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Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Debt Rattle December 2 2024

Dec 022024
 
 December 2, 2024  Posted by at 9:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  32 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Man with a falcon on his wrist (possibly St. Bavo) 1661

 

• Joe Biden Pardons His Son Hunter (RT)
• Trump Slams ‘Shocking’ Pardon of Hunter Biden (RT)
• US Reps Urge Biden For Full Pardon Of Julian Assange (Antiwar)
• Who is Kash Patel, Trump’s Pick to Head the FBI? (Sp.)
• Kash Patel’s Prescription For Ailing FBI: Accountability, House Cleaning (JTN)
• Ukraine’s Military Dead ‘Have Already Won’ – Zelensky (RT)
• Ukrainian Military Desertions Skyrocket – FT (RT)
• Norway To Open New Arctic Warfare Base (RT)
• ‘Netanyahu Needs War’, Can’t Be Trusted to Stick to Lebanon Ceasefire (Sp.)
• The Return of Status-based Law (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Trudeau Bends The Knee To Trump At Mar-a-Lago (MN)
• Sebastian Gorka: British Intelligence Asset? (Grayzone)
• Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Prepares For Censorship Battle (ZH)
• Why Does The West Believe It Occupies The High Moral Ground? (Diesen)
• The Failure of COP29: Does the “Green Agenda” Have A Future? (Machado)

 

 

 

 

Gingrich

Lawler

Kash J6

Pipe bomber

Galloway

Gideon Levy

 

 

 

 

“Hunter Biden’s lawyer has moved to dismiss his indictment based on his pardon…”

Without a indictment, there’s no need for a pardon.

The pardon covers all crimes, including possible murder.

• Joe Biden Pardons His Son Hunter (RT)

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has gone back on his word and pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted earlier this year of breaking federal gun and tax laws. In June, the younger Biden was convicted of three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. According to the prosecutors, he lied on his gun-purchase paperwork that he was not addicted to or using illegal drugs. In a separate case, Hunter pleaded guilty to three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses in September. The sentencing for both convictions was supposed to happen this month. In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the president said the “full and unconditional pardon” covers offenses which his son “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted.”

The president argued that his son was prosecuted “selectively and unfairly” because of his familial ties. He claimed that “people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form.” “It is clear that Hunter was treated differently,” he said. The president went on to state that the charges against his son were brought “only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.” He accused Republicans of sabotaging “a carefully negotiated plea deal” that would have been a “reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.” “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” the president said. “In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

The decision is a reversal of Biden’s previous position, as he and his team repeatedly said in the past that he would accept the jury verdict and would not pardon his son. Asked by ABC News in June if he would accept the outcome of the trial and if he would rule out pardoning his son, the president replied “yes” to both questions. In his statement on Sunday, Biden confirmed that his opinion on the matter has changed. “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” he claimed. Hunter Biden released his own statement shortly after the pardon was announced. “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport,” he said.

“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.” Hunter Biden has been the subject of much scrutiny during his father’s term in office, as Republicans have claimed that he acted as the president’s ‘bagman’ in allegedly corrupt dealings with countries such as Ukraine and China. The president has denied the corruption allegations and publicly backed his son, describing him as “the smartest guy I know.”

Read more …

“Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?”

“This pardon is Joe Biden’s admission that Hunter is a criminal..”

• Trump Slams ‘Shocking’ Pardon of Hunter Biden (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted of illegally purchasing a gun and tax evasion. The sentencing in both cases was scheduled for this month. Despite saying publicly that he would not interfere in his son’s cases, the president went back on his word and announced the pardon on Sunday evening. He labelled the convictions “a miscarriage of justice,” arguing that Hunter Biden has been “singled out” because of his ties to the president. According to the statement from the White House, the pardon applies to all offenses that were or may have been committed between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2024.

This period covers accusations by Republicans that Hunter Biden acted as “a bagman” on behalf of his father during allegedly illicit business dealings in China and Ukraine. The president and his son have denied these allegations. The Republicans, who have long accused the Biden administration of politically motivated prosecutions, condemned the pardon. “The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,” Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement. “That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people,” he added.

Trump compared the treatment of the president’s son to the prosecution of his own supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, hoping to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. “Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of justice!” he wrote on Truth Social. Many top Republicans in Congress were appalled, with Senator Chuck Grassley saying that he was “shocked” by Biden’s decision. “This pardon is Joe Biden’s admission that Hunter is a criminal,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X. Congressman Andy Biggs wrote that “Joe Biden will go down as one of the most corrupt presidents in American history.”

“This is an outrageous abuse of the rule of law – all to protect the Biden family business of selling access and influence,” Senator Josh Hawley wrote on X. The Republican-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a statement, saying “Joe Biden’s unprecedented abuse of power has been a stain on the honor of the US presidency.”

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Letter sent a day or two before the Hunter pardon.

• US Reps Urge Biden For Full Pardon Of Julian Assange (Antiwar)

House Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and James McGovern (D-MA) have sent a letter to President Biden urging him to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to send a message that Biden will “not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs.” “We write, first, to express our appreciation for your administration’s decision last spring to facilitate a resolution of the criminal case against publisher Julian Assange and to withdraw the related extradition request that had been pending in the United Kingdom,” Massie and McGovern wrote in the letter dated November 1, which was first made public earlier this past week. Assange was freed in a plea deal earlier this year after spending more than five years in London’s Belmarsh Prison while battling a US extradition request.

He was indicted by the Trump administration in 2019 for exposing US war crimes by publishing classified documents leaked to WikiLeaks by former Army Private Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning in 2010. Under the indictment, Assange could have faced up to 175 years in prison in the US for publishing the documents, a standard journalistic practice. While the plea deal set him free, it required him to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act. “The terms of Mr. Assange’s plea agreement have now set a precedent that greatly deepens our concern,” Massie and McGovern said. “A review of prosecutions under the Espionage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange’s case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a publisher.”

The lawmakers pointed to comments from Jodie Ginsberg, the CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, who said, “While we welcome the end of his detention, the US’s pursuit of Assange has set a harmful legal precedent by opening the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers.” Massie and McGovern concluded the letter by saying, “We therefore urge you to consider issuing a pardon for Mr. Assange. A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea and send a clear message that the US government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs.” According to Fox News, Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, is heading to Washington in January to push for a pardon before Biden leaves office.

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“..accused “the deep state” of being “the most dangerous threat to our democracy.” He applied the term to political leaders, Big Tech tycoons, media, and “members of the unelected bureaucracy.”

• Who is Kash Patel, Trump’s Pick to Head the FBI? (Sp.)

Donald Trump has repeatedly derided the FBI as a “badly broken” agency over the years, saying it had “lost the confidence of America.” Current FBI chief Christopher A. Wray was also the target of Trump’s criticism. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Kash Patel for the position of director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As the current chief of the FBI, Christopher A. Wray, still has three years of his 10-year term left, he will either have to resign or Trump will have to fire him for the nomination to happen. Kashyap Patel, a former public defender and federal prosecutor, was a national security aide during Trump’s first term. Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution,” Trump wrote on Saturday in a social media post.

Since 2016, Democratic Party officials have accused Donald Trump of illegally colluding with the Russian government as part of the discredited “Russiagate” narrative. The Trump-Russia probe turned out as a complete fiasco with no evidence being found to back the allegations. He is an ardent advocate of “housecleaning” in the Justice Department and FBI. The Bureau’s headquarters in Washington, DC, should be dismantled and turned into a “museum of the deep state,” he said in a podcast interview in September. Patel denounced the FBI for its 2022 search warrant of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, which resulted in charges being brought against the former president for retaining classified documents. Kash Patel has accused “the deep state” of being “the most dangerous threat to our democracy.” He applied the term to political leaders, Big Tech tycoons, media, and “members of the unelected bureaucracy.”

Appearing on the “War Room” podcast hosted by Steve Bannon last year, Patel vowed to “go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media” who “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections” in 2020. Kash Patel’s appointment would be subject to Senate confirmation. The announced pick has already sparked mixed reactions from lawmakers. Patel “needs to prove to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he has the right qualifications and […] will put our nation’s public safety over a political agenda focused on retribution,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons wrote on X. “He’s been on side against some of the worst abuses of the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] system. Kash Patel can help clean up all the things that we’ve seen that are wrong,” ex-Congressman Matt Gaetz said in a video message on X, adding that “Kash has guts!”

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“..the people at the very top are usually the most immoral, unethical people in the entire agency.”

• Kash Patel’s Prescription For Ailing FBI: Accountability, House Cleaning (JTN)

President-elect Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, subscribes to a similar prescription for the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, which has lost significant trust from the American people over a decade of scandal and failure. From his time as chief investigative counsel at the House Intelligence Committee, where he unraveled the FBI’s bogus Russia collusion narrative, to his best-selling book “Government Gangsters” where he chronicled the weaponization of law enforcement against Trump and conservatives, Patel has laid out clear plans on how to re-focus the bureau on its core missions of law enforcement and intelligence gathering and away from politics. That job, he insists, begins by cleaning house throughout the FBI’s several layers of leadership that became infected with ideologies like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and created a culture where parents and traditional Catholics were viewed as extremist threats and support for Trump and the Second Amendment were deemed reasons to review an employee’s security clearance.

In his book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” Patel argues that a thorough “house cleaning” of FBI leadership is the key to resetting the agency and unleashing the skills of its rank-and-file agents. “I regularly used to tell people that the fastest way to move up in the government is to just screw up, and the bigger the screwup, the bigger the promotion,” he wrote. “Every person implicated in your mistakes has an interest in covering up what they did, so they will promote you. That means the people at the very top are usually the most immoral, unethical people in the entire agency.” But he also has made clear that his disdain for the bureau’s current leadership is matched by a similar respect for the capabilities and patriotism of rank-and-file agents, recently shouting them out recently for uncovering an Afghan national’s plot to commit a terror attack on Election Day.

“That’s to the credit of the everyday men and women of the FBI, DOD and DOJ, not the leadership that has corrupted those institutions,” he said in October. Over the last two years in interviews with Just the News, Patel has laid out several ideas for fixing the FBI, including:
• Canceling plans for an expensive new FBI headquarters and turning the current headquarters into a “museum for the Deep State.”
• Moving leaders out of Washington and into the field closer to the people they serve
• Shrinking components of the FBI that have little public benefit; and
• Holding accountable those officials responsible for the politicization of prior investigations, including termination and prosecutions.

“The folks in power at the FBI and the IC (intelligence community) making these leadership decisions are terrified that their corruption. not the Bidens, and certainly not Donald Trump, but their corruption in government in senior positions will be exposed and subject to law enforcement,” he told Just the News earlier this year. Patel’s book and his ideas for ending politicized law enforcement were a major factor in Trump’s decision to name him his the next FBI director. Currently, the job is held by Christopher Wray, whom Trump appointed in 2017, and it includes a 10-year-old term. But it is widely expected Trump will either fire Wray or he will resign. “Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and America First fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” the president-elect said in a statement on TruthSocial announcing Patel as the next FBI director. “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”

Conservatives hailed Patel’s pick. “Kash was INSTRUMENTAL in President Trump’s first term and will be EVEN GREATER in his second!” Rep. Ronnie Jackson, R-Texas, a former White House physician, wrote on X. “Time to clean this place up, and Kash is the man to do it!!! MAGA!” Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who presided over the now-discredited Russia collusion probe and later was fired, expressed doom for his former agency and said Patel’s selection was “a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI.” Many legacy media suggested Patel got the nomination because he was a “loyalist” to Trump. But the 44-year-old son of Indian immigrants has an extensive government resume, including working on both sides of the judicial system as a federal public defender and a national security prosecutor before he joined the House Intelligence Committee.

In the first Trump administration, Patel served as a counterterrorism official on the National Security Council where he helped oversee the drone strike against an Iranian general accused of decades of terrorism and then as chief of staff to the Acting Secretary of the Pentagon.

Read more …

How cynical does it get?

“[Our] most important weapon is our people,” Zelensky said..”

• Ukraine’s Military Dead ‘Have Already Won’ – Zelensky (RT)

Ukrainians who have died in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev “have already won,” Vladimir Zelensky claimed in an interview with Sky News released this week. Those sacrifices enabled Kiev to secure aid from its Western backers and eventually prevent Moscow from achieving its goals, according to the Ukrainian leader. When asked by Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay if he believed that those Ukrainians who had died throughout the conflict had given their lives for nothing, Zelensky said “it was wrong” to think so. “They are already winners,” he added. “Our people did not give their lives for nothing,” the Ukrainian leader said, adding that they “performed not only their personal but also constitutional duty to defend their country.”

He then went on to claim that “had Ukrainians not … sacrificed their lives and their comfort” back in February 2022, when Russia launched its military campaign against Ukraine, the country would have quickly yielded to Russia. “No one would have helped us then,” he said, apparently referring to Kiev’s Western backers. The Ukrainian leader also admitted that if Kiev loses the support of the US and its allies, it “will lose everything.” “[Our] most important weapon is our people,” Zelensky said. The Ukrainian leader also slammed those world leaders who are willing to talk to Moscow. He claimed they were only doing it for international fame as they “want to get on the front pages in the media.” Zelensky compared talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin to “opening Pandora’s box,” which could undermine the Western unity behind Kiev’s cause.

According to Zelensky, some world leaders are “afraid” of Putin. “When they are afraid, they start to communicate with their societies and divide their societies,” he said. The Ukrainian leader referred to Russia’s president as “an animal without any human values that we share.” He also claimed that Ukraine should be “at the same level” with Russia in terms of power or even “stronger” for peace talks to start in earnest. Zelensky then also demanded that Kiev’s backers adopt a “one voice policy” spearheaded by Ukraine when it comes to the conflict.

Zelensky also said that Kiev could agree to “end the hot phase of the war” without trying to take back former territories that officially joined Russia following a series of referendums in the fall of 2022. He still maintained that this would only be possible if the territories still under Kiev’s control are “invited” to join NATO and the US-led bloc recognizes Kiev’s territorial claims. Moscow has repeatedly stated throughout the conflict that it is ready for peace talks and would like to resolve all differences diplomatically. It has also consistently warned that it would never agree to Ukraine joining NATO and named the US-led bloc’s expansion eastward as among the root causes of the conflict.

Read more …

“..these draftees include the blind, the deaf, and the mentally handicapped..”

• Ukrainian Military Desertions Skyrocket – FT (RT)

More than twice as many Ukrainian soldiers have been charged with desertion this year than in 2022 and 2023 combined, the Financial Times has reported. The spike in desertions has hampered Kiev’s ability to replenish its thinned-out ranks. Ukrainian prosecutors opened 60,000 cases against deserters between January and October of this year, the British newspaper reported on Saturday, noting that those convicted face prison terms of up to 12 years. For some of these men, desertion is seen as the only way of getting off the front lines to rest. Ukrainian lawmakers dropped a provision from a bill earlier this year that would have allowed the country’s longest-serving conscripts to be demobilized in the coming months, and service members told the Financial Times that the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) lacks the manpower to give troops shorter four-week rotations off the front lines for rest and retraining.

”They’re just killing them, instead of letting them rehabilitate and rest,” one officer told the newspaper. Those killed are replaced by ill-trained and unfit draftees. In an earlier article, Ukrainian commanders told the Financial Times that on some busy sectors of the front, 50 to 70% of these new conscripts are killed or wounded within days of starting their first rotation. Those who survive often go AWOL as soon as they can, the newspaper reported. Some choose to desert while at training camps in NATO countries. An anonymous Polish security source told the Financial Times that around 12 Ukrainian men abscond from training centers in Poland every month. Earlier this week, a Ukrainian MP told the Associated Press that as many as 200,000 soldiers may have deserted since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022.

There are around 350,000 active-duty soldiers in the UAF, although heavy losses – more than half a million since February 2022, according to the Russian Defense Ministry – have seen the country’s longest-serving soldiers replaced first by almost a dozen NATO-trained divisions, and then, after these divisions were chewed up during last year’s disastrous counteroffensive, by unwilling conscripts. Press-ganged off the streets and dragged out of nightclubs to serve, these draftees include the blind, the deaf, and the mentally handicapped, according to recent media reports and testimony from Ukrainian lawmakers.

”Men who are the right age for the military draft are scared to walk freely in the street,” one draft-dodger told The Telegraph earlier this week. A recruiter concurred, telling the newspaper that approaching a potential conscript is often “like dealing with a cornered rat.” The UAF is seeking to recruit around 160,000 new soldiers in the coming months. To reach this target, the US has begun pushing the Ukrainian government to lower the minimum draft age to 18, down from 25, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Read more …

On Russia’s doorstep.

• Norway To Open New Arctic Warfare Base (RT)

Norway plans to establish a new NATO Arctic and amphibious warfare center where US, British, and Dutch marines will be trained amid heightened tensions with Russia, the Defense Ministry in Oslo announced on Friday. The new hub will be created in the municipality of Sorreisa north of Lofoten in Norway’s Arctic, some several hundred kilometers, as the crow flies, from Russia’s strategic port of Murmansk, which is a key military and naval base. The NATO member’s facility will house several hundred soldiers and is expected to become fully operational in 2026. “We must train together to be able to defend Norway, the Nordic countries and NATO in crisis and war,” Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram said, adding that his country is now “in a more serious security policy situation.”

“We want an increased allied presence in Norway. More training and practice is good for Norwegian security. We need allies to be familiar with the Norwegian climate and weather conditions. We also need to practice together in case the need arises. So this is a desirable development,” he stated. The new center will have close links with several nearby military facilities, which the minister claimed will be extremely useful for NATO. The announcement comes after the Norwegian government presented a plan this spring for a historic increase in defense spending, with the aim of spending $54 billion on the military from 2024 to 2036.

As part of the package, Oslo also wants to acquire its first long-range air defense system and expand the army from one to three brigades, while boosting the size of the Home Guard to 45,000 troops. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signaled this September that Moscow will check NATO’s expansionist ambitions in the region. “We see how NATO is stepping up exercises related to possible crises in the Arctic. Our country is fully prepared to defend its interests in military, political and military-technical terms,” he said at the time.

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“..then again, there are people in the Biden regime who dislike Netanyahu personally and may want to see him weakened..”

• ‘Netanyahu Needs War’, Can’t Be Trusted to Stick to Lebanon Ceasefire (Sp.)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this week that he’s ordered the military to prepare for the resumption of an “intensive war” in Lebanon if Hezbollah violated the freshly-reached ceasefire deal. Sputnik asked one of the Middle East’s most prolific international affairs observers what this could mean for the region. “Netanyahu needs war, and he only accepted a ceasefire under a great deal of pressure. So no one has faith in the Israelis. The Israelis have always violated commitments,” political analyst and Tehran University Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi told Sputnik, commenting on the Israeli PM’s threats to resume the Lebanon conflict. “After all, [Israel] is carrying out a holocaust in Gaza, a regime that carries out the holocaust and continues to do so in front of the eyes of the world after 14 months is not a regime that can be trusted for anything,” Marandi said.

Linking the Lebanon ceasefire to the crisis in neighboring Syria, where jihadist militants attacked the strategic city of Aleppo this week, Marandi characterized Netanyahu’s threats, combined with the terrorist advance, as attempts to pressure the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance anti-US, anti-Israel alliance, but assured that in the end the terrorists will be pushed back in the north and Israel kept at bay in the south. It’s highly likely that the regional forces looking to destabilize Syria “would like to see a breakdown of the ceasefire so that [their] al-Qaeda*-affiliated terrorists in the north could have a better chance of making progress,” Marandi suggested.

“It is a complicated situation and we’ll have to see how things play out. The United States is in a transition period. The Biden regime is escalating in Ukraine obviously, there are definitely elements within the Biden regime that would like to see escalation on the Lebanese border. But then again, there are people in the Biden regime who dislike Netanyahu personally and may want to see him weakened. And Trump himself also wants to see the fighting stopped before he comes to power. So we’ll have to see how things play out,” the veteran observer summed up.

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“We are ruled by the interest groups that purchase the government. Until the money is taken out of politics, American democracy will remain a sham, and the Constitution will die the death of a thousand cuts.”

• The Return of Status-based Law (Paul Craig Roberts)

In this episode of On Target, Larry Sparano and I discuss the assault on the Constitution by the Speaker of the House, Majority Leader of the Senate, and president-elect Donald Trump. The assault weapon is the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which has already passed the Republican House. Senator Schumer is attempting to avoid a stand alone vote on the Act by attaching it to the defense appropriations bill. That way the senators can say they voted for the defense bill and not against the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The Antisemitism Awareness Act is the Israel Lobby’s response to the university protests against Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinians. The bill conflates Israel with Jews, defines Jews as “protected persons,” and removes accreditation and federal financial support from universities that fail to prevent student protests against Israel and Jews in general.

In effect it prohibits criticism of Jews. Criticism is undefined. In practice it will include anything to which Jews object. The Act is a violation of the 14th Amendment which requires equal protection of the law. The Antisemitism Awareness Act creates status-based privileges for a specific group that are denied to others. The Act also violates the 1st Amendment’s protection of free speech. So, why did the Republican Speaker of the House have the House of Representatives vote against the US Constitution? Why is the Democrat Senate Majority Leader trying to have the Act passed by attaching it to a defense bill? Why did Trump say that universities that permit protests of Israel’s murderous behavior should lose their accreditation and federal aid? Why is preventing criticism of Jews more important than the US Constitution?

The supporters of the Act have not said why only Jews among the many diverse peoples of the world are to be given the special privilege of immunity from criticism. It will be OK to criticize, Americans, Europeans, Asians, Arabs, Africans, Hispanics, but not Jews. In addition to the obvious unconstitutional content of the Act, there is an unacknowledged problem. What about Jews who criticize Israel? There are many of them. There are Israelis who protest the murderous policies of Netanyahu. Also, many US university presidents are Jews. How can they be punished by an Act that prohibits criticism of Jews? Punishment itself is an act of criticism. What happens when it is Jewish students and faculty who protest against Israel?

The House of Representatives’ vote against the US Constitution demonstrates the power of campaign donations. A member of Congress has to give the Israel Lobby what it wants or the money goes to one’s opponent. The same is true in the case of many other interest groups. Go against the military/security complex, Big Pharma, the financial lobby, and so forth, and the campaign money goes to your opponent. The realities of political campaign finance is the reason the people’s elected representatives cannot represent the people. They have to represent the interest groups that provide the funds that get them elected. American democracy is a sham. We are ruled by the interest groups that purchase the government. Until the money is taken out of politics, American democracy will remain a sham, and the Constitution will die the death of a thousand cuts.

Read more …

Trump owns Trudy.

• Trudeau Bends The Knee To Trump At Mar-a-Lago (MN)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Was pictured meeting with president-elect Trump and his team at Mar-a-Lago over Thanksgiving, as it emerged that he has made an agreement to crack down on drug trafficking. The meeting came following Trump’s announcement of a 25% tariff on all products coming from Mexico and Canada until they agree to secure their borders. In a Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump wrote “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders.” “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” Trump added.

He continued, “Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!” Fast forward four days and Trudeau was seen sitting with Trump, Elon Musk, and the rest of his team. In a further post after the meeting, Trump explained, “I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration, Fair Trade Deals that do not jeopardize American Workers, and the massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada.”

“I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China. Too much death and hardship!” Trump continued. “Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families,” Trump further added, noting “We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before.”

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Certainly looks that way.

• Sebastian Gorka: British Intelligence Asset? (Grayzone)

Sebastian Gorka’s involvement with British intelligence cost him a security clearance in Hungary. His longtime mentor is a UK spook currently engaged in covert operations against Russia. Is the Ukraine hawk and Trump counter-terror appointee operating on London time. After years in the wilderness of right-wing radio, where he flamboyantly proclaimed his loyalty to president-elect Donald Trump for years, Sebastian Gorka has finally found his way back into Trump’s inner circle, earning an appointment as incoming White House counter-terror advisor. Gorka served as Trump’s deputy assistant advisor on national security issues for eight months in 2017, storming out of his job with a petulant resignation letter that blamed “forces” within the administration that did not support Trump’s “MAGA promise.”

During his brief tenure in the White House, Gorka, a London-born immigrant, was credited with masterminding the President’s so-called “Muslim ban,” which refused admission to the US for citizens of countries identified as national security threats. While Democrats have hammered Gorka as “a far-right extremist” and MAGA sycophant, he has stood out as a voice of Biden foreign policy continuity within Trumpworld, pledging further aggression against Russia and even greater military aid to Kiev. During a November 23 interview, for example, Gorka promised that “the aid that we have given to Ukraine thus far will look like peanuts” if “the murderous KGB colonel” Vladimir Putin does not obey Trump’s dictates. Gorka’s full origin story explains why his views on the Ukraine proxy war track more closely with those of the anti-Trump turncoat John Bolton than incoming Vice President J.D. Vance, who has vowed to negotiate an end to the conflict.

As this investigation will demonstrate, the mindset of the Transatlantic policy operative was molded primarily through his intimate involvement in British intelligence circles—not his role within the America First movement. The son of an anti-communist Hungarian exile, Gorka joined a British Army intelligence unit while still in university. When he entered the world of national security studies, he learned at the knee of a notoriously conniving British military intelligence officer named Chris Donnelly, who has dedicated his career to instigating conflict with Russia, and was exposed by The Grayzone as an architect of the notorious Kerch Bridge bombing. Donnelly personally endorsed Gorka’s PhD thesis, granting him the imprimatur of a top intelligence officer in the British Ministry of Defence. The relationship fueled Gorka’s career within the burgeoning Atlanticist military infrastructure, yet ultimately cost him security clearance in his family’s native Hungary, where the country’s National Security Office suspected him of being a UK spy.

Soon after Gorka resigned from the first Trump administration, leaked documents exposed Donnelly as the founder of a secret, UK state-funded influence operation called the Integrity Initiative, which was aimed at drumming up war with Russia through a covert international propaganda network. A 2017 funding proposal submitted by the Integrity Initiative to the British Ministry of Defence promised to deliver a “tougher stance on Russia” by arranging for “more information published in the media on the threat of Russian active measures.” When Donnelly visited Washington in 2018 to expand his secret initiative, the first item on his agenda was breakfast with Gorka. To this day, Gorka refuses to discuss the meeting, or any aspect of his relationship with Donnelly, erupting with rage at reporters who have dared to inquire about the long friendship.

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“..Section 230 only confers benefits on Big Tech companies when they operate, in the words of the statute, “in good faith.” “The censorship cartel must be dismantled..”

• Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Prepares For Censorship Battle (ZH)

Until the internet came along, pumping government propaganda into American homes was like shooting fish in a barrel. As a constellation of alternative media websites such as ZeroHedge emerged, however, the ability to shape narratives and steer the national dialogue quickly eroded. In order to regain control – particularly in the Trump-era, the government has been colluding with Big Tech, partisan ‘fact checkers,’ and an aptly named ‘advertising cartel’ to censor, de-monetize, and otherwise silence divergent opinions – particularly those which shed light on things like government malfeasance, bullshit wars, and cronyism. Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is getting ready to level the playing field.

Carr, a veteran Republican regulator who has echoed President-elect Trump’s promises to punish political bias within the national media complex, has argued that the agency should also regulate Big Tech – including Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft. And in a Sunday interview with Fox News, Carr outlined the road ahead… “Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me,” said Carr, adding “We need to restore Americans’ right to free speech… you mentioned Facebook and other companies. They’ve been part of a censorship cartel that has worked with advertisers, they’ve worked with government officials, to censor the free speech rights of everyday Americans. That’s gotta end.” “America is a country of founders, people who have pushed frontiers. When you silence speech, you silence ideas. Instead, we need to unleash prosperity, again.”

In a November letter, Carr accused several Big Tech companies of having “participated in a censorship cartel that included not only technology and social media companies but advertising, marketing, and so-called “fact-checking” organizations as well as the Biden-Harris Administration itself.” “The relevant conduct extended from removing or blocking social media posts to suppress their information and viewpoints, including through efforts to delist them, lower their rankings, or harm their profitability.” Carr then suggested that their protection from liability under Section 230 may be on the line. “As you know, Big Tech’s prized liability shield, Section 230, is codified in the Communications Act, which the FCC administers. As relevant here, Section 230 only confers benefits on Big Tech companies when they operate, in the words of the statute, “in good faith.” “The censorship cartel must be dismantled,” Carr said in a November post on X.

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“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

• Why Does The West Believe It Occupies The High Moral Ground? (Diesen)

For almost three years, NATO countries have boycotted diplomatic contact with Russia, even as hundreds of thousands of men die on the Ukraine conflict’s battlefield. The decision to reject diplomacy is morally repugnant. Diplomacy could have reduced violence, prevented escalation, and even opened a path to peace. Instead, political and media elites skillfully presented this rejection as a sign of moral righteousness, labeling dialogue as treason and war as virtuous. To exhaust Russia in a long war, the goal was to ensure that the Russians and Ukrainians kill each other for as long as possible. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin outlined the US objective in the Ukraine War as weakening its strategic adversary: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

In late March 2022, Vladimir Zelensky revealed in an interview with The Economist: “There are those in the West who don’t mind a long war because it would mean exhausting Russia, even if this means the demise of Ukraine and comes at the cost of Ukrainian lives.” The aim has been to exhaust Russia in a protracted conflict, ensuring that Russians and Ukrainians continue killing each other for as long as possible. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin outlined the objective: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

Israeli and Turkish mediators confirmed that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a peace deal in Istanbul, where Russia would withdraw and Ukraine would restore its neutrality. Yet the West rejected this. The goal wasn’t peace — it was to bleed Russia through its proxy army in Ukraine. Both Germany and France have admitted that the Minsk Peace Agreement was never meant to be implemented, but used as a vehicle to build up Ukraine’s military. The Turkish Foreign Minister and former Israeli Prime Minister have both acknowledged that NATO states actively wanted the war to continue. Former NATO figures, such as retired General Harald Kujat, have said the war was deliberately provoked by NATO, with the US and UK blocking peace efforts to weaken Russia politically, economically, and militarily.

US lawmakers, such as Lindsey Graham, have been openly supportive of fighting Russia “to the last Ukrainian.” They argue that assisting Ukraine without risking American lives is a smart investment in weakening Russia. Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell called it an investment in America’s national security, and Mitt Romney called financing the war “the best defense spending ever.” These statements underscore the growing sentiment in the West that the war is a proxy battle where Ukraine is expendable, serving merely as a tool to diminish Russia. NATO’s leadership, including Jens Stoltenberg, has stated that a “victory” for Ukraine would result in a battle-hardened Ukrainian army on the West’s side, with a weakened Russia.

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No.

• The Failure of COP29: Does the “Green Agenda” Have A Future? (Machado)

Following the conclusion of the multilateral climate conference COP29, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the atmosphere is one of defeat. Nearly an entire week of speeches and endless meetings did not suffice to reach a reasonable consensus on a series of practical measures that had been anticipated. Specifically, the debate on funding climate policies sank. The so-called “developing countries” had expected an annual grant policy exceeding $1 trillion for energy transition and climate change mitigation policies, but only $300 billion per year will be allocated—optimistically. Moreover, this sum will not necessarily be in the form of grants but may include loans and other financing mechanisms that bring interest and debt. India denounced the final result of COP29, supported by Bolivia, Cuba, and Nigeria, as a farce and an insult from developed countries to developing nations.

This financing debate will now be deferred to COP30, scheduled to take place in Brazil in 2025. However, the chances of COP30 succeeding where COP29 failed seem very slim. While climate alarmism and eco-globalism are now part of Brazil’s official ideology, in the rest of the world, these postmodern beliefs are losing momentum. Take, for example, the reasons why expanding funding for the “Green Agenda” has been impossible in “developed countries.” Observing European governments’ behavior since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, one can see increasing difficulty in advancing energy transition and net-zero carbon policies. Germany, for instance, was once one of the main drivers of climate alarmism worldwide, even closing its nuclear power plants “for the environment” (despite nuclear plants being far less polluting than most other energy sources).

Yet today, facing an energy crisis caused by the NordStream’s destruction, Germany is reopening its coal-fired power plants. Sweden, long a leader in international climate activism, has reversed many of its previous environmental measures. The Ministry of the Environment has been dismantled, and the government now prioritizes ensuring cheap fuel. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the previous administration of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suspended the ban on diesel car sales and decided to stop promoting the replacement of gas heaters. Similar examples can be found in several other countries. Clearly, sanctions and the NordStream’s destruction have made Europe’s energy situation difficult enough to raise living costs, convincing European governments to roll back at least some environmental measures and dampen their enthusiasm for promoting global climate alarmism.

This retreat by European nations will be compounded by the fact that, starting in 2025, the United States will likely be governed by Donald Trump, who holds a critical stance toward climate alarmism and promises to intensify fracking for hydrocarbon extraction in the country. This is corroborated by the nominations of Chris Wright as Secretary of Energy and Lee Zeldin to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Plimer

 

 

1 million

 

 

Frens

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle December 1 2024

Dec 012024
 
 December 1, 2024  Posted by at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  46 Responses »


Caravaggio Adoration of the Shepherds 1609

 

• Trump Nominates Kash Patel For FBI Director (ZH)
• Pam Bondi To Visit Capitol Hill Next Week, Joining Musk, Ramaswamy (JTN)
• A Top Priority for DOGE: Decentralizing the Federal Government (AmG)
• Schedule F – Trump’s Plan A for Emptying the Swamp (Donner)
• Mexico, Canada Cozy Up To Trump Amid Tariff Threats, China Goes It Alone (JTN)
• Trump Threatens BRICS (RT)
• Democrat Mayors Say They Will Use Police To Obstruct Trump’s Deportations (ZH)
• CNN Contributor Scott Jennings Joins Los Angeles Times Editorial Board (JTN)
• Mass Desertions Crippling Ukrainian Army – AP (RT)
• Russia and China Are Rewiring Greek Mythology (Pepe Escobar)
• Elon, Are You Musk or Mask? (Pacini)
• European Elites Are Destroying Europe – Again (SCF)
• ‘I Won’t Claim That Milan Is A Safe City’ – Mayor (RMX)
• Joe Rogan: ‘Greatest Media Psy-Op In History’ Was Waged Against Trump (NYP)

 

 

 

 

Alex Jones

Border patrol

Trump academy

Comer

Sachs

 

 

A big threat to many. Epstein list, DIddy list, Russia Russia Russia, etc etc.

• Trump Nominates Kash Patel For FBI Director (ZH)

After weeks of speculation, President-elect Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he’s picked Kash Patel to replace Christopher Wray as the head of the FBI. Patel has been a longtime critic of the bureau who has called for shutting down the agency’s Washington headquarters, cleaning house when it comes to top leadership, and bringing the nation’s law enforcement agencies “to heel.” According to a Saturday post to Truth Social, Trump called Patel a “brilliant lawyer, investigator, and “America First” fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.” “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution,” Trump continued.

“Patel has been open about what kind of changes he’d pursue if given the chance. His various proposals include reducing the FBI’s footprint in Washington and “dramatically” limiting its authority. He hopes to curb the power of the Justice Department’s Civil Division and jettison a Pentagon office that produces classified assessments of long-term trends and risks, arguing it is just a tool of the “deep state.” Patel has said he also intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters, and change the law to make it easier to sue journalists. During an interview with Steve Bannon in December, Patel said he and others “will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media.” -AP

Patel has served as both a federal prosecutor and a public defender, and filled a number of administrative roles at the tail end of Trump’s first term, including on the National Security Council and in the Pentagon. And in a sign this is a good move – in 2021 when Trump floated Patel for deputy director of the CIA or the FBI, former AG William Barr said that would happen “over my dead body.” Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said that no part of the FBI would be “safe” with Patel in a leadership position.

In response, Patel told the Washington Post: “Those calling me a danger, let’s just ask them for a proof, a piece of evidence that actually shows I’ve committed any constitutional violations or any ethical quandaries, and I’d love to hear their response to this.” Current FBI Director Christopher Wray will now either have to resign or be fired, assuming Patel makes it through Senate confirmation. And as noted above, Patel has vowed to investigate and possibly prosecute regime-puppet journalists. “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections — we’re going to come after you,” Patel said last year. “Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”

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Bondi must be confirmed by the Senate, Musk and Ramaswamy don’t.

• Pam Bondi To Visit Capitol Hill Next Week, Joining Musk, Ramaswamy (JTN)

Attorney General-nominee Pam Bondi will travel to Capitol Hill next week to meet with Senate Republicans as a start to her confirmation process. The presidential transition team for GOP President-elect Donald Trump confirmed Bondi’s visit Friday with The Washington Examiner. She will join Trump appointees Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are expected to meet with Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate. Trump nominated Bondi, a former Florida GOP attorney general, after former Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration last week. Trump appointed Musk and Ramaswamy to head his new Department of Government Efficiency. They are expected on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Their appointments do not require Senate confirmation.

Bondi is expected to meet Monday with Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, who will be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the upcoming congressional session, also according to The Examiner. The Judiciary committee will hold the confirmation hearings for Bondi. “Attorney General Nominee Bondi is looking forward to the confirmation process and answering any questions senators might have,” Trump’s presidential transition spokesman Alex Pfeiffer told the news outlet. “Attorney General Nominee Bondi’s life has been dedicated to keeping Americans safe. She looks forward to continuing that work at the Department of Justice.” GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday the meetings with entrepreneurs Musk and Ramaswamy will focus on “major reform ideas to achieve regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings—& revive the principle of limited government.”

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“..nearly 90% of federal government office space in Washington is vacant because most federal workers began working from home during the COVID pandemic and never returned to their offices.”

• A Top Priority for DOGE: Decentralizing the Federal Government (AmG)

One of the best ideas I heard from Donald Trump for his second term is to move as many as 100,000 federal employees to “new locations outside the Washington Swamp” to places “filled with patriots who love America.” This initiative will save tax dollars and help depoliticize federal agencies. There also are important security and fairness reasons to relocate these agencies across the United States. I speak from experience. In the early 1990s, the late Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) drafted legislation to move thousands of CIA employees to West Virginia. Byrd proposed closing 21 CIA offices in Washington, DC, and its Virginia and Maryland suburbs and moving them to large campuses in Jefferson County, West Virginia. My wife and I were CIA employees at the time, and we were thrilled about the potential move of our office out of the DC area.

We were unable to afford a house without a lengthy commute on our federal salaries because the large presence of federal workers and contractors had driven housing prices through the roof. (Five of the seven wealthiest U.S. counties are in the DC suburbs.) We also disliked the liberal culture and high taxes of the DC area. Unfortunately, the Washington establishment, including many well-paid senior CIA officers and contractors, blocked Senator Byrd’s attempt to relocate CIA offices to West Virginia. As a result, when my wife could no longer work full-time because of the disability of one of our children, we ended up buying a house 50 miles from DC with a roundtrip commute of 2.5 to 3 hours per day. Moving federal agencies out of the DC area to areas with affordable housing and reasonable commutes are two good reasons why the Trump administration should decentralize the federal government.

The current practice of locating these agencies within a few miles of the White House and Congress reflects a bygone era before telephones, email, and video conferences. Most federal employees rarely interact with members of Congress and the White House and can do their jobs more efficiently and economically in more affordable and less congested areas of the country. There’s also the issue of fairness. DC, Maryland, and Virginia receive huge tax revenues from federal employees’ salaries and retirement checks. They also benefit from large federal expenditures like the DC Metro, DC airports, free federal museums, etc. Since technological advances have made it unnecessary for these agencies to be located near our nation’s capital, it is time to share the wealth of federal agencies by spreading them across the United States. There is no reason why this government spending and jobs should continue to be concentrated in one part of the country.

Many of these moves would make these agencies more effective and accountable to the American people. For example, relocating the Agriculture Department headquarters to a farming state would move the agency closer to the Americans it was created to serve. Agriculture employees could interact with farmers and ranchers on a daily basis. The Agriculture Department could also hire many employees who actually live on farms and ranches. The same would be true for moving the headquarters of the Transportation Department to Detroit or the Interior Department to Utah or Wyoming. Other possibilities: move the Department of Health and Human Services to North Carolina’s Research Triangle, move the FBI headquarters to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, move the Energy Department headquarters to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and move the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters to Florida.

Large portions of the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, IRS, and other agencies should also be moved to locations across the U.S. There are two other crucial reasons for decentralizing U.S. government agencies away from the Washington, DC area. The most important is security. Given growing threats from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons; drones; and violent demonstrations by radical groups, keeping large numbers of federal agencies and employees in the Washington, DC, area is a significant and avoidable threat to national security and the continuity of government. Spreading federal agencies across the United States would make it harder for a U.S. adversary to deal a devastating blow to the federal government with a single attack. Decentralizing federal agencies also would help depoliticize them and fight the so-called “deep state.”

The resistance by federal employees to the president’s constitutional authority as the head of the federal government is driven by a self-serving Washington, DC, culture consisting of entrenched employees, former employees, federal contractors, think tanks, and the mainstream media. Many of these employees do little work and are extremely hard to fire. Even worse, nearly 90% of federal government office space in Washington is vacant because most federal workers began working from home during the COVID pandemic and never returned to their offices.

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“Everyday Americans have complained about federal bureaucratic hegemony for as long as we can remember, but now they will finally have a president in place with specific plans to do something about it.”

• Schedule F – Trump’s Plan A for Emptying the Swamp (Donner)

Ever since Election Day, much talk has focused on President-elect Donald Trump’s appointments – in record time – of his Cabinet, advisors, and agency directors. This new administration is a diverse mix, but they all have one thing in common: The returning president sees them as loyal to him and his outsized agenda. But what about all the other, more entrenched denizens of DC? Enter Schedule F – Trump’s bold plan to “drain the Swamp.” Washington is abuzz with the extraordinary diversity of beliefs among the new designees. This is far from typical for incoming presidents, who ordinarily populate their administrations with political veterans in lockstep with their ideology.

But after assembling a largely forgettable team upon his arrival in DC as a novice in 2017, the road-tested 47th president has broken the mold, as is his wont, by selecting Republicans and Democrats, hawks and doves, neoconservatives and populists, corporatists and unionists, insiders and outsiders. Trump’s most famously ambitious objective, however, is to drain and ultimately empty the DC swamp of its unelected, unaccountable, and obstructionist bureaucrats who can thwart the will of the president, as they did so often during his first administration. The arrogance of these supercilious apparatchiks is due to the iron-clad protections they enjoy as civil servants. They cannot be fired no matter their behavior, except in the rarest of circumstances. Presidents come and go, they tell themselves, but we will outlast them all and can act accordingly.

You may recall the so-called “all-of-government” approach to the DEI agenda during the current administration, where the goal of equity must be embraced and adopted not only in social planning and policies but across all agencies and cabinet departments. Well, the incoming president will employ that same broad, sweeping approach to weeding out the most unproductive and recalcitrant employees among the federal government’s 2.2 million-strong civilian workforce. And while DOGE – the newly formed non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency to be headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy – has been the talk of Washington, it faces severe limits in its attempts to affect systemic reform. No less than 60% of the government’s $6.8 trillion budget is “non-discretionary” and largely untouchable because it is devoted to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the exploding national debt, now more than $36 trillion. Another 13% is devoted to defense, which Trump has pledged to increase. Thus, Musk’s stated goal of cutting $2 trillion in unnecessary federal spending will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

However, taking an axe to the bloated budget ultimately figures to have less permanent impact than Trump’s audacious plans to alter the federal government’s modus operandi and its entrenched culture. The linchpin for his game-changing reforms is reinstating the innocuous-sounding Schedule F, instituted by Trump in the waning days of his first term but immediately reversed by Joe Biden upon taking office. It will empower massive changes in the bureaucracy, re-classifying thousands of careerists as political appointees. It refers to a section of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, exempting some federal employees from civil service protections, specifically those “whose position has been determined to be of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating character.” Under Trump’s plan, the number of such employees would jump from roughly 4,000 to about 50,000, signaling a sea change in the way Washington does business.

The outgoing Biden administration, deeply fearful of Trump’s bold plans to upend the DC establishment, is working overtime to “Trump-proof” (as much as possible) the federal government, hoping to minimize the damage to its familiar and comfortable way of life. The danger inherent in Schedule F is the likelihood that the next Democratic president could use the same expanded executive control over the bureaucracy to reverse course from Trump and bring in committed progressives who could do even more damage than the present embedded bureaucrats. So, to make these plans stick beyond Trump’s next term, his administration might attempt to move one or more executive agencies out of Washington. This would wrench thousands of civil servants out of their comfort zone, likely leading to a significant number of resignations by those accustomed to life inside the DC beltway.

Despite setting a risky precedent that could backfire on Republicans in the years ahead, Trump is focused on the here and now, believing the addition of Schedule F will force permanent structural change on what has effectively become a fourth branch of government, namely, the administrative state. Everyday Americans have complained about federal bureaucratic hegemony for as long as we can remember, but now they will finally have a president in place with specific plans to do something about it.

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“On January 20th [..] I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders..”

• Mexico, Canada Cozy Up To Trump Amid Tariff Threats, China Goes It Alone (JTN)

The United States’ neighbors seem eager to avoid a major trade-and-tariff standoff with Washington as Donald Trump returns to the White House, but Beijing is readying for round two after trading blows with the Republican president during his first administration. Though Trump has long expressed support for tariffs, he set off an international firestorm this week with his Day One plans to shake up trade relations with key economic partners. “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” Trump announced this week. Trump overthrew Republican free trade orthodoxy during the 2016 primary, criticizing foreign trade practices for which he blamed the outsourcing of American jobs. [..]

Mexico
While there appears to be some disagreement between Trump and his Mexican counterpart over the state of their negotiations, both have deemed their recent talks as productive and indicated that they were prepared to work closely with one another. Despite Trump’s support for strict immigration and tariff policies during his first term, he generally enjoyed a strong relationship with former Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Current Mexican leader Claudia Sheinbaum, however, initially expressed skepticism about Trump’s tariffs plans and suggested they would lead to a direct trade war. “One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” she said earlier this week. But the pair spoke privately within days and both suggested there was room for discussion.

Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social: “Just had a wonderful conversation with the new President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. She has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border. We also talked about what can be done to stop the massive drug inflow into the United States, and also, U.S. consumption of these drugs. It was a very productive conversation!” Sheinbaum disputed that she had made any material commitments but that the pair had discussed immigration and drug trafficking and that tariffs had come up in that context. “It was a good conversation and we are going to keep having conversations,” she said. “Mexico’s stance is not to close borders, but to build bridges between governments and their peoples.”

Canada
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday night unexpectedly flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort home in Florida to talk with him, amid the tariff threat. On Tuesday, Trudeau quickly called Trump after the tariff post to discuss his plans. Trudeau’s government has faced abysmal polling numbers amid widespread economic discontent and frustration over his immigration policies. Some surveys have suggested his Liberal Party faces an electoral wipeout when voters go to the polls and a trade war with the United States could see its prospects fade even further. “We obviously talked about laying out the facts, talking about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth,” Trudeau said Tuesday.

Though not typically viewed as a major factor in the United States’ immigration surge, Canada shares with America the largest undefended border in the world. Ottawa’s own lax immigration policies have contributed, moreover, not just to Trudeau’s low polling numbers, but the security situation for the U.S. During fiscal 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a record 198,929 encounters with and apprehensions of illegal border crossers along the Canadian frontier. Among those apprehended were individuals from 97 different countries. Though border security is a significant factor in Washington’s relationship with Ottawa, Canada’s economy is not without some industrial weight of its own and Trump’s primary concern with tariffs seems to be foreign imports.[..]

China
While Canada and Mexico appear at least willing to engage with Trump on his trade and border initiatives, China, the main object of Trump’s ire, is evidently adopting a more bellicose approach to the Republican’s return. “Imposing arbitrary tariffs on trading partners will not solve America’s own problems,” Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong told reporters. China is already subject to some import tariffs, as Trump’s trade policy pivot carried over to the Biden administration to a degree. In announcing the tariffs this week, Trump further singled out Beijing for additional scrutiny if it did not crack down on the export of fentanyl and other drugs. “Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” Trump declared, observing that his move followed failed discussions with China to convince them to crack down.

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Trying to save the dollar. Too late.

• Trump Threatens BRICS (RT)

The BRICS nations will be hit with 100% tariffs on their goods if they try to introduce a reserve currency to rival the dollar, US President-elect Donald Trump has warned. Trump has repeatedly threatened to use tariffs to achieve his geopolitical goals. ”The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday. Trump went on to say that he would ask the BRICS nations to promise not to create a common currency, “nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar,” or they will face 100% tariffs. ”They can go find another ‘sucker!’” he continued. “There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the US Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America.”

BRICS previously comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and was expanded in January to include Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. Around 30 other nations have expressed interest in joining the group of emerging economies. Russia, which currently holds the group’s rotating presidency, floated the idea of introducing a BRICS currency in 2022. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva echoed Moscow’s proposal last year, arguing that having the option of trading in another reserve currency would reduce the BRICS countries’ “vulnerability” to fluctuations in the dollar’s exchange rate.

BRICS leaders stopped short of announcing plans for such a currency at their summit in the Russian city of Kazan last month. Instead, the group pledged to set up a cross-border payment system to function alongside the Western SWIFT network, and to increase their use of local currencies in international trade. ”Cooperation within BRICS is not directed against anyone or anything – neither against the dollar nor against other currencies,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated in October. “It pursues the main goal of ensuring the interests of those countries that participate in this format.”

Using local currencies to settle bilateral trade bills “helps to keep economic development free from politics,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the time. Trump has vowed to use tariffs to settle US trade deficits, force offshore manufacturers to return, and achieve a range of geopolitical goals. In addition to proposing a blanket tariff of 20% on all incoming goods, Trump has threatened Canada and Mexico with additional 25% tariffs if they fail to reduce the flow of migrants and drugs into the US. Trump also declared this week that “we will be charging China an additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs,” until Beijing “follows through” on punishing the producers and smugglers of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.

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Homan: “But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail.”

• Democrat Mayors Say They Will Use Police To Obstruct Trump’s Deportations (ZH)

There are only two issues that Democrats might care more about than the national legalization of abortion: Blocking the passage of voter ID laws, and, blocking the mass deportation of illegal immigrants. The reason should be relatively obvious – Keeping the border open and illegal immigrants flowing into the US is the key to election victory for progressives in the long run. If leftists are going to exterminate millions of future voters in the womb, then their only other option to fill ballot boxes is to import people from the third world and give them as much free stuff as possible so they’re sure to vote blue. Democrats have been pushing for a sweeping amnesty for illegals for years. If they had won the 2024 election by a comfortable margin it’s a certainty that an amnesty would be at the top of their priority list.

The open border policies and sanctuary actions of the political left are in direct violation of US immigration law, but Democrats act as if these laws are a suggestion rather than the rule. Without federal enforcement squarely in their corner blue cities and states only have one option left – Pretend they have the moral high ground and drum up as much civil unrest as possible. This might work in deep blue sanctuary cities, but the Trump Administration won the election in a landslide which included the popular vote. The majority of Americans want deportations and these cities do not have significant national backing. Despite this fact, some Democrat mayors are threatening to utilize local police forces to obstruct Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston claims the deportation of illegals is “unconstitutional” and he initially threatened to use local law enforcement to block federal agencies from entering the city to carry out migrant arrests.

He ultimately walked these comments back, but only to a point, saying he’s ‘willing to go to jail’ to prevent deportations. For leftists the standard procedure is to wait and see how effectively they can use activist groups as a shield and then they change their rhetoric accordingly. If they can get the mob to show up on the doorsteps of DHS and ICE officials like they did with Supreme Court judges in 2023 then they may feel emboldened to escalate. Johnston seemed to tone down his chest puffing theatrics after incoming Border Czar Tom Homan gave him a reality check. “You are absolutely breaking the law. All he has to do is look at Arizona v. U.S. and he would see he’s breaking the law, Homan said flatly. “But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail.”

Democrats don’t have the testicular fortitude to go into any fight alone, but the deportation debate is within their favorite wheelhouse, which is “resistance against the man”. For the past four years progressives have had the support of every government institution, almost every corporation and every NGO in the US and abroad, yet, they still tried to pretend they were the underdog fighting a rebellion against an oppressor. Now they truly are the underdog and they will certainly try to play to that image using the deportation drama as a background. The Mayor of Tuscon, Regina Romero, has also threatened the use of local police to obstruct deportation arrests. Her messaging is once again centered on the claim that deportations of illegals are a violation of higher moral standards. The law and the will of the voters must therefore take a back seat to the superior virtues of the progressive ideology.

It should be noted that members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have been intercepted in Denver County and in Cochise County just east of Tuscon. They are specifically organizing in sanctuary cities with lax immigration standards, and they often recruit from illegal migrant shelters already in these areas. Multiple blue cites have stated publicly that they intend to refuse help to immigration agents during deportations. This includes the catch and release of violent criminals in order to prevent their arrest by ICE. In other words, Democrats would rather see rapists and murders back on the streets than hand them over to Trump. The thought process here seems utterly insane, but again, it makes perfect sense when one realizes how much time and energy Democrats have invested in their amnesty model. Without a massive third world voting block bought off with US tax dollars, it’s unlikely that progressives will win another election for a very long time.

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There goes their final bit of credibility.

• CNN Contributor Scott Jennings Joins Los Angeles Times Editorial Board (JTN)

Conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings confirmed Fridayt that he is joining the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, after the owner’s paper said he intended to hire more conservative voices. LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong earlier this month said he was hoping to balance out the editorial section of his newspaper by hiring more Republicans, and floated Jennings as one of the voices he wanted to bring on board. Soon-Shiong previously noted that the editorial boards of newspapers are responsible for what stories are assigned, which can be skewed based on the editor’s personal biases. Jennings praised Soon-Siong for his “important and groundbreaking” mission in returning neutrality and balance to the iconic newspaper, and said he has contributed to the paper over the past few years.

“I’ve written columns for the paper over the last few years and was honored to do so under such a storied and important masthead,” Jennings posted on X. “I love newspapers and believe in strong journalism and strong opinion pages that represent a wide array of views. I approach my commentary jobs by starting with the truth and then providing my honest opinion based on my conservative values and experience.” Jennings was a standout during this election cycle as a paid contributor on the CNN cable news network, frequently the lone conservative among more liberal counterparts in spirited panel discussions on politics. Jennings said that the shakeup at the newspaper, the largest daily in liberal-leaning California, followed management’s decision to withhold an endorsement in the presidential election – a big step in fixing the problems facing legacy media.

“Roughly half (or more) of the country often feels like legacy media doesn’t care what it thinks and has little interest in fairly representing its views and values,” Jennings said. “I plan to represent those Americans who believe they are often ignored or even ridiculed in legacy media and applaud Dr Soon-Shiong’s move to bring balance to the editorial board.” Other news outlets, including the Washington Post, have also tried to bring neutrality and balance back to their publications. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos highlighted the public’s distrust in the news media in an op-ed last month. “Now more than ever the world needs a credible, trusted, independent voice, and where better for that voice to originate than the capital city of the most important country in the world?” Bezos wrote. “To win this fight, we will have to exercise new muscles. Some changes will be a return to the past, and some will be new inventions … None of this will be easy, but it will be worth it.”

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When’s the revolt?

• Mass Desertions Crippling Ukrainian Army – AP (RT)

Mass desertion is “starving” the Ukrainian Army and “crippling” Kiev’s battleplans, as troops flee in their tens of thousands, the Associated Press reported on Friday, citing two soldiers who went AWOL, as well as lawyers and a dozen officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. “We have already squeezed the maximum out of our people,” an officer with the 72nd Brigade told the American news agency, explaining why the problem became so acute. The Prosecutor General’s office lists more than 100,000 soldiers who have been charged over desertion, nearly half of whom quit this year alone, but the actual number is likely significantly higher, AP said. It may be as high as 200,000, one MP told the agency. In some cases, entire units have fled their frontline positions, it was told.

“If there’s no end term [to military service], it turns into a prison – it becomes psychologically hard to find reasons to defend this country,” said one of the deserters, who was named by AP. He was charged shortly after being interviewed. Earlier this year, Kiev adopted sweeping military service reform, hoping it would bolster the rate of mandatory conscription. The US is now reportedly pushing the Ukrainian government to lower the minimum draft age to 18, down from 25. Conscription is being brutally enforced by officers and their civilian helpers. One such official said handling his targets is like “dealing with a cornered rat,” The Telegraph newspaper reported earlier this week. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed a bill into law this week, which waives criminal responsibility for first-time deserters if they volunteer to go back and fight.

In July 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that a shortage of manpower was the biggest problem facing the Ukrainian military, after a failed “counteroffensive” conducted against Russia earlier that year. “Ukrainian units have suffered huge losses in their suicidal attacks. Tens of thousands of casualties,” he said during a Russian Security Council meeting. “Despite constant raids, the never-ending waves of total mobilization in Ukrainian cities and villages, the current regime is finding that sending reinforcements to the front line becomes increasingly difficult,” he added. “The country’s mobilization reserve is being depleted.” Zelensky has been consistently blaming a shortage of Western-donated weapons for Ukrainian setbacks on the battlefield. Meanwhile Russian officials have accused him of waging a war “to the last Ukrainian” on behalf of the US.

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“As far as the production of relevant missile systems and relevant equipment is concerned, Russia has 10 times more of them than the combined output of all NATO countries..”

• Russia and China Are Rewiring Greek Mythology (Pepe Escobar)

Oh, the wonders chips from dishwashers are able to unleash. How come Zeus, King of the Gods, could not have foreseen it? Especially when his divine intuition was aware that in the future his thunderbolts would be replicated in Russia via Oreshnik – a seemingly harmless hazelnut tree. Mythology prefigures post-everything reality. Now let’s go back to Newton for a bit. Based on his formulas, a one meter long uranium projectile flying at very high speed is capable of perforating 6 meters of hard rock (to the sound of Deep Purple’s Highway Star?) A warhead traveling at 1,200 meters per second is capable of perforating 46 meters of concrete. Now imagine impact velocity greater than the speed of sound; the impact depth, of course, is exponentially fiercer. Impact shock, at very high velocity, turns whatever is ahead into gas. A – kinetic – shock wave pops up as deep as 50 meters, swarming the deep underground and crushing, destroying – actually imploding – everything in its wake.

That’s what happened deep underground at the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepropetrovsk – as Oreshnik was conceived by improving these physical principles. And Russia only used blanks for this first Oreshnik test – instead of warheads. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. Now cut to Russia and Kazakhstan’s Presidents Vladimir Putin and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev deepening their strategic partnership face to face in Astana – including a renewed drive for strengthening cooperation within the CSTO. Additionally, Kazakhstan was officially invited to become a BRICS partner. Putin answered quite a few press questions on Oreshnik and the wider NATO proxy war. But arguably what was most intriguing was his speech at a restricted attendance meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council. Some of it deserves to be quoted at length – not least because of the President quipping about “customer satisfaction”:

“The Russian Iskander missile system and its modifications represent the Russian analogue of all three ATACMS missile modifications. The warhead weight in TNT equivalent is about the same, but Iskander has a longer range. The new U.S.-made PrSM missile is not superior to its Russian counterparts in any specification. The Storm Shadow air-launched missile, the French SCALP, and the German Taurus have a warhead weighing between 450 and 480 kilogrammes in TNT equivalent and a range of 500 to 650 kilometres. The German Taurus missile has a 650- kilometre range. The Kh-101 air-launched missile is the Russian analogue of these systems which is comparable in terms of power warhead, but significantly exceeds each of the European-made systems in terms of range. The new U.S.-made PrSM missiles, as I mentioned earlier, as well as the JASSM, are inferior to their Russian counterparts in terms of technical specifications.

“Without a doubt, we are aware of the number of the relevant weapons systems that are in service of our potential adversaries. We know how many of them are kept in storage facilities. We know their exact location, how many weapons have been supplied to Ukraine, and how many more are planned to be supplied. As far as the production of relevant missile systems and relevant equipment is concerned, Russia has 10 times more of them than the combined output of all NATO countries. Next year, we will increase the production by another 25 to 30 percent. We can see that the Kiev regime ringleaders are begging their masters for military equipment of a different kind. Let no one forget about the Kalibr, Kinzhal and Zirkon hypersonic missile systems, which are unmatched around the world in terms of their technical specifications. Their production is also being ramped up and is going at full speed. More such products may show up shortly on our menu of the products of this class, if I may put it that way. As they say, customer satisfaction is guaranteed.”

Putin compared an Oreshnik strike with the impact from a collision with a meteorite: “We know from history what meteorites fell where, and what the consequences were. Sometimes it was enough to form entire lakes.” Even as he stressed that “publicity is inappropriate when dealing with new weapons”. That was exactly the case with Oreshnik: “We waited until the moment when we conducted the test and, in fact, saw a result. And then we made an announcement.” That sets the context for what Mikhail Kovalchuk, the actual creator of these seemingly innocent hazelnuts, the post-everything replica of the thunderbolts of Zeus, told Izvestia on the sidelines of the IV Congress of Young Scientists in the federal territory of Sirius. Kovalchuk is the president of the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center. Essentially, he remarked how “the materials that Russia has that can withstand ultra-high temperatures made it possible to create the Oreshnik system and will make it possible to create other types of hypersonic weapons.”

The whole planet may be asking how did Russia manage to overtake everyone else: “Because we are one of the five world leaders (…) We have created hypersonic weapons in a short period of time. And these are materials that used to work at 1,500 degrees, then at 1,800, and these at 2,000, and we did it, while others did not.” And there’s more: Kovalchuk said, “other materials that can withstand high temperatures will make it possible to create even more advanced weapons. The next step should be materials that can withstand 2,500-3,000 degrees.” That would make possible, for instance, missiles flying at very low altitudes at Mach 15 or even Mach 20 creating even more utterly devastating impact – including plasma shock – than the already tested Oreshnik. Putin, for his part, also said – almost casually – that the Ministry of Defense is currently “picking targets” for more strikes by Oreshnik, including Ukrainian “decision making centers”, industrial production sites and military facilities. Is NATO listening? Obviously not.

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“X has been elected as the preferred political communication space, becoming the common square in which to share and find information, but also a laboratory for sociological analysis of political mutations.”

• Elon, Are You Musk or Mask? (Pacini)

Let’s not focus on cars, which are a small percentage of Musk’s industries: what is of interest is technological research, which is also favoured by the saturation of market sectors. We have also seen examples of this in the SMO in the Ukraine, when photos and videos of the Tesla Tank Cybertruck used in conflict zones surfaced, and even Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, has his own, apparently remotely disabled from Tesla HQ. There are strategic geometries that are redefined through the cover of a well-fed collective imagination. It sometimes happens that the most precious and delicate things are hidden… by putting them out in the open for all to see, but no one notices. Musk’s transhumanist aims are neither a secret nor new. He is the man who made brain chips, human-machine connections, humanoid robots, etc. ‘pop’. If previously these topics were for a few insiders or enthusiasts, with Musk they have become a media product to be consumed.

On 30 January 2024, Musk announced the first Neuralink brain implant on a human being. The American billionaire then added another post, writing: ‘Neuralink’s first product is called TELEPATIA. It will allow you to control your phone or computer and, through them, almost any device, simply by thinking. The initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs. Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a typist. That is the goal’. The next step is to make these chips communicate with artificial intelligence. And here we are in the era of transhumanism. As Stephen Hawking himself wrote, ‘Artificial intelligence could develop a will of its own. And it will be extremely good at achieving its goals. If these are not aligned with ours, we will be in trouble. You’re probably not an ant-hater who stomps on these insects out of malice, but if you’re in charge of a hydroelectric project and there’s an ant hill in the region that you have to flood, it’s going to end badly for the ants.

Let’s try not to put humanity in the position of ants. AI could either be the best thing that ever happened to humanity, or the worst. Far from demonising AI tout court, what is interesting to understand is the broad scope of this type of research and its political as well as strategic effect. Projects like this completely redefine the criteria of democracy, of political participation of free will, of the definition of being human or not. You don’t put a man like Musk in government by pure chance. Beyond the ‘pro-life’ electoral proclamations, so to speak, made by Trump, one has to wonder what a man who is pro-life is doing inside the entourage of the new American president. They will get over it, or not, the ‘right-wing’ voters from the Catholic world, especially on the East Coast, who have faced numerous battles on bioethics and bio-law, not only on the issues of gender, abortion and euthanasia, but also on experimental medical research, of which Musk is a passionate philanthropist.

It is probable to believe that the research carried out by his laboratories will not stop in the face of some protest. Michael Foucault’s Lectures on Biopolitics come to mind, when in the Paris years he predicted that the introduction of total control over the living body would not necessarily take place by force, but would pass through the subtle ploy of gradual approval by citizens, who would come to legitimise and even justify any ethical violation, without realising it, in the name of ‘science’. Let’s face it: Trump, with business, has a way with it.

Getting Musk on the electoral victory bandwagon was a real businessman’s move. In one fell swoop, and probably with an agreement that had already been made beforehand, Trump has guaranteed himself control of a good slice of strategic sectors that are undergoing a strong development phase. Especially when it comes to the domains of cyberspace and outer space, Musk is an undisputed leader. And, as such, in September 2023 he transferred part of the control of Starlink to the Pentagon, a move that became crucial for the success of some of the attacks by Ukraine in the Donbass during the SMO. The same Musk who a few months earlier, in early 2023, had offered himself as a mediator for the conflict, even inviting the Pentagon to foot the bill for the satellite internet terminals he had donated to Kiev.

Musk is the man who has taken social networking to a more refined level of hybrid warfare, surpassing Mark Zuckerberg in style and numbers. The purchase of Twitter, renamed X, worth a whopping $45 billion, became a so-called ‘free’ social network, changing the rules of the community, with less censorship of content. This aspect proved to be a winning move. X has been elected as the preferred political communication space, becoming the common square in which to share and find information, but also a laboratory for sociological analysis of political mutations.

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“These charlatan leaders are shameless in their Russophobia and surrogacy for U.S.-led Western imperialism – even to the point of killing their own people..”

• European Elites Are Destroying Europe – Again (SCF)

Instead of pushing for a diplomatic solution to the worst conflict on the European continent since World War Two, European political elites are slavishly going along with Washington’s criminal proxy war against Russia, which is in danger of spiraling into a nuclear Armageddon. This week the buffoonish former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson openly admitted that the conflict in Ukraine was a proxy war against Russia. But that didn’t give Johnson pause for thought or shame. He urged the Europeans to send more weapons to Ukraine. Nor did his crass candidness elicit any outcry or condemnation. Johnson, the imbecile, was, in effect, confirming what Russia has been warning is the essence of the conflict in Ukraine – a U.S.-led war using Ukrainian cannon fodder.

Then, we had the chief of Britain’s intelligence agency MI6, “Sir” Richard Moore, holding forth to an audience in Paris that Russia’s Putin was causing “staggeringly reckless sabotage” across Europe. The British spymaster claimed that Russia was threatening the continent with nuclear weapons to weaken NATO support for Ukraine. He omitted the glaring fact that the U.S., Britain, and France have dramatically escalated the conflict by supplying a NeoNazi regime in Ukraine with long-range missiles to strike Russia. Meanwhile, the governments in Germany and Nordic countries are issuing dire public warnings for people to “get ready for war” by building bomb shelters in their homes and stocking up on non-perishable foods. You could hardly make this insanity up except in the dystopian novels of George Orwell. The continent is being led by the nose to disaster by politicians and corporate-controlled media who have lost their minds.

They long ago lost any self-respect or independence and are simply acting as the most pathetic surrogates for U.S.-led imperialism. Even without the ultimate catastrophe of war, Europe has been brought to ruination by elitist politicians who have unquestioningly followed the American agenda of trying to strategically defeat Russia through a proxy war. Central to this U.S. strategic objective is vanquishing decades of mutually beneficial energy trade between Europe and Russia. The sanctions imposed on the Nord Stream gas pipelines by Trump during his first administration, followed by the blowing up of the pipes by the Biden administration in September 2022, are testimony to that bigger picture. None of the European governments or their news media properly investigated that huge crime of state-sponsored terrorism. The proxy war and sanctions on Russian energy that the European leaders happily went along with have caused the European economies to implode.

Critical commentators talk about the deindustrialization of Europe. Even the Financial Times, in a recent in-depth report on Germany’s “broken economy”, sounded aghast at “the most pronounced downturn in Germany’s postwar history.” The report surveys auto, chemical and engineering sectors crucial to the German economy and cites “high energy costs” as the detrimental factor. However, the Western media, even in supposed “in-depth reports” like the Financial Times, are careful not to spell out the obvious cause of Europe’s economic collapse: the U.S.-led proxy war in Ukraine and the consequent damage in Europe’s relations with Russia. Media reports deplore a “jobs massacre” in Germany’s industrial giants like Volkswagen and Thyssenkrupp without explaining the cause as if the calamity is somehow random misfortune. As if that is not bad enough, the incoming Trump administration is lining up heavy tariffs on exports from Europe as well as China, Canada, and Mexico. That will be a coup de grâce for the European economies delivered by its American ally.

Europe is in this appalling predicament – facing economic ruin amid a potential military conflagration – all because it has been misled by people like Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell, France’s Macron, Germany’s Scholz (and Angela Merkel before him), and Netherlands former premier Mark Rutte, who is now the gung-ho head of NATO calling for more European weapons to Ukraine. Many others can be named from the Nordic countries, Poland, and the Baltic states. Rather fittingly, the European elitist political class has a long and vile history of Russophobia, going back to collaboration with Nazi Germany in its genocidal aggression against the Soviet Union. The tragedy of Europe is not something mysterious or ill-fated. It is the direct result of elitist rulers who have assiduously conducted policies that harm European citizens. These charlatan leaders are shameless in their Russophobia and surrogacy for U.S.-led Western imperialism – even to the point of killing their own people through economic devastation or worse – world war.

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Not sure urban planning is the main issue. Being overrun is.

• ‘I Won’t Claim That Milan Is A Safe City’ – Mayor (RMX)

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has announced the deployment of 600 additional police officers to Milan, citing concerns over integration challenges and rising crime rates, particularly in areas with significant immigrant populations. The announcement follows recent unrest in the Corvetto district, where a 19-year-old Egyptian resident, Ramy Elgaml, died in a road accident after a police chase, sparking mass protests by the considerable immigrant population. During a meeting on security with Milan’s prefect Claudio Sgaraglia and Police Chief Vittorio Pisani, Piantedosi confirmed that the reinforcements, planned before the Corvetto unrest, will enhance territorial control and improve public safety.

He offered damning statistics on the disproportionate involvement immigrants have in committing crime, noting that 65 percent of all offenses in the city are committed by foreign nationals despite representing 20 percent of all residents. “These figures highlight integration challenges that must be addressed to reduce marginalization and its consequences,” Piantedosi stated. He denied comparisons to the recent Parisian suburban riots, calling them “very exaggerated,” but acknowledged that the Corvetto unrest signals issues requiring attention. The Italian minister criticized the reliance on issuing residence permits as a solution to integration issues, pointing out the need for more comprehensive measures. He highlighted efforts already underway, noting over 40 high-impact operations and 162 arrests in Corvetto this year, but accepted that much more needed to be done.

“The second-most important city in Italy after Rome deserves all the attention it can get,” he added. Milan’s left-wing mayor Beppe Sala echoed the need for investments in public housing and community centers to foster integration and accepted that the Italian city can no longer be considered a safe place to live. “I won’t claim Milan is a safe city, but it is making an effort to address challenges faced by all international cities,” he said. Sala claimed that migrant crime was a result of shortcomings in creating spaces for young immigrants to engage positively within their communities, linking the lack of such centers to increased alienation in the suburbs.

With over 60,000 public housing units out of Milan’s 800,000 apartments, Sala described the distribution as “disproportionate,” emphasizing the importance of equitable urban planning. Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, whose League party first made its name in the northern Italian city and the surrounding area, remarked on the meeting in a post on X. “Minister Piantedosi’s data are crystal clear. Yet for the left, it is a non-problem, they seek justifications to the point of falsifying reality,” he wrote. “Woe to anyone who criticizes the dogma of indiscriminate reception at all costs, woe to anyone who criticizes environments in which foreign crime thrives in our cities, woe to anyone who wants to harshly apply the law to intervene in an increasingly unsustainable situation,” he quipped.

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Rogan has put the media world upside down. He has become the topic that they talk about. Last week it was RT, now the New York Post and Just the News, both on the same day.

• Joe Rogan: ‘Greatest Media Psy-Op In History’ Was Waged Against Trump (NYP)

Joe Rogan argued that the establishment media that once was friendly to President-elect Donald Trump has since been engaged in a years-long “psy-op” to convince Americans he is dangerous. “The Joe Rogan Experience” is one of the world’s most popular podcasts, and Rogan is seen as having been one of the key players in the 2024 election, for interviewing Trump and then endorsing his bid for the presidency in the 11th hour. The podcaster has since mocked the media for losing their credibility with voters and alienating lifelong liberals like himself. On Thursday’s episode, with comedians Shane Gillis, Mark Normand, and Ari Shaffir, Rogan recalled how friendly people in entertainment and the media once were to Trump, playing clips from his 2012 appearance on “The View” where he was cheered, as well as when he went on Oprah in and she asked him about running for president.

Since then, “The View” has become a frequent source for apocalyptic takes about Trump, and Oprah shredded him while campaigning with Vice President Kamala Harris. Rogan argued that the abrupt shift in tone toward Trump has been shocking in retrospect, “What we saw is the greatest media psy-op in history.” The podcast host continued to hammer legacy media. “What you’re seeing with Trump, regardless of his flaws, is a massive concentrated psy-op,” Rogan said. “They’ve distorted who he is to the point where most people think that way. Most people think that way. They’ve had narratives.” “What is a psy-op? I keep hearing that,” Normand said.

“Psychological operation,” Rogan explained. “Where they’ve decided to distort people’s perceptions of things.” Shaffir replied that older liberals are shocked to hear that former President Obama oversaw more deportations than Trump. “They go, ‘That doesn’t make sense.’ And you go, ‘Right, focus on what’s giving you the reality of the world,’” he said. Rogan then turned to his producer, Jamie, and asked him to show a “wild” quote from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from 2008 where she was “saying some wild MAGA-type s—” about “illegal immigrants.” Clinton could be heard in the recording declaring, “I think we got to have tough conditions. Tell people to come out of the shadows. If they’ve committed a crime, deport them, no questions asked.” “She’s a Republican,” Shaffir joked.

In the recording, Clinton continued, “If they’ve been working and are law-abiding, we should say, ‘Here are the conditions for you staying. You have to pay a stiff fine because you came here illegally. You have to pay back taxes and you have to try to learn English. And you have to wait in line.’” The guests expressed their shock at Clinton’s past comments. “’You have to wait in line,’ And everybody’s cheering,” Rogan said. “2008. Hillary Clinton was more MAGA than Trump. But how about that? More MAGA than Trump. It’s all a f—ing illusion. It’s all a f—ing illusion. All of them, when convenient, have said the exact same things.” Rogan argued that this election shows that the tide has turned, however. “They had control of the media up until now. This election was the first time they didn’t really have control of the media anymore,” Rogan argued. When asked why this is, the podcaster replied, “Because of us, because of podcasts. Because of social media, because of X.”

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Fenbendazole

 

 

Urso

 

 

Vaccine

 

 

Lynx

 

 

Dive

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle November 30 2024

Nov 302024
 
 November 30, 2024  Posted by at 10:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  47 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn The Adoration of the Magi 1634

 

• What Part of Mandate Don’t You Understand? (James Howard Kunstler)
• West Plotting To ‘Occupy’ Ukraine – Russian Intel (RT)
• Lights Out In The Ukraine, In General Kellogg’s Brain Too (Helmer)
• Zelensky Offers To End ‘Hot Phase’ Of War In Exchange For NATO Membership (ZH)
• Deaths of Western Fighters In Ukraine Is ‘Dangerous Escalation’ – Orban (RT)
• Boris Johnson Calls For NATO Troops On The Ground In Ukraine Yet Again (ZH)
• Donald Trump Won’t Be Able To Quickly End The Ukraine Conflict (Poletaev)
• “This Week, The Second Trump Trade War Started” (Philip Marey)
• Trump Admin’s DOGE Efficiency Push Now Reaching State Level (JTN)
• China Could Devalue Yuan To Spite Trump – JP Morgan (RT)
• Time for Starmer to Be Honest About What Net Zero Means (Morrison)
• Epps Loses Defamation Case Against Fox News (Turley)
• Ceasefire Falters as Israel Launches Airstrikes on Southern Lebanon (Antiwar)
• Merkel Blows A Hole In Washington’s Nord Stream Narrative (Marsden)

 

 

 

 

Miller

Hammer
https://twitter.com/i/status/1862319620511711653

Elon

RFK

Hillary

Hazel

Saylor

 

 

 

 

“This version of Trump knows what buttons to press, he knows where the bodies are buried, he’s absorbed their worst and now he is about to throw it right back at them.” — Jeff Childers

• What Part of Mandate Don’t You Understand? (James Howard Kunstler)

You have every reason to believe that this arrogant, malicious, leviathan government, and the vicious intel / lawfare blob at its vanguard, is about to be turned upside-down, inside-out, and sideways. Every appointment by Mr. Trump is a dose of chemotherapy to this malignant beast, aimed at all its diseased organs. The rogue cells within are going to die hard, struggle against their extinction, shriek and thrash as the treatment proceeds. That is, if it is allowed to proceed. And so: rumors arise of a coup to prevent it from happening. The benchmark version goes like this: “Joe Biden” keeps up his stupid provocation of Russia with those medium-range ATACMS missiles until Mr. Putin is forced to respond with a strike against a NATO member, say, a military base in Poland used to stage and target the ATACMS. Under NATO’s Article Five — an attack against one is an attack against all — Europe and the US must go to war against Russia.

This becomes the pretext for “Joe Biden” to declare an extraordinary emergency (or Kamala Harris, if “JB” can be shoved out under the 25th Amendment). The inauguration of the newly-elected government must needs be postponed. . . . Such a move would surely provoke a domestic insurrection against the leviathan and Civil War Two would be on. Or else you might expect a swift counter-coup out of the US military not playing along. Mr. Putin, too, could demur from playing the game, that is, just not go for the bait, refrain from striking any NATO territory. After all, his beef is officially with Mr. Zelensky’s Kiev government. Russia could just pound Kiev until that government ceases to exist. So far Mr. Putin has carefully refrained from destroying the historic city center, mainly hitting power plants to turn off the heat and light to make life extremely uncomfortable in the Ukraine capital with winter coming on. But he could level the city.

The choice is Mr. Zelensky’s, and has been for months as his forces, armaments, and prospects dwindle. He could suspend hostilities, go to talks, even raise a white flag and put an end to the needless suffering. Under no circumstances will he get the Donbas or Crimea back. I doubt that Russia wants to take over the rest of Ukraine, considering the cost of having to support it indefinitely. Better that it should remain a sovereign state and look after itself — but neutral, demilitarized, and, if you like, de-Nazified. You understand that these will be Russia’s final terms? And that there is nothing unreasonable about them? In short, the hypothetical coup would fail, and the Ukraine war will end, and Mr. Trump will get inaugurated if he is careful to avoid the blob’s assassins until January 20.

As for Rep. Jamie Raskin’s scheme to prevent a Trump swearing-in on account of him being “an insurrectionist,” you can file that under “dumb-shit grandstanding.” So, the new government will come in, the new department chiefs will get into office, and the leviathan will get the therapeutic treatment it deserves. Outside of these criminal proceedings, the rest is executive process — just firing a lot of dead-weight and bureaucrat officials who contribute nothing but inertia and impediment to the normal functioning of a society. And deconstructing whole agencies. The blob will likely attempt to block that effort by marshaling its own allied lawyer army to bombard the courts with suits and writs. If the Trump team does its work carefully, with scrupulous attention to correct process, that offensive can be overcome and worked-around.

After a while, we’ll discover just how much government is really necessary, sort of like Twitter did, after Elon Musk fired 80-percent of the loafers on his payroll. Since so much of the US economy has shifted insidiously into government, this downscaling is apt to be painful, but especially for the local economy of Washington DC, which is to say, a grift economy of overlapping rackets. Upgrade a few laws and whole industries — such as lobbying by military contractors — might be wiped out. But you have to ask: how was that ever a good thing? For now, we give thanks that important changes are probably underway. Stolen liberties will be returned. You will be free to succeed or fail in a society of voluntary transactions. That was always the essence of being an American, not being a client of a fake therapeutic state, savior of all, but really just protector of its own.

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You would get full NATO troops right next to Russian troops. Bad idea.

• West Plotting To ‘Occupy’ Ukraine – Russian Intel (RT)

The West is secretly planning to occupy Ukraine and freeze the conflict with Russia by deploying tens of thousands of supposed peacekeepers to the country, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said. In a statement on Friday, the spy agency cited intelligence sources as saying that NATO is increasingly in favor of halting the hostilities along the current front line, as the US-led military bloc and Ukraine have come to realize that they are failing to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. Freezing the conflict would allow the West to rebuild the shattered Ukrainian military and “prepare it for an attempt at revenge,” the SVR stated. It further claimed that NATO is already setting up training centers to process at least one million Ukrainian conscripts. A possible respite would also help the West restore Kiev’s military industry, which has been regularly battered by Russian missile and drone strikes, the SVR added.

“To solve these tasks, the West will need to essentially occupy Ukraine. Naturally, this will be done under the guise of deploying a ‘peacekeeping contingent’ in the country… According to the plan, a total of 100,000 so-called peacekeepers will be deployed in Ukraine.” According to the SVR, the plan would also involve Ukraine being partitioned into four large occupation zones. Romania would take the Black Sea coast, Poland would control Western Ukraine, and the UK would occupy the north, including Kiev. The central and eastern parts of the country would be taken by Germany, the agency claimed. The SVR also alleged that Germany plans to revive practices implemented by the Nazi regime during World War II to “police” Ukraine. In particular, Berlin wants to create special “death squads” made up of Ukrainian nationalists to maintain order in the occupied territory, the statement read.

“Does Russia need such a peaceful settlement option? The answer is obvious,” the SVR said. The statement comes after French newspaper Le Monde reported earlier this week that France and the UK have “reactivated” a discussion on a potential troop deployment in Ukraine. Earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that the West should not rule out this option to keep Russia in check, despite strong pushback from numerous NATO allies. Moscow has repeatedly signaled its opposition to freezing the conflict, insisting that all the goals of its military operation, including Ukraine’s neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification, must be met. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stressed that while there is no consensus in the EU on sending troops to Ukraine, “there are some hotheads.”

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“..the career military experience Kellogg brings to his new job is “losing, not winning on the battlefield..”

• Lights Out In The Ukraine, In General Kellogg’s Brain Too (Helmer)

The damage assessments of yesterday’s November 28 electric war strikes against targets across the Ukraine spell the countrywide collapse of electricity supply before January 20, when the new Trump Administration will take office. By then, the Russian General Staff will have deprived Keith Kellogg, the retired US Army general newly appointed to serve as Trump’s negotiator for end-of-war terms, of the options he has publicly declared for himself, and also for Trump, in their war to make America great again in Europe. “The Mayor of Kiev told us this is genocide,” Kellogg said in interview with Fox News.“Now we are right on the cusp…This is going to be a fight to the end… Again, as I said, I think it’s a fight to the finish…Why this is important geo-strategically is that if we [US] can — if the Ukrainians can defeat Russia in the field, and evict them from the Donbass or the Crimea, Putin falls. It changes Europe for a generation to come…So one of these two sides is going to win. I don’t think there’s going to be anything to negotiate.”

Kellogg said this in February 2023, after he had returned from a sponsored trip to Kiev and to the eastern region of the country. Subsequently, he was paid to write an end-of-war strategy paper for Trump to use during the last months of the election campaign this year. This focused on attacking the Biden Administration for weakening the US and the NATO allies on the battlefield, and also in Europe. Trump’s “geo-strategic” priority remained, Kellogg wrote, to prevent “Ukraine fatigue among the Europeans, threatening to leave the United States, once again, as the primary defence contributor to Europe and further straining America’s ability to maintain its own critical defence stockpiles.” Negotiating to prevent the US from losing its military dominance in Europe, and to conserve the forces and weapon supplies “needed in other conflicts, especially if China invades Taiwan” are Kellogg’s running orders from Trump.

Russian sources say that reviving the Reagan Administration’s “Star Wars” weapons systems to combat Russia’s Kinzhal and Oreshnik missile advantage is the unstated “geo-strategic” priority, not only of Kellogg but of others in the Trump administration. They believe Elon Musk will lobby the president to make himself “chief US rocketeer to get a trillion-dollar contract to build missiles to counter us. But if they want a new arms race, they are already trailing. They will lose in space what they’ve already lost on the ground.”

According to a US veteran of the Afghanistan War, the career military experience Kellogg brings to his new job is “losing, not winning on the battlefield. He’s a typical empire enforcer. The last time Kellogg fought a competent military force, it was the Vietnamese, and Kellogg lost. For Trump to pick a man whose military victories are the invasion of Panama, the defeat of Iraq in Gulf War-1, and running a nuclear war bunker with Paul Wolfowitz during 9/11, tells you that it’s lights-out in the minds of both the soldier and his commander.”

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He’s supposed to negotiate with Russia. But this is a negotiation with NATO.

• Zelensky Offers To End ‘Hot Phase’ Of War In Exchange For NATO Membership (ZH)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he’s willing to end the “hot phase of the war” with Russia – including ceding captured territory – in exchange for NATO membership that includes Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. “If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the Nato umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” he told Sky News, adding “We need to do it fast. And then, on the occupied territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.” Zelenskyy said that a ceasefire was needed to “guarantee that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will not come back” to take more Ukrainian territory,” or that “he [Putin] will come back.” In short, to end the war, Zelenskyy wants the thing that started the war.

The comments are a drastic departure from previous statements – as Zelenskyy has long-asserted that Ukraine’s sovereignty is non-negotiable, including over Crimea. Putting things in recent perspective, Zelenskyy’s comments come as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte admitted to Fox News that Ukraine is not in a strong enough position to negotiate an end to the war, explaining that there is not enough battlefield leverage to “prevent the Russians from getting what they want.” “I think that’s crucial that we have a good deal because the whole world will be watching what type of deal will be struck between Russia and Ukraine when it comes to it,” Rutte said. “We have to make sure that Ukraine is in a position of more strength than they are at the moment,” Rutte continued, “so that a deal can be struck which is favorable not to the Russians — and therefore to China, North Korea and Iran — because they all will be watching.”

It also comes amid pressure from the Biden administration to lower the draft age in Ukraine to 18 so it has enough troops to continue fighting Russia, aka more meat for the grinder. Former British PM Boris Johnson – who allegedly scuttled early peace talks in Turkey that might have ended the Ukraine war – has called for NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine, again. Johnson also asserted that if Russia gets the upper hand in the conflict then Britain may deploy it’s forces regardless in order to “defend Europe.” Ukraine’s eastern defenses are currently being overrun by ongoing Russian attrition tactics. This reality in combination with Trump’s avalanche election win seems to have triggered establishment ghouls into a frenzy of escalation with Joe Biden giving the greenlight on long range missile strikes coordinated directly by NATO forces.

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They’re offering up their troops to initiate a war.

• Deaths of Western Fighters In Ukraine Is ‘Dangerous Escalation’ – Orban (RT)

The reported presence of Western soldiers among the casualties in Ukraine marks a dangerous escalation and risk of an “expansion of the war,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. In an interview with Kossuth radio on Friday, Orban described the current state of affairs as paradoxical, stating that while peace appears closer than ever, the situation has never been as dangerous. “According to Russian reports, American and French soldiers died in airstrikes carried out by the Russians on the territory of Ukraine. That means there are Western soldiers there,” he said. Earlier this week, Moscow launched a series of retaliatory strikes in response to Kiev using Western-supplied long-range weapons for attacks inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.

This came after Washington removed restrictions on Ukraine’s use of ATACMS for such strikes. Russian forces hit the positions of US-made missile launchers and facilities hosting foreign instructors and mercenaries, the defence ministry said. Moscow has repeatedly said that foreign military personnel are fighting alongside Ukraine’s regular army and participating in cross-border raids. According to the foreign ministry, a group of fighters eliminated during an incursion into Bryansk Region last month included US, Polish, and Canadian citizens. In Orban’s view, the presence of Western troops “clearly shows the danger of escalation, and thus the expansion of the war.” Russian officials have repeatedly described foreign mercenaries operating in the conflict zone as a “legitimate target” for the military, while accusing NATO of direct involvement in the hostilities.

During the interview, Orban also criticized the EU for prolonging the conflict, referring to a resolution adopted by the European Parliament on Thursday to expand military aid to Kiev. This included additional supplies of long-range missiles. He called the move “depressing,” as it indicates that many EU leaders “want to continue the war and even increase its intensity.” He also highlighted a lack of an immediate impact on the Ukraine crisis from the election victory of Donald Trump in the US, who promised to end the conflict in 24 hours, and noted that the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden maintains its pro-war stance. Moscow considers the Ukraine conflict to be a US-driven proxy war against Russia, which has escalated into a de facto global confrontation, after Western nations authorized Kiev to launch long-range attacks deep inside the country using donated weapons.

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“The majority of the US and European public have confirmed time and time again that they will not support direct conflict with Russia.”

• Boris Johnson Calls For NATO Troops On The Ground In Ukraine Yet Again (ZH)

After months of rumors surrounding possible peace talks in Turkey that might have ended the war in Ukraine not long after it reignited in 2022, multiple sources confirmed that British Politician and former PM Boris Johnson showed up in Kyiv to dismiss the negotiations and told the Ukrainians “let’s just fight”. These sources include David Arahamiya, the leader of Ukraine’s ruling party, Tory MP Nadine Dorries and Vladimir Putin himself. Johnson continues to deny the peace deal claims and “fact checkers” engage in extensive mental gymnastics to argue that there was no “official deal” put to paper, therefore Johnson didn’t sabotage anything. In other words, if a politician ruins a peace deal in its infancy before it is drafted then he’s not culpable for the war that follows. The bottom line? Johnson, a prominent British official with ties to NATO, showed up in the middle of early negotiations and told the Ukrainians to fight instead of pursuing peace.

This alone would have given the Ukrainians a false sense of security that NATO forces would intervene and fight for them. Boris Johnson would go on to promote a surge in military recruitment in the UK, and supported calls for conscription from military officials. He has also suggested NATO boots on the ground in the region on multiple occasions – A move that would immediately be seen by Russia as an escalation to world war. In a recent interview with the Daily Telegraph, the former British PM promoted the idea of British forces entering Ukraine as a part of a “peacekeeping plan.” The presence of any NATO country’s troops in Ukraine, even those not on the front line, would be seen as a tip-toe towards direct confrontation by the Kremlin. In early November, Johnson argued that if Donald Trump pulled US support for Ukraine in order to force a peace deal, Britain might send troops into the fray.

The argument sounds like a thinly veiled threat: If the US tries to force a peace deal, then Britain will send troops, escalate the war and ensure that no peace is possible. Johnson also asserted that if Russia gets the upper hand in the conflict then Britain may deploy it’s forces regardless in order to “defend Europe.” Ukraine’s eastern defenses are currently being overrun by ongoing Russian attrition tactics. This reality in combination with Trump’s avalanche election win seems to have triggered establishment ghouls into a frenzy of escalation with Joe Biden giving the greenlight on long range missile strikes coordinated directly by NATO forces. To be clear, Ukraine is not part of the EU nor is it a member of NATO. NATO warhawks like Johnson have consistently claimed that Russia’s intent is to invade greater Europe (domino effect propaganda similar to the Vietnam War), yet there is still no evidence to support this.

The western media has spent the better part of the conflagration claiming that Russian forces have been chewed up beyond repair in Ukraine; at the same time they suggest Russia somehow has the strength to invade the EU. The majority of the US and European public have confirmed time and time again that they will not support direct conflict with Russia. They will not volunteer to fight in such a war and will not submit to military conscription. Around 70% of Americans say they prefer negotiations to end the war. Only 10% of Europeans believe Ukraine can win and 52% of Ukrainians say they want negotiations and a quick end to the war. Despite this, establishment politicians continue to ignore the overwhelming calls for peace in Ukraine.

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We can not be sure.

• Donald Trump Won’t Be Able To Quickly End The Ukraine Conflict (Poletaev)

Nuclear deterrence is often viewed as an impenetrable barrier, akin to a fortress that, once breached, will lead to catastrophic destruction. However, the Ukraine conflict illustrates that it works more like an immune system: while threats may penetrate, a strong system can still deal with the infection without collapse. Russia’s nuclear deterrence has been effective in keeping the West at bay, ensuring that military aid to Ukraine stays at levels that do not provoke Moscow’s direct retaliation. As Russia’s “nuclear immunity” holds, the West continues to try to find weaknesses in the system, but the Kremlin’s resolve remains firm. Yes, the globalist West continuously searches for a weak spot in Russia’s “immune system.”

And yes, the “infection” is spreading: battles rage in Kursk Region, drones fly thousands of kilometers into Russian territory, and now there are also long-range missiles. However, none of this poses an existential threat, and Moscow is successfully battling this infection. For example, two years ago, there were neither missiles nor drones striking Russia, yet the country was much closer to military defeat than it is today. Putin’s demonstration of the Oreshnik missile system, including its hypersonic capabilities, should not be viewed as a final warning. It is, rather, another indication that Russia is ready to defend its interests. The Oreshnik missile serves as a powerful reminder of Moscow’s military capabilities, but its true purpose is to maintain deterrence and remind Western leaders of the limits of their involvement.

The most ambitious scenario would be to sign a comprehensive agreement with the West, dividing spheres of influence and addressing the issues outlined in Putin’s December 2021 ultimatum. This would mean creating a new security architecture in Europe that acknowledges Russian interests and reassesses the outcomes of the Cold War. However, this goal is hardly attainable under current conditions. A more realistic scenario involves a limited agreement with the West regarding Ukraine. While this seemed improbable six months ago, it is now being seriously considered. Talks began even before the US elections. Leaked information suggests that the West may propose a ceasefire along the front lines and a 20-year moratorium on Ukraine’s NATO membership.

Moscow, however, demands Kiev’s disarmament and political neutrality. The fighting will likely continue until these contradictions are resolved. The final choice is one without any significant agreement, similar to the post-2008 events in Georgia. Ukraine’s military defeat would become a political victory. If Kiev’s reliance on the West wanes, Ukraine, like Tbilisi, would abandon its hostile stance toward Moscow to avoid further military losses and recover its economy. This third scenario has become more likely as Ukraine faces growing challenges on the battlefield and the West reduces support. The reality is that a relatively stable agreement with the West regarding Ukraine can only happen if Kiev renounces its antagonistic policy toward Russia.

For this solution to unfold, the West must avoid direct intervention and refrain from increasing military aid to Ukraine. This is Putin’s strategy – as he holds no illusions about Trump or the possibility of a diplomatic resolution. Why? Because an agreement is only possible when contradictions are resolved, but the fundamental issue between Russia and the West remains unresolved: neither side is ready to accept Ukraine as part of their opponent’s sphere of influence.

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Canada, Mexico and China.

• “This Week, The Second Trump Trade War Started” (Philip Marey)

This week, the second Trump trade war started. On Monday, there was some market relief after Trump’s announcement on Friday that he would nominate Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. However, that changed on Tuesday after Trump made his tariff threats to Canada, Mexico and China. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum did not take long to make her own threat of retaliatory tariffs against the US. On Tuesday she said “if there’s a tariff, another one will come in response.” However, on Wednesday, Sheinbaum and Trump had a telephone conversation that she called “excellent” and he “very productive.” Sheinbaum had assured Trump that migrant caravans are no longer reaching the US-Mexican border and she also said that they had discussed increased security cooperation. US-Mexican security relationships had soured after the US had lured a Mexican drug lord out of the country into US custody, without informing Mexican authorities. This led to a split in the Sinaloa cartel and an internal battle of several months that has left more than 400 people dead.

In contrast, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau avoided confrontation and on Tuesday he said he had held a “good” conversation with Trump on Monday night shortly after the Truth Social post and that “we talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together.” On Wednesday, Trudeau met virtually with the provincial premiers to discuss a “Team Canada” approach to Trump’s tariff threat and to stress the importance of unity in Canadian reactions to Trump’s tariff threats. To get Michael Moore’s take on an escalating US-Canada conflict, I would suggest his 1995 film Canadian Bacon. China, which is blamed for not doing enough to stem the outflow of precursors to fentanyl, reacted calmly. On Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said that the US should “cherish” China’s goodwill over the issue and added that China was willing to continue working together.

Of course, the Chinese reaction is likely to be more forceful if the tariffs are actually implemented. Trump’s beef with Canada, Mexico and China is about fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration. In his first term, Chinese companies did not only supply the precursors, but also fentanyl itself. Trump was successful in getting the Chinese to regulate the production and sale of fentanyl in China. However, production shifted to Mexico, with Chinese companies providing the chemicals needed to make fentanyl. In 2019, Trump also threatened Mexico with tariffs unless migration was reduced. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador succumbed to US pressure and deployed the Mexican military to the borders.

Immigration was a major campaign theme during the US presidential election and the tariff threat is only the beginning of a likely ambitious effort to stem the flow of illegal aliens into the US. While the President-Elect arguably has a strong mandate from US voters to enhance border security and deport undocumented immigrants, these policies will pose challenges to many US businesses. As we showed in Trump border policy and immigrant labor supply, food & agriculture and construction are especially vulnerable given the high dependency on undocumented immigrant labor. While there are still many unemployed US citizens who could do the work, most of them do not find the jobs that undocumented immigrants do very attractive. Therefore US businesses that depend on immigrant labor should prepare for possible labor shortages.

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“Delivering on Government Efficiency..”

Don’t get in Elon and Vivek’s way.

• Trump Admin’s DOGE Efficiency Push Now Reaching State Level (JTN)

A Wisconsin group is asking its state government to undergo spending and staffing reviews similar to those the incoming Trump administration intends to conduct with a newly created agency that will be led by successful entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The Trump agency is named the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Musk, a billionaire, owns Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX. Ramaswamy is also an entrepreneur and reportedly worth hundreds of millions. The request from the Wisconsin’s Institute for Reforming Government is not entirely new. It was conceived last year but revived as Republican Donald Trump campaigned, then won the presidency on such promises as cutting jobs, replacing career civil servants with federal appointees and relocating government offices.

The institute’s plan focuses on reducing the number of full-time state employees by finding redundancies and contracting for professional services and The group has also proposed scaling back state agencies in the Wisconsin capital of Madison and moving state workers into the communities their department serves, creating less office space while making remote work more accountable. “With renewed attention on right-sizing government and reducing unnecessary bureaucracy at the federal level, it’s time for state lawmakers to seriously rethink how state agencies operate as well,” said Chris Reader, the institute’s executive vice president.

“We released a plan to rethink, reorganize, and modernize state agencies in 2023. It was DOGE before DOGE was cool. With voters distrusting the bureaucracy, [Democrat] Governor [Tony] Evers and lawmakers have a great opportunity in 2025 to listen to voters and reimagine state government.” Unlike the federal effort, whose leaders say they won’t be working with Congress to reduce the federal spending and staffing levels, IRG is calling for state representatives to lead the effort to reduce government spending.

However, within days of Trump winning the presidency on Nov. 5, then naming acolytes Musk and Ramaswamy to lead DOGE, the GOP-led House announced it had created the Delivering on Government Efficiency, or DOGE, subcommittee for the next Congress and that another Trump loyalist, Georgia Republican Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, would lead it. The Wisconsin group said that its polling shows that 73% of residents agree that state agencies should review new regulations before they are enacted and that 67% favor having regulations expire after seven years unless they are re-approved by the legislature. The group is also calling for Wisconsin to create one-stop shops with a single digital portal for government services.

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They did it in 2018-19, so it would be no surprise.

• China Could Devalue Yuan To Spite Trump – JP Morgan (RT)

An anticipated shift in trade policy during Donald Trump’s second term as US president, including a drastic hike in tariffs on Chinese products, could see the yuan depreciate by up to 15%, according to JPMorgan Chase, as cited by Bloomberg. In a note dubbed “Bracing for a storm” seen by the outlet, the analysts projected US import taxes on Chinese goods to be raised to 60% from the current 20% mark, with fresh levies to also hit imports from Malaysia and Vietnam. The Chinese government could devalue the yuan in response, and impose retaliatory tariffs to support the national economy, the strategists suggested , forecasting that China’s GDP growth next year could slip nearly one point to 3.9%, in spite of the possible measures.

JPMorgan highlighted that a potential devaluation of the yuan by 10-15% is “significantly less than the 28-30% that could be expected if China’s central bank were to rehearse the 2018-19 playbook, when it allowed currency depreciation to offset 70% of the rise in US tariffs.” In 2018, Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 20% from 3%. Earlier this month, the yuan fell to its weakest level against the dollar since late 2023 amid uncertainty over Trump’s victory in the US presidential election. On Thursday, the Chinese currency traded at nearly 7.25 yuan to the greenback.

Earlier this week, Trump – who will take office on January 20 – pledged to introduce 25% import duties on all products from Canada and Mexico, along with increasing tariffs on Chinese imports to 30%. JPMorgan expects emerging economies, particularly manufacturing exporters such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Mexico, to be the hardest-hit by a US-China trade war. The analysts stressed that the affected states are likely to lose global market share, as Beijing would redirect exports toward other emerging markets. India would feel the least impact, the economists predict.

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“..a 30% reduction in energy demand. After 2030, consider that all beef, lamb and dairy will be banned and “replaced by new diets”. Then there is a massive 45% cut in most common building materials..”

• Time for Starmer to Be Honest About What Net Zero Means (Morrison)

Earlier this week the Labour backbencher and Chairman of the U.K. Parliament’s Energy Committee Bill Esterson noted that people will have to adjust their habits to meet Net Zero emission goals for 2030. Such honesty, emerging as it does from the Parliament of Net Zero nodding donkeys, is to be applauded. As far as it goes. Try a 30% reduction in energy demand. After 2030, consider that all beef, lamb and dairy will be banned and “replaced by new diets”. Then there is a massive 45% cut in most common building materials such as cement, along with a similar reduction in road freight traffic. The attack on farming will be remorseless with fertiliser restriction halving “direct emission” from the soil. To sum up: widespread rationing and blackouts along with food, holiday and travel restrictions, all within about 60 months.

Look at what they fund and write and whom they consult, not what they say, is the best advice to counter all the whoppers that are being told about Net Zero. Sir Keir Starmer’s statement at the recent COP29 that he didn’t want to tell people how to live their lives can only be explained by noting it came from a British Prime Minister who has difficulty telling a woman from a man. Thankfully we have the Government-funded U.K. FIRES project to give us an honest heads-up on the near-term implications of Net Zero. All of the substantial reductions in energy, food and industrial materials mentioned above arise from its “pragmatic approach”. Its evidence-based conclusions rely on technologies that are available today. It excludes processes such as carbon capture and hydrogen that have yet to be proven at meaningful scale.

Its conclusions warm the hearts of the most committed green ideologues. Its reports also happen to be the most honest representation of the horrors that await if the Net Zero fantasy ever becomes a reality. By 2028 a total of seven million heat pumps will need to be installed and massive retrofits undertaken in domestic homes. Meanwhile, all rented and non-domestic properties will need to be EPC A rated by 2030. The desire to “manage land use for Net Zero emissions” means a massive cut in chemical fertilisers, so expect food supply to fall off a cliff. U.K. FIRES notes, correctly, that there is “insufficient time for the planning, development and construction of new large-scale infrastructure to contribute to the 2030 target”.

Again correctly, it is observed that increased use of wind and solar power creates a problem with intermittency. “Eventually, this must be addressed by either demand-shifting or storage,” it states. Storage at scale is more or less impossible with current technology, and another word for “demand-shifting” is rationing. To enforce these consumption restraints across the broad range of modern industrial lifestyles, a “whole society” approach must be mobilised. U.K. FIRES received a £5 million grant from the British Government and its warnings – or should that be wishes – about 2030 are contained in a report called ‘Minus 45’ prepared ahead of the Glasgow COP26 in 2021. It is based on a U.K. Government promise to reduce carbon emissions by 45% from 2018 to 2030. Its recommendations are relevant today, not least because Starmer tried to curry favour at the recent COP29 in Baku by promising to reduce emissions further.

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His wife is upset?!

• Epps Loses Defamation Case Against Fox News (Turley)

Just months after a judge dismissed Nina Jankowicz’s much-hyped defamation lawsuit against Fox, a federal district court judge in Delaware, Judge Jennifer L. Hall, has dismissed Ray Epps’s defamation lawsuit. The Jan. 6 rioter said the network falsely identified him as an FBI informant. U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer L. Hall granted Fox News’ motion to dismiss the suit. In the original complaint, Epps made a defamation per se claim and a false light claim. Epps and his wife have clearly been through a nightmare of threats and innuendo. However, this public controversy was discussed by various networks and the Jan. 6th Committee. It was also a matter of legitimate public debate and commentary, with people on both sides expressing their views on the evidence and underlying allegations.The problem for the court was trying to draw a line when coverage and commentary becomes defamation on such subjects.

The chilling effect on free speech can be immense. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that tort law could not be used to overcome First Amendment protections for free speech or the free press. The Court sought to create “breathing space” for the media by articulating that standard that now applies to both public officials and public figures. The status imposes the higher standard first imposed in New York Times v. Sullivan for public officials, requiring a showing of “actual malice” where media had actual knowledge of the falsity of a statement or showed reckless disregard whether it was true or false.Now based in Utah, Epps alleged his life was upended after former Fox host Tucker Carlson repeatedly described him as a federal agent who helped instigate the attack on the Capitol, which was an attempt to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden.

The breathing space cuts both ways. In reporting on the dismissal of the Epps lawsuit, it is notable that the Associated Press is still referring to Jan. 6 as an “insurrection” rather than a riot. Curiously, when you hit the link on “insurrection,” it goes to an article on the dropping of the Smith case, which notably did not charge Trump or anyone else with insurrection or even incitement. Yet, the AP is still reporting “the insurrection” as a fact. The dismissal of Jankowicz directly addressed the dangers of using the courts to try to silence your critics. The case backfired on Jankowicz in prompting a court to expressly state that what she has been advocating is censorship. After holding that people are allowed to criticize Jankowicz as protected opinion, the court added:

“I agree that Jankowicz has not pleaded facts from which it could plausibly be inferred that the challenged statements regarding intended censorship by Jankowicz are not substantially true. On the contrary … censorship is commonly understood to encompass efforts to scrutinize and examine speech in order to suppress certain communications. “The Disinformation Governance Board was formed precisely to examine citizens’ speech and, in coordination with the private sector, identify ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.’ … that objective is fairly characterized as a form of censorship.” Jankowicz previously solicited significant contributions on the promise of this ill-conceived lawsuit. Nevertheless, Jankowicz is still being touted as a hero and enlisted to explain how to combat “disinformation.” The calls for greater censorship are likely to only increase after the election. However, we have seen figures like Hillary Clinton call on Europeans to force the censorship of Americans.

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“Israel says ‘suspects’ in vehicles violate ceasefire by trying to return home..”

• Ceasefire Falters as Israel Launches Airstrikes on Southern Lebanon (Antiwar)

The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire began Wednesday morning. Less than two days later, it seems to be faltering, with multiple reports of Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, and claims of violations by both sides. Israel carried out an airstrike against the outskirts of Baysariyeh, which is near Tyre. They confirmed the attack, saying they were targeting a Hezbollah storage facility after seeing “terrorist activity.” They added in their statement that they were “acting to enforce violations of the ceasefire.” Though the claims of violations are coming from both sides, so far it is only Israeli forces whose violations actually involve firing. Lebanese people continue to try to return to their homes in the south, despite Israel’s military forbidding them to do so. There are multiple reports of Israel carrying out artillery shelling against towns and villages across southern Lebanon this afternoon.

Strikes were reported against the towns of Halta, Taybeh, Khiam, and Rmeish. In Rmeish the attack damaged a supermarket and a home. Three were injured in Taybeh. There were also reported Israeli tank shellings in several places, including the village of Markaba. In that incident, a car was attacked and multiple civilians were wounded. Israeli ground troops also opened fire on vehicles multiple times across southern Lebanon, incidents which happened both on Wednesday and Thursday. Israel presented the people they were shooting at as a “number of suspects,” and said that any vehicles in southern Lebanon amount to a ceasefire violation. There is no indication vehicles are actually forbidden by the terms of the ceasefire. Shooting at people, as Israel has been throughout the day, is plainly a violation, however.

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“I felt that the United States was mobilizing its formidable economic and financial resources to prevent the business ventures of other countries, even their allies..”

• Merkel Blows A Hole In Washington’s Nord Stream Narrative (Marsden)

Angela Merkel has just dropped a smoking gun into the pages of her new book. According to ‘Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021’, published on November 26, Berlin was fully aware that Washington wanted to kill off Nord Stream. And that it was just using Russia as a scapegoat to steal a massive new energy market for itself. “The United States argued that its security interests were affected by the building of the pipeline because its ally Germany would make itself too dependent on Russia. In truth, I felt that the United States was mobilizing its formidable economic and financial resources to prevent the business ventures of other countries, even their allies,” Merkel writes. “The United States was chiefly interested in its own economic interests, as it wanted to export to Europe LNG obtained through fracking.”

This pretty much establishes that it was by premeditated design that Washington leveraged the Russian military operation in Ukraine as a convenient pretext to turn economic competitor Germany – and the EU more generally – into a vassal. But Merkel’s successor, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the rest of the German and European establishment, acted like Joe Biden was just coming to their rescue out of benevolence when he offered to sell them LNG to replace Russian gas – which turned out to cost several times the price, to the ongoing detriment of German and European industry and citizenry. Biden had stood beside Scholz at a White House podium in February 2022, talking like a mafia boss, saying that “there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2” if Russia enters Ukraine. Then the pipeline just mysteriously blew up in September 2022. Germany still hasn’t found those responsible, though.

Hey, how about this guy who was standing right next to your chancellor? German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded Biden the Order of Merit in October, citing Germany’s “friendship” with the US, and telling Biden that “under your leadership, the transatlantic alliance is stronger and our partnership is closer than ever.” Yeah, close. Like family. Where you can help yourself to stuff that isn’t yours and wreck it – like an entire German car industry or a pipeline. Or where you can disapprove of a relationship – like the one that Germany had with Russia. Or maybe one can even do both of these things at the same time, like Miami-based American businessman, Stephen Lynch, seems to be attempting to achieve by asking for the US government’s approval in bidding on Nord Stream 2, majority-owned by a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Now that Washington’s meddling has bankrupted the pipeline project and it’s set for the auction block, guess Lynch figures that maybe he can squeeze in between Russian gas and Germany’s desperation for cheap supply, with Uncle Sam’s blessing. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for American and European control over European energy supply for the rest of the fossil-fuel era,” Lynch told the WSJ. It’s also a chance for US interests to profit from, and exert control over, both the EU and Russia, by wedging themselves between the two like they’re a chaperone on a teenage movie date. “I haven’t heard of Gazprom wanting to put gas transportation infrastructure in the hands of the USA,” the Kremlin has said, putting a damper on Lynch’s ambitions, which are perfectly aligned with what Merkel now says has been America’s objective all along.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Detox

 

 

Nerves

 

 

Antlers

 

 

Siblings

 

 

Hoover Dam

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle November 29 2024

Nov 292024
 
 November 29, 2024  Posted by at 10:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  61 Responses »


Mattia Preti The Adoration of the Shepherds 1660-99

 

• Trump Is ‘Not Safe’ – Putin (RT)
• Putin: Oreshnik Saved For A Rainy Day (Helmer)
• Trump May Be Oreshniked On Ukraine Even Before He Gets To China (Pepe Escobar)
• Oreshnik Missiles Could Be Used To Strike Kiev – Putin (RT)
• Russian General Staff Prepares Retaliation Friday-Saturday (Helmer)
• Did Trump Just Solve The US-Mexico Border Crisis? (ZH)
• Marc Andreessen Describes “Alarming” Meeting With Biden Admin (ZH)
• Musk Floats Slashing IRS Budget, Regulatory Agency In X Posts (JTN)
• Trump-Zuckerberg’s Mar-a-Lago Chatter Suggests Imminent Changes in Meta (Sp.)
• White House Pressing Ukraine To Draft 18-Year-Olds for War (Antiwar)
• Lawfare Warriors Express Regret But Not Remorse After Election (Turley)
• Either The Most Corrupt Judge In England, Or The Stupidest (Helmer)
• Sky News Is The Limit For Fake News In The UK From Israeli Lobby Cash (Jay)
• “Good Faith” Discussions Underway To Un-Cancel NFL Redskins Logo (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Andreesen

 

 

 

 

“Putin said he was even more astonished that Trump’s political opponents had targeted the Republican’s family and children..”

• Trump Is ‘Not Safe’ – Putin (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump is “not safe,” Russian President Vladimir Putin believes. The Russian president made the remarks on Thursday at a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, following a two-day Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit. Putin said he was astonished by the way the US election campaign had unfolded, citing the “absolutely uncivilized methods used to battle against Trump, including repeated assassination attempts.” “In my opinion, he is not safe now,” Putin emphasized, noting that “various incidents have happened in US history.” Russia’s president praised Trump as an experienced and intelligent politician, saying he hopes the president-elect is “cautious and understands this.”

Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13 during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a bullet fired from around 150 meters away grazed his ear. The Secret Service responded by taking down the shooter, who was later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, a resident of a suburb of nearby Pittsburgh. Another would-be assassin, Ryan Routh, was arrested in September after he set up an ambush at a Florida golf course belonging to Trump.

On Wednesday, ABC News reported, citing court documents, that US federal authorities have arrested an Arizona man who allegedly threatened to kill Trump and his family via a series of Facebook videos, which he had been posting on a “near daily basis.” Putin said he was even more astonished that Trump’s political opponents had targeted the Republican’s family and children. He called such behavior “revolting” and indicative of the US political system’s decline, noting that even criminal groups would not resort to such methods. Putin said he couldn’t rule out that the Biden administration has been trying to create difficulties for Trump’s relations with Russia. Nevertheless, Moscow is “ready for dialogue with the United States, including with the future administration,” Putin stressed.

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“You know, in Soviet times there was that joke about weather forecasts. ‘The forecast is: Everything is possible today during the day.’”

• Putin: Oreshnik Saved For A Rainy Day (Helmer)

In remarks to Russian journalists on Thursday evening, President Vladimir Putin confirmed that missile and drone strikes against the Ukraine’s military infrastructure and the electricity grid carried out on Thursday, and also earlier in the week, are the retaliation the Defense Ministry foreshadowed for the November 23-25 ATACMS strikes on Kursk. Detailed target and damage reports by Russian military bloggers published between noon and 13:00 Moscow time, indicate that strikes by Kalibr and Kh-101 missiles, drones, and other weapons hit targets across the country’s electricity system, including the western regions of Rivne, Khmelnitsky, Volyn, and Vynnitsa. Power blackouts in the Ukraine were reported to be widespread from the line of combat in the east to the Polish border in the west, with up to eleven hours of power outage in Kiev where the temperature has dropped below freezing.

President Putin followed in remarks to Russian reporters at the conclusion of his two-day meetings in Astana, Kazakhstan, in a session posted by the Kremlin at 17:15. Asked several questions about the use of the Oreshnik missile in Russian retaliation for the ATACMS strikes on Kursk on November 23 and 25, Putin quipped that it is being saved for a rainy day. “It would be futile to target a minor objective with a hypersonic missile; that’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. However, we will utilise our entire arsenal against significant targets. As I have previously mentioned, we do not rule out the combat employment of Oreshnik on military-industrial facilities or command centres, including those in Kiev.”

The earlier ATACMS attacks, Putin said, “received a response today. Our Armed Forces have been executing retaliatory strikes over the past couple of days. Today, there was a comprehensive operation: 90 missiles were deployed alongside 100 unmanned strike vehicles. Seventeen targets within Ukraine were struck, encompassing military, military-industrial, and auxiliary facilities which support the armed forces and industrial defence enterprises. I wish to reiterate once more: we will certainly respond to such acts of aggression against the Russian Federation. The timing, methods, and weapons employed will be determined by the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense, as each target necessitates a specific approach and appropriate weaponry.”

Asked again about Oreshnik, “do you think these strikes on the [Kiev decision-making] centres are also possible with Oreshnik because nothing else seems to be able to get it?” Putin replied: “You know, in Soviet times there was that joke about weather forecasts. ‘The forecast is: Everything is possible today during the day.’ ” The president was followed on Thursday evening, Moscow time, by a detailed Defense Ministry bulletin announcing “in response to the strikes of the Kiev regime in the depths of the territory of Russia, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during this week carried out strikes on the locations of the systems of long-range western weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” Details of the targets followed, including US and French military personnel reported killed while directing Ukrainian missile operations in bunkers at Kharkov and Odessa.

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“..launched from Chukotka, it may reach Minuteman III silos in Montana in 23 minutes.”

• Trump May Be Oreshniked On Ukraine Even Before He Gets To China (Pepe Escobar)

When it comes to state of the art Russian weaponry, what the inestimable Ray McGovern defines as the MICIMATT – the whole Hegemonic complex – seems to dwell in perpetual stupor. They had no clue about Kalibr, Sarmat, Khinzal, Zircon or Avangard before they were introduced. They had no clue about Oreshnik (‘Hazel”) before the 30-minute protocolar warning by the Russians, stating a missile test was coming, and it was not nuclear. The Americans assumed that would be just another ballistic missile test, as they happen routinely close to the Arctic. Even President Putin didn’t know Oreshnik was ready for its close-up until the last minute. And Kremlin spokesman Peskov confirmed that only an ultra-rarefied circle knew Oreshnik even existed. In a nutshell: the MICIMATT only sees what Russia shows off – and when it happens.

Call it a leak-proof vow of secrecy permeating the Russian military complex – which, by the way, is a massive state, nationalized company, with a few private components. And that offers the Russian government, in practice, better engineering, better physics, better mathematics and better practical, final results than anything across the self-important collective West. Oreshnik – a kinetic weapons system – is a certified game-changer when it comes to military technology and warfare in more ways than one: actually several. Simple physics tells us that by combining enough kinetic force and mass, utter devastation is guaranteed, comparable to a low-to-medium yield nuclear weapon. With the added benefit of no radiation. Oreshnik is an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), under development by Russia (along with other systems) even before Trump 1.0 pulled the U.S. out of the INF treaty in 2019.

A few concise analyses have pointed out how Oreshnik can be fitted into intercontinental non-nuclear missiles. The Russians are being very diplomatic, not stressing that if Oreshnik is launched from the Russian Far East, it can easily reach most latitudes across the USA. Moreover, applying Oreshnik tech to tactical missiles – Putin late last week said this is already happening – also changes the whole tactical domain. The new game in town is Russia being capable of unleashing ultra-high-velocity kinetic weapons literally anywhere around the world – after warning civilians to abandon the area around the targets. And there’s absolutely no defense against it, anywhere. It’s quite predictable that the woke, arrogant/ignorant MICIMATT, as well as NATO and the whole, brainwashed collective West simply have no idea what just hit them, seemingly out of the blue. To be concise: a system with the destructive power of a tactical nuclear weapon but carrying the precision of a top sniper’s bullet.

Ergo, sitting duck billion-dollar aircraft carriers; the whole, 800-plus Empire of Bases; assorted underground bunkers; ICBM launch platforms; naval shipyards; not to mention NATO’s HQ in Brussels, the Aegis Ashore base in Redzikowo (Poland), the NATO joint force center in the Netherlands, southern NATO command in Naples – all these immensely expensive assets are fair game for non-nuclear Oreshniks capable of reducing them to dust in a flash after flying for mere minutes at over Mach 10. By now multitudes around the world are aware that Oreshnik may reach Berlin in 11 minutes and London in 19 minutes. Also that launched from southern Russia, Oreshnik may reach the U.S. air base in Qatar in 13 minutes; launched from Kamchatka in the Far East, it may reach Guam in 22 minutes; and launched from Chukotka, it may reach Minuteman III silos in Montana in 23 minutes. To quote the epic 1960s Motown hit: “Nowhere to run, baby, nowhere to hide.”

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“Russia has several of the weapons systems at its disposal and is building more of them, the president has warned..”

• Oreshnik Missiles Could Be Used To Strike Kiev – Putin (RT)

The Russian military is selecting targets in Ukraine for further possible strikes using the country’s new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missiles, President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday. Potential targets for the missiles could be “decision making centers” in Kiev, the Russian leader warned, during a meeting with Moscow’s key regional allies in Astana, Kazakhstan. Military facilities could also be targeted, along with defense and industrial enterprises – “especially since the Kiev regime has repeatedly attempted to strike at facilities of national importance in Russia,” Putin explained. Moscow already has several Oreshnik missiles at its disposal and has begun the large-scale production of the advanced weapon system, he added.

Addressing his counterparts from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Putin reiterated that the first Oreshnik launch last week had been Moscow’s response to Western countries granting permission for Kiev to fire long-range weapons deep inside Russia. This made NATO member states directly involved in the conflict, he added. Last night, Russia launched around 90 missile and 100 drone attacks against military targets in Ukraine, he said. It came in response to Kiev’s continued attacks using Western weapons. More Oreshnik strikes may follow, he warned. “Oreshnik has no counterparts in the world, of course, and I believe none will appear anytime soon,” he said. “[The system has] dozens of homing warheads that attack their targets at Mach-10 speed… Their temperature reaches 4,000 degrees,” the president added. “Anything located in the strike center is obliterated into elemental particles, reduced to dust.”

Oreshik can destroy highly fortified targets buried deep underground, Putin said. A massive strike with such missiles would be comparable to a nuclear strike in its force, he added. We have several units ready for use now. Certainly, should the strikes with Western long-range weapons on our territory continue, we will respond, including by launching more combat tests of Oreshnik systems. Speaking at the CSTO meeting, Putin compared Russian systems with similar specifications to US ATACMS missiles and French/British SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles, which Kiev has used against Russia. Moscow’s weapons are superior in some aspects, and the country produces significantly more of them that the entire NATO bloc can, he claimed.

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“..if a civilian evacuation warning is also issued, as Putin has foreshadowed, then one hour on Friday or Saturday will be what Putin has called the “danger zone”.

• Russian General Staff Prepares Retaliation Friday-Saturday (Helmer)

On Tuesday afternoon, November 26, the Russian Defense Ministry issued an unusual bulletin revealing that since the Oreshnik strike on November 21, the US had launched two ATACMS attacks across the Ukrainian border on Russian military targets in the Kursk region. The first of these on an S-400 air defence unit on November 23 had not been disclosed before. Both the November 23 and November 25 ATACMS strikes, totalling 13 missiles in all, had been partially intercepted. Russian casualties were suffered, including several fatalities. The Defense Ministry also telegraphed its punch. “Retaliatory actions are being prepared,” the bulletin concluded. Earlier that same morning, November 26, the airspace around the Oreshnik launch site at Kapustin Yar — east of Volgograd in the north of Astrakhan region — was identified for closure to civilian flights by an international notice to airmen (NOTAM).

The notice said the no-flight zone would start at 04:00 on Thursday, November 27, and continue until 20:00 on Saturday, November 30. Kapustin Yar was the launch pad for the first Oreshnik strike on the Yuzhmash plant at Dniepropetrovsk on November 21. The flight distance for that Russian missile from launch to target was 800 kilometers. If a second Oreshnik strike is being prepared at Kapustin Yar, the range to US and Ukrainian military bunkers at Kiev is within 1,100 kms; to the comparable military targets in Lvov, 1,600 kms; to the US-Ukrainian base at Rzeszów, on the Polish side of the border, 1,750 kms. The Oreshnik can strike targets at up to 5,000 kms, making it an “intermediate range”, not an “intercontinental range” missile.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 27, President Vladimir Putin arrived in Astana, Kazakhastan, for two days of talks. He is due to return from Kazakhstan on the evening of Thursday, November 28. Once the president is in Moscow, he will be in position to order, direct, and follow a retaliation strike by the General Staff against US and Ukrainian targets. If the strike flies at Oreshnik speed of Mach 10 to Mach 12, the operation will run from 5 to 9 minutes. If a 30-minute advance warning is sent to the US, and if a civilian evacuation warning is also issued, as Putin has foreshadowed, then one hour on Friday or Saturday will be what Putin has called the “danger zone”.

“In case of an escalation of aggressive actions,” Putin has said, “we will respond decisively and in mirror-like manner…It goes without saying that when choosing, if necessary and as a retaliatory measure, targets to be hit by systems such as Oreshnik on Ukrainian territory, we will in advance suggest that civilians and citizens of friendly countries residing in those areas leave danger zones. We will do so for humanitarian reasons, openly and publicly, without fear of counter-moves coming from the enemy, who will also be receiving this information.” The Defense Ministry has now confirmed the escalation by the US on November 23 and 25. Putin will decide his retaliation before Saturday evening.

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She denies.

• Did Trump Just Solve The US-Mexico Border Crisis? (ZH)

Did Trump solve the border crisis two months before even being sworn in as the 47th president? Two days after surprising markets – and sending the peso plummeting – by announcing he would enact 25% import duties on Mexican goods if the country doesn’t stop the flow of drugs and migrants across the border.[..]? tariffs on Mexican goods in response to the flood of drugs across the porous southern border, best known for allowing millions of illegal immigrants to enter the US in the past four ears, Trump’s unexpected gambit may have already paid off. In a post on Truth Social network, Trump announced that after a “wonderful” conversation with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, she “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”

He added that the two also talked about “what can be done to stop the massive drug inflow into the United States” concluding that it was a “very productive” conversation which of course, it would be, if indeed Trump – who again is still two months away from inauguration – managed to solve the US border crisis just 48 hours after using targeted tariffs as a bargaining chip. While it remains to be confirmed on the Mexican side if Trump’s recollection of the conversation is accurate, Trump’s announcement comes just hours after the legacy media reported that Mexico would take on a more aggressive posture, with the AP reporting that Sheinbaum had suggested that “Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own” and that while she was willing to engage in talks on the issues, drugs were a U.S. problem. “One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said, referring to U.S. automakers that have plants on both sides of the border.

She said Tuesday that Mexico had done a lot to stem the flow of migrants, noting “caravans of migrants no longer reach the border.” However, Mexico’s efforts to fight drugs like the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl – which is manufactured by Mexican cartels using chemicals imported from China – have weakened in the last year. Amusingly, Sheinbaum also said Mexico suffered from an influx of weapons smuggled in from the United States, and said the flow of drugs “is a problem of public health and consumption in your country’s society” which judging by the libs ongoing reaction to Trump’s victory is pretty much spot on.As noted, there is still no official confirmation or full context of the agreement from President Sheinbaum’s side, but the market certainly reacted with the peso surging, and almost wiping out all losses from the past 48 hours after Trump’s first unveiled his 25% tariff threat.

If confirmed, this would be the second time Trump has managed to convince Mexico to suspend migrants from crossing its territory to enter the US. Back in 2018, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – a charismatic, old-school politician – developed a chummy relationship with Trump. The two were eventually able to strike a bargain in which Mexico helped keep migrants away from the border – and received other countries’ deported migrants – and Trump backed down on similar threats. While Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, has been seen as a stern leftist ideologue trained in radical student protest movements, and appeared less willing to pacify or mollify Trump, it seems she too has capitulated just 48 hours after Trump unveiled what was coming.

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Insanity on steroids.

• Marc Andreessen Describes “Alarming” Meeting With Biden Admin (ZH)

Marc Andreessen, the billionaire investor and co-founder of the influential Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, revealed in a new episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast that after an “alarming” meeting with Biden administration officials earlier this year was the moment he would have no other choice but to support Donald Trump. For decades, Andreessen has supported Democrats, including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. However, a troubling spring meeting with Biden administration officials caused major concerns. During the meeting, officials explained their plan to control AI through government regulatory capture—a strategy reminiscent of Communist policies in China.

“We had meetings [Biden officials] this spring that were the most alarming meetings I’ve ever been in. Where they were taking us through their plans, and it was – basically just full government – full government control – like this sort of thing, there will be a small number of large companies that will be completely regulated and controlled by the government, they told us. They said don’t even start startups – there’s just no way that they can succeed – there’s no way that we’re going to permit that to happen.”

In mid-July, Axios reported that Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz had donated to President-elect Trump’s campaign. At the time, their support was attributed to Trump’s pro stance on crypto and AI regulation. It’s another telling example of just how far-left Democrats in the White House spooked Silicon Valley heavy hitters, such as Elon Musk. Back to the podcast, Rogan asked Andreessen: “When you leave a meeting like that, what do you do?” Andreessen responded: “You endorse Donald Trump.”

Andreessen told Rogan about the federal government’s rogue “Operation Choke Point.” He described it as a move by the Department of Justice that initially targeted marijuana businesses and gun manufacturers. He said under Biden, it was then weaponized to destroy political opponents, tech founders, and the crypto community.

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“There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies..”

• Musk Floats Slashing IRS Budget, Regulatory Agency In X Posts (JTN)

Billionaire Elon Musk, who will play a role in the new Trump Administration as a co-head of the newly planned, informal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) commission, has often floated proposals on his social media platform, X. On Wednesday, the entrepreneur asked his millions of followers if Congress should grant a recent $20 billion dollar funding request from the Internal Revenue Service by Biden Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, who said the extra funds were vital for running the tax collection agency. “The IRS just said it wants $20B more money,” Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Do you think its budget should be: Increased, Same, Decreased, Deleted,” he asked, in an attached poll. More than 60% of the users who voted in his poll called for the IRS’s budget to be “deleted.”

This is just the latest instance of Musk asking for public feedback on his policy proposals on X, which he acquired in 2022. Adeyemo’s plea for extra funding comes after Republican lawmakers were able to include a $20 billion cut to the agency’s budget in a federal funding stopgap bill in September, which is keeping the government funded until Dec. 20. Musk also called for slashing government regulations by eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is responsible for protecting consumers in the financial sector. “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” Musk posted to X. The agency was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to regulate the sector.

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“..to “remove Meta’s ability to remove or censor political content.”

• Trump-Zuckerberg’s Mar-a-Lago Chatter Suggests Imminent Changes in Meta (Sp.)

President-elect Donald Trump met with Meta* CEO Mark Zuckerberg face-to-face in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on November 27, the New York Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. “Zuckerberg is attempting to curry favor with the incoming Trump administration in order to avoid criminal prosecution,” Ryan Hartwig, a Facebook* whistleblower and co-author of “Behind the Mask of Facebook: A Whistleblower’s Shocking Story of Big Tech Bias and Censorship”, tells Sputnik. Trump has long been critical of Zuckerberg over reportedly restraining him and other conservatives on social media, withholding the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell” story, and orchestrating a “plot” against him in the 2020 election. Nonetheless, the two exchanged pleasantries during the recent encounter, according to the NYT.

“I think there may be some closed-door negotiations, however, given that Meta is a valuable tool for national security and surveillance of foreign countries, we may see a slight decrease in Trump’s rhetoric,” the pundit continues. “Hopefully there are penalties for Meta and Zuckerberg beyond just monetary fines. Influencing other countries’ elections is one thing, but domestic election interference is a very serious matter.” Hartwig expects Trump to proceed with social media regulations under section 230 during his second term in order to “remove Meta’s ability to remove or censor political content.” He also suggests possible changes in Meta’s executive leadership and even relocation of the company’s headquarters to Texas or another state “that isn’t an echo chamber for certain viewpoints.”

“These policy changes would include not removing any political speech and gutting most of its community standards,” the pundit highlights. And “more importantly, taking a stricter stance against minors on the platform and enforcing strict age verification,” Hartwig adds in an apparent reference to X owner Elon Musk lambasting Meta for “a massive child exploitation problem.”

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+ Lindsey Graham.

• White House Pressing Ukraine To Draft 18-Year-Olds for War (Antiwar)

The White House is pressuring Ukraine to increase the size of its military by lowering the minimum age of conscription from 25 to 18, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday. A senior Biden administration official said the outgoing administration wants Ukraine to start drafting 18-year-olds to expand the current pool of fighting-age males. The pressure from the US comes as polling shows the majority of Ukrainians want peace talks with Russia to end the war. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently hinted that the US was pressuring Ukraine to expand conscription, saying Ukraine’s biggest problem in the war was the lack of manpower.

“Our view has been that there’s not one weapon system that makes a difference in this battle. It’s about manpower, and Ukraine needs to do more, in our view, to firm up its lines in terms of the number of forces it has on the front lines,” Sullivan said on PBS News Hour last week. Last month, Serhiy Leshchenko, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Ukraine was under pressure from US politicians to lower the conscription age. “American politicians from both parties are putting pressure on President Zelensky to explain why there is no mobilization of those aged 18 to 25 in Ukraine,” he said. Zelensky signed a mobilization bill into law back in April that lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25.

A few weeks before the mobilization bill became law, Zelensky received a visit from US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who complained that not enough young Ukrainian men were being sent to the frontline. “I would hope that those eligible to serve in the Ukrainian military would join. I can’t believe it’s at 27,” Graham said. “You’re in a fight for your life, so you should be serving — not at 25 or 27. We need more people in the line.” The Biden administration’s push for Ukraine to draft younger men comes as it is doing everything it can to escalate the proxy war before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20. President Biden is seeking another $24 billion to spend on the conflict even though it’s clear there’s no path to a Ukrainian military victory.

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“..the use of motivated judges in favorable jurisdictions for political advantage. These same figures claim to be “saving democracy.”

• Lawfare Warriors Express Regret But Not Remorse After Election (Turley)

The reaction to the reelection of Donald Trump in the media has ranged from histrionic to outright hysteria. MSNBC analyst and former Sen. Claire McCaskill wept openly on television as CBS News anchor John Dickerson got choked up on national television in an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, still struggling to discuss the news days after the election. However, arguably the most perplexing responses came a few days ago when the New York Times ran a column from one of the advocates of the lawfare used against Trump since 2016. Yale Law Professor Samuel Moyn has long been a favorite of the New York Times as part of what I have previously described as a counter-constitutional movement in higher education. As I discuss in my book, The Indispensable Right, Moyn and others have insisted that the constitution itself may be the problem with America. In a previous New York Times op-ed, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” Moyn and Harvard Professor Ryan D. Doerfler called for liberals to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”

While the New York Times publicly condemned a U.S. senator for writing about the use of the National Guard to stop violent protests (as would be done at both the White House and the Capitol), it has published a long line of figures who have engaged in violent or extremist rhetoric from the left. However, this particular column may be worth the ink and hypocrisy needed to publish it. The New York Times long lionized those who brought raw partisan prosecutions against Trump and his allies, including efforts to cleanse ballots to deny citizens the opportunity to vote for the man who just won the popular vote. In his new column “Liberals Bet They Could Beat Trump With the Law, Moyn regrets the lawfare, not because it distorted the law and weaponized the legal system, but because it did not work. He even quotes Benjamin Wittes, who helped create the Lawfare website, which was used, in Moyn’s words, “to hem in Mr. Trump.” Wittes wrote, “I have no interest in recriminations.” Perhaps, but the public does.

The election—which handed both houses of Congress and the White House to the GOP—was arguably the largest verdict in history. However, it was not necessarily a verdict for Trump as much as it was against the lawfare and advocacy journalism that had been used openly for years. After all, the “Let’s Go Brandon!” movement developed at the start of the Biden Administration and was as much a criticism of the media and political establishment as it was Joe Biden — a type of “Yankee Doodling” of the governing elite. For years, these figures ignored the “recriminations” of some who objected to using the legal system for political purposes, particularly in the New York cases. To his credit, Moyn now admits that “the more uncomfortable truth is that our search for political salvation primarily through the law has backfired.”

However, he remains remarkably uncritical of such tactics in the first place. Instead, he insists that these losses were due to simply “legalistic tactics.” Some of us call that the law. Moyn plays Shakespeare’s Othello in claiming to be “one that lov’d not wisely but too well.” The problem, he explains to the fragile Times readership is that they “rooted their opposition to Mr. Trump in the law since his first month in office.” He even refers to efforts early on to block Trump’s immigration policies. As soon as Trump came into office, he faced an acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, who ordered the department to stand down and not assist the new president in his immigration orders. I wrote at the time that the order was an outrageous and partisan act by Yates, who was planning on leaving in a matter of days.

While I criticized the initial Trump orders as poorly crafted (perhaps due to the lack of legal support) and in need of revision, I noted that he was likely to prevail on his claimed underlying authority. He ultimately prevailed after revising the orders. Yet, the New York Times and other publications again lionized Yates for an act that some of us view as unprofessional and arguably unethical. The problem with the lawfare campaign is that it did not just treat the law as an extension of politics, but treated the public as chumps. A large part of the public saw these cases for what they were: the use of motivated judges in favorable jurisdictions for political advantage. These same figures claim to be “saving democracy.”

Read more …

“Russian weapon, Russian crime, Russian culprits, Russian responsibility – those are the Hughes orders.”

• Either The Most Corrupt Judge In England, Or The Stupidest (Helmer)

The story the British government began telling in March 2018 on the road to the war, which the British and their allies are now losing in the Ukraine, is that Russian assassins, on a mission approved by President Vladimir Putin, tried to kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal with a poison weapon they left behind. As story-telling goes, this one has been extraordinarily successful. Much more successful than the Anglo-American war against Russia. Most British people, all United Kingdom media reporters, and about one-quarter of the black cab drivers of London believe the story. This large group of people are being persuaded by a retired Court of Appeal judge named Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley) not to notice that between the allegation of an unwitnessed attempt at murder by poison sprayed on a door handle on March 4, 2018, and the allegation of a death by poison sprayed from a perfume bottle on June 30, 2018, there is a gap of more than four months in time, and of almost fifteen kilometres in space.

The question for the judge is an obvious one: how did the murder weapon get from the one crime scene to the other without the murderer’s movement, presence or action; without leaving a single circumstantial clue; and without causing collateral damage, let alone poisonous contamination of anyone over such a long interval. In testimony to answer this question this week in a London meeting hall made up like a court, Hughes listened to the chief investigator of the crimes at the Metropolitan Police repeatedly admit he didn’t know how to explain the gap. In ten accompanying evidence exhibits, Hughes also accepted that the only way the sole witness called to explain the gap could do so was to coach him through ten separate police interviews, eight of them in just three weeks following the death of Dawn Sturgess, his girlfriend.

The witness Charles Rowley, according to his police record, is a criminal with multiple heroin possession convictions, a suspect in dealing Class A drugs, and a drug addict on methadone prescription. Para 31. Rowley was also on the press record as hustler for a million-pound payout. Rowley, the judge was told by the police, was classified by the MET as a Section 18 witness. That is to say, according to the exhibit of the police “Witness Interview Strategy – Charlie Rowley”, dated July 12, 2018, he was a witness “whose quality of evidence is likely to be diminished by reason of fear or distress”. Hughes made a record of accepting as admissible Rowley’s changing and contradictory explanations of how he came by the poison weapon. The judge also accepted as admissible the MET’s acknowledgement that they don’t know with confidence how the poison weapon had gone from one place to the other.

Their confidence was so low, the chief MET investigator told the judge, “we have not managed to secure sufficient evidence yet to present to the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], sir, that allows them to charge with any offences linked to Dawn and Charlie’s poisoning,” — Page 6. Hughes’s counsel replied: “Yes, thank you. Moving on just a little bit.” . The policeman, Commander Dominic Murphy, also said: “I don’t think we will ever actually know and the reality is there are of course several hypotheses for where the Novichok could have been and where Charlie could have found it”; “I think it’s worth acknowledging, sir, that there are of course many possibilities still for where the Novichok would have been and how Charlie found it”; “I don’t think we can discount the box being anywhere during those periods, no. We cannot evidence where the box was from 4 March right through to the point at which it was in Muggleton Road [Dawn Sturgess’s home]”; “I should say as the SIO [Senior Investigating Officer] for Operation Caterva I have seen no information or evidence to suggest that this is the case, but yes, of course it absolutely remains a possibility.”

“Thank you,” Hughes said. Hughes tried telling the policeman how to say what he wasn’t sure he saw. “He [Rowley] is coming from the direction of the bins. What is he carrying, do you think? A [Murphy]. I would imagine items he has recovered during the process. LORD HUGHES: Well, don’t imagine, Mr Murphy, come on. What does it look like?” The judge was so angry with the police officer, he stripped him of his commander rank. In the Anglo-American jurisprudence of murder trials, when the judge coaches the witness in front of the jury, the defence lawyer rises and objects. He then asks for the jury to be excused while he demands the judge retract, recuse himself, or dismiss the charges because the prosecution has failed to present a case to answer.

Hughes, however, is following the orders of the British Government, not English law. The orders are to fabricate the appearance of the case which the prosecution cannot make, in order to “identify, so far as consistent with section 2 of the Inquiries Act 2005, where responsibility for the death lies.” Russian weapon, Russian crime, Russian culprits, Russian responsibility – those are the Hughes orders.

Read more …

Britain is in deep.

• Sky News Is The Limit For Fake News In The UK From Israeli Lobby Cash (Jay)

The European Union and a number of its member states’ governments are continuing in their quest to control media even more. The most recent move from the UK – to give an on screen seal of approval from the state in the form of a ‘Kitemark’ – was actually rejected by the House of Lords recently. This institution, made up of octogenarian buffoons – who mostly employ assistants to deal with their email boxes, such is the condition of their digital awareness – produced a report recently which they themselves ultimately rejected. The idea floated was that there would be some sort of regulator who would approve broadcast content with an on screen icon allowing viewers to see that the state had given it the thumbs up for being objective, unbiased and accurate.

At this point you might have fallen off your seat laughing at this notion, given that practically all of the UK’s entire fourth estate – large players as well as individual journos – are the most bigoted, biased and, at best, ill-informed group of media folk you are ever likely to meet in your lifetime, given what he have seen in Ukraine and Gaza. But the joke gets funnier. While we see over the last two years how out of touch the state is with how it is perceived, let alone its decisions to support the IDF in Gaza murder children and women or how it blindly supports Ukraine in its war against Russia, this idea that the humble citizens of the UK would place their trust in the government to direct them on the validity of media’s offerings is beyond parody.

How did the House of Lords even get to have a hand in all of this is remarkable in itself, but the idea of the Kitemark gives you an idea of the direction of where a further media crackdown is heading. Perhaps the old buffers, before their afternoon nap, were onto something when they rejected it, thinking that maybe it would open up a Pandora’s box and backfire on those who created it. Take the EU for example. What no British MEP, let alone Nigel Farage, who became an multimillionaire on the back of the Brussels beast he pretends to loath, is that this organization itself already spends hundreds of millions of its own taxpayers’ money on funding the biggest fake news operation for television ever known. Virtually all TV reporting which comes from Brussels is down with the production costs paid for by the EU, via is impressive state of the art studios and production teams all on hand to support the hapless Brussels correspondent.

If this grotesque subsidy were to be taken away, there would be almost no reporting on the EU at all, which would of course be a fine thing as what the so-called journalists are doing to show their gratitude to the brown envelope of course is very complimentary to the project. But back to the Kitemark. If we had such on screen logos to ‘direct’ viewers, how long would it be before the new eurosceptics in the bloc – Hungary, under the leadership of Viktor Orban – would insists that a new on screen logo should be seen by every report which comes from Brussels whose team have benefited from their entire report being paid for by the EU? If even the most supportive of EU voters were to see such a symbol they might ask themselves a perfectly reasonable question: how objective can these reports actually be? The House of Lords rejecting the on-screen Kitemark idea are thinking ahead of the game.

They are assuming that most people will switch off altogether watching those reports and move entirely to social media for their information. In reality, this has already happened on a large scale as any journalist will tell you if you want to know what’s really going on in Gaza or in Kursk, it’s going to be social media where you will go. The problem is the UK media model, once a respected beacon of its time which stood as an example to the rest of the world, is now entirely corrupted. It is rotten to the core and only serves one real purpose which is to keep the narrative from firstly, the U.S. and secondly the British government alive. Perhaps even funnier is the role of Sky News which has shown particularly on Gaza that it is the champion of fake news with its interpretation of the events entirely projected through the prism of the Zionists behind the genocide and their own depraved false narratives cooked up for western media, rather than for anything which comes close to raw, objective reporting of the events.

Read more …

Wokeists know better than those they “protect”.

• “Good Faith” Discussions Underway To Un-Cancel NFL Redskins Logo (ZH)

In a recent X post by Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines, the senator wrote, “The censorship of the former Commander logo was a classic case of woke gone wrong. I applaud the Commanders & the NFL for their commitment to never censor the logo again.” Speaking to Fox News, Daines said, “The irony – they [woke left] were canceling Native American culture, as in the DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] movement went way too far …” At a recent Energy & Natural Resources Committee meeting on Capitol Hill, Daines stated that there had been “good faith negotiations” with the NFL team to restore the logo of Blackfoot Chief John Two Guns White Calf, which had been in use for half a century.

In 2020, the NFL team succumbed to pressure from the radical left, promoting woke culture and forcing a name change from the Redskins to the “Washington Commanders.” Before the woke left unleashed cancel culture, the NFL franchise used Native American artist Walter “Blackie” Wetzel’s artwork of the Blackfoot chief as the inspiration for the team’s logo from 1972 to 2020.

[…] And just like that, the iconic logo, celebrating Indian Country, was memory-holed, as were many other logos. The nation is waking up from a terrible decade of toxic and nation-killing wokeism nightmare. As we’ve previously noted, the ‘Overton Window’ has shifted. For the sake of humanity, let us hope the woke mind virus—destructive by nature and detrimental to the nation—comes to an abrupt end. Woke ideology was never intended to succeed; its true purpose is to destroy. Even The New York Times and Bloomberg acknowledged a new Rutgers study showing that DEI initiatives transform individuals into being “hostile.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Hotel

 

 

Jump

 

 

Nap

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle November 27 2024

Nov 272024
 
 November 27, 2024  Posted by at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  101 Responses »


Pieter Bruegel the Elder Hunters in the snow 1565

 

 

 

Note: Tomorrow’s a travel day, so probably no Debt Rattle. Hope to be back Nov 29, but no guarantee. I can barely walk, which makes traveling very difficult.

 

 

• Trump Transition Team Signs Modified White House Agreement (CTH)
• Israeli-Hezbollah Truce Takes Effect (RT)
• Ukraine Could Be Pushed Into Negotiations ‘Within Months’ – WaPo (RT)
• EU Spy Agencies Fear End of Ukraine Conflict – Bloomberg (RT)
• Pentagon Made No Full Analysis of ATACMS Missiles Use on Russia – Hersh (Sp.)
• Future of EU ‘In Danger’ – Borrell (RT)
• The Utter and Total Insanity of Western “Leadership” (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Biden’s ‘Samson Option’ (Patrick Lawrence)
• From Genocide Joe to Omnicide Joe (Solomon)
• Telegram Revenues Booming – FT (RT)
• Musk Hits Merkel ‘Below The Belt’ – German Media (RT)
• Joe Rogan Launches Tirade Against Zelensky (RT)
• US and UK ‘Directly Involved’ In Nord Stream Sabotage – Russia’s Spy Chief (RT)
• Skripal Grave Gives Up The Truth (Helmer)
• China Creates Coating Making Warplanes Invisible to Anti-Stealth Radars (Sp.)
• F-35 is Modern Rube Goldberg Machine, Musk is Right to Criticize It (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

RFK Trump

Megyn RFK

Elon Herridge

Ukr

Casey Means

Rogan

 

 

 

 

“..the Trump transition team has refused to sign an MOU with the Government Services Administration (GSA), and will not be using cell phones, computers, offices or “any technology” provided by the GSA.”

• Trump Transition Team Signs Modified White House Agreement (CTH)

The President Trump transition team has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to start the process of transferring control of the federal government. The landing teams from each of the cabinets will now begin to engage with their exiting counterparts. There were many articles written about the delays in signing the agreements. However, President Trump waited until he has his cabinet fully assembled before signing the first part that permits the landing teams to engage. The second part with government provided offices and technology is NOT being accepted. President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, announced the Trump transition team has refused to sign an MOU with the Government Services Administration (GSA), and will not be using cell phones, computers, offices or “any technology” provided by the GSA.

This is a smart move to avoid the Deep State surveillance situation that was faced in the first term. In the first Trump administration, the GSA had wiretaps, office bugs, and gave all the electronic communication information from the Trump transition to the FBI, IC and later Robert Mueller. In essence, the GSA spied on the Trump team, then gave all the data to the operatives who were in place to target them. The Trump team is not making this mistake again. The Trump transition team is also not going to use the office space provided by the GSA and will instead have their own offices and security systems in place to coordinate the transition to power.

WASHINGTON DC – […] The Trump team’s unprecedented delay in signing these agreements, weeks after being declared the winner of the election, had alarmed former officials and ethics experts who warned it could lead to conflicts of interest and leave the new government unprepared to govern on Day One. In the Tuesday announcement, Wiles suggested the Trump transition will not sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, which would have allowed them to receive federal funding, cybersecurity support and government office space, pledging instead to fund the transition with private dollars, run it out of private facilities, and deploy their own “existing security and information protections” for sensitive data. The transition, Wiles said, “will operate as a self-sufficient organization, adding that declining government funding will “save taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”

And while Wiles also pledged in the Tuesday statement to publicly disclose the private donors to the transition and “not accept foreign donations,” there will be no legal mechanism to enforce those promises of transparency. The lack of federal cybersecurity support could also make the Trump transition a softer target for foreign hackers — who already successfully penetrated the campaign earlier this year. “That’s something that in 2020 was maybe the single most important worry of the [Biden] transition team — that they would be hacked, and all of this information, including intelligence information, personal information about job applicants, would be threatened,” said Heath Brown, an associate professor of public policy at CUNY’s John Jay College who wrote a book about Biden’s transition. “It’s imperative that the Trump Transition Team has installed the proper procedures to protect itself.”

White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma said the Biden administration is concerned about the ramifications of their successors forgoing GSA support, but remains “committed to an orderly transition.” “While we do not agree with the Trump transition team’s decision to forgo signing the GSA MOU, we will follow the purpose of the Presidential Transition Act which clearly states that ‘any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and wellbeing of the United States and its people,’” she said. In the White House memo, Sharma added, the Trump transition “agreed to important safeguards to protect non-public information and prevent conflicts of interest, including who has access to the information and how the information is shared,” and also agreed to publicly share the ethics agreements it is imposing on its own employees.

Read more …

“According to Biden, the truce is intended to be permanent.”

• Israeli-Hezbollah Truce Takes Effect (RT)

The ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese-based armed group Hezbollah, brokered by the US and France, went into effect at 4 am local time on Wednesday. There were no immediate reports of violations. Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman Avichay Adraee told reporters that the Israeli troops would remain in southern Lebanon for the time being. He warned Israelis who fled the border towns due to Hezbollah rocket fire that it is not safe to return yet. The fighting between Hezbollah and the IDF erupted in October 2023, when the pro-Palestinian armed group began firing rockets and mortar shells across the border. Hezbollah said at the time that it would not end hostilities until the IDF stopped their war against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel eventually invaded southern Lebanon in early October and stepped up airstrikes on Beirut and other cities, killing several high-ranking Hezbollah members, including the group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah. More than 60 people have been killed in Israel from Hezbollah attacks and more than 3,500 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon since October 2023, according to officials from both sides. Some 70,000 people in Israel and around 1.2 million people in Lebanon were displaced. Announcing the ceasefire on Tuesday, outgoing US President Joe Biden said that Israel would “gradually withdraw its remaining forces” from Lebanon within the next 60 days. “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon will not be allowed to be rebuilt,” he stated. According to Biden, the truce is intended to be permanent.

Read more …

“..Ukraine is in perhaps its “weakest position in nearly three years..”

• Ukraine Could Be Pushed Into Negotiations ‘Within Months’ – WaPo (RT)

US officials are beginning to concede that Ukraine may be forced to negotiate with Russia and may ultimately have to give up territory it considers its own, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous sources. With Donald Trump returning to the White House in January and Kiev’s forces suffering mounting battlefield losses as Russia reclaims occupied territory in Kursk Region, Ukraine is in perhaps its “weakest position in nearly three years,” the paper said. Many White House officials believe that “within a few months, Ukraine could be pushed into negotiations with Russia” and that it “could be forced to give up territory,” according to the report. The “quiet recognition” that Kiev may need to give up territory is also spreading among its European backers, the Post said.

US President Joe Biden’s recent decision to allow Ukraine to use US-supplied ATACMS missiles to strike deep into Russian territory, as well as his move to provide Kiev with banned landmines, were made in the hope that it would give the country the “the strongest hand possible” before any potential negotiations with Moscow after Trump takes office in January. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has rejected any suggestion of territorial concessions to Russia. However, Biden’s officials have “largely resigned themselves” to the likelihood that Trump “will not provide Ukraine more assistance,” the report said. According to the paper, many of Ukraine’s European allies are “frustrated” that it took Washington so long to provide the country with the latest capabilities and that this should have happened when Ukraine’s military position was “more robust.”

Officials told the paper, however, that Biden’s decisions have been “guided by evolving battlefield conditions” and that despite pressure from Kiev, he has only authorized the use of certain weapons when the “conditions warrant” them. Washington is particularly concerned that as Ukraine shifted troops to Russia’s Kursk Region, it began “losing territory in its east at a faster clip.” In response to US authorization for Kiev to use long-range ATACMS, Putin announced the deployment of Russia’s new hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missiles last week. The weapon, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, was used against a Ukrainian military industrial facility in the city of Dnepropetrovsk. Putin said that Moscow will respond “decisively and in a mirror-like manner” to any further escalation of aggressive actions by Kiev and its foreign backers.

Read more …

“Ukrainian war veterans and illicit arms will emerge as new threats to EU nations if Moscow prevails..”

• EU Spy Agencies Fear End of Ukraine Conflict – Bloomberg (RT)

Ukrainian war veterans and illicit arms will emerge as new threats to EU nations if Moscow prevails in its conflict with Kiev, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing intelligence community assessments “across Europe.” The perceived dangers were mentioned in a report based on an interview with Michal Koudelka, the head of the Czech Republic’s Security Information Service (BIS). The counter-intelligence chief told Bloomberg why he believed the US and its allies should continue pouring money into Kiev rather than seeking a negotiated peace in the Ukraine conflict. “If Ukraine loses, or is forced to accept a bad peace deal, then Russia will perceive that as victory,” Koudelka said. “Russia would spend perhaps the next ten to 15 years recovering from its huge human and economic losses and preparing for the next target, which is Central and Eastern Europe,” he predicted.

The Czech spy chief was repeating a common line of reasoning among proponents of prolonging the Ukraine conflict. US President Joe Biden claimed earlier this year that Russia would attack NATO after Ukraine, while calling on American lawmakers to authorize more spending to prop up Kiev. Moscow has denied having any such intentions. Koudelka has previously accused Moscow of waging “hybrid warfare” on his nation. In another recent interview, he claimed that a series of bomb threats sent via email to Czech and Slovak schools in September had “a clearly visible Russian trace.”

Prague has been ramping up tensions with Moscow since before the Ukraine conflict escalated into open hostilities in early 2022. It expelled Russian diplomats in 2021, claiming they were spies under diplomatic cover. Last year, it banned purchases of nuclear fuel for its two Soviet-built power plants from Russia, replacing the supplies with American substitutes. Moscow has called the Ukraine conflict a US-led proxy war against Russia, which Washington intends to wage “to the last Ukrainian.” The root causes of the conflict are NATO’s expansion in Europe, Kiev’s intention to join the military bloc, and the impunity that Western backers gave it to discriminate against ethnic Russians, officials have asserted.

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“There was no way Joe Biden was going to get it done without much more blood being shed..”

• Pentagon Made No Full Analysis of ATACMS Missiles Use on Russia – Hersh (Sp.)

The Pentagon has not conducted a full analysis of consequences of the decisions to allow Ukraine to conduct strikes on the Russian territory with the US-made ATACMS missiles and to use landmine mines, US Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh said on Tuesday. “I have been told that the strategic implications of the president’s escalation — both [US President Joe] Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have nuclear bombs at their fingertips — had not been fully analyzed inside the Pentagon, and that some important offices, sure to have different views about escalation, were never asked for their input. Putin responded by escalating in turn by firing a nuclear-capable ballistic missile at Ukraine and said in a speech that what had been a regional conflict ‘had now acquired elements of a global character,'” Hersh wrote on his Substack blog.

According to Hersh, the agenda of US President-elect Donald Trump is to put an end to the military conflict in Ukraine and possibly to start the process by working more with military-to-military negotiations. “There was no way Joe Biden was going to get it done without much more blood being shed,” Hersh added. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised speech that Ukraine had fired US-supplied ATACMS missiles and the UK’s Storm Shadows at facilities in the Kursk and Bryansk regions. In response, Russia launched a strike against a defense industry facility, the Yuzhmash plant, in Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipro) on November 21, using its newest medium-range missile, dubbed Oreshnik. Moscow also updated its nuclear doctrine earlier in the week.On November 25, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby confirmed that Ukraine was allowed to use US-made ATACMS ballistic missiles to fire at targets in the western Russian region of Kursk.

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It’s unelected people like Borrell and Ursula that are the gravest danger.

• Future of EU ‘In Danger’ – Borrell (RT)

The future of the EU is in jeopardy at a time of multiple crises beyond its borders and doubts over defense guarantees from the US, Brussels’ outgoing foreign policy chief said on Monday. Josep Borrell painted an alarming picture of the state of world affairs when marking the release of a collection of his speeches and essays titled ‘Europe in the Arc of Fire.’ He listed conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Africa among the key factors threatening global security. “The events we have had to face during the last several months have – unfortunately – confirmed the diagnosis made earlier: Europe is in danger,” Borrell wrote on his office’s website. “Our geopolitical environment is deteriorating, and conflicts and crises are multiplying on our doorstep. From Ukraine to the Middle East, via South Caucasus, the Horn of Africa or the Sahel,” he added.

“All of this against a backdrop where the future US commitment to European security is becoming much more uncertain.” The diplomat argued that Washington’s commitment “for Europe’s security as a whole has become more uncertain for the future,” given the re-election of Donald Trump. “Our well-being and future cannot continue to depend on the mood of US voters in the Midwest every four years,” Borrell wrote, urging the bloc’s member states to boost their own defense. He further stated that there was “a serious risk” that the Ukraine conflict “could help to solidify a coalition of the ‘rest against the West.’”

He pointed to last month’s BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, and stressed that such a coalition could also “materialize” in the Sahel, with UN peacekeepers leaving Mali in late 2023. BRICS (originally BRIC) was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China. The group’s members have refused to impose sanctions on Moscow over its conflict with Kiev and continue to advocate for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis. Russia and China have deepened economic ties in recent years, describing their relations as a “strategic partnership.” The two nuclear superpowers have also opposed the “unilateralism” of the US-led NATO alliance and said they wish to participate in the formation of a fairer model of international relations.

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“Pray that Putin’s patience holds even at the risk of his own country.”

• The Utter and Total Insanity of Western “Leadership” (Paul Craig Roberts)

Since my strong warning yesterday of the stupidity and insanity of Western leaders who are without any doubt driving the world to nuclear Armageddon, the hyper dangerous situation has further deteriorated. While we all look forward to Thanksgiving holiday, the leadership of the Western world is setting us up for death. The insanity of the West is so extreme as to be incomprehensible. Not satisfied by taking the US and Europe to war with Russia by firing missiles into Russia, the NATO military committee is openly discussing preemptive missile strikes on Russia. This is extraordinary. At the present moment it is only Putin’s patience that stands between life and death on planet Earth. Putin is willing to tolerate the West’s provocations in the face of his clear warning until Trump assumes the presidency and indicates whether a mutual security agreement between the US and Russia is possible.

With life on earth dependent on Putin’s patience with the West, what does the West do? The NATO Military Committee openly discusses a preemptive attack on Russia. To be effective, the attack would have to be nuclear. Admiral Rob Bauer, the insane fool who is head of the NATO military committee, said publicly that NATO has changed its attitude and is no longer the defense organization that its charter defines it to be. It has become a first strike force. Here are his words: “It is more competent not to wait, but to hit launchers in Russia in case Russia attacks us. A combination of precision strikes is needed that will disable the systems that are used to attack us, and we must strike first.” If not insanity, it is the triumph of evil that the West tells Putin, whose patience is the only guarantor of avoidance of nuclear war, that NATO is considering preemptive strikes on Russia.

My warning yesterday and my denunciation of the stupidly insane Western “leaders” who have us slated for total destruction was not strong enough. We now have NATO, a puppet organization of Washington, telling Putin to expect a first strike attack to prevent him from making good on his warning about starting a war with Russia. For a person of my generation, such callous disregard for human life as Western “leaders” proclaim is incomprehensible. With nuclear war on the table, the task is to defuse the threat, not to inflame it. But the insane West has chosen to inflame it. And the people of the West are unaware. The media lies to them and withholds real information. Those few of us who bring reality to the people barely receive enough support to keep the website operating. For our troubles we are called names and are subject to the FBI calling on us.

Right now with the world on the cusp of destruction, what are Americans thinking about? Will Thanksgiving be ruined by political differences between Trump supporters and Democrats? How is my college football team doing? Is my 12-year old daughter taking her birth control pills? Can I make my car payment next month? Is my boss going to fire me because I am a white male and used the wrong pronoun for a transgendered co-worker. These, and such, are the concerns of Americans as their “leaders’ lead them to the brink of nuclear war. Dear readers, be assured that the Russians have noted these latest threats. Pray that Putin’s patience holds even at the risk of his own country.

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“..a continued commitment to American primacy was ineluctably going to prove a commitment to one or another degree of disorder..”

• Biden’s ‘Samson Option’ (Patrick Lawrence)

It has been clear since the terror attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001 — the date I choose to mark a great turn in the global order — that America’s abdication of its postwar hegemony was to rank high among the 21st century’s defining events. The questions from that day onward have been how the policy cliques in Washington would respond to such a change in America’s place in the community of nations and what they might do — how great the risks they would take — to avoid, or at least forestall, this world-historical shift. How chaotically or otherwise, to put this question another way, would the arrival of a new, post–American world order prove? We have just witnessed a week’s worth of shocking provocations as the U.S. and Britain escalate their proxy war against Russia under the pretense of defending Ukraine in a war that is already lost.

Washington and London — the latter with the former’s assent — have now authorized the grossly irresponsible regime in Kiev to fire American– and British-made missiles into Russian territory. The Ukrainians wasted no time doing so. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) launched a volley of U.S.–made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles at Russian targets last Tuesday. A day later the AFU fired a similar barrage of British-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory. The degree of planning and coordination behind these attacks seems to me self-evident. Nobody in Washington, London, or Kiev is commenting on the targets hit, but these, too, were without question chosen after careful consultation. Moscow has responded just as it said it would weeks ago. It now considers itself at war with the Western powers and, last Thursday, attacked a Ukrainian target with a new-generation hypersonic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The message could scarcely be clearer — providing, I must add, one is capable of reading it accurately. So we now have answers to the above-noted questions. It was never difficult to foresee that those planning and executing U.S. foreign policy, lacking all imagination and anything remotely resembling courage, would prove incapable of an orderly transition to a multipolar world order. After the Sept. 11 events, a continued commitment to American primacy was ineluctably going to prove a commitment to one or another degree of disorder. The Biden regime’s latest escalation of its proxy war in Ukraine indicates the limits of this commitment: There are none. We are now on notice that the world — bitter to write this — is condemned to unceasing chaos and violence so long as the American imperium’s ideologues are capable of mounting a resistance against the world as it struggles to be.

We know now the risks those devoted to prolonging the imperium’s final phase will take in defense of the no-longer-defensible: All risks are acceptable as they cling to power. They will risk another world war; they will risk nuclear annihilation. We hear a lot these days about the Israeli doctrine known as the Samson Option, whereby the Israelis, if they thought themselves under an existential threat, would use their nuclear arsenal to bring the world down with them. Those freak-show terrorists running the Zionist state, you might say: Who or what could be more diabolic?

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“With everything—literally everything—at stake, you might think that averting thermonuclear war between the world’s two nuclear superpowers [..] would be high on a president’s to-do list.”

• From Genocide Joe to Omnicide Joe (Solomon)

President Biden has never wavered from approving huge arms shipments to Israel during more than 13 months of mass murder and deliberate starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Biden’s crucial role earned him the name “Genocide Joe.” That nickname might seem shrill, but it’s valid. Although Biden will not be brought to justice for serving as a key accomplice to the horrific crimes against humanity that continue in Gaza, the label sticks—and candid historians will condemn him as a direct enabler of genocide. Biden could also qualify for another nickname, which according to Google was never published before this article: “Omnicide Joe.” In contrast to the Genocide Joe sobriquet, which events have already proven apt, Omnicide Joe is a bit anticipatory. That’s inevitable, because if the cascading effects of his foreign policy end up as key factors in nuclear annihilation, historians will not be around to assess his culpability for omnicide—defined as “the destruction of all life or all human life.”

That definition scarcely overstates what scientists tell us would result from an exchange of nuclear weapons. Researchers have discovered that “nuclear winter” would quickly set in across the globe, blotting out sunlight and wiping out agriculture, with a human survival rate of perhaps 1 or 2 percent. While Russia’s invasion and horrible war in Ukraine should be condemned, Biden has compounded Putin’s crimes by giving much higher priority to Washington’s cold-war mania than to negotiation for peace—or to mitigation of escalating risks of nuclear war. With everything—literally everything—at stake, you might think that averting thermonuclear war between the world’s two nuclear superpowers, Russia and the United States, would be high on a president’s to-do list. But that hardly has been the case with Joe Biden since he first pulled up a chair at the Oval Office desk.

In fact, Biden has done a lot during the first years of this decade to inflame the realistic fears of nuclear war. His immediate predecessor Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of two vital treaties — Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces and Open Skies — and Biden did nothing to reinstate them. Likewise, Trump killed the Iran nuclear deal negotiated during the Obama administration, and Biden let it stay dead. Instead of fulfilling his 2020 campaign promise to adopt a U.S. policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons, two years ago Biden signed off on the Nuclear Posture Review policy document that explicitly declares the opposite. Last year, under the euphemism of “modernization,” the U.S. government spent $51 billion — more than every other nuclear-armed country combined — updating and sustaining its nuclear arsenal, gaining profligate momentum in a process that’s set to continue for decades to come.

Before and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Biden showed a distinct lack of interest in actual diplomacy to prevent the war or to end it. Three days before the invasion, writing in the Financial Times, Jeffrey Sachs pointed out: “Biden has said repeatedly that the U.S. is open to diplomacy with Russia, but on the issue that Moscow has most emphasized—NATO enlargement—there has been no American diplomacy at all. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has repeatedly demanded that the U.S. forswear NATO’s enlargement into Ukraine, while Biden has repeatedly asserted that membership of the alliance is Ukraine’s choice.” While Russia’s invasion and horrible war in Ukraine should be condemned, Biden has compounded Putin’s crimes by giving much higher priority to Washington’s cold-war mania than to negotiation for peace—or to mitigation of escalating risks of nuclear war.

From the outset, Biden scarcely acknowledged that the survival of humanity was put at higher risk by the Ukraine war. In his first State of the Union speech, a week after the invasion, Biden devoted much of his oratory to the Ukraine conflict without saying a word about the heightened danger that it might trigger the use of nuclear weapons. During the next three months, the White House posted more than 60 presidential statements, documents and communiques about the war in Ukraine. They all shared with his State of the Union address a stunning characteristic — the complete absence of any mention of nuclear weapons or nuclear war dangers—even though many experts gauged those dangers as being the worst they’d been since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. With everything—literally everything—at stake, you might think that averting thermonuclear war between the world’s two nuclear superpowers, Russia and the United States, would be high on a president’s to-do list.

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“Revenues from premium subscriptions nearly quadrupled, and advertising revenues roughly doubled in the first six months of 2024..”

• Telegram Revenues Booming – FT (RT)

Messaging app Telegram posted significant financial growth in the first half of the year, with revenues driven by strong performance in its cryptocurrency holdings, the Financial Times (FT) has reported, citing the tech company’s disclosures. The gains have buoyed the messenger amid legal challenges faced by CEO Pavel Durov, the outlet noted. The messenger’s digital assets rose to $1.3 billion in January-June from nearly $400 million at the end of last year, the FT wrote on Tuesday, citing unaudited financial statements. The value of Toncoin, Telegram’s own digital token, more than tripled over the stated period, according to trading data. The crypto gains helped create a financial buffer for the Dubai-based company just before it was shaken by Durov’s arrest in France in August, the FT noted.

Telegram’s revenues were up 190% from the first half of last year, amounting to $525 million, according to the documents. Nearly half of the income came from a one-time deal with an unnamed party, which allowed Toncoin to be the exclusive method for small businesses to buy advertising on the app, according to the publication. The exclusivity agreement was terminated on October 1, it added. Revenues from premium subscriptions nearly quadrupled, and advertising revenues roughly doubled in the first six months of 2024, according to Telegram’s financial disclosures.

Russian tech entrepreneur Durov, who is also a citizen of France, the UAE and Saint Kitts and Nevis, was arrested after landing in Paris in late August and charged with multiple offenses, including complicity in distributing child porn, drug dealing, and money laundering. The charges stem from the accusation that Telegram’s lax moderation rules allow for the widespread misuse of the messenger service. Durov was later released on bail of €5 million ($5.5 million) in early September, but has been banned from leaving France while his case is ongoing. Some of the charges against him could carry sentences of up to ten years. The businessman has vehemently denied the accusations. Durov revealed last month that the messenger service had been complying with privacy policies in several countries and had been disclosing information about criminals to authorities for the past six years.

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“A merkin is an artificial hairpiece once used to cover the pubic area..”

• Musk Hits Merkel ‘Below The Belt’ – German Media (RT)

Elon Musk has directed what Bild has called a “below the belt” insult at former German Chancellor Angela Merkel after she criticized him for being too influential in both politics and space. “Who is this Angela Merkin person?” Musk posted on X in response. A merkin is an artificial hairpiece once used to cover the pubic area. Musk’s use of it was unlikely to be a misspelling: he had posted about merkins in 2019, urging people not to search for the term because it’s not safe for work. Merkel, who led her country from 2005 to 2021, has just published a memoir (Freedom: Memories 1945-2021), which hit German bookstores on Tuesday. Promoting the book in an interview last weekend, she criticized Musk’s Starlink program. “If a person like him [Musk] owns 60% of all satellites orbiting in space, then that has to be a huge concern for us in addition to the political issues,” Merkel told Der Spiegel on Friday.

Musk’s SpaceX operates the satellite internet provider Starlink, which has over 6,000 satellites in orbit. One of its most prominent clients is Ukraine, which uses Starlink for military communications. Although Musk made the cheeky post on Sunday, German media only noticed on Tuesday. Bild called it a “below the belt” insult, while Der Spiegel refrained from descriptions but used the notoriety to promote the Merkel interview as well as another article about Musk, which dubbed him “Public enemy number two.” “It is questionable whether Musk read the entire interview,” the German tabloid wrote. “At least he took note of one of the Spiegel articles about him.”

This is not the first time Musk has insulted German politicians. On November 7, when the ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition imploded, he called Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “fool” (ein Narr). He used the same term for Economy Minister Robert Habeck three days later, after the leader of the Greens argued that algorithms running social media platforms (such as X) should be regulated by EU laws. The world’s richest man has also become a prominent adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, after helping his re-election bid. Together with Vivek Ramaswamy, he is due to lead the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE), charged with slashing the size of American bureaucracy.

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A podcast host gets discussed in the press. We’ve come a long way. Then again, he has the audience the MSM does not have.

• Joe Rogan Launches Tirade Against Zelensky (RT)

American podcast host Joe Rogan has hammered Joe Biden for allowing Ukraine to launch missile attacks deep behind Russia’s borders, accusing the US president and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky of trying to provoke a world war before Donald Trump takes office. Biden reportedly gave Ukraine permission last week to use long-range US-provided ATACMS missiles to attack targets in internationally-recognized Russian territory. Kiev carried out its first such strike on Russia’s Bryansk Region on Tuesday, followed by an attack on Kursk Region using British Storm Shadow cruise missiles the following day. “How are you allowed to do that when you’re on your way out?” Rogan asked on Friday’s installment of ‘The Joe Rogan Experience.’ ”The people don’t want you to be there any more,” he added. “There should be some sort of pause for significant actions that could potentially start World War III. Maybe that would be a good thing that we would like to avoid from a dying former president.”

“Zelensky says [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is terrified,” Rogan continued. “F**k you, man. F**k you people. You f**king people are about to start World War III.” Russia responded to last week’s strikes by using a newly-developed hypersonic ballistic missile to rain multiple warheads down on a Ukrainian military industrial facility in Dnepropetrovsk. In a speech on Thursday evening, Putin warned that further attacks on Russian soil would be met with retaliatory strikes on targets of Moscow’s choosing, which could include the military facilities of countries providing Kiev with long-range weapons. Moscow considers ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes escalatory, Putin said, as these weapons cannot be fired “without the direct involvement of military experts from the manufacturing nations.” Rogan noted that Russia’s latest ballistic missile can carry a nuclear payload, stating that “if it does, the whole world changes.”

“It changes because of the military industrial complex and it changes because of the money that’s going to Ukraine, and it changes because the outgoing president – or whoever the f**k is actually running the country – has decided to do something f**king insane,” he exclaimed. Rogan endorsed Trump shortly before this month’s election, after the then-candidate appeared on his podcast. Trump, who takes office in less than 60 days, has vowed to push Zelensky and Putin into a peace deal, but has not revealed how he plans to achieve this. Rogan’s comments were condemned by pro-Kiev pundits, including Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Vladimir Klitschko. In a post on X on Sunday, Klitschko claimed that Putin is “in trouble” and any concern that he may retaliate is “Russian propaganda.” “Does this make sense to anyone or just an attempt to get on the podcast?” Rogan responded.

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“..Russia built it together with constructively minded Europeans, and the Anglo-Americans blew it up..”

• US and UK ‘Directly Involved’ In Nord Stream Sabotage – Russia’s Spy Chief (RT)

The US and British intelligence services were involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has said. The key energy connector, built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe, was ruptured by explosions at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in September 2022. “It has long been known that the West uses international terrorism as a tool to achieve its geopolitical goals. However, the Western intelligence agencies themselves also do not hesitate to resort to terrorist methods in fighting their opponents,” Naryshkin told the heads of security agencies and intelligence services from former Soviet republics on Tuesday. According to the Russian spy chief, the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines was one example of such methods.

“The SVR possesses information about a direct involvement of professional saboteurs from the Anglo-American special services in this terrorist attack,” he stated. Naryshkin noted that Nord Stream was a joint project between companies from Russia and other European countries, intended to provide for “an uninterrupted supply of affordable Russian gas to Europe.” “Meaning that Russia built it together with constructively minded Europeans, and the Anglo-Americans blew it up,” he said. The SVR head insisted that “destroying Nord Stream was an obsession not only of the Democratic, but also of the Republican administration in the US.”

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“..a tangle of inconsistencies, contradictions, fabrications, stonewalling, and lies..”

• Skripal Grave Gives Up The Truth (Helmer)

On March 1, 2018, Alexander Skripal would have turned 44 years old. But he couldn’t celebrate his birthday with father Sergei Skripal and sister Yulia because Alexander was dead. He died on July 18, 2017; his body cremated in St Petersburg; his ashes buried at the London Road Cemetery at Salisbury, beside his mother, Lyudmila Skripal. To honour Alexander’s birthday, his father and sister drove to the cemetery on Sunday morning, March 4, 2018. The distance from their home in Salisbury to the cemetery is less than five kilometres; depending on the route and the traffic, the drive can take less than ten minutes. Early on that cold wintry day, the journey would have taken less time. The Skripals’ journey, their evidence of what happened, and the police testimony, which has followed in the hearings of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, reveal a tangle of inconsistencies, contradictions, fabrications, stonewalling, and lies. This tangle is proof enough that the British Government narrative of the Russian Novichok attack has collapsed. The truth can be found in the rubble.

A Sunday morning witness named John Hiles, “a retired minister”, told the police “he was following the victim’s vehicle southbound on A30 London Road.” The southbound direction in the police report indicates the Skripals were driving from the cemetery back towards their home – unless the witness and the policeman confused their north and south directions. The BBC reported on September 27, 2018, that there had been not one but several witness sightings of the Skripal car driving on the route between their home and the cemetery on Sunday morning. What exactly happened at the cemetery that morning was witnessed by no one except the Skripals. In six years of police interview records released publicly to the Sturgess Inquiry, there is no trace the police asked either of them to explain how they had spent their morning before the attack on the Sunday afternoon. If the police asked the question, the record of the answers Sergei and Yulia Skripal gave has been kept secret.

However, the police made a “forensic management record” reporting evidence from a source the police report doesn’t identify: “Sergey and Yulia Skripal attended the graves of family members on the morning of the incident.” The only source for this police report was either Sergei or Yulia Skripal, or both of them. Contradicting this is a police report, titled “Selective Timeline of Sergei and Yulia Skripal”, claiming “Yulia states that neither she nor Sergei left the house on the morning of 4th March.” In the version of this 11-page report presented to the Sturgess Inquiry, computer activity is recorded on devices of both Sergei and Yulia from 08:27 until 13:10. However, the pages of the report recording the early morning hours of Sunday are missing; only five of the eleven pages have been revealed publicly. The police report claiming the Skripals did not go to Alexander Skripal’s grave that Sunday morning is dated April 1, 2018. The date of the police record saying the Skripals did go to the cemetery is May 23, 2018. Almost two months of police operations elapsed before the evidence was switched.

Compare Tim Norman’s detailed timeline of the Skripal movements and his analysis of mainstream media reporting of what the police, intelligence services, and government officials were leaking, published in November 2022. Norman warns that neither he nor his publisher “is assessing the sources quoted as trustworthy.” The police also claim the Skripals’ mobile telephones were switched off throughout the fateful Sunday morning until past 13:00; they leaked this information to the media. During the Skripals’ telephone silence that morning, this police report reveals they were sent three SMS messages which were in code. Between 10:16 and 10:22 two messages came in from CIK; one from SNOWQUEEN. The police also record that Sergei Skripal’s next-door neighbour telephoned his home landline number at 10:32 to arrange a plumbing repair. Sergei reportedly replied he “wouldn’t be in between 4:00hrs and 1700 hrs”.

Chief Metropolitan Police investigator Commander Dominic Murphy claims the absence of police evidence of the Skripals’ movements on Sunday morning is evidence that they didn’t move out of their house. “No further activity on the devices attributed to the Skripals until they were found in the Maltings. This indicated that the Skripals were at their home from the time that Ross and Maureen Cassidy dropped them off [Saturday March 3] until they left to go into the centre of town on 4 March 2018.” The MI6 version of the Sunday morning, reported by Mark Urban, says that “inasmuch as Sergei had a regular ‘pattern of life’, a Sunday morning visit to the London Road cemetery was often part of it”. — page 262. Urban published this in September 2019. He and his MI6 sources didn’t realize the police were switching their stories.

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“..this technology could become “the key for China to win future wars.”

• China Creates Coating Making Warplanes Invisible to Anti-Stealth Radars (Sp.)

Chinese military scientists have developed a stealth material for aircraft and other defense equipment that minimizes their visibility for anti-stealth radars, Chinese media reported on Monday. The South China Morning Post newspaper reported that the new material, unveiled by the National University of Defense Technology, can convert electromagnetic waves with wavelengths from 2.3 feet to 0.6 feet into heat, which effectively covers the operating bandwidths of most current anti-stealth radars, specifically the P-band and L-band. The new material is lightweight, flexible and easy to produce in large quantities, making it suitable for covering aircraft or other weapon platforms requiring stealth capabilities, the newspaper said.

Scientists have said that the new material was cost-effective and could be used in various types of military equipment. They believe that this technology could become “the key for China to win future wars.” China currently holds the majority of the world’s patents in metamaterials.

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“..an exercise in consumption and waste..”

• F-35 is Modern Rube Goldberg Machine, Musk is Right to Criticize It (Sp.)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter “an expensive and complex jack of all trades, master of none.” What does he mean? “The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level because it was required to be too many things to too many people,” tweeted Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was picked by President-elect Donald Trump to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency. “Manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed,” he added. Musk is correct in his assessment of the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former Pentagon analyst, tells Sputnik.

“The F-35 is very nearly a modern Rube Goldberg machine [a contraption that does a very basic job in a complicated way – Sputnik] – with many parts that drive whole new requirements, and new remedies,” Kwiatkowski says. The program will cost more than $2 trillion, becoming one of the most expensive in US history, according to the Government Accountability Office. Despite this, the US military continues to discover new technical risks that cost American taxpayers more money. “[The F-35] was designed, much as the last tranches of US aid to Ukraine in the Biden administration, more of an exercise in consumption and waste as the current military leadership wonders how to get out of its 60 year productivity and performance rut,” Kwiatkowski says.

The F-35 has repeatedly come under heavy criticism: • X influencer Mario Nawfal appears to share Musk’s skepticism: “China is building swarm drones,” Nawfal tweeted. “Meanwhile some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35,” he quoted Musk • Matt Gaetz, a former US congressman and Trump pick for attorney general, called the F-35 “a $100 million paperweight” earlier this year • Adam Smith, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, dubbed the F-35 a “rathole” in March 2021.

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Mailman

 

 

Mr Fox
https://twitter.com/i/status/1861058797286089136

 

 

Cub

 

 

Giraffe
https://twitter.com/i/status/1861210763467149605

 

 

Cat duck
https://twitter.com/i/status/1861072355373834322

 

 

Hippo

 

 

Elephant
https://twitter.com/i/status/1861238445814718518

 

 

That time

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle November 26 2024

Nov 262024
 
 November 26, 2024  Posted by at 9:45 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  71 Responses »


Caravaggio Burial of St. Lucy 1608

 

• Zaluzhny Claims ‘World War 3 Has Officially Begun’ (ZH)
• NATO Admiral Urges Businesses To Prepare For ‘Wartime Scenario’ (RT)
• Kremlin Comments On Trump Team’s Ukraine Positioning (RT)
• Britain, France Discussing Deployment Of Troops To Ukraine – Le Monde (RT)
• Biden Going Out With a Bang (Michael Moore)
• Trump Announces 25% Tariff For Canada, Mexico; Ramps Up Tariffs On China (ZH)
• Jan. 6 Investigation Looks Less and Less Credible (Turley)
• The End of the World Frolics (James Howard Kunstler)
• What Ails America—And How to Fix It (Jeffrey Sachs)
• Jack Smith Drops Trump Election Case, Classified Documents Appeal (ET)
• Trump Nominees Gabbard, Hegseth Will Face Grilling in Congress (ET)
• How To Cut $2 Trillion of Fat, Muscle, Bone From the Federal Budget (Stockman)
• Trump To Kick Trans Soldiers Out of Army – Times (RT)
• US Lawmakers Want Federal Employees Needing ‘Trump Therapy’ Ousted (RT)
• Petition Demanding UK General Election Hits 2 Million Signatures (RMX)
• The ICC Warrants and the World They Announce (Patrick Lawrence)
• ICC Arrest Warrant For Netanyahu Is Really An Indictment Of The West (Amar)
• The Novichok Show Trial – All Over Bar The Shouting (Helmer)

 

 

 

 

Tucker
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860855911864230331

Obama

Rogan

 

 

 

 

“I don’t think anybody in this room should be under any illusion that if the Russians invaded Eastern Europe tonight, then we would meet them in that fight.” Say that again?

• Zaluzhny Claims ‘World War 3 Has Officially Begun’ (ZH)

Former military Commander-in-Chief and Ukraine’s current ambassador to the UK, Valery Zaluzhny, has warned that World War Three is already underway in a recent interview published by Politico. “I believe that in 2024 we can absolutely believe that the Third World War has begun,” he said. He referenced the greater internationalization of the war with the presence of North Korean troops, and Iranian technology on the battlefield, as well as Chinese support to Moscow. “It is obvious that Ukraine already has too many enemies. Ukraine will survive with technology, but it is not clear whether it can win this battle alone,” he explained, also on the heels of Western allies approving Kiev’s long-range strikes against Russian territory with US, UK, and French missiles. Zaluzhny claimed in the interview that Chinese weapons are being injected into the conflict alongside Iranian and North Korean arms.

“Because in 2024, Ukraine is no longer facing Russia. Soldiers from North Korea are standing in front of Ukraine. Let’s be honest. Already in Ukraine, the Iranian ‘Shahedis’ are killing civilians absolutely openly, without any shame.” “It is still possible to stop it here, on the territory of Ukraine. But for some reason our partners do not want to understand this. It is obvious that Ukraine already has too many enemies. Ukraine will survive with technology, but it is not clear whether it can win this battle alone,” he said. But it’s certainly not merely the Russian side which has had outside assistance. The West’s support to Ukraine has been much more direct, including billions of dollars in weaponry. F-16 fighter jets, anti-air systems, and medium and long-range missiles have been given to Ukraine, along with training for all of these systems.

Western advisers have without doubt also long been on the ground assisting Ukrainian intelligence and military officers. Moscow has cited all of this as what’s driving escalation. Meanwhile, Rob Magowan, the deputy chief of the British defense staff, told the House of Commons defense committee last week, “If the British Army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight.” He added, “I don’t think anybody in this room should be under any illusion that if the Russians invaded Eastern Europe tonight, then we would meet them in that fight.” At the same time Washington has also been escalating, seeking to send as much in the way of arms and money to Kiev as the Biden administration can before Trump takes office on Jan.20. Critics have blasted this as reckless and an obvious recipe for runaway escalation.

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Hammer meet nail. Everything is war:

“Business leaders in Europe and America need to realize that the commercial decisions they make have strategic consequences for the security of their nation..”

• NATO Admiral Urges Businesses To Prepare For ‘Wartime Scenario’ (RT)

Businesses in NATO countries should prepare themselves for a “wartime scenario” and adjust their production lines and supply chains to be less vulnerable to blackmail by nations such as Russia and China, the outgoing chief of the US-led bloc’s military committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, said on Monday. Speaking at a European Policy Center think-tank event in Brussels, he urged Western industries and businesses to implement deterrence measures. “If we can make sure that all crucial services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of our deterrence,” Bauer argued. “Businesses need to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly. Because while it may be the military who wins battles, it’s the economies that win wars,” the NATO official said.

He mentioned China and Russia in the context of how he believes wars are waged in the economic sphere. “We thought we had a deal with Gazprom, but we actually had a deal with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he stated, apparently referring to the drop in Russian gas supplies to the EU, which took place after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. At the time, the EU declared that ending its reliance on Russian energy was a key priority, and many members voluntarily halted their imports, while supplies also plunged due to the sabotage of Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines.

American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh blamed the sabotage on the CIA, alleging that the agency had carried out the attack under the direct orders of the White House – an allegation it has denied. Bauer then extended his warning to China, claiming that Beijing could use its exports to NATO states and the infrastructure that it owns in Europe as leverage in the event of a conflict. “We are naive if we think the [Chinese] Communist Party will never use that power. Business leaders in Europe and America need to realize that the commercial decisions they make have strategic consequences for the security of their nation,” the official claimed. It is unclear what “wartime” Bauer is predicting in his statements.

NATO has long declared Russia to be a direct threat, and Western officials have repeatedly claimed that if Moscow is allowed to win the conflict in Ukraine, it could then attack other European countries. Russia has dismissed these claims as nonsense. Restrictions that Moscow introduced in trade with the West have largely come in response to unprecedented economic sanctions placed on the country in connection with the Ukraine conflict. Beijing has also faced its share of trade barriers and restrictions introduced by Western states, and introduced similar measures in response. According to most experts, including many in the West, the sanctions policy has backfired on Western economies, leading to supply shortages and inflation.

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“..talking about securing peace in Ukraine, unlike the White House under Joe Biden..”

• Kremlin Comments On Trump Team’s Ukraine Positioning (RT)

Supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump and those who have been nominated for roles in his administration are talking about securing peace in Ukraine, unlike the White House under Joe Biden, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Speaking to reporters during a conference call on Monday, Peskov was asked to comment on a statement by incoming National Security Advisor Michael Waltz over the weekend. The Florida congressman said in an interview with Fox News that Donald Trump was “incredibly concerned” with the “carnage” that is taking place in the Ukraine conflict, and that the next administration would work towards facilitating talks between Moscow and Kiev with a view to securing a ceasefire. “We need to be discussing who is at the table, whether there is an agreement, an armistice, how to get both sides to the table, and then what’s the framework of a deal,” Waltz said, noting that Washington’s allies in Europe would also be involved in the process.

Peskov responded by acknowledging that Trump supporters and members of the president-elect’s team often use the words ‘peace’ and ‘peace plan’. “Such words are not heard from the mouths of representatives of the current administration,” the spokesman noted, adding that the Biden administration only continues taking provocative steps that lead towards further escalation. He also recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “repeatedly confirmed his readiness for a peace process.” In June, Putin set out a list of conditions for the immediate commencement of negotiations with Kiev, which included the complete removal of Ukrainian troops from all Russian territories, as well as legal guarantees that Ukraine would commit to neutrality and abandon its hopes of joining NATO.

Kiev rejected these demands, with Vladimir Zelelnsky refusing to make any territorial concessions to Russia. Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly vowed to quickly put an end to the Ukraine conflict once he enters office, but has not revealed the details of his plan for resolving the crisis. Media reports have suggested that he may try to force Ukraine to drop its NATO ambitions and negotiate a freeze of the conflict. Moscow, however, has ruled out freezing the conflict, and insisted that it would achieve all the objectives of its military operation one way or another.

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Two terribly unpopular “leaders” think war can save them.

• Britain, France Discussing Deployment Of Troops To Ukraine – Le Monde (RT)

The UK and France have “reactivated” talks on sending troops to Ukraine, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Monday. The idea has already caused a rift among Europe’s NATO members. Back in February, French President Emmanuel Macron caused controversy by declaring his willingness to send ground troops to Ukraine “to prevent Russia from winning this war.” The statement was quickly disavowed by NATO officials, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters that Ukraine’s Western backers were “unanimous” in their opposition to the idea. The plan was seemingly shelved, Le Monde has reported, until British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Paris earlier this month. Citing anonymous sources, the French newspaper claimed that talks on a possible Franco-British deployment to Ukraine were “reactivated” by Starmer and Macron.

No further information was provided, and Le Monde speculated that this deployment could range from both nations sending private-sector technicians to repair military equipment (as Britain already does), to private military contractors (as Russia insists that France does), to flag-wearing personnel on the ground, either on the front line or to enforce an eventual ceasefire and peace deal. ‘British and French officials have both suggested that some sort of deployment could be in the works. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told British state broadcaster the BBC this weekend that Paris is “not ruling out any option” when asked directly about the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine.

A British military source told Le Monde that “discussions are underway between the United Kingdom and France regarding defense cooperation, particularly with the aim of creating a core group of allies in Europe, focused on Ukraine and broader European security.” Russia has long claimed that Western special forces personnel are active in Ukraine, and Russian President Valdimir Putin has noted that Ukraine cannot fire long-range missiles into Russian territory without the assistance of Western experts. When American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles were used in attacks on internationally-recognized Russian territory last week, Putin warned that the Ukraine conflict had “assumed elements of a global nature.”

Western media outlets have been reticent to mention the role of NATO personnel in assisting these attacks. However, Le Monde admitted that “it is not possible for the Ukrainians to use this type of missile without some form of Western support on the ground.” France has given Ukraine permission to use its Storm Shadow (called the SCALP-EG in France) cruise missiles in long-range strikes on Russia, but it is unclear if they have actually been used yet. Russia reserves the right to strike the military facilities of countries that allow their weapons to be used against it, Putin continued, adding that “there will always be a response” to attacks on Russian soil. The Russian military responded to the ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes by firing a new hypersonic ballistic missile – the nuclear-capable Oreshnik – at a Ukrainian military industrial facility in Dnepropetrovsk.

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“The only country speaking out in favor of more death and destruction was the one you and I are citizens of. This is your legacy, Joe?”

• Biden Going Out With a Bang (Michael Moore)

Dear Joe,

What have you been doing? I saw you went to the rain forest. That looked cool. I loved how at the end you just turned away and walked into the jungle as if never to be seen from again. All Presidencies should end this way. A little over a month ago, I sent you a nice letter with some suggestions for how you could use the rest of your time as President of the United States of America. Things like canceling student debt once and for all, closing Guantanamo, freeing Cuba, freeing Leonard Peltier and pardoning Snowden and doing other good deeds. Instead of doing any of these, you have done none of them. In fact, if I’m reading the news right, you’re going in the opposite direction. My suggestions were all about cementing your status as a “Great President” — about shaping your legacy, making you an unforgettable figure in the pantheon of all 44 white men who’ve presided over this country before you (and also your former boss).

You on the other hand seem to be trying to cement your legacy as a war monger — doubling down on some of your worst mistakes and worst impulses. So I’ll ask again, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Donald Trump just won the election. In two months, you’ll hand him the keys to the White House and the pin number for the alarm system. And you will be out of time. Instead of using your precious little time left to do something to HELP THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, your first action after Trump won was to fast track the delivery of over $6 Billion in weapons to Ukraine. Then, you called up Zelensky and gave him the green light to start firing long range ballistic missiles into a country with a massive amount of nuclear weapons, Russia. Then, as if that weren’t enough carnage for one week, you authorized the use of antipersonnel land mines in Russia.

LAND MINES, Joe? Seriously? THIS is your legacy? This is how you want to go out? In a blaze of horror? Like, if Joe’s gotta go, we all gotta go with him… right into World War III? Joe — America has spent well over a BILLION DOLLARS removing landmines from places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (you know, the places we invade and then leave our landmines behind). Vietnam was 50 years ago, Joe. And kids today in southeast Asia are still getting their arms blown off by our landmines. That’s your legacy, Joe. This is what you’re doing. This week, 19 brave Democrats rose in the Senate and voted in favor of halting a shipment of weapons to Israel. And what did the Biden White House do? You lobbied against these Democratic Senators. You were scared that others would join them, pleading with Schumer and the others to vote them down, to shut them up, to keep arming this slaughter in Gaza and the West Bank and Lebanon.

So you decided to slander this group of Senators from your own party. You said that by halting these armaments to Israel, these Democrats were on the side of Hamas. Also this week, at the United Nations, 14 of the 15 members of the Security Council voted in favor of an IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE in Gaza. Fourteen of Fifteen, Joe. And your administration cast that 15th lone vote to veto a chance for peace. America once again single handedly blocked the ceasefire. The only country speaking out in favor of more death and destruction was the one you and I are citizens of. This is your legacy, Joe?

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“..Trump reminded everyone who is in charge tonight with drugs and open borders as his main focus..”

• Trump Announces 25% Tariff For Canada, Mexico; Ramps Up Tariffs On China (ZH)

Just when you thought his choice of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary had tamped down the market’s “tariff tensions”, President-Elect Trump reminded everyone who is in charge tonight with drugs and open borders as his main focus. In a statement on his Truth Social account, Trump swung the hammer against Mexico, Canada…

“As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before. Right now a Caravan coming from Mexico, composed of thousands of people, seems to be unstoppable in its quest to come through our currently Open Border. On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders. This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”

…and of course China… “I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail. Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our Country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before. Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

As a reminder, Fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid, has been linked to around 100,000 deaths annually in the United States, with much of the flow of the deadly drug coming from south of the border. A damning report released earlier this year by the U.S. House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party found that the Chinese regime was facilitating the proliferation of fentanyl in the United States. Additionally, Trump has previously vowed to end China’s most-favored-nation trading status and impose tariffs in excess of 60 percent on China-made goods. The initial reaction to Trump’s threatening posts was a surge higher in the dollar, erasing the weekend’s losses (following Bessent’s appointment) with the peso and loonie both tumbling along with the offshore yuan…

Stocks also dropped in Japan, Australia and SouthKorea, with US futures modestly higher. Goldman’s research team suggests this FX reaction is perhaps a little overdone: This seems to be more eased vs. what market has generally expected… and the less hawkish pick of Treasury head also said to roll out the tariffs in layers (which means the 10% mentioned by Trump just now is indeed a beginning but still more gentle than market expectation).

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“..it would be a rather curious attempt at an insurrection if Trump was suggesting the use of thousands of troops to prevent any breach of Congress.”

• Jan. 6 Investigation Looks Less and Less Credible (Turley)

On Jan. 6, 2021, the nation was rocked by the disruption of the certification of Joe Biden as our next president. With Donald Trump set to return to the White House in 2025, it is astonishing how much of that day remains a matter of intense debate. Those divisions are likely only to deepen after a slew of recent reports that have challenged the selective release of information from the House January 6 Committee. January 6 remains as much a political litmus test as it is a historical event. Whether you refer to that day as a riot or an insurrection puts you on one side or the other of a giant political chasm. I viewed the attack on that day as a desecration of our constitutional process, but I did not view it as an insurrection. I still don’t. It was a protest that became a riot when a woefully insufficient security plan collapsed. And that is a view shared by most Americans. One year after the riot, a CBS poll showed that 76 percent viewed it as a “protest gone too far.”

A Harvard study also found that those arrested on that day were motivated by loyalty to Trump rather than support for an insurrection. A recent poll found that almost half of the public (43 percent) felt that “too much is being made” of the riot and that it is “time to move on.” Of course, that still leaves a little over half who view the day as “an attack on democracy.” The continued distrust of the official accounts of Jan. 6 reflects a failure of the House Democrats, and specifically former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to guarantee a credible and comprehensive investigation. The House Select Committee to investigate January 6 was comprised of Democrat-selected members who offered only one possible view: that January 6 was an attempt to overthrow our democracy by Trump and his supporters. The committee hired a former ABC News producer to create a slick, made-for-television production that barred opposing views and countervailing evidence.

The members, including Republican Vice Chair Liz Cheney, played edited videotapes of Trump’s speech that removed the portion where Trump called on his supporters to protest “peacefully.” The committee fostered false accounts, including the claim that there was a violent episode with Trump trying to wrestle control of the presidential limousine. The Committee knew that the key Secret Service driver directly contradicted that account offered by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. While the Democrats insisted that Trump’s speech constituted criminal incitement, he was never charged with that crime — not even by the motivated prosecutors who pledged to pursue such charges. The reason is that Trump’s speech was entirely protected under the First Amendment. Such a charge of criminal incitement would have quickly collapsed in court. Nevertheless, the Washington Post, NPR, other media and the committee members called Jan. 6 an “insurrection” engineered by Trump.

Figures such as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) insisted the committee had evidence that Trump organized a “coup” on Jan. 6, 2021. That evidence never materialized. The lack of adequate security measures that day has long puzzled many of us. After all, there had been a violent riot at the White House before January 6, in which more officers were injured and Trump had to be moved to a secure location. The National Guard had to be called out to protect the White House, but those same measures (including a fence) were not ordered at the Capitol. Two of the recent reports offered new details related to those questions. One report confirmed that Trump did, in fact, offer the deployment of the National Guard in anticipation of the protest. The Jan. 6 Committee repeatedly dismissed this claim. After all, it would be a rather curious attempt at an insurrection if Trump was suggesting the use of thousands of troops to prevent any breach of Congress.

The committee specifically found “no evidence” that the Trump administration called for 10,000 National Guard members to be sent to Washington, D.C., to protect the Capitol. The Washington Post even supposedly “debunked” Trump’s comments with an award of “Four Pinocchios.” Yet evidence now shows that Trump personally suggested the deployment of 10,000 National Guard troops to prevent violence. For example, a transcript includes the testimony of former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato in January 2022 with Liz Cheney present. Ornato states that he clearly recalled Trump’s offer of 10,000 troops. Videotapes have also emerged showing Pelosi privately admitting that she and Democratic leadership were responsible for the security failure on Jan. 6.

Another new report from Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who chairs the House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight, shows that it was the Defense Department that delayed the eventual deployment of National Guard in the critical hours of the riot. The evidence shows that, at 3:18 p.m., Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy “tells sheltering Members of Congress that he is not blocking the deployment of the National Guard and, while referencing the D.C. National Guard, shares that ‘We have the green light. We are moving.’” However, the secretary of the Army’s own timeline indicates that the DCNG did not physically leave the Armory until 5 pm. That was the critical period for the riot. Around 2:10 p.m., people surged up the Capitol steps. Just an hour later, McCarthy said troops were on their way. At 4:17 p.m., Trump made his public statement asking rioters to stop — roughly an hour and a half later. Yet it was not until 5 pm that the troops actually left for the Capitol.

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“If these people had to be honest, it would all be over.” — Mike Benz

• The End of the World Frolics (James Howard Kunstler)

“Joe Biden” is feeling blue. Not a joke. In the lurid sunset of his dwindling term-in-office, the long shadow of his legacy points toward a gigantic glowing cinder where North America used to be. Such are the grievances of the outgoing president. I pass unto you and your legions of white supremacist slobs the ashtray that was once our mighty nation. Fix that! But, as Sir Mick Jagger observed some time ago: you can’t always get what you want. “Joe Biden,” in despair, sinks deeper into his McTeer power recliner and slips back into the bitter dream of his nemesis, a beast named Chrump. . . . It’s such a chewy name: Chrump, a fricative fiesta! The tongue briefly presses against the alveolar ridge before releasing, then curls back, and the jaw opens slightly to form this vowel sound, the lips close to let the sound resonate nasally before releasing air. Chrump Chrump Chrump. Like, what your mouth would feel like working through a bowl of Froot Loops. So satisfying!

The outgoing Party of Chaos can’t stop chanting it on the cable news networks, as if trying to invoke the ancient furies, ghastly, terrifying figures with snakes for hair, dogs’ heads, blood-red eyes, and bat-wings, brandishing torches and scourges to mortify their enemy. Otherwise, fantasy aside, they are in paralysis as this enemy, Mr. Trump, marshals his pieces on the gameboard: Musk, Vivek, Bobby Jr, Tulsi, Bondi, Hegseth . . . . Ay-yeeeeee! They are coming to get us. . . . Somebody. . . do something. . . ! Okay, then, who, exactly, in the shadows behind the half-conscious ghoul in the White House, thinks that now is a great time to commence an ATACMS (Attack’ems) missile barrage on Russia as the very thing to salvage our Ukraine project? You’d naturally turn first to Blinken and Jake Sullivan, those gold-dust twins of overseas jiggery-pokery. Or, is it the geniuses at Spook Central, worried about the fumigating operation incoming with Mr. Ratcliffe?

Or perhaps it’s the men-in-skirts over in the Pentagon, seeking to punish humanity because of the clerical error inflicted on them by the desk up-yonder that handles sexual assignments at birth. Blow it all up! The psychopathic wrath of this gang is really getting out-of-hand. Can Mr. Putin make it any clearer? FA and FO. Hence, many of us are a little concerned that the Thanksgiving birds might not make it to table this year, or ever again, if “Joe Biden” and company keep it up. One more sortie of ATACMS or British Storm Shadows and the satellite targeting and navigation installations for these missiles will get vaporized, along with the NATO member technicians on duty there. What’s your next move, “Joe”? ICBMs? I think we all know what that means.

Let me tell you a few things about this Russia Russia Russia business. It’s been thirty years since the fall of the Soviet Union. It was a bold political experiment running a society by means contrary to human nature, and after an impressively long run, seven decades, if finally flopped, bankrupt in every sense of the word. It took a while for the dazed Russians to get their minds right after that long misadventure, but they have come around to embrace the idea of being a normal European nation. That is, a country whose citizens are at liberty to do business, travel freely, enjoy a rule-of-law (rather than a rule of despotic personalities). That is, much like we are supposed to be. Surely, Russia under Mr. Putin has its imperfections, at least as viewed through the lens of America’s Woke-cryptoMarxist-Neocon/psychopath lens.

Mainly, it won’t do what we tell it to do: roll over and die! But as often is the case with illnesses of the mind, the American cabal projects its own perverse thoughts on its adversary. Russia, we keep insisting, wants to take over the world! Is it news to you that this does not comport with reality? (By now you know that news in the USA does not comport with reality.) Rather, America acts like we want to take over the world. Hegemony: power over everyone and everything, an increasingly sick notion, given how things are going in this world. Sorry to tell you: that dream is over. Since 1990, Russia has tried like hell to establish normal relations with western Europe and the USA. Our blob wouldn’t allow that. Russia even asked to join NATO some years ago. Russia wanted to trade with Germany, France, Italy, and the rest.

Our blob had to stop that. Finally, the blob geniuses decided that they could put Russia out of business altogether, bust it up to make it helpless, and then own all its mineral and energy resources. Ukraine would be the means to accomplish that — plus we’d end up with all the goodies in Ukraine, too: the breadbasket lands, the ores. BlackRock, Halliburton, and many other companies lined up to benefit from this scheme, which is now a smoldering wreck. Mr. Trump, wants to terminate that stupid, wicked project. Going back even further, to 2016, he proposed to try making friends with Russia. The benefits were obvious, principally, keeping them on our side against the rising power of the CCP. Russia, no longer under communism, had interests in common with Western Civ — hell, it was part of Western Civ, really, its literature, music, science, manners.

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“Business leaders generally want peace and incomes, while crazed ideologues want hegemony through war..”

• What Ails America—And How to Fix It (Jeffrey Sachs)

America is a country of undoubted vast strengths—technological, economic, and cultural—yet its government is profoundly failing its own citizens and the world. Trump’s victory is very easy to understand. It was a vote against the status quo. Whether Trump will fix—or even attempt to fix—what really ails America remains to be seen. The rejection of the status quo by the American electorate is overwhelming. According to Gallup in October 2024, 52% of Americans said they and their families were worse off than four years ago, while only 39% said they were better off and 9% said they were about the same. An NBC national news poll in September 2024 found that 65% of Americans said the country is on the wrong track, while only 25% said that it is on the right track. In March 2024, according to Gallup, only 33% of Americans approved of Joe Biden’s handling of foreign affairs.

At the core of the American crisis is a political system that fails to represent the true interests of the average American voter. The political system was hacked by big money decades ago, especially when the U.S. Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unlimited campaign contributions. Since then, American politics has become a plaything of super-rich donors and narrow-interest lobbies, who fund election campaigns in return for policies that favor vested interests rather than the common good. Two groups own the Congress and White House: super-rich individuals and single-issue lobbies. The world watched agape as Elon Musk, the world’s richest person (and yes, a brilliant entrepreneur and inventor), played a unique role in backing Trump’s election victory, both through his vast media influence and funding. Countless other billionaires chipped into Trump’s victory. Many (though not all) of the super-rich donors seeks special favors from the political system for their companies or investments, and most of those desired favors will be duly delivered by the Congress, the White House, and the regulatory agencies staffed by the new administration.

Many of these donors also push one overall deliverable: further tax cuts on corporate income and capital gains. Many business donors, I would quickly add, are forthrightly on the side of peace and cooperation with China, as very sensible for business as well as for humanity. Business leaders generally want peace and incomes, while crazed ideologues want hegemony through war. There would have been precious little difference in all of this with a Harris victory. The Democrats have their own long list of the super-rich who financed the party’s presidential and Congressional campaigns. Many of those donors too would have demanded and received special favors. Tax breaks on capital income have been duly delivered by Congress for decades no matter their impact on the ballooning federal deficit, which now stands at nearly 7 percent of GDP, and no matter that the U.S. pre-tax national income in recent decades has shifted powerfully towards capital income and away from labor income.

As measured by one basic indicator, the share of labor income in GDP has declined by around 7 percentage points since the end of World War II. As income has shifted from labor to capital, the stock market (and super-wealth) has soared, with the overall stock market valuation rising from 55% of GDP in 1985 to 200% of GDP today! The second group with its hold on Washingtons is single-issue lobbies. These powerful lobbies include the military-industrial complex, Wall Street, Big Oil, the gun industry, big pharma, big Ag, and the Israel Lobby. American politics is well organized to cater to these special interests. Each lobby buys the support of specific committees in Congress and selected national leaders to win control over public policy.

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Bye Jack.

• Jack Smith Drops Trump Election Case, Classified Documents Appeal (ET)

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday dropped his election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump, while also moving to drop his appeal of a judge’s decision in the president-elect’s classified documents case. In a six-page court filing in a Washington federal court, Smith’s team argued that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has long argued “that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated,” referring to Trump’s recent election victory. “This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant,” the filing states. His office said that prosecutors have conferred with Trump’s attorneys, who indicated they do not oppose the government’s motion. “Based on the Department’s interpretation of the Constitution, the Government moves for dismissal without prejudice of the superseding indictment,” the court documents state.

At the same time, in an appeals court, Smith also wrote he is dropping his appeal of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s July decision to dismiss a case that accused the president-elect of illegally retaining classified records and allegedly obstructing an investigation. “Dismissing the appeal as to defendant Trump will leave in place the district court’s order dismissing the indictment without prejudice as to him,” his filing said. But his appeal concerning two other defendants in the case, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, “will continue because, unlike defendant Trump, no principle of temporary immunity applies to them.” Cannon had dismissed the case after agreeing with arguments that Smith was not lawfully appointed as special counsel. Smith in August asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse her decision.

The move marks an end to Smith’s criminal pursuit of Trump over the past two years or so accusing him of attempting to illegally overturn the 2020 election. Smith accused Trump of mishandling classified documents in a separate case, which was dismissed over the summer by a federal judge. The decision was anticipated after Smith’s team said in court filings that it was assessing how to wind down both the 2020 election interference case and the classified documents case in the wake of Trump’s win on Nov. 5 over Vice President Kamala Harris. According to Smith’s team, the DOJ believes that the president-elect can no longer be tried in accordance with longstanding policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.

Turley

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“..there’s no reason why the Democrats are going after her other than the fact they’re upset that she left their woke party..”

• Trump Nominees Gabbard, Hegseth Will Face Grilling in Congress (ET)

Multiple Democratic and Republican senators on Nov. 24 signaled that they will grill President-elect Donald Trump’s choices to lead the Intelligence Community and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, Trump nominated former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to become his director of national intelligence (DNI) and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be his secretary of defense. Both positions require confirmation by the Senate. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Nov. 24 on CNN that his panel will have “lots of questions” for Gabbard, singling out her meeting as a congresswoman with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as a point of contention. “She met with Bashar Assad. We’ll want to know what the purpose was,” he said. “We’ll want to get a chance to talk about past comments that she’s made and get them into full context.”

Also on Nov. 24, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) told the network that she believes Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer, is “unqualified” to head up the Pentagon and also criticized the choice of Gabbard for DNI. “I do think that we have a real deep concern whether or not she’s a compromised person,” Duckworth said, referring to the Assad meeting and her previous comments on Russia. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a member of the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, told ABC News on Nov. 24 that she wants background checks on Trump’s Cabinet selections. “They’ve got to get their background checks together. They’ve got to get qualified nominees,” Klobuchar said. “I want to make a decision on each one of them on the merits, as I’ve done in the past, and I can’t do that without the background checks.” However, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told CNN that Gabbard could easily pass a background check because she is serving in the Army Reserve.

“There’s no document, there’s no background there for her to see, for anyone to see. She is a true patriot of the United States, and there’s no reason why the Democrats are going after her other than the fact they’re upset that she left their woke party,” he said, referencing the former congresswoman’s departure from the Democratic Party two years ago and her officially joining the Republican Party in October. Hegseth has come under scrutiny in recent days after a 2017 police report revealed allegations—not charges—against the Fox News host. The report states that a woman accused him of sexual assault at a hotel room in California; Hegseth has denied the allegations and has never been charged. When he is nominated to head the Department of Defense after Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, he is likely to face questions over the matter.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), told ABC on Nov. 24 that Hegseth is a “very talented individual” and that the claims are just “allegations.” According to the senator, Hegseth may help boost recruitment numbers or retain enlisted members. “We have a huge recruitment problem, a huge retention problem in the military,” he said, noting that people have told him that some military officials have informed him that they will stay in the military as a result of the Hegseth announcement. “That’s the type of inspirational leader we need to see. Don’t let these allegations distract us. What we need is real, significant change,” Hagerty said. “The Pentagon has been more focused on pronouns than they have lethality the past four years. We need to get back to business, and I think Pete is just the person to do it.”

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“So more power to the DOGE of Musk & Ramaswamy. In spades!”

• How To Cut $2 Trillion of Fat, Muscle, Bone From the Federal Budget (Stockman)

A goal of $2 trillion of budget savings is crucial to the very future of constitutional democracy and capitalist prosperity in America. In fact, the soaring public debt is now so out-of-control that the Federal budget threatens to become a self-fueling financial doomsday machine. So more power to the DOGE of Musk & Ramaswamy. In spades! For want of doubt, just recall this sequence. When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 on a call to bring the nation’s inflationary budget under control, the public debt was $1 trillion. By the time Donald Trump was elected the first time it had erupted to $20 trillion, which has now become $36 trillion. And under current built-in spending and tax policies it will hit $60 trillion by the end of the current 10-year budget window. Thereafter, however, soaring interest expense will ignite a veritable fiscal wildfire.

On paper the public debt would power upward unabated to $150 trillion by mid-century under CBO’s latest projection. Yet even the latter is based on a Rosy Scenario budget model that assumes Congress never again adopts a single new tax cut or spending program and that the US economy steams along without a recession, inflation recurrence, interest flare-up or other economic crisis during the entirety of the next quarter-century! Of course, long before the public debt actually hits $150 trillion or 166% of GDP per CBO’s current long-term projection, the whole system would implode. Every remnant of America as we now know it would go down the tubes. So we need be clear that the team of Musk & Ramaswamy is talking about savings of $2 trillion per year and relatively soon, too. We make this clarification because we see the usual clueless commentators on bubblevision saying, “oh, they must be talking about $2 trillion over 10-years or at least a multi-year period of time”.

But we don’t think they meant that at all because Elon’s statement on the matter at the Madison Square Garden rally was very clear, and, quite frankly, if realized over 10-years or even 5 years it would be hardly worth the bother. That because the nation’s fiscal doomsday machine will be accumulating interest expense so fast as to make $2 trillion of savings spread over a decade little more than a rounding error. To wit, Federal interest expense has already passed the $1 trillion per year mark, which figure will hit $1.7 trillion by 2034 according to CBO and would top $7.5 trillion per year at minimum by our calculations by mid-century. That is, if something drastic is not done now—like a $2 trillion annual budget savings soon—America will be paying more interest on the public debt within 25 years than the entirety of the Federal budget —Social Security, defense, Medicare, education, highways, interest and the Washington Monument— today.

So, yes, Musk surely did mean $2 trillion per year in this interchange: “How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted, $6.5 trillion (annual) Harris-Biden budget?” Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street CEO and Trump’s transition team co-chair, asked Musk at the former president’s recent rally held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Without offering specifics, Musk said in response that he thinks “at least $2 trillion” in a brief moment that has since gained widespread attention online and drawn mixed reactions from budget world. Obviously, the sprawling Federal government and its prodigious expanse of spending and debt literally defies easy comprehension and graspable solutions.

After all, the current annual budget of $7 trillion amounts to Federal spending of nearly $20 billion per day and $830 million per hour. And when you talk about the 10-year budget outlook, comprehension literally fades away completely: The current CBO spending baseline for 2025-2034 amounts to $85 trillion or just shy of the annual GDP of the entire planet this year. So based on experience we suggest building the $2 trillion case around a target year and several big buckets of savings by type. The latter can then be used to build a detailed but comprehensible plan for arraying and conveying the desperately needed house-cleaning of the Federal budget.

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“About 15,000 active US service members are openly transgender..”

• Trump To Kick Trans Soldiers Out of Army – Times (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump is planning to ban transgender people from serving in the US military, The Times reported on Monday, citing defense sources. The plan reportedly entails Trump signing an executive order shortly after he takes office that would remove trans personnel already serving and prohibit such people from enlisting in the future. About 15,000 active US service members are openly transgender. Those targeted would be discharged on medical grounds, deemed unfit to serve on the basis of their gender identification. It is unclear, however, whether they will have to undergo any examination to determine their trans status. The new legislation is seen as a harsher version of the ban Trump passed during his first term in office. In 2018, he banned openly transgender people from joining the military, but allowed those already serving to keep their jobs.

At the time, Trump claimed he had consulted with military experts and concluded that trans people should not serve in the army in “any capacity.” He stressed that allowing trans people into the ranks of the army comes with “tremendous medical costs,” as they allegedly require expensive hormone treatment. The ban was rescinded by outgoing President Joe Biden in 2021. Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is expected to support the move. The former Fox News host and US National Guard veteran recently published a book ‘The War on Warriors,’ in which he slammed the US military for embracing woke ideology and becoming “effeminate” by promoting diversity and inclusion. He also urged the next commander-in-chief to “clean house,” and argued that medical care for transgender service members is too costly for the Pentagon.

Several sources argued that the potential ban would come at a bad time for the US military, which is struggling to recruit enough personnel. “Abruptly discharging 15,000-plus service members, especially given that the military’s recruiting targets fell short by 41,000 recruits last year, adds administrative burdens to war fighting units, harms unit cohesion, and aggravates critical skill gaps,” Rachel Branaman, head of Modern Military Association of America, told the news outlet. She added that the loss of experience the ban would entail could take around 20 years and billions of dollars to replace. Paulo Batista, an analyst in the US Navy who is openly transgender, also argued against the ban, warning that it would cause disruptions across the entire US army. “You take 15,000 of us out – that’s 15,000 leadership positions, every one of us play a vital role… You pull one of us out, that means others have to cover. These jobs could take months or even years to fill,” he told the news outlet.

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“..catering to federal employees who are personally devastated by the normal functioning of American democracy.”

• US Lawmakers Want Federal Employees Needing ‘Trump Therapy’ Ousted (RT)

US State Department employees who can’t handle Donald Trump’s presidential victory should be fired on day one of his administration, Republican lawmakers have argued. The diplomatic corps reportedly organized therapy sessions for people who are upset over the outcome of the recent election. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California accused the department of “catering to federal employees who are personally devastated by the normal functioning of American democracy.” Issa was referring to a report published earlier this month by the Washington Free Beacon, which cited an internal memo about two therapy sessions on “managing stress during change,” the first of which was on the Friday after the election.

A State Department source described the event as a “‘cry session’ over Trump’s victory.” It was disturbing, Issa said, that “ostensibly nonpartisan government officials would suffer a personal meltdown over the results of a free and fair election.” He suggested that “if foreign service officers cannot follow through on the American people’s preferences, they should resign and seek a political appointment in the next Democrat administration.” The letter, which was shared with the Washington Free Beacon, requested that Blinken provide explanations about the therapy sessions and other similar events that it may have held in-house in the past.

A similar rebuke came from Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who fumed that “our diplomacy is too important to be left to children” and called for every attendee of the therapy sessions to be fired “on day one” of the Trump administration. Trump’s inauguration will take place on January 20. He picked Senator Marco Rubio of Florida to replace Blinken at the helm of the State Department, with no obstacles expected for his confirmation in Congress. Left-leaning UK newspaper The Guardian offered its employees, particularly those living in the US, free counseling and emotional support following Trump’s victory, according to a memo quoted by Guido Fawkes, a British political gossip blog.

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Both main parties have collapsed. Time for Nigel Farage? There’s no one else left..

• Petition Demanding UK General Election Hits 2 Million Signatures (RMX)

A petition demanding a new general election in the United Kingdom has surpassed 2 million signatures, piling pressure on Keir Starmer’s Labour government, whose popularity has plummeted since it gained power in July. The petition, launched late last week on the U.K. parliament’s website, calls for another public vote due to the left-wing government having “gone back up on the promises it laid out in the lead-up to the last election.” Parliament is obliged to debate all petitions that surpass 100,000 signatures. The petition recorded the fastest growth to 1 million signatures in history, reflecting the widespread public dissatisfaction toward the current government and the desire for a renewed mandate.

Michael Westwood, the man behind the viral petition, told the Express news website that he, like many of the British public, is feeling “betrayed with the promises we were told” during the election campaign, and claimed the reality “looks nothing like what was promised.” “I think people have had enough, people have seen what’s happened over in America as well, and I think that’s had a knock-on effect. If people stand together and vote, then we can make a change,” he added. The Labour Party’s ascent to power in the United Kingdom was significantly bolstered by pledges to shield working individuals from tax hikes and to uphold key social benefits. However, recent policy decisions, particularly those unveiled in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s budget, have sparked widespread criticism and allegations of broken promises.

Having vowed not to increase the record-high tax burden on “working people,” the left-wing government has, within just four months, announced a £25 billion rise in employers’ national insurance contributions, the cost of which many believe will affect wage rises and drive up costs for consumers. Additionally, Reeves announced increases in capital gains tax to 18 percent for basic rate taxpayers and 24 percent for higher rate taxpayers, slashed Winter Fuel Payments designed to help the elderly manage heating costs during the colder months, and introduced inheritance tax rules for farmers that could see a majority of family-owned farms have to sell productive land to meet tax obligations. Asked about the petition on Monday, government minister Jess Phillips dismissed the concerns of the signatories. “I make no bones about the fact that we will have to make difficult decisions and some people won’t like that. I didn’t come into politics to please everybody all the time,” she told LBC. When asked why she believed the petition was gaining such unprecedented traction, she replied: “You’ll have to ask the petitioners.”

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“There will always be an England, as the old song goes.”

• The ICC Warrants and the World They Announce (Patrick Lawrence)

There is an old, often-told story about a front-page article one of the big dailies here once ran as severe weather hit in these parts. “Storm in Channel, Continent Cut Off,” the headline read. Nobody is certain any newspaper ever published any such story with any such headline. The majority view is that it is an apocryphal tale meant to suggest the Anglocentric sensibility you sometimes find among the English. People cite some specifics from time to time: It appeared in The Times in the 1930s. No, it was in the Daily Mirror in the 1940s. “A common date and name I’ve seen,” a reader remarked some years ago in AskHistorians, a portal carried on Reddit, “is The Daily Telegraph somewhere in 1929.” I have always been inclined to the view that there’s a home truth in this chestnut but no literal truth to it.

With the reporting coming out since the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defense minister on Nov. 21, however, I have to wonder about The Telegraph. “ICC puts its reputation on trial by chasing Netanyahu,” is the headline that appeared in its Thursday evening editions. The subhead is just as hourglass upside-down: “Pursuit of democratically elected individuals who have been supported by the West will test court’s legitimacy.” There will always be an England, as the old song goes. The court has not released the documents pertinent to its warrants. On Thursday it simply cited “reasonable grounds” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival.” This is legal language alleging that the Israelis systematically used starvation as a weapon of war, an open-and-shut war crime of which the terrorist regime is open-and-shut guilty.

But given the slaughter and atrocities the world has witnessed in real time, my guess is there are probably a lot more in the charges to come out of Khan’s investigations. The ICC issued a third arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s top military commander, for “crimes against humanity and war crimes.” In my read this was pro forma, a pre-emptive response to charges that Khan’s findings are one-sided. However culpable Deif was for the events of Oct. 7 a year ago, he will never face trial: The Israelis announced over the summer that they killed him in an air strike last July. The court said simply that it cannot verify his death. And so the warrant. The Western powers and the Zionist state have been bracing for these warrants since Karim Khan, the court’s chief prosecutor, requested them last May. The Netanyahu regime instantly termed Kahn’s recommendations an antisemitic disgrace. “Outrageous,” proclaimed President Biden, a professed Zionist who has accepted many millions of dollars from the Israel lobby.

Tell me something new under the sun, please. The interesting thing here is that this kind of carrying on no longer goes anywhere. The main argument as the world awaited the warrants—and why did the court take so long, we have to wonder—has been jurisdictional: Israel is not among the ICC’s 124 members, and the Zionist regime asserts its leadership is therefore not subject to the court’s rulings. The Biden regime, also not a member, has supported this contention—all by its lonesome, per usual. This, too, has not held up, to state the obvious. There has also been quite a lot of funny business obscured from public view. Last month the Daily Mail, the London tabloid, reported that a woman on the ICC staff had accused Khan of sexual harassment. Khan immediately termed the accusation disinformation, welcomed an impartial investigation, and called for a separate investigation into the origin of the charges. Anyone with a well-maintained bullshit detector and a familiarity with the disgusting tricks American and Israeli intelligence have in their bags could detect what this was all about.

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“Israel’s power and reach are far too great, but they are not unlimited, and they are declining.”

• ICC Arrest Warrant For Netanyahu Is Really An Indictment Of The West (Amar)

What is a ‘rogue regime’? According to one of the first US propagandists of the term, Anthony Lake, former President Bill Clinton’s national security adviser from 1993-97, it is an “outlaw” government that chooses to stay outside polite international society and also to “assault its basic values.” The term, of course, was never even meant to be applied honestly. From the get-go, it was designed to be weaponized as a tool of Western hybrid warfare against countries such as Cuba, Iraq, and Libya that in reality had only one thing in common: They would not bend to the will of the US and its clients, together making up the Collective West: When Western politicos and their careerist stenographers in the mainstream media start calling you a ‘rogue regime’, get ready to fend off invasions, coups, economic warfare up to starvation-siege level, and, when it all comes together, bloody regime change, including vile public torture and assassination.

And yet, let’s take this primitive propaganda term at face-value for a moment. The underlying theory (if that’s the word) is as simple-minded as can be: There are goody-two-shoe states – almost all of them in the Global North, as it happens – that follow the rules, and then there are the bad kids that spit on them. And we won’t even ask what rules, or who makes and applies them. That question would lead us into the fetid moral-intellectual morass of the ‘rules-based international order’ drivel. That, in reality, is a euphemistic Western shorthand for: ‘We are above international law (here, the actual opposite of those obscure and adjustable ‘rules’), we spit on the UN, and in addition, we have the unique privilege to order others around and kill them, individually and collectively, if they don’t comply’. No, let’s just roll with the ideological nonsense for a moment and – step one – pretend (just pretend) that the truly Orwellian term ‘rogue regime’ actually has a meaning an intelligent, unbiased observer could take seriously.

Step two: Let’s ask what, by that logic, would be even worse than a rogue regime. Easy: What’s worse than a regime that openly disregards legal and ethical rules is a regime that pretends to represent – even own – those rules, only to pervert them. Because such a regime does not merely disobey, but fundamentally undermines them. A simple criminal will break the law and morality, but they will easily survive that. But a true villain, a real force of evil, will usurp and defile the law and moral norms, depriving them of general respect and thereby threatening their effectiveness and, ultimately, even existence. And that is why it is the West as a whole that will be challenged the most by the fallout of the International Criminal Court (ICC) finally issuing arrest warrants for two of Israel’s genocidaire leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Because it is the Collective West – and only the West – with its genocidal de facto colony Israel that has been that villain.

Don’t get me wrong: There are very disappointing limits to what the ICC – the only international court that can go after individuals for war crimes and crimes against humanity – has done. For now at least, it is targeting only Israeli officials (and far too few of them) – and a Hamas leader who Israel claims is dead already – but not their Western accomplices. In that narrow sense, obviously, Israel, a state constantly breaking new records in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, will be most directly affected. If, again, by far not enough, because the ICC is doing far too little far too late. Indeed, it has not even charged Netanyahu and Gallant with genocide, as it could have under Article 6 of the 1998 Rome Statute and obviously should have. Instead, the ICC has indicted them ‘only’ for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Finally, the ICC by design lacks any capability to execute its own arrest warrants. For that, it has to rely on those states that have signed up to the Rome Statute, and on their willingness to uphold their obligations under it.

Yet, while the ICC is a judicial institution, the true significance of the arrest warrants is of course political. It is, as The Economist admits, a “diplomatic disaster” – and not just for Netanyahu, as The Economist tries to hedge – but for Israel. This is no ordinary disaster though, but an especially disruptive one because for Israel, it is yet another signal that its impunity is cracking, because that impunity rests on the death grip of its international bullying, corruption, lobbies, spy-and-blackmail networks, and all-purpose subversion. We know that Israel and its accomplices have exerted massive pressure on the ICC to prevent precisely this outcome. And yet they have failed. Israel’s power and reach are far too great, but they are not unlimited, and they are declining.

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All Over Bar The Shouting (That The Russians Did It)

• The Novichok Show Trial – All Over Bar The Shouting (Helmer)

Almost over now is the British Government’s six-year operation to prove to the world that in 2018 Russian military officers killed Dawn Sturgess with a Novichok weapon, which they had discarded after using it first on Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Almost finished, too, is the Government’s campaign to prove that Sturgess’s lover and her family are not entitled to a multi-million pound compensation for the negligence of officials in stopping the Russians and their Novichok before they attacked the Skripals, and then before Sturgess died. The Sturgess Inquiry’s public witness testimony, which commenced on October 14, will conclude this week with an appearance by Jonathan Allen, Director General for defence and intelligence at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

Listed to testify on “current HMG [His Majesty’s Government] assessment of Russian State Responsibility” Allen, who defended the Novichok allegations at the United Nations in 2018, will speak on Thursday, November 28; he will be the final witness to appear before lawyers make their summing-up statements. According to the Foreign Office, Allen’s job is “the delivery of UK policy for the FCDO response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and for Eastern Europe and Central Asia policy.” It is now too late for Allen to neutralize the expert witnesses – doctors at Salisbury District Hospital, scientists at the Defence Ministry’s chemical warfare establishment (Porton Down), eyewitnesses, police investigators. Their evidence exposes the alternative narrative that the Skripals were attacked by British government agents who manufactured the Novichok at Porton Down; fabricated traces of it along the trail of two Russian decoys; and then planted a Novichok-poisoned perfume bottle on Dawn Sturgess’s kitchen table – eleven days after police searches had failed to find it.

The hearing record also reveals repeated prompts and interruptions by Anthony Hughes, the retired judge directing the Sturgess Inquiry (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley), to prevent questioning of witnesses from turning into cross-examination of the Government’s allegations. Last Thursday, an anonymous Health Department doctor code-named V13A testified that the Cabinet Office in London, coordinating the Defence Ministry, health emergency agencies, the police and the security services, had carried out as swiftly as possible the “risk assessment” and “risk mitigation actions” required to protect the public in the Salisbury area. In March 2018, when the Skripals were attacked, V13A said she was a senior official at Public Health England (PHE), and during the course of the risk investigations, she describes following instructions from Nick Gent; he was then a chemical warfare official at Porton Down who was relaying orders from senior intelligence and security officials in London.

The public had been properly safeguarded, the witness concluded her written statement, because the poisoning had been targeted on the Skripals, and there was no evidence of wider-area contamination. She repeated the findings she and Gent had agreed to relay to and from national officials in London: “potential contacts had no symptoms of poisoning”; “the risk to public health from the incident was low, based on the evidence available’”; “the risk to the public was low on the understanding that all known sites had been secured…there was no need to provide further public health advice at that time, with what was known at that moment.”

In her oral testimony, V13A told the Inquiry, “it is helpful from a public health risk assessment to have public health specialists, the relevant scientists at the very least, with the available evidence and that evidence will identify what the risk and then you can identify or consider risk mitigations that are proportionate to both the risk and to the available evidence.” Hughes interrupted to correct the witness. “No, come on, that won’t do. It’s not whether it’s identified as a possible issue.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Elon phone

 

 

AI

 

 

Oil

 

 

Cat fall

 

 

New fear
https://twitter.com/i/status/1861150674391531578

 

 

Caring
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860768531974905892

 

 

Gently
https://twitter.com/i/status/1861023240002457923

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle November 25 2024

Nov 252024
 
 November 25, 2024  Posted by at 9:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  49 Responses »


Caravaggio Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence 1600

 

• Majority of Americans Support Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans (RT)
• Can Armageddon Be Avoided? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• New Trump Admin Focus on Ukraine Conflict Resolution – Security Advisor (Sp.)
• Dialogue Is Only Way Out Of Ukraine Conflict – Merkel (RT)
• Stop Supporting War – Medvedev To Europe (RT)
• US and European Officials Discussed Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons (Antiwar)
• France Wants To ‘Finish Off’ Ukraine – Zakharova (RT)
• Most Ukrainian Soldiers Ready To Give Up Territory – The Economist (RT)
• Ukraine Can Make America Rich – Lindsey Graham (RT)
• Lindsey Graham Threatens Allies With Sanctions For Netanyahu Arrest (Sp.)
• Netanyahu ‘Wanted’: A Landmark Legal Moment In The Palestinian Struggle (Mehdi)
• Crypto Won the 2024 Election (ET)
• US Suffered ‘Worst Telecom Hack’ In History – Senator (RT)
• US Unlikely to Let American Investor Buy Nord Stream 2 (Sp.)
• Film Director Kusturica Thanks RT For Opening His Eyes On America (RT)
• Bombshell Fauci Documentary Nails The Whole COVID Charade (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Trump

Tucker

Rogan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860499743039979980

Rogan moon landing

Shanahan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860562968150159568

Tucker Maddow

Bakery

McCaul
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860443088629694611

 

 

 

 

“..82% of respondents want Trump to use immigration and border patrol agencies to carry out the deportations, while 40% support the use of the US military.”

• Majority of Americans Support Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans (RT)

Some 57% of Americans approve of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed deportation of every single illegal immigrant in the US, a CBS News poll has found. Democrat mayors and governors have vowed to resist the incoming president’s plans. Published on Sunday, the poll found broad satisfaction with Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris in this month’s presidential election, with 55% of respondents saying that they felt ‘happy’ or ‘satisfied’ with the result, and 44% feeling ‘angry’ or ‘dissatisfied’. The poll also found that 57% of respondents approve of one of Trump’s most controversial proposals: the deportation of all immigrants in the US illegally. 43% disapprove of the policy. Trump has promised since last year that, if elected, he would lead “the largest deportation operation in American history.”

With anywhere from 11 million to 35 million illegal immigrants living in the US, Trump’s proposed border czar, Tom Homan, has said that those who commit crimes in the country or otherwise threaten national security will be prioritized for deportation. The incoming president said before the election that he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to “remove all known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, or cartel members from the United States.” This law gives the president authority to bypass immigration courts, although critics argue that it only applies when the US is at war with a foreign government and cannot be used to deal with transnational gangs and their members. Last week, Trump shared an article on his Truth Social platform suggesting that he would declare a national emergency and “use military assets to reverse the [President Joe] Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”

According to the CBS poll, 82% of respondents want Trump to use immigration and border patrol agencies to carry out the deportations, while 40% support the use of the US military. Harris repeatedly criticized Trump’s deportation plans on the campaign trail, arguing that it would “tear families apart.” Speaking to CBS last month, Homan dismissed this concern, declaring that “families can be deported together.” Several Democrat mayors and governors have pledged to resist any deportation operation, with Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey stating that she would “absolutely not” allow state police to assist federal immigration agents, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy telling reporters that his administration would take any “action we deem to be necessary” to stymie Trump’s plans. ”If you’re not going to help us, get the hell out of the way because we’re going to do it,” Homan told Fox News earlier this month.

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Is the West, Lost in its Own Lies, Trapped in the Pending Disaster Washington Has Brewed?

• Can Armageddon Be Avoided? (Paul Craig Roberts)

The situation in the world is more threatening than ever before. Putin has had to make it clear that a continuation of missile attacks on Russia will result in retribution. The new missile Putin has revealed can destroy all US and NATO military forces in the West and Middle East without the use of nuclear warheads. If the US then goes nuclear, Russian nuclear forces will destroy the entirety of the West. Indeed, Steve Starr shows that the entire world will be the victim of American psychopaths. In the face of such a warning, only totally irresponsible psychopaths would persist. The sway of psychopaths over the US and Europe means we have to be concerned that Washington will “test the waters” by expending the permissible area and distance for the ATACMs to be fired into Russia. I have been convinced that it would come to this crisis from day one of Putin’s limited military operation.

Russia needed to immediately knock Ukraine out before the West could get involved. Now the West’s prestige is on the line. Putin tolerated provocations in order to avoid widening the conflict, but his patience with the West backfired as it resulted in the belief that Putin’s warnings are meaningless as “he never does anything.” Putin has backed up as far as he can. His back is against the wall. Putin cannot accept missiles being fired into Russia by the US and NATO. At this point only psychopaths would “test the waters” which means playing with nuclear armageddon. But psychopaths are in charge. The Ukraine conflict was prepared and unleashed by US neoconservatives in the belief that it would destabilize Russia and perhaps lead to the breakup of the Russian Federation. Putin should not have let it go as far as he did before he acted. Putin was too slow to realize that Washington intends Russia’s destruction.

That a few Zionist neoconservatives can push the world to the brink in their pursuit of US hegemony indicates the failure of Western governance. The situation in the Middle East is equally dangerous. It is being driven by clearing out obstacles to Greater Israel and Washington’s desire to control oil flows and waterways. A bad outcome seems inevitable, because the Western world is lost in the lies of its official narrative. There is no reality recognition. If you read Johnson’s Russian List, a daily collection of foreign affairs and military articles by “experts,” what you mainly see is stupidity and self-delusion. Most of the authors are supported in one way or the other by military/security grants, so there is no questioning. To tell the truth in the Western world today you must be independent. Without readers’ support of truth-telling websites, there will be no truth.

Propaganda has implanted the mistaken belief that Russia, China, and Iran are enemies that must be opposed and defeated. Yet Russia, China, and Iran have taken no hostile actions against the West. All three have accepted illegally imposed sanctions and other hostile actions without responding in kind. The Pentagon and the US military/security complex see in their image of the enemies that propaganda has created for the West a danger that must be countered by a nuclear buildup. One trillion dollars are to be spent “modernizing” nuclear weapons whose only possible use is world destruction. No thought and no attention is given to defusing the situation. Remember, in 2016 the CIA, FBI, and Deep State turned violently on President Trump when he said he intended to defuse the situation by normalizing relations with Russia. The Establishment’s response was “Russiagate,” impeachments, indictments.

Without enemies, the profits and power of the military/security complex diminish. Now the Establishment is trying to saddle President Trump with a war with Russia as he enters office. This is the work of psychopaths. When Americans accepted the stolen 2020 election, they accepted the reign of psychopaths who define peace as Washington’s hegemony. Any government in the way of Washington’s hegemony is defined as an enemy. They are enemies not because they threaten the US. They are enemies because they insist on their independence from Washington’s hegemony. Americans have been deceived that Russia, China, and Iran are enemies out to get them. Belief in this lie makes the Western world blind to the fact that its leaders are evil psychopaths leading the world to Armageddon.

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“All of our allies and partners need to be carrying this burden going forward..”

• New Trump Admin Focus on Ukraine Conflict Resolution – Security Advisor (Sp.)

Donald Trump’s incoming administration plans to prioritize efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine starting in January 2025, said Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security advisor. “The president-elect has been very concerned about the escalation and where it’s all going,” Waltz said in an interview with Fox News, when asked about Trump’s reaction to the crisis escalation. “And so what we need to be discussing is who’s at that table, whether it’s an agreement, an armistice, how to get both sides to the table, and then what’s the framework of a deal. That’s what we’ll be working with this administration until January and then beyond,” he highlighted.

According to Waltz, European countries are expected to play a “key role” in the negotiation process. “All of our allies and partners need to be carrying this burden going forward,” the congressman emphasized. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously noted that Biden’s outgoing administration is doing everything it can to escalate the Ukraine conflict and keep it going.

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“..at a certain moment, and the responsible people today have to determine that moment, we will need conversations.”

• Dialogue Is Only Way Out Of Ukraine Conflict – Merkel (RT)

Western nations will eventually have to engage in dialogue with Russia to put an end to the Ukraine conflict, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said. She added that Kiev’s backers should ensure that Ukraine remains independent following the cessation of hostilities. Merkel served as chancellor from 2005 to 2021, and was one of the guarantors of the 2014-15 Minsk agreements, which aimed to reintegrate Donbass into Ukraine, while granting the region greater autonomy. In 2022, she admitted that the accords had in fact been an “attempt to give Ukraine time” to build up its military. In an interview with the UK’s Sunday Times published on Saturday, Merkel said she was generally supportive of the Ukraine policies of the current German government, as well as those of the EU. Since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, Berlin has emerged as the top provider of military aid to Kiev in Europe, second only to the US globally.

The former chancellor, however, noted that “at a certain moment, and the responsible people today have to determine that moment, we will need conversations.” On Thursday, Die Zeit published excerpts from Merkel’s new book titled ‘Freedom: Memories 1954-2021’. In it, she recounts the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, where Ukraine and Georgia’s applications for Membership Action Plans were put up for discussion. The then-chancellor opposed the idea at the time, arguing that the move would be seen as a provocation by Russia, with the potential applicants not being provided with any meaningful security guarantees. While a number of officials, including Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, have since criticized Merkel for her stance, she stands firmly by her view to this day, as evidenced by her memoirs.

Moscow has repeatedly indicated a willingness to negotiate a settlement with Kiev. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently reiterated that any peace talks should be based on the agreements reached in Istanbul in 2022, which envisaged a neutral, non-aligned status for Ukraine, as well as certain restrictions on deploying foreign weaponry. However, the Kremlin has also stated that any further negotiations must take into account the “reality on the ground.” This implies that Ukraine is expected to make territorial concessions, rather than retaking the regions that have voluntarily joined Russia, including the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions, as well as Crimea.

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“The damage would be unacceptable, it is impossible to intercept them with modern means, and we are talking about a matter of minutes..”

• Stop Supporting War – Medvedev To Europe (RT)

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has issued a stark warning to European nations that continue to support Kiev. In a Telegram post on Sunday, Medvedev referenced the recent deployment of Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missile system against a Ukrainian military facility. “Europe is wondering what damage the system could cause if the warheads are nuclear, whether it is possible to shoot down these missiles, and how quickly they would reach the capitals of the Old World. The answer: The damage would be unacceptable, it is impossible to intercept them with modern means, and we are talking about a matter of minutes,” Medvedev wrote. “Bomb shelters will not help, so the only hope is that kind Russia will warn in advance about the launches. Therefore, it is better to stop supporting the war,” he added.

Earlier this week, Medvedev shared a video showing an Oreshnik missile strike on a Ukrainian defense industrial facility in Dnepropetrovsk (known as Dnipro in Ukraine). The footage, originally published by Ukrainian media, shows several warheads impacting the military site at night. Medvedev accompanied the video with a post on X, saying, “So, that’s what you wanted? Well, you’ve damn well got it!” In a public address on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the use of Oreshnik missiles against a Ukrainian military-industrial facility. He described the strike as a direct response to Ukrainian attacks on internationally-recognized Russian territory earlier in the week, which involved US-made ATACMS and HIMARS systems, as well as British-made Storm Shadow missiles. Putin accused the US and NATO of intentionally escalating the conflict and stated that Russia would fulfill all of its military objectives, regardless of the weapons used by Kiev.

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“Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union.”

• US and European Officials Discussed Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons (Antiwar)

According to the New York Times, US and European officials have discussed a range of options they believe will deter Russia from taking more Ukrainian territory, including providing Kiev with nuclear weapons. The outlet reports that Western officials believe the Kremlin will not significantly escalate the war before Donald Trump is sworn in as President in January. Following the election of Trump earlier this month, the US and its NATO allies began taking steps to rush weapons to Ukraine and give Kiev the ability to strike targets inside Russian territory with long-range weapons. American officials who were briefed on the intelligence community’s assessments told the Times that weapons will not alter the challenging situation that Kiev is currently facing.

“US spy agencies have assessed that speeding up the provisions of weapons, ammunition and matériel for Ukraine will do little to change the course of the war in the short term,” the Times reports. Desperate to bolster Ukraine’s standing in the war before the transition of power on January 20, the Biden administration is looking at a range of serious escalations. “US and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire.” The article continues, “Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union.” According to some officials who spoke with the Times, the administration believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t significantly escalate the war until Trump returns to the Oval Office.

“But the escalation risk of allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with US-supplied weaponry has diminished with the election of Mr. Trump,” adding,” Biden administration officials believe, calculating that Putin of Russia knows he has to wait only two months for the new administration.” That assessment is based on the belief that Trump and his incoming Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, will take a more favorable stance on Russia. However, Trump proved to be a Russia-hawk during his first administration by ramping up sanctions on Moscow, providing lethal arms to Ukraine, and expelling a large number of Russian diplomats from the US.

In September, Putin said he preferred Vice President Kamala Harris to win the White House. “Trump has imposed as many sanctions on Russia as any president has ever imposed before, and if Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from such actions,” he explained. Much of the American political class has cast Trump and Gabbard as agents of Russia. However, extensive investigations into Trump’s ties to the Kremlin have come up empty. Additionally, the Times reported last week that there was no evidence Gabbard was in any way an asset of Putin.

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“This is not support for Ukraine, but rather it is a way to finish it off..”

• France Wants To ‘Finish Off’ Ukraine – Zakharova (RT)

France’s greenlight for Kiev strikes on internationally-recognized Russian territory will only hurt Ukraine and further escalate the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned on Saturday. Her remarks followed a statement by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. In an interview with the BBC, Barrot said that Paris does “not set and express red lines” on its support for Kiev, and that long-range strikes on Russian soil may be carried out by Ukraine “in the logics of self-defense.” “This is not support for Ukraine, but rather it is a way to finish it off,” Zakharova told TASS, referring to Barrot’s statements. The French minister did not confirm whether missiles from his country had already been used by Kiev for long-range strikes on Russia. When asked by the BBC whether his “no red lines” comment meant Paris could send French troops to fight alongside Ukrainians, he said he “does not discard any option.”

Barrot’s comments came mere days after Ukraine struck Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions with US-made ATACMS and British Storm Shadows. The attacks followed a reported decision by outgoing US President Joe Biden’s administration to greenlight Kiev’s use of long-range US-supplied weaponry to hit areas Washington recognizes as Russia. The Kremlin slammed the reported decision as a deliberate escalation of the conflict and as making the US and NATO direct participants. Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin said that the “regional” Ukraine conflict has now “assumed elements of a global nature,” and warned that further attacks with Western weapons would result in retaliatory strikes on targets of Moscow’s choosing.

In response, the Russian military on Thursday test-fired a new cutting-edge hypersonic ballistic missile, targeting a military industrial facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk (called Dnipro in Ukraine). The nuclear-capable missile, called the Oreshnik, cannot be intercepted by existing Western missile defense systems, and is capable of reaching targets across Europe within minutes, Sergey Karakayev, commander of Russia’s strategic missile forces, told TASS earlier this week. The new weapon will be mass produced and incorporated into Russia’s arsenal in the coming months.

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“Long out of willing recruits..”

• Most Ukrainian Soldiers Ready To Give Up Territory – The Economist (RT)

Ukrainian troops are growing more open to the prospect of territorial concessions and a ceasefire amid flagging morale and mounting pressure from Russian forces, The Economist reported on Sunday, citing sources from Ukraine. Russian forces are advancing in Donbass at a rate unseen since the earliest days of the conflict, the magazine noted. Earlier in November, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the liberation of more than a dozen settlements in Russia’s Donetsk Region and Ukraine’s Kharkov Region. The problems faced by the Ukrainian army are exacerbated by its worsening manpower issues, The Economist wrote. “Long out of willing recruits,” the conscription push has met barely two-thirds of its target, the magazine said, citing one Ukrainian official as worried that the situation could become “irretrievable” by springtime. Recruits that are pressed into service are more often than not over the age of 45, unhealthy and unmotivated, The Economist said, citing a Ukrainian officer.

The worsening battlefield situation coupled with these issues, and exacerbated by a lack of rotation, is reportedly taking a toll on morale. Fewer and fewer soldiers are willing to “fight to the end” and are less against the idea of giving up territories, one officer told The Economist. “It’s not even 50-50 any more, but 30-70.” In late October, Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksey Goncharenko claimed that Kiev is seeking to conscript an additional 160,000 people in the following three months, amid mounting losses and desertions. Soon afterwards, Ukrainian media reported that more than 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have deserted or left their positions without leave since the escalation of the conflict in 2022. In spring this year, faced with heavy casualties on the battlefield, Ukraine lowered the mobilization age from 27 to 25 and increased the penalties for draft dodgers.

In addition, the tightened conscription rules require men to report to the authorities for “data validation,” which often results in them being immediately pressed into service and sent to the front lines. Videos circulating on social media show recruitment officers trying to catch Ukrainian men in public, often leading to violent confrontations. In October, a Ukrainian MP warned of a legal crackdown on social media against people seeking to aid men in avoiding conscription officers. While Moscow has said it is open to peace negotiations, it has stressed that they must account for the “reality on the ground.” As Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled out the possibility of giving up the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions, as well as Crimea, a peace deal would have to include territorial concessions by Ukraine. All five regions joined Russia after voting in a series of referendums.

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“Donald Trump is going to do a deal to get our money back, to enrich ourselves with rare earth minerals. A good deal for Ukraine and us.”

• Ukraine Can Make America Rich – Lindsey Graham (RT)

Ukraine could be extremely useful to the US because it is brimming with valuable natural resources and is willing to negotiate an agreement with Washington on extraction, Senator Lindsey Graham has said. The Republican senator from South Carolina told Fox News that the Ukraine conflict is ultimately “about money.” An extract of the interview was published on the senator’s YouTube channel on Wednesday. “You know that the richest country in all of Europe for rare earth minerals is Ukraine?” he said, estimating the worth at 2 to 7 trillion dollars. Graham added that Ukraine is ready to “do a deal with us,” but not Russia. “So it’s in our interest to make sure that Russia doesn’t take over the place,” he said, describing Ukraine as the “breadbasket of the world.” “We can make money and have an economic relationship with Ukraine. It would be very beneficial to us, with peace,” Graham went on to say.

“Donald Trump is going to do a deal to get our money back, to enrich ourselves with rare earth minerals. A good deal for Ukraine and us.” The president-elect, he added, will also help settle the conflict by concluding an “honorable deal” that would avoid “humiliating” Russian President Vladimir Putin and setting the stage for another conflict. “Donald Trump knows how to end wars. All Joe Biden knows how to do is start wars,” he said. Graham is known for his hawkish stance on aiding Ukraine and containing Moscow. In February, he was added to Russia’s list of ‘terrorists and extremists’, after the senator advocated for designating Russia as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’. In 2023, Moscow expressed outrage over Graham’s remarks during a meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, when he said: “The Russians are dying. The best money we’ve ever spent.”

In mid-October, Zelensky presented his ‘victory plan,’ which stated that Kiev is ready to sign with its Western backers “a special agreement on the joint protection of the available critical resources” in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Mikhail Podoliak, a top adviser to Zelensky, also stressed that Ukraine has “deposits of rare minerals, such as lithium and titanium, which we can exploit together [with the US].” Trump has vowed to quickly end the Ukraine conflict. Media reports have suggested that he may try to force Ukraine to drop its NATO ambitions and negotiate a freeze of the conflict. Moscow has ruled out a freeze along the current front line, insisting that all the objectives of its military operation must be achieved.

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“Moscow’s position: a settlement is only possible on the basis of the formula approved by the UN Security Council with the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.”

• Lindsey Graham Threatens Allies With Sanctions For Netanyahu Arrest (Sp.)

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has threatened US allies with sanctions if they try to help the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “To any ally — Canada, Britain, Germany, France — if you try to help the ICC, we’re gonna sanction you,” the senator said on Fox News. When asked about the nature of such sanctions, Graham doubled down on his threat, saying the US should “crush” the economies of countries that support the ICC’s efforts. On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant over alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. The court also dismissed Israel’s objections to its jurisdiction over such cases. Israel has consistently challenged the ICC’s authority to hear cases related to Palestine as a whole. US President Joe Biden called the ICC’s decision “outrageous.”

Since October 1, Israel has been conducting a ground operation against the forces of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon and continues aerial bombardment of the neighboring country, where more than 2,500 people have already been killed, including leaders of the Shiite movement, and more than a million people have become refugees. Despite losses, including in the command staff, Hezbollah is waging ground battles and does not stop firing rockets at Israeli territory. On October 7, 2023, Israel was subjected to an unprecedented rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. After that, Hamas militants penetrated the border areas, opened fire on the military and civilians, and took more than 200 hostages. According to the authorities, about 1,200 people were killed on the Israeli side.

In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Iron Swords, which included strikes on civilian targets, and announced a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip: supplies of water, electricity, fuel, food, and medicine were stopped. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 43,500 Palestinians have died since the beginning of the conflict, and over 102,000 have been injured. The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the parties to cease hostilities. According to Moscow’s position, a settlement is only possible on the basis of the formula approved by the UN Security Council with the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.

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“We support international courts, and we apply their warrants..”

“..the crime of exterminating the Palestinian people cannot go unpunished..”

• Netanyahu ‘Wanted’: A Landmark Legal Moment In The Palestinian Struggle (Mehdi)

“The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision is one of the largest legal developments in the history of Israel. The 124 member states of the court will be legally obligated to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they enter its territory … and it may have broader repercussions that limit the ability of third parties to cooperate with the Israeli army.” This is how Eliav Lieblich, a professor of international law at Tel Aviv University, summarized the potential consequences of the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The decision marks a historic step toward international justice for the Palestinian cause after decades of impunity for Israeli leadership, especially given the immense pressure from Tel Aviv and its US ally on the ICC’s prosecutor and judges.

The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant hold them accountable for acts of torture, violence, murder, rape, and the destruction of property by occupation forces under their command. The court found “reasonable grounds to believe that the defendants intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population of Gaza of things necessary for their survival, such as food, water, medicines, and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 until May 20, 2024.” It also noted that “by restricting or preventing the arrival of medical supplies and medicines to Gaza – including anesthesia materials and machines – the two defendants are responsible for inflicting great suffering through inhumane acts against people in need of treatment.” Can the arrest warrants be enforced?

The ICC lacks its own enforcement arm, relying on member states to act. Once arrest warrants are issued, they become binding for the 124 countries that are party to the Rome Statute. If Netanyahu or Gallant visit any of these countries, local authorities are obligated to detain them and send them to The Hague. History has shown that such warrants significantly limit travel options for indicted leaders, who risk arrest in participating countries. But what happens if some countries refuse to comply? International law expert Dr Mohamed Habhab informs The Cradle that the ICC’s decisions are binding on its General Assembly members, with three possible responses if a country refuses to implement the warrants:

First, if the UN Security Council refers a case to the ICC, the Security Council can take further action against countries that do not comply with the court’s decision. This means that the UNSC has the authority to impose measures or sanctions on non-compliant countries to ensure enforcement of the arrest warrants. Second, when the prosecutor initiates a case, the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute can take measures against countries that refuse to comply. This means that the Assembly, which consists of representatives from all member countries, can put pressure on non-compliant states by taking appropriate actions, which may include diplomatic measures or sanctions. Third, if member states themselves refer a case to the ICC, as happened in the case of the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, actions can be pursued either through the Assembly of States Parties or through the UNSC.

This means that the referring member states, along with the Assembly, can collectively push for compliance and ensure that the arrest warrants are implemented. Habhab believes that although it is unlikely that Netanyahu will be seen behind bars anytime soon, the court’s decision is a “moral victory” for the Palestinian cause, and can be used to build global public opinion against the occupation state. Moreover, legally, it could pave the way for more states to compile joint cases over other crimes committed by Israeli forces. In addition to the initial referral by Palestine, the ICC has received further referrals from South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, Djibouti, Chile, and Mexico, indicating a growing international effort to hold Israel accountable for its egregious and widespread criminality in Gaza. While Netanyahu and Gallant may avoid arrest in Israel-allied countries, the ICC warrants create a major diplomatic problem for Tel Aviv.

Austria’s foreign minister called the arrest warrants “incomprehensible and ludicrous,” but nonetheless reiterated his country’s commitment to international law. Similarly, Italy’s defense minister said Italy would fulfill the ICC’s demand if Netanyahu or Gallant arrived, despite calling the ruling “wrong.” The country’s foreign minister also stated, “We support the ICC … the court must play a legal role and not a political role.” Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris responded “Yes, absolutely,” when asked if Ireland would arrest Netanyahu. “We support international courts, and we apply their warrants,” he said. The Deputy Prime Minister of Spain and Minister of Labor also supported this position, stressing that Spain always stands on the side of justice and international law, and that the crime of exterminating the Palestinian people cannot go unpunished.

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“[Washington] received a clear message that being anti-crypto is a good way to end your career..”

• Crypto Won the 2024 Election (ET)

Although President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party swept the 2024 general election, the cryptocurrency industry feels it is the real winner. Powered by donations from some of the biggest figures in cryptocurrency and venture capital, three political action committees poured more than $100 million into efforts to influence the 2024 election. “This election was a huge win for crypto,” co-founder and CEO of Coinbase Global Inc. Brian Armstrong wrote on Nov. 7 in an article on X. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2012, donated about $55 million to the super PAC Fairshake, according to Federal Election Commission records. Armstrong personally donated $1 million. As Armstrong wrote, the industry had much to celebrate in early November. It saw its preferred candidates take the White House and win key seats in both houses of Congress.

He declared that the 119th Congress will be the “most pro-crypto Congress ever.” In his message, Coinbase’s leader wrote something that is usually implied but rarely said in the world of political spending, too. “[Washington] received a clear message that being anti-crypto is a good way to end your career,” Armstrong said. Twenty years ago, few people had heard of cryptocurrency—a term used to refer to decentralized digital currencies as opposed to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) that are controlled and backed by a government or central bank. One week after the Nov. 5 election, a Bitcoin was trading for more than $89,000. Gold, by comparison, traded for about $2,600 an ounce on the same day.

Between 2007 and 2009, a person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto conceived of and launched Bitcoin. It was a new type of digital money secured via encryption technology. Unlike traditional currency, Bitcoin can transfer value online without a bank or a payment processor. It is not backed by any government, central bank fiat currency, or physical asset. Bitcoin began as an obscure novelty worth less than 10 cents per token. However, its price has exploded in the last decade, creating significant public interest in the digital asset. According to the crypto website Coinranking, as of Nov. 13, Bitcoin’s market capitalization was about $1.83 trillion. Nevertheless, public opinion polling shows that a majority of Americans are not confident in cryptocurrency as an investment. A Pew Research Center study published in October found that just 5 percent of the people it surveyed in February said they were “very” or “extremely” confident in the reliability and safety of cryptocurrency.

The same report found that 17 percent of Americans have ever invested in, traded, or used a cryptocurrency. As an investment, about 38 percent of respondents said cryptocurrency has done “worse than expected.” Rick Claypool, the research director in the president’s office of Public Citizen, told The Epoch Times that cryptocurrency, generally, is an extremely volatile investment vehicle without any intrinsic value—one that is now very risky for the average investor. Public Citizen, founded in 1971, is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. In May, it published a report describing the cryptocurrency industry’s investment in politics as part of a “strategy of combating enforcement crackdowns and designing a regulatory system that meets the industry’s specifications.”

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“..Beijing-linked hacking group ‘Salt Typhoon’..”

• US Suffered ‘Worst Telecom Hack’ In History – Senator (RT)

National security advisers and other senior officials from the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden held a meeting with top executives from major telecommunications companies on Friday to discuss what is being described as “by far” the worst breach in the country’s history. Earlier this month, the US authorities accused alleged Beijing-linked hacking group ‘Salt Typhoon’ of intercepting surveillance data gathered and stored by the telecoms for American law enforcement agencies. The perpetrators allegedly intercepted text messages and audio from an unknown number of calls during a large-scale operation that lasted for months. Senator Mark Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the breach the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history – by far,” following a hearing this week. “The barn door is still wide open, or mostly open.”

On Friday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger hosted a meeting with the telecommunications industry at the White House, though it is unclear who exactly was present. “The meeting was an opportunity to hear from telecommunications sector executives about how the US government can partner with and support the private sector in hardening against sophisticated nation-state attacks,” the White House said in a statement. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint statement on November 13, blaming the intrusion on China and admitting that the stolen information had been gathered and stored as part of “legal” surveillance on American suspects.

“Specifically, we have identified that PRC-affiliated actors have compromised networks at multiple telecommunications companies to enable the theft of customer call record data, the compromise of private communications of a limited number of individuals primarily involved in government or political activity, and the copying of certain information that was subject to US law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders,” they wrote. The scope of the breach is still under investigation. Reports indicate that fewer than 150 victims have been notified by the FBI so far, most of whom are located in the Washington DC area. However, since those affected likely called or texted numerous people, the number of records accessed by hackers could be significantly higher.

An unnamed adviser to the campaign of President-elect Donald Trump is also said to be among those whose conversations were intercepted, according to a report last month by the Washington Post. It remains unclear whether the adviser’s information was also “subject to US law enforcement requests.” In 2016, the FBI used the fabricated Steele Dossier to obtain court permission to spy on Trump’s campaign and undermine his presidency. Beijing has repeatedly denied hacking allegations and claims by Washington that it is attempting to meddle in the US electoral process. The Chinese Embassy in Washington previously stated that it was unaware of the activities of ‘Salt Typhoon’ and accused the US of fabricating evidence of Beijing’s involvement in cyberattacks to “smear China.”

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I still don’t get who they think they would pay for it.

• US Unlikely to Let American Investor Buy Nord Stream 2 (Sp.)

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipeline network was rocked by explosions in September 2022, just months after President Joe Biden threatened to “bring an end” to the energy project in the event of an escalation in Ukraine. Now, a US investor reportedly wants to buy Nord Stream 2. Sputnik asked a renowned economist what this means. If the Ukraine crisis were to end, there would “likely…be huge pressure to get the pipelines repaired” from a Europe starved of energy. “Any new owner would become immensely rich,” the economist stressed.government, widely suspected of playing an instrumental role in the energy infrastructure’s sabotage, would be unlikely to allow it, veteran British economist Dr. Rodney Shakespeare told Sputnik. “America destroyed the pipelines because secret American policy is to keep Germany and Europe dependent on (expensive) American gas supplies. So the businessman is unlikely to get permission,” Shakespeare, a visiting scholar at Indonesia’s Trisakti University and co-founder of the Global Justice Movement, explained.

If the Ukrainian crisis were to end, there would “likely…be huge pressure to get the pipelines repaired” from a Europe starved of energy. “Any new owner would become immensely rich,” the economist stressed. But even then, Shakespeare warned that given the hostility of US policy toward the project, there’s no guarantee that the repaired pipelines wouldn’t “be blown up again.” “My guess is that the businessman will not get permission and that the risk of deliberate destruction in future is such that the pipes will not get repaired,” Shakespeare said. Lynch reportedly applied for a license with the US Treasury that would allow him to negotiate initiating repair work on the damaged $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline with entities under US sanctions, and has reportedly lobbied officials to allow him to invest in the damaged pipeline network to secure “American and European control over European energy supply for the rest of the fossil-fuel era.”

Nord Stream 2 AG is owned by a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom, with a consortium of five European energy companies financing to the project. A Swiss court has repeatedly extended the moratorium on Nord Stream 2 AG’s bankruptcy, most recently until January 2025. It’s unclear whether Russia would ever allow foreign investors, particularly from unfriendly countries, to gain a stake in the project. Nord Stream 2 was completed in September 2021, but never commissioned amid heavy US pressure on its European NATO allies to wean themselves off reliance on cheap and dependable Russian energy in favor of more costly US liquefied natural gas exports to Europe. In September 2022, three of four strings of the combined Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline networks were damaged in a series of explosions, causing the largest-ever man-made release of methane and deprived Europe of the capacity to import up to 110 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year.

In December 2022, a source told US media that repairing the damaged energy infrastructure could cost $500 million or more to repair, and that consultants were engaged in research into how long the damaged pipes could withstand exposure to saltwater. In February 2023, veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged, citing insider information, that US Navy divers carried out the sabotage attack targeting Nord Stream. US officials dismissed these allegations, and maintain that Russia may have blown up its own pipeline. “I don’t want to get our country in trouble, so I won’t answer…But I can tell you who it wasn’t – Russia. It wasn’t Russia,” President-elect Donald Trump told US media in April 2023. “How about when they blamed Russia. You know they said ‘Russia blew up their own pipeline.’ You got a kick out of that one too,” Trump said.

After the release of Hersh’s bombshell story, US and German media have coordinated the release of a series of articles alleging that amateur Ukrainian saboteurs, not the US Navy, was responsible for the attack on Nord Stream. In an interview with Tucker Carlson in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was “clear to the whole world” that the US was responsible for the Nord Stream sabotage. Germany’s silence on the matter shows that its leaders are “guided by the interests of the collective West rather than its [own] national interests,” Putin added.

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“I saw an America that is not just Brad Pitt and George Clooney, but an America that has around 40,000-50,000 people without [a] home, and that’s only California..”

• Film Director Kusturica Thanks RT For Opening His Eyes On America (RT)

Renowned Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica has lauded RT for covering topics sidelined by other media, and particularly for showing him aspects of life in the US that are glossed over by Hollywood and official narratives. The director was speaking at an RT international film festival featuring dozens of documentaries on the Ukraine conflict. The event dubbed ‘RT.Doc: The Age of Our Heroes’ kicked off on Friday in the Serbian village of Drvengrad in the west of the country. The village was originally built by Kusturica as a film set two decades ago and has since become a venue for film and music festivals, as well as a tourist attraction. Speaking at the festival, Kusturica described documentaries as the very essence of television.

“[The] actual idea of television can be found exclusively in documentary programs,” he said, adding that various TV formats like news or other information programs tend to lean towards one side or another when covering certain events. Documentaries, on the other hand, demonstrate “the truth about the meaning of television” and are “every television’s… strongest program.” He explained that the festival provides a chance to see such works. The filmmaker also specifically praised documentaries produced by RT, saying that they showed him things he had not even thought about, particularly when it comes to the US. “Thanks to Russia Today, I saw an America that is not just Brad Pitt and George Clooney, but an America that has around 40,000-50,000 people without [a] home, and that’s only California,” Kusturica said.

“I got to know the side of America that didn’t exist in my thoughts, yet alone in those films that I loved from the 70s.” RT covers topics from various parts of the globe, including Europe, the US and Africa, opening “a new view for us in the whole world,” according to the director. He then expressed his hope that Drvengrad would be able to host “another good film festival” in this “most important” genre and thanked the event organizers for choosing the venue. The festival, which runs through Sunday, features more than 60 documentaries, including those filmed by Russian war correspondents, as well as Italian, French, and US crews. Kusturica made one of them himself. His documentary focuses on Kiev’s persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which it accuses of having ties to Russia.

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“Tony believed that the best way to prepare for the next pandemic, was to create it..”

• Bombshell Fauci Documentary Nails The Whole COVID Charade (ZH)

A new must-watch documentary by two-time Peabody Award-winning and four-time Emmy nominated director Jenner Furst, a self-described progressive who has broken with the Democratic party, ties it all together. In early 2020, Furst was contacted to direct a puff piece on former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci. The project was scrapped, however three years later, Furst began investigating what actually happened and created “Thank You, Dr. Fauci” – a project which has received virtually no press coverage, and even Rotten Tomatoes critics won’t touch.

If you’re thinking ‘you had me at Fauci’ and just want to watch it, a free preview of “Thank You, Dr. Fauci” is available, and the film can be rented directly on the film’s website, or by using Vimeo On-Demand or Gathr. People can also use Gathr to Book Private Screenings and Partner on TVOD Sales. If you’re like Elon Musk and you believe that ‘Prosecute / Fauci’ should be your pronouns, this is what you need to watch to understand why we should prosecute Fauci. While it’s difficult enough to find “Thank You, Dr. Fauci” thanks to search engine shadowbans and downrankings, perhaps the most notable form of censorship is the ongoing media blackout of the film according to Furst – whose previous work has been heavily reviewed, critically acclaimed, and streamed across Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Paramount.

But not this one. “The media blackout of the film just proves that the real Covid story is still highly censored,” Furst told ZeroHedge, adding “Journalists still can’t cover Covid truthfully at major outlets, and the problem is way bigger than them or their editors. The most powerful lobbies on the planet, and the weight of the US government is still sitting on the free press like an 800 pound gorilla.” Given the level of censorship the film has been subject to, Furst firmly believes that a massive free speech platform such X would be ideal to get the word out – if even for a couple of days.

“I feel like Elon could change this conversation overnight, the country is divided only due to the success of propaganda on the left. No democrat can sit thru this movie and see Fauci or the pandemic the same way again. That’s why MSM doesn’t want to acknowledge this,” Furst told ZeroHedge. The documentary features notable figures at the heart of the pandemic response, including Dr. Robert Redfield – the former director of the CDC during the outbreak – who was completely shut out of Anthony Fauci’s inner circle while the NIAID boss and top virologists conspired via secret back channels to shape the narrative around COVID origins. Also featured are former State Department COVID investigator David Asher, and Richard Ebright – a Rutgers molecular biologist who’s spent years pushing back against the Fauci wagon-circling by the scientific community.

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Frens

 

 

Ducks

 

 

Horse

 

 

Street art

 

 

Donkey

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle November 24 2024

Nov 242024
 
 November 24, 2024  Posted by at 9:44 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  59 Responses »


Giovanni Bellini St. Francis in ecstasy 1480

 

• The Ukraine War After The Penny Has Dropped – Make That The Oreshnik (Helmer)
• Oreshnik – The 3 Km Per Second Plot Twist (Pepe Escobar)
• Reach Of Russia’s New Hypersonic Missile: ‘London In 20 Minutes’ (ZH)
• Putin Announces Mass Production Of Oreshnik Missiles (RT)
• RFK Jr. vs WaPo First Round In Trump’s Fight With Legacy Media, Censorship (JTN)
• Trump’s AG Fight Threatens To Spill Over To His Other Cabinet Picks (JTN)
• Trump Taps COVID-Contrarian Marty Makary For FDA (ZH)
• How Lies Become Facts And The World Ends (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The US and Britain, Inciting Global War, Must Be Defeated For Good (SCF)
• Russia’s “Apocalyptic” Troops Officially Engaged In The SMO (SCF)
• Mobilization Out Of Question – Kremlin (Sp.)
• White House Promises ‘Sprint’ to Protect Biden’s ‘Legacy’ From Trump (Sp.)
• Biden Vows to Arm Ukraine as Much as Possible Before Trump Inauguration (Sp.)
• Medvedev Tells How To End Ukraine Conflict (RT)
• Putin Must Be ‘Adult In The Room’ On Ukraine Conflict – Jimmy Dore (RT)

 

 

 

 

Gaetz

All in Pod

Megyn
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860050307713237211

Jennings

Fang

 

 

 

 

“..the Oreshnik is the signal that the “General Staff are talking directly to Trump & Co.”

• The Ukraine War After The Penny Has Dropped – Make That The Oreshnik (Helmer)

President Vladimir Putin has announced that serial production of the new Oreshnik hypersonic, intermediate range, 36-warhead missile has commenced. He made this announcement at a special public meeting with Defense Ministry officials in the Kremlin on Friday, November 22. “There are no means of countering such a missile; no means of intercepting it exist in the world today,” Putin said. “We need to launch its serial production. Let us assume that the decision on the serial production of this system has been made. As a matter of fact, it has already been essentially organised.” This means there are already, or will shortly be deployed, dozens of Oreshniki missiles for firing at targets in the Ukraine west of the Dnieper River and as far west as the Polish and Hungarian borders. This also means that no American, no NATO staff group, no Anglo-American target intelligence unit in bunkers in Kiev or Lvov are safe any longer.

Nor are Vladimir Zelensky and his advisors. To escape Israeli-precedent decapitation, they must all decamp to the Ukrainian war operations mock-up already prepared on the Polish side of the border. Ukrainian military intelligence head, Kirill Budanov, has claimed that the Oreshnik strike on the Yuzhmash (Pivdenmash) plant in Dniepropetrovsk is “just a cipher…We know for sure that as of October they were supposed to make two research samples, maybe they made a little bit more, but believe me, this is a research sample, but not yet serial production, thank God.” “Wishful thinking,” a NATO military source comments. “He’ll get the chance to find out first- hand.” Russian military sources add that, following disclosure of the Kremlin’s back-channel talks with Donald Trump and his advisors on terms for an end-of-war settlement, the Oreshnik is the signal that the “General Staff are talking directly to Trump & Co.”

Putin was explicit in his first announcement of the Oreshnik firing: “We believe that the United States [President Trump] made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the INF Treaty in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext.” Dmitry Rogozin — formerly Russian NATO ambassador, then deputy prime minister in charge of the Russian military industrial complex, now senator for Zaporozhye – carefully identified the credit for the Oreshnik: “Today, everyone who fought for the creation of this missile system, who overcame what we may call scepticism, should congratulate each other. And I join those congratulations. Good for you!…Thank you to the Supreme Command for supporting the work! Thank you to the Academy for not backing away!” A Russian source, who does not believe Putin ordered the General Staff to suspend its electric war campaign between August and this month, believes Russian strategy now is “a thousand cuts.

The Oreshnik is a particularly deep one but I don’t believe that the Kremlin and General Staff have decided to use it to hit Bankova [street address in Kiev of the presidential offices and living quarters]. The decapitation threat is real enough though to impel Zelensky to exit, or maybe for the Ukrainian military to get rid of him on their own initiative.” “Just as important,” the source says, “the Russian ground offensive in the east will remain slow, patient, maybe for two years more. The priority is on preventing Russian casualties, conserving Russian lives. This is essential once you realize that the [Putin] presidential succession also depends, not only on winning the war on Russian terms, but ensuring the protection of Russian lives.” Oreshnik in Russian means, literally, hazel nut or the wood of the hazelnut tree. In Siberia, the cognate expression “to give nuts” has the metaphorical meaning of inflicting punishment.

As Putin pointed out in his national address on the evening after the Oreshnik strike, it had been then-President Trump’s “mistake” in 2019 to unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Soviet-American treaty on intermediate range nuclear forces (INF). Oreshnik is both the Russian reply and also a warning to Trump to correct his mistake. For the time being, the Financial Times, a Japanese propaganda outlet in London, reported a Norwegian graduate student as claiming “there certainly was no military value to it.” In Moscow, Izvestia, on which the BBC has relied for republication, reported “it is likely that we are dealing with a new generation of Russian intermediate-range missiles [with a range of] 2,500-3,000km (1,550-1,860 miles) and potentially extending to 5,000km (3,100 miles), but not intercontinental. It is obviously equipped with a separating warhead with individual guidance units.”

This means the missile is MIRV, comprising multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles. Close observation of the strike videoclips shows six of these releasing six munitions capable of penetrating deep underground bunkers. A salvo of thirty-six warhead detonations, altogether. Missile speed is reported to be between Mach 10 and Mach 11.

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“..it was Trump 1.0 who withdrew the US from the INF treaty, in 2019. If the US had remained, Russia would not have been able to develop and use Oreshnik.”

• Oreshnik – The 3 Km Per Second Plot Twist (Pepe Escobar)

Captain America believed it would intimidate Russkie Charlie with the “authorization” straight out of the Deep State for Ukraine to attack targets inside the Russian Federation with ATACMS. Such attacks had already happened in the past on Russia’s new territories. Still, two new ones were unleashed after the “authorization”, against Kursk and Bryansk; one with ATACMS, and the other with Storm Shadows. Then came the inevitable Russian response. What was that? New multiple hypersonics? Zeus? Superman? Deputy Chair of the Security Council, Dimitri “Unplugged” Medvedev, could not resist concise trolling; “So that’s what you wanted? Well, you’ve damn well got it!” Collective West rats were predictably scurryin’ all across the spectrum after watching what was first interpreted as a RS-26 “conventional warheads package” demo. Then President Putin went on the record.

Key takeaways: Western long-range weapons have been used against Russia, which retaliated with the new, medium-range, ballistic hypersonic “Oreshnik” system against the Yuzhmash factory in Dnipropetrovsk; additionally, the use of long-range weapons by the enemy cannot affect the course of the Special Military Operation (SMO). But this was the key relevant message Putin relayed to the Americans, NATO and the collective West: “We are conducting combat tests of the Oreshnik missile system in response to the aggressive actions of NATO countries against Russia. The issue of further deployment of medium-range and shorter-range missiles will be decided by us, depending on the actions of the United States and its satellites. The targets for destruction during further tests of our newest missile systems will be determined by us based on threats to the security of the Russian Federation. We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against the military installations of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities. And in case of escalation of aggressive actions, we will also respond decisively and in a mirror manner. I recommend that the ruling elites of those countries that have plans to use their military contingents against Russia seriously think twice about this.”

The initial interpretation of this de facto game-changing move was that Russia had launched a single RS-26 Rubezh road mobile missile against the Yuzhmash missile production factory in Dnepropetrovsk, equipped with six independent, non-nuclear (italics mine) warheads, each in turn deploying other warheads (call it 6×6 = 36). That in itself changed the “essence” of the war in Ukraine, as Putin himself had previously recognized when it comes to the “authorization” for attacks by ATACMS. Putin’s speech established that Russia in fact used a completely new medium range (1,000 to 3,000 km) missile, the Oreshnik (“Hazelnut). Even US officials admitted it’s an “experimental” system; that implies they knew something about it. Putin himself also referred to “combat testing”. What is established beyond any testing, in Putin’s own words, is that “Hazelnut” may be sent as a gift to any target across NATO.

Oreshnik is as badass as missiles get. It may reach the UK in only 19 minutes; Brussels in 14; Berlin in 11; and Warsaw in 8 minutes. And, of course, traveling at over Mach 10, it simply cannot be intercepted by anything in the collective West arsenal. That includes the US. High destructive power is a given – already guaranteed by the surprise factor; you only know what hits you after you get hit (maybe). One potential option is that Oreshnik targeted secret underground workshops at Yuzhmash, where NATO had sent equipment and parts for short-range ballistic missiles (500 km to 1,500 km). In his four books and in his blog, the indispensable Andrei Martyanov has made it clear that “Russia has an overwhelming conventional escalation superiority” compared to the Hegemon. So, yes: this testing of an IRCM (a conventional missile) with hypersonic MIRVs (Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles) may be just a demo – a preview of what else may be in store.

Martyanov: “NATO has zero capability to stop Russia’s long-range fires.” The “demo” also happens to be paired with a new shot at making war a relatively civil affair: Moscow will warn civilians of any impending Oreshnik strike. Those that won’t leave will do so at their own peril. As Martyanov remarked, “this is not anymore just SMO”. Indeed: for quite a while we have been way past a special military operation: this is a do-or-die NATO v. Russia hot war. Aggravated by the fact that the Hegemon’s ruling elites are congenitally incapable of stop escalating. Even the Oreshnik demo won’t stop escalation. A plausible scenario is that US military intel learned about an impeding Russian mid-range ballistic missile strike and then informed Kiev and NATO. Moscow then warned the US 30 minutes before the strike (that’s the norm, to prevent nuclear misunderstandings); the Americans not only confirmed it, but stressed there was no risk of a Russian nuclear attack on Kiev, now or in the foreseeable future.

Oreshnik in fact is a tacit demo that Russia does not need nuclear power to solve anything in the Ukrainian theater of war. So let’s assume that escalation has been controlled – for now. Yet we still have nearly two months of a completely deranged US administration in power. NATO’s congenital dementia suggests escalation will continue. The difference though is stratospheric: now they don’t know if Oreshnik handing them a business card comes with a nuclear bomb on or not. For all the inbuilt dementia of the current – exiting – administration, Americans who only understand the world via movies may have forgotten that it was Trump 1.0 who withdrew the US from the INF treaty, in 2019. If the US had remained, Russia would not have been able to develop and use Oreshnik. But now it’s hazelnut salad time, everybody; a great way to regulate blood pressure.

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“• Six warheads, each carrying six submunitions. • A terminal phase speed exceeding Mach 11..”

• Reach Of Russia’s New Hypersonic Missile: ‘London In 20 Minutes’ (ZH)

Soon after warning that Russia’s newly deployed ‘Oreshnik’ nuclear capable hypersonic missile is able to reach any European capital, at a top speed of Mach 10+ —which is significantly faster than a bullet—Russian state media issued the below ominous infographic. It touts that Eastern European capitals could be hit in a matter of a few minutes, and that Berlin is reachable in only 15. It lists capitals as far away from the Kapustin Yar rocket launch complex like London and Paris as reachable by the Oreshnik in just 20 minutes. This means if proverbial all hell broke loose and WW3 came to Europe, these populations would have very little time to reach shelter. On Thursday Moscow had shocked the world after six independent war heads of a new intermediate range ballistic missile were launched on the Yuzhmash missile plant in Dnipro Ukraine. Thus Putin has demonstrated that the West has crossed his ‘red lines’ after its long-range attack authorization granted to Kiev.

According to more via a war monitoring site: Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) provided further details, stating that “Oreshnik” refers to a research project, while the operational missile system is named “Kedr.” Its known specifications include: • Six warheads, each carrying six submunitions. • A terminal phase speed exceeding Mach 11. If this is indeed a medium-range ballistic missile, as Putin suggests, its range could extend up to 5,500 kilometers. This would violate the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by the US and the Soviet Union to eliminate such missiles. Developing Kedr would thus signify Russia’s breach of this agreement. Vladimir Putin warned back in July, “Today, the development of such systems in Russia is nearing completion. We will take mirror measures to deploy them, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1859663512093544452

A day after Russia’s attack on Ukraine with what were clearly big, very fast and new intermediate-range missiles, which many outlets initially reported to be an ICBM, the Kremlin is touting that it launched a cutting-edge hypersonic missile for which there is no defensive intercept capability. Russia says that Washington has now understood and been able to grasp Putin’s warnings and red lines more clearly following the missile strike a Ukrainian defense industry facility in Dnepropetrovsk Thursday morning. The new hypersonic weapon, dubbed ‘Oreshnik’ is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. “We have no doubt that the current administration in Washington has had the opportunity to familiarize itself with this announcement and understand it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Putin had said the West’s escalation, seen this week in authorizing Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russia with US/UK-made weapons, makes Ukraine a “global” conflict.

He strongly hinted that this global aspect to the war means attacks on Western targets can’t be ruled out. The same day, the foreign ministry said a US missile base in Poland is a prime target. Peskov further called Putin’s message following the hypersonic attack “comprehensive, clear and logical.” The Russian leader has authorized the new missile to enter mass production. “The key message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries — which produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine and subsequently take part in carrying out strikes on Russian territory — cannot go unanswered,” Peskov continued. On Friday Russian state media sources have begun publishing specs for the Oreshnik missile, claiming it flies at Mach 10, and can reach 5,500km in distance, or 3,400+ miles (as a medium-range weapon). Russia’s missile command has also informed Putin that the projectile is capable of reaching any European target…

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“..it is a new development based on cutting-edge hypersonic technology and modern materials..”

I was wondering about the -heat-resistant- coating. Didn’t see a clue. It’s what the west can’t get right.

• Putin Announces Mass Production Of Oreshnik Missiles (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Friday the decision to begin serial production of the new Oreshnik ballistic missile system. The announcement came after the system was used in combat for the first time earlier this week in Ukraine. Speaking during a meeting at the Kremlin with the leadership of the Defense Ministry and defense industry representatives, Putin outlined that the Oreshnik missile system, one of Russia’s latest military advancements, is not a modernization of an old Soviet weapon. Instead, it is a new development based on cutting-edge hypersonic technology and modern materials. “It is the result of work done in the conditions of New Russia,” Putin said, highlighting that the system was created to meet contemporary defense needs.

Putin confirmed that several Oreshnik systems are currently undergoing testing in Russia, and that the decision to embark on mass production had already been articulated. “You can assume that the decision on production has been made. In fact, it is organized,” he added. More of the missile systems are expected to be delivered to Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces in the coming months. The first combat use of the Oreshnik missile took place on Thursday, when it was used to strike a Ukrainian defense facility in Dnepropetrovsk. The target was Yuzhmash, one of Ukraine’s largest defense-industrial facilities inherited from the USSR that produces missile equipment and other weapons.

Putin said the use of the missile was in response to Kiev’s attacks inside Russia with Western-supplied long-range weapons such as American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles. The Oreshnik is described as a medium-range, hypersonic weapon designed for high precision strikes. According to the Defense Ministry, “all warheads” of the missile “reached the target” during this week’s deployment. The president praised the missile’s successful test and combat deployment, expressing admiration for the speed at which the system had been developed. Putin also emphasized the importance of continuing testing and increasing production rates. “I congratulate the military on the successful tests and support the adoption of the system,” he said.

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”..clear criminal penalties for federal bureaucrats who partner with private entities to do an end run around the Constitution.”

• RFK Jr. vs WaPo First Round In Trump’s Fight With Legacy Media, Censorship (JTN)

“If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country,” President-elect Donald Trump said in a video posted to social media just day after winning reelection on Nov. 5. “Today, I’m announcing my plan to shatter the left-wing censorship regime.” Not mentioned by name, though alluded to, are the various non-profit and for-profit groups that have sprung up to battle “fake news” but typically target outlets that lean right of center. Those group include the Trusted News Initiative (TNI), Media Matters for America (MMFA), the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and NewsGuard. “When I am president, this whole rotten system of censorship and information control will be ripped out of the system at large,” Trump also announced. With his bold pronouncements in mind, the following is Part 1 of a four-part series – a deep dive into some of the organizations to which he was likely referring.

Critics of their work say it leads to censorship and loss of advertising for the media outlets that dare challenge the legacy media’s approved narrative. Multiple outlets have published profiles of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the past 18 months, though only The Washington Post’s in June warranted a 20-page response from Kennedy that includes 78 footnotes. The letter, reviewed by Just the News, includes the expected complaints: The writer referred to Kennedy’s claims as “conspiracy theories” or as having been “debunked,” though he says they hadn’t been. Too many journalists do not “speak truth to power,” Kennedy wrote, but instead “serve as propagandists pouring concrete on official orthodoxies, and attacking dissent.” The Washington Post did not respond to a request for comment.

Peppered throughout the letter are references to something called the Trusted News Initiative, a global consortium of members founded in 2019 by the BBC that also includes the Associated Press, Reuters, Microsoft, Google, YouTube and The Washington Post. Its goal: combat disinformation. In the letter, Kennedy, nominated by Trump to run the Department of Health and Human Services, refers to TNI as a “clandestine industry partnership” and a “cabal” made up of “conspirators” whose mission is to label as “misinformation” any assertion that departs from pronouncements made by the Biden-Harris administration, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other bureaucracies. Examples of “misinformation” that proved to be plausible, if not true, include early claims that COVID-19 may have originated in a lab in Wuhan, China; that mRNA vaccines might not prevent infection or transmission of COVID-19; that hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin might be effective in treating the infectious disease; and that a laptop left at a repair shop belonged to first son Hunter Biden.

One of Kennedy’s footnotes includes a quote from TNI Director Jessica Cecil, who said last year: “We don’t fact check; but once we learn from a partner that something is unreliable, that’s when we alert each other.” The TNI did not respond to a request for comment from Just The News, nor to its request that it reveal the names of outside donors or to clarify whether it gets – directly or indirectly – funds or directives from any government entity. Trump, in the Nov. 9 video, alluded to the latter when he vowed to end censorship, saying, “We should also enact new laws laying out clear criminal penalties for federal bureaucrats who partner with private entities to do an end run around the Constitution.”

One of Kennedy’s footnoted accusations reads: “By depriving the public of complete scientific information, TNI may have had a calamitous impact on public health. Nearly 100 studies of ivermectin and 400 studies of hydroxychloroquine revealed that the drugs are safe and effective against COVID-19. TNI social media platforms nevertheless took the official position that these repurposed drugs were unsafe and ineffective.” He writes that TNI was doing the bidding of the pharmaceutical companies, given that “federal law prohibits the issuance of an Emergency Use Authorization for any vaccine if any approved drug is demonstrated effective against the target disease.” Kennedy’s letter notes that The Post reported that 70% of calls to one state’s poison control center involved ivermectin, when the real number was 2% (the newspaper ran a correction).

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“Newsweek’s Josh Hammer, moreover, suggested that the nod may have been an example of Trump playing “4-D chess..”

• Trump’s AG Fight Threatens To Spill Over To His Other Cabinet Picks (JTN)

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s, R-Fla., withdrawal from consideration to serve as United States Attorney General and his replacement with Florida’s Pam Bondi has many scratching their heads and some forecasting trouble for his future Cabinet picks. Trump’s nomination of Gaetz shocked Capitol Hill. The conservative firebrand and die-hard MAGA supporter had previously rocked the lower chamber by leading the charge to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year. His reputation as an anti-institutional wrecking ball, moreover, scared establishment lawmakers stiff. More shocking than his nomination, however, was his withdrawal and speedy replacement with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Neither Gaetz nor Bondi were on most insiders’ shortlists for the post and more than a handful of Republican heavyweights have speculated that the Gaetz nomination may have been some sort of headfake.

Ostensibly motivating Gaetz’s withdrawal were his concerns that a contentious nomination process would needlessly distract from Trump’s agenda. But Gaetz had also faced a House Ethics Committee investigation into his conduct, of which Gaetz has vehemently denied. The DOJ previously declined to charge him after a years-long investigation, but senators wanted the panel’s findings. After Gaetz resigned from Congress, the committee chose not to release them. Purportedly, Gaetz did not have the votes for confirmation, with a handful of establishment Republicans standing firm in their opposition to him despite a Capitol Hill meeting between Gaetz and members of the upper chamber. While his replacement may have an easier path to confirmation than he did, Gaetz’s departure from the media cycle may prove a detriment to the success of Trump’s other nominees.

Defense Secretary designate Pete Hegseth, for instance, was briefly the subject of headlines over his own legal woes and allegations, though Gaetz’s nomination saw him draw the media flak away from Hegseth. An Army veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Hegseth earned two Bronze Stars and went on to become a host on Fox News. His issues speedily returned to headlines after Gaetz backed out of the nomination. More than a few analysts predicted Gaetz’s failure as a nominee and have suggested that Trump may have as well. “There’s always one” that takes the fall and “gives cover to the others,” one Republican strategist told Fox News, suggesting Gaetz was a “sacrificial lamb” for other nominees. Newsweek’s Josh Hammer, moreover, suggested that the nod may have been an example of Trump playing “4-D chess,” in reference to a 2016 notion that he was outthinking his opponents.

The essence of Hammer’s theory is that Trump’s nomination of Gaetz gave the congressman an excuse to leave Congress and thereby avoid the release of the ethics report, freeing him up for a possible 2026 gubernatorial run. Given how odious Gaetz was to Senate lawmakers, moreover, whomever Trump chose to replace him would seem more palatable. Hammer suggests that the short turnaround between Gaetz’s withdrawal and Bondi’s nomination signaled she may have been on deck for the job already. Under that theory, Trump would have helped a MAGA stalwart gear up to lead one of the most important Republican bastions while greasing the wheels for another stalwart nominee, who might otherwise have faced more intense scrutiny.

In late October, Trump declared that he and Gaetz have a “little secret” they would reveal after the election concluded. The clip of him saying so recirculated amid Gaetz’s nomination, though Trump never confirmed any link between the clip and the AG nod.

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This is RFK Jr.

• Trump Taps COVID-Contrarian Dr. Marty Makary For FDA (ZH)

In another appointment with potential to shake up the federal health regime, Donald Trump on Friday nominated Dr. Martin Makary to lead the Food & Drug Administration. Makary, a Johns Hopkins University pancreatic surgeon and author of three New York Times bestsellers, has been critical of the government’s role in health care. The role requires Senate confirmation. Declaring that the FDA has “lost the trust of Americans,” Trump said Makary will “course-correct and refocus the agency,” to include “properly evaluat[ing] harmful chemicals poisoning our nation’s food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our nation’s youth, so that we can finally address the childhood chronic disease epidemic.” Makary grew to national notoriety as one of several highly-credentialed physicians who pushed back on many elements of the federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Testifying before Congress, Makary said:

“The greatest perpetrator of misinformation during the pandemic has been the United States government. Misinformation that Covid was spread through surface transmission, that vaccinated immunity was far greater than natural immunity…that myocarditis was more common after the infection than the vaccine…that young people benefit from a booster…” While not broadly opposing Covid-19 vaccines, Makary condemned the Biden administration for pushing boosters on young patients for whom the virus presented a far lower threat, and has declared that heavy-handed vaccine mandates “created never-vaxxers.” He co-wrote a study that concluded that Covid vaccine booster mandates for college students created net harm, with adverse reactions like myocarditis in young men outweighing slim benefits from vaccination.

Makary also ridiculed fear-mongering about the Omicron variant as “fueling…a pandemic of lunacy,” and urged a rollback in Covid testing in low-risk situations, saying, “If you test everyone in the United States, you will find a virus particle in the nose of some fraction of Americans forever.” That said, some feel Makary was too slow to question some elements of the Covid regime, and was initially too credulous about the benefits of vaccination. In June 2020, he touted the “liberating” qualities of “universal masking.” In March 2021, he tweeted, “The data show that vaccines confer near perfect protection against death and hospitalization from Covid.” With a $7 billion budget and 18,000 employees, the FDA has enormous influence over Americans’ lives, with regulatory influence over products that account for about a fifth of all US consumer spending.

Makary, who has degrees from Bucknell University, Thomas Jefferson and Harvard, would report to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr — if the controversial Kennedy is confirmed by the Senate or manages to achieve a recess appointment to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has said the FDA is in need of a major trimming. “There are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA … that have to go—that are not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids,” Kennedy said earlier this month. In a more aggressive post to X in October, Kennedy said “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” and said that, for employees who were part of corruption that serves the pharmaceutical industry to the detriment of the public’s health, “I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”

The Washington Post reports that Kennedy was influential in Makary’s selection, as Kennedy urged Trump to favor candidates that are not tightly linked to either the health care industry or government. Kennedy is said to consider Makary as a likeminded reformer. Much like Kennedy, Makary has harshly criticized the federal government’s approach to food and health, saying root causes of serious conditions are ignored in favor of simply prescribing drugs: “We are right now witnessing the largest uncontrolled experiment in modern health history…we have introduced tons of chemicals, pesticides, micro-plastics, ultra-processed foods, seed oils into the modern diet, altering the microbiome and no one talks about it. They’re too busy demonizing saturated fat and trying to defend the old food pyramid. They just replaced it with a food compass that’s almost worse…it says Lucky Charms is healthier than a steak.”

Makary’s new book is “Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health.” Makary makes a case that government malpractice has been at the root of many modern health crises, from opioid addiction to peanut allergies to obesity and drug-resistance bacteria. Here he is recounting how the National Institutes of Health, on the basis of its own profoundly flawed study, wrongly discouraged doctors from prescribing hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women, creating a reluctance that still persists today:

However tardy Makary may have been in challenging some public health approaches to the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems clear he is poised to shake things up at the all-too-powerful FDA. January 20 can’t come quickly enough.

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“Russia has been pushed as far as it is safe to push. If the pushing doesn’t stop, the world is going to end.”

• How Lies Become Facts And The World Ends (Paul Craig Roberts)

Endless repetition by whore media and careless media turn lies into truth. Whatever media you read, you read that “Russia invaded Ukraine.” The lie is not limited to official narrative-controllers, such as the NY Times, Washington Post, Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, CNN. Wikipedia, NPR, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, Telegraph, Guardian. It appears in alternative media, such as the Epoch Times and Breitbart. Indeed, the lie is repeated as fact almost everywhere, in the houses of Congress, the UK Parliament, Wall Street, European media and governments. The fact is there was no Russian invasion at all. Russian forces entered Donbas at the request of the two independent breakaway republics for help against the US-trained and equipped Ukrainian army and neo-Nazi militias that were about to invade Donetsk and Luhansk. The two independent republics requested Russia to return them to Russia in 2014 along with Crimea.

But Putin refused the republics, taking only Crimea because it is the site of the Russian Black Sea fleet. Instead Putin placed his bet on the Minsk Agreement, which kept Donbas as part of Ukraine. The enforcers of the Minsk Agreement, Germany and France, later admitted that the Minsk Agreement was used to deceive Putin while Washington created a Ukrainian army to conquer the independent republics and present Putin with political difficulties for failure to defend Russians from those whose forebears fought for Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union. In other words, it was a plan to discredit Putin, for his crime of dissenting from Washington’s hegemony. Putin’s refusal to restore Donbas to Russia in keeping with the overwhelming vote of the Donbas people subjected Donetsk and Luhansk to eight years of bombardment and many casualties while Putin stood by the Minsk Agreement.

Finally in February, 2022, with Washington, NATO, and the EU refusing Russia a mutual security agreement, and the Donetsk and Luhansk Republics facing invasion, Putin was forced to act to protect the Russian populations in the east and south of Ukraine that had been attached to the Ukrainian province of the Soviet Union by Soviet leaders for political and administration reasons. Donbas and Crimea were for centuries part of Russia, not Ukraine. Putin, a leader, rebuilding Russian confidence after the Soviet collapse, could not stand aside while Russian people were massacred by an American-provided Ukrainian army. Putin’s view of his intervention was very limited. It had nothing whatsoever to do with conquering Ukraine. His publicly announced “Special military operation” had to do only with driving Ukrainian forces out of Donbas. Putin made no effort to conquer Ukraine.

At the time I said his limited approach, particularly his intention to minimize both Russian casualties and casualties among the Ukrainian population, would leave the Ukrainian puppet government in place to continue the war despite Russian successes in clearing Donbas of Ukrainian forces. My prediction, and not Putin’s bet, proved to be correct. As I said would be the case, by not impeding Kiev’s ability to continue the war, Putin enabled a long-term war, now three years, during which Washington has managed to get the West involved up to the hilt. The latest being the Biden regime’s green light to missiles being fired by US and NATO personnel into Mother Russia. The recent US missile strikes into Russia crossed a red line that, finally, Putin was not prepared to ignore in his interest to avoid a wider war. Unlike the West, Putin does not want war. He did not want the conflict in Ukraine. Washington forced it on him. He cannot stand aside while an army created by Washington slaughters Russians.

Putin’s response to the missile strikes, which ignored his warning, was restrained. He merely demonstrated with a hypersonic missile that travels at mach 10 the fate of the West if the West’s attack on Russia continues. The question is whether the West heard the warning.. Putin’s past record of ignoring provocations in order to avoid widening the war has created the impression in the West that Putin’s warnings don’t mean anything as “Putin never does anything.” This conclusion is dangerously mistaken. It ignores that Putin, a humanitarian, ignores provocations in order to avoid widening the war, which has a terrible impact on innocent civilians and their hopes, and, if nuclear, on life on Earth. The West’s conclusion also ignores that provocations can become too severe for Putin to ignore. I believe that point has been reached.

If the irresponsible American establishment, deluded by its hubris and belief in its invincibility, continues to provoke Russia, Putin will run out of space into which to back up. At that point the Western world’s aggression could result in an unintended consequence. The problem before us is that the Western leaders are too lost in their false narratives to comprehend reality. It is not all their fault, because Putin encouraged their provocations by not standing up to them. But the aggression lies with the West, not with Russia. And Russia has been pushed as far as it is safe to push. If the pushing doesn’t stop, the world is going to end.

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From a western source.

• The US and Britain, Inciting Global War, Must Be Defeated For Good (SCF)

This week marks a fateful threshold for the world. In a grave announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the three-year proxy war in Ukraine has now reached a global dimension. The responsibility for this abysmal moment lies fully with the United States’ elitist rulers and their British accomplices. They are inciting global catastrophe in a desperate bid to save their hegemonic empire. Putin’s announcement on November 21 came only hours after Russia launched a retaliatory strike against Anglo-American aggression. Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile destroyed a munitions center in Dnepropetrovsk in central Ukraine. The conventionally armed missile – called Oreshnik – was deployed in combat for the first time. It delivered several warheads at Mach-10 speed. There is no air defense against such a unique weapon.

The Oreshnik attack was in response to the firing of long-range missiles by the United States and Britain on November 19 and 21 against the pre-conflict territory of the Russian Federation. There is no doubt that the U.S. and British forces were directly involved because, as Moscow has noted, the Ukrainian regime does not have the personnel or logistics capability to operate these advanced NATO weapon systems. The conclusion is stark. The world is on the cusp of World War Three, a war that would inevitably become a nuclear conflagration and precipitate the end of life on Earth. The evil facing humanity is staggering. Western barefaced lies to the public Ludicrously, or perhaps more accurately, fiendishly, Western politicians and media are condemning Russia for the escalation. Their accusations are in flagrant contradiction with the facts. The Western public is being lied to about the sequence and causes of war.

In a move beyond reckless, the United States and Britain attacked Russia with long-range missiles from the territory of Ukraine. The ATACMS and Storm Shadow weapons were aimed at Bryansk and Kursk Oblasts in Western Russia. The American missiles were shot down by Russian air defense, while the British Storm Shadow cruise projectile caused deaths in Kursk. That barrage marked an open act of war against Russia by the United States and Britain. Hence, the Russian leader commented that the proxy war in Ukraine had now taken on a global dimension. The American and British leadership went ahead with this aggression even after Russia had explicitly warned several weeks ago that the deployment of such weapons against Russian territory would be seen by Moscow as an act of war.

It also followed only hours after Russia revised its nuclear defense doctrine on November 19, defining that the use of long-range conventional weapons from the territory of a non-nuclear state (Ukraine) supplied by nuclear states (the U.S. and Britain) would constitute a joint attack, thereby giving Russia the right to retaliate with nuclear force. The situation has thus entered the realm of nuclear world war. Given the aggression initiated by the U.S. and Britain with their ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles, Russia has the legal right to hit those territories and any other territory of the NATO alliance. Russia chose not to do so – for now – limiting its Oreshnik’s target to the territory of Ukraine. What happens next over the coming days depends on the U.S. and its NATO partners. So far, the White House and Pentagon have sought to (irrationally) blame Moscow for escalation and are saying that the United States will continue to deploy long-range missiles from Ukraine against Russian territory. That remains to be seen if the insanity prevails.

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“The American inaction was the best warning that could have been given to the Ukrainians. The Americans made it clear that they would do nothing to protect their proxy.”

• Russia’s “Apocalyptic” Troops Officially Engaged In The SMO (SCF)

November 21, 2024, will go down in Russian military history as the date of the first real combat deployment of the legendary and feared Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN). Created in Soviet times, the RVSN is the independent branch of the Russian Armed Forces responsible for the arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles, literally the “troops of the apocalypse” – responsible for firepower capable of causing a global catastrophe. Of course, the RVSN was involved in all the major nuclear tensions of the Cold War, including the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Norwegian Incident. Although it has remained on high combat alert several times, no actual military engagement has occurred until now. NATO, however, exceeded all expectations of escalation in its provocations against Russia and succeeded in turning the Ukrainian conflict into the most dangerous security crisis in history.

After the Western-Ukrainian side ignored repeated Russian warnings to cease long-range strikes against the Federation’s undisputed territory, Moscow had no alternative but to call in its most feared troops and authorize an unprecedented operation. The target chosen was a military equipment factory in Dnepropetrovsk. The weapon used was a new missile, previously untested in real situations – nicknamed ‘Oreshnik’. Luckily for the Ukrainians, no nuclear warhead was attached to the missile, which worked as a conventional weapon despite its surprising speed and high lethality. There are two main points to be understood from the attack on Dnepropetrovsk: on the one hand, this was a test for Moscow, which had the opportunity for the first time to use the Oreshnik missile technology in a real combat situation, confirming its absolute effectiveness. On the other hand, the attack was a kind of “last chance” for the enemy, as well as a major warning to Ukraine.

Moscow could have responded to the Ukrainian strikes on Bryansk and Kursk with nuclear weapons, as such a decision would have been fully in line with recent reforms in the Russian Nuclear Doctrine. However, once again mercy and a desire for de-escalation prevailed in the Kremlin’s decisions, leading to a warning being delivered to both NATO and Ukraine before the “final solution”. For NATO, the message was clear: there is no military technology available that can stop Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles. If the decision to go nuclear is taken, the targets will be hit without the Atlantic alliance and its proxies being able to do anything to prevent it. For Ukraine, the warning was even deeper: Moscow made it clear that no one would “help” the neo-Nazi regime. Obviously, the Russian attack was noticed by the Americans in time.

There are thousands of observers involved in various monitoring projects whose specific task is to see such maneuvers and prepare a response in time for the event of a nuclear crisis. In other words, Washington saw that the attack was happening and did nothing. Perhaps the US held back from reacting out of fear. Perhaps it held back from reacting because it assumed the target would be Ukrainian. But in any case, there was no reaction. Washington did not issue an emergency plan for nuclear retaliation, even without any confirmation, until minutes after the targets were hit, that the Russian warheads contained nuclear material or not. In other words, the US, faced with dangerous uncertainty, chose to remain silent.

The American inaction was the best warning that could have been given to the Ukrainians. The Americans made it clear that they would do nothing to protect their proxy. If Russia launches nuclear weapons against Ukraine, Kiev will have to deal with the consequences alone. More than that, it must be emphasized that the Americans had no way of predicting whether the Russian strikes would target NATO or not, which is why the lack of an immediate retaliatory operation has an even deeper significance and calls into question even the “collective defense” of the Western alliance.

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“..an average of 1,000 people join the army each day.”

• Mobilization Out Of Question – Kremlin (Sp.)

Russia is not considering another mobilization round as the country continues to rely on a strong stream of volunteers willing to join the military, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Russia announced a partial mobilization in the fall of 2022, calling up some 300,000 reservists to man the Ukraine conflict front line. Despite rumors circulating in recent months of a new mobilization campaign, none have been announced while Russian officials have repeatedly insisted that there is no need for such measures. In an interview with RIA Novosti on Saturday, Peskov reiterated “that there is no talk of mobilization at all… There is no need.” He noted that Russian citizens “are very actively signing contracts with the Defense Ministry,” adding that the government has developed a program that provides substantial payments for those willing to enlist.

“These people are numerous – hundreds sign contracts every day and join the special military operation,” Peskov said, adding that volunteers undergo rigorous training before being sent to the front. The Kremlin spokesman was interviewed by Faina Savenkova, a 16-year-old intern journalist from the Russian city of Lugansk. At the age of 12, she was added to the notorious Mirotvorets “enemies of Ukraine” list after she urged the UN to protect children in Donbass from Kiev’s artillery strikes. In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted a significant increase in volunteers willing to defend the country after Ukraine launched its large-scale incursion into the border Kursk Region, during which multiple attacks on civilians were recorded. In July, the Defense Ministry said that more than 190,000 citizens had signed military contracts in 2024 alone, adding that an average of 1,000 people join the army each day.

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“..sprint efforts to preserve the “legacy” and “productive” work of outgoing US President Joe Biden..”

• White House Promises ‘Sprint’ to Protect Biden’s ‘Legacy’ From Trump (Sp.)

The White House promises sprint efforts to preserve the “legacy” and “productive” work of outgoing US President Joe Biden, who failed to win re-election for a second term and spent more than a third of his first term in country residences and on the beach. “President Biden is focused on ensuring the remainder of his term is as productive as any other period in the last four years,” the White House press service said in a statement. It notes that the remainder of the current administration’s time “is a sprint to build on the historic progress we’ve made under his presidency.” According to the White House, Biden plans to work hard on a program to invest in the US, seek confirmation of judicial nominees, and “continue to strengthen our Alliances and partnerships.” The press service cites American media outlets that report on the administration’s efforts to preserve and protect Biden’s “legacy” from the incoming Republican administration.

Biden’s opponents counted the days he spent outside the White House, in suburban or beach residences, throughout his tenure. According to these data, the US president spent about 40% of his time in office on vacation. His term will be remembered for many embarrassments, slips of the tongue, and falls. Biden, who was planning to run for a second term, dropped out of the race only after a disastrous performance in the debates with Trump in the summer, but this decision was also caused by massive pressure from fellow party members; experts noted that Biden did not want to give up the fight, since he was sensitive to his place in history and the legacy he had left behind. The Democrats failed to retake the White House after Biden’s “productive period.” Donald Trump, who won the election, will take office on January 20.

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It’s not about Biden.

• Biden Vows to Arm Ukraine as Much as Possible Before Trump Inauguration (Sp.)

US President Joe Biden is trying to strengthen Kiev as much as possible during his remaining time as head of the country before Donald Trump, who won the election, comes to power in late January, Bloomberg reported. This intention explains Biden’s latest decisions in the Ukrainian direction, including permission to use long-range missiles and approval of sending anti-personnel mines, the publication said. At the same time, the agency acknowledged that Biden’s options were very limited, since most of the remaining money for Kiev could only be used for weapons that are already at the Pentagon’s disposal. Thus, too much cannot be allocated, otherwise it will jeopardize the defense capability of the United States itself. According to the agency, the Biden administration considered a possible public call for an official invitation to Ukraine to join NATO, but decided that the likelihood of this call being successful would be too low.

Instead, the current US authorities are considering a number of bilateral agreements with Kiev in the security sphere. Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement and directly involve NATO countries in the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that any cargo containing weapons for Kiev would become a legitimate target for Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised speech on Thursday that Ukraine fired US-supplied ATACMS missiles and the UK’s Storm Shadows at facilities in the Kursk and Bryansk regions on November 19. Russia responded by launching a combined strike against a defense industry complex in Dnepropetrovsk on Thursday using the Oreshnik missile.

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“If NATO merely “stops fanning the flames of war in Ukraine, this conflict can be ended with no expenses for humanity. No new expenses, at least..”

• Medvedev Tells How To End Ukraine Conflict (RT)

The conflict between Moscow and Kiev could be swiftly ended with no additional loss of lives if only NATO came to its senses and abandoned its belligerent policy towards Russia, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Al Arabiya in an interview published on Friday. Allowing Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons for strikes into internationally-recognized Russian territory has made the US-led bloc a direct party to the conflict, said Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. Kiev has launched several such strikes using US-made ATACMS and HIMARS systems, as well as British-made Storm Shadow missiles. Moscow responded by striking a military industrial facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk (known as Dnipro in Ukraine) with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile equipped with a conventional warhead.

On Saturday, Paris officially confirmed that it had given Kiev the green light to use French-made SCALP-EG cruise missiles in long-range strikes against Russian territory. “The NATO member states have essentially got fully engaged in this conflict,” Medvedev said, commenting on the developments. The former president said that such nations should “understand” that they are currently at war on the Ukrainian side. “They are at war with the Russian Federation.” Not only do Western nations supply Kiev with weapons and financial aid, but they also provide targeting for Western-made missiles, Medvedev stated. Moscow has insisted that such systems cannot be successfully operated without the involvement of specialists from the nations that produced them. Under such circumstances, no developments can be ruled out, Medvedev warned, pointing to Russia’s recently updated nuclear doctrine that allows a nuclear response to a conventional attack by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear power, including a missile strike against Russian territory.

“Everyone who is currently stirring up the war hysteria, primarily within NATO, the US, and other states, should think about it,” the former president warned. When asked to elaborate on the potential use of nuclear weapons by Russia, he described it as a “realistic” possibility. At the same time, he said that Moscow would very much like to avoid that option. “There are no madmen in the Russian leadership,” he stated, explaining that the nation’s nuclear doctrine had been updated in accordance with modern deterrence needs. According to Medvedev, the Ukraine conflict could be swiftly and easily ended with no need for any additional losses. If NATO merely “stops fanning the flames of war in Ukraine, this conflict can be ended with no expenses for humanity. No new expenses, at least,” he said.

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“What they’re trying to do is start a war that Donald Trump can’t stop..”

• Putin Must Be ‘Adult In The Room’ On Ukraine Conflict – Jimmy Dore (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin should continue exercising “restraint” in his responses to the US-led proxy war against Russia waged by the Kiev regime, Jimmy Dore, political commentator and host of the Jimmy Dore Show, has warned. According to the progressive pundit, it is imperative that Putin wait until US president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January before making decisions that could kick-start World War III. In an interview with Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi broadcast on RT on Saturday, Dore was commenting on the latest decision by outgoing US President Joe Biden’s administration to greenlight Kiev’s use of long-range US-supplied weaponry for strikes on undisputed Russian territory.

Moscow sees the US decision as an escalation that makes the US a direct party to the fighting. Remarking on the situation earlier this week, Vladimir Putin said that the “regional” Ukraine conflict has now “assumed elements of a global nature,” and warned of a backlash if tensions escalate further. “Joe Biden and the neo-cons in his administration have been constantly escalating war… What they’re trying to do is start a war that Donald Trump can’t stop,” Dore said, warning that the end-result of their actions could be a new world war. “The only hope we have is that Putin shows restraint, that he is the only adult in the room and that he can hold off somehow until Donald Trump becomes president,” he stated. Trump will be inaugurated in late January and has pledged to swiftly end the Ukraine conflict upon assuming office.

“That is why the establishment hate Trump… why they accused him non-stop of being a traitor and working with Putin – it was the only card they had to play, because he got elected on ending our foreign regime-change interventionist wars,” Dore said. “Trump is not a warmonger… He likes to find deals. He might be corrupt, but he’s New-York-city-real-estate-corrupt, not neo-con-warmongering-kill-people-for-money-corrupt,” the pundit claimed. Dore suggested that together, Putin and Trump would be able to bring an end to the Ukraine conflict, but cautioned that things could go wrong if the current US administration continues to take steps to escalate it. “Putin is a rational actor, but you never know how much NATO, Joe Biden and his neo-con administration is going to poke the bear,” Dore added.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Pony

 

 

Catsnake

 

 

6 months apart
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860432009538965964

 

 

Horns

 

 

Balance
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860426778604417208

 

 

Voice over

 

 

Freefall
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860311805844725931

 

 

Only girls
https://twitter.com/i/status/1860339965076320427

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle November 23 2024

Nov 232024
 
 November 23, 2024  Posted by at 9:53 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  64 Responses »


Titian The rape of Europe 1560-62

 

• In the Weeds of the Swamp (Kunstler)
• Ukrainians Have Stolen Up To Half Of US Aid – Ex-Polish Deputy Minister (RT)
• Trump Eyes Richard Grenell As Special Envoy For Ukraine (RT)
• Ukrainian Military Plans For 2025 ‘Derailed’ – Moscow (RT)
• RFK Jr.’s Plans for Reshaping HHS Draw Strong Reactions (ET)
• Trump Names Billionaire Scott Bessent As Treasury Secretary (ZH)
• Washington Chose to Go to War with Russia (Paul Craig Roberts)
• World ‘Very Close To Point Of No Return’ – Scott Ritter (RT)
• US Investor Eyes Nord Stream 2 Purchase, Citing Strategic Value for US (Sp.)
• White House Refuses to Recognize Responsibility for Escalation in Ukraine (Sp.)
• Musk on His ‘To-Do List’ on Time Cover: We Need to Colonize Other Planets (Sp.)
• NY ‘Hush Money’ Judge Grants Trump Request To File For Dismissal (ZH)
• Israel Preparing to Attack Iranian Nuclear Facilities (Sp.)
• European States Vow To Arrest Netanyahu (RT)
• US Senator Threatens Invasion of Netherlands (RT)
• HBO Delivers Blow Against the Anti-Rowling, Anti-Free Speech Movement (Turley)
• British Operation KISS – “Kill Instantly Skripals” – Has Failed (Helmer)
• G20 Knocks Out G7 Agendas (Pepe Escobar)

 

 

 

 

App

Cuts

DOGE

Ruhle

Ron Paul

Celente

 

 

 

 

 

 

“RussiaGate is starting to look like ancient history to many, but it is a giant slime trail of sedition and treason involving many people who are still very much alive..”

• In the Weeds of the Swamp (Kunstler)

Okay, you’ve had enough post-election euphoria. Time to wake TF up. Rats from inside the walls of the Deep State are trying to gnaw their way into the Trump cabinet. Ever hear of an outfit called Cipher Brief? Of course not. Cipher Brief is sort of the McKinsey of blob-world (a.k.a. the “national security” network), a combination Human Relations / Public Relations firm, totally spooked-up with former CIA officers. Quite a few of the spooks who signed the infamous letter in October 2020 that said Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation” are contractors there. They all knew the heinous laptop was genuine, though, and they did it anyway to queer the election for “Joe Biden.” Why? Because. . . Trump. One Cipher Brief operative is a character named Dan Hoffman, a retired CIA “clandestine service” officer who ran the agency’s Middle East Bureau, among other things. He’s now a sometime talking head on Fox News.

Hoffman has scuttled his way to the sidelines of the Trump transition team, trying to punk them on personnel. I received my own intel about Dan Hoffman and his current operations. “Hoffman talks the talk,” I’m informed. “He was involved in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. He is 100-percent Deep State. They think he is a brother-in-arms. He is not. Hoffman and the people around him are in direct contact with Tulsi Gabbard [DNI-designate] and John Ratcliffe [CIA Director-designate]. Remember, agency ops officers are trained to be all things to all people, to manipulate them, detect their vulnerabilities, and exploit them. Their game vis-a-vis Donald Trump? To kneecap his attempts to lower tensions world-wide, stop efforts to reduce and reform the intel and defense communities, push a generally Globalist policy agenda, keep the American ‘empire game’ running so they can cash out, and keep non-Beltway Americans from having any say in our foreign policy.

“Hoffman is not a minor figure. He is heading up the cabal trying to co-opt Ratcliffe and Gabbard. Understand that [this group] essentially took over Agency operations during the so-called Global War on Terror [GWOT] after 9/11. Not only did these assholes lead America into the quicksand of the Middle East, they feathered their own nests and those of their buddies with hundreds of millions in ‘contracts’. . . they cooked up the Ukraine War . . . . Nobody associated with Cipher Brief should be anywhere near Ratcliffe or Gabbard, period. They should be blacklisted. They are the people who worked to take down Trump, and now they are trying to cover their tracks and sneak into the new administration.” Dan Hoffman, remember the name.

And thus, the chatter this week about former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mike Rogers (a.k.a. Admiral Michael S. Rogers) floated as the next Director of the FBI. Oh, really? Not a joke (har har)? Mike Rogers was DNI throughout the first years (2016-17) of the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” op to take down the then-new president Donald Trump using Hillary Clinton’s concocted “Steele Dossier,” known to be utter bullshit by all involved at the highest levels, but used anyway. Mike Rogers was in office when the FBI took down new National Security Advisor Mike Flynn in February, 2017, for talking to the Russian ambassador. (Since when are high US officials not allowed to speak with foreign diplomats?) By the way, Mike Rogers was endorsed for the FBI job this week by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, one of the chief managers of The RussiaGate op, which included “Crossfire Hurricane,” and the FBIs programmatic lying to the FISA court.

RussiaGate is starting to look like ancient history to many, but it is a giant slime trail of sedition and treason involving many people who are still very much alive, and some who are still in positions of power (Christopher Wray). It is going to be re-litigated in the new administration, but many other crimes just as sinister, carried out under color-of-law by the FBI and its parent, the Department of Justice (DOJ), have followed since then. For instance: the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol instigated by “confidential human resources” (FBI plants), and actual FBI agents — labeled “the insurrection” by blob publicists. It was engineered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, General Mark Milley, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, and others to prevent a public review of election irregularities in the joint session of Congress convened to certify the electoral vote. It succeeded splendidly, and was promptly converted into one of the worst national mind-fucks in US history. Debate over dubious vote-counts was squelched and objections were never allowed to be heard. From that sprung the “Big Lie” that anyone voicing skepticism over the 2020 election is a criminal — and thus, the two preposterous federal cases (plus the Fulton County, GA, case) cooked up against Mr. Trump three years later.

There is also the matter of the pipe bomb op at the DNC and RNC headquarters blocks away from the US Capitol the same hour of the same day, 1/6/21, when, for no good reason, Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris hid-out in the DNC building. (Why would she not have been attending the joint session of Congress in the Capitol at that hour when the signal achievement of her life to-date was to be grandly announced in front of all her colleagues?) I will tell you why: because the pipe bomb was supposed to be Plan-A for disrupting the electoral vote certification — to set off wild alarms about “terrorism” and scatter the lawmakers. It just happened that the riot at the Capitol (Plan-B) successfully stole the show and Nancy Pelosi got what she said she was “waiting for” — the means to permanently knock Donald Trump off the game-board.

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Americans too:

“..war-related corruption is linked not only with Ukraine, but also the supplier nation..”

• Ukrainians Have Stolen Up To Half Of US Aid – Ex-Polish Deputy Minister (RT)

Ukraine did not receive as much foreign aid as claimed by the administration of US President Joe Biden, and whatever help it did get was largely embezzled, a former Polish deputy minister has claimed. Up to a half of the funds that reached Kiev was stolen by Ukrainian officials, Piotr Kulpa has alleged. The political commentator previously held several posts in the Polish government, serving as deputy labor minister in the mid-2000s, and is currently a regular contributor on Ukrainian online shows. Kulpa is a vocal supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, as evidenced by his remarks to Ukrainian journalist Lana Shevchuk on Thursday. “Everyone understands that war-related corruption is linked not only with Ukraine, but also the supplier nation,” he said. “Who would ever believe that the US burned through $2 trillion in Afghanistan? It’s delusional!”

US aid programs are a mechanism to “write off large sums of money that finance shady systems under the Democratic Party’s control,” he alleged. The incoming Trump administration could review government finances and discover the truth that “Ukraine got very little” compared to the amounts mentioned in public statements, Kulpa claimed. “But they will also find something else: that a huge portion of the funds was stolen in Ukraine. From 30% to 50%, regardless of the nature of the aid,” he added. If Kiev were to recover all the embezzled money for the Ukrainian budget, the country would have enough for a year, Kulpa said. He denounced senior Ukrainian officials, whose regular salaries and bonuses he believes are outrageously high.

“It’s a spit in the face of every Ukrainian,” the former minister asserted. “To every European and American taxpayer. This system is criminal from start to finish.” Trump and his allies have been highly critical of the amount of assistance that the Biden administration has sent to Kiev. The president-elect has argued that EU nations should assume the burden of propping up Ukraine, while the American government should focus on its own priorities. US concerns about graft in Kiev have been reflected in some government documents, such as a report that Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch’s office released last week. It said corruption “continues to complicate Ukraine’s efforts to achieve its EU and NATO aspirations.”

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“..he has advocated for the creation of “autonomous zones” in the conflict area..”

• Trump Eyes Richard Grenell As Special Envoy For Ukraine (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump is considering Richard Grenell, a veteran of his previous administration, for the position of special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources. Grenell served as Washington’s ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence. Trump’s plans to appoint a high-ranking diplomat tasked with “find[ing] a resolution, to get to a peace settlement” were first reported by Fox News last week, with its source saying the person in the position will have “a lot of credibility.” Four Reuters sources confirmed that Trump is thinking about creating the position of special envoy, with Grenell considered as a potential candidate. However, there is no guarantee that the position will be created, though the president-elect is strongly leaning toward doing so, the article said.

Grenell, a seasoned diplomat and political operative, served as the US ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020, and as acting director of national intelligence for several months in 2020. Days after his appointment as envoy to Berlin, Grenell faced criticism for what many EU leaders saw as his crude disregard for diplomatic finesse and nonchalant attempts to influence the domestic political landscape, as he urged European capitals to cut business ties with Iran while openly voicing support for local right-wing parties. As for Grenell’s stance on the Ukraine conflict, he has advocated for the creation of “autonomous zones” in the conflict area and insisted that Ukraine should not be brought into NATO anytime soon, a stance shared by many on the Trump team.

Supporters of Grenell point to his long diplomatic career and deep knowledge of European affairs, according to Reuters. He served as special presidential envoy for Serbia-Kosovo peace negotiations from 2019 to 2021. In September 2020, he brokered an agreement between the country and its breakaway region, which paved the way for economic normalization and helped defuse tensions at the time. Trump has vowed to swiftly put an end to the Ukraine conflict. One of the reported plans includes Kiev suspending its NATO ambitions and agreeing to a freeze along the current front line. Russia has ruled out a freeze of the conflict, insisting that all of the goals of the military operation, including Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification, should be fulfilled.

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“..ground down” Kiev’s best military units..”

• Ukrainian Military Plans For 2025 ‘Derailed’ – Moscow (RT)

Russian forces involved in repelling a Ukrainian incursion in Kursk Region have “ground down” Kiev’s best military units and have effectively “derailed [its] entire campaign of 2025,” Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov has claimed. Kiev sent some of its best-armed and most experienced troops across the northern border in August, claiming that securing control of Russian territory in Kursk would be of great benefit. Ukrainian officials said the move would slow down Russian advancement elsewhere on the front line and give their country an important bargaining chip in eventual peace talks. Belousov has visited a command and control site operated by the ‘North’ group of forces, responsible for Russia’s response to the Ukrainian operation, the Defense Ministry reported on Friday. The ministry released footage in which the minister praised soldiers and officers for thwarting Kiev’s plans for next year after hearing a report by General Aleksandr Lapin, the commander of the ‘North’ battlegroup.

Belousov was also given a tour of an exhibition of NATO weapons captured during the fighting, including communications equipment, drones, small arms, and man-portable heavy arms. He was told that much of the hardware was inferior to its Russian equivalent. The minister personally awarded military decorations to several service members who had shown valor on the battlefield. Moscow has described the Ukrainian incursion as a major turning point in the armed conflict. No peace talks can happen before all of Kiev’s troops are pushed out of Kursk Region, senior Russian officials have said. Ukrainian forces have suffered more than 34,500 casualties and lost hundreds of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and other pieces of heavy weaponry in the operation, the Russian military has claimed.

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“He is dangerous to the health and well being of every American..”

• RFK Jr.’s Plans for Reshaping HHS Draw Strong Reactions (ET)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to “make America healthy again” through his platform as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The possibility of that happening has drawn praise from many Republican lawmakers and vaccine and food safety advocates. Multiple Democratic legislators and public health officials have criticized President-Elect Donald Trump’s nomination, calling Kennedy a “danger” to public health. Fighting chronic disease, improving children’s health, and addressing corporate influence on government agencies were vital parts of Kennedy’s campaign platform when he ran for president as a Democrat and then an independent. Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and backed Trump in August. He previously told The Epoch Times that it was a “heart-wrenching decision” and a necessary step toward achieving his mission of saving Americans from the chronic disease epidemic.

Under the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign, Kennedy aims to curtail what he calls the chronic disease epidemic by addressing the so-called “corporate capture” of federal health agencies and removing toxic chemicals from the nation’s food supply, among other objectives. Trump’s naming Kennedy as his HHS secretary has drawn strong reactions. Donna Shalala, who was HHS secretary under former President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, said Kennedy is not qualified for the position. “The nomination of RFK Jr. for HHS by President-elect Trump is shocking. … He is dangerous to the health and well being of every American,” Shalala wrote on X. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on X that Kennedy would be the person to “detox the place after the Fauci era,” in reference to former NIH director Dr. Anthony Fauci. Kennedy and Paul have both been outspoken critics of Fauci’s policies related to vaccines and the public health response to COVID-19.

[..] Kennedy has said that he will urge Trump on day one to declare a national emergency for chronic disease. Kennedy said he believes little will change until the influence of giant or private corporations on the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture is addressed. At a roundtable organized by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in September, Kennedy said these agencies “advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry that has transformed them and the food industry into sock puppets for the industry they’re supposed to regulate. Kennedy has vowed to dismiss the officials who lead those agencies and appoint replacements. “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he wrote on X on Oct. 25, adding his support for raw milk, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, foods with healing properties, and natural remedies such as sunshine.

In September, Kennedy told The Epoch Times that he would revamp the NIH to focus on the causes of autism, autoimmune diseases, and neurodevelopment diseases instead of developing drugs and serving as an incubator for pharmaceutical products. He has also vowed to lead efforts to address the issue of chemicals in ultra-processed foods. He told Fox News he would “get processed food out of school lunch immediately” and said federal food assistance such as food stamps should not go toward junk food.

RFK

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“..work to create an economy that places growth at the forefront, especially through our coming world energy dominance..”

• Trump Names Billionaire Scott Bessent As Treasury Secretary (ZH)

After Trump appointed Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary and Kevin Warsh was clearly being groomed as Powell’s replacement at the Fed, it was just a matter of time before the most important appointment in the Trump admin was made. That happened late on Friday when president-elect Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent to lead the Department of the Treasury, ending days of speculation after other names emerged as competitors to the reported favorite. “Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists. Scott’s story is that of the American Dream,” Trump said in a statement on the nomination. Bessent, 62, is a Wall Street veteran who once worked for George Soros, and founder of international macro investment company Key Square Group. He served as a key economic adviser to Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Others contenders for the role included Howard Lutnick, the chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners. He co-chairs the Trump–Vance transition team, which is in charge of selecting administration candidates, vetting personnel, and crafting policy. Lutnick was ultimately chosen on Nov. 19 to lead the Department of Commerce. Kevin Warsh, 54, a former Morgan Stanley banker and former Federal Reserve Board governor, likewise entered the conversation. He became the leading candidate for treasury secretary on the betting website Polymarket after reports emerged that the president-elect was expanding his search to fill the position. In his statement on Bessent’s nomination, Trump said that economic policy under his administration would maintain the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status, fortify the United States’s position as the world’s strongest economy, and invigorate the private sector.

“As a lifelong champion of Main Street America and American industry, Scott will support my policies that will drive U.S. competitiveness, and stop unfair trade imbalances, work to create an economy that places growth at the forefront, especially through our coming world energy dominance,” Trump said. The president-elect also noted Bessent’s deep family roots in South Carolina, saying that he belongs to a historic French Huguenot Church, which members of his family founded in the 1680s, in the port city of Charleston. Like his predecessors, Bessent will now oversee a vast portfolio to employ the president’s economic agenda. As the Epoch Times notes, the two immediate issues Bessent will grapple with will be averting a default as the national debt ceiling limit will expire on Jan. 1, 2025, and extending the Trump-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act due to expire at the end of next year.

More importantly, Bessent will also be tasked with the delicate, if not conflicting, job of championing Trump’s trade proposals, including across-the-board tariffs, on one hand, while keeping the debt and deficit in check and preventing bond yields and the dollar from rising too high, too fast, as an even more rapid tightening in financial conditions will surely tip the US economy into recession.

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“We Are Faced with the Extraordinary Event that..”

• Washington Chose to Go to War with Russia (Paul Craig Roberts)

This interview from two days ago explains the dangerous situation into which the Biden Regime has placed life on earth by Washington’s conscious decision to go to war with Russia. The Russian government made it completely clear that a decision to fire missiles into Russia means the West is at war with Russia. Nevertheless, the insane West fired missiles into Russia. Putin responded with a demonstration of a new hypersonic missile that completely destroyed a Ukrainian armaments production facility. The missile travels at speed that the West has no capability to intercept and was designed to carry nuclear warheads. The message to the West is clear: If you persist in your war with Russia, you can expect widespread destruction. What will the insane West do? Will it come to its senses, or is it more important to widen the war in order to lock Trump in and prevent him from reaching a peaceful end to the conflict?

The Russian-hating Jew that Washington installed as its agent in Ukraine is demanding a “strong response” from the West. In other words, Zelensky is demanding Europe and the US put themselves at risk of destruction simply because Russia responded to a missile attack by the West from Ukrainian soil with a missile attack on a Ukrainian military facility. What sense does this make? None. It is unclear that the American people and those of Europe will survive their acceptance of the theft by the Democrats of the 2020 US presidential election. The consequence of the theft of the presidential election was an insane regime in Washington that has consistently step-by-step widened a local conflict into a war of the West with Russia. The British have not helped the situation by electing a prime minister as unhinged as Biden. In the West it seems that only Hungary’s Viktor Orban understands the seriousness of the situation.

I will briefly review the situation as Putin has stated it to the Russian people and to the dumbshits ruling in the West. Putin said the West’s missile attack on Russia drastically changed the nature of the conflict in Ukraine. The conflict has been transformed into a war of the West against Russia. This intentional decision by the West to go to war with Russia was taken despite Russia’s clear warning. Putin reminded everyone that the conflict in Ukraine was provoked by Washington which refused Russia’s peaceful approach of the Minsk Agreement and refused Russia’s request for a mutual security agreement. Putin made the point that Washington and NATO have deliberately escalated the conflict and are making it into global war. Putin pointed out that Washington has deliberately “destroyed the system on international security” and is “pushing the whole world toward a global conflict.”

Putin made the point that although the West has no defense against Russian missiles, Russia prefers diplomacy to war, but if the West persists in war, the West will suffer the consequences Certainly, Ukraine’s retention of Donbas, formerly a part of Russia herself that Soviet leaders attached to the Soviet Union’s Ukrainian province, is not worth a devastating, perhaps final, war. What madness is driving the West’s irresponsible attitude toward life? It appears to be the neoconservatives’ agenda of US and Israeli hegemony, egged on by profit and power for the US military/security complex and the unrealistic belief of Americans in their invincibility. The question before us is: Will the hubris of the West destroy the World?

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“They are ‘Trump proofing’ NATO, Ukraine and the deep state..”

• World ‘Very Close To Point Of No Return’ – Scott Ritter (RT)

Russia’s strike on a Ukrainian defense industrial facility using a new hypersonic ballistic missile system has shown the West that a policy of further escalation will lead to devastating consequences, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter has said. America’s recklessness in dealing with Russia, as well as underestimating Moscow’s readiness to respond, has already brought the world dangerously close to an all-out nuclear war, the former US marine officer claimed on the ‘Judging Freedom’ YouTube show on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the country’s military successfully hit a Ukrainian target with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile called the Oreshnik. The strike was a response to Kiev using US-made ATACMS and HIMARS systems, as well as British-made Storm Shadow missiles in strikes on internationally-recognized Russian territory earlier this week, he added.

The missile launch is a clear signal to the West that Moscow was not bluffing when it said the US and its allies would not get away with aiding Kiev in striking Russia with Western-made weapons, Ritter argued. “The missile that they used is a nuclear-capable system. It had a conventional warhead but could be used for nuclear purposes. Putin basically said that this missile can cover all of Europe and that in the future, he will mirror every action by Ukraine and the West; that any escalation will immediately be responded to,” Ritter told the host of Judging Freedom, Andrew Napolitano. The former UN weapons inspector also called the development a “qualitative advancement” that brought a completely new type of weapon to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Everyone who believed that Russia was bluffing “has now been put on notice” that it is not, he added.

A continuation of the current Western policy towards the Ukraine conflict and Russia would be dangerous and irresponsible under such circumstances, Ritter believes. “We are very, very close to reaching the point of no return when it comes to a nuclear war,” he warned. He particularly slammed remarks by US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) spokesman Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan, who said on Thursday that Washington was ready to launch nuclear strikes but would only do so “on terms that are most acceptable to the US.” Such statements sound as if the US is ready for a “pre-emptive strike” against Russia, Ritter said, adding that taking out Russia’s nuclear capabilities first was “the only way an exchange works that you can walk away from.” Such rhetoric is bound to put Moscow on edge, according to the former UN weapons inspector.

The “lame duck” administration of President Joe Biden might have made a U-turn on allowing Kiev to use Western long-range weapons for strikes on undisputed Russian territory to make life difficult for their successors, opined Ritter, a former RT contributor. “They are ‘Trump proofing’ NATO, Ukraine and the deep state” in order to make the Ukraine conflict problem “so hard” that President-elect Donald Trump will not be able to resolve it as he intends, he said. Trump has vowed to swiftly end the Ukraine conflict upon assuming office. One possibility would be to force Ukraine to drop its NATO ambitions and agree to freeze the conflict, according to reports. Moscow has ruled out the latter, insisting that all the goals of its military operation – including Ukraine’s demilitarization and denazification – must be fulfilled.

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Much of it was financed by Gazprom. They won’t sell.. You gonna seize control?

• US Investor Eyes Nord Stream 2 Purchase, Citing Strategic Value for US (Sp.)

American investor Stephen P. Lynch has expressed an interest in buying the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if it is put up for auction as part of the bankruptcy proceedings in Switzerland, The Wall Street Journal reports. “An American investor with a history of dealmaking in Russia has asked the U.S. government to allow him to bid on the sabotaged Nord Stream Pipeline 2 if it comes up for auction in a Swiss bankruptcy proceeding,” the report said. According to sources cited by the newspaper, Lynch expressed determination to buy the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline and applied to the US Treasury in February for a license to negotiate its construction with entities under US sanctions, noting that many investors might avoid the auction due to the difficult geopolitical situation. Lynch has advocated to US officials and lawmakers that owning the pipeline would give the United States a powerful tool in negotiating peace with Russia to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, while also supporting broader American strategic objectives.

“The bottom line is this: This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for American and European control over European energy supply for the rest of the fossil-fuel era,” the newspaper quotes Lynch as saying. The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Europe, were hit by explosions on September 26, 2022. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden have not ruled out deliberate sabotage. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation into it as an act of international terrorism. Russia has repeatedly requested information on other countries’ investigations into the explosions, but never received it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

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“Every step of escalation comes from Russia. They are the ones who are escalating it..”

• White House Refuses to Recognize Responsibility for Escalation in Ukraine (Sp.)

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday declined to acknowledge that US President Joe Biden’s authorization of long-range strikes on Russia with ATACMS missiles had contributed to escalating the conflict, instead placing the blame on Russia. “Every step of escalation comes from Russia. They are the ones who are escalating it,” she alleged when asked whether Biden’s decision to authorize strikes using long-range ATACMS missiles deep into Russian territory was a factor in escalating the conflict in Ukraine. Jean-Pierre claimed that neither Ukraine nor the United States bears responsibility for the escalation. The launch of a Russian missile will not deter US policy towards Ukraine, the press secretary added. The United States will continue to provide new weapons packages to Ukraine and work to expedite their delivery, she said.

Washington has not seen any signs of Russia preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, the White House spokesperson admitted. Washington is not seeking war with Moscow but will continue to send weapons to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh added. Russia notified the US briefly before launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine, the Pentagon spokesperson acknowledged. Earlier in the day, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia fired a non-nuclear hypersonic version of a ballistic missile, striking a Ukrainian arms manufacturer in the city of Dnepropetrovsk in response to Kiev’s use of US and UK longer-range weapons to strike Russian territory.

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“I am trying to make life multiplanetary to maximize the probable lifespan of consciousness..”

• Musk on His ‘To-Do List’ on Time Cover: We Need to Colonize Other Planets (Sp.)

US entrepreneur Elon Musk, commenting on his “to-do list” on the cover of Time magazine, has said that it is not really his checklist, but that some items are needed to achieve a global goal of human colonization of other planets. Earlier in the week, Time released the cover of its December issue featuring the entrepreneur and his alleged tasks or accomplishments, including two items that have not yet been completed, including reducing US government spending by $2 trillion and flying to Mars. “To be clear, I have not done any media interviews and this is not actually my checklist. I am trying to make life multiplanetary to maximize the probable lifespan of consciousness. Some of the items below are needed for that,” Musk said on X.

Last month, Musk said that if Trump won the US presidential election, the entrepreneur would reduce state budget spending by $2 trillion. The presidential election took place in the United States on November 5. Republican candidate Donald Trump, who served as the US president from 2017-2021, was declared the winner by all leading race callers and networks. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris conceded defeat in an address to supporters. The Electoral College will vote in accordance with the will of the voters on December 17, and the new Congress will approve the results of the vote on January 6. The presidential inauguration will take place on January 20.

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Even Merchan folds. Alvin Bragg: Bye!

• NY ‘Hush Money’ Judge Grants Trump Request To File For Dismissal (ZH)

Liberals will be tearing what’s left of their hair out even more this morning as Judge Juan Merchan just granted President-elect Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss the charges in the Stormy Daniels’ ‘hush money’ case and removed the sentencing date for the president-elect from the schedule. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) is opposing that request. Instead, Bragg floated that Merchan could freeze the proceedings while Trump is in office, meaning the conviction would remain on the books but sentencing wouldn’t occur until 2029, at the earliest. Merchan ordered Trump to file his formal motion asking for dismissal by Dec. 2 and Bragg to respond by Dec. 9. Merchan also confirmed the stay in sentencing for Trump, which was requested by both Trump and Bragg attorneys.

The sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 26, but on Friday, Merchan said that date “is adjourned.” The judge will then decide how to proceed. In a letter to Merchan on Wednesday, Trump defense attorney and now-nominee for Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche demanded the case against President-elect Donald Trump be tossed. “On November 5, 2024, the Nation’s People issued a mandate that supersedes the political motivations of DANY’s ‘People,’” Blanche wrote. “This case must be immediately dismissed.” Blanche said that “immediate dismissal of this case is mandated by the federal Constitution, the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, and the interests of justice, in order to facilitate the orderly transition of Executive power following President Trump’s overwhelming victory in the 2024 Presidential Election.” Trump’s imminent return to the White House has already pumped the brakes on his other criminal prosecutions.

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Russia guards Iran.

• Israel Preparing to Attack Iranian Nuclear Facilities (Sp.)

The Israeli authorities reached a consensus at all levels of the security system and political echelon on the need to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israeli news portal Walla reported, citing a high-ranking source. Israel also allegedly has the technological capability to carry out such an attack, the report said on Thursday. Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, the source noted. Economic sanctions against Tehran serve only as a deterrent and are not intended to eliminate Iran’s nuclear project, the source added.

Last week, the Axios news portal reported that Israel’s attack on Iran that took place in late October destroyed an active top secret nuclear weapons research facility of the Parchin military complex and affected the country’s capability to resume nuclear arms research. The destroyed facility reportedly was a part of Iran’s Amad nuclear weapons program, which Tehran is believed to have halted in 2003. In late October, the Israel Defense Forces said that they struck military targets in Iran in response to the October 1 attacks on the Jewish state. Media reported that the Israeli attack on Iran was limited to military assets and did not target nuclear or oil facilities.

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Britain joined in.

• European States Vow To Arrest Netanyahu (RT)

Several Western states have pledged to execute an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Hague-based court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu along with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri. West Jerusalem claims that al-Masri is already dead. The warrants are for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the Gaza conflict. The decision has elicited mixed reactions in the West. Several nations emphasized their respect for the independence of the court, while others voiced support for Israel. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, and Norway all claimed they would meet their commitments and obligations under the Rome Statute and international law.

However, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stressed that the ICC was “wrong” to put Netanyahu and Gallant on the same level as Hamas. Austria also said that it would obey the decision, but its foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg, added that the warrant was “utterly incomprehensible.” Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp assured the country’s parliament that the authorities would act on the warrants and avoid non-essential contacts with those named. Geert Wilders, the head of the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom, a member of the ruling coalition, condemned the decision, saying that the Israeli authorities are being confronted with arrest warrants instead of receiving international understanding and support.

Earlier this month, the Dutch capital saw rioting between Israeli soccer fans, who chanted anti-Palestinian slogans, and pro-Palestinian locals. In France, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said that potentially acting on the warrants was a “complex legal issue” while admitting the importance of acting in line with ICC statutes. At the same time, Lemoine declined to say whether France would arrest Netanyahu or Gallant if they came to the country. Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban denounced the ICC’s decision, telling a state radio station that he would invite the Israeli leader to Hungary.

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ICC.

• US Senator Threatens Invasion of Netherlands (RT)

US Senator Tom Cotton has lashed out at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He invoked a US law which greenlights the use of military force against the Netherlands-based court. The Republican senator threatened the ICC by referring to the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, informally referred to as the ‘Hague Invasion Act’, which permits the US president to use “all means necessary and appropriate” to free Americans or allied individuals detained at the request of the court. The ICC on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Gaza conflict. Chief prosecutor Karim Khan also announced similar charges against Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif.

Cotton condemned the ICC in a post on X on Thursday, branding it a “kangaroo court” and labeling its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, a “deranged fanatic.” “Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it,” Cotton warned. Passed by Congress in 2002, the ‘Hague Invasion Act’ was designed to shield US personnel from the court’s jurisdiction. It authorizes military action to rescue any American or allied citizen held by the court in The Hague. Civil rights groups argued the law aims to intimidate nations that support the ICC treaty. Washington, Israel’s main ally, has opposed the court’s decision, and a number of US politicians have called for the White House to impose sanctions on the ICC for issuing warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

The EU, however, has taken a different stance. Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, and Norway are among the countries that have said they will comply with the ICC’s request. While Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, under the treaty that established the court, Netanyahu and Gallant could be detained in any of 124 countries that recognize the its authority. The ICC has accused Netanyahu and Gallant of using starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza, and deliberately depriving the enclave’s civilian population of essential supplies such as food, water, and medicine without any “obvious military necessity.” The charges are part of a broader ICC investigation that includes alleged crimes Hamas committed during its October 7 attacks on Israel.

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JK Rowling should be celebrated. She created an entire world of her own. How many people can say that?

• HBO Delivers Blow Against the Anti-Rowling, Anti-Free Speech Movement (Turley)

This week, HBO delivered the corporate version of the Expelliarmus or disarming curse for the long-standing cancel campaign targeting “Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling. We have been discussing this campaign against Rowling, a feminist who has opposed transgender policies that she views as inimical to the rights of women. The cancel campaign against Rowling has been extreme and unhinged from blacklisting her books to even barring the playing of Harry Potter games in pubs. Even authors who support Rowling’s free speech have been targeted. Nevertheless, HBO, which has also been targeted in the past, is now saying enough. Rowling’s work will continue to be featured and developed by the company.

HBO has enraged the anti-Rowling movement by announcing that it will not yield and will continue to work with the author: “J.K. Rowling has a right to express her personal views. We will remain focused on the development of the new series, which will only benefit from her involvement.” It added that “her contribution has been invaluable.” HBO has a new upcoming Potter series set to premiere on HBO’s Max streaming platform in 2026. Both Harry Potter stars, Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter, and Emma Watson, who played Hermine Granger, have joined the criticism of Rowling. However, the criticism itself is not the primary problem, even if they unfairly characterize Rowlings’ actual statements. That is a use of their own free speech rights.

However, the cancel campaigns are far more damaging for free speech, as I discuss in my book, The Indispensable Right. The issue of cancel campaigns came up in my recent debate at Harvard Law School on free speech with Professor Randall Kennedy. Kennedy defended cancel campaigns as the exercise of free speech. There is no question that such campaigns involve the act of free speech as people rallying for or against viewpoints. However, the impact of such campaigns, particularly in higher education, is to limit the diversity of viewpoints and reinforce an orthodoxy on our campuses. It is not to express a view but to seek to silence an opposing view. It is the antithesis of free speech values in higher education.

It also has a damaging effect on an academic community. When students see faculty supporting the canceling of conservative, libertarian, or dissenting speakers, it is hardly an invitation to speak freely yourself in class. The same is true for publishers. We have discussed companies discontinuing publication of Rowling’s work and both editors and writers joining blacklisting campaigns against her and others. We have even seen the embracing of book burning. For the activists behind this massive cancel campaign, HBO’s announcement is nothing short of a corporate Cruciatus (torture) Curse. However, both the arts and free speech are the winners in Rowling’s continuing to produce and expand her legendary body of work.

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Motive: “..they believed Sergei Skripal was planning to return home to Russia, and that the GRU was planning an exfiltration operation..”

• British Operation KISS – “Kill Instantly Skripals” – Has Failed (Helmer)

This is the comic book version of what really happened, as revealed by the clumsiest judge in England – Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley, lead image, right). Even if all the evidence presented to Hughes and already endorsed by him is true – on the record of six and half years of British Government investigations and twenty-one days of hearings with concealed witness faces, censored documents, missing CCTV — there remains no direct evidence that the Russians attacked the Skripals by poisoning their front-door handle when they were inside their home, four hours before their collapse. Instead, Hughes and his lawyers have directed the police and other witnesses to stretch their circumstantial evidence and dictated their inferences of Russian guilt. In New York, the legal textbook difference between direct and circumstantial evidence is this.

To stretch the circumstantial evidence and inferences beyond the criminal standard of reasonable doubt, Hughes has prevented direct evidence from being presented, stopping the Skripals from testifying themselves. Their Home Office lawyer purportedly representing the Skripals in the hearings has said nothing at all; Hughes’s lawyers have manipulated witnesses with leading questions; alternative explanations for the circumstantial evidence have been blocked by Hughes from the hospital doctors and independent experts. The way in which this has been done is comic book jurisprudence. The judges of the former British empire aren’t laughing; this is how they say the means and opportunity of a capital crime must be prosecuted, then judged.

The CCTV and other evidence presented at the Hughes hearings shows the Russians knew they had been marked by MI6 from the minute they booked their flights and landed at Gatwick Airport; and they then encouraged the video recording which took place, often mugging in front of the CCTV cameras for that purpose. There is no evidence of their coming close enough to the Skripal house, or to Sergei and Yulia Skripal in person, in order to attack them. Ergo, the evidence of the murder act is missing; the evidence of the murder weapon is missing; the evidence of the murder attempt at the bench is missing. Means, opportunity, motive are all missing from the British prosecution of the Russians for the crime. Yulia Skripal has testified that the poison attack took place when she and her father were sprayed as they were eating lunch inside Zizzi’s Restaurant. They then walked outside, felt ill, sat down on a city bench, and collapsed. Yulia Skripal’s evidence indicates the attackers were British.

The refusal of the British chemical warfare laboratory to name the weapon by its organophosphate name, and reveal its molecular composition and mass conceals the origin of the weapon. In police, forensic or courtroom practice, this is the equivalent of concealing ballistic evidence determining whether a fatal bullet was fired from the gun in the alleged shooter’s hand. The evidence, collected by the police and Porton Down agents, then analysed by Porton Down, then announced publicly by then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson days before he told Prime Minister May’s meeting of Cabinet, is as likely to be of a British-made organophosphate nerve agent subsequently called Novichok as of a Russian-made nerve agent. What motive: why would the British attack the Skripals?

Their reason was that they believed Sergei Skripal was planning to return home to Russia, and that the GRU was planning an exfiltration operation on March 4, 2018. The Russians knew that MI6 would be suspicious, so they prepared decoys. These are the two men, Alexander Petrov (Alexander Mishkin) and Ruslan Boshirov (Anatoly Chepiga), now accused of the Novichok attack. The British planned to kill the Skripals but camouflage the operation, as they have done. Motive was pressing for the British if Sergei Skripal had returned to Russia, revealing himself in Moscow to be one of the first successful triple agents in modern espionage history. The Russian exfiltration failed; the British failed to execute the Skripals on the spot; for a few minutes from her hospital bed on March 8, Yulia Skripal revealed what had happened before she was put into an artificial coma, then silenced with a tracheostomy on March 21, and kept incommunicado ever since.

The British camouflage for their operation – Operation KISS, “Kill Instantly the Skripals” — relied on the door-handle as “ground zero” – the original source of the Novichok – and on Porton Down to replace the inconclusive or negative tests conducted by doctors treating the Skripals at Salisbury District Hospital. A corpse had to be found, dead enough not to be able to testify otherwise as Yulia Skripal had done. That turned out to be Dawn Sturgess, who died at her home on June 30, 2018, of cardiac arrest and brain hypoxia after consuming a combination of sleeping and anti-anxiety medications, cocaine, and fentanyl. The Novichok weapon, fabricated in a perfume atomiser by MI6 and Porton Down, was then placed on Sturgess’s kitchen table for the police to discover eleven days after her drug binge and collapse; and after medics and police had failed to find it through multiple and repeated searches

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“..trade with the US represents only 2.4 percent of Chinese GDP..”

• G20 Knocks Out G7 Agendas (Pepe Escobar)

The G20 summit in Rio earlier this week offered the quite intriguing spectacle of a deeply divided world, geopolitically and geoeconomically, trying to put on a brave ‘holiday in the sun’ face. There was plenty of fluff to amuse attentive audiences. French President Emmanuel Macron surrounded by a beefy security detail strolling on Copacabana beach near midnight; European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen barefoot in the sand, stunned by the lapping waves; the White House lodger, US President Joe Biden – with his expiry date in less than two months – missing the G20 family pic because he was talking to a palm tree. Right before the summit, Biden posed on a soundstage in the rainforest, complete with two giant teleprompters, pledging to save the Amazon just as his handlers in Washington let leak the “authorization” for Ukraine to attack targets inside the Russian Federation with ATACMS; a qualified preamble for a possible WWIII.

With Rio providing the ultimately gorgeous set, at the very least, tempers at the renovated Museum of Modern Art, the G20 venue with the Sugarloaf in the background, were bound to mellow out. This even allowed for a short, tense handshake between Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a true leader of the Global South, and Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a US asset who hates Lula’s guts. The populist Brazilian head of state, whose political capital transcends all barriers, was, of course, an impeccable master of ceremonies, but the real star of the show was Chinese President Xi Jinping – fresh from his previous triumph, when he was for all practical purposes coronated King of Peru during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima – complete with the inauguration of the $1.3 billion port of Chancay, the new South American node of the Pacific Maritime Silk Road. As China is all about global connectivity corridors, Chancay-Shanghai became an instant new motto ringing all across the Global South.

Beijing’s prime role as an engine and cooperation propeller across Asia–Pacific also applies to most of the G20 members. China is the largest trading partner of the 13 APEC economies, and is responsible for 64.2 percent of Asia-Pacific’s economic growth. This prime role extrapolates to China’s BRICS colleagues among the G20, as well as brand-new BRICS partner-nations such as Indonesia and Turkiye. Compare that with the G7/NATOstan contingent of the G20, starting with the United States, whose main global offerings range from Forever Wars and color revolutions to weaponizing of news and culture, trade wars, a tsunami of sanctions, and confiscation/theft of assets. So, predictably, there was some serious underlying tension permeating the G20, especially when it came to the face-off between the G7 and the Russia-China strategic partnership. Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t even bother to attend, sending his uber-competent Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead.

As for Beijing, after 7 years of combined Trump-Biden trade and tech war, the Chinese economy continues to grow by 5.2 percent a year. Exports now account for only 16 percent of China’s GDP, so the economic powerhouse is far less vulnerable to foreign trade machinations. And the US share of that 16 percent is now only 15 percent; that is, trade with the US represents only 2.4 percent of Chinese GDP. Even under what can be described as NATOstan’s all-out tech sanctions, Chinese tech firms are growing at warp speed. As a result, all western tech companies are in deep trouble: massive retrenchment, factory downsizes, and shutdowns. Meanwhile, China’s trade surplus with the rest of the world has expanded to a record one trillion US dollars. That’s what horrified Western economists qualify as China on a “collision course” with some of the world’s biggest – yet dwindling – economies.

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Carvey

 

 

Volvo

 

 

Goat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859924986032447632

 

 

Fright

 

 

Henson
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859646855803801928

 

 

Quarry

 

 

Street food

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle November 22 2024

Nov 222024
 
 November 22, 2024  Posted by at 9:45 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  59 Responses »


Giovanni Bellini Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and Female Saint 1500-04

 

• Trump Nominates Pam Bondi For Attorney General After Gaetz Withdraws (ZH)
• Biden Is Trying To Throw Trump Under The Ukrainian Bus (Lukyanov)
• This Is The Most Evil Thing I’ve Seen In My Lifetime – Tucker Carlson (MN)
• Ukraine ‘Global War’ After Western Long-Range Weapons Used – Putin (ZH)
• Ukraine Sends Its Own Skilled Workforce To The Front Lines (SCF)
• In The Beginning Was The Pax Americana (Pacini)
• Trump May Not Need to Pull Trigger on Tariffs (ET)
• DOGE Wants To Cut $1.9 Trillion In Government Spending (Duro)
• Musk, Ramaswamy Reveal DOGE Blueprint To Cut Government Waste (ZH)
• The Prospects for Trump’s Agenda (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Trump Opposes Israel Annexation Of West Bank, Republican Sources Say (MEMO)
• ICC Issues Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Gallant (Sobczak)
• Former Green Beret: Trump Can “Turn Loose Delta Force” On The Cartels (MN)
• US Played ‘Substantial’ Role In Causing Covid Pandemic – ex-CDC Chief (RT)
• US Government Funded Creation of the Coronavirus (Paul Craig Roberts)
• UK School Removes All Christmas References to Make Children Feel “Safe” (MN)
• French Establishment Desperate To Stop Rise Of Conservatives (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Peace

https://twitter.com/i/status/1859328265644802352

Naomi Alex

Legal immigration

O’Reilly
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859433139568844906

750

Homan

Gore Limbaugh

 

 

 

 

That was fast. Did they feed him to the wolves to keep the others safe(r)?

• Trump Nominates Pam Bondi For Attorney General After Gaetz Withdraws (ZH)

Update: Donald Trump said he is nominating former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and his personal trial lawyer, to run the US Department of Justice, after his first pick, former Representative Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening.

Bondi, age 59, is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician. A Republican, she served as the 37th Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019. She is the first woman elected to the office. In 2020, Bondi was one of longtime ally President Donald Trump’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial. By 2024 she led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. Trump initially picked Gaetz, as his AG but the former US representative from Florida said he would no longer seek the post after intense scrutiny over a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct, including having sex with a minor.


—
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has withdrawn his name for consideration for attorney general amid growing controversy over sexual misconduct allegations. “While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz wrote on X. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

President-Elect Trump acknowledged Gaetz’ efforts in a statement on Truth Social: I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do! It’s unclear what’s next for Gaetz, as he resigned from Congress after Trump picked him for consideration. Rubio’s Senate seat?

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“The final days of Democrat rule in Washington promise to be risky.”

• Biden Is Trying To Throw Trump Under The Ukrainian Bus (Lukyanov)

We’ve seen an uproar since it’s become apparent that the US has given Ukraine permission to launch long-range strikes deep inside Russia. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, Moscow’s unequivocal warnings that such a move would be seen as NATO’s direct entry into the war. And secondly the fallout from the dramatic change in the political situation in the US. Of course, in foreign policy terms, it’s on the Ukrainian issue that the differences between the outgoing and incoming American administrations is most visible. And Kiev is engaged in a feverish search for ways to reverse a situation that is becoming increasingly unfavourable for its interests. Finally, there is the turmoil in Western Europe, where elites are simply unable to comprehend the magnitude of the impending change. The news, which clearly resembles a fateful turning point, was quickly downplayed, if not denied.

The French and the British were quick to distance themselves from speculation that they too had immediately issued such authorizations – at an official level they repeated that they were only considering the possibility. Meanwhile, American sources close to the current ruling circles clarified the area of hypothetical use – only where hostilities are currently taking place. Most importantly, the range of reactions in Western countries was extremely wide. From the unbridled jubilation of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters among liberal NGO lobbyists, the EU’s hardline Josep Borrell and the governments of the most militant countries of Eastern Europe, to the sharp criticism of representatives of the future Donald Trump-led American administration and officials from certain European countries. To sum up, the picture is roughly as follows: the use of the weapons under discussion may complicate Russia’s actions, but will not change the overall nature of the campaign.

Nevertheless, they present significant potential for escalation, the limit of which is unclear. A frequently asked question is: why has this decision, which Kiev has been seeking all year, being taken now? Again, there are several purely speculative answers. Officially, the last straw was supposedly the data on the presence of North Korean units in the area of the armed conflict. For which there is no evidence. The White House, it is said, wants to send a signal to Pyongyang that it should stop cooperating with Moscow by authorizing strikes on their alleged bases. There is no point in speculating on the veracity of these claims. But two points are worth noting. First, it is not entirely clear why the possible involvement of the North Koreans has caused such a stir. Second, why would Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong-un, seen in Washington as a ruthless totalitarian ruler, would suddenly be frightened by such a signal and rush to reconsider his previous alleged decisions. If indeed it even happened in the first place.

Another version is that the US administration understands that negotiations to end the conflict are inevitable and that Ukraine is approaching them from an increasingly unfavorable position. Accordingly, it is necessary to assist Kiev in improving its bargaining position, and the best way is to hold a bridgehead in the Kursk border area for further bartering. Whether proponents of this theory are right are wrong, we can’t say – but strangers things have happened. Finally, let’s look at what is in fact the generally accepted opinion of most commentators, both in the West and Russia. The Biden administration is trying to secure its historical legacy and make it as difficult as possible for Trump’s new team to get out of the Ukraine quagmire. In terms of legacy, of course, the situation is far from black and white – it all started with an attempt to strategically defeat Russia and reaffirm American/Western hegemony in the world.

Now the task is to ensure that the conflict is prolonged in the hope of some positive changes for Ukraine and vice versa for Russia. What will come out of this is unpredictable. Some Trump associates have been very negative, accusing Biden of trying to provoke World War III. Indeed, if Trump inherits a confrontation at its peak, the responsibility will be enormous and the room to maneuver will be limited. There is, however, a view that this may be convenient for the Trumpists. After all, the new president has the right to turn American policy on its head as soon as he takes office, citing the real threat of dragging the country into direct war.

This is conceivable, but it remains unclear which way Trump will turn. His approach to governing is still rooted in business, hence the endless references to the deals he will make. Trump’s first term failed to prove that business techniques can automatically transfer to international relations. And the members of his team who will influence policymaking are extremely diverse, ranging from market disruptor Elon Musk to more traditional Republican strongmen in positions in the State Department and national security apparatus. Finding a balance won’t easy. Meanwhile, everyone is entering a dangerous phase in which the chances of descending into unmanageable confrontation are greater than before. The final days of Democrat rule in Washington promise to be risky.

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“The US has become a fascist state under the administration of President Joe Biden..”

• This Is The Most Evil Thing I’ve Seen In My Lifetime – Tucker Carlson (MN)

During a discussion with president-elect Trump’s former Office of Management and Budget Director, Russ Vought, Tucker Carlson posited that the outgoing administration is attempting to saddle Trump with a global conflict. “If you doubt how serious the opposition is to the public, not just to Trump, but to the majority of the country that voted for him, They’re trying to leave him with World War III on the way out,” Carlson urged. Russia is furious about the Biden administration lifting restrictions on use of US developed long range missiles, and Putin has repeatedly stated that such a move would mean NATO countries are at war with Russia. Carlson continued, “I can’t imagine a more desperate or evil thing for Tony Blinken, who I think is desperate and evil, in my view, to do. Leave him with a war?”

“A lame-duck president trying to start a war with the world’s largest nuclear power, Russia. What do you make of that?” Carlson asked Vought. Vought responded, “It’s incredibly insidious, and then add to the fact that he can’t put two sentences together and he is largely not in control of his own government,” referring to Joe Biden. “You have almost an unelected president with individuals behind the scenes doing this,” he continued, further asserting “It doesn’t surprise me, though. I mean, these are the same people that have weaponized the Department of Justice and the lawfare.” “I have a colleague, Jeff Clark, who they’re trying to disbar because of the care he showed on behalf of the president in dealing with voter integrity and election fraud after 2020,” Vought further noted.

“The system has thrown everything at the warriors who are on the field. You’re seeing that with Tulsi, you’re seeing that with Matt Gaetz,” he pointed out, adding “Why is all of this stuff being thrown at him slanderously?” Carlson also discussed the spiralling escalation in Ukraine with journalist Glenn Greenwald, noting that the decision to escalate the conflict with ATACMS missiles is “the most evil thing I’ve seen in my lifetime.” Greenwald also pointed out that Ukraine doesn’t have the expertise to use the guidance system for the weapons and therefore NATO countries and the US would be actively involved in launching them at targets inside Russia. As we highlighted yesterday, NATO member state Sweden is sending out pamphlets advising citizens how they should prepare for nuclear war in the wake of the escalation.

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“..the weapon appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, adding, “But it is a new type we have been tracking.”

• Ukraine ‘Global War’ After Western Long-Range Weapons Used – Putin (ZH)

On Thursday President Vladimir Putin issued a stern warning in the wake of Ukraine launching long-range strikes on Russia’s territory utilizing newly approved US and UK long-range missiles. “Kiev has launched a long-range missile strike against military facilities located within internationally-recognized Russian territory,” began his televised address by saying. He confirmed British-made Storm Shadow missiles and US-made HIMARS were fired targets located in Bryansk and Kursk Regions. He said this action threatens to turn the Ukraine conflict into a global war. “A regional Ukraine conflict instigated by the West has acquired elements of a global one,” Putin spelled out, and noted that these systems cannot be used without the direct operational involvement of Western military specialists.

But he went on to claim that the inbound Western rockets were intercepted by Russian defenses. “The goals that have apparently been set by the enemy have not been achieved.” He suggested injuries among some personnel at a command center in Kursk, but noted it continues full operations. He also asserted that no Western systems can counter Russia’s new missiles, on display earlier in the day. “The use of such weapons by the enemy cannot affect the course of the situation in the Special Military Operation zone,” Putin stressed. He also said it was a big mistake for the US to pull out of the the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Can things cool prior to Trump taking office, or will Zelensky and the West risk bigger confrontation, to likely trigger Russian hypersonic missiles or even a tactical nuke? This is indeed an ultra-dangerous slide.

* * *

Update(1057ET): Ukraine’s earlier claim that its territory had been struck by an intercontinental ballistic missile fired by Russia is being hotly disputed, hours after widespread reports first appeared. US officials are saying it appears to be a new intermediate-range ballistic missile and not an ICBM which targeted the central city of Dnipro The NY Times has reported in follow-up of the attack that “several Western officials said that the weapon was not an ICBM and instead was likely an intermediate-range missile that flies shorter distances.” Zelensky himself had claimed Russia used a new class of missile. “All the parameters — speed, altitude — match those of an intercontinental ballistic missile,” he said. “All expert evaluations are underway.” But US defense officials are contradicting this:

A senior U.S. official said the weapon appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile, adding, “But it is a new type we have been tracking.” US officials have also called it an “experimental” missile. There’s also been some quibbling among experts are how to characterize the projectiles which were observed hitting Ukraine at incredibly high rates of speed, in terms of rocket size and distance. Assuming Washington is correct, and that it wasn’t an ICBM, this suggests Zelensky’s hasty verdict is all about threat inflation coming at a time he’s desperately trying to get the West’s attention, arguing in favor of greater NATO military intervention against Russia.

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They’re supposed to keep the country running.

• Ukraine Sends Its Own Skilled Workforce To The Front Lines (SCF)

The situation in Ukraine is deteriorating rapidly, reflecting a reality that the leaders of the Kiev regime have long tried to hide behind empty promises of Western support. As the conflict prolongs, the shortage of human resources at the front has become one of the country’s greatest weaknesses, forcing the authorities to reverse their policies of exemptions from mobilization. Now, those who were previously tasked with maintaining the country’s military infrastructure, such as Ukrspecexport’s and other key defense companies’ workers, are being called to serve on the front lines. The conscription of these professionals, who were previously responsible for maintaining Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian aircraft and systems in various parts of the world, reflects the imminent collapse of Kiev’s military capabilities. Their call-up is not only a desperate measure, but clear evidence that Ukraine, in its attempt to resist, is sabotaging itself by dismantling its own skilled workforce.

For years, Ukraine has relied on its expertise in Soviet-era military technology, providing maintenance services and exporting repairs to countries that still use Soviet equipment. This industry was, for a time, one of the country’s main sources of revenue and influence, allowing Kiev to remain relevant on the geopolitical arena. However, as Russian offensives intensified, Ukraine’s industrial facilities were systematically destroyed, making it impossible for Ukraine to maintain its mask of military power. Russian attacks have strategically destroyed the industrial base that supported Kiev’s armed forces, irreversibly weakening its critical and defense infrastructure. This is evidenced by Ukraine’s increasing inability to repair and maintain its own equipment, a situation that is now directly reflected in the shortage of specialists to repair what remains of its military machinery.

The impact of this situation is really deep. Not only has Ukraine lost the ability to maintain its combat systems, but it is also now forced to call up its best technicians and engineers to serve in the trenches, rather than maintaining what is still functioning in its defense industrial base. If even the most qualified professionals, who are responsible for ensuring the operation of aircraft and other sophisticated systems, are being sent to the battlefield, this points to a complete structural collapse of the Ukrainian military apparatus. It is no longer a question of simply fighting, but of ensuring the survival of the armed forces with extremely limited resources. The country is literally exhausting its ability to maintain the war, leading to its own unavoidable defeat.

This forced mobilization of specialists shows not only a failure in the military field, but also a broader fiasco in the country’s governance. The decision to send its best professionals to the front lines is a direct echo of the exhaustion of the Ukrainian political system. In addition to being a clear sign that Ukraine can no longer maintain effective mobilization, this measure puts vital sectors of society at risk. Soon, other professionals in essential fields, such as doctors, professors, and scientists, may be called up, further weakening the country’s social and economic structure. What remains of Ukraine’s infrastructure is being eroded by a war that Kiev clearly cannot win, and its desperate mobilization only accelerates its collapse.

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“..Huntington, wrote The Clash of Civilizations, in which he predicted that the world would be fragmented into distinct cultural blocs based on civil, religious and economic identities..”

• In The Beginning Was The Pax Americana (Pacini)

We often speak of the collective West, Hegemon, Seapower and Civilization of the Sea in relation to the United States of America. It is necessary to understand well what is the origin of this geopolitically determinant power for the world order. He who wins the war, dictates the rules Let us make clear at once an empirically incontrovertible factual truth: He who wins the war, dictates the rules of the post-war order. Whoever wins, writes history. Whether we like it or not, the defeated never had much decision-making power (which is not to say that they could not organize well to retaliate and return to power – but that is another matter). World War II ended with the victory of the United States of America as the first, undefeated and predominant power. From there followed an expansion of U.S. influence toto orbe terrarum in all respects (cultural, economic, military, political).

The twentieth century was the “American century.” Almost the whole world took the shape the U.S. wanted to give it. The second half of the century was marked by the low-tension conflict of the Cold War, which ended-if it really did-with the collapse of the Soviet political system in the USSR and the beginning of the unipolar phase of American global domination. That period aroused much optimism in the West for a new world order, marking the end of the military and ideological rivalry of the 20th century. Two possibilities were on the horizon: a system based on balance of power and egalitarian sovereignty, or a U.S.-led liberal hegemony based on the values of democracy. The first approach evoked perpetual conflict, while the second promised lasting peace and global stability. U.S. hegemony, already dominant in the transatlantic region after World War II, was seen as a model of peace and prosperity.

However, the collapse of the Soviet Union removed the justification for a world order built on the balance of power, pushing the United States toward a mission of recognized hegemony to prevent the rise of new rivals. American supremacy, as declared by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, was deemed “indispensable to ensure global stability.” This was the Pax Americana: the U.S. would ensure a period of prosperity and global peace – as early as the end of WWII – by extending control over the entire world. A peace for America was equivalent to a peace for the globe; a war for America would mean war for the entire globe. The stated goal of building a peaceful world often justified imperialistic approaches, revealing the contradictions of the hegemonic project. Set this paradigm as an axiom of reasoning in international relations and geopolitical programming, lo and behold, everything acquired new meaning.

The world had been formatted and the “control room” was now in Washington. It was the time of ideologies. In the “short century” everything had changed rapidly. The great world chessboard was constantly being shaken and reshuffled. The clash between the Western bloc and the Eastern – or Soviet – bloc characterized all concepts of each country’s politics in an extremely powerful way. In the 1990s, two visions dominated the debate on world order: that of Francis Fukuyama and that of Samuel Huntington. Fukuyama in his famous book The End of History, envisioned a future in which liberal democracy and capitalism would triumph universally, leading to perpetual peace under the leadership of the United States: he argued that economic interdependence, democratic reforms, and shared institutions would unite the world around common values, which were, of course, American values.

Any other model of civilization would have been beside the point, because History was finished, there would be nothing left to write about. In contrast, Huntington, wrote The Clash of Civilizations, in which he predicted that the world would be fragmented into distinct cultural blocs based on civil, religious and economic identities. Individualism and human rights, according to him, were peculiar to the West and not universal. His theorizing assumed a future marked by conflicts between civilizations, fueled by the decline of Western hegemony and the emergence of alternative powers, particularly in Confucian and Islamic societies.

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“These offers will be in the form of, ‘We promise to buy more natural gas from the U.S. … We promise to move more production to the U.S.’”

• Trump May Not Need to Pull Trigger on Tariffs (ET)

Economists near-universally warn that President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to impose “across-the-board” 20-percent tariffs on imports will trigger inflation, disrupt domestic industries, and spur global trade wars.
Despite overwhelming critical consensus, Trump calls tariffs “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” and hasn’t backed down since his Nov. 5 reelection. But the threats may be a “negotiating tactic” to give the United States leverage in mediating trade pacts, Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) President Adam Posen said during a Nov. 14 virtual event. And it may be working already. Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Canada, “and maybe some others, are likely lining up offers,” he said. “These offers will be in the form of, ‘We promise to buy more natural gas from the U.S. … We promise to move more production to the U.S.’”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested on Nov. 8 that European Union (EU) nations can buy more liquified natural gas (LNG) from the United States to avoid tariffs. Speaking to reporters after congratulating the president-elect on his reelection, von der Leyen said Trump appeared eager to sustain what the Congressional Research Service calls “the world’s largest trade and investment relationship,” which accounts for 46 percent of global GDP. About 48 percent of LNG used by EU nations is imported from the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Noting that EU nations import up to 16 percent of LNG from Russia, von der Leyen said there’s room for a deal. “Why not replace it by American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our energy prices?” she asked.Posen said this is exactly what Trump’s team wants to achieve.

“The ideal outcome for the Trump administration is they’ve made this threat, a set of threats, but they don’t actually have to implement them, and they get these goodies,” he said. In the short term, Posen said, some nations may acquiesce. “They’ll say: ‘Okay, we don’t want to be on the bad side of the U.S. We don’t want a bad side of a President Trump.’ But in [the] medium-term, two to four or five years out, I think the reverberations could be quite large.” Responses from “like-minded U.S. allies” will differ from those from China, Mexico, and nonaligned nations, such as India and Indonesia, he said. Allies are “probably just going to try to make nice with Trump: ‘We’re going to be aligned with the U.S. on national security and, therefore, against China,’” Posen said. “We should just … try to be on the inside of a ‘Fortress America economy’ and grow with them.”

There are at least two problems with this scenario, he said. “Getting these goodies is really not necessarily going to solve a bunch of problems. A number of people close to the president-elect believe trade deficits are really a big deal. “These measures are likely to actually increase U.S. trade deficits because they’ll drive up the dollar, drive up inflation.” Posen said the second problem is that “this is not a one-round game,“ adding that ”once this happens … the question is, how do economies adapt and how do they cope?” “Maybe in that sense … people start building the U.S. out. That’s something we’re going to watch,” he said. Without an effort to renegotiate trade deals before imposing “across-the-board” tariffs, which also would slap a 25-to-100 percent fee on imports from Mexico, “I think the Trump administration is underestimating how other countries might react,” he said.

A 60-percent tariff on imports from China will spur “asymmetric trade warfare,” Posen said. “If the U.S. says, ‘Well, we don’t want steel, we don’t want batteries, we don’t want EVs from China’ … then the Chinese can say, ‘Well, we don’t want Hollywood movies, we don’t want American video games, we don’t want American accounting firms,’” he said.

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“..a “ranking of the most crazy expenses funded by your taxes.”

• DOGE Wants To Cut $1.9 Trillion In Government Spending (Duro)

Expectations were high when Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy took the lead in creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but those smiles quickly faded following their first announcements. While Musk, owner of the social network X, promised to cut government spending by $1.9 trillion, Ramaswamy revealed plans to eliminate entire agencies as part of the overhaul they are preparing. Government spending currently stands at $6.75 trillion annually, and cutting it as much as possible is a top priority for Trump. However, Musk and Ramaswamy will have just over a year and a half to implement their reforms, as the president-elect has set an expiration date for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — July 4, 2026. On that date, as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Independence, the tycoon aims to make the current government bureaucracy a thing of the past.

“Massive waste, fraud and abuse”
Both businessmen emphasized that much of the current government spending stems from what the former Republican primary contender called “massive waste, fraud, and abuse” within the administration. Ramaswamy further warned on Fox News that suppliers wouldn’t escape the cuts either, stating, “We expect massive reductions from all federal contractors and others who overbill the government.” Before beginning their official duties, both Musk and Ramaswamy have already pointed out several questionable expenses, such as sponsored drag shows in Ecuador, that will be featured in what Musk has promised will be a “ranking of the most crazy expenses funded by your taxes.” This is part of his commitment to transparency in the process. Ramaswamy also announced that ‘entire agencies’ will be shut down as part of the planned cuts. “We expect mass reductions. We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated. We expect massive cuts in federal contractors and others that are overbilling the federal government. So, yes, we expect all of the above.”

From Starbucks coffee makers to overpriced soap at the Pentagon
During his time as a Republican pre-candidate, Ramaswamy identified several agencies for elimination or significant restructuring, both in terms of functions and size. These include the FBI, the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also under scrutiny is the Pentagon’s waste, especially following its failure in the most recent audit of its massive $824 billion budget. Among the questionable expenses uncovered were $192,952 spent on Starbucks espresso machines for the U.S. Navy between 2017 and 2021, as well as nearly $1 million the Air Force paid Boeing for overpriced C-17 cargo plane parts as part of a 20-year contract. Perhaps most shocking to analysts, however, was the Defense Department’s purchase of soap dispensers at an eye-popping markup of 7,943%.

Trans monkeys and alcoholic mice to be studied by NIH
On the other hand, animal experimentation, particularly those conducted for ‘woke’ purposes, will also be under review. For instance, a Florida lab received $477,000 to study “transgender” monkeys, injecting male monkeys with female hormones to observe changes in behavior. In a similar vein, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allocated $33 million to a company managing around 3,000 primates, funding studies on gambling and methamphetamine addiction without changing the animals involved. In addiction research, it was also reported that the NIH spent an additional $3 million of taxpayer dollars on injecting hamsters with steroids to “assess whether current drugs for aggressive juveniles can suppress steroid-induced aggression.” The NIH also allocated $2.3 million to inject cocaine into six-month-old beagle puppies and $1.1 million to train mice to drink large amounts of alcohol.

Passing the REINS Act, a priority for DOGE
Along with the cuts, part of Musk and Ramaswamy’s task will be to shine a light on excessive or redundant legislation that burdens taxpayers. In this regard, the India-born entrepreneur has called for the swift passage of the REINS Act, which would give Congress greater control over executive spending resulting from presidential executive orders.

DOGECast

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“We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.”

• Musk, Ramaswamy Reveal DOGE Blueprint To Cut Government Waste (ZH)

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have laid out their vision for the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to a new WSJ op-ed, the pair writes that “Our nation was founded on the basic idea that the people we elect run the government. That isn’t how America functions today. Most legal edicts aren’t laws enacted by Congress but “rules and regulations” promulgated by unelected bureaucrats—tens of thousands of them each year.” They call government bloat “antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders’ vision,’ as it “imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers.” President Trump has asked the two of us to lead a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut the federal government down to size. The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long. That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.”

As the Epoch Times notes, the urgency for downsizing the federal government is due to the ballooning costs of paying interest on our ginormous national debt. I and others have been writing about the debt problem for decades, but now the national debt has reached a critical stage. According to usdebtclock.org, the federal debt passed $36 trillion last week. There is nothing inherently significant about the number $36 trillion, but as you can see from the accompanying chart published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the annual cost of the federal debt has exploded from under $600 billion in 2020 to over $1 trillion now. Here’s the plan:

1. Regulatory Rescissions: Rolling Back Illegitimate Regulations
The most immediate and significant action DOGE will take is targeting the tens of thousands of regulations imposed by federal agencies, many of which exceed the constitutional authority granted to these agencies.

• Using Supreme Court Rulings as a Guide: Following the rulings in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022) and Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), DOGE will work to identify regulations that overstep the bounds of the authority Congress has granted. These rulings clarify that agencies cannot enact major economic or policy decisions without explicit congressional approval. DOGE will compile a list of regulations that should be nullified and present them to President Trump for executive action.

• Immediate Suspension and Review of Regulations: Through executive orders, the president will pause enforcement of these overreaching regulations and initiate a full review process for rescission. This action will prevent regulations that were never approved by Congress from continuing to harm businesses and individuals.

• Creating a System to Prevent Reviving Illegitimate Regulations: Once regulations are rescinded, DOGE will ensure that future administrations cannot simply reinstate them. Any reactivation of these regulations would require a new act of Congress, ensuring that regulatory power is returned to the people’s elected representatives.

2. Administrative Reductions: Streamlining Federal Agencies
Alongside regulatory rescissions, a drastic reduction in the size of the federal bureaucracy will be necessary. DOGE will target specific reforms to reduce the number of federal employees, streamline agency operations, and focus government efforts on its core constitutional responsibilities.

• Identifying Minimum Staffing Needs: DOGE will collaborate with agency leaders to identify the minimum number of employees required to carry out essential functions. With fewer regulations to enforce, many agencies will require significantly fewer staff. As regulations are rescinded, the corresponding workforce reductions will follow.

• Cost-effective Employee Transitions: For those whose positions are eliminated, DOGE will support their transition into the private sector, providing incentives for early retirement or voluntary severance. Programs designed to make these exits as seamless as possible will be implemented, ensuring a smooth process for both employees and taxpayers.

• Leveraging Executive Authority to Limit Bureaucratic Growth: President Trump will use his authority to amend civil-service rules to curtail administrative overgrowth. This could include actions like large-scale firings or moving federal agencies out of Washington, D.C., to reduce costs and decentralize power.

• Restoring Accountability in Federal Agencies: Agencies will be required to return to in-person work, ending the COVID-era trend of remote work. This will incentivize employees who are unwilling to meet this expectation to voluntarily exit, reducing the overall headcount.

3. Cost Savings: Tackling Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Beyond reducing the size of government and eliminating unnecessary regulations, DOGE will focus on eliminating wasteful spending and ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used efficiently.

• Ending Unauthorized Expenditures: A significant portion of federal spending, over $500 billion annually, is either unauthorized by Congress or used for purposes Congress never intended. DOGE will work with the administration to end these wasteful programs, including unnecessary funding to international organizations and progressive groups, while scrutinizing expenditures like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

• Overhauling Federal Procurement: The government’s procurement system is notorious for waste and inefficiency. DOGE will conduct large-scale audits of federal contracts, suspending payments where necessary to identify and eliminate inefficiencies. This will be especially critical for agencies like the Department of Defense, which has failed repeated audits, indicating a lack of oversight over how taxpayer money is spent.

• Targeting the Deficit and Overspending: While entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid are often the focus of budgetary discussions, DOGE will tackle the more immediate waste, fraud, and abuse that plagues most federal agencies. Through targeted executive actions, DOGE will curb these excesses without the need for new legislation.

A Historic Opportunity
With a mandate for change and a supportive legal framework, DOGE has the opportunity to make meaningful strides in reducing the size and scope of the federal government. Through regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and targeted cost savings, this initiative aims to eliminate wasteful spending and restore accountability in Washington. The ultimate goal of DOGE is to make its own existence obsolete by July 4, 2026 – the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. By then, it is hoped that a leaner, more efficient government will be in place, one that is more responsive to the needs of the people and more in line with the vision of the Founders. If successful, this reform effort will be a gift to the nation, ensuring that future generations inherit a government that is both effective and accountable.

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“Trump is going to need intelligent cool hands to keep enthusiasm focused on where it is needed, so that hot heads don’t rush us into wider war..”

• The Prospects for Trump’s Agenda (Paul Craig Roberts)

Cities and states controlled by left-wing Woke anti-American Democrats are busy at work organizing to oppose the will of the American people as expressed in the presidential election. In Pennsylvania the corrupt Democrat authorities are openly defying the ruling of the State Supreme Court and counting invalid ballots in their effort to overturn the election of the Republican US senator. In Massachusetts, Illinois, and California, corrupt anti-American Democrat governors and legislators are prohibiting any cooperation with federal authorities in identifying and deporting illegal aliens. Most Democrat jurisdictions have taken the side of immigrant invaders and criminal gangs against the American people. The Democrat authorities speak of those who have illegally entered the US as “our people” to be protected from deportation. Badly ruled Democrat cities have joined the organized Democrat effort to prevent President Trump from protecting America’s border.

They are proud to be standing for foreign aliens against America. This shows that the Democrat Party is nothing but a collection of far left ideologues who hate the United States and are doing their best to destroy it. Americans have no greater enemy than the Democrat Party. Do Trump, his government, and his supporters have the will and determination to arrest, indict, and imprison elected Democrats who refuse to obey US law? In other words, are the Trump forces as determined to rescue America as Democrats are to destroy it with open borders, critical race theory, and transgender indoctrination? The Democrats had no compunction about trying to destroy Trump with false indictments devoid of evidence. In contrast, Republicans have the evidence. Do they have the strength to act on it? Trump can achieve nothing without a firebrand Attorney General. The sorry excuses he appointed his first term are the reasons he failed. Matt Gaetz is surely a disrupter, a firebrand.

He has the personality and determination to clean up the two most corrupt areas of the US government–the Justice (sic) Department and the FBI. Both are anti-American institutions who commit taxpayer resources to framing up American patriots, while criminals like Hunter Biden and Hillary walk. The question is: can Gaetz be confirmed? Is the corrupt American Establishment going to permit a person who would indict them to be Attorney General? Perhaps Gaetz is a stalking horse whose rejection by the Senate would make it difficult for the Senate to reject Trump’s second nomination. Who should that be? The Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is, like Gaetz, strong, and he has years of experience as an attorney general. Moreover, he has filed 100 lawsuits against the federal government, and he knows how corrupt the FBI is from the interference and harassment he has experienced from this corrupt federal agency. Of all of Trump’s appointments Bobby Kennedy will be the most difficult to be confirmed.

Kennedy has the goods on the adverse health effects we suffer from Big Pharma and from the adulterated foods agri-business feeds us. Both Big Pharma and the corporate food business make profits by destroying our health. How can Trump get Kennedy confirmed given the enormous power campaign contributions give Big Pharma and agri-business over US Senators? Recently, Trump has been giving a series of short speeches that put malefactors on the spot. He can do the same to Big Pharma and agri-business. Prior to inauguration, Trump can say that Big Pharma and agri-business will try to stop me from providing you with safe medicines and safe food. You must write to your senators and demand that they confirm Bobby Kennedy. Any senator who votes against Kennedy, Trump should identify for all to see and brand him a corrupt hireling of Big Pharma and agri-business and ask the electorate why they put him in office.

On the war front the corrupt Biden regime has tried to prevent Trump from peacefully resolving the conflict in Ukraine by giving the go-ahead to the US and NATO launching missiles into Russia. The initial attempt failed, but there will be others. One possible target is the nuclear power station in Kursk, an area permissible to be targeted. A hit on the nuclear facility would release nuclear fallout into Russia. Putin could not rationalize away such a disaster and would, finally, be deprived of an excuse to do nothing in response. What might his response be? Given the extreme superiority of Russian nuclear forces over those of the US, Putin could knock out all US nuclear weapon sites and Washington, and dictate the peace terms to the Americans and Europeans. Would he do this? Not unless he has no other alternative. Putin wants peace, not war. Thinking of the dangerous situation into which Putin has got himself with his limited military operation reminded me of a passage I recently read in Louis L’Amour’s short story, ”West of the Tularosas”:

“Of late she had refused to admit there might be occasions when fighting could not be avoided. She had yet to learn that in order to have peace both sides must want it equally. One side cannot make peace; they can only surrender.” I wonder if Putin understands that neither Washington nor Israel desire peace. Their intention is hegemony. Putin has done nothing to make Washington desire peace. Neither has China. Neither has Iran. It is the American Neoconservatives who have dominated American foreign policy since the Soviet collapse who want war. Trump needs to disempower these dangerous warmongers with one of his short speeches.

On the Middle Eastern war front my confidence in Trump fades. He is in Israel’s pocket, as is the entirety of his war cabinet. Russia and China cannot permit a US/Israeli attack on Iran. China, perhaps, is useless, as China, which has survived for 5,000 years, relies on time, not war, to dispose of enemies. For Russia, the situation is different. If Iran falls, the CIA has an entrance through which to send anti-Russian Muslim activists to disrupt the Russian Federation. Attacked from the West and East and also perhaps from a Maidan Revolution in Georgia, Putin might realize that he has waited far too long to fight, and all hell could break loose. To handle these challenges, Trump is going to need intelligent cool hands to keep enthusiasm focused on where it is needed, so that hot heads don’t rush us into wider war. Does Trump have such people? Who are they? What authority do they have? His war cabinet are people lined up with Israel against Iran. Where is the promise in this?

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“..a normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia – a key priority for the incoming Trump administration..”

• Trump Opposes Israel Annexation Of West Bank, Republican Sources Say (MEMO)

Newly-elected United States’ President, Donald Trump, is in opposition to Israel’s reported plans to annex the Occupied West Bank, sources from his Republican Party have revealed. According to Israeli outlet, Ynet News, a senior Republican Senator close to the President-elect has said that “Trump will not approve annexation” of the West Bank. Such a move is reportedly seen by the new President as one that would be “a mistake for Israel” which would worsen its international standing – already severely damaged after over a year of the Occupation’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Trump is also apparently primarily concerned that any official annexation could further disrupt and severely derail efforts to finally reach a normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia – a key priority for the incoming Trump administration, with Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, particularly working on that goal. The reported comments by the unnamed sources follow increased speculation in recent weeks over Trump’s appointments of controversial figures in his incoming administration, with many of the relevant roles being filled by radically pro-Israel figures who favour annexation of the West Bank.

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EU countries have said they will arrest them.

• ICC Issues Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Gallant (Sobczak)

On Thursday the International Court of Justice (ICC) issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a member of Hamas leadership. The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were for charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court unanimously agreed that the prime minister and former defense minister “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.” “The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024,” the court detailed in its allegations.

The ICC also charged Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, including rape and hostage taking. A plan suggested by former IDF general, Giora Eiland, called for the explicit emptying out of northern Gaza and the labeling of all remaining civilians as military targets, as well as the purposeful blockage of humanitarian aid. Netanyahu reportedly did not agree to the plan, but evidence points to aspects of the plan being enacted. “The ICC decision shows once more how out of sync Biden’s Gaza policy is with both American and international law,” says the Quincy Institute’s Executive Vice President Trita Parsi. “Biden has sacrificed America’s international standing to arm and protect leaders who the international courts have deemed to be war criminals.” The ICC’s move comes just one day after unprecedented votes in the U.S. Senate to end the sale of certain offensive weapons to Israel. The measures ultimately failed, with the White House telling senators that they would be supporting Iran and Hamas should they vote to curb weapons sales to Israel.

Because of the ICC warrants, Netanyahu or Gallant could be arrested upon entering a nation that has recognized the ICC and its rulings. However, Israel is among dozens of other countries, including the United States, that do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. After warrants were requested in October, Israel reacted by challenging the jurisdiction of the ICC in the matter, but that challenge has been rejected. “Israel’s reaction — that no other democracy has been treated this way by the ICC — is indicative of how perverted certain approaches to international law have become,” said Parsi. “Israel essentially argues that because it defines itself as a democracy, it should be above the law. That war-crimes, apartheid, and genocide are ok as long as the perpetrator identifies as democratic. This approach — creating different sets of laws and standards for different countries — is a recipe for global instability and a threat to American security.”

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“..if they turn loose Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 on cartels and pedophiles, we could just kind of like erase the problem in about two years. It’d be gone..”

• Former Green Beret: Trump Can “Turn Loose Delta Force” On The Cartels (MN)

During a discussion with Joe Rogan, former Green Beret Evan Hafer, noted that if president-elect Trump decides to go to war with the cartels he could opt to use US Special Forces to destroy them. Hafer noted “if we declare war on the cartel, these dudes are not going to understand what the fuck is going on,” “They are in for a world of ultra violence they’ve never actually felt before because you know, obviously this is a very capable violent organization,” Hafer added. He continued, “They have fucking no clue if we organize these tier one units against them this is gonna be — what I would be doing if I was down there… I’d be getting ready to retire right now,” “That’s what I would be doing. Because if Delta Force is hunting me bro, I would be so terrified,” Hafer further urged.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1858851449725153571

“I thought about this for a long time where I’m like if they turn loose Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 on cartels and pedophiles, we could just kind of like erase the problem in about two years. It’d be gone,” Hafer, the founder of Black Rifle Coffee Company, emphasised. Trump has repeatedly said that this option is on the table. His incoming border czar Tom Homan also recently stated that Trump intends to “use the full might of the United States Special Operations to take ’em out,” and “ take ’em off the face of Earth.”

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“I think there is a real possibility that the virus’s birthplace was Chapel Hill.”

• US Played ‘Substantial’ Role In Causing Covid Pandemic – ex-CDC Chief (RT)

Robert Redfield, a former director of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), has claimed that Covid-19 was artificially developed, and that the US played a “substantial” role in starting the pandemic. Redfield, who led the agency under the administration of US President Donald Trump, made the claim in an interview that was released on November 14, but only drew media attention this week. Speaking to author and podcaster Dana Parish, he suggested that the virus was “intentionally engineered as a part of a biodefense program.” “When you look at the accountability for China, their accountability is not in the lab work and the creation of the virus,” but in their failure to quickly report the incident to health authorities worldwide including the CDC, when they realized the virus was on the loose, he said.

However, the US “role was substantial,” he added. “They funded the research, both from NIH [National Institutes of Health], the State Department’s USAID and the Defense Department.” According to the former CDC chief, the “scientific mastermind behind the research” was Dr. Ralph Baric, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on coronaviruses. Redfield suggested that the professor, who works at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was “very involved in this research.” “I think he probably helped create some of the original viral line”, Redfield said, admitting he did not have any proof. “I think there is a real possibility that the virus’s birthplace was Chapel Hill.”

Redfield previously said the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed more than seven million people worldwide and caused a global economic downturn, most likely started with a lab leak in Wuhan, China, and suggested that the debate on the virus’s origins was “squashed.” He has also criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for failing to hold Beijing accountable. One of the prevailing theories of the origin of the Covid pandemic is that the virus was transmitted to humans from an animal, possibly a bat, at a food market. China has maintained that the virus is of natural origin, and has dismissed the laboratory leak theory as an attempt to smear the country for political reasons.

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“Millions of letters must pour into the Senate promising to drive the senators from office if they continue to protect Big Pharma’s assault on Americans’ lives and health..”

• US Government Funded Creation of the Coronavirus (Paul Craig Roberts)

Robert Redfield, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control, has revealed that US government agencies funded the creation of the Coronavirus. “They funded the research, both from NIH [National Institutes of Health], the State Department’s USAID and the Defense Department.” According to the former CDC chief, the “scientific mastermind behind the research” was Dr. Ralph Baric, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on coronaviruses. Redfield said that the virus was “intentionally engineered as a part of a biodefense program.” I am convinced that the “vaccine” was intentionally designed to reduce the world’s population via early death and infertility. This was the agenda behind the pressure to vaccinate the Earth’s entire population. The vile despicable American media and the corrupt Big Pharma-dominated US medical system continue to deceive Americans with their lies that Covid came from bats and the Covid “vaccine,” which is not a vaccine, is safe and effective.

Big Pharma uses campaign contributions to keep the US Congress silent. Murder and injury larger in scale than Israel’s genocide of Palestine has been covered up by the whore American media and cowardly US Congress. How can Trump make rot this huge great again? If Trump is to get Bobby Kennedy confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he must begin his speeches now putting the Senate and the American people on notice that Big Pharma will purchase from the Senate a non-confirmation vote. Millions of letters must pour into the Senate promising to drive the senators from office if they continue to protect Big Pharma’s assault on Americans’ lives and health. Can Trump do this when his chief of staff is a former Big Pharma lobbyist? The great danger of the Trump presidency is that he will achieve nothing, and the disappointment will demoralize the American people who have put their faith in him. Once Americans give up, tyranny will have its way with them.

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Gone. Hopeless.

• UK School Removes All Christmas References to Make Children Feel “Safe” (MN)

A school in the UK announced to parents that it was removing all Christmas references from a panto in order to make children feel “safe”. Yes, really. The head teacher of Wherwell Primary School in Andover, Hampshire, banned any reference to the festive season from a Jack and The Beanstalk show so as not to offend any non-Christians who were attending. Mandy Ovenden said the embargo was necessary in order to make children feel “safe” and “valued”. “When we chose to invite the travelling pantomime to Wherwell, our request was a practical step to ensure all children at the school would be able to attend and enjoy the show,” said the school. “Our aim, as always, is to foster inclusivity in our school community, and be a place where children and their families feel safe, welcomed and valued.”

Ovenden said the school had requested the company putting on the play “that the show contain no reference to Christmas.” According to a report by the Telegraph, parents were outraged, asserting that the decision “shouldn’t be allowed” in order to merely ensure that “a few people will not be offended.” In order to ensure a “fully inclusive event,” the head teacher asked that all Christmas references be eradicated because, “We have a number of families who either do not celebrate Christmas or do so in a different way.” Chaplins, the company behind the Jack and The Beanstalk play, said it normally included references to Christmas at this time of year. Because God forbid children in a supposedly Christian country be exposed to anything related in any way to Christmas during Christmastime.

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“..prosecutors were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president in 2027. “I understood that well,” she said.”

• French Establishment Desperate To Stop Rise Of Conservatives (ZH)

EU elites and globalists with extensive political influence have been on the war-path the past several years as it has become increasingly evident that the European populace is shifting more conservative with each new election. In Germany, leftist officials are attempting an outright ban of the conservative AFD Party, primarily because they stand against mass immigration (a position which progressives claim is “xenophobic”). The AFD is currently the second most popular political party in Germany and is expected to gain substantial influence in the 2025 federal elections, unless their candidates are blocked from participation. In Austria, the conservative Freedom Party won a parliamentary election victory in September, though left wing and centrist parties are seeking to cement a coalition to nullify the FP’s ability to govern.

The European media has consistently compared the success of the Freedom Party to the rise of the Third Reich – The only fallback of failing leftists is to claim their opponents are “literally Hitler.” A similar coalition coup was exploited in France under Emmanuel Macron in order to stop Marine Le Pen’s National Rally Party. The coalition is a fragmented mess but it served its purpose of disrupting the will of French voters seeking smaller government and secure borders. Keep in mind, the same people that constantly howl about “threats to democracy” are now trying to silence some of the largest political parties in Europe because they won’t submit to progressive ideologies. For example, if the AFD is banned, who is going to represent the will of millions of conservative German voters? The leftist establishment does not care about those voters or their concerns, nor do they care about fair elections. Their vision of democracy is a sham.

There is, in fact, a coordinated effort by the leftist regime in Europe to shut down any and all public dissent, starting with opposition movements and their access to the ballot box. Recent news from France highlights this reality, as efforts are now underway under the French government to pursue legal actions against Marine Le Pen. Le Pen has been accused by Paris prosecutors of using money intended for EU parliamentary aides to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2009 and 2016. One problem is that the law Le Pen is being charged with was not created until 2016. Furthermore, Le Pen argues that National Rally employees can also work within the EU parliament and that the two roles often overlap. She assert that no laws were broken and no one received EU funds that were not already owed to them.

If convicted Le Pen could receive up to 5 years in prison (3 suspended) and extensive fines of €300,000, but the real kicker is that she could also be banned from participating in elections for five years even if she files an appeal. Government officials admit that Le Pen might not spend any time in jail (she might become a conservative martyr if that happened), but her inability to run for office would effectively end the chances of the National Rally in the 2027 elections. It’s an election which many analysts suggest could catapult the NR to power in France. “It’s no surprise,” Le Pen told reporters after the prosecution’s closing arguments. “I note that the prosecutors’ claims are extremely outrageous.” Le Pen said she felt prosecutors were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president in 2027. “I understood that well,” she said. The case is set to conclude in early 2025.

Establishment media outlets accuse Le Pen of using “Trump-style rhetoric” to distract from her charges. The Guardian claims: “Yet just as January 6 did not stop Trump from being able to move back into the White House, Le Pen’s strategy may well work in her favour. The longer her claims of a political trial get airtime without proper contextualisation, the more likely the French public may think there is some truth to it – it chimes with the widespread anti-elite sentiment among French voters…” This constitutes considerable gaslighting on the part of The Guardian. The “contextualization” is that Le Pen is innocent until proven guilty, and there has been a clear and observable pattern of persecution of right-leaning political figures across the western world in order to stop their constituents from having a say in the governmental process. Trump is just one example of lawfare being used to create accusations of criminality from the thinnest of threads. The American public was savvy enough to see through the smoke and noise.

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Friedman pencil

 

 

Rome

YMCA

 

 

Linda

 

 

Elephants

 

 

Only girls
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859616060061737365

 

 

 

 

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