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No two ways about it: The Trump Justice Department settlement of the Trump IRS lawsuit looks terrible.

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were over the moon in 1969 when each was gifted a solid gold model of their Lunar Excursion Module created by Cartier. The glittering tribute to America’s pioneering spacemen was commissioned by the French newspaper Le Figaro, funded by its readers and presented to the...

Packers star Josh Jacobs was arrested and is now facing multiple charges in an alleged domestic abuse incident.

Hezbollah Chief Naim Qassem Targeted Twice In Recent Israeli Assassination Ops

The single biggest, and most historic development out of Lebanon in recent years was the Israeli assassination of longtime Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah on September 27, 2024, via massive bunker-busting airstrikes on his underground location in south Beirut.

Since then, Hezbollah's leadership has been greatly degraded, also given the widescale pager explosion attacks. To fill the leadership vacuum, a co-founder of Hezbollah, and its first deputy secretary-general who had long assisted Nasrallah, Naim Qassem, stepped in as new Secretary-General.

via the Long War Journal

But now, Israel is once again trying to accomplish a 'decapitation strike' - reportedly having targeted Qassem in at least two recent operations thus far.

Jerusalem Post writes Tuesday that "Israel has attempted to target Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem at least twice in recent weeks, Saudi outlet Al Hadath reported on Monday, citing an anonymous Israeli source."

"The report came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that he had instructed the IDF to intensify attacks against the terrorist organization," JPost continues.

Crowds have especially fleeing Beirut's Dahiya district following the announcement of the escalation. Since Gaza war began, this district has been hit many times. It seems that Israel suspects he's in this area, and historic Hezbollah stronghold. 

Monday saw expanded attacks across Lebanon, including Tyre, and Bekaa Valley, and the pace of airstrikes is expected to ramp up.

Al Jazeera earlier cited the Israeli army, which indicated that: More than 70 Hezbollah infrastructure sites across the country were hit Monday, some 10 headquarters and weapons depots in the Tyre area were struck, and an unspecified number of Hezbollah fighters on motorcycles were killed or wounded in the south. And now...

NETANYAHU SAYS ISRAELI MILITARY OPERATING WITH 'LARGE FORCES ON GROUND' IN SOUTHERN LEBANON AND TAKING CONTROL OF 'STRATEGIC AREAS'

While no new Beirut strikes were immediately forthcoming Monday into much of Tuesday, the IDF has issued evacuation orders for some southern suburbs, and people are fleeing, given past experiences of massive bombing raids:

Fearing that the IDF will expand the attacks: Mass movement of Lebanese leaving the Dahiya in Beirut : pic.twitter.com/TAnbdS1QGo

— Iris (@streetwize) May 25, 2026

Gong back to early March, over 3,180 Lebanese have been killed, with more than 9,000 wounded - according to Lebanese health officials. The figures do not distinguish between armed combatants or civilians.

Critics of Israel have warned that Netanyahu is trying to sabotage Trump's efforts to find a final peace deal with Iran. The Israelis have long worried that Washington could in the end settle for a 'bad deal' - or one that doesn't ensure the complete destruction of Iran's nuclear program and highly enriched uranium.

* * *

Much further south, in Gaza, the IDF has reportedly taken out the leader of Hamas' Qassam Brigades...

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 18:50

City taxpayers will dish out $151 million for Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers’ sweetheart giveaway to public-sector labor unions – largely undoing pension reforms that slightly reined in runaway spending.

Sources alleged Manifold's aggressive and unacceptable behavior towards colleagues.

K-pop dominated the 52nd American Music Awards on Monday night, with BTS opening the show and taking home the top prize. Lisa Rinna and Teyana Taylor gave viewers a lot to talk about, too, and The Pussycat Dolls strutted their stuff in a medley of hits — despite being one of several musical acts hit...

K-pop dominated the 52nd American Music Awards on Monday night, with BTS opening the show and taking home the top prize. Lisa Rinna and Teyana Taylor gave viewers a lot to talk about, too, and The Pussycat Dolls strutted their stuff in a medley of hits — despite being one of several musical acts hit...

A hip East-meets-West cocktail bar in Greenwich Village has been named North America’s top watering hole for 2026 in a new “World’s 50 Best" survey.

Both Dan Goldman and his Congressional primary opponent Brad Lander support federal funds for drag-queen story hour — a virtue signal that hopped into the DeLorean and time-traveled from 2022.

On a new episode of “The Show,” Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman are joined by former Mets manager and soon-to-be Mets Hall of Famer, Bobby Valentine. Bobby tells us the story about his hilarious attempt at trying to pull off a disguise in the dugout after being thrown out, his biggest regret from the 2000...

Workers who labor under HR edicts have come to doubt whether all those rules and trainings make any difference in the real world. The answer, actually, is that they don’t.

Cities that allow and encourage substance abuse, such as Los Angeles, do see more people living and dying on the street.

Gavin Newsom wants California taxpayers to spend $33,000 on an official portrait of himself, even as Democratic lawmakers are already fuming over his “absurd” $20 million proposal to honor the state’s living former governors.

Does Demand Create Supply?

Authored by Frank Shostak via Mises Institute,

By popular thinking, increases in demand cause economic growth. According to such thought, whenever the economy falls into a recession what is required is to strengthen demand. Since government is seen as an important part of total demand, what is then required is to increase government outlays, thereby lifting overall demand and hence increasing economic growth.

According to the popular view, it is also possible to strengthen overall demand through the inflationary increases in money supply. With more money in their possession, and for given prices, the so-called real balances will increase and this, in turn, will strengthen individuals' expenditure on goods and services. This allegedly will strengthen the economy's overall demand and will strengthen economic growth. A decline in the prices for a given money supply will also boost the real balances and thus the economic growth. But does it make sense that demand is the key driver of the economy?

In the free market economy, wealth-generators do not produce everything for their own consumption. Part of their production is used to exchange for the products of other producers. Hence, in the free market economy, production precedes consumption. This means that something is exchanged for something else. This also means that an increase in the production of goods and services sets in motion an increase in the demand for goods and services. According to David Ricardo,

No man produces but with a view to consume or sell, and he never sells but with an intention to purchase some other commodity, which may be immediately useful to him, or which may contribute to future production. By producing, then, he necessarily becomes either the consumer of his own goods, or the purchaser and consumer of the goods of some other person.

An individual's demand is constrained by his ability to produce goods demanded by others. The more goods that an individual can produce, the more goods he can demand.

Expanding Private Savings: Key To Economic Growth

Without the expansion and the enhancement of the production structure, it is difficult to increase the supply of goods and services. The expansion and enhancement of the production structure hinges on the expansion of production, private saving, and capital investment. Saving supports individuals in the various stages of production. It supports individuals that are employed in the enhancement and the expansion of the production structure. Hence, what matters for economic growth is not just tools, machinery, and labor, but saving and investment in capital goods.

Government Is Not A Wealth-Generator

Contrary to popular thinking, the government does not produce any wealth. Increases in government spending cannot grow the economy. By nature, the government must take from the private, productive economy to facilitate any of its actions. By doing this, the government weakens the wealth-generating process and undermines prospects for economic recovery during a downturn. According to Rothbard,

Since genuine demand only comes from the supply of products, and since the government is not productive, it follows that government spending cannot truly increase demand.

Likewise, an increase in money supply only sets in motion an exchange of nothing for something. This means a weakening in the process of wealth formation and leads to economic impoverishment.

An important factor that makes the fiscal and monetary stimulus appear to "work" is if the amount of private savings is large enough to support non-wealth generating activities while still permitting a growth rate in the activities of wealth generators. It also gives the appearance of wealth as new sectors are stimulated. Additionally, if funded by inflation, the benefits of inflation appear early and are only realized later.

If, however, voluntary saving is declining, then, regardless of any increase in government spending and inflation by the central bank, overall economic activity cannot be revived. In this case, the more the government spends, and the more the central bank inflates, the more will be taken from wealth-generators, thereby weakening any prospect for a recovery. Additionally, these measures will further distort the economy.

As one can see, not only does the increase in the expansionary fiscal and monetary policies not raise overall output, but, on the contrary, it leads to a weakening in the process of wealth generation in general. According to Say,

...the only real consumers are those who produce on their part, because they alone can buy the produce of others, [while]...barren consumers can buy nothing except by the means of value created by producers.

Conclusion

By popular thinking, increases in government spending and central bank inflation strengthens the economy's overall demand. This, in turn, sets in motion increases in the production of goods and services. What we have here is a claim that "demand creates supply." However, to be able to exchange something for goods and services, individuals must first have something that others want. This means that, in order to demand goods and services, individuals must produce something useful first. Hence, supply drives demand and not the other way around. Governments, by nature, must take from the private, productive sector in order to fund their activities. Increases in government spending and the money supply growth rate results in the diversion of savings from the wealth-generators to non-wealth-generators, thus undermining the wealth generating process.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/26/2026 - 18:25

The stunning complaint claims two others have had to have their lower extremities amputated because of similar injuries.

This retired Navy killing machine, complete with gun batteries and a kill board listing dozens of downed WW2-era planes, is home to more than military memorabilia — much to veterans' chagrin.

The Knicks are coming off a sweep. They don’t know their opponent yet with over a week of inaction ahead. And the “R” word — rust — is again a concern.

Don't delay — some styles are already gone!

The Mexican state of Jalisco, set to host multiple games for the FIFA World Cup 2026, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons, again --- as fears grow that a serial killer may be loose in a popular resort town for Americans.