May 202025
 
 May 20, 2025  Posted by at 8:47 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  56 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Portrait of Maya 1939

 

Trump Spoke with Putin, and Here’s What Happened (Margolis)
US Should Never Have Intervened In Ukraine – Trump (RT)
Trump Should Not Threaten New Sanctions When He Talks To Putin (Ian Proud)
Peaceful Solutions Preferred For Ukraine Conflict Goals – Kremlin (RT)
Swamp Fever (James Howard Kunstler)
Biden’s Presidency Is a Scandal of Historic Proportion (Jarrett Stepman)
This Is the Man Behind the Curtain of Biden’s Health Coverup (Margolis)
Trump: Biden Allies ‘Not Telling The Facts’ After Cancer Diagnosis (NYP)
CNN Struggles to Assign Blame for Not Reporting on Biden’s Decline (Turley)
Germany Makes “Sea-Change Policy Shift” On Nuclear Power In Europe (ZH)
Europe Admits JD Vance Was Right, Pivots On Mass Immigration (Whedon)
Europe’s Embrace of Lawfare Threatens Its Alliance with the US (Mike Gonzalez)
Romania’s Elections Were a Big Globalist Sham (Sp.)
SCOTUS Allows Removal Of Protected Status From 300K Venezuelan Migrants (ZH)
Transition To A New World Order Is Beyond Most In The West (Alastair Crooke)
US Unveils Revised Gaza Truce Proposal – Axios (RT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

King

 

 

 

 

Kamala
https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1924338698336039097

Kaja

Souza

Ursula
https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1924166680311480410

To know Mr. Comey is to dislike Mr. Comey

Jim Rogers

 

 

 

 

Trump hangs up the phone on Putin and calls Zelenskyy, von der Leyen, Macron, Giorgia Meloni, Merz and Stubb. All of whom (Meloni?) want war, not peace. What use is this? You just give them the chance to undo what you’ve just achieved.

Trump Spoke with Putin, and Here’s What Happened (Margolis)

In a remarkable development that could signal a turning point in the war in Eastern Europe, President Donald Trump revealed Monday that he held a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and what came out of it could reshape the future of the region. “Just completed my two hour call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” Trump announced on Truth Social. “I believe it went very well.” According to Trump, the call wasn’t just diplomatic pleasantries — it led to a major breakthrough. “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump said. The groundwork has been laid for direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv, with Trump emphasizing that the two nations will handle the negotiations themselves. “The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.”

Trump described the tone of the conversation with Putin as highly constructive: “The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.” Looking beyond the war, Trump indicated that economic opportunities could be a major incentive for peace. “Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over, and I agree,” he said. “There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED.” And Ukraine, he said, would benefit immensely from new trade opportunities in the aftermath of war. “Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country.”

Trump said the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine would begin “immediately” and that key world leaders had been informed. “I have so informed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, President Emmanuel Macron, of France, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of Germany, and President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, during a call with me, immediately after the call with President Putin.” And in a notable twist, Trump said the Vatican has expressed a willingness to host the talks. “The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations.”

After years of escalating bloodshed, failed ceasefires, and ineffective diplomacy under previous administrations, President Trump may have just pulled off the first real breakthrough. “Let the process begin!” he concluded. If this peace initiative holds, it would be a watershed moment, not just in the war between Russia and Ukraine but in the full restoration of America’s credibility and leadership on the world stage. Trump ran on a clear promise to end the endless wars that have drained American influence and treasure, and now, just months into his second term, he’s already delivered more meaningful progress than Joe Biden managed in nearly three years of fumbling diplomacy, endless aid packages, and aimless rhetoric.

While Biden sent blank checks to Ukraine and pushed America to the brink of direct conflict, Trump picked up the phone and made actual diplomacy happen. He understands that peace comes through strength and negotiation — not virtue-signaling and proxy wars. The mere fact that Russia and Ukraine are now preparing to sit down at the table speaks volumes about who the world respects as a serious dealmaker. This isn’t just a step toward ending a catastrophic war; it’s proof that strong leadership in the White House can shift the entire geopolitical landscape. Trump once again proves that when America leads with clarity and resolve, the world listens.

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“..we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in. And we would have been a lot better off – and maybe the whole thing would have been better off – because it can’t be much worse. It’s a real mess,”

US Should Never Have Intervened In Ukraine – Trump (RT)

President Donald Trump has blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for funneling vast amounts of American taxpayer money into a foreign conflict that “should have remained a European situation.” Speaking to reporters at the White House following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Trump expressed frustration over the “crazy” scale of US involvement in the Ukraine conflict. He reiterated that it was “not our war” and emphasized that his administration is working to end the hostilities through diplomacy. “This is not our war. This is not my war… I mean, we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in. And we would have been a lot better off – and maybe the whole thing would have been better off – because it can’t be much worse. It’s a real mess,” Trump said.

The president stated that Washington has provided “massive” and “record-setting” levels of military and financial assistance to Kiev – far exceeding what the EU and other NATO countries have contributed. “We don’t have boots on the ground, we wouldn’t have boots on the ground. But we do have a big stake. The financial amount that was put up is just crazy,” he added. “Again, this was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation. But we got involved – much more than Europe did – because the past administration felt very strongly that we should,” he said. “We gave massive amounts, I think record-setting amounts, both weaponry and money.”

Trump’s conversation with Putin was followed by calls with several European leaders, including the heads of Germany, Italy, and the UK, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky. “They have a big problem. It’s a terrible war. The amount of anger, the amount of hate, the amount of death,” Trump said, noting that the conflict has reached a point where “it’s very hard to extradite themselves away from what’s taken place over there.” Trump said he believes both Putin and Zelensky want peace, but only time will tell if it can be achieved. “There’s a good chance we can get this done. I believe Putin wants to do it… My whole life is like deals, one big deal. And if I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it because I’d just pull out.”

Pressed by reporters on whether he had a “red line” that would cause him to walk away from mediating the conflict or potentially escalate US involvement, Trump declined to elaborate. “Yeah, I would say I do have a certain line, but I don’t want to say what that line is because I think it makes the negotiation even more difficult than it is,” he said. Putin described the conversation with Trump as “frank” and “quite useful,” adding that Moscow is prepared to work with Kiev on drafting a memorandum aimed at achieving a future peace agreement. “In general, Russia’s position is clear. The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” the Russian president said.

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It’s no use, and bad blood.

Trump Should Not Threaten New Sanctions When He Talks To Putin (Ian Proud)

The U.S. side has made various signals that it might impose massive new sanctions on Russia unless the war ends soon. This would be a huge mistake that would lock in the fighting for the rest of the year and leave Europe on the hook for a massive bill and political disruption that it cannot afford. Trump should not threaten Putin with sanctions when they talk on Monday 19 May. In the run up to the Russia-Ukraine bilateral peace talks which finally took place in Istanbul last week, both the EU and the UK imposed new sanctions on Russia. On 9 May, as Russian commemorated victory Day, Britain imposed sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet and the EU followed suit with its 17th package of Russia sanctions on 14 May, the day before the Istanbul talks were due to start.

Both the UK and EU have threatened further sanctions should Russia not agree a full and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine and, with Zelensky, have actively urged the U.S. to follow suit, which it has not done, so far. However, the Americans have spoken increasingly about the possibility of massive new sanctions against Russia: this would be a huge mistake. Sanctioning a country before peace talks have already started, or while they are still going on, is already a bad look. Very clearly, the Ukrainians, Europeans and British hope that new sanctions will apply such pressure on Russia that it agrees to terms that are more favourable to the Ukrainian side. I.e. that Ukraine does not have to go back to the Istanbul 1 commitment to adopt permanently neutral status.

The western mainstream press has been carpet bombing their intellectually degraded readers with the latest press line that Ukraine should not have to go back to the Istanbul 1 text as a starting point for talks. But there’s a problem. For this strategy to be effective, the sanctions have to work. As I’ve pointed out before, sanctions against Russian energy have had limited impact, not just since 2022, but since 2014. Nothing about the glidepath of sanctions since February 2014 suggests that new sanctions will work now. This latest round of UK and EU sanctions aimed to apply more pressure on enforcement of the G7 oil price cap of $60 which was first imposed in December 2022. Since the war started, that policy has failed.

Between 2021 and 2024, total volumes of Russian oil exported fell by just 0.2 million barrels per day, or 2.6%. After a bumper year for tax receipts in 2022 caused by Russian tumbling rouble and skyrocketing energy prices, Russia pulled in current account surpluses of $49.4bn and $62.3bn in 2023 and 2024. This was on the back of still strong goods exports of $425bn and $433bn respectively. There are several reasons why the oil price cap didn’t work, the biggest being that Russia diverted 3 million barrels per day, around 39.5% of total oil exports to India (1.9 mbd), Türkiye (0.6 mbd) and China (0.5 mbd). Türkiye and India boosted exports of refined fuels to Europe providing a backdoor route for Russian oil to Europe.

The second reason the oil price cap didn’t work is the near ten month time lag between war starting and the limit being imposed, which gave Russia space to readjust before punitive measure had been imposed. During this period, oil prices also dropped sharply from the high of $120 in the summer of 2022, to around $80 when the measure was imposed: the G7 missed the boat to impose maximum damage; this reinforces the point I make all the time that coalitions cannot act with speed and decisiveness. Today, the Russian Urals oil price is below the $60 G7 cap meaning that any registered shipping company can transport it without penalty, which renders the British and European sanctions as pointless in any case.

Let’s be clear, western nations imposing sanctions against Russia that don’t work is not a new phenomena. As I have pointed out many times before, the vast majority (92%) of people that the UK has imposed assets freezes and travel bans upon have never held assets in the UK nor travelled here. For companies, the figure is just 23. The same, I am sure, is true of EU and U.S. sanctions, which cover largely the same cast list of characters and companies, as we all share and compare the same lists of possible designations. Financial sector sanctions prompted a massive readjustment of Russia’s financial sector. Energy and dual use sanctions drove self-sufficiency in technology production, through Rosnet, Gazprom and RosTec: i.e. these companies invested more in R&D on component production while sourcing components from alternative markets, in particular China.

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“..eliminate the causes of this crisis, create conditions for long-term sustainable peace and ensure the security of the Russian state and the interests of our people..”

Peaceful Solutions Preferred For Ukraine Conflict Goals – Kremlin (RT)

Russia remains open to achieving its goals in the Ukraine conflict through peaceful means, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday. Peskov, speaking before President Vladimir Putin’s scheduled phone call with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, expressed appreciation for Washington’s mediation efforts, noting that “if it really helps us achieve our goals by peaceful means, that would certainly be preferable.” He also recalled that Putin’s 2021 proposal to address Russian security concerns over NATO expansion was rejected by the US-led alliance and then-President Joe Biden’s administration. Moscow’s stated objectives include keeping Ukraine out of NATO, ending Kiev’s policies that it considers discriminatory against ethnic Russians, and curbing the influence of extreme Ukrainian nationalist groups.

In a recent interview, Putin said Moscow wants to “eliminate the causes of this crisis, create conditions for long-term sustainable peace and ensure the security of the Russian state and the interests of our people” in former Ukrainian territories where people voted to join Russia following the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev. Last week, Russian and Ukrainian representatives held their first direct talks since 2022, when Kiev backed out of a proposed peace deal that had been agreed in principle by both sides in Istanbul. The U-turn was influenced by the then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to Ukraine’s lead negotiator David Arakhamia.

The latest round of Istanbul negotiations has led to a proposal for the largest prisoner exchange between the two countries and a pledge to continue dialogue. Trump has claimed that he alone can broker peace between Russia and Ukraine and suggested that a breakthrough could come as early as this week, following his conversation with Putin.

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“Don’t misunderstand me. I want Biden to get better and live many more years, so he can watch his family go broke from running out of influence to sell.” Oilfield Rando on X

Swamp Fever (James Howard Kunstler)

If the slithering denizens of Okefenokee-on-the-Potomac were nervous about their fates before Sunday — and I’d say they’ve been rather jumped-up since Nov. 4 — then Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday morning session with FBI top dawgs Patel and Bongino must have been a near-death experience for them. Something Roto-rooterish this way comes, officialdom must be thinking, if you can call utter hysteria “thinking.” Washington is nervous because there have been zero leaks from the agency, a condition heretofore unknown in that haunted, pestiferous, reeking marsh. There’s plenty of the usual background noise, of course: the insectile hum, the croaking, trilling, buzzing, staccato peeps, chirps, and squeals of the squirming lesser creatures. . . the occasional roar of an ancient gator. . . the guttural cry of the night heron, the sharp yelp of some furry prey meeting its doom, the pulsating, primordial, chthonic cacophony of creatures suffering to mate in the frightful darkness. . . but that’s just the news media doing their thing.

We’ve remarked more than once here in recent weeks about the ominous silence emanating from the FBI leadership amidst all that other noise, and now you know: a mighty information dump is coming, bales of documents that Christopher Wray sat on for years will be publicly released un-redacted, spells will be broken, names will be named (with imputations of crimes committed), and abiding mysteries unraveled — like, what was the FBI actually doing around the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and much more. Prepare for some disappointment. Alas, most non-capital federal crimes (acts short of treason and murder) have a five-year statute of limitations (18 U.S.C. § 3282), so the multitudinous felonious misdeeds of RussiaGate will go unpunished.

Stzrok, McCabe, Rosenstein, Pientka, Ohr (and wife Nellie), Thibault, Baker, Atkinson, Halper, Horowitz, Lynch, Yates, et al., will skate off into the sunset, but not without lasting reputational damage. Mr. Obama’s presidential aura will surely lose a lot of its luster. But there is plenty to keep the DOJ busy with more recent turpitudes carried out with the election of “Joe Biden,” including perhaps the 2020 election itself in the months before November, 2025, when the statute of limitations kicks in for that caper. Mainly, what looms is a reckoning over “Joe Biden’s” fake presidency and the momentous question as to who was really running the executive branch of the government, most particularly who was using the devious “auto-pen” to sign off on executive orders and perhaps even on legislation.

It is a wonder of modern times that this affront to the public trust somehow remains an abiding mystery. But it shows just how fake Jake Tapper’s new book is — Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Jake blames the whole fiasco on “the White House” without ever stating who in that building was actually acting in “JB’s” place as shadow president. Tapper, allegedly a reporter, apparently never bothered to ask. But neither did anyone else at CNN, the other TV news networks, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and every other outpost of OG journalism. Nor does Jake conclude the obvious: that his entire profession sold out the country to act as the Democratic Party’s damage control agency — rather than its traditional duty to act as a powerful check on corrupt, runaway government.

Which is to say that the news media Jake represents is at least as corrupt as the government itself. It’s for certain now, anyway, that we are going to find out exactly who was behind the fabled auto-pen, and it will probably turn out to be a cabal composed of Chiefs-of-Staff, Ron Klain and Jeffrey Zients, Dr. Jill, NSA Jake Sullivan, Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, Domestic Affairs advisor Susan Rice, and ultimately to some degree former President Obama, holed-up a few blocks away in his Kalorama mansion those four years of “Joe Biden’s” term in the oval office. Why wouldn’t Mr. Obama, now a private citizen, be called to some official forum, say a courtroom or a congressional committee, to answer questions about that? He’s not any sort of God with God-like privileges.

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“This was the first fully deep-state presidency.”

Biden’s Presidency Is a Scandal of Historic Proportion (Jarrett Stepman)

The “presidency” of Joe Biden is one of the greatest scandals in American history. The legacy media is only now covering the mental incapacity of a president who apparently left the entire ship of state to the unaccountable bureaucracy. On Friday, Axios released Friday night news dump audio of Biden’s 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur. If you heard the tape and haven’t been in a coma for the past four years, then nothing here is truly surprising. The former president sounded senile and evasive when answering questions about his handling of top secret documents. Some of my colleagues went through the full tapes and found that Biden “forgot the names of President Barack Obama’s former secretary of defense and comedian Jay Leno; referred to Africa as a country, not a continent; and was unaware he had in his possession a notebook with war advice in it for Obama during his interview with special counsel Robert Hur and investigators in October 2023.”

Biden certainly did not sound like someone who could be trusted to make large-scale national decisions or even small-scale personal ones. This is entirely unsurprising unless you are a left-leaning corporate media journalist on the political beat. If you are, then I’m sure that the reports coming out about Biden in office are jaw-dropping, gob-smacking revelations to you. The media elite are shocked, shocked to discover that Biden may have been unfit for office. The release of these tapes was followed by a Sunday afternoon reveal that Biden has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. The cancer diagnosis is certainly a terrible thing. But the idea that this should end the story about what happened the last four years is a farce. It couldn’t be clearer now that due to mental and physical ailments, Biden was a diminished man from the moment he assumed the president’s office.

Despite some of the aforementioned elite journalists calling for a lid to be put on conversations about Biden’s presidency due to his health, the reality is the cancer diagnosis only raises more unsettling questions. Is this really a new diagnosis? Did Biden’s doctors really somehow miss the signs of treatable cancer. And that makes this situation entirely unprecedented. Yes, President Woodrow Wilson was at one point incapacitated during his final term in office, but that was at the tail end of his presidency. Wilson suffered a series of strokes after his highly energetic campaign to convince Americans to join the League of Nations. His wife and even some members of the media tried to cover it up, but ultimately the Democratic Party pulled the plug on his extremely brief flirtation with running for a third term.

There was no widespread attempt to fool the American people and ensure another term for an “almost catatonic” president, as one witness at George Clooney’s June fundraiser for Biden described the candidate.This situation with Biden was much, much worse, the cover-up far more extensive, and the consequences were far more potentially dire in the age of instant communication and weapons capable of quickly destroying all of human civilization. How shall we think of those years in which multiple crises developed around the globe, Americans were mass deprived of employment due to government-forced vaccinations, states were browbeaten to allow children to get life-altering hormones, and an ultimately victorious presidential candidate was nearly jailed? I’ve tried to think of some apt historical comparisons.

President John Tyler was known to some of his more cantankerous critics as “his accidency,” due to being the first vice president to assume the president’s office after the death of the commander in chief. The attitude was that nobody actually elected him to become president, and in the early days of the republic the Constitution was a bit murky about whether he could just assume office or a new election must be held. Regardless of the nickname, Tyler became an aggressive, active commander in chief—somewhat to the chagrin of many in his party. But Biden was in some way the mirror opposite. Despite being elected in a highly contested election, he seems to have never really assumed his responsibilities. Biden’s lethargy was only matched by his lack of transparency.

The better word for Biden would be “his irrelevancy.” While the 46th president’s handlers, most likely at the behest of former President Barack Obama, led him around in an extended real-world version of “Weekend at Bernie’s,” the federal apparatus operated on its own. This was rule by “experts,” or really rule by the managerial class that re-created the old spoils system but made it totally unaccountable to the American people. Decisions were carried out by vast, interlocking agencies at the behest of their Democratic Party allies whom they serve. This was the first fully deep-state presidency. Biden was awarded by the Democratic Party with the nominal career-capping title as president, but the functions and even the decisions demanded of his office were clearly distributed to his subordinates and the federal leviathan. The result was a complete disaster.

Americans rightly lost faith in their leaders and the elite institutions attached to this corrupted apparatus. U.S. foreign policy was at best strategically adrift. Our enemies around the globe went on the march. The people feared the government more than the government feared them. The upshot of these calamities is that we were delivered a national wake-up call at a time of crisis. A political counterrevolution is taking place that may have never happened had its depth not been revealed at least in part by the media’s cover-up of Biden’s obvious infirmity. But even though the first 100-plus days of President Donald Trump couldn’t be more different than the four years of his predecessor, we can’t forget how bad things got, how much the legacy media covered for a senile president’s obvious incapacity, and how deeply threatening the permanent bureaucratic state is to American liberty.

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Call his personal doctor to the stand. Under oath.

This Is the Man Behind the Curtain of Biden’s Health Coverup (Margolis)

For four years, Americans watched Joe Biden stumble—literally and figuratively—through his presidency, while his inner circle and media allies insisted everything was just fine. Any attempt to question his physical or mental decline was met with accusations of “ageism” or dismissed as wild conspiracy talk. This, from the same Democrats who once obsessed over Donald Trump’s mental fitness, but spent most of Biden’s term parroting absurd claims that he was “sharp as a tack,” “a beast,” or “running circles around his staff.” Videos of Biden looking lost on stage or mumbling were dismissed as “cheap fakes” by the Biden White House, and the media enthusiastically echoed that talking point. It took a humiliating debate meltdown to finally make it clear they could no longer cover up the obvious.

Only then did Democrats admit what everyone else had known for years: Joe Biden was neither physically capable nor mentally fit to serve as president. The charade is over—but the damage is done. But, now, in light of the revelation of Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis, Congress needs to subpoena Joe Biden’s White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to answer questions. In 2023, shortly before Biden announced his reelection campaign, O’Connor called Biden a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male” fit for the presidency. Everyone knew it was laughable. Biden was visibly deteriorating—stumbling through speeches, forgetting names, and needing direction just to exit a stage. The signs were there for anyone willing to look, and even then, some insiders were quietly admitting behind the scenes that there were serious concerns. Yet, a year later, O’Connor doubled down. In February 2024, he wrote, “The President feels well and this year’s physical identified no new concerns.”

These claims were lies. Biden’s mental and physical struggles were evident daily, and insiders were already leaking concerns. O’Connor’s medical authority made his deception worse than political spin. His health reports gave everyone cover. Without him, the deception couldn’t have happened. On Sunday, Biden’s office announced his diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer, with a Gleason score of 9 and bone metastasis, detected after urinary symptoms revealed a prostate nodule. This isn’t just conservative media raising red flags. Medical experts are saying the same thing. Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a former Obama health advisor, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Biden likely had cancer for the entire duration of his presidency, saying, “He did not develop it in the last 100, 200 days. He had it while he was president… probably at the start of his presidency in 2021.”

Dr. David Shusterman, a leading urologist, echoed that assessment on NewsNation, explaining that Biden’s aggressive cancer usually develops over five to ten years and is unlikely to go unnoticed during routine checkups—especially with the top-tier care a sitting president receives. These revelations leave us with only two explanations: O’Connor either neglected screenings or hid Biden’s condition. O’Connor has long ties to the Biden family—serving as Biden’s doctor since 2009, supporting them through Beau Biden’s cancer, and joining family vacations—and this longtime connection raises questions about his objectivity. His business dealings with James Biden, introducing him to a medical team for a failed hospital venture, further suggest conflicts of interest. It’s quite clear that O’Connor wasn’t made White House physician because he was trusted to give the nation an honest assessment of the president’s health, but rather because the Biden family knew he’d cover up the truth.

And he did. He issued false reassurances that not only shattered public trust but put national security at risk. Biden’s physical and cognitive decline—now compounded by a serious cancer diagnosis—wasn’t just a health issue; it was a strategic liability that our enemies could exploit. Rather than face the press and answer tough questions, O’Connor hid behind written statements delivered by Karine Jean-Pierre, shielding the full truth from the American people. After Biden’s humiliating debate performance last year, House Oversight Chairman James Comer demanded O’Connor testify about the president’s condition and any connections to the Biden family’s dealings. Just two weeks later, Biden abruptly dropped out of the race. O’Connor never appeared. Last month, reports indicated O’Connor was on the short list of witnesses House Republicans want to question over his role in concealing the president’s cognitive decline. That testimony is long overdue—and more necessary now than ever.

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‘Dangerous for our country’.

Trump: Biden Allies ‘Not Telling The Facts’ After Cancer Diagnosis (NYP)

President Trump questioned Monday how doctors did not diagnose former President Joe Biden with advanced prostate cancer until after he had left office — accusing former White House staff of “not telling the facts.” “I’m surprised the public wasn’t notified a long time ago,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in his first on-camera statement about his predecessor’s diagnosis. “To get to stage nine, that’s a long time,” added the president of Biden’s cancer scoring a 9 on the Gleason scale, which indicates a “high-grade” cancer that can spread quickly. Trump, 78, noted that had undergone a full physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last month, and claimed that a prostate exam is “standard” for “pretty much anyone getting a good physical.” “When you take tests, as a male, that test is very standard.”

“This is dangerous for our country,” Trump added, noting that Biden contributed to the “mess” the country is in now. Trump called the diagnosis “very very sad,” but pointed out there were also doctors, including former White House physician Kevin O’Connor, who had claimed Biden was in top mental shape for years, before the public saw his diminished capabilities on full display at his June 27, 2024, debate against Trump. O’Connor gave Biden a nearly-clean bill of health during their last physical in late February 2024, writing that he “identified no new concerns” at the time. The president’s physical didn’t mention a prostate exam that year, though Biden did undergo a colonoscopy in 2021.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said that Biden, was deemed not to need a cognitive test — despite public outcry at the president’s many gaffes and verbal slip-ups, including asking “Where’s Jackie” and searching for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) at an event in September 2022. “The president doesn’t need a cognitive test. That is not my assessment, that is the assessment of the president’s doctor, that is also the assessment of his neurologist,” Jean-Pierre told reporters at the time. “If it’s the same doctor that said there’s nothing wrong there, and that’s being proven to be a very sad situation,” Trump said Monday, adding: “I think someone is going to have to speak to his doctor.” “Why wasn’t the cognitive ability — why wasn’t that discussed?”

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“Right-wing media figures are desperately pushing conspiracy theories about Biden ahead of the debate.”

CNN Struggles to Assign Blame for Not Reporting on Biden’s Decline (Turley)

In the wake of the leaked audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, the media is going through another round of spinning its own failure to pursue the question of Biden’s obvious mental and physical decline. That is no more evident than at CNN, which was one of the most hostile networks to such questions before Biden withdrew from the presidential race after his disastrous debate. The struggle was on full display on Friday. CNN’s host Jake Tapper has faced withering attacks over his publication of a book investigating Biden’s decline, long after the public learned the truth during the debate. While Tapper has admitted that he could have pushed harder on the question, he has been critical of the White House staff and others who hid the truth from the media despite the fact that many were attacked on CNN for raising the issue (including by Tapper).

On Friday’s CNN’s “The Lead,” CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Pérez raised the same rationale for the performance that the White House used after the debate: Biden was tired due to performing his duties as president. Just as the White House raised how Biden was coming off an international trip before the election, Pérez noted that the interview came after the October 7 attack when Biden “had spent that entire time, obviously, on the phone and working long hours.”

“look, one of the other things that I think is key to understanding this, during this interview, the context, right, is that, you remember, he sat down for these interviews in October of, when, right after the attack by Hamas in Israel. And so, he had spent that entire time, obviously, on the phone and working long hours. And so, the big question, of course, became, a president of his age, and given the stresses of what he was going through, should he have sat down, should that have been the time for him to sit down for several hours of interviews — and they do go over two days of interviews with prosecutors — with everything that they had on the line? Clearly, Joe Biden thought that it was fine to do that. But, clearly, you can see from some of his answers that he does not have a handle on some of this. And so you could say, was it because of fatigue, or is it because of the things that you write about in your book, Jake? And so, that’s the big — I think, the big takeaway or big question that people will take away from listening to this audio.”

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” host Abby Phillip blamed not Hamas but Democrats and Hur: “[I]f Democrats had taken seriously, which, by the way, in a way, Robert Hur kind of undersold this. He kind of threw Joe Biden a lifeline. It was an opportunity, actually, for Democrats to take it seriously, maybe change gears at that point, and maybe [give] a potential nominee more time.” CNN Political Commentator Maria Cardona piped in that you should not forget to blame the First Lady: “I think, at the end of the day, the accountability falls with Joe Biden, and, frankly, probably, with Jill Biden too, because –.” Phillip responded, “Yeah, that’s true, but it also falls on the Democratic Party that ostracized people who said anything about Joe Biden’s — attacking the media for even raising the issue of his age, when, clearly, it was an issue. There’s accountability there, too.”

The only lack of accountability has been for the media itself, which is again spinning its own role in dismissing these accounts. This effort continued right up to the debate itself. CNN’s Oliver Darcy wrote, “Right-wing media figures are desperately pushing conspiracy theories about Biden ahead of the debate.” As Joe Concha has pointed out, media outlets attacked Hur after the report to dismiss accounts of Biden’s diminishment when he was still the Democratic standard bearer. Media sources like the Atlantic followed the lead of the White House in attacking Hur for “misleading” the public on Biden’s memory.

Now, Hur is being attacked on CNN for “downplaying” the extent of the diminishment. What is striking about these accounts is that they suggest that the media was kept in the dark and omit the fact that it was ignoring or opposing those in the media who were raising the concerns. This was an active effort to swat down such concerns until it no longer mattered after the public saw the truth. The media then investigated a story that was impossible to deny or ignore. The public is obviously not buying it. Instead they are increasingly looking to new media and social media for their news.Blaming Hamas or Hur is not going to work. For most viewers, it is another “Let’s Go Brandon” moment.

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On energy and immigration, Germany just turns 180º and sells that as bravery.

Germany Makes “Sea-Change Policy Shift” On Nuclear Power In Europe (ZH)

Three weeks after widespread power grid failures across Portugal and Spain, triggered by unreliable solar and wind power, Germany appears to be sharply recalibrating its energy stance. In a notable policy shift, the new conservative government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reversed its longstanding opposition to nuclear power. The move reflects a growing understanding in Berlin that overreliance on unreliable solar and wind power generation poses serious risks to economic stability and energy security. The shift also signals a broader return to common-sense energy policymaking in Europe, with nuclear power increasingly viewed as critical in France in achieving reliable, low-carbon power generation.

The Financial Times reports that German officials have informed Paris they will no longer oppose French efforts to have nuclear energy recognized as equivalent to renewables in EU legislation. This marks a significant policy shift, considering former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had firmly opposed treating nuclear power on the same level as solar and wind in the EU’s framework for achieving net zero by 2050. “The Germans are telling us: we will be very pragmatic on the issue of nuclear power,” an anonymous French diplomat told the FT, which was involved in the talks with the Germans. The person said this means that “all the biases against nuclear power, which still remain here and there in EU legislation, will be removed.” “This will be a sea-change policy shift,” said a German official.

Guntram Wolff, a senior fellow at think-tank Bruegel, said, “It’s a welcome rapprochement that will make the topic of energy easier in the EU,” adding, “Politically, Merz is also thinking about the nuclear umbrella.” Berlin’s reversal on nuclear power comes three weeks after solar and wind collapsed the power grids across Portugal and Spain. Europe’s dangerous and radical shift to unreliable net-zero energy has been nothing short of a disaster and an embarrassment for the far-left liberals high in their castles in Brussels. Merz has clearly recognized the urgent need to reverse degrowth net-zero policies. He also understands the strategic urgency of revitalizing Franco-German cooperation—a prerequisite for unlocking stalled EU-level decision-making under former Chancellor Scholz.

“When France and Germany agree, it is much easier for Europe to move forward,” said Lars-Hendrik Röller, a professor at Berlin-based ESMT business school who was chief economic adviser to former Chancellor Angela Merkel, adding, “While several challenges remain, I believe this issue will be solved.” Last week, FT obtained a letter sent to the European Commission by ministers from 12 European member states explaining that it was “imperative” that Brussels acknowledge the “complementary nature of nuclear and renewable energy sources.” The new Franco-German policy shift on energy is critical for Europe to get its house in order, considering NatGas prices have surged since the Ukraine-Russia war, making manufacturing uncompetitive on global markets because inputs have driven up prices of end products (such as automobiles). Solar and wind trends have also created instability in the power grid, which is a national security threat.

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“His series of proposals and high-profile speeches mark a complete reversal of the Labour Party’s longstanding support for mass immigration..”

Europe Admits JD Vance Was Right, Pivots On Mass Immigration (Whedon)

Months after Vice President JD Vance excoriated the European elite for allowing unfettered mass immigration from the Third World to ravage the continent, the political winds appear to be shifting as European leaders, and even American Democrats, begin to walk back their permissive policies that enabled sizable demographic shifts in the EU. Perhaps the flagship for cultural terraforming via embracing third-world immigration, the UK has seen Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer launch a high-profile campaign to crack down on immigration and push assimilation in recent days. His series of proposals and high-profile speeches mark a complete reversal of the Labour Party’s longstanding support for mass immigration and comes as polling shows his government losing ground to an anti-immigration outsider party.

It’s not just the UK either, as other EU governments, notably Romania, appear poised to place immigration critics in power. Dark-blue California, meanwhile, has seen its governor, Gavin Newsom reading the political winds and abandoning his own long-standing policies of providing a wide range of state benefits to illegal aliens. In his February speech to European leaders, Vance warned Europeans that they risked weakening their alliance with the U.S. due to what he called “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.” He notably pointed to the large-scale censorship of mass immigration critics and the cancellation of the Romanian elections due to allegations of Russian interference. Though he faced a tough audience and earned their ire, recent moves in Europe appear to suggest a tacit admission that he was right.

The UK ranks among the nations facing the biggest backlash to mass immigration, with Nigel Farage’s Reform Party increasingly taking a dominant position in polling over the incumbent Labour Party and their traditional opponents, the Conservatives. Matters of cultural friction, crime and the growing presence of radical Islam in the nation have even led to the prevalence of the term “the Yookay” to refer to the country in a satirical manner. Starmer, in a major speech last week, warned that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” if it failed to crack down on immigration in which he promised to “take back control of our borders.” He subsequently announced that his government would raise English language proficiency requirements for immigrants, saying “If you want to live in the UK, you should speak English.”

“This is my promise to British people: Every area of our immigration system will be tightened up, so we have more control. And migration numbers will fall,” he promised. Starmer further announced that he would charge employers to recruit overseas and required British firms to show that they were investing in domestic labor. He also promised to cut migration, end asylum hotels, expand efforts to stop boat crossings of the English channel. “Settlement in the UK is a privilege that is earned, not a right,” he also said. Starmer also announced this week that he had “returned over 24,000 people with no right to be here.” Likely motivating the pivot on immigration were local elections that saw the Reform Party post considerable gains, leading to The Telegraph warning of a possible “extinction” event for Labour in the next election.

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The Trump crowd recognize lawfare when they see it.

Europe’s Embrace of Lawfare Threatens Its Alliance with the US (Mike Gonzalez)

President Donald Trump’s election was greeted in Europe with outright fear by parties of the Left and wary apprehension by the center-right but with open elation by a resurgent sovereigntist Right. Now the Left and the center are regrouping and coming up with a strategy to rein in the surging populists. It should surprise no one that this strategy is based on the twin pillars of lawfare and censorship. Yes, the American Left failed horribly when it used both to try to stop Trump in the 2024 elections. Yet in Europe, the defense of liberty is less entrenched in the mind of voters. We just saw the two approaches clash after Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Elon Musk expressed exasperation when a close ally, Germany, took an initial step in barring the country’s most popular party, the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland.

Germany’s week-old government—a living experiment in the new politics of circling the wagons at the center, being itself a strange-bedfellows coalition of the center-right Christian Democrats and the leftist Social Democrats—responded by warning the Trump administration to stay out of its domestic affairs. To be sure, the generalized statement that Europeans are less zealous of their freedom than Americans requires qualification. Eastern Europe, with a much more recent memory of living in tyranny, is largely more vigilant of losing liberty than is Western Europe, where decades of the welfare state have created constituencies more willing to engage in the illusory bargain of trading a bit of freedom for a bit of comfort. The parties on the Right, in both West and East, also want more sovereign independence and less interference from the European Union in such matters as freedom of expression.

They are the ones that welcomed Trump as the start of a tidal wave they hoped would reach the Old Continent. “Everybody understands that something has changed,” I quoted Marine Le Pen, leader of Rassemblement Nationale, France’s largest opposition party, as telling a crowd at a Patriots rally in Madrid less than a month after Trump’s inauguration. “The results of the American election will sound the awakening of the Old Continent.” Well, the center-right and Left have taken notice of the Trump tsunami, too, and they want to raise a few dams. In terms of lawfare, French courts have convicted Le Pen of embezzlement, a charge she strongly denies, and barred her from running for president in 2027. In Germany, the new government has just allowed the security services to classify AfD as “extremist,” a first step before banning the party outright.

And in Spain, the country’s fiscal court has fined Vox, the third-largest party, 862,000 euros for financial irregularities. All are test cases for how far the Left and center-right are willing to go using the courts to do what they can’t at the ballot box. Expressions of concern about deviating from democratic practices have multiplied. Rubio didn’t mince words, writing on X, “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes. Germany should reverse course.”

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“George Simion won 41% in the May 4 first round. EU favorite Nicosur Dan got 21%. In round two, Simion took 46.4%, while Dan got 53.6% – a 155% boost..”

Romania’s Elections Were a Big Globalist Sham (Sp.)

The results don’t make sense arithmetically and foreign interference has been confirmed. The country has officially completed its slide into EU protectorate status. Prolific Balkans expert Dr. George Szamuely helps unpack what just happened. Eurosceptic candidate George Simion won 41% in the May 4 first round. EU favorite Nicosur Dan got 21%. In round two, Simion took 46.4%, while Dan got 53.6% – a 155% boost. To do so, Dan needed the backing of 87% of the voters who backed neither him or Simion in the first round. Neither of the other major first round candidates (Crin Antonescu, 20%, Victor Ponta, 13%) threw their weight behind Dan in the second round. Where did his 30%+ surge in support come from? Unclear. Simion has alleged that 1.7 million dead people were on voter rolls, and urged voters to check if any deceased relatives or friends voted via a dedicated WhatsApp contact line.

Diaspora voters cast 1.64 million ballots in the second round of the vote, 660,000 more than round one (which Simion handily won, 61% to Dan’s 25.4%). Simion has alleged some polls were closed or not enough ballots were made available in some areas during the runoff, and manipulation of diaspora voting. Specifically, Simion has accused Moldova’s EU lapdog government of “immense fraud” amid reports of Romanian expats voting at 3X the rate they did in round one. He’s also charged France of meddling using “lots and lots of money and pressure through their ambassador here, and through foreign institutions in order to rob the Romanian people of their votes.” Telegram CEO Pavel Durov confirmed on Sunday that a request had been made by France to “silence conservative voices” in Romania ahead of the election.

“This election is a fraud, a giant absolute fraud. Because the proper election was held in December, and that election was canceled because the ‘wrong’ person [Calin Georgescu, ed.] was on the brink of winning,” Dr. George Szamuely told Sputnik. As for Sunday’s vote, the results simply “don’t make any sense” mathematically, the author and Global Policy Institute senior research fellow says. “Just think of that. [Dan] won 87% of all of the people who didn’t vote for either candidate in the first run…That arithmetically just absolutely makes no sense. It defies any logic, defies any experience of polling,” the observer emphasized. Listing off allegations of foreign meddling, particularly by France and Moldova, Szamuely said the “exuberant, delighted messages” out of Brussels after the vote show its sham nature.

“The EU obviously interfered very, very strongly by essentially threatening Romania with dire consequences if it voted the ‘wrong’ way,” he added. “Democracy is an anathema to the EU, it’s nothing but contempt for the will of the people and particularly for any kind of populist nationalist movements,” Szamuely said, highlighting the bloc’s rush to praise Dan, and overlook glaring violations in Sunday’s Romanian elections. “The EU despises democracy. It only celebrates democracy when it gets the election outcomes it wants. When it doesn’t, it immediately declares that this wasn’t a proper election, this wasn’t a proper democracy, this was a fraud,” the observer said, recalling the recent example of Georgia, where local elites successfully stood up to the EU, and the systematic cancellation and rejection of elections and referendums elsewhere until the “right” results are achieved.

Dan
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1924347966292168923

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“I’ve been around since 1984 — and ‘temporary protected status’ is never temporary.”

SCOTUS Allows Removal Of Protected Status From 300K Venezuelan Migrants (ZH)

The Supreme Court handed a major win to the Trump administration on Monday, granting its request to proceed with revoking legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants. In a brief order, the justices approved an emergency application from the administration, allowing officials to undo a Biden-era extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that shields Venezuelans from deportation and grants them work permits. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter, indicating she would have denied the request. The decision allows Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to move forward with a policy reversal that would strip protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelans who were granted TPS due to political and humanitarian crises in their home country.

TPS, created by Congress in 1990, offers safe harbor to nationals of countries suffering from war, natural disaster, or other emergencies. Individuals granted status can legally remain and work in the U.S. for renewable 18-month periods. At the center of the legal fight is a TPS designation made in October 2023 and extended again in January—just before Trump returned to office. The protections were originally set to expire in October 2026, but in February, Noem moved to unwind the designations early, triggering a legal challenge. In April, a federal judge in the Northern District of California blocked the rollback, citing potential racial bias behind the move. But the Trump administration fired back, arguing the judiciary had no business second-guessing decisions made under the executive branch’s immigration authority.

At the time, Trump border czar Tom Homan called the move “Another activist judge making a stupid ruling,” adding “I’ve been around since 1984 — and ‘temporary protected status’ is never temporary.””Bf you look at that decision, it’s based on opinion, not the rule of law.”

Solicitor General D. John Sauer, in the emergency application to the Supreme Court, said, “The court’s order contravenes fundamental executive branch prerogatives and indefinitely delays sensitive policy decisions in an area of immigration policy that Congress recognized must be flexible, fast-paced and discretionary.”The move was challenged by the National TPS Alliance and individual Venezuelans, who argued the administration was trying to dodge judicial oversight altogether. “It should be unremarkable that federal courts say what the law is,” their lawyers wrote.

Monday’s ruling comes just days after the high court dealt a blow to Trump’s immigration playbook in a separate case. In that decision, the court ruled that immigrants detained under the Alien Enemies Act must be given a real chance to contest deportation. While litigation over the TPS rollback continues in lower courts, the Supreme Court’s order clears the way for the Trump administration to begin rescinding protections while the legal fight plays out.

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“..Trump has at least recognised the most important American reality – ie. that the pattern can’t go on indefinitely, and that debt-led consumerism is way past its sell-by date..”

Transition To A New World Order Is Beyond Most In The West (Alastair Crooke)

Even the need for transition – just to be clear – has only just begun to be recognised in the U.S. For the European leadership however, and for the beneficiaries of financialisation who haughtily lament Trump’s ‘storm’ unwisely unleashed on the world, his base economic theses are ridiculed as bizarre notions completely divorced from economic ‘reality’. That is completely untrue. For, as Greek Economist Yanis Varoufakis points out, the reality of the western situation and the need for transition was clearly spelled out by Paul Volcker, former chair of the Federal Reserve, as long ago as 2005. The harsh ‘fact’ of the liberal globalist economic paradigm was evident even then:“What holds together the globalist system is a massive and growing flow of capital from abroad, running to more than $2 billion every working day – and growing. There is no sense of strain. As a nation we don’t consciously borrow or beg. We aren’t even offering attractive interest rates, nor do we have to offer our creditors protection against the risk of a declining dollar”.

“It’s all quite comfortable for us. We fill our shops and garages with goods from abroad, and the competition has been a powerful restraint on our internal prices. It’s surely helped keep interest rates exceptionally low despite our vanishing savings and rapid growth”. “And it’s [been] comfortable for our trading partners too, and for those supplying the capital. Some, such as China [and Europe, particularly Germany], have depended heavily on our expanding domestic markets. And for the most part, the central banks of the emerging world have been willing to hold more and more dollars, which are, after all, the closest thing that world has to a truly international currency”. “The difficulty is that this seemingly comfortable pattern can’t go on indefinitely”.

Precisely. And Trump is in the process of blowing up the world trading system so as to re-set it. Those western liberals, who today are gnashing teeth and lamenting the advent of ‘Trumpian economics’, are simply in denial that Trump has at least recognised the most important American reality – ie. that the pattern can’t go on indefinitely, and that debt-led consumerism is way past its sell-by date. Recall that most participants in the western financial system have known nothing other than Volcker’s ‘comfortable world’ their entire life. No wonder they have difficulty thinking outside their sealed retort. That does not mean, of course, that Trump’s solution to the problem will work. Possibly, Trump’s particular form of structural rebalancing could make matters actually worse.

Nonetheless, restructuring in some form clearly is inevitable. It comes down otherwise to a choice between bankruptcy slow, or fast and disorderly.The dollar-led globalist system worked well initially – at least from the U.S. perspective. The U.S. exported its post-WW2 manufacturing over-capacity to a newly dollarized Europe, who consumed the surplus. And Europe too, enjoyed the benefit of having its macroeconomic environment (export-led models, guaranteed by the U.S. market). The present crisis began however, when the paradigm inverted – when the U.S. entered on its era of unsustainable structural budget deficits, and when financialisation led Wall Street to build its inverted pyramid of derivative ‘assets’, resting upon a tiny pivot of real assets.

The raw fact of the structural imbalance crisis is bad enough. But the western geo-strategic crisis goes much deeper than just the structural contradiction of inward capital flows and a ‘strong’ dollar eating the heart out of the U.S. manufacturing sector. Because it is bound up, too, with the concomitant collapse of core ideologies underpinning liberal globalism.It is because of this western deep devotion to ideology (as well as to the Volker ‘comfort’ provided by the system) that has triggered such a torrent of anger and outright derision towards Trump’s ‘rebalancing’ plans. Barely a western economist has a good word to say – and yet no plausible alternative framework is offered. Their passion directed at Trump simply underlines that western economic theory is bankrupt, too.

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While Bibi touts the final solution.

US Unveils Revised Gaza Truce Proposal – Axios (RT)

White House envoy Steve Witkoff has presented Israel and Hamas with a new ceasefire proposal, Axios has reported, with Washington urging both sides to accept the deal. The push coincides with the Jewish state’s renewed assault on Gaza, which included a wave of weekend airstrikes and a major ground offensive – Operation Gideon’s Chariots. According to Axios, Witkoff’s proposal includes a 45- to 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of ten hostages and Palestinian prisoners. While similar to past plans, the latest version reportedly contains clearer language signaling that it could lead to a permanent ceasefire. It also includes guarantees aimed at preventing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from unilaterally ending the truce – an issue that derailed a previous agreement. Sources say Netanyahu has responded positively but with many conditions.

Hamas has not yet agreed and is reportedly seeking firm assurances that a temporary truce could pave the way for a lasting ceasefire. Negotiation teams from both sides are formally in Qatar, but an Israeli official told Axios that the real discussions are happening through other, less public channels. Talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US have so far failed to produce a breakthrough. Netanyahu maintains that the war will not end without Hamas’ total defeat, while the group continues to reject disarmament terms. The current escalation began in October 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise cross-border attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250. An estimated 58 hostages remain in Gaza, including both living captives and those confirmed deceased whose remains have not yet been recovered. As of Monday, the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s offensive in Gaza has surpassed 53,400, according to the enclave’s health officials.

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False

Kansas

Sell

Africa
https://twitter.com/JasperZiggle/status/1924183844187509116

The forbidden empire returnss

Decline

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

May 192025
 
 May 19, 2025  Posted by at 9:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  53 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Composition “Peasants” 1906

 

Witkoff Believes Putin Call Will Be ‘A Success’ (RT)
EU Leaders Plan to Talk to Trump Before His Phone Call With Putin (Sp.)
The Lesson of The Arrogant King and The Burning of The Oracles (Helmer)
Presidential Candidates In EU States Call Trump ‘Symbol Of Freedom’ (RT)
Pro-EU Candidate Wins Romanian Presidential Election Rerun (RT)
Musk Hails Durov Over Rejection of French Political Censorship Request (RT)
German Democracy Still Alive? Merz Speaks Out Against AfD Ban (RMX)
Don’t listen to NATO – Russia to Ukraine (RT)
Something Doesn’t Add Up About Biden’s Cancer Announcement (Margolis)
Democrats and Journalists Still Avoid Biden’s Decline (Graham)
Distrust and Accountability (Erickson)
Patel&Bongino Tease New Russiagate Evidence, Say Epstein Killed Himself (ZH)
Devin Nunes Discusses Likelihood of Success for Patel and Bongino (CTH)
FBI Agents Beg Court To Destroy List Before ‘Shame’ Campaign (ZH)
Weapons From Ukraine Will Flood Europe – Report (RT)
House Republicans Advance “Big, Beautiful Bill” After Weekend of Talks (ZH)
The USA, As We Knew It, Has Been Destroyed By The Supreme Court (PCR)

 

 

 

 

They all know
https://twitter.com/Juliesnark1731/status/1924143006644342845

Comey

Obama

 

 

 

 

Time to meet. Bring Lavrov, bring Rubio, bring Witkoff.

Witkoff Believes Putin Call Will Be ‘A Success’ (RT)

US President Donald Trump’s upcoming phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin will be “very successful” and could help clear “some of the logjam” in peace negotiations over Ukraine, American special envoy Steve Witkoff has said. Trump announced he will speak with Putin on Monday, several days after Russia and Ukraine held their first direct negotiations in three years. During the talks in Istanbul on Friday, the sides agreed on a major prisoner exchange and to continue dialogue after each submits a detailed ceasefire proposal. Witkoff hailed the talks in Türkiye as “good achievements,” and reaffirmed that Trump would like to broker a stable ceasefire followed by a “final peace deal.”

“I believe that the president is going to have a very successful call with Vladimir Putin,” Witkoff told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “They know each other. The president is determined to get something done here… If he can’t do it, then nobody can.” Asked whether Moscow’s terms were too harsh, Witkoff said the conflict was “very complicated” and that the sides must find compromises. “I think in a negotiation like this, people take positions,” he said. “The art here is to narrow that wide berth. And I think to some extent we’ve done that. Monday will go a long way towards identifying where we are and how we complete this negotiation.”

Trump also expressed hope that Monday will be a “productive day.” He added that he plans to speak with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and “various members of NATO” after his call with Putin. At the same time, he warned that Moscow could face “crushing sanctions” if no progress is made, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that Washington is determined to avoid “endless talks” without results. Moscow has rejected demands for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, insisting that talks must address the “root causes” of the conflict, including Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO – which Russia considers a threat to its national security. Putin has maintained that a lasting truce would require Ukraine to halt its mobilization drive, stop receiving weapons from abroad, and withdraw troops from Russian territory. He warned that Kiev would likely use a temporary ceasefire to rearm and regroup.

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I bet Trump loves that. Not last week, not yesterday, no, an hour or so before he talks to Putin.

EU Leaders Plan to Talk to Trump Before His Phone Call With Putin (Sp.)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday he and other European leaders plan to talk to US President Donald Trump again, ahead of a possible phone conversation between the US leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We have agreed that in preparation for this dialogue we will talk again — four heads of state and government — with the US president,” Merz was quoted as telling reporters in Rome by the Bild newspaper. One can only hope for the further progress to be made, the German chancellor said, adding that he has already discussed the possible Trump-Putin call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

On Saturday, Trump said he was planning to speak by phone to Putin on May 19. On Friday, the Ukrainian newspaper reported, citing Volodymyr Zelensky’s spokesman, Sergii Nykyforov, that Zelensky and Merz, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, held a telephone conversation with Trump on the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in the Albanian capital of Tirana.

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“Trump’s staff had left a four-hour gap in the timing of his flight back to Washington in order to meet with Putin in Istanbul on condition that Trump ordered Zelensky to leave Turkey beforehand and Putin agreed to a summit announcement of an immediate ceasefire. Zelensky was removed to Albania but the Putin’s ceasefire conditions remained unchanged..”

The Lesson of The Arrogant King and The Burning of The Oracles (Helmer)

In the outcome, it’s the old story come true again. That’s the one in which Tarquin, the ancient Roman king, wanted the Cumaean Sybil to sell him the nine books of prophecies known as the Sybilline Oracles. When the king dismissed the Sybil’s price for the nine, she burned three and asked the same price for six. When the king held out again, she burned another three. In desperation, the king then paid for the three remaining at the price he had refused for the original nine.For two thousand years this has been known as the art of the deal. As if they didn’t know the story, on Friday the leaders of France, United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine and Poland (FUGUP) telephoned President Donald Trump and told him to keep fighting President Vladimir Putin until he accepts their price. FUGUP told POTUS to burn Putin until Russia will have nothing left to pay with.

Two leaks from the Istanbul meetings confirm what has happened. According to Oleg Tsarev’s account from the Russian side, the Russian delegation said they would agree to a ceasefire if the Ukraine withdrew its forces completely from the four regions – Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson. The Ukrainians refused. In reply, the Russians said that next time there will be five regions. According to a London newspaper’s leak from the British adviser to the Ukrainians, the Russian delegation said they would agree to a ceasefire only if the Ukraine withdrew its troops from the four regions, and Kiev refused, Russia would take two more regions – Sumy and Kharkov. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, had reportedly said that Russia “does not want war but is ready to fight for a year, two, three — no matter how long it takes. We fought with Sweden for 21 years. How long are you ready to fight? Perhaps someone sitting at this table will lose even more of their loved ones. Russia is ready to fight forever.”

Trump was sitting in his aeroplane flying north from Abu Dhabi, two hours and a thousand kilometres south of Istanbul when he got the call from FUGUP. The day before, he had told reporters ““we will be leaving tomorrow but you know, almost destination unknown because it could be here, it could be there, but probably we’re back to Washington DC tomorrow.” An hour before he took off, he said: “You know, they all said Putin was going, Zelensky was going, and I said, if I don’t go, I guarantee Putin’s not going. And he didn’t go…We’re going to get it done.” Trump added he would meet Putin “as soon as we can set it up. I would actually leave here [Abu Dhabi] and go [to Istanbul]… in two or three weeks we have a deal.”

As Russian forces accelerate their spring offensive west, north and south, burning what Trump, Zelensky and the Europeans have to fight over, the terms of the Russian deal are now far greater than Vladimir Medinsky, the Russian lead negotiator, accepted at Istanbul-I in March 2022 but were repudiated when he returned to Moscow. Before he set out for Istanbul-II last week, the consensus in Moscow was unanimous, as Putin demonstrated at his lengthy Kremlin session in the evening of May 14 with ministers, intelligence agency chiefs, and senior military commanders from the General Staff and from the front.

“Andrei Belousov [Defence Minister] and Valery Gerasimov [chief of the General Staff] also delivered reports. All commanders of the groups of armed forces in the special military operation zone reported on the situation in their respective sectors along the line of contact. The meeting participants conducted a detailed joint discussion of all reports. Based on these briefings, the President summed up the meeting results, set tasks and charted the negotiating position of the Russian delegation in Istanbul.” In Abu Dhabi, Trump’s staff had left a four-hour gap in the timing of his flight back to Washington in order to meet with Putin in Istanbul on condition that Trump ordered Zelensky to leave Turkey beforehand and Putin agreed to a summit announcement of an immediate ceasefire. Zelensky was removed to Albania but the Putin’s ceasefire conditions remained unchanged. Trump then abandoned his summit meeting plan; the record of his flight log was erased. He announced his personal success instead – “in two or three weeks”.

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EU=no freedom.

Presidential Candidates In EU States Call Trump ‘Symbol Of Freedom’ (RT)

A joint election campaign rally by Romanian election frontrunner George Simion and Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki have announced plans for what the former described as a “pro-MAGA” union at a joint rally the two held earlier this week in Poland. Supporters at the event chanted the name of US President Donald Trump. Both EU nations are heading into presidential elections this Sunday. Poland will hold the first round of voting, while Romania will see a runoff between Simion and Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan. Speaking at the rally in support of Nawrocki in Zabrze on Tuesday, Simion vowed to reverse what he called an “anti-American change in Europe.” A critic of the EU who has been banned from entering Ukraine, Simion won the first round of the presidential election rerun in Romania on May 4 with more than 40% of the vote.

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1923568138706354538

His words prompted the crowd to begin chanting: “Donald Trump! Donald Trump!” The politician joined the chant and called the American leader “not just a person but a symbol of freedom.” Nawrocki, a conservative candidate who is supported by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, is currently polling second behind Rafal Trzaskowski, who is aligned with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition. Addressing the rally, he vowed to “build a Europe of values, a Europe of homelands, in which we will not allow the EU to centralize and turn Poland and Romania into provinces.” Nawrocki opposes EU and NATO membership for Ukraine, as well as financial aid for refugees, while supporting continued military assistance to Kiev.

Speaking to the magazine American Conservative a day after the rally, Simion stated that, together with Nawrocki, they “could become two pro-MAGA presidents committed to reviving our partnership with the United States.” He also vowed to “shift our focus to bilateral negotiations with the Trump administration” if elected. The rally prompted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to claim on X that “Russia rejoices” at seeing Nawrocki standing together with “his pro-Russian Romanian counterpart George Simion.” Simion responded by posting an image of Tusk meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin back in 2010 and calling him “Putin’s man in Poland.” Moscow has never commented publicly about any ties with either Simion or Tusk. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier blasted the Romanian presidential election as “scandalous” after RT correspondent Chay Bowes was deported from the country right after arriving in the country to cover the vote.

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Pro-EU Candidate Wins Romanian Presidential Election Rerun (RT)

Pro-EU Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan has defeated Euroskeptic candidate George Simion in Romania’s presidential election rerun, according to the official tally. With more than 99% of ballots counted, Dan secured 54% of the vote in Sunday’s runoff, while Simion received 46%. Dan thanked his supporters for an “unprecedented mobilization.” “Starting tomorrow, we begin the reconstruction of Romania – a united and honest Romania, founded on respect for the law and for all its people,” he wrote on X. Simion, the leader of the right-wing Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), did not initially concede defeat, claiming in a post on X on Sunday evening that he was “the new president.” However, he conceded several hours later and congratulated Dan.

“It was the will of the Romanian people. We will go all the way, even if it is hard to bear the bitter taste of defeat,” he said in a video address on Monday. “We may have lost a battle, but we will certainly not lose the war.” The pro-EU president of neighboring Moldova, Maia Sandu, congratulated Dan. “Moldova and Romania stand together, supporting one another and working side by side for a peaceful, democratic, and European future for all our citizens,” she said. The two countries share deep historical and cultural ties, with around 30% of Moldova’s population holding dual Moldovan-Romanian citizenship. Simion’s party has claimed that Moldovan authorities and media outlets waged an illegal campaign to mobilize support for Dan among voters living in Moldova. Chisinau has denied any interference in the election.

The election rerun was ordered after Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the results of the November vote, in which independent right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu came first with 23%. The authorities cited “irregularities” in his campaign, along with intelligence reports alleging Russian interference – claims Moscow has denied. Simion had condemned the annulment of the 2024 election results as a “coup d’état” and said that, if elected, he could appoint Georgescu as prime minister. During the first round on May 4, Simion received 41% of the vote, while Dan and former Senator Crin Antonescu each garnered around 20%.

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1924164565862129948

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“..you can’t ‘fight election interference’ by interfering with elections.”

Musk Hails Durov Over Rejection of French Political Censorship Request (RT)

Elon Musk has voiced support for fellow tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov after the Telegram founder said he had rejected a request from the French government to block conservative political content on the messaging platform. Durov said Sunday that a Western European government had asked him to take down Romanian Telegram channels ahead of the country’s presidential runoff. He declined, arguing that, “you can’t ‘fight election interference’ by interfering with elections.” Musk, the majority stake owner of the social media platform X, responded to Durov’s remarks with a brief post: “Hear, hear!” Following Durov’s statement, French authorities acknowledged they were the subject of the claims but denied making any such request. In a follow-up post, Durov identified the official involved as Nicolas Lerner, director of France’s domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI.

The controversy came as Romanian voters headed to polling stations on Sunday. The Romanian Foreign Ministry accused Russia of interfering in the election, although it offered no supporting evidence. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova remarked that the Romanian process could hardly be described as an election, and urged Bucharest not to soil foreign nations with its mess. In 2024, Romania’s Constitutional Court overturned the result of a presidential election after right-wing independent Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round. Reports linked the pro-Georgescu social media campaign to a government-affiliated consultancy firm allegedly aiming to divide right-wing voters. The case was cited by US Vice President J.D. Vance in a February speech in Munich as an example of EU nations undermining democratic norms. On Sunday, pro-EU candidate Nicusor Dan defeated Euroskeptic George Simion in a runoff, securing the Romanian presidency by a single-digit margin.

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Remember: Germany has very strict laws on domestic spying. They probably let the NSA do it for them. As if that’s legal.

German Democracy Still Alive? Merz Speaks Out Against AfD Ban (RMX)

In recent months, a ban of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) appeared to be inching closer and closer, but now a key voice has clearly spoken out against such a move. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has now said that voting on an AfD ban in the Bundestag is not the right path, saying it “smacks too much of the elimination of political rivals.” He said he does not believe the current evidence is sufficient. He has even gone a step farther, stating that former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, an SPD politician with far-left sympathies who wrote for Antifa Magazine, was wrong to classify the AfD as “confirmed” right-wing extremist in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) report. Critics indicate that she rushed the report out at the last minute of her tenure, despite the BfV having no president and despite a lack of any expert review, which she had previously promised would happen.

Speaking to Die Zeit, Merz said; “Working ‘aggressively and militantly’ against the free democratic basic order must be proven. And the burden of proof lies solely with the state. That is a classic task of the executive branch. And I have always internally resisted initiating ban proceedings from within the Bundestag. That smacks too much of political competition elimination to me.” When the BfV first labeled the AfD “certainly right-wing extremist,” calls came from the left, including the Greens, Left Party, and SPD, to immediately begin proceedings to ban the party in the Bundestag. Even a large portion of the CDU backed the move. Now, the BfV has temporarily removed the designation pending a court appeal, and as Remix News reported, this removal may have been in large part possible due to pressure from the United States. Merz also expressed his displeasure with Faeser’s move to release the report on her last day of work.

He told Zeit he was “not happy with the way this process is being conducted.” “The old government presented a report without any factual review, and it was also classified as confidential,” he added. As Remix News reported, the 1,100 page report contained only public statements from the AfD, and it has already been leaked and published by the German press. Remix News, in a report published earlier today, notes that the BfV is likely sitting on huge amounts of private surveillance data related to AfD members, but due to the unsavory mass surveillance methods used to obtain this data, it is likely withholding this from any official report. “I don’t know the content of this report, and frankly, I don’t want to know it until the Federal Ministry of the Interior has made an assessment of it,” said Merz. He said that it would take several weeks and even months for the interior ministry to make such an assessment.

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“..the citizens of Ukraine should not allow the ‘NATO advisers’ to lead them off the true path of settlement into the ravine of other people’s interests again..”

Don’t listen to NATO – Russia to Ukraine (RT)

Kiev would have a better chance of resolving the conflict with Russia if it resists malignant NATO influence that impedes peace efforts, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday. Zakharova responded to remarks by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga about the results of the Istanbul meeting, which marked the first direct negotiations between Kiev and Moscow since 2022. The talks resulted in Russia and Ukraine agreeing to a major prisoner swap. The sides also agreed to exchange lists of conditions for a potential ceasefire and discuss a follow-up meeting. “If we put aside all the Russian nonsense, pseudo-historical statements, provocations, and so on, the bottom line is this: we managed to agree on the return of 1,000 of our people. These are 1,000 happy families. Even for this reason alone, all this made sense,” Sibiga said.

“All ‘this,’” Zakharova said, referring to the talks, “was proposed by Russia – by its president – and implemented by a delegation authorized by the head of state, which Zelensky mocked for a day.” She also noted that, if all the insults are put aside, Sibiga essentially acknowledged that the “Russian propositions have a certain sense.” “The main thing is that the citizens of Ukraine should not allow the ‘NATO advisers’ to lead them off the true path of settlement into the ravine of other people’s interests again,” Zakharova warned. Russia and Ukraine held direct peace talks in Istanbul in 2022, shortly after the escalation of the conflict. While the sides initially made progress and reached a tentative agreement – which included a Ukrainian commitment to neutrality – the talks later collapsed after Kiev unilaterally abandoned them.

Moscow later claimed the talks were derailed by then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who advised Kiev to continue fighting. While Johnson has denied the accusation, David Arakhamia, who led the Ukrainian delegation at the time, admitted that the ex-prime minister played an influential role in the decision to stop the negotiating process. Since then, Russia has repeatedly accused Western governments of using Ukraine as a “battering ram” against Russia and pursuing the conflict “until the last Ukrainian.” It has noted, however, that the US began shifting its approach to the settlement under President Donald Trump.

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It’s the timing.

Something Doesn’t Add Up About Biden’s Cancer Announcement (Margolis)

On Sunday, news broke that former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 and metastasis to the bone. The announcement, made by Biden’s office, detailed that the diagnosis followed the discovery of a prostate nodule after worsening urinary symptoms a week prior. While the statement emphasized that the cancer is hormone-sensitive, offering hope for effective management, the timing and context of this revelation raise serious questions about transparency and political motivations. The key question I have is this: Did Joe Biden’s inner circle know about this diagnosis last year?

Obviously, questions about Joe Biden’s physical and mental health have been raised for years. Let’s be honest here. Joe Biden had access to top-notch health care while in the Oval Office—with a personal physician, Kevin O’Connor, who, back in 2023, described him as a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” We all knew that assessment was garbage. Would the same doctor who claimed Joe Biden was “healthy” and “vigorous” also cover up a cancer diagnosis until after the presidential election? Yeah, I think so. I’m not saying that’s what happened, but you better believe that I think it’s possible that he did. In fact, a clip of Biden saying he “had cancer” back in 2022 has gone viral in the wake of the revelation.

“And guess what—the first frost, you know what was happening?” said Biden. “You’d have to put on your windshield wipers to get, literally, the oil slick off the window.,” he said during a speech about climate change in Somerset, Massachusetts. “That’s why I, and so damn many other people I grew up with, have cancer. And why, for the longest time, Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation.” A gaffe? A slip of the tongue? With the Bidens, anything is possible. Okay, let’s state the obvious: I’m not a doctor. Heck, I don’t even play one on TV. Okay, fine. I’ll get a doctor’s input. Fox News Senior Medical Analyst Dr. Marc Siegel says the presence of symptoms and bone metastases in Joe Biden’s case strongly suggests the cancer had been growing undetected for quite some time. That’s not just concerning—it raises serious questions about how such an advanced stage of disease went unnoticed, especially for someone with constant access to top-tier medical care.

Siegel pointed out that Biden’s age—82—is a major risk factor, noting that more than 80 percent of men over 80 have some level of prostate cancer cells in their bodies. “This is one of the cancers doctors specifically monitor in older men,” Siegel explained. Which begs the obvious question: Are we really supposed to believe that Biden, while in office, wasn’t being routinely screened for this? Come on. Not giving him a cognitive exam because they knew he’d flunk it is one thing; not screening him for something he was obviously at high risk for? That just doesn’t pass the smell test. So, now, you have to ask the question: why go public with this information now? The answer is obvious, isn’t it? Do you think it is mere coincidence that the announcement came just two days before the release of “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson?

Damaging excerpts have been released over the past few weeks, including one excerpt claiming that Biden’s aides were so concerned about his physical decline in early 2024 that they discussed the possibility of him needing a wheelchair if reelected. Then there was the release of the Hur tapes. It’s been a damaging week for Joe Biden and his legacy, and in the hours since his diagnosis was revealed, the usual statements of praise and support are flowing in. It all makes sense, doesn’t it? The book’s excerpts have painted a damning picture of Biden’s physical and cognitive state. And while it’s old news to those of us in conservative media, it’s getting serious widespread attention now. So, announcing a serious cancer diagnosis right before the book’s release could serve as a strategic move to shift the narrative, garner sympathy, and distract the public from the damaging information contained in the book.

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The book is out, but everyone will talk about his cancer. Timing.

Democrats and Journalists Still Avoid Biden’s Decline (Graham)

The first excerpts of the Jake Tapper-Alex Thompson book on denying former President Joe Biden’s obvious mental decline have been posted, and you can already sense Democrats don’t want to deal with what they have done. The book’s title is “Original Sin.” Why the biblical title? The authors write: “The original sin of Election 2024 was Biden’s decision to run for re-election—followed by aggressive efforts to hide his cognitive diminishment.” There is more religious terminology. “It was an abomination,” one “prominent Democratic strategist” told the authors. “He stole an election from the Democratic Party; he stole it from the American people.” The condemnations here make sense, but they are far too narrow. Democrats as a whole failed to hold an actual primary election in 2024. Almost no one decided to challenge Biden, with the unforgettable exception of Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who ran explicitly on the issue of Biden’s inability to run for reelection and serve a second term.

Democrat state parties kept challengers like Phillips off primary ballots, and Democrats sought to strip Donald Trump off primary ballots. So the “stole an election” sermon ignores a lot of facts. The condemnation should obviously include the Democrat-allied media, who mostly ignored Phillips and his cause or told him he was foolish. They still don’t want to talk about this. Since the first previews in The New Yorker and Axios, where we learned Biden didn’t recognize actor George Clooney at a fundraiser and Biden aides pondered putting him in a wheelchair after the election, only NBC offered a short report summarizing the scoops. ABC, CBS and PBS ignored it. The “PBS News Hour” offered nine grieving minutes on a state law in Ohio gutting diversity, equity, and inclusive programs on campus, but nothing on Biden. These networks might still sound like NPR as it dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop in 2020. It’s a “pure distraction.”

The broadcast networks have displayed their shamelessly partisan reflexes, that on any issue that feels like a Trump talking point, they circle their wagons around Democrat die-hards. The “sin” here extends to these authors. If and when Tapper and Thompson engage with the national media in interviews, let’s guess there won’t be much pushback on their own demurrals and dismissals of Biden’s decline during his four years in office. Like many journalists, they’ll insist they didn’t avoid the issue—but that’s only because the voters told pollsters it was a problem. For his part, Tapper didn’t cover Biden trying to find a dead congresswoman in the audience in 2022, and he insisted Biden was “sharp” mentally when presidential contender Nikki Haley insisting on cognitive tests for elderly candidates. He disagreed with Republican critics after Biden’s yelling-Grandpa performance at the 2024 State of the Union address: He showed his age, but “he didn’t seem incapable of doing the job.”

Tapper didn’t want to be on the “wrong” side of the Bidens. Dylan Byers at Puck reported that at a Super Bowl party in 2018, Hunter Biden put his arm around Tapper and told him if they weren’t in public, “I would knock you out”. Hunter believed Tapper had reported on allegations of his rampant use of drugs and prostitutes that emerged from his divorce. Tapper assured Hunter that he didn’t report any of that—as if that’s a point of pride. Democrats and their media allies need to face a reckoning for their vast left-wing conspiracy to deny what everyone could see—that Biden was unfit to continue, even to the end of his term. This is especially ridiculous for networks like Tapper’s CNN, which repeatedly proclaimed that Trump was mentally unfit throughout his first term, pushing a 25th Amendment “solution” for him.

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“This contradicts both the new Democrat spin that Biden began a rapid decline after 2022 and also the Tapper and Thompson revelations that the decline had started being noticed in 2019.”

Distrust and Accountability (Erickson)

CNN’s Kasie Hunt interviewed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer the other day. She confronted him about allegations of a meeting with former President Joe Biden that should have raised alarms about Biden’s fitness for office. “We’re moving forward,” Schumer replied. He would not answer the question. Chuck Todd, speaking afterwards on CNN, said, “He is among the people responsible for this. The leaders of the Democratic Party, the staff of the White House—and I have to say I find everybody now talking to these authors—get out of here. Now you tell us?” He then referred to the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration as “catastrophic governance.” The American people began raising concerns about Biden’s fitness for office while Biden campaigned for the presidency in 2020. Polling in 2021 noted that a majority of the American public had concerns about Biden’s mental and physical frailty.

Former President Barack Obama’s speechwriter Jon Favreau now claims Biden declined after the 2022 midterms. New reporting from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson notes Biden regularly had bad days before 2022, but as he aged, he got even worse. Democrats would have us believe it was stress related to Hunter Biden. But these same Democrats refused to release the audio of Biden’s interview with Special Prosecutor Robert Hur. The same reporters who now claim they were stunned and their sources would not be candid with them were the very same reporters who never fought for the release of the Hur audio and, in fact, treated the Hur report’s conclusion that Biden was not mentally fit to stand trial as a partisan statement. Axios’ Alex Thompson is one of the few reporters the Biden administration blackballed for regularly covering Biden’s decline.

CNN’s Tapper, for his part, told his colleague John Berman, “I’m not going to speak for anybody else, but knowing then what I know now, I look back at my coverage during the Biden years—and I did cover some of these issues, but not enough.” Comcast gave Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki her own show. She used her show to deflect from concerns about Biden’s decline. Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Morning Joe told his audience on March 6, 2024, “F you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.” This contradicts both the new Democrat spin that Biden began a rapid decline after 2022 and also the Tapper and Thompson revelations that the decline had started being noticed in 2019.

“Look, what we learned through our reporting is that starting in around 2019, 2020, there were two Bidens. There was a Biden that was perfectly workable, serviceable, seemed fine. And then there was a non-functioning one that couldn’t come up with names of top aides, that would lose his train of thought to an alarming degree. And that non-functioning Biden reared his head increasingly over and over,” Tapper told Berman. This gets back to Chuck Todd’s comments about Sen. Schumer. “Now you tell us,” he says. But what did they need to tell us? The American people were raising concerns in 2020 and 2021. It was the American press corps that insisted Americans not believe their lying eyes. It was voices on CNN and MSNBC that had Democrats on to insist the video of Biden being led off stage by Barack Obama had been mischaracterized by Republicans.

“Catastrophic governance” is how Todd characterized this opening of Trump’s new term. That, I suspect, gives us the answer to the big question—how could the press cover for Biden when the American people themselves knew something was wrong? Because, at that time, Biden was the only thing standing between the presidency and Trump. Now that he has lost, the truth can be told, except for the part of the press’ complicity in the cover-up. Americans did not need White House sources to tell them something was wrong. Only America’s top reporters did, and without those sources, they insisted until the bitter end that the public got duped by the GOP.

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They need to explain.

Patel&Bongino Tease New Russiagate Evidence, Say Epstein Killed Himself (ZH)

FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Fox News on Sunday, where the pair hinted at a “wave of transparency” on the horizon over weaponization of the DOJ by the Biden and Obama administrations. “You asked in the beginning how the FBI was weaponized,” Patel told host Maria Bartiromo. “Well, the FBI hijacked the constitutional responsibility of the Department of Justice and the Attorney General, and James Comey and others specifically decided what cases to prosecute and not prosecute. Don’t believe me? Go to the videotape in the Hillary Clinton investigation.” Cool, cool.”We don’t decide prosecutions, and neither does any agent or intel analyst. We have great partners under Attorney General [Pam] Bondi. We work with them and discuss the matter with them, but the prosecutorial decision is with them,” Patel continued.

No rush on those indictments and pre-dawn raids, guys. The pair also said they’ve uncovered additional details regarding the Obama DOJ’s Crossfire Hurricane (Russiagate) investigation, and are working with Congress on it – which for some reason they have to do before they can release it. Of note, Patel was previously the House Intelligence Committee’s lead Russiagate investigator. “They bastardized the process, they withheld and hid documentation and put it in rooms where people weren’t supposed to look,” he said. “That’s how vindictive and vicious the former leadership structure here was. Not only did they bastardize the FISA process and lie to the American public, they withheld and hid documentation and put it in rooms where people weren’t supposed to look,” Patel continued, adding “It’s a good thing we’re here now to clean it up, and you’re about to see a wave of transparency… Just give us about a week or two.”

In another segment, the pair insisted that pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein definitely killed himself. “You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. People don’t believe it,” said Bartiromo. “They have a right to their opinion,” Patel replied. “But as someone who’s been a public defender, a prosecutor, who’s worked in that prison system and been inside segregated housing——you know a suicide when you see one. And that’s what that was.” Bongino concurred, saying “He killed himself.”

So, Epstein, whose cellmate moved out the day before he died, was able to kill himself right at the moment security cameras malfunctioned and his guards fell asleep. And other inmates reportedly heard “shouting and shrieking” from Epstein’s jail cell the morning he died. And some footage which was apparently recovered was deemed “too flawed for investigators to use.” And this was a photo of the ‘noose’ he used:

And coroner Dr. Michael Baden said his autopsy was more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicide. Right. Remember when Elon Musk told Joe Rogan he can’t dig too deep into government corruption or he’ll be wet work’d? Bongino’s reply to the above question has the same vibes.

https://twitter.com/InternetH0F/status/1896455529813139858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1896455529813139858%7Ctwgr%5E87a70587f03f5b008b4ef25a44ed1da9929a9db7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fpatel-bongino-tease-russiagate-accountability-wave-transparency-yet-insist-jeffrey

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“..for Obama to take the nomination, the presidency and then eventually support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid. Obama would appoint Clinton to Secretary of State, Hillary would then use her office to build wealth for herself and her family, and then HRC would exit the Dept of State to begin her presidential run.”

Devin Nunes Discusses Likelihood of Success for Patel and Bongino (CTH)

Former HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes is a man very familiar with the Russiagate nonsense and the weaponization of the DOJ, FBI and CIA against candidate Donald Trump and later President Trump. Within this interview Nunes hits on a few good points, the most accurate is his focus on the motives and intents of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who was installed as the cover-up operation for Crossfire Hurricane. However, Nunes gets a part of the origin a little askew and inaccurately framed. The original agreement between Clinton and Obama going back to 2008 was for Obama to take the nomination, the presidency and then eventually support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid. Obama would appoint Clinton to Secretary of State, Hillary would then use her office to build wealth for herself and her family, and then HRC would exit the Dept of State to begin her presidential run.

John Podesta would enter the Obama administration as Hillary left in 2013. Podesta would look out for Hillary’s interests from his position inside the Obama White House. The Clintons and Obamas never fully trusted each other. Barack Obama would put all the mechanisms into place that would transition his administration into Hillary Clintons’. That was always the plan. In 2015 Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had a check-in meeting; just touching base to firm up the goals and objectives as Hillary began her campaign launch. Podesta left the White House to take up position inside the campaign, and Team Obama would maintain Clinton’s interests as planned without an insider.

All of President Obama’s appointments in after 2015, were essentially through the prism of assisting Hillary Clinton to win in 2016. Attorney General Loretta Lynch (tarmac meeting), Deputy AG Sally Yates, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI Director James Comey were all part of that. Technically Hillary had eyes and ears all over the White House at the time, and with Hillary Clinton being a foregone conclusion per the expectations of Washington DC, everyone would fall in line during the transition from Obama to Clinton. Again, this was the general plan. Obama would show up in 2016 to campaign for Hillary and all would be seamless.The FBI was aware of the plan for transition from Obama to Clinton, hence their role in eliminating the threat later presented by the Clinton, as Secretary of State, laptop scandal and the subsequent issues of classified information.

Remember, Clinton’s motive as Secretary of State was to sell her position for material wealth; that’s why she used a personal email, maintained her own servers, and generally controlled how her activity could be monitored and tracked. [Also, she didn’t fully trust Obama] When the Clinton campaign launched the Russia Collusion dirty trick move against her opponent Donald Trump, originally using Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson, the role of the Obama administration was to facilitate the political hit, and at the very least not impede it. Hence, former CIA Director John Brennan briefing Barack Obama on the status of the Russia collusion hoax as it spread in 2016 via the Clinton campaign.

Specifically because President Obama was, by extension, now a participant in the Clinton created “Russia Collusion hoax,” and specifically because his administration officials were participants in the process (DOJ, FBI), when President Trump won the 2016 election. President Barack Obama was now exposed by the threat the operation represented. This context is the impetus for the January 5, 2017, Susan Rice memo. Following the surprising result in the 2016 election, the team around Obama was urgently framing plausible deniability. President Obama did not orchestrate the Russia Collusion hoax; he facilitated it by not interfering with his administration officials who were assisting Hillary Clinton. This is a very key distinction. President Obama knew what was going on, he was willfully blind as it was carried out. However, the mess and fallout from the extreme lengths his FBI and DOJ officials went eventually represented a threat to Obama.

Robert Mueller and all 19 of his Clinton-aligned Lawfare operatives, were put into place to cover-up the entire mess created within the Russia Collusion operation. Mueller +19 continued the Crossfire Hurricane operation, while the extreme Lawfare strategy was deployed against the Trump administration. That’s the short, encapsulated version. The Russia Collusion hoax was created by Hillary Clinton, spread to media through Fusion GPS and given the patina of credibility by the DOJ and FBI. President Obama facilitated the operation by not interfering in the operation, until it became a threat to him personally. Both the Obama and Clinton political teams supported and organized the Robert Mueller cover-up.

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“..if they can be charged, we’ll charge them. But if they can’t be charged, we will name them.”

FBI Agents Beg Court To Destroy List Before ‘Shame’ Campaign (ZH)

A group of FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigations asked a judge Thursday to destroy a Trump administration list containing the names of roughly 5,000 agents tied to the probes. Their move follows Ed Martin’s vow, as the newly appointed weaponization czar, to “name” and “shame” the thousands of agents who helped crack down on more than 1,000 Americans allegedly involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, protests. The anonymous agents told U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb that Martin’s public pledge signals the federal government plans to release the list. They first sued in February, asking the court to destroy or seal the roster.

Their Thursday filing came after Martin promised at a Tuesday press conference to hold the agents accountable for destroying the lives of more than 1,000 Jan. 6 defendants. “There are some really bad actors, some people that did some really bad things to the American people. And if they can be charged, we’ll charge them. But if they can’t be charged, we will name them. And in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed. And that’s a fact. That’s the way things work. And so that’s, that’s how I believe the job operates.”

The agents argue Martin’s rhetoric puts them in greater danger of retribution by the pardoned Jan. 6 defendants. “Mr. Martin’s statements represent new, relevant facts worthy of the Court’s attention while it considers Plaintiffs’ requested relief,” their filing claimed, according to Law and Crime. The agents are represented by a group of attorneys that includes Mark Zaid, who is also suing President Trump over revoked security clearances. Zaid is also representing former FBI agent Jamie Mannina in a defamation suit against journalist James O’Keefe, after O’Keefe released undercover footage of Mannina expressing his contempt for Trump.

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“..some EU institutions continue to push for Ukraine’s accession to the bloc. Analysts say this could further weaken border controls and oversight mechanisms..”

Weapons From Ukraine Will Flood Europe – Report (RT)

A massive influx of weapons from Ukraine will hit Europe’s black markets after the conflict with Russia is over, according to a new report by the Eurasia Observatory, which tracks the conflict’s long-term impact on organized crime. Western-supplied weapons and thousands of battle-hardened Ukrainian veterans are expected to fuel a wave of crime, arms trafficking, and instability across the continent – as talks between Moscow and Kiev to resolve the conflict raise hopes for a ceasefire – the document warns. ”Stockpiles of weapons, including heavy arms, are being amassed throughout Ukraine,” the report says. “Should the fighting stop, martial law in Ukraine will presumably be lifted, reducing the resources and powers of the state to police the civilian sphere – and opening up the field for organized crime to operate more freely.”

Kiev received over $363 billion (€326 billion) in NATO aid by February 2025, according to the Kiel Institute. Porous borders and weak oversight may fail to stop smuggled weapons such as rifles, grenades, and missile systems, according to the document. Earlier this year, US journalist Tucker Carlson claimed that the Ukrainian military was selling American weapons systems “on the black market, including to drug cartels.” Western media and officials have acknowledged that weapons sent to Kiev have ended up in criminal hands. Europol reported in April 2022 that arms were being trafficked from Ukraine into the EU for organized crime groups. Later that year, the Finnish authorities confirmed that these weapons had surfaced locally, with similar findings in Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

By mid-2024, Spanish media reported gangs in southern Spain had acquired modern weapons allegedly smuggled from Ukraine. The return of Ukrainian soldiers skilled in sabotage, drones, and cyber warfare poses a threat, with the report warning that they could become a “valuable resource” for criminal networks in Europe. Corruption in Ukraine is a major concern, with the most recent estimate showing Ukraine will require $524 billion to repair the damage from the war. The report warns that criminals could exploit the process to launder money and gain influence.

Despite mounting concerns over arms trafficking and fraud, some EU institutions continue to push for Ukraine’s accession to the bloc. Analysts say this could further weaken border controls and oversight mechanisms. The report warns that without a coordinated long-term strategy, Western nations risk facing the fallout of a conflict that Moscow claims they helped fuel and now struggle to control. Russia has warned against Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine, saying they only serve to prolong the conflict and heighten regional security threats. It has also said the unchecked supply of weapons has resulted in a large number falling into the hands of organized criminal groups and extremists worldwide.

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It’ll still take a while. Senate next.

House Republicans Advance “Big, Beautiful Bill” After Weekend of Talks (ZH)

Following a Friday fracas on Capitol Hill which saw House Republicans fail to advance President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” out of the House Budget Committee, Republicans on said Committee did just that after several GOP deficit hawks relented. And while the bill still has a couple of stops before it can hit the House Floor, passage to the Senate could come as early as the end of this week. The measure passed narrowly, 17-16, with all Democrats opposed and four Republicans; Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma – voting “present” after voting “No” on the bill in a 16-21 vote just two days earlier. The sudden turnaround followed a weekend of furious negotiations that remain largely behind closed doors.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) met with fellow lawmakers shortly before Sunday’s vote and told reporters that there had been “some minor modifications,” several sources posted on X. Johnson said the bill, which includes making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent and reforming Medicaid, is now “on track” for a House floor vote toward the end of this week.The vote was a big win for Johnson and Trump, coming just two days after Republican opposition torpedoed the bill’s first attempt at committee passage. Despite this procedural victory, the legislation must still clear the House Rules Committee and secure a vote on the House floor, where Republicans hold only a razor-thin majority, Axios reports. Norman, one of the Republicans who shifted his position, said he was “excited about the changes” in the works for the bill.

Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) confirmed during the Sunday night session that “most likely there would be some changes” to the measure before it reaches the floor – but he couldn’t comment on specifics or any side deals that might have been struck. The panel’s reversal came after it initially rejected the legislation Friday, setting off a scramble to renegotiate terms with holdout Republicans. One of the most contentious elements has been the GOP’s proposed Medicaid overhaul, with conservatives pushing for deeper structural changes and moderates raising concerns about the political risks.

Even if the package passes the House, Senate Republicans are expected to propose their own revisions. To that end, Johnson has also been working to secure buy-in from blue state Republicans by exploring a compromise on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap. On Friday, Trump did his usual shit-talking to pressure Republicans into line – posting on Truth Social; “We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”

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“..it is possible that they could save themselves if there was a massive violent uprising, but the people are too weak-minded and weak-willed..”

The USA, As We Knew it, Has Been Destroyed By The Supreme Court (PCR)

“The Supreme Court has just ruled that the worst murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even those who are mentally insane, who came into our Country illegally, are not allowed to be forced out without going through a long, protracted, and expensive Legal Process, one that will take, possibly, many years for each person, and one that will allow these people to commit many crimes before they even see the inside of a Courthouse. The result of this decision will let more CRIMINALS pour into our Country, doing great harm to our cherished American public. It will also encourage other criminals to illegally enter our Country, wreaking havoc and bedlam wherever they go. The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do. Sleepy Joe Biden allowed MILLIONS of Criminal Aliens to come into our Country without any “PROCESS” but, in order to get them out of our Country, we have to go through a long and extended PROCESS. In any event, thank you to Justice Alito and Justice Thomas for attempting to protect our Country. This is a bad and dangerous day for America!” — President Trump, Truth Social, May 16, 2025 at 5:59 PM

As I predicted, the liberal-left, committed as it is to the establishment of a Sodom & Gomorrah Tower of Babel, used the mindless judiciary to protect “rights” of non-citizens who broke the law by entering the country illegally. The judges defined the preservation of America in terms of defending “rights” for illegals who are not US citizens to use US courts to evade enforcement of US law. No one knows where these American rights of non-Americans came from, but the morons on the Supreme Court are defending them. The Supreme Court’s ruling against America in favor of illegal aliens reads like the babel of an insane asylum. Which is what the court is. Instead of standing when judges enter the courtroom, they should be pelted with rotten tomatoes and rotten eggs. There is no reason to respect them as they do not respect America and its Constitution. Most of them are activists for overthrowing traditional America.

The judiciary has also created a fourth branch of government, the civil service or executive branch employees, who the judiciary has now made independent of presidential control. So, five months into the presidential term, my prediction has come true that the Democrats, committed as they are to the replacement of white racist Americans with people of color, would use the courts to defeat the will of the people as expressed in the presidential election.

Americans do not realize, despite the over-abundance of evidence, that they have been in a civil war for many years. That a civil war was underway became completely and totally clear in 2016 and again in 2020 and again during the Biden regime’s illegal prosecutions of Donald Trump and falsely accused and incarcerated “insurrectionists.” That the US Department of Justice and federal courts could be used to imprison American patriots who protested a stolen presidential election demonstrated for even morons to see that the Democrat liberal-left was committed to overthrowing America.

Parents in every state had the evidence before their noses every day of the school year. In place of education, white kids were taught, and still are, that they are racists, along with their parents and grandparents, that they might have been born into the wrong body, that gender is unrelated to biology and determined by self-declaration. Parents who resisted sex change operations for their underage children risked losing them to seizure by Child Protective Services. Young kids were being sexualized at an early age, taught how to give oral sex and to copulate. The Democrats heavily into pedophilia are creating receptive children for themselves. Merit was abandoned as a basis for admission to quality schools for the gifted and as the basis for graduation, resulting in the destruction of the educational experience once offered to the gifted, people America certainly needs.

Corporations and even the military sidelined hiring and promotion for white heterosexual Americans in order to give illegal preference to DEI. Corporate advertising promoted, and still does, miscegenation. Democrat political jurisdictions permitted Antifa and Black Lives Matter to loot and burn white business areas of cities and refused to prosecute. Laws were passed that reduced the accountability of people of color for crimes. For these and many other reasons enough of the insouciant American population saw the light and responded by electing an American as president. It only took 7 Supreme Court justices and a sprinkling of Democrat federal district judges to defeat the American people’s uprising. Americans need to understand that the Supreme Court with its ruling has destroyed America.

A country that cannot defend its borders and that cannot deport illegal entrants is described in Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints, a description of the fate that awaits white Americans, but Americans cannot stop scrolling their cell phones long enough to read a book that tells their future. If Americans understood what awaits them, it is possible that they could save themselves if there was a massive violent uprising, but the people are too weak-minded and weak-willed to save themselves even if they could face up to the threat. With my prediction that Trump’s agenda would be blocked proven true, I am encouraged to offer another prediction. The Democrats will steal the mid-term elections. The RINO Republicans, media, and judiciary will help them in order to get rid of Trump. Next, President Trump will be successfully impeached, and he and members of his government and supporters will be prosecuted.

White heterosexual Americans will be discriminated against in every aspect of life. All who protest will face charges. The United States of America is about to disappear. My backup prediction is that the American Establishment will override the Democrat liberal-left, because the ruling establishment sees Trump as an effective agent for their construction of an American neo-colonial empire consisting of Greenland, Panama, Gaza, and the Middle East. This opens up new avenues of plunder for the ruling elite. The destruction of American unity that the Democrat liberal-left has achieved plays into the hands of the elite as the absence of unity prevents constraints on their privatization of government. Now that I think about it, my backup prediction could well be the most likely one.

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1933

222

China

https://twitter.com/Mappy6984/status/1923933323983827214

https://twitter.com/Ric_RTP/status/1924102595125100637

 

 

 

 

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Apr 152025
 
 April 15, 2025  Posted by at 9:32 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  28 Responses »


Mathew Brady Abe Lincoln 1864

 

Lincoln Was a ‘Threat to Democracy’ (Al Perrotta)
Trump’s Life’s Work Culminates in Confronting Communist China (Josh Hammer)
Living on the Edge (Martin Armstrong)
Temporary Tariff Terror Examined (Steve McKee)
Zelensky Started The War Then Begged For Missiles – Trump (RT)
Trump Slams Biden, Zelensky & Putin For Ukraine War: ‘Everybody Is To Blame’ (ZH)
West Seeks To Partition Ukraine – Senior Russian Diplomat (RT)
Zelensky Urges Trump To Visit Ukraine Before Pressing Negotiations (ZH)
Trump Slams ‘Dishonest’ CBS After Zelensky Interview (RT)
We Have Proof Sumy Strike Targeted Ukrainian Troops and Foreign Mercs – Lavrov (Sp.)
The Sumy Missile Strike: War, Propaganda, and Hypocrisy (Amar)
Medvedev Brands Incoming German Chancellor ‘Nazi’ (RT)
Meta’s Monopoly Trial Kicks Off (ET)
Now We Know Why Democrats Are Losing the Messaging War (Margolis)
El Salvador’s Bukele Won’t Return MS-13 Gang Member Mistakenly Deported (JTN)
Why the Beatified MS-13 ‘Father’ Was ‘Mistakenly’ Deported (Victoria Taft)
Systemic Considerations (James Howard Kunstler)

 

 


Holy Week at the White House

 

 

Tea

5,000 years
https://twitter.com/Zlatti_71/status/1911706962795831524

Speaker

Left

Homeless

Titan

Tariffs
https://twitter.com/ImMeme0/status/1911513456249127332

Cop

 

 

 

 

Exactly 160 years ago, the US lost a major part of its innocence. That reveberates to this day, and the attempts at Trump’s life.

Lincoln Was a ‘Threat to Democracy’ (Al Perrotta)

One hundred sixty years ago tonight, at Ford’s Theater, John Wilkes Booth put a bullet in the head of President Abraham Lincoln. What motivated the 26-year-old actor? Fame? No, he had plenty of that. His photos were outsold only by Honest Abe himself. Acclaim? No, contrary to tales told in school that he was jealous of the critical raves afforded his father Junius and brother Edwin, Booth earned reviews any young actor would die for. He even refused to perform under his real name until he earned reviews worthy of the name. To avenge the Confederacy’s defeat? You’re getting closer. Booth raged and despaired over the suffering incurred by the South. Actually, John Wilkes Booth told us his motivation. After shooting Lincoln and making his dramatic leap to the stage, Booth shouted “Sic Semper Tyrannis!” (“Thus always to tyrants.”) Or to put it another way, “Lincoln was a threat to democracy.”

Twice last summer, amid a daily drumbeat from former President Joe Biden, Democrats, and the media that Donald Trump was a “threat to democracy,” a budding tyrant, two would-be assassins came very close to killing him. Ryan Routh was charged Thursday in Florida for his attempt. A recent study indicates 55% of self-described leftists think the assassination of Trump would be “justifiable.” Given the rhetoric, given the vast numbers with a similar heart, it’s no wonder Routh thought he was doing the world a favor. “Everyone across the globe from the youngest to the oldest know [sic] that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a U.S. president,” Routh wrote in a letter found after his arrest. “U.S. presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity.”

So did Booth, who wrote while on the run: “Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment. A country that groaned beneath this tyranny, and prayed for this end, and yet now behold the cold hands they extend to me. ” Booth grew increasingly dismayed at being vilified and rejected. “I am here in despair. And why? For doing what Brutus was honored for. What made Tell a hero? And yet I, for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew, am looked upon as a common cutthroat.” In a letter attempting to justify his actions, Booth wrote: “When Caesar had conquered the enemies of Rome and the power that was his menaced the liberties of the people, Brutus arose and slew him. The stroke of his dagger was guided by his love of Rome. It was the spirit and ambition of Caesar that Brutus struck at.”
“Oh, that we could come by Caesar’s spirit,
And not dismember Caesar.
But, alas!
Ceasar must bleed for it.”

Booth, a man steeped since birth in Shakespearean drama, sought the death of Lincoln as Shakespeare’s Brutus did Caesar’s. This fear stemmed not from what the president had done, but from the belief that with his enemies conquered, Lincoln would keep his war powers and reign as a tyrant. This gets to one of the most tragic elements of Lincoln’s assassination, positively Shakespearean in its awfulness. John Wilkes Booth failed to realize that with the war over, Lincoln was the best friend the South had. And Booth had a role to play. The greatest of his life. Lincoln wanted a gentle reconciliation between North and South, “with malice toward none, and charity for all.” Many powerful forces around him had plenty of malice toward the Confederacy, and no mood for charity. Those in the South whose towns had been laid waste and their sons laid to rest by the hundreds of thousands, would also have trouble with reconciliation.

Lincoln’s mission of unifying the country in peace looked to be as difficult as winning the war. He would need all the help he could get. Author Michael Kauffman discovered an intriguing tidbit when researching his book “American Brutus.” A worker at Ford’s Theater saw Booth hand an attendant a card, and the attendant bring the card into the Presidential Box. What happened next is not known. But is it not possible that Lincoln received Booth’s card, and knowing Booth’s fame, his oratory gifts and his sympathies, realized the actor could prove very valuable in helping “bind the nation’s wounds”? Who better than America’s First Family of Theater to help bring the nation together? Perhaps the theater-loving president even knew the three acting Booth brothers would be sharing the stage at a benefit the following week.

With the war over and the comedy romp “Our American Cousin” playing out beneath him, did Lincoln see in Booth’s card a golden opportunity? Is it not likely an excited Lincoln told the attendant, “Yes, send Mr. Booth in”? Rather than summon a potential partner, Lincoln summoned his own executioner. Booth killed not only the president, but all hope for a gentle reconciliation. How much better for his beloved South had Booth pulled up a chair instead of a pistol? How much better for our nation and their own dreams if liberals sought Trump’s cooperation rather than destruction? The future is in their hands. The 55% who believe Trump’s assassination would be justified would heed well the lesson of John Wilkes Booth. After being cornered in a barn in Port Royal, Virginia and shot, Booth looked down at his hands and uttered his final words: “Useless. Useless.”

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Much of what happens with regards to the tariffs surprises people, and they think it’s -largely- new. Donald Trump has been preoccupied with the issues for 40 years. In this 1988 video he says he doesn’t want to be president. But he would probably have been a strong candidate even then. Reagan at that point had just slapped a 100% tariff on a lot of Japanese imports.

Trump’s Life’s Work Culminates in Confronting Communist China (Josh Hammer)

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump abruptly announced a 90-day pause on most of his planned country-specific “reciprocal” tariffs—with the notable exception of China. In so strikingly singling out China as the focus of America’s economic and geopolitical ire, Trump was not merely clarifying that the United States views China and its regnant Communist Party as our leading 21st-century threat—he was also taking yet another notable step toward fulfilling his own lifelong goal of fundamentally resetting the terms of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship. As an “outer-borough” native New Yorker from Queens, Trump has long seen things differently than most of his white-shoe brethren and fellow one-percenters living across the (literal and proverbial) river in Manhattan.

Throughout virtually his entire career, Trump has served as a “class traitor” archetype—someone who, as I wrote in an essay last year, “may hold ‘elite’ ruling class credentials, but whose hearts, minds, concerns, and general sensibilities are decidedly with the country class.” That is the essence of Trump’s nationalist-populist MAGA political coalition. But it’s also who Trump has been since his earliest interviews with the New York City tabloids and TV hosts all those decades ago. There is no better example than trade, Trump’s most consistently held political position. In the 1980s, he was alarmed at the rise of Japan as an economic superpower, arguing that America’s trade deficit with Japan was problematic and that the U.S. should respond with crippling tariffs. (It seems that Ronald Reagan, who in 1987 slapped a 100% tariff on many Japanese goods, was listening.)

In recent decades, Trump has applied the same logic to the newer threat of China. In 2011, for instance, four years before he launched his successful presidential run, Trump railed against widely practiced Chinese currency manipulation: “They have manipulated their currency so violently towards this country, it is almost impossible for our companies to compete with Chinese companies.” During the first year of his first presidential term, Trump directed his Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate Chinese trade practices. The subsequent report was damning, and Trump implemented numerous tariffs on Chinese goods—tariffs that, to his rare credit, former President Joe Biden largely kept in place and even built upon. In addition to his first-term tariffs, Trump also filed a formal World Trade Organization case against China, alleging deceptive trade practices and intellectual property theft.

As Trump put it at the time in a tweet: “Today I directed the U.S. Trade Representative to take action so that countries stop CHEATING the system at the expense of the USA!” Trump’s tariff escalation this week against Communist China—even as he paused many other tariffs to allow for bilateral trade negotiations and give jittery bond markets some relief—is a natural culmination of the work to reset the U.S.-China economic relationship that he commenced during his first term. For that matter, it is also the natural culmination of his short-lived third-party presidential run in 2000 with the trade protectionist Reform Party, as well as his 1988 “Oprah Winfrey Show” interview, where he teased a future presidential run that would focus on trade. Immigration may be the issue most readily associated with Trump’s MAGA movement, but there is no issue that has been nearer and dearer to Trump’s heart over the decades than trade—first with Japan and then with China. Most important, Trump has not just been outspoken on the issue of trade with China—he has been proven correct.

https://twitter.com/benfergusonshow/status/1909047756183785829

Ever since Richard Nixon’s fateful trip to visit Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1972, American elites of all political stripes promised that welcoming China into the global economy would be good for all parties involved. American consumers, we were reliably informed, would get cheaper and more abundant goods; American exporters would get a massive and exciting new market to peddle their wares; and the Chinese people themselves would soon reap the rewards of the “political liberalization” that could only come about through “economic liberalization.” This was the dominant thinking when Nixon visited China over a half-century ago, when the George W. Bush administration welcomed China into the World Trade Organization in 2001, and when Barack Obama hosted and toasted Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House in 2015.

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Martin Armstrong highlights the “lose face” angle, “don’t do it in public”. But China has done very little since Trump’s first term, when he’s certain to have brought it up, though not in public, so why would Trump wait now?

Living on the Edge (Martin Armstrong)

The U.S.-China trade war is an ongoing economic conflict that began in January 2018, characterized by the imposition of tariffs and trade barriers by both countries. Recently, tensions escalated as the U.S. raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, prompting China to retaliate with tariffs of 125% on U.S. imports, affecting global supply chains and market stability. Trump’s decision not to grant China the same reprieve as other nations explained: “China wants to make a deal, they just don’t know how quite to go about it.” I disagree. If I were China, I would do a full embargo, and the Achilles’ heel in this trade war is more than just the manufacture of values for municipalities – the big ones, steel and aluminum, but also medicines. Personally, I would put a full embargo on everything, and without the medicines, people would be screaming, and their lives would be put in danger. I have dealt with Asia for some 40 years. You do not do this sort of thing publicly. It is an insult and a loss of face that forces China not to yield.

The developing U.S.-China trade war keeps ratcheting up. China has suspended exports of rare earth minerals. Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Lutnick said that the electronics the Trump administration exempted from reciprocal tariffs could be subject to different levies in the future. This is not good. You do not air your dirty laundry in public.

Beijing’s perspective is dramatically different. Xi Jinping has taken the view that his country would lose face if it simply capitulated to what it calls America’s “unilateral bullying.” The danger with this trade war is that publicly, it only supports fervent nationalism, and that feeds into what will become World War III. China has been quietly preparing for a trade war for quite some time. Trump’s actions may spark negotiation in Western circles, but in Asian circles, they create the image that the US doesn’t want to negotiate. My concern is that Xi is brilliant. This trade war is playing into his domestic approval of anti-Americanism. Like the Russian sanctions that boosted Putin’s approval rating calculation, sources say, China is also seeing a rise in popular support to strengthen its position by preparing not just to fight back. Trump’s trade war with China is definitely strengthening Xi’s own position.

All of my sources have said that Xi fully understands that China has entered a period of protracted struggle in both trade and geopolitics with the United States and Europe. This became painfully obvious, and Europe and the Biden Administration confronted Russia. Xi has taken the position that China needs to prepare for these confrontations ever since the Biden Administration put sanctions on Russia and then threatened China if it dared to help Russia. The Neocon Antony Blinken expressed “serious concern” about China’s support for Russia’s defense industry. He went as far as to threaten Xi that he would impose sanctions if China helped Russia.

The Neocon Antony Blinken threw down the gauntlet and views the world only in his desire for imperial power. He never understood the economy, and this insanity of threatening China and removing Russia from Swift undermined the economy and split it in half, with the formation of BRICS for geopolitical security. I don’t believe Trump understands the damage that the Biden Administration inflicted upon the entire world. Now, go after China with a trade war to bring back manufacturing to America; this is pushing China over the edge.

China previously owned 10% of the US national debt. This is what Trump has not considered. Before this trade war began, in January, foreigners sold a net $13.3 billion of U.S. notes and bonds that had more than one year to maturity. As we approach sovereign debt defaults, I have warned that it may start with Japan and be followed by Europe. We saw almost $50 billion was sold in December 2024 in anticipation of a Trump trade war. Last November saw almost $35 billion dumped following the election.

Canada was the largest net seller in January. The UK needed the cash and was the biggest seller last December. I know some have made the outrageous claim that Japan sold US debt, and that made Trump pause the tariffs for 90 days. These people have ZERO understanding of the markets and even less about Trump. The tariffs over 10% are political, and it is part of his art of the deal. Japan is in economic trouble with its own debt crisis, and selling US debt had nothing to do with the tariffs – this is about creating a real debt crisis. That said, China has the capacity to dump US debt in a big way, and that would send US rates higher on the long-end. U.S. stocks rallied with Trump pausing the tariffs, yet this was cyclically on point, which our computer had forecast months in advance. People just try to come up with some fundamentals to explain each move in a market, whether true or false. Our computer is projecting that 2025 will be the low in Chinese interest rates both on the 2-year and 30-year.

While stocks rallied, Treasury yields rose so much that lower rates benefited stocks. China has been quietly selling U.S. debt, which began over a year ago. This was not something new out of the blue in response to new tariffs. Bond markets were flashing warning signs based on the hidden risks behind the entire dynamics of trade and geopolitics. Behind the scenes, U.S. Treasury yields have been rising during the overnight sessions, indicating foreign market selling. Nevertheless, the prospects of war in Europe are reflected in our models, for they do not support a collapse in the bond markets, implying that war will bring still capital inflows. When we look at the Baltic Freight Index, 2025 was a Double Directional Change, indicating that we would have this trade war. We have a Directional Change in 2026 and a Panic Cycle in 2027, with the culmination of this war extending into 2028. This might also be influenced by the war starting in Europe.

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“No one knows the extent to which he will succeed. But if conventional thinking could solve our existential issues, it would have by now.”

Temporary Tariff Terror Examined (Steve McKee)

When President Donald Trump made his Liberation Day announcements, his harshest critics immediately declared him an economic arsonist playing with fire he didn’t understand, while his strongest acolytes insisted he was 10 moves ahead, playing 4D chess with geopolitical mastery. Both camps jumped the gun. His was the opening salvo in a high-stakes game. Sometimes, the most effective strategy isn’t conventional. Sometimes it breaks the mold. Trump’s tariff gambit had the same disruptive effect. He was never under the illusion that his first offer would be the last word. That’s not how negotiation works. It’s not even how business works.

Trump’s not playing chess. It’s more akin to Go His announcement was surprising, yes. But that doesn’t necessarily make it wrong. In fact, it was reminiscent of a similarly shocking moment in another high-stakes arena: the legendary 2016 Go match between world champion Lee Sedol and DeepMind’s AlphaGo computer program. In move 37 of Game Two of the board game, AlphaGo played an unexpected, unconventional move. At first, it looked like a mistake. But as the game unfolded, it became clear that move 37 wasn’t just valid; it was, literally, game changing. It altered the way top players—and AI developers—understood the game and, to some extent, AI itself. That’s why chess is the wrong analogy in this tariff situation. No president can be expected to know the implications of every move like chess masters do. But they can know there will be implications from their move and as those implications unfold they will have a window to adjust their next move.

Trump understands negotiation This president, in particular, understands the rhyme and rhythm of negotiation. He knew this negotiation, being played out in full public view, would draw out the critics and opportunists and have real world impacts. That was baked into the cake, and it’s why, I surmise, he waited until just hours after the special House elections were decided to do it. This isn’t a private boardroom deal behind closed doors. It’s an unfolding negotiation taking place on the world stage, with millions of spectators and infinite scrutiny. That complicates things. But Trump, being Trump, accounted for that. He knew pushback would be inevitable. He couldn’t know the exact shape or timing, but he knew the opportunity to respond would come. And when it did, he took it.

Whether you agree with his tactics or not, he’s not capitulating or backtracking, he’s managing an unfolding negotiation. What makes Trump different—and maddening to many—is that he’s not cut from traditional presidential cloth. He’s a developer, a dealmaker, someone for whom negotiation is second nature. His presidency brought that skill set into a realm where every feint and pivot is broadcast and critiqued in real time. It’s a high-wire act, sure. But not one he has entered blindly.

The dynamics of the game needed to change The real takeaway here isn’t about trade policy. It’s about process. About resisting the impulse to rush to judgment based on ideology or tribal loyalty. These are dynamic, complex negotiations with layers most commentators either don’t understand or refuse to acknowledge. Yes, last week was a terrifying ride, but so is our future if something doesn’t change. Lest we forget, we’re going bankrupt. Something needs to happen. The U.S.—and by extension, much of the global economy—is hurtling down an unsustainable path. Somebody had to start changing the dynamics of a game which everybody is about to lose. Trump has done so. You don’t have to like him to see that he understands the stakes.

So sure, scratch your head. Raise your eyebrows. Ask hard questions. That’s part of the process. But don’t assume you’re watching 4D chess, and don’t call the man a fool. Instead, hold back the full ire of your fire. Accept that you may not be seeing the whole game board—none of us are. Call balls and strikes as you see them, but don’t call it “game over” when it has only just begun. There are many moves yet to come, and I don’t pretend to know how it’s all going to turn out. But as events continue to unfold, it’s unhelpful—and frankly unfair—to reduce Trump to either a genius or a fool. He is a man with a unique set of skills, forged in a different fire than most politicians, who is doing his best to deploy them in service of long-term trends in dire need of fixing. And he’s doing it none too soon. No one knows the extent to which he will succeed. But if conventional thinking could solve our existential issues, it would have by now.

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CBS turns on Trump again.

Zelensky Started The War Then Begged For Missiles – Trump (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky should never have started a war with Russia, US President Donald Trump has said. In a press conference alongside El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump commented on Zelensky’s recent offer to finance $15 billion worth of Patriot air defense batteries with the aid of Kiev’s European backers. “He’s always looking to purchase missiles,” the US presided noted. “When you start a war, you got to know that you can win the war,” he said of Zelensky. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.” Trump added that he gave Kiev American-made Javelin man-portable anti-tank missiles during his first presidency.

In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Zelensky called on the US to supply Ukraine with more air defenses. Kiev is ready to buy or lease up to ten Patriot air defense systems, and some European backers have offered to help with the money, he claimed. During the interview, the network suggested that Trump tried to cut Kiev out of peace talks with Russia, and that he lied in his statements about the conflict. Trump allegedly “rewrote history, saying, falsely, that Ukraine had started the war and calling… Zelensky ‘a dictator without elections’,” according to CBS. The US president lashed out at the news network on Truth Social on Monday, calling the interview inaccurate and fraudulent.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Ukraine conflict would never have escalated had he been in the White House, rather than his predecessor Joe Biden. According to the US president, the previous administration invested more than $300 billion into supporting Kiev. Trump has promised to “get back” the money, entering talks with Ukraine about jointly exploiting its mineral resources. He also suggested taking over Ukrainian nuclear power plants. The Kremlin has hailed the Trump administration’s peace efforts, but cautioned that resolving long-standing issues will take time and “painstaking work.”

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Keeping Zelensky around is counterproductive.

Trump Slams Biden, Zelensky & Putin For Ukraine War: ‘Everybody Is To Blame’ (ZH)

President Donald Trump while speaking with the press in the Oval Office on Monday once again blasted President Biden for the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, a war which Trump has repeatedly stressed should have never happened. “That’s a war that should have never been allowed to start and Biden could have stopped it and Zelensky could have stopped it and Putin should have never started it,” Trump said. “Everybody is to blame.” Trump added: “If Biden were competent and if Zelenskyy were competent, and I don’t know that he is, we had a rough session with this guy — he just kept asking for more and more.” But he seemed to reserve his most aggressive criticisms for Zelensky, once again blasting him for asking for more and more weapons and money, while knowing full well Ukraine can’t defeat Russia, which is “twenty times your size” – as Trump said. Watch:

Clearly last month’s Oval Office showdown involving J.D. Vance and Zelensky going at it still looms large in Trump’s mind. Trump had separately in a Monday Truth Social post also lamented that Biden and Zelensky “did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin.” Here’s what he said in the post: “The war between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening,” Trump wrote, adding that he “had nothing to do with this war” but is working “diligently to get the death and destruction to stop.” “If the 2020 presidential election was not rigged, and it was, in so many ways, that horrible war would never have happened,” he continued. “President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin. There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to stop, and fast. So sad!”

Much of this seems in reaction to the Zelensky “60 Minutes” interview from Sunday, wherein the Ukrainian leader claimed that “Russian narratives are prevailing” in the US, while singling out Vance in particular. Zelensky had said, “It’s a shift in tone, a shift in reality, really yes, a shift in reality, and I don’t want to engage in the altered reality that is being presented to me,” And on Vance, he described: “First and foremost, we did not launch an attack [to start the war]. It seems to me that the Vice President is somehow justifying Putin’s actions. I tried to explain, ‘You can’t look for something in the middle. There is an aggressor and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim’.”

Despite Trump’s newest attack on Zelensky, it remains that the United States is still supplying weaponry to Kiev, though reportedly in lesser quantities that previously, and is still providing limited intelligence. Zelensky has likely had to restrain some of the criticisms he wishes to hurl back, give Kiev is deeply fearful the US could once again cut off the flow of arms and ammo, as it did briefly soon after Trump took office.

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“We intended to partition Russia. Since we couldn’t pull that off, let’s divide Ukraine instead.”

West Seeks To Partition Ukraine – Senior Russian Diplomat (RT)

European nations hostile towards Moscow are advocating for the partitioning of Ukraine, according to Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large overseeing war crime investigations. Last week, The Times of London reported an alleged US proposal to divide the country, reminiscent of Germany’s division following World War II. Keith Kellogg, the US presidential envoy for Ukraine cited by the newspaper, later stated that his remarks had been misinterpreted by the British outlet. Miroshnik criticized the approach on Saturday as an embodiment of what he called the UK’s colonial mindset. “Europe has a habit of slicing up other continents and nations and parceling them out,” he stated in an interview.

He read the underlying message as the West saying: “We intended to partition Russia. Since we couldn’t pull that off, let’s divide Ukraine instead.” The diplomat drew parallels between the proposal in The Times and the aftermath of World War I, noting that turning Arab regions of the former Ottoman Empire into mandate territories governed by the UK and France did not ultimately bode well for the Middle East. Moscow opposes the presence of any NATO member states’ troops in Ukraine, including the post-ceasefire security force suggested by the UK and France. Miroshnik insisted that an “occupation” by those nations would merely confirm Ukraine’s status as a de facto “mandate territory” with a puppet government, primarily handled by the British. He added that Russia would not accept such a “toxic” neighbor.

“The time Kiev needs to lick its wounds may be alarmingly brief,” he cautioned. “It needs to reflect on its experiences, prepare, and train tens of thousands more militants via Britain before going to war again.” Certain European NATO members have advocated for a “resilience force” to be stationed in Ukraine, presenting them as a deterrent. Kellogg said he did not propose dividing the country but rather discussed with the Times the idea of “zones of responsibility,” controlled by Russia, a British-French contingent, and Kiev itself, respectively. Moscow views the Ukraine conflict as a NATO proxy war. Russian officials have argued that a lasting peace can only be achieved by addressing the fundamental issues, including the expansion of the US-led military bloc in Europe since the 1990s and the “neo-Nazi” character of the current Ukrainian government, which discriminates against ethnic Russians.

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Not a word about peace.

Zelensky Urges Trump To Visit Ukraine Before Pressing Negotiations (ZH)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging for President Donald Trump to visit Ukraine and see the war’s devastation first-hand before pressing for peace negotiations with Russia. “We want you to come,” the Ukrainian president pleaded in reference to Trump while speaking with CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday. Zelensky hit out at what he strongly hinted was Trump’s lack of understanding of the conflict and Russian brutality. “You think you understand what’s going on here. Okay, we respect your position. You understand. But, please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, “Come, look, and then let’s — let’s move with a plan how to finish the war,” he added. He further suggested that with such a trip, Trump will finally grasp Putin’s true nature.

“You will understand with whom you have a deal. You will understand what Putin did,” the Ukrainian leader said. This comes as the US and Russia are seeking diplomatic normalization through a series of bilateral meetings which have cut out any Ukrainian or EU representation. “We will not prepare anything. It will not be theater, with preparing actors in the streets and the [city] center. We don’t do this. We don’t need it,” he continued. “You can go exactly where you want, in any city which been under attacks, just to come and to understand.” The CBS interview aired the same day that Russian ballistic missiles pummeled the Ukrainian city of Sumy, resulting in a mass casualty event which was quickly condemned by the United States and European Union. Ukrainian emergency authorities said the Sumy attack killed at least 34 people and wounded more than a hundred.

Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired lieutenant general Keith Kellogg, reacted by saying it “crosses any line of decency”. He suggested the strikes intentionally targeted civilians. “As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong,” Kellogg posted on X. He said there are “scores of civilian dead and wounded.” However, Trump’s reaction was one in which the Russians were less singled out and condemned, instead the US president highlighted that this “horrible war” shows the urgency of ending the war before more people die… But the White House has strongly complained over the past months that Zelensky has appeared unwilling to genuinely engage in peace talks with Moscow, also at a moment more hawkish European allies are seeking to fill the gap of waning Washington support. Zelensky knows he’ll have to make serious concessions for peace.

It is especially the tense February meeting in the Oval Office which still stings and looms large. Zelensky in the CBS interview took the opportunity to once again slam Vice President J.D. Vance. “It’s a shift in tone, a shift in reality, really yes, a shift in reality, and I don’t want to engage in the altered reality that is being presented to me,” Zelensky said. “First and foremost, we did not launch an attack [to start the war]. It seems to me that the Vice President is somehow justifying Putin’s actions. I tried to explain, ‘You can’t look for something in the middle. There is an aggressor and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim’.” Below: RT’s Editor-in-Chief responded sarcastically to Zelensky once again complaining that Russian ‘propaganda’ is winning in America…

Meanwhile, Trump has since made clear where he stands concerning 60 Minutes’ repeat efforts to make him look bad.”Almost every week, 60 Minutes … mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all,” the president complained on Truth Social, in apparent reference to both the Ukraine report and another on Greenland. “CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

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“..that he “rewrote history, saying, falsely, that Ukraine had started the war and calling… Zelensky ‘a dictator without elections.’”

Trump Slams ‘Dishonest’ CBS After Zelensky Interview (RT)

CBS News must have its broadcasting license revoked, US President Donald Trump has said. He has accused the network of spreading politically biased misinformation in its coverage of the Ukraine conflict and Washington’s push to acquire Greenland. In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump lashed out at the broadcaster after it aired an interview with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and a segment revisiting the US president’s controversial idea to purchase Greenland. In the Zelensky interview, the network suggested that Trump had sought to exclude Kiev from peace talks with Russia and that he “rewrote history, saying, falsely, that Ukraine had started the war and calling… Zelensky ‘a dictator without elections.’”

The US president’s “dictator” comment in February was referring to the fact that Zelensky’s presidential term expired last year and that he has refused to call a new vote, citing martial law. Trump has since softened his rhetoric about the Ukrainian leader. The CBS report on Greenland focused on the island’s residents’ purported reluctance to become part of the US. “Almost every week, 60 Minutes… mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all,” Trump wrote. “They did not one, but TWO, major stories on ‘TRUMP,’ one having to do with Ukraine, which I say is a War that would never have happened if the 2020 Election had not been RIGGED… and, the other story was having to do with Greenland, casting our Country, as led by me, falsely, inaccurately, and fraudulently,” he added.

“They are not a ‘News Show,’ but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing,” Trump suggested. “They should lose their license!” The US leader stressed that CBS “should pay a big price” for being “out of control,” recalling his previous stand-off with the network over a heavily edited interview with Kamala Harris, his main Democratic rival prior to the November election. The controversy over the Harris interview erupted in October when CBS aired two versions of an interview with the then-vice president. In one, she gave a long and convoluted answer about the Middle East conflict, but in the other, she gave a much clearer and more concise answer. Trump subsequently lodged a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS, calling the interview “word salad” and accusing the network of “deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news” and favoritism to the Democratic Party. CBS has admitted to editing the interview but rejected allegations that it attempted to doctor it.

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The Sumy narrative (Russia targets civilians!) carried the international airwaves for a whole weekend.

We Have Proof Sumy Strike Targeted Ukrainian Troops and Foreign Mercs – Lavrov (Sp.)

Russia possesses information that Ukrainian troops met with their foreign counterparts at the facility targeted by Russian forces in the strike on Sumy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday. On Sunday, Russian forces carried out a missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, targeting a site of a meeting of the Seversk tactical and operational command’s leadership. Earlier on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the strike killed over 60 Ukrainian servicepeople. “International humanitarian law categorically prohibits the placement of military facilities and weapons around civilian objects. Since the first days of the [Ukraine] crisis, and earlier, even during the Minsk agreements … there have been a million cases of artillery and air defense systems being placed in city blocks near kindergartens.

How many videos are posted online of Ukrainian women shouting for the military to get away from stores and playgrounds? But this practice continues. We have facts about who was at the facility that was hit in Sumy. There was another ‘gathering’ of Ukrainian military commanders with their Western colleagues, who were disguised either as mercenaries or I do not know who,” Lavrov told Russian newspaper Kommersant. It is widely known that NATO forces are present in Ukraine, the minister added. “The New York Times recently reported that Americans have been playing a leading role in strikes on Russia. Without this part, the majority of [Ukrainian] long-range missiles would never have taken off at their deployment sites,” he said.

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“Macron, Merz, Starmer, Kellogg, the New York Times, The Telegraph – to name only a few examples – all follow Zelensky’s and Kiev’s lie that this was a deliberate attack on civilians..”

The Sumy Missile Strike: War, Propaganda, and Hypocrisy (Amar)

On April 13, Russia launched an attack on a target in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy. All reports –Western, Ukrainian, and Russian – agree on some basic facts: The attack consisted of two ballistic missiles; substantial numbers of people were killed (over 60, according to the Russian Defense Ministry; over 20 in Western and Ukrainian reports) and injured (over 80, per Ukrainian reports). Beyond that, however, a thick fog of war has descended. Or rather, a fog of propaganda. Western media and politicians have denounced the Russian strike as, in essence, an atrocity or war crime. The New York Times, for instance, presented it as slamming “into a bustling city center […] on Sunday morning, […] killing at least 34 people in what appeared to be the deadliest attack against civilians this year.” Incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz (to be sworn in at the beginning of May), speaking on one of his country’s most popular TV shows, condemned what he called a “perfidious act” and “serious war crime.”

In the US, President Donald Trump’s special – if largely sidelined – envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has invoked his experience as a “former military leader” who “understand[s] targeting” to denounce the Russian strike as “wrong,” adding that the attack “on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency.” Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, is “appalled at Russia’s horrific attacks on civilians in Sumy.” Both Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron saw an opportunity to call for “imposing” a ceasefire on Russia. Merz, for his part, felt the need to talk, once more, about providing Kiev with German Taurus missiles. The fact that Ukraine has made a point of not complying with the partial ceasefire officially already in place seems to make no difference. Neither, clearly, does the fact that neither France nor Britain has the means to compel Moscow. That the use of the German Taurus to strike at, for instance, the Kerch Bridge may well invite – perfectly justifiable – Russian retaliation against German targets, whether in Germany or elsewhere, seems to appear equally irrelevant to Merz.

More examples could be added, but the trend should be clear: In the West, almost everyone agrees that the Russian attack on Sumy was an atrocity and in the EU there is talk – if we are lucky, it will remain just that – of exploiting it as a pretext to escalate further the proxy war in which Ukraine is being used up against Russia. Yet there are two major problems with this escalatory approach: Most importantly, it is not based on facts but on disinformation originating with the Kiev regime, taken over uncritically and spread enthusiastically by Western mainstream media and many political leaders. Though not, actually, all of them. That is the second, as it were, practical problem for the escalation brigade: The single most powerful Western figure is not playing along. Trump has not condemned Russia. He did call the attack “terrible” and “horrible” and claimed that he was told that “they [presumably meaning Russia] made a mistake.”

Whatever basis (US signal intelligence? Hearsay?) he has – or not – for this statement, politically, the key point of Trump’s first reaction was that he demonstratively refrained from joining the rest of the West in escalating, while stressing that the war as such is the issue and ending it the solution. A similar approach in a statement on X by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirms that this is not a fluke but Trump’s and therefore Washington’s policy, at least for now. America’s president has clearly – and unsurprisingly – decided that his halting and open-ended yet still at least ongoing attempt to achieve a normalization with Moscow is more important than joining the latest propaganda campaign against Russia. Trump – so criminally wrong in the Middle East – is right on this one, even if he is pursuing extremely pragmatic purposes. He is also, as it happens, right here in a more fundamental sense, which brings us back to problem number one with the Western mainstream treatment of the Sumy attack:

Despite Kiev’s endless record of deception, the Western claim that the Russian attack was a crime is once again based on that very murky source alone. Ukraine’s past-due-date president Vladmir Zelensky, for instance, has decried a “horrific” attack hitting “an ordinary city street, ordinary life.” Macron, Merz, Starmer, Kellogg the New York Times, The Telegraph – to name only a few examples – all follow Zelensky’s and Kiev’s lie that this was a deliberate attack on civilians. Yet, in reality, Russia struck at a gathering of Ukrainian soldiers. Soldiers, yes, even on Sunday and also on Palm Sunday, are legitimate targets in armed conflict. It is not criminal to attack them. That is an elementary legal reality, rooted in the Law of Armed Conflict. And, when the boot is on the other foot, the West knows this well: No one there decried a Ukrainian “war crime,” when Kiev’s Western-supplied artillery wiped out almost 100 Russian troops sleeping in their quarters behind the front line in January 2023.

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“..after he allegedly suggested that Kiev should destroy the Crimean Bridge..”

Medvedev Brands Incoming German Chancellor ‘Nazi’ (RT)

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has branded incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz a Nazi after he allegedly suggested that Kiev should destroy the Crimean Bridge. In an interview with state broadcaster ARD, Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and the likely future leader of Germany, stated that Berlin could supply long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, but only if it is done in coordination with other EU nations. Kiev should in the future use Western-supplied missiles to go on the offensive and destroy, for example, “the most important land connection between Russia and Crimea,” Merz said. Merz did not clarify if he meant the Crimean bridge, which stretches from Russia’s Krasnodar Region to Crimea, or the ‘land bridge’ that Russian forces established with the peninsula when the former Ukrainian region off Kherson joined Russia.

However, many critics have interpreted Merz’s words to mean the Crimean bridge, especially given that Kiev has already conducted a number of attacks on it since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. In a post on X on Monday, Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, suggested that Merz was following in the footsteps of his Nazi father. “Chancellor candidate Fritz Merz is haunted by the memory of his father, who served in Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Now Merz has suggested a strike on the Crimean Bridge. Think twice, Nazi,” Medvedev wrote. According to media reports, Merz’s father Joachim was conscripted into the Wehrmacht – the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany – around 1941. His grandfather, Josef Paul Sauvigny, had also been a member of the Nazi party since 1933.

Russia’s ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechaev, warned that delivering Taurus missiles to Ukraine would not alter the battlefield situation but could escalate the conflict, as the missiles would be guided by German specialists. He suggested this might provoke Moscow to take retaliatory measures. Germany is Kiev’s second-largest military donor, after the US. Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced that Berlin would provide the country with an additional $12 billion worth of military aid over the next four years and would continue to support it regardless of the upcoming change of government in Germany. Russia has repeatedly slammed continued foreign assistance to Ukraine, arguing that it only serves to prolong hostilities and cause more bloodshed without affecting the ultimate outcome of the conflict.

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Guess who the judge is? Boasberg.

Meta’s Monopoly Trial Kicks Off (ET)

The fate of social media giant Meta, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s primary company, is on the line as a trial begins in Washington on Monday to determine whether the tech giant is violating antitrust laws. The Federal Trade Commission, which has spent the past six years investigating Meta, is expected to argue before U.S. District Judge James Boasberg that Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp created an illegal monopoly over social networking. In the worst-case scenario for Meta, the company could be forced to divest both subsidiaries in a breakup on a scale not seen since the dismantling of AT&T’s telephone empire more than 40 years ago. Here’s what to know about the most important trial in Meta’s history.

Trial The case is being held at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, just a few hundred yards from the U.S. Capitol. It’s a bench trial, meaning Boasberg alone will decide the outcome, not a jury. That gives the judge extraordinary influence over the future of one of the most powerful companies in the world.

FTC Claims The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into the company began during President Donald Trump’s first term and was aggressively pursued under President Joe Biden . The FTC has taken issue with the company’s 2012 purchase of the image-based app Instagram and 2014 purchase of WhatsApp, a messaging platform that’s particularly popular outside of the United States. During the trial, the FTC is expected to argue that Meta’s purchase of the two platforms was part of a calculated effort to “buy or bury” any potential rivals to Facebook. In a 2008 email presented by the FTC in a past federal court filing, Zuckerberg wrote, “It is better to buy than compete.” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has said that his agency is “raring to go” against Meta but also that he’ll follow lawful orders from the president to close the case.

Meta’s Response Meta has consistently denied the allegations of operating an illegal monopoly and has argued that the FTC’s case is both outdated and out of step with current market realities. A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement to The Epoch Times that the acquisitions were approved by regulators at the time and that the company has always operated competitively. He cited the presence of competitors such as TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage, and others. The spokesperson said the lawsuit “defies reality” and that it would send a message that “no deal is ever truly final” if Boasberg sides with the FTC. The company has also suggested that dismantling its integrated platforms would harm users, who’ve come to rely on interconnected services and shared back-end systems. Since Trump was elected to a second term, Zuckerberg has visited Mar-a-Lago, ended the company’s controversial fact-checking efforts, rolled back diversity and inclusion programs, and staffed the company with GOP-friendly executives.

‘Creaking Antitrust Precedents ’Boasberg has heard years of pretrial motions in this case and has made clear he isn’t fully sold on the government’s argument He threw out the FTC’s original filing in 2021, citing a lack of clear market definitions. While he allowed the revised case to proceed, he’s continued to express skepticism, warning in recent months that the FTC’s claims “strain this country’s creaking antitrust precedents.” Antitrust statutory law and litigation are among the most labyrinthine areas of the federal code. Boasberg has given both sides a chance to make their case in court. Witness lists include Zuckerberg himself, former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, and executives from rival platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat. The trial is expected to last through the summer, with a decision potentially arriving by July.

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A curious contortion.

Now We Know Why Democrats Are Losing the Messaging War (Margolis)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) just reminded everyone why Democrats are losing the messaging war. In what might be the most awkward attempt at political wit this year, Jeffries recorded himself delivering what he apparently thought was a clever takedown of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t. Picture a middle schooler trying to land an insult at the lunch table—that’s basically what happened when Jeffries attempted to rebrand “DEI” as “dumb effing individuals” in his attack on Hegseth. That’s right, the House Minority Leader, one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, thought his comment was the kind of zinger that would go viral. Instead, it went cringey. “The DEI hires in the Trump administration, like Pete Hegseth, the so-called secretary of Defense, dumb effing individuals, continue to try to test our resolve and cancel our history,” Jeffries said in a video shared to X.

The irony is rich. Here we have the leader of a party that lives and dies by the DEI religion suddenly using “DEI hires” as a slur. The same Democrats who spent years insisting that DEI is the highest moral good are now tossing around the term like it’s a smear when it suits their narrative. So which is it? Is DEI a noble pursuit, or is it code for incompetence when someone like Hegseth is in the crosshairs? If you needed more proof that the left’s commitment to its pet causes is purely performative, Jeffries just handed it to you. Making matters worse, Jeffries built his entire rant on a foundation of misinformation about the Naval Academy’s book relocation policy. He breathlessly claimed the Academy was banning books about slavery, civil rights, and the Holocaust while keeping Hitler’s works. That’s cute, but it’s also completely false.

The reality? The books were simply moved to a different location in response to President Trump’s executive orders on DEI policies. They weren’t banned, burned, or whatever other dramatic scenario Jeffries conjured up for his social media performance. Hegseth’s response on “Sunday Morning Futures” was the coup de grâce. “It’s astonishing, not surprising,” he said. “Of course, they don’t like the fact that we’re ripping DEI out of the military and making it colorblind and merit-based. If their whole strategy is, I don’t even know how long the video was, didn’t see it, minute-long videos on TikTok to call us names while we secure the southern border, kick out Chinese influence, provide the warrior culture inside our military, that’s why they lost in a historic fashion to President Trump last time, and their future looks bleak as well.”

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It’s easy to feel sorry for the guy. Maybe don’t.

El Salvador’s Bukele Won’t Return MS-13 Gang Member Mistakenly Deported (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Monday declined to ask El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to return an El Salvadoran citizen whom authorities mistakenly deported. Bukele, for his part, suggested that to return the man to the U.S. would be to smuggle a terrorist into the United States and that he would not do so. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador, was deported by the Trump administration by mistake, though the Supreme Court ruled that the administration must facilitate his return. During an Oval Office meeting between Trump and Bukele, neither leader committed to returning the man. “Well, I’m supposed to have suggested that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States, right?” Buekele retorted when pressed on returning the man to the U.S. “Return him to the United States. I smuggle him into the United States. I’m not going to do it.”

“How can I smuggle a terror[ist] to the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Buekele said. Trump also asked White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to weigh in. “So it’s very arrogant, even for American media to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens. As a starting point, as two immigration courts found that he was a member of MS-13,” Miller said. “When President Trump declared MS-13 to be a foreign terrorist organization, that meant that he was no longer eligible under federal law… for any form of immigration relief in the United States.”

“So he had a deportation order that was valid, which meant that, under our law, he’s not even allowed to be present in the United States and had to be returned because of the foreign terrorist designation,” he added. “This issue was then by a district court judge completely inverted, and a district court judge tried to tell the administration that they had to kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and flying back here. That issue was raised to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court said the district court order was unlawful and its main components were reversed.”

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“..in 2019, two judges refused to grant him bond because he was a verified member of the MS-13 gang..”

Why the Beatified MS-13 ‘Father’ Was ‘Mistakenly’ Deported (Victoria Taft)

It’s worth reminding readers of the reasons the man being described as the innocent “Maryland father” was “mistakenly” deported from Los Estados Unidos. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is now cooling his heels in the most famous El Salvadoran prison in the world. He’s gotten more love from America’s left than, say, the 14-year-old girl MS-13 hacked up with machetes in 2019 in Maryland. It’s strange, isn’t it? Ariana Funes-Diaz was hacked with a machete and hit with a baseball bat, and her lifeless and bloodied body was left in a ditch, but nobody seems to remember or care. Now, I’m not suggesting that Abrego Garcia had anything to do with the gang murdering that girl; no one has ever suggested or proven any connection whatsoever. It’s just that MS-13 is tied, if you will, with Tren de Aragua for brutality. They intentionally shock the conscience to stay in power like the Third World knuckle draggers they are.

Rachel Morin was murdered by a man illegally in the country from El Salvador. He was found guilty of her murder by a Maryland jury after one hour of deliberation on Monday evening, after a two-week-long trial. We contend that the United States stop importing violent criminals from other countries. But the left would have us believe that Señor Abrego Garcia is just a normal family man who’s done nothing wrong and has never put a toe out of line and that he’s sorta kinda quasi-legally here. In 2019, his Holiness, St. Abrego, was rolled up by the feds while hanging around in a Home Depot parking lot, allegedly looking for work. Sounds normal. Lots of illegal aliens do this. But don’t ask him why he hadn’t found more than day jobs since he’d illegally come into the country years before because that’s racist. His attorney says he had a job in construction.

Anyway, the truth is, the local Maryland cops didn’t actually believe he was just looking for a day gig. Indeed, he showed up to work in his Chicago Bulls gear. MS-13 shares its affinity with the Bulls’ colors and gear with the Bloods and the Latin Kings. MS-13 also likes to use devil horn symbology in hand signals, and some members carry their tell-tale machetes. And of course, there are always the MS-13 tattoos. There are reports that he has one, but authorities have offered no photos of the granddaddy of all symbols proving unmistakably that he’s an MS-13 gang member. But in 2019, two judges refused to grant him bond because he was a verified member of the MS-13 gang and a “danger to the community.” The conundrum for most is that a guy who came into the U.S. illegally in 2011 and was identified by Maryland police and U.S. immigration officials as an MS-13 member by 2019 isn’t a benign presence in Los Estados Unidos. Capice?

And now in 2025, President Trump has issued a directive that all members of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua are members of designated terrorist organizations. El Salvador President Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez was asked by reporters in the White House Oval Office today if he would bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” was his reply. So here’s the issue. St. Abrego was put on a deportation list as an alternate without anyone noticing that he should not be sent back to El Salvador. He was bumped up the list of deportees and was indeed sent to the El Salvadoran prison by mistake.

The “mistake” the feds made in sending this guy out of the country was that they sent him back to El Salvador, where a rival gang threatened him and his family years back. His parents moved to other Central American countries, but he moved to the U.S. at the age of 16. If DOJ officials had sent him to another country, such as Guatemala with which we have a third-party agreement, we likely wouldn’t be having this issue right now, and St. Abrego would have disappeared into the ether — maybe even with his family in tow. Issues involving due process are serious. We should demand that people receive theirs. Attorney General Pam Bondi in the above video said Abrego received two court hearings when he was designated an MS-13 member. Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.

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“The vast bottom of humanity already has plenty of nothing, and their abundance will abide…”

Systemic Considerations (James Howard Kunstler)

Whatever else you think is happening in our world, contraction is the reality-based order-of-the-day, and everything else is downstream of that. The world has to get by with less. Nothing is going to fix this for everybody, though any number of schemes for redistributing what’s left will preoccupy the political mojo. Right now, it’s tariffs, which are an attempt to restore industry ceded to the formerly left-behind people elsewhere in the world — taking back what we used to do. You are correct to wonder if this is even possible. The wish is surely understandable, if a bit fuzzy and over-simplified: to be again a nation of people occupied purposefully in the service of a bright future. Redemption stories are deeply appealing.

Many of us are aware that the hour for this is late. We’ve already lived through our decades of pumping cheap oil out of American ground, extracting the ores, fashioning the metal into I-beams and rails, raising the skyscrapers, laying the asphalt ribbons of highway, and strewing the landscape with split-level houses and strip-malls. Let’s not try a re-run of that. What have we got to work with? An overly-complex matrix of systems and subsidiary systems operating on the verge of failure at excessive scale. For example, our cities and their asteroid belts of suburbs. The rot is already well-advanced in many of them from their centers outward, and we can see the process underway of strip-mining the remaining assets on-the-ground. Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore. . . all occupy important geographically strategic sites. All are populated by dwindling societies of the cope-less, floundering their way out of existence. The geographies will abide without them. Others will come along and make something of these places’ virtues.

Agri-business is a method for strip-mining the value from what remains of our fruited plains. Everything about it is on an arc of failure, mortgaged to a futureless giantism. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and now that time has passed. The remaining soil itself can probably be rescued with heroic ant-like peasant labor over generations, which is to say a long and rather desperate project with no quick resolution. Even if Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., hadn’t come along to read America the riot act on food, anyone can see that the age of Froot Loops is drawing to a close. Town and country, what human society at its best was composed of, has got to be rearranged. This is something that MAGA is not talking about. MAGA looks like it is seeking a reenactment of the years 1950 to 1964. That isn’t going to happen. What then? The tech broz propose something that looks like an A-I printed robotic future. They are drunk on their own Stanford University brand Kool-Aid, hallucinating a future that is little more than math dressed in spandex.

It is nearly impossible to grok the size of their vast fortunes, their billions. Thousands upon thousands of millions. From what? From marshaling squadrons of lawyers to draw up ownership documents for this and that venture enabling idiots with nose-rings to lecture each other about sexual etiquette on cell-phone screens? Warning: don’t become infatuated with singularities, journeys beyond biology and the ecology of planet earth. That’s a story for saps, cargo-cultists, the mentally ill. Speaking of all that money, one thing you can surely depend on is a violent unwinding of global finance. The vast bottom of humanity already has plenty of nothing, and their abundance will abide. The hedge fund broz and related broz in the shared hallucinations of capital can make some provision for wealth preservation if they have half-a-brain. It’s the great wad in the middle that has the worst problem: they get wiped out and then they discover they have no Plan B. That’s when the fun really kicks off in America (and other sovereign lands, of course.)

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Hep B
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1911479588535882235

 

 

Vax

 

 

Bhattacharya
https://twitter.com/sophiadahl1/status/1911580633035334115
https://twitter.com/Humanspective/status/1911680285772849217

 

 

https://twitter.com/mamboitaliano__/status/1911367206371275242
https://twitter.com/mamboitaliano__/status/1911512270149919189

 

 

AI Jesus
https://twitter.com/mamboitaliano__/status/1911292594669425151

 

 

Amur
https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1911392004862263730

 

 

Orangutan

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Mar 072025
 


James McNeill Whistler Symphony in White, No. 3 1867

 

Are All of Biden’s Presidential Actions ‘Null and Void’? (Margolis)
Europe’s ‘ReArm’ Plan “Is Going To Come At A Vast Cost” (Rabobank)
European Leaders Want ‘Forever War’ In Ukraine – Musk (RT)
Lavrov Compares Macron to Hitler and Napoleon (RT)
Macron’s Remarks on Use of Nuclear Arms a Threat to Russia – Lavrov (Sp.)
Kremlin Reacts To Macron’s ‘War’ Speech (RT)
EU Must Win Arms Race – Poland (RT)
Macron Should Apologize – Moscow (RT)
Trump Begins CIA Cuts – NYT (RT)
US Ready To Change Legal Status Of 240,000 Ukrainian Migrants (RT)
Lavrov Weighs In On US Decision To Halt Intel Sharing With Ukraine (RT)
‘Science Should Be An Engine For Freedom’: NIH Nominee Bhattacharya (JTN)
Obama Judge Indefinitely Blocks Trump Admin Funding Freeze (ZH)
DOGE Looking To Cut More Than 80,000 Employees At Veterans Affairs (JTN)
IRS Reportedly Plans To Cut Half of Its 90,000 Workforce (JTN)
Elon Musk Says Amtrak, US Postal Service Should Be Privatized (ET)
Trump Planning Major NATO Shakeup – NBC (RT)
Trump Wants To Sideline EU – Politico (RT)
EU Seeking To Bypass Opponents of Ukraine Aid – Kallas (RT)
Israeli FM ‘Didn’t Know’ Kiev Glorifies Holocaust Perpetrators (RT)

 

 

 

 

1987

 

 

Destiny

PAC
https://twitter.com/i/status/1897633263750877606

Tulsi

Sachs Maidan

Rubio

Kash
https://twitter.com/i/status/1896935794532556981

 

 

 

 

Autopen. Could be explosive. Will the Trump admin want to pursue it? It has Pandora written all over it.

Are All of Biden’s Presidential Actions ‘Null and Void’? (Margolis)

The Biden presidency might have been the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the American people. A shocking investigation by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project has revealed that virtually every document bearing Joe Biden’s signature during his presidency was signed by an autopen — except for one. What makes this revelation particularly damning is that the only document confirmed to have Biden’s actual signature was his letter announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race. Let that sink in for a moment. Remember when House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) revealed his discussion with Biden when Biden couldn’t recall signing the executive order halting LNG exports? Now we know why — he probably didn’t. The real question is: Who did? Who was running the country while Biden was not all there?

The use of the presidential autopen dates back to the 1950s, and there’s been much debate about its legality. In 2013, Barack Obama became the first president to sign a bill into law using an autopen. He was vacationing in Hawaii at the time. His office relied on a 30-page memo from President George W. Bush’s legal team asserting that the president’s presence was not required as long as said president had authorized the signature. What’s not clear, in the case of Biden, is who was running the autopen and whether Biden was aware it was happening. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is demanding that the Department of Justice investigate whether Biden’s obvious cognitive decline allowed unelected bureaucrats to essentially run the government without presidential oversight. If this is true — and let’s be honest, all signs point to yes — every executive order, every pardon, and every official action taken under Biden’s name could be constitutionally void.

Bailey’s letter to Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general of the Department of Justice, spells it out perfectly. “I write to request that you conduct a full investigation into President Biden’s mental capacity in his final days in office. By now, Biden’s mental decline is famous. Under the 25th Amendment, his inability to make decisions should have meant a succession of power. Instead, it appears staffers and officers in the Biden administration may have exploited Biden’s incapacity so they could issue orders without an accountable President of sound mind approving them. That would explain why the Biden administration’s orders were aggressively much farther to the left than any previous President. If in fact Biden’s staffers were exploiting his mental decline, those orders are null and void.”

The evidence is overwhelming. We know that Biden’s handlers desperately tried to prevent anyone from meeting with him one-on-one. Even Democratic insiders admit the truth. DNC fundraiser Lindy Li recently spilled the beans and acknowledged that Biden wasn’t running the show; his staff, his wife, and Hunter were. Thanks to the Heritage Foundation’s investigation, we now have proof that Biden’s signature was automated throughout his presidency — which raises serious questions about whether he was aware of what was being signed in his name at all. The Oversight Project rightfully points out that since Biden revoked Trump’s executive privilege, we can easily determine who controlled the autopen and what safeguards, if any, were in place.

The implications are staggering. We essentially had a presidency by proxy, with unelected staffers wielding presidential power while the man himself was barely cognizant enough to read a teleprompter. This isn’t just a scandal; it’s potentially the biggest constitutional crisis in American history. The American people deserve to know who was really calling the shots during the Biden administration. If these allegations prove true, every single action taken under Biden’s name needs to be scrutinized and potentially nullified. The truth must come out, and those responsible must be held accountable.

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The end of Europe’s welfare state.

“They created a wasteland and called it democracy.”

Europe’s ‘ReArm’ Plan “Is Going To Come At A Vast Cost” (Rabobank)

The US has increased its pressure on Ukraine to pause the war by turning off military intelligence to it, removing Kyiv’s ability to fire missiles into Russia. This action has further outraged and –given their reliance on US systems in NATO– terrified Europe. Note President Eisenhower did the same vis-à-vis then-and-current ally South Korea in 1953, which didn’t want to stop fighting; the US didn’t want a direct war with China, or more inflation, and made it clear military aid would stop until an armistice was achieved. That frozen conflict seems where Ukraine-Russia is heading, especially as President Zelenskyy just said what rejected what the Russian terms for any formal peace deal (demilitarisation, formal renouncement of lost territories) would be.

Europe has added its own pressure on Zelenskyy as Germany’s ministry of defence admits it can’t supply more materiel to Ukraine either as it’s out of stock. That underlines the need for the German announcement on infrastructure investment and rearmament yesterday, which saw 10-year Bund yields rise 31bp on the day, their worst performance since 1997. EUR jumped. Ahead of today’s EU ReArm summit President Macron addressed his nation, stating: “Our prosperity and security have become more uncertain, and it must be said, we are entering a new era… if a country can invade its neighbour in Europe with impunity, then no one can be sure of anything anymore, and it is the law of the strongest that applies, and peace can no longer be guaranteed on our continent itself.” He added that the future of Europe will not be set by the Kremlin or Washington, DC, and spoke of extending the French nuclear umbrella to Europe.

This is going to come at a vast cost. If you think a 31bp rise in Bunds captures the scale of shocks involved in a soft-power Europe trying to set its own future in a hard-power world then you spend too much time in soft-power circles. For starters, the FT op-eds today that ‘Europe must trim its welfare state to build a warfare state’: like it or not, that is starting to sound a bit MEGA (Europe, not America) and DOGE. One wonders what the ECB will say about it today.

Europe is outraged by US actions vs Ukraine and what some call the White House’s “reverse Nixon” strategy (so, ‘Noxin’?) of trying to split Russia from China, as with China vs the USSR in the 1970s: there is talk of Trump–Putin kinship or kompromat even in the financial press. However, facing a united China and Russia, when until this week Europe refused to rearm, is something all geostrategists, some belatedly, see as a deeply flawed US strategy. Moreover, the eurocentric fail to spot that Trump is not only pivoting from Europe to focus on Asia –which the EU largely thinks of in terms of trade not security– but is trying to use the quid pro quo gained there for Putin’s help with nuclear negotiations with Iran.

After all, Tehran is close to a nuclear weapon and Israel, who just rehearsed a joint strike on it with the US, to having to remove what it sees as an existential threat the hard way. Were that to occur, it would have a vast negative impact on the US and European economies. That key issue isn’t even part of current EU conversations; but as Europe rearms and tries to find its own place in the world, it will find it has to join more such dots in more locations at an ever-higher price. It also goes without saying that the odds of ‘Noxin’ and an Iran deal success are very low; but the alternative scenarios are not ones markets want to think about. Again, they do not imply just a 31bp move higher in 10-year Bunds. Especially not when the Chinese embassy in the US tweets: “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.”

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Leaders that will all be voted out soon. So why do it?

European Leaders Want ‘Forever War’ In Ukraine – Musk (RT)

European leaders who are pushing against a peace agreement in Ukraine want a perpetual state of war, tech billionaire Elon Musk said in a statement on X on Thursday. His remarks come in response to a recent video of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arguing that peace in Ukraine could be more dangerous than the ongoing conflict with Russia. Musk, who is also currently a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict and has spoken out against continued military aid to Kiev, arguing that it could lead to an escalation and risk a nuclear confrontation. Responding to a post featuring Frederiksen’s latest remarks, he argued that some European leaders “want the forever war” and asked how many more people will have to lose their lives.

“How many more parents with no sons? How many more children with no fathers? By their logic, it never ends,” Musk wrote. Frederiksen, who stated last month that “peace in Ukraine is actually more dangerous than the war that is ongoing now,” told journalists earlier this week that “Ukraine has to win this war.” She claimed that if Russia is allowed to win, it will continue to take military action against other European countries. “If we end this war now with some kind of a ceasefire, it will give Russia the possibility to mobilize more funds, people, and maybe to attack another country in Europe,” she said.

Her statements echoed comments by other EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who has recently claimed that Russia poses a threat to the entire bloc and called for defense spending to be ramped up. Russia has also rejected unsubstantiated claims that it intends to attack European or NATO countries with Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissing such statements as “nonsense” and fear mongering by EU leaders aimed at alarming citizens and raising defense budgets. Moscow has warned that one of the key reasons for the Ukraine conflict was NATO expansion towards Russia, including the bloc’s promise that Kiev would eventually become a member.

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“..the French president’s “predecessors, who also wanted to fight Russia.”

Lavrov Compares Macron to Hitler and Napoleon (RT)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has compared French President Emmanuel Macron to Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte, saying that he is also looking to impose a defeat upon Russia. During an address to the nation on Wednesday, Macron labeled Russia a “threat to France and Europe” and announced that he was considering expanding Paris’s nuclear deterrent to cover other EU member states. He insisted that the bloc needs to strengthen its independence when it comes to defense as there are doubts about the US continuing to protect the EU after the administration of President Donald Trump “changed its position” on the Ukraine conflict and became “less supportive” of Kiev. The French president insisted on further assistance to the government of Vladimir Zelensky, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stop if he is allowed to defeat Ukraine.

When asked to comment on Macron’s statements by journalists on Thursday, Lavrov mentioned Hitler and Napoleon, describing them as the French president’s “predecessors, who also wanted to fight Russia.” The two European dictators sent their armies into Russia in 1812 and 1941, respectively, but ended up suffering crushing defeats. The difference is that Hitler and Napoleon “said directly: ‘We must conquer Russia, we must defeat Russia.’ And he [Macron], apparently, wants the same thing, but for some reason says that we must fight Russia so that it does not defeat France; that Russia is creating a threat to France and Europe,” he stressed.

The minister refuted the French leader’s claims that Moscow has plans to attack Western Europe, calling such notions “unreasonable.” “President [Vladimir] Putin has said many times that this is absolute nonsense. I think that any sane person would understand that [by launching its military operation] Russia only wants to eliminate the root causes of the situation created by the West in Ukraine,” he explained. Lavrov also said that Moscow views Macron’s statement about widening France’s nuclear umbrella as a “threat towards Russia.” “If he considers us a threat, if he is calls a meeting of the chiefs of staff of the [Western] European countries and Britain; if he says that it is necessary to use nuclear weapons; if he prepares to use nuclear weapons against Russia – this is, of course, a threat,” he insisted.

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“..former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was right when he said, in his usual manner, that the conflict in Ukraine could be stopped very quickly, within two weeks, if military aid to the Ukrainian government was halted..”

Macron’s Remarks on Use of Nuclear Arms a Threat to Russia – Lavrov (Sp.)

Moscow sees French President Emmanuel Macron’s words on possible use of nuclear weapons as a threat, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday. “Of course, this is a threat to Russia. If he [Macron] considers us a threat, gathers a meeting of the chiefs of General Staff of European countries and Britain, says it is necessary to use nuclear weapons, prepares to use nuclear weapons against Russia, this is, of course, a threat,” Lavrov told a news conference. On Wednesday, Macron said that Russia had become a “threat” to France and Europe, therefore, it was necessary to open a discussion on the use of France’s nuclear weapons to defend the entire European Union. Emmanuel Macron has the opportunity to call Russian President Vladimir Putin anytime, and accusations that Russia is allegedly preparing a war against Europe are unwise, Lavrov said.

“Macron periodically proudly declares that he will definitely call Putin and talk to him. He has such opportunities. No one forbids it. On the contrary, the president constantly emphasizes his openness to contacts with all his colleagues. And regarding these, frankly, unwise accusations of Russia in preparing a war against Europe and France, Putin has repeatedly said, calling such thoughts delusional, nonsense. Probably, it is absolutely clear to any sane person that Russia does not need this,” Lavrov told a joint press conference with Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Amon Murwira. Russia sees no possibility for achieving a compromise on possible deployment of European peacekeepers in Ukraine, Lavrov said. “We see no room for compromise. This discussion is being conducted with an openly hostile purpose. They are not hiding what they need it for,” Lavrov.

Suspension of US intelligence transfers to Ukraine confirm Russia’s statements that such assistance was provided to Kiev and it helped to carry out strikes deep into Russia, Sergey Lavrov said. “As for the current situation with the provision of military assistance and the pause that the US has announced, and the pause that was announced with respect to the provision of intelligence information, this has confirmed what we have always said, our president has repeatedly noted that without the direct participation of the West, the US, the UK, France, Germany, and other countries that provide intelligence data and help use the technologies for using this data to launch long-range missiles at our territory, the Ukrainians could not do this,” Lavrov said. The suspension of military aid to Ukraine from the United States may help to quickly end the Ukrainian conflict, Sergey Lavrov said.

“It has been said many times that former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was right when he said, in his usual manner, that the conflict in Ukraine could be stopped very quickly, within two weeks, if military aid to the Ukrainian government was halted. This is the answer to your question. We agree with this assessment. Another thing that Josep Borrell added was that this should never be done, because first you need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, and then dictate the terms of peace to it,” Lavrov told reporters. The Russian foreign minister noted that Russia is ready for a frank dialogue on the settlement of the Ukraine conflict.

“We are ready for an honest conversation, taking into account all the root causes of this conflict, including, of course, the main one – Russia’s security and guarantees against NATO’s continued expansion into Ukraine, which would then be used to create constant threats to Russia,” Lavrov said. In addition, the Russian official said that French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement about Russia and Ukraine was nervous and very verbose. “Macron, as I understand it, said in his lengthy, rather nervous statement yesterday [March 5] that the war should not be allowed to end with the surrender of Ukraine,” Lavrov said.

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“Following the 2022 escalation, both politicians admitted that the purpose of the accord from the West’s perspective had merely been to buy time for Kiev to strengthen its military..”

Macron said that Russia cannot be trusted because it violated the Minsk agreements. 4 days before the Russian invasion (February 20, 2022), Macron told Putin that the Minsk agreements have no legal force and are worthless!

Kremlin Reacts To Macron’s ‘War’ Speech (RT)

https://twitter.com/i/status/1897386604404306352

French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech focusing on Russia earlier this week was “highly confrontational,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, arguing that it signals an intent to further escalate tensions. In his address to the nation on Wednesday, Macron labeled Russia “a threat” to the EU and called for a significant increase in defense spending to counter the perceived danger posed by Moscow. He also said that France would be prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine should a truce be reached in the conflict. Commenting on the remarks during a regular press briefing, Peskov stressed that it hardly conveyed a message of peace: “France apparently is contemplating war, a continuation of war.” This stance naturally elicits a negative reaction in Moscow, he suggested.

Macron’s address adhered to the conventional Western narrative portraying Russia as the unprovoked aggressor in the Ukraine conflict and claimed that Moscow has ambitions of conquest in Ukraine and beyond. However, according to Peskov, the French leader selectively ignored crucial events and circumstances that contributed to the current Ukraine crisis. Among these, he pointed to NATO military infrastructure “encroaching, or rather making seven-mile strides” towards Russia’s borders, creating significant security concerns for Moscow. Peskov stated that Russia had no choice but to respond to this growing threat. He also refuted Macron’s claims that Russia violated the Minsk Agreements, citing former French President Francois Hollande’s acknowledgment that the West never genuinely intended for them to succeed.

In 2015, Hollande and then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel co-mediated a roadmap purportedly aimed at peacefully reintegrating the then-breakaway regions in Donbass back into Ukraine. Following the 2022 escalation, both politicians admitted that the purpose of the accord from the West’s perspective had merely been to buy time for Kiev to strengthen its military with NATO support. Peskov also remarked that in 2014 France and other European nations “deceived” then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich by endorsing his power-sharing agreement with Western-backed militants, who violated the deal within hours and forcibly removed the democratically elected leader, all without any protest from Paris.

The EU is currently promoting a substantial military buildup that would cost some $840 billion and be funded through debt. Brussels asserts that European security risks have been intensified by the shift in Washington’s policy under President Donald Trump, who is seeking a resolution to the Ukraine conflict while urging Europe to assume responsibility for future security guarantees for Kiev. Peskov observed that while this does not make the US a friend of Russia, it at least opens avenues for normalizing bilateral relations.

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“The war, the geopolitical uncertainty and the new arms race started by Putin..”

EU Must Win Arms Race – Poland (RT)

The EU must escalate its military buildup and win the arms race against Russia, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said. This comes amid growing efforts by EU leaders to increase defense spending, citing what they describe as a threat from Moscow, which Russia has repeatedly denied. Tusk’s remarks also come as US President Donald Trump and his administration increasingly push European NATO members to take greater responsibility for their own defense. Washington has suggested that Europe should rely less on US military aid, particularly regarding Ukraine, and instead ramp up its own military spending. In a message posted on social media on Thursday, Tusk accused Moscow of starting a new arms race and insisted that Europe must respond.

“The war, the geopolitical uncertainty and the new arms race started by Putin have left Europe with no choice. Europe must be ready for this race, and Russia will lose it like the Soviet Union 40 years ago,” Tusk wrote, adding that from today, Europe will arm itself faster than Russia. His comments follow recent statements by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has claimed that Russia poses a threat to the EU. Macron has urged the bloc to increase defense spending and has also proposed expanding Europe’s nuclear deterrence, potentially extending France’s nuclear umbrella to other EU countries in response to the perceived risks from Moscow.

Moscow has dismissed the accusations that it poses a military threat to Europe and has condemned Macron’s latest statement as “highly confrontational.” Russian President Vladimir Putin called Western claims of an impending Russian attack “nonsense.” He has also accused European leaders of stoking tensions and using the perceived Russian threat as a pretext to justify increased military spending. In December, Putin also stressed that Russia does not want to be bogged down in an arms race, which would be detrimental to the social and economic development of the country. He warned, however, that Russia will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of itself and its allies.

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“Macron should invite his predecessor… Hollande, to the Élysée Palace to have a heart-to-heart talk with him… Then he’ll probably hear from Hollande… that he had no intention of implementing the Minsk agreements..”

Macron Should Apologize – Moscow (RT)

French President Emmanuel Macron should apologize for making “misleading” claims about the origins of the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has told RT. In particular, Zakharova criticized Macron for alleging that Russia was to blame for the failure of the Minsk Accords. The agreements were brokered in 2014 and 2015 to halt fighting between Ukraine and the now-Russian Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, with France and Germany as guarantors. They were ultimately not implemented, and Moscow later accused Kiev and the West of using them to strengthen Ukraine’s military instead of securing peace. In a televised address on Wednesday,

Macron, however, blamed Russia of violating the accords and cited them as proof that the West “can no longer take Russia at its word” when it comes to resolving the conflict. “We cannot forget that Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and that we negotiated a ceasefire in Minsk at that time. And Russia did not respect this ceasefire,” the French president alleged, claiming that Moscow poses a direct threat to France and the entire EU. Zakharova condemned Macron’s comments as “aggressive and destructive” and pointed out that former French President François Hollande and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel have “openly confessed, and not under torture or pressure” back in 2022 they never intended to enforce the accords.

“Macron should invite his predecessor… Hollande, to the Élysée Palace to have a heart-to-heart talk with him… Then he’ll probably hear from Hollande… that he had no intention of implementing the Minsk agreements while representing France,” Zakharova stated, suggesting that after speaking to Hollande, Macron would “have to apologize to his own population for misleading them.” Macron has been a vocal advocate of strengthening Europe’s defenses against Russia and reiterated this position in his latest address. Moscow, however, has repeatedly denied having any plans to attack either the EU or NATO, with President Vladimir Putin dismissing such speculation as “nonsense” on multiple occasions.

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“..effectively granted Ratcliffe the authority to remove any CIA employee for any reason without the right to appeal.”

Trump Begins CIA Cuts – NYT (RT)

The administration of US President Donald Trump has begun cutting CIA staff as part of a broader effort to downsize government agencies, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing sources. The first dismissals reportedly targeted officers hired within the past two years, many of whom were still on probationary contracts. According to sources familiar with the situation, several recently hired CIA employees were summoned to a location away from the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where they were asked to surrender their credentials without prior notice. The firings have reportedly led to anxiety among remaining CIA staff, with some employees allegedly avoiding calls from security out of fear they may be next.

A CIA spokeswoman confirmed to the New York Times that certain recently hired officers had been let go but did not specify how many. She signaled that the dismissals were performance-based, as did several unnamed officials who spoke to the outlet. The reported firings come amid Trump’s efforts to cut government ranks as part of a drive to eliminate wasteful state spending, bureaucracy, and corruption – a campaign spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under billionaire Elon Musk. During the first cabinet meeting of his second term, Trump pledged to “cut down the size of government,” arguing that federal agencies had become “bloated” and “sloppy.” On February 11, he signed an executive order on workforce optimization, mandating large-scale reductions across government agencies and limiting hiring to essential positions.

The report also follows a federal judge’s ruling that cleared the way for CIA Director John Ratcliffe to fire employees at will. In late February, Judge Anthony J. Trenga ruled on a lawsuit brought by officers dismissed after Trump’s order to cut diversity programs in government agencies. That decision effectively granted Ratcliffe the authority to remove any CIA employee for any reason without the right to appeal. The Trump administration has previously cracked down on the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington’s primary mechanism for funding political projects abroad, firing some 2,000 employees and putting nearly all remaining staff on leave. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, Trump is also preparing an executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education, which he has repeatedly criticized as a “big con job.”

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And “around 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans..”

US Ready To Change Legal Status Of 240,000 Ukrainian Migrants (RT)

US President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing to revoke the temporary legal status for all refugees, including around 240,000 Ukrainians – a move that could speed up their path to deportation, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a senior administration official and three sources familiar with the matter. Expected to come into force in April, the decision is part of a broader crackdown on immigration which Trump launched since assuming office and marks a dramatic shift from the reception Ukrainians received under the previous administration of Joe Biden. The outlet noted that the effort to revoke protections for Ukrainians was already in progress before a verbal altercation between Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in the Oval Office last week.

According to sources, the move is part of a broader Trump administration initiative to eliminate the legal status of over 1.8 million migrants who entered the US through temporary humanitarian parole programs introduced under the Biden administration. In addition to the 240,000 Ukrainians, the administration plans to revoke parole for around 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans this month, the administration official and one of the anonymous sources told the outlet. Shortly after assuming office on January 20, Trump signed a number of executive orders introducing tougher immigration controls, including a decree instructing the Department of Homeland Security to “terminate all categorical parole programs.”

An internal US Immigration and Customs Enforcement email reviewed by Reuters indicated that migrants losing their parole status could face fast-track deportation proceedings. Other executive orders also included enhancing vetting for visa applicants, limiting birthright citizenship, directing the armed forces to guard the southern border with Mexico, and erecting additional barriers. Trump also repealed 78 executive orders signed by Biden, including directives related to immigration.

The development comes amid a deepening rift in US-Ukraine relations. Tensions have escalated in recent weeks following Zelensky’s ill-tempered meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over a minerals deal, culminating in a tense public argument between Trump and Zelensky in the White House last week. Zelensky was accused of “disrespecting” the US, with Trump insisting that the Ukrainian leader does not want peace. A proposed minerals deal between the US and Ukraine was left unsigned as a result.

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“Without the direct involvement of the West [..] Ukraine would not be able to use these technologies and data to launch long-range missiles at our territory. This is a very important acknowledgment,”

Lavrov Weighs In On US Decision To Halt Intel Sharing With Ukraine (RT)

Ukraine is entirely incapable of launching long-range missile strikes on Russia without direct support from Western nations, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, citing the recent US decision to pause intelligence sharing with Kiev as proof. On Wednesday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that the US had halted intelligence sharing with Kiev, adding that the restrictions could be lifted if Ukraine demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations with Russia. Washington has also frozen military assistance to Kiev, with both moves following a public spat between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky during an Oval Office meeting last week. The talks ended with Trump accusing Zelensky of “disrespect” and reluctance to seek peace with Moscow.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Lavrov highlighted the consequences of the US decision on intel sharing. “Without the direct involvement of the West – namely the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and other countries – Ukraine would not be able to use these technologies and data to launch long-range missiles at our territory. This is a very important acknowledgment,” the minister said. At the same time, Lavrov declined to speculate on how long the freeze would last, stressing that Russia is focused on eliminating the root causes of the conflict, including securing guarantees that NATO “will not continue to absorb Ukraine as a territory that could later be used to create permanent threats against the Russian Federation.”

Ukraine has long used advanced Western-made weapons, including US-supplied HIMARS and ATACMS, and British Storm Shadow missiles, to target Russian facilities, including civilian ones. In the fall of 2024, the administration of then-US President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use American long-range missiles for strikes deep into Russian territory despite Moscow’s warnings that this would escalate the conflict. In response to Ukrainian long-range strikes using Western weapons, Russia deployed its newest intermediate-range ballistic missile system, the Oreshnik, to target Ukraine’s Yuzhmash military-industrial facility in the city of Dnepr. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the Oreshnik as impossible to intercept, noting its warheads travel at ten times the speed of sound. Putin has said that Ukraine could launch missile strikes deep into Russia only if it receives reconnaissance data from satellites operated either by the EU or the US.

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“..Senate Democrats seem to have thrown in the towel on defending their own COVID record and heroes including Dr. Anthony Fauci..”

‘Science Should Be An Engine For Freedom’: NIH Nominee Bhattacharya (JTN)

Senate Democrats and some Republicans liked the status quo at the National Institutes of Health before the second Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency started closely scrutinizing its grant decisions, headcount and wildly generous reimbursement for “indirect costs” to institutions at the expense of money for their researchers. That seemed apparent at Wednesday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing for NIH director-nominee Jay Bhattacharya, who faced repeated bipartisan demands to oppose President Trump who nominated him and immediately undo decisions made by agency leaders and the president’s Department of Government Efficiency, especially mass terminations and funding freezes.

Best known for his pioneering research on widespread COVID-19 immunity by April 2020 and vocal opposition to prolonged school closures and vaccine mandates, the Stanford medical professor and health economist barely drew criticism for his own record. He mentioned just a single vaccine whose safety record troubled him when asked by Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J.: “COVID vaccines for young men causing myocarditis,” which is inflammation of heart muscle. Like their House colleagues a month earlier, Senate Democrats seem to have thrown in the towel on defending their own COVID record and heroes including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the four-decade director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Instead they assailed Trump and DOGE boss Elon Musk, with ranking member Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, telling Bhattacharya he’d be subservient to the unofficial leader of DOGE and asking Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., to haul billionaire Musk before the committee. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., asked Bhattacharya whether he’d follow the law when Trump gave him an illegal directive. When he rejected the plausibility of the hypothetical, she responded “that strains credulity” and denounced his “disappointing answer.”

Sanders repeatedly cut off Bhattacharya as he tried to answer leading questions about unilaterally capping high prices for drugs developed through NIH research and using his “bully pulpit” to pressure TV stations to ban ads for “unhealthy foods.” The nominee barely got to answer that the U.S. could have saved untold spending on drugs by treating serious COVID infections with the “cheap steroid” dexamethasone, as documented in a July 2020 New England Journal of Medicine study. “A lot can be done through executive orders,” Sanders answered, referring to Trump’s first-month deluge, when Bhattacharya told him that previous NIH directors said only Congress can impose price caps. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called bullplop on Democrats for not cosponsoring his bill to remove junk food from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which he said would disproportionately improve health for poor people.

The ophthalmologist cheered Bhattacharya’s tout of steroids that cost “pennies” to treat serious COVID, which he said Fauci rejected in March 2020. Paul called it “the best cure and the cheapest,” and Bhattacharya frowned that the U.K. did that research instead of NIH. Just as Democrats pivoted to praising COVID vaccines as “life-saving” after the novel therapeutics were found unable to stop transmission, to make infection more likely via the antibody “class switch” and to cause heart inflammation in young people, several used the compound adjective to describe research subject to NIH’s funding pause. So did Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who also joined Democrats in branding NIH’s new 15% cap on indirect cost recovery – in line with private foundations’ reimbursement ratios – a violation of congressional directives. She called the cap “ill-conceived and completely arbitrary” and a “one-size-fits-all approach,” a jab often applied to federal COVID guidance.

Bhattacharya reminded senators his own research received NIH grants and he served on a standing NIH grant committee for a decade, but said the agency must recover from the cratering public trust in public health leaders due to their pandemic management. His NIH will “vigorously regulate” research that could cause another pandemic, he said, referring to the theory favored by the FBI, CIA and Department of Energy that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a Chinese lab conducting gain-of-function experiments, indirectly funded by Fauci’s agency. Bhattacharya promised Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., he’d work with Congress to keep taxpayer money out of foreign biolabs such as Ukraine’s, publish records with “limited obfuscation” and require funding recipients to report “politically inconvenient” results.

Tuberville had asked about an NIH-funded study on youth gender transitions and mental health whose negative findings were intentionally withheld for seven years, helping create a false medical consensus on so-called gender affirming care for young people. He urged Bhattacharya to be “very visual on television” with his transparency message. Bhattacharya said he’ll prioritize research on chronic diseases including obesity and diabetes and reversing the slide in life expectancy, which has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and make it “replicable, reproducible and generalizable,” a weakness for the agency. He noted NIH’s “research integrity scandal” on Alzheimer’s disease, which he has studied, and its devotion to the “amyloid hypothesis,” an explanation for Alzheimer’s that may be based on falsified data and which he said crowded out study of other hypotheses.

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“..the Court finds that the public interest lies in maintaining the status quo and enjoining any categorical funding freeze.”

Obama Judge Indefinitely Blocks Trump Admin Funding Freeze (ZH)

A Rhode Island US District Judge has indefinitely blocked President Trump’s freeze on federal grants and loans, arguing in his ruling that the White House had “put itself above Congress” and undermined democracy. In a Thursday ruling, Judge John McConnell Jr., an Obama appointee – prohibited the Trump administration from freezing or otherwise impeding the disbursement of appropriated federal funds, WSJ reports. The decision is a victory for Trump critics who say he has trampled on Congress’s authority in his effort to cut federal spending and overhaul agencies. McConnell’s order follows a similar one issued by a different federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25. The judge had previously issued a temporary restraining order, which on Thursday he converted into an injunction, a more permanent form of relief.

“The Executive’s categorical freeze of appropriated and obligated funds fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,” wrote McConnell. “Here, the Executive put itself above Congress,” he continued. “It imposed a categorical mandate on the spending of congressionally appropriated and obligated funds without regard to Congress’s authority to control spending.” Of note – McConnell was very active in Democratic politics before becoming a judge – serving 14 years as treasurer of the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee, and donating heavily to Democratic political candidates. McConnell’s ruling came after 22 Democrat states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit which challenged a directive from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directing them to pause funding while it assessed whether various government programs complied with executive orders issued by Trump which target foreign aid, DEI, and green energy projects.

While OMB then rescinded that directive, the states say that come Congressionally-approved funds were still being improperly withheld – and that the initial OMB policy rollout sowed confusion among state governments, nonprofits, and lawmakers. McConnell issued an earlier temporary restraining order (TRO), in which he said that the administration couldn’t “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate” its federal financial-assistance obligations to the states. According to the judge, state governments face “significant disruption in health, education, and other public services” due to the funding freeze, and as such, “the Court finds that the public interest lies in maintaining the status quo and enjoining any categorical funding freeze.”

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“In February, [..] VA said it was continuing to hire for more than 300,000 mission-critical positions that are exempt from the federal hiring freeze..”

DOGE Looking To Cut More Than 80,000 Employees At Veterans Affairs (JTN)

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to cut 80,000 positions as part of an “aggressive” overhaul of the agency that runs programs for veterans and members of their families. The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top VA officials on Tuesday that it would to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000 employees. That would require dismissing about 83,000 employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration. It will work with the Department of Government Efficiency to create a workforce optimization plan, Syrek said in an internal memo obtained by multiple news outlets, including Government Executive, which first reported on the memo. He said VA will “move aggressively” to reduce bureaucracy, cut the department’s footprint and “increase workforce efficiency,” the outlet reported. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Democrats said the move could hurt veterans.

“83,000 VA employees are set to be fired,” the committee wrote on X. “These cuts won’t just impact those seeking health care. They will create chaos across every aspect of VA – delaying benefits, straining claims processing, and making it nearly impossible for student veterans and schools to get the assistance they need. Veterans will suffer the consequences.” The VA added staff quickly during the Biden administration as it staffed up to address increased coverage under the PACT Act, a law that expanded VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. News of the overhaul comes after relatively minor cuts at the agency. Earlier this week, Veterans Affairs started cancelling close to 600 “non-mission critical” and “duplicative” contracts valued at about $1.8 billion – and this is just the beginning, according to the department.

The cancellations result from the early stages of a “deliberative, multi-level review” by some of the people responsible for the contracts, VA senior leaders and contracting officials and will allow Veterans Affairs to redirect about $900 million back to veteran benefits and services, the agency said. The 585 contracts the department has begun canceling “represent less than 1% of the roughly 90,000 contracts VA currently has in place,” and the department plans to perform a thorough review of all of them. In February, VA dismissed more than 1,400 probationary employees in non-mission critical positions. At that time, VA said it was continuing to hire for more than 300,000 mission-critical positions that are exempt from the federal hiring freeze. Earlier that same month, VA announced it dismissed more than 1,000 of its 43,000 probationary employees in a move expected to save $98 million a year. The agency said those let go included non-union probationary employees who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment.

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“This will ensure that the IRS is not going after the wealthy and is only an agency that’s really focused on the low income,” he said. “It’s a travesty.”

IRS Reportedly Plans To Cut Half of Its 90,000 Workforce (JTN)

The Internal Revenue Service reportedly plans to cut its roughly 90,000-employee workforce by as much as half, as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce. The cuts will be made through a mix of attrition, layoffs and incentivized buyouts, two people familiar with the situation told the Associated Press. The reduction of the federal workforce is being led by the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is being led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. Those being laid off are mostly probationary employees who have not yet gained civil service protection.

The agency has already cut roughly 6,000 employees, or bout 6% of its workforce, Reuters reported in late February. Philip Hackney, a University of Pittsburgh tax law professor and Former IRS lawyer, warned such cuts could unfairly target the country’s underclass. “This will ensure that the IRS is not going after the wealthy and is only an agency that’s really focused on the low income,” he said. “It’s a travesty.”

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“I think logically, we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized..”

Elon Musk Says Amtrak, US Postal Service Should Be Privatized (ET)

Elon Musk, who is advising President Donald Trump on reducing government waste and downsizing the federal workforce, has called for privatizing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and passenger rail operator Amtrak. “I think logically, we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized,” Musk said at a March 5 Morgan Stanley conference. “I think we should privatize the Post Office and Amtrak for example.” Amtrak, a government-owned company created in 1970, reported an adjusted operating loss of $705 million in the prior fiscal year. USPS, also government-owned, has accumulated over $100 billion in losses since 2007, including $9.5 billion in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2024. Neither Amtrak nor USPS responded to requests for comment on Musk’s remarks by publication time. The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) voiced opposition to Musk’s idea of privatizing USPS, emphasizing the service’s public mission.

“A friendly reminder on behalf of every American who depends on USPS (including 51.5 million rural addresses): It’s called universal service, not ‘as much as possible’ service,” NALC wrote in a post on X. “And we’ll #FightLikeHell to protect it.” Trump has previously suggested that the USPS could be privatized, a move that would allow for more flexibility in pricing and labor negotiations. During Trump’s first term, his administration proposed a restructuring plan for USPS, citing “extremely high” fixed costs and an inability to support its financial obligations. The plan highlighted over $100 billion in unfunded liabilities, a decade of consecutive losses, and a growing capital investment backlog. “A privatized Postal Service would have a substantially lower cost structure, be able to adapt to changing customer needs and make business decisions free from political interference, and have access to private capital markets to fund operational improvements without burdening taxpayers,” the proposal stated.

Last month, Trump said he was considering merging USPS with the Commerce Department, a move that Democrats said would violate federal law. Calling USPS “a tremendous loser for the country,” Trump said the objective of such a move would be to have a “post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money.” Democrats have consistently opposed privatization efforts, warning that changes to USPS operations could disproportionately impact rural communities and those dependent on postal services for essential goods and medication. Trump has also repeatedly pushed to cut Amtrak’s federal funding, which totaled approximately $2.4 billion last year. His past budget proposals sought to reduce Amtrak’s funding by 40–50 percent and eliminate long-distance routes, arguing that resources should be redirected to higher-traffic corridors. Musk, comparing U.S. rail service to China’s high-speed system, criticized Amtrak as a “sad situation,” saying, “It will leave you with a very bad impression of America.”

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Trump questions Article 5.

Trump Planning Major NATO Shakeup – NBC (RT)

The US could decide to only defend those NATO countries that actually meet the bloc’s spending requirements, four former and current officials have told NBC. Such a policy would mark a major departure from a core article of the military bloc, which states that an attack on any NATO member is to be treated as an attack on all of them. A similar principle would apply to joint military exercises and American overseas deployments, the report said. Washington could choose to prioritize drills with those NATO partners that meet the defense spending targets and also reposition its forces in Europe according to the same criteria.

The administration of President Donald Trump has previously signaled that it was planning to reduce its military presence in Europe. The president also recently urged the EU to take the lead in its own defense and to bear the brunt of any future security guarantees for Kiev. Last month, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said that Washington intended to refocus its military priorities on countering China. He also warned the EU nations that they should not assume the presence of US troops on the continent will be indefinite. Some senior US officials contacted by NBC denied that the mutual defense clause – Article 5 – could be affected by any policy changes. Senator Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Defense, said that Trump’s nominee for the NATO ambassador’s position, Matthew Whitaker, “gave very reassuring answers” on the administration’s commitments to Article 5.

Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO members that fail to meet the bloc’s current defense spending threshold of 2% of GDP. The president floated the idea of raising mandatory defense spending by members to 5% of GDP, though none – including the US – currently meet that threshold. According to NATO estimates, 23 bloc members met the 2% threshold as of 2024, with just five, including the US, coming in above 3%. Poland was the only member to spend more than 4% of GDP on defense.

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“..too divided and insufficiently nimble to respond to the scale of the storm that Trump is whipping up over Ukraine,”

Trump Wants To Sideline EU – Politico (RT)

US President Donald Trump wants to sideline and destroy the European Union, an entity that he has long disliked, Politico has claimed in an article published on Thursday. The outlet argued that Trump is taking advantage of the cracks within the bloc caused by the Ukraine conflict. The administration in Washington has recently launched negotiations with Russia to broker peace in the Ukraine conflict and has excluded the EU from the process, which has elicited condemnation from Brussels. Trump has also halted American military aid to Ukraine, leaving the bloc jostling for funds to support Kiev. Washington’s anti-EU push “is triggering a crisis in Brussels institutions. The EU as a bloc is scrambling to prove its relevance,” Politico wrote. The Ukraine conflict has exposed differences among EU members in defense priorities, economic interests, and diplomatic approaches.

While countries such as Poland and the Baltic states have advocated for stronger military backing of Kiev, others, particularly Hungary and Slovakia, have pushed back, calling for a negotiated settlement with Russia. The financial burden of military aid and energy security concerns have also fueled tensions. Right-wing movements in several EU nations have questioned the bloc’s commitment to Kiev. “Trump will sideline the EU and play divide-and-rule with national leaders,” the publication wrote. While European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with US Vice President J.D. Vance in Munich last month, neither she nor European Council President Antonio Costa has had a face-to-face meeting with Trump, it noted.

The European Council, the body made up of the heads of state or government of all EU member states, “is being agonizingly exposed as too divided and insufficiently nimble to respond to the scale of the storm that Trump is whipping up over Ukraine,” Politico added. With Washington halting over $1 billion in arms shipments, Kiev faces potential shortages of ammunition and equipment. The EU is exploring alternatives to continue backing Ukraine militarily, despite the peace process initiated by the US and Russia. Von der Leyen on Tuesday unveiled a €800 billion plan aimed at bolstering the EU’s defense. In recent weeks, Trump has also targeted the bloc’s trade practices, describing them as “an atrocity” and announcing plans to impose a 25% tariff on EU goods. He also claimed that the bloc was “formed to screw the United States.”

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Trump wants to sideline EU, and the EU wants to sideline its own members.

“They created a wasteland and called it democracy.”

EU Seeking To Bypass Opponents of Ukraine Aid – Kallas (RT)

The EU is working on a new mechanism whereby a “coalition of the willing” would continue providing military aid to Kiev despite opposition by Hungary, according to Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy chief. Kallas made the announcement on Thursday after arriving in Brussels for an emergency summit of the bloc’s 27 countries to discuss boosting defense and Ukraine aid amid waning US support.Asked by reporters about Hungary’s attempt to block aid to Ukraine, Kallas acknowledged the issue is “increasingly difficult” and explained that Brussels is considering a new initiative called a “coalition of the willing,” so that “one country cannot block everybody else.” She did not provide any details about how the mechanism would work in practice. Hungary has already rejected an EU draft text on Ukraine that included security guarantees for Kiev and a new military aid package. Budapest has also called on the EU to begin negotiations with Russia.

The idea of creating a “coalition of the willing” – a group of countries ready to support Kiev militarily – was first proposed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at an emergency summit in London this past Sunday. The meeting in London was summoned shortly after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s ill-fated trip to Washington. The term “coalition of the willing” is most closely associated with the designation given to the countries supporting the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 on the ultimately disproven allegations of possession of weapons of mass destruction.“We are still striving for having the unity of 27 members,” Kallas said, but added that if unanimity cannot be reached, Hungary will have to “speak for themselves.” The military aid package for Ukraine reportedly being prepared by the EU is worth at least $6.2 billion, making it one of the bloc’s largest arms commitments since 2022. However, Hungary has indicated that it will veto the initiative.

Earlier this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the so-called ReArm Europe initiative, an €800 billion plan aimed at bolstering the EU’s defense capabilities. The proposal was prompted by US President Donald Trump’s freezing of military aid to Ukraine while urging the EU to take greater responsibility for its own defense. Moscow has long warned against Western arms shipments to Ukraine, arguing that they only prolong the conflict without altering the outcome, while increasing the risk of a direct Russia-NATO clash. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko has suggested that the EU could contribute to resolving the crisis by halting military and logistical support to Kiev.

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Without a past of nazis and holocaust, the country would not exist. It has one of the prime secret services in the world. But no idea what happens in Kiev.

Israeli FM ‘Didn’t Know’ Kiev Glorifies Holocaust Perpetrators (RT)

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has claimed ignorance of the well-documented fact that Ukrainian nationalists responsible for atrocities against Jewish people are venerated as heroes by Kiev. Moscow, in response, has offered to enlighten the Israeli official on the matter. On Monday, Sa’ar held a press briefing to mark Israel’s presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). West Jerusalem emphasized that anti-Semitism, which fueled Nazi crimes during World War II, “has not been eradicated from the world.” The minister seemed taken aback when a reporter asked for his thoughts on the modern-day glorification in Ukraine of Nazi-allied historical nationalist figures such as Stepan Bandera. In 2016, the Kiev city council renamed a large street in honor of Bandera, located just 3 km from Babi Yar, where an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Jews and thousands of others were exterminated under Nazi occupation.

“First of all, I didn’t know about it. I will check it,” the official responded, pledging to issue a statement of condemnation “if there is a necessity.” Bandera and other nationalists, including those directly implicated in wartime atrocities, have been celebrated in modern Ukraine for years – something the reporter described as “common knowledge.” The Russian government expressed bewilderment at the exchange, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sarcastically questioning the competence of Israel’s diplomatic staff. “How so? What is the Israeli embassy in Kiev doing then? And in Moscow too?” she wrote on social media, offering a collection of relevant documents in English for the minister’s convenience.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Kiev have in fact issued multiple statements denouncing the veneration of such figures. In January 2022, the diplomatic mission described that year’s annual torch march commemorating Bandera’s birthday as “desecrating the memory of the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine.” No such condemnation was issued the following year, however. The embassy explained to Haarez that “we’ve made our position clear many times, but apparently there is nothing we can do, at least at the moment.” Moscow views the current government in Kiev as dominated by neo-Nazis and radical nationalists and insists that any potential peace deal with Ukraine must include a reversal of policies discriminating against ethnic Russians.

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Elon

 

 

Nap
https://twitter.com/i/status/1897477371051360561

 

 

Feeders

 

 

Cheetah
https://twitter.com/i/status/1897665976646373393

 

 

Secret

 

 

Jekyll island

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 222025
 


Salvador Dali Remorse – Sphinx Embedded in the Sand 1931

 

Biden Family Pardons ‘Unfortunate’ – Trump (RT)
Was Biden China’s Manchurian Candidate The Entire Time? (ZH)
Joe Biden Delivers the Final Blow to Mainstream Media (Turley)
Trump Roars Back Into Office: Why US Vassals Are Panicking (Marsden)
Trump Orders to Rename Gulf of Mexico into Gulf of America (Sp.)
Ukraine Conflict ‘Needs To End’ – Rubio (RT)
The Ukraine Conflict Is Reshaping The Global Order (Sushentov)
Zelensky Demands At Least 200,000 ‘Peacekeepers’ On Ukrainian Soil (RT)
Dmitri Rogozin On Fighting and Finishing The War Differently (Helmer)
Trump Renames US Landmarks (RT)
Trump Starts US Withdrawal From WHO – Again (RT)
Trump Delivered His J6 Pardons, Now Congress Must Decide (JTN)
Joe Biden’s Absolute Destruction of Freedom of Speech (Jay)
How the Justice Department Made the Case for the J6 Pardons (Turley)
2025: The Year the Global Order Unravels (Nick Giambruno)

 

 

 

Mearsheimer
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881478190130147743

Tucker

YMCA

UK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881369794324365376

Pre-emptive
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881441726101160141

Raskin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881542560759660709

 

 

 

 

The perfect term in the circumstances.

Biden Family Pardons ‘Unfortunate’ – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump criticized his predecessor Joe Biden on Monday for pre-emptively pardoning his family members as one of his last acts in office. Biden granted clemency on Monday to his relatives, including his brother James Biden, who has been accused by Republicans of influence-peddling and making false statements to Congress. In early December, the former president issued a controversial blanket pardon to his son Hunter, expunging his criminal record of a gun crime conviction. Following his inauguration, Trump commented on Biden’s final order of leniency at an executive order-signing ceremony, saying “it was unfortunate that he did that.”

The president made similar remarks at Capital One Arena in Washington shortly after taking office, where he also reiterated his intention to pardon hundreds of people convicted for their roles in the 2021 Capitol riot. Trump claimed he had followed the advice of his aides not to mention Biden’s use of clemency powers during his inauguration address. ”I finished my speech, and they said, ‘Sir he pardoned his whole family’. I said: ‘Oh, can I go back out there and talk about it?’,” Trump told cheering supporters, adding: “We have plenty of time to talk about it.” Biden has also shielded from prosecution former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and members of the congressional committee, which investigated the Capitol riot.

In a text cited by NBC anchor Kristen Welker, Trump reportedly called the order “disgraceful”, adding that “many are guilty of MAJOR CRIMES.” Biden has emphasized that his “issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing.” Democrats have reasoned that Trump could abuse his presidential power in order to pursue a personal vendetta. Critics, including Milley, denounced Trump as a “fascist” during his second presidential campaign. The Republican accused his opponents of conducting a political “witch hunt” against him. Trump’s campaign victory has set a precedent, as he became the first US president to be elected after being convicted of a felony, stemming from a case in New York involving hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

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Billions for the Biden family.

Was Biden China’s Manchurian Candidate The Entire Time? (ZH)

“Was Biden China’s Manchurian candidate the entire time?” David Asher, an expert on illicit financing who previously worked at the US Defense and State Departments, asked on X, following the last-minute pardons that former President Biden issued on Monday morning for family members, including his brother, James Biden; his sister-in-law, Sara Jones Biden; his sister, Valerie Biden Owens; his brother-in-law, John T. Owens; and his youngest brother, Francis Biden. Asher said, “Biden just pardoned his family, not just Hunter. It’s a clear indication that they have a secret to cover up. Bohai (aka BHR) is worth billions. Via beneficial interest, Biden family may own up to 27%.” Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, Hunter Biden’s “sugar brother,” purchased Hunter’s 10% stake in the China-backed investment firm BHR Partners during President Biden’s first year in office. The move allowed the Biden family to declare they had divested from foreign business interests. Asher noted, “Hunter says he sold his shares in 2021 to his lawyer/landlord Smith but if that truly happened he would received several billion dollars,” adding, “No evidence of that. All signs are he owns at least 18.8%.”

“Bohai appears to own China defense company, Zhongkui Group as well. So potential direct ties to the People’s Liberation Army and domestic/foreign Chinese intelligence. WTF??” Asher emphasized. [..] Asher questioned: “Are their associates (Bulger, Morris, et al.) “beneficial shareholders” and have been the whole time? What did they do to be given “golden” founders shares, to begin with, if not for the Biden’s?” He continued, “Their shares apparently were worth hundreds of millions and possibly billions, at least on paper? So they received this from a Chinese Communist Party company – it is apparently the oldest private equity fund in all of China. While Biden was Vice President and then President? Why are Hunter’s buddies still on the board and or “supervisors.” What’s the deal between Whitey Bulger’s family and the Bidens? Was Biden a Manchurian candidate for the ChiComms?” Asher reposted a clip of Peter Schweizer, who said the Biden family pardons are merely “an extension of Joe Biden himself and his role in the family’s dealings.”

Earlier, the former president said blanket pardons to family members do not acknowledge wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be viewed as an admission of guilt. They cover all nonviolent offenses beginning on Jan. 1, 2014. This comes as various Biden family members have been under investigation for influence peddling. [..] Speaking with The Hill on Monday, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY.) said the pardons “validated” the investigations into Biden family members. “We finished our investigation, we published a very detailed report, and I think the pardons validate everything in that report,” Comer said, adding, “Now it’s Pam Bondi’s.” Asher continued, “Trump is making history on day one. We are going to end the BS in the USG and make things in government and for the people more than great again. Trump’s better than he’s ever been before. Even old line conservatives need to get on board.”

“If I get back in, the deep State will be upended and we will make the Department of State great again under Secretary Rubio— who is a total genius and tremendous leader under the president. China will pay for COVID and fentanyl. Iran will not be forgiven for attempting to kill the president and many others while it moves to build nukes to destabilize the Middle East and threaten the US and Europe. We can do a great deal without resorting to kinetic force. Peace through strength!” he concluded. The key takeaway is that the last-minute pardons for various members of the Biden family prompted Asher to conduct a public forensic analysis, which raises more questions than answers—particularly about whether Hunter still has ties (potentially beneficial interest) to BHR despite allegedly divesting several years ago.

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“It was done in the final minutes because it was raw and obvious. There is no pretense or apology. Just good old-fashioned corruption Biden-style.”

Joe Biden Delivers the Final Blow to Mainstream Media (Turley)

At 11:45 am, the media felt the final sting of the Biden scandal. It was delivered by President Joe Biden, who shattered any pretense of principle in pardoning family members allegedly implicated in the influence-peddling corruption scandal. According to an old fable, a scorpion convinced a leery frog to carry him across a river, noting that he could not sting him since they would both drown. Halfway across, the scorpion struck and the frog asked why he would doom them both. The scorpion replied “I am sorry, but I couldn’t resist the urge. It’s in my nature.” For those of us who have written about the corruption of the Biden family for decades, the pardons were crushingly predictable. The President simply couldn’t resist the urge.

In a city where corruption is a cottage industry, the Bidens have long been in a league of their own, from nepotism to influence peddling to illicit lobbying. In the influence-peddling scandal, millions were generated from foreign sources in virtual plain view. There were the luxury hotel rooms, a diamond, a sports car, and massive payments called “loans. In the summer of 2019, one Chinese businessman wired Hunter Biden $250,000 using Joe Biden’s Delaware home as the beneficiary address.” The sense of absolute impunity came out in shake-down communications. For example, there was the WhatsApp message to a Chinese businessman openly threatening the displeasure of Joe Biden if money was not forked over without delay. In the message, Hunter warned:

“I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the Chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.” That sense of impunity was due to mainstream media forming a protective shell around the family. The media refused to pursue the scandal despite the Hunter Biden laptop and clear evidence of influence peddling.

In 2020, CBS News’s Lesley Stahl literally laughed mockingly at then-President Donald Trump when he raised the Hunter Biden laptop and what it revealed about the Bidens. (Yet Stahl still recently expressed confusion and alarm that people were abandoning legacy media for new media.) Reporters assured citizens that the laptop was presumptive “Russian disinformation.” Even after the media belatedly acknowledged that it was authentic, MSNBC and Washington Post analysts were still making the claim last year. After Republicans in the House detailed millions in payments, the media shifted to claiming that there was no real scandal unless it was shown that Joe Biden actually received money directly. It was a ridiculous claim since courts have long treated money going to family members as the same as going directly to a principal as criminal conduct.

The media continued to protect Biden, as evidence showed that Biden had repeatedly lied about not meeting with Hunter’s clients or not having knowledge of his foreign dealings. As the media narrative continued to collapse, it latched on the promise of Biden that he would never pardon his son – proof that the President was willing to let the criminal justice system run its course.

Biden then was shown to be lying about the pardon promise. After he was forced out of the election, Biden signed a pardon for any crimes over a decade committed by his son. The media gave muttered “harrumphs” and moved on. Many said that it was understandable for a father of a son who struggled with drugs. Now, in the final minutes of his presidency, Biden pardoned his other allegedly implicated family members, including James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens, and Francis Biden. James Biden was previously referred for criminal charges for lying under oath to Congress as part of its investigation into the corruption scandal. The pardons were clearly timed to avoid media scrutiny and questions. While he described the act as one of “conscience,” it was an almost mocking act of corruption.

In a strange way, it passed in Bidenworld as an honest moment. There were no claims of supporting an addicted son or dealing with a pending case. It was done in the final minutes because it was raw and obvious. There is no pretense or apology. Just good old-fashioned corruption Biden-style. It was as honest a moment as when Biden told a friend that “no one f**ks with a Biden.” There was nothing revealing in this about Biden. He could shrug and say, “It’s in my nature.” The sting instead fell on the media, which trusted Biden not to demean it further with such an unethical and disgraceful final act. The funny thing is that Biden made it across the river. He boarded his final flight with his family (and himself) protected by the misuse of his presidential authority. However, if he looked out the window, he could see his media allies slipping stunned beneath the waters.

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“You didn’t have to dedicate bandwidth to navigating lunacy like which pronouns you should be using when you meet someone. Or whether to chop off your kid’s junk before the school demands it for his mental health..”

Trump Roars Back Into Office: Why US Vassals Are Panicking (Marsden)

It’s shock and awe time for Uncle Sam’s allies in the clown car who have mindlessly gone along for the ride. Not only is freshly re-minted US President Donald Trump reversing course at breakneck speed but, if his newly declared priorities are any indication, he seems to be headed, pedal to the metal, all the way back to the 80s. One has to look back about 40 years to find a “simpler” time in Western society. Life was straightforward. You worked, earned a commensurate livable wage, and focused on your life and that of your family. Period. You didn’t have to dedicate bandwidth to navigating lunacy like which pronouns you should be using when you meet someone. Or whether to chop off your kid’s junk before the school demands it for his mental health and suggests you be re-educated if you object. Or whether your neighborhood soon risked looking like it was transplanted, in toto, from a foreign country.

Or whether there was stuff hidden inside your food that would only make its presence known once it had latched onto your inexplicably ever-widening backside. You knew about the foreign wars, and that they were a boon to the military industrial complex, but you didn’t get the impression that the country that was being invaded was like a foster child, commanding so many resources and attention that they were considered a big reason why your own life sucked. You figured that the folks in charge at least had enough sense to put the oxygen mask on their own people first. Now, it’s like Westerners in general are just supposed to embrace the martyrdom, gasping away and accepting to make the best of it. Americans ultimately rejected it all when they elected Trump. And if his recent executive orders within hours of taking office are any indication, he isn’t wasting any time on setting the Time Machine to a return to the pre-woke era.

With a stroke of the presidential pen, he’s now brought back the two-gender reality, deprived men of the opportunity to excel in women’s sports, and terminated government-sponsored diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. As a woman who has championed first- and second-wave feminism, the kind that ended by the 80s before being hijacked by lunacy that perverted the interests of women and minorities – it’s about damn time. The Democrats have had a long run at corrupting the once honorable struggle for equality. “This war against women started a long time ago with old Democrats who took over the Republican Party, which was, before that, the very first to support the Equal Rights Amendment,” second-wave American feminist icon and “Ms.” Magazine founder, Gloria Steinem, explained to The Humanist in 2012.

“Even when the National Women’s Political Caucus started, there was a whole Republican feminist entity. But beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, right-wing Democrats like Jesse Helms began to leave the Democratic Party and gradually take over the GOP,” she said. Democrats ultimately ensured that everyone would become paralyzed by self-censorship in standing up against divisive and woke left policies, for the fear or being cancelled at best and officially sanctioned at worst. Trump has now taken that threat and others off the table, ordering that “no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” He’s also made it illegal to use any government resources to infringe on free speech.

Trump also made a long anticipated presidential pardon and commutation order that effectively places the January 2021 Capitol Hill rioters on par with the much less stigmatized and prosecuted antifa counterparts on the other side of the ideological coin. And he’s tasked the armed forces with actually defending the US by placing them at the border, and slapping the terrorist label on cartels endangering the US rather than on a group on the other side of the world in a country targeted for the “liberation” of its natural resources. Trump has now pulled the US out of the Paris Climate straitjacket, er, agreement. You know, the one that was such a brilliant idea that it’s proven to be a total failure. Maybe next time don’t try to legislate the temperature of the entire planet, and make it seem like citizens could do their part by yelling at their neighbor to recycle his Coke cans.

Trump also ordered a withdrawal from the World Health Organization, citing costs and its “mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.” He’s basically doing everything that he figures will make the US wealthier, from lifting the ban on Alaskan oil drilling to declaring a national energy emergency. And he doesn’t seem too interested in continuing or starting wars unless he can see a clear net return on investment for the hassle. “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” Trump said in his inaugural address.

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Much more yet to come.

Trump Orders to Rename Gulf of Mexico into Gulf of America (Sp.)

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered renaming the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America, according to an executive order published by the White House. “Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior shall… take all appropriate actions to rename as the “Gulf of America” the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico,” the order read. The secretary will also have to remove all references to the Gulf of Mexico in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database to reflect the change.

Pardoning Capitol Rioters
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to pardon approximately 1,500 people who took part in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The order was the first one Trump signed upon arrival at the White House as the 47th President of the United States. More than 1,570 defendants have been federally charged with crimes related to the January 6 attack, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Vice President Joe Biden’s victory.

Plans to Rebuild US Military
US President Donald Trump has said he is planning to rebuild the US military, as he did during his first presidential term. “We totally rebuilt the United States military in 2017-2019 … now, we are going to do it again,” Trump said during the inaugural ball. He also added that the US military will be so strong “that we don’t have to use it.”

Withdrawing from the World Health Organization
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). The president criticized the organization’s funding policies, namely the fact that the US is being demanded to pay more than China, whose population is bigger. In May 2020, Trump, during his first presidential term, announced that the country would withdraw from the WHO following his criticism of the organization’s coronavirus response. His successor, Joe Biden, retracted Trump’s decision on his first day in office.

Foreign Aid Suspension
Trump has signed an executive order to suspend foreign development aid for 90 days to assess these programs’ compliance with the US foreign policy. “By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered … (a) 90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy,” the order said, as quoted by the White House.

Declaration of Emergency
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to declare a national emergency at the country’s southern border. “This is a proclamation declaring a national emergency at the southern border of the United States,” an announcer said during a ceremony. On Monday, Fox News reported that Trump would sign 11 executive orders to deploy the military to the southern border, immediately resume construction of the border wall and direct federal agencies to reinstate the Remain-in-Mexico policy, among other things.

Boosting US Energy Market Standing
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order boosting energy production in the US. The order provides for easing “permitting processes and other regulatory systems” to ensure effective drilling in the country.

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Wonder if Rubio and Trump realize how little wiggle room Russia has left after incorporating Crimea and the 4 regions. They can’t just make them subject to negotiations.

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

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that US President Donald Trump will begin working on a ceasefire agreement for Ukraine “almost immediately.” Rubio was the first high-level cabinet member of the new Trump administration to be confirmed by the Senate on Monday following Trump’s inauguration. Speaking to journalists shortly afterwards, Rubio said Ukraine will be a “top priority” for Trump and that efforts to reach a ceasefire will begin straight away, but did not give a specific timeframe for ending the conflict with Russia. Some of the groundwork has “already been laid,” Rubio said, adding that it will be a complicated process. “I mean, it’s a complex conflict and a bloody one, and it needs to end,” CNN quoted him as saying.

Rubio insisted that both Ukraine and Russia will have to concede “something” as part of any deal, but he did not elaborate on what such concessions might be. Asked for specifics, Rubio said negotiations with such high stakes “are best conducted through diplomacy” rather than public forums. “Obviously the countries involved, both the Russians and the Ukrainians, will have to make ultimate decisions about what they agreed to,” Rubio said. During his campaign for president, Trump had repeatedly promised to resolve the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours” if returned to the White House. Asked on Monday following his inauguration whether he would keep that promise, Trump joked that he had “half a day left.” Trump also reiterated his willingness to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin with a view to finding a diplomatic settlement of the crisis, saying that he wants to get it done “as quickly as possible” and that the conflict “should never have started.”

CNN reported on Monday that Trump has instructed aides to set up a phone call with Putin within the first few days of his term. The call is expected to lay the groundwork for meetings aimed at ending the conflict over the coming months, CNN said. Responding to that report on Tuesday, Putin’s foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow had not been contacted by the White House yet. Putin extended good wishes to Trump ahead of his inauguration on Monday, saying he “welcomes” the new president’s comments about wanting to restore relations with Moscow and “the need to do everything to prevent World War Three.” Moscow remains committed to its principles and believes that dialogue must be built on an “equal and mutually respectful basis,” Putin said.

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“Ukraine has become both a key instrument and a weak link in the American strategy.”

The Ukraine Conflict Is Reshaping The Global Order (Sushentov)

The era of monolithic “Atlantic solidarity” is over, and Russia has been a major catalyst for this erosion. The United States has emerged as the primary beneficiary of the Ukraine crisis. Relations between Russia and Western Europe have been disrupted, energy infrastructure has been undermined, and the EU has been compelled to overpay Washington for military and energy supplies. However, the Americans will derive limited benefit from a deep normalization of relations: ties with Moscow will remain distant, and the tools for pressuring its European NATO allies will weaken. The interaction between the US and its European “friends” has long been viewed as a unified “transatlantic project,” based on a shared vision of security and common values. But the rise of incoming US President Donald Trump exposed fractures within this construct.

His November election win was warmly welcomed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who anticipated economic gains for his country. In contrast, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concerns and urged EU partners to consolidate against the unpredictability of Trump’s foreign policy, calling for a more united and sovereign Western Europe. Trump’s provocative actions, such as the proposal to annex Greenland, part of NATO ally Denmark, or his threats to withdraw the US from the bloc if European countries do not increase their financial contributions, were not mere eccentricities. These statements represented a departure from the traditional American strategy of acting in cooperation with allies and offering a framework of engagement where loyalty to Washington came with shared benefits for all parties.

It has become clear that the US now prioritizes its national interests above the collective goals of the Euro-Atlantic community. For decades, the West pursued the idea of an expanding “golden billion,” where the transatlantic project sought to absorb more states through economic integration and the spread of liberal democratic values, or military alliances. The goal was to showcase a high standard of living, ideological greatness, and technological superiority to the rest of the world, gradually integrating them into the Western order. Russia’s “red lines” and its push for a multipolar world order – rooted in cooperation with countries of the “world majority” – significantly limited this expansion. A clash became inevitable: the West’s support for nationalist forces in Kiev was aimed at swiftly integrating Ukraine into Euro-Atlantic structures. Moscow, however, saw this as a direct threat to its security.

Today, Trump’s rhetoric has reinforced a “every nation for itself” mentality among European leaders, pushing them toward national self-interest. Political forces in Germany, Italy, and Hungary are increasingly questioning the unconditional support for Washington’s policies. Western Europeans are becoming less enthusiastic about sanctions and military aid to Kiev, while major EU players are calculating how to ensure their own security and economic stability. Although these sentiments are not yet mainstream among Western elites, voices are growing louder that blame the West for deepening the Ukrainian crisis and advocate for rapprochement with Russia. The era of monolithic “Atlantic solidarity” is undeniably over, and Moscow has played a key role in this transformation.

Meanwhile, Kiev itself has refused to negotiate with Russia and rejected the settlement formula discussed during the Istanbul talks. Vladimir Zelensky’s political survival depends on continuing the war, regardless of the toll it takes on Ukraine. This impasse, coupled with America’s strategic gains from the conflict, makes a meaningful resolution unlikely in the near term. The root of the Ukrainian crisis lies in the collision of two grand geopolitical projects: the rigidly homogeneous transatlantic solidarity of the West and Russia’s vision of a multipolar world that embraces the natural diversity of national identities.

Ukraine, especially after the 2014 Maidan coup, has become the central battleground for this competition, a test of which system is more durable and adaptable and which vision better understands global realities and offers the most effective solutions in a world growing increasingly complex and diverse. These questions remain unresolved. Ukraine has become both a key instrument and a weak link in the American strategy. Washington’s attempt to use Kiev as leverage against Moscow has faced staunch resistance from Russia and growing divisions within the transatlantic alliance. The outcome of this struggle may lead to a broader transformation of international relations, with a shift toward a multicentric world order and a rethinking of the US role in Europe.

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Trump has suspended all foreign aid for now. Zelensky can’t be happy with that.

“..Putin would field a military force of some 2 million against the West..”

“..Putin will certainly return with an army ten times larger than the force he had in early 2022..”

Zelensky Demands At Least 200,000 ‘Peacekeepers’ On Ukrainian Soil (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has reportedly urged European nations to deploy at least 200,000 troops in his country to enforce a potential ceasefire agreement with Russia. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, he said a lower number of foreign “peacekeepers” would amount to “nothing,” according to Reuters. The remark came after Zelensky’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Previously, several media outlets claimed the UK and France were considering sending troops to Ukraine, in the event that the hostilities are suspended. Zelensky’s attendance at the gathering of international business and political elites coincided with the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the US. Trump’s administration has already paused all foreign aid programs pending review, and has pledged to ensure a swift resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In public remarks on Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader urged Western leaders to double down on supplying Kiev with weapons and financial support, warning that if they fail to do so they could face a Russian attack on NATO in the foreseeable future. Russian President Vladimir Putin would field a military force of some 2 million against the West, Zelensky said, offering no evidence for his assertion. ”Unless we have strong security guarantees, be it NATO [membership], or a military contingent and long-range weapons deployed on the Ukrainian territory, Putin will certainly return with an army ten times larger than the force he had in early 2022,” he claimed. Zelensky estimated the number of Russian troops involved in the Ukraine conflict at 200,000 in February 2022, compared to 608,000 at present.

Ukraine has consistently portrayed its army as a bulwark protecting Europe from Russia. Zelensky and other senior figures in Kiev have argued that Western powers are obliged to provide foreign aid, as Ukrainian soldiers are dying in place of Western troops. Moscow has characterized the hostilities as a Western proxy war against Russia, in which Ukrainians are being used as ‘cannon fodder’. Russian officials contend that Washington pushed the tensions to boiling point while ignoring Russian security concerns stemming from NATO’s expansion in Europe, and increasing cooperation with Ukraine. Addressing these issues, Moscow insists, is an essential step towards a lasting resolution to the crisis.

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“Rozogin’s principles of war policy are acceleration on the offensive; decapitation of Vladimir Zelensky; and comprehensive militarization of the Russian domestic economy..”

Dmitri Rogozin On Fighting and Finishing The War Differently (Helmer)

In anticipation of the start of end-of-war negotiations between President Donald Trump’s retired general Keith Kellogg and the Kremlin, Dmitri Rogozin has proposed three fresh principles for the Russian outcome – acceleration, decapitation, mobilization. Since 1996 Rogozin is the longest running contestant for the Russian presidency — longer running than Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev, Sergei Glazyev, or Alexei Kudrin; only the serial loser, Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party, has been running for longer. At 61, Rogozin is eleven years younger than President Putin, two years older than ex-president Medvedev, and more than ten centimetres taller than both of them. If sources for Kremlin election strategy are to be believed, the most likely vote-getter to succeed if Putin retires in 2030 will be recruited from the Time of Heroes legion who are being placed into political circulation each December since the Special Military Operation (SVO) began.

With a family of Russian military leaders extending from the 13th and 17th centuries to his father, two doctorates, and state service as Putin’s ambassador to NATO, deputy prime minister for the military industrial complex, and head of the Russian space conglomerate Roskosmos, Rogozin is a unique figure in current politics. As the sitting senator for Zaporozhye region engaged in running an active military unit on the front, Rogozin is combining the military and civilian qualifications for the succession. He has also remained relatively free of oligarch ties; his line on domestic economic planning and investment priorities is anti-oligarch and war mobilizational alongside Glazyev and Mikhail Delyagin. Not even the hit jobs organized by political rivals like Alexei Navalny and the Kiev regime, have been able to silence or kill him.

Rozogin’s principles of war policy are acceleration on the offensive; decapitation of Vladimir Zelensky; and comprehensive militarization of the Russian domestic economy. Last week in a nationally circulated press interview, he called for “victory so that the armed conflict ends faster, so that we can begin a peaceful life faster…The war changes every three months. It becomes impossible to fight in the old way. New means of destruction are emerging. We must keep in mind that here we are fighting against the entire military-industrial complex of the Western countries — they are testing their weapons on us. Therefore, not only do we have no right to lag behind, we must be ahead of the curve.”

“We need solidarity of the rear and the front. Moscow, St. Petersburg, other major Russian cities should stop living their carefree life, pretending that nothing is happening. We will never return to the state that was until 2022. Never. Everyone needs to understand that. Society must understand the depth of the problem and help the army with everything it can. Only victory will bring an end to the conflict. The war cannot be frozen. Or else the war will be inherited by our children and grandchildren.”

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“McKinley himself never visited Alaska.”

Trump Renames US Landmarks (RT)

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order renaming Mount Denali, the tallest mountain in the US, and the Gulf of Mexico. The text of the order was released by the White House on Monday. According to the document, titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” the purpose of the renaming is to promote American heritage. Trump had announced the changes in his inaugural speech on Monday. ”The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past,” executive order reads. The mountain in Alaska will once again be called Mount McKinley, its name from 1917 to 2015, when then-US President Barack Obama returned the peak to its original native name.

’McKinley’ bears the name of the 25th US President William McKinley, who led the US to victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898. As a result of the peace treaty, Spain relinquished its claim to Cuba, and ceded sovereignty over Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines to the United States. The US also annexed the independent state of Hawaii during the conflict, thus expanding its territory. McKinley himself never visited Alaska. The executive order changes the official US term for the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.” The body of water, located in the southeastern region of North America and bordered by the US, Mexico and Cuba, “has long been an integral asset” of the nation and is “an indelible part of America,” the executive order states.

It adds that the gulf’s natural resources and wildlife “remain central” to the national economy. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, first introduced in his 2016 presidential campaign, has been a cornerstone of his latest political initiatives, with the new executive order emphasizing “American greatness” in its title and linking the restoration of historic names to Trump’s broader vision of national pride. The renaming moves are part of a flurry of executive orders that Trump signed on Monday. Among them are a ban on government officials violating freedom of speech under the guise of fighting misinformation, a reversal of protections for transgender rights, and a suspension of foreign aid.

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With Covid, Tedros, Bill Gates, what choice is left?

Trump Starts US Withdrawal From WHO – Again (RT)

President Donald Trump has announced that the US will exit the World Health Organization (WHO). On Monday, his first day in office, he signed an executive order to initiate the process of withdrawing, declaring that the US would leave the UN global public health agency within 12 months. The move marks the second time Trump has ordered his country’s withdrawal from the WHO. He took steps to exit the organization in 2020, accusing it of assisting China in efforts to “mislead the world” about the origins of Covid-19. His successor Joe Biden would then reverse the decision, in his own inauguration-day move. Trump’s order on Monday stated that the US was withdrawing “due to the organization’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

It also cited the WHO’s alleged “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.” The president also argued that the organization imposed “unfairly onerous payments” on the US, which were disproportionate compared to contributions from other, more populous countries, such as China. ”World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing of the executive order, according to media. The WHO, as a coordinating authority on international health issues, relies on funding from dues-paying member states and on voluntary contributions. The US has for decades been one of the organization’s largest donors.

During the Biden administration, the US remained the largest contributor to the WHO, which has a budget of $6.8 billion for the current fiscal year. In 2023, nearly one-fifth of its funding was provided by the US. The US has been a member of the WHO since its inception in 1948, and the withdrawal would make the country the only major power absent from the 194-member organization. In a statement released on Tuesday, the WHO expressed “regret” over Washington’s decision to withdraw, emphasizing its critical role in global health and security. The agency underscored its recent reforms aimed at enhancing accountability and efficiency, urging the US to reconsider its decision for the benefit of global health.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing would continue supporting the WHO. “The role of the WHO should only be strengthened, not weakened,” Guo said. In November, Trump nominated long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy to become US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). RFK Jr. was among the vocal critics of the WHO-recommended Covid-19 response measures imposed by governments around the world, namely strict lockdowns and the introduction of rapidly developed vaccines. Kennedy’s nomination has yet to be approved by the Senate.

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“What did an official panel of Congress do that was so bad it needed to be absolved by an act of presidential clemency?”

Trump Delivered His J6 Pardons, Now Congress Must Decide (JTN)

President Donald Trump wasted no time Monday night delivering the pardons he promised Jan. 6 defendants – 1,500 in all. And in so doing, he upped the pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson to repudiate the findings of a Democrat-run panel whose findings have been factually challenged and whose conduct required an act of clemency. The conduct of the Democrat-run Select House Committee on the Jan. 6 attack garnered new scrutiny Monday when departing President Joe Biden issued sweeping pardons for all lawmakers and staffers on that committee as well as a handful of police officers who testified to the panel. It was a stunning act – some lawmakers who served on the committee also called it unwelcomed – that begged a provocative question: What did an official panel of Congress do that was so bad it needed to be absolved by an act of presidential clemency?

“You don’t forgive somebody of something unless they have potentially done something,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Republican who took over the Jan. 6 probe from Democrats two years ago and exposed major factual flaws with the original investigation’s findings. “I mean, to me, this is basically, if not an actual admission, it’s truly the perception of admitting that there was wrongdoing done,” Loudermilk told Just the News. Loudermilk has pushed for months for Congress to vote on whether the findings of the Jan. 6 committee that Democrats ran should be repudiated for history’s sake. His request is rooted in his own investigative finding showing the committee misled the American public, held exculpatory evidence and possibly colluded with federal prosecutors.

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“Blinken thanked those present for asking difficult questions, when in fact, none had really been asked in 4 years.”

Joe Biden’s Absolute Destruction of Freedom of Speech (Jay)

Sometimes the internet seems to be overbrimming with video clips showing hilarious examples of what a failed state actually looks like. One of the most common is MPs, or ‘deputies’ actually fighting in their own parliaments against one another. The irony of these clips is that they are usually uploaded by westerners who use to them as a tool to boost or gentrify the reality of western countries’ democratic models. But no more. Thanks to Joe Biden’s genocidal maniacs club, the last days of his rule gave us a gem in the form of a press conference where the limit of just how America is anything but a functioning democracy was stretched to breaking point in what appeared to both be deeply sad yet comical at the same time.

As the odious Anthony Blinken gave his patronizing speech to the so-called journalists amassed before him which felt a little like an aristocrat who had gathered the servants in the library to congratulate them on finding an item of lost jewelry of her ladyship’s, we witnessed in real time what America and what these State Department’s press briefings really are: a fraud. Blinken thanked those present for asking difficult questions, when in fact, none had really been asked in 4 years. Why? Because that is not part of the unwritten rules of how these press briefings work. But the moment he had mentioned the “difficult questions” he was, perhaps appropriately, delivered a series of difficult questions by the Jewish American journalist Max Blumenthal.

What was not so surprising was how none of those questions were answered as Blinken, being a smart operator, knew if he kept composed and didn’t rise to the bait it would probably anger Blumenthal even more allowing the tirade to look on camera at least like a rant which had got out of control. Seconds passed and Blumenthal was ushered away by officials which he didn’t offer any resistance to. Moments passed before the veteran arab journalist Sam Husseini also asked more difficult questions to an increasingly startled Blinken before we see the extent of how far America has abandoned its own free speech doctrine which it used to espouse to the rest of the world: Husseini was actually physically removed by overweight, armed police officers who you can see quite clearly feel uncomfortable about what they are doing, which most people would associate with a tin pot West African country’s ruling junta and not the American government at a press conference.

But the really shocking part of this story was yet to come: the absolute refusal by colleagues in the press room to even verbally object will have stunned journalists all over the world. It provokes many questions about journalism and what these individuals in the room think they are actually doing. We were given though a clue to quite how far journalism has died in the West and been replaced by a cheaper, easy wipe brand called ‘pseudo journalism’ – where actors take one function of journalists but who effectively work for the ruling elite rather than previously for the masses who used to fund the model by buying the actual publications. CNN reporting of the fiasco was very telling. They lost no time putting the boot into Blumenthal, who, naturally they must despise as he functions as a real journalist and they have long forgotten what this entails years ago, opting for the new model of fake news operator. They referred to Blumenthal as an “activist” – a typical slur from big media to individual journalists who carry out stellar work.

The truth about this incident is that such press conferences at the state department or indeed in the European Commission in Brussels are entirely staged. They are a theatre concocted by the elite and the press themselves as part of a dirty deal whereby the journalists ask the softball questions which allow the top figures to deliver the prepared spiel. The so-called journalists sign up to this and in return get access to individuals and scoops – although it’s important to note that the scoops are nearly always new items which serve the state’s purpose. It’s a game which has been going on for a long time and the humble masses don’t understand how they are being taken for a ride by the magicians’ allusion of something which might look credible. In these press gatherings some journalists are even asked to present certain questions which are even suggested by those holding the conference, something I witnessed myself a lot in Brussels.

It was not that the questions put to Blinken were so harsh, or even unconventional. The point is that both Blumenthal and Husseini broke the house rules when they went rogue and did what most people would view to be the role of real journalists: ask unscripted questions. Look what happens when journalist do this. We are treated to a debacle which we would expect to see in the global south, or certainly in Nazi Germany in the 30s. And this is America? The cat is out of the bag. The whole world can see now how America has lost all its links with the democratic model and become an autocracy, run, financed and ruled by Israel’s cash. Netanyahu and his cronies must have had a really good laugh watching those journalists being removed like that.

Presumably their press accreditations will be removed and certainly the worry that both of them will have is that they now mysteriously find themselves being investigated for tax irregularities, theft, fraud or even having child porn on their computers. Journalists like Blumenthal are the biggest threat to the deep state as they will never be part of the establishment and therefore will always be the most dangerous guy to tackle. The one who has nothing to lose is your biggest threat. I don’t imagine Trump and his cabal will be any kinder to him despite The Grayzone taking a more grown-up approach to Russia and how the Ukraine war is reported, as opposed to CNN’s stenographic reproduction of the State Department’s narrative, seasoned by fake news on occasion.

The real enemy for western elites is the feral truth. All pretense of a functioning democracy were eradicated in a matter of minutes with this press conference calamity which has now replaced those MPs in that central European country throwing chairs at one another in their own parliament. Great job, Joe.

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“For the Justice Department, it must feel like the Visigoths arriving at the gates of Rome . . . only to be let in by the citizens.”

How the Justice Department Made the Case for the J6 Pardons (Turley)

On January 20, 2025, the “shock and awe” campaign of the Justice Department came to an end as President Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 January 6th defendants. Four years ago, the Justice Department set out to send a chilling message to the nation. In an interview with CBS News a year later, Justice Department official Michael Sherwin indicated that they wanted to send a message with the harsh treatment of defendants. Sherwin explained that “our office wanted to ensure that there was shock and awe … it worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C. because they’re, like, ‘If we go there, we’re gonna get charged.’ … We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did.” The awe is gone but the shock remains at the Justice Department.

If Sherwin and his colleagues hoped to “Trump proof” the nation, they failed in spectacular fashion. While there was ample basis for criminal charges, the excessive treatment of some of the January 6th defendants undermined the credibility of their prosecutions for many. That is no easy feat. Most of us denounced the January 6th riot as a desecration of our constitutional process. Those who engaged in the rioting, and most importantly the violence, needed to be punished. However, what followed left many increasingly uneasy. The Justice Department rounded up hundreds and, even though most were charged with relatively minor crimes of unlawful entry or trespass, the Justice Department opposed the release of many from jail and sought absurdly long sentences in some cases. It also sought restrictions on defendants that raised troubling first amendment concerns.

In my recent book, “Indispensable Right,” I discuss these cases and their troubling elements. A good example is the handling of the most well-known case of the so-called QAnon Shaman. Bare-chested, wearing an animal headdress, horns, and red-white-and-blue face paint, Jake Angeli Chansley became the iconic image of the riot. Seeking to make examples of these defendants, the Justice Department took special measures in hammering Chansley. He was held in solitary confinement and denied bail. Chansley was treated more harshly because of his visibility. It was his costume, not his conduct, that seemed to drive the sentencing. In the hearing, Judge Royce Lamberth noted, “He made himself the image of the riot, didn’t he? For good or bad, he made himself the very image of this whole event.” Lamberth hit Chansley with a heavy 41-month sentence for “obstructing a federal proceeding.”

However, long withheld footage, showed recently that Chansley (like hundreds of people that day) simply walked into the Capitol past police officers and was then escorted by officers through the Capitol. At one point, two officers not only appear to guide him to the floor but actually try to open locked doors for him. Chansley is shown walking unimpeded through a large number of armed officers with his four-foot flag-draped spear and horned Viking helmet on his way to the Senate floor. Does that make Chansley’s actions acceptable, let alone commendable? Of course not. He deserved to be arrested and punished. However, what many saw was a troubled individual being made an example for others. In my book, I discuss how, in history, “rage rhetoric” was allowed to become “state rage.” This is one such case.

Trump ran on the promise to pardon these defendants and secured not just the White House but the popular vote. It was not just the public that rejected the narrative of January 6th as an “insurrection.” In the recent Supreme Court decision in Fischer v. U.S. to reject hundreds of charges in January 6th cases for the obstruction of legal proceedings, the Court left most cases as simply a mass trespass and unlawful entry. The shock may be gone for these defendants, but it may only be beginning for the Justice Department and the FBI. When the campaign of Hillary Clinton secretly funded the infamous Steele Dossier to launch the Russian conspiracy investigation, it was the Justice Department that was not just the willing but eager partner. The “insurance policy” described by former FBI official Peter Strzok was redeemed in investigations that derailed much of Trump’s first term.

Later, it was the Justice Department again that pursued a no-holds-barred effort to convict Trump before the election. The Justice Department is the hardest of silos in Washington to reform. Unlike most departments, it is largely homogenous, with thousands of lawyers who share professional and cultural ties. It is a department composed of people who are by their very definition, litigious. Trump insisted on selecting an Attorney General, nominee Pam Bondi, who has no past ties or identification with the department. For the Justice Department, it must feel like the Visigoths arriving at the gates of Rome . . . only to be let in by the citizens. According to polling, the public ultimately found the “barbarians” less threatening than those who have insisted that Rome would fall. That must certainly be shocking for many in Washington, but the record of the Justice Department showed how the awe can become awful when officials feel the license of state rage.

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“..he threw over 500,000 Iraqi soldiers at the Iranian meat grinder, had the backing of the US AND the Soviet Union, and used chemical weapons on a scale not seen since WW1… and he barely made a dent in Iran.”

2025: The Year the Global Order Unravels (Nick Giambruno)

With Iran’s allies across the Middle East suffering devastating blows in 2024, the US, Israel, and their allies have the most favorable conditions to attack Iran that have existed in decades. I suspect they will not let this window of opportunity close without taking advantage of it. It could happen in 2025. If an attack on Iran does happen, I believe it will be the defining battle of WW3. But it will not be a cakewalk… Unlike most other nation states in the Middle East, Iran (known as Persia before 1935) is not an artificial construct. By race, religion, and social history, it is a nation. European bureaucrats didn’t dream up Iran by drawing zigzags on a map. The map reflects the geographic reality of a country with natural, fortress-like mountain borders. In the east, the Roman Empire generally ended where the Persian Empire began.

The US and its allies have tried to overthrow Iran’s government for over 46 years. They’ve tried pretty much everything short of a full-scale invasion. In short, NATO & Friends have few other cards to play against Iran. If the US really wants to decapitate the BRICS+ agenda in the Middle East, it would need to overthrow the Iranian government. That would require waging a full-scale regional war against all of Iran’s allies and launching a ground invasion of Iran. Remember, during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)—back when Saddam was a “good guy”—he threw over 500,000 Iraqi soldiers at the Iranian meat grinder, had the backing of the US AND the Soviet Union, and used chemical weapons on a scale not seen since WW1… and he barely made a dent in Iran.

The reality is that if the US is serious about invading Iran, it would likely require total mobilization and bringing back the draft. That is not likely to happen, but even if it did, it would not guarantee US victory. If Iran thought the US was going to invade, it could also develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent within a matter of weeks or less. It might also already have a couple of secretly obtained nukes. Given those unfavorable prospects, NATO & Friends could decide to use nuclear weapons on Iran preemptively. Iran is well aware that the US or Israel could use nuclear weapons against it. It has contingency plans for that outcome to ensure the survival of its government. Iran’s plans also likely include making a dash for developing its own nuclear arsenal to be able to respond in kind.

Further, it’s doubtful that Russia and China would just sit back and do nothing if NATO & Friends looked like they might nuke Iran. For example, Russia could decide to station nuclear weapons and Russian soldiers on Iranian soil as a deterrent. In short, NATO & Friends using nukes on Iran could lead to an unpredictable series of events that could quickly spiral out of control, so I don’t view it as a likely outcome. The Bottom Line: NATO & Friends don’t have any attractive options when it comes to dealing with Iran. However, with the sun about to set on the US-led unipolar world order and the most favorable conditions to attack Iran that have existed in decades, they may think it’s their last best chance and go for it in 2025.

What will happen, and who will prevail? Of course, no one can know that with certainty. That being said, I think we can count on escalating tensions that could culminate in war with Iran in 2025. The implications of that are difficult to overstate. War with Iran would undoubtedly destroy all models for the energy market and cause a global economic collapse. Most people don’t appreciate how close we are to the precipice of a historical disaster.

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Hair

Eucalyptus

Eagle

Mama
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881367789539356802

Illusion
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881464655631274137

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 202025
 


Johannes Vermeer The art of painting 1666-8

 

I was going to write something happy and positive and optimistic, about a future that looks brighter after spending 4 years out in the wilderness. But then I saw that the Democrats have pardoned the worst amongst themselves, and thereby every single one of them, for everything they’ve done over these 4 years, and before it. The entire Democratic party has been placed above the law, along with their Republican friends. The USA is now officially a lawless state.

That is something to think hard about. Because why would you still maintain a judicial system, with courts and judges and prosecutors, if that system doesn’t apply to a large group of people? I can’t think of a good reason. The rule of law in America is now an abstract idea that belongs in the past. What might be good about this is that the Dems have lost any and all future rights to go after any and all Republicans. But it still doesn’t sit well.

You can forgive someone for something they’ve done, but you can’t pardon them for what they might have done, or perhaps even still might do. That is literally a licence to kill. And that has to be illegal. Even if you are the President. It also violates the Constitution, and in too many ways to count. Ergo: the US is no longer a constitutional republic. It’s now all bananas all the way down.

Biden’s pre-emptive pardons have changed the country forever, though of course nobody realizes it at the moment it happens. From now on in, anything goes. Lying to Congress? No problem. Murder? Don’t give it a second thought. Just as long as you get along with whoever is President, or who functions as such, you will be pardoned.

The American people have long seen this coming. We know this because of the Nov. 4 election result, but perhaps even more because of the plummeting “attendance” numbers of the media the Dems use to spread their – often lying- messages. WaPo, NYT, CNN, MSNBC, they’re all on their deathbeds. And they owe it to themselves. They all had the option to tell the truth, and they all chose not to. But for them there is no presidential pardon. I’m watching CNN’s coverage of the inauguration as I write this, and they haven’t learned a thing.

Eventually, there will be new forms of “news”. But people won’t place their full trust in one or two sources anymore. Perhaps they will find what they need at X, but it’s too early to tell. What we know for sure is it won’t be at WaPo or MSNBC. And anyway, news about what? A banana republic.

 

So how is Donald Trump going to turn this mess into a viable nation again? Perhaps the only way is to sue Joe Biden for issuing his pardons the way he did. And Joe’s about the only one who’s not yet been pardoned (at the very last moment he just pardoned his entire family as well). But that is not Trump’s style. Still, how do you officially forgive someone for blowing up the Republic?

Yes, Trump at any point in the next 4 years can pardon anyone for anything, but that’s all Biden’s left for him. He didn’t leave him a constitutional republic. This blanket pardon power is handy when you surround yourself with people who habitually break the law, but not if you respect the republic. Then it turns against you.

We all wish Trump all the best. But he doesn’t only need to govern his country better, he has to completely rebuild it, the trust in it. And that’s only if he can, and if it is at all possible.

When you say “God bless the USA”, what exactly are you asking him to bless? The nation the Founders meant to build, or the empty shell the Democrats today left you with?

There are great hopes for Trump and the exceptional team he brings to the tasks ahead, but do they really understand what those tasks are?

 

Godspeed, DJT.

 

 

Nov 212024
 
 November 21, 2024  Posted by at 9:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  90 Responses »


Giovanni Bellini The Feast of the Gods c1514 (completed by his disciple, Titian, 1529)

 

Biden Seeking To Forgive Ukraine’s Debts (RT)
Michael Flynn Calls For ‘Urgent’ Early Removal Of Biden (RT)
Zelensky’s Cash Cry: Ukraine Facing Defeat If US Purse Strings Cut (Sp.)
It’s My World War III Party And I’ll Cry If I Want To (QTR)
Russia’s New Nuclear Policy Leaves US and NATO Facing Strategic Dead End (Sp.)
‘Almost No Chance Of Survival’ – Zaluzhny To Troops (RT)
Russia Reveals Retaliation For Western Seizure Of Its Assets (RT)
‘Contours Of A Trump Peace Deal’ (ZH)
DOGE Shares Examples Of Gross Government Waste (MN)
Where Life and Freedom Stand (Paul Craig Roberts)
How Alvin Bragg Would Create a New Constitutional Creature (Turley)
Nord Stream Saboteurs Linked To CIA – Spiegel (RT)
Israel To Annex West Bank – Seymour Hersh (RT)
UK Police: No Video Evidence Of Russians’ Involvement In Skripal Case (TASS)
The BRICS Spirit: Alive And Well In South Africa (Pepe Escobar)

 

 

 

 

Gaetz
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858902032578408858

Friedman

CNN superheroes
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858984256900354159

Lara

Sachs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859018689838006695

Rabies

 

 

 

 

Developing… What impact would this have on an audit?

Biden Seeking To Forgive Ukraine’s Debts (RT)

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has decided to write off about $4.7 billion in taxpayer-funded loans to Ukraine as part of a broader effort to bolster Kiev before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next year. Since February 2022, the US Congress has approved more than $174 billion in aid packages to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. The latest tranche, approved in April, included over $9.4 billion in “forgivable loans” to help fill the gap in Kiev’s budget. “We have taken the step that was outlined in the law to cancel those loans,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday, confirming that Biden seeks to write off half of that amount, or roughly $4.7 billion. Cancelling the debt is in the “national interest of the United States and its EU, G7+, and NATO partners,” the State Department claimed in a letter to Congress dated November 18, according to Bloomberg.

President-elect Donald Trump stated on the campaign trail that he would not oppose Congress approving more aid to Ukraine as long as the assistance is given in the form of loans rather than taxpayer-funded gifts. Rebranding some of the aid as loans was one of the key adjustments that helped push through the $61 billion April package after a months-long standoff between Republicans and the White House. Senator Rand Paul has vowed to block the cancellation of the debt, arguing that it places an unfair burden on American taxpayers. “Tonight, I’m forcing a vote on my resolution to prevent Biden from turning Ukraine’s debt into America’s problem. His proposal places the burden of funding Ukraine’s businesses, farmers, and corrupt bureaucrats on the shoulders of hardworking Americans,” Paul wrote in a statement on X on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian government is almost entirely reliant on Western aid to keep its economy afloat. In September, Kiev adopted its draft budget for 2025, predicting a deficit of 75% and estimating it will need between $12 billion and $15 billion to cover the shortfall. Ukraine’s public debt exceeded $152 billion as of July, according to the Finance Ministry. The cost of servicing the loans has surged from $900 million to $5.2 billion this year, as calculated by the Russian newspaper Vedomosti after reviewing Kiev’s financial data.

In October, G7 states finalized a separate $50 billion loan for Ukraine, backed by profits accrued from approximately $300 billion in Russian assets currently frozen in the West. Despite US pressure to confiscate the assets entirely, the International Monetary Fund has so far opposed this course of action, fearing it could undermine trust in the Western financial system. Moscow has denounced the asset freeze as “theft” and warned that tapping into these funds would be illegal and set a dangerous precedent. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov promised on Wednesday to initiate retaliatory measures mirroring the West’s actions. “If Western countries have decided to use our assets and income from our assets, the Russian side will also implement appropriate actions,” the finance minister stated.

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“The current House of Representatives must impeach Biden for endangering the United States..”

Will Flynn have a post in the new admin?

Michael Flynn Calls For ‘Urgent’ Early Removal Of Biden (RT)

Retired US Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn has urged Vice President Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment to prevent President Joe Biden from “sleepwalking” into a third world war after he permitted Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory. While Washington has not officially confirmed granting such permission, the Russian Defense Ministry has said Kiev has already used the US-supplied missiles to target Russia’s Bryansk Region. Additionally, Biden this week decided to supply Ukraine with anti-personnel landmines, breaking his 2022 promise to restrict their use. “The current House of Representatives must impeach Biden for endangering the United States,” Flynn wrote in a post on X, arguing that his former boss was impeached for much less.

“Harris should immediately invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Biden – he’s sleepwalking us into WWIII. Let’s at least put constitutional pressure on Harris because Joe’s poor memory makes him unaccountable.” In the meantime, President-elect Donald Trump’s allies and potential appointees, such as former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who is tapped to become US Attorney General, should not stay silent, and should reveal “the identities of the deep state operatives pulling the strings of the presidency, urging Biden to act recklessly,” Flynn said. “Incoming US officials must make contact with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to deescalate the situation,” he added, drawing parallels to his own conversation with a former Russian ambassador, which made him one of the key figures in the ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy. “Different circumstance but same outcome – deescalation,” he noted.

Trump appointed Flynn as an adviser shortly after taking office in January 2017. However, Flynn was forced to resign less than a month later after being accused of misleading officials about a phone conversation with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the US at the time. The controversy fed into broader allegations that the Trump campaign had colluded with Moscow to win the election, an allegation that Trump strongly denied, accusing Democrats of staging a “witch hunt.” In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his call with Kislyak but later withdrew his plea, claiming the government had tried to frame him. The Justice Department dropped the charges against Flynn in 2020, and Trump pardoned him later that year.

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Yes.

Zelensky’s Cash Cry: Ukraine Facing Defeat If US Purse Strings Cut (Sp.)

Terminating US military aid to Kiev would lead to Ukraine’s defeat in its armed conflict with Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky said. “If they cut [it], I think we will lose,” Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday when asked what would happen if the United States halted or reduced military funding to Ukraine. The conflict in Ukraine is now in “the most difficult period,” Zelensky noted, adding that Ukraine would face great danger, if there’s no unity among European countries on the Ukraine issue and “what is most important, unity between Ukraine and the United States.” The Ukrainian leader believes that President-elect Donald Trump has the potential to bring an end to the conflict. “It will not be simple, but I think if, to use all the issues that the United States has, yes, he can,” Zelensky stated.

During his election campaign, Trump pledged that he could resolve the Ukraine conflict through negotiations, repeatedly asserting that he could manage to achieve such an accomplishment in just one day. Russian officials believe the issue is far too complex for such a simple solution. Trump has also frequently criticized US policy on the Ukraine conflict and derided Zelensky personally, labeling him the “greatest salesman” for taking home multibillion-dollar aid packages from the United States upon each of his visits. Russian officials have repeatedly excoriated the supply of arms to the Kiev regime, stressing that these shipments are unlikely to influence the outcome of the special military operation, while also heightening the risk of escalation. Volodymyr Zelensky is known for criticizing his Western backers for getting caught up in what he calls “internal political games” instead of dishing out more money to the Kiev regime.

“This is impossible to understand. It is impossible to agree to this. And it will be impossible to forget; the world will remember this,” Zelensky famously said, when referring to the $60 billion in cash stuck in Congress. Recently, a video clip went viral showing the Ukrainian comedian-turned-politician asking for even more weapons, just moments after Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin announced a substantial $250 million aid package for Kiev. “Yes, we are grateful very much for every support package that is provided to Ukraine from you, but we need more weapons,” Zelensky demanded. Russia believes that arms deliveries to Ukraine hinder a resolution, directly involve NATO countries in the conflict, and are “playing with fire.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that any shipments containing weapons for Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russia. He said the US and NATO are directly involved in the conflict, not only through weapons supplies but also by training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy, and other countries. The Kremlin has stated that the West’s weapon supply to Ukraine does not contribute to negotiations and will have a negative effect.

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“..what rational explanation could there be for the Biden administration’s sharp policy changes over the last 48 hours?

It’s My World War III Party And I’ll Cry If I Want To (QTR)

To some degree, it’s expected that an outgoing administration would try to get as many of their policy initiatives through before the next administration takes hold of the reins on January 20. But what can be said about the Biden administration’s sudden urge to approve Ukraine’s use of U.S.-provided missiles for deeper strikes into Russia, relaxing restrictions on long-range weapon deployment? Previously, Biden firmly resisted such approval, intent on avoiding any escalation he believed might pull the U.S. and NATO into direct confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia. Now, all of a sudden, it seems like a good idea?Just when you thought the Biden administration couldn’t leave one more flaming brown paper bag of dogshit on the steps of the White House for President Trump… Among all of the failed policy ideas over the last four years, our foreign policy and our southern border have been the two most dangerous blind spots for our country, in my opinion.

Not only have we actively pursued a strategy of avoiding peace talks between Ukraine and Russia—and not only are there semi-decent arguments for the United States being the catalyst for the Russia-Ukraine war floating around—but escalating tensions with just two months to go before Donald Trump takes office is a new kind of incompetence. Following Biden’s approval of such missiles to be used, on Tuesday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered his country’s threshold for nuclear weapon use, allowing for a potential nuclear response even to conventional attacks supported by nuclear powers Biden’s new long-range missile approval .Also on Tuesday, Russia claimed to have intercepted five of six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine at a military site in the Bryansk region, while Ukraine reported hitting an ammunition depot, according to ABC News.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the strike an escalation: “If the long-range missiles are used from the territory of Ukraine against the Russian territory, it will mean that they are controlled by American military experts and we will view that as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia and respond accordingly.” For me, this move straddles a familiar line between incompetence and outright nefariousness. It’s frightening that there are so many policy prescriptions in the United States that leave me baffled as to whether or not people are just exceptionally stupid or if they have malevolent intent. The most glaring issue of this sort always used to be monetary policy for me. Today, foreign policy has stolen the spotlight. The outgoing administration knows damn well that the incoming Trump administration is going to try and negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine in a way the Biden administration didn’t.

They also know that the incoming administration will not be as keen to provide foreign aid for Ukraine as the Biden administration was. Because just two weeks after Election Day, we spent this morning having a serious discussion about the potential for a nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia. And while diplomats backed off their rhetoric fairly quickly Tuesday morning, the entire dust-up doesn’t happen unless the Biden administration goes out of its way to actively make it happen. So explain this to me like I’m a child: if the Biden administration really does seek a good-natured transition between the administrations, as indicated by Biden and Trump’s cordial-looking meeting days ago at the White House, what rational explanation could there be for the Biden administration’s sharp policy changes over the last 48 hours?

We’ve already seen the effects of President Trump winning the election on foreign policy. It was just hours after Trump’s win that headlines about Hamas seeking a ceasefire started to make their way around the globe after Trump’s win. And, following suit, there’s no reason to believe that Trump won’t ease tensions between Russia and Ukraine and eventually broker peace…unless the Biden administration actively goes out of its way to derail it before it happens. I know it sounds sensationalist, but I have seen the Biden administration fuck things up in short order over the last four years: food prices, the immigration surge, weaponizing government, vilifying police and good Samaritans, encouraging petty crime and looting and letting men punch women in the face in boxing rings in the name of ‘transgender equality’. To be frank, the damage this administration has done to our country throughout just one term has been breathtaking. And sadly, this means I believe it’s reasonable to be worried about what the Biden administration may do in the next month and a half as it relates to our foreign policy.

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“..effectively excludes the possibility of victory over the Russian armed forces on the battlefield..”

Russia’s New Nuclear Policy Leaves US and NATO Facing Strategic Dead End (Sp.)

The expanded list of grounds for Russia to use nuclear weapons in the updated nuclear deterrence policy effectively eliminates the possibility of defeating the country on the battlefield, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergei Naryshkin said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Russia released a presidential decree outlining the basic principles of the country’s policy on nuclear deterrence. The document sets out among other things that a massive aerial attack on Russia, including with the use of cruise missiles and drones, could trigger a nuclear response.

“The statement by President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin on amendments to the … [nuclear deterrence policy] was met with caution by the West. They understand that the adjustments announced by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin largely devalue the efforts of the United States and NATO to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on our country, and the planned expansion of the list of grounds for the use of nuclear weapons effectively excludes the possibility of victory over the Russian armed forces on the battlefield,” Naryshkin said in an interview with the National Defense magazine.

The West realizes the need for greater restraint in relations with Russia in order to avoid getting involved in a catastrophic military conflict, the official said, adding that “enemies are forced to admit that the Russian president’s determination to firmly defend the country’s fundamental interests by all available means narrows the room for maneuver for Washington and Brussels.”

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“Learn not to be afraid of death.”

‘Almost No Chance Of Survival’ – Zaluzhny To Troops (RT)

Ukrainian troops currently being trained in the UK to fight Russia must steel themselves to face death and kill without a second thought, Kiev’s ambassador in London, Valery Zaluzny has told the soldiers. The four-star general previously served as commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces. The speech that Zaluzhny gave at a bootcamp in southern England was shared by The Sun on Tuesday, after the tabloid joined the official’s tour of the military facility. British Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard accompanied the Ukrainian general-turned-diplomat. ”Remember that the war is becoming more cruel with every day. It leaves almost no chance for survival,” Zaluzhny warned the trainees. “Learn not to be afraid of death.” He urged the troops to develop military camaraderie, to become brothers on the battlefield, and to look after each other.

”It’s not enough to save yourself and your friend, your brother,” he stated. “You still need to complete the task. To do this, you will need to kill. To kill without hesitation.” “Love each other and remember Ukraine. If you are gone, maybe someone else will take your place, but Ukraine will be preserved,” Zaluzhny added. In February, Zaluzhny was removed from his military position and later from the armed forces altogether. Vladimir Zelensky sacked him after the general publicly disputed the Ukrainian leader’s vision on how the fight against Russia should proceed. Zaluzhny argued at the time that the conflict had reached a stalemate and Ukrainian forces should entrench. The balance has since swung in favour of Russia, whose troops have made significant progress in recent months.

The UK is among the staunchest supporters of Kiev’s bid to achieve a military victory against Russia. Former prime minister Boris Johnson infamously told the Ukrainians to “just fight,” after Kiev and Moscow agreed a draft truce in 2022. The British military has trained over 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers so far, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Zelensky dispatched Zaluzhny to the embassy in London in May. Some people suggested the appointment was intended to remove the popular ex-military leader as a potential political rival.

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“Therefore, we have also frozen the resources of Western investors, Western financial market participants and companies. The income from these assets will also be used..”

Russia Reveals Retaliation For Western Seizure Of Its Assets (RT)

Russia will launch retaliatory measures which mirror the West’s expropriation of the country’s sovereign assets, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said. In an interview with Rossiya-1 TV on Wednesday, Siluanov said that Russia will use income from the frozen assets of Western investors. The measures will be taken in response to the implementation of unfriendly actions by the Western countries, he added. “We are doing exactly the same. If Western countries have decided to use our assets and income from our assets, the Russian side will also implement appropriate actions,” the finance minister stated. “Therefore, we have also frozen the resources of Western investors, Western financial market participants and companies. The income from these assets will also be used,” Siluanov elaborated.

The US and its allies have frozen an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The bulk of the funds, around €197 billion ($207 billion), are being held at the Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear. Euroclear has estimated that these Russian assets generated €5.15 billion ($5.4 billion) in interest in the first three quarters of this fiscal year. Last month, the US announced a decision to use the proceeds from the frozen assets to repay a multibillion-dollar loan to Kiev. The G7 states in October finalized a massive $50 billion loan to Ukraine, which will be backed by profits accrued on Russian assets currently immobilized in the West.

Russia has repeatedly warned that seizing its assets would amount to “theft” and would violate international law and undermine reserve currencies, the global financial system, and the world economy. The International Monetary Fund has also been raising concerns that such actions could undermine trust in the Western financial system. Siluanov earlier warned that global players are closely following the story involving the Russian assets and are drawing their own conclusions. While the finance minister did not elaborate on the amount of Western assets currently held in Russia, previous calculations by RIA Novosti put the figure at roughly equal the size of the Russian funds frozen abroad. The news agency reported that total foreign direct investments in the Russian economy by the EU, G7, Australia, and Switzerland amounted to $288 billion as of the end of 2022.

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“The question is how to avoid a deal that locks the West into a possible direct confrontation with Russia one day.”

‘Contours Of A Trump Peace Deal’ (ZH)

In a lengthy investigative report, Reuters has presented what it says is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initial reaction to the incoming Trump administration’s plans to pursue ceasefire negotiations leading to a final end of the Ukraine war, which reached its 1,000th day this week. As Putin “eyes contours of a Trump peace deal,” five sources privy to Kremlin thinking say that Putin is “open” to discussing a ceasefire with Donald Trump, but will reject giving up territory acquired in Ukraine’s east – namely the annexed Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. A key sticking point will also be that Kiev totally abandons ambitions to join NATO. The Wall Street Journal revealed earlier this month that the current options being considered by Trump all involve imposing a ‘freeze’ on the war, which to Kiev’s dismay would involve “cementing Russia’s seizure of roughly 20 percent of Ukraine” while imposing a 20-year suspension on Ukraine pursuing NATO membership.

And now, Reuters writes, “In the first detailed reporting of what President Putin would accept in any deal brokered by Trump, the five current and former Russian officials said the Kremlin could broadly agree to freeze the conflict along the front lines.” The Kremlin is believed less interested in a short-term truce, fearing that it would just be used to rearm Ukraine, and that the same problems which caused the war would persist. Putin said at the Valdai discussion group weeks ago, “If there is no neutrality, it is difficult to imagine the existence of any good-neighborly relations between Russia and Ukraine.””Why? Because this would mean that Ukraine will be constantly used as a tool in the wrong hands and to the detriment of the interests of the Russian Federation,” he added. Thus from Moscow’s viewpoint, a solid and lasting peace deal would permanently address those elements which could lead to resumption of future conflict. Putin had emphasized a deal must reflect “realities” on the ground.

“Putin has already said that freezing the conflict will not work in any way,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters on Tuesday. “And the missile authorization is a very dangerous escalation on the part of the United States.” Perhaps the most important part of the Reuters report is seen in the following: “While Russia will not tolerate Ukraine joining NATO, or the presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil, it is open to discussing security guarantees for Kyiv, according to the five current and former officials. Other Ukrainian concessions the Kremlin could push for include Kyiv agreeing to limit the size of its armed forces and committing not to restrict the use of the Russian language, the people said.” This certainly creates a diplomatic opening. Ukraine officials are demanding robust security guarantees agreed to by Russia and backed by the West. They will especially press this point if Kiev is forced to abandon its NATO membership aspirations.

Mostly likely this would center on locking in security guarantees backed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Importantly, a Russian official cited in the Reuters report acknowledged there will likely be no agreement unless Ukraine is granted security guarantees, but that for Moscow it all hinges on one thing: “The question is how to avoid a deal that locks the West into a possible direct confrontation with Russia one day.” But with two months still to go with the Biden administration, and his hawkish national security officials bent on constant escalation (recklessness which is now being paralleled in the UK’s greenlighting Storm Shadow missiles launched on Russian territory), will the region even make it to Jan.20 before exploding into bigger NATO-Russia war?

Moon of Alabama has observed of the latest escalatory policies issued from the White House: U.S. president Joe Biden was found to be too senile to stand for re-election. But that does not hinder the powers that be to let him launch world war III. After ‘allowing’ Ukraine to fire U.S. controlled ballistic missiles onto targets in Russia the Biden administration is adding largely prohibited antipersonnel mines into the mix. Over 160 countries, including Ukraine, have signed treaties which prohibit the use of antipersonnel mines. During his campaign Biden had spoken against the use of such weapons. Ukraine is still vowing to fight on, despite all the reports of President-elect Trump’s plan to push hard for peace. Zelensky on Wednesday said his country “will not rest until every last Russian soldier is ejected from its territory – based on the borders it gained after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.”

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“The video also highlights how the government spent $750,000 to determine if Neil Armstrong said “One small step for man” or “one small step for ‘a’ man,” with the outcome determined to be “inconclusive.”

DOGE Shares Examples Of Gross Government Waste (MN)

The newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has shared some examples of the kind of obscene government waste that it will abolish. The X account of the department shared a video of Senator Rand Paul highlighting absolutely mental programs and studies that the US government has funded recently. One example was pumping a hundred grand into an experiment to determine whether gin or tequila makes a sunfish more aggressive. Another involved almost one million dollars towards a study to discover whether cocaine makes Japanese quail more “sexually promiscuous.” The video also highlights how the government spent $750,000 to determine if Neil Armstrong said “One small step for man” or “one small step for ‘a’ man,” with the outcome determined to be “inconclusive.”

Paul also discovered that $2 million went toward the “construction of a kelp and shellfish nursery in Maine.” Paul has been doing this for years with his ‘Festivus’ report. DOGE also highlighted the monumental amounts of money that are unaccounted for in government. As we previously highlighted, Vivek Ramaswarmy, who is heading up DOGE with Elon Musk, recently announced that DOGE will shut down entire government agencies as part of its effort to abolish waste.

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“Without the Constitution, the United States does not exist. A geographical area (apparently without borders) still exists, but without the Constitution it is not America. It is something else.”

Where Life and Freedom Stand (Paul Craig Roberts)

As readers know, I have emphasized from the beginning of the conflict in 2022 that Putin himself has widened the war by trying to limit it to Donbas, thus permitting the continuation of the regime in Kiev to continue fighting the war. By not promptly knocking out Ukraine, Putin permitted Washington and NATO to get more and more involved. Every weapon system Washington and Europe said would not be supplied to Zelensky was supplied. The long range missiles that President Biden said would not be permitted to strike inside Russia are now permitted, limited at first but certainly to be expanded. By the time Trump is in office, the situation can be too poisonous to be resolved. Who is willing to lose face in an agreement? The US and NATO or the Kremlin? My answer to readers’ questions is that we are not yet at war with Russia, but that is the direction in which we are headed. What is driving us toward war is the neoconservatives’ agenda of US hegemony.

My view might be optimistic. Strong nationalist forces inside Russia resent the humiliations Putin has accepted. They resent the West’s attitude that Russia is dirt under its feet. Putin has support, but he is limited in the number of violations of Russian red lines he can ignore. I suspect that that limit is near at hand. What can Trump do? He can call Putin, ask him to hold his response until Trump is in office and can cancel the missile permission. If Trump hasn’t already called Putin, Trump has betrayed his supporters. To give assurances to Putin is not an easy thing for Trump to do. The American print and TV media and NPR would present Trump as helping Russia win the war with Ukraine by preventing US missiles fired from Ukraine into Russia. The entire CIA/FBI/Democrat/media “Russiagate” operation could be revived, which, of course, would distract Trump from his agenda.

Trump’s weaker-kneed appointments along with his warmonger appointments might begin criticizing Trump, eroding his support. After 107 years of Western propaganda against Russia–Lenin, Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev–Americans see Russia as an enemy. Coming to peace with an enemy can easily be portrayed as a sell-out of the nation. To turn from the question whether Trump can accomplish peace to the question whether he can accomplish an American restoration: As I have explained, the United States is the Constitution. Without the Constitution, the United States does not exist. A geographical area (apparently without borders) still exists, but without the Constitution it is not America. It is something else.

For decades the US Constitution has been under fierce attack from liberal-left intellectuals, professors, law schools, political activists, politicians, and some judges. The US Constitution, once a revered document, has been misrepresented as a white racist entitlement to privilege that prevents Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. For a couple of decades law schools have turned out graduates taught to see the US Constitution as a document that is in the way of progress. The 14th Amendment prohibits status-based privilege, such as advancement based on race, gender, and sexual preference, that DEI uses to destroy a merit-based system. The alleged privileges that white people are said to have are to be given instead to “people of color.” Over the course of American history there have been occasions when the Constitution was breached in the name of “national security” or some other fake cause. But the attacks were repelled.

Today the US Constitution is so weakly supported that it lacks the support of the US House of Representatives, the US Senate, and the President-elect Donald Trump himself. The oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution no longer has any meaning. Trump has often emphasized that America’s internal enemies are more formidable than external ones. But do we now count Trump among them? Trump has lent his support to the attack on the US Constitution by House Republicans and Senate Democrats. The latest attack on America has taken the form of the Antisemitism Awareness Act. This act which the Republican Speaker of the House got passed several months ago, and which Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is trying to have passed as part of the defense appreciations bill, violates the First and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution by creating special protections for Jews by giving Jews and Israel immunity from criticism.

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“..defer any sentencing “until after the end of defendant’s upcoming presidential term.”

That would not work.

How Alvin Bragg Would Create a New Constitutional Creature (Turley)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pushed Tuesday to create a new constitutional creature: the layaway president. It was once common for stores to hold expensive items that you really wanted but could not make the payment. So they were tagged and kept on the shelf until you were ready to redeem your item. For Bragg, that leaves Donald Trump tagged until 2029. In a filing before Manhattan Justice Juan Merchan, Bragg suggested that the court should stay the pending criminal case and defer any sentencing “until after the end of defendant’s upcoming presidential term.” That would allow a city prosecutor to put a leash on a sitting president for four years. Trump would govern by the grace of this local judge and district attorney. In the meantime, pundits and politicians could portray the president as free on a type of work release program. The suggestion is appalling to most of the people in the country, including the majority of voters who voted for Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats ran on this and other cases in the election. The result was arguably the largest jury decision in history. That being said, I do not believe that the mere election of a president negates jury verdicts on 34 criminal counts. But ample reasons exist to overturn those verdicts or to dismiss this case. For example, after the verdict, the Supreme Court rendered its immunity decision barring the use of certain evidence against a president. Some of the evidence used in the Manhattan case likely fell within one of the protected categories. The prosecutors not only elicited testimony from Trump aides in the White House but then doubled down on the significance of that evidence in their closing arguments. Merchan could declare that the court cannot rule out the impact of such testimony on the final verdict. Even if Merchan, as expected, does not dismiss the case on the basis for the immunity decision, the trial was rife with reversible error.

This was a raw exercise of lawfare and Merchan did little to ensure fairness toward the defendant. Yet none of those errors can be likely addressed until Merchan reaches final decisions on the motion to dismiss as well as the sentencing question. While that will mean that Trump could, upon possible sentencing, formally become a convicted felon, the matter can then be finally pried out of the hands of Merchan and taken to higher courts for review. The worst possible option is the one suggested by Bragg, who would adopt the popular persona of Trump’s turnkey. The President would be seen by many as governing on a type of conditional status from one of the most politically compromised prosecutors in the country. For Bragg and other Trump opponents, that may be far more satisfying than a sentencing now given the unlikelihood of any jail component. After the years and millions spent on the case, it would be the ultimate buzz kill to have Trump sentenced to some fine or other non-carceral penalty.

Many Democrats want to have Trump govern with an asterisk of a “President pending sentencing.” Instead, Trump would govern with the clock ticking toward a sentencing date.

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They still invent new stories all the time.

Nord Stream Saboteurs Linked To CIA – Spiegel (RT)

A Ukrainian group that is allegedly behind the Nord Stream gas pipelines’ explosion in September 2022 has had “longstanding connections” to the CIA, Der Spiegel reported in a lengthy piece published on Wednesday. US agents trained some members of the sabotage team for many years, including its purported mastermind, Roman Chervinsky, according to the German outlet. The US-trained group had been “planning and carrying out clandestine operations for the Ukrainian security apparatus for years,” Der Spiegel reports, adding that its members also set their sights on the Russian gas pipelines as early as in 2019, some three years before Moscow launched its military operation against Kiev. The pipelines delivered up to 60 billion cubic meters of gas to Germany every year, covered around 16% of the EU’s natural gas needs as of 2018 and half of Germany’s annual demand as of 2021. They have been “a thorn in Washington’s side,” Der Spiegel writes.

Prior to the blasts, senior US officials, including President Joe Biden, had repeatedly criticized the project and urged Berlin to give up on its follow-up Nord Stream 2 project. Nord Stream 2 has never been operational since Germany halted its certification process not long before the start of the Russian military operation in February 2022. Der Spiegel named Roman Chervinsky – a Ukrainian colonel with a long history of serving with various Ukrainian intelligence agencies – as the mastermind behind the operation. The paper maintains that the act of sabotage was carried out by “a ragtag group” of divers, including about a dozen people who were hired and trained by Ukrainian intelligence operatives connected to the CIA. Chervinksy, who first served as the head of the counter-espionage department at the Ukrainian domestic security service (SBU) and then joined the nation’s military intelligence (HUR), was first named as the mastermind behind the Nord Stream sabotage by the Washington Post last year. He dismissed the allegations as “Russian propaganda” at the time.

In its piece, Der Spiegel stated that its journalists were able to talk to Chervinsky, who is under investigation in Ukraine on unrelated abuse of authority charges. The man neither confirmed nor denied his involvement in the operation but praised it as a “blessing” for both Ukraine and Germany. According to the outlet, Chervinsky was one of the Ukrainian security officials picked by US intelligence and trained for years. Washington sought to establish ties with “trustworthy” Ukrainian security officials and keep those activities secret from Moscow, the paper said, adding that “the most important goal was to set up capable sabotage units.” The paper also stated, citing its Ukrainian source, that the explosives used in the operation were “not manufactured in Ukraine.” However, the source refused to reveal where they had come from. Der Spiegel also claimed that it identified almost all people involved in the operation but refused to reveal their identities, arguing that they could become targets for both Russian and Ukrainian security services.

Earlier this month, a renowned German diving specialist questioned the narrative pushed by the Western media about a small Ukrainian team being behind the sabotage. Dr. Sven Thomas stated at that time that explosions of such scale could have only been caused by something similar to military-grade bottom mines with a yield equivalent to around 1,260 kilograms of TNT. Planting them would have required a large vessel and not just the yacht supposedly used by the Ukrainians. Moscow has dismissed Western media reports about a Ukrainian team as implausible. Last month, Danish media reported that US Navy warships had been operating near the Nord Stream pipelines shortly before the explosions.

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It’s Hersh, so it’s true.

Israel To Annex West Bank – Seymour Hersh (RT)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government intends to announce the formal annexation of the West Bank in the coming weeks, a source has told the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh. According to Hersh, Israel has been “fortified by bombs and funding” from Washington and is ramping up the expulsion of Palestinians from northern Gaza to the south of the enclave. Meanwhile, the religious parties that “dominate” Netanyahu’s cabinet are demanding full control over both occupied Palestinian territories. “I was told this week by a well-informed Washington official that the Israeli leadership will formally annex the West Bank in the very near future – perhaps in two weeks – in the hope that the decisive step will end, once and for all, any talk of a two-state solution and will convince some in the skeptical Arab world to reconsider financing the planned reconstruction of Gaza,” Hersh wrote in an article on his Substack on Wednesday.

If true, the move would coincide with the last few weeks of US President Joe Biden’s administration and create a new “reality on the ground” by the time President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. During his first term in the White House, Trump recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights and moved the US embassy to Jerusalem. Israel declared war on Gaza-based Hamas last October, following a series of deadly raids by the Palestinian militants into Israeli territory. Around 1,100 Israelis died in the October 7 assault, while an estimated 250 were taken captive. Almost 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli military operation, while another 104,000 more have been injured, according to local authorities. The Israeli military and police have also cracked down on Palestinians in the West Bank, which is run by Fatah, a Palestinian faction at odds with Hamas.

The West Bank and Gaza were annexed by Jordan and Egypt, respectively, after the 1949 conflict that ended with the newly formed State of Israel in control of most of the Mandate for Palestine territory. Israel captured both in the 1967 war. International law considers the West Bank and Gaza to be occupied territories, and multiple UN resolutions have called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in those territories. Hersh is an internationally renowned investigative reporter who earned the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up by the US military during the Vietnam War. He has also reported on the abuses of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib and the CIA’s domestic spying operations. More recently, Hersh has blamed the US for the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, an allegation that Washington has denied.

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The novichok was not Russian, it ‘escaped’ from a British lab.

UK Police: No Video Evidence Of Russians’ Involvement In Skripal Case (TASS)

The UK police has no CCTV video footage to prove the involvement of Russian citizens Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov in the March 4, 2018 Salisbury incident, according to a report published as part of the public inquiry hearing into the case. According to the report, CCTV cams were not installed on Christie Miller road in Salisbury, where former spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia lived at the time of the attack. At the same time, the police suggests that the perpetrators smeared the doorknob with the Novichok agent on March 4, 2018, during their second visit to Salisbury. The document says that Petrov and Boshirov arrived in Salisbury at 11:45 a.m. on March 4, 2018. Police suspects them of using Novichok between 12:00 and 12:15 p.m., but have no evidence to substantiate their claims. Only at 12:16 were Petrov and Boshirov caught on a CCTV cam at a nearby road. Sergey and Yulia Skripal were at home over that period, the report says.

According to London, former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergey Skripal, who had been convicted in Russia of spying for Great Britain and later swapped for Russian intelligence officers, and his daughter Yulia, were exposed to an alleged nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury on March 4, 2018. Claiming that the substance used in the attack had been a Novichok-class nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union, London rushed to accuse Russia of being involved in the incident. Moscow strongly rejected all of the United Kingdom’s accusations, saying that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia ever had any program aimed at developing such a substance. Experts from the United Kingdom’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down were unable to identify the origin of the substance allegedly used in the attack on the Skripals.

On July 4, 2018, the British police reported an incident in the town of Amesbury where two people had been taken to the hospital in critical condition after being affected by an unidentified substance. London’s Metropolitan Police later confirmed that the man and the woman had been poisoned with the same nerve agent that had been used on the Skripals. The woman – 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess – died on July 8, while her partner – 45-year-old Charlie Rowley – survived.

London claims that the Russian government was involved in the Skripal poisoning, using the A234 nerve agent, while Sturgess became an accidental victim after getting a bottle that Rowley had collected in a park thinking it contained perfume. Moscow strongly rejected the allegations. The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent dozens of diplomatic notes to the British Foreign Office, demanding that London provide Moscow with access to the investigation and the affected Russian nationals, as well as requesting legal assistance and offering cooperation, particularly in a joint probe. The public inquiry hearing has begun in Salisbury on October 14, and later continued in London. It is expected to be completed in the first half of December.

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“Africa, with 20% of the earth’s landmass [..] and 30% of the globe’s natural resources [..] accounts for only 2.8% of the world’s GDP..

The BRICS Spirit: Alive And Well In South Africa (Pepe Escobar)

At the APEC annual summit in Lima, Comrade Xi Jinping was practically coronated as the King of Peru, as a lively moveable feast celebrated the brand new $1.3 billion Chancay-Shanghai Maritime Silk Road across the Pacific. There could hardly be a more auspicious counterpart to the action in South America than to gather in BRICS member South Africa to discuss African Unity in a Multipolar World, as well as the perennial plagues of racism, fascism, Russophobia and other forms of discrimination. The meetings were coordinated by the Mouvement Russophile International (MIR), who is not only Russophile but most of all, multi-nodal-phile (italics mine). It’s as if this was an extension of the memorable BRICS 2024 summit in Kazan.

In Kazan, BRICS de facto expanded out of 9 members, adding 13 member-partners and reaching 22 nations (Saudi Arabia, an immensely complex case, remains on the fence). BRICS+ now largely surpasses the – waning – influence of the G20, whose annual summit is ongoing in Rio, at least focused on social issues and the fight against poverty and hunger, and not war. Still, the crisis-riddled G7/NATOstan did try to hijack the agenda. For all practical purposes, and borrowing from one of Xi’s metaphors, BRICS+ has already set sail exploring the lineaments of a new, just, fair world order. In Johannesburg, the sterling analytical quality of South African interlocutors, plus contributions from Mali and Senegal, was a source of pure joy.

[..] Unequal Africa in numbers is always a staggering proposition – inviting deep reflection. What could be defined as The Big Five – Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa – are responsible for no less than half of Africa’s GDP. Three of these are now full BRICS members, and the other two are BRICS partners. Pretoria-based legal expert Dr. Andre Thomashausen provided extra startling figures. Africa, with 20% of the earth’s landmass – in which China, India, U.S. and Europe could easily “fit” – and 30% of the globe’s natural resources (including critical minerals such as lithium), not to mention 17% of the world’s population (1.3 billion people), accounts for only 2.8% of the world’s GDP. The conclusion is inevitable: the IMF and the World Bank ultimately failed Africa. In 2025, Africa will be home to no less than 8% of the world’s poor.

A new pan-Africa development model, away from the Bretton Woods system, is beyond imperative. And Russia has all it takes to play a leading role. No African nation implemented or enforced western sanctions on Russia. As Thomashausen recalled, at the 2023 St. Petersburg Economic Forum President Putin offered to donate grain to African nations, and later did not condemn military coups in West Africa, unlike the African Union – totally understanding the anti-colonization drive. Russia is strategically replacing France in West Africa and strongly supports the Alliance of Sahel States (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso). Thomashausen noted that even as Russia’s involvement in Africa lags compared to other powers, Moscow managed to accumulate considerable soft power with only 5% of Chinese investments, creating political leverage with deals in agro-industries, security, nuclear energy and mining: ‘It has all but eliminated French influence. Its security service offerings have trumped U.S. and EU.”

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Shanahan

 

 

Chlorine dioxide

 

 

Ripple

 

 

Cinnamon

 

 

Parrot?!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859177855260737900

 

 

Mom and dad
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859245611981090976

 

 

Cities

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Nov 192024
 
 November 19, 2024  Posted by at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  82 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn A woman bathing in a stream (Hendrickje) 1654

 

Biden Wants To Take World With Him – Russian State Duma Chair (RT)
Trump’s Security Chief Nominee Blasts Biden’s Ukraine Missile ‘Escalation’ (RT)
Has Biden Just Destroyed the World? (Paul Craig Roberts)
Biden Walks Off Into Jungle (RT)
‘Freezing’ Ukraine Conflict Unacceptable – Kremlin (RT)
The Great Trump Exhale (QTR)
Gabbard Could Help Change US Foreign Policy (John Kiriakou)
Ramaswamy Says Some Government Agencies Will Be ‘Deleted Outright’ (ET)
Trump Expands Search For Treasury Secretary (ZH)
CNN Mole People Can’t Deal With MAGA Posse At UFC (MN)
Beyond Consequence (James Howard Kunstler)
WSJ Issues Scathing Indictment Of How Democrats Blew It On Inflation (ZH)
Mad at the Election? Blame Obama (AmG)
Germany Has Become Europe’s Political Wasteland (Bordachev)
Gardening Against Evil Days (Helmer)

 

 

 

 

Trump

Gaetz

Vivek

Tucker
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858320988867350576

Speaker

Skripal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858271372020990012

60 min

 

 

 

 

“..it appears that the elderly Biden, nearing the end of his life, is “dreaming of eternity” and wants to “pull America under with him, and maybe the entire world as well.”

Biden Wants To Take World With Him – Russian State Duma Chair (RT)

The outgoing President Joe Biden is taking the US and the rest of the world down with him by escalating the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the chairman of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, stated on Monday. Biden has reportedly removed US restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles, according to a New York Times report on Sunday, which described the move as “a significant escalation” that might “provoke a direct response from Moscow.” The White House has made no official statements on the matter. Volodin said it appears that the elderly Biden, nearing the end of his life, is “dreaming of eternity” and wants to “pull America under with him, and maybe the entire world as well.”

“If this happens, Russia will be forced to respond. The manner of the response will be up to the Ministry of Defense, but there will be one,” he said, adding that this might even include the use of “new weapons systems” that Russia has not previously deployed on Ukrainian territory. As for the Western weapons in question, they have already been used against Russia, Volodin noted. Their expanded use might cause some additional damage, but “it will not change the situation on the battlefield.” “It will only worsen the fate and future of Ukraine. And it will finally destroy Russian-American relations,” Volodin predicted. While Washington has made no official policy announcements, a number of European NATO members and public figures across the West hailed the Times report. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said on Monday that long-range strikes against Russia were part of his “victory plan” and that “missiles will speak” very soon.

The US and its allies have put in some restrictions on the use of the weapons they supplied to Kiev since 2022, in order to maintain plausible deniability of their involvement in the conflict with Russia. Ukraine has demanded the removal of these limitations since this spring. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in September that any use of Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia would “significantly change the nature of the conflict.” He noted that Ukraine does not have the capability to use such weapons itself, and would require foreign personnel to create targeting and firing solutions. This, Putin said, would mean that “NATO countries are directly involved in the military conflict” with Russia.

Putin

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“..It was not a matter of the US “giving permission” to Ukraine, but crossing the threshold of direct involvement, Putin told reporters in September..”

Trump’s Security Chief Nominee Blasts Biden’s Ukraine Missile ‘Escalation’ (RT)

Allowing Kiev to use US-supplied long-range weapons against Russia will only escalate the conflict that President-elect Donald Trump is trying to end, the incoming White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has said. The New York Times reported on Sunday that US President Joe Biden had given Ukraine permission to use ATACMS missiles against Russian territory. Washington has neither confirmed nor denied the anonymously sourced claim. Waltz, a former Green Beret and Florida congressman tapped by Trump to serve as his top aide, told Fox News on Monday that he was not briefed on the move by the outgoing administration, as he normally would be by tradition. “It’s another step up the escalation ladder,” Waltz told Fox host Brian Kilmeade.

“And nobody knows where this is going. North Korea is unleashing ballistic missiles, artillery, now tens of thousands of soldiers. “The administration responds by lifting this restriction. North Korea sends more soldiers. South Korea is now saying it may get engaged…” Ukraine has accused the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of sending weapons and thousands of troops to aid Russia. Washington has accepted this claim at face value. “So this is a development, but it’s a tactical one,” Waltz added. “President Trump is talking grand strategy here. How do we get both sides to the table to end this war? What’s the framework for a deal, and who’s sitting at that table?” Trump is putting together an “all-star team” that will consider the broader strategic issues and the ways to “we drive this war to an end,” Waltz said.

The Republican president-elect campaigned on ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying he would try to do so even before his January 20 inauguration. Many of his prominent backers have denounced Sunday’s rumored move by the outgoing President Joe Biden as an attempt to make any peace deal more difficult. Under Biden, the US has provided over $64 billion worth of weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine to support Vladimir Zelensky’s war effort against Russia. Washington placed certain restrictions on the use of such weapons, and Zelensky has spent months demanding the lifting of the limitations, as part of his “victory plan.”

Moscow has repeatedly warned the US and its allies that any such move would amount to their open involvement in the hostilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out that Kiev lacks the capability to use long-range missiles without NATO satellites and military personnel to develop targeting and firing solutions. It was not a matter of the US “giving permission” to Ukraine, but crossing the threshold of direct involvement, Putin told reporters in September. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova acknowledged on Monday that reports of Biden’s decision were still unconfirmed, but added that if Kiev actually used US missiles in such a way, Moscow’s response would be “adequate and tangible.”

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“Trump cannot lose the war in Ukraine unless he can present peace as an accomplishment.”

Has Biden Just Destroyed the World? (Paul Craig Roberts)

To make it impossible for Trump to enter office with good relations with Russia, in addition to “Russiagate,” as Gilbert Doctorow reminds us, the corrupt Obama regime unlawfully seized Russian consular properties in San Francisco, and I think elsewhere, in order to bring Trump into office with poisoned relations with Moscow. This time in November, 2024, the totally corrupt Biden Regime, has blocked any peaceful settlement negotiated by Trump of the Russian/Ukrainian conflict by reversing Biden’s decision and giving go ahead for the US/NATO to launch missiles from Ukrainian territory into Russia. The senile idiot, manipulated by his warmonger advisors, has possibly started WWIII. Recently in an interview with Russian television I expressed my opinion that such a trap was desired by the neoconservatives for Trump, but that I thought the Pentagon would block the approval.

There are so many reports that the Biden regime has given a green light to NATO launching missiles from Ukraine into Russia that the information must be correct. We hear it from Russian state television “news of the week.” We hear it from The Washington Post. We hear it from AP News. And so on. Here we have a classic example of how an outgoing administration can commit an incoming one and thereby forestall its electoral agenda. It is now happening before our eyes, although the whore American media will do everything possible to hide the truth. The question is: What will Putin do now if the red line that Putin says is the fatal one is actually crossed and Western missiles begin hitting targets inside Russia? Will it prove to be, like all other red lines Putin has declared, not to be real?

In light of Putin’s non-confrontational behavior, if the missile attacks begin prior to Trump’s inauguration, possibly Putin will wait and see what Trump does to reverse the decision before Putin releases death and destruction on the Western World. The crazed neoconservatives and Deep State have pressured Biden into a decision that places the entire world in a situation where destruction of all life possibly awaits. Why did a single American vote for such a cruel, inhuman, morally vacant, anti-American political Democrat party that is willing to risk life on earth for Washington’s hegemony and the profits of the military/security complex? Why did the European Union regret Trump’s election? Why does the Western media support actions that result in the end of the world? The final question and the most important one is: What can President-elect Trump do about it?

He can, prior to his inauguration, call Putin and tell him to hold off, that once inaugurated as President, he will reverse the policy and permit no missile attacks on Russia. Will Putin believe that Trump can deliver? Considering the war cabinet Trump has appointed, can Trump make a decision independently of his government? The situation is complicated by the fact that Trump’s appointees are aligned against Iran and for Israel. Neither Russia nor China can stand aside from an US/Israeli attack on Iran. Putin probably wonders if “Making America Great Again” also implies military dominance. Trump’s supporters are tired of losing wars. They want to win one. Trump cannot lose the war in Ukraine unless he can present peace as an accomplishment.

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Before okaying long range missiles in Ukraine, they sent Biden deep into the Amazon.

Biden Walks Off Into Jungle (RT)

Outgoing US President Joe Biden appears to have once again aimlessly wandered off stage after delivering a speech on climate change in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil on Sunday. A clip of the 81-year-old’s latest gaffe has gone viral on social media. Speaking at a press conference near Manaus, the largest city in the Brazilian Amazon, Biden wore a loose-fitting button-down shirt and his trademark aviator sunglasses. Throughout the address, the president talked about the dangers of climate change, the importance of rainforest conservation as well as the investments his administration has made into clean energy.

Biden stated that he is officially the first sitting US President to personally visit the Amazon rainforest and announced that his government would be launching a special financing coalition to mobilize at least $10 billion by 2030 in order to protect 20,000 square miles of land in the Amazon. However, after finishing his speech, Biden waved to the cameras, turned away from the podium and started walking away, heading straight into what appeared to be some dense greenery. The video of the aging president’s exit has since gone viral on social media, with one clip posted by the Pop Base account gaining over 26 million views by Monday morning. In the comments, many users expressed confusion over where Biden was going, with some claiming he had “wandered off into the Amazon.”

“Bruh did he just wave bye and disappear into the jungle?” one user wrote, with another asking why the president was in the Amazon at all. “He’s really doing all the side quests now that he can retire,” one person suggested. According to Newsweek, however, a full version of the video supposedly shows that Biden was not actually lost and had walked down a path that was not clearly visible in the clip. The outlet noted that several other members of the press later also walked out along the same path. While Biden’s team has not commented on the incident yet, if the US president was indeed lost, it wouldn’t be his first public mishap. The White House, however, had previously insisted that most of the videos of the aging leader getting confused or ‘frozen’ at public events had been manipulated, with Biden’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissing them as “cheap fakes.”

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First: no nukes, no NATO, no nazis. Only then can we talk freeze.

‘Freezing’ Ukraine Conflict Unacceptable – Kremlin (RT)

Moscow vehemently rejects the possibility of freezing the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday. He was responding to reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to suggest the move during the G20 summit in Brazil. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with Erdogan’s plans, claimed that the Turkish leader would suggest freezing the conflict “on current lines” and encourage Kiev to delay discussions about joining NATO for at least ten years as a “concession” to Moscow. He also reportedly plans to propose the creation of a demilitarized zone in Donbass, where international troops would be deployed to provide security guarantees for Ukraine. Asked to comment on the report, Peskov stated that Moscow had no information about any proposals being prepared by Erdogan. However, he said “any kind of freezing along the line of military conflict is unacceptable for the Russian side.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously outlined conditions for ending the hostilities, and those steps are “what needs to be done to stop the fighting,” the spokesperson added. In June, Putin set out conditions for peace negotiations with Kiev, which involved the complete removal of Ukrainian troops from all Russian territories, including the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions. They also involved Ukraine legally committing to never joining NATO or any other Western military blocs. Last week, during his first direct phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in two years, Putin also reiterated that Moscow remains open to finding a political and diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine conflict, and said it was Kiev that was refusing to negotiate.

According to the Kremlin, the Russian president also emphasized that the crisis was the “direct result of NATO’s long-standing aggressive policy aimed at creating an anti-Russian bridgehead on Ukrainian territory, while ignoring our country’s interests in the field of security and trampling on the rights of Russian-speaking residents.” During the call, Putin emphasized that any potential settlement between Moscow and Kiev would inevitably have to take into account Russia’s security interests, recognize the new territorial realities, and “eliminate the root cause of the conflict.”

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“…the man that the media told us was Hitler nonstop has morphed into the people’s president.”

The Great Trump Exhale (QTR)

I think this election cycle President Trump won so handily, not only because his competition was grossly incompetent, but because it was far less taboo this time around to be a Trump supporter. In 2016, before President Trump had a chance to establish a four-year record for himself in office, it wasn’t popular to openly support him. His “Make America Great Again” hats were ridiculed as a cheap branding trick and the mainstream media was unrelenting in its quest to crucify not only Trump, but those who supported him. Throughout the last four years of political lunacy, which included wide-open borders, rising inflation, squandering of taxpayer cash, and multiple geopolitical dust-ups, it became far less of a faux pas to support Trump publicly. This period culminated in an internal coup that subverted the primary process, further reinforcing this shift.

Today, there are still scores of Democrats who believe Trump is irredeemable and repugnant, just as there are still plenty of news organizations that spend 24 hours a day attempting to make him look bad. But this election go-round, there were just too many Americans on the center-left, center, and center-right who decided that the humiliation they would need to endure by supporting Trump publicly paled in comparison to how insulted they felt by the current administration’s assumption that they would buy an entire campaign based on flip-flopping, outright lies, race hustling, and identity politics. For every one person that still found it inconceivable to support Trump publicly, there were two more, myself included, who simply could no longer endure having their character and intelligence insulted strictly because they backed a set of political ideals that, at any other point in recent history, would’ve been considered center-left, moderate or barely right-leaning.

With that sea change among the most crucial part of the voter base, inclusive of independents and many around the center of the political aisle, Trump won this election in a landslide. And Democrats, who had been told many times over that their political strategies were wearing thin, were forced to face undeniable, quantitative proof of just how much of the American public agreed with this assessment. As such, it’s undeniable that the nation has issued a collective exhale in response to the election results. Many people who voted for Trump, and who may have still been wondering whether it’s OK to express their political beliefs publicly without being called “garbage,” now know that they can: they are in the company of more than 70 million other voters and form the majority of the country. For years, Trump campaigned on the saying that his voters were the “silent majority.” This election proved him right.

It was risky for many high-profile people to come out and publicly endorse Donald Trump prior to this election, and is a testament to just how much the left has lost its way. Had Trump not won, many of these people would have been lambasted as “far-right wingers,” “purveyors of misinformation,” and people whose moral and ethical integrity should be called into question heading into another Democratic administration. But instead, with a Trump mandate, millions of Americans can exhale publicly and, like Joe Rogan said last week, finally just admit that no matter what everybody says, they just like President Trump. Rogan said on his podcast a couple of days ago: “…you’re getting what you get. That’s who the guy is and I like him. I’ve gone I’ve grown to like him. I had a much more negative opinion of him back in the day because it was There’s only so much you can pay attention to and do deep dives on right before you lose your f*cking mind and with him I was like It’s probably not good for the country.”

And what we saw last night at the UFC fight, where Trump had a great interaction with fighter Jon Jones, who handed him his belt after winning his fight, is that whether people like it or not, the man that the media told us was Hitler nonstop has morphed into the people’s president. This will be like a snowball rolling down a hill: the more people that come out and embrace Trump publicly, the more who will follow. Put simply, Trump is just winning people over. I wrote last week about how this election doesn’t just feel like the beginning of four years of change; it feels like it could be spearheading a populist/libertarian renaissance in the country that could last multiple election cycles. You could tell from his entrance to the fights last night that the nation is starting to feel the excitement for this potential, too. Seeing Trump at the fights last night was like the flyover before an NFL game. It was one of many moments over the last year while he was campaigning that people muttered: “We’re back. America is back.”

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“Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin.”

Gabbard Could Help Change US Foreign Policy (John Kiriakou)

President-elect Donald Trump this week stirred up the intelligence community with his picks of former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence (DNI) and former DNI and Texas Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe as C.I.A. director. Ratcliffe, a fierce partisan, is nonetheless the more traditional pick of the two. Gabbard spent her life as a Democrat, including eight years in the House before running for president in 2020, dropping out, changing her affiliation to “Independent,” and then changing it to Republican and endorsing Trump. She is the more controversial pick, not necessarily because of her politics, but because she is far more isolationist than most Democrats and she supports an immediate end to the war in Ukraine and engagement with North Korea, China and Syria.

Both Ratcliffe and Gabbard are likely to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, according to The Washington Post. Neither is as controversial as, say, attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, who was investigated a year ago for sex trafficking, or defense secretary nominee Peter Hegseth, a former Army captain who is currently a Fox News host and who has literally no experience running anything larger than his own household. While Democrats will likely oppose both Ratcliffe and Gabbard, if only because the two are MAGA Republicans who want to end U.S. financial and military support for Ukraine, Republicans now control 53 Senate seats, more than enough for confirmation, with room to lose a few. Publicly, Democrats aren’t saying much about Ratcliffe. He’s mostly a known quantity in Washington, having been DNI for a few months at the end of the first Trump administration. He’s a former member of the House Armed Services Committee and was also a member of Trump’s impeachment defense team.

Ratcliffe was initially dismissed as unqualified for the DNI job in 2019. He withdrew from consideration, but Trump renamed him a year later and he was finally approved by a sharply-divided Senate. His tenure was short, and he didn’t do anything either controversial or innovative in his few months in the job. Gabbard’s nomination has drawn far more ire, especially from Democrats. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), a former C.I.A. officer, said she was “appalled” by Gabbard’s nomination and added, “Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin.” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) called Gabbard’s nomination “incredibly reckless,” and added that “Putting someone with known sympathies for foreign adversaries (in the position) is not putting America’s interests first — it’s putting our security at risk.”

And Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) said, “Tulsi Gabbard’s deep ties to some of our nation’s most dangerous adversaries, including Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Vladimir Putin of Russia, make her an untrustworthy guardian of our nation’s most closely held secrets.” All of this is, in my own humble opinion, absurd. Democrats don’t like Gabbard because she never bought into the party’s anti-Russia hysteria, because she was never supportive of putting the U.S. and NATO on the brink of war with Russia in Ukraine, and because she doubted the Democratic Party’s assertion that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people, an allegation refuted by United Nations whistleblowers. That’s exactly what we need in a healthy democracy — somebody in a position of authority who makes decisions based on facts, not on what happens to be politically expedient.

We need a person willing to rein in the neoconservative/neoliberal intelligence and foreign policy establishment when they urge the president to double down on military action based on phony or incomplete intelligence. Gabbard may face one substantive challenge when she finally becomes DNI. That challenge will be in dealing with Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio, currently a Republican senator from Florida. Rubio is a longtime mainstream neoconservative hawk, especially on China, although he has kowtowed to Trump successfully over the past eight years. Rubio and Gabbard have some clashing views, but Gabbard is as much a seasoned bureaucratic fighter as Rubio is. The question, then, will be who can more successfully get Trump’s ear.

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“Most of the people making these decisions from health care to the Department of Defense are failing on effectiveness because they have no accountability..”

Ramaswamy Says Some Government Agencies Will Be ‘Deleted Outright’ (ET)

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said on Sunday that some federal agencies will be “deleted outright” and that contractors may see “massive cuts” in what they can charge when the incoming administration takes office next year. Last week, Trump named former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead the presidential advisory commission, DOGE. Their work must be completed no later than July 4, 2026, Trump said in his statement. Ramaswamy told Fox Business on Sunday that “there is massive waste, fraud, and abuse right now.” “Federal contractors are really exploiting the federal government,” he said. When Fox host Maria Bartiromo asked him whether entire government agencies will be closed, he responded in the affirmative.

“We expect mass reductions. We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright,“ Ramaswamy said. ”We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated. We expect massive cuts of all federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government. So, yes, we expect all of the above.” As a presidential candidate, Ramaswamy had called for totally eliminating or restructuring of several agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Elaborating on Fox, Ramaswamy said that “failures of the executive branch need to be addressed.” “Unelected bureaucrats in the administrative state that was created through executive action” are running the government, he said, which needs to be fixed by the executive branch.

“This is about restoring self-governance and accountability in America as well. Elected leaders, if they make the wrong decisions, voters have a great choice. You can vote them out and remove them,” Ramaswamy said. “Most of the people making these decisions from health care to the Department of Defense are failing on effectiveness because they have no accountability. Historically, it’s been the view of many scholars to say that those people could not even be fired. Now, we take a different view with the environment the Supreme Court has given us in recent years, and we’re going to use that in a pretty extensive way to move quickly.” DOGE will not be an official government agency, meaning that both Ramaswamy and Musk are not considered Cabinet members in the incoming Trump administration and therefore not subject to the Senate confirmation.

Both Ramaswamy and Musk, as well as Tulsi Gabbard, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined the president-elect at a UFC event at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Gabbard is Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, while Trump nominated Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

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It looked like Bessent had it, but apparently there was too much opposition to him.

Trump Expands Search For Treasury Secretary (ZH)

The group of prospective Trump Treasury Secretary picks has expanded from two (Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent – as we detailed here) to four (now including former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and Apollo Globla chief Marc Rowan). While we noted earlier that Elon Musk and RFK Jr. are pushing for Howard Lutnick, with Musk praising the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO as a disruptor compared to Key Square Group (and George Soros protégé) Scott Bessent – the latter of whom met with Trump on Friday, and has the backing of many including noted investor Kyle Bass; The FT reports that people close to the process said Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, Marc Rowan, chief executive of Apollo Global Management, and Bill Hagerty, the Tennessee senator, are also now in the running, along with Robert Lighthizer, the former US trade representative under Trump.

The FT continues to note that since Trump was elected, Bessent has been on the defensive about his commitment to enacting the president’s economic vision. In an opinion piece for Fox News last week, he described tariffs as “a means to finally stand up for Americans”. But his critics have seized on comments to the Financial Times that the president-elect’s agenda represented “maximalist” positions that were negotiating tools, as a sign he would be soft on the issue. Trump’s aides are reluctant to repeat the tensions over trade in Trump’s first administration, when Steven Mnuchin, then-Treasury secretary, frequently sought to moderate tariff plans for fear of disrupting markets. Several people familiar with the discussions inside Trump’s team said Lighthizer, who served as US trade representative in the first administration, had previously expressed interest in becoming Treasury secretary.

On Sunday the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a pro-tariff think-tank, backed Lighthizer publicly for Treasury secretary. “The next Treasury secretary must be 100 per cent aligned with President-elect Trump’s policy on tariffs,” it said in a post on X. “Former USTR Robert Lighthizer is a steadfast champion for the US economy and the best choice to carry out President Trump’s trade agenda.”

Marc Rowan
Rowan, 62, is a billionaire investor who leads Apollo Global Management, which he cofounded in the 1990s. It now has nearly $700 billion in assets under management. Apollo recently announced that it plans to double its assets under management to $1.5 trillion by 2029. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that while the billionaire’s aides are in touch with Trump, Rowan isn’t actively trying to secure the Treasury Secretary role and hasn’t spoken to Trump personally about such a position. But the Times also wrote that Trump has been telling his staff that he’s impressed with Rowan, who Bloomberg estimates to be worth $10.9 billion. Rowan has said that US economic concerns must be fixed by what he called “wholesale change,” which he said Trump and his new administration would bring.

Kevin Warsh
Warsh, 54, is a former Morgan Stanley banker and one of the newer contenders. He was an economic advisor to President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2006 and a governor of the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 to 2011. During the latter period, Warsh was a central figure in shaping the nation’s response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis, working to rescue major ailing banks. Trump had been floating Warsh that year as a frontrunner for Fed chair. He eventually picked Jerome Powell for the role. More recently, he’s been working on Trump’s transition team, helping with economic policy and personnel, according to The Journal. Most recently, Warsh was outspoken in questioning The Fed’s independence with regard the 50bps rate-cut right before the election. “if that’s all true, maybe they’re not data-dependent.” “I do not want to be the person accusing them of politics … but when you don’t have a theory of the case and you don’t follow it, it is easy to get that accusation and it is harder … to defend them.”

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“They’re deathly afraid of ‘masculinity’ and strong personalities.”

CNN Mole People Can’t Deal With MAGA Posse At UFC (MN)

The MAGA crew took over UFC 309 in Madison Square Garden over the weekend, triggering demon energy woke seethery into action. Behold their media leaders, the CNN mole guys. Why do they all wear those thick heavy black rimmed glasses? Anyway, these guys, it doesn’t matter what their names are, lets call them Howard and Greg, couldn’t cope with president Trump leading out his transition team to uproariously loud cheering at the event. Howard said Trump was “giving supporter based permission structure,” by bringing his crew with him, while Greg said it was like ancient Rome with Caesar bringing his gladiators into the Colosseum. “It really looks like ancient Rome here. This is the conquering Republican Caesar who’s going into the Colosseum, and everyone’s cheering, and he’s got his political gladiators with him,” Howard excitedly whined, ignoring the fact that Julius Caesar was long dead when construction on the Colosseum began.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1858161714476286345

“That appearance isn’t just about him enjoying the applause. He’s sending a message to the Senate. For sure,” Greg continued blathering. “Not only are you entertained, but these are my people, and are you willing to fight?”Because here’s who I have,” Greg clamoured. It’s hilarious watching these people having a meltdown analysing Trump’s team and the UFC crowd having fun. They were having a well deserved day off, celebrating, watching the event and dancing to YMCA by the Village people, but the mole people want you to believe it’s some kind of scary authoritarian display of power. CBS News also couldn’t cope. The article states “Trump is a longtime UFC enthusiast and frequent attendee of major fights. He made promoting hypermasculine tones a signature of his campaign — as he looked to further widen the gap among male voters between himself and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.”

“Trump and his top supporters embraced alpha-male terms and often accentuated them with vulgar and demeaning language.” It gets even more hilarious… “While campaigning, Trump appeared frequently on podcasts, gaming platforms, and with key supporters who described a vote for Trump as a way to demonstrate true manliness. While Trump taped a podcast with Rogan, who himself has spoken about hypermasculinity, Harris failed to do a similar appearance, citing scheduling conflicts.” They’re deathly afraid of ‘masculinity’ and strong personalities.

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“I don’t know why the Democrats lost. I don’t understand … Prices have come down, the economy is good. I don’t know why they voted against her, against the party.” — William Shatner (Captain Kirk)”

Beyond Consequence (James Howard Kunstler)

If you boil down everything the woked-up, psychopathic Democratic Party did the past eight years as it drove the country into a ditch, it all amounted to a Great Pretending. Whatever the party said, they knew it was not so. Whatever they did, they pretended the other side was doing. They lied lavishly, knowingly, and incessantly and now they are pretending to soul-search in a great public display of pretend humility as they await the dreaded reckoning. Case in point: the interview on PBS between the Aspen Institute’s former chief Walter Isaacson and Harvard civics philosophy prof Michael Sandel, “to make sense of Donald Trump’s Presidency.” Listen to them prattle about “the dignity of work,” “credentialist condescension,” and “income disparities.”

You know it was way worse than that: censorship, witch hunts, the gestapo FBI, a stupid money-pit war, medical fascism, the wide-open border, race-and gender hustles, state-sponsored riots, lawfare programmatically destroying lives, careers, reputations, and misuse of the news media (including PBS) to lie about all of it. These two pusillanimous pricks, pretending to be genteel, are the poster boys for a diseased polity. And behind the scenes now, in the C-suites of the big agencies, the faculty lounges of Higher Ed, the Zoom meet-ups of so many crypto-government NGOs, and especially in the Big Media board-rooms, the cries of anxiety and desperation signal a momentous end of something: the punking of America by a gang of vicious, criminal snobs. The aggregate insult alone deserves a world-class beat-down. They know it, and they know they are going to get it, and it will be satisfying to watch them rat each other out as judgment nears.

But even as all that plays out, and justice returns to the scene, Mr. Trump and Company face the enormous task of getting our nation’s house in order. The balance sheet is a catastrophe, we are functionally bankrupt, and “Joe Biden” has been busy destroying the value of our money in the futile attempt to work around all that. All the economic statistics rolled out to benefit Ms. Harris in the election are false. Something is underway that is too big to stop and it will express itself as ruinous inflation and economic depression in some wicked combo of the two. It will surely lead to epic rearrangements in everyday life. I will suggest a few examples. The people of this land have been deprived of purpose and meaning in an economy organized among giant enterprises and vast distances from wherever you live. To call ourselves “consumers” degrades us. We are citizens who have duties, responsibilities, and obligations to each other.

We are economic actors who can make choices and take risks, not passive units to be exploited. The people need an economic role in their locality: employer of neighbors, producer of useful goods and services, all the way down to faithful servants of something and someone. Monopolies and chain stores killed American towns and all the complex relations in them that furnished purpose, meaning, and livelihoods for the people in a rich ecosystem of production and services. Now it’s the monopolies and chain store’s turn to decline and die off — and they will in the course of things, but it would be foolish to try to prop them up. Let them go and let the people rebuild their networks of making-and-doing locally. It’s already happening.

The giant shopping malls that came along in the 1970s have already died, and there was no official campaign to rescue them, nor any official funeral. It just happened quietly in the background. The malls were a pure product of the combo of Boomer household formation and Happy Motoring. That’s ending now. What replaced the malls, strangely, is the new model of Garage Sale Nation. That will continue to evolve and elaborate itself, and integrate into what happens next — which will not be the A-I robot nirvana of endless leisure, but rather an era of tribulation. You can see it coming on all around you. So many things don’t work anymore. Medicine. School. The task of reorganizing them is monumental. It will generate plenty of friction and hardship.

The people also need a social role in their community: head of household, mother, mentor, public servant, caretaker, local hero. You need a place in this world to enact those roles, a location in it, at the proper scale, and it must be a place that is worthy of your affection. Too many places in the USA do not meet these requirements. They are ugly, sprawling, chaotic, and grotesque. The suburban template for development is a long-running fiasco, the anti-community, and MAGA’s psychological investment in it is, sadly, a mistake — though it is consistent with the psychology of previous investment (sunk costs).

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“..they overcorrected, flooding an already fragile economy with cash and setting the stage for soaring inflation that has burdened millions of Americans ever since.”

WSJ Issues Scathing Indictment Of How Democrats Blew It On Inflation (ZH)

The Wall Street Journal has issued a scathing postmortem analysis of how the Biden administration completely botched the economy and supercharged inflation. President Biden hadn’t even been inaugurated when he and his senior advisers made a monumental gamble in January 2021 that would reverberate through his presidency. Fresh on the heels of a $900 billion Covid-relief bill that Congress had approved weeks earlier, Biden proposed a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. Biden and his team, many of whom had served in the Obama administration, claimed they were correcting their mistakes from 2009: spending too little to combat a major economic crisis. Instead, they overcorrected, flooding an already fragile economy with cash and setting the stage for soaring inflation that has burdened millions of Americans ever since.

Key among their policies was the American Rescue Plan (ARP) – a package which boosted the child tax credit, showered Americans with $1,400 per person, and directed $350 billion to state and local governments. The plan was passed against a backdrop of already unprecedented government spending. Americans were awash in federal aid from bipartisan measures under Trump, supply chains were breaking down, and businesses were struggling to rehire workers. The administration dismissed these concerns, prioritizing speed over prudence. The plan, of course, totally backfired. “If inflation had been less severe in that first year, if it had peaked at a lower level, could Vice President Harris have survived that? My intuition is yes,” said Michael Strain, head of economic-policy studies at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

On election day, approximately 40% of voters polled said the economy was their top issue – with those voters backing Donald Trump by a 22% margin. The White House is unrepentant, of course. “Any scenario that envisions less inflation from a reduced ARP also has to wrestle with slower growth, higher unemployment and more child poverty,” said White House Council of Economic Advisors chair, Jared Bernstein. “White House and Democratic officials have argued that overall U.S. economic outcomes were better than those achieved in nearly every other advanced economy. But politically, those arguments fell flat and gave Trump his opening. “It comes off as cold comfort to say that people have it worse in Germany, the U.K., France,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.). “People naturally compare their experiences today to what things were like prepandemic.” -WSJ”

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“When he failed, they decided to send their message in a language that no one could misunderstand. They sent Trump.”

Mad at the Election? Blame Obama (AmG)

Liberals who are in the throes of capitulation and despair after Donald Trump’s crushing electoral and popular vote win can lay blame for their disastrous loss at the feet of one man: Barack Hussein Obama. Obama built the Trump wave. His failure to live up to the promises of his populist 2008 run has cursed the Democratic Party, probably for a generation. The Washington DC establishment in just two short months is going to get “scholonged” by an angry and vengeful Trump, ready to rain executive hellfire on the bureaucrats and institutions that have spent the last nine years fighting him tooth and nail. All of this could have been prevented. In 2008, Obama swept into power with a crushing electoral college and popular vote majority. He won Iowa, Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina. He even won Indiana. Democrats swept into power in Congress with a 74-seat lead in the House, nearly 59% of seats, and were gifted with a magical 60-seat filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate.

This was a generational victory, a sign that voters were fed up with politics as usual and the failures of the GOP and the Washington and Wall Street establishment as such. This victory wasn’t just about electing the first Black president, though that was important: The policies and platform at stake appealed deeply to voters. It is worth remembering what exactly those policies were. Obama promised to end the war in Iraq, end the Afghanistan war with honor, help the economy by reducing health care costs (prioritizing “Main Street” over Wall Street), and bring about a new era of racial harmony. Moreover, Obama explicitly eschewed radical leftist politics. He explicitly defended traditional marriage. In his DNC nomination speech, he condemned employers who “undercut American wages by hiring illegal workers.” Obama ran a campaign on bringing “change” to DC. He made much of his status as a newcomer who lacked the “typical pedigree” of a candidate for the nation’s highest office.

Put another way, Obama won a decisive victory in 2008 by campaigning as a Washington outsider bent on ending foreign wars, boosting the economy by helping ordinary people, and being a moderate on social issues like abortion and gay marriage. Does this message sound familiar? It should. In broad measure, it is the same formula that brought Donald Trump to power in 2016 and has given him, like Obama, unified control over the executive and legislative branches after a crushing electoral and popular vote win. Obama’s hubris is the reason the Democratic Party stands here today—powerless in the face of “Orange Hitler.” Obama did not close Guantanamo Bay, he ended the Iraq War only to get sucked back in, killed Osama Bin Laden but kept troops in Afghanistan, started wars in Libya and Syria, and, most damningly, inflamed racial tensions when he had a chance to calm them.

Far from being a moderate on social issues, Obama was the president whose picks for the Supreme Court rammed gay marriage down Americans throats after it had suffered numerous state-level electoral setbacks, including in California of all places in the very election that brought Obama to power! Obama’s pledge to reduce health care costs in 2008 did not come with an individual mandate to purchase health insurance. The final bill that snaked its way through Congress and was signed into law did contain such a penalty. Instead of lowering health care costs, Americans watched as their premiums went up.

Instead of fewer foreign wars, we got more. Instead of declaring victory after the death of the mastermind behind 9/11, we got eight more years of war. On every front, Obama didn’t just fail to follow through on his mandate, he actively worked for the opposite outcome. Obama lacked the strength of character and will to follow through on his promises and to deliver the shake-up in Washington that he promised. He was more concerned with hanging out with celebrities and being cool than facing down his own Party’s bosses to deliver on the promises he made to the American people. Nancy Pelosi, 16 years later, still remains one of the most powerful figures in the Party. Americans sent a refined, urbane, grassroots college professor to do their bidding in DC. When he failed, they decided to send their message in a language that no one could misunderstand. They sent Trump.

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“..a natural product of the loss of any possibility of determining their own destiny.”

Germany Has Become Europe’s Political Wasteland (Bordachev)

Germany is a political void in the center of Europe, even though it contributes significantly to the global economy and is influential in trade. It’s also the Western country with which Russia has had the most historical, cultural and, until recently, economic contacts. A week ago the government in Berlin collapsed, and so far the leading German parties have agreed that early parliamentary elections will be in February 2025. It’s very likely that the next government will be led by the main opposition force, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). At the start of the election campaign, CDU leader Friedrich Merz publicly announced that – if he wins – he’ll issue an ultimatum to Moscow over Ukraine. He’s promised that if this ultimatum is not accepted within 24 hours, his government will provide the Kiev regime with cruise missiles to attack Russian territory.

The consequences of such a decision for Russian-Western relations are obvious. It is not surprising, therefore, that our main reaction was astonishment at the irresponsibility of such a high-ranking member of the German elite. There are even fears that Merz and those behind him intend to drag Germany into a destructive military conflict with Europe’s largest country. But all this German talk means nothing in practice. Without US authorisation, or direct orders from Washington, the leaders in Berlin are not only incapable of starting a major war in Europe, they are incapable even of adjusting their shoelaces. Any statements by German politicians, the fall and rise of governing coalitions there, should only be seen in the context of how the Berlin establishment is trying to find a role in the shadow of total American dominance.

It’s deeply symbolic that Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a decisive step towards the collapse of the governing coalition on 6 November, the day on which the domestic political balance of power in the United States changed radically. In the context of significant changes at the center, the peripheral political systems must react as sensitively as possible: at the level of how a branch of a large corporation reacts to a change in its general management. Berlin’s international position is defined by its crushing defeat in the Second World War, which ended any hope of determining its own future. Germany, like Japan and South Korea, is a country with a foreign occupying force on its territory, albeit under the NATO flag. The German elite, both political and economic, is, with few exceptions, even more integrated with the US than the British elite. To say nothing of those running France, Italy or other European countries.

Germany has no autonomy in determining its foreign policy, nor does it aspire to have any. It’s no coincidence that over the past two and a half years of the Ukraine crisis, it’s been Berlin that has provided the largest amount of military and financial aid to the Kiev regime. Almost ten times more than, say, France, whose president likes to make bellicose speeches. Naturally, the representatives of the German establishment look like pale copies of what we used to consider real politicians. And this is a natural product of the loss of any possibility of determining their own destiny. Of course, Berlin can still set the parameters of economic policy for the weak countries of the European Mediterranean. States such as Greece, Italy or Spain are given to Germany to ‘feed’ within the framework of the European Union and its single currency.

But even Poland, which has a special relationship with the US, has managed to avoid tying itself to Germany’s industrial grip. France is resisting slightly. But it is gradually sinking to the level of southern Europe. The UK has left the EU, but retains its position as the main representative of the US in Europe. It should be noted that such a state of affairs for Germany did not come about overnight. Even during the Cold War, the Federal Republic (FRG) was led by bright personalities. Under chancellors such as Willy Brandt (1969-1974), the Moscow Treaty was signed between the FRG and the USSR on the recognition of post-war borders in Europe. In the early 1970s, German politicians and business were able to persuade the US to allow Germany to establish energy cooperation with the Soviets. In our time, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (1998-2005) pushed for European energy security based on German-Russian cooperation.

But all this came to an end with the global economic crisis of 2008-2013, after which the US began to tighten the screws on its allies. In the spring of 2022, Olaf Scholz, who had previously been committed to dialogue with Russia, fully supported the military-political confrontation created by the Americans over Ukraine. Now German politicians are not free to choose their own future. For most of them, with the exception of the non-systemic opposition, this is quite obvious. Why appoint bright personalities to the highest positions if nothing depends on their decisions? Gradually, the entire political system and the mood of the electorate are adapting to these conditions. The differences in the parties’ platforms are becoming blurred. Observers are already talking about the likelihood that the government will be formed by the Social Democrats and their main opponents from the CDU. This means that disagreements on fundamental issues are a thing of the past.

Only the technical aspects of forming a government need to be agreed upon, and the main goal of all efforts is to hold on to power as such. The united and sovereign German state existed for 74 years (1871-1945). Its revival as such is not possible: even if Russia and China would look favourably on it, the Anglo-Saxon world will not allow it for several reasons at once. Firstly, both German attempts – in the First and Second World Wars – to play a leading role in the West came close to succeeding. So nobody will give them a third chance. Just to be on the safe side. It should be borne in mind that the West takes order within its own community even more seriously than it does the defence of its privileges against the rest of humanity. Second, Germany’s position at the center of Europe, its huge industrial base and its industrious population make it an ideal partner for the US and Britain, the maritime trading powers. Politically insignificant, Germany can economically control much of the rest of Europe, but cannot dictate the substance.

Third, the revival of visible German independence is in the interests of Moscow and Beijing because it would split the ranks of the consolidated West. A small front of countries like Hungary, Slovakia or even one a little larger cannot create such a split. And the unity of the West under the leadership of the US is a fundamental obstacle to the implementation of the plans for a multipolar world order promoted by Russia and China. Germany is now a political wasteland in the heart of Europe. Tiny shoots of reason are, of course, breaking through the decades-old system based on pandering to the interests of American patrons. With some very obvious exceptions, the representatives of the non-systemic German opposition are talented people. But their prospects are still very dim because of the way things are manage. In the future, we can expect to re-establish some economic ties with Germany but we must treat it as a political colony of the US, rather than thinking about try to establish full inter-state relations with Berlin.

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An unknown side of Stalin.

Gardening Against Evil Days (Helmer)

In politics — the Kremlin is no exception — politicians don’t mean what they say. In gardening, the plants always mean what they say. Gardeners, obliged to record what that is, are more likely than politicians to tell the truth. In the records of Russian politicians since the Bolshevik Revolution, only one leading figure stands out as having the eye, ear, and nose for what plants have to tell. Not the present nor the founding one. The only gardener among them was, and remains, Joseph Stalin. Nothing has been found that he wrote himself on his gardening except perhaps for marginal comments in books he read. There is no mention of books on gardens or gardening in the classification system Stalin’s personal library adopted from 1925. He kept no garden diary. Without a diary recording the cycle of time and seasons, the planting map, colour scheme, productivity of bloom and fruit, infestation, life and death, he must have committed his observations – “he possessed unbelievably acute powers of observation” (US Ambassador George Kennan) – to memory, as peasants do.

Unlike the tsars who employed English, Scots, and French architects and plantsmen to create gardens in St. Petersburg and Moscow in the royal fashions of Europe, defying the Russian winter to display their power and affluence without shovelling for themselves, Stalin dug his gardens himself in the warm weather of his dacha at Gagra, on the Black Sea. There he was photographed with his spade tending parallel, raised beds of lemon trees. There is no sign of him wielding trowel and fork in the garden at Kuntsevo, his dacha near Moscow, where the photographs show him strolling in a semi-wild young forest or seated on a terrace in front of a hedge of viburnum. No record of Stalin digging at Kuntsevo has been found.

There is just one reminiscence of Stalin speaking to a visitor about his gardening. “Stalin is very fond of fruit trees. We came to a lemon bush. Joseph Vissarionovich carefully adjusted the bamboo stick to make it easier for the branches to hold large yellow fruits. ‘But many people thought that lemons would not grow here!’ [He said] Stalin planted the first bushes himself, took care of them himself. And now he has convinced many gardeners by his example. He talks about it in an enthusiastic voice and often makes fun of would-be gardeners. We came to a large tree. I don’t know it at all. ‘What is the name of this tree?’ I asked Stalin. ‘Oh, this is a wonderful plant! It’s called eucalyptus,’ Joseph Vissarionovich said, plucking leaves from the tree. He rubs the leaves on his hand and gives everyone a sniff. ‘Do you feel how strong the smell is? This is the smell that the malaria mosquito does not tolerate.’ Joseph Vissarionovich tells how, with the help of eucalyptus, the Americans got rid of the mosquito during the construction of the Panama Canal, how the same eucalyptus helped with the work in swampy Australia. I felt very embarrassed that I did not know this wonderful tree.”

Stalin read a great deal of philosophy, Roman and Russian history, art, and agronomy, and so he is bound to have reflected on the way in which the ideas of the classics he read took physical form in the gardens of the time. Especially so on the ancient idea of the paradise garden. It is this transference between thinking and digging, between the idea of paradise and the cultivation of it, which a new book, just published in London, explores in a radical way. Olivia Laing, author of The Garden Against Time, In Search of a Common Paradise, knows nothing whatever about Russia or its gardens or its politics – except for propaganda on the Ukraine war she has absorbed unquestioningly and briefly repeats from the London newspapers. That’s a personal fault; it’s not a dissuasion from the book of reflections she has written out from her garden diary to an end which Russians understand to aim at, not less than the English.

In this wartime it’s necessary to keep reflecting on this end, on the aesthetic and philosophical purpose of the paradise garden. Laing begins her book and her garden with John Milton’s lament for gardening in wartime – in his case, the English Civil War of 1642-46 and the counter-revolution of 1660. “More safe I Sing with mortal voice, unchang’d”, Milton observed at the beginning of Book 7 of his Paradise Lost, “to hoarce or mute, though fall’n on evil dayes/ On evil dayes though fall’n, and evil tongues;/in darkness and with dangers compast round,/And solitude.” At the same time, Laing records for herself and Stalin certainly knew, “what I loved, aside from the work of making [the paradise garden], was the self-forgetfulness of the labour, the immersion in a kind of trance of attention that was as unlike daily thinking as dream logic is to waking.”

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Grandma
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858271312025682171

 

 

Plane tech

 

 

Foal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1858438984684146947

 

 

Orangutan

 

 

Guilty

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Nov 112024
 
 November 11, 2024  Posted by at 9:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  84 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Massacre in Korea 1951

 

CNN Says Trump Victory Was So Massive He “Broke History” (ZH)
Was the 2024 Election Too Big to Rig? (AmG)
Trump’s Day One: A Look At His Opening Moves In The White House (Whedon)
RFK Jr. Could Pose Big Threat to Big Pharma If He Joins Trump’s Cabinet (Sp.)
Trump Says Haley, Pompeo Will Not Join White House (RT)
Zakharova Gives Credit to Trump for Admitting Sickness of US Society (Sp.)
Trump Calls Putin – WaPo (RT)
Trump-Putin Call Focuses On The Quick ‘Resolution Of Ukraine War’ (ZH)
Trump To Announce Ukraine Peace Terms Soon – Polish PM (RT)
Former NATO Commander Predicts How Ukraine Conflict Will End (RT)
Trump Jr. Trolls Zelensky (RT)
What to Expect From ‘Lame Duck’ Biden After Trump’s Win (Sp.)
Biden Racing To Pour Weaponry Into Ukraine – WSJ (RT)
Trump Could Impact the Supreme Court for Decades to Come (ET)
Can There Be an American-Russian Reset? (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

 

 

Day1
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855740314952339928

Rogan

They forced him
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855336384988627450

Call her daddy

Bannon

Legend

Vivek

 

 

 

 

“The party of joy failed to instil anyone with any. The political landscape has completely changed forever.”

CNN Says Trump Victory Was So Massive He “Broke History” (ZH)

President-elect Donald Trump has won Arizona, completing a sweep of all seven battleground in the 2024 election. The Associated Press called the race at 9:21 p.m. ET on Nov. 9. With this win, Trump’s total electoral college count moves to 312 to Vice President Kamala Harris’s 226. Trump was projected to win the election on the morning of Nov. 6. Harris conceded the race later the same day. As The Epoch Times’ John Haughey reports, Trump’s Arizona victory follows candidate Joe Biden’s upset win in the state in 2020, a 0.3-percent squeaker that marked the first time since Bill Clinton’s 1996 win that The Grand Canyon State had voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. In 2016, Trump won Arizona by 3.5 percentage points. Polls presaged the former president’s Arizona win. The FiveThirtyEight poll aggregate had Trump leading by 2.2 percentage points on Nov. 4.

Maricopa County, where 62 percent of the state’s 7.4 million residents, and more than half its 4.367 million voters, live, proved pivotal. Trump won the Phoenix-area vote CC to CC percent, according to the Maricopa County Elections Department. Trump fared better in the key county than in 2016 when he won it with less than 48 percent and in 2020 when he lost it with 47.65 percent, becoming the first GOP presidential candidate to lose Maricopa County in 72 years. As in Nevada, winning the Latino vote drives Arizona campaigns, especially in Maricopa County where one-third of voters are Hispanic, compared to less than 19 percent nationally. While many media declared Trump the winner of Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes in the preceding days, the AP withheld doing so until all mail-in ballots had been counted. Reported results had not changed much for more than a day by late-afternoon Nov. 8.

On Nov. 7, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office added tens of thousands of votes to the tally, but said there were hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count, including nearly 500,000 in Maricopa County. Therefore, the presidential race and the U.S. Senate contest between Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Kari Lake remained too close to call by late afternoon Nov. 8. At 5 p.m. EST—2 p.m. PST—on Nov. 8, those numbers, largely frozen for more than a day, had Trump with 1.4 million votes, 52.5 percent of the total tally, to Harris’s 1.2 million votes, or 46.5 percent. Despite the president-elect’s 161,000 vote lead, a significant 6 percentage point advantage, since most Arizona voters cast ballots by mail, and counting typically takes days. the AP withheld the call until it was mathematically impossible for Harris to overcome Trump’s lead. Trump also dominated Harris in the popular vote with the vice president receiving around 10 million less votes than Biden did in 2020…

Additionally, as Modernity.news’ Steve Watson reports, CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten did a deep dive into the gains president Trump made with specific demographics in the election, highlighting how crushing they were for Democrats. The numbers are truly astounding, and incredibly bad for the party of ‘joy.’ Enten pointed out that Trump made the greatest improvements over a previous presidential election performance from the same party since 1992. “When was the last time a party gained in so many different places?” Enten asked, explaining that “You have to go all the way to back to 1992 when Bill Clinton improved on Michael Dukakis’ performance in 49 states, plus the District of Columbia.”

“Donald Trump’s performance on Tuesday was the best for a Republican presidential candidate in exit poll history,” Enten further urged, adding “He literally goes all the way back through history and breaks history.” Enten pointed to how Trump improved his party’s election performance in 49 states and Washington, D.C. over the 2020 election, with Washington state the single one where he didn’t do better. “You know, I think the breadth of the improvement that Donald Trump had – Holy Toledo!” Enten declared. Trump has the biggest mandate imaginable. The party of joy failed to instil anyone with any. The political landscape has completely changed forever.

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“Google still controls 90 percent of the search engine market in the United States. In 2024, Google employee political donations favored Democrats by a ratio of more than 6 to 1. Draw your own conclusions.”

Was the 2024 Election Too Big to Rig? (AmG)

David Muir earned particular enmity among people who just wanted fair news coverage during the debate between Trump and Harris, when, for example, Muir insisted on “fact-checking” Trump but left Harris alone. For example, Muir contradicted Trump’s assertion that crime rates had risen, and Muir was wrong. The data, as Trump attempted to explain, was missing statistics from California’s major cities. Once that data was added, Trump’s claim was proven accurate.

Just in the last few days we’ve had the big four broadcast news anchors telling us that Trump wanted to put Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad, wants reporters covering his rallies to get shot, “groped” a woman back in the 1990s, expressed “deeply troubling” admiration for Adolf Hitler, held a “Nazi rally,” and intended to use the military against “the enemy within,” along with endless distorted repetition of everything bad they’ve ever said about him. All of this “news” was either truth twisted beyond recognition or outright lies. Meanwhile, their coverage of Harris has been indistinguishable from a paid Harris campaign ad.

There’s no end to the legacy television news media’s war on Trump. It’s not subtle, and despite their dinosaur status, they still exercise decisive influence over millions of voters. For the 2024 season-to-date, ABC Nightly News has averaged 7.7 million viewers, NBC averaged 6.4 million, and CBS averaged 4.7 million. PBS is now a big player as well, with a regular viewership of more than 5 million. That’s nearly 25 million regular viewers, with an average age of 65, nearly all of them high-propensity voters, and very few of them likely to be perusing alternative media. Cable news, for all the visibility and big audiences for the hosted talk shows on their networks, doesn’t compare. Recent estimates for primetime viewers of Fox News have averaged 359,000, versus 175,000 for CNN and 160,000 for MSNBC. Cable news audiences are dwarfed by the audiences for broadcast news content, which is overwhelmingly anti-Trump and pro-Harris. Tens of millions of Americans have been thoroughly brainwashed by these networks. But what about social media and online searches?

Back in 2015, Robert Epstein, a research psychologist with the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, published “The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections.” Continuing his research, in testimony before the U.S. Congress in 2019, Epstein claimed that biased search results on Google “impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton.” Epstein’s studies are compelling reading, and very little has changed. Google still controls 90 percent of the search engine market in the United States. In 2024, Google employee political donations favored Democrats by a ratio of more than 6 to 1. Draw your own conclusions.

As for social media, much is made of Twitter’s transformation into X, with no more censorship. Twitter, or X, has 95 million users in America. That’s a lot. But in the United States, Facebook has 194 million users, Instagram has 166 million users, TikTok reaches 170 million people, LinkedIn connects 200 million, and YouTube’s regular US viewers number 246 million. As a neutral platform, X’s audience reach is exceeded by more than 10 to 1 by the other major online platforms. With the lone exception of X, every one of these platforms employs biased algorithms designed to suppress conservative content. As for print media, intervention by the owners of the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post to abstain from a presidential endorsement is too little, too late. Every newspaper and magazine with national reach, with the half-hearted exception perhaps of the Wall Street Journal, have been so anti-Trump and pro-Harris it is almost comical.

Social media, search engines, and legacy news media. In every facet of information gathering, the vast majority of Americans have been continuously exposed to anti-Trump, pro-Harris messages. None of this has been happening by accident. Michael Shellenberger, formerly a progressive liberal who was once honored as a Time Magazine “Environmental Hero,” has evolved into an investigative journalist of extraordinary integrity and courage. In recent years, his work has focused on what he has dubbed “the censorship industrial complex.” In a recent substack post, commenting on America’s news media from newspapers to television to online platforms, he had this to say, “It’s not a mirror of reality. It’s not just biased. And it’s not just deferential to the state or the party. It’s a propaganda arm dishonestly representing powerful political, ideological, and financial interests.”

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“..except for day one.” “We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. Other than that I’m not gonna be a dictator,”

Trump’s Day One: A Look At His Opening Moves In The White House (Whedon)

President-elect Donald Trump made a multitude of “day one” promises throughout the campaign to begin work on an array of issues, setting himself up for an extremely busy first day back in office. Many of his promises involve reinstating past Executive Orders that the Biden administration rescinded, and some entail advancing initiatives such as energy production. Others involve planning for a year-long anniversary celebration for the nation’s 250th anniversary. Trump made headlines late last year during a Fox News forum with moderator Sean Hannity during which he promised that he would not abuse power or act as a dictator “except for day one.” “We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. Other than that I’m not gonna be a dictator,” he quipped. His opponents took his quip literally, but in either event Trump’s day one promises extend beyond those two key issues. Here’s a look at what his first day in office may look like.

‘Salute to America 250’
One of Trump’s first planned moves is a relatively lighthearted and apolitical effort to celebrate a key milestone in American history. “On day one, I will convene a White House task force called ‘Salute to America 250,'” Trump declared this week. The task force will be responsible for organizing a year-long celebration to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence.” The celebration will run from Memorial Day 2025 to July 4, 2026 and include what he called the “Great American State Fair,” which will feature pavilions from each state in the Union. Trump also vowed to issue an Executive Order to build his planned garden of noteworthy Americans, which President Joe Biden canceled.

Mass deportations
A signature issue for Trump, the removal of illegal immigrants from the U.S. is expected to take priority. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported more than 10 million immigrant encounters under the Biden administration. Media outlets regularly cited an 11 million illegal immigrant figure prior to Trump’s first term and that the current number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. may exceed 20 million. “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history,” Trump declared during a recent rally in Reading, Pa. “We’re going to get them out.” He further cited Operation Wetback, a mass deportation effort during the Presidency of Dwight Eisenhower that removed millions of undocumented workers during the 1950s. That effort had the cooperation of the Mexican government, though it remains unclear whether Trump will be able to secure that nation’s help this time.

Mexican tariffs
To that end, he has planned a trade-based approach. During a recent rally, Trump promised he would demand that the President of Mexico work to shut down illegal border crossings or face a 25% tariff on all goods exported to the United States. “I’m going to inform her one day, one or sooner that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send in to the United States of America,” he said at a rally in North Carolina earlier this month. Throughout his campaign, Trump has often repeated his conversations with former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during which he secured Mexico’s deployment of troops to secure the border through a similar trade-related threat.

Birthright citizenship
In May of last year, Trump promised to issue an Executive Order directing federal agencies to interpret federal law in a manner that would not grant birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens. “As part of my plan to secure the border on day one… I will sign an Executive Order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship,” he vowed. So-called “anchor babies” have been a longstanding issue in U.S. immigration policy and have complicated efforts to remove illegal immigrants whose children are considered U.S. citizens.

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“RFK is going to blow up. He’s marching around saying what he wants the administration to do before Trump’s had a chance to take a breath. Eventually Trump will sour on him..”

RFK Jr. Could Pose Big Threat to Big Pharma If He Joins Trump’s Cabinet (Sp.)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is primed for a possible senior job in Trump’s White House, promising to “Make America Healthy Again” by reining in big pharma’s enormous influence on US health policy, and by improving food standards. Here’s why the pharmaceutical lobby is going to have a hard time accepting that. “He’s going to have a big role in health care, a very big role. He knows it better than anybody,” Donald Trump said last week when asked about RFK Jr.’s possible future in his administration. “He’s got some views that I happen to agree with very strongly and I have for a long time.” Sources told media Saturday that Kennedy has already been asked to make recommendations to the Trump team on appointments to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies have already prepared for the worst, with some execs reportedly hoping Trump and and RFK Jr. have a falling out before Kennedy can do any damage to their respective bottom lines. “We need to have somebody who is going to be grounded by science and evidence and not somebody who rejects it,” John Maraganore, former CEO of Boston-based biotech firm Alnylam, told FT in a story published Friday, commenting on Kennedy’s prospects. Kennedy involvement in Trump’s health policy “would be awful on a lot of levels,” a senior unnamed health exec said. “RFK is going to blow up. He’s marching around saying what he wants the administration to do before Trump’s had a chance to take a breath. Eventually Trump will sour on him,” another suggested.

Kennedy’s poor reputation with pharmaceutical companies is understandable, given the attention he’s gotten on the campaign trail during his 2024 presidential run, and before that – for his work as an environmental lawyer, Children’s Health Defense chairman and author of the 2021 book The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health, which spent twenty weeks on NYT’s bestseller list. Kennedy used the national attention he got over the past three years to promote his favorite causes – vaccine safety and public health. His stinging remarks on these issues, and ability to now have the president-elect’s ear, explain why big pharma finds him so dangerous.

Anti-Vaxxer? Smeared, throttled and censored by legacy media as an “anti-vaxxer” in virtually every article that mentions him, Kennedy has said repeatedly that he’s “never been anti-vaccine.” “I fought against mercury in fish for 40 years. Nobody called me anti-fish. I like the idea that we have seatbelts in cars. Nobody calls me anti-automobile. I want vaccines that are safe just like every other medication and that are adequately tested. It doesn’t mean I’m anti-vaccine. It just means that I’m sensible and have common sense,” Kennedy said in a tense PBS interview in 2023. “The pharmaceutical industry is – I don’t want to say because this is going to seem extreme – a criminal enterprise, but if you look at the history, that is an applicable characterization. For example, the four biggest vaccine makers, Sanofi, Merck, Pfizer and Glaxo make all of the 72 vaccines that are now effectively mandated for American children.

Collectively, those companies have paid $35 billion in criminal penalties and damages in the last decade,” he told Lex Fridman in 2023. “And the problem is that they’re serial felons,” Kennedy said, citing the example of Merck’s non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx. “They killed people by falsifying science. And they did it. They lied to the public. They said, ‘this is a headache medication and an arthritis painkiller’. But they didn’t tell people that it also gave you heart attacks…We found when we sued them the memos from their bean counters saying ‘we’re going to kill this many people, but we’re still going to make money,” Kennedy said. “The way that the system is set up, the way that it’s sold to doctors, the way that nobody ever goes to jail so there’s really no penalty [and] it all becomes part of the cost of doing business,” Kennedy said.

RFK

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“..[Pompeo’s] bid faced fierce opposition from close allies of the president-elect, including his son Donald Trump Jr. and conservative journalist Tucker Carlson..”

Trump Says Haley, Pompeo Will Not Join White House (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will not ask former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley or former secretary of state Mike Pompeo to join his administration. The two prominent figures have criticized Trump in the past, but endorsed him in his 2024 election campaign. In a social media post on Saturday, Trump wrote that he would not be inviting Haley or Pompeo “to join the Trump Administration which is currently in formation,” adding: “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country.” Trump won a landslide victory in the US presidential election on November 5, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris. He is now considering candidates for his administration, ahead of his inauguration on January 20.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor who previously served as US ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, ran against Trump in the Republican primary this year before finally endorsing him. Pompeo, who served as Trump’s CIA director, had been named as a possible defense secretary by some media. But as Politico reported earlier this week, citing two people familiar with the matter, his bid faced fierce opposition from close allies of the president-elect, including his son Donald Trump Jr. and conservative journalist Tucker Carlson. Both Pompeo and Haley have been vocal proponents of providing more US military aid to Ukraine, as a means of “preventing” a broader “war”.

In July, Pompeo laid out an escalatory plan for Ukraine that involved more weapon transfers, contradicting Trump’s campaign statements. The president-elect has repeatedly claimed he could end it in his first 24 hours in office, without specifying how he might achieve this. Trump has also said Ukraine is unlikely to emerge victorious against Russia in the conflict, and suggested that he might stop funding Kiev, describing Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky as “the greatest salesman in history.” In addition, Haley endorsed Ukraine’s application to join NATO as a means of conveying a clear “signal” to Russia. Moscow has pointed to Ukraine’s goal of joining NATO as one of the key reasons for the current conflict, and repeatedly slammed weapons shipments to Kiev, warning that all they do is prolong the hostilities without changing the outcome.

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“Please do not forget that the outgoing administration still has a couple of months in their pocket. During this time, and we know them, a lot can be done to make a mess..”

Zakharova Gives Credit to Trump for Admitting Sickness of US Society (Sp.)

Donald Trump, who won the US presidential election, must be given credit for a more realistic assessment of the United States as a sick society, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Sputnik. Donald Trump, who served as US President from 2017 to 2021, won the presidential election that took place on November 5. “We must give credit to Trump, he certainly said it as it is. American society is sick, that’s what he said. If before the election the slogan was ‘let’s make America great again,’ now it’s ‘let’s make America healthy again,'” Zakharova said. “This is a more realistic assessment. In these circumstances, we will need to interact with this country in some way.” She added that there were wonderful moments of cooperation in the history of relations between Russia and the United States that are worth striving for.

But today it is noticeable how Russophobia is encouraged in the United States, which “is becoming a sector of the general American philosophy,” she added. Trump became the first US politician since the 19th century to return to the White House after a four-year hiatus. Trump’s victory was announced by all leading media outlets counting votes: the Associated Press, Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS.Democratic candidate Kamala Harris addressed supporters and announced that she would concede, while incumbent US President Joe Biden spoke with Trump and congratulated him. The Electoral College from the states must vote for candidates in accordance with the will of the voters on December 17, and the new Congress will approve the voting results on January 6.

The inauguration will take place on January 20. The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden may create problems for Russia for another couple of months while still in power, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman added. “Regarding bilateral relations, we need to understand and be realistic. The US presidential election has taken place. It has been recognized as such within the United States. The losers acknowledged the winner, but he [US President-elect Donald Trump] still needs to take office. Please do not forget that the outgoing administration still has a couple of months in their pocket. During this time, and we know them, a lot can be done to make a mess, I think their Russophobia has not gone away,” Zakharova said. The current administration has failed in implementing much of its Russophobic policy, Zakharova added. “The concept of creating an anti-Russia on the territory of Ukraine has failed. The idea of isolating Russia has failed. After all, this is not just a myth. This was an attempt to bring it to life. And much was done for this,” Zakharova said.

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“..On Thursday, the president-elect told NBC News he had already spoken with “probably” 70 world leaders since his election victory..”

Trump Calls Putin – WaPo (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has called Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine conflict and its potential settlement, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing several people familiar with the matter. The phone call took place on Thursday, shortly after Trump secured his election victory. The US president-elect reportedly urged Putin not to “escalate” the conflict, reminding him of the significant US military presence in Europe, one of the sources told the daily. Apart from that, Trump and Putin spoke about “the goal of peace on the European continent,” with the president-elect expressing interest in follow-up conversations to talk about “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” several other unnamed individuals told the WaPo. The report gave no insights into what reaction, if any, Trump’s remarks invoked.

The Washington Post also claimed that Kiev was “informed” ahead of the call and allegedly “did not object” – but the Ukrainian foreign ministry denied this part of the report. “Reports that the Ukrainian side was informed in advance of the alleged call are false. Subsequently, Ukraine could not have endorsed or opposed the call,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Georgiy Tikhiy told Reuters. Thus far, Moscow has made no official comments on the reported phone call between Trump and Putin. On Thursday, the president-elect told NBC News he had already spoken with “probably” 70 world leaders since his election victory, but Putin was not among them. “I think we’ll speak,” Trump said at the time.

Trump has already spoken with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who described the conversation as “positive” and said Trump’s outreach shortly after his victory was encouraging. Zelensky noted that he “cannot yet know” what Trump’s actions will ultimately be and that, should a resolution of the conflict be “just fast,” it would likely mean “losses for Ukraine.” Throughout his election campaign, Trump has repeatedly pledged to swiftly end the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, potentially even before officially assuming office. However, he has not provided any concrete details on how he plans to achieve this.

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“Trump and his aides are distrustful of career government officials following the leaked transcripts of presidential calls during his first term. “They are just calling [Trump] directly..”

Trump-Putin Call Focuses On The Quick ‘Resolution Of Ukraine War’ (ZH)

President-elect Donald Trump is already moving quite fast on his goal to quickly bring to an end the Ukraine war. It has been revealed Sunday he held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin previously on Thursday, the first such communication between the two since Trump won the election. Trump urged immediate de-escalation in the call with Putin. The Washington Post describes that “During the call, which Trump took from his resort in Florida, he advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.” Multiple sources said the call focused on the “goal of peace on the European continent” and ended on a positive note with plans to hold future conversations on “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon”.

WaPo has further said that Ukraine was informed that the call was going to take place and did not object. However, the Zelensky government has subsequent this the report rejected this claim. “Reports that the Ukrainian side was informed in advance of the alleged call are false. Subsequently, Ukraine could not have endorsed or opposed the call,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told Reuters. WaPo has also underscored that the Trump transition team is fearful of leaks at this point: “Trump’s initial calls with world leaders are not being conducted with the support of the State Department and U.S. government interpreters. The Trump transition team has yet to sign an agreement with the General Services Administration, a standard procedure for presidential transitions. Trump and his aides are distrustful of career government officials following the leaked transcripts of presidential calls during his first term. “They are just calling [Trump] directly,” one of the people familiar with the calls said.”

Currently, the Zelensky government and some of the more hawkish leaders within NATO are deeply worried that the future Trump White House will force a ‘bad deal’ – or one that pressures Kiev to give up some 20% of his territory. They are against anything which the Kremlin could view as ‘victory’ for Russia. One proposed plan, said to be getting the most attention from Trump’s team, would see an indefinite ‘freeze’ on the front lines in the east, paving the way for immediate ceasefire, and enforced by European peacekeepers along an 800-mile demilitarized zone. Peace would also be ensured by Ukraine agreeing to suspend its aspirations to join NATO for twenty years. This buffer zone would not involve any US troops, according to initial reports based on the description of Trump officials. Included a brief discussion on territory…

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“..forcing Ukraine to temporarily suspend its quest to join” NATO, with the matter potentially put on hold “for at least 20 years.”

Trump To Announce Ukraine Peace Terms Soon – Polish PM (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump could present his vision of peace in Ukraine in the coming days, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has claimed. The head of government has predicted that the Republican would offer a timeframe for a potential truce as well as security guarantees for Kiev. While on the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly vowed to end the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours,” without specifying any details. The president-elect told the US media that he was going to tell Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “No more. You got to make a deal.” He also implied that he would leverage further assistance to Kiev in a bid to coerce Moscow into negotiating. On Saturday, Polish Radio quoted Tusk as saying that Trump’s team was still working on their roadmap for Ukraine. Nevertheless, the Polish prime minister added that he expected the US president-elect to make public certain key elements in the near future, such as a timeline for a potential ceasefire, the line along which it would take effect, as well as security guarantees for Ukraine.

According to the broadcaster, Tusk claimed that “these will definitely be solutions that will involve less US interference in Ukrainian affairs.” That same day, the prime minister announced plans to hold meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as well as the leaders of the Nordic and Baltic states. Tusk cited the emergence of a “new political landscape” following the election of Donald Trump as the 47th US president. He explained that Europe was faced with a “serious challenge… in the context of a possible end to the Russian-Ukrainian war,” as quoted by Politico. “Nobody wants the conflict to escalate,” Tusk stressed, adding that “at the same time, nobody wants Ukraine to weaken or even capitulate.”

The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on Wednesday that Trump’s team was considering several proposals. Most of them, according to the media outlet, envisage “freezing the war in place… and forcing Ukraine to temporarily suspend its quest to join” NATO, with the matter potentially put on hold “for at least 20 years.” The WSJ claimed that among the proposals allegedly being discussed was the creation of a demilitarized zone along the current front line. The article quoted an unnamed Trump adviser as noting that it would not be American troops or US-funded international organizations such as the UN, but instead European nations, who would be tasked with maintaining peace there.

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“..Ukraine might also join the EU. “Putin will hate that part of it, just like the Ukrainians will hate the part of Putin holding onto 20 percent of their country. But it’s a negotiation..”

Former NATO Commander Predicts How Ukraine Conflict Will End (RT)

The Ukraine conflict will end with Russia taking approximately a fifth of the country’s pre-2014 territory, ex-NATO commander James Stavridis has predicted. Stavridis, a retired admiral who often appears on TV to share his insight on international affairs, told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday that Ukraine might also join the EU. “Putin will hate that part of it, just like the Ukrainians will hate the part of Putin holding onto 20 percent of their country. But it’s a negotiation,” Stavridis told Smerconish. Stavridis has also said that if President-elect Donald Trump can end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours, he will “be the first one voting for his Nobel Peace Prize.” Trump has previously claimed he could end the conflict in the first 24 hours of his presidency, without elaborating how exactly.

“What I hope he does, and I think he will, is put pressure on both sides to get to the negotiating table,” Stavridis said. He added that Ukraine will also get a “path to NATO, probably three to five years.” He also said that the deal would probably include “some kind of demilitarized zone” between the two parties, likely patrolled “with NATO soldiers, for example, not US, Europeans.” “A negotiated settlement is not something the US can impose, but for the Ukrainians and Russians to agree upon,” Stavridis told Newsweek later on Saturday, adding that eventual settlement of the conflict, which escalated in 2022, will take months. In October, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky presented his ‘victory plan’, which demanded immediate NATO membership. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Kiev’s desire to join the bloc – which Moscow has described as an existential threat – was one of the key reasons for the current conflict.

Zelensky has also insisted that Ukraine will keep fighting until it restores its 1991 borders, a task that would involve the recapture of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson Region, Zaporozhye Region, and Crimea from Russia. Russia maintains that it is open to any talks starting with an acknowledgement of “territorial reality” – that the above-mentioned regions will never return to Ukrainian control. Earlier, US Vice President-elect J.D. Vance suggested that the conflict could be frozen along the current front line, with Kiev forced to abandon its claims to territories held by Russia, as well as its aspiration to join NATO.

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“POV: You’re 38 Days from losing your allowance.”

Trump Jr. Trolls Zelensky (RT)

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the US president-elect, has suggested that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky could soon lose access to American aid. While on the campaign trail, the Republican candidate repeatedly described Zelensky as the “greatest salesman in history” for his ability to milk President Joe Biden’s administration of tens of billions of dollars. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Washington has emerged as Kiev’s biggest donor, with the US Congress earmarking more than $174 billion in military and other aid. Moscow has denounced this assistance, insisting that it only serves to unnecessarily prolong the bloodshed and is unable to change the course of the conflict. Taking to Instagram on Saturday, Trump Jr. posted a short video that features a photo of Zelensky standing beside the president-elect, with the camera gradually zooming in on the Ukrainian leader.

The picture then turns black and white with dollar banknotes raining down upon the official. The caption reads: “POV: You’re 38 Days from losing your allowance.” In recent months, Trump has repeatedly vowed to end the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours,” without divulging the specifics of his plan. Speaking to the US media, he said he intended to tell Zelensky “No more. You got to make a deal.” The president-elect implied that he would leverage further aid to Ukraine in a bid to coerce Russia into negotiating. He has also criticized the Biden administration’s generosity toward Kiev on multiple occasions. The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on Wednesday that Trump’s team was considering several roadmaps, which allegedly envisage Ukraine relinquishing its NATO membership aspirations “for at least 20 years” and freezing hostilities along the current front line.

Washington, however, would provide Kiev with more weaponry to keep Moscow at bay, the media outlet claimed. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he strongly favors a comprehensive solution over a simple freezing of the conflict, noting, however, that Moscow is ready to negotiate in principle. Zelensky has publicly ruled out making any territorial concessions to Russia. On Friday, Bloomberg claimed that European Union leaders had been discussing “whether the bloc will be ready to foot the bill for the war,” amid concerns that “Trump will seek to shift the financial burden on Europe.” Earlier this week, the Financial Times, citing unnamed Ukrainian defense officials, reported that fear was growing in Ukraine that the US president-elect would suspend military aid to the country.

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“..they are in a rush to Trump-proof their alleged accomplishments..”

What to Expect From ‘Lame Duck’ Biden After Trump’s Win (Sp.)

The White House press pool reported on Sunday that Biden had refused to say what he plans to talk about with Trump at their meeting scheduled for November 13. With Donald Trump set to be sworn in as the 47th president on January 20, the question is how incumbent Joe Biden will grapple with the “difficult diplomacy” related to Ukraine, the Middle East and beyond in the meantime. Biden administration officials recognize that they already have much less sway with other nations and just a limited ability to make policy decisions that can endure beyond inauguration day, as they are in a rush to Trump-proof their alleged accomplishments, according to the Washington Post. On Ukraine, the WP argues that the Biden administration may focus on shipping as much military supplies as they can to the Kiev regime amid their fears that Trump may pull the plug.

Biden could decide on taking “a maximalist approach toward helping Ukraine over the next couple of months,” even though some White House officials “oppose the idea.” Reports that Biden plans to send 500 Patriot and NASAMS missiles to Kiev are “not implausible but even if he goes through with it, everyone knows that this is a final gesture and that US largess is at an end,” Dan Lazare, US constitutional historian and political commentator, tells Sputnik. As for the Middle East, there are three separate conflicts in which Israel is now involved — Gaza, Lebanon and Iran — and “none is likely to be resolved before Trump takes office,” per the WP. The Foreign Policy claimed that Biden may opt not to veto a resolution stipulating sanctions on Israel if it doesn’t agree to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal.

In this vein, Lazare stresses that “while Biden may engage in a few holding actions, the game is up” because Trump’s “margin of victory was so decisive that he’ll effectively be calling the shots from here on out.” In the Asia Pacific, Biden is due to attend the upcoming APEC summit in Peru as his administration braces for disruption of regional alliances, per Al Jazeera. The outgoing US president “may put in an appearance” at the upcoming G20 and APEC summits, “but it’s doubtful that he’ll even get a round of applause” there, Lazare says.

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“..Washington sought to deliver the weaponry by April, but Donald Trump’s win has apparently prompted the outgoing administration to accelerate the process.”

Biden Racing To Pour Weaponry Into Ukraine – WSJ (RT)

The outgoing Biden administration is seeking to fully use funds allocated for Ukraine to deliver additional weapons to the country, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing unnamed White House officials. The plan, however, is reportedly facing logistics hurdles as the US further depletes its already thinned out stockpiles. Washington has more than $7 billion left in drawdown authority, enabling the Pentagon to transfer weapons and ammunition to Kiev, as well as another $2 billion to fund long-term equipment contracts for Ukraine, the WSJ noted. The pending delivery involves some 500 anti-aircraft missiles for various systems, including Patriots and NASAMS, a senior Biden administration official has said. The cache of missiles is expected to get delivered to Ukraine in the next few weeks, where it will meet the country’s air defense needs for the rest of the year.

The plan, however, has already raised concerns that it would further deplete already-exhausted US weapons stockpiles, officials told the newspaper. Apart from that, funneling a large amount of weaponry within mere weeks is bound to lead to logistics problems and put a further strain on US capabilities, the officials warned. The rush to get as many weapons to Ukraine as possible before US President Joe Biden’s term ends is intended to give Kiev an advantage and reinforce its “negotiating position,” according to the WSJ. Before the presidential election, Washington sought to deliver the weaponry by April, but Donald Trump’s win has apparently prompted the outgoing administration to accelerate the process.

The president-elect has long been critical of the largesse afforded Kiev and has repeatedly pledged to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine overnight, potentially even before assuming office officially. Trump, however, has provided little to no detail on how exactly he would do that. The delivery is unlikely to meet Kiev’s ever-growing weaponry wish list. Separately, the WSJ reported that Washington has refused to give Ukraine additional ATACMS ballistic missiles. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has informed Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky that the call to violate long-standing US arms contracts and prioritize Ukraine over its customers awaiting the missiles of the type was “too much to ask.” The Pentagon has been reluctant to send additional ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, arguing that the munitions of the type were not actually needed since Russia had already moved all the valuable assets from their reach.

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“If he picks from that short list he himself has created, then I think we’re going to have an awesome continuation of the originalist approach to the Constitution..”

Trump Could Impact the Supreme Court for Decades to Come (ET)

President-elect Donald Trump’s second term could help make him one of the most consequential presidents for the U.S. Supreme Court by solidifying a long-lasting originalist majority. Although Democrats have criticized the justices in recent months, the 2024 elections may have stripped them of the power they would need to block Trump’s nominees and implement reforms to stunt conservatives’ influence on the court. Republicans are projected to take the U.S. Senate, offering a two-year window for Trump to appoint new conservative jurists to the highest court should any of the sitting justices announce retirement. Neither of the two most senior justices, Clarence Thomas, who is 76 and joined the court in 1991, and Samuel Alito, who is 74 and joined in 2006, have announced a retirement plan.

“No one other than Justices Thomas and Alito knows when or if they will retire, and talking about them like meat that has reached its expiration date is unwise, uninformed, and, frankly, just crass,” Federalist Society chairman Leonard Leo said. If Trump is later tasked with appointing two justices, he could be the first president since President Dwight D. Eisenhower to have five of his nominees sit on the nation’s highest court. In terms of pace, Trump has already appointed more justices in one term than his predecessors did during their tenures. Continuing at that pace would likely lead to long-term shifts for the institution and its jurisprudence, especially if his successors follow other presidents in nominating fewer justices. The court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has been described as incrementalist, but some of its recent decisions have raised questions about the stability of longstanding precedents.

Trump’s nominees—Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—have already contributed to major shifts in American law, starting with their vote to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Just before Trump’s reelection, they also redefined the scope of presidential immunity and overruled a decades-old administrative law doctrine—known as Chevron deference—that was supported by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Conservatives have touted this decision and Dobbs as following an originalist approach, or one that seeks to follow the Constitution’s original meaning. Such an approach might continue if Trump selects justices from the long list of judges appointed to federal courts during his first term in office.

Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino told The Epoch Times that if Trump wanted to appoint more originalists to the Supreme Court, he wouldn’t have to “look any farther than the appellate judges” he appointed during his first term. “If he picks from that short list he himself has created, then I think we’re going to have an awesome continuation of the originalist approach to the Constitution,” said Severino, a former Thomas clerk. In October, a three-judge appellate panel, which included a former Thomas clerk and former Alito clerk, backed Republicans’ position that election officials couldn’t count ballots that arrived after voting day. They said doing so violated the Constitution and a law passed in 1844 on the timing of elections.

Thomas has said on more than one occasion that he has no intention of retiring. Meanwhile, conservative attorney and commentator Ed Whelan has speculated in National Review that Alito will retire next spring with Thomas following him in 2026. The Supreme Court’s recent decisions have been viewed by both sides of the ideological spectrum as utilizing originalism and textualism, or trying to adhere to the plain language of American laws, after decades of different approaches. “After most of the 20th Century spent with a very liberal court, we actually have a majority of originalists in the court,” Severino said during a press call this summer. Overturning Roe raised questions about a whole body of law, known as “substantive due process,” which stems from the 14th Amendment’s due process clause.

That body of law informed the court’s decision in a series of other cases like Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down state laws on birth control, sodomy, and marriage respectively. Following Dobbs, left-leaning voices worried that the more conservative Supreme Court would eventually overturn those cases. Alito’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned Roe, indicated that the idea of a constitutional right to abortion exceeded the bounds of substantive due process. However, he attempted to distinguish it from the issues in Lawrence and other cases while maintaining that his opinion wouldn’t threaten those other precedents.

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“Did he learn his lesson as he claims, and can he find strong men who will put their reputation in the line of fire?”

Can There Be an American-Russian Reset? (Paul Craig Roberts)

The New York Post reports that Russians are floating the idea of a “reset” with the US made possible by Trump’s election as President. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said that Trump’s “convincing victory shows that ordinary Americans are tired of the unprecedented lies, incompetence, and malice of the Biden administration. This opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States.” Trump and Putin are in favor of this, and so is the Russian media which is asking these kind of questions: “What does the Trump administration mean for the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine? Do you think he will be able to broker a peace, or at least a ceasefire, in at least one of those conflicts?

“Do you expect the US to scale back its defense commitments in Europe under Trump? If so, will this create an opportunity for European countries to move ahead with some sort of of vision of collective security that does not rely on the US? Perhaps something in line with Macron’s proposals? “Do you expect any changes in the US-NATO relations? Will the alliance’s new secretary general, Mark Rutte, be able to effectively deal with the Trump White House?” My response is that these are relevant questions. Trump has these intentions. Does he have the means? Trump has confidence, but he also has ego and blusters, two traits unsuitable to dealing with Putin, Xi, and the Iranian Supreme Ruler.

Also, Trump is a strong personality. Some strong men are comfortable with strong subordinates, but others prefer yes-men. Trump’s first term was littered with people of weak character and low integrity and they were traitorous. Did he learn his lesson as he claims, and can he find strong men who will put their reputation in the line of fire? If so, will he fight for their confirmation by the Senate, or will his advisors convince him that he risks bad publicity and defeats at the beginning of his administration?

There is some indication of that already in a report that a businessman on Trump’s transition team said that Bobby Kennedy is not to have a position except as an advisor who collects information on harmful food and vaccines. Little doubt, nominating Bobby as FDA chief or Health and Human Services Secretary would have Big Pharma in every Senator’s office threatening the cut-off of all campaign contributions and their redirection to challengers. Maneuvering Trump into non-confrontation erodes his image as a fighter for America and will disappoint his supporters. It is unlikely that Trump’s advisors realize that the Senate’s refusal to confirm Bobby in office would enhance Trump’s power. He could present the people with the names of the Senators who are actively blocking the restoration of Americans’ health and ask why voters elected obstacles to making America great again. Trump has the people. He could bring the power of the people to bear on the Big Pharma stooges.

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Pelican
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855533714060497263

Snake
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855363705590169974

Sad dog

Fox
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855613931445715284

Again
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855364849586626861

Octopus

 

 

 

 

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Nov 072024
 


Edouard Manet Berthe Morisot with a bouquet of violets 1872

 

A Good Morning in America (Paul Craig Roberts)
If The Election Outcome Is As I Expected .. (Bill Ackman)
Trump’s Win Is A Victory For The Non-Brainwashed Americans (Marsden)
Trump Has Sweeping Plans for His 2nd Administration (ET)
Musk Reveals Plans For Trump Government (RT)
The US Should Establish A Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (Corva)
Trump Comeback Also Engineered A Significant Exodus From Democrat Party (JTN)
The Thrill is Gone (Turley)
DOJ Moving To Wind Down Trump Criminal Cases (NBC)
Rachel Maddow Threatens Musk Over ‘Russia Ties’ (RT)
84-year-old Pelosi Projected To Win Reelection (RT)
Trump to Seek ‘Pragmatic’ Deals, No Budget Money to Sustain Ukraine (Sp.)
Dave Smith: Will Trump Be Able To End The War In Ukraine? (ZH)
Biden To Speed Up Arms Deliveries To Ukraine – Media (RT)
Von der Leyen To Prepare EU For War – Defense Commission Nominee (RT)
How British Media Is Turning On Zelensky. And Why (Jay)
German Government Has Collapsed (RT)

 

 

 

 

Jennings

Joe AI
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854068685930991952

Speech
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854087148552528041

JD
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854073924893757731

Tucker RFK

Wallace
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854048711547957374

Tucker Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854017145119932876

Epstein

UK

Decency

Right to Exist
https://twitter.com/i/status/1853940077849641147

 

 

 

 

 

 

“America now has a chance for renewal if Trump doesn’t blow it in forgiving his enemies, who still intend to destroy him.”

A Good Morning in America (Paul Craig Roberts)

I awoke this morning to Donald Trump’s victory. Apparently, the election was not close enough for the Democrats and media to steal it as they did in 2020. Trump’s victory is not only a defeat for Democrats but also a defeat for the ruling elite that pulls the strings of both political parties and a defeat for the American media that serves as an enforcer for the official narratives that serve the agendas of the elite. Trump’s victory is also a victory for the American people who love their country and respect the Constitution. It is their victory over the left-wing intellectuals and university law schools who have been working diligently to overturn the First and Fourth Amendments that are in the way of their revolutionary intentions that are clearly anti-American.

Trump’s determination and strength are rare. Trump was attacked viciously from day one of his first term. Hillary Clinton, the CIA, and the FBI fabricated a “Russian dossier” that alleged that Trump aided by “Russian interference in the election” stole the election from Hillary Clinton. Women were produced to make sexual allegations. The ruling elite made two attempts to impeach Trump. When Trump’s term expired, false claims buttressed by concocted allegations of mishandling national security documents and instigating an “insurrection” were turned into indictments. Democrat prosecutors and judges weaponized law to pursue the former president. The FBI staged a raid on Trump’s home. The corrupt American media poured lie upon lie.

Trump stood up to all of this. The people stayed with him, and he regained the office that had been stolen from him by utterly corrupt people. Trump seems to have won all sectors of the electorate except for college educated white liberal-left women, the most brainwashed and indoctrinated element in American society. I pity any man who marries one of them. America now has a chance for renewal if Trump doesn’t blow it in forgiving his enemies, who still intend to destroy him. The Democrat Party is no longer a political party. It is an ideological party with ideological agendas. It sees itself as a revolutionary force and has no intention of political comprise. If Trump repeats the mistakes of his first term, his victory will be pissed away.

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X thread.

“If, however, you have been active on @X for the last year, you have known the truth days, weeks and often months before the facts appear in the MSM..”

If The Election Outcome Is As I Expected .. (Bill Ackman)

If the election outcome is as I expected, it should cause the large minority of the country who supported @KamalaHarris and predicted her victory to begin to question their sources of truth. Half the country has believed that @X is filled with mis- and disinformation, and that they could only therefore rely on The NY Times, MSNBC, CNN and other mainstream media for their news. And they did. If, however, you have been active on @X for the last year, you have known the truth days, weeks and often months before the facts appear in the MSM. The MSM excerpted, clipped and cut to defame @realDonaldTrump while claiming that @JoeBiden was fit as a fiddle. Then when Biden’s polls collapsed, @KamalaHarris was anointed the candidate and her hagiography was written with glowing acclaim from the press. But this could not hold as she ducked the media and held fast to the teleprompter.

Citizen journalists with their phone cameras in hand captured the real Kamala forcing her to defend her record and her plans in more media appearances. It did not go well and the public demanded to learn more so @KamalaHarris had to risk more unscripted media. The doom loop was underway with perhaps 60 Minutes as one of the more dramatic examples, even after CBS tried to save her, most glaringly by excerpting one answer to replace a word salad response to another. But the citizen journalists on @X quickly caught and outed this fraud and demanded a transcript. As many who supported Kamala began to realize that they have been misled, they became open to Trump as an alternative, but they didn’t want to rely on the media to understand him because they did not want to be misled again.

They wanted to hear the candidate in his own words and that is where @lexfridman and@joeroganhq long form podcasts came to the rescue. When Kamala was offered the same opportunities to explain herself, she rejected them. And the voting public could only draw a negative inference. When the story of this election is written, I expect it will be as much about how half of America woke up to the reality that they have been manipulated by the media. This should lead to an abandonment by many of the MSM as their primary source of information. It will push more people to @X, to podcasts and other empirical sources, and it will lead to a more informed public. The other outcome I hope happens is the implosion of the Democratic Party. The Party lied to the American people about the cognitive health and fitness of the president.

It prevented, threatened, litigated and otherwise eliminated the ability of other candidates for the primary to compete, to get on ballots, and to even participate in a debate. The Party and the administration used lawfare in an attempt to imprison, bankrupt or otherwise kill off Trump as a candidate. These acts are collectively grave threats to our democracy. With the highest irony in order to hide these acts, the Party accused the opposition candidate of being the grave threat to democracy. The Democratic Party proved itself to be fundamentally undemocratic. It needs a complete reboot. The leadership should be thrown out and those responsible should apologize to the American people. Honest Abe said it best: You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

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“Are we done yet with the anti-Trump fake news now that the majority of voters see through it? Probably not, huh?”

Trump’s Win Is A Victory For The Non-Brainwashed Americans (Marsden)

Blowout alert! I guess average Americans don’t like being infantilized. At least Trump trusted them to be able to take a joke, unlike his opponents. So when’s Liz Cheney’s date with the firing squad already? Are we done yet with the anti-Trump fake news now that the majority of voters see through it? Probably not, huh? With the exception of those in a handful of states, Americans united to send former US President Donald Trump back to the White House and handed him carte blanche with Republican control of the Senate and likely the House as well. Not bad for a guy the establishment tried to brand as the reincarnation of Hitler. Did Hitler also have giant Israeli flags at his Madison Square Garden rally? Or hang out at the Jewish wall in Israel or with Hebrew-inscribed tablets in a yarmulke? That should have been the Democrats’ first sign that their branding attempt was off.

Yet, just like the fitting title of the upcoming Harris biography co-authored by Chelsea Clinton: She Persisted. Maybe next time, instead of persisting with their idiocy, they’ll come up with an actual agenda and a candidate who addresses questions and issues on point rather than punting them in favor of talking points and platitudes that leave voters guessing as to what to even expect if ever elected – beyond the usual establishment status quo, which, of course, sucks. Just ask the overwhelming majority of Americans who say that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Presumably, the Democrats figured that they could make a whole campaign about abortion rights – against a guy who, frankly, doesn’t actually seem too interested in the topic, which was recently re-opened by the courts.

It’s telling that, according to CNN exit polls, Harris won the female vote by five points less than Biden did in 2020 and three points less than even Hillary Clinton did against Trump in 2016, when abortion wasn’t even an issue. Certain categories of voters really capture the story of this election. The first is white women with college degrees, 11% more of whom voted for Harris than for Biden in 2020. Institutional establishment brainwashing and virtue signaling apparently works more effectively on well-formatted brains, female or otherwise. The message from the party hacks and their celebrity surrogates was that abortion was really all that should matter to women, reducing them to one-dimensional caricatures of actual human beings. But it turns out that many more women than they figured don’t like being talked down to and treated as little more than a walking uterus – even by other women.

Which would explain why white women with no degree voted overwhelmingly for Trump by 25 points over Harris, and even voters of color with no degree, generally considered a lock by Democrats, still voted by 14 points less for Harris than for Biden four years ago. The youngest voters, aged 18-29, who you’d figure would be most directly affected by reproductive rights issues, either as women themselves or their white-knighting male counterparts who were constantly told by Democrats that they had to cast their vote primarily in support of the reproductive rights of the women in their life, actually ended up shifting their vote to Trump by 11 points compared to 2020.

The bottom line is that women living real lives with a multitude of concerns and interests don’t like being paternalized, which is what the Democrats constantly do. Just because it’s a woman and her surrogates who are doing the talking down to them, doesn’t make it any more appealing. It just makes you a useful idiot of the patriarchal establishment – the same one that’s trying to emotionally manipulate women’s electoral choices to maintain the status quo that disadvantages women in every other possible way that actually matters to all of their lives, from cost of living to foreign wars in which their sons are sent to die and other countries’ sons are subjected to the same. All so Uncle Sam can turn a profit. It’s the guy you keep calling a misogynist who wants to take him on.

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“..the United States has 20 to 25 million illegal immigrants in the country. “What do we do with them? I think the first thing that we do is we start with the criminal migrants.”

Trump Has Sweeping Plans for His 2nd Administration (ET)

Immigration Since 2015, Trump has made curbing illegal immigration a cornerstone of his campaigns. As president, he built or reconstructed about 400 miles of border barrier along the U.S.–Mexico border and implemented a number of rules curbing illegal migration into the country. During the campaign, Trump often said that he would initiate the largest “mass deportation” effort in U.S. history if elected. Recently, he also warned Mexico that he would impose a 25 percent tariff targeting the country if it fails to curb illegal immigration and that he would raise that tariff if Mexico doesn’t comply. Also, he’s suggested more enhanced screenings for immigrants, ending birthright citizenship—which may require a constitutional amendment—and reimposing certain policies enacted during his first term such as the “remain in Mexico” protocol.

Tom Homan, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who is expected to join the new administration, told media outlets last year that the scale of deportations depends on what resources are available. During a “60 Minutes” interview in October, Homan was asked about whether families would be separated. Homan responded, “Families can be deported together.” Vice President-elect JD Vance said in his debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Oct. 1 that deporting criminals would be a second Trump administration’s initial focus. “You’ve got to reimplement Donald Trump’s border policies, build the wall, reimplement deportations,” Vance said, adding that the United States has 20 to 25 million illegal immigrants in the country. “What do we do with them? I think the first thing that we do is we start with the criminal migrants.”

Taxes and Regulations Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump has promised to curb federal regulations that he said would limit the creation of new U.S. jobs. He also has pledged to keep intact a 2017 tax cut that he supported and signed while in office. His team has also proposed a further round of individual and corporate tax cuts beyond those initiated in his first term. Trump has pledged to reduce the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent for companies that make their products in the United States. In a bid to win Nevada, Trump earlier this year pledged to end the taxation of tips and overtime wages to aid some service workers and waiters. He has pledged not to tax or cut Social Security benefits. Trump also has said that as president, he would pressure the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates but wouldn’t make any demands on the central bank. Some of his proposals would require congressional action. As of Wednesday morning, the GOP is projected to retake the Senate, but the picture around the House is murkier.

Tariffs In multiple campaign stops this year, Trump floated the idea of a 10 percent or more tariff on all goods imported into the United States, which he said would eliminate the country’s trade deficit. He has also said he should have the authority to set higher tariffs on countries that have put tariffs on U.S. imports. He has threatened to impose a 200 percent tariff on some imported cars, saying he is determined in particular to keep cars from Mexico from coming into the country. Trump has targeted China in particular. He proposes phasing out Chinese imports of goods such as electronics, steel, and pharmaceuticals over four years. He seeks to prohibit Chinese companies from owning U.S. real estate and infrastructure in the energy and tech sectors. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariffs,’” Trump said in an interview with John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, in October. “It’s my favorite word.”

He added at the time, “You see these empty, old, beautiful steel mills and factories that are empty and falling down,” referring to facilities that used to make goods in the United States. “We’re going to bring the companies back. We’re going to lower taxes for companies that are going to make their products in the USA. And we’re going to protect those companies with strong tariffs,” Trump said. Micklethwait said that some economists have projected that the former president’s economic policies, including tariffs, could add trillions to the U.S. deficit. But Trump said that a number of countries, including “allies” have “taken advantage of us, more so than our enemies. ”

More Drilling The former president said that he wants to cut federal regulations on drilling for oil and natural gas, a move that he says would lower energy costs and inflation. In multiple instances, Trump said he would reauthorize drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, which was suspended under the Biden administration. Meanwhile, he would pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accords, a worldwide plan that claims to reduce carbon emissions. Trump also said he would roll back some federal policies around electric vehicles. In his campaign, Trump has often said that gas prices were much lower under his administration than they have been under the Biden administration. He has suggested that prices would again fall when he takes office.

“When I left office … gasoline had reached $1.87 a gallon. We actually had many months where it was lower than that,” Trump told reporters over the summer. “But we hit $1.87, which was a perfect place, an absolutely beautiful number.” According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline stands at around $3.10. The highest recorded average price for a gallon was on June 14, 2022, when it reached $5.01, AAA figures show. The federal Energy Information Administration’s data show that the average annual price for a gallon of gasoline did not exceed $3 under the first Trump administration.

Social Policies Trump has pledged to require U.S. colleges and universities to “defend American tradition and Western civilization” and to purge them of diversity and inclusion programs, which he and Republicans have said are leftist in nature. He said he would direct the Justice Department to pursue civil rights cases against schools that engage in racial discrimination. At K–12 schools, Trump would support programs allowing parents to use public funds for private or religious instruction. Trump also wants to abolish the federal Department of Education and leave states in control of schooling.

Regarding abortion, Trump has said that a federal ban on abortion is not needed and that the issue should be resolved by states. He’s also said he backs rules that advance in vitro fertilization, birth control, and prenatal care. In campaign events and interviews, Trump has been critical of schools allowing transgender individuals to compete in women’s sports, saying that he would impose a ban on such practices. “It’s a man playing in the game,” Trump said at an October town hall event. “Look at what’s happened in swimming. Look at the records that are being broken.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1854087029753053640

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A lot of public “servants” have good reason to be nervous.

Musk Reveals Plans For Trump Government (RT)

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said he will seek to improve government efficiency by reducing the number of federal agencies if he is given a role in Donald Trump’s administration. Musk, a Trump supporter, made the remarks during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s online show, broadcast from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday. Despite initially proclaiming political neutrality, Musk officially endorsed Trump after an assassination attempt on the president-elect in July. Trump promised the Tesla CEO that he would establish a special “government efficiency” commission, dubbed the DOGE, to be headed by the billionaire if he wins the election. Speaking with Carlson, the tech billionaire said that he would like to help Trump make the US government more efficient.

“I’d be happy to help improve government efficiency,” Musk said. “We’ve got a gigantic government bureaucracy, we’ve got overregulation, we’ve got agencies that have overlapping responsibilities… this translates into real costs to people, they’re hidden costs but they are very substantial.” Musk has invested millions of dollars in supporting Trump. According to media reports, he donated at least $118 million to the Republican’s political action committee, a group that focused on voter outreach. Speaking at a Trump rally last month, Musk pledged to help the Republican slash US annual budget spending by “at least $2 trillion” as part of a review of federal agencies that he would carry out if Trump returns to the White House. “Your tax money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that,” Musk stated. The tech billionaire has repeatedly sounded the alarm over the US debt, warning just last week that the country is spiraling toward bankruptcy and will quickly go bust if Washington doesn’t curb its spending.

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“We embrace change in the United States. We can tell the world that we’re aware of Bitcoin’s numerous positive attributes and that we want to use them to our advantage..”

The US Should Establish A Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (Corva)

Yesterday, the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) released a 53-page report on the pros of the United States establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve (SBR). As Bitcoin Magazine’s Frank Corva details below, the authors of the report touched on four key benefits of holding bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset:

• Economic and monetary stability – bitcoin is a hedge against currency debasement and debt instability

• Geopolitical competition – the US could gain a strategic advantage over other countries that are contemplating starting a bitcoin reserve and can reinforce the US’ influence over global financial standards

• Energy and climate – Bitcoin mining can be leveraged to accelerate the movement toward renewable energy

• Financial inclusion and human rights – the US can promote both the concepts of individual freedom and financial inclusion for both US citizens and those abroad

While I agree that the US’ establishing an SBR would have these benefits, I also think it would send a certain message loud and clear: We embrace change in the United States. We can tell the world that we’re aware of Bitcoin’s numerous positive attributes and that we want to use them to our advantage. In doing so, we can shift the narrative around Bitcoin from something to be feared and controlled to something that should be embraced and utilized, and we can stand behind a tool that can be used to increase the financial buoyancy of both people and institutions around the globe instead of standing in its way.

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Following the example of Tulsi, RFK et al. They made it look acceptable.

Trump Comeback Also Engineered A Significant Exodus From Democrat Party (JTN)

Donald Trump pulled off the most improbable comeback in American political history Tuesday night, securing a likely return trip to the White House by beating back a relentless tide of media, Big Tech and Democrat opposition that stretched from the courthouse to the social media sphere Trump was poised to become only the second American president to secure non-consecutive terms but he did so against far greater odds than Grover Cleveland a century earlier after being impeached and acquitted twice, indicted four times, facing two assassination attempts and enduring an avalanche of lawfare unparalleled in the nation’s history. But even more consequential than his personal journey to President-Elect 47, Trump engineered a once-in-a-generation political realignment, one more deep and pervasive than his 2016 shocker as he peeled away long-rooted constituencies from the Democrat Party.

The electoral movement may soon be known as D-Exit, the American equivalent of Great Britain’s Brexit departure from the European Union as black males, Hispanic voters and young voters showed up more strongly from Trump and less fervently for Harris compared to Joe Biden or Barack Obama. Arabs and Muslims also underperformed for Harris. The shifts were small but compelling, crumbling a coalition born in the Kennedy-Johnson era and key to the Obama-Biden dynasty that dominated 12 of the last 16 years. The shifts toward Trump were jarring for Democrats. Trump cut the Democrat margin of victory in half in one of America’s darkest blue states, New York, and by two thirds in Democrat-stronghold Illinois. He won Florida – scene of the 2020 hanging election – by 15 points, all but erasing the Sunshine State as a battleground.

He won Georgia and North Carolina and was poised to take Arizona and Nevada. Pennsylvania was called for Trump and Wisconsin and Michigan were leaning strongly in his direction. He won a Senate majority and was in decent position to keep the U.S. House, which would make Washington an all red town in 2025. Perhaps most painful of all to blue America, Trump was in a position to win the popular vote, something Democrats have long used as a cudgel to delegitimize earlier GOP victories, including Trump’s in 2016. Mark Penn, the strategist behind the Clinton dynasty, succinctly described D-Exit early Wednesday morning. “The Trump edge is turning into a Trump trifecta. It looks like despite a good effort in a short period of time, Harris is falling short especially with young people and turnout in core urban areas. Black and especially Latino voters showed some shifts,” he noted on X.

“Trump has brought home with working class and created a new coalition of governing but the country remains divided and whoever wins must remember it’s time to genuinely reach out to the many moderate voters looking for the right leadership,” he added. Trump did it by talking directly to constituencies Republicans often ignored in the past, and that Democrats long took for granted. He did it by inviting recovering Democrats or stubborn independents to his big stage: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Elon Musk, ex-Rep and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard and podcaster extraordinaire Joe Rogan to name a few. He went to places like the Bronx and Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden in New York to signal he wanted to be all Americans’ president. And when Democrats talked about ethereal ideological terms like ESG, CRT, and DEI, Trump talked about the kitchen table, the grocery cart and the gas tank. He warned of energy poverty, recognizing some were having a hard time to pay utility bills.

He made the EV revolution a debate about exporting jobs to China and the liberal transgender movement a debate about the safety and dignity of women’s sports and the sanctity of parents’ rights. Democrats did a historic switcheroo atop the ticket, subbing a younger female Harris for an aging Biden. But they didn’t change the debate. Trump chose the issues of insecurity, inflation and insanity and Democrats offered few specifics to counter. In the end, Trump’s prior record of economic growth in his first term seemed preferrable to Harris’ vagaries. Trump’s optimism that the nation’s woes could be solved was more appealing than Harris’ dark insistence that fascism, extremism and Hitler-like characters would destroy democracy.

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“Smith’s prosecutions ended with the 270th Electoral College vote secured around 2 a.m. Wednesday.”

The Thrill is Gone (Turley)

After years of thrill-kill prosecutions, the thrill is gone for lawfare warriors. Election Day’s greatest losers may be special counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Donald Trump’s victory was the largest jury verdict that some of us anticipated for years of unrelenting weaponization of the legal system. Smith’s prosecutions ended with the 270th Electoral College vote secured around 2 a.m. Wednesday. His unrelenting efforts to convict Trump and then, when prevented from holding a trial, to release damaging material before the election have collapsed with the blue wall in the Midwest. Trump has said he plans to fire Smith on Day 1. That means the end of both the January 6 and the classified documents cases. That leaves James and Bragg as residue of long-forgotten lawfare battles, but even there Trump’s prospects look good.

James was able to secure a fellow lawfare warrior in Justice Arthur Engoron, who imposed a grotesque $455 million in fines and interest. That ruling is pending an appeal that is expected to be a partial or even total victory for Trump. Unlike Engoron, the appellate judges expressed great skepticism in September over the size of the penalty and even the use of this law. Trump faced half a billion dollars in penalty in a case where no one lost a dime, and the alleged victim banks wanted more business with Trump and his company. Separately, there is a hearing scheduled in front of Judge Juan Merchan for Nov. 11 on the “hush money” case involving Stormy Daniels, and a possible sentencing on Nov. 26. If Merchan seeks to jail Trump, it is unlikely to be carried out, as Trump appeals the case and the many alleged errors committed by the judge.

Merchan made an utter mess of a case that should never have been filed, let alone tried. Even commentators like CNN’s senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, have denounced the case as selective prosecution and unfounded. The case should result in a conditional discharge with no jail time if Merchan can resist the temptation to unjustly punish Trump, a level of restraint that has largely proven difficult for him in the case. Merchan created layers of appealable errors in the case. Putting those alleged errors aside, any sentencing to jail would create its own constitutional conflict with Trump’s performance of his federal duties. The question is whether the election will bring a moment of sobriety for New Yorkers who have spent years in a full rage-driven celebration of lawfare.

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Turley gets it. NBC not so much.

DOJ Moving To Wind Down Trump Criminal Cases (NBC)

Justice Department officials have been evaluating how to wind down the two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office to comply with long-standing department policy that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, two people familiar with the matter tell NBC News. The latest discussions stand in contrast with the pre-election legal posture of special counsel Jack Smith, who in recent weeks took significant steps in the election interference case against Trump without regard to the electoral calendar. But the sources say DOJ officials have come to grips with the fact that no trial is possible anytime soon in either the Jan. 6 case or the classified documents matter — both of which are mired in legal issues that would likely prompt an appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, even if Trump had lost the election.

Now that Trump will become president again, DOJ officials see no room to pursue either criminal case against him — and no point in continuing to litigate them in the weeks before he takes office, the people said. “Sensible, inevitable and unfortunate,” said former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg, an NBC News contributor. How Trump’s legal jeopardy has unfolded over the past year, in terms of both the criminal charges and his sweeping election victory, is unprecedented. The sources said it will be up to Smith to decide exactly how to unwind the charges and many questions remain unanswered. Could the prosecutions resume after Trump leaves office or would they be time-barred? What happens to the evidence? What about the two other defendants charged with helping Trump hide classified documents? Will the special counsel write a report, as special counsels usually do?

At the same time, Trump’s legal team is weighing its own next steps for how to resolve the outstanding federal cases in his favor now that he is the projected winner of the election. The ultimate goal is to get all the federal and state cases wiped out completely — the strategic call is how best to accomplish that task, according to a person familiar with the discussions. If the Trump side, for example, moved again in court to dismiss the charges in Washington related to election interference, then the Justice Department could use its legal response to explain its position on not moving forward with that case. Trump’s New York criminal case presents different challenges with a felony conviction and sentencing hearing scheduled for Nov. 26. The immediate goal of Trump’s legal team is to get that postponed indefinitely or otherwise dismissed.

The Georgia election interference case against Trump remains tied up on appeals over ethical issues surrounding the district attorney. “The American people have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “It is now abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, so we can, as President Trump said in his historic speech last night, unify our country and work together for the betterment of our nation.” The DOJ’s thinking on Trump’s federal cases flows from a 2000 memo by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which affirmed a Watergate-era conclusion that a prosecution of a sitting president would “unduly interfere in a direct or formal sense with the conduct of the presidency.”

“In light of the effect that an indictment would have on the operations of the executive branch, ‘an impeachment proceeding is the only appropriate way to deal with a President while in office,’” the memo concluded, quoting the earlier conclusion. The practical reality of Trump’s electoral victory Tuesday is that he is unlikely ever to face legal consequences in relation to the serious federal criminal charges brought against him by career Justice Department prosecutors working with career FBI agents. Some commentators have said the charges were arguably more serious than the conduct in the Watergate scandal that cost Richard Nixon the presidency and left him banished from politics. In the case accusing Trump of conspiring to illegally overturn the 2020 election, he is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

In the classified documents case, he is charged with willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, lying to investigators and withholding documents in a federal investigation. “The idea that you could win an election to avoid justice just cuts so deeply against my expectations for our legal system and for our politics too,” said Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney and NBC News contributor. “But the voters have spoken, and that’s where we are.” She added that it has never been a foregone conclusion that Trump would be convicted — that would be up to a jury. “What bothers me so deeply is that he’s avoided the quintessential part of American justice — letting a jury decide, based on the evidence.”

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“Rachel Maddow is a crazy person,” Musk said, describing her as “frothing-at-the-mouth crazy fascist, basically, sort of pretending to be a liberal.”

Rachel Maddow Threatens Musk Over ‘Russia Ties’ (RT)

Elon Musk can’t possibly keep his US government contracts because of his alleged secret contacts with “America’s worst enemy,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has said. The Wall Street Journal claimed last week that Musk had communicated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and withheld the services of his Starlink network to Ukraine’s military. Both Musk and Moscow have dismissed the report as fake news. Maddow, however, proceeded as if the Journal’s reporting was a proven fact in her election day show on Tuesday evening. “You really can’t have the head of a company that is the primary rocket launcher for the defense department and NASA, you can’t have the head of that company in secret communications with America’s worst enemy while America’s enemy is actively waging a war against one of our allies, especially once you learn that he’s using his businesses to help the other side, to help Russia in that war,” Maddow said.

“Now that we know what we know about Elon Musk, this election – regardless of who wins – has produced a national security problem,” she continued, arguing that it will likely produce “tons of drama.” “So, buckle up. Even if [Donald] Trump doesn’t win, the Defense Department and NASA are gonna need a new arrangement for all their rockets and for all the multi-billion-dollar contracts Elon Musk’s companies have with the US government,” Maddow said. Either the government will have to get out of those contracts, or Musk’s companies “will have to unwind from him.” Musk has denied the Journal’s claims, pointing out that Starlink was “the BACKBONE of Ukrainian military communications at the front lines, because everything else has been blown up or jammed by Russia.” The founder of SpaceX and owner of X (formerly Twitter) addressed Maddow’s comments shortly afterward, speaking to journalist Tucker Carlson in a livestream from Mar-a-Lago.

“Rachel Maddow is a crazy person,” Musk said, describing her as “frothing-at-the-mouth crazy fascist, basically, sort of pretending to be a liberal.” Asked how much pressure he has been under because of his support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Musk resorted to a joke. “Well, apart from multiple Democrats saying they want to put me in jail, take away government contracts from my companies, nationalize my companies, deport me as an illegal, and have me arrested for apparently being Putin’s best friend, nothing besides those things,” he said. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Journal’s claims were untrue, “most likely linked” to Musk’s support for Trump, and should not be taken seriously. While the official count of votes in the US presidential election is still pending, Trump has secured the needed 270 electoral votes, according to multiple media organizations.

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“..while promoting her latest book this August, Pelosi called it her “goal in life” for Trump to “never step in the White House again.”

84-year-old Pelosi Projected To Win Reelection (RT)

Former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi could return to Congress next year for a landmark 20th term, The Hill reported on Wednesday, citing voting projections. Congressional elections are being held along with the race for the White House, with 34 of 100 seats in the Senate and all 435 in the House of Representatives up for grabs. According to the report, the 84-year-old Democrat is expected to win reelection to the House in California’s 11th Congressional District, which includes most of San Francisco. The report came after 50% of the votes were counted, with Pelosi securing over 80%. First elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi became the first woman to serve as House speaker, a role she held twice. She has also been the longest-serving leader in the Democratic Party’s history in Congress.

Pelosi publicly encouraged incumbent President Joe Biden to drop his reelection plans, which led to him quitting the race as the Democratic candidate and being replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris. Reports of Pelosi’s win come as the final votes are being counted in the presidential race. While the official results of the election have yet to be announced, Trump has already secured wins in key battleground states and passed the threshold of 270 electoral college votes required to take the White House, according to media projections. Pelosi is among the fiercest critics of Trump. She has called him a “snake-oil salesman” and “the creature from the Black Lagoon,” and led Democratic efforts during impeachment proceedings against Trump in his previous term in office. Speaking to reporters while promoting her latest book this August, Pelosi called it her “goal in life” for Trump to “never step in the White House again.”

Trump railed against Pelosi in his campaign’s closing speech on Tuesday, recalling her efforts to impeach him. He said Pelosi is an “evil, sick, crazy, horrible human being” and “trouble for our country,” adding that he wanted to call her the “B-word.” In an interview on Fox News last month, he called Pelosi America’s “enemy from within.” According to the latest media reports, the Republicans have won control of the Senate for the first time in four years. It is still unclear which party will control the House of Representatives, as there are too many races that have yet to be called.

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“..the Biden administration and its European acolytes fueling NATO’s proxy war “are history.”

Trump to Seek ‘Pragmatic’ Deals, No Budget Money to Sustain Ukraine (Sp.)

Throughout his election campaign, Donald Trump consistently expressed his reluctance to continue funding the Zelensky regime in Ukraine. Following his declaration of victory in the US presidential race, Trump addressed his supporters in a celebratory speech, promising to “stop wars” across the globe. As the 47th US president, Donald Trump will not guarantee the US budget “to keep Ukraine afloat,” strategic analyst Paolo Raffone told Sputnik. He conjectured that the Biden administration and its European acolytes fueling NATO’s proxy war “are history.” “Trump does not see any advantage for the US to continue spending enormous budgets and political capital in Ukraine. If a deal with Russia and Ukraine cannot be reached, it is possible that Trump will push for a ‘frozen conflict policy’ as a sort of damage control… Europeans will have to cover those costs. It will probably be the end of the EU,” the director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels speculated.

On the foreign policy front, the Republican is likely to display openness to “pragmatic” solutions with allies and foes to achieve “maximum advantage” for the US, he surmised, adding: “I expect a great bargaining in which Trump will keep the centrality of the US as the ‘indispensable interlocutor’ in bilateral relations, also within the framework of multipolarity. Probably, there will be much less hysteria about Russia, Iran, China. The probable objective is ‘rebalancing the interchange’ with all these countries. They may not become friends, but deals are possible in mutual interest.” In his pursuit of a national interest agenda, Trump may redefine America’s contributions to NATO, emphasizing that US protection for Europe “is not a free ride,” Raffone noted. “Trump will guarantee the Europeans the military shield, but each European state will have to contribute much more to NATO. The previous US administrations asked to raise European military expenditure above 2% GDP. Such a target will probably be insufficient during the new Trump administration,” said Raffone.

It is difficult for Trump to “accept any idea of European strategic autonomy,” emphasized the pundit. He supposed that a new Trump administration would brandish “a combination of trade, tariffs, security levy to force the Europeans to increase their military budgets and buy more American.” “European energy and technology dependency is a fact… Europe must find space for compromise to deal with not only the US, but also with Russia, China and the Middle East. The current ideological positions in the EU Commission, Paris and Berlin are not encouraging,” stressed the pundit. Looking ahead to the US elections of 2028, none of the “old guard” will be running, conjectured Raffone, suggesting that “new forces will emerge during the current Trump term.” “The Trump administration will probably be a transition time. The outcome will be visible in US politics over the next decade. Currently, the two US parties live a populist momentum. Time will tell if politics will arise again in the US,” he concluded.

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“..if he listens to Tucker Carlson, and ‘Bobby’ Kennedy, and Vivek Ramaswamy, and all the smart people around him – then yes, he could negotiate an end to that war.”

Dave Smith: Will Trump Be Able To End The War In Ukraine? (ZH)

At a recent pre-election speaking and podcast event, comedian and Libertarian political commentator Dave Smith expressed his view that it is very realistic that the next President Donald Trump could successfully negotiate an end to the Ukraine war. Smith’s view is optimistic, as he articulated that he believes Trump’s expressed desire to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza is genuine. But Smith also laid out that much depends on who Trump puts around him in top national security positions. Below is the hard-hitting segment featuring the prominent commentator addressing the question: will Trump be able to end the war in Ukraine? Below are Dave Smith’s words from the segment on Trump and Ukraine below …

“Why the hell are we even expanding our military alliance to Ukraine? And listen, Donald Trump always says that the war ‘never would have happened if I was president, and I would negotiate an end to this.’ And I gotta say I think he’s right about that. I don’t think the war would have happened if he was president – I think he will negotiate an end to it. I don’t think he’s right that Hamas wouldn’t have attacked Israel if he was president – that seems kind of ridiculous to me. But he’s right: the Ukraine war could be over tomorrow if American wanted to negotiated a peace to it. Vladimir Putin has been trying to the entire time… Well the question becomes who does Donald Trump put around him? If Donald Trump puts Mike Pompeo, aka Liz Cheney’s pick for Defense Secretary… if he puts John Bolton, aka Hillary Clinton’s pick for national security adviser – then maybe not, maybe it doesn’t happen. But if he listens to Tucker Carlson, and ‘Bobby’ Kennedy, and Vivek Ramaswamy, and all the smart people around him – then yes, he could negotiate an end to that war.”

Indeed, the question ultimately becomes: will Trump really keep the ‘swamp’ out of his administration this time around? We hope so.

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“Politico described the plan as “the only option” to maintain the flow of weapons to Ukraine, although its sources acknowledged “immense” challenges..”

Biden To Speed Up Arms Deliveries To Ukraine – Media (RT)

The White House intends to expedite up to $9 billion in new military aid in a last-ditch effort to bolster Ukraine against Russia, before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, according to sources within the outgoing administration. The plan is driven by concerns that Trump, who has criticized President Joe Biden’s generous support for Kiev, may halt or significantly reduce US taxpayer-funded aid, as reported by sources speaking to Reuters and Politico on Wednesday. “The administration plans to push forward… to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible,” a senior official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Politico described the plan as “the only option” to maintain the flow of weapons to Ukraine, although its sources acknowledged “immense” challenges. US officials worry that even if Biden approves new aid, it could take the Pentagon months to actually deliver munitions and equipment to Ukraine, and the next commander-in-chief could halt shipments at any time.

It remains unclear whether the US military would be willing to draw more deeply from its stockpiles – risking its own readiness – to expedite the deliveries. Since February 2022, the US Congress has approved more than $174 billion to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. The latest tranche of $61 billion was delayed for several months amid a standoff between Republicans and the White House. Of that package, only $4.3 billion remains, along with another $2 billion allocated for new contracts with the US arms industry. With $2.8 billion in previously announced shipments, the White House has just over $9 billion available for emergency supplies to Kiev. Trump’s victory will not change Washington’s antagonistic stance towards Moscow, but will make it more difficult for Kiev to access American taxpayers’ money, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.

“As a dyed-in-the-wool businessman, he hates wasting money on all sorts of freeloaders and tagalongs: On wacko allies, misguided grandiose charity projects, and insatiable international organizations,” Medvedev wrote in a Telegram post. “The only question is, how much will Trump be forced to fork out on the war? He’s stubborn, but the system is more powerful.” Trump has said that Ukraine cannot win against Russia militarily and has criticized Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky as “the greatest salesman in history,” who secures billions every time he visits Washington without getting any closer to victory. Trump claimed on the campaign trail that he could end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours if reelected. In his victory speech, Trump reiterated: “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.”

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“..the EU has already spent nearly €120 billion ($128.8 billion) on supporting Ukraine, with another €74 billion pledged but yet to be allocated..”

Von der Leyen To Prepare EU For War – Defense Commission Nominee (RT)

A top priority for the next European Commission will be making Europe self-reliant and ready for war, as the US is likely to focus on China in the coming decades, said Andrius Kubilius, the nominee for the EU’s new top defense post. Kubilius made this statement at his confirmation hearing in Brussels on Wednesday, after he was nominated to become the first-ever EU Commissioner for Defense and Space. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen designated the former Lithuanian prime minister for the position in September. The new Commission is expected to take office by December 1. “Defense is one of the top priorities for the next Commission,” Kubilius told MEPs. “Von der Leyen’s mission letter tasks me with helping Europe prepare for the most extreme military contingencies, which means preparing for the possibility of Russian aggression.”

While it is difficult to predict the policies of the upcoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, “we can anticipate that in the coming decades, the U.S. is likely to increase its focus on the strategic challenge posed by China,” Kubilius said. This shift “necessitates a more self-reliant European defense structure,” he added. “Adversaries and strategic rivals are rapidly outpacing us,” with Russia and China far ahead in defense spending, Kubilius noted. He claimed that Russia will spend more on defense than all of the bloc’s 27 states combined, in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). In the meantime, the best defense strategy for the EU would be to continue funding Ukraine, he stated.

Since 2022, the EU has already spent nearly €120 billion ($128.8 billion) on supporting Ukraine, with another €74 billion pledged but yet to be allocated, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. As emphasized by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the best investment in European security is investing in the security of Ukraine. Officials in Brussels are waiting for the US election results to determine their next steps in supporting Ukraine, Deutsche Welle reported earlier this week. During his reelection campaign, Trump has repeatedly suggested he would curtail funding for Kiev and focus on domestic American issues. The outgoing Biden administration intends to fast-track billions in military aid to Ukraine to reinforce Kiev’s military before Trump takes office in January, Reuters and Politico reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources.

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“Kursk is the ultimate meat grinder for Ukraine soldiers. No one comes back alive.”

How British Media Is Turning On Zelensky. And Why (Jay)

It’s a little-known fact that the two British media giants, The Economist and The Financial Times, enjoy a very cosy relationship with the European Commission, so much so that one could almost imagine them all being one family. Each does its own bidding for one another and each assists one another with its aspirations, its viewpoint. And it’s fake news. And so, when you read in The Economist that the war is not going at all well for Ukraine and its hapless president you can more or less assume that this is the interpretation also of the very highest echelons of the EU. Since the war started, Ukraine’s president has had the full support of western media, which has agreed to go along with the fake news racket which his people organize; curtailing the freedom of western journalists, blocking them from getting hard news stories, data, statistics but above all taking them by the hand and leading them to the stories which they want reported.

This game reached epic proportions in recent months as a parody of journalism reached its apex when the war turned on Zelensky in the summer of this year. Journalists didn’t report on it in such a way. Many stayed in Kiev and other large cities and were so desperate for a story which wouldn’t upset their hosts that they peddled the same one over and over again of the conscripts being bundled into the backs of vans. It was literally all they could do to keep active. But this business model of late appears to have run aground. Both the Economist and the BBC have each reported on the frontlines and really told it how it is: bleak. No one can turn a blind eye any more to the advancement of Russian forces. The capture of Selydove might be played down by the Kiez media machine whose list of hilarious fake news stories is too long to publish; but Pokrovsk, which is the next target for Russian forces, will be a considerable victory which might topple the entire confidence of Zelensky and his cabal of advisors and sycophants.

Pokrovsk is a town which is a transport hub, which supplies thousands of Ukrainian troops. If it is taken, it would effectively mean the mass surrender of most of them, or their hasty retreat as they won’t be able to eat or replenish their ammunition stocks. This itself will have a devastating blow on Ukrainian troops’ morale and we might well see a domino effect which accelerates Russia’s advance from a kilometer or two in a day to scores. How will western media report the fall of this city? If The Economist and BBC reports are anything to go by, with some zeal one would imagine. It’s as though big media, in particular British, is anxious to stay on the right side of history when things start to fall down and emerge from the dust as wise old men with that “I told you so” sparkle in their eyes. It’s also about collective guilt. Western Media has blood on its hands as the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers sent to the “meat grinder” is partly attributed to the support U.S. and UK media gave Zelensky.

What we are witnessing now from Zelensky is a panic mode which is accelerating at the same pace. His so-called “victory plan” hasn’t been taken seriously by any western leaders and he looks stupid now, alienated. His recent outburst about Biden leaking to the press about the ludicrous idea of using U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles might have been a defining moment which history writers obsess over then they write his eulogy. For now, the panic isn’t really even about the battlefield, although it must be hard for Zelensky to read the dispatches each day of the losses in Kursk which could be considered Ukraine’s own Battle of the Bulge where German troops fought hard at the end of WWII against larger, bigger numbers of allied soldiers in the Ardennes and ultimately lost. In many ways Kursk was a trap which Zelensky set for himself, as the failure to capture the nuclear power plant pales into insignificance compared to the losses of men. Kursk is the ultimate meat grinder for Ukraine soldiers. No one comes back alive.

The real panic for Zelensky is now about his own political credibility. He is only thinking now how to survive the inevitable loss to Russia and stay a president. He knows only too well that if a quick ceasefire happens under Trump’s leadership, the Martial Law status of the country will be cancelled and presidential elections will be obligatory. Under Harris, the pain will only be drawn out longer, but with even more lost ground, lost bargaining leverage as she will force Putin to shift gear with his advance and head for Kiev. The irony of The Economist piece and its timing is that it prepares the ground for a massive blame game which starts with those who have been doing it like pros for decades – The European Commission – and amateurs who have just started to learn how it works, like Zelensky. The Economist is just warming up.

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Economy is breaking down.

German Government Has Collapsed (RT)

Germany’s ‘traffic-light’ coalition has fallen apart, leaving Olaf Scholz at the helm of a minority government consisting solely of his Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens. This follows the Chancellor’s dismissal of Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Christian Lindner from the position of Finance Minister. After failed crisis talks on Wednesday night, the Chancellor dismissed the Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Christian Lindner from the position of Finance Minister. In response, the FDP’s parliamentary group leader, Christian Durr, announced that the party is withdrawing all its ministers from Scholz’s government, formally ending the three-way coalition. The Greens expressed regret over this development but stated they wish to remain part of a minority government, emphasizing the need for the EU – and Germany in particular – to demonstrate its capacity for action following Donald Trump’s election as US President.

“I want to say for us that this feels wrong and not right tonight – almost tragic on a day like this, when Germany must show unity and the ability to act in Europe,” said Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck in a joint press statement with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday night. “This is not a good day for Germany and also not a good day for Europe,” Baerbock added. Finance Minister Christian Lindner was fired after he reportedly proposed early elections when the leaders of the three coalition parties once again failed to find common ground on how to address the multibillion-euro deficit in next year’s budget. “All too often, Minister Lindner has blocked laws in an inappropriate manner,” Scholz stated, accusing Lindner of refusing to ease spending rules which among other things would allow for more aid to Ukraine.

Lindner, in turn, accused the Chancellor of ignoring the real “economic concerns” of the German people. “Olaf Scholz has long failed to recognize the need for a new economic awakening in our country,” Lindner said. Scholz said he now wants to reach out to opposition leader Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats to offer him the “opportunity” to collaborate with his government, adding that in light of the US elections, this is “perhaps more urgent than ever.” Meanwhile, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) opposition party welcomed the coalition’s collapse as a long-overdue “liberation” for Germany.

“After months of gridlock and countless self-centered therapy sessions, we now urgently need a fundamental political fresh start to lead the economy and the country as a whole out of the severe crisis into which it has been plunged by the ideology-driven policies of the SPD, Greens, and FDP,” said AfD parliamentary leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla in a statement on X. Scholz announced that the Bundestag will hold a vote of confidence on January 15. According to the German constitution, if the Chancellor fails to secure sufficient support, he may formally request the President to dissolve the 733-seat lower house and call new elections within 60 days. This could push Germany’s parliamentary elections from next fall to March 2025.

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Fishing

 

 

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Flow hive
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Hair
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Pnut

 

 

 

 

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