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Warrantless Surveillance Fight Again Ignites Massie vs. Trump Showdown

Via The Libertarian Institute

President Donald Trump said Congress must extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) even if it means giving up “rights and privileges.” Section 702 allows for the collection of Americans’ data without a warrant. 

In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged House Republicans to reject any amendments to the legislation that would extend Section 702. “I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor,” he wrote. “We need to stick together when this Bill comes before the House Rules Committee today to keep it CLEAN!”

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie attempted to introduce three amendments to the legislation that would have required law enforcement to obtain a warrant before collecting Americans’ data. His amendments were rejected. 

Trump argued that he and Americans should be willing to sacrifice their 4th Amendment right to privacy in exchange for security.

"While parts of FISA were illegally and unfortunately used against me in the Democrats’ disgraceful Witch Hunt and Attack in the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA Hoax, and perhaps would be used against me in the future, I am willing to risk the giving up of my Rights and Privileges as a Citizen for our Great Military and Country!" He added, "Our Military Patriots desperately need FISA 702, and it is one of the reasons we have had such tremendous SUCCESS on the battlefield."

Congress last voted to extend Section 702 in 2024. If Congress does not pass a new extension, the government’s Section 702 powers will expire on Monday. The House is currently considering an 18-month extension. 

Last night between midnight and 2am, they tried to pass two bad versions of FISA…

Both would have allowed Feds to unconstitutionally spy on Americans.

We stopped both versions, but the fight isn’t over. Eventually, it was decided to give them two more weeks to fix FISA. https://t.co/VkckZwH5j4

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 17, 2026

During the debate in 2024, Trump, who was then a Republican Presidential candidate, demanded Congress terminate FISA. “KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!” Trump wrote. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson is seeking to fulfill Trump’s demand to extend Section 702 before the deadline.

However, he is struggling to pressure enough Republicans to vote for the legislation without amendments. Capitol Hill sources told Politico that a vote is unlikely to happen this week as Johnson does not believe enough Republicans will vote for the bill.

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Massie, a Trump defying Republican and Libertarian-leaning firebrand, is up for reelection in the House...

Rep. Thomas Massie puts his Republican 'brand' against Trump's in Kentucky https://t.co/HXjhXKBgZQ pic.twitter.com/whNG10JsPV

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 15, 2026 Tyler Durden Sun, 04/19/2026 - 11:40

The Issue: Pope Leo’s denunciation of war with Iran and the extent of his involvement in global politics. It’s reasonable for the pope to object to wars, but using Iran as an example is not credible (“Leo would do well to remember render to Caesar,” Douglas Murray, April 17). Iran has probably killed over 30,000...

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Uranium Supply Crunch Worsens Amid Kazakhstan’s Plan For Strategic Reserve

Drawing further attention to the global uranium supply-demand mismatch that we've been pounding the table on since 2020, Kazakhstan has outlined plans to accelerate exploration and create a strategic reserve for the nuclear fuel. 

We've repeatedly emphasized that the US is not moving fast enough if it hopes to secure fuel for its reactor fleet…

US Is Rapidly Expanding Its Nuclear Supply Chain: It's Not Nearly Fast Enough https://t.co/gly9hVAKnr

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 19, 2026

The strategy, approved by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, calls for geological work on at least two new prospective deposits each year. The goal is to uncover high-potential resources while advancing development on already explored sites to refine estimates, extraction methods, and launch preparations.

Kazakhstan, the world’s top uranium producer with roughly one million tonnes of confirmed resources (14 percent of the global total as of early 2025), operates 14 extraction enterprises across multiple regions. 12 are joint ventures with partners from China, Russia, France, Canada, and Japan.

Kazakhstan stands alongside Australia and Canada as the main source of uranium ore imports to the US...

The document emphasizes guaranteeing long-term domestic supply for future nuclear power plants, strengthening export positions, and ensuring reliable sulfuric acid deliveries for in-situ leaching. It also envisions new alternative extraction technologies and full loading of future conversion, enrichment, and fabrication facilities with domestically sourced uranium.

As we highlighted in “Why The Price Of Uranium Is About To Soar,” a widening cumulative net deficit of 211 million pounds between 2025 and 2045, driven by reactor builds in China, Russia, and the United States, is already pushing long-term prices higher. Spot uranium recently traded near $86 per pound, with Goldman Sachs models pointing to roughly $91 by year-end 2026.

We also covered earlier this year on how hyperscalers such as Microsoft are actively exploring uranium-backed projects to secure zero-carbon electricity. With data center capex nearing $1 trillion over the last six years, data center developers have decided now is the time to check for fuel.

The hyperscalers have already outspent the most famous US megaprojects pic.twitter.com/D54qD8kO61

— Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse) April 17, 2026

More countries are likely to announce strategic uranium reserves as the supply outlook for the industry becomes more bleak by the week...

China is adding reactors at breakneck speed and India is now looking to catch up, but the US is still grossly behind the rest of the world when it comes to construction of large-scale grid-supporting reactor plants…

Four months later, China has added 9 more reactors and is now building a total of 39 nuclear power plants. Meanwhile the US has added 0 and is still building 0 https://t.co/TJ6BoMghNk pic.twitter.com/O4idOANNUr

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 15, 2026

With the US still nearly completely reliant on the import of raw uranium ore, domestic producers such as Energy Fuels and Uranium Energy Corp stand to be called upon and supported by federal and state governments to reduce what could be framed as a national energy security threat. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 04/19/2026 - 11:05

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Is A "Vicious" Treasury Market Emergency At Our Doorstep?

 Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

When Henry Paulson steps back into the public conversation after years of relative silence, it’s not random timing. This is someone who sat at the center of the 2008 financial crisis and understands how quickly confidence can evaporate once stress begins to build in core markets.

Paulson also appears to be one of about…oh, I don’t know…six people in the entire nation who know that $39 trillion in debt is an unsustainable level for the country.

If you ask me, his recent interview with Bloomberg that is being passed around by traders should be read less as random innocuous commentary and more as a timing signal.

In his interview, Paulson is explicitly warning that the scale of U.S. borrowing is now testing confidence in the Treasury market itself. With federal debt approaching $39 trillion, he points to the risk that the long-standing assumption of endless demand for U.S. government debt may no longer hold.

As he put it, “That’s a dangerous thing,” describing a scenario where foreign demand declines and Treasury prices fall. That is not a small shift in tone. The entire global financial system is built on the idea that Treasuries are the ultimate safe asset, and once that perception begins to weaken, the consequences cascade quickly.

What stands out even more is what he says next about how such a situation would resolve: “Should enough investors back out… the Federal Reserve would step in as a buyer of last resort.”

And as we all know, a “buyer of last resort” is simply another way of describing a return to large-scale intervention by the Federal Reserve. Whether policymakers call it stabilization, liquidity support, or something else (like the A.S.S.H.O.L.E.S. plan), the mechanism is the same: the central bank absorbs supply when the market no longer can. In other words, quantitative easing returns.

That leaves two realistic interpretations of why Paulson is speaking now.

1. Either he sees early signs of stress already forming beneath the surface of the Treasury market—declining foreign participation, weakening liquidity, or rising yields that are no longer being absorbed smoothly.

2. Or he is helping prepare the narrative for the policy response that will follow when those stresses become undeniable. Those two possibilities are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they often occur together.

His comments about needing an emergency response framework make that even clearer. He said, “We need an emergency break-the-glass plan… ready to go when we hit the wall,” and followed it with “It will be vicious.”

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Notice he said when we hit the wall, not if.

That is not the language of a former official casually discussing long-term fiscal challenges. It is the language of someone who expects a disorderly adjustment and understands how quickly conditions can spiral once confidence breaks.

Markets already assume that after the next deleveraging cycle, central banks will return to QE. That part is widely understood. What is not fully appreciated is the implication if the stress originates inside the Treasury market itself. Treasuries are not just another asset class. They underpin global collateral systems, anchor borrowing costs across the economy, and support the U.S. dollar reserve currency status. If confidence in that market begins to erode, the feedback loop is far more severe than a typical recessionary downturn.

In that scenario, the Federal Reserve stepping in as the marginal buyer would not simply stabilize markets. It would fundamentally alter how capital allocates globally. Real yields could compress rapidly, confidence in fiat stability could weaken, and capital could rotate into hard assets at a pace that exceeds even aggressive expectations. The move would not just be cyclical, it would be structural.

The second-order risk is even more significant. If foreign demand for Treasuries fades and the U.S. increasingly relies on its own central bank to finance deficits, the signal to the rest of the world is unmistakable. That is how pressure begins to build on a reserve currency. An FX adjustment tied to the dollar is not the base case today, but neither was a systemic breakdown in mortgage markets prior to 2008. These transitions always look implausible until they are suddenly obvious.

The key point is that Paulson is not someone who reappears without purpose. He understands the plumbing of the system and the fragility that sits beneath it when leverage is high and confidence is stretched. His warning that “We have to prepare for that eventuality” should not be dismissed as generic caution. It suggests that the risks are no longer theoretical.

There is more in his comments than a simple observation about rising debt levels. Either he sees stress forming already, or he is preparing markets for the policy response that will follow when that stress becomes visible. In both cases, the implication is the same: something larger is developing beneath the surface of the Treasury market, and when it breaks into the open, the consequences will extend far beyond bonds.

For portfolio ideas for this scenario, read this article at Fringe Finance here. 

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Tyler Durden Sun, 04/19/2026 - 10:30

Marshals is welcoming another country singer to the show.