This is an interesting insight when overlaid with what you know about foreign government and their influence operations within U.S. politics.

Michael Doran is director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. As a professional political insider, this consulting business model is party based on the currency of access to key policymakers, staff and advisors.

In this podcast with Bari Weiss the discussion is about Israel and the attack on Iran. Both Weiss and Doran are aligned with the interests of Israel and very supportive. However, in describing President Trump’s position toward Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu there is an interesting moment when Doran explains how foreign governments lost access and influence; essentially, when spying became more difficult. [Reference point 28:51]

In part, Secretary of State/National Security Advisor Marco Rubio restructured the National Security Council, and when he did that “Europeans and those in the Middle East” lost their ability to “plug-in” to their contact sources. The “cultivated sources” they used were no longer in place.  It’s only about a minute on that aspect, but revealing when you consider influence operations and the push to war.  WATCH:

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This is madness.  Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sends a twitter message as if he’s ordering coffee from the guy down the street, telling NATO members not to forget to send him his $40 billion in “budgetary support.”

[SOURCE]

Budgetary support means we pay for the operational cost of Ukraine government, including govt payrolls, pensions, healthcare services, welfare and social services for the people in Ukraine.

The crazy thing is, unless Trump stops it, our congress will give it to him.  And even if Trump tries to stop it, congress will demand the payment as part of their appropriations process.

Maybe it’s just me, but the in-your-face hubris of it is, well, just off-the-charts.  As if we don’t have important priorities here at home that could better use these taxpayer funds.

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Multiple media reports are now outlining the movement of U.S. B-2 Stealth Bombers amid the possibility of strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities.   However, despite what many media outlets might narrate, there is no way to determine the intent of the movements until some type of action actually takes place.  It is all supposition.

The media are giddy with excitement.

Daily Mail – Deadly stealth bombers, which only the US has in their arsenal, are on their way to a US Air Force base in Guam amid growing tensions with Iran, according to reports.

Six B-2 stealth bombers, docked at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, appeared to be on the move on Saturday morning, according to Fox News.

The bombers are said to have been refueled, which means they could have launched without full tanks due to the extraordinarily heavy bunker-buster bombs.

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This is weird.

According to direct reporting from the Minnesota Star Tribune, after his arrest Vance Boelter who went on a murdering rampage targeting key political officials told the FBI that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hired him to kill U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar.

MINNESOTA – In a rambling, conspiratorial letter addressed to the FBI, alleged assassin Vance Boelter claimed Gov. Tim Walz instructed him to kill U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar so that Walz could run for the U.S. Senate, according to two people familiar with the contents of the letter.

The letter is the clearest evidence yet of Boelter’s mindset after the targeted violence against Minnesota politicians last week. It is incoherent, one and a half pages long, confusing and hard to read, according to two people familiar with the letter’s contents. It includes Boelter alleging he had been trained by the U.S. military off the books, and that Walz, who is not running for Senate, had asked him to kill Klobuchar and others.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Vice President JD Vance traveled to Los Angeles, California, to thank local police, immigration enforcement, federal officials and U.S. military who are currently in the process of deporting criminal aliens from the region.

Vice-President Vance notes the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor of California are complicit in the violence that erupted last week due to their actions and words provoking civic unrest. Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom asked citizens of the area to protest and were supportive of the violence that followed. WATCH:

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President Trump holds an impromptu press conference from the airport in Morristown, New Jersey.  After making a few announcements about peace between Congo and Rwanda, President Trump took questions from the assembled press pool.

As we have mentioned before, there is a transparent effort by the mainstream media and their aligned allies in the intelligence bureaucracy to get DNI Tulsi Gabbard removed.  President Trump is again questioned about Gabbard’s statements from March where she repeated an Intelligence Community assessment that Iran was not currently building a nuclear weapon.  President Trump accepts the misleading question and responds by saying, “she’s wrong.”

President Trump’s admonishment of the manufactured statement is then amplified by the Israel-First group, which includes Laura Loomer and Mark Levin, both ‘influencers’ hoping to see Tulsi Gabbard removed, and replaced with a more pro-Israel, pro-war intelligence head.  Watching this unfold is quite remarkable.

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Consider the final day of the G7 Summit in Canada that President Trump smartly avoided.

The G7 is supposed to be the assembly of seven leaders from Japan, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, the UK and USA. Essentially, an economic forum with some of the world’s most influential nations. However, instead of this focus, here’s the picture of who was invited to the G7 in Canada – the group President Trump avoided by leaving early.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney poses for a family photo with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Council President Antonio Costa, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, World Bank President Ajay Banga, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, in Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025

Does it make sense?  A G7 assembly with a final day invitation list that brought Australia, Mexico, Ukraine, South Korea, South Africa, India, the United Nations and the World Bank into it.  Why?  Because President Trump, that’s why.

U.S. President Donald Trump smartly exited the G7 assembly a day early, he departed just before the crowd of interests arrived.  If we drop the pretending we all know why Canada invited them and these nations came running – Tariff$!

Without retaining the status quo trade system of unlimited access to the USA consumer base, the exfiltration of American wealth is halted.  A process to keep USA wealth inside the USA is against their interests.  That’s why they came.  That’s the only reason they came.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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