KJS DC, the Most Corrupt Capital in the World. 4.26

The picture is coming together. Iran, Pakistan, Witkoff, election apparatus being weaponized — this is one strategy coming together, not chaos. Lets’ un-wind the threads.

Connecting The Dots – Out Loud

While we were watching oil prices hit highs and reading about Pakistan serving as a back-channel between Washington and Tehran, the Trump administration issues an executive order (March 25) that would effectively decertify every voting machine in 39 states and require millions of Americans to produce a passport to vote. The same day a war was on. As the world’s largest energy crisis since 1973 was unfolding in real time.

The timing is not a coincidence.

The War Started Two Days After Progress…

Let’s go back to review the sequence of the Iran war. US and Iranian negotiators met in Geneva on February 26. Omani mediators described the talks as showing “substantial progress.” An agreement was described as “within reach.” Two days later, on February 28, the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury.

A month later, the US passed a 15-point peace proposal to Iran through Pakistan, including demands that Iran commit to never pursuing nuclear weapons and dismantle existing capabilities. Iran rejected the proposal and laid out five counter-conditions of its own, including an end to aggression, guarantees against recurrence, and compensation for war damages.

Trump postponed strikes on Iran’s power plants for five days, citing “productive conversations.” Iran called it a move to lower oil prices and “buy time.”

The head of the International Energy Agency called the situation worse than the combined oil crises of 1973 and 1979. At least 40 energy facilities across nine countries have been damaged. Pakistan’s cricket stadiums are sitting empty because the country can’t afford the energy to light them. The global economy is absorbing a shock that no one outside the Gulf had any say in creating.

The man conducting this diplomacy — Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East, Russia, and apparently everywhere else — reportedly advocated for exporting advanced AI chips to the UAE while a UAE-backed government fund simultaneously invested $2 billion in World Liberty Financial, the crypto company co-founded by Witkoff and the Trump family. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Murphy wrote that “the two deals may have been intertwined: support for the valuable chips export deal in exchange for a lucrative investment.”

The man negotiating the peace also has a financial stake in the countries he’s negotiating with. His financial disclosure form, according to senators, appears to contain inaccurate information. No ethics official signed it. His sons remain active in the crypto venture. The countries he negotiates with are investors in that venture.

This is the person holding the planet’s energy markets in one hand and a ceasefire proposal in the other.

BTW: A Disbarred Ambassador Who Did Time

Representing the United States in France — America’s oldest ally, where Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson once served — is Charles Kushner.

In 2005, Kushner was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison. As a convicted felon, he was disbarred in three states.

The witness tampering charge deserves its own sentence. Kushner hired a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to have the encounter secretly recorded, and sent the video to his own sister — the man’s wife — to intimidate her from cooperating with federal investigators. Chris Christie, who prosecuted the case, called it “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.

Trump pardoned him in 2020. Then appointed him ambassador to France. France summoned Kushner after his embassy posted statements about French domestic politics. He didn’t show up. France restricted his access to government ministers. The French foreign ministry cited an “apparent failure to grasp the basic requirements of the ambassadorial mission.”

The successor to Franklin and Jefferson in Paris couldn’t be bothered to answer a summons from the host government.

He’s the father of Jared Kushner, whose private equity firm received over $2 billion in commitments from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds after Jared left the White House.

The family that does America’s diplomacy also does America’s deals. In the same countries. With the same governments. At the same time.

The Election Apparatus Is Already Being Taken

While all of this was happening, the New York Times published an interactive tracker today of 2020 election deniers now holding positions of power in the federal government. The list includes the Attorney General. The FBI Director. The Defense Secretary. A senior DHS official overseeing election infrastructure. A White House director of election security who helped draft the FBI seizure of Fulton County’s 2020 ballots.

“Trump and his allies are trying to use all of the powers of the federal government to undermine elections, with an eye to the upcoming midterms,” said the chief executive of States United Democracy Center.

The March 2025 executive order on elections attempted to decertify all voting machines certified by the Election Assistance Commission — which would include machines used in 39 states. There is no voting system currently on the market that meets the replacement standard. This could cost states billions of dollars, timed precisely to disrupt the 2026 election.

Trump himself said that if the SAVE America Act became law, Republicans would “never lose a race. For 50 years, we won’t lose a race.”

He said the quiet part out loud. It isn’t about election integrity. It’s election capture.

This IS the time to act.

A war started two days after progress toward peace. The envoy conducting the peace has financial ties to the parties he negotiates with. The ambassador to France is a pardoned felon who can’t be bothered to answer a government summons. The people overseeing American elections tried to overturn the last one. The voting machines in 39 states are being targeted for decertification before the midterms.

None of these things are separate stories. They are the same story.

This is what the capture of a government looks like when it’s happening. Not a coup. Not a single dramatic moment. Just a slow, methodical staffing of every lever of power with people who have one thing in common: personal loyalty to the man at the top and personal benefit from remaining there.

One by one. Methodically. While the news cycle moves to the next fire.