The Week that Was ...
Ending Sunday, June 15, 2025
Welcome to the latest edition of The Week that Was, my rundown of what happened last week, curated, in the loosest sense of the word, for your reading pleasure, or displeasure.
Things are heating up in the U.S. and around the world, and the insurance industry is getting ready for it! The “No Kings” protests were massive and peaceful, but political assassination, planned and unplanned, is ramping up in the U.S. Israel attacked and Iran, and the two states are at war—and Trump knew all about it. In Gaza, Israel is arming former members of ISIS to attack Hamas. And Treasury Secretary Bessent is in on the joke. What joke? Read the post.
1. Photos of the Week: Tel Aviv and Teheran Under Bombardment
© Leo Correa AP
© Vahid Salemi, AP
2. The Insurance Industry Is Preparing to Profit from a Long Hot Summer of Protest
Things are heating up in this country.
“This weekend the US faces the prospect of historic confrontation between anti-Trump demonstrators and militarized police. ….
“Trump, meanwhile, is geeing up the troops with an inflammatory address at the garrison at Fort Bragg.
In the great tradition of Disaster Capitalism, there is money to be made. It’s almost The Shock Doctrine.
“In good time for the second Trump Presidency, the insurance industry and security firms have been readying data with which to prepare their customers for the turbulence and losses that may lie ahead. …\. The purpose of the analysis is to gauge the extent and intensity of America’s civil disorder, for the purpose of insurance pricing.” [emphasis added]
Insurers, as is well known, don’t like losses on their insureds.
And the whole world is heating up.
“The industry has been rocked by riots in France in 2023 and giant protests in Chile, South Africa and Colombia. Nor is it just the scale and severity of disorder but its frequency that worries the insurance experts. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Global Protest Tracker, records protests in more than 132 countries since 2017, with almost a quarter of them lasting for three months or more.
According to the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, people have protested their governments over 160 times in the last year.
Leave it to the German insurers with their well-known mathematical precision to lay this out, in a chart quite obviously constructed using Excel’s chart-building functions pasted into a PowerPoint. You can even see the slide number in the bottom left corner.
Source: Allianz
This has not passed the notice of the Davos boys (and girls). Deploy the analysts of SRCC (strikes, riots, and civil commotion)! If you are in need for more information, you can check out Swiss Re and/or Verisk.
“Insurance analysts have worked hard to identify the source of these spiraling losses. In part it is the scale and intensity of the protests that explains the scale of losses.”
What could cause these “events” to happen? If you think economic inequality and political disaffection have something to to with, guess what? You’re right!
“Models start with general factor such as economic inequality and political disaffection, … urban geography…. The methodologies are well explained in a timely article that appeared on 10 June 2025, by two industry insiders Weimeng Yeo and Tim Brewer, entitled simply: ‘How to predict a riot: Developing risk-based loss models for social unrest’”.
3. No Kings!
Millions of protesters took part in over 2000 protests against Trump on Saturday, June 14.
“Millions of protesters across the U.S. took to the streets in demonstrations against the Trump administration on Saturday, in stark counter-programming to the president's Washington, D.C., military parade that evening.”
The Resistance 2.0 arrives with nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests
"No Kings" anti-Trump protests attract millions, organizers say
4. Attacks on Peaceful Protests
There were attacks on peaceful protesters. In Culpepper, Virginia, a young man drove an SUV into a crowd.
Police: Man arrested after driving into crowd of 'No Kings' protesters in Culpeper
And one protester was killed in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Peaceful protester killed by gunfire during 'No Kings Day' demonstration in Salt Lake City
5. Political Assassination in the U.S.A.
It seems that political assassination is becoming more common in the U.S.
“Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband were fatally shot in their Brooklyn Park home, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife survived the assassin’s attack at their home in Champlin, in what Gov. Tim Walz said appeared to be a targeted act of political violence.”
6. Poorly Attended Military Parade
“On Saturday, the U.S. Army turned 250 and President Donald Trump 79.”
The Army turns 250. Trump turns 79. Cue funnel cakes, festive bling, military might — and protest
7. Israel Strikes Iran
On June 12, Israel commenced what it says will be a long-term attack on Iran.
Numerous Trump Administration officials said that the U.S. was not informed in advance.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement soon after the strikes began, saying Israel had taken ‘unilateral action’ and warning Iran to not retaliate against the US.
US says it was not involved in Israel's military strikes in Iran
If that sounds ludicrous to you, well, you’re right. In fact, the U.S. began evacuating diplomatic personnel from Iraq and the Gulf States the day before.
U.S. evacuating personnel from the Middle East amid growing tensions with Iran
And then President Trump, who cannot ever admit that he doesn’t know everything, said as much. In fact, Trump has known about the attack for eight months.
Which means when Trump says the Iranians were not negotiating in good faith, he was in fact the one not negotiating in good faith.
“Israeli officials say that their country’s deadly military strike on Iran was rubber-stamped by Donald Trump, ….
“Two Israeli officials told Axios, however, that Trump was lying and the president had only pretended to publicly oppose Israel’s military operation … which was reportedly eight months in the making.
“’We had a clear U.S. green light,’ one Israeli official told Axios.”
This means that likely the U.S. will become directly involved.
As of Friday, Iranian missiles had struck Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Trump Knew of Israel’s Planned Attack on Iran All Along
Israel is also attempting to persuade the US administration to join its continued operations against Iranian nuclear sites and military targets, sources told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.
Israel trying to persuade US to join in continuing strikes on Iran, sources tell 'Post' - exclusive
Removing any doubt of close U.S. involvement in Israel’s attacks on Iran, U.S. officials have stated that Trump “vetoed” any attempt to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iranian supreme leader, US officials state
Meanwhile, the war is getting worse.
The Latest: Death toll grows as Israel and Iran trade attacks for third day
And despite first saying this all had nothing to do with us, and then saying we would not get involved, Trump has now stated that the United States “could” get involved.
Trump says 'it's possible' US gets involved in Israel-Iran conflict
Actually, we are already involved.
US helps Israel shoot down barrage of Iranian missiles
8. Gaza
The Israeli government, in its fight with Hamas, is now arming Islamic militants in Gaza—who were allied with ISIS and Al Qaeda.
This while Hamas’s charter calls for the recognition of the State of Israel. The antisemitic provisions of Hamas’s charter were removed in 2017.
Obviously ISIS does not support Israel’s right to exist.
“’The Prime Minister’s Office and a security source on Thursday declined to refute Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman’s claim that Israel is arming crime families and militias in Gaza to fight Hamas. He made the remarks Thursday in an interview on KAN Reshet Bet.
“In the interview, Liberman said: ‘The Israeli government is transferring weapons to a group of criminals and offenders who identify with ISIS on the orders of the prime minister.’”
Netanyahu confirms Israel is arming clans in Gaza to fight Hamas after Liberman's allegations
9. Bleach!
Bleach (Chlorine dioxide) has joined the ranks of quack cures. Bleach can cure cancer, malaria, autism (a neurological condition!) and, well, the sky’s the limit,
This is reminiscent of Trump’s suggesting disinfectant as a treatment for COVID, along with “a powerful light” perhaps “in the body.”
President Trump Suggests ‘Injecting’ Disinfectant as Coronavirus Cure
Unfortunately, this time it’s real, and there is no one grounded in reality to do anything about it.
“IN THE MONTHS since US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned chlorine dioxide during his Senate confirmation hearing, the online community advocating for the use of the toxic bleach solution as a cure for everything from malaria to autism has become emboldened. Activity on bleach-supporting social media groups is exploding, and influencers are reemerging in an effort to push President Donald Trump’s administration to approve bleach as a mainstream treatment.
The Bleach Community Is Ready for RFK Jr. to Make Their Dreams Come True
There are alternative therapies with the aiming of boosting health such as meditation, or yoga, or even just fucking getting out of the house and exercising.
When one treads into the territories of alternative treatments that are frankly ridiculous, however, such as drinking bleach, you run into a a host people you don’t want to be around, such as antisemitic conspiracy theorists.
“’We are thrilled that RFK Jr. is in charge,’ Michelle Herman, who sells a nasal spray containing chlorine dioxide ….”
Criminals also love hanging around fringe therapies that cannot be tested except when they hurt or kill.
“Meanwhile, one of the most notorious figures within the bleaching community has reemerged. Mark Grenon was sentenced to a stint in federal prison in 2023 alongside three of his sons for selling bleach as a cure for Covid. A self-styled archbishop of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, Grenon was released from prison in September 2024, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
10. Treasury Secretary Bessent’s Shit-eating Grin
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testified before the House Ways and Means committee. Asked if he could name one economist not in the pay of the Trump Administration who would assure that the Big Ugly Bill would not increase the deficit, Secretary Bessent at first tried to dodge the question. When pressed, though, he said yes. The answer: Art Laffer.
Bessent could not suppress a, well, not quite shit-eating grin, but a knowing smirk which admitted that he was bullshitting.
At that, laughter broke out in the hearing room, and the previously stone-faced aides behind the Congressman laughed. As the country heads into disaster.
11. AOC and Zohran Mamdani at the Puerto Rican Day Parade
