Editor note: Many thanks to blogger E for this share!🌹
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Iran hit Kuwait’s airport this morning. One dead. Sixty-three wounded. Flights frozen. Missiles over civilian airspace.
And three hours later, Trump went on a podcast and said five words:
“They’ve already agreed. No nuclear weapon.”
Read that again. A country that just launched 30 ballistic missiles at a US ally — has ALREADY AGREED to terms.
You are not watching a war. You are watching the final act of a negotiation.
Iran needs to strike before it signs. It needs its people to believe it fought and was never broken. It needs to fire missiles so the surrender looks like a ceasefire and the ceasefire looks like victory.
Trump needs Iran to strike so the deal looks like submission. So he can stand behind the podium and say: I brought them to their knees. They begged. They signed.
Both sides need tonight.
The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for 96 days. Six ships have been forcibly stopped. Oil has not moved. The global economy is bleeding $4 billion per day.
This does not continue. This was never meant to continue. The timeline was set before the first missile was fired.
The attacks you saw today were not escalation. They were the FINAL PERFORMANCE before the curtain falls.
A deal is not coming. A deal is HERE. It was signed before the airport was hit. The signature came first. The missiles came second. In that order.
Within 7 days, Trump will stand in the East Room and announce what was agreed to in silence. Iran will call it sovereignty. Trump will call it victory. Both will be telling the truth. But only one of them planned it this way from the beginning.
The war ended before you knew it started. The announcement is all that remains.
اللحظات الأولى للاعتداء الإيراني الغاشم من قبل المسيرات الذي تعرض له مبنى الركاب T1 في مطار الكويت الدولي بتاريخ 3 يونيو 2026 وتسبب بخسائر بالأرواح وإصابات بشرية بليغة وأضرار مادية جسيمة
The first moments following the brutal Iranian drone attack on Terminal 1 (T1) at Kuwait… pic.twitter.com/eTzQoVXB4K
A drone attack carried out by the Islamic Republic terrorist targeted Kuwait International Airport, leaving one person dead and several others injured, while forcing authorities to divert flights and implement emergency security measures.
— Niyak Ghorbani (نیاک) (@GhorbaniiNiyak) June 3, 2026
He said he wants to meet Khamenei.
Not through diplomats. Not through back channels. Face to face.
The same man who bombed his island 48 hours ago now says he wants to sit across from him. The media called it “a signal.” It is not a signal. The meeting is already arranged.
Today the House of Representatives voted to STOP the war. A war powers resolution. Bipartisan. Passed.
Trump did not react. Did not comment. Did not threaten a veto.
Because the vote does not matter. The war was never theirs to stop. It was his to end. On his terms. At his chosen hour.
While Congress was voting to end a war — the man fighting it was already scheduling the handshake.
Rubio was asked today if Greenland belongs to Denmark. His answer — two words: “For now.”
Canada entered a recession 6 days ago. Trump called it the “51st state” within hours.
Spain denied its airbases for the Iran operation. NATO did not respond. No Article 5 discussion. No emergency session. Silence.
Three allies broke rank in the same week. One is being absorbed. One is being acquired. One is being punished.
None of this is collapse. This is REORGANIZATION.
The old alliance structure is being dismantled while a war provides cover. By the time the ceasefire is signed, the map will not look the same.
The meeting with Khamenei is not about peace. It is about the NEW architecture. Iran gets survival. America gets the corridor. Europe gets nothing.
The deal is not being negotiated. It is being INSTALLED.
There were hints that arrests and more fireworks would be coming and some big names, like Hillary Clinton are expected to rise once more to be dealt with permanently, but we can surmise that arrests and judicial work is ongoing when we see reports like the following referencing “training exercises”. They always say that about live ops. The military wants it all on the QT, and that’s fine. Below is a link to video from ABC7 near Pasadena, California as posted on Telegram. There are other locations as well, they tell us. The training was done a long time ago so the military could execute an op in civilian territory without disrupting too much or causing injury.
BREAKING OVERNIGHT: The U.S. military is conducting training exercises in multiple locations across Southern California. New video from Pasadena shows helicopter activity, controlled explosions and simulated weapons fire in one training in Pasadena.
@police_frequency
A U.S. Military drill that stretched into the early morning hours in a normally quiet Pasadena neighborhood left some residents confused and upset about why it was allowed. https://t.co/X6RYcb5hUgpic.twitter.com/ADq60B9XA5
As far as Disclosure goes, it’s been happening for decades but Humans are so used to being led and told what to think that they ignored the obvious, took their cues from the media and ridiculed the alien topic. Most weren’t interested in exploring the reality unless forced to do so, possibly due to a personal sighting or some bizarre post they saw on social media. I know very intelligent, educated people who don’t believe Reptilians have been running the show. I guess they think we’re gullible and uninformed. Another roadblock is Google’s algorithms and the enemy’s disinformation sources like Snopes and other websites that lead people astray. Unless you’re a full-fledged researcher or Anon, you are going to be misinformed and distracted with rabbit holes.
We know the Galactics are everywhere, keeping an eye on things. Below is a reasonably good video of multiple craft over the ocean along the coast of Brazil.
Another sighting in Paraná, Brazil from May 31, 2026.
Recorded from a webcam at Pontal do Paraná at 1am, witnesses observed large luminous objects that seem to emerge and submerge into the ocean.
——-#NEIOH – “There Are Bases Within The Oceans Of Your World.
For those who have been awake and in this fight for awhile, below are welcome words of appreciation that make it all worthwhile; from the Julian Assange channel on Telegram.
All Patriots-Anons: You are the Lighthouses In The Storm…
Pause for a moment; for the past 8-9 years you have stood unwavering in a storm that most people out there can’t even begin to imagine.
You saw the invisible, analyzed the unspeakable and maintained faith in a free world where there seemed to be nothing but darkness all around. You risked your reputation, lost connection with friends, family because you spoke truths too grand or too uncomfortable for others to bear. You endured ridicule, dismissed as conspiracy theorists, and watched day after day, your voices get censored and deleted across major platforms. And yet you did not falter. You never took off your armor. You Never Quit. Your courage and steadfastness stand as a testament to the unyielding power of the Holy Spirit.
Understand how vitally important your role is. You are Not spectators; You Are The Bridge.
The military and alliance can dismantle the old structure behind the scenes, but they cannot force the awakening of the souls. That was your mission; You prepared the soil.
When the curtain falls, truth rolls out like a tidal wave, 🌊 the world will desperately need guidance. People will freeze in shock disbelief . You will step in, be the calm, the Guardians of Truth; reaching out and saying “Do not be afraid; You are safe now.”
At the end of the road, the greatest gift awaits us all: A HEALED EARTH. You are loved, deeply appreciated. You are the architects of The Great Awakening. Let’s Finish This Together-UNITED
And while we’re talking about those dedicated soldiers in the trenches, Capt. Kyle has been very ill for several days and was admitted to hospital June 2 with upper intestinal issues. The video below shows the legions of angels watching over us and Capt. Kyle as we continue this war. Whether this is an accurate representation of angels or not is immaterial. I believe we all have angels guarding us and supporting us, and it’s a powerful video, beautifully done. You can read Kelly’s detailed report on the Captain on Telegram at this link.
If you recall, we saw a post from W.H. Grampa on Telegram saying masks were going to be more prevalent. As soon as I saw this photo of Trump with the ET [bellow], I knew they would be wearing a mask and helping us out. Gene Decode posted the following. From Capt. Kyle Patriots on Telegram.
Data Centers 💥99 million+ people can be arrested and prosecuted and given tribunals •💥The 2 Star Admiral a Non Terrestrial Hybrid on TV with a mask 👀 ~Gene Decode May 28, 2026
@CaptKylePatriots
Obviously this mask is ridiculously prominent—on purpose. It’s a nudge that a lot of people need.
💥Data Centers 💥99 million+ people can be arrested and prosecuted and given tribunals •💥The 2 Star Admiral a Non Terrestrial Hybrid on TV with a mask 👀 ~Gene Decode May 28, 2026@CaptKylePatriotpic.twitter.com/VmSmk9g855
Do we need help from the Galactic Alliance? Hell, yeah. If you listen to Ishmael Perez or get updates from Cmdr. Valiant Thor, Gene Decode, Q the Storm Rider, or other insiders, you will hear the truth about what we are dealing with, the technology, “pocket dimensions”, portals, extradimensional entities, demons, etc.
We always need to be on our guard and maintain situational awareness. See something, say something. No one wants to frighten the public so a lot is done under cover of darkness or below ground or labeled “training exercises” but it is all geared to keep everyone safe and prevent panic.
3 men wearing partial hazmat suits captured on camera entering the sewer networks in NYC 👀
I believe something much bigger is going underground.
I keep stumbling on these things when I’m looking for something else. They are put right in front of me and I can’t not see them. Maybe this 5 minute video will be useful to you. Source says, “It’s GO time.”
— Paul White Gold Eagle (@PaulGoldEagle) June 4, 2026
A few may recall we were sharing the disturbing videos of Tory Smith many years ago wherein he exposed Mike Pence as a murderer of babies. We watched with dismay as Tory grew weak, and sick, and finally he had to go to hospital where he passed away and we had our suspicions he was killed to shut him up.
It was due to some Q drops that Anons were able to figure out what happened with Mike Pence. Field McConnell spoke of it as well. It has been very difficult to watch uninformed, brainwashed people fawn over Mike Pence when we knew the truth about him.
The following from Tironianae brings back memories of a very brave crusader for the children, and there is a link to Tory’s videos.
Biblical..
REMEMBER TRUMP SAID: “I CAUGHT THEM ALL!”
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DID YOU KNOW in the middle of the Celebration of America event at the National Mall on July 4th, 2019 VP Mike Pence left on a private jet for Indiana, a Gulfstream [tn: N996GA] with the standard Air Force call sign VP2. fact.
👉 half way to Indiana, Pence’s plane was ordered to promptly turn around and head back to DC after being recalled back to the White House by POTUS. fact.
👉 when this happened, Pence’s plane’s Air Force call sign changed mid-flight from AF2 to SAM 239 [Special Air Mission 239] – meaning the purpose of the flight had changed from transporting the vice president to a live military operation. fact.
💥Mike Pence never looked the same after that – like so many others.
————–
‼️NOTE: Pence flew to NH to meet with the Kissinger Group a few days earlier where they allegedly conspired an assassination plot against POTUS, with the help of Paul Ryan and the Sununu clan.
‼️ NOTE: Pence & wife Karen got an envelope at GHWB funeral.
‼️ NOTE: Mike Pence endorsed Ted Cruz for 2016 POTUS.
‼️ NOTE: as governor of Indiana, Mike Pence was accused by whistleblower Tory Smith of crimes against children; Indianapolis being a known child trafficking hub for satanic ritual abuse victims:
the truth can be found in the number of the mission, SAM239:
“And David knew that Saul secretly practiced mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod.” Samuel 23:9
it was over before it started.
~T edit: I wrote all about this in 2020 before the election. I also wrote about the Proton Mail email thread between [pence], John [ryan], and Reince [preibus] planning an assassination attempt on POTUS, and showed the Proton Mail receipts. They are deep in my archives now….
We have watched absolutely brilliant strategy unfold year after year since Trump descended the escalator with Melania to announce his candidacy for POTUS. Most of the complaints about Trump are the result of almost no one being able to fathom what the hell he is doing. His moves might seem chaotic, but they are precision and he sees the chess board and the moves well in advance. He isn’t surprised by anything. He knows what’s coming.
Following is an excellent summary of ‘The Plan’ in this late stage of the game and the smooth moves the Patriots have been making. As some have said, “Let the Boss cook.” Joe Lange consistently brings us great commentary on what is unfolding. Read on. From Capt. Kyle Patriots on Telegram.
I was thinking about this all day, leave it to Joe to so brilliantly put the pieces together. I included 2 of the comments further connecting the dots in the images!
Joe “Why “purposely” create confusion?
This Trump appointment has thrown DC and the entire media into confusion.
“Donald Trump has tapped a close ally to serve as the country’s top intelligence official, days after Tulsi Gabbard announced her exit from the role. The US president said that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and heir to a home construction company fortune, will serve as acting director of national intelligence.”
“Pulte has used his role at the powerful housing agency, which oversees regulations of the federal housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to publicly level of a string of extraordinary allegations at Trump’s political opponents and enemies. Pulte, a businessman appointed by Trump appointed to head the FHFA, has accused targets of Trump including US Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook of committing mortgage fraud. Cook has denied wrongdoing. “William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America,” Trump said on his Truth Social Platform. Pulte will remain director of the FHFA, Trump said.”
The public narrative suggests that Pulte was tapped as “acting” head of DNI, because of his loyalty to Trump, in spite of his complete lack of experience with the intelligence community.
Does anybody think that Trump didn’t know ahead of time, how much this appointment, at this “critical time,” would sow criticism from everyone?
What would be the purpose of creating CONFUSION?
This appointment tells me a few things.
Pulte is in charge of Fannie and Freddie. This move tells me that Trump’s plan to take Fannie and Freddie public, is almost complete. Do people know that DOGE was looking into all the fraudulent mortgages by many public officials for decades? We’ve only heard publicly about a few of them.
Pulte in my opinion, is a “hatchet man” and a “placeholder.”
Scaramucci model.
I think Trump is keeping a tight rein on DNI, as the 2020 election fraud evidence is about to be exposed. Tulsi is about to go nuclear with declassified information on her way out the door. Pulte is willing to take the slings and arrows that will surely follow.
The sacrificial pawn.
But I think this appointment has a bigger purpose.
I think Trump has ALREADY picked Tulsi’s replacement and knows that the only way that he can get him confirmed by the compromised Senate, is if Congress is demanding that Pulte be replaced.
As a “yes man” for Trump, everyone will be calling for his replacement.
Pulte’s appointment in my opinion, is to FORCE the Senate to move quickly to approve his permanent replacement.
Who is the person that I believe Trump will nominate?
Who is the one person, that the deep state insurgency doesn’t want in that position?
Devin Nunes.
Everything is coming full circle.
Nunes knows everything about the Obama administration conspiracy to frame and remove Trump.
Did you know that he recently stepped down from leading Truth Social?
“Devin Nunes steps down as head of Trump’s struggling media company APR 22, 2026.”
A member of the “gang of eight” intelligence committee in Congress.
Publicly exposed the illegal Obama spy operation against Trump.
Exposed Obama’s use of FVEY foreign intelligence agencies used to spy on Trump.
Exposed Adam Schiff’s lies and leaking of classified information.
Art of War.
“Sun Tzu’s The Art of War identifies CONFUSION as a central pillar of strategic deception, asserting that the whole secret lies in confusing the enemy so they cannot fathom your real intent.”
Pulte is playing a strategic role on the chessboard. Nothing more. He’s paving the way for Trump’s true number one pick, as we enter the PROSECUTION PHASE.
Buckle up!”
That is the conclusion of our post today. The intensity seems to be amping up and those CMEs are not dying down. There’s a double header on its way, we hear.
See you next time. ~ BP
This post and every post from this website, Starship Earth: The Big Picture.com is automatically copyrighted, original, and protected from plagiarism by standard USA copyright laws. It is offered free of charge. Content creators/bloggers/social media publishers may use portions of this post if you acknowledge the source and link back to this website. Failure to do so constitutes fraud and theft. If you charge money for sharing this free information you are engaging in criminal activity. ~ Author and Editor, Starship Earth the Big Picture.com
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High above, the Moon is softly glowing in its beautiful Waning Gibbous phase as it glides through the visionary constellation of Aquarius.
This gentle celestial rhythm is beautifully encouraging you to effortlessly let go of any old ideas that no longer serve your highest path.
As the bright Gemini Sun dances playfully overhead, a refreshing breeze of inspiration is washing through your mind.
You are being lovingly asked to look at your future with a sparkling, entirely new perspective.
With the messenger planet Mercury now swimming softly in the deeply intuitive waters of Cancer, your heart and mind are finally speaking the exact same language.
Allow yourself to release old limitations and trust the ingenious ideas bubbling up from within your soul.
Let this newfound vision safely guide you forward.
– The Universe
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Solar Event Will Activate Human DNA — And the Elites Know It
This is the second major episode in the Everybody Wants to Rule the World series — and the one that changes how you read every other piece of this arc. In the Bloodline Argument episode, we examined the oldest jurisdiction claim on Earth: the assertion by certain dynasties that their genetic inheritance from progenitor beings gives them the right to administer this planet. But we left the most important question unanswered: why now? Why is the disclosure train accelerating at this particular moment? Why are the bunkers being built, the resources being extracted, the narratives being positioned — all simultaneously, all urgently, all in the compressed window of the last decade?
The answer is the cosmic clock. And understanding it changes everything about how you read the events unfolding around you. In this episode I examine the clock not as a cosmological abstraction — that territory was covered in depth in the Event Arc series — but as a political reality. As the knowledge that drives observable elite behavior. As the reason certain people have been making material decisions for decades that only make sense if you know what they know about the window we are currently in. The Carrington Event of 1859 is the benchmark they use. The DNA activation layer is what they fear. The underground calculation is the plan. And the flowers are the reason the plan has a fatal flaw. This episode is approximately 17 minutes. The full written article is linked below. Eyes to see it.
CDC had a warning ready that could have saved kids— and killed it on purpose; Bolton admits guilt; 4 Republicans block voter ID; Dems who once swore “believe all women” suddenly can’t hear; more.
Good morning, C&C, it’s Friday! Your roundup includes: Senator Ron Johnson’s blockbuster hearing, where a University of London oncologist testified that all six of his melanoma patients relapsed within months of getting jabbed, and where a Senate report revealed the CDC had a myocarditis warning signed off and ready to publish in May 2021 — until a single FDA appointee personally killed it; John Bolton’s abrupt decision to plead guilty to retaining classified documents after a year of loudly insisting he was innocent; the SAVE America Act’s 48–50 defeat, with four Republican senators crossing the aisle to block voter-ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements; and the New York Times’ “unsettling” new exposé of Maine Democrat Graham Platner, the Nazi-tattooed oyster farmer whose ex-girlfriends keep stepping forward to describe a candidate his own party somehow still considers their best shot.
🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🇺🇸🌍
💉💉💉
Yesterday, ABC National News Desk reported, “Exclusive: Sen. Ron Johnson discusses alleged COVID cover-up, suppression of research.” Sometimes, “exclusive” means you broke the story before everybody else. Other times, like now, it means you were the only one who covered it while the rest of the corporate media ran Pfizer drug ads instead. Good for ABC.
Wednesday’s hearing, chaired by Senator Johnson (R-Wi.), was titled ‘Plausible Mechanisms of COVID-19 Injections Causing Cancer and Attacks on Scientific Publications and Research.’ Several compelling witnesses testified, many of whom are well known to anyone following the covid jab issues. For instance, the morning session featured well-known University of London oncology professor Dr. Angus Dalgleish, who informed lawmakers that all six of his melanoma patients, who had been serenely cruising in remission for years, were dragged back into the oncology wood-chipper shortly after getting jabbed.
To set your expectations, this won’t result in any arrests. Senator Johnson is playing a long game. That alone is a refreshing novelty in a capital where most politicians’ long-term planning extends only as far as their next libation with a pharmaceutical lobbyist.
The senator properly framed Wednesday’s hearing as part of a multi‑year transparency project, to slowly and steadily expose what he correctly called “the biggest government scandal of my lifetime:” public health agencies that knew about serious vaccine safety signals, cherry-picked statistical tricks to bury those signals, and diagnosed dissenting researchers with a sudden, acute case of career termination.
A grateful nation can thank Senator Johnson, who has dogged this issue since the pandemic. He’s using his Senatorial platform to hammer as much evidence of covid malfeasance into the permanent Congressional record as he can. “I can’t prosecute, I can’t convict, but I can expose,” Senator Johnson said. “That’s the first line of accountability. I’m trying to do this because America deserves a COVID reckoning,” he added.
June. Long after hundreds of thousands of young people had gotten the shots to comply with their high school sports and college enrollment requirements.
The investigative committee subpoenaed thousands of pages of records from the agencies, drugmakers, and the White House. That effort uncovered an abusive pattern of minimizing the myocarditis signal while also leaning into ways to explain it away, like suddenly deciding that the adverse event tracking system they designed, VAERS, was unreliable. All of these monkeyshines were muddled in discussions about avoiding “vaccine hesitancy” and in polished talking points about how safe and effective the shots were.
Here’s one example of the games the committee uncovered. In May, 2021, some honest CDC officials prepared a “HAN” (“Health Alert Network”) advisory that would have delicately warned doctors and cautioned young people about the myocarditis signal and would have urged restrictions on “rigorous athletic activity” for at least 3 months for myocarditis cases. Restrictions intended to save their lives. It wasn’t a guess. Confidential internal CDC notes from May 24, 2021, explicitly answered one researcher’s question, “Is VAERS signaling for myopericarditis now?” with “For the age groups 16–17 years and 18–24 years, yes.”
By May 23, 2021, then CDC Director Rochelle Walensky had signed off on the substance of the HAN, writing, “I’m fine with how this reads … grateful.” Absent a major surprise, it should have been published.
Surprise! Even that artfully hedged, tenatively phrased, barely committed HAN was too much. We must avoid hesitation!Triple-masking FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock gave the HAN a fatal injection. She directly emailed CDC Director Walensky, insisting that “FDA does not concur with the issuance of the myocarditis HAN as written.” So CDC ultimately published no HAN, quietly transforming the draft into a short, low‑visibility “clinical considerations” web page posted on May 28, 2021, which did not mention the recommended athletic restrictions, and which was not reported in the corporate media.
In other words, CDC staff had a fully baked alert ready to go, with an internal written acknowledgment of a real VAERS signal in the 16-24 age group, but a conscious political choice in the form of pushback from the FDA’s politically appointed director downgraded that lifesaving alert to a nearly invisible website note. We’ll never know how many kids and young adults could have been saved from lifelong injuries or even died as a result.
This is the same FDA which, I feel compelled to add, gets at least 65% of its human drug regulatory budget directly from pharma ‘user fees’— i.e., from the same companies it’s supposed to be policing. But never mind.
All while this sordid timeline of deceit was unfolding, other CDC officials “provided up‑to‑date information on the status of the HAN to Pfizer and Moderna representatives,” even as doctors and the public got no real‑time warning. In other words, while some CDC employees were doing their job and preparing a belated but critically important HAN, other employees were tattling on them to Pfizer and Moderna.
One has little difficulty imagining Pfizer and Moderna, having gotten the heads-up, complaining about the HAN to Janet Woodcock or even Biden (assuming he was awake).
Soon, and suddenly, political appointee and chronic germaphobe Woodcock shut it all down.
💉 There’s lots more. Read the whole report for more detail than you ever wanted about how things really work inside the public health agencies. Back at the hearing, and far beyond the myocarditis signal, Johnson’s witnesses explained into the Congressional record a dizzying number of ways that the covid shots could conceivably cause cancer.
In particular, Dr. Wafik El-Diery, MD, PhD, FACP testified about how the covid jabs interfere with the body’s normal tumor-suppression defenses against cancer. He also described how his carefully worded papers about how spike protein mightreduce the body’s ability to suppress cancer were savaged, both publicly and sneakily behind the scenes.
Dr. El-Diery testified that he’d reviewed over 70 peer-reviewed papers from 27 countries reporting over 300 cancer cases arising shortly after someone got the shots— many of which appeared near the injection site. In several cases, spike protein —which should be absent from tumor tissue— was found in biopsied tumor samples.
None of this, of course, says anything about later cancers that might develop one to three years after the shots, at a time when the delay makes it devilishly hard to claim any link, and when nobody’s testing tumors for spike.
Mass arrests and prosecutions are still far away, barely visible specks on the distant horizon. But we have seen many firings. And some involved scientists are being arrested, albeit for current misconduct. (We’ll take it, of course.) The market for covid jabs and for mRNA drugs in general has undergone a rapid, unscheduled disassembly. Moderna, whose stock ticker is literally “MRNA,” has acquired a terminal financial infection.
Meanwhile, Senator Johnson continues to beat the war drums and build a record. I wish they could give these courageous witnesses Congressional Medals of Honor. And Ron Johnson has earned our undying gratitude. Please keep it going, Senator.
John Bolton, a notorious neocon and one of the key architects of the Russiagate hoax that derailed Trump 1.0 —which led to two impeachments followed by four years of furious lawfare against the President— has agreed to plead guilty to basic DOJ charges that he illegally kept classified materials from his time in office.
After what President Trump went through, the irony of nailing Bolton on a classified documents conviction is so thick you could cut it into slices and serve it with Joe Biden’s favorite mint chocolate-chip ice cream.
It is also worth noting that, ever since Mr. Bolton was charged last year and his homes and office were raided, he has steadfastly insisted he was innocent, and the whole thing was weaponized selective prosecution. I guess he lied. From the Washington Post’s Editorial Board op-ed, in October:
Whoopsies! I guess he’s rethought all that. He no longer wants his day in court. And he’s no longer insisting on his innocence. Under the proposed plea agreement, Bolton, 77, will plead guilty —to one of 18 counts from the indictment— pay a $2.25 million fine, become a convicted felon who can never again hold security credentials, and will allow the judge to sentence him up to five years in prison.
If, like me, you would have preferred that Bolton be tried fairly by a jury of his peers and then launched into the Sun, you might be feeling less than fully excited about the proposed deal. But it is logical from the DOJ’s perspective.
In exchange for giving up a chance at a life sentence, the DOJ gets security. It has not, to date, had much luck with DC juries and judges. This way, it gets a conviction and takes Bolton off the political chessboard forever. Bolton gets a chance at having a few good years left as a free man.
The deal still must be approved by the Judge at a June 26th hearing.
And it leaves open the possibility of future charges related, say, to the ongoing Russiagate investigation. So there’s still hope for sending Bolton on his one-way mission to the star.
Yesterday, the Senate actuallyvoted on an amendment to add the SAVE America Act to a pending budget reconciliation bill. Alert readers will recall that the proposed Act would require all voters to present ID and proof of citizenship in federal elections.
It only needed 50 votes. It failed 48—50. Four Republicans defected and joined Democrats opposing the amendment, including Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 84, Thom Tillis (R-NC), 65, Susan Collins (R-ME), 73, and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), 69.
The failed vote suggests that Majority Leader Thune may have had good reasons for delaying it— in that he probably knew it couldn’t pass. Of course, this doesn’t completely clear him. He could apply pressure and party discipline, such as by stripping the disloyal senators of their committee positions, as Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-La.) encouraged yesterday.
More conspiracy-minded commenters darkly suspect that Thune only let it come up for a vote because he knew it wouldn’t pass. I have no opinion on that one; it is a matter of mind-reading and imputed motives. I prefer to see the glass half-full— that there are now 48 Republican Senators on record as supporting the Act.
Maybe the Act will enjoy improved odds in January with a new Senate. Till then, there are other opportune irons heating up in the electoral fire. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for more on that.
🔥🔥🔥
Speaking of Susan Collins: behold the latest exciting polycrisis chapter, set in Maine. Yesterday, the New York Times ran a long-format article masquerading as a hit job against the Democrats’ nominee against Senator Collins— the Nazi-tattooed oyster hustler and true colorful character Graham Platner. In reality, the Times’ story was more of a limited hangout. It raised new allegations of sexual abuse, but made them sound like hysterical whining from Republican ex-girlfriends. The Times reported, “Several Women Who Dated Graham Platner Recall ‘Unsettling’ Behavior.”
Unsettling behavior! Imagine the choice of vocabulary they’d have selected instead, if Platner were a Republican endorsed by President Trump.
The funniest thing about this whole story is that Platner is a walking, talking, cartoon caricature of what Democrats think knuckle-dragging conservatives are like. Despite that, and despite the fact he attended the Hotchkiss School, one of the most exclusive and expensive private boarding schools in the country, he’s still somehow the Democrats’ great white hope.
Adding the parts we already know to the new allegations in this story, here’s what the balance sheet shows so far:
Platner is a bearded, flannel-wearing stereotype of high-testosterone, “blue-collar,” salt-of-the-earth toxic masculinity that Democrats both fear and romanticize.
He never shuts up about his Marine service, saying he “signed up for the U.S. Marines to kill.” (Now he says he’s “incredibly non-violent.” It’s incredible, all right.)
Democrat supporters brag about how he could “beat up anyone in Congress.”
His Reddit posts stress his “passion for firearms” and “steadfast support for the Second Amendment.”
In his archived social media posts, he constantly uses “gay” and “retard” as slurs, uses rude nicknames for black people and women (“slits”), and calls rural whites “racist and stupid.” (He now says he was in a “dark place” when he wrote those things.)
His now infamous Nazi death-camp guard tattoo, which he called “my Totenkopf” (he now claims that for nearly 20 years he thought it was just a non-binary, friendly-pirate emoji).
He has a recurring populist line steeped in contempt for the institutions: he calls U.S. wars “a lie” and says the system is rigged by oligarchs. His populism is almost MAGA-adjacent.
He told one of his girlfriends that if he ever caught an intruder in his house, he would rape them— “not in a gay way,” but in a dominance way. (The campaign did not deny it.) This was a very sophisticated, progressive, hands-ontheory of home defense, which I’m certain will be warmly received by Maine’s suburban women voters.
He admits sending sexy chats to women, not his wife, within a year of getting married.
He and his wife are in current treatment with at least four mental health professionals and probably an exorcist.
He has PTSD. Nobody is saying he could snap and shoot up the Senate.
Three ex-girlfriends described him as a volatile, sometimes physically intimidating partner, with excessive drinking, flagrant infidelity, and the kind of sneering contempt toward women that usually gets you featured on a true-crime podcast.
His “transformation” into a liberal happened very recently in 2021, right around the time he realized that Maine’s progressive donor community has much deeper pockets than an oyster bed. Instead of having any kind of communiarian epiphany or even a thoughtful progressive platform, Platner manufactured his progressive bona fides by claiming to have voted for Bernie twice and being a “vegetable‑growing, psychedelics‑takingsocialist,” which Jacobin and NBC repeat as a kind of charming, anti‑establishment tagline rather than an instant disqualifier for public office.
Naturally, we are expected to believe Platner’s transition from bloodthirsty rifleman to peaceful, vegetable-growing, LSD-imbibing, tie-dyed socialist is completely genuine, and not at all a calculated rebranding designed by a focus group. Perish the thought.
And … well … I’m no expert, but I feel compelled to add that I would not be shocked if a reckless, PTSD-afflicted barfly with this train of wreckage already in his biography actually still had a whole conga line of skeletons poised to shimmy out of the closet any minute.
🔥 Back in 2018, NBC published what would become one of the most widely cited polls in recent political history. The article was headlined, “Poll: 56 percent of Republicans would consider voting for a candidate accused of harassment.” For contrast, the subheadline added, “Poll finds 81 percent of Democrats would definitely not support a candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people.”
That poll was dragged up again and again during me too episodes like Trump’s Stormy Daniels case and Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, as proof that Democrats are more principled than Republicans, and would never ever support a candidate with sex pest strings attached. Believe all women!
So you would think it would be more explosive that the Times’ new Platner exposé included troubling allegations far sketchier than those leveled against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, which forced that unlucky politician to step down. But no. You’ve got to see how the liberal Times readers reacted in the comments. Behold, three examples of hyper-flexible mental gymnastics that could headline an old-time circus sideshow.
🔥 Democrats are taking a much broaderview of Platner’s flaws than NBC’s poll might suggest. First (2,600 likes):
And (1,500 likes):
And (1,300 likes):
There you have it. In a single election cycle, Democrats went from “81% say they would definitely not support a candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people” to “who cares; we just want healthcare and a higher minimum wage.”
(I also find it profoundly weird that Little Joe thinks his party “fights for the working class” when they just forced the working class to take experimental drugs or get fired, which by my calculations results in a minimum wage of zero. Maybe I’m missing the nuances. Never mind.)
🔥 The woman most heavily quoted in the Times’ new story was Platner’s ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield, who this morning posted her response to the article. Lyndsey admitted that she was the one who first quietly unmasked the Totenkopf-tattoo story (trying to stay under the radar because she was afraid of Platner). Unsurprisingly, Lyndsey said the Times did not report the full extent of her history with Platner, did not use any of her text messages or screenshots, and spent six paragraphs proving she is a Republican, even though she readily admits as much.
My reaction to this developing story is mostly one of bemusement. For some reason, Democrats see Graham Platner as their best chance to pick up a Senate seat. But even without all this baggage, Platner was always a long shot against “moderate” Republican Susan Collins, who has never lost. Even though Times readers are willing to live with Platner’s knuckle-dragging, neanderthal temperament because he claims to drop acid and grow kale, the steady stream of misogyny can’t possibly help.
But for the sake of argument, let’s say Platner somehow wins. The last time the Democrats rolled the dice on a tattooed bro-candidate with psychological turbulence, they got John Fetterman. And Fetterman has been a spectacular success for progressives, assuming their primary goal was to elect a senator who spends his time trolling his own base, voting with Republicans, and bleeding staff like a punctured IV bag.
I’m not sure Democrats have fully thought this Platner thing through. I say: let them run him. If the Democrats want to replace Susan Collins with a man who threatened to rape home intruders and has to consult four mental health professionals to decide what to have for breakfast, we shall not stand in their way.
Have a fantastic Friday! C&C will return tomorrow morning with an all-new roundup of essential news, caffeinated commentary, and oyster shucking. (Rhetorically.)
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Rose Rambles... 