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The Obama Administration’s Prostitution Scandal And The Ruemmler-Epstein Connection

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The Obama Administration’s Prostitution Scandal And The Ruemmler-Epstein Connection

Remember Obama’s 2012 Colombian prostitution scandal? Turns out, Jeffrey Epstein was involved…

Newly released Department of Justice documents from the Epstein files have exposed a previously unknown connection between a 2012 White House advance-team scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, and Kathryn Ruemmler – the former Obama White House counsel who later became Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer.

Ruemmler resigned from Goldman late last week, after the latest Epstein document dump revealed her extensive, affectionate, and years-long correspondence with the convicted sex offender. The emails show she called him “Uncle Jeffrey,” accepted expensive gifts, and turned to him for advice on sensitive legal and reputational matters – including how to respond to a 2014 Washington Post report that accused her of helping suppress evidence of prostitution involving a rich kid White House aide whose daddy was a huge Obama donor. 

The WaPo report, by all accounts, cost Ruemmler a job as Obama’s Attorney General. 

The 2012 Cartagena Prostitution Scandal

In April 2012, ahead of President Obama’s trip to the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, at least 20 Secret Service agents, military personnel, and others were involved in hiring prostitutes. The scandal led to multiple firings and disciplinary actions.

A lesser-known element involved Jonathan Dach, a 25-year-old Yale Law student and unpaid White House advance-team volunteer (son of prominent Democratic donor Leslie Dach). Hotel records obtained by investigators showed a prostitute was checked into Dach’s room at the Hilton Cartagena shortly after midnight on April 3, 2012.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan briefed White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on the evidence. The White House conducted a review, interviewed advance-team members (including Dach), and publicly declared “no indication of any misconduct” by White House personnel. Dach was later cleared and went on to work at the State Department.

More recently, Dach was found to have ‘chronically violated state rules’ in his role as former chief of staff to Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) by using a state vehicle as his personal car for nearly two years “and driving at speeds constituting reckless driving under Connecticut law.”

The 2014 Washington Post Revival and Ruemmler’s Response

In October 2014, while Ruemmler was in private practice at Latham & Watkins and reportedly under consideration to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General – WaPo published new details. Reporters Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura revealed that the White House had received specific evidence (hotel records and witness accounts) implicating a White House advance-team member but had not fully investigated or disclosed it.

On October 9, 2014, Epstein emailed Ruemmler: “Doing fine. Was talking to reporters until late in the morning last night. Trying to isolate/contain wapo.”

On October 17, 2014, Ruemmler forwarded Epstein a draft of her response to the Post reporter and asked for his input. In the draft she downplayed the allegations, writing:

“The whole thing is ridiculous – they had to obtain the record ‘under the table’ because the last thing the Hilton wanted to do is to voluntarily give over info implicating the privacy of their guests. The procedure for checking in prostitutes is hardly rigorous.”

Epstein replied with suggestions, including the line: “Important point.”

Ruemmler ultimately withdrew from consideration for Attorney General on October 24, 2014 – one week after the email exchange.

Finally, here is the letter that then-Obama White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz sent in coordination with Ruemmler, to Carol Leonnig who wrote the WaPo article exposing Jonathan Dach’s prostitution scandal, where they beg her to “from this point forward refrain from using Mr. Dach’s name,” as “He has served his purposes for your reporting—repeating his name in connection with these allegations only deepens the wounds he has already suffered.”

Beyond the obvious questions over the Obama admin prostitution scandal cover-up – which Congress/DOJ should finally ask – the most important question is: why did Obama’s top lawyer summon the help of disgraced pedophile Epstein in planning her defense against the Obama admin’s biggest prostitution scandal?

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 17:10

New Coalition Aims To Ban Vaccine Mandates Across US

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New Coalition Aims To Ban Vaccine Mandates Across US

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A new coalition composed of 15 groups, including an organization founded by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is taking aim at vaccine and mask mandates across the United States.

Children’s Health Defense, the Kennedy-founded group, and other members of the Medical Freedom Act Coalition say they want every state to introduce and pass medical freedom bills.

“I think it’s the first time we’ve seen this kind of effort in the kind of freedom and health movement,” Leslie Manookian, who founded the Health Freedom Defense Fund, told The Epoch Times.

The model state is Idaho, which in 2025 enacted a law that prohibits businesses and schools from requiring customers, employees, and students receive vaccines or other medical procedures. Manookian helped write the legislation, called the Idaho Medical Freedom Act.

“Because that passed, it really showed what was possible,” Leah Wilson, executive director and co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom, and one of the leaders of the coalition, told The Epoch Times. “Our goal is to take the Medical Freedom Act to as many states as possible across the U.S.”

“Children’s Health Defense finds vaccine mandates and medical mandates reprehensible, and we are honored to be part of a coalition fighting to end forced medical procedures, to end medical mandates and vaccine mandates for all Americans,” Michael Kane, director of advocacy for Children’s Health Defense, told The Epoch Times.

The coalition also includes others linked to Kennedy or his Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement, including the Independent Medical Alliance, several of whose advisers Kennedy has appointed to a vaccine advisory committee; the MAHA Institute, whose president co-founded a political action committee that funded Kennedy’s presidential bid; and MAHA Action, whose leader has published books written by Kennedy and which has held events attended by the health secretary.

People involved in the effort say they are in communication with Kennedy on other matters, but have not discussed the coalition. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.

“This state, more than any state in the country, stands for not only medical freedom but a healthy population,” Kennedy said in a briefing with Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican who signed the Idaho Medical Freedom Act a few months prior, on July 23, 2025.

Kennedy recently told reporters in Tennessee that he was not part of efforts to end school vaccine mandates in states. “I believe in freedom of choice,” he also said, describing vaccination as “a personal choice that people should make with their physicians.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which partners with vaccine manufacturers, and American Families for Vaccines, among other organizations, oppose rolling back vaccine mandates. The groups did not respond to requests for comment.

Idaho Requirements Still in Place

The Idaho Medical Freedom Act says in part that a school “shall not mandate a medical intervention for any person to attend, enter campus or buildings, or be employed.” It also says that a business “shall not refuse to provide any service, product, admission to a venue, or transportation to a person because that person has or has not received or used a medical intervention.”

But according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW), parents are required to have their children vaccinated against certain diseases for school and daycare attendance in Idaho.

The department points to another law that outlines vaccine requirements for children.

“DHW encourages school districts to consider the Medical Freedom Act … when implementing vaccine requirements at schools,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

Supporters of the act say the Idaho legislation was imperfect. A new Medical Freedom Expansion bill introduced by state Rep. Rob Beiswenger, a Republican who co-sponsored the legislation, seeks to make clear that mandates are unacceptable.

“The Expansion bill will make it abundantly clear to students and parents that vaccination is a voluntary, personal and private choice and not mandatory,” Beiswenger told The Epoch Times in an email.

State Actions So Far

Legislators in about a dozen states this year have released bills that would alter or ban mandates for vaccines or other medical procedures.

Arizona legislators introduced a bill that would ban businesses and schools from requiring “a medical intervention” such as a vaccine for employment or attendance.

“This bill ensures that Arizonans are not forced to choose between their bodily autonomy and their ability to work, learn, travel, or to participate in public life,” Arizona Rep. Lisa Fink, a Republican who sponsored the bill, told a hearing in January.

Lawmakers in two state House committees have cleared the legislation.

Hawaii lawmakers introduced the Hawaii Medical Freedom Act, which outlines a similar ban. It has been referred to state House panels.

Indiana senators introduced a bill that would, among other aspects, bar requiring people “to accept, undergo, or engage in a medical intervention in or on the individual’s body as a condition of employment, entrance, admission, compensation, benefits, or participation.” The bill has been referred to the state Senate Health Committee. 

New Hampshire representatives outlined legislation that would repeal immunization requirements for children. A public hearing on the bill took place on Feb. 4, and a legislative session on Feb. 11.

On the other hand, some lawmakers have been floating bills that would tighten vaccine mandates. South Carolina state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, for example, recently introduced a bill that would end religious exemptions for measles vaccination amid an outbreak in the state.

“This legislation is about protecting children, protecting classrooms, and protecting communities with clear, medically grounded standards,” Bright Matthews, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Every state in the country requires vaccines for school attendance. Some allow exemptions for religious or philosophical reasons, while all permit medical exemptions.

Florida officials said in 2025 they would be removing all vaccine mandates, but the goal has met resistance in the state legislature, where action is required to remove mandates for some shots. The Medical Freedom Act, introduced in January, would expand exemptions to the mandates but not prohibit the mandates themselves.

The Health Freedom Defense Fund, part of the new coalition, has released model legislation that perfects the Idaho Medical Freedom Act, Manookian said. Lawmakers in other states can use the model legislation to introduce medical freedom bills in their states.

“I don’t think this is a partisan issue,” she said. “I think that Americans in general don’t want to be forced to do something to their children.”

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 16:35

The End Of Multiculturalism And The Liberal Utopian Fantasy

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The End Of Multiculturalism And The Liberal Utopian Fantasy

The first and most important thing to understand about multiculturalism is that it is not an end goal.  Rather, it is a vehicle; the median step in a much larger agenda to erase sovereign cultures and strong national identities.  Once a population no longer has a cultural framework and a set of shared principles to hold onto, they are less likely to care when the borders of their nation are erased and their government becomes subservient to foreign (or globalist) interests.

Cultures are made up of specific peoples with standing birthrights, while nations are held together by shared values.  The people of a country have to care about it enough to keep it alive and secure. 

Multicultural ideology is a process for alienating a society, diminishing their shared values and undermining their love of country.  It’s not an accident when liberal political leaders open up borders and saturate the nation with third world migrants who have completely contrary values.  This sabotage is absolutely deliberate.

For the past several decades the populations of the west (and parts of Asia) have been regaled with liberal visions of Utopia; narratives of eternal peace and “brotherhood” achieved through engineered diversity.  But if diversity “is our strength” as the elites claim, then why is it that first world nations only grow more unstable with each new wave of third world migrants?  

If these migrants are a golden economic resource providing invaluable labor and talent, why are all the countries they come from festering in filth and decay and crime and war?  If these cultures are equal to the west (or superior to the west), then there must be some tangible examples of success or wealth or accomplishment or invention that are not drawn directly from the wealth of the west.  We search high and low and find nothing.  

Many national populations are getting wise to the scam.  They can see that their willingness to “adapt” and “tolerate” is slowly killing them. 

Japan’s recent snap elections led by conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi resulted in a brutal smackdown of leftists and the political left.  Takaichi’s “Liberal Democratic Party” (which is not liberal in the modern western sense) has captured around 75% of the government and a undeniable political mandate.  Leftists around the world are enraged and the progressive establishment media is pumping out propaganda demonizing the conservative shift in Japan.

They deny that open immigration supported by the previous government has anything to do with Takaichi’s rise to power.  In fact, the increasing pace of third world immigration dominated political discourse in Japan for at least a year leading up to the elections.  They had seen the horrors of decline in Europe and the struggles of the US to put right the ship.  They have disrupted the agenda before it could do substantial damage.

The new Japanese government has announced plans to restrict visa renewals, increase deportations, kick out rule breaking migrants, restrict land purchases by foreigners, higher taxes for international tourists and caps on the number of foreign workers allowed into the country.  Furthermore, the Japanese want tighter controls on Muslim migrants who try to enforce their own religious doctrines as law (Sharia law).  

In the UK, which is nearly lost at this point, opposition to Kier Starmer’s progressive coup is quickly growing.  The Labour Party is desperately trying to delay local elections because they know Nigel Farage’s Reform is going to sweep them without mercy.  But that’s not the end of it.  

Another party called “Restore Britain” is gaining momentum with Rupert Lowe at the helm, and his message is crystal clear:  Remigration is the goal.  The complete expulsion of migrants who do not share British values or western values.  The announcement of the movement has received ample praise.  The age of liberalism is dying.

Combine these trends with the revolt in the US against woke cultism and multiculturalism and it’s beginning to look like the rebellion is going global.  The notion that nations must sacrifice their cultural identities and heritage at the altar of globalism is no longer holding sway over mainstream debate.  People no longer feel “shame” when they oppose migration, and they are considering realities which were considered taboo only a few years ago.

At bottom, some cultures a superior to others.  Superior in economic value.  Superior in technological value.  Superior in moral value.  Superior in their contributions to the world at large.  To dilute successful nations with people from lesser cultures in the name of liberal virtue or economic necessity is not a compelling argument anymore. 

One has to wonder how the political left and the globalist establishment intend to win the public back to their side?  It seems impossible at this stage in the game.  Perhaps they don’t intend to do this at all.  When ideological zealots are faced with potential losses, they tend to dash the chess board to the ground rather than admit defeat.   

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 16:00

Epstein-itis

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Epstein-itis

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“If you tolerate the intolerable, you’re communicating that it’s okay to mistreat you.”

– Aimee Terese on X

Did you think the American zeitgeist – our collective spirit plus our thinking – could not get crazier?

Gird your loins. It’s getting worse by the hour.

The Jeffrey Epstein files suggest that people will do anything and that people will believe anything.

Pizza, hot dogs, white sharks. . . boys, girls, babies, teens, Russian whores. . . celebrities by the score. . . billionaires. . . cannibal orgies. . . vivisection parlors. . . adrenochrome. . . blood. . . dead bodies. . . demon worship. . . a depraved and insane global leadership. . . lemme outa here!

I don’t know what’s real in Epstein and what’s not — but neither do you. What you ought to know is that the colossal inventory of Epstein files is perhaps the greatest instrument of mass mind-fuckery ever seen in the history of Western Civ. How interesting, too, that the deluge of material coincides exactly with the critical capability emergence of Artificial Intelligence as a tool for the manipulation of documentary evidence. And also consider all the years since 2019 that interested parties have had to mess with, destroy, possibly fabricate, and catalog all this stuff.

Apparently, the Woke-Jacobin-Marxist eruption was not enough to destabilize the consensus about reality.

The absurdities you were asked to swallow about all-women-are-women-including-men. . . the police killed George Floyd. . . mostly peaceful riots. . . the vaccine is safe and effective. . . the free-est, fairest elections ever. . . “Joe Biden” is president. . . the border is secure. . . speaking English is white supremacy – did not push America deeply enough into Crazyland.

More was required to completely demolish your sense of an ordered world.

Donald Trump was correct, at least, that releasing the Epstein files would bring on more chaos than clarity and impede the effort to get our country back on the rails with an economic engine based on the production of goods instead of financialized hyper-casino voodoo. Well, now we’re in a maelstrom of innuendo, code-talk, gossip, and redaction, and you can hardly begin to sort it out. The Attorney General of the USA, bless her heart, has already botched the management of this monster.

Epstein’s relations with Israel and its Mossad intel blob, along with his connections to global banking interests, have aroused the zestiest breakout of antipathy to Jews since the SS busied itself loading the crematoriums of Europe. Hatred of Jews is a recurring symptom of civilization distress. But it is also possible that Israel has behaved badly — and it is certain that many political intellectuals are reevaluating the way that nation was established after World War Two. To some degree, Israel has become a paranoid state (though even paranoiacs have real enemies).

Where does that go from here? Thoughtful people are pessimistic. For sure, they resent the money and influence seeded by Israel in the US Congress. They might be concerned as well about all the other interests pounding money into American politics. Grift is everywhere, and everyone can see it now. The looming end of the grift orgy is probably behind the Democratic Party’s current psychotic disposition. Having lost its 20th century base of factory workers, the party has had to work the extreme margins of American life to build a coalition of the feckless, the reckless, the brainless, and the shameless. They have become the party’s wards in a reimagined patronage system even more pernicious than the old one under characters like Boss Tweed and Mayor Richard Daley-the-First of Chicago.

The Democratic Party can’t win elections without rigging them and it’s astonishing that they’ve gotten away with building such sturdy armature of ballot fraud in plain sight with next to zero objection from the supposed guardians in officialdom. The features of it are so arrant that a political class with any sense or dignity would have laughed it straight into the criminal courts — and its perps straight into the penitentiary. The fraud became especially acute with the 2020 and 2022 elections. It is about to be revealed in the troves of evidence extracted lately from Fulton County, GA, and presently from Maricopa County, AZ. These birds are cooked. Not a few people will eventually go to jail over these shenanigans. And meanwhile, the SAVE Act pulsates in the Senate like a lump of kryptonite.

Now, you may realize that a political party based entirely on socially marginal persons — many of them mentally ill — will adopt a roster of ideas and policies that are patently marginal, which is to say, crazy. The party elders are now straining to eliminate some of that. Last week, Barack Obama unloaded on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s botched handling of the state’s epic homeless crisis.

“We should recognize that the average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown,” the ex-president said in an interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen.

Hillary Clinton, dropping in on the Munich Security Conference, said, amazingly, “There is a legitimate reason to have a debate about things like migration. It went too far, it’s been disruptive and destabilizing. . .” before tossing in some Woke word-salad:

“. . . and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don’t torture and kill people and how we’re going to have a strong family structure because it is at the base of civilization.”

Say, what. . . ?

But then, poor Hillary, who can’t help being a Cluster-B psycho, turned up moderating a panel at the same Munich meet-up to take up the issue: “Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights: Fighting the Global Pushback.“

To nail down her point, Hillary brought onstage as the featured speaker, Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), known previously as Tim McBride, a man.

Hillary and Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) at Munich

The insanity is, of course, self-evident.

The take-away from all this. They’re not trying hard enough to get their minds right.

And in the meantime, America and the other nations of Western Civ, must contend with the gigantic trip laid on them that is the Epstein files.

We know the newspapers and cable news channels are hopeless.

Is there anyone or any sense-making institution that can usher us through this nightmare back into the daylight?

 

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 15:30

NASA Awards Next 2 Private Astronaut Missions To International Space Station

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NASA Awards Next 2 Private Astronaut Missions To International Space Station

Authored by T.J. Muscaro via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

NASA has awarded its next two private astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in as many weeks, marking a further expansion of the private sector in low Earth orbit and continuing Administrator Jared Isaacman’s intention to make the most use of the orbiting outpost.

In this image from video, the 11 International Space Station crew members representing Expedition 70 (red shirts) and Axiom Space 3 (dark blue suits) crews gather for a farewell ceremony calling down to mission controllers on Earth on Feb. 2, 2024. NASA via AP

The latest mission was awarded to private space station company Vast.

Launching no earlier than the summer of 2027 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, it will be NASA’s sixth private astronaut mission to the space station overall and is expected to last 14 days.

“Vast is honored to have been selected by NASA for the sixth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station,” Vast CEO Max Haot said in a press release. “Leveraging the remaining life of the International Space Station with science and research-led commercial crewed missions is a critical part of the transition to commercial space stations and fully unlocking the orbital economy.”

The company said it would plan “a robust science and research portfolio” for the mission, focusing on biology, biotechnology, physical sciences, human research, and technology demonstrations. It also said the mission would “generate invaluable insights into the infrastructure and processes required for Vast to safely accomplish human spaceflight missions,” and deepen its collaborative relationship with NASA and international space agency partners as it continues its campaign to have its proposed Haven-2 station chosen as the successor to the ISS.

Vast’s single-module station, Haven-1, is slated to be launched into orbit in early 2027.

Now, this private astronaut mission to the space station will follow one awarded to Axiom Space, targeting a launch no earlier than January 2027.

Announced on Jan. 30, it marks the fifth private mission Axiom will undertake. Its previous four missions featured 14 private and government astronauts, including two European Space Agency astronauts. Those missions were led by retired NASA astronauts who left the agency to join the private sector: Michael Lopez-Alegria, Axiom Space’s chief astronaut, and Peggy Whitson, Axiom Space’s vice president of human spaceflight.

Axiom missions delivered the first female Saudi astronaut and first Turkish astronaut into space, as well as carried the first Saudi, Indian, Polish, and Hungarian astronauts to the ISS.

Axiom Space has also been developing its own commercial space station and new spacesuits that NASA intends to use for moon walks.

Meanwhile, this will be Vast’s first private astronaut mission with NASA.

“Private astronaut missions represent more than access to the International Space Station—they create opportunities for new ideas, companies, and capabilities that further enhance American leadership in low Earth orbit and open doors for what’s next,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a press release. “We’re proud to welcome Vast to this growing community of commercial partners. Each new entrant brings unique strengths that fuel a dynamic, innovative marketplace as we advance research and technology and prepare for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

Neither mission has announced a crew yet. NASA made it clear that each company would propose four crew members for it and its international partners to review and approve.

Once a crew is approved and confirmed, the astronauts will train for their mission with NASA, its international partners, and SpaceX for their flight.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 14:30

Ship Orders From South Korea Are Surging Thanks To U.S. Fees On Chinese-Made Ships

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Ship Orders From South Korea Are Surging Thanks To U.S. Fees On Chinese-Made Ships

South Korea is tightening the race with China in global shipbuilding after U.S. plans to curb Chinese-built vessels disrupted order flows and redirected demand , according to Nikkei. 

Worldwide new orders fell 27% in 2025 to 56.42 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT) — the first annual drop in two years — according to U.K.-based Clarksons Research.

China remained No. 1 but saw orders tumble 35% to 35.36 million CGT, shrinking its share to 62.7%. South Korea, ranked second, moved the other way: orders climbed 8% to 11.59 million CGT, lifting its share to 20.6%. Japan, in third, recorded a 53% plunge to 2.77 million CGT, with its slice slipping to 4.9%.

The shift followed a U.S. announcement last April outlining fees on Chinese-built ships entering American ports starting in October 2025. Although the policy was delayed for a year after a U.S.-China summit in late October, uncertainty had already prompted global shipping companies to hesitate on new Chinese orders.

A unit of China State Shipbuilding Corp. said it was disadvantaged in contract talks last summer, opening the door for South Korean yards to win more large container ship deals. HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering cited weaker demand for Chinese shipyards as a key reason for its recent surge in orders.

Nikkei writes that the company posted record results for the year ended December: revenue rose 17% to roughly 29 trillion won ($20.1 billion), while net profit doubled to about 3 trillion won.

Government-backed workforce initiatives have also supported the industry. Seoul opened a training center in Indonesia in 2024 to prepare skilled workers, including Korean language instruction, before dispatching them to local yards. Shipbuilders have raised wages and introduced AI tools to ease labor strain.

Foreign employment in South Korea’s shipbuilding sector hit a record 22,824 at the end of 2024 — about four times the level five years earlier — with foreigners making up more than 20% of the workforce.

Japan, meanwhile, has struggled to capture orders shifting away from China. Data from the Japan Ship Exporters’ Association show export contracts in 2025 fell 20% to 8.93 million gross tons, marking a fourth straight year of decline. Limited yard capacity, slipways booked through around 2029, and labor shortages have constrained growth and pushed up costs.

Looking ahead, global demand is expected to rebound in 2026 as stricter environmental rules accelerate orders for vessels powered by next-generation fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has set a 2026 order target of $23.3 billion, up 26% from this year, citing steady demand for new builds and fleet replacements.

China is working to regain momentum. In December, Cosco Group placed 50 billion yuan ($7.23 billion) in orders with China State Shipbuilding Corp., underscoring coordinated support among state-owned enterprises.

Japan is also attempting a reset. Imabari Shipbuilding recently completed its acquisition of Japan Marine United to streamline operations. The government aims to double domestic shipbuilding capacity to 18 million gross tons by 2035, seeking to narrow the wide gap with South Korea and China.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 14:00

Strait Showdown: Iran Launches “Smart Control” Exercise At Oil Transit Point

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Strait Showdown: Iran Launches “Smart Control” Exercise At Oil Transit Point

Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) kicked off naval drills Monday in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, according to state media.

The exercise, dubbed “Smart Control of Hormuz Strait,” is being carried out by IRGC naval forces under the direct supervision of the Guards’ top command, state television reported, with semi-official Tasnim news agency describing the drills as testing combat readiness against “possible security and military threats.” Energy markets are watching closely.

IRNA: IRGC Navy conducts a hybrid, live exercise dubbed “Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz.”

Under the supervision of IRGC Commander-in-Chief Major General Mohammad Pakpour, a state media press release described the exercise further as “A rapid, decisive, and comprehensive response to maritime security threats form the core focus of the intelligence and operational components of the units deployed during the exercise.”

Indirect nuclear talks between the US and Iran have lately resumed after collapsing when Israel launched strikes on Iran in June 2025, igniting a 12-day conflict that included US attacks on three Iranian nuclear facilities – with another round of negotiations scheduled for Tuesday in Geneva, with Oman serving as mediator.

The timing is no coincidence, given that late last week President Trump announced he was dispatching a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, while continuing to warn that military action against Iran remains on the table.

The IRGC has been conducing sporadic and in some cases unannounced drills in regional waters in order to demonstrate to Washington the Islamic Republic’s military readiness.

Two weeks ago, when some of the first drills kicked off, US Central Command (CENTCOM) warned the IRGC it better be careful in the vicinity of US naval assets.

“We will not tolerate unsafe IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) actions including overflight of U.S. military vessels engaged in flight operations, low-altitude or armed overflight of U.S. military assets when intentions are unclear, highspeed boat approaches on a collision course with U.S. military vessels, or weapons trained at U.S. forces,” CENTCOM said at the time.

“US forces acknowledge Iran’s right to operate professionally in international airspace and waters,” it added, and noted that “any unsafe and unprofessional behavior near U.S. forces, regional partners or commercial vessels increases risks of collision, escalation, and destabilization,” the statement had warned.

Source: Getty Images/iStockphoto

None of Iran’s drills or threat of counterstrike have deterred the ongoing Pentagon build-up in the Middle East with an eye on Iran, however. One thing the White House should be able to perceive, however, is that any military action against Tehran is going to clearly be much more complex, and harder, than some one-off mission in Venezuela.

The potential for massive blow-back and for things to go seriously awry is much greater in the case of a potential US conflict with Iran.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 13:00

Why Firing 9% Of The Federal Workforce Didn’t Move The Needle

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Why Firing 9% Of The Federal Workforce Didn’t Move The Needle

Authored by James Hickman via SchiffSovereign.com,

In January 2025, the federal government employed about 3 million people. By November, that number had fallen by roughly 270,000 workers — a reduction of about 9%.

According to the Cato Institute, that was the largest peacetime federal workforce reduction EVER.

More than 150,000 employees took the “Fork in the Road” buyout offer to resign or retire. Tens of thousands more were laid off outright. Entire offices were emptied. Agencies that had been growing for decades shrank to staffing levels not seen since 2014.

And yet, despite historic federal layoffs, government spending went UP last year.

The federal government spent $7 trillion in Fiscal Year 2025— roughly $300 billion more than the year before. Bear in mind, 2025 was the year that DOGE was supposed to take a chainsaw to the budget and cut spending.

This is not a failure of DOGE. It’s a revelation about the actual problem.

The total federal payroll— every salary, every benefit, for every civilian federal employee (excluding the military)— comes to about $336 billion a year— less than 5% of total federal spending.

In other words, you could fire every federal employee tomorrow— every bureaucrat, every regulator, every paper-pusher in Washington— and 95% of the spending would continue as if nothing happened.

That’s because around 60% of the budget is mandatory spending— Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid— programs that pay out automatically based on laws that were passed decades ago. Congress doesn’t vote on these expenditures each year. The checks just go out.

Then there’s interest on the national debt, which in total runs about $1.2 trillion per year. It’s the second-largest line item in the entire federal budget, bigger than Medicare, bigger than national defense.

(The government uses a lower number called “net” interest; they exclude hundreds of billions in interest owed to Social Security and military retirees. But unless they plan on screwing those people over, that interest still has to be paid. So, we use the “gross” interest number and not “net” interest).

All of these obligations grow automatically, every year, regardless of who’s in charge or how many people show up to work.

Social Security alone grew by over $100 billion last year. Interest payments grew by another nearly $100 billion. Those two-line items, by themselves, swallowed more than the entire savings DOGE could theoretically achieve by cutting the workforce.

In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, more than 80% of projected spending growth over the next decade comes from Social Security, federal healthcare programs, and interest on the debt.

This is the structural problem nobody in Washington wants to talk about honestly: America’s deficit problem isn’t exclusively because of bad decisions today. It’s a failure to address bad decisions made years ago… decades ago– commitments that are baked into law, growing on autopilot, funded by borrowing roughly $2 trillion every year.

In an ideal world, Congress would address these entitlement programs directly. They are, after all, the biggest driver of the problem. But reforming Social Security or Medicare is the political third rail— nobody wants to touch it.

But there are other ways to move the needle as well.

The $38+ trillion national debt is manageable as long as the economy grows faster than the debt— which right now is not happening. But America still has absurdly strong economic potential to make that happen.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly stated that roughly 10% of the entire federal budget— about $600 billion per year— is outright fraud. Not waste. Not inefficiency. Fraud. And much of that fraud is within entitlement programs— the welfare fraud that came to light in Minnesota, the hundreds of billions in Medicare and Medicaid fraud that have been documented for years.

So, reducing fraud would be extremely helpful. Stop paying criminals!! It shouldn’t be that hard.

Then they can take a hatchet to the regulatory maze that strangles productivity; this would substantially reduce the deficit and boost real economic growth— putting America in striking distance of growing the economy faster than the debt.

To its credit, DOGE proved that the federal government could function with far fewer employees.

After the historic reduction in federal employees, services didn’t collapse.

The IRS still processed returns. Air traffic controllers still showed up. The essential machinery of government kept running with 9% fewer people.

That confirms what many have long suspected: a significant portion of federal workers exist to justify their own existence.

But DOGE also proved something far more uncomfortable. Whenever the executive branch tries to go beyond workforce cuts and tackle the spending itself— even fraudulent spending— someone files a lawsuit, and a judge issues an injunction.

Federal judges blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury payment systems. A coalition of 20 state attorneys general sued to halt layoffs at over a dozen agencies. Even relatively modest cuts were tied up in litigation for months.

The legal system functions as a ratchet: spending can go up easily, but it almost never comes down.

Ultimately, the spending trajectory won’t change until Congress decides to root out fraud, cut spending across the board, and stop obstructing economic growth.

But Congress won’t act until voters force them to do so— which, based on the current state of American politics, isn’t happening anytime soon.

The window to fix this relatively painlessly is still open. But it’s narrowing. Within seven years, Social Security’s trust funds will be exhausted, and the national debt will exceed $50 trillion. At that point, the math won’t just be uncomfortable. It will be unavoidable.

We can hope they figure it out. But hope isn’t a strategy. And that’s what a good Plan B is all about— ensuring your family’s financial future doesn’t depend on Congress suddenly discovering fiscal discipline after decades of proving they have none.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 12:30

Waste Of The Day: Secret Settlements Get Taxpayer Money

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Waste Of The Day: Secret Settlements Get Taxpayer Money

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

Topline: Eight Massachusetts state agencies and 13 colleges spent $6.8 million to settle grievances, partly in secret, brought by their own employees from 2019 to 2024, according to a Jan. 16 report from State Auditor Diana DiZoglio. 

At least 80 of the 263 settlements contain confidentiality language such as a nondisclosure agreement — to keep certain details confidential between the two parties — which the audit claims is banned by state guidelines. 

Key facts: The Massachusetts Port Authority transit agency was responsible for 11 of the settlements, costing taxpayers $1.7 million. Most of the money came from a $1.4 million settlement in 2022 with an employee who alleged they were denied a promotion because of their gender. The details are sealed by an NDA.

Six of the confidential settlements involved alleged sexual harassment, and two involved alleged racial discrimination. Most of the others were about violations of collective bargaining agreements and employees who were fired without cause.

NDAs were seemingly used on an arbitrary basis. None of the colleges and state agencies included in the audit had a written policy explaining when confidentiality language should be used, except the inspector general’s office.

“By not having a documented policy on the use of confidentiality language in state employee settlement agreements, there is a risk that confidentiality language may be abused to cover up harassment; discrimination; or other inappropriate, unlawful, or unethical behaviors, potentially allowing perpetrators to continue to remain in their positions and engage in further inappropriate, unlawful, or unethical behavior,” auditor DiZoglio wrote.

All of the colleges and state agencies receive legal assistance from the state attorney general’s office. The office’s guidelines prohibit nondisclosure agreements, and the attorneys told auditors that all state agencies were made aware of the guidelines. 

DiZoglio argued that the NDAs may not even be enforceable. In June 2013, Suffolk County Superior Court sided with the Boston Globe newspaper in ruling that settlements between state agencies and their employees are public records.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Background: The audit is a follow-up to a 2025 report that found 75 state agencies had spent $41 million on more than 2,000 employee settlements from 2010 to 2022.

Summary: Massachusetts’ NDAs hurt the public twice. They essentially use taxpayer funds to cover up potentially unethical behavior perpetrated using taxpayer funds.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 11:40

Pentagon Threatens To Blacklist Anthropic As ‘Supply Chain Risk’ Over Guardrails On Military Use

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Pentagon Threatens To Blacklist Anthropic As ‘Supply Chain Risk’ Over Guardrails On Military Use

  • The Pentagon is reportedly about to cut ties with Anthropic, makers of Claude, which is already embedded in classified systems
  • The company insists on implementing guardrails over how the US military can use Claude – specifically when it comes to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons – after it was used in the Maduro raid without their knowledge.  
  • The Pentagon is now calling Claude a threat to national security
  • Some are accusing the overwhelmingly left-leaning company of trying to undermine the Trump administration, while Elon Musk says Claude ‘hates whites, Asians, heterosexuals, and men.’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly “close” to cutting business ties with Anthropic and designating the firm a supply chain risk – a penalty typically reserved for foreign adversaries, a senior Pentagon official told Axios.

Anthropic’s flagship model, Claude, is already embedded in the military’s classified systems – however the company’s CEO has been pushing for abstract guardrails over ethical concerns for what the government sees as urgent national security needs. 

If classified as a national security risk, the designation would force any company that wants to do business with the U.S. military to certify it does not use Anthropic’s AI – effectively blacklisting the firm from large swaths of the defense ecosystem.

“It will be an enormous pain in the ass to disentangle,” the senior official told Axios. “And we are going to make sure they pay a price for forcing our hand.”

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the review, framing it as a matter of national security.

“Our nation requires that our partners be willing to help our warfighters win in any fight,” Parnell said. “Ultimately, this is about our troops and the safety of the American people.”

Claude was notably used during the January operation targeting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, highlighting how deeply embedded the software already is within U.S. defense operations. As Axios noted on Saturday: 

 The tensions came to a head recently over the military’s use of Claude in the operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, through Anthropic’s partnership with AI software firm Palantir.

  • According to the senior official, an executive at Anthropic reached out to an executive at Palantir to ask whether Claude had been used in the raid.
  • “It was raised in such a way to imply that they might disapprove of their software being used, because obviously there was kinetic fire during that raid, people were shot,” the official said.

Since then, Pentagon officials and Anthropic executives have been locked in contentious negotiations over how the military may use the AI, particularly in surveillance, intelligence collection, and weapons development.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2026. Photo: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has pushed for guardrails to prevent mass surveillance of Americans or the use of AI in fully autonomous weapons systems without human involvement, however the Pentagon says those restrictions are unworkable. Anthropic’s own Acceptable Use Policy (UAP) explicitly prohibits the use of Claude for: 

  • The design or use of weapons
  • Domestic surveillance
  • Facilitating violence or malicious cyber operations

These restrictions are not waived for military/government users unless the contract includes specific safeguards that Anthropic judges adequate, however defense officials insist that military AI tools must be available for “all lawful purposes,” arguing that real-world operations are riddled with gray areas that rigid rules cannot anticipate. The same standard is being demanded of other major AI labs, including OpenAI, Google, and xAI.

One source familiar with the talks said senior defense officials had grown increasingly frustrated with Anthropic – and seized the opportunity to escalate the dispute publicly.

Musk piles on – ‘evil’ and ‘misanthropic’

As the Pentagon showdown escalated, Anthropic also found itself under fire from another powerful adversary – Elon Musk.

Earlier this month, Musk launched a blistering public attack after the company announced a massive $30 billion funding round valuing it at roughly $380 billion. Musk labeled the company’s AI “evil” and “misanthropic,” accusing Claude of ideological bias and hostility toward certain demographic groups, accusing it of “hating Whites, Asians, heterosexuals, and men” in its outputs. 

Musk – whose own company xAI competes directly with Anthropic – mocked the firm’s name, suggesting that a company branded as Anthropic had paradoxically become anti-human.

That said, in January Anthropic cut off xAI’s access to Claude models, which xAI engineers had been using via the Cursor coding tool to speed up internal work. Anthropic enforces a strict policy against using its models to build/train competitors (they had done the same to OpenAI earlier). Musk’s co-founder Tony Wu (who just left) sent an internal note acknowledging the productivity hit but saying it would motivate xAI to build better tools, while Musk later called the cutoff “not good for their karma.”

Musk’s beef isn’t baseless; tests and user reports show Claude often declines queries that could be seen as offensive or non-inclusive (e.g., jokes about certain demographics, historical hypotheticals).

Musk has positioned xAI’s Grok as a less restricted, “truth-seeking” alternative to what he and allies describe as overly constrained or ideologically filtered models. Anthropic, by contrast, has built its reputation around “constitutional AI” – a framework designed to impose ethical limits on how its systems behave.

High stakes, limited alternatives

Designating Anthropic a supply chain risk would force defense contractors to rip Claude out of their internal workflows – a massive compliance headache given the company’s reach. Anthropic recently said eight of the ten largest U.S. companies already use its technology.

The Pentagon contract at risk is valued at up to $200 million – small compared to Anthropic’s reported $14 billion in annual revenue, but symbolically enormous.

Complicating matters, a senior administration official acknowledged that competing AI models are still “just behind” Claude when it comes to specialized government and classified applications, making an abrupt transition risky.

Still, Pentagon officials appear confident that other AI providers will ultimately agree to the “all lawful use” standard, even as sources close to the negotiations say much remains unsettled.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 02/16/2026 – 11:15

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