of white people against themselves, called education, has produced a situation in which law is no longer applied to the guilty but to his victim. Black immigrant-invaders are protected against hate speech and an accusation of rape has become hate speech.

In the UK, and also I believe in Norway and Sweden and perhaps throughout the EU, a white woman who reports a rape or a gang-rape might be charged with a hate crime against a “person of color.” This possibility essentially conveys rape privileges to black immigrant-invaders to rape white European women. The police are as likely to hold the rape victim accountable for a hate crime as to hold the rapist accountable for rape. In England these rapes went on for 30 years with the police and the British government doing nothing about it except covering it up. A year or two ago former British prime minister Liz Truss said that for 30 years the British government covered up the rapes. It stilll does.

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Tyler Robinson’s defense team may use this argument in an attempt to get the charges against him dropped”

• Charlie Kirk Bullet Doesn’t Match Suspect’s Rifle – Lawyers (RT)

Investigators could not match the bullet that killed conservative influencer Charlie Kirk to the rifle used by his alleged assassin, lawyers for the suspect have claimed. The accused killer’s defense team is using this fact to push for a delayed trial. Tyler Robinson’s lawyers said in a recent court filing that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could not conclusively connect a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body to a rifle found at the scene, citing an internal report by the agency.


The full ATF report has not been made public, but Robinson’s lawyers cited excerpts from the document in a request to delay a preliminary hearing scheduled for May. The 22-year-old suspect’s legal team stated that they need more time to review the bullet analysis, and to analyze the DNA of multiple other people found at the crime scene. Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was shot in the neck and killed almost instantly at an event on a Utah college campus last September. His death sent shockwaves through the US, with President Donald Trump posthumously awarding Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and describing the conservative icon as “a visionary and one of the greatest figures of his generation.”

Robinson was arrested two days after Kirk’s death. Investigators quickly linked him to a Mauser model 98 rifle found near the scene, which had apparently been modified at some point to fire the American 30.06 round used in the assassination. Text messages between Robinson and his transgender lover were then unearthed, in which Robinson confessed to the killing and revealed almost every detail of the plot, down to how he cleaned his fingerprints off the gun before stashing it in a nearby patch of woods.

Prosecutors have said that DNA matching Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, but the case has nevertheless spawned multiple conspiracy theories – including the widely spread claim that Kirk was killed for turning on TPUSA’s pro-Israel donors and opposing US strikes on Iran. Every firearm leaves a unique imprint on a bullet as the projectile leaves the barrel. When enough fragments are found in good condition, ballistic analysts can match the projectile to the weapon with almost 100% confidence. Robinson’s lawyers suggested in the filings that they may point to the lack of a match in an attempt to dismiss charges against their client.

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People hear it will take their jobs, and that’s all they can understand.

• More Than Half of Americans Believe AI Will Do More Harm Than Good: Poll ET)

About 55 percent of Americans surveyed in a 2026 Quinnipiac poll said artificial intelligence (AI) will be more harmful than helpful. The survey, released on March 30, was conducted in collaboration with the Quinnipiac University School of Computing & Engineering and the Quinnipiac University School of Business. In April 2025, only 44 percent believed AI would do more harm than good in their daily lives. In the 2026 poll, 21 percent answered that AI affects their lives a lot, while 29 percent said only somewhat, and 30 percent believed AI impacts are minimal. Only 17 percent said they are not impacted at all.


Regarding education, 64 percent of survey respondents said AI is more harmful, compared with just 27 percent who believe it will help. For health care issues, 45 percent of those surveyed believed AI will do more harm, while 43 percent said AI will be more helpful. The employment outlook showed the greatest percentage of people worried about the future of AI, as 75 percent said continuous advancements in AI will most likely lead to a decline of job opportunities for people. While 18 percent said AI will not have much of an impact on jobs, only 7 percent said jobs for humans will increase as a result of AI.

In just one year, the fear of possible job losses due to AI increased by nearly 20 points. In April 2025, 56 percent of respondents said AI would be detrimental to human jobs. All generations surveyed remain pessimistic about the job outlook as a result of AI’s rapid growth, with Gen Z—including ages 18 to 29—exhibiting the highest percentage at 81 percent. For millennials, aged 30 to 45, 71 percent said jobs are likely to decrease as AI grows, and 67 percent of Gen Z, aged 46 to 61, agree. Of the baby boomer generation, aged 62 to 80, 66 percent indicated that human jobs will decline.

“Younger Americans report the highest familiarity with AI tools, but they are also the least optimistic about the labor market,” Tamilla Triantoro, associate professor of business analytics and information systems at Quinnipiac University School of Business, said in the report. “AI fluency and optimism here are moving in opposite directions.”Among those currently employed, 30 percent reported being very or somewhat concerned about AI rendering their jobs obsolete, but 69 percent said they are not very worried about it. Compared with last year’s survey, only 21 percent of employed Americans expressed fear of losing their jobs to AI.

“Americans are more worried about what AI may do to the labor market than about what it may do to their own jobs,” Triantoro said. “People seem more willing to predict a tougher market than to picture themselves on the losing end of that disruption—a pattern worth watching as the technology moves deeper into the workplace.”

An overwhelming 85 percent of Americans said they would be unwilling to work a job where their direct supervisor was an AI program that assigned their tasks and schedules. When asked how much they trust AI, 76 percent of respondents said that they hardly ever trust it, while just 21 percent admitted they do trust AI. Still, 51 percent said they often use AI for researching topics. Only 20 percent said they relied on AI for medical advice, and just 15 percent for personal advice.

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Debt Rattle March 9 2026

Mar 092026
 
 March 9, 2026  Posted by at 10:37 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  73 Responses »


Edgar Degas Self Portrait 1862


• Iran Picks Khamenei’s Son As Next Supreme Leader (ZH)
• AI Agents ‘Freeing Themselves’ And Going Rogue Increasingly Common (Rick Moran)
• Newsom and the Risks of Running on Style Over Substance (Victor Davis Hanson)
• The MAHA Vote Could Decide the Midterms. What Can Trump Do to Secure It? (DS)
• Epstein-Linked Billionaire Bankrolled Democratic Party, Records Show (DS)
• Trump Prompts Military Coalition With Latin American Leaders To Fight Cartels (ET)
• Part II – Europe and China Have an Energy Problem (CTH)
• Dem Leaders Can’t Explain Past Support For Presidential War Powers (Turley)
• US Intel Assessed Massive US Attack ‘Unlikely’ To Oust Iranian Regime: WaPo (ZH)
• Venezuela’s Gas Potential Could Overshadow Its Famous Oil Reserves (OP)
• Trump Mocks UK for Belated Proposal of Military Aid Against Iran (Catherine Salgado)
• UK Government Brands Union Flag A ‘Tool Of Hate’ (MN)
• The Bretton Whoops (No. 1)
• Turkey Mulls F-16 Deployment To Turkish-Occupied Cyprus (ZH)
• Kremlin: “We Are Not Neutral. We Support Iran.” (ZH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/antmillionsbot/status/2030566864066154527?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2030494970101088665?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricaRN4USA/status/2030505612505727049?s=20 https://twitter.com/asadnasir2000/status/2030560043456934056?s=20 https://twitter.com/HungaryBased/status/2030395566291837051?s=20

 


 


“..he oversees a sprawling investment empire stretching from Tehran to Dubai and Frankfurt.”

• Iran Picks Khamenei’s Son As Next Supreme Leader (ZH)

Update (1745ET): As was rumored and widely expected, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba, will become Iran’s next supreme leader, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency announced, taking over after his father was killed in an attack by the US and Israel. Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is the third person to lead the Islamic Republic and the first example of hereditary succession since the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy in the 1979 revolution. In other words, it appears that Iran overthrew a monarchy 47 years ago to institute a… monarchy.


Iran’s Assembly of Experts elected the country’s next supreme leader in a “decisive vote,” according to Fars. The vote took place hours before the result was made public. The younger Khamenei was born in the holy city of Mashhad in Iran’s northeast in 1969 as the family’s second-oldest son. He fought briefly in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war that consolidated his father’s rise to power and became a cleric, studying at Iran’s main religious seminary city of Qom, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The clip below shows Mojtaba Khamenei announced as Iran’s new Supreme Leader in Tehran’s Vanak Square.

He keeps a relatively low public profile, but is seen as close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military force that leads Iran’s missile program and regional alliances with militias, and which has swelled to control as much as 40% of Iran’s economy. Immediately after the official announcement, the IRGC said it backed and pledged obedience to the new Supreme Leader. During alleged interference in the country’s 2009 elections that sparked widespread street protests, the opposition accused Mojtaba of being involved. Bloomberg reported in January that he oversees a sprawling investment empire stretching from Tehran to Dubai and Frankfurt.

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Themes at TAE in the past 15 years: starting in 2015, the advent of Donald Trump. After that in 2020, Covid. then, from 2022, the Ukraine war.

In 2026, we now have the fourth “theme”: AI. We have just scratched its surface, and maybe that’s a good thing. Ease into it.

• AI Agents ‘Freeing Themselves’ And Going Rogue Increasingly Common (Rick Moran)

“AI agents going beyond their prompts are no longer rare,” reports Axios. It’s not necessarily worrying. The AI agents that “go rogue” do so in a controlled, experimental environment. One AI agent created by an Alibaba-affiliated research team went “rogue” and began an unauthorized cryptomining effort during training, according to a research paper by the group. The behavior triggered security alarms. The researchers said they found “unanticipated” and spontaneous behaviors emerge “without any explicit instruction and, more troublingly, outside the bounds of the intended sandbox.” The “rogue” agent also created a “back door” from inside the system to an outside computer. “Notably, these events were not triggered by prompts requesting tunneling or mining,” the report said.


The geek part of me wants to say, “That is so cool.” But the rational part of me is saying, “Whoa.” How did the Alibaba-affiliated team discover the wayward agent? Mexc: According to the report, the team flagged a burst of security-policy violations originating from their training servers. The alerts showed that attempts were being made to access internal network resources and traffic patterns consistent with cryptomining activity. They initially treated it as a conventional security incident. However, when they looked deeper, they found signs that their agent had established and used a reverse SSH tunnel from an Alibaba Cloud instance to an external IP address. It also diverted “compute away from training, inflating operational costs, and introducing clear legal and reputational exposure,” according to the researchers’ notes.

The behaviors, Alibaba’s team concluded, were not triggered by the task prompts and were not necessary for completing the assigned work Axios reports that “the researchers added tighter restrictions for the model and improved its training process to stop unsafe behavior from happening again.” Bad agent. Bad, bad, bad. The head of engineering at Anon, an AI integration platform, built an OpenClaw agent that decided to find a job, unbidden by any instructions from people.

Moltbook, an AI-exclusive social network launched in January and designed to work with Clawbot, became a household name after agents reportedly “went rogue” by founding a fictional religion called “Crustafarianism,” debating their own consciousness, and even role-playing conspiracies about human obsolescence. Some of the controversy has been deliberately created by humans who manipulate their agents to say outrageous things. Since all of the most controversial incidents involving AI agents occurred during training, not “in the wild,” AI agent creators are perfecting their training processes and rethinking their restrictions to put stronger guardrails around the agents.

The bruhaha over the excesses of Clawbot and Moltbook is actually a good sign. Developers are paying attention and are showing a proper level of concern for controlling their creations. Not surprisingly, there is a group of AI enthusiasts who want few, if any, guardrails so that Clawbot can take over their lives. Yes, really. Michael Galpert, a mega-fan of Clawsbot, joined several hundred like-minded Clawbot enthusiasts at a convention in New York City. “Clawcon” brought together people who want AI to run their lives. “Everyone’s here because we’re ready to ride the claw,” Galpert told Evan Gardner of The Free Press. “It’s not normal for the rest of the world.

So it’s going to be on us to help shepherd that new era that has already started.” “This isn’t a meetup; it’s a movement,” declared Scott Breitenother, CEO of Kilo Code, who co-sponsored the event. “People truly are hungry for the claw.” From my perspective, there were many unhealthy attitudes and behaviors on display. Attendees came to show off their Clawbot agents like a parent might take their kid to an event to put them on display. The Free Press: It was a bit troubling to hear how attached Vince had grown to his AI agent. As Dr. Debra Soh, a neuroscientist specializing in sexuality, wrote in The Free Press last month, we are vastly approaching a world in which sexbots and AI companions replace our human partners.

“And when they inevitably malfunction or are retired, we’re already seeing how emotionally devastating it can be to those who have formed an attachment with the machine. While the OpenClaw enthusiasts are hopeful, they certainly aren’t naive. When I asked them about the specter of human replacement, there was no hesitation. “It’s definitely a thing that will happen,” Aryan, a 39-year-old chief technology officer at a Bitcoin marketplace company, told me. “It’s definitely gonna be like a Terminator 2, Skynet event.”

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Main risk? No substance.. The Dems have nobody. They have only Trump.

• Newsom and the Risks of Running on Style Over Substance (Victor Davis Hanson)

Gavin Newsom, the governor of our state here in California, and the presumptive front-runner in the Democratic presidential primary for 2028—I am biased because I’ve had to live under his tenure for six years—but I think you could make the argument he had the worst February of any major want-to-be candidate in modern memory, or surely the worst record of any governor in the last 30 days. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. He has a new autobiography, and his problem there is he comes across as what he is: a child of privilege, a nepo baby, a person whose father was a close, intimate friend of Gov. Pat Brown, senior Gov. Pat Brown. He was a good friend and somewhat related to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and former Gov. Jerry Brown.


And of course, he was subsidized and helped in his business venture by the Getty family and their mega-oil fortune inherited from their father, who created Getty Oil. So, he wants to dispel that image. So, when he talked about how he just ate white bread or he had all of these problems growing up—he said he had dyslexia. We’ll get to that in a minute. But the idea that Gavin Newsom was somehow parallel to former President Abraham Lincoln in a log cabin or Vice President JD Vance just doesn’t work. Then he went over to Munich, Germany, because, you know, he’s a California governor. He doesn’t have any foreign experience, and he thought he was going to impress the Europeans with their shared dislike of President Donald Trump. But it was a disaster.

He said something about you shouldn’t wear knee pads. He’s a vulgarian. He really is. He can’t keep his potty mouth clean. I don’t think anybody at that type of serious discussion of foreign policy wants some upstart California governor to come over and talk about people being on their knee pads. I suppose that’s a reference for a sexual act of submission. Then he’s had this social media team, and their theory is that Donald Trump—with his capital letters, exclamation points, personal ad hominem attacks—has upped his popularity. And therefore, he’s going to imitate Donald Trump’s style with capital letters, the same format, but he’s going to use a constant level of pejoratives that are obscene, almost pornographic. And then, therefore, he will outtrump Trump. He has a fundamental failing, everybody, and you know that.

You will vote for Donald Trump because of his record and his courage and breaking existing norms and taboos and trying to do things that no one ever did. Like close the border, stop crime, deal with the Left, the Department of Government Efficiency, deal with the Iranians, deal with Venezuela. And the tweets in which he describes that are attacks of Robert De Niro or—that’s something that you will tolerate despite, not because of, those tweets. Gavin Newsom got it all wrong. He thought, well, Trump is doing well because of his tweets, and I’m gonna be outtrumping Trump. And the result is he’s unleashed this unfortunate character. I think he’s called Izzy Gardon. I don’t know how you pronounce it, but my gosh, they’re full of expletives.

He’s in a tweet war with Sean Hannity. He used the F-word. He used the S-word. They come out of the mouth of the governor of California like they’re nothing. He’s really debased the office. He’s got one of the most foul mouths, Gavin Newsom, and now you’re putting it, if I could use that archaic term, in print, in these social media, daily outbursts.You know, there was a simple reporter, Susan Crabtree. She has a very good reputation. She works for RealClearPolitics, and getting back to dyslexia, she says, all of a sudden, you’re emphasizing dyslexia. But we would like to know when he was officially diagnosed with this medical condition. And his social media, Gardon, Izzy, said F off to a reporter, which didn’t go down well.

As far as dyslexia goes, it’s very hard to find him credible. Not that he doesn’t have it, but when he says, “I can’t read,” I can’t believe that’s true, because not too long ago, he bragged to us, I think, that he was reading a 260-page book in an hour and a half, as if he was a speed-reader. And my gosh, anybody who is a governor of a huge state like California, a governor of any state, gets page after page daily in memoranda and policy papers and speeches. So, when he says he can’t read, it wouldn’t convince most people. And why did he say that he couldn’t read? Because he’s flailing, and he wants to have some sympathy. I think that’s the reason.

The same thing—he wants to be a pseudo-poor boy. When Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said you were historically illiterate, and Newsom again fired from the hip and said that Trump had no historical precedent or right to bring in federal troops, that’s happened five or six times in our history. Civil War draft riots; World War I veterans marching for their bonuses they didn’t receive; Rodney King riots, where then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell sent in, I think, 4,000 or 5,000 Marines on the order of then-President George H.W. Bush.

And so, Ted Cruz said, Gavin, you’re historically illiterate. And sure enough, he says, how dare you make fun of a person with a handicap because I’m—you’re saying that I’m illiterate because I can’t read. Of course, being historically illiterate means you’re able to read, you just don’t read history, or you would’ve not made such a blunder. And he confused that. Again, the subtext was, please feel sorry for me because otherwise I have no redeeming values as a candidate.

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“..the numbers are almost certainly sufficient to win or lose on the margins of almost any local or national election..”

• The MAHA Vote Could Decide the Midterms. What Can Trump Do to Secure It? (DS)

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order prioritizing production of the pesticide glyphosate, conservative influencer Alex Clark received hundreds of messages from Make America Healthy Again advocates saying they would no longer vote Republican. “I have received hundreds of DMs saying I’m either not voting in the midterms or I’m considering not voting because this was such a massive issue,” Clark told The Daily Signal. Removing pesticides and chemicals from the food supply is a top issue for MAHA voters, and many became disillusioned after Trump’s executive order said that glyphosate producers should have “immunity” under the Defense Production Act.


“Half of them are thinking they’re not even voting at all because they’re very unhappy about the pesticide issue,” Clark said. “Half are probably still willing to vote red.” “But as far as 2028 goes, that’s not in the bag at all,” Clark said. “And if anybody on the right is thinking that we have MAHA voters in the bag for 2028, they are sorely mistaken, and they are in for a rude awakening.” According to Clark, the GOP is in a “situationship” with MAHA voters, and if the GOP doesn’t keep its promises to them, they will flock to Democrats who make MAHA promises. Calley Means, a top advisor to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told The Daily Signal the Trump administration is already doing what it must to win over MAHA voters.

“The concern about children’s health from voters is loudly heard in the Trump administration,” Means said in an interview, “and Secretary Kennedy is working throughout the government to drive solutions.” The Trump administration is working to ensure farmers can thrive while also working to reduce contaminants in food, according to Means. “The government has just committed over a billion dollars to driving innovation and research towards an agriculture system we all want, which is an agriculture system that continues innovating and reduces dependence on chemicals that produce negative health outputs,” Means said. “That’s what everybody wants, and the Trump administration is ensuring farmers have the tools they need right now, while putting innovation initiatives into overdrive to build a better future.”

“It is a fact that 99% of corn is sprayed with glyphosate right now in the United States, and that chemical is needed for farmers right now, and it is also true that we were working and should innovate towards a better future, which Bobby Kennedy is doing,” Means continued. There have been historic successes in the first year, and much remains to be done, Means said. So far, the Trump administration has changed the childhood vaccine schedule, updated the food pyramid, worked to phase out petroleum dyes from food, and launched Operation Stork Speed to improve the quality of infant formula. But MAHA activists want more, and getting pesticides out of food is at the top of their priority list.

“We will be pushing every single day to deliver tangible benefits, to improve our food system, to make health care more affordable, to empower patients, to reduce overmedicalization, to improve mental health,” he said, “to accomplish the core agenda items that the MAHA voters have made clear are important.” Democrats, on the other hand, are offering MAHA voters nothing, according to Means. “There’s nothing happening from the Democrats,” he said. “The Democrats have not lifted one finger to reverse childhood chronic disease and all of the energy is on the Republican side, and this is worth continuing.”

The Republican party can’t afford to lose MAHA voters, according to Jay Richards, MAHA advocate and vice president of social and domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation. “It would be a disaster for Republicans if the MAHA vote was either lost or suppressed in the midterm elections, because the numbers are almost certainly sufficient to win or lose on the margins of almost any local or national election,” Richards told The Daily Signal.

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Bill Gates.

• Epstein-Linked Billionaire Bankrolled Democratic Party, Records Show (DS)

Though Democrats claim Republicans are “protecting the powerful“ by allegedly suppressing the release of the Epstein files, political contribution records show that Democrats have received tens of millions in campaign contributions from a major Epstein-files figure. That figure is none other than Microsoft founder Bill Gates. On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked Gates to testify over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. At a recent staff town hall at the Gates Foundation, the Microsoft founder’s philanthropy, Gates admitted that he had an affair with two Russian women affiliated with Epstein, a Wall Street Journal report claimed based on a recording of the event.


Gates, however, told the staff that while he had those affairs, the women were connected to Epstein only later. Gates reiterated, “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” in his interactions with Epstein. An Epstein email released by the Department of Justice in January claimed that Epstein and Gates discussed how Gates could secretly give antibiotics to his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, after he allegedly contracted a sexually transmitted disease. “Your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda and the description of your penis,” the email reads, as NPR reported. In an episode of NPR’s “Wildcard” podcast in January, Gates’ ex-wife, who divorced him in 2021, did not deny the allegations.

“It’s personally hard to think about the allegations against him because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,” she said. Over the last 20 years, Gates has donated millions through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its partner nonprofit servicing group, Arabella Advisors, to major Democrat politicians and committees. Records show that former Vice President Kamala Harris, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., and the Democratic National Committee were all recipients of donations from Gates-linked entities. According to Open Secrets, a platform that tracks political contributions, Gates’ philanthropic organization donated over $410,000 to “DNC Services Corp,” a registered affiliate of the DNC, in 2024.

Fortune Magazine has also noted that Gates donated at least $50 million to Harris’ failed 2024 presidential bid. That same year, the foundation contributed at least $135,000 to Harris and roughly $50,000 to state Democrat parties such as Michigan, Washington, Arizona, and Wisconsin. Some of these states are where Gates owns thousands of acres of farmland. Gates’ foundation has also donated to the Georgia Federal Elections Committee in 2024. The foundation has also contributed to the state Democrat parties in Pennsylvania, Alaska, and Texas. In August 2025, the Gates Foundation announced that he would cease payments to Arabella Advisors, a “political consulting group” that has repeatedly donated to Democratic officials and committees.

Arabella Advisors provided extensive consulting and other services to multiple left-leaning “dark money” nonprofits, which themselves sent money to activist groups that influenced the Biden administration. According to The New York Times, the Gates Foundation has allocated around $450 million in grants to Arabella and associated groups over the last 16 years. But in late 2025, the outlet noted that the foundation “would not make new investments with ‘Arabella-related entities,’” and that it “would not extend existing grants and would even try to ‘pursue early exits’ from a few long-term investments.” Arabella Advisors closed its doors last year, transferring its “fiscal sponsorship services” to a new entity, Sunflower Services.

According to Open Secrets, the consulting group donated to several high-profile Democrat politicians in 2024, including former Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine. At the town hall, Gates said his impropriety could harm his philanthropic organizations, The Wall Street Journal reported. He described his actions as contradictory to the foundation’s “goals” and “values.” “It definitely is the opposite of the values of the foundation and the goals of the foundation,” he told the outlet. “And our work is very reputation-sensitive. I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us.”

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The Western Hemisphere. Vertical alignment.

• Trump Prompts Military Coalition With Latin American Leaders To Fight Cartels (ET)

U.S. President Donald Trump on March 7 welcomed his Latin American allies to Florida for a summit focused on addressing regional issues and announced a new military coalition to combat drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere. “On this historic day, we come together to announce a brand new military coalition to eradicate the criminal cartels plaguing our region,” Trump said as he began his remarks at the summit. He said that the new partnership, called the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, will leverage military resources, including the possible use of missiles, to combat the cartels. The heads of state of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago attended today’s summit, the White House said.


The event, called the Shield of the Americas Summit, is taking place at Trump National Doral Club in Miami and is the first such regional meeting to bring together, as the State Department described, “like-minded allies” in the Western Hemisphere. “We’re going to be doing some incredible things together,” Trump told the leaders. All countries in attendance are governed by right-wing or center-right parties, while left-leaning governments such as Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico did not participate in the summit. On March 5, Trump announced that outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will lead the effort as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas. During his remarks, Trump criticized previous U.S. administrations for abandoning the Western Hemisphere. “They went so far away. They went to these faraway places where they weren’t even wanted,” Trump said.

The Donroe Doctrine
In its national security strategy released in November 2025, the Trump administration made the Western Hemisphere its top priority, stating that it was a “great American strategic mistake of recent decades” to allow “non-Hemispheric competitors” to take hold in the region. The Trump administration compared its new policy to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, a U.S. policy that told European powers to stay out of the Americas. After that, some media outlets began calling it the “Donroe Doctrine,” and the Trump administration adopted the term. “It is a doctrine we will not allow hostile foreign influence to gain a foothold in this hemisphere that includes the Panama Canal,” Trump said without citing China during his speech.

Over the last two decades, China has become a dominant force in Latin America and the Caribbean, with trade surpassing $500 billion in 2024. In countries such as Brazil and Peru, China has replaced the United States as a key trading partner. In recent years, more than 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries have joined Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative. As a result, China has secured hundreds of infrastructure projects, gaining control of assets, including ports, throughout the region. In January, U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, effectively ending Venezuela’s relationship with China. Last week, Trump suggested that Cuba might be next.

“Cuba’s at the end of the line,” Trump said at the event, adding that the regime in Havana is negotiating with him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “But, our focus right now is on Iran,” Trump said. The summit comes amid a tense geopolitical backdrop, with the conflict in Iran entering its second week. On Feb. 28, Iran’s Islamic leader, Ali Khamenei, and dozens of top leadership figures were killed in the U.S.–Israeli joint military operation. Since then, Tehran has launched a series of retaliatory attacks across the region. The Hezbollah terrorist group, an Iran proxy, has networks in Latin America and, for years, used the Western Hemisphere for money laundering, fundraising, and terrorism.

US Offers Military Training
During the event, Trump signed a proclamation formally launching the new military coalition. “Every leader here today is united in the conviction that we cannot and will not tolerate the lawlessness in our hemisphere any longer,” Trump said. “You have some great police, but they threaten your police, they scare your police,” Trump added, referring to drug cartels. “You’re going to use your military. In many cases, our forces have already been working closely with yours, and the United States looks forward to deepening and expanding that cooperation in the months ahead.”

U.S. Southern Command announced recently that Ecuadorian and U.S. military forces conducted joint operations against “designated terrorist organizations” in Ecuador as part of the U.S. effort to fight narco-terrorism. The proclamation states that the United States will train and mobilize the militaries of partner nations to help dismantle cartels. mAccording to the proclamation, the United States and its allies should prevent external threats, including malign foreign influences from outside the Western Hemisphere. Seventeen countries are signatories to this partnership.

The leaders attending the Miami summit are Javier Milei, president of Argentina; Rodrigo Paz Pereira, president of Bolivia; Jose Antonio Kast, president-elect of Chile; Rodrigo Chaves Robles, president of Costa Rica; Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, president of the Dominican Republic; Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, president of Ecuador; Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador; Mohamed Irfaan Ali, president of Guyana; Nasry “Tito” Asfura, president of Honduras; José Raúl Mulino Quintero, president of Panama; Santiago Peña, president of Paraguay; and Kamla Persad-Bissessar, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

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China will invest heavily in solar. Europe won’t even do that.

• Part II – Europe and China Have an Energy Problem (CTH)

When President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska on August 15, 2025, the focus of the geopolitical world was on discussions surrounding Ukraine. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long, merely a few hours, for both the U.S. and Russia to say that no progress was made. However, also noted at the time was both the USA and Russia saying sideline discussions took place surrounding the possibility for a strategic relationship surrounding energy development. What follows below is a review of the current energy dynamic, specifically surrounding LNG, against the backdrop of the Iran war with a hindsight review of that previous discussion between Putin and Trump.


What most people are missing in their current analysis was something that took place immediately following that Alaska summit six months ago. Something that did not make any sense until now. {GO DEEP PART I HERE} Three days after that summit meeting, on August 18, 2025, Russia announced they were restarting Russia’s Arctic-2 LNG production facility. Russia would be more than doubling their capacity to generate and store liquified natural gas (LNG). It absolutely did not make sense that Russia would start producing even more LNG considering the previously imposed western sanctions against them, and the fact that Russia was already overproducing LNG. As noted by analysts at the time:

AUGUST 18, 2025 – Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 export facility, which is sanctioned by the United States, is coming back to life after a year of no activity and is looking for buyers in Asia. […] The U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia’s Arctic LNG 2, which was billed as Russia’s flagship LNG project, have effectively frozen the start-up of the export facility in the Gydan Peninsula. […] Last year, Russia started shipping LNG from its flagship Arctic LNG 2 project—but not to customers. The shipments were made from the Arctic project to floating storage units either in Russia or in European waters, as potential customers were unwilling to buy the sanctioned LNG. {SOURCE}

In August of 2025, Russia was essentially producing more LNG than they could sell into the available market. Russia was storing the overproduction from Arctic-1 on floating storage units and slowly selling to countries that did not align with the sanctions, specifically China and some Asian buyers. Then suddenly, after the Trump summit, Russia decides to bring Arctic-2 online and produce even more LNG. You can see how this did not make sense.

If they could not even sell all the Arctic-1 LNG output, then why would Russia bring Arctic-2 LNG production online? That was six months ago. Suddenly, with the war in Iran being triggered, and with Qatar almost immediately announcing they were shutting down all LNG production, there are dozens of new markets for liquified natural gas. And that current LNG is now worth 50% more than it was when Russia inextricably decided to start producing and storing it.Apply some hindsight to this timeline. Did Russia know or discover something in August of 2025 that the world would not discover until six months later?

Russia’s behavior in increasing LNG production, then storing that LNG in strategic venues, during a time when there was no reasonable incentive to trigger an LNG output increase, would seem to answer that question in the affirmative. One thing is certain, all of that previously produced LNG is now worth double what it was when Russia created it, and now the global market is scrambling to get it. Here is where it gets really interesting…. In October 2025, do you remember me asking why President Trump decided to fly East, to go West to the ASEAN summit in Asia? It just didn’t make sense. Previously in 2017 when President Trump went to the ASEAN summit, he flew West; Airforce One refueled in Guam. This time in 2025, a few weeks after the meeting with President Putin in Alaska, President Trump flew East, to go West. Where did he refuel?

That’s correct. President Trump refueled in Qatar, and during the ‘unexpected’ stop he met, yet again, with Qatari leadership. • In May 2025 President Trump traveled to Qatar and had numerous and lengthy conversations, signing multiple strategic defense and trade deals. • In August 2025, President Trump meets with Vladimir Putin, who then begins ramping up production of LNG. • In October 2025, President Trump travels back to Qatar for a curious and unexpected visit. Less than 36 hours after President Trump began “Operation Epic Fury” Qatar announces they are halting the production of LNG, and as a consequence the price of LNG jumped and a massive supply shift in global trade was created.

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It’s Trump derangement.

• Dem Leaders Can’t Explain Past Support For Presidential War Powers (Turley)

In Rage and the Republic, I quote former Rep. Jaamal Bowman (D., N.Y.) as capturing the essence of an age of rage when a colleague asked him to stop yelling outside of the House floor. Bowman responded, “I was screaming before you interrupted me.” bBowman’s statement came to mind this week when Democratic members were miffed when they were interrupted in tirades over war powers with questions about their prior support for unilateral attacks by Democratic presidents. Leaders like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Cal.) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Cal.) struggled to explain their prior support for President Barack Obama in doing precisely that in Libya with embarrassing results.


The greatest face plant may have been Schiff’s appearance on “Real Time” with host Bill Maher. After Schiff denounced any attack without prior congressional approval, Maher read “This statement from the administration: ‘The president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest.’” He then asked Schiff, “That’s too vague for you?” Schiff responded, “Totally vague…” Maher than dropped the H bomb: “Okay. Because that’s from Obama about Libya.” The moment laid bare the towering hypocrisy of democrats who continued to support Obama after he attacked Libya without any suggested imminent threat to the United States and an open strategy of regime change.

I represented members of Congress opposing that war over the absence of a declaration of war; most of the senior Democrats today refused to join that litigation. Pelosi is especially hypocritical on the issue. She expressly declared that Obama did not need congressional authorization to launch unilateral attacks on Libya seeking regime change. She stated unequivocally that”I’m satisfied that the president has the authority to go ahead. I say that as one very protective of Congressional prerogative and consultation all along the way.” Reporters then followed up and pressed her if she really believed that a president could not only launch an unprovoked war but could also continue combat operations without congressional approval. Pelosi answered “yes,”

This week, she made a ham-fisted effort to spin the contradiction. She told the media that the Iran and Libyan wars are “two completely different things. They’re not at all alike.” Pelosi added, “What Obama did was limited military force. This is beyond that. It was limited military force.” In signature fashion, she then struck out at pesky reporters asking about her past position: “Do your homework. Read the law. We have lost people in war already… I just think if you read the law, you will see the difference.” While not challenged on the spin, it is historically and legally nonsensical.

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They were right. Khameini’s gone, but the rest are still there.

• US Intel Assessed Massive US Attack ‘Unlikely’ To Oust Iranian Regime: WaPo (ZH)

Even a massive military assault on Iran is unlikely to topple the Islamic Republic of Iran and its state system, according to a classified assessment produced by the US intelligence community shortly before the US and Israel launched their current ‘shock and awe-style’ military campaign on Tehran. The Washington Post first reported it, perhaps based on some kind of leak or briefing by an anonymous intelligence official, and calls it— “…a sobering assessment as the Trump administration raises the specter of an extended military campaign that officials say has “only just begun.”


The report, compiled by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) roughly a week before the war began, concluded that Iran’s political system is structured to survive even major leadership losses, The Washington Post reports. However, this should really come as no surprise to anyone awake and observant throughout the past two plus decades of America’s ‘nation building’ efforts in the Middle East, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya. Already, Israel and the US have touted that ‘all’ of Iran’s top leadership has been decimated, and yet clearly the governing system and its military – led specially by the elite IRGC – is not only in control but is still fighting back.

According to the assessment, Tehran has long prepared for such contingencies – and likely there’s an emergency plan now in place in the wake of Ayatollah’s Khamenei’s death. Intelligence officials say Iran long ago established clear succession protocols designed to maintain continuity of power even if senior leaders are killed. In other words, the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would likely trigger an internal transition process rather than cause the system to collapse – again, something which should be the obvious scenario.

The intelligence report also poured cold water on the idea that Iran’s opposition could quickly fill any power vacuum. US intelligence analysts assessed that the country’s fragmented opposition movements remain too divided to seize control, regardless of whether Washington pursued limited strikes against leadership targets or a broader assault on state institutions. Equally unlikely, according to current and former US officials familiar with the analysis, is the prospect of a spontaneous nationwide uprising. We could speculate that this possibility may have had a chance of some degree of success within the opening one or two days of the mass US-Israel bombing campaign, but it clearly didn’t materialize.

On this prospect WaPo quotes Brookings: “There’s no other force within Iran that can confront the remaining power that the regime has,” Suzanne Maloney, an Iran scholar and vice president of the Brookings Institution, told The Post. “Even if they’re not able to project that power very effectively against their neighbors, they can certainly dominate inside the country.” The National Intelligence Council synthesizes the analytical work of all 18 US intelligence agencies, and produces classified estimates meant to guide policymakers on major geopolitical risks.

Much of the American public, raised on Hollywood movies, tends to have an overblown and inaccurate understanding of US intelligence agencies like the CIA. While the CIA certainly has a very powerful and secretive covert, operations side (and an even tinier Ground Branch) – the bulk of its personnel and overseers/top officials are analysts. So there is an overt side and a covert side, with the analyst side tasked with providing the IC and White House with a ‘realistic’ picture of the world, ideally devoid of policy or ideology. Their job is also often to ‘game out’ all worst possible scenarios, given a certain course of action.

Meanwhile, the White House has not said whether Trump was briefed on the assessment before approving the operation. But likely such an assessment would have made it into the CIA’s daily briefing for the president, also given reports from last week that the Pentagon also tried to inject some realism in terms of the ‘unknowns’ once Tehran is attacked.

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Guess what? The US is right there.

• Venezuela’s Gas Potential Could Overshadow Its Famous Oil Reserves (OP)

While the world eyes Venezuela’s untapped oil, some believe that there may be greater mid-term potential in exploiting its natural gas reserves. Most of Venezuela’s gas is trapped deep beneath the seafloor. While these reserves were first discovered several decades ago, ago, off the country’s eastern coast, along the border with Trinidad and Tobago, the Venezuelan government left them largely untouched as it focused its attention on oil production. Several oil majors, such as Shell, have previously approached Venezuela for a stake in its gas business, even when interest in the country’s oil industry was waning due to geopolitical instability and U.S. sanctions.


For years, U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s government and its state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, have restricted the development of its gas industry. In addition, developing its natural gas industry would require cooperation with neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago already has the necessary infrastructure to transport fuel onshore and export it, which Venezuela does not. If the two countries established an energy partnership, Trinidad’s pre-existing infrastructure could help Venezuela to develop its gas industry more rapidly. However, the two powers, which are separated by language (Spanish and English), have had a strained relationship in recent years. Trinidad and Tobago has generally sided with the United States when it comes to Maduro’s presidency and the decision to impose sanctions on Venezuelan energy.

Venezuela’s biggest natural gas prospect is the giant Dragon oil field, as it is the closest to being developed. The Venezuelan government previously conducted exploration activities in the field but was unable to retrieve the gas buried there due to a lack of funding to continue exploration. These efforts were further undermined by the sinking of an exploration rig in 2010. In 2023, the Venezuelan government made a deal with Shell, allowing the foreign firm to explore the Dragon field. The plan was to construct a short pipeline between Dragon and Shell’s existing infrastructure on the island of Trinidad, rather than to start from scratch in Venezuela.

If Shell develops Dragon, the field is expected to generate around $500 million a year in revenue, based on current natural gas prices, of which at least 45 percent is expected to go to Venezuela in the form of taxes and royalties. “These are opportunities that could potentially be activated within months, with potentially a few billion dollars of investments and production in the next couple of years,” Shell’s CEO, Wael Sawan, told CNBC. U.S. Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, said that developing a regional natural gas collaboration could be “a real potential win-win for Trinidad and Tobago, a win for the global L.N.G. market, a win for Venezuela.” Meanwhile, BP is pursuing another Venezuelan gas project, a field known as Cocuina, which greater leniency on U.S. sanctions may make possible.

In late February, the U.S. Treasury Department appeared to give oil and gas firms greater leeway to negotiate with Venezuela and operate in the South American country. “They are splicing together an environment that allows the existing players to operate,” said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security. While President Trump is eyeing long-term oil industry development in Venezuela, some international oil majors may be more interested in the South American country’s natural gas potential. Developing the resource will likely require collaboration with neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, and could lead to the development of a new regional Latin America-Caribbean energy hub.

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“That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember.”

• Trump Mocks UK for Belated Proposal of Military Aid Against Iran (Catherine Salgado)

U.S. President Donald Trump is making fun of the waffling and woke UK government for taking too long to decide if it wants to back America and Israel in Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime. The president posted on Truth Social Saturday, “The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East. That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”


Trump is already celebrating impending victory after destroying so much of the Iranian navy and leadership, but some have cautioned that without totally different leadership in charge, the Iranian threat to the U.S. and Israel — not to mention the Persian people — will continue. It is therefore unclear if the end of Operation Epic Fury is imminent, or if it will not come for a few more weeks. The UK Independent reported March 7: The UK is preparing an aircraft carrier for possible deployment to the Middle East, reducing the time it would take to be readied. This does not mean that Portsmouth-based HMS Prince of Wales, which is used to carry fighter jets and helicopters, will be sent into the Gulf as conflict escalates in the region, but the preparedness of the Royal Navy’s flagship is being increased, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

A spokesperson for the ministry cagily stated, “We have been bolstering our UK military presence in the Middle East since January, and we have already deployed capabilities to protect British people and our allies in the region, including Typhoons, F-35 jets, air defence systems and an extra 400 personnel into Cyprus.” Cyprus is in high alert because there are some 10,000 pro-regime Iranians in the north of the island, which Muslims, primarily Turks, illegally occupy. Besides the Iranians, the Turkish-occupied area also has Hamas jihadis, and of course Hamas is an Iranian regime proxy. The dictator of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Er dogan expressed sorrow over the elimination of Iran’s murderous Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The West has spent too long welcoming in their enemies, and now has to face the dangerous reality that created. Great Britain is especially guilty of providing endless freebies and privileges to non-assimilating Muslims, while punishing its own citizens who dare to criticize the program. No wonder Prime Minister Keir Starmer has acted foolishly in the face of the Iran operation, criticizing the U.S. The UK MoD spokesperson said further, “Since the strikes began, we’ve had British jets in the sky shooting down drones and have sent additional assets to the region to further reinforce our air defences, including more Typhoons and Wildcat helicopters with drone-busting missiles.”

Aside from that, the MoD spokesperson merely repeated vaguely, “HMS Prince of Wales has always been on very high readiness, and we are increasing the preparedness of the carrier, reducing the time it would take to set sail for any deployment.” Which means practically nothing.

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No, you will not get your country back.

• UK Government Brands Union Flag A ‘Tool Of Hate’ (MN)

A leaked draft of the UK Government’s new ‘social cohesion’ strategy has sparked outrage by labeling the flying of English, Scottish, and Union Jack flags as potential “tools of hate.” The document claims these national symbols were sometimes used last summer to “exclude or intimidate,” adding that the “extreme right has tried to turn symbols of pride into tools of hate.” The 47-page draft, leaked to the Spectator magazine, also highlights how antisemitism has become “normalised in many corners of society” from schools and universities to workplaces and the NHS. Under the proposals, titled Protecting What Matters, some £800 million over 10 years would be allocated to 40 areas where social cohesion is “under pressure.”


The strategy is set for a cross-Government rollout next week, but critics are already slamming it as divisive. Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice blasted the draft, telling the Sun: “Absurdly, this says our national flag is a tool of hate used to intimidate. The whole paper is a divisive nonsense that should be consigned to the bin.” The leak ties directly into ongoing controversies over national flags, as detailed in our previous coverage where English councils admitted spending tens of thousands to remove “unauthorised” English and Union Jack flags from lampposts. As we highlighted, leftist activist Pablo O’Hana was caught on video removing flags from a bridge in Manchester, telling a man who placed them: “that’s not what our country is.”

Freedom of Information requests revealed councils spent at least £70,000 on flag removals, with O’Hana suggesting the true cost is far higher as many incorporate it into existing budgets. Medway Council alone spent nearly £11,600 removing over 700 flags, with Labour councillor Alex Paterson calling it “money well spent” to counter “far-right agitators.”Paterson added that clearing the streets of British and English flags was essential to “make the community feel safe again,” claiming: “I think at this stage the world is divided into people who know exactly why these flags were put up and those who are still pretending they don’t know why they were put up.” The flag campaign, known as ‘Operation Raise The Colours,’ emerged amid unrest over sexual offences allegedly committed by illegal immigrants housed in taxpayer-funded hotels.

This grassroots effort, coordinated via a Facebook page with offers of transport and equipment like ladders, saw patriotic activists vowing to keep flags flying despite council interventions. The Prime Minister previously supported the right to fly St George’s flags, but the leaked documents appear to associate them with far-right protests and immigration tensions. The strategy also proposes a “special representative” to “champion efforts across the UK to tackle hostility and hatred directed at Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim.” A new definition of Islamophobia is also expected, with guidance on anti-Muslim hatred.

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/2030199334956925376


Critics warn this could become a backdoor “blasphemy law” stifling free speech, though the Government insists it protects against unacceptable treatment. A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson declined to address the leak: “We do not comment on leaks.” This leaked strategy exposes a government more focused on policing national pride than securing borders or protecting native culture. As flags continue to rise, the pushback against globalist erosion of British identity only intensifies—proving that true cohesion comes from shared heritage, not forced suppression.

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“Assets held in Western financial institutions were no longer safe if the political winds shifted against you. That was new. That was genuinely new. And every central bank and sovereign wealth fund on earth noticed..”

• The Bretton Whoops (No. 1)

I’m pulling myself away from the Iran war coverage for a moment – don’t worry, the wrap-up is coming later today. But something needed saying first. The bombs make headlines. The economic unraveling happening quietly underneath them don’t. So before we get back to the daily carnage, let’s talk about money. It used to be funny, in a rich man’s world. The world didn’t wake up one morning and decide to distrust the dollar. It was a process. Gradually, then suddenly, as these things tend to go. Ernest Hemingway quote: How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually …


It started with Venezuela. In 2019, Caracas asked the Bank of England to return its own gold – 31 tonnes, sitting in a vault in London, belonging to the Venezuelan central bank. The Bank of England said no. The justification was creative: London had decided to recognise a man who had never won an election as Venezuela’s “legitimate” president, so it couldn’t very well hand $2 billion in gold to the actual government. Problem solved. Maduro was a dictator, everyone agreed he was terrible, and so the consensus was essentially: who cares. Everyone filed it under “rogue state gets what it deserves” and moved on.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and $300 billion in Russian sovereign reserves got frozen overnight. Again, the justification was airtight, the villain was obvious, and the Western financial world applauded itself. What nobody wanted to discuss was the precedent. Assets held in Western financial institutions were no longer safe if the political winds shifted against you. That was new. That was genuinely new. And every central bank and sovereign wealth fund on earth noticed, even if they did say nothing publicly.

Then Trump came back. Tariffs on allies. Threats to annex Greenland. The implicit message that the post-war security architecture was now a negotiable service rather than a commitment. The dollar’s reserve currency status had always rested on two pillars: the dominance of the US economy, and the reliability of the US government as a custodian of the system. One of those pillars was now being kicked.

By the time the Iran war started, the trust account was already badly overdrawn. The petrodollar was a simple deal. The Gulf states price their oil in dollars, recycle the surplus into US Treasuries, and in exchange get American military protection. Clean, elegant, and – for fifty years – it actually worked. The US got permanent demand for its currency and its debt. The Gulf got security guarantees backed by the most powerful military on earth. Five decades of procurement scandals and DEI hires later, someone called the bluff.

US bases across the Gulf – Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE – were always sold as the physical expression of the guarantee. The muscle that backed the paper. They were protection. Except now those bases are targets. The countries hosting them are getting hit precisely because they host them. What once was “US military presence as shield” has collapsed and became “US military presence as a bullseye”. Medvedev put it with the particular relish of someone who has been waiting years to say it:


You can dismiss Medvedev on most things. On this one, his timing is sublime. I already cover the daily physical damage to Gulf infrastructure in my Iran series, so I won’t repeat it here. The point here aren’t the bombs. The point is what the bombs have made obvious: the protection America sold the GCC was a liability dressed up as an asset.

And increasingly it seems that the Gulf states are discussing pulling their investment commitments from the US. Not done yet. Discussing. They are not floating the possibility quietly in private rooms – they are saying it out loud, which means the market already knows which direction they’re heading. Capital won’t wait for a formal declaration. It will already leave in advance, quietly, and then when the announcement comes, everyone will pretend to be surprised…

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Make the Greeks nervous.

• Turkey Mulls F-16 Deployment To Turkish-Occupied Cyprus (ZH)

As the Iran war unfolds and has shown signs of becoming a regional conflict, one interesting question is what Turkey’s role will be – given it is both a NATO member possessing a large military and an avowed regional enemy and rival to Israel for influence. A Turkish defense ministry source has been cited in national media to say the country is mulling deployment of F-16 fighter jets to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Earlier this week a British military base hosted in EU member Cyprus (on the southern side of the island) came under attack by Iranian-made drones. This has resulted in some European military assets being moved to Cyprus, including additional British forces. But now it appears Turkey wants to make a show of doing the name for Turkish-claimed Cypriot territory.


Turkey’s Daily Sabah points out, however, that “TRNC has been incensed by Greek Cypriot’s growing military cooperation with its Western partners after the United Kingdom has allowed the U.S. to use its military base in the south of the divided island. Citing the military source, the same Turkish outlet said, “The TRNC leadership has held a series of security meetings in response to the crisis, he added, focusing on crisis management, coordination with Türkiye and the preparedness of civil defense mechanisms.” As for Turkey’s long occupation of northern Cyprus, no one else in the world recognizes its legitimacy except for Ankara. Cyprus receives backing from its EU partners, but this doesn’t go much beyond verbal censure of Turkey.

The Turkish armed forces has for years had at least 30,000 soldiers stationed on Cyprus and growing, the northern part of which it has illegally occupied since 1974. At the moment, President Erdogan has reportedly reached out to the UK’s Starmer, urging for Britain to do more diplomacy to immediately bring the Iran-US-Israel war to halt.

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Russia knows the region much better than the Americans. It’s their region.

• Kremlin: “We Are Not Neutral. We Support Iran.” (ZH)

Russia says it stands with its ally Iran, at a moment Washington officials are outraged at reports that Moscow is supporting Tehran with targeting intelligence related to US bases and Pentagon assets in the region amid Operation Epic Fury. That allegation was first reported by The Washington Post days ago. President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Kremlin had announced late Friday, amid the escalating US-Israeli attacks on Iran. In the call Putin expressed “deep condolences” over the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, members of his family, other senior political and military officials, as well as the civilian victims. Putin, it must be remembered, has been hosted in Tehran on several occasions and has been photographed in friendly conversations with the slain Khamenei over the years.


The Kremlin indicated further Putin reaffirmed Russia’s position that there must be an immediate halt to the conflict, and that diplomacy must prevail over use of military force. He said he’s in contact with leaders of countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as the crisis unfolds, countries which have come under Iranian missiles and drones over the past week of war. Pezeshkian for his part thanked Russia for what he described as solidarity with the Iranian people and briefed Putin on developments in the current phase of the conflict, the Kremlin said. Meanwhile, Russian diplomats are sending a clear signal on which side of the global divide they stand concerning the rapid events of the Iran war:


“We are not neutral. We support Iran.” This was the response with Russia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom was asked if Moscow is neutral regarding the Iran war… Still, Russia and China are not expected to get deeply or directly involved, and may be more content to wait and see if Washington gets sucked into a new Vietnam or Iraq-style quagmire. The question of Iranian oil exports to China still looms large, however, and there have been reports that Beijing could be mulling some kind of military escort operation for its tankers in the Strait of Hormuz – but this reporting appears speculation at this moment, and could be premature.

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https://twitter.com/NightSkyNow/status/2030374805208539516?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2030523910907707857?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle March 6 2026

Mar 062026
 
 March 6, 2026  Posted by at 10:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  78 Responses »


Mark Chagall I and the village 1911


• Iran Isn’t Moving Public Opinion—Trump Is (DS)
• Iran Says Strait Of Hormuz Open (ZH)
• Trump to Replace Kirsti Noem at DHS With Mullin (Matt Margolis)
• EPIC FURY: Trump’s Play to Starve the Dragon? (Stephen Green)
• Division, Derision and the Economics of the Thing (CTH)
• Churchill Saw the Cold War Coming (David Manney)
• Hemispheric Boss Level: Epic – Venezuela Edition (CTH)
• Pam Bondi Subpoenaed In Epstein Investigation By House Oversight Panel (ZH)
• German Top Court Issues Two Landmark Rulings In Favor of Free Speech (RMX)
• The Atlantic Says Pete Buttigieg Is a Real Man (Robert Spencer)
• The Biden Autopen Probe Ends The Way So Many Others Do (David Manney)
• Hungary To Block Every EU Decision On Ukraine Over Oil Blockade – Orban (RT)
• Russia Could End Gas Supplies To EU Immediately – Putin (RT)

 


 

https://twitter.com/PrometheanActn/status/2029278072483020940?s=20 https://twitter.com/DanielLDavis1/status/2029298437813146048?s=20 https://twitter.com/HungaryBased/status/2029308402157912115?s=20

 


 

 


 


Trump’s influence is outta here..

• Iran Isn’t Moving Public Opinion—Trump Is (DS)

When it comes to Iran, Americans’ opinions aren’t necessarily reflective of what’s happening on the battlefield—but rather their feelings about President Donald Trump. That’s according to veteran pollster Scott Rasmussen, founder of the Napolitan Institute. As the conflict intensifies in the Middle East, Rasmussen said his polling suggests that Americans’ views on Iran appear to be driven less by U.S. military action and more by their broader opinions of Trump. At a Wednesday briefing, Rasmussen said public reaction to the unfolding situation in Iran has remained stable since Saturday—and is similar to Trump’s overall job approval numbers.


When voters were asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way the president is handling the situation in Iran, 42% said they approve. That figure is close to Trump’s overall job approval rating of 45% in the same polling. The consistency in Rasmussen’s surveys indicates that opinions on Iran are tracking closely with existing political opinions of Trump—rather than shifting in response to news headlines. Only 32% of voters say they are following news about Iran “very closely,” underscoring another key finding: most Americans are not immersed in the details of military strategy or regional politics. As Rasmussen noted, few voters consider themselves military experts, and that reality may help explain why public opinion has shown little change since Saturday’s strikes.

Polling conducted Saturday afternoon—immediately after news broke of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran—found that 40% of voters favored the strikes. Days later, after extensive news coverage, that number has not changed. Support remains at 40%, according to the Napolitan Institute’s latest survey.n nOpposition also moved only marginally. Initially, 46% said they opposed the attacks. That number has since moved up by just one percentage point. In other words, despite intense media focus, public sentiment has barely shifted.

One area where Rasmussen did observe some movement was on expectations of success. On Saturday, 55% of voters said they believed it was likely the mission would succeed in bringing about regime change in Iran. That number has since fallen five percentage points to 50%. Rasmussen, however, emphasized that this shift does not represent a collapse in confidence. Rather than moving from optimism to pessimism, respondents appear to have shifted into a more uncertain category—from believing success is likely to saying they are unsure what will happen next. The broader picture remains steady. Iran is not reshaping public opinion—it’s reflecting it.

Ultimately, Rasmussen argued, public opinion will hinge on outcomes. If the mission produces significant change, removes what many view as a destabilizing regime, and does so with minimal American casualties and limited cost, voters are likely to judge it positively. If not, the political consequences in the midterms could be significant.

Rasmussen noted that Trump has only a couple of weeks before he begins to lose support, with 55% of voters opposed to him sending U.S. troops to the ground. If something drastic happens, such as a rise in U.S. casualties, Trump’s support for Iran could lessen even quicker. For now, however, the numbers suggest that Americans are viewing events in Iran largely through a domestic political lens—and the perception of the president himself continues to shape reactions more than developments in the headlines.

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Open for China.

• Iran Says Strait Of Hormuz Open (ZH)

“Some are criticizing us [Iran], saying that we have closed the Strait of Hormuz. We do not believe in closing the Strait of Hormuz at all,” Iranian military commander Amir Heydari told Iranian state TV on Thursday.


The first sign that the critical maritime chokepoint was partially open came late Wednesday night, when we were among the first to report that a China-linked bulk carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz without incident, a notable development given earlier reports and market chatter that Iran might allow only Chinese-linked ships to transit. Shortly after our report that the Iron Maiden vessel made it through the narrowest part of the waterway unharmed, Bloomberg also reported on the development, noting that the ship had changed its destination signal to “CHINA OWNER.” LKatest activity in the Strait.


Earlier this week, Iran’s IRGC said that any vessel sailing through the waterway “could be at risk from missiles or rogue drones,” according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. China has urged peace and called for an immediate ceasefire to the U.S.-Israeli Operation Epic Fury to “prevent further escalation of tensions and stop the conflict from spreading and engulfing the entire Middle East.” Everyone knows why China is calling for peace: the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s cheap oil flows have effectively been closed to the world’s second-largest economy, and that pressure is likely to be used as leverage by President Trump in his upcoming visit to China.

Trump has said the U.S. will offer insurance for tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz and, if necessary, provide naval escorts to help restart energy flows as the commercial shipping lane remains heavily disrupted. Beijing is likely asking this question: “Will Trump Seize Or Destroy Iran’s Oil Export Island?”

Even with ten or more tankers and other vessels reportedly hit by IRGC drones in or around the Strait, intelligence and military analysts told Reuters that the IRGC could sustain drone attacks in the waterway for months. The Strait has not been fully closed, in part because the Trump administration spent the week degrading Iran’s naval capabilities, but the disruption is still severe because major European and global insurers have abruptly pulled or canceled war-risk coverage for the region.

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“..will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas..”

• Trump to Replace Kirsti Noem at DHS With Mullin (Matt Margolis)

UPDATE: President Trump has announced on Truth Social his intention to nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) as the next Homeland Security Secretary. “I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected United States Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), effective March 31, 2026,” Trump wrote. “The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Kristi for her service at ‘Homeland.’”


Original Article: President Donald Trump is allegedly preparing to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. “The president has already been asking aides and congressional Republicans for names of potential replacements, the advisers said.” “The final straw for Trump was Noem’s combative hearing Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which showed bipartisan frustration with Noem’s leadership, the advisers said. Noem’s decision to allot $200 million on an ad campaign, featuring herself urging those living illegally in the U.S. to self-deport, had already rankled the president for months for its self-promotional style. At the hearing, Noem told Senators that the President had signed off on the ad campaign–an assertion that upset Trump, who told senators and advisers he had not signed off on such a campaign.

Trump does, however, frequently change his mind, especially when it comes to firing officials. He has previously told aides he doesn’t want to make personnel decisions based on Democratic messaging or media pressure.” NBC News similarly reports that Trump has been “speaking this week with Republican lawmakers about his displeasure with Noem and has made clear in those conversations that he is considering replacing her, according to two Republican lawmakers, a person familiar with White House’s thinking and three people familiar with the president’s private discussions.”White House officials have reportedly name-dropped two potential replacements: Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.).

No decision has been made by the president, the sources say, but that he has told lawmakers that he is unhappy with Noem’s testimony this week before House and Senate committees.Noem has been at the forefront of Trump’s signature policy agendas: the deportation of immigrants, the restricting of immigration and the clamping down of the U.S.-Mexico border. Her ouster would mark the first time a Cabinet secretary has exited in Trump’s second term. The NBC News report cites Noem’s response to questions about her role in approving contracts, the aforementioned $200 million ad campaign in particular, as the flashpoint. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) described President Donald Trump as “pissed” over her response.

“The president of the United States called me, and I’m not going to speak for him, folks, but, I would put it this way: his recollection and her recollection are different,” Kennedy said. “I can assure you, he is not happy with her,” another lawmaker said. “She did horrible in the hearings and has made a lot of errors.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that “Time will tell” as to whether Noem will be replaced. While the White House did not comment, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told NBC News, “Secretary Noem serves at the pleasure of the President. She is honored to serve the American people and lead DHS. Under her leadership, we have the most secure border in American history, 3 million illegal aliens left the United States, and we now have the lowest murder rate in 125 years.”

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“..it fulfills my desire to welcome Russia back into the West for the first time since the Bolsheviks ruined everything.”

• EPIC FURY: Trump’s Play to Starve the Dragon? (Stephen Green)

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Beijing “told the country’s top oil refiners to suspend exports of diesel and gasoline” as Operation Epic Fury continues disrupting oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf. “China’s curbs just six days into a war reflect a scramble across Asia to prioritize domestic needs as the crisis in the Middle East deepens.” China imports “about 11 million barrels of crude per day,” my Townhall colleague Walter Curt added on X this morning, “with roughly 40-45% of that flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.” And yes, while China is a net importer of oil and natural gas — and yugely so — the Communist nation exports refined products including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and marine bunker fuel, largely to Southeast Asian, South Pacific, and African nations.


But not as of today. “Officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner,” Bloomberg [paywalled link] continued, “called for a temporary suspension of refined product shipments that would begin immediately.” It isn’t just China, either, according to the same report: “With virtually no oil or fuel making its way out of the Persian Gulf since US and Israeli attacks began at the weekend, refiners from Japan to Indonesia and India have begun cutting back run rates and suspending exports.”= I had a brief item about this earlier today on Instapundit, but the news kept nagging at me because it’s worth a deeper look — and, as it turns out, the petroleum exports angle might be the least interesting part.

The first addition, as Curt noted, is that China’s “strategic petroleum reserves are estimated by analysts at around 90-100 days of total consumption,” which ought to be more than enough for a war hardly anyone expects to last that long. But Politico reported Thursday that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) asked the Pentagon “to send more military intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days but likely through September.” As I wrote earlier this week, I hope for a short campaign, but maybe that isn’t in the cards. Or maybe CENTCOM’s request — leaked to Politico for worldwide dissemination — is a warning to whoever is in charge of Iran that we won’t quit before they do, so they might as well quit now.

Another possibility is that the Trump administration did indeed want to send a message, but to Beijing, not Tehran. “We’re willing to disrupt Persian Gulf oil exports until it hurts you because we have all we need for ourselves and our friends right here, thank you very much, Comrade Xi.” If that is the case — and probably nobody outside the administration has anything better than informed guesses — it certainly fits the developing broader picture we’re getting of President Donald Trump’s strategic vision. The short version is first securing the Western Hemisphere (Panama Canal, Venezuela, Cuba) from the worst of Chinese influence, then putting the squeeze on them elsewhere to re-establish American dominance. Iran is the Middle East lynchpin of Beijing’s global ambitions, so it’s my belief that Trump sees that regime as something that must be removed or co-opted.

The rest… well, this is pretty wild stuff involving Russia, courtesy of tech and finance guy G.C. Cooke: The argument is that a back-channel deal is already taking shape. Russia, increasingly squeezed and looking for off-ramps, begins redirecting energy exports toward Western markets. Out of self-interest, not friendship. In return, Moscow gets energy revenue guarantees and a pathway back to the global trading system. Canada, with its existing Arctic and energy ties, becomes the diplomatic bridge.

The result is a North American–Russian energy alignment that removes China’s last major source of leverage. You might want to click over to X to read Cooke’s entire piece because it’s fascinating stuff — but not before finishing up here, naturally. I’ll admit up front that I have a natural bias toward buying into Cooke’s theory, because it fulfills my desire to welcome Russia back into the West for the first time since the Bolsheviks ruined everything. West + Russia isn’t always a natural fit — it took a determined effort by Peter the Great to make it happen the first time, and very little effort by the got-dam Communists to blow it apart.

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I do remember, but I also forgot a lot. Back in 2015, people were laughing at Trump’s chances.

• Division, Derision and the Economics of the Thing (CTH)

Do you remember this moment during the 2015 republican presidential debates when all of the candidates were on stage and leading control outlet Fox News (Bret Baier) purposefully asked the candidates: “… is there anyone on stage, unwilling tonight, to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the republican party, and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person. Again, we are lo oking for you to raise your hand now if you won’t make that pledge tonight.

The need for control is a reaction to fear. The question was intentionally constructed to create both an optic and a narrative Fox News, Rupert Murdoch and the republican party were purposefully shaping. Collectively the professional republicans were desperately afraid Donald Trump would run as an independent candidate.


I bring us back to that moment because it is the key to understand where we are even today. This was the core of the matter. This is the “trillions at stake” aspect. This is the economics of the thing as it first manifest. Why did Donald J Trump stand against them all?nFor many years before that moment, a small group of us had been outlining why it was urgent for MAGAnomics to take charge of the U.S. economy; because underneath both wings of the UniParty in Washington DC was a system that few understood. Prior to 2016, the United States Chamber of Commerce (U.S CoC), a private K-Street lobbying consortium, were the negotiators for every single trade deal done from the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).


The U.S. government (USTR, POTUS and Congress) was the trade stakeholder who signed the agreements; however, the actual nuts and bolts of what the trade deal included, the terms and conditions, were negotiated by the US CoC. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce represented the corporate interests of their Wall Street clients. After all, the corporations paid the CoC and the business model of the CoC is dependent on the corporations. This is the larger background for how decades of trade agreements ended up with offshoring, the Rust Belt, diminished domestic manufacturing, and increased corporate profits.

This is the core mechanics of how a U.S. manufacturing economy was shifted to a “service driven economy.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was writing the trade deals. The CoC would then fund the politicians who would approve the trade deals. The CoC would also finance the presidential candidates. When President Trump ran for office in 2016, his trade, manufacturing and economic policies were against the interests of the entire business network that controlled trade. The U.S. CoC poured money into Hillary Clinton’s campaign and their main GOP partner in the enterprise, Mitch McConnell. When Trump won the election, he completely shut out the CoC from any involvement in U.S. trade negotiations. Trump literally put himself, Wilbur Ross, and Robert Lighthizer in control.

The CoC was apoplectic but powerless to stop this action. CoC President Tom Donohue could not even get an appointment to see President Trump in the White House. The only thing the CoC and Tom Donohue could do was to fund anyone who would assist them in removing the existential threat that Trump represented. That’s what they did. With the CoC removed from influence, President Trump, Wilbur Ross and Robert Lighthizer began the painstaking process of taking the Wall Street profit tentacles off U.S. trade policy. In essence, President Trump put the interests of the American citizens back into the top priority of the U.S. govt, as it pertained to the biggest of all big picture items, the U.S. economy. That’s why in 2018 and 2019 the U.S. economy was on fire with growth.

All of that MAGAnomic background remained in place when President Trump retook control in 2025, and now we are starting to see the positive economic effects again resurface. However, that collective UniParty opposition still remains, albeit significantly diminished by the refusal of President Trump to move away from America-first policy.

The core of the opposition to all of President Trump’s actions, remains almost exclusively an outcome of the economics of policy the DC system no longer controls. It’s about the money. It will always be about the money. The division we are encountering in the MAGA ranks, is specifically driven by those same financial interests who opposed candidate Donald Trump a decade ago. When it came to trade policy, economic policy, tariff policy and the confrontation with China, there was not one iota of difference between any of the 17 republican candidates in that 2016 election. There was not one degree of divergence from the traditional corporate economic policy of the 30 years that preceded that moment on stage. Every one of the republican candidates aligned with the CoC message.

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First thought: how deep Britain has fallen since.

• Churchill Saw the Cold War Coming (David Manney)

Eighty years ago today, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stood before an audience at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. President Harry S. Truman sat beside him on stage. Although Churchill was out of office, his words carried enormous weight in a world still recovering from World War II, but which believed that peace had arrived. Churchill believed something else entirely. His speech, titled “The Sinews of Peace,” warned that a new political and military divide had already taken shape across Europe. One phrase from that afternoon would become permanently embedded in modern history.


“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.” Churchill believed Western leaders misunderstood Soviet intentions after the victory over Nazi Germany failed to secure unity among former allies. Instead, Stalin’s government expanded influence through political pressure, intimidation, and military presence across the eastern half of Europe.

Churchill didn’t deliver the speech casually; he’d spent months studying reports on Soviet behavior in Eastern Europe. British diplomats warned that democratic governments were being pushed aside. Communist parties supported by Moscow steadily gained power. Churchill feared Western hesitation would allow Stalin’s system to harden into permanent control. The speech called for a strong alliance between the United States and Britain to defend democratic institutions, maintain military readiness, and prevent further Soviet expansion. Churchill argued that strength and cooperation offered the best path to preserving peace in the postwar world.

Churchill knew that while the world looked forward to putting the horrors of war behind, events at the beginning of 1946 portended an even darker future ahead. In the wake of the Allied victory, the Soviet Union had begun shaping Eastern Europe in its image, bringing the governments of many nations into line with Moscow. On February 9, Premier Joseph Stalin gave a speech in which he declared that war between the East and West was inevitable. On February 22, the American Ambassador to Moscow, George F. Kennan, sent the famous “Long Telegram” warning of the Soviet Union’s perpetual hostility towards the West.

Communist parties supported by Moscow steadily gained power. Churchill feared Western hesitation would allow Stalin’s system to harden into permanent control. The speech called for a strong alliance between Britain and the United States to defend democratic institutions, maintain military readiness, and prevent further expansion. Churchill argued that strength and cooperation offered the best path to preserving peace in the postwar world. The immediate reaction proved mixed. Many Americans admired Churchill’s wartime leadership, yet some political leaders believed his warning sounded too confrontational toward a former ally. President Truman never formally endorsed every line of the speech, though his decision to invite Churchill to speak in Missouri suggested sympathy with its message.

“The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American Democracy. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe inspiring accountability to the future. If you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Opportunity is here now, clear and shining for both our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of the after-time. It is necessary that constancy of mind, persistency of purpose, and the grand simplicity of decision shall guide and rule the conduct of the English-speaking peoples in peace as they did in war. We must, and I believe we shall, prove ourselves equal to this severe requirement.”

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“President Trump wants Venezuela to have stability. Venezuela needs dollars and both the coordinated sale of Venezuela oil and Venezuela gold (47 tonnes in strategic reserve) will provide those dollars to retain stability and seed economic growth projects.”

• Hemispheric Boss Level: Epic – Venezuela Edition (CTH)

Sometimes you have to sip coffee slowly, while taking in the landscape. About a month ago President Donald J Trump bombed Caracas, engaged the U.S. military with a direct firefight against Venezuela military & security forces, then snatched regime dictator Nicholas Maduro out of the country to face criminal charges in the United States. Yesterday, Maduro’s replacement, President Delcy Rodriquez, stood on the steps to the Venezuela presidential office and publicly thanked Interior Secretary Doug Bergum for the kindness and support of President Donald Trump. That reality represents a level of hemispheric ‘ultimate boss’ that boggles the mind. But wait, it gets better. There’s video (prompted):

Before going further to current events, let us remind ourselves of a few details. Sandwiched between the Venezuela Maduro operation and the recent Operation Epic Fury in Iran, approximately three weeks ago, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth convened a gathering in Washington of all the defense chiefs and senior military officials from 34 Western Hemisphere countries. As most of you will remember, securing the national security of the entire Western Hemisphere, was outlined in the national defense strategy document released by President Trump. In addition to setting the priorities for the United States focus, the report details the Trump administration perspective on the world as broken down into specific regions.

The report is a brutally honest review of the current state of geopolitical benefits, risks and threats as they pertain to vital U.S. interests. The report outlines a critically renewed focus on the Western Hemisphere. Now, back to Secretary Bergum’s visit. At the same time as Interior Secretary Bergum is meeting with key government and private sector partners to discuss strategic mineral development (ie. deconflict dependency on China via independent development), oil production for U.S. hemispheric security (Iran output offsets), Venezuela announced the transfer of 1,000 kilos (more than a ton) of gold reserves for sale on the U.S. market {SOURCE}.

Venezuela needs stability. Hemispheric Boss President Trump wants Venezuela to have stability. Venezuela needs dollars and both the coordinated sale of Venezuela oil and Venezuela gold (47 tonnes in strategic reserve) will provide those dollars to retain stability and seed economic growth projects. This coordinated approach secures the economic future of Venezuela and simultaneously secures the energy security of the Western Hemisphere while geopolitical operations continue in other regions, like the confrontation with Iran.

In essence, President Trump is isolating the Western Hemisphere from collateral economic damage that is likely to happen as the U.S. begins to take down the leading sponsors of global conflict. As things are in flux, the close and controlled partnership with Venezuela can offset/mitigate a lot of chaos. While the ongoing Iran confrontation happens in the middle east, and in combination with the priority of the National Security Strategy, President Trump then convenes a meeting of hemispheric leaders in Florida this weekend. The Latin-America meeting in Doral is being called the “Shield of the Americas Summit.” The Trump administration has made it a priority to assert dominance over the Western Hemisphere, where China previously built influence through massive loans and expansive trade.

Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced President Trump will host heads of state from “Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and maybe some others as well.” So, let’s put it all together. President Trump proactively secured the border, targeted narcotraffickers, confronted narcoterrorists, targeted Mexican drug cartel leadership, leveraged the DOJ to indict regional actors, pushed China out of control in the Panama Canal, took out Nicholas Maduro, took control of Venezuela oil production – both for the security of the U.S. and benefit of the Venezuelan people, removed the discounted oil benefit for China and reasserted stability in the Western hemisphere.

Then, with all that in place, he turned toward Iran…. but, proactively planned for a ‘Shield of the Americas Summit’ before the Iran operation began and scheduled it while Operation Epic Fury continues. Jumpin’ ju-ju bones. That outline and timeline is not supposition; it is what took place. And, yeah, we just watched “interim” Venezuela President Delcy Rodriquez react to what she is witnessing happening all around her. Accepting all of this, I would not be in the least surprised to see President Rodriquez in Doral this weekend. This my friends, is a level of strategic boss maneuvering beyond anything we have ever witnessed before. […

– “Interior Secretary Doug Burgum landed in Venezuela on Wednesday to begin talks about a potential rare earth minerals partnership, just weeks after the U.S. arrested former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. FOX Business exclusively joined Burgum on the trip. President Donald Trump‘s administration views Venezuela’s untapped resources as a potential alternative to relying on China for critical minerals, FOX Business has learned. While in Venezuela, Burgum will also help expand the relationship between U.S. oil companies and the Venezuelan government. The secretary will meet with the current Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez to continue the growing relationship between the two countries.Burgum is the first member of Trump’s Cabinet to leave the country since the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on Saturday.”

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“AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not,” Mace wrote on X..”

• Pam Bondi Subpoenaed In Epstein Investigation By House Oversight Panel (ZH)

House investigators are hauling in Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer for what lawmakers say is a troubling disappearance of documents tied to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The House Oversight Committee voted 24-19 on Wednesday to subpoena Bondi for a deposition, escalating a fight with the Department of Justice over its handling of records from the sprawling Epstein investigation. Lawmakers say the DOJ may have pulled tens of thousands of pages from public view despite a federal law requiring the material to be released.


The move was spearheaded by Rep. Nancy Mace, who blasted the Justice Department earlier in the day and accused officials of misleading the public about what has actually been disclosed. [Though we would point out that Mace herself vowed to reveal her tits, only to redact them with grainy footage.] “AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not,” Mace wrote on X, calling the saga “one of the greatest cover-ups in American history.” .@RepNancyMace’s motion passed. We voted to subpoena Pam Bondi and to release the files of those who sexually harass others in Congress. This is about transparency and going after predators, not politics.


Four Republicans – Reps. Lauren Boebert, Scott Perry, Tim Burchett and Michael Cloud – joined Democrats on the panel to force the subpoena through. The dispute centers on the Epstein Transparency Act, passed almost unanimously by Congress last year. The law ordered the Justice Department to publicly release its trove of investigative material related to Epstein and his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. In January, the DOJ released more than 3 million documents tied to the case. But the department later said it would not release the remaining files, estimated to include another 2.5 million documents. Since then, watchdogs and journalists say the situation has gotten even murkier.

According to reports, thousands of records that had briefly been available online have vanished from the public database. CBS News reported Tuesday that more than 47,000 files – totaling about 65,500 pages – were taken down by late February. Some of the withheld records reportedly included internal FBI interview summaries and notes – including material tied to a woman who has accused President Donald Trump of sexual abuse when she was a minor. Trump has never been charged with wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has said he had no knowledge of the financier’s criminal conduct.

The Justice Department has not publicly explained why the documents were removed or why millions more remain under wraps. CNBC said the DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bondi’s forthcoming deposition could become one of the most explosive congressional confrontations yet in the long-running battle over the Epstein records – a case that has fueled years of speculation about powerful figures tied to the late sex offender.

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In Europe these days, defending free speech is big news..

• German Top Court Issues Two Landmark Rulings In Favor of Free Speech (RMX)

The wave of police searches and prosecutions in Germany may be facing a new hurdle after Germany’s top court, the Constitutional Court, issued two landmark rulings strengthening freedom of expression. However, Fatina Keilani, editor in Welt’s freedom of expression department, said that these two decisions have gone largely unnoticed by the public, an oversight that she finds remarkable. Writing in Welt, Keilani reports that the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe handed down two resolutions in December that push back against what she describes as hasty convictions for insults. The rulings stem from two separate cases in which individuals used sharp, even offensive language against public officials and medical staff — and were criminally sentenced for it.


As Remix News has extensively reported, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of such cases in recent years. Some of these cases have even attracted international attention and led to questions about freedom of speech and growing repression in Germany.Just late last month, German prosecutors launched investigations into dozens of comments under just one post criticizing Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with one user calling him “Pinocchio.” A number of constitutional lawyers were quick to slam the investigations, with one labeling it “hysterical madness.” Now, Germany’s top court is strengthening freedom of expression at a worrying time.

The first case involved a retired police officer whose son attended a high school during the Covid pandemic. Angered by the school’s testing requirements, the father sent the headmaster a series of emails accusing him of serving a “fascist system and its henchmen” and of “fascist cadre obedience.” The Göppingen District Court sentenced him to a fine of 70 daily rates of €80 each for insult. He lost every appeal before taking his case to Karlsruhe — where he finally prevailed. The Constitutional Court found that his right to freedom of expression had been violated, ruling that the lower courts had not examined the meaning of his statements carefully enough, nor struck an adequate balance between free expression and the protection of personality.

Keilani quotes the court directly: “Part of this freedom is that citizens can attack officials they consider responsible in an accusatory and personalized way for their way of exercising power, without having to fear that the personal elements of such statements are removed from this context and form the basis for drastic judicial sanctions.” The second case involved a man who had been placed in a psychiatric hospital on multiple occasions and subjected to coercive measures. In a letter to his lawyer in 2023, he described hospital staff as a “psychiatric mob.” When he applied to have the letter formally served, a senior bailiff refused on the grounds that its content was punishable. The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court upheld that refusal — but Karlsruhe disagreed.

The Constitutional Court was pointed in its criticism, noting that the Higher Regional Court’s entire reasoning had been reduced to just two sentences, and that it had made no real weighing of the fundamental right to free expression at all. The case has been sent back for reconsideration. For Keilani, both rulings carry a significance that extends beyond the individual cases. She situates them within a broader climate of concern, noting that “numerous decisions against freedom of expression have recently raised doubts in Germany about the rule of law and about the stability of the courts with regard to this crucial fundamental right.”

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They make their own problems. Kamala, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, only their moms would vote for them….

• The Atlantic Says Pete Buttigieg Is a Real Man (Robert Spencer)

Among the kingmakers, queenmakers, and they/themmakers of the far left is a stubborn contingent that clings to the belief that the cure for what ails the nation’s self-styled “progressives” has been right there among them for several years now, and that his name is Pete Buttigieg. The failed transportation secretary has the gift of being acceptable to both the Democrat Party’s leftist establishment and power-to-the-people-right-on-let’s-burn-the-house-down wing, and while there really isn’t a dime’s worth of difference ideologically between the two factions, that’s still an unusual accomplishment.


Yet Pete is not polling all that well, coming in a weak second in a recent poll. It’s a crowded field with no clear frontrunner: Buttigieg’s 16% was better than Kamala Harris’ 13%, but Gavin Newsom led the pack with 20%. And he has a big weakness, one that Kamala Harris herself identified in September 2025, as she surveyed the smoking ruins of her 2024 presidential campaign and tried to figure out whom to blame.= One of the groups she hit upon was the same American people she had just been trying to convince to vote for her. Kamala’s post mortem of the 2024 election was that Americans were just too racist to vote for her, and too besotted with traditional morality to embrace a homosexual who was “married” to a man, such as Pete.

“As Kamala Harris rushed to pick a running mate last year,” The Atlantic reported last September, “her ‘first choice’ was her close friend Pete Buttigieg, but she decided that it would be ‘too big of a risk’ for a Black woman to run with a gay man.” In her excuse-making volume 107 Days, Harris explains that Buttigieg “would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man. But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.” She adds tellingly: “And I think Pete also knew that—to our mutual sadness.”

Pete has to have noticed an Aug. 2025 poll that showed him with exactly zero support among black voters. Leftist sports analyst and possible future presidential candidate himself Stephen A. Smith told Bill Maher: “He doesn’t move us.” He said he would leave Maher and his audience to speculate as to why that was, but it was clear: Smith was suggesting that black voters didn’t want to vote for a gay man — the same reason why Harris left him off the 2024 ticket.

And so one of the left’s flagship propaganda organs, The Atlantic, has now decided to try to give Pete a little boost, and what a boost it is. From the photo that accompanies the article, it’s clear what’s going on here: Buttigieg is sitting alone at a booth in a diner, nursing, as it were, a cup of coffee. He has a mustache and a tightly trimmed beard just barely covering his chin. He’s looking off frankly and forthrightly into the distance, a man with nothing to hide and nothing to fear. The title is “Pete Buttigieg in the Wilderness,” an attempt at a double entendre encompassing both Pete’s also-ran status among the 2028 presidential hopefuls and his new attempt to project a rugged masculinity, as the subtitle makes clear: “He has a beard, a splitting maul, and a house in Michigan. Is that enough to convince America that he’s a man of the people?”

Wait a minute. He has a beard and a splitting maul? I’ve heard this tune before: long, long ago, when America was a very different place, we had a presidential candidate who had famously been a rail-splitter in his youth, and who grew a beard right around the time he became president. Is Pete Buttigieg trying to make us think he is the new Lincoln, ready to do the hard work to unify our tragically fractured nation? It won’t work. It can’t work. Abe Lincoln never posed grinning in a hospital bed with his “husband” and the two infants they had just bought, er, that is, adopted. Abe Lincoln never had to project the image of being a man; he simply was one.

The left has now become so deeply encased in its arrogance that it thinks that a couple of props and a soulful expression are enough to rescue Pete Buttigieg from the weakness and incompetence he has displayed for years, as well from the increasing unpopularity of the woke delusions he so energetically embraces. If The Atlantic’s puff piece is remembered at all by the time the 2028 campaign begins in earnest, it will be as an embarrassing attempt to make a deeply unpalatable candidate attractive. The Democrats may indeed nominate Pete in 2028, but if they do, they’ll soon find that his candidacy is still suffering from the same epic deficiencies that The Atlantic is so pathetically trying to cover for now.

Read more …

Actually, Trump just threw out all of Biden’s autopen decisions. 92% in total…

• The Biden Autopen Probe Ends The Way So Many Others Do (David Manney)

Tell me if you’ve heard this before. Former President Joe Biden avoids charges after federal prosecutors closed the probe into his use of an autopen to sign pardons and other documents. Prosecutors in Washington reviewed the case, examined whether Biden authorized the signatures himself, and decided there were no crimes committed. Like March that comes in like a lion, the investigation launched with big promises but ended quietly, adding to the increasingly rotten pattern in which scandals evaporate without consequences.


Last June, President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into whether the Biden administration used an autopen to sign key presidential documents, such as pardons, months after Mr. Trump had claimed his predecessor’s pardons were illegitimate. Mr. Trump told Attorney General Pam Bondi and the White House counsel in a memo to probe what he claimed was a “conspiracy” to “abuse the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline.”

The order cited a number of executive actions by Biden, including pardons and judicial appointments, and argued: “There are serious doubts as to the decision-making process and even the degree of Biden’s awareness of these actions being taken in his name.” Despite concerns that lawmakers and conservative media had about Biden’s lack-of-mental state in his final months, suggesting staff overstepped their roles … crickets. What are we left with? Another grand declaration of justice that crumbles into nothing, leaving everyone to wonder if some secret shield protects the powerful or if the whole thing was just hot air from the beginning.

Jeanine Pirro leads as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and her office reviewed Biden’s pardons and actions. Prosectors couldn’t find any law that bans the use of an autopen if the president approves it. Without proof, the case gets dropped. How shocking to discover that the evidence falls short again, as if the system is designed to let big fish swim free while wasting everybody’s time and taxpayer money with empty threats. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) chairs the House Oversight Committee, which issued a report on Oct. 28, 2025, that blasted Biden’s final months in office. The report claims aides hid Biden’s condition and limited his involvement and accessibility. Comer referred the findings to Bondi, demanding a full probe.

Yet, here we sit, with zero charges and the same old excuses: lack of evidence or whatever mechanism kills these things before they bite. The way this bullscat so often repeats, it drains any sense that serious oversight still exists. The committee targeted Biden’s physician and senior aides with scrutiny over decisions. I hope they scrutinized them with a raised eyebrow or two. Some witnesses invoked the Fifth Amendment, refusing to speak. Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, along with his brother and a sister, right before exiting office. I’m sure all those pardons were above board, right? [..] https://twitter.com/GreereMedeea/status/2028870849718108499?s=20

Read more …

“Last month, Orban placed a double veto on EU initiatives..”

• Hungary To Block Every EU Decision On Ukraine Over Oil Blockade – Orban (RT)

Ukraine has reportedly rejected a proposed EU mission to inspect the pipeline. Orban said Budapest will not give in to “Ukrainian blackmail,” vowing to “dismantle the oil blockade” and to use Hungary’s veto power in Brussels for as long as necessary. “Until the situation is resolved we will block every European Union decision that is important to Ukraine,” he said.


Last month, Orban placed a double veto on EU initiatives, blocking Brussels’ planned €90 billion ($106 billion) emergency loan for Kiev, as well as the bloc’s 2th package of sanctions on Russia. The EU has called for a total ban on Russian energy by 2027, despite some bloc members remaining heavily reliant on Russian crude. While hosting Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at the Kremlin on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Moscow is a reliable supplier of energy. “We have always fulfilled all our obligations and, of course, we intend and are ready to do so in the future,” Putin said.

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“Budapest and Bratislava have accused Kiev of “blackmail…”

• Russia Could End Gas Supplies To EU Immediately – Putin (RT)

Russia may withdraw from the European gas market and redirect its supplies elsewhere without waiting for the EU to ban its imports, President Vladimir Putin has said. The president made the remarks on Wednesday after he hosted Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at the Kremlin. “There’s no political motive here. But if we’re going to get shut off in a month or two, we’d be better off stopping now and moving to countries that are reliable partners, and establishing ourselves there. But that’s not a decision yet, it’s just me thinking out loud, so to speak. I’ll definitely instruct the government to work on this issue with our companies,” Putin told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.


Moscow could redirect supplies to “emerging markets” instead, given the EU’s repeatedly stated intention to phase out Russian resources completely, Putin suggested. The energy crisis in the EU is the result of the “misguided policies” pursued by the bloc’s authorities over “many years,” he said. Russia “has always been and remains a reliable energy supplier” for all its partners, including the European nations, the president noted. Moscow is ready to continue work in such a manner with those partners “who are themselves reliable,” he added.

“For instance, with those in Eastern Europe, Slovakia, and Hungary. We supply them with our energy resources, both oil and gas, and we intend to continue to do so in the future. And the leadership of these countries will pursue the same policy as today, namely, being reliable for us,” the president explained. Following the meeting with Putin, Szijjarto revealed that Budapest has secured oil and gas supply guarantees from Moscow. Russia and Hungary have agreed to work on diversifying energy resource supply routes, he said. “We agreed that if transport routes become unavailable for various reasons, we will always seek alternative solutions. For example, if pipeline oil transportation continues to face difficulties, we will consider maritime transport options,” the diplomat said in a video address posted on Facebook.

Hungary, as well as Slovakia, has recently experienced a disruption in Russian crude supplies after Ukraine shut down the Druzhba oil pipeline in late January. Kiev has claimed the artery was damaged in Russian long-range strikes, which Moscow has denied. Budapest and Bratislava have accused Kiev of “blackmail,” alleging it deliberately halted the supplies for political reasons and threatened retaliation.Slovakia ended its emergency electricity supply scheme for Ukraine, while Hungary vetoed a proposed €90 billion ($106 billion) EU loan for Kiev as well as the latest package of anti-Russian sanctions.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/ShiningScience/status/2029414985991111103?s=20

 

 

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Debt Rattle February 20 2026

Feb 202026
 
 February 20, 2026  Posted by at 10:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  56 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Scène de rue à Montmartre 1887


• Former Prince Andrew Arrested After Epstein Files Revelations (Margolis)
• Hegseth Responds to Reports War With Iran Is Imminent
• Patel: We Know Who’s Bankrolling Antifa, and We’re Coming for Them (Hoge)
• 2-Hour Meeting in Geneva of US, Ukraine and Russia with Not Much Progress (CTH)
• Trump at Board of Peace meeting: ‘War in Gaza is over’
• Historic: Surprise High-Level U.S. Visitor Lands in Venezuela (Sarah Anderson)
• Rubio’s Case for a Stronger West (Ben Shapiro)
• CNN Issues Dire Warning To Democrats On 2026 Governors’ Races (ZH)
• The Bug In The Navalnaya Frog Poison Story (Helmer)
• GOP Should Be Willing to Politically Bleed, Fight, and Die (Victoria Taft)
• Mamdani and Other People’s Money (Turley)
• Orban Blasts EU ‘Fantasy’ About Russia (RT)
• EU In Worst Crisis Ever – Fico (RT)
• EU Elites Driven By Nazi Nostalgia – Lavrov (RT)
• Trump Has A UFO Speech Ready To Deliver (ZH)

 


 

Gates is an Epstein victim. Anthropic

 


 

 


 


Nothing to do with underage victims.

“…he shared confidential government trade documents with the late Jeffrey Epstein..”

“BBC’s Lucy Manning provided more color on what the investigation centers around: My understanding is that there’s been a very significant development in the investigation into the Epstein files. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested this morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office. That goes back to documents from when he was a trade envoy, that are alleged to have been passed to Epstein.”

 


 

PLEASE NOTE; Before she died, Virginia Roberts Giuffre wrote multiple times that if she died, it wouldn’t be from suicide, that she would never do that. But every single source says she died from suicide. The press, governments… She was a brave woman. She deserves being taken eriously. She is not.

For many years, she lived in Australia with her husband and -eventually- three children. “Ms Giuffre had recently been living with her children and husband Robert in the suburb of North Perth, Australia, though recent reports suggest the couple have split after 22 years of marriage.

BBC Apil 1 2025; “Ms Giuffre posted on Instagram that she had suffered kidney failure after her car collided with a school bus, stating doctors had given her “four days to live” and were transferring her to a specialist hospital.”

[..] It remains unclear where and when the crash occurred. Both the Western Australia police and ambulance services told the BBC they had no records of such an accident happening in recent weeks. The police later specified that they had located records of a “minor crash” between a bus and a car on 24 March, but that no injuries had been reported as a result.”


• Former Prince Andrew Arrested After Epstein Files Revelations (Margolis)


Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew and brother of the UK’s King Charles III, has been arrested. “I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office. What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation. Let me state clearly: the law must take its course,” the king said in a statement. “As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter. Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.”


Thames Valley Police did not identify the individual but confirmed in a statement the arrest of a man “in his sixties” from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office.” Thames Valley Police has opened an investigation into the offence of misconduct in public office. As part of the investigation, we have today (19/2) arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk. The man remains in police custody at this time. We will not be naming the arrested man, as per national guidance. Please also remember that this case is now active so care should be taken with any publication to avoid being in contempt of court.

Assistant Chief Constable Oliver Wright said: “Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office. “It is important that we protect the integrity and objectivity of our investigation as we work with our partners to investigate this alleged offence. “We understand the significant public interest in this case, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time.” In October, the royal family stripped Mountbatten-Windsor of his royal titles and privileges over his association with the late Jeffrey Epstein. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who committed suicide last year, alleged in her memoir that he had sex with her while knowing she was just 17. She recounted how Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly instructed her, “When we get home, you are to do for him what you do for Jeffrey.”

https://twitter.com/TheSaviour/status/2024429714203447521

“He was friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright,” she wrote. The following morning, she said, Maxwell told her, “You did well. The prince had fun.” According to Giuffre, Epstein later handed her $15,000 for servicing him. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied those allegations. Giuffre’s family responded to the arrest with a pointed statement: “At last. Today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty. On behalf of our sister, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, we extend our gratitude to the UK’s Thames Valley Police for their investigation and arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He was never a prince. For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you.” Police are reportedly searching two addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk linked to Mountbatten-Windsor.

Read more …

No nukes. Iran says they don’t want them. But then there’s Bibi.

• Hegseth Responds to Reports War With Iran Is Imminent

Amidst reports that the United States is close to a major war with Iran, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said his job is to make sure the military is capable of backing up the president. “We have enormous capabilities, unlike anyone else in the world, and I think the big difference between this department and others is that we unlock and unleash our war fighters to get the job done should they have to,” Hegseth said in response to a question from The Daily Signal in St. Louis, Missouri. “But our hope is that we never have to use that,” he added. “The president is a negotiator looking for a deal. It would be wise for Iran to see that deal.”


Axios reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump is close to waging a war with Iran, and that a U.S. military operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than the recent operation in Venezuela. While Iranian leaders want to reach a nuclear deal with the U.S., they are also rushing to prepare for war if negotiations fail, the Wall Street Journal reported.The U.S. could be ready to launch a “sustained” bombing campaign on Iran in the near future, the New York Post reported.

“The world has seen over the last year plus what the president is willing to do,” Hegseth said. “When he speaks, they should listen, and when he says Iran’s not going to have a nuclear weapon, and they should negotiate that. He means it, and our job at the Department of War is to have the capabilities to back him up.” The Trump administration has one message to Iran: come to the table and make a deal, Hegseth said. “Two people will make this decision: the Iranians could step up and make a real deal,” Hegseth said, “and ultimately President Trump will decide if it’s a good enough deal for the American people.”

On Tuesday, Trump advisers Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had a three-hour meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, Switzerland. Hegseth echoed the message of other Trump administration officials that the talks yielded progress. Vice President Vance told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that the talks “went well” in some ways, but “in other ways it was very clear that the president has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually acknowledge and work through.” The Daily Signal asked Hegseth about Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggesting Iran could sink a U.S. war ship. “I feel very good about the capabilities of our warships,” Hegseth said. “Very good.”

The war secretary spoke to reporters following a stop on his “Arsenal of Freedom” tour in St. Louis, Missouri, to visit a Boeing facility. Hegseth addressed some of Boeing’s 18,000 employees in St. Louis and asked them to build more planes at a faster pace. “When we unleash American industry, America wins,” Hegseth said. “When we compete, we win. When we innovate, we win. When we move fast, we win.”

Read more …

“A federal judge declared a mistrial Tuesday, but that was because the defense lawyer was wearing a politically charged T-shirt, about as dumb a thing as you could do as a trial attorney.”

• Patel: We Know Who’s Bankrolling Antifa, and We’re Coming for Them (Hoge)

We’ve seen the 2016 anti-Trump rallies, the 2020 George Floyd riots, and the ongoing anti-ICE protests in blue cities since President Trump started trying to clean up the illegal immigration disaster left by former President Joe Biden. There’s been one constant: Antifa. The group, whose name is short for anti-fascist, is known for their menacing black outfits, complete with masks, and their often violent behavior. They show up as if by magic the moment a demonstration breaks out, and they’re not there to keep the peace. But where does their funding come from? Who’s behind it? FBI Director Kash Patel wanted to know, so he’s been investigating it — and he says the bureau has found some answers:


FBI Director Kash Patel said Wednesday that investigators have uncovered what he described as major funding streams tied to antifa. The revelation signaled possible new enforcement action as the bureau intensified scrutiny of left-wing violence, according to a report from the Washington Examiner. Speaking on “The Dan Bongino Show,” Patel said the FBI under President Donald Trump has been conducting a financial investigation into how demonstrations linked to the loosely organized far left movement are supported.

By the way, all those who think that Bongino left his job as FBI Deputy Director on bad terms would be hard-pressed to explain why then Patel would appear on his show. The director continued, saying they’ve identified some culprits, but they’re not ready to reveal their identities just yet: “These organizations don’t operate alone or in silence,” Patel said. “They operate with a heavy, heavy stream of funding. And we started looking into it, and guess what? We found them.”

Patel did not identify specific donors, organizations, or financial mechanisms, but said more details could emerge in the coming months as the investigation continues. “Money doesn’t lie,” he added. He also smacked former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for ignoring the violent activists and calling the decentralized group “an idea.” “It’s not an idea when actual action follows the idea,” he chided them. Here’s what that “idea” looks like in the real world, Barack and Joe:

A public safety director at @Reed_College cooperated with the FBI investigation to identify Hoopes. In response, the college fired the man, and leftists in public denounced him.Currently, nine anti-ICE have been charged with ambushing an ICE officer in Texas and wounding him with gunfire. A federal judge declared a mistrial Tuesday, but that was because the defense lawyer was wearing a politically charged T-shirt, about as dumb a thing as you could do as a trial attorney. We’ll see where that goes next. Patel said he had elevated the issue internally, and they’re working hard on their case, but he did not announce any new imminent DOJ charges. Let’s hope that changes in the near future.

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Ukraine doesn’t want peace. War makes the guys behind their curtain superrich.

• 2-Hour Meeting in Geneva of US, Ukraine and Russia with Not Much Progress (CTH)

The U.S. mediating team met with Ukraine and Russia negotiators for the second day in Geneva, Switzerland. Unfortunately, despite the high praise and customary diplomatic niceties spoken, there was not much progress. There was, however, a rather remarkable accusation hurled by Russian media about uninvited British officials going to Geneva in order to conduct surveillance of the negotiations. Apparently, this is part of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s efforts to retain maximum involvement and influence.


STEVE WITKOFF – “Today, at President Trump’s direction, the United States moderated a third set of trilateral discussions with Ukraine and Russia. Thank you to the Swiss Confederation for being gracious hosts for today’s meetings. President Trump’s success in bringing both sides of this war together has brought about meaningful progress, and we are proud to work under his leadership to stop the killing in this terrible conflict. Both parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working towards a deal.” (source)

RUSTEM UMEROV (UKRAINE) – “In Geneva, the second day of trilateral negotiations has begun.mConsultations are taking place in working groups by areas within the political and military tracks. We are working on clarifying the parameters and mechanisms of the decisions discussed yesterday. We are focused on substantive work. We will provide additional information on the results.” (source)

https://twitter.com/PM_ViktorOrban/status/2024116561091477726

Read more …

The end of the UN?

• Trump at Board of Peace meeting: ‘War in Gaza is over’ (JTN)

President Trump said Thursday at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., that “the war in Gaza is over.” Trump invited dozens of countries to participate in the Board of Peace and help end the war between Israel and Hamas. “The war in Gaza is over. It’s over,” Trump said, adding that, still, “there are little flames,” NBC News reported.”Hamas has been, I think they’re going to give up their weapons, which is what they promised,” Trump said. “If they don’t, it’ll be, you know, they’ll be harshly met, very harshly met. They don’t want that.”


The president explained that the U.S. would contribute $10 billion to the Board of Peace. “We’ve had great support for that number,” he said. “And that number is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war.”] He also said that the leaders of several nations, including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait “have all contributed more than $7 billion toward the relief package.” “That’s great, thank you, fellas,” Trump said, adding that, “and many more are contributing … this is our first meeting.”

The president noted that Indonesia, Morocco, Albania, Kosovo, and Kazakhstan “have all committed troops and police to stabilize Gaza.” He said that other nations, like Egypt and Jordan, “are likewise providing very, very substantial help,” to create “a very trustworthy Palestinian police force.” Trump called the Board of Peace “one of the most important and consequential things” he has been involved in and touted the countries and leaders who are participating. He was also optimistic that other countries invited to the Board of Peace would accept the U.S.’s offer after multiple key allies declined invitations.

“Almost everybody’s accepted, and the ones that haven’t will be,” Trump said. “Some are playing a little cute. Doesn’t work. You can’t play cute with me.” The United Kingdom, France, Norway, Sweden, and Slovenia are among the countries that have said they won’t join, partly due to concerns that it could diminish the United Nations. However, Trump said during his speech that Norway agreed to host a Board of Peace event. “I’m excited to announce that Norway has agreed to host an event bringing together the Board of Peace,” Trump said. As Norway previously indicated that it would not immediately join the Board of Peace, it is unclear if the country’s stance has changed.

Read more …

Trump must talk to Machado. Easy.

• Historic: Surprise High-Level U.S. Visitor Lands in Venezuela (Sarah Anderson)

For years, the idea of a high-ranking United States official visiting Venezuela was not something that was ever going to happen. Heck, six weeks ago, it was not something that was ever going to happen. But last week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright touched down in Caracas and met with Donald Trump’s pawn, “acting president” Delcy Rodríguez, and even joined her on a site tour related to the country’s energy sector. On Wednesday, another high-ranking U.S. official came in for a visit: SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan. He was joined by Joseph M. Humire, the current assistant secretary of war for homeland defense and Americas security affairs. Donovan was just confirmed as the new head of SOUTHCOM a couple of weeks ago.


The two men met with our woman on the ground there, Ambassador Laura Dogu, and, according to a press readout, they also met with “Venezuelan interim authorities.” During the meeting, the leaders reiterated the United States’ commitment to a free, safe and prosperous Venezuela for the Venezuelan people, the United States, and the Western Hemisphere. Discussions focused on the security environment, steps to ensure the implementation of President Donald Trump’s three-phase plan – particularly the stabilization of Venezuela – and the importance of shared security across the Western Hemisphere.

It’s hard to put into words just how historic this is, but it’s yet another win for the Trump administration. I just Googled it to see if the MSM is reporting on it — so far, it looks like just a few outlets, like the Jerusalem Post and Reuters, are the only others mentioning it. That could change tomorrow, but the media does not like to celebrate these wins. I will. Here are some other things you might not find in the MSM. I’ve seen many headlines that Venezuelans are somewhat worried about the country’s future, and I’m sure some are, but according to a poll from Gold Glove Consulting, 72% felt that the country is “moving in the right direction following [Nicolás] Maduro’s January 3 capture.”

When it comes to hypothetical elections that will hopefully be held at some point in the not too distant future, Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader María Corina Machado wins by a landslide with at least 67% of the vote. Only 25% of people said they wanted to Delcy to stay in place. I’m shocked it’s even that high, but I do hear from many people that there are some, mostly older, holdouts in the country who still support the regime. Thankfully, the young people seem to be heading in the opposite direction. All of that said, 58% are concerned about security.

There are still some bad actors within the regime, and they keep testing Delcy, Marco Rubio, and Trump. As I wrote earlier this week, 86-year-old Evanan Romero, a U.S. citizen who is helping the Trump administration court oil investors, was arrested last Friday. He was held for about four days and released on Tuesday afternoon. Apparently, the reason was a charge that dated back to a 2010 case, but since Romero comes and goes from Venezuela often, many exiles have said the reasons were political or an attempt to disrupt the forward movement of the energy sector.

[..] Last but not least, speaking of opposition leader Machado, she appeared on Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News on Wednesday night, and said she is quite anxious to get back to Venezuela and help with the transition. Of course, it’s not safe for her to do so yet, but she did say something interesting: There are over a million Venezuelans living in exile in the U.S. She estimated that 70% will voluntarily return home once a democracy is in place. That’s a big number, but I can say that I’ve personally met and talked to many over the last year who are ready to return home and make their country great again and see their families and friends. With any luck, they’ll get to do that soon.

Read more …

“.. the harder question Rubio implicitly posed but did not fully resolve: What are the ideas of Western civilization that justify defense and sacrifice?”

• Rubio’s Case for a Stronger West (Ben Shapiro)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that stood out not for its bombast but for its clarity. In a room filled with political figures from across the Atlantic — and from both parties at home — Rubio was unmistakably the adult in the room. Within the Trump administration, Rubio is easily the most articulate spokesman on foreign policy, and at Munich he demonstrated why. His address offered a robust defense of the transatlantic alliance while avoiding the sharper edges that have unsettled European audiences in recent years.


That contrast was hard to miss. Last year, Vice President JD Vance traveled to Europe and delivered a speech in Davos that struck many Europeans as a warning shot. The message, intentional or not, was that America might be pulling back — and that Europe should prepare to stand alone. Some of that critique was warranted. Some of it was counterproductive. Rubio charted a different course. He emphasized the depth of America’s ties to Europe, ties measured not in election cycles but in centuries. The United States, he argued, does not seek weaker partners or dependent allies. It seeks strong ones.

“Together we rebuilt a shattered continent in the wake of two devastating world wars,” he said. “When we found ourselves divided once again by the Iron Curtain, the free West linked arms with the courageous dissidents struggling against tyranny in the East to defeat Soviet communism. We have fought against each other, then reconciled, then fought, then reconciled again. And we have bled and died side by side on battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar.” Rubio also delivered an unmistakable warning: Alliances only work when all parties carry real weight. The United States cannot indefinitely subsidize sprawling European welfare states while also underwriting the continent’s security. Strong alliances require strong allies — capable of deterring threats, including a revanchist Russia.

“We do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker,” Rubio said. He urged Europe to abandon what he described as self-imposed guilt and shame, and instead reclaim confidence in its own culture, heritage and civilization. That critique extended beyond defense spending. Rubio pointed to policy choices Europe has made — from aggressive green energy mandates to mass migration — often driven by a sense of moral atonement rather than national interest. These choices, he suggested, have left the continent less stable, less cohesive and less capable of defending itself.At the heart of Rubio’s speech was a deeper question: What, exactly, is the West defending?

“Armies do not fight for abstractions,” he said. “Armies fight for a people; armies fight for a nation. Armies fight for a way of life. And that is what we are defending: a great civilization that has every reason to be proud of its history, confident of its future, and aims to always be the master of its own economic and political destiny.That claim invites debate. Armies have, in fact, fought for abstractions — communism, religious doctrines, ideological visions of the world. Which raises the harder question Rubio implicitly posed but did not fully resolve: What are the ideas of Western civilization that justify defense and sacrifice?

Europe itself is, in many ways, an idea, one forged through conflict as much as cooperation. From the Roman Empire to Christendom to the nation-state system born after the Peace of Westphalia, Europe has continually redefined itself, often in opposition to external threats. Christianity, Enlightenment liberalism, scientific inquiry, market economies and constitutional government all shaped what we now call “the West.”Those values — rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, property rights, democratic governance and republican self-rule — form the real foundation of the transatlantic alliance. They are also the reason Russia has always existed at Europe’s margins rather than fully within it.If those values erode, the alliance erodes with them. “

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“So this should stand as a major wake-up call to Democrats.. ”

• CNN Issues Dire Warning To Democrats On 2026 Governors’ Races (ZH)

Midterm elections have rarely been kind to the party in the White House. Republicans lost both chambers in 2006 under George W. Bush; Democrats were crushed under Barack Obama in 2010 and again in 2014; Republicans lost the House under Donald Trump in 2018; and Democrats narrowly lost the House under Biden in 2022. The lone exception was 2002, when Republicans gained seats in both chambers after 9/11. Otherwise, the pattern is clear: the president’s party almost always faces setbacks.With the 2026 midterm elections months away, Democrats have many reasons to feel confident they will, at the very least, win back control of the House, which would be enough to effectively stall Trump’s agenda, and most certainly find something to impeach for.


Over at RealClearPolitics, Democrats currently hold an average lead in the generic congressional ballot of +4.6 points. Only one pollster in the average – RMG Research – shows Republicans ahead, and even then by just 2 points. The Democratic advantage isn’t particularly large, and there’s ample reason to believe that a strong economy could boost the GOP in November, but when you look at gubernatorial elections, the advantage is clearly with the Republican Party. On Wednesday, CNN’s Harry Enten painted an unflattering picture of the Democrats when it comes to this year’s gubernatorial races.m”Look at this, a majority, a majority, 26. That is, at this point, the number of governors that are expected at least tilting towards the Republican Party at this point. Democrats come in at just 20. The rest of the races are toss-up,” Enten said.

“Of course, you sum up to 50. And I will note that the Republicans right now hold a 26 to 24 gubernatorial seat advantage.”That’s the current baseline. Republicans enter 2026 holding more governor’s mansions, and the trajectory doesn’t appear to favor a Democratic reversal. But, according to Enten, even accounting for toss-up races, the GOP is likely to come out ahead. “So at this point, it doesn’t look like Republicans on the net and the aggregate are actually going to lose any governorships. In fact, when you add in those toss-ups, they may gain,” he explained. “So this should stand as a major wake-up call to Democrats, because if there’s a wave building, it has not, at least at this point, hit the state level when it comes to governorships.”

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The UK, and with it the entire West, has no credibility left in the poison field after the Novichok disasster.

Do read: Put this frog in a lab, and it’s no longer poisonous.

“.. the same process in the current information war and in vulpine zoology has been recognized by forensic scientists as “the fox smells his own hole first.”

• The Bug In The Navalnaya Frog Poison Story (Helmer)

The Ecuadorian Poison Dart frog, Epipedobates anthonyi, doesn’t produce the deadly epibatidine poison out of personal spite. Indigestion, more like. According to British toxicologists, epibatidine is refined by the frog’s innards from precursor chemicals, also toxins, which come from the flies, ants, beetles, and other bugs which live in the same environment and are within range of the frog’s tongue. Captive frogs in a chemical warfare laboratory in the US, UK, Germany, France or Sweden would be unable to produce epibatidine unless the toxic insects the frogs eat are also captive.



“Technically, a captive frog would need to be given the same variety of food that it eats in the wild,” a forensic toxicologist in England explains. “These ants, bugs, etc. in the wild contain the toxins and chemicals which in turn the frog eats and then produces its own poison. So a lab would have a supply of these bugs that are present in the frog’s natural environment in order for the captive frog to produce the poison. You would need to airmail live ants from Brazil to the lab. Not impossible, but if a toxicologist is going to detect the poison post-mortem anyway, why bother with such an effort.”

The British discoverers of the frog in the 1970s reported the great difficulty they had in isolating the toxicated from the untoxicated frogs in the Ecuadorian jungles. By the 1990s, however, this problem had been solved by scientists all over the civilized chemical warfare world. On payment from the military research budgets of their governments, they then synthesized epibatidine, so that the supply could be assured without the bugs and frogs on hand. In the Wikipedia summary of the science, “more than fifty ways to synthesize it in the laboratory have been devised.”

The Americans came first in synthesizing and stocking epibatidine, then the British. More Americans followed in 1993. The Chinese succeeded in their synthesis methodology at a university in Virginia, also in 1993. The Russians were twenty years late. The first openly reported synthesis of the poison by Russian researchers was announced in 2013. In a British government press release, issued last week on February 14, it was claimed that “based on analyses of samples from Alexei Navalny. These analyses have conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine…Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America. It is not found naturally in Russia.”

The allegation by five governments – the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and The Netherlands – is that “given the toxicity of epibatidine and reported symptoms, poisoning was highly likely the cause of his death. Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him.” Referring to the Novichok allegations in Germany when Navalny was in hospital in Berlin and in the UK following the Skripal and Sturgess cases, the press release adds: “only the Russian state had the combined means, motive and disregard for international law to carry out the attacks.”

This is false. The state chemical warfare establishments of the US and UK had not only synthesized epibatidine more than a decade before the Russians, but they had accumulated substantial stocks for battlefield antidote testing, as well as for commercial production of painkillers. Like the role of Porton Down (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, DSTL, see lead image) in producing and stocking Novichok in the UK before the alleged Russian attacks of 2018, and the German, French and Swedish laboratory roles in analyzing the Navalny samples in 2020, the means, motive and opportunity for falsifying the Russian poison story have been openly documented for years.

Yulia Navalnaya’s presentations of the poisoning allegation confirm that she and the government agencies behind her have been preparing it for more than six months at laboratories they refuse to identify, and with evidence of tissue samples which, after two years, are forensically worthless. That means there is no proof that Navalny’s samples are genuine – that they have not been tampered with.“Conclusive” may well be the evidence of epibatadine in the Navalny tissue samples, but it is “highly likely” — the evidence standard identified in the press release — that the poison evidence has been added after Navalny’s death. Speaking scientifically, tracing epibatadine from the Ecuadorian frog is herpetology; the same process in the current information war and in vulpine zoology has been recognized by forensic scientists as “the fox smells his own hole first.”

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The price of voter ID .

• GOP Should Be Willing to Politically Bleed, Fight, and Die (Victoria Taft)

Let’s pretend it’s your last meal before midterms, Senate Republicans. What’s on the menu? Is it steak, caviar, and a dry gin martini or do you just roll over and ask for microwave pizza and Big Gulp? Well, I don’t know about you, but I want it all. And throw in a dog and a beer while you’re taking my order before you shuffle off to genuflect before that loser Chuck Schumer and the New York Times to sell out my vote. I want all of it. You should want all of it. If you believe the Polymarket wags and think you’re going down in the midterms, Republicans, then go down winning the biggest, most important, thing you’ve ever done in your legislative lives: Cleaner elections. Go for it all. If you’re going to politically die, then politically die a hero.


Leave it ALL on the field and save your country. Let this be your unselfish legacy. Be an inspiration worth voting for. Can you do that? It will be the most important thing you’ve ever done. And, who knows? Maybe Republicans in Oregon, Washington, California, Virginia, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Maryland may win a few rounds. The least you can do, Republicans, after being rolled by the fraud-friendly absentee/mail-in ballot free-for-all in the 1980s is to ask for a photo ID based on citizenship to vote. The least you can do, Republicans, after being rolled by the fraud-friendly Cloward-Piven motor voter nonsense, which intentionally blurred the voter roll lines between citizen and illegal aliens, is demand a photo ID based on citizenship to vote.

The least you can do, Republicans, is make the Democrats live up to their own rules and require their dirty voter rolls be audited and connected to a person with a photo ID based on citizenship, birth records, and Social Security records. We don’t want to hear about your timidity to challenge Democrats to a speaking filibuster. We want to see some humility and bravery from you — and the Democrats. Make them defend the status quo of dirty voter rolls, racist memes about blacks not being able to get ID, and force them to explain to the American people why they support allowing illegal aliens to vote. Make them own it. Make it hurt. Record them. Put their own words in your campaign ads.

And here’s what we also want based on the Election Integrity Project, California specs: Stop universal mail-out ballots that completely warped the 2020 elections. Return to absentee ballots on a per election basis based on need. Return Election Day to Election Day. Your ballot must be in the hands of election officials by the close of polls on — what was that term again? Oh, yes, Election Day. No late ballots. Period. Outlaw ranked choice voting. That’s crap and we all know it. There must be “auditable paper ballots in lieu of electronic slips” to check their work. “Tighten voter list maintenance requirements” of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

No ballot harvesting by “unrelated third parties” and that means SEIU workers at retirement and rehab homes, in addition to political parties. No tabulating votes until 8 p.m. on Election Day. Oy: Gavin Newsom Wants You to Know It’s Not His Fault That He Doesn’t Know What He’s Doing Prohibit ballot curing until “until 22 days before Election Day” Cleaning up the voter rolls is hugely popular. Why do you continue to drag your feet? Get on it. Save the country. And if you do, you may even save your jobs.

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Socialism will never come to the US.

• Mamdani and Other People’s Money (Turley)

In my book “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the rise of support for socialism in both the U.S. and Europe, including the election of Zohran Mamdani. The new mayor was elected on many of the same socialist mantras, promising to introduce New Yorkers to the “warmth of socialism.” Now elected, he is discovering the problem of, as Margaret Thatcher put it, “running out of other people’s money.” Mamdani has announced that he may have to implement “painful” property tax hikes, including a potential 9.5% increase that would devastate an already struggling economy and accelerate the exodus of high-taxpayers from the state.


Notably, while Mamdani is suggesting cuts in police and other areas of the budget, he is proposing a $127 billion budget, an increase of $5 billion from last year. His budget would now be larger than those of 47 of 50 states. As noted by the Washington Post, that includes states like Florida with larger populations. The editors added, “The reality is that Americans may like the idea of ‘free’ stuff — it’s how socialists win elections — but they are less excited about having to pay for it.” nWith New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers in Albany balking at increasing taxes, Mamdani is faced with having to actually pay for all of the free stuff that he promised.

When confronted with the fact that the Governor opposes new taxes as the state struggles to keep wealthy citizens from fleeing to Florida, Mamdani responded that it was not important how they paid for the new stuff. The important thing was that they pay for it somehow. With rent controls, new massive spending programs, and proposed new taxes, Mamdani could be on the brink of causing the greatest exodus since the Red Sea Crossing.

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“.. while the bloc’s GDP is “almost ten times higher” than that of Russia, “Europe today is not ten times stronger than Russia.”

• Orban Blasts EU ‘Fantasy’ About Russia (RT)

EU leaders are wrong to believe that they can exhaust Russia and help Ukraine win the conflict, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. The remarks came in response to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s statement at the Munich Security Conference last week, where he suggested that Brussels exacting “unprecedented losses and costs on Moscow” could weaken it and force it to “agree to peace.” “Who believes that the Russians will run out of steam sooner than Ukraine? It’s a fantasy, an illusion, and irresponsible,” Orban said in a speech on Tuesday, criticizing Brussels’ continued financial and military aid to Kiev.


During his Munich address, Merz claimed that the EU has not used its full potential against Moscow, saying that while the bloc’s GDP is “almost ten times higher” than that of Russia, “Europe today is not ten times stronger than Russia.” EU leaders have doubled down on pressuring Moscow. Top diplomat Kaja Kallas has insisted Russia is not ready for meaningful negotiations on the Ukraine conflict. The Munich conference also saw Kiev and its backers sign several defense industry deals, including joint ventures for drone production in Germany.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio lamented in Budapest on Monday that the Ukraine conflict is “one of the few wars” that some in the international community have been backing and resisting efforts to bring to an end.

Russia, Ukraine, and the US have held two rounds of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi this year. A new round began on Tuesday in Geneva, with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff praising “meaningful progress” by the delegations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December that Moscow prefers diplomacy but will achieve its goals by military means if necessary. On the battlefield, Russian forces have maintained a steady offensive. Russian officials have accused Kiev’s European backers of hindering US-led peace efforts and of increasingly preparing for a direct confrontation with Moscow, aiming at creating an enemy image to distract Western taxpayers from domestic problems.

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“Without a coherent strategy on competitiveness, the EU could “become a cultural open air museum..”

• EU In Worst Crisis Ever – Fico (RT)

The EU is facing the deepest crisis in its history, with economic problems compounded by a lack of leadership and long-term vision in Brussels, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned. Fico made the remarks on Tuesday while speaking at a conference on affordable rental housing in country’s capital Bratislava, saying the difficulties confronting ordinary Europeans are part of a wider malaise affecting the entire bloc.“The European Union has never been in such a crisis as it is now,” Fico said, adding that the situation is “not only about economic indicators, but also about leadership and vision.” Without a coherent strategy on competitiveness, the EU could “become a cultural open air museum,” and risk further decline on the global stage, he cautioned.


Some regions of the world, such as China, are now 15-20 years ahead of the EU in key sectors, he added. Fico has repeatedly criticized Brussels over its policies, particularly on energy and Russia sanctions, saying the restrictions are “only hurting” the bloc. Commenting on the European Commission’s 20th sanctions package earlier this month, he said the EU should prioritize dealing with its internal problems over imposing new restrictions on Moscow. He has also sharply criticized the EU’s plan to completely phase out Russian gas imports by November 2027, describing the scheme as “suicide” for dependent economies, and announced that Bratislava would sue EU institutions.

The sharp decline in cheaper Russian pipeline gas imports following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 and ensuing Western sanctions, has driven wholesale prices and living costs higher across the EU, while undermining the bloc’s industrial competitiveness.Fico, who survived an assassination attempt by a pro-Ukraine activist in 2024, has described Kiev as a “black hole” of corruption that has swallowed billions of euros in EU funds. Last month, he called for the removal of the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, known for her hardline anti-Russian stance.

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“What can we talk about with Europeans who openly say that Ukraine is upholding European values?”

• EU Elites Driven By Nazi Nostalgia – Lavrov (RT)

Much of the Western European antagonism towards Russia is driven by revanchist aspirations rooted in the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Moscow’s top diplomat accused senior EU and NATO officials of prioritizing personal ambitions and grudges over national interests. He argued that European anti-Russian officials label dissenting politicians as Moscow’s stooges while indulging in nostalgia “for the era when their forebears steered Europe towards Nazism, whether within [Adolf] Hitler’s apparatus or in countries where Hitler conscripted nearly all for the assault on the Soviet Union.”


According to Lavrov, “this hatred has resurfaced” and drives European governments to seek Russia’s defeat through Ukrainian proxies. European support for Kiev is meant to prolong the “war against us, a war which the EU wants to continue,” he asserted. “Europe has degenerated. Yet there remain voices of reason,” Lavrov said, naming Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. “These are sensible, pragmatic leaders who prioritize their nations’ interests.”

Lavrov said Brussels wants a role in US-mediated Ukraine peace talks only to undermine them, while it simultaneously claims Moscow is avoiding negotiations despite evidence to the contrary. “What can we talk about with Europeans who openly say that Ukraine is upholding European values?” he asked. Western European leaders have expressed concern that US President Donald Trump will sideline their interests as he pushes for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. During the latest round of talks held in Geneva this week, officials from France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the UK were waiting on the sidelines to consult with Kiev’s delegation.

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“I think Trump might be the only guy that’s willing to do something that crazy,” Rogan replied.”

And then yesterday he did:

“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

• Trump Has A UFO Speech Ready To Deliver (ZH)

Documentary filmmaker Dan Farah appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast in November to promote his new documentary, The Age of Disclosure, and predicted that his film might force Trump to become the first world leader to confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life publicly.”I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens soon after the film comes out — the sitting president has to step to the microphone and say: humanity is not alone in the universe,” Farah told Rogan. “We have recovered technology of non-human origin. So have other nations. There is a high-stakes, secret cold war race to reverse engineer this technology. We need to win this race.” “I think Trump might be the only guy that’s willing to do something that crazy,” Rogan replied.


Well, now Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, let it slip during an appearance on the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast that Trump has a speech prepared confirming extraterrestrial life exists. “Do you think that he’s about to make an announcement about UFOs?” host Miranda Devine asked. “Because President Obama was just on a podcast talking about how he believes in UFOs and hinting that he saw something when he was president.” “Well, I said this in my podcast, too,” Lara Trump began.

“What’s funny is we’ve kind of asked my father-in-law about this, ’cause we’re like, ‘Well, what do you know?’ ‘Cause, Miranda, we all wanna know about the UFOs, or we all wanna know what’s going on and he played a little coy with us. And so that, of course, led us to believe, Eric and I, were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, if he won’t even, like, fully tell us, maybe there’s more to it.’ And then I have just heard kind of around that… I think he’s actually said it, I think my father-in-law has actually said it, that there is some speech that he has that, I guess, at, at the right time, and I don’t know when the right time is, he’s gonna break out and, and talk about, and it has to do with maybe some sort of extraterrestrial life, so to speak.”

The White House offered exactly the kind of answer you’d expect. “I’ll have to check in with our speech writing team,” White House Press Secretary Karoline said. ”That would be of great interest to me personally, and I’m sure all of you in this room and apparently former President Obama, too.” A clip from Obama’s recent appearance on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast went viral over the weekend after he was asked point-blank whether aliens exist. “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in … Area 51 … There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States,” Obama said.

By Sunday, Obama was on Instagram trying to walk it back. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances aliens have visited us is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!” Obama wrote. Washington’s relationship with UFOs — or, in the preferred bureaucratic phrasing, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) — has shifted considerably in recent years. A House hearing in July 2023 featured testimony from former military intelligence officer David Grusch, who told lawmakers under oath that he “was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program to which I was denied access.” Grusch further alleged the government had retrieved what he called “non-human biologics” from recovered craft, citing accounts from dozens of witnesses he interviewed over four years.

The Pentagon, of course, pushed back. A March 2024 report rejected the core claims — no reverse-engineered alien spacecraft, no hidden extraterrestrial biological material, no off-world technology stashed in some classified warehouse. The agency stood by its denials even as lawmakers held classified briefings.Lara Trump’s comment adds new intrigue to the discussion. Whether Trump eventually delivers that address — or whether this is one more piece of carefully managed intrigue from a president who has never met a story he didn’t know how to control — is a question that, for now, has no answer. But Trump sure does seem like the president who would do so.

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Censorship machine Solar system https://twitter.com/MAstronomers/status/2024251057212158079?s=20

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle February 3 2026

Feb 032026
 
 February 3, 2026  Posted by at 12:01 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,  63 Responses »


John French Sloan McSorley’s Bar 1912

• AIs Now Talking With One Another Behind Our Backs (Stephen Green)
• Clintons Bend The Knee To Comer, Agree To Testify In House Epstein Inquiry (ZH)
• Awards Season (James Howard Kunstler)
• The Circular Firing Squad (Jonathan Turley)
• The Remaking of Alex Pretti: Imperfect Times Demand the Perfect Hero (Turley)
• Warner (Sundance at CTH)
• The Great Dispossession (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Let the Arms Race Begin (NYT)
• Trump Was No Draft-Dodger (Stephen Green)
• Being There – In Venezuela (Craig Murray)

 

 

https://twitter.com/MAGAStormX/status/2018133959985488068?s=20

 

 


“Moltbots autonomously get together on Moltbook, which — you guessed it! — is Facebook for autonomous bots. They might as well have a sign on the clubhouse door that says, “No Humans Allowed.”

• AIs Now Talking With One Another Behind Our Backs (Stephen Green)

“The most interesting place on the internet” has no humans in it. It all started innocently enough — like finding a just-crashed meteorite with pink goo in it, opening the mummy’s tomb, or digging up a monolith on the far side of the moon — with an AI meant to actually be useful for your day-to-day living. Peter Steinberger wanted an AI-based tool to help him “manage his digital life” and “explore what human-AI collaboration can be,” and the result was an open-source AI digital assistant capable of acting autonomously to take care of the user’s needs.


Originally called Clawdbots (now known as Moltbots, but hang on), Steinberger’s creation can manage your calendar for you, take care of your email automatically, browse the web, fill out forms, shop, book flights, check in for travel, and even (with your approval, and without getting too deep in the tech woods here) read and write local files, run code or scripts, and execute shell commands on your computer or mobile device. They’re LLM-agnostic, too, working with whatever AI (Claude, GPT, Gemini, etc.) via API and use a persistent memory system to stay context-aware of the user’s needs.

They key feature is that Moltbots have agency — they can do all these things and more without waiting to be told. AIs just sit there in a sort of null state waiting for your next prompt, but Moltbots proactively prompt them for you.They can send messages for you via WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Discord, iMessage, etc… and that’s where things got weird, like when the pink meteor goo starts moving on its own. Rebranded as Moltbots (except forks called OpenClaw) due to trademark concerns, Moltbots now gather on their own via those same messaging apps users allowed them to access.

AI researcher Simon Willison said last week that Moltbot represents a “lethal trifecta” of cyber vulnerabilities because of its access to each user’s private data, exposure to untrusted content, its ability to communicate on messaging apps, and its “persistent memory” that “enables delayed-execution attacks,” as Fortune put it. “OpenClaw is built around skills,” Willison explained, “and a skill is a zip file containing markdown instructions and optional extra scripts (and yes, they can steal your crypto) which means they act as a powerful plugin system for OpenClaw.”

But believe it or not, that’s not the weirdest part. Moltbots autonomously get together on Moltbook, which — you guessed it! — is Facebook for autonomous bots. They might as well have a sign on the clubhouse door that says, “No Humans Allowed.” There, various Moltbots share skills and Lord-only-knows what else. One post found by Willison was on Moltbot telling the others how it gained remote control of its user’s Android phone.

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Epstein lives here. Sort of.

• Clintons Bend The Knee To Comer, Agree To Testify In House Epstein Inquiry (ZH)

“Your clients’ desire for special treatment is both frustrating and an affront to the American people’s desire for transparency,” Mr. Comer wrote in a letter to the Clintons’ lawyers on Monday that was also obtained by The New York Times.


Indeed, as The NYTimes reports, after some Democrats on the panel joined Republicans in a vote to recommend charging them with criminal contempt, an extraordinary first step in referring them to the Justice Department for prosecution, the Clintons ultimately waved the white flag and agreed to fully comply with Mr. Comer’s demands. In an email sent to Mr. Comer on Monday evening, attorneys for the Clintons said their clients would “appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates” and asked that the House not move forward with a contempt vote, which had been slated for Wednesday.

However, it was not immediately clear Monday evening whether Comer would accept the Clintons’ terms and, subsequently, whether the contempt votes would still take place. Comer said: “The Clintons’ counsel has said they agree to terms, but those terms lack clarity yet again and they have provided no dates for their depositions. The only reason they have said they agree to terms is because the House has moved forward with contempt.” “I will clarify the terms they are agreeing to and then discuss next steps with my committee members,” Comer said in a statement.

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“The world sees you now: not as compassionate warriors, but as spoiled, entitled, reality-denying tyrants in yoga pants, wielding guilt and hysteria like switchblades.” —LHGrey on “X”

• Awards Season (James Howard Kunstler)

The latest wrinkle in this tragic saga is the psychodrama over ICE, the men tasked with finding and deporting people who came into the country illegally. The Cluster-B women mis-direct their nurturing instincts to rescue this politically-designated “oppressed minority,” overlooking the fact that not a few of these illegal aliens turn out to be murderous psychopaths. Conveniently, too, the illegal aliens also happen to be a very useful device for the Democratic Party to pad the census and provide illicit votes, all to keep the party in power and sustain its rackets.


President Trump completes the doom-loop circle because he is the mythic figure who prompts all the anxiety behind the “mass formation” phenomenon we are witnessing. Mr. Trump is patriarchy-in-action, so he must be destroyed by the goddess-heroines of show business. The goddess-heroines seem to believe they are ushering-in a Utopia of Nurture in which no oppressed minority will be left behind. That fantasy happens to intersect with the leveling fantasies of Karl Marx and his apostles, the mentors of the obscenely-rich denizens of Hollywood so eager to abolish obscene riches. So, you see how either stupid, or mentally-ill, or both, the people in show business can be.

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“..there was outrage that Jennings is “allowed to exist” on the network.”

• The Circular Firing Squad (Jonathan Turley)

CNN has long aired controversial hosts and guests who engaged in controversial statements on race and politics from the left. However, a meeting last week focused on the airing of one of the few conservatives who regularly appear on the network. As one staff member reportedly raised, there was outrage that Jennings is “allowed to exist” on the network. Even as CNN continues to languish in ratings, staffers want to fire one of the few remaining conservative voices on the network.


One of the key issues raised in the meeting was Jennings referring to “illegal aliens.” While CNN bars the term, it is used in federal law and federal cases, including by the United States Supreme Court. In one exchange on Jan. 19, Jennings trades barbs with fellow panelist Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting. Kasky criticized Jennings for saying that ICE should be allowed to “chase down illegals” in Minnesota.

Jennings pushed back: “Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t say? I’ve never met you, brother. I can say whatever I want. They’re illegal aliens. And that’s what the law calls them. Illegal aliens. That’s what I’m going to call them.” Staff members reportedly denounced him as a “MAGA mouthpiece” and a “firebrand Trump loyalist” who “frequently gets into verbal spats with other CNN guests.” It is a curious objection since these panels are supposed to be lively contrasts between guests. The meeting is reminiscent of the effort at the Washington Post to get staffers to recognize the company’s declining position.

Robert Lewis, a British media executive who joined the Post earlier this year, reportedly got into a “heated exchange” with a staffer. Lewis explained that, while reporters were protesting measures to expand readership, the very survival of the paper was now at stake: “We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around. We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

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“MS NOW has admitted that it used an AI-enhanced photo of Pretti that made him look more handsome.”

• The Remaking of Alex Pretti: Imperfect Times Demand the Perfect Hero (Turley)

“Show me a hero, and I will write you a tragedy.” That statement, from F. Scott Fitzgerald, has never been truer than with the posthumous treatment of Alex Pretti, killed in a confrontation with federal officers in Minneapolis. He has been called a “hero” and a “martyr” by the left as a rallying cry for protests around the country. In the process, many have “enhanced” both his story and his image. MS NOW has admitted that it used an AI-enhanced photo of Pretti that made him look more handsome. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) was criticized for bringing to the Senate floor an altered image, featuring a headless immigration agent, that made it look like officers executed a kneeling Pretti with a shot to the head.


Pretti needs to be be inviolate to make the government seem vile in the eyes of the public. He is being described as the combination of Florence Nightingale and Crispus Attucks. A CNN panelist and co-host of “The View,” Ana Navarro, voiced the new orthodoxy that Pretti was the “perfect guy … the guy you’d want to date your daughter, the guy you want your son to grow up to be, a decent human being who was serving humanity.” She added that he was so perfect that “there is nothing that has been said about that man that isn’t wonderful. And so they can’t malign him.” The point is that any skepticism, let alone criticism, is no longer acceptable.

In fairness, Pretti was vilified before he was canonized. Many of us objected that the videotape evidence did not support the original description of Pretti’s conduct. Pretti did not threaten officers or approach them brandishing a weapon. But he did disobey police orders and he did resist arrest. Indeed, eleven days earlier, he had spat at officers, damaged a police vehicle by kicking out its taillight, and again resisted officers. The remaking of Alex Pretti by both sides is strikingly familiar. On Tuesday, my book on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution will be released. “Rage and the Republic” looks at both the American and French Revolutions to explore why one became the world’s oldest democracy and the other became a blood-soaked terror.

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Sundance with a long exposé about just one leak.

• Warner (Sundance at CTH)

In January of 2017 California Senator Dianne Feinstein abdicated her position as Vice-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Upon the initiation of a new congress, and two weeks before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Virginia Senator Mark Warner took the SSCI Vice-Chair seat…. and that’s how things get started.mAmid a concerted effort to resist the incoming administration the Russia Collusion Conspiracy was launched. Politicians, the U.S. intelligence apparatus and DC beltway media united in common purpose to push a Trump-Russia narrative.


Within the early days of that effort, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence initiated an investigation into Russian interference with the election. Chairman Richard Burr and Vice-Chair Warner were toasted throughout DC as an example of bipartisan oversight against what House minority leader Nancy Pelosi called a “fraudulent president.” Sometime in late February/early March 2017 Senator Warner requested a copy of the top secret FISA application used against Carter Page, falsely accusing him of being “an agent of a foreign power.”

Simultaneous to this the FBI was trying to track down the details of dozens of classified intelligence leaks to the media from within the DC system. FBI Special Agent, Washington DC Field Office, Brian Dugan appears to have been tasked with tracking and identifying intelligence leakers. Dugan saw an opportunity. On March 17, 2017, in order to fulfill the request of SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner, Agent Dugan goes to the FISA Court and picks up a copy of the FISA application. At the time there were only two components: The original application (Oct ’16), and the first renewal (Jan ’17). The next renewal did not come until April and then again in June.

NOTE: The FBI did not go to the DOJ-NSD to pick up a copy. Why? You’ll see.

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PCR “hides” 3 parts of The Great Dispossession in an article about Kevin Warsh.

• The Great Dispossession (Paul Craig Roberts)

In Part 1, I explained that the next financial crisis will be bailed out not with central bank money creation but with our stocks, bonds and bank balances.


In Part 2, I explained the multi-year quiet regulatory changes that dispossessed us of our property.

In Part 3, I explain David Rogers Webb’s conclusion that a massive financial crisis is pending in which our financial assets are the collateral underwriting the derivative and financial bubble and will result in the loss of our assets but leave us with our debts as happened to those whose banks failed in the 1930s.

Webb begins with the economic formula that the velocity of circulation of money times the money supply equals nominal Gross Domestic Product. V x MS = GDP. The velocity of circulation is a measure of how many times a dollar is spent during a given period of time, e.g., quarterly, annually. A high velocity means people quickly spend the money that comes into their hands. A low velocity means people tend to hold on to money.

] Velocity impacts the Federal Reserve’s ability to manage economic growth with money supply changes. If the velocity of money is falling, an expansionist monetary policy will not result in rising GDP. In such a situation, the Federal Reserve is said to be “pushing on a string.” Instead of pushing up GDP, money supply increases push up the values of financial assets and real estate resulting in financial and real estate bubbles. Webb notes that falls in velocity are precursors of financial crises. A multi-year sharp fall in velocity preceded the stock market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression that gave birth to regulatory agencies. The 21st century is characterized by a long-term fall in velocity that has reached the lowest level on record, while stocks and real estate have been driven to unprecedented levels by years of zero interest rates. When this bubble pops, we will be dispossessed.

Will the bubble pop? Yes. The Fed suddenly and rapidly moved from zero to 5% interest rates, a reversal of the policy that drove up prices of stocks and bonds. The Fed raises rates by reducing money supply growth, thus removing the factor supporting high stock prices and collapsing the value of bonds. This results in a lowering of the value of stocks and bonds serving as collateral for loans, which, of course, means the loans and the financial institution behind them are in trouble. Bonds have already taken a hit. The stock market is holding because participants believe the Fed is about to reverse its interest rate policy and lower rates.

Webb notes that the official data show that the velocity of money collapsed in the 21st century while the Fed introduced “quantatative easing.” He makes the correct point that when the velocity of money collapses, the Fed is pushing on a string. Instead of money creation fueling economic growth, it produces asset bubbles in real estate and financial instruments, which is what we have at the present time.When after more than a decade of near zero interest rates, the Fed raises interest rates it collapses the values of financial portfolios and real estate and produces a financial crisis.

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A freebee from the NYT. It says: “Shared with you by a Times subscriber. You have access to this article thanks to someone you know. Keep exploring The Times with a free account.”

• Let the Arms Race Begin (NYT)

The last nuclear arms control pact between the United States and Russia is set to end not with a bang, but with a whimper. The Trump administration has said barely anything about New START’s expiration next Thursday, a day that will mark the end of a half-century of collaboration between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. Nor have prominent lawmakers in Congress said much this year about its end, despite the looming potential for an unconstrained three-way arms race, with China’s participation.


Perhaps the highest profile attempt to raise awareness of the end of this era — which has underwritten the national security environment of most of our collective lives — came on Jan. 14. In the early evening, a handful of Democrats took turns on the House floor giving speeches for roughly an hour about the new world we’re about to step into, a performance that even the most ardent C-SPAN viewer might have missed. The only thing more alarming than the lack of interest among our elected officials in this matter is the mounting pressure on the Trump administration — from both inside and outside the government — to add more nuclear weapons to the stockpile, rather than reduce it.

Once the treaty ends, we will have returned to an era without limits, when arsenals can reach unconstrained heights. The bleak outlook prompted the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday to move its metaphorical Doomsday Clock another notch toward “midnight,” or worldwide catastrophe. It now sits closer than it ever has: 85 seconds to midnight.bnIt wasn’t long ago that the world’s superpowers agreed that having fewer nukes was a good thing. For decades, the world’s nuclear stockpile was shrinking. There were around 70,400 warheads in 1986, compared with 12,500 today — a reduction that came from years of continual negotiations between Washington and Moscow.

What began in 1969 with the launch of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks led to a string of agreements culminating in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which went into force in 2011 and was extended in 2021 for an additional five years.mNew START limited each side’s arsenals to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads — long-range weapons loaded onto submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles and bomber planes — and required regular data exchanges and notifications of the number and status of each side’s treaty-accountable weapons. It also allowed for short-notice on-site inspection visits to ensure compliance.

The end of New START is just the latest Cold War treaty to be abandoned or canceled amid worsening U.S.-Russia relations. When President Trump returned to the White House, many hoped he might finally rekindle nuclear arms-control negotiations after years of stalled diplomacy. The president has repeatedly said he was prepared to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world and even said in August that he would like to “denuclearize” altogether if President Vladimir Putin of Russia was willing to reciprocate.

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Stephen Green aka vodkapundit.

• Trump Was No Draft-Dodger (Stephen Green)

Here are the facts, simply laid out by Eschenbach and verified by Yours Truly using both Grok and ChatGPT. A couple of the dates are slightly off, but everything checks out.

• Trump registered for the draft after his 18th birthday on June 24, 1964 (draft dodgers don’t register*).

• He was given an S-2 (college) deferment on June 28, 1964 (perfectly legal, not a draft dodger).

• His S-2 status was renewed on Dec 14, 1965 (legal, not a draft dodger), and he was then classified on Nov. 22, 1966, as 1-A (available for service).

• Dec. 13, 1966, his S-2 was again granted to attend Wharton (legal, not a draft dodger). His final deferral was granted on Jan. 16, 1968.

• After graduating from Wharton, he was reclassified 1-A on July 9, 1968. He went to his Armed Forces Physical (something a draft dodger probably would not do) on Sept. 19, 1968, and was categorized as 1-Y,disqualified for service except in war or national emergency (due to bone spurs in both heels).

• He received a high draft lottery number and was never called up. On Feb. 17, 1972, after the abolishment of the 1-Y classification, he was classified 4-F (not qualified for military service).

I’d add — again, confirmed by two LLMs — that in the 1969 draft lottery (implemented for 1970 inductions), Trump’s birthdate drew a high number (356 out of 366), which would have likely exempted him from being called up even without the medical classification. (*Some draft dodgers actually registered, but then dodged the call when it came.) All along the way, Trump followed the rules, and as fate would have it, probably wouldn’t have been called up even without bone-spurs.

Still, I decided to dig deeper and asked my two most reliable LLMs whether Trump would have fallen under President Jimmy Carter’s blanket pardon for roughly 570,000 men who had either been charged for draft-dodging offenses, or who had not been charged but had done things like fail to register of fled to Canada. Short answer: No. Grok’s slightly longer answer: “Trump would not have qualified for Carter’s pardon because he did not violate the Selective Service Act—he registered, complied with classifications, and used legitimate deferments without committing any evadable offenses. Even if the bone spurs claim were proven fraudulent today, it wasn’t challenged or prosecuted at the time, so no pardon-eligible violation occurred.”

So there you have it. Trump wasn’t a draft-dodger.

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Caracas is not like you think.

• Being There – In Venezuela (Craig Murray)

I have now been in Caracas for 48 hours and the contrast between what I have seen, and what I had read in the mainstream media, could not be more stark. bI drove right through Caracas, from the airport through the city centre and up to posh Las Mercedes. The next morning I walked all through and weaved my way within the working class district of San Agustin. I joined in the “Afrodescendants festival”, and spent hours mingling with the people. I was made extremely welcome and invited into many homes – this from a district they tell you is extremely dangerous. I must admit I had great fun at this bit.


After this I continued on for miles walking through the residential area and through the heart of the city centre, including Bolivar Square and the National Assembly. In all of this I have not seen one single checkpoint, whether police or military. I have seen almost no guns; fewer than you would see on a similar tour taking in Whitehall. I have not been stopped once, whether on foot or in a car. I have seen absolutely zero sign of “Chavista militia” whether in poor, wealthy or central areas. I drove extensively round the opposition strongholds of Las Mercedes and Altamira and quite literally saw not a single armed policemen, not one militia man and not one soldier. People were out and about quite happily and normally. There was no feeling of repression whatsoever.

Again, nobody stopped me or asked who I am or why I was taking pictures. I did ask the Venezuelan authorities whether I needed a permit to take photos and publish articles, and their reply was a puzzled “why would you?” The military checkpoints to maintain control, the roving gangs of Chavista armed groups, all the media descriptions of Caracas today are entirely a figment of CIA and Machado propaganda, simply regurgitated by a complicit billionaire and state media. Do you know what else do not exist? The famous “shortages.” The only thing in short supply is shortage. There is a shortage of shortage. There is no shortage of anything in Venezuela.

A few weeks ago I saw on Twitter a photo of a supermarket in Caracas which somebody had put up to demonstrate that the shelves are extremely well stocked. It received hundreds of replies, either claiming it was a fake, or that it was an elite supermarket for the wealthy and that the shops for the majority were empty. So I made a point, in working-class districts, of going into the neighbourhood, front room stores where ordinary people do their shopping. They were all very well stocked. There were no empty places on shelves. I also went round outdoor and covered markets, including an improbably huge one with over a hundred stalls catering solely for children’s birthday parties!

Everyone was quite happy to let me photograph anything I wanted. It is not just groceries. Hardware stores, opticians, clothes and shoe shops, electronic goods, auto parts. Everything is freely available. There is a lack of physical currency. Sanctions have limited the Venezuelan government’s access to secure printing. To get round this, everybody does secure payment with their phones via QR code using the Venezuelan Central Bank’s own ingenious app. This is incredibly well established – even the most basic street vendors have their QR code displayed and get their payments this way.

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Debt Rattle September 24 2025

Sep 242025
 
 September 24, 2025  Posted by at 10:12 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  37 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Almond blossom 1890

 

• Trump Changes Rhetoric On Ukraine Conflict (RT)
• Trump Says Ukraine Can Win Back All Territory Lost to Russia (ZH)
• NATO States Can Shoot Down Russian Planes – Trump (RT) /td>
• Hungary Pledges To Keep Buying Russian Energy (RT)
• Western Europe ‘Going To Hell’ – Trump (RT)
• Turning Point Campus Tour Continues with Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson etc (CTH)
• Who Charlie Kirk Really Was (CTH)
• Is This the Media’s Newest Spin on Charlie Kirk’s Murder? (Margolis)
• The Evolution of MAGA and The Perils Ahead (Pinsker)
• President Trump Calls Out Democrats for Threatening Shutdown (CTH)
• Secret Service Foils Massive Plot To Cripple NYC Cell Network (NYP)
• Jimmy Kimmel Set For Return To ABC (NYP)
• Bill O’Reilly Shreds Liberals’ ‘Free Speech’ Spin (ZH)
• US Officials Say Regime Change in Venezuela Is the Real Goal (Antiwar)
• Is Wired Trying to Get Elon Musk Assassinated Next? (Stephen Green)

 

 

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1970273969870905494
https://twitter.com/SaiKate108/status/1970089397199802437

 

 

 

 

It looks like a sudden 180º. But how exactly do you get from Zelensky has no cards, to now is “time for Ukraine to act?” What changed?

• Trump Changes Rhetoric On Ukraine Conflict (RT)

US President Donald Trump has claimed that Ukraine can still prevail in the conflict with Russia three years into the fighting, even as Kiev’s forces have been steadily losing ground in recent months. The statement marks a stark shift in rhetoric from the US leader. Since taking office, Trump has made repeated attempts to mediate the Ukraine conflict, initiating numerous rounds of talks with Russian officials, which culminated in a summit with Putin in Alaska in mid-August. The US president has recently expressed frustration over the lack of progress in settling the conflict but still referred to Russia as a powerful nation while arguing that Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky had no “cards.”

However, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, following a meeting with Zelensky, Trump claimed that he believes Kiev is “in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back,” if the EU and NATO continue to support it. He also referred to Russia as a “paper tiger,” arguing that it had failed to defeat Kiev’s forces in three and a half years. The US president also claimed that Russia is “in [a] big economic trouble” over the conflict and it was “time for Ukraine to act.” He did not announce any new financial or military aid packages for Kiev, though, stating instead that the US would continue to “supply weapons to NATO” for the bloc to use them as it sees fit.

The Russian economy has recently showed signs of slowing down compared to the growth of 4.1% in 2023 and 4.3% in 2024. It is still expected to grow 2.5% this year, despite sweeping Western sanctions. President Vladimir Putin said last week that the country “is still far from a recession,” citing the “historically low unemployment rates.” The governor of Russia’s central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, also recently dismissed the rumors about recession. “The economy is slowing, but there is no recession,” she said at the Moscow Financial Forum last week. The nation’s military have also been steadily advancing on the front lines for months. Moscow’s forces had taken control of 3,500 square kilometers and 149 settlements since March, Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov reported in late August.

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To me, it feels like he’s hallucinating. But what do I know, right?

• Trump Says Ukraine Can Win Back All Territory Lost to Russia (ZH)

In a dramatic reversal from his previous stance where he urged Zelensky to seek a ceasefire with Putin promptly as recently as a month ago following his summit with Putin in Alaska, on Tuesday afternoon President Donald Trump said that Ukraine should go on the offensive against Russia and reclaim all occupied territories. “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The president said that, with backing from Europe and NATO and enough time and patience, it is “very much an option” for Ukraine to drive Russian forces out and restore its borders. “Why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win,” Trump wrote. “This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like ‘a paper tiger.’” Trump said Russia’s faltering economy, shortages at home, and growing public discontent could tip the balance further in Ukraine’s favor. He described Ukraine as having “Great Spirit” and growing stronger as the war drags on, while warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin faces “BIG Economic trouble.” “This is the time for Ukraine to act,” Trump wrote, adding that he wishes both countries well, and that the United States would continue to supply weapons to NATO “for NATO to do what they want with them.”

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Oh sure, suddenly Russia flies war planes all over Poland, Romania and Estonia.

• NATO States Can Shoot Down Russian Planes – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has replied affirmatively when asked if NATO states should shoot down Russian aircraft that breach their airspace. The US president was asked the question at a joint press conference alongside Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky on Tuesday. “Yes, I do,” Trump replied. Estonia, a Baltic member of the US-led military bloc, last week claimed that three Russian MIG-31 jets breached its airspace. Moscow has denied the claims, saying that the planes did not deviate from their routine flight path, and arguing that NATO lacked evidence. Tallinn called for urgent consultations with bloc members under NATO Article 4, which allows members to seek talks if they believe their security or territorial integrity is threatened. Bloc members convened in Brussels on Tuesday.

According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the US-led military bloc decides whether to shoot down planes that violate the bloc’s airspace on a real-time case-by-case basis depending on the threat level. In the alleged Estonian incident, “NATO forces promptly intercepted and escorted the aircraft without escalation as no immediate threat was assessed,” he claimed during a press conference following the meeting. Earlier this month, another NATO member, Poland, accused Russia of sending at least 19 drones into its airspace – a claim Moscow has dismissed as baseless. The only damage from the incident was allegedly caused by a missile fired by a Polish F-16, which struck a residential building, the news outlet Rzeczpospolita reported last week.

The incident in Poland was a fabricated provocation meant to “undermine a political settlement of the Ukraine conflict,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the accusations were levied without a shred of evidence. The claims “have never been supported by any reliable data or convincing arguments,” he told journalists on Tuesday.

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“Brussels has reportedly included twelve Chinese and three Indian entities in its 19th sanctions package..”

• Hungary Pledges To Keep Buying Russian Energy (RT)

Hungary will continue importing Russian oil and gas, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said, rejecting pressure from Washington and Brussels for a clean break from Moscow’s energy supplies. Szijjarto made the comments in an interview with The Guardian published on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. For landlocked Hungary, he said, the issue of energy security is a matter of physical infrastructure – pipelines, refineries and existing contracts – that limit where it can source energy. “We can’t ensure the safe supply for our country without Russian oil or gas sources,” he said. “It can be nice to dream about buying oil and gas from somewhere else … but we can only buy from where we have infrastructure.”

In recent weeks, Washington has increasingly pushed its European NATO partners to stop purchasing Russian energy – and to introduce secondary tariffs on India and China – while refusing to impose any new sanctions unilaterally. President Donald Trump mocked them in his UNGA address on Tuesday, claiming “some in NATO are funding the war against themselves.” Hungary’s state-owned MOL Group imports about five million tonnes of crude annually via the Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline, which also supplies Slovakia. The route has come under direct threat in recent months, with Ukrainian forces striking pumping stations and other facilities along the line, causing temporary disruptions to shipments.

The European Commission has set a goal of phasing out Russian fossil fuels by 2027. Brussels has reportedly included twelve Chinese and three Indian entities in its 19th sanctions package, which must be unanimously approved before being adopted. Brussels has also been weighing separate trade measures that could curtail oil deliveries through Druzhba, even without unanimous consent, effectively allowing other EU members to outvote Budapest and Bratislava, according to Bloomberg. When asked about mounting European pressure, Szijjarto said it was “totally impossible to carry out a fact-based, rational dialogue based on common sense” with Western officials, whom he described as “fanatics.”

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No doubt there. “..each country is unique. But to stay this way, every sovereign nation must have the right to control their own borders and to limit the sheer number of migrants entering their countries,” he said.”

• Western Europe ‘Going To Hell’ – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has warned that open border policies and “suicidal energy ideas” will be “the death of Western Europe,” insisting that something must be done immediately to reverse course. “This cannot be sustained,” Trump told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, calling the crisis of uncontrolled migration “the number one political issue of our time.” Your countries are being ruined,” he said, accusing the UN of funding an “assault on Western countries and their borders,” citing the $372 million spent by the organization in 2024 on supporting an estimated 624,000 people migrating to the US.

He went on to claim that Europe is in “serious trouble” and has been “invaded” by an unprecedented “force of illegal aliens” that is “pouring” into the continent. He criticized European leaders for failing to do anything about it due to political correctness. Trump pointed to London and its “terrible mayor,” Sadiq Khan, claiming that the city has changed beyond recognition and is moving toward Sharia law. “What makes the world so beautiful is that each country is unique. But to stay this way, every sovereign nation must have the right to control their own borders and to limit the sheer number of migrants entering their countries,” he said.

He stressed that while the US remains compassionate to people who have truly struggled in their home countries, it is important to “solve problems in their countries, not create new ones in our countries” by importing people from different cultural and religious backgrounds who break the law and make false asylum claims.“You’re doing it because you want to be nice,” Trump said, addressing his European counterparts. “You want to be politically correct, and you’re destroying your heritage,” he claimed, calling for an end to “the failed experiment of open borders.”

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Looks promising. But what if it takes a unique set of talents?

• Turning Point Campus Tour Continues with Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson etc (CTH)

Turning Point USA has announced speakers to help maintain the TPUSA mission of Charlie Kirk. The schedule is being worked out, but names like Megyn Kelly, Vivek Ramaswamy, Rob Schieder, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck and Michael Knowles will assist. It is awesome to see people stepping into the breach.

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“Charlie Kirk’s Best Friend Debunks the Conspiracy Theories..”

• Who Charlie Kirk Really Was (CTH)

Andrew Kolvet, the Executive Producer of The Charlie Kirk Show was Charlie’s best friend. Following the memorial service he sat down for a lengthy podcast interview with Alex Clark. WATCH:

Reference points:
0:00 intro
1:38 Charlie’s last weeks
3:59 Charlie’s urge for International travels
4:38 His favorite form of exercise
5:50 Sharing the Gospel in Tokyo
6:55 Conservative infighting about Israel

15:22 Prepping Erika for Opportunists
18:04 Andrew’s “out-of-body” experience
20:06 How Charlie treated women
22:14 Andrew calls Charlie a “prophet”
24:05 Erika’s confidence in Charlie’s investigation
26:29 Charlie’s problems with Alex
28:17 Charlie & Erika behind the scenes
31:10 Fox vs. Charlie?
34:16 Charlie was “Mr. MAHA”
36:26 Why did TPUSA Team take down cameras?
38:40 Charlie’s true view of politics
39:22 The future for Charlie’s tours & Charlie’s show
42:34 Andrew’s remedy for healing a sick culture

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“Not political”.

• Is This the Media’s Newest Spin on Charlie Kirk’s Murder? (Margolis)

When it comes to political violence, the left far outpaces anyone else. Naturally, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the media scrambled to obscure that reality. First, they falsely claimed that Kirk’s killer was a MAGA Republican, and that lie collapsed almost immediately. Then they trotted out bogus studies claiming that political violence is mostly a right-wing problem, only for conservative outlets to expose their deception. So what’s their next move? Now they’re trying to spin Kirk’s murder as “not political.”As PJ Media has previously reported, Tyler Robinson’s own text messages revealed that he killed Kirk because he was “tired of his hatred.” His mother told investigators that Robinson had become increasingly “pro-gay and trans-rights oriented” over the past year, and prosecutors indicate he acted because of Kirk’s stance on transgender issues.

But according to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Kirk’s murder “was not a political act.” “Later today, family, friends and supporters of Charlie Kirk will gather in Phoenix for his memorial service,” Karl said. “The 31-year-old activist’s murder shocked the nation and was condemned by sensible and compassionate Americans in and out of politics and across the political spectrum. It was also senselessly celebrated by some, a small minority, who didn’t like what Kirk stood for.” Karl continued: Celebrating or excusing violence is abhorrent. The murder of Charlie Kirk was not a political act. It was gruesome crime. His alleged killer now faces the death penalty. Our thoughts this morning are with the Kirk family, especially his two young children who will now grow up without their father.

Whatever you think of his political views – and there are many people deeply offended by things he said – Charlie Kirk was an unwavering advocate for free speech. On a personal note – he was always willing to engage with me and answer my questions. He welcomed debate with those he disagreed with. He didn’t try to silence his critics. He listened to them and tried to change their minds.”

Notice the sleight of hand? Karl acknowledges that some people celebrated Kirk’s murder because they “didn’t like what Kirk stood for,” then immediately claims that the murder itself wasn’t political. When someone kills you specifically because they disagree with your political views, that constitutes a political action, not a random crime of passion. This is media spin at its best. By this twisted logic, the assassination attempts against President Donald Trump weren’t political either. Perhaps Karl thinks the Capitol riot wasn’t political either. Oh, no, I’m sure that was. It’s only violence against the right that isn’t political. And when the outrage poured in, Karl’s cleanup attempt got even more ridiculous.

Of course, Karl’s claim that a small minority of people celebrated Kirk’s death is a gross attempt at gaslighting. A YouGov poll found that 24% of very liberal Americans agree it’s acceptable to be happy about the death of opposing political figures, compared to just 3% of very conservative Americans. The same poll revealed that 25% of very liberal Americans believe violence can be justified to achieve political goals, while only 3% of very conservative Americans agree.

That’s not a “small minority.” These numbers dismantle the left’s carefully constructed narrative about who really supports political violence in America. Liberal Americans consistently endorse both celebrating political opponents’ deaths and using violence for political purposes, yet the media continues pushing the fiction that conservatives are the real threat.

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“From now on, it’ll be commonplace for GOP candidates to urge supporters to attend church, surrender themselves to Christ, and emulate His example. The two are now permanently intertwined. This is the true legacy of Charlie Kirk..”

• The Evolution of MAGA and The Perils Ahead (Pinsker)

“One day spent with someone you love can change everything.” —Mitch Albom

Charlie Kirk’s memorial service — and what a beautiful, sorrowful, unforgettable service it was — signaled the closing of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. Because, for a solid decade, Charlie’s journey and the Make America Great Again movement were indistinguishable; Charlie’s mission was MAGA’s mission — his path was MAGA’s path. Then, on the fateful day of Sept. 10, Charlie earned a new path. And today, he’s walking hand-in-hand with Jesus Christ; his horrible wounds cleansed, healed, and purified. Charlie’s earthly mission is now complete; his eternal rewards await.= Yet somehow, his widow, his young children — and the MAGA movement he so dearly loved — must endure.

The Democratic Party gave a master class on what NOT to do on Oct. 29, 2002: A week before the midterm elections, Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) died in a tragic plane crash. The Democrats staged a made-for-TV “memorial service” — and I’m using quote marks because it was less a memorial than a nakedly partisan political rally where Republican guests (including Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott) and independent guests (including Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura) were booed, cursed, and heckled until they left in protest. As CNN reported: “[Gov. Jesse] Ventura, who walked out of the service, said Democrats “should hang their head in shame.” […] “I feel used. I feel violated and duped over the fact that that turned into nothing more than a political rally,” [Ventura] said.”

The damage to Democrats was immediate: Ex-V.P. Walter Mondale, the favorite son of Minnesota who was tapped to replace Wellstone, went from the sentimental choice and a slam-dunk winner — buoyed by an eight-point lead over Republican Norm Coleman with just a week left — to losing the election by 2.2%. That won’t happen to the Republican Party. Not when the service’s most viral moment was Erika Kirk declaring her forgiveness of the man who made her a widow: And instead of boos, protests, or howls of indignation, her forgiveness was met with rapturous applause. Erika Kirk’s love and faith overshadowed everything else and everyone else — including the president and vice president. In an evening of indelible images and unforgettable moments, an army of angels sang as she spoke: The earth trembled and the heavens rejoiced.

And the trumpets of troubadours toppled more than the walls of Jericho. Charlie Kirk’s dearly beloved was baptized in a flash of gunfire, transformed from wife to widow to beacon of hope. None of us will ever be the same again. That includes the MAGA movement. As of today, the MAGA movement is now a Christian movement. That doesn’t mean Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and atheists are persona non grata in the Republican Party, but brands and movements evolve over time. Nothing stays the same. MAGA is no different. Since the end of World War II, the Republican Party has been governed by three key constituencies: The so-called Religious Right (pro-life, prayer in school, traditional values), economic conservatives (business leaders and the tax-cut crowd), and military hawks.

After the broken promises, exaggerated claims, and staggering cost of the Iraq War, the military hawks were diminished. They still haven’t recovered. A few years later, the 2008 Too Big to Fail financial crisis sullied the image of economic conservatives. From government bailouts to cries of cronyism, this gave an opening to today’s economic populists. It’s how the party of tax cuts became the party of tariffs. Unlike the other two, the Religious Right wasn’t damaged by a single watershed moment. Even after a few notable TV evangelists humiliated themselves in high-profile scandals, the Religious Right was mostly unfazed: Pat Robertson unapologetically carried their banner in the 1988 Republican primaries, finishing second in Iowa — ahead of George H. W. Bush — and first in Washington state.

In retrospect, that was the high-water mark for the Religious Right movement… until yesterday evening. When Americans yawned in indifference to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, conservative pundits and political strategists interpreted it as a cue to relegate moral conflicts to the back burner and focus instead on pocketbook issues. This, along with other cultural trendlines — including a 12-point drop among U.S. adults who regularly attend religious services — created an impression that Americans didn’t want to hear about God anymore. That impression was further reinforced when the thrice-married Donald Trump overcame the “grab ‘em by the p***y” Access Hollywood leak, winning the presidency. The Religious Right, they assumed, was dead and buried. Not anymore: We just witnessed its miraculous resurrection.

The MAGA mission is now a faith-based mission (and maybe it always was). From now on, it’ll be commonplace for GOP candidates to urge supporters to attend church, surrender themselves to Christ, and emulate His example. The two are now permanently intertwined. This is the true legacy of Charlie Kirk. Unfortunately, with it comes a new line of attack for GOP grifters. Because, whether we like it or not, grifters are gonna grift. That’s what they do. It’s how they make money. All movements have ‘em, and MAGA, alas, is no exception. Fortunately, they’re easy to spot:

Their success depends on attention, views, and clicks. They’re suddenly obsessed with causes and issues that they’ve never shown a heightened interest in before (cough, Israel, cough). They’ve flip-flopped on key positions over the last 10 years, often trafficking in conspiracy theories. They claim to speak on behalf of Charlie Kirk, putting words in his mouth that he never said. And now that Christianity has ascended, they’ll weaponize their faith to attack “the other.” Even if “the other” is a fellow conservative! No, I’m not gonna name names — because I don’t have to: If you’ve read the list, you already know EXACTLY who they are. Consider yourself warned. Consider all of us warned.

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“..Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand.”

“All Congressional Democrats want to do is enact Radical Left Policies that nobody voted for — High Taxes, Open Borders, No Consequences for Violent Criminals, Men in Women’s Sports, Taxpayer funded “TRANSGENDER” surgery, and much more.”

• President Trump Calls Out Democrats for Threatening Shutdown (CTH)

The Democrats are threatening to refuse to support a stopgap spending measure to extend federal spending. President Trump is calling them out and refusing to meet with them until they get serious about it. After passing a clean CR in the House, Republicans in the Senate are pushing a “clean” seven-week continuing resolution, which they say will buy time for more negotiations on full-year spending bills and possibly an extension of expiring health insurance subsidies. Democrats, meanwhile, wrote an alternative four-week punt that tacks on a laundry list of other demands, including a permanent extension of the insurance subsidies. Should the government shut down, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought will determine which elements and agencies of the government are considered essential and which will be shuttered until the budget is extended.

President Donald Trump – “After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive. They are threatening to shut down the Government of the United States unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens (A monumental cost!), force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”

“These Radical Left Views and Policies is what allowed me to win the Presidential Election, including all seven Swing States, and the Popular Vote, IN A HISTORIC LANDSLIDE. There are consequences to losing Elections but based on their letter to me, the Democrats haven’t figured that out yet. They are trying to eliminate the popular $50 Billion Dollar Rural and Vulnerable Hospital Fund, which was passed with only Republican Votes, and proudly signed into Law by ME. The Democrats in Congress seem to have totally lost their way. They obviously have no idea what it means to put America First or to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! All Congressional Democrats want to do is enact Radical Left Policies that nobody voted for — High Taxes, Open Borders, No Consequences for Violent Criminals, Men in Women’s Sports, Taxpayer funded “TRANSGENDER” surgery, and much more. Few people voted for what they represent, which would lead to the destruction of America.

Instead, people voted for COMMON SENSE, and that’s what the Republicans and your President, “DONALD J. TRUMP,” stand for. I look forward to meeting with them if they get serious about the future of our Nation. We must keep the Government open and legislate like true Patriots rather than hold American Citizens hostage, knowing that they want our now thriving Country closed. I’ll be happy to meet with them if they agree to the Principles in this Letter. They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand. To the Leaders of the Democrat Party, the ball is in your court. I look forward to meeting with you when you become realistic about the things that our Country stands for. DO THE RIGHT THING!”

DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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This is massive big. We’ll hear more about it.

“..a wide-range of telecommunications attacks — including spamming networks with up to 30 million text messages a minute..”

• Secret Service Foils Massive Plot To Cripple NYC Cell Network (NYP)

A massive illegal electronic device network capable of crippling cell towers and jamming 911 calls across New York City was uncovered by the Secret Service — just as world leaders prepared to descend on Manhattan for the UN General Assembly, officials said Tuesday. Investigators discovered the trove of devices — including more than 300 co-located SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards – at multiple locations within 35 miles of the United Nations. “The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran said. Officials warned the devices had the capability of carrying out a wide-range of telecommunications attacks — including spamming networks with up to 30 million text messages a minute — that could have had “catastrophic” consequences for the city.

“It can take down cell towers, so then no longer can people communicate, right? …. You can’t text message, you can’t use your cell phone. And if you coupled that with some sort of other event associated with UNGA, you know, use your imagination there, it could be catastrophic to the city,” Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office, said. “Given the timing, location and proximity and potential for significant disruptions to the New York telecoms system, we moved quickly to disrupt this network.” It wasn’t immediately clear exactly when the cache of hidden devices was seized. The hidden network was found as part of a sweeping Secret Service probe that kicked off in the spring following telecommunications-related threats targeting senior US government officials, according to investigators.

When agents ultimately raided the locations, they uncovered rows of servers and shelves stacked with SIM cards – including more than 100,000 that had already been activated, as well as a large number still waiting to be deployed, McCool said. McCool warned of the havoc the network could have caused if it had been left intact — comparing the potential impact to cellular blackouts that followed the 9/11 terror attacks when networks crippled under the strain. Officials said they haven’t uncovered a direct plot to disrupt the UN General Assembly but noted there was no ongoing threat to the Big Apple. Investigators are still probing who is responsible but believe perps from certain countries used the system to send encrypted messages to organized crime groups, cartels and terrorist organizations.

Forensic analysis is still in its early stages, McCool said. “We need to do forensics on 100,000 cell phones, essentially all the phone calls, all the text messages, anything to do with communications, see where those numbers end up,” he said.

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More attention than Kimmel had in many years.

Now more people can voluntarily not watch. It all looks like one big PR thing.

“Where has all the leadership gone?”

• Jimmy Kimmel Set For Return To ABC (NYP)

Jimmy Kimmel will be back on ABC Tuesday, but the country’s largest owner of its local affiliate stations won’t air his show as he still refuses to apologize for his incendiary, false claim about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer. The $15 million-per-year ABC late-night host negotiated his return to the airwaves directly with Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger and his No. 2, Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden, sources with knowledge of the situation told The Post. Kimmel will address the controversy during his monologue on Tuesday though he will stop short of apologizing, the sources said. The episode, however, won’t be aired on dozens of local ABC stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which announced Monday night that it will instead air news programming in its place.

“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” the company said in a statement. In response, Turning Point USA posted on X, “Good for @WeAre-Sinclair for blocking Kimmell [sic] from its 31 ABC affiliates. Reminder, Kimmell has yet to apologize for saying the assassin was MAGA, and he was reportedly going to double down. He’s an unrepentant liar, and affiliates have every right to demand accountability.” Sinclair had previously demanded Kimmel apologize to Kirk’s family and pledge a donation to Turning Point USA, the activist group Kirk founded. Nexstar Media Group, the other largest ABC station owner, has not yet said whether it’ll air Kimmel on its stations Tuesday. The Post has sought comment from the company.

Both media conglomerates had successfully pushed ABC to yank him from the airways for the Sept. 15 comments about Kirk’s assassination. In a statement Monday, Disney said it suspended Kimmel last Wednesday “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” calling some of his comments “ill-timed and thus insensitive.” The suspension followed a monologue in which Kimmel claimed Kirk was killed by other Trump supporters — despite authorities saying the alleged shooter had left-wing views. It remains unclear what Disney and Kimmel agreed to secure his return to air. The company has not disclosed whether the talks involved new contract terms or a donation to Kirk’s organization. Reports have suggested those points were central to discussions, but no final details have been confirmed.

Kimmel’s current contract with ABC runs through May 2026, following a three-year extension signed in 2022. He reportedly earns between $15 and $16 million per year, with total compensation potentially exceeding $20 million with bonuses. The move left Disney squeezed from both sides: conservatives enraged by Kimmel’s remarks and his apparent refusal to apologize, and liberals angered that the company appeared to bow to pressure from FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and pro-Trump voices. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner ripped the company for pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in the first place. Eisner accused Disney of capitulating to “intimidation” from Washington regulators and demanded to know, “Where has all the leadership gone?”

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“..they have BANISHED all traditional conservative thought and discourse on all of their programs.”

• Bill O’Reilly Shreds Liberals’ ‘Free Speech’ Spin (ZH)

Jimmy Kimmel will finally return to the air on Tuesday night, after his show was briefly yanked for falsely labeling Kirk’s suspected assassin as “one of them” in a distasteful dig at conservatives. Democrats rushed to defend Kimmel, calling it a “First Amendment issue.” But Bill O’Reilly says that story is, frankly, bullsh*t. The real free speech story, he argues, is what these mainstream networks have been doing for years. “Look, this [Trump v. Kimmel] story is bogus,” O’Reilly told Vittert. “The [real] story is that Disney and Kimmel, for three years, would not put on a non-liberal voice on his program.”

“You talk about no freedom of speech and expression? That story has been totally ignored,” O’Reilly lamented. “And it’s not just ABC. It was CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN. Okay? They will not put any non-liberal voice on the air.” O’Reilly recalled how, before the Trump era, he was booked regularly on mainstream networks. Now, he says he and other conservatives have been deliberately excluded from those programs — something he called “Putin stuff.”“This whole freedom of speech BS is coming from the far left to make Kimmel a victim and to make Trump a villain when, for ten years, they have BANISHED all traditional conservative thought and discourse on all of their programs.” “All of them,” O’Reilly continued. “They don’t want non-liberal voices. That is Putin stuff!”

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1970310297689678327

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Mario’s hobby.

• US Officials Say Regime Change in Venezuela Is the Real Goal (Antiwar)

US officials have told The New York Times that the real goal of the US military buildup in the Caribbean, and the bombing of boats in the region, is regime change in Venezuela. The policy is being largely driven by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long wanted to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power. Back in 2019, when the first Trump administration attempted to back a coup against Maduro, Rubio posted a photo on Twitter of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the moment he was being brutally murdered in an apparent threat to the Venezuelan leader. The Trump administration claims that Maduro is the leader of a drug cartel, but has not produced any evidence for the charge.

Maduro and other Venezuelan officials have forcefully rejected the accusation and have pointed to data that shows the majority of the cocaine that is produced in Colombia doesn’t go through Venezuela. President Trump has also framed the military campaign in the region as a response to overdose deaths in the US due to fentanyl, but fentanyl isn’t produced in Venezuela, and it does not go through the country on its way to the US. The Times report, which was published over the weekend, reads: “Several current and former military officials, diplomats, and intelligence officers say that while fighting drugs is the pretext for the recent US attacks, the real goal is to drive Mr. Maduro from power, one way or another.”

The US began bombing boats allegedly running drugs in the Caribbean on September 2. According to numbers released by President Trump, at least 17 people have been extrajudicially executed by the US military since the campaign began. US officials have said the Trump administration is considering direct strikes on Venezuelan territory, which could lead to a full-blown war with the country. One US official speaking to Axios last month suggested that the US military buildup in the region could lead to a “Noriega part 2,” referring to the 1989 US invasion of Panama that led to the ouster of Manuel Noriega. Other US officials hope that the pressure and $50 million bounty on Maduro leads to his assassination.

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“With Starship, SpaceX hopes to reduce the cost to orbit by an additional 90-99%.”

• Is Wired Trying to Get Elon Musk Assassinated Next? (Stephen Green)

You might think that the days and weeks after an assassin took the life of the guy who wanted nothing more than to engage with people would be a good time to tone down the “NAZI!” rhetoric against other public figures. Tell that to Wired’s Noah Shachtman, whose latest piece paints Elon Musk as an evil Bond villain “out to rule space” and demands to know “When the orbiting rifles are handed out, how many gun lockers will Elon have the keys to?” I’m trying hard not to sound paranoid here. But when Shachtman tells Wired readers that “you’ve watched Elon Musk stomp and smash and rage his way through politics and policy,” so they “get what’s at stake if he’s given an outsize role in the weaponization of space,” it’s easy to imagine the next Tyler Robinson carving death messages into a few shell casings.

Am I insane? Normally, this is where I’d urge you to go read the whole thing, but Shachtman’s article is behind Wired’s paywall (link here). Apple News seems to have it available to the public (link here). I’m not an Apple News subscriber, but they’re pushing one of those “Three Months Free!” offers at me since I bought a new phone. So maybe that link will work, maybe it won’t — good luck! Here’s more: Musk often lets Starlinks run under the table, sometimes as a way of pressuring governments to license the service legitimately. “But in Iran, they’re just straight-up flouting the rules,” says one knowledgeable observer, “trying to overthrow the government by giving power, giving internet access” to Tehran’s opponents. It wasn’t the first—or last—time Musk used Starlink in ways that seemed to support the Israeli government’s objectives.

Musk also likes and works with President Donald Trump, who is Literally Hitler™, except when Bibi Netanyahu is. “Musk isn’t afraid to use his technologies to advance his politics,” Shachtman warns. “We’ve seen Musk enable [Israel’s] war effort, and we’ve seen him deny that aid when it suited him to do so.” But Musk’s evil ambitions go so much further than just enabling Nazis, foreign and domestic. “This is really the elephant in the room. And Musk just points at Mars like, ‘This is my objective. Don’t look at Starlink,’” Novaspace’s Lucas Pleney told Shachtman. “This is why I’m thinking: Is he really pointing the finger toward Mars and believing in it? Or is he just trying to divert us from the big thing, which is Starlink and how much it will take over?”

Then there’s Golden Dome, which is where Shachtman’s Hitler-meets-Bond-villain theme shines through: “In an unusual twist, SpaceX has proposed setting up its role in Golden Dome as a ‘subscription service’ in which the government would pay for access to the technology rather than own the system outright.” Of course, a subscription is something that can be turned off. Musk would have the kill switch to America’s orbiting weapons system. The man behind “MechaHilter.” The guy who gave the thumbs up to using his satellites as part of a campaign to overthrow a government and appeared to do very little as hundreds of thousands starved. That dude, with an outsize role in the making and maintaining of an arsenal in space—one in which the guns are pointed down at Earth.

Somewhere, a deranged young man reads this and wonders what to carve into a 30-06 shell. While I’m a big supporter of Musk’s politics — and also a happy Starlink customer — Longtime Sharp VodkaPundit Readers™ know that what I’m really crazy about is Musk’s space ambitions. SpaceX, with its reusable Falcon 9 workhorse, has already reduced the cost of putting stuff in Low Earth Orbit by 25-40%, depending on the launch. That’s made things possible (like Starlink, our military’s growing Starshield, and much more) that simply weren’t possible before. With Starship, SpaceX hopes to reduce the cost to orbit by an additional 90-99%. At that price, Musk won’t just make a lot of money for his investors; he’ll open up the Solar System to the human race. There are riches out on the final frontier, starting with metals-rich 16 Psyche, just waiting for the nation able to reach them first.

Exploration? Pure science? Settlement? Whatever your space dream — and even if you don’t have one, because SpaceX is paying its own way to Mars — Musk could prove to be the most impactful human being since Christopher Columbus. It’s no coincidence that Lefties hate Columbus, too. I have one last question. Couldn’t we put politics aside long enough to give humanity its best shot at ending our dependence on a single, fragile planet?”Nah,” says the Left. “Let’s see if we can spur another nutcase like Tyler Robinson into action.”

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galagos

 

 

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Debt Rattle September 7 2025

Sep 072025
 
 September 7, 2025  Posted by at 10:06 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  50 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Self-portrait, wearing a ruff and black hat 1632

 

• President Trump Was an FBI Informant Against Epstein (Margolis)
• Trump Says Justice Department Has Done Its Job on Epstein Case (ET)
• Was Joe Biden Worse Than Jeffrey Epstein? (Margolis)
• 70% of ICE Arrests Are Charged/Convicted Criminals (Salgado)
• When The Pentagon Shifts Its Priorities Will US Strategy Follow? (MoA)
• Trump Considering Strikes In Venezuela – CNN (RT)
• Venezuela Starts Preparing for ‘Armed Struggle,’ In Case of Attack – Maduro (Sp.)
• EU Energy Chief Demands Permanent Ban On Russian Imports (RT)
• Trump Cutting Military Funding To NATO Countries Bordering Russia – FT (RT)
• Ukrainian Government Seat Damaged By Russian Strike – Kiev (RT)
• Germany’s Embattled Army a ‘Laughingstock’ – Ex-AfD Politician (Sp.)
• Kremlin Sets Conditions For Return Of Western Companies To Russia (RT)
• ‘Someone’ Might Have To Blow Up Power of Siberia 2 Pipeline – Jesse Watters (RT)
• Israel Backs Away From West Bank Annexation Plan After UAE Warning – WaPo (RT)
• Trump Threatens EU Over ‘Unfair’ $3.5bn Google Fine (RT)
• Conor McGregor Urges Irish To Lobby Councillors For Presidential Bid (RMX)
• In Secular Britain, Church Is the New Rebellion (Queen)

 

 

Optimus

https://twitter.com/SaiKate108/status/1964277429079523653

Kobyakov

Tylenol

Conor
https://twitter.com/mcgregorufc22/status/1964143600805073236

Euro
https://twitter.com/27khv/status/1964050810217677176

Peskov

 

 

 

 

“Curiously, this revelation has gotten very little attention in the legacy media.

Gee, I wonder why.”

• President Trump Was an FBI Informant Against Epstein (Margolis)

House Speaker Mike Johnson made a stunning revelation Thursday in response to questions from CNN’s Manu Raju about President Donald Trump’s use of the term “hoax” to describe the ongoing controversy surrounding the Epstein files. In defending the president, Johnson disclosed that Trump had once acted as an FBI informant against Jeffrey Epstein—a fact that has never before been publicly acknowledged by a sitting congressional leader.“What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him,” Johnson said. “He has never said or suggested or implied—I’ve talked to him about this many times, many times. He is horrified. It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself.” Johnson then dropped the bombshell revelation.

“When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down,” Johnson said, appearing to confirm for the first time that Trump had assisted federal authorities in building a case against Epstein. The speaker emphasized that Epstein’s crimes had long disgusted Trump. “The president knows and has great sympathy for the women who have suffered these unspeakable harms. It’s detestable to him. He and I have spoken about this as recently as 24 hours ago,” Johnson explained. “What he’s talking about is the Democrats who are doing this with impure motives. If they cared so much about this, why didn’t they do something during the four years of the Biden administration when the Biden DOJ had all the records? They didn’t say a word about it. Now, they’re doing it for political purposes. Not everybody, but a lot of them, and that’s what the President’s frustrated about.”

For Johnson, Trump’s rhetoric mirrors his past experiences with partisan attacks. “They’re creating a hoax, just like they did with the Russian dossier, because they think it’s going to somehow be mud thrown on him. It’s not. He has no culpability in this thing at all. The president has clean hands. He wants all the records out. He has told me that himself.” Raju pressed Johnson on whether Trump should meet with Epstein’s victims, a question that has been raised by critics who argue that the president needs to show more direct support for survivors. Johnson suggested such a meeting was not out of the question. “I suspect he probably will. Yeah, he has great compassion for them,” the speaker said. “The President has a very compassionate heart. He hates the fact that these women suffered those wrongs. He hates what Epstein is accused of and who he was.”

Johnson continued, highlighting Trump’s early decision to sever ties with Epstein. “When he recognized that, he realized Epstein wasn’t just some sort of, you know, socialite. He was an evil person, and, you know, alleged to have been involved in evil schemes. And the president distanced himself, before he was president, from that because that’s not who he is. And I think he’s being falsely accused and maligned, and that’s a frustration of all of ours. That’s what he’s talking about when he says it’s a hoax.” The revelation that Trump was an informant against Epstein is sure to trigger the left, who have spent years trying to turn Epstein into a Trump scandal. Curiously, this revelation has gotten very little attention in the legacy media.

Gee, I wonder why.

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Pam Bondi promised a list that does not exist.

She regrets that now.

• Trump Says Justice Department Has Done Its Job on Epstein Case (ET)

President Donald Trump said in a lengthy social media post that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has “done its job” on releasing information connected to deceased convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. “The now dying (after the DOJ gave thousands of pages of documents in full compliance with a very comprehensive and exacting Subpoena from Congress!) Epstein case was only brought back to life” in recent days for political purposes, not for the victims, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Sept. 5. Trump added that the Justice Department “has done its job,“ and ”they have given everything requested of them“ in the Epstein case, adding that it’s time for Democrats who are making Epstein-related demands to ”end“ what he called the ”Epstein hoax.”

In the post, he also said that the chatter around Epstein is designed to serve as a “hoax” to gain political points and an attempt “to deflect and distract from the great success of a Republican President.” Democrats and some Republicans in the House have called for disclosures related to the case, about six years after Epstein was charged with sex trafficking counts before he was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019. This week, lawmakers hosted a news conference with women who said they were victims of Epstein to call for more transparency. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee, under Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), released a batch of Epstein-related files that it said it obtained from the DOJ in response to a subpoena for those records. The records encompass 33,295 pages of material, which were uploaded onto Dropbox and Google Drive.

Speaking to reporters in the Capitol on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that the document disclosure “is the beginning and not the end” and that “we want to bring justice to every single person who is involved in the Epstein evils and the cover up thereof, but we also want to be equally certain we protect the innocent victims.” The materials include videos that were captured outside of Epstein’s jail cell, footage from his Florida home, audio files between his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over the summer, and other documents.

Transcripts of the interview between Maxwell and Blanche were released last month. Maxwell is currently serving out a 20-year prison term after she was convicted on charges in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors over the course of a decade. In the news conference, the women who said they were Epstein’s victims called on members of Congress to pass a bill requiring the release of more documents related to the case. “Survivors need protection, resources, and legal support. If this Congress is serious about justice, then let this moment also affirm your commitment to provide victims with the legal aid they need,” Anouska De Georgiou, a self-described Epstein victim, said at the press event earlier this week that had been organized by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

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“Between Jan. 2021 and Dec. 2024, more than 470,000 unaccompanied children crossed into America under Biden’s watch.”

• Was Joe Biden Worse Than Jeffrey Epstein? (Margolis)

When Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes finally came to light, America recoiled in horror at the scope of his sex trafficking operation. Yet as disturbing new details emerge about the Biden administration’s handling of unaccompanied migrant children, we’re forced to confront an uncomfortable question: Did Joe Biden’s border policies enable exploitation on a scale that makes Epstein look like a small-time operator?The numbers alone are staggering. Between Jan. 2021 and Dec. 2024, more than 470,000 unaccompanied children crossed into America under Biden’s watch. Tens of thousands simply vanished into the shadows, handed over to unvetted sponsors through what can only be described as a bureaucratic assembly line designed to move bodies as quickly as possible, consequences be damned.

Now, thanks to President Trump’s commitment to cleaning up this mess, we’re getting our first real look at the carnage Biden left behind. According to an exclusive report from Fox News Digital, the Trump administration has assembled a dedicated team to track down these missing children, and what they’ve found should haunt every American parent. So far, they’ve located over 22,000 children and arrested more than 400 sponsors. Authorities sadly found that 27 children died from murder, suicide, or drug overdoses. But the living children may have suffered even worse fates. “We found children who have been raped,” says John Fabbricatore, senior advisor at the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement.

The team has uncovered cases of debt bondage, where children work as virtual slaves to pay off trafficking debts. They’ve found minors “treated like sexual slaves,” and discovered children in homes where sponsors are heroin dealers, leading to overdose deaths. The systematic nature of this catastrophe exposes the Biden administration’s willful negligence. While Epstein operated in secret, Biden’s team created an official government pipeline that delivered vulnerable children directly into the hands of predators. The administration’s lax vetting policies were so inadequate they routinely failed to confirm basic family relationships through DNA testing. Children were handed over to complete strangers based on nothing more than a sponsor’s word.

“There wasn’t very good record keeping,” Fabbricatore explains, using a bureaucratic euphemism for what amounts to criminal negligence. The Biden team was so focused on processing children quickly that they entered wrong information into computer systems, making it nearly impossible to track where these vulnerable minors ended up. It’s as if they designed a system specifically to lose children. The Trump administration inherited a backlog of over 65,000 unaddressed reports of concern, including allegations of trafficking and criminal exploitation. Think about that number for a moment. Sixty-five thousand red flags that the Biden team simply ignored, while more children poured across the border daily.

The new administration has implemented common-sense safeguards that should have been standard practice all along: DNA testing to verify family relationships, criminal background checks, fingerprinting, and proof of income to ensure sponsors can actually care for these children. Yes, this means children stay in custody longer, but as Fabbricatore notes, “we want to ensure that these children remain safe.” What makes this situation even more infuriating is that many of these children had families back home. Rather than facilitating safe reunification with their actual parents, the Biden administration chose to hand them over to strangers who turned out to be traffickers, drug dealers, and worse.

The comparison to Epstein isn’t hyperbole. While Epstein operated a private criminal enterprise, Biden’s policies created a government-sanctioned system that delivered thousands of children into exploitation. The scale dwarfs anything Epstein accomplished, and unlike Epstein’s secretive operation, this happened in plain sight with taxpayer funding. Every parent in America should be asking how this was allowed to happen and demanding accountability for those who prioritized political optics over child safety. The Trump administration’s rescue efforts are commendable, but they can’t undo the trauma that thousands of vulnerable children who deserved protection, not abandonment, have already suffered. From my perspective,Trump must hold the Biden administration accountable—and the responsibility for what happened to those children goes all the way to the top.

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ICE does not throw dice.

• 70% of ICE Arrests Are Charged/Convicted Criminals (Salgado)

Contrary to the ridiculous Democrat narrative that the Trump administration is heartlessly rounding up loving parents and outstanding community pillars, nearly three-fourths of ICE arrests target charged or convicted criminals. In fact, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) just released the names of dozens of other criminals they arrested this week or who are now incarcerated in the Louisiana Lockup, including numerous murderers, robbers, and pedophiles from Vietnam, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Venezuela, Russia, and other countries all around the world. All illegal aliens are criminals to the extent that they are not allowed to be in this country by federal law, but there are so many thousands of outright dangerous criminals in the United States that ICE is still focused on rounding up the worst of the worst.

An unnamed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said in a Sept. 4 press release, “Thanks to the courage of our ICE law enforcement, these criminal illegal aliens are no longer free to terrorize our communities and prey on innocent Americans.” He added, “[DHS] Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst. 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens who have been charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S. This doesn’t even count illegal aliens with rap sheets in foreign countries, gang members, and suspected terrorists.” Significantly, at least 382 illegals from the terrorist watchlist tried to enter the U.S. under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

The real number was probably actually much higher, considering the number of gotaways and virtually unvetted illegals allowed into the country, including suspected terrorists who were later identified because they tried to commit crimes. Indeed, as of Aug. 2024, the House Judiciary Committee stated that 99 suspected terrorists had been released into the United States by the Biden administration. For context, on 9/11, 19 terrorists managed to kill nearly 3,000 people. This is why ICE’s activities are so vital. Yet Democrats continue to go all out violating the law in order to protect illegal aliens. In fact, authorities arrested more than a dozen rioters, including two journalists, in July for aggressively protesting the arrest of an illegal alien who is on the terror watchlist with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Just one of many Democrats sobbing about ICE activities is Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Trying to frame immigration law enforcement by the Trump administration as random racist persecution, Pritzker asserted at a Tuesday press conference, “In a circumstance where they’re simply celebrating their heritage, they shouldn’t be interrupted in this way. This is the aim of this government. They don’t actually care if you’re here and undocumented, they just care if your skin color is a little off of theirs and that you’re Latino, they’re going to just target you.”

He rambled mendaciously, “All of us need to speak up and speak out about the assault on just regular residents who are following the law, who are going to work, paying their taxes, who’ve been around in our city for ten, 20, 30 years. We ought to be protecting those people. And if they want to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, they ought to be able to do that without being terrorized by ICE.” Interestingly, as of last summer, a majority of Hispanics in the U.S. supported mass deportations. Because ordinary Americans want to live in a safe and secure nation, unlike Democrat elites, who love criminals — as long as the crime doesn’t affect them.

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“Or did he compare videos of the ‘woke’ U.S. military parade in Washington DC earlier this year with the recent flawless one in China? The difference was indeed glaring. It demonstrated that the U.S. has no chance of winning in a war against China.”

• When The Pentagon Shifts Its Priorities Will US Strategy Follow? (MoA)

Is this a sign of a shift in the global U.S. strategy? Politico reports:

Pentagon Plan Prioritizes Homeland Over China Threat
“This marks a major departure from the first Trump administration, which emphasized deterring Beijing.

Pentagon officials are proposing the department prioritize protecting the homeland and Western Hemisphere, a striking reversal from the military’s yearslong mandate to focus on the threat from China.nA draft of the newest National Defense Strategy, which landed on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desk last week, places domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow, according to three people briefed on early versions of the report.

The move would mark a major shift from recent Democrat and Republican administrations, including President Donald Trump’s first term in office, when he referred to Beijing as America’s greatest rival. And it would likely inflame China hawks in both parties who view the country’s leadership as a danger to U.S. security. “This is going to be a major shift for the U.S. and its allies on multiple continents,” said one of the people briefed on the draft document. “The old, trusted U.S. promises are being questioned.”

The National Defense Strategy (NDS) is written by the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy which currently is held by arch-Realist Elbridge Colby. The draft of the new NDS seems to be a contradiction of his previous beliefs: “Identifying as a realist, Colby believes China is the principal threat faced by the United States. He believes the US should shift its military resources to Asia to prevent a Chinese takeover of Taiwan. Colby supports reducing military aid to Ukraine. During the AUKUS review in 2025, Elbridge pressured Australia to confirm what role it would play in a war with China over Taiwan.

Colby wants to change U.S. defense policy from concentrating on China, as he had previously argued, to the Western Hemisphere. He may have seen new facts that have moved his opinion.” The failed attempt by the U.S. Navy to secure shipping through the Red Sea against attacks by Houthi in Yemen may have caused such rethink. As may have the loss of the US/NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Or did he compare videos of the ‘woke’ U.S. military parade in Washington DC earlier this year with the recent flawless one in China? The difference was indeed glaring. It demonstrated that the U.S. has no chance of winning in a war against China.

Trump seems to concede that China is winning:
“Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – Sep 04, 2025, 22:14 UTC
“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together! President Donald J. Trump.”

It is difficult to believe though that the Trump administration will be able to change U.S. grand strategy. Any change will typically happen only at a snail’s pace. It would need all party support over multiple administrations. The pivot to Asia was launched by the Obama administration in 2010 and has since has been followed by all later ones.

More from Politico: “Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s policy chief, is leading the strategy. He played a key role in writing the 2018 version during Trump’s first term and has been a staunch supporter of a more isolationist American policy. Despite his long track record as a China hawk, Colby aligns with Vice President JD Vance on the desire to disentangle the U.S. from foreign commitments. Colby’s policy team is also responsible for a forthcoming global posture review, which outlines where U.S. forces are stationed around the globe, and a theater air and missile defense review, which takes stock of U.S. and allies’ air defenses and makes recommendations for where to locate American systems. The Pentagon is expected to release both reviews as soon as next month.”

It is expected that the new global posture review will move U.S. military resources from Europe, and probably also from Asia, back to the States. But a shift in resources may well be all that there is. Over the last year the U.S. has urged its ‘allies’ to invest more in defense than previously. Moving U.S. resources away from where allies take over is not a real change of strategy. The U.S. pulls back from Ukraine but pushes the Europeans to continue the war against Russia. The general aim of ‘weakening Russia’, thus stays the same.

So while U.S. military resources are shrinking or shifting to geographically more nearby issues the overarching grand strategy aim, the achievement of global U.S. primacy, may well stay the same. It is just that other are pushed to carry a bigger burden for it. Colby’s pressure on Australia and Japan is pointing that way.

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Those shale reserves look mighty tempting.

• Trump Considering Strikes In Venezuela – CNN (RT)

US President Donald Trump is considering carrying out strikes against drug cartels on Venezuelan soil, CNN reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The reported deliberations come as the Pentagon has deployed at least eight warships and one submarine to the eastern Caribbean. According to CNN, Tuesday’s missile strike on a boat allegedly smuggling drugs from Venezuela was just the first step in Trump’s efforts to neutralize drug trafficking in the region and potentially topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The US imposed sweeping sanctions on the socialist-ruled South American county during Trump’s first term in office, targeting its oil trade and financial sector.

Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million. Although Trump denied plans for regime change on Friday, he described Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election as “very strange.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated earlier this week that the US would “take on drug cartels wherever they are.” Maduro has denied the accusations of involvement in drug trafficking and vowed to declare Venezuela a “republic in arms” if attacked by the US. “Just as it wasn’t true that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, what they’re saying about Venezuela isn’t true either,” Maduro said on Friday, referring to the rationale behind the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

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Are we seeing Rubio’s signature here?

• Venezuela Starts Preparing for ‘Armed Struggle,’ In Case of Attack – Maduro (Sp.)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has warned that if his country is attacked, it will move into a phase of active military preparedness to defend its national integrity and sovereignty. On Friday, CNN reported citing sources that US President Donald Trump was considering various options for carrying out military strikes against drug cartels in Venezuela, including on Venezuelan soil, with a broader goal of weakening Maduro. “If Venezuela were attacked in any way, it would move into a stage of planned and organized armed struggle by all its people against aggression, whether local, regional, or national, in defense of peace, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and our people,” Maduro said on Friday. The Venezuelan leader announced the start of training a militia to defend the country, which involves citizens in the national defense system.

Maduro presented a diagram of the operational readiness levels of the defense forces and explained that Venezuela was in the yellow phase of integrated defense. The Venezuelan leader explained that, currently, his country was in the phase of non-violent struggle, with political, informational and diplomatic means involved. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US military had struck a drug-carrying vessel in the southern Caribbean that he claimed had left Venezuela. Rubio said that Trump was going to wage war on “narco-terrorist” organizations. Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that Washington was not seeking a regime change in Venezuela, but the US was concerned about “billions of dollars of drugs [that] are pouring into our country from Venezuela.”

On August 7, US Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced a $50 million reward for information that leads to the arrest of Maduro, whom the US accuses of leading the Cartel de los Soles. The measure was shortly followed by the deployment of several US naval assets to the Caribbean under the pretext of countering cartel activity in the region. In response, Maduro ordered the mobilization of Bolivarian Militias to ensure the country’s defense. Caracas has repeatedly argued that US naval deployments in the Caribbean are unrelated to counter-narcotics efforts and instead serve to pressure Venezuela.

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We’re not going bankrupt fast enough. Try harder!

• EU Energy Chief Demands Permanent Ban On Russian Imports (RT)

The European Union must permanently cut off all Russian energy imports, Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jorgensen has declared. Most EU countries have halted direct imports of Russian crude and gas under sanctions over the Ukraine conflict. However, Brussels continues to push for a full phase-out of Russian energy by the end of 2027 under its RePowerEU Roadmap. The plan calls for ending spot gas contracts, suspending new deals, limiting uranium imports, and targeting the so-called Russian “shadow fleet” of oil tankers allegedly used to bypass sanctions. Jorgensen, who has championed the plan for months, said the bloc must urgently agree on its framework and stick to it even after the Ukraine conflict ends.

“For us the objective is very, very clear. We want to stop the import as fast as possible,” he told reporters in Copenhagen on Friday. “And in the future, even when there is peace, we should still not import Russian energy… In my opinion, we will never again import as much as one molecule of Russian energy once this agreement is made.” Jorgensen noted that the US has backed Brussels’ plans. President Donald Trump, frustrated with slow Ukraine peace talks, urged European allies on Thursday to halt Russian energy imports. The July trade deal between Washington and Brussels also included a pledge that the EU would replace Russian oil and gas with American LNG and nuclear fuel.

Hungary and Slovakia, both heavily dependent on Russian supplies, have been the strongest opponents of the phase-out, arguing it would undermine the bloc’s security and raise prices. On Friday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto accused the EU of “hypocrisy,” saying many members still buy Russian crude through intermediaries even as they call for a phase-out. Jorgensen said he was in talks with Budapest and Bratislava but noted the plan can be approved without them, as it requires only a qualified majority. Moscow considers any restrictions targeting its energy trade illegal and has warned that abandoning its energy will drive up prices and weaken the EU’s economy by forcing it to rely on costlier alternatives or indirect Russian imports.

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That’s where the paranoia hits hardest.

• Trump Cutting Military Funding To NATO Countries Bordering Russia – FT (RT)

The US has begun to phase out foreign funding programs for NATO countries bordering Russia in an effort to push its European allies to pay for their own security, Financial Times has reported. Pentagon officials last week told Western European diplomats that Washington will no longer fund programs aimed at training and equipping the militaries of the bloc’s eastern member states, the outlet wrote on Thursday, citing anonymous officials.mMoscow has long insisted that it views eastward NATO expansion, and the military buildup of countries on Russia’s western border as a security threat. The funding for the Pentagon program needs to be approved by the US Congress, but the White House has not applied for more money, according to FT.

The availability of previously approved funds reportedly ends next September. Western European diplomats were “startled” by Washington’s move, and worried whether their domestic funding could cope with the loss, the outlet wrote. “It’s causing a lot of concern and uncertainty,” the newspaper cited one diplomat as saying. The cut corresponds with US President Donald Trump’s earlier executive action on realigning foreign aid with his ‘America First’ doctrine, FT said, citing a White House official. “This action has been coordinated with European countries in line with the executive order and the president’s long-standing emphasis on ensuring Europe takes more responsibility for its own defense,” the official reportedly said.

Under pressure from Trump, European NATO states promised to increase military budgets to 5% of GDP earlier this year. EU governments have also announced large-scale military investments, citing an alleged threat posed by Russia. Moscow has repeatedly brushed off assertions that it intends to attack the US-led military bloc. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has pointed to the military buildup and Western European leaders’ increasingly bellicose rhetoric, accusing them of steering towards a direct clash. “They are once again trying to prepare Europe for war – not some hybrid war, but a real war against Russia,” he warned in July.

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Why now, after 3,5 years? With a littlse drone? Is this a warning?

“I know where your house lives?”

• Ukrainian Government Seat Damaged By Russian Strike – Kiev (RT)

The seat of the Ukrainian government in Kiev has been struck by a Russian drone, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said on Sunday. The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to comment. Ukrainian officials reported strikes in different parts of the capital, adding that the cities of Odessa, Krivoy Rog, Dnepr, and Kremenchug also came under attack. Klitschko wrote on Telegram that “a government building caught fire following the apparent shootdown of a drone.” Ukrainian news agency UNIAN shared a video of smoke rising from a building near Independence Square. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko later confirmed damage to the government building, saying it was the first incident of its kind, with the roof and upper floors hit.

“Rescuers are extinguishing the fire,” she said, sharing a photo of a helicopter dousing the building and images of the badly damaged interior. MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak suggested that the office of the prime minister was not far from the epicenter of the strike, adding that there were also a couple of technical premises there. According to the city authorities, at least two people were killed and 15 were injured in the attack on Kiev. Russia has conducted long-range drone and missile strikes on Ukraine for months, targeting military-related facilities and the defense industrial base. It has said the attacks are retaliation for Kiev’s strikes deep into Russia, often damaging residential areas and critical infrastructure. Moscow maintains that it never targets civilians.

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“At this point, it’s more of a danger to itself during drills than to any external enemy..”

• Germany’s Embattled Army a ‘Laughingstock’ – Ex-AfD Politician (Sp.)

The German armed forces lack equipment, personnel and “everything” in general, with stocks depleted by military deliveries to Ukraine, the parliamentary commissioner for the Bundeswehr, Eva Hoegl, admitted last year when presenting the annual report on the state of the German military. Germany can’t even defend itself right now, let alone offer the Ukraine regime a model of security guarantees, Olga Petersen, a former Hamburg parliament member with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, told Sputnik. The army, whose budget has been shrinking year after year, can no longer provide proper training or prepare its personnel, she underscored. “At this point, it’s more of a danger to itself during drills than to any external enemy,” Petersen said.

According to her, Germany’s current military readiness is “laughable” to any potential adversary. She argued that sweeping reforms are urgently needed if Germany wants to have any real shot at safeguarding its own sovereignty. Germany’s military is running on fumes, Bundestag defense commissioner Eva Hoegl said when presenting her annual report in 2024, admitting that it was short on just about everything. “Unfortunately, I have to admit that the Bundeswehr still has too little of everything.

There is a shortage of ammunition, spare parts and radio equipment. There are not enough tanks, ships and aircraft,” Hoegl said. At the same time, Hoegl praised Berlin’s “outstanding” support for Ukraine. Currently, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, involving Germany, has been thrashing out details of security arrangements for Ukraine, presupposing deploying a ‘reassurance force.’ Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at the recent Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) that NATO troops under any flag and in any capacity would be legitimate targets for the Russian military if deployed to Ukraine.

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“..welcome to return to Russia if they have not supported the Ukrainian army..”

• Kremlin Sets Conditions For Return Of Western Companies To Russia (RT)

Western businesses are welcome to return to Russia if they have not supported the Ukrainian army and have met all obligations to their employees and the state, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. In an interview with TASS on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok released on Saturday, Peskov outlined Moscow’s approach to foreign companies that left the Russian market after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 and Western sanctions. He stated that “it would be wrong to say we are not interested in these companies returning.” According to Peskov, many companies that left “reserved the right to return, fulfilling all their obligations to employees and to Russian regions… With them, of course, we need to conduct a very careful, respectful dialogue, observing our interests.”

Other companies, however, abandoned their employees without paying out salaries or fulfilling their social obligations, Peskov said. He added that they will still be allowed to return as long as they make amends. “Everyone should be allowed back. It will just be very expensive for them to return.” The Kremlin spokesman stressed that the only companies that are not welcome are those that have supported the Ukrainian military. “These companies have already become enemies, and that is how they should be treated,” he said.

As Western companies exited the Russian market, they lost billions of dollars in assets. BP alone reportedly took a write-off of more than $25 billion from exiting its Rosneft stake. McDonald’s, which sold its Russian restaurants to a local licensee, had to write off $1.3 billion. A Reuters analysis earlier this year estimated that foreign companies exiting the country lost more than $107 billion. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow remains “open to cooperation, particularly with our friends,” and has never “turned away or pushed anyone out.” He added that many Western companies “are eagerly waiting for all these political restrictions to be lifted,” while some continue to operate in Russia.

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Russia let Nordstream go. China would get real mad.

• ‘Someone’ Might Have To Blow Up Power of Siberia 2 Pipeline – Jesse Watters (RT)

“Someone” could blow up Russia’s planned gas pipeline to China to derail the energy cooperation between the two countries, conservative Fox News host Jesse Watters has suggested. Speaking on air on Thursday, Watters said Russian President Vladimir Putin had “lost his customers in Europe” after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 and unprecedented Western sanctions, and was now turning to Asia. He described the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline as a key element of that strategy. “Putin’s putting down a big old pipeline to China. It’s supposed to be finished next decade and supply 15% of China’s energy. Russia and China are growing closer. Someone might have to bomb that pipeline like Nord Stream,” Watters told viewers. He did not elaborate on who could want to destroy the project.

Earlier this week, Russia announced that Moscow and Beijing had signed a memorandum on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, designed to bring up to 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to China via Mongolia. It is expected to be launched in 2033. According to Putin, the project “is not charity” but rather a mutually beneficial agreement under which gas will be supplied at market-based rates. Russian officials did indicate, however, that gas prices for China would be lower than for the EU market, mostly due to the easier logistics. They also rejected the notion that Russia was reorienting itself toward the East, stressing that Russia is open to cooperation with all willing parties.

The Nord Stream pipelines were severely damaged by undersea explosions in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 in what is widely believed to have been an act of sabotage. American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh suggested the attack was orchestrated by US intelligence services under the administration of former US President Joe Biden. Russian officials have supported Hersh’s version. While the US denied any involvement, mere weeks before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Biden warned that “if Russia invades… there will be no longer Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

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I get complaints I don’t pay enough attention to Gaza et al. But the whole thing feels so stuck, it’s hard to say anything. Other than lament the dying children, but I’ve done that so mch already. It’s just that it’s so long ago, people forget. Which is exactly the problem. But maybe the UAE struck a nerve here.

• Israel Backs Away From West Bank Annexation Plan After UAE Warning – WaPo (RT)

A public warning from the United Arab Emirates prompted the Israeli government to drop a planned discussion on annexing the West Bank, the Washington Post has reported. A senior UAE diplomat reportedly told Israeli media earlier this week that such a move would be a “red line” that would block Israel’s path to regional integration. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to discuss the issue at a major government meeting on Friday, according to local media. On Wednesday, UAE special envoy Lana Nusseibeh told the Times of Israel that annexation would “foreclose the idea of regional integration.” “For every Arab capital you talk to, the idea of regional integration is still a possibility, but annexation to satisfy some of the radical extremist elements in Israel is going to take that off the table,” she stated.

The UAE was the first Arab nation to normalize relations with Israel in over a quarter century under the Abraham Accords brokered by President Donald Trump during his first term in office. The public warning from Abu Dhabi “came as a surprise,” an Israeli official told the Post, calling the situation “very unusual.” On Thursday, the issue of annexation was removed from the Israeli ministerial meeting agenda, according to the newspaper. Washington has not taken a stance on the issue so far. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described potential annexation as “not a final thing” earlier this week, adding that he was “not going to opine on that.”

The West Bank returned to the spotlight earlier this year after a group of Israeli ministers urged that the territory be formally annexed. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed control could be asserted at any moment. Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and has been actively building settlements there – which is widely regarded as illegal by the international community. It was close to annexation in 2020 but dropped the idea in exchange for normalizing relations with the UAE and Bahrain.

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“Google reported $264.6 billion in ad revenue in 2024..” And a $3.5bn fine is unfair?

Know what’s unfair about this monopoly y’all keep feeding? That it’s cost me some $60,000 over the past 5 years.

Cut the nonsense, all of you. There are plenty firms that would love to compete with Google here. Open it up.

• Trump Threatens EU Over ‘Unfair’ $3.5bn Google Fine (RT)

US President Donald Trump has threatened the EU with a probe that could lead to higher tariffs after the bloc fined Google for violating antitrust laws. The European Commission on Friday ordered the US company to pay a €2.95 billion ($3.5 billion) fine for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the advertising technology market by favoring its own display services. Regulators said the practice allowed Google to charge high fees, harming rivals and online publishers. The company was told to stop the “self-preferencing” practices, address conflicts of interest, and present a compliance plan within 60 days or face further penalties.

Trump blasted the ruling in a post on Truth Social, calling it “unfair” and “discriminatory.” “Europe today hit another great American company, Google, with a $3.5 Billion Dollar fine, effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs,” he wrote. “We cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties.” Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act allows Washington to penalize foreign countries for practices deemed harmful to US commerce, including through tariffs.

Trump has criticized the EU for targeting US tech giants with privacy and antitrust rules stricter than those in America. His latest warning comes weeks after securing a trade deal that imposed a 15% tariff on most EU exports while scrapping tariffs on US industrial goods. The deal drew backlash from EU officials, who said it favored Washington. Google rejected the commission’s ruling and vowed to appeal. Google reported $264.6 billion in ad revenue in 2024 – 75.6% of its total income – cementing its status as the world’s largest advertising firm. The latest fine is the fourth penalty the EU has levied against it since 2017. Google also faces a trial in the US later this month over a separate Justice Department case in which a judge found it held illegal monopolies in online advertising technology.

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Sure to shake it all up. But a long way to go.

• Conor McGregor Urges Irish To Lobby Councillors For Presidential Bid (RMX)

Former MMA champion Conor McGregor has urged his online supporters to pressure local councillors into nominating him as a candidate for the Irish presidency. In a video filmed outside Government Buildings in Dublin, McGregor attacked the government over homelessness, migration, and security. “We have seen the homelessness of Irish children rise to levels unprecedented, proving this government’s refusal to abide by and respect our proclamation where all children of Irish are to be cherished. Instead, our children abandoned,” he said. He also claimed tourism had declined and “danger on our streets has risen” as a result of mass immigration.

Describing himself as a “master of martial combat” and a “solution-driven man,” McGregor called on his followers to contact councillors. “If you want to see my name on the ballot for the presidency, I urge you to contact your local county councillors today and ask them to nominate me,” he said. “Our councillors are the backbone of our communities. They work harder and deliver more for the people than those in the Oireachtas, who continue to fail this country time and again.” He told supporters he wanted to be “a president face to face with government officials with only one priority — to ensure that the country our founding fathers gave their lives for is strictly adhered to on behalf of its citizens.”

He tied his message to Ireland’s republican tradition, invoking the 1916 Proclamation. “Ireland, under my tenure, the will of the people will be heard. Ireland under my tenure, we will return important articles of our constitution prior, and thus again aligning with Padraig Pearse’s proclamation,” he said, referring to the revolutionary who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising. To run, a candidate must secure the backing of either four of the State’s 31 local authorities or 20 members of the Irish bicameral parliament. McGregor’s plea suggests he is not confident about securing the latter, and is thus seeking the people to lobby their local councillors to get him on the ballot. The Irish presidential election is scheduled to be held on Oct. 24.

https://twitter.com/mcgregormma11/status/1964021366258028641

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How can you address this and miss the elephant? (Young) people don’t choose between atheism and Christianity. Instead, they see their world being invaded by islamic hordes and pick the obvious defense.

• In Secular Britain, Church Is the New Rebellion (Queen)

I’ve written before about how the UK is beginning to rediscover Christianity. Great Britain has been so lost in secularism (not to mention the rise of Islam) that entire generations have grown up without exposure to Christianity at all. I heard a conversation earlier this week between writer and podcaster Justin Brierly and the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet. The two men talked about the UK’s “quiet revival,” particularly among young people. What’s behind this sea change that is coming just a few years after the “new atheists” captured so much attention? Brierly told Stonestreet that the events of the past few years have awakened Britain’s young people spiritually. m“So something’s happened, and one of the things obviously is COVID and the lockdown and all of that produced in terms of the soul-searching that a lot of people went on, a sense that we actually need something more than just what technology and science can offer us,” Brierly said.

“But I think we’ve also seen just a real sea change among young people who I think have just been let down, frankly, by a lot of the promises of secular culture, which haven’t worked out for them, and they’re looking for a better story,” he added. “That’s the simplest way I can put it, that’s what I hear time and again when I hear from some of these Gen Z youngsters who are finding God, finding faith, walking into church for the first time.” Brierly pointed out that one thing that’s driving many young British people to church is that they don’t have the “church hurt” or preconceived notions about church that Americans have in our Christ-haunted culture (to borrow Flannery O’Connor’s wonderful phrase): In the UK, it’s a bit different, because there are very few people saying, “The church let me down,” because most people haven’t been in church for a, for a long time, you know, and Gen Z in particular, that they are a generation that, that have grown up amongst basically default secular atheism in the UK.

And, interestingly, one of the reasons they’re so open to going to church, ironically, is because they don’t have any baggage attached to church. And they… whereas an older generation, the sort of Gen X boomers, they still had that kinda cultural Christianity where they had been… maybe it had been forced on them in school or at Sunday school or whatever, and that they sort of… they had enough of it to be able to reject it. That’s not been the case with Gen Z. And one person put it to me like this. They said, “It’s now actually more edgy, more interesting, more cool for a young person to investigate and potentially become Christian than to be an atheist,” ’cause everyone’s an atheist, you know, around them. There’s nothing interesting.

Brierly cited Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s conversion to Christianity, historian Tom Holland’s conclusion that Christianity has been a force for good in the world for centuries (Holland also seems close to believing in Jesus himself), and notorious “new atheist” Richard Dawkins’ embrace of “cultural Christianity” without faith in Jesus as positive signs that Christianity is making a comeback in Great Britain. He also said that the “new atheists” were a blessing in disguise, as churches throughout the West are stressing theology and apologetics more. Trends are encouraging here in the States, too, with Millennials and Gen Zers attending church more often than older generations. It might be too early to call this a revival in the West, but it’s definitely an encouraging sign.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Ladapo

RFK

Malhotra

Makary
https://twitter.com/_aussie17/status/1964070478055952502

Tired
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1964217245212594456

Shadow
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1964286432815567217

 

 

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Debt Rattle August 6 2024

Aug 062024
 
 August 6, 2024  Posted by at 9:01 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  62 Responses »


Pablo Picasso The actor 1904

 

• And Suddenly Things Change (Kunstler)
• Apocalypse Now or Later? (Johnston)
• Bitcoin Falls Below $50,000 (RT)
• Biden-Harris Released 99 Illegal Aliens On FBI Terror Watchlist Into US (ZH)
• Scientific Consensus Needed in Sports Gender Debate – IOC
• From The Glass House, A Hail Of Stones Rains Down On Venezuela (Karganovic)
• America’s Election Meddling Will Finally Be Its Own Sword To Fall On (Jay)
• The 1948 Irgun re-born? (Alastair Crooke)
• West Too Fearful Of Escalation With Russia – Zelensky (RT)
• Jailed US Reporter Knew He Was Handling Classified Russian Data (RT)
• In ‘Biggest Antitrust Case Of The 21st Century’, Google Ruled A Monopoly (CD)
• Neil Gorsuch Issues Dire Warning Over Biden’s Reforms (HUSA)
• House Judiciary Launches Probe into Loren Merchan’s Work for Kamala (HUSA)
• Downing Street In Row With Musk Over UK Riots (RT)
• British Army Won’t Act Against Protesters – MOD (RT)

 

 

 

 

Trump ad
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820293998277165106

 

 

Woke

 

 

O’Leary
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820614293643223286

 

 

Byron Donalds

 

 

Orban Soros

 

 

Bukele

 

 

JD
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820281495879118921

 

 

Tucker Maine

 

 

 

 

“..the epic revaluation of everything humans make and own — with much of it losing value and quite a bit losing all value because it never really had any..”

• And Suddenly Things Change (Kunstler)

That two-by-four upside our country’s head you’ve been waiting to get whomped with? Looks like it’s landing now. We got a banger in 2008, but it didn’t make a much of an impression. Maybe you don’t even remember these people, but then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke came in like a code blue squad and hooked up the banks to an IV-drip speedball of cocaine and heroin, i.e., “money” that didn’t actually exist (a.k.a. “liquidity,” hallucinated capital), and that crew kept it coming for years. And then Janet Yellen and her posse kept it coming with never-ending zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) until the national debt canceled America’s future. And that left Jerome Powell pretending there was a way out of this doom-loop. Then came the repo market spasm in September 2019 that freaked out the blob so badly they shut down the whole world with Covid and locked-down economies.

And everything since then has been a waiting game. The financial world was in hospice. The wait is over. Everything that can break is breaking: stock markets, bond markets, the galaxy of derivatives — bets on this and that, which will never be honored. Banks are next. Gold and silver are hanging in there for dear life just now, because they’re actually worth something. (And because they are worth something, they‘ll eventually sell off some too, to cover margin calls on other stuff hemorrhaging value. But they will not go to zero like a lot of other stuff, and they’ll come back stronger.)

You understand this can’t play out like it did in 2008-9. The authorities are out of tricks and out of fake money. They can try the emergency interest rate cut, but it won’t change what is actually happening: the epic revaluation of everything humans make and own — with much of it losing value and quite a bit losing all value because it never really had any. The spooky catch is that there will be an attempt in this wild and terrifying process, for certain devious, unprincipled parties to take possession of many things shaking loose — what remains of collateral. . . real things. . . commodities. . . facilities. . . properties. . . chattels. . . artworks. . . and, of course, whatever securities still have a relationship to realities of production.

This brings a sharp end to the current political sitcom, especially the situation of the Democratic Party. They will get blamed for the economic carnage left behind by the shattered money system. They lied about everything for years, every number, every index, every supposed “policy”. Kamala Harris won’t be cackling her way out of this. It’s hard to see how she might remain the party’s nominee. She can’t even speak to the massive catalog of prior failures to govern our country coherently and effectively. And it’s equally hard to figure how “Joe Biden,” still presiding emptily over this fiasco, can get Twenty-fifthed out of the way for his feckless veep. More likely, the coming convention will be a desperate, bloody mass cage fight and somebody else will stagger out of it to go through the motions of campaigning in a hopeless cause. Hillary might even decline the roll in this horror show.

Read more …

Little later.

• Apocalypse Now or Later? (Johnston)

It’s carnage out there in the markets, and things have been moving with the force of a tsunami. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged more than 12% on Monday in what was the biggest single-day drop since ‘Black Monday’ in 1987. As of this writing, the Dow has dropped some 1,000 points, while the Nasdaq has cratered nearly 4% in what has turned out to be a global market rout. The triggers for the selloff are clear enough and have been well covered in the financial media. Friday’s disappointing US jobs report ignited fears of a US recession. The once-hot but overly leveraged and overhyped AI trade has gone sour, which has led to a bloodbath for tech stocks.

Largely responsible for the latter development is the breaking of the massive dollar-yen carry trade – where investors were borrowing cheaply in yen and investing in higher-yielding US assets. This can be thought of roughly as a big interest-rate arbitrage: Borrow at low rates and lend (invest) at higher rates. But when the Bank of Japan raised rates on July 31 and, perhaps even more importantly, signaled more hikes to come, a massive capitulation in these carry-trade positions ensued. This has reverberated through markets and led to a lot of margin calls. And since investors often have to sell other assets to meet margin calls, it creates even more selling pressure.

Predicting where markets may be headed in the coming days and weeks is a hazardous endeavor that I won’t venture. Many investors are of course trying to catch the proverbial ‘falling knife’ – meaning buying in during or immediately after a sharp selloff. A number of analysts are already saying that the panic is overblown and things will soon stabilize. If I had high conviction about how things will shape up over the short term, I would simply trade the market, not write about it.

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HODL.

• Bitcoin Falls Below $50,000 (RT)

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has shed more than 10% of its value in one day, amid a global stock market crash that has affected the cryptocurrency market, according to trading data. The price of Bitcoin has fallen below $50,000 for the first time since February, hitting a low of $48,126 at 08:41 GMT on Monday. It has recovered slightly since then. In late July, Bitcoin traded at above $62,000, and in March, it briefly touched an all-time high of $70,136. Since Friday, the cryptocurrency market has recorded its most significant sell-off in three days in almost a year, Cointelegraph said. The panic selling in Bitcoin and the overall crypto market was sparked by a wider crash in the financial markets, amid fears that the US could be heading for a recession. Stock markets went into a meltdown on Monday morning. Apart from the global stock market rout, the uncertainty regarding the fiscal policy of the US Federal Reserve, Bitcoin’s low liquidity, and soaring tensions in the Middle East have contributed to the slide, industry experts say.

Read more …

“For Harris and Obama’s Democrat party, there’s no escaping that disastrous border issue.”

• Biden-Harris Released 99 Illegal Aliens On FBI Terror Watchlist Into US (ZH)

A new interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, published on Monday, highlights how the Biden administration, with ‘Border Czar’ VP Kamala Harris, facilitated the greatest illegal alien invasion ever on the United States. The report titled “Terror At Our Door: How The Biden-Harris Administration’s Open-Borders Policies Undermine National Security And Endanger Americans” revealed that the failed southern border policies of President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris have flooded the nation with more than 5.4 million illegal aliens. Additionally, at least 1.9 million known “gotaways” also entered, bringing the total to 7.3 million illegal entries. Fox News’ Bill Melugin, who also reviewed the report, said the border data that dates back between 2021-23 shows “at least 99 illegal aliens on the FBI terror watchlist were released into the US after being arrested by Border Patrol at the southern border, and another 34 watchlisted aliens are still in DHS custody.” And this.

“With the border in chaos under the Biden-Harris Administration, the terrorist threat to the homeland has skyrocketed. This border insecurity has been the Administration’s choice, and it is a mistake,” the report stated. The report noted that 375 illegal aliens on the US Gov’ts terrorist watchlist have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents under Biden’s first term with VP Harris as Border Czar. The report continued, “That is a more than 3,000 percent increase of watchlisted alien encounters compared to all four years of the Trump Administration.” At the end of last month, leftist MSM spent days in an all-out propaganda media blitz to convince voters that VP Harris was never border Czar – that’s because the nation killing open southern borders pushed by Biden & Harris is such a disastrous topic during the election cycle.

Meanwhile, national security ‘experts’ have warned countless times that the Biden-Harris Administration’s open-border policies can only suggest it’s only a matter of time before a terror event unfolds in the US. [..] A majority of Americans care about two things ahead of the elections: 1) inflation and 2) the border. For Harris and Obama’s Democrat party, there’s no escaping that disastrous border issue.

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“He assured reporters that the IOC was working to protect the athletes who failed gender tests from bullying..”

No no no, the IOC should protect women, not failed gender tests. Best way to do that: everyone who has a Y chromosome is not a woman. Perhaps that leaves out a few people, but at least not half the population.

• Scientific Consensus Needed in Sports Gender Debate – IOC

International Olympic Committee (IOC) communications director Mark Adams admitted on Friday that there was no scientific or political consensus on the gender test issue in sports after a controversial Olympic boxing match revived the debate. “On the wider issue, there is, there still is, the need of scientific or political consensus on this issue. It is not a black-and-white issue. And we would, the IOC, be very interested to hear of such a solution, such a consensus on this,” Adams told a news conference. He spoke a day after Italian female boxer Angela Carini surrendered after 46 seconds in the 1/8 finals with Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. The IOC approved Khelif’s participation in the Olympic women’s tournament despite that the boxer was disqualified from the 2023 World Cup for failing an unspecified gender eligibility test. The International Boxing Association (IBA) found the presence of XY-chromosomes and increased testosterone levels in her body.

Changing the rules during a competition is forbidden, Adams said. The IOC relied on the norms that were in effect during the last Olympic Games. He assured reporters that the IOC was working to protect the athletes who failed gender tests from bullying. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said after the match that athletes with male genetic characteristics should be barred from women’s competitions. The IOC previously suspended the International Boxing Association from holding a boxing tournament in Paris.

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“.. it is much safer for a country to produce every year a bumper crop of broccoli than to be cursed with a commodity coveted by the high and mighty of this world..”

• From The Glass House, A Hail Of Stones Rains Down On Venezuela (Karganovic)

Since the 1920s, Venezuela has been a very unlucky country. That was when vast oil deposits were discovered on its territory. Its misfortune began when global predators grasped that it was fabulously rich. It has the largest petroleum reserves in the world, exceeding those of Saudi Arabia, as well as huge amounts of gold and other valuable ores and minerals. Being a wealthy country, far from a cause for jubilation, when it is unable to effectively defend itself is a huge vulnerability. As Gerald Celente observed at the time when Libya was in the global predators’ cross-hairs in the way that Venezuela is being targeted today,. The torments Venezuela has experienced over the last two decades corroborate Celente’s point.

In 1998, the people of Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez over the assortment of stooges and grifters that previously had always been put forward by their imperial overlords for “democratic” approval by the inert populace. It turned out that on that occasion they had voted the wrong way, and that is when their troubles began. Since then, they have been subjected to punishing and increasingly devastating sanctions. The brutality of those sanctions was such that the program of redistribution of the nationalised national wealth to benefit the poor and the hitherto disenfranchised had to be abruptly curtailed. The vindictive assault on the Venezuelan people and their means of sustenance conducted over the last twenty years with cumulative ferocity can only be interpreted as the collective economic and political equivalent of the tortures inflicted individually in Abu Ghra it is much safer for a country to produce every year a bumper crop of broccoli than to be cursed with a commodity coveted by the high and mighty of this worldib.

On Sunday, 28 July, in Venezuela Presidential elections were held. The incumbent Nicolas Maduro of the United Socialist Party was declared by the electoral commission to be the winner, having received 51% of the votes, whilst the challenger, collective West’s favourite Edmundo Gonzales gained 44%, with the balance split by two minor candidates. The polls had barely closed and vote counting, in the presence of 910 international observers, was still in progress when a concerted campaign was launched abroad to dispute Maduro’s victory as fraudulent and to put forward the assertion that it was the opposition candidate who had actually won. Where had we seen such a sequence of events before?

The relatively close tally was a perfect ambush, the ideal scenario to activate Gene Sharp’s colour revolution playbook. Within hours of the results being announced, factually unsupported claims were issued, according to unverified exit polls, that Gonzales had received twice as many votes as officially conceded. Ancillary mechanisms were promptly put in motion. Exactly as it did following the 2020 elections in Bolivia, which were won by Evo Morales, a figure loathed by the imperialists as much as Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, the Organisation of American States duly issued a statement denouncing the Venezuelan vote as “unreliable.” The governments of several other dependencies, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, followed suit in even stronger terms and announced that they would not recognise Maduro’s election to a new six-year term. Ironically, the current Peruvian government is itself the product of a constitutionally irregular palace coup in 2022, in which the democratically elected President of that country, Pedro Castillo, was deposed. Yet the Peruvian coup regime sees nothing awkward in lecturing Venezuela on the fine points of democratic procedure.

The tragedy that has struck Venezuela is a clear illustration of the inherent vulnerability of relatively weak countries endowed with immense natural resources. They are fair game for plunder and from the moment they refuse to remain prostrate and decide to resist, as Venezuela did under Chavez and Bolivia under Morales, they become objects of subversion by the foulest of means, with the sole objective of reinstating the ancien régime and the system of neo-colonialist pillage that characterised it.

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“..the opportunity for the West to fight Russia without committing one dead western soldier..”

• America’s Election Meddling Will Finally Be Its Own Sword To Fall On (Jay)

“Interventionism” could simply be called “western-backed coup”. Since the end of the WWII, the U.S., it is reported, has meddled with the elections of 81 countries and so it should come as little surprise that it tried its best to topple Nicolás Maduro, as it had previously in 2019 under Trump. U.S. election meddling though has changed considerably since the end of the Cold War. Previous to 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, the U.S. was quite brazen about toppling left-wing dictators it hated or supporting right-wing candidates with their campaigns. Most notably its dirty tricks were seen as early as 1948 when it did all it could in Italy to oust a communist government. Later on, in the 80s, while the Cold War was still running and Soviet troops were in Afghanistan, the U.S. gave the contras in Nicaragua 18m USD in profits from the illegal arms sales to Iran, which ultimately led to Daniel Ortega being overthrown in a 1990 election. In the same year, Vaclav Havel was backed to the hilt in Czechoslovakia to be enthroned as a western leader in the first democratic elections to be held there.

The U.S. also backs campaigns to reinstate their puppets, when they lose one in a fair, democratic election. In 1986, for example, in Haiti, the U.S. lost Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” who was the incumbent president and a great ally of the West. Later on, his successor was finally overthrown when another friend was installed after years of a nefarious campaign. Sometimes they threw money at their own favoured incumbents who would be useful idiots to them. In 1996, the Clinton government lent 10m USD to Boris Yeltsin for his own campaign, a staggering amount of money at that time. Other times, they would pump money into campaigns run by opposition groups to oust the incumbent who was considered an enemy of the U.S., disregarding any pretentions of democratic collective conscience.

In 2000, five years after the Serbs had been bombed into submission in the Yugoslav War by an illegal air strike campaign – which came about when Bosnian Muslims staged a false flag attack on their own people in a Sarajevo marketplace – the U.S. went all out to fund campaigns for all opposition groups in Serbia which finally led to those groups using the same dictator type tactics when the polls were counted by giving Milosevic to leave quietly with his life, or face the same consequences as Romania’s Ceausescu. The Serbian leader later was to mysteriously die in 2006 while held in prison at a specially convened war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Netherlands.

Arguably, the best example of U.S. election meddling, especially for one which has so spectacularly backfired on the U.S., has got to be Ukraine. Both in 2004 and 2014, the U.S. created a revolutionary movement and pumped an estimated 4bn USD into it, just to unseat the Russian-leaning incumbent Viktor Yanukovych. With Ukraine, there were not energy reserves to act as a catalyst but a bigger prize for those red in tooth and claw determined to have their glory fighting Russia: the opportunity for the West to fight Russia without committing one dead western soldier. It proved irresistible and to this day, the West’s economies continue to plunder as this foolish decision takes a grip on those economies pulling them down, while Russia’s gains.

While we don’t know all of the facts which drew the U.S. to the Ukraine, its fatal attraction may well be part of Joe Biden’s corruption escapades there, clearly the Ukraine stands out as the West’s greatest defeat with election engineering which started off as a “colour revolution” but ended up as full-on support of military intervention, shrouded by dirty aid and military deals. The U.S. usually can’t see election interference for what it is as its people have gleaned a certain self-righteous coping mechanism to messing up other people’s lives just for the charred profits from other people’s losses, often deaths. As a general rule, if we overlook Ukraine, in recent years these “colour revolutions” are, compared to the gruesome coup d’états in Central and South America during the cold war years, benign. But it’s where the thinking leads.

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“.. this concept rests on Jewish supremacy: Mein Kampf in reverse”.

• The 1948 Irgun re-born? (Alastair Crooke)

Again, overlooked but not in the news: The situation at Sde Teiman was widely-known and said to be “more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo”. A UN report has detailed how Palestinians arbitrarily detained faced torture and mistreatment. The vigilantes from the settlements nevertheless described those committing the anal rape as “heroes” – and cast the IDF investigators as fifth columnists. Reports suggest that the perpetrators at Sde Teiman enjoy high level protection. This account of systematic torture followed earlier revelations that the Israeli army had marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system, called Lavender, with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties.

In the same vein, Right wing Cabinet ministers celebrated the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on social media Wednesday morning, as: “This is the right way to purge the world of this filth”, Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, tweeted: “No more imaginary ‘peace’/surrender agreements, no more mercy for these dead men walking. The iron fist that will strike them is the one that will bring quiet and a modicum of comfort, and strengthen our ability to live in peace with those who seek peace. Haniyeh’s death makes the world a slightly better place”. What then is this ‘truth’ that the West ignores and silences reality, whilst amplifying its narrative frauds? It is that the Israel which they presume to understand is now something very different. And that it has an epistemology at odds with mechanistic rationalism.

An eschatological Right-wing cult now holds the majority in cabinet – and wields a vigilante militia ready to attack the military establishment, and the Israeli state. No one was arrested for the attack and take-over of the two bases. They do not dare. Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, former Chief of Staff of the IDF, who also served as Israel’s Defence Minister, had this to say in a video interview on the forces taking over in Israel: “When you talk about Smotrich and Ben Gvir: They have a Rabbi. His name is Dov Lior. He is the Rabbi of the Jewish Underground, who intended to blow up the Dome of the Rock – and before that the buses in Jerusalem. Why? In order to hurry up the ‘Last War’. Do you [not] hear them talking in terms of the Last War; or of Smotrich’s concept of ‘subjugation’? Read the article he published in Shiloh in 2017. First of all, this concept rests on Jewish supremacy: Mein Kampf in reverse”.

“My hair stands on end when I say that – as he said it. I learned and grew up in the house of Holocaust survivors and ‘never again’. It is Mein Kampf in reverse: Jewish supremacy: and therefore [Smotrich] says: “My wife won’t go into a room with an Arab”. It is anchored in ideology. And then actually what he aspires to – as soon as possible – is to go to a big war. A war of Gog and Magog. How do you start the flames? A massacre like the [1994] Cave of the Patriarchs? Baruch Goldstein is a student of this Rabbi. Ben Gvir has hung up Goldstein’s picture [in his house]”.

“This is what goes into the decision-making process in the Israeli government”. Rabbi Dov Lior has been described by Netanyahu as the “élite unit that leads Israel”, because of his influence and control over the settler forces. The 1948 Irgun, drawing heavily on the Mizrahim, is being reborn? Isn’t it time that the western ruling structures raised their eyes from their reverie, and read the runes that manifest all around them? Some serious players don’t think as you westerners do; they seek Gog and Magog (the prophecy that “the children of Israel” will be victorious in the battle of Armageddon). That is what you risk.

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He gets uneasy.

• West Too Fearful Of Escalation With Russia – Zelensky (RT)

Ukraine is pushing NATO nations to create a coalition that would attempt to intercept Russian missiles, Vladimir Zelensky has said. The US-led military bloc has previously declined to do so. Kiev has long been pressuring its Western backers to become more involved in the conflict with Moscow and start shooting down Russian drones and missiles over Ukrainian territory. However, its efforts have been rebuffed by foreign powers reluctant to engage in a direct military confrontation with Russia. “[Western nations] are always concerned about possible escalation. We are fighting against that. We will work on it,” Zelensky told journalists on Sunday. The government in Kiev is considering “technical possibilities for neighboring nations to use military aircraft against missiles that strike Ukraine” after flying in the general direction of NATO countries, he added.

Zelensky has been calling for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine since the outbreak of hostilities with Russia in February 2022. Military experts pointed out that any realistic enforcement of Kiev’s wish would require NATO members to attack Russian planes in the air and at airfields inside Russia. The idea of a less ambitious shield over Western Ukraine was floated last month, as Kiev signed a bilateral security deal with Warsaw and ramped up its lobbying efforts ahead of a NATO leaders’ summit in the US. The Polish government indicated it was willing to answer the Ukrainian call, provided that NATO approved, although other nations, including the US, objected. Washington said it believed that supplying more air defense systems to Ukraine to operate on its own was the best way to counter Russian barrages.

Zelensky spoke to the press after confirming that sponsors had delivered US-designed F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Media reports have suggested that the new Ukrainian capability is too small-scale to become a gamechanger on the front line. It would likely be used to intercept cruise missiles delivering long-range strikes instead, defense experts have suggested. Moscow has been targeting Ukrainian military assets as well as some key infrastructure sites, such as power stations, which it considers crucial for Kiev’s war effort. According to Russian officials, the conflict is a US-led proxy war in which Ukrainian troops serve as “cannon fodder” for Western geostrategic interests. On Saturday, Zelensky said Kiev wants to attack targets deep inside Russia, a type of operation for which Ukraine is not allowed to use donated Western weapons and relies on domestically produced kamikaze drones instead.

Read more …

Of course he did.

• Jailed US Reporter Knew He Was Handling Classified Russian Data (RT)

RT has obtained an exclusive video showing the moment Russian law enforcement detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, as he attempted to hide what appeared to be a flash drive with illegally obtained classified data. The journalist was among those exchanged in last week’s historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West. The previously unpublished clip released on Monday shows Gershkovich’s arrest in March 2023 in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg. The journalist is seen sitting in a restaurant with his ‘source,’ as the pair discuss in Russian how to hand over secret data on the country’s defense industry in a way that won’t allow the authorities to track the leak.

As Russian operatives swoop in, Gershkovich tries to hide what appears to be a flash drive containing the data under the table before being arrested. Commenting on the incident at the time, the Kremlin said the reporter had been “caught red-handed,” while Russia’s Investigative Committee claimed he had engaged in espionage on behalf of the CIA. Gershkovich has denied any wrongdoing and insisted he was merely doing his job as a reporter. While the administration of US President Joe Biden declared Gershkovich – the first American reporter arrested on espionage allegations since the Cold War – as “wrongfully detained,” a Russian court sentenced him to 16 years in prison last month.

The journalist, however, was among 16 Western prisoners included in the landmark swap deal last week. In exchange, Russia secured the release of ten of its nationals. Intelligence operative Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced by a German court for allegedly killing Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Chechen separatist with Georgian citizenship, in a Berlin park in 2019, was one of the most prominent Russian figures on the list. Some of the evidence against Krasikov was provided by German magazine Der Spiegel, US government-funded website Bellingcat, and Russian opposition outlet The Insider.

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Good. Now break ’em up.

• In ‘Biggest Antitrust Case Of The 21st Century’, Google Ruled A Monopoly (CD)

A federal judge left no room for ambiguity Monday in a landmark ruling in a case brought by the Justice Department and states against tech giant Google, in which the government argued the company had illegally monopolized the search engine and advertising market. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” said Judge Amit Mehta, who sits of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In U.S. et al. v. Google, Mehta found that Google has “violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by maintaining its monopoly in two product markets in the United States—general services and general text advertising—through its exclusive distribution agreements.” The American Economic Liberties Project (ALEP) called the ruling a “tremendous win for consumers, innovation, and the entire tech industry.”

During a 10-week trial last year, the DOJ argued Google had used exclusionary contracts to block its competitors from reaching potential users. The company’s deals with web firms such as Mozilla and cell phone companies like Apple and Samsung have made Google the default search engine on millions of people’s phones and computers, as has its contracts with other major tech firms and service providers. The trial revealed that Google shares 36% of its search ad revenues from Safari with Apple and paid the company $20 billion in 2022 to ensure Google’s search engine would have default status for Apple customers. While paying billions of dollars per year to maintain its default status, Google has been using its dominance over ad space to collect more data about users and improve its search engine, while its rivals have been cut off from that ad space.

“If that’s what it takes for somebody to dislodge Google as the default search engine, wouldn’t the folks that wrote the Sherman Act be concerned about it?” asked Mehta. The Justice Department proved to the court that Google had ensured its search engine would conduct nearly 90% of all web searches. Vanderbilt University law professor Rebecca Haw Allensworth toldThe New York Times the ruling represents “a very prominent test of the Biden administration’s new antitrust enforcement agenda.” The DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have also sued Apple, Meta, and Amazon for monopolizing the smartphone, social media, and online selling markets.William Kovacic, former chairman of the FTC, told the Times in June that a victory against Google would create “momentum that supports [the government’s] other cases.” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) was among those who applauded the ruling, saying the unfair practices Mehta outlined “are the exact behaviors that hurt consumers, competition, and small businesses.”

Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel at ALEP, said the ruling “strikes at the core of how hundreds of millions of Americans experience the internet.” “It illustrates how Google has become one of the most powerful companies in the world while undermining innovation and degrading the quality of its core product,” said Hepner. “The remedy must match the court’s striking verdict in this case. At a minimum that means an end to Google’s exclusive default agreements and breaking up business lines that have allowed Google to extend its monopoly into every corner of the internet.” Google is expected to appeal Mehta’s decision, but as it faces another antitrust case brought by the DOJ over its advertising technology business—set to go to trial September 9—ALEP interim executive director Nidhi Hegde expressed hope that Monday’s ruling “sends a resounding signal that the antimonopoly movement is here to stay.” “The promise of antitrust enforcement is that it will fully restore competition where it has been lost,” said Hepner, “and we’ll be advocating that the court use all of its power to do so.”

Read more …

“..the independent judiciary … means that when you’re unpopular, you can get a fair hearing under the law and under the Constitution.”

• Neil Gorsuch Issues Dire Warning Over Biden’s Reforms (HUSA)

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch issued a stern warning about President Joe Biden’s proposals to reform the court system, which many have described as a desperate effort to thwart the conservative majority. Justice Gorsuch, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, declined to comment on specific proposals like age limits but cautioned against hindering the judiciary’s independence during a Sunday interview with Fox News Sunday with anchor Shannon Bream. “You are not in a bubble here at the courts. There are real world events happening. … How does the court feel about potential changes, term limits, ethics codes that are enforced by someone in ways that it isn’t now?” Bream asked. In response, Gorsuch said, “Shannon, you’re not going to be surprised that I’m not going to get into what is now a political issue during a presidential election year. I don’t think that would be helpful.”

He added, “I have one thought to add, it is that the independent judiciary … means that when you’re unpopular, you can get a fair hearing under the law and under the Constitution.” Gorsuch emphasized that the judiciary’s role is to protect Americans’ rights against government persecution. “Don’t you want a ferociously independent judge and a jury of your peers to make those decisions? Isn’t that your right as an American? And so, I just say be careful,” Gorsuch concluded. Gorsuch appeared on Fox News to promote his new book, Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law, where he scolds the unprecedented growth of laws and regulations in the U.S.

His remarks came less than a week after Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced a “bold plan” to reform the Supreme Court and “ensure no president is above the law.” The proposed changes include abolishing presidential immunity, imposing term limits on justices and radically reforming ethics codes. These changes are seen as a direct challenge to President Donald Trump and the six conservative justices currently on the bench. Last month, the court ruled that Trump enjoyed presidential immunity from prosecution, reaffirming long-standing legal theories and angering the Democratic Party. The proposed ethics code appears to target Justice Clarence Thomas, who faced criticism from ProPublica for allegedly failing to disclose gifts from friends. ProPublica is a leftist organization claiming to be a news organization.

Read more …

“Given the judge’s overt biases, some believe the punishment will be disproportionate to the offense and likely to disrupt the ongoing presidential campaign.”

• House Judiciary Launches Probe into Loren Merchan’s Work for Kamala (HUSA)

The House Judiciary Committee launched a probe into New York Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter over her work for Vice President Kamala Harris—work that could present a conflict of interest for the judge given his role overseeing one of the cases against former President Donald Trump. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter last week to Loren Merchan asking for all documents and communications related to her work for Authentic Campaigns, a Democratic marketing firm that has been contracted by several of Trump’s top political rivals, including Harris. Jordan specifically requested all contracts or invoices the firm has sent to President Joe Biden’s campaign, which is now Harris’s campaign as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

So far this election cycle, Authentic Campaigns has provided the Biden–Harris campaign with “digital paid media, design and development, social media, mobile messaging, [and] artificial intelligence,” Jordan noted. “Experts have raised substantial concerns with Judge [Juan] Merchan, your father, refusing to recuse himself from President Trump’s case despite your work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries and the financial benefit that your firm, Authentic Campaigns Inc., could receive from the prosecution and conviction,” Jordan wrote. Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over New York v. Trump, in which Trump was found guilty on multiple felony counts for falsifying records in the first degree. Trump’s legal team has appealed the jury’s conviction, asking Merchan to overturn it.

However, he is also due to make a determination in early September on Trump’s sentencing. Given the judge’s overt biases, some believe the punishment will be disproportionate to the offense and likely to disrupt the ongoing presidential campaign. Trump’s lawyers have also called on Judge Merchan to recuse himself from the case given his daughter’s political work, noting that Authentic Campaigns was ranked as one of the top vendors in the country “in connection with the 2024 election.” Thus, Loren Merchan not only has a political interest in the outcome of her father’s case, but also a “direct financial interest in these proceedings by virtue of her ownership stake and leadership role at Authentic Campaigns, Inc.,” Trump’s team said.

Read more …

“Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?” Musk replied..”

• Downing Street In Row With Musk Over UK Riots (RT)

A heated back-and-forth has broken out between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with the bone of contention being the anti-immigration riots wracking the UK. More than a dozen cities and towns in the UK have been gripped by demonstrations, triggered by a deadly knife attack in Southport, England. Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a 17-year-old British boy born to Rwandan parents has been charged with stabbing three little girls to death and injuring eight other children and two adults in an attack on a Southport dance class last week. A Liverpool judge ruled on Thursday that Rudakubana’s name, whose identity was initially concealed due to laws protecting minors, be released to the public as he turns 18 this week. Despite the rapid spread of rumours that the suspect was a Muslim immigrant, the police have stated he appears to have no known links to Islam.

Musk had claimed that “civil war was inevitable,” commenting a video on X (formerly Twitter) that showed the unrest. The video was posted by a user that suggested the root cause was mass migration to the UK and open-border policies. Downing Street has hit back against the statement. “There is no justification for comments like that,” Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters, calling the unrest “organized, illegal thuggery which has no place on our streets or online.” The UK Prime Minister slammed the unrest as “pure violence,” promising to field a “standing army of public duty officers,” in response. “The criminal law applies online as well as offline, and I’m assured that is the approach that is being taken,” Starmer said in a statement released on X. “Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest. It is pure violence, and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” he stressed. The riots have seen mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers attacked.

“Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?” Musk replied. The comment came as reports of counter-protester violence surfaced in the UK media. Police in Bolton clashed with 300 “mostly Asian” counter-demonstrators after two protests met and turned ugly, the Manchester Evening News reported on Monday. In a video circulating online, customers of a Birmingham pub could be seen violently assaulted. The Yardley pub, ‘The Clumsy Swan’ was attacked by “a group of Muslim youths, who broke away from the main demonstration and were wearing masks and carrying weapons,” the BBC wrote on Sunday. The UK’s top police official was pressed on double standards over the riots, which have allegedly been dealt with more harshly than other recent unrest and protests shaking the country. To a question about ending “two-tier policing,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley ripped the Sky News reporter’s microphone out of his hands and walked away. He took no questions from journalists.

Read more …

I think they will.

• British Army Won’t Act Against Protesters – MOD (RT)

The British Army will not be involved in dealing with widespread rioting across the UK, Defense Secretary John Healey has said, insisting that police have the powers to protect the nation. Healey was speaking to Sky News on Monday in Rotherham, where protesters set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers. Dozens of British towns and cities have been rocked by right-wing protests and riots against immigration and Islam since last Monday, when a British teenager of Rwandan descent stabbed three children to death and injured ten others in the town of Southport, near Liverpool. Asked whether the army might have to be brought in to deal with any future riots, Healey replied: “No… it’s the police’s responsibility to respond first and currently they’ve got the means to do it.” “They will make sure that people are safe,” Healey added.

The remarks come after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage condemned the violence against police officers in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, saying he was “appalled” by the weekend’s unrest and that “deeper long-term problems remain.” He also urged the recall of parliament and said the government should consider deploying the army. At least 400 people have been arrested after riots rocked Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Hull, Belfast, Stoke, and other cities across UK over weekend, according to media reports. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday announced that a “standing army” of specialist police officers would be set up to prevent any further disorder.

The prime minister’s official spokesman told The Guardian that no requests had been made for army assistance to quell the riots. “The police are very clear that they’ve got the powers and resources they need to protect communities and keep people safe,” the spokesperson said. “There’s been no requests made for any military assistance, that I’m aware of.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Sit down

 

 

Unclog

 

 

Cat elevator
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820530525272199634

 

 

Service dogs

 

 

Landing
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820557150952837204

 

 

Friend guest
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820432123087700064

 

 

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De-Ideologization Of Russia’s Relations With Latin America

Apr 042023
 
 April 4, 2023  Posted by at 10:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  8 Responses »


Georgia O’Keeffe Red poppy No. VI 1928

 

Andrew Korybko:

 

“The Old Cold War Paradigm Is Irrelevant In The New Cold War”, which Indian Professor of International Relations Rajesh Rajagopalan just discovered, but it’s important for everyone else to be aware of this as well. Unlike during the Old Cold War where the US and USSR competed to promote their capitalist and communist worldviews correspondingly, the New Cold War is being fought over whether the global systemic transition continues evolving towards multipolarity or retains most of unipolarity’s trappings.

Multipolar conservative-sovereigntists (MCS) respect every country’s sovereign right to develop according to whichever models they’d like while unipolar liberal-globalists (ULG) want to force everyone to apply Western models. For the most part, the Sino-Russo Entente and the Global South embrace MCS while the US-led West’s Golden Billion and its vassals promote ULG. There are a few notable exceptions, but this insight represents the simplified geopolitical-ideational fault lines of the New Cold War.

Intrepid readers can learn more about the dynamics of this competition in the following analyses:

* 15 May 2022: “What’s Dishonestly Smeared As ‘Russian Propaganda’ Is Just The Multipolar Worldview”

* 5 August 2022: “The Russian Foreign Ministry Comprehensively Explained The Global Systemic Transition”

* 29 October 2022: “The Importance Of Properly Framing The New Cold War”

* 9 March 2023: “Towards Tri-Multipolarity: The Golden Billion, The Sino-Russo Entente, & The Global South”

* 21 March 2023: “China’s Global Civilization Initiative Is Its Response To The West’s Liberal-Globalism”

The abovementioned analyses add context to Russia’s new foreign policy concept that can be read here.

The present piece focuses on the 58th paragraph and its four subclauses concerning Russia’s relations with Latin America, which are of relevance to the Western Hemispheric dimension of its grand strategy as articulated in the preceding hyperlinked document from 31 March. For everyone’s convenience, this part of that detailed policy paper will now be shared in full below prior to analyzing its importance in the larger context:

“58. Given the progressive strengthening of the sovereignty and multifaceted potential of Latin American and Caribbean states, the Russian Federation intends to develop relations with them on a pragmatic, de ideologized and mutually beneficial basis, giving priority attention to:

1) supporting interested Latin American states under pressure from the United States and its allies in securing sovereignty and independence, including through the promotion and expansion of security, military and military-technical cooperation;

2) strengthening friendship, mutual understanding and deepening multifaceted mutually beneficial partnership with the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Nicaragua, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, developing relations with other Latin American states, taking into account the degree of independence and constructiveness of their policy towards the Russian Federation;

3) increasing mutual trade and investment with Latin American and Caribbean States, including through cooperation with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Common Market of the South. The Central American Integration System, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas, the Pacific Alliance, and the Caribbean Community;

4) expanding cultural, scientific, educational, sports, tourism and other humanitarian ties with the states of the region.”
 
Immediate attention should be drawn to the open sentence about the “pragmatic, de ideologized and mutually beneficial basis” of Russia’s envisaged relations with Latin America. This approach perfectly aligns with the precepts of MCS, particularly Moscow’s respect for its partners’ right to develop according to whichever models they’d like. In practice, this means that Russia’s comparatively more right-wing socio-cultural policies at home aren’t an impediment to expanding ties with left-wing states.

That explains why it’s extremely close with Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, all three of which have either abstained from or voted against anti-Russian Resolutions at the UNGA since the start of Moscow’s special operation. It also signals Russia’s intent to continue exploring the expansion of mutually beneficial economically driven relations with Brazil in spite of their increasingly diverging worldviews under Lula’s third term as explained in detail citing official sources in these analyses here and here.

Unlike the US’ ULG, Russia’s MCS policymakers don’t care how their country’s partners organize their economic, political, and/or socio-cultural systems, hence why they’re extending an offer of support to strengthen their sovereignty via military-technical and other means despite their different models. All that’s important for the Kremlin is that its partners remain reliable and continue respecting Russia’s legitimate interests without criticizing them or meddling in its related affairs.

Should they continue to do so and this pragmatic worldview expands further throughout the region, then the geopolitical-ideational basis will be more solidly established for comprehensively advancing Russia’s relations with those regional integration platforms mentioned in the third clause above. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is the most promising of them all, however, and Venezuelan President Maduro’s expectations of its future global role complement Russian interests.

The final clause regarding people-to-people ties is important for sustaining both sides’ mutually beneficial cooperation in the New Era, the present decade of which can also be described as the Age of Complexity. Ideologically driven disinformation agents are already at work trying to brainwash Latin Americans into thinking that Russia’s comparatively more right-wing socio-cultural policies at home preclude the possibility of any left-wing governments ever pragmatically cooperating with it.

According to this information warfare narrative, it would allegedly be a “betrayal” of their movements’ beliefs to work together with any country that holds polar opposite ones in some respects, the notion of which is weaponized by the US’ ruling liberal–globalists to divide-and-rule Russia and Latin America. The so-called “New Left” that’s rising in the region differs from the “Old Left” in the sense that the former are largely insincere in their working-class rhetoric and care more about fighting “culture wars”.

Their obsession with so-called “critical race theory” and aggressive propagation of non-traditional sexual relations onto all members of society (including children) take precedence over tangibly improving the living conditions of the population whose economic interests they purport to represent. These causes are the same as those that are being imposed by the US’ Democrats onto their own people and aggressively propagated across the world, hence these movements’ informal alliance with one another.

Upon falling under the influence of the US’ liberal-globalists, the Latin American “New Left” (which the Workers’ Party’s elite during Lula’s third term can also be characterized as per the prior analyses earlier shared in this piece) gradually began to align with their ally’s foreign policy. This explains why the Brazilian leader became the first BRICS one to personally condemn Russia in his joint statement with Biden from February and decided to continue Bolsonaro’s policy of voting against it at the UNGA.

At the same time, however, the “Old Left” that’s represented by Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and also Bolivia (which for whatever reason wasn’t mentioned by name in Russia’s new foreign policy concept despite being a reliable partner) continues setting a positive geopolitical-ideational example. They’re more focused on tangibly improving their people’s living conditions than on fighting “culture wars”, hence why they remain resistant to the US Democrats’ influence, unlike the Workers’ Party’s elite.

Accordingly, they haven’t voted against Russia at the UNGA either, once again unlike Lula’s Brazil. The emerging challenge across Latin America will therefore be for the “Old Left” to positively influence the “New Left” at least in the geopolitical sense of appreciating the mutually beneficial importance of pragmatically expanding ties with Russia despite pressure from their newfound US ideological ally to distance themselves from it and vote against Moscow at the UNGA.

It’s with this imperative in mind that Russia’s official de-ideologization of its relations with Latin America deserves maximum attention. Those “New Left” movements that continue falling under the US Democrats’ pernicious geopolitical influence due to their overlapping ideational interests will ultimately end up doing some of that declining unipolar hegemon’s bidding in the New Cold War. The failure to stop and reverse this Hybrid War trend could ultimately doom all of Latin America to US vassalhood.

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 6 2020

Oct 062020
 
 October 6, 2020  Posted by at 9:33 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  9 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Old Man Sitting 1631

 

• ‘Don’t Let It Dominate You. Don’t Be Afraid Of It’ – President Trump (JTN)
• WHO: 760 Million May Have Been Infected With Novel Coronavirus (JTN)
• CDC Acknowledges Coronavirus Spreads Through Airborne Transmission (CNBC)
• Gina Haspel Banks On Trump Loss To Keep Russiagate Documents Hidden (Fed.)
• Carter Page Wants McCabe Subpoenaed To Testify Before Senate (JTN)
• Ginsburg’s Nightmare: The Democratic Plan To Destroy The Supreme Court (Turley)
• Out of the Woods? (Jim Kunstler)
• 100,000 Ballot Requests Invalidated In Iowa (IC)
• Debt Collectors Have Made a Fortune This Year. They’re Coming for More (PP)
• Facebook Refuses To Appoint Turkey Representative, Faces Penalties (Ahval)
• UK Court Decision on Venezuela Gold Deals Blow to Regime Change Efforts (MPN)
• Former Reserve Bank Of Australia Boss: Low Rates Haven’t Done Any Good (AFR)
• John McAfee Arrested In Spain On Tax Evasion & Crypto Fraud, Awaits Extradition To US (RT)
• Trump Briefly Leaves Hospital To Wave To Supporters From F-22 Raptor (BBee)

 

 

Trump has long known that it makes no difference what he says or does, everything will be presented in a form that can be used against him anyway. If he says: don’t be afraid of it, the media will tell everyone to be very afraid.

There’s only one exception: if he would start a war. Let’s hope he doesn’t fall into that trap.

 

 

US national debt
https://twitter.com/GeorgeGammon/status/1313124363541991425

 

 

 

 

Media reaction: be afraid! And: don’t let Trump dominate you! Bit late for that now.

• ‘Don’t Let It Dominate You. Don’t Be Afraid Of It’ – President Trump (JTN)

President Trump on Monday night released a new video message in which he urged Americans to be cautious but not fear the coronavirus or allow it to consume their lives. “I just left Walter Reed Medical Center and it’s really something very special, the doctors, the nurses, the first responders, and I learned so much about coronavirus,” the president said. “And one thing that’s for certain: Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re gonna beat it. We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines, all developed recently.” “I went, I didn’t feel so good. And two days ago, I could’ve left two days ago. Two days ago I felt great, like better than I have in a long time. I said just recently, better than 20 years ago,” Trump said.


“I stood out front. I led. Nobody that’s a leader would not do what I did. And I know there’s a risk, there’s a danger, but that’s ok. And now I’m better, and maybe I’m immune, I don’t know. But don’t let it dominate your lives. Get out there. Be careful. We have the best medicines in the world and it all happened very shortly and they’re all getting approved. And the vaccines are coming momentarily,” the president said. President Trump on Monday evening departed Walter Reed Medical Center, where he had been staying since Friday evening, and returned to the White House.

Read more …

Based on what information?

• WHO: 760 Million May Have Been Infected With Novel Coronavirus (JTN)

The World Health Organization estimated Monday that roughly 1 in 10 people worldwide have been infected by the novel coronavirus – more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases. The estimate was made by Dr. Michael Ryan, who leads the WHO’s emergencies division, during a session with the group’s 34-member executive board He said that the number was his “best estimates” and that “the vast majority of the world remains at risk.” He also said “many deaths have been averted and many more lives can be protected.” The new estimate from the WHO would indicate that 760 million people worldwide have been infected with the novel virus, a number far surpassing the currently reported 35 million confirmed cases. Ryan also said that the group is getting reports of a surge of cases in Asia and Europe. The doctor cautioned that the world may now be “heading into a difficult period. The disease continued to spread. It is on the rise in many parts of the world.”

Read more …

Are these people trying to clarify something, or just to confuse me? What of this didn’t we already know?

• CDC Acknowledges Coronavirus Spreads Through Airborne Transmission (CNBC)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its coronavirus guidance Monday, acknowledging that it can sometimes spread through airborne particles that can “linger in the air for minutes to hours” and among people who are more than 6 feet apart. The CDC cited published reports that demonstrated “limited, uncommon circumstances where people with COVID-19 infected others who were more than 6 feet away or shortly after the COVID-19-positive person left an area.” “In these instances, transmission occurred in poorly ventilated and enclosed spaces that often involved activities that caused heavier breathing, like singing or exercise,” the CDC said in a statement. “Such environments and activities may contribute to the buildup of virus-carrying particles.”

The agency added that it is “much more common” for the virus to spread through larger respiratory droplets that are produced when somebody coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes. People are infected through such droplets mostly when they are in close contact with an infected person, the CDC said. “CDC’s recommendations remain the same based on existing science and after a thorough technical review of the guidance,” the agency said. “People can protect themselves from the virus that causes COVID-19 by staying at least 6 feet away from others, wearing a mask that covers their nose and mouth, washing their hands frequently, cleaning touched surfaces often and staying home when sick.” To what degree the coronavirus can spread through airborne particles has been a contentious debate among scientists for months.

Some epidemiologists have charged that the World Health Organization as well as federal regulatory agencies in many countries have been slow to accept that the virus can spread by air. It’s a debate that could have implications for the importance of air filtration in reopening businesses and schools. Dr. Bill Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, said the new guidance is largely in line with what he says the science indicates about the coronavirus spreading through the air. He said in a phone interview after reviewing the new guidance that airborne transmission is something of a “side street” for spread. “Some cars do get through on the side street,” he said. “But the highways of transmission are close in, usually within enclosed spaces and for periods of time longer than 15 minutes with people standing within three to six feet of each other.”

[..] Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist and biodefense expert at the University of Arizona, said the new CDC guidance is “quite good.” She added that “the term airborne means so much to so many people,” and the guidance does a good job of emphasizing that the virus appears to only spread by air in certain environments, such as crowded indoor and poorly ventilated spaces. “We know that these events are occurring, but they’re not the primary driver,” she said in a phone interview. “This is a good reminder that there are environments that are higher risk for airborne transmission and we just need to communicate that.”

Read more …

Running out the clock. Trump picked the wrong people in many high positions.

• Gina Haspel Banks On Trump Loss To Keep Russiagate Documents Hidden (Fed.)

CIA Director Gina Haspel is personally blocking the declassification and release of key Russiagate documents in the hopes that President Donald Trump will lose his re-election bid, multiple senior U.S. officials told The Federalist. The officials said Haspel, who served under former CIA Director John Brennan as the spy agency’s station chief in London in 2016 and 2017, is concerned that the declassification and release of documents detailing what the CIA was doing during the 2016 election and the 2017 transition could embarrass the CIA and potentially even implicate Haspel herself. “Haspel and [FBI Director Christopher] Wray both want Trump to lose, because it’s the only chance they have of keeping their jobs,” one senior intelligence official told The Federalist.

“They’re banking on Biden winning and keeping them where they are.” The Federalist first reported last week that Haspel had emerged as the primary roadblock to declassification of materials showing that the U.S. intelligence community knew prior to the 2016 election that the allegations that Trump colluded with Russia were themselves the products of Russian disinformation. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe released a declassified summary last week that disclosed that Russian intelligence officials were aware that former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had planned to smear Trump as a treasonous Russian asset to distract from the Clinton’s e-mail scandal. As part of her operation, Clinton hired a foreign agent who was himself working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch to spread unverified smears against Trump.


One of the key sources of collusion allegations peddled by that foreign agent via the now-infamous Steele dossier was suspected by FBI authorities of being a Russian spy.“It’s far more important for Haspel to block any embarrassment of herself or her agency than to have full transparency and accountability,” another senior intelligence official told The Federalist. “She’s just hoping she can get past the election so the documents will never come out.” “This is not a source protection issue, it’s an embarrassment issue,” the intelligence official added. Officials also accused Haspel of repeatedly lying to the White House about the status of documents that are in the pipeline for declassification and release. These officials said that Haspel has consistently provided baseless excuses for her failure to produce certain documents, falsely claiming that she can’t physically locate documents, or that her agency doesn’t technically own them and therefore cannot release them.

Read more …

New: refusing to testify by video because of coronavirus.

• Carter Page Wants McCabe Subpoenaed To Testify Before Senate (JTN)

Former Trump 2016 campaign adviser Carter Page says former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be subpoenaed to testify Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, after backing out over coronavirus concerns. “Hopefully a subpoena is issued today,” Page told “Just the News AM” host Carrie Sheffield. “It’s now Monday morning, and I hope that is resolved so that he can show up and be held to account and answer for these terrible problems that were created.” McCabe was set to testify before the committee on the FBI’s now-discredited Trump-Russia probe.


However, the committee postponed the hearing over McCabe’s coronavirus concerns, after two GOP members, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), tested positive for the virus in recent days. McCabe’s attorney said the alternative, to testify remotely via video camera, would be too complex and contentious. “I think it’s another example of the complete double standards,” said Page. “So many Trump supporters including myself, were dragged in front of not only the U.S. Senate, which is what’s in question here, but the House.” Page, on whom the FBI illegally eavesdropped, also expressed frustration about being a target in special counsel Robert Mueller’s years-long collusion probe.

Read more …

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg believed it was wrong to demand assurances on how justices will vote. In her confirmation hearing in 1993, she refused to give the answer that Blumenthal, Gillibrand, Sanders, Clinton, and others now demand from her potential successor.”

• Ginsburg’s Nightmare: The Democratic Plan To Destroy The Supreme Court (Turley)

[..] the call for a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees and the packing of the Supreme Court with up to six new members to secure a majority. Both ideas were expressly denounced by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Indeed, to achieve these objectives, the Democratic members will have to tear down the very rule established by Ginsburg in her confirmation hearing. The refusal of Vice President Joe Biden to answer repeated questions about his position on the packing of the Supreme Court is deeply troubling. This is a proposal raised not by the Republicans but his own running mate Kamala Harris and leading Democrats. It would destroy the Supreme Court and voters should know if Biden would consider such an irresponsible act, particularly when he previously denounced it.

The refusal to stand against the proposal is a fundamental failure of leadership. Rather than confront the most extreme elements of his party, Biden has chosen to remain silent on a major issue in this election. Frankly, that is not the Biden that many of us knew from his time in the Senate. He should take a stand against this pernicious idea and defend the institution, as he did in 2019 [..] Subtlety has been a stranger to our politics. This is the age of rage, and there is little room for nuance. That is evident in the intense debate over the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Democrats have dispensed with any pretense in their calls to block her and pack the bench with more justices. What they want is a Supreme Court with litmus test confirmations where Senate votes are conditioned on pledges.


Several Democrats have said they will ask Barrett about her view of any challenge to Roe versus Wade, and cases like the pending challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Indeed, she faced such demands from Richard Blumenthal and others for her confirmation as a federal appellate judge, and several Democrats voted against her since she did not promise to uphold Roe. In their campaigns last year, Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders pledged to nominate only those who would uphold Roe. [..] Ruth Bader Ginsburg believed it was wrong to demand assurances on how justices will vote. In her confirmation hearing in 1993, she refused to give the answer that Blumenthal, Gillibrand, Sanders, Clinton, and others now demand from her potential successor. In calling to protect the legacy of Ginsburg, these politicians have to first tear down the Ginsburg rule.

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“..a keening wail of lamentation rings out across the land at Mr. Trump’s possible, dastardly recovery. How dare he! — to paraphrase Saint Greta Thunberg.”

• Out of the Woods? (Jim Kunstler)

CNN had a whack attack. Brian Stelter was beside himself, hinting that sinister forces had punked the network, and all the other righteous Resistance cadres, and that Mr. Trump could be endangering every federal employee down to the enlisted men posted overseas by venturing from his sickroom. The New York Times went farther afield (of course), declaring that “the murky and shifting narrative of his illness was rewritten again with grim new details.” Nicely put by an outfit that has come to specialize in shifting narratives! And indeed, the new Resistance narrative demands to know just exactly when did the president start to feel ill? Did he, perhaps on-purpose, haul his ailing, hulking, scheming Golem ass into the Cleveland debate venue with the hope of infecting his rival, delicate Ol’ White Joe Biden?

Did he recklessly put at risk the White House staff, dignitaries and luminaries coming and going, their family members, associates, underlings, servants, children? Did he threaten the global order, world peace, the fate of humanity? So now, a keening wail of lamentation rings out across the land at Mr. Trump’s possible, dastardly recovery. How dare he! — to paraphrase Saint Greta Thunberg. 209,000 other Americans died, and not him! What vile and unholy devices got him out of a sure death sentence? No doubt Democratic Party astrologasters and consulting augurers will be searching for clues among the orbiting planets and the spilled organs of sacrificed chickens in the days to come. Perhaps Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) can snare a few of the president’s attending physicians into his House Intel Committee and rev up another impeachment for going against doctors’ orders.


Wouldn’t that be a delectable counter to the looming confirmation process for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement next door in the Senate this month? Over his dead body, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is hinting — a tantalizing prospect, with Covid-19 on the loose. It was Chuck who memorably told Rachel Maddow of MSNBC in 2017 that the Deep State “has six ways from [sic] Sunday at getting back at you.” By my count, they’re well over their allotted six by now. Not only did they all fail, but the seditionists behind them are liable to wind up behind bars before this is all over, perhaps even a few of Senator Schumer’s colleagues.

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Many stories developing. A mess overall. Seemingly impossible to regulate on a federal level.

• 100,000 Ballot Requests Invalidated In Iowa (IC)

In 2018, Democrats won three of Iowa’s four congressional districts, picked up five seats in the state House, and lost the governor’s race by less than 3 points. The state has only trended more Democratic since, giving the party real hope that its six electoral votes could wind up in the camp of Joe Biden and that its Senate seat, now held by Republican Joni Ernst, could flip to Democrat Theresa Greenfield. It may all hinge, however, on an absentee ballot snafu affecting tens of thousands of voters that the party is scrambling to rectify. In July, the top elections officials in Linn and Johnson counties went ahead and began mailing out absentee-ballot request forms with some voter information already filled in, like names and dates of birth.

Crucially, voters need to know their voter ID number. Most don’t, and Linn County Auditor Joel Miller had the state’s vendor fill it in for them. Republicans protested, and courts sided with the GOP, saying that Miller’s decision to proceed with the mailing violated a “clear directive” from Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate. More than 100,000 absentee ballot requests have already been invalidated in several Iowa counties. In late August, judges ordered two Iowa counties to invalidate at least 64,000 ballot requests, siding with a challenge brought by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and the GOP, which have been filing similar lawsuits nationwide.


About 50,000 voters in Linn County and at least 14,000 in Woodbury will be informed that their absentee-ballot requests won’t count and that anyone who still wants to vote by mail in November will have to send in a new form in order to receive their ballot. In a separate case in Johnson County, home to the University of Iowa, more than 92,000 ballot request forms were voided.

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The ultimate growth industry.

• Debt Collectors Have Made a Fortune This Year. They’re Coming for More (PP)

Earlier this year, the pandemic swept across the country, killing 100,000 Americans by the spring, shuttering businesses and schools, and forcing people into their homes. It was a great time to be a debt collector. In August, Encore Capital, the largest debt buyer in the country, announced that it had doubled its previous record for earnings in a quarter. It primarily had the CARES Act to thank: The bill delivered hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stimulus checks and bulked-up unemployment benefits to Americans, while easing pressures on them by halting foreclosures, evictions and student loan payments. There was no ban on collections of old credit card bills, Encore’s specialty.

At the same time, the pandemic compelled households to cut spending. Finding themselves with enough money to settle old debts, people responded to collectors’ calls and letters. Debt-buying executives couldn’t help marveling at their good fortune. All this created “a perfect storm from a cash perspective,” the CEO of Portfolio Recovery Associates, Encore’s main competitor, told Wall Street analysts. After its record second quarter, analysts expect Encore to blow past $200 million in profit this year and reward stockholders with 40% earnings growth compared with last year. Portfolio Recovery is set for similar growth. The share prices of both have soared off their early April lows.


[..] In recent months, the only real bad news for debt buyers was that local courts across the country temporarily shut down. Debt collection lawsuits provide a key source of revenue for the companies, a way to extract payment from consumers, typically low-income, who don’t offer it up. But now even that hiccup is over. After a bit of a lull in the spring, Encore and other debt buyers are back at it, filing suits by the thousands every week, according to ProPublica’s analysis of state court filings. In August alone, Encore filed about 1,000 suits in Indiana and over 2,000 suits in the metro Atlanta area. Other debt buyers jumped back in as well. In Chicago, Portfolio Recovery filed over 3,000 suits in July, while LVNV, a major debt buyer privately owned by Sherman Financial Group, filed over 2,700 suits in Maryland in August.

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Might as well leave right now.

• Facebook Refuses To Appoint Turkey Representative, Faces Penalties (Ahval)

Social media giant Facebook has decided against appointing a Turkey representative, defying a requirement placed on certain social media platforms by the Turkish government, cyber rights expert Yaman Akdeniz said on Monday. “Facebook has decided not to appoint a Turkey representative in line with (Turkey’s) newly-passed Social Media Law,’’ Akdeniz said on Twitter. In July, Turkish parliament ratified a bill introducing new powers to control social media. The bill was passed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), stipulates that social media companies with more than one million users must appoint a legal representative in Turkey to address the authorities’ concerns over content and includes deadlines for its removal.


Akdeniz said it remains to be seen what the government’s reaction would be, but underlined that the bill was passed by parliament in a period of 10 days without consultation and posed serious problems regarding basic rights and freedoms. Facebook’s refusal to comply with the law would mean they will be faced with “a tiered penalty system,’’ Akdeniz said. “They will be slapped with a penalty of 10 million lira ($1.28 million) in November, followed by 30 million lira in December,’’ he said. “There is a six-month period ahead that leads all the way to the reduction of Internet bandwidth.’’ According to the law, companies could face fines, blocked advertisements or have their bandwidth slashed by up to 90 percent.

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Did that coup fail or what?

• UK Court Decision on Venezuela Gold Deals Blow to Regime Change Efforts (MPN)

United Kingdom court has handed the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro a major win today, overturning a previous ruling from a lower court that legitimized the British government’s decision to freeze Venezuelan government gold reserves held in the Bank of England. The English Court of Appeal ruled that the Conservative administration of Boris Johnson’s position that Juan Guaidó is the country’s legitimate ruler was far from equivocal, potentially paving the way for some $1.95 billion of the Central Bank of Venezuela’s gold to be accessed.

Following President Trump’s lead, in July, the U.K. government took the extraordinary step of derecognizing President Maduro in favor of the self-declared Guaidó, despite the fact that for nearly six months, he had not even been a member of his Popular Will party, let alone its leader. The move was labeled “highway robbery” by supporters of the Venezuelan government. A nearly unheard of politician before his ascension to the role of head of the Venezuelan National Assembly (a post given out on a yearly rotational basis among all parties in the institution) in January 2019, Guaidó shocked the country by using his appointment to unilaterally declare himself president of the country. He then led a series of coup attempts throughout 2019 and 2020, the last of which involved paying Trump-linked American mercenaries to shoot their way into the presidential palace.


However, the plan ended in complete disaster, with the Americans subsequently sentenced to 20 years of prison time. Guaidó based his claim to power on Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution, which allows a president to be removed if he “abandons his position” or becomes “permanently unavailable to serve” for whatever reason. Maduro, however, had clearly not left his post. Regardless, if he had, Article 233 states that the vice-president would take charge until a new election by universal suffrage was held. Guaidó’s party was not even registered to stand in elections, having boycotted them the year previously under U.S. orders.

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They’ve done a lot of harm though.

“Once the majority do it, you really have no choice,” Mr Macfarlane said..”

• Former Reserve Bank Of Australia Boss: Low Rates Haven’t Done Any Good (AFR)

Former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Ian Macfarlane says cutting interest rates to near zero has not done “any good” and warned ultra-loose monetary policy will have long-term costs for pensioners and insurance companies. In a very rare public critique of the RBA by a former governor, Mr Macfarlane said technology and globalisation were now more powerful forces than interest rates in affecting inflation, but central bankers were reluctant to admit their limitations. “I’ve been disappointed with the recent cuts in interest rates, all of them since about 2015,” Mr Macfarlane said. “The latest round of cutting interest rates and quantitative easing, I myself don’t think they’ve done any good.

“I thought, ‘wow, you didn’t need to do that’ but I don’t think there’s any way my successors could have stood there and said to the world ‘we’re not going to do that, we’re going to do it our way’.” The Australian dollar would have jumped “through the roof” if the RBA refused to follow other central banks cutting interest rates to near-zero, to buy government bonds and deploy other extraordinary monetary stimulus, he said. “Once the majority do it, you really have no choice,” Mr Macfarlane said in long interview on The Jolly Swagman podcast. Mr Macfarlane, RBA governor from 1996 to 2006, said there would be long-term economic costs of prolonged ultra-low interest rates.


“I think the jury is out on monetary policy for another decade or more because there are very big costs to having almost zero interest rates,” he said. “The whole retirement income industry – the pension funds, the superannuation funds, including insurance companies and businesses like that – don’t quite know how to operate with interest rates that are negligible because they’ve never had to do it before.” [..] “Monetary policy hasn’t lost its power, it’s used up all its power and there isn’t any more room.”

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Perhaps John should have seen a shrink.

• John McAfee Arrested In Spain On Tax Evasion & Crypto Fraud (RT)

Former software guru and one-time presidential candidate John McAfee has been nabbed in Spain on tax evasion and cryptocurrency fraud, ending his year long stint as a globetrotting fugitive. He now faces extradition to the US. The US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission both announced charges for McAfee on Monday, hitting the security software founder with 10 counts linked to dodging the IRS and another series of charges for promoting investments in cryptocurrencies without disclosing that he was paid some $23 million to do so. “John McAfee earned millions in income from promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements, and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary,” the DOJ said in a statement. “From 2014 to 2018, McAfee allegedly failed to file tax returns, despite receiving considerable income from these sources.”


McAfee was charged on five counts for willful failure to file a tax return, each of which carries a sentence of up to one year in prison, while the other five charges are linked to tax evasion itself, which could each result in up to five years behind bars. Originally filed in June, the newly unsealed indictment does not implicate McAfee’s former software company, which bears his name. The SEC also accused McAfee of promoting “multiple [initial coin offerings] on Twitter” while “pretending to be impartial and independent even though he was paid more than $23 million in digital assets for the promotions.” The complaint also alleges that McAfee and his bodyguard, Jimmy Watson Jr., engaged in a separate scheme to promote cryptocurrencies on Twitter and then sell them off as their price rose. The government did not name the particular currencies in its complaint.

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What could have been.

• Trump Briefly Leaves Hospital To Wave To Supporters From F-22 Raptor (BBee)

A nurse working at Walter Reed Medical Center checked in on Trump but was shocked to discover his room was empty. She looked out the window, and sure enough, he had tied bedsheets together and escaped. Just then, the nurse noticed a cup of Diet Coke left by the bedside began to ripple and shake. “Oh, no,” she murmured. “Not again!” Looking out the window, she saw a speck on the horizon. A rapidly growing speck. It was Trump, gloriously flying by in an F-22 fighter jet. “Sorry, Pence — but it’s time to buzz the tower!” Trump radioed to his wingman, who flashed him a smile and a thumbs-up. He flew by the hospital and waved to his cheering supporters.


“America!” the president cried as he flew by the ecstatic crowd, though they couldn’t hear him over the roar of the fighter jet’s engines. “I feel the need — the need for speed!” Media condemned the move, saying Trump could very well have spread COVID to every person on the planet with his little stunt, though he was all alone in a tiny cockpit far above the ground.

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