US Removes Sanctions On Iranian Oil Stranded At Sea To Boost Overall Supply
On Thursday, Scott Bessent told Fox News that the US is considering unsanctioning Iranian oil, thereby making the 140 million barrels stuck on Iranian tankers, available to any buyer in the world and not just China, to ease the supply-chain bottlenecks that emerged after the Strait of Hormuz was blocked. In doing so, another formerly sanctioned US nemesis would be allowed free access to global markets, after Russia received a similar “temporary” permit a week earlier.
“In the coming days we may unsanction Iranian oil that’s on the water, about 140 million barrels,” he said on Fox Business, adding that “In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days, as we continue this campaign.”
🚨 WOW! Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent just announced plans to use Iran’s own oil AGAINST THEM
The strategy: un-sanction 140 million Iranian barrels already on the water, and UNLEASH 10-14 days of supply
Just one day later, the idea moved from concept to reality when late on Friday, the US Treasury announced it had eased oil sanctions on Iran, including permitting the sale of Iranian crude and refined products into the United States, when it issued a general license for energy that’s already on vessels as of Friday, with such purchases authorized through April 19. The measure follows similar moves for Russian oil on the water in a bid to ease an unprecedented fuel supply crunch caused by the war.
BREAKING: US Treasury eases oil sanctions on Iran, including permiting the sale of Iranian crude and refined products into the United States.
Scott Bessent calls it a “narrowly tailored, short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea.” pic.twitter.com/ANNjqpSHm9
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the Iranian oil waiver a “narrowly tailored, short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea,” in a post on X, adding that the measure will release about 140 million barrels. He also said that Iran “will have difficulty accessing any revenue generated.”
Iran is the head of the snake for global terrorism, and through President Trump’s Operation Epic Fury, we are winning this critical fight at an even faster pace than anticipated. In response to Iran’s terrorist attacks against global energy infrastructure, the Trump…
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) March 20, 2026
For now, the vast majority of Iran’s oil is bought by Chinese customers, mainly independent refiners known as teapots. While the US waiver would widen the pool of potential buyers, any new customers would still face the challenge of structuring deals while other restrictions on Iran, including its access to international financial markets, remain in place.
Iran disputed the figure, with oil ministry spokesman Saman Ghodousi saying on X that the nation has no floating crude, nor a surplus that’s available for international markets. Ghodousi said the US was simply trying to provide psychological support to the oil market.
In the US, Congressional Democrats slammed the measure, arguing Trump’s move is an economic gift to Iran in the middle of a war that the president started.
“Clown show doesn’t begin to describe it,” Virginia Democrat Don Beyer said in a post on X.
In addition to sanctions waivers, the Trump administration released more than 45 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves and temporarily waived a century-old shipping mandate in order to lower transport costs.
Brent crude settled Friday above $112 a barrel, the highest level since mid-2022, before easing in post-settlement trading after Trump said he was considering “winding down” US military efforts against Iran.
The private credit crisis is spreading to another corner of the market that I warned about back in October, when I wrote about 10 parts of the market I’d avoid.
For years I’ve been warning that buy now pay later (“BNPL”) industry was built on a pretty fragile foundation. The quality of the loans was always the obvious problem. The entire business model revolves around extending instant credit with minimal underwriting to consumers making small purchases.
Companies whose primary innovation is allowing consumers to split a $40 online purchase into four installment payments probably aren’t lending to the most creditworthy segment of the population.
If anything, the model practically guarantees the opposite. When financial companies create products that allow consumers to finance extremely small discretionary purchases, they are effectively targeting borrowers who either don’t have the liquidity to cover those purchases outright or who have already exhausted more traditional forms of credit. When consumers are putting things like f**king Chipotle Burritos and Hostess Twinkies on layaway, the borrower pool you are dealing with is not exactly prime.
It is the same dynamic that has been visible in peer to peer lending and fintech credit for years. Platforms like Affirm, along with payment ecosystems tied to firms like Block, built massive growth stories by expanding credit access to people who historically would not have qualified for traditional lending products. For a while that looked like financial innovation, especially when they could find buyers for the loans. In reality it mostly meant pushing unsecured credit deeper down the credit spectrum.
That approach worked beautifully in a zero rate environment where capital was abundant and investors were desperate for yield. It worked great during a 3 year period of Covid where liquidity was unlimited from the Fed. It is slightly less impressive once interest rates rise and credit markets start behaving like credit markets again. In fact, we are watching the “con” of this being called “innovation” being laid bare…first in names like Carvana, then in private credit, now in BNPL. Subprime lending and accounting tricks are simply not innovation, no matter how much of a polish you put on them.
The latest example comes from a report in The Wall Street Journal describing stress inside a private credit fund managed by Stone Ridge Asset Management. The firm runs the Stone Ridge Alternative Lending Risk Premium Fund, commonly known as LENDX, which buys whole loans and securities tied to loans originated by fintech lenders. That includes buy now pay later loans from Affirm along with personal loans from LendingClub and Upstart. The portfolio also includes merchant financing tied to payments platforms like Block and Stripe.
Recently investors in the fund tried to withdraw far more capital than the structure allows, and Stone Ridge informed clients that it would only be able to honor about 11% of the redemption requests. The fund is structured as an interval fund, which means investors cannot simply exit whenever they want. Instead they are given limited redemption windows and the manager is only required to repurchase a small percentage of shares each quarter, typically around 5% with some flexibility above that. This structure works perfectly well as long as investors remain calm and redemption requests stay modest. The problem appears when investors collectively decide they would prefer their money back. The underlying loans in these portfolios are illiquid and cannot be sold quickly without taking significant discounts, which means the easiest solution is simply to gate withdrawals.
None of this should be particularly shocking. Years ago I wrote that peer to peer lenders and fintech credit platforms were essentially extending loans to people who historically would never have qualified for traditional credit products like mortgages, auto loans, or even standard credit cards. Banks avoided these borrowers for decades for a fairly straightforward reason. When economic conditions tighten, default rates tend to rise rapidly among the weakest borrowers. The fintech model did not eliminate that dynamic. It just delayed it while capital markets were willing to fund the experiment
The broader private credit market is beginning to show similar signs of stress. In recent weeks a number of funds tied to large asset managers have already been forced to limit investor withdrawals after redemption requests exceeded the quarterly caps built into their structures. Funds connected to Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, and Cliffwater have all faced similar pressures.
That concern was reinforced days ago by comments from John Zito of Apollo Global Management, who warned that many parts of the private markets industry may be carrying assets at valuations that simply do not reflect current economic conditions. Zito argued that private equity deals completed between 2018 and 2022, particularly in the software sector, were often executed at far higher valuations than comparable public companies. If those businesses run into trouble, he suggested recoveries on the associated loans could fall somewhere around twenty to forty cents on the dollar. He was even more blunt about valuation practices across the industry, saying he believed many private equity marks were simply wrong and that firms risk losing investor trust if they refuse to adjust them.
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All of this is happening at the same time the economy is finally starting to feel the effects of positive real interest rates. For most of the past decade credit markets operated in an environment where money was essentially free. That allowed questionable lending models to flourish because refinancing risk was minimal and investor demand for yield was enormous. Once rates rise and liquidity tightens, the underlying quality of the loans suddenly matters again.
In my opinion that is exactly what we are starting to see. The combination of stress in buy now pay later lending and growing redemption pressure in private credit funds looks like an early reminder that the credit cycle has turned. Investors still appear remarkably comfortable with firms like Blue Owl Capital, Ares Management, and the broader universe of BDCs, along with BNPL lenders and even some regional banks that have meaningful exposure to these areas. Personally I still think most of that space is worth avoiding.
Looking ahead, my expectation is that stress will accelerate across both BNPL and private credit as the effects of higher interest rates continue working their way through the system. One area that could easily be next is commercial real estate, where property valuations still look suspiciously optimistic given the current financing environment.
Eventually the Federal Reserve will almost certainly step in and engineer some kind of liquidity backstop if the situation deteriorates far enough. The playbook is pretty well established at this point, and policymakers have never shown much hesitation about stabilizing credit markets when things start breaking. But historically those interventions tend to arrive only after markets go through at least a brief period of forced deleveraging. If that process has started in fintech lending and private credit, the awkward phase where investors rediscover what their assets are actually worth may still lie ahead. And that is usually the part nobody enjoys.
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US Says Iran’s Threat To Hormuz Traffic “Degraded” As 23 Nations Signal Waterway Support
Three weeks into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, the Trump administration’s central focus now is very clear: reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore the normal passage of crude and LNG tankers through a maritime chokepoint that carries roughly one-fifth of global oil and LNG flows.
On Saturday morning, Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command and the official overseeing Operation Epic Fury, released an update on day 22 of the combat mission and stated:
Iran has lost significant combat capability over the last three weeks. We are taking out thousands of Iranian missiles, advanced attack drones, and all of Iran’s Navy, which they use to harass international shipping. Their navy is not sailing. Their tactical fighters aren’t flying. They have lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at high rates as seen at the beginning of the conflict.
Cooper then focused on the Hormuz chokepoint, stating that U.S. forces had “destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays” along the critical waterway that the IRGC used to monitor commercial shipping traffic and conduct targeting operations.
“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz has been degraded as a result. And we will not stop pursuing these targets,” Cooper noted.
A quick summary of the overnight U.S. military operations to degrade IRGC forces around the Hormuz chokepoint, which could allow tanker traffic to resume in some greater capacity next week as the world, and Asia in particular, faces an unprecedented energy shock:
U.S. forces have destroyed Iranian radar and surveillance nodes used to track shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, struck underground anti-ship missile facilities, and hit multiple coastal military sites, as Cooper assesses that Iran’s combat capability has deteriorated over the first three weeks of the war.
Cooper’s push to neutralize IRGC forces in the Strait of Hormuz comes as shipping traffic through the waterway remained subdued last week.
Overnight, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told Japan’s Kyodo News that Tehran is prepared to facilitate the safe transit of Japanese vessels. Japan imports roughly 90% of its crude from the Gulf, a dependency shared by much of Asia, including China and other major economies.
Following the degradation of IRGC forces in the Hormuz area, a coalition of 23 Western and allied nations (UAE, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and 15 others) issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s attacks on commercial shipping, energy infrastructure, and the strait.
The countries signaled their readiness to support secure transit through the Strait, including coordination efforts and preparatory planning. In other words, this is a major diplomatic breakthrough to reopen Hormuz.
23 nations just issued a joint statement on the Strait of Hormuz. This is a major diplomatic escalation.
∙ Signatories – UAE, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia + 15 others condemn Iranian attacks on commercial vessels and civilian energy infrastructure… pic.twitter.com/vPjqlPlMDi
Iranian Navy guided an Indian LPG tanker through the strait on a pre-approved route following diplomatic engagement
Iranian officials have become unwilling to discuss reopening Hormuz
Brent still around $112/bbl (+54% since the conflict began)
Energy market:
US temporarily eased sanctions on Iranian oil already at sea in a bid to cool surging crude prices, signaling a tactical reversal of its prior “maximum pressure” stance as the war enters week four
New developments on Iranian missile capabilities:
Iran launched ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia US-UK base, demonstrating missile range beyond previously known capabilities
The U.S. is ramping up strikes on Iranian drones/naval assets and preparing to deploy ~2,500 additional Marines, adding to ~50,000 troops already in the region.
This is a lightly edited transcript of a segment of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” podcast from Daily Signal.
What is it with the fickle Europeans? I know that they have different interests than ours, but we’re both Western entities. You’d think that we’d be more collaborative on the effort to disarm and denuclearize Iran. But a lot of strange things are happening.
The traditional use of the Diego Garcia critical airbase in the Indian Ocean, run by the British, but often leased to us and allowed us to have a very valuable base for our long-range bombers. The British initially refused to allow us to use it. And then, only under conditions that it would be used for defensive purposes.
I don’t know what that means. But I think they forgot the 1982 Falklands War. They were in big trouble going all the way across the world to attack a country in the Western Hemisphere.
We were trying to be on friendly relationships so that [Argentina] wouldn’t join the other communist nations. And of course, we offered them 2 million gallons of gasoline. We offered them the use of a carrier if they needed it. We gave them sophisticated intelligence. Without the United States’ help, they would’ve had a very hard time retaking it. So, what’s happened?
And then Spain has said that we can’t use at all the NATO base there in Spain. [President Emmanuel] Macron in France and [Chancellor Friedrich] Merz in Germany have also said they’ve expressed reservations.
President Donald Trump is now trying to say, you know, we’re using all of our assets to disarm this common threat to the West. Could you just send a few ships to help us, you know, patrol the Strait of Hormuz? And they’re reluctant.
This gets back to the United States, who pays an inordinate amount of the NATO budget. And it keeps having to, you know, to harangue and hammer. “Please, please defend yourself. We are here to help you, but we’re across the ocean, 3,000 miles away. And this is in your interest. You know, this is the third time Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.”
So, don’t they have a fear of Iran? I mean, there was a joint missile defense project. Obama canceled it, in that infamous quid pro quo hot mic conversation where he made a deal with the Russians to give him space so he could get reelected. He would dismantle the Czech and Polish project to have missile defense. That was primarily for the protection of Europe. The United States was going to pay a great deal of it. Protection from Iran.
So, what’s going on? What explains this European schizophrenia? That they want to be an ally, but they don’t want to be an ally. They’re scared to death of a nuclear Iran, but they don’t want to do anything about it. They want the United States to handle it, but they want the United States to handle it and keep them out of it.
But most of their oil comes from the Middle East or North Africa. So, they are adamant that they want the supplies, reliable. They want the Strait of Hormuz open. They want the United States to ensure that. They want the United States to clear the Red Sea of Houthi attacks. We know all that, but they’re not there when we need them at all. And a very, you know, a very reasonable request.
And so why is this?
Well, I think there’s a lot of reasons.
I think they’ve made some disastrous, internal and external choices in their policies.
First of all, Germany has 16 percent of its population are immigrants that weren’t born in Germany.
The vast majority of them are unassimilated, unacculturated, unintegrated Muslims.
Many of them, or most, under Angela Merkel policy. She was the German version of Alejandro Mayorkas, who opened the border and pretty much enacted this destructive policy. In other countries at 6 percent to 10 percent to 12 percent.
But the key is there’s a force multiplier of these open-border illegal immigration policies.
And that is the Muslim communities that immigrate are more radical often than the countries they left that were radical enough.
They don’t want to be part of the West. They feel that their birth rate and their increased immigration will soon swamp these European governments. And the European governments are terrified of them.
So, on key issues of concern to the West, to emasculate Iran, they’re afraid to say anything. And they’re afraid to express support for Israel because these internal populations within the continent will turn on them, or they won’t get their votes.
The second disastrous policy was green energy. Germany and other countries, with the exception of France, have either put on hold or dismantled their coal plants. In the case of Germany, they had to restart them because they disarmed or displaced their nuclear facilities.
They don’t want to tap the huge natural gas deposits that are thought to be in continental Europe. They are not looking for new sources of offshore oil. They don’t want any fossil fuels. No natural gas unless we import it.
They don’t want to develop themselves. And the result is their energy is two or three times more expensive than their economic competitors. And they’re captives of the Middle East and Russia for energy. So that has affected their political independence.
Third, they thought they were at the end of history after the fall of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. So, they thought they were in some type of disarmament utopia. So, they, more or less, disarmed.
So, here we are with tiny little Israel with 11 million, 10 million people, and they have 300 front-line aircraft fighters, jets that are flying every day with some of the best pilots in the world. And they have more fighters than our key trio of NATO partners. More than Germany. More than France. More than Great Britain.
Of course, we know about European fertility. Ours is bad enough at 1.65. Theirs is down to 1.3 and 1.4 in some countries, and 1.1. There’s been a new credo in Europe that you’re not going to have children. The good life is too precious. Why waste it raising children? And of course, socialism is not sustainable.
They have this huge socialist safety net, which is exacerbated by millions of impoverished Middle East people coming in illegally who demand entitlements and, sort of, threaten their hosts. And they’re not very gracious immigrants. And you put it all together, and you get European schizophrenia.
And what is that schizophrenia? It’s quietly whispering to the United States, “Help us. Help us. You’ve got to make sure that Russia doesn’t go further west in Ukraine. What are you going to do?”
“All seven presidents before you, Mr. Trump, they’ve all worried about the Iranian nuclear ballistic missile crisis. We’re closer than you are. We can’t keep appeasing them. They hate us as much as they hate you. Who is going to do something? Please, Mr. President.”
And then publicly, “Oh, we’re very disturbed. This is very disturbing. This is very dangerous. I don’t think that we really want to be actively a participant.”
And, the final irony, Europe’s got a bigger population than we do. 450 million people. And its GDP is about the size of China’s. So, it’s got huge resources and potential, even under its socialist and green energy policies. Even with its open borders. Even with its low fertility. With all of those crises that are self-inflicted, it still could arm itself and be a full partner. And yet, it will not do it.
And therefore, it knows it should do it. And it knows there’s things that must be done. And it wants them done, but it wants the United States to do it. So, at the same time, it can criticize them and triangulate against its own savior.
It’s a tragic and really, to be honest, pathetic situation.
Iran’s Longest-Range Missile Strike Fails On Diego Garcia, As Natanz Nuclear Facility Bombed
Summary
Natanz nuclear site attacked: Iran says “no nuclear radiation” detected, even as attacks on core sites like Isfahan nuclear facilities signal clear escalation despite earlier Trump signals of maybe “winding down.”
War expands with furthest ever Iranian missile launch: Iran fires missiles at Diego Garcia in a failed but unprecedented long-range strike.
US claims momentum, hits hardened targets, Hormuz softening ops: CENTCOM says Iran has lost “significant combat capability” after 8,000+ strikes, and bunker-busting attacks on coastal facilities tied to control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Kharg invasion risk rising: US still weighing a high-risk seizure of Kharg Island as more US warships and Marines surge to the region, raising odds of boots-on-the-ground escalation.
* * *
Natanz Nuclear Site Suffers Direct Attack – No Radiation Leakage
President Trump’s late in the day Friday comments proclaiming “I think we’ve won” suggested he might be readying the announcement of an offramp or at least de-escalation, but that speculation has proven premature as things definitely escalated overnight.
For apparently the second time of Operation Epic Fury, Iran’s flagship enrichment site at Natanz nuclear facility has come under attack. Iran’s nuclear agency confirmed the strike but is keeping details deliberately vague, saying nothing about how it was carried out or what weapons were used. What it did emphasize, however, is that “no nuclear radiation” was released.
Natanz – alongside the Isfahan nuclear facilities – sits at the core of Tehran’s nuclear program, long viewed as a prime target in the US-Israel campaign to cripple Iran’s ability to produce an atomic bomb – though it remains that even Iran’s current wartime leadership is saying it has no intent to produce a nuclear weapon. The AP says Natanz was earlier struck at least once at the opening of the conflict, writing: “The facility, Iran’s main uranium enrichment site, was hit in the first week of the war and several buildings appeared damaged, according to satellite images.”
All of this, along with steady the overnight and early morning heavy bombing of Tehran marks a definite escalation despite Trump having floated the idea of “winding down” operations in the late Friday comments.
Iran Vastly Expands Threat Radius: Diego Garcia
Another huge escalation and development: British officials are staying tight-lipped after an attempted Iranian strike on the key Indian Ocean air base on Friday reportedly failed, offering no details on what exactly happened. But this risks pulling in the UK, which has appeared reluctant to directly participate in Trump’s operation. Britain has generally condemned “Iran’s reckless attacks.”
Just hours after Iran targeted the Diego Garcia base, Britain confirmed US bombers can continue using UK facilities – including the same base – for operations aimed at stopping Iranian attacks on shipping in Hormuz.
“Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, a joint U.S.-U.K. military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean, according to multiple U.S. officials,” The Wall Street Journal details. “Neither of the missiles hit the base, but the move marked Iran’s first operational use of IRBMs and a significant attempt to reach far beyond the Middle East and threaten US-UK interests.”
“One of the missiles failed in flight, and a U.S. warship fired an SM-3 interceptor at the other, according to two of the people,” the report added. “It couldn’t be determined if an interception was made, according to one of the officials.” The geographical expanse of the war just got greatly expanded, given Diego Garcia lies about 4,000 kilometers from Iran.
Iran and some regional proxies continue attacking US military sites and interests across the region:
Drone strike triggers massive blaze at US-linked Baghdad airport facility
CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper has said in an operational update that Iran “has lost significant combat capability” in the three weeks since the war began, also at a moment of reports that more IRGC leadership has been taken out in airstrikes. He said the US has struck more than 8,000 military targets, including 130 Iranian vessels. “Our progress is obvious,” Cooper boasted.
He described that multiple 5,000-pound bombs were dropped on an underground facility on Iran’s coastline, part of a strategy to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “We not only took out the facility but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements,” Cooper said.
Domestic fallout amid rising prices at the gas pump looks to grow in US:
Question: I’m a waiter at a local restaurant in Queens, a full time college student who sleeps an average of four hours a night and is still thousands in debt. How is a war in a country half the world away funded by the taxes pulled from my check, helping me in any way? pic.twitter.com/QVgzfSSQZ8
Trump is still said to be mulling a very high risk Kharg Island takeover, which to accomplish would most definitely require ground troops. A second deployment of US troops to the region was authorized earlier this week, and three warships and thousands of additional Marines are en route to the Middle East.
One among many problems in even getting to Kharg Island is that hundreds of miles of Iranian coastline must be passed by any ship hoping to reach Kharg, which lies over 300 miles deep and northwest of the Strait of Hormuz.
The authoritarian COVID lockdowns and stay-at-home orders sold as life-saving measures have been unmasked once again as a deadly failure of big government overreach.
A new UK Covid-19 Inquiry report has concluded that the relentless “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” messaging likely cost thousands of lives by convincing people they could not get access to health services.
The inquiry, led by Baroness Hallett, slammed the slogan created by Cabinet Office officials without input from health leaders. It “led some people to feel they must avoid burdening the NHS” and “may have inadvertently sent the message that healthcare was closed,” contributing to a sharp decline in A&E attendances for life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks.
The report states plainly: “It is clear that, during the pandemic, worsening delays in diagnosis and treatment led to increased ill-health and suffering and, in some cases, cost lives.” Some patients waited so long their conditions became “untreatable,” with permanent loss of mobility.
Baroness Hallett stressed: “It is important that government communication campaigns do not deter those in need from accessing healthcare.” She urged future governments to consult healthcare professionals on messaging “to avoid unintended consequences.”
Office for National Statistics data backs this up, recording more than 17,000 excess deaths from non-Covid conditions at the height of the pandemic. Cancer screenings were paused, diagnoses plummeted, and non-urgent care cancellations left patients suffering. Hospital visiting bans were branded too tough, with dying people left alone and families devastated.
But at least we got to enjoy the dancing nurse videos in near-empty hospitals. pic.twitter.com/rJ6XPcctRX
The NHS itself “coped, but only just,” teetering on the brink of collapse under “intolerable strain,” per Hallett, who noted politicians like then-health secretary Matt Hancock were reluctant to admit the system was overwhelmed.
The findings come on the back of mountains of research indicating isolation policies inflicted generational damage on children’s development.
The study tracked 139 children and found the greatest harm hit reception-year pupils aged four to five when the first lockdowns struck in March 2020 – a critical window for learning routines, friendships, and self-regulation.
Lead researcher Prof John Spencer said: “Children who were in reception when the country shut down showed much slower growth in key self-regulation and cognitive flexibility skills over the next few years than children who were still in preschool.”
He added: “Reception is a critical year for peer socialisation. It’s when children learn classroom norms and build early friendships that shape their confidence.”
Without those experiences, “children’s self-regulatory skills didn’t develop as quickly year-on-year after the lockdowns ended.” The study concluded: “Without these experiences, reception children had a challenging time developing self-regulation and cognitive flexibility in the years that followed the pandemic.”
That research adds to a cascade of older studies exposing the full horror.
A 2023 report by Speech and Language UK revealed the average child missed 84 school days due to Covid policies. Eight in ten teachers reported worsened pupil inattention post-pandemic, blaming screen-based “learning” and stunted social skills.
Teachers have also noted rises in needless chatter, shouting, and inappropriate laughing, with the “ever-swiping nature” of social media like TikTok worsening the fallout.
Previous research showed teenage girls’ brains aged prematurely by up to four years during lockdowns, with boys affected by one-and-a-half years—linked to social restrictions hitting girls harder.
Covid lockdowns rapidly aged girls’ brain by 4.2 years compared to 1.4 among boys.
University of Washington researchers compared MRI scans from 2018 to post-pandemic ones in 2021-2022, finding accelerated cortical thinning, a natural process tied to anxiety, stress, and higher disorder risks. Whether this is permanent remains unclear, but it spotlights the unseen toll of isolating youth.
This latest warning adds to a mountain of evidence exposing lockdowns as a disastrous overreach that prioritized control over common sense, devastating children’s futures.
Another investigation revealed that babies born during lockdown were less likely to speak before their first birthday, as the lack of face-to-face interactions and exposure to facial expressions hindered early language acquisition.
Babies born in lockdown were less likely to have said their first word by the time they turned one 💔 Lockdowns and mask mandates stunted babies’ development: They weren’t able to socialize or read facial expressions, study warns! 🆘
Daily Mail Online https://t.co/v2XtsXaDim
A further study found many children unable to say their own name due to the impact of lockdown, pointing to profound speech and developmental delays from limited social engagement.
‘Children learn by watching people, by watching lips, by seeing faces. No only did we lock them at home, we put masks on the people around them.’
NHS GP Dr Renee Hoenderkamp discusses more children needing help with speech after lockdown isolation. pic.twitter.com/BPXStRrXZF
Research also uncovered that children were suffering from as many as three different viruses simultaneously due to weakened immunity caused by lockdown, since prolonged indoor confinement prevented the natural building of defenses against common pathogens.
June 2022: “Children were admitted…with a startling range of 7 viruses. They had adenovirus, rhinovirus, RSV, human metapneumovirus, influenza & parainfluenza, as well as Covid—which many specialists say is to blame for the unusual surges.” https://t.co/ZdBhe3z7xu
In addition, an outbreak of hepatitis in children was directly attributed to lockdowns that weakened immunity, resulting in unexpected surges of the liver condition among previously healthy kids.
Doctors also raised alarms over a mysterious outbreak of brain infections in Nevada kids, believing it was linked to COVID lockdowns that left children’s immune systems vulnerable and unprepared for routine exposures.
NEW — The CDC is Investigating an Alarming Cluster of Mysterious Brain Infections in Children in Nevada
“Before COVID they were seeing about 4 cases/year of brain abscesses in children. When they looked in 2022 it was 18.” pic.twitter.com/JdZkRTc71W
Disturbing lockdown drawings also illustrated the severe effect on children’s mental health, where artwork captured the trauma, fear, and emotional distress from being cut off from normal life.
These findings, among others like excess deaths and ignored warnings, paint a picture of policy failure. Lockdown zealots dismissed the collateral damage, but the data doesn’t lie—government mandates crushed freedom and futures alike.
These inquiries and studies should bury any remaining excuses for repeating such experiments. Surrendering liberty to bureaucrats never saves lives – it only costs them, and scars the next generation forever.
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“I’d Like To Pay Their Salaries”: Elon Musk Offers Lifeline To TSA Agents As Democrats Hold Paychecks Hostage In Shutdown
The Department of Homeland Security shutdown entered its 36th day on Saturday after Senate Democrats blocked yet another funding bill for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, and other federal agencies, triggering weeks of chaos at airports nationwide, including long TSA checkpoint lines during the peak of the spring break travel season.
Early Saturday morning, Elon Musk, closely tracking the DHS funding lapse, wrote on X that he would personally pay the salaries of TSA agents to get them back to airports and help avert further chaos.
“I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk said.
I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country
On Friday, a motion to advance a funding bill failed 47-37, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster. John Fetterman (Pa.) was the only Democrat to vote “yes” on the DHS funding bill. Sixteen senators from both parties were absent for the vote. This marks the fifth time Democrats have blocked the Homeland Security Appropriations bill since DHS funding ended in mid-February.
Democrats have been absolutely furious over any funding bill for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that does not include reforms to immigration enforcement operations. That is mostly because they are watching President Trump erode their political power by deporting the very illegal aliens their party allowed to invade the nation under the Biden-Harris regime. Remember, these illegals are the future voting bloc of the Democratic Party, meant to seize political control by disenfranchising citizens.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is planning to force a vote sometime today on a proposal to fund the TSA.
“The chaos at TSA is reaching a boiling point. We need to reopen it as quickly as possible. That is what Senate Democrats are intent on doing,” Schumer said.
By the end of the week, 10% of all TSA workers did not show up for work – just below the record 10.22% absentee rate set at the start of the week. Nearly 400 agents have quit so far in the months-long shutdown, according to DHS. These workers have been without pay since mid-last month, when the Democratic Party began using these agents as political pawns.
The severity of the government shutdown this time has not yet reached the crisis level of travel disruption seen during the 43-day shutdown late last year, when air traffic controllers were used as leverage in political disputes, disrupting air travel nationwide. To prevent such issues in the future, perhaps privatization talks for these agencies should begin.
Is it possible that an unhinged, left-wing judge might try to block Musk from offering to pay TSA agents’ salaries during the funding lapse?
“I Think We’ve Won” Trump Says As Iran Refuses Hormuz Talks, Houthis Threaten Red Sea Strait
Summary
CBS reporting ‘heavy preparations’ for ground troops as Trump says ‘no ceasefire’ for now; Trump calls NATO a ‘paper tiger’; says “close to meeting our objectives”, offramp?
IRGC contradicts Bibi: says missile production is ongoing, is of “no concern” – even as IRGC spokesman Ali Mohammad Naeini is reported killed.
Energy war ongoing: Major sites damaged across the region – Haifa refinery hit, Qatar LNG output cut 17%, Kuwait facilities ablaze.
Kharg Island escalation looms: Trump admin weighing seizure of Kharg Island to reopen Hormuz; Thousands of Marines in route, reports of low US jet strafing runs over strait.
Signal of zero restraint from Ayatollah & FM: Iran sends warning if energy sites are hit again, leadership structure grows opaque; supreme leader says enemies will be denied security.
Chokepoint concerns in Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb send Brent and WTI prices higher in late afternoon trading
* * *
Trump: No Ceasefire, We’ve Won, ‘Other Nations – Not US – Must Guard Strait’
More somewhat confusing rhetoric on Iran plans from Trump: He said late in the afternoon Friday US strikes on Iran are “weeks ahead of schedule” – but caveated that he expects oil prices to surge more than they have. He repeatedly emphasized that he does not want a ceasefire – “we’re not looking to do that” – while leaving the door open to dialogue, insisting talks don’t necessarily require halting the fighting. He said all this while also proclaiming “I think we’ve won.” He also expressed he thinks Israel will wind down the war when the US does.
Trump asserted further that Iran’s military has been severely degraded, saying it has “no radar, spotters, aircraft” and that key leaders have been killed, concluding: “from a military standpoint Iran is finished” and “I think we’ve won.” He also said Israel would be ready to end the war when the US does, noting both countries “want more or less similar things.”
Late in the day Friday Trump followed his verbal comments to reporters with this:
Oil plunged immediately after the latest Trump statement went out:
“NATO could help us, but they so far haven’t had the courage to do so. And others could help us, but we don’t use it,” he said. “At a certain point, it’ll open itself.” Again, some confusing messaging to say the least…
“I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You know, you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side,” he said. “We’re not looking to do that.”
Trump hinted at possible escalation options around Kharg Island—“I may have a plan or I may not”—while accusing Iran of “clogging up” Hormuz. He also continued to berate Tehran leadership as “thugs and animals” – and praised Secretary of State Marco Rubio for doing a “fantastic job.” Meanwhile Iran too is saying it is not ready for ceasefire or dialogue (at least in its public statements), and has expressed intent on exacting revenge. All of this means: no offramp yet in sight amid fresh reports that ‘heavy preparations’ for ground forces are being planned: “Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran, multiple sources briefed on the discussions told CBS News.” More from CBS: “Senior military commanders have submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option as President Trump weighs moves in the U.S.-Israel-led conflict with Iran, the sources said.”
REPORTER: “What’s your plan for Kharg Island?”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I may have a plan or I may not, but how would I ever say that to a reporter?”
“If I said that to a reporter, Marco would say, ‘please, sir let’s bring you over to the helicopter immediately.’ Right? I can’t tell… pic.twitter.com/iLcgj7lWOo
The Liberia-flagged, 81,713-dwt bulk carrier Giacometti (IMO: 9615377) has become the first Greek-owned vessel to successfully transit the Strait of Hormuz with its Automatic Identification System active since March 2, according to maritime shipping news and intelligence outlet Lloyd’s List.
The Panamax bulk carrier transited westbound into the Middle East Gulf and was the first vessel to do so since the Panama-flagged MLS Onyx (IMO: 9373618) on March 5.
Still tanker flows remain mute at the end of the week.
Iran Refuses Hormuz Talks As Houthis Threaten Bab el-Mandeb Chokepoint
Brent crude futures are above $110/bbl, and WTI futures are inching closer to triple-digit territory as traders fret over a weekend of chaos across the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf area following this week’s targeting of upstream energy assets.
The latest headline to hit is that Iran is unwilling to reopen the Hormuz chokepoint while under attack, according to Bloomberg News.
IRAN SAID TO STICK TO HARDLINE POSITION ON STRAIT OF HORMUZ
With one maritime chokepoint in focus, we shift our attention to another: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
A report from Russian media outlet RIA Novosti states that Yemen’s Houthi rebels are considering blocking commercial shipping traffic in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
RIA Novosti continued:
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, said that if the group were forced to close the strait, it would only attack vessels belonging to states that carry out aggression against Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq.
He noted that the movement is considering all possible scenarios to support Iran in its confrontation with the United States and Israel.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic chokepoint linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, serves as a vital corridor for global trade, particularly oil and gas shipments between Europe and Asia.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, situated between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, accounts for about 10% to 12% of global trade and serves as a key route for energy shipments to Europe.
With Hormuz partially paralyzed, Saudi Arabia has shifted crude flows from the Hormuz area to the East-West pipeline and onward to Red Sea ports for loading onto tankers.
Yet another maritime chokepoint becoming clogged would expand the conflict area and could further send energy markets into a tailspin.
Trump Blasts ‘Paper Tiger’ NATO; Three More Warships Dispatched to Mideast
The President has again expressed his frustration at lack of direct NATO participation in a plan to open up the Strait of Hormuz. He declared the US has “militarily WON” – and lambasted lack of allied interest in a “simple military maneuver” to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, oil is rising on news of a second massive Marine deployment toward Gulf in a week, WSJ is reporting:
The Pentagon is sending three warships and thousands of additional Marines to the Middle East, even as President Trump insists he won’t put American boots on the ground in Iran, according to U.S. officials.
Roughly 2,200 to 2,500 Marines from the California-based USS Boxer amphibious ready group and 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are heading to the U.S. Central Command, responsible for all American forces in the Middle East, the officials said.
Crude Futures as WSJ headline hit…
IRGC Says Missile Production Intact, Contradicting Netanyahu
On day 21, the Iran war shows no signs of abating. Iran’s IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naeini was reportedly killed in an Israeli overnight strike, another high-level hit as the decapitation campaign grinds on.
However, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Friday that the Islamic republic has continued to produce missiles despite the war with Israel and the United States. This directly contradicts Israeli PM Netanyahu’s assertions from the day prior, where he said both missile production capacity and uranium enrichment capability have been destroyed. Netanyahu had claimed, “Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium and manufacture ballistic missiles.”
“Our missile industry deserves a perfect score…and there is no concern in this regard, because even under wartime conditions we continue missile production,” IRGC spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said according to Fars.
Energy Complexes From Gulf to Israel Burning; Casualties Mount
The energy war continues to be front and center. Israel confirmed major Thursday Iranian strikes hit its Haifa refining complex, damaging critical infrastructure, and leaving many in the area without power. Also, the attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility is expected to slash LNG export capacity by roughly 17%. Kuwait hasn’t been spared either, with its massive Mina al-Ahmadi refinery hit for a second straight day, with fires ripping through processing units.
Elsewhere, Bahrain says it has faced over 140 missiles and 240 drones since the war began, underscoring the scale of Iran’s regional barrage.
Across the region, escalation is bleeding into civilian life even in countries not directly part of the conflict. The biggest Muslim holiday of the year, Eid, is being celebrated, and in Iran the Persian New Year “Nowruz” is unfolding under air raid sirens, also with fresh Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Syria. Currently Palestinians are being barred from Al-Aqsa during Eid. Casualties continue to mount with over 1,400 reported dead in Iran, including 204 children per the Red Crescent – and more than 1,000 killed in Lebanon.
Signs of US Plans to Take Kharg Island
But the real escalation risk surrounds what Washington’s next move may be, as the Trump administration is actively weighing seizing Kharg Island, Iran’s key export hub, in a desperate effort to force Hormuz back open. One source put it bluntly to Axios: “We need about a month to weaken the Iranians more with strikes, take the island, and then get them by the balls and use it for negotiations.” For all the bravado and rhetoric, some analysts see the situation as a classic escalation trap.
But the report says no final decision has been made, but the direction of travel is clear. “He wants Hormuz open… If he has to take Kharg Island… that’s going to happen,” one senior official said, while acknowledging a coastal invasion remains on the table.
The Wall Street Journal in fresh reporting sees signs that an operation is already underway: “The U.S. and its allies have intensified the battle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, sending low-flying attack jets over the sea lanes to blast Iranian naval vessels and Apache helicopters to shoot down Iran’s deadly drones, American military officials said.” it writes.
Iran Vows ‘Zero Restraint’ If Its Energy Sites Attacked Again
Here’s what Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted to X on Thursday: “Our response to Israel’s attack on our infrastructure employed FRACTION of our power. The ONLY reason for restraint was respect for requested de-escalation. ZERO restraint if our infrastructures are struck again. Any end to this war must address damage to our civilian sites.”
And CNN reports Friday: “Mojtaba Khamenei, who has made no public appearance since being chosen to succeed his father, said in a written statement security must be denied to all Iran’s enemies.”
Things are meanwhile getting more opaque in terms of leadership structure inside Iran: “Iran has not named replacements for the vast majority of senior officials killed by Israeli strikes since the conflict began on February 28,” CNN reports.
Iran’s strategy appears to be to survive while imposing severe high costs:
There has remained heavy censorship in Israel amid the war, but various overnight reports suggested another past 12 hours of heavy Iranian missile bombardment of Israel. Times of Israel confirmed, though without much in the way of details that sirens have been constant around central and northern Israel.
There were at least half a dozen missile salvos on Israel since late last night. “A home in the central city of Rehovot is burning following an apparent cluster munition impact, rescue services say,” TOI writes. “There are no immediate reports of injuries after Iran launched a ballistic missile carrying a cluster bomb warhead at central Israel.”
One war observer who has regional contacts wrote on X the following account: “Israel has been pummeled all night. Based on my counts of alerts and reports of landings from open sources the number increased tonight, though there are no reports of casualties.”
The journalist continues, “My Whatsapp groups are filled with people having breakdowns after not sleeping for two weeks. In Jerusalem 4 alerts were heard in a 90 minute span. Iran has been able to increase the number of launches daily. Everyone seems angry at the IDF and Netanyahu for lying about the destruction of Iranian capabilities.”
Radical leftists want a new Department of Migration to push open borders propaganda in schools and fast-track voting rights, free housing and citizenship for illegals.
A leaked Green Party dossier has blown the lid off plans to brainwash British schoolchildren into believing they have a ‘moral duty’ to embrace endless immigration.
The document, hidden behind a password-locked policy archive normally only accessible to party members, calls for a new Department of Migration to work hand in glove with education chiefs. Its stated goal is to “disseminate knowledge” about immigrants directly into classrooms.
🚨 A LEAKED Green Party dossier reveals radical plans to teach children they have a ‘MORAL OBLIGATION’ to accept immigrants pic.twitter.com/Vzjt0qG89R
— WeGotitBack 🏴🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@NotFarLeftAtAll) March 19, 2026
Children would be taught they have a “moral obligation” to accept immigrants under these radical plans.
The exact wording from the leaked dossier states the new department would educate pupils on “the situations from which those seeking asylum and resettling refugees are fleeing, and the need for and moral obligation of asylum and humanitarian protection.”
It goes further, declaring the party “seeks not only to provide asylum to those forced from their homes but to work towards a world in which no one has to flee their home.”
Additional proposals include free legal advice and support to illegal immigrants to “regularise their status without penalty for being undocumented,” granting settled status to those who have been in the UK for at least five years — complete with welfare benefits, voting rights and a pathway to citizenship — and opening borders wider for those from countries with “seriously disturbing public order” or claiming persecution under equality laws.
In short, the Greens want to hand illegals free housing, votes and passports while telling British kids it’s their moral duty to cheer it on.
They also want to be SOFTER on terrorist suspects.
🚨NEW: The Green Party wants to weaken the police’s ability to tackle terrorism by cutting the maximum detention period for terror suspects from 14 days to 4.
We now live in a country where appealing to jihadis is a sizable vote winner.https://t.co/soJD5lrqUZ
This all comes at a time when the UK is already buckling under the weight of mass migration, with migrants set to swallow 40% of new homes by 2030.
This fits a disturbing pattern. The same political class has already turned schools into surveillance hubs, urging them to snitch on “anti-Muslim hostility.”
Counter-terror police run ads warning teens that sharing funny content could be terrorism, and a government video game literally teaches kids they’re terrorists for questioning mass migration.
A recent caller perfectly encapsulated how most British people feel about the invasion overwhelming their country.
Yet instead of listening, the elites double down on indoctrination.
Meanwhile, a surging new force offers the exact opposite vision. Restore Britain has vowed to deport millions of migrants and outlaw incompatible cultural and religious practices.
As the party’s campaigns director Charlie Downes put it, “We are going to deport all illegal and burdensome migrants. If that means millions go, so be it.” He added, “We are going to outlaw incompatible cultural and religious practices. If that means those who refuse to integrate no longer feel welcome, so be it.” And on the most serious crimes: “We are going to execute pedophiles, rapists, and murderers if that is what the British people want.”
The contrast could not be starker. One side wants to flood Britain with more arrivals and guilt-trip the next generation into accepting it. The other side wants to put British people first, restore order and end the madness.
The leaked Green plans are nothing short of open-border radicalisation aimed at the young, pushed from behind closed doors. They reveal a party completely detached from the housing crisis, the grooming scandals, the cultural erosion and the public’s breaking point.
They’re also the party with a leader who believes women can have penises.
Britain doesn’t need more propaganda in classrooms. It needs leaders willing to secure the borders, protect the native population and put the country first.
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For 15 years the FBI was engaged in a landmark investigation into the largest Islamic-based charity in the United States, called The Holy Land Foundation. The organization was operating as a front for Muslim terror groups, funneling cash from western countries to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, until they were finally put on trial in 2008.
Convicted leaders were known as the “Holy Land Five,” and included Shukri Abu Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, Abdulrahman Odeh, and Mohammad El-Mezain. Among the documents seized from these individuals during the investigation was a strategic paper drafted by senior Muslim Brotherhood operative Mohamed Akram in 1991.
The memorandum gave detailed methods for establishing Islam as a “civilization alternative” in the West and a “grand Jihad” for eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within. It called for the ‘sabotaging’ of the west and its “miserable house” by domestic hands AND the hands of the believers so that the west is eliminated and “God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
The plan explicitly referred to using western society’s own people, institutions, laws, and unwitting allies (progressive groups and NGOs, media, politicians, academics, or civil-rights organizations) to advance the Islamic agenda.
Tactics included infiltration of education, media, government, finance, and alliances with non-Islamic actors “when tactically beneficial” while maintaining ideological separation. This is also called “long-term settlement” (tamkeen); a form of demographic or cultural subversion rather than direct conquest. It is often mentioned in the paper as “the settlement mission”.
A related 1982 Muslim Brotherhood document (called “The Project”) outlines a 100-year global plan with similar elements: building parallel societies, exploiting Western freedoms, and forming pragmatic coalitions.
One problem the Muslims wrestled with was the need for foreign alliances and western “advocates” to make immigration and the integration of Islam into target countries more “official”. Twenty-five years ago, this was considered all but impossible in the US and in Europe. However, since around 2014, the Sharia fundamentalists found a willing and ready ally in the new “woke” left.
Today, the notion of even discussing the agenda of “Stealth Jihad” in a public venue in 2026 is labeled “racist” by progressive activists and left wing politicians (even though Islam is not a race). If you were to go back in time around 15 years ago and explain to people what is happening today in terms of third-world immigration, they would probably laugh in your face and call you a conspiracy theorist.
In 2026 in Europe the plan is nearly complete and in the US the plan is well underway. The change in how our society views Islam as an untouchable subject is largely due to a dark and convenient political alliance between the woke left and the Stealth Jihad.
Only recently has the problem of Muslim immigration risen to the forefront of media coverage, but only because of the work of citizen journalists like Nick Shirley who are exposing widespread fraud among migrants. The majority of this fraud, whether it is in Minnesota or California, is connected to Somali Muslim immigrants and is perpetrated with the help of leftist NGOs and politicians.
Coming from a country with an average IQ of 67, these people are not capable of instituting such a plan on their own. They had help and it is clear that Democrats are deeply involved in these operations, perhaps in exchange for financial kick-backs, but certainly in exchange for votes (Somali migrants in Minnesota voted 80% in favor of Democrats in 2024).
It’s not surprising, but there are a lot of similarities between progressives in the west and third world Islamic migrants from the east.
The political left has long held an agenda similar to Stealth Jihad. In Marxism it is referred to as “cultural hegemony” or “the long march through the institutions”. It is associated with the work of Antonio Gramsci, the founder of the Italian Communist Party. Interestingly, his ideas of cultural hegemony are often studied as a means of better understanding the agenda of Stealth Jihad.
Gramsci’s approach (developed in his Prison Notebooks in the 1920s–1930s) argued that in advanced capitalist societies the “ruling class” maintains power through cultural hegemony. To overthrow this, he asserted that revolutionaries must wage a “war of position” rather than a frontal assault.
This meant infiltrating and capturing key institutions (schools, universities, media, churches, judiciary, government bureaucracies) to erode cultural norms, reshape public consciousness, and create counter-hegemony until socialism/communism becomes the new ideological norm. We have witnessed this nightmare in vivid color with the woke movement of the past decade. For the longest time the agenda was dismissed as “conspiracy.”
I would also point out that the general attitudes of third world migrants and leftists are essentially the same when it comes to production and survival: Both groups view producers as targets for piracy. Why would they integrate into western society, work hard and build for the future when they can feed off the production of others? Why create their own wealth when it is so much easier to pillage the wealth of people who innovate, construct and save?
But this partnership goes far beyond easy cash and socialized living into the realm of ideological and religious warfare. As noted, Stealth Jihad is about the exploitation of western freedoms and open systems as a means to invade and drive out the native religions (Christianity).
The Christian belief system is essential to western civilization. Whether or not a person living in the west believes in it doesn’t matter; they still benefit from the inherent Christian drive to build, structure and maintain a moral and ordered society based on rules for EVERYONE.
You would think that a partnership between Islam and the woke cult would be completely antithetical. After all, Muslim societies are defined by the rule of dominance, tribalism and brutal theocracy. There is zero tolerance in Islamic society for feminism, homosexuality, transgender theory or atheism. The Marxist world is rooted in atheism and moral relativism – The deconstruction of societal norms and the idea that unchecked hedonism is the ultimate form of freedom.
However, each group is beneficial to the other; they serve each other’s purposes. They also have the same primary enemy (Christianity). This intersection of benefits and shared hatred is where we find “Multiculturalism” – The agenda to wipe out the west using third-world immigration as a bulldozer.
Multiculturalism is simply an updated version of Gramsci’s Marxist cultural hegemony strategy, combined with third world notions of ethnic supremacy or religious supremacy. If you want to understand what is happening in places like the EU or the UK; if you want to know why these governments are completely ignoring the will of the public and blatantly aiding an Islamic invasion, this is why.
These are leftist governments with a clear objective to eliminate competing western and Christian ideals in order to establish a new cultural hegemony, and they are doing it subversively by using liberal values as a cudgel. Modern Europeans, fearful of ever being accused of “bigotry”, refuse to admit that they are committing high-minded suicide. Blind acceptance of immigration and the inability to discriminate logically is setting Europe on the path of total collapse.
This is what the Marxists want, and this is what the Muslims want. It’s much easier to pirate and enslave a population in the midst of social and economic crisis.
In the US we see a similar plan, though, leftists are working much harder to present Muslim migrants as ideologically aligned with liberalism. When conservatives see groups like “Queers for Palestine”, or we see New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani hiring transgenders for his administration while holding Muslim dinners on the floor of his office, what we are witnessing is the theatrical facade of “inclusivity.”
At bottom, these people do not share viewpoints that can truly “intersect”, but their short term goals are the same. Leftists hate conservatives and Christians because we represent a rules based order that stands in the way of their vision of pure hedonism. Muslims see conservatives and Christians as an obstacle to global Islam.
If the conservative west was theoretically defeated and we disappeared, the left and the Muslims would certainly turn on each other. Each group probably thinks they can control the other group when the time comes.
As the war in Iran moves forward, I have little doubt that we will see an exploding insurgency from leftists and Muslims in the US which will force us to question our foundational concepts of a “free and open society”. We will be forced to acknowledge that these exalted ideas cannot be applied to everyone. Specifically, they cannot be applied to people who want to destroy us. At bottom, the “rights” of people waging war upon us do not matter.
The question is, can we survive such a war and come out the other side with a constitutional republic intact? I think we can, but such a system would have to parse out and separate from ideological groups that see the west as a target (the Founding Fathers would NEVER have tolerated an anti-west invasion). We must accept, finally, that we cannot coexist in freedom with such people.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
