Pablo Picasso Woman in an armchair (Olga) 1922
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868707860504625322
Trump Xi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868830594991636722
Kash
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868831906881794387
Jennings
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868863814256431386
Mike Benz
If USAID is a charity doing humanitarian work, why was it backing a private for-profit gas company in Ukraine called Burisma? pic.twitter.com/wUgCZZhrtY
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 17, 2024
Tucker Sachs
Jeffrey Sachs on how Joe Biden has been the most destructive president in American history, and how Donald Trump can repair the damage.
(0:00) The Regime Change in Syria
(8:48) What Is Greater Israel?
(21:45) Were Americans Involved in the Overthrowing of Assad?
(34:26) War With… pic.twitter.com/STxrm5haXD— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) December 16, 2024
“It’s a carnage that we haven’t seen since the Second World War,” he continued. “It’s got to be stopped. And I’m doing my best to stop [it].”
• Trump Says He Wants To Talk To Putin (RT)
US President-elect Donald Trump has said that he will speak to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in a bid to stop the “carnage” between Moscow and Kiev. During a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, Trump refused to comment when asked whether he had spoken to Putin since he won last month’s presidential election. However, Trump said that he intends to do so. “We’ll be talking to President Putin and we’ll be talking to the representatives, Zelensky and representatives from Ukraine,” he said. “We’ve got to stop it. It’s carnage,” he added, referring to the almost three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “It’s a carnage that we haven’t seen since the Second World War,” he continued. “It’s got to be stopped. And I’m doing my best to stop [it].”
Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end the conflict within a day of taking office, although he has since admitted that doing this may be “more difficult” than he previously thought. The incoming president met with Zelensky in Paris earlier this month, and said immediately after last month’s election that he will likely speak to Putin in the near future. Trump and his prospective cabinet officials have refused to comment on media reports claiming that they have been in contact with Moscow, while the Kremlin last month denied a report by the Washington Post suggesting that Trump reached out to Putin by phone immediately after the election. Putin has said that Trump’s statements on ending the conflict “deserve attention,” and that he is open to talks with the president-elect. “It wouldn’t be beneath me to call him myself,” the Russian president said at a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi last month.
As Trump has not revealed any details on the kind of settlement he intends to propose to Putin and Zelensky, his plans have remained the subject of media speculation. Most American news outlets have predicted that Trump will push for the conflict to be frozen along the current line of contact, with Ukraine abandoning its aspirations of NATO membership in exchange for security guarantees from the West. Trump has explicitly said that the US will leave the enforcement of such a deal up to NATO’s European members. Moscow maintains that any settlement must begin with Ukraine ceasing military operations and acknowledging the “territorial reality” that it will never regain control of the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, as well as Crimea. In addition, the Kremlin insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – will be achieved.
“He should be prepared to make a deal. That’s all. Too many people being killed..”
• Trump Could End US-Supported Long-Range Strikes on Russia (Antiwar)
President-elect Donald Trump suggested at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Monday that he could reverse President Biden’s decision to support long-range missile strikes on Russian territory. Trump said it was a “big mistake” for the Biden administration to greenlight the escalation without asking him what he thought. When asked if he might reverse the decision, the president-elect said, “I might, yeah. I thought it was a very stupid thing to do.” The comments mark the second time in recent days that Trump expressed his concern over the long-range strikes that Ukraine has launched using US ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow missiles. In an interview with Time Magazine that was published last week, Trump said that he “vehemently” disagreed with Biden’s decision. The Kremlin noted Trump’s comments and said Russia agreed with the president-elect.
“The statement in itself is fully in harmony with our position. That is, our visions of reasons behind the escalation coincide. And, of course, we like that,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Biden signed off on long-range strikes in Russia despite Moscow making it clear the escalation would risk nuclear war. In response to the step, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally changed Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. At his press conference, Trump also said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be ready to make a deal with Russia to end the war. “He should be prepared to make a deal. That’s all. Too many people being killed,” he said. Trump campaigned on ending the proxy war but hasn’t articulated how he will do that. When asked if he would pressure Ukraine to cede territory, Trump wouldn’t give a direct answer.
“[Türkiye] wanted [Syria] for thousands of years, and he got it… Türkiye did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost..”
Again, Trump doesn’t want the killing.
• Assad’s Overthrow An ‘Unfriendly Takeover’ By Türkiye – Trump (RT)
Türkiye is behind the regime change in Syria, US President-elect Donald Trump claimed on Monday in his first press briefing since the November election. Trump called the overthrow of Bashar Assad and his government an “unfriendly takeover” by Ankara. The situation in Syria has changed drastically over the past two weeks after militants led by the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group launched an offensive against the country’s troops, taking over major cities, including the capital Damascus. After the collapse of the Syrian military, the armed opposition seized power, forcing President Assad to flee to Russia, where he was granted political asylum. “Those people that went in are controlled by Türkiye, and that’s OK,” Trump stated. He added that he considers Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “smart” and “very tough” guy for succeeding in the overthrow of the Syrian leadership.
“[Türkiye] wanted [Syria] for thousands of years, and he got it… Türkiye did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost,” Trump added. He also praised what he described as Türkiye’s “major military force” which “has not been worn out with war.” According to Trump, Türkiye will also play a significant role in Syria’s future. “Nobody knows what the final outcome is going to be in the region. Nobody knows who will rule in the final… Right now, Syria has a lot of indefinites, but I think Türkiye is going to hold the key to Syria,” the president-elect predicted. Türkiye shares its longest land border with Syria, over 900km, and had been a main backer of opposition groups aiming to topple Assad since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. Despite listing the jihadi HTS, which initiated the current unrest, as a terrorist organization, Ankara is thought to have significant influence over the group.
Türkiye also backs the Syrian National Army (SNA), which earlier this month launched its own offensive in the eastern part of the country, hoping to capitalize on the collapse of Syrian government forces. Days prior to Assad’s overthrow, Erdogan voiced support for the insurgency in Syria, urging the armed opposition to continue their march to Damascus. Since Assad’s ouster, Washington and Ankara, which both back various rebel groups in the region, have held talks on ways to stabilize the situation and counter the potential resurgence of Islamic State militants in Syria. At a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan last week, the two agreed to continue working together on preventing terror groups from abusing the current instability in the country and on bringing peace to the region, starting with efforts to establish an interim government.
“Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency..”
That’s the exact opposite of what DOGE says.
• Trump Threatens To Fire Federal Employees Working From Home (JTN)
President-elect Donald Trump blasted federal “work from home” policies Monday, calling them “ridiculous” and stirring up pushback from federal employee unions. “If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump told reporters during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago. The issue has been thrust to the forefront in part by the incoming Trump administration’s emphasis on government efficiency, spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. But the issue has also gained national attention because Biden administration officials like outgoing Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley negotiated a deal with union leaders to entrench the policies, keeping telework in place for his 42,000 employees until 2029.
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, threatened legal action against the incoming Trump administration if the president-elect tries to upend previously bargained union deals that let federal employees work from home. “Collective bargaining agreements entered into by the federal government are binding and enforceable under the law,” Kelley said. “We trust the incoming administration will abide by their obligations to honor lawful union contracts. If they fail to do so, we will be prepared to enforce our rights.” According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, there are nearly 3 million federal employees. Kelley argued that the extent to which federal employees work from home has been exaggerated.
“Rumors of widespread federal telework and remote work are simply untrue,” Kelley said. “More than half of federal employees cannot telework at all because of the nature of their jobs, only ten percent of federal workers are remote, and those who have a hybrid arrangement spend over sixty percent of working hours in the office.” Critics have shot back saying that effectively means that 40% of federal work hours are remote. If you remove certain workers like post-office employees and maintenance workers from the equation, the percentage of federal remote work is much higher. In particular, workers in the federal agencies in and around Washington, D.C. have largely grown accustomed to at least partially working remote. Kelley argued the policies help the government recruit and keep “top talent.”
“Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency, maintain continuity of operations, and increase disaster preparedness,” Kelley said in a statement Monday. “These policies also assist agencies across the government, including the Social Security Administration, in recruiting and retaining top talent.
Waiver
https://twitter.com/i/status/1868832325548838914
No way that was an honest mistake. Career over.
• Trump Sues Des Moines Register, Pollster For Brazen Election Interference (ZH)
On Monday afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump told reporters at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago Club in South Florida that his team was preparing to file a “major lawsuit” against the Des Moines Register and its top pollster, J. Ann Selzer for election interference and fraud over their final polling data in the days before the presidential election. Trump followed through on his word, as Fox News reports that his team filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and Selzer overnight in Polk County, Iowa, under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act and related provisions. The lawsuit seeks “accountability for brazen election interference committed by” the local paper and Selzer “in favor of now-defeated former Democrat candidate Kamala Harris through use of a leaked and manipulated Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted by Selzer and S&C and published by DMR and Gannett in the Des Moines Register on Nov. 2, 2024.”
The lawsuit also targets Gannett, the parent company of the Des Moines Register, which owns USA Today and several other local papers across the US. “Contrary to reality and defying credulity, defendants’ Harris Poll was published three days before Election Day and purported to show Harris leading President Trump in Iowa by three points; President Trump ultimately won Iowa by over thirteen points,” the filing stated. Selzer was once considered the “gold standard” of polling, but after Trump swept the state by a 13-point margin, winning the actual vote 56-43%, she later acknowledged her poll was a “big miss” and suggested that it might have “actually energized [d] and activated [d] Republican voters who thought they would likely coast to victory,” according to our previous report. Following the public opinion polling blunder, Selzer wrote in a guest column in the Des Moines Register just a little more than a week after the election that her days advising the paper’s famed Iowa Poll was over, and she would be “transitioning to other ventures and opportunities.”
Selzer’s exit—and now her legal troubles with Trump’s team—reflects a broader shift: trust in mainstream polling has plummeted to historic lows. Those accused of waging an information war on the minds of the people are now being held accountable. “The Harris Poll was no ‘miss’ but rather an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election,” the lawsuit said, adding that “defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election.” The era of misinformation and disinformation by the Democratic Party, propped up by fake news, fake polls, and a government-sponsored censorship complex (and billionaire-funded: Soros), has infuriated the American people. At the same time, prediction markets like Polymarket have emerged, which offer one of the best insights into electoral outcomes and signal a new tool in political forecasting.
The lawsuit noted that Selzer’s more than three-decade run in the industry has led to her retirement “in disgrace from polling less than two weeks after this embarrassing rout.” The lawyers argued that “left-wing pollsters have attempted to influence electoral outcomes through manipulated polls that have unacceptable error rates and are not grounded in widely accepted polling methodologies.” [..] The lawsuit Monday night comes days after far-left ABC News and its top anchor, George Stephanopoulos, reached a $15 million defamation suit with Trump. Trump also filed a lawsuit against far-left CBS News, demanding $10 billion in damages over “deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news” for the election interference surrounding Harris’ questionable interview in October.
“Federal law criminalizes witness tampering of varying degrees, and subjects a defendant to as many as 20 years in prison..”
• House GOP Accuses Liz Cheney Of Tampering With J6 Witness (JTN)
The House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk on Tuesday released an interim report on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, concluding the attack was preventable and also asking for an investigation into former Rep. Liz Cheney for criminally tampering with a witness during the Democrat-led congressional inquiry of the tragedy. “Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report released by the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk stated.”Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.,” it added.
“This secret communication with a witness is improper and likely violates 18 U.S.C. 1512. Such action is outside the due functioning of the legislative process and therefore not protected by the Speech and Debate clause.” Federal law criminalizes witness tampering of varying degrees, and subjects a defendant to as many as 20 years in prison.The report also took direct aim at former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, Cheney’s star witness at the nationally televised hearings, alleging that Cheney encouraged false testimony about a handwritten document and noting her sensational claim that former President Donald Trump tried to commandeer his presidential limousine that day to take it to the Capitol was directly refuted by the Secret Service.Loudermilk’s report suggested Cheney also bore responsibility for Hutchinson’s testimony.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney for violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury,” the report said. ”Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, Hutchinson committed perjury when she lied under oath to the Select Committee.”The report delivers a second bombshell, revealing Loudermilk’s team uncovered “evidence of collusion” between Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney. When Smith released a trove of documents in October that were used in his filings in the Trump case, present in the batch was an unredacted transcript from one Jan. 6 Select Committee interview with a witness.
“Given that the Select Committee did not archive, or otherwise destroy this transcript, and that the White House refused to provide an unredacted version to the Subcommittee, the only remaining explanation is that Special Counsel Smith received the unredacted version from one of the two institutions which did not cooperate fully with the Subcommittee,” Loudermilk’s committee concluded.
“Biden’s pardon list has replaced the usual Inauguration Ball lists as the “must-have” item this year..”
• The Danger of White Knight Pardons (Turley)
There are growing indications that President Joe Biden is about to fundamentally change the use of presidential pardons by granting “prospective” or “preemptive” pardons to political allies. Despite repeated denials of President-elect Donald Trump that he is seeking retaliation against opponents and his statements that he wants “success [to be] my revenge,” Democratic politicians and pundits have called for up to thousands of such pardons. While there is little threat of any viable prosecution of figures like the members of the January 6th Committee, the use of “White Knight pardons” offers obvious political benefits. After many liberals predicted the imminent collapse of democracy and that opponents would be rounded up in mass by the Trump Administration, they are now contemplating the nightmare that democracy might survive and that there will be no mass arrests.
The next best thing to a convenient collapse of democracy is a claim that Biden’s series of preemptive pardons averted it. It is enough to preserve the narrative in the face of a stable constitutional system . Indeed, Biden’s pardon list has replaced the usual Inauguration Ball lists as the “must-have” item this year. Pardon envy is sweeping over the Beltway as politicians and pundits push to be included on the list of presumptive Trump enemies.The political stunt will come at a cost. Preemptive pardons could become the norm as presidents pardon whole categories of allies and even themselves to foreclose federal prosecutions. It can quickly become the norm in what I recently wrote about as our “age of rage.” It will give presidents cover to wipe away any threat of prosecution for friends, donors, and associates. This can include self-pardons issued as implied condemnations of their political opponents.
It could easily become the final act of every president to pardon himself and all of the members of his Administration. We would then have an effective immunity rule for outgoing parties in American politics. Ironically, there is even less need for such preemptive pardons after the Supreme Court recognized that presidents are immune for many decisions made during their presidencies. Likewise, members have robust constitutional protections for their work under Article I, as do journalists and pundits under the Constitution’s First Amendment. We have gone over two centuries without such blanket immunity. In my book The Indispensable Right, I discuss our periods of violent political strife and widespread arrests. Thomas Jefferson referred to John Adams’s Federalist government as “the reign of the witches.” Yet, even presidents in those poisonous times did not do what Joe Biden is now contemplating.
Moreover, presidential pardons have a checkered history, including presidents pardoning family members or political donors. Bill Clinton did both. Not surprisingly, Clinton last week attempted to add his own wife’s name to the sought-after Biden pardon list. He added, however, “I don’t think I should be giving public advice on the pardon power…It’s a very personal thing.” That is precisely the point. The power was not created to be used for “very personal things,” like pardoning your half-brother and a fugitive Democratic donor on your last day in office. Yet, despite that history, no president has seen fit to go as far as where Biden appears to be heading.
“..as Big Tobacco began buying off the TV news more than 70 years ago, Big Pharma is doing that today..”
• An Open Letter To Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (AmG)
Dear Mr. Kennedy,
Of the many issues you will tackle as Secretary of Health and Human Services, we implore you to work with FCC Commissioner Brenden Carr and immediately put an end to pharmaceutical companies advertising prescription drugs on television. This should be one of your earliest moves in the Trump administration. Why is this so timely? The sheer amount of dollars being spent on TV advertising by “Big Pharma” should raise suspicion among those who care about accuracy in media and information being consumed by the public. It is an old trick for an industry to buy off the news media for favorable coverage. When evidence of the dangers of smoking cigarettes began to emerge in the 1950s, news organizations were reluctant to expose “Big Tobacco” because it was responsible for an abundance of media ad revenue. The same synergistic relationship exists today with “Big Pharma” and television news.
Similarly, as Big Tobacco began buying off the TV news more than 70 years ago, Big Pharma is doing that today. The incessant drumbeat of COVID boosters, RSV injections, and flu shot ads is run alongside news reporters covering up vaccine side effects, including increased cases of myocarditis, anaphylaxis, psychosis, and/or early death. Nowhere is this more evident than with Novo Nordisk A/S’s type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic. While this drug may offer benefits to the millions of Americans who suffer from type 2 diabetes (some surveys place the number of Americans afflicted with type 2 diabetes at nearly 10%, with more than 30% considered pre-diabetic), at what cost? If your insurance doesn’t cover Ozempic, your monthly cost will be nearly $1,000. And you will be “hooked” for life.
Concurrently, what about the shameless promotion of Ozempic as an aid for weight loss? Can you watch a program on the nightly news on one of the alphabet networks or cable news without seeing ads for Ozempic touting its benefits to lose weight? And what about the genre of late-night so-called comics like vax-shill Stephen Colbert? The late-night TV category is dying, with Colbert (CBS), Jimmy Fallon (NBC), and Jimmy Kimmel (ABC) suffering historic low ratings. If not propped up by “Big Pharma” ad dollars, will a ban on ads for prescription drugs be the final nail in their coffins? Let’s hope so, as all three ceased being funny years ago. We know you are already on the record as having intentions of outlawing Big Pharma ads for prescription drugs on television. Today, among high-income countries, only the U.S. and New Zealand allow for such advertising. Almost all other countries are fully knowledgeable of the conflict between ad dollars and news reporting.
The longer this obvious conflict persists, the more the public will be misled and lied to about the real dangers of prescription drugs and the intentions of Big Pharma to buy off the news media to hide these dangers. A ban on this type of advertising will go a long way toward keeping the news media honest—or perhaps putting the worst of them out of the misinformation business altogether. Among the many items on your agenda, once you take office, this is probably the easiest of them. Our broadcast news outlets operate under a license from the FCC and are obligated to serve the public interest at all times. Taking money from Big Pharma to cover up or lie about the potential damage the public will suffer through the use of their products cannot be tolerated any longer. We both applaud your passion to Make America Healthy Again. Count us in.
PCR just keeps going. Little self-reflection.
• Will Putin Fight or Surrender? (Paul Craig Roberts)
In his meeting the other day with the Russian Defense Ministry Board, Putin discussed the accomplishments of the past year and measures needed to ensure Russia’s security from Washington’s aspirations for world dominance. “We see the US administration and the collective West relentlessly trying to preserve their dominance, pushing their rules on the global community and manipulating them as they see fit.” Washington, Putin said, is engaged “in an effort to weaken our country and inflict a strategic defeat.” That is true, but why is Putin helping Washington succeed? Putin complains about the growing instability and violence in the Middle East. Does he realize that he contributed to it by withdrawing Russia’s defense of Syria? Did Putin forget “seven countries in five years”? Did Putin forget “Greater Israel”? Did Putin forget Turkey’s ambition against the Kurds?
Putin complains about the West’s participation with Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. Why did Putin make this possible by dragging out a limited military operation for 3 years? How could Putin fail to understand that Washington would test the intervention waters step by step to see if there are any real red lines. The absence of red lines has reached the point of Washington and NATO firing missiles into Russia, and Putin, despite his warnings to the West, retaliates only against Ukraine. Indeed, Putin’s retaliations are measures that should have been conducted on the first day of Russia’s intervention in Donbas. Putin has prevented Russian military action that would have made it impossible for Kiev to continue the conflict. What purpose is served by dragging out the conflict? Certainly not the preservation of lives.
The Russian population is hurting not so much from the West’s sanctions as from Putin’s central bank director’s 21 percent interest rates. Sooner or later the population is going to blame the war for the economic deprivation, and support for a war without end will decline. The same central bank director left Russia’s central bank reserves where they could be stolen by Washington. I suspect the central bank director’s warnings that Russia cannot afford war is the reason the Russian military remains too small for effective deployment, thus forcing Russian reliance on nuclear weapons. The West has just imposed more sanctions on Russia, and Russia continues to supply energy to Poland and Romania, NATO members hosting US missile bases on their borders with Russia. It is extraordinary how the Russian government helps Russia’s enemies to work against Russia.
It is not only Putin who seems unable to get his mind around reality. The leader of the terrorist group HTS used by Turkey, Washington, and Israel fo overthrow Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-Sharaa, complains that Israel has no excuse for continuing military strikes on Syria. Apparently, al-Sharaa has never heard of “Greater Israel.” Israel is clearing the way for Syria’s absorption into “Greater Israel,” just as Turkey intends the absorption of the Kurdish area of Syria to become incorporated into Turkey. As Israeli strategist Oded Yinon wrote, the Muslim world is too disunited to stand as an obstacle to “Greater Israel.” Perhaps that is the reason Putin abandoned his ally. But by sacrificing Syria Putin has left the road open to Iran and Lebanon. If Iran becomes the mess that Washington has created elsewhere in the Muslim world, the Russian Federation will be open to infiltration by jihadists to cause disruption in Russia’s Muslim areas.
Meanwhile Washington continues to operate against Russia in the former Russian provinces of Georgia and Armenia. How long before there are American missile bases in Georgia and Armenia? It is unclear why US missile bases on Russia’s border with Ukraine are a reason for Russian military action, but not US missile bases on Russia’s borders with Poland and Romania. It was impossible for Putin to stand aside while the US created a Ukrainian army to destroy the Russian populations of Donbas. The world should appreciate that Putin has not attacked Russia’s tormenters outside of Ukraine. Putin has also accepted sanctions without adequate response. The question is whether Putin’s determination to avoid a larger war presents as weakness and indecision that encourages the West to further provocations that eventually lead to a wider war. The big question in the coming year is whether Putin surrenders or fights.
“Peacekeeping missions are based on international law and require a peace settlement and a UN mandate..”
EU wants EU peacekeepers. But they’re a party to the war. Of course they deny that, but…
• Finland Warns Against Peacekeepers In Ukraine (RT)
EU countries should avoid making hasty decisions about sending a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine, Finnish President Alexander Stubb has warned. He was speaking at a defense cooperation summit in Tallinn, where the conflict between Moscow and Kiev was top of the agenda.Some EU leaders have previously floated the idea of a possible peacekeeping operation in Ukraine after peace with Russia is eventually achieved. According to Stubb, however, a peacekeeping operation is not currently a realistic option, as it could result in an escalation, and it would also require hundreds of thousands of troops. “We should not get ahead of ourselves,” Stubb warned before the start of the discussions on Tuesday, as quoted by Finnish news outlet Yle. Peacekeeping missions are based on international law and require a peace settlement and a UN mandate, he noted.
“The operation cannot be launched on a shaky foundation,” he added. According to the Finnish president, a peacekeeping mission would require at least 150,000 soldiers. “In rotation, that means three times that, or 450,000 peacekeepers per year. So perhaps this discussion has gone off the rails, so to speak,” he added. Stubb was speaking during a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF). The military group is made up of the Netherlands, Iceland, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The latter five nations share a border with Russia and have been among the most outspoken critics of Moscow and its military operation in Ukraine.Before the meeting, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur stated that “no option can be ruled out,” even before there is peace in Ukraine, according to Yle.
At an EU leaders’ summit on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron plans to raise the issue of deploying a UN peacekeeping mission to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire and peace deal, various media outlets reported last week. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said earlier that the bloc was not considering sending peacekeepers to Ukraine as hostilities between Kiev and Moscow are far from over. Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said on Monday that it was “premature” to discuss a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine because Kiev refuses to hold peace talks with Moscow.
Are we sure Ukraine killed him? And not some NATO country? They seem to have had more reason.
• Slain Russian General Worked Fearlessly To Expose Western Crimes – Moscow (RT)
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was assassinated in Moscow on Tuesday, had for years systematically exposed Western crimes involving chemical weapons and did so fearlessly, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. Kirillov, the commander of the Russian Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, was killed along with his aide by an explosion in southeastern Moscow in the early morning. A number of media outlets have since reported that the murder was carried out on the orders of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), which had labeled Kirillov as an “absolutely legitimate target” for assassination.
Writing on Kirillov’s passing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said that throughout his career he had repeatedly exposed the crimes of the “Anglo-Americans” such as “NATO provocations with chemical weapons in Syria, Britain’s manipulations with prohibited chemical substances and provocations in Salisbury and Amesbury, the deadly activities of American biolabs in Ukraine, and much more.” “He worked fearlessly. He did not hide behind people’s backs,” Zakharova wrote. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of the national Security Council, also expressed his condolences to Kirillov’s colleagues, family, and friends, and stated that the attack in which he was killed was “the agony of the Bandera regime.”
“With its last strength, it is trying to justify its worthless existence before its Western masters, to prolong the war and death, to justify the catastrophic situation at the front. Realizing the inevitability of its military defeat, it is inflicting cowardly and vile blows in peaceful cities,” Medvedev said. State Duma Defense Committee chairman Andrey Kartapolov described Kirillov as a “worthy Russian general” and a “real officer,” stating that had done “a lot to bring the US to justice,” particularly with regards to Washington’s activities in setting up laboratories around the world, including in Ukraine.
“We caught them there, and Kirillov’s role in this is greater than anywhere else,” Kartapolov said. He added that Kirillov’s revelations have “caught too many people” and that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if figures outside of Kiev also had a hand in his assassination, including the son of US President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden. Kartapolov stressed that those who organized and carried out Kirillov’s murder will be found and punished, “whoever they are and wherever they are.” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin also condemned Kirillov’s assassination, stating that it once again highlights “the criminal nature of the Kiev regime.” “It is a terrorist state headed by an illegitimate president – a Nazi. All those guilty must receive the punishment they deserve,” Volodin was quoted as saying by the Duma press service.
Pick ’em off one by one.
• Which Western Politician Will Flee Their Sinking Ship Next? (Marsden)
I have a confession to make. I really suck at cooking. I have no idea what I’m doing in the kitchen. And my best efforts usually end with a trip to the ready-made meal section of the local grocery store. But that said, I know my limits. You won’t catch me trying to get a job at in Parisian fine dining, for example, or even at a local diner. But the people currently cooking up the Western establishment’s shared agenda? They’ll just burn down the whole kitchen, and then eject out. Or at least some of them will do the latter. Not nearly enough of them yet. But it seems to be a promising new trend in the absence of their inability to just stay out to begin with. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a no-confidence vote against himself on Monday, officially asking the parliamentarians of the Bundestag whether they might wish to do him the honor of taking a foot to his arsch.
It’s basically a case of political suicide-by-cop. Scholz wanted them to put his current mandate out of its misery because he’s totally impotent, politically speaking. Why? Because the yellow light centrists of his traffic light coalition bailed on him and he no longer has the majority needed to ram things through parliament.All this came about because Scholz’s finance minister, Christian Lindner, from the centrist Free Democratic Party, decided back in November that he wasn’t interested in a career as a magician attempting to work miracles with Scholz’s spending priorities. Germany virtue-signaled itself right into economic devastation following along with EU sanctions to impress their girlfriend Vladimir Zelensky. Then Scholz told his finance minister to just lift his foot up off the debt brake a bit so he can go on another €15 billion ($15.7 billion) spending joyride for Ukraine.
And Lindner was like, nope, how about you just dust off some of those long-range Taurus missiles in the closet and give those to your girlfriend instead? Yeah, they’re dangerous, but they’re also just sitting there like an apartment exercise bike with laundry hanging off it, so it’s a win-win – well, except for that World War III risk. Scholz didn’t want to do that because it would mean babysitting Kiev so it didn’t start a third world war against Russia. It would also mean sending German troops to Ukraine so Zelensky could sit on their lap and pretend to drive the Tauruses. And it’s never the toddler who gets blamed for those accidents. So Scholz and Lindner had a falling out over a month ago that ultimately led to a breakup, with Lindner and his yellow light centrists walking away from Scholz’s coalition table like a teenaged clique in the school cafeteria.
German lawmakers welcomed the opportunity to kick Scholz in the lederhosen and out of the Biergarten. One down, one more to go. Because next up (probably) is Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz, currently topping the polls ahead of an expected February election. He seems keen on giving Washington and Brussels even more power over German decision-making. Yeah, maybe Washington can advise Berlin on nail placement for its economic coffin, too? As if that’s really Germany’s big issue right now – that it wasn’t sycophantic enough under Scholz, with Merz saying how it was “embarrassing how Scholz acted in the European Union.” Scholz shrugged off Nord Stream being blown up, putting the German economy at the mercy of pricy American gas, and Merz doesn’t think Scholz was enough of a team player?
Scholz apparently just wanted to keep feeding more taxpayer cash into the German military industrial complex under the pretext of helping Ukraine, but doesn’t seem too keen on actual war. But Merz isn’t even capable of understanding how that grift works, apparently. Sounds promising.Meanwhile, across the pond in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, bailed right out of the job, just hours before she was set to deliver the latest budget statement. That’s always a good sign. Kind of like calling in sick before a big test that you know you’re about to fail. The $62 billion deficit that was set to be announced – $22 billion more than Freeland’s projected target – might have had something to do with it.
She says that she was pushed out first, though, writing in her resignation letter to Trudeau, “On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your Finance Minister and offered me another position in the cabinet.” Freeland says that she rejected “costly political gimmicks” like sales tax holidays and onetime cash handouts, presumably, which she herself had spent months relentlessly promoting. She makes it sound like she was a sudden voice of reason, and referred to “strenuous efforts this fall to manage our spending in ways that will give us the flexibility we will need to meet the serious challenges presented by the United States.”
“I’m going to find out who’s making these accusations and nuke them.”
• Musk Accuses ‘Deep State Traitors’ Of Targeting Him (RT)
US federal agencies have initiated at least three reviews into whether Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, complied with security reporting protocols designed to safeguard state secrets, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke with the New York Times. Elon Musk currently holds a top-secret security clearance at SpaceX, the highest level granted by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. This clearance allows him access to highly sensitive classified information, including advanced US military technology, but he is required to report details of his private life under the “continuous vetting” rules. The investigations were triggered by alleged repeated failures to report crucial details about Musk’s travel and other activities, including meetings with foreign leaders, the NYT reported on Tuesday.
SpaceX employees responsible for ensuring compliance have allegedly raised concerns about lax reporting practices within the company since at least 2021. But according to the publication, complaints reached a “tipping point” following Musk’s public support for President-elect Donald Trump and his growing potential “influence” in the upcoming US administration. ”Deep state traitors are coming after me, using their paid shills in legacy media. I prefer not to start fights, but I do end them…” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday, responding to the NYT allegations. The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General opened its review this year, while the Air Force and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security began separate investigations last month, the NYT reported. The agencies have declined to officially confirm or deny the existence of these reviews and have not accused the South African billionaire of disclosing classified material.
Last month, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire and a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services and Foreign Relations, expressed concern about Musk’s potential to inadvertently disclose sensitive information. In a letter to the Pentagon Inspector General and the US Attorney General, Shaheen and Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island cited an October article in the Wall Street Journal claiming that Musk had multiple conversations with Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin in 2022. The newspaper relied on anonymous sources, and provided no evidence to support the assertions. Musk has dismissed those claims, referring to the senators as “puppets” and questioning who was behind the letter. “Who actually wrote this and made those knuckleheads sign it?” he wrote on X at the time. ”There will be consequences for those who pushed foreign interference hoaxes,” he vowed last month, threatening to take action against officials and politicians making baseless accusations. “I’m going to find out who’s making these accusations and nuke them.”
The allegations of links between Musk and Russia echo similar accusations leveled against Donald Trump during his first term in office. Those widespread claims, fueled by media reports and inconclusive investigations, were used to undermine his presidency but were later found to be without basis. The Kremlin has also denied claims that Musk frequently communicated with Putin, calling the allegations another ingredient “tossed into” the US political struggles. Musk has actively supported the president-elect and has become an increasingly influential figure among his team. Trump appointed Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new initiative tasked with reducing government waste and streamlining the federal bureaucracy.
“..diversity and inclusion” trumps people’s lives.
• Boeing’s Failed Plea Deal: What Happens Next (ET)
Months after the Department of Justice (DOJ) offered Boeing a plea deal to avoid criminal fraud charges, a U.S. judge threw a curveball in the case, rejecting the deal after taking issue with a “diversity and inclusion” provision in selecting a monitor to supervise the company’s safety practices, along with how the court would participate in that process.The United States charged Boeing with fraud on Jan. 7, 2021, following the 2018 and 2019 737 MAX 8 crashes, which killed all 346 people onboard both flights. The DOJ accused the aerospace company of deliberately hiding its Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System software, which caused both planes to stall midair and fall to the ground, from Federal Aviation Administration regulators.To avoid criminal charges, the DOJ offered Boeing a deferred prosecution agreement: a criminal settlement that required the plane manufacturer to pay a total of $2.5 billion in damages, including a $243.6 million penalty and a $500 million fund to compensate families of the 737 Max crash victims.
Boeing had to remain in compliance for three years after the agreement was signed—which ended on Jan. 7. But, two days prior, a door panel ripped off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 flight midair, changing the company’s fortunes overnight and thrusting its safety practices back into public scrutiny. After the DOJ wrote in a May 14 court filing that Boeing had violated the criminal settlement, which the company denied, Boeing then pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States over the 737 MAX 8 crashes. The plea deal would have required Boeing to pay an additional $243.6 million fine, invest $455 million into safety and compliance programs, and submit to three years of independent monitoring over its safety and quality control. Now that U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor has rejected the deal, the aerospace giant faces several possible outcomes, aside from appealing the ruling, aviation and legal experts told The Epoch Times.
“[The DOJ] can sit down with Boeing and rework the plea deal so that the monitor selection process is more acceptable to the court. Or they can take Boeing to trial on the conspiracy charge,” Erin Applebaum, a partner at Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, which represents 34 families who lost loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, told The Epoch Times. “I have no doubt that the first option is what will happen. I fully expect that DOJ and Boeing will rewrite the plea so that its terms are more favorable to the court.” O’Connor wrote in a Dec. 5 order that he had concerns about a diversity and inclusion provision in Boeing’s plea deal with the DOJ. He targeted a single sentence in the plea agreement that referenced the DOJ’s diversity policy in selecting an independent monitor to monitor Boeing’s safety compliance practices.
“In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency,” O’Connor wrote. “The parties’ DEI efforts only serve to undermine this confidence in the Government and Boeing’s ethics and anti-fraud efforts.” Shawn Pruchnicki, aviation safety expert and assistant professor at Ohio State University’s Center for Aviation Studies, said the monitor had an “amazingly important task” of supervising the company’s safety compliance practices. “I stand fully behind [diversity], but I think many of us in aerospace and certainly in aviation, just like we do on the flight deck … we want someone who is qualified, that can meet the same requirements that we get,” Pruchnicki told The Epoch Times.
Applebaum said she and the victims’ families are very appreciative of the court’s mandating that the DOJ and Boeing improve the monitor selection process. “Though there is still much work to be done, the imposition of a highly qualified monitor who will hold Boeing’s feet to the fire is a good first step towards strengthening aviation safety and ensuring that there are no more Boeing crashes,” she said. In rejecting the deal, O’Connor also criticized how the DOJ positioned the court in the monitor selection process. “At this point, the public interest requires the Court to step in,” he wrote in his order. “Marginalizing the Court in the selection and monitoring of the independent monitor as the plea agreement does undermines public confidence in Boeing’s probation, fails to promote respect for the law, and is therefore not in the public interest.”
Social media.
• World Gripped By Mental Health ‘Pandemic’ – FT (RT)
A mental health crisis is unfolding in workplaces worldwide, with financial services emerging among the hardest-hit sectors, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing recent research. Burnout, depression, and anxiety are the main issues that significantly undermine productivity, economists, business leaders, and health advocates have warned. A survey by global consultancy firm Deloitte revealed that 17% of finance and insurance workers in the UK experience exhaustion, declining performance, and mental distancing, compared to a 12% average across all sectors. The report noted that the annual cost of poor mental health per employee in financial services amounts to £5,379, more than double that in any of the 14 other industries examined.
Startling statistics by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) show that around 12 billion work days are lost annually to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy an estimated $1 trillion each year. “The scale of the problem is hugely worrying, particularly among young people,” Kate Pickett, professor of epidemiology at York University, told the FT. “The increase has been so huge that there is something real going on,” she said, dismissing suggestions that the rise in reported cases is merely due to greater awareness.
Researchers from Deloitte said the wellbeing of young people is particularly alarming, with one in five UK children having a probable mental health disorder in 2023, compared to one in nine in 2017. Among the factors contributing to the global “mental health pandemic” are the cost-of-living crisis and the pervasive use of social media, according to the researchers. The decline in mental health was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which global depression cases surged by 25% between 2020 and 2021, according to the WHO. The organization said that mental health levels have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, with some individuals continuing to experience a “massive hangover from the pandemic.”
Elon work
Andrej Karpathy explains what makes Elon Musk unique
“I don’t think people appreciate how unique [Elon’s style] is. You read about it, but you don’t understand it—it’s hard to describe.”
The first principle Karpathy — who led the computer vision team of Tesla Autopilot — has… pic.twitter.com/bLR6L00wNS
— Startup Archive (@StartupArchive_) December 16, 2024
Andreessen
Marc Andreessen on what makes Elon impossible to compete with
“I’m not aware of another CEO who operates the way he does.”
Marc believes you have to go back in history to the industrialists of the late 1800s and early 1900s to find founders comparable to Elon Musk (e.g. Henry… pic.twitter.com/v4hpd7nUi8
— Startup Archive (@StartupArchive_) December 16, 2024
Eva
The game plan running up to 2030.
Eva Vlaardingerbroek: "The farmers need to give up their farms before 2030, specifically that year. Yeah, so that's not a coincidence. That year doesn't come out of nowhere. So that year is basically the deadline that our global elites have given… pic.twitter.com/8vfnGrNl1u— Camus (@newstart_2024) December 17, 2024
Betrayal
"I'm not even mad, Susan. I'm just disappointed." pic.twitter.com/1ivmx8h0fT
— Posts Of Cats (@PostsOfCats) December 17, 2024
Squirrel
Squirrel knocks broom down then pretends to be a victim pic.twitter.com/bcTYSLpMVe
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 17, 2024
Baby elephant
Baby elephant asking for treats
pic.twitter.com/CtY5iU2iXR— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) December 16, 2024
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