FT EXCLUSIVE: The Gulf governments are talking about declaring force majeure on the full gamut of contracts because they say they're short of cash. This could wreak some global havoc and slash investment in the US from regional sovereign wealth firms.

Gleeful murderers of a genocidal sort.

Echoed now by Hegseth.

As we all presumed, the US agency lacks the funds to insure all those vessels, and the US military lacks the means to dispose of a mass of mines that Iran can rather easily release into the Strait. Just more talk from Trump, but world realities aren't as pliable as djit Republicans.

A lot of pardoned Jan. 6 rioters have been going back to prison of late (two others just this week, I think), but this one's really special!

Noem's replacement can't be worse, but Markwayne Mullin is one of the greatest morons I've seen in the US Senate in my lifetime—tied at present with Alabama's Tuberville for grunt-level babble that rarely advances a point.

Trump digs ever deeper holes to get Kurds slaughtered, explode gas prices, surge inflation to block Fed rate cuts & bog USA down in an unwinnable war for control of Iran. Add raging corruption, AI employment crater, private credit implosion. Dems won't find much to work with after the Blue Wave.

It's not smallpox, but measles can be fatal, and locking people up for no food reason and subjecting them to a disease you casually allowed to spread reminds me of Andrew Jackson's Trail of Tears for the Cherokee.

I presume he expects payments to facilitate repayment.

Hegseth avows Christian nationalism. 'He previously endorsed the doctrine of “sphere sovereignty”, a worldview derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian reconstructionism (CR). The philosophy calls for capital punishment for homosexuality and strictly patriarchal families and churches.'

"Hey Kurds, it's the United States. Remember us, from all the betrayals? Anyhoo, would love it if you all could march into this thresher for us. Let us know."

As I posted weeks ago, Iran's pending ayatollah has a gigantic property empire in Europe. Maybe our Orange Ayatollah will take a shine to him.

I foresee suicide attacks, possibly via submarine, to block the two-mile bend in the Strait of Hormuz with the bodies of sunken vessels, including US Navy ships and oil tankers. These MAGA people do not understand Shia Islam. There will be martyrs.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that the US government could so quickly become utterly inept. And then we see what's being recruited.

More adept planning by the killer idjits!

Invading Spain would certainly help matters!

Ukraine holds key cards in Europe's rearmament, now gets free weapons for sharing tech breakthroughs with European allies. The US is edging in, too.

So now we encourage a big civil war at the Strait of Hormuz! This will make Iraq and ISIS look like a joke. It's been 70 years since we overthrew Iran's democratic government because it wanted to control the country's oil.

'The ruling represents a major loss for Trump who, during his 2024 campaign, vowed to “TERMINATE” the tolls upon returning to office. The White House last month dispatched one of its top legal attack dogs to fight the tolls in court.'

Trump will be proud to have scored No. 4 since 20 years ago! He can get it much higher without even trying.

AI overlords are mostly idiots with no quality control. After Altman, think Musk's viciously inventive Grok. We'll be scorched by billionaire AI sloppiness and greed. 'It’s not clear what Altman thought that “worse outcome” would be, other than to miss his chance to exploit Anthropic’s situation.'

MAGA planning.

Obama's nuclear deal with Iran was working like a dream.

Trump's deranged attack on Iran to please Netanyahu is going to confirm bad inflation in the US for a long time to come. Fuel prices will blow out first—not because the US doesn't have energy but because companies will race to export it into a desperate world market.

Markwayne AMullin of Oklahoma is the biggest lug in the Senate since Roman Hruska of Nebraska defended the mediocrity of Nixon's SCOTUS choices by saying that mediocre people needed a voice on the Court.

Talk about wagging the dog! We attacked Iran because Israel intended to, which would put US troops in danger!!

"Whatever it takes to do WHAT? Punish Iran for making Biden president? Stop Iranian nukes (as Obama did)? Overthrow Tehran government (as we did 70 years ago)? Distract us from Epstein? Run out of US armaments? Ruin Europe with high energy prices?

Just as he launches his military adventures on Friday evenings to delay reaction in financial markets, on Sunday evening Trump is hinting at peace in hopes of keeping Wall Street calm on Monday. In truth, the conflict will continue and will probably entail US troops on Iranian soil.

'“The Trump administration has fired TLAMS at an extraordinary rate in operations around the globe, in the Middle East against Iran and the Houthis as well as in Nigeria on Christmas Day”—well-suited for striking infrastructure and would be in high demand in the early weeks of...conflict w China.'

New boss. '1 of the Saudi officials in San Diego set up a pair of hijackers with an apartment, recorded a video of high-profile government sites in Washington, DC, and was found to have a drawing with longhand calculations demonstrating how a plane could reach a particular target on the horizon.'

We bomb for Saudi Arabia now: began with a chartered flight from Tampa to Lexington, Ky., on Sept. 13. Soon there were at least 8 planes stopping in 12 U.S. cities to fly Saudis out. About 2 dozen passengers were related to Bin Laden. The initial flight required authorization from...the White House

Kindly be there, everywhere.

This improved my day. 'Environmental conservation police officers arrived to find a brown-and-white owl perched on a shelf with its eyes firmly shut...cradled the sleeping [eastern screech owl] to remove it from the store, and then released it into a wooded area, where it flew into a nearby tree.'

Trump yearns to emulate his close ally.

'As overwhelming as American air power may be, history suggests that regime change — much less, nation-building — without ground forces is hard if not impossible. And Trump wants to avoid putting boots on the ground, because he knows his MAGA base won’t stand for it. ...'

The US government is attempting to destroy America's leading AI company because Anthropic won't let its cutting-edge techbe used for war crimes or illicit surveillance. Trump/Hegseth have instead authorize top-secret use of Musk's GROK, which is famously flaky, inaccurate, dangerous (See Comment #1)

Given the illicit irrational attack on Iran, NYC is a prime danger zone for reprisals from any quarter. This Novid always carries this NIOSH-certified N95 mask. Good luck, friends—and to the people of Iran. (LINK to extended discussion of N95s): lms.learning.hhs.gov/content/prod...

Our govt gave this Brit brownshirt quite the tour.

Vote Alex #Bores for Congress in NY's 12th as a Big Tech SuperPac spends $10 million to punish him for writing and passing (in Albany) the best US AI-control bill! 'In a race where we are all promising to fight Donald Trump, I am the only one that Trump mega-donors are fighting back against.'

The sons that Commerce Secy Howard Lutnick brought to Epstein's island are making a killing on the outlawing of the tariffs Lutnick encouraged Trump to impose illegally!

Mamdani is really something.

And Mamdani got the ICE-napped Columbia student freed immediately! 'New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday pitched President Donald Trump on a plan to build 12,000 units of housing over Sunnyside Yard in Western Queens, according to senior city housing official Cea Weaver and three other...'

No end to the brownshirt madness. Many trans Kansans will be locked up in cells with people of their original gender. This serves what safety purpose?

He survived genocide in Myanmar, couldn't endure America. 'Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a nearly blind refugee from Burma who Border Patrol agents dropped off at a doughnut shop Thursday and left to find his way home, 5 miles away, has been found dead.... On Feb. 15 last year, he had been out for a walk...

This Texas Republican seems to have driven a top aide to burn herself to death—but hey, the GQP House majority needs his vote, so fatal peccadillos are merely verbal armadillos.

But Mamdani ...! “We’re trying to recreate the suburban house in the city,” says Harris ... “they’re often looking for two adjacent houses.” ...clients want the Hamptons kitchens, gyms, screening rooms and “other amenities one would normally have to leave the house for.”

In its 250th year, is America, land of immigration, becoming a country of emigration? ... America’s own citizens are leaving in record numbers, replanting themselves and their families in lands they find more affordable and safe.'

Class-action lawsuit filed in 2014 focused on GEO’s facility in Aurora, Colo. Immigration detainees required to clean all common areas with possible solitary confinement for noncompliance, offered $1 a day for work preparing food and cleaning laundry when the state’s minimum wage was $8 an hour.