Henry Lyles

Cranky Pants

[Henry Lyles @henrylyles]

@ValkyriaAIart Hmm. Not feeling enough alligator vibe nor fox I fluence yet.

[Devon Eriksen @Devon_Eriksen_]

Getting it right has to come from having the right philosophy. We cannot get immigration right so long as people are allowed to bandy about the insane notion that America is some sort of special creedal nation that is associated with no particular race or culture.

America is the ethnic homeland of a culture and race of people. That genetic heritage, having that culture, must have the unquestioned right to forever remain a supermajority in our homeland and wield absolute political control over it, to create ideal conditions for our people, as best we can, according to our own notion of what is best for us.

If you consider this radical, it is probably because you have been brainwashed. Because you would not consider it radical if it were proposed that Indians have a right to control India, or that Japanese have a right to control Japan.

Either that, or you yourself are a non-American who wishes to personally benefit by depriving Americans of control of our homeland, probably by diverting our wealth into your pockets and those of your co-ethnics, whom you would never feel guilty or conflicted about being loyal to, and preferring them over others.

"America for Americans" is not a radical proposition. It is the baseline.

Only when everyone admits this can we even allow the discussion to begin, of who is allowed to come live here as a welcome guest.

So, no, I will not discuss what the "correct" amount of immigration is right now, because right now, it is zero, and will remain zero until the correct premises are established.

[S2 Underground @s2_underground]

//The Wire//2300Z August 31, 2026//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: WAR REIGNITES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AFTER AMERICAN STRIKES REPORTED IN IRAN. RETALIATORY STRIKES REPORTED IN JORDAN AND THE UAE.//
-----BEGIN TEARLINE-----
-International Events-

Middle East: Over the weekend, the war resumed it's more kinetic phase as the United States carried out strikes on Iran. Larak Island was the primary target, with strikes taking place to target Iranian rocket launchers that were preparing to launch rockets suspected of carrying sea mines. Locals report that two launchers were struck, killing two soldiers.
In retaliation, Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles, all targeting US bases in the region. Jordan and the UAE reported strikes targeting airbases used by the United States, but the success rate is unknown. Initial imagery obtained via the Sentinel-2 sensors indicates a hanger and a barracks building might have been hit at Muwwafaq al Salti. Footage provided by locals indicates that at least two Iranian ballistic missiles were successfully intercepted, but it's likely that at least several got through missile defenses to strike at least two bases in Jordan.
-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: Once more into the breach, so it seems. The grand question now is whether or not the weekend strikes will continue to escalate. The White House has stated that the US will respond to Iran's counterattack with a counter-counterattack, and as it stands, more targeting is likely. More broadly, the weekend targeting confirms several different lingering theories. For one, diplomacy is completely off of the table for now. Many people theorized that the past month of essentially very little fighting was a prelude to an exit strategy. However, conducting strikes during a lull in the fighting is not indicative of any kind of diplomatic intent to end the war.

Secondly, conducting strikes targeting sea mine launchers also directly confirms that Iran has this capability. For years, it has been widely known that Iran has the ability to lay mines in the Strait via rockets (without ever sending boats out), but how effective they are at such has been hotly debated over the years. The fact that the US hit these launcher sites confirms that this capability and threat is genuine enough to warrant kinetic action.

Also of note, President Trump posted two AI-generated videos on his Truth Social account last night, depicting the United States blowing up Kharg Island. As of this morning, Kharg Island (which is at the opposite end of the Gulf) has not been targeted during this latest round of strikes. The intent of posting AI-generated videos regarding kinetic targeting is not clear. This could be a classically flamboyant Trump post, or it could be intended to deceive people who might not understand that they are not real videos. Even more concerningly, President Trump himself might believe it to be a genuine video (or an AI approximation of a real-world event). One might think that this would be preposterous (because the videos are obviously AI), but the precedent has already been set in Congress....AI-generated content that claims to be real footage has already been used by members of Congress on the House floor several times over the past year. AI models are already blurring the line between fiction and reality, and now the line is blurred even further, if the White House is going to start providing AI-generated content of airstrikes that never happened. When it comes to corroborating what has been targeted via other governmental agencies, the picture is not so clear either: The CENTCOM social media page on X did not disclose the fact that strikes took place. However, CENTCOM did issue one of their infamous "fact check" posts, which indirectly confirms that they did conduct strikes in Iran (though they did not confirm the exact location of those strikes). Where we go from here is anyone's guess, but the truth of what's going on on the ground is getting harder to discern.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://t.co/S3Ktgax7Ng
NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
//END REPORT//

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

🚨 https://t.co/5ajzizjI8F STRIKES AGAIN: TRUMPBLOGS, FORMERLY KNOWN AS NOBLOGS 🚨
🏴 THE ANARCHIST INTERNATIONAL ON NOBLOGS, MAPPED — EVERY BLOG, EVERY CELL, EVERY CITY. 🌍

The militant far-left has spent years hiding in plain sight on https://t.co/HFD4sxphTk — the anonymous blog network that quietly powers antifa, anarchist, squat, and "solidarity" cells around the world. So on my own time, for free, I scraped the whole thing. Because I kick commie *** for fun and need no government funding or sanction for it.

Introducing an interactive map of 7000+ blogs across many countries and languages — antifascist, anarchist, ecological, prisoner-solidarity, migrant-border, revolutionary. Every one classified, geolocated, and searchable down to the verbatim quote.

* 🔥 Verified quotes. Every claim is a receipt — their words, not mine.
* 🌐 4000-plus blogs pinned to a live world map — zoom into your own city.
* ⚔️ Many blogs classified "operational."
* 🕸️ Click any blog, author, or cell and walk the network one tie at a time.

No grant funded this. No client asked for it. I do this for free, on my own time, because someone should.

🖥️ Data-heavy! Best viewed on desktop.

📖 A preview of what's coming: DataRepublican v2.0 — full site redesign — launches soon, ahead of my and @JoshuaLisec book UNELECTED (Passage Press, Oct 13).

And yes — if I can map the anarchist international in my spare time, I can map anything.

👇 Try it now (link in next post):

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

🚨 https://t.co/5ajzizjI8F LIVES AGAIN: DSA EXPLORER 🚨
🕸️ MAP THE FAR-LEFT NETWORK AND THEIR FOREIGN SUPPORTS. 🌹

I've just launched the DSA Explorer, an interactive map of the Democratic Socialists of America and the wider anti-imperialist solidarity network. This map is based on over a year's worth of research that's collected within my setup.

Click any org, person, or project and walk the network one tie at a time. Start at DSA and see where it leads.

🖥️ Data-heavy! Best viewed on desktop.

📖 This is a preview of what's coming: DataRepublican v2.0 — a full site redesign — launches soon, ahead of my and @JoshuaLisec book UNELECTED (Passage Press, Oct 13).

And, yes, I can build similar maps for the Soros network, democracy organizations, and much more.

👇 Try it now (link in next post):

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

🧵THE UNIPARTY UNMASKED – They Believe They Are “Democracy”

The seven NGOs in the chart below, in my view, represent the Uniparty. Each of these organizations receives substantial financial support from USAID or the Department of State.

Around 2019, the phrase “democracy in danger” began to dominate public discourse, amplified by the media. This was odd—after all, the U.S. is a democracy (or more precisely, a constitutional republic). But as I traced the influence of these NGOs, a pattern emerged: they are controlled by establishment politicians, they play a major role in shaping political narratives worldwide, and their core mission is always framed as “protecting democracy.”

Originally, these NGOs were created to support U.S. democratic efforts abroad—many of them emerging during the Cold War to combat the spread of communism. But with the fall of the Soviet Union, their original purpose faded. Instead of dissolving, they redefined their mission. Now, they have positioned themselves as the guardians of democracy itself.

This shift explains why Trump’s re-election was framed as a "threat to democracy." To these NGOs, “democracy” means themselves. Their survival depends on maintaining that role, and any challenge to their authority is perceived as a direct attack on democracy itself.

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

Hi Karsci, You’re very welcome. Letters like this mean a lot. Not just to me and my team, but to the many individuals and companies who support mikeroweWORKS. Without their help, we couldn’t have assisted you, and I know the people who support my program appreciate hearing from people who have benefited from it.

I admire the fact that you changed direction when you realized college was not for you. Too many who come to that realization "stay the course," and while that always sounds like good advice, it often is not. Staying the course only makes sense if you're headed in the right direction. I'm glad you course corrected before you wound up in debt for a credential you don't need. I admire the fact that you went to Florida for a year, when you didn’t really want to. Success in life is not rooted in doing what you want to do - at least, not right away. I'm glad you had the good sense to follow the opportunity where it took you, and I’m glad it paid off. I’m not a betting man (at least, not in the traditional fashion), but Id wager you’re going to do great things with your work ethic.

Most of all, I love that you credited one of your teachers, Tom Stroot, and I love that Mr. Stroot had the good sense to direct you to mikeroweWORKS: https://t.co/CSGu1RA4wd.

This year, well award $10 million in scholarships to students like you, and teachers like Mr. Stroot are a big part of why we continue to grow. Please give him my regards, and my thanks. We need more teachers like him.

Finally, Im privileged to receive many letters like this, but until now, none has ever inspired me to write a specific commercial for our scholarship program. But your letter, along with the photo of you welding, has. I'm not a welder myself, but I know good work when I see it, and you clearly know what you're doing. The ad is called The Man Behind the Mask. It's currently running online in several states, in conjunction with our partnership with @BuildFreedomUS, where you can find thousands of opportunities, just like the one you chased down. I hope it inspires others to follow your example.
https://t.co/2MsnOIcI9i

Good luck, Karcsi, and thanks for checking in. Keep me posted.

[S2 Underground @s2_underground]

//The Wire//2100Z August 27, 2026//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: CAR BOMB KILLS COLONEL IN RUSSIA. IRAN STRIKES TANKER IN HORMUZ. LARGE-SCALE CYBERATTACKS TARGET AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.//
-----BEGIN TEARLINE-----
-International Events-

Middle East: Overnight, Iran struck another tanker vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel has been identified as the M/T AL SALAM II, a Kuwaiti-owned tanker attempting to exit the Gulf.
Analyst Comment: Claims are circulating that Iran conducted this strike using underwater drones, similarly to claims that were made last week regarding Iran using underwater drones to conduct attacks. There is no way to verify this either way, but if true, this would be the second such attack on a vessel this month.
Russia: This morning an assassination was carried out in St. Petersburg, which took the form of an IED exploding inside the vehicle of a Russian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. The man (who has not yet been identified) was killed instantly, and his wife remains in critical condition following the blast.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: Within the United States, various federal databases have been hacked by malign actors, including the systems used by high-level government agencies. The DoJ alleged that the Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company was responsible for compromising the systems used by the Federal Reserve, three different National Laboratories, the National Institute of Health, and several other unnamed agencies. On the same day, the ATF also disclosed that systems related to their gun registries were breached. The Chinese hacking group Qilin posted the ransomware disclosure on their website, claiming to have a trove of unspecified documents that they stole from the ATF.

These confirmed cyberattacks continue the trend that has been building over the past few weeks. From the cyberattacks on water treatment facilities a couple of weeks ago, to federal agencies being hacked in undisclosed ways, the war on the cyber front is palpable. This cyberwarfare has not been confined to the United States either; at the exact same time that unknown hackers were taking out the water infrastructure in Minnesota, the United Kingdom reported that one of their power plants was hacked and taken offline for a total of four days. This afternoon, Manchester Airport Group announced that another major cyberattack has breached the data of over 8.7 million customers who traveled through three airports in the U.K.

As the United States and Iran continue their latest stage of the war, and Russia and Ukraine continue their war, these cyberattacks are probably going to get a lot worse, both in the scale of what systems are affected, but also the types of targets selected. So far, none of the groups engaging in cyberattacks have demonstrated any hesitancy to avoid targeting civilian targets...these groups on all sides will exploit any vulnerability they find, particularly to target a civilian populace. As civilian critical infrastructure around the world remains vastly more vulnerable than government networks...when those government networks themselves are constantly proven to not be safe, much softer targets are very likely to be impacted more severely as global tensions continue.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://t.co/S3Ktgax7Ng
NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
//END REPORT//

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

I caused a lot of online furor the past weekend, and caught the eye of Candace Owens.

This essay is written in my own voice, because I wanted to be honest on everything that happened. https://t.co/F6ZRmAOz0z

[Krzysztof Szczawinski 🇵🇱 @Kristof_Poland]

The conventional explanation for Rome’s demographic collapse is wealth. People got comfortable. They stopped having children. It happens to every prosperous civilization. Nothing to be done.

This is wrong. Or rather, it is incomplete in the way that matters most.

Rome didn’t stop having children because it got wealthy. It stopped having children because it built a welfare state – and the welfare state did what welfare states always do: it replaced the incentives that make people build families with incentives that make people consume instead.

The grain dole began modestly. Around 40,000 recipients in 73 BC. By Caesar’s time: 320,000. That eightfold expansion in under three decades was not a plan – it was a political mechanism. Each magistrate who wanted votes expanded eligibility. Each expansion normalized the next. The citizen who once considered the dole shameful eventually expected it, then demanded it, then organized politically to protect it.

The dole didn’t just feed people. It changed what people were for. A Roman citizen with guaranteed grain, free entertainment at the arena, and no frontier left to conquer has no pressing need to build anything – including a family. Children are a project. Projects require purpose. The welfare state had quietly removed the purpose while appearing to provide security.

Augustus saw the birth rate collapsing and did what statists always do: he legislated. The Lex Julia, the Lex Papia Poppaea – penalties for the unmarried, rewards for the fertile, the full power of the empire deployed to engineer a baby boom by decree. It didn’t work. It never works. You cannot legislate desire. You cannot fine people into wanting a future.

What Augustus didn’t have was Mises and Hayek. He didn’t understand that the system he was trying to fix with more intervention was being destroyed by the intervention he had already deployed. He saw the symptom — falling birth rates — and reached for the tool he knew: state power. He didn’t see the cause, because no one in his world had yet articulated it: when you replace personal purpose with state provision, you replace the human drive to build with the human tendency to consume. The dole didn’t just feed the hungry. It fed the purposeless.

We have Mises. We have Hayek. We have the complete theoretical account of what the welfare state does to human motivation, to family formation, to the incentive structures that make people want to build something that outlasts them. We know what Augustus didn’t know. We know why the laws failed. We know what produces the behavior he was trying to legislate into existence.

The answer is not more legislation. It is less welfare state. Not because cruelty is a virtue – but because purpose is. The person who must build to survive builds. The person who must form a family to transmit what they have built forms one. The person who receives guaranteed grain, guaranteed entertainment, and guaranteed security from the state has been given everything except the reason to do any of those things.

Scrap the socialism. Restore the purpose. The birth rate will follow – not because anyone ordered it, but because people who have something to build and something to transmit tend, given the choice, to build and transmit.

Rome didn’t know it had a choice. We do.

[Henry Lyles @henrylyles]

@ChiefEngineerCE Linux with a (small) Windows 11 Enterprise VM for that stuff. Then at least you contain the damage.

[🪶Native Patriot 🇺🇸 @LaNativePatriot]

Which way?

Sigh…

Get a career. Don’t bury yourself in debt. Live humbly
Find a woman. Get married. Buy a house
Have kids.
Provide enough for her to be a stay at home mom

Dedicate your lives to each other.

However easy or hard I make that sound, understand this. It is THE most important thing you can do with your life. Treat it with that level of respect & it’ll work out as good as it can.

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

Footage of McDonalds in 1984 might be the most radicalizing thing you watch today.

How do we get this back?

[Henry Lyles @henrylyles]

@SandyofCthulhu @SplashDamage1 well they were found on a wrecked starship....

[S2 Underground @s2_underground]

//The Wire//1700Z August 10, 2026//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: MAJOR EARTHQUAKE STRIKES COLOMBIA. WAR CONTINUES IN MIDDLE EAST. BRITISH MOD ALLEGEDLY INVESTIGATING VULNERABILITIES WITH NEWLY-PURCHASED DRONE BOAT FLEET.//
-----BEGIN TEARLINE-----
-International Events-

Middle East: The situation continues as before, with routine strikes being carried out over the weekend. Iran has continued to strike merchant shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, with daily targeting efforts being reported for about a week. Overnight, a tanker vessel was struck in the Strait, with the resulting fire being visible from land.

Red Sea/HOA: The Houthis have been active over the past few days, conducting low-level strikes against the Saudi staging areas along the border region with Yemen. More significantly, the Houthis have also struck the Jazan refinery again, with the Saudis targeting the port of Mocha in Yemen.

France: As wildfires have continued to spread around the nation, French authorities have announced the arrest of over 420x individuals on charges of arson, at least 166x of which are individuals claiming to be minors who admitted to deliberately starting fires.

United Kingdom: This morning the Telegraph published a leak from within the Ministry of Defense, pertaining to the new K3 Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) that have been purchased by the Royal Marines. The leak alleges that some components within the drone boat fleet are made in China, and actually "phone home" to data centers back in China. The Ministry of Defense has denied any security vulnerabilities, but an emergency audit has been announced to investigate the matter.

Analyst Comment: Having a foreign adversary contribute to any part of the production chain for highly secret and cutting-edge military technology is a suboptimal decision.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: This morning an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.4 was reported in the western districts of Colombia, which resulted in infrastructure damage throughout the region. The city of Cali was hardest hit, with many structures collapsing or otherwise suffering major damage. So far, roughly 20x fatalities have been reported outright, but the true scale of the damage will take some time to determine due to the remote nature of many affected villages. There is not a lot of information on how bad the damage is, and most of what has circulated are videos showing the damage, or other first hand reports. At the time of this report, this is a developing story, and details are likely to change as more information becomes available.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://t.co/S3Ktgax7Ng
NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
//END REPORT//

[🪶Native Patriot 🇺🇸 @LaNativePatriot]

Well now this should be interesting

Part of what made 𝕏 great was the aggregation & build up of ideas by the collective that was able to spread more naturally because you weren’t so worried about being punished because it wasn’t 100% originally made by you.

This was, in many ways taken advantage of by people who only stole content to repost

But would this allow something like a “libs of tiktok” to even rise? Virtually none of what she posted was original content but rather just becoming a source to show the world how utterly insane the left was

I feel like the new way 𝕏 is wanting to go will punish an account like that, and it will accelerate brain rot tiktok style “content creators”

𝕏 made it possible for someone like me (not a content creator per se but more so an average blue collar guy who wants to change the course of this country because we’ve being taken over by demonic fags that target our children through propagandistic goy slop & hyper sexualized entertainment, along with tyrants that want control over every aspect of your life) to grow beyond what I ever thought possible.

I cannot compete on YouTube or TikTok because I am not dedicated to the current algorithmic content dictation of the day.

Instead I tried a different path of showing how great marriage actually is, how having a blue collar job isn’t actually a bad thing, how dedicating your life to your spouse & creating a family is the best thing you can possibly do in life.

THAT won’t compete with what the algorithm decides will be the most viral that day.

Oh well….. I guess I’ll keep trying, but it appears that “𝕏 content creators” are just going to be the next iteration of TikTok brain rot goy slop. With mind numbing entertainment and small slap stick dopamine punches delivered through doom scrolling on your phone by ignoring the actual world around you for hours at a time

Good luck everybody

[Brian Harrison @brianeharrison]

Texans deserve the TRUTH about their government!... and I’m sharing the newsletter we just mailed out so that patriots all across Texas (not just in HD-10) can get the update.

I’ve ushered in an entirely unprecedented level of TRANSPARENCY that is opening the eyes of millions to the corruption of the uniparty, which has led to record high property taxes, spending, and debt.

Also, if you want WEEKLY UPDATES from me on what’s really going on in the Texas government… along with ways YOU CAN HELP SAVE TEXAS… then SIGN UP FOR OUR ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER HERE!!: https://t.co/Mx2X8hRbVx

Honored to partner with so many patriots like you in my fight to make government as irrelevant to our lives as possible, so we can be as free as God meant for us to be!!

[S2 Underground @s2_underground]

//The Wire//2000Z August 7, 2026//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: MASS SHOOTING REPORTED IN THAILAND. WAR IN MIDDLE EAST REMAINS STAGNANT. CHICAGO MORTUARY UNDER INVESTIGATION AFTER REMAINS DISCOVERED BEING STORED IMPROPERLY.//
-----BEGIN TEARLINE-----
-International Events-

Middle East: Kinetic activity has been fairly minimal over the past few days, with the exception of the Iranian targeting of merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Concerning the Strait itself, Iran and Oman are reportedly close to announcing their combined plan for joint administration of the waterway, which is reported to include the tolling structure moving forward.

Thailand: This morning a mass shooting was reported at the Debsirin School in Bangkok. One 14-year-old student conducted the attack, which resulted in 8x fatal casualties and over a dozen more wounded. Local authorities state that the main target for the shooting was a teacher, and five of those killed were teaching staff. Eventually, the suspect took his own life, ending the attack. After the suspect was identified by police, his home was raided, where his grandparents were found murdered, as the suspect attacked them first, before conducting the shooting at the school.

Analyst Comment: This is the second high-profile violent incident involving children in Thailand over the past month. On July 2, an eleven year old boy was driving a pickup truck when he rammed into a group of Buddhist monks on pilgrimage, killing 11. That incident was not explicitly stated to be nefarious, but authorities never stated that it was an accident either, and the boy in that case was committed to the care of the government.

-HomeFront-

Illinois: This morning an investigation began into a crematorium in Chicago. Yesterday evening, authorities were dispatched to the South Chicago Chapel funeral home to investigate a possible "license violation". Over 57x bodies were found in various states of decomposition at this facility, which resulted in a HAZMAT response which continued throughout the night.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: There is unfortunately a long history with the body dump site case in Chicago, and it revolves around one man. Clark Morgan has a history of being involved with rather grim affairs, ranging from fraudulently operating as a funeral director (with no license), to also improperly storing remains at his facilities. Last year, he did the same thing at Chicago Heights crematorium, where over 100x decomposing remains were discovered in freight trailers and cargo trucks...the same type of cargo trucks that are observable in the Google Streetview imagery of the South Chicago Chapel. Morgan has faced years of disciplinary action due to unprofessional conduct, but has not been criminally charged for the most recent discoveries or the prior incidents. He was levied a $10,000 fine for the previous incident involving over a hundred bodies, but the fee was paid and he carried on as before.

One of the questions that has not been addressed at any time, is the more important question of potential organ harvesting practices. All media has commented on the impropriety of the case, but when it comes to mortuary affairs, the black market for extremely graphic practices is thriving. Plus, the same guy that's going to operate a mortuary on a revoked license, and get caught stacking bodies in closets (at least twice), is probably not the sort of character that would shy away from the black market. As a result, it would be wise for this investigation to focus on the more nefarious possibilities that might be in play, rather than just the health code violations.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://t.co/S3KtgaxFCO
NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
//END REPORT//

[S2 Underground @s2_underground]

//The Wire//2300Z August 6, 2026//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL OUTAGE RESULTS IN MINNEAPOLIS CENTER DIVERTING MOST AIRCRAFT TO OTHER SECTORS. NEW CDC DIRECTOR CONFIRMED BY SENATE. IRAN REPORTEDLY STRIKES TWO TANKERS IN HORMUZ.//
-----BEGIN TEARLINE-----
-International Events-

Middle East: Iranian targeting of merchant vessels has continued, with two more vessels being struck this afternoon in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian sources claim that they struck the M/T NISSOS KEA (heading outbound) and the M/T NISSOS KEROS (heading inbound) while the two vessels were being escorted by the United States through the southern Omani route.

Analyst Comment: These two strikes have not yet been confirmed by the UKMTO, but reporting regarding strikes on ships is ironically hit-or-miss at this point. If these ships were being escorted at the time, these strikes would be quite important, but this detail is the most questionable at this time. What is certain is that both vessels shut off their transponders when they got close to the Strait, and the status of both vessels is not known.

-HomeFront-

Minnesota: This afternoon all flights at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were grounded for several hours, due to a communications issue with Air Traffic Control. Most aircraft diverted to different air control sectors while Minneapolis Center was down, and many delays were reported nationwide due to the cascading affects of an outage in a busy air corridor. The exact cause of the outage has not yet been disclosed.

Washington D.C. - The FAA is investigating air traffic control procedures at Ronald Reagan International Airport after an incident involving the President. Yesterday afternoon, MARINE ONE lifted off from the White House grounds to transport President Trump to Joint Base Andrews to depart for Los Angeles. Normally, when MARINE ONE flies this routine route, commercial aviation at Reagan is halted for a few minutes to provide a security standoff for Presidential aircraft. Tuesday night, this did not occur, and a civilian airliner passed within one mile of the President's helicopter.

Analyst Comment: In terms of security incidents, this is comparatively minor and no safety concerns came about. There was no risk of collision, but due to the extreme levels of caution that is in place with any Presidential aircraft (and the zero-fail nature of the mission) ATC at Reagan making this mistake is concerning. Especially in the context of the long list of aviation mishaps that have plagued this specific airport for the past few years.

Washington D.C. - Yesterday the Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as director of the CDC. Before this position, Schwartz was a clinician for the Coast Guard, with her entire career being spent in the realm of creating and managing vaccine policy. Her latest position was to serve as the Preventative Medicine Chief in the Operational Medicine Readiness Division at headquarters in Washington, and was in charge of creating all vaccine policies for the USCG. Her priority areas for vaccine management and administration have been in Haiti, New Orleans (after Hurricane Katrina), and more recently with the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: The confirmation hearings to get the CDC Director position across the line were initially a bit uncertain, as Schwartz's main interest is in the world of vaccines. As HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy has been extremely outspoken on the topic of vaccine policy management, most of her confirmation hearings involved Senators questioning if she would continue the ways of the "old guard" at the CDC, or if she would follow the newer policy initiatives of her boss (Secretary Kennedy), who most of the traditional bureaucracy opposes. After a few brief rounds of questioning, the Senate was satisfied with her answers and she was confirmed with the vote splitting mostly along party lines.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://t.co/S3Ktgax7Ng
NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
//END REPORT//

[Nick Freitas @NickJFreitas]

"Why do prices keep going up?"

I'd be happy to explain why prices keep going up...Inflationary monetary policy.

"Why do we have inflationary monetary policy?"

Well, there are a lot of reasons, but the primary one is that politicians really like to spend money, because it's an easy way to buy votes. The problem is politicians don't make money, so they have to get it through one of 3 primary ways...

1. They can tax...which is how they get most of it, but there is a point where taxation has diminishing returns because taxing someone too much leads to a lack of productivity or avoidance strategies.

2. They can borrow...which is one of their favorites because it allows them to kick the can down the road when it comes to actually paying for things; the problem is that at some point the government's credit isn't very good, and people don't want to voluntarily loan them money anymore.

3. They can print it...which is what we have been doing for a long time now. It's especially damaging because when the government prints a bunch of money to spend, it doesn't immediately cause all the prices to go up, so when the government spends the money, they are getting close to the full value of the dollar at the time that it is spent...it is only after the new paper dollars have started to circulate without a corresponding increase in supply that more dollars are competing over the same amount of goods and services and thus the prices go up, because the value of each dollar has gone down through money printing ie. "inflationary monetary policy."

Eventually the inflation gets so bad that they have to stop printing and spending, but that only decreases inflation; it doesn't end it, so prices don't go down to where they were; they simply stop increasing at the previous rate.

"Well, why don't they fix it?"

Because it would cause the economy to significantly, albeit temporarily, tank, and then whatever party was not in charge would blame the party that was in charge, and the citizens suffering the most from inflationary monetary policy would punish the party that stopped the inflationary monetary policy.

"So what's the answer?"

Well...the American people could start getting a lot more educated and concerned about the dangers of fiat currency combined with an ever-expanding welfare state and economic central planning, or the system can keep going until it reaches a critical mass, collapses, and we go through a lot more pain than would have otherwise been required...