Underqualified sycophant D/FBI Kashyap Pramod Patel, Hare Krishna off-shoot cult member DNI Tulsi Gabbard, and lickspittle D/CIA John Ratcliffe testifying before Congress. (Photo: Getty Images)
Some quotes from eminent CIA historian Tim Weiner about the Trumpf junta:
After watching the US stand with Russia, Iran and North Korea, as it did in February 2025 when it voted against a UN resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine, CIA historian Tim Weiner said: “You come to the realization, if you hadn’t already: ‘My God, the president of the United States has gone over to the other side. He has joined the authoritarian axis.’”
Following two impeachments (and two acquittals), an insurrection and another election, Trump is back in the White House and bent on revenge. “Donald Trump hates the CIA,” Weiner said, noting that Trumpf considers the agency the beating heart of a “deep state” that he believes is working to undermine him. Consequently, the president has appointed “a coterie of dangerously incompetent and servile acolytes to the highest positions of national security”. Weiner describes the new CIA director, John Ratcliffe – a former personal injury attorney, MAGA congressman and, briefly, DNI in Trump’s first term – as “a spineless person who will do whatever Trump tells him to do.”
“For decades, the CIA has tried to hire people who don’t look like they just got off the bus from Kansas on the very sound principle that if you want to spy in a nation like Somalia or Pakistan or China, it might be wise to have a workforce that is not made up exclusively of white guys, and who speak languages other than English,” Weiner said. “Diversity was one of the CIA’s few superpowers, and the mindless abolition of the effort to diversify the CIA’s officers and analysts was one of the most stupid self-inflicted wounds that D/CIA John Ratcliffe could have delivered.”
The appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as DNI, who oversees the CIA and 17 other intelligence agencies, only compounds problems, Weiner said. Gabbard has never worked in the intelligence community and has been accused of parroting Russian propaganda. “What ally would share secrets with a dangerously deluded person like that?”
The amateurish ‘Signalgate’ affair cost National Security Advisor Mike Waltz his position at the White House. His reward is being named US Ambassador to the UN, pending US Senate confirmation.
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22-year-old Thomas Fugate is the DHS official tasked with overseeing the government’s main hub for combating violent extremism. His previous experience was landscaping before graduating college.
CIA historian Tim Weiner. (Photo: Jessica D. B. Doyle)
Followers of the Watch are keenly aware of the Stalinist purges the Trumpf junta has been conducting to rid itself of undesirables. Tom Nichols at the Atlantic reinforces this point. He writes that DNI Tulsi Gabbard and D/FBI Kashyap Pramod Patel in true McCarthy-like fashion are “hunting down politically unreliable members of America’s intelligence and law-enforcement communities, rather than catching enemy spies, terrorists, or bank robbers.’
FBI employees have been polygraphed on whether they have cast aspersions on Director Kashyap Pramod Patel.
Links:
The Federal Bureau of Paranoia – The Atlantic
USAG Pam Bondi Requests Data on Migrants Being Held in California’s County Jails
“The Department of Justice issued requests to sheriffs in multiple major California counties—including Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties—for lists of all inmates in their jails who are not citizens of the US, their crimes of arrest or conviction, and their scheduled release dates.
In recent years, the US suffered an invasion of illegal aliens at an unprecedented scale. Far too many of those illegal aliens have gone on to commit crimes on American soil, including rapes, murders, and other violent crimes. Today’s data requests are designed to assist federal immigration authorities in prioritizing the removal of illegal aliens who committed crimes after illegally entering the US. Although every illegal alien by definition violates federal law, those who go on to commit crimes after doing so show that they pose a heightened risk to our Nation’s safety and security.
“Removing criminal illegal aliens is this Administration’s highest priority. I look forward to cooperating with California’s county sheriffs to accomplish our shared duty of keeping Californians and all Americans safe and secure.
The Department of Justice hopes that California sheriffs will voluntarily produce the requested information. But if necessary, the Department will pursue all available means of obtaining the data, including through subpoenas or other compulsory process.”
Est. California population in 2023: 38,940,231
58 California Counties and 62 Jails Incarcerate Vulnerable Migrants
The immortal Jackie Gleason.
County Sheriffs are elected in the state of California which is home to San Bernardino County, the largest county in the contiguous US, as well as Los Angeles County, the most populous county in America (population est. 9,757,179).
Detainees in California jails are either serving less than one-year terms for minor offenses or are defendants awaiting trial, unable to post bail or were not granted pre-trial release by the presiding judge. The county jail population for California was 62,581 in 2022 and 56,800 in 2024.
A 2023 report from the Prison Policy Initiative indicates that Black and Hispanic people are overrepresented in California’s incarcerated population (including both prisons and jails) compared to their share of the state’s population. For example, Black individuals, who make up about 6% of California’s adult population, accounted for 28% of the prison population in 2023, and Hispanic individuals, about 38% of the adult population, comprised 46% of prisoners.
Oath Keeper and Riverside County Sheriff Republican Chad Bianco
Prominent amongst these sheriffs in California is Chad Bianco who was elected by the people of Riverside County. A well-known Republican, Bianco announced his 2026 candidacy for governor and openly aligns himself with Donald Trump. Bianco confirmed that while he was a lieutenant in 2014, he was a dues-paying member of the Oath Keepers, a white racist anti-government extremist group. No doubt Sheriff Bianco will immediately comply with this fascist request from USAG Pam Bondi.
Link: https://www.foxla.com/news/chad-bianco-oath-keepers-riverside-county-sheriff
ICE agents will be awaiting these jailed migrants the moment they are released from a county jail.
California: World Class Economy
California remains the 5th largest economy in the world since 2017. California is the 5th largest economy in the world for the seventh consecutive year, with a nominal GDP of nearly $3.9 trillion in 2023 and a growth rate of 6.1% since the year prior, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). On a per capita basis, California is the second largest economy in the world.
Link: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/04/16/california-remains-the-worlds-5th-largest-economy/
California is a Powerful Blue State Led By Competent Democrat
Democrat Gavin Newsom was re-elected Governor of California on 8 Nov 2022. (Photo: Getty Images)
58.47% of eligible voters chose Kamala Harris on 5 Nov 2024; 38.33% opted for Dummkopf Trumpf, giving Democrats 54 Electoral College votes.
Dummkopf Trumpf and his junta declared war against Blue State California because a telegenic and competent Democrat is a potential Presidential candidate in 2028, Governor Gavin Newsom. Trumpf releasing California’s reservoir waters earlier this year and sending in the military to intimidate Californians are all attempts at undermining Gavin Newsom, as well as rounding up migrants as part of their overall national campaign to bleach the US of non-whites.
In a show of force, soldiers and heavily-armed federal agents ride on an armored vehicle at MacArthur Park Monday, 7 July 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo / Damian Dovarganes)
Sycophant USAG Pam Bondi has already poorly mishandled the Jeffrey Epstein files disclosure, but has competently profited from Trumpf’s tariff policies via insider trading.
Link: https://lailluminator.com/2025/05/18/bondi-trump/
These two have a joint history of corruption. In 2016, journalists uncovered The Trumpf Foundation illegally donated $25,000 to a political group supporting then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Her office was deciding whether to take legal action related to the fraudulent Trumpf University. After the contribution was banked, Florida AG Pam Bondi declined to prosecute Trumpf University.
Link: The Trump Foundation-Pam Bondi scandal – CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Justice Department Diktat:
US DOD to Deploy Counter-Drone Capabilities at US-Mexico Border After Drug Cartels Surveil US Forces
Soldier employing an anti-drone projector at McGregor Range Complex, NM, 28 June 2019. (Photo: Mylinda DuRousseau / US Army)
The Pentagon is preparing to deploy counter-drone capabilities around the US-Mexico border as part of its ongoing support of the Trumpf junta’s immigration enforcement and security mandates.
Mexican drug cartels have reportedly been using drones to conduct surveillance of US military and law-enforcement personnel at the US-Mexico border.
The rapid emergence, proliferation and application of drones are fundamentally shifting the way that militarized groups and other adversarial organizations conduct warfare.
The DOD is still trying to effectively respond to several recent high-profile drone incidents that impacted military officials and American civilians domestically and abroad, including in New Jersey and at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia.
Followers of the Watch are aware that the US has been deploying drones along the US-Mexican border, and most likely they are flying over Mexican airspace. The drug cartels also have drones and they have been utilizing armed drones against each other. USNORTHCOM has deployed thousands of US Army Soldiers to the US-Mexican border that are vulnerable to these cartel drones.
The Jalisco Drug Cartel drops hand grenades onto a rival drug cartel’s camp in the town of Tepalcatepec, Mexico. (Photo: Twitter)
Recall from a previous post on Coriolanus that the Mexico drug cartels have recently began recruiting experienced and dangerous Colombian military veterans. Moreover, the cartels have been able to either bribe US border agents or hack the phones of careless USIC personnel operating in Mexico, making targeting of their enemies easier.
No one should under-estimate the caliber of Colombian military veterans who have gained experience, tenacity, and competency after decades of fighting a counter-insurgency against the FARC and ELN.
The real solution to this problem is for Americans to quit their incessant appetite for drugs and for obscenely making money gun-running weapons to the Mexican cartels. Without the American demand for drugs, business would dry up for the cartels. Without firearms and ammunition, the cartels would be vulnerable to Mexican security forces.
Links:
Italian Mafia Leader Caught in Colombia
Giuseppe Palermo (AKA ‘Peppe”) in Bogota, Colombia. (Photo: Colombian National Police)
Colombian authorities captured an alleged leader of the Italian ’Ndrangheta mafia in Latin America who is accused of overseeing cocaine shipments and managing illegal trafficking routes to Europe. Police identified the suspect as Giuseppe Palermo, also known as “Peppe,” an Italian who was wanted under an INTERPOL Red Notice, which called for his arrest in 196 countries.
Palermo was apprehended on the street in Colombia’s capital Bogota during a coordinated operation between Colombian, Italian, and British authorities, as well as Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency.
Palermo is believed to be part of “one of the most tightly knit cells” of the ’Ndrangheta mafia, said Carlos Fernando Triana, head of the Colombian police, in a message posted on X.
The ’Ndrangheta, one of Italy’s most powerful and secretive criminal organizations, has extended its influence abroad and is widely accused of importing cocaine into Europe. The suspect “not only led the purchase of large shipments of cocaine in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, but also controlled the maritime and land routes used to transport the drugs to European markets,” Triana added.
The ’Ndrangheta originated in the Calabria region of Italy, and is supposedly led from Palermo, the “Toe of Italy.” Their cross strait rival to the west is the Sicilian mafia.
Illegal cocaine production reached 3,708 tons in 2023, an increase of nearly 34% from the previous year, driven mainly by the expansion of coca leaf cultivation in Colombia, according to the UN. The ’Ndrangheta is reportedly also involved in a wide array of other illegal activities, including arms trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, extortion, and loan sharking.
This is a small victory for fighting drug-trafficking, but Giuseppe Palermo will be quickly replaced within the organization. They are believed to exert influence over local and national politics in Italy and is understood to have infiltrated various sectors of the legal economy both within Italy and internationally. Estimates in 2013 suggested the organization’s revenue reached €53 billion.
There is No Escape from the ’Ndrangheta
In 2009 Lea Garofalo tried to escape the ’Ndrangheta family she was born in to but was assassinated for this infamia. (Photo: Harper Collins Canada)
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/’Ndrangheta
Lea Garofalo was killed by her Mafia family. Now she’s the face of anti-mob protests | CBC Radio
Harper’s Magazine Weekly Review
Summarized succinctly for us by Clarissa Fragoso Pinheiro. Our eternal gratitude to her.
In Texas, the search for at least 166 missing people after the July 4th Guadalupe River flooding was paused as heavy rains and flash floods forced further evacuations. The US Homeland Security secretary defended the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the Texas floods, despite reports that two thirds of its disaster hotline calls went unanswered due to a staff shortage. “Our entire office is just … gone,” said a senior civil service officer after the US State Department laid off more than 1,300 employees, many of them were notified by email. A preliminary report on the Air India crash that killed 260 people last month found that the plane’s fuel switches were cut off shortly after takeoff, possibly by one of the pilots. In posts to Truth Social, the US president announced 30% tariffs on goods from Mexico and the European Union, 35% tariffs on those from Canada, and 50% tariffs on all Brazilian imports, the latter partly in retaliation for the country’s treatment of its former far-right president, who is on trial for attempting a coup d’état, a proceeding that the US president called a “Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!” The US president criticized Brazil’s recent Supreme Court rulings that would require social media companies to actively monitor and remove harmful content from their platforms; and on X, the Sesame Street character Elmo, whose account was hacked, and xAI’s chatbot Grok posted anti-Semitic messages. “Too eager to please,” said Elon Musk of the chatbot’s praise for Adolf Hitler. The US Federal Communications Commission approved two deals with T-Mobile after the communications company agreed to abandon its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; it was reported that some Harvard University graduate schools closed their diversity, equity, and inclusion offices; and in Alaska, a creek’s name was changed from Nazi Creek to Kaxchim Chi’anaa, or “gizzard creek.”
In ICE detention centers, accounts from detainees described food shortages and spoiled food; US immigration officials may soon be able to deport migrants to countries other than their countries of origin with as little as six hours’ notice; and a 57-year-old farmworker died after falling 30 feet from a greenhouse roof during an ICE raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California, where about 200 immigrants and four US citizens were arrested. The Trump Administration filed a suit against the state of California over the high price of eggs, citing animal welfare laws, and dropped charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of destroying COVID-19 vaccines, selling fake vaccination cards, and administering saline shots to children at their parents’ request. MAGA influencers criticized the Trump Administration for its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, and a former MAGA influencer and the current deputy FBI director said he is considering resigning after clashes with the US attorney general over the Epstein case. A former New York governor who resigned from his post in disgrace announced his independent candidacy for mayor of NYC, and the US president nominated a self-described “alpha male” and “manosphere” content creator to be the US ambassador to Malaysia. A team of researchers found that among primates, females are almost as likely as “alpha males” to dominate the opposite sex.
A 54-pound Martian rock will be auctioned in New York, the original Hermès Birkin bag sold for more than $10 million in Paris, and a wedge of blue cheese sold for $42,232 in Spain. Flamingos invaded Italian rice fields, threatening risotto production; and Canadian researchers found the nation’s oldest known puffin. A man was charged with smuggling 14 toucans inside his dashboard across the US–Mexico border, a mother was arrested and charged after her son died due to being left for several hours in a hot car while she was getting lip filler, and it was reported that extreme heat caused cars to catch fire in Death Valley National Park. In Queens, New York, “parking wars” erupted as a woman was slashed in the face over a parking spot outside a hookah lounge, and two women attacked one of their neighbors for attempting to park in front of their house; and in Brooklyn, a parking spot sold for nearly $250,000. “End your parking woes forever!” claimed the listing for the spot. In the Bronx, the New York Police Department requested that an illegal swimming pool be dismantled after children were seen jumping from scaffolding into its waters; and in Arizona, a man was fined for offering free cold water in his driveway. Wisconsin police found drugs in a bag labeled “Definitely Not a Bag Full of Drugs,” researchers found that magic mushrooms might slow aging, and an Australian woman was found guilty of murder by mushroom after serving a poisonous beef Wellington to her guests. “It is of course upsetting to learn that one of my recipes … is entangled in a tragic situation,” said the chef who posted the recipe to her blog. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police proposed collaborating with a local farmers market to make “Jack-Knife Jelly, Pothole Preserves, and the ever-popular … Traffic Jam!” after thousands of blueberries spilled onto a British Columbia highway. Both blueberries and mushrooms were placed under a severe recall notice by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Link: https://harpers.org/
Published in a separate magazine, this political cartoon below summed up the Texas flood disaster and the Republican mindset of cutting government programs perfectly. Texas Republicans had the opportunity to accept federal money to install an emergency siren in Kerr County, Ground Zero of this preventable loss of life. Link: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/weather/2025/07/11/kerr-county-considered-adding-warning-sirens-years-before-flood-why-didnt-it-happen/
Buffalo News editorial cartoonist Adam Zyglis defended this message.
For Followers of the Watch That Are Chess, Boxing, or Dance Aficionados
Massive Archive of Critical Chess Positions from Historic and Modern Games
Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky Game VI, World Chess Championship, Reykjavík, Iceland 1972
Link: 30,000 Chess Puzzles
Two Legendary Pugilists Sparring
Pandas Just Want to Have Fun
Coriolanus 