News and Views on the Global Stage....

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My Take

Only an Insomniac Could Endure a Jerome Powell Speech

Let me add to my headline: Only insomniacs and those paid to do so (such as journalists) can endure a speech by Jerome Powell, outgoing chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, an institution I argue is useless and has, along with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), bankrupted the working class. Forget my bankruptcy statement for the moment, but Powell has to be the boringest speaker on the face of the planet. I assume he figures he’s adopting the air of an impartial guardian of the nation’s wealth when he speaks, but man, if he were your professor in college, you’d never show up. You’d formed clubs to send alternating scapegoats to take notes. In addition to his pretentiousness, Jerome Powell is also a classic phony. Recall how, during the final two months of the U.S. presidential campaign in 2024, he lowered interest rates twice — while inflation was still roaring! Now, all he can do — since there’s a Republican in the White House, and worse, one by the name of Donald John Trump — is talk about how inflation is rearing its ugly head, and lowering interest rates is the path of financial destruction. Trump actually appointed this man,

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Currently...

The UAE Pulls Out of OPEC: Was Oil Trump’s Goal All Along?

We know in the aftermath of the subtraction of Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela that control of that country’s oil was Donald Trump’s raison d’etre all along. Now that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced they’re leaving the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) this Friday, Trump can chalk up another oil victory. Perhaps oil mania was behind Trump’s Iran plan all along. The UAE is going to increase its oil production, and in response, so is Saudi Arabia. The increased daily output of barrels of the sacred liquid will offset the loss of Iranian exports while Trump keeps his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in place. The UAE doesn’t have to use the strait and Saudi Arabia has a pipeline, in addition to access to the Red Sea for shipments. Another plus: Countries have begun buying oil from the U.S. while Hormuz is hammered shut by both Iran and Trump. The UAE is also withdrawing from OPEC+, a larger coalition that includes Russia. OPEC itself was founded in 1960, largely in response to Western control of Middle Eastern oil supplies that began with Standard Oil. The Emirates’ withdrawal is only the first piece in the puzzle to fall,

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Gunman
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The Story That Won’t Die: ‘Your Friendly Federal Assassin’

Cole Tomas Allen, now officially a suspect until convicted but clearly the person armed to the teeth who ran past metal detectors, has managed to transform the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner into the stuff of history. Some 36 hours later, the dinner and his interruption of it are still the lead stories on virtually every TV channel, at least the national ones. Allen, in a memoir, even admitted to targeting Trump and Company (except Kash Patel for some reason) with his arsenal of weapons; the assailant-in-legal-waiting in his often tangled verbiage famously dubbed himself “Your Friendly Federal Assassin.” Now that’s a phrase that needs to go down in the history books. I can envision it as the title of a book or movie. After-the-fact research shows that Allen had worried his family members by often uttering threatening statements. On the day of the incident, he sent his 1,000-word memoir to his family, and his brother promptly alerted police in Connecticut (where the brother lived). Of course, the event was taking place in New York City, not Connecticut. The most interesting residue to me is how Demofiends are running from the rhetoric that creates monsters in the person of a

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Correspondents
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Both President and Media Shine Brightly After D.C. Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting

For one brief shining moment — one that will hopefully endure — both President Trump and the media, U.S. and European, came together in response to an incident that could have led to tragic consequences. The event, as most of the world now knows, was the White House Correspondents’ Dinner honoring the First Amendment, with President Trump as the principal speaker. As the gathered guests began the first dinner course at about 8:36 p.m. ET, gunshots rang out, and police and Secret Service sprang into action. It turns out that the gunshots accompanied the attempted break-in of the dinner by an assailant armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and “multiple knives,” as police reported. The assailant was later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California. He was a registered guest at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where the event was being staged. Trump, who was whisked off the dais after the gunshots, actually wanted the dinner to continue after the incident, but the Secret Service decided that that was not a good idea. Instead, Trump went back to the White House to hold a press conference. “In light of this evening’s events, I ask all Americans to recommit to

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Pickle
My Take

Trump’s Pickle: Endless Yada Yada, Kharg Takeover, or Bombs Away?

President Donald John Trump finds himself in a pickle. He knows if he returns to an air campaign against Iran, or to any sort of major military offensive, he will be on the hot seat. Republican House members and aspiring candidates are going to be the big losers if the war continues, as well as potential voters who will see gas prices rising endlessly. The president also knows that negotiations ain’t goin’ nowhere. Just today he had to cancel another flight of negotiators to Islamabad after Iran pulled a quick one. The country sent its foreign minister to Pakistan on a three-country jaunt, and the Trump White House on Friday said negotiations were on the table and Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would be taking an 18-hour flight to seal the deal. The problem is, the foreign minister left after just one night and half a day in neighboring Pakistan. Trump ain’t no fool, and he can see as clearly as anyone else that negotiations face two hurdles: they’re going to last forever, and at the end of the day, Iran isn’t going to give in. That leaves the Commander-in-Chief with a few options. One is his infamous threat to

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Beijing3
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Beijing Auto Show Sends Wake-Up Call to Detroit

While we’re mired in a campaign in the Middle East (granted, for legitimate reasons, even if they could’ve waited), the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is showcasing the future of automobile technology at the Beijing Auto Show. The show is being held in the Capital International Exhibition Center, a new venue for the gathering that began in 1990. The center totals 4.1 million square feet of exhibition space. Some 181 new Chinese and global automobiles are on display, along with 71 concept vehicles. The PRC is far ahead of the U.S. and every other country in developing both EVs (electric vehicles) and self-driving vehicles. A news report in China about the event noted that “It almost feels like if you are not currently offering a large, full-size, three-row, six-seater electric SUV, your product planning team has failed at doing its job ….” Chinese EVs — and yes, they have hybrids as well — are seriously gorgeous and beautifully equipped for creature comfort and driving experience (see interior photo of a BYD brand SUV). Meanwhile, EV sales in the U.S. tanked after the Trump team eliminated tax credits for purchasing them. As a result, manufacturers not only canceled EV production plans

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Darts
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Dems Steal Page Out of Trump Playbook and Triumph

It began with a scheme to add five safe Republican House seats in Texas, eliminating those that used to go Democrat. The plan, spurred by President Trump, was to increase GOP representation in the House of Representatives by gerrymandering states controlled by the GOP. Then all hell broke loose, politically, for the Trumpistas. California Governor Gavin Newsom, aka Grabbin’ Gruesome, crafted a ballot measure to create five new Demofiend seats. The measure passed. Meanwhile, GOP plans in other states stalled, and Indiana blanketly refused to go along. Then, yesterday Virginia voters approved a measure that would take a 6-5 Dem seat advantage and turn it into a 10-1 advantage. Unless more states decide to GOP-cise their representation, the Demofiends have scored a huge victory. Ouch, Trump loses again, first to the autocrats in Iran, then to the autocrats-in-waiting in the Demofiend establishment.

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