Winslow Homer Cloud shadows 1890
Elon Musk: Few people in the West know what war really means.
"One of the things that does concern me is that there are very few people alive today who actually viscerally understand the horrors of war, at least in the US. How many people in the West understand it?
My… pic.twitter.com/OirbN4YSqT
— ELON DOCS (@elon_docs) October 2, 2024
Censorship
The threat to democracy is censorship. pic.twitter.com/tdPOk9jXfK
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) October 2, 2024
Ritter
The mere mention of her name rips my heart to pieces.
Hind Rajab remembered by
Scott Ritter former US marines corps intelligence officer. pic.twitter.com/j6rHxy4Xjd— Abier (@abierkhatib) October 1, 2024
The author of Kim Porter's book has made a bombshell claim about Diddy's tapes, stating they could take down Hollywood and the entire entertainment industry.
He disclosed that some of the tapes were secretly flown out of the country on a private jet, while numerous others still… pic.twitter.com/pmO2vSBukP
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) October 2, 2024
24 minutes
Here’s 24 straight minutes of Democrats denying election results.
Whatever you do do not share this!!! pic.twitter.com/IpbTlv7uNX
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 2, 2024
Just the kind of guy you want in the White House. No, seriously, you can’t do that.
“There’s a special place in hell for men who put hands on women.”
They’ve been hoping for a story just like this one for ten years. About Trump.
• 2nd Gentleman Doug Emhoff Slapped Ex-Girlfriend So Hard ‘She Spun Around’ (ZH)
Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff reportedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend by hitting her in the face so hard “she spun around”, according to a bombshell new exclusive by the Daily Mail. Emhoff allegedly struck the woman, referred to as “Jane,” in the face while waiting in a valet line after a 2012 Cannes Film Festival event, according to the DailyMail.com. Jane, a New York attorney, reportedly called a friend sobbing in a cab after the incident and told others about the alleged assault at the time. Friends provided photos and documents from 2012 to support parts of the story but chose to remain anonymous, citing fear of retaliation. Jane’s friends said she received tickets from wealthy connections to attend the exclusive amfAR Gala Dinner at Hotel du Cap in Antibes, France, on May 24, 2012. The alleged assault occurred after the event, where celebrities like Heidi Klum and Harvey Weinstein were present. Jane, who brought Emhoff as her guest, later called a friend sobbing, saying her date had hit her.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1841524667812872363
The friend recalled Jane describing how Emhoff slapped her after she offered a valet money to skip a taxi line, which he misinterpreted as flirting. ‘She slapped him back. My impression is that he had a lot to drink. She was sobbing [on the phone afterwards], but she wasn’t slurring her words. She told me that she broke up with him that night,’ one friend told the Daily Mail. A second friend, also a New York attorney, said Jane recounted the incident, describing how Emhoff slapped her out of nowhere around 2-3 a.m. after a pleasant evening. Jane said she was talking to a valet when Emhoff suddenly turned her around and slapped her hard, causing her to spin. Shocked, she slapped him back twice. ‘She said she wanted to go back to the hotel without him. But while she was shutting the door, he forced himself into the car, which she did not want.’ the friend said.
Jane was embarrassed and described it as a “trailer trash moment,” realizing it revealed his true character. A third friend said Jane told her the story in 2018, telling the Daily Mail: ‘She had never been hit in her life. [Jane] is a gorgeous, strong woman and you would never expect somebody to hit her.’ Recall, just days ago Jen Psaki swooned over Emhoff on MSNBC in a sit-down interview, stating he was reshaping masculinity and calling him a ‘supportive spouse’. “There is also an important, interesting part about how people have talked about your role is how your role has reshaped the perception of masculinity,” Psaki said to Emhoff. “I’m not sure you planned on that, but you are an incredibly supportive spouse. Has that been an evolution for you? Do you think that’s part of the role you might play as First Gentleman?”
Emhoff responded: “It’s funny. I’ve started to think a lot about this. I’ve always been like this. My dad’s always been like this. To me, it’s the right thing to do, support women. It is mutual with Kamala and I. We support each other, we have each other’s back,” He continued: “I’ve said many times when we lift up women, we support women whether it’s pay equity, childcare, family leave, and all of these issues in this post-Dobbs hellscape. Women should not be less than. Women should not have less rights and be treated differently. That’s not the American way.” Ironically, Emhoff also said days ago about Trump: “Make no mistake, where he says I will be the protector of women, that is yet more lies and more gaslighting.”
Or said another way…
Emhoff
https://twitter.com/i/status/1841481743351603544
“..can Trump still be the winter coat America needs to survive? Nenner says, “I don’t think he can. It’s too late.”
• American Empire is Over – Charles Nenner (USAW)
Renowned geopolitical and financial cycle expert Charles Nenner has been warning of a huge war cycle. The Iran missile attack in Israel that rained down 180 missiles on the Holy land, “is just the beginning,” according to Nenner. Of course, America and everybody else will be involved in this war, and Nenner says don’t expect America to come out on top. Nenner says, “I don’t know how big this war is going to be because everybody is going to be involved. Israel is not going to sit on its hands like last time because this cannot continue. I guess Israel will go for the enrichment of the uranium places and attack Iran whenever they are ready. . . . I don’t vote in the United States because I am Dutch, but if Trump were in, this would be over in an hour.”
When it comes to the 2024 November election, Nenner says, “I think the media is doing a great job. So, I am not sure that Trump is going to win. I really have no mercy for America anymore if they vote for Kamala. It’s just the end of an empire already. Even if Trump wins, I don’t think he can fix what needs to be fixed because the Biden government put all kinds of people in positions that are going to be there for a while. I watch Congress and see who the Biden Administration brings forward for new judges, and I have no words for it. It’s ridiculous. I don’t even know how to fix the United States anymore. . . . According to the cycles the United States is finished. This war now will probably turn into a world war, and the problem is they (US) will have to fight Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, and they have no chance to win. . . .
Nobody will have to invade the United States. They will just finish them off with rockets from the air. It is a hopeless situation.” Nenner famously said several months ago, “If you know winter is coming, you can buy a winter coat. Trump is the winter coat.” So, can Trump still be the winter coat America needs to survive? Nenner says, “I don’t think he can. It’s too late.” On the markets, Nenner thinks there is going to be a stock market crash that will be equal to or greater than the Great Depression market crash in 1929. Nenner says, “We are telling our clients to get out of stocks. . . . We have zero stocks.”
Nenner also thinks gold is the place to be for the next three years. Nenner thinks gold is going much higher. On interest rates, Nenner says they are going higher too, and real estate and bonds are going lower. This is the longer term trend in Nenner’s cycle. When will this market crash come? Nenner says, “It’s still going to take half a year or a year until everybody realizes how bad the situation is compared to the BRIC countries. The dollar is not going to be the major currency. Nixon stopped backing it by gold, and Saudia Arabia stopped backing it by oil. It is not backed by anything. So, why would you trust the dollar?
We won’t know his handlers before the election, and likely never.
• Prosecutors Seek Indefinite Delay In Trial Of Alleged Trump Assassin (ZH)
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday requested an indefinite delay in the upcoming trial of Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, claiming that a massive trove of evidence has emerged in recent weeks rendering the case “complex,” ABC News reports. According to a Wednesday filing with Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon, prosecutors have gathered too much evidence to proceed to trial – including hundreds of witness interviews, 13 search warrants, and the seizure of “multiple electronic devices” from locations in Florida, Hawaii, and North Carolina. The overwhelming amount of digital data to review – around 4,000 terabytes – allegedly led to the request.
“The FBI also continues to conduct forensic tests on other evidence, including “ballistics testing, and fingerprint and DNA comparisons,” which will likely require them to prepare several expert witnesses to testify about in advance of Routh’s eventual trial. The filing states Routh’s defense attorneys did not oppose the government’s request to indefinitely delay his trial date. Routh, 58, appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday for his arraignment on attempted assassination charges. Routh’s lawyers entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.” -ABC News.
The delay request came just one day after Judge Cannon had set a tentative trial date of November 18. But with prosecutors still awaiting over 100 subpoena responses and conducting forensic analysis, including ballistics and DNA testing, the government says their case is far from ready to proceed. Routh allegedly staked out the Trump International Golf Course in Florida for 12 hours on September 15, waiting for the former president to arrive. According to prosecutors, his attempt was thwarted when Secret Service agents spotted a rifle poking through the golf course fence. Routh was later apprehended on I-95. The incident echoes a previous attempt on Trump’s life just two months prior, when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks’ attack injured Trump and left one attendee dead.
JOE ROGAN: THERE'S A FEROCIOUS EFFORT TO STOP TRUMP BECOMING PRESIDENT AGAIN
"The guy almost gets killed twice; they don't even talk about it.
The second one, they just brushed it off.
The guy was set up at a golf course for 12 hours with a bulletproof vest on and an AK-47… pic.twitter.com/vLZ7R6nAcS
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 2, 2024
“White people are history. They have placed their fate in the hands of their enemies. Perhaps a few will be kept in zoos.”
• 30 Million Immigrant-Invaders To Vote Against Trump (PCR)
Democrats are passing laws to make sure that a non-citizen who just walked across the border has a vote equal to a United States native-born citizen. Immigrant-invaders are given federal IDs which entitle them to drivers’ licenses. Many jurisdictions automatically enroll driver license recipients on the voting list. Two days ago California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill preventing local governments from requiring voters to present identification at the polls. The Democrat California government has made it a felony to prevent election fraud. The Democrats call it Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. DEI is not for us racist white supremacy citizens, the American majority. It is for the immigrant-invaders who just walked across the border. The Democrats are the party of the immigrant-invaders, and tens of millions of dumbshit white Americans will vote for the party of immigrant-invaders.
It is even worse than that. The Biden/Kamala Regime are using our taxpayers dollars to finance NGOs to recruit from 150 countries immigrant invaders and to provide them with transportation, to Latin America and with food, water, medical care, and sleeping quarters as they march to our border. When Washington’s recruits of immigrant-invaders reach the border, federal and local authorities are required to let them in. Nothing is being done about it. The Republican House and Senate Democrats have not cut off the funding that is flooding America with crime and people unable to support themselves. How do uneducated people who do not speak the language become a work force? How do tens of millions of people who do not speak the language and do not have a first world education become a work force in a first world country? Why is this happening? Why is discussion of the dissolution of the United States into a Tower of Babel blocked by the media and authorities with police power to silence?
Why does the Democrat Party describe native-born Americans who are opposed to their country being overrun by immigrant-invaders as white supremacists, while Democrats focus on saving Ukraine’s borders? Why are Ukraine’s borders more important than America’s? Is there a Democrat anywhere who cares about America’s borders? Apparently not. Is there any politician, other than Donald Trump, who speaks for Americans? Yesterday the Democrats in Minneopolis made a non-citizen a police officer. So now the Democrats have made it possible for a non-citizen to arrest an American citizen. The Democrats call this “inclusion.” Do you look forward to being arrested by a non-citizen? This is your consequence for being so totally stupid that you voted Democrat. The dumbshit American voters have destroyed themselves and all of their prospects.
The Democrats have established a regime in which American citizens have lost their Constitutional protections and are considered to be evil racists and enemies of democracy who must be replaced by third world immigrant-invaders. This is happening before our eyes. If it hasn’t happened to your community yet, it won’t be long. It is the same throughout the Western world. The European Council on Foreign Relations published a report a few days ago on September 25 by Pawel Zerka, obviously not a Western European name. The report published by the European Council concluded that Europe is too white and too European. So here we have Europeans turning Europe’s fate over to someone who intends to bring upon them the Camp of the Saints. Perhaps people this stupid deserve their destruction.
To underline the point, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the largest French political party that is kept out of political office by conspiracy of the ruling elite, has been placed on trial. The false charges are that she and her party embezzled EU funds. This is such a nonsensical charge as to be mind blowing. The EU is not going to give any funds to a French NATIONALIST political party. And even if it mysteriously happened, Le Pen is not sufficiently stupid, having target written all over her, to embezzle them. But in the Western world today truth is of zero consequence. Law is nothing else but a weapon to destroy those in the way of the Woke Agenda. White people are history. They have placed their fate in the hands of their enemies. Perhaps a few will be kept in zoos.
“..his body language showed a lot of telltale signs of lying, such as fidgeting, touching his face and breathing rapidly.”
• JD Vance ‘Made Viewers Feel Safe,’ Walz Had Brain Freeze – Psychiatrist (Sp.)
Dr. Carole Lieberman, a board-certified psychiatrist and best-selling author based in Beverly Hills, California, told Sputnik that Republican Senator JD Vance had prevailed over Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota in the vice-presidential debate. “I found this debate fascinating because the two had only 90 minutes to show the voters what they could do for America,” Lieberman said, arguing that Vance “projected a steady, self-assured persona that made viewers feel safe.” Walz’s “discordant words and body movements made viewers feel uncomfortable,” she argued. He was “clearly nervous and his body language showed a lot of telltale signs of lying, such as fidgeting, touching his face and breathing rapidly.” The debate began with both candidates fielding a question on a possible pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran. “Tim Walz stuttered and stumbled over his answer.
He gave misinformation about Trump and a deal with Iran, but never answered the question. JD Vance, on the other hand, answered with, ‘It is up to Israel,’ which is the best answer,” the psychiatrist said. Vance answered a question about hurricanes and climate change “in a straightforward manner, whereas Tim Walz started grimacing, making jarring movements and having pauses that seemed like brain freeze or senior moments,” she noted. On immigration, which Walz knew was a weak spot because Kamala Harris “as the Border Czar that had let everyone in,” he again started blaming former president Donald Trump. “It was obvious that his preparation for the debate focused on trying to blame Trump for everything,” Lieberman said.Vance won “because he was authentic throughout and his words matched his body language,” the psychiatrist concluded.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1841503756283777202
Is Iran also free to choose?
• Israel Free To Choose How It Retaliates Against Iran – Vance (RT)
The US should support Israel in its retaliation against Iran, even if it includes a preemptive strike, Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, said during a televised debate on CBS News on Tuesday. Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, faced his Democratic opponent, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on live TV only hours after Iran fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel, marking a significant escalation in Middle East tensions. Asked by a moderator if he would back an preemptive Israeli strike on Iran, Vance reaffirmed Washington’s long-standing support for the Jewish state. “Look, it is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support our allies wherever they are when they’re fighting the bad guys. That’s the right approach to the Israel question,” Vance replied.
He went on to argue that Trump had kept America’s adversaries in check when he was president. “Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence. People were afraid of stepping out of line,” Vance said. Walz avoided answering directly if he would back an Israeli preemptive strike. He said, however, that “Israel’s ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental.” The Democrat accused Trump of damaging the US standing in the world and criticized him for tearing up the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Iran is “closer to a nuclear weapon than it was before – because of Donald Trump’s fickle leadership,” Walz said.
Iran has claimed that the missile attacks were a response to the “genocide” committed by the IDF in Gaza and Lebanon. The IDF launched a cross-border ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Tuesday. Israeli jets previously bombed Lebanon, killing several senior Hezbollah members, including the armed group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The IDF said the goal of the operation is to prevent Hezbollah from firing rockets and mortars at Israeli cities in the northern part of the country.
“Limits on free speech have become the biggest threat to US democracy..”
• Harris A Threat To US Democracy – Vance (RT)
Limits on free speech have become the biggest threat to US democracy, Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance claimed during a televised debate on Tuesday. Donald Trump’s running mate for the November election faced off with his Democratic opponent, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, on CBS News. Vance claimed that “rather than debating and persuading fellow Americans,” Democratic nominee Kamala Harris “would like to censor people who engage in misinformation.” “Harris is engaged in censorship on an industrial scale. She has done it over a number of issues. That’s a bigger threat to democracy than what Donald Trump said when he said protesters should peacefully protest on January 6.” Vance was referring to the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol building in Washington by Trump supporters following his election defeat.
Trump, whose public statements are alleged to have incited the Capitol riots, faces four federal felony charges in the case. He is accused of acting unlawfully after the 2020 election, by trying to overturn the result. The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and denounced the case as an attempt to prevent him from returning to the White House. In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform in August he called it “a direct assault on democracy” and a “resurrection of a dead witch hunt.” In the TV debate, Vance argued: “I believe we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country. Unfortunately, it’s not the threat to democracy that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to talk about. It is the threat of censorship.” He went on to accuse major technology companies of “silencing their fellow citizens.”
In August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said senior Biden administration officials had pressured Facebook to “censor” some Covid-19 content during the pandemic. He also admitted that Facebook suppressed a New York Post story about Hunter Biden after an FBI warning in the lead-up to the 2020 election. “A president’s words matter. January 6 was not Facebook ads,” Walz responded, on the issue of the January 2021 Capitol riots. He asked Vance directly if Trump lost the 2020 election. Vance replied that Trump is “focused on the future.”
”War or the threat of war is raging everywhere, and the two incompetents running this country are leading us to the brink of World War III..”
• Democrats Bringing World Closer To ‘Catastrophe’ – Trump (RT)
Former US President Donald Trump has blamed his successor, Joe Biden, and his rival in next month’s presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris, for a retaliatory strike by Iran on Israel on Tuesday night. The Republican nominee discussed the latest escalation in the Middle East crisis during a campaign rally in Waunakee, Wisconsin, and posted a similar statement on his Truth Social platform. He accused the Biden administration of failing to keep Iran in check, and claimed that he would have done a better job. Trump claimed that, under his presidency, Tehran was “starved for cash, fully contained, and desperate to make a deal.” “Kamala flooded them with American cash and, ever since, they’ve been exporting terror all over,” he added. ”War or the threat of war is raging everywhere, and the two incompetents running this country are leading us to the brink of World War III,” said Trump.
If Democrats win next month’s election, “the world goes up in smoke,” he warned. Tehran described its attack as retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior figures in the militant movements Hamas and Hezbollah on Iranian and Lebanese soil. The two regional rivals have made opposing claims about the effectiveness of the ballistic missile strike. Israel has promised a response, which the media predict will come within days.
Both main US political parties are offering what appears to be unconditional support for Israel’s actions. This position appears to have become something of a liability for the Democrats, as a notable portion of their supporters have protested against continued shipments of weapons to Israel as it conducted a military siege of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. The “uncommitted” movement has threatened to withhold their votes unless Biden applies pressure on Israel to secure a ceasefire in the conflict. With their demands unsatisfied, they stopped short last month of publicly urging people not to vote for Harris, but did say people should vote against Trump. The ongoing escalation was triggered by a deadly Hamas incursion into southern Israel almost a year ago. In recent weeks, Israel refocused its attention from Gaza to Lebanon, reportedly with the blessing of the Biden administration.
“Without the comprehensive support you provide to Israel, the conflict could be ended quickly and effectively.”
• US ‘Helpless’ As Middle East Burns – Moscow (RT)
The surge in violence in the Middle East signifies the “complete failure” of US policy in the region under President Joe Biden, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said, shortly after Iran launched a significant retaliatory missile barrage against Israel on Tuesday evening. According to Israel, Tehran fired 181 ballistic missiles at targets in the Jewish state, although the Israeli military said that most were repelled by its air defenses. Sources in Iran, however, have claimed that Israeli military infrastructure suffered significant damage. Iranian officials described the strike as its long-expected response to the July assassination in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and last week’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Israel has pledged to retaliate against Iran for the attack, and is continuing a bombing campaign and a “limited incursion” in Lebanon. Commenting on the escalating violence, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova pointed the finger at US policy. “This bloody drama is just ramping up. Incoherent statements by the White House demonstrate its total helplessness in resolving crises. Efforts by [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken have led to tens of thousands of casualties and into a dead end,” the spokeswoman said. The current hostilities erupted last October, when Hamas launched a deadly raid into southern Israel from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Israel responded with a massive military campaign, seeking to “eliminate” the movement. The Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which supports Hamas, has been conducting regular rocket attacks across the border, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate from northern Israel.
The US has publicly called on Israel to defuse the tensions and seek a ceasefire in Gaza, although the Israeli government has maintained its military pressure. The number of Palestinian deaths has exceeded 41,000, according to local health authorities. Some observers have accused West Jerusalem of trying to make Gaza uninhabitable so that its population has no option but to flee. “The Middle East has once again found itself on the brink of a big war, which, it appears, someone is eager to see break out,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned last week at a UN Security Council session on the unfolding crisis. Lavrov went on to call out the US over its rejection of proposals to demand a ceasefire backed by the authority of the UNSC. The Russian diplomat stressed: “Without the comprehensive support you provide to Israel, the conflict could be ended quickly and effectively.”
Netanyahu IS not Israel, anymore than Zelensky IS Ukraine. Just stop supporting them.
• Netanyahu Seeks to Drag US Into War With Iran – Ex-Italian Diplomat (Sp.)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a provocative address to the people of Iran a day before Tehran’s ballistic missile attack in Israel, claiming the nation would be “finally free” and that “that moment will come a lot sooner than people think.” Netanyahu is “probably provoking the Iranian leadership to react to have a further justification to hit the country and, ideally, to draw the US to join Israel in attacking Iran,” Dr. Marco Carnelos, former Italian diplomat and Middle East adviser to Prime Ministers Prodi and Berlusconi, told Sputnik. In the wake of Tuesday’s missile strikes, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed that Iran exercised “legitimate self-defense rights” in response to Israel’s aggression. The missile attack followed Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon and air raids against Yemen and Syria.
Together with Iran, those countries form the so-called Axis of Resistance which has opposed Israel’s war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.Netanyahu claimed that “Iran made a big mistake” on October 1 and “will pay for it.” “There is no doubt that Israel is leveraging Washington against Iran,” Carnelos said, but it was “far from certain if the Biden Administration will decide to join Israel in attacking Iran unleashing a regional war.” The former Italian diplomat said the Biden administration wants to avoid a direct confrontation with Iran before November’s presidential election. Voters have no interest in starting “another potential endless war in the Middle East,” the pundit stressed.
“..all the Israeli operations on the ground are influencing the balance of power in Lebanon, and trying to change the equation of power there..”
• Weakening Iran and Hezbollah Part of Broader Israeli-US Project – Analyst (Sp.)
Tel Aviv earlier described the Israeli military’s incursion into southern Lebanon as limited in scope, claiming that there will be “no long-term occupation.”Commenting on Israel’s recently announced start of its “targeted raids” in southern Lebanon, Dr Lorenzo Trombetta, Rome-based senior analyst and UN consultant on the Middle East, told Sputnik that those attacks are just preparatory measures before a broader military offensive on the ground.”In this sense, Israel is serving US purposes. That’s why all the Israeli operations on the ground are influencing the balance of power in Lebanon, and trying to change the equation of power there. Weakening not only Iran, but Hezbollah mainly, is part of the broader Israeli-US project,” Trombetta pointed out. The White House National Security Council earlier said that President Joe Biden had directed the US military to help Israel shoot down Iranian missiles targeting the Jewish state.
“The US military presence increased in the Middle East, mainly towards Iran, in order to threaten it and send a clear message to Tehran and its allies,” the analyst said. He suggested that the US won’t change their Middle Eastern policy and will continue “to manage the balance of power from their side, by being on the backseat and clearly supporting Israel and their other allies.” The Israeli military has meanwhile resumed air strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, hours after Iran launched a massive missile attack on Israel in response to its “aggressive acts” against Tehran’s allies, including the assassination of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. While Tel Aviv argued that most of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli air defenses, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps maintained that 90% of projectiles had hit their targets.
Part 3 in the Putin Surrender saga. After Helmer and PCR, here’s Gilbert Doctorow.
• Putin, Medinsky, Istanbul-II and “Betrayal Of Russia’s State Interests” (Doctorow)
As a rule, on these pages I do not write critiques or responses to the writings of others, but today will be an exception. A colleague in Germany sent me the link below to a remarkable essay by John Helmer which is too important to ignore. Then one reader of my essays spontaneously asked me to comment on the points Helmer makes in the article in question. I now will do just that. For those who are unfamiliar with him, John Helmer is an Australian born, Harvard educated journalist who has been living in Moscow since 1989 and who is best known for his web platform Dances with Bears. His long residence in Moscow, his broad contacts with political elites there and his diligence at investigative reporting all mean that Helmer fills his articles like this one with invaluable insider’s talk. However, the question is whether his assembly of the facts at his disposal and his overall interpretation are as good as his skills at bringing to our attention little known connections between state actors. I have my doubts, which I will set out here.
In the given case, Helmer focuses attention on a certain Vladimir Medinsky, the man most widely known in the West as Putin’s chief negotiator in the March 2022 Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul that produced a lengthy draft treaty that was initialed by both sides but subsequently was rejected by Zelensky at the urging of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Helmer intimates that Medinsky was working on the side of the oligarchs back in March 2022 for a settlement that would end the conflict with minimal loss to the oligarchs’ interests and at the cost of Russia’s national interests. Moreover, he sees the same likelihood should Medinsky now be reappointed by Putin to lead the next round of peace talks, which appears probable given his recent reappearance at top state meetings relating to the Ukraine war.
Helmer airs the attacks that some high military officers have made on the political leadership of Putin going into peace talks. The suggestion is that Putin has been aligned with the oligarchs in Round One of the peace talks and cannot be trusted now. As for Medinsky, Helmer somewhat gratuitously tells us that he was born in Ukraine. He talks about Medinsky’s dubious merits during his term as Culture Minister which ended in the fall of 2019 when Putin reassigned him to be a presidential adviser. That was his title when, out of nowhere, Medinsky was made chief negotiator.
I take a personal interest in the discussion of Medinsky because he is someone whom I actually met back in the autumn of 2019 when he was still Culture Minister and visited various seminars within the St Petersburg Cultural Forum that Helmer mentions at the start of his essay. Medinsky spent perhaps 20 or 30 minutes with the dozen of us sitting around a seminar table. This was enough time to understand that he was a shallow chap. Subsequently I looked closely at the whole series of Russian history books that were published over Medinsky’s name for use in Russian secondary schools. None of them was impressive from an academic point of view, though they all were strongly patriotic. Indeed, Medinsky’s chief goal as Culture Minister was to restore patriotism to the school curricula. I also became acquainted back then with the allegations over possible plagiarism by Medinsky in his dissertation. These charges eventually were dropped but certainly tarnished his name.
[..] Would Medinsky have negotiated a treaty with Kiev that betrayed Russia’s state interests? I think that has to be excluded. After all, he did not go into the talks as sole negotiator, only as the lead. At his side there was Leonid Slutsky, who was present in his capacity as Chairman of the Duma Committee for International Affairs. Slutsky was/is the successor to the arch nationalist founder of the LDPR party Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who, we were recently reminded by Russian state television, was saying back in 2014 that Ukraine is not a country but a collection of beggars who should not be given one ruble (this when Putin was offering them $15 billion to keep them on Russia’s side and out of the clutches of the EU). Accordingly, Slutsky’s complicity in a sell-out of Russian interests, of a capitulation to satisfy oligarchs, is unthinkable.
“Putin might end up being someone to turn to in the storm as Zelensky will want to avoid a Ceausescu finale to his term in office..”
• Trump May Be More Of An Enemy To Zelensky Than Even Putin (Jay)
It was frosty, awkward and the kind of media moment that President Zelensky of Ukraine would have preferred to have avoided. Trump offered an opportunity to rise to the mention of the word “Putin”. He could have said “we’re ready to work with him on a solution” or something similarly non-committal. But Zelensky, who is gambling with his own presidency by not having western media advisers – or at least not listening to them if they exist – did not prepare for the media moment. He believes he is bigger than that and it showed. Thrown, he mumbled something which pundits are still trying to decipher even now, which didn’t impress Trump who replied “it takes two to tango”. Trump’s point is that Zelensky has to come down from the clouds and look at the reality facing him. The war is lost for Ukraine regardless of who wins the White House. And yet, the media gaffe showed the world what the author has been predicting for some time: Zelensky’s real enemy is not Putin. It’s Trump.
If Trump comes to the conclusion early on that Zelensky is really the core of the problem in Ukraine, then he will very quickly show him in a matter of hours, if he wins the U.S. presidency, just which part of this U.S.-Ukraine relationship is the dog and which part is the tail. It beggars belief that Zelensky, at this late stage in the game, is still clinging on to the preposterous if not deluded idea that he is in a position to negotiate anything. If he chose to work with Trump however, he would have some wiggle room. If not, it will be a matter of days into the Trump presidency where we will see the implosion of Zelensky and his cabal as the Donald will hang him out to dry. It might well turn out that Putin might end up being someone to turn to in the storm as Zelensky will want to avoid a Ceausescu finale to his term in office. In reality he will flee in the dead of night on a private jet with one or two of his closest friends and live in Florida.
In many ways, a Harris win might appear to Zelensky as an even slower death, given that the aid packages and arms procurement are declining making a Ukrainian win harder to pull off. Not enough arms and what is sent is too little too late. And the infantry problem which never goes away. Nowhere near enough men to give Russian forces a run for their money.And yet, facing a baptism of failure, Zelensky continues to kid himself. This is the consequence of destroying all media, shutting down opposition parties and silencing any dissidents who cry out common sense. When you create exactly the scenario that Hitler did in the 30s, particularly with what was called “propaganda” then and what we commonly call “fake news” today, inevitably you start to believe it yourself. It’s the same venal, perverse relationship that Zelensky has with the West. It’s an echo chamber and in such circumstances we should not be surprised that Zelensky has become so deluded with such a jarred view of his own circumstances and that of his own military.
With the on camera moment with Trump going so badly, one can only hope that backchannel talks with Zelensky’s people and those of Trump’s are going on to fix the gulf of what could at best be called miscommunication or at worst an ideological malaise. Zelensky needs to listen to the Trump camp and show more respect to Trump as the quickest way to become an enemy of the Donald is to show irreverence and not take him seriously. Was that awkward moment a breaking point? We will probably know in the coming days as it’s only a matter time before someone squeals to a social media influencer or pseudo journalist. The problem for him is that no scenarios are good. All roads take him to a place he doesn’t want to go. But this is the price he must pay for being bullied into tearing up a peace treaty he signed with Putin in Istanbul which by now must be a sore wound that he constantly licks. He messed up. How he reacts to his grave errors of judgement will decide how history writes his political eulogy. The word ‘hero’ is probably not going to make it in there.
“Judge Brinkema reversed her decision following a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found the term “crime of violence” to be “unconstitutionally vague.”
• The War on Terror 23 Years Later (Greenberg)
September marked the 23rd anniversary of al-Qaeda’s 2001 attacks on the United States, which left nearly 3,000 people dead. For the two decades since then, I’ve been writing, often for TomDispatch, about the ways the American response to 9/11, which quickly came to be known as the Global War on Terror, or GWOT, changed this country. As I’ve explored in several books, in the name of that war, we transformed our institutions, privileged secrecy over transparency and accountability, side-stepped and even violated longstanding laws and constitutional principles, and basically tossed aside many of the norms that had guided us as a nation for two centuries-plus, opening the way for a country now in Trumpian-style difficulty at home. Even today, more than two decades later, the question remains: Will the war on terror ever end?
Certainly, one might be inclined to answer in the affirmative following the recent unexpected endorsement of presidential candidate Kamala Harris by two leading members of the George W. Bush administration which, in response to those attacks, launched the GWOT. First, Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, who, after September 11th, sought to take the country down the path to what he called “the dark side” and was a chief instigator of the misguided and fraudulently justified invasion of Iraq in 2003, endorsed Vice President Harris. Then, so did Alberto Gonzales who, while serving as White House counsel to George W. Bush and then as his attorney general, was intricately involved in crafting that administration’s grim torture policy. (You remember, of course, those “enhanced interrogation techniques.”) He was similarly involved in creating the overreaching surveillance policy designed and implemented during the first years of the war on terror.
Consider those surprising endorsements by former Bush war hawks a possible coda for the war on terror as a major factor in American politics. In fact, for almost a decade and a half now, there have been signs suggesting that the denouement of that war might be at hand (though it never quite was). Those markers included the May 2011 lethal raid on the hideout of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden; President Barack Obama’s December 2011 authorization for the “final” withdrawal of American troops from Iraq (though a cadre of 2,500 military personnel are stationed there presently and another 900 are in neighboring Syria). In August 2021, 10 years after the killing of bin Laden, the U.S. did finally exit, however disastrously, from its lost war in Afghanistan. And in 2022, a U.S. drone strike killed bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The counterterrorism measures have had an impact on the American threat environment.
As reported in the Department of Homeland Security’s 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment, in 2022, “Only one attack in the United States was conducted by an individual inspired by a foreign terrorist organization” such as al-Qaeda or ISIS. Notably, prosecutions of alleged international terrorists have declined precipitously since the Bush administration years (and some of the convictions then have been reversed or altered). In a 2009 report, the Justice Department stated that, “since September 11, 2001, the Department has charged 512 individuals with terrorism or terrorism-related crimes and convicted or obtained guilty pleas in 319 terrorism-related and anti-terrorism cases.” Soon after that, however, the decline began. TRAC, a database that monitors such cases, reported that, in October 2014, “[t]here were no prosecutions recorded that involved international terrorism.”
By 2022, TRAC was reporting that the number of domestic terrorism prosecutions far outnumbered international terrorism cases, due in large part to the charges leveled against those involved in the January 6th insurrection. And that trend has only continued. This year, as TRAC indicated, “Overall, the data show that convictions of this type are down 28.6 percent from levels reported in 2019.” And when it comes to terrorism prosecutions, something unthinkable not so long ago has now happened. Several judges have recently given early release or simply overturned cases involving individuals convicted and sentenced in jihadi-inspired terrorism cases during the first decade of the war on terror. In July 2024, Eastern District of Virginia Judge Leonie Brinkema threw out three of 10 charges against and overturned a conviction carrying a life sentence for Ali Al-Timimi, a U.S.-born computational biology scholar sentenced in 2004 for soliciting treason by inspiring his followers to commit acts of violence abroad to defend Islam.
Judge Brinkema reversed her decision following a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found the term “crime of violence” to be “unconstitutionally vague.” Al-Timimi’s fate on the other counts is now on appeal. Having been released to home confinement after the onset of the Covid pandemic, he now no longer faces a life sentence, though, as the Associated Press reports, he could potentially see “decades of prison time beyond the 15 years he already served.” Nor was this Brinkema’s first reversal in a terrorism case. In 2018, she ordered the release of two prisoners convicted in what was known as the Virginia “Paintball Jihad” case following two Supreme Court rulings that held the charges in those cases to be similarly unconstitutionally vague.
Never ending. The pic tells the story.
So, the Berlin Appellate Court overturned my acquittal today. I am now, officially, at least according to the New Normal German authorities, a “hate-speech” criminal. I’m officially a “hate-speech” criminal because I compared New Normal Germany to Nazi Germany, and I challenged the official Covid narrative, and I used the cover art of my book to do it. The New Normal German authorities didn’t like that, and were determined to punish me for doing that, and to make an example of me, in order to discourage other people from doing that. It took them two tries, but they pulled it off. The judge in my original trial screwed up and acquitted me, but the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s office didn’t give up. They appealed the verdict — yes, they can do that in Germany — and this morning the Appellate Court overturned the verdict and declared me guilty.
I’ll report on all the ugly details of my day in court in a proper column sometime later this week, when I’ve sufficiently recovered from the hangover I am currently about to start working on. I’ll also be resurrecting my legal defense fund and telling you about that in my next column, because the only recourse my attorney and I have left at this point is to try to get the German Constitutional Court (i.e., Germany’s supreme court) to hear the case. In the meantime, I wanted to share my Statement to the Appellate Court. Here it is.
Statement to the Berlin Appellate Court, September 30, 2024
Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is CJ Hopkins. I am an award-winning playwright, author, and political satirist. My work is read by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. For over thirty years, I have written and spoken out against fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and so on. Anyone can do an Internet search, find my books, reviews of my plays, my essays, and learn who I am and what my political views are in five minutes. And yet, I am accused by the German authorities of spreading pro-Nazi propaganda. I’m accused of doing this because I posted two Tweets challenging the official Covid narrative and comparing the new, nascent form of totalitarianism it has brought into being — the so-called “New Normal” — to Nazi Germany.
Let me be clear. I did that. In August 2022, as Germany was debating whether to end its Covid mask mandates, I tweeted those two Tweets. I challenged the official Covid narrative. I compared the New Normal to Nazi Germany. I did that with the cover art of one of my books. I did what anyone is allowed to do according to German law. I did what Karl Lauterbach has done. I did what German celebrities like Jessica Berlin have done. I did what major German newspapers and magazines have done. A few months ago, Stern and Der Spiegel published covers of their magazines featuring swastikas. Der Spiegel’s cover featured exactly the same artistic concept as my book cover and my Tweets. The only difference is, the swastika on Der Spiegel’s cover is behind a German flag, whereas the swastika on my book cover and in my Tweets is behind a medical mask. That’s it. That is the only difference.
Stern and Der Spiegel displayed swastikas on their covers in order to warn the public of the rise of a new form of totalitarianism, and that is precisely what I did. I compared the New Normal — i.e., the new nascent form of totalitarianism that came into being in 2020 — to Nazi Germany. Stern and Der Spiegel compared the AfD to Nazi Germany. That is the only difference. I’m not a fan of the AfD. I’m not a fan of Stern and Der Spiegel. That doesn’t matter. Stern and Der Spiegel have the right to do what they did, and so do I. That right is guaranteed to us in the German constitution. We all have the right, if we see a new form of totalitarianism taking shape, to oppose it, and to compare it to historical forms of totalitarianism, including Nazi Germany. I don’t follow German electoral politics very closely, so I don’t know exactly what the AfD has done that prompted Stern and Der Spiegel to compare them to the Nazis. But I know exactly what the German authorities did during 2020 to 2023.
Kant. 230 years ago.
• 10 Principles for Perpetual Peace in the 21st Century (Jeffrey Sachs)
Next year will mark the 230th anniversary of Immanuel Kant’s celebrated essay on “Perpetual Peace” (1795). The great German philosopher put forward a set of guiding principles to achieve perpetual peace among the nations of his day. As we grapple with a world at war, and indeed at dire risk of nuclear Armageddon, we should build on Kant’s approach for our own time. An updated set of principles should be considered at the United Nations Summit of the Future in September. Kant was fully aware that his proposals would face the skepticism of “practical” politicians: “The practical politician assumes the attitude of looking down with great self-satisfaction on the political theorist as a pedant whose empty ideas in no way threaten the security of the state, inasmuch as the state must proceed on empirical principles; so the theorist is allowed to play his game without interference from the worldly-wise statesman.”
Nonetheless, as historian Mark Mazower noted in his magisterial account of global governance, Kant’s was a “text that would intermittently influence generations of thinkers about world government down to our own day,” helping to lay the groundwork for the United Nations and international law on human rights, the conduct of war, and arms control. Kant’s core proposals centered on three ideas. First, he rejected standing armies. Standing armies “incessantly menace other states by their readiness to appear at all times prepared for war.” In this, Kant anticipated by a century and a half the famous warning by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the dangers of a military-industrial complex. Second, Kant called for non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations. In this, Kant inveighed against the kind of covert operations that the US has used relentlessly to topple foreign governments.
Third, Kant called for a “federation of free states,” which in our time became the United Nations, a “federation” of 193 states pledged to operate under the UN Charter. Kant put great hopes on republicanism as opposed to one-person rule as a check on war-making. Kant reasoned that a single ruler would readily succumb to the temptation of war: “…a declaration of war is the easiest thing in the world to decide upon, because war does not require of the ruler, who is the proprietor and not a member of the state, the least sacrifice of the pleasures of his table, the chase, his country houses, his court functions, and the like. He may, therefore, resolve on war as on a pleasure party for the most trivial reasons, and with perfect indifference leave the justification which decency requires to the diplomatic corps who are ever ready to provide it.”
By contrast, according to Kant: “…if the consent of the citizens is required in order to decide that war should be declared (and in this [republican] constitution it cannot but be the case), nothing is more natural than that they would be very cautious in commencing such a poor game, decreeing for themselves all the calamities of war. Kant was far too optimistic about the ability of public opinion to constrain war-making. Both the Athenian and Roman republics were notoriously belligerent. Britain was the 19th century’s leading democracy, but perhaps its most belligerent power. For decades, the US has engaged in non-stop wars of choice and violent overthrows of foreign governments.”
Chemicals
You can't make this stuff up…
Alex Clark: "During the Vietnam War, the American government compelled seven chemical companies, including Monsanto, to create Agent Orange. The same people that made Agent Orange sold patented seeds to our farmers that now cover 80% of our… pic.twitter.com/DdmkjNnC38— Camus (@newstart_2024) October 2, 2024
Frameless Rembrandt
Frameless exhibition London
The storm on the Sea of Galilee
pic.twitter.com/ZXCgtlIjCS— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 2, 2024
Sunlight
https://twitter.com/i/status/1841354818037645715
Bears
https://twitter.com/i/status/1841458135610855707
Dolphin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1841547628158353852
Free concert wren
Winterkoninkje , gratis concert @LawrenceChatton pic.twitter.com/qKbyq2azCf
— De Faunabescherming (@faunabeschermin) October 2, 2024
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