Pablo Picasso Two naked figures 1908
Trump lead CNN
Trump is way ahead…
Here's CNN beginning to panic about it. pic.twitter.com/s79f7jTqUL
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) September 4, 2024
RT
As Trump surges in the polls, the Biden admin is now accusing Russia of interfering in our elections and are taking a “series of actions” to counter it.
Here we go again… pic.twitter.com/y3whAtoPHD
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 4, 2024
Kamala CNN
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831694357855965273
Tulsi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831414258451775980
Benny
Gen Z Girl Lists Every Kamala 'Accomplishment' pic.twitter.com/q8WnLytsEr
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 4, 2024
Liz Cheney Kamala
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831461002115981776
Tucker
Tucker Carlson Exposes Kamala Harris Is Owed By BlackRock
– She creates the housing crisis with illegal migrants
– BlackRock buys all the homes
– BlackRock skyrockets rents
– Illegal immigrants are put on housing vouchersThis is RACKETEERING organized crime pic.twitter.com/2TElRaAiC3
— JOSH DUNLAP (@JDunlap1974) September 4, 2024
9 times cheaper
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831249005189198011
Chris M Butler
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831722765335806020
Rogan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831396827893026873
JUST IN: Bret Weinstein says there is a "cheat margin" in elections, says America owes Trump a debt of gratitude for proving it could be beaten.
The comment came after Weinstein argued that there is only a certain amount of democracy in America.
Joe Rogan and Weinstein… pic.twitter.com/07UJMvS5Uf
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 4, 2024
“Putin said Harris “laughs so contagiously and expressively, it shows she’s doing well.”
• Putin Quips That He Prefers Harris To Trump (ZH)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during an interview at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that Russia now wants Vice President Kamala Harris to win in November since they had previously supported Joe Biden – and Biden has endorsed Harris. “I told you, our favorite, if I may say so, was the current president, Mr. Biden,” said Putin, smirking. “He was removed from the race, but he advised all his supporters to support Ms. Harris. So we will do it as well, we will root for her,” he continued. Putin said Harris “laughs so contagiously and expressively, it shows she’s doing well.” “And if she is doing well, then … Trump introduced so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia, like no other president had ever introduced before him. And if Ms. Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from doing anything like that,” he continued.
As modernity.news continues, Putin’s comments are likely to be dismissed as a joke by the Harris campaign, while Trump will probably use them to deflect long-standing claims by Democrats that his campaign is supported by Russia. According to Sky News’ Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett, “Vladimir Putin is having a little chuckle himself here. His comments are almost certainly more mischief-making than a statement of fact because, as we know, Russia’s president doesn’t always say what he thinks.” As we highlighted earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked by pro-Russia TV reporter Pavel Zarubin, “Then who is our candidate now?” “We have no candidate. But, of course, the Democrats are more predictable. And what Putin said about Biden’s predictability applies to almost all Democrats, including Ms. Harris,” responded Peskov. The Kremlin spokesman was also dismissive towards Trump’s claim that he could end the war with Ukraine within 24 hours.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831723835101499393
” I don’t know exactly what to say about it. I don’t know if I’m insulted or he did me a favor..”
• Trump Reacts To Putin Rooting For Harris (RT)
US Republican candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday that he doesn’t know how to feel about Russian President Vladimir Putin stating that he preferred his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. The Russian leader said earlier in the day at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that Moscow would rather see Harris win the US presidential election in November. Putin told the audience that he admired the Democratic Party candidate’s “infectious laugh” and that he respected current President Joe Biden’s choice to endorse her as his successor. “He [Putin] endorsed Kamala, and I didn’t know if I was supposed to call him up and say, ‘Thank you very much’ … I don’t know exactly what to say about it. I don’t know if I’m insulted or he did me a favor,” Trump claimed during an event at the Economic Club of New York. US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reacted by stating that the Russian president should refrain from discussing the US presidential election.
Putin’s remarks came in response to a question at the forum on whether he had a preferred candidate in the US election now that Joe Biden, for whom he previously expressed a preference, has dropped out. Putin replied by saying that it was not Russia’s job to choose a “favorite” in the election, which is up to American voters. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed Washington’s allegations about attempts to interfere in the US elections. Speaking about Harris, the Russian president suggested that her positive disposition could mean she would refrain from imposing as many sanctions on Russia as Trump did, who Putin said had introduced more restrictions on Moscow than any other president in American history at the time. “In the end, the choice is up to the American people, and we will treat their eventual decision with respect,” Putin said.
“..Trump now stands a 58.2% chance of winning the election, compared to Harris’ 41.6%..”
• Trump Pulling Ahead Of Harris – Nate Silver (RT)
Influential American election analyst Nate Silver has put Republican candidate Donald Trump’s chances of defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in this November’s election higher than at any point since Harris announced her candidacy in July. Despite polling consistently showing Harris with a slight lead over Trump, Silver claimed on Wednesday that the Democrat has underperformed in recent surveys, and that Trump now stands a 58.2% chance of winning the election, compared to Harris’ 41.6%. This time last week, Silver’s model gave Trump a 52.4% chance of winning, and put Harris’ chances at 47.3%. Silver’s predictions are regularly cited by American media outlets, and are considered among the more influential election forecasts in the country. His methodology samples polling, economic data, likely turnout, and other factors – including the post-convention “bounce” that typically boosts a candidate for several weeks after the official nomination.
Democrats confirmed Harris as their party’s nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago three weeks ago. However, Harris didn’t receive the “bounce” that most candidates normally do, Silver explained. CNN polls conducted after the convention showed Harris and Trump tied in three out of six battleground states and leading by around five points in three more, while a YouGov survey showed the Democrat leading by two points nationwide. With these polls taken so soon after the convention, Harris should have held a wider lead, Silver argued. Silver’s predictions are contradicted by other pollsters. FiveThirtyEight, an analytics organization founded by Silver, maintains that if the election were held today, Harris stands a 55% chance of winning, with Trump’s likelihood of victory standing at 44%. While FiveThirtyEight and Silver use the same methodology, FiveThirtyEight places more emphasis on polling as election day draws closer.
Individual polls can be misleading, however. A New York Times poll last month showed Harris beating Trump by 50% to 46% in the swing states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. However, the poll oversampled Democrats, and when adjusted showed Harris and Trump in a statistical dead heat in all three states. For both Harris and Trump, winning either Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes, or Michigan and Wisconsin’s combined 25 votes, will be essential to winning the election. Silver’s model shows Trump winning in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and North Carolina, with the two candidates tied in Michigan and Harris with a slight lead in Wisconsin. “Needless to say, stranger things have happened than a candidate who was behind in the polls winning,” Silver cautioned. “And in America’s polarized political climate, most elections are close and a candidate is rarely out of the running.”
“Everybody has a plan until they get ‘punched in the face..”
• ABC Debate: ‘I’m Gonna Let Her Talk’ – Trump (ET)
After Hannity asked what the former president was doing to get ready for next week’s debate with Harris, Trump replied: “I think I’ve been practicing all my life for this stuff. It’ll be an interesting evening.” The former president said debates are unpredictable, so a candidate needs to be nimble. Many before him have prepped extensively, only to fail miserably in the heat of debate. “Everybody has a plan until they get ‘punched in the face,’” Trump said, quoting Mike Tyson. “A lot depends on ABC. … I hope they’re going to be fair,” he said, adding that a contract bars the network from providing questions to either candidate in advance of the showdown. The Trump and Harris camps had proposed different ground rules for the debate; they disagreed over whether the candidates should be seated or standing, and over whether microphones should be muted while the opposing candidate is speaking.
Trump’s strategy? “I’m gonna let her talk,” he said. That is what he did on June 27 in Atlanta, where CNN hosted a debate between him and President Joe Biden. The incumbent was widely seen to have struggled during that face-off. Biden withdrew from the race less than a month later and endorsed Harris as his preferred successor. Noting that many thousands of Pennsylvanians depend on fracking for their livelihoods, Trump told the audience, “You have no choice; you’ve gotta vote for me.” Hannity played multiple video clips of Harris making past statements opposing fracking. Trump said he disbelieves her recent statement that she won’t ban the procedure that is used to help extract gas or oil from the ground. He said Democrats’ policies have directly hurt the industry even without an outright ban. “You have to have fracking. … It’s a massive business for Pennsylvania, and you can’t take a chance” that Harris would eliminate it, Trump said.
Hannity noted the town hall came at a time when Trump was trending upward in some of the polls. Those include a Trafalgar Group poll showing Trump ahead of Harris in Pennsylvania by 2 percentage points. The host said the latest numbers seem to suggest that Harris’s “long-lived honeymoon phase now finally, finally appears to be over.” In the RealClearPolitics average of opinion polls, Harris was holding a 1.9 percent national lead against Trump on Sept. 4. But a few very recent polls were detecting a shift in momentum. In Rasmussen Reports’ Daily Presidential Tracking Poll on Sept. 4, Trump opened a six-point lead over Harris nationally. But in Rasmussen’s five-day average, he was only 2 percent ahead of her. Many other polls still show Harris with an edge over Trump nationally, but still within the margin of error, which runs at 3 percent or more for most polls. An online prediction and betting site, Polymarket.com, on Sept. 4 showed Trump with a 52-percent chance of winning the Nov. 5 election; Harris had a 47-percent chance.
Hannity noted that Harris has given no solo news conferences since she became the apparent Democratic nominee 45 days prior to the Fox town hall. She and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, participated in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Aug. 29 but disclosed no new policy specifics. And, as of Sept. 4, no policy platform was yet listed on Harris’s website. Hannity contrasted this with the dozens of news conferences and interviews Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have given since Biden dropped out of the race. After Trump passed the 16-minute, 30-second mark into the program, Hannity thanked him for going longer than Harris’s CNN interview; the audience laughed.
“No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.”
• Trump Will Adopt Elon Musk’s Proposal For Gov’t Efficiency Commission (ZH)
Former President Trump plans to adopt Elon Musk’s proposed new commission, the Department of Government Efficiency abbreviated as ‘DOGE.’ According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump could unveil the new government efficiency commission as early as today. Trump plans to unveil the government efficiency commission before he delivers a speech at the Economic Club of New York. He will tell reporters that the commission would conduct “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and make “recommendations for drastic reform.” The commission’s primary goal is to identify ways to eliminate fraud and improper payments, according to portions of the speech viewed by journos at WSJ.
Trump’s upcoming speech and proposed commission to address the failures of Biden-Harris’ Bidenomics, which sparked an inflation storm and financially crushed mid—and low-tier consumers, also aims at deregulation. Trump has actively championed deregulation to make the economy great again. Musk endorsed Trump on X shortly after the failed assassination attempt on July 13. He pledged millions of dollars to a super PAC supporting causes on the right. Speaking with Reuters last week, the former president said he would offer Musk a position if he were seriously interested. ” He’s a very smart guy. I certainly would—if he would do it, I certainly would,” the former president said. “He’s a brilliant guy.” Musk and Trump first publicly discussed a government efficiency commission during a two-hour conversation on X on August 13. The conversation has received 60.4 million views so far.
Musk shared an AI picture last month of himself standing at a platform that read “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) and wrote on X, “I am willing to serve.” Earlier this week, Musk reiterated, “I can’t wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go.” On X this morning, Musk responded to one user’s post about WSJ’s story. He said, “I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises. No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.” Trump also plans to say, “This election will decide whether we reward Kamala Harris with re-election and four more years of economic calamity—or whether we change direction.” Let’s not forget that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion to fraud annually, or about $4,000 per American household, as per The Hill.
TRUMP: "At the suggestion of Elon Musk.. I will create a Government Efficiency Commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government — and making recommendations for drastic reforms.” pic.twitter.com/Xe7RlqDVuq
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 5, 2024
Meanwhile…
• Ukrainian Army Facing Collapse – Putin (RT)
High casualties incurred by the Ukrainian military since Kiev launched its incursion in Russia’s Kursk Region could render its armed forces useless, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. The Russian leader shared his assessment of the frontline situation on Thursday during a panel discussion at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. He said the Ukrainian attempt to disrupt the Russian military with the massive attack across the border last month had backfired. ”Our military has stabilized the situation and is now gradually pushing the opponent from the border territories. More importantly, there is no resistance to our advancement [in Donbass],” he explained. “The opponent has weakened itself on the key axis by moving those relatively strong and well-trained units to the border areas.” Ukrainian officials expected Moscow to redeploy some of its forces from the east to repel the incursion in the north.
However, the gamble has not paid off, Aleksandr Syrsky, Kiev’s top general, acknowledged last week. Putin said Russian troops had been securing more land in Donbass, which is a priority for Moscow, at a pace unseen in a long time. Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops are “suffering very high losses in manpower and hardware.” “Because of that, [Kiev] risks a collapse of the front line on the most important axis. The casualties may result in a loss of fighting capability of the entire armed forces, which is what we are looking to achieve,” the president added. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry estimated that Ukrainian casualties in the Kursk operation had surpassed 9,700 troops. Kiev also lost 81 tanks, dozens of other armored vehicles, hundreds of cars, and multiple heavy weapons, the military said. Putin confirmed the statistics, telling the audience that the intelligence had been confirmed by multiple sources.
Alford plea: you don’t say you did it, but you accept the punishment.
Does there need to be a conviction before he can be pardoned?
• Prosecutors Urge Hunter Biden Judge To Reject Plea Deal (ZH)
It would appear that Hunter Biden doesn’t have a nicely arranged plea deal with the DOJ after all – as prosecutors have urged the judge in the case to reject his proposal to plead guilty. Of note, Hunter is attempting to plead guilty via an “Alford plea,” which would have to be approved by the prosecution and higher-ups at the DOJ. It appears they were caught off guard.
I hope the prosecutors reject this Alford plea offer. Hunter would be able to still maintain his innocence. pic.twitter.com/5Jke14RzTM
— Mary K (@MadeMeJoin2Read) September 5, 2024
* * *
Hunter Biden’s lawyers announced on Thursday that the first son will plead guilty in his $1.4 million tax evasion case. “Mr. Biden intends to change his plea this morning,” Hunter’s lawyer Abbe Lowell told the judge in a Los Angeles federal courtroom, with the younger Biden facing trial on nine federal charges for failing to pay federal taxes from 2016 – 2019. If convicted, Hunter faced up to 17 years behind bars. He currently faces up to 25 years behind bars when he’s sentenced in November for a conviction on gun charges.
“I am deeply grateful for the professionalism of all of my Russian colleagues over the past several years, and am proud to have made their acquaintance..”
• Scott Ritter Says Ending Cooperation With RT, Sputnik Due to US Sanctions (Sp.)
The US Department of the Treasury issued a statement on Wednesday to announce sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group, RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik and Ruptly. The sanctions affected Rossiya Segodnya and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and a number of other senior executives. “The actions by the Department of the Treasury in levying new sanctions against RT, Sputnik, and other Russian media organizations has made it impossible for me to continue my work as an outside contributor for RT and Sputnik, as well as participating in interviews and other collaborations with other Russian media,” Ritter said on X. He said his work with Russian media organizations was legitimate journalism.
“I reject the notion that the work I have done over the past years with the newly sanctioned Russian media organizations has been anything other than legitimate journalism, the content of which has been factually correct and analytically sound, and always of my own creation,” Ritter said. However, he said, he is committed to obeying US laws. “Nonetheless, I am fully committed to obeying US law, and as such will be terminating all contractual relationships with both RT and Sputnik effective immediately, as well as suspending my participation in any and all media interaction with sanctioned individuals and organizations until which time it is deemed lawful to do so by US authorities,” Ritter said. He said he will continue to exercise his free speech rights.
“I am deeply grateful for the professionalism of all of my Russian colleagues over the past several years, and am proud to have made their acquaintance. I regret the actions of my government in silencing legitimate journalistic outlets, and look forward to the day when freedom of speech and a free press is not constrained by a dubious ‘Russian exception’ that is violative of Constitutional norms and values,” Ritter said. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on the US sanctions imposed against the Rossiya Segodnya media group, told Sputnik that attacks on Russian media are the result of operations by Western security services to “sterilize” the information space.
“..a recent survey found that almost half of Amercans believe there is “not enough democracy” in the United States while 57% of people polled said the US government only serves a minority of its population..”
• ‘A Unique Kind of Fascism’: US Continues Clampdown on Alt Media (Miles)
The Biden administration signaled that it would continue to clamp down on alternative media Wednesday with the announcement of several measures against figures connected to Russian outlets. “Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated ten individuals and two entities as part of a coordinated US government response to Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 US presidential election,” read a statement released Wednesday morning. US Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed individuals connected to Russian media outlets were involved in a campaign to spread “disinformation” in the months leading up to November’s election, a favored talking point the Biden administration has repeatedly used to justify its heavy-handed tactics in regulating social media.
The account for RT on the video sharing giant YouTube was removed in 2022 and Biden signed legislation earlier this year likely to result in the social media app TikTok becoming unavailable in the United States after this fall’s election.Writer and historian Dr. Gerald Horne joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Wednesday to discuss the surprising development, which he attributed to the United States’ concern over the rise of Russia, China and Iran and the emergence of an increasingly multipolar world. “It’s difficult to judge what you just described without judging simultaneously what’s unfolding in the Tampa, St. Petersburg area of Florida, where Chairman Omali and his comrades and the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru movement are now facing trial in the halls of injustice for reasons eerily similar to these charges,” said Horne, referring to the Biden administration’s ongoing persecution of Black radical groups.
“Certainly, we should not forget what has befallen Scott Ritter, the former arms inspector, now viewed widely as a dissident who has been a frequent guest on numerous platforms including your own, as I understand it, rebuking and reprimanding US foreign policy, particularly as it relates to the escapade in Ukraine,” he continued. “Not to mention the funding and financing an army of the radical regime in Israel. We are also aware of what has befallen Richard Medhurst who is a frequent speaker on issues related to Iran in particular. He was detained in London summarily just a few days ago in a blatant violation of civil rights and civil liberties, causing some commentators to suggest that England, Great Britain is moving towards a unique kind of fascism.” Horne claimed a “hysteria” is gripping the US political class over an emerging counterhegemonic bloc of countries increasingly able to challenge the political and economic might of the United States.
Former US Army officer Gen. Wesley Clark reflected the anxieties of Washington officialdom in an editorial in USA Today recently, casting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping as enemies of “democracy.” But a recent survey found that almost half of Amercans believe there is “not enough democracy” in the United States while 57% of people polled said the US government only serves a minority of its population. Russia and China ranked higher than the United States on most questions regarding their citizens’ self-perception of their country’s democracy, with Chinese people being among the most likely in the world to consider their country democratic. Clark drew attention to improving relations between Beijing and Moscow, something the United States worked to undermine throughout the Cold War.
“$10 million would barely influence a US Senate race. The amount is hardly a drop in the bucket for a presidential race.”
• DoJ Clampdown on Russian Media Proving US Empire Has No Clothes (Sp.)
The US Justice Department’s sweeping crackdown on Russian media on Wednesday to the thunderous applause of the legacy media will leave Americans a little less informed, less safe and a lot less free, observers including long-time Sputnik contributors say. “It looks like the US Department of Justice is producing another election year spectacular. Sixty days before the election we are invited to suspend our disbelief and embrace ‘Russia, Russia, Russia: The Sequel.’ And once again the DOJ is rounding up the usual suspects: Trump, Russia and Democracy,” political commentator and Newsmax columnist Michael Shannon told Sputnik, commenting on the DoJ’s unprecedented crackdown on Russian media Wednesday over alleged “disinformation” and an election-related “malign influence operation.”
“I predict the audience for this lame sequel will be the remaining mask wearers, Clot Shot booster advocates, Trump haters, consonant crusaders and government employees. Anyone else with simple common sense will see it for what it is: The DOJ’s attempt to influence the election,” Shannon stressed. The figures being alleged by the Justice Department are also laughable, according to the observer. “Let’s put alleged Russian influence buying in perspective. The indictment says Tenent Media was given $10 million to ‘influence the election.’ I’ve got news for you. $10 million would barely influence a US Senate race. The amount is hardly a drop in the bucket for a presidential race. Donald Trump and Joe Biden combined spent $1.85 BILLION in 2020,” Shannon emphasized.
“I regret the actions of my government in silencing legitimate journalistic outlets, and look forward to the day when freedom of speech and a free press is not constrained by a dubious ‘Russian exception’ that is violative of Constitutional norms and values,” former US Marine intelligence officer, UN weapons inspector and commentator Scott Ritter wrote in a social media post. Ritter, who has already suffered a campaign of blatant intimidation by the FBI, including a raid on his family home and the confiscation of his passport, announced the termination of his work for Sputnik and other Russian media after the DoJ and Treasury’s new restrictions were announced, fearing he would be further targeted.
Former CIA analyst-turned whistleblower and author Larry Johnson highlighted the DoJ crackdown’s off the charts “hypocrisy that is staggering in its magnitude and its foulness,” telling Sputnik that the claims of Russian media attempts to “meddle” in the upcoming US presidential election are simply laughable when considering that the US government has allocated “almost $4 billion to interfere or meddle in the political affairs of other countries” in 2024 alone. Popular independent media personality Jackson Hinkle says Americans looking for alternative perspectives and sources of information will the most to suffer from the DoJ’s move. “We can topple governments. We can kill sovereign presidents of sovereign countries. But for a media company to be reporting on the facts…about what’s actually going on in the world, and then for the United States to sanction them, it’s absolutely insane,” Hinkle said. “I think millions of Americans want to hear that truth, and that’s why they’re going after companies like Sputnik so hard right now.”
“It’s a matter of an intent to expose him to potential assassination..”
• Whistleblowers Reveal US Secret Service Blunders (Sp.)
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has claimed that most agents who were present during the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in July were not US Secret Service (USSS) agents, but were in fact Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents. The US politician told Fox News that the only training the agents received was a “2-hour online webinar” training. Citing claims made by whistleblowers, he added that the agents who were protecting the former president that day had no prior experience in security detail. Hawley wrote the whistleblowers’ allegations in a letter to Ronald Rowe, the acting director of the USSS, and attached the letter to an X post. Tyler Nixon, an attorney, media relations specialist and political analyst, joined Rachel Blevins on The Backstory on Wednesday, and presented a rundown of the agency’s long-standing failings.
“Well, there’s no question that the Secret Service (USSS) is a very troubled agency and it has been varyingly for many years,” Nixon said. “…the agency has had serious problems with … racial discrimination. There was a lawsuit that became a class action that dragged on for nearly 17 years of Black agents from the ‘80s and ‘90s who were held back, discriminated against, suppressed in terms of promotions. They won and the Secret Service fought that tooth and nail.” The lawyer disclosed that he represents the first Black Secret Service agent who served on presidential protection, who has threatened to be a whistleblower to the “Warren Commission concerning the laxity, drinking and other things that the agents had perpetrated or done on the President John F. Kennedy detail,” he said, adding that “many argue [the laxity] contributed to their slow reactions [of JFK’s assassination].”
“[USSS] has to, I think, if they were talking about it, it’s well over a billion-dollar budget. I think it might have been $1.4 billion, if I’m not mistaken. But whatever it is, it is absolutely enough that they should have the best equipment, the best agents and the best operations. And I think it’s just proof that, generally speaking, you can throw as much money as you want at a government agency to address a problem if there’s institutional incompetence and institutional issues and just the fact that the government operates the way it does without accountability,” Nixon explained.
“And one of the other things was, which really stands out in the Trump affair was that they were assigning […] based on apparently the status, let’s just say, of the protectee, meaning Trump’s not the president. He’s a candidate, a former president. Versus what [American conservative commentator Dan Bongino] noted should be the criteria for assigning the resources, which is the threat profile,” he added. “In Butler, there was what I would view as it wasn’t simply incompetence. There was actually active security stripping, which is very, very troubling because that’s not just a matter of people not doing their jobs properly. It’s a matter of an intent to expose him to potential assassination or assassination, and that is, that’s corruption that is so – I mean, it would be criminal, obviously, that level of corruption,” he continued. “So, major reforms need to happen with that agency, if not a total reckoning.”
“..Telegram has an official representative in the EU that both “accepts and replies to EU requests.”
• Pavel Durov Warns French Crackdown Will Prompt Serious Tech Setbacks (Sp.)
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov spoke out on Thursday against the crackdown against his platform by French authorities, warning that the spate of charges could mark the start of serious setbacks for the tech industry as a whole. In a post shared on Telegram, Durov detailed that he had been questioned by French authorities over a period of four days, and that he had been informed he would be held “personally responsible” for criminal actions that occur on the platform due to past notifications that had gone answered. “This,” Durov went onto emphasis, “was surprising for several reasons.” Not least of which was the fact that Telegram has an official representative in the EU that both “accepts and replies to EU requests.” “Its email address has been publicly available for anyone in the EU who googles ‘Telegram EU address for law enforcement,'” he pointed out, adding that authorities could have easily contacted him via the French consulate in Dubai.
“A while ago, when asked, I personally helped them establish a hotline with Telegram to deal with the threat of terrorism in France.” “Using laws from the pre-smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach,” he said. “Building technology is hard enough as it is. No innovator will ever build new tools if they know they can be personally held responsible for potential abuse of those tools.” Rather than pursuing criminal charges, French authorities should have instead opted for the “established practice” of filing legal action against an internet service to start proceedings. Durov underscored that Telegram would not be abandoning its principles on ensuring users’ privacy and security, but that it was and will continue to hold open lines of communications with country regulators.
However, if no balance can be made in any one nation, the company will opt to “leave.” The CEO further rejected reports that painted Telegram as “some sort of anarchic paradise” and slammed them as “absolutely untrue.” However, while the platform’s user count has soared upwards of 950 million, he acknowledged the spike “made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.” Durov revealed that new internal measures were being implemented, and that such steps would be made public at a later time. The Russian-born tech entrepreneur was detained at a Paris airport on August 24 on charges related to criminal uses of his messaging app, including terrorism, child pornography, drug trafficking, money laundering and fraud. He was released on August 28 on a 5-million-euro ($5.5 million) bail and is barred from leaving France.
Both France and Germany are in deep political trouble.
“It’s like a husband and wife debating over which electrician to hire to redo the wiring in your house not being able to come to an agreement and hiring a plumber..”
• Macron Pushes Through PM Pick After 60 Days (Manley)
President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Michel Barnier, 73, a veteran right-wing politician who served twice as European Commissioner and played a major role in the 2016 Brexit Task Force, as the new prime minister of France as of Thursday. Macron is trying to break through a political impasse that has gripped France following the country’s snap legislative elections held in July. The French presidency said in a statement that Macron is entrusting Barnier with “the task of forming a unity government to serve the country and the French people”, the New York Times reported. Barnier will take over the role from Gabriel Attal, France’s youngest ever prime minister who has held the position for the last eight months. Phil Kelly, a Belfast-based political commentator and socialist activist, joined Sputnik’s Political Misfits Thursday to discuss Macron’s continued rejection of the French public’s desires.
“This is far from democracy. This is an absurdity,” said Kelly. “It’s like a husband and wife debating over which electrician to hire to redo the wiring in your house not being able to come to an agreement and hiring a plumber. It’s an affront, an absolute affront to the democratic will of the people.” “What Macron is doing is he’s investing heavily in creating future problems because France is a powder keg. It is divided. The breakthrough for the left was good to see, but let’s hope it’s not a pyrrhic victory because what acts like this are doing is it just erodes faith that people have in their democratic institutions,” he added. “It’s a further sign that France is in dissent and chaos, that its establishment is flailing, that Macron is just trying to hold the door against change,” the analyst suggested. “But that change will come to France and I hope it’s a positive change, but there’s no guarantee there will be. The country’s in a dark way.”
In March of last year France’s Senate passed a controversial reform bill to raise the retirement age for French citizens by two years. The Senate passed the bill by 195 votes to 112. Macron’s decision to push through a bill that is extremely unpopular among voters for the alleged sake of the economy clearly went unforgiven during July’s election. Business-friendly think tanks such as the pro-Macron Institut Montaigne claim Macron’s pension plan is more cost-effective than other proposals, but a majority of French voters reject the ploy. “A country that is able to send billions of euros to the Kiev regime while its own citizens are offered a diet of, ‘we make you work longer for less’… and it’s a bit like from his gilded palace in Paris. He’s a bit like Macron Antoinette,” Kelly said.
“Macron [is] a guy who’s deeply unpopular, who, at one point, was talking up the advantage of World War III to the French people, now clinging on desperately to power, trying to make the guy who lost who came forth the leader of the country and all, as you say, to cling on to his own power for a little bit longer and to try and push through a policy that is so deeply unpopular.” In January, Macron claimed during a speech at the Swedish Defense Academy that the future security architecture of the continent could no longer be settled simply by the United States and that Europe should determine its own future. In April, the French president said he would be willing to discuss using French nuclear warheads as a “credible European defense” against a supposed Russian threat. The French president previously hinted at the use of France’s nuclear weapons in 2020 and again in 2022. In March the leader alarmed other EU member states when he announced his openness to ground operations in Ukraine, saying it might be required “at some point”.
“It’s not, unfortunately, only France that has this kind of political class,” Kelly added. “[There was] one of the ministers in the German government who’s a member of the Green Party saying — I’m sure you remember this — ‘I don’t care about German voters, I’ll do whatever it takes to support Ukraine.’” “This is why Europe is in decline. Much like your country where the political establishment has [nothing to] offer, it has no vision of how to move things forward, it only has ‘how can we trick the electorate in the next election and then just do the same [thing],’” he explained.
“The government in Berlin should ask itself if it can even continue to govern..”
• Germany Reeling in the Wake of AfD Election Victories (SCF)
The German residents of Saxony and Thuringia awoke on Monday to a radical new political landscape as the Alternative for Germany, or Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), received more than double as many votes as the three parties which make up the federal coalition government — the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), environmentalist Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) — combined. This marks the first in any German state since Nazi rule. The results represent a major setback to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s struggling coalition government and demonstrate the increasing breakup of the political landscape and surge in popularity of anti-establishment parties across the continent. Scholz labelled the losses for his government “bitter” and called upon mainstream parties to build governments without “right-wing extremists”.
The AfD, which, as an “extremist” group, falls under the official surveillance of the German domestic intelligence agency, was founded in 2013 as an offshoot of the CDU. It advertises itself as a right-wing movement that is critical of the European Union’s policies but supportive of German membership. Since its founding, the party has moved further to the political right and shifted its attention to immigration and Islam. The party is most powerful in the formerly communist east Germany, which is less wealthy than the country’s west. Björn Höcke, 52, the leader of Thuringia, has been convicted of knowingly using a Nazi slogan at political events, a conviction he is appealing. A court in the eastern city of Halle fined the history teacher turned politician for using the prohibited phrase “Everything for Germany”, or “Alles für Deutschland” in German. The slogan was etched on weapons used by Nazi paramilitary officers. Germany has harsh laws against the use of phrases and symbols linked to the Nazi party.
In the last nationwide election, for the European Parliament in June, the AfD attracted 16 percent of the vote. In other words, not exactly a nationwide nationalist takeover. Moreover, with just over 2 million people out of a national population of more than 80 million, Thuringia ranks as one of the smallest of Germany’s 16 states. At the same time, Saxony’s population stands at just 4 million. Nevertheless, it is rather astonishing, and worrisome, that about one in three voters in these two states cast their vote for a party that the states’ own intelligence agencies have declared to be ‘extremist’. Factors that have led to support for the AfD in eastern Germany include deep dissatisfaction with the national government, anti-immigration sentiment and opposition to any further German military aid for Ukraine. And despite the government’s rapid reaction to the deadly knife attack in Solingen, in western Germany, shortly before the elections failed to result in a change of opinion. Four out of five German voters have expressed discontent with the work of the federal government, a sentiment that has lasted a long time.
The AfD rightly views itself as having established a deep support base. The state elections brought “historic” success for their party, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said on Sunday, calling for the federal government to stand down. “It is also a punishment for the federal government, it is a requiem for this coalition,” she said. “The government in Berlin should ask itself if it can even continue to govern. This question of fresh elections should be posed at least following the [upcoming] election in Brandenburg, because things cannot carry on like this.” Now the government of Olaf Scholz is attempting to recalibrate its positions, moving further to the right to counter the AfD’s respectable gains. Looking down the road to the immigration debate during the electoral campaigns, the federal government last week announced harsher migration and security policies, and made an unexpected move to deport 28 asylum-seekers who had committed criminal offenses to Afghanistan.
Now, all eyes are now focused on the eastern German state of Brandenburg, where elections are scheduled for September 22. The coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP are nervously anticipating this vote as the German population is increasingly demanding new blood in the halls of power. If early nationwide elections were to be held today, current polling shows they would no longer get a majority. The victors would be their competitors the AfD and the Conservative Union of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian counterparts, the Christian Social Union (CSU). The Union, which comprises the largest opposition bloc in the Bundestag, has long called for the government to step down. Therefore, the SPD will be campaigning extra hard leading up to election day, because the vote will be crucial for them. The party has led the government in Brandenburg since 1990.
“I expect that everyone will make even more of an effort than ever before,” said SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil on Sunday evening in Berlin. The party needed to work together to win back votes, he said. “Everyone now needs to play their part so that things improve.” In the event that Brandenburg’s state premier of 11 years, Dietmar Woidke, fails to be reelected, this could set in motion some serious power moves in the country. There is even the possibility that Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who polls higher than Scholz among Germans, could become the chancellor candidate for the federal election in September 2025. Will the coalition government last that long? That’s a question many Germans are anxiously pondering today amid the rise of far-right ideology, which is beginning to reverberate across the country. Whether that will turn into a political earthquake remains to be seen.
Putin Nordstream
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831646625074127257
Ghostwriting
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831522277705372109
Fox
A fox is a canid and somewhat related to dogs. Yet they cannot bark exactly like them.
This is a fox who grew up with a dog.pic.twitter.com/fE2UICZNSf
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 5, 2024
Best job
She has literally got the best job ever pic.twitter.com/FvIZldJo40
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 5, 2024
Thank you
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831375847825272873
Trust
The trust is crazy pic.twitter.com/agFzLxwCb7
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 4, 2024
Antlers
Two deer managed to get their antlers locked together in Kent County, Michigan.
They were found exhausted and near death in a creek by county clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons and her husband Brad.pic.twitter.com/4sU1fEYS13
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 5, 2024
Moose
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831678847835590856
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