M.C. Escher Dream 1935
Tucker Vivek
Ep. 17 Vivek Ramaswamy is the youngest Republican presidential candidate ever. He's worth listening to. pic.twitter.com/9wGqptHdto
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 17, 2023
RFK
RFK gets asked by the BBC interviewer about a letter sent to president Trump that was signed and backed by 350 different organizations claiming vaccines are unequivocally safe, and RFK responds perfectly with hard facts and reality.
If vaccine injury court has now paid out… pic.twitter.com/hfpxnkaRFQ
— Inversionism (@Inversionism) August 17, 2023
Sen. John Kennnedy
Senator John Kennedy perfectly SNAPS at Banana-Republic-style indictments against President Trump:
"It's like a zombie apocalypse… This is the sort of thing that happens in countries whose Powerball jackpot is 387 chickens and a goat."
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 17, 2023
Since it cannot win, this means forever. Just what they want.
• NATO Will Support Ukraine Until It Wins The War – Stoltenberg (TASS)
NATO’s support to Ukraine will continue until it wins, the military alliance’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, assured reporters at a news conference in Oslo on Thursday. “NATO will support Ukraine until it wins the war,” Reuters quoted Stoltenberg as saying. The NATO chief was asked to comment on whether Kiev would have to give up territory to Russia in order to put an end to the conflict and get NATO membership in return. Stoltenberg’s senior colleague earlier said that could be a solution for Kiev. When asked about Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Stoltenberg said: “The Ukrainians are making progress, but there is a lot of uncertainty.” On Tuesday, Stian Jenssen, director of the Private Office of the NATO Secretary General, told Sweden’s Verdens Gang newspaper that Ukraine could become a NATO member if it ceded some of its territory to Russia.
“At Biden’s February State of the Union speech in Congress, General Milley’s face was a study in gravity, a rock in a sea of misplaced self-congratulation and ignorance of the real world beyond the circus tent..”
• US-Backed Roll Of The Dice Leaves Ukraine In Worse Crisis (NoC)
President Biden wrote in the New York Times in June 2022 that the United States was arming Ukraine to “fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table.” Ukraine’s fall 2022 counteroffensive left it in a stronger position, yet Biden and his NATO allies still chose the battlefield over the negotiating table. Now the failure of Ukraine’s long-delayed “Spring Counteroffensive” has left Ukraine in a weaker position, both on the battlefield and at the still empty negotiating table. So, based on Biden’s own definition of U.S. war aims, his policy is failing, and it is hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, not Americans, who are paying the price, with their limbs and their lives. But this result was not unexpected. It was predicted in leaked Pentagon documents that were widely published in April, and in President Zelenskyy’s postponement of the offensive in May to avoid what he called “unacceptable” losses.
The delay allowed more Ukrainian troops to complete NATO training on Western tanks and armored vehicles, but it also gave Russia more time to reinforce its anti-tank defenses and prepare lethal kill-zones along the 700-mile front line. Now, after two months, Ukraine’s new armored divisions have advanced only 12 miles or less in two small areas, at the cost of tens of thousands of casualties. Twenty percent of newly deployed Western armored vehicles and equipment were reportedly destroyed in the first few weeks of the new offensive, as British-trained armored divisions tried to advance through Russian minefields and kill-zones without de-mining operations or air cover. Meanwhile, Russia has made similar small advances toward Kupyansk in eastern Kharkiv province, where land around the town of Dvorichna has changed hands for the third time since the invasion. These tit-for-tat exchanges of small pieces of territory, with massive use of heavy artillery and appalling losses, typify a brutal war of attrition not unlike the First World War.
Ukraine’s more successful counteroffensives last fall provoked serious debate within NATO over whether that was the moment for Ukraine to return to the negotiating table it had abandoned at British and U.S. urging in April 2022. As Ukrainian forces advanced on Kherson in early November, La Republicca in Italy reported that NATO leaders had agreed that the fall of Kherson would put Ukraine in the position of strength they had been waiting for to relaunch peace talks. On November 9, 2022, the very day that Russia ordered its withdrawal from Kherson, General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the Economic Club of New York, where the interviewer asked him whether the time was now ripe for negotiations.
General Milley compared the situation to the First World War, explaining that leaders on all sides understood by Christmas 1914 that that war was not winnable, yet they fought on for another four years, multiplying the million lives lost in 1914 into 20 million by 1918, destroying five empires and setting the stage for the rise of fascism and the Second World War. Milley concluded his cautionary tale by noting that, as in 1914, “… there has to be a mutual recognition that military victory is probably in the true sense of the word, is maybe not achievable through military means. And therefore, you need to turn to other means… So things can get worse. So when there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it, seize the moment.”
But Milley and other voices of experience were ignored. At Biden’s February State of the Union speech in Congress, General Milley’s face was a study in gravity, a rock in a sea of misplaced self-congratulation and ignorance of the real world beyond the circus tent, where the West’s incoherent war strategy was not only sacrificing Ukrainian lives every day but flirting with nuclear war. Milley didn’t crack a smile all night, even when Biden came over to glad-hand after his speech.
They’ve known for a long time.
• US Classified Forecast Predicts Ukraine Counteroffensive Will Fail (DeMartino)
After more than two months of heavy losses and with very little to show for it, US media is reporting on a “classified forecast” from Washington that predicts Ukraine is unlikely to meet its goals in its counteroffensive. Citing people “familiar with the document,” media reported that the classified document focuses on Ukraine’s goal of reaching Melitopol, which it says is a principal objective of Ukraine. One reason cited for Ukraine’s failure is the Russian minefields, which have destroyed large numbers of armored vehicles and tanks. Russian forces have also been using distance mining equipment, quickly erasing what little gains are made in the minefields by Ukrainian forces. Melitopol is a major hub with two major highways and a railroad used to move Russian forces.
If Ukraine managed to capture it, it would sever Russia’s land bridge to Crimea and split the Russian forces in the southern region of the conflict. However, Ukraine has failed to capture the settlement Rabotino, their first major step on the road to Melitopol. In the fields east of Rabotino, Ukrainian forces suffered heavy losses, including large numbers of Western armored vehicles, giving it the nickname “Bradley Square” because of the large number of Bradley Fighting Vehicles that have been destroyed and abandoned in that area. Ukraine recently deployed its 82nd Brigade from its reserves, said to be one of the last major fighting units available to Kiev. It includes some of the most advanced weapons provided to Ukraine from its Western benefactors, including Stryker and Marder Armored Personnel Carriers and Challenger 2 tanks. Already, Strykers have been destroyed east of Rabotino.
Between Rabotino and Melitopol sits nearly 50 miles of thick Russian defenses, and fortified settlements and cities. The Ukraine counteroffensive largely never got off the ground. In the weeks leading up to it, significant forces attacked Russian positions but were consistently repelled leading to heavy losses for Ukraine, including Western equipment. Eventually, Ukraine admitted the counteroffensive had started but the losses continued to pile up. Other fronts have likewise been tough on the Ukrainians. In Artemovsk, Ukraine has been putting a large portion of its best units but has failed to even reach the city. After weeks of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, they managed to enter the southern outskirts of nearby settlement Kleshcheyevka in late July, but have since been pushed out, essentially blocking any attempts to retake the city.
US media also claimed joint US, British and Ukrainian war games predicted Ukraine would suffer heavy casualties but hoped Ukrainian forces would be able to prevail regardless, effectively backing up a classified document leaked on Discord earlier this year that stated Ukraine was unprepared to take on Russian defenses. However, it also backs up a report by Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh who reported a US intelligence official told him the CIA informed Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the Ukraine counteroffensive is unlikely to succeed. The official also said Blinken now realizes Ukraine cannot win the conflict.
“The first Republican primary debate is scheduled for Wednesday.”
• US May Cease to Exist in Conflict Against Russia, China – Ramaswamy (Sp.)
The United States could cease to exist in the event of a war against Russia and China, 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy said in an interview with Tucker Carlson. “I think there’s a chance that if we enter war with nuclear, allied Russia and China, the United States as we know it, we may take a risk of it ceasing to exist,” Ramaswamy said on Thursday. The United States lacks nuclear defense capabilities and security efforts have not been focused on homeland defense for a long time, Ramaswamy added, noting Washington is incentivizing China to pursue unilateral reunification with Taiwan by driving Beijing closer to Moscow and cementing a military alliance between them. The GOP hopeful further indicated that the United States ought to negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine in an effort to pull Russia away from China.
Washington’s defense commitments to Taiwan should depend on whether the United States has achieved semiconductor independence from the island, Ramaswamy also said, adding he believes domestic semiconductor independence can be achieved within his first term if elected resident in 2024. Speaking specifically to the Ukraine conflict, Ramaswamy emphasized that he has lost prospective campaign donors due to his stance on the hostilities. “There’s no doubt that I have lost otherwise willing and interested donors, or potential megadonors, to my campaign over my position on Ukraine,” Ramaswamy said on Thursday. The United States has no discernible national interest in involving itself in the Ukraine conflict, he said; however, there is a bipartisan, institutional consensus among US officials to avoid confronting facts about Ukraine.
Ramaswamy stated Washington should instead negotiate an end to the conflict in an effort to pull Moscow away from Beijing in a peace deal that ought to include guarantees Ukraine will not join NATO. Although Ramaswamy lost potential campaign donors due to his foreign policy positions, billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk responded to the interview with Carlson, calling Ramaswamy a “very promising candidate.” Ramaswamy is currently polling third among Republican presidential candidates, behind former US President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, according to FiveThirtyEight primary poll averages. The first Republican primary debate is scheduled for Wednesday.
Paying to have his Wikipedia page cleaned up.
• Western Big Tech Firms Wipe Away Hunter Biden’s Many Sins (Sp.)
US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is at the center of allegations that the ruling family runs a network of corrupt political influence-peddling. But Internet search engines and social media have whitewashed his record. US-based Internet giants are scrubbing the search results and webpages of reference to alleged wrongdoing by US President Joe Biden’s wayward son. But now details of the conspiracy to wipe away his sins are finally coming to light. During the 2020 presidential election campaign, social media giants Facebook* and Twitter blocked all mention of the New York Post’s bombshell revelations from Hunter’s abandoned “laptop from hell” — now the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. The newspaper’s Twitter account was even suspended.
Internal Twitter company documents released after South African-born tech tycoon Elon Musk bought out the firm showed that senior staff colluded with the FBI to suppress the story. The world’s most-used Internet search engine also goes soft on Hunter Biden, directing users to his sanitized Wikipedia page or inoffensive questions about his family. A Google search for “Hunter Biden” comes back with the suggested queries “Who are Jill Biden’s children?” along with “Is Ashley Biden married?” and “Who is Joe Biden’s wife?” Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has already tarnished its reputation for impartiality in its articles on Russia’s government, media, and its special operation in Ukraine, as well as frequently describing conservative US political figures as “far-right” or “conspiracy theorists.” By contrast, the site’s entry on Hunter Biden treads very softly around the controversial aspects of his life and career.
The second paragraph uncritically accepts Hunter’s claim in his memoir that his “struggles” with drug and alcohol abuse “escalated” after the death of his brother Joseph “Beau” Biden III from brain cancer in 2015. But near the bottom of the article it admits that the president’s son was given a waiver for a previous “drug-related incident” when he was commissioned as an officer in the US Navy Reserve in May 2013 — only to be dismissed a month later when a drug test found cocaine in his system. Joe Biden has also cited the death of his son, who served a seven months in the US occupation of Iraq as a lawyer in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) office in 2009, to claim empathy with the parents of soldiers killed in his overseas military adventures.
The article also implies that the scandal over both Hunter and Joe Biden’s refusal to acknowledge his paternity of his love-child Navy Joan, who he fathered in 2018 with Texas resident and former stripper Lunden Roberts, was only of concern to the “right-wing media.” The hand behind the sycophantic tone on Hunter Biden’s Wikipedia entry was uncovered this week by investigative journalist Lee Fang. When Biden was made a director of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings — along with his business partner Devon Archer — he hired major US firm FTI Consulting to continually edit his page and those of his new employers. Hunter’s appointment followed the 2014 Euromaidan coup engineered by the US Obama administration that his father served in as vice president. Joe Biden even threatened to withhold aid to the regime of then-President Petro Poroshenko until he sacked Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and ended probes into corruption at Burisma.
• House GOP Demands Unredacted Records Of Biden Using Pseudonym While VP (NYP)
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer asked the National Archives on Wednesday to hand over any unredacted records in which President Biden used a pseudonym during his vice presidency — as Republicans move closer to launching an impeachment inquiry into his role in son Hunter’s foreign business dealings. Emails previously released by the Archives and retrieved from Hunter’s abandoned laptop reveal that Joe Biden used the email address “[email protected]” while he was President Barack Obama’s second-in-command and that his aide John Flynn cc’d Hunter on 10 emails containing the elder Biden’s daily schedule between May 18 and June 15, 2016. Comer’s request covers records using Biden’s other known pseudonyms — “Robin Ware” and “JRB Ware” — and makes pointed requests for certain documents, such as drafts of Biden’s December 2015 speech to Ukraine’s parliament.
“Joe Biden has stated there was ‘an absolute wall’ between his family’s foreign business schemes and his duties as Vice President, but evidence reveals that access was wide open for his family’s influence peddling,” Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement. “We already have evidence of then-Vice President Biden speaking, dining, and having coffee with his son’s foreign business associates,” Comer went on. “We also know that Hunter Biden and his associates were informed of then-Vice President Biden’s official government duties in countries where they had a financial interest. The National Archives must provide these unredacted records to further our investigation into the Biden family’s corruption.“ The House Oversight Committee request primarily is focused on Hunter’s $1 million-per-year position on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which hired the then-second son in early 2014 as his dad assumed control of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
But the broad request for records involving the president’s pseudonyms could turn up a variety of content, including about other Biden family ventures in countries such as China. In a letter to Archivist Colleen Shogan, Comer requested “[a]ny document or communication in which a pseudonym for Vice President Joe Biden was included either as a sender, recipient, copied or was included in the contents of the document or communication, including but not limited to Robert Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware.”
“..a White House staffer communicated plans for a phone call with Ukraine’s president to Joe Biden on a private email account in 2016 and copied Hunter Biden, an unusual backdoor for a sensitive conversation with a foreign leader.”
• Biden Probe Shifts With Discovery Of Private Emails Between Joe And Hunter (JTN)
In a dramatic shift in the Biden family corruption probe, House investigators on Thursday demanded full access at the National Archives to Joe Biden’s communications as vice president with his son Hunter and his business partners. The demand came after the House Oversight Committee unearthed an email showing a White House staffer communicated plans for a phone call with Ukraine’s president to Joe Biden on a private email account in 2016 and copied Hunter Biden, an unusual backdoor for a sensitive conversation with a foreign leader. “The Committee’s need for these Vice-Presidential records is specific and well- documented,” Chairman James Comer wrote Colleen Shogam the head of the the National Archives and Record Administration.
“The Committee seeks to craft legislative solutions aimed at deficiencies it has identified in the current legal framework regarding ethics laws and disclosure of financial interests related to the immediate family members of Vice Presidents and Presidents— deficiencies that may place American national security and interests at risk.” The email in question was quietly released in January as part of the Obama presidential archives. In it, a White House staffer writes Joe Biden on a personal pseudonym email account named Robert L. Peters. about a planned call with then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The staffer copied Hunter Biden’s email address at Rosemont Senaca Partners. At the time, Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company called Burisma Holdings that was deemed to be corrupt by the Obama-Biden State Department.
“Boss–8:45am prep for 9am phone call with Pres Poroshenko. Then we’re off to Rhode Island for infrastructure event and then Wilmington for UDel commencement,” the staffer wrote the then-Vice President. “Nate will have your draft remarks delivered later tonight or with your press clips in the morning.” [..] The Archives released a handful of other emails, some redacted, with other private communications. Comer said he needed the fully unredacted emails, making what is known as a “special access” request to the National Archives.
“The Committee seeks unrestricted special access/ … These records have been redacted for public release pursuant to the PRA and FOIA. For example, an email bearing the subject “Friday Schedule Card,” is withheld in part under a “P6” and “b(6)” restrictions, denoting personal information regarding the subject under the PRA and FOIA respectively.” Comer wrote. “Attached to this email, and made available on the NARA website, is a document that indicates at 9:00 a.m. on May 27, 2016, Vice President Biden took a call with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko,” he added/ “It is concerning to the Committee, however, that this document was sent to “Robert L. Peters”—a pseudonym the Committee has identified as then Vice- President Biden. Additionally, the Committee questions why the then-Vice President’s son, Hunter Biden—and only Hunter Biden—was copied on this email to then-Vice President Biden.”
“We were a bigger force than Russia and Saudi Arabia individually,” he continued. “In a year and a half, we would have been a bigger force than them combined and we would have made so much money. We would have been paying off debt, we would have been doing things that nobody’s ever seen this country do.”
• ‘We’re Not Going to be the Big Boy’: Trump Warns Dollar’s Power ‘Waning’ (Sp.)
Former US President Donald Trump is the latest figure to warn that the days of the US dollar’s predominance in world trade could soon be numbered. “Our country is going to hell and we’re not going to be the big boy,” Trump said during a televised interview on Thursday. “We have power, but it’s waning. In fact, it’s waning in terms of our currency. And I’m not just talking about the value of our currency, I’m talking about our currency being used throughout the world.” The impact of the decline of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency is “bigger than losing any war,” Trump asserted. “You look at our airports, you look at our terminals, you look at our filthy roads and broken roads and everything else, we’re like a Third World country,” Trump said.
“We have something that’s very powerful and that’s our dollar. But you take a look at what’s happening to it now with other countries not using it, and you know China wants to replace it with the yuan, and it was unthinkable with us. Unthinkable. Would never have happened. Now people are thinking about it,” Trump added. Major moves have been made in the last year by countries around the globe towards de-centering their economies on the US dollar, including adopting other currencies as modes of exchange and buying up other currencies to change the balance of their reserves away from being so heavily dependent on the US dollar. Earlier this year, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva acknowledged that many nations were “thinking of an alternative” to the US dollar, possibly in the form of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) like those rolled out by Russia and China in the months since, but said she didn’t see an alternative “coming any time soon.”
Others, such as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin, Iran’s envoy to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, and Bolivian Economy Minister Marcelo Montenegro, have anticipated much quicker shifting away from the US dollar, thanks to US sanctions blocking many countries from buying key assets, such as gas, coal, fertilizers, and electronic devices, from countries like Russia and China. The former US leader has mounted a renewed bid for the presidency in 2024 after having failed to stay in office in 2020, when he lost the election to now-US President Joe Biden. Trump is presently leading the pack in popularity not only among Republican candidates for the party’s presidential nomination, but also compared to Democratic challengers to Biden as well. A major theme of his 2020 and 2024 campaigns has been that only he holds the keys to halting and reversing the United States’ decline, as summarized in his trademark slogan “Make America Great Again.” He has cast Biden’s presidency as having spoiled the gains made during his four previous years in power.
In his interview, Trump blamed Biden’s energy policy for the rising cost of living and inflation of the dollar, saying that Biden curbing oil drilling on federal land and offshore was “so sad.” “Inflation was caused, in my opinion, by energy, because it’s so big,” Trump said. “It’s like all encompassing, everything. You make donuts in the ovens and the trucks that deliver them, and no matter what you do, it’s so much about energy.” “They cut it off, and again, we were drilling much more. We were a bigger force than Russia and Saudi Arabia individually,” he continued. “In a year and a half, we would have been a bigger force than them combined and we would have made so much money. We would have been paying off debt, we would have been doing things that nobody’s ever seen this country do.”
“Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities..”
• Trump Nixes Georgia Election Presser, to Put ‘Evidence’ in Legal Filings (Sp.)
Former US President Donald Trump said he is canceling a presser about election fraud allegations in Georgia because his lawyers would prefer putting the so-called evidence in legal filings. Trump had planned to release a detailed report on alleged 2020 election fraud in Georgia at a news conference on August 21. “Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta,” Trump said Thursday on Truth Social. “Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!”
To date, no compelling evidence has surfaced proving the US election was swayed by widespread voter fraud, with government watchdogs repeatedly rejecting Trump’s unsubstantiated narrative.Trump announced he intended to hold the conference just hours after a Georgia grand jury indicted the former commander-in-chief on 13 criminal charges, along with over a dozen others as part of efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the Peach State. Although 18 other Trump associates were also charged in the indictment, the Monday filing revealed that there were 30 other co-conspirators tied to the allegations; however, the specified individuals were not listed in the charging documents. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Trump and associates had until August 25 to surrender voluntarily.
“..it is absolutely critical for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to retain the status of the main broker in all matters related to maritime transport in the Black Sea..”
• Risk of ‘False Flag Scenarios’ Heats Up After Collapse of Grain Deal (Sp.)
Turkiye is forced to maneuver between pressure from the West, its own vested interests after the collapse of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, and awareness of what aggravation of relations with Russia is fraught with, Dmitry Evstafiev, HSE University professor, told Sputnik. This sums up the extremely complicated balancing act that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now undertaking, according to the political scientist. Furthermore, as tensions spiral in the region of the Black Sea, “false flag” provocations could be expected from sides interested in destabilizing the situation, he warned. On Thursday, media reports alleged that Turkiye was ready to guarantee unhindered passage through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles for ships with grain coming from Ukraine’s ports.
“As far as we know, not a single such vessel has yet departed from Ukraine… But if it arrives, it will pass through the straits,” Haber Global TV channel reported, citing sources in Turkiye’s Ministry of National Defense. Meanwhile, the news portal Elips Haber, citing its sources in Turkiye’s Ministry of National Defense, claimed that “the first ship has already set off along the new corridor.” On August 16, the Hong Kong-flagged container ship Joseph Schulte ostensibly left the port of Odessa, where it had been before the start of Russia’s special military operation, and exited the territorial waters of Ukraine. According to reports, referencing the Marine Traffic vessel tracking service, the ship is heading to the Turkish port of Ambarli. According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, this ship was the first to resort to using this “temporary corridor from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine,” announced by Kiev on August 10.
When asked whether there was any truth in reports that one of the aforementioned ships that remained in the port of Odessa after the termination of the grain deal had already set sail and would traverse the Bosphorus under passage guaranteed under some kind of “agreement,” sources in Turkiye’s Defense Ministry told local media “From the outset we expressed our position as clearly as possible. There is a grain corridor that has proven its effectiveness and benefits. In almost a year, 33 million tons of grain were delivered to countries in need. We are making efforts to reactivate this ‘grain initiative.’ Besides this, there is no other work on our part. However, other countries are working on the issue of creating alternative routes. We are closely monitoring this process. An important issue here is to ensure the safe passage of merchant ships through the straits. We are not talking about any problems in connection with the passage of ships through the straits.”
On July 18, the Turkiye- and UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Initiative, which provided for a humanitarian corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain over the past year, expired, as Russia did not renew its participation in the deal. Moscow emphasized that the deal’s component on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports had not been fulfilled, specifically with regard to reconnecting Russian banks to SWIFT and unblocking the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline. These conflicting reports and developments prove yet again how multifaceted and multilayered Turkiye’s interests in the region are, underlined Dmitry Evstafiev. Firstly, it is absolutely critical for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to retain the status of the main broker in all matters related to maritime transport in the Black Sea, he underscored.
It’s not just about grain, but about a large volume of trade that crisscrosses the region. Until recent events, Erdogan was considered to be an “authority” able to guarantee safety of this cargo flow, the political scientist underscored, adding that now, “this is not the case.” Secondly, there is the matter of the grain itself. “There is significantly less grain in Ukraine now than there was last year. In general, there is no clarity regarding how much marketable grain can really be there at the moment. However, it is obvious that whatever remains will be dredged out by the Kiev regime to maintain some flow of funds. And so Erdogan wants to be in the loop regarding a certain dominant share in the transportation of this grain,” Dmitry Evstafiev said.
Fani Willis will be sued.
• The Jackson Pollock School of Prosecution (Turley)
Welcome to the Jackson Pollock school of prosecution. The 98-page indictment from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is the legal version of Pollock’s style of throwing paint splatters on canvas as artistic expression. It basically makes every telephone call, tweet, and meeting a separate conspiratorial act. There are 161 separate acts. Not surprisingly, everyone then becomes part of the conspiracy. The indictment covers 19 people, including Trevian Kutti (the former publicist for R. Kelly and Kanye West). Willis wants them all thrown into a single trial and let the jury figure it out. But for all the disparate acts that Willis says constitute a criminal conspiracy, part of this emerging picture should worry Trump. Pollock once advised confused observers that they needed to stop looking for objective meaning. The same may be true with the fourth Trump indictment. Willis simply treats every statement as a knowing falsehood and conspiratorial effort.
The indictment, to many, reads like the type of unabashedly biased spin that’s typically seen on cable television shows. For example, the indictment relies on calls like the controversial one Trump had with Georgia officials—a call long cited as indisputable evidence of an effort at voting fraud. In the call, Trump pushed his demand for a statewide recount. Trump had lost the state by less than 12,000 votes. When officials insisted that there was little likelihood that such a recount would make a difference, he stated, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.” The call is still cited as one of those 161 individual steps toward the criminal conspiracy. Even though the indictment effectively repackages the same claims as the federal prosecution, Willis insists that Trump should be effectively tried twice under these allegations.
It is easy to dismiss such a Pollock prosecution as political gamesmanship. The timing alone in bringing the case (which should have been brought two years ago) is enough for many to discount this prosecution. However, it does represent a serious threat to Trump. It has “legs” as an indictment that is not likely to be dismissed in its entirety before trial. There are three reasons why this indictment could be the most perilous for Trump, as opposed to the Jan. 6 indictments, which present serious threshold constitutional questions. First, the racketeering cases tend to be iron-plated before trial because challenges concern the interpretation of facts, which are traditionally questions left to the finder of fact (in this case a jury). Willis is likely to argue successfully that she should be allowed to prove the case. In the course of that prosecution, Willis probably hopes that one or two of the 18 other defendants will flip and turn state’s evidence.
Second, in D.C., special counsel Smith is essentially trying to create new law, or at least stretch existing case law to the point of breaking down. Conversely, elections are left largely to the states, and state prosecutors routinely bring election-based prosecutions. Willis may be stretching the evidence, but she is not stretching the law. Racketeering laws are routinely used far afield from their origins in combating criminal gangs. “Many of us disagreed with Trump after the election and publicly rejected the claims of systemic voting fraud. However, Trump had a right to not only challenge the election but to be wrong.” Finally, as a state action, this is not a prosecution that can be ended prematurely with a presidential pardon. If Trump is elected, he could grant himself a self-pardon, even a preemptive pardon before trial.
Various GOP presidential candidates have indicated that they will also consider a pardon. That could put an end to the Smith prosecutions before any trial if the special counsel cannot try the case before the election. There is no federal pardon option for Georgia. Indeed, it is even hard to secure a state pardon, which is not issued by the governor but a pardon board. None of this means that the indictment is justified. While the indictment contains a litany of calls and meetings, there is no clear evidence that Trump did not believe that the results of the election could be flipped through these challenges. The concern is that the indictment criminalizes challenges to elections.
“That’s a horrible, horrible disservice to people who have gone through a kind of loss that we can’t even imagine..”
• Tulsi Gabbard Blasts Biden Admin’s “Horrible” Response To Maui Disaster (SN)
Tulsi Gabbard, the former U.S. representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district, has slammed the Biden Administration’s response to the horrific Maui wildfire, labelling it a “horrible, horrible disservice.” “The sad part is, we are eight days past this wildfire. And I’m in constant touch with community members and leaders. They are still not seeing a response from the county, the state, the federal government, to be able to go out and help them,” Gabbard urged during a Fox News interview. She added that “The community support hubs that they have are 100 percent community led, volunteer supply collections, conducting all these co-ordinations on their own. They feel like the government doesn’t care about them.” “That’s a horrible, horrible disservice to people who have gone through a kind of loss that we can’t even imagine,” she added.
Biden was asked about the deadly fires in Hawaii where nearly 100 are dead and over 1,000 still missing
His response: “No comment”
He just destroyed his 2024 campaign
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) August 14, 2023
“Not only are they not getting the support that they need, but oftentimes they have been getting blocked from being able to receive the support from their friends and neighbors,” Gabbard asserted. “This is a crisis that is continuing on,” Gabbard warned, adding “It is not at all lost on the people of west Maui when they are told that FEMA is going to give those impacted a one-time $700 payment. And as they look at the news, they are seeing tens of more millions of dollars being sent to Ukraine.” “Some of them said, hey, maybe if we change the name of Maui to Ukraine, maybe they will pay attention to us,” Gabbard noted. While over 100 people are reported dead and over 1000 missing, Joe Biden has barely commented on the situation, avoiding the press and refusing to answer questions on the matter.
“It’s a hugely positive sign for Assange people that they are getting under the skin of officials who have the ability to make us believe that something is taking place behind the scenes..”
Color me skeptic.
• US Hints of ‘Plea Bargain’ for Julian Assange Only Meant to Placate Media (Tweedie)
Author and journalist Kevin Gosztola and John Kiriakou, co-host of Sputnik Radio’s Political Misfits webcast, say that the US ambassador to Australia’s recent comments regarding the WikiLeaks founder could not be taken as gospel. Speculation around a plea bargain for jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may just be a way to appease the media while a deal is negotiated in secret, say two journalists. US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy appeared to give credence to reports of a compromise with the US Department of Justice that could see Assange return to his homeland Australia and reunited with his wife and child after more than a decade in British jail and taking refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. The journalist, currently languishing in Britain’s highest-security prison Belmarsh, faces up to 175 years in jail if he is extradited to the US for trial on espionage charges for publishing evidence of US war crimes in Iraq supplied by Pentagon whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
Author and journalist Kevin Gosztola told Sputnik that the US government was trying to “get certain people off their back” under pressure from Assange’s supporters. “She was asked by an Australian reporter if she believed that there could be a diplomatic outcome,” Gosztola said. “Her response was that she doesn’t see this as a diplomatic issue and, however, there could be a resolution.” He noted that the ambassador then parroted a generic “boilerplate comment” by her boss, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on World Press Freedom Day. ” “It’s actually very insulting that Antony Blinken took to Australia a comment that was written by some intern or lowly staff member at the State Department,” Gosztola said. “They’ve just been going around using it as a way to avoid any scrutiny. “Ultimately, Kennedy had nothing new to say about the Assange case, the journalist argued, and merely referred journalists back to speculative media reports about a plea-bargain deal.
“When she was asked if a deal could be struck, she says, ‘Well, that’s up to the Justice Department.’ All right. Well, you and I have been following this very closely. It doesn’t seem like anything new has been said.” Nevertheless, the author believed the statement was “a hugely positive sign for Assange.” “It’s a hugely positive sign for Assange people that they are getting under the skin of officials who have the ability to make us believe that something is taking place behind the scenes,” Gosztola stressed. “Clearly they understand the demands that are being put forward.” He advised supporters of the WikiLeaks founder not to reject a plea-bargain deal just because it might “sound like he was admitting guilt, giving in to the persecution that has come from the US government.”
RFK Climate
The carbon orthodoxy has focused our love of the environment on one target: reducing carbon. But there are better ways to protect the environment. pic.twitter.com/OlqPVk76sC
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 17, 2023
Croc
https://twitter.com/i/status/1692195332208087527
Marmot call
https://twitter.com/i/status/1692182904401478042
GaBaGoo
Fellow Sopranos fans will love this.
Sit back and enjoy as we take an amusing look at the language of David Chase’s masterpiece series
THE SOPRANOS DICTIONARY
— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) August 17, 2023
THE PEDOPHILE PRESIDENTS
THE PEDOPHILE PRESIDENTS: Eyewitness testimony confirms U.S. Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, First Lady Hillary Clinton and Ford involved in Pedophilia, child sex trafficking, drugs, prostitution and homosexuality. Case covered up due to National Security. pic.twitter.com/NH4HOWtDte
— Truth Justice ™ (@SpartaJustice) August 17, 2023
Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
Home › Forums › Debt Rattle August 18 2023