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Debt Rattle May 21 2026

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


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


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

 


 

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

 


 


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Weak.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Xi going through the obvious motions.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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Sheinbaum knows she needs the help.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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How deep is China?

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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Nobody says Old Guard like Merkel does.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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Debt Rattle June 21 2025

Jun 212025
 
 June 21, 2025  Posted by at 9:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  99 Responses »


Salvador Dali Portrait of my father 1920

 

• Iran Now First Line Of Defense For BRICS & The Global South (Pepe Escobar)
• Trump Hints at Potential Breakthrough with Iran (Margolis)
• Medvedev Warns of New Chernobyl (RT)
• IAEA Chief: Strike On Iran’s Bushehr Plant Would Create Nuclear Disaster (ZH)
• Fox Report: Tactical Nukes ‘Not Off The Table’ For Trump’s Iran Response (ZH)
• Trump Believes Only ‘Agreement’ Can Solve Russia–Ukraine Conflict (RT)
• Russia Not Seeking Ukraine’s Surrender – Putin (RT)
• NATO Split Over 5% Spending Commitment (RT)
• Americans Irritated By Zelensky’s Top Aide – Politico (RT)
• Ninth Circuit Rules for Trump on National Guard Deployment (Turley)
• World Needs ‘Fundamentally New Development Model’ – Putin (RT)
• Trump Calls For Special Prosecutor To Investigate 2020 Election (JTN)
• Hungary To Keep Russian Oil and Gas Flowing (RT)
• US Working Class Wages Are on the Rise (Sheffield)
• Anxiety Attack (James Howard Kunstler)
• EU To Gamble With Russia’s Frozen Assets – Politico (RT)

 

 

Macgregor

Levy

Tucker

1980

Bannon

 

 

 

 

Very different viewpoints. Trump and Bibi claim Israel victory. Pepe Escobar in the first article says the opposite.

RT: “US President Donald Trump said he will decide whether to join Israel’s campaign against Iran within two weeks “at maximum,” noting that it is difficult to push for a ceasefire and negotiations when one side is clearly “winning.” “I’m giving them a period of time. And I would say two weeks would be the maximum,” Trump told journalists on Friday. The comment came shortly after senior diplomats from the UK, France, and Germany met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva. However, Trump insisted that “Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”

If Washington were serious about pursuing a peaceful resolution, it would take Trump just one phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Araghchi said earlier in the day. Trump responded, “It’s very hard to make that request right now.” “If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody’s losing,” he added.”

Now Escobar:

 

 

 

 

The crying shadow in the funeral dance,
The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera.

T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton

• Iran Now First Line Of Defense For BRICS & The Global South (Pepe Escobar)

Israel’s shock’n’awe on Iran – straight from the trademark US playbook – essentially failed, despite the initial combination of speed, meticulous military planning and the element of surprise, including hacking the Iranian electronic communications within the military grid; decapitation of the vertical IRGC nomenklatura; the spiderweb drone attack playbook; and bombing – ultimately ineffectual – of key nodes of the Iranian nuclear infrastructure. It took hours for top Iranian technicians to get their grid back. And once that happened, the tide began to turn, to the point that after surgical missile volleys deep in the night on Sunday, the IRGC announced its capability to seriously disrupt Israel’s command and control systems using “enhanced intelligence”, thus breaching Iron – or Paper – Dome.

Absolutely key infrastructure nodes in Tel Aviv and Haifa have been destroyed – from the Rafael weapons complex (specialized in missiles, drones, cyber warfare and Iron Dome components) to the power plant and oil refinery in Haifa. This is historic in more ways than one. Compound the cries of joy all across the lands of Islam to the massive psychological trauma inflicted on Israel. The myth of Israeli invincibility has been definitely shattered. Unleashing hell from above, killing women and children and spinning like there’s no tomorrow does not win a war against a real opponent. The tweaked IRGC strategy – applied by an instantly revamped leadership – is being fine-tuned day by day in a calculated, surgical manner. It’s not that hard for the IRGC to totally paralyze Israel’s economy. Israel has only one oil refinery (already bombed); three ports, of which one is already bankrupt (Eilat) and another is on fire (Haifa); and one airport (already in dire straits).

The blowback on Tel Aviv’s desperate, indeed suicidal move – no chess involved – is in effect. Tehran is proving that every Zionist axis calculation that Iran could – and was – bled dry in a matter of hours was, predictably, false. The POTUS, for his part, fell into a voracious trap. His MAGA base is already fractured – in depth. Non-Zionist MAGA is the overwhelming majority. He admitted in a stunning infantilist post that he knew everything about the Israeli shock’n awe all along. Less than 10 days ago, in a meeting in New York packed with billionaire usual suspects, Steve Witkoff himself – Trump’s Talleyrand – explicitly noted that Iranian ballistic missiles are “a threat to America”. Considering their performance in the last 48 hours, everything points to Washington de facto entering the Hot War.

Diplomatic sources in Tehran point out that the leadership is working under this scenario. That’s why they are essentially still holding their capabilities – and carefully calibrating the next big steps in the escalatory ladder. Once again: Iranian strategic patience on display. The question then is, in a scenario of the US de facto at war, what will it take for Russia and China, in concertation, to lose their own strategic patience. Persian pride – and trust in their own capabilities, as I observed last month in Iran – rules that they consider to have all the necessary resources to outlast the Zionist axis, US included. After all they are only now starting to use their really advanced missiles – from the Kheybar-Shekan 2 and the Fattah-1 to the Haji Qassem. So, in a nutshell, the Iranian response turned the chessboard completely upside down.

The Circus Ringmaster – complete with hosting a pathetic military parade in Washington – is naked. And unmasked. He now owns not one but two proxy wars: against Russia, and against Iran, with neo-nazis in Kiev and genocidals in Tel Aviv on the frontlines. All part of the Big Picture War: against BRICS. By now it’s clear even for the deaf, dumb and blind that this was never about the Iranian nuclear program, or the “effort” to construct a Trump-owned JCPOA 2.0. It is about the lifelong Zionist axis obsession: regime change in Tehran. That is the Holy Grail, dreamed of since the late 1990s, capable of opening the door for the deeply troubled Empire of Chaos of Iran’s immense wealth in natural resources – from energy to rare earth deposits, thus prolonging the life of the multi-trillion-dollar-indebted Empire.

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“We are ready and willing and able and have been speaking to Iran, and we will see what happens..”

• Trump Hints at Potential Breakthrough with Iran (Margolis)

President Donald Trump delivered his most explicit signals yet that his administration is actively pursuing diplomatic channels with Iran, even as he maintains the threat of military action against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Speaking to reporters at Morristown Airport in New Jersey, Trump revealed that his administration has been in direct communication with Iranian officials and expressed cautious optimism about potential negotiations. “We are ready and willing and able and have been speaking to Iran, and we will see what happens,” Trump stated when asked about Iran’s conditions for negotiations. The revelation that the United States is already engaged in talks with Tehran represents a significant development in the escalating situation between the two nations.

Trump’s comments came in response to questions about Iran’s foreign minister suggesting that serious negotiations would require the U.S. to ask Israel to halt its ongoing air strikes. While Trump acknowledged the complexity of such a request, noting that “if someone is winning, it’s harder to do than if somebody is losing,” he didn’t rule out the possibility entirely. As we learned on Thursday, Trump has given Iran what he described as a maximum two-week window to demonstrate progress toward a resolution. When pressed about this timeline, Trump explained his reasoning simply: “Just time to see if people come to their senses.” He emphasized that any decision on military action would depend on Iran’s response during this period, stating, “I’m giving them a period of time and we will see what that period is, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum.”

Notably, Trump dismissed European involvement in potential negotiations, asserting that “Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe but to us. Europe will not be able to help on this one.” This preference for direct bilateral engagement suggests the administration believes it has unique leverage that European allies lack. When questioned about Iran’s desire for civilian nuclear capabilities, Trump expressed skepticism about the necessity of such programs. “They are sitting on top of one of the largest piles of oil in the world. I don’t know why they need that for civilian work,” he argued, suggesting that Iran’s vast oil reserves make nuclear energy development suspicious. While some voices on the left have suggested Trump is getting hawkish with Iran, he was quick to draw distinctions between the current situation and past military interventions, particularly the Iraq War, which he opposed.

“There were no weapons of mass destruction. I never thought there were,” Trump recalled, emphasizing his prescient opposition to that conflict while maintaining that the current Iranian threat is fundamentally different. “It is a tremendous amount of material, and I think within a matter of weeks or certainly within a matter of months, they would be able to have a nuclear weapon, and we can’t let that happen.” The revelation of ongoing U.S.-Iran communications, combined with Trump’s two-week ultimatum and openness to various diplomatic solutions, suggests his administration is pursuing a complex strategy that keeps all options on the table while prioritizing a negotiated resolution to prevent Iranian nuclear weapons development.

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“According to the report, some officials have said that only a tactical nuclear weapon could damage Fordow — a scenario President Donald Trump is reportedly not considering..”

• Medvedev Warns of New Chernobyl (RT)

Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities could result in a nuclear disaster akin to the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Thursday. His comments come amid reports that the US is weighing a potential strike on Iran’s heavily fortified Fordow nuclear installation, which was built deep into a mountain to withstand airstrikes. The US is reportedly considering the deployment of its GBU-57bunker-buster bombs to target the site. Israel has no comparable military capability. Everyone, even the Israeli defense minister, with his loud declaration about Khamenei’s fate, must understand that attacks on nuclear facilities are extremely dangerous and can lead to a repeat of the Chernobyl tragedy,” said Medvedev, who is currently deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, in a social media post.

Earlier Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz referred to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as a “modern-day Hitler” who “can no longer be allowed to exist.” The Guardian reported on Thursday that US officials doubt whether the GBU-57s would be effective. According to the report, some officials have said that only a tactical nuclear weapon could damage Fordow — a scenario President Donald Trump is reportedly not considering. The White House has dismissed the claims. Fox News cited an anonymous official who said the US military is “confident bunker busters can complete the job, and NO OPTIONS have been taken off the table.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said a final decision on possible US military action would be made within two weeks.

Speaking in a Q&A with journalists on Wednesday night Russian President Vladimir Putin said that despite the attacks, Iran’s underground infrastructure remained operational. Moscow is calling for deescalation of tensions and has offered itself as a mediator. On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called reports about possible US use of tactical nuclear weapons “speculative” and warned that such a move would be “catastrophic.” Tensions flared last Friday when Israel launched unprovoked airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites and assassinated multiple Iranian nuclear scientists and high-ranking military officers. West Jerusalem claimed the operation was a “preemptive” effort to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies its nuclear program has a military dimension, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has said it has seen no signs of imminent weaponization.

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It would be madness.

• IAEA Chief: Strike On Iran’s Bushehr Plant Would Create Nuclear Disaster (ZH)

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, has issued fresh remarks before the Security Council on Friday, warning that Israeli strikes on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant is where the consequences of an attack could be most serious. The active and operating nuclear power plant currently hosts thousands of kilograms of nuclear material. He warns of potential nuclear disaster: “Countries of the region have reached out directly to me over the past few hours to express their concerns, and I want to make it absolutely and completely clear — in case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity,” Grossi tells the UN Security Council. More highlights from Grossi’s UN address via Al Jazeera:

• Countries of the region have reached out directly to me over the past few hours to express their concerns, and I want to make it absolutely and completely clear that, in case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity to the environment.
• Similarly, a hit that disables the only two lines supplying electrical power to the plant could cause its reactor core to melt, which could result in a high release of radioactivity to the environment.
* In their worst case, both scenarios would necessitate protective actions, such as evacuations and sheltering of the population, or the need to take stable iodine with a reach extending to distances from a few to several hundred kilometres.
• Radiation monitoring would need to cover distances of several hundred kilometres, and food restrictions may need to be implemented.
• Any action against the Tehran nuclear research reactor could also have severe consequences, potentially for large areas of the city of Tehran and its inhabitants.
• Armed attack on nuclear facilities should never take place and could result in radioactive releases with great consequences within and beyond the boundaries of the state which has been attacked. I, therefore, again call for maximum restraint.

Oil facilities are still getting hit by Israeli warplanes into Friday: A series of headlines, some contradictory, on where things stand with Iran nuclear negotiations with the US, sent oil sliding, then pumping, then extending losses again. One senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran is ‘ready’ to discuss limitations on its uranium enrichment, while a quick follow-up headline said “zero enrichment will undoubtedly be rejected” by Iran “especially now, under Israel’s strikes.”

The official said “the role of European powers is now more prominent, as Tehran is unwilling to engage with US amid Israeli attacks. After that glimmer of hope offered for negotiations, the clarification that nothing has in fact changed, sent oil dropping further Friday morning. Oil prices declined on Friday but stayed on track for a third straight weekly increase, following the White House’s postponement of a decision regarding US participation in the Israel-Iran conflict: nBrent crude futures were down $2.57, or around 3.3%, to $76.28 a barrel by 1204 GMT but still set to gain nearly 3% on the week.

According to the latest from Bloomberg: Israel will complete the task of preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons whether or not the US joins the operation, its energy minister said. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the only way to end the war is to “unconditionally” stop Israel. And Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has clarified just before meeting European officials in Geneva related to EU efforts at mediate that “Iran is not prepared for negotiations with anyone while Israel continues its attacks.”

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One tactical nuke and the world would never be the same… Pandora’s floodgate..

“..even if President Trump give the order it may not be powerful enough to reach and destroy the deeply buried site..”

• Fox Report: Tactical Nukes ‘Not Off The Table’ For Trump’s Iran Response (ZH)

We described earlier that the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has reportedly informed American officials that destroying Iran’s heavily fortified Fordow nuclear facility might require the use of a nuclear weapon, based on The Guardian. Officials, briefed on the limitations of the GBU-57 — a 30,000-pound conventional bunker-buster bomb — are worried that even if President Trump give the order it may not be powerful enough to reach and destroy the deeply buried site. The latest reporting has sought to clarify that President Trump is not considering the nuclear option, nor has it yet to be formally presented to him by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. From fresh ‘anonymous’ White House statement present contradictory information.

So very quickly, here we are… there’s prominent public discourse about the ‘possibility’ or eventual ‘necessity’ of a nuclear bomb. As the Quincy Institute’s Eli Clifton observes: It’s disturbing but not surprising how the entire Executive Branch communications apparatus can be activated into total war-hysteria mode seemingly overnight. Israel is urging the US under Trump to target Fordow with whatever it takes, given it lacks the capability to carry out such a strike. But at least it’s ‘comforting’ that a tactical nuke is off the table, for now… or wait: “none of the options are off the table” – a fresh FOX report claims, citing a senior White House official. All this is premised on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Iran is in fact pursuing a nuclear weapon. Dangerously the White House seems to be siding with Israeli intelligence over the assessment of the US intelligence community, as presented by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who may have already been sidelined in White House Situation Room discussions.

* * *
The Publication Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists are meanwhile warning that it’s possible that the Fordow enrichment facility could be destroyed and yet still it won’t make the Iranian nuclear threat go away…

“If the Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program, started on June 13, is to prove successful in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, then a necessary—but not sufficient—step will involve the elimination of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. At the Fordow plant, located near the city of Qom, the Iranians have enough centrifuges (including IR-6s, their more advanced type) and uranium hexafluoride gas to produce several nuclear weapons. They could probably produce enough weapon-grade (90 percent) enriched uranium for one nuclear weapon within five to six days. Perhaps more important, Fordow itself is a hardened facility, built within a mountain and protected from many forms of attack. It could—in theory—continue to operate even after other nuclear facilities in the country have been destroyed, with its material then fueling nuclear weapons to be produced clandestinely. If Israel decides to continue down the military path against Iran’s nuclear program, it has no choice but to ensure that the Fordow enrichment plant no longer poses a threat.

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“..Kiev must acknowledge the “realities on the ground” and that its negotiating position worsens with each passing day..”

• Trump Believes Only ‘Agreement’ Can Solve Russia–Ukraine Conflict (RT)

US President Donald Trump views a negotiated agreement between Russia and Ukraine as the only viable path to ending the ongoing conflict, according to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce. Trump’s efforts to mediate a truce between Russia and Ukraine contributed to the countries restarting direct negotiations in Türkiye last month – talks that Kiev had abandoned in 2022 to focus on its military campaign. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that while Moscow is not seeking an “unconditional surrender,” Kiev must acknowledge the “realities on the ground” and that its negotiating position worsens with each passing day. In a press briefing on Friday, Bruce was asked whether those remarks meant Moscow was not serious about the talks, and how Washington would respond.

“As I’ve mentioned before, during negotiations, things sometimes progress, things change. That’s the whole point of negotiations and conversations: you signal how long you’re generally willing to wait, but you also know if someone is serious,” she said, noting, “At the same time, we’ve heard some very blunt comments by President Trump about President Putin.” That’s where we’ve landed at this point in comments from both the president and secretary of state – that the only way this is going to end is for the two parties to meet and come to a conclusion and a decision, and some kind of an agreement. She added that while the US remains Ukraine’s “biggest supporter,” the process of peace negotiations is complex and constantly evolving. “We are clearly making our presence and our care about the situation known… but this is not about reacting to a single quote or online statement,” she said.

When asked about Putin’s assertion that Russia now holds a “strategic advantage” in the conflict, Bruce declined to comment on potential punitive measures or new sanctions, reiterating: “We’re not going to listen to what [Russia] says – we’re going to watch what they do.” “Only the president can make the decision about how to proceed. Only he knows all the elements about what’s important and how we’re going to make a difference,” she said. “As I term it… there is one guiding hand to the choices that we make. And that would include Russia, Ukraine, and every conflict he’s trying to stop.” The spokeswoman added that direct engagement between Moscow and Washington continues behind the scenes, involving “months now of dealing with the parties directly,” and argued that Trump, as “the most powerful leader in the world right now,” is better positioned than the public or press to assess the situation.

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“I have said many times that I consider Russians and Ukrainians to be one people..”

• Russia Not Seeking Ukraine’s Surrender – Putin (RT)

Russia is not seeking Ukraine’s surrender, President Vladimir Putin has said. During a plenary panel on Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin was asked whether Moscow has been seeking Ukraine’s “unconditional surrender,” as US President Donald Trump is demanding from Iran. “We are not seeking the surrender of Ukraine. We insist on recognition of the realities that have developed on the ground,” Putin said, noting that the Ukraine conflict was “completely different” from the ongoing escalation in the Middle East. During a Q&A session, Putin was also asked about Moscow’s military plans and the advance beyond the former Ukrainian territories that became part of Russia as a result of referendums in 2022.

Putin did not give a direct answer, suggesting that in a certain sense, the entirety of Ukraine is Russian. “I have said many times that I consider Russians and Ukrainians to be one people, in fact. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours,” he said, stressing that Moscow has never denied Ukraine’s right to be an independent country. The president did not rule out seizing the Ukrainian city of Sumy and pushing the “buffer zone” designed to protect Russia’s border areas from attacks deeper into Ukrainian territory. “We don’t have the goal of taking Sumy, but in principle, I don’t rule it out,” Putin stated.

Russian troops entered Sumy Region earlier this year, after expelling Kiev’s invasion force from Russia’s Kursk Region, which Ukraine attacked last August. According to the Russian president, the “buffer zone” in Sumy Region is 10-12km deep already. The attack on Kursk Region has only created more problems for the already thinned-out Ukrainian troops, Putin said, adding that the ranks of Kiev’s military are currently filled to only 47% on average. The invasion of Kursk turned into a “catastrophe” for the Ukrainian military, which lost around 76,000 troops there, he went on to say.

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They’ll find some creative accounting..

• NATO Split Over 5% Spending Commitment (RT)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has rejected NATO’s proposal for member states to increase military spending to 5% of their GDP, calling the idea “not only unreasonable but also counterproductive.” Following US President Donald Trump’s demands for a 5% target, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called for every bloc member to raise military spending to 3.5% of GDP and commit a further 1.5% to wider security spending. “Spain will continue to fulfill its duty in the years and decades ahead and will continue to actively contribute to the European security architecture. However, Spain cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP at this summit,” Sanchez wrote in a letter to Rutte that emerged on Thursday in the media.

“It is the legitimate right of every government to decide whether or not they are willing to make those sacrifices. As a sovereign ally, we choose not to.” Spain currently falls well behind other Western nations, allocating only about 1.3% of its GDP to military spending – significantly below NATO’s 2% target. Rutte previously called for cuts to social programs across the EU in order to fund the increased military outlays. Since assuming office in January, Trump has intensified demands that the bloc’s European members spend more on defense and has repeatedly accused them of failing to shoulder the burden equitably. Earlier this month, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled his cabinet’s plan to significantly increase military spending.

The move was backed by Rutte, who claimed that Russia could be ready to target NATO countries within the next five years. Leaders of the bloc are expected to agree to increase defense spending to contain the alleged threat. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the rhetoric about the threat posed by Russia to NATO as an “inconceivable lie” used by Western governments to justify tax increases and the diversion of public funds to the military-industrial complex. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday, Putin warned that this kind of military posturing only escalates global tensions while diverting resources from social and economic development.

The Times reported on Wednesday that the upcoming NATO summit, scheduled for 24-25 June in The Hague, is expected to be unusually brief with just one working meeting lasting two and a half hours. The outlet reported that the format of the summit was altered in light of Trump’s dislike of lengthy diplomatic meetings.

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“..with some officials even claiming that he de facto runs the country..”

• Americans Irritated By Zelensky’s Top Aide – Politico (RT)

A growing number of US officials – from Capitol Hill to the administration of President Donald Trump – are expressing deep frustration with Vladimir Zelensky‘s powerful chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, according to a Politico report. Yermak’s repeated visits to Washington since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022 have been seen as increasingly unproductive and even counterproductive, according to ten people familiar with his interactions, the publication reported on Thursday. US officials describe Yermak as “abrasive,” prone to pressing unclear demands, and “uninformed” about the realities of US politics.

His most recent trip to DC earlier this month included poorly attended briefings, last-minute meeting cancelations – including with Secretary of State Marco Rubio – and confusion among aides about his purpose in town. “We don’t know why he’s here,” one of the sources said. Another Trump administration source called him a “bipartisan irritator.” The Biden White House reportedly tolerated Yermak as an acceptable source of friction during wartime. But with President Donald Trump pressuring Kiev toward diplomacy, he now appears to have become an “existential liability” for Ukraine, according to another source.

Yermak dismissed the criticism, telling Politico through a spokesperson: “If that means being considered ‘challenging’ by others – so be it,” stressing that he is focused on promoting Ukraine’s objectives regardless of political niceties. However, Yermak is reportedly “extremely frustrated” with the results of his visit, according to another Politico source. One person described the trip as “a disaster from the Ukrainian perspective.” Yermak is a former film producer who Zelensky – an actor-turned-politician – brought into government in 2019. The 53-year-old has been described as “Zelensky’s right-hand man” and “Ukraine’s real power broker,” with some officials even claiming that he de facto runs the country.

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Back to normalcy.

• Ninth Circuit Rules for Trump on National Guard Deployment (Turley)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom just lost a major ruling in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that President Donald Trump is likely to prevail in his deployment of National Guard troops. Newsom and various Democratic politicians have insisted that Trump’s order is unlawful and that Newsom has to agree to any request for deployment. The Ninth Circuit ruled on Thursday that Newsom does not have such a veto over deployments.

The Ninth Circuit blocked the injunction of District Court Judge Charles Breyer who suggested in open court that Trump was acting like another “King George.” He then wrote an opinion that included many Democratic talking points — suggesting, for example, that Trump was creating disorder by calling out the National Guard to deal with disorder. Breyer further indicated that the violence in Los Angeles was relatively minor, despite potentially deadly attacks on law enforcement, arson, and looting. Breyer gave the Administration little time to appeal his ruling, but it was enough for the Ninth Circuit.

Title 10 provides:
Whenever— (1) the United States, or any of the Commonwealths or possessions, is invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation;
(2) there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States; or
(3) the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States;
the President may call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws. Orders for these purposes shall be issued through the governors of the States or, in the case of the District of Columbia, through the commanding general of the National Guard of the District of Columbia.

In his decision, Judge Breyer took the extreme position that Trump could not use subsection 3 if there was any possibility of executing federal laws absent the use of the National Guard troops: [T]he statute does not allow for the federalizing of the National Guard when the President faces obstacles that cause him to underperform in executing the laws. Nor does the statute allow for the federalizing of the National Guard when the President faces some risk in executing the laws. . . . The statute requires that the President be “unable” to execute the laws of the United States. That did not happen here.

In its decision, the court rejected this premise and held that “Section 12406 does not have as a prerequisite that the President be completely precluded from executing the relevant laws of the United States in order to call members of the National Guard into federal service, nor does it suggest that activation is inappropriate so long as any continued execution of the laws is feasible.” It concluded that “it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority” in federalizing control of the guard. It also rejected Newsom’s claim of a veto on deployment.

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“The global system must pivot away from neocolonialism, which enabled the ‘golden billion’ to siphon resources for the elites, the Russian president says..”

• World Needs ‘Fundamentally New Development Model’ – Putin (RT)

The world needs a new development model that is not based on the principles of neocolonialism and is resilient to political manipulation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Speaking on Friday at a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin stated that throughout the past several decades, the so-called ‘golden billion’ has been pumping out resources from other nations to benefit the interests of a narrow circle of elites. He pointed to the example of the US, saying the country’s “super incomes” never actually reached ordinary citizens or the middle class.

The Russian president insisted that changes in the political sphere should be reflected in the people’s quality of life, in education, science, and infrastructure. He called for a “fundamentally new development model, one that is not built on the rules of neocolonialism.” He stressed that this model should be “free from political manipulation” and “focus on the needs of citizens.” Putin added that the old mechanisms of the globalization era have outlived their usefulness, and there isn’t even an effort to modernize them. Instead, it is now necessary to create a new model, taking into account the national interests of all states, he said.

The Russian president stated that the global economy is already undergoing its biggest transformation in decades, with the balance of power shifting and BRICS emerging as a leading force. Putin went on to say that BRICS now accounts for 40% of the global economy, and that this share will only grow given the rise of the Global South.

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Add one for 2024.

• Trump Calls For Special Prosecutor To Investigate 2020 Election (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Friday called for a special prosecutor to investigate election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. “Zero Border crossings for the month for TRUMP, verses 60,000 for Sleepy, Crooked Joe Biden, a man who lost the 2020 Presidential Election by a ‘LANDSLIDE!'” he posted on Truth Social. “Biden was grossly incompetent, and the 2020 election was a total FRAUD! The evidence is MASSIVE and OVERWHELMING. A Special Prosecutor must be appointed. This cannot be allowed to happen again in the United States of America! Let the work begin! What this Crooked man, and his CORRUPT CRONIES, have done to our Country in 4 years, is grossly indescribable! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump’s call for a special prosecutor comes in the wake of reports from the FBI that China had conspired to mass-produce fake driver’s licenses to carry out a massive fake ballot scheme in the 2020 election. Officials told Just the News that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had captured nearly 20,000 fake driver’s licenses in July 2020. Those revelations have called into question the assertions from former FBI Director Christopher Wray that he knew of no foreign interference plots ahead of the election. They have further reignited Trump’s own claims of large-scale election fraud in 2020 that he has said affected the results.

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“We won’t let Brussels force [Hungarian] families to pay 2-4x more for energy..”

• Hungary To Keep Russian Oil and Gas Flowing (RT)

Hungary has received assurances from Russia that deliveries of oil and gas under long-term contracts will continue despite efforts by the EU and Ukraine to disrupt them, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2025). Hungary has opposed EU sanctions on Russian energy since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, saying the imports are vital to national interests. The country has a long-term contract with Gazprom and receives the bulk of its oil and gas from Russia. Gas is mainly delivered via the Turkish Stream pipeline through Bulgaria and Serbia. Budapest is also working with Russia’s Rosatom to expand the Paks Nuclear Power Plant.

The foreign minister was commenting on a proposal by the European Commission that would ban imports of Russian gas, including LNG, to the EU starting January 1, 2026. For landlocked countries such as Hungary, the cutoff would apply from early 2028. According to Szijjarto, the heads of Russia’s largest energy firms have signaled that they are ready to continue supplying Hungary with low-cost natural gas and crude oil despite challenges and restrictions.n”Agreed with Russian officials & energy company leaders to maintain our cooperation, despite efforts by Brussels & [Kiev] to undermine it,” Szijjarto wrote on X. He made the statement after meetings with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller, and Rosatom Director General Aleksey Likhachyov.

Szijjarto said oil deliveries are ongoing, gas flows continue through the TurkStream pipeline, and the expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant – known as Paks II – is progressing. “We won’t let Brussels force [Hungarian] families to pay 2-4x more for energy,” he added. His remarks come as the European Commission has proposed ending all remaining Russian gas imports to the EU by the end of 2027. Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen presented the plan on Tuesday, following approval from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It includes a ban on new Russian gas contracts starting in 2026 and a full phaseout the following year.

The proposal faces opposition from Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, and reportedly from Italy. It is expected to be introduced as trade legislation, which would not require unanimous approval from all EU member states. Szijjarto has called the plan “absolute insanity,” warning it could cause fuel price hikes and undermine national sovereignty. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed to block the move.

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Maybe Trump should stick to domestic issues…

• US Working Class Wages Are on the Rise (Sheffield)

In his fight to elevate life for the Forgotten Americans, President Donald Trump has already shattered another record in his second term in support of blue-collar Americans. During Trump’s first five months of his second term, real wages for hourly workers saw their largest increase under any administration in nearly 60 years. Blue-collar U.S. workers saw real wages grow 1.7% thus far during the second Trump administration—a stark contrast from the negative wage growth seen during the first five months of the Biden administration. “The only other time it has been this high … was during President Trump’s first term,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in an interview with the New York Post. Bessent attributed the rise in working-class wages first to Trump’s policy focus on reviving manufacturing.

“Since Richard Nixon in 1969, Trump has been the only president to record positive growth for blue-collar workers in his first five months. He also achieved 1.3% in his first term,” noted the Post’s Miranda Devine. “The recovery from a 1.7% decline recorded in Biden’s first five months, as inflation outpaced earnings, suggests a shift in economic conditions for this financially stressed segment of the workforce.” Bessent also noted the rise in working-class wages for Americans was due to the Trump administration’s focus on combating illegal immigration. Competition for hourly jobs with illegal immigrants drives down wages for U.S. workers. Progressives once championed the working class. They dominated among blue-collar workers, but as the movement drifted in the direction of chaos and lawlessness, Democrats moved to the far left on immigration. Earlier on, Democrats’ 1984 party platform didn’t even include a section on immigration.

But now they’ve shifted so far left that Democrat voters now hold more leftist views on immigration than one-time Democratic Party leaders like former President Barack Obama, who was dubbed “the deporter in chief” for the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement.

The negative effects of illegal immigration on black U.S. workers, for example, was admitted by the Obama U.S. Civil Rights Commission: “Among its findings, the Commission notes that the illegal workers are estimated to account for as much as one-third of total immigrants in the United States, and that illegal immigration has tended to increase the supply of low-skilled, low-wage labor available. The Commission found also that about six in 10 adult black males have a high school diploma or less, and are disproportionately employed in the low-skilled labor market in likely competition with immigrants. Evidence for negative effects of such competition ranged from modest to significant, according to the experts who testified, but even those experts who viewed the effects as modest overall found significant effects in occupations such as meatpacking and construction.”

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“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” —Marcus Aurelius

• Anxiety Attack (James Howard Kunstler)

You must have noticed by now how this Fourth Turning bidness disorders the collective mind. The churning zeitgeist is hard on the nerves, while something strange is birthed by mankind, the end of one way of life and the beginning of another. Everybody’s got a story, and most of them are pretty spooky — A-I Globalist hell. . . de-pop and neo-slavery. . . chemtrail death. . . lizard people. . . caliphate on-the-march across Western Civ. . . World War Three. . . escape to Mars. . . . Mercy!

The last thing you might imagine is a tranquil evening in the town square among happy and prosperous neighbors, the dogs frisking and the children chasing each other as lights begin to twinkle against the lovely violet sky. Rather, you have to wonder just when is that hard rain a’gonna fall? When will some obdurate enemy try to bust a cap in your country’s ass? And at the center of this psychic maelstrom, the provocative visage of Mr. Trump.

So, let’s stipulate that it’s natural to be alarmed by events. But must you lose your mind? Many did during the Covid set-up, and they have not recovered. Most particularly the political Left. The Covid operation was supposed to rid the world of DJ Trump for good, and it flopped. What it accomplished politically for four years was to demonstrate that the Left cannot be trusted to run our national affairs. That, and the cumulative failures of lawfare, have made the Left crazier than ever — while the Democratic Party goes broke and bleeds out support-wise.

Meanwhile, the political Right struggles to hold things together, especially the morale of the people. The great national megaphones — CNN, The New York Times, et al. — are no help at all. They only multiply the mental disorder. And they will do everything possible to undermine the efforts of MAGA to reform a system that foundered under corruption and delusion. Where there is not gridlock these days, chaos breaks out. . . violence of action and opinion.

The focus of all this angst for the moment is Israel. Suspicion runs deep that Israel “owns” America, bends us to its will, treats us like a mere lackey in its quest to dominate the world. It does this, they say, through AIPAC, its chief lobbyist, stuffing money into every pocket and every campaign treasure-chest in DC. In reality, political payoff-wise, AIPAC, at $3.3-million (according to OpenSecrets.org) doesn’t hold a candle to the National Association of Realtors at $63.5-million, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, at $30-million, and the US Chamber of Commerce, at $29.6-million.

Of course, the AIPAC suspicion tends to redound upon plain-old, age-old hatin’ on the Jews. (Full disclosure, yours truly is one.) It’s true enough, for such a low percentage of the US population, Jews seem to run an awful lot of things here: Wall Street firms, Ivy League universities, medical research, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Broadway, the news media. How to account for that? Well. . . it is said that in the shtetls of old Europe, the richest fathers married off their daughters to the smartest young men in the village. Hence, their offspring sailed into Ellis Island with a certain advantage. It could be as simple as that. What else might it be? Luciferian magic, some seem to think.

So now, obviously, Israel is engaged in trying to beat the crap out of Iran in order to persuade them to discontinue that country’s quest for deliverable nukes. Every other means of persuasion has failed, you understand, while Iran has never ceased to advertise its wish to “wipe Israel off the map” — a leitmotif not subject to disambiguation. Strange to relate, this has utterly inflamed the political Left against Israel and the Jews. Strange especially because until the day-before-yesterday the political Left in America was dominated by Jewish orgs, Jewish money, and Jewish individuals.

As we speak, Jewish Democratic Party lawyers run the Lawfare endeavor: Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Benjamin Wittes, Michael Bromwich, Brooke Goldstein (Exec Director of The Lawfare Project org). Marc Elias has served as the Left’s chief election law finagler through three national elections, while Norm Eisen coached Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York AG Letitia James and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg in mounting their cases against Donald Trump.

Now, ironically-to-the-max, The Lawfare project is battling against the wild outbreak of antisemitism on Ivy League campuses (surprise, surprise) — Harvard, in particular, where the antisemitic frolics are presided over by the university’s Jewish president, Alan Garber. So, now it’s Jew-on-Jew, which is just another angle on the political Left eating itself alive. In case you’re wondering, I consider the Jewish lawfare ninjas a disgrace to my ethnic group, for the simple reason that their years’ long exploits against Mr. Trump have been altogether garishly dishonest. The lawfare gang has done much more damage to our country than AIPAC ever has.

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Gambling with other people’s money..

• EU To Gamble With Russia’s Frozen Assets – Politico (RT)

The European Union is looking to channel billions of euros in profits from frozen Russian assets into “riskier investments” to boost funding for Ukraine, Politico has reported, citing sources. Officials reportedly view the move as a way to generate higher returns without directly tapping into the sovereign funds themselves, which would be in breach of international law. The proposal is part of a broader EU initiative to use profits from immobilized Russian assets – primarily Western government bonds held by the Brussels-based clearing house Euroclear – to support Ukraine’s war effort. Moscow has labeled the seizure of its assets as “theft.” bWestern nations froze an estimated $300 billion in Russian sovereign funds following the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022. Of that amount, more than $200 billion is held by Euroclear.

The funds have generated billions in interest, with €1.55 billion ($1.78 billion) transferred to Kiev last July to back a $50 billion G7 loan. Under the new plan, the assets would be placed into an EU-managed investment fund that could pursue higher-yield strategies, officials told Politico on Thursday. The goal is to increase returns without resorting to outright confiscation – a step opposed by countries such as Germany and Italy due to the potential legal and financial consequences. The EU’s $21 billion contribution to the G7 loan is expected to be fully disbursed by the end of this year. With future US aid uncertain and the bloc’s own budget under pressure, officials are exploring alternative ways to keep Ukraine’s economy afloat beyond 2025, Politico reported.

EU policymakers hope the plan will allow them to extract more revenue from the assets without violating international legal norms. The International Monetary Fund has warned that outright seizure could damage global trust in Western financial institutions. Talks among member states over confiscation have dragged on for more than three years without resolution.

Brussels also reportedly sees the new investment structure as a safeguard in case Hungary vetoes the renewal of sanctions – a move that could result in the assets being returned to Russia. EU sanctions must be unanimously extended every six months, and Budapest has repeatedly threatened to block them, citing national interests. Critics caution that riskier investments could result in losses ultimately borne by EU taxpayers, the outlet noted. Russia has condemned the asset freeze and has threatened countermeasures, including legal action.

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Autopen
https://twitter.com/TheGabriel72/status/1935958631947641284

Deal

Vax

Elon
https://twitter.com/cb_doge/status/1935809580451131736

BYD

 

 

 

 

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