René Magritte Morning star 1938
All of sudden, Bannon goes after Musk. Wonder why.
Steve Bannon on Musk: “This is why he never goes after the CCP…Elon Musk is a total and complete phony…He is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Chinese Communist Party, and he acts like it.”
(March 2023) pic.twitter.com/d15219VdcR— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 28, 2024
“They Want A Tech Feudalism.” Steve Bannon Claps Back @elonmusk And Exposes The Darker Element Of The H-1B Visa Program pic.twitter.com/CMNYSH9UBx
— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) December 28, 2024
Steve Bannon on Elon Musk: This guy lives on government contracts and taxpayer subsidies…You’re not even an American, all you are is a globalist. You would take a check from Adolph Hitler.pic.twitter.com/L1n2KYSyVo
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 28, 2024
Hegseth
PETE HEGSETH ATTORNEY TIM PARLATORE: He didn't do any of these things that he's been accused of.
PAMELA BROWN: But he's also admitted he's a changed man from several years ago. How does that square? If you're saying he didn't do any of it, but he's a changed man. pic.twitter.com/XxVB2iUvps
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 27, 2024
“The Biden administration has helped make a mockery of common sense—if not of reality itself..”
• There Is No Pardoning The Biden Administration (Eric Utter)
This is going to be controversial to many, but I am going to tell it like I see it, so damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. The Biden administration, set up as it was by the Obama administration, has been a clear and present danger to the United States of America. In almost every way imaginable. It has tanked an economy that otherwise was on the way to (an almost inevitable) rapid, post-pandemic recovery, causing pain to countless American families. Speaking of the pandemic, its ludicrous lockdown policy, and a host of other counterproductive and destructive policies, caused immeasurable physical, mental, and emotional harm to millions of people—and summarily destroyed many small businesses, particularly restaurants. It fostered a growing oligarchy by ensuring certain government-approved giant corporations prospered while the small businesses were devastated.
It nourished this budding fascism even as it took every opportunity to baselessly label Donald Trump and his supporters as “fascists.” Similarly, it incessantly talked of “saving our democracy” even as it tried to destroy it by pushing for the end of the Electoral College and the filibuster, supporting the advent of congressional representation for Washington, D.C., urging the granting of statehood to Puerto Rico, and, most egregiously, going to any and all lengths to get rid of its chief political opponent, Donald J. Trump. It is still doing all it can to obstruct the will of the people, as was evident in its post-election auctioning off materials for the border wall for pennies on the dollar, as well as in placing various other roadblocks in front of the incoming administration. (In other words, it is doing everything possible to counteract the will of the people. Doesn’t sound very democratic to me.)
Leaving the border wide open for years has created the greatest current—and latent—security threat the nation has ever faced. Period. In colluding with the social media giants to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, or with foreign agents to concoct the Russian-collusion hoax, Democrats have shown, time and again, they will do anything to attain and retain power. The Biden administration made that abundantly clear…seven ways from Sunday. In its constant use of lawfare and its “accountability for thee but not for me” perversion of the justice system, it has created a two-tiered system of justice that is deeply anti-American and monstrously pernicious. And that is troubling—and frightening—to most Americans.
The Biden administration has helped make a mockery of common sense—if not of reality itself—with its official inability to define what a woman is, and to simultaneously approve of “gender reassignment” surgeries and procedures (even for the very young)…and biological men in women’s locker-rooms, bathrooms, and on their sports teams. It has done grievous damage to our culture—and unity—by endlessly promoting the absurd ideologies of DEI and CRT. Its unwillingness to ever be available, accountable, or transparent is only matched by its overwhelming desire and propensity to lie to the very citizens it is supposed to serve. Which we have seen in its attempts to protect itself, smear Trump and his supporters, give a pass to the Chinese spy balloon, and in its flat-out refusal to tell Americans anything resembling the truth about the drone fiasco that has been ongoing for over a month.
The non-answers and gibberish that has spewed from the mouths of “government officials,” has been truly mind-blowing…on this and numerous other matters. As if all of this weren’t enough, its foreign policy may yet lead to our destruction. It essentially surrendered to goat-herders in Afghanistan, leaving behind billions of dollars of high-end military equipment, more than a dozen dead Americans, and our reputation and dignity. It has bizarrely coddled Iran while playing hardball with Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. And it seems almost determined to get us directly involved in a shooting war with Russia, if not a nuclear one. To me, this is far worse than incompetence, more than malfeasance. To me, it spells T-R-E-A-S-O-N.
“..we will hold his Administration accountable for illegally subverting our Nation’s border security until their very last day in power..”
• Court Orders Biden Administration To Stop Selling Border Wall Material (JTN)
A court on Friday ordered President Joe Biden’s administration to stop selling border wall construction materials ahead of the next presidential administration. The administration has been selling excess border wall materials for low prices ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. It comes after Biden halted construction of the wall, and Congress authorized the administration last year to dispose of unused border wall materials as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that the administration has confirmed that it will oblige the court order and stop disposing of any further border wall materials over the next 30 days, according to Fox News.
“We have successfully blocked the Biden Administration from disposing of any further border wall materials before President Trump takes office,” Paxton said in a statement. “This follows our major victory forcing Biden to build the wall, and we will hold his Administration accountable for illegally subverting our Nation’s border security until their very last day in power, especially where their actions are clearly motivated by a desire to thwart President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda.”
The order comes after Texas promised to help Trump finish building a wall along the United States southern border with Mexico. Trump previously pleaded for the Biden administration to stop selling material for the wall, claiming it was an almost “criminal act.” “What they’re doing is really an act, it’s almost a criminal act,” he said. “They know we’re going to use it and if we don’t have it, we’re going to have to rebuild it, and it’ll cost double what it cost years ago, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars because you’re talking about a lot of, a lot of wall.”
“..he will be restoring the rule of law instead of the rule of arbitrary power..”
• Trump Will Restore US Rule of Law by Pardoning January 6 Protesters (Sp.)
On January 6, 2021, a crowd of supporters of then-President Donald Trump breached the United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC, over concerns that the 2020 presidential election was rigged “If Trump follows through on his promise [to pardon January Sixers], then he will be restoring the rule of law instead of the rule of arbitrary power,” retired CIA intelligence official Larry Johnson tells Sputnik. According to Johnson, Trump’s “action to correct the abuse is surrounding the incarceration of the January 6 protesters will put the judicial system on notice that it must follow the law and be blind with respect to people’s political views.” The CIA veteran believes that the incident was a staged intelligence operation, carried out by FBI agents and undercover operatives with support from both the CIA and the Pentagon, and coordinated with Democrats.
Johnson elaborates that the subsequent Democrat-led January 6 panel was nothing short of a “political show trial that matched anything done during the Stalin era in the Soviet Union.” He assesses the persecution of January Sixers as an “overreach by the Department of Justice” aimed at intimidating Trump’s base. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to pardon most of January 6th actors, stressing that he would begin addressing this issue “in the first hour” of his presidency. To date, over 1,100 individuals have been convicted, with more than 600 sentenced to prison terms. Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the right-wing Proud Boys movement, received the longest sentence—22 years in federal prison.
Does Musk contradict himself?
“Despite being far-right, AfD represents political realism…”
“..their portrayal as far-right is clearly false.”
• Top German Newspaper Editor Quits Over Musk Op-Ed (RT)
“I have always enjoyed running the opinion pages of Welt and Welt am Sonntag. Today, an article written by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday, after it went to print,” Eva Marie Kogel wrote on X. The billionaire owner of SpeceX, Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) wrote the article after praising AfD on social media. In his op-ed, the major ally of US President-elect Donald Trump hailed AfD as “the last spark of hope” for Germany. The billionaire insisted that its “pragmatic” approach will usher in a revival of the country, while arguing that other parties are out of touch with regular people. “The traditional parties have failed Germany. Their policies have led to economic stagnation, social unrest and an erosion of national identity,” Musk wrote.
“Despite being far-right, AfD represents political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel that their concerns are being ignored by the establishment.” Musk further defended the AfD, stating that “their portrayal as far-right is clearly false.” According to German media, the publication of the op-ed sparked intense debates among the staff at Die Welt, with some viewing it as meddling in the snap parliamentary election, which is scheduled for February 2025. Jan Philipp Burgard, Die Welt’s senior reporter, penned a rebuttal to Musk, calling his praise of AfD “fatally flawed” and arguing that it was “a big mistake” not to label the party as far-right.
Another Die Welt journalist, Franziska Zimmerer, insisted in her own op-ed that the text written by Musk “should not have appeared” in the paper. “Election appeals, no matter the party, have no place in independent media,” she wrote. Founded in 2013, AfD has been pushing for the tightening of asylum laws and fighting organized crime and Islamic extremism. The party has become more popular in recent years, winning its first regional election in Thuringia in September. The 2025 election was called after the ruling three-party coalition collapsed due to the conflict over budget.
As I said yesterday, there are people who abuse the H-1B program. So you can stop the program, or stop the abuse.
• Trump Supports Immigration Visas Backed By Musk (NYP)
President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers, appearing to side with Elon Musk in the roiling intra-MAGA debate on the issue. “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said by phone, referring to the H-1B program, which permits companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” added Trump, who restricted access to foreign worker visas in his first administration and has been critical of the program in the past. Musk and other tech barons argued this week that the H-1B visa program is critical to ensuring American companies can find highly skilled labor which may not be easily available in the U.S. labor force and must be expanded.
MAGA hardliners want Trump to follow through with his promise to promote US workers and impose tougher restrictions on immigration. Trump’s Saturday comments come a day after Musk vowed to go to “war” on the issue, telling one mocking opponent to go “f–k yourself.” The flare-up happened after X user Steven Mackey jabbed the billionaire’s defense of the program by using the billionaire’s own words against him. “Stop trying to optimize something that shouldn’t exist,” a line often used by Musk, Mackey wrote. “Let’s optimize H-1B,” he sarcastically added. Musk fired back: “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B.” “Take a big step back and F–K YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” he added, paragraphing a memorable line from the 2008 comedy “Tropic Thunder.”
The tech billionaire has been criticized by MAGA diehards including Laura Loomer and Ann Coulter — who say the H-1B visa program has been abused and needs to be sharply curtailed. And influential voices around Trump have publicly begun turning on Musk as well. “Someone please notify ‘Child Protective Services’— need to do a ‘wellness check’ on this toddler,” former White House Counselor Steve Bannon jeered at the X boss in a Saturday post to his account on Gettr. Musk said his passion for the issue stemmed from wanting America to remain competitive by attracting “the top ~0.1% of engineering talent” which he said was essential for “America to keep winning.” Vivek Ramaswamy, who is slated to run the Department of Government Efficiency with Musk, backed Musk and offered a critique of American society. “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence,” Ramaswamy wrote on X.
“He appears to have taken a heightened interest in keeping the short-form video app available in the U.S. upon learning his popularity among younger voters on it.”
• Trump Asks Supreme Court To Delay Decision On Banning TikTok in US (JTN)
President-elect Donald Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to delay a potential ban on the social media platform TikTok until after his inauguration on Jan. 20. President Joe Biden signed a law in April that to ban platform from app stores in the United States starting January 19, unless its China-connected parent company ByteDance divests its shares of the app. The Supreme Court is set is begin hearing oral arguments on Jan. 10, nine days before the deadline. Trump has suggested that he could keep the social media app around after he takes office, even under its current ownership by a Chinese company. He appears to have taken a heightened interest in keeping the short-form video app available in the U.S. upon learning his popularity among younger voters on it.
The ban stems from concerns that the app could operate as an extension of the Chinese government. But the company has strongly denied being “owned or controlled by any government or state-controlled entity.” Trump attorney D. John Sauer on Friday said the incoming president holds the “electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns,” according to The Hill. “In light of these interests – including, most importantly, his overarching responsibility for the United States’ national security and foreign policy – President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture, and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office,” Sauer wrote in a brief. The Supreme Court is expected to begin hearing oral arguments on Jan. 10, nine days before the deadline.
“You see, we’ve never had to deal with things more intelligent than ourselves before.”
• ‘Godfather of AI’ Issues New Warning To Humanity (RT)
Artificial intelligence could lead to human extinction within three decades with a likelihood of up to 20%, according to Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneering figure in AI and recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. This marks an increase from a 10% risk, his estimate just a year ago. During an interview on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday Hinton was asked whether anything had changed since his previous estimate of a one-in-ten chance of an AI apocalypse. The Turing Award-winning scientist responded, “not really, 10% to 20%.” This led to the show’s guest editor, the former chancellor Sajid Javid, to quip “you’re going up.” The computer scientist, who quit Google last year, responded: “If anything. You see, we’ve never had to deal with things more intelligent than ourselves before.”
The British-Canadian scientist, who received this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to AI, highlighted the challenges of controlling advanced AI systems. “How many examples do you know of a more intelligent thing being controlled by a less intelligent thing?…Evolution put a lot of work into allowing the baby to control the mother, but that’s about the only example I know of,” Hinton, who is often called ‘the Godfather of AI’, said. He suggested “imagine yourself and a three-year-old. We’ll be the three-year-old,” compared to a future AI that would be “smarter than people.” Hinton noted that progress has been “much faster than I expected,” and called for regulation to ensure safety. He cautioned against relying solely on corporate profit motives, stating, “the only thing that can force those big companies to do more research on safety is government regulation.”
In May 2023, the Center for AI Safety released a statement signed by prominent scientists in the field, including Hinton, warning that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” Among the signees are Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Yoshua Bengio, considered an AI pioneer for his work on neural networks. Hinton believes that AI systems could eventually surpass human intelligence, escape human control and, potentially, cause catastrophic harm to humanity. He advocates dedicating significant resources to ensure AI safety and ethical use, also emphasizing an urgent need for proactive measures before it’s too late. Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist at Meta, has expressed views contrary to Hinton’s, stating that the technology “could actually save humanity from extinction.”
“..would “never agree to Slavs killing each other in the name of any geopolitical interests and efforts to weaken and distract Russia.”
• Ukraine Heading For Disaster – Slovak PM Fico (RT)
The Ukrainian government is pushing the country towards ruin by trying to serve the interests of the West, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed in a Facebook post on Friday. Fico said that he finds it “incomprehensible” that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky continues to refuse a ceasefire with Russia, and is instead “dragging the entire country into disaster.” The Slovak premier predicted that Ukraine will pay “a huge price for this Western adventure in the form of the loss of territory and the presence of foreign troops.” Fico stressed that he would personally never join Western politicians who “openly support war” and would “never agree to Slavs killing each other in the name of any geopolitical interests and efforts to weaken and distract Russia.”
In the video, he also hit out at Zelensky, who has repeatedly attacked Fico in public speeches and on social media. The prime minister argued that the West is only granting Zelensky’s requests for “selfish political and power reasons.” “However, I am not your subordinate servant who cannot express his own opinion and who has an obligation only to help you and not to expect anything from you,” Fico added. He condemned Zelensky’s pledge that Kiev will stop transporting Russian gas deliveries to Slovakia after January 1, warning that the move would severely damage the EU economy. Fico warned that Bratislava could consider a number of reciprocal measures, including cutting electricity supplies to Ukraine.
“Stopping the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine is not just a hollow political gesture. It’s an extremely costly move, one that we, in the European Union, will pay for,” Fico stressed. The prime minister also announced that aside from continuing to push for a ceasefire and encouraging the start of peace talks, Slovakia will also offer itself as a “suitable country for organizing any peace negotiations at any level.” Fico noted that he proposed the idea of Bratislava hosting negotiations to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his recent visit to Moscow. The Russian leader has since told reporters that Moscow would not be opposed to the idea.
Ukraine won’t win because of another $1.25 billion being poured in 3 weeks before Jan 20. So what other goal could this have than money laundering?
• US Senator Slams Biden’s $1.25 Billion Weaponry Package For Ukraine (RT)
Utah Senator Mike Lee has criticized the proposed allocation of a new lavish weaponry package for Kiev, calling it ‘money laundering.’ The Republican senator took to X on Sunday, responding to an AP post reporting on a looming $1.25 billion weaponry package, expected to be announced by the outgoing Biden administration shortly. “Please no more money to Ukraine. There’s only so much they can launder,” Lee wrote on his account with the ‘BasedMikeLee’ handle, accompanying the post with a picture of the Ukrainian flag bearing the “Universal symbol for money laundering” inscription. The upcoming package is expected to include a “significant amount” of various munitions, including missiles for NASAMS and HAWK anti-aircraft systems, munitions for Stinger MANPADs, as well as artillery shells in 155- and 105-mm caliber, AP reported, citing unnamed US officials.
The package comes as a part of an effort by the outgoing administration to pour as much weaponry into Ukraine as possible before President-elect Donald Trump takes over on January 20. The announcement is reportedly expected to be made on Monday. Senator Lee has been highly critical of Washington’s enduring military aid for Ukraine, ramping up his rhetoric after the November election was won by Trump. Among other things, the senator accused the outgoing administration of trying to derail the expected effort by the next president to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to its end.
“Congress must not give [Biden] a gift to further sabotage President Trump’s peace negotiations on the way out the door,” Lee said in late November, in the wake of media reports of the White House quietly asking Congress to allocate an additional $24 billion in Ukraine-related spending. Republican fiscal hawks have consistently criticized requests for unrestricted spending without necessary structural reforms. President Biden’s reported appeal for additional funding for Ukraine arrived amidst uncertainty regarding the future of US policy toward the conflict as President-elect Trump has repeatedly claimed he could end the war within 24 hours and has expressed a strong interest in negotiating a resolution to the hostilities.
“..the OCWR disbursed over $17 million to resolve nearly 300 cases, covering issues like sexual harassment, discrimination, and pay disputes.”
• US Congress Urged To Expose ‘Sexual Slush Fund List’ (RT)
Republican Representatives Thomas Massie from Kentucky and Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene have urged the US Congress to disclose the names of lawmakers who have used taxpayer money to settle workplace disputes, including sexual harassment claims. Since 1997, over $17 million has been paid out for such cases. In a post on X on Thursday, Massie highlighted the issue, stating that “Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices.” The lawmaker insisted that the names of the representatives involved must be released. Taylor Greene supported Massie’s call, writing on X that she wishes to release the “congressional sexual slush fund list.”
She emphasized that taxpayers should not have been responsible for these payments in the first place, or for “all the other garbage that they should not have to pay for.” The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR), established in 1995, oversees these settlements. Between 1997 and 2017, the OCWR disbursed over $17 million to resolve nearly 300 cases, covering issues like sexual harassment, discrimination, and pay disputes. The office does not disclose the identities of those involved in the settlements. Former Representatives Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) have also expressed support for releasing the names associated with these settlements. Brooks stated that taxpayer money should never be used to secretly bail out harassers, advocating personal accountability to deter misconduct. Chaffetz concurred, asserting that taxpayers deserve transparency.
This renewed demand for transparency follows the release of a House Ethics Committee report accusing former Republican Florida Representative Matt Gaetz of using illegal drugs and paying tens of thousands of dollars for sex, including with a minor. Gaetz has vehemently denied the allegations and has in turn proposed a plan to expose the individuals involved in harassment settlements. The OCWR has previously stated that a significant portion of the cases it handles involve employees not directly affiliated with the House or Senate, such as from the Library of Congress or the Capitol Police. Additionally, settlements reached outside the OCWR, like the 2015 case involving the late Democratic Michigan Representative John Conyers, are not included in the disclosed figures.
“..been caught empty-handed when asked for data to support its claim, on the same “myths and facts” page, that “nearly all the ingredients” in the therapeutics are found “in many foods – fats, sugars, and salts.”
• CDC Can’t Substantiate COVID Vaccine Ingredient Claims (JTN)
Federal public health agencies are known for black-and-white public service announcements that portray their favorite COVID-19 treatments as universally beneficial without providing supporting data, particularly the effectiveness of each new vaccine formulation. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner-nominee Marty Makary once accused the current officeholder, Robert Califf, of wildly exaggerating data in claiming that since-rescinded bivalent vaccines, which targeted two COVID strains, showed a “significant reduction in hospitalization and death in all populations examined, which is clinically meaningful.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which similarly claims COVID vaccines are safer than infections for all populations, has now been caught empty-handed when asked for data to support its claim, on the same “myths and facts” page, that “nearly all the ingredients” in the therapeutics are found “in many foods – fats, sugars, and salts.”
The Informed Consent Action Network and Mississippi Medical Professionals for Informed Consent filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all documents including “studies, journal articles, manufacturer data, etc.” that are “sufficient to show the foods that contain the same ingredients as those found in the COVID19 vaccines” to verify the CDC’s claim. They also asked for data on foods that contain the ingredients listed in the vaccine inserts, in another five FOIA requests: “recombinant spike protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus … nucleoside-modified messenger RNA …extracts from the soapbark tree” and exotic-sounding chemicals such as “methyl-alpha-D-mannopyranoside,” and evidence that the body responds the same to an ingredient whether eaten or injected. The CDC’s response to the broadest request? Its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases does not have “any documents pertaining to your request.”
The FOIA officer told the entities to ask the FDA for the data because “the subject matter expert notes that ingredients in specific vaccines fall under the responsibility of the FDA,” and also told them how to appeal the agency’s response up the FOIA command chain. “Typically, if one agency points us to another, ICAN will have us submit the same requests to that other agency although here, ICAN was questioning the evidence justifying a statement on CDC’s own website so it’s unclear why CDC would have no records yet FDA would have them,” ICAN’s lawyer Elizabeth Brehm told Just the News in an email. She shared the agency’s responses to all six FOIAs, which gave the same no-records response but also cited various CDC and FDA pages, including kinds of vaccine ingredients and examples, such as the stabilizer gelatin and “residual inactivating ingredient” formaldehyde, and a long explanation of why certain ingredients are in vaccines.
“CDC’s approach to truth and data is a joke,” Brehm’s colleague Aaron Siri, who leads the effort, wrote on X. ICAN alleged the agency’s shrugging response shows it’s violating the Information Quality Act by not being able to “substantiate the quality of the information it has disseminated.” The agency’s inability to back up its public messaging comes as the feds continue hiding safety data, healthcare workers worldwide express hesitancy toward COVID vaccines and some state public health agencies ditch one-size-fits-all recommendations. Another FOIA filer beat the FDA this month, with a federal judge ordering the agency to produce its emergency use authorization file on the Pfizer COVID vaccine by June 30, 2025.
The FDA argued the EUA file isn’t covered by Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency’s FOIA request for the “biological product file” in the formal application for licensing, but U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman quoted its own press release on the vaccine’s formal approval, which said it used and builds on the EUA’s data. The Biden administration pulled out all the stops to delay the release of the FDA’s COVID vaccine safety data that are kept apart from the public Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, in response to Just the News litigation. The docket shows the feds secured a stay of the proceedings before Donald Trump’s election victory. The case is scheduled to resume five months into the second Trump administration.
Nothing to do with propaganda. Just plain censorship.
• Telegram Blocks Russian Media In EU (RT)
The Telegram channels of multiple major Russian news outlets were rendered inaccessible across the EU on Sunday. The affected channels now display a plaque stating that access to their content has been restricted over alleged “violation of local laws,” with all the content unavailable. According to media reports, the affected channels include such Russian majors as RIA Novosti, Izvestia, Rossiya 1, Channel One, NTV and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. While it was not immediately clear whether the bans are EU-wide, the restrictions have been reportedly rolled out in Poland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy and the Czech Republic. The EU has taken multiple hostile steps against Russian media amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev – and even before it.
Some of the media affected in the apparent Telegram ban, namely Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Izvestia and RIA Novosti, were slapped with a broadcasting ban in the bloc in May. At the time, the EU Council claimed the outlets were under the “permanent direct or indirect control” of the Russian leadership, and played an “essential and instrumental” role in the hostilities. No official statements have so far been made on the matter, either by Telegram, the EU as a whole or by individual members of the bloc. The apparent ban of Telegram channels has been condemned by senior Russian officials, including Senator Alexey Pushkov, who heads the media policy committee of the country’s upper chamber, the Federation Council.
“I believe that the blocking of the RIA Novosti Telegram channel and other Russian mass media, including Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta in a number of EU countries, is a continuation of the effort to create an informational iron curtain between Europe and Russia,” he told RIA Novosti. The latest hostile move has likely been prompted by the “weakening media positions” of Western leadership, especially on the Ukrainian conflict and domestic policies, Pushkov suggested. The ban is reminiscent of restrictions imposed in the EU on RT, which has long been the prime target for hostile actions in the West against Russian state-affiliated media. RT had all its Telegram accounts blocked across the bloc early into the Ukrainian conflict in March 2022.
Try Jack Smith next. Get them under oath.
• Fani Willis To Be Slapped With Subpoenas (ZH)
Lawmakers in Georgia have been granted the authority to serve subpoenas on Fulton County DA Fani Willis as part of an inquiry into her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump. In a Monday ruling revealed later in the week, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram allowed the Georgia Senate to compel Willis’s testimony – giving her until Jan. 13 to argue that the lawmakers’ demands are overly broad, or seek confidential information. Willis plans to appeal the ruling, the Epoch Times reports. “We believe the ruling is wrong and will appeal,” said Willis’s attorney, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes. Earlier this year, a state Senate committee was formed over allegations of misconduct by Willis during her prosecution of Trump and his co-defendants (one of whom revealed that Fani hired her lover to help with her prosecution).
In August, the committee subpoenaed Willis, who then skipped a September hearing, delaying the inquiry. Her attorney argued that the committee’s subpoenas are overly broad and lack legitimate legislative purpose – and that they seek confidential information. Republican state Senator Greg Dolezal applauded the ruling. “Judge Ingram has ruled the state Senate does indeed have the power to subpoena D.A. Fani Willis,” Dolezal wrote on X. “We’ll see you soon, Madam D.A.” As the Epoch Times notes further, scrutiny of Willis intensified after the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled earlier in December to disqualify her from the Trump case. The split 2–1 decision cited an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
While both Willis and Wade have admitted to the relationship, they said it began after Wade was hired and ended before Trump’s indictment. Willis’s office filed a notice of intent to ask the Georgia Supreme Court to review the decision. This came after earlier rulings, including one by Judge Scott McAfee, who described Willis’s actions as a “tremendous lapse in judgment” and allowed her to continue prosecuting Trump if Wade stepped aside—a condition that was met. The Senate committee’s investigation also highlights concerns over Willis’s hiring of Wade, which legislators allege created a “clear conflict of interest” and defrauded taxpayers. Following the court of appeals’ decision to disqualify Willis, Trump proclaimed the election case “dead” and alleged corruption within her office.
“There’s zero interest or intent on the part of the US to promote either democracy or stability” in the region..”
• US and UK Seek to Force Russia Out of Syria, Destabilize Middle East (Sp.)
The outgoing Biden administration and the British leadership are looking to maintain chaos in the Middle East while regarding the Russian military presence in Syria as a force hindering their plans, according to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The SVR stated that the CIA and MI6 are developing plans to organize a series of terrorist attacks on Russian military facilities in Syria using ISIS* fighters armed with drones as their proxies. “This is just one more egregious example of the US poking the bear. And up to this point, the bear has not eaten the poker,” retired CIA intelligence official Larry Johnson tells Sputnik. The US and its allies believe that they “can inflict enough damage on Russia that it’ll pull out of Syria and withdraw its presence from those military bases” since they misinterpret Moscow’s patience as weakness, according to Johnson.
The SVR noted that the US and UK hope these terror provocations would also cast a shadow on the new Syrian authorities as being incapable of controlling the situation on the ground. Meanwhile, the US also intends to maintain control over oil-rich areas of Syria east of the Euphrates River under the pretext of fighting ISIS, according to the SVR. “The interests of the US are very simple. It’s oil control. They’ve had control of some of the oil in the east for at least eight or nine years—so this is not new,” Johnson stresses. “There’s zero interest or intent on the part of the US to promote either democracy or stability” in the region, the pundit concludes.
“It is significant that NATO intelligence agencies are turning their attention to cutting off Russia’s oil exports via the Baltic Sea.”
• A Fishy Story of Cable Sabotage In The Baltic Sea (SCF)
This week saw yet another incident of alleged submarine cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea. A power line running along the seabed from Finland to Estonia was reportedly disrupted. Western news media have fingered a tanker carrying Russian crude oil as being responsible, with the implication that the damage was caused deliberately. In recent weeks, there have been other incidents of alleged sabotage of telecommunication cables under the Baltic Sea. On November 17, a data link between Finland and Lithuania was damaged. The next day, on November 18, another internet line lying on the seabed from Finland to Germany was reportedly cut. Both cables were said to have been wrecked by external force. Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius and other Russophobic politicians have insinuated that the alleged sabotage is a form of “hybrid warfare” being waged by Russia and possibly with China’s help in the case of the November incidents.
Moscow and Beijing have categorically denied any involvement in interfering with subsea infrastructure in the Baltic region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the accusations against Russia of aggravated damage as “absurd” and, he noted, typically made without any verifiable evidence. Conveniently, following the latest incident this week, NATO head Mark Rutte is assuring Finland, Sweden, and the Baltic states that the alliance is responding to their calls for more security by increasing the alliance’s military forces for patrolling the sea lanes. Any independent criminal investigator would easily find credible answers to the question of Cui Bono (Who Gains?).
Cables are cut with unusual frequency (suggesting not accidental damage); the people reporting the damage do so without showing evidence (we are relying on their version); the accusations are basely leveled at Russia without evidence but reliant on Russophobic prejudice; the accusations, in turn, are cited to make calls for increased NATO protection; and NATO duly provides the requested “protection”. One upshot is that the NATO military is giving itself a license to increase warships, warplanes and surveillance systems on Russia’s northern flank – all under the pretext of “responding to Russian sabotage”. Such a move is, of course, part of the long-term strategic attempt to encircle Russia, threaten its national security and destabilize its sovereignty. In other words, this is all part of the long-term geopolitical confrontation between the U.S.-led NATO bloc and Russia, in which the war in Ukraine is but one theater.
The control of the Arctic sea routes and resources is a top strategic goal of the United States and its Scandinavian NATO partners, in particular. Russia has a natural advantage in the Arctic region owing to its geography. One way of tipping the balance of advantage is for NATO to militarize the region. Another strategic aim is to curb Russian cargo shipping via the Baltic Sea. Tankers operating from the Russian Baltic Sea ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga, St Petersburg, Vyborg and Vystok provide a vital maritime route for Russian crude oil exports. It is significant that NATO intelligence agencies are turning their attention to cutting off Russia’s oil exports via the Baltic Sea.
There is huge consternation, as our columnist Ian Proud alluded to last week, among Western enemies that unprecedented economic sanctions imposed over the last decade have failed to cripple the Russian economy. Indeed, far from it, Russia’s economy is powering ahead, partly because its oil and gas exports are finding alternative world markets to the traditional European ones which have been cut off by their unilaterally imposed sanctions against Russia. A telling headline in European Pravda (a CIA-sponsored propaganda outlet) was this: “Why the EU still fails to restrict Russian oil exports and what should be done instead”. The article went on to state: “The volume of seaborne crude oil exports from Russian ports in the Baltic Sea accounts for approximately 60% of Russia’s total maritime oil exports… Sooner or later, the EU or a coalition of Baltic Sea countries, together with Norway and the United Kingdom, will be forced to implement restrictive measures against this maritime oil trade.”
Dunkelflaute.
• Europe: The Fall of the Holy Renewable Empire (Godefridi)
Solar and wind power production falls drastically during unfavorable weather conditions. It happens, in fact, every year. This condition, however, now has far-reaching economic and environmental repercussions, revealing the flaws in an energy policy based on intermittent renewable energies. Why does Germany, while having one of the highest carbon footprints, now consume the most expensive electricity in Europe? How did the country lose its energy autonomy? For the last fifteen years, Germany invested massively in solar and wind energy, while sabotaging its own nuclear power stations. By 2023, renewable energies accounted for 55% of electricity production in the country. In 2022, it was only 48%.
The main contribution to renewable energy has comes from wind power, at 31% of total production, followed by solar power at 12%, biomass at 8%, and other renewable sources such as hydroelectricity for the remaining 3.4%. In 2024, renewable energy accounted for almost 60% of German electricity production in the first half of the year. This production level, however, is smoothed out over a given period and does not reflect moments of crisis such as the “Dunkelflaute.” Literally “flat, dark calm,” Dunkelflaute is characterized by a simultaneous lack of wind and sun in winter, when demand for electricity in Germany is at its highest. These episodes last from a few days to several weeks, with wind and solar production sometimes falling to less than 20% of their capacity, and sometimes nothing. On December 12 of this year, for example, German electricity production from wind and solar power was 1/30th the demand for it.
Renewable policies would be bearable if they were based on a sustainable energy source — indifferent to the weather — such as nuclear power. In 2011, however, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, Germany abruptly decided to phase out nuclear power, and gradually shut down fully operational plants. This decision reduced the country’s capacity to produce stable, predictable electricity and instead made heating, cooling and so on cruelly vulnerable to fluctuations in renewable energy sources. In short, when there is neither wind nor sun in Germany, the lights go out. The phase-out of nuclear power has left Germany incapable of being self-sufficient in energy, especially during Dunkelflaute. The country imports electricity on a massive scale from France, Denmark and Poland, and has to use coal and lignite to produce electricity.
Germany’s massive imports of electricity also lead to colossal increases in electricity prices for its neighbors. The prices are indeed staggering. In 2024, the household price of electricity in Germany was the highest in Europe, at €400/MWh, reaching peaks of €900/MWh during Dunkelflaute episodes, compared to a much lower European average. By comparison, the average price in nuclear-powered France and Finland was €250/MWh over the same period (2024). And, in the United States, rates are 30% lower than in France. How is all that “sustainable” for Europe? But this is “for the planet”, right? Not even close. Despite its commitment to so-called green energies, Germany still has a high carbon footprint due to its increased reliance on coal and lignite to make up for energy shortfalls.
In 2024, the country remains the second-largest emitter of CO2 per unit of energy produced in Europe, with a significant proportion of electricity coming from fossil sources. Ten times more CO2 per unit of energy produced than France. Germany’s high electricity prices are leading to the relocation of its industry, as companies look for sites where energy costs are more affordable. How can you stay viable when you pay three times more for electricity than your competitors? (Natural gas prices are even worse: five times more expensive in Europe than in the USA.) Whole swathes of Germany’s proud industry are collapsing. We only remember the big names — VW, BASF, Mercedes-Benz — but every big company that disappears or downsizes takes with it a myriad of small and medium-sized enterprises that end up collapsing along with it. Energy-intensive sectors such as metallurgy and chemicals are particularly hard hit.
The influential International Energy Agency (IEA) was once a valuable informational source on global oil supplies..”
• IEA’s ‘Net Zero’ Bias Undermines Global Energy Security (JTN)
The influential International Energy Agency (IEA) was once a valuable informational source on global oil supplies. Policymakers worldwide, as well as the petroleum industry, placed a lot of stock in its reports and projections. A new report by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, details how the agency has evolved in the past few years into a political advocacy organization helping to advance the so-called energy transition. This has undermined the objectivity of the agency’s forecasts, leading to bad energy policy, such as the Biden administration’s moratorium on liquified natural gas (LNG) export permits. It’s also negatively impacted the oil and gas industry, the report also argues. “It’s unfortunate they’ve intentionally changed the mission of this agency from what it originally was to just another narrative pusher. We’ve got plenty of those. Every major media organization serves that function,” energy analyst David Blackmon told Just the News.
Beginning in October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a cartel of major oil-producing countries, initiated an embargo on exports of crude oil, creating a “energy crisis” in the U.S. This was prior to the development of shale resources in the U.S., which has made the U.S. the largest global producer of oil and gas. In 1973, the U.S. was heavily dependent on oil from the Middle East, and the embargo drove up the price of crude oil nearly 400%. In the wake of the embargo, the United States and other oil-consuming allies established the IEA as an autonomous intergovernmental organization, tasked with ensuring the security of oil supplies. It also created a coordination mechanism by which nations could address vulnerabilities in oil supplies and respond effectively to supply disruptions and subsequent price shocks. As part of this mission, the agency provides forecasts of energy supply and demand.
These forecasting documents “carry tremendous influence on the world’s collective perception of future energy trends. In doing so, they exercise enormous influence on energy policy, the investment decisions of public, publicly-traded, and privately-held companies and associated financing from public and private entities alike,” the report explains. Over the past five years, the report states, the IEA has placed greater emphasis on helping to advance an energy transition toward the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, a goal that was endorsed by a vote of the agency’s governing board. The report explains that this shift in direction politicized the agency’s forecasts. A profoundly impactful change, according to the report, was its decision to abandon in its forecasts a “business as usual” scenario.
This scenario provided a baseline in which only policies that were already adopted and implemented were modeled. This was replaced with policy scenarios in which additional but unspecified policies are adopted to achieve net-zero policy targets, “no matter how realistic or aspirational those targets may be.” The “business as usual” scenario, the report explains, was necessary for evaluating the costs and benefits of energy and climate policies. Without that baseline, policies to address climate change have no such baseline for such an assessment. The report contrasts the IEA with the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a federal agency entirely separate from the IEA. The U.S. EIA forecasted robust global natural gas demand through 2050, but the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2023 scenario projection had natural gas demand peaking this decade and declining thereafter. In enacting the pause on LNG export permit approvals, Biden administration officials cited the IEA forecasts, ignoring its own EIA data.
“No one doubts the importance of U.S. LNG to the world energy economy. It is a perverse irony that an international organization established to boost energy security now produces ‘reference’ modeling scenarios that one of its founding members [the United States] is using to justify a policy that undermines energy security,” the report states. From overly optimistic assumptions of EV adoption rates to a failure to consider critical mineral sourcing needed for a green energy expansion, Barrasso’s report highlights several examples of poor policy decisions inspired by the IEA’s biased forecasting. Besides the impact on policymakers, the agency’s forecasts, the report argues, are “tailor-made” to “discourage investment in oil and gas while promoting decarbonization targets few believe will happen.”
Gator
Baby gator in a moment of bliss pic.twitter.com/wEsE0zgCp0
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 27, 2024
Frens
— Doglover (@puppiesDoglover) December 27, 2024
Window
https://twitter.com/i/status/1873051759142420974
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