News and Views on the Global Stage....

Wheelbarrow
Currently...

Hunter Biden Gets $1.7M Haul in Defamation Lawsuit Victory

Former No. 1 Son Hunter Biden is walking away with a $1.7 million victory in a defamation lawsuit over a Trump ally who claimed Hunter was involved in a bribery scheme on behalf of Iran. Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne was on the losing end. Byrne had claimed that Hunter had accepted an $800M Iranian bribe to get his father, then-President Joe Biden, to unfreeze $8 billion in frozen Islamic Republic assets. Byrne claimed an Iranian official had informed him of the scheme, but he was unable to present any evidence in court to prove his allegation. Byrne was involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election on Trump’s behalf. When he levied his bribery allegation against Hunter, No. 1 Son sued for defamation. Byrne failed to show up for the first trial in October, but this time got his clock legally cleaned. Presiding U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of California wrote in his judgment yesterday that “the evidence is clear and convincing that defendant has engaged in intentional misrepresentation with conscious disregard towards plaintiff’s rights.” He awarded Hunter $1 in nominal damages along with $1.7M in punitive damages.

Read More »
daily_planet_arrest_scene
Currently...

Feds Subpoena Reporters Who Questioned Security Features of Qatari Force One

The Trump administration has issued subpoenas to four reporters for the New York Times who wrote a piece questioning safety features on the Qatari-gifted new Air Force One. Reporters Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt were served subpoenas, in some cases by federal agents at their homes on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal. The article was spurred by President Trump’s switching to the old Air Force One — pre-Qatari — on returning from the NATO summit in Turkey, then switching back to the new one in Great Britain. The switcheroo came after Israel warned of new Iranian threats on Trump’s life. Widespread reporting on the plane switch, in print and on TV and not just by the NYT, questioned whether the refurbished new Boeing was up to snuff on all the necessary security features found on the older version. The New York Times called the subpoenaing  a “brazen act.”  The National Press Club issued a statement, saying: “The National Press Club calls on the Justice Department to immediately withdraw these subpoenas and reaffirm a principle that has long distinguished the United States: a free and independent press serves the people, not the government.” The Justice Department responded by saying the

Read More »
4CD4C7F9-8C04-4C7B-94AD-F8C8022C8786
My Take

Do ‘Threats Away!’ Outnumber ‘Bombs Away!’ in Epic Fury?

By the numbers, President Donald Trump may have threatened Iran more times than he actually bombed it. Since Operation Epic Fury launched on February 28, 2026, Trump has issued what experts estimate to be dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of verbal and written threats against the Islamic Republic. They’ve come via Truth Social posts, televised addresses, press briefings, and off-the-cuff remarks to reporters. They’ve targeted everything from Iranian power plants to oil wells, from naval bases to the Supreme Leader himself. The actual bombs? Those numbered in the thousands during the initial 38-day campaign. But the threats to drop bombs? Those may have been even more numerous. This raises a provocative question about modern warfare and presidential communication: In an era of social media and 24/7 news cycles, can the threat of military action become as central to strategy as the action itself? And when does aggressive rhetoric cross the line from diplomatic pressure to potential war crimes?

Read More »
diplomats_grammar_chaos
Current Affairs

Lose All Battles, Win All Wars with Word Play: Iran 101A

When Western diplomats finally emerge from marathon negotiation sessions with Iran, exhausted but triumphant, they often believe they’ve secured a binding agreement. They haven’t. What they’ve actually signed is the opening move in an entirely different game—one where the rules are fluid, the language is deliberately vague, and patience isn’t just a virtue, it’s a weapon. Iranian negotiators are widely regarded by international relations experts as some of the most skilled, patient, and precise dealmakers in the world. But their genius isn’t in what they agree to. It’s in how they’ve already planned to reinterpret it. Rather than viewing an agreement as a final, static contract, Tehran treats every signed document as a fluid baseline for the next phase of competition. This approach is deeply rooted in a blend of traditional bazaar-style haggling, historical grievances, and specific cultural and religious concepts that most Western negotiators barely understand—and certainly don’t anticipate. The result? Iran consistently “loses” individual negotiating battles—and often the battlefield ones too—while positioning itself to win the longer war. Here’s how they do it.

Read More »
oval_office_handshake_books
Current Affairs

The Saad Truth Meets 21st Century America: Suicidal Empathy and Our Demise

Gad Saad (pictured in an illustration with President Trump) is an evolutionary behavioral scientist, marketing professor at Concordia University in Montreal, and host of The Saad Truth podcast. He has become one of the most provocative cultural critics of modern American progressive ideology. Building on his 2020 book The Parasitic Mind, which argued that political correctness and “idea pathogens” are destroying Western reason, Saad’s focus has increasingly centered on a specific framework outlined in his work on suicidal empathy. His central thesis is straightforward yet explosive: America is engineering its own civilizational decline because its greatest virtues—compassion, tolerance, and empathy—have been weaponized by progressive elites and pushed into pathological extremes that threaten the nation’s survival. In the 2020s, as American cities grapple with rising crime, universities become battlegrounds over free speech and identity politics, corporations implement sweeping DEI mandates, and progressive antisemitism surges on college campuses, Saad’s framework has gained remarkable traction among conservatives, tech leaders, and cultural commentators who see his theory as explaining the seemingly inexplicable self-destruction of American institutions. The Core Theory: What is ‘Suicidal Empathy’? Saad defines suicidal empathy (or “maladaptively irrational altruism”) as the psychological inability to make rational, self-preserving decisions because a society has

Read More »
Airliner
Is This for Real?

Airliner Over Greece Suffers Engine Problem and Window Pops Out to Suck in a Passenger’s Head

I may be going a bit too sensationalist here with my illustration, but I couldn’t get any image-rendering application to show an airline passenger’s head stuck in a broken-open cabin window. But that’s exactly what happened to one man when a Ryanair Boeing 737 suffered an engine problem that resulted in collateral damage. The unfortunate passenger had his head sucked into the window opening; his wife quickly pulled him back to safety. The man, a Serbian national, was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident. The airliner was flying at 350 knots at an altitude of 15,000 feet when a right engine fan blade evidently became dislodged. Perhaps that or something else caused the window to break open, resulting in cabin decompression and the unfortunate passenger’s accident. N.B. My illustration is not meant to recreate what actually happened, just to show broken windows and cabin decompression.

Read More »
SAVE
My Take

Hell, No, He Won’t Sign! The Housing Bill, That Is

President Trump has again refused to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which passed both Houses of Congress with huge margins. When it was sent to him a couple of weeks back, he said he wouldn’t sign it unless Congress passed the SAVE America voting rights act. Trump then attended a lunch with Senate Republicans, where he got in a shouting match with outgoing Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana over the war with Iran. He again pushed for the SAVE Act, but again to no avail. Now that time is running out to sign the housing legislation, Trump has said, “Hell, no, I won’t sign!” in so many words. But he hasn’t indicated if he will let it become law without his signature, or whether he will veto it and force Congress to vote on it again. The SAVE bill will require voter ID at the ballot box and will eliminate almost all vote-by-mail options. The president has demanded that Republicans in the Senate get rid of the filibuster and pass the SAVE Act over Demofiend objections. Majority Leader John Thune has said he lacks the votes — and the desire — to end the filibuster. The GOP

Read More »
popup

Have a Novel Burning
Inside of You?
SudoWrite to the Rescue!