Paying for It All
Trump administration is considering a financial bailout for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over economic losses sustained from the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran. In an interview with CNBC, President Donald Trump responded to a question about the UAE requesting a bailout, saying, “[The UAE has] been a good country, a good ally of ours. It was shocking because we didn’t think they’d get hit. I’m surprised, because they are really rich.” Popular conservative commentator Steve Bannon blasted the proposed deal on his radio show on April 21: “The UAE walks into Treasury and wants a credit line. No interest. No collateral. Meanwhile, the American middle class got wiped out in 2008, and nobody came. Your kids are on strike forces in Oman protecting these people, and they’re partying in Dubai in bikinis. You’re just a working stiff paying for all of it.”
Click the Link Below to Listen to the Audio of this Article
Israel Runs the Show
On April 13, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a press conference in Hebrew that was aired on the Israeli government’s own news channel. According to the official translation provided by the Israeli government, Netanyahu said he receives daily reports from the Trump administration on Iran, including detailed briefings from Vice President JD Vance on U.S. peace negotiations with Iran: “[Vance] reported to me in detail, as members of this administration do every day,” said Netanyahu. The candid remarks received so much attention that the Israelis ended up changing their own translation of the speech to say that Netanyahu just gets “updates” from Vance and others in the Trump administration, not detailed briefings.
Next Year
If you’re wondering when gas prices in the United States will drop below $3 per gallon again, Energy Secretary Chris Wright says don’t expect it to happen any time soon. “That could happen later this year,” Wright told CNN on April 19. “But it might not happen until next year.”
Shocking Stupidity
The U.S. government’s top nuclear security chief, Andrew Hugg, was reportedly escorted out of the Pentagon on April 21 after an undercover news report emerged. According to published reports, Hugg fell victim to an attractive woman, who turned out to be a U.S. journalist with a hidden camera, bent on seeing what kind of inside information she could get him to divulge if she pretended to go on a date with him. Video of Hugg’s dinner date was released on April 21 by the Citizen Journalism Foundation where Hugg can be heard disclosing classified information on the following topics: the locations of U.S. nuclear weapons; America’s secret chemical weapons program; how everyone knows in Washington that the U.S. military mistakenly blew up a girl’s school in Iran; how President Donald Trump plans to assassinate Iran’s new supreme leader; the specific procedures for launching U.S. nuclear weapons; and how the U.S. funds corruption in Ukraine.
Surveillance Drone Lost
The U.S. Navy confirmed recently that one of its advanced MQ-4C Triton surveillance drones “crashed” on April 9 over the Persian Gulf, a loss valued at over $238 million, according to military news website “The War Zone.” The reason for the crash and its location are being withheld, but many suspect Iran was able to shoot it down and possibly steal its valuable technology.
Mega-Layoffs
On April 15, The Wall Street Journal reported that tech companies are continuing to dump jobs as their profits tank. “Snap is laying off 16% of its staff. Block lopped off 40% of its workforce. Oracle, meanwhile, is shedding thousands of employees, after Amazon.com cut about 30,000 in a matter of months.”
Avoiding Massive Bloodshed
While the United States wastes hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars on unnecessary wars, China is moving to consolidate power. On April 9, Cheng Li-wun, the chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition party KMT, traveled to Shanghai and Beijing to meet with Chinese officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was the first time in over a decade that Chinese and Taiwanese officials met face to face. Speculation is that, should Cheng become president of Taiwan, she would negotiate a peaceful Chinese takeover of the island nation, saving untold lives and trillions in infrastructure losses rather than fight an unwinnable war.
Impossible Bets Pay Off
In March, the White House issued a rare public warning to staff against using nonpublic information to trade on financial markets, as a series of well-timed bets on oil and prediction markets related to the war in Iran raised serious concerns about insider trading. Since the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran began at the end of February, individuals have made impossible bets on gambling websites, scoring millions of dollars for themselves. For example, someone on popular gambling website “Polymarket” made more than $550,000 after placing a series of bets on markets about the assassination of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Several other accounts on the site placed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire just hours before President Donald Trump announced a two-week pause in hostilities. Those accounts raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars. A series of trades on oil markets have also faced scrutiny. In March, traders placed nearly a half billion dollars’ worth of bets on crude oil futures 15 minutes before Trump touted productive talks with Iran in a social media post.
Foreign Surveillance
When Donald Trump was running for office in 2024, he claimed he was the victim of politically motivated spying that included the use of special powers granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and wanted the law to be shot down. Trump seems to have forgotten about this, though, since, now, he is demanding Congress extend domestic spying powers under FISA 702 with no reforms, just as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi have done in the past.
Robinhood Act
A new bill introduced by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) seems to have solved the problem of ensuring millionaires and billionaires pay the same tax rates as working-class Americans. Goldman introduced the “ROBINHOOD Act,” which addresses how many millionaires and billionaires avoid paying any income tax by using the stocks and bonds they own to secure massive loans to pay for their luxury lifestyles. Goldman’s bill would apply a 20% federal tax on large asset-backed loans taken out by people earning over $400,000 a year. If they borrow $10 million against their stock portfolio, they would owe $2 million in tax, or the same rate working-class Americans pay if they sold the stock instead, said Goldman. Goldman’s office estimates his bill would raise about $276 billion over 10 years.
American Jews Against Iran War
A new poll by pro-Israel lobbying firm J Street published on March 31 found that 60% of American Jews oppose the U.S. war on Iran while only 37% support it. Another 58% of American Jews agreed that U.S. military action against Iran weakens the United States. The poll was in stark contrast to Israelis Jews, who overwhelmingly support the war. According to Israeli daily Haaretz, 61% of Israeli Jews oppose the Iran ceasefire and 73% expect fighting to resume within a year. Another 69% of Israeli Jews want Israel to continue bombing villages in Lebanon.
