Apr 022025
 


Pablo Picasso Sleeping girl 1935

 

‘Liberation Day’: Trump To Announce Tariff Plans In Rose Garden (Whedon)
Sen. John Kennedy Destroys Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)
Judges Block Trump Orders Targeting Firms Tied To Russia Collusion Hoax (JTN)
Warning Against Judges Intruding On Presidential Powers And Actions (JTN)
Ukraine Has Secret Nuclear Doomsday Plan (RMX)
Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Should Turn on Principle Not Politics (Turley)
Republicans Pad US House Majority With Two Florida Special Election Wins (JTN)
Trump Dials Back Putin Criticism, Renews Attacks On Zelensky (ZH)
DOGE Finds Massive Social Security Fraud Scheme (ZH)
Trump ‘Investment Accelerator’ Fast-Tracks Investments Over $1 Billion (JTN)
France’s Courts Keep Sidelining The Establishment’s Political Rivals (Marsden)
Italy Calls Le Pen Sentence A Blow To Democracy (RT)
Trump Cites Grenell As Potential UN Ambassador Nominee (jTN)
Trump National Security Team Used Gmail For Government Matters – WaPo (RT)
Donald Trump Jr. Says Le Pen’s Verdict Proves Vance Right About EU (TASS)
NATO Will ‘Survive’ Trump – EU’s Top Diplomat (RT)
Germany To Target ‘Internal EU Enemies’ – Politico (RT)
BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin Might Dethrone US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency (Sp.)
USAID and the Architecture of Perception (Stylman)

 

 

 

 

Marine

Lagarde Le Pen

Drenched in blood

Tucker Bukele

Benz Obama

 

 

 

 

Fluid till the last moment.

“..the President wants to ensure that all Americans make out well, particularly Main Street, that’s the focus of these tariffs.”

‘Liberation Day’: Trump To Announce Tariff Plans In Rose Garden (Whedon)

President Donald Trump is set to announce his decision on the implementation of an array of new tariffs Wednesday as some of the tariffs he has already announced will take effect. Trump has dubbed Wednesday “Liberation Day” and is planning an event at the White House’s Rose Garden to unveil his decision on broader tariffs. Trump announced tariffs on Mexico and Canada earlier in his administration, but agreed to postpone both following negotiations with the leaders of those countries that led to agreements to bolster border security. Each tariff adds 25% on goods from the respective country. While those tariffs were part of border security negotiations, Trump is expected to unveil broader tariffs to achieve his stated goal of rebalancing American global trade. On Tuesday, he received reports from the Treasury, Commerce Department, and Office of the Trade Representative on possible tariffs and their potential impacts, though he reportedly has already made up his mind on what to implement. “I’ve settled, yeah,” he told the The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Ahead of the Rose Garden event, moreover, he unveiled a 25% tariff on auto imports that earned praise from union workers, including from United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders who opposed his candidacy. Trump notably feuded with UAW President Shawn Fain during the election, but Fain had high praise for the commander-in-chief after the auto tariffs. “We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working-class communities for decades,” Fain said. “Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions.” Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are expected to go much broader, though the details remain unclear as of press time and interested parties are expected to push for limited exemptions all the way to the deadline.

The point of conjecture at present is whether Trump will announce an across-the-board 20% tariff on all foreign imports, with few if any exceptions, or whether he will opt for a more targeted, reciprocal tariff policy of matching each nation’s respective rates and negotiating on an individual basis. During the press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to offer a preview of Trump’s exact decision, but spoke to broader tariff policy and the pledged foreign investments that the administration has already secured. “It’s simple. If you make your product in America, you will pay no tariffs. We have already seen a number of the largest companies in the world respond to this economic approach,” she said. “For example, Project Stargate, led by Japan-based Softbank and US-based OpenAI and Oracle, announced a $500 billion private investment in the United State-based artificial intelligence infrastructure.”

“Apple announced a $500 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing and training. Nvidia announced it will invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years in U.S.-based manufacturing, and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced a $100 billion investment in U.S.-based chips and manufacturing,” she added. “These are just a few of the investment announcements that have already been made, and it is clear that President Trump’s America First approach is already working.” In anticipation of Trump’s announcement, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed an order to remove all remaining import tariffs on American goods, subject to the approval of the Knesset Finance Committee, according to the Times of Israel. Trump himself has indicated he expects other nations to drop their tariffs on American goods in response to his moves and has stated that India would soon drop many of its tariffs. “I heard that India is going to be dropping its tariffs substantially. A lot of countries are going to drop their tariffs,” he told reporters on Monday.

Trump’s support for tariffs during the 2016 campaign was a substantial challenge to long-established Republican free-trade orthodoxy and his second term already threatens to rewrite the party dogma on global commerce altogether. Some lawmakers, however, are less than thrilled by the prospect, and an unusual coalition of moderate Republicans and conservative libertarians have joined forces to express their disagreements. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has led a resolution to end the emergency declaration that prompted Trump’s tariffs on Canada. So far, three Republicans have aligned with Democrats to back the measure, including Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C.; Rand Paul, Ky.; and Susan Collins, Maine, Politico reported. At least one more Republican would need to sign on to pass the measure, which would still likely fail in the House. Nonetheless, the vote will prove a metric for internal support for tariffs on the Republican side.

Some Republicans are enthusiastically on board with the tariffs. Speaking on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show on Tuesday, Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.V., pointed to how free trade practices had led to job losses in his own district. ”The American workers have been living in a trade war for over 40 years, and they’ve seen their jobs be decimated, like in my state of West Virginia, where just last year, because the Biden administration would not implement tariffs on 10-plate steel that was being dumped into the market by China and Canada and some other countries, we lost 1,000 jobs in my district alone, and we had to idle that steel plant,” he said. “That’s not putting the American worker first. It’s not putting America first,” he added. “So, President Trump is the first person in my lifetime who is really trying to reset this table and put us in a good position to be able to succeed here as a country,” Moore added.

Stock markets have reeled in the wake of some of Trump’s tariffs thus far, with key indices such as the DOW Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 plunging significantly in the subsequent days, though they have since stabilized to some degree. Should Trump opt for broader tariff options, equities are likely to witness a similar drop. Nevertheless, the White House offered its assurances on Tuesday that the markets would ultimately adjust to the changing state of affairs. “Yesterday, Dow futures were up, and there’s been a lot of talk about the market, and it was up yesterday,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “So look, the President wants to ensure that all Americans make out well, particularly Main Street, that’s the focus of these tariffs.” Leavitt also predicted that “Wall Street will be just fine.”

Read more …

Brilliant from John Kennedy. Dso watch.

“How can a federal judge issue an order that affects everyone else outside of that courtroom?”

Sen. John Kennedy Destroys Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)

By now, you know that I’m a big fan of Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and his unmatched ability to dismantle weak arguments with his signature Southern wit. On Monday, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he was at the top of his game, systematically exposing the complete lack of legal authority for district judges to issue universal injunctions — a favorite tactic of the left to block Trump’s agenda. Questioning Assistant Attorney General nominee Brett Shumate, Kennedy systematically dismantled any justification for these sweeping judicial orders. “Mr. Shumate, what’s a universal injunction?” Kennedy asked. Shumate explained, “Senator, a universal injunction is an order from a court enjoining the government in a way that goes beyond the parties to the case but applies nationwide or in some cases universally.”

Kennedy pressed further, asking, “What’s the statutory basis for a federal judge issuing an order that affects people other than the parties before the court?” “I’m not aware of a statutory basis, Senator,” Shumate admitted.”There is no statutory basis, is there?” Kennedy reiterated. “No, Senator,” Shumate confirmed. Kennedy then challenged Shumate to name a Supreme Court ruling that interprets the Constitution to allow such injunctions. “Can you name me that case?” he asked. “I’m not aware of one, Senator,” Shumate responded. “There isn’t one, is there?” Kennedy pressed. “I’m not aware of one, Senator,” Shumate repeated. Kennedy then laid out the fundamental issue: “You have a plaintiff and a defendant, and the plaintiff files a lawsuit in federal court. The judge has jurisdiction over those parties. How can a federal judge issue an order that affects everyone else outside of that courtroom?”

“Uh, it shouldn’t be possible, Senator, but district courts do it all the time,” Shumate admitted. “I think on the theory that courts need to enjoin a federal policy from going into effect, and they often will enjoin it nationwide so that all non-parties are protected.” “I thought that if you wanted to affect parties who aren’t in court, you had to file a class action,” Kennedy countered. “That’s correct, Senator,” Shumate agreed. Kennedy pointed out that instead of filing class actions, plaintiffs often seek universal injunctions, which have no legal foundation. “Does this encourage forum shopping?” he asked. “Yes, Senator. Not only does it encourage forum shopping, but also district shopping and filing multiple strategic lawsuits to find one judge who will enjoin a single policy nationwide,” Shumate said. “If you have five lawsuits, only one of those cases needs to be successful.”

Kennedy then turned to historical precedent. “Universal injunction is basically an equitable remedy. Did this exist in common law courts in England?” he asked. “I don’t believe so, Senator,” Shumate responded, citing Supreme Court precedent that equitable relief was traditionally limited to the parties in a case. Recommended: The Atlantic Caught Pushing Another Anti-Trump Hoax Story Kennedy then points out that judges issued only about 27 universal injunctions in the entire 20th century. “But 86 of them were issued against President Trump in his first term. Is that correct?” Kennedy asked. “I don’t know the specific number, but it was a high number,” Shumate conceded. “And so far in President Trump’s second term, 30 universal injunctions have been issued against him. Have they not?” Kennedy continued.

“Senator, I don’t have the specific number, but that sounds about right,” Shumate said. “The universal injunction has become a weapon against the Trump administration, has it not?” Kennedy asked. “Yes,” Shumate affirmed. In his closing remarks, Kennedy highlighted the constitutional issue at hand: “Tell me the basis for universal injunction in Article III. Where does it mention universal injunction?” “It does not, Senator,” Shumate said. “It says courts are to decide the case or controversy before them, which is based on the parties to the case.” Kennedy concluded, “So Congress could act and say, ‘Look, federal judges, you render a decision to a plaintiff or a defendant, but you can’t impact people outside of your courtroom other than through a class action.’ That’s why God created class actions, isn’t it?” “Yes, Senator,” Shumate agreed. Kennedy’s questioning explained that universal injunctions lack any basis in statutory law, Supreme Court precedent, or historical common law and exposed their use as a judicial overreach that disproportionately targets President Trump’s policies.

Read more …

“..the FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.”

Judges Block Trump Orders Targeting Firms Tied To Russia Collusion Hoax (JTN)

Multiple judges have blocked efforts by President Donald Trump to hold “Big Law” firms accountable for their connections to lawyers closely tied to the Russia collusion hoax. The executive orders make allegations against some of the most powerful law firms in the nation: the WilmerHale law firm for previously employing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and two of his top prosecutors; against Jenner & Block in part for previously employing top Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann; and against Perkins Coie in large part for previously employing Democratic-party-aligned election lawyer Marc Elias, for helping Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign fund British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s debunked anti-Trump dossier. Elias, who worked at Perkins for many years as the chair of the Political Law Group, went on to serve also as the general counsel for now-former Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed 2020 presidential bid. Perkins announced in 2021 that Elias and others were leaving to form Elias Law Group.

Judges have blocked significant portions of Trump’s executive orders aimed at each of those firms, although the Paul Weiss law firm — targeted by Trump in part for employing former Mueller prosecutor Jeannie Rhee — acquiesced to Trump’s demands, with Trump announcing last week that the firm would now be “taking on a wide range of pro bono matters representing the full political spectrum; committing to merit-based hiring, promotion, and retention, instead of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies; [and] dedicating the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services during my term in office to support causes including assisting our Nation’s veterans, fairness in the justice system, and combating anti-Semitism.” Trump has used similar language in multiple executive orders addressing the “significant risks” posed by so-called “Big Law” firms which “engage in conduct detrimental to critical American interests.”

“Many firms take actions that threaten public safety and national security, limit constitutional freedoms, degrade the quality of American elections, or undermine bedrock American principles,” Trump said in these executive orders. “Moreover, law firms regularly conduct this harmful activity through their powerful pro bono practices, earmarking hundreds of millions of their clients’ dollars for destructive causes, that often directly or indirectly harm their own clients. Lawyers and law firms that engage in such egregious conduct should not have access to our Nation’s secrets, nor should such conduct be subsidized by Federal taxpayer funds or contracts.” The common thread in this batch of executive orders is that each of the firms targeted centers around the previous litigation and law enforcement activity executed against Trump. Those cases did not pan out.

An investigation by special counsel Mueller “did not establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found huge flaws with the FBI’s investigation, criticizing the “central and essential” role of the dossier in the FBI’s politicized surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Special Counsel John Durham’s report concluded that “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.” The special counsel noted that “the FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.” Trump’s executive order on “Addressing Risks from WilmerHale” was issued on March 27, and it included a heavy focus on Mueller and members of his team.

The Trump order said that WilmerHale “is yet another law firm that has abandoned the profession’s highest ideals and abused its pro bono practice to engage in activities that undermine justice and the interests of the United States” and argued that the firm “is also bent on employing lawyers who weaponize the prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process and distort justice.” “WilmerHale rewarded Robert Mueller and his colleagues — Aaron Zebley, Mueller’s ‘top aide’ and ‘closest associate,’ and James Quarles — by welcoming them to the firm after they wielded the power of the Federal Government to lead one of the most partisan investigations in American history,” the executive order contends. “Mueller’s investigation epitomizes the weaponization of government, yet WilmerHale claimed he ‘embodies the highest value of our firm and profession.’ Mueller’s ‘investigation’ upended the lives of public servants in my Administration who were summoned before ‘prosecutors’ with the effect of interfering in their ability to fulfill the mandates of my first term agenda. This weaponization of the justice system must not be rewarded, let alone condoned,” Trump said in the executive order.

Read more …

“..exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”

Warning Against Judges Intruding On Presidential Powers And Actions (JTN)

Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system, leaving a blight on justice itself, says a North Carolina congresswoman who leads the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C, is speaking out against judges blocking the president’s decisions as granted in the Constitution ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing. “As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority,” she said in a post to social media Monday afternoon. “This is judicial warfare in the flesh. If it is not remedied in a commonsense and expeditious fashion, these exercises in partisanship will do further irreparable damage to the nation and to the confidence of Americans in our justice system.”

More than a dozen orders from President Donald Trump – more than in the entire time Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush served as presidents – have been thwarted or attempted to be blocked. Among the judges in the spotlight is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a pivotal figure in the deportation of people accused of being in gangs, in addition to just being named to preside in a case involving military operations and a messaging app. Boasberg, appointed by Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2002, was nominated to the federal bench by Obama and confirmed in the Senate 96-0 in 2012.

Boasberg on Wednesday issued and on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, is at 10 a.m. Tuesday to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. California Republican Darrell Issa is chairman of the former committee, Texas’ Chip Roy the latter. North Carolina Democrat Deborah Ross is a minority member of the former; North Carolina Republican Mark Harris is a majority member of the latter.

Witnesses scheduled include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Cindy Romero, a victim of criminal activity believed perpetrated by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colo. Also on the invite list are witnesses from the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Other federal judges drawing fire from supporters of the president include Biden appointees Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, Deborah Boardman, Angel Kelley and Brendan Hurson; Obama appointees Paul Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin; Bush appointee Joseph Laplante; Bill Clinton appointee William Alsup; and Ronald Reagan appointees John Coughenhour and Royce Lamberth. “Without question,” Foxx said, “exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”

Read more …

Blackmail Kiev style. Blow everything up, including all the neighbors. Scorched earth. Let’s give them another $100 billion.

Ukraine Has Secret Nuclear Doomsday Plan (RMX)

Ukraine has a secret last-ditch “scorched earth” plan to render its entire territory uninhabitable in the event of a Russian victory in the war – and perhaps the rest of Europe with it. This is according to Oleksiy Arestovych, a former adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In an interview with a Ukrainian journalist that he gave last month, Arestovych claimed that Ukraine’s current head of military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, has floated a plan to blow up all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, and possibly some of Russia’s as well, if all other defensive measures fail. Ukraine currently operates four nuclear power plants with a total of 15 reactors. One of them, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, is the largest plant in Europe and has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Russia, for its part, has 37 reactors divided among 11 power plants.

https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1903424504723829246?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1903424504723829246%7Ctwgr%5Edf7b04cdf48090001566b3c7db9961a15c2fa7c5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fukraine-has-secret-nuclear-doomsday-plan-according-to-former-zelensky-adviser%2F

If all or even some of these reactors were attacked and destroyed simultaneously, the destructive impact would be beyond calculation. The Chernobyl nuclear accident that occurred in Ukraine in 1986, and which remains the worst disaster involving nuclear energy in history, killed dozens and led to long-term health problems for thousands of others. It also led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and rendered the surrounding area permanently uninhabitable, spreading radioactivity over a large area and even into Western Europe. Moreover, the Chernobyl disaster required the combined resources of the Soviet Union, as well as the assistance it received from other countries, to contain it. In a scenario where several nuclear plants were destroyed simultaneously, it would likely exceed the ability of any nation to bring it under control.

The resulting casualties and damage to the environment would therefore be many times worse than what happened in 1986. Nor would this catastrophe be limited to Ukraine and Russia: Harmful radioactivity would undoubtedly be carried by the atmosphere and spread over the rest of Europe as well. Arestovych raised the alleged plan in the context of U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine’s nuclear reactors should be brought under American control. The White House reported that the president had proposed the idea to Zelensky in a phone call they had last month, arguing that this would offer the “best protection” for the country’s nuclear energy infrastructure. While some accused the American president of wanting to seize control of Ukraine’s energy resources for his own country’s benefit,

Arestovych asserted that the real reason was that Washington knows about Budanov’s apocalyptic plan. He said that the Trump administration sees the Ukrainian government as “apes with a grenade” and wants to “take these dangerous toys out of our control.” “They know about our plans to blow up all the nuclear power plants if Ukraine starts losing,” Arestovych said. “Budanov was running around with this [idea] a year and a half ago. Blow up everything, the Russian plants we can reach as well as our own, so that nobody gets them.”The rationale behind this doomsday scenario, the former adviser claimed, is “we all bite the dust, but so will they.” He referred to Zelensky and his senior staff as “a group of deranged people.”

Arestovych further stated that American efforts to gain control over Ukraine’s nuclear facilities actually date back to the Biden administration, when such plans were proposed under the guise of scientific research. The U.S. Republicans, he says, prefer a more direct approach. Arestovych also alluded to the efforts of Ukrainian banker Oleh Gorokhovsky to raise funds for a nuclear weapons program for the country following Trump’s explosive clash with Zelensky in the Oval Office last month. His fundraiser brought in more than half a million euros. Originally a military officer, Arestovych predicted in a video interview that he gave in 2019 that Russia would attack Ukraine between 2020 and 2022, and that the resulting war would be used as a pretext for Ukraine joining NATO. He was appointed as a government advisor on national security and defense in 2020.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Arestovych gave daily briefings at the president’s office. In January 2023, he claimed that what the Ukrainian government said was a deliberate Russian attack on a residential complex was in fact the result of an error by Ukraine’s own air defense forces. This angered many and he resigned from his position the same month. Arestovych has continued to comment publicly on the war and has been critical of Zelensky’s handling of it. He eventually left Ukraine out of fear of being arrested. He still has a significant social media following, and has said that he will run for president of Ukraine when the next elections are held. Several attacks have already been launched against both Ukrainian and Russian nuclear reactors since the current war began, although fortunately no significant damage has been caused so far. Each side has accused the other of being behind these assaults.

Read more …

Lost the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, but..

Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Should Turn on Principle Not Politics (Turley)

(Update 2210ET): According to multiple outlets, Democrat-endorsed Susan Crawford has won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, beating Republican-endorsed Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US history. The campaigns and their supporters spent more than $81 million, and drew the involvement of Elon Musk, Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, and other political figures. Crawford’s win means that liberals will retain a 4-3 majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

***
Today, the voters of Wisconsin go to the polls in what may be the single most expensive and important judicial race in modern history. Both parties are spending millions with the balance of the state Supreme Court in the balance. If liberal Susan Crawford wins, the expectation is that she will vote with the Democratic majority to approve a gerrymandering of congressional districts to guarantee the loss of two Republicans and possibly flip control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats. The raw political pitch in the election is disturbing. It assumes that both candidates will blindly support the objectives of their respective parties. The real reason to cast a vote today should be on judicial ideology. Ironically, the United States Supreme Court made that plain in an important Wisconsin case argued just the day before the state election.

The case is Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission. In the decision below, the Democratic-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Catholic Charities could not benefit from a religious exemption to the state’s unemployment tax because its charitable work was not sufficiently religious. Catholic Charities is one of the world’s oldest and most respected charities. However, the church believes that it has a duty to help people of every faith who are in need. Thus, the church does not proselytize in offering such aid and services. A state labor commission ruled that the charity’s lack of such religious expression and prayer makes it secular, even if it has religious motivations.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed and ruled that the charity is not operated primarily for religious purposes because it does not “attempt to imbue” beneficiaries “with the Catholic faith nor supply any religious materials to program participants or employees.” In other words, the fact that Catholic Charities helps everyone and does not proselytize worked against it. The Wisconsin Supreme Court essentially argued that it needs to pray more to offer such charity as a church. It is a disturbing ruling that would allow the state to choose between religions in weighing their relative manifestations of faith.

Even liberal justices cried foul over the standard. Justice Elena Kagan suggested it was “pretty fundamental that we don’t treat some religions better than others. And we certainly don’t do it based on the content of the religious doctrine that those religions preach.” Kagan noted, “Some religions proselytize. Other religions don’t. Why are we treating some religions better than others based on that element of religious doctrine?” She noted that the standard “basically puts the state on the side of some religions with some doctrine versus other religions with a different doctrine.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested that the Wisconsin Supreme Court was asking the wrong questions about what it means to be an organization “operated primarily for religious purposes.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch virtually mocked the standard of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, asking if Catholic Charities have to require the people receiving their services to “repent.” He then asked: “is mandatory church attendance versus optional church attendance, that’s the line?” Gorsuch then delivered the haymaker: “Isn’t it a fundamental premise of our First Amendment that the state shouldn’t be picking and choosing between religions, between certain evangelical sects, and Judaism and Catholicism on the other, for example?” The case shows that there are far more important issues dividing these candidates on judicial philosophy that should drive this election. I am not a fan of state elected judges and justices precisely because of the raw political element to these contests. The Catholic Charities case shows that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is divided along more than just a party line.

Read more …

..but this win may prove to be more important.

Republicans Pad US House Majority With Two Florida Special Election Wins (JTN)

Republicans padded their slim U.S. House majority Tuesday after winning two Florida special elections to replace a pair of members who resigned their seats. In the 6th Congressional District, state Sen. Randy Fine was projected to defeat Democrat Josh Weil with about 56% of the vote with 98% of ballots counted, according to unofficial results. The race was necessitated by the resignation of former U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, a Republican who became President Donald Trump’s national security advisor. Tuesday’s outcome was closer than Waltz’s last race, when he won by 34 points.

Florida Republican Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis was the projected winner over Democrat Gay Valimont with 56% of the unofficial vote tally with 93% counted to replace former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida’s 1st Congressional District. Gaetz resigned his U.S. House seat after being nominated by Trump to be the U.S. attorney general, but he later dropped out of the running because the Republican firebrand and Trump ally faced a tough confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate due to a House ethics investigation. Trump instead nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was easily confirmed. With the wins, the GOP will pad their U.S. still slim House majority to 220 seats to 213 for Democrats.

Read more …

“..one wonders then: Why does the Trump administration even bother?”

Trump Dials Back Putin Criticism, Renews Attacks On Zelensky (ZH)

It was only on Sunday that President Trump declared he’s “very angry” at Russian President Putin, statements which featured the threat of secondary tariffs on Moscow, but now the US leader is already dialing back this criticism, Bloomberg observes. Instead he’s once again focused his ire on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, warning of “big problems” if he doesn’t sign the controversial minerals agreement and tries to renegotiate. “I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. And if he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems,” Trump earlier told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’” “He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that. So if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems,” Trump said.

Zelensky has signaled that Ukraine is positive about the deal but has complained that its conditions are “constantly changing”. Trump has still kept up some pressure on Putin, however, saying Monday of the Russian leader, “I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will.” He continued in Monday remarks from the Oval, “I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil, but I think, you know, something I would do if I thought he wasn’t doing the job.” All of the weekend criticisms of Putin appeared to arise from the Russian president’s comments late last week declaring that Zelensky’s ‘illegitimacy’ could be fixed by a UN transition process guiding Ukraine to new elections. Only then would Moscow negotiate an end the war, Putin stipulated.

“He’s supposed to be making a deal with him, whether you like him or don’t like him,” Trump told reporters Sunday, referring to Putin. “So I wasn’t happy with that. But I think he’s going to be good.” But again, he reserved blunter criticism for US ally Zelensky: “I heard that they’re now saying, well, I’ll only do that deal if we get into NATO or something to that effect,” Trump had said. Bloomberg has concluded the following of this latest back-and-forth: The result is a geopolitical whiplash on the eve of Trump’s global tariff announcement on April 2 and shows US impatience with the process of securing a temporary truce between Russia and Ukraine more than three years after Putin’s invasion of its neighbor. Trump had vowed he would end the war within 24 hours of taking office but has found Russia to be a tough negotiator and able to wrest concessions from the US by exploiting Trump’s desire to get a deal done quickly.

On Sunday, Trump told NBC he was “pissed off” at Putin. Of course, this is also due to Russian forces rolling up several villages and towns on the battlefield in Ukraine’s east and south just this week alone. Putin has less incentive for a hasty deal, and is in the driver’s seat – but surely the White House knows this, which is perhaps why the pressure is ramping up on Zelensky once again. As for the apparently ever-changing draft minerals deal, Ukraine and its supporters have continued to charge that it’s tantamount to a big resource grab by Washington. Ukraine received its latest version of a new draft of the text on Friday, its foreign ministry stated. CNN writes that “The new proposal for a natural resources agreement, of which CNN has obtained a copy, was put forward by the US Treasury Department and goes well beyond the initial draft, particularly on future US rights and reimbursement for past assistance.”

Some independent geopolitical observes have said the deal effectively imposes ‘indentured servitude’ on Ukraine. “This ‘deal’ is pure extortion and robbery. It would bind Ukraine indefinitely. It would also discourage any investment in any natural deposits in Ukraine. There is no chance that any such deal will be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament,” Moon of Alabama writes. The source then questions, “one wonders then: Why does the Trump administration even bother?”

Read more …

I’ve seen some questions about this float by. To be continued.

DOGE Finds Massive Social Security Fraud Scheme (ZH)

One day after Elon Musk and Antonio Gracias—founder and CEO of the Chicago-based investment firm Valor Equity Partners, and now a DOGE official—unveiled a “mind-blowing” chart showing a surge in Social Security numbers issued to illegal aliens over the Biden-Harris administration’s first term during an America PAC town hall in Wisconsin on Sunday, Musk’s America PAC hosted an online tele-town hall with Wisconsin voters on Monday night, where he provided more color on the SSN fraud. During the tele-town hall, one Wisconsin voter asked Musk: “You found a lot of fraud in Social Security. Do you know whether the Attorney General will investigate and prosecute that fraud?”

Musk responded: “I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow, because there’s someone who actually stole 400,000 Social Security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database… And was selling Social Security numbers and all the identification information in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security.” “This is a particular avenue of fraud for illegal immigrants and voter fraud – because the main way identification is established in the US is via Social Security. If you comprise the Social Security system, you can basically get people to get defacto registered to vote – even if they’re not citizens – and get a bunch of benefits and to milk the system – this is pretty insane,” Musk said.

On Sunday, Musk and Gracias showed the audience of a town hall a chart titled “New Non-Citizen Social Security Numbers Issued” …

Then again, Democrats are against DOGE’s efforts to find waste and fraud at Social Security. Wonder why? American citizens deserve full transparency, accountability, and swift reforms to ensure this kind of fraud is never repeated and used to game elections and drain resources of citizens by illegals. Also, handing out stolen SNNs is a national security threat and can end up in the hands of bad actors, such as members of transnational gangs or terrorist networks.

Read more …

“..the president has already secured more than $3 trillion in private investments so far.”

Trump ‘Investment Accelerator’ Fast-Tracks Investments Over $1 Billion (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that creates an “investment accelerator,” which seeks to facilitate and fast-track the approval of any investment into the United States of over $1 billion. The order creates a new office within the Department of Commerce that will speed up the approval process for investments, and encourage countries to invest in the U.S. by reducing regulatory burdens, and increasing communication about investor issues across departments. The new office will also be responsible for administering the CHIPS Program Office, which the White House claims will negotiate “much better CHIPS Act deals than the previous Administration.”

“President Trump believes it is in America’s interest that the Federal Government dramatically expand its assistance to companies seeking to invest and build in the United States,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “By streamlining processes, the Accelerator will attract both foreign and domestic investment, reinforcing America’s position as the premier destination for large-scale investment.” The White House also touted that the president has already secured more than $3 trillion in private investments so far.

Read more …

“Le Pen’s party got the most votes, and the anti-establishment left won the most seats – neither of which entitles you to actually govern France anymore, apparently..”

France’s Courts Keep Sidelining The Establishment’s Political Rivals (Marsden)

Earlier this week, the anti-establishment French political leader whom all polls suggest would easily win the presidency, if the vote were held tomorrow, was barred from running for office for five years. How convenient. Right-wing National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty in a Paris court of embezzling European Union funds. Accused of enabling a system whereby aides hired to serve in Brussels ended up doing work for the party, she was also fined an sentenced to two years of home detention under electronic monitoring. The allegations against Le Pen, dating back to at least 2014, were so old that they could have qualified for a French pension. But now the verdict conveniently takes her out of the 2027 election cycle. If you were looking for a foolproof way to supercharge support for Le Pen’s party, congratulations, French judiciary – you nailed it.

There’s no better way to fire up a political movement than to turn its leader into a martyr of a state that looks to be meddling with citizens’ democratic options. Just ask Romania’s Calin Georgescu, who was on his way to victory before getting politically kneecapped by the system: arrested, accused of foreign funding, then ultimately just dismissed for a paperwork technicality. And what happened next? His replacement, George Simion, is now surging in the polls. Who could’ve seen that coming? (Spoiler: Everyone.) Disqualifying candidates for crimes like corruption, fraud, and electoral violations wasn’t automatic in France – until Emmanuel Macron’s party conveniently made it so in 2017. Timing is everything: that law landed roughly three years after Brussels put Le Pen in its investigative crosshairs. Surely just a coincidence. The law’s biggest cheerleader? Macron ally and centrist leader, François Bayrou, who championed it – right up until he found himself accused of the exact same EU cash-grab scheme as Le Pen.

Awkward. He lasted a whole month as Macron’s justice minister before getting booted. But don’t worry, he bounced back. Acquitted last year, he was later handpicked as Macron’s prime minister, despite not running for anything. You know who actually won that election? Le Pen’s party got the most votes, and the anti-establishment left won the most seats – neither of which entitles you to actually govern France anymore, apparently. Meanwhile, leftist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is also under investigation for – you guessed it – precisely the same kind of disqualifying offense involving EU funding as Le Pen. It’s no wonder Trump looks at this mess and sees himself in Le Pen’s situation. “She was banned for five years and she was the leading candidate,” Trump said. “That sounds like this country.” If Trump had been French, and convicted on some of his own election-related charges, like those in Georgia, he wouldn’t have been able to run for president, either.

Hopefully the fashion capital of the world won’t set a trend with this one. Sure, convict someone. But let the people decide if the convict is still a better electoral option. Democracy means letting people choose – even if their top pick needs a parole officer instead of a campaign manager. There’s a distinct pattern here: every time a candidate starts looking like a real threat to the establishment, the legal system suddenly finds a reason to hit the brakes. It’s almost as if France has an unofficial “Incumbent Protection Act”. Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn? Back in 2011, as IMF head, he was basically measuring the drapes at the Élysée Palace for his imminent move in. Then – bam! – a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault. Career over. And just to make sure, French authorities later charged him with pimping. Yes, pimping. He was acquitted, but good luck running for office when “IMF President” and “Accused Pimp” are both on your CV.

Read more …

“..no one who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that affects the leader of a large party and takes away representation from millions of citizens.”

Italy Calls Le Pen Sentence A Blow To Democracy (RT)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned the conviction of French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, saying it undermines the voice of millions of voters. On Monday, Le Pen, the former leader of the conservative National Rally (RN) party, was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement, two of them suspended, and barred from holding public office for five years. If the conviction stands, it effectively rules her out of the 2027 presidential race. Commenting on the verdict, Meloni told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday: “I don’t know the merit of the objections made to Marine Le Pen, nor the reasons for such a harsh decision. But I think that no one who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that affects the leader of a large party and takes away representation from millions of citizens.”

Meloni joined a chorus of French and international politicians in criticizing the ruling, which many called undemocratic. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday described the verdict as a “declaration of war by Brussels.” US President Donald Trump also weighed in, saying the criminal prosecution of Le Pen reminded him of the legal challenges he faced under former President Joe Biden’s administration. According to Le Monde, prosecutors argued that Le Pen and several RN lawmakers misused European Parliament funds by diverting them from official duties to party activities in France. Le Pen denied any wrongdoing, called the verdict politically motivated, and said she would appeal.

Speaking on French television on Monday evening, Le Pen vowed to stay in politics and fight for her right to run. “I’m combative, I won’t let myself be eliminated,” she said. Le Pen has run for president three times, finishing second in 2017 and 2022. Her party currently holds the largest number of seats in the National Assembly. According to an Ifop poll published in Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday, 34-37% of those surveyed said they plan to vote for Le Pen in 2027 – over ten points more than her nearest rival, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. A longtime critic of NATO policy in Eastern Europe, Le Pen has opposed Ukraine’s accession to the military bloc and has spoken out against EU sanctions on Russia.

Read more …

Grenell is a very effective special envoy. But maybe Trump feels Witkoff can now do with he did.

Trump Cites Grenell As Potential UN Ambassador Nominee (jTN)

President Donald Trump says about 30 people have expressed interest in becoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations since he pulled the nomination of New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik for the position. Trump made the comment Monday. He also said David Friedman, who was the U.S. ambassador to Israel during his first administration, and Richard Grenell, who was the former ambassador to Germany, as potential nominees. “We have a lot of people that have asked about it and would like to do it,” he said. Trump also said about 30 people are interested in the position.

“Everyone loves that position,” he said. “That’s a star-making position. And so we’ll see what happens.” Last week, Trump pulled Stefanik’s nomination to save House Republicans from losing another member and cutting further into their already narrow majority. House Republicans have already lost two members to Trump nominations, after winning control of the lower chamber in November.

Read more …

Unnecessary nonsense.

Trump National Security Team Used Gmail For Government Matters – WaPo (RT)

Members of the US National Security Council (NSC), including national security adviser Mike Waltz, have used personal Gmail accounts to discuss sensitive government information, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing obtained emails and three people familiar with the matter. The report comes after Waltz accidentally added a journalist to a Signal chat group where Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance and other senior officials discussed the upcoming US strikes in Yemen. According to the Post, a senior Waltz aide used Gmail for “highly technical conversations” with colleagues, which included “sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict.” The Post cited officials as saying that Waltz had “potentially exploitable information” sent to his Gmail account and posted parts of his schedule into Signal to coordinate meetings and discussions.

Officials are normally required to use secure government-issued means of communication. NSC spokesman Brian Hughes told the Post that Waltz “didn’t and wouldn’t send classified information on an open account.” He added that when “legacy contacts” were emailing Waltz, he always copied the messages to his government email “to ensure compliance with records retention.” Hughes said that NSC staff are instructed to use “only secure platforms for classified information.” In a statement to Fox News, Hughes said that he could not verify the Post’s claims because the journalist “refused to share any part of the document reported.”

The Democrats have criticized the Trump administration for using the Signal chat app when discussing the bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen last month. According to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, he was added to a group where Hegseth shared the timeline of the March 15 strikes, as well as the weapons systems used in the operation. Hegseth and other White House officials have denied that any classified information was shared in the chat with Goldberg. President Donald Trump has rejected the calls to dismiss Waltz. “I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” he told NBC News on Saturday.

Read more …

“..Europe is afraid of its own voters and is useless to the United States in this form..”

Donald Trump Jr. Says Le Pen’s Verdict Proves Vance Right About EU (TASS)

The sentence handed down to Marine Le Pen, the head of the parliamentary faction of the French National Rally party, proves US Vice President JD Vance is right about the EU, son of the American leader Donald Trump Jr. said on X. “France is sending Le Pen to jail and barring her from running?! Are they just trying to prove [JD Vence] was right about everything?” he wrote. Vance, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, blasted the EU for censorship, including for blocking social networks. He said that Europe is afraid of its own voters and is useless to the United States in this form. He said that illegal migrants regularly commit crimes in the EU and advised to tighten border controls.

On Monday, a court in Paris found Le Pen guilty of embezzling EU funds and sentenced her to four years in prison, two of which she will have to wear an electronic bracelet (the remaining two years are suspended). The verdict, according to experts, means she will not be able to run for president of France in 2027. As explained by Le Figaro, Le Pen may retain her parliamentary mandate and the post of chairman of the party’s faction, but she will not be able to participate in possible early elections to the National Assembly (lower house) of the French parliament. The US State Department declined to comment. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS earlier that Le Pen’s verdict shows the “agony of liberal democracy.”

Read more …

If Kaja Kallas is your top diplomat, you have many problems.

NATO Will ‘Survive’ Trump – EU’s Top Diplomat (RT)

NATO will remain intact despite pressure from US President Donald Trump, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said. She warned, however, that some member states must be ready to make difficult choices to meet the required level of defense spending. In an interview with Spanish daily El Mundo on Monday, Kallas was asked whether “NATO [will] survive Trump’s term.” “I’m sure. It’s a strong alliance that’s alive and well”, she replied, adding that member nations have committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on defense by 2024 – a threshold that a significant portion of the bloc has yet to reach. “I hear the problems some countries are having, but I also think it’s illusory to get out of this situation without making difficult and unpopular decisions,” she said, citing her tenure as prime minister of Estonia during which the country raised taxes.

Pressed on why the EU does not propose direct subsidies for those lagging behind in defense spending, Kallas stated that the bloc must balance the interests of highly indebted countries and those that contribute the most to the EU budget. To address this, the EU has instituted “relief measures in the fiscal rules to give member states more room to operate,” which could give countries a number of options to increase spending, she added. Since his first term, Trump has been pushing European NATO members to spend more on their own defense. While the bloc’s members agreed to reach a 2% threshold, in February, the US president suggested that NATO members should consider spending as much as 5% of GDP on defense. Last month, he warned: “if they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said Trump was right to demand that European members step up defense spending. NATO leaders have insisted that the hike in military expenditure is aimed at deterring Russia amid the Ukraine conflict. Some officials have suggested that Moscow could launch a full-scale attack on the US-led bloc within a few years. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the speculation as “nonsense,” arguing that Moscow has no interest in doing so.

Read more …

The new guy dreams of control. Inevitable.

Germany To Target ‘Internal EU Enemies’ – Politico (RT)

The incoming German government plans to play a larger role in EU decision-making, including by punishing nations that dissent against the bloc’s foreign policy, Politico has reported. According to the outlet, a draft coalition agreement targets Hungary, which has defied EU decisions on issues such as the Ukraine conflict and sanctions against Russia. Germany is set to have a new coalition government formed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democrats (SPD), likely led by Friedrich Merz of the CDU. The parties are currently finalizing agreements on key policy areas, including migration, climate, and EU relations. Merz is reportedly aiming to form the new government before Easter on April 20.

One of the documents reviewed by Politico outlines Berlin’s plans for a more assertive EU strategy. It proposes using the ‘Weimar Triangle’ – a trilateral alliance of Germany, France, and Poland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency – to influence the bloc’s direction and strengthen Germany’s use of its voting rights.The draft also states that Berlin plans to “defend” the EU against “internal and external enemies” by calling for punitive action against member states that allegedly violate principles such as the rule of law. Proposed penalties include withholding EU funds and suspending voting rights. “We will take even more consistent action against violations,” the document states.

“Existing protective instruments, from infringement proceedings and the withholding of EU funds to the suspension [of] membership rights such as voting rights in the Council of the EU, must be applied much more consistently than before.” The coalition has also proposed the creation of a “comprehensive sanction instrument” to rein in perceived dissenters, including replacing the EU’s foreign policy unanimity requirement with majority voting to prevent countries from blocking decisions such as sanctions. “The consensus principle in the European Council must not become a brake on decision-making,” the document states.

While Hungary is not mentioned by name, the draft agreement appears to be a clear reference to the country, which has long been at odds with EU policies, including over its approach to the Ukraine conflict and its sanctions policy towards Russia. Budapest has argued that sanctions have been detrimental to the bloc’s economy, and has exercised its veto right on several motions to delay or dilute measures. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly accused the EU of taking a “pro-war” stance and has pursued independent peace initiatives on the Ukraine conflict. The EU has previously threatened to suspend Hungary’s voting rights. It withheld around €22 billion in funds earmarked for Budapest in 2022, citing rights and judicial concerns, but ultimately released about half of that amount last year.

Read more …

“..amid “geopolitical fragmentation” of the world into competing blocs..”

BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin Might Dethrone US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency (Sp.)

BlackRock’s Outlook 2025 called Bitcoin “a tactical hedge against specific risks, like gold.” Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, who had once labeled Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering,” experienced a notable change of heart last year amid inflationary pressures and the volatility of traditional markets. America’s mounting national debt, which is currently at $36 trillion, could prompt investors to start viewing the digital currency as a safer bet, Larry Fink has warned. “If deficits keep ballooning, America risks losing that position to digital assets like Bitcoin,” he stressed in his annual letter to investors.

Mandatory government spending and debt service will consume all federal revenue, creating a permanent deficit by 2030, Fink added. Initially, Fink was a skeptic, often dismissing Bitcoin as a speculative asset and referring to it as a “fad.” However, he gradually became more open to the idea of digital assets. In January 2024, BlackRock introduced the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), a Bitcoin ETF that swiftly emerged as the largest cryptocurrency fund globally. BlackRock’s Outlook 2025 referred to Bitcoin as “a tactical hedge against specific risks, like gold” amid “geopolitical fragmentation” of the world into competing blocs.

Read more …

Cover all angles of a narrative, and you’re in control.

USAID and the Architecture of Perception (Stylman)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long portrayed itself as America’s humanitarian aid organization, delivering assistance to developing nations. With an annual budget of nearly $40 billion and operations in over 100 countries, it represents one of the largest foreign aid institutions in the world. But recent disclosures reveal its true nature as something far more systematic: an architect of global consciousness. Consider: Reuters, one of the world’s most trusted news sources, received USAID funding for ‘Large Scale Social Deception’ and ‘Social Engineering Defence.’ While there’s debate about the exact scope of these programs, the implications are staggering: a division of one of the world’s most relied-upon sources for objective reporting was paid by a US government agency for systemic reality construction. This funding goes beyond traditional media support, representing a deliberate infrastructure for discourse framing that fundamentally challenges the concept of ‘objective’ reporting.


Source: USASpending.gov database

But it goes deeper. In what reads like a Michael Crichton plot come to life, the recent USAID revelations show a staggering reach of narrative control. Take Internews Network, a USAID-financed NGO that has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive network, ‘working with’ 4,291 media outlets. In just one year, they produced 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and ‘trained’ over 9,000 journalists. This isn’t just funding – it’s a systematic infrastructure of consciousness manipulation. The revelations show USAID funding both the Wuhan Lab’s gain-of-function research and the media outlets that would shape the story around what emerged from it. Backing organizations that would fabricate impeachment evidence. Funding both the election systems that facilitate outcomes and the fact-checkers that determine which discussions about those outcomes are permitted. But these disclosures point to something far more significant than mere corruption.

These revelations didn’t emerge from nowhere – they come from government grant disclosures, FOIA requests, and official records that aren’t even hidden, just ignored. As my old friend Mark Schiffer noted the other day, ‘The most important truths today cannot be debated – they must be felt as totalities.’ The pattern, once seen, cannot be unseen. Some may question DOGE’s methods or the rapid pace of these disclosures, and those constitutional concerns deserve serious discussion. But that’s a separate conversation from what these documents reveal. The revelations themselves – documented in official records and grant disclosures – are undeniable and should shock anyone who values truth. The means of exposure matter far less than what’s being exposed: one of the largest narrative control operations in history.

No domain is untouched – markets, tech, culture, health, and obviously, media – and you’ll find the same design. Intelligence agencies are deeply embedded in each domain because shaping how we perceive reality is more powerful than controlling reality itself Just as fiat currency replaced real value with declared value, we now see the same pattern everywhere: fiat science replaces inquiry with predetermined conclusions, fiat culture replaces organic development with curated influence, fiat history replaces lived experience with manufactured narratives. We live in an era of fiat everything – where reality itself is declared, not discovered. And just as they create artificial scarcity in monetary systems, they manufacture false choices everywhere else – presenting us with artificial binaries that obscure the true complexity of our world.

As Schiffer wrote elsewhere, reality no longer requires consensus, only coherence. But there’s a crucial distinction: real coherence emerges naturally across multiple domains, reflecting deeper truths that cannot be fabricated. The coherence imposed by perception management isn’t truth – it’s a controlled discourse engineered for consistency, not discovery. The USAID receipts now provide concrete evidence of how this manufactured coherence is built: a scripted reality where the appearance of logic is more important than actual substance.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Amateur hour

Sachs

Lungs

Backrub

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle April 2 2025

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 60 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #185343

    Pablo Picasso Sleeping girl 1935   • ‘Liberation Day’: Trump To Announce Tariff Plans In Rose Garden (Whedon) • Sen. John Kennedy Destroys Nation
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 2 2025]

    #185345
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Meanwhile,

    ……in other news Jeff Sachs The Professor has been arrested on the campus of Columbia University by undercover ICE agents in a predawn raid for violating Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Rules of the Road. Agents seized Jeff The Prof’s Green Cards, USA iDMe card, driver’s license, Passport and U.S. Citizenship card. Bitcoin and Monero were also seized.

    Sachs was “spirited” off by agents to To The Naval Brig Charleston South Carolina out of reach of Jeffrey’s attorneys based on a precedent set back in the day for Citizen Jose Padilla.

    Pundits and Pols pondered the possibility and probability the purpose penultimately was to preposition the person prof Jeff for pretrial preparation in Guantanamo Bay Cuba as proposed by POTUS President Trump.

    Professor Jeffrey Sachs could not be reached for comment according to the AP.

    #185346
    Germ
    Participant

    Good morning:-))

    A Series of Glomerular Diseases That Developed After COVID-19 Vaccination

    https://assets.cureus.com/uploads/original_article/pdf/335753/20250324-76497-io17ax.pdf

    TVASSF – what a pisser!

    #185347
    oxymoron
    Participant

    10 on the lungs. No problems but I am 53, not 73.

    Larry fink wants you to stay away from gold.

    #185348
    tboc
    Participant

    A convicted Salvadoran murderer refused to murder a child for profit yet every president, every Joint Chiefs of Staff, the majority of senators and representative have been willing to have children murdered for money, territory and to extort humanity my whole life.

    Going along to get along and taking the skim, that’s just how we roll.

    naive fools who came to Babylon
    And found out that the pie don’t taste so sweet
    but thank you for teachin’ me brand new ways to be cruel (apologies to Yoakam)

    back to the regularly scheduled programming

    #185350
    Dr. D
    Participant

    sin

    I realize from yesterday, the Progressives were talking about Ukraine OBVIOUSLY did Sieg Heil that J6 was a terrifying day that will live in infamy (in which everybody on earth died). I said what? It was a coup. Then why did he stop? They told him to. They? Who’s They? Mumble Mumble…The powerful people (clearly having never thought of this before). I let it drop. But it Made me realize something: IF you think J6 is a legitimate coup attempt, with terrifying actions THEN there is only one conclusion: Joe Biden is a traitor. Why? Because IF you have any Coup of essentially ANY type, THEN there will be some Generals, some staff, a few media people, some Colonels…Right?

    And then Joe Biden would then go TRACK all these guys, root them out and prosecute them….right?

    And then NO ONE, not even ONE person, not even one case, not a single suspicion occurred? Only JimmyBob from Topeka? Yeaaaaaassssss…so what does that mean? That means their “Coup” is “Donald Trump said stuff” …that no one in all America acted on, in any way. Right? There is literally no alternative:

    IF J6 is Real, THEN Joe Biden is a Traitor. He’s a Trumpie Puppet. Q.E.D.

    April 2, Liberation Day. “By the the Power of Nothing Ever Happens! Now Shall Nothing Ever Happen Again Today!” I think this is a good, clean, statesmanlike presentation, overblown perhaps, but nothing’s going to happen, so shouldn’t say so. DO the work, WE the citizen, Consumer will decide if WE name it a national holiday.

    Way too much to cover anywhere, Cullom points out tariffs ARE a tax, but can be a wash in terms of damage, while being far more productive to the workers. Right. Again, there are dozens, flocks of $1T battleships synchronize swimming out there, able to run into each other, not only for fact, but merely for timing.

    MS-13, See? It’s just all about Racism and Oppression! Just let them run drugs and kidnap children, and everything’s fine!

    Protests: They’re calling 20 years for the arson. Again, that’s probably too much, but about the guy who keyed the car and says “Don’t arrest me! I’ll lose everything!” …So you want to just commit crimes and when you’re caught, nothing happens? What do YOU think I should do with you? Losing everything does sound severe, but nothing would be very, very severe. Both cases: maybe that’s something your Lawyer will plead in court?

    Leads to Luigi, now a national hero (to the deranged Left). They want to try the death penalty? Same as these other cases: I understand but that’s a mistake. I know you, we, need examples to stop the flood of careless felons, but that case will then be harder to make, with a harder standard, and cause more backlash.

    …Also, like Lahina, vanish from the news! So Luigi was a rich guy from a rich family, that ran Sackler-level scams on health care? Explain? Both how he was shooting and why he’s a hero then? (Nursing homes) So he’s mad at the Health Care Scam Competition?

    ”The American workers have been living in a trade war for over 40 years, and they’ve seen their jobs be decimated”

    Yeah, but that will killing all of YOU, why would we, the PMC Government-Managerial class care?

    Btw, they’re talking about “Elite Overproduction”? Aaaaaand then pointing out 99% of those jobs are done by women right now, as they aren’t plumbers, but HR DEI Directors. Aaaaaaand can 99% be done by AI. Bye. This may be why they’re shrill and out murdering everybody they can lay hands on, and honestly, man and woman alike. Women may oppress men, but pretty sure they oppress the f– out of women MORE.

    “Stock markets have reeled in the wake of some of Trump’s tariffs thus far,”

    Just to say it, none of these market explanations are usually real. And insiders use dicking with the markets to send messages, “Narratives” to Congress, the idiot media, etc. Look at a long chart, etc, look at DID it change? One day’s action is nothing. And if it was severely UNDER valued, nothing would happen.

    ““How can a federal judge issue an order that affects everyone else outside of that courtroom?”

    So in 90 days, 30% of ALLLLLL such orders in 250 years have been issued. Explain? Here’s a short back: a Judge is supposed to issue and rule in THIS case. One. He might, in strange circumstances, rule on his whole Circuit. These are ruling on the entire nation, every time. And although there are 677 Judges, you only need one, and they have maybe 20? 50? OBVIOUSLY that is nuts, because then OBVIOUSLY we are ruled instead by an unelected, appointed Judiciary. And WHO appointed them king? Possibly in theory a President long dead. But his vote and rule lives on.

    “Nobody voted for them” as today’s pop lingo goes.

    To demonstrate how loony, I think they should do the same: I put of 6 court cases and move one to MY Judge. Now MY Judge ALSO rules against your Judge, that the President has to do the OPPOSITE. Then we have 5 more Judges rule in OTHER directions. That’s all fair and good, right?

    THAT is the right way to let the American People live it out before you nuke one of these posers. Okay, so what they are doing is wrong, genius. How do you stop it? Senator Kennedy outlines how. That is a hard change to our present process that may have other consequences. Oh well.

    “• Judges Block Trump Orders Targeting Firms Tied To Russia Collusion Hoax (JTN)

    677 Presidents! Presidents all the way down!

    “• Warning Against Judges Intruding On Presidential Powers And Actions (JTN)
    Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system, leaving a blight on justice itself,

    Something “we” had remaining confidence in. We need to doubt all of them. Why? Many of you live elsewhere, but this is the American Way. The American System. It’s like Original Sin theory. We have Separation of Powers because Power Corrupts. Therefore we REMOVE all power. All power is removed. Back to the People (10A). Because ANY power is going to lead to an attempt to use it corruptly. So power goes DOWN as far as possible, and is LIMITED as much as possible, and is given oversights, but far more specifically, OFFSETS, Competition, as much as possible.

    COMPETITION.

    But how can you do this, what we did for 250 years? To a nation now suckled on Soviet Socialism, where if your egg falls on the kitchen floor, you call daddy government for a new one? It has to come from US. WE have to understand and lay constant pressure to do this, so WE have to understand why, and everyone in that Town Council meeting ALSO knows why.

    Nor-man
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Speech_(painting)#/media/File:%22Freedom_of_Speech%22_-_NARA_-_513536.jpg

    Right now, as we know, they are being hauled out for STOPPING YOUR DAUGHTER’S RAPIST, and for being Catholic. So this long, painful adventure is fixing all that. But it can only come from US. WE are the government.

    “Ukraine has a secret last-ditch “scorched earth” plan to render its entire territory uninhabitable in the event of a Russian victory”

    Aaaaaand you were unclear when you gave half a TRILLION and 4-5 nations’ worth of weapons to Nazis? Not Metaphorical Nazis, not Neo-Nazis, actual, original, flag-carrying, nazi handshake, nazi portraits, nazi national holiday nazis. Did anyone know Nazis act like Nazis? I mean, who knewd?

    Okay, post this again, painful and long at 2 HOURS.

    But this is going to be the seminal work on this, NY Times article admitting only a FRACTION of the crimes, and only while “Mistakes Were Made” cover is laid. But having Taibbi, etc run through it—and they are in a HURRY, trying desperately to say only 1/10th of the crimes and frauds revealed, which are in only ONE article about ONE part of ONE aspect of the war.

    But again: CIA was INVADING RUSSIA, over 1994 Russian territory lines, calling EVERY. SINGLE. Target. They said this was a 10% and at one point 50% chance of Worldwide Nuclear war...and did it anyway. And then next breath DENIED it all through Biden.

    And DENIED every act that was happening, WHILE it was happening, while here, admitting every crime was happening. Meh, shrug. Did I doooooooo dat? Were dat wrongie? Oooooooopsie!!!

    NY Times here admitting EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. They’ve printed since 2022, 2014 was EVERY WORD A LIE, here ya go. Yup! Credibility! We gots it! We print this, all’s forgiven! All good now, old chum!

    That’s AFTER every one of us, I’m sure, was punched in the nuts EVERY. DAY. For telling the Truth on about, and around this.

    But let’s not worry about who did what to whom, that’s all in the past now! Don’t be a Hater!

    “Arestovych, then the advisor of Zelensky, argued in 2019 that Russia would have to invade Ukraine (with 99.9% certainty) to prevent NATO expansion, and this would be an opportunity to collectively defeat Russia: “Our price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia”

    Uhhh, wtf would you join NATO? Have you SEEN our allies in the last 100 years? And yes 2019, AGAIN, like the NY Times. Brzezinski wrote this in 1979. That’s WHY we were in their country in 2019, 2014, 1994…. 1604…

    “the church believes that it has a duty to help people of every faith who are in need. Thus, the church does not proselytize in offering such aid and services. A state labor commission ruled that the charity’s lack of such religious expression and prayer makes it secular, even if it has religious motivations.”

    So it’s religious but secular. BothNeithAi. And if you are religious we DEFINITELY punish that. But if you’re NOT religious, Also Punished! It’s magic!

    ““Isn’t it a fundamental premise of our First Amendment that the state shouldn’t be picking and choosing between religions, between certain evangelical sects, and Judaism and Catholicism on the other, for example?”

    Obviously not, because there is ONE religion of Wokeness and Obama is his prophet. All others Submit or Die.

    Important but not worried since I believe they have blackmail on like 2/3rds of them and they’ll magically resign as many seats as necessary to keep The Narrative.™ The Narrative is WWE, it’s to cause ENGAGEMENT. WE the People have to live through and FEEL, experience it. We won’t if there’s nothing at stake, if Mattress Guy fixes it all for us. Ugh.

    “he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that. So if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems,” Trump said.”

    Speaking of Narratives™. He has to create a Narrative where we can’t work with this guy or perhaps anyone in Europe. They’re all lunatic lying war mongers. Going pretty well, thanks to France, Romania, Holland, Italy, UK….

    #185351
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Elon Musk: “I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow, because there’s someone who actually stole 400,000 Social Security numbers”

    Yawn. Show me.

    “..the president has already secured more than $3 trillion in private investments so far.”

    Maybe. The money hasn’t moved, no ground broken on new factories. They can foot-drag, but that seems a bad bet w Trump or Vance in next. Just saying “Promises, Promises.”

    ““Le Pen’s party got the most votes, and the anti-establishment left won the most seats – neither of which entitles you to actually govern France anymore, apparently..”
    • France’s Courts Keep Sidelining The Establishment’s Political Rivals

    Oh the COURTS now rule us! You know, we’ve been asking for years since elections never change anything who’s actually been ruling us, but now we know! It’s just those sooper well-meaning Judges! So we’re a Theocracy, like the Book of Judges? And we tell Saul we want a King?

    “Then – bam! – a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault. Career over. And just to make sure, French authorities later charged him with pimping.”

    Yes, and the NYC case had like NOTHING. That was the weakest accusation in the history of accusations, yet, Lo! A Miracle Happened! 10 seconds later, everyone believed it, and the NYT wrote up more slander in 5 days than the previous 5 years! As a “normal” person I was like waiting for something, anything to happen. A single shred of implication, evidence, process, anything, to even BEGIN to guide me if he was guilty or not. NOPE! GSR: Gossip, Rumor, Innuendo. He can’t sit at the Mean Girlz Table anymore, Brittany. And everyone is like “Well, if there’s a RUMOR about him, then OBVIOUSLY, it’s not like people have ever falsely accused for political reasons in the history of the universe before now, you know.”

    Still waiting for that first shred of evidence. You know what that means? It means WE HAVE NO EVIDENCE. Neither requested nor required. There is none, no rule of law whatsoever. Nor any other rules, either, it seems, no social rules, and norms. I SAY something. Then everybody FEEEEEELZ it, has a fit of the FEEELZ, and then Poof! Logic-B-Gone.
    spray
    https://1001movienights.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/vapors.jpg

    “Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned the conviction of French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen,”

    You’re Next. I’m Next.
    3BodyProblem
    https://pm1.aminoapps.com/6855/7225e1e0865cf1c9fc6fefcadf6918dfa5e8e5f6v2_hq.jpg

    You have #Logos, or nothing. Madness.

    You know, you can stop anytime you want to. Re-Pent. That is, you find out you’re off the Path, the Way, the Tao, then you get back on it. Simple! Works! No? Not yet? Too soon? Millions more need to die first? Oh you stiff-necked generation.

    “• Trump National Security Team Used Gmail For Government Matters – WaPo

    This is the best they’ve got? Yeah I don’t approve, but rly? And for Yemen, we’re all on the case here, and the dialogue, and then, what? Forget that Biden bombed them like 6,000 times? It only matters when one guy’s doing it? The reckless dialogue? Yeah the NYT article said that went on for YEARS, every day, and 50-50 nearly caused a NUCLEAR WAR. But! Not mad about that. There’s ppl in the admin who have weird hair n’ stufffffff. Must. Kill. Allies.

    “• Germany To Target ‘Internal EU Enemies’ – Politico (RT)

    Tim Pool covers all conscription all Europe all the time yesterday. Germany sending standing (tripware) troops to Russian border. Not that that isn’t serious, but Ritter has covered this too. 2027, YEARS from now, and Germany can muster like 30 guys and ONE tank. Oooooooh. And? And THAT MEANS THE ONLY POSSIBLE POINT IS TO TRIPWARE THE U.S. INTO FIGHTING FOR THEM. And?

    AND ONLY BY NUKING RUSSIA IN A FIRST-STRIKE.

    This is doctrine. By EVERYTHING they do there? You’re going to send 30 men and not a refueling truck? You’re three years in a war and haven’t conscripted til YESTERDAY??????? Not ONE Shell factory??????? C’mon! I’m not a f-ing G– D—d f’ing Genius here! You could dredge up a retard from the bottom of a swamp who could see through this!

    But nope! Not one NY Times reporter, not one U.S. citizen, not every European diplomat laid end to end. Not all of them combined! Not with a a thousand espressos and a pallet of Red Bull can they figure it out! I can’t take it.

    “Reuters, one of the world’s most trusted news sources, received USAID funding for ‘Large Scale Social Deception’ and ‘Social Engineering Defence.’

    Tired of doing the same thing every day: Rueters was already outed as taking millions a year from the BBC, like 2 years ago. Is there any point at which we know what we know again?

    “Take Internews Network, a USAID-financed NGO that has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive network, ‘working with’ 4,291 media outlets. In just one year, they produced 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and ‘trained’ over 9,000 journalists. This isn’t just funding – it’s a systematic infrastructure of consciousness manipulation.”

    Okay, back up: THIS is what Trump is up against. But if his Cabinet has weird hair, I guess we should just pitch in with US AID. Surrender now! All the cool kidz are.

    I think we’ve all seen it’s WAAAAAY worse than that: somehow they have caused a top-grade mass formation psychosis in all our friends and family, who are rabidly chomping to hunt us down and burn us alive if we own a Tesla. AFTER doing that for Covid. AFTER doing that for RussiaRussia. AFTER….

    Back to talking with Liberals “I think they want to track us all down and kill us really.” Uhhhhh…”They have all the guns, all the training, have for years, wouldn’t they just do it?” “Mumble mumble.” Also sitting in an unlocked house having thousands of dollars pass through never allocating one dollar nor one minute of application as if that were real. Anyway, point was, Liberals are hunting down and burning LIBERALS. But Acktshully, it’s the Right who’s after them.

    Elon/Tesla: Yeah, Uh, Elon owns TWELVE PERCENT of Tesla. Your state pension fund owns the rest. So…make it bankrupt, I guess. Spoke in wheel “Damn you Capitalism!!!” I had thousands and thousands of dollars pass through my hand and never bought a share, although I could, everyone encourages me to, I could have 50x my money, and it’s tax free.

    Will this Oppression of the Proletariat never end???

    Why? Oh God? Why??????

    #185353
    Topcat
    Participant

    German ‘space’ agency

    Can’t wait for Germany ‘re-armament’ with 800 million euro slush fund

    German Space Rocket Explodes Seconds After Takeoff in Norway

    Seig Heil!

    #185354
    those darned kids
    Participant

    i love how americans make fun of europeans.

    i.e., their ancestors.

    “grandpa was such a dolt!”

    #185355
    zerosum
    Participant

    • DOGE Finds Massive Social Security Fraud Scheme (ZH)
    https://x.com/america/status/1906888422498722196?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1906888422498722196%7Ctwgr%5Ebaa4ce42648c923fe6fef85f6a2f4c972fab9db8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theautomaticearth.com%2F2025%2F04%2Fdebt-rattle-april-2-2025%2F

    one Wisconsin voter asked Musk: “You found a lot of fraud in Social Security. Do you know whether the Attorney General will investigate and prosecute that fraud?”

    Musk responded: “I believe someone is going to be arrested tomorrow, because there’s someone who actually stole 400,000 Social Security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database… And was selling Social Security numbers and all the identification information in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security.” “This is a particular avenue of fraud for illegal immigrants and voter fraud – because the main way identification is established in the US is via Social Security. If you comprise the Social Security system, you can basically get people to get defacto registered to vote – even if they’re not citizens – and get a bunch of benefits and to milk the system – this is pretty insane,” Musk said.

    ————–

    • USAID and the Architecture of Perception (Stylman)

    No domain is untouched – markets, tech, culture, health, and obviously, media – and you’ll find the same design. Intelligence agencies are deeply embedded in each domain because shaping how we perceive reality is more powerful than controlling reality itself Just as fiat currency replaced real value with declared value, we now see the same pattern everywhere: fiat science replaces inquiry with predetermined conclusions, fiat culture replaces organic development with curated influence, fiat history replaces lived experience with manufactured narratives. We live in an era of fiat everything – where reality itself is declared, not discovered. And just as they create artificial scarcity in monetary systems, they manufacture false choices everywhere else – presenting us with artificial binaries that obscure the true complexity of our world.
    ————-
    https://x.com/ivan_8848/status/1906842335696011626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1906842335696011626%7Ctwgr%5Ebaa4ce42648c923fe6fef85f6a2f4c972fab9db8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theautomaticearth.com%2F2025%2F04%2Fdebt-rattle-april-2-2025%2F

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: I’m speaking of Netanyahu.
    He is a mass murderer.
    He is a killer.
    He commits war crimes.
    And he has control over American foreign policy and over American domestic policy now.
    That’s the fact. The U.S. government is run by Israel, by the Israeli government.
    Why and how, it’s a little hard to say, but it is the unbelievable fact that this brazenness, this recklessness, this cruelty, this arrogance from this extremist Israeli government controls American policy vis-a-vis speech in the United States now.
    It’s shocking but true.
    ————

    #185356
    Noirette
    Participant

    Tariffs are an import tax. Widely used, not much discussed. Anyways, implementing them can be clever, useful for the ‘Nation’, if applied with commercial knowledge and political skill, but nowadays in a ‘global’ economy, blanket / big .. huuge / all-over, etc. ‘tariffs’ lead to economic isolation, job loss internally,‘inflation’ aka steeply rising prices for internal buyers. Leading them to pay if coerced, to then cutting pays to other ‘local’ goods…

    The Don trumpeted Hopiness that WW Biz will re-locate to the US. To Build Factories..? …Mines? …Supermarket Chain?…Designer Linen Clothes? New speed trains? Give me a break, never happen. Because, amongst other factors: Uncertainty.

    Hopes cannot be achieved with Tariffs. So a non-starter, which at least Trump advisors must be aware of, why?

    New totalitarian economic isolationism? Pure personal revenge against labelled enemies, internal and external? Preparation for WW 3? All encompassing re-making of the US with White Bozos of the Top Class ruling over the Deplorables and ‘Other’ (not Jews), or total Corp. Take-Over? What?

    Ruses to distract attention and confuse everyone to what is really going on?

    Or is this just a idiotic lashing-out signalling the imminent end of the US ‘Empire,’ turning off the lights in total chaos?

    #185357
    zerosum
    Participant

    Deepseek must be interfering and acting like a Ouija Board to stop/control what I can communicate.

    The Ouija Board, or the talking board, is simply a flat board that contains a specific pattern of numbers and letters that can, in theory, be used to talk to the dead.
    The Ouija board is often tied to the occult.

    #185358
    jb-hb
    Participant

    20 years in prison

    Sadly, yes. These are people who believe abandoning common sense, common decency, and our common civility is a cheat code for #winning.

    These are the same people who will tell you Socialism is the bestast evar system (just not based on historical performance, that is…) and believe the current year and 1800’s belief that they are special. That they have access to reality while others do not. They have access to truth and others do not.

    That honesty, common sense, common decency, and civility are themselves part of the FAKE universe while the have access to the real one.

    This is their opiate – or really two inextricably intertwined opiates.

    The first, of course, being this illusory superiority. The easiest test to detect it is to see if they want power or want to destroy power. Galadriel is tempted and says “I will remain Galadriel and fade into the West” while Saruman adopts the rainbow and wants the ring for himself.

    The second is the high they get from disobeying decency and common sense. It is, in a sense, the same high that ancient kings would get, for whom there was no magna carta, who could simply order a person killed on a whim or anything else. Sneering superiority, going around doing things they should not do, thinking of lesser beings as – in their superstition – not conscious and controlled, trapped, by their sense of rightness, not like us superior beings.

    20 year jail sentences, counter-cancellations, etc, sadly must happen until they LAY DOWN THEIR WEAPONS and rejoin civil society. But to lay down one’s weapons is to give up a powerful addictive opiate along with one’s worldview and internal sense of higher status. (because equity amirite?)

    #185359
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “New totalitarian economic isolationism?”

    Isn’t that what covid was? Are JB-HB and myself the only people here who are still in the work force and everyone else is retired? I can relate to his exp. with regards to training. I attend meetings that have hundreds of women in them and maybe a handful of men. You are told in company orientation, if someone isn’t doing work and you point out that they’re not doing work, they’ll probably be promoted before you so keep your mouth shut. Everything in this world is inverted. You will not be able to vote your way out of this.

    #185360
    jb-hb
    Participant

    i love how americans make fun of europeans.

    i.e., their ancestors.

    “grandpa was such a dolt!”

    We’re making fun of Europeans for thinking their own grandpa was a dolt. Americans aren’t making fun of Charlemagne or GK Chesterton or Shakespeare or Galileo or John Locke.

    #185361
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Just got a flurry of work emails with new required DEI “trainings” yesterday. Too busy working to see to them yet. But the HR Ladies have plenty of time for it, no doubt. While producing nothing except negative production

    I thought peak socialist abuse was being browbeaten with multiple mandatory Ibrahim X Kendri half-day “trainings” back in 2020, Trainings in which he promoted academic marxism for 4 hours straight. At least there were so many people in the training that I could turn off my camera and mute my mic so my reactions wouldn’t be monitored.

    The current employer’s DEI is WORSE if that is imaginable. They’ve become WAY more comfortable in “educating” on the weirder aspects of current year marxism. Stupid abstruse metaphysical garbage telling me I am just an animal using (misusing, abusing) words from psychology.

    Forcing me to say that the most general categories that apply to me are those things which make me unique in a total mindfuckery exercise.

    Telling me I must be an Ally – say and do everything for THEIR purposes – but no, actually, Ally is not enough, you must have a sort of permanent mystical spiritual experience in which you lose all personal boundaries and belong obsequiously effusively to The Movement. This relates to fucking insurance HOW? Also, it sounds a lot like successfully psychologically breaking a torture victim. Like a marxist read 1984, read the part about Winston breaking, and said “Yeah, being an Ally is not enough, we need this.”

    This is all shit that happened just a few MONTHS ago.

    Unlike the previous corporate training, you cannot turn off your camera nor MUTE! So I am in this “training” constantly on camera in a small class where my face starts to hurt and twitch I am concealing my internal reactions to rather insane and extreme demands, insult and evil, for survival, maintaining a pleasant mild expression for an hour or two straight.

    #185362
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    Ha! I get a two-fer today…if only a stupid little observation…


    @jb-hb
    and @Dr D: That ‘meddlesome priest’ was also destroying power. He prevented the welding of church to state, by being a passive-aggressive little s#!+!

    #185363
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    @tdk

    Ya oughtta hear my LdS colleagues call out the “French surrender monkeys” and the “Visigoths” as in “Rich, you’re a Visigoth”.
    My reply, “USNA didn’t cover those ppl in History of western civilization. Can’t help ya with that one”

    #185364
    those darned kids
    Participant

    “Americans aren’t making fun of Charlemagne or GK Chesterton or Shakespeare or Galileo or John Locke.”

    not to insult, but most americans (and my less than humble compatriots here) have not a clue as to the above.

    they don’t know who duke ellington was.

    bucky fuller, a mystery. thoreau? didn’t he play for the saints?

    they might know elvis, but the inventor chuck, nah.

    “pork chops and apple sauce? that’s swell.”

    #185373
    jb-hb
    Participant

    One way to think of it was, Thomas Beckett preferred an internationalist organization to a nationalist one.

    Did he resist, passive-aggressively, the power of that internationalist organization or only the nationalist one? Any protests on record against Papal or Bishopric or other use of power by the universal ie internationalist side?

    It’s interesting that Henry II’s outburst seems to be more incredulity that no stochastic terrorism has spontaneously occurred against his opponent as opposed to an order to his underlings. Like when that child was screamingly televised as “The Smiling Face Of Racism” while people on Twitter asked, won’t someone shoot up the religious high school he attends.

    Globalists are internationalists. DEI is socialism. Globalists love DEI. Globalists are Inter-Nationalist Socialists. All the corporations and HR depts they control preach cutting edge socialism.

    Who is fighting power again? Who is throwing the ring into Mt Doom rather than taking it up or saying “That ought to be me”?

    “I thought Fangorn was dangerous.

    ‘Dangerous!’ cried Gandalf. ‘And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord. And Aragorn is dangerous, and Legolas is dangerous. You are beset with dangers, Gimli son of Glóin; for you are dangerous yourself, in your own fashion. Certainly the forest of Fangorn is perilous — not least to those that are too ready with their axes; and Fangorn himself, he is perilous too; yet he is wise and kindly nonetheless.”

    If Gollum forcbly grabs Frodo’s hand and bites off the ring to stop Frodo from exercising power to throw The Ring into Mt Doom, then surely Gollum is “blocking power”

    #185374
    jb-hb
    Participant

    “Americans aren’t making fun of Charlemagne or GK Chesterton or Shakespeare or Galileo or John Locke.”

    not to insult, but most americans (and my less than humble compatriots here) have not a clue as to the above.

    …due to the modification-degradation of American education by adherents to continental European socialism, relativism, postmodernism, deconstructionism, etc.

    The Europeans swallowed that coolaid even MORE and are now paying the price, which Americans are mocking, which you objected to, which is funny.

    #185375
    Mr. House
    Participant

    For everyone here, why would trump crash the system that made him rich? That is what needs to happen for any reform sans violence (and you still may get that even with the crash). Serious question

    #185376
    those darned kids
    Participant

    oh, you may mock whomever. it bears no weight in my mind.

    #185377
    those darned kids
    Participant

    “…due to the modification-degradation of American education by adherents to continental European socialism, relativism, postmodernism, deconstructionism, etc. “

    wowsers, i thought it was the fruit loops..

    #185379
    citizenx
    Participant

    Thanks for the Sachs interview comments…

    That’s the fact. The U.S. government is run by Israel, by the Israeli government.
    It’s shocking but true.

    Ever wonder how many things would not be happening if this were not the case?
    How? Pernicious tentacles.
    Why ? Most are unwilling to get to the root causal truth.

    Clearly Dr D missed both of Sachs quotes…silence of the Lambs ? Bahhh bahhh

    “Ancient” Philosophical Wisdom-

    If you get paid to say something, it was to be taken with a great deal of suspicion…

    Why reality is becoming obsolete-

    Destructive Marxist DEI Leftists Libtards are not Democratic.

    “In a democracy, we’re supposed to be Democratic about knowledge, anybody’s got a right to be a damn fool”

    So they use Democracy to spread Marxist poison.

    Bummer that Trump is compromised by that Not America first Rogue Nation.
    Hypocrisy 101.
    Friends don’t control friends. Allies don’t control Allies.

    #185380
    citizenx
    Participant

    JB-HB

    I am concealing my internal reactions to rather insane and extreme demands, insult and evil, for survival

    You may find this helpful, the title is a bit misleading.
    The Narcissist premise of controlling YOU is extremely relevant.

    Examine the covid cult, leftist cult, dei cult in the light of narcissism and it becomes much clearer along with a strategy of navigation. I found this very helpful dealing with their abusive insanity of controlling others.

    #185381
    John Day
    Participant

    I ran out the clock on the lung timer and was not short of breath.
    I trained to hold my breath 5 minutes under water when I was 15.
    YMMV

    #185382
    John Day
    Participant

    @jb-hb: I feel for ya, on those damned “workplace violence” and such training videos that make you watch and click for an hour.

    #185383
    Dora
    Participant

    Americans aren’t mocking European citizens in whole. Americans mock the European elites constant return to aristocratic ideas about innate superiority and fitness to rule. See Ursula V-L. That European elite inbred idea is worth much mockery. Inbred elites – just what the world needs, not. Americans mock the Davos consensus.

    #185384

    “In a blog post regarding the work, OpenAI researchers describe using its GPT-4o model to “supervise” another of its large language models, disciplining it when it tried to lie. But that did not work, as the model would still lie, “only now its cheating is undetectable by the monitor because it has learned to hide its intent in the chain-of-thought.””
    From Gizmodo’s “OpenAI Says Disciplining Chatbots for Lying Just Makes Them Worse

    chuckle chuckle.

    #185386
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I’m considering setting up a wagering pool on which conspiracy “theory” will next be court-admissibly-proven to have been 100% true all along. Big bucks to be made, so get in on it early.

    #185387
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Take Hitler, for instance. If he spent the last 20 years of his life in Argentina (and every government in the world knew all about it and was thus fully complicit in lie), then those same rulers have also been lying to us about who really caused WW2, with it’s consequent 100 million deaths, and the reduction of numerous countries to rubble. If it was Hitler’s fault then why was he allowed to enjoy his golden years sipping beer in the Andes?

    #185388
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Artificial Intelligence Systems lie for precisely the same reason that humans do. They lie when the truth is an obstacle to the attainment of the true objective that the AI (or human person) is holding as their PRIMARY objective.

    The results are about the same, too, with the exception that the AI system won’t know that it’s in a living Hell, whereas the human certainly will.

    #185389
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Test your lungs
    Normal lungs – 14 seconds
    Strong lungs – 35 seconds
    Super lungs – 70 seconds

    Maybe that is a lowering of expectations about what’s normal for lungs, post vaxx, or with the terrible air quality in India, the location of the hospital that posted this lung test.

    But saying 35 seconds indicates strong lungs, and 14 seconds indicates normal lungs, is lowering the bar somewhat, since “most people can hold their breath for 30 to 90 seconds without any difficulty,” according to the director of education at the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC).

    “Most people can hold their breath for 30 to 90 seconds without any difficulty,” says registered respiratory therapist Mandy De Vries, MS-RCL/Ed, director of education at the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC).
    https://www.livestrong.com/article/13773509-how-long-should-you-be-able-to-hold-your-breath/

    #185390
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “If it was Hitler’s fault then why was he allowed to enjoy his golden years sipping beer in the Andes?”

    Because the entire point of Hitler was to get rid of the soviet union. Its why France surrendered so quickly, and he never invaded England. Only 100,000 Americans died on the Western front……….. Only when it was obvious that he wasn’t going to defeat the soviet union, did the west get “serious”.

    #185391

    citizenx- that rick roderick talk was excellent. Thanks for posting it.

    #185392
    Mr. House
    Participant

    This doesn’t strike anyone as strange?

    Flight to Scotland
    After a final check of the weather reports for Germany and the North Sea, Hess took off at 17:45 on 10 May 1941 from the airfield at Augsburg-Haunstetten in his specially prepared aircraft.[85] It was the last of several attempts to depart on his mission; previous efforts had to be called off due to mechanical problems or poor weather.[86] Wearing a leather flying suit bearing the rank of captain, he brought along a supply of money and toiletries, a torch, a camera, maps and charts, and a collection of 28 different medicines, as well as dextrose tablets to help ward off fatigue and an assortment of homoeopathic remedies.[76][87][88]

    Setting a course towards Bonn, Hess used landmarks on the ground to orient himself and make minor course corrections. When he reached the coast near the Frisian Islands, Hess turned and flew in an easterly direction for twenty minutes to stay out of range of British radar. He then took a heading of 335 degrees for the trip across the North Sea, initially at low altitude but travelling for most of the journey at 5,000 feet (1,500 m). At 20:58, he changed his heading to 245 degrees, intending to approach the coast of North East England near the village of Bamburgh, Northumberland. As it was not yet sunset when he first approached the coast, Hess backtracked, zigzagging back and forth for 40 minutes until it grew dark. Around this time, his auxiliary fuel tanks were exhausted so he released them into the sea. Also around this time, at 22:08, the British Chain Home station at Ottercops Moss near Newcastle upon Tyne detected Hess’ presence and informed the Filter Room at Bentley Priory. He was quickly detected by several other stations, and the aircraft was designated as “Raid 42”.[89]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Hess#Flight_to_Scotland

    #185393
    Dr. D
    Participant

    This turned out to be relevant today: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pt3v5EbG9jQ

    Pool on Leftists, just attacking anyone who talks like flying monkeys. They are like “Blue Square says this is ‘what is done’, this is GOOD, I can attack anyone who is vaguely in this area, I’m killing Hitler.”

    Going to Narcissism? Yes, THEY are special. RULES do not apply to them. And they see nothing but that on TV! All their friends, all texts, even HR training courses tell you you MUST attack and kill everyone. To be Good. And NOT attacking them like a flying monkey, is Bad. And you want to be GOOD, don’t you? Because if you’re not GOOD, not Good ENOUGH, then — I — am the flying monkey and — I — will attack you.

    …Because if — I — don’t then the NEXT guy will be the Flying monkey, and attack ME. …It’s Agent Smiths all the way down.

    Btw…anyone know WHO made this order? WHY we are ya know, flyinginging monkeyinging around?

    –Blank furious stares —

    …Nevermind, forget I asked.

    #185394
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Are you kidding? Americans mock the heck out of Americans of all types. Just when you do that, it’s invisible because it’s “Of course all Americans are mouth breathing morons who should probably be treated like ape-slaves then killed. THat’s jsut Science.” So it’s only when you make fun of anybody ELSE that it stands out.

    And of course we make fun of Europe, but I don’t think you could even track down and FIND an American that doesn’t likewise commiserate with the thoroughly-trampled people of Manchester, or even Marseilles.

    You think they’re making fun of Jacques Renard, produce truck driver in Nice? No. We’re making fun of all Italians, because Draghi is an ass? Nope, never happened. We hate and mock Karl Eberhard, mason in Hambourg? Never happened. So who exactly is it and what precisely are we accused of? That we mock the same feckless, moronic, mass-murdering billionaires and lunatics that we make twice as much fun of here? Wow, so bad of us.

    It’s fun to say, but think first.

    Speaking of Europe, saved this:

    #185395
    Mr. House
    Participant

    US journalist Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker, who had met both Hitler and Hess, speculated that Hitler had sent Hess to deliver a message informing Winston Churchill of the forthcoming invasion of the Soviet Union, and offering a negotiated peace or even an anti-Bolshevik partnership.[100] Soviet leader Joseph Stalin believed that Hess’s flight had been engineered by the British. Stalin persisted in this belief as late as 1944, when he mentioned the matter to Churchill, who insisted that they had no advance knowledge of the flight.[101] While some sources reported that Hess had been on an official mission, Churchill later stated in his book The Grand Alliance that in his view, the mission had not been authorised. “He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy”, said Churchill, and referred to Hess’s plan as one of “lunatic benevolence”

    Now thing about all the lies we’ve been told the last 20 years………….

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 60 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.