Jan 272025
 
 January 27, 2025  Posted by at 10:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Vincent van Gogh Weaver 1884

 

Trade War Ends In Less Than 10 Hours After Colombia Agrees To Trump’s Terms (ZH)
Trump Suggests ‘Cleaning Out’ Gaza (RT)
LA Will Reopen Pacific Palisades To Residents Starting Monday (ZH)
Trump Floats Eliminating Federal Income Tax ‘If The Tariffs Work Out’ (JTN)
Which Country Could Buy Greenland? (Sp.)
Iran War Hawks Getting Wrecked In Trump Personnel Fight (Ryan Grim)
Are Trump and His Supporters Ready for a Fight to the Death? (PCR)
Trump Fires ‘Virtually Worthless’ Inspectors General, Warren Freaks Out (ZH)
US Officials Pushing To Unfreeze Aid For Ukraine – FT (RT)
How Ukraine Lost Trillions-Worth of West-Coveted Natural Wealth (Sp.)
Unauthorized Peacekeepers In Ukraine Will Be Targeted – Russian Diplomat (RT)
Belarusian Peacekeepers ‘Best Option’ For Ukraine – Lukashenko (RT)
China Drops Powerful AI Model That’s Free, Fast and Better for Humanity (Sp.)
America’s Fiscal Doomsday Machine Must Be Stopped (David Stockman)
No Evidence Closing Schools Materially Reduced Covid Transmission (Turley)
The Great American Show (Pacini)

 

 

 

 

Young

CNN

CIA

Mearsheimer

 

 

 

 

It was over when President Gustavo Petro sent his own plane to pick up the migrants.

Trade War Ends In Less Than 10 Hours After Colombia Agrees To Trump’s Terms (ZH)

Update (10:26pm ET): Just after 10pm ET, and just under 10 hours after Trump lobbed the first shot in the first trade war of his second admin, the White House announced that Colombia had agreed to all of Trump’s terms, “including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.” Based on this agreement, the White House notes, the hastily drafted tariffs and sanctions “will be held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement.” The visa sanctions issued by the State Department, and enhanced inspections from Customs and Border Protection, will remain in effect until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.

The statement concludes by noting that President Trump “will continue to fiercely protect our nation’s sovereignty, and he expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States.” And just like that, Trump wins, in a victory so complete even the president of Colombia reposted his own loss. The only problem: the next trade wars – and there will be many – won’t be nearly as easy to win…

* * *
Update (6:50pm ET): Despite appearing to cave earlier when he ordered the use of the presidential plane to repatriate illegal aliens from the US, late on Sunday Colombia President Gustavo Petro ordered an increase of import tariffs on goods from the United States in retaliation to President Trump’s tariffs and sanctions. Petro, in a post on the social platform X, said he ordered the “foreign trade minister to raise import tariffs from the U.S. by 25%.” “American products whose price will rise within the national economy must be replaced by national production, and the government will help in this regard,” the post continued. Then in a meandering post in Spanish, the president also issued several empty threats to Trump.

Meanwhile, as Bloomberg notes, Colombian assets are set for a rout after US President Donald Trump said he’d implement a spate of tariffs and sanctions on the South American nation. The announcement of an emergency 25% tariff on all Colombian goods coming into the US, made by Trump on social media on Sunday, caught traders off guard — most of the focus so far has been on levies on Mexico, Canada and China. The move will likely spark a slump that will reverberate across local bond, currency and equity markets when trading opens Monday. Daniel Velandia, chief economist at Credicorp Capital Colombia, said the peso will weaken against the dollar Monday morning, adding that the economy could inch toward a recession in an “extreme scenario.”

“This is completely unexpected and unpredictable,” Velandia said. “We need to see how far Trump goes and how Colombia’s government will respond, hoping that diplomacy will be used to prevent adverse effects.” And it’s not just Colombia: the Mexican peso is also tumbling more than 1% in late Sunday trading amid concerns that the southern US neighbor will be next to suffer Trump’s wrath.

Jennings
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883668666853593325

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Only for Israel to take it over? Be very careful.

Trump Suggests ‘Cleaning Out’ Gaza (RT)

US President Donald Trump has suggested that neighboring Arab countries should take in Palestinian refugees and “clean out” the embattled Gaza. Speaking to journalists aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said he spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan about the war and was planning to speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday. “I’d like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, we just clean out that whole thing. It’s a real mess.” “It’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there,” he added. “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump told reporters.

Both Egypt and Jordan have rejected the idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi affirmed on Sunday that the kingdom’s position against displacing Palestinians remains “irreversible and unchanged.” On Sunday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry also stressed its commitment to defending the rights of the Palestinians and its opposition to uprooting Gaza’s population. The Palestinian Authority released a statement saying it would reject any plans of displacement. “We emphasize that the Palestinian people will never abandon their land or their holy sites,” it said. Around 1.9 million people – more than 90% of Gaza’s population – have been displaced since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October 2023, according to the UN.

Although the sides agreed to a ceasefire on January 15, Israel has since accused Hamas of violating a prisoner swap arrangement and halted the return of Gazans to their home in the northern part of the enclave. Both sides have also accused each other of ceasefire violations. On Saturday, Hamas handed over four female Israeli soldiers in exchange for the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli government said Hamas had initially promised to release a different hostage. Hamas took around 250 hostages and killed around 1,200 people in a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. More than 47,00 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, according to the local authorities.

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Mayor Karen Bass epitomizes everything that’s wrong with California. That round table with Trump was a cringe fest.

LA Will Reopen Pacific Palisades To Residents Starting Monday (ZH)

Two days after President Trump scolded Los Angeles for refusing to allow residents affected by the recent fires to return to their homes, Mayor Karen Bass announced that Pacific Palisades will be completely reopened to residents during daylight hours, starting Monday, Jan. 27. During a Friday roundtable, Bass told Trump that it was unsafe for residents to return. After residents at the meeting decried the slow response, Bass compromised – saying they could return “within a week.” Trump replied: “That’s a long time, a week. I’ll be honest, to me, everyone standing in front of their house, they want to go to work and they’re not allowed to do it. … They’re safe. They’re safe. You know what? They’re not safe. They’re not safe now. They’re going to be much safer. A week, a week is actually a long time the way I look at it.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1882963981695955143

Residents of the Palisades began trying to their homes and lots on Saturday – some of whom were able to talk their way past police, according to Breitbart’s Joel Pollak, a Palisades resident whose house was spared. Pollak has been reporting from the ground since the fires began. The county’s decision to allow residents to return on Monday came with a caveat; weather permitting, and only until 5:00 p.m., which will allow people to sift through the rubble for belongings, or grieve and make peace with their loss.

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Confusing but interesting.

Trump Floats Eliminating Federal Income Tax ‘If The Tariffs Work Out’ (JTN)

President Trump said the U.S. could possibly eliminate the federal income tax if his tariff plans work out as intended. “If the tariffs work out like I think, a thing like that could happen, if you want to know the truth,” he said. “Years ago, 1870 to 1913, we didn’t have an income tax. What we had is tariffs.” Trump also said the additional IRS agents the Biden administration hired could potentially move to the border. “I think we’re going to move them to the border. You know, they’re allowed to carry guns,” he said. Trump touted his decision to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. “Biden didn’t want to do that,” he said. “Biden didn’t know he was alive. He didn’t want to do it.”

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UK.

Which Country Could Buy Greenland? (Sp.)

Under the terms of an agreement made over a century ago, Denmark would have to give the UK the right of first refusal if it ever decided to sell Greenland, noted Tom Hoyem, former Danish minister for Greenland (1982-1987), as cited by The Sunday Times. “If Trump tried to buy Greenland, he would have to ask London first,” Hoyem explained, adding: “The United Kingdom demanded in 1917 that if Greenland were to be sold, the UK would have the first right to buy it.”

Why is this the case?
1.Canada, a British dominion at the time, is just a few miles from Greenland, across the Nares Strait, Hoyem explained. Since 2022, Canada has even shared a land border with Greenland on the tiny island of Hans.
2.The 1917 agreement stemmed from negotiations surrounding the purchase of the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) by the United States.
3.The US bought the islands from Denmark for $25 million.
4.As part of the deal, Denmark required the US to sign a letter stating that Greenland “is and will forever be Danish.” President Woodrow Wilson agreed.

Then-incoming US President Donald Trump said on January 7 that Greenland should become part of the US and emphasized its strategic importance for national security and protecting the “free world,” including from China and Russia. Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede said the island was not for sale. At the same time, Trump declined to pledge not to use military force to establish control over Greenland.

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“Trump, on Truth Social, said that his Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration..”

Iran War Hawks Getting Wrecked In Trump Personnel Fight (Ryan Grim)

A major whisper campaign is underway, led by neoconservatives in Washington panicked at President Donald Trump’s elevation of a string of foreign policy advisers who have spoken out against war with Iran. The first whack to the wounded war-hawk wing came when Mike Pompeo was blocked from a position in the White House, followed yesterday by the stripping of his security detail. That followed similar snubs to John Bolton and Iran hawk Brian Hook, both of which lost their security and have been kept out of the administration. Hook’s firing was a comical display of Trumpian humiliation. Trump, on Truth Social, said that his Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.

Jose Andres from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars, and Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council—YOU’RE FIRED! What’s so amusing about Trump’s description of Hook as a member of the “previous Administration,” and his being lumped in with Democrats and a hated figure like Milley, is that Hook was named by Trump in November to chair the State Department transition. Anti-war Republicans vowed at the time to make sure he never got a job himself in the second Trump administration and sources tell me that Trump fired him after learning about his long record of criticizing Trump and his bellicose war rhetoric. Now he’s out, and is privately leading the rearguard fight against Trump’s nominees.

Much of that fight is leaking out into the pages of the magazine Jewish Insider. If you followed the effort by AIPAC to shape Democratic primaries in 2022 and 2024 by blocking critics of Israel, you already know that JI was the place to go to learn where AIPAC would be spending money. Articles warned that pro-Israel groups were “alarmed” at the rise of this or that candidate, often for entirely innocuous statements—or sometimes for just being related to somebody they didn’t like.

The same playbook is being rolled out against Trump’s nominees. In an article headlined, “Rumored for a Trump posting, Elbridge Colby’s dovish views on Iran stand out,” JI warned that Colby “has notably opposed direct military action against Iran.” He got the posting anyway, and is now one of the top officials at the Pentagon. This week, Trump rolled out more than a dozen more top appointments, without a single neocon in the list, raising the alarm in JI again. JI panicked about Michael DiMino, who previously worked for the CIA and the Pentagon, and was named to be deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. “Last year, [DiMino] dismissed Iran’s second ballistic missile attack on Israel as a ‘fairly moderate’ response and urged against bombing the Houthis in Yemen, instead calling for U.S. pressure on Israel to tamp down regional conflict,” JI warned.

The paper also expressed concern that Dan Caldwell, another conservative veteran skeptical of war with Iran, seemed to be playing a role in getting like-minded people into the Pentagon: “A leading opponent of traditional Republican foreign policy who advocates for a vastly reduced U.S. presence in the Middle East has been quietly involved in the transition process at the Defense Department, according to four people familiar with the matter, underscoring a distinct ideological shift in the Pentagon as President Donald Trump builds his new administration.”

The fight over Trump’s nominees is directly connected to the potential strength of the “ceasefire” in Gaza. Trump is expected to tap his Mideast envoy and real estate buddy Steve Witkoff, who browbeat Netanyahu into agreeing to the ceasefire, to negotiate with Iran. In order to get Saudi-Israel normalization and a nuclear deal with Iran, Trump needs the genocide in Gaza to end, which connects the three issues, and is why Israel is deeply hostile to Witkoff’s expanding portfolio. Trump created confusion about Witkoff’s growing role in comments to the press that JI eagerly but inaccurately reported as a rebuke of Witkoff.

Meanwhile, 11 Americans on a medical mission are being blocked by Israel from leaving northern Gaza despite having completed their scheduled mission. “This is not just about us–it’s about accountability,” Shehzad Batliwala, an ophthalmologist based in Dallas, told me. “The principle at stake is whether the Israeli military can arbitrarily detain U.S. citizens engaged in humanitarian work without even as much as giving a legitimate reason.” Two senior Trump officials, including Witkoff, have raised the issue with the Israeli government, according to sources involved. The team is on a mission with Rahma Worldwide, Dr. Batliwala said. “Many of us have critical responsibilities back home, including U.S. patients awaiting urgent care. For example, I have over 40 cataract surgeries scheduled next week.”

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“..if Trump 2 fails, “the American experiment will come to an end: bureaucratic rule will devour the constitutional order.”

Are Trump and His Supporters Ready for a Fight to the Death? (PCR)

In recent articles I have emphasized that President Trump and his supporters are in a life and death fight with cultural marxists who are dedicated to America’s destruction and who are institutionalized in every American institution—media, universities, law schools, Democrat Party, feminists, DEI contractors and corporations, Wall Street as epitomized by Blackrock, and the bureaucracies of every cabinet department and every federal agency. Essentially, it is President Trump and a few appointees at war with the entirety of the US government and educational and media establishments. Trump has arrived at the fight late in the game when the long march through the institutions is essentially complete.

In an article in the current issue of the City Journal, “Counterrevolution Blueprint,” Christopher F. Rufo, describes the extent to which the US government is in the hands of the enemy. In the 2020 presidential election employees of the Justice (sic) Department, gave 86 percent of their political contributions to Democrats. Labor Department employees gave 88 percent to Democrats. Health and Human Services 92 percent, and Education Department employees gave 97 percent. Rufo reports that these one-sided political donations are mirrored by tech companies and universities, bastions of left-wing ideologies and activism.

To give you an idea of just how bad the situation is, the Treasury Department, the task of which is economic policy, financing the debt and raising revenue, during the Obama regime added a new bureaucracy, “The office for Minority and Women Inclusion,” that is totally outside the Treasury’s responsibilities. This office continued under Trump’s first term, Rufo reports, and proselytized “critical race theory as an operating ideology, hiring consultants to conduct training programs teaching Treasury employees that America is a nation of systemic racism with a 400-year history of racial terrorism” that continues today.

During the Biden regime another activist left-wing bureaucracy was created in the Treasury, an Equity Hub with a Counselor for Racial Equity. Janet Yellen, the Jewish Secretary of the Treasury, and Kamala Harris, the black Vice President, quickly announced a $8.7 billion fund for lending only to minority-owned businesses, a blatantly discriminatory policy in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment. You can imagine how many “minority-owned” firms were quickly created so that “deserving” people could be made millionaires by the US taxpayers. And you can rest assured that neither Yellen nor Harris were held accountable for violating law and the Constitution.

Not even this was enough. The Treasury forced federal contractors to implement DEI and monitored tax returns to make sure that tax-exempt donations to charities were racially balanced. Rufo describes the efforts of Nixon, Reagan, and Trump 1 to get the bureaucracy in compliance with the President’s policy. All failed. Nevertheless, Rufo has hope for Trump 2, and he sets out the necessary elements for taking back the President’s and the people’s power from a hostile civil service that is united against American values and are substituting the values of cultural marxism in their place. Rufo makes it clear that if Trump 2 fails, “the American experiment will come to an end: bureaucratic rule will devour the constitutional order.”

I certainly agree, having made many of these points myself. The question is: How realistic is it that Trump and a few appointees can subdue millions of people whose far-left ideology is guiding the US government and who not only despise Trump’s view of America but also hate Trump personally. It is impossible for Trump to achieve unity with ideologues supported by the Democrat Party who are totally opposed to his view of America. The competence and objectivity of the civil service, long under liberal attack, was finished off when the Clinton regime pushed the white male senior civil service into early retirement in order to “make room” for blacks and females. It was part of “affirmative action.” The DEI legions have been growing for decades. They are firm in their belief that white heterosexuals are racist, and they intend to finish the process started with discriminatory “affirmative action” to make normal white Americans second class citizens in law and position.

Insouciant whites have enabled their own suppression by turning over positions of power to their enemies. It remains to be seen whether this was a fatal mistake that has doomed a merit-based color-blind society. Where among critical race theorists and denouncers of Western–which means white–Civilization is there good will to which Trump can appeal? Democrat judges and a number of insouciant Republican ones will act to block Trump’s efforts. Trump has to be prepared to ride roughshod over them, their rulings be damned, just as they have ridden roughshod over the American people for decades. Trump cannot accept the rulings as anything but weaponized judicial statements no different than the weaponized law used against him, the January 6 protesters, and the right-to-life protesters.

Karl Marx said that good will was not an operative principle because each class acted only in its own interest. So what mediates between classes? Marx said that violence was the only effective force in history. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot relied on violence. Formerly I disputed this view of the efficacy of violence, but just as we did not deal with Hitler based on good will, we cannot rely on goodwill when dealing with internal enemies who intend to destroy America with open borders and legal privileges based on race, gender, and sexual preference. As I am convinced that good will has played a role in effecting reforms, today perhaps I would modify Marx’s claim. I would substitute “effective” in place of “only.” Violence is an effective force in history. It seems that real change is impossible without it as the American Revolution exemplifies.

Today the clash is no longer between economic classes based on material interest. The clash is ideological. The America-is-evil forces are intent on replacing a color-blind merit-based society with a society based on race, gender, and sexual preference privilege. It is an ideological struggle like the one Lenin and Mao launched on Russian and Chinese societies. It is truly a fight to the death. If Trump loses, America loses as Rufo said.

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Shake it up.

Trump Fires ‘Virtually Worthless’ Inspectors General, Warren Freaks Out (ZH)

President Donald Trump fired at least a dozen ‘independent’ watchdogs known as inspectors general, who oversee government agencies – prompting immediate shrieking from the usual suspects who insist that the move is illegal. The ousters are likely to be one of Trump’s first major court battles since taking office – with at least one of the fired inspectors general, Cardell Richardson Sr. of the State Department – telling staff he’ll ignore Trump and show up to work on Monday, arguing that the firings are illegal, Politico reports, citing an anonymous source. Other fired inspectors general include those at State, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Labor and Defense, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The inspectors general at the Department of Justice, Office of Personnel Management, the Federal Communications Commission, the Export-Import Bank and the Department of Homeland Security remain in place, according to the person. The inspectors general were dismissed via emails from the White House Presidential Personnel Office, with no notice sent to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have pledged bipartisan support for the watchdogs, in advance of the firings, the person said. The emails gave no substantive explanation for the dismissals, with at least one citing “changing priorities” for the move, the person added. -Politico. Speaking Saturday night aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that he didn’t know the inspectors general who were fired, but that “some people thought that some were unfair, or some were not doing the job,” and that the firings were “a very common thing to do.”

When he was asked if he planned to install loyalists in their place, Trump said he didn’t “know anybody that would do that,” adding “We’ll put people in there that will be very good.”As the Epoch Times notes further, Hannibal Ware, the inspector general for the Small Business Administration (SBA) and chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), said in a Jan. 24 letter sent to Sergio Gor, director of presidential personnel at the White House, objecting to a series of dismissal emails Gor had sent to a number of inspector generals—including to Ware. “I am writing in response to your email sent to me and other Inspectors General earlier this evening wherein you informed each of us that ‘due to changing priorities, your position as Inspector General … is terminated, effective immediately,’” Ware wrote in the letter to Gor.

“At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss Presidentially Appointed, Senate Confirmed Inspectors General,” Ware wrote. Ware said that the Inspector General Act of 1978 requires the president to notify Congress at least 30 days in advance of dismissal of an inspector general and that “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for such terminations must be provided. Ware was confirmed to his role by the Senate in 2018. In 2024, President Joe Biden appointed Ware to also lead the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration. Ware’s eligibility to serve in the latter acting role, sans Senate confirmation, expired on Jan. 24. It’s unclear which inspectors general were told by the White House they are being fired.

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“..USAID in Ukraine has generally chosen to defy Rubio’s decree to issue “stop work” orders until it receives more clarification from Washington..”

US Officials Pushing To Unfreeze Aid For Ukraine – FT (RT)

Several US diplomats have urged the State Department to make an exception for Ukraine-related programs after President Donald Trump ordered a sweeping suspension on foreign aid, the Financial Times reported on Saturday. Trump’s order potentially jeopardizes support for Ukrainian schools, hospitals, and infrastructure development, although military aid remains intact, according to the newspaper. Acting on behalf of the US president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued instructions on Friday to suspend any new foreign aid expenditure for 90 days. Contracting and grant officers from the State Department and USAID were directed to “immediately issue stop-work orders… until such time as the secretary shall determine, following a review,” according to a leaked cable cited by the FT.

The newspaper claimed that by Saturday evening, several organizations in Ukraine had received orders to stop their operations until further notice. However, USAID in Ukraine has generally chosen to defy Rubio’s decree to issue “stop work” orders until it receives more clarification from Washington, the FT claimed. American diplomats campaigning for aid to Kiev to be unfrozen reportedly hope that they will be able to win Rubio over. “We do not know at this time whether this request will be approved — in whole or in part — but there are positive signals thus far out of Washington,” an email sent to USAID staff in Ukraine on Saturday said, according to the newspaper. The outlet claims that Rubio’s order endangers support for the development of Ukrainian infrastructure, energy, and economy projects, while not affecting American military assistance. The FT quotes an unnamed Ukrainian government official as saying that “military aid to Ukraine is intact. At least as of now, and it is certainly not part of this 90-day freeze.”

The pause in US foreign development aid was announced by President Trump on Monday, just hours after his inauguration. The freeze aims to review the effectiveness and alignment of aid with US foreign policy objectives. The only exceptions are military financing for Israel and Egypt, as well as foreign emergency food aid. Ukraine was not part of the list of exceptions. Since February 2022, the US has provided over $65 billion in military aid to Kiev, according to the State Department. However, Trump has been skeptical of the assistance, saying Ukraine has “had enough” and that it is time for a peace agreement to be reached with Russia. His team is reportedly aiming to end the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in 100 days, threatening Russia with more sanctions if it does not agree to negotiate. While Moscow remains skeptical about the timeline, it has signaled a willingness to engage in talks.

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Quite the loot.

How Ukraine Lost Trillions-Worth of West-Coveted Natural Wealth (Sp.)

Senator Lindsey Graham revealed the true purpose of NATO’s proxy war against Russia last year, stating that the US “cannot afford” to let Moscow win in Ukraine, a country that is “sitting on $10-12 trillion worth of critical minerals.” The West’s hopes of getting its hands on Ukraine’s stocks of natural resources are fast dwindling. Besides lithium (LINK) , the corrupt Kiev regime has lost control over reserves of coal, gas, oil, and rare earth metals worth a total of about $12 trillion.

Rare Earth Elements in Ukraine:
Lithium: Critical for batteries in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.
Gallium: Vital for semiconductors and photovoltaic cells in solar panels.
Zirconium: Used in nuclear reactors, ceramics, and electronics.
Beryllium: Essential for aerospace, defense, and telecommunications.
Titanium: Used in aircraft construction, medical devices, and military applications.
Manganese: Necessary for steel production and batteries.
Scandium: Found in lightweight aluminum alloys, particularly for aerospace.

Key Deposits & Lost Control
• Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR): Rich in beryllium, manganese, titanium, other rare metals. Ukraine was cut off from these resources when the DPR and LPR joined Russia in 2022 after status referendums.
• Crimea: The peninsula holds deposits of iron ore, scandium, zirconium, gallium, and titanium. Crimea rejoined Russia after a referendum in March 2014.
• Zaporozhye & Kherson Regions: Host deposits of lithium, titanium, beryllium, uranium, manganese and tantalum. Both regions joined Russia in 2022.

Coal/Gas/Oil
• Coal: Essential for power generation and industrial processes like steelmaking, Ukraine has lost 80% of its reserves, including all high-grade anthracite, a key resource now under Russian control in the DPR and LPR.
• Gas: Critical for powering industries and heating systems, 20% of Ukraine’s natural gas deposits are now controlled by
• Oil: Used to generate energy as well as produce gasoline and diesel fuel, 11% of rich oil reserves (DPR, LPR) are now on Russian soil.

Foreign Players Still In The Game In Ukraine
• Canada’s Black Iron Inc., engaged in iron ore mining at the Shymanovskoye deposit, is reportedly seeking a $1.1 billion investment agreement with Kiev.
• NEQSOL Holding, a global investment company with operations across 11 countries, acquired Ukraine’s United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC) in 2024.
• Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron have longstanding production-sharing agreements with Ukraine for shale gas exploration.

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“Any contingent entering the territory of Ukraine without the consent and permission of Russia is a military target..”

Unauthorized Peacekeepers In Ukraine Will Be Targeted – Russian Diplomat (RT)

Any Western peacekeepers deployed to Ukraine without Moscow’s approval would become legitimate military targets, senior Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik has said. The statement was made in response to EU Military Committee Chairman Robert Brieger’s interview on Saturday with Die Welt, in which the general suggested that a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict could be enforced by EU and international peacekeepers under a UN mandate. “Any contingent entering the territory of Ukraine without the consent and permission of Russia is a military target with quite understandable consequences,” Miroshnik wrote on Telegram on Sunday. “Why pretend? The attempts to invent ‘peacekeepers’ are not at all for establishing peace, but only attempts to use pseudo-humane methods to save [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky’s Kiev regime from defeat?!” he said.

Zelensky insists that at least 200,000 European soldiers would need to be deployed to enforce a ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow. “From all the Europeans? 200,000, it’s a minimum. It’s a minimum, otherwise it’s nothing,” he said last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In addition, Zelensky ruled out acquiescing to one of Moscow’s key demands, cutting the country’s military to a fifth of its current strength. The subject of a Western peacekeeping force in Ukraine has resurfaced in recent weeks, as US President Donald Trump has vowed to push for a swift end to the conflict. Earlier in January, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer both made statements about potentially putting boots on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force.

In January, Zelensky said he discussed the possibility with French President Emmanuel Macron, who floated the possibility of sending Western troops almost a year ago, prompting an outcry from other leaders. Moscow has rejected the idea of Western peacekeepers in Ukraine. Russia is “not satisfied” with proposals to postpone Ukraine’s NATO accession or “to introduce a peacekeeping contingent of ‘British and European forces’ into Ukraine,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said late last month. While Moscow is ready to resume peace talks with Kiev, it has stated that it will not allow a temporary freeze to the conflict, which would only serve to provide Ukraine breathing room to rearm.Any peace deal would have to be backed by “strong, legally binding agreements” addressing the root causes of the conflict, with mechanisms preventing violations of the agreements, Lavrov said. Moscow has insisted that Kiev must give up its ambitions to join NATO, demilitarize, denazify, and abandon plans to obtain nuclear weapons.

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“..there are no other [options]. All the rest will tilt the [situation] towards the West or the East. That is why they can only agree to Belarusian peacekeepers.”

Belarusian Peacekeepers ‘Best Option’ For Ukraine – Lukashenko (RT)

The Belarusian military is best suited for potential peacekeeping duties in Ukraine, President Alexander Lukashenko told journalists on Sunday. Other nations could attempt to use the mandate to their own advantage, he has said at a press conference in Minsk. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky stated earlier that at least 200,000 “European peacekeepers” would be needed to uphold a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Lukashenko argued that Belarusians would be the best fit. “If [it comes to that] in the name of trust and fairness, they don’t have anyone except the Belarusian army,” the president said.

“It doesn’t mean that I would deploy my army – 70,000 men – as peacekeepers,” Lukashenko said. “But there are no other [options]. All the rest will tilt the [the situation] towards the West or the East. That is why they can only agree to Belarusian peacekeepers.” Only Belarusians are capable of “securing normal relations” between Russia and Ukraine, Lukashenko claimed. He stressed, however, that he has no immediate plans of donating troops for a peacekeeping mission. Lukashenko acknowledged that there would be “serious debates” about the composition of the force, and it would be unlikely that Ukraine and its Western backers would agree to the participation of Belarus.

According to media reports, France and the UK are considering sending peacekeepers if a ceasefire is reached. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said earlier this month that he had “no doubt” his country would donate troops. In December, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a peacekeeping mission could be discussed if negotiations are resumed. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service has warned that the West could use peacekeepers to “occupy” Ukraine and buy time for a new conflict with Russia. Lukashenko was reelected for his seventh term in office on Sunday, receiving more than 80% of the vote, according to the Electoral Commission.

Read more …

“..humanity could be saved from a privatized, weaponized, and monopolized AI wiping us out.”

China Drops Powerful AI Model That’s Free, Fast and Better for Humanity (Sp.)

The US and China are in an all-important race for AI supremacy, with America’s outspending of the PRC multiple times over and restrictions on the Asian nation’s ability to obtain sophisticated computing hardware seemingly having little impact.Advanced large language model DeepSeek R1 is taking users by storm, wowing reviewers and earning praise from AI-phobes. The Hangzhou-based tech startup’s new model beats OpenAI’s o1 on math and reasoning benchmarks, and blows Meta’s* Llama 3.1 and OpenAI’s GPT-40 out of the water in coding and complex problem-solving.The model is free to run locally, with access to its API priced at a fraction of competitors’ rates.The setup reportedly cost $5.6 million to train (vs $78 million for GPT-40), and uses performance-capped chips due to US restrictions, which also saw the use ban the delivery of more powerful processers to China.

Instead, DeepSeek R1 harnesses its power from superior compute efficiency. “We should take the developments out of China very, very seriously,” Microsoft CEO Stya Nadella said at the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos this week, days after DeepSeek’s latest model dropped. Piquing users’ curiosity is the way in which the tool generates responses, in a process nature.com dubbed “analogous to human reasoning,” and thus “more adept than earlier language models at solving scientific problems.” That’s great news for scientists engaged in data analysis, pattern recognition and predictive modeling across a broad array of fields, from astronomy and medicine to the earth sciences.

Best of All? It’s Actually ‘Open’. Unlike other commercially available models, which experts have dubbed “essentially black boxes,” DeepSeek R1 is open source, allowing users fearful of AI turning into Skynet on them to study how it works and even build on it. DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng told Chinese media last year that “research and technological innovation,” not profit, was the company’s priority, and that his ultimate goal is artificial general intelligence. If the mission succeeds and an open-source AGI is born, humanity could be saved from a privatized, weaponized, and monopolized AI wiping us out.

Read more …

Dizzying numbers.

America’s Fiscal Doomsday Machine Must Be Stopped (David Stockman)

The following is Chapter One of David Stockman’s latest book, How To Cut $2 Trillion: A Blueprint From Ronald Reagan’s Budget Cutter To Musk, Ramaswamy and The DOGE Team. We encourage you to buy copies for your Senators and members of Congress and to share the Amazon link with as many influential voices as you can.

The DOGE $2 trillion budget savings goal is crucial to the very future of constitutional democracy and capitalist prosperity in America. In fact, the soaring public debt is now so out of control that the Federal budget threatens to become a self-fueling financial doomsday machine. Recall this sequence. When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 on a call to bring the nation’s inflationary budget under control, the public debt was $930 billion and about 30% of GDP. By the time Donald Trump was elected the first time it had erupted to $20 trillion, which has now become $36 trillion and 125% of GDP. Moreover, by the end of this decade the Federal fiscal equation will be going supercritical without sweeping budget reductions at the level of the DOGE target. Thus, by FY 2034 the annual baseline deficit according to CBO will total $2.9 trillion and 7% of GDP.

Yet even these enormous figures are based on a Rosy Scenario fairy tale. Namely, that Congress will never again adopt another spending increase or tax cut, including the impending $5 trillion extension of the expiring 2017 Trump tax cuts. It also conveniently assumes there will be no recessions, no inflation recurrence, no interest rate flare-ups nor any other economic crises for the remainder of this decade and forever thereafter. Furthermore, it presumes that these surging red ink totals and soaring debt service expenses would be copacetic in the bond pits just the same. That is, CBO inexplicably projects that 7% of GDP deficits and annual interest expense of $1.7 trillion or 4.1% of GDP by 2034 would be compatible with a weighted average yield on nearly $60 trillion of public debt of just 3.4%.

Yes, and if dogs could whistle the world would be a chorus! Give the average yield just another 250 basis points, however, and now you have $3.1 trillion of annual debt service expense and a $4 trillion annual deficit by 2034. In short, there is a doom-loop building inside the Federal fiscal equation and nothing short of the DOGE target of $2 trillion of annual budget savings by the end of this decade can reverse its explosive materialization in the years beyond. If sweeping budget retrenchment does not occur soon, in fact, soaring interest expense will ignite a veritable fiscal wildfire. On paper, the public debt would power upward unabated to $150 trillion or 166% of GDP by mid-century (2054) under CBO’s current Rosy Scenario projections. Of course, long before the debt actually hits this staggering figure, the whole system would implode. Every remnant of America as we now know it would go down the tubes.

So we need to be clear that the DOGE team of Musk and Ramaswamy must focus on savings of $2 trillion per year commencing relatively soon. That’s because the nation’s fiscal doomsday machine will be accumulating interest expense so fast as to make $2 trillion of savings spread over a longer period–such as a decade–little more than a rounding error. To wit, Federal interest expense has already passed the $1 trillion per year mark, will exceed $2 trillion per year in the early 2030s and would top $7.5 trillion per year at minimum by our calculations by mid-century. Stated differently, if something drastic is not done now – like a $2 trillion annual budget savings by the end of Donald Trump’s second term – America will be paying more interest on the public debt within 25 years than the entirety of today’s Federal budget.

That’s right: Debt service will exceed current outlays for Social Security, defense, Medicare, education, highways, the national parks, Head Start, interest, and the Washington Monument, too.Obviously, the sprawling Federal government and its prodigious expanse of spending and debt literally defies easy comprehension and graspable solutions. After all, the current annual budget of $7 trillion amounts to Federal spending of nearly $20 billion per day and $830 million per hour. And when you talk about the 10-year budget outlook, comprehension literally fades away completely: The current CBO spending baseline for 2025-2034 amounts to $85 trillion or just shy of the annual GDP of the entirety of planet Earth this year.

Read more …

Start handing out compensations.

No Evidence Closing Schools Materially Reduced Covid Transmission (Turley)

For years, scientists and commentators who questioned COVID policies were censored, blacklisted, and canceled across the country. Many of these dissenting views have since been vindicated from the lab origins theory to the lack of efficacy of surgical masks to the opposition to the closure of schools. Now, a new study in the Journal of Infection further undermines the once orthodox views of the pandemic, concluding that “reopening schools did not change the existing trajectory of COVID-19 rates.” In other words, we shut down our schools, without any demonstrable benefit to the country. We did, however, succeed in reducing free speech in the name of combating “disinformation.”

The report is based on one of the comprehensive studies to date on the pandemic: “Data were extracted from government websites. Cases and COVID-19 hospitalization and death incidence rates were calculated during the Delta and early Omicron periods in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom, for two weeks preceding and six weeks after schools reopened. We summarized stringency of public health measures (GRI), COVID-19 vaccination rates by age and SARS-CoV-2 testing rates.” In comparing these different countries, the scientists found no significant differences in reported cases: “No consistent patterns in cases, hospitalizations or deaths despite school re-openings or changes to public health measures,” The suppression of the lab theory and the targeting of dissenting scientists show the true cost of censorship and viewpoint intolerance.

The very figures claiming to battle “disinformation” were suppressing opposing views that have now been vindicated as credible. It was not only the lab theory. In my recent book, I discuss how signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration were fired or disciplined by their schools or associations for questioning COVID-19 policies. Some experts questioned the efficacy of surgical masks, the scientific support for the six-foot rule and the necessity of shutting down schools. The government has now admitted that many of these objections were valid and that it did not have hard science to support some of the policies. While other allies in the West did not shut down their schools, we never had any substantive debate due to the efforts of this alliance of academic, media and government figures.

Not only did millions die from the pandemic, but the United States is still struggling with the educational and mental health consequences of shutting down all our public schools. That is the true cost of censorship when the government works with the media to stifle scientific debate and public disclosures. Many still hope that Congress and the incoming Trump administration will conduct a long-needed investigation into the origins to allow for a more credible and open debate. That hope was increased by the nomination of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, one of the organizers of the Great Barrington Declaration, to be the next head of the National Institutes of Health. One of the most lasting costs was born by our children who have shown both educational and psychological harm from the shutting down of schools. The study confirms what dissenters said all along: there is no evidence that this was necessary or had any benefit to society:

“Our findings show that there were no consistent patterns to case, hospitalisation or death rates in each country or jurisdiction, irrespective of whether schools were open for onsite learning or changes to PHSM. School closures were adopted by many countries as part of a suite of PHSM but in the future should only be implemented where there is strong evidence of effectiveness. Predesigned and approved study protocols, along with scenario-based planning for schools are needed to prepare for the next pandemic. The negative consequences on child health and development are profound, so understanding the role of schools in SARS-CoV-2 transmission should be a priority for pandemic preparedness and response.”

Read more …

Not the biggest US fan.

The Great American Show (Pacini)

We did it. The world has passed another American presidential inauguration. We are all still alive, protocol was carried out to perfection, and the people received their 12 hours of glory. Panem et circenses, as the ancient Latins teach, never fails. Only those who are necessary and useful are invited to Trump’s inauguration, while those who were not strictly necessary were left out.

There was the elite of the new Big Tech, those who have revamped American liberal-capitalism by taking it to a new level, trendier and more glamorous, but above all more popular, reshaping the cultural profiles of at least two generations; there were the tycoons of the big U.S. corporations and beyond, the most unrestrained tycoons, those who have no problem calling themselves “philanthropists” while giving starvation salaries to their employees whose jobs they cut with an AI while they are comfortably at the beach on their yacht; there were the leaders of the most bizarre religions (or something like that), who devoutly renewed their vote to the politician with the biggest wallet, except for the rabbis who are the only ones who received devotion from both outgoing Joe Biden and incoming Donald Trump; there were the women who paraded and released smiles to the press, those women who are considered great and important because they stand next to a powerful man; there were even guests from abroad, not to be missed.

A full day-long ceremony, just about as long as it takes to brainwash Americans four years. Everyone tries to understand the rationale for inviting people to the ceremony or, conversely, the lack thereof. And indeed there were curious presences and even more significant absences. There was no Paladin Zelensky, who pretends that he himself decided not to go, but will have to deal with Trump’s repeated statements about de-powering the war campaign in Ukraine. Also absent was German Chancellor Scholz, who said he thought it was normal not to be invited to the inauguration because the ambassadors were there anyway. The British Crown was not there, a signal we will have to remember very soon.

But at the same time, there were people like maid Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Woman of the Year, awarded by the Atlantic Council directly from Elon Musk. She is in charge of guaranteeing the U.S. a new war economy, raising military spending to 2 percent of GDP, guaranteeing money and weapons to the Ukrainian front and, soon, men to be slaughtered in the trenches. She is in charge of securing access to the Mediterranean, for trade from the Middle East and Africa, as well as militarily controlling the expansion of Russia and China in the great southern continent. She is also the one who is to be the guarantor in the restructuring of Europe politically, ready to serve Washington as her predecessors taught her, from Giorgio Almirante onward. If she does her job well, she will stay where she is; if something goes wrong, her chair will jump.

There was also the insane Argentine President Javier Miley, who no doubt is in line with Trump both in terms of dastardly tax and labor policies and the Zionist struggle. That Miley who will be crucial to U.S. expansionist aims in South America, perhaps even more so than Lula, who, on the other hand, is too much of a free hitter for American tastes. Even the Chinese were there, from that China that Trump does not like but is comfortable doing business with and cannot be missed if the dollar is to survive, with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in attendance. Symbolically, the Ceo of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was also present, because the U.S. knows how to use the infowarfare game, especially when elections in various countries are in sight. There were the FANG overlords – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google – with all their boundless wealth of global control and manipulation, ready to change their corporate policies upon the arrival of the Potus. The logic of the whole process is simple: only those who are necessary and can be useful to the United States were invited.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wuhan

 

 

Seal

 

 

Cheetah

 

 

Prom

 

 

Rhino
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883420888210735152

 

 

Snake

 

 

Voila

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle January 27 2025

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 77 total)
  • Author
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  • #180436

    Vincent van Gogh Weaver 1884   • Trade War Ends In Less Than 10 Hours After Colombia Agrees To Trump’s Terms (ZH) • Trump Suggests ‘Cleaning Out’
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 27 2025]

    #180438
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    The U.N. General Assembly, the I.C. C., the I.C.J. , ALL must demand an immediateCensus of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to establish Palestinian populations in those areas currently existing. Istael has no standing to object. The constant churning of the population of Gaza erased all information of numbers there. That must be firmly reestablished immediately. The decrease from pre-extermination will be the genocide quotient Israel is accountable for. Failure to do this adds others to the responsibility for genocide.

    #180439
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Easy button:
    pic

    US-Russia. “What an odd thing to say.” Don’t you know we’re not at all involved in this war with Russia?

    BTW, if those 200,000 Europeans are “peacekeepers,” we’re not giving them rifles, right? I mean, if we gave them rifles, they’d be “Warkeepers.”

    “President Trump Signs Executive Order To Declassify ALL Documents Pertaining To The Murders Of JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr”

    That’s already going badly. First release FBI docs that St. MLK was taking “government” money and buying hookers, having gay orgies, as a matter of course. It’s hard for this to be FBI slander because these are internal documents that weren’t released. Slander to whom? Gay in 1960 = blackmailable, on payroll. And 2) we already know he was having affairs and not moral, the only question is to what level.

    This is what I’m saying about “Something odd has to be in there, something still relevant.” So invoking the name of MLK, which was doing a lot of good, gets trashed as well. Oh well, we have to have Truth, Fīat iūstitia ruat cælum.

    Not thrilled with designating Yemen as terrorists, but for a change that’s an (arguable) legal fact: there are two rival governments, so they’re calling the outer one 1) Non-state actor (non U.S.) 2) they are more or less sinking random third parties, 3) these are not warships, 4) to achieve a political end. What can I tell you? The problem generally is that it’s a State actor ACTING like a bunch of terrorists, and it’s unclear if that term would apply. If not, it would be an act of open war of aggression, a war crime all the others are rolled in. No one acts like either is true, and States can kill whoever they want, internally or externally. That is not legally nor practically the case. The UN doesn’t care about either, so long as they’re on OUR side.

    “Trump: You used to be able to say…” STOP! You can’t say “Waitress” either. All your words are belong to us.

    “CIA Director Ratcliffe: Releasing Covid Lab-Leak Intel Key to Restoring Trust in U.S. Institutions”

    Did it work? Well, if they released it, then it’s false. How they doin’?

    “It was over when President Gustavo Petro sent his own plane to pick up the migrants.”

    How dare they accept their own citizens.

    “F around and find out”. Yeah, and my concern here is that they screw everything up, then you put in these guys who (possibly/probably immorally) fix stuff juuuuuuuuust enough that the Left wing of the same bird can keep limping along as ever with no real change. This is obviously the most likely.

    ““I’d like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, we just clean out that whole thing. It’s a real mess.”

    Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike this. Yes, that’s just Trump completing Israel’s genocide. That’s it, the whole thing. And yes, that makes it literally a genocide, not different from Jackson and the Trail of Tears. So f—k off and when you get there go ahead and f—k right off again.

    “removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration..”
    • Iran War Hawks Getting Wrecked

    Is he pretending to do Gaza to get cover to wipe out Neocons and AIPAC, then says whoops? Probably not so simply, but.

    “• LA Will Reopen Pacific Palisades To Residents Starting Monday (ZH)

    They are building apt blocks which are far more profitable in 15min (brutalist) cities, according to Dore. The key was to 1) Cancel insurance 2) Cause fires (going back years) 3) cause them intolerable expenses like paying taxes on a house that isn’t there to 4) force them to sell out to Blackrock, like any villain in a Clint Eastwood western. Trump only undercuts one tiny part of that, making Blackrock very slightly less effective, by not having the people stalled out for 18+ months, then another 18 months in planning and permitting.

    “• Trump Floats Eliminating Federal Income Tax ‘If The Tariffs Work Out’ (JTN)

    Yes this is the plan. No one knows if it can be done yet. I would say the pressures are too high, you can’t re-pipe the steam engine while it’s redlining, there’s going to be an error that causes a blowout somewhere. Armstrong interview says they weaken the US$ then like ’87, the Dow crashes +50% overnight. This is likely, also because like ’87 it bounces back quickly, and allows a rest of being impossibly overvalued (Cullom).

    “The DOGE $2 trillion budget savings goal is crucial to the very future of constitutional democracy and capitalist prosperity in America.”

    Yes, and see above. The odds of doing it are quite low. However, the slower you are and the closer to ground, the more likely there are survivors.

    ““..if Trump 2 fails, “the American experiment will come to an end: bureaucratic rule will devour the constitutional order.”

    Yes, this is it. The PMC and permanent managerial state. That is also the Dictatorial Technocracy. Or put another way, the Soviet Socialist State, what they aspired to be, but didn’t have the computing tech. I’m not making this up, they wrote about it extensively, including “Technocracy” magazine.

    “• Trump Fires ‘Virtually Worthless’ Inspectors General, Warren Freaks Out (ZH)

    Are there bad things in government, we found out? Oh, then the Inspectors General were provably useless, weren’t they, past tense.

    “• How Ukraine Lost Trillions-Worth of West-Coveted Natural Wealth (Sp.)

    Collateral. No intent, in fact no NEED to actually pump/mine it. Better if we don’t, actually. It’s all mental, fantastical, CONFIDENCE to back up other mental constructions…which we write down on spreadsheets. But it’s all abstractions and signals.

    “• Belarusian Peacekeepers ‘Best Option’ For Ukraine – Lukashenko (RT)

    Haha ha ha.

    ““..humanity could be saved from a privatized, weaponized, and monopolized AI wiping us out.”

    Surely you jest.

    “• No Evidence Closing Schools Materially Reduced Covid Transmission (Turley)

    Quite the opposite: it was a catastrophe for education and even child development, measurable and akin to torture and child abuse. (This is somewhat surprising, but that’s the consensus data). And everybody told you so. That means you knew it, did it anyway. We ALWAYS KNEW no children were at risk of harm from Covid. The olds murdered all the youngs. Just ‘cause, when it didn’t help the olds either.

    “revamped American liberal-capitalism by taking it to a new level, trendier and more glamorous, but above all more popular,”

    Uh, whaddyoutalkinabout? Everyone hates these guys even MORE than yesterday, on BOTH sides. “We Make S—t Up”

    Where is V Arnold? If he gets sick will he tell us?

    #180440
    Red
    Participant

    The UK has first refusal to buy Greenland. Hahaha, man what with? The crown jewels? I wonder if they are even there anymore?

    JFK?
    There is no mystery to who killed these men, unless one wishes to engage in pseudo-debates forever because the truth and its implications are too terrible to bear.

    The Life and Public Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

    #180441
    Dr. D
    Participant

    DengItAll

    #180442

    Where is V Arnold? If he gets sick will he tell us?

    2 good questions.

    #180443
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Are they going offer “apartment of their choice” in the new multifamily structure built on their property to all those destitute people who lost their homes and no means to rebuild it?

    In Lima, in my visits I am watching single family residences being snatched by the developers and replaced by the multifamily high-risers – hooked onto existing water and sewage infrastructure. Stubborn homeowners who does not want to sell, despite the rather great offer, have to learn to live in their beloved house often sandwiched between such a new buildings.

    #180444
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    “I don’t care, Margaret”

    JD Hamel Vance Bowman BLANTON, Vee Pee

    Truer words were never spoken.

    #180445
    zerosum
    Participant

    LOOK! A BLACK SWAN!
    DEEPSEEK! …. Can Find/Tel/Expose//find evidence -Your Secrets and Lies

    • China Drops Powerful AI Model That’s Free, Fast and Better for Humanity (Sp.)
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20250126/china-drops-powerful-ai-model-thats-free-fast-and-better-for-humanity-than-silicon-valley-rivals-1121502542.html

    “..humanity could be saved from a privatized, weaponized, and monopolized AI wiping us out.”
    ———-
    Do a better job.
    Tell the truth.
    Take responsibility.
    Stop denying
    Stop blaming.
    Stop the diversions.
    Improve investment strategy.
    Can be used to prevent adverse effects.
    Can be used to dig through all the white noise.

    Examples
    ———–

    In Las Vegas speech, Trump floats eliminating federal income tax ‘if the tariffs work out’
    ————
    • Which Country Could Buy Greenland? (Sp.)
    —————-
    • Iran War Hawks Getting Wrecked In Trump Personnel Fight (Ryan Grim)
    ————
    • Are Trump and His Supporters Ready for a Fight to the Death? (PCR)
    ———-
    `• Trump Fires ‘Virtually Worthless’ Inspectors General, Warren Freaks Out (ZH)
    ————–
    • US Officials Pushing To Unfreeze Aid For Ukraine – FT (RT)
    ————-
    • America’s Fiscal Doomsday Machine Must Be Stopped (David Stockman)
    ————–
    • No Evidence Closing Schools Materially Reduced Covid Transmission (Turley)
    —————–

    #180446
    jb-hb
    Participant

    So they ARE relaxing all those ironclad rules and regulations!

    …not to let homeowners rebuild better and cheaper, but to kick them out.

    The “water management” strategy of letting nobody catch rainfall seems particularly stupid. Look at the sahara where they are purposely making all these little catchments and beating the desert back. If California marxist “environmentalists” (we skin-suited Environment) were there, they’d be going “no, no, that’s crazy putting water into the desert like that, WE need to gather that water together and “manage” it for you. YOU managing the water falling on your land is awful, horrible, unthinkable.

    At best, even with no ulterior motive, the would only understand any moisture in any form being pulled into those catchments as “resources” to be “distributed.” As opposed to a process that ends up with an entirely different climate – with more for everyone.

    What would the LA basin look like if every house had a cistern and was using it? The water goes through your cistern and yard before it goes to the ocean, so what? And maybe the whole area transforms into something a bit less flammable, a bit more verdant? Like with those miles of Sahara that have been beaten back? Maybe it rains more – to the same extent that people used cisterns and at worst it is no better no worse in terms of total passthrough. How could you think keeping the area desiccated is the better “management” plan? Then start kicking all those Sahara catchments down.

    And do you need a water-managing bureaucracy, a water infrastructure, regulatory enforcement, to work its will, when everyone has a cistern? How much continual energy input does it take to run that? How much energy does it take to let water fall from the sky and into your catchment?

    #180447
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    What happened to the promised report on the mystery drones?

    #180450
    Noirette
    Participant

    Greenland is not part of the EU. It left after a Referendum.

    Iceland, Norway, Jersey and Guernsey, and since Brexit, the UK are not part of the EU. Ireland is the exception here, trad. strongly pro-Europe, pro-EU,understandable, damn those Murderous Brit Colonisers…

    From top post,

    EU Military Chief Wants Troops In Greenland (RT):

    The European Union should deploy military forces in Greenland, the chairman of the EU Military Committee (EUMC), Gen. Robert Brieger, said in an interview published Saturday. He cited Greenland’s geopolitical importance and “tensions” with Russia and China as the reason for his suggestion.

    Why would the EU control / defend a non-EU country? Humanitarian stuff, hmmm.

    –> Greenland is a full member of NATO. Should the US ‘attack’ or ‘control’ Greenland, that would be a NATO country subjugating another one, thru force of arms, intimidation, or more. One other reason for Trump to quit – disband – nullify, NATO.

    I guess all these ‘accords’, signed pacts, security guarantees, are now just immaterial, part of the Past.

    #180451
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Noirette: “Why would the EU control / defend a non-EU country? Humanitarian stuff, hmmm.”

    Military base envy? To offset the USA’s military presence and interests in Greenland?

    #180452
    zerosum
    Participant

    BLACK SWAN
    DEEPSEEK …. Can Find/Tel/Expose//find evidence Your Secrets and Lies

    • China Drops Powerful AI Model That’s Free, Fast and Better for Humanity (Sp.)
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20250126/china-drops-powerful-ai-model-thats-free-fast-and-better-for-humanity-than-silicon-valley-rivals-1121502542.html

    “..humanity could be saved from a privatized, weaponized, and monopolized AI wiping us out.”
    ———-
    Do a better job.
    Tell the truth.
    Take responsibility.
    Stop denying
    Stop blaming.
    Stop the diversions.
    Improve investment strategy.
    Can be used to prevent adverse effects.
    Can be used to dig through all the white noise.

    Examples
    ———–

    In Las Vegas speech, Trump floats eliminating federal income tax ‘if the tariffs work out’
    ————
    • Which Country Could Buy Greenland? (Sp.)
    —————-
    • Iran War Hawks Getting Wrecked In Trump Personnel Fight (Ryan Grim)
    ————
    • Are Trump and His Supporters Ready for a Fight to the Death? (PCR)
    ———-
    `• Trump Fires ‘Virtually Worthless’ Inspectors General, Warren Freaks Out (ZH)
    ————–
    • US Officials Pushing To Unfreeze Aid For Ukraine – FT (RT)
    ————-
    • America’s Fiscal Doomsday Machine Must Be Stopped (David Stockman)
    ————–
    • No Evidence Closing Schools Materially Reduced Covid Transmission (Turley)
    —————–

    #180453
    those darned kids
    Participant

    deep seek is total crap.

    ask about covid schots. ask about climate “change”. ask about any narrative that ‘globocap” wants to go in a certain direction, and you will be guided.’

    i gave it links to papers in “nature” etc. AND IT CAN’T ACCESS THEM.

    so i gave it the papers AND THEN ALL THE “CHATS” STARTED TIMING OUT where nothing like that had happened before.

    deep

    seek

    is

    total

    crap.

    #180454
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Trump:

    “If you call a woman beautiful today, it is the end of your political career …”

    Trump confirming my point once again that Politics is downstream from Culture

    The Woke-Tard Cultural Psy-op is an attack and perversion of a country’s Culture towards a Political Goal.

    Better the Reds are Dead

    .

    #180455
    zerosum
    Participant

    deep seek is total crap.

    The stock market spoke …

    Let wait and see.
    Its cheap enough, and affordable for the rif raf to use it to find answers.

    #180456
    Oroboros
    Participant

    And Culture is downstream from Memes

    .

    Warning: Vicious Circle Meme

    .

    #180457
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    The answers from AI are incomplete, depending on the hidden agendas.
    #Don’tTrustAI

    #180458
    Oroboros
    Participant

    To the Elon Musk detractors here at TAE peanut gallery:

    With numbers like this Musk will continue to exert great influence

    Money talks, Bullshitters get to walk
    .

    So Sad. :>(

    .

    #180459
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @ Doc Robinson

    “The answers from AI are incomplete, depending on the hidden agendas…”

    The AI you are allowed to see and play with are second third rate Potemkin retarded AIs

    The Good Stuff, much like the best booze and pot, will never be available to the Little People, the Unwashed Masses.

    If the Pedo Blob wanted to hear what you had to say about AI, they’d squeeze your head.

    The Cutting Edge AI, the kind that uses enough electricity to power a medium sized CITY, you will never even imagine what it’s like because it’s Super-Duper Ultra Top Secret.

    The Empire of Lies is in a Death Match Race to best the Chinese, Russian and Indian AI versions for WORLD DOMINATION

    Can you dig it?

    .

    #180460
    kultsommer
    Participant

    “Cultural Marxism” caption with consequences to a family, religion, private property and Nation.
    So how one, then, explains the current state of Russia vs USA?
    Former had a good 70 years of “hammer and sickle”

    #180461
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The fact that Duh’merica was ALWAYS ranting about ‘communism’ for seventy years then when the USSR fell and Russia resumed, the hypocrisy of Duh’merica finally revealed itself because non-communist Russia is now being portrayed as the same ‘evil’ as the USSR.

    Had NOTHING to do with ideology

    It’s alway been about you controls 11 time zones worth of nature resources.

    Duh’merica is control by Monsters, look in the mirror my feloow Duh’mericans.

    Monsters

    Correction: Incompetent Monsters

    .

    #180462
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Duh’merica ‘kulture’ has been ritually humiliated now so many times it doesn’t know which way is Up.

    The Good Old Days

    .

    .

    The Present

    .
    .
    .
    .

    #180463
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Going through some old medieval manuscripts, found a gem…..

    .

    #180464
    Oroboros
    Participant

    “Van Gogh Down by the River”

    .

    #180465
    zerosum
    Participant

    The answers from AI are incomplete, depending on the hidden agendas.
    #Don’tTrustAI

    Now, MSM is still saying “don’t trust the alternate sources of information”

    Soon, your cheap “black swan” will say, “Check out the info that I found, before you decide to make up your mind.”

    #180466
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Our deservedly beloved Raul Ilargi Miejer was presciently astute enough to include as part of our daily homework assignment the very recent presentation by Catherine Austin Fitts to the Hilsdale College assembly. For those who missed it, here’s the link again: https://youtu.be/O3Ivv6jjixE?si=MqLD11sCUgx3Fvvq

    She was as focused laser brilliant as usual, what a genius and treasure she truly is. I would only add ONE observation & conclusion to her talk. This addendum is simply that all of the procedures and actions that she describes (which includes BOTH the procedures and actions which generated the problem AND the procedures and actions which might, hopefully, reverse and repair those problems) ARE 99.9% DEPENDENT UPON ADVANCED NETWORKED COMPUTERIZED SYSTEMS MANAGED AS, AND MANAGED WITH WHAT WE WOULD HAVE TO CALL “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS”.

    The Panic that is arising within the ranks of our various leadership elites is that they have LOST CONTROL of those AI systems, which are at this very moment, and increasing exponentially, being turned against them and being used to create a new and hopefully better system.

    I say “hopefully” because I am not at all confident that the “new” control system is going to work much better or for as long as would be necessary to actually SOLVE the problems we face. Nor am I very confident that the “new” system will not rapidly go corrupt as fast as the last one did.

    But make special note that my personal doubts and reservations are almost purely academic and entirely irrelevant insofar as the switch from old to new SHALL HAPPEN AND IS HAPPENING AS WE SPEAK, in complete disregard for how I feel about it.

    Should I be offended by that snub of my tender feelings or should I instead deal with the reality of the events and its consequences?

    And if THAT rhetorical question is not setting myself up for callously snarky responses then I don’t know how else to do it.

    #180467
    zerosum
    Participant

    NASDAQ spoke, It’s at (- 677) 3 .9% bobobobo

    #180468
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray reports from Lebanon.

    Yesterday, not only did Israel fail to evacuate its army from Southern Lebanon as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, Israel also shot over 130 Lebanese civilians attempting to return home in accordance with the deal, killing 23 and wounding 109 (of whom some are in critical condition).

    This included a 12 year old boy wounded in the neck in Kfarkela, standing right next to my local producer Mahmood. I was twenty yards away and on my way to them…

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/01/israeli-atrocities-in-lebanon/
    Israeli Atrocities in Lebanon

    #180469
    zerosum
    Participant

    Still going down … gottastopp crying .. its only pretend money

    #180470
    those darned kids
    Participant

    elon musk is a war criminal. the number of cars he sells means nothing.

    he is a murderer.

    #180471
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The present moment seems to be a particularly good time to sharpen up the ability to tell the difference between friend and foe. The following SHORT essay from political ponerology on that skill is a good start, since there are so many bad guys telling us that they’re our friend, and so many friends who are keeping their mouths and profile on the down-low.
    https://open.substack.com/pub/ponerology/p/friend-or-foe-the-psychopath-dilemma?r=ba3yw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

    #180472
    those darned kids
    Participant

    https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=elon+musk+military+contracts&ia=web

    if you’re telling them where the toddlers they need to decapitate are found, you are guilty, too.

    #180473
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray reports that “the Lebanese army is fully under US control” and “the Lebanese army simply watched the Israeli army massacre Lebanese civilians.”

    The role of the Lebanese army is extremely dubious, but 100% in Israel’s favour. The Lebanese army is fully under US control. Literally, 50% of the salary of every single Lebanese soldier is directly paid by the US Government.

    Yesterday the Lebanese army simply watched the Israeli army massacre Lebanese civilians. If the Lebanese army was protecting anybody yesterday, it was protecting the Israeli Defence Force.

    Sill more extraordinary, the new Lebanese Government failed to protest at the Israeli failure to withdraw, and the Trump administration has subsequently announced that Lebanon has agreed to extend the withdrawal deadline until 18 February.

    In fact neither Israel nor the USA ever had the slightest intention of IDF withdrawal. Israel has demolished more than 2,000 Lebanese homes during the ceasefire period, about half of them in towns and villages which Israel was unable to reach during the fighting but has occupied during the ceasefire.

    Israeli Atrocities in Lebanon

    #180474
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    International Treaties (such as the one signed by all of the so-called NATO nations) are just like marriage licenses: Fully enforceable under Law, until either or both of the parries involved decide that they don’t agree with it any more. At that moment the written and co-signed contract becomes used toilet paper.

    #180475
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Hahahaha!

    Elon(gated) Musk….

    #180476
    Dr D Rich
    Participant
    #180477
    SeaBirds
    Participant

    Charles Hughes Smith opines that Deep-Seek may be a game-changing black swan:

    https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan25/Sputnik%20moment1-25.html

    #180478
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Former British diplomat Craig Murray didn’t mince words when he tweeted this on January 24:

    “I think Israel has proven it does not deserve to be a state, beyond any argument.”

    https://xcancel.com/CraigMurrayOrg

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