Wishing President Trump Happy Birthday!

From Iran to Space X to the World Cup, it’s been a good week. 

Clarice Feldman | June 14, 2026

On June 21, 2025, the U.S. bombed three facilities in Iran dedicated to nuclear enrichment, which enrichment would have allowed Iran to move in a short time to making nine nuclear bombs.  This was a terrific mission that took more than 35 hours of flight time, and Iran’s three facilities deep in the mountains were decimated.  Despite the success of the bombing in destroying these sites, satellite photos “showed trucks leaving Iran’s Fordow site just before U.S. airstrikes” said to be carrying enriched uranium.  “Now, over 400kg of highly enriched uranium is unaccounted for. … [The] U.S. calls the strikes a success — but where is the uranium?”

Subsequently, Pres. Trump initiated Operation Epic Fury in March 2026.  At that point in time, he announced that the air strikes against Iran had four purposes:

1. To destroy Iran’s missile capabilities.
2. To destroy Iran’s navy.
3. To ensure that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.
4. To ensure that the Iranian regime “cannot continue to arm, fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”

The same website that lists President Trump’s objectives for these attacks also lists statements by a variety of military leaders as well as by our secretary of War and secretary of State.

This writer was particularly gripped by the statement of purpose for our attack made by Admiral Brad Cooper: “Our military in the Middle East is undertaking an unprecedented operation to eliminate Iran’s ability to threaten Americans, as they’ve been doing for nearly half a century.”

This statement carries a broader vision of the military venture in Iran that needs to be received by the public.  Admiral Cooper understands clearly that the threatening and killing of Americans that Iran has done for decades is the right and sufficient justification for our aggressive stance.  He understands that Iran’s portrayal of the USA as the Great Satan to stir up the animus of the Muslim world (and particularly the Shi’ite believers within that political and religious culture) is in service to a bloodthirsty ideology of belligerence, hatred, and violent disrespect of Western mores and beliefs.

“Threaten Americans.”  Think about this.  The present ayatollah government wants to threaten us with suffering and death because we believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The leadership of Iran, under the acronym IRGC, hates us because we live under phrases like “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights” and “all men are created equal.”  They are obsessed that so many of us live claiming to be Protestant or Catholic Christians.  Their envy of our economic successes drives them into a murderous rage, as even their own oil productivity and production depends upon the engineering knowledge and exploratory gifts of the West.

When this writer briefly taught high school at a private school in Iran two years before the present fanatical scoundrels took control of that country, U.S. engineers laughed discreetly at the Iranians who were on their teams who were building missile manufacturing and launching facilities for the Iranian army.  At a party in my apartment at the time, an American engineer said that if there was a testing protocol in place at a missile manufacturing site and parts were not available for the test to be properly completed, the Iranians would go ahead anyway.  The engineer said this would be like having three people lay a pipe.  The first would dig the trench, the second would put in the pipe, and the third would fill up the trench and cover the pipe.  However, he mockingly said of the Iranians that if the second man was not there to put in the pipe, Iranian three would reflexively fill in the trench without the pipe.

After the 1979 revolution that brought the ayatollahs to power, all the books in the library at the school where I had taught were burned in the courtyard of the school.  The American principal of the school who had lived and worked in Iran for decades left the country in 1980, and the school today is exclusively for boys.

The only aspect of Admiral Cooper’s above statement that needs to be qualified is that our operation in Iran is an “unprecedented operation.”  The vast scope and advanced weaponry involved are certainly unprecedented, but in the early years of our republic, we faced an extremely violent threat from the Barbary pirates of the Islamic world for thirty years, from 1785 until 1815.

Those pirates captured two of our ships as early as 1785, and each one had 25 sailors.  Thomas Jefferson, who was serving as our ambassador to France at the time, tried to negotiate, but the reader will not be surprised that the negotiations got nowhere.  Then the U.S. government changed from the Articles of Confederation to our present Constitution, and George Washington became our president.  Nevertheless, headway in recovering the kidnapped sailors went nowhere.  In fact, about two fifths of the American sailors captured died of disease and horrible conditions in captivity.

The U.S. kept on negotiating and negotiating, but the piracy and capture of our sailors did not abate.  Only after we defeated the British soundly in the War of 1812 did the Islamic enemies in Algiers retreat from their piratical ways, because that victory showed our growing strength and also smashed the British-Algiers alliance that was in effect at the beginning of the War of 1812.

It’s now confirmed that the raid was to capture documentary evidence that the Russiagate claims were false. They had been manufactured to defeat Trump and Obama believed that evidence was hidden in Trump’s residence.

She also revealed that, despite their repeated denials, the Obama Administration, including Dr. Fauci, had 120 gain-of-function biolabs in 30 countries, including Ukraine. Russia had claimed they did. Russian claims proved to have been true

GOING VIRAL☙ Saturday, June 13, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS

Jeff Childers

The viral 2022 map that got a man branded a “fringe QAnon extremist” just got confirmed by the DNI — and Trump…

“After months of searching through intelligence community holdings and files,” she said, “today I’m releasing new evidence of long-standing US government funding of more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries.” Before you ask — yes, all 30 countries have lax regulations, legacies of official corruption, and long histories of dependency on USAID.

It’s not just routine bio-research. “Many of these U.S. government-funded biolabs are currently or have previously engaged in research using hazardous and highly contagious pathogens, in some cases to include dangerous Gain-of-Function research, with very little visibility or oversight.”

“Politicians and so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci” — I love how she modified health professionals with so-called — “and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth.”

Lies and threats. That’s the sitting ODNI accusing top government officials of malfeasance. It made history. The only comparable incident I could find was Tulsi’s own July 2025 release that accused Obama’s national security team of manufacturing the Russia-collusion intelligence narrative.

Tulsi is systematically dismantling the 2016-2024 intelligence establishment narrative. Which is probably why the corporate media quietly nudged the whole story behind the break room fridge with its Birkenstocked foot.

Grand juries in Florida are still sifting through evidence and listening to witnesses. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirms that his predecessor John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are likely to be indicted in connection with their roles in this scandal.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find indictments respecting the 2020 presidential election corruption as well.

Remigration marches and rallies have expanded beyond Northern Ireland and Great Britain to France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Poland. I don’t know how much longer the European Union, which keeps demanding more third-world migration to Europe, will continue to hold together.

Speaking of Europe, X viewers have been charmed by the accounts of various Europeans who have toured the South and other less-traveled spots in the U.S. while here for the World Cup. A young German, “Freddy,” among others, was taken with local foods like Texas Barbecue, enormous stores full of wares like rifles and even shooting ranges, and fast food, ice for drinks, free drink refills, open roads, and the enormous geographic and demographic diversity of a country mostly familiar to them in movies painting dystopian pictures of America. Rod Dreher was inspired:

Rod Dreher (@roddreher) on X

“Proposal: resurrect USAID, and dedicate all its funding to sending Europeans on field trips to Buc-ee’s, Costco, and Bass Pro Shop.”

In my experience, few Europeans appreciate the sheer size and variety of the USA. They look with astonishment at the offerings in big box stores, not understanding that many people have refrigerators and freezers the size of many European flats or the sheer distance most of us travel to shop in cars, rather than on bikes or public transportation. European bien pensants have always worked to diminish the new world. In the 18th century, prominent French intellectuals believed North American animals were smaller and inferior to those in Europe. Thomas Jefferson, then our Minister to France, was, as you may recall, very tall (more than six feet), and he found the claim preposterous. He took time to compile comparative charts of mammals. After he was challenged on the matter at one dinner party in France, he responded by bringing at his own cost a massive bull moose, which he had paid to be hunted, stuffed, and shipped to Paris. In another, perhaps apocryphal account, he had guests line up by height, which he marked on the wall behind them to prove the Americans were taller.

American Thinker

From Iran to Space X to the World Cup, it’s been a good week. 

Clarice Feldman | June 14, 2026

Every day, the negotiations with Iran remind me more and more of that wonderful movie Dog Day Afternoon, in which a couple of crazy guys pull a botched bank robbery, hold hostages, demand preposterous concessions to surrender the hostages, and finally, while under the impression they are being escorted to a plane that will carry them to freedom, one gets shot and the other arrested. In the matter of Iran, the hostages are the millions of Iranians being held by nutters who think that if they blow up the world, the 12th Imam, who is hiding in a well (Bi’r al-Ghayba) will return to eradicate evil and create world peace.

President Trump has been economically and strategically squeezing the loony leaders and their proxies, while destroying as much as we (and Israel) can without harming the hostage population and without keeping them destitute for decades. Some critics assert that those leaders’ promises cannot be trusted, and, at best, they are just playing for time. (Hint: Trump knows this and will not agree to anything that does not assure compliance with the agreed-upon terms. Others say he must free the hostage population. Do you imagine landing troops on the Iranian mainland is more or less likely to save them than economic pressure and a negotiated end to the mullahs’ nuclear ambitions and piratical stranglehold on the Gulf of Hormuz? When you deal with irrational people, negotiations necessarily take longer than when you have rational negotiating partners.)

In any event, the President distinguished the deal from the one President Obama had with Iran and said on Saturday that the agreement will be signed today.

My Agreement with Iran is the exact opposite, A WALL TO NO NUCLEAR WEAPON! In fact, they no longer want a Nuclear Weapon, nor will they have one, either through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement. The Deal is scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL. Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had. Unlike Obama’s Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in payments to them, including 1.7 billion Dollars in green, cold cash, no money will exchange hands. At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust, buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains, thanks to our beautiful B-2 Bombers and their brilliant pilots, and downblend and destroy it, whether in Iran, or the United States. We look forward to working with Iran, and the entire Middle East, long into the future. Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly. If it doesn’t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!

The other big news this week was the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Elon Musk’s Space X, which gave the company a $2.1 trillion market cap and (on paper) made Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Naturally, leftists like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who never made a payroll or ran a business, are outraged that, as yet, they cannot strip this wealth to be distributed to their cronies or for the ongoing Democratic party graft. (He’s the only person I ever heard of who was thrown out of a commune for being lazy. And she, you may recall, lied about being an American Indian to get a slot at Harvard Law.) Musk, on the other hand, is a creator of things, things that benefit millions. He spent years being broke, trying things that went bust, and has now proved widely successful in many endeavors. He did not forget those who helped make SpaceX the world leader in its field. All employees of the company were offered the choice of stock or cash bonuses, and those who shared the risk with him are reaping the rewards.

REPORTS: 4,400+ current & former SpaceX employees (welders, cafeteria staff, techs) have become millionaires. Massive wealth spread!

Tulsi Gabbard will be leaving her post as the Director of National Intelligence within days, and on her way out, she’s declassifying a lot, with hints that there will be more to come. She links Obama to the origins of a conspiracy that set in motion events which eventually led to the raid on Mar-a-Lago, and confirms that those who ordered the raid believed evidence was hidden in Trump’s residence. Russia did not sway the 2016 election, although the Deep State and its media lapdogs bamboozled people with lies to believe otherwise.

It’s now confirmed that the raid was to capture documentary evidence that the Russiagate claims were false. They had been manufactured to defeat Trump and Obama believed that evidence was hidden in Trump’s residence.

She also revealed that, despite their repeated denials, the Obama Administration, including Dr. Fauci, had 120 gain-of-function biolabs in 30 countries, including Ukraine. Russia had claimed they did. Russian claims proved to have been true

GOING VIRAL☙ Saturday, June 13, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS

Jeff Childers

The viral 2022 map that got a man branded a “fringe QAnon extremist” just got confirmed by the DNI — and Trump…

“After months of searching through intelligence community holdings and files,” she said, “today I’m releasing new evidence of long-standing US government funding of more than 120 biolabs in over 30 countries.” Before you ask — yes, all 30 countries have lax regulations, legacies of official corruption, and long histories of dependency on USAID.

It’s not just routine bio-research. “Many of these U.S. government-funded biolabs are currently or have previously engaged in research using hazardous and highly contagious pathogens, in some cases to include dangerous Gain-of-Function research, with very little visibility or oversight.”

“Politicians and so-called health professionals like Dr. Fauci” — I love how she modified health professionals with so-called — “and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth.”

Lies and threats. That’s the sitting ODNI accusing top government officials of malfeasance. It made history. The only comparable incident I could find was Tulsi’s own July 2025 release that accused Obama’s national security team of manufacturing the Russia-collusion intelligence narrative.

Tulsi is systematically dismantling the 2016-2024 intelligence establishment narrative. Which is probably why the corporate media quietly nudged the whole story behind the break room fridge with its Birkenstocked foot.

Grand juries in Florida are still sifting through evidence and listening to witnesses. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirms that his predecessor John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are likely to be indicted in connection with their roles in this scandal.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find indictments respecting the 2020 presidential election corruption as well.

Remigration marches and rallies have expanded beyond Northern Ireland and Great Britain to France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Poland. I don’t know how much longer the European Union, which keeps demanding more third-world migration to Europe, will continue to hold together.

Speaking of Europe, X viewers have been charmed by the accounts of various Europeans who have toured the South and other less-traveled spots in the U.S. while here for the World Cup. A young German, “Freddy,” among others, was taken with local foods like Texas Barbecue, enormous stores full of wares like rifles and even shooting ranges, and fast food, ice for drinks, free drink refills, open roads, and the enormous geographic and demographic diversity of a country mostly familiar to them in movies painting dystopian pictures of America. Rod Dreher was inspired:

Rod Dreher (@roddreher) on X

“Proposal: resurrect USAID, and dedicate all its funding to sending Europeans on field trips to Buc-ee’s, Costco, and Bass Pro Shop.”

In my experience, few Europeans appreciate the sheer size and variety of the USA. They look with astonishment at the offerings in big box stores, not understanding that many people have refrigerators and freezers the size of many European flats or the sheer distance most of us travel to shop in cars, rather than on bikes or public transportation. European bien pensants have always worked to diminish the new world. In the 18th century, prominent French intellectuals believed North American animals were smaller and inferior to those in Europe. Thomas Jefferson, then our Minister to France, was, as you may recall, very tall (more than six feet), and he found the claim preposterous. He took time to compile comparative charts of mammals. After he was challenged on the matter at one dinner party in France, he responded by bringing at his own cost a massive bull moose, which he had paid to be hunted, stuffed, and shipped to Paris. In another, perhaps apocryphal account, he had guests line up by height, which he marked on the wall behind them to prove the Americans were taller.

American Thinker

Voltaire’s purported remark about “common sense” not being so “common” has no greater application than modern Democrats and their philosophies.

Marc E. Zimmerman | June 13, 2026

18th-century French philosopher Voltaire is to have once remarked, “Common sense is not so common” when assessing the lack of logic and basic reasoning prevalent in France during the Age of Enlightenment. He certainly had a knack for distilling his views of humanity in that era. The dominant questions confronting society in that time were markedly different than those which the U.S. currently faces, but his stark observation can still be applied to a distinct segment of American society today.

The particular U.S. factions who support the “woke” and similar philosophies may hold that their beliefs are well-grounded in solid reasoning. But  many policies based on good intentions, which fit neatly onto bumper-stickers, have resulted in disaster as they were not fully examined for negative ramifications. Recent developments are illustrative.

Now, various appeals in support of benevolent sounding policies abound: who amongst you would not extend a helping hand to those escaping a foreign government’s oppression? Shouldn’t we as a society offer second chances to those who, for good reasons, violate our border, criminal theft, and voting laws? How can Americans be so heartless to restrict people’s actions when feeling estranged from their biological genders? And who can argue that a truly just society is not based on kindness?

When policy advocates concocted such grievances, ladled out ill-conceived public programs, and dumped them on a trusting society, they rained great misfortune on  U.S. culture and taxpayers. The outcomes of what were sold as well-meaning policies mutated into a mishmash of madnesses and pure folly.

One of the most recent egregious examples cited, according to the General Accounting Office, occurred in FY 2025. Rampant fraud discovered in the Medicaid and Medicare programs in Minnesota, Ohio, California, and Maine has resulted in $186 billion (thus far) spent on “improper payments stolen from taxpayers.” In Minnesota, more than 90% of those indicted for massive swindles in the “Feeding Our Future” food program, housing stabilization, and specialized Medicaid programs were centered in the Somali community. Testimony revealed that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were put on notice of fraud in 2020, but funds kept flowing as their oversight responsibilities were ignored. In another instance, in Van Nuys, California, investigators found that a three-story dilapidated building, which was supposed to house 50 hospices and 97 home health companies, did not; the building even lacked a constructed wheel chair ramp for incoming patients. Even more proof of fraud was uncovered in a government report finding that six million ineligible people were  enrolled in “Obamacare” in 2026; these illegal subsidies cost taxpayers upwards of $25 billion.

In all of these cases, elected officials were unwilling to enforce laws which prohibited “paying someone who was ineligible for federal assistance.” To be clear, these amounts were not minor rounding errors but the result of governing authorities who ignored established laws, their responsibilities and, in many instances, gained political support from recipients for their largesse. Treasury Secretary Bessent estimated that if  all 50 states are audited for these brazen thefts and such schemes are eliminated, the U.S. could balance its budget. In 2025, the federal deficit added up to $1.8 trillion in overspending.

Another issue tearing at the fabric of the U.S. culture is the policy that boys, if they identify as female, should not only be allowed to participate in girls’ sports but have access to women’s locker rooms. This is seen as insanity by the vast majority of America. The adoption of this policy by the Fairfax County (VA) School Board was that youngsters can identify as another gender despite not having reached the Age of Reason. Thus, their choices must be respected. The Board completely ignored the rights to privacy for girls/females under Virginia Code § 18.2-386.1 “prohibiting…observing another person without consent for sexual gratification or to arouse or satisfy sexual desires when the person is in a place where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy (e.g., locker rooms, bathrooms, changing rooms)”. In Fairfax County, rapes and assaults have been the result of governing entities closing their eyes to established laws and the XX/XY chromosome differences.

In 2025, a California proposal penalized parents who did not affirm a child’s trans identity. But state law maintains until age 18, a child is not capable of understanding the effect of their reasoning and conduct. So, for lawmakers and parents to subject a child to either life-altering surgery or ruinous psychological damage because of their youngster’s immature feelings is despicable and malfeasance. A natural outgrowth of that theory would be if a second grader came home from school to announce she was now a giraffe, California law and parents would be forced to send that child off to the Serengeti for fear of prosecution.

More warped governing sensibilities have emerged in the form of lax treatment for indicted felons. Cashless bail is now granted in some metropolitan areas for those arrested for certain felonies…felonies! And the accused are then deposited back on the streets where they often repeat the same crime, sometimes in the same day. This is ludicrous. Illinois became the first state to entirely abolish cash bail under the so-called Pretrial Fairness Act. Defendants charged with particular felonies are released on cashless bail with specific, harsh conditions to include “checking-in.” Also, in 30 states, theft below $1,000 is now prosecuted as a misdemeanor; thieves often receive community service as “punishment.” Looters everywhere have rejoiced. Retail merchants, not so much. Mores are evaporating right in front of our eyes.

And of course one cannot overlook the travesty of not requiring a government-issued ID to vote in U.S. elections. On a secular basis, is there anything more sacred than guaranteeing the integrity of the American electoral process? There is no plausible reason to ignore adjudicated cases of non-citizen voting in recent elections. Oddly enough, the no ID requirement occurs almost uniformly in Democrat-run states. In light of the facts that two government-issued IDs were required to shovel snow in New York City last winter, and one was even necessary to enter the 2024 Democrat National Convention, it strikes many as rank hypocrisy to turn a blind eye to  something so vital to this country. Everyone is aware of ID requirements to open bank accounts, receive welfare, buy alcohol, and receive driver’s licenses, but there is no necessity to ensure the integrity of elections?

The motives in this particular instance are quite clear. The borders were flung wide open under President Biden, illegals flooded the country, and in many states and municipalities authorities gave illegals with no citizenship verifications permission to enter our voting booths. This was a blatant effort to cement political power for those who facilitated unlawful access to the country. Senator Rand Paul summed up: “Democrats have once again shown they do not want elections to remain free, fair, and decided by Americans.”

Odious, narcissistic politicians routinely divert attention from all of these disastrous outcomes and attempt to refocus arguments only on perceived injustices. Recall that Obama’s Rahm Emanuel, who is weighing a presidential bid in 2028,  infamously said “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

If officials who continue to promote these philosophies have their way, America will no longer be a nation of laws but a country where political expediency is the rule. If we do not stop the assault on and corrosion of our principles, we will no longer have a durable republic. Maybe we should rename AI “Voltaire,” and task it to do the job that contemptuous, woke politicians will not.

Marc E. Zimmerman was a Legislative Assistant to a Member of the U.S. Congress

American Thinker

A Russian MP has demanded that Vladimir Putin deliver a plan to end the war in Ukraine as he berated the Kremlin’s “ineffective leadership”.

In a lengthy tirade, Vyacheslav Markhayev listed corruption scandals, oligarchy, losses of the “most active and reproductively capable segment of the population” and Ukrainian drone strikes among the ills plaguing wartime Russia.

“The time of illusions is over. The country is on the brink of a social explosion, and the blame for this will fall squarely on the entrenched ruling power,” said Mr Markhayev, a deputy of the State Duma from the Communist Party.

“If the situation persists, social unrest and chaos will become more likely. The West will inevitably exploit this to destroy the remnants of Russian statehood.”

The deputy joins a growing list of public figures who have broken from the official line to voice criticism of the authorities.

Late last month, Renat Suleymanov, a State Duma deputy from the same party, called for the “earliest possible end” to the war, saying the economy could not “withstand” its continuation.

In March, Ilya Remeslo, formerly a staunch Kremlin loyalist, turned against Putin, branding the Russian president “a war criminal and a thief”, and calling for him to be put on trial.

Discontent with the authorities has simmered in the past few months, linked to sweeping internet outages, sluggish progress on the battlefield and long-range Ukrainian strikes that have penetrated the heart of Russia’s two biggest cities.

This week, it was reported that the state-controlled Russian Public Opinion Research Centre would stop publishing Putin’s “open” trust rating as it plummeted to the lowest level since the start of the invasion.

Only 29.5 per cent of Russians named their president as one of the politicians they trusted in early April, before the survey was mysteriously discontinued.

Concerns about the resilience of the economy have also spurred a backlash. Growth has slowed to a crawl, inflation remains elevated and Ukrainian attacks on refineries and terminals have bitten a chunk out of Moscow’s oil-driven budget, sending crude processing to a 16-year low.

Meanwhile, high defence expenditure, which has reached post-Cold War heights, has triggered increasing alarm in Russia’s finance ministry.

Military spending increased by more than 30 per cent in early 2026 compared with the year before, reaching 46 per cent of total budget spending, according to Dr Janis Kluge, an economist and senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

This means almost every second rouble spent from the federal budget was allocated to the military.

“The pace of military spending looks even more impressive – and, from the Kremlin’s perspective, concerning – when compared with budget revenues… military spending was equivalent to two-thirds of Russian budget revenues in January to March 2026,” said Dr Kluge.

The flagship international economic forum in St Petersburg last week, which was the scene of two mass Ukrainian drone strikes on its opening and closing days, was meant to showcase Russia’s economic resilience.

Instead, it has only deepened concerns. One topic of discussion was the absence of Elvira Nabiullina, the governor of the central bank, usually a fixture at the event.

The Kremlin claimed she was on sick leave, but rumours have swirled about the protracted absence of Putin’s top economist.

This week, she and her deputies also skipped an interest rates meeting with the Russian president and his senior ministers.

Russian independent channels, citing sources close to the government, have claimed that Ms Nabiullina has handed Putin an ultimatum that she will only serve out her term on the condition that he does not escalate the war with border closures and martial law.

Another source told the Mozhem Obyasnit channel that she was planning to leave the central bank imminently, which would amount to a significant upset.

The governor, who is highly regarded as a policymaker and has worked with Putin for almost two decades, is believed to have long harboured private reservations about the invasion, and is said to have attempted to resign at its outset. 

At that time, she was ordered to remain in her post, according to sources close to the Kremlin.

Putin has not wavered from his course despite growing domestic unrest. On Friday, he signed an executive decree to expand the official staffing size of the Russian army by almost 10,000 staff, the second time within four months that he has been forced to enlarge the pool.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has demanded an extra $20bn (£14.9bn) from allies to consolidate its sudden battlefield advantage over Moscow’s forces, according to a report in Politico on Thursday.

“Everyone sees that Russia is burning, and we want it to burn even more, but we need financing to do it,” an unnamed official told the outlet, adding that the request would be made on June 18 at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.

Tennessee families are being squeezed from every direction. Grocery bills are up. Fuel costs more. And when something breaks, whether it’s a car, an appliance, or a piece of farm equipment, getting it fixed has become its own financial ordeal. Some of that is inflation. But some of it is federal policy, and that part is fixable.

Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was originally written to protect intellectual property. Few could have anticipated that manufacturers of refrigerators, smartphones, and farm equipment would later use it for an entirely different purpose: embedding proprietary encryption and software locks in their products, then invoking federal copyright law to ensure that only their authorized dealers can touch them.

The practical effect is that even when a repair is entirely lawful, accessing the diagnostic software to perform it may not be. Independent repair shops and small, community-based businesses fully trained and equipped for the work are legally shut out. Consumers who want to take their vehicle, appliance, or tractor to a local shop are denied that choice. They can pay whatever the manufacturer’s authorized network charges or buy something new. That is not a free market. It is a rigged one.

The economic damage is real and widespread. Auto repair shops across Tennessee are losing out on critical revenue because manufacturers restrict access to repair data. Farmers lose time and money waiting on manufacturer-dispatched technicians while equipment sits idle during planting season. These barriers extend far beyond cars and tractors. From refrigerators and power tools to bicycles and consumer electronics, any digitally enabled product is a potential target. The more technology advances, the wider the manufacturer’s grip becomes.

Reforming Section 1201 would not touch copyright protections for artists or innovators, the original objective of the law. It would simply stop manufacturers from using copyright law as a shield against competition in the repair marketplace. Consumers could choose where their products get fixed, whether at a local shop, a national chain, or their own garage. Independent businesses could compete for that work on an equal footing. That is how markets are supposed to function, and it is how this one would function if Congress updated a statute that has been exploited by large corporations.

This is not a partisan question. It is a question of whether federal law should prop up large manufacturers at the expense of working families and small businesses. Policymakers on both sides of the aisle have talked for years about supporting competition and keeping costs down. DMCA reform is a concrete opportunity to deliver on these goals. Representatives Harshbarger and Rose have already led on legislation targeting these restrictions in the automotive sector, and other members of Tennessee’s delegation have engaged the issue in agriculture – a significant part of Tennessee’s ecoonomy. The moment is right to bring these efforts together behind a broader fix.

For Latino families in Tennessee that take pride in self-reliance, work hard to balance their budgets, and build their livelihoods from the ground up, the freedom to repair what you own is not an abstract idea. It is an everyday reality. Our elected leaders should treat it like one.

Tommy Vallejos, The Tennessee Star

There is a way to turn things around in California…just not right now, and not as fast as I would like.

Arthur Schaper | June 12, 2026

In a previous article, I analyzed the big winners and losers of the California primary. I didn’t mention my preferred candidate, Sheriff Chad Bianco, because to me he’s still a winner, even if the rest of the state (and Trump) rejected him.

California needed saving, and I believed that the sheriff was just the man to get the job done.

I thought Trump’s endorsement wouldn’t matter.

I went through 5 minutes of grief after I saw Bianco getting a distant fourth place in the gubernatorial race. I went through the stages of grief fairly quickly, arriving at the place of acceptance. When I could look at the assumptions I operated under and see where I went wrong, it gave me hope — and I hope it gives hope to others — that there is a way to turn things around in California. But just not right now, and not as fast as I would like.

My calculations were way off for this race. I had such hopes. Not only did Bianco lose, but Republicans running in my state assembly and state senate districts got locked out of the general election, too!

Reality TV actor Spencer Pratt, as an outspoken common-sense independent candidate for mayor, lost his chance to challenge Karen Bass for Mayor of Los Angeles in November.

Where did I go wrong? What did I learn?

1. I thought that Californians really had suffered enough, and they were ready to go in a new direction. Look at all the homes that went up in flames in Pacific Palisades! Across the states, homes have gone up in flames due to poor forestry and water practices from the Democrat-run government. The election results indicate that Californians have not suffered enough. They haven’t learned that voting Democrat means more destruction.
2. I thought the DEI dominance of the Democrat party would frustrate their candidates and allow two Republicans into the Top Two for governor and other races. Every identity and interest group in the state of California gravitates towards their preferred candidate. Former state controller Betty Yee would get the Asian vote. The California state superintendent of schools, Tony Thurmond, would get the black vote. Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villagosa and former Congressmember Xavier Becerra would compete for the Hispanics. Tom Steyer, with billions to burn, played Bernie Bro, embracing the most aggressive left-wing policies. Katie “Karen” Porter would get the single white female vote. However, Democrats, even though they are determined to articulate intersectionality as much as possible (no straight white males, please!) their drive for power remained number one, and they figured out how to winnow the field (force out Swalwell, sideline Mahan), and ensure at least one Dem made it through to the Top Two.
3. I assumed that the hardcore progressive Berniecrats and Democratic Socialists of America would harm the Democrats with their own infighting and help Republicans. Tom Steyer blanketed the state with mailers, including high-propensity Republican voters like me. California State legislators and statewide officials split behind Steyer or the more Establishment Democrat (Porter, Becerra, Swalwell). Ultimately, Big Business and Big Labor still call the shots in California Democrat politics. Their paid politicians will pay lip service to progressive platforms, like advancing single-payer health care, enacting a ban on gas-powered everything, and eviscerating the Second Amendment. In the end, however, just like in prior elections, California Democrat power brokers muted support for the most progressive policy positions and sidelined the Berniecrats. The Democrat party of California is performative, not progressive, and they promoted Becerra to advance into the general election.
4. The California Republican Party faces some serious soul-searching. They face an electorate that is two to one liberal against them. The Democrat dominance is not just concentrated in the big cities, but is spreading to the suburbs. Orange County, California, was a bastion of conservatism from FDR. While the state went blue in presidential elections from 1992 onward, Orange County stayed red. Those days are gone now. For so long, I hoped that Republicans in California could change their brand, reshape their outreach, and augment a more common-sense policy platform to appeal to disaffected Democrats and independents. Sadly, Trump Derangement Syndrome has proven too malign for liberal voters to overcome. Democrats will not vote for more reasonable people unless the candidates are registered independents, like the current Los Angeles County District Attorney, or are Democrats unafraid to buck their party and the system, like Los Angeles City Councilwoman Tracy Park.
5. Trump is the boss, even when I don’t like his endorsements or choices. The boss may make mistakes, but the boss still makes the final call. The Republican Party is now Trump’s party, even in California. He has been good for the national party, since he has adopted working-class populism to win the Rust Belt. That political coalition does not resonate in blue coastal states like California. Trump expanded the electoral map and the demographics of the GOP. Those gains have not helped California. The Golden State has become an amalgam of aggressive public sector unions, festering hot beds of indoctrination in universities and public schools, plus an overwhelming population of illegals and recent arrivals committed to getting rich off the government. With interests like those, sound constitutional conservative policy cannot break through. I don’t blame Trump; I blame the liberal majority in California. And this disappointing reality reverts back to my first lesson: California voters want their abject liberalism, even if those policies cause nothing but suffering.

Trump will move on. Perhaps the California Republican Party can rebuild and have a future? Will there be any hope of the Republican Party brand resurgence when Trump retires? A successor can build on Trump’s current policy successes, learn from his messes, restore GOP suburban outreach, and bring in disaffected upper-middle-class moms and dads. Republicans in California have to find a way to bridge that gap, including tech elites and factory workers. There are signs that such a shift can happen.

Hispanic voters, especially in California, are moving to the right, but there is a need for real economic freedom and change. The decline of public schools and the rise of homeschooling suggest that the younger generation will be more independent and certainly more open to constitutional conservative thinking. With those kinds of changes, they will open up to the Republican Party.

If we want constitutional rule restored for certain in California, it will take a religious revival, which can happen. Argentina was a socialist basket case for 100 years. Only as Christian revival surged throughout the country, a new generation of voters began to reject the bland, played-out legacy of socialism. Then, outspoken charismatic libertarian economist Javier Milei announced his bid for president, with a new party, and then took the Argentine political class by storm as their new president.

Californians can wake up, and they can vote themselves out of political bondage. Of course, not just a change of minds in younger voters, but the welcome intervention of election integrity measures from the federal government will go a long way to ensuring a viable political system in California where the constitutional rights and the everyday needs of Californians can be respected and relieved.

American Thinker

Until you are willing to harm the left more than they are willing to harm you, they will win. It’s really that simple.” —Aimee Terese on X

You’ll just have to stand by on whether this war with Iran is over or not, since the Shia true believers’ practice of Taqiyya is a permission structure for lying to infidels (us) when necessary — like, to advance global chaos that will bring the return of the Hidden Imam (Mahdi) to fill the world with justice, and establish Islamic rule. (Got that?) One might wonder, of course, whether the majority of Iran’s people have had enough of the true believers in charge and their true belief in apocalypse.

President Trump’s promise to bring exactly that down on them seems to have had a clarifying effect. The option remains open to “bomb the shit out of them,” as he put it, while keeping their economy in a Macumba Death grip choke-hold. In preliminary strikes Thursday, the US Military might have demonstrated an ability to go after whatever they have left of missile and drone launch sites. In any case, skeptics abound. . . but, admit it, an actual peace agreement would be quite a coup.

It would be distasteful most of all to the mass formation lunatics of America’s Lefty-left “Resistance.” Anything that advances our country’s actual interests is hateful to them. In fact, when you think of it, the Lefty-left is in thrall to the same sort of world-ending chaos as the mullahs and their IRGC henchmen. The mullahs have their vision of the post-apocalyptic Islamic utopia and the Lefty-left has its dream of a post-revolutionary socialist nirvana where everyone is equal (except those who are more equal — and get to boss around the rest of us.)

Yeah, it’s an old story here in Western Civ, this recurring drive to level the existing social hierarchy so as to abolish the tendency of some people to do better in life than others. It never works out. It always leads to mass slaughter of some kind. It always ends in rueful disappointment and a return to the free-for-all that is the human project. The outstanding question might be: why do so many in the West continue to believe it?

The current uprising comes out of the strange conversion of Liberalism to Lefty-left Democratic-Socialist Progressivism. Remember, liberalism was pure live-and-let-live, with an emphasis on minimal government intrusion in our affairs, especially economic affairs. The Liberals of Boomerdom — the campus nirvanas of the 1960s — were contemptuous of government generally, but especially the FBI and the CIA. And, of course, the hippie vanguard was socially and culturally all about the freedom to do your own thing. Freedom of speech was a leading concern.

The Lefty-left, as it evolved under Barack Obama and “Joe Biden,” was about rigid intolerance for opposing ideas and maximal government involvement in your life, especially economic and sexual — making a pass at a girl became subject to litigation. The FBI was loosed on dissenters from Lefty-left policies. Juridical sadism became systematized as Lawfare. The Lefty-left constructed a huge censorship apparatus; no more freedom of speech. They used law and regulation to attempt social leveling; no more discipline in school for black kids because . . . racism! Discriminate against Whitey for jobs. . . anti-racism! Election fraud = “our democracy.” You see how all that went?

Turns out, they wanted to use the government to overthrow the government! And the social order it rode in on! Hence, the ten-year-long crusade to destroy one Donald Trump, the peculiar “Gray Champion” of our Fourth Turning, who turned out to be a staunch counter-revolutionary, that is, an opponent of this new Democratic-Socialist Progressive (wannabe-communist) corps of chaos agents.

One schematic way of understanding this dynamic is Peter Turchin’s theory of Elite Overproduction. By the early 2000s, with anybody and everybody going to college, there were not enough job positions in the real productive economy for this spewage of college degree-holding entrees to the Professional / Managerial Class. By this time, coincidentally, the colleges they were graduating from were infested by three generations of Marxist professors — i.e., adults enjoying cozy institutional security, with no experience in the real world, free to indulge in Marxian revenge fantasies and make them the basis of their teaching.

It was the perfect setup for the emergence of a matrix of NGOs and political activist orgs that could employ all these college graduates which the real economy had no place for. And the new hires were pre-programmed in the ideology of grievance, tinged with racial and sexual animus in addition to economic complaint.

So, voila! — America (and Western Civ generally) became infested with these pernicious Lefty-left operations, which became symbionts of the government themselves, many of the orgs dependent on government (USAID) to fund their activities and pay the management. They got scads of additional money from wealthy freelance chaos maestros like George Soros, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, Reid Hoffman, Neville Roy Singham and others.

Mr. Trump is dismantling that matrix and the funding flows associated with it, at the same time that he attempts to reconstruct an economy based on the production of real goods. As it happens, that matrix of orgs amounts to the consolidated racketeering operation of the Democratic Party, and the party is going garishly insane at the prospect of losing its means to power.

The Lefty-left now is the Democratic Party. It has nothing whatsoever to do with what we used to call Liberalism. It’s a party of envy-driven, sadistic fanatics. And it is no accident that such a mind-set leads them to construct a permission structure for lying about everything they do. It’s all there in their primary manuals-of-operation: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, and Gene Sharp’s From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation.

In this way, they are just like the Shia mullahs of Iran who are privileged to lie to infidels who threaten their lust for apocalypse. Mr. Trump doesn’t trust the insane mullahs and their IRGC wing-men, and he certainly shouldn’t trust the apparatchiks of the Democratic Party. Each, in its own way, represents a kind of performative adolescent rebellion, and both them require a kind of resolute parental response: Daddy is in da house . . . and you’d better behave. Believe this: after Iran, the Democratic Party is next. The hammer of law will be coming down.

https://www.kunstler.com/ ^ | June 12, 2026 | James Howard Kunstler

If the Anthony clan is representative of the intact black family that conservatives like Ben Shapiro are always clamoring for, then we should rethink that proposition.

Bill Ponton | June 12, 2026

There is something rich about Karmelo Anthony describing himself in his court filing as a “penniless, destitute, and indigent person, too poor to employ counsel to represent me on the appeal,” after his parents squandered the crowdfunded defense fund of $625,000 on meals at Cheesecake Factory, luxury handbags, and a new home in a gated community, presumably needed to foil attempts by relatives to sponge off them.

If the Anthony clan is representative of the intact black family that conservatives like Ben Shapiro are always clamoring for, then we should rethink that proposition. The elder Anthony instilled in his son arrogance, machismo, and a sense of victimhood, a deadly cocktail that no sane father would want to foster. Both parents show a disturbing lack of remorse for the actions of their little pit bull.

If the family’s crowdfunding success is any measure of wider black support, then we should also ponder what the civil rights movement has wrought. In the six decades since MLK’s, “I have a dream” speech, white parents must still caution their children about upsetting their black classmates in any fashion, lest they end up with a penknife in their chest.

If Democrat U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett’s defense of Anthony is any measure of tribalism in this country, then “Houston, we have a problem.” Whereas liberal white women scold white men for being toxically masculine, black women, like Crockett, are big cheerleaders of black men’s hyper-aggression.

I witnessed a display of it in college, when several black male students cut in line at the cafeteria. When a white student objected to their arrogant actions, black female students came up behind him and hit him over the head with a tray. They, like Crockett, are in full support of their black brothers, even if it means they stick a knife in a white boy’s chest from time to time.

By a miracle of God or aided by the fact that there were no black jurors, the jury trying Anthony did not shirk its responsibility, and removed him from society for the next 35 years (his first chance at parole is at 17.5 years). That is a good thing because you cannot convince me that he won’t pull that stunt again. By the time he is released at age 50 if he serves his full sentence, most of the fight should be out of him.

Something that should feel simple and innocent turned scary in seconds. Police say two kids running a lemonade stand in South Boston were robbed at gunpoint — by other kids.

Police said they responded to the reported armed robbery at 157 West Ninth Street, near E Street, around 4:44 p.m. on Wednesday, but two male youths had already fled the scene, according to police.

The victims, two juveniles, told officers they were operating their lemonade stand when the suspects made several passes by before approaching them and asking whether Apple Pay would be accepted as payment. Before the victims could even respond, police say the suspects grabbed their box of money, and one of them displayed a black firearm in his waistband.

Both suspects ran away in the direction of Dorchester Street, police added. No arrests have been made. Police released several blurry images and surveillance video of the two suspects walking near the lemonade stand.

Jennifer Byrne, the mother of the two kids, said the incident left her children traumatized.

“My daughter called me, I’m at work. She was in hysterics, crying, saying, ‘Somebody put a gun to us and took all of our money,'” she said. “They noticed two kids with masks over their face across the street they kept coming back and forth.”

She said the two youths went up to her kids and asked if they took Apple Pay, then lifted up their shirt and flashed a gun.

“My daughter said when they said ‘We’re taking it all’ she put her arms up in the air and said, ‘Just take it. Just take it.'”

A neighbor said they saw the suspects with the money box on Grimes Street. When they spotted her, she said they dropped it, grabbed the $50 inside and ran.

“My son is 12,” Byrne said. “He said one was smaller, he’d guess 10 or 11, and the other child looked a little older, maybe 14.”

She said her children weren’t hurt, but the family is shaken.

“My daughter, the youngest one, she’s nervous to walk the two blocks to her bus stop,” Byrne said.

The incident, which is being actively investigated by detectives, began circulating in Southie and on social media later Wednesday, according to Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn, who contacted the police department to confirm the reports.

Flynn said in a Facebook post just before 10 p.m. that he was troubled by this serious incident, and that it cannot be downplayed or ignored.

“When someone robs a lemonade stand, you can’t continue saying we’re the safest city in America,” he said.

“Having younger people involved in this activity is troubling and it speaks to the work that needs to be done,” state Sen. Nick Collins added.