USAID Funded Aid Programs Abroad, But Mainly Was a Jobs Program for Progressives

No Takers, Nor Tankers By Molly Schwartz, cross-asset macro strategist at Rabobank Daily crossings through the Strait of Hormuz increased substantially after the US and Iran announced a “peace” agreement in mid-June. However, those numbers have started to dwindle as the ceasefire—peacefire, shmeasefire—appears increasingly shaky. According to Bloomberg, the Joint Maritime Information Center said that traffic through the Strait remains at “reduced levels,” (around 24% of pre-war transit) even though US-assisted vessel transits have been largely uninhibited. Reuters reports that “some war insurers advise shipowners to pause Hormuz voyages after attacks,” adding...

Bessent Signals Crackdown On Dark-Money Funded NGOs In "Weeks, Months Ahead" Last year, readers were briefed on what was then the investigative phase into dark-money-funded NGOs and alleged foreign influence operations routed through far-left activist networks. These NGOs and activist networks advance anti-capitalist agendas, mobilize protests and riots to fuel unrest under the banner of toxic social justice, and have also served as a permanent protest-industrial complex designed to delay, deny, and destroy President Trump's pro-America agenda. Fast forward to late spring, and there now appears to be a clear...

When The Cost of Truth Is High, We (And AI) Lie... Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, When we can no longer tell the truth because the cost is so high that it threatens our reward for compliance, we're unimaginably impoverished. Truth has an intrinsic, irreplaceable value.  There's the truth, and then there's everything else. Truth has value, and so it has a cost.  Whatever has the highest value has the highest cost, and high cost commands sacrifices. When the cost of truth is high, we lie.  And since AI is a distorted reflection of...