What he saw from inside the system, and why his departure signals that the guardrails are collapsing faster than anyone on the outside fully understands… Trump is dismantling our American democracy with alarming speed and the resignation of the Trump-appointed Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, is a symptom of it. Kent, a hardcore MAGA Republican who ran two failed, Trump-endorsed campaigns for Congress before Trump put him in charge of counterterrorism, was adjacent to the very highest levels of our national security apparatus, had all the inside information, and not only resigned but salted the earth on his way out, writing: "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby." As I've noted in previous articles, Saudi Arabia and the UAE wanted America to strike Iran and had collectively given billions to Kushner and Trump. Netanyahu desperately needed a war with Iran to insure his re-election this year to keep him out of prison. And Putin wanted the Strait of Hormuz closed so the price of oil would go up and rescue his floundering economy.

As bombs fall and soldiers die, Jared Kushner is reportedly seeking billions from the same Gulf states pushing America toward conflict… There are several clear winners from Trump's attack on Iran: — Russia, who can again fund their violence against Ukraine with new oil revenue and now claims their unprovoked attack on that nation is consistent with this new Trump Doctrine; — Saudi Arabia, which has long hated Iran and lobbied since at least 2008 for the US to attack that country; — the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has similarly pushed America to attack Iran since at least 2010; — the American defense weapons industry, which is making additional billions; — Don Jr. and Eric who have taken a big position in a drone-manufacturing business, getting them in on the Pentagon gravy train; — Donald Trump himself, who's succeeded in largely pushing Epstein off the front page; — and Benjamin Netanyahu, who's called for American strikes against Iran since 1992 and will stay out of prison as long as the war continues.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump chuckles as he admits Putin is helping Iran kill American troops. — The lie heard around the world: Trump told our allies Iran was surrendering, but Iran didn't get the memo. — The war comes home, as they always do. An Israeli strike in Lebanon killed two of Ghazli's (the attacker of of the Michigan synagogue) brothers and two of his brother's children. The FBI — what's left of it after Ka$h Patel fired the team responsible for tracking Iranian terror operations in the US — is also investigating the two separate attacks that happened this week. — Don't let Stephen Miller turn America into a surveillance state. — Is this what the Republican Party's future looks like? — Democrats are winning. Everywhere. And nobody's talking about it. — Did AI kill 175 children in an Iranian school?

If the road to Tehran required the sons and daughters of the billionaire & political class to march beside everyone else's kids, would we still be there? The drumbeats for expanding our (and Israel's) war with Iran are loud. Cable news panels talk about strategy. Politicians talk about deterrence. Pentagon briefings talk about targets and timelines. But there's one thing missing from almost every conversation in Washington. Risk.