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Monday, April 27, 2026

Delusional Dems creating an alternate left-wing universe

 It is difficult to determine whether the bizarro worldview of the current Democrat-media nexus can simply be attributed to its generic Trump Derangement Syndrome — but the crazy world of the left increasingly bears scant resemblance to reality.

In this alternate universe, Eric Swalwell was a liberal icon and invaluable asset for years, though admittedly a bit randy and occasionally a serial sexual predator.

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner was, at last, the left’s “real thing,” the white working-class liberal stiff who could win back the hoi polloi — although he can’t get his story straight on whether his Nazi tattoo was an accident or proof that he was brainwashed by the toxic US military.

Graham Platner speaking at a town hall.
Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall in Ogunquit, Maine, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, file)AP

The left has created another fantasy world out of the current Iran war.

When President Trump warned on a Monday that the Iranian regime might face terrible punishment for its continued drone and missile attacks, he was libeled as a modern Nazi exterminator, hellbent on mass death.

When on Tuesday Iran relented and asked for negotiations, Trump suddenly became smeared as a chickening-out TACO naïf, overeager for peace.

Each day, the left tries to think up a new argument for American defeat, even as Iran suffers more one-sided damage.

Their idea is to embolden Iran to hold out, in hopes that Trump — under constant left-wing assault, international pressure to lower gas prices, and his own restive congressional allies — will fold, to be trashed by the left as a TACO again.

More preposterously, the left has peddled the fantasy that Trump’s demands for Iran to surrender its nuclear material copied the Obama Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the so-called Iran deal.

But who could deny that, under President Barack Obama, the deal empowered Iran to rearm even more rapidly with lifted sanctions, nocturnal cash transfers and the unfreezing of its assets?

In contrast, Trump is dealing with a prostrate Iranian military.

Begging a fully armed and defiant Iran merely to postpone its acquisition of a bomb is not the equivalent of dictating to a flattened Iran a series of demands that, if unmet, will lead to its veritable destruction.

Examine another fantasy: the charade of a Democratic effort to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on silly charges of supposedly aiding an unauthorized war, reckless handling of classified information, obstruction of congressional oversight, abuse of power, politicization of the military and more.

Note that Hegseth, in a single year, fixed the years-long crisis of falling enlistment that he inherited.

He has now even exceeded recruitment targets by emphasizing that soldiers should concentrate on combat effectiveness and not on race, sex or sexual orientation.

His Pentagon oversaw the summer 2025 destruction of Iranian nuclear facilities (with no fatalities), the military extradition of Nicolas Maduro and the recalibration of a once-rogue Venezuela (with no casualties), and the current war that in a matter of weeks destroyed the military capability of the once-feared theocratic Iran (with 13 fatalities so far).

Compare that to the prior secretary, Lloyd Austin, who went medically AWOL without informing the White House that he was incapacitated for days in the ICU.

He oversaw the Pentagon’s historic misadventure in Afghanistan and constant unanswered attacks on US soldiers in the Middle East that emboldened Iran’s terrorist proxies.

No Republican called for his impeachment.

The war in Iran is not “unauthorized”; it has not exceeded the 90-day limit under the War Powers Act.

However, Obama’s seven-month unauthorized bombing of Libya, under the Democrats’ current logic, really was a “war crime” — as was his “unauthorized,” months-long drone assassination campaign on the Afghan border that killed 500, including four US citizens.

Finally, for over a decade the left has waged a coordinated, often extralegal effort to destroy the campaigns and presidency of Donald Trump.

What lawfare did the Democrats not sanction?

Trump’s first impeachment hinged on the hearsay evidence of a pseudo-whistleblower who connived with the prevaricator Adam Schiff — with the acquiescence of a partisan inspector general.

The Russia collusion hoax was orchestrated by Obama’s FBI and CIA.

Democrats perverted the legal system to wage four years of lawfare in five civil and criminal courtrooms.

Despite all that, we are now warned by Democrats like Susan Rice that when the left regains power, their vendettas to punish their enemies will restart.

James Carville advises the Democrats to keep quiet about their real plans upon returning to power: to pack the Supreme Court and end the 66-year, 50-state union with two new blue states, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC — all to obtain in an instant four left-wing senators and kill the Senate filibuster.

What is the one constant theme in this alternate left-wing universe?

No Democrat outlines an immigration agenda, a way to round up President Joe Biden’s criminal illegal-alien entrants, an energy plan, a pathway to balance the budget, anti-corruption measures to stop welfare looting or a new strategic roadmap abroad.

Instead, the party creates alternate realities that demand changing the system itself rather than working within it to appeal to the American voter.

Living with daily delusions and shrieking at the Trump demons raging in their collective heads is no way to run a country.

Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness.

https://nypost.com/2026/04/27/opinion/how-delusional-democrats-create-a-lefty-alternate-universe/

'UN maritime agency rejects Hormuz fees'

 The International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Monday rejected collection of taxes or any other payments for passage through international waters.

The Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran last week confirmed that revenue from tolls collected on ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz was deposited. "There's no legal basis for the introduction of any tax, any customs, or any fees for on straits for international navigation," IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said at a press conference.

He went on to confirm that the organization is in contact with countries in the region, adding that plans for the evacuation of around 20,000 people currently stranded on vessels can only be started once the strait is fully secure.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/UN-maritime-agency-rejects-Hormuz-fees/66157335

'Iran's military advisor: US can't block oil exports'

 

Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Iran's supreme leader and former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, slammed Washington's rhetoric surrounding the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

"No country is capable of blocking Iran's oil exports. The President of the United States [Donald Trump] is advised to focus on organizing the chaos prevailing over the U.S. government, economy, and armed forces, instead of engaging in empty boasting," Rezaei wrote on X.

His comments come after Trump announced last Friday that he had cancelled the US envoys' trip to Islamabad, claiming that Tehran's leadership is experiencing "infighting."

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Iran's-military-advisor:-US-can't-block-oil-exports/66157465

Apple Fixes Bug That Allowed FBI To Read Deleted Signal Messages

 by Brian Quarmby via CoinTelegraph.com,

Tech giant Apple has fixed a security flaw that had allowed the FBI to access a Signal user’s deleted messages through their phone’s push notification database, despite the app being deleted and messages being set to disappear.

In a security advisory released on Wednesday, Apple said it had fixed a bug that allowed “notifications marked for deletion” to be “unexpectedly retained on the device.”

In an X post on Wednesday, Signal said the update fixed the issue that made a user’s messages retrievable by law enforcement.

"Apple's advisory confirmed that the bugs that allowed this to happen have been fixed in the latest iOS release," Signal said.

Signal uses end-to-end encryption to secure messages between its users. The bug is a reminder that messaging encryption may not be enough to keep data protected when using certain devices or operating systems.

Apple’s notes on the security patch. Source: Apple

FBI found a backdoor to private messages

This security flaw was first highlighted by independent technology news website 404 Media, which reported on April 9 that documents recently unsealed in Texas federal court related to an FBI case over an attack on the Prairieland ICE Detention Facility last July.

The court proceedings showed that the FBI was able to forensically extract a defendant's Signal messages from the iPhone's notification database, which contained cached, readable previews of incoming Signal messages even after disappearing messages were enabled and the app was deleted.

Following the 404 Media report, Signal President Meredith Whittaker called on Apple to quickly fix the issue, noting in an April 14 X post that "notifications for deleted messages shouldn't remain in any OS notification database."

Pavel Durov, the co-founder of competing privacy messaging app Telegram, also commented on the report, arguing in an April 14 Telegram post that the only way to truly stay safe was for the app to "force an absence of notification previews" on both ends of a conversation.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/apple-fixes-bug-allowed-fbi-read-deleted-signal-messages

Several Iran hardline MPs break ranks as 261 lawmakers back Iran negotiators

 

The statement expressed confidence in the negotiating delegation. However, several prominent hardline figures—including Mahmoud Nabavian, Mohammad Taghi Naqadali, Morteza Aghatehrani, Amirhossein Sabeti, Hamid Rasaei, Ruhollah Izadkhah and Meysam Zohourian—did not sign the statement.

The statement warned that “the enemy” is seeking to create divisions between the state, society and diplomatic institutions during what it described as a new phase of conflict.

It also urged political and social actors to avoid speculation based on “rumors and incomplete information,” cautioning against contributing to what it called the enemy’s “cognitive warfare.”

Lawmakers who signed the statement expressed full support for the negotiating team, particularly Ghalibaf, saying they trust the delegation as it enters what they described as a “new battlefield” against adversaries.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/liveblog/202604194357

EU ties lifting Iran sanctions to ‘fundamental change’

 

  • European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday that It was too early to drop sanctions on Iran. “We first have to see a change, a fundamental change in Iran for the dropping of sanctions,” she said.

  • Iran has offered the United States a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and help end the war while postponing talks on its nuclear program to a later stage, Axios reported.

  • Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Russia on Monday morning local time and is set to meet Russia's president Vladimir Putin.

  • Iran’s internet blackout entered its 59th day on Monday after 1,392 hours of near-total disconnection from the outside world, internet monitor NetBlocks said.

  • Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf suggested Tehran still holds key “energy and shipping cards” in its standoff with the United States.

Hold The Horses

 By Rabobank

There are five G10 central bank meetings scheduled this week and not a single policy move is expected between them. That said, the signalling of policymakers will be crucial. For each of the BoJ, Fed, BoC, ECB and the BoE, the market will be watching to see how rate setters are gauging the two sided the risks to growth and inflation implied by the Iran war. It remains Rabo’s view that the Fed will likely cut rates again this year. This outcome may have been made a little easier by the weekend announcement from Senator Tillis regarding President Trump’s nominee for the next Fed Chair. Following Friday’s news that the Department of Justice would drop a criminal investigation into Fed Chair Powell, related to renovations at the Federal Reserve, Tillis has removed his objection to nominee Warsh facing a vote in the Senate. While Trump may be a step closer to seeing his choice of candidate in the position of Fed Chair, US treasury yields have ticked higher this morning with the market still focused on inflation risks in the absence of little concrete news regarding a peace deal in the Middle East.

There may not have been any recent peace talks but Iran’s Foreign Minister Araqchi has had a busy few days. Following trips to Pakistan and Oman to talk with peace negotiators over the weekend, he has now travelled to Russia in a bid to ratchet up support. Having cancelled a trip by US negotiators Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan, Trump made it clear that Iran could use the telephone to make a deal - Iran had made clear that talks would be indirect. Trump also reiterated the US’s condition that Iran must not be able to obtain a nuclear weapon. For its part, Iran is maintaining that it will not re-enter talks with the US while its navy is blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

On disappointment over the lack of fresh peace talks, Brent crude spent the first few hours of the European session edging higher before reversing those gains. While US stock market indices closed mixed on Friday, it hasn’t taken much for equity markets to revert to their ‘glass half full’ approach to the global outlook. Despite the very real risks to the global economy implied by higher inflation, much of this optimism has been driven by a solid set of Q1 earnings reported by corporate America. This week there will be no escaping the focus on the tech sector with results due for five of the huge US hyper-scalers.

Week ahead 

The BoJ will be the first of this week’s G10 central banks to announce its policy decision which will come tomorrow. In contrast to the other four central banks that meet this week, the market had been debating the risks of an April rate hike from the BoJ since the start of the year. BoJ rate hike risk has now been shifted to June. Whether that risk shifts again will be dependent on the tone of rate setters at this week’s meeting. The absence of hawkish rhetoric is likely to place fresh upside pressure on USD/JPY which may force the MoF to step up its push back against JPY weakness and a potential break beyond the psychologically important USD/JPY160.00 level.

Aside from the policy guidance offered by the Fed, the market will be watching on Wednesday to see if outgoing Chair Powell is intending to retain his seat in the FOMC after his term as Chair concludes. Almost all of Powell’s predecessors have decided to leave when their term as chair ends, though technically Powell could stay until 2028. If he leaves, Trump will have another seat to fill, which the market could anticipate as having a slightly dovish implication for the FOMC. There is less scope for drama at the BoC. The market is currently priced for slightly higher BoC policy rates on a 6-month view, though the swing in market expectations regarding policy rates in Canada falls a long way short of that seen in the UK since the start of last month.

Ahead of the start of the Iran war, the market had been confident of two more rate cuts from the BoE this year as growing excess capacity in the UK slowed inflation potential. At one point last month, this had swung to expectations of as many as four rate hikes, guided by the UK’s recent poor experience with sticky inflation. These excessive rate hike expectations have now moderated. However, it is Rabo’s view that there will still likely be one rate hike this year in order to demonstrate vigilance. For the ECB, we also see the risk that policy makers will opt for some tightening in the face of the inflation shock, though we have moved our forecast to June. Clearly by June, policymakers will be much wiser regarding the duration of the war and the extent to both the potential impact on their respective economies.

While the question of how long the Strait of Hormuz will be closed continues to limit focus on economic data, there are some interesting releases this week. These include Australian Q1 CPI inflation data, which could dictate the next policy action of one of the most hawkish G10 central banks. US March personal income and spending data will also be released this week in addition to US Q1 GDP. In Europe, GDP and labour data are due.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/hold-horses