Pieter Bruegel the Elder Children’s games 1560
Free speech
https://twitter.com/i/status/1832786512422764937
Tucker Cheney
Tucker Carlson says Dick Cheney supports Kamala Harris because they are both "neocons" who believe "it's okay to kill people in order to get rich."
"What they actually care about is the ability to continue to fight pointless wars because that's where all the money is. If you… pic.twitter.com/Jr5q3WnoJL
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 7, 2024
Burgum
Doug Burgum details how Trump’s idea to build a sovereign wealth fund by selling energy will lead to vast sums of cash and a higher standard of living for Americans.
This should get you excited. We’re going to start prospering again. pic.twitter.com/9la1jRMYuy
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) September 8, 2024
Google prohibits ads with the image of Donald Trump. Change the image to Kamala Harris and it works. Election interference. pic.twitter.com/z6zOHTBbzs
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) September 8, 2024
Judge Joe Brown
This is a must listen. Judge Joe Brown absolutely destroys Kamala Harris. Calls her a media crafted fraud.
Says she financed her 2004 run with money she got from positions Willie Brown appointed her too.
Goes through her actual record as DA which indicates that she is not… pic.twitter.com/EJ8qrKApsq
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) September 8, 2024
Sen. John Kennedy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1832757264869896389
Dinesh
Trailer for my new film VINDICATING TRUMP. In theaters nationwide September 27. Tickets go on sale shortly, but you can sign up now for email updates at https://t.co/ChR8V16XZw. Please WATCH and SHARE. pic.twitter.com/1rTmgitw3D
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) September 9, 2024
He also prepped Hillary in 2016. We know how that went.
They’ll try to trigger Trump. It’s all they got.
• Harris Team Drafts Trump Stand-in For Debate Prep – WaPo (RT)
US Vice President Kamala Harris has spent several days intensively preparing for the upcoming presidential debate against Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump, the Washington Post wrote on Monday. Harris’ team has brought in a longtime Democratic operative to ‘play’ Trump during the sessions, the report said. Harris and Trump are set for their first face-off on Tuesday night, an event held at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center and hosted by ABC News. According to the Post, Harris has made few public appearances in recent days, instead spending most of them instead at an intensive “debate camp” in Pittsburgh’s Omni William Penn Hotel. Her aides have reportedly created a mock set-up to mimic the layout of the debate studio.
They also “cast a veteran Donald Trump stand-in to unleash harsh attacks and offensive comments; and put the vice president through hours of rehearsed questions,” the paper wrote. That stand-in is Philippe Reines, a longtime Hillary Clinton aide. Reines had initially been enlisted to play Senator J.D. Vance when Harris was set to face him in the vice-presidential debate before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. “Now that Harris has ascended to the top of the ticket and will face Trump, Reines has stayed on to play the former president, reprising the role he played for Clinton during her 2016 debate preparations,” the paper wrote. Trump, who on Tuesday will participate in his seventh general election debate since 2016, appears to have taken a different approach to debate prep.
According to the Post, the former president spent much of the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, opting for “policy sessions” with aides. The Republican nominee does not like the public perception that he is practicing at all, according to his advisers, the Post said. Those aides said Trump views rallies and interviews as the best preparation for the debate. Trump’s debate with the 81-year-old Biden in June ended the latter’s campaign on July 21 amid widespread concern about his age and fitness for office. The stumbling debate performance against Trump and numerous gaffes led to Biden’s withdrawal from the race and his endorsement of Harris. She formally accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination at its national convention in Chicago last month. The vice president has this week suffered a fall in the polls for the first time since becoming her party’s presidential candidate. A New York Times/Siena poll released on Sunday showed Trump edging out Harris 48% to 47% among likely voters nationally.
“I believe strongly in everybody’s right to prioritize whatever they like in their lives. We used to call that freedom and, in this country, it’s supposed to be sacrosanct…”
• There’s No Debate (Quoth the Raven)
As the news trucks and security details begin lining the streets of my neighborhood in Philadelphia, obstructing traffic and causing general chaos over the next few days leading into tomorrow’s debate, part of me wonders if I’m being crass and partisan when I shrug and wonder what there is to actually debate. As I wrote about last week, the substance of what Kamala Harris is going to bring to the debate stage tomorrow night will have very little to do with policy and will instead likely rely on jabs about Trump’s personality, mistruths about media hoaxes like Charlottesville, and statements ascribing to Trump things he has publicly disavowed, like Project 2025. This gaslighting campaign will likely be combined with strategic flip-flopping to acquiesce to policy positions that were Trump’s to begin with. We’ve already seen this leading into the debate.
First, it was stealing the “no tax on tips” policy, then it was reversing her stance on fracking, then it was claiming she’s not for an electric vehicle mandate, and then it was using photographs of Trump’s border wall in advertisements, claiming she is tough on immigration. It would be hilarious, if it wasn’t instead deeply, deeply sad for our country. The cold, hard facts are that when it comes to policy, there is no debate – and so tomorrow turns mostly into an exercise on how to run a crisis public relations campaign by Kamala Harris while Trump does what he always does: bludgeons his way forward ruthlessly. Trump will say what he’s been saying for the better part of a decade, with little change, and Harris will attempt to present a $2,500/hour McKinsey consulting, focus group approved, slide deck book report on a book she clearly hasn’t read.
As I said to Andy Schectman on our podcast this weekend, I can understand voting for a Democrat if your number one priority is abortion. If the right to be able to get an abortion in all 50 states at any time, for any reason, is the most important thing in your life, it makes sense to me that you would vote Democrat. Even though Trump reportedly won’t push for a national abortion ban and has taken the stand that he only wants to move the decision back to the states, there is still a significant amount of “my body, my choice” fear after the Roe vs. Wade repeal, ironically, from many people on the left who were perfectly fine with trampling on people’s rights to travel, work and otherwise live their lives due to vaccine mandates. I don’t pretend to understand how that could outweigh all the numerous other issues that would heavily impact our quality of life for some people.
I believe strongly in everybody’s right to prioritize whatever they like in their lives. We used to call that freedom and, in this country, it’s supposed to be sacrosanct. And so there’s my one concession for the left side of the aisle: abortion. When it comes to almost every other major key issue, when understood properly, to me there really is no debate. There’s no doubt that the country experienced an incredible surge in illegal immigration over the last four years under the Biden-Harris regime. If you are pro-undocumented, illegal immigrants, who rely on taxpayer cash to get by and who take jobs and opportunities from both existing citizens and legal immigrants, then I argue that you don’t understand the problem well enough. Emotionally, it’s a lovely gesture to say something like “no human being is illegal,” but when Haitians start taking over your small town, cutting the heads off of park geese to eat them, while sleeping on mattresses on your front lawn or living in 5-star hotels on taxpayer cash, the reality of a country bloated with illegal immigrants becomes clearer.
On the issue, there really is no comparison: Kamala Harris was not tough on the border and, on the contrary, actively fought against Texas when they tried to secure their own border. Though his rhetoric may be uncomfortable to some emotional amoebae who have little understanding of how the real world works, Donald Trump kept the country secure and made the border a top priority to his presidency. To me, there’s no debate on who handled this issue better.
“..in America law is a shield of the people, but that the Democrats have turned it into a weapon in the hands of the state..”
• Suggestions for Trump in His Debate with Kamala (Paul Craig Roberts)
Now that a debate is back on schedule for Tuesday September 10, I have these suggestions for Trump: Trump must leave Kamala alone and address issues whether or not she does. If he attacks Kamala, certainly a target, American women will vote against him. Trump should stress the open border problem with immigrant-invader gangs now seizing apartment houses and homes in blue jurisdictions, and with hotels, motels, school gyms, and bus and airport terminals full of immigrant-invaders who have no where to go except to the existing housing stock where illegal occupancy in blue jurisdictions is merely a “landlord-tenant issue.” You go pick up your kid from school and on your return your home is occupied by armed immigrant-invaders. The police tell you that it is not a police matter. Trump should have the news reports at hand.
Trump should stress that pushing against Russia and China invites nuclear war that threatens the entire world and has to stop. The power of nuclear weapons leaves no room for cultivating hostility between countries. Trump should say that Israel has hurt its reputation by its unrestrained assault on Gaza and the West bank and is making it difficult for America to continue its unconditional support of its ally. Israel needs to understand that there are limits on what Washington can support. Trump should emphasize that in America law is a shield of the people, but that the Democrats have turned it into a weapon in the hands of the state, a weapon unjustly used against the many who are in prison for attending a Trump rally. He should stress that a rule of law cannot be partisan.
Trump should say that the US economy needs more balance than it has between Wall Street’s and billionaire’s gains and the incomes of the rest of the people. Trump should ignore, not respond to, the “moderator” and questioners and speak directly to Americans without acknowledging hostile questioners. When it is his turn to speak, he should say what needs to be said and ignore loaded questions designed to paint a target on him. Trump must contain his aggressive and combative style, address the issues that threaten us and not make the usual political promises that indicate just another pandering politician buying votes. He should say that if elected, what he can do also depends on who voters put in the House and Senate. If he is hamstrung with a Democrat Congress, he will be deterred by another four years of false accusations and impeachments.
The Democrats and the media have been studying Trump’s personality and know how to provoke him into a rage that the presstitutes can then use to portray him as angry, intolerant, unstable. Trump must not play into their hands. If Trump follows these suggestions, it will be difficult for the Democrats to again steal the election as most Americans will know that there is nothing in a candidate with these positions not to like.
If you’re an academic, you may actually think you matter..
• Professors Rally Academics Around ‘Less Bad’ Candidate Trump (Caldwell)
University professors have started a petition for academics to rally behind Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. The petition statement, a project of Professor Daniel Klein of George Mason University and Daniel Mahoney, professor emeritus of political science at Assumption University, encourages scholars to support the Republican candidate. As of Thursday, 51 professors had signed it. The list so far represents a mix of emeritus and current scholars from both private and public universities, including well known institutions and state schools. Titled “Lesser Evil,” it emphasizes the founding principle of individual liberty while decrying big government, and affirms the Declaration of Independence’s exaltation of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as the “chief aims of good governance.”
According to Klein, Republicans are more predisposed to oppose stark centralization, hence his support for what he deems the “lesser evil”: the Republican presidential candidate. “Except for a few odd places and a very few odd units on a few campuses, academia is a leftist apparatus. Academia continues to get worse,” Klein told The College Fix in a recent email. In his estimation, “it is less than 10 percent of professors who think R > D.” The petition comes amid concerns over ideological diversity on college campuses. Reports by The Fix and others have found university faculty lean heavily Democrat. Since The Fix’s first contact with Klein in late August, the number of signatures has doubled. The list will continue to be updated with new signatures through the November election. “The initiative might help the Republicans to win, and certainly can’t hurt,” Klein said.
To emphasize the crux of their message, the professors included a graphic on the petition website, “Democrats bad, Republicans less bad,” that breaks down where the two parties stand on various issues, including taxes, religious liberty, censorship, asset forfeiture, and energy policy. Continuing, Klein told The Fix other reasons for the project are “(1) To normalize the voicing of the R > D opinion within academia. (2) To get my fellow classical liberals to face up to their responsibility to decide whether R > D or D > R, as well as their responsibilities, to come to that decision virtuously and to be frank and open about holding their opinion.” If the petition succeeds in getting professors to re-think their political leanings, it could cultivate a more amicable atmosphere for right-leaning students and professors. Klein, however, said conservatives shouldn’t hold their breath.
“..US sanctions “don’t need to be lifted, they need to be bypassed.”
• Trump Repeats Putin Bribe (Helmer)
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has repeated his promise to end the Ukraine war the day after his re-election with a bribe for President Vladimir Putin and his two pro-American constituencies, the Central Bank of Russia and the Russian oligarchs. Applauded by an audience of New York lawyers and businessmen on Thursday afternoon, September 5, Trump answered a question from a Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer, Rodgin Cohen, who asked if Trump “would strengthen or modify any of these economic sanctions, particularly Russia.” Trump replied that sanctions “ultimately kill the dollar and kill everything the dollar represents. We have to continue to have that be the world currency…I think that if we lose the dollar as the world currency, I think that would be the equivalent of losing a war. That would make us a third world country…you’re losing Iran; you’re losing Russia.China is out there trying to get their currency to be the dominant one…I want to use sanctions as little as possible.”
Instead, Trump proposed penalty tariffs on hostile-country trade with the US. “I stopped wars with the threat of tariffs…The biggest threat you have is that you lose that [dominant] currency, and we have lost something we can never get back…. If we win [on November 5], I believe I can settle that war while I am president-elect, before I ever get into office… Sanctions have to be used very judiciously. We have things much more powerful, actually, than sanctions – we have trade [tariffs] but we cannot lose our dollar standard. Very important.”. The mainstream US media have not reported what Trump said. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Post – all supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in their campaign coverage – ignored the Economic Club meeting entirely. The Hill, a Washington-based publication for political specialists, headlined its report, “5 takeaways from Trump’s economic address in New York”, but the report didn’t include the sanctions proposal.
The next day, September 6, the New York Times reported Trump at a rally in Wisconsin: “though American spy agencies have assessed that the Kremlin favors Mr. Trump, the former president made light of President Vladimir V. Putin’s apparently sarcastic [sic] statement recently that he supported Ms. Harris. ‘He endorsed Kamala,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘I was very offended by that. I wonder why he endorsed Kamala. No, he’s a chess player.’” RT, the Russian state propaganda organ, did not notice Trump’s remarks on sanctions. But it reported his next-day attack on Putin for endorsing Harris, emphasizing, like the Times about Putin, that Trump was speaking tongue in cheek. Last week in New York Trump was rehearsing presentation of his economic policies ahead of the television debate with Harris scheduled for Tuesday.
He was also repeating the “limited sanctions relief” proposal recommended to Trump in April by his former staffers, US Army Lieutenant-General (retired) Keith Kellogg and Frederick Fleitz, a 19-year CIA official and race war fighter. In Moscow there have been several signals of Putin’s readiness to negotiate on Trump’s terms. The president’s deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kirienko, told a group of Kremlin officials and consultants working on US election propaganda in 2022 that the US sanctions “don’t need to be lifted, they need to be bypassed.”
“..started asking questions about whether this was a good deal and it was at that point that it fell apart..”
• Nuland Confirms West Told Zelensky To Abandon Peace Deal (RT)
Kiev consulted with the US, UK and other allies during the 2022 Istanbul peace talks with Russia and was told that the deal on the table was not a good one, former US under secretary of state Victoria Nuland has said. In an interview with Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, former editor-in-chief of the opposition news channel Dozhd, which aired on Thursday, Nuland was asked to comment on reports that the peace process between Moscow and Kiev in late March and early April 2022 collapsed after then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled to Ukraine and told Vladimir Zelensky to keep fighting.
“Relatively late in the game the Ukrainians began asking for advice on where this thing was going and it became clear to us, clear to the Brits, clear to others that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s main condition was buried in an annex to this document that they were working on,” she said of the deal being discussed by the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Türkiye’s largest city. The proposed agreement included limits on the kinds of weapons that Kiev could possess, as a result of which Ukraine “would basically be neutered as a military force,” while there were no similar constraints on Russia, the former diplomat explained. “People inside Ukraine and people outside Ukraine started asking questions about whether this was a good deal and it was at that point that it fell apart,” Nuland said.
Wow! Nuland basically admits that Ukraine-Russia peace deal, which was close to being finalized in spring 2022, “fell apart” because US, UK & other Western governments “advised” Zelensky government that it was not “good deal” even though even members of Ukrainian delegation… pic.twitter.com/HPsrpOzQNf
— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) September 8, 2024
“Somewhere in that double negative, journalism perished.”
• Democrats Aren’t Creating Disorder; They’re Preserving it (Turley)
In 1968, in the midst of Democratic convention riots, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley famously declared, “The policeman isn’t there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.” Democratic state election officials appear to have adopted a similar approach to the upcoming election. In states such as North Carolina and Michigan, Democrats are fighting to keep the name of Robert Kennedy, Jr. on the ballot even though he withdrew from the race and endorsed former president Donald Trump. These are key states where the misplacement of even 1 percent of votes could turn the outcome of not just the state but the entire election. In Michigan, Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson recently fought to keep third-party candidate Cornel West off the ballot. Unlike Kennedy, who is viewed as likely to drain votes from Trump, West is viewed as pulling votes from Vice President Kamala Harris, particularly among those opposed to her policies toward Israel.
A court ruled against Benson and said that she was adopting an artificially narrow interpretation to keep Kennedy on the ballot. In North Carolina, where Trump and Harris are in a statistical tie, Democrats also refused to remove Kennedy’s name. An appellate court this week ordered them to do so to avoid the obvious confusion for voters. Recently, the same Democratic officials sought to block West from the ballot due to his campaign causing “partisan mischief.” These efforts are being pursued in other states such as Wisconsin (another key state), where Democrats on the election board blocked a Republican effort to remove Kennedy’s name. In Michigan and North Carolina, officials have the distinction of fighting to keep a popular candidate from the ballot while fighting to retain a non-existent candidate. It is all in the name of protecting democracy from itself.
Previously, Democrats in Florida and North Carolina fought to block other Democrats from appearing on primary ballots. Candidates like Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), author Marianne Williamson and commentator Cenk Uygur faced concerted campaigns by election officials and advocates to prevent voters from having a choice in the primary. After preventing a meaningful primary and securing the nomination for President Biden, Democrats later handed the nomination to Harris without a single vote from a single primary voter. Democratic activists are now calling it an election by “acclamation,” like a political version of the immaculate conception in which a candidate is simply conceived by the party elite. It is enough to make the Chinese Central Committee blush.
Harris was then walled off from the media to avoid any unscripted interactions, including by putting earbuds in her ears in what many called a clearly fake call to avoid press questions. At the same time, Democratic supporters are now arguing that it is not necessary for Harris to offer detailed plans or agree to interviews in a campaign that is selling “joy” and “good vibes” like political valium. Others appear to believe that saving democracy means holding Harris to a different, more deferential standard. New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to defend treating Harris differently: “I think the challenge, not just for journalists, but really for the country, is that not only is Donald Trump a threat, but, you know, it lowers the bar. So, I don’t think it’s unacceptable,” she said. Somewhere in that double negative, journalism perished.
“Musk has proven the single greatest barrier to the global anti-free speech movement.”
• The Prosecution of Elon Musk for “Undermining” the Federal Government (Turley)
Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee this weekend went on MSNBC’s “Last Word” and called for the arrest of Elon Musk for “undermining” the federal government by sharing his opinions on X. McNamee is the latest denizen of the global elite to call for criminalizing speech to silence those with opposing views.McNamee is the founding partner of Elevation Partners and has a colorful history as a band member, a volunteer for Eugene McCarthy and a protester against Vietnam. As discussed in my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage”, he is like many liberal baby boomers now joining the anti-free speech movement. They have decided that free speech, once the defining right for the left, is now an existential threat.
McNamee’s rationale for criminalizing speech is chillingly shallow and irrational. He declared that somehow Musk’s political views made him a danger as the head of companies of major importance to the United States. It does not bother him when CEOs adopt far left views, just Musk opposing some of those views: “You have somebody who runs a really strategic defense and aerospace projects for the federal government who’s actively undermining the government that’s paying him. And somewhere in that is a legal case that needs to be prosecuted.” Perish the thought that a CEO might undermine the government. McNamee is using the government contracts with SpaceX as a reason to censor Musk’s political and social views.
“The critical element in thinking about Elon Musk is that, like any American, he has a right to his own opinion, and he has a right to express his opinion. However, that right is not unlimited. He is under some special limitations that would not apply to normal people because his company, specifically Starlink and SpaceX are government contractors and, as such, he has obligations to the government that would, for any normal person, and should for him, require him to moderate his speech in the interest of national security.” So, according to McNamee, if your company makes something that the government wants (including rescuing the currently stranded astronauts in space), he must give up his right to express political views, including against censorship. McNamee embraces the power of the government to dictate viewpoints or at least silence certain views as a matter of national security. It is no accident that the overriding objective is to “get Musk.” Musk has proven the single greatest barrier to the global anti-free speech movement.
Trump Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1832818848485011566
“A witty woman of the time commented: “If we weighed the votes, Monsieur Hugo would be elected; but we’re counting them.”
• Enabling a “Brutus” to Slay the Elon Musk “Caesar” (Alastair Crooke)
In the Washington Post on Monday, the headlines read: Musk and Durov are facing the revenge of the regulators. Former U.S. Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, in the British Guardian newspaper, published a piece on how to ‘rein-in’ Elon Musk, suggesting that “regulators around the world should threaten Musk with arrest” on lines of that which befell Pavel Durov recently in Paris. As should be clear to all now, ‘war’ has broken out. There is no need for further pretence about it. Rather, there is evident glee at the prospect of a crackdown on the ‘Far-Right’ and its internet users: i.e. those who spread ‘disinformation’ or mal-information that ‘threatens’ the broad ‘cognitive infrastructure’ (which is to say, what the people think!). Make no mistake, the Ruling Strata are angry; they are angry that their technical expertise and consensus about ‘just about everything’ is being spurned by the ‘deplorables’.
There will be prosecutions, convictions and fines for cyber ‘actors’ who disrupt the digital ‘literacy’, the ‘leaders’ warn. Professor Frank Furedi observes: “There is an unholy alliance of western leaders – Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz – whose hatred of what they call populism is undisguised. In his recent visits to Berlin and Paris, Starmer constantly referred to the threat posed by populism. During his meeting with Scholz in Berlin on 28 August, Starmer spoke about the importance of defeating “the snake oil of populism and nationalism”. Furedi explained that as far as Starmer was concerned, populism was a threat to the power of the technocratic élites throughout Europe:
“Speaking in Paris, a day later, Starmer pointed to the far Right as a ‘very real threat’ and again used the term ‘snake oil’ of populism. Starmer has never stopped talking about the ‘snake oil of populism’. These days virtually every political problem is blamed on populism … The coupling of the term snake-oil with populism is constantly used in the propaganda of the technocratic political elite. Indeed, tackling and discrediting snake oil populists is its number one priority”. So, what is the source of the élite’s anti-populist hysteria? The answer is that the latter know that they have become severed from the values and respect of their own people and that it is only a matter of time before they are seriously challenged, in one form or another. This reality was very much on view in Germany this last weekend, where the ‘non-Establishment (i.e. non Staatsparteien) parties – when added together – secured 60% of the vote in Thüringen and 46% in Saxony.
The Staatsparteien (the nominated establishment parties) choose to describe themselves as ‘democratic’, and to label the ‘others’ as ‘populist’ or ‘extremist’. State media even hinted that what counted more were ‘democratic’ votes; and not non-Staatsparteien votes, so the party with the most Staatsparteien votes should form the government in Thüringen. These have co-operated to exclude AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) and other non-Establishment parties from parliamentary business as far as legally possible – for instance by keeping them out of key parliamentary committees and the imposition of various forms of social ostracism. It reminds of the story of the great poet Victor Hugo’s membership rejection – no less than 22 times – by the Académie Française. The first time he applied, he received 2 votes (out of 39) from Lamartine and Chateaubriand, the two greatest men of letters of their time. A witty woman of the time commented: “If we weighed the votes, Monsieur Hugo would be elected; but we’re counting them.”
Why war? Because, after the 2016 U.S. election, the U.S. political backroom élites blamed democracy and populism for producing bad election outcomes. Anti-establishment Trump had actually won in the U.S.; Bolsonaro won too, Farage surged, Modi won again, and Brexit etc., etc. Elections were soon proclaimed to be out of control, throwing out bizarre ‘winners’. Such unwelcome outcomes threatened the deep-seated structures that both projected and safeguarded long-seated U.S. oligarchic interests around the globe, by subjecting them (oh the horror!) to voter scrutiny. By 2023, the New York Times was running essays headlined: “Elections Are Bad for Democracy”.
The narrative on its head.
• Russia Remains Hackers’ Top Target for Past 2.5 Years – Kaspersky (Sp.)
Hackers continue cyberattacks on Russia, the country has been the most attacked country in the world for the past 2.5 years, Anna Kulashova, Kaspersky Lab’s Managing Director for Russia and the CIS, told Sputnik.
“Russia remains the most attacked country in cyberspace for more than two and a half years,” Kulashova said. In the first eight months of 2024, more than half of Russians who use Kaspersky Lab products were attacked. The financial and public sectors, telecommunications, media and industry are attracting the most attention from attackers. According to her, the problem of “hacktivism” remains relevant, when attackers can damage a company’s operations to draw attention to social or political problems. However, cyberattacks are still often committed for financial gain and espionage.“The compromise of organizations can begin with the use of vulnerabilities in publicly available applications, user credentials obtained, including as a result of brute-force attacks, as well as attacks through small companies — contractors of larger businesses,” Kulashova explained.
She recalled that in early July, the company recorded two waves of targeted mailings to domestic businesses with malicious archives or links inside. The recipients were about a thousand employees of organizations from the manufacturing, finance and energy sectors, as well as government agencies. In the event of a successful attack, the attackers could gain remote access to the organizations’ computers, download files and confidential documents from them. Fortunately, all attacks were blocked. Also this summer, the company identified a series of complex targeted attacks on Russian IT companies and government organizations. The attackers carefully disguised their malicious activity, using popular websites such as Dropbox. The malicious campaign was aimed at stealing official information, Kulashova noted.
No, Donald, de-dollarization is not about payments involving the US. It’s between other countries, not in dollars, out of American reach. You’re not getting that back.
• Trump Unveils Plan To Stop De-Dollarization (RT)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has claimed that dumping the US dollar will be extremely costly for foreign countries which pursue the policy, adding that they will face unprecedented import taxes for pursuing non-dollar trade. Speaking to his supporters during a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Saturday, the former US president pledged to maintain the status of the greenback as the world’s reserve currency, emphasizing that it is “under major siege” as a growing number of states have been turning to other ways of settling trades. “You leave the dollar and you’re not doing business with the US, because we are going to put a 100% tariff on your goods” Trump said.
A broad trend towards using national currencies instead of the greenback has gained momentum following the massive economic restrictions introduced against Russia by the US and its allies in the wake of the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict in February 2022. After being cut off from the Western financial system, Moscow has turned to alternative options for settlement, with some of Russia’s foreign partners following suit. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia hadn’t been pursuing a de-dollarization policy, but was forced to look for other options after a series of unprecedented measures, including Russia’s central bank being cut off from dollar transactions, a ban on the transfer of US banknotes to the country, and the freezing of the country’s forex reserves.
According to Putin, Moscow and its BRICS partners are now using national currencies in 65% of mutual trade settlements. Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been planning to discuss a shift to settlements in local currencies instead of the US dollar, euro, yen and pound sterling. The combined GDP of the economic bloc, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, reportedly amounts to $4 trillion. Last week, the presidential candidate pledged to substantially reduce the use of sanctions by Washington if he is reelected in November. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, Trump acknowledged that the curbs imposed by the US on other states are damaging for the dollar.
No way Boeing can afford this; they’re broke. And share prices rise…
• Boeing Offers Staff 25% Pay Hike In Bid To Avoid Strike (BBC)
Boeing is offering its staff a 25% pay rise over four years in a bid to avoid a strike that could potentially shut down its assembly lines as early as Friday. Union leaders representing more than 30,000 employees have urged the workers to support the proposal, describing it as the best contract they had ever negotiated. If approved, the agreement would be an important achievement for Boeing’s new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, who faces pressure to fix the company’s quality and reputational issues. Boeing workers in the Seattle and Portland region are set to vote on the deal on Thursday. If the deal is rejected, however, a second ballot will need to be approved by two-thirds of union members for a strike to go ahead. In a video message to Boeing workers, the aerospace giant’s chief operating officer, Stephanie Pope, described the proposal as a “historic offer”.
If ratified by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) union, it would be the first full labour agreement between the firm and the unions in 16 years. The current contract between Boeing and the unions was first reached in 2008 following an eight-week strike. The two sides agreed to extend it in 2014 and it is now due to expire later this week. Although the preliminary deal did not match the union’s initial target of a 40% pay rise, negotiators still praised it and advised members to accept it. “We can honestly say that this proposal is the best contract we’ve negotiated in our history,” the IAM said in a statement. Aside from the pay rise, the deal offers workers improved healthcare and retirement benefits, and 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
It also includes a commitment from Boeing to build its next commercial plane in the Seattle area if the project is started during the lifetime of the contract. It is not clear when the company will announce its next jet. The deal also gives the union members more say on safety and quality issues. “Financially, the company finds itself in a tough position due to many self-inflicted missteps. It is IAM members who will bring this company back on track,” the union negotiators said, referring to the crises faced by Boeing in recent years. Mr Ortberg, an aerospace industry veteran and engineer, took over as Boeing’s new chief executive last month. His appointment came as the firm reported deepening financial losses and continued to struggle to repair its reputation following recent in-flight incidents and two fatal accidents five years ago.
The end of the EU’s open borders system. They did this themselves.
• Germany Announces Tougher Border Controls (RT)
Germany will reimpose passport controls on its land borders for at least the next six months, in order to curb “irregular migration,” the government in Berlin has said. Germany has a 3,700km long land border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland. All are members of the EU Schengen Zone. “We are strengthening our internal security through concrete action and we are continuing our tough stance against irregular migration,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday, announcing the measure. “We are doing everything we can to protect the people in our country against this,” Faeser added.
Passport controls are scheduled to begin next Monday and last for six months, unless renewed by Berlin. According to Faeser, they are intended to crack down on people entering Germany without visas and address threats from “Islamist terror groups” and transnational organized crime. Germany ramped up controls on the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland last year, in response to “a sharp increase in first-time asylum requests,” according to the state broadcaster DW. Those controls were also billed as temporary, but have been repeatedly extended. Last month’s stabbing spree at a diversity festival in Solingen, when three people were killed and eight wounded, has triggered renewed debate among Germans about the mass migration from outside the EU. The suspect, a 26-year-old Syrian, had reportedly sought asylum in 2022.
The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) parties made significant gains in the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony last week. The ruling coalition – which includes Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats – is facing another tough vote in Brandenburg later this month. The government has reportedly been in discussions about tackling migration with the mainstream opposition parties, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU). Immigrants make up an estimated 18% of Germany’s population, by official estimates. Of those, almost 40% have lived in the country for less than 10 years.
RFK cellphone
Robert F. Kennedy Jr: "If you got a kid don't ever let him put his cell phone near his head, don't let him carry it in one of his front pockets. If it's a girl, don't let her carry the cell phone in their breast pocket, don't let her carry them anywhere near their ovaries. The… pic.twitter.com/PlkqwATsjU
— Camus (@newstart_2024) September 8, 2024
RFK
HOLY SH*T 🚨 Robert F. Kennedy Jr just exposed Kamala Harris with Tucker Carlson and Vivek 🔥
The Mainstream Media will NEVER show you this
The Democrat Party is collapsing pic.twitter.com/ikosny9XJE
— Marjorie Taylor Greene Press Release (Parody) (@MTGrepp) September 8, 2024
Bill Gates is in huge trouble.
“The vaccines were NOT developed by Moderna-Pfizer…but by NIH. The patents are owned by NIH. They were made by military contractors. Pfizer and Moderna were paid as if they came from Pharma. They were a Military Project…” pic.twitter.com/LpYLdKSrKI
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) September 8, 2024
Elton John
NEW: Elton John says Trump's "Rocket Man" nickname for Kim Jong Un was "brilliant" after an interviewer appeared to try to set him up with an opportunity to slam Trump.
The comments came during an interview with Variety.
Question: "You're not a supporter of Trump. He loves your… pic.twitter.com/9usQ9bAMtq
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 8, 2024
Lioness
When a Lioness friend is happy to see you
📹 valgruener
pic.twitter.com/hNqQI90f8M— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) September 9, 2024
Snow
I love that universally across all species our first instinct with snow is to eat it 😂 pic.twitter.com/f3GD1oAao5
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 9, 2024
Fasting
https://twitter.com/i/status/1833098667785392336
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