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Debt Rattle March 2 2025

Mar 022025
 
 March 2, 2025  Posted by at 11:05 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


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• Putin Should Be The ‘Leader of The Free World’ – Medvedev (RT)
• Musk Tips Vance To Become US President (RT)
• US State Department Slashes USAID Assistance To Ukraine – NBC (RT)
• Zelensky’s Presidency Is Over – Scott Ritter (RT)
• A Dose Of Reality For The West’s Spoiled Brat (Amar)
• Zelensky Is Done – Kiriakou (RT)
• EU Trapped As ‘Cheerleader of US Hegemony’ – Jeffrey Sachs (RT)
• EU Wants Another Year of War – Rubio (RT)
• Russian Experts On The Trump Talks Fiasco (RT)
• Trump’s Smackdown of Zelensky Wake-up Call for West (Sp.)
• EU Delusional if It Hopes to Fill Ukraine Void Without US – Analyst (Sp.)
• WaPo Hit By Second Wave Of “Rapid-Fire” Mass Subscription Cancellations (ZH)
• Far-Right Leaders Gather In Madrid To “Make Europe Great Again” (Vracar)
• What’s Behind Keir Starmer’s Latest Defense Spending Boost? (Jay)
• A Spectre Is Haunting Germany (Beppler-Spahl)
• German Factories Counting On Return of Russian Gas – Bloomberg (RT)

 

 

 

 

Peace

jennings

Greenwald

Dubinsky

Stephen Cohen 2019

Waltz

Rubio

Susan Rice

Bolton

 

 

 

 

“Europe is a feeble, quarrelsome old woman who is utterly dependent on US protection.”

• Putin Should Be The ‘Leader of The Free World’ – Medvedev (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin should be the ‘leader of the free world’, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said. His remarks came in response to the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, who suggested that the bloc must assume the mantle from the US following Washington’s policy shift on Ukraine. On Friday, Kallas, along with several other EU leaders, reiterated their support for Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who engaged in a heated exchange with US President Donald Trump in the White House on Friday. Trump accused Zelensky of not being grateful for American assistance and not being willing to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict, while the Ukrainian leader urged Washington to continue its military support for Kiev while warning that failure to do so would backfire on the US.

Kallas took a swipe at Trump, writing: “Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor [sic]. Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.” In an interview with RIA Novosti on Saturday, Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, agreed that the title of ‘leader of the free world’ should be transferred from the US to another party, but not the EU. The world “needs one, and he exists. His name is Vladimir Putin,” he said. Medvedev also argued that while EU leaders might try to show some defiance in the face of US pressure, they will ultimately cave in.

“They will make some noise, post identical messages on social media, and return to their pen. Europe is a feeble, quarrelsome old woman who is utterly dependent on US protection.” The former president also reiterated that Moscow remains open to negotiations to settle the Ukraine conflict, but stressed that they must proceed on Russia’s terms. “We have always been ready for negotiations, and any negotiations require reciprocal steps. But only those steps that correspond to the reality on the ground and our basic law.” Russia has praised the Trump administration for attempting to resolve the Ukraine conflict and listen to Moscow’s geopolitical concerns related to it, while blasting the EU for attempting to fuel the hostilities by continuing to support Kiev.

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“Best VP ever and our future President..”

• Musk Tips Vance To Become US President (RT)

Tech billionaire and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk has called US Vice President J.D. Vance “our future President,” fueling speculation about Vance’s political ambitions. Musk’s remarks followed a post on X addressing the tense exchange between Vance and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over free speech policies during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday. As Starmer met with President Donald Trump and administration officials at the White House, Vance defended his stance on digital censorship, echoing comments he made during last month’s Munich Security Conference. “We also know there have been infringements on free speech that affect not just the British,” Vance said.

“Of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them, but it also impacts American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens.” Starmer dismissed Vance’s concerns, insisting that free speech remained firmly protected in the United Kingdom. “We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time,” the Labour Party leader said. “Best VP ever and our future President,” Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X on Friday. Musk has been vocal in his criticism of Starmer and has frequently aligned with Vance on key foreign policy issues, particularly free speech and US aid to Ukraine.

Musk’s endorsement comes as Vance and Trump engaged in a heated exchange with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky at an Oval Office meeting on Friday. Vance, the first to address Zelensky, criticized his recent public appearances highlighting war devastation, accusing him of hosting “propaganda tours,” and labeling the Ukrainian leader “disrespectful.” The confrontation led to the day’s events being cut short, while Trump reportedly dismissed Zelensky and told him to return when he was “ready to pursue peace.” Musk later also chimed it, saying the Ukrainian leader had “destroyed himself in the eyes of the American people” in an X post.

Musk, who was appointed to lead DOGE when Trump took office in January, has been tasked with reducing government inefficiency and cutting federal spending. His endorsement of Vance marks the second time in recent weeks that he has expressed support for the vice president, previously posting: “Best VP ever and hopefully our future President.” The 40-year-old Vance is the third-youngest vice president in US history. His relationship with Trump has evolved significantly since the president’s first term. Once a vocal critic of Trump, Vance opposed his candidacy in 2016, calling him “cultural heroin” for conservatives and questioning his character. However, he later shifted his stance, securing Trump’s endorsement in his successful 2022 Ohio Senate bid, a move that cemented his place within Trump’s political inner circle.

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“He imposed a 90-day funding freeze on the agency and transferred oversight of its programs to the direct control of the State Department..”

• US State Department Slashes USAID Assistance To Ukraine – NBC (RT)

The US State Department has terminated a US Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative for a large-scale effort to restore Ukraine’s energy grid, which has been severely damaged by Russian strikes, NBC News reported on Friday, citing sources. USAID, Washington’s primary agency for funding political projects abroad, found itself in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump shortly after taking office, accusing it of corruption and inefficiency. He imposed a 90-day funding freeze on the agency and transferred oversight of its programs to the direct control of the State Department. As part of the crackdown, the State Department not only stopped a USAID program that invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ukraine’s power grid, but also sharply reduced the agency’s footprint in Ukraine, the network said.

Before the reported cuts, 64 American government employees and contractors were on the ground supporting the agency’s mission; now only eight are expected to remain, with the Trump administration placing the remaining USAID personnel on administrative leave and ordering all but “critical” staff to return to the US, NBC reported. ”It significantly undercuts this administration’s abilities to negotiate on the ceasefire, and it’d signal to Russia that we don’t care about Ukraine or our past investments,” a USAID official working on the Ukraine mission told the outlet, adding that the decision would significantly undermine the country’s economic resilience. In 2024 alone, USAID allocated $825 million to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The move comes as Russia continues to carry out drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s defense-linked energy infrastructure to undermine the country’s military effort, resulting in recurring rolling blackouts. Moscow insists that it never targets civilians. The timing of the reported USAID pullout coincides with a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in the White House, in which the US president accused Zelensky of being ungrateful for the substantial aid provided to Kiev, and of being unwilling to negotiate an end to the conflict with Russia. As a result of the heated exchange between the two sides, an agreement granting the US rights to Ukraine’s natural resources as compensation for past aid was not signed.

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“Ukraine cannot afford to have him as their leader, and I think you’re going to see Zelensky being exited stage right as rapidly as possible..”

• Zelensky’s Presidency Is Over – Scott Ritter (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s presidency is over, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter has told RT. Zelensky’s five-year term in office concluded in May 2024, but he has refused to hold new elections, citing martial law. According to Ritter, Washington is “fed up” with Zelensky, who US President Donald Trump recently labeled a “dictator without elections,” and is moving to unseat him. Ritter’s words come on the heels of a meeting in the White House between Zelensky, Trump, and US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday, in which a heated exchange took place after Trump told the Ukrainian leader that he would have to negotiate peace with Russia. Zelensky argued that Moscow cannot be trusted and insisted that the US continue supporting Kiev.

Trump said Zelensky is “in no position to dictate” to the US, accusing him of being ungrateful for America’s substantial aid and questioning his willingness to bring about an end to the conflict with Russia. “Zelensky is not a democratically elected president… This was a deliberate setup by the president of the US. The Trump administration is fed up with Zelensky,” he said, arguing that he brought it upon himself by openly antagonizing Trump. This is the end of Zelensky’s presidency. He will not recover from this. Ukraine cannot afford to have him as their leader, and I think you’re going to see Zelensky being exited stage right as rapidly as possible. According to Ritter, the relationship between Trump and Zelensky is now “fundamentally broken.” However, unlike Ukraine, he said, Russia has never “lost the discipline” in contacts with the US and disrupted peace efforts, despite “some fundamental disagreements” on how to resolve the conflict.

“Zelensky was the greatest impediment to the US and Russia to achieve a peace deal… He had to be removed, and now he has been removed,” Ritter explained. He went on to say that while Zelensky’s removal may be “the beginning of the political collapse of Ukraine,” it might not necessarily be a bad thing in terms of peace because “the war is all but over at this point.” Zelensky has so far dismissed calls to step down. In an interview with Fox News following the meeting with Trump and responding to a call from US Senator Lindsey Graham “to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with,” Zelensky said he won’t do so unless asked by the Ukrainian people.

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“Churchill was quite a monster – ask the miners or the Indians, for instance – who nonetheless played an important role in defeating Nazi Germany. But he was not a puffed-up provincial comedian.”

• A Dose Of Reality For The West’s Spoiled Brat (Amar)

“A grandiose failure” – take it from the best Ukrainian news site. That’s how Strana.ua has summed up the visit of Vladimir Zelensky, past-best-by-date leader in embattled Kiev, to Washington. And no one who watched the no-holds-barred shouting match between Zelensky, on one side, and US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, on the other, can disagree. Indeed, no one is even trying to disagree: Independent of political bias, there is unanimity in Western mainstream media that this was a historic catastrophe for Zelensky and his version of Ukraine. “A disaster” and “bitter chaos” (The Economist); a “meltdown” that “could not have gone worse” (Financial Times); a “historic escalation” (Spiegel); a “disaster for Ukraine” and a “spectacular confrontation” (Le Monde); an “upbraiding” and “debacle” for Zelensky (New York Times) and so on and so forth… You get the gist.

And please don’t blame me for how boring a review of Western mainstream media is; it’s not my fault that the vaunted press of the self-appointed “free world” and “garden” of “values” offers less diversity of views than the Soviet media circa 1986. The basic idea is very basic indeed: “This was awful because poor Zelensky got bullied.” Some especially eager information war cadres are already fingering J.D. Vance as the one to blame. The Economist, for instance, simply “knows” that the US vice president set up the Ukrainian leader. But then, the same Economist also helped spread the moronic lie that Russia blew up its own Nord Stream pipelines. Intriguingly, Ukraine’s Strana.ua, already mentioned above, sees things very differently. Its take is that “Zelensky himself provoked the scandal by his rudeness” toward both Vance and Trump. The latter, these Ukrainian observers who know their own vain and erratic leader all too well think, were still holding back, staying “quite calm and respectful” toward Zelensky.

For what it’s worth, my personal impression is that Zelensky did provoke the fight; that Vance and Trump treated him harshly and humiliatingly in return; and that Kiev’s prima-donna-in-chief deserved every last bit of it – and then some. Yes, after more than half a decade of Western leaders and mainstream media first building an insane personality cult around him and then babying and coddling him, it was a relief to see him talked to in earnest. And yes, it was glorious. Because Trump is right: Yes, Zelensky has been recklessly toying with World War III. And no, his regime has not been “alone.” On the contrary, without massive Western support that it should never have received it would long have ceased to exist. Vance also has a point: Ukraine is running out of soldiers, and Ukrainian men are hunted like animals to be shipped off to a hopeless meatgrinder war.

Finally, both are right: Zelensky displayed crude disrespect. Don’t get me wrong: In general, I am all for massively disrespecting the American empire. But once you’ve chosen to be its puppet and sold your own nation to it, you might as well cut out the grandstanding. In short, at long last, a dose of reality for the West’s spoiled brat in Kiev. And no more daft Churchill comparisons, please. In reality, like Stalin, Churchill was quite a monster – ask the miners or the Indians, for instance – who nonetheless played an important role in defeating Nazi Germany. But he was not a puffed-up provincial comedian.

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“In the US Congress, we have workhorses and we have show horses. And Lindsey Graham is a show horse. So when you’ve lost Lindsey Graham, you’ve lost the war.”

• Zelensky Is Done – Kiriakou (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky is done as the leader of Ukraine and should be removed, journalist and former CIA analyst John Kiriakou told RT, commenting on the verbal spat between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday. The meeting became heated when Zelensky resisted Trump’s demand to negotiate peace with Russia, leading the latter to accuse him of ingratitude and an unwillingness to end the conflict. Consequently, Zelensky left the White House prematurely, without signing an agreement that would have granted the US rights to Ukraine’s natural resources. The planned joint press conference was canceled. “For all intents and purposes, Zelensky is done. I wouldn’t be surprised if in three months Zelensky is living in London or some such place,” Kiriakou said on Friday.

He noted that Zelensky, who, citing martial law, refused to step down after his presidential mandate ended last year, will “have to be removed” because he “continues to be an impediment to peace.” “You know, they’ve got this provision in the Ukrainian constitution where they don’t have to have elections during a time of martial law…Maybe it’s time to take a second look at that, get him out, and elect somebody who can negotiate in good faith with the Russian government,” the analyst suggested. Kiriakou noted that without the support of Washington, which Kiev effectively lost when Zelensky antagonized Trump on Friday, the Ukraine conflict can be considered “over.” “[Zelensky] can’t rely on NATO… if the US pulls out. And it looks very much that the US is in the process now of pulling out. The conflict is over. It’s done. This is today’s reality,” he stated.

Zelensky has previously dismissed the possibility of stepping down. In an interview with Fox News following the meeting with Trump, he responded to a call from US Senator Lindsey Graham “to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with.” Zelensky stated he won’t do that unless asked by the Ukrainian people. According to Kiriakou, losing the support of such a pro-Kiev figure as Graham is yet another sign that Zelensky time at the helm is over, as is the conflict itself. “In the US Congress, we have workhorses and we have show horses. And Lindsey Graham is a show horse. So when you’ve lost Lindsey Graham, you’ve lost the war. [It] is a message to Vladimir Zelensky that it’s time to just stop,” the analyst said.

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He said it before “Zelensky went to Washington”. Things are different now.

• EU Trapped As ‘Cheerleader of US Hegemony’ – Jeffrey Sachs (RT)

The European Union’s unwavering support for US hegemonic policies has ensnared it in a precarious position, according to award-winning American economist and public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs. In an interview with RT on Friday, Sachs discussed the Ukraine conflict, the EU’s geopolitical stance, and the broader implications of Washington’s foreign policy. He emphasized the necessity for the EU to assert its independence from Washington’s influence, advocating for the establishment of its own foreign policy and the normalization of relations with Moscow. The bloc “needs to have its own foreign policy. It needs to re-engage with Russia”, Sachs stated, highlighting the significance of the EU’s $20 trillion economy and the critical need for it to operate in harmony with the global economy.

When questioned about the EU’s potential to detach from Washington’s influence, Sachs affirmed: “I think it can and should be”. He criticized the bloc’s approach of” following the US in a blind kind of way, just trying to be the great cheerleader of US hegemony.” Sachs argued that US unipolar dominance must evolve, expressing concern over the current state of international discourse, where everything is broken down, and the hate talk is nonstop for everybody. Addressing the Ukraine conflict, Sachs suggested that both the EU and Kiev have suffered by aligning too closely with Washington’s policies. Now they don’t know quite what to do, he remarked, referencing former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s famous observation: “To be an enemy of America is dangerous, to be a friend of America is fatal”.

In the interview with RT, recorded before Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to Washington, Sachs described the trip for the signing of a meaningless document on mineral rights as “sad, desperate, confused”. The meeting between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump devolved into an openly hostile confrontation, during which Trump accused Zelensky of ingratitude and unwillingness to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict. According to Sachs, “a true peace” in the conflict could be achieved, as there is “no fundamental conflict between the US and Russia”. Moscow and Washington are currently engaged in negotiations following a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, and subsequent high-level talks between Russian and U.S. delegations in Saudi Arabia.

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“Rubio emphasized that Washington is seeking peace for Ukraine, adding that if there’s even a 1% chance of that happening, it “needs to be explored.”

• EU Wants Another Year of War – Rubio (RT)

Some EU countries would favor the conflict between Russia and Ukraine dragging on longer with the idea of weakening Moscow, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has charged, stressing that Washington’s goal is to end the hostilities. Rubio’s comments came after a heated meeting between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky on Friday, which triggered accusations from American officials that the Ukrainian leader showed “disrespect” and ingratitude towards the US. In an interview with CNN on Friday, Rubio emphasized that Washington is seeking peace for Ukraine, adding that if there’s even a 1% chance of that happening, it “needs to be explored.” He also suggested that some of his EU counterparts are not exactly on board with this approach.

He cited an unnamed European foreign minister as saying that the EU’s plan is to allow “the war go… on for another year and at that point Russia will feel so weakened that they’ll beg for peace.” Rubio criticized this approach, stating, “That’s another year of killing, another year of dying, another year of destruction, and by the way, not a very realistic plan in my point of view.” Rubio has also called on Zelensky to apologize for what he called an “antagonistic” approach during the meeting, rebuking him for his stance on an agreement granting the US rights to Ukraine’s natural resources, which was set to be signed at the White House but ended up in limbo due to the spat that ensued. While Zelensky – who urged the US to continue military support for Ukraine while warning that the failure to do so would backfire – was heavily criticized by Trump administration officials and Republicans, many EU leaders rallied to his support.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission, praised Zelensky’s “dignity” and reassured him that he is “never alone.” Friedrich Merz, Germany’s presumed future chancellor, said that “we must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.” Meanwhile, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, went even further, issuing a not-so-veiled rebuke to Trump. “We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor… Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.” Whereas Russia has praised the Trump administration for its willingness to find ways to resolve the Ukraine conflict, including examining its root causes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denounced the EU for what he described as a desire to further escalate the hostilities.

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4 “experts”. This is Fyodor Lukyanov’s contribution.

• Russian Experts On The Trump Talks Fiasco (RT)

“Vladimir Zelensky underestimated the scale of the shift that occurred in American politics after Donald Trump’s arrival. He was misled by the fact that for three years, no one in the West considered it acceptable to publicly contradict Ukrainian representatives, especially Zelensky himself. Diplomats, politicians, and cultural figures from Ukraine were allowed almost anything. They are victims; they have the right. Permissiveness played a cruel joke on the Kiev leader. But the issue is not just about someone’s bad manners; that is a private matter. Such a model of behavior was possible as long as the Ukrainian conflict was perceived in the West as a battle of the right side of history against the wrong one. And in such a battle, almost anything is allowed. And no one will condemn it.

Trump views the war as an annoying nuisance, a mess in which all participants are to blame, especially his predecessor. The key takeaway from Trump during this truly historic interaction in the White House was: I am a mediator; I am not on anyone’s side; I want the war to end. And this is a fundamental shift. Strangely enough, Trump has taken a position of classic diplomacy, which is necessary to end wars. Zelensky and his supporters reject it, counting on a clear victory. But that is unattainable. Zelensky’s problem now is that, having made a fatal mistake in his choice of strategy in the White House, he has disarmed even his support group in Europe and within the US itself.

They may express as much outrage as they want about Trump and demand continued aid for Ukraine, but Zelensky’s mistake is glaring. The opportunity to sway the American president to a more favorable position has been lost. And two small remarks. First, Zelensky now has the opportunity to appreciate the restraint and even tactfulness of the Russian president, no matter how they feel about each other. Second – the war continues.”

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“Europe May Pay Lip Service to Zelensky, But Taking Over for the US is Burden too Big to Bear..”

• Trump’s Smackdown of Zelensky Wake-up Call for West (Sp.)

The fierce clash between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky on live TV shocked US allies and prompted devastated Washington pundits to start writing requiems to ‘Pax Americana’. Sputnik reached out to a pair of veteran observers of international politics and defense policy to explain the blowup, and what comes next. “Zelensky came all the way to Washington to sign an open-ended, financially unlimited, no security-guarantee deal marketed in his own country as the opposite. Trump and Vance openly declared that he’s been defeated, is gambling with the lives of his own people, that he has no men left and that peace must be made,” renowned Turkish journalist Ceyda Karan told Sputnik, commenting on Friday’s epic slugfest.

“They said outright that Zelensky is going to drag the whole world into World War III. What’s striking here is that Trump is presenting the truth to the Western world, which has become accustomed to political correctness,” Karan stressed, outlining the most important takeaway from the verbal altercation. Zelensky tried “to play the role of a ‘hero being mistreated’ by the US president. The issue of Trump demanding the rights to Ukraine’s resources has been presented to the world as if Zelensky were a victim. However, he himself has been talking about this throughout the past year. When the US Congress had difficulty allocating new military aid to Kiev, it was Zelensky who offered resources, sitting next to Senator Lindsey Graham and listening to his rhetoric about ‘fighting to the last Ukrainian’,” the observer recalled.

He repeated this idea while meeting Trump on the eve of the 2024 election at Trump Tower in September, and again before Ukraine’s parliament at the end of last year during his speech on his so-called ‘victory plan’, “which was ridiculed even by Western media,” Karan said. “To replace the US, Europe at least has to double its support for Ukraine,” Swedish Armed Forces veteran and politician Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik, commenting on European leaders’ plans to organize a hasty summit on Ukraine support in the fallout from the Trump-Zelensky blowup. “Picking up the slack for the US would be “a very heavy burden for Europe to carry,” Valtersson explained, particularly amid “growing resistance among the European population to spending huge amounts of money on Ukraine,” which would only increase further if spending did.

If European powers do move forward anyway as the US seeks normalization, they would drive themselves into a corner trying “to continue isolating Russia” alone, without Washington’s backing, which would in effect mean they “will be isolated themselves.” Valtersson expects any public European “united front” behind Zelensky among the Europeans to “crack” over time as alternative parties seeking peace and realism in Russia policy rise, while other countries “pay lip service to supporting Ukraine” without actually ramping up commitments. “Europe will be divided into three groups; those that ardently support Ukraine, those that pretend to support Ukraine and those that fight for a detente and a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” the observer predicted.

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“NATO is finished,” the analyst speculated, since the EU’s main military wing is “paralyzed without its transatlantic partner.”

• EU Delusional if It Hopes to Fill Ukraine Void Without US – Analyst (Sp.)

Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with Donald Trump in Washington was a disaster, with the Ukrainian leader forced to leave early after a public altercation with the US President. EU member states are “incapable of sustaining Ukraine’s military needs, let alone facilitating post-conflict reconstruction, estimated at tens of billions of dollars,” Joseph Siracusa, global futures professor, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, told Sputnik. After the Trump-Zelensky blowout, losing US muscle will be “fatal” for Ukraine, triggering a scramble for power in Kiev and the need to adjust to the reality of being “excluded from NATO though permitted to enter the EU,” he added. Furthermore, “NATO is finished,” the analyst speculated, since the EU’s main military wing is “paralyzed without its transatlantic partner.”

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Bezos needs to weed out the extremists. He must create X on paper.

• WaPo Hit By Second Wave Of “Rapid-Fire” Mass Subscription Cancellations (ZH)

The Washington Post was hit with another wave of subscription cancellations—its second in months—following an op-ed by its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in which he advocated for “personal liberties and free markets.” Bezos announced on Wednesday morning that the WaPo’s opinion pages will be “writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” As Bezos explained on X: There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.

I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity. According to NPR News, this led to the immediate resignation of Opinions Editor David Shipley and the cancellation of 75,000 digital subscribers. The number of cancellations comes from a person who asked for anonymity because of the fear of repercussions at the Post.

…

The rapid-fire cancellations since Wednesday represent a historic level of reader fury over the changes. Yet they are only the most recent wave in a series of mass cancellations that began in late October. That was when Bezos killed a planned endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Between then and Election Day, more than 300,000 subscribers canceled the Post, as NPR first reported last month. That was more than 12% of digital subscribers, which make up the vast majority of the paper’s paid circulation. The Post has aggressively wooed new subscribers to replace them, boosting circulation by 400,000, often at highly discounted rates, according to a Post executive. Google Search trends data showed “cancel Washington Post” surged the most in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, three states home to the radical left – and subs of WaPo that would be the most angry with Bezos shifting towards libertarian views.

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Far-right has become a meaningless term. Anyone not explicitly woke can apply. Is Trump far-right? Plenty people would say yes, but that doesn’t make it true. How about Orban? Putin?!

• Far-Right Leaders Gather In Madrid To “Make Europe Great Again” (Vracar)

Representatives of the Patriots for Europe (PfE), a far-right bloc in the European Parliament, met in Madrid for a summit hosted by Spain’s Vox party on February 8-9. During the meeting, they attacked policies and trends that they say are stripping Europe and Europeans of their supposed greatness. Riding the wave of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, they announced their intention to “make Europe great again.” In attendance were Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen, and right-wing politicians from Estonia, Portugal, Greece, and Italy, among others. Their speeches stuck to familiar tropes, criticizing the European Union’s climate and migration policies and railing against “wokeism” and “progressive” domination over policymaking in Brussels. However, this gathering took place in a different context than far-right exchanges in previous years.

Trump’s victory has emboldened the far-right across Europe, reinforcing their belief that their moment has arrived. “The Trump tornado has changed the world in just a few weeks,” Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán declared. “Yesterday we were heretics, today we’re mainstream.” This boost in confidence also coincides with right-wing electoral gains across Europe. Most notably, Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD)—not part of the PfE—is polling in second place ahead of the upcoming elections. Much of the summit’s centered on sovereignty, though not the kind of sovereignty that promotes solidarity and self-determination. Instead, xenophobia and exclusion are at the center of the PfE’s vision of society, with some speakers going so far as to call for a “new Reconquista.”

“Migration policy is out of control, and the bottomless pit of immigration is emptying our coffers and filling our prisons,” said Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally. When it comes to their own ranks, however, the far-right seems to be all about internationalism. PfE leaders eagerly discussed strengthening transatlantic alliances—not just with Trump’s administration, but also with far-right leaders in Latin America. “Patriots is a transatlantic party, but we are also open,” said Vox representative Jorge Buxadé just ahead of the meeting. “It is not only a transatlantic alliance with the North, with the US, but also with the South. That is where Vox plays a key role—bridging the connection with (Argentine President) Milei and (Paraguayan President) Peña.”

The speeches delivered on Sunday made it clear that European far-right leaders expect Trump’s presidency to bolster their influence and help them strengthen ties with like-minded political movements worldwide. Those attending the summit also looked to Trump’s presidency as a weapon against “wokeism” and what they describe as a progressive takeover of political institutions. In Europe, they frame this belief as a critique of EU leadership on climate change, industry, and governance. In his speech, Orbán went so far as to claim that “Europe has been kidnapped by the progressive ideology just like the mythological Europa was taken by the bull.”

While Ursula von der Leyen’s leadership faces criticism from all sides, left-wing parties focus on her austerity-driven policies, which have fueled poverty and inequality across Europe. The left’s critique is based on real economic struggles, advocating for social justice and peace, in reflection of the people’s demands. In contrast, PfE offers no such alternative. While some, including Lega’s Matteo Salvini, mentioned Europe’s deepening industrial crisis, their proposed solutions for popular discontent remain unchanged: xenophobia, securitization and militarization, climate denialism, and further cuts to public services. As a result, while PfE leaders believe their movement is the future of Europe, their reliance on the same neoliberal policies they claim to oppose suggests otherwise.

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A small dick?!

• What’s Behind Keir Starmer’s Latest Defense Spending Boost? (Jay)

Who is Sir Keir Starmer and whose interests does he represent? Even his strongest supporters from the West are beginning to notice that there hasn’t been one single policy strategy since he became British PM, which is for the actual British public themselves. Traditionally one tends to think of Labour PMs wanting to make a splash with the poor in their first six months in office, but all Starmer has done has made this particular group even poorer. His recent announcement in the House of Commons (Britain’s parliament) like many others since he took office in the summer of 2024, surprised everyone, even his own MPs. He is raising the percentage of the country’s GDP usually prescribed to defense spending from 2.3% to 2.5%, which, in practical terms means that the £53.9bn usually put aside for defense spending in one year will rise a further £13.4bn from 2027.

What is behind this somewhat odd ruse? Britain’s relations with the U.S., it should be pointed out, are at an all-time low since Trump took office. Did the U.S. president give signals to Downing Street that this is what he wanted? Possibly. Given the terrible relations between London and Washington, it pulls the UK out of the hole that it largely dug itself with both its foreign secretary running down Trump in a YouTube rant and Peter Mandelson doing much the same, contributing towards a bard atmosphere. So can Starmer save it and work with Trump?

This is a harder question as the British PM is leading the charge on supporting the Zelensky regime further with military support. The timing is of course paramount as Trump’s swift moves to get a peace deal have gained momentum since Zelensky confirmed that he has agreed to a mineral deal. The deal itself does not guarantee a peace deal, but it certainly paves the way as now Trump has a stake in Ukraine and the country being peaceful. It also sends a signal to Putin. Almost at the same time the Ukrainian parliament voted to continue martial law in Ukraine, which, in theory allows Zelensky to continue as unelected President, we can conclude that Trump has let Zelensky buy some time.

But as usual it is the Europeans who are the real threat to Zelensky’s longevity. Starmer’s announcement of bigger defense spending is a signal that the UK will support a war in Ukraine indefinitely hoping that other EU countries will follow the theme. The problem of course is that this sets the EU off on a collision course with Trump, which many would argue threatens to be the start of an unprecedented rift, only corrected by him being replaced by a democrat President. Europe has never been so isolated from the U.S., as of now with its blinded dogma over Ukraine and a war it cannot stop fighting and losing. The more a rich man spends on a fake painting, the less inclined he is to accept its lack of authenticity. This is where Europe is now, with Starmer leading the pack of mad wolves talking about sending British troops there. Insane.

Of course, Trump and Putin will put an end to these wet dreams – would British soldiers even agree to go there? – by simply creating a peace plan which the rest of Europe will have to respect. To do this, priorities have to be drawn up. Trump gets his payback on minerals. Putin concedes this small request. Next, do we work with Zelensky or bypass him? Will Russian sanctions be part of a bigger deal? Almost certainly as it is no coincidence that Trump has already indicated in mainstream media that at some point these will be tackled head on. The delay is Trump working out what benefits he can extract from Putin if he is to lift sanctions. The important thing is that for the first time in contemporary history U.S. is not the belligerent buffoon starting wars around the world to embolden its hegemony and show the world what it can do with just mere military might. It is a peace broker, ending wars. And with the help of Russia.

Where does Europe stand in all this? Like children who have been left at a kiddies birthday party with no cake. Petulant, juvenile and completely deluded about who they are and what their capabilities are. Europe bays for more blood and even greater economic decline, while their own people suffer more and more. The most insincere aspect of Starmer’s speech in the parliament is when he talks about poor people suffering for the Ukraine war. His own government has gone from denying old people a heating subsidy to now his own police force threatening them with jail time if they don’t stop their mean tweets about Labour officials. Is it perhaps that Zelensky is so admired for being a dictator in Europe who has achieved so much more than his western counterparts, why he is so revered?

Read more …

The spectre of Elon Musk.

• A Spectre Is Haunting Germany (Beppler-Spahl)

Just weeks before Germany’s general election, a spectre is haunting the country’s political class —the spectre of Elon Musk. Amid the allegeded threat of foreign interference in the election, the hand-wringing over how to stop the troublesome billionaire boss of X/Twitter—who has publicly backed the far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)—has reached worrying heights. This was evident when Thierry Breton, the former European Union commissioner for digital affairs, peddled the idea that the elections might have to be annulled if Germans voted the wrong way. Breton was discussing the possibility of an election win for the AfD in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV/RMC. Referring to Musk, he said: “Let’s keep calm and enforce our laws in Europe when they are at risk of being circumvented […]. We did it in Romania, and we will obviously do it if necessary in Germany.”

He was, of course, alluding to the shocking annulment of Romania’s presidential election in December after an outsider—a Putin-supporting anti-vaccine populist—had surprisingly won the first round. The EU elites tried to blame the result on foreign ‘disinformation’ spread via social media. No German politician has yet gone as far as Breton. But it would be a big mistake to dismiss the former EU bureaucrat’s statement as a mere slip of the tongue–even if he has, in the meantime, retracted. (After Musk labelled him “a tyrant of Europe”, Breton claimed that he had been misquoted, that it “was another fake news” or a translation mistake, tweeting: “The EU has NO mechanism to nullify any election anywhere in the EU.”)

Yet other influential figures, such as Germany’s president Frank Walter Steinmeier (SPD), have also issued similar warnings. When Steinmeier dissolved the Bundestag (German Parliament) in December, and announced snap elections, he said: “Outside influence is a danger to democracy. Be it covert … or open and blatant, as is currently being practised particularly intensively on Platform X.” Notably, to date, the president has not distanced himself from Breton’s threat to erase the election results. There is no doubt that Musk has been meddlesome. He has also emboldened the AfD leadership. In late December, he wrote an opinion piece for Die Welt claiming that “only the AfD could save Germany” from decline. Following Steinmeier’s warnings in December, he took to X, disparaging the president as an “anti-democratic tyrant”.

Then, on January 9th, Musk livestreamed approximately 70 minutes of conversation with Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor. During the talk, he reiterated his endorsement for her party. Though not everyone in the AfD was happy with Weidel’s performance—she was long-winded, and often very crass—they naturally appreciated Musk’s backing. At the AfD’s party conference, held last weekend, Weidel’s references to Musk received enthusiastic applause. However, attributing the AfD’s success to Musk, rather than to the failures of Germany’s established politicians, is blatant nonsense. The party’s polling numbers have held steady at around 20% for weeks, and recent surveys indicate that Musk’s interventions have had negligible impact, at best. This narrative reflects a persistent and problematic anti-populist assumption: that voters are passive objects, easily swayed by ‘demagogues’ rather than acting on their own political judgment.

Back in January last year—long before Musk was getting up to mischief online—Frank Walter Steinmeier called for a large alliance against the AfD and said: “We will not allow this country to be destroyed by extremist pied pipers.” What he meant was that AfD supporters were following tricksters and shady characters, as the rats and the children of Hamelin followed the pied piper to their doom in the old German folktale. The insult to German voters in the analogy was obviously lost on the president. The establishment’s fear of Musk is, in truth, its fear of the electorate. The threat to cancel the election was just one of many that have been made in recent days. Following Musk’s conversation with Weidel, EU vice president Henna Virkkunen announced an investigation into whether the conversation violated the Digital Services Act. Germany’s Bundestag has also launched an investigation into whether it was an illegal “party donation.”

The idea that the speech had given the party an illegal monetary advantage (“geldwerter Vorteil“) has also been peddled by Robert Habeck, Germany’s hapless economics minister and the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor. If the allegation of a financial advantage is proven, “this would have considerable consequences” for the AfD, said Michael Brenner, a constitutional lawyer, adding that the party could face “a very substantial sum” in fines. Claiming that a single interview may have given the AfD an unfair advantage in the run-up to the federal elections is more than a little disingenuous. While mainstream parties like the SPD, CDU, and Greens regularly receive extensive media coverage through numerous interviews and talk shows, the AfD has frequently been excluded from such platforms.

Read more …

“The EU has pledged to phase out Russian energy by 2027. Germany’s Economy Ministry insists that independence from Russian gas remains a priority for the country.”

• German Factories Counting On Return of Russian Gas – Bloomberg (RT)

Key German industrial leaders have expressed their desire to see Russian gas return to Europe once a resolution to the Ukraine conflict is found, Bloomberg has reported. Chemical and manufacturing sector representatives argue that affordable energy is crucial for Germany’s economy to recover, the agency wrote on Friday. European gas prices surged after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. Pipeline gas imports from Russia mostly ceased due to sanctions and the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022. Nevertheless, EU nations have still been buying record volumes of Russian LNG, the cost of which has nearly quadrupled in three years, according to Eurostat. Christian Gunther, managing director of the Leuna chemical park, emphasized that bringing back Russian gas would be a logical step if peace is achieved.

“We must ensure the damage caused by this conflict is repaired,” he told Bloomberg, adding that resuming deliveries “would be the logical consequence.” In 2021, Russian pipeline gas accounted for 32% of the total demand of the EU and UK, while Germany relied on Russia for 55% of its consumption, according to the European Council and Statista. Since cutting ties with Russian energy, the EU has turned to expensive LNG imports, primarily from the US. The shift has driven natural gas prices on the continent to their highest levels in two years, prompting discussions in Brussels about price caps. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that soaring energy costs could cripple the EU economy.

The EU’s latest sanctions package, introduced on Monday, tightens restrictions on Russian energy but stops short of banning LNG imports. Gunther earlier criticized Germany’s energy policy, pointing out the inconsistency of banning Russian pipeline gas while still importing LNG. Bloomberg reported that Sven Schulze, the economy minister of German’s Saxony-Anhalt state, believes permanently excluding Russian gas “would be a mistake.” US President Donald Trump has been urging Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to negotiate a peace deal with Russia, warning that failure to do so could result in the loss of American support.

On Friday, during a heated meeting at the Oval Office, Trump reportedly told Zelensky to leave the White House and return when he was ready to pursue peace. Ukraine refused to extend its gas transit contract with Russia’s Gazprom beyond 2024, further reducing EU access to Russian pipeline gas. The only remaining supply flows through the TurkStream pipeline via Türkiye and Greece. “We need peace to reopen pipelines, ensure supply security, and lower prices,” said Manuela Grieger, former chair of the workers union InfraLeuna, told Bloomberg. The EU has pledged to phase out Russian energy by 2027. Germany’s Economy Ministry insists that independence from Russian gas remains a priority for the country.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Seinfeld

 

 

USAID

 

 

Elon Epstein

 

 

Elon Soros

 

 

Cockatoo
https://twitter.com/i/status/1895858333938245676

 

 

Butterfly

 

 

Dinosaur

 

 

Galagos

 

 

Kid

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home › Forums › Debt Rattle March 2 2025

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 54 total)
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  • March 2, 2025 at 11:05 am #183328
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Giovanni Bellini Pietà c1460   • Putin Should Be The ‘Leader of The Free World’ – Medvedev (RT) • Musk Tips Vance To Become US President (RT) • U
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 2 2025]

    March 2, 2025 at 11:55 am #183330
    Germ
    Participant

    Good morning :-))

    A highly recommended interview:

    “Debbie Lerman is a Harvard grad, Brownstone Institute Fellow, and medical and science writer from Philadelphia. Debbie has a sharp mind and well researched opinions on “What is really going on”. In March 2020, her research into Covid quickly resulted in her losing faith in every institution she once trusted. She started writing with the goal of determining how it happened and who was responsible. Debbie discovered nefarious links and surprising discoveries that nobody else in the world had uncovered. We discuss Trump, RFK, climate, US military, CIA, NIH, MAHA, Fauci, Chrystia Freeland and more.”

    TVASSF

    March 2, 2025 at 12:03 pm #183331
    Germ
    Participant

    Hahaha.
    Wrecked immune systems …

    TVASSF

    March 2, 2025 at 12:08 pm #183332
    Germ
    Participant

    A never ending catastrophe …

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/33629848/young-teacher-suddenly-dies/amp/

    TVASSF

    March 2, 2025 at 12:12 pm #183333
    Germ
    Participant

    I could do this all day long 24/7 …

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14447399/Soldier-mandated-Covid-vaccine-medically-discharged-suffering-devastating-vax-lung-injury.html

    TVASSF

    March 2, 2025 at 12:17 pm #183334
    aspnaz
    Participant

    https://www.rt.com/news/613507-vance-trump-zelensky-ukraine/

    Did RT turn into a ZH tabloid? Beginning to look that way, amazing what a bit of flattery will do to Putin.

    March 2, 2025 at 12:44 pm #183335
    Noirette
    Participant

    I now better understand this whole mess about the RARE EARTH ‘deals’.

    Krainer is informative. 1H 09. https://tinyurl.com/3tjra4ys

    However! UKR does not have any rare earths. Found this out consulting Wiki, and then watched,

    Kevin W.: 13 mins. https://tinyurl.com/3xuydyef

    or see CNN for a short anti-Trump piece:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/27/politics/trump-ukraine-minerals-doubts-resources/index.html

    So it looks like all those who wanted the war to continue (NATO, Zelensky, Brits, etc.) just made this up to create the illusion that the ‘war’ would ‘pay for itself’, there would be PROFIT, a rationale, etc. Then Ze went around touting this selling point.. to the Brits (a vague contract signed), and then to Trump, but Trump didn’t fall for it, turning the ‘agreement’ into a (post peace) ’Reconstruction Investment Fund’ without any ‘security guarantees’, forcing Ze to refuse to sign.

    text of the prop (same as I posted before)

    https://www.eurointegration.com.ua/eng/articles/2025/02/26/7205922/

    March 2, 2025 at 1:16 pm #183336
    Noirette
    Participant

    From Top Post, RT reports on Bloomberg piece, re. NatGas.

    MSM, left / right oppo, ‘independent analysts,’ so just about everyone, adhered to a mantra that Europe (or the EU) is having to import NLG from the US, that Europe has more or less stopped importing natural gas from Russia (see Nord Stream pipeline blow-up etc.) that German Industry is Being Destroyed, Cos. are moving to the USA!

    Wild exaggeration. Gas is just one source of energy, electricity, oil, coal etc. and more are at the top of the flow chart. Setting that aside,

    Info. is being manipulated. See for ex. the Swiss European Energy Import Chart (I’m ashamed, really…to be fair it is not Swiss data but taken up from elsewhere..) – like the majority of National sites that track Gas imports it uses the words Europe and EU without distinguishing them.

    The title of the first ‘circle’ chart (see at link) is *Gas imports to Europe in recent years.*

    The categories include: *Norway* (part of Europe but not the EU), *Russia excluding LNG* (this is mixing up source and type, to show that Russia as a source is less important.) Note, accusations of obfuscation can be explained by blaming a ONE-word error by some dumb intern.

    https://energiedashboard.admin.ch/gas/import-europa

    There are many far worse exs. around… So?

    Figure 5 at link shows EU quarterly imports by source. Post 2022, Russian imports were reduced by between 1/2 and 1/3 (what ‘other LNG’ is Idk?) and have been slowly rising again. USA NLG increased somewhat and then sagged a bit.

    https://www.bruegel.org/dataset/european-natural-gas-imports

    ‘Transits’ from one importing country to another are not tracked. For ex., where did the gas from Azerbaijan to Europe come from? 🙂

    The price spike of Nat Gas in Europe WAS very real.

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/673333/monthly-prices-for-natural-gas-in-the-united-states-and-europe/

    March 2, 2025 at 1:29 pm #183337
    poppie
    Participant

    Noirette
    You are correct. There are some underlying defects that need to be addressed. Technically illiterate politicians mix the terms; minerals, critical minerals, rare earth minerals. They dont know and dont care the difference. Ukraine has essentially only minerals and critical minerals. I went to USGS but the navigation was tough. This link was better.
    https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-rare-earth-minerals-locations-2035127
    Once we filter off “rare earth” the illiterates add every time they say “mineral” we can see the next defect. Half of the critical minerals are in the part of Ukraine that Ukraine has not yet admitted they lost. The most expensive half of those minerals. Without that admission, Ze’s narrative is plausible.

    March 2, 2025 at 1:53 pm #183339
    John Day
    Participant

    Touche’ Katja!
    ;-D
    Putin should lead ‘free world’ – Medvedev

    March 2, 2025 at 1:55 pm #183340
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks Germ.
    Hope you are digging Thailand. Use mosquito spray, and nets at night to avoid malaria.

    March 2, 2025 at 1:58 pm #183341
    those darned kids
    Participant

    if mr trump really wants to release the EPSTEIN GOODIES*,

    ¿can’t he just walk into the fbi office in new york and get them?

    i bet he knows how to get there..

    *©2025 tdKeh, s.a. de c.v.

    March 2, 2025 at 2:04 pm #183342
    zerosum
    Participant

    Bubble Makers
    MSM, media creation – a puppet,
    Emotions Manipulators
    Influence on human affairs,
    Power, Connector, Controller, Motivator, Advisor, Repeater,
    “Whack-a-mole”
    “Follow-the-bouncing-ball”
    “A grandiose failure”
    “pay lip service to supporting Ukraine”
    “Info. is being manipulated”
    “Secrets, lies, completely deluded”
    ————
    • US State Department Slashes USAID Assistance To Ukraine – NBC (RT)
    ————
    • Trump’s Smackdown of Zelensky Wake-up Call for West (Sp.)
    ————-
    • EU Delusional if It Hopes to Fill Ukraine Void Without US – Analyst (Sp.)
    ————-

    March 2, 2025 at 2:29 pm #183343
    kultsommer
    Participant

    ….and that Kiev’s prima-donna-in-chief deserved every last bit of it – and then some.

    Aside form the pile that he richly deserved, shit was thrown at him from the carts clearly marked “Biden” and “Bibi”.
    Frustrated husband throwing his anger at the wife after the bad-boss day.

    Other article:

    That’s another year of killing, another year of dying, another year of destruction, and by the way, ……….

    Coming from Rubio’s mouth ?!?
    Can we be bit more realistic about the BS that we are subjected to ?
    What if the “Western plan” actually worked, despite the “killing, dying and destruction” ???

    March 2, 2025 at 2:59 pm #183344
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    I’m rethinking my previous position on The Big T-shirted Man’s positive predictive value.

    Scottie TOO said the Oval Office imbroglio, Trump’s ((demarche))) was a set-up. No kidding olive drab T-shirted big man.

    Last time Ritter opined extensively on an individual subject, early August 2023 Gonzalo Lira, the subject was dead 5 months later January 12, 2024.

    Here it is again from the guy that moved to and fro Russia while (((We))) were at proxy war with them, not so much Lira in (((our)) Allie’s land The Ukraine.

    https://scottritter.substack.com/p/gonzalo-lira-the-sbu-and-information

    Is this code for assassination and or certain The Coach Red Pill Treatment within 5 months?
    3 mos?

    Ritter:

       He will not recover from this. Ukraine cannot afford to have him as their leader, and I think you’re going to see Zelensky being exited stage right as rapidly as possible.

    Impressive

    March 2, 2025 at 3:02 pm #183345
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    SoS Rubio knows who buttered his bread.

    March 2, 2025 at 3:13 pm #183346
    zerosum
    Participant

    Illusions
    The peanut gallery is emphatic that it’s all Trump fault for not waging a proper winning war.
    The peanut gallery is against peace as a path of prosperity.
    The peanut gallery wants to keep spending money that does not exist.

    March 2, 2025 at 4:01 pm #183347
    zerosum
    Participant

    Look in the mirror
    Blinkers    , also known as blinders, blinds and winkers, are a part of horse harness and tack which limits a horse’s field of vision—blocking vision to the sides, …lacking tolerance or flexibility or breadth of view.
    synonyms: narrow, narrow-minded.

    March 2, 2025 at 4:11 pm #183348
    Dr. D
    Participant

    num

    Number go up!
    #Winning!

    March 2, 2025 at 4:27 pm #183349
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    This should put the Trump vs Zelenskyi beat down in the Oval Office (to an audience of billions) in better perspective. There’s literally tons of stuff to say about it, but Armstrong does a pretty good summary to get that ball rolling. Now we need to ACTUALLY, once and for all, get our ass out of NATO. And so, as a side note, the EU boondoggle has been a CIA Op from before the beginning. Imagine that! Europe’s going to have a hard time borrowing the money to prep and fight a war if they haven’t got any gold or a currency that outranks used toilet paper.

    March 2, 2025 at 4:32 pm #183350
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    By the by, have you ever read the bullshit treaties that led to the formation of NATO in the first place? What a bucket of slop, with as much real legal validity as a bet made by a couple of drunk compulsive gamblers in a dive bar at last call.

    March 2, 2025 at 4:40 pm #183351
    The Black
    Participant

    Excellent video on “rare earths” in Ukraine, Noirette! Thank you. Geographically, Ukraine is fertile soil precisely because there are no rare earths. The two are mutually exclusive.

    March 2, 2025 at 4:51 pm #183352
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Bellini is total 1970s Dali

    “That was not a man who wanted to make peace”

    See, it’s a MAN thing. Not gender, I mean it’s personal, mano-e-mano, about personalites, relationship, history, trust, HONOR. That’s why he was pissed off. He’s going way out on a limb for Ze, in a thing he shouldn’t be involved in, and no sense of reality, like a child, just like the rest of the world.

    “Scott Jennings on Zelenskyy’s WH visit: “All Zelenskyy had to do today was put on tie, show up, smile, say ‘thank you’, sign the papers and have lunch. That’s it! And he couldn’t do that.”

    Wrote a screed on yesterday’s post here covering that. SHUT. YOUR. MOUTH. There are a lot of ways to look at Ze’s problem here, but the instant things seem to have gone off the rails, SHUT YOUR MOUTH and say “We’d better pick this up in private negotiations, thank you.” NOT in the media, which he demanded.* Then he got like ten chances making it worse each time. SHUT. YOUR. MOUTH. You get $300B to wear a suit and shut your pie-hole, so zip it.

    It would have been another boring conference that everybody wanted.

    “demanding an emergency session of Parliament to impeach President Volodymyr Zelensky,”

    They just made him President yesterday, they’re impeaching him today? …Sounds about right.

    “Mike Waltz dispels media rumors that Trump admin ‘ambushed’ Zelenskyy”

    Yes, wtf, like Rittenhouse and Catholic kid all you have to do is watch the d—n footage. That’s it. You’re on your phone all day, click “Play” boom, done. You don’t even have to be literate, which is lucky because they’re not. Nope. Too hard for reporters. 40 minutes of blah blah blah. 40 chances to shut his mouth.

    Rubio: Rubio is shocking me, my appraisement of him was like zero.

    Susan Rice: As we say every day. “It’s a setup.” No, Trump had asked them NOT to do this in public. Step one to piss people off who are giving you $300B dollars. Addendum: Vance adding that thing about thanking people was stupid. His PURPOSE was to get Ze back into the mindset of “You are asking US for stuff, buddy” but it was an off-target way to do that. Ze then acted like a peevish ungrateful little b-tch and did another round of boilerplate thanking on twitter, like a passive-aggressive Ex. It was horrifying to see, and an insult even to Europe. I think he’s not smart enough to connive a way to TRY to be impeached and escape, he just doesn’t know what to do, s–t or go blind as we say here.

    “• EU Wants Another Year of War – Rubio (RT)

    Democrats are all Pro-EU, Anti-American, and anti-Life, pitching for another million deaths if at all historically possible. Not dissuaded in the slightest. Starmer is the worse, but only because he provides the least of all for his most war-talk.

    “• WaPo Hit By Second Wave Of “Rapid-Fire” Mass Subscription Cancellations (ZH)

    Anyone think this was all staged? USAID is all those subscriptions to begin with. They ARE going to stop. So he needs a REASON for them to stop, opening his big mouth and pretending he’s reasonable and not a maniac. I can see the staff acting weird but not the subscribers at all, very few.

    “• Far-Right Leaders Gather In Madrid To “Make Europe Great Again” (Vracar)

    That is, people to the Right of Mao. Actually, people to the LEFT of Mao are now “far-right”: Mao believed in borders and guns.

    “The problem of course is that this sets the EU off on a collision course with Trump,”

    Yes. One is PRO WAR and one is Anti War. Ukraine and all Europe are rapidly, to-the-death pro war. Okay! Sold! We’ll even sell you the bombs, just leave us the F– out of it.

    “• A Spectre Is Haunting Germany (Beppler-Spahl)

    They’re such a really-real country that the top person of importance there isn’t a German. It’s ANYONE else.

    ““The EU has pledged to phase out Russian energy by 2027. Germany’s Economy Ministry insists that independence from Russian gas remains a priority for the country.”

    Excellent idea! Have you talked to any engineers about this? Oh, the same one that said windmills would work? Got it: you’re all going to die.

    Seinfeld: “We ain’t playing cards” – Zelensky. Famous last words.

    Cockatu: needs subtitles.

    Noirette: correct, totally believe this. The British are clutching at straws indeed if they thought this wouldn’t get caught or Starmer went home next day and said “US is in now that they have to defend their “interests”” JHC.

    * Is that Ze may have been encouraged in this route, even unknowing (as by Rice) because it prevented the signing of minerals already signed to LONDON. If the trick w Starmer wasn’t going to work, they didn’t need this problem too. It’s reasonable but hard to prove.

    March 2, 2025 at 4:54 pm #183353
    Germ
    Participant

    Cheers John Day.
    I’ve mislaid your email.
    If you still have mine, drop me a note.

    Thailand was terrific – but no longer the country I knew 25 years ago.
    That Thailand is no more.

    March 2, 2025 at 4:55 pm #183354
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Yes the rare earth deposits are in the part of “former Ukraine” that are now in the possession of Russia (because they are PART of Russia) but that observation misses the whole point. They USED TO BE in the possession of Ukraine back when the border of Ukraine was a lot farther East than it is now. Zelenskiy is “putting them up for sale”, but to take them home with you after he sells them to you there is this small matter of getting Russia to release them to you. The only way that happens is if you help Mr Z and NATO defeat the Russians in an all-out no holds-barred WAR. Which is one of the big reasons that the CIA/NATO/Zionist Cabal wants war with Russia. The other reason they want it is that once Europe is on a total war footing the current crop of degenerates in Brussels (and elsewhere!) get to keep their jobs, get a raise in in pay and a lot more authority over their captive populations. Of course, it also means LOSING such a war, but they don’t see that as THEIR problem because they are getting more “rich and powerful” once that war gets rolling. If anything goes wrong they can just sign a bunch of meaningless treaties again at some point in the all-too-foreseeable future.

    March 2, 2025 at 5:13 pm #183355
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    March 2, 2025 at 5:32 pm #183356
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I’ve been hearing a lot of people recommending violence, war and various other types of mayhem as a solution to one or more of our many and large problems. I don’t think that is a very good idea hardly ever.

    I know that it can happen that ending lives is the only last-ditch solution of last resort. But it’s not often, and it’s never desirable.

    Yeah, life is full of problems and some of them are really big, but ending life is rarely the solution to the problems of living. Solving the problems of life by ending the existence of life does end the existence of the problem, but it creates an even bigger problem by ending the existence of you as well.

    I would rather we leave problems and solution of that grand scale to someone better equipped to get it right, if you take my meaning.

    March 2, 2025 at 5:49 pm #183366
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Yeah Mike Waltz trying to remove lipstick from the pig while making avarice, greed and that oh do humanitarian form of Khazar acquisitive capitalism look like A Shared Quest for Prosperity.

    I’d muster a patina of respect for Rubio, Waltz and Vance Hamel Bowman if they pulled that flying monkey gang up ahit on Bibi in The Oval he owned on Trump recently. Where’s the cries for Mah Respect on Netanyahu’s nuttiness in the Oval?
    He owned it right?
    Damn straight!

    Alas D, Trump still wants “the minerals” no longer the rare earths.
    “Mars bitches” said Waltz. Further adding “It’s the Aluminum tubes…gonna be rich!”

    Scheerpost ppl:

      However, according to The Guardian, “Trump officials said privately on Saturday that Trump still wants to sign the minerals deal,” 

    Unreliable narrator D.
    Dramatis personae D.
    Watch that video again.

    Here try this interpretation. You’ll come around probably, eventually. Gotta remember all comedians think they’re actors, Zelensky too.
    2 dimensional chess

    March 2, 2025 at 6:07 pm #183367
    Germ
    Participant

    New paper.
    The damage they’ve done …

    Clear Dose-Response Signal of Risk of Exposure to COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Found in VAERS Data

    “Given the overwhelming convergence of evidence pointing to the failure of repeated mRNA vaccination to enhance immunity and the very real possibility that it is actively undermining immune function, it is no longer scientifically or ethically justifiable to continue their administration.”

    Clear Dose-Response Signal of Risk of Exposure to COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Found in VAERS Data

    TVASSF – “Get injected, Get infected”

    March 2, 2025 at 6:13 pm #183368
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Thanks DBS

    Europe is Falling & Needs War with Russia – Martin Armstrong

    March 2, 2025 at 7:25 pm #183369
    zerosum
    Participant

    Frozen Russian assets
    Somebody is using those assets to generate interest.
    Are the banks willing to do this kind stealing?
    ————–
    https://www.statista.com/statistics/1298593/frozen-assets-of-bank-of-russia-by-country/
    Value of assets of the Bank of Russia frozen due to sanctions due to the war in Ukraine as of March 2022, by country*
    (in billion U.S. dollars)

    —————-
    A bank allowing the use of those deposit as collateral would be enabling stealing.

    March 2, 2025 at 8:01 pm #183370
    zerosum
    Participant

    Illusion Bubbles
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14452455/Putin-missile-attack-sink-container-ship-British-weapons-Ukraine.html

    Putin unleashes Iskander-M missile attack to ‘sink container ship in Odesa carrying cargo of British weapons for Ukraine’
    By TOM MIDLANE

    Vladimir Putin unleashed a missile strike to ‘sink’ a cargo ship amid unconfirmed Russian claims it was carrying British weapons for use by Ukraine.

    Two Iskander-M ballistic missiles hit the Panama-flagged container ship MSC LEVANTE F – reportedly Swiss-owned – soon after it arrived in Odesa on March 1, after making a stop in Turkey.

    Two port workers were believed to have been wounded in the strike, which also damaged infrastructure, Ukrainian reports said.

    The report of the attack comes as British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer today hosts Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders to discuss the future of the wartorn nation following the Ukrainian president’s televised spat with US president Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.

    Russian Telegram channel TalipoV [sic] Online Z claimed that the vessel was loaded with drones and weaponry that had been collected from a NATO based in Turkey before being transported to Odesa in Ukraine.

    However, the channel is run by pro-Putin, Crimea-based blogger Oleksandr Talipov, who was charged with ‘nation-based enmity against Ukrainian citizens’ and hate speech by Ukrainian prosecutors in 2022.

    Tapipov said: ‘It was established that in Turkey the ship loaded additional containers of two colours on board – red and yellow – which contained British sea drones and weapons from the Turkish NATO base.

    ‘Upon arrival at the port of Odesa, the ship was hit by two missiles at berth number two at 18:00.

    ‘After the strike detonations began, the cargo was completely destroyed, the ship sank.’

    Another pro-war Telegram channel Soprotivlenie claimed that the cargo ship was carrying other Western military cargo, including ‘radars and launch containers of ATACMS missiles’ supplied by the US.

    A picture purportedly shows the containers visible on the vessel in Odesa shortly before it was hit.

    However no proof was given on entire Telegram channel that the ship contained any military cargo, nor showed evidence of the extent of damage to the MSC LEVANTE F following the attack.

    Ukrainian vice prime minister Oleksii Kuleba challenged the Russian account and said that the vessel was carrying ‘completely civilian cargoes’.

    The container ship was struck as it prepared to unload, according to the Russian report.

    A strike on the 482ft MSC LEVANTE F was confirmed by Odesa region governor Oleg Kiper.

    ‘The enemy fired a ballistic missile on Odesa,’ he said. ‘The attack damaged port infrastructure and a civilian vessel under the flag of the Republic of Panama owned by a European company.’

    Deputy Prime Minister for the Reconstruction of Ukraine Oleksiy Kuleba said a second ship was also hit, the Sierra Leone-flagged SUPER SARKAS.

    Both ‘damaged’ vessels had completely civilian cargoes, he said.

    The Kyiv Independent reported: ‘No information was immediately available as to what the vessel was carrying, or the extent of the damage.’

    At least 20 foreign merchant ships have been damaged in previous strikes by Russia, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

    In July last year, the MSC LEVANTE F, which can carry approximately 13,634 tons, made the first call by an MSC container ship to Odesa since the start of the war in February 2022.

    Before sailing to Odesa, the container ship docked at Asyaport, near Tekirdağ, on the northern coast of the Sea of Marmara in Turkey.

    The MSC – Mediterranean Shipping Company – brand is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

    ————-

    https://eadaily.com/en/news/2025/03/02/the-command-of-the-armed-forces-of-ukraine-hides-massive-losses-after-a-missile-strike-on-a-military-training-ground

    The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hides massive losses after a missile strike on a military training ground
    ———-
    The preliminary “summit of the party of war in Europe” ended in London.

    Result: everyone (except Hungary and Slovakia) agrees,
    – the war in Ukraine must continue.
    – Europe must sharply increase arms supplies to the Ukrainian army.
    – Europe must sharply increase investments in the military-industrial complex.
    – troops of NATO countries in Europe must be deployed in Ukraine.
    – troops of European countries in Ukraine should be not before but after the conclusion of a peace agreement.
    – we need to present Trump with Europe’s vision of a possible peace in Ukraine. We cannot give the peace agenda to Trump and Putin.
    – Russia is an enemy and we must inflict as much damage on it as possible.
    – Russia has no right to vote, Russia should not be listened to at all. Russia has no right to its own interests in Ukraine.
    – Russia has no right to “dictate its terms”, its inclusion in the discussion of peace is possible only at the last stage.

    That is, the Party of War in Europe proposes to work out the terms and offer them to Russia as an ultimatum.
    – the general EU summit will be on March 6.

    March 2, 2025 at 9:20 pm #183379
    those darned kids
    Participant

    it’s the RACCOON DOGS!!!!!

    March 2, 2025 at 9:45 pm #183380
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    I spoke praise for Marco Rubio prematurely for displaying stoicism in the face of the Trump/jrVance food fight with Zelensky.
    He’s worse than a bump on a log.

    Case in point…more of less war wrt Israel.

    Marco Statesman through and through.

      The statement from
      @SecState
      @marcorubio
      on Military Assistance to Israel:

      “I have signed a declaration to use emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance to Israel. The decision to reverse the Biden Administration’s partial arms embargo, which wrongly withheld a number of weapons and ammunition from Israel, is yet another sign that Israel has no greater ally in the White House than President Trump.

      Since taking office, the Trump Administration has approved nearly $12 billion in major FMS sales to Israel. This important decision coincides with President Trump’s repeal of a Biden-era memorandum which had imposed baseless and politicized conditions on military assistance to Israel at a time when our close ally was fighting a war of survival on multiple fronts against Iran and terror proxies.
      The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats.”

    Observator’s take:

      Trump’s acts bring to mind this remark of John Adams from 1786, “The executive is the natural friend of the people and the only defense which they or their representatives can have against the avarice and ambition of the rich and distinguished.” We can contrast this with the consideration that Mr. Trump is in fact a member in good standing of that amoral oligarchy of avarice and ambition. 

    D don’t see it.
    Brain fog?

    Prosperity for all Parties party to the part!!
    ___Waltz

    Price seeking free markets for my homey homies!
    ____D

    March 2, 2025 at 10:13 pm #183381
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks for the Alex Krainer video , Noirette. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO7bhSRGhoI
    He gets right to the point in the first 3 minutes, namely that Zelensky offered Trump a $500 billion minerals deal last September to keep him engaged, then the UK decided they wanted it, and Starmer got with Zelensky a few days ahead of the Trump inauguration, to sign the “100 year partnership”, which is vague and does not say what $3 billion per year from the UK to Ukraine is for, but alludes to to other situations and considerations not in the treaty/”agreement”. The trick is that it has a secret addendum giving the UK the Ukrainian minerals, and that Russia and Trump would know that, so the Friday drama was Trump putting Ukraine and the UK on the spot, because he knows the real deal, and they want another year of war, but can’t afford it, and Trump/US can just walk away all huffy now.

    March 2, 2025 at 10:15 pm #183382
    John Day
    Participant

    FBI Returns 33 Boxes Of Trump Property Seized During Mar-a-Lago Raid
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-returns-33-boxes-trump-property-seized-during-mar-lago-raid

    March 2, 2025 at 10:15 pm #183383
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Trump Assures PM Starmer England Still His Favorite Muslim Country” –BBee

    March 2, 2025 at 10:51 pm #183384
    zerosum
    Participant

    … Rubio had approved another munitions sale to Israel worth $675.7 million to be delivered starting in 2028.

    Will Israel get the $675.7 million donated by Rubio so that Israel can buy the munitions???????

    March 2, 2025 at 11:53 pm #183385
    morongobill
    Participant

    Send Dan Bongino in to fire that office up.

    March 3, 2025 at 12:06 am #183386
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Thank you Germ
    https://open.substack.com/pub/maryanngebauer/p/debbie-lerman-uncovered?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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