the grey man

JUST IN: John Eastman, the conservative attorney who helped devise President Trump's last ditch strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has officially been disbarred, per the California Supreme Court.:

If a credit card company suspects fraud, it immediately cuts off your ability to spend. The government should face the same restriction: it must lose the power to collect further taxes until the American taxpayer, acting as the creditor, is convinced that fraud is no longer taking place. Not. Another. Fucking. Dime.

Seven sentences. Five audiences. Every word is a weapon aimed at a different target. This is the most compressed piece of strategic signaling in the history of social media diplomacy. On April 15, Trump posted: “China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also - And the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran. President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks. We are working together smartly, and very well! Doesn’t that beat fighting??? BUT REMEMBER, we are very good at fighting, if we have to - far better than anyone else!!!” Decode every sentence. “I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz.” The blockade is not a blockade. It is a service. Trump reframes the entire operation from aggression to provision. The navy enforcing interdiction is now the navy “opening” the strait. And “permanently” signals to oil markets, Asian importers, and Iran that the US intends to remain the guarantor of Hormuz transit indefinitely. Not as leverage. As architecture. “I am doing it for them, also - And the World.” China imports over 50 percent of its energy through Hormuz. Trump positions the blockade as a gift to Beijing. The country whose Iranian oil he just cut off is now the beneficiary. Bessent said hours earlier: “They can get oil. Not Iranian oil.” Trump completes the sentence: and I am the one making sure they can. “This situation will never happen again.” A doctrine in five words. The Hormuz crisis, Iran’s closure, the tolls, the mines, the 46 days of disruption will not recur because the United States is establishing permanent enforcement. No treaty. No negotiation. A unilateral declaration of perpetual chokepoint control posted on Truth Social. “They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran.” Unverified. China’s MFA called the arms reports “entirely fabricated” hours earlier. But the sentence forces Beijing into a trap. If China confirms, it concedes publicly. If China denies, it implies the weapons were under consideration. Silence reads as confirmation. Every response validates the claim. The rhetorical structure is designed to be unfalsifiable in real time. “President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks.” The May 14 to 15 summit confirmed in the most disarming language possible. “Big, fat, hug” humanizes the relationship for domestic audiences while signaling to Beijing that Trump views the summit as a victory lap. The framing shapes expectations before a single agenda item is discussed. “Doesn’t that beat fighting???” The carrot. Three audiences: To China, cooperation beats confrontation. To Americans, this president ended a war with a deal. To Iran, fighting is the alternative and you are losing. “BUT REMEMBER, we are very good at fighting, if we have to - far better than anyone else!!!” The stick. The hug is conditional. The cooperation is optional. The carrier strike group is not. The same paragraph offers peace and threatens war, and both are credible because the blockade proves both simultaneously. One post. Seven sentences. Five audiences: China, Iran, domestic voters, oil markets, and the May summit negotiating table. Every word measured. Every ambiguity deliberate. Every claim unfalsifiable in the window that matters. Trump did not write a tweet. He wrote a treaty draft disguised as a social media post.

Tax Day. I feel particularly bad about it this year because now I know the scope of the fraud I am funding.

The video is of tweens begging the man recording them to leave them alone. It’s clear the girls have been abused and/ or harassed before. But right off the bat if a 12 yo girl is screaming at the camera man to “leave me alone, I’m only 12.” We can get a pretty clear picture of who is in the wrong. Then the camera man is revealed to be a gypsy. One who has a lot of social media depicting himself as exactly the type of man who would harass 12 yo girls as they walk down the street.

JUST IN: John Eastman, the conservative attorney who helped devise President Trump's last ditch strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has officially been disbarred, per the California Supreme Court.: