"Weapons-Grade Mind-F**kery": A Campaign Of Bad Faith And Ill Will
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"Weapons-Grade Mind-F**kery": A Campaign Of Bad Faith And Ill Will

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“The SAVE Act can pass today under existing procedure. The obstacle is not the filibuster. It is the habit of surrendering to a myth."

- Alex Muse on X

Lunacy proceeds from crime. In case you wonder why half the country has gone crazy, seek no further than Susan Rice’s stark warning to the other half of the country that is not crazy.

Ms. Rice was Barack Obama’s National Security Advisor and then “Joe Biden’s” Domestic Policy Advisor. She did a podcast last week with Preet Bharaha, former US Attorney in the SDNY, now a private lawyer with the Beltway law firm WilmerHale. Her message to Trump supporters: We’re coming after you when we’re back in power. “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

It was an important signal and it got a lot of people’s attention. It telegraphed the fear running through the Lefty-left that their crimes against the country are being tallied, carefully catalogued, and presented to a grand jury in Florida.

The crimes are bundled as a multifaceted conspiracy to overthrow the US government.

Pretty serious.

Sedition and Treason.

Susan Rice knows what she (and others) did.

First, in the frantic days between Nov. 3, 2016 and January 20, 2017, Barack Obama’s White House cooked up the Russia collusion hoax with John Brennan’s CIA, James Comey’s FBI, and Loretta Lynch’s DOJ. Ms. Rice, who was in on it, notoriously wrote a CYA memo memorializing the meetings and planted it in her office desk to be easily discovered by the new Trump admin. The memo stated that “every aspect of this issue is handled by the intelligence and law enforcement communities ‘by the book’.” Of course, that was exactly the opposite of what really happened. The mischief emanating from it has run for ten years, crime upon crime upon crime.

Secondly, and surely less-known to the American public, was Ms. Rice’s role as Domestic Policy Advisor under “Joe Biden.” Her actual job from 2021 to 2023 was to serve as a conduit for Barack Obama to run “Joe Biden’s” White House, along with Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken. During those years, the public rarely (if ever) saw Susan Rice. She avoided the news media and did not make public statements or appearances at White House events. The news media were happy to ignore her. They knew exactly what she was up to.

The prime concerns of this cabal were to protect the image (cover up the crimes) of Barack Obama and his associates, to cover up the criminal degeneracy of the Biden family, and to get the Democrat Party back in power by utterly destroying Donald Trump and the populist revolt he headed.

Everything done in “Joe Biden’s” name during those years was to guarantee his party’s return to power, especially the deluge of illegal aliens across the border to pad the census for congressional districts and provide millions of future voters indebted to the party for letting them in (and giving them tons of freebies when they got here. . . phones, housing, food, walking-around money).

Meanwhile, the Democrats erected an immense scaffold of NGOs to funnel taxpayer money into salaries for their corps of political activists — outfits such as Stacey Abrams’ empire of grift in Georgia, the national networks of Antifa and BLM street-fighters, and the matrix of Somali social service fraud in Minnesota and Maine.

This created a huge parasitical patronage class, basically a national racketeering operation.

Eventually all the NGO grift became an end in itself — the Democrats animating principle: grift for grift’s sake, power to just keep it all going and continue to cover up the crime behind it.

The vital component to all this was weapons-grade mind-fuckery to produce a fog of war that would keep the American public utterly bamboozled, unable to comprehend what was happening amid gales of hoaxes, ops, and scams. The Covid-19 caper was the doozy. We still don’t know definitively if the mRNA vaccine program was a deliberate depopulation project, but it kind of looked like it, while plenty of messaging from global institutions — from the Gates Foundation to the WEF to the UN — was pretty explicit about getting rid of useless eaters. On top of all that, throw in the trashing of Western Civ’s industrial economies with “green” trickery, adding another layer of anxiety onto a sore-beset citizenry.

Of course, despite their best efforts — and it was a mighty crusade of bad faith and ill will — the Democrats failed to vanquish Mr. Trump, a strange miracle itself suggesting some sort of divine intervention. The question now is, will Mr. Trump be able to vanquish them? It begins to look like he might, with plenty of help from the Democrats themselves, who have reached a pitch of madness rarely seen in human societies.

Their latest prank: a boycott of the State of the Union speech to Congress.

So far, seven senators and nine congresspersons have promised to bail on the speech, led ostensibly by Senator Adam Schiff of California, a liar so prodigious and fertile that it can be truly said he never uttered an honest word including “yes,” “no,” and “maybe.” This faction will gather on the mall instead and hurl objurgations at the Capitol rotunda.

All that’s needed to finish them off, really, is passage of the SAVE Act so that voters will be required to prove their identity and citizenship, and absentee ballots will be restricted to the old rules about being too sick to get to the poling place, or else out of the country.

Last week, staffers behind the walking mummy, Mitch McConnell, prevented the bill from reaching the Senate floor with some procedural rigmarole.

Mr. Trump must call them out, and call out Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), too, for dragging his feet on whatever’s necessary to pass the SAVE Act.

The country demands honest elections, and one way or another they’ll get them.

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/23/2026 - 16:20
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Mexico's Cartel Decapitation Strike Fallout: "Not The End, Just The Beginning"
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Mexico's Cartel Decapitation Strike Fallout: "Not The End, Just The Beginning"

Mexican journalist Luis Cárdenas, listed as a journalist at MVS Noticias and a contributor to El Universal and El Heraldo de México, spoke with security analyst Oscar Balmen about the Mexican Army Special Forces' decapitation strike against the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) by killing Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes.

Balmen explained to Cárdenas that CJNG "is designed to survive without El Mencho."

Cárdenas listed key takeaways from his discussion:

  • The fall of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes does not mean the end of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel: it is a transnational criminal structure with a franchise model and regional autonomy.

  • The more than 250 blockades after the operation were not aimed at rescuing him, but were a "criminal résumé": plaza bosses flexing muscle to dispute the leadership.

  • The risk is not immediate, warns Balmen: the rearrangement can take weeks or months to explode, as happened after the capture of Ismael Zambada García; an internal struggle is coming that could fragment or pulverize the cartel.

Earlier, Mexico's Secretary of Defense, Ricardo Trevilla, revealed new details at a press conference about the Mexican Army Special Forces raid to capture El Mencho. He said, "El Mencho was captured in a cabin area near his hideout." However, El Mencho later died in a firefight with the military.

Trevilla offered condolences to the families of military members who lost their lives in the mission to decapitate CJNG.

He acknowledged that the operation against El Mencho can be viewed from "different perspectives," but he said the Mexican Army has completed its mission.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also spoke at the press conference, praising the military for the arrest of El Mencho.

"The government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum knew that the 'elimination' of El Mencho would trigger a massive terrorist reaction," research analyst Miguel Alfonso Meza of Defensorxs wrote on X.

Meza continued:

One day after the assassination of El Mencho, the repercussions are:

  • Collective trauma in the population and hundreds of deadly and economic victims.

  • A predictable internal dispute within the CJNG and the prolonged bleeding it will cause.

  • The elimination of El Mencho as a potential witness to point out all the politicians and businessmen who protected him, as well as a source of information to dismantle his cartel.

  • The establishment of a de facto (military) state of exception in several regions of the country.

  • The international perception that Mexico is at war and incapable of guaranteeing security against the cartels, just over 3 months before the World Cup.

  • And fuel for Trump's interventionist discourse (even though the operation was joint, Mexico will pay the political cost).

Was there any alternative? Yes. There were far better alternatives.

  1. Arresting the most important witness in history instead of assassinating him.

If what matters is dismantling organized crime and its political complicities, El Mencho was one of the most valuable pieces to achieve it. By killing him, they eliminated one of the most important sources of information and, with that, covered up for hundreds of accomplices. They also lost the opportunity to obtain information about how the CJNG operates in order to use it to combat it.

  1. Dismantling the CJNG instead of beheading it.

Despite the fact that Mexico and the US know perfectly well that the logic of beheading cartels has failed because it has only increased chaos and violence, they continue to apply it to the letter. And they don't do it for strategic reasons, but for political banality: they want to hang the medal of eliminating a big capo. That medal does nothing to help the population. The death of El Mencho is not the death of the CJNG. That organization maintains the same resources and territorial control yesterday and today. That organization is the one that uses terror to control territory. That organization is still alive and strong: so much so that it can activate simultaneous attacks in 20 states. Now, what they have achieved is for the CJNG to shift to its most violent version and experiment with systematic terrorism applied as retaliation against the State and the population. Instead of cutting off one head of the hydra, they should have dismantled and financially and structurally strangled the Jalisco Cartel. They should have weakened and reduced it in order to capture its leader in a controllable scenario, not in one where the authorities are clearly incapable of containing the spread of terror.

  1. Inhibiting terrorism and protecting the population.

The government of @Claudiashein was clearly incapable and negligent in the face of the CJNG's terrorist reaction. The attacks did not just spread throughout the country: their government kept us in an information blackout and left us abandoned.

Meza warned:

The assassination of El Mencho marks the rest of @Claudiashein's government: a president who decided to expose millions of Mexicans to unleashed terrorism. However, this is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning.

What could come next are spillover risks to the US.

Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, has warned... 

In a viral post, X user Anonymous Hispano cited a 4chan post from "LONG LIVE EL MENCHO" warning of a "Mexican Civil War," claiming the cartel is enraged and has entered "insurgency mode," starting with a takeover of Jalisco and preparing "inevitable" actions on US soil.

Meanwhile...

Even before Mexico's decapitation strike on CJNG, the US military, special operations, and intelligence agencies had been posturing for a cartel fight, expanding intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions from spy aircraft to drones, and bolstering border and Caribbean forces. We suspect the National Guard deployments in certain US cities were a national security precaution rather than the headline story of cleaning up violent crime in Democratic-run cities. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/23/2026 - 15:45
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What Causes Stagflation?
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What Causes Stagflation?

Authored by Frank Shostak via The Mises Institute,

In the late 1960’s Edmund Phelps and Milton Friedman challenged the popular view that there can be a sustainable trade-off between inflation and unemployment. In fact, over time, according to Friedman, expansionary central bank policies set the platform for lower economic growth and a higher rate of inflation (i.e., stagflation). A famous case of stagflation occurred during the 1974-75 period. In March 1975, industrial production fell by nearly 13 percent year-on-year while the yearly growth rate of the consumer price index (CPI) jumped to around 12 percent.

Friedman’s Explanation of Stagflation

Starting from a situation of equality between the current and the expected rate of inflation, the central bank decides to attempt to increase the economic growth rate by increasing the growth rate of money supply. As a result, a greater supply of money enters the economy and each individual now has more money at his disposal. According to Friedman, because of this increase, every individual is of the view that he has become wealthier. This raises the demand for goods and services, which, in turn, sets in motion an increase in the production of goods and services.

Following this, producers’ demand increases for workers and subsequently the unemployment rate falls to below the equilibrium rate, which both Phelps and Friedman labeled as the “natural rate.” Once the unemployment rate declines to below the natural rate, this starts to exert an upward pressure on price inflation. Consequently, individuals start to realize that there was a general loosening in the monetary policy. As a result, individuals are beginning to realize that their previous increase in purchasing power is actually dwindling. Hence, according to Friedman, people start forming higher inflation expectations.

All this in turn works to weaken the overall demand for goods and services. A weakening in the overall demand slows down the production of goods and services. As a result, the unemployment rate moves higher. Observe that—with respect to the unemployment rate and economic growth—we are now back to where we were prior to the central bank’s decision to loosen its monetary stance but with a much higher price inflation.

What we have here is a decline in the production of goods and services—an increase in the unemployment rate—and an increase in price inflation (i.e., we have stagflation). From this, Friedman has concluded that, as long as the increase in the money supply is unexpected, the central bank can engineer an increase in the economic growth rate. However, once individuals learn about the increase in the money supply and assess the implications of this increase, they adjust their conduct accordingly. Therefore, the stimulatory effect to the economy because of the increase in the money supply growth rate disappears.

In order to overcome this hurdle and strengthen economic growth, the central bank would have to surprise individuals by means of a much higher growth rate of the monetary inflation. However, after a time lag, individuals are likely to learn about this increase and adjust their conduct accordingly. Hence, the stimulatory effect of the higher growth rate of money supply on economic growth is likely to vanish again and all that will remain is much higher price inflation.

From this, Friedman concluded that—through expansionary monetary policy—the central bank can only temporarily generate economic growth. Over time, however, such policies are likely to result in higher price inflation. Hence, according to Friedman, there is no long-term trade-off between inflation and unemployment.

Why Expected Money Growth Undermines Economic Growth

In a market economy, a producer usually exchanges his goods and services for money. He then exchanges the money received for the goods and services of other producers. Alternatively, we can say that an exchange of something for something takes place by means of money.

Things are, however, not quite the same once money is generated out of “thin air” by inflation because of the expansionary central bank policies. Once inflation is employed, it sets in motion an exchange of nothing for something. This amounts to a diversion of resources from wealth-generators to the holders of the newly-generated money. In the process, wealth-generators are left with fewer resources at their disposal, which, in turn, weakens their ability to grow the economy.

An exchange of nothing for something, which sets the diversion of resources, will take place regardless of whether the increase in money supply is expected or unexpected. This means that, contrary to Friedman, even if the money growth is expected it will undermine economic growth. Now, if unexpected monetary policies can cause economic growth, why not constantly surprise individuals and cause economic growth?

What Causes Stagflation?

Increases in the money supply set in motion an exchange of nothing for something. This diverts resources from wealth-generators to non-wealth generators. Consequently, this weakens the wealth-formation process and, in turn, weakens economic growth.

What we have here is a situation whereby increases in money supply undermine the process of wealth-generation, thus hurting economic growth. At the same time, we have more money per goods. This means that the prices of goods are likely higher than before the increase in money supply took place. Hence, what we have here is an increase in prices of goods and a weakening in economic growth. This is branded, by popular description, as stagflation.

Stagflation emerges because of the increase in the money supply. Hence, whenever the central bank adopts an expansionary monetary stance, it also sets in motion stagflation in the months ahead. The fact that, over time, an inflationary expansion of money and credit may not always manifest through visible stagflation does not refute what we have concluded with respect to the consequences of increases in the monetary pumping on economic growth and prices.

What matters for the state of an economy is not the manifestation of stagflation—higher prices and higher unemployment—but increases in the money supply. It is inflationary increases in the money supply that undermine the process of wealth generation. The severity of stagflation is dependent upon the state voluntary, private savings. If savings are declining, then a visible decline in economic activity is likely to ensue. Moreover, on account of past monetary inflation and the consequent increase in price inflation, we will often see visible stagflation. Conversely, if savings are still growing, economic activity is likely to follow suit. Given the rising momentum of prices, we will have a positive correlation between economic activity and price inflation.

The symptoms of stagflation are not visible here because of increasing savings. We can conclude that, if on account of past monetary inflation, we do not observe the symptoms of stagflation this may imply that savings are still growing. Conversely, if we can observe the symptoms of stagflation, then it is most likely that the pool of savings is declining.

Conclusion

Increases in money supply set in motion an exchange of nothing for something. This diverts resources from wealth-generators to non-wealth-generators. Consequently, this weakens the wealth-generation process and, in turn, the pace of economic activity. When money enters goods markets, it means that we have more money per goods. This means that the prices of goods will tend to increase. Hence, what we have here is the increase in goods prices and a weakening in economic growth. This is what stagflation is all about. We suggest that the outcome of monetary inflation is always stagflation. It is not always visible though. As the pool of voluntary savings comes under pressure, the phenomenon of stagflation tends to become more visible.

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/23/2026 - 15:25
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Khamenei Prepares Secretive Succession Plan In Case He's Assassinated 
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Khamenei Prepares Secretive Succession Plan In Case He's Assassinated 

As US carriers deploy in the Mideast region and with tense nuclear talks inching forward in Geneva, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is reportedly taking Washington threats of assassination very seriously.

According to a Sunday report by The New York Times, Khamenei has quietly established detailed succession plans and emergency chains of command in the event he - or other top regime figures - are killed in potential US or Israeli strikes.

 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's grandson, Hassan Khomeini stands next to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/Via Reuters

The contingency blueprint, drafted amid escalating threats and last month's nationwide unrest, is said to ensure continuity of power under wartime conditions. Central to that plan is the elevation of longtime insider Ali Larijani.

The report says that at the height of the protests and amid mounting US military pressure, Khamenei tapped Larijani - a former Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commander and political heavyweight - to assume a dominant governing role, effectively sidelining President Masoud Pezeshkian and consolidating crisis management under a trusted loyalist.

NY Times writes, "Ayatollah Khamenei has instructed Mr. Larijani and a handful of other close political and military associates to ensure that the Islamic Republic survives not only American and Israeli bombs, but also any assassination attempts on its top leadership, including on Ayatollah Khamenei himself, according to the six senior officials and the Guards members."

Nasser Imani, a conservative analyst close to the government, told the outlet over the phone: "The supreme leader fully trusts Larijani. He believes Larijani is the man for this sensitive juncture because of his political track record, sharp mind and knowledge."

Imani added: "He relies on him for reports on the situation and pragmatic advice. Larijani’s role will be very pronounced during war."

According to more details of the emergency wartime succession planning:

According to the six senior officials and the Guards members, Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a series of directives. He has named four layers of succession for each of the military command and government roles that he personally appoints.

He has also told everyone in leadership roles to name up to four replacements and has delegated responsibilities to a tight circle of confidants to make decisions in case communications with him are disrupted or he is killed.

The Times claims Larijani had overseen the crackdown on demonstrators and coordinated closely with Moscow, and may have even had serious input in how to deal on the diplomatic front with Washington.

"Mr. Larijani comes from an elite political and religious family, and for 12 years, he was the speaker of Parliament," the publication adds. "In 2021, he was put in charge of negotiating a 25-year comprehensive strategic deal with China worth billions."

Tehran is justifiably worried given the June war saw several assassinations of top military officials amid the bombing chaos. Also, high on Iranians' minds remains the Trump-ordered assassination of IRGC Quds force chief Qasem Soleimani, killed by a targeted drone strike on January 3, 2020 outside Baghdad international airport.

Tyler Durden Mon, 02/23/2026 - 15:05
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Waste Of The Day: The Story Of Robosquirrel
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Waste Of The Day: The Story Of Robosquirrel

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

Topline: Dr. Frankenstein was able to bring his monster back to life using just rusty tools and a cramped workshop. Researchers in California needed taxpayer funding from the National Science Foundation for their own reanimation experiment, with results that were not quite as impressive.

In 2012, San Diego State University and the University of California, Davis used part of a $325,000 grant to create “Robosquirrel,” a taxidermied squirrel with a robotic tail. The money would be worth $459,000 today. 

That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses. 

Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname "Dr. No" by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn't stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.   

Coburn's Wastebook 2012 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $18 billion, including the origin story of Robosquirrel.

Key facts: Robosquirrel was built to study the predator and prey relationship between squirrels and rattlesnakes.

The researchers placed Robosquirrel in a cage with live squirrels so that it would smell like the real thing. Then, they placed the robot in a field with snakes and moved it along a track to make it appear alive.

The snakes were fooled. One even bit the robot’s head. But when researchers heated up Robosquirrel’s mechanical tail or made it wag, the rattlesnakes got scared and slithered away.

The project was still in its early stages in 2012. The researchers promised that more animals — including RoboKangarooRat and Robosquirrel 2.0, which could throw rocks at rattlesnakes — would soon arrive, though it’s unclear if they ever materialized. 

Robosquirrel made national headlines in Forbes, CNN and more after Coburn included it in his Wastebook. San Diego State University told ABC News that only part of the $325,000 grant was spent on taxidermy. The rest went to undergraduate research training.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 02/22/2026 - 20:05
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