Vincent van Gogh The yellow house (The Street), Arles 1888
Puppet
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816974609637417112
5 Joe Bidens
BREAKING INTERNET FIRESTORM: How Many Joe Bidens Are There?! pic.twitter.com/HyoMBIFNbV
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) July 26, 2024
RFK jr
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817266039937548313
Trump ad 2016
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816979043977482461
“Men’s testosterone levels have dropped so much that you can’t even get into a fight in a redneck bar..”
• USA As I Knew It Has Passed Into The Trash Bin Of History (Paul Craig Roberts)
Kamala Harris says she has raised $230,000,000 in campaign funds from rich American liberals. Why are rich American liberals so determined to have Kamala as President of the United States? One reason could be because she, unlike Trump, is easily controlled, so the explanation is the rich are electing their own self-interests. But are they? The Democrats’ have two agendas: One is to normalize and legitimize sexual perversity. The other is open borders. To put it in different words, the Democrats are devoted to transforming traditional America into a Sodom & Gomorrah Tower of Babel. Does this serve rich liberals’ interests beyond providing them with a servant class? The main benefactors are sexual perverts and immigrant-invaders. Do rich liberals prefer their genes not to be passed on because their transgendered kids are unable to procreate and are made infertile by Covid vaccines and a variety of testosterone-inhibitors that leave even young men unable to have a natural erection?
Their politics suggest that the interests of the rich liberals diverge from their heirs, the future of their country, and their self-respect. Everything with which the rich liberals are involved–Diversity, equity, and inclusion, global warming, globalism, the WEA’s Great Reset–undermines their commitment to their country. Rich liberals see America as a resource to be used in behalf of “larger agendas.” So where does America’s leadership class come from?It comes from the Jews. The Secretary of the Treasury is a Jew. The Secretary of State is a Jew. The Secretary of Homeland Security is a Jew. Finance, media, Hollywood and entertainment are in the hands of Jews. As Netanyahu told Congress yesterday, every Jew is a Zionist, a defender of Israel. And every American who is not a defender of Israel is an anti-semite. John V. Whitbeck describes the total humiliation of “Proud America” on its knees kissing Netanyahu’s feet. A totally conquered country whose obeisance is shown with 58 standing ovations.
In America today the remaining patriots are “Trump deplorables.” They are despised by the elite and the left-wing and regarded as white supremacists, threats to democracy, and insurrectionists. The FBI puts their names on watch lists and brings false charges against those who attended the January 6 Trump rally. The Democrats having moved Biden out of the picture are set to steal the November election. Democrats in the swing states have legalized and institutionalized the theft mechanisms they used to steal the 2020 and 2022 national elections. For example, the Democrat state Supreme Court in Wisconsin overturned the ban on drop boxes, thus making it possible for invalid ballots to become part of the vote count. A large number of such practices that enable electoral fraud are now legal in the swing states. Democrats could not steal the election with Biden as candidate as no one would believe he won. Biden was moved out of the way. Now polls are being rigged showing Kamala leading Trump by 3 points. The rigged polls create public believability of a Kamala win.
If the Democrats did not intend to steal the election, they would not have legalized the theft mechanisms in the swing states. The public accepted the last two stolen national elections and will accept a third. A people this insouciant have no chance of preserving their liberty and the accountability of government. Considering American insouciance, one wonders if the voting public and the Republican Party realize that if the Democrats take the election with so much going for Trump, the result will be to solidify the Uni-Party. The Republican establishment will conclude that the only way the party can compete with Democrats is to better represent the interests of the ruling elite. Henceforth there would be no more Trumps. “Representative Democracy” would only represent the ruling elite. If Trump is elected despite the Democrats’ intent to steal the election, what can he do? Can he find people willing to accept the risks of helping him to reconstruct America? Can such people get confirmed in office by the Senate?
Can Trump survive another four years of media, FBI, CIA attacks, and can his appointees? Can Trump survive assassination? Most certainly Trump cannot rely on Secret Service protection. It is clear that America is split more decisively than it was by tariffs that led to the so-called “Civil War.” All relations in American society have been damaged by the liberal-left. Feminism has made women unsupportive and even hostile to men. Consequently, men cannot trust women. Families, the basis of society, are weakened. Men’s testosterone levels have dropped so much that you can’t even get into a fight in a redneck bar. The Republicans point to Kamala’s warchest provided by rich American liberals and ask their working class supporters to help fund Trump’s election. The mismatch of resources between Democrat billionaires and Republican working class “deplorables” is extraordinary. But note that for both parties the election is a matter of who has the most money. This is the sign of a country that is finished, over and done with.
“She’s already rallying all the potential candidates behind her,” the source said. “You’re going to see everyone fall into place.”
This weekend, US President Joe Biden formally bowed out of the 2024 US presidential race. The development came after months of assertions Biden would continue on as the Democratic Party nominee. Biden endorsed his vice president, former Senator Kamala Harris, to take his place and his campaign funds are reportedly being transferred to her nascent campaign. Harris accepted, and announced she will seek the Democratic Party’s nomination. “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead,” Harris said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
Biden moved to transfer his campaign’s financial war chest to Harris, which former President Trump’s campaign has challenged by filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. The campaign’s general counsel David Warrington argued that transferring the funds is little more than a “thinly veiled $91.5 million excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another.” Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UCLA, told CNN he doesn’t think “most campaign finance lawyers believe that this is a best reading of the law,” but said the move could be tied up in FEC proceedings for years and won’t be resolved before the election. According to campaign experts who spoke to the website Verify, Harris is allowed to use the campaign funds because she and Biden shared the same campaign account, which has ballooned to $91 million. The FEC has “long permitted candidates for president and vice president to share a campaign account,” said Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program.
Democrats reportedly plan to hold a virtual roll call vote to confirm their nominee in the first week of August, although the Democratic National Convention will not begin until August 19. Only 300 signatures will be required to qualify for a virtual ballot and an AP survey found Harris has the backing of more than 1,900 delegates as of Monday night. Although Harris is not yet the party’s official nominee, many Democratic lawmakers and elites have endorsed her candidacy and a majority of delegates to the party’s convention have said they will back her. California Governor Gavin Newsom, who many expected to take Biden’s place, quickly endorsed Harris on X, claiming no one is “better to prosecute the case against Donald Trump’s dark vision” than Harris. A source from Harris’ campaign said she is working hard to win support from any challengers. “She’s already rallying all the potential candidates behind her,” the source said. “You’re going to see everyone fall into place.”
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has also been viewed as a possible Democratic contender for the White House, shrugged off Republican criticism that Harris’ rise to the top of the ticket is undemocratic. The Michigan governor joined other Democratic Party leaders in throwing her support behind Harris. “It’s hard to take the Republican criticism seriously because one day it’s, ‘Joe Biden shouldn’t be running’ and the next day it’s, ‘well, he should be running,’” she said Thursday. “Give me a break.” “I think it’s the right decision and that’s why we have a vice president,” Whitmer argued. “Kamala Harris has been his No. 2 for four years. No one should be surprised that if he steps away that she’s the one to step into the breach.”
“..by the time Obama called Biden, it was already clear Harris would receive Democratic leaders’ approval to run as the party’s candidate..”
• Obama Threatened Biden with 25th Amendment – Seymour Hersh (Sp.)
Former President Barack Obama threatened Joe Biden with removal from office under the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution if he did not withdraw from the presidential race, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed. Obama told Biden he had gotten the approval of Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the safeguard against presidential incapacity, Hersh wrote in a blog post on Substack. The journalist noted that, in accordance with the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, the US president may be removed from power in the event they are judged to no longer be able to carry out their duties, with the vice president stepping into the role.
Hersh claimed that by the time Obama called Biden, it was already clear Harris would receive Democratic leaders’ approval to run as the party’s candidate. Obama’s call to Biden came amid discontent among Democratic Party donors, who threatened to withhold funding over concerns about Biden’s health. The US presidential election will take place November 5. It was assumed Biden would again appear on the ballot, but figures within the party began to express concern after a widely-panned debate performance against former President Donald Trump in June. Biden announced his intention to drop out of the race July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee.
“..You can’t beat him. Get out. Get out. We want you out…We want you out of the race. You’re going to lose. We want to put somebody else in.’”
• Trump: Biden Was Ousted In A “Fascist Coup” (MN)
During an address to the Turning Point Summit on Friday, President Trump asserted that Joe Biden was forced to quit the presidential race by “fascists” who carried out a “coup.” Trump told the Florida crowd “As you know, five days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of the United States, Crooked Joe Biden. You know, I thought a lot about it. We defeated him.” Trump continued, “He was badly beaten. And, you know, everybody who was going to him said, ‘You can’t beat him. You’re not going to beat this guy. You can’t beat him. Get out. Get out. We want you out…We want you out of the race. You’re going to lose. We want to put somebody else in.’” Trump compared the situation to “a prizefighter,” explaining “He’s losing badly, ready to be knocked out. And they say, well, wait, let’s stop the fight. Let’s put somebody else in.”
“It doesn’t work that way. And it’s not supposed to work that way. And this really was a coup by the Democrats. This was a coup. Nothing else,” Trump emphasised. “He got 14 million votes,” Trump noted, referring to the Democratic primary, adding “I hate to stick up for Biden, but, you know, he didn’t want to do what he did. He said, ‘I’ll never go out. I’ll never, ever go out.’ About two days later, ‘I’m proud to go out.’” Trump further declared “the fascists went after him. They threatened him with the 25th Amendment.” “They said, we can do it the nice way or we can do it the hard way, Joe. That’s what happened. I know,” Trump added, referring to reports of what Nancy Pelosi said to Biden. Trump continued, “I know as many people on that side as I know on our side, so to speak. But that’s what happened. They said, we can do it the hard way. We can do it the easy way. 25th Amendment, if you don’t go. And he said, ‘Oh, I’ll go.’”
“And now they’re trying to make him into a brave hero. He’s so brave,” Trump concluded. Elsewhere during the speech, Trump highlighted how some leftists are saying it is ‘hateful’ to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name incorrectly. Trump proclaimed “there are numerous ways of saying her name. They were explaining to me, you can say Kamala, you can say Kamala. I said, don’t worry about it.” “It doesn’t matter what I say. I couldn’t care less if I mispronounce it or not. I couldn’t care less,” he urged. “Some people think I mispronounce it on purpose, but actually I’ve heard it said about seven different ways. There are a lot of ways. There are a lot of ways,” Trump told the audience.
Or will blind support of Netanyahu lead to WWIII?
• Harris Win Will Lead To WW3 – Trump (RT)
Should Kamala Harris win the US presidential election, “major wars” in the Middle East and “maybe a third world war” will break out, former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump has claimed. Trump has repeatedly accused Harris and President Joe Biden of dragging the US toward a global conflict. Speaking ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, Trump vowed that the Israel/Hamas war would “work out and very quickly” if he were to return to the White House.“If we don’t, you’re going to end up with major wars in the Middle East,” he continued. “And maybe a third world war. You are closer to a third world war right now than at any time since the Second World War. We’ve never been so close because we have incompetent people running the country.” Trump has leveled similar accusations at Biden and Harris since the Ukraine conflict began in 2022.
The former president has claimed that the conflict never would have started if he were in power, and promised to bring Moscow and Kiev to the negotiating table “in 24 hours” if elected in November. Netanyahu met with Trump at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, a day after meeting both Biden and Harris in Washington. Speaking to reporters after her face-to-face with the Israeli prime minister, Harris said that she “expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians.” Harris’ comments reportedly angered Netanyahu, with an aide to the Israeli leader telling Axios that the vice president was far less critical during the meeting. Trump was a staunch ally of Netanyahu during his time in the White House, imposing sanctions on Iran at Netanyahu’s request, moving the US Embassy in Israel to West Jerusalem, and brokering the Abraham Accords, which saw Israel normalize relations with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan.
However, this relationship soured after Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his electoral victory over Trump in 2020. “I haven’t spoken to [Netanyahu] since,” Trump told Israeli journalist Barak Ravid later that year. “F**k him.” Before Trump and Netanyahu embraced on the steps of Mar-a-Lago on Friday, Trump told Fox News that Israel must end its war in Gaza “fast,” as “they are getting decimated with this publicity, and you know Israel is not very good at public relations.” Earlier this week, the former president took to his Truth Social platform to share a letter he received from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who wished Trump “strength and safety” after the attempt on his life earlier this month. “Thank you. Everything will be good,” Trump replied to Abbas. Trump’s sharing of the letter was seen by some pundits as a move to gain leverage over Netanyahu.
“..the Democracy Institute, an independent American pollster, found that Trump would secure 48 percent of the popular vote versus Harris, who enjoys 40 percent support.”
• ‘Queen Kamala,’ Election Cheating & Money Grab (Sp.)
Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama backed Harris after a conspicuous pause that had prompted speculation about an internal power struggle within the Democratic Party. The New York Post on July 25 quoted a source close to the Biden family as saying that Barack Obama doesn’t think Kamala can win. “The Obamas likely received substantial assurances from Harris that, in the event of victory, Barack would play important roles guiding and selecting key players in the federal government,” Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik. “In the event of a Trump victory, the Obamas may have bargained for blanket pardons especially concerning ‘organization’ and ‘operation’ of several tax-exempt entities. In exchange, the Obamas will bring money and voters, though I fail to see them closing Kamala’s yawning enthusiasm gap. In fact, whenever and should Kamala appear with either Obama, she will come off weaker and inauthentic by comparison,” he continued.
Prior to Obama’s belated endorsement of Harris, some US political commentators and lawmakers suggested that the real game behind Barack’s hesitation could be aimed at igniting a “Draft Michelle Obama” movement into the forthcoming Democrat convention. With a strong vice presidential pick, Michelle could have higher odds of defeating the Republican contenders than Harris, Ortel presumed. He believes “Obama certainly understands that Harris is an insincere, incompetent manager and unsympathetic contender.” While the corporate press is now insisting that Kamala Harris is narrowing the gap with Trump, her victory is not a done deal. The latest New York Times/Siena College and Wall Street Journal polls claim that after Joe Biden stepped aside, Harris almost erased Trump’s lead. However, the Democracy Institute, an independent American pollster, found that Trump would secure 48 percent of the popular vote versus Harris, who enjoys 40 percent support.
[..] Biden’s campaign had spent $243 million through the end of June, according to FEC records, and continued to do so even after some liberal donors refused to continue funding in the wake of Joe’s deplorable performance in his debate against Trump. The setback did not stop Biden’s team from buying a whopping $35 million in ad time in July, according to Bloomberg. “National campaigns burn through enormous sums especially on advertising,” Ortel said. “Media corporations are key beneficiaries of this spending, so it seems that editors and ‘journalists’ are not driven to identify and explain such obvious conflicts of interest. Another factor is that very few candidates spend much of their own money on campaigns. So, the temptation to live large on the campaign trail (flying private and the like) is overwhelming.”
It appears that ailing Biden’s campaign was used by some as a source of financial bonanza, according to the analyst. What’s more, a large and fair question is when the Cabinet and White House staff first began to suspect Biden was suffering from diminished mental capacity, according to Ortel. “Who decided to shade the truth about Biden and then to treat him as a figurehead and who, actually, makes key decisions in the Biden administration?” the analyst asked. The Democracy Institute’s survey shows that 62 percent of American voters believe Harris knew about Joe Biden’s declining health for some time, but chose to cover it up, while only 31 percent believe she did not.
“..Trump said that he will “continue to do outdoor rallies,” and claimed that the Secret Service had “agreed to substantially step up their operation.”
• Trump To Return To Scene Of Shooting, Hold Rally (RT)
Former US President Donald Trump has announced that he will hold a “big and beautiful rally” in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was wounded in an assassination attempt earlier this month. Trump narrowly avoided death at a rally in Butler on July 13, when a would-be assassin’s bullet clipped his ear as it streaked past his head. Firing from a rooftop that the US Secret Service had inexplicably left unsecured, the 20-year-old gunman killed one spectator at the rally and wounded two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. The rally ended with cheers and chants of “USA” as Trump rose from behind his lectern and pumped his fist in the air, before he was led to safety by his security detail.
“I will be going back to Butler, Pennsylvania for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighting hero, Corey, and those brave patriots injured two weeks ago,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday. Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former firefighter, was fatally shot in the head during the attempted assassination. “What a day it will be – fight, fight, fight!” Trump continued, using the phrase he mouthed to supporters as he climbed to his feet after the shooting. “Stay tuned for details.” Trump did not reveal a date or location for the rally. The July 13 rally was held at the Butler Farm Show, a fairground near the city’s regional airport.
Following the shooting, Secret Service officials cautioned Trump against holding large-scale outdoor rallies, the Washington Post reported earlier this week. According to a separate report in the New York Times, the agency refused repeated requests from the Trump campaign to provide extra resources at these large events. In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said that he will “continue to do outdoor rallies,” and claimed that the Secret Service had “agreed to substantially step up their operation.” “No one can ever be allowed to stop or impede free speech or gathering,” the former president concluded.
I really had to think, too many cases, but this is the Stormy Daniels case. 2006. I still prefer the idea that it was Michael Cohen who was boinking Stormy, and paying her for it with Trump’s money.
• Manhattan DA Argues Trump Case Not Affected By SCOTUS Immunity Ruling (ZH)
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has argued in a new court filing that former President Trump’s criminal case and guilty verdict are not affected by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. “That decision has no bearing on this prosecution and would not support vacatur of the jury’s unanimous verdict (let alone dismissal of the indictment) even if its reasoning did apply here,” reads a July 24 brief from Bragg’s team. Earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for core constitutional conduct, presumptive immunity for official acts, but no immunity for unofficial acts – which Bragg has seized on in his response to a Trump filing asking New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to toss Trump’s indictment, arguing that communications between Trump and his aides have been used as evidence before the grand jury which indicted Trump and a jury which returned a guilty verdict.
According to Bragg’s team, all of the criminal charges in Trump’s ‘hush money’ case “stem from the defendant’s ‘unofficial acts’ – conduct for which ‘there is no immunity.'” As the Epoch Times notes further, the affected evidence is only a “sliver” if the “mountains of testimony and documentary proof that the jury considered,” therefore not warranting dismissal. Prosecutors had relied on testimony of White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and Oval Office Director of Operations Madeleine Westerhout to establish that President Trump had signed Trump Organization checks at the White House. Defense attorneys had raised presidential immunity objections to Ms. Hicks’s testimony, and Justice Merchan had overruled the objections. The defense had also objected during Ms. Westerhout’s testimony, but not specifically citing presidential immunity.
Prosecutors had also shown several social media posts made by President Trump during his time in office, some directly addressing allegations after his former attorney Michael Cohen was charged for financial crimes. Defense attorneys had objected to the admission of these quotes, but not on the basis of presidential immunity. Prosecutors argue defendants failed to preserve a record of objections based on immunity for official acts, and this “precludes this Court from considering any claim to vacate his conviction.” Prior to the trial, attorneys for President Trump did file a presidential immunity motion. Justice Merchan had dismissed the motion, ruling that defense attorneys could make individual objections against the admission of specific evidence during the trial and that he did not believe the motion was filed in good faith.
The judge had faulted defendants for not raising presidential immunity earlier, including during an attempt to remove the case to federal court. Prosecutors now argue that the defense “waived reliance on presidential immunity as a defense” when they tried to remove the case to federal court. They cited a separate, civil case against former President Trump in which a federal judge had ruled that presidential immunity was a waivable defense. However, the U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion held presidential immunity to be necessary to the core principle of separation of powers. Former President Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, and prosecutors argued that even excluding the contested evidence, the grand jury evidence establishes these charges.
The 34 records are 11 checks to Mr. Cohen and their corresponding invoices and vouchers, including one repeated record after the initial one was lost. Prosecutors argue that the grand jury record establishes that these are business records, that they contain false entries, that former President Trump caused or made the entries, and that he “acted with intent to defraud.” “Even excluding all of the evidence defendant belatedly identifies as immune, the grand jury record is easily sufficient to support the indictment,” the brief reads. Justice Merchan has scheduled former President Trump’s sentencing in the case to Sept. 18. The judge is expected to issue a ruling on the presidential immunity arguments by then.
Lots of bitcoin today. Things are shifting in a big way. First, RFK Jr:
• US Treasury Should Buy, Hold Bitcoin as Strategic Asset – RFK Jr (Sp.)
Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would make all US-held Bitcoin a strategic asset if elected, a Sputnik correspondent reports. “I intend as the President of the United States to sign an executive order on day one directing the Department of Justice and the US Marshals to transfer approximately 200,000 Bitcoin held by the US government to the United States Treasury … for the strategic assets,” Kennedy said speaking at the main stage of the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville Friday.
Kennedy added he would issue a second executive order instructing “the US Treasury to purchase 550 Bitcoin daily until the US holds in reserves of at least 4 million Bitcoins.” The candidate expressed support for Former President Donald Trump’s proposal to hold a portion of the United States’ reserves in Bitcoin and said he hopes Trump’s interest in the currency extends beyond politics. Trump is set to address the conference Saturday. Bitcoin’s price increased to nearly $68,000 Friday morning in anticipation of Trump’s speech.
Then, a very long piece by Tyler et al, which they kept adding to while I was already formatting it for TAE. Ergo, cut into 3 pieces.
I’m still wondering to what extent Trump understands Bitcoin.
• Trump Promises To Make USA The “Bitcoin Super-Power Of The World” (ZH)
In a spirited keynote address, Former President Trump promised to make USA the “bitcoin super-power of the world,” ensuring that cryptocurrency is “mined, minted, and made in the USA.” “We have to talk about Bitcoin. Our country is blessed with the extraordinary talent and genius in this room. This spirit built America and will help us make it great again. I admire what the Bitcoin community has achieved. In just 15 years, Bitcoin has gone from an idea to the 9th most valuable asset in the world. It’s already bigger than ExxonMobil and soon it will surpass the market cap of silver. That’s a big deal.” He went on with some big promises: “I pledge the day I take office the weaponization against Bitcoin ends.” “On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler and appoint a new SEC Chairman.” “I will immediately shutdown Operation Chokepoint 2.0”.
Trump also confirmed that he will appoint a crypto advisory council with “regulations written by industry-loving people within 100 days.” Trump also confirmed that “there will never be a CBDC” while he is president. “Those who say that bitcoin is a threat to the dollar have it exactly backwards, the danger to our financial future comes from Washington DC not crypto.” Additionally, the former president pointing out that “Bitcoiners understand inflation better than anyone. You all understood it first.” Promising to ‘drill, baby, drill’, Trump notes that with low energy costs the USA will become the undisputed bitcoin mining center of the world. Finally, Trump dropped the big guns: “The policy of the Trump administration will be to keep 100% of all that it currently holds as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” and confirmed his promise to commute the sentence of Russ Ulbricht to time-served.
Trump could have been woken up by this from RFK Jr: “..[the US] Bitcoin reserve would eventually reach a value of “hundreds of trillions of dollars..”
Who could have seen this coming?
Crypto is now a political issue (Dems want to crush it) and GOP will use that in 2024. https://t.co/k26pn0vO5T
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 13, 2023
In the sixteen months since, we have seen a seismic shift in attitudes towards crypto from both Independents and Republicans; while Democrats continue to demonize the sovereign currency. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the role Bitcoin could play in improving the US economy and the American way of life as he spoke to an audience at the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 26. He promised to sign a number of executive orders on his first day in office to begin the process. Kennedy would sign an order requiring the US Justice Department and US Marshalls to transfer the 204,000 Bitcoin held by the US to the Federal Reserve to be held as a “strategic asset,” he said. Furthermore, Kennedy said he would also order the Treasury Department to purchase 500 Bitcoin daily until the reserve reaches at least four million BTC. The United States would attain “a position of dominance no other country will be able to usurp” and its Bitcoin reserve would eventually reach a value of “hundreds of trillions of dollars,” he promised.
In addition, CoinTelegraph’s Derek Andersen reports that Kennedy would order the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to treat all transactions between Bitcoin and the US dollar as nonreportable and nontaxable. He would also order the IRS to treat Bitcoin as eligible for exchange into real property under the 1031 Exchange program, which provides incentives for real estate investment. “Transactional freedom [is] as important as freedom of expression in the 1st Amendment,” Kennedy said, and Bitcoin can provide that freedom and help restore the United States economy to its condition before President Richard Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard to fund the Vietnam war. Kennedy added: “Fiat currency was invented to fund war. […] If the world was on a BTC standard, there would be no more war because you can’t print Bitcoin.”
“I understand that tomorrow President Trump may announce his plan to build a Bitcoin Fort Knox and authorize the US government to buy a million Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset,” Kennedy told the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Friday, a day before Trump was scheduled to speak at the same event. “And I applaud that announcement.” However, most notable is the shift seen by former President Trump from his initial comments in 2019.. “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated cryptoassets can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
[..] Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee adopted an ambitious platform to promote innovation in the US’ digital assets industry and protect the rights of bitcoin holders. For one, the official platform pledges that the Republicans will “defend the right to mine bitcoin.” This represents a much-needed departure from the policies of the incumbent administration. In February this year, the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued an “emergency” survey to bitcoin mining companies, demanding highly sensitive information such as the specifications of the machines being used, the specific locations of their mining operations, and contractual information relating to their commercial energy partners. The EIA not only demanded all of this information but pledged to publish even the most commercially sensitive bits of it.
This initiative represented an unprecedented intrusion into the activities of Bitcoin miners and a massive assault on the crypto industry. It prompted organizations such as the Texas Blockchain Council to launch legal proceedings to try and protect the rights of the crypto industry against federal outreach. The Republicans’ pledge to “defend the right to mine bitcoin” is therefore very welcome. There are other encouraging pledges that the Republicans have made. The GOP has said they will “ensure every American has the right to self-custody their digital assets and transact free from government surveillance and control.” They have also come out strongly against the idea of a CBDC. “Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency,” the party has said. Of course, all of this is highly encouraging for digital asset industry advocates. But it still begs the question. What caused President Trump to change his mind and start embracing the massive potential of digital assets and decentralized finance?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817294609070030945
But Vivek will have been Trump’s no. 1 source (get him a big cabinet post). And then came JD Vance.
• Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump and Bitcoin (ZH)
What caused President Trump to change his mind and start embracing the massive potential of digital assets and decentralized finance? How has this pro-digital asset agenda vaulted into the limelight of Presidential politics? If there is one man who has contributed more than anybody else to changing Republicans’ mind on crypto, it is Vivek Ramaswamy. The former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur is clearly having increasing amounts of influence on the GOP inner circle. At the Republican Convention this month, Donald Trump Jr joked that he would like Ramaswamy to be his running mate in 2036. Indeed, ever since his presidential bid last year, it is clear that he has been one of the leading voices at the upper echelons of the Republicans guiding the party in a more pro-crypto direction.
Ramaswamy made waves in GOP circles when, at the North American Blockchain Summit in Texas last year, he released a detailed and comprehensive plan for the US crypto space. What did he pledge to do? Perhaps the most eye-catching measure was his promise to fire most of the employees at the bloated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and order the rest to stop trying to bully the crypto industry. Importantly, Ramaswamy defines many cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as commodities that are therefore not under the jurisdiction of the SEC.
“I think it’s nothing short of embarrassing that Gary Gensler, the current leader of the SEC, in front of Congress could not even say whether Ethereum counted as a regulated security or not,” Ramaswamy said during one of the Republican debates last year. “This is just another example of the administrative state gone too far.” Ramaswamy has been a vocal advocate for innovation in the crypto space and the use of decentralized digital currencies as a tool for financial freedom. He has argued that the right to code should be a right protected by the First Amendment, protecting developers from the overreaches of federal agencies. He has also said that consumers should have a right to possess self-hosted digital wallets beyond the grasp of the government. This has now been explicitly adopted by the Republicans for their 2024 election campaign, showing the practical influence Ramaswamy is having on Republican policy.
[..] arguably the most important impactful of Ramaswamy’s crypto activism is to persuade the broader Republican Party that supporting crypto innovation is in line with their political philosophy and natural instincts. He has powerfully argued that the current federal assault on the crypto industry is “an embodiment of our national decline” in the way it represents an attack on innovation and entrepreneurship, two values the Republicans have always claimed to hold dear. Ramaswamy has similarly noted that Bitcoin mining is “a frontier in American innovation” in the same tradition as American heroes such as Thomas Jefferson – who Ramaswamy thinks “would have been a Bitcoin miner.” This rhetoric seems to have worked in convincing President Trump and Republican leaders that they should indeed be the pro-bitcoin party.
Another key emerging figure in the Republican party who is of a similar mind on digital assets as Vivek is Trump’s recent VP pick, J.D. Vance. Senator Vance is vocal about his support for bitcoin and digital assets and has a background in tech venture capital. He is young and he understands the importance of courting younger votes. So, what will “four more years” of President Trump mean for the US digital asset industry? Let’s end as we started, with another quote from the President – one that shows, thanks to the efforts of Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Vance and others, just how much the Republican stance on crypto has changed over the last few years. “I will end Joe Biden’s war on crypto. We will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in America.” “If Trump is elected, the U.S. will have to add Bitcoin as a reserve, because it is digital gold,” said Arseniy Grusha, chief executive officer of data-center firm Dataprana, who attended the conference. “The earlier they do that, the better it will be for the United States.”
This will be the fall of Europe.
“..with every day that the war rages on, Ukraine’s prospects of maintaining a sovereign and reasonably functional state diminish..”
• Europe’s Path to War and Self-Destruction (Scheidler)
Brussels is working hard to boycott Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s EU Council Presidency. The background: Orbán’s trips to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing, which were aimed at negotiating a ceasefire agreement, are infuriating EU leaders and the governments in Berlin, Paris and other capitals. There is certainly a lot that can be said against the right-wing Hungarian head of state and Trump friend, who is responsible for a whole series of rule of law deficits in his home country. But to accuse him of a diplomatic initiative that other member states have so far been unwilling or unable to take shows how far the EU has moved away from its former claim to be a force for peace. The fact that at the highest level of the Union, the bypassing of essential EU rules such as the rotation of the Council presidency is seriously considered in order to punish Orbán for his travels is a portent for the future of the Union.
It is remarkable that the EU, which could be completely devastated by a possible escalation of the war in Ukraine, is not only doing nothing to avert this danger and stop the killing, but is also undermining the diplomatic attempts of a member state. It has long been known that Ukraine cannot win the war and that it is – at best – a stalemate. This was already clearly stated in November 2022 by the then Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, and a year later by the supreme commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valery Zalushnyi. Since then, with every day that the war rages on, Ukraine’s prospects of maintaining a sovereign and reasonably functional state diminish. But the EU does not want to acknowledge this simple reality. As its first official act, the new EU Parliament passed a resolution on July 17 vowing to provide military support to Ukraine until all occupied territories are recaptured, regardless of how long this takes (i.e. how many people die in the process).
You don’t have to be a military expert to understand that the complete reconquest of the Donbass and Crimea is a completely unrealistic perspective, if only because of the massive recruitment problems of the Ukrainian military. However, the resolution goes even further: it “strongly advocates for the removal of restrictions on the use of Western weapons systems delivered to Ukraine against military targets on Russian territory”. The EU Parliament thus explicitly hazards a Europe-wide escalation, including the possibility of nuclear war. It also calls on all member states to permanently provide at least 0.25 of their economic output for the rearmament of Ukraine (in addition to increasing their own military budgets), to train more Ukrainian soldiers and to “boost” their arms industries. Furthermore, the resolution endorses the “irreversible path of Ukraine to NATO membership”, echoing the wording of the earlier NATO summit. It thus closes the door for any settlement based on future Ukrainian neutrality. Diplomatic initiatives are not mentioned at all.
The resolution is testimony to a highly dangerous mixture of escapism from reality and unbridled militarism, reminiscent of the time of the “sleepwalkers” before the outbreak of the First World War. And yet it’s all over town that only negotiations offer a way out. Even Volodimir Selensky himself said after the failed Swiss peace summit, to which the Russian Federation was not invited, that Russia should be involved in talks next time. The much-vaunted argument that it is impossible to negotiate with someone like Vladimir Putin has long been refuted. Intensive negotiations took place between the two sides from the end of February to the beginning of April 2022 under Turkish mediation, which resulted in a 10-point plan that provided for Ukraine to renounce its NATO membership and for Russia to withdraw to the lines of February 23, 2022. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also conducted secret negotiations at the time, in which the heads of state of Russia and Ukraine were involved. However, the negotiations were broken off after the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev on April 9. According to everything we know from (pro-Western) media reports, Johnson’s message at the time was that Ukraine should stop negotiating and continue fighting.
Still today, more than two years and many tens of thousands of deaths later, the EU states have committed themselves to a senseless program of rearmament and confrontation instead of diplomacy. Following the decisions taken at the NATO summit in Washington D.C., new medium-range missiles that can be equipped with nuclear warheads are to be stationed in Germany – for the first time since the 1980s. Instead of making Germany any safer, this will turn the country all the more into a potential target for attacks in the event of an escalation. There was no public debate or involvement of the German parliament on this momentous step. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose social-democratic party achieved just 13.9 percent in the EU elections and whose legitimacy has been massively weakened, has rubber-stamped another wave of armament with a wave of his hand. The possibility of reviving the INF Treaty on the dismantling and prohibition of medium-range missiles in Europe, which was signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 and terminated by Donald Trump in 2019, has thus been abandoned.
Snowden
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816950008828272966
Tigermom
Isabella, the golden retriever who became the mom of three tiger cubs at the Safari Zoological Park, Kansas.pic.twitter.com/k6eCF7DIrO
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 27, 2024
Giraffe
This giraffe noticing a gazelle having trouble with a tree branch stuck in its horn, helping remove itpic.twitter.com/eh4dzPYLB1
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 27, 2024
Smart friends
https://twitter.com/i/status/1816814461488861637
Frens
https://twitter.com/i/status/1817233571238617530
Jordan
If you don’t think you believe in God, listen to this clip of @jordanbpeterson on @joerogan.
It’s become clear to me that I have always believed in God. pic.twitter.com/AXmuVKeJC0
— Viva Frei (@thevivafrei) July 27, 2024
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