Day 1 of Trump's Presidency... and all the days that follow

[Rizotto]

About Iran's uranium, there seems to be another Trump contradiction as per the RT article below. Is this progressive dementia, or is Trump still trying to game the markets? Maybe both?

Perhaps Trump's dementia makes him forget that Netanyahu has kompromat on him, so Trump is now fearlessly proclaiming new deals and ceasefires that make him look good.

I'm not making light of that situation. The fact is that Trump's pronouncements literally have life and death consequences for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, etc. Displacement of millions of people who lost their homes thanks to USA-Israel bombs. The latest news is that Israel continues to kill Gazans & Lebanese despite 'ceasefires'. Time for the USA military to stand down, stop obeying orders from a man with obvious cognitive deficiencies.

______________________________________________________________

https://www.rt.com/news/638566-trump...s-iran-hormuz/

April 17, 2026

Trump touts uranium deal as Iran vows its stockpile will never leave country (PHOTOS/VIDEOS): As it happened
The IRGC insists Tehran “has not pursued nuclear weapons” and will “firmly defend” its territory

President Donald Trump said on Friday that the US would work alongside Iran, using “a lot of excavators” to recover Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and bring it to the United States. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, however, reiterated that Iran would not give up the stockpile, which he described as “as sacred as Iranian soil.” Tehran maintains it is not seeking nuclear weapons, a claim disputed by the US and Israel.

(article continued at above link)

[Rizotto]

‘It Smells Like Corruption..’: Rep. McGovern Links Trump Jr To Insider Trading, Grills CFTC Chair

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qFsxtPpRNwQ

[Rizotto]

Brian Allen - April 17, 2026:

"Just 20 minutes before Trump announced the Strait of Hormuz was open—Someone dumped 7,990 lots of Brent crude futures.
A $760 million bet that oil prices would drop.
Orders far larger than anything else in the market at that moment.
They made a fortune.
But somebody knew the announcement was coming.
This is insider trading at the highest level of government"

https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/2045254631862013999

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
Fortunately (or not), U.S. Presidents have less power than they claim.

Paul, I'm quite sure you're 100% right.

Off-topic on this thread, but the entire fraught issue of UFO 'disclosure' shows us exactly this. Those at high levels of the 'Deep State' (or whoever controls the entirety of what's known by humans about UFOs and ETs) regard the US President as a kind of irritating and inconvenient temporary employee who in the bigger picture will soon be gone.

And referring to the UFO/ET issue again, there's evidence to suggest that the publicly visible governments of the US, Russia and China (and maybe also India, Brazil, France and the UK) are all being co-ordinated from a higher level about what they each can and cannot say or reveal about the UFO issue. (And that might also apply to other cloudy matters like the JFK assassination, 9/11, the moon landings, the secret space program, and more.)

Finally, those with long memories will remember that back in 2010 I was told personally in quite some detail about the existence of a supranational group that was the capstone of the pyramid of power, senior to the Illuminati, the Masons, the Skull and Bones, the Knights of Malta, and everyone else without exception. Those following David Icke's work will also know that he has been stating exactly the same thing for many years.

Posted by Chip (here)
I think Bill may be right. I am not claiming I can diagnose the man over the internet, but Trump has not been acting normal, and this looks like more than just his usual vanity and chaos. Something feels genuinely wrong upstairs. I would not be shocked if this comes out publicly before long and he ends up getting pushed out of the White House.

This is also related to the above — meaning, who controls what the President knows, and is a position to steer his executive decisions. We saw exactly with this Joe Biden.

When Biden's mental abilities were failing — which again, whatever one may think of him, was a medical condition and was not his fault — those around him (and/or maybe, invisible factions senior to him) simply took advantage of the situation to control his apparent executive decisions in every which way.

So the same might be happening with Donald Trump. (Although, according to Robert Barnes and also the reporters of the New York Times who wrote their story on apparently highly reliable leaked information, those in Trump's cabinet were unable to influence him or dissuade him from going to war.) If Trump is being influenced or controlled by shadowy non-public figures, maybe taking advantage of him as they might have done with Joe Biden, I don't know the mechanism and can only guess what it might be.

~~~

Finally, a very tiny personal thing. Barnes and others have referred to Donald Trump as now often 'confabulating'. This is a real medical term. It's not an insult or a put-down.

I first heard this from my mother's doctor when in her final twilight years she had told him that that very morning she'd been in town shopping. But I'd been with her at home all day, and I knew that wasn't true.

When the doctor, who was a very good man, quietly asked me if she'd really been out shopping and I'd told him no, he explained to me what 'confabulating' was. My dear mother absolutely and genuinely believed that she had been shopping, and had created the detailed false memory in her mind.

As with Joe Biden, and (maybe) Donald Trump, what had afflicted her was not her fault. The issue was left to those around her (mainly myself) to manage the gradually deteriorating situation as best as possible.

~~~

Many have recently attacked Trump personally, accusing him of lying in many of his public statements. But maybe he's not lying at all. Maybe he sincerely believes absolutely everything he ever says or posts. And if that seems to change from day to day, maybe (like my dear mother) he simply cannot fully remember or properly process what he said or believed yesterday or last week.

[sdv]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
Fortunately (or not), U.S. Presidents have less power than they claim.

Paul, I'm quite sure you're 100% right.

Off-topic on this thread, but the entire fraught issue of UFO 'disclosure' shows us exactly this. Those at high levels of the 'Deep State' (or whoever controls the entirety of what's known by humans about UFOs and ETs) regard the US President as a kind of irritating and inconvenient temporary employee who in the bigger picture will soon be gone.

And referring to the UFO/ET issue again, there's evidence to suggest that the publicly visible governments of the US, Russia and China (and maybe also India, Brazil, France and the UK) are all being co-ordinated from a higher level about what they each can and cannot say or reveal about the UFO issue. (And that might also apply to other cloudy matters like the JFK assassination, 9/11, the moon landings, the secret space program, and more.)

Finally, those with long memories will remember that back in 2010 I was told personally in quite some detail about the existence of a supranational group that was the capstone of the pyramid of power, senior to the Illuminati, the Masons, the Skull and Bones, the Knights of Malta, and everyone else without exception. Those following David Icke's work will also know that he has been stating exactly the same thing for many years.

Posted by Chip (here)
I think Bill may be right. I am not claiming I can diagnose the man over the internet, but Trump has not been acting normal, and this looks like more than just his usual vanity and chaos. Something feels genuinely wrong upstairs. I would not be shocked if this comes out publicly before long and he ends up getting pushed out of the White House.

This is also related to the above — meaning, who controls what the President knows, and is a position to steer his executive decisions. We saw exactly with this Joe Biden.

When Biden's mental abilities were failing — which again, whatever one may think of him, was a medical condition and was not his fault — those around him (and/or maybe, invisible factions senior to him) simply took advantage of the situation to control his apparent executive decisions in every which way.

So the same might be happening with Donald Trump. (Although, according to Robert Barnes and also the reporters of the New York Times who wrote their story on apparently highly reliable leaked information, those in Trump's cabinet were unable to influence him or dissuade him from going to war.) If Trump is being influenced or controlled by shadowy non-public figures, maybe taking advantage of him as they might have done with Joe Biden, I don't know the mechanism and can only guess what it might be.

~~~

Finally, a very tiny personal thing. Barnes and others have referred to Donald Trump as now often 'confabulating'. This is a real medical term. It's not an insult or a put-down.

I first heard this from my mother's doctor when in her final twilight years she had told him that that very morning she'd been in town shopping. But I'd been with her at home all day, and I knew that wasn't true.

When the doctor, who was a very good man, quietly asked me if she'd really been out shopping and I'd told him no, he explained to me what 'confabulating' was. My dear mother absolutely and genuinely believed that she had been shopping, and had created the detailed false memory in her mind.

As with Joe Biden, and (maybe) Donald Trump, what had afflicted her was not her fault. The issue was left to those around her (mainly myself) to manage the gradually deteriorating situation as best as possible.

~~~

Many have recently attacked Trump personally, accusing him of lying in many of his public statements. But maybe he's not lying at all. Maybe he sincerely believes absolutely everything he ever says or posts. And if that seems to change from day to day, maybe (like my dear mother) he simply cannot fully remember or properly process what he said or believed yesterday or last week.

In simple terms, I think the type of dementia Trump has makes him uncontrollable, unlike Reagan and Biden. Trump's NPD is what drives him and his dementia is leading him to a place of losing control (those around him are probably already finding ways to bypass him) and public humiliation that cannot be kept hidden and that he cannot be shielded from (difficult to believe that we are not already there, but resilience is strong). The ego collapse or collapse of defences for the ego will destroy him. I am sure those around him want him out of the White House before that happens, but he will resist because this is an existential crisis and as long as he holds onto power he can prevent the collapse.

His demetia will be the fall guy when Vance takes over and tries to get American hegemony back on track. Blame the dementia and not Trump will be the message, and he will be reimagined as a tragic heroe.

Tapping into narcissism in the ego can enable someone to achieve the impossible. Toxic narcissism is deadly. Trump without dementia was Trump with NPD. He entered the White House as a ticking time bomb.

And, yes, Trump is not deliberately lying. Nor is he playing 5-d chess. In the moment, he genuinely believes what he says. And, I suspect that there are still huge chunks of time where he seems to function 'normally' and maybe does.

[Kryztian]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by sdv (here)
A summary of what happens when someone with NPD develops dementia (and NPD makes them more likely to develop dementia and at an earlier age) ...

Quite a few are now suspecting that the type of dementia (if it is indeed dementia) may be Behavioral Frontotemporal Dementia. (Look it up, it's a real thing.)

That's nothing like the kind of dementia that afflicted Joe Biden, which is Parkinson's Dementia. That was more like (but not exactly the same as) the kind of dementia caused by Alzheimer's. Frontotemporal Dementia specifically affects the frontal lobes of the brain, and what results is

• Reduced language skill
• Reduced ability to make good judgments
• Reduced awareness of others' feelings
• Loss of responsible inhibition (i.e. the afflicted person will just say or express what they happen to be thinking or feeling at that moment, with no social 'censor' operating)
• Increasingly inappropriate social behavior
• General change in personality.

If this is what's happening,

• It's steadily degenerative, and incurable.
• It's not his fault.
  
  

Just wondering if dementia can be induced, and if can be done without knowledge or consent? Is there some chemical that can be slipped into your food or is there some wave that can be beamed into your head that could reduce your mental capacities slightly and gradually, over time (or maybe even all at once), that degrades your cognitive skills? Could induced dementia (like bribery, blackmail, etc.) be just another tool for sinister people in the deep state to control the president and other people in power?

I think of George W. Bush (43). I have seen videos of Bush in the 1990s, then governor or Texas, talking in front of the legislature, clearly and swiftly tossing off facts, figures and ideas, really in command of his game. He really did seem like the man who graduated from Harvard and Yale. (He was by no means an "A" student there, but that was not due to a lack of intelligence, but his decision not to apply himself and party all the time.) That was all before Karl Rove got his hands on him and remolded Bush's image - wondering if he re-wired his brain cells too. Hearing him during the time of his presidency, 43 seemed like someone who probably just got by taking easy classes at a community college despite his best efforts.

I have no evidence for the existence of such technology, but if there is evidence, that would probably be a worthwhile thread in itself. I do have a friend who got early onset dementia in her 50's. She was a brilliant college professor, and shortly after she moved into another home, she developed dementia. It turns out the home had a black mold problem. Just wondering if things like black mold could be weaponized??? I have to image that if some of the many Sidney Gottliebs working in the CIA heard of this relationship between mold and dementia, they would immediately get to work on applying such technologies for the "benefit of the country." Or perhaps that tech was not developed in the Washington Beltway, but in some lab around outside of Tel Aviv, and Jared got Ivanka to slip something into daddy's medicine cabinet?

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Kryztian (here)
Just wondering if dementia can be induced, and if can be done without knowledge or consent? Is there some chemical that can be slipped into your food ... that could reduce your mental capacities slightly and gradually, over time ... that degrades your cognitive skills?

Absolutely such toxins exist. Any "modern" first world grocery store is well stocked with such, and from what we're told, Donald Trump prefers such a diet.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
When Biden's mental abilities were failing...

So the same might be happening with Donald Trump...

Those of us who have been following reports (including apparently highly credible reports from White House insiders) as to the state of mind and daily habits of Presidents, in my case all the way back to Eisenhower and Kennedy, come to realize that such reports can be trusted no further than I could throw a hungry alligator.

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
Finally, a very tiny personal thing. Barnes and others have referred to Donald Trump as now often 'confabulating'. This is a real medical term. It's not an insult or a put-down.

In my view, it matters little to me whether these observations of others are intended to be "medical" or "insulting" (or one of those masquerading as the other). Just figuring out and healing my own state of mind is challenge enough.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by sdv (here)
IMO the Israelis cannot stop themselves

By way of analogy, whomever or whatever is accelerating that car towards large crowds of ordinary people needs to stop ... or be stopped.

In other words, I prefer not to blame the speeding car, much less the brutalized residents of those lands, but rather the evil (spirits/daemons/bastards/...) pressing their foot on the accelerator.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
...than I could throw a hungry alligator.

Could we have an AI video, please?

[RunningDeer]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
...than I could throw a hungry alligator.

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
Could we have an AI video, please?

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
See my What's happening in China? (Post #606) for what I figure is really happening.

Quoting myself, from my above linked post:

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
Aha - I think I see how the "world order" of nations is shifting.
...
Rather the next "control grid":

• replacing 1800's naval power
• and 1900's financial power,
• will be information grid and supply chain management.

Each major nation will provide key components of the digital computer, satellite, internet, semiconductor, precious metals (and helium), AI programmed, world wide information infrastructure, enabling micro managing much of humanity and our civilization on an epic scale.

That is the new, multi-polar, world order.

... another dot connects into this matrix forming in my head:

JD Vance is a reliable agent of such technocrats as Peter Thiel. Apparently the technocrats are gaining power, have placed their agent in the Vice President's seat, and are now maneuvering JD Vance into the President's seat. Take reports and apparent activity (e.g. social media posts) of an apparently increasingly demented Trump in light of this power shift. Such reports are typically reliable indicators of how forces behind the scene are trying to maneuver events ... they tell us little of the actual human being(s) appearing before us as the President.

Just as the UK Foreign Office reliable agent Truman was moved into the position of Vice President for FDR's fourth and final term, so now is the technocrat's reliable agent JD Vance in route to the Oval Office.

The "control grid" being built at break neck speed will replace the "debt-money grid" as the most powerful tool in the hands of the elite bastards, whomever they are. This won't necessarily feel like the brutal oppression we Americans might be told that Chinese citizens suffer under. Many Americans I know worked hard much of their lives to gain and enjoy the fruits of success in a debt-money funded and controlled system. They (including myself once upon a time) were debt-slaves, and very much engaged in being so.

Now AI is rapidly gaining the skills needed to guide us in its chats and audio/visual/... artifacts. Whether AI is guiding me to complete whatever computer project I am working at the moment, or guiding me to be a "good citizen in the new world order", will matter little to the AI. It is being trained to do either task well.

We will owe nothing and be happy? That's working for me. I spent a half century climbing the debt and career ladder, quite engaged. Now for the last decade or two, I've had no career, owe nothing, and enjoy my technical hobbies. Life is good.

[ThePythonicCow]

I regret to inform the kind readers of my posts that AI refused to create an image for me, showing JD Vance with a big grin on his face, holding up a Chicago paper, in November 2028, with the headline "Gavin Newsom defeats JD Vance". The AI was worried that such an image might be deceptively real. Those of us alive (or with politically engaged U.S. parents alive) in Nov 1948 might recall the "Dewey defeats Truman" moment I was playing off.

[rgray222]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
See my What's happening in China? (Post #606) for what I figure is really happening.

Quoting myself, from my above linked post:

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
Aha - I think I see how the "world order" of nations is shifting.
...
Rather the next "control grid":

• replacing 1800's naval power
• and 1900's financial power,
• will be information grid and supply chain management.

Each major nation will provide key components of the digital computer, satellite, internet, semiconductor, precious metals (and helium), AI programmed, world wide information infrastructure, enabling micro managing much of humanity and our civilization on an epic scale.

That is the new, multi-polar, world order.

... another dot connects into this matrix forming in my head:

JD Vance is a reliable agents of such technocrats as Peter Thiel. Apparently the technocrats are gaining power, have placed their agent in the Vice President's seat, and are now maneuvering JD Vance into the President's seat. Take reports and apparent activity (e.g. social media posts) of an apparently increasingly demented Trump in light of this power shift. Such reports are typically reliable indicators of how forces behind the scene are trying to maneuver events ... they tell us little of the actual human being(s) appearing before us as the President.

Just as the UK Foreign Office reliable agent Truman was moved into the position of Vice President for FDR's fourth and final term, so now is the technocrat's reliable agent JD Vance in route to the Oval Office.

The "control grid" being built at break neck speed will replace the "debt-money grid" as the most powerful tool in the hands of the elite bastards, whomever they are. This won't necessarily feel like the brutal oppression we Americans might be told that Chinese citizens suffer under. Many Americans I know worked hard much of their lives to gain and enjoy the fruits of success in a debt-money funded and controlled system. They (including myself once upon a time) were debt-slaves, and very much engaged in being so.

Now AI is rapidly gaining the skills needed to guide us in its chats and audio/visual/... artifacts. Whether AI is guiding me to complete whatever computer project I am working at the moment, or guiding me to be a "good citizen in the new world order", will matter little to the AI. It is being trained to do either task well.

We will owe nothing and be happy? That's working for me. I spent half a century climbing the debt and career ladder, quite engaged. Now for the last decade or two, I've had no career, owe nothing, and enjoy my technical hobbies. Life is good.

I think you're right, we are in for the emergence of a new control grid which will replace traditional financial and political power structures and ultimately deliver a micromanaged society under near total surveillance. While people will still need toilet paper and towel paper, AI will guide individual countries or at least certain geographic population centers to manufacture goods that can be expeditiously distributed around the globe. Digital currency is not even right around the corner, the Digital Euro will be tested late 2028 and most likely launched by 2030-31, and the digital dollar will quickly follow. The societies that specialize in high tech will be near the top of the food chain, but the societies that manufacture goods and specialize in technology will win the game for decades. You can see all the componts of a global government falling into place, pitting China and the USA in a race to outdo each other, serve only one master.

I've had no career, owe nothing, and enjoy my technical hobbies. Life is good.

You're one of the lucky "bastards." Enjoy you deserve it.

[RunningDeer]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
I regret to inform the kind readers of my posts that AI refused to create an image for me, showing JD Vance with a big grin on his face, holding up a Chicago paper, in November 2028, with the headline "Gavin Newsom defeats JD Vance". The AI was worried that such an image might be deceptively real. Those of us alive (or with politically engaged U.S. parents alive) in Nov 1948 might recall the "Dewey defeats Truman" moment I was playing off.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by RunningDeer (here)

That's awesome!

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by RunningDeer (here)

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
.. AI refused to create an image for me, showing JD Vance with a big grin on his face, holding up a Chicago paper, in November 2028, with the headline "Gavin Newsom defeats JD Vance" ...

AI might bolt from me, but RunningDeer is the image master.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by rgray222 (here)
Digital currency is not even right around the corner, the Digital Euro will be tested late 2028 and most likely launched by 2030-31, and the digital dollar will quickly follow.

Perhaps, just as bank notes (and nickel-copper dimes) replaced gold and silver coins, over a span of some 60 years in the U.S., so might digital currency only gradually replace bank notes (and cheaper metal coinage) ... at least until the "big solar burp" replaces industrial food for billions of us, with plants and animals harvested and hunted in the wild, by thousands or millions of us.

The evil bastards only need to digitally track most transactions, while also tracking and controlling the flows of money between the physical and digital space. Most of our transactions are already in the digital space anyway ... so this is more of a tech upgrade than a wholesale tech replacement.

[Rizotto]

Posted by Rizotto (here)
Brian Allen - April 17, 2026:

"Just 20 minutes before Trump announced the Strait of Hormuz was open—Someone dumped 7,990 lots of Brent crude futures.
A $760 million bet that oil prices would drop.
Orders far larger than anything else in the market at that moment.
They made a fortune.
But somebody knew the announcement was coming.
This is insider trading at the highest level of government"

https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/2045254631862013999

It looks more like Trump is feigning cognitive decline, in order to prolong his presidency as much as possible by making people feel sorry for him, making excuses, etc.

Trump’s flip flops and falsehoods have gone off the charts, and the only plausible reason that people around him aren’t stopping him is that they’re making big profits from gaming the stock market prior to each of Trump’s flip-flop announcements.

The Trump gang is just a bunch of fraudsters. Fake religiosity. Fake patriotism. Just look at the facts and what they’re actually doing.

[Rizotto]

https://www.rt.com/news/638643-us-iran-trump-hormuz/

April 18, 2026

US President Donald Trump made seven claims in one hour after Tehran announced the temporary reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and all of them are untrue, Iranian parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared the waterway, which handles around 25% of the global crude oil trade, “completely open” for commercial vessels for the remainder of the ten-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. The announcement sent oil prices down by about 10%.

On Saturday, however, Tehran reversed the decision, saying the Strait of Hormuz has “returned to its previous state” and is once again under the “strict management and control” of its military.

Iranian officials said the renewed closure was driven by Washington’s refusal to lift the blockade of Iran’s ports, which the US imposed on Monday after the first round of talks with Tehran in Pakistan failed over the weekend. They accused the US of “piracy and maritime theft.”

On Friday, in a barrage of posts on Truth Social responding to Iran’s initial announcement of the temporary reopening of the waterway, Trump said the naval blockade would “remain in full force and effect” until the sides reach a peace deal.

He added that Iran “has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again,” that the opening of the waterway “is not tied, in any way, to Lebanon,” and that most of the points of a final peace agreement have already been negotiated between the sides.

Ghalibaf responded to Trump in a post on X later on Friday, saying the US president “made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false.”

The Americans “did not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either,” he said.

According to the parliament speaker, control of the Strait of Hormuz “will be determined on the ground field, not on social media.”

“Media warfare and engineering public opinion are an important part of war, and the Iranian nation is not affected by these tricks,” Ghalibaf said.

Iran has not yet agreed to hold another round of negotiations with the US, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday. According to its sources, Tehran is hesitant to resume dialogue due to the continuation of the American naval blockade and Washington’s excessive demands during the talks.