M.Esteves

The Iranian forever war: while many “experts” worry about President Trump getting us into a “forever war” with Iran the reality is that we have been in a forever war with Iran since 1979 when they seized the American Embassy, held 66 diplomats hostage for 444 days and began chanting “Death to America” while describing the United States as “the Great Satan.” Matt Turpin on substack outlined the history of the Iranian war against the United States: “Over the past five decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies killed over a thousand Americans. “There was the truck bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut and killing of 241 American service members on October 23, 1983, the deadliest day for the USMC since Iwo Jima. Those Marines were there as a part of a multinational force that was meant to provide peace and stability during the Lebanese Civil War as Iran sought to use Hezbollah to destabilize the country and the rest of the Arab world, spread its Islamic Revolution, and attack Israel. In March 1984, Iran’s Hezbollah kidnapped, tortured and killed CIA Station Chief William Buckley on his way to work in Beirut and six months later conducted a car bomb attack killing 23, including two U.S. service members, at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut. “In December 1984, they hijacked a Kuwait Airlines flight to Pakistan and tortured and killed two U.S. government officials on the flight. In June 1985, they hijacked a TWA flight from Athens to Rome, found a U.S. Navy diver on the flight, tortured him, then shot him in the back of the head and tossed his body on the tarmac in Beirut. In December 1989, they killed U.S. Marine Colonel William Higgins after torturing him for a year. He had been serving on the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, a mission authorized by the United Nations Security Council. In April 1995, Iran used their other proxy group, Islamic Jihad to conduct a car bomb attack in the Gaza Strip which killed eight, including one American who was likely the target. In 1995 and 1996, Iran conducted a number of attacks in Israel targeting Americans and Israelis resulting in seven Americans killed and more than 100 wounded. Iran used Hezbollah again in 1995 and 1996 to conduct attacks against American service members in Saudi Arabia, killing six in a car bombing in November 1995 and another 19 at Khobar Towers in June 1996. In August 1998, Iran and Hezbollah assisted Al-Qaeda suicide bombers in simultaneously attacking two U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people including 12 Americans. Between 2001 and 2003, Iran and its proxies killed another 13 Americans in Israel. During the Iraq War, Iran was linked to killing at least 600 U.S. troops. This was roughly one in every six fatalities in Iraq. One attack was January 2007, when a dozen men from Iran’s IRGC Quds Force disguised themselves as U.S. soldiers and entered the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala and killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others.” Let’s be clear President Trump is trying to END the 47 year long forever war and forced Iran into peaceful policies. Those who favor being soft on the religious dictatorship are in fact perpetuating the forever war not ending it.

@RuiPaiva5 @tbribeiro E precisamos que mais dinheiro fique nos bolsos dos contribuintes…

@tbribeiro Tiago, precisamos é de casas mais baratas em zonas mais baratas. A par disso uma rede de transportes que torne o longe em perto, para que morar sem ser na cidade, não seja um problema, mas qualidade de vida. Como é que ninguém entende o básico ?

“Precisamos de mais construção para baixar os preços para os portugueses que não conseguem comprar casa”. O resultado de mais construção sem políticas públicas que garantam o acesso à habitação:

THEY BURNED THEM ALIVE FOR WATCHING A FILM. On the evening of August 19, 1978, four men walked into Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran. They carried cans of fuel. They spread it across the floor while the audience sat watching a movie. Then they locked the doors from the outside…and set it on fire. At least 400 people burned to death. Alive. Inside a locked building. Because they were watching a film. Not because the film was dangerous. But because the cinema itself was considered an insult to Islam. A symbol of Western decadence. A place where men and women sat together in the dark and were entertained. That was enough. Since the beginning of 1978, Islamic extremists had already burned down 29 other cinemas across Iran. But those were empty. Cinema Rex was not. And then came the lie. Ayatollah Khomeini - who himself had called cinemas “centres for prostitution and the corruption of youth” - immediately blamed the Shah and his secret police SAVAK for the massacre. Millions of Iranians believed him. The outrage that followed accelerated the revolution. The very men who burned 400 people alive used the bodies of their own victims as fuel for their political rise to power. It took 23 years for the truth to come out. One of the perpetrators eventually confessed - not out of remorse, but because he could no longer stand watching others receive credit for what he considered the ultimate act of sacrifice for Islam. And the men behind the attack? Several of them went on to become members of the Iranian parliament. The judge appointed to the case had ties to the very clerics suspected of involvement. The trial was a theatre. The victims were forgotten. Their names were erased from official calendars. No anniversaries were observed. The Islamic Republic simply moved on. This is who we are dealing with. An ideology that burns people alive for watching a film. That blames its victims for its own crimes. That turns mass murder into a political weapon. That rewards its perpetrators with parliamentary seats. And this is the ideology that Europe has spent decades tiptoeing around. Appeasing. Protecting from criticism. Calling it racism to name it out loud. The Iranians know what it costs to get it wrong. They paid with 47 years…and counting. We are still pretending we have time to think about it. Thank God for USA and Israel.❤️‍🔥🪽✝️ @realDonaldTrump @netanyahu

So the EU wants to ban teens from social media — except for LGBTQ+ content? What a nuanced way to “protect children” online.

TDS, in relationship to the stock market and economy, is as bad as at any point since Trump was first elected in 2016. They’re blinded by their hatred of the president. Here we have economic and corporate earnings growth that’s in the process of surging to levels not seen in decades…maybe ever…but the severely TDS-infected are convinced that the next 2008-style crash is just around the corner. This is the most bullish setup of my 41 year career. I’ve literally never been more bullish. Our call remains: GDP growth is headed past 5% as corporate earnings finish the year +18%. By year end the S&P 500 will be up >30%. More for Nasdaq. 🚀

Sweden’s economic history illustrated in a chart:

@6hZ4K7WTCvwHbj1 @bitwonk @Handre Dividends tax in Portugal: 28% Add corporate tax and we are near 50% Talk about the wrong incentives to invest and grow

@bitwonk @Handre Not correct. There are several ways to take out the money. Through salary, it would be too expensive, but that is of course not the choice. Gains tax 20,6% and dividends tax 20% depending on withdrawn salaries. Up to 57% but that is not happening.

Sweden's socialist experiment collapsed so spectacularly in the 1990s that even the Social Democrats had to abandon their own system and embrace free markets. By 1990, Sweden faced a full-blown economic crisis. Government spending had ballooned to 67% of GDP. Marginal tax rates hit 102% (literally paying the state to work). Public debt exploded. The banking system collapsed under the weight of government-directed credit allocation. Unemployment skyrocketed to 12%. The Swedish model had delivered exactly what free market economists predicted: economic stagnation, capital flight, and fiscal collapse. The government had no choice but to deregulate. They privatized telecommunications, postal services, railways, and electricity. They abolished exchange controls and financial market regulations. They cut government spending from 67% to 49% of GDP. They reduced the top marginal tax rate from 87% to 57%. They opened domestic markets to foreign competition and eliminated price controls across entire sectors. The results were immediate and undeniable. GDP growth accelerated from near-zero to 4% annually through the late 1990s. Unemployment plummeted to 4% by 2000. Productivity surged as companies like Ericsson and Volvo competed globally without government interference. Swedish startups like Skype and Spotify emerged from the newly liberalized economy. Foreign investment flooded back as Sweden transformed from socialist basket case to competitive market economy. Capitalism worked once Sweden removed socialist barriers to growth and competition. Yet, today it is paraded as a socialist success story😂.

Joe Biden spent years claiming that he never once discussed business with his son. It was a laughable lie. Just think about it. Traveling to China on AF2 together where Hunter did business. In Ukraine together in 2014. Romania together. It was such a laughable lie. Still, the media let him get away with it. When it was finally proven as fact that Biden did indeed discuss business with his son, Dan Goldman went on TV that night to defend Biden. Here's some video of it. His defense of Biden was cult like and he wasn't the only Democrat to go on TV and talk like this. You have to hand it to Democrats. They NEVER break rank unless specifically instructed to do.

I don't know about any of this but here's the problem. The Atlantic publishes several pieces (against one side) with nothing but anonymous sourcing which is then disputed by on the record sourcing and they never address it. The Atlantic is run by a former Salon editor. Start there. So when they decide to just change a title out of the blue without explaining it while Jeffrey Goldberg just says it's fake news to Brian Stelter it should raise suspicions. Whatever The Atlantic engages in it's not journalism not on any standard that is taught anywhere about what journalism is. I don't know if anything they're saying about Kash Patel is true or not but the tactics that they engage in is not journalism including stealth editing and anonymous sourcing as their main reason for publishing. If you can't get a single source to go on the record for your peace all you are is Gawker for coastal elites. And if the Atlantic is such a prestige outlet that it claims to be it should be able to get people to go on the record. But they can't. Weirdly. @JeffreyGoldberg

@WallStreetApes Those women pay their taxes with their husbands or parents pockets…

A journalist in New York City asks New Yorkers if they support Zohran Mamdani’s racial equity tax He asks only white people. Every white male says no, it’s racist and they’re tired of being targeted Every white woman says they are very supportive of the tax on white people Zohran Mamdani created a new Racial Equity Plan It’s a 375-page framework developed with input from 45 city agencies and over 200 staff It requires every major NYC agency to examine every budget line, hiring decision, procurement, and service through a “racial equity lens.” He’s then saying this plan to justify higher taxes on white neighborhoods and residents to fund equity initiatives They’re looking to start with a 9.5% property tax hike on white neighborhoods

BUT WE HAVE DEMOCRACY? Yes, we do. You can vote. You can change governments. You can throw out a party if you’re tired of them. That’s true. But let me ask you something. Who voted for Ursula von der Leyen? Who chose the European Commission? Who put a cross next to the 27 commissioners who make decisions about a large part of your daily life? You didn’t. None of us did. The European Commission is the only body allowed to propose new laws for 450 million Europeans. The European Parliament is elected, yes - but it can only say yes or no to what the Commission puts in front of it. That is not real democracy. It is a kind of controlled nodding machine. And increasingly it is Brussels that decides more and more. Not your own parliament or your own vote. They decide your cash limits. Your digital identity. How much you pay for electricity. Who is allowed into the country - and out again. What you are allowed to say in public. And soon more about what you eat and how you live. All decided by people you never chose. Who you cannot fire. And who you cannot hold accountable the next time there is an election. This does not happen with guns to your head. It happens with directives, regulations and long technical documents that almost nobody bothers to read…but that everyone must comply with. Slowly and almost without you noticing. The nation state - the only place where ordinary people have ever been able to govern their own country - is being slowly hollowed out from within. Power is moving upward to institutions that are designed to be immune to ordinary popular resistance. They call it “stability”, “expertise” and “European values.” But what they actually mean is that they don’t trust you to know what is best for yourself. And the absurd thing is that the same establishment that gives long speeches about democracy is the one slowly dismantling it. When you one day wake up and see it clearly…it may already be too late to change. Democracy is not just a ballot paper every four years. It is the right of a people to govern themselves. To say no. To change course. To throw the whole thing out and start again if necessary. That power is slipping away from us. And it is happening in the name of freedom, security and “European values.” Ask yourself: who actually decides what those values are? It certainly wasn’t you!

Obama US attorney admits the DC courts are highly partisan.

@al_antdp ‘Peer reviewed’ … lol

Nunca a academia foi tão desacreditada em certas áreas como o é hoje. Uma bolha insana 👇🏻

🚨 HOLY CRAP! Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) just got MIC DROPPED on national television BARTIROMO: Are you suggesting OBAMA's leadership on Iran was better? KHANNA: Yes! BARTIROMO: "There were 14 wire transfers to a Swiss account linked to Hezbollah. Between 2014 and 2016, that was a total of $1.7 billion. The same $1.7 billion, he told Congress, was frozen Iranian assets. There was a backchannel to Tehran through Valerie Jarrett, active for 2012 to 2024." "This was after he left office. So it was almost like a shadow government! He also sent pellets of CASH in a plane to Iran." "Now, why would you send money to Iran KNOWING that they are building a nuclear weapon and they are the leading sponsor of terrorism?!" BRUTAL. H/t @RNCResearch

En España ya hemos normalizado esto: Te venden un piso… ¡Con los OKUPAS dentro incluidos como “oportunidad”! Me acerco a la inmobiliaria. Buena zona, buenas fotos, precio demasiado bueno para ser cierto. El comercial sonríe como si fuera un regalo. Salón amplio, tres habitaciones, terraza. Un chollo. —Genial, ¿cuándo la puedo ver? Duda. Traga saliva. —Verla, verla… ahora mismo no se puede. —¿Perdona? —Está ocupada. Silencio. —¿Ocupada de qué? —De gente —dice, como quien habla de humedad en las paredes—. Una familia. Traducción: “Hay okupas, pero si no lo digo muy alto, igual cuela”. —O sea, ¿me estás vendiendo un piso en el que ya vive otra gente… y al que yo no puedo entrar? Sonríe, profesional: —Por eso está por debajo del precio de mercado. Es una ganga. Se vende con los ocupas dentro. Tú luego inicias el proceso judicial y listo, en uno o dos años lo tienes libre. Es una inversión. Inversión = tú te comes el marrón que el banco y el propietario anterior no han podido resolver. —¿Y por qué no los habéis echado vosotros? Y entonces salen las frases de manual: —Los juzgados están colapsados. —Con menores es muy delicado. —La ley protege mucho al vulnerable. —El propietario prefiere vender con descuento. Traducción real: “No hay huevos ni interés en echarles, que lo haga otro”. En este país hemos llegado a este punto: Pagas, firmas y haces todo legal... Y puedes tardar AÑOS en recuperar tu casa, pero quien entra por la cara tiene más protección que tú. La administración mira para otro lado. Bancos y fondos empaquetan el marrón en un “chollo con okupas” y te lo encasquetan a ti. Si te indignas eres facha, clasista o desalmado. Lo grave no es solo que haya okupas. Lo grave es que el sistema castigue al propietario por querer recuperar lo que es suyo y encima le haga sentirse culpable. No es solo un problema de vivienda. Es algo mucho peor: la idea básica de que lo que es tuyo… ya no es tuyo.

2005: Israel GAVE Gaza away. Not “ended an occupation.” GAVE. IT. AWAY. — Every soldier: gone. — Every settler: gone. 8,000 Israelis dragged out of their homes by their own army, some kicking and screaming. Entire communities destroyed. — Jewish graves: exhumed, because Israel knew they’d be desecrated otherwise. — Greenhouses: LEFT STANDING. American Jewish donors paid $14 million to buy them and leave them intact so Palestinians could farm and build an economy. Within days, Palestinians looted and destroyed most of them. — Infrastructure: synagogues, farms, factories left behind as a functioning starter economy. Israel handed Gaza the keys to a functioning proto-state. A gift. 2006: They elected Hamas a genocidal terror group whose founding charter calls for the murder of every Jew on earth. Read it. It’s not subtle. 2005–2023: The world gave Gaza tens of billions of dollars. US, EU, UN, Qatar, Gulf states reconstruction funds, UNRWA, humanitarian aid. Estimates run $40+ billion total. What did Hamas build with it? — 300 to 500 MILES of terror tunnels longer than the NYC subway system. Under hospitals. Under schools. Under UNRWA facilities. Built with concrete meant for civilian housing. — Rocket factories. — A weapons smuggling empire through Sinai tunnels. — Personal billions for Hamas leaders. Haniyeh. Mashaal. Meshaal. Living in Qatari luxury hotels while children in Gaza starved. Look up their net worth. Go ahead. What they did NOT build: — A single functioning hospital they didn’t weaponize — A single school they didn’t store rockets in — A single bomb shelter for civilians (they have shelters for fighters) — An economy — A future Since Israel withdrew in 2005, Hamas and other Gaza terror groups have fired OVER 20,000 rockets at Israeli civilians. — 2008: rocket barrages + cross-border raid → Cast Lead — 2012: rocket barrages → Pillar of Defense — 2014: kidnap and murder of three Israeli teens + rockets → Protective Edge — 2021: 4,400 rockets in 11 days → Guardian of the Walls — 2023: 5,000+ rockets on October 7 alone. 12,000 more in the following months. ISRAEL STARTED NONE OF THEM. Every single war, every single round, started with rockets from Gaza or attacks on Israeli civilians. October 7 was not “resistance.” — 1,200 murdered in a single day. — Babies burned alive. — Women gang-raped beside the corpses of their friends. — Entire families executed in their safe rooms. — 250+ hostages dragged into tunnels. — The worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. “But the destruction in Gaza…” Yes. It’s devastating. And here’s what your genocide post leaves out: — Israel has nuclear weapons. Hasn’t used them. — Israel has the firepower to flatten Gaza in a day from the air. Hasn’t done it. — Instead, Israel has sent soldiers building by building, tunnel by tunnel, losing 900+ of its own young men and women, BECAUSE it’s trying to minimize civilian casualties against an enemy that hides behind them. — Israel issues evacuation warnings — leaflets, texts, phone calls tipping off Hamas in the process. — Hamas fires from hospitals, schools, mosques, UN facilities. They’ve admitted it. They’ve been filmed doing it. They’re proud of it. Gaza looks like this because the world continues to excuse barbaric terrorism instead of wiping it off the face of the map.

RFK Jr says it wasn’t 400 hospices they shut down in Los Angeles, it was 500 He confirms not a single one has called to complain, 100% were fraud These fake California hospices made fake addresses, then would go to poor neighborhoods and buy residents $600 flat screen TVs, in exchange they would give them their patient identification These fraudulent hospice companies would then bill thousands of dollars to taxpayers for each one They would also pay for lists of patients too and begin billing for them Not a single California Democrat has been held accountable

The US is doing a remarkable job with the blockade. It's substantially reduced Iran's oil exports, seized an Iranian ship and threatened secondary sanctions on Chinese banks that deal in Iranian oil. Meanwhile, oil prices are down from their highs. Kudos! robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/the-smart-bl…

You can thank him later…

‼️BREAKING - Viktor Orban has DISSOLVED Hungarian parliament due to unfavourable polling and he is in the process of trying to induce Magyar MPs to break rank to re-secure power. ....no wait, that's Mark Carney, in Canada.