Marco Rubio

@marcorubio

The reason so many in US media keep putting out fake stories like this one is because they continue to rely on charlatans & liars claiming to be in the know as their sources.

Quote

ElDpvpyL_normal.jpg

Edward Wong

@ewong

·

Mar 16

Replying to @ewong

Gift link to @nytimes story by me, @FrancesRobles and @anniecorreal: https://nytimes.com/2026/03/16/world/americas/trump-cuba-president-diaz-canel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TlA.Ygf9.a5SMOwYKG0cM

11:36 PM · Mar 17, 2026

·

853.7K

Views

https://x.com/marcorubio/status/2034111671950594146?s=20

Qatar says Iran launched five ballistic missiles, one hits Ras Laffan

1 hour

Qatar said on Wednesday it was targeted by five ballistic missiles launched from Iran,adding that one struck Ras Laffan Industrial City after most were intercepted.

“Our armed forces successfully intercepted four of the ballistic missiles, while one missile fell in Ras Laffan Industrial City, causing a fire,” the Qatari Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

"Civil Defense teams are currently responding and working to contain the fire," it added.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603185791

(I’m sorry to say this but these countries tolerated Iran, because they knew their evil)

Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

6Y2mf_V5_bigger.jpg

@NicHulscher

STUDY INVOLVING OVER 1 MILLION CHILDREN FINDS MYOCARDITIS ONLY OCCURRED IN COVID-VACCINATED CHILDREN

There were ZERO myocarditis cases in unvaccinated kids.

Let that sink in.

Valerie Anne S…

@ValerieAnn… • Mar 17

Study involving 1.7 million children has found that Myocarditis & Pericarditis only appeared in children who had received COVID mRNA vaccines.

Abstract

Background Children and adolescents in England were offered BNT162b2 as part of the national

COVID-19 vaccine roll out from September 2021. We assessed the safety and effectiveness of first and second dose BNT16262 COVID-19 vaccination in children and adolescents in England.

Methods With the approval of NHS England, we conducted an observational study in the OpenSAFELY-TPP database, including a) adolescents aged 12-15 years, and b) children aged 5-11 years and comparing individuals receiving i) first vaccination with unvaccinated controls and ii) second vaccination to single-vaccinated controls. We matched vaccinated individuals with controls on age, sex, region, and other important characteristics. Outcomes were positive SARS-CoV-2 test (adolescents only); COVID-19 A&E attendance; COVID-19 hospitalisation; COVID-19 critical care admission; COVID-19 death, with non-COVID-19 death and fractures as negative control outcomes and A&E attendance, unplanned hospitalisation, pericarditis, and myocarditis as safety outcomes.

Results Amongst 820,926 previously unvaccinated adolescents, the incidence rate ratio (IRR) for positive SARS-CoV-2 test comparing vaccination with no vaccination was 0.74 (95% CI 0.72-0.75), although the 20-week risks were similar. The IRRs were 0.60 (0.37-0.97) for COVID-19 A&E attendance, 0.58 (0.38-0.89) for COVID-19 hospitalisation, 0.99 (0.93-1.06) for fractures, 0.89 (0.87-

0.91) for A&E attendances and 0.88 (0.81-0.95) for unplanned hospitalisation. Amongst 441,858 adolescents who had received first vaccination IRRs

https://x.com/NicHulscher/status/2034091843923644591?s=20

Fannie and Freddie ease insurance rules

Lower insurance costs give new homebuyers more confidence they can afford a mortgage

Liezel Once

Lower insurance costs give new homebuyers more confidence they can afford a mortgage

American borrowers has faced a growingclash between mortgage rules and the reality of a hardening insurance market.

With premiums at record levels in many states and some carriers retreating from high‑risk areas, condo associations and rural homeowners have increasingly struggled to find coverage that meets Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac requirements without blowing up monthly payments.

Against that backdrop,the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that the government‑sponsored enterprises would accept more flexible homeowners insurance structures on loans they bought or guaranteed.

The move effectively reversed recent guidance that has pushed lenders toward full replacement cost coverage on roofs and stricter condo master‑policy deductibles.

Under the changes, Fannie and Freddie would accept actual cash value (ACV) coverage on roofs for single‑family homes and condos,while keeping replacement cost coverage on the rest of the structure.

ACV policies typically carried lower premiums but left homeowners with larger out‑of‑pocket costsafter a major loss, a trade‑off consumer advocates have long warned about.

Condo projects would also see streamlined rules on master‑policy deductibles, a long‑running industry concern as wind and haildeductibles rose and some buildings risk falling out of agency eligibility.

The Mortgage Bankers Association and others have previously urged FHFA to relax its per‑unit deductible capand allow ACV options for older roofs in order to keep projects financeable.

The relief came as originators reported more purchase deals collapsing over insurance sticker shock. “There is no single silver bullet here,” Justin Smith, a senior mortgage banker at Cornerstone Home Lending, said in an earlier Mortgage Professional America interview about climate‑exposed markets.

Steve Marks of Ohana Mortgage Solutions likewisewarned that some condo master‑policy premiums were “doubling or tripling in premium cost,” squeezing buyers and lenders alike.

Property insurance costs for US homeowners withmortgages climbed to a new record in the first half of 2025, according to the latest ICE Mortgage Monitor report.The average annual insurance payment on a mortgaged single-family home jumped 11.3%, or $20 per month, compared to 2024, pushing the typical bill to nearly $2,370.

“Thanks to President Trump’s landslide victory, we are replacing a disruptive and expensive Biden insurance mandate with commonsense policies for today’s market,” FHFA director William J. Pulte said.

“Lower insurance costs and mortgage rates shrink the monthly payment of a new mortgage, giving new homebuyers confidence that they can afford the American dream.”

The policy package also won support on Capitol Hill.

“Imposing higher costs on families and limiting consumer choicewas another outrageous example of big government overreach by the Biden Administration,” senator Eric Schmitt said.

“I’m grateful to the Trump Administration and Federal Housing Director Pulte for working with me to repeal this harmful mandate, giving families the flexibility they need and ensuring rural communities have better access to choose an insurance plan that best reflects their needs.”

https://www.mpamag.com/us/mortgage-industry/industry-trends/fannie-and-freddie-ease-insurance-rules/569051

Good News Anons

'Apparently I’m an idiot’: Three-time Trump voter in Pennsylvania sounds off on Iran war

Senior National Politics Reporter Jon Allen speaks to Pennsylvania voters as they react to the war in Iran and rising gas prices.

(Meet the Press NOW thought they’d get negative comments about the “war”)

4:41

https://youtu.be/VgRRlUNmrWQ

>>24397679

Where does the news get, being opposed to the war, that republicans would leave the party. A pretty stupid idea, they are not going to join democrats unless they only changed on last election.

24 Hours After Trump Said USA Might Leave NATO, Europe Says ‘Ships on the Way’

March 18, 2026 | Sundance

Sometimes things are just too funny. Less than 24 hours after President Trump said Europe’s refusal to escort their own oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz might lead him to reconsider staying in NATO, suddenly ships are en route.

Poland is sending two escort ships, Denmark says they are willing, France changes from no to maybe, and NATO General Secretary MarkRutte says everyone is trying to figure out how to help. Huh, funny that.

NATO Secretary General Rutte: Allies Are 'Collectively' Working On Path To Reopen Strait of Hormuz

0:44

https://youtu.be/tD6Z1ZoYVJM

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/03/18/24-hours-after-trump-said-usa-might-leave-nato-europe-says-ships-on-the-way/

>>24397762. I think Poland offered before anyone

>>24397762. The EU will be nothing but Snakes and Rutte is the worst snake ever

>>24397762

Their late somewhat offer, was too late. Trump is going to treat them at a longer distance now. Better to know the real enemies.

Vice President JD Vance Responds to Question About Joe Kent Resignation

March 18, 2026 | Sundance |

Vice President JD Vance was asked about NCTC Director Joe Kent resigning from his position over a disagreement surrounding the Iran conflict.

This could have been a challenging question for Vance to answerbecause both Vance and Kent are funded and supported by the same ideological donor, Billionaire Peter Thiel.[FYI Tucker is also in this stable] Thiel is a libertarian minded billionaire within Big Tech andnot necessarily an ideological fan of Donald Trump or MAGA. Palantir is one of Thiels companies with CEO Alex Karp running it.Palantir is a major contractor within the national security apparatus.

JD Vance adroitly navigates the answerby saying once the President makes a decision, the role of all subordinates is to get behind that decision, and never openly compromise your leadership.

“It’s one thing to have a disagreement of opinion…That said, whatever your view is,when president of the United States makes a decision, it’s your job to help make that decision as effective and successful as possible…If you are on the team and you can’t help implement the decisions of his administration,he has the right to make those decisions, then it’s a good thing for you to resign. And I think that’s exactly right. It’s fine to disagree, but once the president makes a decision, it’s up to everybody who serves in his administration to make it as successful as possible.” WATCH:

It’s obvious Team Thiel didn’t agree with the policy decision to attack Iran, that’s more of a neocon Team Ellison/Adelson policy move. However, JD Vance is very correct in how the Team Thiel horses within the administration should respond to the decision in trying to make it as successful as possible.

==Thiel <-Musk <-> Ellison==

Vice President JD Vance on resignation of National Counterterrorism Center Director

2:23

Vice President JD Vance on resignation of National Counterterrorism Center Director: "It's one thing to have a disagreement of opinion…That said, whatever your view is, when president of the United States makes a decision, it's your job to help make that decision as effective and successful as possible…If you are on the team and you can't help implement the decisions of his administration, he has the right to make those decisions, then it's a good thing for you to resign. And I think that's exactly right. It's fine to disagree, but once the president makes a decision, it's up to everybody who serves in his administration to make it as successful as possible."

https://youtu.be/Hl780lQ-2Js

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/

>>24397821

Tulsi wouldn’t tell Warner or the commission this am what intel she shared with Trump.

How would the Senate and House inquisitors know whether or not Iran was planning on Nuclear bombing the U.S.?The idiots consider it a non-necessary war under Trump; but they didn’t question the idiot Presidents before him for truly useless wars.

And the catch isTrump, Tulsi and many others know the real danger Iran posed to the US, and maybe the world, they can never expose it!

The real reason could have been truly catastrophic for the world.

None of the inquisitors will ever know either, so if it doesn’t work out, Trump will be blamed and it can never be told. Just like the admin couldn’t reveal the VZ raid.

Hot Chines spies are waging ‘sex warfare’ to steal Silicon Valley secrets 1/3

China and Russia are sending attractive women to seduce tech workers — even marrying and having children with their targets. ‘It’s the Wild West out there,’ says insider.

Chinese and Russian operatives are using “sex warfare” to seduce and spy on Silicon Valley professionals, industry insiders have told The Times.

James Mulvenon, the chief intelligence officer of Pamir Consulting, which provides risk assessments for American companies investing in China, said he was one of the many men recently targeted by foreign seductresses hoping to gain access to US tech secrets. “I’m getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman,” said Mulvenon. “It really seems to have ramped up recently.”

Mulvaenon also described how, at a business conference on Chinese investment risks hosted last week in Virginia,two attractive Chinese women showed up and attempted to gain entry. “We didn’t let them in,”he said. “But they had all the information [about the event] and everything else.”

He added: “It is a phenomenon. And I will tell you: it is weird.”

Mulvenon, who has investigated espionage in the US for 30 years, said the honeytrap tactic was “a real vulnerability” for the US“because we, by statute and by culture, do not do that. So they have an asymmetric advantage when it comes to sex warfare”.

Sex warfare is just one way American tech workers are being played, according to five counterintelligence experts who spoke to The Times. China is also hosting competitions for startups on US soil to steal sensitive business plans, and even trying to sabotage American tech companies, sources said. In February, the House committee on homeland security warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has conducted more than 60 cases of espionage in the US over the past four years — though a former counterintelligence source fears this “only scratches the surface”.

Both Russia and the CCP are using ordinary citizens — investors, crypto analysts, businessmen and academics — to target their American counterparts, rather than trained agents, making the espionage harder to spot.

“We’re not chasing a KGB agent in a smoky guesthouse in Germany anymore,” said one senior US counterintelligence official. “Our adversaries — particularly the Chinese — are using a whole-of-society approach to exploit all aspects of our technology and Western talent.”

One former counterintelligence official, who now helps Silicon Valley founders divest their foreign investments,said he recently investigated the case of one “beautiful” Russian woman who worked at an aerospace company and married an American colleague. Hediscovered that she had gone to a modelling academy in her twenties but later attended a “Russian soft-power school” before disappearing for a decade and re-emerging in the US as a cryptocurrency expert.

https://archive.is/JfRTP

>>24398002

2/3

“But she doesn’t stay in crypto,” the ex-official said. “She is trying to get to the heights of the military-space innovation community. The husband’s totally oblivious.”

“Showing up, marrying a target, having kids with a target — and conducting a lifelong collection operation, it’s very uncomfortable to think about but it’s so prevalent,” he continued. “If I wanted to be out of the shadows, I’d write a book on it.”

The theft of trade secrets is estimated to cost the American taxpayer up to $600 billion a year, with China identified as the principal source of this loss, according to the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property.

In 2023 Klaus Pflugbeil, a resident of Ningbo, China, tried to sell intellectual property he had stolen from Tesla to undercover agents at a Las Vegas trade conference for $15 million. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison last December; his alleged accomplice, Yilong Shao, who also lived in Ningbo, remains on the run. (Shao has not publicly commented on the case.)

The men, both former employees of a Canadian manufacturing company that was acquired by Tesla in 2019, were said to have used the stolen trade secrets to build a rival business in China. Pflugbeil told Shao that he had “a lot of original documents” related to Tesla’s battery technology and sought out more “original drawings” of the trade secrets, prosecutors said.

The assistant attorney-general for national security, Matthew Olsen, said in a statement in December: “In stealing trade secrets from an American electric-vehicle manufacturer to use in his own China-based company, Pflugbeil’s actions stood to benefit the PRC [People’s Republic of China] in a critical industry with national security implications.”

Meanwhile the US government has warned startups against entering international “pitch competitions” where founders pitch their business ideas to Chinese investors. Winners can receive cash awards, subsidies and investment — on the condition that they bring their IP to China and set up an operation in the country.

Some of the competitions ask startups to share their business strategies, intellectual property and even personal data and photos before participating, US officials said in a warning issued last month.

“Part of it is a counterintelligence risk. They’re looking at how they can exploit you later,” the senior US counterintelligence official said.

“And part of it is they may simply take your idea, exploit it and patent it, stealing your financial future.”

Academics and younger innovators eager to develop their ideas andestablish a lucrative business are especially susceptible to exploitation, the official added. One contest that has officials concerned is the ninth annual China (Shenzhen) Innovation and Entrepreneurship International Competition, held this month in several cities across the world including Boston, London and Tokyo.

Winners are expected to form a business in China in order to receive cash awards and investment.

https://archive.is/JfRTP

>>24398024

3/3

One chief executive of aSilicon Valley biotech firm who attended last year’s competition in November said he had been made to wear a microphone throughout the event and was followed around by officials.

“They would record everything I would say, do and then ask questions like a reporter would:‘What do we do? How do we do it?’” he said. He added that there were “government representatives in the back observing the competition”.

His company won one of the prizes on offer, taking home $50,000. He said there were no conditions attached to this money,but he was surprised that organisers wired the funds to his personal account rather than his company’s. “That was weird,” he added.

He now thinks that participating in the contest put a target on his back with US officials. Earlierthis year the US government paused federal funding to his company, forcing him to dissolve the operation. He suspects it happened “because we disclosed to them that we do have some Asian investors”, he said.

This is a deliberate tactic, Mulvenon warned. He said it was common for China-backed venture capitalists to target US startups initially funded by the Department of Defence (DoD) and then later make investments in those firms. “The percentage of foreign ownership crosses a threshold so the DoD can’t make any more investments in those companies, denying the government access to innovative startups and IP,” said Mulvenon, who is investigating this phenomenon. “It’s the latest iteration of the Chinese gameplay. I call it ‘drafting’.”

In May the Senate committee on small business and entrepreneurship found that six of the 25 largest recipients of federal funding via the Small Business Innovation Research programme had “clear links” to China — but still received nearly $180 million from the Pentagon in 2023 and 2024.

Jeff Stoff, a security academic and former China and national security analyst for the US government, said that a lot of what China was doing was not illegal. Rather,they were taking advantage of America’s corporate vulnerabilities using regulatory blind spots.

“The Chinese understand our system and they know how to work within itwith virtual impunity — most of the time,” said Stoff.

For now, all America’s counterintelligence community can do is play catch-up. That means spending more on combating corporate espionage, heightening scrutiny of “cross-border” funds and raising awareness of the Russian and Chinese threat in Silicon Valley.

“It’s the Wild West out there,” said Stoff. “China is targeting our startups, our academic institutions, our innovators, our DoD-funded research projects.

But there’s not enough oversight and action. It’s all intertwined as part of China’s economic warfare strategy, and we’ve not even entered the battlefield.”

https://archive.is/JfRTP

Sam Altman Thanks Programmers for Their Effort, Says Their Time Is Over

"You're welcome. Nice to know that our reward is our jobs being taken away."

By Victor Tangermann Published Mar 17, 2026

Thousands of tech workers are being laid off, from Atlassian.slashing 1,600 jobs to Jack Dorsey’sfintech company Blockfiring almost half its workforce.

Meta’s latest round of layoffs is rumored to affect an astonishing 20 percent or more of the company.

A common thread among thesedevastating cuts is industry leaders touting the capabilities of AI, claiming that the tech has made the workers who find themselves on the chopping block redundant.Whether those claims align with reality, or whether the layoffs are actually the result of corporate bloat and pandemic-era overhiring,is a topic of much debate.

In a Tuesday tweet that can only bedescribed as twisting the knife, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued that “I have somuch gratitudeto people.who wrote extremely complex softwarecharacter-by-character.”

“It already feels difficult to remember how much effort it really took,” he added. “Thank you for getting us to this point.”

It’s aparticularly tone-deaf and borderline vindictive missivethat suggests Altman has long given up on the idea of fairly compensating content creators and coders for their work.It’s no secretthat OpenAI’s AI models weretrained on data that was shamelessly scraped from the web, a controversial practice that has triggered a litany of copyright infringement lawsuits.

Altman’s remarks drew an overwhelmingly negative reaction.

“You’re welcome,” one user responded. “Nice to know that our reward is our jobs being taken away.”

Others called him a “f***ing psychopath” and “scum.”

“Nothing says ‘you’re being replaced’ quite like a heartfelt thank you from the guy doing the replacing,” one user wrote.

The news comesas OpenAI desperately tries to keep up with the competitionin an increasingly crowded enterprise and code-facing AI software landscape. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that executives had started ringing the alarm bells,calling for the company to double down on coding and enterprise customers.

“We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests,” OpenAI’s CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, told employees in a memo, as quoted by the WSJ.“We really have to nail productivityin general and particularly productivity on the business front.”

Meanwhile,OpenAI’s competitor Anthropichas made major strides, with its Claude Code and Cowork chatbots triggering a trillion-dollar selloff last monthover concernsthat AI could make legacy enterprise software a thing of the past.

In short,it’s difficult not to read Altman’s latest tweet as a sleight, directly capitalizing on widespread fears of an AI jobs apocalypse to tout the capabilities of his company’s offerings.

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/sam-altman-thanks-programmers-over

These leaders especially Altman, are all psychopaths, Elon warned about Altman before even companies were created. A major group wanted an AI constitution and rules of engagement by this large group. Altman and otters said fuck off.

MARCH 18, 2026

IDF confirms conducting airstrikes in northern Iran for first time in current war

The IDF confirms carrying out airstrikes in northern Iran a short while ago, after Israeli officials said theIsraeli Air Force was striking Iranian Navy vesselsat the port city of Bandar Anzali, on the coast of the Caspian Sea.

The military says thestrikes were carried out by the Israeli Air Force, following intelligenceprovided by the Naval Intelligence Division and Military Intelligence Directorate.

It marks the first time in the current war that the IDF is striking in northern Iran, according to the military.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-confirms-conducting-airstrikes-in-northern-iran-for-first-time-in-current-war/

Trump hasn’t mentioned Bibi’s name for at least 10-14 days I think.

Kuwait announces arrest of 10 Hezbollah operatives for alleged plot to attack ‘vital installations’

By AFP

Kuwait has arrested 10 militants affiliated with the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terror group, who are accused of plotting “terrorist” actions against vital infrastructure, the interior ministry says.

This is the second Hezbollah-affiliated cell to be arrested in Kuwait this week, as the Gulf faces daily Iranian attacks during the Middle East war, which has seen Tehran-backed groups including Hezbollah join the conflict.

“The State Security Agency has successfully thwarted a plot for a terrorist operation targeting vital installations,” the interior ministry says.

“Ten citizens, members of a terrorist group affiliated with the banned Hezbollah terrorist organization were apprehended,” it adds.

The ministry shares a video of seized items including Hezbollah flags, small drones and pictures of Iran’s slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli attack.

On Monday, Kuwait’s interior ministry said it arrested 16 people — 14 Kuwaitis and two Lebanese nationals — affiliated with Hezbollah who had planned a “sabotage plot”.

The ministry said the group had sought to recruit individuals and that it seized a number of weapons, camera drones and morse code communication devices.

Hezbollah denied that any of its members were among the 16 arrested.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/kuwait-announces-arrest-of-10-hezbollah-operatives-for-alleged-plot-to-attack-vital-installations/

SOFT TOUCH!!!😘🇺🇸😂😂😂(very realistic

il Donaldo Trumpo

https://rumble.com/embed/v75494y/?pub=4