Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Feb 022025
 


Pablo Picasso Les Demoiselles d’Avignon 1907

 

Musk Reveals Treasury Has Been Auto-Paying Everyone, ‘Even Known Terrorists’ (ZH)
USAID Website and X Account Go Dark (RT)
Trump’s Overhaul of Federal Bureaucracy Backed by Recent Survey Research (RCW)
US Federal Workers Told To Remove Pronouns From Email Signatures (RT)
NYT, NBC, NPR, Politico Evicted From Pentagon Press Offices (ZH)
Chuck Schumer Is Now Under Federal Investigation (Margolis)
Ric Grenell Scores Big Win For Trump In Venezuela (ZH)
Border Encounters Plummet 94% Under Trump (ZH)
Mexico Announces Retaliation Against US (RT)
Canada Strikes Back With Tariffs (RT)
Musk Sank $288 Million Into Trump Campaign – WaPo (RT)
Can Trump Make A Peace Deal With Putin? (SCF)
White House Wants Zelensky To Hold Elections – Trump Envoy (RT)
The Chihuahua Energy Policy: It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas (Pepe Escobar)
Russia and China Boost NVIDIA Performance 800-Fold (Sp.)
Norway Clears Russian-Crewed Ship In Sabotage Probe (RT)
Global Green Spending Is Falling Short of Net Zero Targets (OP)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1885451352819560698

AfD
https://twitter.com/i/status/1885741075509252315

 

 

 

 

What a story…: “..a handful of career officials within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service” … control “the US government’s payment system”, which includes Social Security, Medicare, federal salaries, payments to government contractors, tax refunds, grant recipients, and more. No payment is ever refused, and $6 trillion per year is disbursed this way. The Treasury Department’s highest-ranking career official flees the scene when Musk comes close.

I would take a good look at these guys’ bank accounts and other assets over the past 10 years. And it looks like DOGE can find a lot of savings here.

Musk Reveals Treasury Has Been Auto-Paying Everyone, ‘Even Known Terrorists’ (ZH)

Update (0942ET): Well, well, well – DOGE moves into the Treasury, triggering their longest-serving, highest-ranked career official to quit in a huff, and they find that department has essentially been auto-paying everyone, according to Elon Musk. “The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups,” said Musk in a Friday night tweet. “They literally never denied a payment in their entire career.”

***
The Treasury Department’s highest-ranking career official quit after a clash with aides of Elon Musk over access to sensitive payment systems, according to the Washington Post, citing (of course), three anonymous sources. David A. Lebryk, a decades-long Treasury official who President Trump named as acting secretary upon taking office last week, announced his retirement in a Friday email to colleagues. According to the report, Lebryk had a dispute with Musk surrogates over access to the US government’s payment system used to disburse trillions of dollars every year. [Imagine Musk and team uncover decades of improper payments and shady dealings?] The Musk surrogates are affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and have been asking since the election for access to the system, according to the report. The requests were reiterated after Trump’s inauguration.

After Trump pick Scott Bessent was confirmed as Treasury Secretary on Monday, Lebryk ceased to be acting agency head. The payment system in question is run by a handful of career officials within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service – which controls the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses, and other entities nationwide – and includes Social Security, Medicare, federal salaries, payments to government contractors, tax refunds, grant recipients, and more. The clash is the latest incident involving career ‘deep state’ bureaucrats vs. the Trump administration. And of course, WaPo, the CIA’s favorite tentacle, frames it as follows:

“The clash reflects an intensifying battle between Musk and the federal bureaucracy as the Trump administration nears the conclusion of its second week. Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially handles federal human resources, and the General Services Administration, which manages real estate. (Musk was seen on Thursday visiting GSA, according to two other people familiar with his whereabouts, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal matters. That visit was first reported by the New York Times.) His Department of Government Efficiency, originally conceived as a nongovernmental panel, has since replaced the U.S. Digital Service.”

Translation: “Unfortunately for the career bureaucrats, Trump signed an executive order instructing all agencies to ensure DOGE has “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,” which appear to include the Treasury payment systems. Musk has previously slammed rising national debt as an existential threat to the country, while DOGE has already made progress in rooting out bullshit programs established by Democrat administrations.

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“About 98 percent of USAID grants pay for activities and not results..”

USAID operates like the typical NGO of today. A vehicle to ‘silently’ dole out money. Ukrainian media are fully dependent on such vehicles, to name an example.

USAID Website and X Account Go Dark (RT)

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) website has gone offline following an executive order by President Donald Trump that pauses most American foreign aid programs for three months to reassess US overseas spending. The website became inaccessible on Saturday afternoon, displaying a message stating that the “server IP address could not be found.” Later that day, the agency’s X account also disappeared. The outage follows reports that the Trump administration is considering placing USAID under the control of the State Department. Last week, Trump signed an executive order freezing most US foreign aid for 90 days, citing the need for a comprehensive review of how funds are allocated.

The order states that “billions of taxpayer dollars flow to programs that do not serve American interests and, in many cases, actively work against them.” The White House has framed the move as part of Trump’s “America First” policy, aimed at cutting wasteful spending and redirecting resources toward domestic priorities. USAID, which oversees humanitarian and development programs abroad, has been significantly impacted. The agency spent over $60 billion on foreign assistance in 2023 alone. On Friday, Reuters reported that the Trump administration is planning to strip USAID of its independence and place it under the control of the State Department. According to sources familiar with the discussions, the National Security Council has hosted meetings on the issue, and legal options are being explored for Trump to issue an executive order formalizing the merger.

Some officials believe the order could be signed as early as this weekend. Photographs of USAID headquarters reviewed by Reuters showed that signs bearing the agency’s official seal had already been removed. Critics have condemned the proposed reorganization, with Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warning that such a move could face legal challenges. “A president cannot eliminate an appropriated federal agency by executive order. That’s what a despot – who wants to steal the taxpayers’ money to enrich his billionaire cabal – does,” Murphy wrote in a post on X on Friday. US-based billionaire Elon Musk, who is advising Trump on downsizing the federal government, reacted by saying: “Live by executive order, die by executive order.”

USAID was created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy through an executive order, consolidating various foreign assistance programs under one agency. Its mission has been to promote economic growth, respond to humanitarian crises, and advance U.S. national security interests globally. However, the agency has faced growing criticism over its effectiveness, with experts questioning whether its assistance programs achieve their intended goals. “About 98 percent of USAID grants pay for activities and not results,” Walter Kerr, co-executive director of Unlock Aid, said earlier this month. “Less than 10 percent of our foreign assistance dollars flowing through USAID is actually reaching those communities.”

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“..just 45% of Federal Government Managers would follow a legal order from President Trump if they thought the order was bad policy, and instead would do what they thought was right.”

Trump’s Overhaul of Federal Bureaucracy Backed by Recent Survey Research (RCW)

Since returning to office for a second term, President Trump has taken aggressive action to overhaul the federal bureaucracy. After a week in office some of Trump actions towards federal workers include: removing employment protections for civil servants, firing 17 inspectors general, reassigning career officials in the Department of Justice, sending home 160 staffers from the National Security Agency and firing the lawyers at the Department of Justice who prosecuted Trump under special counsel Jack Smith. Trump’s efforts have been met with hostility and criticism from the media and predictably from his political opposition. Opinionist Phillip Bump at the Washington Post writes Trump’s actions are “a sharp disruption of how the government works.” Bump laments that “Trump is clearly interested in…seeding loyalists throughout the executive branch.”

At Axios, Zachary Basu and Dave Lawler explain that Trump is “transform[ing] the federal bureaucracy into an army of loyalists.” Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who represents 140,000 federal workers in Virginia, told reporters “This gleeful hatred of the federal workforce will lead to nothing good. “But are Trump’s efforts to transform the government workforce justified by a real concern that his policy platforms–which earned him a presidential victory–will be thwarted by anonymous bureaucrats? Recent survey research suggests Trump is right to be concerned. Napolitan Institute found that just 45% of Federal Government Managers would follow a legal order from President Trump if they thought the order was bad policy and instead would do what they thought was right.

Among managers who voted for Kamala Harris that figure jumps to nearly three-quarters (69%.) The survey also found a majority (52%) of the federal managerial class voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Those current survey results are consistent with events that developed in the first Trump Administration, where we learned how bureaucratic opinions on “right” policy interfered with the power of the duly elected executive officer. Former diplomat Jim Jeffrey revealed that his team routinely mislead the Trump Administration after the president had ordered the withdrawal of troops from Syria. “What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey said. “When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That’s the story.”

“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey said in an interview.While Jeffrey’s revelation came after Trump had left office from his first term, there was a real time revelation of a policy conflict between President Trump and the “interagency consensus” that would become foundation of the first Trump impeachment.The policy difference originated from a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when Trump requested Zelensky open an investigation into possible corruption at the Burisma energy company before receiving a military aid package. Trump’s 2020 election opponent Joe Biden’s son was on the board of Burisma. A central part of the subsequent impeachment case was testimony from Lt. Alexander Vindman (ret.), who had been detailed to the National Security Council and present for the phone call.

Vindman explained in his opening statement to the House impeachment committee he was concerned the president chose to wield his executive authority in a way that was at odds with the “interagency consensus.” Vindman testified “…a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency,” Vindman said in his opening statement. “This narrative was harmful to U.S. government policy. While my interagency colleagues and I were becoming increasingly optimistic on Ukraine’s prospects, this alternative narrative undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine.” But Vindman and the “interagency consensus” have no authority to determine or execute their interpretation of U.S. government policy or in other words, “do what they thought was right.”

The New York Times editorial board supported and encouraged the usurpation of executive authority in favor of the “right” bureaucratic opinion by praising the government bureaucracy overriding or ignoring President Trump’s lawful authority. “…patriotic public servants — career diplomats, scientists, intelligence officers and others…have somehow remembered that their duty is to protect the interests, not of a particular leader, but of the American people.” There is no way to know exactly how extensive bureaucratic resistance interfered with Trump’s ability to govern in his first term, but we do know 46% of current Federal Government Managers would ignore the legal order of President Trump and instead do what was “right.” Trump is making the correct move to overhaul the federal bureaucracy in order to deliver on the campaign promises that got him back in office.

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How did we ever get here?

US Federal Workers Told To Remove Pronouns From Email Signatures (RT)

Employees at US federal agencies have been ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures, according to internal memos obtained by several media outlets. The directive reportedly cites two presidential executive orders seeking to curb diversity and equity programs across the government.On his first day back in office, US President Donald Trump repealed 78 executive orders signed by his predecessor, Joe Biden. They included several measures to protect transgender rights and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The orders also set a 60-day timeframe for federal agencies and departments to cease DEI-related practices.The memos on removing pronouns from signatures reportedly set Friday afternoon as the deadline.

“Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5 p.m. ET on Friday,” ABC News cited one such message as saying. It was sent to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees on Friday morning. The outlet reported that a similar notice urging the removal of DEI “language in Federal discourse, communications, and publications” had been received by federal employees with the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation on Thursday.

Several federal government agency websites, including the Federal Aviation Administration and the Census Bureau, temporarily went down on Friday, according to The Guardian. Some pages displayed as blank before reappearing later that day. The British newspaper noted that the Bureau of Prisons had renamed a webpage called “inmate gender” to “inmate sex” and stopped displaying a list of trans inmates. Donald Trump declared in his inaugural address on January 1 that the US would officially recognize only two genders. ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government’, one of the orders signed by the president later that day, states that “there are only two genders, male and female,” and orders agencies to update official documents such as passports and visas in accordingly.

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Legacy no more: “The Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media that are seated in this room..”

NYT, NBC, NPR, Politico Evicted From Pentagon Press Offices (ZH)

The innumerable consequences of the 2024 election keep gushing forth at a pace that’s hard to keep up with. Here’s a new gem: On Friday evening, the Department of Defense told The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio and Politico that they have two weeks to vacate their long-held and treasured offices inside the Pentagon. Three of their four replacements skew decidedly to the Trump-friendly sector of the political spectrum: the New York Post, One America News Network and Breitbart. Throwing a bone to leftists, HuffPost news snagged Politico’s old slot. The Pentagon Press Association said it was “greatly troubled by this unprecedented move by DOD to single out highly professional media.”

The short-notice evictions from the hallowed “Correspondents’ Corridor” spring from the launch of a “new annual media rotation program for [the] Pentagon Press Corps,” according to a memorandum sent by DOD spokesman John Ullyot on Friday and posted by CNN Pentagon correspondent Haley Britzky. The program seeks to “broaden access to the limited space…to outlets that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalist value of working from physical office space in the Pentagon,” said Ullyot. The booted outlets will retain their status as full members of the Pentagon Press Corps, entitled to attend briefings and be considered for travel with officials. “The only change will be giving up their physical workspaces in the building to allow new outlets to have their turn to become resident members of the Pentagon Press Corps,” wrote Ullyot.

Make no mistake: Those physical workspaces are a big deal. “Kicking out reporters HURTS coverage. If you can’t file your stories from inside the building you are disadvantaged. If you don’t have a work space you are disadvantaged,” wrote former Pentagon Press Corps VP Kevin Baron on X. That commentary was part of a thread condemning the development as “the erasure of journalism at the Pentagon.” The Pentagon Press Corps comprises more than two dozen outlets. The program calls for one outlet from each press medium to rotate from the premises every year. As if Breitbart’s invitation into the Pentagon weren’t enough to outrage establishment media types, the fact that it’s taking the “radio” slot from NPR only compounded the indignation. In a Friday night article, CNN’s Brian Stelter called foul:

“Breitbart – a well-known web site for pro-Trump coverage and commentary – barely has a radio operation of its own. The word ‘radio’ doesn’t appear on its home page at all. The media outlet has a distribution deal with SiriusXM and one big podcast, Breitbart News Daily. Its footprint pales in comparison to NPR, which provides news coverage for local stations all across the country.” In another hilarious, leftist-pummeling swap, One America News Network will be sliding into NBC’s slot. Expressing sympathetic disbelief, CNN’s Britzky emphasized that NBC “has an entire booth w/ cameras etc.” NBC News promised to soldier on, telling Reuters, “We’re disappointed by the decision to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we’ve used for many decades. Despite the significant obstacles this presents to our ability to gather and report news in the national public interest, we will continue to report with the same integrity and rigor NBC News always has.”

For the many Americans who are still angry about legacy media’s aggressive role in working to derail Trump’s 2020 re-election bid, Politico’s punishment is perhaps the most satisfying. The outlet took the lead in spreading the consequential, Deep State lie that Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” — first reported by the New York Post — was part of a Russian misinformation scheme. That lie helped ignite unprecedented censorship of the Post’s coverage. Fittingly, the Post — the country’s longest-running newspaper — is among the outlets graduating to space in the Pentagon.

“The National Press Club is deeply concerned by the Defense Department’s decision to remove certain media organizations from their dedicated spaces in the Pentagon,” club president Mike Balsamo said in a statement. “Any action that restricts the ability of journalists to report on the operations of the U.S. government should alarm all who value transparency and press freedom.” Balsamo pointed to the Pentagon press corps’ history of “diversity,” yet the announced swaps inarguably increase viewpoint diversity. The Pentagon’s shot across the bow of legacy media follows Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s announcement that the White House will significantly broaden media access, with an emphasis on alternative media. “The Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media that are seated in this room,” she said in her first press conference. Never a dull moment in Trump II: The Revenge. What’s next?

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“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer said to a chorus of cheers..

Chuck Schumer Is Now Under Federal Investigation (Margolis)

Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr. has made a bold move, dismissing about 30 federal prosecutors involved in the Capitol riot cases. This decision, announced on Friday, signals a significant housecleaning of the top prosecutor’s office in Washington, D.C., as Martin gears up to purge partisans who weaponized the Justice Department against Joe Biden’s political enemies, including Trump, pro-life activists, and others. But he’s also taken another bold step, effectively launching an investigation into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over comments he made back in March 2020 during a #MyRightMyDecision rally outside the Supreme Court. During the rally, Schumer blatantly threatened Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch over their potential votes in the first abortion case before the Supreme Court with the new conservative majority.

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer said to a chorus of cheers. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” According to 18 U.S. Code ß/ 115, whoever threatens a federal official, with intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with such official, judge, or law enforcement officer while engaged in the performance of official duties, or with intent to retaliate against such official, judge, or law enforcement officer on account of the performance of official duties, shall be punished by a fine or imprisonment of as much as ten years. Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, has been calling on Schumer to be federally prosecuted for years. “Schumer should have been (and should be) criminally prosecuted for his threats targeting two Supreme Court justices,” Fitton wrote.

“If I had said that, I’d have two U.S. marshals in my office, or frankly, probably in my home in the least, questioning me, questioning my family, questioning everyone here at Judicial Watch,” he said back in 2022. “Anyone else I had talked to about that threat on the Supreme Court, Justice Roberts responded, rightly so, said that type of language is dangerous.” “We take threats against public officials very seriously. I look forward to your cooperation,” Martin wrote Schumer in a letter obtained by the Washington Post.

According to the Post, while Martin’s actions are “likely to be welcomed by Trump and allies, who assert they were unfairly targeted by the past administration,” but “career prosecutors who have served under presidents of both parties say Martin is politicizing the office and potentially breaking with 50 years of Justice Department policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations.” That’s cute. I wonder what those “career prosecutors” had to say about the various cases the Biden administration launched against Donald Trump.

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Grenell truly is a special envoy. When the going gets tough…

Ric Grenell Scores Big Win For Trump In Venezuela (ZH)

Update (1815ET): The government of Venezuela has agreed not only to release six detained Americans, who arrived home Friday evening with Trump envoy Richard Grenell, the Maduro government has will take back tens of thousands of migrants, President Trump said on Saturday. “It is so good to have the Venezuela Hostages back home, and, very important to note, that Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S.,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, adding that Venezuela would take back members of the Tren de Aragua transnational gang that has recently expanded into America from various Latin American countries. According to the WSJ, Maduro’s government will provide transport for its citizens to return.”This is good news for all who care about ensuring that Venezuelans with removal orders actually get sent home,” said Kevin Whitaker, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia who also had served as deputy chief of mission in Venezuela.

* * *
More of the Trump effect: six imprisoned Americans have been freed by Venezuela after President Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell visited the country this week. They were released and flown home on a State Dept. aircraft on Friday. “Just been informed that we are bringing six hostages home from Venezuela,” Trump announced on social media. “Thank you to Ric Grenell and my entire staff. Great job!” This comes amid reports of some significant behind-the-scenes deal-making with Venezuela, as Washington demands the Latin American country receive back illegal migrants in the US.The six men were not named, but previously the White House had called on Venezuela to release what it dubbed “US hostages” or else suffer consequences. Grenell had reportedly met directly with President Maduro.

At least nine people with American citizenship or residency had been detained in Venezuela, after authorities accused them of planning to kill President Nicolás Maduro. According to the NY Times: Relatives of three detained U.S. citizens said they had gotten very little information from the American government and had not heard from their loved ones for months since they had disappeared. David Estrella, 64, who worked in quality control for pharmaceutical companies in New Jersey, was among those released, according to his family. “After such horrible moments that we and David have suffered unjustly, we look forward to welcoming him home and taking care of him until he fully recovers and leaves all this unfortunate incident behind him,” said Elvia Macias, Mr. Estrella’s former wife and close friend.

He had entered Venezuela from Colombia to visit friends, Ms. Macias said. Another reason this is such an unexpected positive development is that the United States has no diplomatic presence or embassy in Venezuela, and also has sanctions against the country and its top officials.As for what could be a factor in the release, Financial Times speculated that “a deal could involve an easing of US sanctions on Venezuela and dropping a US reward offered for Maduro’s capture in return for Caracas taking back thousands of [Venezuelan] migrants from the US, shipping more oil to American Gulf Coast refineries and releasing US nationals held in Caracas.” The jubilant freed Americans thanked President Trump in a phone call on the plane ride home:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1885535726973915381

The US State Department special envoy for Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, has meanwhile said the discussions and this new initiative with Caracas will not change Washington’s overall Venezuela policy. “President Trump expects Nicolás Maduro to take back all of the Venezuelan criminals and gang members that have been exported to the US, and to do so unequivocally and without condition,” he said.

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Now add the threat of Guantanamo. It’s ugly, but it may work.

Border Encounters Plummet 94% Under Trump (ZH)

Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, illegal alien encounters at the southern US border have plummeted an average of 94% during his first 9 days, compared to President Biden’s last 19 days in office. During Trump’s first 9 days in office, after new border measures were implemented, there were an average of 126 daily encounters at the border vs. 2,087 per day during the last 2.5 weeks of the Biden administration.

As Rasmussen’s Mark Mitchell put it last week, “It’s like a switch was flipped.” During his 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to crack down on illegal immigration by continuing construction on the border wall, conducting the largest mass deportation in US history, slapping tariffs on Canada and Mexico until they control the situation from their end, and increasing penalties for illegal aliens.

To that end, there were more than 3,500 illegal immigrants who were arrested during Trump’s first week in office, including over 1,100 in a single day. As American Greatness notes further, on Wednesday, shortly before signing the Laken Riley Act into law, the 45th and 47th President announced his intention to send 30,000 of the most dangerous criminal illegals to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Laken Riley Act, named after the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuelan illegal, is the first bill signed into law during President Trump’s second term. It gives federal immigration authorities broader power to arrest illegals who commit dangerous crimes, including drunk driving and assaulting police officers.

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Pete Hegseth is talking about US military action against cartels inside Mexico.

Mexico Announces Retaliation Against US (RT)

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has accused the United States of fueling cartel violence by allowing powerful firearms to flow south, pushing back against President Donald Trump’s claims that Mexico is failing to stop illegal migration and drug trafficking. Sheinbaum’s comments late Saturday came as she ordered retaliatory tariffs on US goods in response to Trump’s sweeping 25% duties on imports from Mexico and Canada. “We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Government of Mexico, accusing it of having alliances with criminal organizations,” Sheinbaum wrote in a fiery post on X. “If such an alliance exists anywhere, it is in the armories of the United States that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups – as demonstrated by the US Department of Justice itself.”

Her remarks apparetly referred to a recent report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which indicated that a significant number of military-grade firearms used by Mexican cartels originate in the United States. Sheinbaum also touted her administration’s anti-narcotics efforts, stating that in just four months, Mexican security forces have seized over 40 tons of drugs, including 20 million doses of fentanyl, and arrested more than 10,000 people linked to organized crime. She criticized the US government’s approach to the drug crisis, arguing that if Washington were serious about combating drug abuse, it would “start a massive campaign to prevent the consumption of these drugs and take care of its young people, as we have done in Mexico.”

Trump’s new tariffs, set to take effect on February 4, impose a 25% duty on goods from Mexico and Canada and a 10% duty on imports from China. The US administration justifies these measures by citing concerns over illegal immigration and drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl entering the United States. In response, Sheinbaum has instructed the Ministry of Economy to “implement the Plan B that we have been working on, which includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests.” While details have not been disclosed, sources indicate that Mexico aims to impose measures targeting key US industries, particularly agriculture, while seeking to avoid further escalation.

The Mexican leader called for bilateral cooperation to address the drug crisis but insisted on equal footing. ”If the United States truly wants to combat the criminal groups that traffic drugs and generate violence, we must work together comprehensively,” she said. “But always under the principles of shared responsibility, mutual trust, collaboration, and, above all, respect for sovereignty, which is non-negotiable.”

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Trudy is far too woke for Trump, and far too close to “Joe Biden”. That will never work.

Canada Strikes Back With Tariffs (RT)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced retaliatory 25% tariffs on American goods, hours after US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping trade restrictions on Canadian imports. “Tonight, I am announcing Canada will be responding to the US trade action with 25% trade tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods,” Trudeau said at a news conference on Saturday. The first wave of tariffs, covering $30 billion worth of US goods, will take effect on Tuesday, with broader measures following in 21 days to allow Canadian companies to adjust.

“These tariffs will be far-reaching and include everyday items,” the Canadian leader said, listing alcohol, fruits, vegetables, clothing, and shoes. In addition to direct tariffs, Ottawa is exploring “several non-tariff measures,” which could include restrictions on critical minerals, energy procurement, and other trade partnerships. “We will stand strong for Canada,” Trudeau said. “We will stand strong to ensure our countries continue to be the best neighbors in the world,” he added, urging citizens to support domestic businesses.

Trump’s 25% tariffs on nearly all Canadian goods were announced earlier on Saturday, with the White House citing concerns over illegal drug trafficking and immigration. “The extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl, constitutes a national emergency,” a White House fact sheet read. “President Trump is taking bold action to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”

The US president claimed that Canada has played “a central role” in America’s fentanyl crisis and failed to “devote sufficient attention and resources” to combat the flow of illicit drugs. In an effort to avert the tariffs, Ottawa introduced a $1.3 billion spending plan aimed at strengthening border surveillance and tackling drug trafficking. Trump said on Friday, however, that there is “nothing Canada can do right now” to avoid the new tariffs. Economists warn that the escalating trade dispute could lead to rising consumer prices and economic disruptions in both countries.

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Is that him, or the PAC?

Musk Sank $288 Million Into Trump Campaign – WaPo (RT)

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was “the biggest political donor” of the 2024 election cycle, contributing at least $288 million to Donald Trump’s presidential bid, the Washington Post has reported, citing an analysis of new Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. Trump appointed Musk to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to cut federal spending and regulations. In an article published on Friday, the Washington Post said, “the staggering 2024 political spending by Musk” cemented his influence within Trump’s political network, with some critics calling him a “de facto, unelected co-president.”

Musk’s political spending largely flowed through America PAC, a super PAC he helped establish to support Trump by mobilizing low-turnout voters in key battleground states. The group raised $263 million, backed not only by Musk but also by his close allies, including Tesla board member Antonio Gracias, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and Sequoia Capital investor Shaun Maguire. According to the report covering the period from November 26 to the end of the year, Musk contributed $11.2 million on December 31, which was described as “petition incentives.”

The billionaire launched the initiative in October, pledging “$1M to someone in swing states who signed our petition to support free speech & the right to bear arms.” Those who signed the petition could also receive $47 for referring a registered voter in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. With earlier FEC filings showing an in-kind contribution of nearly $40.5 million, the total spending for petition incentives alone amounts to at least $52.7 million.

Musk’s “investment in the 2024 election has already paid off enormously,” the newspaper said, with his net worth surging by more than $200 billion since Trump’s victory on November 5. This is primarily attributed to the soaring stock price of Tesla. Shares of the electric vehicle manufacturer have risen approximately 70% since the election, significantly boosting Musk’s wealth. His fortune was estimated at around $442 billion as of mid-December. Musk, who previously positioned himself as politically neutral, publicly endorsed Trump shortly after the failed assassination attempt on the Republican nominee on July 13.

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“The U.S. is a party to this war, not a peace broker..”

Can Trump Make A Peace Deal With Putin? (SCF)

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to open talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to end the war in Ukraine. Trump has spoken about the urgency of bringing the conflict to a peaceful conclusion. Fair enough. For his part, President Putin has magnanimously reciprocated, saying he is ready to engage in talks with Trump. So far, so good. At least the American side is no longer encumbered with the stupid intransigent, hostile mentality of the Biden administration, which refused to have any diplomatic contact with Russia. Russia, for its part, has always been willing to negotiate a genuine way to not just end the conflict but to avoid future conflict.

Before the war in Ukraine erupted three years ago in February 2022, Moscow put forward a comprehensive proposal for a security treaty in Europe in December 2021. The proposal stipulated that the U.S.-led NATO military alliance desist from aggressive expansion on Russia’s borders and, in particular, for Ukraine never to be a member of NATO. Those proposals were rejected out of hand by the U.S. and its European partners. At the earliest stage of the Ukraine conflict, in March 2022, Russia negotiated a potential peace settlement with the Kiev regime in Istanbul, only for that proposal to be rejected by Washington and its British surrogate. The result has been three years of bloodshed and destruction, with millions of Ukrainian casualties and refugees. Ukraine has been destroyed thanks to the intransigence of its NATO sponsors.

If diplomacy is the art of making politics work then anything is possible. Opening talks is at least a start to exchanging ideas and demands to bring the conflict to an end and stop it from spiraling into a catastrophic global war between nuclear powers. President Trump says he wants to end the conflict. But does he understand what the conflict is really about? If a problem is not correctly defined, then a solution is elusive.Trump has a showman style of doing politics. He bragged about ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of being elected. Now he is talking about ending it in 100 days. There are some positive indicators of good intentions. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said this week that he believed the Trump administration is determined to do a peace deal.

Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told senators during confirmation hearings for the post that her “priority would be to support President Trump’s efforts to get Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table.” (She may not be confirmed, however.) U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview this week, repeated his calls for the war in Ukraine to end. In a telling comment, Rubio said the onus was on Russia and Ukraine to make compromises. Here’s where the problems emerge. The Trump administration seems to think that a resolution is a matter for two sides – Russia and Ukraine – and that the U.S. is acting as a mere peace broker instead of being the instigator. This was reflected in Trump’s own recent comments when he boorishly and stupidly warned Russia that if it did not come to the negotiating table, he would impose crippling sanctions on the Russian economy.

Trump is delusional if he thinks he can bully Russia or threaten the Russian economy. Such a fatuous attitude is out of order and counterproductive. The fact is the American and European sanctions against Russia have already failed. Russia’s economy has strengthened by being more independent and developing new trade relations with the rest of the world. It is now ranked 4th in the world, above Germany and other European nations. More importantly, Russia is decisively winning the war in Ukraine despite the colossal arming of the Kiev regime by the U.S. and its NATO partners. Ukrainian military lines are crumbling amid mounting losses. Even the Western media are reporting on the disarray and mass desertion of Ukrainian soldiers. The notion that Russia can be pressured to the negotiating table by the Trump administration is a fallacy and a serious misconception about the nature of the conflict.

Furthermore, the two parties that need to negotiate are not the corrupt puppet regime in Kiev and Russia. It is the United States and Russia. The U.S. is a party to this war, not a peace broker. If Trump’s administration is serious about making a peace deal, then it will have to be understood that the United States must accept Russia’s terms. A mere ceasefire and freezing the hostilities in Ukraine, which is what Trump aides are touting, is far from adequate as a solution. As we pointed out in our editorial last week, the conflict in Ukraine has deep roots in the imperialist machinations of the U.S. and its NATO proxy toward Russia. The history of this goes back decades, not just a few years. Only by addressing the root causes of the conflict can an authentic peaceful resolution begin.

Russia’s terms have been adumbrated clearly for a long time. The United States and its NATO war machine need to respect Russia’s national security interests. The security treaty that Moscow proposed in December 2021 is a basis for negotiation. So too are the realities on the ground. Russia’s new territories of Donbass, Kherson, Zaporozhye, as well as Crimea – all historic lands of Russia – are not negotiable. Neither is Russia’s insistence that Ukraine can never be part of the NATO alliance.

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Get rid of Zelensky first, then hold elections.

White House Wants Zelensky To Hold Elections – Trump Envoy (RT)

Washington wants Kiev to have presidential and parliamentary elections, potentially by this year’s end, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Ukraine conflict, Keith Kellogg. According to the report, Kellogg and other White House officials have discussed asking Kiev to hold the votes as part of a potential truce deal with Moscow. Speaking to the agency, Kellogg said that both the presidential and parliamentary elections “need to be done.”“Most democratic nations have elections in their time of war. I think it is important they do so,” the special envoy said. “I think it is good for democracy. That’s the beauty of a solid democracy, you have more than one person potentially running.”

Parliamentary and presidential elections in Ukraine scheduled for October 2023 and March 2024 were not held after Vladimir Zelensky announced in December 2023 that they would not take place while martial law imposed during the conflict with Russia remains in force. Martial law was declared after the escalation of hostilities between Kiev and Moscow in February 2022 and has been repeatedly extended ever since. In November 2024, it was prolonged once again and is now expected to continue at least until February 7, 2025. US President Doland Trump has repeatedly vowed to swiftly end the Ukraine conflict. On Friday, he claimed that the US was “having very serious discussions about that war” with Russia – something that Moscow has not confirmed so far.

The American president also stated on multiple occasions that he was ready to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible to negotiate an end to the fighting. Moscow has repeatedly stated it its ready for dialogue at any time, but has received no specific signals from the US. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, no such talks are currently planned and all communications are being conducted at the embassy level. If the US plan eventually involves a temporary ceasefire deal prior to a more permanent agreement, the winner of the Ukrainian presidential election could be responsible for negotiating the terms of the final treaty, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing discussions in the White House.

Moscow has questioned Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s legitimacy and said that he is no longer qualified to sign international agreements on behalf of Ukraine as his presidential term officially expired in May 2024. Earlier this week, Putin said that although Zelensky could take part in any potential negotiations, he could not be part of a final deal. “It’s possible to negotiate with anyone,” the Russian leader said, adding that any agreement would be a “very serious question” and must “guarantee the security of both Ukraine and Russia” for a “serious” period of time.Putin had previously stated on multiple occasions that the Ukrainian constitution does not envisage any extensions of the president’s term, only authorizing this for the parliament. Moscow has also said it will not agree to a temporary truce and that a settlement must include “reliable, legally binding agreements eliminating the root causes of the conflict.”

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“..the European logic is completely different from the American logic: one is the logic of war and the other is the logic of peace.”

Orban: US Now Seeks Peace In Ukraine, While EU Wants War To Continue (TASS)

The new US administration and the EU leadership have different approaches to the conflict in Ukraine: Washington now favors a peaceful settlement, while Brussels wants to continue the war, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during a Kossuth radio broadcast. “The Europeans are saying that sanctions must be maintained and even tightened in order for the Ukrainians to win the war against Russia. Yesterday US Secretary of State [Marco Rubio] said in a big interview that it would be unfair to fool everyone by saying that the Ukrainians can win this war. Well, thank him for that interview, because it showed that the Americans want peace, not sanctions, and the Europeans want sanctions, not peace,” the prime minister said.

He emphasized that now “the European logic is completely different from the American logic: one is the logic of war and the other is the logic of peace.” Orban reiterated that the Hungarian government still favors a negotiated settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, and is counting on US President Donald Trump in this endeavor.

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The Chihuahua Strategic Victory Plan. For Pepe, Europeans are chihuahua’s.

The Chihuahua Energy Policy: It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas (Pepe Escobar)

As highlighted before, the U.S. – via fracking – has enough gas for domestic consumption, but not enough to export en masse to the EU, because of liquification problems. That explains why even buying more American energy for exorbitant prices, the EU de facto remains largely dependent on Russian LNG – and non-U.S. sources – since the sabotage of the Nord Streams, unveiled in detail by Sy Hersh. Even at full capacity, the Empire of Chaos simply cannot deliver all the gas the EU needs; add to it virtually no investment in both badly needed extra exploration plus the infrastructure necessary to meet increased EU demand. On the domestic U.S. oil market, things do get positively Kafkaesque. U.S. trucking – a massive service industry – is dependent on imported Russian diesel, which needs to be mixed with Made in America oil in order to be suitable for trucks.

Now cut again to Davos, which came and went barely registering a blip. Toxic EC Medusa von der Leyen told Davos that Europe had “substantially reduced”, and “in record time”, its dependency on Russian fossil fuels. Nonsense. Europe’s energy reality is bleak. Russian LNG from Novatek is currently priced at around $4.5–$4.7 per MMBtu. That’s more expensive than pipeline gas but still much (italics mine) cheaper than American LNG. Every industry pro from the Persian Gulf to Antwerp knows that Europe is now importing Russian LNG like it never did before. That’s it – or a dry death. In parallel, Russia will triple its LNG supply capacity by 2035. End result: whatever those “energy commissioners” in Brussels may come up with, Russia will remain essential when it comes to European energy security.

There are no limits – even stratospheric – for Eurocracy stupidity, which corrodes the system like a plague. The Europeans not only have managed to shut off their own gas pipelines but are still “investigating” the Nord Stream de facto terror attack. End result: they are now importing more (italics mine) Russian gas, but by different means, from third-party suppliers, and paying a fortune. This is what can be described as the Chihuahua Strategic Victory Plan. Russia’s LNG exports hit a record high last year, growing by 4% – and delivering 33.6 million tons. The monthly record was 3.25 million tons in December 2024 – 13.7% more than November. The largest Russian exporter is Yamal LNG: 21.1 million tons, 6% more than in 2023. Now cut to proverbial American rumble, in the form of Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt ordering the “full termination” of Russian gas exported to Europe.

To hell with what nations like Hungary, Austria and Slovakia may think – and do need. Pyatt told the Atlantic Council, “Today we are the largest LNG exporter in the world, and by the end of the Trump administration, we will have doubled what we’re doing today […] The decision has clearly been made in Brussels to get to zero [gas supplies from Russia] by 2027…and the United States strongly supports that goal.” Oh dear. Do these people even read the basic headlines? As reported by Politico, the EU is “devouring” Russian gas at unprecedented levels since the start of 2025, importing 837,300 metric tons of LNG just in the first two weeks of the year. The Ukraine transit deal was shut off for good – at least for now – starting on January 1st. The action now is on the maritime routes.

Enter the U.S. Treasury with a new – what else – sanctions package against Russian oil trade, targeting up to 5.8 million barrels a day shipped by sea. As it stands, the global oil market is experiencing a surplus of about 0.8 million barrels a day. Oil prices for 2025 should remain at around $71 for a barrel of Brent crude (as it stands, it’s $76.2). Not exactly what Mr. Disco Inferno wants. So let’s assume these 5.8 million barrels of Russian oil – under stiff sanctions – would vanish from the global market. In this case we would have oil prices skyrocketing to an average of $150 to $160 a barrel. Once again, not what Mr. Disco Inferno wants: he vociferously promised – and keeps promising – a MAGA oil superpower, while lowering oil prices to max $50 a barrel.

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“The algorithm allows gaming GPUs to be used for scientific computing..”

Russia and China Boost NVIDIA Performance 800-Fold (Sp.)

Scientists from the two countries have developed a breakthrough algorithm using information from reverse engineering video card accelerators. The algorithm allows gaming GPUs to be used for scientific computing. The innovation was achieved by specialists from Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, co-founded by Lomonosov Moscow State University and Beijing Institute of Technology. This enables Russia and China to reduce their reliance on NVIDIA GPUs, weakening the impact of US sanctions.

It also means that Russia and China need to buy less NVIDIA GPUs, which likely led to the collapse of NVIDIA stock price, Russoft association President Valentin Makarov tells Sputnik. He believes ongoing research includes new machine learning algorithms and a next-gen GPU being developed in Russia. These advancements highlight Russia’s technological expertise, allowing collaboration with China and potential future partnerships with India.

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“It is quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any reason.”

Norway Clears Russian-Crewed Ship In Sabotage Probe (RT)

Norwegian police have released a Russian-crewed vessel after finding no evidence linking it to recent damage to an undersea fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and Sweden. The Norwegian-owned Silver Dania, which operates between St. Petersburg and the northern Russian port of Murmansk, was detained on Thursday night following a request from Latvian authorities and a ruling from a local court. Norwegian police said that the ship, which was escorted to the northern port of Tromso, could have damaged a critical fiber optic link belonging to Latvia’s state broadcaster and connecting the Baltic nation and Sweden’s Gotland island. It added that the law enforcement is “conducting an operation on the ship to search, conduct interviews, and secure evidence.”

However, less than a day later, the police stated that Silver Dania “will be able to leave Tromso already on Friday evening.” They added that while the investigation will continue, “no findings have been made linking the ship to the act,” and the crew had been cooperative. The cable sabotage case is the latest in a string of incidents involving damage to critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, with speculation rife that Russia could have played a role. Short of any proof, however, Western officials have refrained from leveling direct accusations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed allegations of Moscow’s involvement. “It is quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any reason.” The Washington Post, citing Western intelligence sources, reported earlier this month that the damage to Baltic Sea infrastructure likely stemmed from maritime accidents involving poorly maintained ships and inexperienced crews rather than deliberate sabotage. NATO has launched a mission dubbed “Baltic Sentry” to enhance surveillance and protection of critical undersea infrastructure in the area and address concerns about possible sabotage.

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The only thing that will reach net zero is the spending.

It’s all just a money grab delusion: “..the world needs to pour in $5.6 trillion each year..”

Global Green Spending Is Falling Short of Net Zero Targets (OP)

Global investments in green energy solutions topped $2 trillion last year, for the first time ever, but the world needs to pour in $5.6 trillion each year into low-carbon energy to get on track for global net zero by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement, BloombergNEF said in a new report on Thursday. Last year, green energy investments reached a record high globally, but the pace of growth has slowed from the 2021-2023 period, according to BNEF’s report Energy Transition Investment Trends 2025. The world invested a total of $2.1 trillion in low-carbon energy in 2024, up by 11% compared to 2023, the report found.

However, the pace of growth has slowed. In the years 2021 to 2023, global investment in clean energy jumped by between 24% and 29% each year, according to BNEF. Electrified transport continued to be the top segment for low-carbon energy investment, drawing in $757 billion in 2024. China remained the single biggest market with $818 billion of investment, up by 20% from 2023 and increasing investment in all sectors. China’s total investment last year was greater than the combined investment of the U.S., the EU, and the UK. However, investment was stagnant in the U.S., at $338 billion, and fell in both the EU and UK, hitting $381 billion and $65.3 billion, respectively, BNEF said.

The research provider also noted that energy transition investment will have to average $5.6 trillion each year from 2025 to 2030, in order to get on track for global net zero by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. The current investment level of $2.1 trillion implies that the world is only at 37% of what is required to get on track, BNEF said. “There is still much more that needs to be done, especially in emerging areas like industrial decarbonization, hydrogen and carbon capture, in order to reach global net-zero goals,” commented Albert Cheung, Deputy CEO of BNEF.

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Bats

 

 

Orca
https://twitter.com/i/status/1885682013589414176

 

 

Elephant
https://twitter.com/i/status/1885538600085053571

 

 

Daddy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1885737803666825299

 

 

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Feb 012025
 
 February 1, 2025  Posted by at 10:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  73 Responses »


Edward Hopper New York movie 1938

 

Replace the Income Tax With Tariffs? (Jeffrey Tucker)
Trump Slaps 25% Tariffs On Canada & Mexico, 10% On China (ZH)
Trump Vows To ‘Absolutely’ Impose Tariffs On EU (RT)
Trump Says DC Black Hawk “Was Flying Too High… By A Lot” (ZH)
Trump Confirms ‘Serious Discussions’ With Moscow Over Ukraine (RT)
EU Divided Over Western Troops In Ukraine – Times (RT)
Is The EU Finally Coming To Its Senses On Russian Energy? (Amar)
EU Energy Policy Row Triggers Norway Government Collapse (RT)
Hungary Calls For Lifting Russia Sanctions (RT)
Merkel Joins Virtue-Signaling Outcry Over AfD (ZH)
Tulsi Slams Deep State At Confirmation Hearing: I Refuse To Be Their Puppet (MN)
The Arbitrary Hypocrisy of American “Justice” (Paul Craig Roberts)
Six Ways From Sunday (Jim Kunstler)
Trump is Not Going to Make US Into ‘Bitcoin Superpower’ (Sp.)
Third World US Cannot Get Its Astronauts Home From Space (Paul Craig Roberts)
Trump Wants To Revive ‘Star Wars’ – Zakharova (RT)
The US is Turning Into a Crybaby Empire (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1885084376242835534

Watters

Tariffs etc etc

Kash J6

 

 

 

 

Leavitt
https://twitter.com/i/status/1885402197027909925

Laken

Calley Means

Hawley

Tucker Piers

 

 

 

 

For sure an interesting topic. And it’s not B/W: you don’t have to switch from one to the other in one fell swoop. But you can gradually raise tariffs, and lower income tax “accordingly”. That would raise citizens’ prosperity. Combine it with DOGE, and you get somewhere.

Replace the Income Tax With Tariffs? (Jeffrey Tucker)

There was a time, before 1913, when you could keep every penny you earned. You did not have to file with the federal government, telling them what you earned and giving the feds their cut. Your finances were your business and no one else’s. You had the right to earn, own, and keep property, and it was sacrosanct, guaranteed by U.S. law and tradition. There were no audits, investigations, account freezes, withholdings, or any other forms of payment. There was your productivity and you and that’s all. How was the government funded? It earned revenue through tariffs. These are paid directly by importers and indirectly by producers and consumers if the costs can be passed through. As strategies for gaining revenue, this approach is relatively noninvasive. It left the population alone.

Back in those days, however, the federal government barely existed as compared with today. More precisely, in real terms, the federal government in 1885 spent in inflation-adjusted dollars about 0.05 percent of what it spends today. Even then, people believed that it was too big and wanted it cut back to size. Donald Trump has recently been schooling people in the history of revenue strategies and he is teaching something that people have not known. He has explained how this period of American history saw the greatest amount of economic growth we’ve ever seen. He is correct about that and he is also correct that this was the period of the tariff. The cause and effect, however, is murky. The main themes of this period were freedom and sound money. The dollar was governed by the gold standard and there was no central bank.

The federal government itself had no presence in the life of the American family or typical American business. Those facts more than tariffs account for the difference between then and now. As an aside, I cannot remember another U.S. president having as clear an opinion on 19th-century economic history. Most comments by presidents have been limited to pieties about the Founding Fathers or Lincoln but skip over details concerning revenue sources or controversies concerning national banks and the like. Trump is clearly different, highly confident in these details of history that are lost even on most economists. Trump has explained that the income tax came along in 1913 as a replacement for the tariff. That is correct in design but the historical reality was slightly different.

Tariffs were not abolished entirely. The income tax just became a second and additional source of revenue. Then the Great War came, financed in large part by the central bank (the Federal Reserve) that was created the same year. The income tax and the Fed became the financial source of Leviathan power. Both came about in 1913, along with the direct election of Senators that blew up the bicameral structure of Congress and put the big cities in charge of America’s equivalent of the House of Lords. Trump’s history lesson opens up the opportunity to examine all of this more closely. In 19th-century terms, he seems to be siding with the Hamilton faction inherited by Henry Clay, the Senator from Virginia who advocated what came to be called “the American System.”

This was a policy of protective tariffs, a national bank, and federal subsidies for internal improvements to promote economic growth and national cohesion. That’s a pretty good summary of what seems to be Trump’s position. In historical terms, the Clay view contrasted with the Jeffersonian view, which favored a tiny government, free trade, no national bank, no industrial subsidies, and a society of small farmers to serve as the economic engine. These days, the debates between the Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians seem far less relevant to the current situation. Both Hamilton and Clay would be appalled by the size and scope of government power, and would happily link arms with Jefferson and John Randolph of Roanoke to cut the beast down to size. That seems to be the actual ambition of Trump, to be an agent of change that makes the federal government manageable again.

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“..we would expect to see USDCAD move decidedly higher come Monday..”

Trump Slaps 25% Tariffs On Canada & Mexico, 10% On China (ZH)

Tomorrow, February 1, the Trump administration will slap 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on China, as announced during Friday’s press briefing by White House spox Karoline Leavitt, who denied reports of a delay to March 1. There will be no delay, selective targeting, or slow roll-out of phased-in tariffs as speculated by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

That said, there could be certain exemptions – such as for oil and gas, which Leavitt did not elaborate on. For now, all we have to go on is Trump’s most recent comments on oil: “It depends on what the price is. If the oil is properly priced, if they treat us properly — which they don’t,” he said Thursday while speaking with reporters. The United States imported nearly 4.6 million barrels of oil per day from Canada in October, and 563,000 barrels from Mexico. Daily US production over the same period averaged nearly 13.5 million barrels per day. So in this scenario – full tariffs with zero quarter given, “we would expect to see USDCAD move decidedly higher come Monday, challenging the 1.50 level and representing a more than 3% move higher in the cross relative to current spot. To be clear, Canada could retaliate with dollar-for-dollar tariffs in absolute terms since its trade relationship with the US is balanced, however, USDCAD will still be higher given that the US economy is more than 10x the size of its Canadian counterpart,” according to DB.

On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that any tariffs would stoke an ‘immediate’ and ‘forceful’ response. “We’re ready with a response – a purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate response. It’s not what we want, but if he moves forward, we will also act,” said Trudeau, adding that all options were on the table. Canada sends 75% of its goods and services exports to the US, meaning that the tariffs will sting. “I won’t sugarcoat it – our nation could be facing difficult times in the coming days and weeks,” Trudeau continued. “I know Canadians might be anxious and worried, but I want them to know the federal government, and indeed, all orders of government, have their backs.” Ontario Premier Doug Ford has already vowed to slap back by pulling American alcohol off of store shelves (and into his pantry?) – as Canada is the world’s second largest market for America’s distilled spirits, behind the 27-nation EU.

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“Am I going to impose tariffs on the European Union? You want the truthful answer, or should I give you a political answer?”

Trump Vows To ‘Absolutely’ Impose Tariffs On EU (RT)

US President Donald Trump has announced his intention to impose tariffs on the European Union, citing unfair treatment in trade practices. This follows the implementation of 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, and 10% on Chinese goods, effective February 1. The European bloc has been bracing for possible trade restrictions under the new US administration for months after Trump issued multiple threats to impose tariffs on the EU unless specific conditions are met. In December, Trump demanded that the EU reduce its trade deficit with the US by significantly increasing purchases of American oil and gas. “Am I going to impose tariffs on the European Union? You want the truthful answer, or should I give you a political answer? Absolutely, absolutely,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday.

“The European Union has treated us so terribly,” the US leader added. He confirmed plans for “something substantial” against the EU but did not provide specific details regarding the targeted goods or the exact tariff rates. This is not the first instance of trade tensions between the US and the EU under Trump’s administration. In 2018, during his first term, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada, and Mexico, citing national security concerns. In response, the EU implemented retaliatory tariffs on American products such as bourbon whiskey and motorcycles. The new tariffs on Mexico and Canada were justified by the Trump administration as measures to address issues like illegal immigration and the influx of fentanyl into the United States.

Despite warnings from economists about potential global economic repercussions, including increased inflation and disrupted supply chains, Trump has remained steadfast in his approach. On Thursday, Trump also threatened to impose 100% tariffs on BRICS nations if they attempt to undermine the “mighty US dollar” by creating an alternative currency. Members of the economic bloc have accelerated efforts to reduce reliance on third-party currencies in bilateral trade in recent years, especially after Western sanctions led to the freezing of Russia’s reserves held in dollars and euros, following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

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Intentionally? Ceiling is 200 feet. Chopper was at 380.

Trump Says DC Black Hawk “Was Flying Too High… By A Lot” (ZH)

While there are countless facts still left to be uncovered and scrutinized, there’s an early indication that the worst US air disaster since 9/11 may have resulted from a flight-path deviation by the Army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet landing at Washington’s Reagan National Airport. Remarkably, it appears an identical disaster may have been narrowly avoided just one day earlier, when an airline pilot chose to abort landing after deeming another helicopter was dangerously close. Control-tower staffing is also emerging as a major concern — including a decision to allow one controller to leave work early.

Based on a determination of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter’s last location before colliding with American Airlines 5342 from Wichita, the Army chopper was flying above its authorized flight path, according to anonymous sources who spoke to the New York Times. The American CRJ300 stopped transmitting tracking data at 375 feet — suggesting impact occurred far above the 200-foot ceiling imposed on helicopters in that area. The Black Hawk was reportedly under the command of a female pilot with more than 500 hours of flight time. The male instructor pilot had more than 1,000 hours, while the crew chief is also said to have logged hundreds of hours. Given the shorter duration of helicopter flights, those hours are substantial, according to Jonathan Koziol, a retired Army chopper pilot who’s assigned to the Unified Command Post that’s been organized to coordinate the post-disaster efforts at the airport.

The Army has not released the names of the crew members, but the names of the two males aboard the Black Hawk have emerged via other channels: Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves. All were assigned to Bravo Company, 12th Combat Aviation Battalion, headquartered at nearby Fort Belvoir. While there are many social media posts purporting to identify the female pilot as a male-to-female trans National Guard member who on Tuesday publicized his transition, ZeroHedge cannot find authoritative confirmation of those claims as this article is being written. On Monday, President Trump issued an executive order barring transgender people from openly serving in the military. Update: The trans pilot in question, Jo Ellis, has released a video confirming he is still alive and was not piloting the Black Hawk.

The Army says the crew was conducting a routine nighttime qualification flight, with the focus on safely navigating helicopter routes in and around Washington. However, more specifically, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the crew was training for a “continuity of government mission.” That’s the name given for a response to an attack on the capital, or a major disaster that hits the city. In such an event, helicopters would be used to evacuate senior federal officials. The crashed helicopter was a standard UH-60; the battalion also flies the VH-60M variant: Distinguished by its gold top, it’s used for VIP transport.

Every day, more than a hundred helicopters buzz around Reagan National’s flight paths. Roughly 24 hours before Wednesday’s catastrophe, one of those helicopters alarmed the pilot of another commercial flight to the extent she aborted landing and went around. There are no reports on the type of helicopter. A female voice in the cockpit of Republic Airways Flight 4514 informed the tower of the problem at roughly 8:05 p.m. Tuesday, according to the audio recording of air traffic control traffic. The plane took a sharp turn to the west, made a loop to try to make a second approach, and safely landed at 8:16 p.m., flight tracking records indicate. — Washington Post. Meanwhile, concerning details have also emerged about the workloads assigned to the Reagan National air traffic controllers at the time of Wednesday night’s crash that killed all 67 aboard the two aircraft.

Staffing was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” according to a preliminary FAA document reviewed by the New York Times. Under normal staffing, one air traffic controller is responsible for helicopter traffic, while another guides landing and departing planes. However, on Wednesday night, one man was juggling both responsibilities. According to the Times, that’s because a supervisor allowed a different air traffic controller to leave before that individual’s shift had ended. There are several other factors that could have contributed to the accident. Among them: It’s not clear if the Black Hawk pilot was using night vision goggles, which can limit peripheral vision and depth perception, while also being problematic in an urban environment with its abundant lights.

Given the angles of the two flight paths, city lights may have camouflaged the lights of the American Airlines jet. “Going beak-to-beak at night, the lights of the [jet] tend to blend in with the city lights behind [it],” notes aviation YouTuber “blancolirio” in a detailed analysis of Wednesday’s scenario. “Another problem when you’re going head to head with each other is — if there’s no lateral movement in the windscreen — that light [of the other aircraft] is very hard to detect.” Potential miscommunication: While the tower asked the Black Hawk (“PAT25”) if it had the American Airlines “CRJ” (Canadair Regional Jet) in sight, some are speculating the Army pilots thought the controller was referring to a jet that was taking off to their right, rather than the doomed jet that was landing from their left. Others think they may have been looking at another jet on approach — behind American 5342.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1885116473217032426

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They’re waiting to meet until they can get tangible results.

Trump Confirms ‘Serious Discussions’ With Moscow Over Ukraine (RT)

US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that he expects something “significant” to happen once he speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, confirming that serious discussions with Moscow are already underway. Trump, who took office last Monday, has repeatedly stated that he is ready to speak with his Russian counterpart as soon as possible to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict. The Kremlin previously said it was awaiting clear signals from the Trump administration. “We’ll be speaking, and I think we will, perhaps, do something that will be significant,” Trump said on Friday. “It’s just a senseless situation, and it’s got to stop. So whatever I can do to stop it… and we are having discussions, yes.”

When asked by a reporter whether that means he had already spoken with Putin or had a call scheduled, Trump responded, “I don’t want to say that.” Pressed on why he was withholding the information, he reiterated, “I just don’t want to say that.” “We’re having very serious discussions about that war, trying to get it ended,” he added, confirming that these talks are taking place “with Russia.” On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that a phone call between the two presidents was not currently planned, as no agreement or understanding had been reached on the matter. He noted that all communication is presently being conducted at the embassy level.

Trump has pledged to negotiate a resolution to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev and has reportedly given his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, 100 days to hammer out such a settlement.Last week, the US president threatened to impose new sanctions if Moscow refused to accept an unspecified “deal” to end the conflict but maintained that he is “not looking to hurt Russia.” Russia has insisted that hostilities will only end if Ukraine commits to permanent neutrality, demilitarization and denazification, while also recognizing the territorial “realities on the ground.” Moscow has stated that it remains open to negotiations but insists that any agreement must include “reliable, legally binding agreements eliminating the root causes of the conflict.”

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Not the EU’s call. European parents don’t want their kids to be used for target practice.

EU Divided Over Western Troops In Ukraine – Times (RT)

The European Union remains divided over the prospect of deploying a Western-led peacekeeping force to Ukraine if a ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow is reached, The Times reported on Friday, citing multiple military and diplomatic sources. Berlin opposes the idea, partly because it does not want to commit ahead of its February elections, according to the British newspaper. The Baltic states and Poland – among Kiev’s most vocal supporters throughout the conflict – are reportedly concerned that such a deployment would divert NATO’s attention and resources away from their own defense, leaving them “exposed.”

The UK, France, and the Nordic nations are the most vocal advocates for a Western peacekeeping mission. However, even among them, officials worry that the EU would not be able to carry out the operation without US involvement. A European diplomatic source told The Times that Washington’s participation would be necessary because “they have capabilities that all of Europe lacks,” including the “ability to retaliate at scale if needed.” US President Donald Trump has previously stated that Washington should not provide troops or funding for such a mission. Kiev’s European backers were also reportedly “irked” by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s recent demand for a “minimum” of 200,000 peacekeepers – a number the EU alone would struggle to provide.

Moscow has consistently rejected the idea of Western-led peacekeepers in Ukraine. Earlier this week, senior Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik warned that any military force entering Ukraine without Russia’s consent would be considered a legitimate military target. “If Russia does not buy the idea it is dead and if the US does not provide a hammer the idea is dead,” an unnamed senior Western military official admitted, according to The Times. The Kremlin could perceive a large-scale NATO troop deployment in Ukraine as a significant threat to Russia, potentially serious enough to trigger another mobilization wave, Aleksey Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee, warned on Friday.

Some EU officials believe a non-Western UN peacekeeping force, composed of troops from more neutral countries such as India, Bangladesh, or China, would be a “wiser alternative.” This approach, they argue, would not require US participation and might be more acceptable to Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in December that any talk of deploying peacekeepers is moot at this point, given that Zelensky signed a law banning any talks with the current Russian leadership. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service has warned that the West could use peacekeepers to “occupy” Ukraine and once again buy time for a new conflict with Moscow.

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aka will they admit they lost?!

Is The EU Finally Coming To Its Senses On Russian Energy? (Amar)

All that is solid melts into air,” Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels famously proclaimed almost 180 years ago. Their Communist Manifesto was published against the backdrop of the European revolutions of 1848. But they should have seen 2025 – we are beginning to witness a mighty melting of what is un-solid about EU-NATO Europe. This time, the backdrop is not (yet) a typical revolution – street fighting, barricades, and all. But there are two historic events that, in their combined geopolitical impact, will be revolutionary, though they have been anything but unforeseeable. These are, in order of importance, Russia’s defeat of the West in Ukraine, and America’s doubling down on Trumpism. The two developments have made the sands on which the EU-NATO Europeans have built their rickety policy edifice not merely shift but cave in.

Relentless obedience to Washington has always been self-damaging, but now a reckoning is at hand with accumulating self-harm reaching a tipping point into self-destruction. It is true, on the surface, that EU-NATO Europe is still digging in its heels. The EU has just produced its umpteenth renewal of sweeping – and constantly increasing – sanctions against Russia. A faction of ten among its member countries are shouting for even more. A top energy official of the European Commission is in Washington to explore ways in which the Europeans can give in, again, to ever-increasing US pressure and buy even more ruinously expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) from their great insatiable “ally.” Yet some, even among Europe’s current elites, are still capable of intuiting that things are so desperate that they must, finally, question even apparent axioms.

As the Financial Times has just reported, there are voices, including from EU heavyweight countries such as Germany, that dare think about the unthinkable, namely returning to openly buying inexpensive fossil fuel energy from Russia. In a less topsy-turvy world, the EU should, of course, never have stopped doing so. But as it is, one aspect of Western economic warfare against Russia was the EU’s declared – if non-binding, nota bene – intention to completely abandon its best source of cheap energy by 2027. Not that this plan has really worked. In reality, the results have been mixed. Yes, the EU has managed to make its energy supply more expensive, so that its industry is struggling to remain globally competitive, with gas costs “typically three to four times higher than in the US.”

But no, the EU has not, actually, been able to ween itself off Russian energy. Instead, Moscow, according to Bloomberg, remains one of the EU’s “top gas providers.” Indeed, 2024 has just seen record imports of LNG from Russia. It is, of course, more expensive that way than by pipeline. The (still) legal but oddly underhanded way of buying and consuming this LNG stokes tension inside the EU, but that’s apparently the way its elites prefer their commerce and politics – inconsistent, unusually dishonest, a tad absurd, and held together only by a thick glue made of foul compromises and bad blood all around. In a broader perspective, EU-NATO Europe’s current, self-inflicted energy fiasco is, of course, only one aspect of its fundamentally unsound (polite expression) decision to obediently and even fanatically join the American proxy war against Russia via Ukraine.

Since then, nothing has worked out as expected. The Ukrainian Army was beefed up with Western arms, training, intelligence, mercenaries, and “advisers” to become the West’s strongest anti-Russian proxy in history. In that shape, it was supposed to inflict a military defeat on Moscow. Yet it is Ukraine now that is struggling to survive on an increasingly desperate defensive, as even the Washington Post has recently admitted (while still, obstinately, calling for more war). Western economic warfare strategists, meanwhile, boasted that they would not just impede but ruin Russia. Yet now its economy (estimated GDP growth in 2024 of between 3.8% and 4%) is doing better than that of the EU heavyweights France (0.8%) and Germany (no growth, instead minus 0.2%), as well as the EU as a whole (0.9%).

Spain, it is true, is an outlier in Western Europe (with 3.2%) but this being an exception is the point. Its success, the Wall Street Journal reports, depends on mass tourism and the use of so much migrant labor that, without immigration, Spain’s population would be shrinking. Good luck, Germany (for instance), with replicating that recipe… In addition, Western international clout would, so Western elites made themselves believe just a few years ago, compel everyone else on Planet Earth to isolate Russia. Yet now it is the West that looks lonely. First, most of the world refused to freeze out Russia, and then the West’s ongoing massive complicity in Israel’s genocidal ethnic-cleansing attack on the Palestinians shredded the last sorry remnants of the West’s Orwellian claim to global leadership based on “value” and “rules” superiority.

As for Moscow, it’s doing just fine, quietly – and not so quietly – admired by the Global South for standing its ground against sanctions that have harmed the interests of nations of that region too, while building out Moscow’s multilateral relationships in associations such as BRICS and with partners such as North Korea and Iran, and deepening its de facto alliance with China.

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“What we were clear about all along is that beginning the process of linking ourselves more closely to the EU’s dysfunctional electricity market and energy policy is completely out of the question..”

EU Energy Policy Row Triggers Norway Government Collapse (RT)

Norway’s coalition government collapsed on Thursday after the Euroskeptic Center Party rejected EU energy policy regulations advocated by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store. The move would subject people to an electricity price hike, the party leader and finance minister, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, warned. It leaves Store heading a minority Labor Party government. The cabinet can govern until the next elections, which are scheduled for September, but has lost its majority in the parliament and could struggle to pass legislation. At the heart of the dispute is the fourth EU energy package, which is also known as “clean energy for all Europeans.” Adopted in 2019, it introduced a set of policies with a focus on renewables and “energy efficiency,” including reduced CO2 emissions, as well as a “robust governance system” for energy in the bloc.

Norway, which is not a member of the EU, is still closely tied to the bloc through the European Economic Area (EEA) and normally has to adopt the bloc’s rules unless it invokes a right of reservation. The Nordic nation is also a major oil and gas producer and exporter. The Center Party has argued that the changes advocated by Store would erode the nation’s autonomy, and maintained that Oslo should instead reclaim its authority in the area of energy policy. Earlier this week, Verdum blamed previous Conservative governments for contributing to energy price hikes in Norway by allowing the construction of undersea power lines to Germany and the UK.

“When the Labor leadership, instead of solving the problem, chooses to make the problem even bigger by tying Norway even closer to the EU in electricity policy through the introduction of the EU’s fourth energy market package, the Center Party chooses to leave the government,” he said. “We believe it is wrong to become more closely linked to the EU’s energy policy,” Vedum told NRK broadcaster on Thursday. “What we were clear about all along is that beginning the process of linking ourselves more closely to the EU’s dysfunctional electricity market and energy policy is completely out of the question,” the Center Party leader told a press conference following the decision to leave the cabinet.

The development drew criticism from Brussels. “We are not happy with Norway. The sentiment is as bad as I have known it,” an EU ambassador to Oslo told the Financial Times on Thursday, calling the Nordic nation “selfish” for “trying to keep this electricity for itself,” and profiteering off the EU through its gas exports. It’s not the first time that Norway and the EU have clashed over energy issues. In August 2022, Oslo said it could ration its electricity exports to the EU and the UK against the backdrop of a heatwave affecting its hydroelectric power production and domestic electricity price hikes. The announcement was slammed by Germany as a thinly veiled threat to put pressure on the bloc.

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“..we just need to get on our heels and say: dear Ukrainian friends, we understand everything, but we need this. Let the Russian gas through.”

Hungary Calls For Lifting Russia Sanctions (RT)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has renewed calls on the EU to lift its sanction on Russia in order to realign the bloc’s policies with the new US government. Budapest has long criticized Brussels’ approach to the Ukraine conflict as being incapable of ending hostilities and damaging to the bloc’s member states. On Monday, the EU extended its existing sanctions until the end of July. Hungary refrained from blocking the measure despite its declared opposition. In a weekly interview with state-owned Kossuth Radio, Orban said Budapest has to consider the positions of other members of the economic bloc who favor the restrictions, imposed on Russia in response to the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

”The Hungarian interest is clear: we have lost 19.5 billion ($20bn) in three years,” Orban stressed, adding that Kiev’s behavior has become more “impudent” recently, referring to Ukraine’s refusal last year to extend a contract that had been allowing the supply of Russian natural gas to European consumers, including to Hungary. Budapest has been assured that the matter would be addressed, the prime minister explained, which contributed to its decision on Monday not to block the sanctions.Given Kiev’s total dependence on foreign aid, Orban said, “we just need to get on our heels and say: dear Ukrainian friends, we understand everything, but we need this. Let the Russian gas through.”

The Hungarian leader contrasted the EU’s approach with that of newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump. Washington is pursuing a policy of peace while Brussels opts for war, Orban pointed out. In a recent interview with journalist Megyn Kelly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that under President Joe Biden, the US had “somehow led people to believe” that Ukraine could achieve a military victory over Russia, resulting in a protracted stalemate that has regressed Ukraine’s development by a century. Slovakia, another consumer of Russian gas, has also criticized Ukraine’s shutdown of the transit pipeline through its territory. On Thursday, Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that his pressure campaign against Kiev is yielding results, saying he perceived a shift in its position.

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Mutti saves the day one last time. Barely.

Merkel Joins Virtue-Signaling Outcry Over AfD (ZH)

German mainstream politicians and media have presented that the real ‘threat’ the country is facing is not brutal terror rampages and attacks like those recently seen in Magdeburg and Aschaffenburg (both perpetrated by asylum-seeking migrants), but the fact that Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has been polling better than ever before and having serious national influence as Friedrich Merz – Merkel’s successor as leader of the country’s conservatives – seeks to push through tighter immigration controls. All of this has triggered former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s intervention, given the supposed ’embarrassment’ of witnessing the Christian Democrats currently relying on the AfD help to pass the new immigration bill.

The conservative CDU-CSU (Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria) has broken the longstanding taboo of working with the AfD when on Wednesday they together passed a motion calling for a crackdown on new arrivals and strengthened border controls. Former Chancellor Merkel has blasted Merz. “I believe it is wrong,” she began in fresh comments. It marks an unprecedented intervention by the former leader since she stepped down from politics in December 2021. As is custom the former chancellor has been silent for years after leaving power. It appears the intervention worked as the conservatives on Friday have failed to pass the measure.

According to the vote and the latest:
• GERMAN CONSERVATIVES FAIL WITH FAR RIGHT-BACKED MIGRATION BILL
• GERMAN LOWER HOUSE REJECTS OPPOSITION’S DRAFT LAW ON TIGHTENING MIGRATION POLICY
• The breakdown: For: 338; Against: 350; Abstentions: 5
• Apart from Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc, which submitted the immigration bill, three other opposition parties — the far-right AfD, the pro-business Free Democrats and the far-left BSW — had signaled their support. Together, they had 372 seats in parliament, more than the 367 required for a majority, and there’s a handful of independents who may also support it.
• BBG: After that result and a moment of shocked silence, the conservative leader Friedrich Merz left the chamber with sunken shoulders, his immigration bill having been unexpectedly defeated. The breakdown of the vote showing which lawmakers might have broken ranks will be an interesting read.
• Early reaction from Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democrats, a post on X from SPD Health Minister Karl Lauterbach: “What a disgrace. The whole maneuver was in vain and only damaged democracy.”

She had used the opportunity to ‘remind’ everyone there should never be any association whatsoever between the mainstream parties and the AfD. She wagged her finger at Merz for breaching the longstanding “firewall” against the AfD. They are supposed to be shunned politically… but no longer. “I think it is wrong to no longer feel bound to this proposal, thereby allowing a majority with the votes of the AfD in a vote in the German Bundestag for the first time on 29 January 2025,” she wrote on her website. The walls are closing in, and AfD party officials are grabbing the popcorn to enjoy the mainstream fallout and shrieking. Without doubt, panic is truly setting in, revealed also in how quickly anti-AfD politicians have been in invoking fears of a return to Nazis and the Holocaust:

Centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz charged that Merz’s tactical manoeuvre was a breach of his previous promises to shun the AfD and left him “open to the accusation that he is untrustworthy”. Scholz even raised the spectre of Merz, if he wins, one day allowing the AfD into a government — a scenario that horrifies the mainstream parties in the country still seeking to atone for the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. “Conservatives who are supporters of Nazis cannot become coalition partners,” said the co-leader of the Green Youth, Jakob Blasel. He described that this means under Merz, the “Greens must not enter a coalition with the CDU and CSU.” And Robert Habeck, the chancellor candidate for the Greens, dramatically declared it a “turning point” in Germany. “Friedrich Merz and the Union have abandoned the consensus of the political center of this house not to make common cause with the extremes,” wrote Habeck.

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“President Trump has reportedly indicated that if Republicans torpedo either Tulsi or RFK Jr., it will mean “war”.

Tulsi Slams Deep State At Confirmation Hearing: I Refuse To Be Their Puppet (MN)

During her confirmation hearing to become President Trump’s head of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard hit back at Democrats and RINO ‘conservatives’ who have spent months smearing her as a Russian asset or a threat to national security. During opening remarks, Gabbard cited examples of how the intelligence community agencies have been politicised against Trump and his supporters, asserting “this must end.” Gabbard urged that Trump’s massive victory serves as a mandate from Americans to overhaul the intelligence apparatus which has been infested and weaponised by deep state operatives. Gabbard emphasized that the reason she has been so vilified and even placed on a terror watchlist is because she refuses to act as just another puppet.

“Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States—accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, and Modi’s puppet—without recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters,” Gabbard stated. She added, “The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed. The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and a mandate for change. The fact is, what truly unsettles my political opponents is that I refuse to be their puppet.” In a Fox News interview following the hearing, GOP Senator Josh Hawley warned Gabbard’s confirmation could be in jeopardy because of Republicans bowing to the deep state.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1885142057309921590

President Trump has reportedly indicated that if Republicans torpedo either Tulsi or RFK Jr., it will mean “war”.

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Bob Menendez gets 11 years for accepting bribes from Egypt. Bernie and Pocahontas get to keep their Senate seats despite millions from big Pharma.. “How does this differ from the $1,417,811 bribe that Big Pharma pays in campaign contributions to Senator Bernie Sanders or the $821,941 campaign contribution Big Pharma pays to Senator Elizabeth Warren?”

The Arbitrary Hypocrisy of American “Justice” (Paul Craig Roberts)

US Democrat Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was sentenced to eleven years in prison by federal district judge Sidney Stein for acting as an illegal agent for Egypt and accepting cash and gold bars as payment. How does this differ from the $1,417,811 bribe that Big Pharma pays in campaign contributions to Senator Bernie Sanders or the $821,941 campaign contribution Big Pharma pays to Senator Elizabeth Warren? If you think these sums don’t make Sanders and Warren agents of Big Pharma, you are out of your mind. Warren is doing her Big Pharma assigned job by trying to block Robert Kennedy’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Congress is up for sale, and it is purchased with campaign contributions. Everyone in Washington knows that members are purchased by lobby groups, such as Big Pharma, the military/security complex, agribusiness, energy, the Israel Lobby, and so on.

A corrupt or stupid Supreme Court legalized the purchase of the US government by lobby groups. This is the reason that Congress does not represent the people who elect Congress. You can blame your lack of representation squarely on the US Supreme Court. One can’t help but wonder if there were under the table payoffs. An uninformed person might answer that Menendez was paid personally, whereas campaign contributions are not personal money. But, in fact, retiring members are entitled to take their election war fund with them. Those planning to retire pay attention to building up their re-election funds. An uninformed person might say that Menendez’s payments came from a foreign government, whereas campaign contributions are coming from American interests.

But what about the vast sums that Israel pours into purchasing the US government? What is the difference between Egypt and Israel? The difference is that AIPAC is not required to register as foreign agent and is treated as an American lobby group. All efforts to have AIPAC register as a foreign agent have been blocked. Many Zionist neoconservatives have gotten away with accepting money from Israel without having to register as representing a foreign agent. Consider also that every year the Congress appropriates billions of dollars to Israel which Israel uses to purchase the US government with campaign contributions. Our own money is used to enslave us to Israel and Jewish interests. You can see how complete Israel’s ownership of the US government is by Congress’ invitation to Genocide Netanyahu to address the US Congress and award him 53 standing ovations while he conducts genocide against Palestine.

Generally speaking, when a senator or representative is prosecuted by the Justice (sic) Department it means someone wants him out of the way. It is unclear why Menendez was in the way. He was essential on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in getting the sanctions on Russia in place. It is unclear what he could have done for Egypt that would harm any of Washington’s interests. The sanctimonious judge Stein said: “The public cannot be led to the belief that you can get away with bribery, fraud, and betrayal.” The judge doesn’t know what he is talking about. Lobbies get away with bribing every member of the House and Senate every day. How can Trump make America Great Again when lobbies own the government?

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“Behind these histrionics by the big gators and peccaries of the collapsing Democratic Party is pure scintillating fear.”

Six Ways From Sunday (Jim Kunstler)

Was it the miasma of cognitive dissonance blackening the air-space over the DC swamp that caused the deadly collision of AA Flight 5342 and a Blackhawk Helicopter this week — an impenetrable fog arising from the fetid exhalations of so many hyperventilating swamp creatures brooding between the urges of fight-or-flight as Mr. Trump deploys his chosen pest-controllers across the Potomac Basin? Altogether, these many parasitical swamp creatures make up the greater DC blob, and the blob convulsing and fibrillating is what you witness in these committee hearings with Bobby, Tulsi, and Kash. For instance, fake “progressive” Bernie Sanders (D-VT) faced with the reveal that he leads his colleagues in pharma “contributions” (just under $2-million) . . . or fake Cherokee Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in a fugue state over the perceived threat of Mr. Kennedy to pharma profits . . . or presidential pardon recipient Adam Schiff (D-CA) lecturing Mr. Patel on ethical behavior. . . or Ms. Gabbard enduring the meltdown of Senate Intel Committee tool Michael Bennet (D-CO).

Behind these histrionics by the big gators and peccaries of the collapsing Democratic Party is pure scintillating fear. They are afraid that all of their hoaxes and lies of recent years will be exposed in the months ahead. And they fear that such exposure might lead eventually to legal complications for them. All of that implies loss-of-power, the single element that demonically drives their careers. The fact is they have already lost their grip on the levers of power and, for the moment, that is all that matters. They especially no longer control the Department of Justice, its subsidiary, the FBI, the many public health agencies under Health and Human Services, and the many-footed intel “community,” as it styles itself. These agencies are where the truth about our national affairs has been locked up.

Now, the citizens will either see what’s there, or find out what has been deliberately destroyed — such as the internal agency email correspondence over RussiaGate, the Covid-19 operation (and the deadly vaxx campaign), the J-6 affair (and the pipe-bomb sideshow), the weird, documented irregularities of the 2020 election, the Ukraine War money-laundering shenanigans, the manifold janky DOJ prosecutions of Mr. Trump, and much more. Every day now since January 20, heads explode all over DC as the executive orders roll out and the insanity of whatever lurked behind “Joe Biden” gets systematically expunged from the order of things. And as this happens, the more plainly deranged the past four years looks. Did they really believe that men dressing-up as women would improve the US military? Or was it a traitorous effort to weaken and demoralize our armed forces? Was DEI a public ethics exercise or a massive jobs program for incompetents?

In what way did “Joe Biden’s” Department of Homeland Security imagine that funneling known criminals, certified lunatics, and saboteurs across the border squared with their duty to protect and defend the country? And how did it happen that US taxpayers’ money got shelled out to fake “religious” NGOs in Mexico minting debit cards for border-jumpers, handing them wads of cash, cell phones, airplane tickets, fully-equipped backpacks, and apps for evading arrest? In effect these NGOs took over the exact job description of “coyote” formerly performed by the criminal cartels — leaving the cartels free for the more lucrative rackets of dealing fentanyl and trafficking women and children.

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Leave Bitcoin to the people.

Trump is Not Going to Make US Into ‘Bitcoin Superpower’ (Sp.)

The 46th POTUS’ boasts about making the United States a global cryptocurrency powerhouse are likely just that, boasts, veteran financial analyst Paul Goncharoff tells Sputnik. The fact is that Trump is the president of the United States, “which governs the trust in, use, and control of the US dollar and not a trustless cryptocurrency like BTC, XRP, USDT, or USDC.” The US government establishing a “100% ownership and control” of a cryptocurrency, on the other hand, would simply “defeat the purpose of trustless crypto,” so the odds of a US dollar CBDC emerging anytime soon are pretty low. That said, there are no obstacles for the US government to hold crypto assets as part of its reserves – all it needs it proper legislation and congressional approval.

The loosening of crypto regulations expected under Trump, however, carries certain risks as “the clarity of what will be regulated is still missing” and “markets dislike uncertainty; it makes them jittery.” There is also “every chance” that, just like “with any other investable that comes under the influence of hype, reality, and again hype,” Trump’s actions would lead to a crypto bubble. For example, some crypto could be hyped as “the crypto of choice for classic institutional investors” and experience mass investment, only for the ensuing bubble to burst when “sobering fact of reality and the complex interaction of politics and finance make themselves known.”

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“..President Trump [..] has asked Elon Musk “to go get our astronauts stranded in orbit.” Musk responded: “will do.” Most likely it will be at his own expense..”

Third World US Cannot Get Its Astronauts Home From Space (Paul Craig Roberts)

US Corporations, Universities, and government have driven America so deep into third world existence that Washington is incapable of rescuing its astronauts trapped in space for 200 days. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams made what was supposed to be an eight day trip to the International Space Station and have been suck there for seven months because the United States is no longer sufficiently competent to bring them home. It was 55 years ago that Americans walked on the moon. In the years since, DEI universities have graduated ignorance instead of competence, US corporations have offshored American manufacturing and industrial capability, and a corrupt government has favored wars in behalf of Israel over everything else.

So the great, hegemonic, “superpower” cannot bring its astronauts home. Biden was too embarrassed to ask Putin to rescue the Americans. So President Trump, acknowledging America’s incapacity as a government, has asked Elon Musk “to go get our astronauts stranded in orbit.” Musk responded: “will do.” Most likely it will be at his own expense as Washington has spent its money financing Israel’s wars against Arabs and NATO’s war against Russia. To make America Great Again, a country run deep into the ground by scum Democrats, scum RINOs, scum presstitutes, and scum Woke leftwing sub-creatures, Trump has a huge task, one that scum Democrat and RINO Republican judges will try to block at every turn.” It is a fight to the death. If MAGA Americans are not prepared to fight to the death, they will lose.

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“..legally binding instruments for preventing an arms race in outer space, including tools to prohibit the deployment of space-based weapons..”

Trump Wants To Revive ‘Star Wars’ – Zakharova (RT)

US President Donald Trump’s directive to create an American ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system is a destabilizing step towards the weaponization of space, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. Trump’s executive order to develop advanced missile defenses, issued earlier this week, authorizes the creation of “space-based interceptors,” among other things, the diplomat told reporters on Friday. “We see this as yet another confirmation of the US focus on turning space into an arena for armed confrontation, warfare, and the deployment of weapons,” Zakharova said.

This would “completely discredit” the previous US administration’s initiative to develop “certain norms, rules and principles” of behavior in space, and would violate the ban on testing direct-ascent and satellite-killer missiles, she added. Trump’s decisions “indicate Washington’s intention to actively develop and expand deeply destabilizing military programs,” Zakharova said, noting that it would expand missile defenses “to a scale comparable to Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’.” President Ronald Reagan had envisioned a missile shield as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a Cold War program nicknamed ‘Star Wars’ at the time. Reagan’s proposal touched off an arms race between the US and the Soviet Union.

The US never managed to develop the space-based weapons Reagan wanted, however, and the tensions eventually waned with the signing of several arms-control treaties. Washington has since abrogated almost all of them, including the ABM treaty banning strategic missile defenses to the INF treaty limiting short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe. Trump’s program is “openly aimed” at devaluing the Russian and Chinese strategic deterrent, which “will not contribute to reducing tensions or improving the situation in the strategic sphere, including creating a basis for a fruitful dialogue on strategic armaments,” Zakharova said on Friday. Such dangerous ideas reinforce the importance of Russia’s proposals to create legally binding instruments for preventing an arms race in outer space, including tools to prohibit the deployment of space-based weapons, she added.

The January 27 executive order instructs the Pentagon to create a plan for protecting the US territory from “ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries” using a multi-layered missile shield. Such an “Iron Dome” – a name borrowed from Israel’s short-range missile defense – would include the “development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors,” capable of shooting down incoming ballistic missiles during their boost phase, as well as unspecified “capabilities to defeat missile attacks prior to launch,” according to the text of the order.

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Who is stealing from whom?

The US is Turning Into a Crybaby Empire (Sp.)

Washington seems to have developed a new habit — throwing tantrums whenever it falls behind. When did “American greatness” turn into nonstop whining?

‘Hostile’ BRICS dares to challenge ‘mighty US dollar’ US President Donald Trump has once again threatened BRICS countries with 100% tariffs if they dare to create a new currency — despite Russian President Vladimir Putin already clarifying that a unified BRICS currency isn’t even on the table.

DeepSeek: the latest ‘stolen’ US tech scandal Trump declared that the Chinese DeepSeek platform’s market success “should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win.” (Jan 28). His commerce secretary nominee, Howard Lutnick, immediately jumped in to claim that China’s powerful AI model was built on “stolen” US technology and advanced semiconductors. (Jan 29)

Hypersonic weapons: Russia ‘stole’ those too? Trump alleged — without evidence — that Russia “stole” US hypersonic missile designs during the Obama administration. (Jan 23) He made the same claim in 2020, again in 2023, and now, yet again in 2024. Moscow has consistently shredded and mocked these accusations.

China ‘stole’ American jobs Trump has repeatedly blamed China for “stealing” American manufacturing jobs. However, it was American companies that eagerly rushed to China in the 1980s after its economic reforms under Deng Xiaoping.

TikTok is bad… because it calls the shots “Essentially, with TikTok, I have the right to sell it or close it,” Trump declared on Jan 20. Washington has repeatedly tried to ban the popular Chinese social media app — which is used by at least one-third of US adults — and twist China’s arm to force the sale of TikTok’s US operations.

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DeepSeek

 

 

Hornbill

 

 

Tape

 

 

Duck support
https://twitter.com/i/status/1885140945395765688

 

 

Herds
https://twitter.com/i/status/1884996373067472967

 

 

ATGB
https://twitter.com/i/status/1885069255374147648

 

 

 

 

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Jan 312025
 


Pablo Picasso Standing nude 1928

 

Trump’s Outsider Nominees Ran The Senate Gauntlet And Emerged Unscathed (Whedon)
Why Does the NYT Continue To Print Front Page Lies About RFK Jr.? (Fleetwood)
‘An Abject Lie And You Know It!’: Patel Claps Back At Adam Schiff (JTN)
Stop the Nonsense and Confirm Tulsi Gabbard (Charlie Kirk)
Trump’s Executive Orders Are Key to DOGE’s Success (Silverstein)
Ukraine Conflict ‘Needs To End Now’ – Rubio (RT)
Ukraine’s ‘Independent’ Institutions Collapse As Trump Unplugs The ATM (Marsden)
EU Considering Return To Russian Gas – FT (RT)
Ukraine Wants EU To Replace Lost US Aid (RT)
Ukraine ‘An Invented State’ – Romanian Election Frontrunner (RT)
Kiev Mayor Accuses Zelensky’s Team Of Attempting To ‘Usurp Power’ (RT)
Architect of Russia Sanctions Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison (RT)
Trump’s Doomed Plan for Ukraine (Scott Ritter)
Russian Skating Stars On Board Crashed American Plane (RT)
US ‘In Contact’ With Russia – Trump (RT)
What Sultan Erdogan Is Really Up To (Pepe Escobar)
Italy Blocks DeepSeek (RT)
Cloud Capital vs AI (Yanis Varoufakis)

 

 

 

 

Crowder

Canary

 

 

 

 

Vance

Watters

Shanahan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1884427706852618362

 

 

 

 

These hearings take place at a very questionable level. They pick a quote, strip away all context, and Bob’s your uncle. RFK wants to ban the polio vaccine (no,really!) , Tulsi is a traitor because she won’t call Ed Snowden a traitor, Kash is a cop killer for sympathizing with J6 prisoners. There’s nothing wrong with the nominees, but a lot with those that question them.

Trump’s Outsider Nominees Ran The Senate Gauntlet And Emerged Unscathed (Whedon)

Three of President Donald Trump’s most contentious nominees for Cabinet posts faced tense confirmation hearings on Thursday, with Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. all fending off attacks from irate Democrats, many of whom pressed on partisan matters, such as the Jan. 6 capitol riot. Kennedy found himself in familiar territory after appearing Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee. With Pete Hegseth now confirmed as Secretary of Defense, the trio represent the last of Trump’s unconventional nominees tasked with substantially overhauling the departments they’ve been appointed to lead. Each met significant skepticism, including much from the Republican side of the aisle. All three emerged unscathed by any new outrage — manufactured or otherwise — though they may not have flipped any lawmakers to the cause as many seemed to have already resolved to vote against their confirmations. Here’s a look at how things played out.

Patel
The FBI Director-designate’s hearing before the Judiciary Committee was far and away the most tense. The bureau has faced scandal after scandal in recent years, including widespread allegations of politicization. While much of the hearing saw lawmakers agree on the need for a non-partisan and independent FBI, Democrats worked to paint Patel as a Trump loyalist who would invariably comply with the president’s, possibly unlawful demands. Several Democrats, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Minn.; Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; took exception to Patel’s work related to a recording by Jan. 6 prisoners that he had worked to promote. The trio largely pressed him on his efforts to promote the single and raise funds for the families of those incarcerated.

One exchange grew particularly heated as Schiff accused Patel of profiting off of people who attacked law enforcement and urged him to look at the Capitol Police guarding the hearing. “That’s an abject lie and you know it!” Patel fumed. “I’ve never, never, ever accepted violence against law enforcement. I’ve worked with these men and women as you know you go and I did not make a single dime out of it.” Democrats also attempted to coax Patel into detailing his testimony to special counsel Jack Smith about Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case, though Patel insisted he was not permitted to discuss his testimony and that the panel would have to seek its release from the court.

Gabbard
The former Hawaii Democrat spent much of her hearing before the Intelligence Committee playing defense as members of her former party raised concerns over her past foreign trips. An advocate for non-intervention and surveillance reform, Gabbard’s appointment to serve as director of national intelligence roiled some in the D.C. foreign policy establishment. Her 2017 trip to Syria after which she insisted that now-ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not an enemy of the United States. The trip also came under scrutiny in light of a reported call between a Hezbollah figure and another person indicating Gabbard had met with an unidentified “big guy.” Gabbard denied meeting with members of the Lebanon-based group and called the allegation “absurd” during an exchange with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

She further used some of her own remarks to castigate the Intelligence Community for its perceived politicization and to insist that she would uproot it. “President Trump’s reelection is a clear mandate from the American people to break this cycle of failure and weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community and begin to restore trust in those who have been charged with the critical task of securing our nation,” she said. Frustrating many senators was her resolute unwillingness to condemn Edward Snowden as a “traitor” to the United States. Snowden famously released classified materials exposing government surveillance programs and has since fled to Russia, becoming a nationalized citizen of that country. Though Gabbard agreed that Snowden broke the law, she declined to call him a traitor and highlighted the unconstitutional nature of what he brought to light, ABC News reported.

Kennedy
The former independent presidential candidate was back for round two of confirmation hearings in his bid to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. He appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and subsequently fielded questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday. Kennedy faced questions related to his past statements on vaccine efficacy, especially the measles vaccine. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., offered some of the most contentious questioning during the process. Cassidy took exception to Kennedy’s remarks linking the measles vaccine to autism and urged him to use his influence to foster trust in vaccines.

The would-be HHS secretary indicated he would be happy to correct his statements and apologize should the science prove him to be in the wrong. “I want the best science,” he said. “I can guarantee you on my word of honor, if you show me science that says that I’m wrong, I’m going to say I was wrong. I don’t have any problem. There’s nothing that would make me happier.” Kennedy’s is one of the few positions that requires a would-be officeholder to testify before two committees. Both panels will need to recommend him for the office before his confirmation proceeds to a floor vote.

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“..an outpouring of more than 10,000 comments calling Kennedy “a lunatic” and “a present danger to our health.”

Why Does the NYT Continue To Print Front Page Lies About RFK Jr.? (Fleetwood)

Any NYT reader looking at the buzzy front page headline below would immediately think that Robert F Kennedy Jr. is a madman. Can he really be an advocate for repealing the polio vaccine, a disease that has killed and crippled tens of millions of kids? “Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine” To the ordinary reader, the headline says pretty clearly that Kennedy asked his lawyer to revoke the polio vaccine. The headline makes the shocking accusation that Kennedy is in favor of banning the polio vaccine. There is no other way of interpreting it. But it is flagrantly false and a gross distortion of the truth. There is not one polio vaccine; there are six different polio vaccines that are used worldwide. Moreover, Aaron Siri, the lawyer in question, does not represent Kennedy in his petition.

Contrary to the misrepresentations the NYT has been making, Kennedy does not oppose vaccines or want to take away anybody’s vaccine. All seven of his children were vaccinated, including with the polio vaccine, and his grandkids were also vaccinated against polio. Most importantly, Kennedy has long insisted publicly that he is “all for the polio vaccine.” He has said that the polio vaccine has prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths, a seemingly relevant fact that the Times deliberately omitted from its punchy but reckless news article. Kennedy does question the long-term of some vaccines and wants further studies about them. When RFK is quoted as saying no vaccines are safe, he is saying no vaccines are “completely” safe – they all have side effects.

The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine supports Kennedy’s positions regarding vaccine safety and has called for more funding for “Post Authorization Vaccine Safety”: “Progress in vaccine-safety science has understandably been slow.” “We recommend the National Academy of Medicine conduct an independent and comprehensive review to address these important and complex structure and governance issues. The highest quality research should be funded.” The NEJM also called for a review of the 1986 Act of Congress, which holds that pharmaceutical companies cannot be held liable for adverse reactions to vaccines and cannot be sued.

The main reason Kennedy is a vaccine skeptic is that the widely accepted reality that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control are hugely influenced by Big Pharma. A nefarious revolving door allows executives to ping-pong back and forth between the regulatory bodies that approve vaccines and the drug companies that profit from them. Nine of the last ten FDA chiefs moved on to well-paid jobs with Big Pharma. This corporate capture inevitably leads to a conflict of interest, a corrupt dynamic not permitted in other countries.

Moreover, Big Pharma receives billions of dollars from the government to prepare the drug studies it submits and which the FDA relies on for licensing new drugs. Today, nearly 45% of the FDA’s $5.9 billion budget comes from the user fees companies pay when they apply for drug approval. These industry-paid fees have increasingly resulted in a lower burden of proof for medication approval, according to Public Citizen (a Ralph Nader spinoff). Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. This latest NYT article and other mainstream media repetitions predictably provoked an outpouring of more than 10,000 comments calling Kennedy “a lunatic” and “a present danger to our health.” This is but a continuation of a slew of NYT articles seeking to falsely link Kennedy to the misleading position that he wants to ban the polio vaccine and all other vaccines.

RFK Warren

 

Pharma recipients

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Oh no, not Schiff again..

‘An Abject Lie And You Know It!’: Patel Claps Back At Adam Schiff (JTN)

FBI Director-designate Kash Patel responded furiously to Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as the lawmaker challenged him to face Capitol Police and implied he supported violence against them. Schiff pressed Patel over his help promoting a recording of the Jan. 6 prisoners to raise money for their families. The California Democrat urged Patel to look at Capitol Police officers in the room. “I want you to look at them if you can, if you have the courage to look them in the eye, Mr. Patel, and tell them you’re proud of what you did,” Schiff said. “Tell them you’re proud that you raised money off of people that assaulted their colleagues, that pepper sprayed them, that beat them with poles. Tell them you’re proud of what you did. Mr. Patel, they’re right there. They’re guarding you today. Tell them how proud you are.”

“That’s an abject lie and you know it!” Schiff fumed. “I’ve never, never, ever accepted violence against law enforcement. I’ve worked with these men and women as you know you go and I did not make a single dime out of it.” “Well, let me, let me, let you ask them if I have their back. So let’s see about that answer,” he retorted.

Patel

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“Republicans can either participate in the president’s reform agenda or they can be trampled by it. It’s up to them. Any questions?”

Stop the Nonsense and Confirm Tulsi Gabbard (Charlie Kirk)

Conservatives of all stripes have enjoyed the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency. The events of the past week have made it very clear that President Trump has come in well-prepared and is laser-focused on fulfilling the many promises that won him the election. Whether it’s securing the border, breaking the DEI cartel, or ending DOJ lawfare, the president is executing his agenda with unprecedented energy and aggression. In the long term, though, securing the president’s promises can’t be done with executive orders alone. Success will come down to the president picking appointees who can carry out his will. President Trump chose Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence for a very clear reason. Ever since he entered the political scene 10 years ago, Trump has faced not just opposition but outright sabotage and deceit from the so-called “intelligence community” of Washington, D.C.

They spied on his campaign and gave life to the ridiculous smear that he was a Russian agent. Analysts deliberately withheld information from the president, then leaked about what they were doing to the press. And of course, during the 2020 election, the intelligence apparatus pressured America’s tech companies to engage in widespread censorship while a network of “former intelligence officials” lied through their teeth to denounce the Hunter Biden laptop story as “Russian disinformation.” The American intelligence world is arrogant, wayward, and in dire need of reform. That is precisely why President Trump chose former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a longtime critic of these agencies, to be his director of national intelligence.

Gabbard is indisputably qualified. She is a veteran of the Iraq War, the worst of the wars that the intel agencies blundered us into. She spent eight years in Congress and served stints on the homeland security, armed services, and foreign affairs committees, all of them relevant to the job. She has authentic bipartisan credentials: She represented the Democrats in Congress, is the choice of a MAGA president, and has the personal endorsement of Meghan McCain (a Republican with whom I have no shortage of differences). So what do her opponents bring against her? It’s simple: They lie. Every attack on Tulsi Gabbard is a smear concocted by those desperate to prevent the change voters demanded in November.

Some bad actors in D.C., and even within the Republican Party, think they can rerun the game plan of 2017 when people thought the Donald Trump moment was a fluke that would soon be over. And I mean “rerun” literally because one of the top smears against Gabbard is the same one brought against Trump eight years ago: the wild claim that Tulsi Gabbard is a “Russian asset.” Just like the attack on Trump, this smear was popularized by Hillary Clinton, and just like the attack on Trump, it’s based wholly on Gabbard’s refusal to endorse the failed groupthink consensus of Washington. Gabbard supported military aid to Ukraine prior to the country’s invasion in 2022. She called Putin a U.S. adversary. But none of that matters because this attack was never about the truth. It’s about smearing Gabbard for opposing regime change, forever wars, and a blank check for the D.C. cabal.

The same rules apply to the wild claim that Gabbard is an “Assad sympathizer” in league with the fallen dictator of Syria. The allegation is utterly ridiculous. Gabbard’s 2017 trip was cleared by House Ethics beforehand, and she did a debriefing with America’s ambassador to Lebanon afterward. Members of Congress are free to meet with foreign leaders, especially if those leaders are the ones Americans are supposed to spend billions of dollars fighting, directly or indirectly. This is why President Trump has sought direct diplomacy with Vladimir Putin and even North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.

With nothing else to argue, Gabbard’s critics have to fall back on the complaint that she didn’t believe Assad actually used chemical weapons during his fight to hold onto power. It’s another lie – Gabbard has been saying she believes Assad used chemical weapons for more than five years. But truthfully, it wouldn’t even matter if she thought otherwise. Unlike nearly all of Washington’s war hawks, Gabbard has direct experience fighting in a misbegotten war sold with bad intelligence. Unlike most of Washington, Gabbard learned the lesson that spectacular claims about weapons of mass destruction should be backed with proof, not ridiculous threats against anyone showing skepticism.

Other attacks are even more pathetic. There’s the Hail Mary that she is “soft on Iran” when her track record makes it clear she simply shares the president’s goal of avoiding another fruitless war in the Gulf. Attacks on Gabbard’s Hindu religious beliefs are so puerile they don’t even merit a reply. Gabbard brings to the table exactly what President Trump needs in a DNI: an independent thinker who isn’t shackled to decades of Beltway consensus and who has learned to be skeptical. This isn’t just what President Trump wants, though. It’s what the American public voted for in 2024 – and the election was not a squeaker.

Republicans who hold office right now hold it thanks to voters who expect them to help Trump keep his promises. If those same Republicans instead scuttle one of the president’s essential appointments on the basis of establishment smears, then I have a simple promise: They will face a primary challenge. I, and many others, will do whatever it takes to see them replaced. Republicans can either participate in the president’s reform agenda or they can be trampled by it. It’s up to them. Any questions?

Cotton Tulsi

https://twitter.com/i/status/1885012374182142186

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“The U.S. Constitution solely vests the president with the executive power – meaning all bureaucrats subject to these executive orders exercise power at the president’s behest..”

Trump’s Executive Orders Are Key to DOGE’s Success (Silverstein)

President Trump has just been sworn in, but his administration has already taken steps to promote a robust and efficient administrative state. By implementing four executive orders aimed at expanding the scope of Schedule F and reforming the federal hiring system, Trump can expediently implement the Department of Government Efficiency’s rulemaking and budget recommendations.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a temporary advisory committee tasked with implementing Trump’s “18-month DOGE agenda” of maximizing efficiency and productivity in the federal government. Because DOGE cannot execute its efficiency agenda, the president is responsible for implementing DOGE’s recommendations. DOGE will likely recommend numerous administrative rule changes and budget cuts to reduce the federal bureaucracy’s size, which means that Trump needs bureaucrats who will faithfully implement the recommendations and leeway to fire those who try to stall the department’s progress or who DOGE’s report finds are wasteful. President Trump set himself up to enforce DOGE’s recommendations by enacting four executive orders.

The first executive order is a hiring freeze on executive branch employees until the Office of Management and Budget develops a plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce. This is sound policy as the administration needs to determine what positions benefit the American people and which positions are wasteful, inefficient, and needlessly cost taxpayers money. Furthermore, the administration needs to implement a new hiring process for federal bureaucrats. Former President Biden’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives fostered a federal bureaucracy devoted to serving woke ideology instead of the public. Trump issued an order implementing reforms for the hiring process that prioritize hiring highly skilled individuals who are “committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.”

This executive order also ends DEI hiring and is intended to lower hiring times across the executive branch. These two executive orders overhaul the hiring process for civil servants, which should result in skilled bureaucrats who will faithfully execute DOGE’s recommendations. In turn, this order will make the federal bureaucracy more efficient and responsive for the American people. Trump doesn’t just need competent bureaucrats to enact DOGE’s recommendations – he also needs leeway to remove inefficient employees and career civil servants who may work to slow down the implementation of DOGE. Beyond federal employee hiring, he enacted two executive orders enhancing his removal power over the civil service.

First, Trump signed an order resuscitating and expanding the scope of Schedule F. In his first administration, Schedule F was a job classification that removed civil service protections from policy-making positions within the executive department and allowed for streamlined hiring and firing of those positions. Biden never implemented Schedule F, instead repealing Trump’s executive order that implemented the Schedule. Trump revived Schedule F on his first day, so it should be fully implemented by the time DOGE releases initial recommendations. Moreover, Trump expanded Schedule F’s scope to include all “policy/career” positions, allowing DOGE to fully examine the civil service. The order also requires all bureaucrats to implement the administration’s policies faithfully, deeming it a fireable offense if they refuse.

In addition to this order, Trump signed a second order eliminating removal protections for Career Senior Executive Service (SES) officials and requiring them to adopt performance plans. SES officials oversee vast bureaucracies in 75 federal agencies responsible for making rules that impact millions of Americans. Previously, they were not subject to at-will removal from the president and could only be fired with cause. The president’s executive order removes these protections and subjects SES officials to the same removal requirements lesser bureaucrats are subject to – increasing presidential control over the civil service.

These changes are a lawful exercise of executive power and will allow quick implementation of DOGE’s recommendations. The U.S. Constitution solely vests the president with the executive power – meaning all bureaucrats subject to these executive orders exercise power at the president’s behest. Further, the Supreme Court approved this level of executive control in Myers v. U.S. and Humphrey’s Executor v. U.S., where they held that purely executive officers are subject to presidential removal without good cause. Therefore, courts will likely uphold Schedule F’s revival, increasing executive power over removal.

Schedule F and SES reform will allow Trump to enact DOGE’s policies in two ways. First, his orders allow him to fire bureaucrats which DOGE and department heads deem wasteful or inefficient. Second, these reforms empower Trump and his surrogates to remove civil servants from top to bottom who are intentionally stalling DOGE’s implementation. These executive orders are essential to DOGE’s success. Enacting these orders will create a proficient, highly skilled, merit-based civil service that efficiently implements DOGE’s recommendations. The result will be a civil service that effectively serves the American people.

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“a very simple way” for the US and other “sponsors” of Kiev to achieve peace by ending funding for Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s government.”

Ukraine Conflict ‘Needs To End Now’ – Rubio (RT)

Ukraine is being destroyed by the fighting with Russia and the conflict must be swiftly settled through negotiations, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. In an interview on Sirius XM’s The Megyn Kelly Show on Thursday, Rubio reiterated US President Donald Trump’s willingness to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, saying that Trump believes the conflict “needs to end now.” “It needs to end to a negotiation. In any negotiation, both sides are going to have to give something up,” Rubio stated. Even a growing number Democrats who vowed to support Kiev for “as long as it takes” under the previous administration of US President Joe Biden “would now acknowledge that what we have been funding is a stalemate, a protracted conflict, and maybe even worse than a stalemate, one in which incrementally Ukraine is being destroyed and losing more and more territory,” the secretary of state said.

“What the dishonesty that has existed is that we somehow led people to believe that Ukraine would be able not just to defeat Russia, but, you know, destroy them, push them all the way back to what the world looked like in… 2014,” Rubio added. As a result of the conflict, Ukraine is “being set back a hundred years. Their energy grid is being wiped out… And you know how many Ukrainians have left Ukraine, living in other countries now? They may never return. I mean, that is their future, and it is endangered in that regard,” Rubio warned.

After his inauguration last week, Trump said he was ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “anytime” to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine conflict. The Kremlin replied by saying that Putin is also willing to talk to his US counterpart, but stressed that Moscow has not yet been approached by Washington about organizing contacts between the two leaders. The Russian president said earlier this week that there is “a very simple way” for the US and other “sponsors” of Kiev to achieve peace by ending funding for Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s government.

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“..he now has the unique ability and apparent will to put his foot on the firehose of American cash that has been systemically undermining the interests of average citizens around the world..”

Ukraine’s ‘Independent’ Institutions Collapse As Trump Unplugs The ATM (Marsden)

A few days ago, newly re-minted US President Donald Trump put the brakes on internal sabotage of his own administration by ordering the State Department to freeze American funding of foreign aid. Oh, won’t someone think of the starving children? Well, critics can unclutch their pearl necklaces because he did exactly that, actually. The freeze doesn’t apply to emergency food assistance, as Reuters has reported. “This is lunacy. This will kill people,” a former official for CIA handmaiden, USAID, now president of Refugees International, told Reuters. A couple of years ago, his organization was promoting the idea that the big threat to Syrians was the stability – or “normalization”, as it had said, under former President Bashar Assad. Must just be a coincidence that it’s also the position of those who failed at regime change and were looking for a way to keep that dream alive.

In December 2024, his organization found “no substantial, confirmed cases of corruption among Ukrainian partners.” Yeah, well, maybe that’s because the same organization also admits that only 1% of the aid actually makes it into the hands of local Ukrainian organizations. Doesn’t sound like the Ukrainian people are going to much miss those few crumbs that they’ve been tossed by their Western establishment ideological colonizers. But it sure does seem that the US establishment-approved front groups using Ukrainians as white gloves in which to wrap their iron fisted, self-serving establishment-backed agenda are going to have to slow their roll now that the grant train has gone right off the rails. Or maybe they’ll just get their puppets to dance for more dollars – this time from the actual public, like the true independent media they’ve long promoted themselves to be.

The guys over at Ukrainer for example, posted on their Instagram account that “Ukrainer will be tempted to reduce the team, and thus create fewer projects” in light of the funding cuts. Ukrainer, normally a culture-focused website, claims to have switched to providing “reliable information about events in Ukraine” for the duration of the war with Russia – or “until the victory”, as they put it. Wonder what incentivized them to make that switch. These guys sound like kept labrador retrievers accustomed to waiting for handouts from the master rather than hungry lone wolves driven by a passion for the cause. “US grants are on pause. Become a supporter of Hromadske,” wrote the media of the same name under an image of what looks like a journalist straight-up on fire while holding a camcorder.

Nothing screams independence like implosion-driven panic the moment a sole sponsor bails out with a sudden hand cramp that apparently radiates all the way to the US Treasury and prevents him from writing the next cheque. Ukrainska Pravda has bumped the promotion of its Patreon fundraising up to “priority” level on its front page. Maybe I’m going way out on a limb here, but I’m guessing those roughly 230 paid subscribers haven’t been doing all the heavy lifting to-date in funding your “independent” operations. In kvetching about Trump’s USAID funding cut in a front page article, the outlet also effectively exposed just how many “Ukrainian media” NGOs are funded by USAID. There were so many listed in the wall of names that followed that my eyes went buggy trying to count them one by one. So I ultimately just gave up and asked ChatGPT by feeding it the list. The answer: 127. And that doesn’t even count the non-media civil society politically-oriented NGOs consisting of about 66 recipients.

“Independent Ukrainian media is a key element distinguishing us from Putin’s Russia,” wrote Detector Media shortly after Trump’s bomb fell. Indeed, Putin isn’t willingly funding his own country’s media via the US State Department and calling it independent, so that certainly sets Ukraine apart. They go on to say that, in the absence of the USAID media funding, Ukrainians now “will be left without a tool that ensures control over power and boosts the stability of democratic institutions.” Ensures control over Ukrainians by US power, you mean. Because nothing says “truth to power” like being this reliant on funding from the government that acts as sugar daddy to your own. They’re right about one thing, though: knee-jerk anti-Russian groupthink sure does boost stability, unlike dissent.

And well, well, lookie here, even the podcasters and influencers are whining. “There will be no podcasts with Karas now either due to the suspension of grants, sadly :(,” activist Melania Podolyak wrote on social media, highlighting the USAID logo on the page of the leader of the neo-Nazi group C14, Yevhen Karas. The guy just can’t catch a break. It was barely over five years ago that a politician in neighboring Slovakia asked the European Commission whether the EU would “consider introducing travel bans and other related measures against the leader of the violent Ukrainian neo-Nazi militant group C14, Yevhen Karas and other radical Ukrainian nationalists implicated in murders, intimidation of ethnic minorities and other violent crimes?”

Excuse you, sir! That would be star podcaster Yevhen Karas. Why would you not want him in your country? Call his agent in Washington if you’ve got a problem. Better hurry though, before Trump fires him. Also, color me shocked that there now appears to be an active regime change effort in Slovakia, and Western-backed pro-Ukrainian NGOs. Much has been said over the past few days of USAID, but its equally meddling sister from the same mister, Uncle Sam’s “National Endowment for Democracy,” whose board members include Victoria Nuland (aka Regime Change Karen, aka the Maidan Cookie Monster), is just as toxic with its use of US funds to promote the interests of the US establishment elites to the detriment of free people around the world, including in Ukraine.

Back in 2022, they even had an orgy of awards for their own Ukraine civil society projects. Among those featured at the event were NED board member, Anne Applebaum, whose husband, now the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, tweeted “Thank you, USA” in the wake of Europe’s economic and industrial lifeline of cheap Russian gas getting blown up and effectively making the EU overdependent on pricey US LNG. It’s all one big cozy club, and Trump’s definitely not in it. And he now has the unique ability and apparent will to put his foot on the firehose of American cash that has been systemically undermining the interests of average citizens around the world in favor of endless regime change and conflict, to the benefit of the few who profit from war and instability. Let’s see what else ends up surfacing as the futzing-around funds dry up.

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“..as part of a potential peace agreement in Ukraine..”

EU Considering Return To Russian Gas – FT (RT)

European Union officials are discussing the possibility of resuming Russian gas imports as part of a potential peace agreement in Ukraine, according to the Financial Times. The issue of Russian gas deliveries to the EU has proven contentious for the bloc, especially after Brussels stepped up efforts to reduce dependence on cheap Russian energy following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Advocates of the proposal, including officials from Germany and Hungary, argue that reinstating Russian gas imports could lower Europe’s energy prices and encourage Moscow to engage in negotiations, the FT wrote, citing sources familiar with the matter. They believe that such a move would provide incentives for parties to the conflict to uphold a ceasefire.

”There is pressure from some big member states on energy prices and this is one way to bring those down, of course,” one official told the FT. However, the idea has reportedly “infuriated” officials in Brussels and diplomats from some Eastern European countries, who have traditionally been the most outspoken critics of Russia. They are concerned about increasing Moscow’s export revenues and reversing efforts to decrease reliance on Russian energy. Moscow has expressed doubt about the feasibility of the reported plan. The EU is unlikely to be prepared to restart purchases of Russian gas in the near future, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Energy Committee Igor Ananskikh told Lenta.ru on Thursday. Russia has repeatedly stated that it’s ready to resume gas supplies to Europe and has criticized the sanctions, stating that they are causing more damage to the EU than to Moscow.

The EU has faced a dramatic reduction in Russian gas imports due to Ukraine-related sanctions and the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, which was the main conduit for Russian gas to the EU. On January 1, Ukraine ceased the transit of Russian gas through its territory after an agreement with Moscow expired. Previously, Russian gas accounted for approximately 40% of the EU’s total supply. The bloc has instead increased imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from countries like the United States and Norway, driving up energy prices. US President Donald Trump previously urged Brussels to purchase more American LNG, threatening tariffs if they did not comply.

High energy prices have significantly impacted the EU economy. The bloc’s economic powerhouse, Germany, saw its economy contract for the second consecutive year in 2024, according to official data. Slovakia, one of the countries affected by the halt of the gas transit through Ukraine, has accused Kiev of jeopardizing its energy security. Prime Minister Robert Fico has pledged to veto any EU aid to Ukraine if the transit of Russian gas is not resumed. “In the end, everybody wants lower energy costs,” a senior EU official told the FT.

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“Ukrainian lawmakers have appealed to non-US donors to fund local media outlets and NGOs..”

Ukraine Wants EU To Replace Lost US Aid (RT)

Ukrainian lawmakers have appealed to non-US donors to fund local media outlets and NGOs following the suspension of Washington’s foreign assistance programs that has reportedly drastically impacted the sector. Last week, President Donald Trump halted cash flows from the US and ordered a 90-day review of aid schemes. Many affected programs were run by USAID, Washington’s soft power agency that distributes billions of dollars each year for projects that promote US interests around the world, under the premise of humanitarian development. It spent over $60 billion in 2023 alone.Ukrainian recipients of American grants were hit “worse than it may seem,” a statement by the parliamentary committee on humanitarian affairs said on Wednesday.

Lawmakers anticipate that it will take up to six months for US funding to fully resume, and have urged EU donors to step in. “Given the constraints on public funding, grants remain virtually the only way for cultural and media projects to function,” the statement said. Oksana Romanyuk, executive director of a Kiev-based media research non-profit, warned that 90% of news outlets in Ukraine rely heavily on foreign grants. With USAID operations frozen, many of them are now soliciting emergency donations.

The Ukrainian MPs described foreign assistance as “an important part of our path to democratic development and sustainability”. They empathized that USAID was funding projects for children, with thousands of minors attending schools that depend on American taxpayer dollars. According to media reports, senior officials in the Department of State have lobbied Secretary Marco Rubio to make exemptions for their preferred aid programs, arguing that they are essential for US interests. Meanwhile, at least 60 senior USAID officials reportedly have been placed on paid administrative leave.

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“..expects Ukraine to be fragmented as part of a peace deal with Russia..” ”This will happen 100%. The path to an outcome like that is inevitable,” he asserted. “Ukraine is an invented state.”

Ukraine ‘An Invented State’ – Romanian Election Frontrunner (RT)

Calin Georgescu, the politician whose first-round victory in the Romanian presidential election was overturned by the Constitutional Court, has argued that the borders claimed by Ukraine were artificially drawn and are subject to inevitable change. The staunch critic of Western policies made the remarks on Wednesday in an interview with political analyst Ion Cristoiu on YouTube. He was discussing the adjustments of European borders after World War II, which resulted in a transfer of territories to Soviet Ukraine. Georgescu said he expects Ukraine to be fragmented as part of a peace deal with Russia, along historical lines. ”This will happen 100%. The path to an outcome like that is inevitable,” he asserted. “Ukraine is an invented state.”

Parts of the historic areas of Bukovina and Bessarabia, which were ceded from Romania to Ukraine during the post-war settlement, are “of interest” to Bucharest, Georgescu said, adding that Hungary and Poland could also claim their historic lands in a hypothetical breakup of Ukraine. Georgescu made headlines in November when he unexpectedly garnered 23% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election in Romania, a NATO member. However, the Constitutional Court annulled the results shortly before the second round, citing intelligence documents alleging ‘irregularities’ in the campaign. Subsequent media reports revealed that Georgescu’s candidacy was boosted by a firm closely linked with the pro-Western National Liberal Party (PNL), seemingly to undermine another candidate.

The Romanian government has claimed that Russia was behind the interference scheme. Georgescu leads in opinion polls and is projected to get 38% of the vote in the upcoming election re-run in May. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously warned about the threat of potential separatism in Western Ukraine, driven by ethnic minorities’ wish “to return to their historic homeland,” with potential support from foreign governments. ”In that sense, only Russia could serve as a guarantor of Ukrainian territorial integrity,” he claimed in late 2023. “If [Ukrainians] don’t want that, so be it. History will set things straight. We will not stand in the way, but neither will we relinquish what is rightfully ours.”

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“Let me remind you that the military administration is a temporary body that should deal with defense and security, not usurpation of power..”

Kiev Mayor Accuses Zelensky’s Team Of Attempting To ‘Usurp Power’ (RT)

Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko has accused the Ukrainian government of attempting to undermine the city’s leadership, claiming that Vladimir Zelensky’s administration is interfering in local governance. In a video address on Wednesday, Klitschko, who has a strained relationship with Zelensky, warned of ongoing “political intrigues” in the capital, allegedly orchestrated by the Ukrainian leader’s allies. Klitschko’s criticism follows the appointment in December of Timur Tkachenko as head of the Kiev City Military Administration. Tkachenko, previously a deputy minister for community and territorial development, replaced Sergey Popko, a military officer who had led the administration since 2022. Klitschko has challenged the move, arguing that Tkachenko lacks military experience and is unqualified for the position.

Tkachenko has been obstructing key economic decisions in Kiev in a bid to take over the powers of the mayor and the city council, Klitschko claimed. ”Since taking the job, Tkachenko has been ‘blocking the resolution of key economic issues’ in the city,” the mayor alleged. According to Klitschko, Tkachenko is doing so in an attempt “to take over the powers of the mayor, the city council… in violation of the law.’” “An attempt is being made in Kiev to unbalance power and destroy local governance,” Klitschko added in his address. “Let me remind you that the military administration is a temporary body that should deal with defense and security, not usurpation of power,” he stressed. The mayor emphasized that the military administration is a temporary body meant to handle defense and security, not to assume control of the city’s leadership.

Klitschko, a former world heavyweight boxing champion, was one of the most prominent figures in the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, which led to the overthrow of democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.He became the capital’s mayor the same year and is one of the few officials from the era of Zelensky’s predecessor, Pyotr Poroshenko, to have retained his post. In 2019, Zelensky’s administration attempted to remove Klitschko from his position as head of the Kiev City State Administration, but he was re-elected in 2020. In December 2023, Klitschko accused Zelensky of steering Ukraine toward authoritarianism, expressing concerns over the centralization of power. Tensions between the two have persisted, with disagreements over issues such as the state of Kiev’s bomb shelters and the management of city infrastructure.

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“Gold Bar Bob.”

Architect of Russia Sanctions Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison (RT)

A US senator has for the first time been found guilty of bribery and acting as an agent of a foreign government. US Democrat Bob Menendez, who championed stringent sanctions on Russia while he was chair of the highly influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison on bribery and corruption charges. He was found guilty last July of accepting cash and gold bars and acting as an illegal agent for the Egyptian government, and resigned from the Senate a month later.“The public cannot be led to the belief that you can get away with bribery, fraud, and betrayal,” US District Judge Sidney Stein said on Wednesday. “I don’t know what led you to this,” Stein added. “You’ll have to try to figure that out yourself over time.”

Prosecutors had sought at least 15 years in prison, along with millions of dollars in forfeitures and fines, arguing that such penalties were necessary “to provide just punishment for this extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of public trust.” “For someone who spent his entire life in public service, every day I’m awake is a punishment,” the former lawmaker told the court. Menendez began his political career in 1974 when he was elected to the Union City Board of Education. He later served as the city’s mayor from 1986 to 1992, then moved to the state legislature in 1988 and the state senate in 1991. He represented New Jersey’s 13th district in the US House of Representatives from 1993 to 2006, when he was appointed to the Senate.

After the initial charges were filed in September 2023, Menendez stepped down from his position as head of the Senate’s influential Foreign Relations Committee, where he had played a key role in drawing up Washington’s sanctions on Moscow even before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. His attorney, Adam Fee, argued that the former senator’s nearly 50 years of public service should not be overshadowed by his conviction, dismissing the public’s characterization of him as “Gold Bar Bob.” The defense team also requested that Menendez remain out of prison while they appeal his conviction.

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Forcing oil prices down will backfire.

Trump’s Doomed Plan for Ukraine (Scott Ritter)

What we do know is that Donald Trump’s designated special envoy for Ukraine — retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg — has floated a “peace plan” to the president which has been apparently well received. The elements of this plan are drawn from a paper Kellogg authored back in the spring of 2024 — a paper as nonsensical and lacking in fact-based argument as one could imagine. The core elements of this plan involved the establishment of “normal” relations with Russia and its president — basically stopping the Russophobic demonization that was prevalent during the Biden administration. Once the U.S. and Russia were talking again, to then open negotiations with both Russia and Ukraine about bringing an end to the conflict.

The “carrot” for Russia included postponing Ukraine’s membership in NATO for 10 years, allowing Russia to retain the Ukrainian territories it currently occupies and gradually lifting sanctions to lead the way to the normalization of relations with the United States — all subject to the conclusion of peace agreements acceptable to Ukraine. For Ukraine, the “deal” offered both continued military assistance from the U.S. and NATO and bilateral security guarantees. While Ukraine is not required to officially recognize Russia’s control over the conquered territories, it would need to refrain from changing the status quo by force. If Russia refused to cooperate, the U.S. would impose crippling sanctions. And if Ukraine refused the “deal,” the U.S. would cut off all military aid. This “deal,” while never formally expressed, had been hinted at before and after Trump’s electoral victory in November 2024.

And it took no one with any insight into Russia’s goals and objectives regarding the Special Military Operation by surprise when Russian President Vladimir Putin summarily rejected this “deal” in an answer to a media question on Dec. 26, 2024. Three days later Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov likewise threw cold water on the Kellogg “peace plan,” declaring that Russia was “not happy with the proposals made by members of the Trump team to postpone Ukraine’s admission to NATO for 20 years and to station British and European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine.” But what exactly does “the hard way” mean?

According to Scott Bessent, Donald Trump’s new Treasury secretary, the answer lies in ratcheting up sanctions on the Russian oil industry. “I will be 100 percent on-board for taking sanctions up” that target the major Russian oil companies, Bessent said during his Senate confirmation hearing. But Bessent will be working against a history of the U.S. and its European allies overselling sanctions as a tool to tear down the Russian economy (the opposite, in fact, has happened.) Moreover, given Russia’s status as a leading oil producer, any successful application of sanctions could have a negative economic impact on the U.S.

This is something that seems to have escaped the attention of Keith Kellogg, Trump’s “peace deal” guru. Noting that, under the Biden administration, the United States and its allies imposed a cap of $60/barrel on Russian oil (the market price for oil hovers around $78/barrel), Kellogg observed that, despite this, “Russia earns billions of dollars from oil sales.” “What if,” Kellogg mused during an interview on Fox News, “you lower the price to $45 a barrel, which is essentially the breakeven point?”

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Russian athletes are banned everywhere, in every sport. Except figure skating. There’s a whole contingent of them that freely fly in and out, live in the US etc. Or there was.

(Plenty of Russians in NHL hockey too. They also wear skates.)

Russian Skating Stars On Board Crashed American Plane (RT)

Several prominent figure skaters and coaches were reportedly on board the passenger plane which crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, DC following a mid-air collision with a military helicopter. The list of victims reportedly includes Russian world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. Flight 5342 was carrying 60 passengers and four crewmembers from Wichita, Kansas to the American capital when it hit a US Army Black Hawk helicopter. There were reportedly no survivors.The passengers included athletes, coaches and family members from the National Development Team, a training program for top juvenile figure skaters, The Wichita Eagle reported, citing US Figure Skating. The city hosted the national championships for the sport last week, and some elite young athletes attended advanced classes there, the outlet explained.

Some of the skaters have connections with Russia, according to media reports. Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, a married couple who won the 1994 world championship pair event, were on board the flight, according to TASS. So, reportedly, was Inna Volyanskaya, who won medals at several Soviet and international skating events with her partner and husband Valery Spiridonov. Some outlets claimed that most of the young athletes came from the Russian-American figure skating community. There were fears that American skater Ilia Malinin, whose family came to the US from the USSR, was among the victims, but he confirmed that was not the case. Prominent athletes have expressed their shock in the wake of the tragedy, including Malinin, Luke Wang and Ethan Peal.

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“We had a Russian contingent – some very talented people – unfortunately on that plane,” Trump told reporters at a White House briefing on Thursday. “Very, very sorry about that.” “We’ve already been in contact with Russia..”

US ‘In Contact’ With Russia – Trump (RT)

The US government has reached out to Moscow regarding the Russian nationals killed in the crash of a civilian airliner and a military helicopter at Washington National Airport, President Donald Trump has said. All 64 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 5342 died when their Bombardier CRJ700 collided with an H-60 Black Hawk helicopter while attempting to land in the US capital on Wednesday evening. Three members of the US military on board the helicopter were also killed. “We had a Russian contingent – some very talented people – unfortunately on that plane,” Trump told reporters at a White House briefing on Thursday. “Very, very sorry about that.” “We’ve already been in contact with Russia,” Trump said in response to a question from the press. He also stated that the US “will facilitate” the transfer of the remains of any Russian nationals killed in the crash, regardless of the sanctions and flight bans currently in effect.

The Kremlin later clarified that the “contact” Trump mentioned did not involve direct communication between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian embassy in Washington expressed its condolences to the American people over the tragedy, adding, “We were especially saddened to learn from the White House that there were Russian citizens on board the airliner.” “We are grateful to the American authorities, with whom we are in constant contact, for the words of support expressed to the families of the victims and their readiness to help with the transfer of the remains to their homeland,” the embassy said in a statement on Thursday. It added that it was still awaiting information from the State Department about the Russian nationals who died in the crash. American Airlines, whose subsidiary PSA operated Flight 5342, has not yet released the names of the crew or passengers. However, some victims have been identified through social media posts and interviews with family members and friends.

Many of the passengers were athletes, coaches, and family members returning from the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. Among them were Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, the 1994 world champion figure skaters and former Russian Olympians who moved to the US in 1998 and worked as coaches. Former Soviet professional skater Inna Volyanskaya was also confirmed to have been on board by Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat, in whose district she lived. The Trump administration has pledged to conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the causes of Wednesday’s tragedy. The US president has suggested possible errors by the helicopter crew or air traffic control at Ronald Reagan National Airport, citing videos that captured the crash.

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“Türkiye simultaneously could be a member of BRICS and NATO?”

What Sultan Erdogan Is Really Up To (Pepe Escobar)

On the table, a geopolitical banquet – served by some of the best independent analytical minds from Bursa to Diyarbakir.

ISTANBUL – The scene is a Circassian restaurant off fabled Istiklal street in historic Beyoglu. On the table, a geopolitical banquet – served by some of the best independent analytical minds from Bursa to Diyarbakir. The menu, apart from a meze feast, is simple: only two broad questions about Sultan Erdogan’s approach to BRICS and to Syria. Here’s a concise synopsis of our dinner – more relevant than a torrent of Western-manufactured word salads. Enjoy it with a hefty dose of the best arak. And let the table have the first – and last – word. On BRICS: “Türkiye feels itself as part of the West. If we look at our political party leaderships and Turkish elites, right-wing or left-wing, there’s no difference. Maybe a little bit part of the East… Ankara is using its membership in BRICS as a bargaining chip against the West.”

Türkiye simultaneously could be a member of BRICS and NATO?
“Erdogan has no clear future plans. After Erdogan there’s no clear answer for the future of the AKP party. They could not establish a normal, permanent system. We have a governmental system just for Erdogan. We are receiving gas from Russia. We buy materials from China, assembling them in Turkish factories and selling them to Europe and the U.S. We have advantages in foreign trade compared to the EU, according to statistics published by the Turkish government. The biggest trade deficit is against Russia – and then China. This is our special position – and explains why Ankara does not want to lose the Eastern option. And at the same time we depend on the West to defend ourselves. All that explains our unique foreign policy behavior.”

So there’s no guarantee Ankara will agree to become a BRICS partner?
“No. But Ankara will not completely close the door to BRICS. Türkiye knows the West is losing its power. There are new dynamics, rising powers, but at the same time we are not a completely independent power.” On the three pillars of Turkish society: “You can’t think about geopolitics without ideology. Erdogan and the AKP decided that it’s only possible to integrate Türkiye with a liberal-Islamist project. Almost two generations have grown with them – and they don’t know what happened before. They are neo-Ottomans, Islamists, pro-Arabization guys. In Türkiye, if someone openly supports Islamism, he is Arabized, ideologically. Here we have three pillars. The first one is a nationalist view – we have right Kemalism and left Kemalism. The other one is a Western perspective. And the third one is Islamist, also divided in two factions; one is nationalist and the other is liberal Islamist, integrated with Western institutions, NGOs and capital. That’s why we can say that wokeism and Islamism are different sides of the same coin. These guys are using the Turkish state to maneuver in the broader Middle Eastern geography – but in fact they are focused on Western-minded neoliberal economy, politics, society.”

Neo-Ottomanism, revived: “The West planned Syria together with them – the neo-Ottomans. During the Gaza war they kept sending oil to Israel, it was a P.R. thing for Erdogan, he needs to give this message to the grassroots anti-imperialist, Islamist part of Turkish society. The problem for Erdogan is that Türkiye is different from Arab countries, while Turkish capital is connected to the West, some of it connected with Russia, and Türkiye is dependent as much as 40% on Russian energy. Ankara needs to act in a balanced way, but that does not change the whole picture: Capital that supports Erdogan, and benefits from Erdogan, including 40% of the Turkish exports going to Europe. When it comes to BRICS, they can try to manage the relationship but they will never agree to join the BRICS directly.”

The Sultan never sleeps: “Erdogan is a pragmatist. Ideological. He can sell out the Palestinians – easily. He may be very powerful, and grasp how the state system works, but he does not enjoy total obedience from society to rule. That’s why he’s always aiming for some sort of balance.” Can we say that with Greater Idlibistan under the control of Türkiye’s MIT – with Jolani as one of their main assets, if not the top asset – the MIT knew about the capabilities of HTS, and they knew this would stop in Aleppo?“ Not all the way to Damascus. That was the original plan. The aim of the operation was attacking the regime, The aim was not the conquest of Damascus. This was the best unexpected result of the attack. The military leadership of HTS said, “we lost our best warriors in the first moments of the operation”. But then came the collapse of the Syrian Army.”

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Easy to smear anything Chinese. To be safe, you must use our inferior and grossly expensive product.

Italy Blocks DeepSeek (RT)

Italy has become the first country to ban the Chinese AI model, DeepSeek, after its data protection authority blocked the app on Thursday, citing concerns over its handling of personal data. Developed by Hangzhou-based startup DeepSeek Inc., the AI assistant of the same name was released last week and has become an online sensation after toppling US-based OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most popular AI assistant on Apple’s App Store. The removal followed a request by the authority, Garante, for detailed information about the application’s data usage, including what personal data is collected, its sources, the intended purposes, legal grounds, and whether the data is stored in China.

The issue arose after Euroconsumers, a consumer rights group, filed a complaint against DeepSeek over its handling of personal data. In response, the Italian watchdog requested detailed information about the company’s data storage practices, giving DeepSeek 20 days to reply. However, DeepSeek’s initial response was considered “totally insufficient,” Garante said in a statement. “Contrary to the authority’s findings, the companies declared that they do not operate in Italy, and that European legislation does not apply to them,’‘ the statement said, noting that the app had been downloaded by millions of people around the globe in just a few days.

The regulator added that the decision had “immediate effect” and that it had launched an investigation into the matter as “the data of millions of Italians is at risk.” The Italian watchdog was not alone in raising concerns. On Wednesday, the Irish Data Protection Commission told TechCrunch that it had sent a request to DeepSeek for details on how the company processes the data of Irish citizens. South Korea’s privacy watchdog also plans to send a similar request, according to Reuters.

The US Navy has already advised its personnel to avoid using the Chinese-developed chatbot, both for work and personal use, citing concerns over ethical and security risks. DeepSeek’s new chatbot has raised the stakes in the AI race, shaking up markets earlier this week with major tech companies like Nvidia experiencing significant losses. Investors are worried that DeepSeek’s cost-effective AI solutions could disrupt established industry giants. The new AI assistant has rapidly closed the gap with US generative AI leaders, reportedly achieving similar performance on key indicators, while being offered at a fraction of the cost.

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Interesting difference.

Cloud Capital vs AI (Yanis Varoufakis)

The gist of DeepSeek’s arrival on the AI scene and the carnage in the American stock exchanges is a sudden transition from proprietary to open source technology. It is therefore no great wonder that the moment DeepSeek became the most downloaded app on the Apple Store, it pulverized the market capitalization of the hitherto overinflated US Big Tech stocks. But how did this happen exactly? How is it that a private commodified service is suddenly offered for free? And does this mean that technofeudalism is in trouble? To begin with, it’s important to note that AI was never a proprietary technology in itself. The underlying code of all AI companies was always open source. What made American AI a quasi-private commodity was the way in which these models were trained using huge amounts of privatized data.

Where I say privatized, you should translate stolen data, your data, my data. There was a Google memo that was leaked in 2017 that was widely discussed and refuted, but it was a harbinger for what happened with DeepSeek. In that memo, we read the following words: If an open source large language module, it said, trained for a few million dollars, comes to outperform a proprietary model, then there’s going to be trouble. There will be no firewall, the memo continues, even to safeguard open AI. That’s what happened. DeepSeek pierced the United States’ AI company’s bubble by decommodifying the results of the model’s training and doing it at a tiny, tiny cost to itself, shifting the results of AI-trained models from behind a paywall to the public realm. Within days since the release of the latest version of DeepSeek, developers around the world started building their own models on top of DeepSeek’s.

This was the nightmare of American Big Tech AI service providers who have been offering the results of prompts as a commodity in the form of subscriptions. You see, DeepSeek-type applications can now produce high quality translations for free. That’s just an example. And in so doing, they undermine the business model of companies like DeepL, the German company. In the broader scheme of things, this means that the morsels of cloud capital that Europe owned, like DeepL, essentially have lost their market value. Nevertheless, and this is a huge nevertheless, it is only AI as a commodity that has lost its grossly exaggerated market price or value. In sharp contrast, cloud capital utilized as Amazon, Meta, Google and so on have been utilizing it, that is not as a commodity producing piece of tech but as a produced means of behavioral modification, that business model is not at all threatened by companies like DeepSeek.

And since technofeudalism is powered by cloud capital working that way, rather than commodity-like AI services of the ChatGPT-4 or 5 type, our technofeudal order is not threatened by competitors such as DeepSeek. To help understand the difference between cloud capital and AI-based commodified services. It helps to compare and contrast Alexa, take Amazon’s Alexa, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Now, Alexa is not offering you a commodified service. It is your free, pretend slave. Unlike GPT-4 or 5, you do not pay a subscription to Amazon for the right to order Alexa, to order your milk, or to switch off your lights. Rather, you train Alexa to train you, to train it, to know you, so that it wins you over, it wins your trust, with good recommendations. So that it can ultimately modify your behavior, so that it can encourage you to buy a commodity from Amazon.com with Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, retaining up to 40% of the price you pay for a book or an electric bicycle, money that will be retained as cloud rent by the owner of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.

In short, and this is very important, the work that Alexa performs for you is not a commodity that you buy, unlike ChatGPT, which works to sell you a commodity, even in a subscription form. To put it in different words once more, ChatGPT is subject to market competition and therefore vulnerable to companies like DeepSeek. But Alexa is not. This is why OpenAI, ChatGPT’s maker, is seriously damaged by the emergence of DeepSeek, but Amazon is not. That’s my basic point. Cloud capital is in a league of its own, beyond market competition from DeepSeek-like upstarts, because its power lies in its capacity to modify our behavior and remove us from any market for example, to shift us from real markets to cloud fiefs like Amazon or Alibaba. To wrap this up, in conclusion, cloud’s capital capacity to drive technofeudalism is not challenged by companies like DeepSeek. Only companies like OpenAI, which invested so much, and so foolishly I would add, in providing a commodified service, these companies stand to lose enormously.

This, I believe, is yet another sign that capitalism is dead at the hand of cloud capital, while technofeudalism is going from strength to strength. And as it does so, it fuels even further the new Cold War between the United States and China, which in my book, “Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism,” I have explained away, I have explained this new Cold War as the almighty clash between these two huge concentrations of cloud capital, the American dollar denominated super cloud list power and the Chinese Yuan denominated super cloud list power. Now, speaking of this new Cold War, which I have argued is mostly fueled by the clash between American and Chinese cloud capital, I wonder what impact DeepSeek’s success will have on the United States government. Not just Trump, but the whole gamut of the American state and its government.

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Marianne RIP. First ever Jagger/Richards song. They didn’t really like it. Their manager gave it to Faithfull.

 

 

Fair

 

 

Just a fox, cat and birds
https://twitter.com/i/status/1884870541024149657

 

 

Frens

 

 

Let it be

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 302025
 


Edward Hopper The Sheridan Theatre 1937

 

RFK Jr. Warns ‘Chronic Disease’ Leading To ‘Sea Of Desperation And Debt’ (JTN)
Midair Collision Over Nation’s Capital Preceded By Months Of Near Misses (JTN)
OpenAI Finds “Substantial Evidence” DeepSeek Ripped Off GPT (ZH)
OpenAI Promises Close Cooperation With US Authorities (RT)
Ray Dalio Warns Of Brutal AI War Between U.S. And China (ZH)
Trump’s DOGE Says It’s Already Saving Billion Dollars A Day (RT)
Pentagon To Investigate Milley And Possibly Demote Him (ZH)
Trump To Finish What Reagan Started, A Missile Defense System For The US (JTN)
Trump To Send Deported Migrants To Guantanamo (RT)
Kash Patel To Face Senate Hearing In Bid To Reform Scandal-Plagued FBI (JTN)
Gabbard’s DNI Nod Walks A Tightrope Over The Precipice Ahead Of Key Hearing (JTN)
White House Comments On ‘Mystery’ Drones (RT)
Trump’s Fight Against Online Censorship Quickly Goes Global (RCI)
Zelensky Wanted Protocol Signed Before Meeting Took Place – Slovak PM (RT)
Jordan, Egypt Reject US Plan To Resettle Gazans As Trump Doubles Down (ZH)
Trump Asks Musk To ‘Go Get’ Astronauts Stranded In Orbit (RT)
The Democrats Who Stole an Election Must Be Held Accountable (PCR)

 

 

 

 

Leavitt

Homan

Ted Cruz

AfD
https://twitter.com/i/status/1884658882456203448

 

 

 

 

“..90% of health care spending goes toward managing chronic disease..”

I watched part of this. In disbelief. That the US health care system is about to collapse didn’t appear to be the priority. Or people’s health, for that matter. Liz Warren spent all her time demanding that RFK wouldn’t sue any party in the industry, suggesting he’s in it for profit. What are her interests, really? Is she on some payroll? But no-one can dispute he seems to be the best person for the job, to MAHA. And that should be everyone’s priority.

RFK Jr. Warns ‘Chronic Disease’ Leading To ‘Sea Of Desperation And Debt’ (JTN)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday warned that the nation faced a “sea of desperation and debt” if it did not significantly address “chronic disease.” Kennedy faced questioning before the Senate Finance Committee. He will appear in front of another panel on Thursday. Long an advocate for reform to American federal health programs and a critic of chemical additives in food, Kennedy’s nomination has roiled lawmakers, some of whom have called him anti-vaccine. “Our country will sink beneath the sea of desperation debt if they don’t change the course and ask, ‘Why Are health care costs so high in the first place?’ The obvious answer is chronic disease,” Kennedy said during his confirmation hearing.

“The CDC says 90% of health care spending goes toward managing chronic disease, which hits lower income Americans the hardest,” he added. “The president’s pledge is not to make some Americans happy again, healthy again, but to make all of our people healthy again.” “For a long time, the nation has been locked in a divisive health care debate about who pays when health care costs,” Kennedy lamented. “There are no good options, only bad ones, shifting the burden around between government and corporations and insurers and providers and families, is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

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Why are there Blackhawks on that airport?

Midair Collision Over Nation’s Capital Preceded By Months Of Near Misses (JTN)

The midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter over the nation’s capital was preceded by months of harrowing near misses at airports across America, as well as increasingly shrill warnings that the nation’s air traffic control and safety system is stretched to the limit. Just 14 months before Wednesday night’s fatal mishap near Ronald Reagan National Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration received a safety expert report that warned America’s air traffic control system is suffering from quality control issues and staffing shortages that put safety at risk. That report warned that “challenges, in the areas of process integrity, staffing, and facilities, equipment, and technology, all have ties to inadequate, inconsistent funding. Together, these challenges contribute to increased safety risk and should be regarded as incident precursor.”

The November 2023 report also warned that personnel shortages among air traffic controllers were forcing people to work longer hours and make sudden last-minute changes to flight plans that increased risks. “Overtime is at a historically high level and increasing,” the report warned. “High rates of overtime for extended periods introduces risk into the NAS. Several associated issues include absenteeism, lower productivity and fatigue. “When air traffic is rerouted, put into holding, or space is increased between aircraft to accommodate understaffed adjacent areas, the opportunity for mistakes in instruction is multiplied due to the abrupt change in the operation and the increased communications required to facilitate the irregular operation,” it added. “While each element of risk may not be material, the combined effect of irregular operations necessitated by staff shortages erodes the margin of safety.”

Regulators acknowledged that in 2023 there were 19 serious near misses at U.S. airports that could’ve been catastrophic, one of the largest totals in many years. This past October, the FAA followed up with an audit looking at the increased risks of runway incursions at the nation’s 45 busiest airports. While that audit was still underway, several harrowing near misses were reported at airports, including at Reagan in Washington, D.C. and with a men’s college basketball team. Just two weeks ago, the FAA opened an investigation of a near miss in the skies above Phoenix, Arizona. The agency said there was a “loss of separation incident” involving a United B737-900 and a Delta A330-300 arriving at Phoenix Sky Harbor on Jan. 11.

Back in April, a dangerous collision nearly occurred at Reagan. The FAA said an air traffic controller instructed Southwest Flight 2937 to cross Runway 4, while JetBlue Flight 1554 was starting its takeoff roll down the same runway.The JetBlue flight had to abort. Likewise, FAA began investigating an incident at Los Angeles’ main airport in December when a private jet carrying the Gonzaga University men’s basketball team nearly crossed a runway as a Delta flight was taking off. Audio from the control tower showed an alarmed flight controller yelling “stop, stop, stop.“

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Guess that’s what I would say if I were outperformed like that.

OpenAI Finds “Substantial Evidence” DeepSeek Ripped Off GPT (ZH)

David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, told Fox News on Tuesday that there is “substantial evidence” Chinese AI startup DeepSeek “distilled” knowledge from OpenAI’s models—an act he likened to IP theft. This poses a massive national security risk and might be critical for US AI firms to tighten IP protections. “There is substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s model. I don’t think OpenAI is very happy about this. One thing you will see over the next few months is that our leading AI companies will take steps to prevent distillation,” Sacks said.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1884344113488879732

On Wednesday, OpenAI confirmed to the Financial Times that evidence of “distillation” was found in how the Chinese AI startup used the OpenAI application programming interface (API) to siphon large amounts of data for building its model. “The issue is when you [take it out of the platform and] are doing it to create your own model for your own purposes,” a source close to OpenAI told FT. They noted distillation is a breach of OpenAI’s terms of service. Bloomberg reported that OpenAI’s partner Microsoft was also investigating distillation concerns and found evidence that DeepSeek researchers violated OpenAI’s terms of service last year. Meanwhile, DeepSeek’s research even admits its R1 model is based on other open-source systems:

“We demonstrate that the reasoning patterns of larger models can be distilled into smaller models, resulting in better performance compared to the reasoning patterns discovered through RL on small models. The open source DeepSeek-R1, as well as its API, will benefit the research community to distill better smaller models in the future.” AI experts told FT that DeepSeek’s model generated responses that indicated it had been trained on OpenAI’s GPT-4. DeepSeek claimed its latest model was only trained on 2,048 Nvidia H800 GPUs over two months, costing about $5.5 million, with 2.8 million GPU hours, far less than rival models by MAG7 companies that spent years and tens of billions of dollars.

On Monday, Goldman’s Rich Privorotsky told clients that DeepSeek’s model is allegedly “40-50x more efficient than other large language models,” and this “naturally raises the question of whether so much data center capacity is necessary.” Ironically, DeepSeek’s IP theft of OpenAI’s model through distillation comes as the US startup faces lawsuits for scraping training data from media outlets and other sources.

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You give me $500 billion, I’ll cooperate with you…

OpenAI Promises Close Cooperation With US Authorities (RT)

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has vowed to protect its intellectual property following the launch of its Chinese rival DeepSeek. The US government suspects that the new startup could have “distilled” data from the American company to build its product, according to White House AI advisor David Sacks.Earlier this month, DeepSeek unveiled an open-source AI model designated R1, which its creators said had outperformed leading products from US developers on some industry benchmarks. The launch has led to a decline in the stock prices of major US tech companies, erasing almost $1 trillion in market value. In a Tuesday interview with Fox News, Sacks claimed there was “substantial evidence” that DeepSeek had “distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models.” He assessed R1 capabilities as comparable to those of OpenAI’s 01 model, released about four months prior.

Knowledge distillation is a method involving an AI student model using feedback from a teacher model to improve itself. In some cases, it may violate terms of use. Developers have imposed limits on data traffic and other restrictions to counteract such practices. Sacks suggested that US companies will be introducing stronger barriers to eliminate “copycat models” in the near future. Responding to Sacks’ remarks, OpenAI said it was aware that some Chinese and non-Chinese companies are distilling American models. The company is actively pursuing “countermeasures to protect our [Intellectual Property].” “We are working closely with the US government to best protect the most capable models from efforts by adversaries and competitors to take US technology,” the statement added.

According to Bloomberg, OpenAI and its primary investor, Microsoft, are investigating DeepSeek for potential violations. Software developers are normally required to pay license fees to use OpenAI technology in their own applications, the news agency explained. The report cited sources “familiar with the matter” who spoke on condition of anonymity. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called DeepSeek’s launch a “wake-up call to the American AI industry” during a regular media briefing on Tuesday. The administration of Donald Trump has designated AI development as one of its priorities. Last week, the president announced Stargate, an initiative to build data centers across the US to serve as the backbone of future AI projects, with an investment target of up to $500 billion.

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‘No Country Can (Afford To) Lose’

Ray Dalio Warns Of Brutal AI War Between U.S. And China (ZH)

Billionaire investor and Bridgewater hedge fund founder Ray Dalio warned in an interview with All-In podcast co-host David Friedberg that neither the United States nor China can afford to lose the race for AI supremacy, stressing that this technological “war” is far more critical than “profits.” DAVID FRIEDBERG: I’m a productive asset guy. I like owning businesses that make stuff. In this environment, where do I own a productive asset—a business that can still see its revenue and its income grow as this inflationary effect and this devaluation occurs as we get through a debt crisis like this? What would be the best kind of productive asset? Is it a mining business? Is it a commodity trading business?

RAY DALIO: I’m with you. So, you know, that chart that we showed in the beginning has this line where productivity is going up. And it tends to compound on itself. And I think that’s where AI, and that is fantastic, but it depends where you’re referring to AI. I think the super scalers in this world have risk issues. You know, you think about the super scalers like Nvidia or others. I think that the tech war, certainly productivity, I’m with you man, but you want to invest in productivity. But there’s great disruption that’s going to take place, and there are going to be the disruptors and the disrupted. It’s not necessarily those who are producing the vehicles, but those who are implementing and changing as a result of having their big impact.

I think that the tech war, the AI war is more important. It is actually more important. It’s a war that no country can lose because it’s more important than profits. If you lose, if China or the U.S. really lose this war, it’s more important than profits. You have to play that war that way. It could be something like electric vehicles, or more in terms of Chinese electric vehicles, where they can produce them. But I think there are such high expectations. I think we are going to see applications. I think the Chinese are a bit behind in the chips, but they’re ahead in the applications.

DAVID FRIEDBERG: Did you see the DeepSeek announcement this weekend? RAY DALIO: Yes, and that was known for a little while now. The Chinese play is going to be chips—very inexpensive chips embedded into manufactured goods. You’ll see robotics. The Chinese are unbelievably [good] at making things inexpensively. They own 33% of all world-manufactured goods, which is more than the combined US, German, and Japanese manufactured goods. The Chinese produce more. You’re going to see that type of competition, and it may be like solar panels or something. Profit doesn’t matter. I think that where there’s productivity and innovation and disruptors to be. Essentially, being long those who are benefiting themselves through usage or creating the applications that are having the big effect is certainly one thing.

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“..mostly from stopping the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, deletion of DEI, and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations..”

Trump’s DOGE Says It’s Already Saving Billion Dollars A Day (RT)

The US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created by President Donald Trump and led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, claims it has already cut federal spending by approximately $1 billion per day. The agency announced the figure on Wednesday via its official X account, stating that it aims to reduce costs by more than $3 billion daily. DOGE was first proposed during Trump’s presidential campaign last summer and later formalized as a presidential advisory commission. Despite its name, the agency is not a full-fledged federal executive department but a temporary organization focused on reducing government spending. It aims to cut up to $2 trillion in federal expenditure by July 2026. “DOGE is saving the Federal Government approx. $1 billion/day, mostly from stopping the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, deletion of DEI, and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations, all consistent with the President’s Executive Orders,” the agency said, without providing further details.

The reference to “improper payments to foreign organizations” appears to relate to the Trump administration’s recent 90-day pause on virtually all foreign-aid programs, pending a review.Since taking office on January 20, the Trump administration has aggressively moved to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the federal government. On Tuesday, the president signed an executive order barring “radical gender ideology” from the US military, stating that service members must meet physical and mental fitness standards for duty. “This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria,” the order states. “This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”

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“In addition to pulling Milley’s security clearance and yanking his personal security detail, Hegseth will also ask the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate his conduct..”

Pentagon To Investigate Milley And Possibly Demote Him (ZH)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is about to drop the hammer on retired Gen. Mark Milley, Trump’s former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and one of the president’s favorite rhetorical punching bags. In addition to pulling Milley’s security clearance and yanking his personal security detail, Hegseth will also ask the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate his conduct, and the probe could end in Milley receiving a demotion, Fox News reported Tuesday. The IG investigation will center on allegations that Milley worked to “undermine the chain of command” during the first Trump administration. The probe is certain to scrutinize two calls Milley made to senior Chinese officials in the last days of Trump’s first term.

First reported by Bob Woodward in his book, “War,” the calls were apparently made with the goal of diffusing military tensions between the two powers, and were said to have had the blessing of other Trump officials. In 2023, Trump used a social media post to say that, by giving China “a heads up on the thinking of the president of the United States,” Milley had committed “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Woodward also reported that, at a March 2023 reception in Washington, Milley told him that Trump was “fascist to the core!” Milley was still on active duty at the time, and Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it a crime for commissioned officers to use “contemptuous words against the president.” Milley doesn’t have to worry about criminal prosecution: President Biden gave him a pre-emptive pardon that covers “any offenses against the United States” that were committed between January 1, 2014 and January 20, 2025.

Fox’s sources suggest that Milley could lose one of his four stars. In addition to humiliation, that would also put a dent in Milley’s rich military pension. However, as The Intercept reported last year, he has plenty of opportunities to turn his past service into stacks of cash: Since retiring from the military last year, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley has become a senior adviser to JPMorgan Chase bank, joined the faculties of Princeton and Georgetown, and embraced the lucrative paid speaking circuit. From military pay of $204,000 a year, Milley is sure to skyrocket to compensation in the millions, especially because he is represented by the same high-powered speakers’ agency as Hillary Clinton.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1882163144866578657

Milley oversaw the long-overdue but disastrously-executed withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan. The botched undertaking saw 13 US service-members killed, another 45 wounded, and the deaths of 170 Afghan civilians in a bombing at Kabul’s principal airport. It also resulted in the Taliban inheriting a huge arsenal of US weapons. In June 2021, Milley assured legislators that a withdrawal would look nothing like the US departure from Vietnam. “I don’t see Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan. The Taliban just aren’t the North Vietnamese Army,” he said. The first official manifestation of the new administration’s utter contempt for Milley came just hours after Trump was inaugurated. A brand-new painting of Milley that had just been unveiled on Jan. 10 was yanked from a Pentagon hallway. Fox reports that a second painting in a different hallway was to have been taken down as early as Tuesday night.

Until Trump took office, the Secret Service had continued to guard Milley, former national security advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on the chance that Iran may seek to kill them to avenge Trump’s Israel-assisted, Neta assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani via a 2020 drone strike in Iraq. Trump removed Pompeo and Bolton’s security details last week. Senior US officials frequently retain their security clearances well after they’ve left government, a practice that is supposedly aimed at facilitating transitions, enabling ongoing advice and counsel, and anticipating officials’ potential return to government.

Milley

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“U.S. Iron Dome”

Trump To Finish What Reagan Started, A Missile Defense System For The US (JTN)

Just hours after Pete Hegseth was sworn in as the country’s Defense secretary, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to begin the process of implementing a “next-generation missile defense” system for the U.S. aiming to complete the comprehensive project originally envisioned by President Reagan at the height of the Cold War. Trump dubbed the missile defense system – which the order says would be designed to protect the U.S. homeland from ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other new aerial threats – the “U.S. Iron Dome” after the highly successful Israeli conventional missile defense system. The executive order explicitly notes that the policy aims to achieve what was left unfinished by Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative – which critics dubbed “Star Wars” after the 1977 pop-culture film of that name – which endeavored to create a space-based defense shield against Soviet missiles.

Ultimately the intuitive fizzled out as scientists estimated the technology wouldn’t be ready for decades and the end of the Cold War reduced the urgency of the threat. But now, the old Soviet Union superpower has been replaced by China and Russia, which possess sizable nuclear arsenals and are currently in stiff competition with the United States. The Trump administration in the order specifically identified the threats from these “peer and near-peer adversaries” as the primary driver of a comprehensive missile defense system, which marks a major shift in policy documents from the first Trump, then Biden administration, which focused on using missile defense technologies to prevent attacks from smaller threats, namely North Korea and Iran. “The threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States,” the executive order reads.

It continues, “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities.”The shift to focus on the nuclear threats posed by China and Russia comes as both countries have developed more advanced weapons and have expanded their arsenals while also becoming close partners. This presents a hard problem for the U.S. to solve with the traditional nuclear deterrence doctrine that endured until the previous Biden administration.

“During the Cold War the United States had one nuclear peer to deter, the United States now faces two – Russia and China. This is a much harder problem and the United States has to make big adaptations to the programs we have to deter both countries simultaneously,” Rebeccah Heinrichs, senior fellow and director of the Keystone Defense Initiative at the Hudson Institute, told Just the News. “We must outsmart and out-innovate China in particular and no area is more important than in the protection of the American homeland. Both of those actors, plus North Korea (and Iran is a threshold nuclear state with a space launch program that could be leveraged for a long-range missile program) could coerce the United States with ballistic or cruise missiles if they believe the United States is vulnerable to them,” Heinrichs also said.

She continued, “By building a layered homeland missile defense system, the United States complicates the adversaries’ calculations and makes it harder for them to plan an attack on the United States with even a handful of missiles.” President Trump, appearing to recognize the need for modernization and new ways of deterring attacks from adversaries, directs the Pentagon in the executive order to develop a plan within 60 days for implementing the “next-generation missile shield.” The requirements outlined by the executive order are sweeping. The plans are to include defense-against-missile systems, the deployment of tracking lasers, development of space-based interceptors, development of new methods to intercept threats pre-launch and securing the supply chains for these new defense systems.

This marks a major shift from the policy of the Biden administration, which in its 2022 National Defense Strategy unequivocally stated that the United States’ existing missile defense systems “neither intended for, nor capable of, defeating large and sophisticated ICBM, air-, or sea-launched ballistic missile threats from Russia and the PRC.” The 2017 National Security Strategy promulgated by the first Trump administration also made clear that missile defense was not geared toward China and Russia. While calling for an enhanced missile defense system, it noted that it is “not intended to undermine strategic stability or disrupt longstanding strategic relationships with Russia or China.” Missile defense, which is not part of the traditional U.S. nuclear doctrine, has seen renewed interest as the nuclear arsenals and capabilities of China and Russia have grown in recent years.

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“..some individuals are “so bad, we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back.”

Trump To Send Deported Migrants To Guantanamo (RT)

President Donald Trump has announced plans to expand detention facilities at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to accommodate thousands of deported immigrants as part of his intensified efforts to remove illegal aliens from US soil. The initiative was revealed on Wednesday during the signing of the bipartisan Laken Riley Act, which mandates the detention and potential deportation of undocumented individuals accused of theft and violent crimes, even before conviction. Justifying the use of Guantanamo Bay, Trump argued that some individuals are “so bad, we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back.” “So we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo,” Trump added, calling the facility “a tough place to get out of.”

Guantanamo Bay, best known for holding terrorism suspects, also hosts a separate migrant processing center. Trump said he would sign an executive order directing the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to expand and prepare the facilities for new arrivals. “Most people don’t even know that we have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump stated. He added that the move would “bring us one step closer to eradicating the scourge of migrant crime in our communities once and for all.” Since his first day back in office, President Trump has enacted a series of executive orders aimed at overhauling the US immigration system.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been carrying out raids across the country, detaining hundreds of people daily. Targeted cities include Boston, New York, Newark, and San Francisco, with agents focusing on arresting immigrants who had committed crimes after entering the US illegally, according to the agency. The Trump administration has also escalated deportation efforts, using military planes for removal flights and threatening tariffs and other repercussions for countries that refuse to accept deportees.

Guantanamo Bay has been a US naval base since 1903 and was transformed into a detention center in 2002 under President George W. Bush to house suspected terrorists following the September 11 attacks. The facility has long been criticized for torture and indefinite detentions without charge or trial. As of January 2025, 15 detainees remain at the site, many of whom have been imprisoned for over two decades without formal charges. The Cuban government has consistently denounced the presence of the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, calling it a violation of Cuban sovereignty and raising concerns over human rights abuses at the detention facility. On his first day in office, Trump reinstated Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, reversing an executive order issued by former President Joe Biden just a week prior.

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They’re very scared of him.

Kash Patel To Face Senate Hearing In Bid To Reform Scandal-Plagued FBI (JTN)

FBI Director-designate Kash Patel will field questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, capping off a charm offensive that has seen most of the Senate Republican Conference warm to the Trump-aligned critic of the intelligence committee. A Trump advisor from the first administration, Patel has been a stalwart backer of Trump for most of his political tenure and a vocal critic of what he calls institutional rot in key American agencies. His 2023 book “Government Gansters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy” provided what President Donald Trump himself called a “brilliant roadmap” for uprooting a politicized bureaucracy.Trump picked Patel for the role in late November as grassroots supporters led #kashonly to trend on X.

The then-president-elect called Patel “a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.” His nomination roiled FBI insiders, with reports emerging that the bureau could face mass resignations should he secure the post. But it landed better with the senators, who saw him as a far more conventional nominee than Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon. Patel has previously served as a prosecutor, public defender, senior advisor to the director of national intelligence, and as the Defense Department’s chief of staff.Even intelligence hawks and moderate lawmakers such as Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, have been optimistic Patel’s prospects in the narrowly divided Senate. Pressed in December on whether Patel would secure confirmation, Cornyn simply told radio host Hugh Hewitt that “yes, he will be.”

During the Trump administration and President Joe Biden’s subsequent four years, the FBI became mired in political controversy and scandal. It’s conduct was a leading factor in driving Trump’s claims of political weaponization. Among the earliest controversies were the anti-Trump messages of now-former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, both of whom worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian interference investigation. Those messages referenced “an insurance policy” should Trump win. The bureau also came under fire over a memo from the Richmond Field Office suggesting that attendees of the traditional Catholic Latin Mass might harbor extremist sympathies. FBI Director Christopher Wray’s tenure, also saw allegations of retaliation against whistleblowers, the abuse of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants, and politicized security clearance reviews.

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz in December published a report confirming that the FBI had secured Patel’s phone records, along with those of two members of Congress and dozens of other staffers. The move came as part of an investigation into leaks of classified materials to the media. Horowitz further found that the FBI failed to inform the court that the materials they sought “related to requests for records of Members of Congress or congressional staffers.” The report drew outrage from Trump supporters, as well as lawmakers, some of whom had warm words for Patel amid the revelations. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who leads the Judiciary Committee, said afterward that “Kash understands that cooperation with Congress is not optional and whistleblower protection is essential.”

“This report highlights exactly why Kash Patel is the perfect leader to reform and rebuild the FBI,” a spokeswoman for Patel said at the time. “Kash understands the critical balance between national security and protecting civil liberties. His commitment to accountability, transparency, and upholding constitutional principles makes him uniquely equipped to ensure the FBI serves the American people with integrity and fairness.”

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They have nothing on her. But Trump may still have to say “the only way you can get to her is to go through me first”

Gabbard’s DNI Nod Walks A Tightrope Over The Precipice Ahead Of Key Hearing (JTN)

Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii Democrat-turned-Republican, faces a tense confirmation hearing this week as intelligence hawks raise concerns over her skepticism of surveillance practices and Democrats push narratives of pro-Kremlin sympathies. A stalwart privacy advocate and social moderate, Gabbard unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, earning attention for her exchanges with former Vice President Kamala Harris. She later left the party and helped President Donald Trump prepare for his own debate with Harris. Gabbard joined the Republicans during the 2024 campaign and received Trump’s nod to head the nation’s intelligence apparatus. Her nomination received cheers from privacy advocates and MAGA-aligned critics of the intelligence community, many of whom hope she will work alongside FBI Director-designate Kash Patel to substantially uproot the nation’s intelligence apparatus and end practices that raise serious questions about politicization in the agencies.

The Senate Intelligence Committee will question Gabbard on Thursday in what is sure to be a contentious row. The panel is stacked with intelligence hawks, including some Republicans who have expressed public concerns over her past opposition to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for the warrantless surveillance of foreigners abroad. With the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluded, Gabbard’s confirmation appears poised to mark the next battle between Trump’s MAGA disruptors and the old guard GOP of the Washington establishment. Gabbard has long been critical of Section 702, sharing the concerns of conservative Republicans on the Judiciary Committee that it allows for the collection of information on Americans in the process. An American speaking with a foreigner under surveillance, for instance, would see their half of the conversation swept up in intelligence gathering and ultimately entered into the Section 702 intelligence database.

The expiration of Section 702 led to a dispute between the House GOP Judiciary and Intelligence Committees last year, with the pro-surveillance Intelligence panel winning out and shutting the door on major reform. Gabbard’s opposition to Section 702 was such a point of concern for Republicans that she ultimately reversed her position amid the nomination process. “Section 702, unlike other FISA authorities, is crucial for gathering foreign intelligence on non-U.S. persons abroad. This unique capability cannot be replicated and must be safeguarded to protect our nation while ensuring the civil liberties of Americans,” she told CNN earlier this month. “If confirmed as DNI, I will uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights while maintaining vital national security tools like Section 702 to ensure the safety and freedom of the American people.”

That about-face could serve to assuage establishment concerns, but she will likely need to persuade Republican members of the panel that she will be able to balance privacy and national security concerns in the post. The 9-8 Republican-led panel includes two potential swing votes: Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Todd Young, Ind; according to The Hill. She is not expected to secure any Democratic support. Gabbard in 2017 visited Syria and met with now-ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime fell just weeks ago amid a surprise offensive from the Al-Qaeda derivative Tahrir al-Sham. She had previously insisted Assad was not an enemy of the United States and voiced opposition to American intervention in the Syrian Civil War. Gabbard herself is a veteran, having served in Iraq and was awarded the Combat Medical Badge.

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Still a weird story.

White House Comments On ‘Mystery’ Drones (RT)

US authorities have dismissed speculation that mass sightings of drones in the past few months were linked to hostile activities. Last year, then-President Joe Biden’s administration faced widespread criticism for not identifying the origins of the objects. The UAVs were “not the enemy,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the first press briefing of President Donald Trump’s new administration on Tuesday. She conveyed a message “directly from the president,” giving an update on a news story that made headlines throughout November and December. Sightings of unidentified aircraft were reported in New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, while arrests were made in connection with drone operations near restricted areas in Massachusetts and California.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorized the unmanned aircraft operating over New Jersey “for research and various other reasons,” Leavitt told the media, adding that many of them belonged to “private individuals that enjoy flying drones.” The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office first reported the aerial activity, leading to temporary flight restrictions, including at Stewart International Airport in New York. At the time, the FBI reported receiving thousands of tip-offs from citizens about drones they witnessed, and the Biden administration reassured the public that the objects posed no threat. ”There are thousands of drones flown every day in the United States, recreational drones, commercial drones,” then-Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas stated. According to FAA data, around a million civilian UAVs are registered nationwide.

In December, Trump accused the outgoing administration of withholding information about the unmanned planes, insisting: “Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!” Before his inauguration, Trump promised to provide information about drones “about one day” into his administration, during a conversation with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago on January 9. He said it’s “ridiculous” that people are not being informed about what is happening with the aircraft. Amid public debate over the drones’ possible foreign origins, senior lawmakers have called for additional powers to be given to federal and state authorities, to tackle such situations.

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It’s ironic how hard it has become to fight censorship.

Trump’s Fight Against Online Censorship Quickly Goes Global (RCI)

Flanked by some of the Big Tech executives whose companies had suppressed the views of his supporters throughout his predecessor’s term, President Trump on Jan. 20 declared the days of such speech policing over. Hours later, the president put action behind his words, signing an executive order prohibiting the federal government from engaging in, facilitating, or funding “any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” The move was celebrated by those who see it as a blow against what they decry as the Censorship Industrial Complex. Others cast the executive order as giving dangerous license to “misinformation” and “disinformation.” What is clear is that this is just the latest salvo in an ongoing war over the digital public square, pitting the Trump administration and like-minded Republican congressional allies against not only domestic opponents but the global counter-disinformation eco-system.

The global speech-policing effort is looking like an early target. Trump himself seemed to convey that when he touted his order in a remote address last week to the World Economic Forum in Davos. The elite global conclave had recently declared “misinformation and disinformation” the leading short-term risk to the globe for the second-straight year, “underlining their persistent threat to societal cohesion and governance by eroding trust and exacerbating divisions within and between nations.” Two days after the inauguration, Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, released the “Priorities and Mission of the Second Trump Administration’s Department of State.” The short document included the charge that Foggy Bottom “must stop censorship and suppression of information.” Rubio continued: “The State Department’s efforts to combat malign propaganda have expanded and fundamentally changed since the Cold War era and we must reprioritize truth.

The State Department I lead will support and defend Americans’ rights to free speech, terminating any programs that in any way lead to censoring the American people. It is not yet known whether and to what extent Rubio’s approach will affect the reorganized successor to the State Department’s recently shuttered Global Engagement Center, whose efforts defenders had called essential to combating foreign propaganda. Critics have dismissed the reorganization – of an office that funded entities targeting disfavored domestic speech – as an effort to simply rebrand and persist. The global “counter-disinformation” ecosystem encompasses research centers at top academic institutions and think tanks, fact-checkers, news raters, and like-minded for-profits – often funded and/or promoted by government agencies and powerful foundations, and operating and seeking to influence governments both stateside and across the Atlantic.

RealClearInvestigations, which recently previewed the censorship fight, e-mailed questions to other United States agencies and departments believed to be involved, directly or indirectly, in speech suppression on social media or otherwise likely to have a role in implementing the order. These included the Department of Justice and the FBI; the Department of Homeland Security and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security sub-agency; Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services; National Science Foundation; and Office of Management and Budget.

[..] Trump has previously called for enacting “new laws laying out clear criminal penalties for federal bureaucrats who partner with private entities to do an end-run around the Constitution and deprive Americans of their First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights.” To that end, the Judiciary Committee spokesperson told RCI that the panel would “move quickly to reintroduce legislation that will protect Americans’ First Amendment rights, such as the Censorship Accountability Act and the No Censors on our Shores Act.” The former would provide a right of action against federal employees for First Amendment violations. The latter would render any foreign official who engages in censorship of American speech inadmissible and deportable. In the Senate, two days after the release of President Trump’s order, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul re-introduced the “Free Speech Protection Act.”

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“That protocol outlined what we would do for Ukraine, including supporting its NATO membership. Gas wasn’t mentioned at all..”

Zelensky Wanted Protocol Signed Before Meeting Took Place – Slovak PM (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky wanted Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to sign a protocol promising to support Kiev’s bid for NATO membership before meeting to discuss crucial gas transit through Ukraine, the Slovak prime minister has claimed. Fico had sought to meet Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos following weeks of barbed messages between Kiev and Bratislava, in the wake of Ukraine’s decision to block the flow of Russian gas to Slovakia. The invitation was openly mocked by Zelensky, and the proposed meeting did not take place. Fico revealed details of the failed attempt to meet Zelensky with members of his SMER-SD party on Tuesday. “I was ready to meet [with Zelensky] in Davos. And what did he do? Zelensky sent me a protocol for the meeting, and I was supposed to sign it. The meeting hadn’t even taken place yet, but there was already a prepared protocol.

“That protocol outlined what we would do for Ukraine, including supporting its NATO membership. Gas wasn’t mentioned at all,” the prime minister said in a video posted on social media. The Ukrainian leader responded to Fico’s post, claiming that the Slovak prime minister “chooses Moscow over America and other partners.” “You have to pay for Russian gas not only with money but also with independence and sovereignty,” Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel on Wednesday. “Many in Europe have already gone through this and chose to preserve their independence and sovereignty.” The Slovak prime minister had initially proposed meeting for negotiations with Zelensky on the border between the two countries, but the Ukrainian leader used a social media post to suggest he comes to Kiev instead. Fico narrowly survived an assassination attempt by a pro-Ukraine activist last year.

He warned earlier this week that Bratislava would veto any EU aid to Ukraine if the transit of Russian natural gas was not resumed, calling Zelensky an “enemy” and accusing him of causing “problems” for Slovakia. Slovakia, which had received up to 60% of its gas through a Soviet-era pipeline, has been badly affected by Ukraine’s decision to cut off the transit of Russian gas to Central Europe. The Slovak prime minister added that he plans to raise the issue with the European Commission on Thursday. According to Fico, the best resolution to the dispute would involve purchasing gas at Russia’s border and having it transported through Ukraine as Slovak property.

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“The Gaza ceasefire would likely collapse if Palestinians were suddenly pushed out in large waves into Egypt and Jordan.”

Jordan, Egypt Reject US Plan To Resettle Gazans As Trump Doubles Down (ZH)

After last Saturday President Trump floated a plan to ‘clean out’ Gaza by conducting a mass resettlement of Palestinians in neighboring countries, namely Egypt and Jordan, he’s now doubling down on the idea. Egypt and Jordan are not happy, but are also feeling the pressure as a result, and it must be remembered that both are recipients of huge amounts of foreign aid each year – with Egypt receiving billions. Israeli media underscores there’s been wall-to-wall firm opposition by Arab leaders: “US President Donald Trump dug in his heels Monday over a controversial suggestion that large numbers of Gazans take refuge in Egypt and Jordan, shrugging off wall-to-wall opposition to the proposal from Arab leaders.”

“Fresh off what he said were calls with Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah, Trump insisted both leaders would take in Palestinians from the war-ravaged territory and said the issue would be discussed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two meet sometime soon, amid speculation in Israel that Trump’s gambit was being coordinated with Jerusalem,” the report details. “Egyptian media on Tuesday cited government sources as saying that Trump and Sissi had yet to speak. If they did, Sissi’s office would issue a readout, the Egyptian officials told local media,” it continues. This would involve these countries absorbing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees – something which Jordan has already done historically over the last some seventy years.

Here are the latest remarks from Trump which are driving the controversy: Asked about those comments, Trump told reporters on Air Force One Monday evening he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”“When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years,” Trump said. “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

Interestingly, the tiny Balkan country of Albania has entered the discussion after an Israeli Channel 12 media report said that Trump was in talks with Albania for it to take 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza. But Albania’s prime minister quickly batted this down, calling it false. “I haven’t heard something so fake in quite some time – and there’s been a lot of fake news lately! It is absolutely not true,” Prime Minister Edi Rama tweeted. If such talks actually did exist, the Muslim-majority population of this country would surely be outraged.

As for Egypt and Jordan, Trump may use the outsized US assistance provided to pressure their leaders to agree to his plan at least on some level. But the reality is that this is ultra politically sensitive. Past historic waves of Palestinian refugees and armed groups flooding nearby Arab countries have literally erupted in wars, which especially Lebanon can attest to. Jordan has also seen its country destabilized at times. There’s also the logistics – with Palestinians now rushing back to their largely destroyed communities in northern Gaza, they are defiantly telling the world they don’t plan to leave their homeland. The Gaza ceasefire would likely collapse if Palestinians were suddenly pushed out in large waves into Egypt and Jordan.

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“@POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so.”

Trump Asks Musk To ‘Go Get’ Astronauts Stranded In Orbit (RT)

US President Donald Trump has asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to bring back two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the International Space Station for nearly 200 days, instead of the originally planned eight. Return flights to Earth have been repeatedly postponed due to a combination of technical issues. In a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, the US president wrote: “I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to “go get” the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration.” The Republican added that “Elon will soon be on his way.” In a post on X that same day, the US-based tech tycoon confirmed that the “@POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so.” He also wrote, “Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”

In another message, Musk published a screenshot of Trump’s original post, accompanying it with a saluting face emoji. On Tuesday a NASA spokesperson acknowledged an inquiry about Musk’s statement and said the agency “will follow up as soon as we can.” Wilmore (61) and Williams (58) launched for the ISS on board the Boeing Starliner’s June 5 maiden voyage. However, NASA engineers soon discovered four helium leaks and thruster pressurization issues. After days of tests and discussions, NASA decided on August 24 to leave the two astronauts aboard the space station and bring the Starliner back without the crew, by remote control. The agency later reassigned two astronauts originally slated for the Crew-9 mission with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, to free up seats for Wilmore and Williams, extending their intended eight-day stay to more than seven months.

In December NASA announced that the Crew-10 launch was postponed to late March to allow SpaceX time to complete a new spacecraft. This delay was expected to push the Crew-9 return to early April. Industry rumors suggested further delays for Crew-10, which could lead to SpaceX using another Crew Dragon, possibly the one being prepared for the Ax-4 private astronaut mission, scheduled for launch as soon as April for Axiom Space. The astronauts themselves have maintained a professional stance on the situation. “Things that I can’t control I’m not going to fret over,” Wilmore said in a September briefing. Williams added, “You sort of turn to and just take on the next activity of the day. That’s what we do. We’re professionals.”

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“Is there to be no accountability for election theft and wielders of weaponized law and prosecutions?”

The Democrats Who Stole an Election Must Be Held Accountable (PCR)

The release of the pardoned J6 political prisoners has, for the most part, gone well, but in a few instances vindictive Democrat officials still hold a few of the pardoned. It is a fluid situation, and my figures might be out of date by the time you read them. The worst offender is the black female mayor of D.C. who at last report has not released 12 of the pardoned. Kentucky is still holding 6, and there are a few others being held here and there. Democrats in Pennsylvania were looking for a way of duplicating the pardoned federal charges with state charges in order to continue the incarceration of the pardoned political prisoners. It is possible that some of the non released J6 political prisoners have outstanding state charges unrelated to the J6 fake charges. It seems that at the time of Trump’s pardon there were 242 J6 political prisoners still in prison and a number I don’t have in halfway houses.

The issue has been raised whether some of the J6 prisoners had chargeable offenses and should not have been pardoned. This is a red herring as rally attendees were arrested irrespective of whether they committed an offense. Before buying this argument, remember the facts. The only reason there was a rally on January 6 was that the Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election, refused the evidence to be investigated, instead bringing court cases against those who made evidence-backed charges of electoral fraud. The rally was held to support the Republican senators who intended to present evidence of theft at the January 6 meeting when Congress assembled to certify Biden’s election. To prevent the presentation of the evidence, the Democrats and RINO Republicans such as Mitch McConnell used the FBI and police to stage an “insurrection” in order to break up the meeting and prevent the presentation of the evidence.

Remember that President Trump wanted to send 10,000 National Guardsmen to keep matters under control, but this interfered with the insurrection plot and Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prevented the deployment of the National Guard. Remember also that the FBI as revealed by FBI whistleblowers had agents embedded in the rally who incited violence at the Capitol. Remember also that the police began the violence by firing rubber bullets and teargas into the crowd of peaceful protesters. These acts of violence committed by corrupt police incited the rally attendees to push back police barricades, which the whore US media played to the hilt as an “insurrection.” Remember also that an appearance of violence was created by having a corrupt police officer fatally shoot US Airforce veteran Ashley Babbitt. The shooting was never investigated, and the officer was promoted for murdering an Airforce veteran without cause.

Remember that Democrats refused to release the videos of the alleged “storming of the Capitol.” After Republicans regained control of the House, the videos were released. The videos showed that there was no storming. The police opened he doors and escorted the rally attendees around the Capitol. There was no “invasion” of the Capitol. Remember also that Derrick Garland lied through his teeth that the rally attendees killed a police officer. The police officer’s family denied this. The officer died the next day from a heart attack. Remember also that the police attacked rally attendees with batons and bats, and attendees who raised their arms in defense were charged with “assaulting a police officer.” Remember also that a totally corrupt Justice (sic) Department violated privacy rights in order to hunt down and charge anyone who was present at the Capitol part of the rally. Instead of calling “suspects” in for questioning, FBI SWAT teams, reincarnations of the Nazi Gestapo, broke into Americans’ homes in the middle of the night terrorizing children while dragging handcuffed parents out of the house.

Remember also the false and invented charges were enhanced with serious felony charges for those who refused to self-incriminate with a plea bargain. The Democrats just wanted “convictions” for the whore media to hype to protect their rigged scheme from collapse. Remember also the instances of the wrongly incarcerated being held in solitary confinement, beaten, and imprisoned far from home in order to deny them support from visitations. Many were constantly shifted from prison to prison so that families did not know where they were.

The false indictments and convictions cost many their careers, their wives, their businesses, their homes. A young millionaire businessman lost his business and his wife. A medical student was disowned by his cowardly and stupid parents who fell for the bullshit fed to them. The abuses suffered by the J6 did not stop with their pardon. Had Gary Heavin and others not organized to meet the pardoned upon their release, some might have frozen to death. Some of the pardoned were released from prisons in the middle of nowhere in short pants into freezing temperatures without a cent and no ability to get to a safe place.

The stinking dirty Biden Regime and the gang of despicable criminals that comprised its Justice (sic) Department gave America FOUR YEARS of a Stalinist Gulag Archipelago. Pardons for their innocent victims is just the first step of restoring justice to America. All of those responsible for the “insurrection” hoax and convictions of innocent Americans must be hunted down, arrested, indicted, and convicted. If the Democrats’ criminal act of stealing a presidential election and then, in order to cover up their theft, refocusing attention on a concocted “insurrection” and falsely convicting 1,500 innocent Americans for something that never happened can escape accountability, Trump has no chance of making America great again.

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Cholesterol

 

 

BLDG 7

 

 

Horns

 

 

Owl

 

 

Eye color

 

 

Glass

 

 

Petrel

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 292025
 


Pablo Picasso Visage 1928

 

Biden Team Spent Aid Budget Like ‘Drunken Sailors’ – White House (RT)
Trump To Offer Buyouts To All Federal Workers (ZH)
Trump Executive Order Bans “Chemical And Surgical Mutilation” Of Children (ZH)
Homan Defends ICE Raids, Says He Will Carry Out Mission ‘Without Apology’ (JTN)
Trump Moves Undercut Dem Defense Of Biden (JTN)
Comer Launches Investigation Into Sanctuary Cities, Invites Mayors To Testify (JTN)
Biden Administration Tried To Kill Putin – Tucker Carlson (RT)
Kremlin Responds To Carlson’s Claim Biden Admin Tried To Kill Putin (ZH)
Ukrainian Energy Infrastructure On Verge Of Collapse – Forbes (RT)
Putin: Direct Talks With Zelensky, But He Can’t Sign Peace Deal (Sp.)
Ukraine Conflict Could End In Weeks – Putin (RT)
Is Trump Positioning For A “No-Deal” With Russia – Or Not? (Alastair Crooke)
Denmark Allows Russia’s Gazprom To Do Work On Damaged NS2 Pipeline (ZH)
Dancing to Trump’s Disco Inferno (Pepe Escobar)
How China Became Ideal Incubator for DeepSeek, US May Struggle to Follow (Sp.)
Trump: Let’s Make Money In Gaza But First Dump The Palestinians (Jay)

 

 

 

 

Trump morning

Phone

Bongino

Vivek
https://twitter.com/i/status/1884060637648806341

DOJ
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883991123104063851

Tucker Tulsi

TuckerTaibbi

 

 

 

 

 

 

New White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt starts off with some catchy language.

Biden Team Spent Aid Budget Like ‘Drunken Sailors’ – White House (RT)

The Biden administration spent the federal budget recklessly during its tenure, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday, defending President Donald Trump’s decision to temporarily freeze foreign aid.Speaking at a press briefing, Leavitt explained that Trump’s executive order, which suspends nearly all foreign aid expenditures for 90 days, is part of a broader effort to ensure fiscal responsibility and align spending with the administration’s “America First” agenda. “The past four years, we’ve seen the Biden administration spend money like drunken sailors. It’s a big reason we’ve had an inflation crisis in this country,” Leavitt said. Leavitt highlighted examples of what the Trump administration considers excessive spending under Biden. These include $37 million earmarked for the World Health Organization (WHO) and $50 million for condom distribution programs in Gaza.

“That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money,” she added. The freeze, she noted, reflects the administration’s commitment to responsible use of public funds. President Trump signed the executive order shortly after being sworn in for his second term last Monday. The measure halts foreign development aid and other spending for 90 days, pending reviews by the newly established Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Management and Budget. Some exemptions include military aid to allies like Israel and Egypt, as well as emergency food aid programs. Outlining the rationale for the freeze, Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged to prioritize programs that directly benefit the United States while cutting unnecessary expenditures. “Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” Rubio said last week.

The aid freeze has drawn criticism from some diplomats and organizations, particularly those involved in Ukraine-related programs. According to the Financial Times, several US diplomats have requested exemptions for critical development projects in Ukraine, even as military assistance to Kiev remains unaffected. These requests are reportedly under review. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the US has provided over $65 billion in direct military aid and an additional $100 billion for various Ukraine-related projects. Trump, however, has expressed skepticism about continuing such levels of support, advocating for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. His administration aims to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia within 100 days, backed by threats of increased sanctions against Moscow.

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“..56 percent of the civil service is covered under collective bargaining agreements that include telework provisions, while a full 10% of federal jobs are now designated as fully “remote..

Trump To Offer Buyouts To All Federal Workers (ZH)

Update (1750ET): According to CNBC, the buyout offer is for all 2 million federal workers. One senior administration official told the outlet that they expect 5-10% of the federal workforce to quit, which could lead to roughly $100 billion in savings.

* * *
In December, then-President-elect Donald Trump warned federal employees working from home that they would have to return to the office, or “they’re going to be dismissed.” Now, according to Axios, the Trump administration will send out a memo Tuesday afternoon offering to pay federal workers who don’t want to return to the office, in what would amount to an 8-month severance through Sept. 30, a White House official tells the outlet. “The government-wide email being sent today is to make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration’s plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards. We’re five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable,” said the anonymous senior administration official.

More via Axios: It’s not clear how many workers would be eligible for this offer, or how it would be paid for. According to guidance posted on OPMs website, in order to be eligible for severance pay workers must have completed at least “12 months of continuous service,” as well as meet other requirements. Political appointees aren’t eligible for severance, per the website. Many federal workers are already feeling scared about the administration’s crackdown on DEI, its return-to-office policy and the effort to reclassify civil servants. That unease could increase take-up on this new offer. Earlier on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president has the authority to fire federal employees. While that is true about at-will political appointees, federal workers have more protections.

Leavitt was defending Trump’s firings of at least a dozen agency inspectors general. During the pandemic, approximately 2.3 million federal employees shifted away from traditional office spaces. This shift was not just a temporary adjustment, but a transformational move that many hoped would persist post-pandemic due to its perceived benefits in work-life balance and reduced operational costs. The Biden administration, acknowledging these benefits, continued to support telework, facilitating the reduction of government-owned real estate and integrating flexible work arrangements into the fabric of federal employment. However, with Trump’s election, a quick pivot is on the horizon. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s call for a return to office has been met with resistance from federal employees and unions. Approximately 56 percent of the civil service is covered under collective bargaining agreements that include telework provisions, while a full 10% of federal jobs are now designated as fully “remote,” according to the Washington Post.

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The vast majority of Americans will agree with this, even Democrats.

Trump Executive Order Bans “Chemical And Surgical Mutilation” Of Children (ZH)

Hours after signing an executive order restricting transgender service in the US military, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order banning the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children, in a move that takes direct aim at pediatric gender transition treatments. The order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” yanks federal funding for so-called gender-affirming care. The EO prohibits federal funding, support, or promotion of pediatric ‘gender-affirming’ medical interventions. It outlines detailed measures across multiple federal departments, including Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice (DOJ), to curtail treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and gender-related surgeries for individuals under the age of 19. -Tampa Free Press. According to the report, the order includes:

• Defunding Medical Institutions: Federal research and education grants will be withheld from hospitals and schools performing pediatric gender-transition treatments.
• TRICARE Coverage Restrictions: The Department of Defense will exclude these treatments from military health insurance programs.
• Insurance Policy Changes: Federal Employee Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs will bar coverage for transgender-related pediatric surgeries or hormone treatments.
• Consumer Protection: The DOJ is directed to prioritize investigations into deceptive practices or misinformation regarding long-term effects of gender-affirming care, including potential fraud or violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing impressionable children,” reads the order, which describes such procedures as a “stain on our Nation’s history.” The order also calls for a comprehensive review of scientific evidence surrounding gender dysphoria, and calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to publish updated guidance within 90 days. The Trump administration will replace the existing standards – such as those issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which the order deems lacking in “scientific integrity,” the Free Press continues.

The executive order represents a significant escalation in the administration’s broader campaign to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as gender-related policies, in government and public life. It builds upon earlier executive actions restricting DEI programs and eliminating gender-affirming policies in federal agencies and education. The order also authorizes federal law enforcement agencies to challenge states that support gender-affirming care for minors or policies that strip parental custody over disputes involving a child’s medical treatment. It tasks the DOJ with drafting legislation to allow parents and children affected by such procedures to file lawsuits against medical professionals. -Tampa Free Press. And of course, we’re sure it’s only a matter of hours before civil rights organizations file lawsuits to allow parents and doctors to continue abusing confused children.

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“This, what happened on the southern border the last four years, is the biggest national security threat this country’s seen, at least in my lifetime.”

Homan Defends ICE Raids, Says He Will Carry Out Mission ‘Without Apology’ (JTN)

New border czar Tom Homan on Monday defended the immigration raids that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers carried out over the weekend, and said he will continue to carry out the raids “without apology.” Actress Selena Gomez posted a tearful video online Monday, which has since been deleted, where she apologized to her fans for the mass deportations, claiming she wished she could do something for the children impacted by the raids. Homan told Fox News that he was not aware of families being deported, and that the administration was focused on deporting national security and public safety threats. “Look, President [Donald] Trump won the election on this one issue: securing our border and saving lives,” Homan said. “This, what happened on the southern border the last four years, is the biggest national security threat this country’s seen, at least in my lifetime.”

Homan said he expects that the continued operations will result in lethal fentanyl overdoses decreasing, a decrease in crimes by illegal immigrants, and a decrease in sex trafficking. “We’re going to do this job. And we’re going to enforce the laws of this country. If they don’t like it, then go to Congress and change the law. We’re going to do this operation without apology. We’re going to make our communities safer,” Homan said. “It’s all for the good of this nation, and we’re going to keep going. No apologies. We’re moving forward.” The comment comes after ICE and a small handful of other federal agencies conducted raids over the weekend that resulted in the arrests of more than 2,000 people, including nearly 1,000 on Sunday.

Homan

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“Absolutely massive cleanup effort is underway in western North Carolina today!”“The Army Corps of Engineers are everywhere!”“Why didn’t Joe Biden do this 4 months ago?”

Trump Moves Undercut Dem Defense Of Biden (JTN)

President Donald Trump’s whirlwind first week back in office has seen him move decisively to lock down the southern border, implement mass deportations, wrap up Middle Eastern conflicts, and deliver aid to storm-ravaged parts of the U.S., leaving many to ask why now-former President Joe Biden didn’t make the same moves months ago. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly blamed Trump for torching a bipartisan immigration bill and insisted that the commander-in-chief could not move to secure the border without support from Congress. Trump rebutted that the president had broad executive authority on the matter and didn’t require any new legislation.

Biden also drew flak for his response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated western North Carolina and saw thousands of people lose their homes. The perceived sluggish and allegedly politicized handling of the disaster in light of the region’s Republican tilt fueled outrage among the residents and outside observers alike. In the Levant, moreover, the last days of the Biden presidency saw Israel and Hamas reach a ceasefire agreement to end the more-than-year-long conflict in the Gaza Strip, but only after then-President-elect Trump dispatched his own envoys to push the deal over the finish line. Most of the agreement’s terms fell within a previously-negotiated framework. The rapid, post-election turnaround on these keynote issues has many conservatives insisting that Biden had merely opted not to address the issues and that leaving them unresolved had simply been deliberate.

Since launching his 2016 campaign, Trump has focused on illegal immigration and vowed to crack down at the border, including by building a wall. The Biden administration saw more than 10 million people enter the U.S. illegally, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures. In 2024, Democrats worked with Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., to negotiate an immigration reform package that would have established an illegal crossings threshold for the Department of Homeland Security to implement stringent border controls. Republicans asserted that the bill essentially condoned a predetermined amount of illegal immigration and did little of substance. Lankford received widespread criticism over his perceived negotiating failure and Trump urged Republicans to sink the bill, which they did. Its failure led Democrats to blame Trump repeatedly for the border influx and insist he had undermined a credible solution to permit him to run on fixing the problem.

Amid debate on the bill, which occurred three years into the four-year term, Biden himself said it would “give me as president, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control… If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.” At the time, Republican lawmakers dissented, arguing that Biden already had the authority to address the issue. “Anyone who says Biden needs new laws to stop the migrant crisis is a liar. The law RIGHT NOW says if the President finds that the entry of any aliens would be detrimental to the U.S. he can “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens,” then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said at the time.

The bill did not pass, however, and Trump has moved to seal the border without so-called “emergency authority.” Footage from Trump’s first day in office showed border officials blocking ports of entry and declaring that anyone attempting to enter the U.S. would face arrest. He also deactivated the CBP One app, which Biden’s DHS had used to process illegal entrants. On Sunday alone, moreover, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported 956 arrests of illegal aliens, including many violent offenders. The agency had arrested 1,300 by Thursday, according to NewsNation. “The Biden admin knew exactly who these criminal illegal aliens were and where they lived. ICE was not allowed to make the arrests until President Trump entered office,” posted Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, in response to a video showing the arrest of a criminal illegal alien from Haiti.

Hurricane Helene proved devastating to western North Carolina in the leadup to the presidential election. The mountainous region rarely faces storms of that degree and was ill-prepared to handle the large-scale flooding that washed away entire towns, such as Chimney Rock. The death toll cleared 200 in early October, making it the deadliest storm to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. High-profile figures such as Elon Musk took aim at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), contending it was blocking aid to the storm victims. Biden visited the Carolinas on the heels of a Trump trip to northwestern Georgia the same week and authorized the deployment of 1,000 troops to aid in the recovery effort.

Nonetheless, Biden faced blowback over his perceived failure of leadership, especially from now-Vice President JD Vance, who criticized the slow deployment of the 82nd Airborne to the region. “The 82nd Airborne is an hour away from western North Carolina, and it took six days to get them there,” he said in Greensboro while on campaign. “That doesn’t happen without a failure of leadership, but we gotta get to the bottom of exactly what that failure of leadership looked like.” Trump speedily deployed additional forces to the region to bolster rebuilding efforts and visited the area during his first week in office. Monday saw residents observe a large presence of federal troops working to rebuild key infrastructure and provide relief. “Absolutely massive cleanup effort is underway in western North Carolina today!” posted Matt Van Swol, a resident of the area who has documented the recovery efforts on social media. “The Army Corps of Engineers are everywhere!”“Why didn’t Joe Biden do this 4 months ago?” he asked.

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“The investigation is looking into the policies of sanctuary cities when it comes to federal immigration enforcement..”

Comer Launches Investigation Into Sanctuary Cities, Invites Mayors To Testify (JTN)

House Oversight Chairman James Comer on Monday launched an investigation into sanctuary cities, requesting documents and communications related to their policies and their impact on public safety. Comer sent the requests to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and invited the mayors to testify in front of the committee on Feb. 11. The investigation is looking into the policies of sanctuary cities when it comes to federal immigration enforcement. Sanctuary cities have largely promised not to work with the federal government in order to protect their illegal alien residents from deportation.

“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States and their impact on public safety and the effectiveness of federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws of the United States,” Comer said in a statement. “Sanctuary jurisdictions and their misguided and obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities, making Americans less safe,” he added.

Adams has expressed a willingness to work with the Trump administration to deport illegal immigrants who commit dangerous crimes in his city, and previously met with Trump and his border czar Tom Homan to discuss the migrant crisis. Trump has also recently signed a flurry of executive orders that crack down on illegal immigration. “In addition to the efforts of the Trump Administration to ensure federal immigration enforcement can proceed unimpeded, Congress must determine whether further legislation is necessary to enhance border security and public safety,” Comer said. “It is imperative that federal immigration law is enforced and that criminal aliens are swiftly removed from our communities.”

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“Who takes over Russia? What happens to the nuclear arsenal in a country so complex that outsiders can’t even understand… That’s demented that you would even think about something like that..”

Biden Administration Tried To Kill Putin – Tucker Carlson (RT)

The administration of former US President Joe Biden tried to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Ukraine conflict, American journalist and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has claimed. In an interview with journalist Matt Taibbi on Monday, Carlson suggested that many former and current US officials have been rattled by President Donald Trump’s campaign to declassify numerous government papers, as they see the potential fallout as extremely dangerous. “I think this was one of the reasons [ex-Secretary of State] Tony Blinken was pushing so hard for a real war, trying to kill Putin, for example… The Biden administration did [it], they tried to kill Putin,” Carlson said, without providing any further details about the alleged assassination plot.

Carlson, who broadcast a bombshell interview with Putin last February, described the alleged move as “insane,” pointing to the potentially cataclysmic fallout for global security. “Who takes over Russia? What happens to the nuclear arsenal in a country so complex that outsiders can’t even understand… That’s demented that you would even think about something like that,” he added. US officials have never publicly acknowledged plans to assassinate Putin, or any other Russian or Soviet leaders. However, Newsweek reported in September 2022 that US defense officials had discussed a “decapitation strike” if Russia used nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly denied that such an option has ever been on the table, arguing that there are no targets in the neighboring country for such a weapon.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov interpreted the allegations of a “decapitation strike,” as “a threat to assassinate the head of the Russian state.” “If such ideas are really being considered, those involved must carefully think about the possible consequences,” he said at the time. In May 2023, Russia accused Ukraine – which has received massive aid from the US – of attempting to assassinate Putin in the Kremlin using a drone strike, although the aircraft was neutralized. While Ukraine has denied any involvement, Blinken said at the time that Washington had no prior warning of the raid, adding that Kiev was free to defend itself in any way it saw fit.

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..Antony Blinken had pushed for a “real war” with Russia and that the Biden administration sought to “kill Putin.”

“Russian President Vladimir Putin is well protected from any potential threats..”

Kremlin Responds To Carlson’s Claim Biden Admin Tried To Kill Putin (ZH)

Tucker Carlson has unleashed international controversy this week when in an interview with journalist Matt Taibbi, Carlson claimed that former Secretary of State Antony Blinken had pushed for a “real war” with Russia and that the Biden administration sought to “kill Putin.” The former Fox News host described the plot as madness and insanity on the part of the prior Democratic administration. However, Carlson didn’t offer specifics or any evidence. Carlson stated firmly that the Biden White House “was pushing so hard for a real war, trying to kill Putin, for example… The Biden administration did [it], they tried to kill Putin.” Watch the clip with Carlson and Taibbi:

Last February Carlson went to Moscow to interview Putin one-on-one, and it’s unclear whether the Russian leader may have conveyed some specific information at that time. On Tuesday, the Kremlin responded to what was said in the Carlson interview, and the statements were cryptic and vague, neither confirming nor denying the claim of an assassination plot. Below is a Russian media summary of the Kremlin response: “Russian President Vladimir Putin is well protected from any potential threats, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. He was responding to a claim by American journalist Tucker Carlson that the administration of former US President Joe Biden planned to assassinate the Russian leader. …The conservative journalist did not provide any details of the alleged plot. However, he denounced the purported plan as “insane,” considering the power vacuum it would create in Russia and the potential for Moscow’s vast nuclear arsenal to end up in the wrong hands.”

Asked to comment on Carlson’s remarks on Tuesday, Peskov would neither confirm nor deny US attempts to target Putin, nor reveal any knowledge of such plans by officials in Washington in the past. “Russian security services continuously take all necessary measures to ensure public safety and the safety of those under state protection. First and foremost, the head of state,” he told reporters. There was a past drone attack out of Ukraine which hit a building of the Moscow Kremlin complex. At that time it was seen as targeting Russian leadership, but it’s not clear that this episode is what Carlson had in mind. Carlson seemed to be saying something more significant was afoot – that Washington was will to risk a ‘decapitation strike’ or operation, perhaps especially if something like a Russian nuclear launch was imminent or likely. But if such a plan was an ‘option’ – it would be highly classified and the Biden admin wouldn’t want it to get out. If there had been such a secretive plot, it’s possible that President Trump could confirm or reveal it at a future date.

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“According to the International Energy Agency and the Office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Ukraine now has just one-third or less of its pre-war capacity.”

Ukrainian Energy Infrastructure On Verge Of Collapse – Forbes (RT)

Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is reportedly nearing collapse following sustained Russian attacks, according to a report by Forbes on Monday. The article by energy analyst Gaurav Sharma suggested that the country’s power grid has suffered severe damage and will require billions of dollars to repair. Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October 2022, shortly after the bombing of the Crimean Bridge, for which Kiev claimed responsibility. Moscow has since conducted a number of large-scale strikes on the country’s power grid with the aim of crippling Kiev’s military-industrial complex, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which has maintained that its strikes are not directed at civilians.

In early 2024, Moscow also added Ukrainian power plants to its list of legitimate military targets as a response to Kiev’s continued drone incursions in Russian territory, which have targeted Russian energy infrastructure as well as residential areas. In its latest article on the state of Ukraine’s energy system, Forbes specifically highlighted a large-scale attack that Russia carried out on December 25. It involved more than 170 missile and drone strikes, causing extensive damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Sharma described the attack as a major blow to the grid, which had already been weakened by previous strikes.

It is believed that Ukraine’s power capacity had already been cut in half due to Russia’s continued attacks by the beginning of 2024. Some 6GW of capacity was also lost after Moscow took over the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant at the beginning of the conflict. In subsequent attacks in March and May 2024, Kiev is believed to have lost another 9GW of power generation capacity. According to the International Energy Agency and the Office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Ukraine now has just one-third or less of its pre-war capacity.

Forbes noted that, while Kiev has not officially confirmed that its power systems are “on their knees,” it is “hard” to draw any other conclusion. The outlet added that, while efforts to repair the damage are ongoing, the scale of destruction has made full restoration difficult and costly. According to Forbes, citing sources in Kiev, the cost of the damage to Ukraine’s power infrastructure is thought to be in the region of $15 billion to $20 billion. This, coupled with the Ukrainian energy industry’s financial losses, means the total cost of reconstruction could reach $70 billion, according to the outlet.

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1/ Putin won’t be part of the talks, he’ll send underlings.
2/ Russia’s been cheated before.

Putin: Direct Talks With Zelensky, But He Can’t Sign Peace Deal (Sp.)

Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree outlawing peace negotiations with Moscow in 2022, months after the West sabotaged a ready peace treaty to pursue an all-out proxy war against Russia. President Putin has expressed readiness to find negotiators to speak directly with Volodymyr Zelensky. “If he wants to take part in negotiations, I will select such people, it’s not an issue. The question is about the final signing of the documents,” Putin said in a TV interview Tuesday, noting that Zelensky’s legitimacy has expired, and he therefore “does not have the right to sign anything.” Under Ukrainian law, the end of the president’s term means his powers are transferred to the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada parliament, and in accordance with the Constitution, even martial law does not give him the right to extend his authority, Putin said.

Zelensky’s powers officially ran out last spring, but he remained in office after cancelling elections, citing martial law. “On the question of the final signing of the documents…there cannot be a single mistake or wrinkle. Everything must be polished,” Putin emphasized. Furthermore, direct talks cannot start if Zelensky does not lift his self-imposed ban, Putin said. “If there is a desire, any legal question can be resolved. So far, we simply don’t see such a desire” from the Ukrainian side, the president said. “Negotiations factually began immediately after the start of the Special Military Operation. Initially, we told the Ukrainian leadership at the time that the people of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics don’t want to be part of Ukraine. Leave these territories, and that’s it, that’s where it ends. No fighting, no war,” Putin said.

The Ukrainian side rejected these terms, but Russia nevertheless agreed to talks. “This was at the end of February 2022,” Putin recalled. Russia was prepared to implement the peace deal reached in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, “even though there were things [in the draft deal, ed.] which we had issues with,” Putin revealed. “Nevertheless, I agreed that we were ready to implement this document. And on March 15 or 16 we informed Kiev that we were ready to refine and sign this document. There was practically nothing to change there,” he said. “Somewhere near the end of March [2022, ed.] we received a proposal from Kiev – the one with the signature of the head of the Ukrainian negotiations group, Mr. Arakhamia. And it was these Ukrainian proposals – I want to emphasize this, it’s very important, that formed the basis of the draft peace treaty developed at Istanbul,” Putin said.

The draft agreements also “had a small point proposed for consideration by the Ukrainian side on a personal meeting between the two presidents. I agreed to this,” Putin added.Russia also sent signals to Kiev’s Western sponsors, including now former US president Joe Biden, Putin said, saying he had made clear that “if they had a desire…to achieve peace, the path was very simple.” Today, Putin said, Ukraine’s sovereignty is “almost nil,” and without foreign sponsorship and weapons, the present conflict would “end in a month and a half or two months.” Putin also commented on Zelensky’s claims that he banned negotiations after the Russian military was stopped at the gates of Kiev in early 2022, pointing out that Russian forces withdrew voluntarily as an act of good faith for the sake of the peace treaty being negotiated in Istanbul, many months before Zelensky implemented his ban in October 2022.

“For us it was clear in principle that deception was a serious risk. Russia has been deceived in a similar manner for decades: they say one thing, they do something completely different,” Putin said. “Nevertheless, based on considerations of the need to prevent the bloodshed associated with a serious war, we agreed, and began to withdraw troops from Kiev at the end of March.” Subsequently, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson flew to Kiev on NATO’s behest to tell Zelensky to scrap the peace plan, and Ukrainian and Western media blew up the Bucha Massacre controversy, accusing Russian forces of slaughtering unarmed Ukrainian civilians in a suburb of Kiev to justify continued fighting and Western support. Follow-up investigations revealed that the civilians killed at Bucha were murdered by Ukrainian neo-Nazi forces sent in to punish locals accused of ‘collaborating’ with Russian forces.

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“..without such a step, any proposed negotiations would be as illegitimate as Vladimir Zelensky..”

Ukraine Conflict Could End In Weeks – Putin (RT)

The Ukraine conflict could end in two months of Kiev is deprived of the money and ammunition it depends on to continue fighting, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Speaking to reporter Pavel Zarubin on Tuesday, Putin was asked about the possibility of a negotiated end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “They can’t exist without their Western sponsors. They won’t last a month if the money and ammunition run out,” Putin told Zarubin. “Everything can be over in a month and a half to two months. Ukraine practically has no sovereignty, in that sense,” the Russian president added. According to Putin, if Kiev’s western backers truly want peace, “this is very easy to do,” adding that Moscow has already spelled out its terms very clearly.

Kiev can signal its willingness to talk by canceling the decree banning all negotiations with Russia, Putin said. He explained that without such a step, any proposed negotiations would be as illegitimate as Vladimir Zelensky, whose presidential mandate expired last spring. The US and other backers of Ukraine have channeled more than $200 billion in aid to Kiev, ranging from weapons, equipment, and ammunition, to cash payments for the salaries of government employees and pensions. The Kremlin has pointed to this support as making the West “de facto a party to the conflict,” which both Washington and Brussels have officially denied.

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Trump has a short window to get out and blame it all on Biden. Very short by now.

Is Trump Positioning For A “No-Deal” With Russia – Or Not? (Alastair Crooke)

Trump’s rhetoric about Russia having lost 1 million men in the Ukraine conflict is not just nonsense (the real number not even reaching 100,000), but his resort to it underlines that the usual meme of Trump being just woefully misinformed is looking less and less plausible. After touting the 1 million Russian deaths, Trump then suggests that Putin is destroying Russia by not making a deal. Adding (seemingly as an aside), that Putin may have already made up his mind ‘not to make a deal’. Instead, in a curiously disinterested way, Trump remarks that negotiations would depend entirely on whether Putin is interested or not. He further claims that Russia’s economy is in ruins, and most notably says that he would consider sanctioning or tariffing Russia, if Putin does not make a deal. In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump writes, “I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR”.

This – plainly said – is a narrative of an entirely different order: No longer is it his Envoy Kellogg or another team member saying it; it is Trump’s own words as President. Trump answers a journalist’s question ‘Would [he] sanction Russia’ should Putin not come to the negotiating table? To which he responds, “that sounds likely”. What, we might ask, is Trump’s strategy? It seems more as though it is Trump that is preparing for a ‘no deal’. He must be aware that Putin repeatedly has made plain that he is both interested and open to talks with Trump. There is no doubt about that. Yet Trump subsequently contradicts the ‘loser discourse’ in yet another apparent after-thought: “I mean … it’s a big machine so, eventually things will happen …”. Here he appears to be saying that the Russian ‘big machine’ ultimately will win. Russia will be a winner – and not a loser.

Maybe Trump is thinking simply to let the dynamics of the military ‘trial of strength’ play out. (If that is his thinking, he cannot utter such sentiment out loud – explicitly – as the Euro-élites would sink even further into a pathological tailspin). Alternatively, were Trump to be seriously seeking productive negotiations with Putin, it is certainly not a good way to start by being deeply disrespectful towards the Russian people – depicting them and President Putin as ‘losers’ who desperately need a deal; whereas the reality was that it was Trump who earlier had touted getting a deal within 24 hours. His disrespect will rankle – not just with Putin – but for most Russians. The ‘loser narrative’ simply will stiffen Russian opposition to a Ukraine compromise.

The backdrop is that Russia in any case collectively eschews the idea of any compromise that “boils down to freezing the conflict along the line of engagement: that will give time to rearm the remnants of the Ukrainian army, and then start a new round of hostilities. So, that we have to fight again, but this time from less advantageous political positions”, as Professor Sergei Karaganov has noted. Moreover, “the Trump administration has no reason to negotiate with us on the terms we [Russia] have set. The war is economically beneficial to the U.S. … and [possibly] also to removing Russia as the powerful strategic support of America’s main competitor ? China”. Professor Dmitri Trenin similarly predicts that,

“Trump’s bid to secure a ceasefire along Ukraine’s battle lines will fail. The American plan ignores Russia’s security concerns and disregards the root causes of the conflict. Meanwhile, Moscow’s conditions will remain unacceptable to Washington, as they would effectively mean Kiev’s capitulation and the West’s strategic defeat. In response Trump will impose additional sanctions on Moscow. Despite strong anti-Russian rhetoric, U.S. aid to Ukraine will decrease, shifting much of the burden onto Western European nations”. So why cast Russia as contemptible ‘losers’, unless this forms Trump’s strategy for walking away from the Ukraine issue? If a clear-cut U.S. ‘victory narrative’ seems beyond reach, then why not invert the narrative?‘Mission accomplished’ being obstructed solely by Russia’s ‘loser streak’.

This inevitably leads to the question of what is the meaning – exactly – of the return of America’s “most famous criminal defendant to the White House”, and his promise of a “revolution of common sense”? “There is no doubt that it is revolutionary”, Matt Taibbi argues: “Trump galvanized [income mal-distribution] resentment, creating a political Sherman’s march that left institutional America smouldering. The corporate press is dead. The Democratic Party is in schism. Academia is about to swallow a giant bottle of bitter pills, and after the executive orders signed Monday: a lot of DEI instructors will have to learn to code” [i.e., will be unemployed].

Yes, Taibbi observes, “it makes me nervous to see a murderer’s row of censorious CEOs (particularly Bezos, Pinchai, and the repulsive Cook) sitting in front of Trump, together with other Wall Street luminaries … nonetheless, if the deal was support for Trump in exchange for platforms going back to being merely self-interested profit-gobblers, I’ll take it over the previous cabal. The Wall Street Journal was probably closest to capturing the essence of that idea of the event with yesterday’s header, “The New Oligarchy is a Vast Improvement on the Old””.

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Trump must have agreed with this?!

Denmark Allows Russia’s Gazprom To Do Work On Damaged NS2 Pipeline (ZH)

In a very unexpected development Denmark is now working directly with Russia’s Gazprom to do environmental mitigation on the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, in the wake of the multiple underwater blasts that took them offline on September 26, 2022 – leading to years of accusations against Moscow and a Russia-West tit-for-tat. Denmark’s energy agency has granted Nord Stream 2 AG (which is under Gazprom) permission to engage in preservation work on Nord Stream 2 in the Baltic Sea. The agency described that there remain serious safety risks after the natural gas pipeline was filled with seawater and the remnants of natural gas. “The work aims to preserve the damaged pipeline by installing customized plugs at each of the open pipe ends to prevent further gas blow-out and the introduction of oxygenated seawater,” Denmark’s energy agency said.

The $11 billion pipeline project to pump Russian gas to Germany was hugely contentious for years, with Washington opposing it, before it was blown up in a ‘mysterious’ sabotage operation. The Western mainstream media has since backed off its repeat accusations that Moscow must have blown up its own vital pipeline, in light of revelations and a recent consensus that it was either a team of Ukrainian specialists on a ‘rogue’ yacht or else a major CIA op with help from the US Navy. While Scandinavian countries were once leading the accusations and investigations against Moscow related to the sabotage, suddenly Denmark appears to be working with ‘pariah’ Russia. All of this is happening as Washington still has far-reaching sanctions on Russia as well as the NS2 Russian operator, Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2 AG.

“The damaged line of NS2 is estimated to still contain approximately 9-10 million cubic meters of natural gas, while the intact line remains filled with gas, the Danish agency said,” Reuters notes. “The United States in December issued further sanctions on the operator and other Russian entities saying it considers Nord Stream 2 a Russian geopolitical project and opposes efforts to revive it,” the report adds. This has raised the crucial question of whether the Russian entity’s supposed environmental mitigation efforts are but cover to eventually revive the controversial project. This brings up other questions of context and timing. After all, the Danish government is currently locked in a very public battle and war of words with the new Trump administration over Greenland’s sovereignty. Is the tiny NATO country of Denmark in search of any and all possible leverage?

From close US ally to lashing out… And given the Ukraine war increasingly seems unwinnable from the Western perspective, is it time for a European reset vis-a-vis Russia and its heavily relied upon natural gas? The following hit Politico on Tuesday: “France has discussed with Denmark sending troops to Greenland in response to United States President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex the Danish territory, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said. Asked about calls to send EU troops to Greenland, Barrot said in an interview with France’s Sud Radio that France had “started discussing [troop deployment] with Denmark,” but that it was not “Denmark’s wish” to proceed with the idea. Barrot’s comments came as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was in the middle of a lightning tour of European capitals to drum up support from allies in dealing with Trump.”

Essentially, at the very moment Denmark is trying to “drum up support” within Europe to stand up to Trump, the Danish government goes from condemning Russia’s sanctioned Gazprom to working with it and authorizing it to do work on NS2. But likely there will be a shrug from the White House, given the current broader context is Trump is trying to get Moscow to the negotiating table in hopes of quickly winding down the Ukraine war.

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Long from Pepe. This is just a small part.

Dancing to Trump’s Disco Inferno (Pepe Escobar)

Now to the war against the Global Majority. Inestimable Prof. Michael Hudson is adamant: in an absolutely must read essay, he concisely explains that “when Trump promised his voters that the United States must be the ‘winner’ in any international trade or financial agreement, he is declaring economic war on the rest of the world.” The key Hudson take away: If nations in the Global South are to save their economy “from being plunged into austerity, price inflation, unemployment and social chaos”, they will have to “suspend payments on foreign debts denominated in dollars.” It’s a work in progress: “Circumstances…are forcing the world to break away from the US-centered financial order.

The US dollar’s exchange rate is going to soar in the short term as a result of Trump blocking imports with tariffs and trade sanctions. This exchange-rate shift will squeeze foreign countries owing dollar debts in the same way that Mexico and Canada are to be squeezed. To protect themselves, they must suspend dollar debt service.” There may be serious problems ahead for Mr. Disco Inferno: “Trump’s America First political theater that got him elected may get his gang unseated as the contradictions and consequences of their operating philosophy are recognized and replaced. His tariff policy will accelerate US price inflation and, even more fatally, cause chaos in US and foreign financial markets. Supply chains will be disrupted, interrupting US exports of everything from aircraft to information technology. And other countries will find themselves obliged to make their economies no longer dependent on US exports or dollar credit.”

Prof. Hudson notes how Trump “thinks that the US economy is like a cosmic black hole, that is, a center of gravity able to pull all the world’s money and economic surplus to itself. That is the explicit aim of America First. That is what makes Trump’s program a declaration of economic war on the rest of the world. There is no longer a promise that the economic order sponsored by US diplomacy will make other countries prosperous. The gains from trade and foreign investment are to be sent to and concentrated in America.” The EU, in the Global North, is even more vulnerable to “America First”. Davos came and went with a mere blip on the screen, apart from the odd US banker bragging about “peak pessimism” in Europe – linked to the incoming Trump tariff tsunami – and head of the European Central Bank Christine “Look at my new Hermes scarf” Lagarde wondering it was “not pessimistic” to say that Europe is facing an “existential crisis”.

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Trump offers Ellison and Altman et al $500 billion to make AI cheaper. Sounds like a joke, but they mean it. Now Oracle and OpenAI are not focused on cheap fast AI, but on what to do with all that money. With $500 billion on the table, why do it for $50 billion, even if you could?! And where’s Elon?

How China Became Ideal Incubator for DeepSeek, US May Struggle to Follow (Sp.)

The seemingly out-of-nowhere rise of Chinese dark horse AI language model DeepSeek has tanked US tech stocks, with President Trump calling it “a wake up call for our industries that we should be laser focused on competing to win.” A leading technology expert tells Sputnik why may be easier said than done. “In a nutshell, China’s advances in AI highlight that tech leadership is not a birthright of the West anymore,” veteran independent cybersecurity expert and digital strategy advisor Lars Hilse said, commenting on DeepSeek’s emergence overnight to trump all of America’s most advanced large language models in coding, complex problem-solving and analysis benchmarks.

Hilse says China’s large language model breakthrough was made possible by: the state’s timely 2017 Next Generation AI Development Plan, “which prioritizes AI as a critical area for economic and tech dominance,” “China’s vast population, and digitized ecosystem generating unparalleled amounts of data, which is essential for training sophisticated AI models,” a “talent pipeline” assured by China’s “heavy investment into STEM education”, allowing companies like DeepSeek to pick from a pool of candidates “without compromising cutting edge R&D and cost efficiency, prioritization of software optimization, semiconductor production and chip stockpiling amid US restrictions. Globally, Hilse said, the model’s popularity stems from its open source nature, which can’t be said about its competitors.

Ultimately, the US now faces the prospect of a “fragmented global tech order,” and China setting tech standards in emerging markets, “which in turn erode both economic as well as ideological influence,” the observer said. Accordingly, “the upcoming decade will test whether the West can sustain its innovation edge or whether the sanction-induced improvisation efforts of China will yield technological dominance.” “Rapid scaling, state-backed resource mobilization – and most importantly – the adaptive resilience under pressure created by sanctions” – these are the factors that made DeepSeek’s success possible, Hilse said.

“Now, the US clearly retains advantages in creativity and foundational research but has to (like the West in general) chronic under-investment in manufacturing and infrastructure, fragmented policy and corporate thinking as well as over-reliance on sanctions as a ‘Swiss Army knife’, which in this case, too backfired in that it put China under pressure to improvise. Whether the US will win this race will depend on whether they can unify its entrepreneurial culture with strategic industrial policy, like Trump’s ‘Stargate’ initiative, and whether China can in that time transition from a fast follower to an actual pioneer in global tech standards,” the observer summed up.

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Jordan and Egypt don’t want 1,5 million Palestinians. But they get a lot of US aid money.

Reminder: the official policy is still the two-state solution.

Trump: Let’s Make Money In Gaza But First Dump The Palestinians (Jay)

Trump’s serendipity is the only thing geopolitical analysts can bet on as if there’s one thing we can all agree that we can predict with certainty about how he will resolve all the world’s problems, is that he will not be predictable. He relies heavily on his own instincts and vanities and sees opportunity everywhere. His unfettered support for Netanyahu’s genocide might just yet still shock his more die-hard supporters, given that he posted unflattering social media clips about the Israeli leader in December and yet is ready to throw his weight behind Israel’s bolder ambitions of wiping every Palestinian off the surface of Israel. The big plan is no longer a conspiracy theory.

As months went by and the whole world witnessed the breathtaking depravity of Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinians – at least 100,000 by even the most conservative estimates – some, like myself, were bold enough live on TV to suggest that it seemed that the big plan was to completely eradicate Palestinians from Gaza, forcing neighboring countries to take what was left. For those of us who assumed this, we hoped we were wrong. And yet in the last couple of days, Trump has let the cat out of the bag and revealed this is in fact the plan, one which he supports – explaining perhaps why Netanyahu was never interested in discussing a two-state solution or what the make-up of an administration there might look like under the leadership of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Trump has suggested that neighboring Arab countries should take in Palestinian refugees and “clean out” the embattled Gaza. Speaking to journalists aboard Air Force One on 25th of January, Trump said he spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan about the war and was planning to speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the following day. “I’d like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, we just clean out that whole thing. It’s a real mess.” What is worrying about this statement is how the idea itself, which he must have supported all along, like so many feral schemes that seem to appear from nowhere, is based on Trump being very badly briefed about the Middle East. If he listens to his advisers at all, they should have told him that neither Jordan nor Egypt would ever entertain the idea of taking huge numbers of Palestinians under any circumstances.

Any two-bit hack in the region can tell you that the current situation in neighboring countries which have taken Palestinian refugees since 1948 is very bad for both the refugees themselves and for the host countries. In Lebanon, they are kept in ‘camps’ which are off limits, normally, to Lebanese police and security forces, where the UN gives them the bare minimum to eat and where terrorism is rife – creating an internal security problem for the state which often raises its ugly head now and again. In Jordan, the King already has a difficult job keeping his country on an even keel with the high percentage of Jordanians originating from Palestine, which brings its own challenges itself politically; the last thing King Abdullah needs is more of them arriving as refugees.

In Syria too, Palestinians have settled in camps and accepted they are third class citizens although it is less clear how the new leaders of the country – who are the most extreme terrorists stemming from ISIS – will treat them, given they are broadly aligned politically with them. The Trump bombshell is revealing. One the one hand the vitriol that Trump is happy to show against Netanyahu on social media is probably a sham – he has a track record of pretending to not like certain world leaders in front of the cameras while admiring them in private; and secondly, unlike what we are lead to believe, the old doctrine that Israel controls U.S. foreign policy is still true, perhaps even more so under Trump than Biden. The plan to level Gaza and then turn to the international community and say ‘hey, look it’s uninhabitable, there’s nothing there now…it would be inhumane to put people there’ is now looking more and more like official policy.

The only real question is how weak western countries will be in supporting this plan. Will the EU just follow U.S. foreign policy blindly like it always has done in the past? It’s unimaginable that Spain and Ireland would allow this genocide to be swept under the carpet so that Israel can rebuild from the ground up a new Gaza for even more illegal settlers, while a new Suez-like canal mega project is built to compete with Egypt’s, right? Is Trump going to be part of this cash cow? Trump 2.0 appears to be even more about finding the deal, than its former term in office. Is it that Trump is listening to his advisors? But their mandate is not to advise him on what’s best for America, just what’s best for him? Show me the deal.

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Ozempic

 

 

RFK

 

 

Gain of function
https://twitter.com/i/status/1884195491287560584

 

 

Carr

 

 

Flow

 

 

Herding

 

 

Sleep

 

 

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Jan 282025
 
 January 28, 2025  Posted by at 10:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  73 Responses »


Pablo Picasso The artist and his model 1926

 

A Cabinet of the Cancelled (Paul Craig Roberts)
US Army Needs Huge Shakeup – Vance (RT)
Trump Targets ‘Gender Ideology’ In The Military (RT)
Denmark Can’t Protect Greenland – Trump (RT)
Trumps Opens The War Against Russia From Greenland (Helmer)
The Trump Pardons Trigger Judicial Rage (Turley)
Russia Must Help Overthrow Europe’s Dangerous Political Elites (Karaganov)
DeepSeek Pulls Rug Out On Nvidia, ASML (ZH)
Trump Says He ‘Immediately Halted’ Hiring of New IRS Agents (ET)
Trump’s Agenda Will Force Foreign Leaders To Adopt Pro-Growth Policies (ZH)
Argentina’s Milei Attacks European Liberal ‘Epidemic’ (RT)
EU Prolongs Sanctions On Russia (RT)
Ukraine’s Top Spy Believes Country Could Cease To Exist (RT)
The CIA Report: A Low Confidence Finding is the Height of Hypocrisy (Turley)
Glug Glug. . . . (James Howard Kunstler)
Taibbi Hints FBI Communications With COVID Scientists Will Be Exposed (ZH)
Devalued Dollar Will Crash the DOW – Martin Armstrong (USAW)
The Nation That Liberated Auschwitz Is Being Excluded From Memory (Romanenko)

 

 


Mars

 

 

Tucker

NC

Homan

Ritter
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883841607566340255

Maidan 2014

Brennan

Historical course of WWII map sequence

Roger Ver

 

 

 

 

“During the next four years the fate of America’s constitutional order will be determined.”

A Cabinet of the Cancelled (Paul Craig Roberts)

Abigail Shrier writes in the City Journal that the members of Trump’s “Cabinet of the Cancelled” understand the danger of government coercion because they have experienced it firsthand. And so has Trump and thousands of his supporters. Shrier does a service by reminding us of the intense attempt of the Biden regime to revolutionize our society by attacking our principles and replacing a merit-based color-blind society with a status-based society of privileges based on race, gender, and sexual preference. The Biden regime weaponized law in order to cancel people who spoke truth to the regimes’ official narratives and to silence people by censoring and imprisoning them. 1,500 Trump supporters were sentenced for attending a rally, and right-to-life protesters were imprisoned for opposing a practice that during the first part of my life the law considered murder.

With Biden regime protection, Child Protective Services considered it child abuse for parents to oppose sex change operations or fail to use a child’s pronouns chosen for him by DEI propagandists at his public school, and children were seized from “abusive” parents. Large numbers of traditional Americans found themselves living in a dystopian novel. An effort was made to destroy the US military with DEI and mandated vaccination. Traditional military families turned their sons away from military service. Covid “vaccines” were forced on those who had too much sense to submit to vaccination with an untested experimental and known dangerous substance. The great horror of abortion advocates spread into the male population. Both genders lost control over their own bodies to coerced vaccination.

The examples are endless. Tulsi Gabbard was placed on a government watch list and subjected to airport harassment simply for being critical of the Biden regime. Stanford University Medical School professor Jay Bhattacharya was “cancelled” by social media companies at the insistence of the Biden regime’s Surgeon General. Elon Musk’s companies were targeted with regulatory harassment because he returned free speech to Twitter, now known as X. Skepticism expressed about the safety and effectiveness of the Covid “vaccine” got doctors fired, their medical licenses confiscated by utterly corrupt “medical boards” acting on Big Pharma’s orders under the protection of Fauci and the Biden FDA. Others who interfered with Big Pharma’s profits were branded “enemies of the people” and threatened with arrest.

Americans were not even permitted to object to males participating in female sports or to men gaining access to female locker rooms by self-declaring themselves to be women. During the Biden attack on America, the most serious crime was not treason or mass murder. The most serious crime was opposition to DEI. As I explained yesterday, the enemies arrayed against Trump and his supporters are in control of all American institutions, public and private. The federal bureaucracy is against him. His appointees must be culture warriors, because they are greatly outnumbered by a force that has been conducting culture war against America for decades.

The agenda of the Woke Democrats is no less than the revolutionary overthrow of the United States and its replacement with a race and gender status-based hierarchy in which white heterosexual males are second class citizens in law. White males who vote Democrat are endorsing their own demise and are the epitome of insouciant dumbshits. During the next four years the fate of America’s constitutional order will be determined.

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“We fought many wars over the last 40 years, but haven’t won a war about as long as I’ve been alive..”

US Army Needs Huge Shakeup – Vance (RT)

The US has failed to win a single war in several generations despite spending staggering sums of money on its army, Vice President J.D. Vance has said, calling for a major military overhaul. In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Vance defended the confirmation of Pete Hegseth as the new secretary of defense, which narrowly passed the Senate with a 50-50 tie broken by the vice president himself. Hegseth has faced criticism over his controversial public comments about Islam, limited leadership experience, and accusations of sexual assault, which he has denied. Vance described Hegseth as a “disruptor” and said he was the right person to usher in long-overdue change. “We fought many wars over the last 40 years, but haven’t won a war about as long as I’ve been alive,” Vance said.

“They’ve got us a military with a major recruitment crisis, a procurement price crisis that’s totally dysfunctional, where we buy airplanes for billions and billions of dollars, terrible cost overruns, the delivery dates are always delayed. So we need a big change,” he said. The US has “gotten into way too many wars that we don’t have a plan for winning,” Vance said, adding that “we have to really, top to bottom, change the way that we fund the procurement of weapons.” Hegseth “is the guy to lead the job,” he insisted, adding that the new secretary, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the one who sees “not through the perspective of the generals or the bureaucrats, [but] through the perspective of the men and women that we send off to fight.”

US President Donald Trump has vowed to end the current conflicts, having already credited himself with brokering the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, while vowing to prioritize domestic issues. Shortly after his inauguration, he ordered additional troops to the US-Mexico border to stave off the migration crisis. In November, the Pentagon failed its seventh consecutive audit, having been unable to fully account for its $824 billion budget. It has not passed a single audit since 2018, when it became a legal requirement to do so. However, officials have pointed to visible progress, promising to achieve a clean audit by 2028.

Hegseth


https://twitter.com/i/status/1883891120876478807

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“..moves to end attempts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

Trump Targets ‘Gender Ideology’ In The Military (RT)

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at removing “radical gender ideology” from the US armed forces. The order, titled ‘Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness’, was issued on Monday, just over a week after Trump’s inauguration, as part of a broader effort to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government. The order says that military service should be reserved for those who are mentally and physically fit for duty. It outlines a policy focusing on troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. “This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria,” the order states. “This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who narrowly won Senate approval last Friday, is tasked with implementing the directive. Within 60 days, Hegseth must revise medical standards for military service to align with the order’s objectives. Over the next month, he will set up a strategy to tackle the issues and submit it to Trump. The US will focus on “restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence,” Hegseth said in a message to the armed forces on Saturday. The executive order follows a series of actions by the new US president aimed at dismantling DEI programs within the federal government. On his first day back in office, he signed orders rolling back protections for transgender individuals and terminating DEI initiatives, describing these efforts as moves to end attempts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

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“They put two dog sleds there two weeks ago, they thought that was protection..”

If you’re a Greenlander, how much faith do you have in Denmark?

Denmark Can’t Protect Greenland – Trump (RT)

Denmark is not capable of adequately protecting its strategically important territory of Greenland, US President Donald Trump has claimed. Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Saturday, Trump appeared to ridicule the Danish plan to increase its military presence on the Arctic island. Trump first floated the idea of purchasing Greenland during his first term in office, and revived the idea following his victory in the presidential election on November 5. The US president has spoken of Greenland’s significance for US national security, refusing to rule out the use of military force to obtain it. Denmark has firmly rejected any suggestion that Greenland could be sold.Trump stated: “I do believe Greenland, we’ll get – because it really has to do with freedom of the world. It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom. [Denmark] can’t. They put two dog sleds there two weeks ago, they thought that was protection,” he said, as quoted by the Financial Times.

Trump was apparently referring to an announcement by Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen earlier this month. He said Copenhagen was planning to add two inspection vessels, two drones, and two dog sled patrols to its current force of 75 personnel, four ships, and a surveillance plane. “I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen,” Trump said over the weekend. He also claimed that the “people [of Greenland] want to be with us.” Speaking to local broadcaster TV2 on Sunday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized “how good an ally Denmark has been” to the US. The Nordic country is a NATO member state that participated in US-led military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Frederiksen also reiterated that Greenland was not for sale, and its population has an exclusive right to determine its future. According to a Financial Times report on Friday, citing several anonymous European officials, the US president and the Danish prime minister had a “horrendous” phone conversation earlier this month. Trump was reportedly “very firm” about his intention to purchase Greenland, threatening Denmark with tariffs if it continues to resist his bid. The confrontational tone of the phone call is said to have “freaked out” officials in Copenhagen, making them realize that Trump’s intentions were “serious.”

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Just check the maps..

Trumps Opens The War Against Russia From Greenland (Helmer)

In the two great battles whose outcomes turned a small, defensive Anglo-Saxon island into an offensive global empire, the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the Battle of Bosworth Field of 1485, the ruling English kings, Harold Godwinson and Richard III, launched downhill cavalry charges which almost overpowered the invading forces; almost reached the challengers William of Normandy and Henry Tudor; almost killed them. But Harold and Richard were killed instead; their kingdoms were captured. The lesson of those two cavalry charges led from the front by Harold and Richard has been erased in the story-telling which followed their deaths by the propagandists of William and Henry.

In the present battles with the US and the NATO allies on the Ukrainian battlefield, the Russians could provide an object lesson to the Danes on what they should expect to be done to them by President Donald Trump as he rushes to capture Greenland, confident that the threat of his charge will be enough to force the Danes to surrender, the Greenlanders to capitulate. Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen heard it for herself. “It was horrendous,” said one of the sources in Copenhagen after she and Trump had spoken by telephone last week. Another source has added: “He was very firm. It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous…It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”

This was what was heard and reported to a London newspaper. Prime Minister Fredericksen was shy; she told the Financial Times she does: “not recognise the interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources”. Officially, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman has declared Russia to be against both Fredericksen and Trump. Their claims, Maria Zakharova said last Thursday, “neglect the crux of the issue.” That, she explained, is the concerted Danish campaign to destroy the indigenous identity, culture, and reproduction of the Inuit Greenlanders, combined with the theft and poisoning of their land by US nuclear bomber and submarine bases. “Given the extensive history of colonial exploitation by Denmark and the United States, it is unsurprising that Greenland seeks independence and the establishment of a sovereign state,” Zakharova said.

No Russian currently engaged in the serious fighting against the US believes in displaying enthusiasm for either the cavalry charge or the parley. Instead, the Russians are preparing to fight Trump’s Greenland move as the opening of a new front to attack Russia from the north. The US plan of attack on the north front isn’t new with Trump. The recent history of that plan, retold from the Russian point of view, follows.

In the US Defense Department’s “2024 Arctic Strategy” paper, Russia is the principal target, along with Russian-Chinese cooperation in natural resource mining, trade and oil and gas shipping along the Northern Sea Route. “Major geopolitical changes are driving the need for this new strategic approach to the Arctic,” the paper declared, “including Russia’s full-scale [sic] invasion of Ukraine, the accession of Finland and Sweden to the NATO Alliance, increasing collaboration between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia, and the accelerating impacts of climate change. This increasingly accessible region is becoming a venue for strategic competition, and the United States must stand ready to meet the challenge alongside Allies and partners.”

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“Rhodes previously asked to speak to the House committee that investigated the riot, but the Democrat-controlled committee refused to allow it..”

The Trump Pardons Trigger Judicial Rage (Turley)

Even though President Trump had made it a campaign pledge to pardon those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, the roughly 1,500 pardons Trump issued on his first day produced familiar reactions from politicians and pundits. In Philadelphia, District Attorney Larry Krasner pledged to pursue those pardoned or commuted with new charges on the state level — eclipsing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in repackaging federal crimes as state offenses. Others cited the pardons as evidence of an even greater plot or purpose. On MSNBC, former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund head Sherrilyn Ifill declared that the pardons were all part of a plan to build an army of “brownshirts.” Not to be outdone, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) warned that Trump was issuing pardons to create a “reserve army of political foot soldiers to act on behalf of MAGA and Donald Trump.”

Such hyperbole, particularly the Nazi references, is now commonplace. Indeed, the left jumped the shark on the Nazi-mania and death-of-democracy mantra months ago. This week, however, some of the most strident comments seem to be coming from the federal bench itself. Indeed, some judges used dismissal hearings to launch into what seemed at points like cable-ready commentary. Take District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who had previously presided over Trump’s election interference case. Chutkan had been criticized for failing to recuse herself from that case after she made highly controversial statements about Trump from the bench. In a sentencing hearing of a Jan. 6 rioter in 2022, Chutkan said that the rioters “were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution.”

She added then, “[i]t’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.” That “one person” was still under investigation at the time and, when Trump was charged, Chutkan refused to let the case go. She then pursued Trump with a vigor second only to Special Counsel Jack Smith. In the latest hearing, Chutkan again decided to use the bench to amplify her own views of the pardons and Jan. 6. She proclaimed that the pardons could not change the “tragic truth” and “cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.” In fairness, judges often express the gravity of offenses at sentencing, and most of us certainly share the strong revulsion over what occurred on Jan. 6. However, these cases are being dismissed after an election whose winner explicitly pledged to close the prosecutions through executive clemency.

The defendant in her courtroom was there to have a required dismissal entered in his case, not to hear Judge Chutkan speaking truth to power. In this case, she is the power. It is the power to rule dispassionately on the specific case before her. It is not the power to hold court on the merits of presidential decisions. Down the hall, Chutkan’s colleague Judge Beryl Howell, also an Obama appointee, lashed out at Trump’s actions, writing, “[T]his Court cannot let stand the revisionist myth relayed in this presidential pronouncement.” Yet, all of that paled in comparison to what their colleague U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, also an Obama appointee, did with his Jan. 6 cases. He ordered J6 defendants to seek prior approval before going to Capitol Hill or even coming within any of the 69 square miles of the nation’s Capitol. Thus Mehta practically banished Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and seven other defendants.

It does not appear that the Trump Justice Department requested such restrictions, but Mehta was able to impose them because those defendants had received commutations rather than pardons. A commutation does not require the dismissal of a case, and courts are generally allowed to set conditions for released defendants. However, these are new conditions imposed after presidential commutations. More importantly, they could affect the exercise of First Amendment rights from free speech to free association to the right to petition the government. For example, Rhodes and others would have to disclose intended meetings with members of Congress or participation in political events. Rhodes previously asked to speak to the House committee that investigated the riot, but the Democrat-controlled committee refused to allow it. (A Yale law graduate, Rhodes insisted that the hearing be conducted in public, the very condition Hunter Biden made with the support of some of these same members.)

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“Western Europe.” By Professor Sergey Karaganov, honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow.

Russia Must Help Overthrow Europe’s Dangerous Political Elites (Karaganov)

Any outcome of the Ukraine conflict framed as a ‘compromise’ would be celebrated in the West as a victory and perceived as a failure by Russia. This must be avoided at all costs.

First, Russia must openly confront Western Europe’s historical culpability. It’s not the ‘garden’ its elites imagine but a field of fat weeds thriving on the blood of hundreds of millions it has enslaved, murdered, and robbed. Calling Western Europe out for its crimes – from colonialism to warmongering – legitimizes our potential use of nuclear deterrence as a justified response to aggression.

Second, Russia must emphasize the inevitability of nuclear escalation in any conflict between NATO and Russia. This message is essential not only to limit an arms race but also to underscore the futility of stockpiling conventional weapons that will be rendered irrelevant in a nuclear confrontation. NATO’s leaders must understand that they cannot avoid the consequences of their actions.

Third, we must continue advancing on the battlefield, destroying the enemy’s forces with relentless precision. However, it is equally critical to declare that Russia’s patience is finite. For every Russian soldier killed, we must make clear that a thousand Western Europeans will pay the price if their governments persist in waging war against us. The public over there must understand that their elites are preparing to sacrifice them, and nuclear weapons will not discriminate between soldiers and civilians. Western European capitals will be among the first targets of our retaliation.

Fourth, Russia must communicate to the Americans that their continued escalation of the Ukraine conflict will lead to catastrophic consequences. Should they persist, we will cross the nuclear Rubicon, targeting their allies and bases worldwide. Any non-nuclear response will provoke a nuclear strike on American soil. This clarity will force Washington to reconsider its reckless policies.

Fifth, we must strengthen our military capabilities while continuing to adjust our nuclear doctrine. If diplomacy fails, we must escalate decisively, demonstrating our readiness to use advanced weapons to defend Russia’s sovereignty and interests. While new technologies such as the Oreshnik missile system enhance our capabilities, they are no substitute for nuclear weapons, which remain the ultimate guarantor of our security.

Finally, Russia must offer the United States a dignified exit from its self-inflicted Ukrainian disaster. We have no desire to humiliate America but are prepared to help it extricate itself from this quagmire, provided it abandons its destructive policies. At the same time, Western Europe must be sidelined from global decision-making. It has become the primary threat to itself and the world.

If America withdraws, Ukraine’s defeat will follow swiftly. Russia will reclaim its rightful territories in the east and south, while a neutral, demilitarized state is established in central and western Ukraine. Those unwilling to live under Russian law will be free to relocate. Peace can only be achieved by removing Western Europe as a destabilizing force and addressing humanity’s broader challenges alongside the global majority.True peace will only come when Western Europe’s backbone is broken once more, as it was after Russia’s victories over Napoleon and Hitler. The current elites must be replaced by a new generation capable of engaging in constructive dialogue. Only then can Europe rejoin the world as a responsible partner, not a source of perpetual conflict. The stakes are clear: This is not just a battle for Russia’s future, but for the survival of human civilization as we know it.

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Overnight DeepSeek experienced a “large scale cyberattack”. They’ll be fine.

DeepSeek Pulls Rug Out On Nvidia, ASML (ZH)

There is only one topic on traders’ minds this morning that threatens to upend the multi-year AI bull trend driving chip stocks to record highs: the (extremely) cheaper Chinese DeepSeek response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as noted in an overnight piece titled “Goldman Asks If China’s DeepSeek is AI’s Sputnik Moment.” Bloomberg’s Mark Cudmore said earlier that the emergence of DeepSeek is terrific news for global growth and productivity. However, he cautioned that the new free, open-source large-language model undermines the massive premium paid for AI research and development by US mega-cap stocks, warning that this development could serve as a catalyst to end 15 years of US stock market exceptionalism. Perhaps the pin that bursts the AI stock bubble in the US. If so, watch out below…

The buzz over DeepSeek has stoked questions about the tens of billions of money big tech firms have spent on AI models and data centers, along with broader trends to upgrade aging power grids. As a result, chip designer Nvidia plunged 12% in premarket trading in New York, while Netherlands-based chip companies ASML and ASM International tumbled 10% and 15%, respectively. In Asia, Japanese chip-related stocks traded lower. Bitcoin was hammered lower. For Wall Street analysts, the developments raise serious questions about elevated valuations of AI-related stocks and Silicon Valley’s business model of massive research.”It does put a lot of scrutiny at the level of valuations,” said Benedicte Lowe, equity derivatives strategist at BNP Paribas Markets 360, adding, “We are quite positive on US tech stock sector. But it puts pressure on the outlook and is a turning point for the companies at this stage in the cycle.”

Jefferies analysts told clients, “Concerns have immediately emerged that it could be a disruptor to the current AI business model, which relies on high end chips and extensive computing power and hence energy.” Goldman’s Jeremy Elster offered his take on DeepSeek and market reaction:

“Only one topic to start the week, threatening to undermine much of the narrative driving eu industrials and cap goods ytd… DeepSeek .. I will defer to Privo’s take on the background this morning: “what makes DeepSeek important is not necessarily that it’s Chinese or rapidly ascended to one of the most popular downloads in the Apple App Store but that it appears quite a fundamental advancement in the efficiency of AI technology. For a lot of complicated reasons it’s basically a huge upgrade to effectiveness of inference. By some measurements, 40-50x more efficient than other models. If you can do more with less it naturally leads the question to whether you need so much capacity”…(note) => In industrials / cap goods, reactions this morning are mostly of the “shoot first” variety towards capex and power equipment plays in relevant and adjacent verticals. GSXEACDC -6% is unsurprisingly most impacted (SU most datacentre exposed,- see full list of exposures in piece from Friday here: link). Also seeing the contagion to semi-cap (Atlas Copco, VAT Group).”

In a separate Goldman note, analyst Francois Theis market outlined the DeepSeek reaction sent “Asian AI ecosystem in full profit taking mode (GS Japan AI -3.08%, GS Asia Power Grid -3.3%) and Nasdaq down significantly premarket.” Theis pointed out one key implication of the DeepSeek development: “First of all remains around Softbank’ Stargate return on investments and capex efficiency (and hence beneficiaries around supply chain and energy requirements).” JPM Market Intel desk told clients: “The DeepSeek story is forcing investors to question the market position of all the MegaCap Tech names and the entire AI supply chain.” Q&As about DeepSeek (courtesy of Bloomberg):

How does DeepSeek R1 compare to OpenAI or Meta AI? Though not fully detailed by the company, the cost of training and developing DeepSeek’s models appears to be only a fraction of what’s required for OpenAI or Meta Platforms Inc.’s best products. The much better efficiency of the model puts into question the need for vast expenditures of capital to acquire the latest and most powerful AI accelerators from the likes of Nvidia Corp. That also amplifies attention on US export curbs of such advanced semiconductors to China — which were intended to prevent a breakthrough of the sort that DeepSeek appears to represent. DeepSeek says R1 is near or better than rival models in several leading benchmarks such as AIME 2024 for mathematical tasks, MMLU for general knowledge and AlpacaEval 2.0 for question-and-answer performance. It also ranks among the top performers on a UC Berkeley-affiliated leaderboard called Chatbot Arena.

What’s raising alarm in the US? Washington has banned the export of high-end technologies like GPU semiconductors to China, in a bid to stall the country’s advances in AI, the key frontier in the US-China contest for tech supremacy. But DeepSeek’s progress suggests Chinese AI engineers have worked their way around the restrictions, focusing on greater efficiency with limited resources. While it remains unclear how much advanced AI- training hardware DeepSeek has had access to, the company’s demonstrated enough to suggest the trade restrictions have not been entirely effective in stymying China’s progress.

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“..no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created..”

Trump Says He ‘Immediately Halted’ Hiring of New IRS Agents (ET)

President Donald Trump on Saturday said he has halted any new hires of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents. “They hired—were trying to hire 88,000 new workers to go with you, and we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we move them to the border,” Trump remarked at a speech in Nevada, while also saying, “On day one, I immediately halted the hiring of any new IRS agents. “I think we’re going to move them to the border where they are allowed to carry guns. You know, they’re so strong on guns. But these people are allowed to carry guns. So we will probably move them to the border,” he said.

He was repeating a claim made in 2022 by Republicans that some of the IRS agents who would be hired would be able to carry firearms, although the bill did not designate money specifically for a large number of armed IRS employees. At the time, the IRS said it would also obligate about $8.64 billion of the new funding during the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, and that 7,239 of the new hires during those years will be enforcement staff. In his administration, President Joe Biden approved plans to direct $80 billion to the IRS under the largely Democrat-passed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. House Republicans later clawed back billions of dollars from the legislation, most recently in the attempt to avert a government shutdown in December.

The original 87,000 or 88,000 IRS agents figure appears to have come from a U.S. Treasury Department estimate in 2021 to determine the level of hiring of agents to maintain the agency’s efficiency in collecting taxes. Last year, the IRS said it was going to hire nearly 20,000 new employees and deploy new technology over the next two years as it ramps up an $80 billion investment plan to improve tax enforcement and customer service. Soon after taking office, Trump signed an executive order to freeze the hiring of federal civilian employees across the government, stating that “no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law.”

“Except as provided below, this freeze applies to all executive departments and agencies regardless of their sources of operational and programmatic funding,” it adds. Aside from the hiring freeze, the president suspended Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act funding disbursements in what his office said was “terminating the green new deal,” including pausing funds “supporting programs, projects, or activities that may be implicated by the policy established in Section 2 of the order.”

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By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management.

“Biden was bad for business but good for prices,” [..] “And Trump will be good for business but bad for prices.”

Trump’s Agenda Will Force Foreign Leaders To Adopt Pro-Growth Policies (ZH)

Hope all goes well… “Builders make the most money,” I said at the luncheon, high in some tower, looking out over Dallas. “That’s why I’m sitting here today,” said the entrepreneur to my left, confident, smiling. “If you’re not building a company, the next best thing is to own equity,” I said to the oil, gas, tech execs, family offices. We discussed the new administration, geopolitics, markets, risks, opportunities, my worldview. Then I asked them all about Trump’s drill-baby-drill policy, America’s energy supply dynamics, demand. “Biden was bad for business but good for prices,” one said, many nodded. “And Trump will be good for business but bad for prices.” “The golden age of America begins right now,” said President Trump, vowing to annihilate the nation’s many challenges, sending a shiver through our country’s allies and adversaries.

Economists were quick to spread skepticism. You see, American growth is already quite robust, with GDPNow estimating Q4 real GDP of 3.0%. Unemployment is low at 4.1%. CPI inflation at 2.9% is higher than target but well off the 9.1% high in mid-2022. Nationwide gasoline prices are $3.14 a gallon, not far from levels in Trump’s first term, miles below the $5.03 mid-2022 highs. And the stock market is at all-time highs, with the Shiller P/E ratio at a level exceeded only in the 1999 bubble. So, economists argue that with a 6.3% federal budget deficit, the prospect of massive tariffs, slowing international trade, government layoffs, reduced immigration, and rising inflation, the US economy simply lacks the capacity to power ahead, even with Trump’s pledge to slash red tape. Perhaps they’re right, but economists (and central bankers) have been horribly wrong for so many years that it’s hard to do anything but take the other side of their consensus.

Our geopolitical allies and adversaries are another matter altogether. They’re simply praying Trump’s economic experiment fails. With the American economy already outpacing every country that matters, and with those nation’s electorates growing increasingly agitated, restless, riotous, the possibility of the US widening the chasm terrifies their leaders. The prospect of being held to account for their economic mismanagement, like the negligent mayor of Los Angeles, is too much to bear for the globe’s presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, paranoid dictators. And this, in an ironic twist, holds promise for a brighter global future, if the America First agenda forces panicked foreign leaders to adopt more pro-growth policies for their people.

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“..their blatant desire to eliminate dissent, criticism and ultimately freedom so they can continue to uphold a model in which they are the main beneficiaries.”

Argentina’s Milei Attacks European Liberal ‘Epidemic’ (RT)

Argentine President Javier Milei has criticized European leaders and condemned “woke ideology,” branding it an “epidemic” that must be cured. Addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday, he claimed that the “global hegemony” of left-wing politics and ideology is “starting to crumble.” Making his second appearance at the WEF, the outspoken president defended what he called the traditional values of the West, describing them as “the peak of the human species.” Milei then doubled down on his “cultural battle” against so-called “wokeism,” a term often used by right-wing political movements to criticize progressive policies addressing social inequalities. “What once seemed like a global hegemony of the ‘woke’ left in politics, educational institutions, in the media, in supranational organizations or even in forums like Davos, has begun to crumble,” he said.

According to Milei, wokeism seeks to penalize any kind of opposition “because beneath the rhetoric that they so often preach what truly lies is their blatant desire to eliminate dissent, criticism and ultimately freedom so they can continue to uphold a model in which they are the main beneficiaries.” He took aim at Britain, asking: “Is it not true that right now as we speak, in the UK, citizens are being imprisoned for exposing horrifying crimes committed by Muslim migrants? Crimes that the government seeks to conceal?” Milei was referring to a wave of protests in the UK last summer against Islam and mass immigration which resulted in large-scale arrests. British authorities responded to the riots in draconian fashion, with more than 1,000 people arrested, 480 charged, and 99 sentenced for their role in the disorder, according to figures published by the BBC.

The Argentine leader, who attended US President Donald Trump’s inauguration last week, also targeted the EU, accusing the bloc of scrapping the presidential election in Romania. “Didn’t the bureaucrats in Brussels suspend Romania’s elections simply because they didn’t like the party that had won?” he asked. Romanian right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu, a critic of NATO and the EU and a staunch opponent of sending aid to Ukraine, topped the now-annulled first-round vote in November, beating liberal leftist candidates. Romania’s Constitutional Court suddenly canceled the election ahead of the second-round vote, citing intelligence documents alleging “irregularities” in Georgescu’s campaign performance, which have subsequently been linked to a social media campaign run by one of his opponents.

Milei said that while there is no actual censorship in the West, there is the idea that anyone who doesn’t align with a woke ideology must be silenced. In Milei’s view, it is an “ideology that has colonized the West, a single thought regime on feminism, diversity, inclusion, immigration, abortion, environmentalism, gender ideology” representing “an epidemic that must be cured, a cancer we need to get rid of.”

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Europe will shoot its own foot until it falls off.

EU Prolongs Sanctions On Russia (RT)

EU foreign ministers have agreed to extend the bloc’s economic sanctions on Russia, after Hungary dropped a last-minute threat to block the extension over Ukraine’s refusal to restart the flow of Russian gas to the EU. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced the extension on Monday, claiming that the move will “continue to deprive Moscow of revenues to finance its war.” The EU has imposed 15 rounds of economic penalties on Russia since the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022, freezing Moscow’s sovereign assets and severing almost all trade and energy links between the bloc and Russia. These sanctions must be renewed every six months with the unanimous consent of all 27 EU member states.

Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened to “pull the handbrake” on this renewal if Kiev does not restart a transit deal with Russian energy firm Gazprom to allow Russian gas to flow into the EU via Ukraine. Hungary relies on Russia for around three-quarters of its natural gas imports, a small percentage of which flowed through the trans-Ukraine pipeline. Budapest dropped the threat after receiving “the guarantees it has requested concerning the energy security of our country,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote in a post on X. In a statement seen by Reuters, the European Commission said it would “continue discussions with Ukraine on the supply to Europe through the gas pipeline system in Ukraine.” “The Commission is ready to associate Hungary in the process along with Slovakia,” it added.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced earlier this month that he would veto any future EU aid to Kiev over the gas cutoff, warning that he could also halt the supply of electricity to Ukraine and cut humanitarian aid deliveries. Slovakia depends on Russian gas to meet about 60% of its demand. Orban and Fico have repeatedly argued that Ukraine cannot defeat Russia on the battlefield, and that Western military aid to Kiev will only prolong the bloodshed. Both leaders have also insisted that the EU’s sanctions hurt European economies more than they hurt Russia’s, and Orban has repeatedly threatened to block the implementation of these sanctions in exchange for significant carve-outs from Brussels, including a partial exemption from the EU’s bloc-wide oil embargo and a guarantee that its nuclear sector won’t be affected by future sanctions.

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Budanov is a prime candidate to succeed Zelensky.

Ukraine’s Top Spy Believes Country Could Cease To Exist (RT)

Ukraine could face collapse by summer if it does not agree to peace negotiations with Russia, the country’s top intelligence official has told lawmakers in Kiev, according to a report on Monday by local outlet Strana.ua. According to the website’s sources, Kirill Budanov, the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, made his remarks during a closed-door meeting in the Ukrainian parliament. One of the people present at the conference told the outlet that there were sensitive briefings by top military officials, including officers of the General Staff. However, the source singled out Budanov’s account. “Someone asked him: ‘How much time do we have left?’ He responded, with his signature cold smile: ‘If there are no serious negotiations by summer, very dangerous processes could begin for the very existence of Ukraine.’”

Budanov’s reported warning comes as Kiev’s forces have been pushed back across the front line by Russian troops. Ukrainian officials and commanders have also complained of manpower shortages amid a troubled mobilization campaign, with recruitment officers often facing open resistance from reluctant draftees. Earlier this week, Strana reported that top Ukrainian officials were reviewing a plan by US President Donald Trump’s team to end the conflict within 100 days. While the roadmap has not been confirmed, its key points reportedly include direct talks between the US president and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to pave the way for a ceasefire along the front lines by April 20 and a peace agreement by early May.

According to the roadmap, it is believed that Ukraine would agree to abandon its NATO membership ambitions, stop cracking down on political forces advocating cooperation with Russia, and become a member of the EU by 2030. Kiev would also reportedly refrain from attempts to reclaim its former territories from Moscow without formally recognizing Russian sovereignty, with the West pledging to partially lift sanctions immediately after the peace deal. While Ukrainian officials have dismissed the roadmap as a hoax, the Kremlin has not commented on the report. However, Moscow has repeatedly said it is open to talks over Ukraine, signaling readiness for a Trump-Putin summit. Russia has ruled out the freezing of the conflict, arguing that Kiev would use such a pause to rearm itself, while insisting that peace could be reached only if Ukraine commits to permanent neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification.

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“Throughout history, censorship has never succeeded. It has never stopped a single idea or a movement. It has a perfect failure rate.”

The CIA Report: A Low Confidence Finding is the Height of Hypocrisy (Turley)

Every modern president seems to promise transparency during their campaigns, but few ever seem to get around to it. Once in power, the value of being opaque becomes evident. We will have to wait to see if President Donald Trump will fulfill his pledges, but so far this is proving the cellophane administration. Putting aside his constant press gaggles and conferences, the Administration has ordered wholesale disclosures of long-withheld files from everything from the JFK investigation to, most recently, the CIA COVID origins report. That report is particularly stinging for both the Biden Administration and its media allies. Newly-confirmed CIA Director John Ratcliffe released the report, which details how it views the lab theory as the most likely explanation for the virus.

Expressing “low confidence,” the agency still favored that theory over the natural origins theory, which was treated as sacrosanct by the media and favored by figures like Anthony Fauci. (Other recent reports have contradicted the equally orthodox view on the closing of schools, showing no material benefit in terms of slowing the transmission of COVID). Even a low-confidence finding shows the height of hypocrisy in Washington where politicians and pundits savaged any scientist who even suggested the possibility that the virus was man-made and likely originated in the Wuhan lab near the site of the outbreak. This follows a recent disclosure in the Wall Street Journal of a report on how the Biden administration may have suppressed dissenting views supporting the lab theory on the origin of the COVID-19 virus. Not only were the FBI and its top experts excluded from a critical briefing of President Biden, but government scientists were reportedly warned that they were “off the reservation” in supporting the lab theory.

As previously discussed, many journalists used the rejection of the lab theory to paint Trump as a bigot. By the time Biden became president, not only were certain government officials heavily invested in the zoonotic or natural origin theory, but so were many in the media. Reporters used opposition to the lab theory as another opportunity to pound their chests and signal their virtue. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace mocked Trump and others for spreading one of his favorite “conspiracy theories.” MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt insisted that “we know it’s been debunked that this virus was manmade or modified,” MSNBC’s Joy Reid also called the lab leak theory “debunked bunkum,” while CNN reporter Drew Griffin criticized spreading the “widely debunked” theory. CNN host Fareed Zakaria told viewers that “the far right has now found its own virus conspiracy theory” in the lab leak. NBC News’s Janis Mackey Frayer described it as the “heart of conspiracy theories.”

The Washington Post was particularly dogmatic. When Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark) raised the theory, he was chastised for “repeat[ing] a fringe theory suggesting that the ongoing spread of a coronavirus is connected to research in the disease-ravaged epicenter of Wuhan, China.” Likewise, after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) mentioned the lab theory, Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler mocked him: “I fear @tedcruz missed the scientific animation in the video that shows how it is virtually impossible for this virus jump from the lab. Or the many interviews with actual scientists. We deal in facts, and viewers can judge for themselves.” As these efforts failed and more information emerged supporting the lab theory, many media figures just looked at their shoes and shrugged. Others became more ardent. In 2021, New York Times science and health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli was still calling on reporters not to mention the “racist” lab theory.

In Kessler’s case, he wrote that the lab theory was “suddenly credible” as if it had sprung from the head of Zeus rather than having been supported for years by scientists, many of whom had been canceled and banned. As these figures were attacking reports, Biden officials were sitting on these reports. Figures like Fauci did nothing to support those academics being canceled or censored for raising the theory. The very figures claiming to battle “disinformation” were suppressing opposing views that have now been vindicated as credible. It was not only the lab theory. In my recent book, I discuss how signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration were fired or disciplined by their schools or associations for questioning COVID-19 policies.

The suppression of the lab theory proves the ultimate fallacy of censorship. Throughout history, censorship has never succeeded. It has never stopped a single idea or a movement. It has a perfect failure rate. Ideas, like water, have a way of finding their way out in time. Yet, as the last few years have shown, it does succeed in imposing costs on those with dissenting views. For years, figures like Bhattacharya (who was recently awarded the prestigious Intellectual Freedom Award by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters) were hounded and marginalized. Others opposed Bhattacharya’s right to offer his scientific views, even under oath. For example, in one hearing, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) expressed disgust that Bhattacharya was even allowed to testify as “a purveyor of COVID-19 misinformation.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik decried an event associated with Bhattacharya, writing that “we’re living in an upside-down world” because Stanford University allowed dissenting scientists to speak at a scientific forum. Hiltzik also wrote a column titled “The COVID lab leak claim isn’t just an attack on science, but a threat to public health.” One of the saddest aspects of this story is that many of these figures in government, academia and the media were not necessarily trying to shield China. Some were motivated by their investment in the narrative while others were drawn by the political and personal benefits that came from joining the mob against a minority of scientists. The CIA report does not resolve this debate, but it shows that there is a legitimate debate despite the overwhelming message of the media and the attacks on scientists. Of course, the same media and political figures responsible for this culture of intimidation have simply moved on. The value of an alliance with the media is that such embarrassing contradictions are not reported. At most, these figures shrug and turn to the next subject for groupthink and mob action.

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“. . .once Trump runs out of easy ways to unfuck the federal government, his administration will hit a crossroads moment, probably sooner rather than later.” — Matt Taibbi

Glug Glug. . . . (James Howard Kunstler)

That’s the sound of a swamp being drained. And much fetid water is still backed up over the 68.3 square miles that comprise the District of Columbia. You might be just realizing that the “Joe Biden” regime was not a government at all, but rather, a colossal racketeering operation. And let’s be clear and precise: racketeering is making money dishonestly. Thus: the grubby Biden Family itself at the top of that putrid food-chain, and their smalltime harvesting of mere table-scraps. Where trillions got creamed off by the big gators, the Bidens risked all for a measly few million, like newts gorging on gnats in a drainage ditch. Are you so cynical— as the Marxians are in their so-called “critique” of capitalism — that you think all human transactions of making-and-doing are dishonest? That is yet another misreading of reality, which the recent years of nonstop official propaganda and gaslight have catastrophically aggravated to the degree that half of America can no longer think at all.

Capitalism is not a political ideology despite the “ism” incorrectly attached to it, like the tail pinned on a donkey. Capitalism is simply the management of surplus wealth. The catch is, in a hyper-complex society, the management itself becomes complex to an extreme. And that can easily lead to mismanagement, which will deform and pervert the very mechanisms that superintend wealth, sometimes so badly that the wealth disappears altogether. These are the dynamics faced by the newborn Trump command. Both political parties, per se, have fallen into a dismal habit of racketeering in this sclerotic state-of-empire. But now Mr. Trump has seized control of the Republican apparatus, at least, and the Party’s entrenched ol’ crocs and pythons descry that under DJT the regular feeding frenzy is over.

Hence: the hand-wringing over Pete Hegseth setting foot in the Pentagon, as he will sometime this dawning day. The dollars pounded down that rat-hole in this century could have funded start-ups of several empires, but instead the swag just landed in the index funds of countless board members parasitically lodged in a dark cosmos of G.I. procurement circle-jerks. A lot of that can and will be stopped. And the ones who just won’t quit are liable to be found out. Now, the Democratic Party faces more perplexing quandaries. It, too, is constructed as a gigantic grift machine. But if you subtract the employees of the multitudinous NGOs and non-profit orgs set up in recent years to receive government largess — which have spawned like smelts in the San Joaquin delta — you would eliminate much of the party’s rank-and-file. (The rest are apparently embedded in government itself and the teachers’ union.) A whole lot of activists would lose their platforms for activism in the process.

[..] The first seven days of Mr. Trump have been sheer razzle-dazzle. He and the people around him have torn through the zeitgeist like front-end-loaders through a homeless encampment. He has yet to meet a crisis. Some of the obvious traps are avoidable. For instance: seeking further injury to Russia as a way of ending the stupid Ukraine war — started by us in 2014, thanks a lot Victoria Nuland & Company — since both the US and Russia are just about unconditionally desirous of stopping the damn thing as soon as possible. It’s had no benefit for anybody but the Raytheon war lobby and the Zelensky regime’s legion of grifters. Mr. Trump’s recent tough talk has been entirely for show, just a mass of rhetorical lube to un-stick the lingering “Joe Biden” stasis in that sad-sack corner of the world.

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Good conversation. The boys are somewhat optimistic.

Taibbi Hints FBI Communications With COVID Scientists Will Be Exposed (ZH)

Award-winning independent journalist Matt Taibbi revealed in an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that communications between FBI officials and scientists related to gain-of-function research and the origins of COVID-19 is expected to one day be made public. Watch: (relevant portion begins at 34:06)

MATT TAIBBI: There are so many different areas where they are going to have to investigate and reinvestigate that. We just went through a period where there was mass stonewalling of Congress when it was trying to investigate what happened with COVID. There were key people like Peter Daszak from the EcoHealth Alliance, who just didn’t answer subpoenas, right? There are documents that we know exist that we’re going to get now with FBI communications between the bureau and a lot of these scientists dating back ten years. And it’s going to tell a crazy story, a really interesting story. There’s a reason why Fauci’s pardon is backdated to 2014, because that’s the time period they are going to have to start looking, which is, when did we start defying the ban on gain of function research. We clearly did. That’s pretty established at this point.

Why were we doing it? What connection did that have to the Wuhan thing? What kind of advanced notice did we get? What kind of lies were told about it? Who were responsible for those lies? What information did we get about the inefficacy of the vaccine and how did that connect to statement by the CDC and the White House? This also connects to the censorship issue in a major way because there was a massive effort to control the public conversation about this that went through the health agencies. We know they’re looking at that. And that’s another executive order, by the way, the free speech order. It directs the Department of Justice to come up with a comprehensive review of all the censorship stuff, so we’re going to find out about that. I just think COVID is a gigantic rat’s nest of stuff. Every direction they look there’s going to find something revelatory.

TUCKER CARLSON: The question is: will that information reach the public? There is these intermediaries like the media. Congressional brand investigators, executive brand investigators like DOJ, inspector generals, they are always constantly releasing reports and no one reads them because no one picks them up in the media. Do we have enough interested reporters to designate what they find?

MATT TAIBBI: I think we do because what we think of as the media is dead. They no longer really matter. The media that matters right now are people like you, Joe Rogan and other independent podcasters out there. There’s this gigantic, thriving independent media out there that turned the last election. It was abundantly clear that the old media no longer had any ability to control the narrative about anything. They’re totally discredited.

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“..Armstrong’s computer program “Socrates” sees a global recession no later than 2028. Socrates also sees the possibility of “war as early as April or May of 2025.”

Devalued Dollar Will Crash the DOW – Martin Armstrong (USAW)

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is back with a warning to President Trump, who is on record wanting a weaker dollar. Trump might try to force a lower value for the US dollar to help offset the trade deficit. Just this past week, Trump is demanding lower interest rates. Experts say this might also lower the value of the US dollar. Armstrong predicts, “Everything has an international value. If you lower the value of the dollar, then oil in terms of dollars will rise. Look at gold. It’s not making new highs right now because the dollar is going up, but chart it in Canadian dollars or Euros and it’s making new highs. . . . You dramatically lower the dollar and you are going to cause a crash–again. . . . It could be 40% to 50%.”

Armstrong has deep experience in the currency markets. In 1985, Armstrong was called in by the Reagan Administration about cutting the value of the dollar to spark trade. Armstrong warned if you cut the dollar, you will have a big crash within two years. What happened? Two years later, the stock market crashed more than 22% in one day in the infamous 1987 stock market crash. It is still the record for a one-day crash in percentage terms. Armstrong says, “In the end, they said we think foreign exchange had something to do with the crash. That was the best I could get out of them. They are not going to stand up and say, oh gee, we caused it (the crash) by lowering the dollar by 40%.”

Armstrong is going to write President Trump a letter warning him NOT to force the US dollar lower. How is the war picture shaping up now that Trump, who wants to be a “peacemaker,” is in office? Armstrong says, “You have French President Macron saying he wants to send troops into Ukraine. Britian has just now sent 20,000 or 30,000 troops into Romania. They want war. They are basically on the verge of a sovereign debt crisis. So, they have a choice. They default and say, oh sorry, we screwed up. Or, it’s not us, it’s Putin. We have to go get him. The German government fell the very next day after Trump was elected. You see this going on all over Europe.”

In closing, Armstrong sees gold (and silver) going up from here. The US is still the strongest economy by far, but Armstrong’s computer program “Socrates” sees a global recession no later than 2028. Socrates also sees the possibility of “war as early as April or May of 2025.” Armstrong tells President Trump, “Get out of NATO–ASAP.”

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“On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz, revealing to the world the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust. This event became a symbol of the triumph of humanity over the worst atrocities of the Nazi regime.”

The Nation That Liberated Auschwitz Is Being Excluded From Memory (Romanenko)

Russia’s exclusion from the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation is not just a diplomatic snub – it is an insult to history and to the memory of millions who suffered and died during World War II. This decision, part of a growing trend of historical revisionism, diminishes the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany and liberating concentration camps, including Auschwitz. It’s a troubling development that undermines the lessons of the past in favor of political expediency.

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz, revealing to the world the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust. This event became a symbol of the triumph of humanity over the worst atrocities of the Nazi regime. Yet, in 2025, Russian representatives were excluded from the anniversary ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland. Piotr Cywinski, the museum’s director, justified the decision by citing Russia’s actions in the Ukraine conflict, stating that a country “that does not understand the value of liberty has something to do at a ceremony dedicated to the liberation.”

This reasoning ignores a critical truth: Auschwitz’s liberation was accomplished by Soviet soldiers, many of whom paid with their lives. The USSR bore the brunt of the Nazi war machine, suffering the loss of an estimated 27 million military personnel and civilians during the war. To exclude Russia from commemorations of such a significant event is to erase the sacrifices of those who played an indispensable role in ending the Holocaust.

This act is part of a broader pattern of attempts to revise history, downplaying or ignoring the Soviet Union’s contributions to the defeat of Nazi Germany. In recent years, statements from Western leaders have increasingly glossed over the USSR’s role in World War II. For instance, during a Memorial Day speech, then-US President Joe Biden recounted the victory over Nazi Germany without mentioning the Soviet Union, a glaring omission that Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov criticized as a cynical diminishment of historical truth. Similarly, current US President Donald Trump once claimed that it was “American soldiers who truly won World War II,” conveniently overlooking the critical battles of Stalingrad, Kursk, and Berlin where Soviet forces dealt the decisive blows to the Nazi regime.

Even more troubling is the West’s apparent tolerance for neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine, a country central to the current geopolitical tensions. In 2023, the Canadian Parliament hosted Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian who served in the Waffen-SS “Galicia” division – a unit implicated in war crimes. Hunka was given a standing ovation, a shocking display that later forced the resignation of Canada’s House Speaker Anthony Rota. Such incidents highlight a disturbing willingness to whitewash history in the name of contemporary political alliances.

Russia’s exclusion from World War II commemorations is not new. In 2024, Russian officials were barred from the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, with the French presidency stating that “the conditions for their participation are not there given the war of aggression launched in 2022.” Similarly, in 2020, Poland excluded Russian representatives from a Warsaw commemoration marking the outbreak of World War II. These decisions reflect a troubling trend: using historical remembrance as a tool of political messaging.

This selective approach to history is dangerous. World War II was a global conflict that required immense sacrifices from numerous nations, but no country paid a higher price than the Soviet Union. To erase or diminish that contribution is to distort the historical record and risk undermining the shared understanding that has underpinned the post-war international order. The decision to exclude Russia from Auschwitz’s 80th anniversary commemorations sends a troubling message about the value of historical truth in times of geopolitical conflict. If we begin to erase inconvenient aspects of history to suit present-day narratives, we risk losing sight of the lessons that history teaches us. The Holocaust and the broader atrocities of World War II were enabled by dehumanization, propaganda, and the denial of reality. To combat these forces in our time, we must commit to an honest reckoning with the past, even when it is uncomfortable.

By excluding Russia, the organizers of the Auschwitz commemorations missed an opportunity to reaffirm the shared commitment to remembering the Holocaust and the sacrifices made to end it. The liberation of Auschwitz was a moment of global significance, a reminder of what humanity can achieve when united against evil. That unity is undermined when we allow historical revisionism to take hold. In remembering Auschwitz, we must honor all those who contributed to its liberation, regardless of modern political considerations. The Soviet soldiers who freed the camp’s survivors deserve recognition, as do the millions of Soviet citizens who perished in the fight against fascism. To deny their role is not only an affront to historical truth but also a betrayal of the very ideals of liberty and justice that the commemorations seek to uphold.

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Covid Menstrual

 

 

Cranes

 

 

Bird sounds

 

 

Subsun
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883535925428297735

 

 

Ears

 

 

Creating Zen
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883764778453360855

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 272025
 
 January 27, 2025  Posted by at 10:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  76 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Weaver 1884

 

Trade War Ends In Less Than 10 Hours After Colombia Agrees To Trump’s Terms (ZH)
Trump Suggests ‘Cleaning Out’ Gaza (RT)
LA Will Reopen Pacific Palisades To Residents Starting Monday (ZH)
Trump Floats Eliminating Federal Income Tax ‘If The Tariffs Work Out’ (JTN)
Which Country Could Buy Greenland? (Sp.)
Iran War Hawks Getting Wrecked In Trump Personnel Fight (Ryan Grim)
Are Trump and His Supporters Ready for a Fight to the Death? (PCR)
Trump Fires ‘Virtually Worthless’ Inspectors General, Warren Freaks Out (ZH)
US Officials Pushing To Unfreeze Aid For Ukraine – FT (RT)
How Ukraine Lost Trillions-Worth of West-Coveted Natural Wealth (Sp.)
Unauthorized Peacekeepers In Ukraine Will Be Targeted – Russian Diplomat (RT)
Belarusian Peacekeepers ‘Best Option’ For Ukraine – Lukashenko (RT)
China Drops Powerful AI Model That’s Free, Fast and Better for Humanity (Sp.)
America’s Fiscal Doomsday Machine Must Be Stopped (David Stockman)
No Evidence Closing Schools Materially Reduced Covid Transmission (Turley)
The Great American Show (Pacini)

 

 

 

 

Young

CNN

CIA

Mearsheimer

 

 

 

 

It was over when President Gustavo Petro sent his own plane to pick up the migrants.

Trade War Ends In Less Than 10 Hours After Colombia Agrees To Trump’s Terms (ZH)

Update (10:26pm ET): Just after 10pm ET, and just under 10 hours after Trump lobbed the first shot in the first trade war of his second admin, the White House announced that Colombia had agreed to all of Trump’s terms, “including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.” Based on this agreement, the White House notes, the hastily drafted tariffs and sanctions “will be held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement.” The visa sanctions issued by the State Department, and enhanced inspections from Customs and Border Protection, will remain in effect until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.

The statement concludes by noting that President Trump “will continue to fiercely protect our nation’s sovereignty, and he expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States.” And just like that, Trump wins, in a victory so complete even the president of Colombia reposted his own loss. The only problem: the next trade wars – and there will be many – won’t be nearly as easy to win…

* * *
Update (6:50pm ET): Despite appearing to cave earlier when he ordered the use of the presidential plane to repatriate illegal aliens from the US, late on Sunday Colombia President Gustavo Petro ordered an increase of import tariffs on goods from the United States in retaliation to President Trump’s tariffs and sanctions. Petro, in a post on the social platform X, said he ordered the “foreign trade minister to raise import tariffs from the U.S. by 25%.” “American products whose price will rise within the national economy must be replaced by national production, and the government will help in this regard,” the post continued. Then in a meandering post in Spanish, the president also issued several empty threats to Trump.

Meanwhile, as Bloomberg notes, Colombian assets are set for a rout after US President Donald Trump said he’d implement a spate of tariffs and sanctions on the South American nation. The announcement of an emergency 25% tariff on all Colombian goods coming into the US, made by Trump on social media on Sunday, caught traders off guard — most of the focus so far has been on levies on Mexico, Canada and China. The move will likely spark a slump that will reverberate across local bond, currency and equity markets when trading opens Monday. Daniel Velandia, chief economist at Credicorp Capital Colombia, said the peso will weaken against the dollar Monday morning, adding that the economy could inch toward a recession in an “extreme scenario.”

“This is completely unexpected and unpredictable,” Velandia said. “We need to see how far Trump goes and how Colombia’s government will respond, hoping that diplomacy will be used to prevent adverse effects.” And it’s not just Colombia: the Mexican peso is also tumbling more than 1% in late Sunday trading amid concerns that the southern US neighbor will be next to suffer Trump’s wrath.

Jennings
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883668666853593325

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Only for Israel to take it over? Be very careful.

Trump Suggests ‘Cleaning Out’ Gaza (RT)

US President Donald Trump has suggested that neighboring Arab countries should take in Palestinian refugees and “clean out” the embattled Gaza. Speaking to journalists aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said he spoke to King Abdullah II of Jordan about the war and was planning to speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday. “I’d like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, we just clean out that whole thing. It’s a real mess.” “It’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there,” he added. “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump told reporters.

Both Egypt and Jordan have rejected the idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi affirmed on Sunday that the kingdom’s position against displacing Palestinians remains “irreversible and unchanged.” On Sunday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry also stressed its commitment to defending the rights of the Palestinians and its opposition to uprooting Gaza’s population. The Palestinian Authority released a statement saying it would reject any plans of displacement. “We emphasize that the Palestinian people will never abandon their land or their holy sites,” it said. Around 1.9 million people – more than 90% of Gaza’s population – have been displaced since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October 2023, according to the UN.

Although the sides agreed to a ceasefire on January 15, Israel has since accused Hamas of violating a prisoner swap arrangement and halted the return of Gazans to their home in the northern part of the enclave. Both sides have also accused each other of ceasefire violations. On Saturday, Hamas handed over four female Israeli soldiers in exchange for the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli government said Hamas had initially promised to release a different hostage. Hamas took around 250 hostages and killed around 1,200 people in a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. More than 47,00 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, according to the local authorities.

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Mayor Karen Bass epitomizes everything that’s wrong with California. That round table with Trump was a cringe fest.

LA Will Reopen Pacific Palisades To Residents Starting Monday (ZH)

Two days after President Trump scolded Los Angeles for refusing to allow residents affected by the recent fires to return to their homes, Mayor Karen Bass announced that Pacific Palisades will be completely reopened to residents during daylight hours, starting Monday, Jan. 27. During a Friday roundtable, Bass told Trump that it was unsafe for residents to return. After residents at the meeting decried the slow response, Bass compromised – saying they could return “within a week.” Trump replied: “That’s a long time, a week. I’ll be honest, to me, everyone standing in front of their house, they want to go to work and they’re not allowed to do it. … They’re safe. They’re safe. You know what? They’re not safe. They’re not safe now. They’re going to be much safer. A week, a week is actually a long time the way I look at it.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1882963981695955143

Residents of the Palisades began trying to their homes and lots on Saturday – some of whom were able to talk their way past police, according to Breitbart’s Joel Pollak, a Palisades resident whose house was spared. Pollak has been reporting from the ground since the fires began. The county’s decision to allow residents to return on Monday came with a caveat; weather permitting, and only until 5:00 p.m., which will allow people to sift through the rubble for belongings, or grieve and make peace with their loss.

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Confusing but interesting.

Trump Floats Eliminating Federal Income Tax ‘If The Tariffs Work Out’ (JTN)

President Trump said the U.S. could possibly eliminate the federal income tax if his tariff plans work out as intended. “If the tariffs work out like I think, a thing like that could happen, if you want to know the truth,” he said. “Years ago, 1870 to 1913, we didn’t have an income tax. What we had is tariffs.” Trump also said the additional IRS agents the Biden administration hired could potentially move to the border. “I think we’re going to move them to the border. You know, they’re allowed to carry guns,” he said. Trump touted his decision to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. “Biden didn’t want to do that,” he said. “Biden didn’t know he was alive. He didn’t want to do it.”

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UK.

Which Country Could Buy Greenland? (Sp.)

Under the terms of an agreement made over a century ago, Denmark would have to give the UK the right of first refusal if it ever decided to sell Greenland, noted Tom Hoyem, former Danish minister for Greenland (1982-1987), as cited by The Sunday Times. “If Trump tried to buy Greenland, he would have to ask London first,” Hoyem explained, adding: “The United Kingdom demanded in 1917 that if Greenland were to be sold, the UK would have the first right to buy it.”

Why is this the case?
1.Canada, a British dominion at the time, is just a few miles from Greenland, across the Nares Strait, Hoyem explained. Since 2022, Canada has even shared a land border with Greenland on the tiny island of Hans.
2.The 1917 agreement stemmed from negotiations surrounding the purchase of the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) by the United States.
3.The US bought the islands from Denmark for $25 million.
4.As part of the deal, Denmark required the US to sign a letter stating that Greenland “is and will forever be Danish.” President Woodrow Wilson agreed.

Then-incoming US President Donald Trump said on January 7 that Greenland should become part of the US and emphasized its strategic importance for national security and protecting the “free world,” including from China and Russia. Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede said the island was not for sale. At the same time, Trump declined to pledge not to use military force to establish control over Greenland.

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“Trump, on Truth Social, said that his Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration..”

Iran War Hawks Getting Wrecked In Trump Personnel Fight (Ryan Grim)

A major whisper campaign is underway, led by neoconservatives in Washington panicked at President Donald Trump’s elevation of a string of foreign policy advisers who have spoken out against war with Iran. The first whack to the wounded war-hawk wing came when Mike Pompeo was blocked from a position in the White House, followed yesterday by the stripping of his security detail. That followed similar snubs to John Bolton and Iran hawk Brian Hook, both of which lost their security and have been kept out of the administration. Hook’s firing was a comical display of Trumpian humiliation. Trump, on Truth Social, said that his Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.

Jose Andres from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars, and Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council—YOU’RE FIRED! What’s so amusing about Trump’s description of Hook as a member of the “previous Administration,” and his being lumped in with Democrats and a hated figure like Milley, is that Hook was named by Trump in November to chair the State Department transition. Anti-war Republicans vowed at the time to make sure he never got a job himself in the second Trump administration and sources tell me that Trump fired him after learning about his long record of criticizing Trump and his bellicose war rhetoric. Now he’s out, and is privately leading the rearguard fight against Trump’s nominees.

Much of that fight is leaking out into the pages of the magazine Jewish Insider. If you followed the effort by AIPAC to shape Democratic primaries in 2022 and 2024 by blocking critics of Israel, you already know that JI was the place to go to learn where AIPAC would be spending money. Articles warned that pro-Israel groups were “alarmed” at the rise of this or that candidate, often for entirely innocuous statements—or sometimes for just being related to somebody they didn’t like.

The same playbook is being rolled out against Trump’s nominees. In an article headlined, “Rumored for a Trump posting, Elbridge Colby’s dovish views on Iran stand out,” JI warned that Colby “has notably opposed direct military action against Iran.” He got the posting anyway, and is now one of the top officials at the Pentagon. This week, Trump rolled out more than a dozen more top appointments, without a single neocon in the list, raising the alarm in JI again. JI panicked about Michael DiMino, who previously worked for the CIA and the Pentagon, and was named to be deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. “Last year, [DiMino] dismissed Iran’s second ballistic missile attack on Israel as a ‘fairly moderate’ response and urged against bombing the Houthis in Yemen, instead calling for U.S. pressure on Israel to tamp down regional conflict,” JI warned.

The paper also expressed concern that Dan Caldwell, another conservative veteran skeptical of war with Iran, seemed to be playing a role in getting like-minded people into the Pentagon: “A leading opponent of traditional Republican foreign policy who advocates for a vastly reduced U.S. presence in the Middle East has been quietly involved in the transition process at the Defense Department, according to four people familiar with the matter, underscoring a distinct ideological shift in the Pentagon as President Donald Trump builds his new administration.”

The fight over Trump’s nominees is directly connected to the potential strength of the “ceasefire” in Gaza. Trump is expected to tap his Mideast envoy and real estate buddy Steve Witkoff, who browbeat Netanyahu into agreeing to the ceasefire, to negotiate with Iran. In order to get Saudi-Israel normalization and a nuclear deal with Iran, Trump needs the genocide in Gaza to end, which connects the three issues, and is why Israel is deeply hostile to Witkoff’s expanding portfolio. Trump created confusion about Witkoff’s growing role in comments to the press that JI eagerly but inaccurately reported as a rebuke of Witkoff.

Meanwhile, 11 Americans on a medical mission are being blocked by Israel from leaving northern Gaza despite having completed their scheduled mission. “This is not just about us–it’s about accountability,” Shehzad Batliwala, an ophthalmologist based in Dallas, told me. “The principle at stake is whether the Israeli military can arbitrarily detain U.S. citizens engaged in humanitarian work without even as much as giving a legitimate reason.” Two senior Trump officials, including Witkoff, have raised the issue with the Israeli government, according to sources involved. The team is on a mission with Rahma Worldwide, Dr. Batliwala said. “Many of us have critical responsibilities back home, including U.S. patients awaiting urgent care. For example, I have over 40 cataract surgeries scheduled next week.”

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“..if Trump 2 fails, “the American experiment will come to an end: bureaucratic rule will devour the constitutional order.”

Are Trump and His Supporters Ready for a Fight to the Death? (PCR)

In recent articles I have emphasized that President Trump and his supporters are in a life and death fight with cultural marxists who are dedicated to America’s destruction and who are institutionalized in every American institution—media, universities, law schools, Democrat Party, feminists, DEI contractors and corporations, Wall Street as epitomized by Blackrock, and the bureaucracies of every cabinet department and every federal agency. Essentially, it is President Trump and a few appointees at war with the entirety of the US government and educational and media establishments. Trump has arrived at the fight late in the game when the long march through the institutions is essentially complete.

In an article in the current issue of the City Journal, “Counterrevolution Blueprint,” Christopher F. Rufo, describes the extent to which the US government is in the hands of the enemy. In the 2020 presidential election employees of the Justice (sic) Department, gave 86 percent of their political contributions to Democrats. Labor Department employees gave 88 percent to Democrats. Health and Human Services 92 percent, and Education Department employees gave 97 percent. Rufo reports that these one-sided political donations are mirrored by tech companies and universities, bastions of left-wing ideologies and activism.

To give you an idea of just how bad the situation is, the Treasury Department, the task of which is economic policy, financing the debt and raising revenue, during the Obama regime added a new bureaucracy, “The office for Minority and Women Inclusion,” that is totally outside the Treasury’s responsibilities. This office continued under Trump’s first term, Rufo reports, and proselytized “critical race theory as an operating ideology, hiring consultants to conduct training programs teaching Treasury employees that America is a nation of systemic racism with a 400-year history of racial terrorism” that continues today.

During the Biden regime another activist left-wing bureaucracy was created in the Treasury, an Equity Hub with a Counselor for Racial Equity. Janet Yellen, the Jewish Secretary of the Treasury, and Kamala Harris, the black Vice President, quickly announced a $8.7 billion fund for lending only to minority-owned businesses, a blatantly discriminatory policy in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment. You can imagine how many “minority-owned” firms were quickly created so that “deserving” people could be made millionaires by the US taxpayers. And you can rest assured that neither Yellen nor Harris were held accountable for violating law and the Constitution.

Not even this was enough. The Treasury forced federal contractors to implement DEI and monitored tax returns to make sure that tax-exempt donations to charities were racially balanced. Rufo describes the efforts of Nixon, Reagan, and Trump 1 to get the bureaucracy in compliance with the President’s policy. All failed. Nevertheless, Rufo has hope for Trump 2, and he sets out the necessary elements for taking back the President’s and the people’s power from a hostile civil service that is united against American values and are substituting the values of cultural marxism in their place. Rufo makes it clear that if Trump 2 fails, “the American experiment will come to an end: bureaucratic rule will devour the constitutional order.”

I certainly agree, having made many of these points myself. The question is: How realistic is it that Trump and a few appointees can subdue millions of people whose far-left ideology is guiding the US government and who not only despise Trump’s view of America but also hate Trump personally. It is impossible for Trump to achieve unity with ideologues supported by the Democrat Party who are totally opposed to his view of America. The competence and objectivity of the civil service, long under liberal attack, was finished off when the Clinton regime pushed the white male senior civil service into early retirement in order to “make room” for blacks and females. It was part of “affirmative action.” The DEI legions have been growing for decades. They are firm in their belief that white heterosexuals are racist, and they intend to finish the process started with discriminatory “affirmative action” to make normal white Americans second class citizens in law and position.

Insouciant whites have enabled their own suppression by turning over positions of power to their enemies. It remains to be seen whether this was a fatal mistake that has doomed a merit-based color-blind society. Where among critical race theorists and denouncers of Western–which means white–Civilization is there good will to which Trump can appeal? Democrat judges and a number of insouciant Republican ones will act to block Trump’s efforts. Trump has to be prepared to ride roughshod over them, their rulings be damned, just as they have ridden roughshod over the American people for decades. Trump cannot accept the rulings as anything but weaponized judicial statements no different than the weaponized law used against him, the January 6 protesters, and the right-to-life protesters.

Karl Marx said that good will was not an operative principle because each class acted only in its own interest. So what mediates between classes? Marx said that violence was the only effective force in history. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot relied on violence. Formerly I disputed this view of the efficacy of violence, but just as we did not deal with Hitler based on good will, we cannot rely on goodwill when dealing with internal enemies who intend to destroy America with open borders and legal privileges based on race, gender, and sexual preference. As I am convinced that good will has played a role in effecting reforms, today perhaps I would modify Marx’s claim. I would substitute “effective” in place of “only.” Violence is an effective force in history. It seems that real change is impossible without it as the American Revolution exemplifies.

Today the clash is no longer between economic classes based on material interest. The clash is ideological. The America-is-evil forces are intent on replacing a color-blind merit-based society with a society based on race, gender, and sexual preference privilege. It is an ideological struggle like the one Lenin and Mao launched on Russian and Chinese societies. It is truly a fight to the death. If Trump loses, America loses as Rufo said.

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Shake it up.

Trump Fires ‘Virtually Worthless’ Inspectors General, Warren Freaks Out (ZH)

President Donald Trump fired at least a dozen ‘independent’ watchdogs known as inspectors general, who oversee government agencies – prompting immediate shrieking from the usual suspects who insist that the move is illegal. The ousters are likely to be one of Trump’s first major court battles since taking office – with at least one of the fired inspectors general, Cardell Richardson Sr. of the State Department – telling staff he’ll ignore Trump and show up to work on Monday, arguing that the firings are illegal, Politico reports, citing an anonymous source. Other fired inspectors general include those at State, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Labor and Defense, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The inspectors general at the Department of Justice, Office of Personnel Management, the Federal Communications Commission, the Export-Import Bank and the Department of Homeland Security remain in place, according to the person. The inspectors general were dismissed via emails from the White House Presidential Personnel Office, with no notice sent to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have pledged bipartisan support for the watchdogs, in advance of the firings, the person said. The emails gave no substantive explanation for the dismissals, with at least one citing “changing priorities” for the move, the person added. -Politico. Speaking Saturday night aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that he didn’t know the inspectors general who were fired, but that “some people thought that some were unfair, or some were not doing the job,” and that the firings were “a very common thing to do.”

When he was asked if he planned to install loyalists in their place, Trump said he didn’t “know anybody that would do that,” adding “We’ll put people in there that will be very good.”As the Epoch Times notes further, Hannibal Ware, the inspector general for the Small Business Administration (SBA) and chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), said in a Jan. 24 letter sent to Sergio Gor, director of presidential personnel at the White House, objecting to a series of dismissal emails Gor had sent to a number of inspector generals—including to Ware. “I am writing in response to your email sent to me and other Inspectors General earlier this evening wherein you informed each of us that ‘due to changing priorities, your position as Inspector General … is terminated, effective immediately,’” Ware wrote in the letter to Gor.

“At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss Presidentially Appointed, Senate Confirmed Inspectors General,” Ware wrote. Ware said that the Inspector General Act of 1978 requires the president to notify Congress at least 30 days in advance of dismissal of an inspector general and that “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for such terminations must be provided. Ware was confirmed to his role by the Senate in 2018. In 2024, President Joe Biden appointed Ware to also lead the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration. Ware’s eligibility to serve in the latter acting role, sans Senate confirmation, expired on Jan. 24. It’s unclear which inspectors general were told by the White House they are being fired.

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“..USAID in Ukraine has generally chosen to defy Rubio’s decree to issue “stop work” orders until it receives more clarification from Washington..”

US Officials Pushing To Unfreeze Aid For Ukraine – FT (RT)

Several US diplomats have urged the State Department to make an exception for Ukraine-related programs after President Donald Trump ordered a sweeping suspension on foreign aid, the Financial Times reported on Saturday. Trump’s order potentially jeopardizes support for Ukrainian schools, hospitals, and infrastructure development, although military aid remains intact, according to the newspaper. Acting on behalf of the US president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued instructions on Friday to suspend any new foreign aid expenditure for 90 days. Contracting and grant officers from the State Department and USAID were directed to “immediately issue stop-work orders… until such time as the secretary shall determine, following a review,” according to a leaked cable cited by the FT.

The newspaper claimed that by Saturday evening, several organizations in Ukraine had received orders to stop their operations until further notice. However, USAID in Ukraine has generally chosen to defy Rubio’s decree to issue “stop work” orders until it receives more clarification from Washington, the FT claimed. American diplomats campaigning for aid to Kiev to be unfrozen reportedly hope that they will be able to win Rubio over. “We do not know at this time whether this request will be approved — in whole or in part — but there are positive signals thus far out of Washington,” an email sent to USAID staff in Ukraine on Saturday said, according to the newspaper. The outlet claims that Rubio’s order endangers support for the development of Ukrainian infrastructure, energy, and economy projects, while not affecting American military assistance. The FT quotes an unnamed Ukrainian government official as saying that “military aid to Ukraine is intact. At least as of now, and it is certainly not part of this 90-day freeze.”

The pause in US foreign development aid was announced by President Trump on Monday, just hours after his inauguration. The freeze aims to review the effectiveness and alignment of aid with US foreign policy objectives. The only exceptions are military financing for Israel and Egypt, as well as foreign emergency food aid. Ukraine was not part of the list of exceptions. Since February 2022, the US has provided over $65 billion in military aid to Kiev, according to the State Department. However, Trump has been skeptical of the assistance, saying Ukraine has “had enough” and that it is time for a peace agreement to be reached with Russia. His team is reportedly aiming to end the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in 100 days, threatening Russia with more sanctions if it does not agree to negotiate. While Moscow remains skeptical about the timeline, it has signaled a willingness to engage in talks.

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Quite the loot.

How Ukraine Lost Trillions-Worth of West-Coveted Natural Wealth (Sp.)

Senator Lindsey Graham revealed the true purpose of NATO’s proxy war against Russia last year, stating that the US “cannot afford” to let Moscow win in Ukraine, a country that is “sitting on $10-12 trillion worth of critical minerals.” The West’s hopes of getting its hands on Ukraine’s stocks of natural resources are fast dwindling. Besides lithium (LINK) , the corrupt Kiev regime has lost control over reserves of coal, gas, oil, and rare earth metals worth a total of about $12 trillion.

Rare Earth Elements in Ukraine:
Lithium: Critical for batteries in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.
Gallium: Vital for semiconductors and photovoltaic cells in solar panels.
Zirconium: Used in nuclear reactors, ceramics, and electronics.
Beryllium: Essential for aerospace, defense, and telecommunications.
Titanium: Used in aircraft construction, medical devices, and military applications.
Manganese: Necessary for steel production and batteries.
Scandium: Found in lightweight aluminum alloys, particularly for aerospace.

Key Deposits & Lost Control
• Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR): Rich in beryllium, manganese, titanium, other rare metals. Ukraine was cut off from these resources when the DPR and LPR joined Russia in 2022 after status referendums.
• Crimea: The peninsula holds deposits of iron ore, scandium, zirconium, gallium, and titanium. Crimea rejoined Russia after a referendum in March 2014.
• Zaporozhye & Kherson Regions: Host deposits of lithium, titanium, beryllium, uranium, manganese and tantalum. Both regions joined Russia in 2022.

Coal/Gas/Oil
• Coal: Essential for power generation and industrial processes like steelmaking, Ukraine has lost 80% of its reserves, including all high-grade anthracite, a key resource now under Russian control in the DPR and LPR.
• Gas: Critical for powering industries and heating systems, 20% of Ukraine’s natural gas deposits are now controlled by
• Oil: Used to generate energy as well as produce gasoline and diesel fuel, 11% of rich oil reserves (DPR, LPR) are now on Russian soil.

Foreign Players Still In The Game In Ukraine
• Canada’s Black Iron Inc., engaged in iron ore mining at the Shymanovskoye deposit, is reportedly seeking a $1.1 billion investment agreement with Kiev.
• NEQSOL Holding, a global investment company with operations across 11 countries, acquired Ukraine’s United Mining and Chemical Company (UMCC) in 2024.
• Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron have longstanding production-sharing agreements with Ukraine for shale gas exploration.

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“Any contingent entering the territory of Ukraine without the consent and permission of Russia is a military target..”

Unauthorized Peacekeepers In Ukraine Will Be Targeted – Russian Diplomat (RT)

Any Western peacekeepers deployed to Ukraine without Moscow’s approval would become legitimate military targets, senior Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik has said. The statement was made in response to EU Military Committee Chairman Robert Brieger’s interview on Saturday with Die Welt, in which the general suggested that a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict could be enforced by EU and international peacekeepers under a UN mandate. “Any contingent entering the territory of Ukraine without the consent and permission of Russia is a military target with quite understandable consequences,” Miroshnik wrote on Telegram on Sunday. “Why pretend? The attempts to invent ‘peacekeepers’ are not at all for establishing peace, but only attempts to use pseudo-humane methods to save [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky’s Kiev regime from defeat?!” he said.

Zelensky insists that at least 200,000 European soldiers would need to be deployed to enforce a ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow. “From all the Europeans? 200,000, it’s a minimum. It’s a minimum, otherwise it’s nothing,” he said last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In addition, Zelensky ruled out acquiescing to one of Moscow’s key demands, cutting the country’s military to a fifth of its current strength. The subject of a Western peacekeeping force in Ukraine has resurfaced in recent weeks, as US President Donald Trump has vowed to push for a swift end to the conflict. Earlier in January, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer both made statements about potentially putting boots on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force.

In January, Zelensky said he discussed the possibility with French President Emmanuel Macron, who floated the possibility of sending Western troops almost a year ago, prompting an outcry from other leaders. Moscow has rejected the idea of Western peacekeepers in Ukraine. Russia is “not satisfied” with proposals to postpone Ukraine’s NATO accession or “to introduce a peacekeeping contingent of ‘British and European forces’ into Ukraine,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said late last month. While Moscow is ready to resume peace talks with Kiev, it has stated that it will not allow a temporary freeze to the conflict, which would only serve to provide Ukraine breathing room to rearm.Any peace deal would have to be backed by “strong, legally binding agreements” addressing the root causes of the conflict, with mechanisms preventing violations of the agreements, Lavrov said. Moscow has insisted that Kiev must give up its ambitions to join NATO, demilitarize, denazify, and abandon plans to obtain nuclear weapons.

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“..there are no other [options]. All the rest will tilt the [situation] towards the West or the East. That is why they can only agree to Belarusian peacekeepers.”

Belarusian Peacekeepers ‘Best Option’ For Ukraine – Lukashenko (RT)

The Belarusian military is best suited for potential peacekeeping duties in Ukraine, President Alexander Lukashenko told journalists on Sunday. Other nations could attempt to use the mandate to their own advantage, he has said at a press conference in Minsk. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky stated earlier that at least 200,000 “European peacekeepers” would be needed to uphold a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Lukashenko argued that Belarusians would be the best fit. “If [it comes to that] in the name of trust and fairness, they don’t have anyone except the Belarusian army,” the president said.

“It doesn’t mean that I would deploy my army – 70,000 men – as peacekeepers,” Lukashenko said. “But there are no other [options]. All the rest will tilt the [the situation] towards the West or the East. That is why they can only agree to Belarusian peacekeepers.” Only Belarusians are capable of “securing normal relations” between Russia and Ukraine, Lukashenko claimed. He stressed, however, that he has no immediate plans of donating troops for a peacekeeping mission. Lukashenko acknowledged that there would be “serious debates” about the composition of the force, and it would be unlikely that Ukraine and its Western backers would agree to the participation of Belarus.

According to media reports, France and the UK are considering sending peacekeepers if a ceasefire is reached. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said earlier this month that he had “no doubt” his country would donate troops. In December, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a peacekeeping mission could be discussed if negotiations are resumed. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service has warned that the West could use peacekeepers to “occupy” Ukraine and buy time for a new conflict with Russia. Lukashenko was reelected for his seventh term in office on Sunday, receiving more than 80% of the vote, according to the Electoral Commission.

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“..humanity could be saved from a privatized, weaponized, and monopolized AI wiping us out.”

China Drops Powerful AI Model That’s Free, Fast and Better for Humanity (Sp.)

The US and China are in an all-important race for AI supremacy, with America’s outspending of the PRC multiple times over and restrictions on the Asian nation’s ability to obtain sophisticated computing hardware seemingly having little impact.Advanced large language model DeepSeek R1 is taking users by storm, wowing reviewers and earning praise from AI-phobes. The Hangzhou-based tech startup’s new model beats OpenAI’s o1 on math and reasoning benchmarks, and blows Meta’s* Llama 3.1 and OpenAI’s GPT-40 out of the water in coding and complex problem-solving.The model is free to run locally, with access to its API priced at a fraction of competitors’ rates.The setup reportedly cost $5.6 million to train (vs $78 million for GPT-40), and uses performance-capped chips due to US restrictions, which also saw the use ban the delivery of more powerful processers to China.

Instead, DeepSeek R1 harnesses its power from superior compute efficiency. “We should take the developments out of China very, very seriously,” Microsoft CEO Stya Nadella said at the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos this week, days after DeepSeek’s latest model dropped. Piquing users’ curiosity is the way in which the tool generates responses, in a process nature.com dubbed “analogous to human reasoning,” and thus “more adept than earlier language models at solving scientific problems.” That’s great news for scientists engaged in data analysis, pattern recognition and predictive modeling across a broad array of fields, from astronomy and medicine to the earth sciences.

Best of All? It’s Actually ‘Open’. Unlike other commercially available models, which experts have dubbed “essentially black boxes,” DeepSeek R1 is open source, allowing users fearful of AI turning into Skynet on them to study how it works and even build on it. DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng told Chinese media last year that “research and technological innovation,” not profit, was the company’s priority, and that his ultimate goal is artificial general intelligence. If the mission succeeds and an open-source AGI is born, humanity could be saved from a privatized, weaponized, and monopolized AI wiping us out.

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Dizzying numbers.

America’s Fiscal Doomsday Machine Must Be Stopped (David Stockman)

The following is Chapter One of David Stockman’s latest book, How To Cut $2 Trillion: A Blueprint From Ronald Reagan’s Budget Cutter To Musk, Ramaswamy and The DOGE Team. We encourage you to buy copies for your Senators and members of Congress and to share the Amazon link with as many influential voices as you can.

The DOGE $2 trillion budget savings goal 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. 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 $930 billion and about 30% of GDP. By the time Donald Trump was elected the first time it had erupted to $20 trillion, which has now become $36 trillion and 125% of GDP. Moreover, by the end of this decade the Federal fiscal equation will be going supercritical without sweeping budget reductions at the level of the DOGE target. Thus, by FY 2034 the annual baseline deficit according to CBO will total $2.9 trillion and 7% of GDP.

Yet even these enormous figures are based on a Rosy Scenario fairy tale. Namely, that Congress will never again adopt another spending increase or tax cut, including the impending $5 trillion extension of the expiring 2017 Trump tax cuts. It also conveniently assumes there will be no recessions, no inflation recurrence, no interest rate flare-ups nor any other economic crises for the remainder of this decade and forever thereafter. Furthermore, it presumes that these surging red ink totals and soaring debt service expenses would be copacetic in the bond pits just the same. That is, CBO inexplicably projects that 7% of GDP deficits and annual interest expense of $1.7 trillion or 4.1% of GDP by 2034 would be compatible with a weighted average yield on nearly $60 trillion of public debt of just 3.4%.

Yes, and if dogs could whistle the world would be a chorus! Give the average yield just another 250 basis points, however, and now you have $3.1 trillion of annual debt service expense and a $4 trillion annual deficit by 2034. In short, there is a doom-loop building inside the Federal fiscal equation and nothing short of the DOGE target of $2 trillion of annual budget savings by the end of this decade can reverse its explosive materialization in the years beyond. If sweeping budget retrenchment does not occur soon, in fact, soaring interest expense will ignite a veritable fiscal wildfire. On paper, the public debt would power upward unabated to $150 trillion or 166% of GDP by mid-century (2054) under CBO’s current Rosy Scenario projections. Of course, long before the debt actually hits this staggering figure, the whole system would implode. Every remnant of America as we now know it would go down the tubes.

So we need to be clear that the DOGE team of Musk and Ramaswamy must focus on savings of $2 trillion per year commencing relatively soon. That’s because the nation’s fiscal doomsday machine will be accumulating interest expense so fast as to make $2 trillion of savings spread over a longer period–such as a decade–little more than a rounding error. To wit, Federal interest expense has already passed the $1 trillion per year mark, will exceed $2 trillion per year in the early 2030s and would top $7.5 trillion per year at minimum by our calculations by mid-century. Stated differently, if something drastic is not done now – like a $2 trillion annual budget savings by the end of Donald Trump’s second term – America will be paying more interest on the public debt within 25 years than the entirety of today’s Federal budget.

That’s right: Debt service will exceed current outlays for Social Security, defense, Medicare, education, highways, the national parks, Head Start, interest, and the Washington Monument, too.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 entirety of planet Earth this year.

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Start handing out compensations.

No Evidence Closing Schools Materially Reduced Covid Transmission (Turley)

For years, scientists and commentators who questioned COVID policies were censored, blacklisted, and canceled across the country. Many of these dissenting views have since been vindicated from the lab origins theory to the lack of efficacy of surgical masks to the opposition to the closure of schools. Now, a new study in the Journal of Infection further undermines the once orthodox views of the pandemic, concluding that “reopening schools did not change the existing trajectory of COVID-19 rates.” In other words, we shut down our schools, without any demonstrable benefit to the country. We did, however, succeed in reducing free speech in the name of combating “disinformation.”

The report is based on one of the comprehensive studies to date on the pandemic: “Data were extracted from government websites. Cases and COVID-19 hospitalization and death incidence rates were calculated during the Delta and early Omicron periods in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom, for two weeks preceding and six weeks after schools reopened. We summarized stringency of public health measures (GRI), COVID-19 vaccination rates by age and SARS-CoV-2 testing rates.” In comparing these different countries, the scientists found no significant differences in reported cases: “No consistent patterns in cases, hospitalizations or deaths despite school re-openings or changes to public health measures,” The suppression of the lab theory and the targeting of dissenting scientists show the true cost of censorship and viewpoint intolerance.

The very figures claiming to battle “disinformation” were suppressing opposing views that have now been vindicated as credible. It was not only the lab theory. In my recent book, I discuss how signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration were fired or disciplined by their schools or associations for questioning COVID-19 policies. Some experts questioned the efficacy of surgical masks, the scientific support for the six-foot rule and the necessity of shutting down schools. The government has now admitted that many of these objections were valid and that it did not have hard science to support some of the policies. While other allies in the West did not shut down their schools, we never had any substantive debate due to the efforts of this alliance of academic, media and government figures.

Not only did millions die from the pandemic, but the United States is still struggling with the educational and mental health consequences of shutting down all our public schools. That is the true cost of censorship when the government works with the media to stifle scientific debate and public disclosures. Many still hope that Congress and the incoming Trump administration will conduct a long-needed investigation into the origins to allow for a more credible and open debate. That hope was increased by the nomination of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, one of the organizers of the Great Barrington Declaration, to be the next head of the National Institutes of Health. One of the most lasting costs was born by our children who have shown both educational and psychological harm from the shutting down of schools. The study confirms what dissenters said all along: there is no evidence that this was necessary or had any benefit to society:

“Our findings show that there were no consistent patterns to case, hospitalisation or death rates in each country or jurisdiction, irrespective of whether schools were open for onsite learning or changes to PHSM. School closures were adopted by many countries as part of a suite of PHSM but in the future should only be implemented where there is strong evidence of effectiveness. Predesigned and approved study protocols, along with scenario-based planning for schools are needed to prepare for the next pandemic. The negative consequences on child health and development are profound, so understanding the role of schools in SARS-CoV-2 transmission should be a priority for pandemic preparedness and response.”

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Not the biggest US fan.

The Great American Show (Pacini)

We did it. The world has passed another American presidential inauguration. We are all still alive, protocol was carried out to perfection, and the people received their 12 hours of glory. Panem et circenses, as the ancient Latins teach, never fails. Only those who are necessary and useful are invited to Trump’s inauguration, while those who were not strictly necessary were left out.

There was the elite of the new Big Tech, those who have revamped American liberal-capitalism by taking it to a new level, trendier and more glamorous, but above all more popular, reshaping the cultural profiles of at least two generations; there were the tycoons of the big U.S. corporations and beyond, the most unrestrained tycoons, those who have no problem calling themselves “philanthropists” while giving starvation salaries to their employees whose jobs they cut with an AI while they are comfortably at the beach on their yacht; there were the leaders of the most bizarre religions (or something like that), who devoutly renewed their vote to the politician with the biggest wallet, except for the rabbis who are the only ones who received devotion from both outgoing Joe Biden and incoming Donald Trump; there were the women who paraded and released smiles to the press, those women who are considered great and important because they stand next to a powerful man; there were even guests from abroad, not to be missed.

A full day-long ceremony, just about as long as it takes to brainwash Americans four years. Everyone tries to understand the rationale for inviting people to the ceremony or, conversely, the lack thereof. And indeed there were curious presences and even more significant absences. There was no Paladin Zelensky, who pretends that he himself decided not to go, but will have to deal with Trump’s repeated statements about de-powering the war campaign in Ukraine. Also absent was German Chancellor Scholz, who said he thought it was normal not to be invited to the inauguration because the ambassadors were there anyway. The British Crown was not there, a signal we will have to remember very soon.

But at the same time, there were people like maid Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Woman of the Year, awarded by the Atlantic Council directly from Elon Musk. She is in charge of guaranteeing the U.S. a new war economy, raising military spending to 2 percent of GDP, guaranteeing money and weapons to the Ukrainian front and, soon, men to be slaughtered in the trenches. She is in charge of securing access to the Mediterranean, for trade from the Middle East and Africa, as well as militarily controlling the expansion of Russia and China in the great southern continent. She is also the one who is to be the guarantor in the restructuring of Europe politically, ready to serve Washington as her predecessors taught her, from Giorgio Almirante onward. If she does her job well, she will stay where she is; if something goes wrong, her chair will jump.

There was also the insane Argentine President Javier Miley, who no doubt is in line with Trump both in terms of dastardly tax and labor policies and the Zionist struggle. That Miley who will be crucial to U.S. expansionist aims in South America, perhaps even more so than Lula, who, on the other hand, is too much of a free hitter for American tastes. Even the Chinese were there, from that China that Trump does not like but is comfortable doing business with and cannot be missed if the dollar is to survive, with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in attendance. Symbolically, the Ceo of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was also present, because the U.S. knows how to use the infowarfare game, especially when elections in various countries are in sight. There were the FANG overlords – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google – with all their boundless wealth of global control and manipulation, ready to change their corporate policies upon the arrival of the Potus. The logic of the whole process is simple: only those who are necessary and can be useful to the United States were invited.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wuhan

 

 

Seal

 

 

Cheetah

 

 

Prom

 

 

Rhino
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883420888210735152

 

 

Snake

 

 

Voila

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 262025
 
 January 26, 2025  Posted by at 11:16 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  57 Responses »


Leonardo da Vinci First anatomical studies c1515

 

China’s DeepSeek Bombshell Rocks Trump’s $500B AI Boondoggle (Mike Whitney)
Stargate: Gateway to US AI Dominance or Dystopian Cyberpunk Nightmare? (Sp.)
America Could Soon Become ‘A Bigger Country’ – Trump (RT)
EU Military Chief Wants Troops In Greenland (RT)
Trump Wants Ukraine ‘Off His Table’ – Bolton (RT)
Kiev Seeking To Boost Enlistment Of Under-25’s – Zelensky Aide (RT)
Most Ukrainians Believe Corruption On The Rise (RT)
US Halts Programs For Migrants, Including Ukrainians – NYT (RT)
Trump’s Hypersonic Theft Allegations Are Flat-Out False (Sp.)
Hegseth Confirmed As Defense Secretary, VP Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote (ZH)
Kristi Noem Confirmed As Homeland Security Secretary (ZH)
Comer: Trump DOJ Could Subpoena Biden’s Bank Records (JTN)
Merkel’s Party Allies With AfD On Migration (RT)
‘Future of Europe’ Hangs On German Snap Elections – Musk (RT)
Gazprom Forced To Hike Prices On Russians In The Middle Of Winter (RMX)
Euroclear Warns Against Seizing Russian Assets (RT)
Soros’ Soft Power Empire is More Vulnerable Than Ever With Trump Back (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

Superman


WNC


https://twitter.com/i/status/1882852182552465820

Milei

Kelly

Fauci
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883079864846274776

Sachs

 

 

 

 

Trump announces a $500 billion AI project, Stargate, which curiously doesn’t involve Elon Musk. Just hours earlier, China had announced its own project, DeepSeek. The difference? DeepSeek is free, open source, and better. Take it from there. I think that Larry Ellison et al know they’ve been beaten, but with $500 billion on the line, they won’t tell you. After all, who in America is ready to say we got beaten by China?

China’s DeepSeek Bombshell Rocks Trump’s $500B AI Boondoggle (Mike Whitney)

The future of humanity is being decided as we speak. And it is not being decided on a battlefield in Eastern Europe, or the Middle East or the Taiwan Strait, but in the data centers and research facilities where technology experts create “the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of Artificial Intelligence.” This is a full-blown, scorched-earth free-for-all that has already racked up a number of casualties though you wouldn’t know it from reading the headlines which typically ignore recent ‘cataclysmic’ developments. But when President Trump announced the launching of a $500 billion AI infrastructure project (Stargate) on Tuesday just hours after China had released its DeepSeek R1—which “outperforms its rivals in advanced coding, math, and general knowledge capabilities”—it became painfully obvious that the battle for the future ‘is on’ in a big way.

And this is not a battle that either side can afford to lose. Here’s how technology expert Adam Button summed it up: “Imagine we’re back in 2017 and the iPhone X was just released. It was selling $999 and Apple was crushing sales and building a wide moat around its ecosystem. Now imagine, just days later, another company introduced a phone and platform that was equal in every way if not better and the price was just $30. That’s what unfolded in the AI space today. China’s DeepSeek released an opensource model that works on par with OpenAI’s latest models but costs a tiny fraction to operate. Moreover, you can even download it and run it free (or the cost of your electricity) for yourself.

The product is a huge leap in terms of scaling and efficiency and may upend expectations of how much power and compute will be needed to manage the AI revolution. It also comes just hours before Trump is expected to unveil a $100 billion investment in US datacenters. The model shows there are different ways to train foundational AI models that offer up the same results with much less cost. It also opens up far more applications for AI that would have been too expensive to run previously, which should broaden the applications in the real economy. China’s DeepSeek may have just upended the economics of AI” (Forex Live).

Imagine the panic that is spreading across western tech capitals right now. AI was supposed to be the fast-track to absolute societal control and oligarchic rule into the next millennia, but now those pesky Chinese have overturned the applecart leaving western elites with a problem they might not be able to fix. They expected that their microchip sanctions would sabotage China’s AI efforts for at least a decade-or-so but, instead, China has come roaring back with a system that has left the tech giants gasping for air. Of course, China’s eye-popping strides in technological development are nothing new as editor Ron Unz pointed out in a recent article where he noted that “between 2003 and 2007, the US led in 60 of the 64 technologies.” Whereas, as of 2022, “China led in 52 of the 64 technologies.” That’s not a competition; that’s a beat-down in a parking lot. Here’s Unz:

China now leads the world in many of the most important future technologies. The success of its commercial companies in telecommunications (Huawei, Zongxin), EV (BYD, Geely, Great Wall, etc.), battery (CATL, BYD) and Photovoltaics (Tongwei Solar, JA, Aiko, etc.) are directly built on such R&D prowess. Similarly, the Chinese military’s modernization is built on the massive technological development of the country’s scientific community and its industrial base…. With its lead in science and technology research, China is positioned to outcompete the US in both economic and military arenas in the coming years…” American Pravda: China vs. America, Ron Unz, Unz Review. None of this should come as a surprise, although the timing of DeepSeek’s release (preempting Trump’s Stargate announcement) shows that the Chinese don’t mind throwing a wrench in Washington’s global strategy if it serves their regional interests, which it undoubtedly does. Here’s a bit more background from an article by Benj Edwards at Ars Technica:

“On Monday, Chinese AI lab DeepSeek released its new R1 model family under an open MIT license, with its largest version containing 671 billion parameters. The company claims the model performs at levels comparable to OpenAI’s o1 simulated reasoning (SR) model on several math and coding benchmarks…. The releases immediately caught the attention of the AI community because most existing open-weights models—have lagged behind proprietary models like OpenAI’s o1 in so-called reasoning benchmarks. … The R1 model works differently from typical large language models ….They attempt to simulate a human-like chain of thought as the model works through a solution to the query. This class of what one might call “simulated reasoning” models, or SR models for short, emerged when OpenAI debuted its o1 model family in September 2024. …

DeepSeek reports that R1 outperformed OpenAI’s o1 on several benchmarks and tests, including AIME (a mathematical reasoning test), MATH-500 (a collection of word problems), and SWE-bench Verified (a programming assessment tool)…. TechCrunch reports that three Chinese labs—DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Moonshot AI’s Kimi—have now released models they say match OpenAI’s o1’s capabilities, with DeepSeek first previewing R1 in November. Cutting-edge Chinese “reasoning” model rivals OpenAI o1—and it’s free to download..” Ars Technica. This is a very big deal. The United States intends to dominate the world in this critical technology and yet the upstart Chinese have not only produced a system that is every bit as good as America’s best, but have made it more affordable, more accessible and more transparent. What’s not to like?

[..] OpenAI is a privately held company that has open sourced some of its technology, but it has not open sourced most of its technology…. In contrast, DeepSeek AI R1 is open source which means its code is publicly accessible—anyone can see, modify, and distribute the code as they see fit. Open source software is developed in a decentralized and collaborative way, relying on peer review and community production.) Here’s more from political analyst Arnaud Bertrand in a post on X: “Most people probably don’t realize how bad the news (about) China’s Deepseek is for OpenAI. They’ve come up with a model that matches and even exceeds OpenAI’s latest model o1 on various benchmarks, and they’re charging just 3% of the price. It’s essentially as if someone had released a mobile on par with the iPhone but was selling it for $30 instead of $1000. It’s this dramatic.

What’s more, they’re releasing it open-source so you even have the option – which OpenAI doesn’t offer – of not using their API at all and running the model for “free” yourself. If you’re an OpenAI customer today you’re obviously going to start asking yourself some questions, like “wait, why exactly should I be paying 30X more?”. This is pretty transformational stuff, it fundamentally challenges the economics of the market…. So basically, it looks like the game has changed. All thanks to a Chinese company that just demonstrated how U.S. tech restrictions can backfire spectacularly – by forcing them to build more efficient solutions that they’re now sharing with the world at 3% of OpenAI’s prices. As the saying goes, sometimes pressure creates diamonds.” @RnaudBertrand.

Get the picture? Everything the US has done to stymie China’s development—including economic sanctions, chips embargoes, military provocations, political meddling, even arresting a Huawei executive (truly pathetic)—has blown up in their faces. China’s well-educated, highly motivated, technologically adept workforce have produced a model of AI that equals or exceeds the best the West has to offer at a fraction of the cost and with open sourcing that allows users to modify, and distribute the code as they see fit. So, which version of AI sounds like a genuine benefit to humankind and which sounds like another scheme for transforming the world into a dystopian police-state controlled by aspiring tyrants and psychopathic control freaks? Here’s more from Bertrand on ‘why China is making AI available so cheap:

“….it speaks to a different philosophy/vision on AI: ironically named “OpenAI” is basically about trying to establish a monopoly by establishing a moat with massive amounts of GPU and money. Deepseek is clearly betting on a future where AI becomes a commodity, widely available and affordable to everyone. By pricing so aggressively and releasing their code open-source, they’re not just competing with OpenAI but basically declaring that AI should be like electricity or internet connectivity – a basic utility that powers innovation rather than a premium service controlled by a few players. And in that world, it’s a heck of a lot better to be the first mover who helped make it happen than the legacy player who tried to stop it.” @RnaudBertrand.

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“Altman and Ellison’s involvement are major warning signs..” “Microsoft’s involvement in the project is also troubling..”

Stargate: Gateway to US AI Dominance or Dystopian Cyberpunk Nightmare? (Sp.)

The US’ new $500 billion tech initiative promises to “revolutionize” AI, “cement” America as the undisputed leader in advanced computing, and create 100,000 jobs. But it comes with grave risks for humanity. Here’s why. The Stargate Project is a privately financed plan to build 500,000-sq-ft AI data centers (10 under construction, 10 more to come), and grow from there, pending support from Donald Trump on the regulatory front. Its leading tech and financial players include Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Larry Ellison’s Oracle, Japan’s SoftBank, and Emirati sovereign wealth fund MGX. ARM, Nvidia, and Microsoft are also involved.Further details are sketchy, aside from an FT report revealing that the project will serve OpenAI’s interests exclusively, and OpenAI’s statement on looking forward to the creation of artificial general intelligence – the Holy Grail of human-like cognitive capabilities in machines.

Altman and Ellison’s involvement are major warning signs. Altman is on the record as a proponent of a transhumanist “merge” of human beings and machines. In 2017, he predicted that “the singularity” would take place between 2025-2075, and that superhuman AI, genetic enhancement and brain-machine interfaces were an inevitability. “More important than that, unless we destroy ourselves first, superhuman AI is going to happen, genetic enhancement is going to happen, and brain-machine interfaces are going to happen. It is a failure of human imagination and human arrogance to assume that we will never build things smarter than ourselves,” he wrote at the time. He’s is also an advocate of “AI agents” acting on human beings’ behalf online via the controversial World ID concept.

As for Ellison, the 80-year-old tech billionaire’s controversial views are well-known. Last year, he touted omnipresent AI cameras keeping citizens “on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on” as a good thing, and has been a proponent of national and digital IDs since 9/11. “We’re going to have supervision,” he said last September, assuring this would apply to authorities like police officers as well (feigning ignorance of the probability of a Robocop-style 4th directive preventing machines from arresting owners engaged in criminal behavior). Ellison is also an advocate of AI-driven mRNA cancer vaccines, announcing at Stargate’s rollout this week that artificial intelligence could help identify cancer via blood testing followed by gene therapy.

Microsoft’s involvement in the project is also troubling, with the company already planning to commit $80 billion for its own separate AI data centers to train and deploy cloud-based AI worldwide. A 2024 report by Business Insider revealed that real-life supervillain Bill Gates remains heavily involved in Microsoft’s AI strategies, from its decision to help OpenAI grow to support for Altman’s AI Agent idea. However, there’s a hitch in Altman’s development plans, with FT’s revelations that Stargate is an OpenAI investment vehicle disguised as a national project, combined with Altman’s very public feud with fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk following the initiative’s announcement, signaling trouble. According to Musk, SoftBank has actually secured less than $10 billion for Stargate so far. Altman assures that’s not the case, and accuses Musk of letting private interests get in the way of “what is great for the country.”

Musk, who has integrated narrow AI across his business empire, from Tesla’s autopilot to the AI chatbot Grok, has a long-outstanding grudge against Altman (including a 2024 lawsuit accusing OpenAI of violating its mission statement by putting profits over humanity). He’s also expressed fears of a 10-20% chance of AI wiping out humanity (although AI safety researcher Roman Yampolskiy says it’s more like 99.999999%). Naysayers of projects like Stargate argue that without regulation and left in the hands of corporations and the military-industrial complex, powerful AI systems will quickly become a tool for round-the-clock surveillance, signing off on military war crimes, and the implementation of social credit score systems long feared by sci-fi.

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Generating headlines is his second nature.

America Could Soon Become ‘A Bigger Country’ – Trump (RT)

The US could acquire new territories in the near future, President Donald Trump has told a crowd of supporters. In recent weeks, Trump has expressed ambitions to expand US territory and showed interest in annexing Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. “We might be an enlarged country pretty soon,” Trump said in a speech in Las Vegas on Saturday. “For years, for decades, we were the same size to the square foot… probably got smaller, actually,” he said, adding that this could change “soon.” In a recent phone conversation with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Trump was “very firm” in pushing for Denmark to relinquish control of Greenland, leaving the Danes “utterly freaked out,” the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing European officials briefed on the matter.

Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, was granted home rule in 1979. The Arctic island is home to around 60,000 people and hosts the US Pituffik base. Greenland’s pro-independence leaders and Danish officials have been firm in rejecting Trump’s offer to buy Greenland. While Frederiksen has reportedly offered to expand US military presence on the island and deepen cooperation on mineral exploitation, Trump was aggressive and confrontational during the phone call, according to the FT.Trump initially floated the idea of purchasing Greenland during his first term in office in 2019, but was met with rejection from both Danish and Greenlandic officials. Last month, he said, “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for US national security.

In addition to Greenland, Trump has mentioned regaining ownership of the Panama Canal, which was under US management until 1999. He cited concerns about China’s growing influence over the vital trade route. Panamanian President Jose Mulino has promised to resist a potential takeover and denied that the vital waterway has been under foreign control. Trump has repeatedly argued that Canada should become the 51st state of the United States, promising tax breaks and other benefits to Canadian citizens if the move were to happen. He has accused Canada of being a bad trade partner and threatened to impose harsh tariffs on Canadian goods. In early January, Trump refused to rule out the use of military force against Greenland and Panama, saying the US needs both for “economic security.” Trump added that he would only use “economic force” against Canada.

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Greenland is not even part of the EU. Which, by the way, doesn’t have a military, but it does have a military chief. With very original ideas.

EU Military Chief Wants Troops In Greenland (RT)

The European Union should deploy military forces in Greenland, the chairman of the EU Military Committee (EUMC), Gen. Robert Brieger, said in an interview published Saturday. He cited Greenland’s geopolitical importance and “tensions” with Russia and China as the reason for his suggestion. It comes as US President Donald Trump has been laying claim to the island. ”It would make perfect sense not only to station US forces in Greenland, as has been the case to date, but also to consider stationing EU soldiers there in the future,” Brieger told Die Welt, referring to a major US military base that has been there since the early 1940s. Such a deployment would “send a strong signal and could contribute to stability in the region,” believes the former Austrian chief of staff, who currently leads a body that includes the chiefs of staff of EU member states.

Brieger said that although the autonomous Danish territory is not legally a part of the bloc, “the Europeans – just like the USA – have interests in Greenland.” The general cited rich deposits of raw materials on the island and its proximity to international trade routes, calling it an area of “great importance from a geopolitical point of view.” He also described the territory as “highly relevant from a security policy perspective.” Referring to US claims on the island, Brieger said that he expected Washington to respect the territorial integrity of other nations and the UN Charter. Instead, the general drew attention to potential “tension with Russia and possibly China” in the area if the polar ice caps continue to melt due to climate change.

Greenland has been grabbing headlines recently as Trump has repeatedly claimed that ownership of Denmark’s mineral-rich Arctic island is necessary for US national security. Earlier this month, he refused to rule out a military solution. Brussels responded to Trump’s comments by describing a potential US attack as a “highly theoretical issue.” Trump’s desire to acquire the island has reportedly sparked concern in Copenhagen. On Friday, Financial Times reported that the US president’s aggressive way of pushing the idea in a phone call with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen earlier this month triggered panic in the Nordic nation’s capital. The paper’s sources described the 45-minute-long conversation as “horrendous” and compared it to “a cold shower.”

Frederiksen reportedly reiterated Denmark’s stance that the island is not for sale. Earlier this week, a Danish politician, Anders Vistisen, took the floor of the EU parliament in Strasbourg and told Trump to “f**k off,” voicing his opposition to the idea of the US acquiring Greenland. Some Republicans in Congress have at least entertained the idea. GOP Congressman Andy Ogles introduced a bill to allow Trump to acquire Greenland, saying the US should be the “dominant predator.” He dubbed the bill ‘Make Greenland Great Again’. Carla Sands, Trump’s former ambassador to Denmark, has also publicly backed the proposal, arguing that Denmark cannot adequately defend the island and suggesting that US control would be a “common-sense solution.”

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One step short of calling it treason:

“I think Putin and the Kremlin would be very happy with the deal where they keep the territory in Ukraine; there is a ceasefire; NATO does not accept Ukraine as a member..”

“Putin “sees Trump as an easy mark, somebody who is susceptible to flattery..”

Trump Wants Ukraine ‘Off His Table’ – Bolton (RT)

US President Donald Trump does not want the Ukraine conflict complicating his agenda and may well end up offering Vladimir Putin a peace deal that would make the Russian leader “very happy,” former US national security adviser John Bolton has claimed in an interview with Afshin Rattansi’s show ‘Going Underground’. Bolton worked for Trump during his first term, but ended up being fired in September 2019 after only 18 months on the job. The US president later described the Republican as a “nutjob” and called his appointment one of his “biggest mistakes.” One of the first things Trump did after his inauguration on Monday was terminate his former adviser’s security detail provided due to alleged threats from Iran.

The new administration in the White House is “bad news” for Kiev, Bolton told Rattansi on Saturday, pointing out that Trump recently “threatened Ukraine with a cutoff of military assistance” if it refuses to talk peace with Russia. The US president and his team “want a negotiation because as with everything with Trump the world is just a long line of deals. He wants a deal to take this word ‘Ukraine’ off his table. He views it as [former US President Joe] Biden’s war… He wants it over with. He does not want it complicating his agenda,” he said. The possible terms for settling the Ukraine conflict voiced by Vice President J.D. Vance during the campaign look like “a peace plan that could be written in the Kremlin,” the former national security adviser argued.

“I think Putin and the Kremlin would be very happy with the deal where they keep the territory in Ukraine; there is a ceasefire; NATO does not accept Ukraine as a member,” he said. According to Bolton, Putin “sees Trump as an easy mark, somebody who is susceptible to flattery” and will try to take advantage of the US president’s conviction that “US relations with foreign countries depend on his personal relationship with the head of state.” Putin said on Friday that Russia and the US could still find “many points of contact” when it comes to the most pressing issues, including the Ukraine conflict. The Russian leader described Trump as “trustworthy,” recalling their “pragmatic” and “business-like” relationship during his first tenure in the White House. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the same day that Putin is ready to talk to Trump and that Moscow is awaiting signals from the new administration in Washington.

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Killed the grown-ups; now go for the kids.

Kiev Seeking To Boost Enlistment Of Under-25’s – Zelensky Aide (RT)

The office of the Ukrainian president will propose amendments in the coming days that offer incentives for males between the age of 18 and 25 to sign voluntary contracts with the armed forces, an adviser to the office’s military department, Nikolay Schur, has told local media. Men in that age range are currently not subject to mandatory mobilization under Ukrainian law. The prospect of further tightening of draft laws has become a source of significant controversy in Ukrainian society. According to the adviser, “a whole range of amendments” to existing legislation and presidential decrees have been prepared by a working group that includes representatives of the Defense Ministry, General Staff and public organizations. “Technical details are being agreed upon at the moment and some things may still change,” he said. The amendments are expected to be presented to the public “in the coming days,” Schur added.

Last spring, faced with manpower shortages, mounting losses, and military setbacks, Ukraine lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 and significantly tightened mobilization rules. Since then, numerous videos have appeared on social media showing Ukrainian conscription officers chasing potential recruits in the streets, brawling with them and subjecting them to abuse. Reports of the mobilization growing increasingly violent and lawless have appeared not only in the local media but also in the West. The previous US administration of President Joe Biden had reportedly been pressuring Ukraine to reduce the mobilization age to 18. Kiev resisted those attempts, with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claiming in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this week that what the Ukrainian military needs is not more men, but more weapons from its Western backers for the troops that it already has.

New US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed a willingness to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Many Western officials, including Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham, have been actively pushing for Ukraine to lower the draft age, arguing that the country is fighting for its survival and needs more people at the front. Putin and other Russian officials have on numerous occasions blamed the US and its allies of willing to “fight Russia until the last Ukrainian” in their attempts to inflict a strategic defeat on Moscow.

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As if it can get any worse..

Most Ukrainians Believe Corruption On The Rise (RT)

Most Ukrainians think that corruption has worsened over the past year, with an overwhelming majority seeing it as one of the top problems in the country, a new survey indicates. According to a study published by Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption on Friday, 69.1% of respondents believe that corruption has increased, compared to 61.2% in 2023. Among business representatives, 57% also reported a rise in corruption in 2024, up from 46.3% the year before. The nationwide survey found that 79.9% of citizens and 76% of businesses consider corruption the second most serious problem in Ukraine, behind only the conflict with Russia (92.3% of respondents).

Over the years, Ukraine has developed a reputation for endemic corruption, and the problem has only worsened since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, as the defense sector has been rocked by numerous scandals involving military procurement. In one of the most recent controversies, the army’s chief psychiatrist, Oleg Druz, was arrested on charges of “illegal enrichment” related to earnings of more than $1 million. Kiev’s Western backers have repeatedly expressed concern about graft, with the EU labeling corruption a major stumbling block in Ukraine’s aspirations to join the bloc. In January 2024, the US Department of Defense Office of Inspector General released a report revealing that the Pentagon was unable to fully track over $1 billion worth of weapons aid to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin weighed in on the issue earlier this week, suggesting that Kiev “happily receives hundreds of billions from its sponsors” only to “gobble up these billions with great pleasure.”

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America first.

US Halts Programs For Migrants, Including Ukrainians – NYT (RT)

US officials have paused several immigration programs, including those allowing Ukrainians to temporarily settle in the country, as part of President Donald Trump’s border security crackdown, the New York Times reported on Friday. A directive issued by a senior US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) official on Thursday has halted “final decisions” on applications for the programs while they undergo review, according to the report.The directive reportedly covers humanitarian parole programs introduced during the Biden administration which allowed approved migrants to stay in the US for up to two years, obtain work permits, and avoid deportation. The programs affected include Uniting for Ukraine, an initiative that has allowed more than 150,000 Ukrainians to enter the US with financial sponsorship as of September 2023, according to government data.

Other suspended initiatives include humanitarian parole programs for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, which have collectively admitted over 500,000 migrants since late 2022.The directive also impacts family reunification programs and an initiative for Central American minors with family members in the US. A USCIS spokesperson confirmed the directive’s existence to the New York Times but declined to provide further comment on its details.The halt follows an executive order signed by Trump on Monday directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “terminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the US” and to review remaining cases for compliance with US law. Acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued additional directives the same day to end broad applications of humanitarian parole and revert to case-by-case assessments.

“This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis… Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a DHS spokesperson explained.Trump has consistently pledged to take swift action on illegal immigration. After his inauguration on Monday, the president signed a series of executive orders aimed at strengthening border security, including declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and ending automatic birthright citizenship for children born to parents who are not lawful permanent US residents.

Also on Monday, Trump has ordered a full review of all US foreign assistance, including that designated for Ukraine. Following the order, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio froze nearly all grants to Ukraine for 90 days, from development assistance to military aid, according to media reports. Trump has repeatedly criticized US foreign assistance to countries including Ukraine during his reelection campaign, promising to ease the burden it puts on the American taxpayer upon his return to office.

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Yes, they make little sense. The US had it first but did nothing with it?

Key: “resistance of materials-related work..” aka coating.

Trump’s Hypersonic Theft Allegations Are Flat-Out False (Sp.)

President Trump claimed that Russia stole the design for hypersonic missiles during the Obama administration, stating in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that “some bad person gave them the design,” while also boasting that the US would have even better super hypersonic missiles. Yury Knutov, military expert and historian of the Air Defense Forces, refuted Trump’s claim, explaining to Sputnik that: First, there’s no need for Russia to steal US technology since it showcased the first hypersonic device back in 1991. “The Soviet Union always outpaced the US in terms of resistance of materials-related work [vital for hypersonic missiles]. While the US focused on electronics and microchips,” Knutov told Sputnik. This led to the creation of the first-ever hypersonic laboratory, Kholod (lit. Frost).

A model of the S-200 missile fitted with a Kholod was bought by the Americans in the 1990s, who thoroughly studied the relevant documentation. Russia now has hypersonic missiles in three domains: air-based Kinzhal, sea-based Zircon, and land-based Oreshnik missiles. “Something no other country in the world has. This is why we outstrip the US in this regard.” “The country that was the first to launch a hypersonic vehicle cannot steal anything from the US, which only last year successfully tested a hypersonic missile.” “As for Trump’s claims, he was either misled or made up a story to compensate for the failures of the US military-industrial complex. On the other hand, Trump apparently needs an argument in Congress to increase funding for the US hypersonic weapons program,” Knutov concluded.

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“This marks only the second time in U.S. history that a vice president’s vote was required to confirm a Cabinet official.”

Hegseth Confirmed As Defense Secretary, VP Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote (ZH)

Vice President J.D. Vance cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate on Friday night to confirm Pete Hegseth as President Trump’s Secretary of Defense. This marks only the second time in U.S. history that a vice president’s vote was required to confirm a Cabinet official. VP Vance cast the 51-50 tie-breaking vote to confirm Hegseth late Friday night after three Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine), and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), joined Democrats and independents in opposing the Princeton- and Harvard-educated former combat veteran and former Fox News host. “I thought I was done voting in the Senate,” the vice president wrote on X. On Truth Social, President Trump congratulated Hegseth shortly after his confirmation: “Congratulations to Pete Hegseth. He will make a great Secretary of Defense!”

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Hegseth’s nomination and attempts by the Deep State to derail it. Why the pushback? Hegseth has expressed an urgent need to restore lethality to a military he described as “woke” due to toxic diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. He has pledged to reinstate meritocracy in the armed forces, arguing that Marxist-inspired DEI initiatives are undermining national security. He has recently criticized woke senior Pentagon leaders and the Deep State on the Shawn Ryan Show: “First of all, you got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI woke s*** has got to go.”

Hegseth’s confirmation paves the way for his planned elimination of Marxist-inspired DEI initiatives in the military. This is all part of a broader strategy by Trump. The great purge has begun. There is no need for Marxist DEI leadership to undermine the nation at a time when the world has dangerously crept closer and closer to the next major conflict. Russia and China aren’t undermining their militaries with wokeism. Next week, senators will face Trump’s other Cabinet nominations, including Kash Patel for FBI head, Tulsi Gabbard for Office of National Intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services.

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“The homeland security secretary oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services.”

Kristi Noem Confirmed As Homeland Security Secretary (ZH)

The Senate on Saturday confirmed Kristi Noem as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, meaning that the South Dakota governor will be in charge of a massive agency established after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and has since had a long record of civil liberties and civil rights abuses. Noem was confirmed by a final vote of 59-34. Of note, the Trump ally who is in her second term as governor received support from several Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee when it voted 13-2 to advance her nomination earlier in the week. Republicans have also expressed confidence in Noem’s ability to lead border security and immigration enforcement, AP reports.

Meanwhile back at the swamp: “Fixing this crisis and restoring respect for the rule of law is one of President Trump and Republicans’ top priorities,” sid Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Friday. “And it’s going to require a decisive and committed leader at the Department of Homeland Security. I believe Kristi has everything it takes to undertake this task.” Democrats’ primary opposition to Noem revolved around how to handle border enforcement and immigration under Trump – with figures like Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) vowing to vote against Noem, suggesting instead “bipartisan solutions to fix the mess at our border” vs Noem, who he said “seems headed in the wrong direction.” The homeland security secretary oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Beyond those agencies, the department is also responsible for securing airline transportation, protecting dignitaries, responding to natural disasters and more. Trump is planning major changes to how the department functions, including involving the military in immigration enforcement and reshaping the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Those plans could immediately put Noem in the spotlight after the new president visited recent disaster sites in North Carolina and California on Friday. -AP. Noem was repeatedly asked by Senators during her confirmation hearing whether she would administer disaster aid to states even if Trump asked her not to, to which she replied that she would “deliver the programs according to the law and that it will be done with no political bias.” Noem was notably a state House Rep. for eight years before becoming governor in 2019.

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“We got everyone’s bank records except Joe Biden. We never could get Joe Biden’s bank records..”

Comer: Trump DOJ Could Subpoena Biden’s Bank Records (JTN)

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, who led the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, said he has been in contact with the incoming Trump Justice Department about his probe’s findings and suggested the new attorney general could subpoena bank records withheld from his committee. “I’m in communication with Pam Bondi’s team. If the Trump Justice Department wants to move forward on this, I want to move forward on this. But I’m waiting for direction from them, because we fought against the tide with the Merrick Garland Department of Justice. I don’t know how much appetite Donald Trump has or Pam Bondi has to go after Joe Biden,” Comer told the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Thursday. “But look the investigations there, Joe Biden lied. We got everyone’s bank records except Joe Biden. We never could get Joe Biden’s bank records,” he also said.

Comer’s impeachment probe concluded last year and found that Biden engaged in impeachable conduct by helping to enrich his family with millions of dollars in business schemes that traded on his name and then defrauded voters by lying to cover up the scandal. As part of the investigation Comer uncovered multiple payments to Joe Biden from his family members on several occasions which were labeled as loan repayments. Comer says reviewing Biden’s bank records would show whether they were legitimate loans. “I think it would be interesting for someone in the Bondi Department of Justice to look at Joe Biden’s bank records to see if, in fact, he ever loaned his brother money, because the money we found from Joe the quarter of a million dollars, as you know, John, he tried to say, was a loan repayment, but he never proved that he ever made the initial loan,” he continued.

Comer argued that the evidence collected by his team is enough to justify a subpoena for the records. “My investigation is detailed in the book, All the President’s Money, and in our final oversight committee report, they have the basis to be able to receive a positive subpoena to obtain this bank information from Joe Biden,” Comer said. “Look, he admitted to the American people when he pardoned his entire family preemptively, that’s right, that this was a Biden crime family.”

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”The firewall has fallen!” Weidel wrote on X on Friday. “The CDU and CSU have accepted my offer to vote together with the AfD..”

Merkel’s Party Allies With AfD On Migration (RT)

Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said that it will implement strict immigration laws even if it has to enlist the support of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) to pass them. The move marks the first time a mainstream German party has agreed to work with the AfD and stands in stark contrast with the policy of former CDU leader and Chancellor Angela Merkel known for her lenient approach to migration.In a letter to party members seen by Politico on Friday, CDU leadership said that its lawmakers would introduce harsh immigration restrictions even “if only the AfD supports our proposals.” “We will introduce motions in the German Bundestag [Parliament] that are exclusively in line with our convictions,” CDU leader Friedrich Merz told German news agency DPA later on Friday. “And we will introduce them regardless of who agrees with them.”

Since the AfD’s founding in 2013, the country’s mainstream parties have maintained a ‘firewall’ around the right-wingers, refusing to enter coalition talks with them and declining to introduce legislation that could only pass with their support. However, German attitudes to immigration have hardened since Merkel opened Germany’s borders to more than a million migrants in 2015, and the AfD is now the country’s second-most-popular party. Ahead of a general election next month, the AfD is polling at 20%, behind the CDU at 30% but ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SDP) at 17%, according to Politico.

Merz is expected to assume the chancellorship after the election. A recent survey found that Immigration is the top concern among voters. After an Afghan man allegedly stabbed a two-year-old child to death at a Bavarian school earlier this week, AfD leader Alice Weidel wrote to Merz offering to back any immigration restrictions proposed by his party.”The firewall has fallen!” Weidel wrote on X on Friday. “The CDU and CSU have accepted my offer to vote together with the AfD in the Bundestag on the crucial issue of migration. This is good news for our country!” she added, referring to the CDU’s Bavarian sister party.

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“I think it could decide the entire fate of Europe, maybe the fate of the world.”

‘Future of Europe’ Hangs On German Snap Elections – Musk (RT)

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed his “full support” for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a campaign rally held by the party in the city of Halle on Saturday. The US-based billionaire called on party backers to “go all out” to convince Germans to vote for AfD, arguing that the upcoming snap parliamentary elections could be key for the future not only of Germany but of the world. The tech entrepreneur addressed the crowd that gathered for the event in Halle via video link. The party chose the central German city for its opening election campaign rally, which was attended by party co-leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, who is also the AfD candidate for chancellor. Some 4,500 people joined the event, according to AP. “This election is extremely important. I do not say it lightly when I think the future of civilization could hang on this election,” Musk told the cheering crowd.

“I think it could decide the entire fate of Europe, maybe the fate of the world.” The businessman has said he was convinced that people in Germany wanted “something different” from what they have had over the past decade. Voting for the AfD was the only way to bring about this much-desired change, he stated, calling on party supporters to do everything possible to convince their “friends and family” to join them, one person at a time. Musk also praised the policies proposed by the AfD as the “common sense” ones and compared them to the approach advocated by US President Donald Trump. The businessman emerged as Trump’s close advisor during the latter’s election campaign last year. “You have my full support,” he told the rally, adding that the AfD seeks to get “government out of people’s ways” and give “people back personal freedom” and protect them from “dangers.”

Musk AfD

The right-wing party has long been known for its harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric, with many German media outlets referring to it as far-right. Until recently, all other major German political parties refused to cooperate with AfD. Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), however, recently said that he would be willing to accept AfD support for his own party’s immigration policy proposals, even if it would be the only other political group to back them. Musk has been active in his support for AfD over the past months. In December, he called it the only party capable of “saving Germany” and praised its anti-immigration stance while calling German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “incompetent fool.”

Earlier in January, the businessman also hosted a livestream with Weidel on his social media platform X, reiterating that “only AfD can save Germany.” The livestream was closely monitored by some 150 EU officials and technical specialists as Brussels suspected it could give the right-wing party an “unfair advantage” ahead of the February 23 vote. Musk’s activities have provoked unease in Berlin. Scholz had previously accused the SpaceX and Tesla CEO of seeking attention online and urged people to not “feed the troll.” Later, he also called him a “threat” to democracy and stated that although people in Germany and Europe enjoy freedom of speech, it cannot be used to support “extreme-right positions.” On Saturday, Musk accused the German government of “suppressing [free] speech very aggressively” and said that “true democracy” is impossible under such circumstances.

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Not everything runs smooth.

Gazprom Forced To Hike Prices On Russians In The Middle Of Winter (RMX)

Facing losses, huge debts, and layoffs, Gazprom is now turning to Russian citizens to help it out of its financial woes, writes “Rzeczpospolita.” Gazprom’s management is reportedly demanding that the Kremlin raise gas prices threefold on the domestic market. Alexey Sakharov, head of Gazprom’s strategic department, spoke about the company’s difficult situation: “The current level of regulated wholesale gas prices in Russia does not ensure the creation of financial resources in sufficient quantities to make the necessary capital investments in the maintenance and development of gas infrastructure in the interests of Russian customers. And this cannot but affect the reliability of gas supplies in the long term,” he warned during a meeting of the Council of Experts in the State Duma.

Sakharov argued that the price of gas for Russians must rise to a level that will allow Gazprom to provide gas to all regions and implement investment projects. The company will also have to triple the tariffs for gas transmission for independent producers. In May 2024, Remix reported that Gazprom had reported its first loss in 20 years and was running a $7 billion deficit. Earlier in January, the oil giant announced that it would have to lay off more than 1,500 employees from its headquarters in St. Petersburg. “Gazprom is currently generating losses. The rate frozen since 2015 is 62.5 rubles per thousand cubic meters per 100 km, and the company’s expenses amount to 109 rubles. The price that Gazprom needs and demands from the Kremlin is 170 rubles,” the portal quotes Sakharov as saying.

Gas in Russia used to be cheap, but everything changed after the invasion of Ukraine. “Since the beginning of the war, the Russian government has carried out a record indexation of gas tariffs for citizens in over 10 years. Last year, gas prices increased by 11.2 percent, in 2022 — by 3 percent in the summer and 8.5 percent in December. A new increase of 10.2 percent is planned from July 1, 2025, (the cumulative increase in gas prices will be 37 percent since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine),” they state. Back in December, Putin admitted that Russia’s economic growth measured in GDP in 2025 will be half of what it was in 2024, growing less than 4 percent this year, and, according to the Kremlin’s official estimates, it will slow down to 2-2.5 percent in 2026. The Russian president said the task for the authorities next year will be to “stabilize inflation,” which is soaring despite the efforts of the Russian central bank, which raised the interest rate to the highest level in 20 years.

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They warn all the time.

Euroclear Warns Against Seizing Russian Assets (RT)

Outright confiscation of the Russian assets currently frozen by the West as part of Ukraine-related sanctions could lead to unintended consequences for the EU, Euroclear CEO Valerie Urbain warned on Friday in an interview with Bloomberg. The Belgian-based depository holds around $213 billion (€197 billion) of nearly $300 billion of Russian central bank assets that were frozen by the US and EU shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. “There could always be also countermeasures from Russia which could further destabilize the financial markets,” Urbain told the news agency on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Euroclear CEO said the frozen funds could be used as leverage in potential peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, while noting that some officials are interested in pushing ahead with confiscation. Urbain stressed the importance of transferring not only the funds, but the liabilities as well, in the event of expropriation by EU members, explaining that the clearinghouse should be protected from potential claims by Russia. In December, the CEO cautioned that tapping either the Russian assets or the proceeds generated by them, which has been debated by EU and G7 officials for nearly three years, could jeopardize the euro’s role as a global reserve currency and the broader stability of EU finances.

Kiev has been urging its Western backers to seize Russia’s sovereign assets in order to fund Ukraine’s military and reconstruction efforts. While the administration of former US President Joe Biden supported the proposal, some EU allies ruled out the move, citing the potential impact on the financial system and the euro’s reputation. In July, the European Commission said it was ready to transfer the first tranche of €1.55 billion generated from the Bank of Russia’s frozen assets to Ukraine. Moscow has condemned the asset freeze as “theft,” arguing that accessing the funds would be illegal and set a troubling precedent. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned that the Russian government will pursue legal action against those involved in the seizure.

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“But the people of America…are sick of this globalist, elitist, unregulated, Davos and Bilderberg operation where multibillionaires gather in secret and design ways to restrict liberty and impoverish private sector workers..”

Soros’ Soft Power Empire is More Vulnerable Than Ever With Trump Back (Sp.)

Open Society Foundations chairman Alex Soros has put a brave face on the losses facing by his father’s neoliberal philanthropic empire now that Joe Biden is gone and MAGA has turned to Washington with a vengeance.
“My father was more about how you get closed societies to become open, and my task within the foundation is how do you renew open societies from within?” Soros Jr. told FT in an interview this week, hinting at the OSF’s plans for work in the United States in the coming four years. A second Trump term carries substantial risks to the Soros family and ‘philanthropic’ fortunes. With the Democrats’ exit from the White House and loss of both houses of Congress, Soros will have fewer means to influence domestic policy on issues ranging from identity politics to courts, education and online censorship.

Trump’s reelection and the failure of the Soros-backed campaign to lock him up is a major reputational blow to the Open Society Foundations, which reoriented its global focus onto US politics in 2023 but still lost. Setbacks in the US could reverberate in Europe, toppling, undermining or crippling Soros-allied politicians. Hungary’s Viktor Orban said last week that Soros “lost the battle for America,” and his supporters must now be “squeezed out of Brussels” as well. Alex Soros also dropped hints about the seriousness of the threat posed by tech billionaire Elon Musk to his family’s fortunes. “I was open for a meeting [with Musk, ed.], I made an overture through somebody that knows him and he didn’t respond. I think he’s much more interested in trolling than meeting,” the OSF chairman said in his FT interview, referring to Musk’s references to Soros senior as a Magneto-style supervillain to Soros senior as a Magneto-style supervillain and as a “brilliant guy” who “fundamentally hates humanity.”

Musk opposes key policies pushed by Soros, from lawfare-minded DAs to censorship, and has accused him of seeking to “destroy Western civilization.” Since Trump’s comeback, Musk has also jumped into European politics to back populist figures abhorred by Soros, from AfD in Germany to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in Britain. “I think there are some important contrasts to draw between Musk and Soros. Soros is a financier,” veteran political commentator and former hedge fund manager Charles Ortel told Sputnik. “He has, in theory, a great track record managing his and other people’s money. But on the charity front, it’s difficult for me to find a lot of good works, and it’s easy to find a lot of diabolical activities,” Ortel said, citing Soros’ links with the Clinton Foundation, for example.

That’s a contrast with ‘pauper to prince’ Musk, whose career has involved actually “developing novel products and services and bringing them to market efficiently,” Ortel said. The tech billionaire’s philanthropic activities have been “quiet, which is the way it’s supposed to be done.” “No doubt the Deep State will resist [Musk and Trump]. But the people of America…are sick of this globalist, elitist, unregulated, Davos and Bilderberg operation where multibillionaires gather in secret and design ways to restrict liberty and impoverish private sector workers. This is a structure that must change, and I believe that Musk will be a powerful ally” to Trump, the observer believes.

“Soros is only one example of, I believe, a bad actor who is abusing non-profits that actually are not regulated carefully enough anywhere, and especially in the United States. So he and people like Bill Gates and the Clinton Foundation and the Obama Foundation and many other dynastic political families set up these ‘organizations’ that are not independent or not tightly controlled. They’re supposed to be nonpartisan under American law, the 501C3 entities, in fact, they’re not,” Ortel stressed.

“Folks like Soros use foundations…as false fronts to pay off people that are important inside the country. Nobody really knows how much money is actually sent from these charities to the to the recipients because they’re never audited. Nobody knows how many kickbacks end up in politicians pockets, not just around the world, but inside the United States,” he added. Ultimately, Ortel hopes the Trump administration will “use the power they now have merely to enforce existing laws and regulations to stop charity fraud. People talking about price gouging in the private sector – charity fraud and abuse of government money I think is a much more serious problem inside my country and around the world.”

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Ivermectin

 

 

Dachs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883085313230438807

 

 

Wombat

 

 

Trouble
https://twitter.com/i/status/1883005618514010336

 

 

Sound waves

 

 

Guilty

 

 

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Jan 252025
 


Rembrandt van Rijn The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp 1632

 

Trump Halts Ukraine Aid, State Dept “Totally Went Nuclear” On Foreign Aid (ZH)
West Should Push Kiev Into Talks With Moscow – Putin (RT)
Grenell to NATO: Ukraine Membership Push Would Face ‘Big Buzzsaw’ in US (ET)
Ukraine in NATO Would Mean Ruling Out Peace – Moscow (RT)
Putin: 2020 US Election Was Stolen (Sp.)
Trump Not Willing To Take Part In Ukraine’s Reconstruction (RT)
Trump To Put Steve Witkoff in Charge of Iran Negotiations (Antiwar)
De-Weaponizing The Federal Government (Mike McDaniel)
The Addicted, Petty, and Hysterical Left (Victor Davis Hanson)
Guffawing Over Trump’s Greenland Vision? Crack Open A History Book (Moore)
Trump’s Call With Danish PM Over Greenland Was ‘Cold Shower’ (Sp.)
Trump Lists Perks Should Canada Become 51st US State (RT)
Trump vs. The Establishment, Who Will Win? (Paul Craig Roberts)
The Great Sorting-Out Begins (James Howard Kunstler)
Trump Launches Cryptocurrency Working Group (RT)
A Pathetic Clown-World Alliance Signed By Two Moribund Partners (Karganovic)
Belarus: The “Dictatorship” Of Stability and Peace (Lucas Leiroz)
Which Genocide Are You On? (Mr. Fish)

 

 


Mr. Fish

 

 

Kiriakou

Mearsheimer

Bass

Chamath

 

 

 

 

“Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions,” Rubio wrote. The questions: Does the action make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous?”

Trump Halts Ukraine Aid, State Dept “Totally Went Nuclear” On Foreign Aid (ZH)

The Trump State Department on Friday halted spending on almost all foreign aid grants for 90 days, which also appears to apply to funding for military assistance to Ukraine, Politico reports. The guidance, issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was sent to all diplomatic and consular posts, and orders all department staffers to issue “stop-work orders” on nearly all “existing foreign assistance awards.” It appears to go further than President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which instructed the department to pause foreign aid grants for 90 days pending review by the secretary. It had not been clear from the president’s order if it would affect already appropriated funds or Ukraine aid.

“The new guidance means no further actions will be taken to disperse aid funding to programs already approved by the U.S. government, according to three current and two former officials familiar with the new guidance.” -Politico. Rubio also outlined the Trump administration’s stance on spending, saying “Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions,” Rubio wrote. The questions: Does the action make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous? The new order reportedly shocked State Department officials.

“State just totally went nuclear on foreign assistance,” a State Department official told Politico. Rubio was confirmed unanimously by the Senate the day before and is the first of Trump’s Cabinet nominees on the job. Previously, he was a senior senator from Florida, and he served on the Foreign Relations Committee for more than a decade. He developed a reputation as a China Hawk and a fierce critic of the neoliberal foreign policy consensus that emerged after the Cold War. Shortly after taking the oath of office, he sent a lengthy cable to every US diplomatic and consular post worldwide letting them know that the Biden administration had mistakenly emphasized “ideology over common sense,” and “misread the world.”

You’ll Never Guess Who Still Gets Aid… The document specifies that Israel and Egypt will continue to receive that sweet, sweet US taxpayer money. It also allows emergency food assistance and “legitimate expenses incurred prior to the date of this” guidance “under existing awards,” and also that decisions need to be “consistent with the terms of the relevant award.” One State Department official as well as two former Biden admin officials told Politico that the pause appears to stop aid to Ukraine, Jordan and Taiwan, while the report suggests that the guidance could open the US government to civil liability from lawsuits over unfulfilled contracts if the terms are deemed to have been violated, said the current and former officials. That said, the note from Rubio clearly states that decision need to be “consistent with the terms of the relevant award.”

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“The “Kiev regime” is satisfied with the current situation since it gets “hundreds of billions [of dollars] from its sponsors” that it can “chomp down on..”

West Should Push Kiev Into Talks With Moscow – Putin (RT)

Ukraine’s Western backers should push the government in Kiev to lift its ban on talks with Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published by Russia 1 TV journalist Pavel Zarubin on Telegram on Friday. Any negotiations under the existing circumstances would be “illegitimate” from a purely legal point of view because of Vladimir Zelensky’s prohibition on any talks with Russia made back in autumn 2022, he explained. Kiev is “in no rush to follow the orders of its sponsors,” including when it comes to lifting the ban on talks with Russia, Putin said. The president added that he is aware of the West’s attempts to make Ukraine discard the prohibition. The “Kiev regime” is satisfied with the current situation since it gets “hundreds of billions [of dollars] from its sponsors” that it can “chomp down on,” the Russian leader believes.

“I believe that those, who provide [Kiev] with money, should ultimately make it [lift the ban on the talks],” Putin said, adding that Ukraine will eventually have no other way than to remove the restrictions. Russia is ready for peace talks, the president said; some “preliminary” contacts could be made right now. However, it is still “difficult to speak” about any “serious” steps that could follow until the prohibition is lifted, Putin believes. Russia and the US can still find “many points of contact” when it comes to the most pressing issues, including the Ukraine conflict, Putin pointed out, recalling “pragmatic” and “business-like” relations with US President Donald Trump during his first tenure in the White House. Trump was “trustworthy,” Putin recalled, adding that the Ukraine conflict could have possibly been averted had the Republican’s victory not been “stolen.”

“Russia has never forgone contact with the US administration,” the president said, pinning the blame for “giving up” on former US President Joe Biden. “We see the [current US] president’s statements about [America’s] readiness for joint work and are always open for it,” Putin stated. Trump has repeatedly stated he is seeking a swift end to the conflict. Following his inauguration earlier this week, the US president called on Moscow to strike a “deal” and put an end to the hostilities or face new sanctions. He maintained that he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and declared his love for the Russian people. The US president has also stated on several occasions that he would like to meet Putin “soon,” and would do so “immediately” if possible. Moscow has continually expressed a willingness to engage in talks with the US, adding that it expects an equal and respectful dialogue. According to the Kremlin, it has received no specific proposals from Washington so far.

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“I would say just give President Trump a little time,” Grenell said. “He’s the best negotiator.”

Grenell to NATO: Ukraine Membership Push Would Face ‘Big Buzzsaw’ in US (ET)

Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as envoy for special missions, warned that NATO leaders would face backlash from the United States if they pushed to extend alliance membership to Ukraine without first boosting their own support for the embattled eastern European nation. Amid the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war, NATO leaders have discussed steps to extend the alliance membership to Ukraine, but the alliance is still working out details of the ascension plan. Speaking at a Jan. 23 panel discussion on Ukraine on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance is committed to extending membership to Ukraine, but still has to work out the ascension process. “The question now of course is how this will exactly play out whenever hopefully as soon as possible,” said Rutte, a Dutch national.

Calling into the panel from California, Grenell pushed back on Rutte’s comments. “I think you’re going to run into a big buzzsaw in America if we have the NATO secretary general talking about adding Ukraine to NATO,” Grenell said. While Ukraine has sought NATO membership for years, the alliance’s ascension process requires the unanimous support of all current member nations. U.S. opposition alone could halt Ukraine’s membership. Trump and his allies have raised concerns that the United States has borne the brunt of the cost of arming and sustaining Ukraine throughout the ongoing war and that the other NATO members have lagged behind alliance military spending targets. “The American people are the ones that are paying for the defense,” Grenell said.

“You cannot ask the American people to expand the umbrella of NATO when the current members aren’t paying their fair share. And that includes the Dutch.” NATO set a target in 2014 for each of its member nations to commit at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product to military spending. In 2023, only 11 of the alliance’s 31 members had met that spending target. The Netherlands finally hit the 2 percent target in 2024, but eight other countries are still lagging behind. Responding to Grenell’s remarks, Rutte agreed that there is a problem with alliance members lagging behind their existing spending commitments. Rutte then said the alliance will need to set even higher military spending targets to adjust to growing international threats and boost its arms production capabilities.

Rutte said he’s hopeful to get all alliance members past the 2 percent spending target within the coming months. “Then we have, collectively, to move up. And we will decide on the exact number later this year, but it will be considerably more,” Rutte added. Beyond criticizing NATO allies for not bearing more of the burden of sustaining Ukraine, Trump has repeatedly indicated he would prefer to negotiate an end to the ongoing war. In his own virtual remarks before the World Economic Forum on Thursday, Trump said, “Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now, hopefully, underway.”

Trump said Ukraine is ready to make a deal, and now a peace deal will depend on Russia. This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump on his return to the White House and said Russia is open to begin talks “on an equal and mutually respectful basis.” Grenell told the WEF panel that Trump was “handed a terrible mess.” “There are not a lot of great choices, but President Trump … has already made clear that he’s going to pressure both sides to end this,” he said. At times on the campaign trail, Trump said he could negotiate a deal to end the fighting within 24 hours. His team has since softened that timeline for a deal. “I would say just give President Trump a little time,” Grenell said. “He’s the best negotiator.” Trump has threatened to impose new economic sanctions and tariffs on Russian goods if Moscow doesn’t quickly accept a deal.

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“NATO membership for Kiev “precludes achieving peace in Ukraine and, in a broader sense, the creation of any kind of security architecture.”

Ukraine in NATO Would Mean Ruling Out Peace – Moscow (RT)

Ukrainian accession to NATO would make achieving peace and establishing any kind of security architecture virtually impossible, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko has said in an interview published on Friday. Speaking to the Russia 24 news channel, Grushko pointed out that the issue of Ukraine’s neutrality is one of the root causes of the ongoing conflict and is a key element of any potential deal with Kiev. The diplomat emphasized that NATO membership for Kiev “precludes achieving peace in Ukraine and, in a broader sense, the creation of any kind of security architecture.” He stressed that Moscow will not only seek “ironclad legal guarantees that would exclude Ukraine’s membership in NATO in any form,” but will also demand that this becomes an actual policy of the US-led military bloc.

NATO’s efforts to spread itself all over the world are increasing the possibility of a global military conflict, the diplomat said, specifically pointing to bloc chief Mark Rutte’s call to raise defense spending to 3% of members’ GDP. “In fact, this has nothing to do with the real security situation,” Grushko explained. “This is over-armament, this is an attempt to achieve those geopolitical and military goals that they have recorded in their strategic documents, primarily American ones, to achieve military superiority in all operational environments, as they say, meaning land, air, space, cyberspace, and in all possible theaters of military operations, which now includes Asia.”

The diplomat accused NATO of pursuing a “very dangerous course that brings the threat of a global military clash closer,” while serving only to maintain the West’s hegemony that is “slipping out of their hands” amid the formation of a new multipolar world. However, Grushko pointed out that Russia has “sufficient technical and other means to ensure” its security “in any scenario,” which includes the Oreshnik hypersonic missile system, as well as its nuclear forces and new technologies that continue to be added to the arsenal of Russia’s armed forces.

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“.. if the victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, then the crisis that broke out in Ukraine in 2022 would have possibly never happened..”

Putin: 2020 US Election Was Stolen (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that he is ready to talk calmly with US President Donald Trump on all areas that are of interest to both countries. “We should meet, based on today’s realities, to talk calmly about all those areas that are of interest to both the US and Russia. We are ready, but, I repeat, this depends first of all on the decisions and choices of the current US administration,” Putin said during his visit to Moscow State University. Russia can have many points of contact with the US administration, including economic issues, Putin said, adding that Russia and the United States have a lot to talk about on economy and energy issues.

“What is typical for the Russian and American economies? We are not only one of the largest producers of energy resources, but we are also the largest consumers of them. This means that for both our economy and the US economy, too high prices are bad, because it is necessary to produce domestically. Using energy resources, it is necessary to produce other goods within the country. And too low prices are also very bad, because it undermines the investment opportunities of energy companies,” he said. Putin remarked that he has always had businesslike and pragmatic relations with Trump, noting that Moscow welcomes Trump’s statements about a willingness to work together and remains open to it.

“Even if we hear about the possibility of imposing additional sanctions on Russia, I doubt that he will make decisions that will harm the US economy itself,” Putin said. Trump is “not only an intelligent person, he is a pragmatic person,” Putin added. The previous administration of US President Joe Biden refused to contact with Russia, and it is not Moscow’s fault, Putin noted. Furthermore, Russia has never refused to use the US dollar in foreign trade transactions. “We did not abandon the dollar. It was the former US administration that made it impossible for us to use it as a currency for settlements. I think that decision has caused significant harm to the United States,” Putin said.

Russia is ready for talks on the Ukraine conflict, but there are issues that need attention, the Russian president added. The problem is that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has banned himself from holding peace talks with Russia. “It is well-known that the current leader of the regime in Kiev, when he was still fairly legitimate, signed a decree banning negotiations. How can negotiations be resumed now if they are forbidden?” Putin said. Putin added that it was difficult to talk seriously about any dialogue with Kiev while this ban was still in place. “However, as long as this ban isn’t lifted, it is hard to say that these negotiations can be properly started and, the most importantly, concluded. Of course, it is possible to make some preliminary outlines, yet it is quite difficult to consider any serious negotiations under the conditions of the ban on the Ukrainian side,” Putin said.

Putin added that the authorities in Kiev receive hundreds of billions from their sponsors, and he believes the same sponsors of the Kiev regime should force Zelensky to lift the ban on talks. The Russian president also added he agreed with Trump that if he had been reelected US president in 2020 the crisis in Ukraine could have been avoided. “I cannot but agree with him on that if he were president, if the victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, then the crisis that broke out in Ukraine in 2022 would have possibly never happened,” Putin suggested.

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He wants to sell it to Blackrock and Monsanto.

Trump Not Willing To Take Part In Ukraine’s Reconstruction (RT)

US President Donald Trump’s administration is not interested in taking part in the reconstruction of Ukraine after the conflict is resolved, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Trump’s team has signaled that it doesn’t intend to engage directly in rebuilding the country, suggesting that this responsibility would be handled by the private sector, the outlet said, citing a senior diplomat. The stance marks a significant shift from the policies of Joe Biden’s administration, which has spent around $100 billion on financial aid and military assistance to Kiev since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, and pledged support with the post-conflict reconstruction. Kiev has ramped up its privatization efforts to draw in foreign capital as it seeks private investors to support the country’s reconstruction.

Aleksey Sobolev, Ukraine’s first deputy economy minister, outlined a $500 billion reconstruction initiative aimed at bringing both strategic and financial benefits to Western investors. “It’s the private sector that’s going to be doing these investments,” Sobolev said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, according to Reuters. “We’re looking at privatizing more. It’s the right time right now to open the bigger companies,” he added. The US president told participants of the forum in Davos on Thursday that he wanted to end the conflict, which he described as “an absolute killing field.” Trump also reiterated that he is willing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon” to discuss the situation.

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of returning to office. However, he later revised the timeline, expressing the hope that he could negotiate a peace agreement within six months. US media outlets have reported that Trump’s team is considering a peace plan for Ukraine. The proposal could include a ceasefire along the current front lines and the establishment of a 1,300-km (800-mile) demilitarized zone monitored by European troops. Additionally, Ukraine would reportedly agree to postpone its NATO membership ambitions for at least 20 years.

Moscow, however, has rejected the idea of freezing the conflict, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating that the Kremlin “is, of course, not satisfied” with proposals to delay Kiev’s NATO aspirations and deploy Western peacekeepers in Ukraine.Russia has maintained that hostilities will cease only after Kiev agrees to permanent neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification, emphasizing that Ukraine must acknowledge territorial “realities on the ground.” Moscow is now awaiting signals from the new US administration, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, stressing that the Russian president is ready to speak with his US counterpart.

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Is he going to take their next big war away?

Trump To Put Steve Witkoff in Charge of Iran Negotiations (Antiwar)

President Trump is expected to put his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, in charge of the Iran file, signaling the administration will try diplomacy with the Islamic Republic, Financial Times reported on Thursday. Sources told FT that Witkoff, who put pressure on Israel to clinch the Gaza ceasefire deal, will be tasked to pursue diplomacy with Iran as part of a broader push to “end the wars” in the Middle East. During the transition phase, Trump officials told the media that they were planning to return to the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran that Trump pursued in his first term, which involved pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, imposing crippling sanctions, and assassinating Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani. But in a sign that Trump may take a different approach, he just fired Brian Hook, an Iran hawk who led the maximum pressure campaign in his previous administration.

Hook was tasked with filling out Trump’s State Department for this term but will now have no role in the administration. Trump officials have also said the new administration will consider strikes on Iran’s nuclear program to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, but there’s still no evidence that Tehran is seeking a bomb, something acknowledged by Biden’s CIA chief, William Burns, in a recent interview. The hype about Iran’s nuclear program is focused on the enrichment of some uranium at 60% purity, which is still below the 90% needed for weapons-grade. Iran took the step to enrich at 60% in response to an Israeli covert attack on its Natanz nuclear facility in 2021. Iran is also a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, unlike Israel, which never signed the NPT and has a covert nuclear stockpile that’s not officially acknowledged by the US.

The 2015 nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in 2018 capped Iran’s nuclear enrichment at 3.67% in exchange for sanctions relief. Axios reported that Iran made clear to European diplomats in a recent meeting that they want to resume negotiations on a new nuclear deal that will be different from the 2015 agreement. Pursuing such an agreement would likely face significant resistance from the many Iran hawks in the new administration and among Republicans in Congress, who are already complaining about Witkoff. “He’s already lifting pressure on Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, and in the process abandoning American hostages and endangering Israel,” a senior Republican congressional staffer told FT.

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“..relentless follow up in cleaning out nests of subversion in the government will determine whether the republic survives.”

De-Weaponizing The Federal Government (Mike McDaniel)

We’re going to be seeing a lot more swamp creatures quickly exiting their positions at the DOJ and throughout our intelligence apparatus. Donald Trump, from his first day in office, has served notice he isn’t kidding. He’s taking names and he’s going to be kicking ass. His orders are going to be obeyed or he’ll find people who will obey them. From the relevant executive order: Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to the weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community.

Sec. 3. Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government. (a) The Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of all departments and agencies of the United States, shall take appropriate action to review the activities of all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal enforcement authority of the United States, including, but not limited to, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission, over the last 4 years and identify any instances where a department’s or agency’s conduct appears to have been contrary to the purposes and policies of this order, and prepare a report to be submitted to the President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and the Counsel to the President, with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions to be taken to fulfill the purposes and policies of this order.

That’s going to be Pam Bondi, who is going to have to clear out a lot of people determined to keep the DOJ weaponized and who plan to sabotage Trump and Bondi. But oh, won’t such a report be something? (b) The Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the heads of the appropriate departments and agencies within the Intelligence Community, shall take all appropriate action to review the activities of the Intelligence Community over the last 4 years and identify any instances where the Intelligence Community’s conduct appears to have been contrary to the purposes and policies of this order, and prepare a report to be submitted to the President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and the National Security Advisor, with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions to be taken to fulfill the purposes and policies of this order.

The DNI would be Tulsi Gabbard, a convert to sanity and a long-serving military officer. This EO gives the DNI not only a new focus, but new power over the heads of every part of the Intelligence Community, and that report is also going to be explosive. We can expect remedial actions will not only involve reorganization, but large-scale firings and even prosecutions. That’s going to be a real problem for Pam Bondi. Some criminals and Biden dead-enders have already left the DOJ, but many remain behind, hoping to stay under the radar so they can stealthily sabotage everything Bondi hopes to accomplish. She’s going to have to spend a great deal of time getting rid of those enemies of liberty. At least some of them will have an inherent conflict of interest in investigating or prosecuting traitors, because they were conspiring with them. That being the case, they’re perfect blackmail targets.

The same is going to be true for Tulsi Gabbard and the heads of every government agency. They’ll need honest, patriotic subordinates who will relentlessly follow up to make sure Trump’s lawful orders are implemented and no one so much as thinks about sabotaging them. This isn’t merely a matter of resisting Donald Trump. It’s violating the Constitution and subverting the republic. We elect presidents and give them sole executive power to run the government and to see that the laws are faithfully executed. That’s what Joe Biden’s handlers—may we soon discover who they were—didn’t do. They stealthily ran the country instead, despite being unelected and unaccountable. Sabotaging any president’s lawful orders goes far beyond hampering him. It damages the country domestically and in the carrying out of foreign policy.

It strikes at the heart of our republic, which is no surprise as the primary goal of Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) is establishing and preserving “our democracy,” a tyranny of the majority. President Trump has made a good beginning to restoring the republic, but relentless follow up in cleaning out nests of subversion in the government will determine whether the republic survives.

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“..the exhausted public finally concluded that the hysterics increased in direct proportion to the poverty of the charges. So, what did ten years of such derangement achieve for the left?”

The Addicted, Petty, and Hysterical Left (Victor Davis Hanson)

Donald Trump won the 2024 election in part because the left’s hysterical style of attacking Trump no longer worked. After a decade of this unhinged furor, it proved worthless in winning public support—and for two simple reasons. One, after years of Russian collusion hoaxes, the laptop disinformation farce, and the warped lies about the “suckers” and “fine people on both sides”—the shrill left became predictable. So, the bored public began tuning them out, switching channels, hitting the mute button, and pulling the plug. Like the deleterious effects of inflation that eventually render a currency worthless, nonstop hectoring, hysterics, pontification, and distortion finally made all such criticisms of Trump mostly as valueless as 1930s German marks. Second, the wearied public never heard reasoned counterarguments from the likes of a Rachel Maddow. Instead, on spec, she kept mouthing, “The walls are closing in” on Trump.

Joe Biden did not explain why his open border was a better idea than Trump’s closed one. He preferred mumbling about “semi-fascists!” and “ultra-MAGA!” The Never Trumpers did not critique the Trump deficits. Instead, they hammered away that Trump was Hitler, or Mussolini, or Putin—or just a dangerous dictator or autocrat. Angry retired generals never demonstrated why Trump was, in their view, an existential threat to democracy. Instead, they shouted nonstop in op-eds and interviews that he was a fascist, Nazi-like, no different from the guards at Auschwitz, a pathological liar, and should be summarily removed. Worn-out voters began to understand these psychodramas were substitutes for substantive criticism or occasions for legitimate debate. Indeed, the exhausted public finally concluded that the hysterics increased in direct proportion to the poverty of the charges. So, what did ten years of such derangement achieve for the left?

Trump now has control of the White House and both houses of Congress operate under Republican majorities. The Supreme Court is mostly conservative. Almost all of Trump’s issues—the border, immigration, the economy, foreign policy, and crime—poll well over 50 percent. No matter, the left is still hammering away at the trivial and irrelevant—and remains paralyzed in furor and hysterics. When Snoop Dogg performed for the Trump inauguration, Ann Navarro of The View, in racist fashion, called the African-American rapper “a trained seal.” When Pete Hegseth went before the Senate for confirmation as Secretary of Defense nominee, Democrats asked almost nothing about nuclear strategy, recruitment shortfalls, or a paucity of artillery shells. Instead, what followed were animated gotcha lectures about Hegseth’s prior adultery.

No sooner had Hegseth finished his successful audit than the left rounded up his former sister-in-law, now divorced from his brother. A hardcore Democrat, she confessed she wanted his nomination rejected. She further claimed—with no evidence—that she had “heard” from his ex-wife that Hegseth was a wife-beater. His former wife immediately denied the charges. She pointed to their prior divorce settlement that recorded neither had ever lodged such a complaint against the other. Next, the left went after Elon Musk. Recently, he had finished an address by touching his heart and then extending his arm out to the crowd. To the left, that greeting now became proof of a “Nazi salute.” Yet in no time, the internet cited photos of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Elizabeth Warren all extending their stiff arms out in identical fashion to Musk.

We were next told by critics that Donald Trump was not technically president because he did not place his left hand on the Bible as he swore his presidential oath. The Constitution, of course, demands no such act. But it does explicitly state that no religious test shall be required to hold public office. During a National Prayer Service for newly sworn-in President Trump, the Episcopal bishop of Washington D.C., Mariann Budde, hijacked the sermon. She rebuked Trump—sitting right in front of her—because he supposedly had portrayed illegal aliens and transgendered children “in the harshest of lights.” Budde later bragged that had she used the occasion to sandbag Trump with a “one-on-one conversation.”

She talked grandly of mercy, but not of the thousands of Americans who have been physically assaulted or attacked by illegal aliens, or tens of thousands of deaths due to illegally imported fentanyl, or the unfairness of open borders to legal immigrant applicants, or the suffering of our citizen poor when their social services are overwhelmed by some 12 million illegal entries of the last four years. In sum, the left wants no debate because they know voters have rejected what they saw and suffered during the last four years of the Biden administration. Forgetting nothing, learning nothing, like zombies, leftists keep screaming banalities. But like addicts and their feel-good fixes, their hysterics only further turn off the public as they destroy themselves.

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“..it is neither green nor land. It is a vast sheet of floating ice. Plant the American flag on that ice and suddenly it becomes a hot property.”

Guffawing Over Trump’s Greenland Vision? Crack Open A History Book (Moore)

The media and the intelligentsia are laughing at President Donald Trump’s idea of the United States acquiring Greenland from Denmark. At first hearing of what seemed to be an outlandish idea, I guffawed too. Trump’s argument is that Greenland is of strategic military and national security value to the United States. He is also betting this giant island has other rare and undiscovered assets. There is no question that it would serve as a strategic buffer between the United States and Russia and perhaps other hostile nations, including China. This would be a purchase, not a conquest. But does it make sense? Let’s turn back the clock. Anyone who paid attention to their U.S. history class in high school has heard of “Seward’s Folly.” This was the American acquisition of Alaska in 1867 by then-Secretary of State William Seward.

The price tag was $7 million. That would be the equivalent of less than $1 billion today — or less than what Washington spends every day. Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas, so Russia practically gave it away to us. The purchase of Alaska was showered with widespread criticism; it was an “icebox” that was viewed as uninhabitable and more suitable for polar bears than people. How wrong the skeptics were. Alaska was soon discovered to have vast quantities of gold in the Yukon and played a strategic role during World War II. Then, of course, the North Slope of Alaska was discovered to have massive deposits of oil and gas. No doubt, Putin would love today to have Alaska in his portfolio. Thank God for William Seward.

The idea of purchasing land in order to expand freedom and America’s manifest destiny predates the purchase of Alaska. In the first hundred years of our country’s history, we repeatedly acquired land to expand America’s reach. Most famously, was Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase — which roughly doubled America’s land area from the original 13 colonies/states. That purchase was criticized as a “land grab” as well. But it was the gateway to the development of the West. Florida came shortly thereafter — a virtual gift from Spain. The “Republic of Texas” was an independent territory and joined the U.S. voluntarily and we gladly and wisely brought the Lone Star state into the fold. Needless to say, none of these acquisitions or additions was “folly.”

Which brings us back to Greenland. Why does Denmark need it? It is hard to imagine anything that would add more income, wealth and security to the less than 100,000 people living in Greenland than to plant the American flag there and make it a U.S. territory. The residents of Greenland would be able to bequeath to their children one of the greatest assets on the planet — a U.S. passport. While we are on the topic of acquisitions, if Trump is really thinking big, he should also consider offering to buy from Mexico a 50-to-100 mile stretch of coastal land stretching from San Diego down the Pacific coast. If Mexico were to sell that land to us, this idyllic beachfront property might instantly become some of the most valuable land in the world — inflating in price by perhaps 10- to 20-fold.

Here is another thought experiment. Imagine how rich Cuba would be today, if it were an American territory. Cuba could and would be the Hong Kong of the western hemisphere if it detoured from its near seven-decade long excursion into communism. Trump is not an imperialist. He wants to spread freedom, prosperity and peace to much of the rest of the world. The old joke about Greenland is that it is neither green nor land. It is a vast sheet of floating ice. Plant the American flag on that ice and suddenly it becomes a hot property.

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“Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous..”

Trump’s Call With Danish PM Over Greenland Was ‘Cold Shower’ (Sp.)

Donald Trump’s call with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen over Greenland last week was “cold shower” for Europe and demonstrated the seriousness of the US’s intention of taking over the Arctic island, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing several European officials familiar with the call. On January 15, Frederiksen said she had a 45-minute phone call with then-incoming President Trump. She reiterated that it is up to Greenland to decide on independence but expressed openness to allowing the US to increase its military presence in Greenland. The “horrendous” call dashed Europe’s hopes that Trump’s claims were just a negotiating ploy to secure more influence over the island, a source told FT.

“He was very firm. It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous,” another source said. Trump also reiterated his threat of targeted tariffs against the NATO ally, a former Danish official was quoted as saying in the report. A person familiar with the contents of the call said that it left the Danes “in crisis mode” and “utterly freaked out.” The Danish prime minister’s office declined to comment on the “interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources,” the report said.

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Canada is not using its potential.

Trump Lists Perks Should Canada Become 51st US State (RT)

US President Donald Trump has once again stated that he would love to see Canada become America’s 51st state, promising a list of perks to its citizens. Trump made the remarks, echoing previous numerous suggestions that his his administration would somehow transform Canada into a part of the US, on Friday during a press briefing in North Carolina. ”The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut, a tremendous tax cut because they are currently very highly taxed,” he said. Trump went on to claim that the Canadians wouldn’t have to worry about their military or many other issues. “They’d also have better health coverage – much better health coverage, in fact,” he asserted, adding, “I think the people of Canada would like it if it’s explained [to them].”

During and after his election campaign, Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian goods, arguing that the measure would strengthen the US economy. He told reporters on Thursday that he still plans to hit Canada with 25% tariffs starting February 1. According to Trump, Canada joining the US would nullify any tariffs and create business opportunities. The US is “losing $200 billion a year” to its northern neighbor, Trump insisted during the press briefing, blaming “poor management, especially in the last four years,” that has allowed the situation to become “very imbalanced.” The US does not need Canadian cars, lumber, and food products “because we produce the same things right on the other side of the border,” he claimed.

Earlier this month, Trump shared two maps on social media showing Canada as an American territory, after Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rebuffed his proposal to merge the countries. Trudeau, who then announced that he would step down as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party citing “internal battles”, said that Canada will never become a part of the United States. Trump in turn suggested that the US could use “economic force” to absorb its northern neighbor, whose goods he threatened to hit with harsh tariffs. On Thursday, Trudeau warned that Canada will respond with retaliatory tariffs and “prices for American consumers on just about everything will go up.” Some media have pointed out, citing the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, that in fact, the US goods and services trade deficit with Canada was slightly above $40 billion in 2023.

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“Democracy is the most effective system ever invented, not for bringing change, but for blocking it.”

Trump vs. The Establishment, Who Will Win? (Paul Craig Roberts)

What Trump and his Attorney General need to understand is that there is no one in the Department of Justice who has an ounce of integrity and who is not anti-American. The DOJ has not protected Americans’ constitutional rights for a quarter century and longer. Instead, the DOJ has been busy inventing rights for immigrant-invaders and criminals. For Trump to move forward, the entire Justice Department has to be replaced. Trump has issued executive orders making it easier to fire civil service obstructionists of the president’s orders and the will of the people. But the civil service union is already at work relying on federal judges to block Trump’s executive order. The law suits will continue forever. If Trump and his administration accept this prohibition on its ability to govern and keep its campaign promises, the corrupt American Establishment will have won.

Only Americans of my generation know that formerly, in those days when America was great, there were no public sector unions. There was no civil service union, no police union, no firefighters union, no teachers union. Public sector employees were employed to serve the public, not to extort the public by refusing to supply the services for which they were paid unless the public paid up more. Somewhere along the way federal, state, and local governments found votes and campaign contributions ample reward for selling out the American people to public sector unions. Now these unions are positioned to block Trump from making America great again. Thomas Jefferson, the most pure of our Founding Fathers, said that every 200 years a nation has to renew itself with the blood of tyrants and patriots. He was correct in every respect except the 200 years.

By 1860 when the US was not even 100 years old, the US Constitution was no longer respected by the Republicans in power. They wanted the tariff at all cost and sold out the US Constitution in order to get it by extraordinary violence and war crimes, all covered up by corrupt US historians who achieved approval and success by serving as court historians. We have been witnessing, that tiny percentage of us that pays any attention, the Ruling Establishment’s unrelenting attacks on Trump’s appointees. Tulsi Gabbard has been forced by the Establishment Senate to abandon her opposition to unlimited unconstitutional spying on American citizens by “security” and “intelligence” agencies in order “to protect” Americans by violating their Constitutional rights. Amazing, isn’t it, that Americans are protected by the government’s violation of their Constitutional rights. Pete Hegseth’s appointment as Secretary of Defense is in trouble based on allegations by a vindictive former wife.

In my opening sentence I wrote that Trump was in his first hours already in a life and death struggle with the American Establishment. Trump cannot win this war when the Justice (sic) Department, media, Federal judiciary, and US Congress are homes of America’s enemies. Americans having neglected Thomas Jefferson’s warning and that of President Dwight Eisenhower, the current Trump regime is America’s last chance. Trump is faced with a powerful and utterly corrupt American Establishment that has been in power since they got the income tax and the Federal Reserve passed in 1913. Effectively, 1913 was the last year of American liberty. An Establishment in power since 1913 is institutionalized and many times more powerful than a mere president.

Trump and his supporters need to understand that the Establishment is institutionalized in the bureaucracies of his own government. For decades Americans have been suffering violence from their government. It is way past time to send the violence back, in a double dose, to the criminal American Establishment. If Trump and his government cannot bring themselves to the real challenge, America is lost. Trump’s agenda will spend four years tied up in law courts. Democracy is the most effective system ever invented, not for bringing change, but for blocking it. The Establishment intends to block every Trump change.

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“The purpose of a pardon is to correct a miscarriage of justice, not to prevent future judicial action.” — Dr. Joseph Sansone

The Great Sorting-Out Begins (James Howard Kunstler)

This, as they say, is one of those weeks when decades happen. You realize that under the fiends fronted by “Joe Biden,” the US government became a demon-driven machine for wrecking lives, perverting the law, and demolishing all scaffolds of decent behavior. And now, it all has to be fixed, cleaned up, fumigated, rectified, rehabilitated. Scores of executive orders flew out of the Oval Office, rescinding four years of “Biden” regime lunacy in every direction: Censorship, dead. . . Gain of function research, killed. . . CBDCs banned. . . CBP-app for aiding illegal migrants, discontinued. . . border fortified. . . homicidal alien mutts deported. . . World Health Organization, no thanks. . . Paris Climate Accords, fuggeddabowdit. . . DEI, vacated through all of government. . . Green New Deal, scrapped. . . “pride” in mental illness, cancelled. . . Ukraine War, headed for the negotiating table. . . all in four days and so much more coming.

The DEI flimflam is particularly illustrative of the hazards still lurking. The DC blob is desperate to hide its chaos agents by switching their job titles and shuffling them around to hidey-holes in obscure precincts of this-or-that bureaucracy. Being federal employees, of course, they all have searchable names and payroll accounts, so you may be sure they’ll be discovered wherever they’re hiding-out and placed, as ordered, on “administrative leave.” Since DEI was essentially a program to promote incompetence, these employees represent a monumental cargo of dead-weight. So, the next task will be finding a way under the civil service codes to cashier them for good. For instance, reclassifying their job status to render them fire-able.

This is sure to be a major friction-point for the so-called “resistance,” the huge cadre of “activist” Wokesters embedded in the agencies. Cue the army of Democratic Party lawyers who will be filing suits to prevent the chief executive from coherently managing the departments of the executive branch. But there’s a catch: this time, the White House will not be funneling scads of money directly to the NGOs that pay for these blob-adjacent lawyers, nor will they be able to redirect money out of the DOJ, FBI, and CIA for that purpose. The president may also find a way to interrupt the flow of money from foundations financed by malign freelancers such as George Soros and Linked-in founder and billionaire Reid Hoffman (who financed the E. Jean Carroll “rape” trial hoax and many more Democratic Party pranks ).

Another friction point: release of the pardoned J-6 prisoners is being loudly opposed by DC District federal judges such as Tanya Chutkan and Amy Berman Jackson. They don’t enjoy any privilege or prerogative for voicing prejudicial opinions about vacated cases, nor for failing to comply with paperwork needed to discharge them. They can be impeached for that in the House of Representatives. Or, if they actively obstruct releases, the new-and-improved Department of Justice might consider 18 U.S.C. § 242 – Deprivation of rights under color of law.

Meanwhile, goons at the DC jail detained pardoned prisoners unlawfully this week after years of the grossest mistreatment, including solitary confinement in basement “holes” without beds, blankets, or water, and direct physical assault that could be described as “torture.” All of this was countenanced by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, despite plentiful public reports of abuse over the past four years. That is, she knew all about it. This is an argument for finally rescinding Washington DC’s “home rule” status and placing the city and all its departments back under federal management.

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“..advise on digital asset policy, work with Congress on crypto legislation, and study the feasibility of a national cryptocurrency stockpile..”

Trump Launches Cryptocurrency Working Group (RT)

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to explore the creation of a national cryptocurrency stockpile and establish a framework for digital asset policy, according to the White House. Trump had previously announced plans to make the US the world’s “crypto capital” and to be a “crypto president.” The executive order, titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” which he signed on Thursday, aims to “promote United States leadership in digital assets and financial technology while protecting economic liberty.” “The digital asset industry plays a crucial role in innovation and economic development in the United States, as well as our Nation’s international leadership,” the document states. It outlines Trump’s policy “to support the responsible growth and use of digital assets, blockchain technology, and related technologies across all sectors of the economy.”

The executive order has established a Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, chaired by a Special Advisor for AI and Crypto. In December, Trump tapped venture capitalist David Sacks as his crypto and artificial intelligence ‘czar’ who would guide the relevant policies. The billionaire investor joined Trump in the Oval Office for the signing of the order on Thursday. The working group will act as an advisory council, noted Reuters. It is expected to advise on digital asset policy, work with Congress on crypto legislation, and study the feasibility of a national cryptocurrency stockpile. While presidential advisory councils are not a new concept, there has never been one dedicated to cryptocurrencies, added the agency.

The digital asset stockpile could include cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by federal law enforcement, notes the executive order. In recent years, law enforcement agencies, such as the Department of Justice, have seized billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies linked to criminal activities, including cybercrime and drug trafficking. Previously, these seized cryptocurrencies were auctioned off by the government, with proceeds going to the Treasury. ”If I am elected, it will be the policy of my administration, United States of America, to keep 100% of all the bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires in the future,” Trump said in July at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

The order also emphasizes promoting the sovereignty of the US dollar by supporting the growth of legitimate, dollar-backed stablecoins. Trump was a crypto critic during his first administration but changed his stance during the last campaign and attracted hefty contributions from the industry, noted CNBC. The administration of former President Joe Biden took a cautious position on cryptocurrencies, often emphasizing a desire for stricter regulations to prevent fraud and money laundering. The Biden White House had supported regulatory measures, including enhanced oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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UK and Ukraine 100-year deal.

“..its military is in tatters and its entire army would be too small to fill even an average sized soccer stadium.”

A Pathetic Clown-World Alliance Signed By Two Moribund Partners (Karganovic)

The recent news item that imploding Great Britain and rump Ukraine have concluded a hundred-year alliance has injected some much-needed humour into the otherwise unbearably sombre political situation in the world. The absurd length of the pact signed by Starmer and Zelensky illustrates the complete lack of realism that for some time has governed the conduct of both delusional chancelleries, in London as well as in Kiev. Neither of the contracting parties has any reasonable prospects of remaining in existence a century hence, by the time the term of the just concluded centennial alliance expires. Nor are there grounds to believe that their successor states, if there are any, will have an interest in maintaining this stillborn and utterly preposterous alliance once both contracting parties have departed from the world stage.

Though at first blush it may appear harsh, this prognosis is fully consistent with observable facts. The dysfunctionality on many levels of Great Britain, or United Kingdom, it hardly matters what one chooses to call it, is rapidly dawning on everyone with eyes to see. From the top down it is a country that is falling apart at the seams. At the very top, the Royal Family has lost its lustre in the time frame of a generation. Because of the irresponsible and unseemly conduct of its members it is no longer capable of performing its traditional symbolic and mediating duties. Precisely as William Butler Yeats anticipated, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” Nor are Britain’s political and social institutions in much better shape. In contemporary Britain, the meritocracy that but one or two generations ago still used to characterise the government elite and civil service is a figment of the past.

The highest offices in the land are now occupied by buffoons and incompetents, ably personified by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as well as a slew of other pathetic officials seemingly drawn from the cast of the political satire series “Yes Minister.” The Established Church, once a moral pillar of society, is now mired in doctrinal confusion, degeneracy, and irrelevance. The population replacement project that at great personal risk Enoch Powell, reviled by nincompoops but vindicated by subsequent developments, warned his compatriots against, is now a full-blown reality which critically undermines Great Britain’s viability and the coherence of British society. Once a global industrial powerhouse, Britain now scarcely produces anything that anyone desires or is of superior quality (with the exception of Rolls Royce engines, as Andrey Martyanov tirelessly points out), whilst its military is in tatters and its entire army would be too small to fill even an average sized soccer stadium.

It is that Britain, however, a country that many doubt will make it in recognisable shape or form to the year 2050 that has just signed a hundred-year alliance with Ukraine, a hollowed out entity that many are sceptical can make it to the end of this year, 2025. Concerning Ukraine’s prospects, it is unnecessary to elaborate in great detail because this topic has been covered extensively and with great expertise by serious political commentators. Suffice it to say that since the failure of the plan to use Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia became manifest, the Kiev regime’s most ardent supporters and generous financiers are now removing the props from under it. The war they cynically instigated and were prepared to finance “to the last Ukrainian,” after three years has cost at least a million Ukrainian lives and caused millions of refugees to scatter throughout the neighbouring countries, enormously depleting Ukraine’s human and material resources and making its viability entirely doubtful even in the short-term.

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We hear little about it. Is that because there are no negative stories?

Belarus: The “Dictatorship” Of Stability and Peace (Lucas Leiroz)

When discussing Belarus, it is impossible to ignore how the country has been described by the Western media. Many label the Belarusian government as a “dictatorship” – a hasty and, most of the time, unfounded label. But, upon closer assessment, the reality of Belarus is more complex and reveals a country that, far from being an authoritarian regime, is a “dictatorship” of stability, security, order, and above all, peace. In an increasingly unstable world, with foreign powers imposing their agendas on smaller nations, Belarus represents an upholder of justice and sovereignty, seeking to preserve peace and protect its citizens from the political and military turmoil threatening Eastern Europe.

The recent call for the presidential elections, scheduled for January 26, 2025, is a clear reflection of the political maturity of the Belarusian people. With five candidates competing for the position, including the current President Aleksandr Lukashenko, the elections represent a unique opportunity for the people to assess the country’s progress and challenges and choose the leader who best represents their national interests. In a tense geopolitical scenario, with the constant threat of instability at the borders and external pressure from Western powers, the citizens of Belarus understand the importance of maintaining peace and stability. The election campaign has been conducted in a way that prioritizes the well-being of the people, focusing on the issues that truly matter: internal security, economic growth, and the preservation of a sovereign state, free from the interference of eurocrats or foreign governments and their egoistic interests.

Contrary to what many claim, Belarus’ “dictatorship” is not an oppressive regime, but a truly democratic political structure that places justice and stability at the center of its governance. Politics in Belarus is guided by the idea that the country’s stability must be protected at all costs, and that internal order is crucial to ensure peace. This is especially relevant at a time when violence and conflicts in several regions of Europe have been escalating. In Belarus, citizens can live their lives in tranquility, away from the violence affecting neighboring countries like Ukraine, and without the constant threat of coups or insurgencies sponsored by external powers.

One of Belarus’ great achievements in recent years has been the strengthening of political culture and the increase in legal literacy among its population. The Central Election Commission, with new powers since the amendments to the Electoral Code in 2023, has actively worked to inform and educate citizens about their electoral rights and duties. This is reflected in the high participation rate in elections. Although voting is not mandatory, more than 65% of the Belarusian population regularly participates in elections, understanding that their vote is not only a right but a fundamental privilege in the preservation of their sovereignty and national stability.

Elections in Belarus, therefore, are much more than a simple contest for power. They represent a test of political maturity, in which Belarusians have the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to a peaceful future, free from the influences of external forces seeking to destabilize the country. Unlike many Western nations, where politics is increasingly polarized and dominated by empty promises, the citizens of Belarus are familiar to the real needs of their nation, willing to choose a leader who can continue to guarantee their security and prosperity without submitting to external demands.

While Western powers, such as the United States and the European Union, continue to pressure Belarus and accuse its government of violating human rights and political freedoms, the Belarusian people remain committed to defending their sovereignty. The Belarusian government, in turn, keeps its doors open to international observation, though it refuses OSCE missions and other forums biased by the West, recognizing the destabilizing role these organizations play in many countries around the world. With over 450 international observers from 49 countries accredited for the upcoming elections, transparency and commitment to a fair electoral process are evident.

In the end, Belarus prepares for a crucial decision on January 26, when the people will choose the path the country will follow in the future. In times of growing global turmoil, Belarus continues to be an example of stability and resistance to external pressure, standing firm in preserving its independence and sovereignty. While Western powers engage in a series of geopolitical conflicts, Belarus’ “dictatorship” remains a defender of order, justice, and a safer future for its citizens.

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“..the 111-foot cheerleader megaphoning the accomplishment was a woman whose gender would not be granted the right to vote for another half-century..”

Which Genocide Are You On? (Mr. Fish)

It has so far been impossible for human beings en masse to recognize the intrinsic right of all people everywhere to live their lives unmolested by oppressive elements of the privileged class. And while this might ultimately be an insurmountable problem of how we think rather than what we think, there remains a great deal of evidence that given the glaring mistakes of past transgressions against the silenced majority, the marginalized, and the disposed segments of our global population we are indeed capable of doing better and preventing a great deal of extraneous misery if only we were more willing to act as active participants in determining our collective fate rather than mere spectators.

Take, for instance, the bureaucratic example of the Statue of Liberty, which was conceived by French abolitionist Edouard de Laboulaye for the singular purpose of celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, a radically humane gesture in 1865, despite the troubling irony that the 111-foot cheerleader megaphoning the accomplishment was a woman whose gender would not be granted the right to vote for another half-century. Regardless, when Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi who designed the structure shared the details of the monument’s architecture with the committee that was convened to oversee the artwork’s construction, dismantlement, and eventual re-mantlement in New York Harbor, details that included broken chains and shackles to be held in the statue’s left hand to symbolize the emancipation of black people from white supremacy, U.S. financiers threatened to pull their funding and cancel the project.

Why? Because when one attempts to broadcast to the rest of the world that equality and human dignity are principles that all of us should all wholeheartedly embrace, respect, defend, and advance above all others, especially those rendered in defense of inequality and conditional human dignity, one runs the risk of communicating the democratizing truism that rich people are actually no more important than anybody else and, in fact, they are just poor people with money and are therefore undeserving of a social status that affords them manipulative powers over others. Such generosity would surely undermine the whole point of capitalism, which is to discourage any perception of humanity charitable enough to suggest that life would most certainly be better if it weren’t regulated by a privately owned and operated faux-Darwinian system that insists on the strictest possible obedience to the most exploitative, alienating, and anti-democratic dictums and directives ever dreamt up by pitiless noblemen.

Consequently, in order to appease the principled racism and erudite bigotry of the financiers, the statue was redesigned to have the chains and shackles removed – though remnants still remain at Liberty’s feet – and replaced with a tablet bearing the date July 4, 1776, signifying America’s Declaration of Independence and the time when slavery was legal and only white men owning property had the rights and privileges of free people and the indigenous population was being eradicated by the millions – between 8 and 114 million to be inexact, the imprecision of the count explained by this simple question: how often are we encouraged to catalogue the number of masticated dandelions we invoke when we mow our lawns? Thus, the statue was erected the color of chocolate and soon turned the color of money, simultaneously becoming both a rousing beacon of contempt for black, brown, yellow, and red Americans and an electrifying declaration of praise and acceptance of plutocratic authoritarianism and the normalization of muted public discourse concerning how best to equalize our treatment of each other regardless of class, ethnicity, gender, politics, or religion.

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Oil

 

 

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https://twitter.com/i/status/1883064038265135537

 

 

Polar bear

 

 

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Jan 242025
 
 January 24, 2025  Posted by at 10:56 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  34 Responses »


Salvador Dali Hallucination. Six Images of Lenin on a Grand Piano 1931

 

I Would Meet With Putin Immediately – Trump (RT)
Trump Knows Ukraine Conflict Means Nuclear WWIII, Gives Peace A Chance (SCF)
Zelensky Says He Could Speak With Putin (RT)
Zelensky Is ‘No Angel’ – Trump (RT)
Trump Gives First Oval Office Interview (JTN)
Trump To Pull 20,000 US Troops From Europe – Sources (RT)
Trump Orders Plan for Release of JFK, RFK, MLK Assassination Records (ET)
Nazispolozza: The Left’s Third Reich Mania Collapses into Comedy (Turley)
US News Channel Fires Presenter After She Calls Musk A Nazi (RT)
GOP To Push Trump Nominees Through Democratic Walls (JTN)
SCOTUS Denies RFK Jr. Request To Block California’s Doctor Investigations (ZH)
COVID Death Coverup: Trump-Hating Lawyers at DOJ Strike Again (PJM)
Larry Fink Predicts $700,000 Bitcoin (RT)
Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order (ET)
West Could Orchestrate More International Conflicts – Russian Spy Chief (RT)
UK Faces ‘Debt Death Spiral’ – Ray Dalio (RT)

 

 

 

 

Trump WEF

J6
https://twitter.com/i/status/1882144316145226065

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Putin says Zelensky is not a legitimate representative of Ukraine. No deals can be made with him. Has anyone told Trump?

I Would Meet With Putin Immediately – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as quickly as possible to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict. Trump, who took office on Monday, has repeatedly pledged to quickly negotiate a settlement between Russia and Ukraine. “From what I hear, Putin would like to see me, and we’ll leave as soon as we can. I’d meet immediately,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “Every day we don’t meet, soldiers are being killed on the battlefield.” The Kremlin previously said it was open to such talks. Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied that a Putin-Trump phone call was in the works. Trump has reportedly given his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, 100 days to hammer out a settlement between Moscow and Kiev.

On Wednesday, the US president threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia if Putin refuses to accept an unspecified “deal” to end the conflict. “Such dialogue between the two presidents had occurred during Trump’s first term,” Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin “has not received [such] signals so far.” Russia has insisted that Ukraine must abandon its plan to join the US-led NATO alliance in favor of becoming a neutral country. Putin has also demanded that Kiev renounce its claims to Crimea and four other regions that have voted to leave Ukraine and become part of Russia. Speaking to Bloomberg on Wednesday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky argued that communication with Kiev should be “a priority” for the Trump administration. He added that he was open to negotiations if Trump could provide tangible “security guarantees” to Ukraine.

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“..at least he is willing to give peace a chance with Russia over Ukraine. That alone makes Trump a welcome change from the vile warmongering of Biden and his would-be successor Kamala Harris.”

Trump Knows Ukraine Conflict Means Nuclear WWIII, Gives Peace A Chance (SCF)

The chances of a peace deal in Ukraine are suddenly a lot higher under President Donald Trump only because he has a realistic sense of a nuclear Third World War happening between the United States and Russia if that conflict is not ended promptly. Peter Kuznick, an esteemed American professor of history, says that the Biden administration brought the world closer to a nuclear conflagration than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Biden did this by relentlessly arming Ukraine with weapons to strike deeper and deeper into Russia instead of trying to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Indeed, there was no diplomatic effort from Washington under Biden. It was ideologically and propaganda-driven for confrontation, as was the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

Kuznick points out that Trump is no John F Kennedy in terms of the latter’s depth of historical and philosophical knowledge. But in comparison with Joe Biden, Trump has shown more humanity and common sense by not insulting Putin and in reaching out for a peaceful end to the slaughter in Ukraine. Biden called Putin a thug and said he would back Ukraine as long as it takes to defeat Russia. The last Democrat administration spent $175 billion of U.S. taxpayers’ money propping up a NeoNazi regime in Kiev that has lost over one million military casualties since the war erupted in February 2022. By contrast, newly inaugurated President Trump says that he wants to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a priority to find a peaceful way out of the conflict and to avoid a catastrophic escalation between nuclear powers.

Putin has welcomed a meeting with the new president and said he appreciates the urgent concern to avoid a nuclear disaster. Kuznick is author of The Untold History of the United States, which was coauthored with acclaimed film director Oliver Stone. The book was turned into an award-winning television series aired on Showtime, Netflix and other channels. Kuznick deplores the way the U.S. and NATO partners undermined international security by expanding on Russia’s borders despite earlier promises to the Soviet leaders that would not happen. If peace is to be found in Ukraine, it must be based on a bigger picture of lasting global security that considers all nations’ concerns. That means the United States must treat Russia’s national security concerns over NATO’s expansion seriously and respectfully.

Can the Trump administration deliver? It is packed with hawkish figures like Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Donald Trump is better placed than the Biden adminstration to cut a deal with Russia for peace in Ukraine and thereby avoid nuclear disaster, says Kuznick. Trump’s cabinet is filled with billionaires and his mercurial, superficial understanding of the world can be deprecated. Maybe his peaceful aspirations are muddled and not feasible given that Trump is surrounded by hawkish figures. But at least he is willing to give peace a chance with Russia over Ukraine. That alone makes Trump a welcome change from the vile warmongering of Biden and his would-be successor Kamala Harris.

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“According to Putin, the move violated the Ukrainian constitution, leaving parliament as the sole legitimate authority in the country.”

Zelensky Says He Could Speak With Putin (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said he could engage in direct peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin if US President Donald Trump provides Kiev with enough security guarantees, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Zelensky signed a decree banning himself from any negotiations with Putin in the fall of 2022 after the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, along with the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, officially became part of Russia as a result of referendums. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga said earlier this month that the legislation remains in force. However, in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday in Davos, Zelensky appeared to have changed his stance on the issue. According to the agency, the Ukrainian leader now says he wants to secure a commitment from Trump to support and secure Ukraine before engaging with Putin.

“The only question is what security guarantees and honestly I want to have understanding before the talks. If he can guarantee this strong and irreversible security for Ukraine, we will move along this diplomatic path,” he said. Last year, Putin said he would only be able to negotiate with Zelensky if he were to hold an election and win it, to restore his legitimacy. Zelensky remains in power in Ukraine despite his term having officially expired in May last year. The Ukrainian leader canceled the presidential vote, citing martial law that he imposed due to the conflict with Russia. According to Putin, the move violated the Ukrainian constitution, leaving parliament as the sole legitimate authority in the country.

On Tuesday, US President Trump said he is ready to meet with Putin “anytime” to discuss a diplomatic settlement to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. “We are talking to Zelensky. We are going to be talking with President Putin very soon and we will see how it all happens,” he said. Earlier this week, the Russian leader commended Trump’s intention to resume contacts between Moscow and Washington, which had been halted by the Biden administration. However, he stressed that dialogue can only happen on an “equal and mutually respectful basis.” Putin said Moscow noted the US president’s apparent willingness to restore communication and “do everything to prevent World War Three.”

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“Putin shouldn’t have done it,” Trump, who took office on Monday, told Hannity. “He shouldn’t have done it and it has to stop.”

Zelensky Is ‘No Angel’ – Trump (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky bears some responsibility for the armed conflict with Russia, US President Donald Trump has said. He argued that Zelensky, who has been granted a glowing reception in many Western capitals, should have done whatever necessary to avoid hostilities. During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired on Wednesday and Thursday, Trump reiterated the need to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict, set to enter its fourth year next month. “Zelensky – I got to say this – he wants to settle now. He’s had enough. He shouldn’t have allowed this to happen either,” Trump said. “You know, he’s no angel. He shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen,” he added. “First of all, he’s fighting a much bigger entity,” Trump stressed. He previously questioned the unconditional military and financial aid provided to Kiev by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

Trump also described Zelensky in the past as “the greatest salesman on Earth.” In the same interview, Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and threatened to impose more sanctions on Moscow “if they don’t make a settlement fast.” “Putin shouldn’t have done it,” Trump, who took office on Monday, told Hannity. “He shouldn’t have done it and it has to stop.” The president has repeatedly claimed that he would quickly negotiate a fair deal between Russia and Ukraine, but provided no specifics about possible terms. Both Moscow and Kiev have previously said that freezing the conflict along the current front line would be unacceptable. Putin has insisted that Kiev must abandon plans to join the US-led NATO military alliance, and renounce claims on Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia in 2022.

Earlier this month, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said he hopes to resolve the conflict within 100 days. Trump has criticized Biden for neglecting diplomacy and said on several occasions that he was open to having a conversation with Putin. So far no date for negotiations has been announced. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied earlier this week that a phone call between the leaders was being arranged.

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“We can get our country back,” he said. “But if we didn’t win this race, I really believe our country would have been lost forever.”

Trump Gives First Oval Office Interview (JTN)

President Donald Trump gave his first Oval Office interview on Wednesday addressing a wide range of problems facing the United States, but assuring the nation that they are “all solvable.” “They’re all solvable problems … with time, effort, money — unfortunately — but they’re all solvable,” President Trump said in the interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. He also reiterated his belief that this election was the most consequential in history. “We can get our country back,” he said. “But if we didn’t win this race, I really believe our country would have been lost forever.” Since taking office on Monday, President Trump signed a mountain of executive orders addressing the core issues from his campaign, including immigration, reversing Biden green energy policy, and delaying a ban on the popular social media app TikTok.

In the interview, Trump specifically dismissed criticism of his policy towards the popular social media app TikTok, which he promised to save from legislation passed by Congress which required the app to separate from its Chinese owner or be banned from the United States. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order to extend the deadline for the app’s parent company ByteDance to divest of the platform or face a ban. Security and privacy concerns about the app have simmered in Washington for years, spurred by the China-based parent company ByteDance’s close relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. “But you can say that about everything made in China. Look, we have our telephones made in China, for the most part. We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention that?” Trump asked.

“You know, the interesting thing with TikTok, is you’re dealing with a lot of young people, so they love–Is it that important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids watching crazy videos?” Trump also told Hannity that he truly believes he was saved by God from the would-be assassin’s bullet on the campaign trail last year, echoing his inaugural speech where he said he was “saved by God to make America great again.” “I turned…if I didn’t turn you know when the turn was like split second, perfect timing. So something happened, and I don’t think you can call it just luck,” Trump said, confirming that the incident increased his faith in God. Trump also said he is currently reviewing the John F. Kennedy assassination files and plans to release them.

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“We are in there for $200 billion more than the EU. I mean, what are we, stupid? I guess the answer is ‘yes.’ They must think so..”

Trump To Pull 20,000 US Troops From Europe – Sources (RT)

US President Donald Trump is considering reducing his country’s military contingent in Europe by 20% as he reviews Washington’s commitment to the continent, Italian news agency ANSA has reported, citing EU diplomatic sources. If the pullout occurs, the number of US service personnel in Europe will decrease from around 100,000 to 80,000, the agency reported on Wednesday. In recent conversations with European leaders Trump has “consistently” expressed a desire to downsize the US military presence on the continent, the sources said. “Furthermore, for those [US troops] who remain, he would like financial contributions from European countries, because these soldiers are a deterrent, and the costs cannot be borne solely by American taxpayers,” one of ANSA’s sources claimed.

Earlier this month, Trump said NATO member states in the EU should be spending 5% of their GDP on defense, way beyond the current goal of 2%. “They can afford it,” he claimed. On Tuesday, the US president called on Brussels to “equalize” with Washington when it comes to the support it provides to Ukraine. “We are in there for $200 billion more than the EU. I mean, what are we, stupid? I guess the answer is ‘yes.’ They must think so,” he said. Trump also pledged to impose tariffs on the bloc due to its trade surplus with the US. “The EU is very bad for us,” he claimed. During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron noted: “now that the new administration has taken office in the US, it is more important than ever for Europeans… to play their full part in consolidating a united, strong, and sovereign Europe.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1881478190130147743

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This time, let’s see it all.

Trump Orders Plan for Release of JFK, RFK, MLK Assassination Records (ET)

President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered plans to be drafted for the release of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (JFK), Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The president signed an executive order on Jan. 23 directing the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to prepare a plan in 15 days for the “full and complete release” of the JFK assassination files. The deadline for the plans for the RFK and King files is 45 days “That’s a big one,” Trump said while signing the order in the Oval Office. “A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed.” Trump promised at his pre-inauguration rally in Washington on Jan. 19 that he would release the remaining records on the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and King in the coming days.

The FBI accused Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union for a period after embracing Marxism, of assassinating JFK in 1963. Nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald as authorities were moving him from the Dallas police headquarters to the county jail just two days after the assassination, stirring decades of speculation and conspiracy theories. JFK’s assassination coincided with a period of increasing mistrust in the federal government, and many Americans still believe that Oswald was part of a larger plot to kill the president. Gallup’s most recent poll on the subject, conducted in October 2023, found that 65 percent of U.S. adults reject the theory that a lone gunman killed JFK. Trump and former President Joe Biden previously released thousands of documents related to JFK’s killing. Roughly 99 percent of the assassination files had been released as of 2023, according to the National Archives.

However, Biden had agreed to delay the disclosure of additional records because of the necessity of protecting “against identifiable harms to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, and the conduct of foreign relations that are of such gravity that they outweigh the public interest in disclosure.” JFK’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), whom Trump has nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, launched a petition in 2023 on the 60th anniversary of the assassination demanding that the Biden administration release all remaining government records on his uncle’s murder. RFK Jr. was just 9 years old when his uncle was assassinated in 1963, and he was 14 when his father was assassinated during the 1968 Democratic presidential primaries.

“The 1992 Kennedy Records Assassination Act mandated the release of all records related to the JFK assassination by 2017. Trump refused to do it. Biden refused to do it. What is so embarrassing that they’re afraid to show the American public 60 years later?” RFK Jr. wrote in a statement on his website in 2023. “Trust in government is at an all-time low. Releasing the full, unredacted historical records will help to restore that trust.” Biden had moved to redact some of the last remaining JFK assassination files, but Trump’s order states that this action is “not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue.” “Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay,” the order reads.

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“So Trump is a Nazi. Musk is a Nazi. Half the country are Nazis. The problem is that, if you say everyone is a Nazi, then no one is a Nazi..”

“AOC is a certified Nazi hunter, a license that seems only to be available to figures on the left.”

Nazispolozza: The Left’s Third Reich Mania Collapses into Comedy (Turley)

One of the least successful efforts of the left and many in the media this election was to paint Republican voters as “Nazis” hellbent on destroying democracy. While once verboten as a political comparison, liberal politicians and pundits have developed something of a Nazi fetish, where every statement and gesture is declared a return of the Third Reich. It seems like each news event presents a Rorschach test where every inkblot looks like a Nazi. That mania reached absurd, even comedic, levels with the attack on Elon Musk over an awkward gesture during the inauguration celebration. An exuberant Musk told the crowd, “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.” As he gave those words, he placed his right hand on his chest and stretched his arm outward, his palm facing the floor. He then repeated the gesture before putting his hand on his chest again.

It was all done in a matter of seconds, but it was enough for the usual mob to erupt in faux outrage. Pundits insisted that Musk had chosen the moment to come out as a Nazi on national television. The Washington Post breathlessly reported this week how the “Nazi-style salute” had “invigorated fans on the far right.” The usual liberal professors were rolled out to offer a patina of authority to the ridiculous claim. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history at New York University, declared, “Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.” Mike Stuchbery went on X (the company owned by the man he now suggests is a Nazi reenactor) to declare, “I studied the Nazis at university, taught the history of Nazi Germany on two continents and wrote for major newspapers about Nazi Germany. I am internet famous for fact-checking chuds [gross people] on the history, ideology and policy of Nazi Germany. That was a Nazi salute.”

Well, that settles it. As the outrage continued, any doubt or dissent was denounced as evidence that you are obviously a Nazi as well. That became a bit embarrassing when the leading Jewish organization, the Anti-Defamation League, stated the obvious: This was not a Nazi salute but rather an “awkward gesture.” The core principle of liberal mob tactics is that there can be no divergence, even by a group like the ADL. The way to deal with opposing ideas or writings is by making someone persona non grata. If you do not cancel others, you will be canceled. So the ADL was effectively declared soft on Nazis by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY): “Just to be clear, you are defending a Heil Hitler salute that was performed and repeated for emphasis and clarity. People can officially stop listening to you as any sort of reputable source of information now. You work for them. Thank you for making that crystal clear to all.”

We’ve reached a level of absurdity where Jewish advocates are treated like they are virtual Nazi sympathizers. This is not the first time the Democrats have labeled Trump and his supporters “Nazis.” It started years ago as Democrats repeated analogies of Trump to Hitler and his followers to brownshirted neo-Nazis. Defeating Trump has been compared to stopping Hitler in 1933, and media personalities like Rachel Maddow went on the air with a hysterical claim that “death squads” were authorized by the Supreme Court. When Trump held a massive rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden before the election, the media were apoplectic and immediately declared it … you guessed it … akin to a Nazi rally. From the Washington Post to the New York Times, the media formed an affinity group meeting to fret over “echoes of 1939.” In case anyone missed the message, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz emphasized “a direct parallel” with the Nazis.

Over at the Nation, David Zirin treated Madison Square Garden (known for everything from cage fights to dog shows) as an almost Vatican-like space: “With his fascist New York City rally, Donald Trump has befouled what many believe to be a sacred space: Madison Square Garden.” So Trump is a Nazi. Musk is a Nazi. Half the country are Nazis. The problem is that, if you say everyone is a Nazi, then no one is a Nazi. It loses its meaning. That includes Ocasio-Cortez, who appears to have joined the ranks of the Reich after critics posted her making a Musk-like gesture during a speech. There was no torrent of media fretting about how the gesture reflected the extremism of AOC’s questioning need for a Supreme Court, seeking to bar Trump and dozens of Republicans from ballots, or supporting censorship. AOC is a certified Nazi hunter, a license that seems only to be available to figures on the left.

Of course, labeling political opponents as diabolically evil fanatics and seeking to bar candidates from ballots sounds a lot like … well … it sounds familiar. There is an alternative. We can put the rage rhetoric aside and have honest debates over differences on politics and laws. In other words, we can fight over policy … and leave the Nazis out of it.

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“..his critics, who should find better ways to attack their opponents than calling “everyone Hitler.”

US News Channel Fires Presenter After She Calls Musk A Nazi (RT)

A Milwaukee-based CBS affiliate has dismissed one of its weather presenters after she reportedly called Elon Musk a Nazi on social media, over a gesture the tech billionaire made during an inauguration rally for US President Donald Trump. Musk has been forced to deny making a Nazi salute, dismissing the allegation as a “dirty trick” by his critics, who should find better ways to attack their opponents than calling “everyone Hitler.” WDJT-TV (Channel 58), where meteorologist Sam Kuffel had worked since 2019, has confirmed her departure but provided no official explanation in an internal memo to or public comments, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. While the station described the matter as a “personal issue,” Kuffel was reportedly dismissed one day after commenting on Musk’s gesture on her Instagram account.

The TV channel has removed Kuffel’s bio from its website and no longer mentions her in its weather section, but retains articles written by her. Her Instagram account has been set to private, but screenshots purportedly capturing her posts are available online. She has not commented publicly on the incident. Before her tenure at WDJT-TV, the journalist worked at WAOW-TV (Channel 9) in Wausau, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in atmospheric science. The Anti-Defamation League, a US-based pro-Israeli group which monitors anti-Semitism and hate speech, has described Musk’s gesture as “awkward” but did not say it was a Nazi salute. Similarly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an International Criminal Court warrant on charges related to genocide, has tweeted in support of the X owner, declaring him to be “a friend of Israel.”

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The Dems play a silly game of delaying all confirmations.

“We’re going to wear down the Democrats. Either you’re going to play ball with us, or you’re going to go without sleep..”

Ratcliffe was confirmed yesterday. We get one per day?

GOP To Push Trump Nominees Through Democratic Walls (JTN)

Four days into President Donald Trump’s second administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the sole Senate-confirmed member of the Cabinet, putting the 47th president well behind his recent predecessors in positioning his key advisors, a situation some Republicans have attributed to Democratic intransigence. The perceived obstruction efforts of the opposition party have Republican leadership gearing up for a tense battle to push Trump’s nominees over the finish line, be it “the easy way or the hard way.” While Rubio earned unanimous approval for the post on day one, Senate Democrats blocked the advancement of Trump’s CIA Director-designate, John Ratcliffe, and several key nominees have yet to even receive hearings.

“Democrats blocked John Ratcliffe’s confirmation vote because they don’t care about qualifications, integrity, or national security,” the Senate GOP account insisted. “But they do care about denying President Trump his cabinet, even if it hurts the country.” The upper chamber had expected to confirm Ratcliffe on Tuesday, though the Democrats managed to delay the final vote through a procedural measure. A former Director of National Intelligence and D.C. insider, Ratcliffe’s confirmation has not ranked among the more contentious of Trump’s nominees. Republicans, however, appear to have doubled down and are planning to work through the weekend to push through Trump’s nominees “the easy way or the hard way.”

Ratcliffe is far from the only Trump nominee to face scrutiny, however. FBI director-designate Kash Patel, DNI-designate Tulsi Gabbard, and Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. all have yet to appear before their relevant Senate committees at all. Republicans’ assertions that Democrats have held up Trump’s Cabinet appointments appear to hold some water relative to the confirmation pace of some recent Democratic administrations and even Trump’s first term. His confirmation pace, thus far, appears just shy of Biden’s. In his first term, Trump saw two key officials receive Senate confirmation on Jan. 20, 2017. James Mattis and John Kelly received confirmation as Secretary of Defense and Department of Homeland Security secretary, respectively. Elaine Chao followed suit as Transportation secretary on Jan. 31, 2017.

Now-former President Joe Biden, secured the confirmations of DNI Avril Haines and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin by this point in his presidency. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were confirmed on Jan. 25 and 26, 2021, respectively. President Barack Obama, however, saw seven members of his Cabinet confirmed via voice vote on Jan. 20, 2009. Several more were confirmed by either voice vote or roll call by Jan. 23. To be sure, several contentious nominees, including Pete Hegseth have cleared key procedural hurdles on the way to a floor vote, even earning some Democratic support despite personal scandals and a bevy of negative headlines. Republicans appear bullish on confirming Trump’s top nominees, especially Hegseth, but are also increasingly open to less conventional measures to steamroll through Democratic procedural hurdles.

“We’re going to wear down the Democrats. Either you’re going to play ball with us, or you’re going to go without sleep,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said on Fox News. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, for instance, has already vowed that the Senate will work through the weekend on confirming Cabinet nominees and has further declared that Republicans were willing to work “Nights. Weekends. Recesses.”

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The whole issue should have been solved by now. All of it. Including all vaccine damage.

SCOTUS Denies RFK Jr. Request To Block California’s Doctor Investigations (ZH)

Justice Elena Kagan, who handles urgent appeals from California, rejected the emergency application in Kory v. Bonta late on Jan. 21. She did not explain why. The decision came 13 days after the case was docketed by the court on Jan. 8. Kagan did not ask California to respond to the application. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was listed as one of two attorneys representing the physicians in the case. President Donald Trump has nominated Kennedy, an activist on environment and health-related issues, to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The other co-counsel on the application is Richard Jaffe of Sacramento, California. The Medical Board of California considers the expression of the doctors’ dissenting views on the disease as potentially dangerous misinformation that needs to be suppressed.

The board argues that it has legal authority to discipline the doctors for speech it deems to be medical misconduct. The physicians counter that they didn’t surrender their free speech rights when they obtained medical licenses. The application was initiated by Dr. Pierre Kory and Dr. Brian Tyson, both medical doctors; Dr. Le Trinh Hoag, an osteopathic physician; Physicians for Informed Consent; and Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit organization founded by Kennedy. Kennedy has resigned from the nonprofit because of his pending HHS nomination, Jaffe told The Epoch Times. The application stated that California’s executive and legislative branches are “threatening California physicians with professional discipline for their viewpoint speech contrary to the mainstream COVID narrative.”

After the Federation of State Medical Boards in July 2021 asked its member medical boards in the United States to punish physicians for advancing perceived “COVID misinformation” and “disinformation” among patients and the public, Medical Board of California President Kristina Lawson announced in February 2022 that the board planned to sanction physicians for what it called “COVID misinformation.” The California Legislature passed AB 2098, which took effect in January 2023, making the dissemination of “misinformation” about the disease an offense for which doctors could be disciplined, the application stated. After a federal district judge halted the law in January 2023, the Legislature repealed the misinformation provision effective January 2024. The application said the board continued to probe physicians for violating its COVID-19 policy following the repeal.

The applicants were challenging “the practice and policy of threatening and targeting physicians with discipline for providing information and recommendations contrary to the mainstream COVID narrative,” according to the application. On April 23, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California rejected a request to preliminarily block the state’s enforcement program, holding that the applicants lacked legal standing. Standing refers to the right of someone to sue in court. The parties must show a strong enough connection to the claim to justify their participation in a lawsuit. The ruling was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Nov. 27, 2024. The California Business and Professions Code, under which the California Medical Board claims its disciplinary authority, “regulates conduct, not speech,” the appeals court stated. “It provides for enforcement of the standard of care, which is the standard for physicians’ treatment of patients,” the court added.

To demonstrate standing, the applicants had to demonstrate that there was “a credible threat that the [board] will prosecute them under the statute,” but they did not do so, the appeals court stated. The Ninth Circuit said the court record showed that the only disciplinary action taken against a doctor “involved a physician encouraging her patient to use veterinary ivermectin and resulted in the stipulated surrender of her license.” The applicants were asking the Supreme Court for an injunction stopping the state from “continuing their enforcement program targeting the information, opinions, and recommendations on COVID-19 which California licensed physicians may provide to patients.” A related challenge that Kennedy and Jaffe filed with the Supreme Court was rejected by the full court on Jan. 13.

Kory

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“Stop the press! The Inspector General concludes that senior DOJ officials engaged in a, wait for it, leak? How did the Republic survive?”

COVID Death Coverup: Trump-Hating Lawyers at DOJ Strike Again (PJM)

The last time a tornado hit Washington, D.C., like this was August 1814. That’s when British troops were fleeing a frightening twister. The storm extinguished fires the British set and killed more redcoats than the American army did. In the last 72 hours, Donald Trump has whirled through the Washington bureaucracy with similar fury. Things that seemed impossible last week, Trump made possible, like revoking LBJ’s sixty-year-old Executive Order 11246 that mandated the use of race in government contracting. Yet there is a mountain of problems. Meet two DOJ lawyers who used their positions to target the first Trump administration: Deborah Zerwitz and Jennifer Ramella. Unlike Jack Smith, Zerwitz and Ramella are still employed at DOJ. Zerwitz and Ramella are two progressive DOJ lawyers who work for the Inspector General. They authored the recent hit job on the first Trump term.

More on who they are in a moment, lots more. Here’s the hit. Just before the inauguration, the pair authored a little-noticed hit piece on actions taken in the first Trump term. Specifically, they worked on a report by the DOJ Inspector General. The DOJ IG published a report about nursing home COVID deaths that occurred in New York and elsewhere. In 2020, state officials in New York and elsewhere were shoving COVID patients into assisted living facilities, where their virus promptly spread to existing residents and killed them by the thousands. The Trump Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the despicable behavior under laws prohibiting discrimination against institutionalized persons, particularly the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 1997).

The law is often referred to in shorthand as “CRIPA.” People in nursing homes have a federal civil right to not have Governor Andrew Cuomo shove sick patients with a deadly disease into their otherwise healthy nursing homes. The Inspector General report makes the shocking conclusion about the Trump DOJ: “The OIG investigation found that three then Senior DOJ Officials violated DOJ’s Confidentiality and Media Contacts Policy by leaking to select reporters, days before an election, non-public DOJ investigative information regarding ongoing DOJ investigative matters, resulting in the publication of two news articles that included the non-public DOJ investigative information.” Stop the press! The Inspector General concludes that senior DOJ officials engaged in a, wait for it, leak? How did the Republic survive?

In other words, the Inspector General investigated political appointees for talking to reporters about the behavior of targets of investigations. The offending conduct was something that took place all during the Robert Mueller investigation, the Jack Smith investigation, and every single investigation of Donald Trump during the Biden administration. In other words, the new DOJ inspector general report is abject horse manure. It stinks so bad the attorneys involved in the Inspector General report aren’t fit to hold their positions anymore at the Department of Justice. Too many bureaucrats on the GS scale have used their petty powers to smear and malign Donald Trump and his presidency, as Zerwitz and Ramella did here. Their behavior is particularly despicable because it provides political cover to state officials who were acting in a way that cost lives, the very thing federal law is designed to prevent.

Their report obscures the fact that Governor Cuomo and other state officials shoved COVID-infected people into nursing homes during the height of the pandemic and caused thousands of unnecessary deaths. The facts are straightforward. In April 2020, the DOJ received complaints about the COVID-related deaths of large numbers of elderly military veterans who lived in a Massachusetts nursing home. Allegations included claims that local officials concealed the deaths and stacked the dead bodies in a trailer. The Trump Justice Department launched an investigation in 2020 and issued a press release about its investigation. DOJ subsequently learned that several state agencies in Massachusetts were also investigating, so DOJ paused its investigation to give the state a chance to investigate the case first.

Information then surfaced that COVID-related nursing home deaths occurred at astonishing rates in New York and elsewhere because Governor Cuomo and other state officials required nursing homes to accept COVID-positive individuals. Thousands died because of this decision. Families sought answers, rightfully so.

DOJ officials opened an investigation, and the available information suggested that death rates in four states – New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan – were much higher than in other states. DOJ asked each of the four states to produce data about their nursing home COVID-related deaths under CRIPA enforcement powers. The Trump DOJ transparently issued press releases about these requests, too: “Protecting the rights of some of society’s most vulnerable members, including elderly nursing home residents, is one of our country’s most important obligations,” said then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband. “We must ensure they are adequately cared for with dignity and respect and not unnecessarily put at risk.”

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“If you’re frightened of the debasement of your currency, or you’re frightened of the economic or political stability of your country, you can have an internationally based instrument called Bitcoin that will overcome those local fears..”

Larry Fink Predicts $700,000 Bitcoin (RT)

Bitcoin could reach an astonishing $700,000 if institutional investors allocate between 2% and 5% of their portfolios to the cryptocurrency, Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, has predicted. The digital coin has seen a surge in its value in recent months. In 2024, its price jumped 121%, reaching the peak of $108,135 in December. On Monday, following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, Bitcoin hit a record $109,225. Trump had previously announced plans to make the US the world’s “crypto capital” and to set up a national Bitcoin reserve. Fink told an audience at a panel in Davos on Wednesday that he is “a big believer” in the world’s largest cryptocurrency as an instrument, highlighting its potential as a financial hedge.

“If you’re frightened of the debasement of your currency, or you’re frightened of the economic or political stability of your country, you can have an internationally based instrument called Bitcoin that will overcome those local fears,” Fink said. The investor cited a momentum towards institutional adoption of the cryptocurrency. “I was with a sovereign-wealth fund during this week, and there was a conversation, should we have a 2% allocation? Should we have a 5% allocation? If everybody adopted that conversation, it would be $500,000, $600,000, $700,000 for bitcoin,” argued Fink. The investor noted that he wasn’t promoting the token. Last year, BlackRock launched Bitcoin Trust and Ethereum Trust, exchange-traded funds investing directly into the two crypto tokens. Fink used to be skeptical of digital assets. In 2018, he told Bloomberg that BlackRock’s clients had zero interest in crypto.

Created in 2009, Bitcoin allows people to send and receive money over the internet without relying on traditional banks or governments. The decentralized nature of the token has also facilitated its misuse by organized crime gangs and for other illicit purposes such as money laundering and terrorist financing. The price is primarily affected by supply, market demand, availability, competing cryptocurrencies, and investor sentiment. Despite wide use for buying goods and services, there are no uniform international laws that regulate Bitcoin. The token was adopted as official currency in El Salvador in 2021. Governments around the world have been wary of the cryptocurrencies’ growing influence, warning about the dangers of investing into a volatile asset. According to an opinion piece by financial analyst Susie Violet Ward published by Forbes on Monday, Bitcoin’s institutionalization would compromise its original ethos as “freedom money,” with regulatory and economic control eroding the token’s decentralization.

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See also Ryan McMaken’s excellent overview in yesterday’s Debt Rattle. The key line:

“..all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof..”

Those are two separate things!

Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order (ET)

A U.S. judge on Jan. 23 blocked President Donald Trump’s order limiting birthright citizenship. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour after a hearing in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order that prohibits the Trump administration for 14 days from enforcing Trump’s order, which the president signed hours after taking office on Monday. “This is blatantly unconstitutional order,” Coughenour told a lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department during the hearing. The ruling was made in a case brought by the attorneys general of Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington state. It was one of several lawsuits lodged against the executive order. Trump’s order was set to take effect on Feb. 19. It says that the federal government does not automatically recognize birthright citizenship for children who are born to illegal immigrants in the United States.

Historically, babies born on U.S. soil receive U.S. citizenship. That’s based on court rulings interpreting the U.S. Constitution, which says in part that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Congress also passed a law containing similar language. Trump’s order says that the Constitution’s citizenship clause “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States” and “has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’” It clarifies that the federal government does not automatically grant citizenship to babies whose mothers are in the United States and whose fathers are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents.

In their motion for a temporary restraining order, state officials said that Trump went beyond his powers with the order, describing it as “flatly contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment’s text and history, century-old Supreme Court precedent, longstanding Executive Branch interpretation, and the Immigration and Nationality Act.” Without court intervention, the order would leave more than 150,000 babies born this year without citizenship because their parents are illegally in the country, according to the attorneys general. Government officials said in response that the court should not issue a restraining order because the states have not suffered any injuries and because the plaintiffs are not likely to succeed.

“Ample historical evidence shows that the children of non-resident aliens are subject to foreign powers—and, thus, are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to birthright citizenship,” government lawyers said.That included a Supreme Court justice writing in legal commentaries that birthright citizenship should not apply to babies whose parents were in the country “for temporary purposes.” Coughenour sided with the states, telling the courtroom before Department of Justice attorney Brett Shumate had even finished talking that he had signed the restraining order sought by the states.The two-week order is in place while Coughenour weighs issuing a preliminary injunction, which would likely remain in place as the case proceeds in the courts. Schumate during Thursday’s hearing argued the executive order was constitutional and that any order blocking it would be “wildly inappropriate.”

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“The United States is losing its dominant global position, which may prompt Western elites to fuel new armed conflicts between nations..”

West Could Orchestrate More International Conflicts – Russian Spy Chief (RT)

The United States is losing its dominant global position, which may prompt Western elites to fuel new armed conflicts between nations, according to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). In an interview with RIA Novosti previewed on Friday, Naryshkin said the US is “gradually degrading and losing control.” He cautioned that some influential figures may attempt to spark international conflicts to serve their interests. The global situation in 2025 will remain unstable, the SVR chief predicted, highlighting the need for prudence among regional and global players. Naryshkin stressed that much depends on the rationality and restraint exercised by these actors.

The Russian official added that while the shift to a new, fairer multipolar world order is “complex and fraught with risks,” the emergence of new centers of power has significant potential for economic development and the ability to ensure global security and stability. Naryshkin expects the US and EU to be major participants in the future global architecture, with a level of influence on par with that of other great powers, including China, India and Russia. A new pan-Eurasian security arrangement will make the world as a whole more stable, he added. Moscow and Beijing have accused the West of refusing to accept that the economic rise of non-Western nations gives them a greater role in international affairs. Instead, Washington is seeking to replace international law with a “rules-based order” that gives the US undeserved benefits and suppresses competition, officials from Russia and China have argued.

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“Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have described their fiscal rules as “ironclad” and “non-negotiable.”

UK Faces ‘Debt Death Spiral’ – Ray Dalio (RT)

The UK faces significant fiscal risks due to its rising borrowing costs and increasing debt levels, the boss of the world’s largest hedge fund, Ray Dalio, has warned. Britain’s annual interest payments have surpassed £100 billion (roughly $125 billion), Dalio, the founder of investment management firm Bridgewater Associates, said in an interview with the Financial Times. The recent sell-off in fixed-interest loan securities issued by the UK government, known as gilts, coupled with the weakening of the British pound, indicate that the market is struggling to absorb the government’s higher borrowing requirements, he explained. “When you get to the point that you have to borrow money to service the debt and interest rates are rising, so that debt-service payments rise, so you need to borrow more money to pay them, you’re in what the markets call a death spiral,” the investor told the FT in Tuesday’s report.

The UK’s ten-year borrowing costs rose from 3.75% in mid-September to a 16-year high earlier this month at 4.93%, the outlet noted. ”As those risks increase, everybody looks at that need to borrow more money at higher interest, which creates [a] self-reinforcing debt deterioration cycle,” Dalio also pointed out. The UK government in October adopted a budget for the financial year 2025/2026, pledging more funding for essential services and social support, and increased debt-servicing costs. Although the government announced tax increases, analysts have pointed out that these may not fully cover the additional spending, particularly amid slower economic growth.

The British pound has been declining since September, having lost about 8.2% of its value against the US dollar. The drop has been attributed to rising borrowing costs, market apprehension about the country’s debt levels, and reduced investor confidence. The trends have prompted another warning, this one from Berlin-based credit rating agency Scope Ratings. Recent moves in UK debt markets and the falling pound suggest that cracks may be appearing in Britain’s reserve currency status, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing Denis Shen, a top analyst at the agency. The UK’s vulnerability to emerging market-style sell-offs could jeopardize its AA credit rating, Shen warns. In response to the challenges, the UK government said it remained “absolutely committed” to strict fiscal discipline. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have described their fiscal rules as “ironclad” and “non-negotiable.”

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Cold day

 

 

Denial
https://twitter.com/i/status/1882470128580796628

 

 

Cuttlefish

 

 

Phonics
https://twitter.com/i/status/1882264331016163414

 

 

Titanic

 

 

Airplane

 

 

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