The Automatic Earth

René Magritte Pandora’s box 1951

Emerald

How do we know Jack Smith has exculpatory evidence exonerating President Trump? Because @leah_hoopes & @GregStenstrom provided it to Jack Smith & the DOJ.

And she's willing to testify for President Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/P934NnwTN4

— The Absolute Truth with @EmeraldRobinson (@AbsoluteWithE) September 4, 2024

Hawley
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831132426573054452

SAVE Act
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831010091849421005

Vivek
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831180765234655471

Trump Nordstream

Trump once again brags about "ending" the Nordstream pipeline (by imposing sanctions) and criticizes Biden for easing up by "approving it," even though the pipeline was subsequently blown up under Biden's administration. Trump also claims to have saved NATO pic.twitter.com/75xEnat1OJ

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) September 3, 2024

Trump Fridman

Here's my conversation with @realDonaldTrump

It's here on X in full, and is up everywhere else too. Links in comment.

Timestamps:
0:00 – Introduction
1:09 – Psychology of winning and losing
3:51 – Politics is a dirty game
5:28 – Business vs politics
8:04 – War in Ukraine
9:53 -… pic.twitter.com/64pCfH8JPs

— Lex Fridman (@lexfridman) September 3, 2024

Will they try to lock him up for a year, 6 weeks before the election?

• Tyranny Is Closer Than You Realize (Paul Craig Roberts)

It is strange that there is no discussion of it, but in two weeks and one day on September 18 Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president in the November election in two months, is scheduled by a corrupt Democrat “judge” to be sentenced for 34 felony counts pulled out of thin air by a corrupt Democrat prosecutor for how Trump’s accountants reported an expense. Trump’s accountants reported the expense as a legal expense, which was a reasonable classification of the expense, but the corrupt Democrat prosecutor said it was a campaign contribution by Trump to his own campaign and that by reporting it as a legal expense he is guilty of interfering in the election. It is this absurd personal opinion of the corrupt Democrat prosecutor–are there any Democrat prosecutors who are not corrupt?– that turned a non-issue of how an expense was reported into 34 felony charges.

In fact, there is only one charge. But the corrupt Democrat prosecutor wrote it up 34 different times in order to create an appearance of large scale crime. Few jurors have the intelligence to see the wool being pulled over their eyes, especially when all they hear from the whore media is that Trump is a criminal and a threat to democracy, a traitor to America, a Russian agent, an insurrectionist, and so on. No one in the whore American media tells them any different. What is the Democrat judge going to do on September 18? I can’t say that I know. If common sense were involved, the Democrat judge would have set the sentencing date after the election, or he would issue a suspended sentence. But common sense is not part of the script. According to the scuttlebutt, the Democrat Justice (sic) Department has decided on a one year prison sentence.

According to the scuttlebutt the Democrat Justice (sic) Department has been working it out with Rikers prison a way of accommodating Trump’s Secret Service protection that is required by federal law for former presidents 24/7. Whether the Secret Service will do any better job of protecting Trump in prison than they did at his Pennsylvania rally is the open question. The puzzling aspect of the September 18 sentencing is why bother? All of the theft mechanisms used in the swing states to deny Trump his 2020 victory have been legalized. In the swing states it is now legal to steal the election, so why bother sentencing Trump? Is it chaos that the elite want? Are the tyrannical elite hoping that Trump’s imprisonment will cause people to pour into the streets, thus permitting the Democrat regime to declare an insurrection and arrest all Republican members of Congress, all Republican governors, and all Republican state legislatures?

Will torture uncover a plot and lead to the arrest and detention of all white conservatives and registered Republican voters in detention camps that already exist, allegedly for hurricane victims? It would happen so fast that there would be no chance of organized resistance. I agree, this sounds far-fetched, so what is the point of the sentencing? Justice? From Democrats? What a joke!! Democrats care nothing for justice. They are after power. At all costs. One would think that the issue of one political party sentencing the presidential candidate of the other political party to prison six weeks prior to the election would be a major issue dominating the news and public discussion. But it is not. There is no information. Only scuttlebutt.

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They allegedly paid them well.

• Popular Conservatives Tricked Into $10M Russian Influence Campaign: DOJ (ZH)

The DOJ has accused several conservative influencers of unwittingly working for a Kremlin-funded media outlet. A federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday alleges that a Tennessee-based media company, later identified as Tenet Media, received nearly $10 million from employees of Russian state-backed media company, Russia Today (RT), as part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.” The DOJ claims that RT and two of its employees – Kostiantyn “Kostya” Kalashnikov and Elena “Lena” Afanasyeva – worked to funnel money to Tenet Media as part of a series of “covert projects” aimed at shaping narratives within Western audiences. The indictment specifically notes that the influencers – including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern – had no idea they were taking Russian money, and were deceived.

They were told by Tenet founder Lauren Chen – who allegedly knew the true source of the funds – that the money was from a wealthy private investor named “Eduard Grigoriann.” At least one of the influencers asked for a profile on Grigoriann before signing a contract – and was given a fabricated one-page profile. This was apparently sufficient, as two of the commentators (believed to be Tim Pool and Benny Johnson) signed contracts which paid Pool $100,000 per podcast, while Johnson was paid $400,000 per month plus a $100,000 signing bonus for “four weekly videos.” While Pool and Johnson have issued statements (below), it’s been pointed out that Lauren Chen has recently been trying to divide Donald Trump’s base…

In a Wednesday statement on X, Pool says that should the allegations prove true, “I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims,” and ends by telling haters to “eat my irish ass.” Johnson says “Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated,” adding “We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme.” We’re sure the timing of this, two months before the election, was a total coincidence. How long has the DOJ been sitting on this? Why did it drop a day after we learned that a Chinese spy was working for NY Gov. Kathy Hochul, or that Poole was going to sue Kamala Harris for defamation?

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“..trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda.”

• US Justice Department Reveals Legal Action Against RT (RT)

The US Department of Justice has charged two Russians it identifies as RT employees with money laundering and working as foreign agents for their alleged role in pushing video content that sowed “discord and division” in the US. In a criminal indictment unsealed on Wednesday, US prosecutors claimed that Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva financed and directed a Tennessee-based production company that published English-language videos to various social media platforms aimed at amplifying “domestic divisions in the United States.” These videos were viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube alone, the indictment alleged, and, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, represented an attempt to “trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda.”

Producing videos that highlight social and political divisions in the US is not a crime. However, the Justice Department claimed that Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva broke the law by not registering as foreign agents. Back in 2017, the Department of Justice forced the now-defunct RT America to register as a foreign agent, after a host of US intelligence agencies claimed that RT had helped to elect Donald Trump by publishing “negative coverage” of Hillary Clinton and criticizing the US’ “corrupt political establishment.” Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and 20 years for money laundering. However, the charges against them will likely never be proven in an American courtroom, as the US has no extradition treaty with Russia.

The two Russians were also sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on Wednesday, along with RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and three other senior RT employees. Simonyan dismissed the charges, responding “great job, team!” on Telegram. In a press conference on Wednesday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the allegations against Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, as well as a separate Russian scheme to allegedly spread anti-Ukraine content online, “make clear the ends to which the Russian government, including at its highest levels, is willing to go to undermine our democratic process.”

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RT’s answer is clear.

• Biden To Take ‘Law Enforcement Action’ Against RT – CNN (RT)

The administration of US President Joe Biden is planning to accuse Russia of meddling in this year’s presidential election, and will announce “law enforcement action” against those supposedly responsible, CNN reported on Wednesday. RT will be the prime target of this action, the network stated. The White House will accuse Russia on Wednesday of “a sustained effort to influence the 2024 US elections” by using “Kremlin-run media” to spread so-called “disinformation,” CNN reported, citing US government sources. Alongside a public condemnation from the White House, the US Department of Justice will announce “law enforcement action targeting the covert Russian campaign,” the network said. RT is “a major focus of the US announcement,” CNN added, noting that “US officials see the Russian outlet as a key piece of Kremlin propaganda efforts.”

“Dear CNN,” RT’s press office responded following Wednesday’s article. “We certainly have a response. Actually, we have several, but we couldn’t decide on one (we even thought of running an office poll), so here they are:

1. Ha!

2. Hahahaha!

3. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

4. 2016 called and it wants its clichés back

5. Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections

6. We gotta earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow

7. Somewhere, Secretary Clinton is sad that it’s not because of her

SINCERELY,

RT Press Office”

Democrats like Biden have accused Russia of interfering in the last two presidential elections. During the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, US intelligence agencies repeatedly claimed that Moscow was deploying hackers and using “information warfare” to swing the vote in favor of Donald Trump. These allegations, coupled with claims that Trump had colluded with Moscow to win the election, formed the basis for a two-year investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but were ultimately found to be baseless. In 2020, more than 50 “former intelligence officials” published a letter claiming that files on Hunter Biden’s laptop – which implicated the Biden family in multiple foreign corruption schemes – were fabricated by Russia. The laptop’s contents have since been proven genuine.

Throughout the past decade, American officials have repeatedly accused RT of spreading “disinformation” – a term that these officials rarely define. Back in 2017, the Department of Justice forced RT America to register as a foreign agent, after a host of US intelligence agencies claimed that RT had helped to elect Trump by publishing “negative coverage” of Clinton and criticizing the US’ “corrupt political establishment.” RT America ceased operations in 2022 after the network was dropped by its US distributors in response to the Ukraine conflict.

Despite their claims of “Russian interference” in US elections being repeatedly proven to be without foundation, American spies have stuck to them. Earlier this summer, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in Washington alleged that the Kremlin had mounted a “whole-of-government” effort to turn the American public against Biden and his fellow Democrats. This accusation paved the way for the FBI to raid the homes of Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector and RT contributor, and Dimitri K. Simes, a Soviet-born US political pundit who hosts a show on domestic Russian television. Ritter described the raid as an attempt to intimidate “anyone who goes against official [US] policies and particularly against the deep state.”

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“..it is not the Russians but the US government that is engaged in an attempt to influence and control the popular narrative for its own benefit.”

• Persecution of Sputnik, RT Contributors Highlights US Hypocrisy (Sp.)

The United States’ persecution campaign against journalists and political dissidents with ties to Russian media accelerated Wednesday when new repressive measures were announced against several entities. New sanctions were announced against 10 individuals and two organizations under the umbrella of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, including RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik and Ruptly. The sanctions target these entities for alleged “hostile interference in the presidential elections,” the US Treasury Department claimed. The measures also target editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya and RT Margarita Simonyan and several top managers at RT. Ex-CIA analyst and former State Department counterterrorism expert Larry Johnson spoke with Sputnik Wednesday about the startling development, the latest attempt by the Biden administration to shape political discourse online and in the media.

“The latest stunt pulled by the Biden Department of Justice to declare all of these sanctions on Russia for alleged interference in the US political system is a level of hypocrisy that is staggering in its magnitude and in its foulness,” Johnson said.“Let’s be clear about one thing: the one country in the world that has been involved with more interference in the internal political affairs of every other country is the United States. During the reign of President Eisenhower in the 1950s, there were 170 different covert actions carried out against other countries.” “This year [the US has] allocated almost $4 billion to interfere or meddle in the political affairs of other countries,” he continued. “$315 million of that goes to the National Endowment for Democracy. $300 million is specifically what they call counter-Russian influence. And another $2.9 billion is for ‘democracy’ programs. And these have been used basically to run propaganda, to pay people, to organize ‘democracy’ programs in places like Georgia.”

The US frequently funds pro-Western media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in foreign countries it targets for regime change to pave the way for a pro-US government to come to power. Author and journalist William Blum documented over 50 examples of significant US interference in other countries since World War II in his classic book Killing Hope, largely based on the shocking revelations of ex-CIA agent Philip Agee. More recently the US has interfered in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Ukraine, paving the way for the latter country’s extremist anti-Russia government through its support for the Euromaidan coup in 2014. “I don’t know how many millions of dollars are allocated to the CIA for additional covert actions designed to plant stories in media, to create electronic media, to influence social networks across the board,” Johnson continued. “It’s the United States that’s meddling.

With respect to the entire bogus claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, we now know without a doubt that that was a Democrat operation led by Hillary Clinton and her team,” he added. “Everything we were told about Donald Trump and the Russians was a lie. I was one of the few writing about it at the time to call it out… The notion that RT is manipulating and influencing the presidential election is beyond laughable,” he claimed, noting that the Russian television channel’s app is banned from many app stores in the West while its content has been removed from YouTube and other websites. “How is a news network that’s not allowed to broadcast and that’s shut [out] of social media in the United States supposed to influence [the election]? … It just goes across the board that they’re going to try to attack any kind of alternative voice in the media.”

Johnson noted that he has been subjected to a “pre-interview” with most television news outlets he has appeared on, such as the BBC, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS and the CBC, during which employees for each outlet attempted to ascertain what he would say when interviewed live on air. RT was one of only two outlets that never subjected him to the practice, he said. “It’s the so-called ‘free democracies’ that want to run that litmus test,” he said. Johnson said the recent persecution of figures connected to RT and Sputnik is merely another attempt to run the “Russiagate” playbook, attempting to discredit alternative media outlets that critique US foreign policy. “Electoral interference” continues to take place, Johnson claimed, but it is not the Russians but the US government that is engaged in an attempt to influence and control the popular narrative for its own benefit.

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“..Donald Trump, he has 65 million Twitter followers, he has proven himself to be willing to obstruct justice – just ask Bob Mueller..”

• Harris Denounced Unfettered Free Speech in 2019 CNN Interview (Turley)

I previously wrote how a Harris-Walz Administration would be a nightmare for free speech. Both candidates have shown pronounced anti-free speech values. Now, X owner Elon Musk and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have released the interview to show the depths of the hostility of Harris to unfettered free speech. I have long argued that Trump and the third-party candidates should make free speech a central issue in this campaign. That has not happened. Kennedy was the only candidate who was substantially and regularly talking about free speech in this election. Yet, Musk and Kennedy are still trying to raise the chilling potential of a Harris-Walz Administration. In my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how the Biden-Harris Administration has proven to be the most anti-free speech administration since John Adams.

That includes a massive censorship system described by one federal judge as perfectly “Orwellian.” In the CNN interview, Harris displays many of the anti-free speech inclinations discussed earlier. She strongly suggests that X should be shut down if it does not yield to demands for speech regulation. What is most chilling is how censorship and closure are Harris’s default positions when faced with unfettered speech. She declares to CNN that such unregulated free speech “has to stop” and that there is a danger to the country when people are allowed to “directly speak[] to millions and millions of people without any level of oversight and regulation.” Harris discussed her view that then-President Trump’s Twitter account should be shut down because the public had to be protected from harmful viewpoints.

“And when you’re talking about Donald Trump, he has 65 million Twitter followers, he has proven himself to be willing to obstruct justice – just ask Bob Mueller. You can look at the manifesto from the shooter in El Paso to know that what Donald Trump says on Twitter impacts peoples’ perceptions about what they should and should not do.” Harris demanded that Trump’s account “should be taken down” and that there be uniformity in the censorship of American citizens: “And the bottom line is that you can’t say that you have one rule for Facebook and you have a different rule for Twitter. The same rule has to apply, which is that there has to be a responsibility that is placed on these social media sites to understand their power… They are speaking to millions of people without any level of oversight or regulation. And that has to stop.”

In other words, free speech should be set to the lowest common denominator of speech regulation to protect citizens from dangerous viewpoints. Harris’s views have been echoed by many Democratic leaders, including Hillary Clinton who (after Musk purchased Twitter) called upon European censors to force him to censor American citizens under the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA). Other Democratic leaders have praised Brazil for banning X after Musk balked at censoring conservatives at the demand of the socialist government. Brazil is where this anti-free speech movement is clearly heading and could prove a critical testing ground for national bans on sites which refuse to engage in comprehensive censorship. As Harris clearly states in the CNN interview, there cannot be “one rule for Facebook and you have a different rule for Twitter.” Rather, everyone must censor or face imminent government shutdowns.

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“‘gold fishing’ – an on-screen facial contortion where the lips and cheeks move, but nothing comes out of the mouth..”

“Harris is seen as the most suitable candidate to further the causes of America’s military industrial complex ..”

• Fake News Now At Peak As Kamala Faces CNN “interview” (Jay)

Wherever you look, it feels like we are being bombarded now with an unprecedented level of fake news. One reason may well be how the installed governments by western elites – military industrial complex and banking – are getting very skittish indeed about a shake up of world order in November when the airhead Kamala Harris takes on Donald Trump in the presidential elections. This new trend of installing a useful idiot into power has been around for decades across Africa and Asia where the U.S. and before that the UK installed their own despots to serve their own needs, so we shouldn’t be so shocked by someone like Harris having the landscape prepared for her. To call Harris a ‘lightweight’ is understating her political verve. She has none of the conventional talents that politicians require like public speaking, or engaging with media, let alone having any ideas of her own which might make it one day to policy.

For most Americans the choice in November is between Harris, who is essentially Biden 2.0 or Trump. Not exactly a tough call many might say since RFK endorsed Trump who traditionally he has not been a fan of; it’s as though he’s saying to Americans, “anything but Kamala. Do the maths”. Media is of course playing a huge and certainly tawdry role in pushing her which is not generally noted by most Americans. For weeks she has ignored or avoided all serendipitous contact with journalists which surely must be orders from the elite who are controlling her. And there is good reason for this as the internet is awash with her talking gibberish. Or dancing. Talking mumbo jumbo won’t help her at the polls against Trump who revels at the microphone and is not afraid to go head to head with journalists and unscripted interviews, despite him whining about how unfair the set-up is.

What he is alluding to is that left-wing media in America like CNN fake the news and as we saw recently almost certainly gave Kamala a print out of the questions she was going to face with her recent CNN interview where she was joined by her running mate just in case she did something which broadcast journalists call ‘gold fishing’ – an on-screen facial contortion where the lips and cheeks move, but nothing comes out of the mouth. In Kamala’s case, gold fishing might not be as bad as actually speaking, as she has shown us that there is not much between the ears. She is not overburdened with what many academics have of knowing too much and not being able to communicate in short sound bites. Harris doesn’t really know anything at all except a few talking points from Biden’s days. Her own people will be happy with the staged interview as they can at least counter oped writers who claim she is so lame that she avoids all press. Thanks CNN. Great jaaaabbbb.

Harris is seen as the most suitable candidate to further the causes of America’s military industrial complex whose six main companies cannot slow production down, unless they make job layoffs. The insatiable hunger of this machine is responsible for the lion’s share of U.S. foreign policy and Biden gave his cronies their one hundred Christmas’s when he created the Ukraine war and more recently Gaza. In Gaza the false reporting from western media is as repulsive as the images of children who have lost their entire brains and whose heads look like theatrical floppy props, which has become the day to day norm now when Israel bombs schools. Does anyone in the west in either camp still believe this is a “war” against Hamas fighters?

With the recent invasion of West Bank and the rise of settlers stealing land there, surely the real story of Netanyahu’s campaign is there for all to see in plain light: ethnic cleansing on a grand scale to wipe Palestinians off the face of Israel. And still we read western journalists and op-ed writers parroting the line about ‘two state solutions’ and what the EU says, etc etc. By the time the chairs are arranged and the mineral water is put on the tables, there will not be a Palestinian left to even represent his or her own state. Everyone knows the two-state solution is a massive parody of diplo gibberish a bit like Kamala’s few media stints which are still good for a laugh today. And it’s an identical story in Ukraine. No western journalists can report on the true story of Ukrainian losses in Kursk and how the operation has blown up in Zelensky’s face. The omission of reporting key facts and data is just as bad as making up your stories, if not worse.

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“..he also established a “Covid hotline” where people could call and report anyone who wasn’t following the governor’s edicts..”

• Harris-Walz: The Ticket Of COVID Tyranny (Rich)

Quarantine, lockdowns, social distancing – words I’m sure everyone reading never wants to hear again. Even several years removed, the pain inflicted by Covid-19 and subsequent policy reactions is still fresh in our collective consciousness. I wouldn’t blame anyone for wanting to forget the whole thing, and you wouldn’t be the only one. The authoritarians who violated your freedoms in the name of Covid safety would love for those years – and their mistakes – to be forgotten. As it happens, two of those authoritarians will be appearing together on ballots this November – Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Kamala Harris is a familiar name to many Americans. Picked out by Biden to serve as vice president on the 2020 Democrat ticket, she has served the past three-and-a-half years as Biden’s second-in-command. Depending on the outcome of the presidential elections in November, she might even be getting a promotion.

But in her capacity as VP, she has overseen the Biden administration’s increasingly tyrannical edicts in the name of stopping Covid. In 2021, the Biden administration attempted to wield OSHA against the American people by requiring that any companies with over 100 employees require weekly testing or vaccination. Not only was the legal reasoning behind this mandate spurious, the actions being mandated had, at best, questionable efficacy in combating the “Omicron” Covid strain. Thankfully, the mandate was struck down in a 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court in 2022, but neither Biden nor anyone in his administration ever rescinded their support for the measure. Additionally, the Biden administration took steps to censor anyone skeptical of their Covid policies by putting pressure on private companies. As revealed by the “Twitter Files,” the Biden administration would request that Twitter either ban or artificially reduce the reach of certain accounts.

These included high-profile individuals, such as Robert Kennedy Jr. It was only after Elon Musk purchased Twitter that such government “requests” were disclosed to the public. Vice President Harris has done more than look on with passive approval at the Biden administration’s actions. She has been actively involved in vaccination drives, encouraging masking, and imploring Americans to social distance. At a 2021 vaccine drive in South Carolina, Harris stated: “So, the vaccines—let me say it again—are safe. They are safe. And they are free. And they are effective. And it is that simple.” And, on the subject of “herd immunity”: “If you are vaccinated, you are protected. If your community is vaccinated, Covid rates in your community will go down.”

Just a few months after these remarks, the Delta variant would crash through the United States, despite millions of Americans being vaccinated. The same would happen again in 2022, when the Omicron variant caused record-high numbers of Covid infections. Harris also supported vaccines for children aged 5-11, despite the fact that young children are among the least likely to suffer serious complications from Covid. Even the World Health Organization would later reverse their position on child vaccination because of the marginal-to-nonexistent benefits.

In contrast to Harris, Tim Walz is an unfamiliar name to many. In 2018, Walz was elected governor of Minnesota, reelected in 2022, and is currently running with Harris for vice president. During Covid, he supported the same masking, lockdown, and social distancing policies that most governors across the country did, however, Walz’s administration was willing to go farther in these measures than many other governors. After Walz issued a stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of Covid, he also established a “Covid hotline” where people could call and report anyone who wasn’t following the governor’s edicts. This caused no small amount of controversy within the state, but when Walz was asked about removing the hotline, he said, “We’re not going to take down a phone number that people can call to keep their families safe.”

Walz was perfectly willing to enforce his lockdown orders as well. Whenever a Lakeville restaurant tried to reopen for dine-in service, state attorney general Keith Ellison sought a restraining order to keep it closed. Gloating on the situation, Ellison said. “I’m gratified the court recognizes the severity of the pandemic and the need to take urgent action to stop the spread of Covid-19.” In June 2020, Walz issued a mask mandate, requiring anyone in an indoor space with non-family members to wear a mask. In the official announcement of this mandate, Walz said, “But as Minnesotans always do during tough times, we come together and we take care of one another. And right now there’s no better way to demonstrate our Minnesotan values than by wearing a mask.”

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“..The hearing is scheduled for Thursday..”

• Trump To Fight Revamped J6 Charges (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump will enter a not guilty plea to criminal charges in a revised indictment accusing him of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. The case is related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC by Trump supporters in the aftermath of his defeat. The Republican candidate in this year’s race for the White House said in a court filing on Tuesday that he would not be present at a formal reading of the charges against him. He also authorized his attorneys “to enter a plea of not guilty” on his behalf “to each and every count of the superseding indictment.” The hearing is scheduled for Thursday. The revised indictment includes the same four charges prosecutors brought against Trump last year and that he pleaded not guilty to in August 2023.

Trump was accused of conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy against the voting rights of citizens, and obstruction of congressional certification of the election. The new document is a stripped-down version of last year’s criminal case against Trump. Certain allegations were dropped and reframed after the US Supreme Court ruled that Trump has broad immunity from criminal prosecution over official actions taken during his term as president. Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and denounced the case as an attempt to prevent him from returning to the White House. In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform late last month, he called it “a direct assault on democracy” and a “resurrection of a dead witch hunt.”

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“..it intends to “hold” the territory because it is crucial to Kiev’s “victory plan” to end the conflict.”

• Zelensky Vows To ‘Hold’ Occupied Russian Territory (RT)

Ukraine intends to occupy part of Russia’s Kursk Region indefinitely, Vladimir Zelensky has said. Officials in Kiev earlier signaled that they plan to use this as a bargaining chip in potential negotiations with Moscow.In an interview with NBC News released on Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader was asked what he plans to do with the internationally recognized Russian territory Kiev has captured as a result of a large-scale cross-border incursion that began last month.While Zelensky stressed that Ukraine “does not need [Russian] land” and “[does not] want to bring our Ukrainian way of life there,” it intends to “hold” the territory because it is crucial to Kiev’s “victory plan” to end the conflict. “For now, we need it,” he said.

He declined to say whether Ukraine plans to seize more Russian land. “With all respect, I can’t speak about it,” Zelensky said, citing the same considerations that forced Kiev to keep preparations for the Kursk offensive secret.Ukraine launched a large-scale attack on Kursk Region on August 6, reportedly committing some of its best brigades equipped with Western-supplied armor. While it made some initial gains, Moscow says the advance has been halted. The Russian Defense Ministry has estimated Kiev’s losses in the Kursk offensive at more than 9,300 troops and 700 armored vehicles.

Mikhail Podoliak, a senior aide to Zelensky, has said that the purpose of the attack was to secure a stronger position during potential peace talks with Moscow and to instill fear in the Russian population. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced the incursion as a provocation, accusing Ukraine of indiscriminately targeting civilians and pledging that Moscow will eventually “deal with the Ukrainian bandits” who entered Kursk Region. He signaled that Russia has no plans to engage in talks until the incursion is completely defeated, adding, however, that Moscow does not reject negotiations in principle.

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“..such a blanket punishment of countless faithful men and women does not promote unity, nor does it promote peace.”

• Ukraine ‘Weaponizing’ Religion – Church of Jerusalem (RT)

The Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, has called on the Ukrainian government to repeal a law which exposes the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to a likely ban. Kiev has outlawed religious organizations that it suspects of having ties with Russia. The legislation, which Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed into law last month, is designed to shut down the UOC, the largest Christian denomination in the country. The UOC was previously targeted in a massive crackdown by the state, as officials told priests and the faithful that they should switch to the Kiev-supported rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). In a statement on Tuesday, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem denounced Kiev’s move, insisting that “such a blanket punishment of countless faithful men and women does not promote unity, nor does it promote peace.”

“There is no justification to weaponize religious belief practice and we all must allow those who wish to pray to do so in a manner that accords with their conscience,” the statement stressed.Jerusalem said it sympathized with victims of the Ukraine conflict, “but out of this pain must not emerge a new schism among the faithful or the criminalization of innocent people because of their religious practice.” “The Patriarchate of Jerusalem recognizes the challenges and deep divisions that this conflict represents, and is committed to the spiritual mission of dialogue and reconciliation through fraternal discussions,” it added. The UOC has historic and spiritual ties to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), but is self-governed. The OCU was created in late 2018 as part of the failed reelection campaign by then-Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko.

The move caused a major schism in the Orthodox Christian world, as the new organization was recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Türkiye. It revoked a decision made in the 17th century to acknowledge the ROC’s spiritual leadership in the lands that are now independent Ukraine. The Moscow Patriarchate broke ties with Constantinople in retaliation. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem has been working to heal the rift. The Ukrainian law was previously criticized by the Catholic Church. Pope Francis said he was concerned for the state of religious freedoms in the country, and urged Kiev to “let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in what they consider their Church.”

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BlackRock.

• Rothschild Helped Ukraine Clinch Debt Restructuring – Reuters (RT)

Ukraine reached its recent agreement with bondholders on a debt restructuring as a result of efforts by Rothschild & Co, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing sources involved in the talks. Kiev appointed Rothschild as an advisor to its Finance Ministry in 2017. Kiev announced last week that it had reached an agreement with a group of foreign investors to restructure its $20 billion debt. Bondholders – including US financial giants BlackRock and Pimco, as well as French asset manager Amundi – granted Ukraine a two-year debt freeze in February 2022 when the conflict with Russia broke out. The bondholders’ committee, which represents the holders of 25% of the bonds, has agreed to accept losses of 37%, or $8.7 billion, on the nominal value of their debt.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reportedly confirmed that the deal was compatible with the parameters of its $122 billion aid package to Kiev. Both the IMF and the country’s creditors, which include the US and the Paris Club, have signed off on it, according to a statement with the terms of the accord published on the London Stock Exchange. The restructuring of the massive debt will help Kiev save $11.4 billion over the next three years. This is crucial for both its war effort and its IMF program, Reuters wrote, describing the debt restructuring as one of the fastest and largest in history, eclipsed in scale only by those undertaken by Argentina and Greece.

The report, however, highlighted that initial negotiations between the Ukrainian government and its lenders that started in June 2022 did not go to plan. Talks failed after a couple of weeks as the core committee of bondholders complained that the write-down Ukraine was demanding was “significantly in excess” of the 20% expected and risked doing “substantial damage” to relations.With less than two months until the August 2022 payment moratorium expired, Rothschild reportedly arranged face-to-face meetings for the sides at the firm’s offices in Paris. These reportedly involved representatives of some of the world’s top asset management firms and their legal and financial advisers, Kiev’s debt chief Yury Butsa, Ukraine’s long-term legal advisers White & Case and the Rothschild team.

According to Reuters, bondholders demanded that Ukraine restart coupon payments immediately, offer a path to a higher principal recovery and, importantly, “keep it simple.” IMF staff reportedly worked “at breakneck speed” to crunch the numbers. Kiev offered an alternative in the form of a simpler GDP-linked bond, with creditors also being offered the instant coupon payments that they had wanted, starting at a rate of 1.75% and eventually rising to 7.75%. The final result from the bondholder vote was more than 97% support, Reuters said.

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“..the conflict in Ukraine had revealed “the sorry state of European militaries and defense industries.”

• ‘Looming Threat’ From Russia Sparks ‘Major Rethink’ Of EU Defense Policy (RT)

The European Parliament is set to hold closed-door, high-level discussions on Wednesday in relation to a new report on the competitiveness of the EU defense industry, Politico has reported. The document, prepared by former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, reportedly calls on the bloc to rethink its defense policy in light of the Ukraine conflict and the purported threat from Russia. Draghi prepared the 400-page report at the request of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said last week that the EU needs a “systemic overhaul” of its defense spending to increase production and reduce its dependence on the US. “The EU’s defense industrial base is facing structural challenges in terms of capacity, know-how and technological edge. As a result, the EU is not keeping pace with its global competitors,” a draft of the document reads, Politico reported on Monday.

The report also cites “the emergence of new types of hybrid threats” and “a possible shift of geographic focus” by the US as reasons for the EU to take “growing responsibility” for its own security. Draghi, who also previously served as the head of the European Central Bank, suggested earlier this year that his report will focus on the possible ways to fill the productivity gap, which has been mostly driven by a lack of investment in innovation. The EU spends roughly one-third of what the US does on defense in monetary terms, and the bloc’s arms companies depend 80% on international suppliers, largely from across the Atlantic, Draghi wrote. International think tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), noted last month that the conflict in Ukraine had revealed “the sorry state of European militaries and defense industries.”

Among the recommendations are the introduction of steps to incentivize domestic defense solutions over competitors, and a removal of red tape for weapons manufacturers to access EU funding. The United States, the founding member of NATO, has played a central role in the bloc’s defense, as most EU nations are NATO members. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in early 2022, the White House has been sending additional forces to the EU. Some nations, such as the Czech Republic and the Baltic states, have claimed that Russia would attack them if it won in Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the claims. President Vladimir Putin said in June that there is no threat of Russia attacking NATO countries as it has no “imperial ambitions,” and described such allegations as “nonsense.”

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Wonder why.

• Starlink Agrees To Comply With Brazil’s Orders To Block X (ZH)

Elon Musk’s internet service, Starlink, has announced that it will comply with a Brazil Supreme Court order to shut down X while vowing to pursue “all legal avenues” to allow the recently banned Musk-owned social media platform to operate in Brazil. The move, announced by Starlink in a statement on Sept. 3, marks an apparent reversal after the country’s telecommunications regulator previously said that the satellite-based internet provider stated that it wouldn’t agree to block the social media platform. Starlink said it would abide by an order from Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes requiring internet service providers and app stores to block X from their platforms. “Regardless of the illegal treatment of Starlink in freezing our assets, we are complying with the order to block access to X in Brazil,” Starlink’s statement said.

“We continue to pursue all legal avenues, as are others who agree that @alexandre’s recent orders violate the Brazilian constitution.” As Tom Ozimek reports at The Epoch Times, De Moraes froze Starlink’s accounts last week in order to pressure the company to cover fines imposed on X in Brazil, reasoning that both are part of the same Musk-controlled group. In response to the asset freeze, Starlink said on Aug. 29 that it believes de Moraes’s decision violated due process and was unconstitutional. “It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil,” Starlink said in the statement. “We intend to address the matter legally.” Starlink’s announcement that it will comply with the order to shut down X comes a day after a spokesperson from Brazil’s telecommunications regulator told The Epoch Times that the company had “informally” expressed to a top agency executive its intention to buck the X ban.

The spokesperson said that unless Starlink complies, it will face sanctions, including possibly having its operating license in Brazil revoked. Arthur Coimbra, an Anatel board member, told The Associated Press that if Starlink refuses to abide by the order to block X, authorities could also eventually seize equipment from Starlink’s 23 ground stations in Brazil, where Starlink serves over a quarter million customers. Starlink’s announcement that it intends to comply with the X ban marks the latest chapter in a long-running dispute between Brazilian officials and Musk, who has refused to comply with court orders to block accounts accused by investigators of spreading hate and misinformation. Both Musk and X’s global government affairs team have denounced these orders as unlawful attempts at censorship.

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Helmer has a whole different take on Durov.

“The man who was hiding too much..”

• Pavel Durov – Freedom To Play Fool, Stock Speculator, Fraudster (Helmer)

Pavel Durov aka Paul du Rove (“vagabond” in French) doesn’t put his money where his mouth is. This is because more than half the assets and almost half the revenues of Durov’s Telegram group of companies are digital units which Telegram itself programmes, stores, trades, values, and revalues, so the potential for concealment, deception and fraud is unaccountably large. This is the reason Durov has failed to secure the US regulator’s permission to sell shares in his $30 billion valuation of Telegram in a US initial public offering (IPO). In short, the freedom and privacy Durov claims his Telegram social media platform represents is not at all what the financial reports reveal of his money-making. The first fraud flag was waved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in October 2019 after more than a year of Durov’s money-raising through digital tokens he called Grams which he offered to sell for $1.5 billion.

At the time, cornerstone investors in Durov included the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and other oligarchs. Durov — announced the SEC — “seeks to obtain the benefits of a public offering without complying with the long-established disclosure responsibilities designed to protect the investing public… the defendants have failed to provide investors with information regarding Grams and Telegram’s business operations, financial condition, risk factors, and management that the securities laws require.” In the five years since then, Durov claims to have sold another billion-dollar bond in 2021; $210 million in fresh securities in 2023; and $330 million in paper which Durov floated in March of this year. “The increased demand for our bonds shows that global financial institutions value Telegram’s growth in audience and monetization”, he said (telegrammed) at the time.

These investments weren’t exactly money for value, or vice versa. Durov has admitted he has been buying about a quarter of the debt issues himself. “Valuations are based on market inputs that are not observable,” reported a blockchain industry analyst. When the investors have turned out to be governments – like Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi emirate wealth fund — the real value Durov promised to exchange is likely to be as much political and military as financial. Similar terms of exchange are likely to have been agreed when, in addition to his Russian passport in the name of Durov, he took passports from the United Arab Emirates (name unknown), France (name Paul du Rove), and St Kitts and Nevis. Four months ago, Durov signed financial reports for his Telegram group prepared and audited by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC). He thought the details would remain secret. Instead, following his arrest and indictment in France last week, they were leaked to the Financial Times in London.

The newspaper claims it “got its hands on the privately held company’s financials” but without explanation it is withholding them from full release. Durov’s signature is dated April 26, 2024. In public defence of his countryman, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week that Durov had been naïve about the “old system of globalization…P.V. Durov turned out to be too, too free, too slow or did not listen to Western advice about the so-called moderation of his brainchild.” Naivety is not what Durov signed his name to in Telegram’s financial reports. They reveal he is running a debt pyramid, replenishing the annual deficit between his expenditures and his income with new borrowings whose cost of servicing amounted in 2023 to 46% of his revenues. The leaked papers also disclose that his losses last year came to $259.3 million, although Durov managed to reduce that to $173.2 million by claiming offsetting digital assets had jumped in value. To support such valuation manipulations and his public claims of Telegram’s $30 billion market value, the small print of the auditor’s notes reveal that Durov uses his own digital money to boost the appearance of rising Telegram subscription numbers and demand for the company’s bonds — 15,000 subs and $64 million in bonds, to be precise.

As for protecting Telegram user privacy, Durov acknowledges that after subtracting $130 million in self-accounting “integrated wallet” value from his bottom-line revenue of $342.5 million, over the past year he sold “collectibles” for $17.8 million – almost 9%. This item is defined in the report as “usernames, virtual phone numbers…The related revenue is recognised at a point in time when the collectible is assigned to the user. The Group also enables the sale of collectibles between users and receives the fee for facilitating the sale.” According to the public indictment of the French prosecutors, fraud is one of the charges against Durov, along with money laundering, concealment by cryptology, and “refusal to communicate, at the request of the authorized authorities, the information or documents necessary for the realization and exploitation of interceptions authorized by law.”

According to Russian and international sources, the recent history of each one of these charges involves Durov in dealings with the Azerbaijan government, with the Kanak rebellion in the French colony of New Caledonia, and in undertakings he gave to agents of the French foreign intelligence agency, the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), when they visited him recently in Dubai. For a legal analysis of the Digital Services Act and regulations, the law applying to Telegram and to free speech in the social media in the European Union (EU), read this from Craig Murray. The analysis is made irrelevant by Murray’s acknowledgement that the indictment may be warranted if Durov “refused to remove or act over specific individual content specified by the French authorities, or unless he set up Telegram with the specific intent of facilitating organised crime”. Specific content was what the DGSE told Durov it wanted him to provide when they last met. That they met has been confirmed by the official leaks in Libération’s report of September 1. The newspaper headline was “The man who was hiding too much”. That Durov reneged on his promise to the DGSE is what the Paris prosecutor’s statement of August 28 indicates.

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“The people who once faced and conquered the great nations of Eurasia are now once again proving their greatness by boldly confronting Western arrogance.”

• Mongolia Showed Its Greatness To The World (SCF)

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Mongolia on September 2, making his first trip to a Rome Statute’s country since the International Criminal Court (ICC) illegally issued an arrest warrant against him last year. As expected, some Western member states of the ICC demanded Mongolia to arrest Putin. The same demand was made by the Kiev neo-Nazi regime itself, but was completely ignored by the Mongolian authorities, who welcomed Putin with a red carpet in a great official ceremony. For the West and Kiev, Mongolia’s move was a “violation of international law.” For any serious analyst, the act was a brilliant demonstration of strength, sovereignty and insubordination. From a purely realistic point of view, the Mongolian attitude was completely correct, since, being geographically close to Russia, Mongolia needs to maintain a foreign policy of friendship and cooperation with Moscow.

Both nations have common interests and share the same geographical space – in addition to having a rich common history –, being true natural partners. In fact, Mongolia has shown the world its greatness by welcoming Putin. The country simply said “no” to illegitimate international pressure by taking the sovereign step of welcoming the Russian leader to its territory. The courage of the Mongolian authorities must be praised, as several countries have recently declined to take similar decisions, trembling in the face of international pressure. Even within the BRICS, the illegal arrest warrant against Putin is becoming a relevant issue. Recently, there have been several discussions in Brazil and South Africa about the “possibility” of arresting Putin in the event of a visit by the Russian president. In both countries, government authorities made it clear that the Russian president would be received calmly and safely, but the Judiciary acted irresponsibly, stating that arrest would be mandatory.

To avoid diplomatic discomfort and institutional crises in partner states, Putin has never confirmed any visit to these countries. Of course, a member country of the ICC can decide to arrest someone convicted by the Court. However, an ICC decision can only be valid against a citizen of a member country, otherwise there is an insurmountable legal impasse. The Russian Federation does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, and there is no possibility that the country would accept that its citizens be arrested by order of this court. Therefore, if there were a coercive measure to arrest Putin or any other Russian citizen based on an ICC ruling, Moscow would certainly react by taking decisive measures – possibly even military ones. It is up to the ICC member country, upon receiving a foreign citizen “wanted” by the court, to decide whether the decision is valid or not.

If the wanted citizen is a native of a country that does not recognize the ICC, arresting him or her seems absolutely irrational and unnecessary. Furthermore, even in the event of recognition of the court, it must be emphasized that the final decision on whether or not to arrest someone on its territory will always be up to the state itself. There is no force or document in international law capable of obliging a state to act coercively against someone, since state sovereignty is the basic principle of all international relations. In other words, Mongolia, a small country between two giants (Russia and China) had more courage and wisdom than the great emerging powers like Brazil and South Africa. The decision to welcome Putin revealed that the ancient imperial and warrior spirit of the Mongolian people is still alive. The people who once faced and conquered the great nations of Eurasia are now once again proving their greatness by boldly confronting Western arrogance.

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” Leaving a Gestapo Police State in its Place..”

• Truth is being Removed from the Western World (Paul Craig Roberts)

Not even one value of Western civilization remains. All values that composed an era of freedom have been repudiated. The example of the hour is Telegram owner Durov’s indictment in France. The basis of the French indictment is that Telegram’s privacy, the basis for its existence, provides a mechanism that criminals can use to commit crimes, such as posts of children in sexual acts. Privacy also provides secret means of communication that criminals and drug dealers use for their illegal businesses. The French government’s claim is that Telegram, by providing privacy, enables these crimes and therefore Durov is complicit in the crimes. Notice that it is Durov, not the child pornographers and drug dealers, who is being prosecuted. In other words, the argument of the French indictment is that as an owner of a communication mechanism that criminals use to facilitate their commitment of crimes, Durov himself has committed a crime.

We have been hearing illogical arguments of this kind for some time. Those who want to take away the ability of people to protect themselves from criminals and rapists by using their Second Amendment right to own firearms try to hold firearm manufacturers responsible for injuries and deaths caused by people using firearms. In other words, it is the manufacturer’s fault, because his product enabled the criminal to commit the crime. Sooner or later this argument will be applied to a large number of goods and services. For example, vehicles are used in bank robberies, in murders, and in human trafficking, and it is the car and vehicle manufacturers who enabled the criminals by producing the vehicle. One can see it applied to search engines and to GPS, because they enable criminals to locate their target.

All of this might sound silly to a reader, but it is no more silly than the French government’s indictment of Durov. Indeed, it is not silly at all. It is weaponized law in operation. In a way Durov’s indictment is his own fault. Like many Russians who have been brainwashed by Western propaganda, Durov thought France had more freedom than Russia and took French citizenship. He made a mistake. The French case against Durov also reflects the Gestapo police state argument, which over the years has been finding a welcome home in the Western world, that it is the responsibility of private individuals to be accomplices of police and that the failure to perform this role indicates criminal behavior. For the past several decades people in the Western world have been so poorly educated–indoctrinated against themselves instead of educated–that they find it plausible that people who refuse to be agents of a police state are criminals.

The Washington Post sees it this way. The only valid reason for social media’s existence is to spy for the government. One of the Post’s mal-educated reporters wrote that “for years internet moguls have flown above the law.” How is protecting free speech “flying above the law?” What law is above the First Amendment? The indoctrinated reporter thinks that laws contrary to the First Amendment of the US Constitution are valid, and that Elon Musk and Pavel Durov are violating the law by their commitment to free speech. The Washington’s Post’s presstitute says “The world’s internet regulators are no longer playing around.” He writes that the crackdowns against Telegram and X “come months after the United States passed a law that could lead to the banning of TikTok” and herald the end of the era of free speech on the Internet, a good thing in the Post’s view.

The Washington Post is delighted that free speech is to be regulated. In my opinion the entire rationale for the existence of the Washington Post is to control narratives for the CIA. As even insouciant Americans should know after enduring eight years of the system violating all ethics and all laws in its effort to deep-six Donald Trump, throughout the Western world law is nothing but a weapon to protect the lies fed to insouciant people as official narratives, the doubting of which is rapidly becoming a criminal action. In the name of official narratives, truth is being removed from the Western world. In my lifetime I have watched the transformation of the free Western world, a product of centuries of struggle, into a Gestapo Police State.

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Capybara

Capybaras are excellent swimmers: being close to a body of water is crucial for escaping from predators.pic.twitter.com/rxrQETsQlT

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 4, 2024

Lion

Can everybody just Please look at this Lion pic.twitter.com/1wJGZwp5s9

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 3, 2024

Porcupine
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831268038689132859

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