Syria 'Unwilling, Unprepared' To Attack Lebanon & Deal With Hezbollah Despite US Pressure

Trump Downplays Iran's Attacks Targeting US Bases In Kuwait & Bahrain: 'They Were Slightly Provoked' Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, President Trump on Wednesday downplayed Iranian attacks that targeted US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, saying they may have been "slightly provoked" since the US launched strikes against Iran beforehand. "There's a reason for everything, and we hit them pretty hard last night," the president told reporters in the Oval Office. "Some people would say they were slightly provoked because we took a strong action for a different reason, so they were reciprocating." Source:...

We're "Ending The Days Of Hiding Fraud": Bessent Goes After Dark Money In Nonprofits Authored by Stu Cvrk via American Greatness, On April 23, the US Treasury Department announced that the IRS plans to revise Form 990—the annual information return filed by tax-exempt organizations—to improve transparency and strengthen oversight, specifically targeting reporting on government contracts, government grants, and fiscal sponsorship arrangements. The stated goals are to detect misconduct and hold wrongdoers accountable. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put the matter bluntly: “We are ending the days of hiding fraud, abuse, and extremist activity behind...

We've Optimized Fragility, Failure, Denial, And... Rage Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, What happens when optimization is itself the point of failure? In today's zeitgeist, everything must be optimized or we'll fail: our time, productivity, fitness, diet, supplements, career, income, wealth--everything must be constantly optimized lest we fall behind or fail. The grand irony is optimization generates fragility which generates failure which generates denial which eventually generates rage. We've optimized global supply chains for efficiency and cost, rendering them exquisitely vulnerable to disruption and collapse. We've optimized the global economy for "growth"...