Aug 122025
 


James Proudfoot Sun on a House, Dieppe 1937

 

Trump Must Take Out Deep State Now – Larry Klayman (USAW)
Trump Invokes DC Home Rule Act, Set To Deploy National Guard (ZH)
Trump Slaps Down Zelensky Land Swap Excuses (RT)
Russia is a Warring Country – Trump (RT)
Western Europe Wants Ukraine War To Continue, Even Without The Americans (RMX)
‘Another Nazi Leaflet’ – Moscow Slams Western Europe’s Ukraine Statement (RT)
Trump Tempers Expectations Ahead Of Alaska “Feel-Out Meeting” With Putin (ZH)
NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, Discusses Upcoming Trump-Putin Summit (CTH)
Zelensky Cronies Transfer $50Mln ‘Corruption Money’ to UAE Every Month, (Sp.)
Kiev’s Forces Face Catastrophe In Donbass – Ukrainian Ex-Commander (RT)
Gerrymandering Makes Hypocrisy a Political Punch Line (Turley)
Top DOJ Lawyer Warns Feds Could Face Criminal Charges For Weaponization (JTN)
Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly Warns About Mamdani as NYC Mayor (CTH)
Putin-Trump Meeting: The Triumph of Delusion Over Reality (Paul Craig Roberts)
Under Color of Law (James Howard Kunstler)
Trump: The President for Peace (Sierra Knoch)
The Return Of Private Money: American Dream Meets European Nightmare (Kolbe)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1954703389419532435

Poro

kids
https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1954221805289537766

 

 

 

 

“It’s obvious Trump and his team have come to the conclusion that they have to get the Left and the Deep State before they get them.”

Trump Must Take Out Deep State Now – Larry Klayman (USAW)

Renowned attorney Larry Klayman says the coming indictments of the Deep State traitors who tried to frame President Trump as a Russian spy in his first term are all in serious trouble. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard charges that Obama Administration officials politicized intelligence and laid the groundwork for a “years-long coup” against President Donald Trump after he won the 2016 election. Gabbard first uncovered a mountain of documents implicating many in the so-called Deep State. Gabbard claimed in a post on X that former President Barack Obama and key members of his national security team, including then-CIA Director John Brennan and then-DNI James Clapper, fabricated a narrative about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election to “subvert” Trump’s presidency.

They even made up evidence, such as the so-called Steele Dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton. They were all lies to make President Trump look bad. If these people are not stopped now while Trump is in office, and in control of the DOJ, then they will come after him when he is out of office and no longer in power. Klayman says, “Why is this different from the past? . . .. President Trump and the people around him, including Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino and others, have learned what they are up against. They’ve tried now to assassinate the President twice. I believe the Left and the Democrats were behind it. I think they wanted him dead. They did not want him (Trump) to be elected. There was also all the lawfare (like warfare) over the last many years.

It’s obvious Trump and his team have come to the conclusion that they have to get the Left and the Deep State before they get them.” Klayman says President Trump is at greater risk now than anytime in the past. Klayman explains, “Because President Trump has been so successful thus far, he is at great risk. There will likely be other assassination attempts and on the lives of other people in the cabinet. There will be attempts of assassination of anybody who supports him. I was in California recently, and I was wearing my Trump inauguration jacket from 2017, and some guy starts screaming I was a Nazi and this and that. I did not respond because I was in the middle of a bank. There is so much hatred out there, and this is why they have to take these people out legally and peacefully.”

Klayman points out people have the right to defend themselves, especially in the home, and Klayman urges people to use their Second Amendment rights if and when there is a need to do so. As the indictments come down in the not-so-distant future, expect violence. Klayman says, “The Left has its back up against the wall. They are a drowning man, so to speak. . .. There will be violence. They will try to foment violence. Who is likely to be indicted? Klayman names a few for starters. This list includes John Brennan, James Clapper, Peter Strzok and Mark Elias. Then Klayman predicts, “They will first go for the low hanging fruit before they get to Hillary Clinton and other higher ups. They will see if they can flip them. This time it’s different, and this time I believe there will be some accountability.”

Read more …

“..the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force…”

Trump Invokes DC Home Rule Act, Set To Deploy National Guard (ZH)

President Trump told reporters at the White House that he plans to deploy the D.C. National Guard and place the Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control as part of a massive push to restore law and order in the nation’s capital. Trump told reporters that he is officially invoking the D.C. Home Rule Act to place the Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and deploy the National Guard, stating, “This is Liberation Day in D.C. — and we’re going to take our capital BACK.”

Earlier, President Trump fired off a Truth Social post around 8:00 a.m. ET: “Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today! Crime, savagery, filth, and scum will DISAPPEAR. I will MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN!” “The days of ruthlessly killing or hurting innocent people are OVER! I quickly fixed the border (ZERO ILLEGALS in the last 3 months!), and D.C. is next!!!” the president said. Trump’s Truth Social post was followed by a report from The Wall Street Journal, which cited a U.S. official saying the White House was preparing to activate hundreds of National Guard troops across the metro area, pending a final order. Earlier this year, the president signed an executive order establishing the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force,” calling for increased law enforcement presence in public areas and launching initiatives to beautify parks and other public spaces.

[..] And last week, 19-year-old Edward Coristine, a former staffer at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) whose LinkedIn handle earned him the nickname ‘Big Balls,’ was badly hurt in an attack in the crime-ridden metro area. Similar crime trends have been seen in lawless Baltimore City, controlled by far-left politicians who have zero accountability for their failed social justice policies that have backfired.

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1954922736834511175

Read more …

“I mean, he’s got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap[.]”

Trump Slaps Down Zelensky Land Swap Excuses (RT)

US President Donald Trump has again said that a land swap for peace will be discussed at the upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. The statement clashes with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky’s earlier refusal to consider any territorial concessions. “They’ve [Russia] occupied some very prime territory. We’re going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine,” Trump said, implying that some areas might remain under Russian control in a future settlement. The Lugansk People’s Republic, Donetsk People’s Republic, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions became part of Russia following referendums held in 2022. Crimea voted to join the country in 2014, following the armed Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev.

Trump previously also suggested that upcoming negotiations could involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.” However, on Saturday, Zelensky rejected any land-swap proposals, citing limitations imposed by Ukraine’s constitution. During his press conference, Trump expressed frustration over Zelensky’s insistence that any territorial concessions to Russia would require constitutional approval. The US president questioned how Zelensky had the legal authority to wage war but could cite legal constraints against trading land.

“I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelensky was saying, well, I have to get constitutional approval,” Trump said, adding, “I mean, he’s got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap[.]” In a post on X on Sunday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga also wrote: “No rewards or gifts to the aggressor to appease him,” adding that “every concession invites further aggression.” Russian officials have repeatedly said that any peace deal must address the root causes of the conflict and reflect the realities on the ground.

Read more …

As is obvious from his own words, Russia is not a warring country. It has been invaded, and successfully defended itself, though always at a very steep -human-price. Find a map of US battles and invasions in the past century to see a “warring country”.

Russia is a Warring Country – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has described Russia as a “warring country,” saying Moscow has been engaged in conflicts for centuries and “just keeps on fighting.” Trump made the remarks on Monday at a press conference, where he talked about his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the US state of Alaska to discuss a possible settlement of the Ukraine conflict. “Russia is a warring nation. That’s what they do – they fight a lot of wars,” he said. “A friend of mine said, Russia is tough because they just keep on fighting,” Trump added. “They beat Hitler – so did we. And they beat Napoleon. You know, they’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Trump was referring to two of Russia’s military triumphs – the defeat of Napoleon’s Grand Army two centuries ago and the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. The two European dictators – Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler – sent their armies into Russia in 1812 and 1941, respectively, only to suffer crushing defeats.

Read more …

Look at the state their countries and economies are in and you understand.

“The issue, however, is that “Zelensky does not want to sign because he is afraid of being held responsible for losing the war.”

Western Europe Wants Ukraine War To Continue, Even Without The Americans (RMX)

A Polish political scientist and journalist, Prof. Adam Wielomski, has taken to social media to claim Western European leaders do not seek a ceasefire in Ukraine at all, while the U.S. and Russia have their terms set and ready to go. According to Wielomski, Trump and Putin have already made an agreement and will simply use their Aug. 15 meeting in Alaska to announce it “with great pomp and circumstance.” Meanwhile, talk of Zelensky being present at the meeting is in no way related to Zelensky having any say on the negotiated terms, he continues, but to show that Zelensky is on board and to have him sign the pre-arranged agreement. The issue, however, is that “Zelensky does not want to sign because he is afraid of being held responsible for losing the war.”

And Western Europe stands behind him “because it wants the war to continue despite the withdrawal of the Americans, as this will give it fuel and an excuse to eliminate American control over it in the form of NATO and give it a reason to create either a European Defense Union or to federalize the EU with a common foreign and defense policy.” Wielomski then asks the “intelligentsia” who will benefit the most, Kyiv or Moscow, from the Americans withdrawing, leaving Zelensky only with the U.K. and the EU to support it. News portal Do Rzeczy reported on a document signed over the weekend by European leaders, committing to continued support of Ukraine and financing its ongoing needs. President Macron, Prime Minister Meloni, Chancellor Merz, Prime Minister Tusk, Prime Minister Starmer, President von der Leyen, and President Stubb all signed the statement regarding “peace for Ukraine in connection with the planned meeting between President Trump and President Putin.”

Included in the document was their concern that serious negotiations can only take place under conditions of a ceasefire or a reduction in military operations and that Ukraine’s participation in any talks was critical to any peace being achieved. Both the White House and the Kremlin accepted President Zelensky’s request to join the talks, although no formal invitation was issued. Meanwhile, a senior member of Putin’s inner circle, Investment Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, has said that many countries are making “titanic efforts” to hinder an agreement between Russia and Trump. Dmitriev did not name specific countries but indicated that critics of the upcoming talks may attempt to sabotage the summit through diplomatic maneuvers and disinformation via the media.

Read more …

“The relations between Kiev and the bureaucracy in Brussels have “begun to resemble necrophilia, and it is distinguished by the fierce reciprocity on both sides..”

‘Another Nazi Leaflet’ – Moscow Slams Western Europe’s Ukraine Statement (RT)

A statement issued by Ukraine’s Western European backers on the upcoming talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump is just “another Nazi leaflet,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. On Sunday, the leaders of France, Germany, the UK, Poland, Italy and Finland, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, issued a joint statement “on peace for Ukraine” dedicated to the upcoming Alaska summit between Putin and Trump scheduled for August 15. They welcomed the US president’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, but claimed that “only an approach” that includes “pressure on the Russian Federation” can be successful.

Zakharova commented on the statement later in the day, calling it “another Nazi leaflet claiming that success in achieving peace in Ukraine can allegedly only be achieved by putting pressure on Russia and supporting Kiev.” The cessation of hostilities requested by Ukraine’s backers in the EU and UK does not include stopping the supply of weapons to “Kiev terrorists,” she pointed out. The relations between Kiev and the bureaucracy in Brussels have “begun to resemble necrophilia, and it is distinguished by the fierce reciprocity on both sides,” the spokeswoman added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed previously that “Western Europe has once again found itself under a Nazi flag by committing to a completely misguided, disastrous venture of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia” by backing Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly said it is interested in a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict, but insists that it must address its root causes in order to bring a permanent and stable peace. According to Russian officials, any deal must also reflect the realities on the ground, including the status of Crimea, which reunified with Russia in 2014, as well as the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, which joined Russia after referendums in 2022.

Read more …

“The fact that Trump is even meeting with Putin is being felt as a huge slap in the face in Kiev.”

Trump Tempers Expectations Ahead Of Alaska “Feel-Out Meeting” With Putin (ZH)

During President Donald Trump’s wide-raning news conference held at the White House on Monday, he was asked about the much anticipated Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is of course stirring much controversy given European fears that he’ll do a deal which sidelines Ukraine’s interests. “This is a war that should never have happened,” Trump began in this section of the presser. “This is a war that wouldn’t have happened if I were president, it would never have happened.” These statements are nothing new, but what followed is a first. Trump then interestingly for the first time used language about the Friday planned summit which appears aimed at greatly tempering expectations. This is after several rounds of US-backed Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul failed to produce any breakthroughs.

Trump described the talks with Putin as merely a “feel-out meeting” and said that Putin “wants to get involved”. He then voiced his belief that Putin wants to get the war “over with”. “I’ve said that a few times and I’ve been disappointed because I’d have a great call with him and then missiles would be lobbed into Kyiv or some other place,” Trump stated. He futher pledged that he’ll tell Putin “you’ve got to end this war, you’ve got to end it”. And he sought to once again reassure European leaders -“who I get along with very well” – saying they will be the first phone call after the talks are over. As for whether a final deal could be achieved in Alaska, Trump emphasized that “it’s not up to me”. Again choosing language which seeks to manage expectations, Trump casually said: “I got a call to say they’d like to meet, and I’m going to see what they want to meet about.”

“I’d like to see a ceasefire, I’d like to see the best deal that could be made for both parties, it takes two to tango,” he added, which could be interpreted as a jab toward Ukraine. Trump at one point in his comments mistakenly said: “We’re going to Russia. That’s going to be a big deal.” He perhaps has a future trip to Russia in mind, as a return gesture for Putin coming to American soil to talk. But then near the end of the remarks he offered a corrective, saying “I thought it was very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country, as opposed to us going to his country, or even a third, third party place.” Such warm words said of Putin will likely make Zelensky nervous, hearkening back to the opening months of Trump taking office, when Trump’s relations with Zelensky hit a low-point, and criticisms aimed at Kiev came weekly.

Some analysts have already pointed out that these Monday statements from Trump don’t bode well for Ukraine and a favorable settlement on its terms. Meanwhile, Zelensky in fresh statements has highlighted Russia has only stepped-up aerial attacks on Ukraine of late. He talled that in just the past week, Russia sent more than 1,000 air bombs, nearly 1,400 drones and several missile strikes on Ukraine. But Ukraine has also been hitting Russian oil refineries on a weekly basis at this point, as both sides continue to target energy infrastructure. Ukraine’s position has been to accuse Russia of simply trying to buy time, and that it’s not actually interested in negotiating peace. The fact that Trump is even meeting with Putin is being felt as a huge slap in the face in Kiev.

Read more …

In Rutte’s dreams, Trump goes to Alaska to “test” Putin, Putin fails the test, and Trump will then support a full-blown NATO war against Rusia.

NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, Discusses Upcoming Trump-Putin Summit (CTH)

The ever-dramatic Margaret Brennan is in full pearl-clutching mode as she questions NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, about the upcoming meeting between horrible President Trump and even more horrible President Putin. It is simply unfathomable to allow a U.S. President to create a strategic reset with a Russian President. As Brennan acts out the role, she highlights how it is unimaginable, terrible, and just a no good bad thing. Horrid. NATO Secretary Rutte is quite happy with the new funds flowing into the NATO alliance as organized by President Trump. Rutte sits atop a new cache of taxpayer funded treasure for the alliance to organize; from his perspective Trump is gold, and Brennan gnashes her teeth throughout. Funnily, Brennan attempts to spin a Trump-Putin agreement for a ceasefire with Trump triggering World War III by getting the beginning of a peace deal over the finish line. If Trump creates peace, the world will explode or something. Rutte missed the opportunity to ask Mrs Brennan if she can hear herself. lol

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning. Well, Mr. Secretary General, big picture here; is Russia’s Vladimir Putin still a direct threat to the Western alliance, or is he showing some signs of dropping his aggression?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: He is still the main threat to the Western alliance, there’s no doubt. And I think it is very good that President Trump will test him, and we’ll see how far he can get on Friday, starting this process. He basically broke the deadlock, President Trump, in February, starting the dialogue with Putin. I think that was crucial. We had a great NATO Summit under his leadership, committing to 5% defense spending, so that there is a clear signal to our main threat, which is Russia, that we are serious. And then he opened the floodgates, three weeks ago, of American lethal weapons to be delivered into Ukraine, coordinated by NATO and, of course, the secondary sanctions. He started them with putting them on India, which is one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that is certainly the groundwork being laid. The concern is, of course, as you know, among some critics, that in this conference room in Alaska, we’re going to see a 1938 moment. Where, in an attempt to immediately halt a war, the groundwork is laid for an even bigger conflict because of concessions that are made. Are you comfortable with Ukraine being excluded from these negotiations on Friday?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: What will happen on Friday is testing Putin by President Trump. And I commend him for the fact that he organized this meeting. I think it is important. And, obviously, when it comes to peace talks, the cease-fire and what happens after that on territories, on security guarantees for Ukraine, Ukraine will have to be, and will be, involved. But on Friday, it is important to see how serious Putin is. And the only one who can do that is President Trump. So, it’s really crucial that a meeting takes place. It will not be the final say on this. There will not be the final deal on this. Of course, Ukraine will have to be involved in Europe, but it is important to start the next phase of this process, putting pressure on the Russians exactly as President Trump has been doing over the last six months.

Read more …

It takes a Turkish newspaper to report on this. You try find a western report on it. And mind you, this is just one stream of “corrupt money”. $50 million? We’re talking billions.

Zelensky Cronies Transfer $50Mln ‘Corruption Money’ to UAE Every Month, (Sp.)

Turkish newspaper Aydinlik published on Monday the bank accounts of companies based in the UAE involved in the corruption scheme of Volodymyr Zelensky’s cronies, about $50 million are transferred to the Middle Eastern country every month. Since last year, Ukraine has been rocked by allegations of corruption, which can “strike the Kiev government in the very heart,” the newspaper reported, adding that the main problem for Zelensky is that his inner circle is also involved in the corruption case. Zelensky’s closest circle transfers about $50 million a month to the accounts of two companies linked to Andrei Gmyrin, the alleged disposer of funds obtained through corruption, the newspaper reported.

Both companies are based in the United Arab Emirates — GFM Investment Group LLC (UAE No. 967369, No. 11707266, Emirates NBD bank account number: AE 210260001015792940701) and Gmyrin Family Holding Limited (UAE No. ICC20210636, No. 11664590), the newspaper reported. Gmyrin, who is a former consultant to the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU), is under international investigation in connection with his complex network of companies and a portfolio of luxury goods in France, the UAE and Europe, the newspaper reported.

Read more …

The defense line is literally broken.

Kiev’s Forces Face Catastrophe In Donbass – Ukrainian Ex-Commander (RT)

The situation in southwestern Donbass is rapidly deteriorating for the Ukrainian troops that are now facing two major encirclements, former chief of staff of the Azov Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Bogdan Krotevich, has claimed. The frontline between Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), the largest city under Ukrainian control in the southwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, and Konstantinovka, a major stronghold some 45km to the northeast of the city, has effectively ceased to exist, Krotevich claimed. “I honestly don’t know what exactly you are being told, but I can tell you: the Pokrovsk-Konstantinovka line is, without exaggeration, a complete f**k up. And this f**k up has been growing for a long time, getting messier every day,” he wrote in an open letter to Vladimir Zelensky which he posted on X late on Monday.

The city of Pokrovsk has been de-facto surrounded by Russian troops, while Konstantinovka is facing semi-encirclement, he claimed. The former Azov commander shared a map purporting to show the situation in the area, which corroborates media reports of a major Russian breakthrough to the north of Pokrovsk that emerged earlier in the day. “The systemic problem began with the thinning out of reserves, widespread fragmentation of units along the entire front line, reports about a ‘taken village’ touted as a victory despite failures in entire operational directions,” Krotevich wrote, accusing “parts” of the military leadership of a “complete lack of a strategic and even operational vision of the theater of operations.”

A similar alarmist message was produced by Taras Chmut, the head of the pro-military charity Come Back Alive. The crisis in Donbass has been brewing for about a year and a half, he wrote on X earlier in the day, predicting the Ukrainian military was about to begin losing land “by tens, hundreds of square kilometers” daily. “First, we failed at the platoon level. Then the company. Then it’s the turn of the battalion level. When it comes to brigades, the enemy will put into action its armored groups, which have been actively accumulating for a year, and will go to the rear, to the operational space,” he claimed.

Read more …

“Pritzker had just declared gerrymandering a threat to democracy. He followed up by making a joke of his own unparalleled gerrymandering. The New York audience cheered both statements…”

Gerrymandering Makes Hypocrisy a Political Punch Line (Turley)

Former diplomat and Democratic senator Adlai Stevenson once remarked that “a hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.” If so, this week in politics was nothing but the worst form of stump speeches. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared that the move by Texas Republicans to redistrict mid-decade was a “legal insurrection of our U.S. Capitol.” In Texas, Democratic State Rep. Jolanda Jones (D) must have felt “insurrection” did not quite capture the infamy. Instead, she insisted, “I will liken this to the Holocaust.” Others repeated the Democratic mantra that it was the death of democracy. That includes former President Barack Obama, who had said nothing when Democrats made his own state the most gerrymandered in the union.

In Illinois, surrounded by Texas legislators who had fled their state to prevent a legislative quorum, Gov. JB Pritzker (D) bellowed that gerrymandering was an attempt to “steal” congressional seats and to “disenfranchise people.” It did not matter that the stump Pritzker and Texas Democrats were standing on in Chicago is located the most gerrymandered state in the country. The redistricting law, signed by Pritzker left Republicans with just three of the state’s 17 congressional seats, even though they won nearly half the votes in the last election. What is missing in any of this is any sense of shame. The most telling moment came when Pritzker went on the Stephen Colbert’s show on CBS — a show that offered him a reliably supportive audience and a long track record of 86 percent of jokes slamming conservatives or Republicans.

Pritzker received roaring cheers when he said that he was protecting democracy from Texas gerrymandering. Colbert then showed him the map of Illinois, which features ridiculously shaped, snaking districts that stretch across the state — all drawn to maximize Democratic performance in elections. Pritzker just shrugged and joked how they had kindergarteners design it. Colbert and the audience laughed uproariously. So let’s recap. Pritzker had just declared gerrymandering a threat to democracy. He followed up by making a joke of his own unparalleled gerrymandering. The New York audience cheered both statements. Some of the outrage by Democrats seemed part of a comedy routine. In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey pledged to retaliate by gerrymandering her heavily gerrymandered state. The problem?

It is already so badly gerrymandered that there are no Republican House members in the state — there haven’t been any since the 1990s. We have reached the point in our age of rage where one’s hypocrisy can be openly acknowledged but then dismissed with a chuckle. It is not cheap to lock Republicans out completely in heavily Democratic states. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) quickly pledged to order a new round of gerrymandering in a state where Republicans constituted roughly 40 percent of the congressional vote in 2024 but received only about 17 percent of the House seats. To reduce the Republicans to near zero would require passage of a ballot proposition, costing more than $200 million, even as California faces a budget crisis and a deficit greater than $20 billion. And that may prove to be just a fraction of the true cost.

Read more …

“..federal agents and intelligence officers who weaponized their government powers for political purposes could face criminal charges under civil rights laws..”

Top DOJ Lawyer Warns Feds Could Face Criminal Charges For Weaponization (JTN)

A top Justice Department lawyer is warning that federal agents and intelligence officers who weaponized their government powers for political purposes could face criminal charges under civil rights laws created to fight injustices during the Jim Crow era more than a half-century ago. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon cautioned in an interview with Just the News that she could not discuss any specific investigations or potential suspect. But she said recent reports that one or more grand juries were probing the weaponization of government powers against President Trump and his associates or followers might have given good reason for current and former FBI and CIA officials to hire lawyers.

“This, again, goes back to those Reconstruction Era statutes that sought to remedy the vestiges of racism, and we had some terrible incidents in our country’s history of law enforcement officials conspiring to deprive African Americans of their civil rights,“ she said in a wide-ranging interview with the “Just the News, No Noise” television show. “And that is where some of these laws stem from.” “But they’re broader than that, and so it can be a crime for government officials, either together or in conspiring with non-government officials, to violate people’s civil rights,” she explained. “That’s also a civil violation. I’ve actually sued over that in California for pro-life activists. And you know, we have long-standing cases involving these issues, and so I think, you know, government officials may think, because nobody ever bothers to enforce these statutes, that they’re immune, and they can do whatever they want.”

“Not so, and I think that’s why you’re seeing some people tongue-in-cheek saying that in DC, every lawyer is being retained …. as these investigations have begun to hit the newswires,” she added. Dhillon’s comments come as FBI Director Kash Patel has opened at least one criminal conspiracy case looking at whether DOJ, FBI, and intelligence community officers were engaged in a long-running conspiracy to violate the rights of Donald Trump and his followers from the Russiagate scandal to the raid on Mar-a-Lago. In addition, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard have referred current and former officials to the Justice Department for possible prosecution for alleged abuses.

Last week, the Justice Department issued subpoenas to New York Attorney General Leticia James seeking any evidence of whether she sought to violate the civil rights of President Trump when she filed a civil lawsuit against his company for alleged fraud. Section 241 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code makes it “unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person of any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the United States.” Such conspiracy statutes are derived from the Civil Rights Acts of 1960 and 1964, which were enacted to protect black citizens from police abuses in the South and from prohibitions in public places. Those laws were complemented by a series of voting rights laws as well.

The laws were seldom successfully used against police officers during the 1960’s, but have been more commonly used against police misconduct over the last three decades, starting most notably with the infamous 1993 Rodney King case where four LAPD officers involved were captured on videotape beating King. The four were initially acquitted on state charges in May of that year, which led to five days of rioting. Fifty-three people (including 28 African-Americans, 19 Hispanics, 14 whites, and 2 Asians) were killed: the greatest death toll in any American civil disturbance since the 1863 Draft Riots in New York City. Looting and fires had inflicted more than one billion dollars in property damage. The four officers were retried under federal civil rights laws in February 1993, with two of them being acquitted, and the remaining two found guilty and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. In a civil lawsuit, King won a $3.8 million verdict from the City of Los Angeles.

More recently, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights in 2020 by kneeling on his neck and suffocating Floyd. The Justice Department said in a press release that Chauvin pleaded guilty to willfully depriving Mr. Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, resulting in Mr. Floyd’s bodily injury and death. In the plea documents, Chauvin agreed that the sentencing for this crime should be based on the sentence for second-degree murder because he acted willfully and in callous and wanton disregard of the consequences on Floyd’s life. He was sentenced to a term in prison of more than 20 years.

Elsewhere, a law enforcement officer was tried and convicted on similar charges related to violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky during the execution of a search warrant in March 2020 that, according to the Justice Department, led to the death of Taylor in her home. Although his shots did not strike Taylor, the use of deadly force was unjustified. Taylor was killed during the botched raid when police rammed the door open and Taylor’s boyfriend, believing that intruders were breaking in, fired his handgun one time at officers, two of whom fired back, hitting and killing Taylor. A federal judge dismissed the felony charges against the other police officers in August of last year, although the other officers are still facing ongoing criminal litigation, according to a local TV station.

Read more …

Silly me, I figured Mamdani was far too far out in left field to get any votes. Now everyone’s saying woke’s wet dream is a shoe-in for mayor. And New York is fully dependent on Trump to come save it.

Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly Warns About Mamdani as NYC Mayor (CTH)

Former New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, is warning about what will happen if Zohran Mamdani wins the mayor race in New York City. However, at this point the Mamdani victory is almost assured. Mamdani is supported by both the professional political left and the professional political right. Essentially supported by establishment Democrats and establishment Republicans. Also, supported openly by the DNC and supported passively by the fundraising arm of the RNC. Mamdani represents the opportunity for both parties to fundraise billions of dollars in support and opposition. This is the UniParty at work. Zohran Mamdani is essentially a shoo-in for Mayor. He hits a very unique niche spot, fulfilling the role needed for the left and the right.

The left will promote the unaffordability of things and target the Gen-z audience for branding. The DNC will do their social/econ experiments again and fundraise. On the other side of the UniParty, the “conservatives” within the traditional GOPe will have their new foil. Conservatives will have the opportunity for thousands of hours of punditry, lots of column inches and, of course, fundraising. An argument can be made that Andrew Cuomo, financed by those who construct political distractions, entered the NYC race to ensure a Mamdani victory. Republicans, Democrats, communists, leftists, controlled right media, Palestinian supporters and Israel-First strategists all prefer both a beacon and a foil to keep the coliseum crowd occupied.

Yeah, politics in the post-Obama era is about seeing the other hand in slow motion now, feeling that intuitive sense of history repeating, and noticing the same tripwires are being triggered. Wash, rinse, repeat. ‘NEW YORK – Ex-NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly on Sunday warned it would be a “tragedy of major proportions” if city voters elect socialist mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, who is “totally unqualified” for the office. Kelly — the longest-serving police commissioner in Big Apple history with stints under Democratic Mayors Mike Bloomberg and David Dinkins — said he is especially worried Mamdani will gut the Police Department while trying to usher in “a whole list of wacky things.”

“It’s a tragedy of major proportions if Mamdani is elected mayor of the greatest city in the world,” Kelly said on WABC 770 AM’s the “Cats Roundtable” program. (more)” The guy is straight from central casting for the UniParty. A proud socialist, Muslim supporter of Hamas, progressive wealth spreader who hears and understands the voices of the Starbucks crowd. A NYC version of Barry Soetero. Professional Democrats and Republicans will benefit financially.

Read more …

“The entire point of Washington’s orchestrated conflict in Ukraine was to destabilize Russia. Has Washington abandoned this policy goal?”

“How does the military/security complex see the loss of its Russian enemy?”

Putin-Trump Meeting: The Triumph of Delusion Over Reality (Paul Craig Roberts)

A couple of days ago Trump said it wasn’t worthwhile meeting with Putin, but suddenly ordered his aides to arrange a meeting with Putin in a week. The explanations we have been given for this is that Putin said Trump’s negotiator Witcoff had made an acceptable proposal. Putin’s negotiator Kirill Dmitriev declared “a historic meeting in which dialogue will prevail.” One dreamer proclaimed that Putin and Trump “may reconfigure the world order.” These premature declarations of agreement and success have led to further romantic theorizing. One Russian commentator declared that Alaska was chosen for the historic meeting because it “so clearly embodies the spirit of neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation lost during the Cold War.” The Russian Atlanticist-Integrationists whose hearts and interests are in the West are hopeful that their declarations of bliss, even if involves Russian surrender, will prevail over Russian nationalism.

For example, Putin’s negotiator is Kirill Dmitriev, nominally a Russian, but in fact a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School–entrances into the American Establishment–who began his career at Goldman Sachs, an establishment member. He is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. His long list of honors and directorships of Russian companies is provided by the WEF. Currently he is chief of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Putin’s Special Envoy on International Economic and Investment Cooperation. Could Putin have chosen a more conflicted person to negotiate with Washington? Among these and other highly hopeful statements, what is the reality of the situation? Does it conform to the expressed expectations? No. As far as I can tell, Trump is headed into a “historic meeting” with his Russian counterpart and still has no idea what Putin’s position is.

Trump most recently spoke of a peace deal based on a “swapping of territories,” which Zelensky’s European supporters say must be a “reciprocal” swap of territory. Zelensky’s position is that all territory must be returned to Ukraine. Putin’s position is that all territory now incorporated into the Russian Federation must be accepted as Russian by Ukraine and the West. Otherwise, Russia has to repudiate its military victories in a war that was provoked by Washington. But the main problem with Trump’s approach is that he is thinking of the meeting in a very limited context of ending the military conflict with a land swap, whereas Putin wants a mutual security agreement with Washington and NATO that gets NATO off of Russia’s borders. The war that Putin wants to end is the West’s hostility toward Moscow. The war in Ukraine Russia can take care off.

Putin’s objective is a highly desirable goal, because the worsening provocations of Moscow will eventually result in nuclear war. But how realistic is Putin’s goal? I would say it is not realistic. First, the Wolfowitz Doctrine is in the way. The Wolfowitz doctrine declares the principal goal of US foreign policy to be to prevent the rise of any power that can serve as a constraint on American unilateralism. The neoconservatives who originated this doctrine are still very influential in US policy-making circles. No US president or Secretary of State has repudiated this doctrine. Trump himself recently declared the policy when he said “I rule America and the world.” That is a hegemonic statement.

Indeed, the current military conflict in Ukraine is entirely the product of Washington’s hegemonic foreign policy. Washington orchestrated the “Maidan Revolution” in order to overthrow a Russian-friendly democratic government and to install a Russophobic puppet. The puppet government then attacked the people in the Russian territories of Ukraine until they forced a Russian intervention after the West used the Minsk Agreement to deceive Putin and after the West refused the Kremlin’s request for a mutual security agreement during December 2021-February 2022. At this point Putin was forced to intervene in order to prevent the slaughter of the Russians in the independent Donbas republics by a large Ukrainian army trained and equipped by Washington.

If Putin had had the foresight to accept the Donbas republics’ request in 2014 to be reunited with Russia like Crimea, the war would have been avoided. But Putin, badly advised, confused a defense of Russian people with a provocation to the West. In 2014 the Atlanticists-Integrationists, whose interests are in the West, not in Russia, still intended for the Kremlin to crawl on its belly back into Western acceptance by being a good subject of Washington’s hegemonic rule.. The entire point of Washington’s orchestrated conflict in Ukraine was to destabilize Russia. Has Washington abandoned this policy goal?

Second, there is the interest of the US military/security complex. The power and profit of the military/security complex depends on having enemies. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the creation of the “Muslim Threat” used to sustain the military/security’s profits and powers with Washington’s 21st century wars that destroyed, so far, five Muslim countries, while supporting with money, weapons, and diplomatic cover Israel’s genocide of Palestine, and Washington is now being aligned with Israel to destroy Iran.

A few days ago President Trump bragged that he had negotiated a deal with the EU to purchase hundreds of billions of dollars of US weapons to send to Ukraine. What happens to this deal if peace comes to Ukraine? How does the military/security complex see the loss of its Russian enemy? Has Trump promised them an Iranian war and/or a war with China as replacements? Third, if Trump favors peace with Russia, why did he just reinstall in Europe the US intermediate-range nuclear missiles that President Reagan had removed, and in addition deploy two submarines with nuclear missiles closer to Russia?

Read more …

“The second-order and third-order damages of RussiaGate are incalculable. A murder of American democracy was committed.” — Mike Benz on “X”

Under Color of Law (James Howard Kunstler)

Surely you’ve noticed the ominous cone of silence around the DOJ and the FBI as rumors of “accountability” mount against well-known figures who used government to make war against its own citizens. That is exactly what happened, by the way, in case you’re baffled by the news. The agencies aren’t leaking this time, especially not to the mendacious scribes that infest The New York Times and The WashPo, who function as vanguard to the corps of traitors in the rogue fourth branch of government called the Blob. So, the silence begs you to ask: Are they doing anything in there?

Yes, they are making cases. And they are not yapping idly about it in the news, legacy or alt. They are preparing evidence for grand juries that will decide if probable cause exists to indict those well-known figures — several of whom have become cable news performers, foolishly, if obliquely, advertising their own culpability for years now. You’ll just have to wait, though perhaps not for long. It is August, after all, the horse latitudes of the year when things go still.

You are lectured incessantly and sanctimoniously by these same suspects about the rule of law (in “our democracy”). Many of these characters are maestros in the dark arts of lawfare, which, paradoxically, is the practice of using law to pervert and dishonor the rule of law. Lately, you are introduced to a similar sounding phrase, under color of law, with a related meaning. Understand it and you will see what has been behind virtually all the mischief in our public affairs this past, vicious decade. Under color of law has deep roots in Anglo-American jurisprudence because law, by its nature, lends itself to abuse and nefarious misuse. The law’s “nature” is that it is a set of rules to decide matters of consequence, both personal and public, where much is at stake: ownership of property, liberty, life itself. At times, actions are taken in the name of the law to unjustly deprive persons of life, liberty, and property, usually for the benefit of other persons.

The phrase, life, liberty, and property, derives from John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government (1689), which argued that these are natural rights, God-given, and that it is government’s duty to protect these rights, government being the practical application of law. The phrase life, liberty, and property deeply influenced America’s founders. Thomas Jefferson changed it up a bit in the Declaration of Independence as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” with a eudaimonian twist to inspire America to flourish on its own, off England’s leash. It was also Jefferson’s way of detaching the Declaration from the issue of slavery, where “property” could refer to human beings.

But the Lockean original, life, liberty and property, reappears in the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. It is in the Fifth Amendment, protecting persons from the arbitrary deprivation of these rights without due process by the federal government, and in the Fourteenth Amendment applying the same principle of law to state governments. Where lawfare comes in is under due process. Lawfare’s aim is to pervert due process, to use officers of the courts to act unfairly and unjustly in the name of the law, and thus, under color of law.

Read more …

“As an American with Armenian heritage, I am particularly optimistic about the opportunities this deal will create for economic partnerships. And I am thankful to have a president who is paying attention to this region..”

Note: this is Russia’s backyard.

Trump: The President for Peace (Sierra Knoch)

On Aug. 8, President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for the signing of an historic peace deal between the two countries and the U.S. The deal is aimed at normalizing relations between the two nations which have been at odds for decades over a border dispute. This is another diplomatic win from the Trump administration that shows that many of these long-standing global conflicts that were ignored or even fueled by the Biden administration and deemed “unsolvable” are in fact solvable. Of course, nothing can get resolved overnight, and there is still work to be done in many of these instances, but the initial steps have been taken which are often the most important as they stop fighting and unnecessary killing.

Many may be wondering why the Trump administration bothers to focus on such relatively small conflicts, such as the Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute, or the Democratic Republic of Congo-Rwanda dispute or the Thailand/Cambodia dispute when we have larger conflicts still ongoing in Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. But the Trump administration is showing wisdom that the so-called “adults in the room” in the Biden administration lacked. These small conflicts offer opportunities for larger states such as Russia that benefit from conflict that keeps smaller states weak and dependent. Ending small conflicts not only saves lives, it eliminates opportunities for Russia, China, or other global bad actors to gain a foothold in these places and cause more trouble.

As an American with Armenian heritage, I am particularly optimistic about the opportunities this deal will create for economic partnerships. And I am thankful to have a president who is paying attention to this region and bringing both Azerbaijnis and Armenians closer to peace. The details of the deal include two separate agreements that Azerbaijan and Armenia signed with the United States. The agreements include points on energy, technology, economic cooperation, border security, infrastructure and trade. Additionally, the two countries signed a historic declaration together brokered by the U.S. and centered on ending conflict. The deal creates a shared transit corridor dubbed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” which will no doubt bring economic success for the U.S. and the South Caucasus region. One needs only to look to the Armenian diaspora in America to see the work ethic, ingenuity, and craftsmanship that Armenian culture can contribute when given the opportunity.

According to several articles the corridor is going to run through a mountainous region between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the agreement Armenia has agreed to award the U.S. exclusive special development rights on the Zangezur Corridor land for 99 years. The U.S. would sublease the land to a consortium that will develop rail, oil, gas and fiber optic lines and possibly electricity transmission along the 27-mile corridor. The joint declaration is the first-ever declaration signed between the two countries, which were both previously states of the former Soviet Union and regained their freedom when the USSR was disbanded in 1991. There are still issues to be worked out between the two nations, such as alleged human rights abuses by Azerbaijan toward ethnic Armenians, but in order to address any of these concerns the two nations must first stop the fighting and resume relations.

Although this agreement may not address every issue right now, I believe it is better to take the first step than to stall progress completely. This opportunity may not be around forever. With Vladimir Putin’s ongoing battlefield adventures in Ukraine pulling his focus and economic resources completely to that conflict, Russian influence is finally waning in Azerbaijan, which created an opening for the U.S. to facilitate this deal. The significance of these agreements extends beyond mere signatures; they represent a tangible investment in the future stability and prosperity of the region.

According to statements from the leaders of both Azerbaijan and Armenia this deal wouldn’t have been possible without Trump. For those who are concerned about tariffs or Trump’s global trade policy potentially driving away partners, it is clear that Trump’s reputation as the peacemaker is far more valuable to small states around the world than unbalanced trade. The relationships that are formed when Trump is able to achieve deals like this in Asia, Africa, and now the South Caucasus region are real and lasting because they show the benefit of American strength and leadership.

Additionally, these efforts send a clear message to adversarial powers that the era of unchecked influence in strategically sensitive zones may be coming to an end. By inserting American expertise and oversight, and by empowering local stakeholders, the deal lays a foundation for sustainable development and mutual benefit. Such diplomatic achievements demonstrate that when the United States leads with resolve and creativity, even seemingly intractable disputes can give way to hope and renewed partnership. While we may never see the cliché “World Peace” that some dream of, the Trump administration is showing that there is a real benefit to trying anyway. Balancing America First policies and strength with fast-paced action that takes advantage of opportunities for diplomacy when they arise is a winning approach for America in the Golden Age.

Read more …

“Europe is heading inexorably towards centralism. The question remains: Will the monetary coup succeed, or will the eurozone collapse first?”

The Return Of Private Money: American Dream Meets European Nightmare (Kolbe)

EU Europe and the USA are drifting further apart. In the shadow of the Ukraine war and Brussels censorship policies, a political hiatus is opening up even at the monetary policy level. Monetary policy is often treated as a stepchild in the media. Except during sovereign debt crises, when central banks step in as rescuers, politics and media mostly focus only on interest rate decisions. These are stylized as media highlights to help politics anchor inflation expectations and influence market activity. In short: this remains a superficial view that does not do justice to the complexity of monetary policy. It is regrettable—and perhaps no coincidence—that monetary policy is dealt with so hastily.

Money is the central good in economics. Its value development, dilution, and manipulation by political actors is a hot potato that remains largely untempered. Yet, since US banks withdrew from the London LIBOR contract and the national reference rate (SOFR) was introduced, monetary policy has evolved into a geopolitical key issue deserving serious discussion. Behind the artificially generated monetary background noise about interest rates and inflation control, a strategic drift is taking place that will redefine the economic future. EU Europe and the USA are taking separate monetary policy paths. Media censorship, climate socialism, and now the debate over the digital euro—one might say, Brussels and the ECB bankers spare no effort to turn the EU into a closed fortress of power.

With the digital euro, they would take a major step towards consolidating this power. It is programmable, fully transparent money on a centralized blockchain that would transform money into a morally and politically charged commodity. Climate targets, individual CO2 consumption, meat consumption, and travel activities—the coupling of individual behavior to the emissions-based control complex seems tangible. And sanctioning citizens and companies in cases of dissident behavior could become routine bureaucratic work.Following the line of reasoning of ECB President Christine Lagarde, it is clear what awaits Europeans: algorithmic surveillance of economic activity and moralistic control of individual behavior.

Is Money a Public Good? For Lagarde, money is a public good. Naturally, under the control of the state or state-like surrogates such as the ECB. The digital euro project is to start small, with limited wallets managed by the ECB, marketed ironically by the muted commercial banks that would become obsolete in case of full conversion—a strange understanding of banking revealed here. A digital euro is supposed to offer new choices, complement cash, and promote inclusion, according to Lagarde. But here again, one of those political slogans is revealed: “Inclusion” remains a hollow phrase without substantive content. In reality, the ECB aims to secure control over central capital flows and, in the next eurozone debt crisis, to prevent capital flight to avoid collapse and drying up of financial flows.

Everything else is whitewashing written for the disinterested reader of the business section. Europe is heading inexorably towards centralism. The question remains: Will the monetary coup succeed, or will the eurozone collapse first? The legal framework is supposed to be in place by early 2026 before rollout begins. Realistically, a start is expected earliest in 2028, perhaps only in 2029. There is hope that such large projects usually fail due to bureaucratic inertia. So let’s stay optimistic. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, an astonishing turnaround is taking place. The monetary policy direction of President Trump’s administration aims at the partial reactivation of the private money system. The legal framework currently being set up (GENIUS Act) gives commercial banks the possibility to issue their own stablecoins, i.e., digital dollars, thereby expanding the booming market currently dominated by Tether. Worldwide, over 500 million people already use this new form of money—a movement that seems unstoppable, regardless of how Europeans view it.

Every dollar stablecoin is backed by an equivalent amount of short-term US Treasury bonds as well as gold or Bitcoin, giving the US Treasury a convincing argument to actively participate in the spread of this technology—American government debt is literally being sold to the private sector.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

His voice has improved crazy much

10000 Vaccines at once

shiong
https://twitter.com/FredsFarm247/status/1954651790588432783

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1954925041402912925
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1954619712047919306

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jul 282025
 


L.S. Lowry The mill, Pendlebury 1943

 

Trump, EU Reach Tariff Deal To Avoid Trade War (ZH)
‘I’ll Never Be the Same’: Dan Bongino on FBI Secrets That Shook Him (Margolis)
Trump Urges Prosecution of Kamala Harris (Catherine Salgado)
The John Bolton Connection to the Steele Dossier (Margolis)
More Russia Hoax Evidence Set To Drop, Implicating Hillary Clinton (Margolis)
Intel Board Chairman Wants Security Clearances Revoked, Spies Fired (JTN)
Trump Says Supreme Court’s Immunity Ruling Likely Helps Obama (ET)
Declassified Russian Probe Material Shows a Familiar Rogue’s Gallery (Turley)
What Is It With Russia? (Paul Craig Roberts)
‘Corrupt’ Ukraine Cannot Be Trusted – Former Trump Advisor (RT)
EU Slashes $1.7bn In Aid To Ukraine Over Corruption Concerns (ZH)
The Epstein Saga: What It Is Really About (Paul Craig Roberts)
German Police Raid AfD MEP’s Property For The 22nd Time (RMX)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/KingBobIIV/status/1949360213288690157

Ratcliffe
https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/1949476942962377025

Kirk

Flynn

DOGE
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1949267658068660537

Shell

 

 

 

 

Looking through the deal, I think the negotiators, Ursula first of all, were afraid to be stuck with 35% tariffs on Aug 1. So they agreed to trillions in spending. Good for Europe? Doubtful. Trump now takes it all.

The EU has agreed:
• To purchase $750 billion in energy
• Invest $600 billion in the US on top of existing investments
• Open up countries’ markets to trade with US at zero tariffs
• Purchase “vast amounts” of military equipment

Trump, EU Reach Tariff Deal To Avoid Trade War (ZH)

President Trump said he reached a trade deal with the European Union late on Sunday, avoiding a trade war with the US’s largest trading partner and marking his biggest deal so far in his attempt to remake the global trading system through higher tariffs for U.S. trading partners. The pact comes less than a week before a Friday deadline for President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs to take effect on August 1. The president in May threatened to impose a 50% duty on nearly all EU goods, adding pressure that accelerated negotiations, before lowering that to 30%. Trump made the announcement at Trump Turnberry, his seaside golf resort in western Scotland, after meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who leads the EU’s executive body.

Trump said the U.S. would set a baseline tariff of 15% for European goods, including automobiles. He said steel and aluminum tariffs, which are currently at 50%, would remain unchanged. He added that the EU had agreed as part of the deal to buy $750 billion worth of energy products from the US, and the EU would agree to invest $600 billion more than previously in the US, although similar to the $550BN “investment” promised by Japan, this is unlikely to every materialize. Adding to the list of ludicrously big numbers disclosed (or as the case may be undisclosed) today, Trump also said that the EU would buy “a vast amount” of military equipment, and while he explained that “we don’t know what number is” but added that the US makes “the best military equipment in the world so you have to do that.”

To summarize, the US EU has agreed:
• To purchase $750 billion in energy
• Invest $600 billion in the US on top of existing investments
• Open up countries’ markets to trade with US at zero tariffs
• Purchase “vast amounts” of military equipment

“I think it’s going to be great for both parties, I think your various countries are very happy about this,” Trump said, sitting alongside von der Leyen. The two met for about an hour with their top representatives. “We made it,” von der Leyen said. She said the two sides wanted to rebalance their trade relationship, “and we wanted to do it in a way that trade goes on between the two of us across the Atlantic.” Currently, the EU faces a 10% baseline tariff on most of its goods exports to the U.S., as well as a 25% tariff on its auto industry and a 50% tariff for steel and aluminum. “I think that basically concludes the deal,” Trump told reporters at his golf club in Turnberry, Scotland. “It’s the biggest of all the deals.” The terms disclosed on Sunday suggest that 15% is likely a new minimum tariff level for most American trading partners. Economists and trade analysts say that tariffs at that level will have an impact on companies’ decisions and are expected to contribute to higher prices for Americans, but won’t stop global trade flows.

“They are not at the level where the global economy burns down,” said Dmitry Grozoubinski, senior trade adviser at Aurora Macro Strategies. The deal comes after a flurry of recent trade announcements. Trump said this past week that he had reached a deal with Japan, another top U.S. trading partner, which put baseline tariffs at 15%. Separate agreements set Vietnam’s baseline tariff level at 20% and established a 19% rate for the Philippines and Indonesia, Trump has said. The U.K. has the lowest tariffs Trump has so far agreed to as part of a deal, at 10%. Trump also was expected to iron out final details of the U.K. agreement in meetings with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday and Monday.

The EU pact removes a major risk for markets and the global economy, a trade war involving $1.7 trillion worth of cross-border commerce, even though it means European shipments to the US are getting hit with a higher tax at the border. The goals, Trump said, were more production in the US and wider access for American exporters to the European market. Von der Leyen acknowledged that part of the drive behind the talks was a rebalancing of trade, but cast it as beneficial for both sides. “The starting point was an imbalance,” von der Leyen said. “We wanted to rebalance the trade we made, and we wanted to do it in a way that trade goes on between the two of us across the Atlantic, because the two biggest economies should have a good trade flow.”

As Bloomberg notes, US and European negotiators had been zeroing in on an agreement this past week. Officials have discussed terms for a quota system for steel and aluminum imports, which would face a lower import tax below a certain threshold and would be charged the regular 50% rate above it. The EU had also been seeking quotas and a ceiling on future industry-specific tariffs, but it’s unclear if the initial agreement will shield the bloc from potential levies that have yet to be implemented. The announcement capped off months of often tense shuttle diplomacy between Brussels and Washington. The EU had prepared to put levies on about €100 billion ($117 billion), about a third of American exports to the bloc, if a deal wasn’t reached and Trump followed through on his warning.

For weeks, the EU has indicated a willingness to accept an unbalanced pact involving a reduced rate of around 15%, while seeking relief on sectoral tariffs critical to the European economy. The US president has also imposed 25% levies on cars and double that rate on steel and aluminum, as well as copper. The deal comes just days after we learned that in June the US collected a new record in tariff revenue, some $26.6 billion: a number which annualizes to an impressive $320 billion. Several exporters in Asia, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, have negotiated reciprocal rates between 15% to 20%, and the EU saw Japan’s deal for 15% on autos as a breakthrough worth seeking as well. Washington’s talks also continue with Switzerland, South Korea and Taiwan.

Read more …

Dan Bongino is a real man.

‘I’ll Never Be the Same’: Dan Bongino on FBI Secrets That Shook Him (Margolis)

In a political era addicted to facades and orchestrated outrage, some moments cut through the noise with a force that startles even seasoned observers. Enter Dan Bongino. The former radio firebrand turned deputy director of the FBI has become a lightning rod within Donald Trump’s second-term administration. In recent weeks, there were rumors he was going to quit the administration over frustration with Pam Bondi over how she’s handled the Epstein files. A source close to the matter said Bongino felt betrayed by what he saw as Bondi’s backpedaling and stonewalling—especially after she downplayed the existence of Epstein’s “client list” and dismissed speculation about blackmail or foul play. Bongino, who took the job hoping to help restore public trust, came to believe that mission was dead in the water unless Bondi stepped aside. “He’s done if she stays,” the source said at the time.

And then nothing happened. But Bongino’s recent statement on X is raising eyebrows. In a powerful and emotional message, Dan Bongino pulled back the curtain on what he described as deeply troubling revelations during his time at the FBI, vowing accountability and transparency in the face of corruption. “During my tenure here as the Deputy Director of the FBI,” Bongino began, “I have repeatedly relayed to you that things are happening that might not be immediately visible, but they are happening.” He emphasized a top-down commitment to justice, writing, “The Director and I are committed to stamping out public corruption and the political weaponization of both law enforcement and intelligence operations. It is a priority for us.”

But what he’s uncovered, Bongino said, has changed him forever. “What I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters, has shocked me down to my core. We cannot run a Republic like this. I’ll never be the same after learning what I’ve learned.” He promised that the investigations will be carried out “by the book and in accordance with the law,” adding, “We are going to get the answers WE ALL DESERVE.” “As with any investigation, I cannot predict where it will land,” Bongino admitted, “but I can promise you an honest and dignified effort at truth. Not ‘my truth,’ or ‘your truth,’ but THE TRUTH.”

If that doesn’t sound like a battle cry from inside the halls of federal law enforcement, what does? For years, Americans have watched as justice and intelligence agencies faced allegations of bias, political leaks, and “weaponization” against dissenters from the prevailing establishment narrative. Critics—many of whom once dismissed such talk as conspiracy theory—have realized that these warnings carry real weight. Bongino, who once sat behind a conservative microphone dissecting exactly these threats, now finds himself not only confronting them but, by his own account, being rocked by what he’s uncovered. The message is unmistakable: accountability isn’t optional. Bongino’s cryptic post bears the signature of a man who has glimpsed truths that will shake the nation’s confidence in its governing institutions.

The question is not whether heads will roll, but how deep the rot goes and whether the rot can be cut out before it destroys what those institutions are supposed to protect. Forget the media’s hope for another administration scandal. The real scandal is what Bongino is finding—and what he warns America must soon confront. No matter how much the press wishes otherwise, Bongino’s mission to purge corruption is underway. His refusal to sugarcoat the stakes, and his insistence that “we cannot run a Republic like this,” target the very heart of what’s ailing the country. Whether Bongino ultimately prevails isn’t a footnote; it’s a battle for the soul of the Republic. One thing is certain: Washington can’t ignore Bongino’s warning shot. Nor should anyone else.

Read more …

“Eleven Million Dollars to singer Beyoncé for an ENDORSEMENT (she never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!)..”

Trump Urges Prosecution of Kamala Harris (Catherine Salgado)

The Founding Fathers intended that, in America, no one would have a title and no one would be above the law. Too often in modern times, that no longer seems true of our country. But Donald Trump is starting to call for a change to the double standard of justice. Reviewing potentially illegal payouts from the Democratic Party and apparent bookkeeping errors, Donald Trump understandably wants to get to the bottom of the allegations and wants to see the former vice president in court over them. If you or I committed a federal immigration felony, received massive amounts of money from foreign hostile governments, engaged in money-laundering, committed classified documents felonies, fabricated evidence against a rival, or committed other serious crimes, we would almost certainly be going to jail.

But if you have a title like vice president or congressman or governor now, it seems as if you have the “get out of jail free” card. That is terribly dangerous. We quite simply cannot have a Republic if there is one set of laws for ordinary citizens and a totally different set of standards for rich and powerful people. Trump is at least right to recognize the underlying problem here. Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday, “I’m looking at the large amount of money owed by the Democrats, after the Presidential Election, and the fact that they admit to paying, probably illegally, Eleven Million Dollars to singer Beyoncé for an ENDORSEMENT (she never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!), Three Million Dollars for ‘expenses,’ to Oprah, Six Hundred Thousand Dollars to very low rated TV ‘anchor,’ Al Sharpton (a total lightweight!), and others to be named for doing, absolutely NOTHING! These ridiculous fees were incorrectly stated in the books and records.”

It is unclear whether paying large sums to a celebrity for an endorsement definitively violates Federal Election Commission guidelines. However, failing to properly report high-cost endorsement payments is a violation. These allegations would be worth investigating legally and in accordance with election laws and standards.

Trump, though he did not clarify that the violation depends on the amount of the payment for endorsement and the level of coordination with a candidate/campaign, referred to this in his usual emphatic style: “YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PAY FOR AN ENDORSEMENT. IT IS TOTALLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO. Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started paying for people to endorse them. All hell would break out! Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The Federal Election Commission states: Disbursements for endorsements made to the general public are not contributions or expenditures as long as the endorsement is not coordinated with any candidate, candidate committee or its agents. If celebrities were paid huge amounts of money by the Democrat party and Harris’s campaign to endorse Kamala, this would indeed seem to be a violation of the FEC rules.

Read more …

This John Bolton connection is straight out of the Baskervilles. The dog that didn’t bark. He had a file on Brennan and sat on it for years.

The John Bolton Connection to the Steele Dossier (Margolis)

The Steele Dossier saga isn’t over—not even close. If anything, its rot is more obvious than ever, with each new revelation pointing directly to the highest levels of the Obama administration and even reaching into the early days of the Trump White House. What we now know is already damning: the phony Steele Dossier wasn’t just opposition research—it was weaponized disinformation, deliberately shoved into the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment under orders from Barack Obama himself. Senior analysts warned it was unverified and unreliable, but those concerns were bulldozed in the name of politics.

Obama ordered the revised ICA not because Russia flipped the election, but because the original findings made it clear they hadn’t. That truth was politically inconvenient. So instead of accepting it, they rewrote reality, stuffing baseless allegations into an official intelligence report and turning it into a blunt instrument to kneecap a duly elected president. At the very least, John Brennan, the Obama-era CIA director, may soon find himself in legal jeopardy over his role in this scandal. But this story just took another turn—as it ensnared John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Trump.

In 2018, Bolton received a classified memorandum directly connected to Brennan’s actions. Astonishingly, he chose to bury it, locking it away in a National Security Council safe instead of bringing it to Trump’s attention. His trust in Brennan’s fabricated intelligence prevailed over his duty to the president he served. According to investigative reporter Paul Sperry, in 2018, Bolton received that classified summary, detailing how Brennan manufactured the Putin-Trump intelligence out of thin air—but Bolton left it untouched, sealed from sight and scrutiny.

The list of bad actors goes on. Oleg Smolenkov and Igor Danchenko, once hyped as top-tier Russian sources, turned out to be opportunists with no real intel. But John Brennan needed a show, so Smolenkov was sold as Moscow’s James Bond, just like Comey inflated Steele’s fiction as “Crown material.” It was never about truth—just building a weapon.

Now, thanks to declassified intelligence, reality is catching up with fiction. While Vladimir Putin never possessed any compromising material to blackmail Trump, he did have an extensive dossier on Hillary Clinton. Had she won the presidency, she would have entered the White House compromised, vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow, her decisions always shadowed by the possibility of Russian extortion.

In short, a cabal of partisans weaponized compromised intelligence, invented a Russian conspiracy out of nothing, and employed it to kneecap an incoming president. The deception ran so deep that even those entrusted to defend the presidency—like Bolton—became complicit by omission, not intervention.

Read more …

“CIA Director John Ratcliffe revealed Sunday that explosive new evidence tied to the Russia collusion hoax is about to be declassified..”

More Russia Hoax Evidence Set To Drop, Implicating Hillary Clinton (Margolis)

CIA Director John Ratcliffe revealed Sunday that explosive new evidence tied to the Russia collusion hoax is about to be declassified—and it points directly at Hillary Clinton and key Obama-era intelligence officials. During an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News, Ratcliffe confirmed that the classified annex to Special Counsel John Durham’s report will soon be made public, and what it contains could dramatically shift the narrative on the origins of Crossfire Hurricane. “And what that intelligence shows, Maria, is that part of this was a Hillary Clinton plan, but part of it was an FBI plan to, uh, be an accelerant to that fake Steele dossier, to those fake Russia collusion claims by pouring oil on the fire, by amplifying the lie and burying the truth of … what Hillary Clinton was up to,” Ratcliffe said.

This comes on the heels of fresh scrutiny over former CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and FBI Director James Comey, all of whom, according to Ratcliffe, knowingly pushed a false narrative into official intelligence assessments. “What hasn’t come out yet—and what’s going to come out—is the underlying intelligence that I have spent the last few months making recommendations about for final declassification,” Ratcliffe explained. “That will come out in the John Durham report classified annex.” If accurate, this revelation would confirm what conservatives have long suspected: that the Clinton campaign not only fabricated the Russian collusion story but had help from deep-state operatives inside the federal government.

“And much of that testimony is frankly completely inconsistent with what our underlying intelligence… reflects,” he added, referring to sworn statements given by Brennan, Clinton, and Comey between 2020 and 2022. Ratcliffe emphasized that this was not just a political hit job against Trump—it was a coordinated effort to manipulate both the intelligence community and the public. “You know, Pam Bondi does have a strike force. It is a different Department of Justice, a different FBI, and an opportunity to look at how these people really did conspire to run a hoax, a fraud on the American people, and against Donald Trump’s presidency. ”Despite predictable pushback from Democrats and legacy media dismissing renewed investigations as “revenge” or “retribution,” Ratcliffe said it’s clear why the public supports these efforts.

“They said to everyone, ‘We know what you did to Donald Trump, and we reelected him because we know this was all fake. We know it was a hoax. Now we want to understand how you did it so that it can’t happen again.’” “This declassification process… is so important,” Ratcliffe continued. “There can be accountability and preventability to prevent the same people that did it in 2016 with the Steele dossier, with the Hunter Biden laptop in 2020, from doing it again in the future.” In short, the hoax that consumed years of Trump’s first presidency may finally be fully exposed—and Hillary Clinton’s role in launching it, with FBI help, will no longer be shielded by redactions or media deflection. Investigative reporter Paul Sperry revealed similar news on X Sunday morning:

Read more …

“I just continue to be fascinated by the people who are still carrying a security clearance. It’s amazing who are still in these agencies,” Nunes said..”

Intel Board Chairman Wants Security Clearances Revoked, Spies Fired (JTN)

The chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board says he believes crimes were committed by intelligence and law enforcement officials who relentlessly pursued President Donald Trump over the last decade, and he also wants to make sure that spies who abused their powers are stripped of their security clearances and their jobs. “Look, it’s really simple. There’s lots of criminals here, and it was a grand conspiracy,” former House Intelligence Committee Chairman and current PIAB chief Devin Nunes told Just the News. “Remember, we made, I don’t know, a dozen criminal referrals when I was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,” he added during an exclusive interview on the Just the News, No Noise television show Thursday night.

Nunes said whether people are prosecuted now will depend on whether the statute of limitations for crimes have expired, or whether those deadlines get extended by the pursuit of a conspiracy case. He said he’s comfortable leaving those decisions to FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi. The former Republican lawmaker from California said he’s focused in his role as the head of the civilian oversight board for U.S. intelligence on making sure that intelligence officers face discipline and consequences, regardless of whether they are prosecuted eventually.

“I just continue to be fascinated by the people who are still carrying a security clearance. It’s amazing who are still in these agencies,” Nunes said. “And I’m just shaking my head like every time I turn around, like, wait, wait, wait, wasn’t that person in that position a Russia hoax person. “All of those people need to get their security clearances pulled, and they should not be working anywhere near law enforcement or intelligence for that matter,” he added. “So it’s one of the things that our board is tasked with.”

Read more …

There are plenty of them without immunity. Start there.

Trump Says Supreme Court’s Immunity Ruling Likely Helps Obama (ET)

President Donald Trump on Friday said that former President Barack Obama likely has immunity following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in light of a report that was declassified by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard earlier this month. Gabbard said the documents showed that Obama and his then-Cabinet members “manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump,” which Obama denied in a statement earlier this week. Gabbard said in a Sunday interview that she referred some Obama-era officials for criminal prosecution to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI. Trump on Friday was asked by a reporter during a press gaggle at the White House, “How do you think that the Supreme Court’s ruling that benefited you on presidential immunity would apply to former President Barack Obama and what you’re accusing him of doing?”

The question for Trump was referring to the Supreme Court’s 6–3 ruling in 2024 that stated presidents have prosecutorial immunity for official acts within the executive presidential authority that Congress has no jurisdiction over.
“It probably helps him a lot,” Trump said in response, adding that the ruling “doesn’t help the people around him at all. But it probably helps him a lot.” The president said he believed Obama had committed “criminal acts,” but that “he has Immunity,” which he said “probably helps him a lot.” “Obama owes me big” for the Supreme Court ruling, Trump said. Earlier this week, the president said that Obama officials “tried to rig the election, and they got caught, and there should be very severe consequences for that.” Responding to accusations from Gabbard, a spokesperson for Obama reiterated the assertion that Russia attempted to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,” the spokesperson said on July 22.
Obama’s spokesperson also pointed to a 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report, saying the committee affirmed that Russia worked to influence the election. Earlier this week, Gabbard said, “There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false.” Among the documents declassified by the DNI is a House Intelligence report dated Sept. 18, 2020, which found that several intelligence reports that suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin aspired to help then-presidential candidate Trump in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election were “substandard.”

Specifically, three reports published internally by the CIA after the election contained information that was potentially biased, implausible, unclear, or of uncertain origin, the House Intelligence Committee said in the report that was released by Gabbard on Wednesday. “One scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports constitutes the only classified information to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win,” the panel stated. The reports were used as foundational sources for an intelligence community assessment made public in January 2017.

The intelligence community “ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence reports that challenged—and in some cases undermined—judgments that Putin sought to elect Trump” and failed to consider plausible alternative explanations, the House report stated. The DOJ on July 23 announced that it was forming a task force following the declassification of the documents. In a statement posted to X, the DOJ said that the task force would “assess the evidence publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from DNI Gabbard’s disclosures.”

Read more …

View from the law professor.

Declassified Russian Probe Material Shows a Familiar Rogue’s Gallery (Turley)

The release of declassified material has shed new light on the creation of the Russian collusion investigation and many of the names are crushingly familiar. Indeed, Congress is moving to “round up the usual suspects” in light of the new revelations. It is the story of the real Russian conspiracy: how high-ranking officials in the Obama Administration seeded this false claim with the help of an eager, unquestioning press corps. Not surprisingly, the media (which spent years repeating the false Russian collusion claims) is doing a full-court press to kill the story. Yet, many of these key figures are retaining counsel in anticipation of the unfolding investigation. Many previously secured contracts with MSNBC or CNN, or book deals, where they doubled down on the false claims detailed in these new documents. Here are just a few of the usual suspects:

John Brennan, Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency Brennan is arguably the most at risk in the new disclosures, which allegedly contradict his prior testimony before Congress. On May 23, 2017, Brennan testified that the infamous Steele dossier “wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done.” However, the new material shows that Brennan was the key figure insisting on the inclusion of the Steele dossier in an intelligence assessment, suggesting that the Russians did influence the election in favor of Trump.

Brennan not only intervened to include the dossier but overruled the CIA’s two most senior Russia experts, who said it “did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards.” One analyst recounted how “[Brennan] refused to remove it, and when confronted with the dossier’s main flaws, [Brennan] responded, ‘Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?’” Notably, it was Brennan who briefed Obama in 2016 about Hillary Clinton’s plan to create a Russian conspiracy “to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.” Months later, it would be Brennan who would actively incorporate the dossier secretly funded by Clinton’s campaign.

James Clapper, Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former DNI under Obama, is expecting the worst and said that he has “lawyered up.” Clapper was in the briefing in July 2016 when Obama was told that Clinton was planning to create a Russian conspiracy narrative. In November 2016, Clapper received an assessment from the intelligence community that Russia was “probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means.” He also received talking points from staff on December 7, 2016, “Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome.”

On December 9, 2016, another report stated that “Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.” That Presidential Daily Brief was scheduled to be published on December 9, 2016, but CDNI Clapper’s office stopped its publication “based on some new guidance.” Clapper later joined Obama with John Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe and others, in a meeting where a new assessment was ordered that would detail the “tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.” Brennan then reportedly handpicked the analysts who seemed to flip the earlier assessments without any credible intelligence.

In a 2018 interview with the Harvard Gazette, Clapper continued to spread the false narrative, referring to the high-confidence judgment that “Putin directly ordered the hacking and election interference.” He added, “I think they [Russians] actually influenced the outcome.” Clapper later added to his tarnished legacy by signing the letter with more than 50 former intelligence officials dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 presidential election as likely “Russian disinformation.”

James Comey, Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey would use this contrived intelligence to green-light the investigations that overwhelmed the first Trump term. The FBI was aware early that the Steele dossier was an unreliable political hit job funded by the Clinton campaign. Moreover, the CIA told the FBI that Trump associate Carter Page was a U.S. intelligence asset, not a Russian spy. The FBI ignored such countervailing intelligence, violated protocols, and lied to a federal court to maintain the Russian investigation. In an interview with Fox’s Bret Baier, Comey was asked about the lack of evidence of “Russian collusion.” Comey dismissed the question by saying “collusion’s not a word that I’m familiar with.”

Putting aside the lunacy of that statement, Comey then says the question is whether Americans were “in cahoots with the foreign intelligence activities.” It appears “cahoots” is a word he is familiar with. He then denied knowing, in April 2018, that the Clinton campaign had funded the report. Comey often appears unfamiliar with terms or facts that contradicted his investigation of Trump, even years later. Comey repeatedly testified to a lack of memory on key decisions made in the Russian investigation. However, documents show that it was Comey who pushed back on a planned statement by Clapper, stating that they had not determined the dossier to be reliable.

Andrew McCabe, Former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now a CNN contributor, was fired after career Justice Department officials found that the former acting FBI director not only lied to investigators but deserved to be fired. That recommendation was reportedly embraced by the career officials in the inspector general’s office. He was accused of lying four times, including twice under oath. Not surprisingly, McCabe makes appearances in the new disclosures. He is not only present at critical meetings, but it also appears that McCabe was allegedly responsible for blocking congressional investigators from interviewing the FBI analysts who supported Brennan and the drafters of the controversial ICA.

Congress alleged that McCabe walled off at least 30 FBI employees associated with the dossier. These and other names are not new. As the media was spreading the false narrative of Russian collusion, many of these figures knew that there was no evidence of such collusion. They said nothing. Instead, after Obama ordered a new assessment, effectively flipping the conclusions of the earlier assessment, anonymous sources leaked the false narrative to the media, which eagerly ran with the story. While leaks of the false narrative were rampant, none of the actual facts were leaked to the media.

In the meantime, figures like Schiff continued to claim, even after the Special Counsel rejected evidence of collusion, that he had secret evidence to the contrary in the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff never revealed that evidence, and the public now knows that the intelligence community rejected the collusion claims from the outset. The public is now learning about the real Russian conspiracy and its key players. It was the most infamous — and successful — political hit job in history. The same media that pushed the false claims are now, again, imposing a news blackout as they did with the Hunter Biden laptop. The problem is that the truth, like water, tends to find a way out. That trickle just turned into a flood for the architects of the Russian collusion hoax.

Read more …

“..only Trump and Putin can resolve the conflict. Trump has made no attempt to resolve it. He has passed it off to Zelensky..”

What Is It With Russia? (Paul Craig Roberts)

The unreality that prevails in Russia is puzzling. It is not just Putin’s inability to comprehend that by refusing to win the conflict after 3.5 years, he has allowed the conflict to widen out of control. Now Putin is faced with all of Europe organizing to support the West’s proxy war against Russia by purchasing US weapons and supplying the weapons to Ukraine. Trump and Germany have signaled that the next widening is to attack Moscow with missiles. Apparently Russians still haven’t learned anything. Ivan Timofeev, the program director of the Valdai Club, says that “We’re close to the war nobody wants but everyone’s preparing for.” He is wrong. Israel wants America at war with Iran. Zelensky wants Europe at war with Russia. The Zionist neoconservatives want more color revolutions to set at war with Russia. The CIA wants to weaken BRICS by setting India and China against one another.

Putin himself has done more to guarantee future conflict by refusing to use sufficient force to end the conflict in Ukraine before it widens out of control. Timofeev actually believes, God help him, that Trump has pushed for peace in Ukraine. How can Trump push for peace when the military/security complex needs the Russian enemy, without which its budget and power are reduced? Trump has not repudiated the Wolfowitz Doctrine of US hegemony. Trump has not met with Putin. As the Ukraine conflict is Washington’s proxy war with Russia, only Trump and Putin can resolve the conflict. Trump has made no attempt to resolve it. He has passed it off to Zelensky, who cannot resolve it, because it is Washington’s war.

The Western world has not heard a word that Putin has said. Putin said, repeatedly, that the war cannot be resolved unless it deals with the root cause, which is the absence of a mutual security agreement. The West has made it perfectly clear that it does not want a mutual security agreement with Russia. What else explains Washington’s use of the conflict to expand NATO into Finland and Sweden, to militarize Moldavia, to stir up trouble in Soviet Central Asia against Russia? It is extraordinary that one never sees, with the exception of Sputnik journalist Ekaterina Blinova, any intelligent analysis from a Russian commentator available in English. No doubt there is Russian discussion that is kept from us.

Another example of Kremlin insouciance is the announcement last Friday by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov: “The only way to resolve the Middle East conflict is through the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.” Here we have again the “two-state solution” that has been the cover since 1947 for Israel’s theft of Palestine. Every year Israel steals a little more of Palestine, and the complicit West says “the two-state solution.” The Kremlin is still saying it when there is not a building standing in Gaza and an Israeli government minister has declared the Israeli parliament has in effect annexed the tiny remnants of the West Bank. Trump has already claimed Gaza, so where is Palestine? It is a county that no longer exists. America and Israel have wiped it off the planet.

The Israeli government declaration reads: “the creation of a Palestinian state poses a Mortal danger to Israel’s existence. The Knesset declares that the State of Israel has the natural, historical, and legal right to all parts of the Land of Israel.” In other words, Palestine doesn’t exist. In the face of this unequivocal statement by the Israeli government the Kremlin says the solution is a two-state solution. What more do you need to see that Russia is disconnected from reality, has no comprehension of what is happening, and by failing to exercise a leadership role has committed the world to Third War Three.

Read more …

“This raid reeks – and it smells like gangsterism, not democracy.”

‘Corrupt’ Ukraine Cannot Be Trusted – Former Trump Advisor (RT)

Kiev’s recent crackdown on anti-corruption agencies is yet more proof that Ukrainian leaders are leaning towards authoritarianism and “cannot be trusted,” Steve Cortes, a former advisor to US President Donald Trump, has said. Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky moved to place the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) under executive oversight – which would essentially strip them of any independence – while claiming the agencies were under Russian influence. The move, however, prompted mass protests at home and Western criticism, with EU officials warning that they could reconsider further aid to Kiev. In an op-ed for Newsweek on Friday, Cortes, who is now the president of the League of American Workers advocacy group, described the crackdown as “an extra-judicial attack on decency.”

“This raid reeks – and it smells like gangsterism, not democracy.” The move by Zelensky, reportedly backed by his chief of staff, Andrey Yermak – whom Cortes described as “co-president” – shows that they “act in very authoritarian ways themselves – and increasingly reveal to the world that they are not transparent, reliable partners for the United States.” Cortes went on to accuse Kiev of entrenched high-level corruption and argued that continued US aid is unjustified. “It is no wonder that Americans increasingly realize that sending $175 billion of borrowed money to corrupt leaders in Ukraine is just not sound policy,” he wrote. “Sending mountains of borrowed funds to kleptocrats actually harms America’s national security, all while making our country poorer,” he said while urging Americans to stop lionizing Zelensky and comprehend the reality of Ukraine’s corruption.

The American people have been unbelievably generous, but our patience is wearing thin… In this case, given the latest tactics and optics of the Zelensky/Yermak regime, it becomes ever clearer that these counterparts cannot be trusted. Following domestic and international backlash, Zelensky backpedaled on the crackdown, proposing that the independence of Ukraine’s anti-graft institutions be restored. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that neither NABU nor SAPO is really fighting corruption but rather are used by Kiev’s backers as tools “to control the flow of money coming to Ukraine from the West.”

Read more …

That seems to be a hopeful first. Then again, if the total is $100 billion…

EU Slashes $1.7bn In Aid To Ukraine Over Corruption Concerns (ZH)

Have we reached the beginning of the end for Zelensky? Does this spell game-over and victory for Putin and Russia? The following is a very rare admission from the hard news pages of The New York Times: “James Wasserstrom, an American anticorruption expert, said in an interview that “the luster is definitely coming off” Mr. Zelensky’s wartime leadership among governments providing financial assistance. He added, “There is exasperation at Zelensky in the donor community.” Early last week, there were unexpected images coming from Kiev of the largest demonstrations against the Ukrainian government since Russia invaded more than three years ago, as more than 2,000 people gathered near the president’s office, shouting “shame” and “veto the law,” after President Zelensky signed a law gutting the country’s anti-corruption agency.

This was enough to get the attention of Kiev’s biggest donors, and days later on Friday the European Union announced it would suspend part of a €4.5 billion fund tied to good governance standards, with the NY Times reporting that the bloc has frozen €1.5 billion (about $1.7 billion) in financial aid to Ukraine over concerns about corruption and delays in key reforms. The decision is said to not be ‘final’ yet, and on Sunday President Zelensky held a crucial call with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. His office confirmed they discussed Ukraine’s anti-corruption system (…or we should say lack thereof). What is tantamount to EU sanctions being on the table would impact access to the funding, dependent on Ukraine meeting specific reform requirements known as “progress benchmarks.”

One critical unmet benchmark is the appointment of judges to the High Anti-Corruption Court, which is supposed to be an independent judiciary apparatus given the power to spotlight and battle elite corruption. The EU has also raised concerns about a lack of transparency and slow progress in the area of judicial reforms. This rare backlash from close allies with the deepest pocketbooks marks a huge blow to Zelensky – who has also kept himself in power way past his term mandate (citing the war with Russia) – after he pushed legislation through the Verkhovna Rada seen as greatly underminng the independence of two key anti-corruption bodies: the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

Critics have increasingly highlighted that these actions have come in unison with other martial law policies during the war, including the silencing of journalists, civil society activists, the suppression of the Russian language, the persecution of the Orthodox Church, as well as the wholesale banning of opposition parties. The New York Times comments as follows: “The two agencies — the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office — had been investigating top ministers in the Zelensky government. The president’s decision to kneecap them, though reversed, prompted accusations of cronyism that jeopardized backing from civil society groups at home and Western nations bankrolling the war.

The European Union established this aid mechanism, the Ukraine Facility, last year and promised 50 billion euros over three years for repairing war damage and preparing the country for E.U. accession. The European Commission spokesman, Guillaume Mercier, told journalists in Brussels on Friday that Ukraine had requested a disbursement in June despite falling short on three of 16 benchmarks, including failing to make appointments to a specialized anticorruption court.”

Further, the report noted “That court tries cases brought by the two agencies whose independence Mr. Zelensky threatened this week.” Even British prime minister Kier Starmer has reportedly phoned Zelensky’s office this past week to discuss his latest moves regarding corruption investigations. And when you’ve potentially lost the Brits and Europeans, your wartime star power has most definitely faded. President Putin and Kremlin officials are sure to seize on the anti-Zelensky momentum diplomatically, as they engage Trump officials behind the scenes as part of ongoing bilateral talks. Trump has of course never been a close friend of “the world’s greatest salesman” Zelensky – and could be ready to dump him especially if the mood turns drastically in Europe.

Read more …

Yes, you can make it confusing. Yes, in some places 8 is the age of consent.

The Epstein Saga: What It Is Really About (Paul Craig Roberts)

We have to decide whether the Epstein story is child rape or Mossad blackmail. If “child” is defined as under the statutory age of female sexual consent, in the US depending on the state, a child is a female under 16 years of age, under 17 years of age, or under 18 years of age. In New York the age of female consent is 17. In Hawaii it is 16. Hawaii has a “close-in-age” exception that allows 14 year olds to consent with those up to 21 years in age. In Hawaii the goal seems to be not to prevent underaged females from sexual intercourse but to prevent overaged males (over 21) from sex with females declared underaged for them but not for younger men. There is an element here of age discrimination. In the Philippines the age of female consent is 12. In Germany the requirement is for a female to be 14 years old in order for a sexual relationship with a male over 18 to be legal.

In Mexico the age of consent is 15. In Russia it is 16. It Japan it is 13 but is being raised to 16. In England it is 16. In Italy and China the age of consent is 14. In Denmark and Poland it is 15. In Saudi Arabia sex is only legal within marriage. The legal age for marriage for males is 18, for females 16. In the 1950s the age of consent in the state of Georgia was 14. In Delaware in the late 19th century it was 7, yes 7, not a typo. During the 1880s the age of consent in many US states varied between 10 and 12. Whatever the varying legislated age, if the information provided me is correct that some mothers have 12 year old daughters on birth control pills, the de facto age of female sexual consent in the US is 12.

Was Virginia Giuffre a child? If she is American it depends on her state of residence. If she is British, Australian or a New York resident, she is not a child. There was no child rape of Virginia Giuffre for which she collected three million pounds according to reports. Normally we think of a child as before puberty. I don’t know if Epstein had such young kids as sex bait for his entrapment scheme. If so, it would seem to involve kidnapping in addition to illegal underage sex. Would the prominent Jewish billionaires, who Ryan Dawson says was Mossad’s way of directing funds to Epstein, put themselves at risk by being complicit in kidnapping and underage sex? Why would they when there are volunteers attracted to influential men just as groupies are attracted to rock stars.

Young women are not what they formerly were. It is a fact that many young women have porn sites on which they proudly demonstrate themselves in sexual activity that not long ago would have been regarded as depraved. Some of them compete in having the largest number of sexual partners in a 24 hour time period. One has a goal of 1,000 sexual partners in 24 hours, which with no breaks for food, water, or toilet, comes to about 80 seconds per partner. It has become a matter of pride to achieve sexual penetration by 1,000 strangers in 24 hours. According to reports, young women in Internet chat brag about having had 150 sexual partners. True or false, it shows they are not shamed by their behavior whether claimed or real. What I have reported are facts, not a brief for pedophilia. Use the facts to decide whether the Epstein Saga is one of child sex-trafficking or one of a Mossad honey-trap for blackmail purposes to ensure US policy in the Middle East conforms to Israel’s.

Sex-trafficking of children in the US is far more extensive than Epstein’s operation. Principally, the sex-trafficking of illegal alien children. Many were separated from their parents, and if reports are correct tens of thousands, or is it hundreds of thousands, of them have been “lost.” US authorities don’t know where they are. Another source was the seizure of children by Child Protective Services, many of whom allegedly ended up in child prostitution. As far as I know, nothing has been done to find and to rescue these children. As a final suggestion, consider whether the purpose of the hullabaloo over Epstein’s sex-trafficking is to focus attention off the Israeli spy operation that has succeeded in destroying an independent American Middle East policy and five Muslim countries regarded as obstacles to Greater Israel.

Read more …

“Anyone who expresses critical views on war preparations must apparently expect house searches…”

” In the latest Yougov poll, the [..] CDU lost 3.5 percent of the vote, while the AfD has jumped 4.2 points.”

German Police Raid AfD MEP’s Property For The 22nd Time (RMX)

German police have raided Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Petr Bystron’s property for the 22nd time, using the pretext of his connection to the defunct Voice of Europe website, which was run by a man exiled from Ukraine. The house raid came while Bystron was in Washington D.C., meeting with Trump officials, including congressmen and allies of President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. On early Tuesday morning, German police searched an older warehouse where Bystron conducted business a decade ago. “This is targeted terror against the opposition,” Bystron said in a press release. “There is no other way to classify the absurd behavior of the authorities.” Bystron was the target of Czech intelligence services last year, who decided to release a variety of allegations surrounding their investigation at a rather opportune time—right before EU parliamentary elections.

The raid against Voice of Europe (VoE) and the accusations against Bystron, which Remix News covered, was widely seen as damaging the AfD’s reputation before voters headed to the polls. Notably, Czech intelligence claimed to have voice recordings that revealed Bystron was involved with a scheme to provide politicians with money in exchange for conducting interviews with the outlet VoE. The Czech authorities have never made the recording of Bystron public despite demands from the AfD to release it. Nobody has ever been charged to date in connection with the allegations, including Bystron himself. Bystron, however, was the only name that was released in connection with the case, although authorities claimed six European politicians received money from VoE.

The raid against Bystron may be seen as especially provocative as it was conducted at a time when Bystron was out of the country and meeting with Trump officials and congressmen. He is seen as the AfD party’s key bridge to American policymakers and is known for his connections to the Republican Party. Bystron himself said that despite his properties being raided 21 times, the police have not turned up any incriminating information against him. He also said that the police have even raided his elderly mother’s room in her retirement home and took testimony from her, despite her having been officially declared by the court as a dementia patient. “Every single one of these 22 searches was illegal. Each one marks a step away from a democratic constitutional state and toward an authoritarian regime that seeks to silence dissent by any means necessary,” Bystron told the Gateway Pundit.

Notably, the house raid of Bystron also occurred on the same day that a top German court in Leipzig rejected a significant AfD’s appeal. The party was working to overturn its current designation as a “suspected extremist” party by the powerful domestic spy agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). With all appeals now exhausted, this means the BfV can conduct extraordinary surveillance on the AfD, including targeting members with wiretaps, reading their chats and emails, and using informants to infiltrate the party. A number of prominent commentators on the German right have already highlighted the case on X, with Naomi Seibt stating: “They are spitting in the face of J.D. Vance.”

Other news outlets have also met the news of the incredible number of house searches targeting the AfD MEP with concern about Germany’s quickly evolving totalitarian methods for dealing with dissent. “Anyone who expresses critical views on war preparations must apparently expect house searches,” said a reporter from AUF1 in a video post shared by Bystron himself. Pressure has grown on the German government over the incredible growth of the AfD. In the latest Yougov poll, the party is tied for first place with the CDU, with 25 percent of the vote. The CDU lost 3.5 percent of the vote, while the AfD has jumped 4.2 points.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Arno

Piers

Bleach

Blue

Baby owls

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jul 232025
 


VIncent van Gogh Weeping woman 1883

 

Clinton Camp Worked With Obama White House On Trump-Russia Smear (Margolis)
The Media Ignores Declassified Documents on the Russian Conspiracy (Turley)
Trump Just Shattered Every Modern Presidential Record (Margolis)
Lutnick: Trump Will Renegotiate Trade Pact With Canada, Mexico Next Year (ET)
Tulsi Gabbard Releases Long-Classified MLK Jr. Assassination Files (ZH)
Trump’s Team Sees Netanyahu As ‘Madman’ – Axios (RT)
Trump Wants to Distance Himself From Ukraine Conflict – Bolton (Sp.)
Orbán: 20% of EU’s New 7-Year Budget Would Go To Ukraine (RMX)
Zelensky Defends Clampdown On Anti-Corruption Agencies (RT)
Zelensky Complains Western Backers Too Slow To Send Money (RT)
Hungary Unveils Joint Pipeline Project With Russia (RT)
A Safe Path To A Civil War’ – Majority of Germans Against An AfD Ban (RMX)
Hunter Biden Goes On Expletive-Laced Rant About… Everything (ZH)
Florida Surgeon General Highlights Vaccine Injuries, Calls on NIH to Act (BI)
A New Nuclear Age Is Coming, But This Time It’s Different (Bordachev)

 

 

Russia
https://twitter.com/LarryOConnor/status/1947628066974359870

VDH

Hunter
https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/1947453963084730502

Hoax
https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/1947452357089841289

Mike Davis
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1947342358170796352

Juile Kelly

 

 

 

 

“It’s rare to see such slam-dunk evidence of a conspiracy.”

Clinton Camp Worked With Obama White House On Trump-Russia Smear (Margolis)

In recent days, new evidence has emerged showing that the Obama administration intentionally manipulated and politicized intelligence to advance the Russian collusion hoax — despite conflicting assessments from within the intelligence community itself. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has accused former President Barack Obama of orchestrating a “manufactured, politicized piece of intelligence” to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency before it began. A cache of over 100 declassified documents that her office released includes a December 2016 President’s Daily Brief reportedly confirming that Russia had neither the intent nor capability to alter the outcome of the 2016 election. According to Gabbard, Obama’s political appointees deliberately suppressed that document.

The next day, Obama convened a National Security Council meeting and instructed top intelligence officials, including James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, and Susan Rice, to produce an assessment that would support a predetermined conclusion: that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump. Gabbard called the effort a “years-long coup.” She noted that professionals objected to the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier in the final assessment, but those warnings were ignored. The dossier, which Hillary Clinton’s campaign funded, became a central part of the intelligence assessment, and the Obama White House used it to justify FISA warrants targeting Trump aide Carter Page, effectively giving Obama’s team access to Trump’s campaign and transition. Gabbard said these actions merit criminal investigation and warned that restoring trust in American institutions depends on real consequences for those who abused their power.

There’s now mounting evidence — texts, emails, and corroborating testimony — that senior Obama officials and Clinton campaign aides knew the Russian “interference” narrative was bogus yet pushed it anyway as a calculated smear campaign to protect their political power. According to reporting by Paul Sperry at Real Clear Investigations, damning communications reveal direct coordination between Clinton operatives and top figures across the Obama administration, including the White House, National Security Council, State Department, and intelligence agencies. The fix wasn’t just suspected; it was orchestrated from the very beginning.

The emerging narrative makes Watergate look like amateur hour. At the helm of Crossfire Hurricane were the now-infamous Brennan (CIA), Comey (FBI), and fellow travelers whose fingerprints are smeared all over the operation. These men are not just facing historical scrutiny; they are now under criminal investigation for a conspiracy that could tear open the deepest fissures in our government. Sperry also cited a former Washington Post investigative reporter who was stunned by the evidence Gabbard declassified and released. “The [Russiagate] documents that came out in the past week are jaw-dropping,” the former WaPo reporter said. “It’s rare to see such slam-dunk evidence of a conspiracy.”

Gabbard revealed that whistleblowers within the intelligence community are now “coming out of the woodwork,” disgusted at what they witnessed, and she expects more explosive details soon. She’s vowed to refer all evidence to the DOJ and said there must be indictments, warning that no one — no matter how powerful — should be above the law. “This wasn’t just political dirty tricks,” she said. “It was a coup.” The tables have turned. The press and political class who once screamed “collusion” now find themselves in the stark glare of actual evidence as the real conspiracy’s enablers. Trump, long the target of scorn, stands wholly vindicated. With the ground shifting beneath their feet, Brennan, Comey, and their co-conspirators are finally facing the reckoning Americans were promised, and justice, however late, looks to be closing in fast.

Read more …

Not everyone would agree:

“I disagree with the use of the charge of treason being thrown around with this release. Based on this evidence, it would be hard to make a criminal case against Obama..”

The Media Ignores Declassified Documents on the Russian Conspiracy (Turley)

Consider this story: An outgoing president and his top officials are told that there is no evidence of Russian collusion or influence in the national election. The White House then moved to suppress the intelligence assessment and reverse the conclusions, while false claims were leaked to the press. That is not just a major but a Pulitzer-level story, right? Apparently not. The legacy media has largely ignored the declassified evidence and possible criminal referral on the Obama administration seeding the Russian collusion narrative just before the first Trump Administration. It supports allegations in the real Russian conspiracy: the conspiracy to create a false Russian collusion scandal to undermine the election and administration of Donald Trump in 2016.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggested last week that intelligence was “manufactured and politicized” despite countervailing conclusions from American intelligence that there was no collusion or influence on the election. Critics have noted that CBS only covered the story to refute it. The release of this information is historically significant, as it finally allows the public to see how this effort began with the Clinton campaign and was then actively cultivated by Obama officials. We previously learned that the Clinton campaign spend millions to create the infamous Steele dossier and then hid their role from the public.Attorney Marc Elias, the general counsel to the Clinton presidential campaign, pushed the false Alfa Bank conspiracy. (His fellow Perkins Coie partner, Michael Sussmann, was indicted but acquitted in a criminal trial.)

During the campaign, reporters asked about the possible connection to the campaign, but Clinton campaign officials denied any involvement in the Steele Dossier. When journalists discovered after the election that the Clinton campaign hid payments for the Steele dossier as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie, they met with nothing but shrugs from the Clinton staff. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said at the time that Elias denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

Elias was back when John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, was questioned by Congress on the Steele dossier and denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress. Not only did Clinton reportedly spent over $10 million on the report, but Obama was briefed that she was going to create a Russian collusion narrative as part of her campaign. Aware of that Clinton effort, these new documents suggest that Obama and his aides actively sought to affirm the allegations just before Trump’s inauguration. The FBI then ramped up its own efforts despite also being told that the Steele dossier was unreliable and contradicted.

I disagree with the use of the charge of treason being thrown around with this release. Based on this evidence, it would be hard to make a criminal case against Obama, let alone the specific charge of treason. However, there are good-faith allegations raised about prior congressional testimony of key players in the Obama Administration. There may be viable criminal allegations ranging from perjury to obstruction to making false statements to federal investigators.

It is too early to gauge the basis for possible criminal charges. However, the release of this new evidence is both historically and legally significant. There is now a legitimate concern over a conspiracy to create this false narrative to undermine the incoming Administration. It proved successful in derailing the first Trump Administration. By the time the allegations were debunked, much of the first term had been exhausted. That is worthy of investigation and the public has a right to expect transparency on these long withheld documents. The silence of the legacy media is hardly surprising, given the key role the media played in spreading these false claims. Most media outlets find themselves in an uncomfortable position, having fostered an alleged conspiracy for years. Most reporters are not keen on making a case against themselves in spreading of these false claims.

Read more …

“Newsweek’s analysis was conducted with the help of AI.”

Trump Just Shattered Every Modern Presidential Record (Margolis)

The corporate media has spent years twisting itself in knots to diminish Donald Trump’s record and legacy. But reality, as it often does, has punched through the leftist narrative. On Sunday, I wrote about Trump’s historically successful first six months back in office, and while it’s true, it may not mean much coming from me. However, it means something when the legacy media admits the same thing. In a direct rebuke to the talking heads who spent Trump’s campaign and early presidency warning of chaos and ineptitude, Newsweek has conceded a historical truth: Trump’s first six months back in the Oval Office have been nothing short of extraordinary, outpacing every president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“The first six months of Donald Trump’s second presidency have been the most ‘successful’ of any American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt,” the outlet reported. Newsweek’s analysis was conducted with the help of AI. There’s no shortage of spite from establishment outlets when it comes to Trump, but the raw facts have forced even Newsweek to acknowledge that President Trump has racked up more concrete accomplishments than any of his postwar predecessors at the six-month mark. Hard data doesn’t lie, even when pundits wish it would. Newsweek asked ChatGPT to rank the accomplishments of 20th and 21st century U.S. presidents in their first six months, taking account of the level of support they enjoyed in Congress.

The model gave Trump an overall score of “very high,” thanks to legislation such as the One Big Beautiful Bill and Laken Riley Acts.The analysis found that the first six months of Donald Trump’s second term were the most productive since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s in 1933, when FDR pushed through 15 major New Deal laws in his first 100 days. Joe Biden ranked third, with his early legislative wins including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, and the law making Juneteenth a federal holiday, which passed thanks to Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote in a 50-50 Senate. At the bottom of the list were Theodore Roosevelt, who passed no major laws in his first half-year, and Bill Clinton, whose only early achievement was the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act.

The Newsweek headline isn’t an act of charity or an opinion column gone rogue. It’s a reluctant admission from a publication that, while never in Trump’s corner, can’t escape the evidence: Trump’s policy victories keep stacking up. That didn’t stop it from trying to pooh-pooh its own findings: “While Donald Trump has achieved some legislative successes, they are more reflective of the partisan support in Congress. Not every president in the modern era has had such a one-dimensional party to support his legislative agenda. The Democratic Party has long been a coalition of diverse voices, making it difficult to appease every member of Congress. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama found this out during their first term in office.”

That is, of course, a bogus excuse because, according to an analysis from Roll Call, both parties have enjoyed symmetrical patterns of party unity depending on which party was in power, though currently, Senate Democrats are the most unified in history. But I digress. Six months rarely define a presidency, but Trump’s pace — and the substance of his reforms — stand as a rebuke to the cynics and the self-satisfied legacy press. Unlike past presidents who concerned themselves mostly with legacy-building gestures and ponderous commissions, Trump is delivering results that matter to real Americans: jobs, safety, security, and renewed pride in the nation itself.

Read more …

“Nothing stops countries from talking to us after August 1, but they’re going to start paying the tariffs on August 1..”

Lutnick: Trump Will Renegotiate Trade Pact With Canada, Mexico Next Year (ET)

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on July 20 that President Donald Trump will renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) when the trade pact is due for review next year. The USMCA, enacted during Trump’s first term in July 2020, replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement requires that 75 percent of automobile components be made in the United States, Mexico, or Canada for a vehicle to qualify for tariff-free treatment. The trade agreement also mandates that up to 45 percent of parts and components be made by workers earning at least $16 per hour, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. It also includes a provision requiring the three nations to review the deal every six years from its enactment.

In an interview with CBS News that aired on July 20, Lutnick said that it would make “perfect sense” for Trump to renegotiate the deal as part of an effort to protect U.S. workers. “He wants to protect American jobs. He doesn’t want cars built in Canada or Mexico when they could be built in Michigan and Ohio. It’s just better for American workers,” he told CBS’s “Face The Nation.” Lutnick said about 75 percent of imports from both countries are covered under the USMCA, which exempts those imports from tariffs. “I think the president is absolutely going to renegotiate USMCA, but that’s a year from today,” the commerce secretary said. Trump has announced 35 percent tariffs on Canadian imports and 30 percent on Mexican goods, which are set to take effect on Aug. 1.

Lutnick called the date “a hard deadline” for implementing those tariffs and the rates imposed on other trading partners, including the European Union. Lutnick noted that the United States will continue to engage in trade negotiations with other nations even after the new tariff rates take effect. che said. Trump told Fox News in October 2024 that he plans to invoke the six-year review provision of the USMCA upon taking office for a second term, pledging to make it “a much better deal.”

Since returning to the White House for a second term, Trump has imposed a universal 10 percent baseline tariff on U.S. trading partners, alongside reciprocal tariffs announced in April that vary depending on each country’s trade barriers with the United States. Initially, he applied a 90-day pause on most of these reciprocal tariffs and later extended that reprieve to Aug. 1 through an executive order. Over the past week, Trump has sent letters to more than 20 U.S. trading partners, notifying them of the tariff rates they will face on exports to the United States if they fail to reach trade deals with his administration.

Read more …

“There’s a lot to dig through in the 243,496 pages..”

Tulsi Gabbard Releases Long-Classified MLK Jr. Assassination Files (ZH)

Just days after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard dropped a bombshell report recommending criminal prosecution for several Obama-era officials over their role in a “treasonous conspiracy” tied to the 2016 election, she has now released the long-classified Martin Luther King Jr. files—a staggering 243,496 pages across 6,301 PDFs and one MP3 audio file. The MLK Jr. files have been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. DNI Gabbard made the files available at archives.gov/mlk. DNI Gabbard’s office stated in the press release:

“This unprecedented release follows through on President Trump’s commitment to fully release previously-classified records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (JFK), Senator Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), and MLK, and was carried out in coordination with the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Archives.” “The documents include details about the FBI’s investigation into the assassination of MLK, discussion of potential leads, internal FBI memos detailing the progress of the case, information about James Earl Ray’s former cellmate who stated he discussed with Ray an alleged assassination plot, and more,” DNI Gabbard stated on X.

Here are the key highlights:
• Internal FBI memos on leads and investigation progress.
• Evidence of alleged assassination plots discussed with James Earl Ray in prison.
• Canadian and CIA foreign intelligence records tied to Ray’s international flight.

“I am grateful to President Trump and DNI Gabbard for delivering on their pledge of transparency in the release of these documents on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” stated Dr. Alveda King, niece of MLK Jr. King noted, “My uncle lived boldly in pursuit of truth and justice, and his enduring legacy of faith continues to inspire Americans to this day. While we continue to mourn his death, the declassification and release of these documents are a historic step towards the truth that the American people deserve.”

DNI Gabbard stated, “The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination,” adding, “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are ensuring that no stone is left unturned in our mission to deliver complete transparency on this pivotal and tragic event in our nation’s history. I extend my deepest appreciation to the King family for their support.” Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order to declassify records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So far, it appears he’s kept his word. There’s a lot to dig through in the 243,496 pages—and X sleuths are already searching through it.

Read more …

“This could undermine what Trump is trying to do.” “The president doesn’t like turning on the television and seeing bombs dropped in a country where he’s seeking peace..|”

Trump’s Team Sees Netanyahu As ‘Madman’ – Axios (RT)

The administration of US President Donald Trump increasingly views Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “madman” undermining Washington’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, Axios has reported. Israel conducted airstrikes last week on Syrian government forces and military headquarters in Damascus in response to bloody clashes between the Druze and Bedouin communities in southern Syria. A ceasefire announced on Saturday appears to be holding. “After several bloody days in Suwayda Province, the Internal Security Forces have succeeded in calming the situation following their deployment in the northern and western areas,” Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab wrote on X.

Despite the truce, US officials have become “significantly more alarmed” by Netanyahu’s behavior and policies, Axios reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. “Bibi acted like a madman. He bombs everything all the time,” the outlet quoted a White House official as saying. “This could undermine what Trump is trying to do.” “The president doesn’t like turning on the television and seeing bombs dropped in a country where he’s seeking peace and has made a monumental announcement to help rebuild,” the official added.

On Monday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump “was caught off guard” by both the strikes in Syria and a recent Israeli attack on Gaza’s only Catholic church. “In both cases, the president quickly called the prime minister to rectify these situations,” Leavitt said. Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that it “deeply regrets” the strike on the Holy Family Church, which killed three people, and pledged to investigate the incident. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strikes in Syria were intended to protect the Druze population from atrocities.

Read more …

“..his decision highlights larger concerns about America’s lackluster defense spending and its economic readiness to boost military production,”

Trump Wants to Distance Himself From Ukraine Conflict – Bolton (Sp.)

US President Donald Trump wants to distance himself from the conflict in Ukraine both diplomatically and militarily, Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton believes. “Unfortunately, Mr. Trump seems more interested in extricating himself from Ukraine, diplomatically and militarily. And his decision highlights larger concerns about America’s lackluster defense spending and its economic readiness to boost military production,” Bolton wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Trump is building his own off-ramp from Ukraine. He satisfied immediate demands for aid by Ukraine’s beleaguered defenders but avoided long-term commitments,” Bolton added.

Trump, who has repeatedly criticized his predecessor Joe Biden for providing multibillion-dollar military aid to Ukraine, announced a new scheme last week to supply weapons to Kiev through NATO allies. According to Trump, the United States will sell European countries a large batch of weapons worth billions of dollars — including missiles, air defense systems and ammunition — after which the allies will transfer them to Ukraine and replenish their stockpiles through new purchases from American manufacturers. Trump emphasized that the scheme was fully agreed upon and would be implemented in the near future with funds from NATO countries.

Read more …

And “10-12 percent of previously taken out loans go to loan repayments..”

Orbán: 20% of EU’s New 7-Year Budget Would Go To Ukraine (RMX)

The European Commission’s seven-year budget is already facing backlash, with Ursula von der Leyen’s request for €2 trillion from member states being slapped down by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other leaders. One of the main voices against the budget is Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who says it is designed to bring Ukraine into the EU as a member and hand Kyiv billions of euros. “If we look only at financial aspects, we should see that in addition to the 20-25 percent of budget resources allocated to Ukraine, 10-12 percent of previously taken out loans go to loan repayments,” said Orbán in an interview with Kossuth Radio’s “Good Morning, Hungary” program. Adding up money to Ukraine and debt repayments, 30 percent of the budget goes to areas that were not included in the previous seven-year budget, said the Hungarian prime minister.

“That’s why everyone in the European Union is shouting,” he added. “The budget is a great science to understand, you have to be able to read not only what is written in it, but also what is hidden behind the lines,” Orbán said. The Hungarian prime minister said the problem with the budget is that it does not have a clear strategic basis. “If we do not know what it is for, then it cannot be good, because we must first answer what goals we want to achieve with it,” he said. As far as Orbán is concerned, the main goal of the budget is to admit Ukraine into the EU. “The EU budget has only one obvious purpose: to bring Ukraine into the EU, and these funds are transferred to Ukraine,” he said. According to the prime minister, the right move would be not to accept the Ukrainians but to instead develop a kind of cooperative relationship with them.

He also said that not only is there uncertainty about Ukraine, but money is also being lost for agriculture. The prime minister asked the question: “What will happen to farmers if the EU does not support them in the future?” According to Orbán, this budget will not survive, with EU countries lining up to reject it. This may be much more than bravado, as it is widely reported at the moment that a number of key EU leaders are coming out against the budget, most notably German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “A comprehensive increase in the EU budget is unacceptable at a time when all member states are making considerable efforts to consolidate their national budgets,” said Stefan Kornelius, spokesperson for Merz’s government. “We will therefore not be able to accept the Commission’s proposal.”

A path forward will not be easy, as Orbán notes that any EU budget agreement requires unanimous approval from all member states. Given that the Commission is trying to tie rule-of-law sanctions to a variety of expanded areas, which countries like Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia are certain to reject, negotiations are expected to be intense. During the last seven-year budget, many conservatives and those on the right criticized the previous Orbán government and their then Polish conservative allies for agreeing to the rule-of-law sanctions in exchange for signing off on the budget. The move turned out to be a bad one for Hungary, Poland, and other sovereignist-minded political parties. The EU froze tens of billions for both nations, and for Poland, only unfroze the money once the left-liberal Tusk government came to power. For Hungary, approximately €10 billion still remains frozen.

Read more …

The “Anti-Corruption” came too close to the Corruption. Which includes him.

He blames…Russia?!

Zelensky Defends Clampdown On Anti-Corruption Agencies (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has defended a controversial reform targeting the country’s anti-corruption agencies, which has sparked street protests and raised concerns among EU officials. On Tuesday, Zelensky signed a bill into law granting the Prosecutor General’s office the authority to intervene in the activities of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). The move followed a raid by security officials on NABU offices and the arrest of a senior employee accused of spying for Russia. Zelensky rejected accusations of creeping authoritarianism, which have been voiced by opposition politicians, including frequent critic and Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko. “The anti-corruption infrastructure will work – just without Russian influence. It needs to be cleared of that. And there should be more justice,” Zelensky said in his daily video address early Wednesday.

He added that it was “not normal” for some officials to live abroad “without legal consequences,” and criticized the failure to investigate corruption cases “worth billions” over the years. “There is no explanation for how the Russians are still able to obtain the information they need,” he said. Vasily Malyuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), whose agents conducted the searches involving NABU personnel, denied that the measures amounted to dismantling the anti-corruption system. He insisted that the agencies “continue to function effectively.” The NABU and SAPO were established following the US-backed 2014 coup in Kiev and promoted as key components of reforms intended to align Ukraine with Western governance standards and international financial institutions.

However, some Western officials, including US Vice President J.D. Vance, have argued that the decade of transformation has failed to eliminate entrenched corruption. Darya Kalenyuk, executive director of the Kiev-based NGO Anti-Corruption Action Center, linked the government’s clampdown to recent investigations involving members of Zelensky’s team, including former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov and media executive Timur Mindich. “NABU has been closing in on members of Zelensky’s inner circle and friends,” Kalenyuk said, as cited by the US state-funded outlet Current Time. She adding that the reform may be aimed at concealing the embezzlement of military funds.

Read more …

Hey! Pay up! I don’t work for nothing!

Zelensky Complains Western Backers Too Slow To Send Money (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has complained that his country has yet to see any benefits from NATO’s plan to ramp up military spending. At a recent summit in The Hague, most members of the US-led bloc committed to raising security-related expenditure to 5% of GDP. Kiev seeks to benefit from the surge, even as reluctance to commit to long-term funding of Ukraine is dwindling in the West. “The EU has opened access to €150 billion. Member states can assume obligations to draw these funds and then transfer them to Ukraine,” Zelensky told Ukrainian ambassadors on Monday, according to remarks released by his office. “Ten countries have already expressed readiness to take this money, but we have not yet seen the result – that they have actually taken it and transferred it to us.”

Zelensky appeared to be referring to the EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE), a €150 billion ($175 billion) borrowing instrument introduced in May to support the European Commission’s efforts for rapid militarization across the bloc. SAFE offers member states and select partner countries access to low-interest loans for national defense efforts or joint weapons procurement. The program is part of a broader EU strategy to borrow €800 billion for military readiness investment. It is not designed to provide direct financial aid. EU officials say the bloc is preparing for the possibility of Russian aggression – a claim Moscow has rejected as fearmongering based on false assumptions.

This month, the US offered to sell weapons to Ukraine, with other NATO nations covering the costs. While the proposal was hailed by Brussels, some major EU economies, including France and Italy, have reportedly opted out citing financial limitations or political reasons. Brussels’ handling of the Ukraine conflict has exposed growing divisions within the EU. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a longtime critic of the pro-Kiev approach, denounced the European Commission’s draft seven-year budget, saying it appears primarily tailored to Ukraine’s needs. “This budget would destroy the European Union,” Orban said last week, predicting that the Commission will likely have to withdraw or significantly revise the proposal within a year.

Read more …

“We are building new sources, not shutting them down.”

Hungary Unveils Joint Pipeline Project With Russia (RT)

Hungary has announced progress on a new pipeline with Serbia to transport Russian oil. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the project is “moving forward” and vowed to defy Brussels’ efforts to cut Budapest off from Russian energy. The 300km-long pipeline, which will have an expected annual capacity of 4-5 million tons, will enable Serbia to receive Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline and position Hungary as a transit hub. Szijjarto made the announcement on Monday after meeting with Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin and Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Dedovic-Handanovic. Szijjarto said all sides support the project, which could be operational by 2027, and have reviewed investment and construction details.

“We’re moving forward with Serbian and Russian partners to build a new oil pipeline between Hungary and Serbia,” Szijjarto wrote on X. Speaking to reporters, he accused Brussels of seeking “to cut us off from Russian oil and gas, forcing Hungarian families to pay two to four times more.” “We won’t allow that. We are building new sources, not shutting them down.” Szijjarto did not disclose Moscow’s exact role in the project, but Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last month that the country was ready to both aid in construction and supply oil to the planned pipeline.

Russian oil supplies to the EU have plunged due to Ukraine-related sanctions, including a 2023 embargo on seaborne crude and a price cap on Russian oil. Brussels now aims to eliminate Russian energy imports entirely by 2028 under its RePowerEU plan. Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy, opposes the plan and recently blocked new sanctions targeting Moscow’s energy but lifted its veto in July after securing national exemptions. The 18th sanctions package includes a dynamic price cap on Russian oil and curbs on imports of oil products made from Russian crude in third countries. Moscow has condemned the Western sanctions as illegal and self-defeating, especially those targeting energy, citing price spikes in the EU and warning the bloc will eventually have to turn to costlier alternatives or indirect Russian imports through intermediaries.

Read more …

“..many Germans view the banning of the AfD as anti-democratic. They hold the belief that parties advocating for a ban are looking to eliminate the political opposition.”

A Safe Path To A Civil War’ – Majority of Germans Against An AfD Ban (RMX)

New polling shows that Germans are firmly against a ban of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), with one historian even warning in the wake of the results that a ban of the AfD would lead to a civil war. The poll, which was conducted by the prestigious Allensbach Institute for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), is sure to come as a shock for the liberal wing of the German elite promoting a ban of the party. It shows that 52 percent of Germans are against a ban of the AfD, while only 27 percent are in favor. Among East Germans, two-thirds are opposed to a ban, while in the West, 49 percent are opposed to a ban. There are now even warnings that a ban could lead to a civil war, and not from an AfD politician. CDU member and historian Andreas Rödder told Euronews that an AfD ban represents a serious threat.

“A ban procedure that leads to the loss of all votes for the AfD and thus to red-red-green parliamentary majorities across the board would be the sure path to civil war,” he warned. The Allensbach poll results also come despite a concerted media and government spy campaign to demonize the party. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has already labeled the AfD as having “right-wing extremist elements.” In some German states, the AfD is “confirmed right-wing extremist.” One of the main reasons why Germans are against an AfD ban is that many Germans know an AfD supporter in their social circle.

The poll shows that 67 percent of West Germans say they know an AfD supporter, and 88 percent of East Germans say they know an AfD supporter. These acquaintances are viewed differently from the party itself. While 54 percent of Germans believe the AfD is right-wing extremist, only 5 percent believe their AfD supporter friends and family are also right-wing extremist. Another reason is that many Germans view the banning of the AfD as anti-democratic. They hold the belief that parties advocating for a ban are looking to eliminate the political opposition.

In fact, these were the words of the chancellor of Germany, with Friedrich Merz stating that efforts to ban the AfD are essentially undemocratic. Speaking to Die Zeit in May, Merz said, “Working ‘aggressively and militantly’ against the free democratic basic order must be proven. And the burden of proof lies solely with the state. That is a classic task of the executive branch. And I have always internally resisted initiating ban proceedings from within the Bundestag. That smacks too much of political competition elimination to me.”The poll also shows that banning the party in Germany would not solve the country’s political problems, with 54 percent saying that the AfD party would just reform under a different name with the same ideology.

However, the poll results are not deterring the left. In fact, they may only serve to hasten the left’s anti-democratic efforts as the AfD grows in popularity. A number of recent polls show the AfD is supported by 25 percent of the population, including a YouGov poll from last week. Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate Alexander Schweitzer (SPD) said he remains in favor of preparing a ban procedure against the AfD. He told Welt am Sonntag, “I’m for preparing ban proceedings against the AfD, and I am against quick fixes, so I hope that it is well prepared and not set in motion too quickly.”

He emphasized that “our state must be able to defend itself against those who want to abolish it,” and that AfD approval ratings are not an argument against a ban, but rather about “consolidating and protecting our democracy. You can’t say there are many, so we’d rather leave it alone.” So far, the CDU, the SPD’s coalition partner, is against the ban. In fact, the CDU may have good reason to be against such a dramatic move. For one thing, with the AfD eliminated, the left will then set its sights on the CDU, potentially even labeling the CDU the “new right.” Furthermore, the CDU may want to leave the door open to future cooperation with the AfD, or at least keep the threat open against left-wing parties like the SPD, which helps the CDU drive its own agenda.

Read more …

Hookers, minors, blow, booze. He’s forgotten why he’s walking around free.

Hunter Biden Goes On Expletive-Laced Rant About… Everything (ZH)

Hunter Biden, the scandal-plagued son of former President Joe Biden, launched into an unhinged, expletive-filled meltdown during a recent interview, attacking his own party’s elite establishment while defending illegal immigration and making shocking admissions about his drug-fueled past. In what can only be described as an unglued performance on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, the younger Biden lashed out at top Democrats, calling George Clooney a “fucking brand” rather than an actor, dismissing James Carville as irrelevant, and exposing the Pod Save America hosts as grifting “junior fucking speech writers” who have been “making millions” off their Obama connections. Obama advisor David Axelrod wasn’t spared either, with Biden dismissing his entire career: “David Axelrod had one success in his political life and that was Barack Obama and that was because of Barack Obama.”

Biden even turned his venom on powerful Democrat consultant Anita Dunn, revealing the stunning amounts of money these political parasites have extracted from the party: “Anita Dunn has made $40-$50 million off the Democratic Party.” And in a final insult to the failing mainstream media, Biden called out CNN host Jake Tapper over his poor ratings. “What influence does Jake Tapper have over anything? He has the smallest audience on cable news,” he said. The disgraced Biden son also unleashed a barrage of F-bombs while ranting about illegal immigration and taking direct aim at hardworking Americans who support border security.

“All these Democrats say, ‘you have to talk about and realize that people are really upset about illegal immigration’,” Biden said. “Fuck you. How do you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you think you have food on your fucking table? Who do you think washes your dishes? Who do you think does your fucking garden? Who do you think is hear by the fucking sheer fucking, just, grit and will that they figured out a way to get here because they thought that they could give thereselfses and there family a better chance?” The disgraced Biden son didn’t stop there, launching an attack on President Donald Trump’s common-sense approach to immigration enforcement. “He’s somehow conviced all of us that these people are the fucking criminals?” the former president’s son fumed.

Perhaps most disturbing were Biden’s casual admissions about his drug-manufacturing activities. In a stunning revelation that raises serious questions about what the Biden family was really up to, Hunter described in chilling detail how he became his own drug dealer. “Places that you can go get it are some of the most dangerous places in whatever location you happen to be in. And it’s everywhere,” Biden said. “Mainly for that reason, I learned how to make my own.” This bombshell admission reveals the depths of depravity the Biden family has sunk to, with the president’s son openly bragging about manufacturing illegal narcotics while his father occupied the nation’s highest office. Despite claiming sobriety since June 2019, Biden flew into a rage when confronted about the cocaine scandal that rocked the Biden White House, desperately trying to distance himself from the drugs found in the West Wing.

“They’ve convinced themselves it had to be me,” he said. “I have been clean and sober since June of 2019 and I have not touched a drop of alcohol or a drug and I’m incredibly proud of that. And why would you bring cocaine to the White House? Why would I bring it to the White House and stick it into a cubby outside the situation room in the West Wing?” The Biden crime family’s legal troubles are well known. Hunter was convicted by a Delaware jury in June 2024 for illegally purchasing and possessing a firearm while strung out on drugs – charges directly related to his well-documented substance abuse problems. In a brazen display of the two-tiered justice system, Joe Biden immediately pardoned his corrupt son, proving once again that Democrats believe they’re above the law.

https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/1947456739823022438

Read more …

“..resources devoted to “long Covid” should equally address post-vaccine syndromes, which many believe share overlapping symptoms and mechanisms.”

Florida Surgeon General Highlights Vaccine Injuries, Calls on NIH to Act (BI)

I was invited to Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s press conference in Tampa on July 17, 2025. In contrast to how some mainstream outlets later portrayed it, the event centered on a call to recognize and research Covid-19 vaccine injuries, rather than a mere anti-vaccine screed. Dr. Ladapo – a physician and Florida’s top health official since 2021 – emphasized the urgent need to support those suffering adverse effects from mRNA Covid-19 shots. He praised recent federal moves to scale back mRNA vaccine recommendations for certain groups, but went further by asserting that these products “should not be used in any human beings,” given their safety profile. From my front-row perspective, Dr. Ladapo’s tone was measured yet resolute. He recounted how unusual it is, in his experience, to encounter so many post-vaccination issues.

“When was the last time that you had a vaccine that literally almost every single person knows someone who had a bad reaction from it?” Ladapo asked pointedly. Before the Covid era, he noted, he never personally knew a patient who was clearly vaccine-injured. “Now,” he continued, “there are very few people that I run into who either themselves have not had a bad reaction from these mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, or who don’t know someone who’s had a bad reaction.” This was a striking report that hung in the air – one supported anecdotally by nods from some attendees sharing their own stories. Dr. Ladapo stressed that adverse reactions have become distressingly commonplace, and he even bluntly called the Covid shots “terrible vaccines” as a result.

Rather than simply condemning the vaccines, Dr. Ladapo dedicated much of his speech to advocating for the victims of vaccine injury. He applauded Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s May announcement removing mRNA Covid-19 shots from recommended use in healthy kids and pregnant women – a policy Florida itself adopted earlier. But crucially, Dr. Ladapo said this must be followed by concrete support for those already harmed. He called on federal agencies, especially the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to expand their research into vaccine injuries and long-term post-vaccine complications. “Today, I want to call on the federal government, [on] NIH, to expand the work that they are doing in long Covid to genuinely and wholly include vaccine-injured people – specifically, people who have been injured by mRNA Covid-19 vaccines,” Dr. Ladapo urged.

In his view, resources devoted to “long Covid” should equally address post-vaccine syndromes, which many believe share overlapping symptoms and mechanisms. He outlined areas where federal leadership is needed: funding clinical care for vaccine injury patients and scientific studies to understand and mitigate these conditions. “We need to study this better,” he insisted, “We need to fund physicians who are caring for these patients clinically and who are doing scientific work in this area.” The Surgeon General’s message was clear: people suffering adverse effects – whether myocarditis, neurological issues, autoimmune reactions, or other chronic post-vaccine syndromes – deserve acknowledgment and a commitment of research dollars toward treatment and recovery.

Florida’s stance, as presented by Dr. Ladapo, is that public health authorities have a responsibility to those individuals, just as much as to those affected by Covid-19 itself. It’s worth noting that Dr. Ladapo’s own background as a physician informed his plea. He remarked that since receiving his M.D. in 2008 and treating countless patients, he had never encountered the volume of serious vaccine-related injuries that he sees now. Real-world observation aligns with reports from other doctors now specializing in Covid vaccine injury. This formed the basis of his argument that federal health agencies must take action: the scale of the issue appears unprecedented and thus demands urgent attention.

Read more …

Balamce the new balance.

A New Nuclear Age Is Coming, But This Time It’s Different (Bordachev)

The question of nuclear proliferation is no longer hypothetical. It is happening. The only uncertainty now is how quickly it will proceed. In the not-too-distant future, we may see 15 nuclear powers instead of today’s nine. Yet there is little reason to believe this development will fundamentally upend international politics, or bring about global catastrophe. The invention of nuclear weapons was a technological breakthrough that reshaped global affairs. More than anything else, nuclear weapons define the military hierarchy of states, creating a threat that no government can ignore. Perhaps their most profound consequence is the emergence of states that are essentially immune to external aggression. This was never true in the long history of war.

No matter how powerful a state was, a coalition of rivals could always defeat it. The great empires were vulnerable to invasion. The Enlightenment-era monarchies – including Russia – depended on a balance of power system where no single nation could dominate the rest. But with nuclear weapons, that balance shifted. Two countries – Russia and the US – now possess such overwhelming destructive capability that neither can be seriously threatened, let alone defeated, even by a coalition. China, too, is gradually joining this exclusive tier, though its arsenal is still a fraction of Moscow’s or Washington’s. In this sense, nuclear weapons have brought a strange kind of peace: Not from trust, but from terror. War between nuclear superpowers is not only unthinkable, it is politically irrational.

Becoming a nuclear superpower, however, is extremely expensive. Even China, with its vast resources, has only recently begun to approach the scale of Russian and American stockpiles. Few others can afford the same path. Fortunately, most countries don’t need to. Major regional powers like India, Pakistan, Brazil, Iran, Japan, and even smaller ones like Israel, do not seek military invincibility on a global scale. Their nuclear ambitions, where they exist, are regional in nature – aimed at deterring neighbors, not conquering continents. Their limited arsenals do not upset the global balance of power. Nor do they need to. For decades, serious scholars – Western theorists as well as Russian strategists – have argued that limited nuclear proliferation may actually enhance international stability. The reasoning is simple: Nuclear weapons raise the cost of war. Nations become far more cautious when the price of aggression could be national annihilation.

We’ve seen this play out already. North Korea, with a modest nuclear arsenal, feels emboldened in its dealings with Washington. Iran, by contrast, delayed too long and was attacked by Israel and the US in June 2025. The lesson was clear: In today’s world, non-nuclear states are far more vulnerable to attack. This has exposed the weakness of the current non-proliferation regime. Countries like India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea have all violated it, yet none have been meaningfully punished. Iran tried to comply and paid the price. It’s no wonder others are watching and drawing their own conclusions. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan – each may be tempted to pursue nuclear weapons, either independently or with quiet American support. Washington has already shown it cares little about the long-term consequences for its East Asian allies. It is willing to provoke instability if it helps contain China.

In this context, a wave of new nuclear powers is not just likely – it is practically inevitable. But it will not mean the end of the world. Why? Because even with more nuclear states, the true balance of power remains intact. No emerging nuclear country will soon reach the scale of Russia and the US. Most will build modest deterrents, enough to shield themselves from invasion but not to threaten global security. Their arsenals may be enough to inflict horrific damage on a rival – but not to destroy humanity. A regional war – between India and Pakistan, Iran and Israel, or others – would be a tragedy. Millions could die. But the catastrophe would be geographically limited. These are not world-ending scenarios. And in cases such as these, the nuclear superpowers – Russia and the US – would likely act to impose peace before escalation spirals out of control.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Malhotra

RFK

Indians

Branches

Fenton

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jul 082025
 


Pablo Picasso Coffee maker 1943

 

Tariff Time Again: Trump Sends Trade Letters Ahead Of Deadline (ZH)
Bessent Explains MAGA Policy Intent on Growing US Economy (CTH)
Trump Promises To Resume Delivering Weapons To Ukraine (RT)
Ukraine Plagued By ‘Palace Politics’ And Purges – The Economist (RT)
Ukrainian MP Blames Corruption For Troops Fleeing Army (RT)
Tipping Point (Helmer)
Steve Bannon Compares Trump To Lincoln And Washington (RT)
Cage Match (James Howard Kunstler)
Ex-CIA Chief Brennan Could Face Russiagate ‘Perjury’ Probe (RT)
West Using ‘Russia Threat’ To Distract From Own Failures – Lavrov (RT)
Brazil’s Lula Accuses NATO of Fueling Arms Race (RT)
This NATO Fanboy Just Became Germany’s Army Chief (Amar)
Lavrov Explains How NATO Threatens Russia (RT)
EU Fears Losing US Military Software Support – NYT (RT)

 

 

Epstein

Bondi

 

 

 

 

Deadline has been pushed forward to Aug. 1. Start negotiating now!

Tariff Time Again: Trump Sends Trade Letters Ahead Of Deadline (ZH)

The first two trade letters were sent to South Korea and Japan, imposing a 25% tariff on all goods, effective August 1. Here are the key points from the letter addressed to South Korea that was posted on President Trump’s Truth Social page:
• The U.S. views the trade relationship as unbalanced and non-reciprocal.
• The 25% tariff applies to all Korean goods, unless they are produced within the U.S.
• The tariff is separate from sectoral tariffs and will be increased if Korea retaliates with its own tariff hikes.
• The U.S. encourages Korea to open its markets and remove trade barriers—offering a possible tariff reduction if this happens.
• The trade deficit is framed as a national security threat.


14 countries were sent such letters: Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Myanmar, South Korea, Japan, Tunisia, Thailand, Cambodia, Serbia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

————–—
Trade tensions are once again front and center for investors as President Trump’s tariff deadline looms. On Sunday night, the president announced that the U.S. will begin sending tariff letters to major trading partners, warning of levies on countries that have yet to strike a deal. The president expects letters to be sent to 12 countries. Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I am pleased to announce that the UNITED STATES TARIFF Letters, and/or Deals, with various Countries from around the World, will be delivered starting 12:00 P.M. (Eastern), Monday, July 7. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” DONALD J. TRUMP, President of The United States of America.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Trump will begin sending letters to U.S. trading partners, warning that if no agreement is reached, tariff rates will revert to April 2nd levels—set to take effect on August 1. Bessent noted that several major deals are nearing completion and that “big announcements” could be made this week. He added that around 100 smaller countries will be assigned a default tariff rate, many of which never engaged in negotiations with the Trump administration. Adding to the uncertainty, Trump said an additional 10% tariff will be imposed on any nation aligning with BRICS, the bloc of emerging market economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) seen as increasingly hostile to U.S. interests.

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” The 10-member bloc of emerging-market nations has increasingly positioned itself as a geopolitical and economic contender to the US-led global economic order, which is seen as fracturing as the world stumbles into a dangerous bipolar state. BRICS seeks to reduce the dominance of Western institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and the U.S. dollar system. Trump has previously threatened countries that back a new reserve currency… “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar, while we stand by and watch, is OVER,” Trump wrote on X in late 2024.

Goldman analyst Nelson Armbrust commented on Trump’s tariff posts: “Trade tensions are back in view as the tariff deadline approaches, with Trump pledging to start issuing unilateral rates to dozens of countries in the coming days. Stocks retreated at the start of a potentially volatile week as U.S. trading partners rushed to finalize trade deals with the Trump administration ahead of a July 9 tariff deadline. U.S. officials earlier signaled August 1 as the date for higher levies to kick in. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated some countries may be offered a three-week extension to negotiate. On a side note, over the weekend BRICS leaders, including China and India, condemned U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and called for a “just and lasting” resolution to conflicts across the Middle East. President Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on any country aligning with “the Anti-American policies of BRICS”. Metals fell, the yuan weakened and the dollar rose 0.4%.” The inflection point appears to be the 2030s…

The broader message is clear: the Trump administration is drawing a very hard line—it will not allow BRICS to dismantle the dollar-based global order. This is shaping up to be a fight for economic and geopolitical survival, as the White House moves to ensure the American experiment endures the challenges of a bipolar world in the 2030s.

Read more …

“Big picture: Trump, Lutnick and Greer are now transmitting 1. Baseline tariffs (10-20%), 2. Reciprocity tariffs (trade imbalance) and 3. Section 232 tariffs (ex. Steel and Aluminum). Countries are notified and their tariff rate begins on August 1st.”

Bessent Explains MAGA Policy Intent on Growing US Economy (CTH)

Appearing on CNBC to explain the big picture economics, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlines how debt and deficit hawks are seemingly blind to the need for GDP growth to deal with federal spending. From the outset of President Trump’s MAGAnomic policies in his T-1 and T-2 platform, growing the U.S. economy, expanding the size of the GDP is a key facet to dealing with debt and deficits. President Trump has always promoted economic policy that expands the size of the pie rather than focus on making smaller portions of each spending slice. Secretary Bessent also explains the current status of the tariff’s as delivered by the Trump administration. The next few days are exceptionally busy with incoming requests to renegotiate trade terms, and avoid countervailing duties.

Read more …

We can’t admit defeat. We’d much rather prolong a losing battle and sacrifice thousands more young people.

Trump Promises To Resume Delivering Weapons To Ukraine (RT)

The United States will continue supplying weapons to Ukraine, President Donald Trump said on Monday, a week after the Pentagon halted some deliveries. “We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now,” Trump told reporters during a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess,” he said, without elaborating. Shortly after Trump’s remarks, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that the US will send “additional defensive weapons to Ukraine.”

He added that the review of military shipments worldwide “remains in effect and is integral to our America First defense priorities.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a pause in deliveries last week, citing concerns about dwindling US stockpiles. “This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the media at the time. Parnell said the agency was reviewing all munitions shipments, not just those to Ukraine. “We can’t give weapons to everybody all around the world,” he said last Wednesday.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded by summoning the US deputy chief of mission in Kiev, John Ginkel, and stating that “any delay or slowing down in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities would only encourage the aggressor.” Trump, breaking from his predecessor Joe Biden, has resumed direct talks with Russia and is seeking to broker a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev. Russia has said that foreign weapons will not stop it from achieving victory. Last month, President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Moscow considers Western states supplying arms to Ukraine as “de facto direct participants in the conflict.”

Read more …

“Ukraine’s leadership is increasingly mired in “palace politics,” bitter infighting, and purges that threaten to fracture the country from within..”

Ukraine Plagued By ‘Palace Politics’ And Purges – The Economist (RT)

Ukraine’s leadership is increasingly mired in “palace politics,” bitter infighting, and purges that threaten to fracture the country from within, The Economist reported on Sunday, citing multiple sources. Much of the turmoil is reportedly linked to Andrey Yermak, the powerful head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, who is seen as actively sidelining other key figures close to the Ukrainian leader. While Russia continues to push back Ukrainian forces along the front line, the deepening political chaos in Kiev could spell even greater danger for Ukraine, the outlet stated. According to The Economist, the internal rift was illustrated by three developments last month: reports of an impending cabinet reshuffle with Yulia Sviridenko tipped as the next prime minister, yet another failed attempt to remove Ukraine’s spy chief, Kirill Budanov, and most notably, the corruption charges against Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov.

Chernyshov, previously known for his efforts to repatriate Ukrainians from the West, was accused of fraud tied to a housing project he approved while serving as urban development minister. The charges emerged while he was on official business in Europe, leading to what The Economist called the “absurd image” of Ukraine’s minister for repatriating citizens contemplating his own self-exile. Three officials told the magazine that while there was no evidence Yermak ordered the probe, he allowed the case to advance while freezing others, effectively neutralizing Chernyshov. The outlet’s sources claimed that Chernyshov’s true “offense” was trying to position himself as an alternative conduit for relations with Washington, potentially undermining Yermak. Chernyshov’s fall from grace also reportedly paved the way for Sviridenko, described as Yermak’s protégé, to rise further.

According to the outlet, Yermak has also on numerous occasions tried to oust Budanov. Sources close to Yermak labeled Budanov an unstable “revolutionary” intent on building his own political machine, while insiders in the intelligence service portrayed him as one of the few willing to confront Ukraine’s leadership with hard truths. However, Budanov has managed to survive through a mix of pressure tactics and political maneuvering, The Economist reported, adding that repeated White House warnings not to fire him also played a major role. While The Economist described Yermak as “domestically… stronger than ever,” an earlier report by Politico suggested that the US has been “frustrated” with the official. American officials interviewed by the magazine described Yermak as abrasive, poorly informed about US politics, and prone to lecturing – with some fearing he failed to accurately convey American positions to Kiev.

Read more …

“..accused Ukrainian commanders of exploiting soldiers by falsely registering them as serving on the front lines in order to claim additional payments, which the officers then seize..”

Ukrainian MP Blames Corruption For Troops Fleeing Army (RT)

Widespread corruption and extortion of combat pay by military commanders are driving Ukrainian soldiers to abandon their units, Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod has claimed. In a video posted last week on her YouTube channel, Skorokhod accused Ukrainian commanders of exploiting soldiers by falsely registering them as serving on the front lines in order to claim additional payments, which the officers then seize. According to the MP, the commanders also often use the soldiers to “build houses or renovate new apartments” while making sure they receive combat pay, which is then surrendered to their superiors. “Or the soldiers are simply being extorted, because they supposedly get 100,000 hryvnia [$2,400], but there is no command, so they are forced to give up money.”

Skorokhod said the soldiers have few ways to address these grievances, resulting in recurring AWOLs. “Because when there’s nowhere to turn, no one listens or wants to listen, people simply gather in platoons, in groups, and leave because they will not tolerate this.” Last month, Ukrainian journalist Vladimir Boyko reported that there have been more than 213,000 registered cases of unauthorized abandonment of military units in Ukraine. He noted that these figures only account for cases where criminal proceedings have been initiated, suggesting the actual numbers may be higher.

Meanwhile, there have been concerns in Kiev that the cash-strapped country, which is to a significant extent dependent on Western economic aid, could struggle to compensate its military. In April, Ekonomicheskaya Pravda reported that funds initially allocated for military salaries in the latter part of 2025 were redirected to purchase drones, ammunition, and other weaponry. In May, the first deputy chairman of the parliamentary finance committee, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, suggested that Ukraine faced a 400 billion hryvnia ($9.6 billion) shortfall in defense spending, which he said requires budget revisions. In addition to recurring AWOLs, Ukraine has been struggling with its forced mobilization campaign, which often leads to violent clashes between reluctant recruits and draft officers.

Read more …

“The Russian calculus recognizes the tipping point [for US arms supplies to the Ukraine]. Until then the General Staff will grind away methodically, slowly. Then when the Western supplies run low, we will hit fast and hard.”

Tipping Point (Helmer)

President Donald Trump thought he had gotten the deal terms and the cover story right, and also the prize for himself (the Nobel Peace Prize ). The deal was that under cover of an authorized leak to the press from Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Eldridge Colby, that the US was running out of ammunition for Israel’s war with Iran, for the Ukraine war with Russia, and for US military stocks at their DEFCON levels, Trump would pause ammunition deliveries to the regime in Kiev, and then persuade President Vladimir Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire in exchange. That’s the ceasefire which, since February, Trump has been asking Putin to announce at a summit meeting between the two of them.

That’s also the fourth ceasefire in the row which Trump has been counting as his personal achievements – between Pakistan and India on May 10; between Iran and Israel on June 23; and between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda on June 27. Only the scheme has failed. A Moscow source in a position to know explains: “The Russian calculus recognizes the tipping point [for US arms supplies to the Ukraine]. Until then the General Staff will grind away methodically, slowly. Then when the Western supplies run low, we will hit fast and hard. If you total the June attacks, the picture emerges clearly that Putin has chosen the Oreshnik option – without firing it yet — over compromising on Trump’s terms. The outskirts of Kiev are burning like never before.”

There are American exceptionalists who insist they thought of this before — in 1943, in fact, when Walter Lippmann spelled out what has come to be called (by Ivy League professors) the “Lippmann Gap”. This is no more nor less than the ancient maxim — don’t bite off more than you can chew. But in Lippmann’s verbulation: “Foreign policy consists in bringing into balance, with a comfortable surplus of power in reserve, the nation’s commitments and the nation’s power. I mean by a foreign commitment an obligation, outside the continental limits of the United States, which may in the last analysis have to be met by waging war. I mean by power the force which is necessary to prevent such a war or to win it if it cannot be prevented.

“In the term necessary power I include the military force which can be mobilized effectively within the domestic territory of the United States and also the reinforcements which can be obtained from dependable allies.” From the Russian point of view, the first two of Trump’s ceasefires have been clumsily concealed rescues for Pakistan and Israel; the Congo-Rwanda terms remain undecided; and the “necessary power” to reverse the defeat of the US, its “dependable allies”, and its proxies in the Ukraine has already been defeated. It won’t be Putin, however, to announce publicly that Trump has no “comfortable power in reserve”.

That, however, was Putin’s private message to Trump in their telephone call on July 3. “Russia would strive to achieve its goals,” was the way Putin allowed his spokesman to disclose: “namely the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, the bitter confrontation that we are seeing now. Russia will not back down from these goals.” This is the reason Trump later acknowledged: “[I] didn’t make any progress with him today at all.” It’s also the reason Trump beat a retreat from failure. “I’m very disappointed. Well, it’s not, I just think, I don’t think he’s [Putin] looking to stop. And that’s too bad. This, this fight, this isn’t me. This is Biden’s war.”

Read more …

“Trump’s not leaving,” Bannon said. “He’s going to be in your head for a long time.”

Steve Bannon Compares Trump To Lincoln And Washington (RT)

US President Donald Trump is reshaping America and will remain a dominant force well beyond his second term, former adviser Steve Bannon has said in an interview with the Financial Times. He suggested that Trump’s role in history is comparable to that of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In the interview published on Friday, Bannon predicted that Trump will not only run for a third term in 2028, but will win. He did not explain how it would be legally possible, given that the Constitution limits presidents to two terms, but insisted that Trump is a “world-historic” leader. “Trump’s not leaving,” Bannon said. “He’s going to be in your head for a long time.” He described Trump as the third transformational leader in US history after Washington, who founded the republic, and Lincoln, who “saved it.” Trump, he argued, is now giving the country its “rebirth.”

Bannon, who served as the president’s chief strategist during the early part of his first term, has continued to champion Trump’s political legacy in his podcast and public appearances. His remarks to the Financial Times come amid growing speculation over Trump’s intentions for 2028. Though a third presidential term is barred under the 22nd Amendment, Trump’s campaign store has recently begun selling ‘TRUMP 2028’ and ‘Rewrite the Rules’ merchandise. The items have fueled rumors about a possible attempt to extend his term. Trump has dismissed the idea, saying he will not seek reelection again. “I think we’re going to have four years and I think four years is plenty of time to do something really spectacular,” he said. While acknowledging that “many people” have urged him to run again, he said he would prefer to hand power over to “a great Republican.”

Trump has not formally endorsed a successor, but has mentioned Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio among a broader pool of potential candidates. Despite Trump’s public remarks, his administration continues to face strong resistance and repeated impeachment attempts from Democratic lawmakers. Last month, his mass deportation directive triggered unrest in several Democratic-led cities, including Los Angeles, where National Guard and Marine units were deployed. California officials have challenged the legality of the military response, calling it unconstitutional. Amid the political turmoil, a recent YouGov poll found that 40% of Americans believe a civil war is somewhat or very likely within the next decade. The survey also revealed sharp partisan and racial divides in expectations about a potential conflict.

Read more …

“. . . [W}e are closing in on more disclosures and fixing past wrongs to personnel. We’re making sure this is done correctly. But it’s absolutely getting done.”
Dan Bongino, Deputy Director, FBI

Cage Match (James Howard Kunstler)

Who knows what to believe these days? Well, what would you expect after years, even decades, of anti-reality operations by everyone from the CIA to The New York Times to Harvard U. Is it any wonder that reality-optionality is making the people both apathetic and insane? We are told now by the FBI that there is no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein ran a blackmail operation against the politicos of Western Civ, or that a “client list” existed, or that JE was murdered in his jail cell. It well might be true that there is no evidence, strictly speaking. Messrs. Patel and Bongino, coming into office rather late in the Epstein game, were apparently left with big bag of nuthin. What else can they truthfully report? So, they had to put it out there, knowing a whole lot of people would be miffed. “We’ve got nuthin, sorry.”

Were they chagrined to do that? Evidently so. Of course, this Epstein business has been going on for years and years and it is certainly possible that the most damning evidence has been destroyed by interested parties. Personally, I find it implausible that absolutely nothing ever leaked, no video of, say, Tony Blair or Bill Clinton violating a child, if it ever happened. Everything else in our world leaks, eventually. And there were supposedly how many cameras around the Epstein properties, and how many thousands of hours of video recordings? There is more video of Bigfoot than of compromised Epstein bigshots. Just sayin’. AG Pam Bondi, the FBIs boss, also has some ‘splainin’ to do. In February, she claimed to have the Epstein client list “sitting on my desk right now to review,” and hinted it would be released shortly.

That material, when released, turned out to be the old dog-eared flight logs that have been circulating through every news outlet for years. Did she not know the difference between an alleged “client list” and the old flight logs? Let’s face it: seems kind of dumb. . . seems like the AG got played. . . and now the mob on “X” is having sport with her. Among the miffed, apparently, is Elon Musk. At the height of his feud with Mr. Trump, on June 5, Elon put out a message on his “X” platform saying, “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”. This intemperate utterance naturally prompts you to wonder: how (or what) might Elon know about any supposed Epstein evidence? At this point, the FBI might send somebody to inquire.

Did Elon, who has more money than even Scrooge McDuck, somehow manage to buy up all those alleged blackmail tapes? Does he otherwise know where they might have disappeared to? Has he ever seen anything? Anyway, he didn’t produce any actual evidence. Is Elon losing it, a little bit. His grip, that is. Mr. Trump thinks so. He declared over the weekend that Elon has “gone off the rails” . . . has become “a train wreck.” Well, what you can see in this very public, very regrettable cage-match between two giant public personalities is that Elon has lost his cool and the president has not. For one thing, Elon is apparently incensed over the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) just signed into law because it ends the electric vehicle mandate left over from the “Joe Biden” regime, as well as the whopping $7,500 federal tax credit for new electric cars — loss of which which is apt to break Tesla’s business model.

The bill also calls for sunsetting subsidies for battery production by 2028, meaning Tesla’s Powerwall business is likewise affected. Mr. Trump took pains to explain that he’d informed Elon from the get-go (and repeatedly) that all those subsidies were done for when he got elected. Elon was visibly perturbed over the process that produced the OBBB, the proverbial political sausage-making (i.e., a nasty business you’d be appalled to watch). It appeared, he said, to un-do all of his DOGE spending cuts so laboriously made. Mainly, Elon deplored the failure to address the $36-trillion-plus national debt, widely recognized as a time-bomb on a short fuse liable to sink the whole USS United States. I will tell you a harsh truth: nobody will do anything about the national debt. The sheer math of our annual debt service is simply impossible. Our country is heading into some sort of bankruptcy proceeding, some kind of ferocious “work out” — as they say in the banking board-rooms.

Read more …

”John Ratcliffe is a genius,” a congressional source told Breitbart News in comments published on Sunday. “He just got career CIA officers to admit the 2016 ICA was corrupted and to offer up Brennan on a silver platter…

Ex-CIA Chief Brennan Could Face Russiagate ‘Perjury’ Probe (RT)

Former CIA Director John Brennan could face a perjury probe over his role in the 2016 “Russiagate” conspiracy, which claimed Moscow worked to undermine Hilary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in favor of Donald Trump, according to US media. The current chief of the US spy agency, John Ratcliffe, has claimed that senior security officials manipulated aspects of the investigation, which was commissioned by then-President Barack Obama in 2016. Republican critics have long maintained that the final document was politically motivated and intended to damage Trump’s first presidency. Moscow has denied interfering in the US electoral process or “colluding” with Trump’s campaign.

Last month, Ratcliffe declassified an internal CIA review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which some media outlets claim proves that Brennan lied under oath during a closed-door congressional hearing in 2017. Allegations of this nature have circulated for years. ”John Ratcliffe is a genius,” a congressional source told Breitbart News in comments published on Sunday. “He just got career CIA officers to admit the 2016 ICA was corrupted and to offer up Brennan on a silver platter… The DOJ could have a field day with this.” A second source said lawmakers were “stunned” by the contents of the internal review, claiming Brennan “knew the entire time that he was trying to wreck Trump’s presidency before it even started.”

The declassified review, released June 26, includes testimony from an intelligence official who described Brennan’s influence over the inclusion of references to the Steele dossier in the ICA. The dossier – a collection of unverified allegations linking Trump’s campaign to Russia – was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The intelligence official said Brennan “showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness.” The spy chief reportedly wrote to skeptics: “My bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.” In his 2017 testimony, Brennan reportedly claimed he had not advocated for the dossier to be mentioned in the ICA.

Senior US intelligence officials are rarely prosecuted for misleading the public, even when the available evidence appears compelling. One notable example is James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, who told Congress in 2013 that the National Security Agency was not “wittingly” collecting data on millions of American citizens. Documents later leaked by Edward Snowden showed that the agency was doing precisely that. The former NSA contractor is facing prosecution in the US for exposing the mass surveillance program and was granted asylum in Russia.

Read more …

The cause of the failures, and the excuse for them at the same time..

West Using ‘Russia Threat’ To Distract From Own Failures – Lavrov (RT)

Western leaders are deliberately painting Russia as a threat to distract their citizens from domestic economic and social woes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview with the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet on Monday, Lavrov dismissed claims made by Western intelligence agencies that Moscow is plotting to attack or occupy Europe. “Perhaps those who make such claims know more about Russia’s plans than we do. At least we are unaware of our plans to ‘attack Europe’, let alone ‘occupy’ it,” he quipped. Lavrov said he generally concurs with analysts who believe that the “ruling circles in Europe and North America are working hard to create an image of Russia as an enemy to rally populations tired of social and economic problems.” He accused Western governments of systematically “demonizing” Russia through media manipulation and pushing the notion of Moscow harboring some kind of “imperial ambitions.”

Among the issues Western leaders hope to deflect attention from are inflation, unemployment, falling living standards, illegal migration, and rising crime, he added. Lavrov went on to criticize what he described as the EU’s transformation into a “military-political bloc” and “an appendix to NATO.” “This is a dangerous trend that could have far-reaching consequences for all Europeans,” he warned. The minister’s comments come on the heels of the NATO summit in The Hague last month during which the leaders of the bloc agreed to work toward a target of spending least 5% of GDP on defense – something US President Donald Trump has insisted on – and continue to support Ukraine. Moscow has consistently argued that military shipments to Kiev will only prolong the conflict without changing its outcome.

Read more …

“It has become much easier to invest in maintaining wars than to invest in achieving peace..”

Brazil’s Lula Accuses NATO of Fueling Arms Race (RT)

NATO is fueling a global arms race by pushing for massive increases in military spending, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said. The US-led military bloc endorsed a plan last month to raise its defense spending target from 2% to 5% of GDP. Speaking on Sunday at the opening of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Lula said the world is experiencing a record number of armed conflicts since World War II and warned that NATO’s policies are exacerbating the situation. “NATO’s recent decision [to raise military spending to 5% of GDP] is fueling an arms race,” Lula said. “It has become much easier to invest in maintaining wars than to invest in achieving peace,” the Brazilian leader said, referring to previous Western promises to provide 0.7% of GDP to aid developing countries.

While not yet formalized, the NATO proposal has been backed by Secretary-General Mark Rutte and several member states, including the US and Poland. A number of Western leaders have justified the spending increase as a response to what they claim is a growing threat from Russia. Moscow has consistently denied any intention to attack NATO states and dismissed such warnings as baseless fearmongering aimed at justifying militarization and distracting from domestic problems. In an interview published on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that NATO’s expansion toward Russia’s borders and efforts to integrate Ukraine into the alliance constitute a direct threat to Russian security. He said these moves left Moscow with no choice but to launch its military operation against Kiev in 2022.

Lavrov also accused NATO of transforming itself into an offensive bloc, pointing to its past interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. He claimed that NATO’s militarization and demonization of Russia are being used to deflect attention from inflation, migration, and other domestic problems in the West. The minister has also warned that NATO’s proposed spending increase could end up being “catastrophic” and lead to the bloc’s collapse. Moscow, meanwhile, intends to reduce its military spending in the coming years – a process that will be guided by “common sense, not made-up threats like NATO member states,” Lavrov said.

Read more …

“Freuding is not just any die-hard bellicist. He also serves as a dis/information warrior in a class of his own. That’s why German mainstream media call him a “social-media star” and “the YouTube General” who went “viral.”

This NATO Fanboy Just Became Germany’s Army Chief (Amar)

Berlin’s energetic, ambitious, popular, and resolutely narrow-minded minister of defense Boris Pistorius has just made some high-level personnel moves. By far the single most politically significant of Pistorius’ new appointments is that of Major-General Christian Freuding as the new “Heeresinspekteur,” the head the land forces (in German: Heer), that is, the army in the strict sense of the term. This is a position of major influence because of the structure of Germany’s military and current rearmament plans, both with a key role for the army. Formally, Freuding has not (yet) scored the highest possible military rank. That would be the “Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr,” responsible for all four current service branches (army, navy, air force, and the new cyber and information units).

But, in reality, Freuding may well already have more political influence than any other German officer. This is due to two factors: Freuding clearly is a favorite of Pistorius. Indeed, his predecessor, General Alfons Mais, was not. Ironically, Mais was no less Russophobic than the worst of them. His bizarre, simplistic, and stereotyped views of Russia as a country that doesn’t care about its casualties are now most welcome in Germany (again). But Mais also could be “inconvenient”: Instead of meekly waiting for the politicians to get debt-driven rearmament into economy-draining overdrive, this soldier had a habit of complaining about the wait and making demands. That is one reason Mais is out and Freuding is in.

Freuding is a driven as well as rapidly advancing careerist who already served as adjutant to Ursula von der Leyen in those good old days when she was still only devastating the German political landscape. He clearly knows how not to antagonize but please his superiors. One way in which Freuding pleases Pistorius – and virtually the whole German political and mainstream media establishment – is that he is a perfect hardliner with respect to Russia in general and, in particular, when it comes to the West’s proxy war against the latter via Ukraine. That has also made him a perfect fit to lead both a new, centralized Defense Ministry planning and coordination body established in 2023 and, at the same time, a special office busy, in essence, with pumping arms into Ukraine.

Yet Freuding is not just any die-hard bellicist. He also serves as a dis/information warrior in a class of his own. That’s why German mainstream media call him a “social-media star” and “the YouTube General” who went “viral.” Apart from Freuding’s presence on traditional TV, there are his frequent appearances on the German military’s YouTube channel which score hundreds of thousands of views, occasionally even a million. What seems to have made the often wide-eyed – quite literally – general so popular is a combination of overly optimistic (polite expression) assessments of the Ukrainian and Western position in the Ukraine War, a certain boyish (also polite expression) but – it seems – infectious enthusiasm for arrows and tactical signs on maps, and, last but not least, a relentless insistence to fight this war, in effect, through to the last Ukrainian. And who knows, maybe even beyond that.

In the fall of 2022, after Ukraine recaptured some territories at unsustainable cost to men and materiel, Freuding went wild, enthusing about “incredible successes” and “euphoria.” Euphoria indeed. Last summer, when Ukraine started its predictably self-devastating offensive into Russia’s Kursk Region, Freuding replicated every single daft Kiev propaganda point, including the alleged “psychological effect” of invading “core Russian territory.” Incidentally, the excitable general seems to have a traditional German blind spot for just how big Russia is: In reality, the area temporarily seized by Kiev’s forces was miniscule – never more than one hundredth of a percent of Russian territory.

Read more …

“..citing its interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. “From whom were NATO countries defending themselves there? Who attacked them?”

Lavrov Explains How NATO Threatens Russia (RT)

NATO’s push to turn Ukraine into a foothold against Russia is a direct threat to national security, and left Moscow with no choice other than to start the military operation against Kiev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview with the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet published on Monday, Lavrov argued that NATO has long ceased to be a defensive bloc, citing its interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. “From whom were NATO countries defending themselves there? Who attacked them?” he said. The US-led military bloc has also been expanding towards Russia’s borders for years while seeking to turn Ukraine into a “military foothold” to contain Russia.

“The appearance of NATO bases in Ukraine and its involvement in the military alliance represents an immediate threat to our national security. Such a state of affairs would be unacceptable for us,” Lavrov stressed.In 2021, weeks prior to the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Russia sought to address its concerns by requesting security guarantees from the US and NATO, hoping to preserve Ukraine’s non-aligned status. “Our initiative was rejected,” Lavrov said, adding that the West instead continued to “pump Ukraine with weapons to forcibly resolve the issues of Donbass and Crimea.” In the end, we were left with no alternative but to launch the special military operation. I am sure that any self-respecting country would have done exactly the same in that situation.

Lavrov singled out what he called Kiev’s crackdown on the Russian minority as another reason for the conflict. In the wake of the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, Ukraine was “persecuting and killing Russians,” he said, pointing to the Odessa massacre that year in which dozens of anti-government activists were burned alive in the Trade Union House. Lavrov also accused Kiev of waging war on the Russian language and culture, saying it has pursued forced Ukrainization, which has harmed other ethnic minorities as well, including Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Bulgarians, Armenians, Belarusians, and Greeks. The Russian foreign minister stressed that a durable settlement is impossible without addressing the root causes of the conflict, including rejecting Kiev’s NATO ambitions, ensuring the status of human rights in Ukraine, and international recognition of the “new territorial realities.”

Read more …

“The EU has committed nearly €14 trillion ($16.4 trillion) to defense investments over the next decade..”

But that still doesn’t buy them control, no strategic autonomy…

EU Fears Losing US Military Software Support – NYT (RT)

EU officials are concerned that Washington could one day stop providing critical software updates for US-made military equipment, according to a New York Times report. The fear stems from uncertainty over the future of NATO and the policies of US President Donald Trump. The EU has committed nearly €14 trillion ($16.4 trillion) to defense investments over the next decade. Last month, the European Commission authorized the use of around €335 billion in pandemic recovery funds for military purposes. In May, it introduced a €150 billion debt facility to support defense efforts. Ukraine has been granted access to these funds alongside EU member states. Russia has denounced the steps as evidence of continued hostility by the bloc.

However, the EU is embarking on the unprecedented military spending spree without the technology base to match its ambitions, the outlet said on Sunday. The bloc lacks viable alternatives to advanced US-made military systems, including the F-35 stealth fighter, which costs around $80 million per jet. The absence of such capabilities raises doubts about the EU’s ability to achieve strategic autonomy, according to the report. The bloc remains deeply dependent on American platforms – from missile-defense systems and rocket launchers to cyber warfare tools – all of which rely on regular software updates from the US.

Some officials fear that Washington could ultimately withhold essential software updates – a concern heightened by Donald Trump’s renewed outreach to Russia and his skepticism toward NATO commitments, the NYT said. NATO members have since agreed to spend 3.5% on core military budgets and another 1.5% earmarked for areas such as cyber defenses and the preparation of civilian infrastructure. Concerns over tech dependency have become more urgent since the Trump administration suspended shipments of certain weapons to Ukraine, leaving EU nations to fill the gap, the NYT noted. Moscow has welcomed the move, suggesting that the freeze could speed up the end of the conflict.

Discussions continue in the EU over whether to build its own military industry or remain reliant on US technology, the report said. The mixed approach suggests that the bloc may continue to depend on key American technologies, even as it seeks greater defense independence. The debate comes amid speculation in the Western media and among some officials that Russia is preparing to eventually attack NATO countries in Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed such notions as “nonsense,” saying Moscow has no intention of invading NATO and that the US-led bloc is fueling an arms race and fabricating threats to justify higher spending.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Tucker Iran

Real
https://twitter.com/thesigmamindset/status/1941919825988849874

Rogan
https://twitter.com/LangmanVince/status/1942392076697514454

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 062024
 


Pablo Picasso La lecture 1932

 

Americans See Civil War Within 5 Years, Upcoming Election as Flashpoint (Sp.)
Ukrainians are God’s Chosen People – Zelensky (RT)
Zelensky Can’t ‘Mobilize God’ – Russian Church (RT)
Moscow Ridicules Zelensky’s Claim About God and Ukraine (RT)
Trump Develops ‘Detailed’ Plan On Achieving Ukraine Peace: Telegraph (ZH)
Corruption Sped Up Ukraine’s Retreat More Than Weapons Shortage
New US Antisemitism Law Turns Israeli Genocide Critics Into Criminals (GR)
French Foreign Legion Dispatched to Ukraine, Ex-DoD Official (Sp.)
Ukraine Could Request Western Military Intervention – MP (RT)
Israel’s Not So Little War Against Russia (Helmer)
Xi jinping to Visit Three Key Countries During Trip to Europe (Sp.)
You Need 2 Years of Food – Martin Armstrong (USAW)

 

 

 

 

May 5
https://twitter.com/i/status/1787107339939860718

 

 

Falcon heavy

 

 

Optimus


https://twitter.com/i/status/1787082089315139886

 

 

Poso
https://twitter.com/i/status/1787151253509706036

 

 

Putin Steele

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I’m not stupid. If you don’t vote for Trump, this great big empire is gonna crumble.”

Americans See Civil War Within 5 Years, Upcoming Election as Flashpoint (Sp.)

Surveys show many believe Americans will take up arms against each other in the coming years as political polarization in the country remains at an all-time high. A new poll reveals a startlingly large percentage of Americans anticipate a second civil war within the next few years, with many citing this year’s presidential election as a potential flashpoint for a conflict. The survey by US pollster Rasmussen Reports found that 41% of likely voters think the country is likely to see a civil war by 2029, including 16% who think a civil war in that timeframe is “very likely.” Researchers discovered a significant partisan component to the issue, with 37% of respondents saying civil war is more likely if current US President Joe Biden is reelected in November. Some 25% said the outcome would be more likely under a second Donald Trump presidency, while 30% said the outcome of this fall’s election would make little difference.

Surprisingly, more than half of Republican voters anticipate a civil war within the next five years, with 54% of them saying the outcome is likely. Women, young adults, and non-white voters were found to be most likely to predict an imminent conflagration in the survey of 1,105 US voters. “The possibility that America could face another civil war soon is not too far-fetched for a lot of voters,” said the polling firm. “Such discussions got a boost after the new movie ‘Civil War’ made its debut as number one at the box office last month.” The Alex Garland film is not the only recent Western movie or television show predicting a dystopian near-future. British director Adam Curtis’ film HyperNormalization recognized the trend nearly a decade ago.

“Halfway through Adam Curtis’s mind-blowing documentary on the current socio-political turmoil in the world… there is a montage from Hollywood apocalypse movies,” noted critic J.J. McDermott. “The montage segues from one dramatic scene to another with prolonged gasping effect… the White House is destroyed in Independence Day, a giant dino-creature chucks cars about the streets of New York in Godzilla and a giant comet looms over North America in Deep Impact.” “The fascination with 9/11 as a witnessed spectacle has persisted in movie studios and in the minds of their ‘disaster’ directors ever since and the summer blockbuster season is never without at least one example every year now.” Curtis’s provocative film posits that society has increasingly retreated inward in recent years, with the rise of the Internet serving as a substitute for an increasingly unpredictable and chaotic Western world. Brexit and the election of Trump are offered as two key events signifying a descent into political turmoil.

But the existential angst has apparently found its way online as well, with entire Internet communities dedicated to discussing the likelihood of imminent war or apocalypse. The r/Collapse forum on the website Reddit devotes itself to “discussion regarding the potential collapse of global civilization, defined as a significant decrease in human population and/or political/economic/social complexity.” Other surveys in recent years have revealed similar results, with one by YouGov in 2022 finding 43% of Americans think a civil war is likely in the next decade and another poll conducted that year finding 50.1% think it is a possibility.“No matter what happens here – the verdict – Trump’s gonna win or there will be a civil war,” said one supporter of the former president protesting outside his current trial in New York City. “I’m not stupid. If you don’t vote for Trump, this great big empire is gonna crumble.”

Read more …

Orthodox Easter is a big one.

Ukrainians are God’s Chosen People – Zelensky (RT)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has proclaimed that God is an “ally” of Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. Despite his invoking of the Almighty, Zelensky has led a crackdown on the Orthodox Church for the last two years. As Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter on Sunday, Zelensky released a video address from Kiev’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, in which he accused Russia of “breaking all the commandments.” “The world sees it, God knows it,” he said. “And we believe God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder. So, with such an ally, life will definitely win over death.” Zelensky’s appeal to Christians came as Ukraine’s parliament examines legislation that would close down the country’s largest Christian church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). While the law has sat in parliament for months, Zelensky’s government has moved to restrict the Church’s activity since the conflict began in 2022.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has opened dozens of criminal cases against UOC priests, has sanctioned clerics, and stripped at least 19 bishops of their Ukrainian citizenship, according to TASS news agency. Church property has been seized, and monks evicted from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, an ancient monastery and the most prominent Orthodox site in Ukraine. The UOC has deep historical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), which it renounced after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Despite declaring autonomy from the ROC, Zelensky has accused the UOC of functioning as an “agent of Moscow,” and promoted the government-created Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) as its replacement.

A non-canonical organization, the OCU was established by the government of President Pyotr Poroshenko after the US-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014. Earlier this year, a group of lawyers wrote to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, warning him that banning the UOC could cause “serious harm to Orthodox Ukrainians” and have “dire ramifications for Ukraine’s entry into the European Union and its place in the Western world.”

Read more …

“The Lord is not a resident of the Kiev region for Zelensky to mobilize him and put him in the Ukrainian army..”

Zelensky Can’t ‘Mobilize God’ – Russian Church (RT)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has no way to enlist God in his fight against Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church has said, rebuking a statement Zelensky made during his Easter Sunday speech. In a video address, Zelensky described God as “an ally” of Ukraine who “has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder.” “The Lord is not a resident of the Kiev region for Zelensky to mobilize him and put him in the Ukrainian army. His statements don’t merit any attention,” Vakhtang Kipshidze, the head of the Russian church’s public relations department, told news outlet news.ru. Kipshidze further blasted the Ukrainian leader as “a non-believer” who “claims that he can decide for God whose ally he is.”

Kiev has stepped up the crackdown on its largest Christian church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), accusing its clergy of being “agents of Moscow.” The UOC renounced its historical ties with Moscow after Russia launched its military operation in the neighboring state in February 2022. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian authorities have since launched criminal cases against more than 60 priests and seized a number of monasteries and other assets in favor of the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). Last year, the Ukrainian government introduced a bill that would pave a way for an eventual ban of the UOC. The legislation, however, has since been stalled. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has repeatedly condemned the campaign against the UOC, denouncing it as a violation of religious rights.

Read more …

“..Zakharova ridiculed the statement, suggesting it was the result of a “drug overdose.”

Moscow Ridicules Zelensky’s Claim About God and Ukraine (RT)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has apparently lost touch with reality, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested after the Ukrainian President described God as Kiev’s “ally” in the conflict with Moscow. On Sunday, as Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter, Zelensky issued a video address in which he accused Moscow of “violating all the commandments,” claiming that “God knows it.” “We believe [that] God … wears a chevron with a Ukrainian flag on his shoulder,” the president stated, referring to the higher power as Kiev’s “ally,” who would guarantee Ukraine victory in the ongoing standoff. Zakharova ridiculed the statement, suggesting it was the result of a “drug overdose.” “A chevron on God’s [sleeve] is the same story as the rituals of ancient Ukrainians [performed] by them somewhere in Mesopotamia at a time when they discovered America,” the spokeswoman said, apparently referring to some internet memes mocking Kiev’s narratives about the nation’s origins.

Zelensky’s statements came amid the continued retreat of the Ukrainian military in Donbass, amid an ongoing Russian offensive. Earlier on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that Moscow’s forces had taken control over the village of Ocheretino in the north of the Donetsk People’s Republic – a major logistics hub for Kiev’s troops. In February, Moscow’s forces liberated the strategic Donbass town of Avdeevka and have been steadily pushing westward ever since, taking control of several smaller settlements in the area. In April, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that Moscow’s troops were firmly in control of the initiative in the conflict, and steadily pushing Kiev’s forces back. Earlier this week, he estimated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had lost 111,000 this year alone. Ukraine’s top military commander, General Aleksandr Syrsky, told Kiev’s backers the same month that his nation’s armed forces face a “difficult operational and strategic situation, which has a tendency to get worse.”

Read more …

“..Mr Trump will style himself as the only candidate who can end the war, with a simple “bumper-sticker” slogan..”

Trump Develops ‘Detailed’ Plan On Achieving Ukraine Peace: Telegraph (ZH)

Trump has long touted on the campaign trail that he can stop the Ukraine war in 24 hours while taking shots a Biden’s inability to oversee a negotiation that would ultimately end the war. The Daily Telegraph is now reporting, citing an unnamed source who is said to be close to the former president and current GOP frontrunner going into the November election, that Trump has developed a detailed plan for achieving Ukraine peace. “There is a plan, but he’s not going to debate it with cable news networks because then you lose all leverage,” the source said. Below is the section of the Friday Telegraph report which previews the plan: A source close to the Trump campaign has told The Telegraph that a detailed Ukraine-Russia peace plan has been drawn up but will not yet be disclosed in any detail before his in an effort to maintain leverage. Mr Trump will style himself as the only candidate who can end the war, with a simple “bumper-sticker” slogan, they said.

“He wants to stop the killing,” said the source. “That’s the bumper sticker: Trump will stop the killing.” Last month a Washington Post report claimed that key to Trump’s plan would be pressuring Kiev to permanently give up Crimea and part of the Donbas to the Russians. The Post had cited aides who said the plan is to push for “Ukraine to cede Crimea and Donbas border region to Russia” in return for an end the Russian occupation and invasion. But the truth is that at the very least Kiev would have to forever relinquish claims of sovereignty over Crimea. Moscow is also never going to let go to the four annexed territories in the east. But Trump had slammed the apparently premature report as “fake news”. At the time a statement from the Trump campaign said “The whole thing is fake news from the Washington Post. They’re just making it up.” Spokesman Jason Miller did emphasize, however, that “President Trump is the only one talking about stopping the killing. Joe Biden is talking about more killing.”

Meanwhile, things on the battlefield are making it increasingly clear that Ukraine may soon have no other option. The country’s military and intelligence leadership also appears to be coming around to the hard reality that it will have to surrender territory, or else continue suffering massive losses and ceded ground. The Telegraph writes in its fresh report: Ukraine is preparing for peace talks with Russia as there is “no way to win on the battlefield alone”, Kyiv’s deputy spy chief has said. Maj Gen Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency, said both sides were currently vying for “the most favorable position” ahead of possible negotiations in 2025. As with virtually all wars, negotiations will likely be the final stage of the conflict, he told the Economist. Yet President Zelensky himself has yet to echo this perspective.

Instead he’s currently urging the West for more and more advanced weapons, and talking about “ten year defense” plans ensured by the US and Kiev’s backers. He has further recently said that if Ukraine ever hopes to formally join NATO, it must ‘win’ against Russia – which at this point seems in the realm of fantasy. The White House has so far done nothing to dispel this fantasy, but has instead encouraged it. Russian state media had captured and translated key lines of Zelensky’s address. “I believe that we will be in NATO only if we win. I don’t think that we will be admitted […] during the war,” Zelensky had said during a meeting with officers. Ukrainian sources also confirmed the remarks.

Read more …

“..they are laying the groundwork for departure. While preparing to escape Ukraine, they create some kind of financial safety net for themselves..”

Corruption Sped Up Ukraine’s Retreat More Than Weapons Shortage

The rapid crumbling of Ukrainian defenses, leading to military retreat, prompts questions about the Kiev regime’s failure to maintain the front line. Russian troops continue to advance along the entire 1000-kilometer-long front line and squeeze the Ukrainian military from the Donetsk People’s Republic after the liberation of Avdeyevka. After taking control of Chasov Yar and Ocheretino, the Russian Armed Forces will get access to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration and destroy the Kiev regime’s defense line west of Avdeyevka. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently criticized the West for hesitating to provide air defense systems, weapons, and ammunition, citing it as the primary reason for his military’s failures. However, it has been revealed that the shortage of ammunition has not been the Ukrainian Army’s main issue Kiev previously allocated almost 38 billion hryvnia ($960 million) to build a multi-layered network of fortifications; however, Ukrainian troops testify that the lines of defense barely exist, as quoted by the Associated Press.

The Ukrainian military contends that these works should have been completed last year during a temporary operational pause, rather than amid a retreat. “One can assume that a year ago, when the budget was planned, Ukrainians didn’t believe that the counteroffensive would fail. In general, the strategy was to attack and establish defensive positions on newly acquired territories. That is, fortifications were meant for offense, not defense,” Vadim Kozyulin, head of the Institute of Contemporary International Studies Under Diplomatic Academy of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Sputnik. “But the situation has changed. Moreover, we see that this happened rapidly, and, most likely, unexpectedly. The Ukrainians probably saw what it was leading to, but they could not openly admit it, because they feared it could impact financing. They had to maintain some kind of optimism among Western partners. This let them down, catching them off guard,” he explained. “The second issue is corruption. It’s an old Ukrainian problem and we don’t know its extent, given that everything is classified amid the hostilities,” the expert continued.

Where is the Money? Funds allocated to strengthen Ukrainian defenses were stolen with the tacit approval of the nation’s government officials, presumed Vadim Mingalev, a military expert and political analyst. He likewise drew attention to the fact that Andriy Yermak, a Ukrainian film producer who was appointed by Zelensky as the head of his office, supervised the project. The Ukrainian president also played a role in this farce by visiting the sites that were nothing short of Potemkin villages, i.e. an impressive facade designed to hide an inconvenient truth, the expert noted. According to Mingalev, the fuss surrounding the US $61 billion tranche arose from the Kiev regime’s desire to allocate a portion of these funds towards its delayed fortification construction projects. “As in any construction business, a certain estimate is first prepared,” the military expert said, explaining how the money might have vanished. “The estimate is then increased by one and a half or two times. Then, as construction progresses, it can go up three times, and so on.

Accordingly, a certain amount of concrete, cement, and other building materials are not supplied for creating the defensive lines. What’s on paper often differs significantly from what is actually delivered. There is a rather sophisticated scheme [to steal funds].” Military purchases and tenders are currently classified and do not go through Ukraine’s public procurement platform ProZorro, allowing corrupt politicians and their business partners to steal quietly, according to Kozyulin. Moreover, he added, the same individuals who seize these funds are responsible for overseeing their expenditure. One might ask why Ukrainian authorities and business sectors are shooting themselves in the foot by undermining the country’s defensive capabilities. “Ukrainian oligarchs who support Zelensky and work with him understand perfectly well that their fate is sealed, and they are laying the groundwork for departure. While preparing to escape Ukraine, they create some kind of financial safety net for themselves,” Mingalev explained.

Read more …

“..Policing speech, religion, and assembly is not the role of the federal government. In fact, it’s expressly prohibited by the U.S. Constitution…”

New US Antisemitism Law Turns Israeli Genocide Critics Into Criminals (GR)

On Wednesday May 1st, the House overwhelmingly passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act by a 320-91 vote, with only 21 Republicans joined by 70 Democrats against it. Expanding the scope of what is legally considered antisemitism, this is another bipartisan uniparty trap to ensnare the thousands of protesters exercising their free speech against the apartheid Israel’s extermination of Palestinians, in effect criminalizing those that are critical of the genocide. This is piece of legislation is a betrayal of our First Amendment rights and a betrayal of the American people, and a testimonial how AIPAC Israel through bribery and blackmail have turned our constitutional republic into a totalitarian technocratic police state. Foreign national influence is outlawed in the United States except with one exception, the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) that allows Zionist Israel money and bribery control to essentially own the treasonous US Congress.

Through intelligence agencies Mossad, CIA and MI6 in addition to AIPAC, US politicians are systemically coerced, bribed and blackmailed into unconditional support for Israel. As Tucker Carlson admitted recently to Joe Rogan, politicians are afraid to not vote in line with these intimidation tactics imposed by foreign agent operatives, that threaten kiddie porn on their computers or truth exposing pedo-blackmail activity, to ensure that Zionist Israel always gets what it wants with total impunity. With this kind of captured control over politicians, and now with this latest antisemitism law, dare criticize Israel or Zionism or Jewish power, it can now get us locked up under antisemitic hate speech. Zionist bloodline moneychangers like the Rothschilds and Rockefellers would not want it any other way.

A Thursday May 2nd Truthout article states: House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve legislation directing the U.S. Department of Education to consider a dubious definition of antisemitism, despite warnings from Jewish-led groups that the measure speciously conflates legitimate criticism of the Israeli government with bigotry against Jewish people. Uniparty Republicans and Democrats passing this new antisemitism bill destroying US Constitution’s First Amendment that guarantees our citizens’ free speech rights, confirms that US Congress panders and grovels in submission to their master Zionist Jewish State and its bloodline master founding owner, the Rothschild banking cartel. America’s uniparty is owned and operated by foreign agent AIPAC Israel.

Again, look at what inexhaustible lengths our Congress goes to, to protect the rights, security and safety of Jews, while Palestinian Arabs are brutally massacred daily and American citizens’ disappearing constitutional rights, our safety and national security are blatantly trampled upon. Only the apparent “chosen ones” receive preferential legal protection under bipartisan US law, while all the rest of us members of the human race, to Israel and US Congress, are all Palestinians in the genocidal crosshairs of our common Zionist Darkside enemy.

My article on Global Research last week is titled “In Defense of Genocide and War on ‘Antisemitism’, There Go Our Constitutional Liberties.” I cite the increasing number anti-hate speech laws grossly conflating criticism of Israeli genocide with antisemitism conveniently misused to falsely justify criminalizing and silencing our fundamental First Amendment rights of free speech, including the right to assemble for peaceful protest. On Saturday April 27th, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) called out his colleagues over this very same issue: Some of my colleagues are introducing legislation to create federally sanctioned ‘antisemitism monitors’ at colleges. I’ll vote No. Policing speech, religion, and assembly is not the role of the federal government. In fact, it’s expressly prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.

Read more …

To do what?

French Foreign Legion Dispatched to Ukraine, Ex-DoD Official (Sp.)

Media reports earlier stated that NATO currently does not have any operational plans for sending a military contingent to Ukraine even though the alliance has allegedly established “the two red lines” for its direct intervention in the conflict. “France has sent its first troops officially to Ukraine,” former US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, Stephen Bryen, has claimed in an article published by the Asia Times. Bryen went on to write that the forces have been deployed “in support of the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade in the city of Slavyansk.” The French soldiers have reportedly been drawn from the 3rd Infantry Regiment, one of the main components of France’s Foreign Legion. French authorities have not commented on the matter yet. “These troops are being posted directly in a hot combat area and are intended to help the Ukrainians resist Russian advances in Donbass. The first 100 are artillery and surveillance specialists,” Bryen argued.

According to him, about 1,500 French Foreign Legion soldiers are scheduled to arrive in Ukraine in the foreseeable future. The ex-US deputy undersecretary of defense wondered in this regard “whether this crosses the Russian red line on NATO involvement in Ukraine” and if “the Russians will see this as initiating a wider war beyond Ukraine’s borders?” Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper reported earlier on Sunday that NATO – “in a very confidential manner and without official communique – has established at least two red lines, beyond which there could be the alliance’s direct intervention in the conflict in Ukraine.” At the same time, NATO does not plan to immediately send its military contingent to Ukraine, according to the newspaper. Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron once again did not rule out the possibility of NATO sending troops from Europe to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced Macron’s statement as “very dangerous”, with the statement also slammed by groups in Britain, France, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia.

Read more …

“..NATO has no justification to send troops to Ukraine, because Kiev is not a member of the bloc..”

Ukraine Could Request Western Military Intervention – MP (RT)

Kiev could request that Western troops be deployed on its soil if it deems the situation on the battlefield to have become bad enough, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker has said. In an interview with French broadcaster LCI on Saturday, Aleksey Goncharenko, who represents Odessa in the Ukrainian parliament, thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for not ruling out sending Western military to his country. The French leader earlier suggested that this issue could be put up for consideration on two conditions, first, “if the Russians were to break through the front lines [and, second,] if there were a Ukrainian request.” Describing Macron’s remarks as a “very good signal” to Russia, Goncharenko noted that foreign troops in Ukraine could be tasked with training Kiev’s military and performing other missions without engaging Moscow’s forces head-on.

When asked whether Ukraine would ask the West for direct assistance if Russian troops were to approach Kharkov or Kiev, the MP said he did not rule out any scenarios. “Yes, I think it is possible… If the frontline situation shows us that Ukraine cannot stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin alone without European military support and troops, this is absolutely possible,” he said, voicing the hope that such a drastic measure wouldn’t be necessary. He also stressed that it would be in the EU’s interest to heed the appeal for assistance that he described, as it would be easier to stop Moscow with Ukraine than without it. On Saturday, Emmanuel Macron said that he supported “strategic ambiguity” towards Russia, which, he said, is aimed at deterring Moscow. According to the French president, his stance on potential Western military action in Ukraine was in line with this approach.

However, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has voiced skepticism about the idea, warning that NATO troops in Ukraine “could be a dangerous escalation.” This sentiment was echoed by Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto and by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, while Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico recalled that NATO has no justification to send troops to Ukraine, because Kiev is not a member of the bloc. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Macron’s statement “very important and very dangerous,” describing it as further testament to Paris’ direct involvement in the conflict. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has also warned that “nothing will remain” of NATO forces if they are deployed in Ukraine. In recent weeks, the Russian military has reported a steady advance, capturing numerous settlements in Donbass, with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu recently declaring that Moscow is in full control of the situation on the battlefield.

Read more …

Jamming.

Israel’s Not So Little War Against Russia (Helmer)

Since last November the regime of Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev has been advertising the products of a company called Piranha-Tech for newly developed electronic warfare (EW) technologies which the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu (right) is now supplying the Ukraine for operations against Russia. According to a Russian military blogger report published on May 4, Israeli companies specializing in electronic jamming and drone technologies are behind a Ukrainian government, US, and UK-funded drone production line and deployment of the weapons on the Ukrainian battlefield. Piranha-Tech, according to this source, is 49% owned by Israeli shareholders, who developed the technology, and 51% owned by Ukrainians who are managing the battlefield supplies. Piranha-Tech anti-drone guns and jammers are based on Israeli military technologies, the report claims.

The first official disclosure came from Kiev on November 2, 2023. According to a tweet published by Mikhail Fedorov, a cyber technology specialist with government rank in Kiev, “efficient protection from Russian UAVs for armored vehicles & personnel. Quite unique electronic warfare system — Piranha AVD 360. It creates protective dome up to 600 meters around & jams satellite navigation systems, such as RuGLONASS. New tech supported by @BRAVE1ua”. BRAVE1 stands for “Ukrainian Defense Innovations”, a Ukrainian government coordinating agency for “stakeholders of the defense tech industry by providing them with organizational, informational, and financial support for defense tech projects.” Source: https://twitter.com/fedorovmykhailo?lang=en

A US and Ukraine-based defence technology blog picked up the story immediately. The report called the Piranha-Tech system “a cutting-edge electronic warfare system designed to safeguard armored vehicles from Russian drones, has successfully completed field trials and is now poised for mass production.” It added: “the Piranha system disrupts satellite navigation systems, including Russia’s GLONASS.” According to the American outlet, Piranha Tech was an “achievement in Ukrainian defense technology.” There was no mention of the Israeli military base for the Ukrainian operation. The Israeli links behind Piranha Tech were first published in Paris on May 3, 2024.

The Paris-based website called Intelligence Online reported that the Ukrainian Piranha-Tech technology is in fact Israeli. “Behind the Ukrainian company supplying anti-drone equipment to the Ukrainian armed forces and the government of Myanmar is a network of Israeli electronic warfare companies.” Intelligence Online is a product of Indigo, a media group owned by Maurice Botbol, who is of Moroccan Jewish extraction. In the competitive London corporate investigations market, Botbol’s Intelligence Online has a controversial reputation. In the past, it was favourable to the press operations of a Russian metals oligarch now under US sanctions.

In Moscow, The Militarist, a widely read military news and analysis blog, followed with an extensive report of the Israeli operation of Piranha-Tech on May 4. The Russian report says: “While Ukraine continues to develop its EW [electronic warfare] technologies as much as possible, incubators working in this field, such as Brave1 attract foreign specialists. Brave1 provides substantial support and subsidies to Piranha Tech, in particular, for its UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] Piranha AVD 360 anti-UAV system, which is used by the APU [Armed Forces of Ukraine]. The Ukrainian company, whose Ukrainian anti-UAV systems are praised on social media by the talkative Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mikhail Fedorov, seems to have close ties with Israel.”

Read more …

“..Xi’s diplomatic visit to Europe – his first in five years..”

Xi jinping to Visit Three Key Countries During Trip to Europe (Sp.)

An article in The New York Times suggests China shares skepticism towards US hegemony with some European countries, but the Asian power maintains positive cultural, economic, and historical ties as well. “Xi Visits Europe, Seeking Strategic Opportunity,” declared the headline of a New York Times piece Sunday on the Chinese leader’s trip to the continent. “The Chinese president… appears intent on seizing opportunities to loosen the continent’s bonds with the United States and forge a world freed of American dominance,” its authors continued, following in the controversial newspaper’s tradition of staunch advocacy for US hegemony. Xi’s diplomatic visit to Europe – his first in five years – certainly comes during a period when the United States’ global leadership is in doubt.

The US’ leveraging of coercive unilateral economic sanctions against nearly one-third of the world’s population has endangered the dollar’s position as the de facto global reserve currency, leading various world powers to seek alternatives. Countries throughout the Global South have chafed under the United States’ insistence they must follow its lead in isolating Russia after the launching of its special military operation in the Donbass. This phenomenon is observed vividly in North Africa, with a slew of nations ending military cooperation with the US and ejecting American troops. Even within Western Europe the United States’ image has taken a beating. NATO officials are scrambling to prepare for a possible future without the guiding role of Washington, fearing a second Donald Trump presidency could see the US cut funding or even pull out of the military alliance.

Historical allies’ perception of the country seems permanently altered after the controversial real estate magnate’s chaotic time at the helm; one-third of Europeans now say the United States cannot be trusted while more than two-thirds say it is not a model democracy. The New York Times documents various reasons for shared skepticism towards the United States among China and the three countries Xi plans to visit during his trip. France has long sought to resist US influence over its affairs, with revered statesman Charles de Gaulle famously refusing to place French troops under NATO command. Current President Emmanuel Macron has advocated for “strategic autonomy” in European affairs, positioning the EU as a third major power independent of China and America. Hungary, too, has challenged US influence over its internal affairs, rejecting criticism of its self-declared “illiberal Christian democratic” Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Opposition towards the United States is perhaps strongest in Serbia, where the lasting impact of NATO’s 1999 bombing of Belgrade is still felt. Increased rates of cancer and birth defects persist decades after the alliance’s use of depleted uranium in its assault on the capital city. The US’ bombing of Beijing’s embassy in Belgrade during the attack is still commemorated regularly by both China and Serbia. But beyond these countries’ shared objection to US dominance, there are also strong cultural, economic and historical links. Beijing’s relations with Serbia extend back to the days of the former Yugoslavia, when both countries shared an egalitarian socialist vision. Hungary became the largest recipient of Chinese direct investment in 2015, with Orban enthusiastically participating in Belt and Road infrastructure projects. French-Sino relations, meanwhile, go back to the Middle Ages; the Chinese monk Rabban Bar Sauma was hosted by France’s King Philip IV during a diplomatic trip by the Uyghur emissary throughout Europe. Today, both countries are joined together by their shared status as G20 economies, members of the UN Security Council, and major regional powers.

“Looking to the future, peace and development remain the trend of history and the aspiration of the people,” proclaimed Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in 2023. “China’s experience shows that the path of peaceful development has worked and worked well. There is no reason for us to discontinue but every reason to stay the course, and come together with more countries in the pursuit of peaceful development.” “When all countries pursue peaceful development, the future of humanity will be full of promise,” he concluded. As China continues to grow in economic power and influence the country insists it is committed to peaceful development and concern for humanity’s common advancement. Xi’s visit to Europe suggests the country is willing to search for allies in its cause wherever they may be found, even as broader trends threaten to drive world powers apart.

Read more …

“..a big turn on or about May 7th of next week. Armstrong predicts a recession will start then and go on until 2028..”

You Need 2 Years of Food – Martin Armstrong (USAW)

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong has new data on how well the Biden economy is doing. Spoiler alert: It’s not doing well, and the financial system is about to tank. I asked Armstrong if the US government could default on its debt if countries around the world continue to stop buying it? Armstrong explained, “I think the US could default on its debt as early as 2025, but probably in 2027. We have kicked the can down the road as far as we can go. It’s not just in the United States. Europe is in the same boat. So is Japan. This is why they need war. They think by going into war, that’s the excuse to default on the debt. They simply will not pay China. If they try to sell their debt–good luck. We are not redeeming it. The same thing is happening in Europe. So, once that happens, you go into war, and that is their excuse on this whole debt thing to collapse, which wipes out pensions etc. Then they can blame Putin. This is the same thing Biden was doing before saying this was Putin’s inflation. Then, with the whole CBDC thing (central bank digital currency) . . . . the IMF has already completed its digital coin, and they want that to replace the dollar as the reserve currency for the world. . . . These people are desperately just trying to hang on to power. Nobody wants to give it up, and nobody wants to reform.”

I asked Armstrong what should the common person be doing now? Armstrong surprisingly said, “I think you need, safely, two years’ worth of food supply. . . .This is what I have. It’s not just prices will go up, but mainly because there will be shortages. Then, you do not know what they are going to do with the currency. . . . They will do whatever they have to do to survive. That’s what governments always do.”

Armstrong says his most recent data suggests that government approval ratings in the USA are worse that Biden’s 8% approval rating. Congress, according to Armstrong, is dragging the bottom with a 7% approval rating. Armstrong has long said that people will buy gold and silver when faith in government crashes. That is exactly what Armstrong is seeing around the world today. Gold is bouncing around the $2,300 level, and Armstrong sees “a new gold and silver rally coming soon.” War is also coming sooner than later with the announcement that Ukraine will be joining NATO as early as July. When the next war starts, Armstrong warns, “You are going to have to watch the bank because long term interest rates are going to go up. Nobody wants to buy government debt, and you are going to have to hunker down at that stage in the game.”

Armstrong is also predicting a big turn on or about May 7th of next week. Armstrong predicts a recession will start then and go on until 2028. GDP will continue to fall, and inflation will continue to rise. Armstrong says it is the perfect storm for a dreaded “stagflation economy.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Buster hat

 

 

Tubs

 

 

Fren
https://twitter.com/i/status/1786932827084427491

 

 

Smile
https://twitter.com/i/status/1787111053538820414

 

 

Be kind to dogs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1787123323748704526

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Nov 062023
 
 November 6, 2023  Posted by at 10:28 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  52 Responses »


Max Ernst Santa Conversazione 1921

 

‘America Is Waging The War In Gaza’: Hassan Nasrallah (Cradle)
Iran Defense Minister: ‘Serious Strike’ On US If Gaza War Continues (Sp.)
Why Israel is Losing Opportunity to Beat Hamas – Scott Ritter (Sp.)
Nuking Gaza is a Possibility – Israeli Minister (RT)
Western Leaders Know Ukrainians Steal Their Money – Kremlin (RT)
Proxy War in Ukraine Exposed NATO’s ‘Failed’ New Warfare Tactics (Sp.)
Why West is Terrified of Transferring Seized Russian Assets to Ukraine (Sp.)
The New Electric War Campaign (Helmer)
Europe in the Crossfire: Can All Crises Be Managed Simultaneously? (Oncan)
Does Any Member of the US Government Represent Americans? (Paul Craig Roberts)
Connecticut Judge Orders New Bridgeport Mayoral Primary (NYP)
Election Fraud Cases Break Out In 3 Democrat States (JTN)
Trump Leads Biden In 5 Battleground States In New York Times Poll (JTN)
Two Men Who Exposed the Bidens’ Corruption in Ukraine (21CW)

 

 

 

 

QueenRania

 

 

Finkelstein

 

 

 

 

As the US makes sure we blame Bibi, Hezbollah knows who’s behind the curtain..

‘America Is Waging The War In Gaza’: Hassan Nasrallah (Cradle)

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah delivered his first speech since the start of the Gaza-Israel war, in which he blamed the US government for the conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories. “Washington is entirely responsible for the war in Gaza, while Israel is merely a tool. The US is preventing the condemnation of Israel at the UN Security Council and a ceasefire in Gaza,” Nasrallah said on 3 November. The Lebanese resistance leader declared “Hezbollah is not intimidated” by the deployment of nearly a dozen US warships to the Eastern Mediterranean. “Your fleets do not scare us, nor have they ever, and we are all set for them,” Nasrallah stressed. sHe then addressed US planners directly, telling them: “You can stop the aggression against Gaza because this is something you unleashed. Whoever wants to prevent a regional war must hasten to stop this aggression.”

“What’s happening now in Gaza is not a usual war; it is not like wars before. This is a decisive conflict,” the Hezbollah leader added. He also highlighted that Hezbollah “has been escalating its operations day by day and forcing Israel to keep its forces near the Lebanese border instead of Gaza or the occupied West Bank.” “What is happening on our front is extremely important and influential, but it will not remain restricted for too long […] All options on the Lebanese front are open. All choices are on the table, and we may decide at any moment,” the resistance leader warned. On Thursday, Hezbollah launched the biggest attack on Israel since the end of the 2006 war. Nearly 60 Hezbollah fighters have died since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in Gaza.

Read more …

Iran knows it too..

Iran Defense Minister: ‘Serious Strike’ On US If Gaza War Continues (Sp.)

Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani on Sunday threatened to conduct a “serious strike” against the United States if it does not put an end to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. “Our advice to the Americans is to stop the war immediately between Israel and Palestine and ensure a ceasefire, or else the US will face a serious strike,” the brigadier general was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Tasnim. On October 7, Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip and breached the border, killing and abducting people in neighboring Israeli communities.

Israel launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, cutting off supplies of water, food, and fuel. On October 27, Israel launched a large-scale ground incursion inside the Gaza Strip to eliminate Hamas fighters and rescue the hostages. The escalation of the conflict has resulted in the deaths of around 1,400 people in Israel and over 9,000 in the Gaza Strip and raised the risk of a wider regional conflagration due to concerns about Iran or Lebanese militant group Hezbollah joining the fray.

Read more …

“They’re also kids of a nation that is averse to casualties. They don’t want their boys and girls coming home in body bags..”

Why Israel is Losing Opportunity to Beat Hamas – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

If the Israeli military hope to defeat Hamas in Gaza, they need to get all the way down to the underground tunnels, veteran former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, and UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter tells Sputnik. But Israel doesn’t want to do that, because “they want war on the cheap,” the geopolitical observer emphasized. “They’re fighting above ground. They’re doing limited tunnel operations. But they’re not succeeding in defeating Hamas. To defeat Hamas, you’ve got to go all the way underground, and you’ve got to shut down the entire tunnel network.” Scott Ritter reiterated that all Israel was doing at present was “destroying the existing infrastructure” amid the soaring civilian death toll,” adding. “The idea still resides that eventually the tunnels would be rebuilt, Hamas will be regrown and Israel will never defeat this ‘idea of resistance’.”

[..] On Sunday, the IDF also said that the Israeli army had gained access to Hamas underground tunnels in the north of the Gaza Strip. Throughout the past weeks, scenes from the bombardment-ravaged Gaza Strip, where Israel had ordered a complete blockade, cutting off supplies of water, food, and fuel, have prompted thousands of protesters to take to the streets of various cities, including the US capital, Washington, DC, to protest against Israeli military activities in the enclave. However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as he met with Middle Eastern leaders in Jordan, again rejected calls for a ceasefire. Washington has been voicing its support for “humanitarian pauses”. Looking back at the initial Hamas incursion in October, and the way the militant group was able to breach the so-called ‘iron wall’, with its ‘smart technology’, Scott Ritter explained that the myth of the “infallibility of Israeli intelligence” has been busted.

Over the years, the Israeli Defense Force “has been propped up” by American technology, said the pundit. “One of our main goals and objectives in supporting Israel is to ensure that Israel sustains technological supremacy over any potential enemy. That’s why we give them the most advanced American weapons, etc… But the IDF itself – outside of, for instance, the pilots, some senior officers and senior NCOs – the vast majority of the defense force is a conscript military,” clarified Ritter. He went on to explain that this meant that the battalions operating at present in Gaza are composed of “18, 19, 20-year-old kids with no meaningful experience whatsoever.” “They’re also kids of a nation that is averse to casualties. They don’t want their boys and girls coming home in body bags,” said Ritter.

According to the Sputnik contributor, the IDF does a lot of “posturing”, using “stand-off strikes” and hiding “behind their technology”. “However, the IDF, when you tangle with them… What you find out is they can’t win. They didn’t beat Hezbollah in 2006. They didn’t beat Hamas in 2014. They’re not beating Hamas now because you can’t win a major conflict with a conscript-based military when you’re not willing to let these people die … But, you know, if you’re going to kill 50,000 Hamas fighters, understand you need to be prepared to lose 20,000 Israelis,” said Ritter. In his opinion, the IDF is “no longer seen as invincible”, but rather “incompetent” and even “weak”. “And this is bad for Israel because it’s a small country. And one of the best tools it had to hold off the forces that are arrayed against it is the mythology of the invincibility of the IDF, and the infallibility of Israeli intelligence. Both those myths have been shattered,” the ex-UN weapons inspector and WMD whistleblower insisted.

Read more …

Bibi can suspend him, but this sentiment is not limited to him..

Nuking Gaza is a Possibility – Israeli Minister (RT)

Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu has suggested that his country could launch a nuclear strike on Gaza. The controversial remarks caused outrage across the Israeli government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspending Eliyahu indefinitely. In a Sunday interview with Radio Kol Berama, when asked if Israel could drop an atomic bomb on the Palestinian enclave, the minister, who is a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, replied that “this is one of the possibilities.” Eliyahu also spoke out against helping inhabitants of the enclave, which has been under Israeli siege for several weeks now, arguing that “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid,” and that “there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza.” Shortly after the controversial remarks, Netanyahu announced that the minister had been suspended from all government meetings.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), his office quoted him as saying that “Eliyahu’s statements are not based in reality,” adding that Israel is “operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents.” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant condemned what he called Eliyahu’s “baseless and irresponsible words,” adding in a post on X that “it’s good that these are not the people in charge of Israel’s security.” Those remarks were echoed by opposition leader Yair Lapid, who called Eliyahu an “extremist” and pointed out that his statement “caused harm to the families of the hostages, Israeli society, and our international standing,” urging Netanyahu to fire the minister.

The minister’s remarks also did not go unnoticed by Hamas, which launched a surprise attack on Israel last month. It stated that the comments are an “expression of the occupiers’ Nazism and [their] genocide practices,” which came after Israel’s “military failure in the face of the [Palestinian] resistance”. Meanwhile, Eliyahu attempted to control the damage, insisting that “it’s clear to anyone with a brain that the remark about the atom was metaphorical.” He maintained, however, that Israel “must display a forceful and disproportional response to terror,” adding that this approach will show “the Nazis and their supporters that terrorism isn’t worthwhile.” Israel has never publicly confirmed or denied having nuclear weapons. However, it is widely believed to have possessed such arms since the late 1960s. According to a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimate, the nation has a total of 90 warheads.

Read more …

“Even such extremely powerful economies as the United States can’t do this indefinitely. They have a lot of problems of their own…”

Western Leaders Know Ukrainians Steal Their Money – Kremlin (RT)

Western countries have come to realize that Ukrainian officials are using the funds they receive from their supporters to line their own pockets, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has said. In an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin released on Sunday, Peskov claimed that Western leaders “understand that a certain part of the money they give to Ukraine is, simply put, stolen,” adding that this reality is recognized by US policymakers at various levels. According to Peskov, when confronted with rampant corruption in Ukraine, American lawmakers “have to explain to their constituents why there is no proper mechanism [to oversee] the fund disbursement [and] why they turn a blind eye to this” while debating further aid packages.

He went on to add that both the US and Kiev’s backers in Europe are “getting tired of the Ukrainian topic, the Kiev regime, and the burden that they have put on their shoulders,” referring to the massive military and financial assistance Ukraine receives from the West. “Even such extremely powerful economies as the United States can’t do this indefinitely. They have a lot of problems of their own… At some point, all this will become an excessive burden that they can no longer bear,” he stressed. Peskov’s comments come after Politico reported in early October that the administration of US President Joe Biden was “far more worried about corruption in Ukraine than they publicly admit.” A sensitive document cited by the magazine stressed that the widespread graft in Ukraine could force Western allies to abandon Kiev in its fight with Russia.

The Politico article was echoed by a CNN report, which was released around the same time, alleging that US officials were pushing Kiev to do more to fight corruption, with a State Department diplomatic note compiled this summer linking anti-graft efforts to continued direct budget support. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s request for Congress to approve a new security package, which included more than $60 billion for Ukraine, met with strong opposition from the Republicans. Some GOP lawmakers called on the president for more accountability and to clarify what he thinks the endgame in the conflict would look like.

Read more …

“..NATO doctrine put into practice in its proxy war against Russia in Ukraine clashed with the demands of the times.”

Proxy War in Ukraine Exposed NATO’s ‘Failed’ New Warfare Tactics (Sp.)

The Kiev regime has been sending its troops against Russian defenses, racking up massive human losses while failing to turn the tide of its botched counteroffensive, despite massive shipments of NATO weaponry. Furthermore, Russia’s state-of-the-art unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have been used en masse to target Ukrainian military equipment. The Ukraine conflict has not only compellingly shown that modern-day warfare has changed, but has also exposed the complete failure of NATO war tactics in the face of these new conditions, reported military-focused US publication 19FortyFive. NATO patrons of the Kiev regime have been increasingly exasperated over how Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed to deliver results, despite the billions’ worth of weapons continuously sent there.

Both Western supporters of Kiev and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky have been egging on Ukrainian troops towards “massive assaults” that “have become suicidal,” the publication stated. But the “fast, large-scale blitzkrieg they envisioned” remained a figment of their imagination. One of the reasons for this is that the advance of drone technology has transformed warfare into a “war of a thousand cuts,” the outlet said. The colorful reference relates to Lingchi, a form of capital punishment that results in a slow, lingering death. Traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), it was meted out to offenders in Asian countries like China, Vietnam, and Korea. The practice is believed to have ended around the early 1900s. Current warfare is similarly “more gradual,” the report insisted. It drew attention to how NATO doctrine put into practice in its proxy war against Russia in Ukraine clashed with the demands of the times.

Furthermore, Ukrainian troops’ training by NATO failed to “cover the reality of modern drone warfare,” the outlet stated, referencing US Army veterans’ expert opinions. Thus, the alliance’s “offensives based on combined arms maneuver,” such as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) breaching defense lines, supported by an array of artillery and air power, failed to work for Ukraine, as per the columnist. Ukrainian attempts at assaults utilizing large armored units resulted in heavy losses. Such attacks, where success hinges on a superlative level of coordination, is a feat that NATO armies “spend years” honing, it was added. However, in Ukraine’s Armed Forces, staffed with mostly recently mobilized civilians, such attacks become what pundits call a “meat grinder.” Furthermore, throwing such troops at Russia’s superlative defense lines, with vast minefields, anti-tank ditches, and anti-tank pyramid-shaped concrete defense obstacles, known as “dragon’s teeth,” is futile – something that Russia has been proving repeatedly throughout its special military operation.

Read more …

“..this could destabilize the global financial system and in particular diminish the dollar’s and the euro’s captive investors among central bank reserve managers.”

Why West is Terrified of Transferring Seized Russian Assets to Ukraine (Sp.)

The political battle for Russian state assets trapped abroad continues to intensify. Last week, European Union leaders approved in principle a controversial measure allowing the bloc to skim profits from Russian assets for use in “Ukraine reconstruction,” and called on the European Commission to “accelerate work with a view to submitting proposals” in this direction. Across the Atlantic, US officials have similarly stepped up efforts to try to make use of the seized Russian assets, although these efforts have so far stuck to behind-the-scenes negotiations in the corridors of power occasionally reported on by the media. The discussions about legal justifications to seize the Russian funds outright or at least skim interest comes at a difficult time for the Ukrainian proxy war’s sponsors, with Western lawmakers with the power to dole out extra money for Kiev and the public at large turning their focus to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.

The reevaluation of priorities could not have come at a worse time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose government’s dependence on Western handouts has reached dangerous proportions. Actually seizing Russia’s frozen assets and handing them over to Ukraine is easier said than done, with more than 20 months of threats and talking on the matter yet to bear fruit for advocates of the idea in Washington, Brussels, and Kiev. Part of the problem may relate to difficulties finding the money. While it was initially reported that some $300+ billion in Russian Central Bank funds got trapped abroad in February 2022, Washington-based financial experts revealed at the end of that year that the actual amount seized was closer to $80-100 billion, and that the US and the EU have had trouble finding the frozen funds. This past February, US business media reported that actually only about $36.5 billion had been found by the EU (which was estimated to contain over two thirds of seized funds to begin with), to date.

But the real problem isn’t technical or legal, but relates to reputational risks. In an op-ed in a major British business newspaper on Sunday, commentator Martin Sandbu explained that “legal obstacles” are only the “ostensible justification” for the failure to deliver Russian money to Ukraine, since, theoretically, Western countries could join Canada in making changes to legislation and citing legal arguments claiming Russia has “no legal resource” to its money to justify the seizure and transfer. But the West hasn’t moved against Russia, given “the fear that confiscating Russia’s assets will make other non-Western countries pull their own reserves out of the West, in case one day the same treatment could be meted out to them,” the observer noted.

“The concern,” Sandbu writes, “is that this could destabilize the global financial system and in particular diminish the dollar’s and the euro’s captive investors among central bank reserve managers. The European Central Bank has issued a strong warning to European policymakers against even taxing EU companies making windfall profits on blocked Russian assets – which seems the most that the sanctions coalition is currently willing to contemplate.” And although the commentator spends the rest of the op-ed suggesting that this danger is overblown, and demanding that Russian reserves be seized and transferred “now” before the Ukrainian proxy war ends, the reality seems otherwise, with major powers which have spent decades fattening up Western banks and subsidizing the West’s development now thinking twice about parking assets in the US and Europe after seeing what was done to Russia.

Regulators in China, for example, held an emergency conference with major domestic and foreign banks last year to brainstorm ways to protect PRC assets should the US impose sanctions similar to those it has slapped on Russia, with officials reportedly “put on alert” of the West’s ability to arbitrarily seize foreign assets. Beijing, for the record, is one of Washington’s biggest foreign creditors, owning about $860 billion in US Treasuries alone, and amassing assets abroad worth nearly $10 trillion. Saudi Arabia, another major creditor and investor in the US and Europe, whose allegiance is crucial in propping up the petrodollar, has also watched the West’s actions vis-à-vis Russia closely, and has made major moves this year to dramatically diversify geostrategic alignment, normalizing ties with Iran, joining the BRICS bloc, and rejecting US requests to ramp up oil production to offset the global economic downturn sparked by NATO’s proxy war with Russia.

Read more …

Drones galore.

The New Electric War Campaign (Helmer)

In the coming winter phase of the Russian offensive in the Ukraine, the electric war will be run quite differently from the way the first electric war was directed last winter. The impact on the Ukrainian grid and on the country’s and military’s capacities to cope will be more destructive than a year ago. The reason for this, Ukrainian sources have been saying publicly and Russian military assessments now confirm, is that most of the money which the US, the European Union, and the World Bank have provided Kiev officials over the past nine months to repair, reconstruct, and prepare the country’s power generating and distribution system for the coming winter has been stolen. The US and NATO command and control centres inside the country for running the war will be operating in the dark, not only because of the precision of the Russian missiles and drone operations, but because of the corruption of the Ukrainians.

They understand that defeat and capitulation are coming; they are running away with the loot before it’s too dark, too late. In the latest Ukrainian press reports, the battlefield evidence indicates the new electric war has begun. “Kiev said,” according to this summary, “two dozen Russian drones and a missile were downed overnight as concern grows that Moscow is once again targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter. Officials in Kharkiv reported civilian targets were hit by shelling and drone attacks…Police in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine reported that at least 10 Russian drones hit civilian infrastructure and triggered multiple fires in the city and shelling also damaged buildings. The overnight raids are part of a recent rise in Russian attacks. More than 100 settlements in eastern Ukraine, including Kharkiv, were targeted on Wednesday, the heaviest day of shelling so far in 2023…Ukraine and its partners in the West worry that Russia could try to replicate a strategy it followed last winter, squeezing Ukraine by targeting energy infrastructure as temperatures fall.”

There is no corroboration in the latest bulletin from the Russian Ministry of Defense that the new round of aerial attacks was targeted on energy infrastructure. “From October 28 to November 3, 2023, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out fifteen group strikes with precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles on warehouses of rocket and artillery weapons, places of storage of weapons and military equipment, as well as temporary locations of Ukrainian servicemen, nationalists and foreign mercenaries. As a result of the strikes, hangars for preparing Ukrainian aircraft for takeoff, production sites for unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned boats, groups of foreign instructors and mercenaries were destroyed.” The problem for the Ukrainians is that the electricity generating plants and the power grids are now more vulnerable to precision attack triggering cascading system failure than they were a year ago.

Read more …

They can’t even manage one…

Europe in the Crossfire: Can All Crises Be Managed Simultaneously? (Oncan)

Russia’s military operation in Ukraine has not only triggered anti-Russian sanctions and financial/military aid for Ukraine but has also exposed the multiple threats confronting Europe. As the West, led by the United States, seeks to wield Ukraine, a product of color revolutions, as a strategic lever, Europe bears the brunt of the ensuing political and economic tensions. Presently, Europe grapples with escalating energy prices stemming from the Ukrainian crisis and anti-Russian sanctions. Additionally, unrest fueled by Ukraine’s grain restrictions on European countries, a deteriorating economy, the ongoing migration wave, and the challenges it presents continue to be pressing issues awaiting resolution.

Meanwhile, Israel’s actions in Gaza and the U.S.’s supportive declarations further complicate matters for Europe. Despite hopes that a resolution in the Israel-Palestine conflict might shift Ukraine from the forefront, European leaders are expected to navigate both crises simultaneously, with few exceptions like Spain. Quoting Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who remarked, “It is evident that the Middle East conflict casts a shadow on events in Ukraine,” Politico anticipates that EU leaders will assert their capacity to address both the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East concurrently.

It’s not limited to just Ukraine and Israel; there are also revealed color revolution plans in Kosovo-Serbia, ongoing issues in Georgia, an anticipated political crisis in Armenia due to Azerbaijan’s actions in Karabakh, and political pressure on opposition parties in Moldova, among other concerns. It’s evident that all of these matters are interconnected with unresolved crises in the former USSR region, and they are, in a broader context, part of the United States’ strategy to encircle Russia. Meanwhile, Europe is directly grappling with the consequences of these developments, which align with the broader interests of the United States on the global stage, all while striving to enhance its own geopolitical influence.

Read more …

” Israel, considered a rich country, does not need foreign aid, but any member of Congress who does not vote for Israel’s billions finds in his next election a challenger financed by Israel’s billions..”

Does Any Member of the US Government Represent Americans? (Paul Craig Roberts)

US Representative Matt Gaetz has courage and principles, for the most part good ones. It was Gaetz who had the courage and leadership ability to get rid of Rino McCarthy as Speaker of the House. It is Gaetz who understands that hardly any member of Congress in either party represents Americans. Instead, they represent the military/security complex’s power and profits, the profits of the pharmaceutical companies, the profits of agri-business (ethanol for example), the profits of Wall Street, the profits of energy, timber, and mining, and so forth. And especially, the US Congress represents the artificial state of Israel and all of Israel’s agendas. Indeed, Matt Gaetz himself cannot escape having to support an occupier of Palestinians’ land, claiming that it is Israel’s.

The fact that even a brave man like Matt Gaetz has to support an aggressor against a people abandoned by the “moral” West shows how captured the US government is at all levels by vested monied interests. Gaetz along with the entirely of the US Congress and the President are purchased by the billions of dollars that American taxpayers are forced to hand over to Israel each year. American taxpayers are forced to give Israel annually billions of dollars that are used to purchase our government. Israel, considered a rich country, does not need foreign aid, but any member of Congress who does not vote for Israel’s billions finds in his next election a challenger financed by Israel’s billions and himself a victim of Israel’s slander machine.

The same thing happens if you vote against an excessive military/security budget or against the agendas of powerful organized interests. A government whose election is financed by interest groups has to represent those interest groups. So, obviously, the solution is not term limits on members of Congress. The solution is to take the money that Congress gives Israel to buy our government out of politics along with the ability of corporations to purchase the US government, thanks to an unconstitutional ruling of the US Supreme Court that it is a “free speech right” for corporations and foreign interests to purchase the US government for their own use. There you have it. The US government is a purchased entity. It has nothing whatsoever to do with American interests or protecting the interests of the American people.

Read more …

It IS possible…

Connecticut Judge Orders New Bridgeport Mayoral Primary (NYP)

A Connecticut judge ordered a new Democratic mayoral primary in Bridgeport as surveillance footage showed multiple workers allegedly stuffing absentee ballots into an outdoor ballot box days before the original primary. In September, Incumbent Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim defeated challenger John Gomes by 251 votes out of 8,173 cast in the primary election, according to NBC. However, Gomes released a video in October that appeared to show two women stuffing heaps of ballot papers into drop boxes at least four locations across the city. Superior Court Judge William Clark determined the amount of evidence left the court “unable” to determine the result for the state’s largest city.

“The volume of ballots so mishandled is such that it calls the result of the primary election into serious doubt and leaves the court unable to determine the legitimate result of the primary,” Clark wrote in his ruling on Wednesday. The judge ruled that the abnormally large numbers of absentee ballots were cast in certain voting districts and that video evidence showing the alleged ballot stuffing violated state elections law. “The videos are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties,” Clark wrote in his ruling. Judge Clark ruled two women made or were directly involved in 15 incidents of drop boxes being stuffed with ballots.

Read more …

“That particular gentleman has spent more time in prison than he spent out, but he is a good man and he’s the individuals I’m fighting for in the city of Springfield. We’re running an election that is inclusive.”

Election Fraud Cases Break Out In 3 Democrat States (JTN)

A new primary election has been ordered by a Connecticut state court amid alleged fraud, while Democrats in Massachusetts and New Jersey are also accused of or charged with election fraud. This brings the total of election-related criminal cases across the country to at least three. Democrats in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are facing various allegations of election fraud, as two instances are related to this year’s elections while two more are with regard to prior elections. On Wednesday, Bridgeport Superior Court Judge William Clark overturned the results of a Democratic mayoral primary and ordered a new election in connection to allegations of absentee ballot abuse.

The judge made the decision after a video was posted online that appeared to show a supporter of incumbent Democrat Mayor Joe Ganim stuffing stacks of papers into a ballot drop box, according to WNPR Connecticut Public Radio. The general election for mayor was set for Nov. 7. A new primary date has yet to be set, but the judge told lawyers that they had 10 days to work with city and state election officials to determine a potential date for the new election, the Associated Press reported. Judge Clark determined the allegations of possible malfeasance were sufficient to toss out the results of the Sept. 12 primary, which incumbent Ganim won by 251 votes out of 8,173 cast. Absentee ballots secured Ganim’s margin of victory, WNPR Connecticut Public Radio also reported. Judge Clark said, “the videos are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties.”

Meanwhile, in neighboring Massachusetts, a Democratic mayoral candidate is accused of bribing residents to vote. Election officials for the city of Springfield say they witnessed voters being brought to the city hall for early voting and that at least some expected to be given cash after they voted for Democratic candidate Justin Hurst, according to local news outlet The Republican. Video footage has also been released of a man associated with Hurst’s campaign allegedly handing cash to voters last weekend. City officials claim in sworn affidavits that the distribution of $10 bills, clearly visible in surveillance footage, represents voter fraud, The Republican also reports.

Hurst denied all the allegations ahead of Election Day on Tuesday. “Any accusations that my team paid residents in exchange for their vote is unequivocally false,” he said, according to Western Mass News. He also addressed the video in which a man appears to be handing out cash to voters. “That gentleman has volunteered on many campaigns,” Hurst stated. “That particular gentleman has spent more time in prison than he spent out, but he is a good man and he’s the individuals I’m fighting for in the city of Springfield. We’re running an election that is inclusive.”

Read more …

“..71% of respondents said Biden is “too old to be an effective president..”

Trump Leads Biden In 5 Battleground States In New York Times Poll (JTN)

Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in five of the six major swing states, according to new polls released Sunday, as voters largely express disapproval of the current president. Trump leads Biden by 10 points in Nevada, 6 in Georgia, 5 in Arizona, 5 in Michigan and 4 in Pennsylvania, according to new polls by The New York Times and Siena College. He is down by 2 points in Wisconsin. Biden carried all six of the states in 2020, but now, 59% of voters in those states say they disapprove of Biden’s job performance, while 38% say they approve. Meanwhile, 71% of respondents said Biden is “too old to be an effective president,” compared to 39% who said the same about Trump. Additionally, 62% of voters said Biden does not have the mental sharpness to be an effective president, while just 35% said he does.

As to Trump’s mental acuity, 54% of voters said he is sharp enough to be an effective president compared to 44% who said he is not. More than half of all registered voters surveyed (53%) also said Biden’s policies have personally hurt them, while 51% of voters said Trump’s policies have personally helped them. The polls of 3,662 registered voters across the six swing states were taken from Oct. 22 to Nov. 3 and, when taken together, had a 1.8% margin of error. While Trump has not been formally nominated as the Republican presidential nominee for 2024, he is far ahead of all other candidates. While other Democratic candidates are running for the nomination, the Democratic Party has said it fully supports Biden’s reelection bid and will not host primary debates.

Abrams

Read more …

“..doing your patriotic duty and publicly standing up for Ukrainian national interests, and trying to prevent a dangerous distortion in Ukraine-US relations, which could be harmful to both countries – had actually placed him in the firing line, literally.”

Two Men Who Exposed the Bidens’ Corruption in Ukraine (21CW)

Andriy Derkach started his career in big politics in the mid-90s. At different times he held positions in presidential administrations and the government, as well as managing a large state-owned enterprise, the energy corporation Energoatom, and was involved in parliamentary activities for more than 20 years. Everything changed after the United States initiated its regime change operation in Ukraine in 2014, and its “Revolution of Dignity”, which resulted in pro-Russian President Yanukovych fleeing the country, and eventually replaced by Ukrainian oligarch, Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko, who seemed more interested in his own shady business schemes than reforming a state wracked with institutional corruption, immediately outsourced key nodes of governance of the country to proxies of America’s Democratic administration – all managed through the U.S. Embassy in Kiev.

Not long after, the new government and coalition began to make a series of unconstitutional decisions and laws at the request of various US-linked international organizations, and old ‘disloyal’ officials were gotten rid of through a process of “lustration”, as the influence of the courts and law enforcement system were gradually eroded by the creation of externally-controlled shadow government bodies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), the High Anti-Corruption Court and others. As the Ukrainian state found itself increasingly under the thumb of United States operatives, the active opposition figures began to emerge, one of whom was Ukrainian politician, Andriy Derkach, who began to fight against this foreign subterfuge and control by Democratic Party top brass.

The first open confrontation between Derkach and the Democrats occurred in 2017, when Derkach filed an official application for criminal proceedings on the fact of interference of NABU in the 2016 US presidential elections. As Derkach claimed, in the midst of the campaign, NABU Director Artem Sytnyk had deliberately (at the request of certain representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine) publicized information about the receipt of money in Ukraine by political consultant and Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort. The document in question became known as “The Party of Regions’ barn book”. From this incident, it became clear the goal of NABU head Sytnyk was to help Trump’s 2016 opponent, Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton, by knocking out Trump’s chief of staff right at height of a national election cycle.

The dodgy document and media hype which entailed led to Manafort being removed from Trump campaign headquarters, followed by a 21 month prison sentence in the US for other unrelated federal charges. As a result, Ukraine, with its own hands, helped to undermine the US election process, something which couldn’t have been done without the help of agents within the Democrat Party and US government. Derkach sought to expose this and other instances of corruption, but quickly discovered that doing your patriotic duty and publicly standing up for Ukrainian national interests, and trying to prevent a dangerous distortion in Ukraine-US relations, which could be harmful to both countries – had actually placed him in the firing line, literally.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fish Cafe

 

 

So good
https://twitter.com/i/status/1720858446000456107

 

 

Polar

 

 

Food
https://twitter.com/i/status/1721177325738328214

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Sep 282023
 
 September 28, 2023  Posted by at 9:20 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  44 Responses »


Claude Monet The Pond at Montgeron 1876

 

Trump Rages At “Deranged” NY Judge’s ‘Corporate Death Penalty’ Decision (ZH)
Trump Says Net Worth ‘Much Greater’ Than Financial Statements (JTN)
Real Estate Insiders: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Worth At Least $300M, Not $18M (NYP)
Russian “Alabuga” Complex to Be “More Powerful Than a Nuclear Bomb” (Zlatko)
US’ Ukraine Reforms is Signal to Zelensky That His Time is Up (Sp.)
US Aid to Ukraine May Dry Out, But Not Because of House GOP (Sp.)
Is World War III About to Start? Part II: The MIC and Deep State (Cook)
Western Left Abandoned The People To Fuel NATO’s Carnage (Rogatyuk)
Ukraine Offered To Strike Iran And Syria – Guardian (RT)
Fauci Was ‘Smuggled’ Into CIA HQ To “Influence” Covid-19 Origins Probe (ZH)
EcoHealth is a “CIA Front Organization” (ZH)
100s Of Pages Of Newly Released Memos Spark Fresh Biden Corruption Charges (ZH)
FBI Refuses To Release Nationwide Voter Registration Fraud Probe Docs (JTN)
Disappearing Americans (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

 

 

Paperclip

 

 

Canada nazis

 

 

 

 

Tucker Bill O’Reilly Short&Long

 

 

Jimmy Dore

 

 

 

 

“From 2011-2021, the Palm Beach County Assessor appraised the market value of Mar-a-Lago at between $18 million and $27.6 million because of various land use restrictions. The judge simply restated the appraisal which is an undisputed fact.”

The assessor, and now the judge, are the only people who claim the assessment is correct. Everyone else puts the value at 20-30 times that, if not more.

They’re simply trying to bankrupt Trump, and think a 10-day window is enough: “..must dissolve all business interests in the state and exit within 10 days..”

They think they can sell off his property for cheap.

Trump Rages At “Deranged” NY Judge’s ‘Corporate Death Penalty’ Decision (ZH)

Right on cue, in a stunning decision on Tuesday, a New York State judge found – with no trial or jury – that Donald Trump, his family, and his business, theTrump Organization, was liable for fraud, and ordered what experts in New York financial crimes say amounts to the dissolution of his company. In a 35-page ruling, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron (D) revoked the New York “business certificates” belonging to the Trump Organization and any other New York-based business run by Trump or his family – while ordering that an independent third party will be tasked with “managing the dissolution of the cancelled LLCs.” “It’s a staggering judgement,” said John Moscow, a former financial crimes prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney’s office. “It means you are no longer a company, and the judge is appointing someone to take over the assets and distribute them as the court sees fit.”

“It’s comparable to once a person dies. A dead person can’t sell property. Only the executor of the estate can do that – or in this case, the receiver.” Experts are calling it the “corporate death penalty.” As Sundance at TheConservativeTreehouse.com put it: “All the banks and lenders did their own due diligence on the financing. All operational loans and business loans were paid back. There were no defaults or banking interests adversely impacted. There are no victims of what the State calls “fraud,” yet the judge is ruling the Trump organization must dissolve all business interests in the state and exit within 10 days.” As you might expect, President Trump was enraged, blasting “The widespread, radical attack against me, my family and my supporters have now devolved to new, un-American depths,” calling Engoron “deranged” and James a “completely biased and corrupt ‘prosecutor.’”

“We are rapidly becoming a communist country, and my civil rights have been taken away from me,” he continued. “This is Democrat political lawfare and a witch hunt at a level never seen before.” Trump plans to appeal the decision, his attorneys said. “Today’s outrageous decision is completely disconnected from the facts and governing law,” Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement. “President Trump and his family will seek all available appellate remedies to rectify this miscarriage of justice.” Eric and Don Jr. Trump took to X to slam the Judge’s valuation of his father’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which Trump claims is over a billion dollars, but Engoron ruled is worth between $18 million and $27.6 million – which is absurd when you look at the surrounding property values.

 

 

Read more …

“..the Florida property “IS WORTH POSSIBLY 100 TIMES THAT AMOUNT..”

Trump Says Net Worth ‘Much Greater’ Than Financial Statements (JTN)

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his net worth is “much greater” than that shown on his financial statements, which he says contained a “disclaimer clause” stating that the information should not be relied upon, after a New York judge found that the former president, his two eldest sons and his businesses could be held liable for fraud in the state attorney general’s civil case against them.Trump wrote on Truth Social: “In addition to the fact that my Net Worth is much greater than the number shown in the Financial Statements, there is a POWERFUL Disclaimer Clause … explaining that there should be no reliance placed on these Financial Statements, but instead everyone should do their own independent research, analysis, and due diligence.” He also said banks understood the clause and there were no problems with it.

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled Tuesday that New York Democrat Attorney General Letitia James demonstrated that Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, several of the family’s entities and former employees, could be liable for “repeated and persistent fraud by preparing, certifying and submitting to lenders and insurers false and misleading financial statements” in violation of New York law. Trump specifically took issue with Engoron’s evaluation of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which the judge said could be worth as little as $18 million, citing an appraisal from the Palm Beach County Assessor.

Trump said in a separate Truth Social post that the Florida property “IS WORTH POSSIBLY 100 TIMES THAT AMOUNT” and that the judge’s “anger & hatred is politically motivated & unprecedented by those who watched!” James is also attempting to get $250 million in damages from Trump and the other defendants in the case, as well as an order barring the former president and his two eldest sons from being leaders at New York-based companies. That trial is set to begin Oct. 2.

Read more …

“..a 2-acre wooded lot at 1980 S. Ocean Blvd., just 5 minutes from Mar-a-Lago, is currently listed for $150 million. Mar-a-Lago, situated at 1100 S. Ocean Blvd., dwarfs this lot tenfold and operates as a commercial business..”

Real Estate Insiders: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Worth At Least $300M, Not $18M (NYP)

A New York judge’s Tuesday ruling valuing Donald Trump’s sprawling, headline-making Florida estate at $18 million has left industry experts perplexed. In his verdict, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron delivered a bombshell ruling that the former president committed fraud by inflating the value of his wealth, with details including the monetary value associated with Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. This decision, which came down without a jury, has sent shockwaves through political — and real estate — circles, especially that $18 million base value for the property. One prominent Palm Beach real estate broker, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Post, “It’s utterly delusional to think that property is only worth $18 million.”

The insider added, “If that property were on the market today, I would list it at around $300 million, minimum … at least. He also has the separate golf course minutes away.” Engoron’s verdict holds Trump, 77, along with his family and his business empire, the Trump Organization, liable for fraud — a central allegation in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against the defendants. In a 35-page judgment, Engoron sided with James, asserting that Trump had made unequivocally false statements in official documents to secure favorable terms with financial institutions. Notably, Trump’s claims, such as his triplex penthouse in Trump Tower being 30,000 square feet when it was closer to 11,000, were also described by Engoron as “fraudulent” given their significant discrepancies.

However, the ruling raised eyebrows when Engoron, a Democrat who ran unopposed in the general election on Nov. 3, 2015, evaluated the worth of Trump’s prized Mar-a-Lago Club resort at $18 million, ruling that the property was inflated by 2,300%. He cited a basic Palm Beach Assessor valuation that ranged from $18 million to $28 million between 2011 and 2021, with industry sources saying it fails to take into consideration the fair market value. This valuation is far from Trump’s 1985 purchase price of $10 million, $8 million less than what the judge declared it was worth today. There are also nearby comps. To put it in perspective, a 2-acre wooded lot at 1980 S. Ocean Blvd., just 5 minutes from Mar-a-Lago, is currently listed for $150 million. Mar-a-Lago, situated at 1100 S. Ocean Blvd., dwarfs this lot tenfold and operates as a commercial business with around 500 members as part of the golf club.


Eric Trump: “These homes are about 1/30 the size of Mar-a-Lago, not on the beach (let alone the beach and intercostal), don’t span from once side of the Palm Beach Island to the other… it is a travesty of justice and an embarrassment to the court.”

Read more …

X thread.

Russian “Alabuga” Complex to Be “More Powerful Than a Nuclear Bomb” (Zlatko)

In Russia, the development of a missile equipped with a high-frequency generator of significant power is underway, which would allow neutralizing the enemy without firing a single shot. In the West, “Alabuga” is referred to as “secret weaponry” that is “more powerful than a nuclear bomb” and capable of “disabling entire armies.” The electromagnetic missile can disrupt all enemy electronics within a radius of 3.5 kilometers. “The military plans to install this weapon on state-of-the-art Russian drones to deter enemy aircraft.

Among other uses, such a system could be employed to destroy missile warheads and communication devices on aircraft. Additionally, it disables tank loading mechanisms, detonates artillery shells inside gun turrets, and eliminates enemy soldiers hiding underground at depths of up to 100 meters using radiation,” Daily Star reported this already in 2017. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently mentioned the development of weapons based on new physical principles at the Eastern Economic Forum.

“Even when it comes to security matters, weapons based on new physical principles will ensure the security of any country in the near historical perspective. We understand this perfectly well and are working on it,” the president stated. Moreover, this summer, Russian troops already received the “Listva” remote-controlled mine-clearing vehicles. They can detect and disable radio-controlled mines using super high-frequency emissions.

Read more …

“..the elimination of corruption in Ukraine is the number one priority: reforms in this sphere should be accomplished within a three-month timeframe…”

US’ Ukraine Reforms is Signal to Zelensky That His Time is Up (Sp.)

Earlier this week, Deputy White House National Security Adviser for International Economics Mike Pyle sent a draft list of reforms to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, as per Ukrainian media. The document was also forwarded to the multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform, a group of organizations including the EU, G7 governments, and the main international financial organizations, including the IMF, the World Bank, and others. Later, the US Embassy in Ukraine confirmed that Kiev had been “provided a proposed list of priority reforms for discussion and feedback at the multi-donor coordination platform in Brussels”. The document titled “Reforms Linked to Conditions on US Assistance” details the necessary changes in order of urgency – 0-3 months, 3-6 months, one year, and 18 months.]

Some of the provisions have additions in italics, like “EU MFA [macro-financial assistance] conditionality”; “IMF Structural Benchmark”; “requirements for Ukraine to begin EU accession process”; and “IMF MEFP [Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies]” suggest that the list covers not only US assistance, but also aid from Western-led international organizations. The document clearly indicates Ukraine will further lose its sovereignty in favor of EU and NATO institutions. Per the White House list, the elimination of corruption in Ukraine is the number one priority: reforms in this sphere should be accomplished within a three-month timeframe.
· Ukraine has to reform the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), in line with the parameters of the IMF structural benchmark.
· Increase the number of detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) by at least 300; provide them with wiretapping capability; and preserve the agency’s “independence and exclusive investigative authority over high-profile corruption matters.”
· Reinstate mandatory asset and financial disclosure requirements for public officials, judges, and political parties.
· Select new head of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP).
· Complete the High Council of Justice (HCJ) reboot by establishing a Service of Disciplinary Inspectors with direct and meaningful participation of independent experts to restore the HCJ “disciplinary function.”

Furthermore, in the three-to-six month timeframe, the Kiev regime has to expand the number of judges on the nation’s High Anti-Corruption Court; establish a new specialized court (the High Administrative Court of Ukraine [HACU]) for administrative cases against national state agencies; reform Ukraine’s Supreme Court (SC). Remarkably, at the same time, Kiev is required to “limit” the powers of the infamous Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) “to those associated with counter-intelligence, counter-espionage, cybersecurity, and counterterrorism,” and reshuffle the agency. “Create a credible disciplinary committee and replace staff who do not meet ethical and professional standards,” the document reads. “Enhance parliamentary and civilian oversight of SBU. Restructure process for requesting lawful intercept (wiretapping), and allow other institutions to conduct judicial intercept separate from SBU.”

Read more …

The Pentagon plays tricks.

US Aid to Ukraine May Dry Out, But Not Because of House GOP (Sp.)

The Biden administration wants the US Congress to pass a $24 billion package for Ukraine along with other spending initiatives as soon as possible. Washington has already committed over $110 billion in Ukraine assistance to date. While House Republicans appear skeptical about further financial and military assistance to the Kiev regime, which has failed to succeed with its summer counteroffensive, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy proposed to pass a stopgap measure to avoid a looming government shutdown. September 30 is the deadline. GOP lawmakers have signaled that they won’t include any funds for Ukraine in their stopgap bill. On September 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Capitol Hill to lobby for a hefty multi-billion package.

Even though McCarthy (unlike his predecessor Nancy Pelosi) did not provide the Ukrainian president with an opportunity to address the House, he held a conversation with Zelensky. The day after the meeting with Zelensky, McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol that he had decided to keep the $300 million in Ukraine aid in the Pentagon funding bill, adding that another spending measure set for the State Department and foreign operations would also include money for Kiev. The development is by no means surprising, according to retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense. “The Pentagon has stated that Ukraine funding and aid would continue unabated by any government shutdown, and this includes the payment of salaries for tens of thousands of Ukrainian government employees and bureaucrats – even as paychecks for US government employees, and bureaucrats can and likely would be held back in the event of a shutdown,” Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

“I think this is a Pentagon and administration attempt to remove the ability of the Congressional GOP Freedom Caucus to argue that they desire to pay American salaries, before they pay Ukrainian ones – by saying we (the Biden admin) are paying Ukrainian salaries no matter what you (the House America First-types) do.” When it comes to the larger $24 billion package, the former Pentagon analyst has a sense that “if serious negotiations are forced on Speaker Kevin McCarthy, they will find a way to reduce this amount, or to separate this aid out for separate and subsequent Congressional consideration.” The Biden administration has publicly promised this aid to Ukraine, but they do not control the appropriations – the House does, she emphasized.

“However – the Pentagon could simply provide it to Ukraine using a recalculation ‘trick’ and devaluing of past aid in the amount of $24 billion. I give this a 50% chance of happening in some way,” Kwiatkowski said. For example, in late June, the Pentagon said that it had overestimated the value of the arms it supplied to Kiev by $6.2 billion over the past two years. Four weeks earlier, the US Department of Defense cited an accounting error of at least $3 billion. Eventually, the “surplus” simply went back into the Pentagon’s pot allocated for Ukraine within the president’s drawdown authority (which allows providing Kiev with weapons directly, without Congressional approval).

“I think there is a good chance Ukraine will be able to wring out much of the promised $24 billion – but that the political battle, here in the US, to make that happen will reveal much to Congress and the American people about both the shady accounting ‘principles’ of the Pentagon and the honest situation in Ukraine,” Kwiatkowski said. Still, trouble is brewing for Kiev: it seems like many in Congress on both sides of the political aisle are beginning to understand the practical and political need for Kiev and Washington to end the conflict immediately, according to the former Pentagon analyst. She suspects that “the truth about the terrific loss on the battlefield and in Ukrainian military capability in the past 18 months is getting to the various committees in both the House and the Senate.”

Read more …

“.. the MIC is probably the principal economic engine of the U.S. as a whole..”

“So are we going to tell what adds up to tens of millions of people, sorry, your services are no longer needed? Good luck with that.”

Is World War III About to Start? Part II: The MIC and Deep State (Cook)

Today about 2.1 million people are employed by the defense industry. According to Acara Solutions, a major MIC recruiting firm, their average annual salary is $106,700, 40 percent higher than the national average. The companies they work for produced revenues in 2022 of $741 billion. How much of their production is high-priced junk, no one knows. The performance of U.S.-produced armaments in the Ukraine conflict does not seem impressive. No modern U.S. weapons have ever been tested in an industrial-type war against an equal adversary. The MIC also includes active-duty uniformed personnel of 1.37 million and reserves of 849,000. There are 750 U.S. military bases in more than 80 countries outside of the U.S. More than 100,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in Europe.

Annual salary and benefits of the military are currently $146 billion per year, escalating with COLAs compounded at two to three percent annually, sometimes more. Some former U.S. military personnel are assumed to be fighting in Ukraine as mercenaries or helping direct the fighting from safe locations like Kiev or Lvov. Then there are the civilian employees. According to the DoD, it employs more than 700,000 civilians “in an array of critical positions worldwide,” with compensation totaling about $70 billion. According to the Government Accountability Office, we may also add 560,000 contractor employees, whose compensation is typically higher than the career workforce. We can also add hundreds of thousands of executives, managers, employees and contractors of the three-letter Deep State agencies, such as the CIA, NSA, DEA, FBI, and now DHS, etc., who interface with the MIC day in and day out and are part of the same fabric of state-sanctioned force and enemy identification and interdiction.

Added to the above are members of Congress who vote on military budgets and make the laws that protect the MIC from accountability, lobbyists who pressure those members to cast votes favorable to their MIC clients, private sector financial service employees who handle the retirement accounts of the MIC multitude, foreigners who are employed at overseas bases, and various scoundrels and hangers-on. I would include in the latter category the multitude of MIC cheerleaders from Hollywood who produce trashy spectacles like Top Gun. On top of everything else, there are millions of retirees drawing annuities in excess of what most working-class Americans earn, many of these retirees double- or triple-dipping with lucrative jobs in business or government.

Each of the above individuals supports multiple family members, workers, and vendors within the civilian economy who, with the ripple effect and velocity of money, keep entire towns, cities, states, regions, and industries afloat. An example is building the F-35 that has workers assembling it in 350 congressional districts. It is probably no exaggeration to say that given the vast exiting of civilian U.S. factories and jobs over the last half-century to cheap-labor countries abroad, the MIC is probably the principal economic engine of the U.S. as a whole. So are we going to tell what adds up to tens of millions of people, sorry, your services are no longer needed? Good luck with that. And isn’t it obvious that all these people, especially the higher echelons, are going to do everything within their power to persuade us that their jobs are so essential that without them we will shortly be overwhelmed and eaten alive by every “enemy” on the planet?

Read more …

The real warmongers.

Western Left Abandoned The People To Fuel NATO’s Carnage (Rogatyuk)

After the breakout of the First World War, the Second International and the numerous socialist organizations affiliated with it across Western Europe threw their weight behind their governments’ new military adventurism and became completely oblivious to the suffering of their fellow man at the hands of their countries’ economic and political elites. More than a century later, many of their modern-day counterparts have joined the chorus of Western governments, and their respective military-industrial complexes, in their proxy war hymn against Russia. And some of them have gone as far as giving a standing ovation to a literal member of the Waffen-SS, Yaroslav Hunka, when he was presented as a “veteran who fought for Ukrainian independence against Russia during WWII” in the Canadian parliament. It seems that even praising Nazis has become an acceptable part of the Western progressives’ discourse against all things Russian.

While many of the social democrats of the 1970s and 80s throughout Western Europe strongly opposed NATO’s expansionism and the presence of US military bases, the modern-day progressive and green parties go out of their way to roll out the red carpet for foreign soldiers on their soil. The examples are numerous. There’s Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister from the Greens, who made headlines around the world for admitting that Germany is “fighting a war against Russia,” the former prime minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, who attended the funeral of a well-known neo-Nazi leader in Ukraine, Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, the first to pledge F-16 jets to Kiev, and Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, one of the first to promise Zelensky Leopard tanks.

In the United States, the Squad – a group of relatively young members of Congress elected in 2018 and 2022 on a progressive left-wing platform – was once considered something of an alternative to the Democratic Party establishment, but has equally fallen under the spell of the siren war song of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Except for criticism of the delivery of cluster munitions and depleted uranium shells and supporting Bernie Sanders’ proposal to cut military spending, the Squad has consistently voted in favor of progressively bigger and bigger military aid packages to Kiev, while largely ignoring the threat posed by the various neo-Nazi armed groups in Kiev’s employ.

Even the trade unions, long considered the backbone of the anti-war movement, are not immune to the whims of the mass Russophobia and the warmongering spirit of the progressive and liberal leaders. The British Trade Union Council’s resolution urging Rishi Sunak’s government to commit further arms deliveries and financial assistance to the regime in Kiev is a stab in the back for the Stop the War coalition and millions of British workers who view the cost-of-living crisis as far more important than the delivery of military aid to a government that has thrown the rights of its own workers back to the 19th century with the new law 5371.

Read more …

Imagine dreaming of WWIII because you think it will save you.

Ukraine Offered To Strike Iran And Syria – Guardian (RT)

The Ukrainian government urged its Western backers last month to conduct missile strikes on drone factories in Iran and Syria, offering to launch the attacks itself if given the weapons to do so, according to a document seen by The Guardian. The document in question was handed to G7 governments by Ukrainian officials in August, the British newspaper reported on Wednesday. In it, the Ukrainians claimed that kamikaze drones used by Russian forces are built by Iranian manufacturers in Iran and Syria, and contain Western components. Kiev has alleged that Russia uses Iranian-made Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 drones, and that these contain 51 and 57 Western-made parts respectively.

“Among the manufacturers are companies headquartered in the countries of the sanctions coalition: the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Poland,” the document reportedly stated. Russia denies using Iranian drones, insisting that the Shahed-like craft it launches at Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets are designed and made in Russia. According to The Guardian, the report recommended “missile strikes on the production plants of these UAVs in Iran [and] Syria, as well as on a potential production site in the Russian federation.” “The above may be carried out by the Ukrainian defense forces if partners provide the necessary means of destruction,” the document continued.

While Israel occasionally strikes military factories in Syria and is widely believed to be behind similar attacks in Iran, it is highly unlikely that the US or its allies would consider a direct attack on Iran. Likewise, it is unlikely that Ukraine would be given the long-range missiles necessary for such an operation, considering the US has even expressed reservations about providing Kiev with missiles capable of hitting targets inside Russia. Additionally, Moscow claims that Ukraine has lost 83,000 men since June in its failing effort to breach Russian defensive lines near Zaporozhye and Donetsk. With losses mounting, the chances of Ukraine being able to fight foreign forces 1,500km away are extremely slim.

Read more …

He financed it all.

Fauci Was ‘Smuggled’ Into CIA HQ To “Influence” Covid-19 Origins Probe (ZH)

Dr. Anthony Fauci was smuggled into CIA headquarters, “without a record of entry,” where he “participated in the analysis to “influence” the Agency’s” Covid-19 investigation, according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Fauci’s alleged CIA meeting was revealed in a Tuesday night letter from Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) to the Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services, which demands documents, communications and other evidence between Fauci and the CIA. This allegation is even more interesting in light of a report from two weeks ago that the CIA bribed analysts to say Covid-19 did not originate in a Chinese lab. According to a ‘senior-level’ CIA whistleblower, the agency ‘tried to pay off six analysts who found SARS-CoV-2 likely originated in a Wuhan lab if they changed their position and said the virus jumped from animals to humans.’

“According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” reads the letter from Wenstrup. “The seventh member of the Team, who also happened to be the most senior, was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis. “The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position,” the letters continue, adding that the analysts were “experienced officers with significant scientific expertise.”

Wenstrup and Turner also asked for documents and communications between the CIA and other federal agencies, including the State Department, FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Energy Department. In a separate letter, the House committee leaders identified former CIA Chief Operating Officer Andrew Makridis as having “played a central role” in the COVID investigation and asked him to sit for a transcribed interview. -NY Post In June, the US Intelligence Community declassified a 10-page report on COVID origins, in which it found “biosafety concerns” and “genetic engineering” taking place in Wuhan, but that most of its “agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically engineered.” As the Committee noted on Tuesday;

Dr. Fauci’s questionable presence at the CIA, coupled with recently uncovered evidence that he, Dr. Fauci, “prompted” the drafting of “Proximal Origin” — the infamous paper that was used to attempt to “disprove” the lab leak theory — lends credence to heightened concerns about the promotion of a false COVID-19 origins narrative by multiple federal government agencies. Chairman Wenstrup is seeking all documents and communications related to Dr. Fauci’s access to CIA facilities and CIA employees as it relates to these allegations. Also, after becoming aware of additional information, the Select Subcommittee is requesting Special Agent Brett Rowland appear for a transcribed interview regarding Dr. Fauci’s purported movements to and from the CIA. As mounting evidence continues to imply that federal government officials covered-up the origins of COVID-19, investigating any improper influence will ensure future accountability of not only the intelligence community, but also public health officials.

Read more …

“..NAIAD, under the direction of Dr. Fauci, went ahead with the research in Wuhan, China and at several sites across the U.S…”

EcoHealth is a “CIA Front Organization” (ZH)

According to a January, 2022 Twitter (now “X”) thread by [former EcoHealth Alliance scientist Andrew] Huff, who worked at EcoHealth from 2014 to 2016, “I knew in December of 2019 that COVID was likely a lab leak.” Huff then claimed that “Not only is EcoHealth Alliance a CIA front organization, but the United States of America is primarily responsible for COVID, not China.” Huff also told Fox Business in January: “This was actually a failed intelligence operation. We were actually trading China advanced biotechnology for access to and collect intelligence on their bioweapons laboratory. I believe. I can’t prove that but a number of agencies that I discuss in the book, including Dr. Peter Daszak telling me he worked with the CIA.” From Huff’s book, “The Truth About Wuhan”:

“These discussions resulted in publications indicating that Dr. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, was working with the CIA, and that the biological agent commonly known as COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) had been in development at EcoHealth Alliance since 2012, and other evidence suggested that SARS-CoV-2 began earlier than 2012. The development of SARS-CoV-2 included several prominent US-based scientists and US academic institutions that received funding from numerous federal government agencies and private non-governmental organizations to complete the gain of function work on SARS-CoV-2.”

Huff also posted a document obtained by Project Veritas and published in January of 2022 purportedly authored (and not denied) by Maj. Joseph Murphy (USMC), which states “SARS-CoV-2 is an American-created recombinant bat vaccine” which was “created by an EcoHealth Alliance program at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).” Project Veritas has obtained a separate report to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense written by U.S. Marine Corp Major, Joseph Murphy, a former DARPA Fellow. The report states that EcoHealth Alliance approached DARPA in March 2018, seeking funding to conduct gain of function research of bat borne coronaviruses. The proposal, named Project Defuse, was rejected by DARPA over safety concerns and the notion that it violates the basis gain of function research moratorium. According to the documents, NAIAD, under the direction of Dr. Fauci, went ahead with the research in Wuhan, China and at several sites across the U.S. -Project Veritas

Read more …

Impeachment inquiry starts today.

“..the Biden family foreign influence peddling operation suggests an effort to sway U.S. policy decisions.”

100s Of Pages Of Newly Released Memos Spark Fresh Biden Corruption Charges (ZH)

[..] Republicans have portrayed the initial hearing as merely a summary or review of the evidence obtained to date, but Mr. Comer announced Sept. 26 that his panel received in response to subpoenas two previously unknown wire transfers to Hunter Biden from Chinese businessmen with numerous links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “On July 26, 2019, Hunter Biden received a $10,000 wire from Wang Xin. On August 2, 2019, Hunter Biden received a $250,000 wire from Jonathan Li and Tan Ling. Both wires originated in Beijing and Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home is listed as the beneficiary address for both wires,” Mr. Comer said in a statement. The transfers directly contradict claims by the President and Hunter Biden’s lawyer that no funds were received from China.

In addition, Mr. Comer pointed out that “evidence shows Joe Biden developed a familiar relationship with Jonathan Li during his vice presidency and prior to these payments to Hunter Biden. Devon Archer, a Biden business associate, described [to the oversight committee in closed-door testimony] how Joe Biden met with Jonathan Li in Beijing, China, had a phone call with him, and later wrote college recommendation letters for his children.” Then on Sept. 27, Mr. Smith’s panel made public 700 pages of additional evidence provided by two IRS whistleblowers who were deeply involved in the government’s long-running investigation of Hunter Biden’s failure to pay taxes on income he received in 2014 and 2015.

The Ways and Means panel made the new evidence public following a closed-door executive session in which all 18 Democrats opposed the release. The new materials made public by Mr. Smith indicated the Biden family received at least $19 million in income from entities in at least 23 countries around the world which was channeled through 20 shell companies. The income was ultimately received directly or indirectly by multiple members of the Biden family, including the president while he was vice president.

The materials also included numerous references in emails and telephone messages to the senior Biden playing an active role in what Mr. Smith described to reporters during a Capitol Hill news conference following the executive session as “a complex and lucrative enterprise operated by the Biden family to enrich themselves to the tune of at least $20 million, with much of Hunter Biden’s share going unreported for taxes.” Mr. Smith further claimed the new evidence makes clear that “then Vice President Joe Biden’s political power and influence was ‘the brand’ that Hunter Biden was selling all over the world. Even more alarming, the Biden family foreign influence peddling operation suggests an effort to sway U.S. policy decisions.”

Read more …

“The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure.” Like for the next 5 years?!

FBI Refuses To Release Nationwide Voter Registration Fraud Probe Docs (JTN)

The FBI took over a 2020 probe into voter registration fraud that began in Michigan but has denied a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the investigation, citing an exemption in that law regarding ongoing investigations. According to the dozens of pages of police reports from the Muskegon Police Department and Michigan State Police, a firm called GBI Strategies was under scrutiny as an organization central to alleged voter registration fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The matter was initially investigated by city and state authorities before the FBI took over. Contacts between local law enforcement and the FBI continued into 2022 but there is no evidence of what happened after that in the memos obtained by Just the News through requests made under Michigan’s own Freedom of Information Act.

Last week, the FBI denied a Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts request from Just the News regarding records from the investigation into GBI Strategies. The request sought “copies of all reports, documents, and records about GBI Strategies, including all communication and correspondence regarding investigations of GBI Strategies with Michigan government officials, city and state law enforcement agencies in Michigan, and all other state government officials and law enforcement agencies involved in investigations of GBI Strategies.” The FBI’s response partially reads: “The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure.”

The FBI cited 5 U.S. Code § 552(b)(7)(A) for exempting disclosure of the records, specifically, “records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information … could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.” The agency’s response continued: “The records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”

Read more …

“As a nation, the United States no longer exists. What was once a country is today just a geographical location.”

Disappearing Americans (Paul Craig Roberts)

Washington lies to American citizens for the benefit of non-citizens and well-connected citizens such as Big Pharma, agri-business, and the military-security complex. To prove the point, the anti-American Biden Regime’s “Justice” Department is suing Elon Musk for hiring American Citizens instead of immigrant-invaders. The anti-American Biden Regime calls immigrant-invaders “asylees” and “refugees” and although they do not have green cards, that is, permission to reside and work in the US, the anti-American Biden Regime gives the immigrant-invaders equal footing with American citizens and green card holders to employment rights. Elon Musk, a patriot who wishes to employ American citizens is being sued for employing Americans instead of immigrant-invaders. This is the fate of Americans under the America-Hating-Democrats. Here is what the Biden Department of “Justice” said:

“Our investigation found that SpaceX failed to fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees because of their citizenship status and imposed what amounted to a ban on their hire regardless of their qualification, in violation of federal law,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Our investigation also found that SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials took actions that actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company. Asylees and refugees have overcome many obstacles in their lives, and unlawful employment discrimination based on their citizenship status should not be one of them. Through this lawsuit we will hold SpaceX accountable for its illegal employment practices and seek relief that allows asylees and refugees to fairly compete for job opportunities and contribute their talents to SpaceX’s workforce.”

Dear insouciant Americans: This is what the Biden Regime’s “Justice” Department is telling you: Your citizenship as an American citizen means nothing whatsoever. Your status as an American citizen places you on the same level, or even lower, than the status of an immigrant-invader. If you hire an American Citizen instead of an immigrant-invader you have violated US law! Insouciant Americans send their sons and daughters to fight for rights of immigrant-invaders who have turned our country into a Tower of Babel. Take a moment and consider, what was the consequence of the fake “war on terror” other than massive acceptance of “refugees” from our own attacks on the Middle East and North Africa? What is the consequence of our war against Russia in Ukraine other than millions of immigrant-invders into the US and Europe?

Every time the anti-Americans who rule us launch a war, whether against “terror,” or “to build democracy,” or against “Putin reconstructing the Soviet Empire,” we get more boatloads of immigrant-invaders who demand rights at the expense of American citizens. Washington’s wars and open borders have destroyed the cohesiveness of American society and the homogeneousness of the American population. The anti-Americans in Washington have turned the United States of America into a Tower of Babel. As a nation, the United States no longer exists. What was once a country is today just a geographical location.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Trevi

 

 

 

 

Butterfly

 

 

DogDucks
https://twitter.com/i/status/1707258166101066190

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Sep 122023
 
 September 12, 2023  Posted by at 8:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  47 Responses »


Claude Monet O Rio (The River) 1881

 

Zelensky ‘Senses’ Weakening Western Support (RT)
Zelensky Threatens To Terrorize Europe (MoA)
Ukrainians Blame Zelensky For Corruption – Poll (RT)
EU Believes Ukraine Is ‘A Very Corrupt Country’ – Politico (RT)
Blinken Contradicts Ukraine On Peace Negotiations (RT)
Elon Musk Responds To Ukraine ‘Treason’ Claims (RT)
Medvedev Advocates Suspending Diplomatic Relations With EU (TASS)
Russian Customs Chief Accuses EU Of ‘Total Lawlessness’ (RT)
Brazilian Court To Decide About Putin If He Attends G20 Summit – Lula (TASS)
Lies And Pretence In New London Novichok Hearing (Helmer)
The Gun Charge Against Hunter Is the Way of Covering Up the Real Issues (PCR)
The “Why Not” Culture: The Georgia Final Report Should Worry Us All (Turley)
The Mills of the Gods (Jim Kunstler)
9/11 After 22 Years (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

 

 

RFK

 

 

 

 

Trump 9/11
https://twitter.com/i/status/1701280839533838398
https://twitter.com/i/status/1701253565702938885

 

 

 

 

Isaacson

 

 

“A judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that former President Trump has ‘presidential immunity’ and cannot be sued over statements he made about 2020 election fraud.”

 

 

 

 

He’s directly threatening Europe now:

“..the millions of Ukrainian refugees now residing in foreign nations. They have generally “behaved well,” but if the hosts “drive these people into a corner,” the end result will not be “a good story” for Europe..”

Zelensky ‘Senses’ Weakening Western Support (RT)

If Western nations do not maintain their assistance to Kiev, they could face defeats at the ballot box and trouble from the millions of Ukrainian refugees they host, President Vladimir Zelensky has warned. In an interview with The Economist, Zelensky complained about weakening support from senior Western officials, which he claimed to have seen in their eyes during meetings. “I see that he or she is not here, not with us” contrary to spoken assurances, he said, according to the interview published on Sunday. According to Zelensky, failure to support Ukraine amounts to siding with Russia in the conflict, which escalated into open hostilities in February 2022. “If partners do not help us, it means they will help Russia to win,” he stated.

Zelensky believes that Western voters will not forgive their leaders if they “lose Ukraine.” Further trouble may also come from the millions of Ukrainian refugees now residing in foreign nations. They have generally “behaved well,” but if the hosts “drive these people into a corner,” the end result will not be “a good story” for Europe, the president added. The Ukrainian leader said he is “morally” ready for a long war with Russia, but this will require the country to switch to a “totally militarized economy.” He added that now is “a bad moment” for peace talks with Russia, due to the lackluster battlefield progress over the three months of Kiev’s summer ‘counteroffensive’. Moscow has estimated Ukrainian losses during the push at over 66,000 troops and 7,600 heavy weapons.

The Economist noted that the Zelensky government had built up expectations for the offensive, but now he is “carefully adjusting his message to reality.” The Ukrainian president also appeared to take credit for the drone attacks deep inside Russian territory, which Kiev formally refuses to claim as its own. Explaining his strategy, he said public support for the Russian government will fall “because our drones will land.”In a “long war,” Moscow will lose regardless of how the Russians feel because the Russian economy will fail, he added. The Russian government expects the economy to grow by 2.5% or more in 2023. Recent forecasts by the World Bank and the IMF have upgraded their predictions for Russia due to strong industrial production and higher-than-expected energy revenues.

Read more …

Moon of Alabama noticed it too.

“I have seen such threats from low ranking individuals of the fascist Bandera fringe. They spoke of terrorism they would unleash in the West should it end its support for Ukraine. That the Ukrainian president now reinforces such threats shows how deeply he immersed himself in that mindset..”

Zelensky Threatens To Terrorize Europe (MoA)

The Economist published another interview with the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski. It includes his usual unrealistic platitudes about not ending the war until Russia has completely pulled back. Speaking with an English language media he didn’t miss to mention the ever misunderstood story about Chamberlain’s move in Munich: “Tapping loudly on the table, Mr Zelensky rejects outright the idea of compromise with Vladimir Putin. War will continue for “as long as Russia remains on Ukrainian territory”, he says. A negotiated deal would not be permanent. The Russian president has a habit of creating “frozen conflicts” on Russia’s borders (in Georgia, for example), not as ends in themselves but because his goal is to “restore the Soviet Union”. Those who choose to talk to the man in the Kremlin are “tricking themselves”, much like the Western leaders who signed an agreement with Adolf Hitler at Munich in 1938 only to watch him invade Czechoslovakia. “The mistake is not diplomacy. The mistake is diplomacy with Putin. He negotiates only with himself.”

In 1938 Chamberlain had no other choice but to give in on Czechoslovakia. Britain was not ready for war and the parts Hitler wanted to annex from Czechoslovakia had undeniably a largely German population: “He contended that Sudeten German grievances were justified and believed that Hitler’s intentions were limited”. Zelenski goes on to threaten, in rather unthankful fashion, those countries which have delivered aid to Ukraine but may want to cut their losses: “Curtailing aid to Ukraine will only prolong the war, Mr Zelensky argues. And it would create risks for the West in its own backyard. There is no way of predicting how the millions of Ukrainian refugees in European countries would react to their country being abandoned. Ukrainians have generally “behaved well” and are “very grateful” to those who sheltered them. They will not forget that generosity. But it would not be a “good story” for Europe if it were to “drive these people into a corner”.

I have seen such threats from low ranking individuals of the fascist Bandera fringe. They spoke of terrorism they would unleash in the West should it end its support for Ukraine. That the Ukrainian president now reinforces such threats shows how deeply he immersed himself in that mindset. A previous Economist story shows that Ukraine has already set up the necessary infrastructure to wage a terrorist campaign: “In modern Ukraine, assassinations date back to at least 2015, when its domestic security service (SBU) created a new body after Russia had seized Crimea and the eastern Donbas region. The elite fifth counter-intelligence directorate started life as a saboteur force in response to the invasion. It later came to focus on what is euphemistically called “wet work”.

“Valentin Nalivaychenko, who headed the SBU at the time, says the switch came about when Ukraine’s then leaders decided that a policy of imprisoning collaborators was not enough. Prisons were overflowing, but few were deterred. “We reluctantly came to the conclusion that we needed to eliminate terrorists,” he says. A former officer of the directorate describes it in similar terms. “We needed to bring war to them.” In 2015 and 2016 the directorate was linked to the assassinations of key Russian-backed commanders in the Donbas; Mikhail Tolstykh, aka “Givi”, killed in a rocket attack; Arsen Pavlov, aka “Motorola”, blown up in a lift; Alexander Zakharchenko, blown up in a restaurant.

Intelligence insiders say the SBU’s fifth directorate is playing a central role in counter-Russia operations. From there it is just a short step towards total war: “Meanwhile, a long war of attrition would mean a fork in the road for Ukraine. The country would lose even more people, both on the front lines and to emigration. It would require a “totally militarised economy”. The government would have to put that prospect to its citizens, Mr Zelensky says, without specifying how; a new social contract could not be the decision of one person. Almost 19 months into the war, the president says he is “morally” ready for the switch. But he will only broach the idea with his people if the weakness in the eyes of his Western backers becomes a “trend”. Has that moment come? No, not yet, he says. “Thank God.” Does Zelenski know of any country with a totally militarized economy that survived? I have yet to hear of one.

Read more …

“..78% of Ukrainian adults see Zelensky as “directly responsible” for Kiev’s corruption problem..”

“..only 18% of Ukrainian adults disagreed with the statement that Zelensky bears responsibility…”

And we hand him tens of billions.

Ukrainians Blame Zelensky For Corruption – Poll (RT)

The vast majority of Ukrainians believe that President Vladimir Zelensky is at fault for widespread corruption in the country’s government and military, a new study has revealed. The poll, released on Monday, found that 78% of Ukrainian adults see Zelensky as “directly responsible” for Kiev’s corruption problem. It was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Charitable Foundation and the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. Prior to the launch of Russia’s military offensive in February 2022, Ukraine consistently ranked among the world’s most corrupt nations, but it was touted as a bastion of freedom and democracy as the US and its NATO allies rallied public support for massive aid to Kiev. However, Ukrainian corruption remains a concern and could hinder the country’s bid to join the European Union, an unidentified Western diplomat told Politico on Monday.

Ukraine is a “very corrupt country,” the diplomat said, adding that Zelensky’s plan to use the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to prosecute graft cases could “send the wrong message.” Upon landing in Kiev for a surprise visit on Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reportedly said Ukraine needed to step up its efforts to fight corruption. The Ukrainian poll was conducted from July 3 to July 17 in face-to-face interviews with thousands of citizens across the country. There were no major differences in findings based on region or socioeconomic factors. Respondents aged 60 and older took a harsher view, with 81% saying Zelensky was responsible for government corruption. The rate was 70% in the youngest segment, ages 17 to 29. Overall, only 18% of Ukrainian adults disagreed with the statement that Zelensky bears responsibility.

Documents obtained by the International Association of Investigative Journalists in 2021 showed that Zelensky and his business partners set up offshore companies to purchase lavish properties in central London. Zelensky transferred his stake in one of the companies to an aide just before he was elected president in 2019. Supporters of former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko accused Zelensky and his associates of using their offshore accounts to evade taxes. Zelensky has purged officials in his government for alleged corruption, including an embezzlement scheme involving humanitarian aid. Just this month, he sacked Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov, who came under fire earlier this year over purchases of military rations at inflated prices. However, the new defense chief, Rustem Umerov, is reportedly under investigation for alleged crimes in his previous job.

Read more …

If everyone’s corrupt, who investigates?

EU Believes Ukraine Is ‘A Very Corrupt Country’ – Politico (RT)

Widespread corruption in Ukraine could hamper Kiev’s bid for EU membership, a western European diplomat told Politico on Monday. He said Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s efforts to tackle the problem have also alarmed Brussels. Ukraine applied for membership in the European Union last February, and was formally granted candidate status four months later. Although European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to address the issue of enlargement during her state of the union speech on Wednesday, and EU Council President Charles Michel has vowed to admit all candidate nations by 2030, Ukraine’s bid could be hamstrung by rampant corruption. Ukraine is a “very corrupt country,”an anonymous western European diplomat told Politico.

“We want to give a positive signal to Ukraine but things such as this proposal to give more power to [Ukraine’s] intelligence [services] over corruption can send the wrong message.” The proposal in question was raised by Zelensky last month. Following a purge of allegedly corrupt officials at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Zelensky announced that he would task the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) with probing and prosecuting corruption cases, taking investigative power away from the country’s multiple anti-graft agencies. The SBU reports solely to Zelensky. Representatives of Ukraine’s existing anti-corruption agencies told Politico last month that by making the SBU the only body allowed to investigate these cases, Zelensky is essentially giving himself the power to decide which corrupt officials to prosecute and which ones to shield.

There is precedent for these fears, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ACAC), Vitaly Shabunin, said. Oleg Tatarov, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, was under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) last year, when the case was unexpectedly transferred to the SBU. “It was buried there,”Shabunin said. “Now [Zelensky’s] office wants to make that into practice.” Ukraine has for years been ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, as of 2022, the country ranked 116th out of 180. Aside from corruption concerns, disputes between Ukraine and European nations over agriculture could also hold up Kiev’s membership bid. Ukrainian farmers could undercut their European counterparts with cheap grain exports, meaning that the EU will likely have to reform its Common Agricultural Policy if Ukraine is to be admitted, Politico noted.

Read more …

“..Russia controlled more land last month than it did at the beginning of the counteroffensive..” But Blinken said Ukraine reclaimed 50%.

Blinken Contradicts Ukraine On Peace Negotiations (RT)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed that the Ukrainian government will agree to peace talks with Russia if Moscow offers to negotiate first. Ukrainian leaders have argued otherwise, however, and insist that peace “needs to be won on the battlefield.” “Thus far, we see no indication that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has any interest in meaningful diplomacy,” Blinken told ABC News on Sunday. “If he does, I think the Ukrainians will be the first to engage, and we’ll be right behind them,” he added. Blinken and other top American officials have long insisted that the Ukrainian government will decide when to seek peace with Russia, and that the US will continue to supply Kiev with weapons until that time comes.

Ukraine agreed in principle to a Turkish-mediated peace deal in April 2022, but walked away from the agreement after a visit to Kiev by then-British prime minister Boris Johnson. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has since issued a decree forbidding any negotiations with Putin’s government, as well as repeatedly vowing to take back the territories of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporozhye, and Crimea – the latter of which voted to join Russia in 2014 – by force. Retaking this land, however, has proven costly for Kiev. More than three months into its long-awaited summer counteroffensive, the Ukrainian military has lost more than 66,000 troops and 7,600 pieces of heavy weaponry, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

In exchange, Kiev’s forces have only managed to reclaim a handful of villages near Zaporozhye, while Russia controlled more land last month than it did at the beginning of the counteroffensive, according to the Washington Post. Nevertheless, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba declared last week that the conflict “cannot be ended by simply bringing belligerent parties to the table for negotiations.” “It needs to be won on the battlefield for Russia to become serious about negotiating peace,”Kuleba added. Russia maintains that it is open to a diplomatic solution to the conflict, but that any peace deal would have to take into account the “new territorial reality” – that Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporozhye, and Crimea will never be ceded back to Ukraine. Furthermore, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said negotiations would be held “not with Zelensky, who is a puppet in the hands of the West, but directly with his masters.”

Read more …

“..if anyone is treasonous, it is those who call me such. Please tell them that very clearly.”

Elon Musk Responds To Ukraine ‘Treason’ Claims (RT)

American tech billionaire Elon Musk has responded to criticism over his refusal to help enable a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian naval forces in Crimea by pointing out that he’s a citizen of only the US and isn’t obliged to fight for Kiev. “I am a citizen of the United States and have only that passport,” Musk said on Monday in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) social media platform. “No matter what happens, I will fight for and die in America.” He added that in light of the fact that the US Congress hasn’t declared war on Russia, “if anyone is treasonous, it is those who call me such. Please tell them that very clearly.”

At issue is Musk’s decision last year to prevent his Starlink satellite network from being used to guide Ukrainian naval drones for an attack against the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean coast. When news of Musk’s refusal came to light last week, US media outlets suggested that he had been traitorous, and Ukrainian presidential aide Mikhail Podoliak accused him of “committing evil and encouraging evil.” The Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder gave Ukraine free use of more than 20,000 Starlink terminals after Russia launched its military offensive against Kiev in February 2022. His aim was to keep Ukrainians from losing internet access and communications capabilities amid the conflict.

However, Musk expressed concern about his network being used for offensive purposes and potentially playing part in triggering a wider conflict. He therefore refused Kiev’s pleas to extend the country’s Starlink coverage all the way to Sevastopol. “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.” CNN host Jake Tapper argued on Sunday that Musk had “effectively sabotaged” an American ally, and he asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken whether the “capricious billionaire” should therefore face “repercussions.” Blinken declined to condemn Musk and pointed out that Starlink had been a vital tool for Ukraine’s defense.

Read more …

..”straightforward and honest Brussels bosses” who “told all Russians directly and without beating around the bush: you are second-class people for us.”

Medvedev Advocates Suspending Diplomatic Relations With EU (TASS)

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has called for suspending diplomatic relations with the EU in response to the EU decision to bar Russian citizens from entering the EU with everyday personal items, calling it a spit in the face of every Russian. “What should we do about it? Certainly not impose tit-for-tat retaliatory restrictions on EU citizens. We are not racists, in contrast to many leaders of those countries whose relatives served in the SS (Schutzstaffel, the notorious paramilitary organization under Germany’s Nazi regime – TASS). Moreover, those [Europeans] who travel here usually have a love and appreciation for Russia. It would be better just to suspend diplomatic relations with the EU for a while.

And to call our diplomatic personnel home,” Medvedev suggested, commenting on the European Commission’s clarification on the EU’s ban on importing automobiles, smartphones, suitcases and shampoo, among an entire range of items, into the EU from Russia, even for strictly personal use. Medvedev mockingly “praised” the EU leaders, calling them “straightforward and honest Brussels bosses” who “told all Russians directly and without beating around the bush: you are second-class people for us.” And the EU’s decision is clearly not meant as just punishment for what Brussels sees as the “criminal and aggressive regime in the Kremlin.” Rather, “this is a spit in the face of every citizen of Russia,” Medvedev emphasized. In suggesting measures to suspend Moscow’s diplomatic relations with the EU, Medvedev noted that only such a move could make Brussels officials truly afraid, “because embassies are [traditionally] evacuated before certain very specific events.”

“Who knows what else these ‘orcs’ from that immense ‘Mordor’ are capable of?” Medvedev asked sarcastically, using a common derogatory slur used in the West to refer to Russia and Russians, equating them to the goblin-like humanoid creatures in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel “The Lord of the Rings.” The European Commission’s clarification dated September 8 bans the import from Russia to the EU of goods listed in Annex 21 to EU Regulation No. 833/2014, regardless of the purpose of their use and the duration of stay in the EU, including cars with less than 10 seats. The EC emphasized that it does not matter whether the vehicles are being used for private or commercial purposes. The list contains a wide range of all sorts of items from cellular telephones and audio and video recording devices, to suitcases, hold-alls, articles of clothing, toothpaste, shampoo and other hygiene products.

Read more …

“Goods that are classified as prohibited – even shampoo and toilet paper – should be confiscated..”

“..at least “they have not banned [Russian nationals] from wearing pants when crossing the border.”

Russian Customs Chief Accuses EU Of ‘Total Lawlessness’ (RT)

Russia’s interim customs chief has blasted the European Commission’s instruction to EU member states to confiscate personal possessions of arriving Russian tourists. “How do we take the European Commission’s ban on traveling by personal car or with smart phones? Well, it’s utter nonsense,”Ruslan Davydov told journalists on Monday on the sidelines of an economic forum in the city of Vladivostok. The EU slapped wide-ranging sanctions on trade with Russia over the Ukraine conflict. Last Friday, however, Brussels explained that the restrictions should also apply to items for personal use brought by tourists crossing the bloc’s border. Goods that are classified as prohibited – even shampoo and toilet paper – should be confiscated, according to the clarification. The European Commission urged “EU operators [to] identify, assess, and understand the possible risks of sanctions circumvention” when conducting customs checks.

Davydov branded the decision as “total lawlessness” that defies the normal logic of customs controls. Moscow has little influence on the policies, since the EU broke all cooperation with Russia, he noted. “The way they regulate customs procedures on their soil can only invoke regret and incomprehension,” he added. But at least “they have not banned [Russian nationals] from wearing pants when crossing the border.”=The official assured that the Federal Customs Service, which he heads, shall not adopt a similar policy regarding tourists arriving from the EU. The Russian embassy in Helsinki urged citizens on Sunday not to travel to Finland in cars with Russian license plates, citing the risk of seizure stemming from the new guidelines.

Read more …

Lula opens the door and closes it at the same time. Putin as Schrödinger’s president: “..the decision [on a possible arrest] is within the power of the judiciary, not my government..”

Brazilian Court To Decide About Putin If He Attends G20 Summit – Lula (TASS)

The issue of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrest during his visit to the G20 summit in Brazil in 2024 will be considered by the country’s court taking into account the arrest warrant issued for the Russian leader by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the country’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. “If Putin decides to attend [next year’s summit], the decision [on a possible arrest] is within the power of the judiciary, not my government,” Reuters quoted the politician as saying. On September 9, in an interview with the Indian TV channel Firstpost, Lula da Silva said that as long as he was president of Brazil, “he [Putin] will not be arrested without the authorization of the authorities.” At the same time, Reuters pointed out the president questioned Brazil’s membership in the ICC. He recalled that neither Russia, China nor the US are members of the organization.

According to the leader, such agreements harm developing countries. On March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, alleging that they were responsible for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. It could theoretically be executed if the Russian leader arrives in one of the countries that recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction. Moscow has rejected such accusations, calling “the very phrasing of the question” outrageous and pointing out that Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, so its decisions are null and void for Russia.

Read more …

“Sergei Skripal, the original target and survivor of the Novichok attack allegations in the official narrative, must never be allowed to testify publicly..”

Lies And Pretence In New London Novichok Hearing (Helmer)

In a London courtroom last week, lawyers for the British government and the presiding judge, Lord Anthony Hughes (lead image, centre), revealed they will resist the efforts of the Dawn Sturgess family to obtain a multi-million pound settlement in compensation for what they claim, and the government says, was her death five years ago from Novichok poisoning by Russian state agents. Secrecy is the key, not only to the big money claim, but to the government’s aim to defeat it and at the same time preserve the official story that the Kremlin ordered and carried out the chemical warfare attack in England in 2018.

Lord Hughes is defending the government’s effort to keep secret enough of the evidence in the case to block Adam Straw KC and Michael Mansfield KC, the Sturgess family lawyers, from demonstrating that the British security services should have known in advance – and did know enough — to have protected Sturgess from the Russian cause of her death. Their argument has been that for this negligence a very large sum of money should be paid to Sturgess’s heirs, to Rowley, and to the lawyers. The judge, the government, and the lawyers have agreed, however, there is one secret they must all keep. Sergei Skripal, the original target and survivor of the Novichok attack allegations in the official narrative, must never be allowed to testify publicly to what he knows.

To cover this up, Straw, Mansfield, and a lawyer representing the British press lied in court last week, claiming they want “open justice” from the secret services and the police. According to Jude Bunting KC representing the media, “open justice is about avoiding ill-informed speculation about proceedings and, insofar as material is in the public domain because of assertion, or even because of state-sponsored [Russian] misinformation, that is all the more reason for disclosing that material in open rather than in closed.” Hughes claimed to be seeking the same openness. “One of the difficulties of this inquiry and this case…is that everybody popularly supposes that they know the answer. They may or may not be right, but the purpose of the inquiry is to find out.” Hughes was pretending.

Read more …

Paul Craig Roberts. “The gun charge is just a way of getting rid of the real charges..”

The Gun Charge Against Hunter Is the Way of Covering Up the Real Issues (PCR)

Conservatives and Republicans are gleeful that the DOJ has been forced off its sweetheart gun charge deal for Hunter and might now have to bring a felony gun charge. The conservatives and Republicans do not realize that the gun charge is the least serious or important of the charges and that by making the gun charge the issue the real issues, which are threats to Joe Biden, don’t get a day in court. The gun charge is just a way of getting rid of the real charges. Moreover, if Hunter is convicted, something a Democrat jury is unlikely to do, and doesn’t get a suspended sentence, Joe will pardon him.

The conservatives and Republicans don’t understand that they and President Trump, not the Bidens, are the prosecutors’ target. We now have a black quota-hire Fulton County prosecutor adding US Senators and Trump lawyers to her racketeering indictment. The ridiculous indictment is so broadly framed that anyone who expressed doubt about the election is covered by the indictment. When you give power over law to people who see law only as a weapon with which to get enemies, you destroy the rule of law. That’s what the dumbshit white liberals have done.

Read more …

“..But the question is whether such requests are evidence of a crime…”

The “Why Not” Culture: The Georgia Final Report Should Worry Us All (Turley)

With the release of the special grand jury final report in Georgia, the nation finally was able to see what foreperson Emily Kohrs last February was giggling about in interviews. Call it the “Why not?” report. Back then, when Kohrs was asked if there were recommended charges, she chuckled and said, “Can you imagine doing this for eight months and not coming out with a whole list of recommended indictments? It’s not a short list. It’s not.’” In addition to nodding at an expected Trump indictment, she added, “There may be some names on that list that you wouldn’t expect.” After all, why not? The final product did not disappoint. The members recommended 39 people for prosecution, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and former Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.).

They also included lawyers who argued for recounts or investigations into alleged election fraud. While the report expressly claims that the Fulton County District Attorney’s office did not create the list, it was the office of Fani Willis that presented the law, the evidence and potential targets to the special grand jury. During that process, these members concluded that politicians voicing support for the former president and his allegations could be criminally charged for doing so. The news that Willis did not indict Graham and others infuriated many on the left. Liberal websites were inundated with comments like “I want all the enablers charged, tried, and given long sentences as traitors to our country” and asking why the list did not include Senators Grassley, Cruz, Lee and “147 current and former members of the House, just to name a few.”

[..] The question is when advocacy or inquiries or negotiations become criminal acts. Willis’s first grand jury clearly believed that senators who called for recounts or Raffensperger’s resignation should go to prison. The comparison between their recommendations and the eventual indictment does not clearly answer how such acts are distinguishable as crimes. The same lack of limiting principle is evident in the new theory being pushed by various experts under the 14th Amendment to bar Trump from ballots on the grounds that he “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave “aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Beyond the tendentious claim that the Jan. 6 riot was an actual insurrection, they also maintain that the provision is self-executing, requiring no vote of Congress for secretaries of state to bar Trump from next year’s ballots.

Even though Trump has not been charged, let alone convicted, of insurrection (or even incitement), these advocates believe that he can be removed from the ballot because of his election claims, his inflammatory rhetoric and his delay in calling for supporters to leave the Capitol. This is one of the most dangerous legal theories to arise in decades. This week, Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes aptly described the claimed right to disqualify as a “radical” measure that would “encompass every elected office in our government — state, local, federal, and so forth.” Indeed, Democrats have called for barring not just Trump but 120 Republicans in Congress from running for office.

As with the Georgia special grand jury, the question is “Why not?” If the standard is “giving aid or comfort” to insurrectionists, then why not throw hundreds of other Republicans who supported the challenge to certification on Jan. 6 off the ballot? And while we’re at it, why not bar every lawyer who helped file claims of voting fraud from ever running for office? They all gave aid or comfort with their actions. By this reasoning, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and other Democrats could have been barred from ballots for opposing Trump’s certification in 2016 without any basis, along with leaders such as Hillary Clinton, who continued to call the election “stolen” for years. In 2016, there were also violent riots in Washington opposing Trump’s inauguration, thanks in no small part to such rhetoric. We can then have different candidates of both parties removed from ballots in every state.

Read more …

“Mr. Gaetz pushed through an agreement that the process to remove and replace the Speaker of the House could be activated by one vote. Mr. Gaetz reiterated last week that he means business. He’s the one vote.”

The Mills of the Gods (Jim Kunstler)

Do you think that more than half of the US public may be getting a little irked with “Joe Biden’s” lawfare elf, AG Merrick Garland, as he rolls one innocent J-6 protester after another into decades of hard-time for strolling through the US Capitol building — while the special counsels assigned to only a few of the Biden family crimes play hide-the-salami with due process? For all their cheap talk about “our democracy,” it’s a little scary to see what Democratic Party lawyers actually think of the legal system that is supposed to allow a society based on liberty to function fairly. Court filings last week indicate that Special Counsel David Weiss is about to indict Hunter Biden on that gun charge they have used as the joker in a three-card Monte game for going on five years.

Last time, they ran the game before Delaware federal judge Maryellen Noreika, she detected a teeny-weeny, sneaky clause in the plea agreement to a watered-down gun charge that would have granted immunity to Hunter B from any other past wrongdoing, including, of course, the entire alleged Biden family racketeering operation that had the First Son acting as prime broker and bag-man for tens of millions of dollars in bribes from foreign actors in countries less than friendly to US interests, funneled into any number of Biden family shell corporations. Judge Noreika nixed the plea agreement. Now, Mr. Weiss’s crew seems to be saying that the immunity clause is still tied to any plea deal answering a forthcoming September 29 indictment.

The move would appear to be timed to exactly the moment that a House impeachment committee would begin its inquiry into the Biden family’s moneygrubbing activities. In ordinary House committee hearings, DOJ officials like to use the excuse of “an ongoing investigation” to demur from answering questions. Merrick Garland has done this dozens of times. Will they now try to upgrade that to “an ongoing prosecution?” Could that move lead to a constitutional impasse, requiring the Supreme Court to rule? Or does a House impeachment panel enjoy special privileges of inquiry? It also appears that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FLA) intends to force the issue of opening an impeachment ASAP against “Joe Biden.” In last January’s maneuvering to seat a new Republican House majority, Mr. Gaetz pushed through an agreement that the process to remove and replace the Speaker of the House could be activated by one vote. Mr. Gaetz reiterated last week that he means business. He’s the one vote.

The argument that Republicans should leave hands-off “Joe Biden” so they can run against the feeble old grifter in 2024 is preposterous because there is no way that the “JB” can possibly run for reelection under any circumstances. It’s just another trip being laid on the American public — and one that illustrates how tragic and dangerous is the absence of an honest news media for challenging such insolent gambits. The President can barely totter into a room now without making some embarrassing pratfall or gaffe. He couldn’t possibly survive a debate, especially with all the new records of his crimes unearthed since the last time around in 2020 when he pretended to know nothing about his son’s business dealings.

Read more …

“..it is pretty clear who is responsible for 9/11 and why. Many Americans today understand what really happened..”

“It is paradoxical that President Trump is in the dock for questioning an election, while Dick Cheney and the neoconservatives, and the whore media that covered up for them, never faced a single charge.”

9/11 After 22 Years (Paul Craig Roberts)

Today is the 22nd Anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon known as 9/11. A generation of 22-year olds has grown up after 9/11, and the event probably means nothing to them. They learn that it was an attack on America like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and 9/11 disappears into history. It is unlikely that anyone under 40 is much concerned with 9/11. A 40-year old today would have been 18 in 2001 and would likely dismiss 9/11 concerns as conspiracy theory. Today’s youth are more likely to be marching in support of sexual perversion than wondering about the source and purpose of the 9/11 attack.

Over the years I have reported the mounting evidence provided by scientists and by architect Richard Gage’s Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth until the organization he created removed him at the request of the government, effectively destroying the organization. But for me the proof that 9/11 was an inside job has always been that no one in government and security agencies was ever held accountable for the worst humiliation ever inflicted on an alleged “superpower.” Instead, it took a year before the White House even agreed to an official coverup with the 9/11 Commission, another in the long line of commissions like the Warren Commission that validates the official story. If a few young Saudi Arabians had actually defeated the entire national security apparatus of the United States, the White House would have been screaming, and heads would have rolled.

The neoconservatives had just called for a “new Pearl Harbor” so they could launch their wars of destruction of Israel’s enemies in the Middle East. They immediately blamed 9/11 on “Muslim terrorists” and began their invasions that halted only when Russia blocked the neoconservatives’ overthrow of Syria. So it is pretty clear who is responsible for 9/11 and why. Many Americans today understand what really happened, but the government will never admit it. It takes decades for the truth to come out, and by then everyone affected by the event is dead, and the event becomes ancient history. It is paradoxical that President Trump is in the dock for questioning an election, while Dick Cheney and the neoconservatives, and the whore media that covered up for them, never faced a single charge.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Great Depression
https://twitter.com/i/status/1701337655886102874

 

 

Smile
https://twitter.com/i/status/1701205047835521236

 

 

Left my heart

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jul 282023
 


Andy Warhol Judy Garland 1978

 

Experts Say Expecting Kiev To Win Is Definition Of ‘Insanity’ – USA Today (RT)
Why is Ukraine’s ‘New Offensive’ Doomed? (Burunov)
US Experts Slowly Admitting Ukraine Can’t Win, Hope for Stalemate (Sp.)
How Far Will The NATO Allies Go To Fight Their Losing War In Ukraine? (Helmer)
US Military Planners to Blame for ‘Stupid’ Ukraine Counter-Offensive (Tweedie)
Biden Admin Played Vital Role in Crimean Bridge Attacks – Sy Hersh (Sp.)
Ukrainian Corruption Threatens US Assistance (RT)
The Western Elite Just Gave Itself A ‘World Peace And Liberty’ Award (Marsden)
Will Collapse of Hunter Biden Plea Deal End Up in Joe’s Impeachment? (Sp.)
Hunter Biden’s Judge Raised The One Question The White House Most Fears (FP)
Hunter’s Court Transcript Debunks Major Biden Lies Central To Bribery Scheme (TP)
New Charges Added to Trump Mar-a-Lago Case, Third Defendant Named (Sp.)
The Russia-Global South Connection: Africa as Strategic Partner (Pepe Escobar)

 

 

 

 

Macgregor


 

 

Hannity

 

 

Comer Cruz

 

 

 

 

“..Zelensky has locked himself into a position in which he “can’t win, but can’t afford to lose, either.”

Experts Say Expecting Kiev To Win Is Definition Of ‘Insanity’ – USA Today (RT)

Continuing to arm Ukraine and expecting it to defeat Russia is “strategic insanity” for Washington and other NATO members because Kiev is locked in an unwinnable stalemate with a foe that never aimed to conquer the former Soviet republic, USA Today has reported, citing multiple US foreign-policy experts. The report, published on Thursday, hints at a shifting narrative for Western media outlets, which had been touting Ukraine’s alleged battlefield successes, as well as vows by the Biden administration that Kiev must be supported with massive military and economic aid for “as long as it takes” to win the conflict with Russia.

Georgetown University professor Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, told the newspaperthat Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has begun to lose credibility – Kiev’s “main asset” – with Western benefactors. He claimed that Zelensky has locked himself into a position in which he “can’t win, but can’t afford to lose, either.” “NATO is experiencing donor fatigue and disappointment with Zelensky’s bluster,” said McFate, a US Army veteran who also has consulted for the Pentagon and the CIA. He added that continuing to send billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry to Ukraine on expectations that Zelensky’s regime can win the conflict is “the definition of strategic insanity.”

Air Force veteran Steven Myers, an entrepreneur who has advised the US State Department on foreign policy, told USA Today that a stalemate was the most likely outcome because, contrary to the Western political and media narrative, Russian President Vladimir Putin never intended a war of conquest. While NATO members have argued that Ukraine must be supported because Putin planned to conquer Kiev and move westward, Myers suggested that Russia has proven otherwise. Russian military tactics during the conflict have been “completely inconsistent with conquest,” Myers said. Rather, he added, Putin’s only real agenda was to keep Ukraine out of NATO. “Strategically, this war was lost by both sides before it started. It will end in stalemate, which I think was Putin’s intent from the get-go.”

US defense officials have continued to insist that Kiev can defeat Russia, even as Ukraine suffers heavy losses of troops and Western-supplied weaponry in a long-heralded counteroffensive that began in early June. The situation at the front is “not a stalemate,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday at the White House. He acknowledged that Ukrainian forces are “not going as far or as fast as they would like.” Kiev has now begun the “main thrust” of its counteroffensive by bringing forward thousands of troops who had been held in reserve, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified Pentagon officials. White House and Pentagon officials are “watching the increased activity with keen interest,” the newspaper said, adding that one senior aide called Kiev’s latest push “the big test.”

However, Steven Myers told USA Today that Western and Ukrainian leaders have made vows on which they can’t possibly deliver. “President Biden, NATO and Zelensky have trapped themselves in a Catch 22 of their own making – unable to deliver on unrealistic expectations they created,” he said. Ukrainian forces are suffering casualties at ten times the rate of the Russian military as they press forward with their “failed”counteroffensive, Putin has said. He reported on Sunday that more than 26,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed since their counteroffensive began. Russian units also have destroyed dozens of Western-supplied tanks and other armored vehicles.

Read more …

“..Ukraine’s “new counteroffensive” as “the fruit of creativity of the US and the UK’s joint headquarters.”

Why is Ukraine’s ‘New Offensive’ Doomed? (Burunov)

Kiev’s alleged second stage of the counteroffensive is nothing but a propaganda trick by the West to demonstrate that Kiev is still able to carry out certain missions, Moscow-based military expert and retired Russian Army colonel Anatoly Matviychuk told Sputnik. All attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) to re-launch their counteroffensive have been halted and the enemy has been pushed back, suffering heavy losses, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Speaking at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, he said that during the UAF’s latest attack, more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and that Russian forces had destroyed at least 26 enemy tanks. He added that 60% of the UAF’s military hardware had already been obliterated during the renewed hostilities.

According to him, “the enemy was not successful in any of the directions of firefight.” The Russian president spoke after a US newspaper reported about UAF forces launching “the main thrust of its counteroffensive” as they threw in “thousands of troops held in reserve, many of them Western-trained and equipped.” The way Western media are trumpeting about this so-called new offensive indicates “a provocative propaganda trick to show that Ukraine can still perform some tasks,” Anatoly Matviychuk said. Dwelling on whether there is “any prospect” related to Ukraine’s “new offensive,” the expert said that he remains “skeptical,” first of all due to the UAF’s “very low system of fire support for troops.”

“Secondly is the complete absence of the UAF’s presence in the air, with the Russian Air Force controlling the enemy throughout the entire depth of its operational area. I think that this ‘offensive’ may have some temporary tactical successes … but I do not foresee any changes at the frontline. And everything will most likely end the way Ukraine’s ‘first’ advance wrapped up,” he pointed out. When asked why the UAF picked the Zaporozhye direction for the current phase of its counteroffensive, Matviychuk said that it is the area where “military and political interests intersect.” According to the Russian expert, if it captured the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the UAF could imitate a possible radioactive contamination of the area and demand that Russia withdraw its troops from there and demilitarize the area, allegedly in order to protect Europe from a radioactive cloud.

“Also, this area directly leads to Crimea via the shortest route. The most interesting thing is that there are many English-speaking military personnel in the UAF being spotted in this area, including advisers, instructors, and even the UK army’s ‘special air service’”, Matviychuk noted, describing Ukraine’s “new counteroffensive” as “the fruit of creativity of the US and the UK’s joint headquarters.” He explained that Russian forces would tackle the UAF with the help of “mobile reserves” that “have been created in the form of tanks, combat vehicles, infantry, and armored personnel carriers.” “Most importantly, our aviation has practically shifted to systematic combat actions in the entire Russian special military operation zone … That is, we are currently conducting a so-called active defense to weaken the enemy by launching attacks,” the expert concluded.

Read more …

A stalemate is when both parties can’t move…

US Experts Slowly Admitting Ukraine Can’t Win, Hope for Stalemate (Sp.)

Ukraine has been throwing wave after wave of men and equipment at Russia’s defensive lines, but has yet to make any significant gains. This has seemingly caused a shift in the Western narrative regarding the conflict. US media has begun to shift gears and acknowledge the Ukraine conflict is more likely to not be the win Western leadership once touted, with one outlet quoting experts openly admitting Ukraine cannot defeat Russia on the battlefield, and that Russia never planned to conquer Ukraine or move West after the special military operation. Steven Myers, an Air Force veteran and former adviser to the State Department told mainstream media that Russia’s tactics have been “completely inconsistent with conquest,” countering Western media and governments’ narrative that alleged Russia would attack other European nations after the special operation.

Myers added that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s only goal was to keep Ukraine out of NATO. “Strategically, this war was lost by both sides before it started. It will end in stalemate, which I now think was Putin’s intent from the get-go,” Myers said. Myers also pointed to unrealistic expectations set by NATO, the US and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about what their tactics could achieve. Zelensky has consistently promised to return Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders, despite the situation on the ground making that a near impossibility. “President Biden, NATO and Zelensky have trapped themselves in a Catch 22 of their own making – unable to deliver on unrealistic expectations they created,” Meyers said. It should be noted that Meyers called for mediation to end the conflict in February, writing then that “the situation is desperate” for Ukraine, and that it was time to “end this tragedy.”

However, the outlet also talked to Sean McFate, a professor of strategy at the National Defense University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow of the notoriously pro-war Atlantic Council think tank. But even McFate predicted Ukraine would be unable to expel Russia from its former territories, admitting Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has been floundering” and that “NATO is experiencing donor fatigue and disappointment with Zelensky’s bluster.” A feat that is causing the former comedian-turned-president to lose his credibility with his NATO allies, which he called “Ukraine’s main asset.” That bluster, McFate said, has put Zelensky “in a box. He can’t win but he can’t afford to lose either.” He added that providing more weapons to Ukraine and expecting them to win is “the definition of insanity.”

The narrative in the West has so far been that Ukraine is winning the conflict, that Russia’s Army is on the verge of collapse and that a Ukrainian breakthrough is just around the corner. But after months of the same claims, the narrative appears to be shifting significantly, especially after it became apparent that Ukraine’s much-hyped counteroffensive would not provide the gains that its Western benefactors have awaited. US officials, however, appear to be keeping a brave face despite Ukraine’s failures. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby earlier insisted the front has not devolved into a stalemate and said Ukrainian forces were “moving.” However, even he admitted that they are “not going as far, or as fast, as they would like.”

Putin

Read more …

“..if the Poles move east, the Germans will be motivated to move east as well, in order to recover the Prussian territories Germany lost in its defeat and capitulation at the end of World War II. ”

How Far Will The NATO Allies Go To Fight Their Losing War In Ukraine? (Helmer)

When the Ukrainian and NATO forces have lost their war in eastern Ukraine by Christmas, what will happen to the rump of western Ukraine? The Russian warning, issued last Friday at the Security Council by President Vladimir Putin, is that the Russian Army will defend western Ukraine, known as Galicia, from any attempt at intervention by Polish forces under either a NATO “peacekeeping” formula, or a bilateral defence arrangement between the Kiev regime and Warsaw to slip Galicia under NATO Article Five protection. Putin’s warning was concrete, explicit, geographically limited. It applied to the current western borders of the Ukraine, the eastern border of Poland, and the Polish-Belarus border. “I would also like to remind you what Poland’s aggressive policy led to.

It led to the national tragedy of 1939, when Poland’s Western allies threw it to the German wolf, the German military machine. Poland actually lost its independence and statehood, which were only restored thanks in a large measure to the Soviet Union. It was also thanks to the Soviet Union and thanks to Stalin’s position that Poland acquired substantial territory in the west, German territory. It is a fact that Poland’s western lands are a gift from Stalin. Have our Warsaw friends forgotten this? We will remind them.” The Warsaw friends weren’t the only audience Putin intended. His warning is also addressed to the Berlin friends, the Baltic friends, the Paris, Brussels, and Budapest friends, and of course, the Washington friends.

In December 2021, they were offered the terms of mutual security and non-aggression in Europe in treaties for the US and NATO tabled by the Russian Foreign Ministry. They were dismissed in diplomatic negotiations lasting less than a month. By Christmas of this year, as Putin has just pointed out, the Ukrainian army and the NATO forces will have expended their capacities to continue the fight. “The whole world sees that the vaunted Western, supposedly invulnerable, military equipment is on fire”, he added. What can happen next is “an extremely dangerous game, and the authors of such plans should think about the consequences.” This is a warning that if the Poles move east, the Germans will be motivated to move east as well, in order to recover the Prussian territories Germany lost in its defeat and capitulation at the end of World War II.

Hungary too will be motivated to change its northeastern border in order to rescue the ethnic Hungarian population of Transcarpathia in southwest Ukraine. In short, Putin was announcing that “Stalin’s gift”, as he called it, was the stability of the post-1945 territorial settlement. Now, in defeating NATO’s attempt to destroy the Russians east of Kiev, the Russians are warning afresh that if NATO attempts to change its defence lines west of Kiev, the Russian army will dictate an entirely new territorial settlement in which NATO will be an even bigger loser of military capacity and territorial extension than the non-aggression treaties of December 17, 2021, offered. The 1990 promise of not one inch eastward for NATO is reversing by one thousand kilometres westward.

Read more …

“politicians in uniform” looking out for lucrative directorships in the big arms firms..”

US Military Planners to Blame for ‘Stupid’ Ukraine Counter-Offensive (Tweedie)

NATO’s proxy conflict with Russia in Ukraine has reached crisis point after the much-hyped southern offensive failed to break through Russian lines. Retired US diplomat and former Republican Senate foreign policy adviser Jim Jatras said Washington politicians and Pentagon leaders cared little for those dying at the front. US military strategists are guilty of “criminal” incompetence in their plan for Ukraine’s disastrous offensive, a Washington advisor has said. According to the Russian ministry of Defence, Ukrainian forces have taken tens of thousands of casualties and lost around 1,250 tanks and other armoured vehicles — including the latest US and German models — more than 400 artillery pieces and more than two dozen jet aircraft and helicopters in the first few weeks of their attempt to cut off Crimea from the Russian mainland.

Russian President Vladimir Putin judged that those losses had led to “no success.” US military pundits have pointed out that the Pentagon would never have launched such a military campaign without first gaining air superiority — which they admit Ukraine is incapable of. Retired diplomat Jim Jatras told Sputnik that the US-devised plan for Ukraine’s southern offensive was not only “stupid” but “criminal.” “These people sent the Ukrainian forces into this meat grinder, knowing exactly what the result was going to be,” Jatras charged. “The only thing I can think of is they had some idea they could use this as some kind of a jujitsu to justify a direct military intervention of perhaps close air forces in Ukraine. That doesn’t seem to be on the cards either, now.” Russian president Vladimir Putin has condemned the US and other NATO nations for fighting a proxy conflict with Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

“This disregard for life is really, truly criminal,” Jatras said. “I’m a little bit surprised that Ukrainians are still willing to do the powerlessness of their so-called supporters. You really wonder at what point Ukrainian soldiers start deciding that they’re safer trying to shoot their officers than trying to shoot the Russians, because they just these men to just keep going to their deaths.” The Washington adviser drew a distinction between real military leaders and the “politicians in uniform” looking out for lucrative directorships in the big arms firms. But he rejected the idea that US President Joe Biden had been forced into the scheme of using Ukraine as a proxy belligerent against Russia by the Military-Industrial Complex.

“I don’t think Joe Biden is being steamrolled. I think he is corrupt up to his eyeballs, including corruption from Ukraine, and he doesn’t care any more than the rest of them,” Jatras argued. Biden is “more than willing to go through the motions and send these people to their deaths and keep enriching all of the interests.” The US mainstream media have been complicit in beating the drum for confrontation with Russia in Ukraine. “The Wall Street Journal carries waters for the industries we’re talking about. And the blood of people, especially foreigners, doesn’t matter that much to them,” Jatras noted. “The question is, where do they go from here? I think that we are really nearing a kind of a double inflection point — do these people find some way to back out of this thing?”

Read more …

“What will Putin do? We don’t think that far. Our national strategy is that Zelensky can do whatever he wants to do. There’s no adult supervision.”

Biden Admin Played Vital Role in Crimean Bridge Attacks – Sy Hersh (Sp.)

The Biden Administration played a vital role in both recent deadly attacks on the Crimean Bridge, providing Ukraine with the necessary technology, US journalist Seymour Hersh reported on Thursday, citing a US official.v “Of course it was our technology,” the US official was quoted by Hersh as saying. “The drone was remotely guided and half submerged—like a torpedo.” When Hersh asked if there was any thought before the bridge attacks about the possibility of Russia’s retaliation, the official responded with “What will Putin do? We don’t think that far. Our national strategy is that Zelensky can do whatever he wants to do. There’s no adult supervision.” On October 8, 2022, a car detonated on the Crimean Bridge, which connects the Crimean Peninsula with Russia’s mainland. Five people, including the driver of the truck, were killed. The bridge itself was seriously damaged.

On July 17, a submersible drone carried out another attack on the Crimean Bridge, killing a woman and a man and wounding their teenage daughter. In addition, the journalist reported that Ukraine shipped drugs and Russian oil under the cover of the UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Deal, an accord that was meant to bolster global food security. “Odessa’s exports included illegal stuff like drugs and the oil that Ukraine was getting from Russia,” according to the US official quoted by Hersh. nRussia refused to extend the Black Sea deal last week, following its long-time criticism of the UN’s failure to facilitate its own grain and fertilizer exports as was required under the agreement.

The decision also came following the July 17 attack on the Crimean bridge with marine surface drones, which killed a couple who were driving across when the blast occurred and wounded their teen daughter. According to the correspondent, the US and Ukrainian military now abstain from making forecasts regarding future success in the counteroffensive because Russia has a clear advantage on the battlefield. “The American and Ukrainian military are no longer making any predictions,” the US official was quoted by Hersh as saying. “The Ukrainian army has not gotten past the first of three Russian defense lines. Every mine the Ukrainians dig up is replenished at night by the Russians.”

The reality, the interlocutor clarified, “is that the balance of power in the war is settled. Putin has what he wants.” Ukraine is not capable of returning Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and the Zaporozhye Region, the official stressed, while Volodymyr Zelensky has “no plan, except to hang on,” the interviewee observed. Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in early June, trying to break through the defense lines of the Russian armed forces in the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions. Their attempts have been unsuccessful and resulted in heavy losses in armored equipment and manpower of Kiev’s forces, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Read more …

They all like this as opaque as can be.

Ukrainian Corruption Threatens US Assistance (RT)

The US is struggling to keep track of billions of dollars it has sent to Kiev since February 2022, the effectiveness of which may be reduced by government and private corruption in Ukraine. This was the most recent finding of the US State Department’s Office of the Inspector General. The redacted version of the State Department OIG report, published this week, notes that “corruption in the Ukrainian government and private sector poses risks to the effectiveness of US foreign assistance over the longer run.” Concerns about corruption are well-documented, the OIG adds, and the State Department “intends to develop a plan to address anti-corruption in connection with assistance to Ukraine, including for reconstruction.”

According to the report, the US Congress has appropriated more than $113.4 billion for Ukraine since the hostilities with Russia escalated last year. The State Department has been responsible for about $31 billion, of which $22.9 billion was marked “direct budget support” for the Ukrainian government. The OIG review focused on just these funds, administered by the Office of the Coordinator of US Assistance to Europe and Eurasia (EUR/ACE), and not the tens of billions in military aid that went through the Pentagon. Among the report’s revelations was that “all foreign assistance” to Ukraine is ultimately channeled through the Assistance Coordinator (ACOORD) team at the US embassy in Kiev, which apparently consists of just two people – described as a “Senior Foreign Service officer and a locally employed staff member.”

The embassy’s Integrated Country Strategy (ICS) was last updated in 2018. To make up for it, the EUR/ACE has drafted several planning documents approved by the National Security Council. However, each of them “lacked some or all” of the elements required by internal rules, including goals and objectives “with clear desired results and associated performance indicators.” The documents also “did not set forth an overarching strategy for Ukraine or assign responsibility for achieving goals.” The limited number of embassy staff and Ukraine’s travel restrictions have created “significant challenges in monitoring programs,” the OIG said. Most of the monitoring is done remotely, using online protocols adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic.

One office has created a smartphone app to do photo verification of equipment deliveries. Another contracted with an American NGO to “monitor and verify demining operations.” The OIG inspectors “largely conducted the review remotely” between mid-October 2022 and early March 2023. President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly pledged to support the government in Kiev “for as long as it takes” to win the “war” against Russia. Earlier this month, the White House opposed a proposal by congressional Republicans to set up an independent special inspector for Ukraine aid, arguing that the Pentagon inspector general and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) were already working to “ensure accountability.”

Read more …

Fits the EU.

The Western Elite Just Gave Itself A ‘World Peace And Liberty’ Award (Marsden)

Get a load of who won – and presented – a new honor that’s modestly being compared to the Nobel Peace Prize. If you haven’t heard of the World Law Foundation non-profit organization, you could be forgiven. But despite only existing since 2019, it has already created an award described by the Western press as nothing less than the “judicial equivalent” of the world’s top award for promoting peace. Wonder where they got that idea, if not from the organization itself. Can anyone just create a think tank and put it in charge of an award branded as the latest version of the Nobel Peace Prize? Good luck with that – unless, of course, your board is loaded up with establishment heavyweights – in which case, people just tell themselves that it must be legit since all these VIPs wouldn’t otherwise be involved.

So a few days ago, the humble folks of the World Law Foundation gathered at the United Nations in New York for the World Law Congress. One of the big items on the agenda was to hand out this year’s World Peace and Liberty Award to none other than European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, unelected de facto Queen of Europe, who accepted it on behalf of the commission. Wow, didn’t see that one coming. Particularly with a former EU commissioner being the vice president of the group’s board, which also includes former Polish and French prime ministers, former Slovenian and Latvian presidents, a former EU vice president, and various Western establishment corporate figures, academics, and jurists.

You’d think that the same Von der Leyen-led EU Commission would have been a controversial candidate for a peace award given that it’s constantly sided with Washington’s military interventionism or at least have done little to nothing to stop it, and even led the way in the case of Libyan regime change. Most recently, the EU had a chance to stop the conflict in Ukraine before it even started by demanding Kiev’s adherence to the Minsk agreements and rejecting the West’s arming and training of anti-Russian fighters on the border with Russia.

“For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack,” von der Leyen said last year, calling it “a watershed moment.” Know what else is a watershed moment? Giving a peace award to someone whose knee-jerk reaction to armed conflict was to flood the zone with even more weapons. Then again, maybe the Nobel Peace Prize is indeed the right comparison, given that it was prematurely awarded to former US President Barack Obama even before he could order more bombing in Africa and the Middle East.

[..] These World Peace and Liberty folks were apparently like, “Who could we get to present this that embodies freedom and peace? Hey, how about that dude in Canada who did the Freedom Convoy crackdown and whose country helped train the Azov neo-Nazis to wage war against Russia then tried to hide it from the press to avoid embarrassment?” Enter Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Nothing says freedom like invoking a martial law-style crackdown over a bunch of honking truckers protesting against the two-tier society fostered by Trudeau’s authoritarian Covid mandates – and then blocking their bank accounts as a dissuasion technique. “Brexit left many wondering if the union would continue to hold strong. Euroskepticism was on the rise. And protectionism and authoritarianism were becoming more prevalent,” Trudeau said, presumably as a newly-minted authority on authoritarianism, having just recently dabbled in it himself.

Read more …

“Archer has already received threats prior to the scheduled testimony.” Which is Monday, not today.

Will Collapse of Hunter Biden Plea Deal End Up in Joe’s Impeachment? (Sp.)

The collapse of first son Hunter Biden’s plea deal could have various implications, including the possibility of an impeachment inquiry, according to some US legal observers. Hunter Biden’s plea agreement hearing on Wednesday went not quite as well as the US president’s son apparently expected: Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the deal and he wound up submitting a not guilty plea. At the root of Noreika’s bewilderment was the fact that the Justice Department agreed to grant Hunter immunity even though its investigation into the commander-in-chief’s son remained ongoing, according to US conservative media. In other words, the DoJ appeared to be ready to forgive Hunter’s other sins – not just the latest tax and gun-related charges. “Is this even constitutional?” Noreika asked, ordering those involved in the deal to file briefs explaining its structure.

Commenting on the abrupt collapse of the much-discussed plea deal, renowned legal scholar Jonathan Turley suggested it could have political implications for Joe Biden’s 2024 election bid. “This deal was, in my view, almost laughable,” Turley told a US broadcaster on Wednesday. The IRS whistleblowers just a week ago told Congress that there was an opportunity for the Department of Justice to extend the statute of limitations on the 2014 and 2015 tax matters. “That’s the Burisma issue, those are Ukraine questions,” said Turley. “And, according to the whistleblowers, the Department of Justice had that opportunity and let them expire. Why?” The legal expert anticipates these questions could be raised more frequently, and that they may expose any other potential crimes committed by Hunter Biden.

In fact, chief among them would be suspected violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Earlier, Turley wrote on his blog that the DoJ somehow overlooked Hunter acting as a de facto unregistered foreign agent, an offense Trump-era associate Paul Manafort was promptly accused of. It’s believed Hunter Biden likely violated FARA rules while striking business deals with foreign entities, including in China, Romania and Ukraine during and after his father’s vice presidency. Meanwhile, Devon Archer, Hunter’s longtime former business partner, is due to give a closed-door testimony on Monday before congressional lawmakers. It’s speculated Archer may spill the beans on Joe Biden’s involvement with his son’s business deals prior to assuming the presidency. Reportedly, Archer has already received threats prior to the scheduled testimony.

Read more …

The probe is closed, but we can’t give you the docs, because the probe is ongoing.

Hunter Biden’s Judge Raised The One Question The White House Most Fears (FP)

Watch as Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley reveals why Democrats are now panicking over Hunter Biden, and the question of whether he is, or is not, a foreign agent. “I think part of the problem is they really did want to cap out the case.” “The Department of Justice wanted to cap this investigation. But they didn’t want to say that it was now over.” “From the very beginning, the Hunter Biden team said this is a close-out plea agreement. There would be nothing left to investigate.” “But the Department of Justice is telling Congress we’re not going to give you these witnesses or these documents because there’s an ongoing investigation. “You can’t do both things when a judge is asking you to specifically address whether this is a close-out or a continuing investigation…”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1684435341451870209

“This is a big problem. This was all supposed to be scripted. It was all supposed to be easy. And now it is off script and it is anything but easy. “Because the judge just raised the one charge that the White House most fears which is the chance that Hunter was a foreign agent. And if he was a foreign agent, the question is foreign agent for who and for what purpose?” “The president was that purpose. If you’re influence peddling, it’s influence over the president. So if you go for FARA, it’s going to bring all of this stuff in.” “Including some of these tax accounts for 2014 and 15 that the Department of Justice allowed to run, allowed the statute of limitations to expire.” “All of that can get boot strapped into a FARA issue. The whole purpose of this deal is collapsing as we’re watching it. And it’s taken Washington by utter surprise. I was on the Hill talking with members and everyone was floored.”

Read more …

FARA.

Hunter’s Court Transcript Debunks Major Biden Lies Central To Bribery Scheme (TP)

Chris Clark, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, made several admissions in court that effectively debunked major lies that Joe Biden told the public about his family’s income from foreign countries according to Breitbart News. In 2020, Joe Biden publicly asserted on a debate stage with President Donald Trump that “My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China…The only guy who made money from China is this guy [Donald Trump]. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.” This comment has now come back to haunt Joe Biden as Clark informed the court that Hunter Biden made over $1 millions in overseas business transactions and with $664,000 alone coming from CEFC, a company linked to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s intelligence agency.

The court transcript reveals that Biden’s lawyer said, “During calendar year 2017, Biden earned substantial income, including: just under $1 million from a company he formed with the CEO of a Chinese business conglomerate [BHR Partners]; $666,666 from his domestic business interests; approximately $664,000 from a Chinese infrastructure investment company [CEFC].” The topic of Hunter Biden’s money from Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy business, also came up in court. Mr. Clark told the court that “From 2017 to 12 2019, he [Hunter] served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and a Chinese private equity fund. He further negotiated and executed contracts for business and legal services that paid millions of dollars of compensation to him and/or his domestic corporations, Owasco, PC and Owasco, LLC. Through at least early 2017, he also was employed by a prestigious multi-national law firm in an ‘of counsel’ capacity. For this work, he earned substantial income, totaling more than $2.3 million in 2017 and $2.1 million in 2018.”

Biden’s income from Burisma Holdings is of particular interest as this is the entity that allegedly bribed Joe Biden when he was Vice President to shut down investigations into the company by Ukrainian prosecutors in exchange for a $10 million bribe. $5 million went to Joe Biden and the other $5 million went to Hunter Biden. So far no admission has been by Hunter Biden about this item. Mr. Clark also acknowledged other foreign revenue streams for Hunter Biden such as Romania. The Biden family is under congressional investigation for acting as a conduit for Joe Biden’s alleged influence-peddling schemes. With the unearthing of an FBI memo detailing allegations of bribery by the aforementioned Ukrainian energy company, calls to impeach the president have become more vocal and have gained greater credence. Even Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) commented that he would be looking into it.

Read more …

The cleaning lady?

New Charges Added to Trump Mar-a-Lago Case, Third Defendant Named (Sp.)

Former US President Donald Trump and two others are facing new charges as part of US special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents at the former president’s Florida residence. A superseding indictment attached to the ongoing case added four charges to an earlier complaint and named Carlos De Oliveira, who reportedly serves as the head of maintenance at Mar-a-Lago, as a third defendant. Both Trump and aide Walt Nauta were hit with two new obstruction charges over efforts to allegedly erase surveillance footage from the summer of 2022 captured at Trump’s Florida home. De Oliveria was slapped with false statements and representations over an interview with federal agents in January 2023. A summons for De Oliveria requires him to appear before a federal court on July 31.


The new defendant allegedly helped Nauta move 30 boxes with classified documents around Mar-a-Lago following the Justice Department’s first subpoena against Trump in May, US media reported. Trump was indicted in June on 37 charges related to the mishandling of classified documents, including those the FBI uncovered in a raid of his Florida home. The former president pleaded not guilty to the charges, and has condemned the offenses as a politically-driven attack intended to shutter his 2024 election bid. According to the indictment, the classified documents Trump stored in boxes at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida included information about defense and weapons capabilities of both the US and foreign countries, US nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the US and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.

Read more …

Meanwhile, Putin is building.

The Russia-Global South Connection: Africa as Strategic Partner (Pepe Escobar)

The Russian-African Conference of the Valdai Club functioned like a sort of final expert watch synchronization in the run-up to St. Petersburg. The first session was particularly relevant. That came after the publication of a comprehensive analysis by President Putin of Russia-Africa relations, with a special emphasis on the recently collapsed grain deal involving the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine. Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Russian Federation Council, has stressed how “Ukraine, Washington and NATO were interested in the grain corridor for sabotage”. In his Op-Ed, Putin explained how, “for almost a year, a total of 32.8 million tons of cargo were exported from Ukraine under the ‘deal’, of which more than 70% went to high-and above-middle-income countries, including the European Union, while countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, as well as Yemen and Afghanistan accounted for less than 3% of the total volume – less than one million tons.”

So that was one of the key reasons for Russia to leave the grain deal. Moscow published a list of requirements which would need to be fulfilled for Russia to reinstate it. Among them: a real, practical end to sanctions on Russian grain and fertilizers shipped to world markets; no more obstacles for banks and financial institutions; no more restrictions on charter of ships and insurance – that means clean logistics for all food supplies; restoration of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline. And a particularly crucial item: the restoration of “the original humanitarian nature of the grain deal.” There’s no way the collective West subjected to the Straussian neocon psychos who control US foreign policy will fulfill all or even some of these conditions. So Russia, by itself, will offer grain and fertilizers free of charge for the poorest nations and contracts for grain supply at normal commercial terms for the others. Supply is guaranteed: Moscow had the biggest grain harvest ever during this season.

This is all about solidarity. At the Valdai session, a key discussion was around the importance of solidarity in the struggle against neo-colonialism and for global equality and justice. Oleg Ozerov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, and Head of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, stressed how European “former” partners persist on the one-way track of shifting blame to Russia as Africa is “acquiring agency” and “denying neo-colonialism.” Ozerov mentioned how “France-Afrique is collapsing – and Russia is not behind it. Russia is ensuring that Africa acts as one of the powers of the multipolar world”, as “a member of the G20 and present in the UN Security Council.” Moreover, Moscow is interested to expand Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) free trade deals towards Africa.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Ice Cube race
https://twitter.com/i/status/1684545169301856256

 

 

 

 

Kings

 

 

All kinds
https://twitter.com/i/status/1684270012117180431

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Jul 202023
 


Andy Warhol Grace Kelly 1984

 

RFK Jr’s Racist, Antisemitic And Xenophobic Views Go Back Decades (G.)
Anything Anything Anything To Avoid Debating RFK Jr. (Patrick Lawrence)
RFK Jr. Floats Plan to Back Dollar With Bitcoin, Gold (Tweedie)
Why the Ukraine Conflict Will Unravel NATO and Biden (Desai)
West Ready To Turn Blind Eye To Any Crimes Of Kiev – Kremlin (TASS)
How Much Of The $185 Billion Given By The West To Ukraine Was Stolen? (Trenin)
Mosquitoes And Pinpricks: Warmaking As Public Relations (Helmer)
World Is Getting Tired Of Ukraine Conflict – Lula (RT)
West Not Prepared For Conflict With China – FT (RT)
The Latest Racist Attacks on Clarence Thomas (Turley)
Trump Could Face ‘Seditious Conspiracy’ Charge in Jan. 6 Probe (ET)
Europe to See ‘Devastating Migration Crisis’ After Grain Deal Suspension (Sp.)
Julian Assange Is ‘Dangerously Close’ to Extradition (Cohn)

 

 


One of these songs got removed because the lyrics were “too offensive” the other song was number 1 on billboard….

 

 

Donalds
https://twitter.com/i/status/1681776860567314434

 

 

FD-1023
https://twitter.com/i/status/1681816534212026368

 

 

MTG

 

 

Big guy

 

 

Ziegler

Joseph Ziegler #IRSwhistleblower:
Money IRS found that was paid to Hunter Biden and associates from 2014-2019:
From Romania $3.1 million
CEFC subsidiary: $3m
Hudson West III [CEFC]: $3.7m
Burisma $6.5m
Total foreign income streams: $17m

 

 

 

 

Macgregor
https://twitter.com/i/status/1681822628502200320

 

 

Putin:

Russia showed miracles of patience, constantly extending the grain deal;
Failure to fulfill obligations to the Russian Federation under the grain deal is impudence and impudence;
The West has done everything to derail the grain deal;
The West once pushed Africa into the abyss of wars, famine and poverty, and now continues its neo-colonial policy;
The West obstructs even the free transfer of fertilizers by Russia to the poorest countries;
The grain deal resulted in direct losses for Russian farmers in the amount of $1.2 billion;
Russia is ready to replace Ukrainian grain on the world market both on a gratuitous and commercial basis;
Putin confirmed the readiness of the Russian Federation to return to the grain deal if the obstacles to its agricultural exports are removed;
Putin called the resumption of work of the Togliati-Odessa ammonia pipeline one of the conditions for the resumption of the grain deal;
The West completely “emasculated and perverted” the originally humanitarian essence of the grain deal, made it an instrument of enrichment for speculators;
To resume the grain deal, it is necessary to return its humanitarian essence;
Russia will immediately return to the grain deal if all its conditions are met.

 

 

 

 

Wanna know how the US elections will be narrated? Look no further. And this is the Guardian, not even American. No shame, no balance. And it isn’t even Luke Harding. Please read the whole article.

RFK Jr’s Racist, Antisemitic And Xenophobic Views Go Back Decades (G.)

Robert Kennedy Jr, a long-shot Democratic candidate for US president, has a long history of racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, and should be denied a national platform, according to a damning report seen by the Guardian. Kennedy, who provoked anger last week when he was filmed falsely suggesting that the coronavirus could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, is due to testify at the US Capitol in Washington on Thursday. The Congressional Integrity Project, a political watchdog, called for Republicans to disinvite Kennedy after releasing a report that details his meetings with and promotion of racists, antisemites and extremist conspiracy theorists. “Kennedy embraces virtually every conspiracy theory in existence,” the report states.

“His horrific antisemitic and xenophobic views are simply beyond the pale, and he has frequently met with and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theorists. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine conspiracies go back decades and have had deadly real world consequences.” Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, is running against Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary and has drawn big and enthusiastic crowds and polled as high as 20%. But the Project’s document argues that Kennedy’s recent comments about Jewish and Chinese people, which were quickly hailed by neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers as “100% correct”, were not an aberration but fitted a long pattern. Earlier this summer Kennedy touted a meeting with Ice Cube, a rapper who issued bizarre antisemitic tweets, and publicly defended musician Roger Waters, who was embroiled in controversy after donning a costume intended to evoke Nazi attire at a concert in Germany.

The report says Kennedy has also repeatedly promoted and praised fringe online broadcaster James Corbett, a Sandy Hook and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who has claimed that “Hitler and the Nazis were 100% completely and utterly set up”. Kennedy has often allied himself with the National of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, who regularly unleashed tirades about alleged Jewish control of media and government. Kennedy met Farrakhan at his Chicago home in 2015, with Farrakhan later tweeting that they discussed “a vaccine that is designed to affect Black males”.

The Project details how Kennedy himself has frequently invoked Nazi Germany when pushing debunked theories about vaccines. He put out a video that showed the infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci with a moustache reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and used the word “holocaust” to describe children he believes were hurt by vaccines in 2015.

Read more …

“..a man who knows who is doing what to develop bioweapons and says so with no apparent fear or favor… and we must conclude he hates Jews.”

Anything Anything Anything To Avoid Debating RFK Jr. (Patrick Lawrence)

The Post had the integrity to publish a 1–minute 47–second video—a snippet or the whole is not clear—that either Levine or a colleague recorded during the lunch. I cannot comment on the decisive question concerning the breaking of wind at Tony’s, but nothing raucous goes on in the video, and what Levine chose to quote in his copy was (1) a provocative misrepresentation of Kennedy’s point and (2) left out the most startling part of his comments. [..] To the first point, anyone who finds it odd for someone to state that diseases strike some groups of people more severely than others is simply too prone to malign suggestion to make his or her way in our propagandized world. It has been understood for who knows how long that sickle-cell anemia strikes hardest in Black and Latin American communities, to take one common example.

Covid–19 is no different. The Mayo Clinic has a report on its website analyzing the relative vulnerabilities of various racial and ethnic groups to Covid–19 infections. As to Kennedy’s reference to European Jews and the Chinese, he clarified subsequent to the lunch that this relied on a study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic indicating that some ethnic and racial groups, among them Ashkenazi Jews, were less susceptible to the Covid–19 virus than other groups, among which are Blacks. This—the blood simmers as I write this sentence—is the basis of the charge that R.F.K. Jr. displayed anti–Semitic tendencies while consuming his pasta with white clam sauce at Tony’s earlier this month. Here is the portion of Kennedy’s recorded remarks I found revelatory. In it, he reiterates that scientific studies show Caucasians and Blacks to be most vulnerable to Covid–19 infection and European Jews and Chinese are least vulnerable, “because of the genetic structures, the genetic differentials among different races:”

“And we need to talk about bioweapons. I know a lot about bioweapons because I’ve been doing a book on them for the past two and a half years. And… the technology we now have… we’ve put hundreds of millions of dollars into ethnically targeted microbes. The Chinese have done the same thing…. We know the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing ethnically targeted bioweapons, and we are developing ethnic bioweapons. That’s what all those labs in the Ukraine are about. They’re collecting Russian DNA. They’re collecting Chinese DNA so they can target people by race.”

Why aren’t our mainstream media picking up on this interesting, highly consequential story? Believe me, they will go nowhere near the question of American-made bioweapons and those three dozen laboratories in Ukraine. Nah, the fantasies of a conspiracy theorist. We have a man who has spent his professional life in the precincts of science, a man who researched the topic of ethnically targeted bioweapons for two-plus years and is writing a book about them, a man who is plainly conversant with the pertinent scientific vocabulary and the theories expressed therein, a man who knows who is doing what to develop bioweapons and says so with no apparent fear or favor… and we must conclude he hates Jews.

Read more …

“Fiat currency was invented to fund wars..”

RFK Jr. Floats Plan to Back Dollar With Bitcoin, Gold (Tweedie)

US presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he will underpin the dollar with more solid assets — including Bitcoin. Kennedy, the nephew of assassinated president John F. Kennedy, is mounting an outsider challenge to incumbent Joe Biden for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the 2024 election. Speaking at an event organised by the Heal-the-Divide political action committee (PAC) on Tuesday, Kennedy outlined some unorthodox ideas for shoring up the value of Treasury bills, government-issued short-term investment securities. “My plan would be to start very, very small, perhaps one percent of issued T-bills would be backed by hard currency, by gold, silver platinum or Bitcoin,” Kennedy said.

Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency on the market since its launch in 2009 by an enigmatic developer or developers known as Satoshi Nakamoto, is not backed by gold reserves or a national economy and continues to fluctuate wildly in value. However, its creators have set a final limit on how many of the virtual ‘crypto coins’ will be in circulation, preventing their debasement. “Backing dollars and US debt obligations with hard assets could help restore strength back to the dollar, rein in inflation and usher in a new era of American financial stability, peace and prosperity,” the Democrat argued. He also made a rare argument against the use of Fiat money — currencies not backed by gold or other commodities — as the the greenback has been since 1971 when president Richard Nixon took it off the Gold Standard.

Kennedy’s late uncle JFK “understood the importance of hard currency and the dangers of having pure fiat currency with no other option,” he said. “He understood the relationship between fiat currency and war … and also these giant aggregations of wealth and the unbalance, the disparities in wealth that are the ultimate yield of every fiat currency.” He also linked the shift to Fiat currency, with the option of inflationary ‘quantitative easing’ to America’s endless series of imperialist conflicts overseas. “Fiat currency was invented to fund wars,” Kennedy stressed. “I like base currencies because they make it more difficult, you have to go to the public. You can’t just print money to fund the war and tax the public through the hidden tax of inflation.”

Read more …

“Europe can thank its stars that the critical aid and immense sacrifices of Soviet and Chinese forces ensured victory in the Second World War..”:

Why the Ukraine Conflict Will Unravel NATO and Biden (Desai)

Always a work-in-progress, NATO unity has got more difficult as US power has declined. In recent decades, its chief glue has been US military power. If it too ceases to bind – as is clear from the string of military failures culminating in the humiliating exit from Afghanistan – then the self-sacrifice Biden has demanded, and some extent received, from the Europeans on Ukraine – is the dime on which the future of US leadership over what remains of its allies and of its chief instrument, NATO, will turn.Understanding such imminent fundamental change requires a return to fundamentals beneath the appearance of NATO unity. The much-vaunted Article 5 may state, famously, that ‘an armed attack against one … shall be considered an attack against … all’.

However, if you think this obliges all members to rush to the defence of attacked members with all they’ve got, think again. The article specifies further that each ally will ‘will assist … by taking forthwith … such action as it deems necessary [emphasis added]’. So, allied solidarity turns out to be a moveable feast, meaning only what each member country ‘deems necessary’. On the matter of the US commitment to Europe, which NATO is held to powerfully instantiate, even the early Cold War commitment to defend Western Europe against the big bad Soviet Union, amounted, practically, to schemes that were ‘always far-fetched and recognised as such’.

If you are shocked, consider this: the US ‘aided’ Europe during the two World Wars on a more or less commercial basis, vastly increasing its economic and financial clout at the expense of ‘allies’. Ruinously for them, it demanded repayment of its war loans after the First World War and, equally ruinously, demanded policy alignment after the Second. Europe can thank its stars that the critical aid and immense sacrifices of Soviet and Chinese forces ensured victory in the Second World War, and that the alleged threat of an imminent Soviet attack on Western Europe was little more than a figment of the very hysterical US imagination that has kept its military industrial complex is such fine fettle down the decades.

Read more …

“This is nothing new, it has happened before. It will happen again, we understand it very well.”

West Ready To Turn Blind Eye To Any Crimes Of Kiev – Kremlin (TASS)

Moscow fully understands that the West has been and will continue to turn a blind eye to any crimes committed by the Kiev regime, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Commenting on the reaction of Western countries to the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, the spokesman said: “The West is ready to turn a blind eye to any terrorist attack organized by the Kiev regime in our country. In this case they are silent. This is nothing new, it has happened before. It will happen again, we understand it very well.”


Ukrainian forces used two surface drones to carry out a terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge in the early morning hours of Monday, the National Antiterrorism Committee told TASS. The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case under the article “Act of Terrorism.” The terrorist attack resulted in the deaths of two adults, a married couple from the Belgorod Region, and injuries to their minor child. As well, the bridge’s road surface was damaged. Traffic on the bridge has been suspended since the morning. Train traffic has already resumed and a ferry crossing is now operating. Passenger cars will soon be able to transit to the mainland from Crimea via ferry, but trucks must take a northern overland detour through the new regions.

Read more …

“Corruption there is beyond belief. It always has been. And that doesn’t change. That’s all I was writing about,” Hersh said.”

How Much Of The $185 Billion Given By The West To Ukraine Was Stolen? (Trenin)

The problem persists despite the fact that for many years, the US has invested funds to battle corruption in Ukraine. The funds were allocated to the Prosecutor General’s office, the local media, and other organizations. This was stated by the administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, at a congressional hearing. Despite this, the crimes in Ukraine continue. Some time ago, Ukrainian anti-corruption police arrested the deputy minister of infrastructure on suspicion of receiving a bribe of €367,000 for the purchase of generators at an inflated price. And recently, the head of Ukraine’s Supreme Court was accused of corruption. Then, there was the investigation by a Ukrainian newspaper which reported that Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense had concluded contracts for food supplies for front line troops at a price two to three times higher than normal – an investigation that caused a big scandal.


The Pentagon’s concerns that weapons supplied to Ukraine may end up on the black market have also been confirmed. “Very early [in the conflict], Poland, Romania, other countries on the border were being flooded with weapons we [the US and allies] were shipping for the war to Ukraine. In other words, commanders of I don’t know what level – often it wasn’t generals, it was colonels and others, who were given shipments of some weapons, [who] would personally resell them to the dark market,” Hersh told ‘Going Underground’ host Afshin Rattansi. He added that everybody in Ukraine’s government is now getting third parties involved, as this increases their chances of earning money on the side. “Corruption there is beyond belief. It always has been. And that doesn’t change. That’s all I was writing about,” Hersh said.

Read more …

“..of course Ukraine has to decide how it conducts this war in defence of its umm territory, its people, ahhh its freedom.”

Mosquitoes And Pinpricks: Warmaking As Public Relations (Helmer)

On the battlefield the Ukraine has pioneered the Mosquito Tactic – that’s sending units of dozens of soldiers running towards Russian defence fortifications in several swarms at the same time, across a half-dozen salients up and down the line of contact. In parallel, in the air and on the sea President Vladimir Zelensky and his general staff have devised the Bloody Pinprick Tactic – that’s drones exploding on Russian targets like the Crimean Bridge or the Kremlin Senate Dome. The purpose of both, mosquitoes and pinpricks, is warmaking as public relations, Zelensky is advertising the illusion that the Ukrainian army can win its offensive against Russia, no matter how great the loss in Ukrainian men and materiel; notwithstanding how little the impact on Russian forces.

The real target of this bloody PR isn’t the Russians. It is Zelensky’s NATO allies and paymasters who secretly warned him during the July 11-12 NATO summit meeting that the cashflow and the enthusiasm are already running down, and may be cut by Christmas. The tactic of bloody PR means making daily defeat look like imminent victory, with conditions: NATO fighter-bombers pretending to be Ukrainian; Polish troops around Lvov pretending to be the revival of the Polish-Lithuanian union of 1386; and grain carriers as warships on the Black Sea, pretending to feed the hungriest populations of the world. In its statement on the Crimean Bridge attack twelve hours later, the Russian Foreign Ministry said “if the investigation finds that the surface drones that attacked the bridge are of Western origin, and that Western countries played a role in planning, sponsoring and conducting this operation, it will confirm their complicity in the Kiev regime’s terrorist activity.”

Asked to comment, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “this is a situation we are monitoring. Ah, and I don’t really have anything in particular to offer on that, err, just, ahh, I can say that as a general proposition, of course Ukraine has to decide how it conducts this war in defence of its umm territory, its people, ahhh its freedom.”

Read more …

Yes.

World Is Getting Tired Of Ukraine Conflict – Lula (RT)

Countries around the world are beginning to grow weary of the ongoing military conflict between Moscow and Kiev, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters on Wednesday. “The world is starting to get tired. Countries are starting to get tired,” he said following a two-day meeting of EU and Latin American leaders in Brussels, as quoted by Bloomberg. The Brazilian president predicted that there will eventually come a moment when there will be peace in Ukraine, and insisted that a group of countries will have to be able to talk to both Moscow and Kiev Lula, who has been pushing for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, also objected to efforts to single out Moscow as the sole culprit behind the conflict.

He insisted that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, as well as US leader Joe Biden, were equally to blame for failing to negotiate with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to prevent the conflict. During this week’s summit between the EU and the Community of South American and Caribbean States (CELAC), European officials had hoped to sign a final statement which would feature an explicit condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. However, EU leaders failed to persuade all of their Latin American counterparts, as a number of states, including Brazil and Nicaragua, objected to the inclusion of any strong language on Russia in the document. The final declaration, which included promises of investment and several deals, ended up being signed by all members of the summit except Nicaragua, which objected to the inclusion of even a single paragraph referring to the Ukraine conflict.

Despite NATO’s commitment to stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” a number of Western officials have recently started to predict that support for Kiev could soon begin to wane as “war fatigue” sets in over the prolonged conflict. Last week, Czech President Petr Pavel stated that Ukraine should aim to regain as much territory as possible before the 2024 US presidential elections, which could see Kiev’s backers in Washington reconsider the volume of military aid sent to Ukraine. In March, Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova also warned that military aid for Kiev was not unlimited and claimed that public support for Ukraine was “running out.”

Read more …

What conflict?

West Not Prepared For Conflict With China – FT (RT)

Ammunition shortages laid bare by the Ukraine conflict have prompted some US think-tanks to check on stockpiles in the West and find them wanting, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The military industry of NATO allies is not able to help, either. A Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) wargame of a conflict with China over Taiwan showed that the US had only about 450 long-range anti-ship missiles, enough for about a week. Another think tank, the Center for New American Security (CNAS), said the existing missile inventory is “too small to blunt an initial invasion, let alone prevail in a protracted conflict against China.” To deter and defeat Beijing, the Pentagon “needs large stockpiles of stand-off missiles, maritime strike weapons, and layered air and missile defenses,” CNAS concluded.

According to FT, the US Department of Defense has asked for $1.1 billion in the 2024 fiscal year to buy 118 long-range anti-ship missiles (LRASM), compared to half that amount for 83 missiles the year before. The Pentagon also wants $30 billion for ammunition, a 23% increase over 2023 levels, and $315 billion for new weapons. CNAS has noted that the Pentagon tends to prioritize big-ticket items such as ships, planes and tanks, “leaving missiles and munitions with inadequate funding.” FT revealed that the collective West has spent a combined $170 billion on military and financial aid to Ukraine since February 2022. Kiev is still complaining about ammunition shortages, however.

The US military-industrial complex has spent decades prioritizing efficiency and adopting the just-in-time supply chain used by other industries, according to FT, leaving it unable to scale up production in wartime. Parts and labor shortages are currently a problem as well. “The defense industry is so consolidated that it can’t very quickly expand to support a greater demand,” said Stacie Pettyjohn of CNAS. “So we’re slow and behind and don’t have enough of anything.” Only five companies are responsible for major Pentagon contracts, and some parts are made by only one or two suppliers, with no way to make up the shortage elsewhere. Nor can NATO allies step in to pick up the slack, because the US push to promote American-made weapons has left the European defense industry stunted and fractured, multiple think-tank experts told FT.

Read more …

“The racist attack from the top lawyer in the state of Minnesota was not condemned by a single democrat.”

The Latest Racist Attacks on Clarence Thomas (Turley)

In July 1991, Clarence Thomas, a relatively unknown D.C. Circuit judge, was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to replace Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court. Thomas soon found out that the only thing more perilous than replacing a historical icon on the Court is replacing a liberal with a conservative. Thomas would become an icon in his own right for conservatives: an unyielding defender of textualism and conservative jurisprudence. Yet, liberals seem more preoccupied by his race than his rigidity. This week, a leading Democrat, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison unleashed another openly racist attack on Thomas and neither the media nor the political establishment condemned the remarks.

Ellison condemned Thomas as a house slave working for white people, analogizing him to the vile character “Stephen,” played by Samuel L. Jackson in the film “Django Unchained.” (Jackson himself called Thomas “Uncle Clarence” after the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade). Ellison added that, because he disagreed with Thomas’ conservative opinions, the justice is “illegitimate” and “needs to be impeached.” That is, of course, nonsensical from a constitutional standpoint. However, what was most striking is the response to statements. The racist attack from the top lawyer in the state of Minnesota was not condemned by a single democrat. Not Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who previously falsely declared that hate speech is not constitutionally protected under the First Amendment and declared himself a champion against bigotry and racist rhetoric.

Not from senior Senator Amy Klubuchar, who has repeatedly denounced racist tropes and rhetoric of Republicans. Not from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who rightfully condemned the comments of Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville on white nationalism but made no comment on a racist attack of Thomas in the same week. Not from President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly denounced racial rhetoric and “codes” by Republicans. Indeed, the day that Ellison’s comments were being aired nationally, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre went to the press room to denounce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at length for his statements suggesting that Covid-19 may have been engineered to spare Jewish and Chinese people. Jean-Pierre declared that “it is important that we essentially speak out” when such racist or anti-Semitic comments are made, but then made no mention of the racist attack on Thomas as nothing more than a house slave.

Read more …

“Ms. Kelly believes the DOJ approached the Proud Boys trial in a way that seemed to lay the groundwork for bringing the same charge against Mr. Trump..”

Trump Could Face ‘Seditious Conspiracy’ Charge in Jan. 6 Probe (ET)

Prosecutors should first ask for a voluntary appearance before subpoenaing the target of a criminal investigation, according to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Justice Manual. Also, lawyers usually discourage their clients from going before a grand jury if they are the target of the investigation—it can be avoided by invoking the right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment, says Marc Ruskin, a former FBI agent and assistant U.S. attorney. However, that may be Mr. Smith’s goal, according to Mr. Ruskin. He noted that Mr. Trump is already facing indictments in New York and Florida and pleading the Fifth in Washington gives another talking point to his opponents. “It could be a tactical and procedural move just to make him look bad,” he said.

“You have Trump, a former president who is running to be president again, pleading the Fifth. I guess from their point of view, it’s going to help make him less attractive as a candidate.” If the target is not asked to testify, “the prosecutor, in appropriate cases, is encouraged to notify such person a reasonable time before seeking an indictment in order to afford him or her an opportunity to testify before the grand jury,” the manual says. Mr. Trump indicated he believes charges against himself are imminent, saying that being told to report to the grand jury, “almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.” Some commentators have long predicted Mr. Trump will face charges in the probe, including Julie Kelly, an independent journalist who had closely followed the trials of Jan. 6 participants.

“I’ve warned of this for over a year. I take no pride in being right,” she commented in a July 18 tweet. “Only question now is what charges Smith will bring (strong possibility he’ll seek indictment on seditious conspiracy) and who is charged with him. (Any conspiracy charge requires at least one conspirator).” In April, she highlighted several members of the pro-Trump Proud Boys group who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Ms. Kelly believes the DOJ approached the Proud Boys trial in a way that seemed to lay the groundwork for bringing the same charge against Mr. Trump. During the closing arguments, it seemed to her that prosecutors tried to tie Proud Boys to Mr. Trump, particularly regarding a comment by Mr. Trump during a 2020 presidential debate that the Proud Boys should “stand down and stand by.” She pointed to a comment by one of the prosecutors that “defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what.”

Read more …

And again blame Russia…

Europe to See ‘Devastating Migration Crisis’ After Grain Deal Suspension (Sp.)

Europe, which will be flooded with migrants from low-income countries that rely on grain exports from Ukraine and Russia, will suffer the most from the suspension of the grain deal, international experts told Sputnik on Wednesday. On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s participation in the grain deal had been terminated with immediate effect, although it would return to it if commitments toward Moscow were fulfilled. “Europe may soon experience a devastating migration crisis following Russia’s decision to leave the deal. The biggest victim of higher grain prices and shortages in the developing countries will be the European Union,” Yusuf Alabarda, a Turkish political expert and a representative of the M5 Strategy Journal, told Sputnik.

“We know very well that Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and a couple of other African countries are mainly dependent on Ukrainian and Russian grain imports. Europe will be overwhelmed by migrants fleeing hunger.” Eugen Schmidt of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, in commentary for Sputnik, also predicted a dire impact of the deal’s suspension for the European Union. “Unfortunately, Western countries are deliberately provoking hunger in regions dependent on Ukrainian and Russian grain supplies, which will inevitably incite huge hungry masses to storm European borders,” Schmidt said. “It is unlikely that the ruling political elites of the EU do not understand what the failure of the grain deal threatens them with, but apparently they do not care at all about the impending hunger and the further flooding of Europe with migrants.”

The German lawmaker added that today Europe, and especially Germany, is not independent in its foreign policy and acts only in the interests of “external forces, which has an extremely negative effect on the state of affairs in Germany itself. As several key European nations, including Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria, have already called on Russia to restore its participation in the grain initiative, the expert called on them to take responsibility on their behalf for the suspension of the agreement as Russia’s concerns have not been met.

Putin grain
https://twitter.com/i/status/1681738877059432450

Read more …

I’m running out of words…

Julian Assange Is ‘Dangerously Close’ to Extradition (Cohn)

Article 4(3) of the Extradition Treaty forbids extradition if the request was “politically motivated.” The legally unprecedented and selective nature of the prosecution in focusing on leaked national security information speaks to the political character of the prosecution and request for extradition, the appeal says. Assange’s lawyers wrote that “this prosecution is motivated by matters other than the proper and usual pursuit of criminal justice. It is motivated instead by a concerted intent to destroy or inhibit the publishers of evidence of state criminal ability, and thereby put a stop to the process of investigating, prosecuting and preventing such international crimes in the future.”


The appeal papers point out that Assange is being prosecuted for exposing “wholescale abuse and war crimes” committed by the United States. If instead he had “exposed war crimes or crimes against humanity committed by a state such as the Russian Federation,” the defense lawyers write, “there can be no doubt that his prosecution for such revelations would be regarded as both a political offence (within the Treaty) and an impermissible prosecution motivated by a desire to punish him for his political opinions/acts.”

“While the leakers of such materials have been prosecuted albeit selectively, no prosecution for the act of obtaining or publishing state secrets has ever occurred,” the appeal says. That is “[b]ecause the First Amendment protects the free press and it is vital that the press expose rather than ignore … not because journalists are somehow privileged but because the citizenry has a right to know what is going on,” Mark Feldstein, journalism professor at University of Maryland, testified at Assange’s extradition hearing.

Article 10 of the ECHR protects freedom of expression. Columbia law professor Jameel Jaffer testified that the indictment is focused “almost entirely” on things that national security journalists do “routinely and as a necessary part of their work,” including “cultivating sources, communicating with them confidentially, soliciting information from them, protecting their identities from disclosure, and publishing classified information.” The conviction of Assange would chill journalists from fulfilling their function as watchdog for the public. The appeal quotes the 1996 case of Goodwin v. the United Kingdom:

Press freedom assumes even greater importance in circumstances in which State activities and decisions escape democratic or judicial scrutiny on account of their confidential or secret nature. The conviction of a journalist for disclosing information considered to be confidential or secret may discourage those working in the media from informing the public on matters of public interest. As a result, the press may no longer be able to play its vital role as “public watchdog” and the ability of the press to provide accurate and reliable information may be adversely affected.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Plimer

 

 

 

 

Barbie

 

 

 

 

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