Burkina Faso Archives - The Automatic Earth

CNN is melting down!

"Republicans are doing better at this point than at any point this century!"

Support for the Democrat party has never been lower.
pic.twitter.com/sLlCMGJj4s

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) August 27, 2025

“Britons who still love their country and want to turn it around. Can you imagine the nerve?”

• Britain’s Newest Crisis: Too Many Patriotic Britons (Green)

On top of growing Islamification and accompanying antisemitism, decaying national defense, poverty-inducing “net zero” policies, the ruination of Doctor Who, and a whole host of other issues, Britain has yet another crisis that the government just can’t seem to get a handle on. Britons who still love their country and want to turn it around. Can you imagine the nerve? You might have already seen in the last week or two, Britons defiantly flying the U.K. Union Jack or England’s St. George’s Cross — only to have officials who seem to have no problem with displays of Palestinian or Pakistani pride take them down. In fact, those displays sometimes come with a government seal of approval. This one is from the Birmingham City Council:

UK’s second largest city, Birmingham, lights up public Library in green and white to mark PAKISTAN’S Independence Day. pic.twitter.com/nUmzJMGOGf

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) August 14, 2025

The country’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office got in on the action, too, wishing a “very happy Independence Day to Pakistanis in the UK, in Pakistan and around the world.” The post on X included little emojis of the Pakistani and British flags, and can you guess without clicking through which one came first? Flag order makes a statement..

https://twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/1959388210288640101?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1959388210288640101%7Ctwgr%5E226debe250fe769813f3c4a532edab7ceb6e0ee7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fvodkapundit%2F2025%2F08%2F25%2Fbritains-war-on-britain-n4943012

…and so does pulling them down. And Another Thing: The world was a better place when Britain imposed British notions of justice on Third World nations instead of importing Third World notions into Britain. Discuss. According to the city’s Wikipedia page, Birmingham, as of 2021, was 30% Islamic and 34% Christian, which might explain this BBC report on Friday:

“Some residents have found the sudden appearance of St George’s and union flags ‘intimidating”, a council has said. While many people were flying the flag to cheer on the Lionesses during the 2025 Euros, thousands more have appeared in towns and cities in England during August – many attached to lampposts. Leader of Dorset Council, Liberal Democrat Councillor Nick Ireland, described the movement as an “explosion of patriotism”, but also said it was “naive” to suggest the emblems had not been “hijacked” by some far-right groups.”

Want to take an ordinary, patriotic Briton and convince him he’s a fascist? That’s how you do it. Want to convince the local Muslim population that they can bully Britons into giving up flying their own flags in their own country? Same trick. Some Britons have had enough, and are raising — or making — flags wherever they’re able.

https://twitter.com/TPointUK/status/1957348946465956049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1957348946465956049%7Ctwgr%5E226debe250fe769813f3c4a532edab7ceb6e0ee7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fvodkapundit%2F2025%2F08%2F25%2Fbritains-war-on-britain-n4943012

Then there are purely practical efforts like this one:

All we have to do is paint the St. George's cross inside potholes, and the council will fix them within 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/uTmtpVdkwh

— We Stand United (@StandUnitedGB) August 19, 2025

Sorry, did I say “purely practical?” I meant to say, “half-practical, half-cheeky.” The deadly epidemic of [checks notes] waving the flag comes hard on the heels of protests at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex — where “migrants” were housed at taxpayer expense, and not without some inconvenience. First, there was the migrant “charged with three sexual offences, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity.” And then this: “Mohammed Sharwarq, 32, a Syrian national living in the same hotel, has been charged with sexual assault, two counts of common assault, and four counts of assault by beating.

A BBC report states that these offences are alleged to have occurred inside The Bell Hotel. Mr Sharwarq denied the claim of sexual assault, but admitted the non-sexual offences at a court hearing, according to a Sky News report.”The High Court put at least a temporary halt to the hotel’s use as a migrant shelter. Scenes like these are distressingly common in the postmodern United Kingdom — a country that could use a few more flag-waving patriots, and far fewer “migrants” acting like occupiers of a conquered nation.

“..the Russian side has at least “put a peace proposal on the table.”

• WItkoff: We Hope To See Ukraine Conflict Resolved By The End Of 2025 (RT)

US special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff has said Washington hopes to see the Ukraine conflict resolved by the end of 2025, citing Moscow’s “peace proposal on the table” and ongoing meetings with Russian and Ukrainian representatives. Speaking at a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Witkoff said he will be “having meetings all this week” on Ukraine and other global conflicts, “and we hope to settle them before the end of this year.” In a follow-up interview with Fox News, Witkoff said that although Trump had expressed frustration with both Moscow and Kiev, the Russian side has at least “put a peace proposal on the table.”

He acknowledged that territorial concessions “may not be something that the Ukrainians can take,” but argued that the Trump administration had brought the sides closer to agreement than ever before. “There’s a peace proposal on the table,” Witkoff reiterated. “We’re at this place where we think the end is in sight… we have technical teams working on it and we’re hopeful that by the end of this year, and maybe quite a bit sooner, we actually can find the ingredients to get to that peace deal.” According to Witkoff, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed a clear desire to end the conflict and discussed Moscow’s position in depth with Trump during their historic Alaska summit earlier this month.

While no details of any potential deal were made public, Moscow has long insisted that a sustainable settlement can only be achieved if Kiev agrees never to join NATO, undergoes demilitarization and denazification, and recognizes the new reality on the ground. This includes the status of Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye as part of Russia – territories that voted to join the country in referendums in 2014 and 2022. Witkoff emphasized that any decision on territorial concessions would be for Ukraine to make, and suggested the issue would be tied to long-term security guarantees. He noted that he would meet Ukrainian officials in New York this week and stressed that Washington maintains daily communication with Moscow.

Recent reports have indicated that ongoing discussions include Kiev potentially ceding its remaining positions in Donbass in exchange for yet-to-be-defined Western commitments. Witkoff further claimed “we may end up seeing a bilateral meeting” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, adding that Trump might be “needed at the table to finish a deal.” Putin has not ruled out meeting Zelensky, but insisted a meeting could only follow tangible progress in negotiations. Moscow has also questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy, citing his expired presidential term and warning that any deals he signs could be overturned by his successor.

He’ll get it.

• Zelensky Wants EU To Provide $1 Billion Monthly Allowance (Cradle)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on 25 August that Kiev plans to secure at least $1 billion monthly from European nations to purchase US weapons to continue his war against Russia. Zelensky made the comment while speaking alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store during a press conference in Kiev on Monday. US President Donald Trump is seeking to move away from providing weapons directly to Kiev. He instead wants European nations to purchase US weapons for the Ukrainian military to continue the war.The Ukrainian president also said Norway could contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine with an emphasis on providing air defense and maritime security.

On 24 August, US Vice President JD Vance claimed Russia has been “flexible” and made “significant concessions” in some core demands as part of negotiations to end the war, including regarding US and European security guarantees. “They’ve recognized that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kiev. That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning. And importantly, they’ve acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Vance stated while speaking on NBC News’ Meet the Press talk show on Sunday. Last week, Axios reported that senior officials from the US, Ukraine, and several European countries were discussing a proposal for security guarantees for Ukraine, likely involving US air power.

In an interview with Fox News, President Trump stressed no US troops would be sent to Ukraine, but that he was open to providing air support to European ground forces should they be deployed to the country.Trump also said he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin would be willing to accept such US and European security guarantees for Ukraine. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said it “categorically” rejects the possibility of “a military contingent with the participation of NATO countries” inside Ukraine.

Russsia can say 1,000 times they won’t accept NATO troops next door, makes no difference. What happens when Russia fires the first rounds at them? Article 5?

• West Discussing Sending 4-5 Brigades to Ensure Security in Ukraine (Sp.)

Western states are discussing a possibility of sending 4-5 brigades by the group of countries supporting Ukraine – the so-called “coalition of the willing” – to ensure security in Ukraine along with “strategic enablers” from the US, the Financial Times newspaper reported, citing Head of the Office of the Ukrainian president Andriy Yermak. On August 18, US President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders for talks at the White House. During the meeting, Trump said he would not compare the security guarantees that Kiev could receive with those existing in NATO. “Discussions revolved around 4 to 5 European brigades on the ground, provided by the coalition of the willing, plus ‘strategic enablers’ from the US,” The Financial Times quoted Zelensky’s chief of staff as saying.

Yermak said that the meeting in Washington provided clarity on issues related to security guarantees and the acquisition of US-made weapons through European financial instruments. The support of the “coalition of the willing” will comprise a combination of military, political, and economic measures, he added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the presence of NATO states’ troops on Ukrainian territory, under any flag and in any capacity, including as peacekeepers, is a threat to Russia, and that Moscow will not accept it under any circumstances.

Ukraine’s former top military commander. De-nazififation is easier said than done.

• Zaluzhny Lauds Neo-Nazi Role Models (RT)

Retired Ukrainian General Valery Zaluzhny, widely seen as a potential successor to Vladimir Zelensky, has called for education programs that highlight members of the neo-Nazi Azov military unit as role models. As Ukraine’s former top military commander and now ambassador to the UK, Zaluzhny is considered one of the country’s most popular public figures. Polls suggest he would likely defeat Zelensky if presidential elections were held, and Western governments are reportedly courting him as a possible future leader. In an interview published on Saturday Zaluzhny praised the Soviet Union’s approach to memorializing historic figures and suggested Ukraine adopt a similar model using fighters with the controversial regiment – which is accused of war crimes and recognized as a bastion of militarized neo-Nazism – as examples of proper behavior.

“It’s very important for the military-patriotic education to know who did what and what came out of it,” Zaluzhny said. “Soviet propaganda did it right. I once argued with NATO specialists, telling them we, members of the military who grew up in this territory, put great importance into [historic connections].”Ukraine, he added, should “set a goal of what it wants from its children in 10 years,” arguing that promoting Azov’s “heroism” would be beneficial.Formed from members of radical Ukrainian nationalist groups, Azov was integrated into the National Guard in 2014 and since then has grown more influential and powerful. Before the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, even Western observers described the unit as a hotbed of extremism and neo-Nazism that attracted white supremacist sympathizers across Europe.

In 2018, the US Congress barred funding for Azov over human rights concerns, but the restriction was lifted in 2024 after the group rebranded and claimed to have abandoned its neo-Nazi roots. Russia designates Azov a terrorist organization and has accused its members of committing atrocities during hostilities. Moscow has identified “de-Nazification” – reducing the influence of radical nationalist ideology in Ukrainian politics – as one of its key goals in the conflict.As of March, Russia’s Investigative Committee reported successful prosecutions against 145 members of Azov on charges including breach of rules of war, mistreatment of prisoners of war and civilians, and murder.

“I’m sure that Ukraine thought they were going to win. It’s going to be, you know, we’re going to win. You’re going to beat somebody that’s 15 times your size.”

• Trump Threatens Ukraine With Sanctions And Tariffs (RT)

Washington could impose sanctions and tariffs on both Russia and Ukraine if the two adversaries fail to make progress in settling hostilities, US President Donald Trump has said. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said that it “takes two to tango,” and suggested that Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky “was not exactly innocent.” “Thousands of young people, mostly young people, are dying every single week. If I can save that, by doing sanctions or by just being me, or by using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine or whoever we have,” Trump stated. He also reiterated his readiness to slap new restrictions on Moscow.

“We want to have an end. We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war,” he said. Trump criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, calling him “grossly incompetent” for allowing the Russia-Ukraine conflict to happen in the first place. “Nobody goes into a war thinking they’re going to lose. They go in – I’m sure that Ukraine thought they were going to win. It’s going to be, you know, we’re going to win. You’re going to beat somebody that’s 15 times your size. Biden shouldn’t have let that happen,” Trump stated.

The US president also appeared to dismiss Moscow’s concerns about the Zelensky’s legitimacy. “Doesn’t matter what they say. Everybody’s posturing. It’s all bullsh*t, ok? Everybody’s posturing,” Trump told reporters.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s stance in an interview with NBC aired on Sunday, calling Zelensky the “de facto head of the regime,” and stressed the person signing any peace deal must have legal authority to do so.

“Zelensky openly threatened Hungary. He admitted that they hit the Druzhba pipeline because we don’t support their EU membership. This proves again that Hungarians made the right decision.”

• Has Ukraine Just Declared War On Hungary? (Romanenko)

In the swirl of the Ukraine war, headlines rarely fail to shock. Yet the latest spat between Kiev and Budapest raises a question that would have been unthinkable two years ago: has Ukraine effectively opened a second front – albeit hybrid, rhetorical, and economic – against an EU state? The immediate spark was the Druzhba (“Friendship”) oil pipeline that still delivers crude from Russia to Central Europe. Several Ukrainian drone strikes targeted the pipeline in recent weeks, halting supplies to Hungary and Slovakia. A Ukrainian commander, known by the call sign Madyar, publicly admitted involvement. For Hungary and Slovakia, this was more than an economic disruption. Both countries rely heavily on the pipeline, and in response, their leaders called on the European Commission to guarantee supply security.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, a frequent critic of EU policy on Ukraine, accused Brussels of serving Kiev’s interests over those of member states. His frustration boiled over further when he described Vladimir Zelensky’s quips about “friendship” as thinly veiled threats. Zelensky’s remark – “We have always supported friendship between Ukraine and Hungary, and now the existence of this ‘Friendship’ depends on Hungary” – was apparently meant as a pun on the pipeline’s name, but to Hungary it sounded like a mafia-style threat. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s reaction was uncompromising: “Zelensky openly threatened Hungary. He admitted that they hit the Druzhba pipeline because we don’t support their EU membership. This proves again that Hungarians made the right decision.”

The timing is telling. Strikes on the pipeline coincided with Zelensky’s Washington visit alongside EU leaders. Either Brussels tacitly encouraged him to punish Orban, an ally of Donald Trump, or the EU simply looked away as Zelensky acted on his own. Both explanations sound outrageous, but there hardly seems to be a third option. What is clear is that Kiev, facing immense pressure on its eastern front, is choosing a dangerous rhetorical battle with Budapest. Hungary has made abundantly clear its discomfort with the EU’s unquestioning support for Ukraine. Since the Russian military operation began in 2022, Budapest has resisted sanctions on Russian energy, insisted on continuing imports through the Druzhba pipeline, and refused to send weapons to Kiev. Orban has shown himself to be a pragmatic outlier: defending Hungarian interests, pursuing cheap Russian energy, and maintaining cordial ties with Moscow.

For this, Hungary has faced isolation within the EU. While Poland, the Baltics, and most of Western Europe rallied behind Ukraine with military and financial aid, Budapest has been resisting this consensus. Orban’s government was derided as Putin’s Trojan horse in Europe. Yet for Hungarians, this positioning has had a rationale: keep the economy stable, avoid direct confrontation, and retain flexibility in a deeply uncertain geopolitical landscape. Lost in the heated rhetoric is the fact that Hungary has also quietly carried a humanitarian burden. In 2022 alone, over 1.3 million Ukrainians crossed into Hungary – second only to Poland and Romania. Budapest accepted them with little fanfare, though later tightened its asylum rules to restrict new arrivals to those from active war zones. At the same time, Hungary supplies a significant share of Ukraine’s electricity, a fact Szijjarto reminded Kiev of when rebuffing Ukrainian accusations.

To respond with accusations and pipeline attacks against such a neighbor seems, at minimum, ungrateful. At worst, it risks alienating one of the few EU members that has provided crucial – if unheralded – humanitarian support in a time of war. The broader context is sobering. On the battlefield, Ukraine faces mounting setbacks in the Donbass and along the eastern front. Against that backdrop, Zelensky’s rhetoric toward Hungary appears almost surreal – boastful, as if victory against Russia were imminent. The contrast between battlefield realities and diplomatic bravado risks undermining Kiev’s credibility. In any sane timeline, here is where Brussels should stop and think again about continuing its support for Kiev.

Should the EU stand behind Zelensky even when his actions harm member states, or acknowledge that Orbán – despite his many disagreements with Brussels – has a point? Recent history shows that we are not in a sane timeline, though. Open threats, pipeline sabotage (remember Nord Stream?), and insults from Ukrainian officials don’t seem to register with Brussels officials at all. Kiev’s behavior towards Budapest may not amount to a declaration of war, but it is undeniable that Ukraine has chosen to ramp up its confrontation with Hungary. If the EU wants to sell its support for Kiev as “unity” – a word often used and abused by the likes of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – then letting Zelensky get away with this is a bizarre choice.

“..Bolton “could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out.”

• Bolton Attacks Trump For ‘Utterly Incoherent’ Ukraine Policy (ZH)

Former national security adviser John Bolton has gone after President Trump, blasting his Ukraine strategy as “incoherent” in an opinion piece published Monday, just a few days after federal agents raided his Maryland home and D.C. office over the handling of classified documents. “President Donald Trump’s Ukraine policy is no more coherent today than it was last Friday when his administration executed search warrants against my home and office,” Bolton said in Washington Examiner. Bolton’s op-ed title went all-in: “Trump’s utterly incoherent Ukraine strategy.” He wrote that “Collapsing in confusion, haste, and the absence of any discernible meeting of the minds among Ukraine, Russia, several European countries, and America, Trump’s negotiations may be in their last throes, along with his Nobel Peace Prize campaign.”

Hoped-for momentum towards an eventual trilateral Putin-Zelensky-Trump summit has indeed been stalled, and Trump said late last week that we could make a major decision if peace isn’t negotiated in two weeks – which likely means more biting sanctions on Russia and its trading partners. Neither warring side has actually backed off from its position, and Russia has little reason to soften its demands given that it maintains the clear upper-hand on the battlefield. Still, Bolton – as one of the neocon madmen behind the push to invade and overthrow Iraq (and other countries) – is not one to talk about coherent foreign policy.

“The administration has tried to camouflage its disarray behind social media posts, such as Trump comparing his finger-pointing at Russian President Vladimir Putin to then-Vice President Richard Nixon during the famous kitchen debate with Nikita Khrushchev,” Bolton said further in his piece. “Why Trump wants to be compared to the only president who resigned in disgrace is unclear.” So clearly, Bolton is not backing down or being quiet despite the FBI raid on his home last Friday, which was described as a “court-authorized law enforcement activity.” The ‘war’ in the op-ed pages has been unleashed, as on Tuesday White House trade adviser Peter Navarro took to The Hill and charged Bolton with “profiteering off of America’s secrets” in relation to his 2020 book, “The Room Where It Happened.”

Navarro’s op-ed said “He was trafficking in Oval Office conversations and national security intelligence that should have stayed secret – either by law or under executive privilege.” “That isn’t service. That isn’t patriotism. That’s profiteering off of America’s secrets,” Navarro wrote, citing a federal judge who at the time said “seems to be out of the barn” – when Trump officials had tried to stop its publication. Back in 2020, Navarro had slammed the memoir as like “revenge porn”. Bolton has only issued rare praise of Trump when he bombs another country (as he did Iran this summer)… As for the raid on Bolton’s house, Trump has said that he didn’t personally order it or know about it before-hand, amid accusations that it is politically motivated retribution. The president has, however, said that Bolton “could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out.”

“Putin’s side of the bargain would be to let Trump grandstand in presiding over the peace agreement that ends the war.”

• Can Trump Find a Way Out of the Box He Is in? (Paul Craig Roberts)

Yesterday on his program Dialogue Works Nima had two guests, Larry Johnson, formerly of the CIA, and me. I come in at about the one hour mark at the close of the program with Larry. I recommend that you take advantage of the double feature. https://www.youtube.com/live/Tw0wfYs-kOQ Nima and I discuss the severe constraints on President Trump that handicap him in his effort to bring about not only a settlement in Ukraine but also impede a wider settlement with Russia that would put the world at peace.

Larry Johnson and I agree that the easiest way for Trump to conclude the conflict in Ukraine is to stop supplying, weapons, money, and diplomatic support. But to do this requires Trump to jettison the US military/security complex along with its budget and power which are dependent on having Russia as an enemy. Presidents such as John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan who had in mind winding down the Cold War ran into problems with the military/security complex. The military/security complex has military bases or armaments manufacturers in nearly every state. The number of governors, House and Senate members, and businesses dependent on orders from military bases and weapon manufacturers is vast. The combination of taxes, employment, campaign contributions, and supply relationships is too large of a force for Trump to jettison.

Another constraint on Trump is the American doctrine of hegemony which is at odds with peace-making. The US foreign policy doctrine requires that the US take an aggressive approach to countries that could constrain US unilateralism. In other words, the pursuit of hegemony makes a country a poor peace-maker. Trump has not repudiated the hegemony doctrine. Instead he exercises it with his numerous threats to other governments. As I have consistently reported, the conflict in Ukraine is a symptom and not a cause of what Putin refers to as the root cause of the conflict. The root cause is the absence of a mutual security agreement between Russia and the West. NATO with missile bases on Russia’s border creates insecurity for Russia. This insecurity is the root cause. Both the material interest of the US military/security complex and the hegemony doctrine are obstacles to removing the insecurity.

As the Russian position remains the same and Zelensky remains uncooperative, perhaps Trump sees Putin getting off his butt and quickly winning the war as the escape route from the box in which Trump finds himself. Perhaps Trump signaled to Putin, as he did to Netanyahu, to get it over with as its continuation is too embarrassing to Trump. Putin’s side of the bargain would be to let Trump grandstand in presiding over the peace agreement that ends the war. The wider and serious problem is Russia’s sense of insecurity with NATO/US missile bases on her border. To remove the real problem of nuclear conflict, the US needs to move away from Russia’s borders and honor the agreement the George H. W. Bush administration made with Gorbachev that NATO would stay distant from Russia’s border.

“Russia is like water: where there are cracks in the cement, it trickles in…”

• BBC Warns About RT’s Global Influence (RT)

Russian media organizations are expanding their reach internationally as Western networks scale back operations due to financial constraints, the BBC reported Monday. RT and Sputnik, which remain banned across much of the West following accusations that they had spread “misinformation” – have been growing their presence in other regions. RT launched a Serbian-language service in late 2024, while Sputnik Africa has recently launched radio broadcasting in Ethiopia. The UK broadcaster said this “coincides with an apparent weakening from the Western media” driven by budget cuts and shifting foreign policy priorities. In Lebanon, it lamented, Sputnik has moved into airwaves previously occupied by BBC Arabic. The report also pointed to staff reductions at US-funded Voice of America under President Donald Trump, part of a broader push to curb what his administration sees as inefficient government spending.

The policy shift had global repercussions. In Ukraine, as many as 90% of media outlets have faced financial strain since foreign grant money became scarce. Media experts interviewed by the BBC argued that Russian outlets have capitalized on the West’s retreat. “Russia is like water: where there are cracks in the cement, it trickles in,” said Kathryn Stoner, a Stanford University political scientist. Stoner and other scholars published a book last year titled ‘Russia, Disinformation, and the Liberal Order,’ which characterized RT as a “threat to democracy.” Founded in 2005, RT was designed to project Russian perspectives to international audiences. Part of its strategy has been to challenge entrenched Western narratives and present viewpoints excluded from other global broadcasters.

Big Tech=US companies.

• Trump Vows To Punish Nations Imposing Digital Taxes (RT)

US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened “substantial” new tariffs and curbs on semiconductor exports against countries that maintain digital taxes and regulations he says “discriminate” against American tech firms. Digital services taxes (DSTs), now in place in dozens of countries, are designed to capture revenue from the biggest global tech firms. Trump has long argued the levies unfairly target American companies – notably Meta, Alphabet and Amazon – and has pressed US trade partners to abandon them. In a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday, Trump blasted “Digital Taxes, Legislation, Rules, or Regulations,” warning he could impose additional tariffs and tighten export controls on US technologies, stressing that America and its firms would no longer serve as the “piggy bank” or “doormat” of the world.

”As the President of the United States, I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies. Digital Taxes, Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology,” Trump wrote. He complained that such measures “give a complete pass to China’s largest Tech Companies” and declared “this must end, and end now.” The salvo risks reigniting trade tensions with the UK and EU, despite both having recently struck agreements with Washington. US officials have repeatedly criticized Britain’s digital services tax, which remained in place after its deal with the Trump administration, and have also taken aim at the EU’s landmark Digital Services Act requiring tech firms to more aggressively police their platforms.

Several EU states, including France, Italy and Spain, maintain digital services taxes of their own. Digital services taxes have already emerged as a flashpoint in Trump’s trade agenda. In June, he threatened to halt all talks with Canada. Ottawa backed down just before the measure was due to take effect, prompting the White House to boast that Canada had “caved” to US pressure. Countries that impose digital services taxes argue the charges are justified because tech giants such as Amazon reap huge profits from their citizens while paying little or no tax to local budgets.

“No one watching CNN or CBS could think they were free and objective.”

• Trump Goes Knives-Out for Leftist Media (Salgado)

President Donald Trump famously dubbed radical leftist media “fake news,” and now he’s weighing how to deal yet another decisive blow to that fake news. Now that the Trump administration is in control of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Trump is apparently considering urging his hardcore FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, to investigate revoking licenses for mainstream media outlets that are little more than arms of the Democrat Party. The days of leftist media dominance are over. Late on Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Despite a very high popularity and, according to many, among the greatest 8 months in Presidential History, ABC & NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the worst and most biased networks in history, give me 97% BAD STORIES.” It is unclear exactly which study or dataset Trump was referencing here, although a study from Media Research Center earlier this year found that coverage of the Trump administration on ABC, NBC, and CBS was 92% negative.

But most Americans do not need a study to tell them that leftist media is incredibly biased against Trump and anything he does, which is how they can turn anything, including major victories, into an excuse to bash Trump. Just witness the extreme media hysteria over his federalization of law enforcement to clean up Washington, D.C, which so far has been very successful at bringing down crime in our nation’s capital. Trump Derangement Syndrome is rampant in our mainstream media. After mentioning the nearly 100% negative coverage of himself and his administration, Trump continued, “IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY, HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED BY THE FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy!!! MAGA.”

Trump followed that up with another post about the potential action against excessively biased mainstream media: “Why is it that ABC and NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the World, aren’t paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES,” he asked. Then Trump made his daring statement again: “They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!!! Crooked ‘journalism’ should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!” Freedom of the press is a core constitutional right, but the problem is that a significant amount of our press is not free. So many outlets now receive favors from politicians in exchange for positive coverage, regardless of reality. No one watching CNN or CBS could think they were free and objective.

“Kamala’s team “believes she’s done her part,” by blowing $1.5 billion on a losing presidential race and leaving her party millions in debt.”

• Kamala Screwed the Democrats So Badly I Can’t Stop Laughing (Green)

Forget the old-school thrills of “F1,” the family charm of “Freakier Friday,” and even the surprisingly pro-life “Fantastic Four: First Steps” — because this summer’s feel-good movie turns out to be an August sleeper hit that virtually nobody saw coming. It’s the story of a failed presidential candidate who raised record sums, left record debt, lost anyway, and gave her party the finger when it needed her most. It’s called “Kamala’s Revenge,” and it’s the kind of razor-sharp political comedy that Hollywood hasn’t dared make since 1997’s “Wag the Dog.” The premise of “Kamala’s Revenge” is even wilder than Chauncey Gardiner in “Being There” from 1979. If you need a refresher, Peter Sellers plays a simpleton named Chance who was raised in total isolation by a wealthy man in D.C.

When the old man dies and Chance is forced out on the street — wearing the old man’s very nice suit — “Chance the gardener” is mistaken for “Chauncey Gardiner,” and is soon dispensing advice to Washington’s rich and powerful. It’s an all-time favorite movie, but it has nothing on “Kamala’s Revenge.” The premise of “Kamala’s Revenge” is that the vice president is a totally inept (not to mention comically inapt) DEI hire who, when the senescent president is forced out of his reelection campaign by his own party’s elders, finds herself with just 107 days to scrape together a presidential campaign. I know this sounds too crazy for fiction, but bear with me — it gets crazier. Despite running the shortest presidential campaign in history, Kamala (with a big assist from the media and various celebrities) raises a record $1.5 billion, but blows through it all and then some.

She goes down in major defeat, but according to this political news site in the movie — it’s called Axios or something — months later, her party had to pony up “more than $15 million toward paying off [her] campaign expenses.” Crazy, right? But “Kamala’s Revenge” has only begun mining its comedy gold. Thanks to Kamala’s debts and some massive fundraising by the other side, Axios says that her party doesn’t even have $20 million in the bank, but the other party — headed up by the bad guy she lost to — is sitting on a massive $80 million war chest. So the bad guys run attack ads, boost their social media presence — all the smart political stuff Kamala’s party used to dominate. Instead, they’re just flailing around, talking about stolen lands, letting illegal immigrant wife-beaters out of jail, sticking male sex offenders in girls’ bathrooms, and all this other crazy stuff you’d never believe.

But it gets wilder. “Some donors,” Axios says, “have grown reluctant” to give Kamala’s party more money even as they try to “pivot to the 2026 midterms.” They’re searching the sofa cushions for cash at this point. They’re so desperate that the party elders go back to Kamala for help. She agrees to let the party use “her email list to help raise money and has held a few small fundraising events. But the total money raised from the events has been disappointing.” Disappointing to them, of course, but audiences can’t stop laughing. The kicker though is in one of the final scenes. When the email list fails to accomplish much, party organizers go to Kamala and beg her to personally host the kind of big fundraisers she pulled off during her campaign… but she tells them no. Kamala’s team “believes she’s done her part,” by blowing $1.5 billion on a losing presidential race and leaving her party millions in debt. If Hollywood ever makes a sequel to “Kamala’s Revenge,” maybe the big twist is that she turns out to have been the other party’s mole all along. Otherwise? Just another simpleton in a nice suit.

“I couldn’t find a point at which Republicans were doing better at this point in the cycle. It’s at least this century. It probably goes way back in the last century.”

• Are Democrats on the Verge of a Historic Midterm Wipeout? (Margolis)

I’ve previously reported that Democrats have a money problem. In addition to a lack of donations coming in, the Democratic National Committee is paying down Kamala Harris’s campaign debt. However, these are not the only issues threatening their 2026 midterm prospects. Money is certainly important, but perhaps even more so are voters. But according to CNN’s Harry Enten, the voters aren’t exactly there for the Democrats, either. Enten delivered a devastating assessment of the 2026 electoral landscape for the Democrats, noting that Republicans are seeing unprecedented gains in voter registration across critical battleground states. “Four swing states that, in fact, do keep track of registration by party,” Enten noted. He revealed that the GOP hasn’t been this well-positioned at this stage of the cycle in two decades.

“Look, the Republican Party is in their best position at this point in the cycle since at least 2005 in all four of these key battleground states.” Enten began his analysis in the Southwest. “Arizona. How about Nevada? Republicans haven’t done this well since 2005 — oh my goodness gracious — at this, at this point in the cycle.” As he moved eastward, the numbers just kept getting better for the GOP. “North Carolina: I couldn’t find a point at which Republicans were doing better at this point in the cycle. It’s at least this century. It probably goes way back in the last century.” There was more: “And Pennsylvania, very similar: Republicans doing better at this point than at any point, at any point this century, at least as far as I could find.”

https://twitter.com/OpenSourceZone/status/1960138861368979521

Enten then broke down the size of the GOP’s registration surge by comparing it to the first Trump administration in 2017. “Look at this. The Republican Party gains in party registration compared to this point back in 2017, during the Trump first administration,” he enthused. He highlighted that in Arizona, the GOP has gained three points in party registration compared to 2017. In Nevada, it’s six points; in North Carolina, eight points, and finally, in Pennsylvania, GOP registration is eight full points above this point in Trump’s first administration. Enten’s analysis underscores just how dramatic the GOP’s organizational and registration push has been heading into 2026.

For Democrats, the numbers paint a dire picture: Republicans are not only expanding their base in traditional swing states but are doing so at levels unseen in decades — generations, even. The money race is incredibly important because you need money to fund campaigns and get your message out. The problem is that even if Democrats had more money, their pool of voters isn’t growing as much as the GOP’s, and that puts them at a severe disadvantage going into the midterms. Of course, the elections are still over a year away, and anything can happen, but at this point in time, the GOP is in an incredibly strong position over the Democrats.

Sundance keeps digging.

“NSA Director Mike Rogers shut down FBI contractor access to the NSA database April 18, 2016, the very next day what happens? On April 19, 2016, Perkins Coie hires Fusion GPS Glenn Simpson to conduct research on Donald Trump..”

• Did NSA Director Mike Rogers Warn Donald Trump on November 17, 2016? (CTH)

The short answer is no; he did not.

Was NSA Director Mike Rogers aware that political spying was conducted through the use of searches on the NSA database? Yes. Did NSA Director Mike Rogers take action in April 2016 to stop the searches within the NSA database that were entirely due to political surveillance? Yes. Six months later, October 20, 2016, the extensive review of all the political surveillance searches done from November of 2015 to April of 2016 was completed; the NSA compliance officer briefed Director Rogers. Six days later on October 26, 2016, NSA Director Mike Rogers then informed the FISA court of the unlawful searches and his action to address the issue. One month later on November 17th, 2016, NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers went to see President-Elect Donald Trump in Trump Tower, New York. Director Rogers never told his boss, DNI James Clapper.

The very next day, Friday November 18, 2016, The Washington Post reported on a recommendation in “October” that Mike Rogers be removed from his NSA position. “The heads of the Pentagon and the nation’s intelligence community have recommended to President Obama that the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, be removed. The recommendation, delivered to the White House last month, was made by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., according to several U.S. officials familiar with the matter. […] In a move apparently unprecedented for a military officer, Rogers, without notifying superiors, traveled to New York to meet with Trump on Thursday at Trump Tower. That caused consternation at senior levels of the administration, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters.”

Notice how the WaPo conflates the two issues. (1) Meeting with Trump (Nov), and (2) the recommendation to fire him (Oct). The October recommendation to fire Rogers was likely based on the outcome of his decision to fully stop “about queries” of the NSA database and speak to the FISA court. The recommendation to fire Rogers preceded his visit to Donald Trump, though the IC effort may have provided some additional motivation for the Rogers visit itself. NSA Director Mike Rogers traveled to New York November 17, 2016, when a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) was set up for President-elect Trump to use following the November 8, 2016, election. The next day, November 18, 2016, the Trump Transition Team announced they were moving all transition activity to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Where they interviewed and discussed the most sensitive positions to fill. Specifically, Defense, State, CIA and ODNI.

There was a great deal of speculation at the time surrounding the visit by Director Rogers and the move from Trump Tower to New Jersey. Did Rogers tell President Trump about the political surveillance from November 2015 to April 2016? We now know the answer is no, he did not. Director Rogers did recommend an easier venue for the SCIF to operate with secured communication channels; but Rogers did not notify President Trump about the use of the NSA database for political spying. It is worth noting other events in/around this timeline. The NSA compliance officer did not brief Admiral Rogers until 20th Oct 2016. The next day, October 21 the FISA application against Carter Page was approved by the FISA Court; Rogers would be unaware of this submission and issuance. Admiral Rogers then notified the FISC Oct 26, 2016, about the NSA database issue. [In October of 2016 James Clapper and Ash Carter were recommending Rogers’s firing.]

The issue of the “FBI Contractors” having access to the NSA database for political spying was stopped by Director Mike Rogers on April 18, 2016. NSA Director Mike Rogers shut down FBI contractor access to the NSA database April 18, 2016, the very next day what happens? On April 19, 2016, Perkins Coie hires Fusion GPS Glenn Simpson to conduct research on Donald Trump. Now, fast forward to Devin Nunes in March of 2017, two similar but importantly different issues surface. (#1) The collection of information from within the NSA database; and (#2) the unmasking of names within intelligence community communication. These are two distinctly separate issues.In February and March 2017 HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes, a gang of eight member, reviewed intelligence reports that were assembled exclusively for the office of the former President (Obama). That is why he went to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) Information Facility to review.

After Devin Nunes review the information March 22nd, 2017, Nunes stated the intelligence product he reviewed was “not related to Russia, or the FBI Russian counter-intelligence investigation”.House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Devin Nunes, then held a brief press conference and stated he had been provided intelligence reports brought to him by unnamed sources that include ‘significant information’ about President-Elect Trump and his transition team

2.7 bllion people?!

• Washington’s Nightmare: Modi and Xi Break The Ice (Bhadrakumar)

This week, India and China have taken a great leap of faith in their mutual efforts to incrementally advance the normalization process in their bilateral relationship. This may assume the nature of a rapprochement when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation [SCO] summit in the port city of Tianjin in northeast China on 31 August–1 September. The Sino-Indian rapprochement will be a historic event in world politics. It holds the potential to be a key template in the emerging world order in the 21st Century. From the Indian perspective, what is unfolding promises to be the finest legacy of Modi in a tumultuous political career as his 75th birthday approaches next month.

Wang Yi’s Landmark Visit to New Delhi. No doubt, the two-day visit to New Delhi this week by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, will go down as a watershed event. It is a game-changer because Wang, arguably one of the world’s most seasoned diplomats, has turned boundary talks into a mission to harness recent positive momentum and inject a new dynamic into the normalization process. Wang forcefully argued that China and India are obligated “to demonstrate a sense of global responsibility, act as major powers, set an example for developing countries in pursuit of strength through unity, and contribute to promoting world multi-polarization and democratization of international relations.” Xinhua news agency characterised Wang’s remarks as the “consensus” opinion between him and India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

Wang and Jaishankar noted that a critical mass is accruing in the relationship. The Chinese foreign minister said Beijing–New Delhi relations are “showing a positive trend toward returning to cooperation.” Jaishankar concurred that bilateral relations “are continuously improving and developing” and “exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in all fields are moving toward normalization.”Interestingly, Jaishankar called for India and China to “jointly maintain the stability of the world economy” and stressed that “stable, cooperative, and forward-looking bilateral ties serve the interests of both countries.” The Indian external affairs minister proposed that New Delhi is willing “to deepen political mutual trust with China, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in economic and trade fields, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility in border areas.”

He later said in a social media post, “Confident that our discussions today [18 August] would contribute to building a stable, cooperative and forward-looking relationship between India and China.” Wang’s visit yielded some breakthroughs, too. Principally, the two countries agreed to resume direct flights; facilitate trade and investment flow; cooperate on trans-border rivers; reopen border trade via the Himalayan passes; facilitate visas to tourists, businesses, media, and other visitors in both directions; and expand the visits of Indian pilgrims to the holy places of Kailash-Manasarovar. China is reportedly lifting the ban on rare earth and fertilizer exports to India, as well as heavy equipment for making tunnels in mountainous areas.

Border settlement: Modi’s defining challenge. The most sensational development is that the two countries are exploring an “early harvest” in delimitation of boundaries and have agreed on new mechanisms on border management, which will also work towards de-escalation. This is a highly sensitive issue, as Indian public opinion is shaped by self-serving narratives that emerged after the 1962 war and by the idea of establishing a border that never historically existed. This is where Modi’s leadership becomes crucial. Modi is probably one of the only leaders today who has the credibility, decisiveness, and vision to navigate a border settlement with China. He has prioritized the normalization of relations with China and is conscious that a truly stable relationship is critically dependent on predictability and stability, which makes it imperative that a border settlement is reached. Modi, during a meeting with Wang on 19 August, emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility on the border, and also reiterated India’s commitment to a “fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable” resolution of the boundary issue.

Traditionally, India attributed primacy to its post-Cold War relationship with the US as a hedge against China, which, unsurprisingly, spawned absurd notions that Washington regarded New Delhi as a “counterweight” to Beijing. Suffice to say, the administration of US President Donald Trump’s erratic foreign policies and, specifically, its unfriendly moves recently to curb India’s strategic autonomy came as a wake-up call. On the other hand, India’s actions have also been partly driven by domestic economic pressures. The point is, India seeks to lift some restrictions imposed on China in recent years, welcome Chinese investment, and increase people-to-people exchanges to boost its economic confidence. Equally, facing US pressure such as high tariffs, India aims to diversify economic and trade ties with countries, including China, which may help to reduce some of the external pressure from the US.

Wang has signaled that Beijing is as eager as New Delhi to improve the relationship against the backdrop of an increasingly reckless and belligerent Trump administration. Both sides sense that they have common interests. Inevitably, a China–India working relationship anchored on a strategic understanding will do wonders for BRICS. This prospect is already worrying Trump, who has threatened BRICS more than once for allegedly working to dethrone the dollar as the world’s currency.

People like to talk about this because it allows them to paint Trump as vain.

• Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize Dreams Face Resistance (Cradle)

At least three of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee have spoken out against US President Donald Trump, casting serious doubt over his chances of securing a Nobel Peace Prize, the Washington Post reported on 25 August. Committee chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes singled out Trump in December for what he called “the erosion of freedom of expression even in democratic nations,” highlighting the president’s repeated verbal assaults on the media. Former Norwegian education minister Kristin Clemet wrote in May that Trump was “well underway in dismantling American democracy” after just over 100 days in office. Another committee member, Gry Larsen, posted in 2017 that Trump was “putting millions of lives at risk” with cuts to foreign aid and later mocked his campaign slogan with a “Make Human Rights Great Again” hat.

Two other members, Asle Toje and one unnamed colleague, have not been openly hostile. Toje previously wrote sympathetically about Trump’s legal struggles under the Biden administration, leaving open the possibility of support. Still, the balance remains against the US president. Trump himself has acknowledged the opposition. “A lot of people say … no matter what I do, they won’t give it up, and I’m not politicking for it,” he said this month while signing a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Trump pointed to his work on Ukraine, including outreach to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as central to his case, with some western diplomats conceding that his emphasis on direct talks could make sense given Putin’s control of the war effort.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was shortlisted for the 2025 Peace Prize for his “efforts to mediate peace in Gaza.” Meanwhile, Trump said that Israeli hostages would be freed only after Hamas is “destroyed,” voicing clear support for Israel’s move to seize Gaza City. Previously, the US president had floated a plan for Washington to “take over” the Gaza Strip and forcibly displace its people, to turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” – an idea widely condemned as a violation of international law.

Despite this, some foreign leaders have amplified his push for a prize, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev asking, “Who, if not President Trump, deserves the Nobel Peace Prize?” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan echoed the sentiment, joking with Trump about front-row seats at a future ceremony. Nonetheless, with the Norwegian public polling overwhelmingly against him and three committee members on record as critics, Trump faces an uphill battle for the award.

“..it welcomed the transitional government’s decision to end the project “with great joy.”

• Burkina Faso Suspends Health Project Funded By Bill Gates (RT)

Burkina Faso has suspended a project funded by the Gates Foundation aimed at curbing the spread of malaria in Africa, amid concern that it could be misused to advance population control on the continent. The Target Malaria research team, based at the Burkinabe Institute of Health Sciences Research (IRSS), is working to alter mosquito genes to render the insects incapable of transmitting the disease, which the World Health Organization says killed 569,000 people in Africa in 2023. The non-profit consortium, which also receives funding from Open Philanthropy, operates in Ghana and Uganda as well. In a statement released on Saturday, Samuel Pare, Secretary-General of Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI), said Target Malaria has been ordered to halt all activities in the West African country.

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1960235767168454916

“The facilities containing genetically modified mosquitoes have been sealed since August 18, 2025, and all samples will be destroyed according to a specified protocol,” he stated. MESRI did not give a reason for the decision, which came days after the project announced it had successfully carried out “one small-scale release” of genetically modified (GMO) male mosquitoes in Souroukoudingan, a village of about 830 people, roughly 350km southwest of Ouagadougou. The project first released a swarm of GMO mosquitoes in 2019 in the nearby village of Bana. Target Malaria said it had received approval for its activities from Burkina Faso’s National Biosafety Agency (ANB) and the National Environmental Assessment Agency (ANEVE) and has complied with national laws since onset of the program in 2012.

“We have engaged actively with the national authorities and stakeholders of Burkina Faso and remain ready to cooperate,” the non-profit organization stated. The Gates Foundation, Target Malaria’s largest funder, has been embroiled in controversies over some of its initiatives, with advocacy groups accusing it of promoting genetically modified crops and industrial agriculture models that benefit large corporations while sidelining smallholder farmers. The Burkinabe civil group Coalition for Health Sovereignty has previously demanded an “immediate halt” to the genetically modified mosquito project, calling it a “risky and irresponsible” experiment aimed at exercising population control. On Friday, the Coalition for Monitoring Biotechnology Activities (CVAB), which calls the Target Malaria initiative “dangerous to the country’s health sovereignty,” said it welcomed the transitional government’s decision to end the project “with great joy.”

Gun

Making the comparison feels slightly odd as St. Joan of Arc fought against the English, but I'm still getting this type of energy from that little girl.

If she doesn't wake up the men of Europe, I don't know who will. pic.twitter.com/iL93wXUnQB

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) August 26, 2025

I have a feeling that this image of little Mayah Sommers will be one of the most galvanizing in the history of the UK. Any government that punishes a young girl, forced to have to run around like this to protect herself from the barbarians that they protect, is illegitimate. pic.twitter.com/WSbt4AM6vK

— AnnaZ (@AnnaZ) August 26, 2025

The new symbol of Scotland pic.twitter.com/CGWiKAIPfM

— Declaration of Memes (@LibertyCappy) August 26, 2025

Coral Coast
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1960420423868235855

String

Prof. Brian Greene explains the basic idea of string theorypic.twitter.com/mmSkYKnvEn

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 26, 2025

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Debt Rattle August 21 2023

Aug 212023

August 21, 2023 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:16 am Finance Tagged with: arsenal, Burkina Faso, Hunter Biden, restock, San Francisco, Soros, Vucic 36 Responses »

Ivan Aivazovsky Palace rains in Venice by moonlight 1878

• Three More Hunter Biden Attorneys Quit, Bringing Total To Five (ZH)

• Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Vowed To Put The President On The Stand (Pol.)

• RFK Jr. Labels F-16s For Ukraine ‘A Disaster For Humanity’ (RT)

• Zelensky Is Dangerous For Ukraine, Former Aide Warns (RT)

• For NATO and Ukraine, Reality Bites (Scott Ritter)

• US Struggles to Restock Its Own Ammo Arsenal After Aiding Ukraine (Sp.)

• US Officials Admit They Missed Opportunity For Ukraine Peace – Politico (RT)

• Ukraine ‘Running Out Of Options’ – WaPo (RT)

• Ukraine Has Three Risky Options – Bild (RT)

• NATO-Led War Against Russia Has ‘Crushed’ EU Economy, Vucic Tells Tucker (RT)

• UK Eyeing Use of ‘Ukrainian Puppets’ to Secure Global Wins – Zakharova (Sp.)

• Burkina Faso Ready to Back Niger if ECOWAS Launches Intervention (Sp.)

• Why San Francisco Is Dying And What It Has To Do With George Soros (Bridge)

30,000

https://twitter.com/i/status/1692921944578879505

Health agencies are supposed to protect us. #Kennedy24 pic.twitter.com/HmJT9h7R1u

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 20, 2023

Shapley

BREAKING: U.S. attorney for Delaware David Weiss was planning on ending the investigation into Hunter Biden and letting him off with no charges until the IRS whistleblowers spoke out.

Holy s***.

“Earlier this year, The Times found, Mr. Weiss appeared willing to forgo any… pic.twitter.com/vZ1l23dafv

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 20, 2023

We don’t seem to know why the three left. Chris Clark left last week because he can be called as a witness. Is that true for them as well? How about the prosecutors? They also signed off on that collapsed deal.

• Three More Hunter Biden Attorneys Quit, Bringing Total To Five (ZH)

Three more of Hunter Biden’s attorneys have filed a motion to withdraw from his ongoing case, after a Delaware judge dismissed his two tax misdemeanors without prejudice at the request of DOJ prosecutors – a move which will allow for the possibility of charging Biden in Washington DC or the Central District of California. Mrian C. McManus Timothy H. McCarten and Matthew S. Salerno of Latham & Watkins LLP filed a motion to withdraw as counsel following US District Judge Maryellen Noreika’s decision to grand the DOJ’s request. Latham & Watkins drew controversy the night before Biden’s late July court appearance because a staffer from the firm allegedly misrepresented her identity to the Clerk’s office and described herself as someone who worked for Theodore Kittila, the attorney for the House Ways and Means Committee.

The Committee was attempting to have Noreika consider testimony from IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler showing “political interference” in the Hunter Biden investigation. Salerno attributed the incident to a “miscommunication” and the staffer said in a sworn affidavit she did not mischaracterize her identity with intent to deceive the court. -Daily Caller The move brings the total number of Hunter Biden attorneys who have quit to five, with the first – Joshua Levy, quitting in March, and Christopher Clark quitting last week because he could be called as a witness in the case after plea negotiations broke down. “Brian C. McManus, counsel for the Defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, and respectfully requests this Honorable Court to withdraw all appearances for the law firm of Latham & Watkins LLP as counsel for the Defendant in the above-captioned matter,” reads Friday’s motion, which doesn’t provide a reason for the move.

“Mr. Biden has been advised of, and consents to, our withdrawal. He also agrees this withdrawal will cause no material adverse effect or prejudice to him and remains completely satisfied with Messrs. Lowell’s and Jones’s continued representation of him.” Hunter will continue to be represented by Abbe Lowell of Winston & Strawn LLP and Richard I.G. Jones Jr. of Berger Harris LLP. Biden’s top defense counsel, according to the Daily Caller. Last month a sweetheart plea deal with the DOJ fell apart after Judge Noreika objected to terms which would have given Hunter broad immunity from future prosecution, even from unrelated crimes.

A ‘Prosecute Hunter Biden” flag attached to an airplane was flown above President Joe Biden’s Delaware beach house.

“Hunter Biden should be behind bars. Joe Biden has abused the power of the President to protect Hunter, and the world needs to know,” said the group who paid for… pic.twitter.com/VF2HRvt0kH

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 21, 2023

The longer version, from Politico.

• Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Vowed To Put The President On The Stand (Pol.)

It was Halloween of 2022, and Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Chris Clark, didn’t sound happy. Just three weeks earlier, news had leaked that federal agents believed they had enough evidence to charge his client with illegally buying a gun as a drug user. The leak was “illegal,” the lawyer wrote to the U.S. attorney overseeing the probe. The prosecution, he argued, would be seen as purely political, and it might even violate the Second Amendment. Then he issued a warning: If the Justice Department charged the president’s son, his lawyers would put the president on the witness stand. “President Biden now unquestionably would be a fact witness for the defense in any criminal trial,” Clark wrote in a 32-page letter reviewed by POLITICO.

That letter, along with more than 300 pages of previously unreported emails and documents exchanged between Hunter Biden’s legal team and prosecutors, sheds new light on the fraught negotiations that nearly produced a broad plea deal. That deal would have resolved Biden’s most pressing legal issues — the gun purchase and his failure to pay taxes for several years — and it also could have helped insulate Biden from future prosecution by a Republican-led Justice Department. The documents show how the deal collapsed — a sudden turnabout that occurred after Republicans bashed it and a judge raised questions about it. The collapse renewed the prospect that Biden will head to trial as his father ramps up his 2024 reelection bid.

The case has long been defined by politics, including for Biden’s own lawyers. During the private negotiations with prosecutors, the documents show, Biden’s lawyers often invoked the case’s extraordinary political undercurrents. They made clear to prosecutors that they thought pressure from congressional Republicans was improperly shaping the investigation. They name-dropped Donald Trump, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the failed prosecution of a lawyer for Hillary Clinton. They argued that bringing the case would destroy the Justice Department’s reputation. And they said a trial of the president’s son would create political and constitutional chaos by pitting the president himself against his own Justice Department.

“This of all cases justifies neither the spectacle of a sitting President testifying at a criminal trial nor the potential for a resulting Constitutional crisis,” Clark wrote. Clark’s letter and the other documents were shared with POLITICO by a person with knowledge of the communications between the Justice Department and Biden’s legal team. The documents provide a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at how the two sides came to the brink of a plea deal. But after a judge asked a few simple questions at a hearing last month about the details, it started to fray. And in the weeks after, the whole thing unraveled. Now the prosecutor overseeing the probe has been made a special counsel and says the case is headed to trial. And Clark has stopped representing the president’s son, saying he instead expects to be a witness.

Remember: F-16s have nuclear capabilities. Russia will treat every single one as if it carries a nuclear weapon.

• RFK Jr. Labels F-16s For Ukraine ‘A Disaster For Humanity’ (RT)

The looming delivery of US-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will not prevent the “collapse” of the country’s military and will only benefit the military-industrial complex, Democrat presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Junior has claimed.The Ukrainian conflict should be resolved through negotiations, RFK Jr. argued in a thread on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), stating that supplying F-16s to Kiev was a “great decision for the defense industry, but a disaster for Ukraine and humanity.” “F-16s won’t stop the collapse of the Ukrainian military (which some experts say is imminent). These planes require a lot of training and maintenance. This isn’t the movies,” Kennedy stressed.

The presidential hopeful has long-opposed the enduring Western aid to Ukraine, spearheaded by Washington, arguing that the US should admit its “failure” in the country and focus on domestic issues instead. Kennedy’s criticism of the fighter-jet delivery comes after Washington enabled its European allies to re-export older planes to Ukraine, and hours before the move was officially announced by Denmark and the Netherlands. The upcoming delivery was heralded by Dutch PM Mark Rutte on Sunday as he hosted Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at a military airbase in Eindhoven.“Today we can announce that the Netherlands and Denmark commit to the transfer of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine and the Ukrainian Air Force, including cooperation with the United States and other partners once the conditions for such a transfer have been met,”Rutte said at a press conference.

Simultaneously, the Danish Ministry of Defence released a statement confirming its pledge to provide Kiev with F-16s from its inventory, once certain “conditions” are met. The conditions “include, but are not limited to, successfully selected, tested and trained Ukrainian F-16 personnel as well as necessary authorizations, infrastructure and logistics,” it said. Kiev has long-demanded modern aircraft, as well as other, increasingly sophisticated weaponry, from its Western backers, arguing the planes would help it turn the tide of the conflict with Russia, which has been going on since February 2022. Moscow has repeatedly urged the collective West to stop the military deliveries, arguing they would only prolong the hostilities rather than change their ultimate outcome.

“Zelensky’s insistence that Ukraine will defeat Russia and his reluctance to acknowledge the actual situation is a sign that the president is “inadequate” both as a manager and a person..”

• Zelensky Is Dangerous For Ukraine, Former Aide Warns (RT)

The “inadequate” leadership of Vladimir Zelensky has caused a national catastrophe in Ukraine and MPs should hold him accountable, according to Oleg Soskin, who served as an aide to two Ukrainian presidents. The country’s economy has been“destroyed” amid the conflict with Russia, he said in a video that was posted on his YouTube channel on Saturday. “There’s no breakthrough anywhere” by Ukrainian forces on the front line, Soskin continued, adding that the public “shouldn’t believe retired colonels,” who are speaking about Kiev’s military gains. Zelensky’s insistence that Ukraine will defeat Russia and his reluctance to acknowledge the actual situation is a sign that the president is “inadequate” both as a manager and a person, he said.

“Zelensky is just dangerous for the country. He’s simply dangerous for the people,” warned Soskin, who served as an aide to Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kravchuk in 1992 and 1993, and Leonid Kuchma between 1998 and 2000.“Something must be done about Zelensky. I’m calling for it again,” he said. “Gather up, somebody has to show initiative. Some conditions must be put forward for [the president],” Soskin insisted, addressing Ukrainian MPs. Earlier this week, Zelensky claimed that his team was “preparing powerful things for Ukraine” in cooperation with their Western partners, saying that the country had “taken another step towards the circle of the strongest states in the world.”

The much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive began in early June, with Kiev deploying its best Western-equipped and trained brigades in an attempt to sever Russia’s land bridge linking Donbass with Crimea in the southern province of Zaporozhye. According to Russian estimates, Ukraine has lost more than 43,000 troops and nearly 5,000 pieces of heavy equipment amid the operation, but failed to achieve any significant gains. Kiev has so far reported the seizure of several villages, but they appear to be located some distance away from main Russian defense lines. Earlier this week, the Washington Post cited a classified US intelligence report, which suggested that “Ukraine’s counteroffensive will fail to reach the key southeastern city of Melitopol,” and that Russia’s land bridge to Crimea won’t be severed this year.

“With the Ukrainian strategic reserve committed and soon to be defeated, there are no more forces of significance available to Ukraine and their NATO overseers..”

• For NATO and Ukraine, Reality Bites (Scott Ritter)

Ukraine has dispatched the last of its strategic reserves, led by the elite 82nd Airlanding Brigade, into the battle for the Zaporozhye village of Rabotino. Here, in fields made fallow by conditions of war, Ukraine’s best fighting forces have been eviscerated by Russian defenders who have refused to yield. Based upon the experience of the lead elements of the 82nd Brigade, this fate awaits them as well. With the Ukrainian strategic reserve committed and soon to be defeated, there are no more forces of significance available to Ukraine and their NATO overseers capable of influencing the conduct of the battles raging all along the 1,000-mile line of contact between the armies of Ukraine and Russia.

Russia, meanwhile, retains an uncommitted reserve of some 200,000-plus fresh, well-trained and equipped forces which are leaning into the bit to be committed to battle. When they are eventually unleashed, Ukraine will lack the resources necessary to fend off their attack, signally the culminating moment in a Russian campaign designed to achieve just this result—the collapse of the Ukrainian ability to sustain large-scale ground combat. Reality bites. The situation had become so dire that Stian Jenssen, the chief of staff to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, opined in from a Norwegian audience that a solution for the end of the conflict with Russia “could be for Ukraine to give up territory, and get NATO membership in return.”

But even here, Jenssen was delusional. While reality dictates that Ukraine will never get back its former territories of Kherson, Zaporozhye, Donetsk, Lugansk, and Crimea, and that the wisest choice would be to concede the inevitability of a Russian victory while avoiding the potential for the loss of even more territories, Jenssen seemed to forget that one of the primary goals behind the Russian decision to initiate the special military operation was to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. Only someone totally separated from reality could articulate a scenario that has Russia conceding an issue that is linked to its existential survival (i.e., the expansion of NATO into Ukraine) in exchange for accepting an already accomplished fact—Russian control of the former Ukrainian territories.

Both the Ukrainian government and Jenssen’s boss, Stoltenberg, pushed back against the notion of a territory-for-membership swap. “NATO will support Ukraine until it wins the conflict,” Stoltenberg told a gathering of reporters in Oslo a day after Jenssen’s gaffe, implying that Ukraine’s contention that a key condition for conflict resolution remained evicting Russia from all of the former Ukrainian territories liberated by Russian troops and claimed by Russia as a result of referenda held in 2014 (for Crimea) and 2022 (for the other four territories.) But it is becoming increasingly clear that reality is trumping desire. There is no chance for Ukraine to achieve its stated objectives, something Jennsen’s comments reflected, and Stoltenberg’s did not.

NATO struggles to generate new sources of equipment for the rapidly depleting Ukrainian Army, which has lost much of the tanks, armored fighting vehicles, and artillery systems provided by NATO and other nations in preparation for the failed counteroffensive. Equipment previously considered to be too provocative, such as the F-16 fighter, have now been greenlighted for release to Ukraine. But none of this matters — even if Ukraine were to receive everything it wanted, the fact is that Ukraine cannot generate the manpower, either in quantity or quality, necessary to competently operate such equipment on a modern battlefield against a Russian Army which, by any honest measure, has emerged from this conflict as the most lethal, capable fighting force in the world.

“..even though the US began ramping up ammunition production last year, munitions would still take “years” to mass produce to acceptable levels..”

• US Struggles to Restock Its Own Ammo Arsenal After Aiding Ukraine (Sp.)

With more than two million 155mm shells already sent to Ukraine, the US faces the problem of restocking its arsenal of artillery munitions and building new production lines, an American newspaper has quoted unnamed sources as saying. The sources warned of “major challenges in sustaining an elevated output of arms and equipment needed not just to aid Ukraine but to ensure the US’ own security.” According to the insiders, the problem is complicated by the fact that the US no longer produces TNT, which is needed to make shells. The Pentagon is now collaborating with its allies and partners to increase TNT supplies, “potentially including from Japan,” according to the sources. The remarks come after a US broadcaster reported last week that the US and NATO grapple with the “dwindling supply of artillery ammunition” for Ukraine.

The broadcaster cited unnamed officials as saying that the US “has been nearing that red line as it has continued to supply Ukraine with 155mm ammunition, the NATO standard used for artillery rounds.” National Security adviser Jake Sullivan told the news network that even though the US began ramping up ammunition production last year, munitions would still take “years” to mass produce to acceptable levels. This unfolds amid Kiev’s botched counteroffensive, which was launched by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) on June 4, after multiple delays. Since the beginning of the counteroffensive, Ukraine has lost over 43,000 troops and 4,900 units of military equipment, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

In the latest development, US veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported earlier this week, citing an American US intelligence official that the CIA has notified Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is unlikely to yield results. The US and its allies ramped up their military assistance to Kiev shortly after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly warned that NATO countries “play with fire” by supplying arms to Kiev, which the Kremlin said adds to prolonging the Ukraine conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, underscored that any cargo with weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russian forces.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1693009335188938769

“If we acknowledge we’re not going to do this forever, then what are we going to do?”

• US Officials Admit They Missed Opportunity For Ukraine Peace – Politico (RT)

American officials have told Politico that they may have “missed a window” to push for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking anonymously, they conceded that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley “had a point” when he offered a grim pronouncement on Kiev’s chances for victory last year. More than two months into Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces, Kiev has failed to capture more than a handful of hamlets and villages in Zaporozhye region, and has lost at least 43,000 men and nearly 5,000 pieces of equipment in the process, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry. Although the Ukrainian government still insists it can retake all of its claimed territory by force, Washington is increasingly unsure. “We may have missed a window to push for earlier talks,” a US official told Politico on Friday, adding that “Milley had a point.”

Speaking in New York in November, Milley said that a military victory would likely be unachievable for Ukraine, and that Kiev could use the wintertime pause in fighting to enter negotiations with Moscow and avoid any further losses. His comments reportedly angeredKiev and caused panic in the White House, which rushed to reassure the Ukrainian leadership that it would continue to support President Vladimir Zelensky’s maximalist aims – which include retaking Crimea, an historic Russian territory that voted to rejoin the Russian Federation in 2014.

Media reports suggest that Washington has been divided on the idea of peace talks since at least last year, with President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken vehemently rejecting negotiations, against the wishes of some members of the military and intelligence agencies. This split persisted as Ukraine geared up for its counteroffensive, with reports indicating that despite Biden’s and Blinken’s optimism, the Pentagon knew Kiev wasn’t ready for the operation, and the CIA expected it to end in failure. Pessimism is now spreading in the White House, another anonymous official told Politico, saying that the Biden administration is increasingly asking itself “If we acknowledge we’re not going to do this forever, then what are we going to do?”

Milley has continued to suggest a diplomatic solution to the conflict. “If the end state is ‘Ukraine is a free, independent, sovereign country with its territory intact’… that’s gonna take a long, long time, but you can also achieve those objectives — maybe, possibly — through some sort of diplomatic means,” he told the Washington Post this week. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that any negotiations will be held “not with Zelensky, who is a puppet in the hands of the West, but directly with his masters.” The Kremlin also maintains that any potential peace deal will have to recognize the “new territorial reality” – that the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye will not be ceded back to Ukraine.

“Calls for Washington to cut back on its military and financial aid to Ukraine “are expected to be amplified” in the wake of the US presidential election in 2024..”

• Ukraine ‘Running Out Of Options’ – WaPo (RT)

Ukraine is running out of options in its counteroffensive against Russian forces, as Kiev’s time-window to gain advances is closing, the Washington Post has reported. In an article on Sunday, the US outlet is claiming that Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which was launched in early June and was initially expected to see Kiev taking back significant territory, currently “shows signs of stalling.” “Kiev’s advances remain isolated to a handful of villages, Russian troops are pushing forward in the north and a plan to train Ukrainian pilots on US-made F-16s is delayed,” the newspaper wrote. Ukrainian and Western officials might be calling for patience but “the window of time for Ukraine to conduct offensive operations is limited” because of the “inhospitable weather” in the region in autumn and winter, the article reads.

“Without more advanced weapons slated to bolster the front line or fully committing forces still being held in reserve, it is unlikely that Ukraine will be able to secure a breakthrough in the counteroffensive, according to analysts,” WaPo pointed out. The article also warned that “the inability to demonstrate decisive success on the battlefield [by Kiev forces] is stoking fears that the conflict is becoming a stalemate and international support could erode.” Calls for Washington to cut back on its military and financial aid to Ukraine “are expected to be amplified” in the wake of the US presidential election in 2024, it added.

Earlier this week, the Post also cited a classified US intelligence report, which suggested that “Ukraine’s counteroffensive will fail to reach the key southeastern city of Melitopol,” and that the aim of severing Russia’s land bridge linking Donbass with Crimea in the southern province of Zaporozhye won’t be achieved this year. According to Russian estimates, Ukraine has failed to make any significant gains, but lost more than 43,000 troops and nearly 5,000 pieces of heavy equipment since the launch of its counteroffensive. Kiev has so far claimed the capture of several villages, but these appear to be located some distance away from main Russian defense lines.

“..Moscow is supposedly struggling to replenish its own losses..”

What losses?

• Ukraine Has Three Risky Options – Bild (RT)

Ukraine is faced with three possible scenarios amid its faltering counteroffensive, each carrying various degrees of risk, Germany’s Bild newspaper has claimed. In his analysis on Saturday, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Paul Ronzheimer warned that should Kiev’s current efforts fail, Russian forces may mount their own offensive and seize further territory. According to the article, Ukraine can keep trying to breach Russian defenses despite achieving no major breakthroughs so far. Ronzheimer wrote that so far President Vladimir Zelensky’s government remains optimistic and is determined to continue with the campaign. However, if it fails to make any significant gains by the end of the year, Kiev is reportedly planning another counteroffensive in the spring of 2024.

Ronzheimer alleged that officials in Kiev are growing increasingly frustrated at criticism of its counteroffensive tactics coming from the West. Bild quoted one unnamed senior Ukrainian official as insisting that “everything was planned together” with Kiev’s backers. Any new push is contingent on receiving more Western weapons and ammunition, Bild pointed out. On top of that, Russia will likely use the winter respite to beef up its defenses. Another avenue open to Kiev, according to the article, is to continue the counteroffensive while simultaneously engaging in peace talks with Russia. However, such a U-turn on Zelensky’s part would be hard to sell to the population, Ronzheimer predicted. The Bild deputy editor-in-chief emphasized that last October, the Ukrainian head of state signed a decree ruling out negotiations with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and that recent opinion polls show 72% of Ukrainians are against talks with Russia.

In a worst-case scenario for Ukraine as envisaged by Ronzheimer, the counteroffensive stalls, with Russia launching one of its own and potentially seizing parts of Kharkov Region. According to Bild’s analysis, this is, however, not likely as Moscow is supposedly struggling to replenish its own losses. In early June, the Ukrainian military launched its long-awaited counteroffensive in a bid to reclaim territories in the east and southeast. However, despite massive Western support, Kiev’s forces have not achieved any significant gains. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the operation has already cost Ukraine 43,000 men and nearly 5,000 pieces of military hardware. Top officials in Kiev and some Western capitals have acknowledged that the push has failed to live up to the initial high expectations, and is progressing more slowly than anticipated.

Wonder why Tucker picked him to talk to..

• NATO-Led War Against Russia Has ‘Crushed’ EU Economy, Vucic Tells Tucker (RT)

Tucker Carlson has shared a preview of his upcoming interview with Vucic, in which he says the Serbian leader shared an “interesting perspective” on what is happening in Ukraine, given that his own country was bombed by NATO almost a quarter century ago. In a brief video shared on his X (formerly Twitter), Carlson unveiled what Vucic had told him during their meeting at the Serbian Embassy in Budapest, Hungary, for an interview that has yet to be released. “One of the points he made is that the war in Ukraine, the war against Russia led by NATO, has crushed the European economy,” Carlson explained. “The destruction of Nord Stream by the Biden administration, either directly or through proxies, is killing the German economy.”

We just met with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, at the Serbian Embassy in Budapest. Here’s what happened. pic.twitter.com/R4fcTMBTlV

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 20, 2023

Carlson characterized the situation as “completely crazy,” noting that the German economy is the largest economy in Europe by far “and so the downstream effects of that, one NATO country effectively attacking another NATO country are felt throughout Europe.” “This war is hurting everybody – possibly with the exception in the long term of Russia – and empowering everybody outside of the Gulf States, China, Turkey,” Carlson claimed, describing the ongoing global shift of power away from the United States and the West to the East as a “world reset” that the American public seems to be unaware of

Very peculiar: “Ukrainian soldiers apparently serve as a kind of payment by Kiev for military aid from the West..”

• UK Eyeing Use of ‘Ukrainian Puppets’ to Secure Global Wins – Zakharova (Sp.)

The NATO-Ukrainian nexus artificially increases the conflict potential in Africa, and Moscow notes the intention of the United Kingdom’s authorities to use “Ukrainian puppets” to achieve goals in other regions of the world as well, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik. Zakharova’s comments came on the heels of reports that UK Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, was preparing a sabotage unit of Ukraine’s fighters. A military-diplomatic source said earlier this week that MI6 was preparing a sabotage unit of 100 Ukrainian fighters to be sent to Africa to counter Russia-Africa cooperation. The unit would be tasked with “sabotage of infrastructure in African countries, as well as the elimination of African leaders oriented towards cooperation with Russia,” the source then said.

The forces are planned to be sent to Africa by “a chartered civilian ship from the [Ukrainian] port of Izmail to the [Sudanese] city of Omdurman during the second half of August” and will be headed by Lt. Col. Vitaliy Prashchuk, an officer of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, who has experience of “successful liquidations” and participated in MI6 operations in Zimbabwe. “Given that MI6, headed by Richard Moore, has recently been openly bragging about its involvement in the planning and implementation of terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime against our country, we note the intentions of the UK authorities to use Ukrainian puppets to carry out tasks in other regions of the world as well … especially when London’s what it seems to be an unshakable influence in the former colonies is threatened,” the spokeswoman said.

Zakharova recalled that “famous British empire builder Cecil Rhodes once said: ‘The empire is a bread and butter question.'” The spokeswoman said the UK is still guided by that policy in Africa. “It can be said that London continues to cling desperately to its colonial legacy and seeks with all its might to keep the countries of the continent dependent. Britons are unwilling to talk to them on an equal footing and consider it possible, as before, to interfere in their internal affairs,” she said. The Russian figure noted “the regime of [Ukrainian President] Volodymyr Zelensky needs only money.” “In these schemes, Ukrainian soldiers apparently serve as a kind of payment by Kiev for military aid from the West,” she said. “Judging by the already worked out scheme, the NATO-Ukrainian nexus artificially builds up the conflict potential in Africa. At the same time, Africans and Ukrainians will pay for the realization of the ambitions of the UK’s neocolonialists,” Zakharova said.

“It is also shocking that some heads of state want to wage war against other countries under the guise of democracy..”

• Burkina Faso Ready to Back Niger if ECOWAS Launches Intervention (Sp.)

Burkina Faso is preparing for the fact that forces of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) may launch a military intervention in Niger, and the country is ready to support Niamey, Burkinabe Defense Minister Kassoum Coulibaly told Sputnik. “We anticipate aggression [of ECOWAS forces against Niger]. In any case, the head of our state [Ibrahim Traore] said that we are ready for the aggression, we support Niger,” Coulibaly said. He added that Burkina Faso is even ready to withdraw from ECOWAS because it considers the association’s policy towards Niger illogical.

The members of the Economic Community of West African States should not wage wars against each other, and the very idea of such events is shocking, Coulibaly said. “We have no right to fight each other. We are part of a single economic union. The very idea that some states of the association want to wage an internecine war is shocking. It is also shocking that some heads of state want to wage war against other countries under the guise of democracy,” Coulibaly said. He also noted that the organization has a wide network of offices across the region, but its leaders often ignore messages from experts on the ground.

“If they had not ignored the messages from ECOWAS experts, they would have seen the signs [of the coming conflict]. And a lot could have been avoided,” the minister said. Coulibaly additionally called the ECOWAS intention to reinstate the ousted Nigerien president, Mohamed Bazoum, strange, adding that the community itself should help states such as Niger in its fight against terrorism. “Burkina Faso stands in solidarity with Mali and opposes any aggression against Niger because we share a common border. We are waging a war against terrorism and we must continue to wage it,” he said.

“..75 Soros-backed “social justice” prosecutors overseeing half of America’s 50 most populous cities..”

• Why San Francisco Is Dying And What It Has To Do With George Soros (Bridge)

A friend of mine, Mark, who is employed in San Francisco’s tech industry, described the situation he is confronted with on his daily commute to work by bicycle. “In the past, I’d be able to make the ride into the city in about 20 minutes, but I’m constantly forced to change my route due to the sidewalks being taken over by makeshift shelters and drug addicts,” he said. When I asked if he changes his route out of fear his answer surprised me. “To be honest, the druggies are so out of their minds that they really only present a danger to themselves. I avoid the areas where they congregate because passing through these zombie wastelands is just too depressing.” But there is more to San Fran’s current woes than just tent cities playing host to assorted fentanyl abusers and homeless people, two social ailments in the US that now seem to occur concomitantly.

Many long-term locals are being forced to give up their beloved city due to high rental costs, runaway inflation, a downturn in the tech industry, and big box stores as well as small retailers who are being driven out of town by roaming mobs that act with impunity. It is getting so bad that San Francisco may actually go broke considering that almost a third of its lucrative commercial property is now standing empty. The situation should give local leaders, not least of all California Governor Gavin Newsom, tremendous pause as it appears that even the Biden administration is slowly unfurling the white flag of defeat over the trashed landscape. Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) advised its hundreds of federal employees in San Francisco to work from home “for the foreseeable future” due to rampant crime and safety concerns.

“In light of the conditions at the Federal Building we recommend employees maximize the use of telework for the foreseeable future,” the memo warned. What is doubly embarrassing for the Democratic Party, which largely controls San Francisco, as well as the majority of prime California voting estates, is that the office complex in question, until just recently, was known as the ‘Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building.’ Inside the hollowed-out shell of this 18-story ‘green-building’ disaster is the office of former Speaker Pelosi, manned by five dutiful employees, who said they would hold down the fort and not shift to remote work, in what we can be sure was an absolutely personal decision on their part.

So who’s to blame for San Francisco’s ongoing plight? One needn’t dabble in conspiracy theories to suggest that George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and financier who has a soft spot in his 93-year-old heart for progressive politicians who promise to go easy on criminals, played a part. Last year, The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF) released a shocking report that showed there were 75 Soros-backed “social justice” prosecutors overseeing half of America’s 50 most populous cities. To put that figure another way, about 1 in 5 Americans are represented by a prosecutor who either received direct financial contributions from Soros or through his vast empire of philanthropic organizations, many of which are exceedingly hard to trace.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1693132150604787886

Herbie

Herbie Hancock describing the time he played the wrong chord with Miles, and what that taught him about life.

Miles is quoted as saying: “ It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.”https://t.co/KOduF8Q223 pic.twitter.com/PG5yxkj3p6

— Sheet Music Library (PDF) (@LibrarySheet) August 19, 2023

Reflex

amazing reflexpic.twitter.com/QK7cVqgVE7

— Enezator (@Enezator) August 20, 2023

This is the tomb of Marie Sklodowska-Curie, located in the Panthéon in Paris. What sets this tomb apart is its unique reinforcement with an inch-thick layer of lead. This measure was taken to shield the public from the lingering radiation that continues to emanate from her remains. Marie Curie, a French-Polish scientist, achieved remarkable feats in her lifetime. She was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and later, in 1911, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Notably, she holds the distinction of being the first woman to ever receive a Nobel Prize, the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two distinct scientific fields, and the first to win two Nobel Prizes.

Despite facing adversity, including being barred from higher education due to her gender, Curie persisted in her pursuit of knowledge. She resorted to attending a clandestine institution known as the “Flying University” to further her education. Marie Curie is renowned for her groundbreaking discovery of the radioactive elements radium and polonium, as well as coining the term “radioactivity.” Unbeknownst to her at the time, her close work with radium led to her inadvertent exposure to harmful radiation, ultimately contributing to her death in 1934 from aplastic anemia.

Remarkably, Curie’s body, along with her personal possessions such as cookbooks, clothing, furniture, and lab notes, is expected to remain radioactive for another 1,500 years.

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Debt Rattle March 27 2020

Mar 272020

March 27, 2020 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 10:47 am Finance Tagged with: allies, asymptomatic, bear bile, Burkina Faso, coronavirus, Covid19, depression, Dylan, Fed, gig economy, Iraq, JFK, testing, unemployment 34 Responses »

• More People Are Dying Of COVID-19 In The US Than We Know (BF)

• We Could Watch Entire Populations Vanish (IC)

• Coronavirus Could Kill 81,000 In US, Subside In June – Washington U. (R.)

• Hold The Line (M.)

• China Promotes Bear Bile As Coronavirus Treatment (NatGeo)

• Fed Balance Sheet Tops $5 Trillion For First Time (R.)

• Broward Poll Workers Test Positive For COVID-19 (L10)

• Moscow Laboratories Will Conduct 13,000 Tests For Coronavirus Every Day (Tass)

• New Zealand Coronavirus Deaths During Lockdown Could Be Just 20 – Modelling (G.)

• Coronavirus Job Losses Will Raise Mortgage Stress More Than GFC Did (ABC.au)

• France, Czechs, & Other US Allies Exit Iraq Over COVID-19 Fears (ZH)

• Spike in Unemployment Claims is Even More Horrid Than it Appears (WS)

• What Should The EU Do Now: 3-Point Plan For Averting A Depression (Varoufakis)

• Dylan Ratigan: “An Abomination Beyond Comprehension” – “Bernie Folded” (Dore)

• Muder Most Foul (Bob Dylan)

A word about testing. There are stories everywhere of people dying without even having beenn tested, and of doctors not getting permission to test. Many countries have a central body that must give permission for a test, and they often don’t until it’s too late in the game (the life). To a larg extent, this is because politicians simply failed to procure test kits. But there’s another thing: political incentives for massive and accurate testing hardly exist at all (in the short term), while incentives for not testing are obvious: you look better.

The UK testing story could change that all, with its potential finger-prick 15 minute test, but only if that test is at least 95% accurate. I know they claim it is, but we’ll have to see. There are stories about Chinese tests that are 30% accurate, and it’s easy to see why that is useless. But I was talking to someone yesterday who said: there are now tests that are fast and 70% accurate! But isn’t that useless too. No, they can do a better test with those who test negative! Yes, but the 70% applies to the positives too… So 70% means you have to retest everyone. And we haven’t even mentioned asymptomatic cases yet…

Note: we may see the first time that 100,000 new cases come within 24 hours

• Cases 542,385 (+ 55,683 from yesterday’s 486,702)

• Deaths 24,368 (+ 2,347 from yesterday’s 22,021)

From Worldometer yesterday evening (before their day’s close) US: 17,000 cases in a day

From Worldometer -NOTE: mortality rate for closed cases is at 16% –

From SCMP:

From COVID2019Live.info:

Not in the US, everywhere.

• More People Are Dying Of COVID-19 In The US Than We Know (BF)

Medical professionals around the US told BuzzFeed News that the official numbers of people who have died of COVID-19 are not consistent with the number of deaths they’re seeing on the front lines. In some cases, it’s a lag in reporting, caused by delays and possible breakdowns in logging positive tests and making them public. In other, more troubling, cases, medical experts told BuzzFeed News they think it’s because people are not being tested before or after they die. In the US, state and county authorities are responsible for collecting data on cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and deaths. The data is then reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In California, one ER doctor who works at multiple hospitals in a hard-hit county told BuzzFeed News, “those medical records aren’t being audited by anyone at the state and local level currently and some people aren’t even testing those people who are dead.” “We just don’t know. The numbers are grossly underreported. I know for a fact that we’ve had three deaths in one county where only one is listed on the website,” the doctor said. A spokesperson for the California Department of Health told BuzzFeed News in an email that “local health jurisdictions are required to report all positive COVID-19 cases to the state. In addition, when a death or impending death from COVID-19 occurs, health care facilities must immediately notify their local health jurisdiction and the state.”

[..] two of the hardest-hit areas in the nation — New York City and Los Angeles County — released guidance earlier this week encouraging doctors not to test patients unless they think the test will significantly change their course of treatment. That means that potentially more people in both places could be admitted to hospitals with severe respiratory symptoms and recover — or die — and not be registered as a coronavirus case.

Africa. Pray.

• We Could Watch Entire Populations Vanish (IC)

On March 18, Burkina Faso suffered the first confirmed Covid-19 fatality in all of sub-Saharan Africa. The victim was Rose-Marie Compaoré, the first vice president of the Sahelian nation’s parliament. Tiny, impoverished, and conflict-scarred, Burkina Faso is now West Africa’s worst-affected country, with 146 confirmed cases, including four government ministers. The U.S. ambassador to Burkina Faso, Andrew Young, has also tested positive for the disease. Burkina Faso has seen more than its share of hardships: poverty, drought, hunger, coups. But the coronavirus poses a new kind of threat to a country wracked by a war that has displaced around 700,000 Burkinabe in the last year.

Many of those people now find themselves under great physical and emotional strain, lacking proper shelter, food, and the other necessities — all of which makes them more vulnerable to the pandemic. Experts fear that Covid-19 could decimate entire settlements of Burkina Faso’s displaced, and they are bracing for devastating outbreaks in conflict zones, refugee camps, and the poorest countries in the developing world. Globally, millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, or IDPs, living in cramped, squalid conditions find themselves at risk. “When the virus hits overcrowded settlements in places like Iran, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Greece, the consequences will be devastating,” warned Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council [..] He also spoke of “carnage when the virus reaches parts of Syria, Yemen, and Venezuela where hospitals have been demolished and health systems have collapsed.”

[..] I have no reason to believe Moumoumi Sawadogo had Covid-19 when I met him eight weeks ago in Burkina Faso. After living 89 years in an arid, impoverished land on the fringe of the Sahara Desert, surviving a massacre, walking for a week and enduring hunger and homelessness, it was clear that Sawadogo was a survivor. But Covid-19 posed a different kind of danger. “These populations are already very vulnerable to diseases that are otherwise easy to treat. But that’s not the case when they have no access to water or proper sanitation or health care,” Alexandra Lamarche, senior advocate for West and Central Africa at Refugees International, told The Intercept. “We could watch entire populations vanish.”

Modelling is only as good as its initial assumptions. Which in this case come out of hot thin air.

• Coronavirus Could Kill 81,000 In US, Subside In June – Washington U. (R.)

The coronavirus pandemic could kill more than 81,000 people in the United States in the next four months and may not subside until June, according to a data analysis done by University of Washington School of Medicine. The number of hospitalized patients is expected to peak nationally by the second week of April, though the peak may come later in some states. Some people could continue to die of the virus as late as July, although deaths should be below epidemic levels of 10 per day by June at the latest, according to the analysis. The analysis, using data from governments, hospitals and other sources, predicts that the number of U.S. deaths could vary widely, ranging from as low as around 38,000 to as high as around 162,000.

The variance is due in part to disparate rates of the spread of the virus in different regions, which experts are still struggling to explain, said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, who led the study. The duration of the virus means there may be a need for social distancing measures for longer than initially expected, although the country may eventually be able relax restrictions if it can more effectively test and quarantine the sick, Murray said. The analysis also highlights the strain that will be placed on hospitals. At the epidemic’s peak, sick patients could exceed the number of available hospital beds by 64,000 and could require the use of around 20,000 ventilators. Ventilators are already running short in hard-hit places like New York City.

The virus is spreading more slowly in California, which could mean that peak cases there will come later in April and social distancing measures will need to be extended in the state for longer, Murray said. Louisiana and Georgia are predicted to see high rates of contagion and could see a particularly high burden on their local healthcare systems, he added.

Let the caretakers talk. They need to, and we need to hear them.

• Hold The Line (M.)

As an infectious disease epidemiologist (although a lowly one), at this point I feel morally obligated to provide some information on what we are seeing from a transmission dynamic perspective and how they apply to the social distancing measures. Like any good scientist I have noticed two things that are either not articulated or not present in the “literature” of social media. I have also relied on my much smarter infectious disease epidemiologist friends for peer review of this post; any edits are from peer review. Specifically, I want to make two aspects of these measures very clear and unambiguous. First, we are in the very infancy of this epidemic’s trajectory. That means even with these measures we will see cases and deaths continue to rise globally, nationally, and in our own communities in the coming weeks.

This may lead some people to think that the social distancing measures are not working. They are. They may feel futile. They aren’t. You will feel discouraged. You should. This is normal in chaos. But this is normal epidemic trajectory. Stay calm. This enemy that we are facing is very good at what it does; we are not failing. We need everyone to hold the line as the epidemic inevitably gets worse. This is not my opinion; this is the unforgiving math of epidemics for which I and my colleagues have dedicated our lives to understanding with great nuance, and this disease is no exception. I want to help the community brace for this impact. Stay strong and with solidarity knowing with absolute certainty that what you are doing is saving lives, even as people begin getting sick and dying. You may feel like giving in. Don’t.

Second, although social distancing measures have been (at least temporarily) well-received, there is an obvious-but-overlooked phenomenon when considering groups (i.e. families) in transmission dynamics. While social distancing decreases contact with members of society, it of course increases your contacts with group (i.e. family) members. This small and obvious fact has surprisingly profound implications on disease transmission dynamics. Study after study demonstrates that even if there is only a little bit of connection between groups (i.e. social dinners, playdates/playgrounds, etc.), the epidemic isn’t much different than if there was no measure in place. The same underlying fundamentals of disease transmission apply, and the result is that the community is left with all of the social and economic disruption but very little public health benefit. You should perceive your entire family to function as a single individual unit; if one person puts themselves at risk, everyone in the unit is at risk.

This is about wildlife, not economic pessimists. Just in case you were confused.

• China Promotes Bear Bile As Coronavirus Treatment (NatGeo)

Less than a month after taking steps to permanently ban the trade and consumption of live wild animals for food, the Chinese government has recommended using Tan Re Qing, an injection containing bear bile, to treat severe and critical COVID-19 cases. It is one of a number of recommended coronavirus treatments—both traditional and Western—on a list published March 4 by China’s National Health Commission, the government body responsible for national health policy. This recommendation highlights what wildlife advocates say is a contradictory approach to wildlife: shutting down the live trade in animals for food on the one hand and promoting the trade in animal parts on the other. Secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, bile from various species of bears, including Asiatic black bears and brown bears, has been used in traditional Chinese medicine since at least the eighth century.

It contains high levels of ursodeoxycholic acid, also known as ursodiol, which is clinically proven to help dissolve gallstones and treat liver disease. Ursodeoxycholic acid has been available as a synthetic drug worldwide for decades. [..] Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners typically use Tan Re Qing to treat bronchitis and upper respiratory infections. Clifford Steer, a professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, has studied the medical benefits of ursodeoxycholic acid. He knows of no evidence that bear bile is an effective treatment for the novel coronavirus. But, he says, ursodeoxycholic acid is distinct from other bile acids in its ability to keep cells alive and may alleviate symptoms of COVID-19 because of its anti-inflammatory properties and ability to calm the immune response.

Although use of bear bile from captive animals is legal in China, bile from wild bears is banned, as is the import of bear bile from other countries. According to Aron White, wildlife campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)—a nonprofit based in London, England, that exposes wildlife crimes—his organization learned first about the Chinese government’s recommendations to treat COVID-19 via social media posts from illegal traders. “We were witnessing how this government recommendation was being coopted by the traffickers to advertise their illegal products as a treatment,” White says. Illegal bile from wild bears is produced in China, he says, and is also imported from wild and captive bears in Laos, Vietnam, and North Korea.

If numbers get big enough, they lose meaning.

• Fed Balance Sheet Tops $5 Trillion For First Time (R.)

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s balance sheet soared past $5 trillion in assets for the first time this week as it scooped up bonds and extended loans to banks, mutual funds and other central banks in its unprecedented effort to backstop the economy in the face of the global coronavirus pandemic. The Fed’s total balance sheet size exploded by more than half a trillion dollars in a single week, roughly twice the pace of the next-largest weekly expansion in the financial crisis in October 2008. As of Wednesday, the Fed’s stash of assets totaled $5.3 trillion, according to data released on Thursday.

The Fed bought $355 billion of Treasuries and mortgage-backed bonds in the last week in what is now an open-ended commitment to stabilize financial markets rocked by the outbreak and the halt in economic activity that has come in its wake. It also offered more than $200 billion in credit through so-called foreign currency swap lines to other central banks to allow them to pump much-needed greenbacks into their jurisdictions to help foreign borrowers stay current with their dollar-denominated liabilities.

The weekly snapshot of the Fed’s balance sheet, released each Thursday, also showed sizable demand for a pair of brand new liquidity facilities aimed at stabilizing money markets and supporting primary dealers, the banks that transact directly with the central bank. The new Primary Dealer Credit Facility had been tapped for $27.7 billion in loans as of Wednesday, while the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility had borrowings of $30.6 billion.

Which bunch of fools decided to have that vote?

• Broward Poll Workers Test Positive For COVID-19 (L10)

Two poll workers have been positively diagnosed with coronavirus, according to a statement from The Broward County Supervisor of Elections. One of the workers was only at Precinct V011 on Tuesday, March 17, Election Day, which is located at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Hollywood. The other worked at V020 at the David Park Community Center (also in Hollywood) as well as a Weston early voting location. The supervisor said that county staff as well as other poll workers at the locations have been notified of the situation. However, voters who were at the polls in person on March 17 at either of those locations or who voted early at the Weston early voting location may “wish to take appropriate steps and seek medical advice.”

Because of western testing that may seem like a high number, but it’s not.

• Moscow Laboratories Will Conduct 13,000 Tests For Coronavirus Every Day (Tass)

The laboratories in Moscow will carry out up to 13,000 tests for the novel coronavirus per day, Deputy Mayor Anastasiya Rakova said on Thursday. “Last week, only federal laboratories were authorized to conduct tests. We have fully joined this effort, launching nine laboratories. Today we are conducting nearly 4,000 tests for the coronavirus in Moscow laboratories. In the coming week w will boost the capacity to 13,000 [tests] per day,” Rakova told a TV program hosted by Vladimir Solovyov on Rossiya-1 channel. According to Rakova, the authorities were preparing for all scenarios of how the events would unfold. “Increasing the number of people who are to be tested for the coronavirus is a necessary condition and a crucial step for stopping the spread of the virus,” she stressed.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus – named COVID-19 by the WHO – have been reported in more than 150 countries. [..]Russia has recorded 840 coronavirus cases, with more than half of them in Moscow. Some 38 people have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals, and two people have died.

When the desire for optimist political messaging becomes fully irresponsible.

• New Zealand Coronavirus Deaths During Lockdown Could Be Just 20 – Modelling (G.)

Jacinda Ardern has implored New Zealanders to “stay local” during a four-week countrywide lockdown as modelling showed that strict measures adopted by the country could limit deaths to 0.0004% of the population – or about 20 people. Research released by Te Punaha Matatini suggested that, left unchecked, the virus could eventually infect 89% of New Zealand’s population and kill up to 80,000 people in a worst-case scenario. According to the research, intensive care beds would reach capacity within two months and the number of patients needing intensive care would exceed 10 times capacity by the time the virus peaked.

However, with the strictest suppression measures, which the country has adopted, the fatalities would drop to just 0.0004%. Hospital capacity would not be exceeded for over a year. These measures included physical distancing, case isolation, household quarantine, and closing schools and universities and would require the restrictions to remain in place until a vaccine or other treatment was developed. However, researchers noted such strategies can “delay but not prevent the epidemic”. “When controls are lifted after 400 days, an outbreak occurs with a similar peak size as for an uncontrolled epidemic,” the researchers wrote. The government has currently mandated a four-week lockdown.

Zero recognition of living in a bubble.

• Coronavirus Job Losses Will Raise Mortgage Stress More Than GFC Did (ABC.au)

As job losses continue to rise because of shutdowns in place to fight the coronavirus crisis, the number of Australians struggling to repay their mortgages is expected to lift to higher levels than seen during the global financial crisis. Credit rating agency S&P Global has warned the number of Australians falling behind on their mortgage repayments is likely to soar. “We currently expect increases in arrears to be higher than during the 2008 global financial crisis, given the wide-ranging effects on the economy stemming from the sudden disruption to economic activity,” S&P analyst Erin Kitson said. Australia avoided mass defaults during the GFC, with mortgage arrears rising to 1.69 per cent after the 2008 crisis, from a pre-crisis average of about 1.40 per cent.

The latest S&P data said mortgage arrears were 1.36 per cent in January, up from 1.28 per cent last December. Ms Kitson could not put a number on the exact number of Australian households that would be impacted by arrears but noted that many of those facing difficulty would be the self-employed. But the Federal Government’s stimulus packages and hardship relief measures from banks would limit some of the damage, Ms Kitson added. To fight the economic threat, the Government will announce a third stimulus package, expected within days. Many banks have also recently announced COVID-19 support packages that provide affected borrowers with an option to defer their repayments for up to six months.

The Reserve Bank cuts interest rates to a record low and announces a quantitative easing program for the first time in its history to help prevent a coronavirus-driven recession. And regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), has said if a borrower who has been meeting their repayment obligations until recently chooses to take up the repayment holiday, then the bank need not classify that period as “arrears”. Other emergency measures aimed at banks include an emergency interest rate cut and $90 billion in cheap 0.25-per-cent funding for three years for small business loans.

One day the Pentagon stops all troop movements, the next day the US declares Maduro a terrorist, and the allies, want nno part of this.

Seeing your soldiers die of corona would be much too close to WWI mass Spanish flu deaths in the trenches.

• France, Czechs, & Other US Allies Exit Iraq Over COVID-19 Fears (ZH)

The United States has shown itself willing to both keep up its ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran and its proxies while riding roughshod over Iraqi sovereignty by remaining in the country even as Baghdad leaders and the broader population demand a final exit. But in another sign Europe is ready to divorce itself from US aims in the region, France has abruptly withdrawn its forces from the country after being there for five years. Interestingly the prime reason given was troop safety concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, but we imagine European leaders likely now see an opportunity to make a swift and easy exit without provoking the ire of their US counterparts. International correspondents say this includes French withdrawal from six bases, with a small contingent of about 100 troops remaining in the country.

The Czech Ministry of Defense also announced the exit of its forces Wednesday, which followed a large contingent of British forces leaving last week, also on fears of coronavirus exposure during the mission. “British, French, Australian and Czech troops who were coaching Iraqi counterparts were being temporarily sent home as Baghdad had put a hold on training operations to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” reports the AFP this week. All had been there to support coalition anti-ISIL operations led by Washington. But as the US mission to defeat the Islamic State has lately become less relevant given the demise of the terror group, Washington’s focus became Iranian influence inside Iraq – far beyond the original mission scope. The US itself had been reportedly drawing down from certain bases, but is not expected to ultimately depart given the current high state of tensions with Iran-backed militias in the country.

The stimulus bill has opened access to assictance for the entire gig economy.

• Spike in Unemployment Claims is Even More Horrid Than it Appears (WS)

This morning, the US Dept. of Labor announced that 3.283 million people had filed initial unemployment claims in the week ended March 21. We were warned yesterday that today’s initial claims would be horrid. In his press conference yesterday concerning the coronavirus, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that California by itself had “just passed the 1 million mark” in unemployment claims since March 13 — and this might include claims to be reflected in the next reporting week. And it’s going to get worse. The five largest counties of the San Francisco Bay Area were the first major region in the US to go into lockdown on March 17. The State of California followed on March 20, toward the end of the unemployment-claims reporting week (through March 21), and many other states followed within days – and many of those claims were filed after this reporting week had ended. This is the mind-blowing effect what started to happen in the week ended March 21:

The report by the Department of Labor this morning listed some sectors that were particularly hard hit by “COVID-19 virus impacts”: • Services industries broadly, particularly accommodation and food services; • health care and social assistance services; • arts, entertainment and recreation; • transportation and warehousing; • manufacturing industries. However, this horrid spike in claims only shows a partial picture. Since the end of that reporting week, lockdowns have spread to many other states, and companies in those states are now struggling with how to cope. Many companies had already laid off people before the lockdowns – and this is reflected in today’s unemployment claims. But much of the fallout from those lockdowns and their secondary effects will be reflected in future reports.

The gig economy, as the US economy has been called due to the growth of business models that shift labor from employees to contract workers, is unprepared for this. Under current rules, gig workers cannot file for unemployment claims – though the stimulus package will change this. And for now, they have not filed for unemployment claims. But their hours of many have been cut, and others lost their gigs entirely. This includes musicians whose gigs were eliminated when bars, restaurants, and clubs shut down. It includers actors and singers and artists. It includes Uber and Lyft drivers whose business has dwindled. It includes self-employed vacation-rental entrepreneurs with some units on Airbnb that no one is booking because the travel industry has shut down. It includes tech workers whose projects have been put on hold. It includes instructors and coaches of all kinds – such as figure skating coaches, language coaches, and corporate coaches. And so on. Many millions of people.

The battle between getting closer together and staying further apart. Stuck between social distancing and political distancing.

• What Should The EU Do Now: 3-Point Plan For Averting A Depression (Varoufakis)

With Lives, Livelihoods and the Union on the brink, the COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest test of the European project in the history of the Union — and we are failing. Solidarity was meant to be a foundational principle of the EU. But solidarity is missing at the moment it is most needed. COVID-19 has revealed a fundamental truth: Europe is only as healthy as its sickest resident, only as prosperous as its most bankrupted. But the EU’s leadership is paralysed by its beggar-thy-neighbour – and now sicken-thy-neighbour – mindset. The price of this failure will not merely be lives lost and livelihoods destroyed. It will be the disintegration of the Union itself. In line with its Green New Deal for Europe, DiEM25 offers a 3-point plan to protect all European residents, avert an economic depression, and prevent the collapse the Union.

Our plan is premised on four basic facts.
1) Public debt will, and must, rise: The precipitous fall in private sector incomes must be replaced by government expenditure. If not, bankruptcies will destroy much of Europe’s productive capacity and, thus, deplete the tax base even further.

2) The wholesale rise in public debt must not divide us: The last euro crisis wrecked some member-states’ fiscal position while improving the fiscal position of others. The results are wildly different fiscal absorption capacities across the eurozone. If the rise in public debt is not a shared burden, the new euro crisis will destroy the last chance to hold the European Union together once the virus itself has been defeated.

3) A Eurobond is essential, but the devil is in its details: Nine eurozone governments have rightly demanded the issue of a Eurobond so that the burden of rising public debt is shared. But the most important questions remain: Which institution should issue it? And who will back it? DiEM25 believes there is only one answer: an ECB-Eurobond backed solely by the ECB.

4) A Eurobond is essential, but it is not enough: Two more interventions are needed. During the pandemic, Europe must inject directly cash into every citizen’s bank account immediately so as to prevent as many bankruptcies and lost livelihoods as possible. Once the pandemic recedes, Europe must embark upon a sizeable, effective and common green investment program so as to improve Europe’s overall capacity to bounce back.

I haven’t had time to listen to the whole thing. But I miss Dylan Ratigan.

• Dylan Ratigan: “An Abomination Beyond Comprehension” – “Bernie Folded” (Dore)

Jimmy Dore talks to Dylan Ratigan

In the midst of the corona crisis,, Bob Dylan dropped a 17-minute song, on the murder of JFK. It’s his first original song in 8 years, and also of course since getting the Nobel Prize.. And why not. For help with lyrics go here

The day that they killed him, someone said to me, ‘Son
The age of the Antichrist has only begun.’
Air Force One coming in through the gate
Johnson sworn in at 2:38
Let me know when you decide to thrown in the towel
It is what it is, and it’s murder most foul

What’s new, pussycat? What’d I say?
I said the soul of a nation been torn away
And it’s beginning to go into a slow decay
And that it’s 36 hours past Judgment Day

• Muder Most Foul (Bob Dylan)

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