Blood sugar control is key factor in slowing brain aging

 Age-related brain atrophy, the gradual loss of neurons and shrinkage of brain tissue, is a natural part of aging, which can lead to cognitive decline and other neurological issues. While so far aging cannot be prevented, recent research from an 18-month dietary intervention offers hope that lifestyle and dietary changes can slow brain aging. A new international study, led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev as part of the DIRECT PLUS Brain MRI trial, has brought to light how blood sugar control can significantly impact brain health.

Brain age, as evaluated by MRI measurements of the hippocampus and lateral ventricles, reflects the biological aging of the brain, which can differ from a person's chronological age. Chronological age is the number of years lived, while brain age indicates the brain's actual health.

Typically, as we age, the hippocampus shrinks and the lateral ventricles expand, serving as markers of brain aging. Some individuals have a brain age younger or older than their chronological age. A younger brain age suggests better cognitive health, while an older brain age may indicate accelerated aging and increased risk of cognitive decline.

The study, which was published recently in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , was conducted by an international team of brain and nutrition experts, including researchers from Ben-Gurion University, Harvard University, Leipzig University, and more. The research was primarily carried out by Ph.D. student Dafna Pachter and overseen by Prof. Iris Shai, along with several international collaborators.

A previous study published two years ago, reported that Mediterranean (MED) and green-MED diets significantly attenuated age-related brain atrophy by ∼50% within 18 months.

In the current study, the researchers aimed to understand the mechanism by which the slowing of brain atrophy occurs.

The study found that a decline in HbA1c, and key markers of long-term blood sugar levels, are associated with significant positive changes in specific brain regions commonly affected by age-related atrophy. Brain MRI results showed that lower HbA1c levels corresponded to greater deviations in the thalamus, caudate nucleus, and cerebellum—areas crucial for cognitive function, motor control, and sensory processing.

The study suggests that improved blood sugar control could be one of the most important factors in slowing down age-related brain changes.

Earlier research has highlighted the benefits of the Green Mediterranean (Green-Med) diet, including better blood sugar control. The Green-Med diet is rich in polyphenols from plant-based sources like Mankai (a high-protein aquatic plant) and green tea, while being low in red and processed meats. The current study further strengthens this connection by suggesting that the Green-Med diet may not only support metabolic health but also exert protective effects on brain structure and function.

The DIRECT PLUS trial, one of the longest and largest brain MRI studies conducted to date, involved approximately 300 participants who were divided into three dietary groups. Whole-brain MRI measurements were taken before and after the 18-month trial to track changes in brain health.

The researchers used Hippocampal Occupancy (HOC), as a proxy for brain age which predicts future risk of dementia. HOC typically decreases with age. Interestingly, some participants exhibited a brain age either younger or older than their chronological age.

Using NeuroQuant, an FDA-authorized fully automated tool, the research team quantified and segmented the brain MRI-derived data. The study aimed to examine whether improved glycemic control and specific dietary components could slow down brain aging.

The results indicated that participants who managed to improve their blood sugar levels and achieve normal glucose status experienced a more pronounced attenuation of brain aging. Notably, those who consumed higher amounts of green tea and Mankai duckweed shakes demonstrated the most significant improvements in both blood sugar levels and brain health.

The study's senior researcher, Prof. Iris Shai, from Ben-Gurion University, an adjunct professor at Harvard University, and an Honorary Professor at Leipzig University, explains, "Maintaining low blood sugar levels, even within the normal range, shows promise for preserving a younger brain, especially when combined with a healthy diet and regular physical activity. Specifically, polyphenols found in plant-based foods may cross the blood-brain barrier and help reduce brain inflammation, which is crucial for memory."

Dafna Pachter, a Ph.D. student and the first author of the paper, adds, "This trial offers a safe approach to potentially slow down our brain aging—by adopting the components of a green-Mediterranean diet."

This study is one of the first large-scale trials to directly link dietary changes, particularly those associated with the Green-Med diet, to improved glycemic control and slower brain aging. While further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms at play, these results suggest a potential avenue for reducing the risk of age-related cognitive decline through relatively simple dietary adjustments.

More information: Dafna Pachter et al, Glycemic control contributes to the neuroprotective effects of Mediterranean and green-Mediterranean diets on brain age: the DIRECT PLUS brain-magnetic resonance imaging randomized controlled trial, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.09.013

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-reveals-blood-sugar-key-factor.html

Losing Power? The Elites And The Leftist Mob Would Rather Burn It All To The Ground

 by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a significant positive evolution within American society. In the early days of the Ron Paul movement I remember the hopeful groundswell of support for a new conservative epoch that adopted a little Libertarianism and a recognition that most “conspiracy theories” are actually conspiracy realities. It was the kind of catalyst that was needed to break the long running false paradigm of Neo-Cons vs Democrats; it was the beginning of the conservative rebellion we see happening today.

How do I know things have changed? For one, Neo-Cons are almost universally hated by real conservatives. So much so that it has forced those politicians to show their true colors and come out in favor of Democrat/globalist candidates like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The mask is truly off and the act is over. You’re not going to see people like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney or Lindsay Graham taken very seriously by anyone anymore.

The return to a true conservative philosophy has been initiated and this time it doesn’t look like it will be snuffed out like the Barry Goldwater era of the early 1960s. The concept of limited government, an end to debt spending, sound money, the removal of elitist NGOs from political influence, a hard-line stance against globalism, legit border security, meritocracy, a rejection of progressive deconstruction and moral relativism, all of these things are prime conservative principles.

Such ideas have been treated as “archaic” and “barbaric” for decades because they threaten the structures that keep the establishment elites in power. Today, they are making a comeback.

Some will say that it’s all because of Donald Trump, but this is not the case. This movement was growing into a Juggernaut long before Trump, though he is certainly riding the wave as it comes to fruition. The question is, will Trump do it justice if he gets the gold this week?    I predicted a Trump win in 2016 for months leading up to the election despite the army of naysayers (I also predict he will win in 2024).  But, for me, his first term left a lot to be desired; the biggest problem being the elitist creepers filling his cabinet.

But hey, at least he wasn’t promoting transsexual procedures for children or trying to start World War III with Russia like the Democrats have been doing.  I’ll also admit that Trump’s coalition of allies is looking FAR better this time around. Talk of Ron Paul joining the team is surprising and gives me some hope.

During the Ron Paul movement in 2012 I was once invited to a conservative dinner with some liberty bigwigs at the time (most of them are long out of the picture now, either retired or dead) and some were arguing about the presidential election. The position was presented that voting for Romney over Ron Paul would at least get Obama out of the White House. Others suggested that this was simply choosing the lesser of two evils.

I and others argued that there was no lesser evil. They were both equally demonic. One man in the group said “Well Jesus isn’t running for office.”

I doubt that man would defend Mitt Romney today. That said, I don’t view the election of 2024 the same way I did in 2012. Jesus isn’t running, that’s for certain, but the Devil definitely is in the form of the extreme political left. They are evil incarnate. Maybe Trump turns out to be a disappointment, but he’s no devil.  And if he doesn’t follow through on his campaign promises then conservative can hold him accountable and it won’t be treated as an insurrection, just a correction.

There’s already millions of conservatives putting the candidate under a microscope and we don’t function the way Democrats do. The party is meaningless to us, it’s the policies and the follow through that matter. You can’t mention Trump around a group of conservatives without half of them noting his shortcomings. His mistakes are tallied regularly by the very people who originally voted for him.

Leftists don’t dare do that within their own circles. They don’t care about policy, they only care about power.

No conservative is going to change his or her mind about securing the border, deporting the illegals, shrinking government, ending American participation in the Ukraine War and ending the transing of kids on a federal level (to start with). These things are going to happen eventually with or without Trump.

And I can’t help but notice how much the establishment seems to be breaking down in a panic over the idea of a new conservative renaissance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the new world order elites look as worried and despondent as they do right now.  (I’m thinking specifically of Lynn de Rothchild at the beginning of this year pouting over the public exposure of ESG and talking about how the globalists would have to abandon it in favor of a more discreet program. Or, John Kerry this month at the climate talks in New York bitterly admonishing free speech on the web and how it was sabotaging the globalist agenda).

When was the last time you saw WEF globalists taking center stage in the media? What happened to the Council For Inclusive Capitalism? ESG controls and lending have been crushed. DEI is quickly dying, as it should. Gen Z men are reportedly the most conservative group of young men in generations. There is a sea change happening right now, and if you’ve been paying attention from within the alternative sphere for a decade or more then you have probably noticed it.

This is not a momentary flash of cultural awareness. This is a permanent societal shift. Unfortunately, when this sort of thing happens engineered calamity usually follows.

Globalists and their leftist puppets can’t conceive of losing. They can’t fathom the idea that their ideology is failing and that the public isn’t buying what they’re selling. They will council themselves and suggest that the populace is simply “too stupid” to understand the necessity of the globalist vision. They’ll say that the rise of the conservative right is a “great step backwards” and a “dark age”. They’ll claim that this will lead to an epic disaster on a planetary scale.

Then…those same people take action to CREATE that disaster.

My original prediction for 2024 was that another presidential election would not happen; that there would be an event that disrupts the election and sends the country into chaos. We almost had that happen with two separate assassination attempts on Donald Trump. However, by sheer luck it appears that I was wrong and the election is moving forward.  What does this mean for the future?

I think most of us in the alternative economic field understand well that if Trump reenters the White House the complex manipulation of financial data and jobs data by the Biden/Harris Administration will suddenly end. Meaning, the real data will come out, it will look very bad, and the media will immediately accuse Trump and conservatives of destroying the economy.

On top of that, conservatives will be inheriting two separate proxy wars from Democrats – The war with Russia through Ukraine and the war with Iran through Israel. Both of these scenarios have the potential to escalate into a world war. I would argue that at this point a world war is inevitable (the first stage has already begun) and Trump will not be able to keep America out of it even if he wants to. Too many dominoes have been set in motion.

Then you have the potential domestic fallout from a Trump win with leftists rioting across the country (as soon as the weather warms up enough enough for their dainty little hands to throw bricks and Molotovs). The goal of the leftist mob is to force conservatives to act like the very “fascists” the activists accuse us of being. Of course, if that happened they would be dead, but they will have destroyed the conservative moral ideal in the process.

These are the kinds of people we’re dealing with. They aren’t going to sit back and let us prove the country can function far better without progressive influence and woke social engineering. They would rather burn the whole thing to the ground first.

My point is, always be on guard in the moments when you think you’re winning. That’s when the people that mean you harm will be most angry, when they will be most unhinged, and when they will be most inclined to strike.

*  *  *

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/losing-power-elites-and-leftist-mob-would-rather-burn-it-all-ground

Britain to ban smoking outside schools, hospitals and playgrounds

  The British government plans to ban smoking outside schools, hospitals and playgrounds as a way of reducing the pressure on the state-run National Health Service and the cost to taxpayers.

The government's Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be introduced to parliament on Tuesday involving some of the world's strictest anti-smoking rules, including banning younger people from smoking.

However, the government abandoned plans for a ban on smoking outside pubs and cafes after concerns were raised about the impact on the hospitality industry.

"Unless we act to help people stay healthy, the rising tide of ill-health in our society threatens to overwhelm and bankrupt our NHS," the health minister Wes Streeting said in a statement. "This historic legislation will save thousands of lives."

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in August he supported the idea of banning smoking in outdoor spaces, such as pub gardens.

The British Beer and Pub Association said that plan was "deeply concerning" and would have a "devastating impact" on venues already struggling with rising costs.

A poll by YouGov in September found more than three-quarters of people in Britain would support a ban on smoking outside hospitals but were more divided on introducing the measures in pub gardens.

The government said it will be given powers in the new legislation to ban smoking outside specific outdoor spaces such as children's playgrounds, schools and hospitals. But the plans will be subject to consultation.

The previous Conservative government had announced similar measures to create the first smoke-free generation. However, those plans failed to become law before the general election in the summer when the party lost power.

The new legislation ensures anyone aged 15 this year, or younger, will be banned from buying cigarettes, and aims to make vapes less appealing to children.

The government said smoking causes about 80,000 deaths a year and costs the economy 21.8 billion pounds ($28.22 billion) a year in lost productivity and health and care costs - far outweighing tax receipts.

Britain banned smoking in almost all enclosed public spaces, including bars and workplaces, in 2007.

Cancer Research UK said this led to an estimated 1.9 million fewer smokers, and research in the British Medical Journal estimated there were 1,200 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks the following year.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Britain-to-ban-smoking-outside-schools-hospitals-and-playgrounds-48251697/

US arrests Turk for allegedly trying to break Venezuela sanctions

 U.S. authorities have arrested a Turkish man who they allege was trying to violate sanctions by transporting oil from Venezuela, the Justice Department said on Monday.

The U.S. reimposed sanctions on the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA in June after what it said was the failure of President Nicolas Maduro to return to talks with the political opposition and commit to fair elections.

In a statement, the Justice Department said 37-year-old Taskin Torlak had "allegedly conspired to illegally sell Venezuelan oil, using deceit and trickery to hide the fact that this oil originated from Venezuela".

Torlak was arrested in Miami on Saturday as he tried to leave for Turkey.

The department said Torlak and others renamed and reflagged oil tankers and turned off the electronics that track vessel locations, receiving tens of millions of dollars from PDVSA.

In June, Reuters reported that PDVSA had begun using tankers that navigate off radar to supply Cuba with oil.

A large portion of tanker fleets owned by Venezuela and Cuba are under U.S. sanctions, which also limits their travel.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/index/S-P-GSCI-PETROLEUM-INDEX-46869201/news/US-arrests-Turk-for-allegedly-trying-to-break-Venezuela-sanctions-48251408/

Silver Lake, Bain prepare to bid for multi-billion stake in Intel's Altera unit, sources say

 Buyout firms Silver Lake and Bain Capital are among the potential suitors that are likely to compete to acquire a minority stake in Altera, the programmable chips business that Intel acquired for nearly $17 billion in 2015, according to people familiar with the matter.

Intel, which has already taken steps to spin Altera out as a separate company, kicked off a process for the stake sale in the unit in recent weeks, the sources said, adding that the talks are at an early stage and the company is preparing to receive initial bids from potential buyers in the coming weeks.

Private equity firm Francisco Partners has also expressed interest in a deal for a stake in Altera and is likely to be among the bidders, one of the sources said.

The sources, who requested anonymity as the matter is confidential, cautioned that a deal is not guaranteed.

Intel is hoping to command a valuation for Altera that is roughly equivalent to what it paid for the business in 2015, the sources said. It is unclear how much of Intel's stake in Altera will eventually be sold, but any deal is likely to be worth at least a few billion dollars, the sources added.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Intel said that Altera grew 14% sequentially to post revenue of $412 million.

"We remain focused on selling a stake in Altera on a path to its IPO in the coming years. To that end, we have begun discussions with potential investors and expect to conclude in early 2025," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger told analysts on a post-earnings conference call last week.

An Intel spokesperson declined to comment beyond the company's remarks on the call. Representatives for Silver Lake and Bain declined to comment, while Francisco Partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The transaction is expected to provide Intel with a much-needed cash boost, as the company explores various options to shave overall costs by selling businesses that it can no longer afford to fund from its once-sizeable profit.

Intel came out with an upbeat revenue forecast in its latest quarterly report, but its stock remains more than 50% lower for the year as the one-time chipmaking king has missed out on the AI boom and is struggling with a turnaround.

San Jose, California-based Altera makes a category of programmable chips that can be repurposed on the fly for a variety of applications, from processing videos uploaded to websites to uses in military and telecommunications equipment.

Before it was acquired by Intel, Altera had many of its chips manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).

After the takeover, Intel planned to move Altera's chip production into its own factories. The shift took place at a time when Intel was starting to concede a manufacturing lead to TSMC, experts said.

The acquisition ended up souring for Intel as the transition to its factories was a long and costly one, and resulted in Altera losing market share to its top rival, Xilinx, which was acquired by Advanced Micro Devices.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/INTEL-CORPORATION-4829/news/Exclusive-Silver-Lake-Bain-prepare-to-bid-for-multi-billion-stake-in-Intel-s-Altera-unit-sources-s-48249734/

'US states worried about election unrest take security precautions'

  A security fence rings a Las Vegas building where Nevada tabulates votes. An Arizona sheriff has his department on high alert to guard against potential violence with drones and snipers on standby. Governors of at least three states have called for National Guard troops to help maintain the peace.

As a tense America votes for either Republican Donald Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, concerns about potential political violence have prompted officials to take a variety of measures to bolster security during and after Election Day.

Many of the most visible moves can be seen in the battleground states that will decide the presidential election, states like Nevada where protests by supporters of former President Donald Trump broke out after the 2020 election.

This year, a security fence rings the scene of some of those protests - the Las Vegas tabulation center. Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo said last week he had activated a "limited contingent" of 60 members of the National Guard to ensure a timely response to any challenges.

In Arizona, a similar metal fence has been erected at Maricopa County vote tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, a flashpoint in 2020 for rigged election conspiracy theories and threats against election officials.

Sheriff Russ Skinner said his department will be on "high alert" for threats and violence and he has instructed staff to be available for duty.

"We will have a lot of resources out there, a lot of staff, a lot of equipment," he added, noting deputies will use drones to monitor activity around polling places and snipers and other reinforcements will be on standby for deployment if violence appears likely.

He said "polarization" becomes more intense in the days after the election so law enforcement will remain on heightened alert and "there will be zero tolerance on anything related to criminal activity".

Concerned about the potential for protests or even violence, several Arizona schools and churches that served as voting centers in the past will not serve at polling stations this year, a local Arizona election official told Reuters.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which has over 400,000 members in Arizona, has offered several polling locations to fill the gap.

A dozen or so community leaders from across the state and from various political backgrounds and cultures have formed a committee to focus on stemming political violence, according to member Jane Andersen, an LDS church member and Protecting Democracy Specialist for Arizona at Mormon Women for Ethical Government.

The group is ready to tap into a broad network, including faith leaders, who can help spread factual information to counter misinformation-fueled unrest.

In the battleground state of Michigan in 2020, Trump supporters descended on the downtown Detroit convention hall and began pounding on windows as the counting of absentee ballots carried into a second day. Yellow bicycle racks this year lined both sides of the boulevard on which it sits.

Visitors must go through metal detectors and roughly 15 police officers are patrolling the cavernous hall. Daniel Baxter, Detroit's chief operating officer for absentee voting and special projects, said police also are on the roof and surrounding the building. Eight days of early pre-processing of mail-in ballots have passed peacefully, Baxter said.

Peter Simi, a sociology professor at Chapman University in California who has researched threats against public officials, said the worst scenario would be Trump losing and not conceding defeat.

Rather than a repeat of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, he said conflict could be "dispersed, diffuse events across multiple locations" that would be more difficult for law enforcement to address.

Precautions stretch beyond the battleground states. Oregon and Washington state authorities have said they have activated the National Guard. Some storefront windows in Washington, DC and elsewhere have been covered by plywood.

Back in Las Vegas, Faviola Garibay surveyed the security fence around the linen-colored building where Clark County officials tabulate the votes and where voters such as her can drop election ballots.

"The fencing, the presence of police here, it seems secure," she said. "I feel safe voting."

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/US-states-worried-about-election-unrest-take-security-precautions-48251518/

The Iran Deal the Democrats Killed

 President Trump has said many times on the campaign trail that he was close to getting a deal with Iran during his first term. And then, something happened.

That something was the killing of three U.S. contractors in Iraq by Iranian proxies and the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in late December 2019.

I was working undercover at the time for the U.S. intelligence community running a network of Iranian sub-agents. Some of them had demonstrated access to the Supreme Leader's Intelligence Office in Tehran. That's about as good as it gets, and no one else had it.

My Iranian sub-agents were warning that the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was far more serious than it appeared. That led President Trump to airlift 100 U.S. Marines from Kuwait to protect the Baghdad Embassy, and days later, on January 2, 2020, to order the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani.

Only later did I learn from a different Iranian sub-source that the Baghdad embassy attack was not just an Iranian operation. It had been motivated -- indeed, solicited -- in large part by a senior advisor to former vice-president Joe Biden, who was seeking ways of destroying Trump's chances of re-election in 2020.

In a series of electronic communications in the late summer of 2019, the senior Biden advisor made a "request" of Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. This advisor knew Zarif well from his time as a senior official in the Obama administration. After Trump came to the White House, the two men maintained their friendship and met periodically on the sidelines of international fora, where they lamented the demise of a "rational" U.S. policy toward Iran.

On August 11, 2019, the advisor made his initial pitch to Zarif that the Democrats and the Iranian regime shared an interest in maintaining the framework of the 2015 nuclear deal. Since Trump had withdrawn U.S. participation in the agreement one year earlier, they needed to take action that would "put pressure on our enemy," and keep him "on the run." That enemy, shared by the Democrats and by the Iranian regime, was Donald Trump.

On August 14, the Biden advisor sent a second, more explicit message, asking the Iranian regime to "do the same thing in Baghdad that you did with our embassy in Tehran" in 1979.

Biden’s advisor pledged to protect the Iranians from retaliation for their actions against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, or in the Persian paraphrase Zarif later sent to the Supreme Leader's office and to Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, "to keep the fire away from your house."

Democrats have been obsessed with the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis ever since that time, and to this day many believe that Ronald Reagan and his campaign made a deal with advisors to Ayatollah Khomeini to hold onto the hostages until after the 1980 election. This is the origin of the well-worn phrase, "October surprise."

They undoubtedly thought the Iranians could help them pull off an "October surprise" against Donald Trump, except that they would start their assault on his credibility as commander-in-chief in January 2020, giving Democrat operatives and their allies in the media ten full months to hound Trump for being weak, just as Ted Koppel hounded Jimmy Carter throughout the 444 days of the Tehran hostage crisis in 1979.

The correspondence was kept in the classified archives of the Office of the Supreme Leader, where it was assigned folder number 98-52371-K.M. (1398 was the Persian calendar year corresponding to 2019). In addition to the U.S.-Iran correspondence, the folder contained documents relating to the Supreme Leader's fatwa, or religious edict, authorizing the assassination of President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman for their role in the Soleimani assassination.

Copies of Iran's "Biden file" were made by a senior military intelligence official in the Supreme Leader's office, who shared them with a handful of confidants. One of those confidants provided me with a facsimile of the first two documents in the original Persian, rough English translations of others, and an index of the entire file. There were ten memos in all.

I provided the name of that confidant to the FBI, who were able to corroborate his affiliation and career path. In other words, he was in the "registry" of Iranian intelligence officials kept by the U.S. intelligence community. My handlers understood that he was the real deal.

But I went further than that. I helped set up a face-to-face meeting between my sub-source and officials from the FBI's Washington Field Office at an overseas location. My sub-source provided them with additional details on how he had acquired the "Biden-Iran file," and the identity of the Biden staffer who had asked the Iranian regime to take U.S. diplomats hostage.

That Biden staffer continues to hold a senior position in the White House today and will undoubtedly serve under Kamala Harris should she win the presidency. Once Biden won the White House, I was told to not mention this case again in my official dealings with the FBI.

President Trump gave me a rare hat-tip for my role in helping to prevent a catastrophic hostage-taking at a campaign rally in Jacksonville, Florida, on September 24, 2020.

I was seated in the third row along with the Florida Congressional delegation. To my left was Rep. Matt Gaetz. Just behind me was my own congressman, John Rutherford. We were at the president's nine o'clock.

You can watch this interchange on a Facebook capture from C-Span if you fast-forward to the 26 minute mark. The president begins by introducing the congressmen, then he says this:

"We also have some of our really unbelievable undercover operatives. And if you don’t mind, I won’t introduce them. Alright? I don’t think we’re going to introduce them. I want to so badly. I wanna have them stand up, bring them up here. I want to hug them and kiss them, which I’m not allowed to do because they’re so so good. But somehow they may lose some effectiveness if I introduce ‘em. So they’re in the crowd. I saw two of ‘em. And I won’t bother. But they are great great champions of our country. Thank you."

At that point, the crowd cheered and the president looked in the direction of the Florida congressmen and smiled. I can guarantee you that the congressmen were not undercover operatives.

President Trump undoubtedly believes he can still negotiate a deal with the Iranian mullahs. If I have the opportunity, I will counsel him against it. Why? Because any deal they would accept -- say, to limit their production of nuclear weapons material -- would be a fake. It would have to be fake, because if they negotiated away their nuclear capabilities they would quickly be ousted from power.

Iran's nuclear capabilities are one of the bulwarks of the Islamic regime, much as the doctrine of absolute clerical rule. Take it away, and the regime crumbles. The next president needs to focus on delegitimizing the regime, not negotiating with it.

Adapted from The Iran House: Tales of Revolution, Persecution, War, and Intrigue, published by Bombadier Books on October 8, 2024). Kenneth R. Timmerman is a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute and the author of 14 works of non-fiction and four novels. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on Iran in 2006.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/11/the_iran_deal_the_democrats_killed.html