On the potential Ukraine walkaway, today's developments, with both Trump and Vance venting directly at the little Z-man for his intransigence, seemed a positive turn. Again, who knows with this Administration, but, Kellogg being left in London to sit at the kiddie table with other flunkies from our "European allies" is fairly telling and downright amusing.
Sorry to disappoint, Mark (as the condition does have sort of an edgy ring to it), but you do NOT have Reverse Trump Derangement Syndrome. Of everyone I read, you have long been the most-honest and -consistent caller of balls-and-strikes on Trump. I don't think any of us are looking to Trump to save us with his eloquence and towering intellect, just as I'm sure I'm not alone in constantly wanting to pull my hair out over his impulsiveness, bombast and uncanny ability, any time he seems to be moving in the right direction, to completely trip over his own...feet. He is who he is, and whatever valid criticisms can be levied as to intellect, morality or overall couth, that crazy witches' brew of talents and flaws he's got going there can be damn effective.
I appreciate you hanging in with your coverage and following along honestly and astutely with all the good, the bad and the ugly as and when it arises with an often-maddening character like Trump. You are a far more-measured soul than I.
Struggled to get through the dissertation of judgments...
" But sooner or later they're going to want a more realistic narrative from MIH or they'll go somewhere else." - Believe MIH to be very fair and balanced as following since 2016. Don't assume this will change. However, will defer to Mrs. Wauck.
Do believe this written by some AI/ChatGPT method based on the ""s evident throughout.
agreed wholeheartedly Kushner comments all along could not be interpreted as anything less than removal of all Palestinians whether intended or not a completion of the genocide/ethnic cleansing is the outcome.
I’ll stick with my earlier opinion that as he’s not running again the Miriam Adelson lobby has minimal effect on him. As none of us can look inside Trump’s head, do we really know what he’s thinking? Even his statements, if we can trust media at all, are not always reliable as fact and not a negotiation ploy? As in, So is J Powell in or out? I’m still in wait and see mode, I certainly don’t trust the talking heads any longer, so many I’ve believed before have been proven wrong or just grifters.
“Trump. He's a complete and utter hustler.” Now it’s ok to say it all over, crying from every mountaintop, but if you said it about Zhou-Baidan, from every street corner, you’d never make it home in one piece, never mind with your phone intact! What gives?!!!!
Laffin_boy is spot on and his thinking is more or less my way of thinking. Trump is a face, a character, low, very low level of intellect, a front for the crazies who control Washington. The US precidency lost all relevance after JFK and Nixon. The mafia with nukes is all America is to the global majority. Every four years a pretend democratic election between two people working for the mafia is held. The whole world knows it's a sham, they know Trump is a sham, just like Biden down to LBJ were shams.
I like laffin_boy follow you for the same reasons yet I wonder sometimes that you think politics in the US is not a sham. I don't follow many American commentators, Simplicius is a must, but I think you have to get real about Trump. He's a complete and utter hustler who like his predecessors in the oval office has sold his soul to mafia.
ML, when you invoke the mafia most people imagine the Italians, but the most vicious mafia in the USA, and likely the world is the Khazarian mafia. At least the Italian version had a code of honor.
Thank you for your Substack. It has been very helpful in understanding geopolitics. I do not think you have RTDS but you are showing worrisome signs. President Trump's decisions seem to be accelerating in their irrationality and in their damaging effects on our country and the world. Panic and becoming black-pilled is not the proper response, but semi-neutrality in the face of escalating data to the contrary is not wise. As a physician (but not a pharmaceutical company compliance officer like most of my colleagues) I think RTDS in situ is a likely diagnosis.
I would like to expand the nomenclature for RTDS a bit and propose RTDS Type I and RTDS Type II. RTDS Type I describes the typical American exceptionalist and forms the core of Trump's support. RTDS Type II refers to the people in the dissident circle (my circle, BTW) who see 3 and 4-D chess moves in an escalating cascade of irrational and damaging (to the US and the world) geopolitical decisions. I HOPE the RTDS Type II folks are correct but it is HOPE and hope alone and has little basis in rational thought......So I change my diagnosis.
Yellen left a ticking time bomb with short term debt she should have financed with long term debt when the interest rates were artificially low.
Unfortunately / fortunately those historically abnormal interest rates are not coming back. The ultra low interest rates caused a lot of economic damage and bubbles, and did not spur the economy as some thought it would.
We will see what’s Trump’s results are with his negotiating style. I think once everything is negotiated it will be an improvement over the current status.
I don’t think the U.S. can supply enough bombs to make much of a difference on facts on the ground in Gaza.
Israel can blow lots of smoke on attacking Iran, but reality is their last air attack was shut down, and they had to rely on some locally launched drones for symbolic action.
And Trump is not interested in economic suicide, so the U.S. is not attacking Iran under Trump.
The attack on the Houthis I still believe are more symbolic, and part of negotiations with Iran. Reading above the Houthis are deeply dug in, reinforces my view.
Ukraine snafu has lots of smoke / spinning by Trump, which is only showing Zelensky is the obstacle for peace with Ukraine issuing crazier and crazier demands for support. My gut feeling is situation in Ukraine is much worse than being reported. Or is it the Trump pressure?
Hegseth Seems to be targeted to get him removed, or is he is just incompetent? My vote is he’s seen as an easy target, so the democratic machine and msm friends are going after him. I don’t understand the recent turmoil in the Pentagon. Someone is playing politics, but I’m not sure who and why.
I am glad that you are not concerned about pleasing people, because you (any of us who put themselves out there as you do) can not please people. I could bellyache just as easily about something else. But hey, it's a free country AND A FREE BLOG. Thank you for your service.
I listened to the Danny Davis McGregor conversation and it appeared that Hegseths people were out because they perhaps it is speculated - gave Hegseth reports / reasons not to attack Iran and if I have to guess the information passed onto Hegseth was acted on. What the actions were is unknown. But I imagine discussion with Trump was part of that or at least the final decision.
The conversation also pretty much concluded or I understood it to imply Hegseth kept his job putting his own career before the others and perhaps the American people - they were not delighted with his Fox & Friends primary cv accomplishment
Apparently the reports broke from the narrative - and they were terminated Hegseth perhaps denied responsibility for the creation or an/or content of the reports and kept his job.
But the appearance is Trump is only to be provided certain information on which to make a decision; stray from the narrative and you risk loss of your job.
I have an under over with friends; I have May 15 for Hegseth departure.
Not surprised. What nobody talks about is the role Peter Thiel and his underboss, Alex Karp, CEO of Palantair is doing behind (or in front of) the scene. Karp is a far left creature, who is fully Zionist, and is totally tied into our government in a very secretive and wide spread way. These are the people who, like, Larry Ellison are drooling over the prospects of total control through AI.
agreed wholeheartedly Kushner comments all along could not be interpreted as anything less than removal of all Palestinians whether intended or not a completion of the genocide/ethnic cleansing is the outcome.
Mark, thanks for the Dan Caldwell / Tucker reference. I intend to watch.
Regarding your reader feedback, laffin_boy raises many plausible points about Trump, points that based on the historical comments on MIH many here share or are willing to consider. That said, it seems to me that any long time reader of MIH would have recognized by now that Mark does not have RTDS in the least. He has not been restrained in his criticism of Trump in a whole variety of areas where such criticism seems justified (including in the areas mentioned by laffin_boy). At the same time, Mark has presented alternative views of what might be behind Trump's actions. Providing context and giving someone consideration as possibly having agency and some sort of native intelligence or "smarts" is simply good analysis, especially when that someone is President of the United States and is exposed to a variety of pressures and influences. After all, even Trump is not wrong or misguided 100% of the time, and his intentions are not wrong or evil 100% of the time. So why not examine all the possible explanations for his actions as best we can fathom? Including the impact of his background and his beliefs and his personality?
"But sooner or later they're going to want a more realistic narrative from MIH or they'll go somewhere else." That's why so many of us are here! laffin_boy, where else would you suggest we go for a more realistic narrative? Aside from that thanks for your thoughts.
Maybe at that very moment of German get up and go east the Russians will offer to give Poland the Galician oblast and all the bandera contents as part of a general war settlement. That should excite the idiots in the West.
Re: 9:13 The Real Reason the US Invaded Iraq [Caldwell]
GODS OF FINANCE & GODS OF WAR | Alex Krainer - Apr 21, 2025
I recently came across an important and concrete corroboration of all this. In an article titled “How stolen Alberta oil keeps creating $9 trillion in fraudulent collateral,” political economist Regan Boychuk** revealed important insights into the way incentives for war become policy. He made the case that the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was about keeping Iraqi oil off the world market in order to maximize the value of 175 billion barrels of newly 'proven' Alberta oil resource.
** HOW STOLEN ALBERTA OIL KEEPS CREATING $9 TRILLION IN FRAUDULENT COLLATERAL | March 5, 2025 - Regan Boychuk
Thanks for the Krainer link. He's almost always level-headed & insightful.
re Dan Caldwell: not impressed. He's young -- not mere 'age-ism' but not tempered & matured; not well educated -- failed to submit himself to that discipline; his experiences have been at very low-level & mediocre -- guard at Camp David??? His insights into US foreign policy do not rise to the level of anything available through Nima Alkhorshid or even the Duran.
Would you want Caldwell representing USA across a table from Lavrov?
Reminds me of "Most people have heard of Karl Marx but few know of his sister Onya, an Olympic runner. Her name is still mentioned at the start of every race".
On the potential Ukraine walkaway, today's developments, with both Trump and Vance venting directly at the little Z-man for his intransigence, seemed a positive turn. Again, who knows with this Administration, but, Kellogg being left in London to sit at the kiddie table with other flunkies from our "European allies" is fairly telling and downright amusing.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/high-profile-ukraine-peace-talks-scrapped-after-rubio-witkoff-pull-out-last-minute
Sorry to disappoint, Mark (as the condition does have sort of an edgy ring to it), but you do NOT have Reverse Trump Derangement Syndrome. Of everyone I read, you have long been the most-honest and -consistent caller of balls-and-strikes on Trump. I don't think any of us are looking to Trump to save us with his eloquence and towering intellect, just as I'm sure I'm not alone in constantly wanting to pull my hair out over his impulsiveness, bombast and uncanny ability, any time he seems to be moving in the right direction, to completely trip over his own...feet. He is who he is, and whatever valid criticisms can be levied as to intellect, morality or overall couth, that crazy witches' brew of talents and flaws he's got going there can be damn effective.
I appreciate you hanging in with your coverage and following along honestly and astutely with all the good, the bad and the ugly as and when it arises with an often-maddening character like Trump. You are a far more-measured soul than I.
Very well expressed, NFO!
Struggled to get through the dissertation of judgments...
" But sooner or later they're going to want a more realistic narrative from MIH or they'll go somewhere else." - Believe MIH to be very fair and balanced as following since 2016. Don't assume this will change. However, will defer to Mrs. Wauck.
Do believe this written by some AI/ChatGPT method based on the ""s evident throughout.
agreed wholeheartedly Kushner comments all along could not be interpreted as anything less than removal of all Palestinians whether intended or not a completion of the genocide/ethnic cleansing is the outcome.
I’ll stick with my earlier opinion that as he’s not running again the Miriam Adelson lobby has minimal effect on him. As none of us can look inside Trump’s head, do we really know what he’s thinking? Even his statements, if we can trust media at all, are not always reliable as fact and not a negotiation ploy? As in, So is J Powell in or out? I’m still in wait and see mode, I certainly don’t trust the talking heads any longer, so many I’ve believed before have been proven wrong or just grifters.
“Trump. He's a complete and utter hustler.” Now it’s ok to say it all over, crying from every mountaintop, but if you said it about Zhou-Baidan, from every street corner, you’d never make it home in one piece, never mind with your phone intact! What gives?!!!!
Laffin_boy is spot on and his thinking is more or less my way of thinking. Trump is a face, a character, low, very low level of intellect, a front for the crazies who control Washington. The US precidency lost all relevance after JFK and Nixon. The mafia with nukes is all America is to the global majority. Every four years a pretend democratic election between two people working for the mafia is held. The whole world knows it's a sham, they know Trump is a sham, just like Biden down to LBJ were shams.
I like laffin_boy follow you for the same reasons yet I wonder sometimes that you think politics in the US is not a sham. I don't follow many American commentators, Simplicius is a must, but I think you have to get real about Trump. He's a complete and utter hustler who like his predecessors in the oval office has sold his soul to mafia.
ML, when you invoke the mafia most people imagine the Italians, but the most vicious mafia in the USA, and likely the world is the Khazarian mafia. At least the Italian version had a code of honor.
Thank you for your Substack. It has been very helpful in understanding geopolitics. I do not think you have RTDS but you are showing worrisome signs. President Trump's decisions seem to be accelerating in their irrationality and in their damaging effects on our country and the world. Panic and becoming black-pilled is not the proper response, but semi-neutrality in the face of escalating data to the contrary is not wise. As a physician (but not a pharmaceutical company compliance officer like most of my colleagues) I think RTDS in situ is a likely diagnosis.
I would like to expand the nomenclature for RTDS a bit and propose RTDS Type I and RTDS Type II. RTDS Type I describes the typical American exceptionalist and forms the core of Trump's support. RTDS Type II refers to the people in the dissident circle (my circle, BTW) who see 3 and 4-D chess moves in an escalating cascade of irrational and damaging (to the US and the world) geopolitical decisions. I HOPE the RTDS Type II folks are correct but it is HOPE and hope alone and has little basis in rational thought......So I change my diagnosis.
Yellen left a ticking time bomb with short term debt she should have financed with long term debt when the interest rates were artificially low.
Unfortunately / fortunately those historically abnormal interest rates are not coming back. The ultra low interest rates caused a lot of economic damage and bubbles, and did not spur the economy as some thought it would.
We will see what’s Trump’s results are with his negotiating style. I think once everything is negotiated it will be an improvement over the current status.
I don’t think the U.S. can supply enough bombs to make much of a difference on facts on the ground in Gaza.
Israel can blow lots of smoke on attacking Iran, but reality is their last air attack was shut down, and they had to rely on some locally launched drones for symbolic action.
And Trump is not interested in economic suicide, so the U.S. is not attacking Iran under Trump.
The attack on the Houthis I still believe are more symbolic, and part of negotiations with Iran. Reading above the Houthis are deeply dug in, reinforces my view.
Ukraine snafu has lots of smoke / spinning by Trump, which is only showing Zelensky is the obstacle for peace with Ukraine issuing crazier and crazier demands for support. My gut feeling is situation in Ukraine is much worse than being reported. Or is it the Trump pressure?
Hegseth Seems to be targeted to get him removed, or is he is just incompetent? My vote is he’s seen as an easy target, so the democratic machine and msm friends are going after him. I don’t understand the recent turmoil in the Pentagon. Someone is playing politics, but I’m not sure who and why.
I am glad that you are not concerned about pleasing people, because you (any of us who put themselves out there as you do) can not please people. I could bellyache just as easily about something else. But hey, it's a free country AND A FREE BLOG. Thank you for your service.
.
I listened to the Danny Davis McGregor conversation and it appeared that Hegseths people were out because they perhaps it is speculated - gave Hegseth reports / reasons not to attack Iran and if I have to guess the information passed onto Hegseth was acted on. What the actions were is unknown. But I imagine discussion with Trump was part of that or at least the final decision.
The conversation also pretty much concluded or I understood it to imply Hegseth kept his job putting his own career before the others and perhaps the American people - they were not delighted with his Fox & Friends primary cv accomplishment
Apparently the reports broke from the narrative - and they were terminated Hegseth perhaps denied responsibility for the creation or an/or content of the reports and kept his job.
But the appearance is Trump is only to be provided certain information on which to make a decision; stray from the narrative and you risk loss of your job.
I have an under over with friends; I have May 15 for Hegseth departure.
.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing in the video was the report that Jared Kushner was heavily involved in personnel during the transition.
Not surprised. What nobody talks about is the role Peter Thiel and his underboss, Alex Karp, CEO of Palantair is doing behind (or in front of) the scene. Karp is a far left creature, who is fully Zionist, and is totally tied into our government in a very secretive and wide spread way. These are the people who, like, Larry Ellison are drooling over the prospects of total control through AI.
agreed wholeheartedly Kushner comments all along could not be interpreted as anything less than removal of all Palestinians whether intended or not a completion of the genocide/ethnic cleansing is the outcome.
.
Anyone thinking as I am Hegseth was possibly provided an Israeli ' handler ' like many of the US Congresspersons apparently were -
Yes.
.
US President Donald Trump's appointment of Merav Ceren to oversee Iran and Israel policy at the White House’s National Security Council
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2025/04/white-house-denies-staffer-merav-cerens-ties-israeli-defense-ministry-what-know
Yet another.
Mark, thanks for the Dan Caldwell / Tucker reference. I intend to watch.
Regarding your reader feedback, laffin_boy raises many plausible points about Trump, points that based on the historical comments on MIH many here share or are willing to consider. That said, it seems to me that any long time reader of MIH would have recognized by now that Mark does not have RTDS in the least. He has not been restrained in his criticism of Trump in a whole variety of areas where such criticism seems justified (including in the areas mentioned by laffin_boy). At the same time, Mark has presented alternative views of what might be behind Trump's actions. Providing context and giving someone consideration as possibly having agency and some sort of native intelligence or "smarts" is simply good analysis, especially when that someone is President of the United States and is exposed to a variety of pressures and influences. After all, even Trump is not wrong or misguided 100% of the time, and his intentions are not wrong or evil 100% of the time. So why not examine all the possible explanations for his actions as best we can fathom? Including the impact of his background and his beliefs and his personality?
"But sooner or later they're going to want a more realistic narrative from MIH or they'll go somewhere else." That's why so many of us are here! laffin_boy, where else would you suggest we go for a more realistic narrative? Aside from that thanks for your thoughts.
Yes yes a German march to the east with troops based in the airport next to Rzeszów.
Consider John Helmer here: https://johnhelmer.net/
Maybe at that very moment of German get up and go east the Russians will offer to give Poland the Galician oblast and all the bandera contents as part of a general war settlement. That should excite the idiots in the West.
Re: 9:13 The Real Reason the US Invaded Iraq [Caldwell]
GODS OF FINANCE & GODS OF WAR | Alex Krainer - Apr 21, 2025
I recently came across an important and concrete corroboration of all this. In an article titled “How stolen Alberta oil keeps creating $9 trillion in fraudulent collateral,” political economist Regan Boychuk** revealed important insights into the way incentives for war become policy. He made the case that the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was about keeping Iraqi oil off the world market in order to maximize the value of 175 billion barrels of newly 'proven' Alberta oil resource.
** HOW STOLEN ALBERTA OIL KEEPS CREATING $9 TRILLION IN FRAUDULENT COLLATERAL | March 5, 2025 - Regan Boychuk
https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/how-stolen-alberta-oil-keeps-creating-9-trillion-in-fraudulent-collateral
Thanks for the Krainer link. He's almost always level-headed & insightful.
re Dan Caldwell: not impressed. He's young -- not mere 'age-ism' but not tempered & matured; not well educated -- failed to submit himself to that discipline; his experiences have been at very low-level & mediocre -- guard at Camp David??? His insights into US foreign policy do not rise to the level of anything available through Nima Alkhorshid or even the Duran.
Would you want Caldwell representing USA across a table from Lavrov?
You’re welcome. Krainer is solid.
Caldwell: Unknown to known. 15 minutes of fame amplified by Tucker. Signal? Noise? Or, just a piece of lint some distance from the game board?
Afraid I took the wrong POV on Caldwell: he is the "whistleblower," not the hi diplomat.
Thanks for the links. I somehow missed Krainer's the other day.
Trumpet was raised in the New York City mafia.
He could have played the godfather better than Marlon Brando.
Contrast Putin, 2 PhDs economic and law
Fluent in 5 languages.Judo Master.
Led Russia from bankrupt to powerhouse.
We could learn from him, starting with Trumpet.
Not the boss, under boss.
Newsweek: Abbas Araghchi offered Trump a multi-billion dollar deal -- Iranian assistance with US nuclear technology
https://www.newsweek.com/iran-offers-help-trump-revive-us-nuclear-sector-canceled-speech-2062297
What goes around comes…Iran?
Reminds me of "Most people have heard of Karl Marx but few know of his sister Onya, an Olympic runner. Her name is still mentioned at the start of every race".
Amazing! I wish he would have given the speech.
Luv it!
Good analysis by laffin_boy, but I don’t think you have RTDS.
Mr. Wauck has neither TDS, nor, RTDS.
What's that Arab curse, "May you live in interesting times"?
Chinese.......
Thanks for that. I was too lazy to search for it.