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#9 | Posted by Twinpac at 2026-06-07 06:43 AM
In your opinion, what makes the difference if the "deal" needed a few adjustments? In fact, under the current condition, I'd be surprised if it didn't.

You bet it would, and need more than just "few adjustments" - "under current circumstances" it's essentially null and void, given that Russia is also under sanctions.


The main point, with or without, Mr. Putin just put BFF Trump in a most awkward position and a badly bruised ego.

That makes no sense.

This didn't "just" happen, as I explained... and there is no such thing as shameless Trump finding himself in "awkward position"... and if anyone couldn't care less about Trump's ego, it's Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi, for different reasons.

In fact, Trump keeps trying to "normalize" the US relations with Putin's Russia by emulating Nixon's China "ping-pong diplomacy" by sending hockey team to Moscow... Very "original", no?


Both he and Netanyahu left holding the bag, so to speak.

Don't conflate the two - for Trump it's a matter of ego, for Israel it's a matter of existence.

Even if this eventually happens, if it's a nuclear energy reactors agreement there would be at the very least an IAEA observation and monitoring regime.

If not, what difference does it make, except proving that Iran is a client state of Russia and intends to have WMDs, which Saudi Arabia and most of Iran's neighbors do not want but have no ability to stop by themselves?

Was Biden "left holding the bag" when something similar happened in Iraq in 2022-2024?

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#10 | Posted by Hughmass at 2026-06-07 07:19 AM
Legally, why is it that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons? Not arguing the advisability, but the legality

Good that you don't argue advisability of Iran (and some other countries in the Middle East) having nukes.

Legality: UN's NPT is the general basis in principle for non-proliferation of nuclear WMDs, otherwise what have IAEA inspectors been doing in Iran all these years?

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#18 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-06-06 11:44 PM
Yawn... Another brick in a Wall.... of Text. There should be word limits to cut back on this type of thing.

Appreciate you having an issue with the "wall of text" and not with the information. "Wall of text" objections made no sense and never worked as intended because they were only conceding that the info was correct and "biting" - so smarter people here have recognized and stopped using it long ago, they always had a choice to plonk my posts.

Even smarter people were actually reading them and stopped repeating false arguments or posting links to stupid articles with debunked information... trolls and bots excluded.

Your bosses/handlers must be even bigger dumbasses than I thought, since they keep you making these reflexive "wall of text" comments... but I welcome confirmations that they are obsessively and compulsively irritated by content.

Thanks again for letting everyone here know who you work for... and keep up the good work.
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Iran, Russia Sign $25 Billion Nuclear Cooperation Deal

Sure, but it's very outdated information - the 'deal' was in September of 2025, the world has changed slightly since then:

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#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-06-04 10:02 PM
... Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a face-to-face meeting between himself and Vladimir Putin in a renewed bid to end the war.
In an open letter to the Russian president, the Ukrainian leader said it would be "wrong to simply wait" until the war in Europe becomes the focus of the US's attention once more, adding peace could only come "through direct engagement between" Ukraine and Russia.

Shrewd move, he is both preempting and "freezing out" more attempts by Putin to put pressure on Ukraine by "negotiating" through third parties and more specifically, his "messenger pigeons" Trump-Witkoff-Kushner et al.

He also knows Putin wouldn't accept it, but he is sending a much stronger message to both Putin and flaky European allies that "times, they are a-changing" and that Russia is in much weaker position to dictate terms of combat and what's acceptable for "peace deal" and ceasefire(s).

From the letter:

"When you led Russia more than 26 years ago, many in Ukraine had a positive attitude towards you. ... That is already in the past.

Now the absolute majority of Ukrainians perceive positively the fact that our long-range drones visited the opening of your forum in St. Petersburg, having overcome a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers. As you well know, this distance is not the limit of our capabilities.

... Almost half of your 26 years of power in Russia you have spent in the war against Ukraine.

Whatever you say about NATO, geopolitics and the Russian language, this war is your personal choice - a war without a real reason. This is how history will remember it.

We often hear that war suits you. Of course, not when it comes to the safety of your residence in Valdai or the parade in Moscow. Your own life is valuable to you.

But now we all see that this finally ceases to suit the Russians...

They do not like our drones and missiles.

They do not like the shortage of gasoline and the constant rise in prices...

They do not like your intention to organize a second wave of mobilization to expand the war...

They do not like the fact that there is no end in sight to your war.

Yes, you can still force the Russians to exist like this.

But your resources are significantly reduced.

You will not have enough money and political power to continue buying the loyalty of the Russians, as you have done for 26 years. We will do everything to ensure that the world takes care of this.

It is not that we in Ukraine are worried about the Russians. ... But I care about the Ukrainians.

... You are the first Russian ruler who was forced to turn to Pyongyang for help.

And today you are completely dependent on China - also for the first time in Russian history.

We have seen intelligence documents that you are now considering war plans for 2027 and 2028. We also know that you hope that ballistics will do for you what everything else has not.

Everyone has heard your representatives, smiling, saying that I can come to Moscow. But after such 26 years, there is nothing for the Ukrainian leader in your capital, as well as the Russian leader in Kyiv, to do.

There are countries that traditionally receive leaders to resolve issues of war and peace. Switzerland, Turkey... - many can and want to host this meeting.

... If you personally do not agree that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue to fight for its existence...

But you will also have to fight much more for your existence - not Russia's, but your own. ... These are facts of Russian history that you know well: when Russia gets tired, changes happen."

We can work on such fatigue. ...

Glory to Ukraine!"
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#4 | Posted by Corky at 2026-06-03 05:16 PM
Also, after the ship hits, the hits on the St Petersburg oil facility are dramatic... and telling; Moscow has tons of air defense systems, cities like St Petersburg have a guy with an AK trying to hit drones flying 80 mph from 500 yards away.

Not really - Moscow and St Petersburg are Russia's only two federal cities, too most significant "historic and cultural centers" and are most defended and best supplied with food and necessities compared to anywhere else in the country, which keeps them mostly isolated economically from consequences of war. St Petersburg (Petrograd, Leningrad) is also an important industrial hub, and has at various times been a capital of Russia; it's also birthplace of Soviet Revolution and hometown of one Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

To give you an idea of how significant and important, in one of the demands in December 2025 28-point "Trump's peace deal plan" that was crafted by Putin to pass to Witkoff-Kushner clown show to hand out to Zelensky, they were specifically singled out:
"10. The U.S. guarantee: ... If Ukraine launches a missile at Moscow or St. Petersburg ... the security guarantee will be deemed invalid.

Besides real damage these strikes caused, it was also meant to send several messages to Putin and his guests at scaled down International Economic Forum:
a) increasingly longer range and stealth capabilities and increasing mass production capability of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces
b) Ukraine no longer considers Moscow and St Pete "untouchable" or sacrosanct** as Putin has increasingly targeted civilian structures in Kyiv
c) expect reciprocity as Russia often conducts missile strikes on residential buildings in Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky's hometown


** May 9, 2026 - Zelensky: Ukraine will hold back "long-range sanctions," strikes on Russian military targets if Moscow continues to avoid launching mass attacks: "Going forward, we will respond in kind."



The latest: June 6, 2026 - "Ukraine just carried out several large-scale overnight drone strikes across multiple targets near St Petersburg, reaching 1000km into Russian territory, ahead of Putin's economic forum finale."
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FTA: Protest crowds have echoed that sentiment, chanting "Thieves!" and demanding Rama's arrest by SPAK - Albania's Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutors, who opened a formal investigation into the project this week.

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Trump Still Demands IRS Audit Immunity
"We're talking about family members that have had almost a doubling of their net worth in the last year and a half," [Republican Senator Thom] Tillis told reporters at the Capitol. "How can you not at least have them be subjected to the same thing I'm subjected to and every one of you?"

Trump: "You should have stopped me at the dinner roll."

But... after 2016 Trump's campaign where he violated "ethics" by not disclosing his tax returns because they were "under audit" did the Congress pass the LAW that every presidential candidate MUST submit their tax return to be eligible to run for the highest office in the land?

Why not make "ethical" standards/rules into clear, unambiguous LAWS when we already know that "ethics" (and even some ambiguous laws) can be easily ignored with no consequences?

Maybe even make that requirement for anyone seeking high enough public office, like House or Senate member... or maybe that's exactly what they are afraid of?

So they can keep bitching about someone who is not afraid of violating "ethical" rules, "appearances of impropriety" or "conflicts of interest" but not making it clearly illegal, so it could be prosecuted or at least, challenged in courts?

As long as someone from the other party can be brazen enough to get away with "seeming" corruption, they think, it would be OK later for them to do the same, if the only penalty may be at worst, a political one - just look at TX Ken Paxton.

Just like gross abuses of unconditional pardons are passed over because they can suit the next King. At least excuse in this case, however feeble, is that it would require a constitutional amendment... and people are just too tired for that, so... "Le Roi est retraite, vive le Roi!"

So, would anybody start asking the Congress critters about making some simple, but obviously toothless, ethics standards/rules/restrictions into civil and/or criminal laws?

Should be a 100-0 bipartisan no-brainer, yet I didn't hear or see any reporters or Congress critters of either "tribe" asking these questions.

Or we have to [finally] accept that a government corruption, regardless of the party, is a built-in feature of the governments and their unchecked ("unfettered") power must be limited, the way it's done in some states.

SPY (S&P 500 Index ETF):
1yr - +27.04%
3yr - +76.92%
5yr - +79.15%

NANC (Dems Trading ETF):
1yr - +26.30%
3yr - +88.10%

GOP (fmr CRUZ - Reps Trading ETF):
1yr - +34.90%
3yr - +78.19%

.

#13 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-06-03 12:36 PM
It wouldn't surprise me if all of America needs to be pardoned after every election from now on.
Or we could just have a Purge every four years for a few days when the law doesn't apply and we can get our "revenge and retribution" on all the A-Ho's from the previous administration.

Purge is an interesting idea, except it may really depend on whether there is anyone left to do the new Purge after the previous Purge and whether (mixing metaphors here) the "new" pitchforks are bigger and better than the "old" pitchforks. Given that the "old" pitchforks know the Purge is coming when they lose power, do you think they will be passive or proactive, either by trying to keep the power (J6?) or starting their own Purge early lest lose the power in the first place?

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#8 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-06-03 09:07 PM
#7 Why do you care?

#7 | Posted by Effeteposer ... - Effeteposer "cares" because it's his job - he is a directly paid low-level "script chatbot" troll for Putin's Internet Research Agency (founded by Evgeny Prigozhin, founder of Wagner PMC).

Effeteposer has been running the same stupid Russian script for years now, with very slight variations, depending on how things were going in Ukraine. Initially it was to justify Russian invasion and promoting "Ukraine Nazis" and "everything wrong with the world is USA+NATO fault" and equating "both sides" pablum... basically - "Russians / Putin are well-intentioned but stupid fools that are trying to save the world from Nazis, like the great Soviet Union did in WW2, but fell for evil cunning USA and NATO trap in Ukraine because they justifiably feel threatened by NATO's expansion..." yada, yada, yada.

That no longer working, since 2024 the trolls were instructed to "mute" Russia and their efforts have been directed towards Israel-USA relations, so pretty much to turn any thread into bashing Israel, Jews ("ZioNazis"), Netanyahu, AIPAC, etc. and "mute" the words Hamas, PIJ, Hezbollah, Hoothies replacing them with "Palestinians," "people of Gaza," "Muslims," etc., while and emphasizing the usual "grievances" and agitprop KGB used against Israel since 1950s.

Anything to separate US allies from the US, though Trump is doing much more real damage on his own, but they are serving the same masters. There are now much better-skilled trolls than Effeteposer on this site alone, no doubt because many of his "ideas" have been well accepted here.

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#17 | Posted by madbomber at 2026-06-04 03:46 PM
Donny is out of his element. That's not a decision he is capable of making.

He is entirely in his element of a lifetime of making decisions he is incapable and unfit to make... and blaming everyone else for consequences.

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It's just another Putin's ruse to get someone from the West to "negotiate" for him, just as Ukraine is reasserting and starting to set the terms of combat:

Zelensky: Ukraine will hold back "long-range sanctions," strikes on Russian military targets if Moscow continues to avoid launching mass attacks: "Going forward, we will respond in kind."

As part of new joint "Brave Germany" initiative, Ukraine and Germany agreed to deepen defence cooperation, plan joint drone production.

Zelensky's fear now is that US (Trump and his gang) will again push for a deal giving Russia 'a lot' of what Putin wants and nothing to Ukraine.

In related news: Russia paid Norks nearly $14B for weapons, munitions and soldiers.
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Ukraine already rejected Shroeder as negotiator because he has business ties to Russia.
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Wind, solar, and storage free us from fossil-fueled wars and price spikes. Renewable energy = energy independence.

We don't have a problem with "energy independence" - the US is net exporter of oil, gas and coal.

The real problems with renewable energy are "large footprint | low density" and costs, because the "energy" is a global market.

Because the worldwide demand for energy grows along with all the "records" of growing supply of energy from renewables, 80+% of the world's energy is still generated by oil, coal, NG (32%, 27%, 24%) with hydro (6%) and nuclear (5%).

What we do need is energy diversification - but that's exactly opposite of mandating "energy uniformity" of electricity and the renewables, again in the name of "fighting" climate change. Mandates only give you dependence on one source of energy and you lose both diversification and cost competition.

With non-portable electricity, the demand centers should be matched with the close-by types of resource center areas, but that's not what some states' or federal government's "one size fits all" mandates deliver.

The real myth is the panacea of trying to "save the planet" with renewables and "EVs everywhere" which crowded out more efficient long-term energy generation.

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#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-05-09 12:01 AM
If solar power has resulted in a [transitory] period of negative power cost, why does Pres Trump seem to be so against solar power?

Because he is the same kind of dumbass who lives in the past and as incapable of processing or remembering new information as the people who think that if solar (or wind) power generation resulted in a short [transitory] period of [theoretical and 'unsold'] "negative" power cost due to "surge," it means that solar power is cheap and is the "solution" to energy needs everywhere, because it's also "clean and renewable" and is also the answer to AGW / climate change.

First, just adding a new installation, however small it is, will create a new "record" of that type of energy. So the headline "records" of generation some place are meaningless.

It's like "stable genius" telling people that "beautiful tariffs" will generate Trillions of dollars and would replace income tax.

Or banning gas appliances, mandating "electrification" of transportation / cars without building electric capacity to handle new demand, then finding out that renewables will take huge land "footprint", be more TCO-expensive and still won't provide anywhere near enough power to accomplish it. Then restarting old nuclear plant that was supposed to be scrapped to prevent brownouts. Look at California, Germany, UK... which went all-in on renewables.

Or California deciding to build a "train from nowhere to nowhere" because Japan, China, Europe have efficient high-speed light-rail systems.

"Why can't we do that?" should be replaced by "Why do we need that?"... and "because climate change" is not the answer - e.g., world's renewable energy capacity increased substantially in the last 25 years... but climate change has gone unabated.

In the EU they reclassified NG as a "green" energy, to meet their self-imposed "green" goals. Recently they lowered barriers to methane.

BTW, USA is already producing 11% of world electricity from renewables; China is #1 at 32%, Brazil - 7%, Canada and India - 4.5%.

We've been through this here a couple of years ago, when someone kept posting about "record power generation" from "renewables" in CA. Not surprisingly, it also caused much higher usage of natgas for a backup, since wind and solar are INTERMITTENT and batteries which are toxic, degrade within relatively short amount of time and take humongous amount of space, require much higher maintenance and (at least, in the US) are not even close to TCO-competitive as e.g., NG alone - IOW, these intermittent solutions have a huge "FOOTPRINT" and very low ENERGY DENSITY.

Many US solar and wind companies went out of business long before most state and federal incentives expired because promised cost savings didn't materialize.

Just because few small countries like Costa Rica and Nepal are 90%-100% reliant on renewables for electricity (not a lot of "heavy manufacturing" and datacenters in those countries) no "one size fits all" energy solutions exist.

CA is #1 in solar (but buys wind power from as far as WY), TX is #1 in wind and #2 in solar.

So why is CA electricity so much higher when most of it is from renewables?

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#10 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-05-03 12:28 PM
Typical some one does all the work, and woman takes credit for it.

What possessed you to comment on something you obviously know nothing about?

Between the horse owners, stables, jockeys and trainers, the trainers are the ones who spend the most time with the horses getting them ready for races and advising owners which horses to buy and why, the range of how much to pay, instructing jockeys (who might be chosen for a specific race by lottery or availability) before the race, and are given most of the credit or most of the blame depending on expectations / handicap, or if anything happens to the horse between the races.

Names of winning horses are most often associated with their trainer, not with their owners or jockeys who won specific race because there are plenty of journeyman jockeys who come and go, but world class winning trainers are very few and they're very much in high demand.

Owners want well known trainers to help them find and buy horses, and then train them for a couple of years of their short racing careers, if any.

Trainers like Bob Baffert, Bill Mott, Todd Pletcher, Brad Cox, Chad Brown etc. are legendary because of the winning horses they trained; most people would be hard pressed to name owners of Triple Crown event winning horses of just few years ago.

Nobody gives a damn about the owners when making bets - outside of horses' records and their pedigrees, it's mostly trainers and to a much smaller degree, the jockeys that get some weight in betting. **

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#16 | Posted by BillJohnson at 2026-05-03 11:11 AM
... if hot foods were allowed, fast food would be more heavily used.

As would be many other things the "governmtent" (RFKjr or whoever is in charge at any given 4-yr interval) deems "appropriate."

So?

#17 | Posted by BillJohnson at 2026-05-03 11:13 AM
Did you ever get a government cheese?
They were great!

1. No... and 2. Don't pretend you didn't get the point.
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#6 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-05-03 11:35 AM
At least your word count on this last post was not excessive.

No one needs to count your words, because Putin's agitprop doesn't count. G'night, comrade!
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Woman Wins Kentucky Derby as Trainer for First Time

She was very humble in the in the pre-race interview.

Congrats to brothers Jose and Irad Ortiz - great 1-2 race and surge from the tail of the pack.

Interesting fact: 3 horses were scratched and replaced on Wednesday through Friday - Fulleffort, Right to Party and Silent Tactic, which was then replaced by Great White (sired by Violence)... which was scratched just before getting into a starting stall.
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#13 | Posted by BillJohnson at 2026-05-03 09:08 AM
Should a Big Mac qualify?

Why not? Or does new MAHA dictat prohibit all government/RFKjr-deemed "unhealthy" foods to be bought with food subsidies?

BTW, I've seen numerous "EBT accepted" signs on some fast food and restaurant chains, like Jack-in-the-Box, Burger King, Denny's, etc.

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A historic drop in representation by Black members of Congress may be on the way after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision Wednesday to further weaken the Voting Rights Act.

Or it could backfire, and instead of being gerrymandered into one district to give them one seat, they may affect two or more... if a suitable sensible economically literate candidate of whatever skin color is on the ballot, instead of polarizing far-far idiots (BOTH SIDES!)

There are also other "communities" of color - Hispanic, Asians, etc. - that could improve their representation.

The problem for Dems is that recent "progressive" agenda items pushed many "normies" and POC away, and just shouting that "we're the party protecting minorities" no longer works - they're full-fledged "Americans," many are better off than most Whites, and moved on past the "protection" or "community" and need more than lip service from Democrats who've been busy with picking winners through DEI, special "rights" of LGBTQQ++ and trans, and the incredible shrinking labor unions (both in number and influence of their bosses) who still represent a lot of Dems financing and organizing.

Minorities, many of whom are very religious, no longer feel they're represented or advanced by Dems economically, philosophically or culturally. They feel they've been used by "elitist" Dems to empower a narrow agenda - favoring union bosses (not rank-and-file) and gender-divergent.

If the 2024 elections exit polls didn't clearly show it, I don't know what does.

"Big tent" means party's priorities and solutions should reflect and conform to real needs of majority of the party, not the whims of current "elites" requiring conformity of all its constituents - that means actually listening to them, and adapting to changed demographic, not the same small group of "organizers" stuck in the past "civil rights" and "oppression" battles.

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"Sound and fury signifying nothing" - a very loud spectacle of minor diplo spat between two friendly "victims of aggression" countries, that was fanned by the usual KGB/FSB Russian disinformation and propaganda ops.

Ukrainian FM spokesman H. Tykhyi stressed that "Ukraine is not targeting Israel and provided proof and data" that this shipment was illegal. Consequently, the importer pulled the order and Panama-flagged Panormitis was turned away from Haifa Bay port. According to this data, since 2022 Russia has looted and profited from more than 1.7 million tons of agricultural products worth over 387M euros.

Ship was part of the Russian "shadow fleet" that helps prop up the Kremlin's war economy by concealing or spoofing their location data, and often engage in ship-to-ship transfers of their cargo while at sea to obscure its origin.

Now that Ukraine and Israel "kissed and made up" over manufactured public "much ado about nothing," Ukraine can turn world's attention to re-flagged "shadow fleet" ships with Ukrainian grain that have been headed for and unloaded in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Turkiye... usually with little to no outcry.

Ukraine's FM Andrii Sybiha welcomed the result: "This is a clear signal to all other vessels, captains, operators, insurers, and governments: do not buy stolen Ukrainian grain. Do not become part of this crime."

|------- The Russian bot network "Matryoshka" has circulated videos falsely claiming that an Orthodox rabbi "cursed" President Volodymyr Zelensky due to the dispute, or that Ukraine may bar Israelis from the Uman pilgrimage.

The falsehoods tried to exploit recent diplomatic spat between Ukraine and Israel over cargoes of looted grain from Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories arriving at Israeli ports.

The group said it had detected nine videos published on X and BlueSky on April 29, the same day Israeli and Ukrainian FMs traded accusations.

The clips falsely use logos of established media outlets such as RFI, Euronews, and AFP, combined with unrelated footage and overlaid text - a technique commonly employed by Matryoshka.
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As Trump's son-in-law returns to Pakistan for more talks with Iran, major news outlets are largely ignoring an egregious conflict of interest.

One reason why Iranians have told Trump before that they are not going to "negotiate" with non-/quasi-government entities like Witkoff and Kushner - they have no bribes to give them.

So Trump ostensibly decided to send Vance to Islamabad again, then reconsidered, likely given Vance dismal record of fiascos with Orban's election in Hungary and previous meeting with Iranians in Pakistan - the excuse given for change of plans was that he was concerned about Vance's "security"... apparently not realizing that this would look like he was not concerned about security of his son-in-law and partner in crypto crimes, since sons of Steve Witkoff are the co-founders and Zack is CEO of crumbling WLFI crypto empire and its rapidly declining coin price.

Trump family receives 75% of net proceeds when World Liberty Financial sells $WLFI coins, and gets a cut of USD1 stablecoin profits. At the end of 2025, the Trumps had made $1B in proceeds, and holding what was at the time $3B worth in unsold coins.

USD1 is one of the stablecoins integrated into TRON blockchain, which is owned by Justin Sun, a crypto billionaire who bought 3 billion of $WLF coins $45M just before 2024 elections, giving it a boost when World Liberty Financial was just starting and nobody wanted their coins, and in early 2025 he bought or was awarded another 1 billion coins worth at the time $30M, making him a WLFI advisor and largest token owner in what he then described as "excellent project." Sun also heavily invested in tanking $TRUMP memecoin.

It paid off last March when the SEC settled the lawsuit against him for fraud, selling the unregistered "crypto securities" and other "investment instruments" and money laundering for only $10M with no admission of wrongdoing, and several investigations into some of his companies were closed with no criminal or civil charges brought.

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The company behind President Donald Trump's social media network is changing leaders amid mounting financial losses...

Don't feel bad for ol' Devin Nunes. He made $6.3M in salary and bonuses and awarded restricted stock that at the time was worth $41M as CEO just in 2024 for being CEO of non-media "crypto treasury" company which cost investors over $1.1B in cash and more than $6B in "enterprise value" and which since merged with a money-losing "nuclear fusion" company and now looking to spin off Truth Social, as if any of these are viable companies, just like multiple other scammy crypto companies the Trump family is involved with.