Vincent van Gogh Tulip fields 1883
Ed Dowd M2
https://twitter.com/i/status/1650984403202625536
Tucker Zelensky
https://twitter.com/i/status/1650651758249533441
Tucker JFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1650841641375223810
Biden by Trump
By Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/DDQOhCLpLQ
— Spriter (@Spriter99880) April 25, 2023
Rostov
https://twitter.com/i/status/1650760804923211776
Choice:
1) We want to win.
2) We only want to win if everybody uses the right pronouns.
• Can a Woke Military Win Wars? (Kimball)
For a couple of years now, the U.S. military has had a serious recruitment problem. That isn’t really a surprise. Our leaders have injected the entire menu of radical “woke” ideology into the tissues of the military establishment. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worries about “white rage” and supports teaching critical race theory to the troops. When Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin took office under President Joe Biden, he issued a 60-day “stand down” order to the entire military in pursuit of battling “extremism” and achieving “equity” in the military. In March 2022, the Biden administration announced a new policy under which people suffering from gender dysphoria would not only be allowed to serve in the military but also would have their “gender reassignment” surgery paid for by taxpayers.
Traditionally, conservative families, especially conservative working-class families, supplied a large percentage of military recruits. Those families aren’t thrilled by the intrusion of such politically correct sentiments into an institution hitherto marked by its commitment to traditional moral and martial values. They aren’t interested in sending their children to be catechized by anti-American Marxists or apostles of sexual exotica. The Biden administration seems blissfully unaware of this reality. At least, I assume it’s unaware of what two retired Army generals called “a major threat to our national security.” Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain Biden’s recent executive order regarding “environmental justice.” According to the White House, the new order is part of the administration’s “whole-of-government effort to confront longstanding environmental injustices and inequities.”
Of course, we live at a time when everything is potentially racist. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg even argued that highway designs in the United States are “racist.” So it should come as no surprise that “environmental justice” is really just an aspect of “racial justice.” “For far too long,” the executive order reads, “communities across our country have faced persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental harms often due to a legacy of racial discrimination including redlining.” And let’s not forget the other big-ticket item on the agenda of the left: “climate change.” “These communities with environmental justice concerns face even greater burdens due to climate change,” the White House stated.
“..only 20,000 of the 100,000 troops assembled are actually combat-ready..”
• The Status Of Ukraine’s Much-hyped ‘Counteroffensive’ Against Russia (RT)
So far, Ukraine’s planned military assault, originally announced for November 2022, has been postponed indefinitely. Foreign sources differ in their assessment of Kiev’s readiness for a counterattack against Russia and agree that it is difficult for the Ukrainians to gather enough forces. What is stopping the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) from advancing now? One of the main problems preventing the AFU from carrying out the announced offensive is considered to be a lack of experienced personnel. A large portion of the combat-ready, equipped and motivated cadre units of the AFU (as well as the NGU and Territorial Defense) have already been destroyed in Mariupol, Artemovsk, Soledar, Popasnaya, Lisichansk, Severodonetsk and during the battles in the Kherson and Kharkov regions in the summer of 2022. Meanwhile, a new grouping of equal professionalism and equipment levels has not yet been formed. However, NATO and US officials differ in their estimates of the number of AFU formations.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after the Rammstein Contact Group meeting earlier this year that Western countries had managed to prepare nine armored brigades. This figure is questionable, however, as at least 837 tanks would be needed for that size of a deployment. After Rammstein, Austin reported deliveries of 230 battle tanks, suggesting a deliberate misrepresentation of the size of the Ukrainian group. How many reserves has the AFU built up? Michel Goya, a French army colonel and renowned expert on modern warfare and combat innovation, disagrees. He estimates that no more than three or four Ukrainian brigades could realistically be trained and armed by NATO and the US in the time frame allowed. At the same time, the recently popular estimate of the number of Ukrainian reserves for a counterattack at 200,000 looks doubtful, since in this case the AFU forces would have to exceed the combined US and NATO forces at the time of the attack on Iraq in 2003 by 30,000-40,000 (at that time it was 160,000 men).
The most likely figure is 80,000-100,000, which have been trained both inside and outside Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s military operation. There is an important caveat. Apart from the combat experience and capabilities of the grouping, it is not clear which forces are the combat-ready vanguard and which are support units (the so-called “tooth-to-tail” ratio). If the AFU is planning an offensive like the US in Iraq, only 20,000 of the 100,000 troops assembled are actually combat-ready, the rest are support and sustainment forces.
What difficulties does the AFU face? The conceptual problem of the offensive is the lack of surprise. AFU units are waiting in all directions – from Artemovsk to Kherson, so it is extremely difficult to surprise Russian forces in such a situation. Moreover, the movements of the Ukrainian army are well monitored, and it is almost impossible to accumulate a group of 20,000-150,000 troops unnoticed in such conditions. If they abandon massing their soldiers, and spread the forces across the front, all the advantages of large numbers are lost. An additional difficulty is time. Delaying an offensive means not only guaranteeing the loss of Artemovsk/Bakhmut, which is being cleared at the rate of two or three blocks every 24 hours, but also disrupting the plans of foreign partners and nullifying all the financial and military aid provided so far. Moreover, every day that the AFU’s offensive is delayed is an extra day for the Russian army to prepare and reinforce.
Prigozhin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1650908155440775188
Ukraine never had a chance, but they got the support regardless.
• Ukraine Risks Losing Western Support If Counteroffensive Fails – NYT (RT)
Ukraine is far from guaranteed to succeed in a counteroffensive against Russia despite receiving Western weapons, training, and intelligence support, the New York Times has stated. An underwhelming outcome would likely prompt Kiev’s backers to press it to negotiate for peace, the newspaper predicted. Kiev has long touted an upcoming push as the next decisive phase of the conflict with Russia. The NYT claimed on Monday that the offensive could be launched as early as May, although Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal recently assessed that it might not get underway until the summer. According to classified documents shared as part of the Pentagon leaks, Ukraine is planning to use 12 combat brigades of about 4,000 troops each in its renewed campaign against Russian forces.
The US and its allies have helped train nine of those units, with soldiers being taught to use Western-provided equipment and receiving tactical advice at American military facilities in Germany. Ukraine’s partners are also expected to provide it with intelligence for the proposed assault. “Everything hinges on this counteroffensive,” Alexander Vershbow, a former US ambassador to Russia and senior NATO official, said of the future operation. “Everybody’s hopeful, maybe over-optimistic. But it will determine whether there is going to be a decent outcome for the Ukrainians.” Kiev has ruled out negotiations with Moscow until it recaptures all the territories that it claims as its own. However, even with all Western help, “big gains are not guaranteed, or even necessarily likely,” the NYT warned.
The newspaper cited Ukrainian battlefield losses, heavy expenditure of munitions, and Russian troops digging in and preventing the enemy from using Western-taught warfare as working against Kiev. After the push is over, “there is little chance that the West can recreate the buildup… for the foreseeable future” the report argued. The US and its allies have largely exhausted their military inventories after flooding Kiev with military aid, causing gaps that are unlikely to be filled until next year, experts assessed. Meanwhile, Russia is ramping up pressure against Ukraine despite previous setbacks, meaning that “the window to make significant gains… may not remain open indefinitely,” the NYT stated. With larger reserves at its disposal, Moscow could emerge victorious in the conflict, it acknowledged.
Politico previously reported that the White House was bracing itself to mitigate the fallout from a potentially poorly-executed Ukrainian counteroffensive. A temporary truce could give Kiev time for a military buildup before another offensive at a later point, US officials claimed to the outlet.
“Asked whether the government has a responsibility to “help clear up depleted uranium rounds” used in Ukraine after the conflict, the minister stated it has “no obligation” to do so..”
• British Depleted Uranium Already In Ukraine (RT)
The UK government has already started shipments of depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said, noting that the British military would not attempt to track where the weapons are used. In response to questions from Scottish MP Kenny MacAskill, Heappey confirmed on Tuesday that DU munitions for the UK-made Challenger 2 tank had already arrived in Ukraine, though declined to comment on Kiev’s “usage rates for the rounds provided.” “We have sent thousands of rounds of Challenger 2 ammunition to Ukraine, including depleted uranium armour-piercing rounds,” he said, adding the weapons “are now under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU)” and that the Defence Ministry “does not monitor the locations from where DU rounds are fired by the AFU in Ukraine.”
Asked whether the government has a responsibility to “help clear up depleted uranium rounds” used in Ukraine after the conflict, the minister stated it has “no obligation” to do so, instead stressing “Ukraine’s immediate needs.” While Heappey has claimed the health and environmental risks posed by depleted uranium are “low,” citing the “monitoring of UK military veterans” performed for a government study in 2007, more recent research suggests the munitions could carry health hazards after all. The United States used DU ammunition heavily during its two wars in Iraq, with some researchers claiming the weapons could be linked to a spate of birth defects later observed in the country. According to Doug Weir, an expert with the Conflict and Environment Observatory, when DU penetrators strike a target, “they fragment and burn, generating chemically toxic and radioactive DU particulate that poses an inhalational risk to people.”
Both the US and UK governments have long disputed the alleged dangers, however. In March, British and American advisers oversaw special training for Ukrainian troops for how to handle DU rounds, which will primarily be used for the Challenger 2 tank. London previously vowed to send a total of 14 of the tanks to Ukraine, though it is unclear whether any have reached the battlefield. Moscow has repeatedly urged against foreign arms shipments to Kiev, namely the British DU munitions, with the Foreign Ministry condemning London for “absolute recklessness, irresponsibility and impunity.” Last month, the Russian military also warned that the use of uranium shells is likely to “cause irreparable harm” to the health of Ukrainians and inflict “tremendous economic damage to the agro-industrial complex” in the region, citing the weapon’s impact in Iraq.
Tucker USnukes
Tucker reveals Biden placed US nuclear weapons technology in Ukraine during his final monologue..
READ THAT TWICE AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANS…
pic.twitter.com/S9HXbZ9nfe— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) April 25, 2023
“..given the “chemotoxic and radiotoxic” properties of DU. Moscow has urged foreign powers to cease all weapons shipments to Ukraine..”
• West Turning Ukraine Into ‘Radioactive Landfill’ – Embassy (RT)
Russia has condemned the UK’s decision to send depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, saying the move marks an “all-out escalation” after the British Defence Ministry confirmed the radioactive weapons were already in Kiev’s hands. Moscow’s UK embassy issued a statement on Tuesday after senior official James Heappey acknowledged that the British DU munitions had arrived on the battlefield, to be fired from Challenger 2 tanks also supplied to Ukraine. “James Heappey’s comments are a grim testament to the ruthlessness of the Anglo-Saxons’ policy of all-out escalation of the ‘proxy conflict’ they themselves unleashed in Ukraine,” it said. “He cynically stated that London is not monitoring the deployment of these weapons and has no obligation to eliminate the consequences of their use following the end of the conflict.”
“It has by now become self-evident that the West intends this country to become not only an anti-Russian military “shooting range,” but also a radioactive landfill – with all the ensuing grave consequences for the health of local residents and the environment in the region”. The embassy went on to say that the British government would be responsible for the effects of the “toxic ammunition” and could not escape accountability by passing them off to Ukrainian forces. In an interview with RT last week, Russia’s envoy to Britain, Ambassador Andrey Kelin, warned that DU munitions will be a “terrible thing… for the agriculture and for the people” of Ukraine, saying radioactive residue could contaminate the country’s water and soil “for at least six generations.”
Both UK and US officials have disputed the purported health hazards associated with DU shells – which use a dense uranium core to improve their armor-piercing capabilities – and deny allegations that the weapons were linked to a spike in cancer and birth defects in Iraq. Heappey has claimed depleted uranium carries only “low” health and environmental risks, pointing to a 2007 government study. He later added that the Defence Ministry would make no effort to track where Ukrainian forces use British-supplied DU rounds, and had “no obligation” to assist clean-up efforts after the conflict.
However, according to Doug Weir, an expert with the Conflict and Environment Observatory, uranium munitions generate “chemically toxic and radioactive DU particulate” when they strike hard targets, adding that the dust poses “an inhalational risk to people.”Other recent research has also indicated the weapons could produce “adverse health outcomes” given the “chemotoxic and radiotoxic” properties of DU. Moscow has urged foreign powers to cease all weapons shipments to Ukraine, arguing the aid would not deter its military aims but only prolong the conflict. After the UK announced its decision to supply depleted uranium rounds to Kiev last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Western nations would like to “see Ukraine completely destroyed” and are acting with “absolute recklessness, irresponsibility and impunity.”
May sound a bit crazy, but Patrushev is not crazy.
• US May Be Preparing Biological War Against Russia – Patrushev (TASS)
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev urged Russia on Tuesday to counteract US efforts to launch a biological war against it and other countries. “Specific biological research being used by the United States in developing military programs requires the closest attention of our scientific community,” Patrushev said, urging proactive efforts to counteract preparations for a biological war against Russia and other countries. Patrushev elaborated on technological breakthroughs that he said “may affect the global balance of power further down the road.” He referred to “an avalanche-like increase in global research in the sphere of IT and quantum technology, as well as AI.” “Experts claim that the use of such technologies can [lead to] and has already prompted a social transformation,” the top Russian security official said, calling for a thorough analysis into the problem.
Cut it out already..
• G7 Ban On All Exports To Russia ‘Not Doable’ – FT (RT)
A US proposal for G7 nations to introduce a complete ban on exports to Russia has met with strong opposition from the EU and Japan, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed officials. According to the outlet, a draft statement prepared for a three-day G7 summit in Hiroshima in May includes a bold proposal to replace the current sector-by-sector penalties against Moscow with a full export ban, albeit with exemptions for areas such as agricultural and medical products. The US is reportedly pushing the plan amid concerns that existing sanctions contain loopholes that allow Moscow to continue importing technology from the West. However, lawmakers from Japan and EU member states reportedly suggested in a preparatory meeting last week that the measure would be impossible.
“From our perspective it is simply not doable,” said one official who spoke to the FT on condition of anonymity. Last week, Bloomberg reported that G7 nations were discussing a potential outright ban on most exports to Russia as part of a broader agenda to tighten economic pressure. Since February 2022, the EU alone has adopted 10 packages of anti-Russian sanctions in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned against a blanket export ban, arguing that it could result in a full-scale global economic crisis. Former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the National Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, warned that Moscow could quit the Black Sea grain deal if the G7 imposes a total ban on exports to Russia.
He’s literally straight out of NATO.
• China Doesn’t Want Peace In Ukraine, Czech President Warns (Pol.eu)
China cannot be trusted to mediate peace between Russia and Ukraine, Czech President Petr Pavel is warning, telling POLITICO that Beijing benefits from prolonging the war. His comments come as China is trying to position itself as a peacemaker in Ukraine, recently floating a vague roadmap to ending the conflict. And while most Western allies have been skeptical of the overtures, some countries like France insist China could play a major role in peace talks. Pavel, a former general and senior NATO leader, was unequivocal, however. When it comes to Ukraine, he argued, China only wants what’s best for itself — and, for now, that’s more war. “I believe that it is in China’s interest to prolong the status quo,” Pavel said, “because it can push Russia to a number of concessions.”
Beijing, he said in an interview late last week, can get cheap oil, gas and other resources from Moscow — in exchange for its “no limits” partnership with the Kremlin. “It is also good for China that the West is probably becoming a little bit weaker by supporting Ukraine,” he added. Pavel’s remarks seemed prescient when, only hours after he spoke, China’s ambassador to France provoked indignation by proclaiming that former Soviet countries have “no effective status” in international law — a comment that came in response to a question about whether Crimea belongs to Ukraine. Although Beijing on Monday distanced itself from the remarks, the incident has stoked the heated conversation around whether China can ever help bring peace to Ukraine. “I don’t think,” the Czech leader said, that “China has a real interest to resolve the war in a short time.”
Pavel, who took office as president last month, said Beijing is using the war to learn. “China is taking lessons out of the conflict every day,” Pavel said. “They closely follow what Russia is doing, how the West is reacting.” Pavel, who chaired NATO’s military committee from 2015 to 2018, won the Czech presidential race earlier this year on a pro-Western platform. Now, he is using his knowledge of the alliance’s inner workings and his extensive military experience — highly unusual for a European leader — to advocate for more effective support for Ukraine and a more nuanced approach to NATO defense policy. During a visit to Brussels last week, Pavel floated the idea of creating a new proposal for extending defense companies’ production lines — possibly using a mix of national and European subsidies — so that they could have extra capacity to draw upon in times of crisis.
“a lot of reasons” why national governments are reluctant to leave the largest city in the US, with one of them being that “they have real estate there..”
• Russia Lists Obstacles To Moving UN From New York (RT)
UN member states are against the idea of moving the organization’s headquarters out of New York City mainly due to financial limitations, according to Pyotr Ilyichev, a high-ranking official at the Russian Foreign Ministry. “[Russia] would, of course, like to relocate [the UN HQ] to some other more neutral spot, like Geneva or Vienna, but many member states don’t want to leave New York,” Ilyichev, who heads the Department of International Organizations at the ministry, said on Monday. According to the diplomat, there are “a lot of reasons” why national governments are reluctant to leave the largest city in the US, with one of them being that “they have real estate there. It’s hard for them to sustain two [UN] missions, so they have everything situated in New York. Those are more of the financial and economic reflections.”
Russia is “thinking” about moving the UN headquarters out of New York, where it has been located since the formation of the global body in 1951, he said. “The Austrians and the Swiss are more neutral” compared to the Americans, Ilyichev stated. Besides its New York-based headquarters, the UN also has offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Kenyan capital Nairobi. A Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had difficulties with obtaining US visas to attend UN Security Council (UNSC) meetings in New York on Monday and Tuesday. The country’s journalists were denied permits to enter the US by the American authorities altogether, without any explanation.
Lavrov argued that such behavior by the US isn’t worthy of a UN host nation. The Americans have just “chickened out,” he suggested, while promising that the move won’t be left unanswered by Moscow. Russia, which currently holds the presidency of the UNSC, had planned some “major newsbreak events” in New York this week and barring the pool of the country’s reporters from participating was completely unacceptable, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said. When asked about the possibility of relocating the UN headquarters to another country on Monday, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov replied that it was “an issue of additional thinking, additional analysts.”
“The Americans have started the de-dollarization process.”
• Lavrov: West’s ‘Schizophrenic Logic’ And UN Head’s Letter (TASS)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has branded as schizophrenic the West’s statements that talks between Russia and Ukraine will be possible only after Kiev’s counteroffensive at a news conference in New York. The minister said that Moscow declared all its goals during the special military operation, but would like to learn what the West is up to in Ukraine. He also urged those who theoretize about the possibility of the Third World War to show responsibility. Among other things, the minister also spoke about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s possible response to a letter by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Below are Lavrov’s main remarks, made at a news conference to sum up the results of his visit to the United States within the framework of Russia’s presidency in the UN Security Council.
“Now, this funny theory has emerged: let us we (Western nations – TASS) ensure Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive and then we will ask Ukraine, [President Vladimir] Zelensky to begin talks. But this is schizophrenic logic. We don’t want any threats to our security to come from Ukrainian territory and these threats have been accumulating there for years, especially after the state coup in February 2014.” Speaking about whether achieving peace in Ukraine is possible this year, he said: “Hopes and expectations are not what I’m paid for.” Russia declared all its goals during the special military operation, but would like to learn what the West is up to in Ukraine, and “would also like to hear from our Western colleagues, as a reciprocal move, what goals are they pursuing there.”
[..] Ukraine’s urgent accession into the European Union will expose the organization’s true goals, the Russian foreign minister said. It “will prove that its membership is not about meeting some kind of criteria, that it is a purely geopolitical game of grabbing as many territories as possible that are unclaimed or about to become unclaimed.” Meanwhile, the European Union “is militarizing on the double and is turning into an aggressive entity dead set on containing Russia.” This affects, among other things, the union’s admission policies: “This is what the European Union is like now: if you are conducting anti-Russian policies, your chances [of membership] are very good.”
In Lavrov’s words, “sanctions against Russia are indeed such that no one has ever seen and could hardly imagine, but for us it is a clinched question. We are well-placed for not depending on such behavior of Western colleagues that have proved the lack of deal-making skills.” “Preparations are underway for a new round of the global dominion war, or rather the war for an attempt to maintain global dominion. It may probably slow down the natural process of the formation of multipolar world order, but not for long.” “The shift to settlements in national currencies bypassing the dollar, the euro and the yuan, to digital currencies can no longer be stopped, and the future of the international currency financial system, including the IMF, the World Bank, remains to be seen,” he said. “”The Americans have started the de-dollarization process.”
“As Wolfgang Münchau wrote, by weaponising international reserves, the US had “taken the biggest gamble in the history of economic warfare..”
• Will America Win From De-dollarisation? (Fazi)
The most important element in the debate over the utility of Western sanctions against Russia, is also the most ignored. The sanctions regime mostly comprises of restrictions that have been deployed before, such as export bans and the freezing of certain assets. Even the controversial exclusion of a number of Russian banks from the main international banking message system, SWIFT, was not exceptional, having already been used against Iran. But the freezing of Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves, worth around $300 billion — about half of its overall reserves — was significant. While the US had behaved similarly with Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Venezuela, none of these targets was remotely as powerful as Russia: a member of the G20, and the world’s largest nuclear power. Likewise, none of the 63 central banks that are members of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel — known as the central bank of central banks — had ever been the target of financial sanctions, not even during the Second World War.
At the time, the decision received relatively little attention. Future historians, however, will look back on it as the trigger that set in motion one of the biggest snowball effects in history, one which now threatens the very foundations of the American Empire. In our age of fiat money, reserves aren’t held in the form of physical dollars (or other currencies) stashed in the vaults of foreign central banks. They are simple IOUs — a credit recorded in the accounting sheets of the Federal Reserve and other central banks. In the dealings between countries, just as in the dealings between individuals or companies and commercial banks, trust is therefore fundamental: just as you would never deposit your salary in a bank if you had even the remotest fear that it might freeze or confiscate your money, no country wants to hold reserves which may be snatched away at any moment.
This move, therefore, violated an almost sacred principle: the neutrality of international reserves. The message was clear: from now on, the US would stop at nothing to punish countries that stepped out of line or defied Western diktats. And if this could happen to Russia, a major power whose central bank reserves were mostly earnings from sales to the West, it could happen to anyone. As Wolfgang Münchau wrote, by weaponising international reserves, the US had “taken the biggest gamble in the history of economic warfare”. In one fell swoop, he noted, the US had “undermined trust in the US dollar as the world’s main reserve currency”, and encouraged China and Russia to “bypass the Western financial infrastructure”. For non-Western nations — especially China, which is heavily exposed to US assets — disengaging from the dollar, and more in general from the US-led international monetary and financial system, acquired a sudden urgency.
De-dollarisation was not something that would happen overnight, that much was clear. But the wheels of history were set in motion. It is no coincidence that most of the world’s nations didn’t join the West in slapping sanctions on Russia, but quietly started strengthening their ties with Russia and China in an effort to reduce their dependence on the dollar-centric system. In just over 12 months, the world has undergone a greater tectonic shift, in geopolitical terms, than it has in decades: the long-heralded post-Western international order — comprising the BRICS and dozens of other countries making up most of the world’s population — has finally become a reality. The US, as former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers recently said, is lonelier than it has ever been.
“Willis characterized Trump’s wording during the call as evidence of “criminal disruption” of the 2020 election, and has based her case on charges around that allegation..”
“The President participated in two perfect phone calls regarding election integrity in Georgia..”
• Decision on Trump Indictment to Be Announced ‘In the Near Future’ (ET)
A Georgia district attorney wrote in a letter dated April 24 that she intends to announce potential indictments resulting from a probe into former President Donald Trump and his associates for alleged interference in the 2020 election with his calls for investigations. “In the near future, I will announce charging decisions resulting from the investigation my office has been conducting into possible criminal interference in the administration of Georgia’s 2020 General Election,” Fani Willis, District Attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, wrote in a letter addressed to Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat on Monday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the letter. Willis wrote she would announce the charging decisions between July 11 and Sept. 1.
Willis’s Monday announcement was the latest update in the special-purpose grand jury investigation she launched in 2021 and led thereafter. While the grand jury proceedings had occurred behind closed doors, the probe is believed to center on a 2020 phone call between Trump, Trump’s legal team, and Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his team. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” Trump allegedly told Raffensperger during the phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, a transcript of which was released by media organizations.
Willis characterized Trump’s wording during the call as evidence of “criminal disruption” of the 2020 election, and has based her case on charges around that allegation. The grand jury heard testimony from Trump’s former associates, including Rudy Giuliani and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Trump has denied all allegations of wrongdoing on his part. The grand jury was discharged in January. In early February, the Fulton County Superior Court released a portion of the jury panel’s report, which did not include the list of names to whom indictments were recommended. Emily Kohrs, the grand jury’s foreperson, told media outlets in February that the group recommended indictments.
“The long awaited important sections of the Georgia report, which do not even mention President Trump’s name, have nothing to do with the President because President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told CNN in a following statement in February. “The President participated in two perfect phone calls regarding election integrity in Georgia, which he is entitled to do—in fact, as President, it was President Trump’s Constitutional duty to ensure election safety, security, and integrity,” Cheung added.
Redefine the redefinitions..
• FDA: Vaccines Don’t Have to Prevent Infection or Transmission (ET)
Vaccines don’t have to prevent infection or transmission to be cleared in the United States, the country’s top regulatory agency said in a new document. “It is important to note that FDA’s authorization and licensure standards for vaccines do not require demonstration of the prevention of infection or transmission,” Dr. Peter Marks, a top official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said in the document. Marks was writing as he rejected nearly all recommendations from a group of experts that advised the FDA to update the labels for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines are traditionally known as drugs that prevent an illness. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for years said a vaccine is a product that “produces immunity” while vaccination is an injection of an infectious organism “in order to prevent the disease.”
The agency changed its definitions after people correctly noted that COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent infection. The Coalition Advocating for Adequately Labeled Medicines, a group of experts, had called for the FDA to make clear that the COVID-19 vaccines don’t prevent infection or transmission. “There is a widespread (but inaccurate) notion that efficacy against infection and transmission have been established by substantial evidence, and that these vaccines contribute to herd immunity,” the group said, pointing to claims from President Joe Biden, the head of the CDC, and Dr. Anthony Fauci that vaccinated people would not get sick or infected. Biden, for instance, falsely said in 2021 that “you’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.”
“To remedy this situation, language clarifying that phase III trials were not designed to determine and failed to provide substantial evidence of vaccine efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 transmission or death must be added to labels,” the coalition said. SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19. While it’s uncommon to include in product labeling what a product has not been proven to do, there are cases where it’s necessary due to inaccurate assumptions, the coalition said. They pointed to the FDA stating that the influenza medicine Tamiflu “has not been shown to previous serious complications of influenza” after the drug’s manufacturer said it reduced complications by nearly half.
Marks rejected the request, writing that the petitioners included “selected statements by U.S government officials suggesting that vaccination against COVID-19 may prevent infection or transmission” but omitted statements from Fauci and others that later acknowledged vaccines don’t prevent infection or transmission. “In responding to your Petition, we are not agreeing or disagreeing with any of the statements that are selected in the Petition,” Marks said. “Rather, we are observing that the statements referenced by the Petition do not demonstrate a commonly held belief that the clinical trials provided substantial evidence of efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 transmission. We are not convinced that there is any widespread misconception about this.”
“Today, children will work overnight shifts at slaughterhouses, factories, restaurants to pay their debts to smugglers and traffickers. Today, children will be sold for sex,..
• Whistleblower: US Govt Is ‘Middleman’ In Child Trafficking Op (Fox)
A House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Wednesday will feature the testimony from a whistleblower who will warn lawmakers that the U.S. has become the “middleman” in a multibillion dollar migrant child trafficking operation at the border. The hearing, “The Biden Border Crisis: Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children,” will be held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement and will examine the surge in unaccompanied children (UACs) at the southern border. According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics, the number of UACs who arrive at the border has swelled from 33,239 in fiscal year 2020 to more than 146,000 in fiscal year 2021 and 152,000 in fiscal year 2022. So far in fiscal year 2023, there have been more than 70,000 encounters of unaccompanied children.
When child migrants are encountered at the border, they are transferred into the custody of Health and Human Services (HHS) and then united with a sponsor – typically a parent or family member already in the U.S. According to Customs and Border Protection statistics, the number of unaccompanied children who arrive at the southern border has surged since fiscal year 2020. But the Biden administration has been rocked by a number of reports that officials have been unable to make contact with more than 85,000 child migrants; and more recently, administration officials reportedly ignored signs of “explosive” growth in child labor. A number have been forced into indentured servitude to pay back smugglers and have worked in dire conditions.
The Wednesday hearing will hear from three witnesses: Tara Lee Rodas, a HHS whistleblower formerly with an inspector general’s office; Sheena Rodriguez, founder and president of Alliance for a Safe Texas; and Jessica Vaughn, director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. Rodas will warn of a problem that predates the administration but has increased significantly during the recent migrant crisis, according to a copy of her written testimony obtained by Fox News Digital. “Today, children will work overnight shifts at slaughterhouses, factories, restaurants to pay their debts to smugglers and traffickers. Today, children will be sold for sex,” she will say. “Today, children will call a hotline to report they are being abused, neglected, and trafficked. For nearly a decade, unaccompanied children have been suffering in the shadows.”
“For decades, scientists and their media messengers have hyped up the temporary loss of coral to secure grants and promote political causes..”
• Just 3% of Australians Know the Great Barrier Reef is at a Record High (DS)
Three-quarters of sampled Australian green voters believe the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is doing worse than usual, with 44% stating the coral is at a record low. Overall only 3% of all Australian voters knew that the coral was at a “record high” – the correct answer following two years of record growth that has broken all previous records. These findings are not a surprise, since the true picture on the reef has been downplayed, even hidden, by mainstream interested parties in the media and in science. The results come from a survey carried out by the Australian Environment Foundation (AEF) and is the work of coral authority Dr. Peter Ridd and science journalist Jo Nova. They note that the poor scores reflect badly on media coverage that reports every local coral bleaching event, but rarely the rapid recovery.
“It’s almost as if Australians have been subject to years of misinformation,” they say. The silence on the health of the corals is “deafening”. Jo Nova has an idea why the media work so closely with the science establishment to suppress the real story: “Corals are thriving but Australians are spending half a billion dollars to save them.” As atmospheric scientist Richard Lindzen says, the climate narrative is absurd, but trillions of dollars say it is not absurd. It can be argued that few scientific propositions are more absurd than the suggestion that the recent gentle warming spell is leading to the destruction of coral reefs around the world. In a recent report, Dr. Ridd noted that the IPCC said in 2018 “with high confidence” that corals would decline worldwide by 70-90% if temperatures rose just 0.4°C.
Data on coral in many parts of the world are less reliable than for the GBR, but Ridd said it seemed that across the globe there has not been a major drop in coral cover to date. Corals grow in waters between 24°C and 32°C, and in fact often grow quicker in higher temperatures. But they dislike sudden changes in local water temperature caused by natural weather events such as El Niño oscillations. As a result they often bleach, but the evidence suggests they rapidly return to health as natural conditions become more stable. On the GBR, conditions have been testing until recently with powerful El Niños causing rapid temperatures changes, and cyclones smashing the shallow corals. For decades, scientists and their media messengers have hyped up the temporary loss of coral to secure grants and promote political causes surrounding climate Armageddon. It obviously worked – and is still working.
White blood cells
“The vaccine decreases the ability to produce white blood cells by 50% from your first vaccine…your ability to make another generation of white blood cells takes 8 weeks…which is why they set it up at 8 weeks…to hit it again…you hit the white blood cell ability while they’re… pic.twitter.com/XGaLvcjZpJ
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill9) April 25, 2023
Rotation
You could climb out of a hole with a ladder or a rope—or you could call on your physics knowledge. Running in circle, for example, will introduce a rotational force, and therefore a larger normal and frictional force
[explanation: https://t.co/zH0Dk9S764]pic.twitter.com/Z7RYNmMQLf
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 25, 2023
Different
https://twitter.com/i/status/1650581322640027648
Ospreys have vision that is well adapted to detecting underwater objects from the air. Prey is first sighted from above the water, after which the bird hovers momentarily and then plunges feet first into the water
Octopus
Captured by Simon Buxton, this underwater video shows a blanket octopus unfolding and displaying a colorful web multiple times its original size
[full video: https://t.co/VWCHILc9ji]pic.twitter.com/pFhNye943W
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 25, 2023
The Megalodon is an extinct species of shark that lived approximately 23 to 2.6 million years ago. Fossil remains suggest that it reached a maximum length of 20 meters
Secretary bird
High road
https://twitter.com/i/status/1650798507609972736
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