The Board of Peace with fiasco written all over it

The Board of Peace with fiasco written all over it

Cookie Schwaeber-Issan

What do you get when you construct a Board of Peace, composed of world nations, many of whom are anti-Israel? The short answer is – a fiasco!

Does anyone think that patterning a governing body, after the failed and biased U.N., will bring about a different outcome? Why would it succeed in forging peace and good will, when the heads of so many of these countries are already convinced that Israel has perpetrated a genocide in Gaza?

For such a Board to be helpful, it must first contain objective leaders whose lack of political agenda will serve them in their efforts to arrive at fair and just solutions for everyone.  Sadly, that does not characterize the individuals who have been invited to sit on such a board.

At the behest of U.S. President Donald Trump, multiple countries have been beckoned to join a Board of Peace with the purpose of “promoting stability, restoring dependable and lawful governance as well as securing enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

As of this writing, countries which have already agreed to join are Argentina, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.  Counties which declined include France, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden and the U.K. Countries yet to respond are Cambodia, China, Croatia, Germany, India, Italy, Paraguay, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Ukraine. 

After looking over the list of countries who would, ostensibly, determine Israel’s fate, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Israel would vociferously object to the inclusion of Turkey and Qatar, in particular.

Given Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s hostility towards the Jewish state, even to the point of calling for Israel’s destruction as he said, “May Allah make Zionist Israel destroyed and devastated,” what good could come from such a hateful man?

Participation from Qatar is no less offensive when considering that they provided refuge and sanctuary to Hamas terrorists whose sole aim is also the destruction of Israel. 

Why would anyone count on these two countries to offer reasonable and fair resolutions, given the fact that they are committed to the demise of one of the nations they are supposed to help? That is why this proposition has fiasco written all over it. Because the choice of players, who have been asked to be part of a process to foster unity, bring about repair and hope, to an otherwise unsolvable morass, is a collection of very flawed and self-interested actors.

So, the question is, “Why expend efforts to establish a body which is no different from world agencies that always seek to accuse Israel and them for being the problem?”

Here are some speculative possibilities. One is that Trump might feel that if all world nations were chosen to solve the Middle East conundrum, then it wouldn’t just fall upon the U.S. Consequently, by making it a collective global problem, it would require a global collective solution.

Another possibility is that if such a solution could be achieved but fail, in the end, to produce the desired results, the collapse would be on them. No one would be able to cast blame on one leader if, together, they were unable to produce a good outcome. 

A third reason could be that Trump sees this as an opportunity to establish himself as the world’s most powerful leader, who has summoned all others to work under his authority, since he has final veto power, in the hope of effecting lasting peace, cementing his indomitable role in the annals of history. In other words, he would become legendary, on par with the greatest world leaders who have ever lived.

But at what price would this come to Israel? One can only imagine the ill-advised and dangerous resolutions which would be expected of the only democracy in the Middle East. 

Would Israel be asked to wipe the slate clean, expected to dole out blind trust and implicit faith towards the same population which danced in the streets upon receiving the welcomed news of an Israeli massacre of innocents?  

And how would countries, who have traditionally looked upon Palestinians as victims of Israeli oppression respond? Would they demand that Israel provide for their every need, including the issuance of work permits so that they could, once again, be employed in the same country that they so bitterly betrayed? 

Would they require us to open our borders, assuring us that no attack will occur?

These are just some of the absurd demands which might be suggested by countries whose leaders believe that Israel is desperate enough to attain piece, to the point where it would allow itself to be hoodwinked into what is tantamount to a bad deal with, undoubtedly, tragic results.

The truth is that Israel is definitely sick and tired of war and conflict. We are a people who have longed for peace, tranquillity and mutual respect for as long as we’ve been an independent nation and even before that. The fact that it eludes us, is not due to our own stubbornness or inflexibility, though. 

The countless offers of peace, which have been made year after year, with costly concessions to Israel, were rejected each time. Not only were they not accepted, but they were followed by threats and renewed attempts to hasten our end. So why would anyone think that a Board of Peace, made up of countries, whose biased views have already stacked the deck against us, should be taken seriously?

Even before it’s gotten off the ground, there is great skepticism, on the part of many, who see the pitfalls surrounding a “global assembly,” which has an entrance fee price tag of $1 billion to join this exclusive club. But Trump’s enticement is that this will be the most prestigious group which has ever existed, so who wouldn’t want to be part of it? Another tempting motivation is that this Board of Peace will end up replacing the feckless U.N. which has done nothing of any relevance.

While Trump’s massive altruistic Board of Peace may sound great on paper, the likelihood of its success is pretty low - if for no other reason, because it will be made up of biased leaders’ whose positions have already been pre-decided against Israel.

Repricing Sovereignty

Repricing Sovereignty

Mark Jeftovic

What follows are a couple of excerpts from the last Bitcoin Capitalist Letter, which was a long-form piece that was a refinement of my overall long term investment thesis. It corrects for my biggest mistake in the previous model: the belief that nation states were in secular decline, and centralized government power was waning.

This may be true for the long haul, but for the next five, ten, twenty years – we’re heading into an era that numerous commentators have been identifying, and I’m looping under umbrella “State Capitalism”. 

More specific to our “Great Bifurcation” thesis, what this really means is State Capitalism for the “haves” and  mass compliance and (the warmth of?) collectivism for the  permanent underclass. UBI is coming out of necessity, and anyone who thinks that isn’t going to be some permutation of social credit (most likely based on personal carbon footprint quotas) is ngmi.

Late Stage Globalism

A paper I came across recently was Nicolas Colin’s Late-Cyle Investment Theory, which came out in June ’25 but Colin was recently a guest on Hidden Forces.

Colin’s paper posits that we are entering the maturity phase of the computer/networking information age.

What got my attention, both from the podcast interview with Demetri Kofinas and then as I read through the paper itself, is how it explains the mechanisms by which late-cycle dynamics force governments toward what we’ve described last edition, a global march toward a kind of “state capitalism” and that “uncomfortable reality I have been grappling with for a few months, that The State and The Economy are in the process of merging”.

We’re seeing a kind of  inexorable slide into state-directed capital allocation; it’s taking forms peculiar to its cultural backdrop but it’s happening all over the world.

Russell Napier calls it “National Capitalism”; he also appeared on Hidden Forces a year ago and we covered it in the December ‘24 edition.

WEF luminaries like Marianna Mazzacuto – wholly in favour of the trend – calls it “The Entrepreneurial State”; Tyler Durden over at Zerohedge calls the American expression of it “WHAM” – White House Asset Management.

My favourite version of it is George Gilder’s  “Emergency Socialism”, because it captures the exigencies that are making this a priority among governments worldwide.

Colin is somewhat unique in that he argues high public debt isn’t a policy mistake but a structural feature of technological maturity (not sure I agree, tbh).

As he puts it, governments continue borrowing as if the previous growth regime still applies, even as productivity gains plateau and returns diminish.

The numbers are stark:

• US public debt at 122% of GDP (255% including private sector)

• France at 112% (300% total)

• Japan exceeding 260% public (400% total).

Not mentioned in his paper, but I’ll add that Canada’s total government debt (all levels) is 120%, and our private debt on its own is north of 200%.

These levels dwarf anything seen during the 1970s inflation.

The options, as Colin lays them out, are brutally limited, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us here.

Governments cannot meaningfully raise taxes, any increases can only be performative and symbolic. Those who pay the lion’s share of them have already demonstrated a willingness to relocate if the “tax the rich” slogans translate into excessive action (we’re already seeing anticipatory exoduses from New York City as Mamdami comes in threatening full-on socialism).

Nor can governments cut spending, because various entitlement programs dominate budgets.

Colin thinks that they can’t outgrow the debt because technological maturity means slower productivity growth, which is the core of his thesis.

He may be right, but I don’t think governments believe that – they are looking at AI to ignite a productivity boom that can outpace the debt bubble.

Whether Colin is correct, or governments believe their own mantra about a productivity miracle in the offing, both roads lead to the same place:

There is only one politically viable path, and that is inflation.

“Run it hot”, basically.

But here’s where Colin’s analysis dovetails with our thesis: inflation has consequences.

As prices rise and real rates fall, voluntary demand for government bonds evaporates (this is why we’ve been seeing yields on sovereign debt spiking higher for over a year).

The one common denominator from those we’ve mentioned above (Colin, Napier, Gilder) is that the most likely outcome is financial repression: policies that force domestic savings into public debt through capital controls, regulatory mandates, and banking rules.

This is the merger of the state and capital that I’ve been warning about. It is a type of financial repression, but the quiet bureaucratic kind where your pension fund must hold treasuries, where capital controls prevent you from moving wealth offshore, where the rules of the game are systematically rigged to channel private savings toward public obligations.

Colin frames this as part of a broader institutional fragmentation. Trade wars, he notes (citing David Skilling), are precursors to capital wars.

States that once relied on global capital markets increasingly treat capital as a strategic resource (hence the advent of things like “Strategic Bitcoin Reserves” – my comment, not his).

The open, rules-based order many still assume to be in place is actively unravelling.

Napier talked about all this a year ago and never once uttered the word “Bitcoin”, let alone crypto.

Colin, for his part, sees crypto and stablecoins as part of the emerging new financial system (sound familiar?), and what’s fascinating is how this all maps onto The Stablecoin Standard thesis we’ve been developing.

He sees dollar-backed stablecoins as America’s attempt to extend monetary hegemony into the digital age, essentially creating a new channel for petrodollar-style recycling where foreign demand for USDT and USDC indirectly finances US government debt.

No surprise here, but it contains an inherent tension: stablecoins work precisely because they route around traditional banking, yet that same feature makes them harder to control when geopolitical pressures mount.

The implication for us is clear and it emerges in a kind of “Barbell trade” portfolio that both recognizes the reality of State Capitalism while also hedging for it via the simultaneous emergence of a parallel system (more on this below).

The big wake-up call for me, is that The State Is “The House”. I’ve spent most of my adult life thinking that it was on its last legs, that at some point a Geopolitical Minsky Moment would demolish the entire scaffolding, and then sound money and free markets would assert themselves.

I was wrong. I’ve now realized that.

The general public will never not believe in the legitimacy of “The State” (even though they may dispute who currently occupies the machinery). It’s baked in since childhood – and it won’t matter that their leaders debase the currency, leach away their wealth, send their children to die in turf wars or even load their neighbours into boxcars. The masses will always believe that The House is legitimate, inevitable and necessary.

With all that said, I still do think that there will be a geopolitical Minsky moment, a kind of global, macro “force majeure” that resets the table, simply because the fiat currency system is well past its “use by” date – but make no mistake, the only thing that happens to The House in the aftermath is that some other faction takes over the lease. And the masses will then dutifully follow the new boss.

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Kremlin: US Understandably Rushing Ukraine Settlement Talks

US Understandably Rushing Ukraine Settlement Talks - Kremlin

Sputnik

The United States, acting as mediators in the Ukrainian settlement process, is in a hurry, which is understandable, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

"There is a high dynamic. The Americans, as intermediaries, are rushing against time. They are in a hurry. They can be understood," Peskov told Rossiya 1 journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Peskov explained the importance of Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, noting that working groups needed directives ahead of the planned talks in Abu Dhabi.

Putin is not inclined to pay attention to the time of day when serious negotiations are underway, the spokesman said, commenting on the late-night talks with Witkoff in the Kremlin.

It is important to implement the formula for resolving the territorial issue in Ukraine that was developed at the Russia-US summit in Anchorage, Peskov also said.

"This is not a quick process. And now, in fact, the essence of the situation is that a certain formula for resolving the territorial issue was developed in Anchorage and on the eve of Anchorage. And now it is very important to implement it," Peskov told Rossiya 1 journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Neither Russia, nor the United States will ever discuss anything with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, and it is only necessary to wait for her to leave her post, Peskov said.

"How can anything be discussed with Kaja Kallas? Neither we will ever discuss anything with her, nor will the Americans discuss anything with her, and this is obvious. What is to be done? We can only wait until she leaves," Peskov told Rossiya 1 journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Europe is currently experiencing a "degeneration of politicians in power," Peskov said.

"There are no political visionaries there, so to speak; there are just functionaries, poorly educated and incompetent, who are unable to look to the future and unable to understand the coordinate system of today's world," Peskov added.

The European countries, after having got rid of their alleged dependency on Russian energy, have become in fact dependent on the United States, Dmitry Peskov said.

Ukraine is ready to bite the "hand that feeds it" without any remorse, Peskov said, commenting on Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remarks about Europe.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which he accused European countries of inaction and a lack of independence, and demanded increased support for Ukraine.

"The Kiev regime is ready to bite both the hand that feeds it and the hand that gives to it - ready to bite anyone," Peskov told Rossiya 1 journalist Pavel Zarubin.

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Iranian Protesters Warn Time Is Running Out

“They will kill us all”: Iranian protesters warn time is running out

Israel Today Staff

As regional tensions rise and speculation grows over possible American military action, Iranian protesters are issuing a stark warning: without outside intervention, the protest movement inside Iran will not merely fail—it will be annihilated.

In a rare and risky interview with Channel 12 News, two Iranian citizens—speaking from inside the country—described a reality of fear, exhaustion, and systematic repression following the latest wave of nationwide protests.

Their message was blunt: the Islamic Republic has crushed open dissent, and only decisive US action against the regime’s coercive organs could create space for Iranians to rise again.

“The streets are closed—but the anger remains”

Eliraza, 46, speaking from Tehran, described an economic and civic paralysis gripping the capital. Markets have collapsed, daily life is heavily restricted, and internet access—long a lifeline for coordination and documentation—has been deliberately degraded.

“Society is in depression after the violent suppression,” he said. “Continuing street protests is not possible in the near future. The internet is barely usable. Even with VPNs, we have to try again and again just to connect.”

Asked what he expects from Washington, Eliraza did not hedge.

“Our request from Trump was that he help us as he promised,” he said, referring to US President Donald Trump, who vowed to “send help” to the Iranian protesters. “If he launches an attack against the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, and the army, it would give people an opportunity to take to the streets and seize important government centers.”

He acknowledged growing despair among Iranians but insisted hope has not disappeared entirely. “Our last hope is a military attack by Trump,” Eliraza said. “There really is no other way to escape this regime anymore. This may be our last chance.”

Mashhad: checkpoints, body searches, and mourning notices

Sara, 32, speaking from Mashhad, painted an even darker picture—one marked not only by fear, but by grief.

“The situation is very grim,” she said. “The number of people killed is very large. Names, pictures, mourning notices—they are everywhere in the city.”

She described streets that empty as night falls, heavy deployments of security forces, and an omnipresent web of checkpoints operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij, often reinforced by plainclothes operatives.

“They stop cars one by one. They check phones. They check people’s bodies to see if they were hit by rubber bullets. If they find marks, they arrest them.”

According to Sara, almost no family has been spared. “There is no one around me who doesn’t know someone—a friend or relative—who was killed. People talk constantly about who they lost. The anger is everywhere.”

Even when limited internet access was partially restored, many Iranians chose not to reconnect.

“They didn’t want to see what was coming out,” Sara said. “What they saw on the streets was already enough. And what came out online was much worse.”

Asked about the dominant public mood, she was unequivocal: “People are still angry. Still hurt. Still want this regime to fall. But they have no ability to act.”

Her anger, she said, is now directed outward as much as inward.

“I am angry at the world,” Sara told Channel 12. “Angry that they talk and promise, and then nothing happens.”

When asked what she fears most, her answer was chilling. “If nothing happens, we will be destroyed. They will kill us all. One by one. Everyone who went out to the streets will be killed. That is the only thing I am sure about.”

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A War Has Erupted On The Streets Of America, And It Is Going To End With Martial Law In Major U.S. Cities

A War Has Erupted On The Streets Of America, And It Is Going To End With Martial Law In Major U.S. Cities

Michael Snyder

Chaos has erupted in the streets of major cities all over this country, and it appears that we have reached a boiling point which could cause events to completely spiral out of control.  We knew that there was no way that the Trump administration was going to back down on immigration enforcement, and we knew that there was no way that the left was going to back down and allow ICE to conduct mass deportations without resistance.  In fact, the left now has “response teams” that literally operate like military units in cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis and New York City.  So it was inevitable that we would see more violent confrontations, and now another protester has died.  The left is promising to fight back harder than ever, and President Trump is seriously considering invoking the Insurrection Act.  As both sides continue to raise the stakes, it is just a matter of time before this crisis ends with martial law in major U.S. cities.

Every time a protester dies, it is just going to make things even worse.

Following the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, enormous protests immediately erupted in Minneapolis, New York, Washington and Los Angeles…

Protests erupted in multiple U.S. cities after a U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37‑year‑old intensive care unit nurse, during a federal immigration operation in Minneapolis, escalating tensions over immigration enforcement and prompting Democratic lawmakers to demand that federal officers leave Minnesota.

Demonstrations broke out in Minneapolis, New York, Washington and Los Angeles, with hundreds braving subzero temperatures in Minnesota to confront federal agents in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting involving an ICE officer earlier this month.

Things got particularly crazy in Minneapolis.

James O’Keefe and his team were surrounded by hundreds of rioters, and he is claiming that they barely made it out of there alive…

In a subsequent post, O’Keefe described how lawless things have become in the downtown area…

URGENT UPDATE: I’ve never experienced anything quite like today in my life. I’ve interacted with the Cartel and have witnessed some crazy things in the desert in ‘24. But what strikes me is how organized these agitators in Minneapolis are. They have spotters everywhere in the city and suburbs, on street corners, even 30 minutes away from downtown. They have people at hotels that work with them and signal to them which made it making it difficult for us to lose our tail once my cover was blown. Usually I lose a tail. Not this time. We switched locations THREE times. I recorded and posted this while leaving Wayzata, while they were STILL surveilling. We all agreed we must make the threats public ASAP, even if we had people still in the field with the hidden cams.

Earlier around noon, while @camhigby released his report on the Signal threads, I was inside what appeared to be a fully autonomous Zone. No police presence. The police were told to leave. I identified myself as Press and they said they will kill Press and will not let me leave. My skin was fully covered because it was so cold. But because they couldn’t verify who I was, they screamed and started throwing ice bottles at us. One hit, @SKRUCHTENMMA, a marine who was with me. They patted him down like THEY were the authorities, attempting to confiscate any weapons. They were set to destroy our vehicle before we even got to it. I will have a full video report shortly.

But the bigger picture here is more important. I am angry. But not at the agitators. I find myself already angry at the people who don’t understand what we’re dealing with and will do nothing about it. When I got to the suburbs I felt like I was in a simulation.

I believe the American people need to wake up. This moment is a warning about where we’re headed. Fear pushes people to care only about their money and their families—I get it. But when fear turns inward, when self-preservation and greed replace moral courage, evil goes unchallenged. And history shows that what we ignore today will come for all of us tomorrow.

In that post, O’Keefe mentioned a report that was released by Cam Higby.

Apparently Higby had infiltrated the Signal groups that the left is using to direct the activities of their “response teams”…

Let’s begin with citizen journalist Cam Higby’s bombshell reporting, who says he “infiltrated organizational signal groups all around Minneapolis with the sole intention of tracking down federal agents and impeding/assaulting/and obstructing them.”

“Each area of the city has a Signal group, or in some cases multiple groups. Let’s start with a screen recording of all members of the south side group,” Higby said.

Spotters on the ground flag license plates that are then run through a database of suspected federal vehicles, and if a match is found specific instructions are sent out through the Signal groups to units that are specifically tasked with impeding ICE…

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