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The Normalcy of American Wars - The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity

The war in Iran is unlawful and unconstitutional, but in post-World War II America, it is normal. Here is the backstory. When President Donald Trump decided to begin bombing Iran last June, he did not state a coherent or lawful reason for doing so. His director of national intelligence and…
ronpaulinstitute.org
 
  • President Donald Trump reported $59.5 million in foreign real estate licensing income in 2025, up 71% from 2024 and nearly tenfold from 2023, a CNBC analysis of his financial disclosure found.
  • Nearly two-thirds came from Gulf projects, including $25.8 million tied to Saudi Arabia’s Dar Al Arkan and its subsidiaries and $11.3 million connected to Dubai-based Emirati developer Damac.
  • Some developers licensing the Trump name were also seeking U.S. investments, government approvals or favorable relations, while some projects depended on foreign state-owned land, investment or partners.
  • Ethics watchdogs said the deals create conflicts between Trump’s political leadership role and private interests, while legal experts raised unresolved Foreign Emoluments Clause questions.
  • The White House said “the only special interest guiding” Trump’s decisions is “the best interest of the American people.” CNBC found no evidence that the payments influenced administration decisions or resulted in special treatment.

Trump’s foreign licensing business booms to $59.5 million as Gulf developers pay

Nearly two-thirds of Trump’s foreign licensing fees came from two Gulf developers, in the UAE and Qatar, including one pursuing a $20 billion U.S. expansion.
www.cnbc.com
 
This one is an opinion piece so if you read it keep that in mind, take it fwiw, and make of it what you will.

Trump 'rotting' into a meal ticket for MAGA vultures: analysis​

National security analyst David Rothkopf tells the Daily Beast that President Donald Trump is a decaying husk of a man these days, but his gooey meat is delicious to the right kind of vulture.

“We are watching the president ripen and rot before our very eyes,” said Rothkopf. “If he were a banana, he’d be in the trash right now — or, at best, on his way into a recipe for banana bread.

From swollen ankles and bruised hands, we’ve watched this deterioration progress with each passing day. This week saw a progression of bruises up his arms. He is barely able to stay awake at virtually any public function he attends. His behavior is erratic. His already limited vocabulary is increasingly beyond his recall. He needs to be propped up when he walks any distance at all. According to reports, he emits strange odors.”

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...ultures-analysis/ar-AA29Yy5o?ocid=socialshare
 

Jeanine Pirro reportedly calls unusual grand jury after Trump rebuke​

Under-fire acting U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has taken a highly unusual next step after being sternly and publicly rebuked by President Donald Trump for dropping the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool case against a former Olympic rower, citing a lack of evidence.

The former district attorney, judge and Fox News personality — who now answers to Trump’s ex-criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche after his confirmation as U.S. Attorney General this week — is leading a special grand jury that could be used to investigate the president’s political enemies, according to The Washington Post.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...ter-trump-rebuke/ar-AA29XbjO?ocid=socialshare
 
Posting as food for thought, nothing more. As usual, take it fwiw, dyodd & make of it what you will.

Trump's Ex-Wife Reveals President Kept Kabbalah Text Close To His Heart​

Although President Donald J. Trump declared his longstanding affinity for the Jewish people and State of Israel far before he entered into the political arena, his entrenchment with Zionism has become the defining feature of his second term in the Oval Office. That position has also become the focal point for criticism of the second Trump administration, as critics — many of whom were once his most loyal supporters — have come to question whether the president is intent on putting America or Israel first. That doubt has raised questions that transcend far beyond political concerns into deeper, more philosophical and spiritual realms. One glaring red flag that perfectly distills those questions was observed on the date of Trump’s second inauguration, when he elected not to place his hand upon the Bible when he was sworn in as president. According to an interview with Israeli media, Trump’s former mistress turned ex-wife revealed that decision may have been made because the president keeps another holy book closer to his heart.

Marla Maples, Trump’s second wife, told Israeli Channel 12 news that the president keeps an Aramaic copy of the Book of Pinchas under his clothing close to his heart for “healing and protection.” The portion of the Book of Numbers (specifically, Numbers 25:10-30:1) is distributed among Kabbalistic sects in the Aramaic text Maples referred to Trump’s copy being as an apotropaic talisman. Centered on the biblical figure Pinchas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of the High Priest Aaron, the book is a highly revered section from the Zohar, the foundational text of the preeminent branch of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah.

More Here:

Trump's Ex-Wife Reveals President Kept Kabbalah Text Close To His Heart <!-- --> | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com
 

Donald Trump empowers US private companies to conduct cyber-attacks​


Donald Trump signed a memo on Wednesday that aims to give private companies the power to carry out offensive cyber-attacks against foreign criminal entities.

The president ⁠signed a national security presidential memorandum directing his administration to “leverage the capability and innovation of the private sector to help conduct these ⁠cyber operations under the direction, control and authority of the US government”, the White House said.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...ct-cyber-attacks/ar-AA2a3rGL?ocid=socialshare
 

Hundreds of Philly buildings rely on Vicinity’s steam plants. Their workers want better pay and safer facilities.​


Thomas White is a control room operator at a Philadelphia plant working with chillers and steam boilers to provide heat and air-conditioning for Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University. When he started his job some 18 years ago, he and many of his coworkers had served in the U.S. Navy.
That shared experience was an advantage, he says, because they all came with the same training. The Navy used steam-driven ships.
“You just had to learn where things were because you already knew what they did, you knew how to do it, spoke the language,” he said.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...safer-facilities/ar-AA2a6aZg?ocid=socialshare
 
Doug Casey's Take

Nothing to see, can listen in one tab, play around the forum in a different tab. If interested, this is basically an opinion piece. As usual. take it fwiw, dyodd & make of it what you will.

Doug Casey's $10,000 Bet: Trump Won't Finish His Term

Aug 14, 2026 Doug Casey's Take
War Expands, Trump’s Security Fears, and the Case for Commodities as AI Accelerates

The speakers discuss the ongoing war and recent reports of Trump appearing fearful, citing images of him golfing behind concertina wire with air-defense systems and an earlier escape in a catering vehicle, alongside a $10,000 bet that he will not finish his term. They warn of potential Iranian retaliation and domestic blowback, arguing MANPADS and simple, hobby-like drones could be used against U.S. targets, and note a pattern of attacks on energy infrastructure, including Libyan oil facilities. They advocate owning gold and commodity/resource stocks, promoting a “Crisis Investing” portfolio and criticizing AI/chip stocks as a bubble. The conversation also covers alleged U.S. attacks on boats at sea, rumors of low morale and cover-ups on U.S. carriers, reflections on My Lai and Seymour Hersh, objections to Trump naming the Kennedy Center after himself, and optimism about SpaceX, AI, robots, and a coming productivity surge despite looming financial risks.

Doug Casey's $10,000 Bet: Trump Won't Finish His Term
 

Trump caught literally selling off America piece by piece to donors | Opinion​

Proving that a lying clock tells the truth twice a day, JD Vance recently quipped that politics have shifted so much that "if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story." Vance was unwittingly acknowledging his own handiwork as he and his intellectually compromised boss flex Steve Bannon’s flood the zone strategy: throw crap on the wall, throw it often, throw it fast, until the American public is so overwhelmed they can’t keep up and turn away.

It’s working. Eighteen months into this nightmare regime, as one act of corruption follows the next, Americans are turning away. One study found that 65% of Americans across political affiliation and age groups are consuming less news due to information overload and fatigue. It’s exactly what Trump wants.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/t...o-donors-opinion/ar-AA2aaMbJ?ocid=socialshare
 
Just a little food for thought, nothing more.

Trump's rise and fall eerily predicted in 1941 film | Opinion​

In a 2002 video, Donald Trump was interviewed about his favorite movie, Orson Welles’ 1941 classic, Citizen Kane. In the discussion, he likened himself to the film’s principal character, Charles Foster Kane—a man portrayed as rising to become the richest and most powerful man in the world. But, as Trump noted, there was a price to pay. Kane ends his life in solitude, divorced and bereft of friends: “I think you learned in Kane,” he concluded, “that maybe wealth isn’t everything because he had the wealth but he didn’t have the happiness... In real life I do believe that wealth does in fact isolate you from other people.”

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...941-film-opinion/ar-AA2afp0D?ocid=socialshare
 
searcher said:
Trump 'rotting' into a meal ticket for MAGA vultures: analysis
Click to expand...
Interesting, that the Hate-America-First, anti-white racial media propagandists, vilify MAGA first - not Trump with his broken pledges, but those who DEMANDED this country return to laws, borders, sound money.

With SO MANY traitors working in concert, running free and doing their work...we're not gonna last.
 
^

Trump exposed while millions were watching: "Every single part of it was wrong"​

Donald Trump has offered a sweeping account of how he says billions of dollars changed hands between Washington and a major Asian ally during successive US administrations.

Records cited by CNN tell a substantially different story.

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale examined Trump’s claims about US military cost-sharing with South Korea after the president discussed the issue with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. Dale concluded that the central elements of Trump’s account were inaccurate.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...-of-it-was-wrong/ar-AA2amPUd?ocid=socialshare
 
^

Fact check: Every single part of this Trump story about South Korea is wrong​

President Donald Trump told a story about South Korea on Monday. Every single part of it is false.

Trump has delivered versions of his fictional story before; CNN debunked one telling last year. The president delivered Monday’s version the day after he announced the US would reduce military exercises with South Korea – citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and also mentioning that South Korea declined to participate in the US war with Iran.

The latest version of Trump’s tale, which you can watch in full here, went like this:

Read the rest:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...h-korea-is-wrong/ar-AA2akfR4?ocid=socialshare
 

The Suicide of a Hegemon

The war in Iran depleted weapons important to American global power projection. Trump 2.0 shows how he is squandering the alliances needed to sustain it.
mrandrewfox.substack.com
 
Simply stated, we shot all our missiles and gave our shells to israel so they could murder Palestinians and Lebanese...we arrived in South Korea empty-handed...
 
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