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Debt Rattle May 16 2025

May 162025
 
 May 16, 2025  Posted by at 9:23 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Marc Chagall The soldier drinks 1912

 

• ‘Nothing’s Gonna Happen Until Putin And I Get Together’ (JTN)
• Putin-Trump Meeting ‘Imminent’ – White House Official (RT)
• Trump Team Has ‘Made The Impossible Possible’ – Putin Envoy (RT)
• Istanbul 2.0: Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Fold ‘Em (Proud)
• Russia’s Top Negotiator Unveils Goal of Talks With Ukraine (RT)
• Ukraine Won’t Survive A Decade Of Conflict – Zelensky (RT)
• UK Sending Security Adviser To Work With Zelensky – Guardian (RT)
• Talk of Direct US-Russia Clash Contradicts Trump’s Policy –Scott Ritter (Sp.)
• Trump Tells Apple Not To Build In India (RT)
• Trump Touts 1.4 Trillion Investment In AI, Tech From UAE (ZH)
• Justice Thomas Destroys the Case for Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)
• Biden’s Autopen Pardons May Just Get Invalidated (Margolis)
• DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin To Review Biden’s Outgoing Pardons (JTN)
• DOGE Still Hard at Work Cutting Fraud and Waste (Salgado)
• Trump Admin Urges SCOTUS to Permit DOGE Access to Social Security Records (ET)
• The US Has Pushed The ICAO To Declare War On Russia (Helmer)
• “86 47” – Comey Posts-Then-Deletes Creepy Threat Aimed At Trump (ZH)

 

 

 

 

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US and Russia haven’t talked in 3 years. it takes a lot of groundwork talks first now to catch up, weeks, months of talking. That’s not what presidents do, they’re too busy. That said, the two should certainly meet asap. But Ukraine is just a side topic for that. And all the complaining about Putin not showing up for talks he initiated is empty blabber.

 

 

“And obviously, he wasn’t gonna go — he was gonna go, but he thought I was gonna go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s gonna happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together..”

“Why would he go if I’m not going?” “I wasn’t planning to go and I didn’t think he would if I didn’t.”

• ‘Nothing’s Gonna Happen Until Putin And I Get Together’ (JTN)

President Trump said Thursday regarding the Ukraine-Russia talks in Turkey that “nothing’s gonna happen until Putin and I get together.” The president made the comments as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Turkey for peace talks with Russia on Thursday regarding the ongoing war between the two countries, but Russian President Vladimir Putin chose not to attend and sent a lower-level delegation, Politico reported. “Look, nothing’s gonna happen until Putin and I get together, okay?” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while heading to the United Arab Emirates.

“And obviously, he wasn’t gonna go — he was gonna go, but he thought I was gonna go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s gonna happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we’re gonna have to get it solved because too many people are dying.” Ukraine’s high-level delegation includes Zelensky, his top aide, and foreign and defense ministers in an effort to show Trump that Russia is the country against making peace. Ukraine was frustrated with the lower-level Russian delegation and doubted whether there would be any negotiations at all.

“The Russian chair in Turkey is de facto empty,” a Ukrainian diplomatic official told Politico on the condition of anonymity. “Because it makes little difference whether Mr. Nobody, sent by Putin, and his insignificant colleagues sit in their chairs or not. They are not the ones making decisions. And the person who does — Putin — is either afraid to come or does not take the U.S.-led peace effort seriously. “Still, we are considering sending someone at the appropriate level to at least hear what these people have to say and whether they are able to decide at least anything. If they are willing to have a serious conversion, we may engage in it. Otherwise, we will have the right to conclude that this is a Russian charade, not meaningful work for peace,” the official added.

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“Deals are all about timing. When the time is right, that’s when the president is in the room with Putin..”

Sebastian Gorka is always around. His curent job description is ‘senior director for counterterrorism’.

• Putin-Trump Meeting ‘Imminent’ – White House Official (RT)

US President Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to help Russia and Ukraine finalize a peace agreement, a deputy assistant to Trump, Sebastian Gorka, has said. The meeting between the two leaders is “imminent” he told a security summit organized by Politico. “Deals are all about timing. When the time is right, that’s when the president is in the room with Putin,” he stated, while maintaining that the right moment is “imminent.” He did not elaborate and did not provide any further details about a possible meeting between Putin and Trump. Trump is currently on a tour through Middle East, and has mulled going to Türkiye on Friday “if something happened.”

Moscow’s and Kiev’s delegations were expected to hold discussions there after Putin suggested resuming the Istanbul talks which were broken off three years ago. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky responded to Putin’s call by declaring that he would personally fly to Türkiye and demanded that the Russian president do the same. The Kremlin answered by saying that the Russian president had no plan to travel to the country. Trump then said on Thursday that Putin had no reason to go, since the US leader himself had not committed to going.Moscow has said that its core agenda for the Istanbul talks remains unchanged from 2022, as it believes that a lasting peace can only be achieved by addressing the conflict’s root causes, including Ukraine’s desire to join NATO.

Zelensky initially insisted on Putin personally coming to the talks before deciding to send a delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to Istanbul. According to TASS, the meeting between the two sides is now expected to start on Friday. The Trump administration has been actively pushing both sides to engage in peace negotiations since he took office in January. The US president has recently expressed frustration over the slow pace of the process and demanded both sides engage in direct talks.

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Kirill Dmitriev is Putin’s ‘investment envoy’. Russia’s Witkoff.

• Trump Team Has ‘Made The Impossible Possible’ – Putin Envoy (RT)

US President Donald Trump and his team have “made the impossible possible” by bringing Moscow and Kiev to the cusp of their first direct negotiations since 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, has said. Dmitriev complemented Washington’s mediation efforts ahead of much anticipated talks in Istanbul on Thursday. The meeting is set to happen “against all odds/fierce resistance,” he said on X, adding that if “not derailed last-minute, this could be a historic step to peace. ”Dmitriev specifically named US Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as major contributors to the mediation effort. Putin suggested Thursday as the day direct engagement between Russia and Ukraine could happen in a televised address last Sunday.

Moscow has indicated that negotiations could continue from where they left off in 2022, when Kiev pulled out and tried to score a victory on the battlefield with Western military assistance. The U-turn came after then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Kiev to discard a draft peace treaty, which had been pre-agreed in Istanbul.At the moment of writing, there was no certainty that a new round of negotiations would commence as expected. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, who is currently in the country to meet Turkish President Recep Erdogan, said the Ukrainian government had yet to make a final decision on how to proceed. Zelensky announced his intention to go to Türkiye in response to Putin’s proposal, claiming that the Russian leader must reciprocate to prove his seriousness.

Zelensky and leaders of European NATO nations supporting him have threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia unless Moscow agrees to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire – an idea that Russian officials have called a ruse to give Kiev time to regroup. The initial deadline on Monday has been postponed until the end of the week, pending the outcome of talks.While Moscow has stated that it will seek a path towards lasting peace in Istanbul, which it says will require addressing the root causes of the conflict, Kiev has been vague about its goals. Some media reports have suggested that the Ukrainian delegation will focus on the proposed ceasefire first. Previously, Kiev insisted that no direct talks could happen without a truce.

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Former UK envoy Ian Proud has, like so many, also lost his thread. It’s not easy.

• Istanbul 2.0: Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Fold ‘Em (Proud)

The biggest achievement of today’s Istanbul talks is that they are even taking place. U.S. engagement will remain vital to getting a peace deal over the line. Russia’s desire for a reset with Washingtonmay keep them on track. I have a sense of déjà vu as I contemplate these long-overdue peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul. In April 2022, Ukraine and Russia were close to agreeing a peace treaty, less than two months after war started. However, this came crashing down amid claims that western governments, in particular the United States and the United Kingdom encouraged Ukraine to keep fighting. It’s worth recapping very briefly what was close to having been agreed. By far the best summary of negotiations between both sides was produced by the New York Times in June 2024. Those negotiations ranfor almost two months. The talks started with Ukrainian officials being spirited over the border into Belarus on February 29, 2022 while the fighting raged around Kyiv, and eventually led to the now famous talks in Istanbul in March and April.

What has changed since then? Ukraine will enter the Istanbul talks in a weaker position that it held in 2022. Western support for Ukraine financially and economically is not as sound as it was then. No big ticket economic aid and assistance has been made available since the G7 agreement of a $50 billion package of loans, in June 2024. While European states scratched together new economic aid to Ukraine in April, this cannot make up for the reduction in US support. In territorial terms, Russia withdrew from Kyiv as a concession to the first Istanbul talks and lost ground in Kharkiv and in Kherson in late 2022. However, Russia has gone on steadily to gain further territory in the Donbas since the end of 2023. So while both sides have scores on the board, Russia now maintains the military upper hand on the battlefield and that seems unlikely to change. These two factors in particular were behind President Trump’s February assertion that Ukraine has no cards to play.

What has stayed the same? NATO membership is still off the table. The verified documents shared by the New York Times last June confirmed that Ukraine’s neutrality and non-membership of NATO was the central issue agreed upon in 2022. Ukraine was ready to become a “permanently neutral state” that would never join NATO or allow foreign forces to be based on its soil.There seems no route for Ukraine to resile from that given its currently weakened negotiating position and President Trump’s stated view that NATO membership for Ukraine is not practical. Although Germany’s new foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul recently repeated the line that Ukraine’s path to NATO is irreversible, most have agreed, privately and publicly, that Ukraine’s path to NATO is a fraught if not impossible one. Right now, just having the talks is a huge breakthrough

The Istanbul talks would not be happening had the Trump administration not pushed for it so hard. We don’t need to rehash the “did they or didn’t they” debate around why Ukraine abandoned the Istanbul agreement in April 2022. What is clear, is that Ukraine became entrenched, not only in not negotiating with Russia, but in excluding Russia from all discussions on peace in Ukraine from then onward. Having agreed in principle for Ukraine to accept neutral status Zelensky was pushing his own ten point peace plan. This included, among other things, Russia withdrawing its troops to the pre-2014 border, i.e. giving up Crimea and the Donbass and creating a Euro-Atlantic Security Architecture, by which he meant Ukraine joining NATO. Peace summits were organized in various countries that explicitly excluded Russia, culminating in the Switzerland event on June 15, 2024.

At this event, President Zelensky was dug in deeper on resisting any engagement with Russia until a full withdrawal of its troops from Ukraine, which was a completely unrealistic proposal. “Russia can start negotiations with us even tomorrow without waiting for anything – if they leave our legal territories,” he said. Even after President Trump was elected, European leaders clung to the line that “only Ukraine can decide what peace means.”’ I see no circumstances in which a Kamala Harris presidency would have cajoled President Zelensky to enter into negotiations. Tomorrow’s talks wouldn’t be happening unless the Trump administration broke a whole load of Ukrainian and European eggshells to get to this point. The biggest issue now is territory.

Even though he was wrongly derided at the time by mainstream media, Steve Witkoff correctly pointed out in his March interview with Tucker Carlson that the territorial issues in Ukraine will be most intractable. Russia’s decision in October 2022 to formally annex the four oblasts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk changed the calculus. However, Russia does not have full territorial control of any of those oblasts, which are cut through the middle by a hotly contested front line. Resolving the line of control when the war ends is, by some margin, the most problematic challenge. This will be a hugely sensitive topic, and European allies will shoot down any major concessions to Russia, as they did when the idea surfaced that the U.S. might de jure recognise Russia’s occupation of Crimea.

The most obvious settlement is a de facto recognition of occupation, a Cyprus-style scenario, that does not stand in the way of Ukraine’s future membership of the European Union. Even that will require detailed agreement on issues around demilitarization of the line of control and enforcing any ceasefire. Sanctions are probably tricky, but also tractable. As I have said before, there is enormous scope to a plan that allows for the immediate lifting of the bulk of zero-impact measures, phasing out the remainder at points agreed to by both sides. The toughest issue remains the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, mostly held in Belgium. Russia has shown a willingness to concede this funding to support reconstruction in Ukraine, including those parts that Russia occupies.

But there is texture here. Freeing up those funds for reconstruction would immediately remove the source of interest payments that are meeting Ukraine’s obligations on its $50 billion in debt to the G7, agreed to in June 2024. But the more general policy question arises, how much of the freed up funding would be spent in Ukraine itself and how much in Russian-occupied Ukraine, where most of the war damage has occurred? The U.S. must keep the pressure on to ensure the talks stay on track. A U.S. presence in Istanbul will be vital, to prevent, in particular, Ukraine from bailing on the talks. That’s why sending Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg makes sense.

The former is trusted by the Russian side while the latter has built relationships in Ukraine. Their presence serves to keep the process moving forward until a deal can be pushed over the line and the fighting can stop. Bear in mind that the 2022 talks ran for a month and a half and the circumstances have materially changed as I have indicated above. While there has been speculation that President Trump might drop into Istanbul, I am not sure that this is necessary if President Putin doesn’t himself attend. Knowing the Russians, I assess that Putin will want his own “‘meeting moment” with the U.S. President on terms that the Russian side can better choreograph. Indeed, that may be a prize for Russia’s engagement in the process, given its desire for a more comprehensive reset of relations with the U.S.

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Lots of talk of Putin sending a lightweight crew, but he didn’t. He sent those, led by Medinsky, who were stiffed by Zelensky (+ Boris Johnson?) 3 years ago. They know the territory better than anyone.

• Russia’s Top Negotiator Unveils Goal of Talks With Ukraine (RT)

Moscow seeks to engage Ukraine in direct negotiations in Istanbul to secure a lasting peace, Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, told journalists on Thursday. The current effort represents a revival of the peace process he took part in that Kiev broke off three years ago, he added. Both Russia and Ukraine have sent delegations to Türkiye following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer last week to resume direct talks aimed at resolving the conflict. Moscow’s team is prepared to work constructively towards viable solutions. “It possesses all necessary qualifications and authority to conduct negotiations,” the presidential aide said in Istanbul. The Russian delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin and the head of Russia’s military intelligence, Igor Kostyukov. They are joined by several senior military and civil officials, as well as diplomats.

Here is Vladimir Medinsky’s speech in full:

“Dear colleagues. Last night, as previously reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a special meeting to prepare our delegation for the upcoming negotiations in Istanbul. The meeting was attended by the leadership of the Russian Security Council, the Russian government, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as the heads of state security, intelligence, and the commanders of all Russian armed forces groups participating in the military operation [against Kiev]. Members of the delegation present here also took part in the meeting.

Foreign policy and security matters were discussed, with additional reports presented on the state of the economy and the defense industry. The Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, and all commanders of Russian army groups involved in the military operation [against Kiev] reported on the situation in the combat zone. A detailed joint discussion followed. Based on the participants’ reports, the president issued instructions and outlined the negotiation position for the Russian delegation in Istanbul.

We view these talks as a continuation of the peace process in Istanbul, which was unfortunately interrupted by the Ukrainian side three years ago. Our official delegation has been approved by presidential order and possesses all necessary qualifications and authority to conduct negotiations. The delegation is adopting a constructive approach, focused on finding viable solutions and areas of common ground. The aim of direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side is ultimately to secure lasting peace by addressing the fundamental root causes of the conflict.

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“..Zakharova has also stressed that there was never any talk of Putin travelling to Türkiye for the talks and branded Zelensky a “clown” ..”

• Ukraine Won’t Survive A Decade Of Conflict – Zelensky (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky has said that although he does not know how long the conflict with Russia will last, his country would not be able to survive another ten years of fighting. Speaking to the French newspaper Liberation, the Ukrainian leader conveyed his insistence on a personal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Türkiye to discuss an exchange of all prisoners and establishing a ceasefire.On Sunday, Putin proposed restarting direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which were unilaterally abandoned by Kiev in 2022. The president stated that Moscow would send a delegation to Istanbul to engage with the Ukrainian side, stressing that Russia is set on “serious negotiation” that would contribute to a “long-term sustainable peace” and address the root causes of the conflict.

Zelensky, who had previously ruled out any negotiations with Moscow, welcomed the proposed talks in Istanbul and has personally traveled to Türkiye to potentially take part in the meeting. Ahead of the talks, he admitted to Liberation that Ukrainians have been growing tired of the conflict and that talks on ending the fighting have given people some hope. Asked if he should instead be preparing his citizens for another ten years of war, Zelensky stressed that “Ukraine wouldn’t survive” another decade of conflict. “I look at the morale of the population, what people want. I look at our economy… It’s costly for everyone,” Zelensky said. “In fact, this war can’t last very long,” he predicted. At the same time, the Ukrainian leader has dismissed the delegation sent by Russia to the talks as “props,” insisting on personally meeting with Putin. Moscow has slammed Zelensky’s position, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov calling Zelensky a “pathetic person.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has also stressed that there was never any talk of Putin travelling to Türkiye for the talks and branded Zelensky a “clown” with no right to dismiss professionals in any field as “props.” Meanwhile, Medinsky, who is leading Moscow’s delegation in Istanbul, has stated that Russia is ready for dialogue with Ukraine and is prepared for “possible compromises” in reaching a peace deal. “We are in a working mood,” the presidential aide said. On Thursday, after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Zelensky stated that he would have “nothing to do” at the talks without Putin’s participation and said that Ukraine’s delegation in Istanbul would instead be led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. He added that Kiev is engaging in the negotiations “out of respect for [US President Donald] Trump and Erdogan.”

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“..Powell’s advice is expected to focus on making sure that Zelensky does not do “anything that alienates Trump”.

So his job is to stoke up the fire whenever Trump mentions peace.

• UK Sending Security Adviser To Work With Zelensky – Guardian (RT)

London is reportedly sending an adviser to Istanbul to give its recommendations to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky ahead of talks with Russia, the Guardian reported on Wednesday. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to restart direct negotiations with Kiev to find a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict. While Zelensky had previously ruled out talks with Moscow, he welcomed the proposal and agreed to personally travel to Türkiye to take part. Moscow has barred Western European leaders from participating in the negotiations, accusing them of a biased approach to the conflict and trying to prolong the fighting. Nevertheless, the UK is reportedly sending Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s security adviser, Jonathan Powell, to meet with Zelensky ahead of the talks to provide “background advice” on how he should handle the meeting.

The Guardian reported that Powell’s advice is expected to focus on making sure that Zelensky does not do “anything that alienates Trump” and equip him to persuade the US president that Putin is the “obstacle to peace.” The meeting is set to become the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since Kiev unilaterally aborted peace negotiations with Moscow in 2022 after being advised to do so by London. At the previous talks, shortly after the pre-approval of a draft treaty, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson personally traveled to Kiev and persuaded Zelensky to abandon peace efforts and continue fighting, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation David Arakhamia.

Ahead of Friday’s discussions, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov has stated that they will have to take into account the points that were already worked out by both sides in 2022, plus the “real situation” on the ground that has developed since then. In his announcement of the talks, Putin stated that Russia is set on “serious negotiations” with Ukraine and is seeking a “long-term, sustainable peace” that would address the root causes of the conflict. He also suggested that Friday’s meeting could yield “a new ceasefire” that could pave the way for a comprehensive peace settlement, depending on the decisions of “the Ukrainian authorities and their supervisors.”

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True enough, but I haven’t heard such talk recently.

• Talk of Direct US-Russia Clash Contradicts Trump’s Policy –Scott Ritter (Sp.)

There are “several plausible pathways” for the Ukraine conflict to escalate into a direct US-Russia war, claimed Gen. Gregory Guillot, head of US Northern Command, who labeled Russia as one of the US’ “principal adversaries.” Is this a veiled threat – or just the Pentagon beating the drums of war again? This statement signals brewing tensions within the Pentagon, military analyst and former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter tells Sputnik. However, it’s just a “speculative pronouncement,” not reflective of Trump-era defense policy, according to the pundit. Ritter was struck by the fact that: • Guillot is speculating on a conflict beyond his remit, which belongs to US strategic command. • His stance contradicts Trump’s, who acknowledged Russia’s special military operation was provoked by NATO expansion:

“We had Trump say that there was justification for Russia’s actions, that they understood that the expansion of NATO served as a provocation,” Ritter stresses. What else rings the alarm bells of the Pentagon’s warmongering? Guillot also claimed the US could be drawn into a “direct military conflict” with Iran, China, or North Korea. He went even so far as to claim that “war with one adversary could quickly expand into war with an enemy coalition.”

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“..Trump’s latest directive to Apple to cease manufacturing in India oversimplifies the complexities of global supply chains and risks unintended economic consequences..”

i.e. $3,000 iPhones.

• Trump Tells Apple Not To Build In India (RT)

US President Donald Trump has advised Apple CEO Tim Cook to avoid expanding the company’s manufacturing operations in India, according to reports. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump was cited as saying in Doha on Thursday by CNBC. “I said to him, ‘my friend, I treated you very good. You’re coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India.’ I don’t want you building in India.” The US president added, “I said to Tim, I said, ‘Tim look, we treated you really good, we put up with all the plants that you build in China for years, now you got build us. We’re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves … we want you to build here.’” Trump claimed that as a result of his conversation with Cook, Apple would increase its production in the US, according to CNBC.

Apple has been expanding its operations in India, where it is ramping up its local production. Reuters reported in April that Apple planned to manufacture the majority of iPhones sold in the US in India by the end of 2026. Earlier this month, local media reported that Apple told India’s Ministry of Communications that it planned to move the assembly of all iPhones to the country from China. Industry watchers believe Trump’s latest directive to Apple to cease manufacturing in India oversimplifies the complexities of global supply chains and risks unintended economic consequences. Establishing iPhone manufacturing in the US, where Apple lacks existing facilities, would require significant time and investment, Sonam Chandwani, managing partner at KS Legal & Associates, told RT.

On Tuesday, India approached the World Trade Organization (WTO) with a proposal to impose retaliatory duties against the US over American tariffs on steel and aluminum.The move comes after the US imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports in March, which was an extension of measures initially introduced in 2018 during Trump’s first term as president. New Delhi is currently putting the finishing touches to a bilateral trade deal with Washington. US Vice President J.D. Vance announced last month that the two countries have agreed on terms for bilateral trade negotiations, calling it a roadmap to a final deal.

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AI is the only game in town.

• Trump Touts 1.4 Trillion Investment In AI, Tech From UAE (ZH)

After the several massive announcements and deals to come out of Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, developments during the last leg of the US President’s Gulf tour in United Arab Emirates actually seem a bit humdrum by comparison. But the visuals and spare no expenses official welcome and ceremonial events have certainly been interesting…

Among the more notable statements has been Trump’s touting a 1.4 trillion… yes that’s trillion… investment in AI and other tech sectors from the Emirates. The White House had previewed this longtime in the works deal as related to artificial intelligence infrastructure, semiconductors, energy and manufacturing.Further, Emirates Global Aluminum will “invest in the first new aluminium smelter in the United States in 35 years, which would nearly double US domestic aluminium production.”

According to more developments out of the UAE:
• The White House said that Trump and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani signed agreements that would “generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion”.
• The agreements are said to include a $96bn deal with Qatar Airways to buy up to 210 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aeroplanes, and a statement of intent for $38bn in investments at Qatar’s Al Udeid Airbase and other air defence capabilities.
• A meeting is scheduled for later today of US, Turkish and Syrian officials to discuss details of Trump’s announced dropping of sanctions against Syria.
• Trump’s three-country tour of the Gulf state region will conclude in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

Amid lots of awards ceremonies, accolades, and a state dinner…Trump has also been filling in more details of fresh arms deals inked with Qatar. “Yesterday we signed an agreement for Qatar to purchase $42bn-worth of the finest American military hardware including THAAD missile batteries,” he said Thursday while speaking to US troops at Al Udeid airbase.The commander-in-chief further detailed that the deal includes “Pegasus refueling aircraft, Desert Vipers, light armored vehicles, amphibious combat vehicles, the MQ-9B and the Sky Guardian drones.” As for Qatar, the president says he’s still ready to accept a donated jet from the tiny oil and gas rich country, a flying palace of a future Air Force One, which Dems have been warning would be a violation of the US Constitution’s prohibition on foreign gifts. Certainly he’ll come back to Washington awaiting immense controversy and backlash from the corporate media and his political enemies.

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“So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunction?” he asked.

• Justice Thomas Destroys the Case for Nationwide Injunctions (Margolis)

During Supreme Court oral arguments in the Trump v. CASA, Washington, and New Jersey cases, Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a surgical takedown of the legal rationale for nationwide injunctions, using just one line. The case centers around whether lower courts can issue sweeping injunctions that block federal policies nationwide, even when only a handful of plaintiffs are before the court. Representing the United States, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that such broad orders violate established legal norms and Supreme Court precedent. “We believe that the best reading of that is what you said in Trump against Hawaii, which is that Wirtz in 1963 was really the first universal injunction,” Sauer told the Court. “There’s a dispute about Perkins against Lukens Oil going back to 1940. And of course, we point to the Court’s opinion that reversed that universal injunction issued by the D.C. Circuit and said it’s profoundly wrong.”

Sauer continued, listing key precedents that have rejected expansive injunctive relief. “If you look at the cases that either party cite, you see a common theme. The cases that we cite — like National Treasury Employees Union, Perkins, Frothingham, and Massachusetts v. Mellon, going back to Scott v. Donald — in all of those, those are cases where the Court considered and addressed the sort of universal — well, in that case, statewide — provision of injunctive relief.” He emphasized, “When the Court has considered and addressed this, it has consistently said, ‘You have to limit the remedy to the plaintiffs appearing in court and complaining of that remedy.’” That’s when Justice Thomas stepped in and cut through the legal weeds with a devastatingly simple observation. “So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunction?” he asked.

Sauer didn’t hesitate: “That’s exactly correct. And in fact, those were very limited, very rare, even in the 1960s.” He went on to explain that nationwide injunctions didn’t truly explode until 2007. “In our cert petition in Summers v. Rhode Island Institute, we pointed out that the Ninth Circuit had started doing this in a whole bunch of cases involving environmental claims.” Thomas’s concise question — “So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunction?” — hit the heart of the issue. With that simple question, he challenged the idea that such drastic judicial remedies were historically essential, even during one of the most tumultuous and morally urgent periods in American history: the civil rights era, a time when federal courts began issuing broader remedies to dismantle Jim Crow laws and enforce desegregation.

In other words, if the courts managed to confront segregation, enforce Brown v. Board of Education, and make tremendous progress for civil rights without needing to impose blanket nationwide injunctions, then why are they supposedly necessary today over what amounts to policy disputes? In just one sentence, Thomas accomplished what pages of legal briefs failed to do. He exposed the historical and constitutional weakness of the left’s favorite legal tactic.

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“When these people, like the January 6 Committee and particularly Adam Schiff, are charged and try defending their bogus pardon, then we will start to learn who was really running the White House..”

• Biden’s Autopen Pardons May Just Get Invalidated (Margolis)

Ed Martin, the new DOJ pardon attorney and head of the Weaponization Working Group, isn’t wasting time. This week, he announced a review of the shady “autopen” pardons Joe Biden’s team rushed through in its final days. “These deserve some scrutiny,” he said. That’s an understatement. As PJ Media has previously reported, Biden’s White House frequently used an autopen to sign executive orders and pardons, which raised serious doubts as to whether Biden was even involved in the process. In March, the Oversight Project dropped a bombshell memo detailing 32 instances where the Biden White House used an autopen to sign off on clemency warrants — pardons and commutations that impacted thousands, including preemptive pardons for members of the January 6 Committee. The report raises a chilling question: Were these acts of mercy issued by a president or by a rogue staffer who had no constitutional authority to do so?

“They need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter, and to be accepted, and to be something that’s used correctly. So I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did,” Martin said. The Blaze has more:”The Justice Department’s probe could spell trouble for controversial Biden pardonees such as Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, and former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee — including Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), whom President Donald Trump and other Republicans have faulted for various alleged crimes and improprieties. For instance, Trump has suggested that Milley may have committed “treason.”

While previously serving as Trump’s most senior uniformed adviser, Milley called his communist Chinese counterpart, communist Gen. Li Zuocheng, on two occasions — four days before the 2020 election and on Jan. 8, 2021 — to reassure Zuocheng that he would provide him with actionable warnings should Trump decide to attack. Milley received a pardon just hours before former President Joe Biden left office. Fauci, the fifth director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received a “full and unconditional” pass for possible federal crimes going back to Jan. 1, 2014 — around the time the Obama administration supposedly halted funding for dangerous gain-of-function research. “The American people were promised accountability, and I think Ed Martin is our best shot at it,” Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told The Blaze.

“These pardons are fake and invalid, and the president has already said that is his view.” He’s right. Martin’s investigation may be the first serious step toward cleaning up the mess that Biden left behind. “When these people, like the January 6 Committee and particularly Adam Schiff, are charged and try defending their bogus pardon, then we will start to learn who was really running the White House,” Howell added. “We need to answer the question everyone is asking: Who was running the government the last four years?” The presidential autopen has been around since the 1950s, but its use has always raised legal eyebrows. In 2013, Barack Obama became the first president to sign a bill into law with an autopen while vacationing in Hawaii. His office leaned on a 30-page memo from George W. Bush’s legal team claiming it was fine as long as the president authorized it. But Biden’s situation is far murkier. What no one seems to know is who was operating the autopen and whether Biden even knew it was being used.

Read more …

“On Biden’s last day in office, he pardoned his brother Jim, his sister-in-law Sara, his sister Valerie and her husband, John Owens, his brother Francis, Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the House Jan. 6 committee.”

• DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin To Review Biden’s Outgoing Pardons (JTN)

Ed Martin, who is leaving his Trump appointment as interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., to become the Justice Department’s U.S. pardon attorney, said that he will review former President Biden’s outgoing pardons. “I do think that the Biden pardons need some scrutiny,” Martin told ABC News on Tuesday. “And they need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter and to be accepted and to be something that’s used correctly. So I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did. “If they’re null and void, I’m not sure how that operates, but I can tell you we’ve had already, I’ve had in my current position, or my position as US Attorney, we had been taking a look at some of the conduct surrounding the pardons and the Biden White House.”

In addition to the pardon attorney post, Martin will be the director of the department’s Weaponization Working Group. President Trump pulled Martin’s nomination for U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., because Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he would not support it, over Martin’s involvement in the defense of people who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to NBC News. Tillis is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was overseeing Martin’s nomination. His no vote would have effectively prevented Martin’s from getting a final confirmation vote. The DOJ attorney said that he doesn’t believe that Biden’s use of “auto-pen” for pardons is a problem, despite Trump suggesting that it makes them invalid. On Biden’s last day in office, he pardoned his brother Jim, his sister-in-law Sara, his sister Valerie and her husband, John Owens, his brother Francis, Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the House Jan. 6 committee.

Read more …

The amounts are less spectacular, but the work must be done.

• DOGE Still Hard at Work Cutting Fraud and Waste (Salgado)

The Department of Government Efficiency is still continually occupied investigating fraud, waste, and abuse in our federal government. Now, if only Congressional Republicans would agree on a budget that includes all these necessary cuts. On May 12, DOGE’s X account provided a contract update: “Since Friday, agencies terminated 242 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $646M and savings of $200M, including a $118k USDA contract for the ‘Democratic Republic of Congo youth climate corps coordinator’, and a $23.5k USAID contract for the ‘garden landscaping and pool services at official mission director’s residence’ of South Africa.” Obviously important uses of our taxpayer dollars. On May 14, DOGE added an update:

“Current year non-defense federal obligations are down 20.5% as compared to 2024. Cash outlays will follow as obligations come due. Persistent government wide contract reviews for wasteful spend, consistent with the DOGE Cost Efficiency Executive Order, are bearing fruit.” It seems review of federal contracts has been a DOGE priority lately. Earlier this month, DOGE shared, “Over the last two days, agencies terminated 522 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $285M and savings of $110M, including a $181k @USDA contract for a ‘technical climate advisor for central Africa’.” The grift is endless. DOGE has been investigating federal credit cards, too. Earlier this month, DOGE announced, “The program to audit unused/unneeded credit cards has been expanded to 32 agencies. After 10 weeks, more than 500K cards have been de-activated. As a reminder, at the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts, so still more work to do.”

No wonder we are over $36.8 trillion in debt. Of course, DOGE also partners with multiple agencies, and the Department of Energy “has announced 47 deregulatory actions for an estimated $11 billion of savings to Americans. Previously, this quantity of deregulation would take years to initiate,” per DOGE. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued his own proud statement on May 12, explaining his department “assembled a task force to work on the BIGGEST deregulatory push in modern history. The idea was simple: get a bunch of smart people in a room & work through the problem. We cut through the red tape to deliver 47 deregulatory actions on behalf of the American people!” What a novel idea — government actually working for We the People!

Read more …

Crazy that someone can block the elected government from scrutinizing its largest expenditures.

• Trump Admin Urges SCOTUS to Permit DOGE Access to Social Security Records (ET)

The Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court on May 13 to let the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have access to Social Security data after lower courts blocked that access.President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14158 on Jan. 20, implementing DOGE, an advisory body that recommends cost-cutting measures. The order directed the entity to “implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the new filing that the lower courts have overreached and are attempting to turn themselves into “the human resources department for the Executive Branch.”

The filing came after Ellen Lipton Hollander, a Maryland-based federal district court judge, issued an order on March 20 preventing DOGE from viewing Social Security Administration (SSA) records because such access “violates” the federal Privacy Act.The lawsuit was brought in February by labor unions and retirees represented by the Democracy Forward Foundation.“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack,” the judge wrote in granting a temporary restraining order against the federal government.

DOGE’s team at the Social Security Administration has had “unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers’ license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses,” Hollander wrote. Hollander directed DOGE to delete any personally identifiable data in its possession. On April 17, Hollander upgraded the temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction. On April 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit voted 9–6 to maintain Hollander’s order while the appeal process continues. On May 2, the Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court, asking the justices to pause the preliminary injunction.

In the May 13 filing, Sauer argued that the district court erred in preventing “the 11 members of the Social Security Administration (SSA) DOGE team—from accessing data … for purposes that are unquestionably lawful.” The district court “dictated to the Executive Branch which government employees can access which data and even prescribed necessary training, background checks, and paperwork for data access,” Sauer wrote. “When district courts attempt to transform themselves into the human resources department for the Executive Branch, the irreparable harm to the government is clear,” he wrote. When the courts “stymie the government’s initiatives to modernize badly outdated systems and combat rampant fraud—leaving those initiatives on a litigation track that may halt them for months or years—the irreparable harm is even clearer.”

Reviewing Social Security Administration data is important because the agency has “one of the largest documented histories of improper payments,” Sauer stated. In a brief in opposition filed on May 12, the lead respondent, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, said that after years of honoring “its data security obligations,” the Social Security Administration “now seeks to throw open its data systems to unauthorized (and often unvetted) personnel who have no demonstrated need for the personally identifiable information … they seek.”The April 17 preliminary injunction should be left in place because it is “narrow and, contrary to the government’s assertions, permits SSA to disclose both anonymized and non-anonymized data to DOGE Team members,” the brief said.The Supreme Court could rule on the government’s emergency application at any time.

Read more …

How to spell “inside job”.

Helmer is an expert on MH17.

• The US Has Pushed The ICAO To Declare War On Russia (Helmer)

On Monday, May 12, the United States pushed the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the aircraft safety watchdog, to vote behind closed doors to adopt a secret resolution convicting Russia of shooting-down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014. Unlike the Dutch show trial which in November 2022 convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian of the same crime, the ICAO reached its verdict without the appearance of an open proceeding or of openly tested evidence. It’s a put-up job.William Raillant-Clark, the ICAO communications chief at the Montreal headquarters, was asked to provide a text of the resolution and identification of the countries voting for, against, abstaining, and absent. Raillant-Clark replied: “In accordance with the Council’s Rules of Procedure, the vote was taken by secret ballot.” He refused to disclose the resolution itself; the numbers of votes without the names of the countries; or the reason for keeping everything but the conviction of Russia secret. He answered: “The Council’s considerations based on reason of law and fact, will be issued in the coming weeks.”

The spokesman was then asked for a copy of ICAO’s Rules of Procedure. He refuses to answer. The decision of ICAO to go to war with Russia, using its aviation safety mandate to cover up the evidence of what really happened to MH17, destroys the organization for the future. It follows the destruction of the global organization for the safety of nuclear power generation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW); the International Committee of the Red Cross; and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.

The downing of MH17 on July 17, 2014, with the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew, was a Ukrainian government operation, backed by the Obama Administration led by then-Vice President Joseph Biden, to start the economic sanctions war against Russia; US and NATO military preparations for the Ukrainian attack on the Donbass; it almost led to a NATO military intervention. Read the full story of what happened, and the subsequent faking of evidence in the Dutch trial, in the book. This new ICAO fatality, weaponizing aviation safety into war against Russia, was inflicted by the US, the dominant member state on the 36-member Council of the ICAO. Collaborating with the State Department’s delegate at the Council, Anthony Clare, the Dutch and Australian governments promoted the resolution and pushed for adoption by the allied states.

The list of permanent and elected member states on the ICAO Council can be viewed here. The ICAO session on May 12 does not appear in the advance schedule of meetings for the ICAO this month. The Council vote which took place on May 12 is not listed in the Council proceedings for the month. An internal notice of the Council for the May 12 meeting shows the text of the resolution is “restricted”. Raillant-Clark has refused to explain. As soon as the vote was taken, the Dutch Government and Foreign Ministry issued a press release. The Australian Foreign Ministry followed. The Netherlands and Australia, whose nationals comprised the majority of the 298 victims on board MH17, sponsored the ICAO resolution. Both governments are fighting Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield. The Dutch may now attempt to divert Russian state funds frozen in The Netherlands to pay compensation to the families of the victims.

Only after the two government releases had appeared, and Raillant-Clark was questioned personally, did ICAO reveal its press release.

The Russian government issued its response on May 13. “Russia,” the Foreign Ministry said, “is not part of the ICAO Council. In its press release, this body alleges that the responsibility for downing this flight rests with the Russian Federation. However, the text of the ruling, including its reasoning part, is not available. Therefore, this amounted to a blind vote – it is quite obvious that this decision does not hold water. Once again, the ICAO Council demonstrated its political bias. It takes its decision while guided by momentary considerations. This is not the way it must operate.” “Russia withdrew from these proceedings last year, on June 17, 2024, in view of the multiple procedural violations by the Council and the ICAO Secretariat, which made an impartial fact-finding effort all but impossible. That said, Moscow’s principled position remains relevant to this day – Russia was not involved in the MH17 crash, while all the claims to the contrary coming from Australia and the Netherlands are at odds with reality.”

“The ICAO Council is not an independent body. It includes 36 ICAO member states out of 193. They get their voting instructions from their respective capitals. Most of the countries represent the West and their immediate satellites. This makes the way the Council operates a matter of arithmetic. There was simply nobody to tackle this matter in a professional manner and on its merits.”

“There is nothing new about using the ICAO Council against countries which are viewed as being undesirable by the West. This can hardly come as a surprise to anyone these days. Suffice to recall the investigation of the landing of a Ryanair flight at the Minsk airport on May 23, 2021. At the time, the interested Western countries were not satisfied with the preliminary report by the Investigative Team. They used their majority within the Council to force the team to re-write the report to ensure that it condemns Belarus. Moreover, the ICAO Council ruled that it was competent to review the Great Britain, Sweden, Ukraine, Canada v. Iran case regarding the crash of a Boeing aircraft near Tehran after a vote held behind the curtain. There was also a recent example when the Council refused to take up Venezuela’s claims in its dispute with Argentina regarding unilateral restrictions in civil aviation.”

Read more …

NB: the chance that a former FBI director doesn’t know what 8647 stands for is zero.

• “86 47” – Comey Posts-Then-Deletes Creepy Threat Aimed At Trump (ZH)

Former FBI Director James Comey posted a photo of sea shells arranged into the numbers “86 47” on his Instagram account today, before shortly deleting the post.The immediately preceding post shows Comey lounging at the beach while pretending to read his own crime novel, his presence at the beach lending to the fact that this was not a hack. Many are blasting Comey for issuing a not-so-thinly-veiled threat at sitting President Donald Trump, including the President’s son and Congressman Andy Biggs:

And here is his explanation for the ‘shells’ and the deletion……you simply cannot make this shit up!!!

[..] As covered previously in a ZeroHedge piece titled “From Epstein To Diddy: Spotlight Shines On James Comey’s Prosecutor Daughter”, Comey’s offspring smell a little swampy as well. From the piece: In a thinly covered news story from December that’s suddenly relevant again (read on), New York Prosecutor Maurene Comey – whose father James Comey famously refused to prosecute Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information & then participated in the Russia collusion hoax – joined the prosecution against Combs. The younger Comey has previously worked as lead prosecutor on both the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, as well as that of former Epstein cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione.
…
Maurene Comey became a US attorney in the Southern District of New York in 2015. In 2019, when she was just 30-years-old, Comey became one of the lead prosecutors in the Jeffrey Epstein case before he was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019. Two years later, she became one of three lead prosecutors in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner in crime and daughter of suspected Mossad operative Robert Maxwell.

Before becoming a US attorney, Comey clerked for US District Court chief judge Loretta Preska of the SDNY – who notably oversaw a long-running defamation case filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell. Comey was also involved in the case of Nicholas Tartaglione, a former NYPD officer who was convicted of killing four men in 2016, and who was briefly Epstein’s cellmate in the Manhattan Metro Correctional Center. Tartaglione claims to have helped Epstein after ‘finding him unconscious’ (and totally not trying to kill him) prior to Epstein’s actual death. In 2016, Tartaglione suspected a man named Martin Luna had stolen money from him – for which “Tartaglione tortured Martin and then forced one of Martin’s nephews to watch as he strangled him to death with a zip-tie,” according to a statement by the US Attorney’s Office.

Two days after Epstein’s death, NY Times reporter James B Stewart, who had spent 90 minutes with Epstein a year prior, wrote “The overriding impression I took away from our roughly 90-minute conversation was that Mr. Epstein knew an astonishing number of rich, famous and powerful people, and had photos to prove it. He also claimed to know a great deal about these people, some of it potentially damaging or embarrassing, including details about their supposed sexual proclivities and recreational drug use. And so, whether this is just a case of ‘it’s a small world’ or something a little (or a lot) less innocent, James Comey’s daughter is now involved in a second case where high-profile celebrities and politicians may have been secretly filmed engaging in sexual activity with minors. Comey’s deep state tentacles make the cryptic Instragram post that much more unsettling. Might there be some hints in Comey’s shitty novel? Donald Barr’s Space Relations anyone?

Read more …

 

 

 

 

CHD
https://twitter.com/NicHulscher/status/1922833502430450150

Xifaxan

Missing link

Mad honey

Escape

Dance

Camel

Mercury and Aluminum

Pop
https://twitter.com/TansuYegen/status/1922749376956444819

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home › Forums › Debt Rattle May 16 2025

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 48 total)
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  • Author
    Posts
  • May 16, 2025 at 9:23 am #188157
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Marc Chagall The soldier drinks 1912   • ‘Nothing’s Gonna Happen Until Putin And I Get Together’ (JTN) • Putin-Trump Meeting ‘Imminent’ – White H
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle May 16 2025]

    May 16, 2025 at 10:00 am #188159
    Topcat
    Participant

    What’s truly astonishing about the district courts blocking national policy decisions and EOs is that it took the Supreme Clowns 60 years to get around to hearing the case.

    Truly, utterly pathetic.

    Justice for Just US

    Writ large for all the world to see that the US is as Putin labeled it: The Empire of Lies.

    May 16, 2025 at 10:08 am #188160
    Topcat
    Participant

    SUMMARY of the ‘men’

    A nation of sissy snowflake Incels holdup in their parent’s basement gaming on energy drinks and ramen noodles.

    They don’t even have gaming skills worth a dime, AI will run the drones thank you very much.

    Wow, some kind of crack “special” forces to good up against combat hardened Russian Paratroopers.

    The USSA can’t find it’s own ass if it was looking for it with both hands.

    .

    May 16, 2025 at 10:18 am #188161
    Topcat
    Participant

    SUMMARY of the ‘women’

    Screeching mauve haired Karen’s throwing 2 year old tantrums at the drop of a hat.

    Irrational ideologues married to worthless ‘careers’ in gender affirming complain-athon tirades of professional victimhood.

    Saying the silent part out loud. Oops.

    Mission Accomplished

    May 16, 2025 at 10:21 am #188162
    Topcat
    Participant

    Must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed today

    Pro Tip:

    May 16, 2025 at 11:16 am #188163
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Biden Directed Funds to Afghanistan over 9/11 Victims

    May 16, 2025 at 11:16 am #188164
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    One in Four Americans Financially Illiterate

    May 16, 2025 at 11:17 am #188165
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Rouge Judge & Her Audacity

    May 16, 2025 at 11:25 am #188166
    Dora
    Participant

    KS lawsuit v Pfizer: good news! Judge rules the case may proceed in state court.
    Judge rules that the lawsuit is about deceptive marketing and not vax injuries or deaths.
    Sasha Latypova
    https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/ks-lawsuit-v-pfizer-good-news-judge
    My prediction was that the KS case would be dismissed like the TX case, but so far, it hasn’t been and I am glad to be wrong on this. Importantly, the judge, Daniel Crabtree, rejected Pfizer’s claims that PREP Act preempts state law governing deceptive marketing claims. This is, obviously, a big deal!

    May 16, 2025 at 11:33 am #188167
    Dora
    Participant

    I’ll wait to see what happens.
    https://www.vigilantfox.com/p/rfks-hhs-to-stop-recommending-covid
    The Trump administration is planning to drop recommendations that pregnant women, teenagers, and children get COVID-19 vaccines as a matter of routine, according to unnamed sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

    “The Department of Health and Human Services, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is expected to remove the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for those groups around the same time it launches a new framework for approving vaccines, the people said,” per WSJ.

    The recommendation—currently given to everyone six months and older, including pregnant women—halt is expected “in the coming days.”

    May 16, 2025 at 12:08 pm #188168
    Dr D Rich
    Participant
      Trump’s latest directive to Apple to cease manufacturing in India oversimplifies the complexities of global supply chains and risks unintended economic consequences..”

    Or…

    …..sounds less like nuance and more like Some Middle Man is afraid of losing his cut along that supply chain.

    Btw, where’s veep JD Hamel Vance Bowman Blanton honorary Indian on this topic? So confusing almost dialectical.

    Musk on being stupid or how you know he has no clue about “running” a corporation as bad as “it” the corporation that holds a “monopoly on violence”, the government.

    Next time dear fellow employees, no matter your grace, candor and productivity TRY bringing the violence in on your corporate employer institution and find out who holds the monopoly on violence in your Employee-Employer relationship.
    Find out first hand who the police serve or even if they come at your request
    Find out to whom Government ceded Super-Citizen Status. Wasn’t you Bay Bee!
    Ah hell we all (((except miker and D)) know the answer. How does Musk bleat such nonsense and pretend to ignore His Personal “Interpenetration” of Him and His Bisiness(es) with Government?

    I learned 6 years into my case a nurse an RN LisaD made the determination The State doesn’t hold Autist Adults Persons accountable under any criminal statute for violent assaultive battering Behaviour because……((wait for it))……
    …..The State similarly doesn’t hold a patient awakening from anesthesia responsible for flailing about and injuring a nurse.
    (((What about hospital Patient Safety Policies?))

    It’s the Washington State Law. So says Nurse LisaD.
    Not one of 3 judges, not one of 4 attorneys and not one of 2 Assistant Attorney Generals batted a single Eyelash at LisaD’s paraLegal Opinion.
    My attorney after some prompting, reminded The Court neither LisaD nor a nurse is “expert at medicine or any matter before this court and she wasn’t there and she never met the claimant”.
    Blank stares from everyone in the room except the wry smile from LisaD.
    Dare ya to look it up, Google it.

    At the same time, do y’all think the FBI has a Taak Force on Violence Against Healthcare Workers?
    Does the FBI only address violent acts against sexy RNs?
    Does a Nurse’s Opinion cause summary closure of the Task Force investigation in the FBI’s Eyes?
    Can a trivial assault trivialized by a Witless Employee Health Nurse lead to catastrophic cervical spinal stenosis?
    Can you find a citation in the literature that supports the premise from just those terms?

    Here’s one for DRd and his miker bringer of the ritter:

    How is the neck “bone” (c-spine) connected to the eye bone, the iris bone, the eyelid bones and the sweat bones AND do you think LisaD has a clue or is she just another ConWoman Confabulator?
    Open book quiz
    Google it.
    Try the locals and Ritter
    Consult your papers, texts and treatises
    Find out how stupid LisaD was willing to be in court in front of a judge and how credulous the officers of the court were in the Face of LisaD’s confabulated Onslaught

    May 16, 2025 at 12:28 pm #188169
    tboc
    Participant

    The Biden/Harris administration did not create and run the child trafficking program in four years. The Biden administration utilized and exploited Extraordinay Renedition. Extraordinary Rendition was a human trafficking regime established by The CIA and run in conjuction with US “partners”.

    Amazing what a little Baksheesh accomplishes.
    Also amazing is how short the memory of US citizens is.

    if one considers Flight Radar and international flight control then it is known exactly which airplanes, and the origins of their flights, were used in the trafficking gambit. Tracking fuel purchases regionally would supply the same type of information for ground transportation. I guess it is best not to know what the debt that grandchildren are being saddled with has purchased, or who has profitted from the collusion. The problem with National Security is that there is no security at all.

    “One in four Americans financially illiterate”. When did Armstrong become an optimist?

    May 16, 2025 at 12:34 pm #188170
    tboc
    Participant

    no one knows where The Taliban came from or ever heard the word mujahideen?

    still i maintain human ignorance is the most valuable commodity in existence – feigning ignorance is just ignorance with a nice cap

    May 16, 2025 at 2:09 pm #188171
    zerosum
    Participant

    Truth

    Credibility

    President Trump said Thursday regarding the Ukraine-Russia talks in Turkey that “nothing’s gonna happen until Putin and I get together.”

    Relevant/Irrelevant

    ————

    Moscow’s and Kiev’s delegations were expected to hold discussions there after Putin suggested resuming the Istanbul talks which were broken off three years ago.
    ————-

    realistic

    Russia’s decision in October 2022 to formally accept and annex the result of the vote of the four oblasts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk to leave Ukraine and join Russia as Crimea had previously done.

    • Russia’s Top Negotiator Unveils Goal of Talks With Ukraine (RT)

    • UK Sending Security Adviser To Work With Zelensky – Guardian (RT)

    The toughest issue remains the $300 billion in frozen/stolen Russian assets, mostly held in Belgium.

    Much/most of the war damage are in the Russian-occupied Ukraine, (the four oblasts).

    Reality

    • Trump Touts 1.4 Trillion Investment In AI, Tech From UAE (ZH)

    ————–

    May 16, 2025 at 2:58 pm #188172
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    May 16, 2025 at 3:10 pm #188173
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    May 16, 2025 at 3:14 pm #188174
    Bam_Man
    Participant

    I think there is a typo in that headline.
    It should read “One in Four Americans Financially Literate”.
    And there is a big difference between “Rouge” and “Rogue”.

    May 16, 2025 at 3:15 pm #188175
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/05/ukraine-negotiation-failure-and-other-notes.html#comments

    Did you see…

    Well, since Ukrainians talked/negotiated with Russians, Zelensky’s no negotiations edict must have been abolished, yet there’s no news of that having happened that I’ve seen.
    And despite attempts to spin the outcome as somehow negative for Russia, the status quo continues.
    Putin met again today with the Security Council, and there are both Russian and Ukrainian reports of very thinly held areas on the LOC being assaulted and/or abandoned.
    The Nazi command clearly is more interested in the possibility of killing Russian civilians along the border regions than in forming a more defensible line.
    It appears Russian commanders understand the very low density of opposing troops and are pressing forward despite the heavy use of drones and artillery.
    Climatic and foliage conditions are also aiding Russia.

    The negotiations have provided the optics Russia intended as well as the anticipated response from the Nazis and their backers.
    I predict this tread will see many fleas trying to spin all that otherwise.

    Posted by: karlof1 | May 16 2025 14:54 utc | 16

    May 16, 2025 at 3:31 pm #188183
    Dora
    Participant

    John Campbell. Sun dimming: safe and effective?

    May 16, 2025 at 4:46 pm #188184
    those darned kids
    Participant

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77th_Brigade_(United_Kingdom)

    May 16, 2025 at 5:20 pm #188185
    Topcat
    Participant

    MAHA haha

    May 16, 2025 at 5:38 pm #188186
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Ritter interview: hey did you know Donald Trump is the only guy in American history to say the US won WWII? True fact! It makes some Marines sick, sick, sick I say to EVER hear an American say that! All American Presidents, all American people always said Russia won the whole war, right up to January 2024. It’s well known. How dare he.

    Also in the recent diplomacy, Trump is an idiot who coddles all groups, created and runs the Ukraine war, and is entirely complicit because it wasn’t ended in a weekend. What’s that? What’s Putin’s position? Oh, well Putin doing the exact same thing is magical, perfect, realpolitik diplomacy. …You understand, don’t you brother? Trump = bad thing, Putin = Good thing. Thing = Same thing. Putin coddling them is just because he has to, he has to “Be in the room” to “Have influence”, unlike Trump who Has to be in the room and have influence in the BAD way.

    Over and over again for an hour. Hey did you know Trump is the only world leader in history the other world leaders didn’t respect and love absolutely? True. He’s the only one. No one ever made fun of like, Bob Dole or Macron, or MissTruss, or Zelensky before. And they’re just trying to puff up his one-dimensional narcissism, by like “Giving him things” – particularly wins with the U.S. electorate, the bastards. God! How I hate, hate! Free money! Of course Trump is entirely unaware that there is any ass-kissing going on, and of course totally believes all these leaders implicitly, because Ritter’s been spooning Donald every night and knows exactly what he thinks at all times.

    Can I ask what brought this on? Same with the congressional RFK thing yesterday: “You’re gutting Medicaid (I think this is untrue, no one’s bringing me facts?) to pay for a child genocide!!!” Um, is RFK in charge of the DoD? I mean, okay, but I hadn’t heard that. And what brought this on after FOUR YEARS of this under Biden? It was fine then, thing = bad = good = thing. Suddenly, Lo! 3 days ago, all this started, and we have RFK on camera with a gun!!!

    It’s the Levels. The Levels of this is Nightmare Fuel. Reality has ceased to exist. Anywhere, I guess.

    “Donald Trump is Right” well, I guess he really does have all the blackmail. Anyway, as above, it doesn’t matter if it’s published, because Reality no longer exists. We can read this, or not, or actually read both, believe both, Thing = Not Thing, AT THE SAME TIME, doesn’t even occur that it’s happening. If you point it out they can’t see it. Will get angry.

    Lutnick: They sure as f– ain’t balancing the budget! This budget is a trainwreck, business as usual in so many ways, (Massie) Every trick: more bombs, double taxing (tariffs and Income), letting all actions sunset so their cost happens at a totally-random, coincidental 3 ½ years from now, no impact on budget accounting because they’ll all be reversed, making yet another Omnibus (BBB, Big Beautiful Bill) as they promised not to, etc.

    Okay, well it’s not easy, this is sausage, but really? You’re showing me you’re not even trying. Piss off.

    “• Russia’s Top Negotiator Unveils Goal of Talks With Ukraine (RT)

    Apparently yes, they sent in real, serious, top people who got time to be well-informed. Ukraine immediately got a head cold and postponed all discussions all day. Like children at bedtime, can I drag this out 10 more minutes? Five? Yes, and this is why they lost. You can’t have a whole field-to-horizon blind spot AND no time preference and expect to win even one round, even on accident. That turns out to be true.

    This is all setting the ground for an end. That is, Putin said no last summer, now he’s saying we won’t even negotiate if these fall through there will ONLY be a military end. Now you see: Optics. Who can argue after all this?

    Apple in India:

    Yeah, he can’t tell you what’s going to happen, but suppose a lot of supply chains get all screwed up, and India has a nuclear exchange with Pak on MI6 meddling. He needs that SECURITY here, for Geopolitical issues he can’t admit, can’t be sure of, and can’t signal to the other side. This is a major problem when everyone’s lying and all records are classified. This is why Democracies can’t be classified. We need informed voters – and market CEOs – to know what’s going on.

    Autopen J6:

    Nobody wants to, you know, ask Biden if he actually signed these pardons n’ stuff? He’s still totally alive, allegedly. We usually just ask people things.

    Things not in the news: Feds take Riker’s Prison, where Jeffie died. Why? Well s—t man, they’ve been writing injunctions for human rights for 10-20 years, SAYING they would take it if NY didn’t shape up. They didn’t of course, because: New York.

    MH-17.

    Yes and imagine that they had…I don’t know, proceed with this. Which, someone accusing you of this, having done it and knowing full well you didn’t, is the greatest affront you could make. You see, they still think Russians are the Klingons (not kidding) as they were emotional, war-like people who are “Violent by nature” in their Asian DNA (Clapper, I think). Instead, they don’t. Same with American Rednecks, or probably Yemeni Hillbillies. They needed the time to be strong enough to do what they’re doing now. It sucks to get punched for 10 rounds, but ask Cassius Clay why.

    I don’t know why you’re bringing up LisaD, clearly the government is incompetent and the courts are useless unless beaten soundly before being sent to bed each night.

    I’m not sure you can compare companies to governments, a little I guess, but they are identical to mafias.

    May 16, 2025 at 5:59 pm #188187
    John Day
    Participant

    Cocaine Short Attention Spans https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/cocaine-short-attention-spans

    Gilbert Doctorow, Transcript of interview with Glenn Diesen, 14 May
    What Donald Trump is doing is hard to understand. His method of leading these negotiations is to create a total fog, total confusion so that all of the many opponents to his efforts don’t know what comes next and cannot offer serious opposition to what he may try to be doing. At the same time, it has inherent in it a formula for complete failure.
    ​ He is actively backing his two envoys, Steve Witkoff and General Kellogg, who are each embodying a different solution, a contradictory solution. Witkoff is close to the Russian position and Kellogg is very close to the European-Zelensky position. It is impossible to see how this can lead to a settlement…​ ..If we have to look for logic in the midst of this fog, the logic that I come to is the following. That Trump is setting up a situation where all parties will be witness to the impossible conditions that Zelensky is proposing, whereby the loser in a military contest is seeking a solution which makes him the victor…​
    ..I think the whole stage that we’re watching is being managed by Trump. I believe that he told Zelensky, I don’t have to imagine it, in his social site, social media, Trump said directly to Zelensky, “Show up immediately, accept the invitation from Putin to open negotiations, and accept immediately.”
    ​ I think that Putin would go to Istanbul only on the condition that Trump is there. And Trump’s latest statements suggest the opposite. He’s going to go to Istanbul because Putin is there. That’s nonsense. Putin would never show his face in Istanbul without Trump being there.
    ​ And the reason for that is that he is confident that Zelensky will make such utterly idiotic statements that the Americans have no choice but to denounce him and to abandon him. And for that reason, Putin will go. The Russian talk shows were saying last night that it is utterly foolish to speak about direct negotiations with Zelensky. That Zelensky is not an independent force, he is dependent on his curators, as Russians call his backers in Western Europe and the United States. And the only people that you can negotiate with are the Americans. So if Trump is there, then the Americans are there and Putin can negotiate with him, while Zelensky is probably in the next room fuming…
    ​..Mr. Trump’s basic negotiating tactic is spreading confusion. What can come out of this confusion, we don’t know…
    ​..Mr. Trump faces many severe challenges, domestically and foreign challenges. Some of these challenges he has created himself by very poor, poorly conceived and implemented actions like his tariff war over the top in respect to China. So he has set for himself many handicaps but didn’t have to be there.
    ​ But that being said, there were handicaps which preceded his arrival on the scene. And they are with him, that is the opposition in Europe of the major countries that we’ve named, and the opposition, both within the Republican Party and, of course, in the whole Democratic Party. He is apparently trying to keep his enemies at bay by making it seem as though one day he will lean this way, as they wish, and the next day he will lean the other way, as they don’t, and they don’t know how it’s all going to end up, but they’re hopeful that he’s still going to be brought around. That seems to be his tactic, but I’m skeptical that he will succeed…​ ..The end of the war will come before the new year, and it will come not from a further victory on the battlefield, it will come from the political collapse of Ukraine when ​ Mr. Trump says that he’s stopping all arms shipments to Ukraine and that he will not provide, sell arms to Europe for delivery to Ukraine. If he has the courage and the logical consistency to do that, then the war is finished in a matter of a few months. That is the end that I see…
    ​..Donald Trump has it within his power to bring about peace in the Russian-Ukraine war. But not at a negotiating table as we’re seeing now. This is just the antechamber to the real settlement, which is when he when he withdraws all support to Ukraine.
    ​ The United States also has the power to end the problem of NATO and to force its Western allies to come to a negoting table with the Russians over revising the continent’s security arrangements, architecture. And that is very simple. If Mr. Trump does what he should do, which is to renounce the Biden agreement with Scholz over installing American nuclear-armed medium-range missiles in Germany. If that is done, then Europe’s defense is finished.
    ​ The logical thing to do would be for him to renounce that upon agreeing with the Russians that they will withdraw all of their nuclear-tipped missiles to the Urals…​ ..Russia has both a free economy or market economy approach, which is what Nabuil is introducing, to keep down inflation, and you support your currency by higher interest rates, which are now at the unbelievable level of 21%. At the same time, you have a statist approach going on, where the Minister of Finance is providing subsidies to the banking system, note, to the banking system to dispense credit to specific industries and specific favorite son manufacturers that are producing goods and services that are deemed essential to the country’s growth. That is to say, you have state management of the economy through dispensing cheap credits to favored industries and favored manufacturers. That is what gave Russia its 4% growth rate in the face of interest rates which should have turned it into recession…​
    ..Mr. Trump admires, respects, and I would say envies Vladimir Putin and Russia, it’s because they have succeeded in a reindustrialization which Mr. Trump would like to see in the States. Russia has done this thanks to sanctions, and Mr. Trump would like to do this through self-imposed tariffs. The idea is the same, to make it difficult or impossible for foreign suppliers to deprive domestic would-be manufacturers and agriculture participants from growing, from manufacturing what the country needs domestically and not importing these goods. It’s a similar end that is sought by both Trump and Putin.​ https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/05/15/transcript-of-interview-with-glenn-diesen-14-may/

    ​Zelensky talks to Erdogan. Ukraine sent Ministers. Russia sent ​Experts ​(Deputy Ministers​): Delegations Arrive In Istanbul For Talks MS For 2025.05.15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iINyfa1Nyk

    ​ Ukraine Will Never Recognize Occupied Territories As Russia, Zelensky Says From Turkey
    ​ “We don’t yet know the official level of Russians, but from what we see, it looks phony,” Zelensky told reporters in Ankara. So despite the Ukrainian leader earlier declaring “I am here” upon landing in Turkey, he is not in fact at the Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul.
    ​ This ‘I am here’ yet not actually ‘there’ charade generated some contradictory headlines earlier on Thursday. Zelensky continues his performative gestures aimed at impressing one man: Trump.​..
    ​..The head of the Russian delegation in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, told Russian state media RIA that Moscow was “ready for discussions.”
    “We are ready for discussions, for resuming the Istanbul negotiations; we are prepared for possible compromises and their discussion,” Medinsky said, referring to the last known direct talks between Russia and Ukraine that took place in Istanbul in the spring of 2022.​.. ..Dmitriev also specifically named Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio – the latter two who are present in Istanbul – as major contributors to the mediation effort.​.. ​ ..President Trump meanwhile, while attending meetings in Qatar, was asked by a reporter why the American leader is not himself present in Turkey for the talks:
    ​ “Why would he go if I’m not going?”
    “I wasn’t planning to go and I didn’t think he would if I didn’t.”
    ​ “But we have people there. Marco’s doing a fantastic job, Marco’s there…”
    ​ It remains that Putin has little reason or incentive to go, with war analysts widely recognizing that he remains in the driver’s seat militarily, and with Ukrainian forces against the ropes. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-has-made-impossible-possible-kremlin-praises-istanbul-20-talks

    ​ Gilbert Doctorow notes that Russians and Ukrainians did not meet yesterday, because the Ukrainians were in the wrong city.
    BBC morning news: “Russian and Ukrainian sides meet face to face for the first time since the war began…”​ https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/05/16/bbc-morning-news-russian-and-ukrainian-sides-meet-face-to-face-for-the-first-time-since-the-war-began/

    May 16, 2025 at 6:00 pm #188188
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Ukrainian delegation showed up 24 hours late and won’t talk with Russian delegation about anything except 30 day ceasefire:
    Second Round of Talks Begins in Turkey​, Russia Appoints New Army Chief​: Military Summary 2025.05.16​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1-kAtfr7oc

    ​ It’s the cocaine talking: Macron, Starmer Blast ‘Unacceptable’ Russian Stance In Talks, Zelensky Urges More Sanctions
    Zelensky in a phone call with President Trump soon on the heels of the Istanbul meeting, which lasted just under two hours, touted that he’s willing to “take the fastest possible steps to bring real peace” – but the West needs to hold “a strong stance”. Also on the group call were the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland.​..
    ​..British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, joined by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish leader Donald Tusk, said in a statement on Friday that “the Russian position is clearly unacceptable, and not for the first time,” according to Reuters.​..
    ​ ​..As for the Russian delegation, its head Vladimir Medinsky announced that “each side will present its vision of a possible future ceasefire, detailing it in writing.” ​ Here’s the Russian readout:
    ​ “We are satisfied with the outcome and ready to continue our contacts. Here is what has been agreed:
    First, in the coming days, there will be a large-scale prisoner exchange: 1,000 for 1,000 people.
    ​ Second, the Ukrainian side has requested direct talks between the heads of state. We have taken this request under advisement.
    ​And third, we have agreed that each side will present its vision of a possible future ceasefire, detailing it in writing. Once these visions have been presented, we believe it is appropriate-as has also been agreed-to continue our negotiations.”​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-ukraine-talks-wrap-under-2-hours-nothing-meaningful-end-war

    ​ Trump Still Pressing Forward On Meeting Putin ‘As Soon As We Can’
    President Donald Trump said Friday as he wrapped up his four-day visit to the Middle East that the White House is still moving forward on setting up direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that this will happen as soon as possible.
    ​ “I think it’s time for us to just do it,” Trump told reporters, addressing whether an in-person meeting will still happen. He added that a meeting with Putin will happen “as soon as we can set it up”. He suggested that peace will ultimately only be possible if the two leaders sit at the same table.
    ​ That’s when he said, interestingly that “I would actually leave here and go” – an apparent reference to Istanbul where rare Russia-Ukraine talks are being held Friday.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-still-pressing-forward-meeting-putin-soon-we-can

    ​ John Helmer, THE US HAS PUSHED THE INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION (ICAO) TO DECLARE WAR ON RUSSIA
    ​ On Monday, May 12, the United States pushed the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the aircraft safety watchdog, to vote behind closed doors to adopt a secret resolution convicting Russia of shooting-down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014.
    ​ Unlike the Dutch show trial which in November 2022 convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian of the same crime, the ICAO reached its verdict without the appearance of an open proceeding or of openly tested evidence. It’s a put-up job.​..
    ​..“The Council’s considerations based on reason of law and fact, will be issued in the coming weeks.”
    The spokesman was then asked for a copy of ICAO’s Rules of Procedure. He refuses to answer.
    ​ The decision of ICAO to go to war with Russia, using its aviation safety mandate to cover up the evidence of what really happened to MH17, destroys the organization for the future. It follows the destruction of the global organization for the safety of nuclear power generation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW); the International Committee of the Red Cross; and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.​
    ​ The downing of MH17 on July 17, 2014, with the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew, was a Ukrainian government operation, backed by the Obama Administration led by then-Vice President Joseph Biden, to start the economic sanctions war against Russia; US and NATO military preparations for the Ukrainian attack on the Donbass; it almost led to a NATO military intervention. ​ https://johnhelmer.net/the-us-has-pushed-the-international-civil-aviation-organization-icao-to-declare-war-on-russia/#more-91597

    ​Huh? Russian Su-35 prevents Estonians from capturing tanker with Russian crew https://en.topcor.ru/59869-rossijskij-su-35-ne-dal-jestoncam-zahvatit-tanker-s-russkim-jekipazhem.html

    May 16, 2025 at 6:01 pm #188189
    John Day
    Participant

    This was in international waters: VIDEO | Estonia says Russia sent warplane after attempt to intercept shadow fleet tanker
    ​Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Thursday, the 15th of May, that Russia had sent a military plane because the Estonian navy was trying to intercept a possible shadow fleet tanker which was under new British sanctions, accusing it of sailing illegally without a flag, reports Reuters.
    ​ After the Jaguar, which was placed on the UK sanctions list last Friday, refused to cooperate by not allowing boarding, the Estonian navy said it was escorted to Russian waters…​
    ..In another incident on the 11th of April, Estonia detained and boarded the Russian-owned oil tanker Kiwala, accusing it of sailing without a valid national flag. The tanker cooperated and was released two weeks later.​ https://bnn-news.com/video-estonia-says-russia-sent-warplane-after-attempt-to-intercept-shadow-fleet-tanker-267690

    White House Has Presented Iran With Written Nuke Deal Proposal​ https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/very-serious-negotiations-crude-prices-tumble-after-trump-says-us-close-nuclear-deal

    ​ With Trump Touring Gulf, Iran Offers Huge Nuclear Concession
    Iranian official Ali Shamkhani, importantly who serves as military and nuclear advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the following:
    ​ He said Iran would commit to never making nuclear weapons, getting rid of its stockpiles of highly-enriched Uranium which can be weaponized, agree to only enrich Uranium to the lower levels needed for civilian use, and allow international inspectors to supervise the process, in exchange for the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions on Iran.
    ​ Asked if Iran would agree to sign an agreement today if those conditions were met, Shamkhani said, “Yes.”
    “It’s still possible. If the Americans act as they say, for sure we can have better relations,” Shamkhani said. The top official added, “it can lead to a better situation in the near future.”​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-praises-young-attractive-president-sharaa-founder-al-qaeda-syria-qatar-visit

    ​ More Than 200 Republicans Work To Sabotage Chances of Iran Nuclear Deal
    The lawmakers sent a letter to Trump urging that any deal must dismantle Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, a non-starter for Tehran​ https://news.antiwar.com/2025/05/14/more-than-200-republicans-work-to-sabotage-chances-of-iran-nuclear-deal/

    May 16, 2025 at 6:02 pm #188190
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ US-backed aid group to start work in Gaza by end of May
    ​ A US-backed humanitarian organization said on Wednesday that it would launch operations in Gaza by the end of May and has asked Israel to allow aid to start flowing into the enclave now under existing procedures until it is set up.
    ​ No humanitarian aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation, a quarter of the enclave’s population. Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, aid deliveries have been handled by international aid groups and UN organizations.
    ​ The newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will instead distribute aid in Gaza from so-called secure distribution sites, but said Israel’s current plan to only allow a few such sites in southern Gaza needed to be scaled up to include the north.​ https://www.arabnews.com/node/2600763/middle-east

    ​ UNICEF chief denounces Israel’s ‘unconscionable’ killing of nearly 50 children in Gaza in 2 days
    “It is unconscionable that over 45 children have reportedly been killed in air strikes in Gaza in two days,” Russell wrote on X. “This should shock the world but is largely met with indifference.” “Nowhere is safe for children in Gaza. This horror must stop,” she said.​ https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250509-israel-dropped-100000-tons-of-bombs-on-gaza-media-office/

    ​ UN peacekeepers say Israel hit Lebanon base with ‘direct fire’
    UNIFIL said it was ‘concerned by the recent aggressive posture of the Israel Defense Forces involving UNIFIL personnel and assets’
    Included an ‘incident in which a direct fire hit the perimeter of a UNIFIL position south of the village of Kfar Shouba’​ https://www.arabnews.com/node/2600737/middle-east

    ​ Netanyahu: Israel is destroying Gaza so Palestinians are forced to leave
    ​ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on Sunday that Tel Aviv is “destroying more and more houses [in Gaza] so the Palestinians will have nowhere to return,” according to quotes from the session leaked to the media.
    ​ “The only obvious result will be Gazans choosing to emigrate outside of the Strip,” Netanyahu continued, adding that Israel’s “main problem is finding countries to take them in.”​ https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250514-netanyahu-israel-is-destroying-gaza-so-palestinians-are-forced-to-leave/

    ​ US Treasury ‘Surprised, Confused’ By Trump’s Sudden Lifting Of Syria Sanctions​
    ​ Much of the world was caught off guard when amid an avalanche of multiple US-Gulf deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars each being signed Wednesday, President Trump not only announced that he is lifting all sanctions on Syria, but even met in-person with US-designated terrorist and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (Jolani) in the Saudi capital.
    ​ Apparently even the State Department and US Treasury departments were caught off guard. Trump’s move to lift sanctions on Syria “took many by surprise,” including his own officials at State and Treasury.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-treasury-surprised-confused-trumps-sudden-lifting-syria-sanctions

    May 16, 2025 at 6:03 pm #188191
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Trump Shocks the World — Again
    ​ Trump explained to al-Sharaa that he had “a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country.” The president “urged the Syrian leader to sign on to the Abraham Accords.” He “also advised Sharaa to tell foreign terrorists to leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help the U.S. prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State and assume responsibility for Islamic State detention centers in Syria’s northeast.” Trump declared that he wanted to give Syria “a chance at greatness.”
    ​ So Trump wants to make peace with old foes based on mutual economic interests. He is giving al-Sharaa a chance to demonstrate that he really is no longer a jihadi and wants to build a stable and prosperous Syria.​ https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2025/05/14/trump-shocks-the-world-again-n4939759

    Financial Zionism appears to be finished with revisionist-Zionism: Netanyahu Charges [Rothschild-Paris banker] Macron With ‘Despicable’ Support For Hamas [which Bibi supprted through Qatar for decades] As Spat Deepens https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/netanyahu-charges-macron-despicable-support-hamas-spat-deepens

    Trump Touts 1.4 Trillion Investment In AI, Tech From UAE In Final Mideast Stop​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-touts-14-trillion-investment-ai-other-sectors-uae-final-mideast-stop

    ​ One of the most shocking testimonies in United States history.
    “I state without reservation that the United States federal government under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is the world’s largest child sex trafficking organization in modern history. The probability…that thousands of these children are being raped at this very moment is one hundred percent.”​ https://x.com/Real_RobN/status/1922694242973122575

    Trump Very Displeased With Tim Cook’s ‘Made-In-India’ iPhone Blitz, Wants Production In US​ https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-very-displeased-tim-cooks-made-india-iphone-blitz-wants-production-us

    May 16, 2025 at 6:03 pm #188192
    John Day
    Participant

    If grid connected, and simultaneously activated, this could crash the grid: Rogue Devices Capable of Triggering Blackouts Found in Chinese Solar Panels​ https://basedunderground.com/2025/05/14/rogue-devices-capable-of-triggering-blackouts-found-in-chinese-solar-panels/

    ​ China pauses rare earth export restrictions on 28 US entities after trade truce
    The suspension of rare earth export curbs took effect Wednesday and will last for 90 days, China’s Ministry of Commerce said.​ https://interestingengineering.com/energy/china-lifts-export-bans-on-rare-earths

    ​ Geologists Discover the World’s “Largest Lithium Deposit” Beneath a U.S. Supervolcano, Worth 413 Billion Euros
    Buried beneath a U.S. supervolcano, scientists have uncovered what could be the largest lithium reserve ever found. This unexpected discovery has the potential to reshape global supply chains and disrupt the industry. The scale of the deposit is staggering, but extraction won’t be easy. Environmental concerns and geopolitical tensions are already brewing.​ https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/02/geologists-discover-the-worlds-largest-lithium-deposit-beneath-a-u-s-supervolcano-worth-413-billion-euros/

    ​Horatius At the Bridge moment: “Everything You Said Was Essentially Dishonest” – RFK Jr. Destroys Dems In First Major Hearing As HHS Secretary
    https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/everything-you-said-was-essentially-dishonest-rfk-jr-destroys-dems-first-major-hearing-hhs

    An oath to lie? Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Among Dozens Who Signed Oath to Conceal COVID Info That Could ‘Embarrass’ Trudeau Government https://yournews.com/2025/05/09/3428426/canadas-chief-public-health-officer-among-dozens-who-signed-oath/

    May 16, 2025 at 6:04 pm #188193
    John Day
    Participant

    But you still can’t see them… Court rules on von der Leyen’s secret Covid vaccine deal messages
    The European Commission acted improperly by refusing to release communications with Pfizer to the media, the ruling states​ https://swentr.site/news/617514-european-commission-pfizer-texts/

    ​ COVID-19 Vaccines Are Fueling the Chronic Disease Epidemic
    With RFK Jr. spotlighting chronic disease in the Senate, it’s time to confront the role of mRNA injections in this escalating public health crisis.​ https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/covid-19-vaccines-are-fueling-the

    HHS to END COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations for Kids & Pregnant Women
    With over 600,000 estimated COVID shot deaths in the U.S., HHS moves to roll back CDC guidance—amid mounting criminal referrals, legislative efforts, and growing calls for a complete moratorium.​ https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-hhs-to-end-covid-19-vaccine?r=e3v24

    ​ ‘There Is Overwhelming Evidence to Call for a Moratorium on the mRNA COVID Jabs’: New MAHA Chief Medical Advisor
    “And help the vaccine injured,” says British cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra.​ https://jonfleetwood.substack.com/p/there-is-overwhelming-evidence-to

    ​ Will Pfizer Be Held Accountable? Federal Judge Sends Kansas Lawsuit Against COVID Vaccine Maker Back to State Court
    Pfizer tried to keep the case in federal court, arguing that the PREP Act, which shields COVID-19 vaccine makers from liability for injuries caused by the vaccines, “completely preempts” the consumer protection claims made by the state of Kansas. But a federal judge today ruled the case must proceed in state court.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pfizer-covid-vaccine-deceptive-marketing-kansas-lawsuit-state-court/?utm_id=20250514

    May 16, 2025 at 6:05 pm #188194
    John Day
    Participant

    ‘Gravely Concerning’: Spike Protein Found in Female Stroke Victims Up to 17 Months After Receiving mRNA COVID Vaccine
    Researchers found the spike protein inside the cerebral arteries, which flow to the brain. The study confirmed that, in all of the patients, some of the spike protein detected originated from the COVID-19 vaccines.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/spike-protein-found-female-stroke-victims-17-months-mrna-covid-vaccine/

    ​ ‘Pulling Back the Curtain’: NIH Will Use Medicaid, Medicare Records to Study Autism
    NIH and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today announced a “landmark partnership” that will allow NIH autism researchers to analyze the health records of children and adults enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid who have an autism diagnosis.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/autism-research-nih-cms-medicaid-medicare-records/

    ​ ‘Indefensible’: Merck Designed Gardasil Trials to Mask HPV Vaccine Harms
    A newly unsealed expert report from Danish physician and world-renowned research methodologist Dr. Peter C. Gøtzsche, reveals that Merck intentionally misrepresented the safety profile of its Gardasil HPV vaccine.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/merck-designed-gardasil-trials-mask-hpv-vaccine-harms/

    ​ Some think it’s the the shots: Media Slam NIH for Axing ‘Safe to Sleep’ Campaign — But Evidence Shows the Program Never Reduced SIDS Deaths
    NIH recently cut a program that claimed to have reduced SIDS deaths by more than 50%. However, research published in Pediatrics and other top journals shows that SIDS deaths didn’t substantively drop — they were just reclassified as something else.​ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/media-slam-nih-axing-safe-to-sleep-campaign-evidence-program-never-reduced-sids-deaths/

    ​ The new Chief Investigator is a fraud-for-hire who just inserted fraud into the study-report. The Slovakian Prime Minister is being led to Scientific Slaughter
    Scientific Misconduct and Plagiarism plague his seminal study​ https://anandamide.substack.com/p/the-slovakian-prime-minister-is-being

    May 16, 2025 at 6:05 pm #188195
    John Day
    Participant

    Copper is antibacterial… For The First Time, Common Hospital “Superbug” Found To Break Down Medical Plastics
    This bacterium is a common cause of infections in hospitals, and now researchers are a step closer to understanding why.​ https://www.iflscience.com/for-the-first-time-common-hospital-superbug-found-to-break-down-medical-plastics-79212

    ​ We’ll see: Fusion Power Just Got Real: New Method to Remove Heat From Tokamak Plasma Solves One of Nuclear Energy’s Biggest Obstacles
    In a groundbreaking development, scientists in Switzerland have discovered an innovative method to efficiently remove excess heat from fusion tokamaks, potentially revolutionizing the safety and sustainability of nuclear fusion reactors worldwide.​ https://www.sustainability-times.com/energy/fusion-power-just-got-real-new-method-to-remove-heat-from-tokamak-plasma-solves-one-of-nuclear-energys-biggest-obstacles/

    “History Is Wrong”: Newly Discovered Ancient Tools Shatter Accepted Timeline of Civilization and Rewrite Humanity’s Deep Past
    Archaeologists have unearthed stone tools in Southeast Asia that suggest the region’s ancient inhabitants were pioneers in seafaring technology, revolutionizing our understanding of early human innovation.​ https://www.sustainability-times.com/research/history-is-wrong-newly-discovered-ancient-tools-shatter-accepted-timeline-of-civilization-and-rewrite-humanitys-deep-past/

    ​Spartacus works to access universal consciousness through AI: The Einstein-Cartan-Skyrme Hypothesis What if the mind is literally what makes things real? https://iceni.substack.com/p/the-einstein-cartan-skyrme-hypothesis

    23 minute AI-narration, sorry. Consciousness communicates an enigma: Michio Kaku: “AI Warns Voyager 1 Made IMPOSSIBLE Encounter In Deep Space” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1nKZXavxs8

    May 16, 2025 at 6:06 pm #188196
    John Day
    Participant

    26 minute Twilight “Zone” AI narration is even more esoteric: Michio Kaku: “AI Reveals Voyager’s Terrifying Image Of Who’s Sending Data” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74wLo48vLVk

    Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe​ https://ctmucommunity.org/wiki/Cognitive-Theoretic_Model_of_the_Universe

    May 16, 2025 at 6:07 pm #188197
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    May 16, 2025 at 6:46 pm #188199
    zerosum
    Participant

    What is know.

    The problems.
    The solutions.

    What is missing.

    The making changes.

    May 16, 2025 at 7:04 pm #188200
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    D:

      “I don’t know why…..”

    Your bonafides have been established by the many here except the few, me and aspnaz So your declaration on self looks like the thingy D and dbs despise the most, lying. So far so good.
    Lying? Christ get over it already. Your gf lies about 100 times more effectively and 1000 times more often than you

    LisaD because she’s a living breathing example of the species and the police/Gov’t/courta are vulnerable to her manipulation and call it justice, truth. LisaD represents mikers’ exemplar. Ask him.
    Dingbat.

    Lies?
    Spot one:

    1. One in Four Americans Financially Literate
    +/-

    2. One in Forty Americans Are Jews, US Census
    ~2.5%

    3. 75% Americans Not Financially Illiterate Corresponds To ~97.5% Americans Do Not Prefer Judaism.
    25% is sort of 10x 2 5% but not really….financial skimmer math

    4. At least 2 5% of Americans Know LIBOR is synonymous with RIGGED..

    5. At least 2 5% of Americans Know OvernightREPO/QE were/are bailout, welfare abd free money programs for them and banksters as a form of Financial Literacy and “nominal GDP targeting” ie. favoritism and cronyism and corruption and getting well with other asskissers

    6. Market Makers Exist and Are Not Corrupt and Simply Assist FatCats in avoiding tax responsibilities and Duty to Country Club.

    May 16, 2025 at 7:13 pm #188201
    zerosum
    Participant

    The world is flooded with illusion/pretend/lies/imaginary/leveraged/available money.

    Trump Touts 1.4 Trillion Investment

    May 16, 2025 at 7:17 pm #188202
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    May 16, 2025 at 7:34 pm #188203
    DarkMatter
    Participant

    Here is the article called Sadly, Trump is Right on Ukraine referenced in the video

    May 16, 2025 at 8:45 pm #188206
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    LisaD equals Tulsi…

    …Feckless, formless, ineffectual but oh so persuasive of The White Knighting Crowd

      ‘Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is pulling no punches”

    That’s like entering the boxing ring and declaring your gonna punch back at your opponent after being knocked flat on your ass.
    Fire Away Sexy Beast. No verbal warnings or declarations required.

    Meanie!

      Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard Says James Comey Should be “Arrested and Put Behind Bars” for Threatening the Life of President Trump

    No knock raids are carried out for far less credible threats on POTUS, well unless of course the Nation and its Government are split amidst a Civil War.
    Cui bono then? Zionists?

    “86’d”

    “He didn’t know” hattip movie Se7en as in Detective David Bradley Pitt didn’t know he and he wife and unborn baby were being stalked by a psychopath.

    A man with the combined intellect of Hegseth, Gabbard and Scott Ritter doesn’t know.

    Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard Says James Comey Should be “Arrested and Put Behind Bars” for Threatening the Life of President Trump

    Much ado about nothing I suppose.

    Pdiddy is on trial to little fanfare.
    Move along folks.

    May 16, 2025 at 10:31 pm #188208
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    More harsh words on 86 47

    I declare, “There will be consequences.”

    Passive voice
    Actionable
    For once act precipitously like LisaD and miker ilk then maybe a judge sympathetic to Your Ignorance and Stupidity will sort it out later in your favor. Act precipitously and Comey’s fellow travelers from the ICU, disproportionately psychopathic ((references previously provided))) will get the Message.
    Send a f*cking message already with at least one targeted abusive prosecution of a bonafide jackass. Figure out later, much much later whether or not Comey is a criminal.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/there-will-be-consequences-those-govt-officials-who-waged-war-against-people-land

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