“Germany’s former foreign spy chief has been arrested on suspicion of espionage and treason, prosecutors have said. August Hanning, 80, is under investigation for attempted treason and acting as an agent for a foreign intelligence service, the Office of the Federal Public Prosecutor General confirmed on Tuesday. Hanning was president of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service between 1998 and 2005. He was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. His former chief of staff, partially identified as Manfred D, was arrested in Steinfurt in western Germany on suspicion of ‘aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage’. … The statement did not reveal who the two men were suspected of spying for or which country the foreign agent worked for, adding that ‘it has yet to be determined if the material reached the intended recipient’.” (10/06/26)
“Arthur Scargill once boasted that he had never betrayed his class. It was meant as a badge of honour. It should have been read as a warning. We understand loyalty to family. We understand loyalty to village, county and country. These are places and people we belong to and most would not wish to leave. Class is different. It is a condition, not a community. And for most of British history the working-class condition meant hard labour, low pay and narrow horizons. To pledge loyalty to that is to pledge loyalty to the very thing a sensible person would want to escape. It turns the miner’s son who becomes a surgeon into a deserter. It makes ambition look like apostasy. That is the first problem with class. It is a cage that congratulates you for staying inside.” (10/06/26)
“Like Russia, the U.S. is huge and hugely multicultural. In fact, those are the two biggest multicultural nations on earth. Like Russia, U.S. population growth stems from its so-called minority population. Like Russia, that population is largely non-white. Unlike Russia, where the fast-growing minority groups include Muslims and Asians, the U.S. Hispanic ‘minority’ is Christian and, quite mistakenly in my view, much of it pro-Trump. Again, unlike Russia, which has a leader, president Vladimir Putin, who openly espouses traditional values and is just as openly enthusiastic about the minorities he governs, Trump scorns American minorities and unleashes a murderous Gestapo against them. Putin would never dream of such idiocy.” (10/06/26)
“Just three weeks after American hip-hop artist Macklemore was kicked off megastar Ed Sheeran’s tour over the rapper’s ‘Free Palestine’ messaging, it looks increasingly obvious that Sheeran overestimated the power of pro-Israel cancel culture and underestimated the American fanbase. Last week, country superstar Zach Bryan wore a ‘Free Palestine’ t-shirt during his concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. His band wore similar attire. Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium and was primarily responsible for pressuring Sheeran to ditch Macklemore last month from the tour, was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, Sheeran’s back-up band and all of his opening acts on the tour dropped out to support Macklemore, who went on to launch his own Free Palestine Tour this fall as his own popularity is experiencing a resurgence. The three-date European leg of the tour sold out immediately.” (10/06/26)
“Donald Trump has ordered a firing squad to [kill] an ex-US army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in Texas, the Pentagon said. The US President approved the method to put Nidal Hasan to death by army firing squad in a military [killing]. It came at the recommendation of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X. The ex-army major killed 13 at Fort Hood in a 2009 shooting spree with a laser-sighted handgun that he later described as retaliation for US wars in the Middle East and to protect Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.” (10/06/26)
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me for our weekly conversation. We talk about the new ‘plague’ and voters asking AI to tell them how to vote in the midterm elections as well as why thinking for yourself is becoming the indispensible skill.” (10/06/26)
“Most political professionals behaved as though Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency was a joke: an elaborate ruse to set up a new reality show. The internecine wars that viciously pitted Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters against each other were largely in the rearview mirror, and Democrats were busy measuring Oval Office drapes and donning ‘I’m With Her’ t-shirts. … So when the Washington Post broke the Access Hollywood story on the afternoon of October 7—ten years ago this week—the immediate reaction in the D.C. corridors of power was disgust mixed with faux shock commingled with barely contained glee. The three-minute clip played to all of the priors of the Democratic establishment, which had remained convinced America would never elect this con man, now confirmed as a raging misogynist. Uttering ‘grab ’em by the pussy’ to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush was surely the final nail in Trump’s coffin.” (10/06/26)
“[T]he St. Louis Fed offers us YouTube videos on How to Pay Down Credit Card Debt, and Budgeting 101 (‘Making a budget is like planning a road trip for your personal finances’). The self-described ‘very stable genius’ in the White House was not able to contemplate that his elective war on Iran would see the Strait of Hormuz shut down and America’s security umbrella over the Persian Gulf states get pummeled. Which falls into the category of their business. Yet his administration explains to us how to do our grocery shopping. Which falls into the category of our business. It is arrogant, presumptuous, and insulting. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins offered the latest installment recently. Confronted with complaints about soaring beef prices, Rollins had a straightforward solution: ‘If beef is too expensive…you can eat chicken, pork, salmon, eggs.’ Or cake?” (10/06/260
