More from the article ...

... While Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei assumed the highest office of supreme leader after the killing of his father and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf has taken the spotlight in negotiations, the rise of Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi may prove most consequential of all the many shifts taking place within Iran's complex internal power dynamics.

Vahidi was named head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) upon the killing of his predecessor, Mohammad Pakpour, in the opening stages of the U.S.-Israeli war launched against Iran two months ago. It's a position that poises him as a top target, with Pakpour having only taken the role after the slaying of former IRGC chief Hossein Salami by Israel during the 12-Day War in June of last year.

But Vahidi's credentials are unique. In addition to having previously served as deputy IRGC commander, interior minister under former President Ebrahim Raisi and defense minister under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vahidi served as a founding chief of the elite Quds Force, later led by Major General Soleimani until his death in a 2020 U.S. strike ordered by Trump.

Today, with the Islamic Republic facing its most serious test since the 1980s Iran-Iraq War during which the IRGC and its Quds Force were forged, "Ahmad Vahidi is the one calling the shots," Kamran Bokhari, a strategic forecaster and senior resident fellow at the Middle East Policy Council who has written extensively on the internal evolution of Iran's leadership, told Newsweek. ...

Related ...

Is DHS trying to convince Americans that what they saw with their own eyes is not correct?

More from the article ...

... "He is targeting a lot of people, and the Justice Department is targeting a lot of the members of the club, like judges, nonprofit organizations and universities," said one member, who like others for this article was granted anonymity because the Met Club prohibits its associates from speaking to the media about internal business.

Outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for example " whom the DOJ was investigating as part of a probe into renovations at the central bank -- is a member of the club. The Justice Department dropped its criminal investigation into Powell and the Federal Reserve on Friday.

A second Met Club member, who told POLITICO they've penned a letter to the Met's leadership urging them to reject Blanche, called the acting DOJ leader's comments essentially supporting President Donald Trump's use of the DOJ to go after his perceived enemies "pretty startling" and noted that the Met Club has current and former judges among its ranks who could take offense.

"I am disappointed that the club's standards are slipping on so many levels and can only hope that the club leadership will recover, grab the rudder and set us on a smooth sail once again," said a third Met Club member opposed to Blanche's membership. Five members of the club have confirmed that Blanche is seeking entry into the club. ...

This is an unexpected result of Pres Trump's war on Iran.

How might this new development alter the landscape of oil prices in the future?

@#12 ... what a bunch of whiners. ...

The farmers of the Country are whiners?

... Republican Senators Losing Confidence in Hegseth ...

What took them so long?

Sec Hegseth managed, say, less than 100 people in his military career.

How many people does he need to manage as the Sec of Defense?

I remember an occasion back in the day when I was a director of a company, and I (and others from the company) participated in a ~gathering~ of military folk.

The military liaison asked me, quite directly, how many people do I manage? Based upon what I told him, he said that I should ~mingle~ with the Majors in the room.

imo, that conversation was most apropos.

And I now use it to look at Sec of Defense Hegseth, who seems to be totally over his head, and drowning, in his job.

imo, of course.

@#1 ... Discovery for this one should be quite interesting. ...

Perhaps, or not.

I'll wait to see the extent to which the Trump admin might go to continue the apparent cover-up..

... Republicans Push for More Farm Aid ...

OK, if I understand this situation correctly ...

The Republicans are supporting Pres Trump in all that he does and has done, without question or even a murmur of disagreement.

Now, Republicans want to give taxpayer money to those who suffer from the very policies they have been championing?

Am I the only person who sees a fault in that Republican math?

So, where was the yacht relative to the blockade line on the map?

Found this map ...

@#17

... and if neither of those work, blame regulations put into place to protect Americans.

More from th article ...

... A federal judge on Tuesday advanced former Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey's lawsuit against the Trump administration, in which she claims she was fired only because her father is outspoken Trump critic and former FBI Director James Comey.

The Trump administration sought to dismiss Comey's complaint, asserting the dispute should be handled through administrative proceedings by the Merit Systems Protection Board, an executive branch agency created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.

However, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled Tuesday that Comey's suit was properly filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

"The court concludes that Comey's case does not fall within the purview of the CSRA's scheme because she was fired pursuant to Article II of the Constitution, not pursuant to the CSRA itself," he wrote in a 27-page opinion, referring to the president's executive power vested under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.

"Defendants' sole reliance on the Constitution -- rather than the removal provisions of the CSRA -- places Comey's case outside the universe of cases that Congress intended the MSPB to resolve," the judge wrote.

In a footnote to the ruling, Furman opined that whether the U.S. government could properly rely on the Constitution to fire Comey "is the merits question at the heart of this case -- and thus a question for another day." ...

@#19 ... Exposing everyone's sexual proclivities would not be in America's best interest. ...

That looks like [an intentional?] a mischaracterization at worst, or a lame deflection attempt at best..

If someone breaks the law, that person should face justice.

Also, mentioned in the OpEd ...

The purpose of a bunker at the White House is not to provide an extended, let's say, visit. But more to provide to provide short-term protection until the President can be moved to some other nebulous location.

Stated differently, as the OpEd excellently (ya have to read the whole thing...) explains, why place the President in a location that is known by our enemies to be where he is?

More from the article ...

... Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, with the Russian president telling the Iranian diplomat that he hoped for peace soon.

Moscow, an ally of Iran, has so far resisted being drawn into the Middle East conflict as it continues with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But Putin on Monday offered support to Iran, saying that he was hoping for peace soon and that Iran would navigate this "difficult period" of war, according to Russia's state news agency.

"For our part, we will do everything that serves your interests, the interests of all the people of the region, so that peace can be achieved as soon as possible," the RIA news agency quoted Putin as saying during his meeting with Araghchi. ...

At this point, I am more interested in the ~message~ the Democrats will be using.

It is too soon to start looking at candidates.

imo, choose the message first, then choose the candidate to rally around that message.

@#3 ... Because you're listening to music ...

Yeah, that's where I see a weakness in this study.

Another place I see a weakness occurs when cameras record ~things~ occurring that are not readily explainable.

Back in the late 70's my college friend and I were renting a house. Our bedrooms allowed us to look into the hallway.

One morning morning when we woke up for breakfast, we both were unusually quiet. After a while he asked me... did you see anything last night?

I told him, yes. I saw three or four white figures walking down the hallway outside my bedroom. He replied, that he saw the same thing.

As it happened, the neighbors told me that construction workers died while building the house.

There were no infrasonic tones involved during that occurrence.

@#5 ... Of course, that may beg the question, will FIFA schedule future events in the US? ...

Especially if the DHS is using those events to track down and deport people with a skin color they do not like.

OK, when I listen to Saint Saens Symphony #3 (Organ Symphony) and ~experience~ via my speakers the 16Hz organ notes, I don't see "hidden phenomenon" in my house.

What am I missing?

More from the article ...

... "Consider visiting a supposedly haunted building. Your mood shifts, you feel agitated, but you can't see or hear anything unusual," says the study's senior author Rodney Schmaltz, a psychologist at MacEwan University in Canada.

"In an old building, there is a good chance that infrasound is present, particularly in basements where aging pipes and ventilation systems produce low-frequency vibrations," Schmaltz continues.

"If you were told the building was haunted, you might attribute that agitation to something supernatural. In reality, you may simply have been exposed to infrasound."

Any sounds below the threshold at which humans can consciously perceive them -- around 20 hertz or lower -- are considered infrasound. These sounds have a remarkable ability to travel past obstacles without dissipating, so their influence is wide.

They can be generated by old pipes and machinery -- hence the haunted building link -- but also emanate from natural sources like storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, and aurorae. Some animals even incorporate infrasound into their communication and navigation. ...

So what, then, is the purpose of a Presidential bunker?

And does Pres Trump's grand plan for his ballroom meet that purpose?

More from the OpEd ...

... The White House bunker has never been intended to be a place a president would actually run a crisis from long-term. ...

In other remarks to the press aboard Air Force One, Trump called the ballroom a "shed" for the new bunker: "The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that's under construction, and we're doing very well," Mr. Trump said. "We have secure telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we're building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we're building. We have all of these things."

Understanding that it's often impossible to know as Donald Trump talks what's real, what's not, and what's mere hyperbole, the scale of what he's mentioned would represent a sharp departure from the traditional purpose of the presidential bunker. ...

Sieg Heil to Herr Führer.