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Debt Rattle February 25 2025

Feb 252025
 
 February 25, 2025  Posted by at 10:46 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Tintoretto The crucifixion of Christ 1568

 

• No Way Out (James Howard Kunstler)
• Liberals Panic Over ‘Politicized’ FBI After Bongino Appointment (ZH)
• Musk Warns Fed Workers – Return To Office Or Be Placed On Leave (ZH)
• Trump Officials Push Back Against Musk Initiative (RT)
• Judge Blocks Education Department, OPM From Sharing Data With DOGE (ET)
• US Adopting ‘Russian Narrative’ – EU’s Kallas (RT)
• EU’s Chief Diplomat Backs Zelensky’s Refusal To Hold Elections (RT)
• Germany Must Become ‘Independent’ From US – Bundestag Election Winner (RT)
• Income Tax vs Tariffs (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Zelensky Has ‘No Chance’ Of Winning A Fair Election – Putin (RT)
• Russia Ready To Work With US On ‘Rare Earths’ – Putin (RT)
• Putin Weighs In On Europe’s Participation In Ukraine Peace Talks (RT)
• The Ukraine War Will Only End On Russia’s Terms, Lavrov Says (ZH)
• EU Spending On Russian LNG Imports Quadruples (RT)
• Xi Backs Russia On Ukraine Peace Efforts – Kremlin (RT)
• West Knew NATO Push For Ukraine Was Risky – Wikileaks (RT)
• UK In Secret Plot To Extract Personal Data From 2 Billion iPhone Users (VF)
• Displaced Disinformation Experts Are Seeking New Opportunities (Turley)

 

 

 

 

Witkoff
https://twitter.com/i/status/1893733497568706786

Transgender

MSNBC: it costs them nothing

Bongino

ID

 

 

 

 

“Mr. Bongino has documented the worst blob crimes of recent years in a series of books that comprehensively presents the entire tapestry of lawlessness in microscopic detail. He knows the whole sordid, epic story, all the names, and all the money trails in every obscure corner of the worst aggregate matrix of scandals in US history. Believe me when I tell you, this is like a death sentence for the blob.”

“The Democratic Party was the political enabling partner in all this sedition and treason and it is hard to see how it comes out of this alive.”

• No Way Out (James Howard Kunstler)

CBS’s 60-Minutes show was at it again Sunday night in the most prime primetime weekend news slot on the old broadcast spectrum — Sunday at 7:00, the power-hour of national mind-fuckery — with blob PR-agent Scott Pelley singing the blues over the systematic disassembly of the rogue bureaucracy. Trouble is, fewer and fewer minds are susceptible to the argument that the blob exists to “save our democracy.” You’re supposed to go boo-hoo because the Department of Justice is under new management. Now get this: since 2015 the Department of Justice and its step-child, the FBI, have devoted their vast and savage powers to manifold acts of sedition, treason, malicious political prosecution, obstruction of justice, suborning perjuries, and countless other abuses of law in an ever-widening gyre of ass-covering operations as year-by-year their crimes multiplied.

RussiaGate was initially a cover-up op for the Clintons’ many acts of mischief and moneygrubbing when Hillary ran for President, just as the Mueller Special Counsel Investigation was a cover-up for the crimes committed by the DOJ and FBI after Hillary lost to Mr. Trump, just as Impeachment #1 was a cover-up for the Ukraine money laundry and its role in RussiaGate, and Impeachment #2 was a coverup for the 2020 election ballot hijinks that got rid of Mr. Trump, and just as the Mar-a-Lago raid was a cover-up to retrieve evidence of all-the-above that Mr. Trump had archived, and just as the flurry of Trump prosecutions in 2024 was the final (and amazingly inept) effort to put the Golden Golem of Greatness out-of-business forever.

But somehow, perhaps an act of Providence, he prevailed over all that adversity, like some paladin out of the ancient myths, and is suddenly back in charge — to the abject horror of all those lawyers and spooks behind the aforesaid ops, now nervously awaiting subpoenas in their Beltway McMansions. You will learn shortly that there is a difference between “justice” based on fraud and fakery and justice served by way of fact-patterns and evidence. And so late Sunday evening after the 60-Minutes pity party, came the pretty astounding news that former Secret Service agent and now podcaster Dan Bongino is appointed Deputy Director of the FBI. Astounding because Mr. Bongino has documented the worst blob crimes of recent years in a series of books that comprehensively presents the entire tapestry of lawlessness in microscopic detail.

He knows the whole sordid, epic story, all the names, and all the money trails in every obscure corner of the worst aggregate matrix of scandals in US history. Believe me when I tell you, this is like a death sentence for the blob. For instance, Mr. Bongino is acutely aware of what went down on J-6, 2021, when a supposed pipe-bomb was “found” at the DNC headquarters, the part it was supposed to play in the larger J-6 op to rid Washington of Mr. Trump, and the lying confabulations of former FBI Director Christopher Wray afterward. Now he is in a position to compel current and former FBI officials to answer questions about that, and much more, from the Crossfire Hurricane scam to the shenanigans in Judge Juan Merchan’s court last summer.

Those investigations will require a whole dedicated division of new FBI agents while Kash Patel attends to the latest grifts uncovered by the DOGE, the threats against public order and safety posed by countless military-aged illegal aliens ushered into the country by “Joe Biden” and Alejandro Mayorkas, the turpitudes of former AG Merrick Garland, and the crimes committed by officials in the CDC, FDA, and other public health agencies around Covid-19, and lingering monstrosities such as the Jeffrey Epstein capers, the huge fortunes mysteriously amassed by US senators and congressmen, the 1960s assassinations of the Kennedys and MLK, the censorship operations conducted by the combined FBI / CIA, State Department, and dark offices of the Pentagon, the theft of US largess given over to Ukraine, and the infiltration of American institutions by China.

The Trump admin knows that it will have to strike hard and fast in all these matters and more. Cases will have to be prepared briskly and removed to federal courts outside the blob-controlled DC district. A great many political figures will have to be taken out of circulation. It will be helpful to finally understand the bizarre capture of the old legacy news media so, for instance, it becomes clear why an outfit such as CBS’s 60-Minutes ended up on the dark side, committed to burying the truth and distorting reality at every opportunity.

The Democratic Party was the political enabling partner in all this sedition and treason and it is hard to see how it comes out of this alive. Expect to see a lemming stampede of resignations out of Congress and the Senate. And some of them, like Sen. Adam Schiff, and Rep. Eric Swalwell could end up in prison. You saw the fear in their public antics the past two weeks as the cabinet confirmations mounted. They know what’s coming. They are desperate, but the power they once wielded is now in other hands. There’s no way out. On a bright note, it was heartwarming to see that Joy Reid got “axed” from her primetime perch at MSNBC over the weekend. (Nobody axed me, but I approve!) She’ll be doing a must-watch farewell show this coming week. Don’t miss it!

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“..you know who should be panicking right now? Adam Schiff…”

• Liberals Panic Over ‘Politicized’ FBI After Bongino Appointment (ZH)

Sunday night’s panic within the FBI has quickly morphed into “utter despair” among liberals, “who had already grown fearful of a highly politicized FBI,” according to (formerly USAID-funded) Politico, which is rich considering that the FBI under Biden spent four years as a “highly politicized” weapon to go after conservatives.

Rolling Stone (of pedo coverup fame), framed Bongino’s appointment with the “bad cops” tag, which is followed by an unhinged screed.

The once-great activist rag writes: “The FBI will officially be headed by two men with no experience in the bureau, and a lot of blind loyalty towards President Donald Trump.” During the first weeks of Trump’s second administration, Bongino has hyped up the president’s power grab and revenge tour against his political opponents. Earlier this month, the radio host urged Trump to ignore a court order blocking the administration’s attempt to place a widespread freeze on federal funding. -Rolling Stone. Terminally TDS’d Stephen King deleted all of his interactions with Bongino:

And you know who should be panicking right now? Adam Schiff…

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It appears that Musk was just weeding out the dead. And see what else pops up. Bit of a coarse way to do it.

• Musk Warns Fed Workers – Return To Office Or Be Placed On Leave (ZH)

The Department of Government Efficiency’s Elon Musk wrote on X early Monday that starting this week, federal workers who fail to return to the office will be placed on administrative leave. “Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning,” Musk wrote, adding, “Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.” Musk is referring to the “Return To In-Person Work” executive order Trump signed on day one of his second term, which states: “Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”

Musk quoted a post by Ralph Norman, US Representative for South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, who posted a video of his latest interview on Fox News, describing the direct insubordination of some federal workers still refusing to return to the office. On Saturday, Musk wrote on X that federal workers received an email “requesting to understand what they got done last week,” adding, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” The deadline is Monday. By late Sunday, there was pushback on the ‘accomplishments’ email from several federal agencies, including the Pentagon, FBI, State Department, and various parts of the Intelligence Community… An insider at the Social Security Administration’s headquarters in Woodlawn, Maryland, said Monday will be chaotic as employees rush into the office, given the limited availability of parking spaces. The Department of Government Efficiency’s latest move appears to create harsh working conditions that will make federal workers more inclined to quit voluntarily. As the old saying goes: “Welcome to Serbia.”

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Everyone can feel protected by their department heads. That’s not a bad thing…

• Trump Officials Push Back Against Musk Initiative (RT)

An instruction by Elon Musk, US President Donald Trump’s government efficiency czar, for federal workers to summarize their weekly activities or risk termination has reportedly prompted resistance among senior officials. On Saturday, Musk announced on X that all government employees must outline what work they had done over the week, warning that failure to comply might be interpreted as resignation. Emails sent to the 2.3 million federal workers reportedly requested that five bullet points detailing their activities be submitted by the end of Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk’s team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) devised the request after Trump urged him to “get more aggressive” in targeting perceived waste.

The emails were distributed via the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s HR arm. However, some department officials responded by instructing employees to ignore the emails, with directives coming directly from Trump appointees, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered her staff not to respond, citing the “inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work.” FBI Director Kash Patel informed employees that the agency “is in charge of all our review processes,” directing them to “pause any responses.” The Pentagon took a similar stance, the newspaper reported, citing an email from Darin S. Selnick, the acting head of personnel. Employees at the Department of Health and Human Services received conflicting guidance regarding Musk’s request.

Musk was appointed as a special official in the Trump administration tasked with cutting waste and fraud from government spending. Critics argue he aims to dismantle significant parts of the federal government, paving the way for a corporate takeover of corresponding functions. Trump has expressed support for Musk’s efforts amid the backlash surrounding the weekly report requirement. Musk downplayed the controversy, calling the email a “very basic pulse check” and sharing a meme that compared his job security threats to vaccination mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Judges pretending that DOGE is not part of the government.

• Judge Blocks Education Department, OPM From Sharing Data With DOGE (ET)

A federal judge on Feb. 24 blocked two agencies from sharing sensitive information with Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff. “The U.S. Department of Education; Denise L. Carter, the Acting Secretary of Education; and their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys are ENJOINED from disclosing the personally identifiable information of the plaintiffs and the members of the plaintiff organizations to any DOGE affiliates,” U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman wrote in a 33-page order. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its employees are also forbidden from disclosing the same information to DOGE workers, the judge said. The temporary restraining order is in effect until March 10 as the case proceeds. It could be extended, converted into a preliminary injunction, or allowed to expire.

The American Federation of Teachers and other groups recently asked the court to block officials with the OPM, U.S. Department of Education (DOE), and U.S. Department of Treasury from conveying sensitive records to DOGE employees. Allowing DOGE access to the records endangers the privacy rights of veterans and other people represented by the groups, the organizations said in their request to the federal court in Maryland. Government lawyers argued that the judge should reject the motion for a restraining order because government officials have not violated the plaintiffs’ privacy.“At the heart of Plaintiffs’ theory is the baseless allegation that ‘DOGE representatives’ at the Defendant agencies are somehow outside the category of federal employees, or outside the category of federal employees in their respective agencies,” the lawyers wrote in a filing.

“Neither criticism withstands scrutiny. The Privacy Act therefore expressly allows disclosure of information protected under that statute in the circumstances of this case.” Boardman said that even if officials have been sharing information only with other government employees, it still violates the plaintiffs’ right to have their sensitive personal information kept private if the employees are not authorized to access the data. “Education and OPM possess a significant amount of detailed information about the plaintiffs’ lives,” the judge wrote. “To say that the plaintiffs suffer no cognizable injury when their personal information is improperly disclosed to government employees would nullify their interest in preventing unlawful government intrusion into their private affairs. The unauthorized disclosure of the plaintiffs’ sensitive personal information is an injury in fact.”

Although plaintiffs cannot receive relief under the Privacy Act, the judge said later, they can under the Administrative Procedure Act, which bars the government from taking steps that are not in accordance with the law. “The plaintiffs have shown that Education and OPM likely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing their personal information to DOGE affiliates without their consent,” Boardman said. The act prohibits agencies from disclosing “any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains.”

In addition to the American Federation of Teachers, a union that represents some 1.8 million people, the plaintiffs in the case are the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, and the National Federation of Federal Employees.The order expressly names Adam Ramada, a DOGE employee who said in a declaration filed in the case that he and five other DOGE employees have been working with the DOE to audit contracts, grants, and programs “for waste, fraud, and abuse.” “In addition, we help senior Department leadership obtain access to accurate data and data analytics to inform their policy decisions at the Department,” Ramada said in the filing.

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When she succeeded Borrell, I already said she’d been picked solely for her Russophobia and Putin hatred. Terrible selection criteria.

• US Adopting ‘Russian Narrative’ – EU’s Kallas (RT)

Washington has fallen for “Russia’s narrative,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday. The accusation comes amid recent efforts by Washington and Moscow to begin resolving the conflict. “If [we] look at the messages that come from the US, then it is clear that the Russian narrative is there, very strongly represented,” Kallas told journalists in Brussels, stressing that the bloc is planning to “support Ukraine right now more than ever.” Kallas took office in Brussels as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, replacing Spain’s Josep Borrell in December last year. A pronounced foreign policy hawk who, while she was Estonian prime minister demanded in 2023 that “all business with Russia must stop,” Kallas faced resignation calls over revelations her husband held a 25% stake in a logistics company that provides services in the sanction-hit nation.

Since the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022, both the EU and the US have implemented multiple rounds of sanctions in an effort to isolate Russia. The penalties included disconnecting the country from the Western financial system, suspending nearly all trade and energy ties, and freezing Moscow’s foreign reserves—a measure condemned as “theft” by the Kremlin. On Monday, the EU adopted its 16th package of Ukraine-related restrictions, marking the anniversary of the launch of the Russian military operation against Kiev’s forces in February 2022. However, shortly after assuming office in January US President Donald Trump pivoted Washington’s stance on Ukraine. Trump recently claimed that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is responsible for the conflict’s escalation, and said that his presence at Washington’s meetings with Russia is unnecessary.

Meanwhile, media reports emerged that US envoys to the G7 and the UN have pushed for more cautious language in official statements, suggesting the use of “Ukraine conflict” instead of “Russia’s war of aggression.” The first meeting of Russian and US officials in three years occurred last week in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. The talks have ignited a backlash within the EU with member states accusing the White House of reopening dialogue with Kremlin without prior consultation and sidelining Brussels from the negotiations.

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No diplomacy.

• EU’s Chief Diplomat Backs Zelensky’s Refusal To Hold Elections (RT)

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas has announced that she supports Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s refusal to hold a presidential election. Although Zelensky’s five-year presidential term expired in May 2024, no new elections have been held, with Zelensky claiming that it is “not the right time,” and citing martial law. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that he no longer considers Zelensky a legitimate head of state. Speaking on Monday ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Kallas said that “there is no need to hold elections” during wartime. She noted the public feud last week when the US president claimed that Zelensky is “a dictator without elections” and accused him of funneling US aid into a “war that couldn’t be won.”

Trump also claimed last week that Zelensky’s approval rating was at 4% and suggested that an election should be called. “He refuses to have elections. He’s low in the real Ukrainian polls. How can you be high with every city being demolished?” Trump said, adding that in the meantime, the US is “successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia.” Zelensky responded by claiming that Trump is “living in a disinformation space” created by Moscow. In tune with Zelensky, Kallas declared that “it’s clear that the Russian narrative is very strongly represented” in Trump’s statement. She stressed that for any peace deal to be effective, it would need to involve the Europeans and the Ukrainians.

She was referring to recent high-level US-Russian talks in Saudi Arabia, which frustrated the EU. Member states criticized Washington for sidelining Brussels and Kiev during the negotiations. “You can discuss whatever you want with Putin, but if it comes to Ukraine and Europe, then Ukraine and Europe also have to agree to this deal,” Kallas told journalists. Last week, reports suggested that the EU is preparing a military aid package worth at least $6.2 billion for Ukraine. The package is expected to include 1.5 million artillery shells and air defense systems – one of the bloc’s largest military aid commitments since the escalation of the conflict in 2022. Russia considers Zelensky “illegitimate” and recognizes only the Ukrainian parliament and its speaker. Russian officials have warned that any treaties he signs could be challenged and questioned his ability to conclude lasting agreements.

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Germany got stuck in small change. Not enough.

• Germany Must Become ‘Independent’ From US – Bundestag Election Winner (RT)

Germany must gain real independence from the US, Friedrich Merz, the projected winner of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, has said. According to German media, Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), are projected to receive 28.5% of the vote, which means that he will likely become the next chancellor.Speaking to reporters on Sunday night, Merz criticized US President Donald Trump’s handling of the Ukraine conflict. “The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic, drastic, and ultimately outrageous than the intervention we saw from Moscow,” Merz told reporters on Sunday night, according to the news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

“The Americans, at least those in the current government, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he said. The conservative politician went on to argue that Germany must boost its defense and “gradually achieve independence from the US.” “I would have never thought that I would have to say something like that on a TV show,” he said. Trump has demanded that America’s allies in Europe pay “a fair share” in defense spending and contribute more to NATO. He also sidelined Ukraine and the EU when he reversed the Biden administration’s policy of “isolating” Russia and reopened direct talks with Moscow.

One of Trump’s most noteworthy allies, billionaire Elon Musk, has endorsed the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is projected to become the second-largest party in the Bundestag. Trump, nevertheless, has congratulated the CDU on the victory. “Much like the USA, the people of Germany got tired of the no-common-sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

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Former Assistant Treasury Secretary: “President Trump’s idea of replacing the income tax with tariffs is sound and a great advancement in the restoration of freedom..”

• Income Tax vs Tariffs (Paul Craig Roberts)

Prior to 1913 the US government was financed by tariffs. It was under tariffs, not free trade, that the United States industrialized and became a manufacturing nation. Indeed, the Union invaded and destroyed the Confederacy in order to impose the Morrill Tariff on the South that enabled the North to industrialize. The North could not compete with British industry and required the protection of a tariff. It is extraordinary to me that it has gone unremarked for 112 years that the income tax, which required a constitutional amendment, resurrected slavery. In actuality, white people voted to impose slavery on themselves. Americans did not realize what was happening. The income threshold for being subject to the tax was so high that few qualified to be taxed.

Moreover, the first tax rate was 1% and the progression halted at 7%. To be taxed at 7% you had to have a phenomenal amount of income for those days of more than $500,000, the equivalent of multi-millions today. In the US in the 1900s a person who made $70,000 a year was considered extremely wealthy. When Henry Ford’s innovation of the moving assembly line was introduced in 1913, he raised his workers’ pay from $2.34 per day to $5, producing an annual income of $1,300. Only 3% of the US population was subject to the income tax. Many years ago I wrote an account of how the income tax amendment passed. In Georgia the state legislative leader said Georgia had no objection to the amendment as no one in the state of Georgia had an income high enough to be subject to the tax.

Everyone overlooked that once an income tax was in place, the thresholds could be lowered and the rates raised. By 1918, that is, within 5 years, the top tax rate had jumped to 77%, dropping to 25% in 1925. When the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, slavery was resurrected. Historically, the definition of a free person is a person who owns his own labor. Serfs and slaves did not own their own labor. Serfs were not owned by feudal lords, the the lords had use rights to as much as 30% of a serf’s labor. The labor of an enslaved person belonged to the slave’s owner. An income tax establishes government ownership over part of your labor. How much depends on your income and the tax rate at the time.

If you fail to deliver the government’s share of your income, you are severely punished and can spend many years in prison. Every American income taxpayer is partly enslaved and partly free.A tariff is a tax on consumption, the preferable means of taxation according to the classical economists. It establishes no government ownership rights in your income. An income tax not only gives government a part ownership of your working time, it is also a tax on factors of production — labor and capital. Taxing factors of production reduces economic growth and Gross Domestic Product. It is a counter-productive tax that suppresses output. The substitution of a tariff for an income tax is a pro-growth policy that will produce higher incomes and raise living standards. Free labor is always more productive because you are working for yourself and your family.

Out-of-date neoliberal economists argue wrongly that tariffs violate free trade and reduce economic growth. In the Lionel Robbins Lecture in 2000, published by the MIT Press, Ralph E. Gomory and William J. Baumol proved that the case for free trade was false and that at best the notion that free trade was mutually beneficial was an occasional special case. Paul Samuelson found their proof convincing, but overall the economists have preferred their free trade indoctrination to the effort it takes to master a new understanding.The information from DOGE of the enormous fraud, abuse, and self-dealing that the US budget contains as a slush fund for insiders and for bribing foreign politicians and overthrowing foreign governments indicates that sufficient reductions are possible to establish a tariff at a reasonable rate. To rescue Americans from the slavery of an income tax would be one the greatest achievements in history. Let’s achieve it.

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“They are equal to zero. Unless, of course, something is grossly rigged, but this is also bad for him – it will be very noticeable..”

• Zelensky Has ‘No Chance’ Of Winning A Fair Election – Putin (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Vladimir Zelensky has “absolutely no chance” of winning a fair election due to his low approval ratings and the internal political situation in Ukraine. Zelensky’s five-year presidential term expired in May 2024, but he has refused to hold new elections, citing martial law. The question of his popularity was raised last week by US President Donald Trump, who branded Zelensky a “dictator without elections” who is “down at a 4% approval rating.” Speaking on Monday, Putin noted that Zelensky’s popularity is significantly lower than that of potential rival General Valery Zaluzhny, the former commander of Ukraine’s armed forces. In an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin suggested that if other political figures backed Zaluzhny, Zelensky’s chances of reelection would be “absolutely zero.”

“They are equal to zero. Unless, of course, something is grossly rigged, but this is also bad for him – it will be very noticeable,” Putin stated. “The fact is that the current head of the Kiev regime is becoming a toxic figure for the Ukrainian armed forces because he gives absurd orders dictated not by military considerations, but by political ones, and it is unclear what they are based on,” Putin said. He added that Zelensky’s leadership had resulted in “unjustifiably large or catastrophic losses,” making him “toxic for society as a whole.” “Therefore, [Zelensky] is a factor in the disintegration of the army, society, and the state. President Trump certainly understands this and is pushing him toward elections,” Putin said, adding that Trump apparently “wants to improve the political situation in Ukraine, consolidate society, and create conditions for the survival of the Ukrainian state.”

Putin has repeatedly said that he no longer considers Zelensky the legitimate head of state. Trump has also recently questioned the former comedian’s leadership, accusing him of mismanaging the conflict with Russia and misusing American financial aid. Zelensky accused Trump of falling for “Russian disinformation,” citing a January poll that allegedly indicated 57% of Ukrainians trusted him. However, data cited by The Economist last week suggested that Zelensky would lose to Zaluzhny by a wide margin if elections were held today, as many Ukrainians are “clearly frustrated with their war leader.” According to Putin, Zelensky – who has banned himself from talks with Moscow – is actively sabotaging any peace process, as it would require lifting martial law, which allows him to remain in power. Without martial law, the country would be compelled to hold elections, a scenario Putin believes Zelensky is determined to avoid.

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Just no American troops…

• Russia Ready To Work With US On ‘Rare Earths’ – Putin (RT)

Moscow is ready to work with Washington in developing rare earth mineral deposits, including in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. The ‘rare earths’ deal US President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing for with Ukraine “doesn’t concern” Moscow, Putin said in an interview with Russia 1 TV journalist Pavel Zarubin on Monday. The actual value of Ukraine’s rare earth mineral deposits remains to be seen, the Russian leader noted. Moscow will be concentrating on its own development of rare earth minerals, given their importance in multiple sectors of the economy, he said. “We would be ready to offer this to our American partners… if they showed interest in working together,” Putin said, stressing that he meant both private and government companies.

As one of the global leaders in terms of its rare earth mineral wealth, Russia is willing to work with international investors in developing its deposits, he said. “This includes the new territories,” Putin added. “Our new historical territories, which were returned to the Russian Federation, also hold significant reserves.” The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhye regions joined the Russian Federation following referendums in 2022. While Forbes estimated the total value of mineral deposits of Ukraine at nearly $15 trillion in 2023, nearly half of the total mineral wealth lies in the Russia’s Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

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“Europe’s participation in the negotiation process on Ukraine is essential, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. However, European representatives cannot demand anything from Russia..”

• Putin Weighs In On Europe’s Participation In Ukraine Peace Talks (RT)

Europe’s participation in the negotiation process on Ukraine is essential, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. However, European representatives cannot demand anything from Russia, he added in an interview published on Monday. Putin commented on last week’s talks in Saudi Arabia, which were focused on restoring trust between Moscow and Washington, and excluded Ukrainian and EU leaders. Putin explained that “to resolve complex and even acute issues”, including the Ukrainian crisis, Russia and the US had to “take the first step”, which is “building trust”. “That is precisely what we were doing in Riyadh. That will also be the focus of our future contacts. Without this, it’s impossible to resolve any issue, especially one as complex and urgent as the Ukrainian crisis. But what do the Europeans have to do with this? This is a matter of bilateral Russia-US relations,” the president said.

Putin also claimed that the Ukrainian crisis itself “was not substantively discussed”, and Moscow and Washington agreed “that we would approach this matter in due time”. In this regard, Russia doesn’t oppose the participation of European representatives, Putin stressed. ”But I want to emphasize that we respect the position of our friends, particularly those within BRICS, who have established a group of peace advocates”, the President said, adding that he has just spoken with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, discussing the matter. “He informed me that this [BRICS] group will convene soon in New York to discuss the issue”, Putin said. He emphasized that Moscow is grateful to all its partners “who strive to achieve peace”. “Not only Europeans but other countries as well have the right to participate, and we respect that,” Putin concluded.

The US State Department praised the high-level discussions, calling it a significant step toward resolving the Ukraine conflict. This was the first such meeting since the conflict began in 2022. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was part of the delegation, noted that the meeting in Riyadh was initiated by the Russian and US presidents, who also agreed to begin preparations for a summit. Putin has previously said he would be glad to meet with his US counterpart Donald Trump, though he called it too early to name a specific date for a summit. He added that a simple “coffee hour” would not be enough to remedy relations between the two nations, and both sides need to thoroughly prepare. Moscow and Washington nevertheless “do not need any mediators” to sort out their differences, he added.

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“The Europeans continue on the path of a sanctions nosedive, on the path of conviction in the need to continue the war..”

• The Ukraine War Will Only End On Russia’s Terms, Lavrov Says (ZH)

It’s been three full years since the full-on Russian invasion of Ukraine kicked off on February 24, 2022. At this point, it’s become clear to all that Russian forces control the battlefield, amid steady ongoing gains in the Donbass region. Even as talks with the US progress, Moscow has made clear on Monday that it will only accept a peace settlement which “suits” its interests. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued the words while on an official visit to Turkey, and warned that European countries are trying to sabotage Trump efforts at peace. He emphasized that Moscow stands ready and willing to negotiate with Ukraine, Europe or “any representatives who in good faith would like to help achieve peace.” “But we will stop hostilities only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that suits the Russian Federation,” he said alongside his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.

Among the proposals that might stymie progress on negotiations is the possibility of a European army of some 30,000 to patrol a buffer zone inside Ukraine. Moscow has consistently rejected that NATO troops would be present along the war-torn border. Trump himself has shown interest in such a peacekeeping force, especially as US troops would not be part of it. Put Putin will likely fear this is just recipe for another potential future showdown. In separate statements Monday, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday charged Europe with obstructing good faith peace efforts. “The Europeans continue on the path of a sanctions nosedive, on the path of conviction in the need to continue the war,” Peskov said in reaction to the EU imposing a new round of sanctions on Moscow. “This conviction of the Europeans completely contrasts with the mindset of finding a settlement on Ukraine, which we are now doing with the Americans,” he added.

Reuters reviews of the new punitive action: The European Union’s latest sanctions against Moscow include a ban on third-country airlines flying to the 27-nation bloc if they carry out domestic flights in Russia, the European Commission said, opens new tab on Monday. The EU’s 16th sanctions package against Russia includes a ban on primary aluminum imports and the sale of gaming consoles, while also listing a cryptocurrency exchange and dozens of vessels of the so-called shadow fleet used to evade sanctions. At this point both the US and Russian sides plan to continue conducting the talks which began last week in Riyadh. Presumably neither Ukrainian nor European representatives will be at the table for the next rounds. Each side appeared satisfied with how the first engagement went, with the Kremlin hailing the ‘successful’ betterment of relations, which has involved more staff returning to each respective embassy.

Read more …

“..in the fourth quarter of 2024, the volume of LNG imported from Russia was 18% higher than in the first quarter of 2021..” “..the value of these imports surged by 274%..”

• EU Spending On Russian LNG Imports Quadruples (RT)

The cost of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases for the EU has nearly quadrupled in three years due to soaring prices and increased import volumes, according to Eurostat. Data released on Monday in a report titled ‘EU trade with Russia’, shows that in the fourth quarter of 2024, the volume of LNG imported from Russia was 18% higher than in the first quarter of 2021. Over the same period, the value of these imports surged by 274% due to the energy crisis. European gas prices rose dramatically following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, alongside the EU’s commitment to phase out Russian energy dependence. While pipeline gas imports from Russia have mostly ceased due to sanctions and the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, EU nations have continued purchasing record volumes of LNG from the country.

According to Eurostat, Russia’s share of the EU’s LNG imports grew from 11% in Q4 2022 to 22% in the last quarter of 2024. The US remained the bloc’s top supplier, accounting for 36% of its overall LNG imports. In June, Brussels targeted Russian LNG for the first time, banning re-loading operations, ship-to-ship transfers, and ship-to-shore transfers with the purpose of re-exporting to third countries via the EU. The sanctions came with a nine-month transition period. The EU’s 16th package of sanctions, introduced on Monday, further tightened restrictions on Russian energy. However, the bloc stopped short of imposing a full ban on the country’s LNG. According to data by analytics firm Kpler, imports of Russian LNG by EU member states are now at an all-time high.

The bloc has boosted imports of super-chilled fuel from the country following Kiev’s suspension of pipeline gas transit through Ukraine. Ukraine refused to extend a five-year transit contract with Russia’s energy giant Gazprom at the end of 2024, cutting off some EU countries from Russian pipeline gas. Currently, the only remaining Russian pipeline gas reaching the EU flows through the TurkStream pipeline, which runs via Türkiye and Greece. The Eurostat report highlights that EU pipeline gas imports from Russia have continued to decline, dropping by over 60% in volume in Q4 2024 compared to Q1 2021. However, due to soaring prices, the overall value of these imports decreased by only 9% over the three-year period, according to data.

Read more …

“The leaders have stressed that the Russian-Chinese foreign policy tandem serves as a factor of stabilization in world affairs..”

• Xi Backs Russia On Ukraine Peace Efforts – Kremlin (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, about Moscow’s latest contacts with Washington, the Kremlin reported on Monday. Beijing has expressed support for the renewed dialogue and new potential for resolving the Ukraine crisis, the statement said. Putin and Xi spoke on the phone to “share opinions on issues of immediate interest” for bilateral cooperation and the global agenda, describing the exchange as “warm and friendly.” “The leaders have stressed that the Russian-Chinese foreign policy tandem serves as a factor of stabilization in world affairs. Its strategic nature is not affected by external influence and does not pose a threat to any third party,” the statement said.

The Chinese description of the phone call said it was requested by Moscow, adding that during the talk, Xi expressed approval of the fact that “Russia and relevant parties have made positive efforts to resolve the crisis.” US President Donald Trump has reversed attempts to “isolate” Russia which were pursued by the previous administration. Now Moscow and Washington are working to restore normal diplomatic relations. Senior officials from both countries have said that this could lead to a resolution of the Ukraine conflict.

Members of the new US government had previously criticized President Joe Biden’s approach, arguing that it pushed Moscow into a position of a “junior partner” with Beijing, harming US interests. Conversely, Russia and China have described their relationship as a “no-limits partnership” based on mutual respect and shared views on how the world should be governed. Moscow and Beijing have criticized the US for allegedly fueling chaos around the world in an attempt to undermine competition.

Read more …

Wikileaks issued a large series of cables. Problem is, they’re all pre-2010.

• West Knew NATO Push For Ukraine Was Risky – Wikileaks (RT)

US and European officials were long aware of the high risk of conflict stemming from Kiev’s NATO ambition, Wikileaks revealed on Monday. Citing a trove of documents it obtained, the publisher detailed how Washington looked for ways to overcome some countries’ opposition to the idea despite warnings from Western envoys.Moscow repeatedly warned the diplomats that Ukraine’s accession to the US-led bloc could trigger a civil war or destabilize the whole region, forcing Russia to make a decision it “does not want to have to face,” according to a 24-minute-long video published by Wikileaks on X. The organization also cited a February 2008 cable from then US ambassador to Moscow William Burns, who warned that Russia saw NATO expansion as a security threat.

“Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia’s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests,” he wrote.That sentiment was shared by some NATO allies in Europe at the time, another document suggests. A 2005 cable documenting a meeting between the then US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Daniel Fried, and several high-ranking French officials said that Paris was concerned about Ukraine’s NATO trajectory sparking an armed conflict on the continent. “If there remained one potential cause for war in Europe, it was Ukraine,” the document said, citing French presidential diplomatic adviser Maurice Gourdault-Montagne. He cautioned that the US and its allies were intruding upon Russia’s “core zone of interest,” which could provoke a strong response.

Fried acknowledged at the time that Ukraine lacked a national consensus on NATO membership, but dismissed concerns over a violent internal split or Moscow’s reaction. Despite the repeated warnings, Washington still pushed for Ukraine’s entry, and intended to “pursue western integration and NATO enlargement deliberately, but quietly,” while “firmly” disagreeing with Russia, according to a September 2009 cable by the then US ambassador to Moscow, John Beyrle. Russia has consistently cited Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO and the prospect of the bloc’s military infrastructure appearing in the neighboring state as one of the main reasons for the conflict. Moscow has also repeatedly described it as a “proxy war” against Russia, being waged by the West via Ukraine.

Read more …

X thread by Vigilant Fox.

• UK In Secret Plot To Extract Personal Data From 2 Billion iPhone Users (VF)

They were this close to your “encrypted” data. This story begins when the UK govt hit Apple with a secret gag order, forcing them to either backdoor encrypted data for billions of users or face criminal charges if they refused to comply. Apple couldn’t even talk about it. The order demanded Apple create a vulnerability in its iCloud encryption, which would have given the UK government a back door to financial information, health records, and private conversations—not just of UK citizens but of two billion iPhone users worldwide. Remember, the UK government has already tried to threaten and extradite individuals outside the UK for violating British censorship laws—including US citizens over their online posts. So what happens when governments push to punish you not just for what you say publicly but for what you say privately?

Rather than handing over the data of 2 billion iPhone users to the UK government, Apple chose to pull its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the UK—removing the option for UK users to enable encryption. Existing UK users must now disable encryption, and new users won’t have the option at all. US citizens and people in other countries remain unaffected by the UK government’s dystopian push to surveil and censor speech—for now. The UK government was this close to surveilling you, too—but luckily, Sayer Ji, Elon Musk, and The Wall Street Journal exposed this privacy nightmare. In another disturbing development, Imran Ahmed of the CCDH—one of the leading architects of the UK’s war on speech—is being awarded for his Orwellian efforts with a $300,000 prize this May.

@sayerjigmi has put together a petition to oppose this absurd aggrandizement of someone who has worked tirelessly to annihilate personal freedoms and silence dissenting voices. You can sign that petition here: https://change.org/p/urge-elevate-prize-foundation-to-reexamine-award-for-imran-ahmed

Read more …

Entire platoons of Nina Jankowicz’s are spreading across the globe…

• Displaced Disinformation Experts Are Seeking New Opportunities (Turley)

President Trump’s election has brought about mass layoffs among federal employees and contractors, including some who have sued and others who have protested. But one group — that of America’s would-be censors — is taking its cause worldwide. During the Biden administration, a massive industry took root, seeping up billions in taxpayer funds to research, target and combat those accused of misinformation, disinformation and “malinformation.” Although the exact number is uncertain, many trained censors are now facing unemployment. These self-described “disinformation experts” have become the modern equivalent of ronin, the Japanese samurai who found themselves without a master and wandered the land looking for a new use of their skill set. They are finding precisely that calling in academia, not-for-profit groups and, most importantly, Europe.

A speech-regulation industry that was booming under Biden has gone bust under Trump. Over the last four years, massive amounts of money were poured into universities, non-governmental organizations and other groups in an unprecedented alliance of government, academia and corporations. The media lionized many in the industry as “saving democracy” by controlling, targeting and suppressing others’ political speech. Not only did federal agencies fund these efforts, but they also coordinated censorship of groups and individuals with opposing views, even objecting to jokes on the internet. Universities cashed in on this largesse as well. It was popular with most liberal administrators and lucrative for academics. The sudden shutoff of the federal spigot comes as a blow, but it does not mean the speech warriors will simply convert their censor-shields into plowshares.

Many will follow in the footsteps of Nina Jankowicz, briefly the head of a now-defunct disinformation governance board. After the outcry over the board, Jankowicz quickly found her skills were in demand in Europe. Free speech has been in free-fall in Europe for decades. Germany has long enforced a robust system of speech criminalization that began with Nazi symbolism but steadily expanded to include inciteful speech, insults and merely “disinformative” statements. The United Kingdom and France showed the same insatiable appetite for the inexorable expansion of censorship and prosecutions. The European Union has also been ground zero for the anti-free speech movement’s aggressive use of the Digital Services Act, which bars speech that is viewed as “disinformation” or “incitement.”

When it passed over the objections of free speech advocates, European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager was perfectly ecstatic, declaring it is “not a slogan anymore, that what is illegal offline should also be seen and dealt with as illegal online. Now, it is a real thing. Democracy’s back.” That is why Vice President J.D. Vance’s recent speech in Munich was so historic. For the free speech community, Vance went into the belly of the beast and denounced the anti-free-speech movement in the heart of Europe. The response to the Vance speech has been nothing short of panic in the anti-free-speech community. Many are assembling in conferences in Europe, including the upcoming World Forum in Berlin. Bill and Hillary Clinton will be in attendance. (I will also be speaking at the conference.)

It was Hillary Clinton who, after Elon Musk purchased Twitter with the pledge to dismantle the censorship system, called upon the EU to force him and others to censor her fellow U.S. citizens. She embraced the infamous Digital Services Act, which seeks to impose a global system of speech control. She has also suggested the arrest of those spreading disinformation. Immediately after the speech, familiar European and American voices denounced Vance and doubled down on the need for Europe to hold the line against dangerous free speech. For the free speech community, there could not be a better place for this debate to unfold. Germany has demonstrated the false claims of the anti-free-speech community over the years. Indeed, you might call their arguments “disinformation.” Vance and others who have challenged the European censorship systems have been attacked as Nazi enablers or sympathizers. Many of those who have fostered this attack are part of the regulator ronin. Others simply repeated the narrative without thought or support.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Democrat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1893692576659566765

 

 

Gender-affirming

 

 

Ride
https://twitter.com/i/status/1894016982191648775

 

 

Dogs and horses
https://twitter.com/i/status/1893565572555645271

 

 

Tommy

 

 

Ice
https://twitter.com/i/status/1893702373542916265

 

 

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle February 25 2025

Viewing 39 posts - 1 through 39 (of 39 total)
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  • February 25, 2025 at 10:46 am #182981
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Tintoretto The crucifixion of Christ 1568   • No Way Out (James Howard Kunstler) • Liberals Panic Over ‘Politicized’ FBI After Bongino Appointmen
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 25 2025]

    February 25, 2025 at 12:15 pm #182983
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Sorry I didn’t mark the 3-year anniversary of the war correctly. Wars always last 4 years for some reason. I guess Europe is going in, so that’s that. (Reposted Lira’s last link instead)

    toon
    https://sinfest.xyz/btphp/comics/2025-02-25.jpg

    Joy Reid: Now how is that fair? She happily said every deranged conspiracy theory they told her to. (She makes $3M doing it) Oh well, in that case, cry on, I’m sure you’ll be fine.

    “The World Is Not Going To Reach Net Zero By 2050:Not since World War II has the world seen targeted spending on this scale…”

    Nothin’ to do with nothing: they have debt compounding. Although I’ve heard Europe is dead serious about continuing the lost war. I have to see that for myself, but same thing. No money, no new “Collateral” = Euro debt collapse.

    “Gavin Newsom Wants $40 Billion In Federal Relief For LA Fires

    Is it just me, or does that seem kind of high? Like: you’re not fixing the people’s homes, that’s why you burned them down to put up more $/sq mile apartment blocks (Jimmy Dore), and the water system is fine because it was unused. Tell you what: we’ll offset with all the money you stole from high speed rail.

    ” Trump Fired After Forgetting To Reply To Elon’s Email” – Bbee
    BB
    https://media.babylonbee.com/articles/67bccb607054967bccb607054a.jpg

    It’s astonishing. Like answering one email per week is oppressive gulag Hitler. Where your boss says “Hey, did you do anything this week?” How dare they? And getting fired with a year’s pay. When I got fired from Taco Bell why I got two year’s pay.

    Then Every congressman and pundit comes out and defends this against the American people as if it’s normal. Free Speech! Never stop talking, fools.

    “Trump added, referencing prior demands to be paid back some $500 billion after years of heavy weapons and funds sent to Kiev.”

    This number keeps rising. It was $150B only two months ago. Then $300B, now $500B. Uh-huh. What level does it have to be? Whatever number makes the Euro markets puke?

    “For drastic measures to be taken, the EU must be perceived by others as an existential threat. So far, the EU has managed to appear non-threatening by hiding behind the US and by camouflaging itself with fake virtues of democracy, human rights and environmentalism. However, behind that camouflage there is a completely different entity.”

    I’ve been putting it in short saying Europe is a colonial power, but what they did was outsource the colonialism to America, and just control us instead. It’s doublepluss good! We get all blame, all the costs, and they get all the virtue. To stop war and colonialism, you have to stop the real colonialists. (The money)

    “The biggest surprise continues to be how the majority of parties all support some flavor of ongoing belligerence towards Russia — a policy that is destroying Germany.”

    That’s because said cabal will collapse without it. So it doesn’t matter.

    I’m impressed with Rubio’s ability to do what he’s told. He is direct and proper, so surprise me.

    They’re talking $5,000 refund. Obviously the Left hates poor people to get money, but really it’s about that check having Trump’s name on it – remember that from Covid checks? Only thing they cared about. Like $1k instead of the $30k ave wage? Now won’t this be inflationary, like Covid was? No. Because they REDUCE things by 100%, then give 20% of that to taxpayers. (which prob still don’t care about us, but vote and goose the economy). So it’s still taken out of “Savings” not new printed money supply.

    Today: “Please don’t have American officials as head of Europe.” — Sachs.

    Yes, they are all American. VanDerLyin’, Sikorski, Tusk, others. All American, American universities, groomed by CIA, interests, etc.

    “You sat with #Putin for 3.5 HOURS…Did you have an intelligence officer, or anyone else with you?”

    Clearly she was abducted and radicalized and is a body-snatcher clone now. That’s how radicalization and free speech work. …Actually I think they’re drawing attention to that “Who is important enough for Putin to give 3.5 hours and why?” True dat. Wassap?

    “Overwhelming Majority Say Transgender (Male) Athletes Shouldn’t Compete in Women’s Sports”

    Comments from the Internets, it’s “Men” and the “Patriarchy” that cause this Trans rights. They lie awake at night trying to figure out how to “invade womens’ spaces” and break their noses as Olympic sport.

    Uhhhhh…actually, men are all like 3-5x less tolerant of this than women are? They’d definitely shut it down in a weekend. It’s the WOMEN who tolerate it on that chart, guaranteed.

    They are also overjoyed at Maine “Resisting”. They’re on the march and winning. Uhhhh…the entire U.S. population hates you and doesn’t want this? Please, please die on this hill. Wtf are you thinking, tactically, Maine? Like who give you your orders that this is going to work?

    “Cue the MSM smear campaign against Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino. “

    I thought I woke up in an alternate reality. NOT ONLY got in the guy, but as has been said, they can put in One Scaramucci, hire Bongino for a Pecora Commission, and let the actual head be taken out, impeached, assassinated, not confirmed because the #2 doesn’t have any oversight at all and is essentially VP. So here, got in a good guy to start, and an even harder one as #2.

    …If you didn’t know, Bongino followed every detail of Trump and the J6 stuff and wrote books about it, covering it for years on his show. He’s a reigning subject matter expert on this. And that’s PLUS that he wants to arrest and jail those involved in such mishandlings of Justice. But how can we be sure he’s serious, really?

    …Well, he’s leaving probably a $2M/year job to go get slandered and possibly assassinated. When he could “Do the same good work” simply by covering it on air instead. He’s said he may also donate his salary, so obviously a grifter like Trump is, whose fortune has dropped by billions.

    ““The FBI will officially be headed by two men with no experience in the bureau, and a lot of blind loyalty towards President Donald Trump.”

    Both have relevant experience, and again: they are required to hire people who are disloyal to them? What sense would that make? Again: we need to get to “WE DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK.” Why? Because it doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do: the same criticisms are run either way. Actually, that is like the women in my life, I’ll have to look into that. Women are unhappier, and more unhappy now than ever in modern history, also more mentally ill. I’m not making that up, those are the literal stats.

    “• Russia Ready To Work With US On ‘Rare Earths’ – Putin (RT)

    What the heck is up with this? There aren’t any rare earths, this is like a placeholder for something, everybody else is aware of on the inside. Sure. Macron sure knows because he’s like “No! YOU’RE supposed to PAY, WE are supposed to get all the money.” I still can’t believe they haven’t collapsed yet. Who ARE these people? Like France has no Africa, they’ve been cut off everywhere, USAID is dead, Powell has rates and banking, and STILL not cracking.

    “• The Ukraine War Will Only End On Russia’s Terms, Lavrov Says (ZH)

    Those terms are the West surrender and are destroyed. Too bad: past tense.

    “• EU Spending On Russian LNG Imports Quadruples (RT)

    Yes, but that doesn’t matter so long as you can virtue signal.

    “February 2008 cable from then US ambassador to Moscow William Burns, who warned that Russia saw NATO expansion as a security threat.”

    And recent CIA Director, no? He was the actual President here?

    “UK govt hit Apple with a secret gag order, forcing them to either backdoor encrypted data for billions of users or face criminal charges if they refused to comply. Apple couldn’t even talk about it.”

    Yup. So much for Europe. Liberal values. All corporations must flee immediately. And not to Ireland, sadly, further. Pointed out that the minute this occurred, someone (the U.S.) leaked it.

    “It was Hillary Clinton who, after Elon Musk purchased Twitter with the pledge to dismantle the censorship system, called upon the EU to force him and others to censor her fellow U.S. citizens. She embraced the infamous Digital Services Act, which seeks to impose a global system of speech control.”

    Why they can’t work in Europe, house in Europe, interact in Europe. Ring-fence them like North Korea or East Germany. They are the unelected Soviet Bureaucracy, like VanDerLyin’, never elected in her life, under investigation and ineligible, worst candidate, still gets in. Okay, if all corporations must flee Europe, where do they go? The U.S.

    Now: background, this process was EXACTLY how they thought they would colonialize the world. Genius, really. Worldwide cap flows, worldwide mega-corps. But if a large enough bloc is lost if you don’t follow their capricious laws, they will lose. So whoever passes the worst laws wins. Sets the tone, like CA. Therefore EUROPE would run Apple, Google, Twitter. Print fake Eurodollars, hand them to idiots, who buy and destroy Bud, Chrysler, Harley.

    Well, once anyone can recognize the plan (Wall Street) they oppose and ruin it, which isn’t that hard. All they need was to print money and elect Hillary Clinton and it was all over. But they Just. Couldn’t. Do. Anything. For even the poorest working people and lost. Just like the DNC is doing today. They still have no idea why they lost, double down. Chats ARE filled with “Resist! Tell us what to do. Help the poors not the 1% Transgenders, you fools” Nope. That would be PRO-Life not #AntiLife Death Cult. Bernie rabidly pro-war. (although I have to admit still against war in Gaza)

    February 25, 2025 at 12:17 pm #182984
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Right

    February 25, 2025 at 12:30 pm #182985
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Phoenixvoice from yesterday. Yeah I think you are right to mention Dore as a workaround but the point is we should just be able to shitpost. Talking trash as they used to say. I agree AI is crap at filtering that correctly but gov loves that and I as an australian am very cautious when certain subjects appear. Joos, brown people, white people, women – Oh shit anything! I have a modicum of internal morality that guides me to not be a total dick but I want total dicks to be able to be total dicks otherwise how would I feel righteous and smug ;).
    Onto the wider AI issue, it will find it’s level and then regroup but for now there is a human wave of rejection and lack of buy in that makes it look a little tulip bubble to me.

    February 25, 2025 at 12:34 pm #182986
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Thank you Dr. Day
    https://open.substack.com/pub/gaiusbaltar/p/the-new-hermit-kingdom?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

    February 25, 2025 at 12:36 pm #182987
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    https://open.substack.com/pub/gaiusbaltar/p/the-new-hermit-kingdom

    February 25, 2025 at 12:50 pm #182988
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The US is partly severing ties to the Trans-Atlantic Cabal – the unelected globalist control mechanism in the West seeking true independence from the cabal.

    What will Canada (America Junior) do?

    February 25, 2025 at 12:56 pm #182989
    poppie
    Participant

    It might seem that prohibiting ID to vote prohibits certifying results in a federal election?

    February 25, 2025 at 1:04 pm #182990
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    They changed the channel from The Dead Joe Show to Trunpsteins Apprentice, but its all jew theatre, engrossing you in minutia, while you’re herded into their NWO. Injections, pharmaceuticals, chemtrails, TV and 5G have cut you off from God. Fantastic Demons, both left and right, actors all, putting on a show for their $ masters. Jews want to rule over Hell on earth. Freemasonic puppets, AI, technology and medicine are the sheperds and barbed wire. Collective madness and delusion. Walk away.

    February 25, 2025 at 1:46 pm #182991
    zerosum
    Participant

    “Get your ducks in a row”.
    Lots of moving parts.
    Complex, and a lot of interactions.

    ———–
    Secrets and lying,
    a cover-up bubble
    the Department of Justice and its step-child, the FBI, have devoted their vast and savage powers to manifold acts of sedition, treason, malicious political prosecution, obstruction of justice, suborning perjuries, and countless other abuses of law in an ever-widening gyre of ass-covering operations as year-by-year their crimes multiplied.
    Many acts of mischief and moneygrubbing
    Narrative to burying the truth and distorting reality at every opportunity.

    ———–
    DOGE, The Department of Government Efficiency’s latest move appears to create harsh working conditions that will make federal workers more inclined to quit voluntarily.
    Those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.
    The department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.
    Emails sent to the 2.3 million federal workers
    ————
    Adam Ramada, a DOGE employee who said in a declaration filed in the case that he and five other DOGE employees have been working with the DOE to audit contracts, grants, and programs “for waste, fraud, and abuse.”
    “In addition, we help senior Department leadership obtain access to accurate data and data analytics to inform their policy decisions at the Department,”

    ———–

    • Income Tax vs Tariffs (Paul Craig Roberts)

    ———–
    • Russia Ready To Work With US On ‘Rare Earths’ – Putin (RT)
    Moscow is ready to work with Washington in developing rare earth mineral deposits, including in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

    —————

    February 25, 2025 at 3:04 pm #182992
    those darned kids
    Participant

    Dr Ravi Prakash, senior consultant in cardiology at PSRI Hospital, Delhi, said that data from hospitals across India between 2020 and 2023 show that 50% of heart attack patients are below the age of 40.

    February 25, 2025 at 3:07 pm #182993
    jb-hb
    Participant

    https://i0.wp.com/www.barnhardtmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/img_2683-1.jpg?w=600&ssl=1

    https://i0.wp.com/www.barnhardtmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/img_2694.jpg?w=533&ssl=1

    February 25, 2025 at 3:32 pm #182994
    citizenx
    Participant

    On- “Gender affirming care”

    Oh how warm, soft and cuddly…almost like the term “Friendly Fire”.
    If it were real care and love- the affirming would be NO- you are XX or XY, when you are 21yo,
    then you can freely mutilate yourself at your own discretion. But you will still be XX XY, impersonating and pretending to be something you are not.

    Do they get medals for giving and receiving gender affirming care mutilating children?
    They don’t for first place sports., unless you’re a tranny beating real women.

    Pat Tillman received a Silver Star and Purple Heart medal, after he was killed by friendly fire– defending the freedom of liars, but unfortunately he “fell” for Bush’s propaganda.
    An honorable fighter killed by those who needlessly sent him to death.

    Army investigators were aware that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire, shot three times in the head at less than 10 yards away, according to Army doctors. Jones reported that senior Army commanders, including General John Abizaid, knew of this fact within days of the shooting, but nevertheless approved the awarding of the Silver Star, Purple Heart, and a posthumous promotion to the rank of Corporal.

    Those Senior Army Commanders should be stripped of rank, all back pay- Including George shrub Bush. Disgraceful scum.

    February 25, 2025 at 4:41 pm #182995
    jb-hb
    Participant

    I’m halfway through Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. Written in 1866.

    1866

    “I was fighting tooth and nail with them and wanted you to help me… …It began with the socialist doctrine. You know their doctrine [1866!]; crime is a protest against the abnormality of the social organisation and nothing more, and nothing more; no other causes admitted!”

    “I am not wrong. I’ll show you their pamphlets. [1866!] Everything with them is ‘the influence of the environment,’ and nothing else. [current year marxists and socialists acting like people are idiot blank slates that simply take on whatever words they hear…] Their favorite phrase! From which it follows that, if society is normally organised, all crime will cease at once, since there will be nothing to protest against and all men will become righteous in one instant.

    Human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not supposed to exist! They don’t recognize that humanity, developing by a historical living process, will become at last a normal society, but they believe that a social system that has come out of some mathematical brain is going to organize all humanity at once and make it just and sinless in an instant, quicker than any living process!

    That’s why they instinctively dislike history, ‘nothing but ugliness and stupidity in it,’ and they explain it all as stupidity! [everyone before us were bigot-idiot-animals, amirite?] That’s why they so dislike the living process of life; they don’t want a living soul!

    The living soul demands life, the soul won’t obey the rules of mechanics, the soul is an object of suspicion, the soul is retrograde! But what they want though it smells of death and can be made of India-rubber, at least is not alive, has no will, is servile, and won’t revolt! [but we’ll explain it away with False Consciousness, White Consciousness, etc]

    And it comes in the end to their reducing everything to the building of walls and planning of rooms and passages in a phalanstery! The phalanstery is ready, indeed, but your human nature is not ready for the phalanstery — it wants life, it hasn’t completed its vital proecess, it’s too soon for the graveyard! You can’t skip over nature by logic. Logic presupposes three possibilities, but there are millions!”

    A person arguing socialism declares that “you’re speaking nonsense” with no argument or coming to grips with the ideas expressed. Argues in a postmodern fashion about morality, excuses immorality as “environment”

    “…just tell me, a man of forty violates a child of ten; was it environment drove him to it?”

    Socialism guy starts waffling around, sure, it could be, etc.

    Is denounced as a tireless, relentless “dissembler” who will gladly exhaust others arguing for absurdities, often insincerely. In a sense, as a sort of bullying. Multiple specific examples of when he went on relentlessly for weeks – including when he admitted dissembling was what he was doing! And proud of it!

    1866. Dissembling, arguing that anything could be right or wrong. Arguing that degeneracy is actually fine and of no moral or material consequence. Theft is just because of oppression – look at California, look at their ruined, filthy, unsafe, abandoned downtowns. Look at every belief espoused by those who brought them to this and the identical rationale behind allowing theft below $950.

    Not new, not different. Refusing to learn or evolve except mild porting-over of mechanisms from one proletariat to another.

    “Our mistake was relying on the working class, who turned out to be unreliable. Te problem is they have their own culture and values that give them satisfaction along with Capitalism delivering the goods to them. That’s HORRIBLE!”

    “… We need to create a new ‘proletariat’ made of those on the margins who will never and can never integrate, who will NEVER be satisfied, who will never find dignity and integrity and meaning. We must EMPHASIZE degeneracy to further enhance this. ”

    “If we can chemically castrate, physically mutilate, and heavily indoctrinate some, they can be our janissary (slave soldier) shock troops. They cannot disappoint us because we will cut them off from all other options, make them insufferable, and leave them nowhere else to go. We will own them, they will serve us, forever!”

    It was common practice in ancient times to take a conquered peoples’ children away from them early in life, castrate them, train them, and use them as eunuch servants for their entire lives. The principles held are the SAME, they just said “we weren’t ruthless enough. we didn’t find the right ways to be ruthless yet” The weapons are not the beliefs.

    February 25, 2025 at 5:14 pm #182996
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.fox5dc.com/news/21-federal-technology-staffers-resign-refusing-help-elon-musk-slash-government-size
    21 federal technology staffers resign refusing to help Elon Musk slash government size
    By Sylvia Mphofe

    What they’re saying:
    “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by AP. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

    Many of the employees warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration do not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them.

    The backstory:
    This all comes following some back and forth on Musk’s recent demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments or risk termination, even as government agency officials were told that compliance with Musk’s edict was voluntary.

    Confusion and anger over the situation have spawned new litigation and added to turmoil within the federal workforce.

    February 25, 2025 at 5:22 pm #182997
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.wdsu.com/article/house-republicans-vote-on-critical-budget-bill-tuesday/63915010

    House Republicans vote on critical budget bill Tuesday
    With no support from Democrats, House Republicans are set to vote on a budget bill Tuesday with little room for defectors.

    House Republicans are set to vote on their version of a budget Tuesday, moving forward on President Donald Trump’s agenda.

    The bill includes up to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit, and funds top Republican priorities like border security, defense, and immigration spending.
    The bill aims for massive cuts, asking House committees to reduce spending by $1.5 trillion and spend less on social programs like Medicaid.

    February 25, 2025 at 5:53 pm #182999
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    (posted with links removed after first attempt failed)

    “Crime and Punishment” and socialism (and Wikipedia spin)

    The earliest archived Wikipedia entry I found for C&P was a short article from 2004 which had one mention of the word “socialism”, in this phrase:

    Dostoevsky rejected socialism

    The most recent Wikipedia entry for C&P is a much longer article, still with only one mention of socialism, but in a very limited and specific context:

    He thus attacked a peculiar Russian blend of French utopian socialism and Benthamite utilitarianism, which had developed under revolutionary thinkers such as Nikolai Chernyshevsky and became known as rational egoism. [Rational egoism is the principle that an action is rational if and only if it maximizes one’s self-interest.]

    February 25, 2025 at 5:53 pm #183000
    Dr D Rich
    Participant
      It’s astonishing. Like answering one email per week is oppressive gulag Hitler. Where your boss says “Hey, did you do anything this week?” How dare they? And getting fired with a year’s pay. When I got fired from Taco Bell why I got two year’s pay.

    Gobsmacked by a child-like adult and it resides right next to the child’s definition of “relevant experience” wrt “Both have relevant experience”.
     
    Yeah…..’Hey!” Interesting take on Hitler.

    “You can’t do the Maths in your head. You have to write down your work on paper to receive any credit.”

    Where the CIA threatens The President of the United States …4:29 to 4:55
    Always the CIA, Ray McGovern.

      “Unless Trump meets the same fate that John F Kennedy met

    Killed two birds with one stone Ray did.
    Now Trump’s AG won’t have to release The JFK Assassination Files.

    February 25, 2025 at 5:55 pm #183001
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Yeah, they also took over the Tolkien Society and started emitting an endless stream of socialist papers:

    “ackshully, Tolkien was writing Lord of the Rings as a trans metaphor” (insert all other super-predictable marxist “ackshullies” and you get the picture)

    “No, they eat and drink, Sam. The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own. I don’t think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined them and twisted them; and if they are to live at all, they have to live like other living creatures.”

    — The Return of The King

    “A defining metaphysical law in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made.”

    — Evil Is Sterile, tvtropes.org

    (socialists take over Dungeons and Dragons, immediately: “Black people are orcs!!!!!!!” Not kidding.)

    February 25, 2025 at 6:03 pm #183002
    jb-hb
    Participant

    “See? Dostoevsky’s objections to socialism and its co-morbidities pertain only to a weird, unique, now dead, abstruse offshoot of socialism, there’s nothing in here about US. That wasn’t real socialism – which has never been tried, actually…” etc

    February 25, 2025 at 6:43 pm #183003
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    February 25, 2025 at 7:35 pm #183004
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * Karen Bass on her Mayoral responsibility: “The buck stops here. I transition it to a doe and send it on its way”

    * If it walks like a socialist and quacks like a socialist it’s a socialist

    * The Great Divorce: US will separate from Europe if they can agree on who gets the kids and who pays alimony

    * Adam Schiff: Five things I accompliced this week:
    1) Demagogued about saving our bureaucracy
    2) Accused Trump of court packing
    3) Destabilized the nation
    4) Lied about lying about the Russia hoax
    5) Ignored Democrat malfeasance

    * Q: Who is going to read 2.3 million 5 bullet point emails?
    A: AI

    * A modest proposal: Have a ceasefire so Ukraine can exit martial law and hold elections

    * AI as a replacement for God; Most pure, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immense, incomprehensible, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of its own immutable will, for its own glory, forever and ever

    * Titanic passenger Mariana Bottoms considered herself an expert on the ship because she knew the names of all the anchors

    * When surveillance apprehends criminals only criminals will apprehend surveillance

    * Vitamin D is the new Ivermectin

    * Truth in government: We’re not taxpayers, they’re taxtakers

    February 25, 2025 at 8:47 pm #183005
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    February 25, 2025 at 9:49 pm #183006
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Then why the requirement to Cc your supervisor on the 5 point reply to Elongated Musk?

    Ya see the Loyalty Test isn’t for the individual respondent. The loyalty test is on The Supervisor. Most supervisors possess the same Craven mindset as the D, the very subhumans that won’t have to be prompted to follow through on the implications of not responding. Who else holds firing and hiring authority over The RanknFile?

    Asskissers.
    Serial Felaters.
    Circle jerkers.
    Knob polishers.
    Brown nosers.
    Fellow travelers.
    Enablers and Suppliers
    The Characterlogical Disordered.

    Eh, mike?

    “Hitler” ……slain strawman.

    February 25, 2025 at 9:56 pm #183007
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    February 25, 2025 at 10:12 pm #183008
    citizenx
    Participant

    I’m a vaccine zombie…oh yeah oh yeah !!!

    Trust my sCiEnCe you fucking retards…oh yeah oh yeah. Pandemic of the unvaccinated, oh yeah, oh yeah. Liberal cvd cult members are a very special sort of arrogant retards. Now show me your Vax card papers…

    Vaccine zombie, zombie I forgot how to think for myself yeah I don’t understand a thing about health yeah I do the same as everyone else I’m a vaccine zombie, zombie

    I always do as requested Like the media covertly suggested you guessed it I finally gave in and confessed it I like to have my body and my brain medically molested

    “White House COVID Coordinator: Vaccine Was NEVER Meant to Prevent Infection”

    I’m a sucker for the ads, a sucker for the labs A sucker for the swine flu jabs And I don’t mind followin’ a medical fad Cause livin without a brain ain’t half bad

    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2025/02/25/white-house-covid-coordinator-vaccine-was-never-meant-to-prevent-infection/

    “White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx has come out to say that “the science” has “done wrong in public health.” Vaccine hesitancy rates have been rising since it was exposed that the mRNA vaccine did more harm than good. Birx has admitted that the COVID vaccine was never meant to be a preventative measure.”

    ““The science” should not have forced the general population to take an experimental vaccination, Dr. Birx admits. The vaccine was initially designed, allegedly, to protect people “at risk for severe disease” and/or those over 65 with comorbidities. Even then, the vaccine did not protect any segment of the population from transmission and infection. So the most vulnerable in the population were not only still exposed to COVID-19, but they were then at risk for developing potentially fatal side effects brought on by the vaccine itself.”

    I’m a sucker for the ads, a sucker for the labs A sucker for the swine flu jabs And I don’t mind followin’ a medical fad Cause livin without a brain ain’t half bad

    Vaccine Zombies….

    February 25, 2025 at 10:38 pm #183009
    citizenx
    Participant

    Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
    None but ourselves can free our minds
    Have no fear from Pharma energy*
    ‘Cause none of them can stop the time

    How long shall they kill for profits*
    While we stand aside and look?
    Some say it’s just a part of it
    We’ve got to fulfill the book

    Won’t you help to sing
    These songs of freedom?
    ‘Cause all I ever have
    Redemption songs

    Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
    None but ourselves can free our minds
    Redemption songs

    …

    ..

    I want justice, for these fucking sub human scum trash, who lied, locked us down, forced masks, forced experimental injections (on CHILDREN too),

    They berated us, they called us selfish and stupid, un-scientific dummies they said.

    They fired us, threatened us, put us in quarantine camps, censored us, abused us, psychologically tortured us…

    I want justice for their crimes against humanity, for developing a bio-weapon, for their murders from the labs… for destroying life and lives. For their profiting from suffering they created and unleashed upon the world.

    I want fucking justice and everyone of these sub human scum trash locked away from society permanently.

    Put your fucking politics down for just one moment and reflect on these horrific crimes….

    Bird flu my ass- remix…

    February 25, 2025 at 10:38 pm #183010
    WES
    Participant

    Hey Elon!

    I just made into to work today at 5:30 pm!

    Do I get a Participation Trophy?

    February 25, 2025 at 10:43 pm #183011
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The last 5 minutes of the Alexander Mecouris video is worthwhile

    February 25, 2025 at 11:17 pm #183012
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @jb_hb

    Human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not supposed to exist! They don’t recognize that humanity, developing by a historical living process, will become at last a normal society, but they believe that a social system that has come out of some mathematical brain is going to organize all humanity at once and make it just and sinless in an instant, quicker than any living process!

    That’s way above average in the brilliance department. Even my wife and daughter nodded approval, and they’re a tough audience.

    February 25, 2025 at 11:18 pm #183013
    Dr. D
    Participant

    These guys are NUTS!

    Sachs on Napolitano, Macron says “we have the $250b from Russia but it’s not collateral bc it’s not ours…But if at the end here, Russia just decides all on their own to give it to us…”

    My GOD! They are still on Plan A. They are going to win the war, crush Russia, and save themselves with reparations. Not a single sliver of God’s daylight has leaked in.

    Then, Immediately after, High Lord Inquisitor Stormer says Russia is cracking, economy is collapsing, they’re about to give concessions, so we’re adding sanctions…

    Bombshell! Walls are closing in! All we have to do is start a war with Russia and put on sanctions…

    What.

    The.

    F—?

    These people are LITERALLY insane. This is the same week, a few days after Trump sent Vance, punched them right in the nuts, then kneed them in the gut while they were down. “We’re LEAVING! BYE FOREVER!”

    Nope. Literally nothing happens. Not a flicker of light, not a hair of motion. Just as if it’s 2020, 1990, 1980, 1960…

    February 25, 2025 at 11:33 pm #183014
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Dope

    February 26, 2025 at 12:00 am #183015
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/making-america-healthy-again-by-empowering-patients-with-clear-accurate-and-actionable-healthcare-pricing-information/

    Making America Healthy Again by Empowering Patients with Clear, Accurate, and Actionable Healthcare Pricing Information
    EXECUTIVE ORDER
    February 25, 2025
    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

    Section 1. Purpose. During my first term, my Administration took historic steps to correct a fundamental wrong within the American healthcare system. For far too long, prices were hidden from patients and employers, with inadequate recourse available to individuals looking to shop for care or obtain pricing information from a healthcare provider in advance of a visit or procedure. These opaque pricing arrangements allowed powerful entities, such as hospitals and insurance companies, to operate with insufficient accountability regarding their pricing practices, resulting in patients, employers, and taxpayers shouldering the burden of inflated healthcare costs.

    Pursuant to Executive Order 13877 of June 24, 2019 (Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First), my Administration issued paradigm-shifting regulations to put patients first by requiring hospitals and health plans to deliver meaningful price information to the American people. These regulations require hospitals to maintain a consumer-friendly display of pricing information for up to 300 shoppable services and a machine-readable file with negotiated rates for every single service the hospital provides; health plans to post their negotiated rates with providers as well as their out-of-network payments to providers and the actual prices they or their pharmacy benefit manager pay for prescription drugs; and health plans to maintain a consumer-facing internet tool through which individuals can access price information.

    One economic analysis from 2023 estimated the impact of these regulations, if fully implemented, could result in as much as $80 billion in healthcare savings for consumers, employers, and insurers by 2025. Another report from 2024 suggested healthcare price transparency could help employers reduce healthcare costs by 27 percent across 500 common healthcare services. Recent data has found the top 25 percent of most expensive healthcare service prices have dropped by 6.3 percent per year following the initial implementation of price transparency during my first term.

    Unfortunately, progress on price transparency at the Federal level has stalled since the end of my first term. Hospitals and health plans were not adequately held to account when their price transparency data was incomplete or not even posted at all. The Biden Administration failed to take sufficient steps to fully enforce my Administration’s requirement that would end the opaque nature of drug prices by ensuring health plans publicly post the true prices they pay for prescription drugs.

    The American people deserve better. Making America healthy again will require empowering individuals with the best information possible to inform their life and healthcare choices. By building on the historic efforts of my first term, my Administration will make more meaningful price information available to patients to support a more competitive, innovative, affordable, and higher quality healthcare system.

    Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to put patients first and ensure they have the information they need to make well-informed healthcare decisions. The Federal Government will continue to promote universal access to clear and accurate healthcare prices and will take all necessary steps to improve existing price transparency requirements; increase enforcement of price transparency requirements; and identify opportunities to further empower patients with meaningful price information, potentially including through the expansion of existing price transparency requirements.

    Sec. 3. Fulfilling the Promise of Radical Transparency. The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall take all necessary and appropriate action to rapidly implement and enforce the healthcare price transparency regulations issued pursuant to Executive Order 13877, including, within 90 days of the date of this order, action to:
    (a) require the disclosure of the actual prices of items and services, not estimates;
    (b) issue updated guidance or proposed regulatory action ensuring pricing information is standardized and easily comparable across hospitals and health plans; and
    (c) issue guidance or proposed regulatory action updating enforcement policies designed to ensure compliance with the transparent reporting of complete, accurate, and meaningful data.

    Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
    (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
    (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

    February 26, 2025 at 12:31 am #183016
    WES
    Participant

    Ending Ukraine War:

    Russia is at least 1 to 2 years away from crushing the Ukrainian Nazis completely, and achieving conditions for oa lasting peace.
    Trump realizes this.
    Notice no timeliness anymore from Trump.
    Communication channels opening between US and Russia instead.
    Trump pulls US support for Ukraine and washes his hands of the mess.
    This gives Russia time to end the war their way.
    Let the Europeans/Globalists/International bankers fight on.
    The CIA/Bankers are trying to use Europe to continue the losing war.
    European people not so much.
    Russia finishes the war off properly.
    The CIA/Europe/Globalists/International Bankers take the blame.

    P.S. Somebody is desperate to continue the Ukrainian war against Russia. Trump is saying, sure continue your war, but just without the US! That means you gotta pay for all of the war now!

    P.S. After the war is over, maybe Russia let’s Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, regain lost territoriesonly if they leave Nato restoring buffer states against Nato.

    February 26, 2025 at 12:44 am #183017
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    A couple of you already read it no doubt.

    https://xymphora.blogspot.com/2025/02/ubiquitous-evil.html?m=1

    This could so easily be dismissed as rich ppl doing stupid things to piss off da customers, but billionaires gotta be permitted to capitalize off Capitalism or what D means by free markets seeking prices or some other delusional horseshit.

    February 26, 2025 at 12:53 am #183018
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Billionaire Adelson’s behavior certainly puts Nico Harrison’s horseshit from a Horse’s ass in a different light.
    Dissembling a bit?
    Unctuous?
    Prevarication?
    Confabulation?

    Maybe Luka didn’t submit his 5 pointers to Miriam by the 1159 PM deadline????

    February 26, 2025 at 1:24 am #183019
    WES
    Participant

    City of London/The Square Mile/Rothchilds:

    You started the war against Russia.
    Why?
    You wanted to conquer the rest of the world that you already didn’t control?
    Greed get your goat?
    Maybe you didn’t feel like you had enough wealth?
    Not enough power?
    Power slipping through your fingers?

    So now, Trump is shifting the cost of your war from the US, back to you?
    Guess we will soon see, if you are willing to put your own money where your mouth is?
    My guess is you won’t!
    Oh, you will get Europe to pay for it instead?
    Great plan!

    You are off to a great start!
    Putting more sanctions on Europe but calling them Russian sanctions!
    Europeans already ignoring the existing sanctions you put on them 3 years ago!
    Europeans seem to be be rather broke at the moment, due to your current sanctions!
    Talking about a 30,000 man European army but the Brits, so sorry, don’t have any soldiers to contribute!
    But London, keep talking up a storm, because we all know talking is cheap!
    Cheap!
    Cheap! &

    February 26, 2025 at 1:27 am #183020
    zerosum
    Participant

    US House Republicans push forward on vote on Trump tax …
    2 hours ago — The House budget seeks $2 trillion in spending cuts over ten years to pay for Trump’s agenda. The tax cuts Trump is seeking would extend breaks …

    February 26, 2025 at 1:49 am #183021
    Michael Reid
    Participant

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