Iran’s IRGC Navy has released footage showing the seizure of two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday.

Her cooperation is only useful to Trump because she will lie for him.

yikes

A top Trump administration envoy, Paolo Zampolli, has publicly confirmed that he personally suggested to both President Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino that Italy take Iran’s place in the tournament.

As a practicing Christian who converted from Buddhism and speaks openly about his faith, Cao likely uses “witches,” “witchcraft,” and sometimes “demons” as part of a theological worldview in which good and evil are spiritual realities.

Cao graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served over 25 years in the Navy, including combat‑related special‑operations roles (Explosive Ordnance Disposal and deep‑sea diving) in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

As of April 22, 2026, John C. Phelan is no longer serving as U.S. Secretary of the Navy; he has been removed from the position by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to public reporting. There is, however, no official public explanation yet for why he is being removed,

Eritrea is widely documented to use systematic torture, arbitrary detention, and other severe human‑rights abuses as tools of state control, with particular focus on indefinite national service, political prisoners, and repression of dissent.

Democrats have appealed Hurley’s redistricting ruling to the Supreme Court of Virginia, and that court has so far kept the referendum on track while hearing the appeal, but no conclusive appellate ruling has yet issued that changes the underlying validity of Hurley’s redistricting‑related orders.

Researchers create transgenic mice by inserting human disease-related genes, such as those for Alzheimer’s (APP/PS1) or Parkinson’s (alpha-synuclein), to mimic symptoms like plaques, neuron damage, or motor deficits. These models help study disease mechanisms, test therapies, and evaluate drugs.

I like to distract myself from the terrifying political news by reading the ridiculous political news.

reading Sue Klebold’s book about Dylan and Columbine.

I read Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth by Elizabeth Williamson, a NYT reporter. (Idk I can’t control where my brain worms take me)

It was mostly about how Alex Jones stoked suspicion and tried to ruin the lives of

Reporting is not a crime. Also, the reporter Patel apparently went after here is Elizabeth Williamson, who went up against the entire Sandy Hook conspiracy theory apparatus to write a book about the worst response to the saddest event I can think of. She is pretty fearless, but this is 100% BS

This is insane, tinpot authoritarian shit.

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

Masoud Pezeshkian & @drpezeshkian X.com The Islamic Republic of Iran has welcomed dialogue and agreement and continues to do so. Breach of commitments, blockade and threats are main obstacles to genuine negotiations. World sees your endless hypocritical rhetoric and contradiction between claims and actions.

Iranian Speaker of Parliament:

Iran’s judiciary said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s claims that Iran had canceled the executions of eight women were based on false reports, adding that none of the women had been facing execution.

Kash Patel is reportedly furious and threatening to sue anyone who calls him “J. Edgar Boozer.”
It would be a real shame if this went viral.

Prolonged reliance on such swap-line interventions could inflate U.S. balance sheet risks, as swap lines expand Fed liabilities without reciprocal benefits beyond maintaining inertia in dollar dominance.

A swap line approval sets a precedent that every Gulf exporter can demand emergency U.S. support during crises, exposing fragility—if denied, partial yuan shifts by UAE (China’s top crude buyer) could erode this recycling and weaken dollar reserve status.

The petrodollar system relies on oil priced in dollars, recycling revenues into U.S. Treasuries and assets to sustain global dollar demand.

So the U.S. will now have to offer swap-line to the UAE and other ME oil exporters to protect the petrodollar system.

What is the longer term economic impact on the U.S. I wonder...

The UAE is considering yuan alternatives to its usual dollar‑based oil trade because it fears the Iran war could squeeze its dollar liquidity and weaken the “petrodollar” system, and it wants leverage to push Washington into providing a U.S. dollar swap line or other financial support.

A U.S.–UAE currency swap line would mainly help the UAE by giving it a reliable, relatively cheap source of U.S. dollars in a crisis.

The UAE dirham is pegged to the dollar, so a swap line would let the UAE central bank borrow dollars from the Fed or Treasury to defend that peg if the Iran‑war‑related turmoil drains reserves or triggers capital‑outflow pressure.

Confederate flag removals upset Miller after church murders White nationalist Dylann Roof murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015. Roof’s attack triggered a national conversation about racial hatred in the United States. In response, Amazon.com and other retailers made efforts to pull the Confederate flag from their websites and stores. Miller sought to create a counternarrative to this news through Breitbart, the emails show. He emailed McHugh with the subject line “defies modern comprehension” on June 23, 2015, following the news about the retailers, and highlighted a statistic about the deaths of Confederate soldiers with a link to history.com: Miller, June 23, 2015, 3:10 p.m. ET: “‘22.6 percent of Southern men who were between the ages of 20 and 24 in 1860 lost their lives because of the war.’” [history.com link] McHugh told Hatewatch that she and Miller spoke on the phone about the subject of Amazon yanking Confederate flag merchandise after the email. Miller appears to refer to that call in his next email and suggests that McHugh write about how Amazon was selling “commie flags.” Miller, June 23, 2015, 3:31 p.m. ET: “That’s a really, really, really good point. Have you thought about going to Amazon and finding the commie flags and then doing a story on that? I think you’ve hit on something potentially profound.”

The other reason is that in 2019, SPLC published the racist emails Stephen Miller sent to a Breitbart editor, which you really owe it to Miller to re-read.

www.splcenter.org/resources/ha...

1. The FBI gutted a counterintelligence team tracking threats from Iran

2. Trump went to war with Iran days later

3. Now Trump is hosting top holders of his memecoin at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, with unclear vetting and security

See the national security risk?

The Third Trajectory and Hopes for Rebuilding - emptywheel The global catastrophe Trump created in Iran may provide an opportunity to disrupt his authoritarian trajectory.

Read this from Marcy. It's brilliant. Take the time.

emptywheel.net/2026/04/21/t...

Clearing Strait of Hormuz of mines could take 6 months, Pentagon tells Congress The Pentagon assessment, shared in a classified briefing for lawmakers, suggests gasoline and oil prices could remain elevated through the midterm elections.

"It could take six months to fully clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines deployed by the Iranian military, and any such operation is unlikely to be carried out until the U.S. war with Iran ends, the Pentagon has informed Congress."

YUP.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

These two ships are reportedly now in IRGC custody and being directed to the Iranian coast.

A third vessel has also in the last hour been reportedly attacked.