Zero Rss

Seattle To Declare "State Of Emergency" To Protect Transgender Refugees?

The ultimate claim to victimhood is the claim that a group of people are "refugees" from mass persecution or "genocide."  The political left covets this victim status more than anything else because, within first world liberal societies, refugees have immediate political capital and access to easy money.  Within every leftist narrative there is an agenda for power and a life without adult responsibility.

It is perhaps ironic that thousands of progressive activists and LGBT advocates are leaving red states over imaginary oppression after they spent years attacking conservatives for escaping blue states over very real medical tyranny.  At least conservatives never called themselves "refugees." 

Leftists specifically believe their rights are being violated in red states because conservative governments won't allow them to mutilate their children with hormone therapy and sex change surgeries.  This nightmare trend, which is increasingly proven by science to have a detrimental effect on the minds and health of the people who undergo gender therapies, is still heavily protected in leftist havens like Seattle.

For reasonable and sane people still living in the Emerald City, relocation should be a top priority because the golden hordes are making the great northwest their home base.  Seattle's new "democratic socialist" (communist) mayor Katie Wilson is more than happy to oblige the mentally ill mob clamoring for access.  The problem is, as the crazies move in, all the businesses are moving out.

This conundrum leaves Wilson's poorly managed city in a financial bind.  New transgender resident are calling themselves "refugees" and demanding access to tax based subsidies in order to survive.  One would think they could simply get jobs like everyone else.  But, much like third world migrants, everywhere these people go they are always jobless and in dire need of handouts. 

The Seattle LGBTQ Commission has requested that Mayor Katie Wilson declare a civil state of emergency due to an influx of transgender and queer individuals relocating from conservative states, which is straining local housing, food, and mental health resources.

National data shows that 84% of transgender and nonbinary people have made major life decisions, such as relocating, since November 2025 due to state policies.  This mass influx is means some Seattle support organizations will face a depletion of resources by the end of the summer.

In response, the mayor is launching an interdepartmental team to assess community needs by August.  Under Seattle Municipal Code and state law, the mayor can proclaim a civil emergency which grants temporary powers.  These include entering contracts and spending without standard bidding, budgeting, or permitting delays. Accessing or reallocating city contingency/emergency funds. And, directing personnel and resources more flexibly.

However, the most likely agenda behind an emergency declaration would be to push for federal funds, which, of course, Seattle will not get. 

The city is facing a massive budget shortfall of half a billion dollars for 2026 and 2027, which means numerous programs and employees will have to be cut.  Katie Wilson has driven away a number of corporate taxpayers and more are getting ready to leave.  This has recently forced the mayor (who initially said good riddance to big business) to change her communist tune and take more diplomatic approach to corporations in the region.

Unfortunately for her, she has made her bed with a gaggle of mentally disturbed fanatics; they want their handouts and they want to destroy major companies paying for those handouts.  As this trend continues it is likely that Seattle faces severe economic crisis, or even collapse. 

On the bright side, the relocation of hundreds of thousands of trans activists means less problem children for red states.  Given that these people seem to cause chaos wherever they go, it's better that they congregate in a place like Seattle and drive each other insane rather than spread out and plague the daily lives of normal people.    

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 22:45

Shortages And Rationing Loom As Global Oil Reserves Fall At Fastest Rate In History

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

No matter what happens now, the world is facing a very painful energy crisis. Let’s be as wildly optimistic as we possibly can and assume that Iran agrees to allow free passage through the Strait of Hormuz with absolutely no tolls or restrictions starting tomorrow. Before normal traffic through the Strait could resume, Iran would first have to remove all of the mines that they have laid in the Strait, and that could take months. Once all of the mines have been removed, it will take the tankers that are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf weeks to arrive at their destinations. Moving forward, Persian Gulf countries will be exporting much less oil and natural gas for the foreseeable future because of all the oil and natural gas infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed during the war. It will take years before all of that infrastructure is fully repaired and rebuilt. Meanwhile, global supplies of oil and natural gas will be very tight for an extended period of time..

What I have just laid out for you is the best case scenario.

Ultimately, what we end up facing could be so much worse.

Over the past couple of months, global oil reserves have been falling at the fastest rate ever recorded…

Record inventory draw: Global oil stocks have fallen by 246 million barrels in March-April, with draws in May hitting a record 8.7 million barrels per day.

Hormuz closure impact: The Strait of Hormuz shutdown has cut off 25% of the world’s seaborne oil, compounding already low reserves and boosting prices.

US price outlook: Analysts expect U.S. gasoline prices could reach $5 this summer unless flows resume, with relief unlikely before autumn.

Needless to say, this is not sustainable.

Here in the United States, the strategic petroleum reserve has been dropping at a record-breaking pace…

The SPR’s most recent drawdown, covering the week ended May 22, shows a drop of 9.1 million barrels, leaving the reserves at 365 million barrels. The previous weekly drawdown, covering the week of May 15, was its steepest on record — the U.S. withdrew 9.92 million barrels from the SPR then.

Before that record-breaking decline, the largest weekly drop in the SPR’s history occurred in the week ended Oct. 7, 2022, when the reserves dropped by 7.41 million barrels, and was connected to the war in Ukraine.

Commercial oil inventories are being rapidly depleted as well.

At some point the tanks are going to hit minimum operating levels and we are going to have an enormous crisis on our hands.

The chief economist at Capital Economics is projecting that commercial oil inventories “could reach critically low levels by the end of June”…

“At the current pace of drawdown, commercial oil stocks could reach critically low levels by the end of June,” Neil Shearing, chief economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note on May 18.

If supply conditions don’t improve soon, “prices could rise sharply,” Shearing warned.

Jeff Currie is warning that Asia is already very close to minimum operating levels, and he is projecting that the U.S. could potentially be dealing with shortages in July…

Oil markets are nearing minimum operating levels in Asia, with Europe likely next and the U.S. potentially facing shortages by July, said veteran market strategist Jeff Currie on Monday, underscoring the global energy shock due to the Iran war.

Headline global inventory figures can be misleading as much of the oil stored worldwide cannot be used immediately, said Currie, Carlyle’s chief strategy officer of energy pathways and co-chairman of Abaxx Markets.

A large portion of that oil is needed to keep pipelines and storage systems running safely, leaving only a smaller share available for the market. Asia is already close to these so-called “minimum operating levels,” Currie told CNBC on the sidelines of the UBS Wealth Conference in Singapore.

This is really happening.

The Australian government is so concerned about what is ahead that they have already prepared a plan to limit the amount of fuel each vehicle can purchase per day when that becomes necessary…

Contained in documents obtained by Guardian Australian under freedom of information, one option the government had at its disposal to arrest a local fuel supply shortage would be to impose a “maximum transaction value per vehicle per day” – a rationing rule which would limit how much fuel a single vehicle can buy at a service station over a 24-hour period.

If the Strait of Hormuz does not get reopened, we could eventually see similar measures get implemented all over the world.

Of course rationing of motor oil has already started…

Nissan is rationing 5W-30 and 0W-20 Nissan Genuine Motor Oils. Starting this week, Nissan’s stock of these oils has dropped by 30% year-on-year. With only 70% left in the tank, the brand is already taking precautions, sending memos to dealers to manage its stock during the shortage.

The brand will prioritize certain owners, such as those claiming “warranty, extended warranty, recall repairs, goodwill, and prepaid maintenance,” according to Kim Less, the vice president of aftersales at Nissan Americas, in the bulletin addressed to Nissan dealers.

“Given these constraints, it is critical to prioritize the use of Nissan Genuine 0W-20 (and 5W-30, where applicable) for warranty, extended warranty, recall repairs, goodwill, and prepaid maintenance,” Kim Less, vice president of aftersales, Nissan Americas, said in the May 15 bulletin to Nissan dealers.

I would encourage my readers to stock up on motor oil while they still can.

Supplies are only going to get tighter from this point forward.

The pharmaceutical industry is also very dependent on raw materials from the Middle East, and one pharmacist is claiming that the current drug shortage is the “worst I’ve ever known”…

Some people living with heart conditions, stroke risks, eye infections and bipolar disorder are among those unable to get the medications they rely on, a pharmacist has said.

Graham Jones, who owns Shrivenham Pharmacy in Oxfordshire, said vital medication like aspirin was harder to obtain because of surging global prices and government funding which was not keeping up with costs.

Jones said the current medication shortage was the “worst I’ve ever known”.

Personally, I am even more concerned about the global fertilizer shortage.

The UN is telling us that we could be facing a worldwide food crisis that could last for “years”…

The de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz risks a global food crisis that could extend for years, the UN warned.

Global fertilizer companies have slashed production over shortfalls of sulphur, required to make many farming inputs; about half of the global supply passed through the strait before the Iran war.

As a result, farmers are likely to produce lower yields in coming harvests. Richer economies like those in Europe are mulling building fertilizer stockpiles, reducing duties on imports, and onshoring production, but poorer ones have limited room to adapt.

I want to be very clear about what lies in front of us.

No matter what happens now, there will be shortages and rationing.

It is just a matter of how intense they will be and how long they will last.

Needless to say, the outlook for the global economy in the months ahead is not promising at all.

We really do have a major crisis on our hands, and it will become a historic nightmare if the Strait of Hormuz does not get reopened soon.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 22:10

Meet The Woke Vegan "Christian" Democrat Senate Candidate From Texas

For at least a decade the progressive movement has been obsessed with infiltrating every aspect of American life and culture, even going so far as co-opting Christian churches in an attempt to claim them as "safe spaces" for woke ideology.  This might sound odd to those who grew up in the devoutly atheist era of liberalism, but those days are long gone and seem quaint in comparison to today's cavalcade of circus freaks.  

Well, despite their crushing defeat in 2024 the parade of unhinged woke Democrats has not abated.  In fact, it seems to be getting worse.  Numerous democratic socialists are running for office in blue states and cities and some are unseating more centrist Democrat incumbents.  The party is being overrun with far-left fanatics, a predictable outcome when one accepts the fact that leftists never admit they are wrong and always double down.

A prime example, maybe the most egregious example, is James Talarico - A Democrat candidates for US Senate in Texas.  Talarico is a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who has served in the Texas House of Representatives since 2018.  Talarico has ties to an NGO called Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), which coaches potential civic leaders in far-left ideology.  

Though, the candidate is best know as the aspiring woke pastor who argued that God is "non-binary" in defense of trans athletes (men pretending to be women) stealing trophies and scholarships from real women. 

It's important to remember that 2021 was the pinnacle of the woke movement in US politics.  The Biden Administration opened the floodgates to DEI cultism in politics and ideologues in the Democratic party were rushing to signal their virtue.  In other words, politicians operating in this time period where showing their true Marxist colors for the world to see.  They believed they had won.

Talarico's hot takes ran the gamut, showcasing an unhinged zealotry and a disturbing attempt to blend LGBT and Equity talking points into Christian doctrine.  He has since attempted to distance himself from some of his more meme-worthy claims, but the internet is forever.  His run is against Republican candidate Ken Paxton, who is now famous for unseating GOP incumbent John Cornyn in a landslide and sending a message that Trump owns the party.

Talarico opposed Voter ID in 2021, which is noteworthy today because around 80% of American voters say they support the requirement in order to protect the integrity of elections from foreign influence.

Here’s James Talarico 🏳️‍🌈 saying he opposes voter ID in 2021

Keep in mind, voter ID is something both Dem and GOP voters agree on. pic.twitter.com/5OzRTfIqQ3

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) May 28, 2026

He refers to women as "neighbors with a uterus" in order to avoid offending trans women.  

What does James talarico call women?

"neighbors with a uterus" pic.twitter.com/aRO4nLi5GQ

— Lone Star Liberty PAC (@LoneStar_PAC) May 28, 2026

He referred to the American flag as a 'complicated symbol' that had been 'co-opted and betrayed', which was a common narrative pushed by leftists during the Biden Administration as a means to capture "patriotism" away from conservatives and paint them as a "threat to democracy." 

James Talarico: “The American flag is such a complicated symbol for most of us.” pic.twitter.com/zcMowHvZeL

— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) May 25, 2026

Talarico then argued that the Bible 'is silent' when it comes to abortion.  He has apparently never heard of the 6th Commandment. 

James Talarico: “I trust women to make decisions about their own bodies. I don’t think that’s a place for government. That’s a belief I hold not despite my faith, but because of my faith. Jesus never talks about abortion. The Bible is silent on abortion.” pic.twitter.com/dalwu6JP6F

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 26, 2026

And, maybe the most embarrassing sin of all for a Texan, Talarico promotes veganism (of course he does).  He justifies his crusade against meat in the name of fighting man-made climate change (which does not exist).

Talarico is not a cowboy after all…turns out he is a Vegan pic.twitter.com/eaXZStUgzJ

— realstephaniegaddis🦋🌺 (@stephanegaddis) May 27, 2026

The Senate candidate, as a Democrat project, represents an interesting beta test.  Can the party bleach the history of a woke cultist and present him as a down-home country loving BBQ eating Christian patriot who just happens to be running on the blue side of the aisle?  It's highly unlikely, but this strategy is popping up all over the country. 

Democrats are elevating many white-male prospects who present as vaguely populist (and vaguely straight), and they are turning away from overt DEI and BLM.  The DNC has dumped tens of millions of dollars into Talarico's campaign so far.  But the organization is so saturated with woke that it's impossible for them to find any candidates without a long list of absurd leftist positions in their past. 

So, like Talarico, these campaigns have to hide or gloss over their uncomfortable histories in order to ever have a chance of competing in a red state.  

One cannot separate Talarico from his far-left rhetoric.  He said those things because he believed them, and no doubt he believes them to this day.  Leftists always double down.  They might lie in order to win an election, but they'll double down after they get what they want.  Talarico is not so much a "Trojan Horse" as he is the candidate Democrats had to settle for.   

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 21:35

Three Debates Americans Have Had For 250 Years

Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times,

George Washington rode west from Philadelphia in command of 13,000 troops on a mission that would test his leadership unlike any previous campaign.

These men were not soldiers in the Continental Army. They were citizen militiamen—forerunners of the National Guard—called up from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. And Washington was no longer simply a general. He was president of the United States.

The year was 1794, and Washington had made one of the most fateful decisions of his presidency: to use armed force against fellow Americans.

Congress, desperate for revenue to pay war debts, had enacted a tax on whiskey. Grain farmers in Western Pennsylvania saw the tax as immoral and unjust.

Protestors attacked revenue agents, destroyed the property of tax-paying farmers, and fired shots that killed a local militiaman.

Growing bolder, they fashioned banners on “liberty poles” with slogans like “Equal Taxation and no Excise” and “Liberty or Death.”

For two years, Washington searched for a peaceful resolution. But when 5,000 rebels gathered outside Pittsburgh, vowing to take the city, he knew the time for action had come.

In the end, the Whiskey Rebellion was anticlimactic, resulting in no further violence.

Yet more than 200 years later, Americans still strenuously disagree on basic questions of government.

When is a president justified in mobilizing the National Guard? At what point does a protest become an insurrection? What counts as free speech?

Some fundamental issues were settled at the nation’s founding, a panel of scholars told The Epoch Times. But more were left unsettled. And Americans continue to debate those same issues today.

Unanswered Questions

America will be governed by the people. The Declaration of Independence established that, and the Constitution ratified it.

Abraham Lincoln later distilled the American creed to just 10 words in his Gettysburg Address: “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

But what does that mean?

“The question is: Who are the people?” David A. Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University, said.

The first states couldn’t agree on the polarizing issue of slavery, so they omitted a definition of citizenship from the Constitution, Bateman told The Epoch Times. Citizenship wasn’t defined until 1868, when the 14th Amendment was ratified after rigorous debate.

“The Framers wrote a very brief, cogent, succinct document, and left a lot unsaid,” J. Edwin Benton, a professor of political science and public administration at South Florida University, said.

“They intended that future generations could take these basic precepts and expand on them,” Benton told The Epoch Times.

Here are three things Americans still argue about.

How Much Power Do Presidents Have?

President Donald Trump mobilized the Illinois National Guard in October 2025, saying federal facilities there had come under coordinated assault by violent groups intent on obstructing immigration law enforcement.

Trump cited a federal law authorizing the president to deploy the National Guard to suppress an invasion or revolt, or to enforce the law when regular authorities can’t.

Two days later, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and others filed a federal lawsuit, arguing Trump’s order infringed on the sovereignty of Illinois.

The Supreme Court agreed, saying the administration failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.

Trump is not the first U.S. president to be accused of abusing his power.

Debates about the limits of presidential authority go back to the very beginnings of the presidency, Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, told The Epoch Times.

“Hamilton and Jefferson had very different ideas about the centrality and desirability of executive power in our political system, and that continues to be a flash point,” Wilson said.

Hamilton favored a stronger executive. Jefferson preferred a weaker role. A hundred years later, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft continued debating the same issue.

Roosevelt thought all the white space in the Constitution should be filled by the president.

“It was not only [a president’s] right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws,” Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography.

Taft held the opposite view. He read the Constitution like a pharmacist reads a prescription.

“The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant,” Taft wrote. Each right had to be spelled out in the Constitution or in an act of Congress.

Most presidents have sided with Roosevelt. Many have been checked by Congress or the Court, and widely criticized by their opponents.

Presidents Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Biden all also joined Trump in having their executive actions blocked by the Supreme Court.

When Jefferson pushed the boundaries of the office by making the Louisiana purchase without first getting congressional approval, John Adams said Jefferson had become the most federalist of the Federalists. That was meant as an insult, implying that Jefferson had abandoned his own principles and switched sides.

Andrew Jackson was censured by Congress for manipulating fiscal policy after moving funds from the national bank to state banks.

Critics called the 16th president “King Lincoln” for his expansive use of power during the Civil War, including suspending habeas corpus and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Opponents of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal called it a “Fascist regimentation.”

“This is not just a story about Donald Trump,” Wilson told The Epoch Times. “This is a much longer-running pattern in American history.”

What’s the Role of the Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, overturning what had been seen as a right to abortion in the United States.

Protesters gathered in the sweltering heat to voice their displeasure.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) later called for the Court to be expanded to 15 members “in the wake of recent rulings upending decades of precedent.” Others have called the current panel a “post-legitimacy court.”

Yet 50 years earlier, Roe v. Wade had sparked an outcry by overturning longstanding state laws prohibiting abortion.

Then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist said the decision smacked of “judicial legislation.” Others labeled it judicial activism.

Justice Byron White said the Court had simply fashioned “a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers.”

Americans have disagreed with Supreme Court decisions for centuries.

The Constitution devotes only 378 words to the Supreme Court, a fraction of that given to the other branches. Over the years, the Court has filled out that job description for itself.

For example, Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial review, which gives the Court the right to determine whether laws or presidential actions violate the Constitution.

Andrew Jackson refused to enforce Worcester v. Georgia in 1832. Lincoln did the same with the Ex parte Merryman decision in 1861.

Franklin Roosevelt proposed adding six justices to the Court in 1937—a move widely seen as an attempt to change its ideological balance.

More recently, Joe Biden, as president, called for Congress to impose term limits on Supreme Court Justices.

The Supreme Court was supposed to be the quiet branch of government, according to David Schultz, a professor of political science and legal studies at Hamline University.

“To quote Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, the Supreme Court would be the ‘least dangerous branch,’” Schultz told The Epoch Times.

But the Court often has to deal with the white space in the Constitution, and that’s nearly always controversial, he said.

How ‘Free’ Is Free Speech?

Riley Gaines, a former collegiate athlete and advocate for reserving women’s sports to biological females, was invited to speak at San Francisco State University in April 2023. Protestors disrupted the event and then accosted Gaines as she tried to leave campus.

A month earlier, a conservative federal judge’s talk at Stanford Law School was interrupted and cut short by student protestors. Judge Kyle Duncan had been invited to speak by the campus Federalist Society. Turning Point USA and Heritage Foundation decried those incidents as attacks on free speech.

In April 2024, Asna Tabassum, valedictorian of the graduating class at the University of Southern California, was not permitted to speak at commencement due to safety concerns. The cancellation came after pro-Israel groups alleged that Tabassum had promoted anti-Semitic views and advocated for abolishing the state of Israel.

In 2025, New York University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology disciplined student speakers who made unauthorized remarks at commencement speeches. Both students characterized action of war in the Gaza Strip as genocide. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and human rights group PEN criticized the universities’ actions as threats to free speech.

The very concept of free speech was sparked by an event similar to our contemporary clashes over free expression.

“The idea carries over from the trial of John Peter Zenger,” Schultz said.

Zenger was tried for libel in 1733—more than 40 years before the Declaration of Indepencence—after printing a newspaper critical of the New York governor. The jury acquitted Zenger.

That established the freedoms of speech and the press that were later included in the Constitution.

But there are some limits, said Ken Kollman, a professor of politics at the University of Notre Dame.

“Courts have long drawn lines between speech that is constitutionally protected and speech that is not,” Kollman told The Epoch Times.

Drawing those lines has often sparked controversy.

In 1798, with America on the brink of war with France, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.

These laws authorized the president to deport non-citizens or to imprison them during wartime. Another law made it a crime to “print, utter, or publish ... any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” about the government.

Bateman sees echoes of this today in the deportation of activists with unpopular views.

“Everybody supports free speech in principle,” Wilson said. “The question is: who is willing to support it in practice when it becomes difficult or inconvenient or offensive?”

Signs of Good Health

Is free speech working well today? No, says Kollman. “We are living in a moment when the once-shared notion of protecting open and free debate is being eroded by our partisan [and] other social divisions.”

But we need robust debate, the scholars agreed. The future of the country depends on it.

“Encouraging, fostering, and protecting institutions and processes that encourage open and free debate are all vital for the survival of a liberal democracy,” Kollman said.

“Embrace conflict. Embrace heated, unconstrained argument. And stop trying to impose an etiquette about what it should look like—whose primary function is to constrain it,” Bateman said.

Said Wilson, “Americans ought to think about their responsibility as citizens.

“One of the Founders’ clear beliefs was that the Republic could survive and be healthy only if it had a virtuous, informed, and engaged citizenry.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 21:00

Bondi Claims DOJ Produced 'Everything Required' In Epstein Files Release

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) acted in a transparent manner and acted appropriately in releasing files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, as she testified before Congress on Friday.

“To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Bondi said in a statement ahead of a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee.

She added that “justice and transparency in this matter have been delivered at the direction of President [Donald] Trump and his administration,” according to a written copy of her opening statement on Friday.

Bondi told lawmakers in her opening statement that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is now the acting attorney general, had overseen the process to release the Epstein case files as mandated by a law passed by Congress and signed by Trump last year.

The former attorney general said it was “an enormously complicated and labor-intensive process” and added that the DOJ had made redaction errors during the process. However, she mostly defended the DOJ’s work and said that it had complied with the law and demonstrated “an unprecedented commitment to transparency.”

Democratic lawmakers said that Bondi’s interview should have been televised, with Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) saying on Friday on Capitol Hill that Democrats are “incredibly disappointed of the decision” not to have Bondi’s interview recorded and “released to the American public.”

Another, Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Calif.), alleged that Bondi was “instrumental in the Epstein files cover-up,” without elaborating. “She must explain who ordered the delays [and] who approved the redactions,” he said.

But Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the head of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters that the interview with Bondi on Friday will be released to the public as quickly as possible.

“You’ll know everything that’s been asked” if there are questions, he told reporters at the Capitol before the hearing started. “We'll release all the transcripts, and if anyone is lying to Congress, that’s a felony,” he also said.

Earlier this week, Bondi confirmed to CNN and other media outlets that she was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer and received treatment, including surgery, for the disease.

Bondi was replaced by Trump in early April with Blanche, who was the president’s former personal attorney before he was tapped to join the administration. At the time, Trump and Bondi said that she would be working in the private sector.

Officials with the New York City medical examiner’s office ruled that Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while he was on trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein and is now serving a 20-year term in a federal prison.

The DOJ was tasked with releasing files related to Epstein and Maxwell under a measure, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that was passed in Congress and signed into law by Trump. Previously, some lawmakers had accused the department of not releasing all the files or slow-walking the process.

Blanche, who was involved with overseeing the release of the files, said earlier this year that more than 3 million pages were released, noting that a significant amount of work was required to issue redactions of witness names, among other procedures, before the files were disseminated to the public.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 19:50

The Market's Biggest Buyer May Be Disappearing

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

Yesterday, as part of laying out the two paths I can see the economy taking, I wrote that beneath the surface, the American consumer is tapped out. The average consumer - AKA the "retail investor" - has been a key in driving the stock market higher the past half decade.

This morning, I noticed two reports that came out yesterday that add to the conclusion that this "retail investor" looks increasingly broke. 

Yesterday The Wall Street Journal highlighted how rising prices and the highest interest rates in decades have pushed even relatively high-income households into financial distress. One example was a hospital operations director earning nearly $200,000 annually who accumulated $15,000 in credit card debt at a 26% interest rate. Despite making the minimum payments, the balance barely moved.

And the broader data confirms this isn’t an isolated story.

As I’ve noted, the percentage of credit card balances that are 90+ days delinquent climbed to 13.1% in the first quarter, the highest level in 15 years and the worst reading since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Total credit card balances reached a record $1.25 trillion for a first quarter, while average credit card interest rates have surged from 14.6% in early 2022 to roughly 21% today.

Delinquency rates have risen across low-, middle-, and high-income households alike. In other words, this is no longer just a lower-income problem. The financial strain is moving up the income ladder, which fits perfectly with what I’ve been writing about for months.

Student loan delinquencies have also exploded higher as repayment obligations returned. Credit card delinquencies have surged to post-financial-crisis highs.

Auto loan defaults, particularly among subprime borrowers, are sitting near multi-decade extremes. New data from Experian shows that nearly 19% of new vehicle loans now carry monthly payments of at least $1,000, up from 17.4% a year ago and more than triple the 5.4% level seen just five years ago.

Contrary to popular belief, these aren’t primarily luxury vehicles, either. Roughly three-quarters of the loans are tied to mainstream models, led by popular pickup trucks like the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram 1500.

The surge reflects years of rising vehicle prices and larger loan balances, with the average amount financed reaching a record $43,952 and the average monthly payment climbing to an all-time high of $770. While delinquency rates remain below 2018 levels overall, both 30- and 60-day late payments are increasing, with the most significant stress emerging among subprime borrowers, who face the highest risk of default as elevated rates and larger loan balances continue to strain household finances.

Meanwhile, as noted yesterday, the personal savings rate has collapsed back toward historic lows as households burn through what little financial cushion remains.

Consumers have continued spending, but increasingly through debt rather than income growth. What appeared to be resilience was often leverage.

The fundamental problem is simple: the modern U.S. economy has become heavily dependent on credit expansion. For decades, growth has been supported by ever-lower borrowing costs, rising asset prices, and consumers’ ability to refinance, roll over debt, and take on more leverage.

That model breaks down when real interest rates remain positive for an extended period. For years, I’ve argued that as long as rates stay near or where they are, consumer finances are only going to deteriorate further. Debt accumulation can sustain spending temporarily, but eventually higher interest costs begin consuming larger and larger portions of household cash flow. At some point, debt service crowds out discretionary spending. Consumers stop buying. Delinquencies rise. Credit availability tightens. Economic growth slows.

As the New York Post put it yesterday, Americans are “too broke to have fun”.

Nearly 60% of Americans say they don’t have enough money to make fun plans this summer — as gas and restaurant prices soar, according to a new poll.

Cash-strapped folks are fueling a “fun drought” with more that 57% of people surveyed saying “cost and budget” are what’s keeping them from having a good time, according to a survey of more than 5,000 US residents.

Overall, the state-by-state survey found 48% of the nation feels like they lack fun in their lives — and 12% can’t even remember the last time they had a free day to enjoy themselves, according to the study, funded by Dave & Buster’s and conducted by Talker Research.

And it will continue getting worse. Positive real rates (or something closely resembling positive real rates) act like a slow suffocation mechanism on a debt-based economy.

Every month that rates remain elevated, more households are forced into the same position described throughout the Wall Street Journal article: juggling balances, making minimum payments, delaying purchases, draining savings, and hoping no unexpected expense arrives.

The uncomfortable reality is that there is little evidence this process reverses on its own. Absent a meaningful decline in interest rates or some form of Federal Reserve intervention, the math continues to worsen. Consumers are already showing signs of exhaustion. Delinquencies are rising. Savings are depleted. Credit card balances are at record levels. Debt counseling agencies are reporting surging demand.

The longer rates remain restrictive, the greater the probability that what currently appears as a gradual deterioration turns into a full-blown consumer retrenchment.

And when nearly 70% of U.S. GDP depends on consumer spending, a consumer retrenchment quickly becomes an economic problem.

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It also means that when the stock market turns lower, what is left of savings and retirement accounts for the very same Americans, shrinking, is going to put them under significantly more financial stress.

If this thesis is correct and the consumer continues to weaken under the weight of elevated rates and mounting debt burdens, I’d be watching areas of the market that have historically been more resilient during economic slowdowns. Things like bonds, gold, consumer staples, defensive sectors, emerging markets with less stretched valuations, and even the equal-weighted S&P 500 all appear better to me than momentum-driven segments of today’s market. That doesn’t mean these assets are immune to a downturn—virtually everything gets hit when liquidity dries up and growth slows. But compared to richly valued technology stocks, speculative growth names, leveraged trades, cryptocurrencies, and other risk-on assets that have benefited enormously from abundant liquidity, they could experience less downside.

If the economy is moving toward a period of consumer retrenchment and slower growth, preserving capital may prove far more important than chasing the last stages of a risk rally.

--

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

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As of May 20, 2026 I no longer actively trade (read my story here) and my accounts are managed by recurring contributions to trusted third parties and advisors and/or recurring contributions mostly to sector ETFs. Such advisors, through individual equities, options, index funds, mutual funds, ETFs, or other securities, may have positions in names that I know nothing about. Basically, I could own or not own anything at any point, and not have any idea about it.

And all positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 18:40

Green Retreat: California Eases Carbon-Market Costs For Oil Refiners

California's green-energy regime has hollowed out the state's refining and oil industry, leaving motorists paying the highest gasoline prices in the country. AAA data show the state gasoline average now north of $6 per gallon, compared with a national average of roughly $4.36 as of Saturday morning.

The result of political blowback in California over unaffordable gasoline and diesel prices at the pump is a retreat from left-wing climate policies that could offer relief to motorists, Bloomberg News reports.

On Friday, the California Air Resources Board voted to create up to $4 billion in free carbon allowances for oil refiners and other industrial polluters. This will help them more easily comply with the state's greenhouse gas limits under the Cap-and-Invest program.

Earlier this year, CARB proposed further tightening emission limits by removing 118 million allowances from the market to keep the state on track to meet its 2030 climate targets. For refiners, that would mean further reducing emissions or paying more for allowances, with mounting costs already pushing them out of the state. 

The move will help contain gasoline prices at the pump and prevent refiners from leaving the state, especially after energy disruptions in the Gulf region pushed California gasoline prices above $6.

Take US oil giant Chevron, which recently warned that California is careening toward an energy crisis because of the Iran war, and that the company may quit refining oil in the state unless officials roll back taxes and regulations.

California is highly exposed to the disruption rippling through commodity markets, as it imports about 20% of its refined fuels from Asia. But as extensively discussed here, oil product shipments from China, South Korea, Singapore, and elsewhere have been disrupted, leaving Asian nations struggling to meet domestic demand, let alone export to California.

Chevron’s oil refining head Andy Walz recently warned that the potential for fuel shortages in California is his worst fear: “We have refineries in Asia that are having to cut crude, and so they’re going to make fewer products,” Walz said in an interview in late March. “What if San Francisco doesn’t have the jet fuel it needs? Or Los Angeles? Or maybe gasoline?”

Since California is disconnected from the U.S. fuel-making centers of Texas and Louisiana, it is essentially an energy island.

Walz noted in March, days after the U.S.-Iran conflict broke out, that tightening California's cap-and-invest program "made no sense when you look at global tensions right now."

California's green regime has produced nothing but disastrous consequences for households, making fuel prices the highest in the nation:

• California Refinery Closures Spell Trouble for Fuel Prices, Supply: Experts

There are national security implications stemming from the green regime, especially for the state with the nation's largest concentration of military personnel and national security activity.

The retreat on climate targets by state regulators is a win for consumers and the nation, as green is nothing more than inflationary and degrowth, hitting working-poor households the hardest with unaffordable gasoline and diesel prices at the pump.

Elsewhere, the US-Iran conflict has forced left-wing states such as New York, Massachusetts, and others to dial back unrealistic climate ambitions.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 18:05

Caught On Tape: Washington Nationals Official Admits To Discriminating Against Religious Player

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations Sean Hudson has been caught on camera admitting that he discriminates against starting pitcher Trevor Williams because of his Catholic faith.

The Daily Caller reports that O’Keefe Media Group has released a new undercover report where Hudson admits that the team avoids featuring starting pitcher Trevor Williams on social media because of his 2023 criticism of the Dodgers’ Pride Night.

That particular event honored a drag group dressed as nuns and performing on a crucifix that Williams called a mockery of Catholicism.

BREAKING NEWS: Washington @Nationals Director of Community Relations Admits on Hidden Camera to Active Religious Discrimination Against Starting Pitcher Trevor Williams, Surveillance of Nationals Fans’ Google History, and Segregated LGBTQ+ Corporate Meetings to an O’Keefe… pic.twitter.com/AWqlq6wXV9

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 26, 2026

According to Fox News, in a 2025 interview with Bishop Robert Barron, Williams explained why he spoke out, saying, “Baseball stadiums should be a place where everyone feels welcomed, like 100%. We should all feel welcomed there. But that was clearly against one certain religion. If you don’t draw the line in the sand, who’s gonna do it?”

Hudson described Williams as “super Christian-Catholic” with religious tattoos, and confessed that even lighthearted social media posts—for example, ones asking “Is a hot dog a sandwich?”—avoid including Williams because he spoke out.

Hudson also admitted on hidden camera to digitally surveilling fans who attend Nationals Park, saying, “If you ever come to a Nats game, there is someone on our team who’s responsible for figuring out everything about you, given your purchasing habits, what teams you come to when the Nats play, like what teams you come, and assigning you into a bucket of people and then catering content to you.”

The Daily Caller reports that Hudson told the undercover reporter that if a team supporter accepts online cookies “we’re getting your, a plethora of your Google history.”

In the video, the Nationals executive also described himself as “very far-left leaning” and admitted that he has a “Join the Communist Party” poster in his kitchen.

After the video came to light, Hudson deleted his X account, changed his Instagram, and denied the comments when confronted.

Hudson has since been removed from the team’s front office page amid online calls for boycotts and claims of religious discrimination.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 17:30

Trump Blasts "Barack Hussein Obama Judge" After Kennedy Center Renovation Blocked

President Donald Trump lashed out Saturday after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the planned closure and renovation of the Kennedy Center, accusing the Obama-appointed judge of halting what Trump described as a badly needed structural and aesthetic overhaul of the performing arts venue.

In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump said millions of dollars in marble, furniture, steel, heating, air conditioning, and other materials had been ordered or were about to be ordered for what he called a "magnificent structural and aesthetic rebuilding" of the center. He argued the building had serious problems involving rust, rot, pests, failing pipes, aging HVAC systems, and structural beams that needed replacement, making it unsafe to keep audiences inside during major construction.

Trump also attacked Cooper personally, alleging a conflict of interest involving the judge's wife, attorney Amy Jeffress, and tying the Kennedy Center ruling to broader complaints about what he called a "rigged" court system. He said the decision could force the center to remain open despite safety concerns and warned that the institution may soon close "probably never to open again."

Jeffress, according to Trump, "doesn't use the 'Cooper' name" because the couple "don't want people to know that she has a Conflict of Interest with an important Judge." He described Jeffress as "a Radical Left Democrat" who "worked as a Federal Prosecutor and Counselor to Obama Attorney General, Eric Holder," "worked behind the scenes for the January 6th Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs," represented former FBI attorney Lisa Page, and is "currently representing Sleepy Joe Biden on the release of his audio tapes." Trump claimed Jeffress is "totally wired into the Left System, from her husband down," adding that "it is impossible for me to be treated fairly."

As the Epoch Times noted earlier, Donald Trump wants to transfer all operations of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to Congress after a federal judge blocked a two-year closure of the venue for renovations.

"The Kennedy Center, which was going to close in early July for largescale renovations and construction due to years of neglect, decay, and poor maintenance, and which was to be transformed by the Trump Administration into the Finest Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World, is not allowed to close for these renovations, which would not be possible to properly do without such a closure," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on May 29.

He accused Democrats of caring "more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center," and therefore "we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it."

Washington-based Judge Christopher R. Cooper issued an order on May 29, which temporarily halted the name change and stopped the center from being shut down for a two-year remodel.

"The Kennedy Center's organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board's unilateral say-so," Cooper said.

Congress organized the center as a "bureau" within the Smithsonian Institution directed by a board of trustees, he said.

The board was given several duties, including "programming obligations," "memorial obligations" honoring the legacy of Kennedy, and general maintenance obligations, the judge said.

To satisfy these obligations, Congress "empowered the Board to do the kinds of things that boards typically do: negotiate contracts, prepare budgets, employ personnel, solicit and accept gifts, transfer property, bargain with employees, procure insurance, and issue annual reports."

The lawsuit's claim that the center's board violated its fiduciary duty in voting to close the center was "likely to succeed," the judge said.

A fiduciary duty is a duty of loyalty, care, and good faith that one party owes to another in positions of trust.

Cooper ruled that the building needed to stay open during the planned construction, which would have started after July 4.

Trump said in his May 29 statement that the building needed to be closed for renovation because it had rotting beams and parking areas that were about to collapse.

"I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight," Trump wrote.

"Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into 'NEVER NEVER LAND.'"

Trump said the Department of Commerce will arrange a full transfer of operations, maintenance, and management to Congress.

The Epoch Times contacted the White House for additional information.

The ruling came in response to litigation initiated in December 2025 by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who sued Trump and the Kennedy Center board of trustees over its renaming as the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Beatty is an ex officio member of the center's board of trustees.

Trump appointed himself to the chairman of the venue's Board of Trustees after he entered his second term as president in early 2025.

The president swiftly removed and replaced the board's chairman and every single board member who did not share his vision for "a Golden Age in Arts and Culture."

The current board, which included Vice President JD Vance's wife, Usha Vance, and Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo - unanimously voted to rename the institution the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in December 2025. Trump welcomed the name change but noted that he didn't ask for it.

The rebrand came with backlash from some in the performing arts community, as high-profit shows like Hamilton pulled out of plans to tour there.

Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas said it stood in solidarity with the Dramatists Guild and Actors' Equity Association members who cut ties with the Kennedy Center after Trump's new board took over.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Actors' Equity Association and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas for comment on the latest development.

Matthew Vadum contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 16:20

Missiles Rain Down On Northern Israel In Large Hezbollah 'Revenge' Operation

Northern Israel has come under heavy attack from Hezbollah on Saturday, after this past week a full-scale war has resumed in southern Lebanon, which even saw the resumption of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, much further to the north.

Even while Tel Aviv maintains the illusion of a ceasefire with Lebanon (as in, its government and national army), there is no ceasefire with Iran-linked Hezbollah, following weeks of sporadic drones being sent on northern Israel, as well as troop positions of invading IDF forces.

The Saturday drone and missile waves hit multiple locations in and around the Galilee area, with regional media reporting that at least eight missiles were launched at Israeli positions in the initial salvo, one of which struck a site in Kiryat Shmona city.

Hezbollah subsequently announced it had carried out 22 military operations against Israeli army positions and equipment within the prior 24 hours. It framed this as a revenge operation for Israeli attacks on civilian centers in Lebanon.

Times of Israel has cited IDF statements saying Israel is bracing for more attacks out of Lebanon. "Hezbollah launched several rockets from Lebanon at the Western Galilee a short while ago," it said in a late in the day Saturday (local time) update. "The IDF says some of the rockets were intercepted and others struck open areas, causing no injuries."

Sirens across several towns and cities were activated, and there were scenes of coastal locales being impacted, with throngs of people scrambling for bomb shelters.

Starting early last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that he instructed his military to "press the pedal even harder" against Hezbollah, reportedly upon a greenlight being given by Washington, following increased drone attacks from the Shia paramilitary group backed by Iran on northern Israel.

Impacts filmed in water areas of Nahariya Beach...

נפילות סמוך לחוף נהריה pic.twitter.com/NQaEPkwIdN

— כל החדשות בזמן אמת (@Saher_News_24_7) May 30, 2026

"We are at war with Hezbollah. Just in recent weeks, our brave fighters have eliminated more than 600 terrorists," Netanyahu announced in video statement. "But we are not taking our foot off the gas. On the contrary, I have instructed them to press the pedal even harder."

"We will strike them. Yes, they are attacking us with drones, cyber-enabled drones, and we have a special team working on this — and we will solve that too…But what this requires from us now is to intensify the blows, increase the force. We will strike them decisively," the Israeli leader said.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 15:45

X Cracks Down On Large "Creator" Accounts Built On Stolen Content

The saturation of large X accounts built almost entirely on recycled video clips has become impossible to ignore. Many of these accounts brand themselves as "creators," but they merely lift original reporting, strip attribution, repackage it, and monetize engagement as if the content were their own.

Elon Musk and X product head Nikita Bier have zeroed in on this issue. X is now demonetizing repeat offenders while redirecting impressions and revenue to true originators. For genuine creators producing original reporting, analysis, and commentary, it's a long-overdue reset.

Disclose.tv Gets the Hammer

The latest high-profile casualty is Disclose.tv (nearly 2 million followers). The account allegedly lifted spaceflight reporter Adam Bernstein's dramatic video of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploding on the launchpad, cropped the watermark, and reposted it for engagement.

Bernstein called them out: "This video was shot by me as part of my coverage for @SpaceflightNow. It appears you have removed our watermark - please credit us properly."

Bier jumped in, praising the original footage and confirming the penalty: "Great video - sorry this happened. Creator has been deactivated from monetization for cropping out attribution."

Mario Nawfal's Revenue Slash and the Musk Unfollow

Just days earlier, Bier publicly warned serial aggregator Mario Nawfal after he reuploaded an ABC News clip instead of using proper Quote or Video Reshare: "Please do not reupload the author’s video: use Quote or Video Reshare. Your revenue was reduced by 90% last cycle and we’re running out of room to reduce it more."

Please do not reupload the author’s video: use Quote or Video Reshare.

Your revenue was reduced by 90% last cycle and we’re running out of room to reduce it more.

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) May 23, 2026

Elon Musk unfollowed Nawfal shortly after, sparking widespread speculation.

🚫 @elonmusk is no longer following @MarioNawfal

— Big Tech Alert (@BigTechAlert) May 26, 2026 Massimo Fracas

One of the most dramatic spats involved popular science curator Massimo (@Rainmaker1973), who has 4.3 million followers. Bier dropped the hammer with receipts:

After sourcing 2759 videos from @ViralRushX over the last 6 months, you're now circumventing attribution by simply cropping out his watermark?

You cannot get more shameless than this. This is your last day in the creator program.

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) May 25, 2026

Rainmaker1973 (Massimo) fired back - accusing Bier of unfair treatment, defending watermark cropping as standard practice, claiming selective enforcement, and alleging bullying via Community Notes and deboosting. He announced shifting to a subscriber/donation model and hinted at potentially deleting the account, framing himself as a victim of "abuse of power" and "public execution."

The exchange lit up X with heated replies, hypocrisy callouts (noting ViralRushX also aggregates from elsewhere), and memes celebrating the "public execution."

Broader Sweep and Burner Schemes

Other accounts hit include @bpthaber (~1.6M followers) for alleged burner/shield tactics — using secondary accounts to post stolen videos stamped with the main brand to dodge detection. Bier's team is now actively detecting programmatic re-uploads, watermark stripping, and impression hijacking at scale.

Another 𝕏 Creator Demonetized.

The 1.6 million-follower account @bpthaber just went up in flames.

Reason?

Using his “Alt account” to take another creator’s video, stamp their own watermark on it, and post it.

Then his main account will repost that video to make it appear as organic content.

This is the 2nd post I made about demonetization today.

How many more are we going to see?

I swear, people will do everything except create their own content.

— Jin Jung (@JinJung) May 30, 2026

Jason Calacanis summed up the originals' frustration: "The crazy part, is these accounts are getting paid to steal peoples content - which will make ABC give up on the platform eventually."

These very public spats highlight X's aggressive pivot: rewarding originality over volume and manipulation to clean up the platform, boost trust, improve timeline quality, and attract more substantive journalism.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 15:45

Kenyan Court Rejects Plan For US Ebola Quarantine Center Amid Growing Outbreak

Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams

A day after US officials said Kenya had approved a request to open a quarantine center for Americans exposed to a rare strain of the Ebola virus, a court in the East African nation on Friday temporarily blocked the plan amid a growing outbreak in neighboring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The High Court prohibited the Kenyan government from establishing or operating any Ebola exposure, quarantine, isolation, or treatment facility in the country under any agreement with the United States or any other foreign government or agency.

Getty Images

The court also blocked Kenya’s government from allowing anyone infected with or exposed to Ebola into the country pending the outcome of the case, which was filed by the Katiba Institute, a civil rights group.

“At its core, the case is about preserving constitutional accountability, protecting public health, and ensuring that no government may place expediency above the lives and safety of the people of Kenya,” Katiba Institute executive director Nora Mbagathi said Thursday.

A 50-bed Ebola quarantine center was set to open Friday at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, located approximately 125 miles north of Nairobi. The facility would have been operated by members of the US Public Health Service, a uniformed branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday during a Cabinet meeting that “we cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States.”

However, US public health officials strongly criticized the plan to quarantine Americans in Kenya instead of repatriating them, with one emergency physician accusing the Trump administration of “a dramatic abdication of what we owe our own.”

Elected leaders in Laikipia County welcomed the High Court’s ruling. They had opposed the US quarantine center, and had asked in a joint statement prior to the decision, “Why Laikipia?”

“What does the US government know about this that they are not accepting their own affected citizens into their soil but are ready to have them elsewhere?”

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU), which had strongly opposed the quarantine center and had threatened to strike, also welcomed the High Court ruling.

“We are utterly disgusted by the government’s apparent willingness to trade national biosecurity and the lives of its citizens for foreign aid,” KMPDU secretary general Davji Bhimji Attelah said in a statement Thursday, referring to the $13.5 million the Trump administration pledged for Ebola preparedness in Kenya, part of a broader $125 million US commitment toward fighting the disease.

“We will not sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen that we did not generate,” Attelah added. “We will not tolerate an apartheid healthcare model on Kenyan soil. If it is too dangerous for America, it is too dangerous for Kenya.”

Critics say President Donald Trump’s ideologically driven decision to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization (WHO), his administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, and reduced funding for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s global public health efforts have adversely affected the response to the current Ebola epidemic, compared with 2014 and 2019 outbreaks.

The plan to set up an Ebola isolation centre so that United States nationals returning from Congo could quarantine in Kenya rather than in America was opposed by health groups who feared it could import the deadly virus

🔗: https://t.co/gXgNhkWFBk pic.twitter.com/XbC821iNTp

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 29, 2026

The WHO said Friday that there were a total of 906 suspected Ebola cases and 223 suspected deaths reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as of Wednesday, and 125 confirmed cases in the DRC and 9 in Uganda, with 18 deaths among the confirmed cases in both countries.

Ebola—which typically kills between 25% and 90% of infected people, depending upon the strain of the virus and quality of available medical care—causes widespread and often catastrophic damage to the body’s blood vessels, immune system, and organs. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals, including fruit bats, porcupines, and non-human primates, and then spreads between humans through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of infected people.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 15:10

Why The SAVE Act Matters

Authored by Stu Cvrk via American Greatness,

American self-governance rests on one indispensable foundation: that elections reflect the will of eligible citizens, counted accurately, administered transparently. Republicans and election integrity advocates argue that this foundation has been progressively undermined - not necessarily by a single grand conspiracy, but by a systemic pattern of loosened safeguards, dirty voter rolls, exploitable mail-ballot systems, and aggressive Democrat opposition to the audits and reforms that would resolve public doubt once and for all.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act - which polls at roughly 80 percent public support - would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. To its advocates, it is the minimum logical response to documented vulnerabilities in the registration and voting system. To its opponents, it is voter suppression. The fight over that characterization is itself a revealing indicator of where the parties stand on the fundamental question: do you want to know, or don't you? And why!

Let's examine the subject in some detail.

Note: the below analysis was written from a Republican/election-integrity-advocate perspective. Where allegations are unconfirmed or contested, they are labeled as such.

Part I: Confirmed And Documented Problems 1. Dirty Voter Rolls - A National Scandal

The evidence that American voter rolls are riddled with ineligible registrations is not in dispute. The only dispute is over whether they should be fixed.

The DOJ's Civil Rights Division, under Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon, reviewed voter rolls from just 16 voluntarily cooperating Republican-leaning states and found tens of thousands of apparent noncitizens and hundreds of thousands of dead people still registered to vote. The administration subsequently sued 29 states - including blue-state heavyweights California and New York, and swing states Arizona and Georgia - to compel production of voter roll data under the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

In California, a review of voter rolls found registrations tied to P.O. boxes and individuals listed as 125 years old. In Colorado, a lawsuit forced the purge of 372,000 ineligible registrations. In Michigan, dead voters have been documented - some of whom show records of in-person voting after their deaths. In Oregon, similar anomalies have been reported. Judicial Watch has documented tens of thousands of names removed from rolls in multiple states, often only after litigation - raising the obvious question of why states resisted cleanup in the first place.

The consistent pattern: Republicans seek cleanup to remove any possibility that unauthorized people are voting in elections through fraud associated with ballot harvesting. Democrats sue to prevent it for the purposes of preventing disenfranchising eligible voters (with the unspoken reason to enable Democrat ballot harvesting).

2. Noncitizen Voting - Prosecuted Cases

Noncitizen voting is not a hypothetical. It is documented, prosecuted, and ongoing.

In Philadelphia, ICE and the FBI arrested Mahady Sacko, an illegal alien from Mauritania, for voting in seven federal elections dating to 2008 - despite a 2002 removal order. In Coldwater, Kansas, Mayor Joe Ceballos - a legal permanent resident from Mexico - resigned and faced charges after voting in multiple elections. These are not isolated cases; they are confirmed examples of a vulnerability that Republicans argue the SAVE Act would directly address.

3. Mail Ballot Fraud - A Proven Mechanism

Democrats and their media allies spent years insisting mail ballot fraud is vanishingly rare. The prosecution record tells a different story - of widespread, real, and exploitable vulnerabilities (over 1400 cases in this database).

In Pennsylvania, a grand jury indicted three Democrats - Mohammed Nurul Hasan, Mohammed Munsur Ali, and Mohammed Rafikul Islam - for attempting to steal the 2021 mayoral election in Millbourne. Using Pennsylvania's online voter registration portal (PAOVR), they changed the registered addresses of nearly three dozen non-residents to Millbourne addresses, requested mail ballots on their behalf, filled them out, and submitted them. The system's vulnerability: anyone with basic personal information about a voter could modify that voter's registration and divert their ballot to any address in the world. The candidate lost anyway - but the mechanism worked. The "safeguards" the AP assured voters existed did not stop it.

In Minnesota, a duo pleaded guilty to flooding an election with fraudulent ballots. In Connecticut, a state employee was arrested for switching Republican voters' registrations to Democrat without their knowledge. Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight organization was forced to pay the largest campaign finance violation fine in Georgia history.

4. ActBlue - Active Congressional Investigation With Significant Red Flags

This is not an allegation. This is an active, documented federal investigation backed by congressional subpoenas.

The House Judiciary, Oversight, and Administration Committees released a joint interim report in April 2026 finding that five current and former ActBlue employees - including its general counsel (fired), legal department personnel, and VP of customer service - collectively invoked the Fifth Amendment 146 times during depositions. Not once or twice. 146 times. Not a single substantive question was answered.

The report also found that ActBlue made its fraud-prevention rules more lenient twice during the 2024 election cycle, and that internal training materials directed fraud-prevention staff to "look for reasons to accept contributions" rather than scrutinize them. The entire legal and compliance team - every member - had resigned, been fired, or gone on extended leave by March 2025, in the months immediately following the election.

The New York Times - not a right-wing outlet - reported on the foreign donation concerns. Former Biden White House Counsel Dana Remus, working at ActBlue's law firm Covington, reportedly warned that ActBlue's CEO may have misrepresented facts to Congress. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan summarized the irony: Democrats spent a decade accusing Trump of foreign campaign collusion. The evidence of foreign money flowing into Democrat fundraising infrastructure is now the subject of formal congressional investigation.

5. Fulton County, Georgia - Missing Evidence, FBI Raids, And Unanswered Questions

Fulton County has become the symbolic epicenter of 2020 election integrity concerns, and for documented reasons.

In January 2026, the Georgia State Election Board revealed that investigators could not locate a single "zero tape" from Fulton County's 148 early voting machines from the 2020 general election. Zero tapes are the legal documents that certify each ballot tabulator began counting at zero - preventing pre-loaded votes or test data from being counted as real votes. Their absence does not prove fraud. But their absence also cannot be explained away. A December 2025 admission by Fulton County's attorney confirmed that more than 100 tabulator closing tapes - representing roughly 315,000 votes - were never signed by poll workers as required by law.

The week after the State Election Board meeting, the FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County election office, specifically seeking the zero tapes. The search warrant itself represents a federal judicial determination that probable cause existed to search. Fulton County has not produced a satisfactory accounting of what happened to these documents.

6. Democrat Opposition To Election Audits

A pattern election integrity advocates find telling: Democrats have consistently used legal action to delay, defund, or block full forensic audits of the 2020 election. A "full forensic audit" - as distinguished from the limited hand recounts most states conducted - would involve independent examination of ballot chain of custody, machine logs, cast vote records, envelope signatures, and precinct-level data.

No jurisdiction in the United States has completed a full forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election. In every jurisdiction where serious audit efforts have been launched, Democrat attorneys general or allied groups have filed litigation to impede them. Critics ask: if you're confident in the result, why fight the audit?

Democrat AGs have also collectively challenged Trump's executive order requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration, filing suit to block it. This resistance - to verification measures that most democracies consider standard - strikes election integrity advocates as its own form of evidence.

Part II: Serious But Unconfirmed Allegations

The following allegations have been raised by researchers, analysts, or investigators and are reported here as claims that merit investigation. They have not been confirmed by courts, federal law enforcement, or independent forensic auditors (yet). So-called election integrity reporters in the legacy have not bothered to investigate these troubling issues. They are presented because they are being actively investigated or because the underlying data patterns have not received adequate official explanation. Note: there are many other credible allegations besides the below that need to be investigated.

1. Statistical Anomalies In The 2020 Vote - Unexplained, Not Disproven

A team of scientists and engineers at election-integrity.info has published analyses of 2020 vote time-series data claiming to identify statistically improbable vote spikes - large batches of ballots reported in short windows heavily favoring Biden - that they argue cannot be explained by normal counting patterns. They also claim to have found instances of "negative votes" appearing in time-series data, which should be mathematically impossible.

Status: These analyses have not been independently replicated or accepted by mainstream statisticians. Election officials attribute large vote spikes to the batch-reporting of mail ballots. The "negative vote" claims may reflect data-entry artifacts or reporting methodology. However, no official body has conducted the granular time-series audit that would definitively address these claims. Unconfirmed - merits independent statistical review.

2. Wisconsin Voter File Algorithm

An analysis published in American Thinker in April 2025 claimed that a newly discovered algorithm embedded in Wisconsin's voter file constitutes evidence of criminal election fraud, allegedly manipulating registration data in a systematic pattern.

Status: This claim has not been verified by Wisconsin election officials or independent computer scientists with access to the underlying data. The Wisconsin Elections Commission disputes it. Unconfirmed - requires independent forensic examination of the voter file.

3. ActBlue "Smurfing" - Foreign Donors Using Straw Americans

Beyond the confirmed Fifth Amendment invocations and congressional investigation, some analysts allege a specific mechanism: foreign money flowing into ActBlue via thousands of small donations made under the names of unwitting or fictitious American donors - a practice known as "smurfing." Data published at electionwatch.info purports to show state-by-state patterns of anomalous small-dollar donations. One Arizona state senator filed a whistleblower complaint making specific allegations along these lines.

Status: The congressional investigation is active, and this specific mechanism is under subpoena. The pattern data is suggestive but has not been verified through forensic banking analysis. Partially confirmed as an investigation target - specific smurfing allegations unconfirmed pending investigation.

4. Chinese Source Code In Voting Machines

Allegations have circulated - amplified by Rasmussen polling commentary - that Chinese-origin source code was found embedded in digital voting machines used in U.S. elections.

Status: No federal agency has publicly confirmed this finding. The claim appears to originate from researchers without access to machine firmware through official channels. The DHS's Albert intrusion detection system was reportedly subject to failures during the 2020 cycle, which raises cybersecurity questions, but this does not confirm Chinese code insertion. Unconfirmed. Serious enough to warrant official investigation with full transparency.

5. CCP Influence Operations In The 2020 Election

Reporting from Just the News and others has alleged that intelligence analysts suppressed findings about Chinese Communist Party interference in the 2020 election - favoring Biden - and that the NSA intercepted communications involving foreign government discussions about routing money to U.S. campaigns.

Status: That China preferred Biden over Trump in 2020 is assessed by the intelligence community. The specific allegations about suppressed intelligence and money routing have not been confirmed through declassified documents or prosecutions. Former CBS reporter Catherine Herridge has amplified related reporting. Partially confirmed as an assessment (China preference); specific money-routing and suppression allegations unconfirmed.

6. USAID Laundering Into The 2024 Biden Campaign

Allegations have been published claiming USAID funds - U.S. taxpayer money routed through NGOs - were used to support the 2024 Biden-Harris campaign operation, effectively constituting illegal government funding of a political campaign through a laundering mechanism.

Status: As a result of DOGE discoveries, USAID was dramatically restructured under the Trump administration, in part over concerns about politicized spending. Specific documentation of funds flowing to the Biden campaign has not been verified through official audit or prosecution. Unconfirmed - active area of government review.

7. Pakistan And Foreign National Voting

Reports from Gateway Pundit and allied outlets have alleged that Pakistani nationals who have never set foot in the United States have nonetheless appeared on American voter rolls and may have cast ballots.

Status: The mechanism by which this could occur at scale is not established. Individual instances of foreign national registration are documented (see Part I), but systematic Pakistani voting is unconfirmed. Unconfirmed.

8. The Directional Pattern: All Fraud Benefits Democrats

One of the most rhetorically powerful arguments made by election integrity advocates is that virtually every confirmed or alleged instance of election fraud benefits Democrats, not Republicans. If fraud were random, one would expect roughly equal distribution. The pattern, they argue, is not random.

Status: This argument is worth taking seriously as a statistical observation. Confirmed fraud cases (Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Connecticut, etc.) trend Democrat - which helps explain Democrat resistance to the SAVE Act. Democrats support illegal aliens voting in US elections, support and incentivize ballot harvesting, and employ lawfare to fight virtually all Republican-sponsored election integrity laws, cleaning up voter rolls, and conducting full forensic audits of election results. All of this increases the probability of election fraud. When it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.

Concluding Thoughts

Whether one accepts all, some, or none of the unconfirmed allegations above, the documented problems alone - dirty voter rolls, noncitizen registrations, exploitable mail ballot systems, resistance to audits, foreign money concerns - provide ample justification for the SAVE Act's core requirement: prove you are a citizen before registering to vote in a federal election. The SAVE Act is a logical response.

The American people apparently understand the issue quite well. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 59 percent of U.S. voters believe it's likely that there will be widespread cheating that will affect the outcome of this fall's congressional elections. And more than 80 percent across all political parties and racial groups support the SAVE Act.

Opponents (elected Democrats and their activist base) argue this will disenfranchise legitimate voters who lack documentation. Proponents respond that the same logic would argue against requiring ID to board a plane or open a bank account - that the burden of documented citizenship is minimal and the protection it provides is substantial. Every other major democracy requires some form of citizenship verification for electoral participation.

The ~80 percent public support for the SAVE Act reflects a simple intuition: in a self-governing republic, the franchise belongs to citizens. Verifying citizenship is not suppression. Resisting verification - when the voter rolls demonstrably contain ineligible registrations - is not protection of democracy. It is protection of a system that benefits those who prefer less scrutiny.

The American people deserve to know that their elections are clean. The SAVE Act is a start. Full forensic auditing capacity, completed without legal obstruction, would be the finish. Neither should be controversial in a country that claims to believe in democracy.

After all, don't the Democrats want to "save our democracy"?

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 14:00

US Military Hasn't Identified A Single Confirmed Mine In Strait Of Hormuz, Officials Tell NBC

Just a few hours after President Trump boasted that the US Navy had detonated "numerous" Iranian sea mines, NBC News reported that, even after three months of warfare, the US military has yet to confirm the presence of even a single mine in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz. 

Citing two US officials and a "person familiar with the matter," NBC said relentless searches of the waterway by aerial and undersea drones haven't found any confirmed mines, merely finding some objects that might be mines. “If anything, the threat has been far less robust than we had feared,” the person "familiar with the matter" told NBC. 

The USS Santa Barbara, a littoral combat ship, is configured for minesweeping duties (Navy photo)

Around the time Trump decided to join Israel in launching a war on Iran in the midst of ongoing negotiations in which Tehran had offered major concessions along the lines of what Trump is demanding today, US intelligence officials believed Iran had placed mines on the south side of the strait ahead of the shooting or shortly thereafter, said NBC. Allies had likewise reportedly concluded that Iran had deployed sea mines. The mine menace was said to be so formidable that, in April, a Pentagon official speaking to US legislators in a classified session said that fully clearing the strait of mines could take six months.  

In a Friday morning social media post in which he foreshadowed a potential ceasefire agreement that would end restrictions on commerce through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump boasted that the US Navy had "removed, through detonation, numerous such mines with our great underwater mine sweepers." 

The NBC report seemingly contradicts multiple CBS News reports. Most recently, on May 19, the outlet reported that US intelligence had identified "at least 10 mines" in the strait. Back in March CBS reported that an official said there were at least a dozen, while another one said fewer than a dozen. CBS attributed this information to officials who weren't named. 

The potential presence of mines has weighed heavily on the minds of ship owners and --more importantly -- shipping-insurance underwriters who've terminated existing coverage and offered new protection at prohibitively expensive rates. Of course, mines aren't the only weapon at Iran's disposal: drones and missiles can wreak havoc as well. 

The international community must condemn Iran for filling the Strait of Hormuz with mines and charging tolls for the passage of commercial vessels. pic.twitter.com/rageLdYqvi

— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@USAmbUN) May 7, 2026

Last week, there were reports that the UK Royal Navy was making moves for a potential deployment of hundreds of sailors on a mine-sweeping mission in the strait. However, as we emphasized, AP reported that this potential deployment would only proceed if a peace agreement were reached, suggesting it's principally a gesture meant to placate Trump, who has pestered NATO allies to help remedy the massive, strait-centered economic disruption caused by the US-Israeli decision to launch a war on Iran over a nuclear weapon program that almost certainly does not exist. 

In March, Trump ranted against nations that were anxious over the shutting of a waterway that transports about 20% of the world's petroleum, in addition to about a third of international fertilizer trade: "Go to the strait and just take it. You have to start learning how to fight for yourself. Go get your own oil." Days later, he said, “The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait and won’t be taking any in the future. We don’t need it. We haven’t needed it and we don’t need it.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 13:25

What To Own Before A Bond Market Crisis

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

As I wrote last week, foreign Treasury selling with yields already on the rise has perked up my attention.

For decades, investors have treated U.S. Treasuries as the ultimate safe haven. In nearly every major panic, money rushed into government bonds, not away from them.

But with deficits surging, interest costs climbing, and foreign demand for Treasuries no longer as unquestioned as it once was, some investors have started asking a different question: if the Treasury market itself ever came under severe stress, what assets could potentially hold up best?

The answer is far from straightforward, and it is important to emphasize that a true Treasury crisis remains a relatively low-probability scenario because the entire global financial system is built around the assumption that U.S. government debt remains stable.

Still, in a worst-case bond market environment, some assets appear structurally better positioned than others, so I wanted to explore potential ideas.

The first thing to understand is that a Treasury market crisis would likely not look like a normal recession or stock-market decline. It would probably involve some combination of rapidly rising yields, liquidity stress, foreign selling, repo-market dysfunction, and emergency intervention by the Federal Reserve.

In that environment, traditional portfolio assumptions could break down. Assets that usually offset equity weakness might suddenly move in the same direction as stocks, while investors search for anything perceived as insulated from sovereign debt instability or inflation risk.

Gold is usually the first asset investors discuss in this context, and for understandable reasons. Gold does not depend on the fiscal credibility of any government, has no counterparty risk, and has historically performed best during periods of monetary instability, negative real interest rates, or declining confidence in fiat currencies. If policymakers responded to Treasury stress with large-scale money printing or yield suppression, gold could potentially benefit from concerns about inflation and currency debasement.

As I’ve often written, that does not mean gold would rise immediately during a crisis. In sudden liquidity panics, investors often sell whatever they can. But over a longer horizon, many macro investors view gold as one of the clearest hedges against sovereign debt instability. If I wanted equity market exposure to gold, I’d be in miner ETFs like the GDX and GDXJ. For exposure to the metal itself, I’d want physical bullion.

🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Using this coupon entitles you to 50% off an annual subscription to Fringe Finance for life: Get 50% off forever

Commodity-related assets could also potentially perform well if Treasury stress translated into structurally higher inflation or a weaker dollar. Energy producers, industrial metals, agricultural assets, and infrastructure tied to real economic demand have historically held up better than purely financial assets during inflationary periods. The logic is fairly simple: when governments attempt to stabilize debt-heavy systems through monetary expansion, tangible assets often retain purchasing power more effectively than nominal claims.

That does not guarantee commodity outperformance, especially if a crisis triggered a deep recession, but hard assets are one of the few areas many investors believe could potentially emerge stronger from prolonged fiscal deterioration. Here is a list of commodity ETFs that could be helpful.

One of the more important distinctions in a Treasury-stress environment would likely be between short-term and long-term government debt. Investors often think of “bonds” as a single category, but duration matters enormously. Long-dated Treasuries are highly sensitive to rising yields, meaning they could suffer badly if investors began demanding higher compensation for inflation or sovereign risk. Short-duration cash instruments, on the other hand, mature quickly and can reprice much faster. In a severe stress scenario, investors might still want liquidity and safety, but they may prefer instruments that are not locked into low fixed rates for decades. In other words, the problem may not necessarily be government debt itself so much as long-duration exposure to it.

Read about multiple other assets I think could outperform during a bond market crisis here. 

--

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions.

As of May 20, 2026 I no longer actively trade (read my story here) and my accounts are managed by recurring contributions to trusted third parties and advisors and/or recurring contributions mostly to sector ETFs. Such advisors, through individual equities, options, index funds, mutual funds, ETFs, or other securities, may have positions in names that I know nothing about. Basically, I could own or not own anything at any point, and not have any idea about it.

And all positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

 

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 12:50

Moscow Signs Military Partnership With Taliban In Full Circle Since CIA's Operation Cyclone

Via The Cradle

Russia and the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan have reached a military and technical cooperation agreement, Russian news outlet Interfax reported this week. 

The deal was concluded during the International Security Forum held in Moscow. According to the report by Interfax’s correspondent, Taliban Defense Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob held talks with Secretary of Russia's Security Council Sergei Shoigu on the sidelines of the event.

Russian MoD, via X

During the meeting, Yaqoob said that engagement with Russia is important for the Taliban-led administration and that both sides have been expanding their bilateral relations. He added that Afghanistan and Russia share historic ties and that Kabul aims to maintain and strengthen those relations.

Shoigu urged western countries to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets and take responsibility for the country’s reconstruction during the event.

“We are convinced that western countries must unfreeze frozen Afghan assets, fully acknowledge their full responsibility for their 20-year presence in Afghanistan, and assume the entire burden of post-conflict reconstruction of the country,” Shoigu said.

One day later, on Thursday, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Vasily Osmakov met with Yaqoob in Moscow to discuss regional security and potential bilateral military cooperation.

According to the ministry, the two sides addressed security issues in Central and South Asia, as well as the outlook for cooperation between their armed forces, including areas of military collaboration.

Russia was the first to recognize the Taliban-led state that assumed control in Afghanistan in 2021. The recognition took place in July 2025. 

US troops launched a hasty and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after the Taliban’s 2021 victory and subsequent takeover of the country. 

The US military left behind large amounts of equipment. An internal State Department review from 2023 attributed the chaotic evacuation to poor planning.

We've come a long way since the era of Operation Cyclone...

Since then, the country has remained blocked from accessing around $9 billion in frozen Afghan assets. Washington controls the vast majority of these funds via the New York Federal Reserve Bank. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 11:40

Iran Poised To Finalize Hormuz Strait Management Plan, Brushing Aside Trump's Threats

Iran's state Tasnim is saying the US naval blockade remains in effect, despite days of headlines of a 'finalized' US-Iran deal, which were clearly premature - though both sides still signal they are close to agreeing on a Memorandum of Understanding. But this is toward simply extending the ceasefire by 60-days in order to get back to the table, in hopes of finally ending the war based on a final deal.

Despite President Trump's latest warning which declared strict conditions on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran appears to be completely brushing his words aside, and is moving closer to formalizing its authority over vital energy shipping waterway.

via Palestine Chronicle

State-run Nour News is reporting that a bill outlining Tehran's role in managing passage through the strategic waterway has been finalized and is expected to be brought to a vote soon.

According to Bloomberg, Iranian lawmaker Alireza Salimi did not provide a specific timeline for the vote but said the legislation is on track to become law. Salimi said that "only Iran and Oman can decide on Strait of Hormuz management" - adding that "the Omani side has given preliminary approval" to Tehran's plan.

He further emphasized the strategic importance of Hormuz, declaring that "the Strait of Hormuz is more important and more valuable to the Islamic Republic of Iran than dozens of nuclear bombs."

Previous comments by Salimi indicate the bill would cover shipping security, the collection of navigation and environmental pollution fees, as well as the creation of a regional development and progress fund - all of which critics have dismissed as but Tehran's ruse to collect what is in effect a "toll".

The legislation is expected to undergo review by Iran's Guardian Council, which is responsible for vetting and approving all laws before they take effect.

President Trump has sternly warned against the Islamic Republic and Oman teaming up to assert control over the strait. As a reminder, during a Wednesday televised cabinet meeting he said as follows:

“No, the strait’s got to be open to everybody; it’s international waters,” the president told reporters. “We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation that we have.”

“They would like to control it; nobody’s going to control it. It’s international waters,” he continued. “And Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow ’em up. They understand that. They’ll be fine.”

In the wake of this, Iran has been expressing solidarity with Oman. As reported in The Hill:

Iran reupped its backing for Oman on Thursday, after President Trump warned the latter nation to “behave” or face consequences.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in a statement that Iran would support the Gulf nation, which is separated from Iran by the Strait of Hormuz, against U.S. threats, Reuters reported. He also criticized recent strikes in Bandar Abbas, a southern port city.

The irony in all of this is that Oman has long been an American ally in the region, though is also often called the "Switzerland of the Middle East" for its diplomatic and mediatory role in regional disputes.

🚨 BREAKING

🇺🇸🇮🇷 U.S. naval restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz remain in effect despite Trump’s Truth Social statements. This suggests that key elements of the U.S.–Iran understanding are still not fully finalized.

The situation indicates that the broader agreement has not… pic.twitter.com/1n7uRRXFEs

— WAR (@warsurv) May 30, 2026

Despite generally positive relations with Washington going back years and even decades, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent chastized Oman, stating on X Thursday: "The United States Government will not tolerate any effort to impose a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz."

"Oman, in particular, should know that the U.S. Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved - directly or indirectly - in facilitating tolls for the Strait and any willing partners will be penalized," Bessent stated. "All nations should reject outright any efforts by Iran to disrupt the free flow of commerce. Tehran’s days of terrorizing the region and the world are over."

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 11:05

Crypto And AI Could Be Dirty Words On 2026 Midterm Campaign Trail

Authored by Aaron Wood via CoinTelegraph.com,

The AI and crypto industries have made headlines over the past year thanks to the impressive war chests amassed by corporate political action committees (PACs).

Profligate spending during the last federal elections in the US has led to unprecedented policy changes favoring the crypto industry, with indications that a full legislative framework in the form of the CLARITY Act is on its way to becoming law. 

But this hasn’t endeared the crypto industry to voters. Recent polls from Politico show distrust of the crypto industry, and the electorate isn’t sold on the benefits of AI.

“Voters across the ideological spectrum are raising concerns,” Michael Beckel, director of money in politics reform at Issue One, told Cointelegraph. “Some candidates on both sides of the aisle are trying to harness that frustration and outrage.”

Voters don’t trust crypto and don’t believe AI benefits them

According to the recent poll by Public First for Politico, most Americans don’t trust crypto and don’t believe in the benefits of AI. 

Source: Politico

While Republican voters are somewhat more likely to trust crypto, 47% of Americans overall trust a traditional bank over a crypto platform, while 17% trust a crypto platform as much as a traditional bank. 

The numbers for AI aren’t great either. Some 43% of Americans overall believe that the risks outweigh the benefits, while 33% believe the inverse. 

Source: Politico

Currently, most people haven’t heard about the major crypto and AI lobbies. According to Politico, only nine percent have heard of AI Super PAC Leading the Future. Only three percent have heard of pro-crypto PAC Fairshake.

That’s not much compared to public awareness of large lobbies like the National Rifle Association or the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which are practically household names.

Still, association with crypto could be a problem. Ohio Republican Representative Jim Renacci told Politico, “I do think if they see somebody is backed by crypto, that’s always going to be a problem, because, let’s face it, the people that I talk to in Ohio, they don’t understand crypto, and most say they’re not comfortable with [it].”

Improving awareness around crypto lobbies may not help them much. Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen, told Cointelegraph:

“Generally speaking, voters are against corporate money influencing politics.”

“Even after Citizens United, the norm had been for big, brand-name corporations not to engage directly. Or when they did engage, they would often contribute through dark money groups that obscure their funding source.”

In this regard, the crypto industry’s spending spree in 2024 was somewhat unusual. Major contributors like Coinbase or a16z weren’t shy about the millions of dollars they put into campaigns.

But even then, “the voter-facing message from Fairshake was never about crypto, which voters never really cared about.” Mailers and ad buys reflected the supported candidates' positions more broadly, or sometimes attacked those of the perceived anti-crypto candidate. 

Overall, “candidates who are seen as not beholden to corporate interests have an electoral edge,” said Claypool. This was true for populist candidates like US Senator Bernie Sanders and even US President Donald Trump, who claimed during his 2016 campaign that “he was so rich he could not be bought, which is laughable in hindsight.” 

If awareness about crypto — and crypto’s concerted efforts to influence policy — increases among the electorate, it may not shake out well. 

Issue One’s Beckel said, “If voters view an industry as toxic, that can have serious implications for candidates who don't want to be perceived as too close to a controversial company or industry.”

Grassroots organize against AI, crypto gets its day in Washington

Voter dissatisfaction with a certain industry has translated into real action. 

Beckel noted a recent example when voter attitudes about the oil and fossil fuel lobby were enough to get some Democratic candidates to swear off any contributions. Beckel said that some organizations are already urging lawmakers to forswear any contributions from AI lobbies.

Indeed, there has been a grassroots movement growing against the AI industry more directly, namely the construction of the highly expensive and resource-intensive data centers. Local movements in seven states have blocked or delayed over $64 billion in data center investment. One state, Maine, is poised to introduce a state-wide ban.

Municipalities in California, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, Missouri, Indiana and Virginia have banned or delayed projects. Source: Data Center Watch

According to Claypool, this could prove a great opportunity for Congressional candidates “to seize the grassroots momentum against data centers and Big Tech for Democrats in particular, but not exclusively, since the tech sector has so fully enmeshed itself with the Trump administration.”

This increasing partisan alignment could also affect how voters perceive these industries. 

Jason Thielman, former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that the crypto industry has attempted to “maintain a degree of bipartisanship and identify people whom they think will be champions on these issues.”

But even as the lobby claims to be bipartisan — Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called crypto “the most bipartisan issue” in DC — its priorities like deregulation and withdrawn enforcement lean mostly, but not exclusively, Republican, said Claypool.

Claypool said that “crypto billionaires have tried to present themselves as scrappy underdogs against Wall Street.”

“But that's a less compelling argument now that crypto allies run, in addition to the White House, the DOJ, SEC, CFTC, the Treasury Dept., and the Commerce Dept.”

Furthermore, the sector has become deeply tied to Trump himself after the president’s full embrace of the industry in 2024, as well as pardons for convicted crypto execs and his use of crypto for his own personal enrichment. 

With Trump’s popularity sliding due to geopolitical bungles, an unpredictable economic outlook and controversial policies at home, having ties to him and his party may carry political risk.

In a Democratic Illinois Senate primary, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton accused her opponent Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of being backed by big money from “MAGA-backed crypto bros.” She won by seven points. 

It could also influence future policymaking. Said Beckel, “If an industry is viewed as a friend of one party and enemy of another, it may be more likely to be in the crosshairs or under the microscope when the other party is in power.”

For crypto and AI, that moment may come as soon as Nov. 4.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 10:30

"Brief Exchange": Top U.S., Cuban Military Leaders Meet At Edge Of Guantanamo Base

Three weeks after CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with officials in Havana, reopening a political backchannel between Washington and the Cuban government, a rare military-to-military meeting unfolded at the edge of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

U.S. Southern Command wrote on X that Marine Gen. Francis Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, met with Cuban Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo and other officers at the perimeter of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay for what SOUTHCOM described as a "brief exchange on operational security matters."

#SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan met with Army Corps General, Gen. Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, First Deputy Minister of the Chief of the General Staff, and other senior leaders from the Cuban military today at the perimeter of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a… pic.twitter.com/V4Fau3HxSo

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) May 29, 2026

SOUTHCOM did not elaborate on the brief exchange between top U.S. military brass in the region and Cuban generals. No statement was issued by the U.S. Embassy in Havana, leaving the meeting framed as yet another signal that U.S.-Cuba talks are strengthening.  

In mid-May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe held high-level talks with Cuba's Interior Minister, the head of Cuban intelligence, and Raúl Castro's grandson, Raulito Rodríguez Castro.

Havana, Cuba pic.twitter.com/7S7TtJPyf5

— CIA (@CIA) May 14, 2026

Havana's communist government released a statement noting that the meeting "took place Thursday, May 14, against a backdrop of complex bilateral relations."

AP noted that Cuban officials presented a report to Ratcliffe and his team, claiming to demonstrate that the communist-run island poses no threat to U.S. national security.

Meanwhile…

• Axios Warns Cuba Stockpiled 300 Attack Drones With Crosshairs On U.S. Homeland

Increased back channeling has come amid a sharp escalation in U.S.-Cuba tensions. The Trump administration has been pressing Havana for sweeping economic and political reforms, while the U.S. naval blockade on fuel shipments remains in place.

President Trump has repeatedly warned Havana about military intervention. The Justice Department last week unsealed an indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro and five others of the communist regime.

Also, the Treasury Department subpoenaed far-left influencer Hasan Piker over his trip to Cuba. He and CCP-aligned NGOs that went to Cuba are being investigated by officials to determine if they violated U.S. sanctions and laws.

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 09:55

Leftist German Party Leader Forced To Correct Lies About AfD Leader, Pay Her Legal Fees

Via Remix News,

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has successfully sued the Left Party leader and won a retraction after she spread falsehoods about Weidel on live television.

In mid-May, Ines Schwerdtner, the federal chairwoman of the Left Party, claimed during an interview on Welt TV that Wediel neither resides in Germany nor pays taxes. 

“Alice Weidel doesn’t even live in Germany, she doesn’t pay taxes here,” she told viewers.

This statement is false.

While Weidel spends much of her time with her family in Switzerland, she has her primary residence in Germany and pays taxes in the Federal Republic of Germany. Weidel has been very guarded about the issue over the years, as she faces a high threat level and avoids appearing in public due to the security threat she lives under.

AfD leader has family taken to safe house and cancels rally due to attack threat

Weidel’s lawyers explained in a warning letter, cited by Junge Freiheit, that this claim was false, as their client both lived in Germany and paid taxes. 

The law firm Höcker filed a lawsuit on the AfD’s behalf seeking an injunction. Weidel’s lawyers also demanded that Schwerdtner ensure the relevant passage was deleted from Welt TV’s programming.

Furthermore, the lawsuit calls on the Left Party leader to acknowledge the “claim for damages.”

Following this, Schwerdtner’s lawyer sent a letter to the Höcker law firm stating that their client had “indeed made a mistake.” The Left Party leader additionally undertook to “refrain” from making the false statement that Weidel does not pay taxes in Germany. 

The letter also pointed out that the interview in question on Welt TV had since been deleted by the broadcaster. Furthermore, Schwerdtner stated that she would transfer the legal fees “within one week.”

Germany: Left Party wants voting rights for all foreigners who have lived in the country for 5 years

Weidel’s press spokesman, Daniel Tapp, told JF that in politics one “shouldn’t be too sensitive in principle.”

However, when “blatant falsehoods are being spread, one cannot let them stand unchallenged.” 

The AfD has been surging in the polls, with one survey last week showing it hitting a record 42 percent in Saxony, double the support of the second-place Christian Democrats (CDU).

Germany: Anti-immigration AfD soars to record high 42% in state of Saxony, nears absolute majority

A poll in May showed the AfD at 29 percent at the national level, while the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) fell to 22 percent.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Sat, 05/30/2026 - 09:20