Jul 272025
 


René Magritte La belle captive 1946

 

Devin Nunes Discusses the DNI Revelations Released by Tulsi Gabbard (CTH)
Trump Goes There: Calls Out Bill Clinton in Epstein Scandal (Margolis)
Obama’s CIA Chief ‘Knowingly Used False Intelligence’ To Undermine Trump (Margolis)
Team Obama Is Running Scared as Russiagate Cover Story Collapses (Margolis)
Democrats Let California Burn While Aid Went Missing – Trump (RT)
From Hero to Zero (Ian Proud)
Kiev Kleptocracy… Stench of Corruption Fouls NATO Regime’s Endgame (SCF)
Zelensky Thought He Was Killing It. He Was (Loginov)
The Kremlin Hates von der Leyen About As Much As EU Lawmakers Do (Marsden)
Hungary Opposes Turning EU’s Budget Into Ukraine’s (RT)
Ukraine’s Accession Will Bring War To EU – Orban (RT)
EU Secretly Pressures US Firms To Censor Immigration Criticism: House GOP (JTN)
Ghislaine Maxwell Gets Limited Immunity, Gives DOJ ‘100 Different People’ (NYP)
Rubio Shares Trump’s Feelings About Russia-Ukraine Conflict (RT)
Destroy Russia. Fail? No Problem: Let’s Destroy China! (Pepe Escobar)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1948832714456793580

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1948791933859508340

debt
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1949108419891225023

 

 

 

 

Little things. Devin Nunes is the former chairman of the House Intelligence Commitee, head of Trump Media, and now Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Through him, Sundance describes a March 2022 lawsuit filed by Trump vs a large group of individuals and entities. Only, it didn’t look like a lawsuit, lots of details were missing. Sundance figured out that it wasn’t meant as a lawsuit, it was “a legal transfer mechanism”. Trump needed evidence available to lawyers somewhere, things needed to be “on the record”, but ‘because of the construct of the lawfare being deployed against Trump, any lawyer would need a “reason* to review the evidence. The Trump -v- Clinton et al lawsuit becomes that ‘reason.’

Great conversation with Gaetz and Nunes.

Devin Nunes Discusses the DNI Revelations Released by Tulsi Gabbard (CTH)

Former House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes appears on OAN with former Congressman Matt Gaetz to discuss the information released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. As noted by Nunes, why did it take this long for the information to surface? That question showcases how corrupt the DC system -the Intelligence Community- is in its effort to protect itself from accountability. Nunes also points to the raid on Mar-a-Lago as a possible entry point for investigative accountability.

Let me refresh on something that could potentially be a revelation down the road. In 2022 a Florida judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by President Trump against Hillary Clinton. [65-page Ruling Here] The media enjoyed ridiculing Trump using the words of the judge who dismissed the case. As noted by the Washington Times, “Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, a Clinton appointee, said Mr. Trump’s filing was too lengthy, detailing events that “are implausible because they lack any specific allegations which might provide factual support for the conclusions reached.” When I originally read the 108-page Donald Trump lawsuit filed in March 2022, it took me a few moments, and then I realized this was not a lawsuit; this was a legal transfer mechanism created by lawyers to establish a proprietary information silo.

Here’s a totally different take on the issues surrounding the Trump -v- Clinton lawsuit, which -from the outset- I always believed was going to be dismissed because suing all of those characters under the auspices of a civil RICO case was never the objective. In the aftermath of the filing, the silo created by the lawsuit is grounded upon attorney-client privilege, a legal countermeasure to a predictable DOJ-NSD lawfare maneuver, which unfolded in the FBI Mar-a-Lago raid and the subsequent Jack Smith targeting operation. In March 2022 President Trump filed a civil lawsuit against: Hillary Clinton, Hillary for America Campaign Committee, DNC, DNC Services Corp, Perkins Coie, Michael Sussmann, Marc Elias, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Charles Dolan, Jake Sullivan, John Podesta, Robby Mook, Phillipe Reines as well as Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, Peter Fritsch, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr, Orbis Business Intelligence, Christopher Steele, Igor Danchenko, Neustar Inc., Rodney Joffe, James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Kevin Clinesmith and Andrew McCabe. [108-Page Lawsuit Here]

When I was about one-third of the way through reading the lawsuit, I initially stopped and said to myself this is going to take a lot of documentary evidence to back up the claims in the assertions. Dozens of attachments would be needed and hundreds of citations to the dozens of attachments would be mandatory. Except, they were not there. After reading further, while completely understanding the background material that was being described in the filing, I realized this wasn’t a lawsuit per se’. The 108-pages I was holding in my hands was more akin to legal transfer mechanism from President Trump to lawyers who needed it. The lawsuit filing was contingent upon a series of documents that would be needed to support the claims within it. Whoever wrote the lawsuit had obviously reviewed the evidence to support the filing. However, the attachments and citations were missing. That was weird.

That’s when I realized the purpose of the lawsuit. In hindsight, things became clear when the FBI later raided the home of Donald Trump, and suddenly the motive to confiscate documents, perhaps the missing lawsuit attachments and citations, surfaced. With the manipulative, and I said intentional, “ongoing investigation” angle created by the John Durham probe essentially blocking public release of declassified documents showing the efforts of all the lawsuit participants (Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax), in 2021 President Trump needed a legal way to secure and more importantly share evidence.

Think of it like the people around Trump wanting to show lawyers the evidence in the documents. However,because of the construct of the lawfare being deployed against Trump, any lawyer would need a *reason* to review the evidence. The Trump -v- Clinton et al lawsuit becomes that ‘reason.’ The “documents” (classified or not) were likely reviewed by lawyers in preparation for the lawsuit. This is their legal justification for reviewing the documents. In essence, the lawsuit was a transfer mechanism permitting the Trump legal team to review the evidence on behalf of their client, former President Donald Trump.

Read more …

Why does Trump go there? “Clinton flew with a known predator, when to his island, and is seen in photographs with Epstein victims… yet the press won’t ask why..”

Trump Goes There: Calls Out Bill Clinton in Epstein Scandal (Margolis)

In a political world where Democrats are scrambling to memory-hole every scrap of the Jeffrey Epstein disaster that is damaging to their own party, and trying to make it a Donald Trump scandal, the media is more than happy to help them rewrite history. And President Trump has had enough. After all the fake news and the bogus accusations, on Friday, Trump decided he’d had enough, and barreled right into the hornet’s nest and started torching it with a flamethrower. Reporters asked about the pervert financier’s infamous sex trafficking operation—and Trump didn’t dodge or deflect. He unloaded, pointing the finger straight at former President Bill Clinton. “You ought to be speaking about [former Treasury Secretary] Larry Summers. You ought to be speaking about some of, uh, his friends that are hedge fund guys. They’re all over the place. You ought to be speaking about Bill Clinton, who went to the island 28 times. I never went to the island.”

When a reporter followed up by asking whether he had written a letter for Epstein’s birthday party, Trump flatly rejected the claim. “I don’t even know what they’re talking about,” he said. “Now, somebody could have written a letter and used my name, but that’s happened a lot. All you have to do is take a look at the dossier, the fake dossier.” He continued attacking Democrats, accusing them of spreading misinformation and fabricating evidence: “Everything’s fake with that administration. Everything’s fake with the Democrats. Take a look at what they just found about, about the dossier.” Repeating the theme, Trump added, “Everything is fake. They’re a bunch of sick people.”

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1948743571495899323

Clinton has spent years denying he ever visited Epstein’s island. In his 2024 memoir, he repeats the same tired line, pretending he barely knew Epstein, however, it’s public record at this point that Bill Clinton hobnobbed with Epstein, jetted off to his notorious island over and over. But the media has turned a blind eye to Bill Clinton’s deep, well-documented relationship with Epstein. Clinton wants America to take his word that he was just there for the sunshine and cocktails. However, Johanna Sjoberg, an Epstein accuser who testified under oath in 2016, says Epstein once told her “Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.” Meanwhile, Clinton’s team refused to answer questions about a birthday letter he reportedly sent to Epstein, and instead recycled the same tired statement that he cut ties with Epstein “more than a decade before” Epstein’s 2019 arrest—and supposedly knew nothing about his crimes.

Trump, meanwhile, has said plainly he never set foot on the island—and there’s no evidence to the contrary. But the press keeps hounding him, while running cover for Democrats. Working-class Americans see the double standard. Clinton flew with a known predator, when to his island, and is seen in photographs with Epstein victims… yet the press won’t ask why. There’s no outrage, no wall-to-wall coverage—just more selective silence, buried like the Hunter Biden laptop. The hypocrisy is obvious. If Trump sneezes, it’s a crisis. But Democrats can cozy up to monsters and never be called out for it. Well, Trump’s calling them out now.

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“Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe obstructed the House Intel Committee by prohibiting interviews with more than 30 FBI employees involved in supporting Brennan’s notorious “fusion cell.”

“Brennan “knowingly used false intelligence” to try to undermine President-elect Trump, a federal offense that constitutes outright fraud against the American government..”

[..the Steele Dossier]: “When senior officers called out its obvious flaws in a Dec. 2016 Langley meeting, Brennan stubbornly insisted, “Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?”

Obama’s CIA Chief ‘Knowingly Used False Intelligence’ To Undermine Trump (Margolis)

If you thought the Russian collusion hoax couldn’t get any uglier, think again. The circus orchestrated by Obama’s intelligence brass is unraveling in spectacular fashion, and John Brennan finds himself squarely in the crosshairs, not for a political dispute, but for criminal prosecution. This latest chapter, now marked by damning revelations, reeks of a conspiracy to subvert not only a presidency, but the very core of American democracy. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s recent confirmation hit like a thunderbolt: Barack Obama, the architect of this mess, has been named in an official criminal referral to the Justice Department. Brennan, Obama’s CIA chief and a man whose fingerprints are found all over this operation, is most likely staring down an indictment. James Comey isn’t far behind, either; both he and Brennan are already under extreme scrutiny by the FBI. It’s as if each turn yields another layer of deception and abuse of power. Even hardened law professors like Jonathan Turley recognize Brennan as a high-profile trophy for prosecutors—he’s now the “30-point buck out in the open,” primed to fall.

The scope of misconduct here borders on the surreal. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) dropped a 46-page bombshell report that systematically destroyed Brennan’s ICA (Intelligence Community Assessment), which Obama ordered up as a final act of sabotage against Donald Trump. According to Paul Sperry, an investigative reporter for RealClearInvestigations, the findings were so relentlessly damning that the CIA refused to cooperate, went as far as obfuscating evidence, and sabotaged committee investigators: Shockingly, two key developments torpedoed any last defense for Brennan.

First, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe obstructed the House Intel Committee by prohibiting interviews with more than 30 FBI employees involved in supporting Brennan’s notorious “fusion cell.” Not a single FBI analyst connected to the ICA was allowed to testify; they were all silenced. Second, DNI Gabbard revealed that Brennan “knowingly used false intelligence” to try to undermine President-elect Trump, a federal offense that constitutes outright fraud against the American government. But perhaps the most grotesque twist in this saga is the beating heart of the Russian collusion hoax: the Steele Dossier. Long debunked, thoroughly discredited, and condemned by the same CIA Russia analysts Brennan himself supervised, the dossier was forcibly embedded in Obama’s handpicked ICA.

When senior officers called out its obvious flaws in a Dec. 2016 Langley meeting, Brennan stubbornly insisted, “Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?” In other words, narrative trumped evidence for Obama’s CIA. Despite heated objections, the ICA’s drafters, chosen by Brennan himself, followed marching orders to weaponize dubious rumor and produce a document that served political ends, not reality. As we’ve noted before, the original assessments from Obama’s own intelligence community found no evidence that Russia altered the outcome of the 2016 election. But that didn’t suit the narrative Obama wanted. So he ordered the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) to be rewritten—pressuring John Brennan and his allies to force their preferred conclusion into the official record.

It wasn’t about accuracy or national security. It was about sabotage. They leaked their distortions to a compliant media and set out to delegitimize a duly elected president. The damage they caused to the American republic was—and still is—immeasurable. Now, the truth tumbles out into the open. Brennan’s strategy of “just making it ring true” has collapsed. Those responsible must be held accountable—not because of partisanship but because weaponizing U.S. intelligence agencies to undermine the will of the people is one of the gravest threats imaginable. Americans deserve justice, and the reckoning for Brennan and his Obama-era co-conspirators cannot come soon enough.

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“The legacy media is once again doing damage control—this time by rolling out anonymous Obama allies to accuse Trump and Gabbard of fabricating “treason” claims to distract from the Epstein scandal..”

Team Obama Is Running Scared as Russiagate Cover Story Collapses (Margolis)

Team Obama is panicking. You can see it in every flailing move, every desperate media blitz, and every attempt to deflect from the deep, unresolved questions about the origins of Russiagate. The architects of the infamous hoax—Barack Obama, John Brennan, James Clapper, and James Comey—have all been exposed, thanks to the tenacity of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who recently dropped declassified documents implicating the Obama-era intelligence cabal in concocting and perpetuating the false Russia narrative that hounded President Donald Trump throughout his first term. The stakes are real. Gabbard’s release didn’t just shine a light on the feverish efforts to smear Trump; it laid bare how these intelligence heavyweights cobbled together artificial intel on Trump while deliberately concealing explosive evidence that raised grave concerns about Hillary Clinton’s fitness for office.

Yeah, we’re not forgetting about that. The legacy media is once again doing damage control—this time by rolling out anonymous Obama allies to accuse Trump and Gabbard of fabricating “treason” claims to distract from the Epstein scandal. It’s a transparent attempt to spin the narrative and pressure Republicans into ignoring the growing pile of evidence. I previously wrote about how former State Department spokesperson Ned Price, an Obama White House veteran and ex-CIA analyst, wrote a panicked op-ed for Fox News, lashing out at Tulsi Gabbard, accusing her of pushing revisionist history and dangerously inflating the 2016 Russia collusion narrative. Remarkably absent from his piece is any substantive defense of the narrative he once championed, namely, that Russia tried to influence the election. Of course, he’s not alone.

Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has not only hit the media circuit but has also revealed he’s lawyered up. Former CIA Director John Brennan slammed the Trump administration’s findings about the 2016 Russia assessment as “unsurprising, very troubling, and very dangerous.” He called the administration’s defense “ludicrous,” comparing it to “a third-rate lawyer who realizes she has nothing to defend her client and is going to put together an absurd brief that’s laughable on its face.” Brennan claimed the original report was “very carefully worded, meticulously done,” and “stands up to scrutiny,” and continued to lean on the claim it showed Russia acted “at President Putin’s direction” to influence the election in favor of Trump. Susan Miller, a retired CIA officer who helped craft the 2017 intel assessment on Russian election interference, is accusing Gabbard and the Trump White House of “lying” about the intel report’s findings.

Speaking to NBC News, Miller claims the intelligence clearly showed Russia aimed to help Trump win in 2016—though she acknowledged there was no evidence of collusion between Trump’s team and Moscow. Her remarks appear to be a defensive pushback against growing scrutiny of the intel community’s role in shaping the now-discredited Trump-Russia narrative. Team Obama’s panic is nothing short of palpable. The exposure of their manufactured narrative is unraveling before their eyes. Each frantic appearance, each attempt to discredit their critics, only serves to confirm what the American public is starting to see: The hoax was real, and its architects are running out of places to hide. The more they scramble, the more obvious it becomes—Obama’s team is scared, and for the first time, genuinely unsure of what awaits them next.

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$100 million dollars was raised through a FireAid concert for victims of California’s January wildfires. $100 million dollars is missing.

Democrats Let California Burn While Aid Went Missing – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has accused Democrats of mishandling $100 million raised through a FireAid concert for victims of California’s January wildfires, calling the initiative “a total disaster” and alleging the money has not reached those affected. Wildfires broke out in early January across Southern California, killing at least 31 people, destroying more than 18,000 structures, leaving tens of thousands displaced, and causing total property losses between $76 billion and $131 billion. The FireAid concert, held January 30, was said to have raised approximately $100 million for wildfire relief. During the broadcast, host Samuel L. Jackson told viewers that “all the money will go directly to people who need help.”

However, in a Truth Social post published on Friday, Trump slammed FireAid as a “total disaster” and “another Democrat inspired scam.” “100 million dollars is missing. Was supposed to go to the Los Angeles fire victims, fires that, with proper management, would never have even happened,” Trump wrote. His comments come after several investigations found that the FireAid funds never reached the wildfire victims. David Howard, who lost two homes in Pacific Palisades, told Fox News, “I have not seen any benefit from the FireAid money, and I am very involved here and neither have my neighbors.” Another victim, Mark Jones, said he expected help after the concert but was never contacted.

FireAid has since stated that it does not distribute funds directly to individuals and has reported that $75 million has been granted so far to 188 nonprofits, with the remaining $25 million scheduled for release in August for long-term recovery, environmental resilience, and rebuilding. While no evidence of fraud has been disclosed, Trump has said that he would be referring the case of the missing funds to the US attorney general, telling reporters that “I think they are going to act very strongly.” Trump has repeatedly blamed California Governor Gavin Newsom and his policies for the fires, accusing him of restricting access to water in the state. Newsom has repeatedly denied the allegations, calling the claims “pure fiction.”

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Zelensky is losing “it”. The tide is turning.

“He has been completely immune from any criticism in the west, with all allegations dismissed and labelled as Kremlin talking points. Yet, in an instant, that illusion has been shattered.”

From Hero to Zero (Ian Proud)

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, in February 2022, Volodymyr Zelensky has been elevated to the status of a hero King, pure in thought and deed, interested only in saving humble Ukraine from the onrushing hordes of Russian Orcs. Like Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, but short, thin-skinned and with a gravelly voice. He has been completely immune from any criticism in the west, with all allegations dismissed and labelled as Kremlin talking points. Yet, in an instant, that illusion has been shattered. For the first time since February 2022, Zelensky has been revealed as, in practical terms, no different from other Ukrainian Presidents who have preceded him since the country gained independence in August 1991; corrupt and authoritarian. This comes as no surprise to most realists, but will be a devastating blow to the neo-liberal true-believers who have invested their reputations and cash into defeating Russia.

This week, President Zelensky signed a law that strips two important anti-corruption bodies – the National Anti-Courrption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of their independence, making them report to the Prosecutor General, who he appointed. Let’s be clear, corruption is and has been a hugely totemic issue in Ukraine, right back to the onset of the Maidan protests in late 2013. During my visits to Ukraine, while posted to Russia, it was absolutely clear that young people believed tackling corruption to be a top priority for the government. This formed part of their desire for Ukraine to move towards European Union membership, for their country to integrate into a community more clearly governed by democracy and the rule of law.

Whether they might consider the European Union to be democratic today, as unelected Commission President Ursula von der Leyen centralises ever more powers, is another question. But that European and anti-corruption aspiration was very real back in 2013. Yet scant progress has been made in tackling corruption since that time. In February 2015, one year after the heigh of the Maidan protests, the British Guardian newspaper published a long piece entitled ‘Welcome to Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe’. The Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, who had been personally selected by Victoria Nuland at the U.S. State Department, was forced to resign in April 2016 in the face of allegations of widespread corruption within his government.

In 2021, the European Court of Auditors produced a report entitled Reducing Grand Corruption in Ukraine: several EU initiatives, but still insufficient results. It defined Grand Corruption as ‘the abuse of high-level power that benefits the few, and causes serious and widespread harm to individuals and society’. In January 2023, an article in the Hill remarked on the need to defeat corruption as Ukraine’s ‘other enemy’. Shortly after that article, a piece, again in the Guardian, discussed the challenges faced by the Head of Ukraine’s National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP), which works closely with the now de-clawed NABU and SAPO.

That report in particular talked about specific examples of corruption in President Zelensky’s inner circle. Occasionally, Zelensky has purged his cabinet, to show his commitment to governmental reform, for example, sacking his former Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, in the face of widespread accusations that the Ukrainian Defence Ministry was siphoning off foreign donations on an industrial scale. But the occasional show trial has never taken the whiff away that Zelensky’s administration is every bit as corrupt as those that preceded it. And President Zelensky was voted into office in 2019 on a platform to eradicate corruption in Ukraine. In truth, he has done nothing to tackle it.

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“The Washington Post reported: “Ukrainians protest as Zelensky cracks down on corruption watchdogs.” Ditto, among others, The New York Times, Time, CNN, France 24, The Economist, BBC, and even the usually supportive CIA-run Radio Free Europe. With remarkable uniformity, the Western media were condemning their erstwhile favorite “Churchillian figure”..

Kiev Kleptocracy… Stench of Corruption Fouls NATO Regime’s Endgame (SCF)

Previously, any observer who had pointed out the rampant corruption that is endemic in the Kiev regime was automatically denounced by Western governments and media as a peddler of Russian disinformation. Hilariously, though, this week, the Kiev kleptocracy burst open in such a spectacular way that even the American and European apologists for the regime could no longer maintain the worst-kept secret of their charade. The fiasco exploded after the self-appointed President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, passed a law that stripped two anti-corruption agencies of their independent powers. Citizens took to the streets of Kiev and other cities in furious protest against what they openly lambasted as an autocratic regime trying to prolong its corrupt racketeering. The demonstrations were the largest seen on the streets of Ukraine despite the country being at war with Russia for over three years.

As the Wall Street Journal reported: “The protests exposed long dormant divisions between the government and society.” Zelensky, whose official presidential mandate expired last year, was stunned by the upsurge in public anger. By the end of the week, he was backtracking on the move to close the anti-graft agencies and was claiming, somewhat unconvincingly, that he was drafting a new bill to return the investigative powers. It was damage-limitation mode and largely prompted by the alarm of his Western backers. It is not clear if the U-turn will appease the Ukrainian public, who appear to have reached a pivotal level of disgust with the Kiev regime, not just over its endemic corruption but also over the grinding war with Russia and forced mobilization of reluctant military recruits.

Significantly, the Western governments and media also reacted with extraordinary contempt towards Zelensky and his ruling circle. Western media headlines highlighted the problem of corruption in Ukraine and Zelensky’s brazen attempt to curb the anti-corruption organizations. The Washington Post reported: “Ukrainians protest as Zelensky cracks down on corruption watchdogs.” Ditto, among others, The New York Times, Time, CNN, France 24, The Economist, BBC, and even the usually supportive CIA-run Radio Free Europe. With remarkable uniformity, the Western media were condemning their erstwhile favorite “Churchillian figure”. Even the slavishly supportive U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham rebuked Zelensky. Were they all of a sudden drinking Russian Kool-Aid?

The Wall Street Journal reported: “Ukrainians ramp up protests as Zelensky tries to find a way out.” Likewise, the BBC headlined: “Zelensky backtracks on law over anticorruption bodies after protests.” There are signs that the scandal has gone too far for Zelensky to now try to put the stench back in the bottle. This is what the staunchest backers of the Kiev regime are really worried about. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer were among the European leaders who vigorously remonstrated with Zelensky over the corruption debacle. Von der Leyen chided Zelensky that anti-corruption was key to the country’s path towards eventually joining the EU, if it ever does, which, like its aspiration to join NATO, is doubtful.

What worries the NATO sponsors of the proxy war against Russia is that the corruption in Kiev will hasten a disorderly collapse of the regime. And with that, their long-term geopolitical game to confront and weaken Russia is over. The news of corruption is hardly new, and the Western governments know that. Pentagon auditors have long noted the vast amount of money that has disappeared unaccountably under Zelensky.

The racketeering has become even more brazen since Zelensky declared martial law and cancelled elections last year, making him a self-appointed president indefinitely. The Ukrainian people have had it with his crony rule, while thousands of men are killed and maimed every week on the front lines. Adding to the public anger and resistance are the goon squads that the regime dispatches to drag men off the streets to be sent to the front lines and certain death. Videos increasingly show Ukrainian communities standing up to snatch squads who are terrorizing them.

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“Over time, it became clear that Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies served not only their official mission but also the political interests of a specific faction – namely, the US Democratic Party.”

Zelensky Thought He Was Killing It. He Was (Loginov)

Ukrainians have had plenty of reasons to take to the streets: the cancellation of elections, forced mobilization, the refusal to demobilize soldiers who’ve been on the front lines for over three years, the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, corruption in the construction of fortifications, the state’s failure to have the bodies of fallen soldiers returned, and – above all – the complete absence of a plan for ending the conflict with Russia. This list could go on. And yet, none of these issues has triggered large-scale protests. What we’ve seen instead are isolated outbursts: in towns and villages, women block draft officers from entering their neighborhoods; churchgoers physically defend their parishes; the wives and mothers of Ukrainian soldiers stage small rallies to draw attention to their plight.

And yet, even in this atmosphere of fear and suppression, Vladimir Zelensky has managed to ignite a political crisis. The hasty passage of Bill No. 12414 – which stripped the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of their independence – sparked a wave of demonstrations that haven’t let up for days. It’s the first major popular protest since the start of Russia’s military operation, and it poses a serious challenge to Zelensky’s grip on power. Rallies have broken out in Kiev, Lviv, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Rovno, and Nikolayev. While officials have tried to frame them as spontaneous, local expressions of concern about anti-corruption institutions, the scope and coordination suggest otherwise. The message to Zelensky is simple: the pressure is just beginning.

To understand why the anti-corruption issue struck such a nerve, we need to go back to the beginning. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) were established in 2015 with active backing from the United States – just a year after the coup in Kiev. At the time, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin openly stated that the idea for NABU came directly from then–Vice President Joe Biden. From the outset, these agencies functioned as tools of external oversight over the post-Maidan Ukrainian government. President Petro Poroshenko, who was still consolidating power and ideology, did not resist Washington’s involvement. NABU’s early targets included oligarchs like Igor Kolomoysky and Rinat Akhmetov, who controlled major media holdings. This suited Poroshenko, whose own business interests, notably, remained untouched.

Over time, it became clear that Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies served not only their official mission but also the political interests of a specific faction – namely, the US Democratic Party. A prime example is the Paul Manafort case. In 2016, The New York Times, citing NABU sources, published claims that Manafort – then campaign chairman for Donald Trump – had received undisclosed payments from Ukraine’s Party of Regions under President Viktor Yanukovych. These claims prompted a US investigation into possible Ukrainian interference in the American election. In 2019, the Senate ultimately found no evidence – but the episode left a lasting impression. That same year, NABU played a role in deflecting scrutiny from the Burisma scandal – the energy company whose board included Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

Over time, the link between these anti-corruption institutions and the US Democratic Party became apparent to many Ukrainians. And with Republicans now back in power in Washington, Zelensky appears to have decided it was time to free himself from external control. Zelensky likely assumed that the new American administration wouldn’t go out of its way to defend the Democratic Party’s proxies in Ukraine. Judging by Washington’s muted response, that calculation may have been correct. What he failed to consider, however, was the level of domestic resistance to his growing concentration of power.

Ukraine today is full of pressure points. Discontent is widespread – but scattered and disorganized. Zelensky’s opponents simply lack the means to unseat him. Moreover, Zelensky remains the centerpiece of the West’s anti-Russian strategy – a leader willing to accept any domestic cost in service of that agenda. Even policies that threaten the foundations of Ukrainian statehood are tolerated, so long as the broader project of an “anti-Russia” continues.

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“If there are extraterrestrials somewhere out there, they may not know much about Earth, except for the fact that von der Leyen is obsessed with Russia – a phenomenon easily visible from space.”

The Kremlin Hates von der Leyen About As Much As EU Lawmakers Do (Marsden)

Apparently, trying to hold Ursula von der Leyen accountable is now a Russian op, reports Der Spiegel, citing a new NATO-linked think tank report. The study treats elected oversight and European lawmakers whose job, ideally, involves more than clapping like trained seals every time an unelected Eurocrat lights public money on fire, like elements of some kind of Russian infiltration plot. “Massive support for this effort was also found by pro-Kremlin media outlets, bloggers, and online influencers, as the Lithuania-based organization Debunk.org specializes in analyzing disinformation and Russian propaganda, which is seen as part of Russia’s hybrid warfare against the EU,” Spiegel wrote, describing Russian-linked media “fueling” a recent von der Leyen non-confidence vote in the EU Parliament. “Among the larger portals were those of the Russian propaganda channel RT…”

According to the advance copy of this report seen by Spiegel, the study reviewed 284 articles from Russian-linked media. Exactly how many of those articles expressed something like only von der Leyen’s ouster could save Europe? 90%? 75%? Maybe half? Nope, just 35%. Roughly the same percentage of voting EU lawmakers who favored ejecting her (32.7%). So by this logic, the Kremlin is about as supportive of Ursula as Brussels is. Awkward. Spiegel said that was the most common so-called Kremlin-backed narrative that the study found. Others included the suggestion that von der Leyen is part of a corrupt elite that robbed citizens to fill Big Pharma’s pockets. Because apparently, saying that hey, maybe EU contracts shouldn’t be inked via disappearing text messages with the CEO of a company, means that you’re doing Putin’s bidding. Real democracy means that you shut your mouth when you see your overlords doing shady stuff.

Another alleged Kremlin line? That Ursula, despite her presidential title, was never elected. As someone who personally refers to her as “Queen Ursula,” I’m actually surprised that one didn’t rank higher. It’s not like she won a popular vote or anything. She was handpicked in shady backrooms and then subjected to a simple confirmation by EU lawmakers. Her sole opponent in this so-called “election” was literally just “not Ursula.” Only the EU, in all its dystopian delusion, would call that an “election”. Then there was the claim that she’s obsessed with confronting Russia. Which is just, uh, objectively true? I mean, come on. If there are extraterrestrials somewhere out there, they may not know much about Earth, except for the fact that von der Leyen is obsessed with Russia – a phenomenon easily visible from space.

Even right before the vote, she accused the lawmakers subjecting her to democratic accountability of being Kremlin stooges just because they wanted her to explain herself. “There is ample proof that many are supported by our enemies and by their puppet masters in Russia or elsewhere. What we hear from you are movements fueled by conspiracies, from anti-vaxxers, to put in apologists and you only have to look at some of the signatories of this motion to understand what I mean,” she pleaded.

Let’s back up here. Why exactly did she face this no-confidence vote? Because no one who’s elected and accountable at the EU has actually been able to provide concrete details of contract terms for the tens of billions of euros in Covid jabs that she strong-armed European governments into paying for. Jabs that are now so useless they’re being dumped in landfills all over Europe, where one-eyed stuffed animals, soggy pizza boxes, and a moldy futon just got their third booster, courtesy of the EU taxpayer. One of those contracts followed a flurry of text exchanges between Ursula and Pfizer CEO, Robert Bourla, which she bragged about to the New York Times right before they pulled a Houdini.

The courts have so far politely asked her to explain herself. And that’s where we’re stuck right now. So frustrated lawmakers figured that they could at least make her publicly squirm with a non-confidence vote in an attempt to get her to cough up at least some of the answers for taxpayers. The result? Ursula’s interpretive song and tap-dance routine in Parliament: “Putin Did It: Paranoia in Three Acts.” She ultimately survived the vote thanks to some budget crumbs thrown at the lefties who were otherwise saying that they would have voted against her. But even they told Politico that it was her “absolute last chance.”

Read more …

“The €2 trillion ($2.17 trillion) 2028–2034 [budget].”

“..analysts who estimate up to 25% of the budget could end up being spent on Kiev.”

That’s $500 billion. Fool’s gold.

Hungary Opposes Turning EU’s Budget Into Ukraine’s (RT)

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has slammed the European Commission’s proposed seven-year EU budget as a “budget for Ukraine,” in an interview with RIA Novosti published on Friday. The €2 trillion ($2.17 trillion) 2028–2034 spending plan published by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which includes around €100 billion in aid for Ukraine and funds for potential EU accession, is “unacceptable,” according to the top Hungarian diplomat. The budget must be approved unanimously by all 27 member states, giving Hungary the power to block it. “We will not give it support or consent,” Szijjarto told RIA Novosti, adding, “this isn’t even the budget of the European Union – it’s a budget for Ukraine.”

Budapest has also warned that the draft shifts funds from cohesion policies and agricultural subsidies, which are vital to Central Europe. The proposal could undermine EU food security by forcing farmers out of business and increasing import reliance, Hungarian officials have said. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also denounced the draft budget, warning it could “destroy the EU” and claiming its only purpose is “to admit Ukraine to the EU.” He has also cited analysts who estimate up to 25% of the budget could end up being spent on Kiev.

Germany has likewise rejected the plan, calling it “unacceptable” amid efforts by EU members to reduce their national deficits. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has noted that Ukraine is unlikely to even join the bloc before 2034, when the current budget cycle ends. Ukraine has designated EU accession as a national priority. While Brussels has suggested Kiev could join by 2030, all existing members must approve its entry. Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland remain opposed, citing concerns about Ukraine’s readiness and its potential financial burden on the bloc. While the Kremlin initially said Ukraine had the sovereign right to join the EU, Russian officials have since hardened their stance, accusing the bloc of undergoing “rabid militarization” and becoming an offshoot of NATO.

Read more …

“He argued that Kiev’s full membership would come with “war risks.” “Ukraine is a buffer state, and we do not wish to share its fate. We understand what that means, having once been on the western periphery of the Soviet Union..”

Ukraine’s Accession Will Bring War To EU – Orban (RT)

Ukrainian membership in the European Union would threaten Hungary’s security and raise the risk of war in the region, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. Ukraine, which was granted EU candidate status in 2022, has made joining the bloc a national priority. While Brussels has floated 2030 as a possible accession date, all current member states must approve the move. Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland remain opposed, citing concerns over the country’s preparedness and the financial strain its membership could place on the EU. Warsaw has additionally insisted that Kiev come to terms with war crimes committed by Ukrainians during WWII. In an interview with Kossuth Radio on Friday,

Orban said that Hungary, which shares a border with Ukraine, would be especially vulnerable to any escalation resulting from the EU’s expansion. He argued that Kiev’s full membership would come with “war risks.” “Ukraine is a buffer state, and we do not wish to share its fate. We understand what that means, having once been on the western periphery of the Soviet Union,” he said. “If Ukraine’s membership is accepted, then we will become the battlefield. The war will geographically affect the neighboring region. This is unacceptable. A lot of young Hungarians would also die. This is not a tactical issue, but an existential one,” Orban added. He proposed a strategic partnership with the EU as an alternative to full accession.

Earlier this week, Orban – a frequent critic of EU leadership – rejected the European Commission’s proposed seven-year budget, warning that it could “destroy the European Union.” He claimed the proposal was designed primarily to finance Ukraine’s membership, citing estimates that up to 25% of the budget could be allocated to Kiev. Budapest has blocked multiple EU military aid packages for Kiev and has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire with Russia. Hungary has also warned that the financial and security implications of Ukraine’s integration could outweigh any potential benefits, framing the issue as a matter of national survival rather than political preference.

Read more …

Trump will not like this one bit.

EU Secretly Pressures US Firms To Censor Immigration Criticism: House GOP (JTN)

The European Union is secretly leaning on tech platforms to censor routine political speech and even jokes as a legal obligation under its Digital Services Act, according to an interim staff report Friday by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, which has also probed Brazil’s censorship, Biden administration jawboning and ideological advertiser boycotts. Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said it was prompted by then-EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton’s threat against X last summer, later disavowed by the European Commission, that owner Elon Musk’s scheduled livestream with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump might constitute “illegal content” under the DSA. Though Breton resigned “under pressure from EU President Ursula von der Leyen” after Jordan demanded a briefing from Breton on his threats, his successor, Henna Virkkunen, “remains strongly supportive of the DSA’s censorship provisions and continues to enforce them against American companies,” the report says.

“Camouflaged as a regulation to increase online safety,” the DSA lets European regulators “suppress speech globally” by threatening fines up to 6% of global revenue against platforms, based anywhere, that refuse to censor “humor, satire, and core political speech” that offends bureaucrats and align content moderation with EC preferences, it says. The law empowers them to “temporarily shut down platforms within the EU” if “extraordinary circumstances lead to a serious threat to public security or public health in the Union.” Platforms must allow “certified third-party arbitrators to resolve content moderation disputes,” who “do not need to be independent from the European regulators who certify them, incentivizing arbitrators to heed regulators’ censorship demands,” the report says.

Because “platforms bear the cost when they lose at arbitration,” they are also incentivized to censor flagged content “before arbitration begins.” The DSA has an “arbitrary threshold” of 45 million monthly users to qualify as a strictly regulated “very large online platform,” seemingly chosen to “sweep in major American companies while carving out Europe’s top tech companies,” with only Booking.com and “pornography websites” qualifying, the report says. The EC “invented workarounds” to exempt other European companies from VLOP classification, for example Spotify, which gets to split its products between music and podcasts “for the purpose of counting EU users,” the report says. It cites a critic that alleges a “clear discrepancy” between “self-declared” monthly users and “reality.”

“Absolutely nothing in the DSA requires a platform to remove lawful content,” EC spokesperson Thomas Regnier told Politico EU in response to the staff report, claiming freedom of expression is “a fundamental right in the EU” and “at the heart of our legislations.” Regnier said “content removals based on regulatory authorities’ orders to act against illegal content account for less than 0.001 percent” of the content moderation decisions, with platforms “proactively” deciding the rest based on their own terms and conditions. ‘I’m not racist, but …’ is ‘coded language to express anti-Muslim sentiment’

The committee’s subpoenas revealed content from the EC’s May 7 workshop with DSA stakeholders, which unlike its “contemporaneous” Digital Markets Act workshops was closed to the public and operated under the Chatham House Rule, banning participants from describing “exercise scenarios” or naming or quoting participants without permission. It also obtained emails between EC staff and tech companies on purportedly “voluntary” codes of conduct on hate speech and disinformation, showing “regulators repeatedly and deliberately reached out to pressure reluctant platforms to join” and retaliated against resisters, opening a probe of X for refusing to use purported fact-checkers. “The censorship is largely one-sided, almost uniformly targeting political conservatives,” the report’s press release says.

Read more …

“The proffer immunity granted to Maxwell allowed her to answer questions without her responses later being used against her in a criminal case..”

Ghislaine Maxwell Gets Limited Immunity, Gives DOJ ‘100 Different People’ (NYP)

Notorious sex criminal Ghislaine Maxwell answered questions from Justice Department officials about “100 different people” linked to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, an attorney for the disgraced socialite claimed Friday following two days of interrogation led by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during which she was reportedly granted limited immunity. David Oscar Markus told reporters that his client, currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in Manhattan of federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges in December 2021, was “asked about every possible thing you could imagine – everything.” “This was the first opportunity she’s ever been given to answer questions about what happened,” Markus added. “The truth will come out about what happened with Mr. Epstein and she’s the person who’s answering those questions.”

Blanche had “every single question” answered during the sitdown, Maxwell’s attorney also said, with the British-born convict declining to plead the Fifth Amendment. “If she lies they could charge her with lying,” Markus noted. “They did charge her with lying,” a reporter challenged him, referring to two perjury counts that Markus noted were dropped by the feds after her conviction. “No one is above the law — and no lead is off-limits,” Blanche posted on X Tuesday in announcing he would speak with Maxwell. Maxwell, 63, is appealing her conviction and sentencing, and legal observers have speculated her willingness to answer questions is tied to a potential clemency grant by President Trump. Her attorney described the commander in chief Friday as “the ultimate dealmaker” and claimed his client had “been treated unfairly for the past five years” and “didn’t get a fair trial.”

“We hope he exercises that power in a right and just way,” Markus added. Trump, 79, told reporters after landing in Glasgow, Scotland that “I don’t know anything about the conversation” between Blanche and Maxwell because “I haven’t really been following it.” “This is no time to be talking about pardons,” the president added after saying hours earlier while leaving the White House that “I haven’t thought” about the idea. Maxwell reportedly initiated the sitdowns with the DOJ and answered questions for roughly nine hours, according to ABC News. The proffer immunity granted to Maxwell allowed her to answer questions without her responses later being used against her in a criminal case, sources told the outlet. Proffer immunity is typically granted to individuals prosecutors want cooperation from in a criminal case.

In 2022, the Department of Justice expressed doubts that Maxwell could be truthful, writing in court filings that she displayed a “significant pattern of dishonest conduct” and failed to take responsibility for her heinous crimes. Court papers the prior year revealed that prosecutors never seriously entertained the prospect of offering the women dubbed “Epstein’s madam” a plea agreement after the financier was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting his own federal trial on Aug. 10, 2019. According to Markus, Epstein’s attorneys had been informed that “no potential co-conspirators would be prosecuted” as part of his talks with government lawyers following his July 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges. “I don’t think President Trump knows that the Justice Department took the position that that promise should not be upheld,” he claimed.

Read more …

Go to Moscow. Leave the European and US warmongers alone.

Rubio Shares Trump’s Feelings About Russia-Ukraine Conflict (RT)

US President Donald Trump is growing impatient with Russia over resolving the Ukraine conflict, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. Moscow maintains it is open to diplomacy, but has said any settlement must take into account its security concerns. Speaking to Fox News on Saturday, Rubio claimed that while Trump is focused on peace and has done his best to bring hostilities to a close, his overtures to Russia appear to be yielding little result so far. “He’s done everything possible to bring it to an end. I think he is growing increasingly frustrated,” he said. According to Rubio, despite “good interactions with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and phone calls, it never leads to anything.”

“He is losing patience, losing his willingness to continue to wait for the Russian side to do something to bring an end to this war that wasn’t his, but he wants to see it come to an end,” Rubio added, accusing Moscow of using “delaying tactics.” His comments come after Trump imposed a 50-day ceasefire deadline on Moscow, warning of “very severe” new sanctions, including 100% “secondary tariffs” on countries buying Russian oil.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that the sanctions threat would be interpreted by Kiev as a “signal to continue the war” rather than to seek peace. He has also described Trump’s style as “rather harsh,” while confirming that “Moscow intends to continue dialogue with Washington” and follow “a line of repairing the significantly broken bilateral relations.”

Earlier this week, Russia and Ukraine held a third round of direct talks in Istanbul, with Moscow proposing short ceasefires for retrieving wounded and fallen soldiers. Additionally, the Kremlin offered to continue prisoner exchanges and return the remains of fallen soldiers. However, the two sides remain far apart on a potential peace settlement, with Moscow insisting that Ukraine should recognize the loss of five of its former regions that joined Russia in public referendums, withdraw its forces from them, commit to neutrality, and limit its own military capabilities. Kiev has dismissed the terms as an “ultimatum.”

Read more …

“China is encouraging BRICS nations and partners to use the yuan “for trade settlement, thereby creating a self-sustaining cycle” driven by “real trade demand.” This is the system those clowns want to regime-change.”

Destroy Russia. Fail? No Problem: Let’s Destroy China! (Pepe Escobar)

[..] On the American ability to maintain the US dollar’s reserve currency status, Miao points to two factors: “whether the United States can continue to lead the technological revolution”; and “whether it can preserve the advantages of its financial system, such as the Federal Reserve’s independence and the self-regulating and corrective capabilities of its financial markets.” Yet what’s accelerating now is rather the “fragmentation of the international monetary system”. So we should expect increased use of yuan in payment settlements and as “a store of value”; that’s already happening all across BRICS. Miao points to the key vector: the yuan is now “a low-interest currency, while the US dollar is high-interest.” Trump 2.0 tariffs “on all countries have contributed to the appreciation” of the yuan.

This high-speed train is now leaving the station: “By leveraging China’s manufacturing strengths in sectors such as machinery, electronics, and new energy equipment”, China is encouraging BRICS nations and partners to use the yuan “for trade settlement, thereby creating a self-sustaining cycle” driven by “real trade demand.” This is the system those clowns want to regime-change. Well, they did not learn anything out of the collective West humiliation in the proxy war in Ukraine. A top old school hand of the Deep State, now retired, and familiar with the glory days of the OSS, sums it all up. Relevant excerpts of our conversation: “The US and Europe are already at war with Russia and they are losing it. The US has 20,000 armed troops in Europe to face Russia. NATO forces are largely a figment of the imagination.

Ukraine is nothing but a front in the US battle for control of the Eurasian land mass a la Mackinder. The US cannot supply both Israel and Europe at the same time. It has overstretched itself. As for Europe, it has no army of any consequence and most of its equipment is antiquated. All of it is pure bluff.” He adds, “the Europeans are waking up to the fact that the US has a moat around it so that it can be reached only by ICBMs and submarine missiles but Europe is in itself indefensible as short range conventional missiles can destroy it. Nukes are not required to destroy Europe in one day but a rain of Russian missiles.” Now compare that with Russia’s top negotiator in the Istanbul kabuki, historian Medinsky, when asked whether Moscow fears new sanctions by the EU and the US:

“This is not a question for us, not for the negotiating group. I can tell you this. After the revolution and civil war in 1920, again, another historical reference, we had not only sanctions, we had an absolute diplomatic and economic blockade of Soviet Russia from everyone. Everyone! It did not prevent us from winning World War II (…) Nothing will prevent Russia from winning now, The only question is the price of victory and the time it takes to achieve it.” This is something that will never sink in amongst Think Tankland in D.C. As much as the technological accomplishments – now visible – of the Made in China 2025 plan will never sink in. Enter bluster, hubris, the regime change obsession – and worse. Because if the US ruling class psycho killers finally conclude they cannot maintain their unilateral world hegemony even via war, they will abandon their cherished Think Tankland “reports” for good and even resort, in despair, to a Samson option.

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Home Forums Debt Rattle July 27 2025

Viewing 40 posts - 81 through 120 (of 121 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #192936
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReid

    I am remembering our original encounter
    when you thought sanctions were good
    because this was the USA doing it
    and explained this was just a weaker
    country being beaten up by the USA

    Well if that’s what you remember then it explains a lot about why you’re so mistaken, because your memory is an hallucination. I have never thought nor said that sanctions were good, because I think the exact opposite. Similarly in regard to Gaza I have been explicit and outspoken that the USA and Israel (and all other violent Zionistic …and other… colonializing empires are criminally insane genocidal psychopaths.

    Did @aspnaz bite you or something? You’re thinking and writing like you’ve got the same viral brain infection. Don’t lie about what I’ve written, or what sort of bizzaro “memory” you’ve invented. It makes you look like an idiot at best, because the other possibility is that you’re just a deliberate liar.

    Hatred and violence will never get rid of enemies who hate you so badly that they want to hurt you. It’s like cutting off your own nose to spite your face.

    #192937
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Where I differ from DBS is that I see “truth and love” as the prize, not the solution. They are the prizes that we can earn for our families if we are able to use violence and hard work to create the environment that can sustain truth and love. Laziness and mixed up thinking will destroy that environment over time, but truth and love are still the prize, not the solution.

    In a way they is is like human rights; there is no such thing as a human right, if you want human rights for your children then you are going to have to create them and enforce them with violence, then your children can have the luxury of human rights.

    As for believing in a God in the sky, that is even more of a luxury that will require more violence and enforcement, but is certainly not a solution to anything.

    We go out for a walk, a swim, an ice-cream then we go home; the ice-cream is the prize for your young kid doing the walk and the swim in good humour. The hard work has to be done first, then you get the prize. No hard work, no prize. Simple.

    #192938
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Some reasons start at 38 minutes in the previous posted video

    #192939
    John Day
    Participant

    @Aspnaz: I think the good revolution in China was the “Boxer Rebellion” and the good leader, Sun Yat-Sen, China’s first elected President, was absolutely the right man for that job in history.
    Tragically, he died suddenly of GI cancer just as WW-2 was rolling in and his lieutenants Chiang and Mao were not up to his vision, but had a lot of ambition, which divided China.
    China eventually recovered some after a survivor of all that, Deng Xiaopeng, tried to pick up where Sun had left off, though the world was much changed…

    @ DBS: This was about the best I could come up with.

    #192940
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ aspnaz,
    He believes in God
    We don’t
    It is fine and irrelevant but
    I brought it up as my understanding of God
    Would exterminate those involved in the Gaza genocide

    #192941
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    Your example of chairman Mao as a “success story” for blood soaked revolution is quite revealing of your mind set and moral standards. But I must admit that Mao is a great example of soaking the earth in blood. He killed tens of millions by most counts, which is a really strange way of counting success, unless you’re an exterminator.

    So you espouse mass killing of one’s own people by violence, starvation and tyranny as a measure of success and consider the espousal of truth and love as to be the spouting of nonsense. That figures.

    What else would anyone expect from someone like you?

    Here’s the example you sarcastically (and rather ignorantly) asked for of a country transformed by truth and love: India, 1947,

    #192942
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ DBS,
    Your country is causing the Gaza genocide with the weapons and money

    #192943
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ DBS,
    I believe that
    God believes in the death penalty for evil people

    #192944
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReid

    Not my country, asshole. The criminal Cabal that has stolen my country. By your reasoning we should blame the Native Americans for being rubbed out by the same crew, or blame the Irish for the Great Famine, or the peasants of China for the carnage of Chairman Mao and his CCP.

    You’re not going to hate and kill your way to a better world, but you’re going to wrack up an impressicve body count. Maybe you, Aspnaz, Chairman Mao, Pol Pot, Joe Stalin, Genghis Kah and Benny Netanyahu could start a little club of like-minded individuals to rid the world of people you don’t like. Just don’t turn your back on any of your fellow club mates.

    #192945
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichelReid

    I believe that
    God believes in the death penalty for evil people.

    You’re not real big on Bible Study I take it, or logic.

    #192946
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ DBS,

    No need to use foul language.

    You need to kill the ones responsible.

    You will not love them into submission

    #192947
    aspnaz
    Participant

    @John Day

    No surprises there, Sun Yat Sen was the USA’s man, having been educated in the west (USA and British Hong Kong), he was a doctor, like yourself, and may well have been a Christian, he was also funded by the Chinese diaspora in the USA. He valued the likes of “democracy” and “American values” and would have done immeasurable harm to China; anyway, he led the country for a while, he was the first leader (hence the personality cult of “Father of the Nation”) but he basically failed to unite and drive the country forward. He is a big name in Taiwan (don’t think he ever lived there), due to his KMT roots, as is Chiang Kai-shek who did live there. He also has some sort of memorial house in HK, if I remember correctly; I haven’t been.

    The Boxer Revolution, or to be more precise, the Wuchang Uprising, took control away from the Qing dynasty, but that cycle has been happening for millenia, with different dynasties displacing previous ones with force. But, that did not establish a new course for China, it just left China in chaos with all the pieces still up in the air. Well after the Boxer Revolution there were plenty of revolutionary groups vying for power. Sun Yet Sen wasn’t even a part of the Wuchang Uprising, he was later elected into leadership by the revolutionaries, the first President of the Republic, as the only person they could unite around; the man with money. But nothing much changed under Sun Yat Sen, the hard yards were done by others, he was just a unifying figure at the time. They were still all fighting when he died.

    Mao’s break way from the KMT was the start of the changes that made a real difference; this happened all after Sun Yat Sen was dead. He was the one who was able to guide China, however brutally, through the choas and onto its current path. I am no fan of Mao, but he was effective and the Chinese are reaping the rewards.

    I do not dismiss Sun Yat Sen altogether, but he just did not have the ability needed to drive China forward into its next era.

    #192948
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ DBS,

    That is logic and I wrote it like a proof or code

    I think you are confused

    If there is a God I am sure he believes in justice (and truth)

    #192949
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @Aspnaz

    I see “truth and love” as the prize, not the solution. They are the prizes that we can earn for our families if we are able to use violence and hard work to create the environment that can sustain truth and love.”
    …………………………………………………….

    Your philosophy reminds me of the funny old saying that “Fighting for Peace is like Fucking for Chastity.”

    Thanks, at least, for explaining your position. You think that it is possible to hate and harm one’s way to love and benevolence. That’s absurd on it’s face. Even a small child understands cause and effect well enough to know that hatred does not cause love, and harm does not cause well being.

    My guess is that you have invested a lot of your energy into conflicts with others. I would also hazard the guess that you harbor a lot of resentment toward others as the explanation for your having lost so often.

    #192950
    aspnaz
    Participant

    John Day said

    Sun Yat-Sen, China’s first elected President

    Sun Yat Sen was not an “elected President” in the sense that readers in the west would understand. He was elected by the representatives of the revolutionary groups ruling different provinces in China. The people who elected him were also not elected, they had seized power in the various provinces. They were all different groups with different ideals, that is why a lame duck like Sun Yat Sen was easy to unite around as an inoffensive figurehead.

    #192951
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @DBS,
    People are being killed
    What does love have to do with that
    Perhaps you think it should continue because your president is paying for it
    Where does love fit here?

    #192952
    John Day
    Participant

    @Aspnaz: Thank you for your polite presentation of your views, not identical to my own.
    Howdja like Deng Xiaopeng?

    #192953
    aspnaz
    Participant

    D Benton Smith said

    Not my country, asshole. The criminal Cabal that has stolen my country.

    Ownership does not change through theft. As you state above, it is your country funded by your taxes and is being destroyed during your lifetime.

    #192954
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    No justice in Gaza

    #192955
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Democracy today = corruption

    #192956
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Democracy today = propaganda

    #192957
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReid

    That is logic and I wrote it like a proof or code

    I think you are confused

    If there is a God I am sure he believes in justice (and truth)

    First of all, both you and I and most other people that I know of (and there are a few exceptions) should pray to the God which you don’t believe in that none of us get what we deserve, else none of us will survive it. Personally I would be very grateful for a little forgiveness to soften the justice.

    Secondly, if you want to be taken seriously then you simply cannot have it both ways, you either believe in truth, justice and love (all of which require the existence of God) or you don’t.

    I will accept your arguments as legitimate assertions, and respond to them accordingly, only if you take a stand on one side of the fence or the other. No “mugwump” evasions allowed. If you do not believe in the existence of a divine creator of the Universe then you cannot legitimately base any of your positions on the existence of truth, love or justice, because without God those words are just hollow nonsense without basis in reality. Same goes for words like good, bad, fair, and so on.

    Atheists, for example, can commit murder and genocide with a clear conscience because if their is no God then there is no good or bad, but only might makes right.

    Pick a side and stand your ground or just be quiet to conceal your ignorance.

    #192958
    aspnaz
    Participant

    D Benton Smith said

    You think that it is possible to hate and harm one’s way to love and benevolence.

    Violence and hate are two different things; get a dictionary and study. The police force in your town use violence to enforce laws that allow you to live in peace. The police and judiciary do not, as a rule, hate the people they put into jail, they probably feel sorry for most of them, but they have to go to jail so that people like you can dream that the world is make from pixie dust controlled by some old geezer sitting on a cloud.

    Look at animals, if humans is too difficult, they use violence to find dinner. Food supply chains slaughter your meat to provide you with dinner. Do you think they have to hate the meat before they kill it? Violence is the most natural act on the planet, along with breathing, giving birth, eating etc. The fact that you find it so terrible says more about how displaced your thinking is from reality.

    The violence of Gaza is terrible, but the Israelis are not willing to live with non-Jews, and their jails are already full of Palestinians, so they slaughter them on the streets. It does not matter how much the Gazans love peace and truth, they are going to be slaughtered and while the Israelis can get the support of your country, the UK and the EU, they will continue slaughtering. The reason they are being slaughtered is that their men folk did not prepare sufficiently enough to protect their women and children; I am not blaming the Palestinian men for not trying hard enough, but the reality is that they didn’t achieve enough; if they had a nuke and blew up Tel Aviv then the fighting would have stopped by now.

    You disowning your country is about as much use to them as your love for them; it gives them nothing. You going on a 10 million man march through Washington, demanding changes, just might get some people nervous enough to stop the slaughter, at least until you are back firmly embedded on your sofa.

    #192959
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The west is bankrupt.
    So we war, cull and devastate our own people with injections saying we will care for each other. Lies. I cannot believe it has come to this. At least we are not in Gaza but as someone said that is coming too.

    #192960
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    Ownership does not change through theft. As you state above, it is your country funded by your taxes and is being destroyed during your lifetime.

    Well in that case we both better move at once to countries that don’t have the Death Penalty or extradition to countries that do, because we’re both goners and as guilty as sin. You’ll fry in the chair for the tens of millions that “your” country slaughtered, and I’ll swing from the gallows for mine.

    Such punishment for the “sins of the fathers” would violate the law of every legal system that I’ve ever heard of, of course, but apparently, you’re a full spectrum sort of hanging judge and being accidentally born here is no excuse and doesn’t get me off the hook. No excuse, right?

    So, explain to me, please, why you murdered all those peasants, Aspnaz, and no whining about how it wasn’t you who pulled the trigger, burned the crops, or aborted the babies. No excuses. You’re Chinese, so it’s your fault.

    #192961
    aspnaz
    Participant

    John Day said

    Howdja like Deng Xiaopeng?

    I think he was essential at the time, his changes to the Chinese economy, his focus on using the west to help China’s development. He is always known for “opening up” China to the west. Although I don’t know this subject very well, I always thought of Deng as having a rosy view of the west (because Mao kicked him out for being too capitalist at one time), while Xi has a very realistic view of the west. Both served their purpose at the time, but I can see why the CCP elected Xi afterwards; Xi is more in keeping with Mao, able to drive China forward into the future, transitioning the country into a unique China – not a copy of the west – and a first world country ready to be the biggest power on earth.

    #192962
    aspnaz
    Participant

    D Benton Smith said

    Such punishment for the “sins of the fathers” would violate the law of every legal system that I’ve ever heard of, of course, but apparently, you’re a full spectrum sort of hanging judge and being accidentally born here is no excuse and doesn’t get me off the hook. No excuse, right?

    I accept that I am guilty, never said I wasn’t, but you seem to have a problem with being a sinner. I am not Chinese, as I have explained many times, but you are old and repeating stuff to old people is nothing new. I abandoned my country and lived in various different countries around the world, I abandoned it because it had become a shithole, I travelled to find somewhere better. You have to live in places to see if they are better because you have to get to know local people, without that knowledge you don’t really know anything. I eventually ended up in China and liked it, liked the people, have many Chinese friends and, if China allows me to, I will stay here until I die.

    You can accuse me of running away, and yes, that is what I did. When nobody else is willing to stand and fight, you realise that you have to run away instead. At the time, if there had been some way of fighting to get my country back then I would have offered my help, at the time. No longer, those days are past, I now know China, I see the west as a sickness that has to get to the fever stage and burn out before the west can recover.

    #192963
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    if they had a nuke and blew up Tel Aviv then the fighting would have stopped by now.

    Because we would all be dead in a worldwide nuclear holocaust. There. Problem solved, You’re a genius.

    #192964
    WES
    Participant

    Palestinians:

    Palestinians are the original Jews forced to convert to Muslim.
    The new or fake Jews want to exterminate the old Jews
    No Arab country wants either) the new or old Jews in their countries.
    So the old Jews are screwed as nobody wants them.
    The new Jews are behaving like Nazis.

    #192965
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    You have never (and still haven’t) come out of the closet to reveal either your nationality or ethnicity, so don’t say that you have. To make the claim that you’ve done so “many times” is such an obvious fabrication that I’m astounded that you even say it. Everyone who reads this forum knows that the claim is simply not true. Disingenuously vague hints don’t count. Your cowardice is your own business until you start making accusations against others, which you have done freely and without reservation. You’ve verbally attacked me without cause so many times using so many lies that I have lost count.

    So, you ran away rather than fix either your country of origin or your adopted one because you thought that you couldn’t win a fight. That action makes you a coward, @aspnaz. It’s just as simple as that.

    Cowards should exercise more discretion in their accusations.

    #192966
    aspnaz
    Participant

    D Benton Smith said

    Because we would all be dead in a worldwide nuclear holocaust. There. Problem solved, You’re a genius.

    Yeah, that would mean that you would be involved, you would have to get off your sofa and do something. I can see why that is so alarming for you. The reality is that the Jews are only slaughtering the Palestinians because they can get away with it, there will not be many people willing to do something to try to help the Palestinians. As Putin said about his nuclear protocol; what is the point of the world existing without a Russia. The Palestinians should have thought along the same lines; why should the world exist without us. But don’t worry, if it came to that, I am sure they would be thinking of you with truth and love, so you would be okay.

    #192967
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ DBS,
    I am simply undecided and will remain that way until we meet and I don’t care if we ever meet real or not.

    But you are mistaken to believe that I don’t have ethical guidelines.
    You can be a decent human being without God and all that illogic.

    Having been a nurse I am intimate with death.
    I have no fear of it.
    It is the end of life as conception was the beginning.
    Forgiveness is something you should seek from those you hurt while you are both alive

    God not required

    #192968
    WES
    Participant

    FBI Raiding Trump’s Florida Home:

    The most interesting thing about the FBI raiding Trump’s Florida home, is that Trump knew they would be coming, just not exactly when.
    Thus the secure locked file room guarded by the SS.

    More importantly, the FBI raid allows for any future legal prosecutions to be done in Florida, not in Washington DC.
    A very smart legal move by Trump.

    #192969
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    It strikes me as singularly unwise for @aspie to berate and disparage my age as some sort of debilitating and disqualifying disease, on a forum comprised mostly of senior citizens. Has he no grasp of the where the phrase “older but wiser” came from? Apparently not. Maybe he has had no older and wiser heads to instruct him otherwise. That’s not very sharp persuasion politics, Aspie. Bad PR technology too.

    Yes, @aspnaz I am old, 77 to be exact, but not even close to debilitated. I’m what they call, “older but wiser”, and an example of why any culture with much hope for advancement does it’s best to preserve us as sources of information which are simply not acquirable in any other way. Not “living fossils”, but “living books”. You should read more.

    #192970
    those darned kids
    Participant

    #192971
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReid

    Agnostic is just another way of saying lazy (or afraid). The only reason that you can say that it’s possible to have ethics without God is because you are too lazy to think it through, or afraid of what you would find out.

    Man up, Mike. Get up off of that lazy ass and think the thought all the way through to its unavoidable conclusion. Aren’t you even a little curious about why you haven’t done that yet? It is literally the most important question in everyone’s life, and yet for sone unexplained reason you just haven’t got around to it yet. Hmmm. Ya just gotta wonder why.

    #192972
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    The word you’re looking for is “dissemble”. Look it up. It’s what you’re doing. You’re bad mouthing others, making shit up, and talking trash on things you really don’t know anything about, in an effort to divert attention from yourself and the many many childish mistakes that you’re making. You’re not completely full of shit. Sometimes you get things right, but when you’re wrong you take zero responsibility for it and make no effort to rectify your mistakes. You just dissemble harder.

    #192973
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MicahelReid

    But you are mistaken to believe that I don’t have ethical guidelines.
    You can be a decent human being without God and all that illogic.”

    No, Michael, actually you can’t. To think that you can is simply irrefutable evidence that you’re not really thinking. You’re just mimicking social norms and enacting your childhood training. That’s why I said that you’re lazy. It’s because you are. The thing that’s wrong about your half-formed notions on ethics and God is that it is, in a word, wrong. If you were energetic (and brave) enough to actually think it through to the end then you would know that, too. This isn’t my “opinion”. It’s just fact. Go do your due diligence and find that out.

    #192974
    ₿oogaloo
    Participant

    Raul does a great job on this site. I do not know how he maintains his sanity.

    I think we need to have a TAE meetup in person for the oldtimers — in part to figure out who is a real person and who is a bot.

    #192978
    aspnaz
    Participant

    D Benton Smith said

    To think that you can is simply irrefutable evidence that you’re not really thinking.

    DBS is now lecturing us on what is a decent human being and how God – in who’s name, continuing now in Gaza, millions have been murdered in total wickedness – that God is an essential element. What a total fucking load of horseshit. DBS from the USA, the country that is traditionally Christian (the President is sworn in on a Bible) and therefore has God, is telling us that we need God too to be as decent as you murdering bastards? Really. Wow, just wow, your head is so far up your ass I am impressed that a man of your age could achieve such a feat.

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