Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

An EU state's anti-Russian crusade has become a strategic dead end

Polish President Karol Nawrocki
Polish President Karol Nawrocki.
Poland wanted to use Ukraine against Russia, now Kiev is using Poland

The situation in which Poland now finds itself is a good example of how even a relatively successful country can drive itself into a foreign policy impasse through the narrowness of its own thinking.

Poland is not, by modern standards, an inept state and its economy is growing, its institutions function and it occupies an important place in European affairs. Yet its foreign policy has been reduced to a single organizing principle: opposition to Russia. Warsaw has designated Moscow as its ideal adversary and has subordinated almost every other aspect of its external activity to the goal of harming Russia by any means available.

This applies first and foremost to Poland's relationship with the Kiev regime. It would be naïve to believe that Polish politicians have ever held many illusions about the nature of the authorities in Ukraine and nor have they traditionally had warm feelings towards their Ukrainian neighbors. On the contrary, the Polish elite's attitude to Ukraine has long been shaped by contempt and historical suspicion and this view has been formed over centuries and, it must be admitted, has not emerged without reason.

Bad Guys

CIA not fully cooperating on probe into COVID origins 'cover-up', alleged monitoring of analysts: intel watchdog

fauci
© Getty Images
The Central Intelligence Agency is not fully cooperating with an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the likelihood that it was caused by a laboratory accident, according to a federal watchdog.

In a June letter obtained by The Post, Intelligence Community Inspector General Christopher Fox accused CIA Director John Ratcliffe of failing to provide records critical to determining whether the US government was engaged in what an agency officer recently testified was a "cover up" of the pandemic's origins.

The internal watchdog is reviewing whether a team of analysts dispatched by then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to uncover alleged President Biden-era intelligence failures on COVID was stymied.

Fox had earlier demanded answers from Ratcliffe about the allegations of analysts having their computer and phone usage tracked — as well as their communications with whistleblowers — and said he had up to this point received insufficient responses.

Arrow Down

Best of the Web: Canada was a liberal paradise ...until the Liberals took over

canada destroyed liberals downfall graphic
© The Bombthrower
There was a version of this country that worked.

This was a country that used to punch above its weight across all key metrics and in a large part, did so espousing classical liberal values.

Multiculturalism here was both uncontroversial and functional. People came from everywhere, integrated, and got on with building lives, businesses and contributing to that overall ethos Canadian culture.

Minority rights and gender equality stopped being fights and became defaults.

Ontario, the most populous province, ran one of the cleanest grids on the continent for half a century on the back of CANDU, a reactor we designed ourselves. Peaceful, homegrown, zero-carbon, clean energy, and nobody lost any sleep over it. In fact, most people probably weren't even aware of that.

By every classical liberal measure that actually mattered, Canada was a success story that inspired the rest of the world.

Headphones

Alexis Podesta wore FBI wire in investigation of Newsom's former chief of staff

dana williamson guilty fraud newsom californai chief of staff
© Rafael Fontoura for CA PostMcGregor Scott, left, and Dana Williamson entered a guilty plea in May, 2026, at the federal courthouse in Sacramento.
So that's why the fourth co-conspirator, identified as Podesta, wasn't charged.

The FBI had a mole inside Gov. Gavin Newsom's political orbit before the agency's corruption probe expanded into the governor and his wife, The Post has learned.

Democrat insider Alexis Podesta, 45, secretly recorded conversations during the criminal probe into Newsom's then-chief of staff, Dana Williamson, 53, who pleaded guilty to federal fraud and tax charges in May, according to Williamson's attorney.

The revelation she was wearing a wire as far back as June 2024 explains why a swath of Sacramento political insiders and lobbyists were stunned to receive FBI letters last fall informing them that their phone calls had been intercepted during the investigation — despite many having little or no connection to Williamson.

Comment: Ya think? California is a fish rotting from the head.


Footprints

Bibi mulls the idea of breaking away from Washington, apparently

DonT and BenN
© Public DomainUS President Donald Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Netanyahu mulls cutting U.S. aid - a snub to Trump, or a prelude to a false flag attack that drags America back to war?

Is Netanyahu preparing a false flag attack in the Middle East against U.S. forces, putting Iran or Hezbollah in the frame? It's a question which has troubled analysts since the realisation that the post-February 28th attacks on Iran weren't going well and were failing cataclysmically in their objectives. But now it has returned again to trouble pundits following a bombshell announcement that Bibi recently made on Israeli TV, saying simply that his country should dump the U.S. annual military aid, currently well over $3 billion a year. To most, the announcement is entirely illogical given the size of Israel and its ambitions. Why would you turn down $3 billion when it can buy a lot of U.S. military equipment? What are we missing?

Comment: Bibi's 'pity ploy guilt trip': Don't let the door hit you on the way out!


Gavel

The Supreme Court and the Supreme Fed

US Fed Reserve building
© UnknownUS Federal Reserve building
The Supreme Court said more than they needed to in Trump v. Cook. Their narrow task was to decide whether Lisa Cook should be allowed to remain on the Federal Reserve Board while the litigation over Trump's attempted removal of her continues. The 5-4 decision was that she should remain in office for the time being.

Why, then, is the document 83 pages long? The reason for the length is because it stands in direct conflict with the court's opinion in Trump v. Slaughter (released on the same day!), which was that the president has pretty much unilateral authority to fire executive officials, even those in "independent" agencies like the Federal Trade Commission.

(Judge) Roberts wrote the majority opinion, which starts with a history of America's experience with central banks and government control of money, going all the way back to the collapse of the Continental currency during American Revolution. He traces through the lessons learned from the Bank of the United States and the Second Bank of the United States. Like me, you might be wondering why any of this would be relevant to the matter at hand: whether Lisa Cook should keep her job while her firing is litigated.

Target

Report: US believed Israel wanted to kill Iran's Araghchi and Ghalibaf during April negotiations

Araghchi /Ghalibaf
© Urs Flueeler/Pool/REUTERGhalibaf (L) • Araghchi (R) Bürgenstock resort • Obbürgen, Switzerland • June 20, 2026
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the US was concerned Israel might try to assassinate Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf during negotiations that were taking place in April.

The report, which cited US officials, said that the US agreed that Araghchi and Ghalibaf could have been targets for Israel during the full-scale war, as the US has strongly backed Israel's assassinations, but that it was concerned that killing them during negotiations could have derailed the diplomatic process.

Some officials told the paper that the US went as far as telling other countries to warn Iran about the potential Israeli assassination plot.

The report said that Iran was concerned that Israel might have tried to kill Ghalibaf when he traveled to Pakistan for negotiations in April, and that on the way back, Iran's "security forces notified the plane carrying Mr. Ghalibaf back to Tehran that they had picked up intelligence that Israel planned to attack the plane and that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iran's airspace from its western border near Iraq."

Comment: Pattern recognition. Assassination is exactly what a self-serving psychopathic leadership would do.


Oil Pipeline

Vance says US will use Iran MoU to replenish global oil supply then 'see where the hand is'

JDVance
© Tom Brenner/Getty ImagesUS VP JD Vance
Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on "The Michael Knowles Show" published on Tuesday that the US would use the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran to "refill" global oil supplies and stockpiles and to prepare for more potential military action against the Islamic Republic.
"I think what the president has told us to do is use this MoU to sort of refill the world's oil economy, to refill some stocks, and then to see where the hand is."

Colosseum

The World Cup of Exclusion

Trump FIFA
US President Donald Trump • 2026 FIFA World Cup
A tournament meant to unite has instead exposed the politics shaping access, power, and who gets left out.

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup moves through its opening rounds, the beautiful game has often been overshadowed by disputes over visas, border controls, security measures, and the treatment of players, officials, and supporters.

Complaints from Iran, the denial of entry to Somali referee Omar Artan, scrutiny of US immigration policies, and concerns over access for fans from several countries have pushed politics to the forefront of the tournament.

For many observers, the competition has become one of the most politically charged World Cups in recent memory, unfolding against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's immigration agenda and an increasingly polarized international climate.

Sport has never been separate from politics. It never will be. What stands out here is the volume of scrutiny directed at a country that presents itself as a defender of freedom.

History offers many examples of political leaders exploiting sport for prestige and legitimacy. The 1934 World Cup in Fascist Italy became a propaganda showcase for Benito Mussolini. Argentina 1978, Russia 2018, and Qatar 2022 all generated intense debates over human rights, authoritarianism, and geopolitical agendas. In each case, football became, to some extent, secondary to politics.

The US, which is hosting the majority of the 2026 World Cup matches, appears set to follow the same pattern.

Warning

Is Europe preparing for a new war against Russia? Beyond deterrence, Europe's dangerous drift

RutteKallasMacron
© UnknownMark Rutte • Kaja Kallas • Emmanuel Macron • Europe in collapse of strategic rationality
Europe was built on the promise of peace. Now, its leaders are steering the continent toward rivalry, arms races, and confrontation, putting its founding values on the line. Is war inevitable?

The Collapse of Strategic Rationality

For decades, European integration rested on a foundational promise: never again would the continent plunge into a catastrophic war. The European project was born out of devastation, with the aim of replacing power politics with cooperation, deterrence with diplomacy, and military rivalry with economic interdependence. Yet now, it's hard not to notice how many in Europe's political class seem ready to abandon those ideals in favour of a new language of confrontation and readiness for a war against Russia.

The debate about Russia no longer centers simply on Ukraine's defence. Increasingly, on both the left and right, influential European voices — such as Kaja Kallas and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte — frame a direct conflict with Russia as not just possible but inevitable. Talk of a forthcoming war — omnipresent in the mouth of NATO Secretary General — sky-high military spending and budgets, and the narrative of a continent under imminent war have turned what was once 'deterrence' into a sweeping, ambitious geopolitical project. The shift is as dramatic as it is troubling.